Our family updates

Reagan- Not much new to report. She is now in the ear piercing scream (for the fun of it) stage. Goody. I do love hearing her express herself but the scream is a bit much to take. She has quite the vocal range, from low grunts to the very, very high pitch. Her high pitch cry is very telling of either, 'I'm hurt' or 'not the mama.' Her scream usually means, 'look at me.' And she babbles a ton which is super cute and nice and neutral in tone. She is signing 'light' and loves looking at lights and showing us that she knows what it is. And for those who were wondering, she is sleeping all the way through the night again. She has been since she was fully weaned at 9.5 months.



Katya- She continues to sing a ton, all day long, which I love. She is such a sweet girl! Of course she is a self-centered toddler, but she is pretty darn good playing with other kids. She is so sweet to Reagan and Sterling, stopping randomly to kiss or hug their heads. We have been doing lots of coloring and painting lately. I got her some finger paints and she loves painting but prefers to use a combo brush, and fingers. She doesn't like her hands getting stuff on them and has to stop and wipe her hand on a washcloth after every fingerprint application. It is pretty funny to watch. We have started playing Canyland (which Doug and Sharon got her) and she loves it. She has a very short attention span of course, but for a 2.5 year old I think she does really great.

She says the cutest things all the time, I wish I could remember them all. Here are a few: "I got be safe on the sidewalk. I got to not be dangerous." And, "Oh! A car! I better run, I got to be safe." She said to me the other day, "Here's the deal. I got to use (which sounds like ose) the potty then I can watch a movie. 'kay." Ha! She is always saying 'kay and okay, usually before we have a change to respond to her question or statement of what she wants to do.



Craig and I - Craig has been super busy at Dow lately but he prefers that to being slow. He is still getting along well with his boss and he continues to impress all his higher ups with his awesomeness:0) He is working on getting rid of his Sat lunch shift at Widmer but change is VERY slow there.

I got an unexpected raise from our neighbors. I was so surprised and it makes me feel so good that they appreciate and value me so much. I always feel appreciated by them, but boy does money talk!:0) I am also watching him 2 more days a month now so it is every Thurs, Friday and every other Wed. We are resisting my looking for a part time serving job for now, but it is not off the table. It is hard to think about me working weekends when we are so close to having 2 whole days off together! Plus Craig appreciates what the Craft Brewers Alliance (Widmer) has to offer as an employer and is not sure he is ready to give it up completely.

We are currently refinancing our house through our credit union. It was something we knew we would do within 5 years of purchase because we have a 5 year ARM, interest only loan. Craig always pay more than interest only each month but it is far from an ideal loan. We are getting a 30yr fixed at 5.125% and will be paying over a hundred dollars more towards principle each month, while keeping our mortgage payment about the same. They also took on our Jeep loan which should be paid off in about 1.5 years.

Not a day passes that I don't think of how blessed we are. The one thing that strikes me so much is that we are so fortunate to be able to feed our children. It is such a basic necessity that we take for granted and yet millions of parents all over the world struggle to do this. Craig and my 'struggle' with finances as a young family (and a full time stay at home parent) is nothing compared to so many families. We have a beautiful, warm home and everything we need and more. We appriciate our purchases SO much and we take our time and really decide on the bigger ones. I think there is real value in that. I hope we are able to instill that same appriciation in our children.

One last cute picture from last Sunday when Grandma and Grandpa gave over for a visit. Katya was so sweet, snuggling right up to grandma on the couch. She sure loves her grandparents!

At the park

The weather has been beautiful in Portland this week and we have really enjoyed our outtings to the park. I almost always get the kids outside on the days I have Sterling. I LOVE having the double jogger so I can do that. Outdoor time is so important for all of us! I start gathering supplies and the jogger while the babies are taking their morning naps. After bottles, diaper changes and doning appropriate clothes, we head outside. I try and get a 20 minute walk in before stopping at a park. The babies both enjoy the swing and I run them around in the jogger a lot. Good exersise for me while Katya is playing. We get home around 12 and get them all eating, then it is time to get them all off to their 1pm naps. It is so nice that they are pretty much all on the same schedule (with Katya only taking the afternoon nap of course). Here are some cute pictures from yesterday:

Ash Wendseday

I love kicking off the Lenten season with ash Wednesday. It is a great reason to get to Mass during the week, to reflect on our human imperfections and on the ultimate sacrifice the Jesus made; dying on the cross to give us life. The Catholic tradition of marking a cross of special ashes on the forehead is a reminded of our mortality, and our utter dependence on the Lord. The person distributing the ashes says, "remember you are dust and to dust you will return," or "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel," or "repent, and believe in the Gospel."

Here are some cute pictures of Craig reading to Katya before bedtime last week. Katya is so into books; she takes books to bed, often clutching them as you would a stuffed animal.




Reagan is working on the sign, 'all done' and 'light.' She gets the idea but has a hard time getting the hand motions just right. It is so fun to watch her try! She occasionally asks for milk with her signing, which is so cool. Whoever thought of teaching sign language to babies is a genius! One more thing she does is hold her own bottle. She has been doing it for a few weeks but is getting really good at it now. I can even put her down and let her drink her bottle in a clutch (usually when a little girl is on the potty). Katya had NO interest in holding her own bottle and did not even try until about 14 months old!

