Daddy Time

Date Night

I am really enjoying having my husband home for a 4 day weekend without crazy, busy plans. I have requested that he take 4 day weekends regularly but he didn't seem to think that was possible. Darn!

Yesterday, we had our wonderful babysitter, Allison come over for the afternoon. Erik loves Allison! She has only been watching the kids for a few months but Erik gets so excited when we tell him that she is coming. He has never cried when we left him with her and in fact acts like he can't wait for us to leave. I am so happy that we found her. Too bad she is finishing up grad school in May.

Anyway, yesterday Victor and I spend the day downtown in DC. It was fun. We ate lunch, walked around downtown, explored the Newseum, walked around some more, and then ate dinner. It is so nice to be able to sit down for more than 5 minutes at a meal, walk leisurely through a museum, etc. It was a nice afternoon.

The museum was neat -- there were lots of theaters with short movies. One of them was a 4D movie with moving seats. We enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful day full of fun and laughter. We had a nice time together as a family.

On Christmas eve we went to church with our friends the Cunninghams. They didn't have any family in town either so it worked out well. Our church had a kids service (led by the children's ministry) at 5 pm followed by two more traditional services (large orchestra and choirs). The kids service was not really like a church service at all. It was more of a theater show -- talking about compassion and the Christmas story. It held Erik's attention the whole time. Sean even danced off and on throughout the service. If I were going to church without the kids I would have preferred a more reverent environment but I am glad that Erik loves to go to church and thinks it is a fun place to be.
After church we came and decorated a cake for baby Jesus and ended our night eating cake and opening a couple presents -- Christmas pajamas and books.
Here is a video of Erik with the cake.

Cake for Santa. Erik wanted to put it right next to the presents instead of on the table in the front room. Funny!

Sexy santa claus who stayed up until 1:15 am putting together the kitchen.

Christmas morning started very, very early! Elaina woke up at 4:53 am (in addition to eating at 1:15 am). She has been doing this recently. I really don't mind if she gets up at 5:30 or later but 4:53 is obnoxious. Erik must have heard Lainey crying because when I went to get her he was already in her room. Nice. So I fed Lainey and we all headed downstairs. Christmas presents were all opened by 6:23 in the morning. Pretty funny!!

Santa (aka Grandma and Grandpa Chen) brought Erik a really nice kitchen. He really likes this! It also came with a mixer and cookie set so he has been baking for us all day.

Erik's other favorite present was a new scooter -- with three wheels. He has been wanting one for at least 6 months and is finally old enough to figure out how to use it.

Elaina didn't get much of anything -- she has everything she needs. Santa brought her some baby food. We got her a toy shape sorter. Erik played with it all day. She was happy with the wrapping paper.

Watching a movie and eating popcorn in our new popcorn popper at 8:00 am.

For the Christmas menu I made: ham, scalloped potatoes (Leslie's recipe), green beans (pioneer woman), dinner rolls (PW), mushrooms with brie (PW), and the caramel apple sticky buns (PW).

My favorite thing of all is the caramel apple sticky buns! Victor liked the ham and potatoes the best. Erik liked the ham, rolls, and sticky buns. He helped me make the buns today. Very cute!

I hope you all had a fun Christmas! We are so blessed!

Merry Christmas!

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Yummy!!! These are so, so, so good. Thanksgiving of 2008 I was introduced to The Pioneer Woman by Hanna, Clara, and Sonja Lee. I love her website and recipes. Most of my Christmas menu this year is based on her recipes.

Tonight we were able to visit with Grandma Sandy, Aunt Amy, and Great-aunt Susan for a little while. To welcome them I had made Pioneer Woman's Caramel Apple Sticky Buns. I knew they were going to be good when I was making them and had to use all my willpower not to eat the dough itself.

To those of my friends (whom I love) who read this blog and are slightly, okay extremely, afraid of sugar you should not read any further! For the rest of you.... I highly recommend you add these to your Christmas menu.

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Ingredients

• FOR ROLLS:
• 2 cups Whole Milk
• 1-¼ cup Sugar
• ½ cups Canola Oil
• 1 package (2 1/4 Teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
• 4-½ cups Flour, Divided
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoons (scant) Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons (heaping) Baking Powder
• ¾ cups Melted Butter
• 4 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
• _____
• FOR THE CARAMEL TOPPING:
• 1 stick Salted Butter
• 1-½ cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Dark Brown Corn Syrup
• 2 Tablespoons Cream
• 2 Tablespoons Apply Brandy Or Apple Juice (optional)
• 1 whole Granny Smith Apple, Peeled And Finely Diced

Preparation Instructions

To make the dough:
Heat milk, oil, and 1/2 cup sugar until warm (do not boil.) Allow to cool to lukewarm. Sprinkle in yeast and 4 cups flour. Stir gently and cover with a tea towel, allowing it to rise for 1 hour. After 1 hour, add remaining flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

To make the caramel topping:
Add 1 stick butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, and optional apple brandy or apple juice. Allow to melt over low heat until totally combined. Allow to boil for a few seconds, then remove from heat. Set aside.

