The Sounds of My Life

When I was working in a research lab, our successes were measured on a defined scale: did we perform the experiments correctly and in a way that will lead to publishing our work, can we interpret the data correctly, etc. We were always working toward a goal and had weekly meetings to evaluate our progress on those goals.

Being a mom is much different. I still have goals for my children, but they are usually more abstract goals: are they happy, are the growing physically and emotionally, are they developing into the wonderful people that they have the potential to be. R and I discuss these goals and attempt to evaluate their progress, but sometimes it's difficult when compared to the evaluations in the research lab.

My recent attempts at evaluating the progress of my children have emerged in a pattern called, "The Sounds of My Life."

First A1 loves to sing and learn, so our evaluation at how well she is doing in this category:

(That's the alphabet song, in case you can't tell.) She loves to sing this song, Happy Birthday, and Old MacDonald all day long.

A2 has finally added a very different sound to my life: the sound of silence. He is sleeping through the night! I can get a full 8 hours of sleep now. Hurray!

And R has given us the sounds of laughter. He is on a much easier rotation, so he can actually come home at a decent hour and play with the kids while they're still awake. What a great blessing!

How are the evaluations on your progress coming along? What goals have you been able to accomplish recently?

A2 Is Huge!

A2 went in for his 2 month well child visit. He is 22 inches in length (25th percentile) and 12 lb. 13 oz in weight (75th percentile). He has already outgrown his 0-3 month clothes. The pediatrician is pleased with his neck muscle development (he can hold his head up while laying on his tummy and while sitting up) and was very impressed with his verbal development (he was laughing and cooing the entire time we were there). She says A2 will probably be an early talker.
With that prediction from the pediatrician and a smirk like this, I'm sure he's going to be a debater. You're welcome, Grandpa!

Another Birthday!

R turned 29 yesterday. After a long day on a new rotation, then spending an hour in traffic to drive 5 miles (ah, LA traffic!), he made it home for birthday cheesecake and cookies. A1 sang "Happy Birthday" multiple times and A2 smiled and "talked" to him. We then gave him some new clothes and the recently released "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" from J. K. Rowling.

This, unfortunately, is the usual interaction between R and the kids.

We are so grateful to have a man that works so hard to provide for us and then spends what little waking time he has at home playing with A1 and A2. We love you, Daddy!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and ate your own weight in turkey. We had a wonderful feast with a small group of friends that expanded until more than 25 people were at our feast. Luckily everybody brought something, so nobody had to do all the cooking. We then had a great time playing games and watching the kids run around afterward.

I have also decided to start a new tradition on this thread: Black Friday Cheers and Boos. Black Friday (or the day after Thanksgiving) shopping is a major tradition in my family that I brought with me into our marriage, so much that R gets more excited about shopping than I do. We didn't go to many stores this year, so my list of Cheers and Boos will be short.

Cheers to BlackFriday.info, which is the website we used to watch for all Black Friday deals, starting in early November.

Cheers to Best Buy, Toys R Us, Walmart, and many more for starting their Black Friday a day early online. We were able at least get a shot at some of the "doorbusters" by shopping online the day before.

Boos to the Los Angeles Walmart, which has no idea how to handle checking out customers or how to form lines. The sales staff also had no idea where things were located, so we were sent all over the store looking for a walker for A2, which were completely gone by the time we finally found where they were supposed to be.

Cheers to the Culver City Toys R Us, which is very, very, very organized with forming lines and checking out customers. The sales staff also knew where everything was and could point you in the right direction.

Boos to the Culver City Circuit City, which has no idea how to handle checking out customers or how to form lines.

Boos to the two Circuit City stores in Riverdale, both of which are going out of business. Because they are going out of business, they refused to honor the Black Friday Circuit City ads.

Cheers to the Los Angeles Staples. We called to find out if they had one of their doorbusters still in stock (if they didn't, we didn't want to fight the crowds). Not only did they check their own stock, but they also checked the stock of all the stores in the vicinity to find out that they had three left in stock. On top of spending quite a while on the phone with me to make sure that they could answer all my questions, they also set aside the doorbuster for us (with my specific name on it and everything) to make sure we were able to get it.

These are the only stores we went to/heard about from friends. Do you have any cheers or boos for any store for Black Friday?

