Mr. Incredible

For those who voiced interest in these pictures, hope you haven't given up on me. Finally, I got the new blogger to let me post some pictures! I was about ready to switch to something else.

Who do you think is trying harder?

Kellen & I are enjoying our day at home together. It has been hard on him, but he is adjusting quickly. The sitter said he seemed really settled yesterday. He wasn't so clingy and he played well on his own finally. Perhaps it is harder on mom??? I'm certainly not Mrs.Incredible. Guess I might as well learn now that I can't do it all...having a clean house, being a good mom, work outside the home, and have the time for myself I'd like. I don't go to spinning class if I worked that day, which is a necessary decision, but a sad one. I dont' know when I'll ever get to scrapbook now. But, I try not to worry about it. I am enjoying my work immensely again and am thankful I have such a fulfilling job. And of course, I love my time with the boy...who I should go play with now, since he has tried to eat styrofoam out of the garbage and is currently trying to pull cords out of the computer!

He is not listening to my "no" about climbing the stairs by himself

We're Still Smiling!

Kellen & I headed out the door at 8am. He was super happy, until I put him in his sitter's arms. So I remembered some good advice (thanks Charla and Jen), smiled, gave him a kiss, walked confidently out the door, and trusted that he would be fine in minutes. I later learned he did settle right down and had lots of fun. The 3 year-old, Elise, told me that Kellen loves her!

I picked him up at noon and took him home. Yes, we kind of got to cheat today. Ian is home for the week since its too cold to work. I was able to nurse him and put him down for a nap before I went back to work. So, for this week it should be a breeze. Now, it's next week I get to worry about... Hopefully, he will be more settled in his new environment by then and he'll nap okay.

I really enjoyed being back at work (other than a few brief moments of wondering how Kellen was). I'm looking foward to getting some programs going that I've been planning in my head over the last year. Wow, I'm a working mom now!

Time, Habits, and Prayers

I've been thinking about time. It's a funny thing, how it flies by so quickly. I've been thinking of all the things I'd planned to do during my mat leave. I now have 5 days, well, 4.5 days left. I can't believe Kellen will be a year old soon. More than ever I see how precious each day is. So, I play with Kellen a little more, and leave the floor dirty and the clothes unwashed. I give him just a few more kisses every day. It all sounds so trite, to write about time flying by, but it is so real to me lately.

I am trying to prepare for going back to work, while at the same time pretending its not really happening. I have been trying to get Kellen to go to sleep unaided in his crib, since his new caregiver likely won't have time to bounce him to sleep. It's been working somewhat better. I still seem to have to be in the room until he will finally quit crying and go to sleep. I think he may do a lot of crying next week before his naps. Hopefully the change in habits at home will help. A very wise friend (Sarah) once told me not to worry, that little ones change habits quite quickly. I am holding on to the hope that Kellen will form new habits quickly at his caregivers without too much anxiety for either of us. I also think about trying to make new habits myself, to help things go smoother. I have a few meals ready to go in the freezer. Hopefully, I can turn this into a habit. Cook on the weekends or in the evening, so when Kellen and I get home, it can just be play time. I also hope that the new habit of getting up earlier will be made easily! Since Kellen has changed a long standing habit and now falls asleep in his crib, surely the other habits will also come.

I have found a new caregiver for Kellen. I was going to take him to a new daycare run by 2 young girls. I just didn't feel that good about it for some reason. So, when I heard about a mom who just decided to stay at home was looking for kids to sit, I inquired. I'm glad I did. She has a 3 yr old girl and a boy just older than Kellen (I'm sure they'll get into lots of trouble together). She won't be taking anymore kids for awhile. Hopefully with the extra attention this arrangement will give Kellen, he'll settle in okay.

So, I'm sure you see i have some anxiety. Please pray for me and Kellen next Wednesday morning!

F.L.A. Baby!

Florida was warm and sunny! Ian was like a little kid when we got there and let everyone around us know how excited he was to be in "F.L.A, Baby!" We loved our holiday! It was so fun to make many memories with my family. We were pretty busy trying to take in lots of Disney, but did relax a little. Some of my favorite times were the quieter times, away from the crowds...at the beach and and playing in the pool at our house.

