A family weekend in pictures

Last weekend, members of neither the Hanks nor Odegaard sides of our family could resist Kalina's cuteness any longer: she had visits from her Great Uncle Alan and Great Aunt Diane (my uncle and aunt on my dad's side) as well as her Grandpa Les (Matt's dad).

Here are our best photos, in chronological order:

A quick picture before dinner on Friday night at Aunt Nancy's place, with my Uncle Alan and Aunt Diane. Kalina was not quite confident enough for me to be out of the picture. Cousin Poky also wanted her moment of fame. (Actually, we were using Poky and anything else we could find--like a super-cool tennis ball--as bait to get Kalina up on the couch. It turned out that Mommy was the best bait.)


Feeding the geese with Daddy and Grandpa Les at "Goose Park," one of Kalina's favorite activities. She's quite good at it, and can hit a goose point-blank in the face with a handful of Cheerios before we can (or choose to) remind her to be gentle.








Chasing after a family of baby ducklings (because who wouldn't want to catch a baby duckling?). Fortunately, it's not hard to escape a land-bound toddler whose mommy doesn't want her close to the lake (although if it hadn't been right near a lake, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist seeing how close she could get). That's my girl!







Demonstrating a pull-up for Grandpa Les. She's pretty good at that, too.












No trip to the park would be complete without the chance to sit on a bench, another of Kalina's favorite activities.








Breakfast with the Hanks family on Monday morning. Kalina once again wowed the group by eating Lima beans. Still not sure about the newcomers, but decided they'd be okay as long as Aunt Nancy was there.





Checking out the bamboo at the local giant garden, where everyone patiently followed pretty much wherever Kalina wanted to go. Apparently they all thought she was as cute as I did.






At the 11th hour, Kalina, with some prodding, allows herself to be held.









We even got a smile!








Thanks for the lovely weekend, everyone!

Anticipating Baby #2

Some women really do glow when they're pregnant. They glow not because of the extra blood rushing through their facial vessels, but because they're in their element--safely harboring and nurturing a new life even while they continue their everyday plans (which usually include elaborately decorating nurseries and playing Mozart to their unborn child).

I make it no secret that I do not glow while pregnant (nor do I show, apparently, but that's probably another post). And I'll make it no secret that it's even more challenging to glow the second time around.

Why? You ask. When I already know the extreme thrill of bringing a new bundle of joy home and raising it into a bubbly cherub of a toddler? I'd argue that it's because I know the work that goes into producing an angelic little girl (which mine generally is nowadays, I must confess). And if the bundle of joy were truly joyful, so would I be (side note: I've never seen a Hallmark card that celebrates a bundle of cries, have you?). Besides, I'm too busy to glow.

That's not to say I'm not excited. After all, with the practice child nearing age 2, I have a few tricks and ideas up my sleeve for perfecting the second one. Here are my main expectations for Baby #2:

1. Baby #2 will sleep better.
2. Baby #2 will not present any new parenting challenges, especially colic, acid reflux, eczema or a strong will. Let alone anything even more challenging.
3. Baby #2 will have his or her own endearing personality and individual cuteness that's different from, yet equal to Kalina's.

And we will get along just fine.

Naturally, Kalina and the new baby will be best of friends, too, happily sharing toys and fixing themselves peanut butter sandwiches while I take pictures and cook lavish dinners.

In short, the next child will not only be just as adorable and sweet as Kalina, but easier as well! Can you believe my good luck?

And this is how I get through my days: regularly lying to myself as I ignore the advice that I should be lifting no more than 25 pounds, taking it easy, eating lots of small meals, nesting, spending all of my time dreaming about the perfect new baby, and sitting down.

I've also made a few pregnancy resolutions to ensure this experience is more enjoyable for me than the last.

1. I will milk it for all it's worth.
2. I will milkshake it for all it's worth (this balances out because I so rarely have time for milkshakes that I think I'm drinking less of them than I did with Kalina).
3. I will wear my regular clothes for as long as possible.
4. I will buy at least 1 silly new thing for the baby, even if it's a girl and she already has everything she needs from Kalina.
5. In my third trimester, I will sleep in every weekend since it's rare to get any good nighttime sleep at this point or for months afterward (Matt doesn't know this yet).
6. I will try not to forget that I'm pregnant, unless that's what's most convenient for me at the time.
7. I will not let the nurse decide when I get the epidural. I will decide when I get the epidural. I will not wait long.

In this way, I will have a shot at beginning my new life with the energy to make it through at least the first few months, possibly longer. I suspect m&ms (for both Kalina and myself) and possibly even the occasional educational DVD will come into play as well.

Baby update:
On Monday I had another doctor's appointment, and we once again heard the heartbeat loud and clear, coming in at 156 beats per minute. The doctor speculated with me on the old wives tales predicting girl or boy. The relatively fast heartbeat points to girl, while my lack of nausea points to boy. So it's a 50/50 shot, we reckoned. I'll hopefully find out on May 7th. By May 8th, the new nursery/former guestroom will be adorably decorated, so if you come to stay with us you may be sleeping in a crib.

I've only gained 4 pounds over my whole pregnancy (and I'm almost halfway through it, yes I'm proud). While this is good news, I was disappointed in the fact that the doctor didn't encourage me in eating more milkshakes, a practice I had to resort to last time to produce any kind of a baby bump. So I'll continue to focus on veggies and trust in her reassurance that the baby's just fine even though he or she isn't making much of an outward impression.

Photo: See why Kalina will be a great big sister?

Ham and eggs

Today was a fun day for Kalina. In fact, the shallow side of the Easter holiday seems to have been made for the girl. Lambs, bunnies, chicks, ducklings and eggs--Kalina was in her sweet little version of Heaven.

We kicked off the holiday yesterday by dying eggs with Aunt Nancy. Kalina, who loves anything having to do with eggs (except, often, eating them), excitedly assumed her place at the table in her booster seat while Aunt Nancy and I got everything ready to go. "Eyah!" Kalina said happily, over and over. Yes, "egg" is a 2-syllable word in our house (as is "trash" and "more," to which somehow an "n" is also added after the "m").

We had thought some things through, but not others, and once the initial thrill of seeing white eggs magically turn various shades of blue, pink and yellow had worn off, and Kalina learned that we weren't comfortable with letting her hold eggs nor drink the dye, she was ready to be done. Aunt Nancy and I contentedly finished the job.

Easter Eve presented me with the joy of putting together Kalina's Easter basket and hiding it. But what do you put in a 21-month-old's Easter basket? A giant chocolate bunny? A couple of live baby chicks? A pony? All were tempting ideas, but I kept it simple, with a couple cheap-but-quality toys and books this year, as well as a toy carrot I finished for her far past my bedtime last night. I just can't bring myself to feed my little girl candy (yet).

As predicted, Kalina's favorite part of the Easter basket was the basket itself, which will soon find a use in training her to be the best flower girl there ever was at her Aunt Laura's upcoming wedding (stay tuned in June for that post, which my fingers are already itching to write!).

I hid the basket in the place Kalina hides, just for fun, after every meal: behind the dining room curtain.

The morning dawned and the time came to explain to Kalina that downstairs a basket filled with toys and good things was hiding, waiting for her to find it. "What? A basket? Full of fun stuff? For me? Just like that? Downstairs? Well let's go!" She was all smiles as her posse of Daddy, Lamby and Mountain Lion accompanied us down the steps.

We had to remind Kalina several times that we were looking for a basket as she got distracted by other things, but it took a very appropriate amount of time for her to find it, dismantle it and shoo the nosy cats away from it.

One princess dress (garage sale! $3! not ashamed to admit it!) later and we were off to church, where we bounced along to celebratory songs about the fact that Jesus is risen (unfortunately not as exciting to a toddler as the palm branches we all got to wave last week) and a kind stranger in the cry room gave Kalina a blue bear to play with and then let her keep it, despite the fact that Kalina of her own accord handed it back to her when she had to leave the room. A proud mommy rewarded Kalina's politeness with hugs and kisses (not to mention the blue bear).

