Battle Wounds

Today was Jay’s 12 month doctor visit. Babystats: Jay weighs 20.1 lbs, and he’s 30 inches tall. He’s in the 60th percentile for height and the 13th percentile for weight. Long and lean! He’s STILL in size 2 Huggies. Jay was kind of suspicious of the doctor—when he started poking him and looking in his ears, he actually hugged me and laid his head on my shoulder. He hardly ever does that. It made me think: at least he still loves me, even though I brought him to this awful place full of needles! Poor Jay got 3 shots plus they drew some blood. Booooo hoooo!!! I hate being the one who holds him down when they stab him! But it’s better than having him get those awful sicknesses. It makes me feel old (and hard core) when I notice that the chicken pox vaccine is now standard fare for kids. I HAD the chicken pox when I was little!

 
The bandaged boy. It’s hard to see the 4th one—it’s the tan band below his elbow.

 
Jay was very happy to come home, take a nap, and get back to playing with his sweet new wheeled contraption that Grandparents White gave him for his birthday. Turning one definitely has its ups and downs!

 
See, I told you he still loves me….

 
….for some reason!

Happy Birthday, Jay!

 
Friday, May 21st: Jay turned ONE YEAR OLD!!! First thing in the morning, we let him open his present from us. Yes, I wrapped it in Christmas paper. Jay loves his new ABC blocks!

Special things we did: played with blocks, read new stories from Grama Meri, made cupcakes, and had Grama and Grampa White over for the birthday dinner! They brought a cooooool walk and ride toy for Jay. He has already figured out how to push it all around the apartment.

The birthday dinner I just know Jay would have chosen if he could talk: macaroni and cheese (homemade of course), watermelon, and raw broccoli. Jay adores watermelon. He takes huge bites and the red juice gushes down his chest into his diaper.

 
mmmmmmmmMacNCheeeeeeeeeeese. It turned out quite scrumptiously, if I must say so myself. Notice the 2 sippy cups? Jay seems pretty particular about his beverage, and I never know whether he’ll crave milk or water, so I usually have one of each nearby.

 
cheesy watermelon macaroni face!

Picture of the day: believe it or not, that’s only ONE cupcake. I’m kind of sad that we didn’t get a picture of Jay before the candle was blown out. It’s just on video. Oh well! It’s a cute video (too long to post though). I didn’t let Jay touch the candle. He looked so self-conscious when we were all singing Happy Birthday to him!

I made Jay a birthday hat! He hated it, and the rubber band fell off, and it took us a million tries to get this picture before Jay crumpled the hat. So much for my vision of a perfect birthday picture of a smiling boy wearing a birthday hat with a cupcake and lit candle in front of him. Yet another Shaina-ideal trampled! oh well!

My sweet little 20 pound chocolate string bean! He looks so long in this picture. Can you see the watermelon juice soaking the top of his diaper? Jay’s bath was cloudy with cupcake crumb-silt. It was intense.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAY! WE LOVE OUR BOY!

Sometimes I amaze myself…

The best way to stay sane when you have a job-hunting-transitional-uncertainty is to stay busy and learn new things!

What I’m working on:

