These Are the Days

It's 3:15 am.  My alarm is set to go off in 4.5 hours.  I haven't gone to sleep yet tonight.

Just as soon as I got little man to sleep (he's stubborn...it was after midnight), I took a shower, got a few things ready for tomorrow (today now), I crawled in bed, set my alarm and closed my eyes, only to be summoned by our sickly toddler who was crying and wanting to be rocked...who then threw up on me and in the hallway between her room and the bathroom.  I changed my clothes, rocked her some more, put her back in her bed, and she requested her Sunshine Oway song.  We sang, I left, got to my bedroom door, and she started crying again.  

I went to her room, and the sweet girl had thrown up in her bed.  So we rushed to the bathroom, and she sat on the rug while I changed her sheets. 

She's now back in bed and the baby could be awake any moment.  

One day all too soon, I will miss this season of life with my littles.  Cherishing every moment, even the hard ones.    

My Sweet Finley Girl - Almost 3!

My sweet, sweet girl is growing up way too fast.  She will be THREE in July...how on earth did that happen?  I've decided I need to do a better job of capturing each stage/season of what we are doing and experiencing together.  Therefore, we are resurrecting this blog yet again :)  Maybe I will be able to keep it up????

In no particular order, these are some of Finley's fun little quirks and some of the developmental milestones she is hitting.  I want to write it as if it were a letter for her to read someday.

My precious Finley girl,

You are an absolute joy to be around, even when you are being a typical toddler.  I am loving life with you, and thoroughly enjoying this season we are in.  Here are just a few of the things you are doing right now, just shy of three years old :)

• You pronounce your name Fimme.
• Shammich = sandwich (kind of reminds me of Godwin on Duck Dynasty).  
• You know your entire alphabet, and will sing it most of the time you are asked.  However, you insist on leaving out the E, and on occasion, you simply end it with T, U, V, then finish with "now I know my ABCs."
• You are definitely my daughter when it comes to some OCD tendencies.  You line up your toys, and you have to have things a certain way.  While I love seeing you have these little quirks, your daddy finds it scary :)
• Some of your favorite TV shows right now include Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, and Daniel Tiger.  
• You are currently obsessed with dinosaurs, and I attribute that to Peppa Pig's little brother, George, and his Dine-saw!
• You are a professional staller.  You really know how to work us when it comes to delaying certain things, especially nap time/bed time.  I have to hand it to you though...you know your audience well...you ask Daddy to read more Bible stories, you ask to pray for the entire neighborhood, and you ask me to sing "Sunshine Oway" just one more time.  What can I say, I'm a sucker most nights :(
• Speaking of bed time, you are a night owl.  It doesn't seem to matter what time nap starts, when it ends, or if you even take a nap.  Some nights, you lie in your bed until almost 11 pm just talking to yourself or to one of the fifty toys and stuffed animals you take to bed with you.  
• When we pray at night before bed, you include the following people/things on your prayer list:
• Mommy, Daddy, and Mimi Brudge/Bruddah (Mimi = baby, and it has for quite some time)
• Womma (Grandma), PaPa (Grandpa), Womma Fimme (Grandma Finley), Priss (Chris), Kay (Kelly), Ehen (Ethan), Audin (Austin), Isaac is shockingly clear, and Aundrew (Andrew)...you refer to them as "the boys."
• PawPaw (grandpa Dave), Jojo (Jolene), Buyer (Bryer), Ensawee (Ensley), Pawks (Parks), Harr (Harlyn), Bo-dee (Brody), Bysty (Brystol), Oo-ee (Lou Lee).  
• The Disney Princesses...all of them.  If we leave one out, you are upset.  
• We pray for our favorite dogs (and their humans):  Sairy (Sherry), Deev (Steve), and their dog Woxy (Roxy); Tona (Devin and Veronica's dog, Kona), and Sam (Uncle Rob's dog).
• Your favorite songs to sing at night include:
• Sunshine Oway (You Are My Sunshine)
• Let It Dough (Let It Go, from Frozen)
• Itsy Spise (Itsy Bitsy Spider)
• Jesus Wubs Me (Jesus Loves Me)
• The ABC song
• Just recently, you have started to request the pointer song (Where is Pointer, where is Pointer, Here I am, Here I am).
• ****It must be said...Daddy isn't allowed to sing any of the songs that Mommy typically sings, which is most of them.  
• Sometimes, when we ask you to stop doing something or we tell you no, your response is, "Oh, I'm sorry.  I just..." ending with whatever you are doing that you aren't supposed to do.  For example:
• Me - "Finley, please stop putting that in his face." 
• Finley - "Oh, I'm sorry.  I just showing him."  
• Me - "Finley, that's not how we use that keyboard."
• Finley - "Oh sorry.  I just typing my paper."
• You have recently become obsessed with the Disney princesses.  I honestly don't mind, and actually rather enjoy it.  You have a particularly large place in your heart for Cinderella.  We now own the Little People Disney Princess Castle (tassel, in your case), and you LOVE IT!
• Sleeping Beauty is currently pronounced Sleeping Booty.  
• Like I mentioned before, you know your ABCs.  You also know your numbers and can count to twenty on your own, higher if we help.  You went through a phase where you counted like this:  1, 2, 5 10.  Everything was 1, 2, 5, 10.  You also say eleventeen...
• You talk...a lot.  So many people used to tell me to enjoy your silence while it lasted because soon you would never cease to speak.  But I honestly love listening to you.  You're hilarious...intentionally and unintentionally.  I understand about 95% of what you say.  Sometimes though, I'm just at a loss.  You have a few phonetic hang ups, but they're cute :). For example: 
• You are able to say the sounds for C and K, but for whatever reason, when you talk, they come out as T or P.  Cat=tat, cup=tup, climb=plimb, crying=prying
• The ST combination is a tricky one. Stinky=dinky, stick=dick...which can be problematic when you are yelling it through our neighborhood :). 
• Snowman=noman, sneeze=neeze
• Okay=otay
• When you want something, or "need" something, you tell us that you miss it.  Like, this morning, you missed your Teddy Bear (mommy's old bear), so we had to run back inside for your bear.
• You are typically a great eater, and you love your chocolate milk.  Sometimes, however, you get so distracted by what you are playing with that you just can't sit still to eat.  
• You love to read, but have mostly been using this as a stalling tactic lately.  You still love the Mouse books (Merry Christmas Mouse, Happy Birthday Mouse, and the rest of the titles in that series).  
• You love to be outside.  One of your favorite places to go is the park, whether it is the smaller park in our neighborhood, or the larger parks in town.  
• You enjoy going fishing with daddy, and he even bought you a princess fishing pole.  Currently, there is a tall glass of water on our bookshelf with your "fish" that you caught.  I believe it is a lure or a bait. 
• When it is time for a nap, you tell us that you're not tired and that you can't take a nap because the sun is still out.  
• You are definitely into playing by yourself.  You are at that wonderful stage where you are imagining and making your characters talk.  
• You love to make pretend phone calls to people, probably because you have been playing with phones since before you were one.  
• You do not like Beast, from Beauty and the Beast.  He is always left out, or left alone in the living room while all of the other characters get to play in your room.  
•  You love to play with bubbles outside.  
• You have repeatedly told daddy that he can't watch baseball or basketball because you do not like to watch it.  
• You love to go check the mail, and you are now super interested in playing with pieces of mail.  I had to go out to the garage and gather up various sizes of stationery and greeting cards for you to play with.  You walk around with one of them, stating that it is an invitation for a party.  
• You LOVE your baby brother.  You pronounce his name Tenton (Kenton), and you are always telling us, "him so toot (cute)."  You love to be in his face and hold his hand.  You ask me to take your picture with him.  You always want to see him and hold him.  So grateful that this transition has gone this way so far.
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My sweet baby.  We love you so very much and are so so thankful you are our daughter.  Can't wait to continue watching you grow.

