Canyon Dwellers: 2008

And the winner is...

We had our first annual "Lord of the Gourd" party on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. Tim nabbed the trophy for biggest pumpkin- official weight: 205 pounds. A lot of people have got their eye on that trophy for next year so Tim has talked about stepping up his game.

Unfortunately, my camera took horrible pictures so I will have to rely on friends to forward me pictures. In the meantime, here are a few that turned out alright:

You know it's not your day when...

* Your dog escapes the yard before your first sip of coffee
* You have to stop mid-run with a calf cramp 2 miles from the car
* Your neurotic pit-bull is your least needy dependent
* You catch your 3-year-old climbing on a step stool onto the 2nd floor railing
* Your 3-year-old doesn't take his customary 3-hour nap
* Your baby won't nap without a boob in her mouth

On a fun note, we went to the Pumpkins for Prevention fundraiser at the pumpkin patch. Here are some shots from our day:

And the costume collection grows, thanks to Nana and Papa :)

My babies being cute together:

Creek cam

Here's a video of the salmon spawning.

The latest from the canyon

All is well at the Smyser home. Noah is in pre-school 3 days a week (MTW) so our weekend starts early. Noah loves his new school. His favorite thing to do is make "soup" with water and sand. He does a lot of painting too. Which means we do a LOT of laundry.

In other news, Molly rolled over from her back to her tummy the other day. Of course, when I tried to capture it on video, she wouldn't roll. I remember taking tons of video of Noah laying on the floor, waiting for him to roll.

Molly still prefers to sleep on us but we're trying to get her to sleep in her crib a little more. Between feeding her and holding her for her naps, we (I) wasn't getting much done around the house. Now that she's sleeping in her crib, am I putting away dishes or folding laundry? No. I'm goofing around on the computer.

Noah's been in his Buzz costume all morning. He's caught on to the fact that he doesn't have wings or a helmet but I told him that he was in the rocket and didn't need his helmet or wings. That seemed to work but if he sees a kid with a full Buzz Lightyear costume on Halloween, I'm gonna have some explaining to do.

Here's a video of Molly chatting:

End of Summer

Here are some pictures of our babies (from oldest to youngest):

This may or may not be Noah's Halloween costume. Chico weather is notoriously unpredictable come late October. The last two Halloweens have been in the 90's so this costume may not be the official one. We got it because he loves to dress up in costumes. Every time we go to the gym, he puts on the dinosaur costume and at Kidspark he's always Spiderman (it's a sad day when the costumes are getting washed). So, I decided we needed to have a box of costumes for home dress-up!

And we can't forget about Tim's baby (yes, the pumpkin is older than Molly). The cage is to keep the rats/mice from eating his pumpkin. We'll see if it makes it until the pumpkin party in late October.

And our youngest getting some tummy time. The video starts out cute but you start to get a little frustrated for her trying to move that big head (90th %ile). But she's been "talking" up a storm lately, smiling a ton and generally being an angel baby.

[video upload canceled due to technical difficulties- will try again another time]

Noah got a book from our friend called "I'm a big brother". The little boy in the book says he has to ask mom if he wants to hold the baby. So last night, Noah asks if he can hold Molly. I said "sure" and put her on his lap. After I snapped a few pictures, I went to grab her and he whined "but I want her". First time he's shown that much interest in her. He's always been very sweet with her (he loves to rub his cheek on her hair) and asks if he can "pet Molly" (I tried explaining that we "pet dogs" and we "touch" our sister but he still insists on petting her. But he hasn't shown a lot of interest in her otherwise.

Road warriors

The Smyser clan hit the road for a tour de California. First stop: Mariposa to see the godparents, Karl and Jen. Unfortunately, the camera didn't make it out of the car so we have no pictures to chronicle our time with the new parents. We met Tamzen (very cute!), went downtown for Farmer's Market and pizza, and watched Cars (twice). Glad to have the McCollom's on the baby train- they were very understanding of the difficulties of traveling with two little ones.

Next stop: Ventura to see Pepa and Mema- and introduce Molly to her grandparents. We were able to capture some cute moments on film:

Third stop: Grandma and Grandpa's
The Robert's clan gathered at Judy and Rick's for a BBQ extravaganza dubbed "Good Golly Miss Molly night." All of the Roberts' families were represented with the exception of Cliff and Jill who were setting sail to travel the world for their anniversary (good enough excuse, I guess). Here are some photos from our evening:

Aunt Nancy and Molly

Great-Grandpa and Molly

Noah opening his "big brother present"

Molly wearing a sweater crocheted

by her great-great grandma

Last stop: Oceanside
Our final stop on our tour was a beautiful beach house in Oceanside with Papa and Nana et al. We played on the beach, went Legoland and watched UCLA beat Tennessee!!! It was so fun to watch Noah play with his cousins- it's gonna be wild when the three girls are walking next year :). Thank you, Papa and Nana!

