The lipstick morning

Most mornings, Abigail wakes up around 6:15 and comes into our bedroom to snuggle with us and nurse for a little bit. Some mornings in the past month or so, she has gotten up and played by herself in her room or in the living room, which has been lovely and given us a few more moments to keep our eyes closed before starting the day. 

This morning was one of those mornings, where she woke up sometime after 6 and played quietly. We lazily yelled out to the living room, "good morning, Abigail! What are you doing?"  To which she replied, "Playing!", so we rolled over and let her be. Around 6:30, she came in and rather than climbing in bed with us, she announced, "wanna go wash hands!" We lazily told her to go do it herself but she insisted, so Claude got up and followed her into the dining room where it was light. He immediately exclaimed, "Abigail, what? Uh, honey, you're going to want to come see this!"

I got up and went out to see this scene: 

To which I looked in shock and then did the only thing you can really do when your 2 year old has found your lipstick and spread it all over her face and hands and legs and hair: crack up laughing! 

She was so proud of herself in a "look mommy, I'm just like you" kind of way.

So adorable! And luckily, with a few dozen trusty wipes to the rescue, we were able to clean it off the (thankfully!!!) leather couch and most of it off her face, hands, and legs, though her hair is going to have to wait until shampoo day to lose its red sparkly tint!

I think we might be onto something here!

This evening, I was busy in the kitchen doing the dishes. Abigail wandered in, pulled out the step stool from between the fridge and stove, opened it up, and pushed it to the counter. I am already astounded, as this is the first time she has done anything more with it than climb up! Waiting to see what her little brain is working on, I continued doing the dishes and watching her out of the corner of my eye. She grabbed the cheese spreader knife (whew! thank goodness THAT was the colorful and attractive one!) out of the knife block and tried to cut a clementine. After finding her progress unsatisfactory, she moved on to bigger and better things - coffee!

For several weeks, she has been able to say coffee. She knows it's for mama and that it's hot. But she is so curious about it. Little did I know how much she knew about coffee until this evening.

She pulled out the can of coffee beans and politely (a miracle!) asked for help opening the can. I opened it for her, thinking it was something that could fairly easily be picked back up off the counter and might give me the 5 minutes I needed to finish the dishes. But just spreading the beans around the counter was not what she had in mind. Next, I see her grabbing for the coffee grinder. After checking that it was unplugged, just to be safe, I watched her. Sure enough, handful after handful of coffee beans went into the grinder. She neatly put the lid on and pushed down on it with all her might. When it didn't make the loud whirring noise, she again (miraculously) politely asked me for help. I plugged it in and helped her push the button to grind the beans.

She then asked for the coffee jar where we keep the ground coffee. Carefully taking the tablespoon out of the jar, she scooped the newly ground coffee into the jar! After a little help, she finished, and I went to put the lid back on the jar, thanking her for being so helpful. She protested loudly and insisted on putting the grounds into the French press and heating up water. I told her I had to pour the water because it was hot, but as soon as I was done, she grabbed the top of the French press, centered it perfectly, and pushed the plunger all the way down (which gives me a teaching moment for next time: "honey, we need to let the coffee steep for 3-5 minutes before pressing down on the plunger" - but it's a place to start!).

She looked up at me, beaming, and said "coffee, mama!". So.ridiculously.adorable. Oh, and awesome. My not-quite-2-year old makes me coffee! Now that's a life skill that will be very valuable!

2013 Chez les Béténés - Christmas/New Years Letter - Electronic Version

For those of you who also receive the famous Laupahoehoe LooneyTunes (the Therrien family newsletter for those that have no clue what I’m talking about!), some of this may be repetition, but having just celebrated my 30th birthday and having been married for several years, it seemed like an appropriate time to start a Christmas letter of our own to have a way to connect with family and friends, since we love receiving your cards and photos and letters!

