Busy Times

Wow! Things have sure been busy lately! Now things are back to normal, but I forgot what normal is like so I'm still in a daze.

Last week we went to Nashville with my chorus to compete in the Sweet Adelines International. We sang on Thursday and finished in the top 10, then the top 10 (including us) sang again on Saturday in the finals. We had worked very hard, and really hoped to do well. We really wanted to finish in the top 5. Actually we wanted to win, but top 5 (big medals) was a goal we thought we could achieve. In the past the best we had done was 9th, but that was way before my time. Anyway, we finished 3rd. Woo hoo!

I had a lot of help. My whole family came with me, Jeff, Rachel and Gabi. To help us out my mother-in-law came too. She was a life saver! Next time, though, as the girls will be older, I'll probably just go by myself, but it was really fun having my family with me.

Speaking of having my family with me, my sister Faline also sings barbershop. In fact, she is the one who got me started. She sings with the Mountain Jubilee Chorus in Salt Lake City. They qualified to compete there too. Her daughter Malauna joined her mom with their chorus, so it was really fun to be able to visit (and sing) with them. Their chorus finished 10th.

Rachel is 2 years and 1 month old (yesterday)

Yesterday Rachel turned 2 years and one month old. I don't know, it seems that prior to two years old, it makes sense to revisit Rachel's milestones on a monthly basis, but now that she has hit two I may not do it every single month. But I'll do it this time.

Actually I didn't spend much time with Rachel yesterday. We (me, Jeff, the girls, and Jeff's mom, are in Nashville. We came here for me to compete with my barbershop chorus in the International competition of Sweet Adelines. I spent the morning rehearsing, the early afternoon getting ready, the mid afternoon competing, the late afternoon watching other competitors, and the evening celebrating. I peeked in on the family a little bit, but not as much as I normally would. Incidentally, I did say celebrating. Our chorus was in the top ten, which means we compete again in the finals on Saturday (tomorrow). So we will spend today in rehearsal, and we hit the stage at 3:00 p.m. central time. You can catch it on the free web cast. Here is the link: http://www.sweetadelinesintl.org/webcast.cfm

One of the fun things about being here in Nashville is that my sister Faline and her daughter Malauna are also here. They are competing with Mountain Jubilee, the chorus in Salt Lake City Utah. They also made the top ten. Not to brag or anything, but what about those Bateman genes? All of the Christensen siblings bought Rachel and Gabi semi matching outfits. They both have flower print pants, and a shirt. They are different colors, but essentially the same style. Extremely cute. Gabi doesn't have much of an opinion, but Rachel thinks they are AWESOME (and she should know. She is really into clothes these days!)

Free Webcast of the Sweet Adeline International Competition

For those who want to watch my barbershop chorus compete in Nashville, here is the site for the free webcast. My chorus (Pride of Kentucky Chorus) is scheduled to be on stage at 3:56 p.m. Central Time on Thursday. If you're looking for me, I'm on the 4th row, about 1/3 of the way over from the left (your left). I'm the one wearing red and fake eye lashes. Oh wait, that's all of us.

http://www.sweetadelinesintl.org/webcast.cfm

Gabi moves into her own room

Back when Gabi was 3 months old I decided to move her into her own room into her own crib when she was 4 months old. I couldn't bring myself to do it, but now that she has been consistently sleeping through the night, I finally made the big move last Friday. She did awesome! It was a complete success! So now, even though I miss having her right there, it is nice to move the bassinet out of our room.


We attempted to put Rachel in panties. I think I was wrong about her being ready. On Friday (day 1 of my experiment), she went through 5 pairs of panties. I thought I had learned from my mistakes, and on Saturday I hoped for more success, especially since Jeff was there to help out. I don't know, she seemed pretty stressed, so I decided to call off the experiment, and just give her some more time. So we are back in diapers, and everybody is happy. She still uses her potty when she wakes up in the morning, and after her nap, and I'm going to add after meals too, but I'm going to wait on the panties for a while. She did look cute in them, though.