Baby Love

Let's see how many times one can resurrect a blog.

Big changes in our world. We welcomed our first child to the world on Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 2:04 am. Finley Jo Williams, 8 pounds 12 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long. Full head of brownish red hair. Absolute perfection :). Our world hasn't been the same ever since and we can't wait to watch her grow, although she had better slow down a little bit.

Time Flies

And just like that, FOUR YEARS have flown by me. Honestly, I had forgotten about this blog until I needed to recall this account information in order to login to blogger to leave a post on another blog I follow.

Back to School!

Tomorrow I officially begin my career as a teacher. Yikes...

We had open house on Friday, and the question I was dreading all week long came from the very first mother who showed up in my room: "How long have you been teaching?" She asked me this as she got out a notebook to take notes!!! I had prepared an answer that was hopefully going to deter any further probing, but no, it did not work. So, she knows that I am a very new teacher and I think she is scared for her child. Other than that, the day was great! And, I was able to use my Spanish to comfort a few parents. I think I definitely earned points in their eyes, so that was a bonus.

Anyway, look forward to more reports from the front row!!!

The One Where We Got Married

I know this is ridiculously out-of-date, but again, better late than never. It seems to be just a collection of milestones. Maybe I will try to do better?!?! I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore. Oh well, this is one of our wedding pictures, obviously. We have been married for two months now! Time is just whizzing by us. Okay, enough for now. Tal vez en un ano, voy a anadir mas a esta pagina del web.

Dia de la Independencia

Tomorrow, September 15th, is Costa Rica's independence day. Today at school, during our morning break, the little kids had a desfile (parade) and the adults walked in it too. Heath and I bought the wrong thing because they had run out of what we needed. We looked super cool.

Also, this morning, we experienced our first tremor of an earthquake. Heath didn't really notice it because of the construction at his house, but I was snoozing with my alarm clock and was certain that someone had come in and jumped on my bed. It was very cool.

Hope you are all doing well!

Buenos Tardes de Costa Rica!

We are thoroughly enjoying the rainy season here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We arrived last Monday and have finished our orientation at the language school. We begin classes tomorrow morning at 7:30. We are looking forward to learning and studying here with our new friends and our Tican families. It is going well so far. We will keep you posted as things progress.

Speaking of things progressing...Heath proposed on Saturday night and we are engaged! Here is a picture for you to enjoy :)

Better Late than Never

I realize this is late, but here is my graduation photo. Lots of exciting things going on here. Going to Costa Rica in August to attend Spanish language school. Be back in December. I will probably try to stay up to date with the blog because I won't have a phone for 4 months. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Wicked

New York Baby!

Violated Again

My poor Black Beauty. She was violated again this past weekend while I was in New York. I got back to her on Monday night around 12:15 am. I went to charge my cell phone and noticed that my charger was gone. So was the face to my practically brand new CD player. Awesome. And my favorite brown sunglasses. Yes, those are gone too. And they made off with some Post-It notes as well. I mean seriously, who needs Post-Its besides me??? Absolutely ridiculous.

Pictures from the Big Apple to follow shortly...

Pictures

Kenyan Scientist

For my science methods class, we had to research a scientist of our choice, create a PowerPoint about him or her, create an integrated lesson plan, and then post it to the web. It isn't the most amazing website in the world, but hey, it's mine.

Check it out!

Wangari Maathai

And Some More...

These are from today's Community School field trip to Shedd Aquarium. I haven't been there since I was in 5th grade. Fun times were had by all.