And then to the destination Kalina was admittedly most excited about: Grandpa's house! We hurried out of our nice clothes (after a few pictures) and sought a dozen Easter eggs Aunt Nancy had hidden around the yard.

Which went something like this:

"Kalina, we're going outside to find Easter eggs!"
"But I'm playing with my wagon!"
"But there are Easter eggs!"
"Fine, but I'm bringing my wagon with me."
"Kalina, can you find the Easter eggs out here?"
"Only if I can tow my wagon behind me and carry some rocks, too."
"Kalina, are there any Easter eggs over here somewhere?" (standing directly beside an egg in plain view)
"Maybe."
"Kalina, why don't you look in this bush for an Easter egg?"
"Wow, cool, guys, there's a colored egg in this bush! Good thing I have my wagon to put it in!"

And from then on, it was a very easy sell. Kalina eventually caught on to the idea as a whole, and as long as the eggs were "hidden" within plain sight and she didn't get too distracted, she would seek them out. The green one was the clear favorite--only the truly special were allowed to hold it. Would she trade it to Uncle Tom for a yellow and orange egg? Only for a split second, at which point she found a stick in the yard to trade to Uncle Tom for her green egg back. He took the bait and ended up with no eggs whatsoever. Yup, Kalina can play his games. And beat him.

Daddy was busy at this time, too. He found: a couple small lizards (including one he caught and carried around for a while, trying with only marginal luck to pull Kalina away from the third Easter egg hunt of the day), a tree frog, a giant woolly bear caterpillar and at least five four-leaf clovers.

Dinner was also a success, and especially the ham, which Kalina wolfed down more of than Grandpa did if you calculate it according to their size. As you would guess, she was also a fan of deviled eggs. "Eyah!" she exclaimed, for the umpteenth time today.

Fortunately, the holiday isn't quite over. We will undoubtedly be holding Easter egg hunts for weeks to come, and eating ham for days.

Baby #2 News

Poor Kalina. From here on out, she'll be regularly sharing blogspace with her new little sibling. I'll be posting newsposts whenever I have something interesting to tell about Baby 2. And she'll only appear in them if it makes sense for her to.

And yes, I have something interesting to post today! For the past few days I've been suspecting it, but this morning I was absolutely sure: at only 14 weeks pregnant (as of today), I'm definitely feeling baby kicks! (I also regularly feel toddler kicks, especially during diaper changes, but that's a different story). I could even feel them from the outside. They say it's normal to feel kicks earlier in your second pregnancy, but I'm still pretty proud that Baby 2 is making himself/herself known before I'm having much trouble fitting into my skinny jeans.

With Kalina, by the way, I was feeling kicks around 16 weeks--quite early for a first pregnancy. Does this mean I'll have a child more determined to walk than Kalina was? Somebody help.

The timing of this is good: my nausea has been waning, and without it, it's hard for me to remember I'm pregnant. No complaints, it's just nice to have this smooth transition.

Like I mentioned before, I'm still fitting fine into all my clothes. I'm glad. You'll remember that with Kalina, I was highly annoyed that I could still hide my pregnancy a mere 9 weeks before she was born. As much as I happily anticipate wearing my all-time favorite maternity jeans, I'm happier to keep them stowed under Kalina's crib for now.

At my most recent doctor visit, almost 2 weeks ago, we heard the baby's heartbeat and all was well. I'm guessing that weight gain is about nonexistent since the onset of nicer weather has had me chasing Kalina around all sorts of open spaces outdoors. Fine by me, I promise I'm eating healthy.

And that's the update!

What a mess!

At some point in every girl's life, there's a time when cute clothes simply won't do. No, at some point every young girl must reach deep into the hand-me-down Goodwill pile, pull out clothes that kind of fit and adorn herself in them. Even if they don't match.

