Tony Says

While playing alone in his room, Tony hears Roobin barking outside.
"Roobin, arrrrrg. No no barking!"

Looking for Monkey
"Yar you Monkey? Monkey? Ooohh nooo."

He likes peanut butter, and he likes to say it really fast and really loud
"pahbeeta, pabeeta, pa pa pa pa pabeeta PA-BEE-TAAA!"

Recommended Reading

I was reading in the December issue of the Ensign and I thought this one article was particularly poignant. Since I want everyone I know to read it, and this blog is the closest thing I have to a mountain top, I figured I'd shout it from here...

The article is titled The Prince of Glory, and it's by Elder Bruce D. Porter. I tried to write out all I thought and felt as I read it, but I wasn't able to do it justice. Instead, I will simply say that the Spirit touched my heart and I want to be a better person; a person deserving of the love so freely given me from my Savior, Jesus Christ.

You can read the article here: http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=90e0875a62c25210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Texas Mieka

exercises every day

tries new food

doesn't overreact with a GROSS face when the new food is less than delicious

is brave

goes places, instead of staying home just wishing she did

is outgoing and friendly

thinks before she speaks, at least some of the time

is patient

is tidy

is a work in progress

I swear, I'm still here

("here" having recently become Austin, by the way!) We're in the midst of a whirlwind; we had 10 days between getting home from India and moving here to Texas, and we're currently staying in a hotel -thankfully on the VA's dime- while we hope and pray for a tenent to rent our house. India was amazing, and hopefully I'll have some time soon to post about it. Hope you all are well, and happy December!

I'm Leeeeaving on a Jet Plane

We're off to India! We'll be gone until November 23, but with any luck we'll have some internet access; if so I'll try to post an update, or at least some pictures. Woo hoo! Wish us luck :)

December 7th

That's the official day Don starts work at his new job in Austin.

I'm so very, very excited!

Here it is... The BIG NEWS

We're moving to Austin, Texas.

Don was selected for a position with the VA Central Office, stationed in Austin. We are very excited, and anxious to find out the details, like when exactly they want him to start and so forth. Right now the only date we've heard is December 6th, but that has not been confirmed. Hopefully we'll have a little longer, since we are leaving for our three week trip to INDIA on November 1st. We will be getting home the Monday before Thanksgiving, which would leave us less than two weeks to pack up all our stuff and get down to Texas. Yikes! When we know more I'll be sure to post about it. For now, if you know anyone who wants to buy a cute yellow house in Portland, give them my number! Ha.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Picture Post

Day at the Park

Post-shower hair (and farmer tan)

Mouth stuffed full of scone bites

Sporting new jammies

He wanted to wear both hats; how could I say no to this face?

Holy Ticking Clock, Batman

Who knew that it's been over a month since I last posted? Where do the days go? Funny how time flies when you're reading books, walking around parks and stores and the yard, falling into dog poo, getting cleaned up from said fall, eating peaches like there's no tomorrow, trying to keep the house passably clean, watching too many episodes of Law and Order because you have DVR and cable and you just can't resist, learning how to shake hands, climbing onto the furniture then back down and then back up again, planning a trip to the actual other side of the world (countdown: 26 days till takeoff!), etc etc etc. As you may have perceived, some of those things are what I've been doing, while others referred more to the recent amusements of young master Tony (I'll let you wonder about who exactly it was that fell into the poo). In short, we've been busy.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for what may be huge news, and if not, at least some *hopefully* mildly entertaining anecdotes and pictures of, if I do say so myself, the World's Cutest Kid. Until then,

Happy Autumn everyone!

A few things

New favorite place: in the cupboard.

New favorite toys: the contents of said cupboard.

In other news...

• Tony had his 15 month check up today; he's 25 lbs 1 oz and 32 inches tall (57%/75%), and doing great. He had 4 shots which he did not like one bit, but after a swig of milk and some animal crackers he was over it.



• Don has applied for the dream job in Austin, TX so any prayers in support of that are most welcome and appreciated :)



• We've painted our house from icky tan to happy don't-you-want-to-buy-me-right-now yellow, and as soon as I do the trim touch-ups I will post pictures. Thanks for all the help, everyone!



• I am now a fan of Marshmallow Mateys, thanks to the beach trip re-introducing them into my life.

1 year, 2 months, and 3 weeks exactly

That's how long we made it with no poo in the bathtub. The streak ended last night. The new streak was quickly wiped away. With a bleach cloth.