• Juggling—I wonder if I’m ready to move up to 4 bean bags?
• Sewing—I am working on a dress… the only things left to do are the zipper, the buttons, and the hem, but they seem rather daunting so I’ve been putting it off. When I finish the dress, it may take some courage to post a picture of it because it’s pretty frumpy and I doubt I’ll ever wear it except maybe on Halloween!
• French—The French workbook I ordered just came in the mail, so I’ll be starting ce jour
• Bread—I make all of our bread, buns, rolls, tortillas, etc.
• Cooking—I try to attempt at least one new recipe per week. So far, my favorite sources of inspiration are: www.allrecipes.com and http://simplysogood.blogspot.com
• Running—That road race I ran 2 weeks ago somehow tempted me into training for a sub-20 minute 5k. Jeff helped me plan out a training regime for the summer so I can make an attempt at that elusive time on Labor Day. (running a legitimate sub 20 minute 5k is one of my life goals) We’ll see how it goes!
• Music—I decided to pick up my dear ole violin a few months ago. Boy am I rusty! I’ve been practicing 4-5 days a week and it is slo-o-owly coming back to me. I play fun fiddle tunes, hymns, and I’m also working on a Handel Sonata (it’s tricky!) Thankfully Jay is not opposed to my playing, even if he does hate blenders and other unpleasant sounds. Maybe that means I don’t sound quite so bad? I’m too scared to ask our neighbors what they think, though, and I always practice when Jeff is NOT home.
• Pedestrian—Jay and I enjoy walking around here because of the gorgeous weather. I do 80% of my errands on foot. It’s great!
• Housekeeping—I only pick up Jay’s toys after he goes to bed each night (what’s the point of doing it over and over?). But I am getting pretty disciplined about keeping the dishes washed (some day we will have a dishwasher…or some day Jay will be big enough to do it…). Having a clean kitchen really reduces my stress SO MUCH!
• Memorizing—Although I’ve slacked off lately, I have a goal to memorize all of my favorite scriptures. I have a little Book of Mormon that I ONLY highlight scriptures that I’ve memorized. It’s a good spiritual and brain exercise.
• Reading—We may not have access to a library (stupid city limits—don’t get me started), but I still enjoy good books! I borrow them when I can or mooch off of other peoples’ library cards. My latest joy is Anne of Green Gables, as you know. I’m on book#2 now.
• Netflix—We love our $10/month Netflix subscription!! Lately, we have been watching the Star Trek Next Generation seasons 1 DVD at a time. A classic. Sorry, Captain Kirk.
• Mommying-And of course, I play with my cute little boy all the time too! (ummm...he's at my knee crying right now...)

So there you have it! I usually post about Jay or specific events, so I thought I’d change it up and do a 100% self-centered post. I love my life. It's good. Don’t you feel like you know me so much better now?

bee bo!

"This tiny hippopotamus has something small to say, and if we're very quite now, she'll say it right away.
“Listen!
“bee bo!
“You might not know what bee bo means, or maybe you've forgotten, it's just the tiny hippo way of saying BELLY BUTTON!" [from Sandra Boynton's Belly Button Book]

Jay got this awesome book for Christmas, and since we have no library access and we own a limited number of baby board books, I have read this to him plenty of times. Every time it says “belly button” or “bee bo,” I usually poke his cute little tummy. Yesterday I randomly asked him where his belly button was, and HE KNEW!

Proof:

How is it that Jay can walk and find his belly button but still doesn’t identify his own PARENTS? I am still waiting for a “Mama!”

I love JAY!

 
My little boy is getting so BIG! He is walking more and more—his longest stretch so far is at least 12 steps without falling! He will turn one year old this week.

Here’s what Jay has been up to:

 
Jay helps me make bread. He always wants to be around the action!

 
When Jay refuses to let me feed him oatmeal, I scoop it out in nasty cold coagulated balls, and he feeds himself. Maybe Quaker should market oatmeal balls!

Jay is really IN to  exploring new places. I am always surprised at what I find when I hear his distress calls:
I still don’t know how he managed this one

 
Crash!

Thunk!

 
Last week I officially (and finally) weaned Jay 100%!! (I dropped one daily feeding each week over 3 wks)  He’s finally starting to like moo moo milk (with a drop of Hershey’s in it…), and thankfully doesn’t seem to miss nursing. After 355 days, I am finally FREEEEEE!!! (still working on actually FEELING free, if you know what I mean…)

 
He eats 3 big meals per day, and no snacks (lucky me). He likes to cram as much in his mouth as he can. Chipmunk boy!
[To give you an idea: Breakfast= banana, milk, and oatmeal or toast; Lunch= 1 whole PBJ, 1/4 apple, milk, and cottage cheese; Dinner= milk, and whatever we’re having (e.g. tonight he had a whole chicken quesadilla!]


This week we figured that Jay is close enough to 20lbs for us to turn his car seat around to face the FRONT. It’s SO nice to be able to SEE him. Sleeping babies are so funny! Every time I tried to take away the cup, Jay woke up and started crying—it took me a few tries to finally sneak it away. 

