Oh my, Ohio!

We're having a great time here in Dayton. The flight went well and Willa was a trooper considering we had to wake her up at 4:00 a.m. to make our flight! Ryan got here safely a few days later and we had a nice Christmas complete with the (in)famous ham and potato cheese puff.

Toddling around at Carriage Hill.  Willa was more interested in chasing after a barn cat than in looking at the mangy animals (see second picture).  The horses looked cold and miserable in the mud, and their thick winter coat wasn't helping appearances. Still, she is getting to be quite the walker and is very proud of herself.

Going for a walk one day and needed scarves.  It's not as cold as it could be, but it's still colder than we're used to.

She looked so adorable trying to walk with this giant neck brace, right after I took this picture she lost her balance and her top heavy head hid the cement. There were lots of tears until I took her to look at a nearby inflatable snowman.

Exploring grandma and grandpa's house!  Lots of cupboards and drawers to open; lots of general mischief to make.

She's only fallen down the stairs once, so far.  There were a lot of thumps as we ran to get her so she must have been pretty high up :(.

 Brushing her teeth.  If only she did this so well every night.

What we've been up to

At the last minute, I realized that I had enough time between my last day of teaching and Christmas to snag a quick visit home to Utah. Traveling is easier and harder as she grows. I downloaded a bunch of Sesame Street podcasts onto my ipod and that somewhat helped entertain Willa. And yes, I felt self-conscious pulling out this antique when everyone else around was playing with their slick ipad.  I think she's so cute with her little earphones on.

 We had a visit from a 5 month old baby while her mom went to help in another child's classroom. The baby was an angel, Willa was.... not happy to see me holding another baby. She was happy, however, to play in the baby swing again after the baby had left. I put her in and then a few minutes later realized that she was about to jump out the front!

Yesterday we went to the children's museum with Willa's new friend Molly and her mom. We met them a few months ago at the library and have slowly been venturing on some outings. Molly is still stationary for now, so I didn't get a photo of the two of them together. We had a great time and the babies happily played for an entire hour without any fussing - a Christmas miracle!

They have these little doors that are baby size; Willa is very into opening and closing right now so she loved them. She's also very into collecting "treasures" so often we'll find her little push stroller filled with various diaper creams, wipes, baby monitor, or whatever is particularly exciting.

Last, but not least, it wouldn't be Christmas without posting our Wolfman Jack Christmas photo from a few years ago. Ryan made us get rid of these sweaters in the last move :(. Willa and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Christmas in Dayton (Ryan will come a few days later) and we are very excited for some cheesy potatoes and ham!

A Christmas Tree

We have never gotten ourselves a Christmas tree until this year.  Our last apartment was too small and we were always going to a family's house, anyway.  I planned for the same routine this year, especially with a busy baby who would destroy a tree; however, Ryan surprised me by being the festive one and said that we should stop hum-buggin' and get ourselves a tree.

Here we are at the Christmas tree lot, picking out our perfect tree!  Ryan just finished shaking the snow off and is holding it up so we can see how tall it is.

Yep, this is the perfect tree!  Tying it on the roof for the drive home.

Make sure those straps are tight!

Trimming the tree

It was touch and go for a while.  There was a big argument at the tree lot about whether it was too tall or not.  I said that we should just get it because it was so obviously the perfect tree, if it was too tall then we could just lop the top off and give it to our butler, who might give it to a rabbit, and a little mouse might end up with the very top. Ryan really didn't want to have to cut off the top, though, with all that mess and sap.  Luckily, this one just barely fit.

Here's a recent picture of Willa.  My sweet angel-baby has become a demon toddler with the onset of walking.  She especially likes screaming in the grocery cart because she wants to get down and push the cart herself.  After I took this photo, I noticed that there was still dish detergent in there that she was eating and I had to run and call poison control!  The first of many such calls, probably.

Turkey Trot

Ryan really wanted to restart his tradition of running a Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot, so we found a race and signed up!  We both ran and I pushed Willa in the stroller.  We're glad we did it, but if we do it again, we won't go with high expectations.  It was a HUGE race downtown and the course just wasn't wide enough so it never really thinned out.  I dutifully lined up towards the back, since I had a stroller, and was seriously dodging people the entire time just to stay at a slow jog.