Put this in the back of your mind

Sabatino

It's a name. It may be the name. Of whom, you ask. Our second son, that's who! No, I am not pregnant, nor do I plan to become so in the near future. It's just that we were talking about what on earth we'd do if, when the time comes to have another baby, it turned out to be a boy. You see, Anthony was the only boy name we could agree on. We have a number of perfect baby girl names to choose from, so we're hoping to avoid the whole mess by simply producing a female the next go-round, but since there's no guarantee (at least not on our budget), we are considering everything. In our discussion, I mentioned that I've recently fallen in love with the name Sebastian. Don is less than enamored with that, and I have one hang up: there's not a natural nickname for Sebastian. Basty? Seeb? I think not. Today one of us blurted out Sabatino, and we both paused for a moment. Hmm. Sabatino. Yes. Sabby- good. Tino- not as good, but could work in a pinch. It passes the nickname test, and Don likes it because, once again, it would sound like a tough guy (think: mobster) Sabatino Valdivieso.

Why do I mention this now, years and months before it would even be of importance? Because it is kind of an odd name, and I want you all dear friends, to have grown accustomed to it should the day come when we call you up to announce the birth of our baby. You'll say, "Oh, congratulations! What's his name?" And we'll (maybe) say, "Sabatino [insert super cool middle name here]" Then instead of you going, "Oh (awkward pause) that's nice" and thinking 'what the heck- where did this come from?? They're nuts!' you can say, "That's right, you mentioned that in a blog post some time ago. Great! I'm sure he's just the cutest little baby ever..." You see, I'm helping you out by freeing you of the initial shock that may cause an embarrassing conversation in the future. You can thank me later :)

Where's Tony?

I was getting ready for church yeterday and while I couldn't see Tony, I could hear him laughing and laughing, so I figured he was fine. After a few minutes some of his giggles turned to grunts of frustration, so of course I went to see what was wrong. It took a moment to find him...

It seems he was playing with his ball, and when it rolled under the crib he went in after it. Seeing there was something to climb on, he couldn't resist.

Heat Wave

Notice the sweaty hair and flushed cheeks... This is from last night, when it was 80 degrees at 11 pm.

Walking!!

Tony took his first steps about a week and a half ago, but I haven't been able to catch it on video until today. We went up to the park to play at the splashpad (this water-spraying area) for the first time. I didn't know how well Tony would like it, but it has been nice and hot here so I figured we'd give it a try. He loved it! Even when the big kids shot the water cannon at him (rrg), he laughed and laughed. So anyway, here is the video:

Cousin Time

Seth, Lisa, and the boys stopped by for a little visit, so of course we had to take some pictures :)

Dillon is the one most willing to ham it up for the camera, so we got a few of him and Tony sitting next to each other. Notice the striking contrast in skin color- Tony's 1/4 Mexican-ness is really starting to show! hehe.



Tony embarked on an investigative journey of Ethan's face which, as you can see, was less than well received...

Tony's First Joke

I was in the office the other day and Tony was playing in the living room. He comes zoom-crawling in, looks up at me, rips a big fart, and zoom-crawls out, laughing his head off.

Zoo

The day finally came! I've been wanting to go to the Zoo for so long, and Don was able to get today off so we all got to go together. It was a bargain, because it was $2 Tuesday, and if you take the MAX they reduce the admission by $1.50 so for the three of us it was only ONE DOLLAR to get in!! (You're probably thinking, "wait, what? 3x($2-$1.5)=$1.50; Mieka you really need to go back to school, etc etc." Little do you know, that kids 3 years and under are FREE! so my initial computation is correct.) What a deal, considering normal adult admission is like 10 bucks per person! To celebrate getting in for such a steal, we purchased, and promptly devoured, an Elephant Ear (effectively rendering our savings moot. SO worth it! hehe).

Anyways, here a *ton* of pictures from the day:



zebra

giraffe

zooming

walking with Papa

scenic (except for that bucket)

snack time

big fish

sun bear

wolf

black bear

sunny leaves

Doctor

Lisa's post reminded me that Tony went into the doctor on Monday for his one year check up. He's doing great! He's now 31 inches tall and 23 lbs ( 84% and 54%, respectively). They had to draw some blood via a fingertip, and he did not like the bandaid they put on him afterwards. He had it off in no time. I don't like fingertip bandaids either- I think it's because I know when I take it off it will feel like my nail is getting ripped out by the sticky stuff. *shudder*

Birthday Fun

Some pictures from our little family party on Tuesday night.

At first he wasn't sure about the cake so he had some bites from a spoon,

but eventually he got the hang of it.

Wash it down with some milk

Must...Keep...Eating...

Bath time!

Happy Birthday Tony!!

In honor of this momentous occasion (and since we won't have any new pictures to post until later), I have re-posted Tony's birth story. I can't believe it was a whole year ago!

