Summer 2011- A Farewell

Our summer has been done for about a week and a half now.  I loved my summer.  Loved it.  It made me yearn for the day I can be with my girl (and whoever else comes along) full time.  I loved being at my house, working in my home, keeping things clean, teaching my baby new skills, reading to her, taking her to the park and the pool and swimming etc. etc. etc.  Someday, I'm hoping to make this my only job, but for now, I have my summers, and I'm grateful to only work mornings.  Here are some summer highlights.

Aquarium Trip
In June, Claire and I went to the Long Beach Aquarium with her cousin Lila and Aunt Lydia and Uncle Jeff.  I had gotten 4 free tickets for being a teacher so since none of us like to pass up free things to do, we all went out there for the day.  Claire had a blast and took a pretty good stroller nap :-) Only bummer was missing the Lorikeets due to previously mentioned stroller nap.  Oh well. You can't always see everything :-)

LA Zoo

Cindy and I decided to take a trip to the LA Zoo with Claire.  Her family was supposed to go with us but that fell through at the last minute.  Since we were all dressed and ready to go, we decided to go anyway, Claire's favorite animal was CLEARLY the flamingos but she also liked the black bear, the rhinos, hippo, giraffes, zebras and elephants (although you couldn't see them very well).  The sheep in the petting zoo were a big hit as well!

  4th of July
For the fourth we did our traditional BBQ at the Samsons then walk over to watch the YL Fireworks show.  In the morning, good friends of ours helped us paint the guest room (the room next door to Claire's) We are eternally grateful for this since the job was a little more overwhelming than we anticipated.  We are hoping to do some more painting soon but at least now we know more what to expect.  After Claire's nap, we headed out to the Samson's for the BBQ.  I was a little worried about the evening since Claire has an early bedtime but her nap was PERFECT that day.  Slept longer than normal and was fantastic for the firework show.  I was also a little nervous about how she would react to the noise and bright lights of the show.  But she handled it like a pro and watched in complete awe with her buddy Logan (who was a few weeks shy of his 1st birthday) We love being with friends for the fourth.

Swimming

During the sumer, Claire took swim lessons at Aquatic Zone in Corona.  Every Monday morning, the two us us would put our swimsuits on and go to the lesson.  Claire LOVED it.  This was the idea.  I really, really, really want her to be pool safe.  Really.  We live across the street from a pool and my in-laws have a pool.  It's just maddening for me to imagine not teaching her swim at a young age.  Maybe I'm paranoid but I think I'll feel much better when I know my little girl can float and swim to the wall if she ever fell in the pool.  It was so fun to watch her go from a clueless toddler to being able to (almost) climb out of the pool, confidently have her head dunked and walk along the wall with her hands.  She is starting to get the idea of kicking and blowing bubbles.  Luckily the swim center is indoor.  We took the month of September off to get ourselves settled, but I will be taking her back in October in the afternoons to continue having her swim so maybe next summer, she'll be even better :-)

Los Osos Trip and Great Grandpa's 80th Birthday 
Claire's Great Grandpa (my Grandpa) turned 80 years old on August 12th.   For his birthday, our entire family took a trip up to Los Osos (Morro Bay area) and rented a house for all of us to stay in.  It was a fantastic house and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Claire took her first steps in front of the entire family on that trip, chasing after Auntie Laura.  We were so blessed to be with everyone in such a beautiful place celebrating such a wonderful person who has given us so much, spiritually and emotionally and always makes sure our physical needs are met as well.  Grandpa is one of the most amazing influences on my life and on the lives of his children and my cousins and, really, everyone he meets.

Mamma Turns 31 (and relives 13)
I turned 31 this August.  On a whim, I mentioned to a friend that, for my birthday, I'd like to ride a horse.  I took lessons as a kid and the last time I'd been on a horse was when I took a trail ride through Bryce Canyon several years ago.  I didn't think I was going to actually get to do it, you see, but Cindy told Cheryl what I had said and the next thing I know, I'm in my jeans, on a horse riding around the Yorba Linda arena.  So. much. fun. Claire met a horse up close (she'd seen them before since we have a bunch by our house) and I got to meet "Buddy" :-)

Whew.  Quite a summer.   Back to a new working part time but this year, a very new adventure.    That, though, is for another post.

