A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...

So last September/October, Cayden and I participated in a Waterbabies at the pool in Corvallis. When the class ended in October, they took underwater pictures of our babies, and I promptly paid the $2 and ordered one. They were supposed to email the photo within 2 weeks.....really? It takes 2 weeks to email a digital photo? So I waited. And never got the photo. By the end of November, I called the aquatic center, but there is apparently only one guy who can send the photos, and he only works Mondays. So then I promptly forgot every time Monday comes around. So I finally went in to the pool this past Monday and talked to them, and they were surprisingly helpful for the first time! They found my order form and apologized and said they would email me the photo. This is the photo that came to my email... For many obvious reasons, this is not me or my baby. FAIL. So I emailed them back, with a picture of Cayden and asked if they could send a picture of my baby. She promptly sent me 3

Today would have been Beth's 39th birthday. We started our day with her parents, having lunch in Salem.   It was a great time of soup, salad, cheeseburger sliders and lots of messy crackers and cheese for Cayden (which ended up all over the Applebee's floor). Cayden had a great time playing with Vic's iPhone (she likes to see herself on the camera), and making scrunchy smiles at us. We spent about and hour and a half telling stories about Beth, and wishing she could be here with us. Vic and Carolyn are so special to us, and it was a good time together. After lunch, Carolyn was off to a hair appointment and I drove over to church to visit with my dad because we had a few extra minutes. Bryan's mom stopped by to see us too, and Cayden lit up and crawled right to her. Then we had to hurry home for Cayden's doctor's appointment....I thought she might have an ear infection, but it turned out to be nothing. In other medical news, I went to the endocrinologist

We woke up to snow today! Daddy was already at church :( but the kids and I all went out to play in it.  Check out Joe's choice of footwear.....he went and changed when we started rolling the snowman.  Cayden wasn't so sure about all this bright, wet stuff, but she did like eating it, and didn't seem to mind the cold fingers.  Here's our snowman. Pretty good, if you ask me! Unfortunately, it only lasted about an hour because someone came and kicked it over! Darn Adair Village kids!  It was a fun to see the kids enjoying the snow!

We have heat! Just in time for the impending cold snap, our heater is up and running! It only took 2 visits from NW Natural, 2 new ignitors bought online (which ended up NOT being the problem), 3 visits from Pace Heating, 2 new circuit boards and 1 big credit card swipe and we are now warm in the whole house (not just downstairs next to the fireplace! In an earlier post, I mentioned how God gives and takes away.....well He gave again today when the Pace Heating guy waived the initial $79 diagnostic fee! Such a blessing! God is good. For the  purpose of documentation, Cayden and I developed a new game today. She has gotten really attached to her rubber ducky, and so I put it up on the 4th stair, and she learned how to crawl all the way up the stairs to get it, and then we practiced coming back down on her bum. She wanted to do it over and over again, and even showed the kids when they got home from school! She is very careful when going down, a little nervous even, but she

Making messes is her specialty. Today she discovered how fun it is to empty my Tupperware drawer (twice).  I also discovered where all the binkies have gone! I lifted up the foot of Cayden's new 7-armed Octopus toy and found a binkie! I rattled it a little and yes, there was another one in there! Apparently Cayden doesn't understand you are supposed to put balls down the chute, not binkies!

Today I felt productive. When Cayden sleeps basically uninterrupted until 11:30 a.m., I find myself with LOTS of time, but usually I just waste that time playing Lexulous on Facebook, reading my friend of a friend of a friend's blog, or catching up on "Army Wives" on Netflix. Instead, today I cleaned the house (the downstairs at least), including sweeping and vacuuming, cleaned up Cayden's room (I always pile her clean clothes on the floor after folding them because I am lazy. Today I tackled the pile.), hosted a quick lunch for some hungry high schoolers, got the furnace checked out by a professional (it only took a month of no heat), went grocery shopping, Asia Market shopping, bought new wipers for my car, and went to Home Depot for a new furnace filter (all with baby in tow). It was a good day of checking off things on my list. I know this is super not interesting, but it's  my blog, so I don't really care. I just wanted to record that I do have the

Weight: 18 pounds, 15 ounces (54th percentile) Height: 28 1/8 inches (49th percentile)  Head: 18 1/4 inches (91st percentile)  Cayden is MOBILE! She loves to chew on paper and computer cords and all things dangly and zippery. She has 4 teeth (two on top and two on bottom) and has started to bite my shoulder sometimes. She understands tone of voice because when I unlatch her and say "no biting," she cries like she knows she was bad. She is very mischievous, when we say "Cayden, no, no," she usually books it faster toward the "no no." She loves to climb the stairs, but usually only gets up one, then we take her down and put up the gate. When we take something away, she cries big tears for about 10 seconds, then moves on.  When she sees someone she knows, she now gives an open mouth smile, usually sticking her tongue out at the same time. She's pretty good at smiling on cue but really bad at staying in one place for pictures! Her hair is crazy and

The Bernards had our annual Post-Christmas vacation at SeakRest Lodge in Newport last week. Bryan's parents, brother and sister-in-law, sister, grandparents, 2 aunts, one uncle, and 2 cousins all spent 4 days over at the beach together playing games and watching the crazy rain beat against the huge windows overlooking the Pacific.    We did get one nice day, and we headed down to the beach to take advantage. Cayden had a good time with all of her relatives to take care of her.  She especially loves it when Auntie Carrie spins her around in circles.