Today Gabi is 5 months old

Wow! I can't believe it. Gabi is 5 months old! I am finally feeling like my life is coming back into some order. Gabi has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now, so I am better rested, so I'm ready to get back into establishing a consistent schedule. I felt so tired, and discombobulated for the first few months that I feel like I kind of missed her tiny stage. I have said this before, but I'll say it again. When she was so small, and not eating well, I was urging her to "grow, grow, grow." Now that she is big and strong and eating well, I'm telling her to "stop growing, stop growing." I'm telling you, if I come back here next month and Gabi has the nerve to be 6 months old, I'm gonna be mad!

I sing in a Barbershop Chorus (the Pride of Kentucky Chorus). We had rehearsal Wednesday night. Gabi always comes with me to rehearsal, and Jeff stays with Rachel. This past rehearsal Gabi was more talkative than she has ever been. She has been vocalizing for several weeks, but not very much. Well, Wednesday night she was singing up a storm at rehearsal. There was some debate about which part she was singing (her notes were not 100% accurate), but her choreography was right on. Anyway, she has kept up her singing/talking since then. Now both Rachel and Gabi will challenge us to keep them quiet in Church.

So Gabi's accomplishments at this point include talking/singing, rolling over (although it's not consistent), smiling (a lot), eating cereal, sleeping through the night, trying to sit up, not crying in her bath anymore, and overall cuteness. There's probably other stuff, but I can't think of it right now.


Rachel is always an adventure. After she woke up from her nap this afternoon I asked her if she wanted to use the potty chair. She didn't say no, so I figured that meant yes. So she sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. Get the idea? Nothing happened, but she seemed content to sit on her potty, so I let her. I didn't have anything else to do. Then I heard Gabi wake up from her nap. Rachel had been holding my phone. It has a recording of my chorus singing "Happy Birthday" to her on it, and she likes listening to it over and over. So I left her in the bathroom while I went to get Gabi. After changing Gabi's diaper I returned to the bathroom, and there sat Rachel on her potty chair, happy as can be, but without my phone. Oh no! The damage a bathroom can do to a phone is kind of big, but I checked the toilet, and it wasn't there, so I was relieved about that, but I couldn't find it. So I went downstairs to my computer to see who was online that I could have call my phone so I could find it. There were 4 or 5 people, so I sent them all a quick "Are you there?" note. Then went back to Rachel. After a few minutes my sister-in-law Trish responded. I asked her to call my phone, which she did, and I found my phone in the laundry hamper.

During all this running up and down between the bathroom and the computer, Rachel was busy. At one point I came into the bathroom and Rachel had gotten the detachable portion of the potty chair on the big toilet where it was latched on (correctly), but she seemed to want it off. So I took it off. When I came back again it was back on, although not latched in place, but there was a poopie on the floor. (It was of the easy to clean up variety, thankfully.) So I latched the potty to the big toilet again and had Rachel sit on it. She immediately pee-peed, and even got out a little bit more poop. If I hadn't been up and down with the whole phone thing, I would have hopefully been there and been able to help her, and she might have successfully had her entire potty duty end up in the big toilet. So I counted it as a success and gave her a sticker anyway.

I'm really nervous about potty training Rachel. I don't know why. She is clearly ready. I guess I'm the one who is not ready yet. Nevertheless, we went to Wal Mart in the afternoon and bought Rachel some big girl panties. She kept calling them a shirt, but whatever, she'll catch on. Anyway, she wanted to hold them in the shopping cart, in the car, and carry them into the house. Fine with me. I was unloading the other purchases, and taking care of Gabi, and by the time I turned my attention back to Rachel, I couldn't find the panties anywhere. I thought they were somewhere in our room, where Rachel had been playing, but I couldn't find them. Jeff came home and I started fixing dinner, and there were her panties, next to the freezer downstairs. So now I have all the tools in place: a willing and apparently ready Rachel, a potty chair, a potty poster with stickers, underpanties, and me too nervous to do anything about it!

Wish me luck!

Gabi's Smile

Here's the smile I was telling you about. She is pretty willing to share it most of the time.