Kellen did well, even with the all night trip down there and the busy days. It was amazing to watch him take in all the new things.
He was intrigued by the disney characters. He liked the ocean, mostly. Being in the waves seemed to be a little overwhelming.
Here's a family picture at Animal Kingdom, which was a pretty cool place. Ian took tons of pictures of all the animals. I learned about a few animals I never knew existed.

We also did Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and MGM. My favorite was definately Epcot. I was amazed by the vegetables they grow there. I didn't know they do a lot of research there. I saw a tomato tree that they have harvested 38,000 tomatoes from!!! I also loved the 3-D show, Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it had me jumping and screaming (and Ian too!). Everything was all so good, I can't even share all my favorites from it. Okay, I'll share one more moment. Ian and Tim got their picture taken with the dad from the Incredibles. Afterwards he was motioning to Ian to do an arm wrestle. We laughed and started walking away, but he followed us and pulled Ian back to a table and arm wrestled him! I guess you'll have to ask Ian who won... Sarina took pictures of that event, so maybe I'll share those later.

I think it will go down as one of my favorite family vacations ever. What's your favorite family vacation?

Not Much To Say...

It's been a week since I was here. I guess I haven't felt inspired to say much. But since I had these great pictures I thought I'd share. And, maybe I do have a few things I could say...

I should have posted on Tuesday to wish my sister, Kathy a Happy Birthday!! Pretty fun to turn a 1/4 of a century-old. She is an amazing woman in all she does!

The highlight of the week was getting our passports since we are leaving for Florida on Monday, and I was beginning to get nervous that we wouldn't be able to get on the plane. The whole Bell family is going to Disney World!! So for those of you who have been, what are the must "see and do's?"

Everytime I log onto blogger it asks me if I want the new version. Not being very trusting of technology (well, really by abilities with technology) I always say no. Any advice? Have you changed? Is it better? Is it necessary?

I have to congratulate my wonderful friend Julia and Denny on the arrival of their little boy, Jedd. I'm in awe of Julia since she had a home birth with no pain relief!! What a woman!

Kellen's new thing that amazed me this week: he initiated peek-a-boo. He surprised me when he started pulling the shirt up over his face, waiting, pulling it down, and flashing me a big grin. He loved it when I would say "where's Kellen?...peek-a-boo!" Ahh, the little things that seem like such big things to me.

It is now officially less than a month till I'm back at work. How strange is that. I think I've been in denial. I have asked for my position to be .75 instead of full time. Hopefully, I'll get a positive response from that soon. I have a daycare that I think will be okay and maybe I will get my first choice of daycares in April. I've passed the crying phase now and think I have reached acceptance. I think Kellen may actually enjoy being around other kids more. I'm getting excited about my job again. I'm just hoping he adjusts quickly and easily.

That's it, that's all. I'll quit my tidbits there.
Thanks Auntie Sheena for the visit last night! Kellen had fun!

Recipe #?: Gingerbread Date Cookies

I forgot about my plan to post good recipes. But, I remembered when I found this great one. I used it for a healthy Xmas bake exchange and loved it. It was interesting to see what people decide was "healthy". Items were one of the following: low calorie, high protein, organic ingredients, low sugar, or low fat. Very interesting to me that each choice was different. I chose a low fat recipe (and would have made it high fiber if I had time to experiment). What do you look for when you are trying to pick healthy food?


Gingerbread Date Cookies
1 cup pitted dates, chopped
1/4 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp margarine, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Soak chopped dates in the boiling water for 15 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and soda, ginger cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
4. Add egg, brown sugar, molasses, and margarine to date and water mixture. Mix well.
5. Pour date mixture into bowl of dry ingredients. Stir until combined.
6. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
7. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheets.
8. Bake 8 minutes.

The New Year Report

We brought in the New Year at the Muirhead farm. Again there was lots of good times with family and too much eating. Kellen & I took advantage of the good weather and played outside most days.
Grandpa Bill got to know Kellen much better. I am thankful that Kellen has wonderful grandparents.
The dogs were so interested in Kellen and he had no fear of them. One got a lick of his face and Kellen was delighted by the event. There was also much delight in watching the horses. I think I had the most fun watching Kellen. It's so amazing to see him take in new experiences. He keeps me guessing what will be delightful and what will be scary. I thought he might be scared of the horses but he kept wanting to touch them and smiled the whole time. I thought he would love swimming, but when we took him he was freaked out and had a horrible look of fear the whole time!
Here's us trying out the new sled. He loved it so I think it will get lots of use.