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Happy Birthday Ben!!!

We love you so so much and are so happy to share this day with you. You are an amazing person, Ben. Your dedication to your studies, your love for your family and your commitment to your faith are truly inspiring.

Happy Birthday!

*the battle of the nap

Vera is finally taking decent naps! Immediately following this day, I decided that she needed to learn to nap on her own. It took a couple months of slow slow progress, but she now usually goes down without a whimper! Her first nap is 1/2 hour and the second at least 1 hour (the past few days almost 2!). I usually hear her shaking things about or talking to herself and then it goes silent. I always like to peek in on my sleeping babe and this is what I find:



*For all my new and soon-to-be mommy friends, I highly recommend the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Even if you don't use his techniques, it is very informative! The No-Cry Sleep Solution was really helpful too.

** Also, [in the manner of the Academy Awards] I'd like to thank Beth, Emily and Jenny for all their advice and support :)

*** Also, I fully realize that this may not last, and she may again decide that she won't take a nap. In the meantime, it's really nice.

*just eat!!

I wasn't going to post anything tonight, but dinner was just too funny. And frustrating - she only ate about an ounce of her "summer vegetable dinner" and a small handful of bread. Pretty much the same story for several days now - I can't believe she isn't starving.

*trip: part 4

This is the last one, I promise [until our next trip.... which may be in a couple weeks. ridiculous? a little :)].

So Sunday evening we went to my brother's for dinner. It was so great during college when I'd drive up for the weekend and sleep on their couch - fun memories of throwing pillows and blankets on Tyler all morning :) I really missed them when I moved away - it's so hard to go months without seeing the little ones. I feel lucky this year having seen them several times. Anyway, we would love to end up in Seattle so we could be near them!!

Jamesen reading to Vera:

Playing with cousin Tyler:

This is Vera's signature look:

Happy Birthday Gegi!

*trip: part 3

Are you tired of my pictures yet? :)

Another big highlight of our trip was staying with the Freise's and meeting little Eva!! She is the snuggliest, softest sweet little baby I've ever held.

I loved getting to spend so much time with them! It's so much nicer when you don't have to fit the whole conversation into a little coffee date, but rather have it stretched over a couple days: breakfast on the couch, in the backyard, on a walk through the neighborhood... Saturday was the most beautiful day ever - I wish I'd taken pictures of all the flowers blooming along our walk. I love Queen Anne - such an amazing place. [I have lots of memories of walking around with my niece there in the Baby Bjorn. I'd pretend she was mine and smile when people said she looked like me :)] Anyway, we even got to go to Queen Anne Thriftway [unfortunately called Metropolitan Market now] - where my love for grocery stores was born. Julie, I wish we were neighbors and could meet up for walks or coffee or picnics on the grass whenever we wanted to!

flora at metropolitan market:

why doesn't this baby get up and play?


beautiful sunny day:

see the orange hazelnut pinwheel in front of Julie? I still regret not getting another:

having a good time while Julie & I enjoy our sandwiches:

*the trip: part 2

I was so glad that Vera and I were able to fly up to Seattle for Michelle's beautiful wedding! Julie and I were saying that I never know when I'll get up there, but it always seems to work out that I do. Michelle was always a favorite friend - ever since we shared a room with 3 others sophomore year [is this where I admit I was in a sorority??]. It was so great to see all the familiar friendly faces - I'm still bummed that I didn't get a chance to really talk to anyone for any length of time. I miss you girls! Anyway, Vera's bedtime is at 7:00 and that's when the wedding started. I have never ever seen her so tired as she was by 11:00 when we left. Poor little bugger, rubbing her eyes like crazy. A favorite moment [Erin, do you read this?] was when Nate asked how old "he" was. And I said Nate, she's wearing a dress. I'm never offended by those things, but it was just too funny how badly he felt and how every time I saw him the rest of the night he'd apologize and exclaim, "it's a blue dress!!"

***

Sitting in the baby-corner with our sippy cups, diaper bags and glasses of wine:

Viv, Janna, Erin + Laura [the dresses appear neon here, but were actually quite cute]:

Another favorite moment - when Jud said to Vera, "You're not in Montana anymore" (as in you're not in Kansas...) and I corrected him: "Utah, you're not in Utah anymore." I guess I have successfully avoided mentioning where we live. Now all you crazy internet stalkers know :)

.... and the beautiful bride:

*the trip: part 1

We're home! We had such a great time and did so many things that I'm having a hard time even organizing it all in my head. So I'm going to give it to you in little instalments. First we stayed with my cousin Beth, her husband, Ryan, and their precious little guy, Pierce. It was so nice to get to just relax and hang out with Beth and watch the babies play. At first they kind of did their own thing, but by the end of the week they were old friends and were so excited to see each other every morning - it was adorable. I really loved getting to share in a bit of their daily lives and came home motivated to do lots of things: make all our babyfood, put my own art/photos up on the wall, actually make all the recipes I bookmark in my magazines... and watch the next Bachelor on Monday :)

It's really hard to choose from all the pictures I took. I just realized I didn't get any of us adults, but here's some favorite moments of the two little cuties:

***
It was great to be in a nearly baby-proof house equipped with lots of new and exciting places/toys to explore. Pierce was a good little sport too and shared well :)

*giddy

Still on vacation but thought I'd post this video that Ben just put on YouTube. Things are just so funny when she's tired:

*travels

I am SO excited for our trip to Seattle!! We'll be staying with my cousin Beth and her family, going to Michelle's wedding, spending a night with the Freises, celebrating Gegi's birthday and of course just loving being in one of my favorite places. I'm not so excited about our long day of traveling tomorrow. Lord, please help her to sleep on the plane...