Ryan didn't fair much better, he got first in his age group and eleventh overall, but he couldn't even squeeze his way to the starting line and when he looked around he was disconcerted by the number of elderly and young kids who were at the start with him and whom he had to dodge around.  However, we both agree that running a 5k is nice and short, so much less to worry about, and less to suffer through.  

We got an annual pass to the Children's Museum for $60!  It's supposedly the best children's museum in the country and the entire second floor is an area just for toddlers.  Here is Willa loving the uneven surfaces that she could crawl on.  I have come to the realization that I am a person who likes to get out and do things.  So, now I have one more fun place for us to go where she can crawl around and explore.

The Trickster

Can you guess what one of Willa's new tricks is?

Willa has had a lot of milestones lately!  First of all, she has ventured a few wobbly steps on her own a couple of times and is getting braver and braver as she tries to get from place to place.  She's standing on her own for more than a few seconds and is all around just growing up!

A few weeks ago, I thought she had started to lean out, but it appears that flab is fab because it's on its way back.  We went to the doctor yesterday because of a persistent diaper rash, and when they weighed her she had gained almost THREE pounds since her last appointment six weeks ago!!!  Granted, she was at a low weight then when she was really sick - but still, three pounds?  I honestly feel like she is hungry all. the. time.  She also likes to slap her fat buddha belly in the bathtub and laugh at the sound and feel.

She loves to crawl into her room and grab her pacifier out of her crib and she will cry very hard if the pacifier is out of reach.  I was boiling her pacifiers the other day and she started try cry by the crib because she wanted one.  I gave her the little ribbon clip that I use to clip the pacifier on her clothes and she kept turning it over and over in her hands trying to find the pacifier at the end of it.  I felt sneaky and a little deceptive.

Today she waved a real "Bye Bye" to Ryan several times when he left for work. Since I saw a 9 month old doing this recently, I will admit that she arrived a little late to the party, but she arrived.

The real trickster part of her came out today when I was feeding her some brunch.  She LOVES to throw food. Today she threw her arm out like she throwing the food, then she looked at me and opened her hand to show that it still had food in it, then she laughed hysterically.  Then, she did it immediately again with her other hand and laughed again!  I couldn't believe it!  You just keep thinking these babies don't have a clue what is going on, but then they show that they've got something up their sleeve.

Baby in the baby swing

I'm in a small ensemble that is playing for our stake's upcoming nativity and we rehearsed yesterday at my apartment.  The is the first time I've played with a small ensemble since leaving USC and it's been an eye-opener.  First of all, we needed to rehearse.  Second of all, we needed two rehearsals and some people wanted MORE rehearsals!  Thirdly, after all these rehearsals we still don't sound as well as I'm used to hearing.  Oy, that violin is an instrument that can really screech!!!

Still, this day was bound to happen; it's still fun to be involved with music and it makes me happy that people who really don't have much training beyond high school still want to develop their talents.  It was just strange, we wanted to play multiple pieces but people looked at the music and said that they wouldn't have time to practice and learn the parts!  I'm used to showing up ten minutes beforehand, cutting and pasting a few parts together with my duet partner, then playing it.

During the second rehearsal there was a two month old baby and an eleven month old there.  Willa and the eleven month baby had a fine time.  He tried to pull out her pacifier and she tried to grab his bottle; they equally crawled around among everyone, trying to knock down music stands.  The little two month baby got a little fussy, so we pulled out Willa's baby swing.  It was charming to me how we could all get together to do music and work with kids and babies.  Definitely a Mormon group!

After they all left, Willa was really interested in her old swing.  I put her in it and she would have laid there for hours.  She's really into soft textures lately and loved laying her head down on this lamby seat.  Here she is, just chilling out; definitely big enough to put a strain on that motor!

What are you looking at?

Here is a picture from the park about two weeks ago. I love her little booty in the air!  I ran to the restroom and while I was gone a single mom tried to pick up on Ryan!

Orchestra/Dorkestra - or - Quiet in the pit!

A few weeks ago, I played with a small community orchestra in the area. I was only able to attend one rehearsal before the performance (usually rehearsal time conflicts with my class) and, as typical, they pretty much rehearsed everything except where the harp plays.  It was a really good experience and very fun, but it brought back soooo many memories.