And so, wearing a red T-shirt and shabby pink pants, Kalina headed outside with Mommy yesterday afternoon for an activity Mommy assured her would be lots of fun: painting.

Having bought the (washable, the box assures me) finger paint a good month ago, it took sunny warm weather to empower me to open the stuff. After all, there's no predicting where Kalina's sticky hands will go next, and I'd much rather nature endure the palm-prints than my house or my cats.

Following a toddler art book's wise guidelines, I'd gathered a bunch of objects for Kalina to paint and print with, from a ball of tinfoil to an empty spool to some pieces of rubbery drawer liner. I also had: 4 colors of finger paint, a stack of pre-torn paper towels, a lidded tupperware with soapy water (just in case), two tupperware lids to use as paint trays, a giant piece of paper and a cookie sheet to carry it all. Kalina made sure to bring her bucket full of flower petals, a pink shovel and a small pink watering can. We headed out to a flat, shady part of the driveway, and I kicked all the dried worms out of our way.

Kalina happily sat down while I spread our painting project in front of us. Which color did she want first? Blue, of course. She readily and without too much suggestion from me picked up the spool, dabbed it in the blue paint, and stroked it onto the paper. Then she did it again. I was delighted!

And she was done. Would she like to try the cool rubber pastry brush that even I could play with for hours? No. Would she like to use a Q-Tip? Absolutely not. How about a stick? Pine needles? The rubber drawer liner? The tinfoil? None of it. She went off to play with her bucket and flowers.

And then came the moment of Mommy truth. Is art about the process or the finished product? What if the finished product would only look like the merest chicken scratches when hung on the fridge? What if the process needs to take at least as long as the preparation did in order to make the whole thing worthwhile? What if Kalina didn't know how much fun she was missing?

And so, "How about another color?" I bribed. We squirted out purple and green, and then added orange, and soon found that the rubber drawer liner pieces would be acceptable to paint with. Mommy felt better, even though Kalina soon wandered off to find her smooth rock.

Next, I resorted to the oldest trick in the book: I started to clean up, figuring it was a win-win situation. Kalina shortly showed more interest than ever, and tried the pine needles, Q-Tips and sticks before we were both satisfied and actually ready to be done.

I'll note here that my worries about mess-making came true. Within 30 seconds of beginning Kalina had splotches of blue paint on her hands, pants, shirt and the bottoms of her shoes. Mother Nature dealt much better with these than Kalina's real mommy would've.

Another note: finger paint is inappropriately named, at least according to my toddler, who would much rather have me clean her hands with paper towels every 2 minutes than actually smear the paint on the paper with her fingers. I should probably count my blessings.

And then, since we were already in messy clothes and good moods, and Mommy's been raking it in with her freelancing lately, we decided it'd be a great idea to head to McDonald's for Kalina's first ice-cream cone, which she dug into with even more gusto than she did with blue paint and a spool. She amazed me with her skills in keeping the mess isolated on the lower part of her face, and in figuring out that the cone, while edible, doesn't really compare to the ice cream.

Photo: Kalina's masterpiece after a day of drying (some of the paint was rather globby). Thanks, Aunt Laura, for the book that inspired it all!

Because Kalina is so much fun...

The Odegaard family has a special announcement to make: we're expecting an addition! That's right, I'm not pudgy, tired and cranky for nothing--I'm now safely past week 12 with Baby #2.

The baby's due date is September 25. So far with the pregnancy, so good. I've had an ultrasound, seen the heartbeat and been nauseated for about 10 weeks of the 12, so I'm as confident as I can be that everything's going well.

Yes, we're excited. Kalina could really use a sibling, and we think a new baby will be cute.

Yes, I also at times feel rather moronic for being in this position. After all, life was only getting easier. However, a baby is always worth it. Kalina was certainly worth it, although I have to say she was more worth it, relatively, for Daddy, who in achieving Kalina endured far less than I did.

