Our roads are still completely covered in snow. It's snowed another couple inches since yesterday. I'm beginning to think I'm stuck here for the winter. But at least we were able to enjoy it



Jane did not love this experience. 25 minutes of preparation. 5 minutes of outside and then she needed to pee. We will try another foray into sledding this week.


a new definition of 'bed head'


this was a happier snow day for jane. she tripped and fell on her face in the snow (what we call a "white wash" but it didn't bother her a bit

Chronicles of 2 kids with a semicompetent parent
Tuesday
9:00amazingly leave the house feeling rather proud of myself for my intitiative.
9:10 arrive at the library
9:11 after removing the children from the car we discover the library does not open until 10
9:12 shepherd jane and baby back into the car
9:20 arrive at the bank to complete an errand (trying to fill the time)
9:30 arrive at a different library. Feed Josh in the car with jane stuck in car seat
9:45 get kids out of the car to play at the park until the library opens.
9:47 discover the park is wet so eat snack on damp bench
10:00 put kids in stroller and walk across parking lot to enter library for story time
10:15 Josh crying. Parents all stare. visibly annoyed
10:17 Jane needs to go potty
10:23 Jane makes it to the toilet but the pee did not. It exits the toilet and soaks her pants. The spare pair of pants is of course in the car across the large parking lot.
10:27 Check out of library and go home.

WEDNESDAY
11:30 am Arrive at the science museum play area
11:32 Water bottles leaks inside of diaper bag
11:35 feed josh in the snack area
12:00 Josh blows out diaper
12:01 Amber realizes that his spare onesie was, of course, in the diaper bag when water bottle leaked and is, predictably, soaked.
12:05 We leave with naked baby
12:20-12:50 Get lost on the poorly signed streets of portland. Including one full loop back to the museum (NOT on purpose)
1:00 kids in bed
2:00 jane not asleep
2:10 crash and scream from jane's room
2:12 cleaning up blood from jane's nose and mouth and the vomit that ensued when she freaked and choked on something.

Smashing success.

These are somewhat old but they'll have to do for now.



the end of a sneeze





She didn't get this combination of activities from me

And the halloween pics are here before everyone started badgering me. Hah I exceeded expectations for once (you'll have to wait for our email christmas card for the full family effect but these should stave all of you off until then)

Jane had a great time. She chose her costume a month ago (and Josh's as well). We even got her into her costume with very little bribing or cajoling. She came running from every door saying "mama daddy look what I got" She even got to suck on a lollipop (though it took her a good while to get through the wrapper, she did eventually get to the good stuff). Josh got into costume for the pictures and then stayed home with Nona. Next year josh, next year.




Jane with cousins Ian and Natalie


I know the light is terrible in the one below but my computer is suffering from Narcolepsy at the moment so I have no photoshop to help me out.

the lollipop, as you can see, was blue.

Our baby boy has arrived. Joshua Daniel Christensen, born Monday Oct. 20 at 12:25am. Weighing in at 9lbs 4oz and 22.5 inches long (and we thought he looked so small).
We've been home a few days now and, aside from the regular sleep deprivation, feel great. Jane is very excited about her new baby brother. Here are some pics for you. More soon. There are also a few at this link http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=3d709a5d-8aad-4ad1-8ce5-fd81c4b29b25


The "before" picture (we will, for everyone's sake, leave out the after pictures)



Yikes. That cannot feel good. should I have had to sign something for this procedure?



young guns (look at it sideways. he'll be kissing those biceps soon)

So as everyone with a 2 year old knows at some point you have to teach them to use words to say they are angry instead of the usual methods (kicking, screaming, head butting, generalized destruction etc. etc.) Apparently some of this is getting through to Jane (she may be missing the boat slightly on what is angering though)
me: "hooray"
Jane: "no mama. No say hooray. That not okay. That make me sad"

A Pirate Says "ARRRRR"

We went to the beach a month or so ago. Here are some of the pictures. Jane and Ian (cousin) invented a game called "stick my face in the sand". As you can see 90% of her face was coated in sand by the end (along with a lovely goatee (sp?) helped along by an extra bit of drool. Our little pirate :)

Jane started carrying around a mini book of mormon with her around the house. A little odd but harmless and not as hard to round up as the racquetball she used to be attached to. The other day we were getting out of the car and noticed she had it with her. We explained that she needed to leave it in the car and took it away. So there we are walking through the parking lot of Albertson's with Jane crying "I want my Jesus book. I WANT ME JESUS BOOK"

Jane was dancing in the car the other day. Dan start dancing too and here is jane's reaction

"NO!!! No daddy. No wiggle your hips"

How does one teach tact?

So on the subject of my daughter referring to whales around me... Yesterday we were enjoying the cool summer night on our newly mowed back lawn. Jane turns to me arches her back and sticks out her belly saying "Look, I mommy". Awesome. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Which of course only made her keep on doing this lovely new impression.

By the way Jane is 2 now. Happy birthday. We will have some pictures up soon. She detested the birthday song at first (I tried to sing it to her but she yelled "no mama. no sing") Later on My sister's and brother's families sang to her and she completely burst into tears. We had to hold the cake back for a while until she relaxed. Once she calmed down though she grew to like it. The next day she kept singing happy birthday to herself. I will have pics up soon.

Potty Training Log
Day 7
Accident Free Day! Hurray


This is meaningful as I spent part of day 4 (which shall ever be lodged in my mind as The Seventh Circle of Potty Training Hell Day) cleaning up poo pants at Ross Dress for Less -- keep in mind this was 15 minutes after mopping up the main isle with a diaper I happened to have in my bag and trying to control a half naked child until I could get her dressed again -- Not a good time. NOT a good time. Why I did not leave after accident number 1 I can not say. I don't think I was in a very good place mentally right then.

A side note -- if anyone hears my daughter saying "watch a potty movie?" in the near future please note that it has nothing to do with the material in the movie merely with a little bit of bribery (so judge me for that if you will)

My favorite moment of the week was when jane was swimming with her cousins. She hops out of the pool walks up to me to tell me she needs to go potty. We pull down her swim diaper and she pees on the grass. uhh.... yeah, no problem peeing in the underpants but heaven forbid we pee in the swim diaper in a pool. Not that I don't appreciate it - just strikes me as backwards

Anyway Hurray for our accident free day!

Influx of posts I know. Things have been relatively good. Dan threw out his back (no he's not 30 yet) so he's been out for a week or so. We've been having a great time with our pools (yes poolS. we bought an inflatable pool and they sent us 2) Nona was out here for a week which was awesome. We all went to the beach to escape the 105 degree weather. Those pics will be coming soon. Jane was very upset when I said we were going to the ocean "no mama. I want to go beach!" After I explained that the ocean was next to the beach that became her favorite phrase. 3 days later "mama, ocean next to the beach"

I'm 32 weeks along now. Getting much closer to the end than we're prepared for. Though it shouldn't be so shocking as I'm apparently rather large (Jane turned to me this morning and said "mama, I want to hug the whale" staring right at me. I choose to believe of course that this is some vague reference to some other whale and not, as it appeared, directed at my current appearance). Jane has lately taken to singing to 'baby brother' and giving him hugs which is really sweet.

We went camping with my sister Alena and her family. Our site was right next to a creek (which was seriously lucky because the only other option we had found was right next to a highway or a recently burned from a forest fire camp). It was lots of fun. Alena and her husband Ben caught their first fish with a fly rod and Amber caught a whopping 5 ouncer. It was seriously almost as big as my thumb. Watch out bass masters.

We took the same pic a year ago when we were at the Oregon zoo last august (I think it's somewhere in the blog)

Our final trip to the prairie farm. The goats always tried to eat jane's clothes.

Congratulations to Master Dan. He has officially submitted his thesis and it was approved. Happy graduation! We are all very proud of him. And he is happy to be done -- Enjoying his free week before work starts.
Some Jane stories (her intense side)

So the other day Jane hit me in the face (very unusual behavior ;). I tell her she needs to make it better. She runs to the kitchen and says "I go get mama ice. Mama need ice". A few minutes later she runs back "daddy, ice in freezer. Get mama ice" Despite our attempts to convince her I did not need ice she was determined to get it (if anyone has seen Jane browbeat someone they know what I'm talking about). Anyway she forces dan into getting ice for me. Then she walks up and sticks it on my forehead and rubs it around for a while. Cute. It's hard to discipline when the kid is so funny.

