Baa Baa Black Sheep

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Bryce watches the mobile

6 week Smiles

Music to Our Ears

This past weekend we took Amelia and Bryce to listen to the All Jakarta Honor Orchestra.  We watched this group of incredible middle school strings players rehearse for their evening concert.  This was a great option for us because the actual performance fell right during our bath/bed time so we would not have been able to go.  Instead we had the auditorium to ourselves to enjoy beautiful music.  For those of you that know me - strings are my least favorite instrument and for me to say the sound was lovely is really incredible!

Daddy and Amelia watching intensely

Bryce slept through the entire thing on mommy.  He is a sling sleeper!

What's New with Our Two...

Amelia is such a loving mother to her baby from grandma Mary Ann.  She reads to her, nurses her and takes her for mornings strolls.  It is priceless the way she looks after her.  

Bryce is all smiles now!  It is great to see his whole face light up with a heart melting grin! His first smile was in response to Amelia, which is pretty cool.  He just loves her! 

It is great being home on maternity leave and being able to spend more time with Amelia, too!  We made some crafts to hang in the window for Halloween.  Amelia enjoyed decorating some "ghosties" with her dot art pens.

 Amelia and Bryce love each other!  Here they are reading together.

 Amelia and some of her playmates love our neighbors fish pond.  

I am not sure how much the fish loves it though!

 Bryce is starting to shake, rattle and roll during his wakeful periods:)

Amelia and her buddy Zack at KidSpace in the water exploration area.  

Bryce got a cradle and sway swing last week.  It has been MAGICAL for all of us.  It turns out that he needs motion to have solid naps.  I have been wearing him in a sling because he wakes up in his crib after 25 or so minutes.  It seemed like the whole day I was trying to help him get more rest.  Now I just put him in the swing, turn on his sleep music and pull the curtains and he drifts off into dreamland for nice long stretches.  Why didn't we have one of these with Amelia?

Splish Splash...Amelia's Birthday Bash!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Amelia!  

To celebrate Amelia's special day we had a water fun party at our community pool.  We set up water tables, kiddie pools and had a ton of toys for pouring, floating, squirting, etc.  (Actually, Jim set it all up as I was at home busy nursing Bryce and  entertaining Amelia!  So you can imagine that it was all very organized and enticing.)  Amelia's toddler group took over the pool for a very fun, but hot, morning together.

Here is a link to photos from the party:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101138092122610509246/AmeliaS2ndBirthday


We had a lot of fun getting things ready this year.  Amelia understood that it was her birthday and we were going to have a party to celebrate.  She was super excited to eat cake and so knowing this I decorated it with her favorite character...Elmo!  She had a lot of practice blowing out "candles" in the sand cakes we have been making at the playground, so when the time came to do the real thing she knew just what to do.  It was priceless.  

Amelia's first bike ride on her own...

Amelia holds Bryce for the first time...

Amelia in Action...

You can never get enough bouncing in when you have great friends and a giant neighborhood trampoline!  Amelia and Anthony have a jump around together...Enjoy!

"Happened...what?"  Amelia can't figure out why the song on her Barbie phone (thanks Zia) is so short!  She just starts to get her groove on and then it cuts out...what happened?!?

Welcome Bryce!

Bryce Matthew was born on September 13, 2012 at 2:25am after a week of lots of false starts to labor we were so excited to finally hold him in our arms!  He weighed in at 3.8kg and measured 53cm long.  (Although the doctor measured him for his week check up and he was 55cm long.)

Bryce was one of the few boy names that we really liked.  Neither of us have taught a Bryce and so we don't have any negative (or positive) associations with the name.  We chose the middle name after a special place: Mathews, Virginia.  We have the most blissful summers at our house near the bay and it is such a memory filled, relaxing place for us that it just made sense.  Plus Matthew is just lovely...and when you have been teaching as long as we have it is VERY hard to find names that work. 

Amelia is very excited about her new baby brother.  She squealed with delight when she first saw him and then tried to tickle him.  Today she was "helping" me change his diaper, but I think it was more like a baptismal from squeezing the wet cotton balls around him.  (She will be 2 in a few weeks and is really into water play - transfer, squeezing, etc. so this was a fun activity for her!)

Amelia doesn't seem bothered by having to share mommy with her brother and is absolutely loving all the extra time with daddy.  He is enjoying not having me hover around and having more of a full parenting partnership.  I don't know how many dads feel that way after their second arrives, hopefully lots, but it just makes me once again so thankful to have married such a special man.  We have been looking back and laughing about the fact that when we first met in Doha we would never have predicted that we would have two children.  Thankfully, we do!