To make the rolls:
Roll out half the dough into a large rectangle. Pour on half the melted butter, half the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, and half the cinnamon. Roll into a long roll, then slice into rolls.

To assemble:
Spray 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray. Pour in half the caramel topping. Sprinkle diced apple over the top, then arrange sliced rolls all over the pan. Allow to rise for 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, covered in foil for the first 25 minutes.

(Repeat with the other half of dough if desired, or save the dough in the fridge for another use.)

Invert on a cake pedestal or serving plate. Rolls will be very hot at first; allow to cool slightly before serving.

Notes from Ann:

I think it works well to let your dough rise in the oven. I set it to about 180 degrees and then shut it off and put the dough in the oven covered with a towel.

I didn't measure the sugar/cinnamon that I put on the dough for the cinnamon roll part. I just kept adding it until it looked good. I cut the butter back to 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup.

I rolled it out as one batch -- worked very well and is easier.

To see much better quality photos and more great recipes check out this website.

Thanks for the tip Lee sisters!

Erik's Turn

for a cute video!

We usually pray before we eat our meals. We don't do a specific prayer before meals but they do at school. Lately, Erik has wanted to be the one who prays for the meal. He let me catch it on camera at lunch one day.

He doesn't usually eat and pray at the same time but he always keeps his eyes open. His most consistent prayers are for Sean and Lily plus the prayer from school ("God is great").

Excuse the bad camera job -- I was taking the video on my digital camera and keep forgetting that when it is a video I can't turn the camera on it's side. Smart, aren't I?

Erik Pray's

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

They warned us that it might blizzard this weekend. I didn't believe that we would get more than 4-5 inches but Victor thought it smelled like snow. Victor was right. It started snowing at 9 pm yesterday and 24 hours later it is still snowing. So far there is about 23-24 inches on the ground.

I have shoveled our driveway and sidewalks 3 times. Victor did offer but I wanted to do it. We will see how my arms work tomorrow.

It is really beautiful snow and not too cold (around 30 degrees) so it was fun to play outside today. Lainey cooperated and took a 2 hour nap this morning so Victor, Erik, and I could all be outside together (we didn't leave the yard and had the monitor in the garage). Erik really seemed to enjoy the snow a lot this year. He threw snowballs at Victor, jumped into the snow, and slid on a sled down our street. Very cute!

It never snows like this in DC. I think, according to www.weather.com, that this is the most snow the region has ever gotten. Everything is shut down. We were supposed to go downtown tonight for a nice dinner out and to here the National Symphony Orchestra/The Washington Chorus perform the Messiah but it was canceled. Oh well. At least we got our money back.

Cute boy buried in the snow

Snow accumulation at 11:00 am

Recovering with mint hot chocolate and marshmallows

Snow accumulation at 4 pm was 18 inches
It has continued to snow. At 8 pm I shoveled for the last time.
I would guess we have gotten 23 inches of snow
or so and it is still snowing!

A glimpse of our street

Sneak Peak

Erik had his first ever Christmas program this morning. We did get a video of it but I don't know how to download it (can't find the power cord) so you will have to wait to see it until Victor can help me. Here, are a few (very poor quality) photos to hold you over.

Erik's stage debut! He didn't fall off and he didn't puke so I think it was a success.

'Erik walking out from the concert. Notice that his "costume" is already off.

Erik and Lily!

They are obsessed with each other. Erik prays for Lily every night and before every meal. He talks about going on vacation with her and having her come to his house. Apparently, Lily is equally obsessed with Erik. She runs to us in the parking lot -- looks for my car in the morning. Pretty funny!! I asked the teacher if they actually play together, she said no. Lily is a really sweet, confident, and vibrant little girl. Much more vocal and social than Erik. She really owns the room. We will have her over for a play date soon hopefully.

I Hate Hives!

You really can't see the hives very well in this photo but I was sort of in a panic when I took it so it's all I have.

I really hate hives. I hate the fact that Erik gets hives. I hate that Erik has multiple allergies.