 
Scared face! Jay is TERRIFIED of blenders, electric mixers, my mini food chopper, my hair dryer, and sometimes the vacuum. For some reason, he’s not scared of the Kitchen Aid mixer. It must not be quite as noisy?

Here’s what Jay does when I turn on a noisy appliance:

MAN, I LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY

don’t you?

Balloonsday!

This weekend in Walla Walla, there was the annual “Balloon Stampede,” which means they launch a ton of hot air balloons each morning. I only ever saw 2 balloons, sadly. But I did get to run in the Balloonsday 5k road race on Saturday morning! I’m always saying how the weather here is “always perfect.” Well, it was cold  and cloudy and drizzly on Saturday morning for the run. Fine by me! I wore my tank top anyways, and chuckled to myself when everyone else started peeling off their jackets during the first mile. [of course by noon, we were back to our normal perfect sunny blue skies].

I couldn’t believe how many people ran with ipods! Personally I run a road race for the atmosphere, so shutting it all out with earbuds seems pointless to me. Every time I came up behind an ipodder, I had the mad temptation to tickle them! It would’ve been so FUNNY! Don’t worry, I resisted. There were over 300 people in the race! Jeff and Jay were my fan-and-foto club, so that’s why we have pictures.

The START. Can you find Shaina? Hint: I’m wearing a headband to the left of Chuck Norris, right in the middle of the picture. I was wedged behind some slo-o-ow walkers when the race started. grr.

It’s so easy to smile at the beginning of a race!

Me finishing—waaay up there to the left of the cones. Yep I beat the hard core double duty stroller man.

You’ll only care about this if you’re a runner: I managed to hurl myself through the 3.1 miles in 21:21—just a hair under a 7 minute mile pace. Jeff counted the finishers and I was the 4th female to cross the line! I was pretty happy since the reason I didn’t run this same road race last year was because I was 8 1/2 months pregnant! Even though my body is a different shape than it used to be, it’s good to be in some kind of shape!

Woman vs. Wild

Hello. My name is Shaina White and I am going to show YOU how to survive in the outdoors if you ever lock your keys in your apartment. I will be parachuting into the middle of residential College Place, WA to give you an accurate example.

Now, the first thing you’ll want to do is build yourself some sort of shelter. In this part of Washington, we are lucky to have a few trees, which make a suitable location for a lean-to. 

After you’ve chosen your tree, clear a small area and gather plenty of sticks. Poke 2 sticks into the ground and lay a stick across them to make the lean-to framework. Lay sticks all over the place to keep out the wind. Then, gather bark chunks for the roof.

Good. Even though rain is not too big a problem in southeastern Washington, it is springtime so you’ll want to be prepared just in case. I recommend some makeshift thatching to finish off your roof:

Now that you have your shelter finished, you may want to plant a garden because you never know how long it will take your husband to get home from school with the second apartment key. (In residential areas, there is not sufficient wild animal and plant life alone to support your diet).

For the garden, clear a small area and build a fence by sticking spare wood into the ground. This fence will keep out pesky critters that may want to eat your veggies. Better yet, the fence my tempt said critters to try and find a way in to your garden, and then you can eat the critters along with your fresh veggies. Don’t forget to plant your seeds!

Well done! Now, a few finishing touches and you’ll be ready to wait out the afternoon in comfort and style:
 
A simple flower adds such a cheery air to a rustic lean-to.

Hurricane Jay: unfortunately, there are some natural forces that even a seasoned outdoorswoman like myself cannot avoid:

note: While the situation depicted above did really happen, we only had to wait about half an hour out in the yard.

Sneaky Mommy

Who would have known that just a  few little pieces of tape could make my life SO much easier?? (for now)

I love the view out our big front window! I love fiery sunsets! (and I also think that little house across the street is pretty cute)

Feel the fire!

This week I spent a lot of time in the kitchen—I love trying to cook new things, especially when the actually turn out yummy! My successes include: egg rolls from  and pitas (both from 100% scratch). Failures: fried rice that was supposed to go with the egg rolls (it was bland), and the Greek salad that was supposed to go with the pitas (it was just yucky). At least we had ONE edible thing each night!