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.  ~Celia Thaxter

Catching Up: Claire's 1st birthday party (from May. . . )

I'm a terrible blogger. Last time I posted I was out of my rather bizarre surgery in . . . er, April.  It's the middle of August. So, I'm going to write several "catch up" entries to get the summer caught up.  First entry is this one:  Claire is 1.  We had a great little party for her at the end of May.  She loved every minute.  My grandma made her this lamb shaped cake that 1 year olds in our family have had for EVER.  It was so cute.  We held the party at the little park across the street from our house.  Most of our immediate family came and a few sweet friends (a couple of Claire's small friends couldn't come at the last minute. . .a few bugs going around!)  Claire's guests were very generous to her.  She got a lot of new clothes, toys and her old babysitter even painted a picture of her! Mommy, daddy and her grandparents and great grandparents got her a toddler chair that she'll be able to use well into preschool.  Happy Belated Birthday post to my little Munch!  :-)  Enjoy a few more pictures from the day!  

The Renegade Fibroid: A Uterine Saga

Really, this all began about 4 or 5 years ago.  At a regular check-up Dr. Gray found a fibroid tumor on the right side of the outside of my uterus.  Although, distressing to find there was an "after market" part clamped to my uterus, I was told by my very calm, wonderful, extremely helpful gynecologist that this would not be a big deal.   Usually fibroid just sit there, don't often grow and rarely cause major complications.  And it really didn't for several years.  I knew I had it, he knew I had it but it wasn't a problem. 
When I was pregnant with Claire, the fibroid didn't cause many problems.  It was annoying, don't get me wrong, to have this extra lump hanging around, but it didn't complicate the pregnancy whatsoever.  It was, I think, around 4 cm at the time.  Sometimes it got painful when she kicked that end of my uterus but, like I mentioned, I had a complication free pregnancy.
Fast forward to about 2 and a half months ago.  I had been feeling a little "icky" in my pelvic region.  I assumed it was gas/constipation.  I don't have a GP to go to for general malaise so I just dealt with it, thinking that a little prune juice and less red meat would cure my problem.  After about three weeks of this, my mom finally talked me into going to the doctor.  Fine. So I went to Claire's pediatrician (a family doctor) during her "after hours walk-in" time. By this time, my abdomen was in a considerable amount of pain and thought I might have some sort of blockage.  I saw the PA who checked me out and said, "Honey, I'm not usually wrong, but I think this is probably your appendix."  My immediate thought was that she had to be kidding, and when she made it very clear that she was NOT kidding, I thought "this lady just told me there's a ticking time bomb in my abdomen."  So we headed to the St. Jude Hospital ER.  Hours later, turns out, no appendix issues but they did find a "6.5 cm heterogeneous mass in the right adnexa."  Good grief.  So I called Dr. Gray and he got me in that Monday afternoon.  His call?  Wait two weeks, get another ultrasound at Presbyterian and see if the mass (what he thought was a "functional cyst") would go away, or at least shrink. After ultrasound #2, turns out it was not shrinking in the slightest.  So after much discussion about MRIs and surgery, we decided to go with the surgery.
Surgery was yesterday.  I'm feeling pretty good right now, but kind of like I was recently punched in the gut and I get tired easily.  Turns out the "mass" was my original fibroid gone crazy.  What, apparently, had happened, is my fibroid started to grow.  Maybe from the increased estrogen from pregnancy or nursing, but it got to around 7 cm by the time he took it out.  It had gotten so large that it started twisting in on itself (which explains the insane pain in the ER) and finally cut off it's own blood supply.  It "died" and fell off my uterus and was FLOATING AROUND MY PELVIC REGION.  What?!  Yeah.  By the time Dr. Gray got it out, it had quite a bit of scar tissue on it and the scar tissue was starting to attach to my ovary, part of my bowel (thus explaining the digestive issues) and a spot on my uterus.  Luckily, he could easily get all that off and told my family, "I have a great looking uterus and great looking ovaries." Well, that's good, I guess!  Haha!   I got pictures of everything.  I think they are super interesting but I'll spare you all of the internal shots of my "good looking uterus" and the golf ball that sat near it for the last few months.
Dr. Gray said that this was definitely not something you see everyday.  It was something you might read about in a textbook but hardly see it in your practice.  Guess, I couldn't have anything normal.  But I'm glad the fibroid is gone as well as this "new mass."  Who knew they were "one and the same!"

