July Pics

July pics are posted: http://picasaweb.google.com/aseleener/July2008

Also, see below for three new blog posts: the flowers, Iowa trip, and Lena's first swim.

The flowers are finally done!

So, I had always wanted to put Lena's name up in her room somehow but was never sure how to do it. And then I realized how handy it would be to have somewhere to hang stuff like hats and the dress she would wear to church the next day. When I was in Hobby Lobby one day, I saw some really cute flower-shaped pegs and a light bulb went on. Now, I am not a crafty person, so this was quite an undertaking for me. The flowers were unfinished, so I had to sand them, paint them, put letters on them, and put a clear coating on. Here is the finished result:

This is the project that Hilary and I were working on when she was here for Sisters' Day. She helped me paint them, but more importantly, she helped me pick out the colors, which colors went together, and what order they should be in. Sounds simple, but took us a long time!

Every other letter (the vowels, as it turns out) has a peg. We took the dot off the pegs we didn't need and just glued them to the flower.

I think it really brightens up her room. I am so glad it's done! It was fun, but a lot of work. I'm such a perfectionist that even simple projects like this give me lots of problems. :)

I hope Lena likes it as she gets older. Right now she enjoys looking at it when laying on the changing table.

Thanks to Hilary and Jim for helping me!

Iowa Trip

Last weekend Lena and I went to Iowa. We went with Grandpa Lee and Aunt Hilary. We hadn't yet introduced Lena to Dad's side of the family; so that was the purpose of the trip.


Lena got to meet her Great-Grandpa Gilbert. She is his first great-grandchild. He liked her an awful lot. Lena also got to meet my Uncle Mark and Aunt Trista.

This is Lena with her Great-Great-Aunt Delores. She is Grandpa Lee's aunt. We had a nice chat with her and she served us some yummy chocolate zucchini cake that she had made earlier in the day.

Our four generations picture. As you can see, I am sans glasses. I lost them while we were there. Back in business now, though.

This is Lena with Triple G (lol) and my cousins Trent and Lauryn. They had so much fun swimming in our hotel's pool. They thought Cousin Hilary was especially fun. Hilary and I spent quite a bit of time trying to convince Lauryn that we all had the same grandpa, but she having none of it! She turns 4 on August 5, and Trent turned 7 in June.

We had a nice trip. I am really glad that Grandpa got to meet Lena and vice versa. Thanks so much to Grandpa Lee for making this trip possible, and to Aunt Hilary for all of her help.

Lena's First Swim

Today Lena went swimming for the first time. She loved it! I thought she would; she is a pretty big fan of bath time.


Gary and Cheryl had this nice little float for her to use. It has a thing she sits in down below the water. It kind of looks like she was holding herself up with her arms, but she wasn't!

Thanks so much, Gary and Cheryl, for inviting us over! We had lots of fun!

Aunt Hil's Visit

Aunt Hilary came to visit us this weekend. We had lots of fun with her. On Friday she and I went to the beach at Grand Haven. It was cold and cloudy at first, but then the sun came out and we had fun "wave bobbing." It was nice for me to have a little mommy break and Hilary and I were celebrating Sisters' Day. We created Sisters' Day; it's July 15. We used to get each other gifts, but now that we live apart, we just try to go do something fun together to celebrate. A trip to the beach was perfect.

Then on Saturday we worked on a project together. I got some flower-shaped pegs for Lena's room. We sanded them and painted them and I am going to put her name on them. Here they are after we painted them:

I'll post a pic when they are done.

On Sunday we had a nice lunch out on the deck and spent some time doing crosswords while Lena kicked her legs in her little outdoors thingy. It was a beautiful day.

Thanks so much for visiting us, Aunt Hil!

Morning Walk

Yesterday was the first time Lena rode in her stroller without the car seat. She sat in the front like a big girl! She seemed to really like being able to see everything in front of her.

This morning we went for a walk on the trail with a member of our congregation, Christy. It was a lovely morning; around 70 degrees and sunny. Unfortunately, the bugs thought it was a nice morning to be out as well and we had to turn around early because they were eating us alive. But it was nice to get up and get moving early in the day (well, earlier than we usually do anyway!)

I had to wake Lena up to go, and as you can see from these pics, she was still pretty sleepy by the time we got outside. She enjoyed it though.

Aunt Hil is going to be here tomorrow to spend the weekend with us. We can't wait to see her (it's been almost 2 months!) I'll be sure to post pics of her visit.

Fourth of July

Today we went to a flea market at Burley Park north of Grand Rapids. Our friends have a booth there where they sell antiques, and they invited us to come check it out. It was fun. We walked around a bit, bought a few things, but most of all, we enjoyed the people-watching! Always fun.

We had wanted to take Lena to see fireworks on her first Fourth. But we decided that it was a little late for Baby to be out (since it doesn't get dark until like 10), so we skipped it this year. Hopefully it will work out next year.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!!

Four Month Check-Up

Today we went to the pediatrician's office for Lena's four month check-up. It went really well. Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs. 10 oz. 69th percentile
Height: 25 1/2 inches 88th percentile
Head circumference: 36th percentile

Hmm, long body, good weight, tiny head! LOL! I was surprised by her weight. We weighed her at our local doctor's office three weeks ago and she was 12 lbs. 10 oz. then. Wow! Two pounds in three weeks! But I wasn't surprised about her height. Her onesies are always baggy on the sides and stretched taut between the neck and crotch. Haven't yet figured out where she gets her tallness, long fingers, and long toes from.

The doctor said she is doing really well with her physical development too. She said it's really great how she is rolling over both ways (she rolled from tummy to back for the first time yesterday and did it twice) and holding her head up and trying to sit. She was trying to grab Dr. Oberlin's instruments and put them in her mouth. Dr. Oberlin was impressed by her grip and the way she brings objects right up to her mouth. Lena was such a good girl during the exam; she was smiling and cooing the whole time. Dr. Oberlin said, "I wish everyone I saw was this happy!"

She got some more shots and did really well with that too. She cried for maybe 30 seconds, then was 100% back to her normal happy self. And it was right before her lunchtime too.

We are so proud of our little girl. I'll post pics of her first Fourth of July tomorrow.

We hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth.