Videos!!

Recently we've been taking a lot of videos. One, because E is doing such cute things (that you just need to see it in real time action) and two, because most of the time she moves so fast even our fast shutter dSLR can't capture all the cute moments. So, here's some long awaited videos that we're just screaming to be posted. Enjoy!

This video is E dancing to her favorite TV show theme song from Psych. There's something about this catchy tune she likes. She'll request it several times in a row to dance to. Silly girl!


This video is E enjoying her rocking horse that she got last Christmas (at Grandma Yvonne's house). She loves how it's tail swishes when it neighs! (Oh, and if I had gotten the camera sooner, you would have really seen her riding. At this point she was about done... but it's still cute to watch her having fun! :)


UPDATE:
I finally gave up and just added those videos again (unedited this time). Sorry about my loud voice (which is what I was trying to edit out). The mic on the digital camera is just in a bad spot.

Also, second update... our old digi cam (of 5 years) finally gave out. It's either the sensor or the lens itself, but it no longer take viewable pictures or videos (unless you're in really bright light and even then they look like old pictures from the 60's). So we bit the bullet and went to Costco and got a new digital camera. (It's actually the same one my Mom got last year.) Hopefully this will work out for taking pictures of our new kiddo (to be debuted later this year) and get some nice video to share with all of you. :)

Baby Spencer Two is a ...

On Friday, we had our ultrasound. It went really quick up until the point of needing to get snapshots of the heart. That part alone took as much time as the rest of the shots. The ultrasound tech was really patient and determined to get the picture (and not have to reschedule us another day) because she had seen the four chambers and knew all was well, but just couldn't get a good shot of it. The baby was moving all about, but kept face down (I was lying on my back, so imagine their face facing my spine) which made their nice healthy spine smack dab in front of any possible views of the heart. After one pace the hallway trip and one trip to the bathroom, the baby flipped and we got our pictures. Of course, by this time we had gone well into someone else's appointment so we got the gender prognosis and headed home.

And (what you're really wanting to know and probably the whole reason you're reading this blog anyways) so, the gender of Baby Spencer Number Two is ... (drum roll please)

It's a girl!

We have no qualms about letting everyone know, because the shot between the legs were very clear - nothing there. So in about 20 more weeks, E will become a big sister to a little sister. Fun eh?

We're very happy with our newest member of the family (still in utero), but now we've got to find a name. We had a boys name (carry over from E ), but girls names were sparse. Ha lol. One thing we're also excited about in having two girls so close together in age (almost exactly two years apart) is that they can share a room, clothes and it means less stuff for us to drag around on our two upcoming moves (the one to my parents as we await future job plans and the one to the future job place). We had also been thinking how great that this little one doesn't seem to be quite as active as E , and maybe we'll get a nice mellow baby to help with our decreasing energy level :), but alas during the ultrasound the tech said several times "This baby is really moving". So we'll see... :) If they all turn out as active as E has been... we might be "finishing" the family with less than 4+ kiddos and instead have some nice trainable and tame pets! (Won't Ian be happy, bring on the snakes!)

Thanks again Elle and Valerie who watched our little munchkin. I'm so glad she's good for babysitters!

And one last picture for the blog. This one is our Baby Girl Spencer (Two) with her hand in front of her face.

Graduations Galore and More

If you live in Davis and have been wondering where we've been... "Graduations" says it all. We've been here (in Davis) but gone for three weekends in a row. (And now we're ready to not go anywhere for a long while.) If you're family and wondered why we haven't posted about all our trips... "Tired" is my excuse. Ian's probably too busy (plus he has posted on his blog). So finally a little catch up.

At the end of June we had a slew of family birthdays (three in a week) and a graduation on each side of the family (my brother and Ian's sister). E also got to meet her grandpa David (from Texas) for the first time when he flew in for Colleen's graduation. We've also been hitting the work gears as Ian is trying to finish off the quarter (grading, grading and more grading) all the while starting to write his dissertation (yeah!), and I am working as many hours as I can fit in to make some extra summer $$ (to hold us over in those months when we get no TA/teaching stipend).

We also had our 20 week ultrasound (see next post) and Baby Spencer Two has started moving lately. I can feel him/her (can't ruin the surprise yet) a lot of the time... but we're still waiting for Ian to be able to feel the somersaults and kicks. We've also been trying to have fun while E starts in on her "terrible twos" (which basically means some rebellion, some new boundaries setting and a lot of making sure she doesn't get too hungry, tired or generally cranky at all) and keep her occupied but safe in this warm summer weather. Oh, and E must also have gotten taller (or her limbs longer) because she can climb up onto almost all our furniture unassisted now. We've found her up on the couch suddenly (heading to the computer desk ladened with Ian's work papers, receipts and other tasty treats like pens), on the coffee table and even once on the desk in our bedroom (which she reached by first climbing Ian's guitar amp, then the 2 drawer filing cabinet and then scooting over onto the desk). I think she was heading for some chapstick or the laptop.