Happy Birthday Baba Doug!

A very happy 60th birthday to Grandpa Doug! Hugs and kisses from Katya and Reagan:0)

We had a nice Valentines Day yesterday. I have been going to Saturday evening Mass lately which is working out very well so we can sleep in and relax on Craig's one day off. We had a yummy breakfast and then went to dinner at the Kennedy School in the evening. Craig and Reagan went home after dinner and Katya and I stayed to watch "The Princess and the Frog." Despite the packed theater and crappy seats we both enjoyed the movie. It was really cute and only cost 3$ (Katya was free)! Katya was really good. She even left the theater nicely to go use the bathroom about half way through. Such a big girl!

Hope everyone is having a nice Presidents Day! Especially those lucky enough to have an extra day off work. Craig is super busy at the lab right now so it is probably good that Dow does not give this holiday off. He has pretty strict deadlines since the planting season does not wait (corn, remember). Though I suppose getting some overtime hours AND a day off would have been better:0)

Katya pottya

Katya continues to have success in potty training, besides a set back yesterday and the day before. That was because she has diarrhea, poor baby. She also threw up once but I think it was something we ate because my stomach was bothering me too. Now that things are back to normal she is back to going pant-less at home. It works great that she loves dresses so much because they cover her naky bottom but allow her to easily use the potty. She still has trouble remembering to hold it when wearing underwear or training pants but is doing better. She has been resisting taking the time to go to the bathroom lately (despite the reward afterwards) but that is to be expected. She can hold her bladder really well and when it gets to full to hold any more she gives in and goes. Sometimes we have to insist she tries, which is tricky because it can easily turn into a fight. We are doing everything we can to keep the experiance positive. She is really good at recognizing the need to have a BM and is getting increasingly confident in going in the toilet instead of a diaper. It is exciting to think that she will be out of diapers soon!

Kiss from dad on Superbowl Sunday

Smiling 'with teeth'

Eileen Anna Thompson

My grandmother, Eileen was born in Buffulo New York on Oct 10, 1919. She and her family moved to Englewood, California when she was four. She graduated from UCLA in 1942 with a degree in Education. She meet her husband, Lester Thompson on a blind date in 1935 and they were married in 1942. While Grandpa was serving in WWII, grandma worked for Douglass Aircraft. Later they started their family and had 8 children; Daniel, Kathleen, Maureen, Colleen, Christine, John, Dennis and Elsie. Grandma taught business classes at Mater Dei Catholic High School for 14 years. Her devotion to a faithful life was unsurpassed. She attended daily Mass and was very involved in her parishes. She died on January 11, 2010 in the home she shared with her daughter Colleen and son-in-law Skip. She was laid to rest on January 23rd at Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, buried with her husband Lester. She has 14 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

My grandma was always very supportive and proud of me. I am struck by how much love she showed for the people that were important to her grandchildren; significant others and spouses. I know that Craig was in her prayers daily. She was a strong and passionate women. She did not always have an easy life and keeping God close to her was imperative to her well being. Second in importance to her spiritual health was her physical health; she and my parents were wonderful teachers of healthy eating. It is such a blessing to be a part of the wonderful Thompson family, led by our matriarch Eileen. I believe that she will continue to lead the family in many ways and will live strong in our hearts always. I love you grandma.

Video clip of Reagan

Here is a clip of Reagan's crawling. She did not crawl as much as I was hoping for the clip but it is still cute. She gets up on her hands and knees alot, as you can see, but still on her belly to crawl. She gets all over the house like this but not very quickly, as you can imagine. It looks exhausting! When she is banging the floor in the video it is because I am talking about the dog behind her and she is trying to sign dog.

I am pretty sure she knows that I am mama and when she says it, she is often referring to me. First word? Their first word is hard to determine, not like I imagined before I was a parent:0) I think she knows who da-da refers to too and when looking at the dogs the bable is more dahhh, instead of daaa. It is so amazing seeing these little people develop.

Long overdue...

I have been so bad about blogging lately! January was a busy month and flew by. I was fortunate enough to fly with the girls to California to attend services for my grandma. It was an exhausting trip but great to pay tribute to grandma and to see all the family. It was quite the event. Here is a picture of my parents five grandchildren enjoying a cookie on the kitchen floor:

Katya had SO much fun playing with her cousins and her grandparents, she did not want to come home!

Katya has been doing really well with potty training this month. She is able to hold her bladder really well and tell us when she has to go. We leave her diaper off for most of the day while we are home. This seems to work best and remind her that she needs to use the potty (as oppose to training pants or underwear).

Reagan is coming up on 10 months old pretty soon. She is signing 'dog' really well and even saying, 'Da, Da' when she sees them. She has signed milk a few times but doesn't do it much. She waves and claps a ton. She will clap when I ask her to! It is so amazing how smart babies are. She still hates baths, screams the entire time. When she is not being bathed she is a pretty happy girl. She likes to snuggle but also loves playing and can entertain herself pretty well. I have been blessed with such sweet babies!

I am working on my grandma Eileen tribute post and I will try to do better about blogging more often! Love to all.