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.