I know that I just did a ridiculous amount of blogging tonight, and Chris doesn't understand why I don't spread it out more.. but that just wouldn't fit my personality. Either I do it all at once.. or I do nothing. Either my house gets manically cleaned all at once, or it is a little (or a lot) too cluttery! So... whether or not I post any time soon... I just had to clear my head!
Do you have a friend that you don't talk to as often as you should, but when you do....it is magic? You just pick up where you left off. There is no awkward conversation... it is just how it always has been. This is my dear friend Jenny Pine who I have been friends with since the third grade. Jenny stopped by to see us on her way home from Portland.. right before her move to Pennsylvania. This is the friend that I stuffed bras with at her house in the 6th grade. This is the girl that I played sports with, danced ballet with, and then quit ballet with (why would I keep doing ballet if Jenny quit.. carpooling was the best part?). I went on double dates to formals with this girl, I walked down the aisle at graduation with this girl... I'm sure you all get the point. The reason that I am really appreciative of this girl and my other friends (Sarabeth), is that they helped me stay true to myself. When other girls were off doing who knows what with who knows who, I was hanging out innocently talking about boys and sports, and life with these girls. I realize now that one of the mains reasons that I survived adolescence with minor trauma is because I had my home girls. I can honestly say that I didn't feel that much pressure to be something that I wasn't, because I was friends with people who were also true to themselves.
The reason that I have been thinking about this, is because I now have a girl. I hope and pray that she will find friends like I did, because I know that it will be a blessing to her also be true to who she is. I have been truly blessed with great friends in my life... dating back to the 3rd grade. Thanks for visiting Jenny!
Sofia Sky-Oh this girl kills me. The thing she has been doing lately that just melts my heart is when she out of nowhere says "I love you so much." It makes all of the countless minutes she spends begging me to watch Caillou not seem so bad.
*Today she drew her first "human" equipped with eyes, a nose, a mouth, and 2 legs.
*She is such a little mother to Gabe. Gabe was sick today, and Sofia came up to him and stroked his back for a few minutes saying "Sh sh sh." It was so sweet.
*Potty training smotty training. Sofia is a great pee-er.. but she is not getting the poop concept yet. My new potty training approach: encourage her to pee still since she has already shown interest and lay off the poop. So far I have not found a "motivation" that works well for her, and it seems like it may work better if she is motivated by her own will??? (notice the question marks... I have no idea of what I am doing).
*Sofia has been the happiest child alive with her family around this last week. It almost makes me want to live in K-falls... almost.
Gabe-aka "el oso" and "hercules" My sweet boy. My good natured boy. He is becoming just one of the kids. When we went to a play group this week, he just crawled around following the kids wherever they went, doing his best to participate in whatever they were doing.
*This boy is now cruising on furniture. He is wearing me out, but he seems proud of himself!
*He has been sick today with a high fever (I felt his first teeth coming in on the bottom). There is nothing worse as a mom than having a sick kid and not knowing what to do to comfort them and make them feel better. 
It has been a week of family fun. Last week Heather came up from Eugene with her kiddos to hang out. We picked strawberries and had good ol' fashioned fun. I didn't get to grow up around most of my cousins, so I love cousin time. It is so precious, and Sofia and Devin are especially playing well these days.
My padres were then in town a few days later. My dad is a brave man. He took Sofia to Otter Beach all by himself, and they went down the big water slide 10 times. My parents are both so great about helping out with the kids when they are here, so I can relax a little (I even slept in until 8:00 one morning p.s. I don't think that in my past life I ever imagined being excited about sleeping in until 8:00)
After my padres hit the road to go visit the Eugene crowd it was Carlos and Sharon's turn to come and visit. Sharon and Carlos accompanied us to Eugene for my sister Kris' housewarming party where there is always guaranteed to be good improv music and fun. Yeah for family!!! You can come and sleep on our couches(which are surprisingly comfortable I hear) and old futon any time!! 
I am trying really hard not to complain about gas prices. I know it's an easy conversation starter with the neighbor at the mailbox, but I will still try to refrain. Regardless of the many reasons that gas prices keep rising and the hype that is going on all over with this rising, I can't help but wonder if this is a weird blessing in disguise. I can not speak for every single American, but I know that we as a society (myself included) consume way way way more than other countries. Maybe it is good for us to have to all stop and look at how many needless trips we make into town or how often we hop in our cars (or hummers) without thinking about how much we are wasting. The price of gas around the world is in general much more expensive than it is for us... and what do people do?? Take public transportation, walk, bike etc (which may also help with our country's obesity crisis). We definitely will not be taking as many spur of the moment road trips this summer,but maybe we will have more time to explore our "own backyard." I am not saying this is all hunky dory with me and that it is not inconvenient at all, but I think that it is definitely a good time to reflect on our lifestyles. If you want to reflect with me, give me a call or come hang out at the fountains downtown if you live here, because this will be a nice "chillin like a villain" sort of summer for the most part.
Here are pictures and video of Abuelo painting with Sofia. Sofia loves when both sets of grandparents come and visit. I might even go as far as to say that she is obsessed with her grandparents. She asks for them every single day. We are convinced that if we try hard enough we can get both sets of grandparents to move closer someday!
