Month: August 2006

Helena’s Word List

Helena is working (when pressured to) some sight words. She gets these correct:

a can go little play to
all come he look see two
and do I of so up
at dog if on stop we
be for is one the you
but girl it



Words she doesn’t have yet:

are in she
boy not some
had said was
his saw

Painter Park

Everyone hears about Painter Park, so I took the camera one night.

Liam climbing. He would get stuck a couple of weeks ago, but he seems to have the hang of it. Ha ha!

Helena and Liam climbing slides.


Liam likes hanging as long as he isn’t too far off the ground.

Having fun together.

Helena scared out of her wits. I have her hold on to the ring at the top (which spins) and then give her a good push.

The kids love coming down this slide and getting shocks from me.

Up high.

Helena can make friends really easily. “Don’t talk to strangers” is something she just won’t ever do.

Like here:


Liam climbing again. He’s finally getting the handle on this one. Helena was just on it with some other girl that she met.

Liam climbing high again. This one makes him a little nervous the first time, then does find on his own, which makes me nervous.

Liam at Dinner

Liam didn’t want to eat dinner Monday night. I sat down at the table with Helena and Liam, but he just pushed his plate away and said that he wanted to get down. I told him that he would have to wait until Helena and I were done eating. He gave his grumpy face, and kept it there for a bit, so I thought that I would get the camera.

While I was in the kitchen, I heard Helena say, “Awwwww….I think I see a smile”, which, of course, made him smile even more, despite trying to still frown to show how displeased he was. Anyhow, I took shots of him all during dinner. It is amazing how many moods and faces this kid can go through in fifteen minutes at the dinner table. And he isn’t as expressive as Helena…just more moody.

Ups and Downs of Parenting

Helena and Liam were playing with their trains today, but arguing the entire time. “That’s my train!”, “That’s my shed!”, “That’s my track”. Dalen told the kids to play together. They continued fighting.

After a few more minutes, I told them that I would put the train set away if they didn’t stop arguing. They did for about 30 seconds, then I went into the kitchen to make dinner. A couple of minutes later, Liam throws a train at Helena after getting mad at her.

So I walked into the dining room, and began to pick up the tracks while they sat there and stared. Just as I was putting the last of the stuff into a box, Liam was clutching his Henry and its tender, and he says in the sweetest voice, “Daddy, are you going to take James?” I said, “Yes, I have to.”

Liam starts bawling. I felt so bad, I really wanted to give him the train back, but knew I couldn’t.

But later, I took Liam to get measured for his tuxedo. The one he tried on didn’t fit at all, but he looked so good/funny/cute. I can’t wait to see him all dressed up. Even Helena said that he was handsome, and they played ‘Mommy and Daddy’ while I was getting measured.

The Name "Ada"

Some people have wondered what “Ada” means. Depending on where you look, it is English (or Germanic) origin and means “noble and serene”.

I liked the name Helena because of Helen of Troy, Liam obviously got his name from his father and grandfather, but I just liked the name Ada. Not many people name their kid Ada anymore, though it used to be quite popular. The chart at the right shows the relative popularity of the name. (You can click on it to make it larger) That being said, I had a Latina student “Eda” last year.

When I was making a short list of names to show Dalen, I didn’t put another old name that I like on it, not because I didn’t think Dalen would like it, but because the kid might be made fun of. I hardly ever see kids make fun of names of kids, but if the kid is a bit weird and has a strange name, then there is some teasing. Like that girl Venus in high school that didn’t resemble the goddess one ι. (Math people will get the joke). I had a girl named Sif in class last year, and she was cool, so everyone liked her different name (Sif was a Norse goddess).

Anyhow, here is the other name that I like and its popularity. I still like it, but I already can’t see calling Ada anything else besides the name that we gave her.

Ada’s First Ten Days

Libby was here when Ada was born, so dad got to stay at the hospital with mom. Ada did fairly well, although she never wants to burp, so she was up quite a lot those nights. She did stay in the room with us both nights rather than the nursery. I think Liam was the only one we had in the nursery one night. I remember Helena being a lot worse with gas. I think that in the first ten days of Helena’s life, we went through six bottles of Little Tummies gas drops. I believe that we are on our first bottle with Ada.