Birthday Girl

A1 had a birthday a couple of days ago. She is now 2 and very excited to let people know that she is a big girl.

We had a small party with some of our neighbors, during which A1 sang "Happy Birthday" to herself, blew out the candles, and ate two big pieces of cake. A cake, which I might add, I decorated myself - my first ever attempt at doing so.

Then she opened presents and spent the rest of the night playing with all the animals (between the Little People Noah's Ark and the Little People Farm, she received quite a few animals).

So "Happy Birthday To You," my sweet angel girl.

Neener Nanner Neener

On the advice of a good friend, I would like to inform all of you that this week the high temp has been hovering around 90 degrees. Well, except for yesterday and today - we are staying in the mid-70s. I hope that everyone else is enjoying the snow elsewhere. Where's your global warming now? (Answer: here in California)

P.S. Full disclosure: I miss the snow. How can you have Christmas without snow?

The Big 30!

My birthday was a couple of days ago. I'm now officially 30. I feel very old, but not quite as old as my grandmother, who claims to have been 107 since I was about 3 years old. When I can claim that, then I'll be old, I guess.

R gave me the best birthday present: a Jet Stream convection oven. We had one when we lived in New York, and I have missed it dearly. It cooks just like an oven in the time of a microwave; it can "fry" foods like a deep fryer without any oil; it can reheat food so it's crispier (and occasionally fresher tasting) then when it was originally made. It is the most amazing appliance ever! I highly recommend it to everyone.

A1 and A2 gave me their own little presents. A1 learned the words to "Happy Birthday To You" and insisted on singing it to me at least 10 times (so cute!). A2 learned how to smile on command. I was able to capture the smile on camera after a lot of encouragement and even more shots (hurray for digital photography):

So it was a great birthday. I just have to get used to the fact that I'm no longer in my 20s - I'll get there; it may just take 10 years or so!

Happy Halloween

Our little ladybug

Showing off her favorite treat from trick-or-treating

Our little pumpkin (not really getting into the spirit of Halloween!)

Nap Time

Nap time has become a treasure trove of Kodak moments. I thought I'd share my favorite two:

Aren't they so cute together?!

Beach Day with Grandma

My mom came out to visit a few days after A2 was born, allegedly to help me recover from labor, but really so that we could play. And play we did!

This being California, we had to initiate A2 to the beach within the first week after birth. Thus A2's first trip to the beach:

As you can see, the beach didn't make much of an impression on him. But A1 had a great time, building sand castles with Grandma, while Daddy built irrigated moats out to the ocean:

We loved having my mom come visit and want to share more experiences like this with others of our family and friends. I invite one and all to come visit.

Accidentally Learning How to Write

Since A1 started attending nursery in our new ward, her favorite things to do are color and sing songs. We sing songs everywhere we go and, of course, we have to do the actions. She knows all the actions to "Popcorn Popping" and "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock." We're working on the actions to "Book of Mormon Stories." I'm having a hard time remembering the "nursery songs that every kid should know" - can you help me remember some good ones to teach my kids?

In a related story, A1 begs to color everyday. It's the only way I was able to watch General Conference earlier this month (she colored so I could watch). She also likes to pretend that she is writing people's names (particularly family members) and other known words. The other day she was pretending to write letters of the alphabet in a notebook we gave her, when suddenly she proudly shouted, "M!"

A1 proudly shows off her coloring

What letter does this look like to you?

Now I know she does not actually know how to write and that this was some random coincidence in writing. But how amazing is A1 for recognizing her own scribbling to interpret it as M?

It's a Boy!

We had a new addition to our family early (VERY early) Saturday morning, and it's a boy. ACJ (to be known hereafter as A2) was born at 12:31 am and was about half a pound bigger than A (to be known hereafter as A1) and nearly 2 inches longer. Labor went well for me - I only had to push for less than 5 minutes this time! The OB staff was very impressed by how quickly everything went, and the nursing staff was delighted by how quickly I recovered. We were able to come home late last night.

Mom and A2

Dad and A2

A1 and A2

A1 has completely fallen in love with her little brother. She is very gentle around him and loves picking out which clothes he should wear. So far the transition to big sister has been going well for her. R is back on call, but we hope to spend some quality time with him next weekend. I'm recovering well.

