!!

Today I had to confuscate skewers and matches from my
two-year-old--The new hiding place should keep her at bay for at least
a while.

Two and Two Together

I now have a two-year-old and a two-month-old. Phew—I made it past the
toughest stage now that my newborn is not quite so newborn anymore.

Here's the bad news for anyone who hasn't had a newborn—For the first
few weeks she was nocturnal; She would cry until 1am and then wake up
every two hours thereafter and would finally conk out when the alarm
clock went off at 6am. For a couple of nights she even screamed until
2am, by which time I fell asleep sitting up on the couch with her.
Then she woke again at 4am and before she was finished feeding, Miriam
was up and ready to play at 4:30am on account of the change from
daylight savings and having a cold that gave her fitful sleep.
Needless to say, those several days in a row were a bit of a misery.
I'm pleased to now say that Caitlin goes to bed at around 11pm and
wakes at 6am with just one 45 minute or less dinner/diaper break at
around 3am. There's hope in the world! I will mention though, that the
night before last, I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself
sitting cross-legged in the middle of the livingroom floor with a baby
sound asleep on my lap. I have no idea what I was doing there, how I
was asleep at all in that position, and there's no telling how long I
had been there. *Cue the strange music* Weird. I've never been known
to sleep walk.

I'm glad to generally be getting more sleep now and I'm beginning to
settle into motherhood 2.0. The latest news is:

*Miriam can now count to twelve. She busted out with it one day after
having previously counted only to three.
*Miriam was overheard counting out ten bottle caps in Spanish over
Thanksgiving break.
*Miriam is a mad fanatic of the TV show Dora the Explorer (which
accounts for the above statement)
*Miriam has always been affectionate in giving hugs, but now that
Caitlin is here, she suddenly started giving kisses.
[You've already heard a lot about Caitlin, so here's just one more]
*Caitlin weighed in at 11.0 pounds today at her doctor visit and is
60th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.

Will update again soon.

Family History Snippets

When Mum came to visit after Caitlin was born, some snippets of her
history came up in conversation such as:

*When Mum and Dad were married in the church (as was the law of the
time before being sealed in the Aukland, New Zealand temple), Mum
walked down the aisle to the organ accompaniment of God of Our Fathers
Whose Almighty Hand. She chose this piece because she thought it
sounded good on a pipe organ on account of the fanfare.
*When she was seven years old and was living in Woolongong, New South
Wales. The boy she sat next to in school asked her which church she
belonged to; she said she didn't really belong to any but she knew her
mother was a Latter-day Saint and "I'd never heard of that" , but
"since my friend was Scottish and was a Presbyterian, then I presumed
that my dad must be that also since he was Scottish, so I started to
go to Presbyterian Sunday-school." which she did up until she joined
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was thirteen.
*Mum's mother, Edna Flick, was baptized when she was eight years old
by Marion G. Romney in Cockle Creek, Newcastle, Australia. It was a
time when the church was extremely small in Australia and her mother,
Clara Livinia Brown Flick, was a widow with five children to raise on
her own since her husband, Edward Albert Flick had died early of
pneumonia. Clara would walk with her children many miles to attend
church. The majority of the members had moved down to Sydney to be at
the center of the church, but Clara could not afford to move. As a
consequence, all of Clara's children married outside of the church. So
it wasn't until my mum, Julie was thirteen that her mother was
desiring to find the church again, and as it happened, the
missionaries knocked on the door. My mum, Julie, was not interested
initially, but was "taken in by the young missionaries" and began
listening to the discussions and learned that it was true. Mum was
baptized December 10, 1961. Her dad and brother never joined, but "Dad
was always supportive and took me to all of my church activities."
*When she was fifteen, Mum helped build the Wollongong, NSW chapel;
She would catch the bus after school and walk up the hill to the
chapel site where she did everything from stacking cement bricks,
mixing cement, creosoting floor joists, rubbing down walls, sticking
down roof shingles etc. She did over 1000 hours (perhaps more than any
of the youth).

Lowly Request

I'm now a mother to a two-year-old and a two-week-old; please pray for me.

I'm very happy and decidedly blessed, but typically tired and
sometimes stressed.