I have a very conflicted view of orchestra.  There is definitely a thrill of playing with a group and playing such great pieces, but in the past there was also a lot of stress for me.  Here is the harpist's job in most orchestral pieces: count 500 measures through multiple time and key signature changes, play one very big and exposed chord or arpeggio, repeat.  I hated practicing my orchestral music; who wants to practice a bunch of random chords that have no relation to one another?  Not me!  Also, before I got to BYU I just didn't have a lot of experience in orchestras.  There is no orchestral future for most harpists so my teacher really tried to think creatively about other harp careers, which was very beneficial.  The bad news was that once I got to college, I had very little orchestra experience and I had to play in orchestras with other students who had been playing in them since middle school.   Bleh.  It was traumatizing.  Most of it was my fault, I just hating practicing the music, but I also just really feel antagonistically towards them.

Here is the orchestra hit list: Mainly, the string section.  The violins were the worst.  They had such small instruments, there were so many of them that if they got yelled at, it wasn't personal.  They played almost the entire time so that counting and furiously trying to keep track of measures was also less important.  Also, if you did mess up, loose your place, or whatever - no one could hear you and your stand partner could tell you where to go.  I love violins individually, but in an orchestra, they drive me bananas.

I think the larger the instrument got, the less animosity I felt.  I had quite a strong affinity with the bass players.  I got along well with all the brass players and percussion - I felt like we were all in the same boat.  Counting for billions of measures, then very exposed.  I think the brass players probably have it the  worst.  The percussion, we were always tight because we had so much equipment to move.  It was always us loading and unloading the trucks (bass players included here).  We were all kind of lone rangers together, often the only person on our part, arriving earlier than everyone else and leaving later than everyone else.  One time after BYU played on Temple Square we were loading the harps and big instruments into the truck.  When we finally got everything loaded up we looked around and realized that the buses had left us.  It was a crappy feeling to realize that no one on the buses had realized that eight or nine of us weren't there and that's probably how our status with them always was - not quite aware of us, just mad when we didn't get it right.  We ended up having to call my parents to come pick us up and drive us back to Provo.

So that's my orchestra gripe.  I had a great time at the rehearsal and performance with this community orchestra.  The best part?  They had a harp!!!  A lot of the middle schools and high schools out here have harps, so I didn't have to move my harp at all!  The director had even already set the harp up for me each time I got there.  Of course it was a Venus and sounded about as melodious as a tin can - nothing can quite match my Lyon & Healy, but Ryan says that sound quality is a small price to pay for not having to carry the harp down and up three flights of stairs.  He's a barbarian, naturally.

Here is Ryan throwing Willa in the park two weeks ago:

Unflattering photo of us in our Young's Jersey Dairy shirts holding our little (angry) cow.  This just in: Willa is not a Jersey cow, so the likelihood of getting this photo on the wall at the dairy are slim.

And... our cute little Willa.  Excuse the hairy legs - I think Ryan must have just gotten in from running - thus the short shorts.

I just love these little purple sweatpants!

With the mommy away...

the baby shall play!!!

Actually, I was right there when she did it, but she had been such a good baby all day that I thought she deserved a little fun. Plus, I got to finish dinner without a little rascal crawling around my legs!

Anyone who knows me from USC should be able to see my devotion to Willa in the fact that I let her play with the ziploc baggies. When I packed Ryan's lunch, I would use and reuse these baggies. I've relaxed a little now - I still reuse the ones that just had a sandwich or crackers - but back then I used to try to wash the peanut butter out! Once or twice I bought a bum box and the baggies would rip after only one or two uses; what a rip-off! I used to get out the scotch tape and try to tape them together. I don't know why I thought things were so desperate that we couldn't afford $2 for another box of them! Ryan would sometimes try to secretly throw out the baggies after he ate, but I would always catch him when I retrieved the empty bags from his backpack and knew that there were fewer than there should have been!

