Introducing Sabrina Eldora Carmichael

She's here!

Sabrina was born Friday night--Jan 7, 2011 at 10:30 pm. She was born into the water and caught by her daddy. The birth was fast (less than 2 hours at the birth center), intense, and beautiful. Both Sabrina and I are recovering wonderfully and are fully enjoying our babymoon.

I'm not quite sure what to write, because my husband Alex is detailing life so well on his blog 42 days. We are so blessed to have him home for the next 6 weeks (42 days), and he plans to blog about his experiences--one post per day. So, I will try to not be redundant. I will restrict myself to blogging about stuff he doesn't cover.

Baby Brina is such a blessing. I deserve her. Edgar was so hard as a new baby (didn't eat for the first 3 days of his life, cried non-stop for 3 months, etc., etc.) and--so far--Sabrina is just what I deserve after surviving Edgar. She sleeps. She eats. She wakes up and looks around at us. She cries to tell me her diaper is wet or she is hungry or cold--and then stops crying when the problem is resolved.

I love my Edgar. He has made me stronger and more patient. And I love my Sabrina. She is my reward.

The Countdown...

The New Year is here...and the countdown has begun. I'm not exactly sure WHEN we are counting down to...but I imagine that within the next week or two we will be welcoming Baby Girl Carmichael into our home! (Nope--no name yet--we have a short list of 3 and a longer list of alternatives...but, I'm not worried. She'll have a name by the time she comes home...probably).

And...the last minute flurry of preparations has begun...including the all-important Danita Pappas photo shoot. It was pouring outside, so we hit the local used bookstore as a "studio" of sorts for the photo shoot--turned out fantastic. It will probably take a while to get all the photos, but Danita (good friend and photographress extraordinaire) posted a few teasers for us.

I LOVE this family of mine. We had a fun New Year's Day--we meant to do a lot of cleaning/organizing the house to prepare for new baby (and we did get some of those important things done), but mostly we just ENJOYED each other. All three of us seem to be feeling huge loving amounts of joy toward one another. I know that baby girl will only add to that--but in part we know that we are losing--(not quite the right word)--changing our current picture of "family," and I think we are all trying to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment from our perfect little family.

I guess I'm feeling a little nostalgic: Letting go of the old and ringing in the new, and all of that.

I can't wait to meet this baby girl and to see what our new family dynamics will be like--and until then, I will do all I can to enjoy the countdown!

Christmas Highlights 2010

Merry Christmas!

The Christmases between high school and Edgar were...well...a little lacking in Christmas excitement. But it's back. Christmas with a 2 year old is so fun!

Edgar really got Christmas this year--on a really basic level. He got that it was baby Jesus' birthday, Santa was going to bring him presents--specifically, Santa would bring him a scooter (at one point, when he really got that he could ask for something, he was jumping up and down on my bed yelling "SANTA...BRING....EDGAR...'COOTER!"), and that there were lots of parties with family.

Some favorite quotes:

Alex: "Edgar, tomorrow is Christmas...what does that mean?" Edgar: "Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus. Santa. Jesus. Party!"

All throughout the Christmas weekend he would insist on singing Happy Birthday to Jesus at every meal. He also wanted "more fire? more cake? blow out candles?"

He knows Santa comes down Chimneys...but he wasn't totally certain what a Chimney was. I pointed out a big fireplace to him and said, "Look Edgar, a chimney!" Now...he knows fireplaces are hot, so he looks at me with big eyes and says, "Hot! Santa? Santa hot?" with a face that clearly demanded an explanation.

He just wanted to sing and hear us sing Christmas songs all weekend. When driving in the car we tried to substitute with the radio, but he said: "push button. turn music off. Sing Hosanna."

My favorite? On the way to church Sunday he sang Silent Night--the whole first verse, in the sweetest most angelic voice. My heart melted. His daddy melted too--real teary eyes and all.

We had a busy day of visiting family, so we had to wake him up early. I know, I think it goes against some kind of parent law to wake your kid Christmas morning...

He quickly got over his sadness at waking so early when he realized there were presents everywhere!
(His first look at the pile of gift under the tree)

This was his favorite toy--from Grandma and Grandpa Carmichael. A "round a round" for his cars and motorcycles.