She has also developed a recent standard toddler obsession with ownership (and defensiveness of people's ownership). Not just her own (which has been around for a while) but things that are daddy's and mama's. Heaven forbid I use her daddy's pillow. If I dare to, out comes the aforementioned 'furrowed brow' and a very intense statement "NO MA-MA-THAT'S-DA-DDY'S-PIL-LOW" -- with every syllable emphasized. It's hilarious. And humbling I must say considering how much I am bossed around by a 1 year old.

She's no pushover that's for sure. We were at a concert in the park the other day. Little kids were all dancing up at the front. A boy ran up and pushed Jane. She turns and looks at him with the same intense look and her entire little body flexed and states "NO! no push jane" I think she scared him off. Let's hope that skill sticks around.

She's hilarious. It's funny how quickly she changes and how fast she's growing up. She is really sweet. She gives me hugs and kisses all the time. She tells me to "be careful mama" whenever we are crossing streets and she makes me eat some of her grapes if I don't happen to have any. She's learning to go potty (and teaching a couple of her toys as well) She gets very excited when she's successful and loves to wash her hands (and then run laughing away before I can get a diaper on her). Anyway we are having a great time.

We're excited to be in Portland. the weather is ridiculously amazing. the hills are BRUTAL (some of you may not appreciate the drastic difference between walking a mile in champaign "only one hill and that's an old landfill" Illinois and walking a mile in the foothills of portland but trust me, it almost killed me) I've removed the beyond awful curtains from our house (lets just say gold tassels) and we have a new yard. It's great.

Going on 11 hours--

Dan has been putting sod on our yard for 11 hours now. Not to mention man-handling some old concrete. I put in my token 2 hours too. Not something I thought I'd be doing while pregnant.

Our Nightmare...

Well I won't give you the entire chronicles of our nightmarish move but it was, as i said, a nightmare. Suffice it to say (generally this statement is supposed to precede a short remark. this will not be short) they showed up a week late, left our mattress, then arrived way early forcing dan to drive through the night to meet them (or they said they would leave for seattle with our belongings and who knows when we would get them), they claimed our weight was double the estimated amount and when they agreed to reweigh after dropping off our stuff just took our money and split (Poor dan was waiting at the weigh station for over an hour and they never showed up) After all that we get pieces of a box that we shipped in the mail saying it had broken and the contents are in some abyss in east nowhere minnesota. Sadly the contents are about 95% of jane's books. Oh and our cell phone bill was a joy as well. Apparently we went a whopping 800 minutes over the limit but kudos to Tmobile for dropping that in exchange for another 7months contract (I think our last 3 years of contracts have been due to some lost, broken or drowned phone castastrophe. It's starting to feel like indentured servitude) -- I realize that may seem like the entire chronicle I promised not to give, but trust me, it's not.

So it's been lovely. The good news is we are here, we love our house and the area. I especially enjoy having a playroom and our own bathroom and despite the irritation of losing our mattress the new one is seriously better . We will have a yard by the end of today (as of yet it's been a large cement area and thistles) The neighborhood is really quiet and the weather is unbelievably nice. Plus we moved from family to family so that's great too.

Jane seems to be adjusting well. She even sleeps in her new big bed (even more comfortable than ours :) She's started telling me what to do a lot lately ("come here right now!", "no mama, no touch Jane's hair" --though anyone who has seen her hair probably wouldn't think I ever even tried -- and the ever popular "mama, no swiping")

Anyway we think we are really going to like it here. We miss all our family and friends in Illinois but that's the way moves always go.

On the subject of lame celebrity sightings...

We ar ein portland (more on our nightmare of a move later) We decided a few hours ago to take a stroll down to the river. On our way we got side tracked into a mini-street market. We are standing buying some blueberries (which are very good and gone already) and lo and behold there is David Archuleta (sp?) and the dreadlock guy whose name escapes me at the moment. and yes i was 'that girl' and took a cell phone picture of this lame celebrity moment. --- i did spare a scrap of dignity though by not asking to be in the picture with them. I would post the pic, but i don't know how

Well we are moving in a week so you should all be proud that i'm actually on this thing. Updates... well Dan is rushing to get his thesis done. He's been working day and night (literally until 1,2, and 5am) Jane and I are busy packing, working, sleeping and going to the pool. Someone give us all a tranquilizer and wake us up when it's over please!

Anyway, you will be even more shocked when you see we actually have pictures. Amazing I know. Here they are! Our next post will be from Portland

This could come in handy some day...

If she's anything like her mom this will definitely come in handy someday (along with a spare set of keys)




Grease monkey



yes... it did go in