Miss Independant

So, Claire is 10 months old as of yesterday.  She's, progressively, gotten more and more independant. . . which is, of course, as it should be.  For a while, she would only feed herself Rice Rusks and Teething Biscuits.  If cheese or Cheerios or peas or bananna slices or whatever were put before her, they were seen a things to move around the highchair, or throw.  In the last several weeks, she's seems to have gotten it.  So much so that I'm thinking she actually would rather stuff food into her mouth than take it from mommy's spoon.  Sometimes, I have to distract her with some self feeding in order for her to get a little bit of the spoon stuff in.  This works just fine.  She eats a couple bites of shreadded cheese or whatever, mommy spoons in a few spoonfuls of avocado or chicken and stars or spaghetti or whatever else can't quite be made "bite sized".  When this girl gets herself on a spoon, I think she'll be able to go to town on whatever we're eating.  Already, we're trying to cut up most of our food and give it to her, within reason.  I'm hoping she gains a love for flavor and trying new things, like mama :-) We'll see.  Can't hurt to keep introducing her to new stuff, letting her explore the world of taste and texture. It's fun to watch her do this on her own and mildly bittersweet.  She went from taking in nutrients from everything I ate to nothing but breastmilk, to mommy spoonfeeding to grabbing what she wants on her own.  It's all pretty amazing.  Guess I'm just a sentimental parent.  

Yesterday, Claire's also started to pull herself all the way up to a standing position. . . . not sure I'm ready for what this means. . .    

St. Patrick

I stole this off of a friend's Facebook page and found it so fascinating and worth reposting. 

17 March is St. Patrick's Day
by: Peter Hammond

Patrick was only 16 years old when he saw a fleet of 50 longboats heading for the shore. As the Roman Legions had long since departed Britain, Patrick's home town was vulnerable to attack. As the Irish raiders leapt from their boats onto the pebbled beach, sounding their war-horns, the population fled in terror. The attackers looted and burned the village and carried away captives, including young Patrick.

Enslaved
The year was AD 405. Patrick's name in Latin was Patricius, meaning "Noble". He was the son of a Civil Magistrate, but now he had become a slave in Ireland. Patrick was sold to a cruel warrior chief whose stockade in Northern Ireland was surrounded by sharp poles with the heads of his opponents impaled on them. Patrick was put to work as shepherd to care for his master's pigs and sheep. He lived a lonely existence in the nearby hills, enduring long bouts of hunger and thirst, isolated from human company for months at a time. Patrick witnessed the superstitions of the druid priests who sacrificed prisoners of war to their war gods and newborns to the harvest gods. Skulls were used as drinking bowls, heads of decapitated enemies were used as footballs.

Conversion
In this strange place at "the ends of the earth" amongst these fierce people, Patrick remembered the faith of his father and grandfather, and the prayers of his mother and turned to Christ. Kneeling on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain, near what is now the town of Ballymena, Patrick prayed, sometimes a hundred times a day.

Escape
After six years of slavery, Patrick was led of the Lord to escape and run nearly 200 miles to a coastal port where he was able to persuade a captain to take him along with a shipment of Irish wolfhounds. A storm blew them off course to land on the coast of Gaul (France). Attacks by vandals had devastated the area and there was no food to be found in the, once fertile, area. Here Patrick was able to repay the kindness of the ship captain by praying for the Lord's provision and seeing a herd of pigs appear.

Called
Patrick received a Macedonian call. In a vision, an Irishman named Victoricius presented him letters entitled "The Voice of the Irish":"We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us again." Patrick was "pierced to my very heart" and he returned to the land where he had suffered as a slave many years before.