Ada has been pretty good at night, although apparently, she only liked one breast at the beginning. She wouldn’t eat from the one breast until Dalen took her to the nurse to tell her about it, then she began to nurse from it like nothing was the matter. It has been fine ever since.

Her favorite place seems to be walking around on people’s shoulders. Her little head is often seen peering around my or Dalen’s shoulders, bobbing her head back and forth. The kids yell at me when I hold her up in the air and let her feet and head hang down. “Mommy, Daddy is holding Ada like a rag-doll again!” I’ve taken her on a couple of walks so far. The best was from a gay guy stopping at the corner in his car. His passenger side window was down and he yells out, “Is that a brand new baby?”. I tell him that she is a week old. “Awwwww…..welcome to the World little baby!”. He seemed genuinely pleased with a new addition to the Earth for some reason. Sometimes I go by the coffee shop with Ada, and everyone peers out with the “Oh, how cute” look, too.

Helena and Liam have been really good with the new kid. We have to say “Be gentle” around them all the time, but they haven’t done anything to hurt her (yet). Liam and Helena do tend to crawl all over Dalen and I, so it is only a matter of time until they hurt Ada if she is sitting on one of our laps. Liam likes rubbing the baby’s head and sticking his head right in front of hers and smiling. Helena likes making funny faces at her.

The big news around the house yesterday was that Ada lost her cord, so the other kids were comparing belly buttons with the newborn. Now that is exciting.

Libby left a week ago today, but we are still eating her food and there is still Silly String all over our back yard. Libby also suffered through “Day Out with Thomas” with me, so I should apologize for that. Even the kids never say anything about wanting to go back, although when asked about it, Liam will tell anyone that “Thomas went backwards”.

Dori left yesterday morning, and Helena and Liam want more cookies. Dori and I went to the zoo with the kids. They remember the buffalo pooping in front of them, and the train ride. Helena will mention the water balloon fight every once in awhile.

I tell the kids that we will see them in October at Pop³s wedding, so it won’t be too long. I’m still not sure if Dalen and Ada will be there, but it may happen.

I’ll leave a big space at the bottom of this post for Dalen to contradict everything that I have written.

Oh, I should point out that Ada is in her mustard poop stage now. Horray(?)!

Ada Lynn

August 10th, at 9:13 am

7 lbs 15.5 oz

20 inches long

13 inches head circumference for the hard-core scorers

Labor was about 6.75 hours (Dalen here…actually it started at 10:40pm & ended at 9:13am.). Bill slept through about an hour of it. Dalen got to pull the baby girl out of her own womb, which made it extra special for her. She didn’t say the kid was “beautiful”, but, “slippery”.

Here is Dalen at about 3:00 am

Here is Dalen banging her head against the wall after an hour or so (an hour after we got to the hospital… 41/2 hours into labor).


Here is Dalen after her epidural. Notice the frown upside down.

Don’t scream too loud at the nurses…they’ll literally tear your tongues out…I found these hidden in a drawer.


The air conditioning was set at about 45°. Perhaps this is to make it easier for the baby to attach for feeding.

Here is the first photo of Ada Lynn, just out of the oven. Nice set of hair, huh? She weighs just less than 8 pounds. Since the nurse guessed that she weighed 8 pounds, she decided to round up on the official papers so that she would be correct.

First meal for Ada. Dalen hadn’t eaten in quite awhile.

Ada’s first big cry.

The first decent photo of her that I got. It was hard to get her to open her eyes.

Future Sumo wrestler?

She didn’t like her first bath one bit.

Aunt Libby, the Savior of the week. She took the whole week off to help us out, even though she knew that the baby might not come this week.

Mom feeling much better.

Libby was the first one to cry when she saw Ada. Maybe she saw a bit of me in her?

Liam liked being gentle with the new baby.

Two new doctors operating on the new baby.

Two happy (for now) older siblings.

Mom, bursting with energy!

My goodness, what happened?!

18 years of this?

Libby’s best shot of Liam and the baby. She was pretty proud of this one.

Helena (kind of) holding the baby.

Helena’s World


We were going to pick Libby up at the airport after being at the bookstore and while driving down Xerxes Avenue, I said, “Helena, there is mommy’s favorite store” as we passed Target.

She says how much that she doesn’t like Target, but spots another store nearby, and says “I like the Pippi Longstocking store!”.

Dalen says, “That’s a Wendy’s, honey”