(= Christmas Joy.

(Loved his new motorcycle so much he couldn't put it down. Had to unwrap with one hand)

Here it is! The Scooter! This is the best picture I could get...he didn't hold still too well...

At this moment he is looking at the picture saying "'Edgar's 'Piderman 'cooter!"

In all, Christmas was fantastic.

Oh yeah, I got cool stuff too. Edgar gave me new shoes. Alex gave me new pots and pans, some awesome records, and some new table lamps (=

But, really, it was all about the 2 year old. As it should be!

After all there's only 3 more sleeps till Christmas!

Yikes! Everything seems to be in fast forward lately. We did have a lovely Thanksgiving. I have a few good pictures of Edgar enjoying his grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunties and uncles. But...as I know I don't have the time or energy to get all of that up too...I'll restrict myself to a few recent pictures and videos.

I was in charge of our church's ward Christmas party this year. It was my last duty as Activity Chairperson before that particular calling was dissolved. In the mean time, I was called as Primary Secretary and kind of overlapped for a couple of weeks. It was a pretty hectic time! The party was a success, and I love my new calling in Primary.

Seeing Santa was pretty exciting for Edgar--he really wanted to talk to him--but no luck with the lap sitting.

Edgar is absolutely enchanted by Christmas. We cut down a teeny little Christmas Tree and it has a very few ornaments. Edgar often gazes at the tree and exclaims, "CHRISTMAS! Daddy CHOPPED it, CUT it, CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! Christmas TREEEE!"

We had a fun spontaneous family night in Portland. We saw the BIG Christmas Tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square, went to a fun toy store, and ate yummy Lebanese food. The picture is not so good, but you can kind of see my bigness.

Baby girl is due in about 2 1/2 weeks...and I can't believe I can grow any bigger. I feel HUGE. But--happy and in general good shape physically. We are really excited for her to join our family.

Edgar "talks" to baby sister a lot. He kisses her (my belly), rubs her, measures her at mommy's midwife appointments, and tells me if she is sad or happy. The other day he told her: "baby si'ter, 2 more minutes, after: come out!" I don't think he really knows what he's getting into, or he wouldn't be ordering her out.

We have been talking a lot about birthday's lately. Grandpa Carmichael's birthday was earlier this month. Alex's birthday was last Sunday. Edgar knows that Christmas is "happy birthday baby Jesus" and that after Christmas is Baby Sister's birthday.

Edgar is also a bit obsessed with fire and birthday cakes. He did a good job helping his asthmatic daddy blow out the candles!

And, for Grandma Vickie, here is a recent Edgar video. One of my favorite things he does lately is sing. He sings nonsense and he sings big open vowels with hymns at church--but lately he is singing entire songs. He sings "Christmas Bells are Ringing," "Up on the Housetop," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger," "Jingle Bells," and "Frosty the Snowman."

In this video, he is singing Up on the Housetop. He has a lock groove built into this song. But, apparently there are ways to stop the broken record. I have another video with more singing...but it isn't uploading. I'll try again later.

sunBEAM!

Edgar has been super cute about singing lately. He LOVES to sing.

He sings nonsense along with cds.

He sings hymns with the congregation in church (while "reading" the hymnal).

He has a pamphlet about birth (he picked it up at one of my midwife appointments)--He calls it his "aaahhh yaaaa book" and sings out of it in the car. Once he dropped it, and I tried to hand him a different book to sing out of. He said, "no way. aaahh yaaa book." Apparently he can't sing out of just any book.

He also loves to fill-in-the-blank with mom and dad for songs he knows. His favorite right now is Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. He isn't super cooperative in this video--but it's the only one I have (and I think the reluctance is pretty darn cute too!)

I also love that this video shows how much Edgar loves his dad. How lucky is he to have CARMICHAEL as his nursery singing leader? Yep--Edgar has now been in nursery at church for 3 weeks and just loves it.

18 Months

Oh, I am so behind on blogging, I'm not even going to try to play catch up. Instead, here is the 18 month update on Edgar! (Warning, it's pretty long. That's what I get for not blogging for so long!) No hair cut yet...but don't be surprised if it happens soon. Alex says he is looking like an Oompa Loompa.