Chuckles

I'm the music leader at church. I was just choosing some hymns when I
noticed that I had listed for next Sunday "Sweet is the Peach the
Gospel Brings". I meant to write "Peace".... Classic typo.

Angel Friends

The following names should be recorded in heaven:
*Sharlyn Richardson (for taking Miriam out for a walk while I made an
important phonecall to my boss)
*Celia Purcell (for dropping me off at my appointment downtown and
taking Miriam with her to the grocery store)
*Jennifer Linford (for keeping me company at the pool and sending her
girls to chase Miriam so that I didn't have to)
*Maria Ramsey and Karen Bell (for being totally awesome and stylish
friends who helped me get a dress to wear to a black tie dinner when
I'll be 38 weeks pregnant--a task I thought impossible, but they
worked a miracle and should now be sainted)

Yesterday was a day to remember. I'm so blessed. I hope I have the
chance to return some of these favors.

15 Minute Vacation

Miriam is napping. I have my feet up and I just ate a slice of
Hawaiian pizza and now I'm following it up with a pina colada
popcicle. This is the life.

Turtle

Joe caught a turtle on our bike ride this morning! It was about the
size of a dinner plate and was up from the river sunning itself on the
bike path. It turns out that turtles can scuttle along surprisingly
fast, but Joe did catch it and it promptly displayed its dismay by
peeing all over. Poor turtle, but we all three got to check it out
before sending it back on its way. The bike path was never a good
place for a turtle I suppose.

Pink or Blue??

PINK!

Baby #2 is another little girl! She was looking great in the sonogram
this morning and we're looking forward to her arrival around October
1st.Miriam's birthday is October 7th and mine is the 8th, so we're
bound to have many fun girly birthday parties in the future.

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

Some friends of ours, the Plummers, own a horse ranch here in Fort Worth. Incidentally, they also own a ranch in Tamworth, the little rural town in Australia where I grew up. (I was sure surprised when I found that out!) Anyway, we were lucky enough to be invited to an Easter egg hunt at their place last Saturday. It was Miriam's first egg hunt and she seemed to enjoy it. I think the part she liked best was chasing all the other kids as they ran down the hill when they started the hunt. She squealed all the way. She liked finding the surprises in the eggs too, and the ducks and geese in the pond, and exploring with her friends. Here are a few pictures:Here's Miriam clutching one of her prized finds.

Miriam and her little buddies, Austin and Miles, playing in the Barbie car--"Who's got the keys?"

No Rest, No Peace...

Joe just posted this to facebook 04/20/2011:

Miriam has figured out how to climb on the couch, our computer desks,
out of her crib, on top of the kitchen table, and on our bed. We were
astonished Sunday when she woke us up (we didn't close our bedroom
door), and last night when she walked out of her bedroom after having
been put to bed. Couple that with her new-found stubborness and things
get a little more interesting.

10 years in the USA

Today, April 19, 2011 marks ten years since I arrived in the USA.

Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 1:5-7

5 ...we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above
all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me
should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath
covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all
those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the
Lord.
6 Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit
which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they
shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring.
And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the
commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto
them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if
so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound
cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it
shall be blessed forever.

Guess who climbed out of her crib today?

You guessed it. Miriam is developing some gymnastic ability.

Toddler Antics

I left the room for three minutes to check my email. Upon my return I
found Miriam (17 months) sitting on the livingroom floor along with
the partial contents of a bag of sugar.

A couple of weeks ago I found her on the kitchen floor pouring a
bottle of dishsoap into her lap.

I keep finding random objects in unusual places, like a bag of rice in
my suitcase when I was unpacking from our last trip.

On the other hand, she's getting to be helpful too, like picking up
the junkmail catalogs and delivering them one by one into the trash.

She's also learning the Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes song. So far
she's got the "heads" and the "clap hands" parts down.

She still gives nice hugs, so if you visit, you might get lucky enough
to receive one.

Baby Duo

Miriam has a little boyfriend whose hand she grabbed hold of during
sundayschool and took him for a romp. His name is Miles. He brought
his mommy over for a playdate last week as well and we discovered they
like the same toys.