The year 2013 has been a year of receiving visitors and much travel to visit friends and family. We attended 7 weddings (3 in town, the others in PA, CA, IL, and WI)! We were blessed to see my parents several times this year, starting the new year with a short visit with my dad, who came to give a speech in WI, only to have it canceled the day before the event (and the day after he flew in!) due to a Packer game that would have been conflicting with the event, thus a fear of no one showing up to the company party! We took a trip to Hawaii in February/March and got a nice break from the MN winter. All the Therrien “kids” were there, and we had a great time together. Abigail loved being able to be outside (after she got over a pretty intense dislike of the texture of grass), and we loved being with family who were happy to be on baby duty and give us a break!

The end of March and early April were an emotional rollercoaster as we learned that my mom was diagnosed with transitional cell cancer and had to have invasive surgery to remove a kidney. The good news is that they caught it early and she is recovering well, but it was hard to be so far away. We’re grateful that my brother was able to step in and be our hands and feet, helping around the house and cooking delicious meals for them while she was recovering.

We celebrated Abigail’s 1st birthday in April with the classic cupcake and frosting all over her face, toasting each other that we made it through the first year and she’s alive, healthy, and generally happy (as long as she gets her way). We are immensely grateful for our “village” in the Twin Cities that makes it possible for date nights and for offers to adopt us on holidays.

My parents were able to come back for a visit in May (they had rescheduled Dad’s speech, safely out of Packer season this time), and they were able to attend Claude’s graduation from the University of MN (with a master’s in Public Health and focus in Epidemiology). Mom came back for the 4th of July and we met her in Madison for a whirlwind tour to visit family in Sterling for the 4th of July, drive to Naperville to attend Mari and Michelle’s baby shower for the triplets, and then back to Madison for a good family friend’s wedding. It was fun, but we were all exhausted and had to make a rule that Grandma napped with Abigail, since she still didn’t have all her normal energy back yet but didn’t want to miss out on anything!

Claude defended his master’s thesis 4 days after we got home and started his first job 4 days after that. In between, we had another 2 weddings and a baptism to attend! At the end of July, I organized a surprise 30th birthday/graduation/congrats-on-your-1st-job-party for Claude, which was a huge success and a surprise to him - thanks for keeping it quiet! As if that weren’t enough, Claude also preached at church twice this summer and has tried to keep up with his responsibilities as a deacon!

In the midst of a crazy summer, made crazier by a super busy work schedule for me (facilitating the redesign of the front end of our emergency department), we did get out camping (which of course happened to be during the worst storm of the summer - we took refuge in our car both nights for some time to wait out the lightning!), had some fun family bike rides with Abigail in a bike trailer, dinners and fellowship times with friends, and watching Claude play soccer on Sunday afternoons.

We decided we hadn’t quite traveled enough this year and that we should head out West for Labor Day weekend to do the classic road trip to Mount Rushmore, seeing the sights along the way (Badlands, Wall Drug, etc.). And since we were so close and Claude’s goal is to set foot in every state in the US, we took a day trip to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, driving back to South Dakota via a corner of Montana!

Mom came back for a visit in September to attend a conference, and then spent the week with Abigail. By the time she left, Abigail’s fine motor skills were fine-tuned, and she was eating properly with a spoon and fork and knew how to hold a pen and crayon! Good job, Grandma - you’re welcome to visit anytime!

We squeezed in a wonderful but short trip to Lakewood in early October, in time to see the fall colors at peak and spend time with family. At the end of October, Claude spent 10 days in South Korea on a trip with our church, and I started a new role at work. I took a weekend trip out to State College in early November to visit my new nephew and nieces (and their moms, of course!), and enjoyed spending time with them, and my parents who were still out there helping with the triplets. I came home and took (and passed, whew!) a 4-hour-long certification test to get my Project Management Professional certification for work.

This fall, we were able to Skype with Claude’s family for the first time; they loved being able to see Abigail, and she loved getting to see them. Now, she points to the computer or our phones and says “grand-mere” and expects one of her sets of grandparents to magically appear and talk to her, nevermind any time zone differences there might be! Luckily, we have some grandparents several hours ahead and some several hours behind, so someone is usually awake and can chat with her!