Here comes trouble

Things are just rosy around here.  Little Willa (finally) learned how to pull herself up to standing this past week.  She has pulled up to her knees for a long time, but never seemed interested in going for the whole tamale.  It only took her one or two times to figure out the skill, and now she thinks she is hot stuff as she pulls up and starts cruising around.  I realize that most everything I am writing in here happens to all the other babies in the world, so I'm not offended of you want to stop reading.  There are a billion babies in the world but I only have one of them, and all these little steps are so amazing to me.

She loves the fridge and scurries over to it as soon as I open it.  The other day she scurried over to it, pulled herself up, and pulled her sippy cup of milk off of the second shelf!  Ryan got home as soon as she started drinking and when she heard the door open, she scurried off to see Ryan with the sippy cup still hanging in her teeth.  It was hilarious!

Ryan and I both feel like walking is just around the corner.  I think a lot of it has to do with her little walker that she has as well as seeing the other kids walk around at the library.  Yesterday I got a little misty-eyed when she pulled herself up and trotted off with her walker, her little booty shaking.  My baby's growing up!

Here is one of her favorite cupboards to pull up to (also, one of the only unlocked ones).

Hooray, we had some visitor's this weekend!  Robert and Carey were awesome enough to plan a vacation to Galveston.  We got to see a lot of them over the weekend, which was so fun for us!

We went to a park downtown and Willa went crazy being able to crawl and crawl and crawl around.  We thought it was appropriate to take a photo of her on top of the "Trojan Bear".
 

So excited!  The grass was a really strange variety, maybe golf course grass?  Not too wet and NO fire ants, perfect for a little baby to crawl in, huzzah!  She had such a good time and it was nice to be able to allow her to crawl somewhere (instead of holding a howling baby at Walmart who is trying to reach for the ground).  Ryan and I decided that we needed to get out more so that Willa can explore.

Finally, my cousin Donna made this cow blanket for Willa's first birthday BEFORE she knew that Willa was going to be a cow for Halloween.  My sister Carrie also sent her this little cow Cabbage Patch Kid before she knew that Willa was going to be a cow.  Coincidence or heavenly manifestation?

I also have to add a little note about Willa from this morning.  I was making breakfast and she was hanging around my legs, whining and wanting to be picked up.  Finally, I said, "Hey, where's Dada?  Go find Dada!"  Immediately, she stopped, turned and started crawling out of the kitchen and looking around!  I yelled for Ryan to start talking to her.  He started saying, "Willa, where are you?  Willa!"  She followed his voice and crawled back and into the bedroom where he was getting ready!  I couldn't believe it!  I know that they say that babies understand a lot, but sometimes it seems like they don't understand anything :)!  Here  is the proof!  Such a growing girl!

Eat Mor Chikin

Willa is not going trick-or-treating tonight, but she dressed up as a cow for some other Halloween festivities over the weekend.  Isn't she the most adorable little cow?  I love her little feet in those stockings.

Getting ready to go to singing time at the library, not too sure about things:

If you look in the background, you can see some of the other kids in their costumes.  It was very cute!  Do you see the little maraca in her hand?  Before we officially start, they pass out little musical instruments for the kids to play with.

This was actually the view we mainly had. Willa also discovered a will to crawl anywhere and everywhere at all times.  

Baby cow on the cow blanket:

Here she is at the ward party.   We thought she was cranky because she was hungry or tired, but really she just wanted to crawl around on the gym floor.  Yum. Just imagine a church gym, with tons of tables, food on the floor, kids acting crazy in their Halloween costumes, and a little baby cow who wants to crawl EVERYWHERE.  There was lots of hurrying around to cover the little tidbits on the floor with my foot.

You can see one of her little teeth in this picture:

At the trunk-or-treat.  She didn't really know what was going on, but she was delighted with all the kids and of course, wanted to crawl around the parking lot.

Ryan getting frustrated as the kids acted crazier and crazier and were making multiple rounds for optimal candy-gathering.  Finally, he claimed that the candy shoppe was closed.

One more cute picture.  Really, she was adorable.  Plus, she kept crawling everywhere and it was hilarious because people thought it was a real little puppy crawling around and were really startled when they realized it was just Willa.

For anyone who cares, originally I was going to make an "Eat mor chikin" sign for Willa to hold, but then laziness got the better of me.  It's too bad, because it would have made Ryan's costume very apropos.

Here is Ryan's costume.  Any guesses?  He won best costume at work today!