Allianna and the great 1st grade hula hoop competition

This girl has come so far.  Last year, during kindergarten, Allianna was incredibly anxious about going to P.E.  She'd start fretting about it for days before and become upset as the hour approached.  She started attending art class 3 days a week instead, since she was overwhelmed by the whistles and yelling teachers in P.E. We hoped in another year she'd outgrow it.

This year she was willing to try P.E., with some trepidation.  In the fall we started hearing about hula hoops and she asked for one for her December birthday.  She was always hooping, around the house and in the yard; she can run, go down on her knees, and jump while keeping the hoop up.  Then in April, Field Day finally arrived.  She was stoic the night before, having already qualified as one of two representatives for the Hula Hoop competition from her class.  Her school is pretty large, 5 classes per grade.

I just hoped she wouldn't have some bobble in the first few seconds (you know, elbow interference) and miss a chance to really show her stuff.

Notice the two tall(er than Allianna!) girls to her left (in orange and red); they figure in the end.

At this point our camera froze up and missed the final minute.  I alternately couldn't watch and resisted cheering because I didn't want to crack her focus.  After the teacher made them all walk around, and then kneel for over a minute and THEN stand back up, she directed the four remaining(!) girls to draw in close and it became Hula Hoop BATTLE!!!??!!  To go from "Yikes, don't let your hoops touch!" to "Does she know how to put her hoop at hyper speed and battle??!!!" was a real nail-biter!

But then they were three, and those two bigger reigning-champ girls' hoops dropped at the same time, and Alli powered on in her tight little hula, 

and she was the 1st grade champion!!!!!

There's nothing better than watching your child experience something that they've really hoped for.

Pictures without captions

Lovely Luna

Hi friends--

A few explanations:
1. my camera doesn't talk to my computer any more, so I have to wait and remember to use Mark's work computer.  So that is why I can't fix the lack of Mary Tessa in these pictures.  Because, land knows, she is around me at all times and in all places and in all things.  Because she is four and we can't escape each other..But she's a good girl.
2. Luna is sucking on my wrist as I type.  I constructed most of this left-handed trying not to wake her.  She's now 3 months old and is a crown jewel.  A few of these shots of her are oldies but goodies (on the pillow about 6 weeks ago); but, hey, that's how it is with baby pictures. So soon they're growing and the photos are old, right?  She's smiling, holding up her neck pretty well on my shoulder, and nearly laughing.
3.  I cut some three pounds off of my hair.  If I had easy photography access you'd see that too, but we'll just have to save that for another time.  If there are any completely out of context phrases in here, it's because I'm keeping up a semi-inane conversation with Mary Tessa about shooting bad guys with my other brain cells.  Back to the hair, it's both young and mature at the same time.
4. I like what Simon does with Legos better than what the kits' original intent was.  His Hogwarts now sports some cannons/surveillance cameras.
5.  Allianna has gone from being physically ill  with terror for days thinking about attending P.E. (and going to Art 3x/week instead), to being the runner up at 1st grade dodgeball. All the 3rd graders were gathering around yesterday and yelling to Simon to come see his sister winning.  It took a year and a half of prayer and courage, but I love hearing her happily recount how many laps she ran.
6. Mark just went to Hawaii for a week.  All refreshed and recharged for the final charge at the PhD.
7.  I am completely obsolete to Blogger.  It's leaving me in the dust and barely able to draw up a post.

Luna Eve Nolte    

Born August 14, 2012

I wanted a nine-pounder and I got her:

9 lbs even

22 1/4 inches

Too busy enjoying her to blog.

I can't believe I have three daughters!

Number Four's blog introduction

I'll take Mark for a Mother's Day present any day.

My good kids (Mary was inside executing one of her many costume changes).

Mark was a Mother's Day baby.  This is what he wanted and got this year for his big day.  Also, he wore Alli's necklace gift to work and during a presentation. :)

Mary Tessa

Given the choice, she wanted flowers instead of balloons for her birthday.

Her princess 'do at 8am on the day of her party.  It lasted about half an hour.  She much prefers to have her hair completely down all the time.

A bit of light breakfast reading. She was taking the liberty of reading it out loud to me. Key parts of the plot were missing, but she wears that red "A" because she's a princess.  Mary takes this book around with her all the time; much beloved.

Thanks for the space Mom.

 The last few weeks I've been having fun with comments from grocery clerks, parents at the kids' school, and grannies at church.  Pregnant with a smile, that's my job in public now.

Other mom, seeing me on approach to the school: "You must be soo ready!  It's got to be soon!"
Me: Oh nope, I have til August. [her face falls] We're just going to spend the whole summer at the pool! [smile]

Clerk: Is THAT a boy or a girl?
Me: Oh, it's a surprise. [smile]
Clerk, looking like I should have planned better since I'll obviously be having to cloth THAT any day now, and crestfallen when she hears that THAT won't be born til August: [speechless].