The first time Erik had an allergic reaction it was after eating a pancake. We got him tested and he tested positive for eggs and peanuts. This was right around his 1st birthday.

Since then Erik has had hives 3 or 4 more times. Most of the time it has been just a few small hives that are gone quickly with benadryl.

We retested Erik for his allergies last summer. Thankfully, he had outgrown the egg and peanut allergies (he tolerates both of these fine now) but tested positive for a walnut allergy.

No big deal -- much easier to avoid than peanuts and eggs. Over thanksgiving he had a small allergic reaction (just a few spots on his face). I think this was due to getting a bite of a pecan brownie -- not sure as he tested negative for a pecan allergy in the summer but can't think of anything else that might have caused it.

Yesterday, we did a craft project at home using acrylic pant. I had painted his hands. He probably had paint on his hands for 5 minutes. Immediately, after the project he broke out in terrible hives all over his forehead, around his eyes, and on his cheeks. He was crying and scratching his face all over. It did resolve within an hour after I gave him Benadryl but it was scary. For me and Erik. Whenever he gets bad hives I always feel panicked. Worried that he is going to collapse and die on me. Is this fear rational? Somewhat. Helpful or constructive? Nope.

It took me about 24 hours to recover from the stress of this allergic reaction. Erik recovered much quicker than I did.

We are taking Erik back into the allergist next week. Please pray that he will not develop any new allergies and the ones that he has go away.

Thanks!

6 Months Old

I can't believe my brand new baby girl is already 6 months old! Time has gone by so fast! This has been a big month for Lainey.


Development:

She is now sitting up independently very well
Rolls everywhere
Army crawls -- she can now push up with both arms and moves 4-5 feet across a room, slowly
Screeches loudly all day long!
Can almost go from laying down to sitting up -- we will need to lower the crib soon. She gets herself propped up but then falls back down.
Grabs everything -- transfers objects from one hand to the other
Everything in the mouth
Drools
Laughs and is ticklish

Eating:
Still exclusively breastfed
We started rice cereal a few weeks ago but it seemed like her reflux got worse at the same time so we stopped it -- I will start this again soon

Reflux:

This has been a challenge this month. Lainey had a double ear infection and pink eye about 4 weeks ago. This was treated with Augmentin which got rid of the ear infection but left me with a very fussy child. She went from sleeping eight hours in a row to not sleeping in her bed at all and crying off and on throughout the day. I thought at first it was because of her cold/ear infection but I took her back in and her doctor verified that her ears were clear. She suggested we give her another week and if not better increase her Prevacid (at my request). A week ago she was still not better so I stopped her solids, cut dairy out of my diet completely, and increased the Prevacid to 7.5 mg twice a day. After a few days she seemed happier during the day and spit up less but was still not sleeping well. Since her reflux symptoms seemed better controlled we started the Ferber method for sleeping two nights ago. I am happy to report that she cried for about 15 minutes each night when going to sleep and then slept for 8 hours. Yay!!! My happy, good sleeper seems to be back. I hope!

She is still stuffed up and has a cough. This doesn't seem to bother her. Her doctor suggested that it may be secondary to a dairy intolerance so I need to be extra careful to not eat any dairy. If it doesn't get better after two weeks of no dairy we are supposed to give her a call again.

Sleeping:

As mentioned in the above paragraph this has been a tough month for sleeping.
Lainey does usually take 2-3 catnaps a day. I try to put her in her crib for at least 2 of them but she will sleep longer in the carseat. Most of her naps are 45 minutes. Yuck!!
Since we started the sleep "training" we will also be taking the nuk away from her completely soon. (She doesn't get it at night anymore.)

Stats:
Weight: 16 pounds even (50%)
Length: 26.5 inches (80%)
Head: 17 inches

Immunizations:
Prevnar, HIB, and Rotavirus #3
Seasonal flu #1

Overall, Lainey is a sweet, joyful baby girl. We are so happy that she is here!

Another Video

Here is another video for the grandparents. Lainey was extremely excited about the diet coke but you have to make through the first 90 seconds of the video to get to that part. Lainey was slightly injured in the making of this video but quickly recovered!

Enjoy!

Lainey and her Coke

Screech

Screeching is Lainey's new hobby. I am not sure I am fond of it.

Screech Video

Screech Video 2

Video Number 2 is a little more exciting. Enjoy!

Good Thing SHE is cute!