Busy Week

What a week (and a half) it has been. I was hired by a local security company to work at a convention at the Fairgrounds. It's nice to make a little extra money once in a while, and to be honest, it comes at a good time. So I sat outside a parking lot and controlled access to the lot. Pretty much I let anybody in who wanted in since the only people who wanted in were allowed to be there. The days were long and boring, I got sunburned several days, and drenched in the rain other days. Only on Thursday, the last day of the event, when it was pouring rain, and nobody was looking at the trucks and rigs, and they all wanted to be let out early was I truly "working" by my definition. It was pouring rain, and it was cold, a couple of trucks came to my gate. I had just been instructed not 10 minutes earlier that no trucks were to leave until 3:00. At the time it was 1:50. I told them "no." The guy said "just close your eyes" but I stuck to my guns. Then the trolley came by, but couldn't pass because the trucks were blocking the way. I had to get mean and make them return to their places. Yeah, I was mean!

I was very fortunate to have the assistance of a family who watched the girls for me. They were AWESOME! Rachel and Gabi came home happy and content pretty much every day, and to make it even better, they provided us with dinner almost every night. It was a tiring and long week, but that family made it so much better!

Then yesterday my barbershop chorus had a dress rehearsal in preparation for our big international competition coming up later this month. Again I had to juggle the girls a bit, but with the help of Jeff it went pretty smooth. I fed Gabi in the morning, then took her with me to rehearsal. Jeff waited for Rachel to wake up, fed her breakfast, then came to the rehearsal. He stayed long enough for me to feed Gabi again, and when Rachel was ready to leave he took both girls. While Rachel was there she really liked it. The chorus was in costume singing a song, and Rachel stood transfixed watching, and copying to the best of her ability the choreography. It was so cute!

After dress rehearsal was over I went home and picked up Gabi and took her to my orientation for first time international competitors that my chorus has. Jeff stayed home with Rachel. I finally got home for the day at about 6:45 p.m. and it was nice to spend that last part of the day relatively quietly with the family.

So here's the latest with Rachel and Gabi.

Rachel is growing up so much. She is super interested in potty training, and I am slowly figuring out what to do. Jeff had just finished brushing her teeth and was going to take her into her room to finish the bedtime routine. We brush Rachel's teeth together. One of us brushes her teeth, and the other brushes our own teeth. She is much more cooperative about it when we do it that way. Anyway, I noticed Rachel pulled at her diaper which is kind of her indication that she needs to go potty, so I stopped Jeff and asked Rachel if she needed to use the potty. She seemed to indicate yes, so I put her on the potty, and sure enough, she pee peed. Yay Rachel! I know she is ready for real potty training, but I am very unsure about how to go about it other than do what we are doing. She is still wearing a diaper because I'm scared to put big girl panties on her since she doesn't consistently let me know that she needs to go. Sometimes she does, but far from every time. Any advice, dear readers?

Rachel is also really enjoying doing puzzles. She has three puzzles, and two of the three she can do by herself. The third one is pictures of farm equipment, and the shapes of the pieces and the shapes of the spaces are a little vague. The other two she doesn't need any help at all. (She's so smart!) Rachel's other "likes" include getting undressed and redressed about 40 times per day, reading, drawing on the whiteboard (and occasionally the walls), and playing outside in her sandbox.

Gabi is growing up too. She has officially outgrown her 0-3 month clothes. I have still been squeezing her into them, but seriously, they just don't fit, so finally yesterday morning I put away her 0-3 month clothes and got out her 3-6 month clothes, which seem to fit her perfectly. Gabi wants to sit up. If she is lying on her back in her bouncy seat she strains her abs and pulls her head up. But she still can't support herself. So sometimes we sit her in the boppy and put pillows or cushions around her. She is sleeping great at night now. (Thank you bed time cereal.) Yesterday I started giving her cereal for breakfast too. She is nursing pretty well too. I can't believe she is almost 5 months old. When she was a newborn and she wasn't growing so well I used to say to her "grow, grow, grow." Now I say to her "stop growing, stop growing." She listened to me early on, but she doesn't listen to me anymore. She just keeps growing. She has a beautiful toothless smile which she shares easily, much to the pleasure of everybody.