Edgar is going through one of those rocket fast learning stages--new words and abilities every day. But, he still remains the same boy he has always been:

Edgar is super silly and loves to make people laugh. If he says something that gets a laugh once, he will say it over and over and over to see how it makes people react.

Fun things he says:

• Wash squash (he "made up" this rhyme and thinks it is hilarious--I think he is right)
• He likes to look at a picture and say the wrong word for it, and then say "NO!" and say the right word. The other day he was pointing to guys on the cover of my James Bond book saying, "Is this one daddy? NOOOOO! Is this one daddy? NOOOO!" Then he saw the Bond Girl and said (knowingly) "Moooooommy"
• "Mo-Co-Loy-Lo" = Motorcycle. He LOVES motorcycles and always talks about "Edgar Ride!" when he sees one. The other day he saw one and said, "Mo-Co-Loy-Lo. Cool-WOW!"

"CHEESE!"

Funny (but long) story:

The Scriptures, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter are all getting a little mixed up at our house. A friend recently taught the kids to pound a broomstick on the ground and say "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Edgar translated this to "NO PASS!" We watched the clip from LOTR and the image stuck in his head. Now, any guy with a long white beard says "NO PASS!" and is a wizard.

Edgar also watched Potter Puppet Pals and the Mysterious Ticking Noise, and LOVED it. He can do most of the skit on his own. "Nape, Nape...DUMBADOE....HERRRR-MY-KNEE...won, won, won WEEEEEZY...(and in a whisper) hawee potteh hawee potteh AH! He is pretty sure the Gandalf and Dumbledore are the same guys. Both are wizards and say NO PASS!

Then, recently we started reading scriptures together as a family every night. We are reading a few verses every night from the Book of Mormon. The phrase, "and it came to pass" is all throughout the BoM--and Edgar has really picked up on it and somehow thinks this means the Scriptures are about Wizards. And Jesus. And records (you know...the round black ones). And Lehi. And Nephi. It is pretty awesome.

We each read a few verses, even Edgar. We read a few words and pause, then he says whatever he can. He usually yells NO PASS (we try to save those verses for him). But one time I read "and he told his children that they shall not"--I paused to let Edgar repeat some words, but he finished the sentence with "PASS!" It was really funny.

But, even though he is a bit confused about the content of the scriptures, he is excited to read them every night. One night we were reading books before bed and he asked for "more one" (one more book). I said, you can choose one more, so pick your favorite...he ran into the other room and brought in the scriptures (=

Edgar is learning a lot of new words and phrases from the Signing Time dvds--he LOVES them. Here he is signing Chicken in front of the chickens at the petting zoo! He can sign over 100 words and phrases!

I am amazed at how much it increases his vocabulary and comprehension. He started watching the dvd about the Colors a few weeks ago. Up to that point, he hadn't shown any interest in colors. Suddenly, he can identify all his colors! So fun! He can also identify some letters, count to 10, and he knows a few shapes (Circle and Octogon).

He also loves to read books. His current favorites are Dr. Seuss Hop on Pop, Bears on Wheels, Bernstien's B Book, Go Dog Go!, Hand Hand Finger Thumb, and Brown Bear Brown Bear. He's at that stage where he is memorizing his favorite books and can "read" portions of them to us. LOVE IT!

And, he is just a sweet boy who loves his family. He prays for his grandparents and cousins, loves to look at family pictures and hear about everybody, and likes to call people on the phone (though he immediately gets shy and won't say much...of course!) He love his best friends upstairs and wants to play with them all of the time. He is generally a happy sweet kid and I LOVE being his mom.

He is also getting used to this baby sister idea. He "plays peekaboo" with his baby sister (by lifting up my shirt to see my tummy), he kisses her, tells her he loves her, and sometimes will tell me that she is crying and hugs her better. He's going to be a great big brother in a couple of months!

Big Brother and Little Sister

Here she is! It was awfully clear that she is a girl, so I guess our imaginings of a house full of boys is just an imagining. But now that I have come to terms with pink, I'm really looking forward to dolls, dresses, bows, and bikes with pink and purple streamers. I am not quite ready for discussions about periods, bras, boyfriends, and all of that. Yikes. One thing at a time.

Here is a super sweet video of Edgar taking some initiative to get to know his baby sister. I LOVE it!