Opposition
Patrick was over 40 years old when he arrived as a missionary to Ireland in AD 432. He faced fierce opposition from the Druids. Patrick survived numerous attempts on his life and confronted the idolatry, immorality, slavery and human sacrifices of the savage tribes.

"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God Almighty who rules everywhere."

Patrick delighted in taking risks for the Gospel. "I must take this decision disregarding risks involved and make known the gifts of God and His everlasting consolation. Neither must I fear any such risk in faithfully preaching God's Name boldly in every place, so that even after my death, a spiritual legacy may be left for my brethren and my children."

Confrontation

At Tara, Patrick challenged the Druids to a contest. The Druids invoked demons and brought a dark fog over the land. Patrick prayed and suddenly the fog cleared and the sun shone brightly. The king ordered 27 chariots to go and seize Patrick. He prayed aloud: "May God come up to scatter His enemies and may those who hate Him flee from His face." The charioteers fell dead.

Patrick rebuked the king: "If you do not believe now, you will die on the spot for the wrath of God descends on your head." The king fell on his knees before the missionary and pledged his realm to Christ. Many turned to Christ on that day.

One of Patrick's writings was a letter excommunicating a tyrant Coroticus who had carried off some of Patrick's converts into slavery. Within his lifetime Patrick ended the slave trade in Ireland. The legend that Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland has to do with his spiritual warfare in driving the demons from the land.

The famous Lorica "Patrick's Breastplate" prayer of protection expresses Patrick's confidence in God to protect him from "every fierce, merciless force that may come upon my body and soul, incantations of false prophets, black laws of paganism, deceit of idolatry, spells of druids..."

Mission Strategy
Patrick was one of the first great missionaries who brought the Gospel beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Civilisation. Patrick's missionary strategy was to concentrate on converting the tribal kings. As the kings converted, they gave their sons to Patrick to be trained to be missionaries. From kingdom to kingdom, Patrick converted pagans, built churches, trained disciples, ordained deacons and ministers and built mission stations. Patrick provided pastors with written doctrinal standards with which to teach their people.

Faithful and Fruitful
For 30 years Patrick evangelised Ireland, converting many chiefs and kings, establishing over 300 congregations and baptising 120,000 people.

Inspiring Example
Patrick became an inspiring example for Celtic Christians. His life of continuous prayer, his love for the Scriptures, his love of God's Creation and missionary vision inspired many hundreds of Celts to take the Gospel to Scotland, England and throughout the continent of Europe.

Saint
Although Patrick is commonly called Saint, he described himself as a sinner. Although Patrick is the Patron Saint of the Irish, he was not actually born in Ireland, but in England. It may also surprise people to know that Patrick was never canonized by the Roman Catholic church, but has been considered the Patron Saint of Ireland as a result of popular devotion and long-standing tradition.

On the last Sunday of every July, up to 30,000 pilgrims pass Saint Patrick's statue and climb to the top of Croagh Patrick, commemorating Patrick's 40 day fast on that 2,710 foot summit.

The greatest legacy of Patrick was the tremendous spiritual movement he launched in Ireland and his followers who sent out missionaries to evangelise not only the rest of the British Isles, but much of the continent of Europe.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship

Cogito Ergo. . . Ergo!

I love, love, love my babycarriers.  I just told someone, recently, that I am addicted to babycarriers.  I really, really am.  When she was very little, I wore her around in the Mobywrap.  Only problem, it was a little warm for my summer baby.  I actually have two Moby's, although, I've recently loaned one to someone who needed one.  When Claire was about 4 weeks old, I decided I needed to check out some newborn carrier options that didn't make me want to sweat out my my own weight.  So off to Belly Sprout I went, on a mission.  The girl working in the store showed me a couple of carriers and I settled on the Zolowear Ringsling.  Loved that carrier.  Took it to Colorado on my trip to our family reunion.  It was fantastic on the airplane, through the airport and during the reunion.  I would take her on walks in the ringsling around the neighborhood and carry her around the house when she was fussy. Some of the best money I've ever spent.  But the heavier she got, the more I was thinking I wanted something else.  I had been coveting the Ergo Babycarrier for a very, very long time.  Finally, I decided to use my Babies R Us giftcards and order one.  A.maz.ing product.  I love how I can get things done (cook, clean, hike, shop, direct a church musical or school play) and she rides along with no problems.  She gets to learn about what I'm doing while I'm wearing her in the Ergo and even takes a good nap every once in a while.  Jives with one of my favorite No Greater Joy articles.  Babywearing is conducive to child training too! My mom loves it.  My babysitter loves it. It is a serious hit at our house and beyond.  