Back in August, Claude and I had planned a long weekend in Cancun for my 30th birthday for the first weekend in December. A week later, a good friend called to let us know he was getting married December 21st in LA. The next week, another good friend called to let us know she was getting married December 28th in Chicago. All of these trips were totally worth it, but made for a hectic December! When Claude asked what we were going to do for Christmas, I suggested that a perfect Christmas would be sitting at home in my pajamas drinking my coffee in a regular mug instead of a travel mug, which is exactly what we did, and it was fantastic!

Abigail continues to be a tremendous source of joy and challenge to us. She is learning so much and so fast. Her vocabulary has exploded in the last few months, and she speaks a mix of French and English words. Because she hears English all day at daycare, we try to speak mostly French at home. So far, she understands everything we say to her in either language and seems to pick the shorter/easier to say word to speak, whether that’s in French or English!

As I write this, I feel exhausted just thinking about how intensely busy our lives have been this year and all the flights and car rides we have taken with our very active toddler! But at the same time, I am so grateful for all of the opportunities we have had to connect with all of you, who bring meaning and depth to our lives and help ground us in the midst of the busyness and day-to-day routines of working, parenting a toddler, and working to maintain a connected and fruitful marriage.

Wishing you a blessed 2014 from our family to yours!

Love,

Claude, Kate, and Abigail

Smarty pants - colors, numbers, shapes, oh my!

Most days lately, Abigail says something that blows me away.  Tonight, she kept showing me a toy and saying something. When I finally figured it out, I realized she was showing me one of the circles of the shape sorter and saying "circle". Once I finally got it and responded that yes indeed that was a circle, she beamed and proceeded to put it directly into the correct hole of the shape sorter! Amazing how good she has gotten at that toy and also at putting puzzles together!

Getting very fast with the shape sorter!

I have been named the official family translator, as I can often determine what she's saying fairly quickly based on her words, some context, a dash past history, and a good sprinkle of luck!

She is learning so much so fast. Just in the last few weeks, she has started counting almost to ten in English (but always skipping two) and to give in French (where deux never gets left out!). 

She sees letters either in a book, puzzle, or magnet letters and yells out "ABCs!" There is also a song at daycare that they sing that says, "a a a apple, b b b" but she can never remember what b is for. When I try to helpfully fill in the blank with bird, bear, bath, etc., she loudly yells "no!" Oh well! The funniest was one say in the car she was singing that song after we had just hung up Skype or FaceTime with one of her grandparents, so she was in the back seat singing, "a a a apple, b b b grandmere". I couldn't help but crack up!

She has also started learning colors, and she consistently points out green to us. And more recently, she is getting body parts down: nose, eyes, ears, head. Also, she is getting pretty good at animals and their noises! It is crazy to me to thing that a year ago, she wasn't even walking yet!

The majority of her words are English right now, largely because she hears it all day at daycare, which is where she's learning all these great things! So to counterbalance, we speak primarily French at home and try to affirm that we know what she's saying and repeat back the French word for things. She will then often repeat them back to us. There are also a handful of words that she primarily chooses the French word for.

She also is a huge fan of children's music and songs. I understand in theory, the idea that you should get your child to like your music so you don't go crazy with Baby Beluga playing on endless repeat. BUT. We can listen to "our" music all day long and she totally ignores it, while whenever we put kids music on, she immediately starts dancing and interacting. Definitely makes you think that creators of kids music know a thing or two about child development!

And in general, she is a curious cat. I am grateful for this aspect of her personality and know it will serve her well in the future. Just fun to see how it plays out in a 21 month old's brain!