How am I feeling? Aside from irrational grumpiness, fatigue, nausea, extreme hunger and the fact that pregnancy only makes the rest of my life harder (yes, I still tell it like it is), I'm doing great. I have found some relief in a product called Sea-Bands that alleviates nausea through acupressure. I never would've believed it if I hadn't been desperate enough to try them.

The only problem about my Sea-Bands, by the way, is that only the child ones were available. Mine is an extraordinarily garish pair that's a pattern of neon green, neon orange, and neon yellow. Fortunately, the weather's been chilly so long sleeves have covered them--so far.

And how did Kalina take the news? Being of limited vocabulary still, she simply said "no." Poor girl, whose world will be rocked. Judging from how well she tends to her stuffed animals, though, this baby will be in pretty good hands with Kalina as a big sister.

Please pray with us for a healthy baby!

Ready, set, mix!

Words Kalina knows: Mixer, apron, flour. Words Kalina doesn't know: cookie, candy, chocolate. And yes, I'm very proud of that.

Kalina's been baking with me for, well, her whole life. Mostly because she's always preferred riding on my hip to pretty much anything else, so whenever I bake, she does too (this applies to far too many other activities, as well).

She's improved in her degree of helpfulness until yesterday morning (more about that later). It started many months ago with her dumping teaspoons and cups of ingredients into a bowl (often missing). More recently, she can cut out biscuits and put them on the baking sheet in an orderly fashion. She also knows that the oven is hot, and that she doesn't like hot things. I've been happy with her progress.

Having baked a cake with Kalina last week that she still talks about with pride in her eyes, I decided we could use another fun bonding activity (because she's not already attached enough, hah) and besides, I wanted brownies. And so first thing yesterday morning I told Kalina that as soon as the dishes were clean, we'd do some baking.

Kalina jumped into action and eagerly helped me start the dishwasher, proclaiming "mixer!" as soon as it began humming. Caught off guard at her urgency (getting her to do anything nowadays is like herding cats), I quickly cleared the counter and outfitted us with aprons. More for fun than anything else, and because whenever Kalina wears hers she demands I do the same.

I pulled over a kitchen chair to bring Kalina up to counter level and we got started: Kalina mostly talked about the mixer and played with anything that spilled and I ran all over the kitchen to try to keep the project moving efficiently and effectively. She helped me pour cups of sugar and flour and teaspoons of baking powder and salt.

Once the ingredients became batter, and therefore yummy, Kalina crossed a new milestone. She discovered, as we all do eventually, that messy beaters are a treasure trove of deliciousness, and all it takes is a finger to sample it*. This is when she became less than helpful: she determined that she'd rather sneak finger-fulls of batter into her mouth than let Mommy know she turned on the wrong burner and a plastic lid was melting on the stove. I probably could've left her to this task all morning, but my better sense kicked in and besides, I wanted brownies.

Finally, all the ingredients were mixed to Kalina's satisfaction, and I was able to pour the batter into the pan without Kalina grabbing any large handfuls (she tried: "Mom, why didn't you tell me that extracting the batter directly from the bowl would be so much more expedient than wasting my time with tiny little portions from the beaters?.").

I slipped the pan into the oven, and we snapped two pictures--Kalina was in the mood to pose. I left most of the mess for the bathtub later, and cleaned up the kitchen while the toddler contentedly worked off her sugar high.

I was, by the way, unsuccessful in convincing Kalina that the brownie batter (or later, the frosting) wasn't poop, and I was a little disturbed by the fact that she wanted to eat it anyway. I was, however, successful in not letting Kalina have any of the finished product. Cruel, yes, but she showed no interest whatsoever, she'd had enough sugar for the day and I know from experience that when we open that Pandora's Box there's no closing it, ever. I just don't want to have to remind her every day that it's not an appropriate breakfast food. Yet.

I was proud to see at the end that Kalina's apron now has a brownie batter mark on it. My apron has character too, and I hope this is the beginning of a lot of great baking experiences. With my sweet tooth and Kalina's love of mixing, there's no doubt.

*Note: Brownie batter contains raw eggs. You should never let your child consume raw eggs.