I've since bought a Boba carrier. Zulily had a special and was selling it for $60.  Score.  Similair concept as the Ergo but it has little stirrups for your toddler to put his/her feet.  Ergo claims to hold up to 35 lbs while the Boba will carry 45 lbs.   Haven't used the Boba yet but I'll work on it.  Don't feel the need to cheat on my Ergo quite yet.    But having more than one carrier like this will be fantastic, especially when we have more than one baby and each of us can carry a baby.  Sure is a blessing to hold my girl close and get things done and train her and show her what mommy does all at the same time!  

A Series of Unfortunate Events

 Well, it had to happen sometime.  We'd been enjoying having the best babysitter in the world two days a week up until about January.  But she and her husband found an opportunity to move into a better apartment, closer to her husband's work in a really, nice city. . . 45 -50 mins away.  So, we had to say goodbye and I began to scramble to find a new sitter.  Not finding one immediately, I turned to a friend who I knew had connections to a small, private preschool that had infant care, and who took infants part-time, a rarity.  I had visited them before when I was impressed but glad I didn't have to go that route as of yet.  But it apeared as though, I was going to enroll my girl.   They were wonderful, kind, excited and caring.  I knew Claire was in very good hands. But the very weekend after she enrolled, Claire came down with a mercilessly runny nose, cough and chest congestion.  I tried not to worry, as kids get colds, but when she started pulling at her ear, I, the newbie parent, decided to take her to a Urgent Care Center down the road, just to make sure her, apparent, ear infection wasn't too bad.  She did, in fact, have an ear infection and a throat infection to boot!  So, I was left with a decision.  Being a "natural parenting, natural healing" type, I was not as interested in giving my barely 9 month old daughter Amoxicillian, but I was also nervous.   So, I gave it to her.  The whole 10 day dosage.  Then, looked up every blog, natural-type friend, book whatever, I could get my hands on in order to prevent this from happening again.  A good friend at church suggested the Ear Oil from Henry's which contains Mullein Flower, Coptis Root, Garlic Bulb and Amica Flower.  She uses it on her girls each time they come down with a partiularly bad runny nose and hasn't seen so much as an ear infection since.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I think antibiotics have their place in modern medicine and I believe allopathic medicine is amazing. I'm also certain this won't be the last time my little girl finds herself taking an antibiotic for something.  But as much as I can treat my family naturally the better for their health and for our bank accounts.  But I digress.

Claire returned to the school after a week of staying home with mama and various family members.  This was hard because the week she missed, we still had to pay.  I understand this from a business standpoint. I really, really do.  But we were having a tough time affording tuition as it was and then to pay when she was gone. . . I had a hard time writing that check.  That weekend, she was sick again.  Fever spiked to about 102.5, we think, at one point (stupid thermometer isn't real reliable. . . we've since bought a new one). About that time, a friend of our former babysitter agreed to watch her two days a week.  She actually seemed excited, elated even to watch my little bundle of giggles.  I couldn't believe my luck.  However, I knew the daycare had a "two week notice" policy.  I called, told them the situation and the WAIVED THE TWO WEEKS!!  So, Claire busted outta daycare.  She will, possibly, return for preschool.  I really like their program.  We'll see.

Anyway, for now, she's crawling all over the house, pulling up on furniture, figuring out how to feed herself politely (this is still a long work in progress), terroizing the cat, and listening to Daddy's jazz albums.  

Whew, more posts to come this month.