Anthony Chase

So, I had a baby. Believe it or not, it all went down 4 weeks and one day ago. To save you the trouble of grabbing your calendar and frantically searching for the day I'm referring to, I'll just tell you: May 26th, 2008. At 11:19 am, to be exact. I'd like to say that it was the most amazing thing I've ever done in my life, and I wouldn't trade a minute of it, but that would be lying. Let me clarify something- Tony IS amazing, and I wouldn't trade him for anything, but the actual bringing him into the world, well, that is another story.

That story began on Saturday the 24th in the evening- oddly enough, it really was a dark and stormy night (lightning, thunder, the works!) I had contractions less than 5 minutes apart for hours, but we waited to call because I didn't want to be one of those ladies who get all worked up and go in, then get sent home a few hours later with the knowledge that what they believed to be contractions was in fact just indigestion. So we waited, and I passed the time chatting with Sarah and watching Frasier on DVD.

By 130 am there were other indications that it may be TIME, so we called the hospital and they invited us over. We checked in around 2 am, at which point I was about 2.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced. [To anyone unfamiliar with preggo-speak, that means labor had started, but there was still a long way to go] We settled in to wait, with Sarah as an unexpected, but very welcome audience member. We walked, watched tv, etc. It was exciting, yet at the same time tedious- surely things were progressing in there right? Nope. The on call doctor popped in around 830 am to announce that nothing had changed. She went merrily on her way, leaving us in disbelief- all those hours wasted!

Making a long story shorter, I'll just say that the following 24 hours went along exactly the same, with the occasional checks revealing little or no changes. By Monday morning we were exhausted (we, at this point, refers only to Don and me, as Sarah had left on Sunday). A new, more enlightened doctor was now on call, and he told us that there was a possibility that the baby wasn't coming any closer because he just couldn't fit through the pelvic bones. If this was the case, a C-section was the only way to get him out. Rather than letting the suffering continue, we decided to go ahead with the surgery.

I was wheeled to the operating room just before 11 am, loaded up with more drugs, and then the procedure began. Don was there next to me, looking rather dashing in his blue scrubs. Within minutes of cutting me open, Tony was born! He came out screaming and stretching.

6 pounds 5 oz

19 inches

Dance Baby

Happy Mother's Day!

Yay for Moms!

Now that I am one, I can certainly see with more clarity why it is that we need a Day. In actuality, I'm sure we could use more than just the one each year, but we'll take what we can get! I, for one have had a marvelous celebration of my first official Mother's Day (the past two years I was participating under the title of Dog-Mom). Last night my dear mother and I attended the Celtic Woman concert at the Rose Garden! An odd choice, you might be thinking, considering our complete lack of knowledge of, or connection with, anything Celtic. Nonetheless, it was amazing! If I were more techno-savvy I'd post links and music by them, but since I am not I'll leave it up to you to check them out on YouTube yourself :)

Anyway, just wanted to wish all you moms a Happy Mother's Day!

Dada

Beach Trip!

We went to Lincoln City last weekend for a small getaway. We did quite a bit of shopping for The Spud at the outlet mall there. It was rainy and windy the first day, so Don bought Tony a new coat. He hunkered down and was just a face!

We stayed at the Surftides Hotel. They had a pool and I was so excited for Tony to test out his baby boat. It was only fun for a couple minutes though, because the water temperature was too cold for him.

Our room had a big jacuzzi tub, and since the pool was such a bust we let Tony try again. He had a lot of fun swimming around in his bubble bath.

The hotel was built right on the beach so the view from our balcony was pretty awesome.

In the Fast Lane

That is where Tony is living, now that he can crawl. He started really doing it around mid-March, which you may have noticed coincides exactly with the time I last blogged. You see, when your baby changes from one that for the most part stays where you put it, to one that goes wherever it wants whenever it wants, life as you know it goes right out the window. Where it lands in the mud, and is trampled by the four giant paws of the beast that plays in said mud. (Who, by the way, is doing so much better on his restricted diet that we haven't had to give him any pills for a whole month now!)

Anyways... Tony loves to crawl. He goes super fast when he's on the attack, but slow when he is in trouble. He pulls himself up to standing and then the real fun begins. He has discovered the magic of drawers and doors, the buttons on the TV, and that the tray on the high chair will fall off when he touches the brown part. We always know when he wakes up because he can reach the lightswitch from his crib. As if he could read my mind, the light just flicked on! His Majesty has awakened, and he beckons me to come hither and change his royal bum.

From His Nine Month Photo Shoot

My new favorite picture

He's sucking in his belly, which is funny because I do that for pictures too.

"Toss it in the oven!"