Yep, this child is causing trouble too. I am not sure if she is playing us or if she is actually in distress but she hasn't slept well for a month. Victor was kind and took over last night but was so tired today he fell asleep on the bus and missed his stop to get off. Thankfully, someone noticed and woke him up so he didn't have to walk too far to get home.

Lainey had a double ear infection a month ago; right after that she developed a nasty cough. We also mixed in traveling, unswaddling, and solids for her. All of that has made for a nasty sleep regression.

We are trying to help her as much as we can. We are home, brought the swaddle back out, checked to make sure her ears are okay (they are). Nothing seemed to help. When we put her in bed she screams and cries. Even when we hold her she fusses.

I bumped up her Prevacid to 7.5 mg twice a day and stopped the solids. The screaming stopped, although she has still been up multiple times at night due to her cough, so at the request of her doctor I put her Prevacid back to the once a day dose. Today I restarted her solids (after stopping a week ago) and guess what she is up screaming again tonight. So it seems like the solids are bothering her. However, she has also been sleeping on the couch with Victor a lot during the past 3 weeks (due to her screaming which started a day or two before we left for Wisconsin) so it may just be that she is spoiled. I don't know.

No more solids until her 6 month appointment on Tuesday. We will see what the doctor suggests. If she thinks it is just behavioral we will be Febering this child soon!

Good thing he is cute! Part 2

" Mommy, I brush my eye."

In addition to the sink climbing and mascara using episodes Erik has gotten in trouble at school on both Monday and Wednesday this week. Apparently, my typically shy, quiet boy has been pushing kids over. Repeatedly.

He has had an amazing amount of energy all week long (he is driving me batty) and apparently this is true at school too. He was so crazy on Monday I had him run about 3/4 of a mile with me. I am planning a trip to the library tomorrow to get the book, "Hands are Not For Hitting!" I dare him to push a kid over in front of me. I promise whatever fun activity we are at will be cut short.

All this business (naughtiness) is frustrating but also slightly amusing since it is so out of character for Erik. Last week Friday his teachers told me that he had a great day and was much more vocal/expressive than normal. A little too much of that this week. I am hoping this hyper activity is short lived.

Good thing he is cute!

Erik is a sweet boy but he is so busy and curious! I really feel like he is a mini-tornado creating messes everywhere he goes. This morning he had a mess started before I even got out of bed.

Victor and I still have monitors in our bedroom for Erik and Elaina. This morning Elaina got up first so I got her up and nursed her. Erik was still quiet so I thought I would go downstairs and pump or get breakfast ready before he got up. I actually thought I might be able to a shower before he got up. Ha!!

When I got to the top of the stairs. I noticed that Erik's bedroom door was open and he was gone. His bathroom light was on and water was running. My first thought was that maybe Victor was still home and he was in there with him. That was wrong. Here is what I found.....

Yep, my sweet 2 year old boy was sitting in the sink, toothpaste smeared all over his hands, telling me very sweetly that he was just brushing his teeth. The water is blue from a tablet we use to turn the bath water colors -- just for fun.

Oh my sweet little tornado what I am going to do with you?
He wasn't being defiant he was just curious and busy.
I am so thankful the water was cold and he didn't try to drink it.

Christmas Bunny?

Fun on the Farm

We spent a morning while at home visiting Tom and Gin Kestell's farm. Erik thinks this is Papa's farm! I thought Erik would be frightened of the cows but he loved them. He fed a calf a bottle and ran up and down the barn giving the calves their feed. He even let one eat out of his hands. I remember doing this as a little girl so I enjoyed watching Erik have a fun time on the farm too.

The calf below was only 12 hours old. We got to get in the pen and pet it.

Below are the level 2 calves. Out of the calf barn but not in with the milking cows yet.
The Kestell's milk about 80-90 cows but have 400 cows on on their farm.
I believe the cows have their first calf when they are approximately 2 years old. They produce milk after the calf is born. Cows are milked 3 times a day. I believe they get about a 1 year "break" between pregnancies. They produce milk from time the first calf is born throughout the next pregnancy until the farmer weans them. Tom said he tries to wean/dry the cows up during the last 2 months of their subsequent pregnancy to give them a break from milking. I believe a cow starts the pregnancy/ milking cycle around age 18 months to 2 years of age and doesn't "retire" until age seven or eight.

Erik feeding the cows corn and grain.

Meet Elaina's namesake! Yep -- Gin Kestell named a cow after our daughter.
Lainey slept through our trip to the farm. Below is a photo of Elaina and Elaina. :)

Erik liked the big tractors on the farm as well but was a bit to intimidated to actually climb on one.

Thanks for taking us to the farm Dad. We had a great time!

