Tag!

OK, I hate this kind of thing in emails, but it might be interesting in a blog. My aunt tagged me so now I'm gonna try it. I might learn something interesting about someone. I hope I'm doing this correctly.

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

First random thing: I must sleep with my feet cold. Every night I get my feet wet several times before going to sleep to cool them off. Recently (and usually just from late spring to early fall) I've started sleeping with an ice pack at my feet. I got the idea from a friend who sleeps with wet socks and a fan on her feet to keep them cold. I tried this and it didn't work for me because the socks dried out.

Second random thing: Once when I was a kid we were next to some obnoxious kids at a parade (this fact does not excuse my behavior). They kept taking the candy that was falling right in front of us, and it made me mad. So I opened a candy, put it in my mouth, then wrapped it back up and threw it in the street. The kids picked it up and kept it. I do feel bad about this now.

Third random thing: I don't drink coffee but I really love the smell. It reminds me of several different jobs that I've had and it just smells good. I hated the smell when I was little.

Fourth random thing: I don't really like to receive carnations because the smell reminds me of funerals. There are faintly comforting because I think my parents gave me carnations a couple of times growing up, but the smell mostly makes me a little sad.

Fifth random thing: My favorite Christmas CD is the Muppet Christmas album with John Denver.

Sixth random thing: I love cilantro and lime. I think I could add these two things to about 2/3 of everything that I eat. They are great in different Asian foods and Mexican foods, what else could you possibly want to eat?

If I didn't tag you because I wasn't sure if you'd want to do it write a comment here and do it on your blog (or you could do it in the comment here if you don't have a blog coughmarenjesslyn). I think it would be fun to read any things that people feel like writing.

Pam! I burned my foot!

Madeline likes to wake up to the smell of fresh bacon every morning...does anyone watch The Office? When we saw Madeline playing with our new pan, we totally thought of Michael calling Pam. Luckily, Madeline did not sustain any injuries.
Madeline enjoying cheese puffs in the car, and not enjoying the 5 return hour trip from Nashville to Cincinnati. I think she got as much on the carseat, face, and hands, as she did in her belly.

Madeline likes to open doors, especially the bathroom door. Our new game is that I hide in the dark bathroom and shriek when she opens the door. If someone did that to me, I'd be mad! As you can see, Madeline loves it!


Madeline annoyed because she can't figure out what the heck Mommy was doing with that darned book for so long. Madeline kept scrunching up her face and looking through the pages, convinced that there was something interesting there.

We had a good weekend. On Friday the three of us went to the Aquarium to see the "Fsssssshhhhh". On Saturday we went to the branch picnic and enjoyed carne asada, games, and good company. Afterwards we left Madeline at the picnic with friends and went to a dinner the interns Raymey works with. We are so lucky we have met nice people that are willing to watch our baby while we do all of these activities that are required with Raymey's job. On Sunday afternoon we drove around different neighborhoods in Cincinnati and picked up flyers at "For Sale" houses. It was fun for us to get a feel for which neighborhoods we like. There are some very pretty houses around here. We think that the German influence shows in the houses-a lot of the houses have this cute European village feel. It was a good time! I guess we should get some pictures of the two of us, but we are usually behind the camera, not in front of it!

MMMMMMMMMMuppy!!

