Rhialden

If any of you had a mom like mine, you often got called by your sibling's or pet's names. Most of the time if mom wanted us, she'd just rattle off all the names she could think of and expect us to read her mind as to who on earth she actually wanted. Well, Rhainwen has taken care of this problem for mommy and decided that combining names would do just as well as rattling off a list of all of them. She came up with Rhialden the other day. Perhaps we should change the blog name or domain to that. Then as each child comes along, we'd just have to add a few more letters on to the end of the name. Pretty soon it'd sound like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (yes, this is how wikipedia spells it). No, not really. We don't want 20 kids.

I knew if I complained about excrement, we'd get the stomach bug. I just thought it would be God's way of getting even with my griping attitude. Rhianwen got it for the first time in her life yesterday right at the end of her nap. She's handled it like a trooper, and probably rather enjoyed herself in the process since she only threw up 4x, and got to get 2 baths in one day, watch hours of dvd's and eat lots of strawberry jello in her own room, and got read a book at 10:30 at night as a result. Thankfully, her last episode was at 10pm last night, so we actually got an unexpectedly good night's sleep. We are just waiting for the windfall though, when we or Alden get it. So far, none of us has. I've cloroxed and lysoled everything and put the entire house through the washer. It didn't help that at the time Rhianwen got sick we had already used up all of our paper towels. Thankfully, this sickness happened right when daddy got back into town from a 2.5 day trip to Atlanta. I must say, his presence always makes things go smoother. I'm not sure if we really work well as a team or if he's just able to save an otherwise desperate situation.

Alden has been just growing up. Just look at how much he looks like Grandaddy now:

Oh, I mean, just look how much this old picture of Grandaddy looks like Alden! It's amazing.

Alden now has one tooth. I had a suspicion that it was coming in when he bit down hard on something and just cried out in pain, so I felt around later and found it. I must confess I cried. My little baby is growing up! For some reason other milestones seem to come more gradually than the first tooth. It just seems like the first tooth pops out overnight whereas things like interacting, sitting, crawling, are all long drawn out learning processes. Speaking of crawling, we are just waiting for Alden to crawl. Finally tonight, he did an army crawl to get to the little toy radio of Rhianwen's. He loves that thing and likes to "dance"/bob his head when it plays music (see the video below).

I know, I say "He's so cute!" about 100 times.
We had a fun Valentine's Day celebrating as a family. Rhianwen painted a bunch of cards to send to our family members and then covered them in hamster heart stickers. She gave Great Grandma the most hamsters, and I was afraid perhaps Great Grandma might not appreciate those little rodents, but she loved the card and the hamsters according to Grandma Nanny Kim, so all is well!

Alden's favorite Valentine gift was a balloon orignally chosen by Rhianwen and intended for mommy, but once Rhianwen saw how much Alden loved it, she decided it was Alden's balloon instead. He just loves yanking on the string and making the balloon bounce.

Grandma Nanny Kim graciously came while Daddy was gone to Atlanta to help keep mommy sane and the children safe.

Well, maybe not safe....but happy and warm. Spinning in the new swing that Daddy made. He's like Atlas or something...he somehow got this huge log bolted way up high on 2 tree trunks and 2 swings hung on it all on his own. Our neighbor came to watch part of his feat and then decided to retreat to safer quarters. I just find it scary to trust a log bolted to 2 tree trunks to hold my kids up. I know, you say, it's probably stronger than those rickety old swing sets you used to swing on.

Our last couple of days in a nutshell. Rhianwen reading and playing with Nanny Kim and Alden wanting to do nothing but stand.

And, mom and dad, you will be happy to know that we have purchased a walker. Alden promptly pushed off backwards and cried. It's just not the same as running down the hall with mommy and daddy! I guess he will learn.