Mrs. Determined!

Here is a video of Lainey in pursuit of my diet coke. I couldn't download it here so I am going to try and link you to youtube. Let me know if you have problems seeing it.


Lainey's video

Thanksgiving

We have had a fun, busy week! We went to Wisconsin over thanksgiving and were able to spend time with my three brothers and parents in addition to a number of great friends. It was a really nice trip.

Highlights from the trip from Erik's perspective....

Feeding Lynx and Maggie
Playing with Grandma and Papa's digger in the sandbox
Baking bread with Grandma
Trip to the farm with Grandpa/Papa
Playing pool with Daron, Kevin, and Colin
Climbing on Grandpa's tractor
Eating dessert whenever I wanted
Getting to sleep in bed with Mommy most nights
Sleeping in Eli's lightening McQueen bed
Flying on a big airplane and eating cookies


Highlights of the trip from Mommy's perspective....

Lots of good food to eat that I didn't have to cook
Playing cards with my family and poker with my friends
Long walks in fresh country air (although I did have to wear a super ugly bright orange vest to avoid being mistaken for a deer and shot)
Watching my parents and brothers interact with my kids
Getting a break from being the sole child care provider for 13 hours a day
Tylenol with codeine (helped me sleep when I had a hacking cough)
Seeing joy on my child's face as he soaked up all the attention from his grandparents and uncles
Great friends who go out of their way to see us when we are home

Not so good moments....

Cold and coughs for everyone -- Lainey went with an ear infection and Erik came home with one
Erik breaking out in hives (only a few) after eating a brownie with Pecans -- his allergies have now been expanded from Walnuts to all tree nuts. Good thing we still had Claritin with us.
Lainey needing to sleep on the couch with Victor. This seems to have been because she wanted to be swaddled again (we stopped that in early November).


Here are a few photos....

Erik's new love: Lynx

Erik called both Daron and Colin -- Uncle Colin until the last day

Uncle Colin Squared

Putting Lainey in the backpack for the first time was a challenge
We conquered it though and she spent quite a few hours riding on my mom's back.

Cute Lainey with my Dad prior to the morning's shower and coffee!

Pretty baby girl!

Erik driving Papa's tractor

Erik loved the digger in the sandbox. My parents have had this for probably 20 years. It was a gift from my Grandma Baker (GG) for Kevin and Colin. It still works!

Uncle Kevin was there but I don't have any photos of him on my camera! I will try to round some up for a future post -- hint,hint (mom and dad)!

Christmas is Coming!

I am looking forward to Christmas this year more than I normally do because Erik is so excited about it! We have been reading books to him about baby Jesus' birthday and letting him watch some veggie tales Christmas movies. Today, we started putting up Christmas lights outside. He was so excited about it he was jumping up and down. It is so cute!!

I am not exactly sure what else we will do but I did buy a countdown to Christmas bible story book. It has a small project for you to do everyday starting December 1st. He loves doing crafts so I think he will like that.

We are also going to try to go to a tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree. I am excited about that! It is still November though so one more week before it is really sane to start thinking about Christmas.

Here is a cute photo of Erik helping Victor put the lights on the trees in the front of our house. Does anything strike you as odd?

Busy Baby

Lainey has changed so much in the past week! She is now a pro at rolling over and rolls all over the place to try and get things. She isn't very graceful and often knocks her head on the ground while rolling but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She also started "army -crawling" yesterday -- in hot pursuit of my Diet Coke! :) She also knows how to move around in a 360 degree circle following bait -- diet coke or shiny toys.

10 days ago all she could do was roll from back to front. What a busy week!

All that hard work must have been tiring. She has been sleeping in her car seat for over 2 hours. Normally she only naps for 45 minutes at a time.

Commander Chen

Victor was promoted to Commander in June. This post is 5 months overdue but the morning of the ceremony my brain wasn't working and I forgot to charge our camera. So the battery was dead -- the woman who took pictures on her camera didn't get us the photos until this week! I am glad to finally have them.

The promotion ceremony took place in the office of Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy, who overseas research, development, and acquisition. Mr. Stackley gave a quick speech honoring Victor and thanking him for his service. Mr. Stackley and I did the pinning.

Congrats Victor! We are proud of your hard work (although I sure wish they didn't need you there so many hours a week)!

Erik attended the ceremony too and was relatively well behaved.
Elaina was born one week later -- so I am a little over 36 weeks pregnant in this photo.
I think I looked pretty good -- except for the poor choice of tights.
Oh well!

My Loves