All of my blogs start with exclamation marks!!! So, Madeline has this ABC baby video that is super simple and goes through the alphabet with an object for each letter. It is about half an hour long and has classical music. It is really funny because it is the only TV she'll watch because there is very little going on. Regular TV must seem really complicated. So, I'm trying to get her excited about letters and words so for example as the video plays I'll say "Aaaaaaaaaaaaa Apple, Yea!!!" Madeline's favorite letter is "B", not that she knows what it is, but she loves to say it. She's also recently learned the word "puppy" which sounds like happy. So, for just about all 26 letters I say the new letter like "Zzzzzzzzz, Zebra, Yea!!!" and Madeline responds the same for each letter "Bbbbbbb Uppppy, Yeaaaaaaaaa!!!!" and she jumps around and giggles (which reminds me, I must be a very enthusiastic mother because Madeline has started saying "yea!!!" a million times a day when she does ANYTHING!). I'm glad she's happy about learning! Raymey and I have a favorite response from Madeline. For "M" there is this monkey that pops onto the screen from different directions and Madeline gets really really pumped. I think the monkey is her favorite character on the video. Yesterday we were watching the video and I kept trying to emphasize the "mmmmm" sound in Monkey.
Me: "m, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmonkey"
Madeline: "baby!!!!"
Me: "no, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmonkey"
Madeline: "Uppy!!!"
Me: "no, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMonkey"
Madeline: "mmmmmmmmmmmmm-Uppy, yea!!!!!!!!!!"
So our little Madeline thinks a monkey is a puppy or a baby but you say an "mmm" sound. We love watching her learn.
Also, in other news, we did make a trip to Nashville last weekend. We took a TON of laundry and also returned some things home that we won't need for the rest of the summer. It was so nice to be in our comfortable apartment-we love that place! I think Madeline enjoyed looking around the strangely familiar surroundings. On the 4th we went to our friends' home for a BBQ and had a blast. It was so nice to see friends from our Nashville ward and for Madeline to have so much room to run around in the yard. We're a little torn because we've had a really good experience in the ward (well now Spanish branch) here and everyone has been so friendly and kind here so it is too bad that just as we're getting comfortable that we'll be leaving. On the other hand it will be so nice to return to Nashville where there is always something going on in the ward. I'm excited to attend the play group this fall because now Madeline isn't such a lump-she plays! I'd love to attach some pictures-we have a lot, but our "borrowed" internet connection isn't strong enough to upload pics-darn.
P.S. I was one-upped in my last blog because I was whining about our queen sized bed. I have been sufficiently shamed and will try to accept my bed.

King me!

I think that they should stop making Queen sized beds. I guess at least that 2 people shold not try to sleep in one. Every night I toss and turn and can't spread out-and Raymey is quite a bit taller than me-I'm sure he needs more room. I think I remember that when I was little my aunts didn't want to have to sleep with me when we'd visit because I moved all over and kicked (in my sleep). I think I still do. Raymey's grandpa told us that when he (Papa) and is wife (Granny) were younger that Granny would always say that Papa was on her side of the bed. So Papa built a contraption that held a board right down the middle of the bed. I think they may have tried it for a few nights and Granny finally told Papa to get that thing off the bed because she was bumping into it all night and she couldn't sleep. Papa on the other hand slept just fine and had no trouble with the board-he did take it down though:) I am pretty sure that the same thing would happen with Raymey and me. I am always looking at the headboard to see how far over I can go.
In Japan we slept in a bed that was somewhere between a full and queen sized bed. So, I should be grateful for our "spacious" queen in comparison. But, all I could think of last night as I was tossing and turning from midnight to 2am was that when Raymey graduates one of the first things we will buy is a KING SIZED BED!!!

First 3 day weekend with Raymey!!!

I'm really excited because we have a 3 day weekend with Raymey for the 4th of July!! He had a 3 day weekend for Memorial Day, but Madeline and I were in Colorado so it doesn't count for us!! We'll be heading back to Nashville on Thursday night to see if our apartment is still OK!! It is kinda silly, but I'm really looking forward to being in our apartment with our STUFF! Not that we have great stuff, but I miss it. I think it will be fun that Madeline is old enough to pay attention to fireworks this year. Last year she was a month and a half old, and Raymey and I sat on the car in downtown Nashville while Madeline slept in her carseat.
We've had a good weekend so far. On Thursday night we went to a Peruvian restaurant with some of Raymey's coworkers and we stopped at IKEA since it was in the area. On Friday night we found a Little Caesar's and had a $5 pizza!! Yea! Why don't they have more Little Caesar's around? There is something wonderful about eating a gooey pepperoni pizza and knowing that it only cost $5. On Saturday we went to the aquarium with Raymey (Madeline and I have been several times, but we finally got to take Raymey) and saw the "shish". Then in the afternoon we went to a Greek festival in northern Cincinnati-it was delicious!! We had spanikopita, gyros, baklava, kataife, shish kabobs, and some other things that we can't remember names for. There were kids dancing, live Greek music, and a lady even said "Opah!!" to Madeline when she was waving to the music. I saw a lady walking around with Windex and it reminded me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". We had a lot of fun. It is an annual celebration so hopefully we'll be able to go back next year! We didn't take any pictures of anything. We've been really bad about that. We'll have to put some up next time.