Halloween 2013 - Smart Cookie

So the plan is (has been) to catch up with the monthly updates (5 or maybe 6 left!) and then move to a more event-based and hopefully less overwhelming posting schedule! I am still trying to find time to go through all the photos and get the monthly updates caught up, but wanted to post for Halloween because Abigail was so darn cute in her smart cookie costume!

And I'm also getting this post up thanks to Becky, who is also trying to catch up on her blog before their next little one arrives any day - and she had her good camera out and taking pictures! So thanks, Becky, for the Halloween blog post found here! Check out the second half of that post for the awesome trick or treating photos to commemorate the event!

A little background - we got a great princess costume in the clothes for this size that we got from Abigail's cousin (who has supplied 97% of her clothing to date - thank you, Karlynn!) but for some reason the idea of a princess just didn't sit right with me. Now when Abigail is old enough to ask for what costume she wants, I will have no issue getting her a princess costume if she wants it. But at the same time, something just seemed off for me this year, imagining my little girl as a princess. I tried to think of a spit-fire costume but came up short, so smart cookie it was! Bonus: getting good use out of Claude's graduation hat from this spring!

Highlights of Month 13 - Catching Up!

Alright, catching up...

As I write this, Abigail is actually 17 and a half months old. How time flies! We spend so much of our time chasing after her these days that it's hard to sit down and write the blog, not to mention that I have over 2000 photos to go through from these 5 months! Luckily, I have taken pretty good notes on Abigail's new tricks each month so I can go back and remember and document! So, my goal is to catch up on the monthly posts through Month 18, and then just post pictures or events as they come, hoping maybe it's a bit less overwhelming to keep up with!

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During Month 13, Abigail actually started bringing books to us to read, rather than just eating them! AND she sits and turns the pages as we read it to her rather than turning the first page or two and then closing the whole book!

Ok, so maybe part of the fun is just climbing on the coffee table to get the books!

Grandma Rae made her a "Faces" book - a photo album with pictures of many of the important people in Abigail's life, and she love looking at it. We hope that by bringing this out regularly, when she actually sees all of you important people in real life, she will have some memory of who you are since so many of you live so far away!

She also loves, adores, and is obsessed with bubbles. She recognizes the container and points and grunts whenever she sees it, making it clear that she wants them!

Speaking of pointing, my goodness! This girl points at everything. She points, looks at you to make sure you understand that she wants that, then points again!

I had an overnight work trip to Phoenix in April, and Abigail was very happy to see me that night!

In addition to her mad pointing skills, she also has started babbling like crazy to the point where sometimes it actually sounds like language! In addition to saying mama and dada, she also says "uh oh" and sometimes even before dropping something! She especially loves talking on the telephone.

Gross-motor-wise, she is FINALLY consistently getting down feet first. This is an amazing accomplishment and seriously makes me sleep better at night knowing I don't have to be quite as vigilant at being within arms reach because she doesn't try to just walk right off the bed anymore! She has also become quite the dancer. Whenever we put on music, she immediately stops, listens, and then starts bouncing up and down, bending her knees and looking completely adorable! And finally, she is a pretty good helper these days at getting dressed and undresses, especially with putting her arms in and getting them out of her shirts!

And here are some more great ones from this month. Abigail is so curious and just wants to explore everything. We are so grateful that overall, she is a very sweet and happy kiddo!

One afternoon, it got eerily quiet in the kitchen where Abigail was, and we came out to find her dumping the Cheerios bag onto the floor and then scooping them quickly into her mouth so we wouldn't take them away! 

Such a big girl! 

Haha, first time we tried giving her whole milk. After spitting it back out, she gave me this face, and then looked at me with a "Do you think I'm stupid, Mom? This is NOT the real stuff" look on her face!

There was a Cameroonian cultural festival one weekend in St. Paul. Abigail had fun, until she was just too tired to keep it together anymore!

We got out the bouncer to get it ready to give to Auntie Mari to use for the triplets, and Abigail jumped right in!

"What do you mean I'm too big, Mom?"

We also had a nice relaxing Mother's Day and enjoyed the spring weather!