We wouldn't have been able to do all this without the help of my sister and her fiance, who came out to stay with A1 while R and I were in the hospital. Thank you so much, Erin and Ryan!

As we make our way to the hospital...

I thought I would share some beautiful pictures of A with her "baby brother."

We have a wonderful friend here in LA that does photography as a hobby. She took some pictures of A with my big belly last week that are just adorable. I thought you might like to see them as well.

And so we are off to the hospital to have this next little one. Check back in a couple of days for an update.

New Lessons

A's grandma brought her a new book when she was here visiting. This book has really helped in teaching the alphabet. The first night she had the book, A taught her stuffed animals which letters she already knew and learned a new one (T) in the process. I caught her reading to her puppy, especially showing off the D:

A also had the opportunity to go swimming with Daddy yesterday, as it was his day off. He tries to take her swimming every chance he gets, and he is a very good swimming teacher. Yesterday he taught A how to lay on her tummy with her hands and legs out in the water, in the correct swimming position. He also was able to convince her to put her face in the water (only once and not for very long, but her face was still in the water!) to blow bubbles. I'm amazed that he was able to teach her as much as he did during that short time in the pool.

I'm also trying to teach A how to play the piano (no pictures of the event yet), which is very fun. She gets quite a kick out of pushing the keys and making sounds. She even figured out how to play the Jaws theme (duh-Duh, duh-Duh, duh-Duh), but I haven't been able to get her to repeat it since that first time.

What lessons have you been teaching your kids? Any suggestions for what else I should be teaching mine?

San Diego

My mom was in San Diego last week for a medical conference. A and I couldn't resist the chance to spend some time with her, so we made the 120 mile trek. We then forced her to play hookie for one of the days of the conference so that we could take her to the beach. Grandma built A a nest in the sand, which A used as a dancing stage:

I don't know how that girl can be so cute! She is growing up so fast and already thinking that she is too cool for anything but the beach.

I guess we need more people to visit us to give us an excuse to go to the beach more often!

The medical conference was wonderful. A and I spent a lot of time in the exhibition hall getting all the free stuff they offered (anything from pens and post-it pads to grapes and yogurt). We also went to a few classes with Grandma (I'm all up-to-date on the new antibiotics and what vaccines are best for pertussis, if you have any questions!). Amazingly A was an angel during the classes, especially when they offered her chocolate cake (I love medical conferences!).

We are so glad that we were able to spend time with my mom. Thanks for letting us join you in San Diego, Grandma!

This Post Brought to You by the Letter D

As promised, I have started working on letters with A. She picks them up very quickly, although in a very strange fashion: She can remember the strangest letters that we use the least better than those that we use all the time (Q and W are her two favorites at the moment).

Today's letter was D. I tried to help A remember the letter by saying, "Like 'dog'!", but now she thinks the letter is called "dog," not D. Oops! She did want to show off her new letter for the camera, so I thought I would share with you.

Speaking of the letter D, the other day A spilled some milk on the floor (and unlike her mother, she did not cry over it). She watched me wipe up the milk and now has a new fascination with wiping up any dirt or liquid, real or imaginary.

After taking this picture, I realized that A now has hard evidence to use against me if ever she wants to accuse me of treating her like Cinderella (my favorite accusation to my mother when I was growing up).

Animal Adventures

Last week we visited more with some of our favorite friends from Rochester. Katrina invited us to visit her family's "compound" not far from LA. They have wonderful orchards, a beautiful home, and a wide variety of animals. A was beside herself with delight.

As mentioned previously, Wyatt is A's best friends, so the two of them took great care of one another while going to visit the animals and see the orchards:

Once we reached the animals, however, they were quite happy to relinquish one another's hand in order to feed the horses some apples from the orchard. A was tickled to no end that one of the horses would eat what she brought for it. As the official horse trainer (Katrina's aunt) wasn't there at the time, the kids couldn't get too close to the horses, but A wished she could pet them. She settled for looking cute while the horse we were trying to photograph wandered off, despite my best efforts to reassure it that it wanted its picture taken. (No, no, really! You look fine. You don't have to do your hair. Just stay put while I take a picture with my daughter! You are very photogenic.)

We then returned to the house, where Katrina's aunt's cats made an appearance. A loves cats, but the cat that she has had the most dealings with (Grandma's cat) doesn't share the feeling, so A rarely has the chance to see a cat close up. One of these cats, however, was very gentle and forgiving, allowing A and Wyatt to pet it for quite a while. What a present for A!