Walking up with the three kids to sit in a pew I hear:
Church Grandma, with southern accent:  My my my dear, you must be ready. It must be close!
Me: Oh, a few more months still.  In August.
CG: Well.
We settle in in front of her, with hair all combed (triumph!), feeling like we all look pretty good.
CG: Now, honey, you're sure it's not twins.
Me: Nope, it's not. [SMILE]  I'm just nice and stretched out from these three good kids here. [SMILE]
CG: Well, honey.
Me: Plus, these are Mark Nolte's kids--these are long kids! [SMILE]
When Mark arrives a little bit later:
CG: I told your wife she looked so ready and is she sure it isn't twins?!
He swears he didn't hear a thing from this conversation.

2nd pregnancy (my brother Adam taking his sweet time in the womb)

So, since I'm at 30 weeks, planning on an early August birth, not expecting twins, and not feeling so done, I had to call my mom for some justification.  To try to keep the smile on my face.  Ironically, this was all on Mother's Day.  She told me how she had to go a different grocery store every week in her last trimester with me because the manager at her regular store was getting so alarmed.  And how she bought shoes a few weeks before I was born and the clerk helping her try them on was terrified I'd be born right there. And then she emailed me these beauties:

3rd pregnancy (my bro Aaron, first to be born at 1412 where Mom and Dad still are)

4th pregnancy (Me!  Ta Da!)

 And my favorite picture from my childhood, taken a few days before I was born.  Now that actually looks like a person inside a person! 

1st pregnancy (less space for my sister Catherine, no wonder she's such a good yogi!)

I've been telling people to just enjoy the show and watch as I grow, because it's going to get EPIC.  

After all, do you expect people like me or this baby to get to this world in any less dramatic a fashion? Plus, Mark says thinking about about womb life makes him absolutely claustrophobic.  I do what I can.

[I wanted to put the baby picture here, but new-fangled blogger be possessed].

Maybe I'll even manage to get a current photo up, but this blogging thing has already taken way too long.  There are starving 4 year olds and libraries to attend to.

Simon's chameleon festivities

"Fling the chameleon's tongue on the dragonfly"

I'm a little bit proud of these sculpey guys.
Lesson learned: A chameleon is easier to form than say, a horse, which would have to be sleek.
Just a mottled lump with a curly tail.
But they can hang on a necklace.

Happy Birthday Simon!!!
Great-grandma Boone's lemon chiffon cake with blue layers.

The inspiration for the blue and yellow stripes.
And the whole party, really. Stripey, himself.
Look for him again at Halloween.

And thanks Grandmas, Nanas and Great-Grandmas--the cards all made it here in time!

Thanks to all the great friends who made it a great day, if you're out there somewhere reading this!

Best part of the party? Simon.

And his idea to park his 13 friends in front of the BBC Life segment on chameleons during his party. Providing ten people their first exposure to David Attenborough? Priceless.
His dad thinks it was so cool that Darwin himself would have come.

I never thought that I would ever communicate more words through texting than through blogging. But such has been this summer. Don't you kind of hate texting? I feel like we as humans have spent a good 3000 years or more refining our communication skills and creating epic literature and poetry and philosophy and *hooray* a distinct word for absolutely everything (ubiquitous dissemination of semantics? Pan troglodytes?) and then SUDDENLY we slammed into the brick wall that is texting. OOOG. ooog. oooga oog. I'm wacking at my $15 phone with all thumbs for three and a half minutes and all I've managed to say is:

"Toe much better. Went to ikea. Do u like that table? Its gone from 6 hundred to 450."

And that's to my mom, for whom I try to keep the bar high, out of respect for all that I learned from her superior tutelage in vocabulary and grammar.



Hello? What's this? This computer thing's telling me I have some pictures loaded! Hmm, let's see if I'm completely obsolete or can do this . . . .

<15 minutes later>

Still trying. Let's see what else while we wait for them to upload?

