First Snow

We woke up Wednesday morning to find the world covered in a blanket of fluffy white stuff -- yes, snow! The first real snow of the season came early this year, and it stuck around for several days.

My once-flourishing garden is now covered by snow and dormant for the winter.


You can actually see the large snowflakes falling in this picture, against the cement step risers.

Our little flower

We took these two pictures of Adelaida and I couldn't resist posting them. In the first she is in her Halloween costume; in the second she is wrapped up in her towel after her bath.

Las Vegas: Kickball!

Two weeks ago, Dale's kickball team (Team Mandrake X) competed in the World Adult Kickball Association's Founder's Cup tournament in Las Vegas, NV. Every WAKA team in the nation that finished in either first or second place in their division or won the division tournament in the previous year, qualified to compete in the Founder's Cup. Team Mandrake X qualified by finishing first in their division and winning the division tournament three consecutive seasons. In the four seasons Dale had played for Team Mandrake X, they were undefeated.

The tournament started out with four-team round-robin group play. Team Mandrake X won the first and third games easily (17-0 and 10-5) and lost the second game pretty badly (12-0). That was the first game Team Mandrake X had ever lost, but they took it pretty well. The team they lost to was ranked fourth (out of 72 teams) going into the tournament and ended up placing second in the tournament overall. They were really, really good.

The top two teams in each group advanced to a single-elimination bracket, and Team Mandrake X's first opponent here was a team from the San Francisco Bay area that was actually very good, and this was probably the most exciting of all the games of the day. Kickball rules state that a game will last five innings or the end of the inning after the game reaches forty-five minutes, whichever comes first. At the end of the fifth inning, the teams were tied, six-six! With single-elimination play, a winner has to be declared, so the tie is broken by playing one additional inning, with fewer fielders to make scoring easier.

In the tie-breaker inning, Team Mandrake X was kicking first and scored three runs (one of which was Dale's), making the score 9-6 going into the bottom of the extra inning. The other team scored two runs, bringing the score to 9-8, and had two runners on base in scoring position. Dale (who normally plays outfield) was playing first base and caught a pop fly for the second out, and got the ball back to the pitcher quickly enough that the runners couldn't advance. The next runner bunted toward first, Dale got the ball and tagged the runner out, ending the game with Mandrake winning 9-8 in overtime! I was keeping score for them and my heart was pounding with excitement.

That game lasted a long time so we gathered spectators as other games ended and word went around that an exciting game was happening on field 1, so there were a lot of people around to witness our spectacular victory. The next game started soon after that one ended, and this time we were playing the #1 ranked team in the nation, a group from Maine that had won their pool-play games 12-0, 11-0, and 2-0. They had an excellent defense, and again the teams were very evenly matched. I'll spare you the play-by-play and jump to the end of the fifth inning. The game was tied 0-0, so we again went into extra innings to determine the winner. We kicked first again, and this time their excellent defense prevented us from scoring. All we had to do was keep the other team from scoring (which we had been able to do in the first five innings), but unfortunately they had a runner who was too quick and made it home. We lost 0-1, but it had been another exciting game!

It had been a great tournament, and although I was a little disappointed that we had been eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, we still had a great day, winning two of our three group play games, winning the first round of the single-elimination bracket in a heart-racing extra inning, and holding the first-ranked team in the nation to zero runs in regular innings. And, as the sun sank below the horizon during our last game, I was secretly glad that we were able to leave the tournament at 6:00 (the final game ended around 2:30am!).

Las Vegas: Visiting with the Johnsons

Dale's kickball team (yes, kickball!) qualified for the annual national Founder's Cup tournament in Las Vegas two weeks ago, so we packed up the car and drove up to Vegas for a long weekend. We were going to be two-thirds of the way to Los Angeles, so called up some LA friends to see if we could meet up with them while we were in their general region. Matt and Liz both had a three-day weekend at that time and decided to meet us in Vegas for a vacation of their own.