Pictures of a Florida Christmas 2010

Louise making her first assessment of the Florida gulf coast beaches--Not too bad! The white sand is definitely a plus. Even on a wintery day it was tempting although thoughts of gators crossed my mind too...Miriam on an exploratory mission in her winter woolies.Family picture in front of the St. Marks Lighthouse on the Florida gulf coast. It was the coldest Florida winter in many years.Miriam on Daddy's lap.Miriam playing with her new friend, the neighbor's doggy under the Christmas tree.

Matkin cousins with Miriam playing chess.

Tales of a Florida Christmas – Part Two: Old McDonald had a Farm and a new oven

It was a miracle that Miriam was so good throughout the drive from
Fort Worth to Tallahassee (about 14 hours across Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama). The highlight of the trip (Joe and I agree)
was just spending time with Alyson and the family, but we had several
fun adventures meanwhile. You've already read our best biking story,
but we also took a few more bike trips to Tom Brown Park as well as a
memorable bike date that Joe and I took alone from Tallahassee to St.
Marks. That one was forty miles round trip with a stopoff in St. Marks
township for some famous fish burgers. We also took a drive to St. Marks on a different day to visit the lighthouse and the gulf beaches.

Alyson cooked us up some tasty food while we were visiting,
notwithstanding that her oven was out of commission for most of the
time. In fact, Alyson had a near miss when an electrical surge and
fire instantaneously burned a hole clear through her new steel pot! No
more pot and no more stove, but thankfully Alyson escaped the blast
unscathed.

That was the lowlight, now for the highlight:

I think Miriam's highlight was firstly having three cousins to play
with and not least (I'm certain), playing with the schnouzer they were
dog-sitting for the holidays. That girl loves dogs. Miriam's first
words are "mama", "dada", "nana" (for banana and most anything
food-related) "night-night", and "didi"—her closest approximation to
doggy. She also has her own high pitched squeaky version of "woof
woof" too. She understands most things though and has begun following
directions like "Put it in the trash" or "Go get your ball." While I'm
on the topic of Miriam, her current most endearing qualities are that
she frequently gives hugs and pats on the back or comes and sits on my
lap.

So, now that you've read all that cutesy stuff, let me also say that
in Florida we saw alligators! We also saw manatees; For those among my
reading audience who are as uninformed about these things as I was
heretofore, manatees are large seal-looking creatures with flat
beaver-like tails and they bob around in the Florida waterways in the
winter time. The manatees were our most exotic animal sighting.

We also encountered a couple of fat cats at a New Year's Eve party at
a friend's house and some very tame speckled chickens at a neighbor's
house. For the record, you might also enjoy reading the following true
story: My brother, Dean owned some Chinese silky chickens once… A
python slithered into the hen house, swallowed Henny Penny and was
then too fat to slip back out of the chicken coop, so that's how the
culprate was caught—Don't ask me what they did with him.

No pythons spotted on this trip though. However, we did see a couple
of movies in the dollar theatre (which is really a three dollar
theatre): Despicable Me and Mega Mind. Both were good. I liked
Despicable Me best because the characters were endearing. I'd like to
go buy the classic book The Three Kittens which the old crotchety guy
reads to the orphan girls in one of the movie's best scenes.

Alyson and I also had several fun nights staying up to watch her
favorite movie, Wives and Daughters. FYI, any of you Pride and
Prejudice fans out there, Wives and Daughters is a must see movie
based on a book by Elizabeth Gaskell and I dare you to watch it and
not agree that it's even better than P&P. I'm currently reading North
and South, another Gaskell book.

Joe and his nephews had some daily boy time playing Wii games plus a
couple of trips to the laser tag place. Thus, fun was had by all.

Thanks Matkins for a wonderful visit and vacation.

Tales of a Florida Christmas - Part One: Bike Blooper

Cruising along down a Tallahassee back street, we were out for a
family bike ride. Joe and I led the way on our tandem pulling Miriam
and Molly in the trailer followed by Samuel, Atticus, and Joe's
sister, Alyson. We were having a great ol' time.

All I heard was "oh no" closely followed by a whooshhhhhh….

And there we were with our tires myered in wet cement.

[pause for your reaction]

I thought we were about to be yelled at, but off yonder a workman
called out "Now that's something you'd only see on television!" I'm
glad he was apparently in the Christmas spirit as he helped us hose
off the tandem tires before we rode off and he and his buddies got to
resurface the cement.

What a crack up!