• Had a miscarriage in April that let to 3 weeks of anemia and headache awfulness. I found out at 11 weeks and had the miscarriage one wild weekend a few weeks later. It is good advice that they give, not to leave the house for 48 hours or travel. Feeling better now but it takes a body a while to recover. Same body that gained weight handsomely for the time it was being pregnant.
• Dropped a lantern onto my toe from a high shelf a few days ago. Same toe aforementioned. Don't recommend that either.
• Doing lots of HypnoBirthing teaching. Now there's something positive! Even the part about having to keep the house professionally clean (mostly positive, somewhat anxiety-inducing)
• Had a fabulous 5 week trip to Boise, Springville, San Diego, and muchly enjoyed the people we saw.
• I'm enjoying A Midwive's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It only took Mark's mom recommending it to me for 2 years and finding it on my own mom's shelf available for me to borrow to get me started.
• Martha Ballard (the midwife) always listed who's house she stayed at or those that came to hers. In that vein, during our trip I saw: my mom and dad, Rhubarb the cat, Bethany, Cody, Nathan, Leah, Ryan; Catherine and Jack; Brother Tanner, Brother and Sister Strong, Sister Wolf; Melanie; bsu cheerleaders at Costa Vida (they said "Hy-eee!"); mom and dad Nolte, Julianna, Nolen, Ollie, Lance, Matt, Luke, Lindsay, Bryan, Sarah, and William; Jake and Maggie; the Dursts; Naomi Sumpsion (sp?); In and Out burger girl; Jereme, Anna Min, Kate, Alyvia, Jacob, Jeff, Miles, Ella, Aimee, John, Charlie, Louis, Tyler, Justin, Audrey, Katie, Ethan, Brad, Sue, Gma Nolte, Andy, Adrienne, Ryen, Steven, Owen, Ben, Kelsey, Lydia, Nathan, Karalee, Emily, Boyd, Gavin, Eli, bump, Jeff, and MaryAnn (man that was a serious Nolte reunion!); my gma Taye (94!); gma and gpa Boone and the Mitchells; did I see you too?

Now you've earned some pictures:

with Luke and Lance

We met a couple at our bed and breakfast who's newborn has webbed toes. Which Mark happens to study. Small world! Fun breakfast!

Simon threatens heights on ladders to get these bird nest shots in our yard.

Some people.

Das Kidlets.
Why did nobody tell us about Surfside?
Rapturous day there last weekend. Only took us five years to know about it.


Thank you and Goodnight.

A peaceful birth?

A recent comment from our college friend Brandon:

"We took Hypnobirthing classes before our first was born and Meghan has used those tools during all three labors to be able to birth naturally. I'm hopeful you're reaching lots of first time moms who confront the most daunting task: undergoing a completely unfamiliar experience that is fraught (culturally) with fear.

Good on ya!"

In that vein, hoping to reach those moms, I'm posting this essay to moms by fellow HB practitioner Shelley Albini.

A peaceful birth?

By Shelley Albini

When was the last time you heard a story about a peaceful birth? Do those two words even go together? A new mom could probably count on all her fingers and toes all of the horror stories she has heard about birth. A first time mom, facing the unknown experience of birthing a baby is so susceptible to the comments of others. The fear gifted to her by “well wishers” actually helps perpetuate the story that birth is a painful, scary experience.

What if it’s true that “birth must be painful” is a man made construct? Simply put, the pain of childbirth comes mostly from fear which (based on the horror stories of others) physiologically causes the body to work against what it wants to do to birth a baby. Many are familiar with the instinctual response of “fight or flight”. As a basic survival instinct, when a person senses a threat, real or perceived, their body throws out adrenalin so that they can either run for safety or stay and fight. In fear, blood is sent away from the uterus and to the extremities. There are many stories about woman laboring continuously at home but the minute they get to the hospital, they become afraid and everything seems to stop.

It’s like trying to drive with the emergency brake on. You know you want to go forward, but something is holding you back. In birth, that something is usually fear. So how does one combat the fear? Understanding what the body can do and trusting in the process can take one quite far in allowing a peaceful birth. Knowledge is Power. There is much written to support the fact that the body’s natural pain killers – Endorphins – are available to birthing women as they let go of fear. By understanding what their body can do given the chance, many allow the natural process to occur without suffering.

“Don’t be a hero” many say when one chooses a natural birth. How nice to know that as one chooses not to have medical interventions, they are not choosing to be a martyr. They may feel pressure and burning. The body isn’t doing something to you; it’s doing something for you. When one runs a marathon and crosses the finish line in pain, they feel the rush of knowing that they have accomplished a great feat. By allowing the body to go through the course set for it from the beginning of time, babies are born alert and mothers recover quicker.

Other natural methods can alleviate the need for medication and allow the body to do what it was meant to do. These include warm water, breathing, relaxation, self-hypnosis and fear release techniques. Web sites listed below can give more detailed information about each of these.

You are making choices as to your child’s first impression of the world. Does the place you are choosing, have the same balance of caution and trust that you have? Do you know the difference between the services provided by a birth center and that of a hospital labor and delivery floor?

Do you know the difference between an Obstetrician and a Midwife? Have you ever heard of a doula? (a person certified as a labor caregiver who has been trained to “mother the mother”) Be picky about the childbirth education class you choose to take. You can take the one offered by the hospital or you can choose among other private classes. Look at your options – you are the consumer.

Ask your caregiver their philosophy of birth. Most often birth is a natural process – not a medical emergency. [Ask what their personal cesarean rate is and what it is at the place you intend to birth.] In this day and age options are the key. What does a peaceful birth look like to you? It could be a hospital birth with a doula in attendance, it could be a birth center waterbirth, it could be a homebirth. Answering this question is the best “medicine” as you relax into the process of bringing your baby into the world. Gather information and make an informed choice. A peaceful birth is one of the most empowering things a woman can experience. I wish one for you.

http://birthcenters.org (National Association of Childbearing Centers

will help you find a birth center in your area)

http://hypnobirthing.com

http://www.dona.org (doulas of North America)

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer

Birthing from Within: An Extra-Ordinary Guide to Childbirth Preparation by Pam England

The Birth Partner: Everything You Need to Know to Help a Woman Through Childbirth

by Penny Simkin

Gentle Birth Choices: A Comprehensive Book and Video Guide Making Informed Decisions About Birthing Centers, Birth Attendants, Water Birth, Home Birth, Hospital Birth

by Barbara Harper

The Doula Book: How a Trained Labor Companion Can Help You Have a Shorter, Easier, and Healthier Birth

by Marshall H., M.D. Klaus, John H., M.D. Kennell, Phyllis H. Klaus, Marshall H. Klaus, John H. Kennell

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth I.M. Gaskin

Hypnobirthing® A Celebration of Life Marie F. Mongan, M.Ed., M.Hy.

[I have most of these titles available to loan if you are local.]

And then she began drawing monsters.

Alli Gallery--February 2011 "Spontaneous Unprovoked Monsters"

My other love.

So you think I haven't been blogging. And I've been wondering if I'm done. But I've been spending all my internets time on this other little site.

Embrace Birth--HypnoBirthing

The classes are up and ROLLING! I love being involved in birth in this way. Essentially I get to give moms 500 tools for making their birth more comfortable, easy and joyous for all concerned. They pick their favorites from those tools and we're all better off at the end of it. Come to the site and have a look-see!

Also, the baby above is no relation to me, in case you're racking your brain trying to recognize him. Just a good spokesbaby for my HB website. I'm going to continue letting my babies be the spokeskids for this website. Soon, soon, more pictures of and by my kids--since that's the reason I started on this bloggity in the first place: evidence of the kids for the grandparents. And NY cousins (hi nelsons! hi heather!).

Mary's got Santa figured out.

This storm of holidays starting with Halloween has been a lot for Mary Tessa to sort out. They just keep coming, and with Allianna's birthday thrown in the mix, MT thinks that she can have birthday cake for Halloween and dress up like a butterfly for Thanksgiving. And that she needs to start making requests for her March birthday starting three weeks ago.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Santa.

Mary Tessa, knowingly: "Santa's going to come. And he's going to put little candy canes all over that tree."

Fun to have her on the explaining end of things, I thinks!

This is the tree in question. A little rosemary plant that takes care of my need to smell fresh greenery.



Santa. Item number two:

Last night Mark put aside his Price of Altruism to read the kids some stories. Mary curled up with Mark's book and began flipping through. She excitedly called out, "SANTA!!!!" when she came to this picture:


Mark was delighted. We both were, really. He certainly was a jolly old guy who loved children. That Charles Darwin. (For those of you who don't come across this picture all the time.)

On decorating.

Most of Mary Tessa's deepest thoughts come out while we're driving in the car. Yesterday she had been playing with our nativity scenes just before we went to get the kids from school.

MT: "Mama, I have a qesstyen! That lady, Mary? She's the same as me!!!!"




I thought it would be neat to record the moment she first had that realization, since being named Mary is sure to color her Christmases for many years to come.

Also, "I have a question" is polite in-the-van speak for "Can I say something??" Seems there are often a lot of us trying to get a word in edgewise.

'Weening

After 9 years we finally reprised the Grand Pumpkin Tower of our engaged days. We thought we'd do it every year. Ah well. This year Mark did it with a massive sprained ankle and an absent wife. Also, what about changing color LED tealights?!?

Straight-laced superhero.

Sugared-up superhero.

Sweet superhero. PlanetGirl. SuperAlli.

What you can't see in this shady photo is the awesomeness of young Skywalker's vest. Made it out of an old dinosaur t-shirt and a raggy cloth diaper, if I say so myself. Simon and some acrylic paint made some hand-me-down camou boots sleek and authentic. Now go google Luke Skywalker episode V and see how spot on we were. All for 80 cents.