I am happy to say that Rachel still is fantastic with Gabi. Rachel likes to make sure that Gabi has a blanket and a toy when she is in the carseat. It's pretty sweet. Scout is still here (poor neglected baby), and treats both girls appropriately. He is very tolerant of Rachel, and Rachel like playing with him. You should hear it when she points to Scout and says in a stern voice "sit, stay." Rachel also likes to play "fetch" with him. Scout has a rubber chicken (which lasted a long time, but finally lost its leg). Rachel gets it away from him and throws it down the stairs for him to fetch.

So that's life here. Now that things are back to normal I'll take some more pictures and post them soon.

Super Duper Pooper

Today Rachel pooped in her potty chair. It's not the first time she has pooped in an appropriate place, but honestly it has been a while (like a month). Today she started trying to pull off her pants (her sign that she needs to use the potty), and I noticed right away and asked her if she wanted to use the potty. I took her silence to be consent, and took her upstairs and took off her pants and her diaper and sat her down. Sure enough, when she stood up there was the prize. It was actually the first time she pooped in her own potty, although she had pooped in the big toilet before. So she got lots of hugs and kisses, and three stickers.

I was thinking the other day that we don't have any pictures of Gabi in the bathtub. I decided to remedy that this morning and took a few shots of Gabi. Notice that she is not longer the skinny baby she once was. She has some nice little fat rolls.


Gabi used to not like her bath that much. She seems to enjoy it more now, though. She did some kicking and splashing and everything.

Security!

Last year I worked at the Ryder Cup parking cars. It was obviously a temporary job, but I got a phone call from the same company a few weeks ago asking if I wanted to work an event at the Fairgrounds. It was a good time to make a little extra money, so after I got child care arrangements made, I accepted the opportunity. So now I am a security guard. Yeah, that's right, don't mess with me!

I've learned a little about security guards. We usually have no idea what we're doing, at least not at first. I don't just let anybody into my parking lot. You have to actually be near my gate and look like you want in. Then, and only then will I allow you to enter.

My only weapon is a walkie talkie. The first day on the job (last Wednesday) I overheard this amusing little conversation:

Unidentified worker: Malcolm?
Malcolm: Go for Malcolm.
Unidentified worker: Where's the North Wing?
Malcolm: It's just north of the South Wing.
Malcolm's wife: Not everybody's mind works like yours does dear.

I know, it's a little silly, but I try to find pleasure in the simple things.

Yesterday our ward had a fund raiser for the Scouts that included a pasta meal donated by Carrabas (very good, by the way) and an auction of cakes and stuff. The only cost for coming was a cake (or stuff) for the auction. I brought a bunch of brownies. Rachel went over to Jimmy Smith. She likes him for some reason. It may be because he always encourages her to ask me for a dirt bike or a shot gun. Anyway, he had a plate of chocolate on chocolate cookies. Rachel held the cookie in her hand for a while, and finally, with some encouragement she delicately put it to her mouth for a taste. It didn't leave. She just held it there and sucked on it until gradually it disintegrated in her mouth, on her face and in her hand. She was in an excellent mood for the rest of the night.

Rachel's Doctor's Appointment

Rachel had a really good doctor's appointment today. She is in excellent health, and she was pretty cooperative too. Her vital statistics are as follows:

Weight: 30 lbs. 4 oz. (85th percentile)
Height: 35 inches (80th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 inches (75th percentile)

So she's pretty well balanced.

She didn't get any shots today. I was surprised. I thought she had them coming today, but she is not due for anything until she's 4. She doesn't realize it, but she is very happy about that. She did get a finger stick to check her hemoglobin (which is fine). I indicated that she can be kind of a picky eater, so they wanted to make sure she was getting enough iron, which she is. She was fine with the finger stick, but about halfway through the process of getting the blood she started to realize that it was uncomfortable. But all was well in the end as she got a sticker and a lollipop.