It was a spectacular day at the family compound! Here we are, nearly a week later, and A continues to tell everyone she can about what a great time she had. Thank you to Katrina and the rest of her family for hosting us.

On a somewhat related note (hey, it has to do with animals, right?), last night A was once again calling Grandma on her pretend cell phone. In the middle of the conversation, she suddenly realized that her stuffed lamb had not yet said hello, so she put the lamb on the phone.

My only question: how much do lamb-to-Grandma minutes cost?

A Rochester Day at the Beach

Some of our very good friends from Rochester, Katrina and Wyatt and Lucien (we missed Ross), came to visit, so we met them at the beach. Wyatt is a few months older than A and is her best friend in the whole world. She was very excited to see them.

Wyatt, being older, taught A in the ways of the beach, specifically in how to dig in the sand.

A is a great student and soon learned the joy of putting the sand in a bucket, then dumping that bucket out, mostly all over herself. We ended up with something like this:

Sand everywhere! The kids had so much fun at the beach, then at lunch afterward.

We are so glad that "Trina," "Wyatt," (yes, A can actually say Wyatt's name correctly), and "Shoo-shoo" could come visit us. We hope we get to see them a lot while we're living here.

Em and Eric's Amazing Vacation

Em and Eric came out to visit us last week. I thought I'd share some of the highlights of our vacation (I hope they were also highlights for them).

Eric confessed to me the first night they were here that he had never been to the beach before. He has led such a sheltered life. Our first priority, therefore, was to broaden his horizons by taking him to the Santa Monica Pier, which has a carnival and - more importantly - the beach.

We walked around the pier for a while, and decided that the carousel was the ride for us. Well, maybe not all of us (I'm not permitted on rides because I'm just too pregnant and Eric's back doesn't take to carnival rides and Em was looking for a souvenir for work), maybe just the two most adventurous in the group.

Then it was time for the beach. You already know our feelings about the beach (see earlier posts about how great A thinks the beach is), so we hoped to spread such joy to Eric.

A led the way to the water, with R, Em, and Eric right behind her. Here's Eric's first ever wave from the ocean:

Very exciting! Well, even A knew that wasn't exciting enough for Eric, so she insisted on going deeper into the ocean. Eric followed, daring Em to come along. Em can't resist a dare, so she went out even deeper. Then Eric noticed something that Em did not. To capture the full impact of what happened next, please note that neither Eric nor Em are wearing swimsuits.

Yes, a large wave came (I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get the full impact), unseen by Em, who was soaked up to her shoulders. Eric did see the wave and ran away, enough that he was only soaked up to his waist. A, of course, loved every bit of the large wave, which completely covered her in R's arms.


Eric's first day at the beach (doesn't that sound like a children's book?) was a great success. They were all soaked, I got to rest in the sand without having to worry about watching any kids, and we all came away with a nice sunburn (except A, who just tanned nicely).


I don't know what the highlight of the trip for Em and Eric was, but A's highlight was story time with Uncle Eric.

She now insists that I read the book to her just like Eric did, and if I don't read it right, we have to go back and start over again. Thanks, Uncle Eric!

We are so glad that Em and Eric could take a couple of days to stay with us. We loved having them with us. When are you going to visit us?

Count Me In

A has continued to grow up (why won't she stop it?) by learning yet another astounding trick. She started by simply doing the fingers:

one

two

three

four

five

But then she really surprised Mommy by knowing what the words and the fingers actually mean. So now we are required to count everything: how many bears are in her book, how many toes she has before we put on her shoes, how many stairs we climb on the way to the playground, how many pieces of strawberry she eats at lunch.

I guess I need to give each of the "school subjects" fair exposure; letters will need to be next. Maybe she can count how many letters there are in the alphabet?

Earthquake support

We had our first earthquake here today. I was outside with A at the playground and R had just left for work. Of the other moms I was with at the time, only some of us felt the rocking, which tells you exactly how big the quake was (tiny). When we came back inside, nothing was out of place - not even the DVDs in our notoriously unsteady DVD rack.