Life in Covington

It has been forever since I posted something. Raymey's been enjoying his internship here and they've been keeping him busy. He walks across the bridge to downtown Cincinnati and gets to work in about 20-25 minutes. He usually leaves before 7:30 and gets home around 6:30, but we do get to have him to ourselves over the weekend. Madeline and I have been checking out different things in the area. We've got an year long pass to the aquarium that is about 5 minutes away-Madeline likes to see the "shisshh". We had our first visit to Ikea-that store is so cool! Also there is a Gap clearance center here and I found 6 nice polo shirts for Raymey for 12 bucks-how is that possible?? I have a membership to the YMCA here, but it is not nearly as nice as the one in Bellevue. Madeline has had a hard time adjusting to the new child watch. For example, today they came and got me because she was crying so much and pulling her ears (they thought she must be sick, but she actually has always pulled on her ears a lot for comfort or when she's tired) so when I got down to the room Madeline was screaming bloody murder because she was strapped into a bouncy chair (like the vibrating kind for infants). It shouldn't be funny, but it kinda makes me laugh because she hasn’t used one of those since she was 4-5 months old. She hates being strapped into anything (she likes to walk all over the place), and probably thought she was being tortured. So, instead of looking like a 13 month old girl, I guess Madeline looks like a 5 month old boy (everyone tells us how cute our little boy is). She needs to get taller and grow some hair! Don’t worry Madeline, I love you the way you are!!
We went to the free day at the Cincinnati zoo on Friday. I think Madeline’s favorite was the rhino. We were pretty close to it and she kept pointing at it so we said “rhino” and she said “nana”. So I said “rhiiiiinoooooo” and she kept saying “naaaaaaanaaaaaaaa”. She was really trying. It looks like a neat zoo with a lot of animals-we didn’t get to see everything because we went late and it was really crowded, but I think we’ll go again sometime.
So now a list of Madeline’s current words: Mama, Dada, duh (duck), nana (banana, or more generally, food), shish (fish), teee (tree), teee (teeth), juuuu (juice), maaa (more), cheeee (cheese), keeee (keys), no no no no (she thinks several dangerous things in our house are called no no no), dih dih (get it), maimee (her baby doll), beebee (baby), bah (ball), buh (book), sah (star), beebee beebee (belly button), shoe (sheeeeeeee), doh (door), buh buh (bye bye), surrr (circle-I don’t know that she know’s it is a shape, but she has a circle book she calls surrr consistently), and kah (cat or car). She has a lot of other things she tries to tell me, but I have no clue what she’s talking about. She says “sheeesh” to us all the time and at the perfect moments.
We love to hear Madeline say words. For a while she was saying “she” for shoe. I started emphasizing the ooo in shoe (shoooooooooooooooe) and now she thinks that a shoe is a “sheeeeeeee”.
She’s also really into brushing her teeth. If we say “teeth” or “brush your teeth” she starts crying longingly and goes to the bathroom door saying “teee teee teee”. Then she gets really excited when we put toothpaste on her toothbrush and brush her teeth. She’ll let us do it for about 10 seconds, and then she has fun chewing on it. It’s so fun! Well, I’ve probably gone on enough about the baby, this is just a good way for us to record what she does.

Madeline's photo shoot

We've been in Colorado for a few days and we decided to take pictures of Madeline. Here are some of the highlights. You have to take so many pictures of babies to get a few decent ones! But it was kinda fun. We asked Madeline "where's your nose?" and sure enough, she showed us! We had to tie Madeline to the bench for a few pictures (wherever she has a black "sash"-this would explain some of the sad faces) We'll be heading back to Cincinnati on Tuesday and we'll start to settle into life there. We miss Raymey and we're excited to go back to see him! Oh, and P.S. my sister Maren wanted me to mention that Madeline spit up string cheese on her during Relief Society today. Poor Maren.