I have until early December to be at home on leave.  I know it will fly by in a wink.  I also know that the next few weeks are going to be tough as he nurses around the clock to try to put on lots of weight.  But, it is so much more reassuring of what is "normal" the second time around.  Just knowing that everything is a stage and transitions are frequent helps me keep a bit more perspective when sleep is not an option.

Baby Haske is Nearly Here...

Wow!  Can you believe that baby Haske is nearly here?!?  I saw the doctor today and the little guy is in position so be ready for good news within the next week...or less! 

In the meantime, we are having lots of fun with Amelia.  She loves to jump on the trampoline (video to come soon), play in the sandbox, go down the slide, swing (higher!) and is learning to push herself along on her tricycle.  What a change a year brings.  It is amazing to see her little toddler cohort take on the world in a whole new way.  Last year at this time we were all waiting for first steps and words.  How far away that seems!

Playing Around

Earth Day Reflections - A non baby post...

Earth Day always sparks me to find new ways to reduce my strain on the planet.  My latest project: reducing waste from yogurt.  I realized that each year our family goes through roughly 100 plastic liter sized yogurt containers...yikes!  It turns out that making your own yogurt is very easy.  Below is a link that takes you through the process.  Check it out...
http://www.cookforgood.com/recipe/yogurt-recipe.html



I made my third batch this past weekend.  Here are a few tips from my humble beginnings:
**If you live in a warm place, or it is summer, you don't need to use an electric blanket for your yogurt nest.  I wrap my jar in a fleece jacket, place it in a soft sided cooler, and set it on the drive way.  This keeps it at the right temperature to ferment.

**Many recipes will say yogurt can be firm in 3-4 hours, but I have found it takes closer to 8. 

**You only need to buy yogurt for a starter for your first batch.  All future batches will be made from your previous batch.  Make sure you start with a plain yogurt that has active cultures.



**Your yogurt may be a little runny because it does not have stabilizers or other things to thicken it up.


Happy yogurt making...let me know how it goes!

Finger Painting Fun!

Diaper Derby 2012

Who knew cloth diapering could be so much fun?!?

Drop and Give Me 20

Little Swimmer

Puddles!

Lunch Silliness

Can I have ice cream for all my meals?

We have received a lot of hate mail these last few weeks because unfortunately we've gotten quite distracted from our blog.  We apologize for not keeping you up to date.  The only excuse we have is that WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY!  That's right, Amelia will have a little brother in early September.  We are all very excited and Amelia has already begun pointing to mommy's belly and saying 'baby'.  We look forward to getting to experience raising both a boy and a girl, and we feel that Amelia will make a great older sister.  Now we just need to agree on a name.

Amelia continues to make us laugh and smile on a consistent basis.  She is quite the 'ham' at times, but we love it.  Amelia's vocabulary is expanding by the day and we enjoy hearing the new words she picks up through our conversations.  She has now taken an interest in trying to find the moon.  She also loves airplanes, pretending to talk on the phone, ice cream, pushing her shopping cart and stroller, and taking care of her little baby doll.  We love to see her melt in stores when she finds a new stuffed animal, preferably a puppy, but we try to keep our money in our pockets.

This past week we were in Singapore for spring break.  Although an expensive country to visit, its green space and 'order' were a welcome change compared to Jakarta.  We had a great time exploring the zoo, aquarium, the waterfront, the Indian, Arab and Chinese neighborhoods, as well as visiting with our old friend Adrienne.  Our feet were definitely worn out after all our little day trips and it's nice to be back in our home.

Summer is a little over 2 months away and we are very excited to catch up with friends and family in Virginia, Iowa and other nearby states.  We look forward to getting Amelia even more introduced to the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding bodies of water.  Our days are filling up fast with trips to Nags Head, Iowa and Richmond, but we look forward to the beauty and peace that Mathews County has to offer along with its local seafood.  If you are reading this we hope you are well, and below are some recent photos from our days in Jakarta and beyond.

Haske family at the Singapore Aquarium

Jim and Amelia holding their noses under water.

Amelia couldn't get enough of the touch pool.

Liz and Amelia resting their feet in Singapore.

Liz and Amelia enjoying some of Singapore's green space with the CBD in the background.

Someone loves ice cream

Fascinated by fish

This girl can dance!

Why do you always take pictures of me after I have eaten?

You should see the tricks I can do on this thing.

Lets start the bidding at...