Announcing...

Success!

Photographic evidence that Carolyn sleeps without her pacifier now. It was much easier than expected, but Jeremy and I were too traumatized to try again after the disaster in December.

Oregon Zoo

Beginning of the trip:

End of the trip:

Today's high was supposed to be 77. Well, we left the zoo when it hit 90. Carolyn is still recovering, but she at least she LOVED the elephants.

We are trying again...

Back in December we posted about Carolyn's ability to scream for almost 6 straight hours when we tried to put her down without her pacifier. Jeremy was the one who gave in that time and I admit to being so tired I didn't put up much of a fight. So for the last seven months, one of us has gotten up to give Carolyn dropped binkies at least once a night. Jeremy carried the bulk of this responsibility when I became pregnant and getting out of bed to move was enough to make me run for the bathroom. We're passed that stage, but I still let him get up. Saturday night he was up 3 times (I only heard one. I must have been tired). He finally decided he would withstand her crying and we would start to wean her from her pacifier at sleep times.

Sunday morning, she colored a box and we put all the binkies away so she could give them to the new baby. And she was fine. Until nap time. Then she was the saddest little girl I have ever seen. We didn't have a tantrum, just quiet crying while she asked for a binky. I didn't think she'd actually fall asleep. She never has before without a pacifier in her mouth. But she did. We got 20 glorious minutes. She also did a great job for her first night. It was not easy and I imagined trying to get through the day without any sleep at all. But I was able to sleep from 11-4:45. Not ideal, but it will get better. We are very proud of her. And Jeremy has promised not to give in.

Who doesn't want to look like a Disney boy?

Carolyn has what I call "Disney boy hair." It is the oh-so-flattering hairstyle where you comb your hair from the back of your head forward. I'm sure you've seen it. It's quite common these days, but usually not on little girls.

Exhibit 1: Some dude from a Disney show. He was also in Adam Sandler's Big Daddy, but his hair didn't look like this then.



Exhibit 2: Some dude from Hannah Montana. You can ignore the girl. Her hair looks fine.
As you can see, Carolyn rocked this hairstyle. There wasn't much we can do about it. Her hair just tended to grow this way. A comb was pretty useless, gel didn't have much hold. Pigtails worked great, but she tried to pull them out all day.


But last week it finally became time to give those bangs a trim. It's amazing it took two years of hair growth for her bangs to finally get in her eyes, but this was really past due.


Here's her hair before:


and after:


It surprised me how making her bangs a little shorter helped the rest of her hair part in a style I appreciate a lot more. We'll be trimming them again shortly because they grow fast and seem to be longer than this picture shows. But I am willing to give her a trim every few weeks just to keep the hair out of her face and make her look a little less like Zac Efron.

Family Photos

I am pretty sure I am done with picture studios. Carolyn's 18-month photos turned out so well without all the hassle of the mall, so we used my friend again for her 2-year photos. I just think Megan's better than the studios. Plus, Carolyn knows her and is willing (periodically) to let me step back and cheese for the camera by herself. How nice!





We even let Megan take some family pictures. It is not as easy to get cute pictures of the parents as it is to get cute pictures of just Carolyn.




And here, this does not look like I am only 17 weeks along, but, man, my daughter sure looks cute!

Popcorn Popping

For those who requested it (Uncle Joseph) and any one else too, here is a video of Carolyn singing to Popcorn Popping. It's not the best quality or her most enthusiastic performance, but it's so hard to get anything on tape anymore because she just cheeses at the camera or runs willy nilly through the house.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

June is our month for celebrations. Unfortunately for Jeremy, his birthday comes just barely after Father's Day and our anniversary, so usually I am all out of ideas for doing nice things for him. But this year, due to pregnancy sickness, Jeremy did everything for our anniversary/Carolyn's birthday/Father's Day weekend. So today, he gets a home-cooked meal. One that doesn't come from the freezer. One I won't ask him to cook while I go upstairs and lie down. Heck, I'll even throw in his favorite dessert. If he's really lucky, I won't even ask him to do the dishes afterward. Jeremy's willingness to accept this as something out of the ordinary attests to the wonderful man I married. So today, I salute you, Jeremy Horner. You're the best!

Helvetia Half-Marathon

I've had my eye on this half-marathon for awhile now. I saw it last year and wanted to try it once I started running. So starting in February, I began training for it. But I didn't run.

My brother Gordon ran it.


My brother Joseph and his wife, Laura, ran it. They even flew in from Phoenix to do it.

The marathon took place Saturday, on Jeremy's and my sixth wedding anniversary. Jeremy was flying out the next day for work (also Carolyn's second birthday and Father's Day). So we packed in quite a bit of celebration on one day. But those aren't the reasons I didn't run. Nope. Something bigger: we're expecting our second baby to join us sometime in December. We're totally excited about it. I'm excited that I haven't been as sick as I was with Carolyn. It's still been rough (hence the no blogging, no cleaning, and no cooking), but it looks like the puking is mostly over.

Back to the marathon, I think it is out of reach to run it next year because I won't be able to take the newborn to the gym for my workouts. But there is a 10K and I really want to at least do that. So check back in 2009.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

I'm not quite sure how this

turned into this


but it happened.

Our little baby is two years old. I should probably stop calling her a baby now. For a little snapshot of Carolyn: her favorite color is blue, she loves pizza, she loves to give hugs and kisses to anyone, she wrestles her cousins and then comes home and piles on her bracelets and necklaces, and she can watch Cars twice a day and still love it. She is such a joy to have in our family.

Last of the vacation pictures

Tillamook cheese factory.

On our way to the Cape Meares lighthouse. Supposedly there were birds somewhere on the other end of that telescope.

The birds were Carolyn's favorite part of the trip. We walked a mile two mornings in a row so she could see them swoop off a giant rock. I don't think I have ever seen her so gleeful over anything. And she asked about them whenever we weren't at the beach. She loves to talk about them. "Birds fly. Birds eat. Birds bath."

Cannon Beach

Sand Play

We went to Cannon Beach with some good friends for the weekend. Carolyn was especially thrilled because she got unlimited time with her friend Mason. The first thing we did was go down to the beach.

Backlog

Before my computer crapped out on me, I was at least doing a decent job of staying caught up with the blog, but since then...well, I have a bit of catching up to do.




In May, we drove up to Seattle to spend the day with my grandparents. They were in town helping my aunt with her new baby. While we visited, Carolyn and her cousin Clayton vacuumed the living room for us. Always so helpful. It was a beautiful day (and those have been few and far between this "spring") which made the drive to and from Seattle more enjoyable.

I finally got this quilt in the mail for my friend's baby that was born back in November. Admittedly, it was not done by the time he was born, but it was finished before May! Maybe not by much, but I just love this quilt. I did the whole thing all by myself (except for a few phone calls to Rachel--thanks for the advice). That's a big deal. Jeremy is glad his sewing machine gift is getting use. Now he just requests I make something for our family. Next project: toddler bed quilt for Carolyn.

I'm not one hundred percent certain of what Carolyn was doing here or how she managed her look, but it was cute. Just ignore the mess in the background, my housekeeping skills have been lacking lately. Just ask Jeremy.

Update

My daughter still eats dirt

• The "yep" has returned. Just as quickly as it left, it is back. I love it!
• We've been at the Oregon Coast this weekend, and Jeremy finally enjoys where we live.
• Carolyn's favorite animals are birds, and she claps for them when they do a good job flying.