Here's a few pics from the last few weeks. For the rest, see our Photostream to the right. Happy picture surfing.


My brother Ivan who graduated from San Jose State University.


Ian's sister Colleen who graduated from Stanislaus State.


Colleen with Grandpa David (who flew in from Texas and finally got to meet E )


E getting to pet her Aunt and Uncle's "babies" (E calls bunnies "budgies")

Words, Words and more Words

E has been working on words these past few weeks. Her vocabulary has exploded and everyday she's learning something new. Sometimes we're even thinking "Where did she learn that?". It could have been from our family (which we've seen in a whirlwind three weekends away) or from us (unawares) or from some random place. It just amazes us how well she speaks, especially as she's only 19 months, but also how fast she's picking up new words and phrases.

An example is when we were at Ian's Grandmother's house (in Stockton) and E saw a big bowl of cherries and she says "Cherries!". I was so surprised. We've only bought cherries once this season and we didn't (intentionally) teach her that word. On top of that, she recognized the fruit on her own. I guess she really wanted one.

Another example is when we were at the Great Valley Serpentarium (in Lodi), E would run up to a large boa in a glass enclosure and excitedly say "Wow. Big."

And lastly, the best thing she said recently is one day while riding in the car, she was playing with her Bugs on Board toys (which she calls Bees) and she had them hug/kissing. Then E said "Sowie, Sowie, Hug, Hug". hehehe. I think we might have told her to say sorry and to give her little 10 month old friend Charis a hug (after once whacking her over the head with a toy E didn't want to share), but that only was on Tuesday and only happened maybe once (or twice). I did not know she associated saying sorry with giving hugs or that she was doing that kind of pretend play. Isn't that cute?

On top of the new words, she's learning names. No, not ours - we're Momma and Dadda consistently now - but our families' names. There's a lot of "Auntie" being said in our household.. but also "Bak-Bak" (E's great-grandmothers on my side), "Partie" (her way of saying Grandpa, not to be confused with "potty"), "Screw" (Drew, Ian's youngest brother - but which sometimes correctly gets said as Dr-ew), "Poh Poh" (E's grandmother on my side) and "Co-Co" (for Colleen, one of Ian's sister). She also practiced it a bit and is now able to say something close to "Andree" for Ian's sister Andrea. Not bad huh?

Now, if only we could find some way to get rid of the "Grandma" and "Grandpa" confusion that happens when E is around her Grandmas/Grandpas while Ian/I are around his Grandmas/Grandpas. I guess that's just what happens when you start getting several generations hanging out together.

So stay tuned for more funny phrases and new words as our little baby girl suddenly (at least slightly suddenly) turns into a full blown talkative toddler.

Poor Sick Baby!

On Saturday, Gilda's sister Gennie was nice enough to come up to Davis and watch E so that Gilda and I could go out for some nice child-free time. After E's nap, Gennie showed up and Gilda and I ended up going to see Iron Man (excellent movie - one of the top comics-based movies ever made, in my opinion). After the movie we found out that E had barely eaten anything for dinner as she was too busy throwing her food on the floor and saying "hi" to the waiter (though she hadn't really eaten much for any of her meals all day). Then, after calling it quits at the restaurant, on the way home E threw up all over Gennie's shirt and the stroller.

That was the beginning of the Great Sick Baby of '08. She was semi-comatose for the rest of the day and started having a temperature, which went up even higher the next day, during which she slept in stops and spurts and was a little zombie-baby, not really making any fuss or really moving much so long as she was held (or even often when she wasn't). Saturday night, though, she had woken up in the middle of the night and we had to take her into our bed (which made it harder to sleep - especially for Gilda). Over the next couple days, she would throw up and have explosive diarrhea regularly, day and night.

So on Sunday, I went to church to catch the last Sunday of the adult Sunday School class featuring biographies of various historical Christian persons (I had actually taught the previous Sunday and presented a biography of E Anscombe). Gilda stayed home to watch E . By Monday, the fever was gone and E had more energy to run around and eat stuff, but only so she could throw it up a little while later. But it was just enough getting betterness to make things much worse - now she was well enough to really feel sick and complain all day about it. She was very fussy and tantrum-y. Not a happy girl. Her tummy did not feel well and she seemed to have some painful gas too. By the end of the day, though, she learned that she could ease her abdominal yuckies by just pushing out the gas or diarrhea or whatever it was whose brewing was causing such discomfort. So she complained a bit less on Tuesday and was making rapid progress to recovery. So now on Saturday, she's pretty much better but still a bit tired and occasionally tantrum-y (partly because the past couple nights she woke up too early in the morning!).

One bad side effect to her being sick (and letting watch Wallace and Grommit videos) is every morning she tries to sneak one of those videos off of the shelf and get us to play it for her.