*brrr

Spring has been slow coming. I'm tempted to be impatient for warm weather, until I remember that last year was the hottest summer on record. The walk from the back door to the car was even too much for my enormous pregnant self. So anyway we've decided to just enjoy the pleasantness of a sweat-free walk to the park.

*moving...

*boone

Vera loves Boone. If he comes over to sniff her face, she holds her breath and then squeals with excitement after he leaves. So naturally I try to get him to greet her over and over again because I love to see her so happy. Here he is obediently sitting for me, but avoiding either of us.

Also, yesterday was beautiful and we went for a nice long walk up to 9th & 9th to browse around.

*babyclothes

I remember back when I used to babysit, I couldn't wait to have a baby so I could dress her [always a her] up in all her cute little clothes. Well I've discovered that babies don't like to be dressed. I attempted the other night to get a little photo shoot of Vera in these adorable little kimonos [hand]made by my sister and Ben's sister. After the trauma of being undressed/dressed several times, she wouldn't stay still for a good shot. Especially of Auntie Jay's - so I put one up from when she was just 3 months old. [by the way, these fotos were a different attempt to get a good picture to send to Liz. She wasn't crying because I wouldn't pick her up, she was crying because I took away the camera. Beth! ;)] Anyway, I love these little creations - they are so so special. And adorable. I'm actually working on a little project of my own.... SouleMama would be so proud.

*panqueques

It might be about 75% nostalgia, but I think my mom's pancakes are the best anywhere. I LOVE them and wish I didn't eat them all up this morning.

1 C flour

~.5-1 T sugar

1 T toasted wheat germ

.5 t salt

.5 t baking soda

1.5 t baking powder

1 egg

1 C buttermilk

1 T butter - melted and cooled

*Top with butter+cinnamon+sugar or peanutbutter+syrup. mmmmm.

Vera hasn't learned to beg yet and seemed to enjoy her baby cereal+banana. [added later: Ben said that she was sitting on his lap while he ate his breakfast. She kept trying to get at his pancakes, so he gave her a little toy. She dropped it on the floor twice and while he was getting it the second time, she made a mad dash for his pancake. Little stinker.]

*8 months

Lucky girl gets to have her birthday on gnocchi day. I am just amazed at how much she changes day to day. She's been army-crawling for a while now, and last week was doing a little handstand thing that I think was an attempt to move forward. This morning she really crawled for the first time! She's also pulling herself up on just about everything, is starting to show signs of 'playing' with us, has 2 little teeth, is still sleeping about 12 hours at night and has continued to develop a healthy little temper. She still doesn't like naps, but I think she's starting to understand that she doesn't have a choice.

*the cheerful life

Someone sent me an email recently and commented that [per the blog] our life here seems so peaceful and cheery. It is for the most part. However, I think this is kind of an exercise in finding the good in our days. Not that it's hard to find, but if you know me, you might know that I can tend to be a little ... negative. I remember one time finding out that someone thought I was a complainer. I was insensed -- what?! me? I relayed the information to Heather and Leslie [or was it Julie and Sarah?] and they gave each other a little twinkly-eyed look that told me that yes, it was true. Good thing I can laugh at myself, eh? So anyway, I just want you to know that although I share with you all the fun, cute happy times here at the Cater household, we [yes, mostly me] have our fair share of downtime. I struggle especially with patience with Vera [when she wakes up again after a 15 minute nap - this is getting better, by the way], with feeling unproductive [mostly not contributing any $$ to our destitute brokeness], with few good friends here [Jenny, I am so so thankful for you], with of course the usual feeling pasty and out of shape - with lots of things.

I've been reading the Psalms lately and am encouraged to be joyful, cheerful, glad, grateful ... even when we all feel like this:

(this, by the way, is lately how Vera expresses her despair)

*spring break

We had a great time in Carson. My older sister and her family were there too - Vera loved seeing her cousins running around and thought they were pretty funny. We didn't do a whole lot, just hung out at home and got to visit with lots of old friends and family. Good food too, of course [Sarah, we had a bunny cake - the picture didn't turn out very well...]. Vera didn't have any trouble falling asleep in another place -- good because this was a trial run for our upcoming trip to Seattle!!

Visiting Great-Grandma Kay at the ranch [um yes, Liz, I'm wearing your clothes...]::Playing peek-a-boo with Eliot:: Egg hunting with Olivia, Ivor + Eliot. Vera found the one we set right in front of her::Easter dinner [sooo good. local lamb, stuffed tomatoes, butternut squash, homemade bread, yummy wine... oh and see the bunny cake in the right corner! There was a lamb cake too - Great Great Granny Mae's sour cream cake. It was so good.]::

All dressed up::

Being pulled around on my old VW bug [which Eliot was reluctant to share]::