Proof of yummy egg rolls (there’s some in Jay’s mouth and on his head). I combined 3 recipes from allrecipes.com to make these goodies—the wrappers took the longest to make. I did NOT deep fry the egg rolls. I just baked them. Way healthier. I also made the sweet and sour dipping sauce for them. mmmm

I didn’t get a picture of the pitas because I was too hungry to remember photography by the time they came out of the oven—but they looked flat and round like most pitas.

I started reading Anne of Green Gables once again this week (it’s one of my faves—another one I enjoy reading in springtime). In Chapter 2 alone, there are enough awesome one-liners to fill a quote book. Some of my favorites are:

“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel good to be alive—it’s such an interesting world.”

“If you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, don’t you?”

and:
“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair.”

One step at a time

When Jeff got home from student teaching this afternoon, he was playing with Jay when Jay decided to go bipedal on us!!! As you can see, he only can do a few steps at a time, but it was such a random surprise! He has been standing alone a lot lately, and he must have been thinking about walking all day today because when he lost his balance, he'd take one step to catch himself before sitting down. So by the time Daddy got home, it was time for some serious showing off! You can't tell in the video, but Jay has some major bruises all over his poor head! He must have bonked his head ten times today!! He'll probably be running around just in time for church on Sunday...

Our new vehicle

Drumroll….. we have a new set of wheels! When we visited Jeff’s parents last weekend, they showed us this little beauty at a local garage sale. It was only $40!  We couldn’t pass up such a deal.

Since Jeff drives our car to the high school every day, I usually just take the stroller out when I need to get things done (our stores are only 1-2 miles away and it’s pretty much always nice here). Today I took the baby buggy bike trailer one mile down the road to the grocery store. Let me just say—it has been a few years since I rode a bike. OW. Our bike seat is like sitting on the blade of a knife!

College Place is quite a flat little town, but the smallest inclines felt like mountains while I was straining to pull my nearly-20lb boy along behind me—and then I added another couple pounds of groceries to the load. If I was a handcart pioneer, I’d definitely PUSH rather than PULL! Phew! My t-shirt was damp and my legs were all trembly when I got home. I decided that while a lot of the problem was the old stiff bike I was riding, the main problem is I am just a wimpy biker!

Well, I am glad that we have a bike trailer but I think I’ll need a better bike (or at least a softer seat) before I attempt to use it again. I have always thought it would be so efficient to be able to tow children and goods behind a bike. I just never realized how grueling it would be. Once again, a Shaina-ideal met reality and it turned out HARD!

Spring is here

I love spring! The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous! It is so easy to run when it’s perfect outside every day, even when you have to push a zillion pound stroller. Springtime is so inspiring—I love to read The Secret Garden at this time of year, because it makes me feel “springy.” If that doesn’t make sense, then maybe you should read it too! Then you’ll understand.

We had a hot dog s’mores roast with some friends at Rooks Park, where there is this cool bridge over the river. Jay loved walking around the park in his basket.

oooooooo!

Jay and I went to the park with some friends, including his “girl friend” Alexandra (they’re only 1 week apart in age, and they always poke each other at church—must be love). Even Jay’s charming-ness couldn’t get her to relinquish her juice box, though!

Jay loves to swing. He would probably swing all day if I’d push him that long. Can you feel the joy?

  Babies are so much fun to take pictures of in swings!

He looks guilty for some reason…

And this is the view out our front door—so green and happy and SPRINGY!  The other day Jay and I just went out and sat in the grass under a tree to enjoy the pretty day. Springtime makes me happy!

Buzzzzzzzz

After weeks of debating whether to cut Jay’s hair or not, we finally did it last night!!! I coerced Jeff into getting out the clippers. Jay was interested in them until they started buzzing on his soft little scalp. Then he started yelling. Jeff only got a couple of good swipes in between Jay’s squirming, but there are only a few uneven spots. Now Jay is Mr. Peach Fuzz! His little head sparkles.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Recovering from the trauma

And now for one of Jay’s new hobbies… I’m not sure I like this one