Molly and Cousin Lauren

One final note: updated photo of Tim's pumpkin...

Smyser babies

Here are some pictures of the kids. Noah's on the left, Molly's on the right:

Summertime

It's officially a Chico summer. 105 degree days with no end in sight. We've been down to the creek every day. Tim just inflated the raft so we could tool around in the swimming hole. We're settling into life with two and enjoying lots of family time. But we're looking forward to preschool starting in the fall :) Molly is doing great- she's smiling a little here and there and she's awake for bigger stretches of time- about an hour and a half is the most she can swing at a time. We've been watching the Olympics day and night- can't get enough Phelps. It's so cool to know that you're watching history being made. Well, the girl is crying and there's only one thing that will quiet her down and I got it! Here's the latest pictures:

Tim and Molly sleeping in

Molly girl

Trying to get a good picture for my "I love my mommy frame"- don't think this one will make it in

Haircut: Take II (Noah refused to get his haircut the day before)

Big brother helping out with bath time

Molly's a month, pumpkin's pregnant and other misc. ramblings

As I transitioned from the journal to the blog, I've got away from the reporting of everyday events. I've had a lot of time to take note of the little things (such as Noah's production of ravioli- "mabiloli"), just haven't had a free hand to type. Molly girl is a month old and she is awesome. She really is a lot like her brother was. Very predictable, likes a routine and prefers to stay moving- even if she's asleep. She spent a great deal of her first month being carried in the Moby wrap and I'm happy to report that we are slowly phasing out daytime naps on mom. She has been sleeping in a supine position more frequently which makes me and my back happy. The three of us have been without Tim for 8 days now and we miss him so much. He's been covering the station while the strike team is out fighting fires- what were we thinking having a baby during fire season? Molly is pretty consistent day-to-day, it's Noah that's the wild card. His day (presence or absence of tantrums, naps, pottying, cooperation) shapes how the day goes for all of us. He has been pretty close to angelic the whole time Tim has been gone. We've had our showdowns, but they've been relatively minor. He is really doing well adjusting to life with a baby sister. He does get a little needy at night ("I need you", "don't go") and seems to want milk every time Molly nurses but he's generally done very well with the transition.

Bump watch: we've been on bump watch in the pumpkin patch for the last few weeks. Tim played fertility doctor with the pumpkins to help speed nature along (very involved process not suitable for family blogs). We (I mean he) has some prospects (for "lord of the gourd" Giant Pumpkin contest for those of you not familiar with Tim's latest obsession). Here's the midseason offering:

Life with two: is officially hard. I'm not exactly someone who needs to be moving or doing something at all times. I'm perfectly happy sitting around being a bum. I'm finding that life with two offers me precious few moments to live the sedentary life that I've enjoyed for so long. Of course we've always been active in terms of staying in shape, but we balance it out with drinking beer down at the creek. But, we're settling in and it turns out that both of my kids (still trips me out to use the plural) are great! I really didn't think we could have another kid as easy as Noah was and Molly is turning out to be very similar to Noah. I didn't want to jinx it early on but she is a great sleeper (we're coming off our first 6 hours stretch of sleep!) and she seems to fall into a predictable schedule just like Noah did. We feel like our family is complete with the addition of Molly. I've asked everyone I love to remind me how difficult pregnancy and the infant stage is if I start talking about wanting a third child. Time will tell but we are very happy with our family the way it is- now we just need Tim to come home!

Here are the latest pictures of our crew:

A Smyser is born!

Molly Corinne Smyser

Date of birth: 7-2-08
Sign: Cancer
Weight: 8 lbs. 13 oz.
Length: 22 in

As expected, my due date came and went with only mild contractions to hint at our baby's impending arrival. We decided to pick up the pace a little with a round of Pitocin. We checked into the hospital at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning and she was born at 1:51 p.m. We were both in shock that "it" was a "she". I believe Tim's words were, "It's a girl, right?" She was so beautiful and perfect and surprisingly big (just 2 weeks prior to her birth we were getting an ultrasound to rule out growth restriction). We couldn't be happier to have her in our family and we hope, when the dust settles, that she continues to be a good sleeper.

Here are some more shots from our big week!

Last day of being pregnant