breathless

sitting there on the plane. late at night. jeff sleeping by the window. nate sleeping on the seat in between us. willow sleeping in my arms.

there he is again. my beautiful, quiet, missing boy. his face with little blond pigtails. sleeping so peacefully.

every time i see it, it leaves me breathless.

1st birthday

birthday girl and brother

with mamaD and papaD

Happy 1st Birthday Willow!

happy birthday dinner

the prop makes it official, right?

10 months

9 months

driving in my car

new dolly

girly-girl with her dolly

Nate likes it, too

Keith Gardner Fan Club

january brought us back to the Roundhouse trying to get the MISSing Angels Bill passed for our babies again. once again it did not get through for petty political reasons. we will try again. we will keep trying until it does get passed. this year we had a picture taken.

Halo and Willow

Carin and Camar

the girls were real troupers this year. camar is old enough to know that she didn't want to be contained. to willow it was just another floor, but it meant a distracted mama, trips in the car, and difficulty napping. the girls got lots of attention, though!

could this be a glimpse of the future? he could certainly do no worse than the people who currently occupy this chair.

the boys were troupers, too. they were without their moms far too much. i know nate kept asking if he could come with me. i could not think of anything more taxing for either of us than to have him with me waiting around in the hallway for hours and hours on end. so the compromise was that we took the boys to see the roundhouse after the session had ended. (nate actually went with me during the 2007 session, but he doesn't remember that at this point.)

this is also my chance to say a very big thank you to my friends in los alamos and my husband. without ann and amy being so willing to watch nate at a moment's notice (and even take him to school one morning), the scary idea of taking him with me would have become a tortured reality. so, thank you! i hope with every fiber of my being that the 3rd time is the charm on this.

more mobility

she is on the move!

pulling up

standing

cruising

walking with help

getting better

thwarted!

on the move so much we had to block her access to the laundry and kitchen

bath time!!

there are things that nate has been dying to do with willow. he has been very patiently waiting for her to get big enough. this is one of them. he waited more than 6 months to be able to take a bath with her. i love that he gets so much joy from the simple things in life.

8 months

boo boos

we have unfortunately been going through our fair share (and then some) of bumps, bruises, and stitches lately. nate had his first trip to the doctor for one such event, we decided to forego the doctor for the second event, only to be followed recently by another that did require medical intervention.

nate's arm

courtesy of rough housing with mama

this was actually before the splint that was eventually put on it. before even the trip to the hospital for the x-ray (this was taken at urgent care). he had the splint on for a few days, then it didn't hurt anymore.

willow's forehead

courtesy of papa leaving her on the couch and nate letting her fall off

same day, nate's eyebrow

courtesy of the same couch and nate's own silliness

nate has recently had a "thing" for falling into pillows. he decided to try it on the couch pillows. our couch has wooden arms. apparently, he missed the pillow and instead hit the edge of the arm of the couch. came to us crying and bleeding. after cleaning it up and assessing the damage we decided butterfly stitches would be sufficient. so we cut some down to pre-schooler size and fixed him up. it didn't bleed very much or for very long. but he's got a nice scar!

where were jeff and i, you ask, when he decided to do his flopping? why, we were both in the bathroom getting ready for the day. nate and willow and i were going down to albuquerque that morning with some friends! what a way to start the day for both kids (see willow's forehead above). i was nauseated the whole rest of the day just thinking about nate's eyebrow.

just recently, nate's chin

courtesy of the classroom floor

[picture to come soon. it is still on my camera.]

last week i got a call while nate was in school. apparently he tripped and fell in the classroom and split his chin open on the floor. nothing else, just the floor. it wasn't bleeding bad. his teacher had cleaned him up and put a bandaid on it. she had called only because he asked her to call. she said he was calm about it, but when she put him on the phone with me he broke down in tears. i asked and he said, yes, he wanted me to come get him. so i woke willow up and went.

inspected the chin. it looked like there was a big chunk of skin missing which told me that it was a deep cut. this time i didn't think butterfly stitches would do the trick. not on his chin. so off we went to urgent care (after a story and snack, of course, because he didn't want to leave school).