This is so random, but I am not digging out new energy efficient washer. I am all about using less water and being more efficient, but since it uses less water, I feel like it doesn't wash our clothes very well. Case in point: I just took clothes out of the dryer..one of the items being Sofia's training pants that still smell like pee. Clothes should not smell like pee when they come out of the dryer...it's just not right.
In case you haven't noticed, I like posting controversial topics. I like expressing my ideas, and I like hearing other people's ideas in return.. whether they agree with me or not. The purpose of this post is not to offend or be controversial at all, but I know that it has the potential to offend and be controversial based on the sensitive nature of the topic... and that topic is.... drum roll please.... CHILDBIRTH. The reason I decided to write on this topic, is because I A)Want to recommend that people see the Documentary "The Business of Being Born," and B)I want to explain to people why I have chosen to do natural childbirth, because when people have asked me in the past, I haven't known quite how to express my feelings and reasoning.
When I was pregnant with Sofia, I sadly didn't even think about childbirth until at about 4 months my doctor asked me how I pictured my birth, and I said, "I don't know." He then very calmly recommended that I aim for natural childbirth, and I said, "Okay." It seriously started out as simple as that. After the idea was planted in my head, I did more research on the topic, but of course I still wondered what I was in for since I had never gone through labor before. I have to add a disclaimer that I know that I have been very blessed with uncomplicated pregnancies and labors (uncomplicated... but painful). I know that situations come up that can complicate things, and I am so sorry for any woman who didn't have the experience that she had hoped for. I consider myself very blessed to have been able to have 2 natural childbirths. The pain was actually manageable until right before pushing... when I literally thought that I was going to die for a 15 minute spurt, but then before I knew it I was holding a beautiful baby in my arms, and none of the pain mattered any more. Besides health benefits, the emotion and intensity of working with Chris in perfect unity (except for that part when I was yelling at him that he wasn't listening to me) to bring a life into the world is indescribable. I guess I could go on and on about childbirth, but the one word that sums it up for me is "empowering." I know that childbirth in general is empowering, but since I have no other experience to draw on besides my own person experiences... I have to say that natural childbirth is amazing.
OKay.. so on to "The Business of Being Born." Even if you watch this movie and don't agree with parts of it or think that it is biased, it will definitely make you think. I would also add that it has the potential to make people who are very sensitive about the topic of childbirth, a little or a lot mad. The movie promotes the idea that in general, regarding childbirth, "less is more." Less intervention, less drugs.. They also talk about how mothers need to at least educate themselves on the risks involved with cesareans and even epidurals. There can sometimes be a ripple affect with interventions. A woman may be induced for personal reasons. After the woman is given pitocen, the baby that wasn't planning on coming out at that time may HAVE increased heart rate and show signs of distress...the woman may ask for an epidural because the pitocen made contractions really rough really fast, and then because of the distress, the woman is now in the operating room. There is too much information I could talk about from the movie, so I will just stop now. I have to again add that although I think that it is important that more women educate themselves on the process of brining their babies into the world, obviously we all just want everything to be okay and to meet our sweet babies ultimately.
Childbirth is beautiful. Sometimes I feel bad for fist time pregnant mamas who have to listen to war story after war story of how horrible labor is. Yes, it is hard, but it is also incredibly amazing and beautiful, and women should not be overly anxious or scared. I think that it would be so cool to be a Doula someday, but this would not be a good point in my life... but if anyone wants an "unofficial" doula or support, I would love to be a support to someone through this experience. Anyone need my assistance :)? I am not saying that everyone should be like me and do natural child birth... because it is a personal decision, but if you haven't already, educate yourself on the topic. Compare Cesarean rates in the US to other countries around the world, and you will see that in the U.S, there really often times is a business to being born. No matter how you choose to do it, I wish happy birthing to all :).
Since we have decided to stay in our house for a couple of more years, we have decided to try to make a little effort to give our house more of a home feel... and what better way to do that than with a piano? Yes folks, we got a piano. As you can see from the picture, it isn't the fanciest of pianos, but it fits me since I am no the fanciest of players. Some of you may be surprised to know that I even play the piano at all. I mainly like just playing songs that I can sing a long to.... so I am not really into playing classical music. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I quit piano. I know that classical music is an important foundation blah blah blah, but I didn't like playing it, so I didn't want to take lessons anymore. Now looking back,it seems like the more logical solution would have been to ask to play "other" kinds of music, but I didn't. Okay.. wait back to our piano... there's no need for me to blabber about my old piano days. So having a piano in my house has made it feel more like a home. The other day we were all sitting around singing primary songs while I played, and it brought such a nice spirit to my house. I know that this may create a corny picture in your head of us all sitting around singing whole heartedly, but I love it. Watch out, if you come over, no guarantee that we won't be busting out show tunes singing together :)!
Oh.. and if you are all wondering about Sofia in her rag dress, here is the quick story. This morning that dress was cute. It was in one piece. It was bright white. She looked like a little angel. I think when we were out today, the dress got a snag, and a snag begat a snag which begat a tear, and next thing you know, my daughter looks like she has been living on the streets for months. I know I am all about letting kids get dirty, but even I can admit that that is pretty bad. Oh well.