This was not only Matt and Liz's first time meeting Adelaida, it was also our first time meeting their 16-month-old son Connor. Connor turned out to be a happy boy whose mellow temperament perfectly matched Adelaida's.

We all met at Matt and Liz's hotel, which was right on the strip, and went swimming in their pool. Dale discovered a great pool game that Adelaida just loved: he took a squishy ball into the pool, held it underwater, and let go of it. The ball shot to the surface of the pool and flew up into the air, prompting uncontrollable laughter from Adelaida. Connor demonstrated his "doggies and kitties" ability to paddle in the water. After swimming, Connor enjoyed running around the hotel fake grass, with the Vegas Eiffel Tower in the background.

We took a walk along the strip right at Adelaida's nap-time, and she again fell asleep on her daddy's chest. He was quite proud of himself for getting her to sleep on him! I was so jealous of Dale that I convinced him to carefully transfer Adelaida to me -- at which point she promptly woke up. I'd like to report that I have learned my lesson from this and won't try to take the sleeping baby from her daddy again, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to control myself when the opportunity presents again!

Connor enjoyed running around at the Bellagio's indoor fall garden. Surprisingly, I don't think I saw him try to eat a single plant!


I'm not sure which of the kids was more interested in the other at the park. They got along well, with Connor helping Adelaida stand up and tolerating her when she tried to grab his face.


Around mid-afternoon, Connor decided it was naptime, and what better place to take a nap than on his mommy's lap?


We certainly enjoyed our visit with the Johnsons and look forward to spending time with them more often, whether in Vegas, ABQ, LA, or elsewhere.

The Wrong Car

Note: this post has a video, which may not come through on email or Facebook. If you can't see the video, go to our blog at http://parkesranch.blogspot.com/

Adelaida and I have a routine on days I take her to school, and a big part of that routine involves leaving her at school with a full stomach. Pumped breastmilk is hard to come by, so I want her to nurse as much as she can before school so that she takes fewer bottles while she is at school (thereby reducing the amount I have to pump). Since the drive to her school is about forty minutes, I generally nurse her before we leave, drive to school, and nurse her again in the car before I take her in to her classroom.

One Friday morning a few weeks ago, we arrived at school and I took Adelaida out of her carseat, then sat with her in the front passenger seat while she nursed. She had finished nursing on the left side and I had her sitting up on my lap to burp her when a man walked out of the school after dropping his child off. He walked out the door, walked to the driver side of my car, opened the car door, and sat down in the seat right next to me. I said something that I meant to be "excuse me, I think you might have the wrong car," but probably sounded more like "ummm -- what -- uh -- hi."

My speaking (garbled as it probably was) startled him and he looked at me, at my left breast (still hanging out of my shirt after the recent nursing), at Adelaida, then back to my left breast, and he said something that sounded to me like "oh -- uh -- sorry -- uh" (but was probably intended to be "oh, excuse me, I must have gotten in the wrong car. I'm so sorry to have bothered you").

He opened the car door and quickly walked away, toward his own silver small SUV that was parked next to mine, then returned to my car to close the door he had left open.

He was very pointedly looking down at the ground when he came back to close the door.

Adelaida seemed interested in this stranger and, as soon as he sat down in the car, she started waving to him (as in the video below) and making happy squeaky noises. She really has no fear of or anxiety about strangers!

Standing!

For about a month now, Adelaida has been experimenting with standing on her own. When she is standing near something (the couch, the coffee table, a chair, me), she often takes both hands off the object momentarily. She did this very tentatively at first, and now with more confidence. She seems to enjoy the thrill of standing by herself, and always smiles as if she is proud of herself after regaining her grip.

Seeing her think about standing on her own, I started standing her up in the middle of a room and letting go, then (usually) catching her as she fell. (There have been a few tears when she fell face-first into the floor or hit her head on the corner of the changing table, but I usually catch her!) At first she would stand for about a second, then three or four, and now she's up to at least a half-minute almost every time she stands.