the MD offered stitches or glue. with stitches he probably wouldn't have much of a scar and he could go to soccer practice that afternoon. with the glue, it would be a bigger scar and he'd have to be much more careful with it. stitches it was! three of them to be exact. nate really didn't like the numbing injection. (the doctor tried to tell him it wouldn't hurt as much as a vaccination. except we don't do those, so his argument was moot.) the cut was cleaned and stitched. and we went home to nap--without a tetanus shot or antibiotics, thank you very much.

nate says he never wants to even drive by urgent care again. we took his stitches out here at home a week later.

nate's finger

courtesy of nate's own clumsiness

[picture coming soon. i haven't even taken it yet since it just happened today. i expect it will be really pretty tomorrow.]

nate tripped and tried to catch himself with the back of his wooden chair. instead of stopping the fall, he fell with the chair and pinched his finger between the chair and the floor. it throbbed as all good smashed fingers do for some time. it swelled up pretty good, too. i checked for a break but didn't find one. so we let it be. after nap time he wasn't crying about it anymore, but it was already starting to turn purple. we'll see how this one progresses. there is a chance he'll lose the nail at some point down the road.

the really funny thing is when nate was little he'd take a fall and get right up. maybe a few tears, but not much. he was usually good with a little hug or even a kiss on the boo boo and off running again. he even got to the point where he'd kiss his own boo boo and keep going. he took spills that made jeff and i hurt, and he wouldn't even hardly bat an eye. now he cries and cries and cries and whines about the littlest thing. not that any of these injuries are small. not that they didn't hurt like hell. but i know he's taken worse spills and not hardly shed a tear. (i'm thinking of the time he fell and hit his forehead on the door jam. OUCH!)

more food

these are just some more pictures of willow eating. she has really become quite an eater. better than nate some days. (but if anything that only motivates him to eat better. nice trick, huh?) now if she sees us with food, she must have something. and if i bring out her food and then set it down again for any reason, she vocally protests. "uh-uhn-uh." she will also eat things that nate would never touch. i don't consider nate a picky eater by any stretch, but she is even less picky than him. she eats (among other things) asparagus!, avocado, and banana chunks (nate would only eat the smooth, strained baby food version). she doesn't like baby food peas, but will eat the whole frozen variety.

banana

rice

pasta

stages of mobility

willow is becoming mobile!

because this seems to happen at about the speed of a snail, i'm putting several weeks' progress in one post.

from sitting to stuck

from here to there (or more like a circle)

fun in colfax!

willow playing peek-a-boo with Papa D

Papa D and nate playing in the snow.

there was much "playing in the snow" on our trip; it snowed more than 5 feet while we were there. we played with shovels repeatedly. personally, i'm all played out.

christmas 2008

gift #1

see that beautiful lady sitting there with those cute kids? that is my mom's mom. my grandmother. for christmas my dad and my uncle flew Mama Hall up to visit. she lives in florida, and she said several times during our visit that this was only the 2nd time in her 80-something years that she had ever been away from home for christmas.

she was supposed to be a surprise for me, as well, but my brother slipped and mentioned that he was going to pick her up at the airport and drive her to my parents' house. whoops! it was a nice surprise anyway.

christmas eve

for christmas every year, jeff's stepmom makes the grandkids pajamas. this year i asked her to make nate a robe instead. he loves it!

christmas morning

that's right, matching jammies! and this will probably happen again next year, too, so long as they are both willing and i can find matching christmas jammies for them.

christmas for willow

i think this was the only gift she actually opened.

she looks tired, right? shortly after this she fell asleep in my arms in the middle of all the christmas morning chaos. yes, tired.

christmas means . . . family.

willow and tiegan

tiegan moving in on nate's nerf!

the boy could barely crawl, and he already knew what was cool. nerf battles followed throughout the holiday. nerf is a great way of taking out our frustrations with each other on each other without lasting damage.

willow found a new friend in tiegan's older half-brother.

he was sure smitten with her, and he was so good with her, too.

(but then he's got a few younger siblings.)