Then I turned on the TV and noticed all the stations were running "special reports" on the quake, saying that we haven't had anything this big since 1994, etc. The Governator even had a long press conference saying he didn't remember anything as big since the 1970s. So I guess the earthquake was a big deal, but the epicenter was far enough away from us (in San Bernadino) that we only felt little rumbles.

All this to assure everyone that we are doing okay and that we didn't even get a DVD knocked off the shelf. I can only hope that those at the epicenter in Chino City were as lucky.

Church Callings and the Governator

Yesterday was an action-packed Sunday. A and I were on our own for Church, as R was on call. The bishop asked me to come to his office, and we all know what that means: calling! I was afraid that he was going to call me to the nursery (they released the nursery leader yesterday), but it turns out that I get two easier callings. I am now the pianist for Relief Society and the Temple Liaison (not the Temple Coordinator, which is a whole different calling). This means two things for me: I need to find myself a cheap electronic keyboard so that I can practice piano (I don't think I've played since my mission), and I have to find out what a Temple Liaison is (from what I understand, my biggest responsibility is to set up some kind of babysitting for Stake Temple Night). This also means something for A: she needs to get really comfortable in nursery so that I can go to Relief Society. Yesterday was the first time we've left her with just the nursery teachers, and she seemed to do pretty well - no crying, just shy and withdrawn. She'll get better over time.

On another, almost completely opposite, note, we went to a BBQ with some of the other anesthesiology residents. It seems that one of the residents is from here, and his parents have quite a bit of money. We went to their house, situated up a small canyon overlooking LA. The food was great and the view was breathtaking! As part of the "tour," they pointed to a really large house just across the way: "That's Arnold Schwarzenegger's house." Yep, we had dinner with the Governator's neighbors.

Texting Fool

R and I always said that we wouldn't let our children have cell phones until they were responsible enough to use them. We do have a play phone that we let A use so that she won't want to take our phones, but it looks like she may just be more proficient than we thought:

I believe she is trying to text Grandma to tell her to take her to the beach. Did you get that text, Grandma?

My New Favorite Appliance

Christmas came early this year for us! R found the perfect gift for A and me and couldn't wait until December to give it to us. Plus it's best for summer anyway. What is the perfect gift?

R got us an ice cream maker! We found a recipe that requires only milk, sugar, and flavoring. No heavy cream, no half-and-half, nothing to really increase the calories, and it's perfect for soft-serve ice cream. Mint chocolate chip is our next adventure!

If you have a great recipe or idea for my new favorite appliance, please share it! I am looking forward to really experimenting.

Name Help!

I come to you pleading for a little help. R and I have started discussing names for our little one, but we are coming up short when it comes to good names. A few things that we are trying to keep in mind:

1. We are having a boy.
2. We already named our daughter Alexea, so this one can't be named Alexander.
3. We would like his middle name to be Clayne, so the first name should sound good with that.
4. Our last name is Jensen, so we can't name him Benson (this is really a reminder for me more than you).

Please help us!

July 4th and Name Change

First of all, a very happy Independence Day to all of you (although it is a little late). A celebrated by dressing up, then making a new friend at the playground to go down the slide with.

We also have changed the name of our blog due to some philosophical inspiration from none other than A: The other day A found a ball to play with at the playground. At one point it rolled into one of the landscaped areas that has a little step down from the regular playground. A went after the ball, falling on her face after taking the unexpected step down. Instead of crying and asking to be picked up, however, she walked back over to the step and made her way back up, then down, then up, then down, at first crawling, then walking, then jumping. She worked on that step for a good 15 minutes (which is a very long time for a 19-month-old; I was even starting to get bored watching her) until she had finally mastered the step. She then picked up the ball and worked on walking and jumping up and down that step while holding the ball, just to make sure that she had truly mastered it. Once she had figured out that she could do it on her own, she took great pleasure in carrying the ball up and down that step, making sure that I was watching her show off her new talent.

This really inspired me (I get inspired easily, I guess) about what we are all doing in our lives. Do we sometimes fall flat on our faces when we try something new or have something unexpected thrown in our paths? Do we then cry and ask to be picked up? Or do we stop what we had previously planned to simply overcome and master the added little step? I am guilty of crying and asking to be picked up much more often than I would like to admit. I want to be more like A was that day; I want to master the obstacles in my way, then take great pleasure in having stretched my limits.

What have you done recently to stretch your limits, instead of crying and asking to be picked up?