A skill that is very important to learn along with standing is falling. It turns out to be a lot easier and more pleasant to fall on one's bottom than on one's face, and we are still trying to teach Adelaida this lesson, primarily by clapping and getting excited when she lands on her bottom and not reacting when she falls on her face. (Unfortunately, now she thinks the game is "momma will stand me up and I'm supposed to sit down as fast as I can, then clap!")

She has just recently gotten good enough at standing by herself that we've been able to take these two pictures. You might notice Dale's arm in the second photo -- he stood her up, then quickly pulled his hands away from her as I took the picture.

Ten Months with Adelaida

It is hard to believe that just ten months ago, we were meeting our baby girl for the first time!


By Adelaida's two-month birthday, Dale and I were just becoming really confident as parents.


And at four months old, Adelaida was becoming a much more confident baby. She had obvious likes (sleeping, the dogs, playing with her daddy) and dislikes (getting dressed, being hot) and was able to let us know when she liked or disliked something.


By six months, Adelaida was a frequent traveler, having visited southern New Mexico, northern Colorado, Salt Lake City, Indiana, and southern Colorado.


Eight months old was a hard time for Adelaida -- she could see things that were far away from her and that she wanted, but wasn't able to move (at least not forward) to get her desire.


Now she is ten months old and she is rarely still! Her favorite mode of motion is to walk, but she still requires at least one hand to walk, so often settles for crawling instead. As recently as two weeks ago we could set her down on the floor in a sitting position and she would remain sitting, but then she discovered she could get into the crawling position from sitting! And now she rarely sits still. It has been a wonderful process to watch her develop and learn to crawl and we are definitely ready for her to start walking on her own!


This is the best "bonus picture" of Adelaida and Pink Panther I could get this month: it is Adelaida, moments after the last picture was taken, rolling away from Pink Panther so she could crawl around and explore the room. If I had to choose one adjective to describe Adelaida, it would be "happy;" if I could choose two adjectives, I'd add "squirmy!"

Visiting the Midwest, Part 2

Here are more pictures from our trip to the Midwest:

Adelaida looks so small sitting in the empty grain bin!


I'm not sure who enjoyed playing on the floor more, Adelaida or her Great-Grandma!


Adelaida got to examine her Grandpa's new truck.


Adelaida enjoyed spending the day with her Grandpa, Grandma, and cousin Annabelle!


We met Michael and Sami for lunch before flying back to Albuquerque.


Adelaida was waving to me while Michael and Sami held her for the picture.


Papaw and Ruth went to Bloomington with us for lunch.


Back in Albuquerque, Adelaida was so happy to see her Daddy and ride on his shoulders!

Visiting the Midwest, Part 1

A few weeks ago, Adelaida and I took a very last-minute trip to the Midwest to visit with our family. We decided on Monday that we were going to go, left Wednesday, and returned the following Monday. Rather than flying directly to Indianapolis, we took a detour through Ohio to spend two days with Aunt Rachel and Uncle BJ. They were planning to visit Indiana that weekend and were kind enough to give us a lift to Indianapolis.

The trip was short, so we didn't have much time to spend with anyone, but we certainly had fun. Highlights of the trip included:

Apple-picking with my mom (who was also visiting Rachel and BJ for the week) and Rachel


Adelaida spent dinner on Thursday night on her Aunt Rachel's lap ....


.... when her Uncle BJ wasn't holding her!


Adelaida's Nonna and Poppa got a Beanie Baby holder, complete with several Beanie Babies, that Adelaida just loved to play with. Mikel got down on the floor with Adelaida to introduce her to each of the animals.


When we got to Ohio, Adelaida was on the verge of crawling. By the time we left Indiana, she could easily crawl across the room. I'm pretty sure having her Poppa show her how it was done pushed her over the edge!


And here is the entire Colts fan family! I would have loved to be in the picture, but left my Colts jersey in New Mexico :( But don't they all look so cute! We went out to eat that morning, all wearing our Colts gear, and got so many comments from complete strangers saying Adelaida was adorable in her Colts outfit. (By the way, this Colts outfit is the only clothing I've ever purchased for her.)