Dear Dash: Sixteen Months

Your great-aunt Kristi died at age 42 this month. She loved you sooooo much! Our last memory with her was in March when she came out and greeted you by saying, "Dash! Did you push a car under the door? Did you push a car under the door?" because she had seen the instagram video I posted. She had a picture of you pinned up in her room and was always thrilled when we came to visit. 

You now say three new words: "boo!" "umbrabra (umbrella)" and "guck (duck)"

You are learning about colors with the help of our beautiful yard.

You graduated! Just kidding, Dad did. 

You are so curious and willing to try new things. Like play the korean danso.

This month's illness was hand-foot-mouth.
Except instead of getting boils/blisters on your hands, feet, and mouth, you got them on your chin, legs, and butt.

You are so independent! You want to get out and explore wherever we go.

I tried styling your hair. It didn't last too long.

You love to wave good-bye at any opportunity!
Even though your wave looks more like karate chopping.

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Dear Dash: Thirteen Months

Dear Dash,

Congratulations! You're one month older!

You LOVE to clap

And read books BY YOURSELF

Shredding tissues is a new favorite

You've joined us eating at the table!

You've already developed the habit of putting your feet up.

We still have fun going on walks!

Playdates are a must these days

You had your third haircut with clippers today!

You are walking 80% of the time these days. It's so cute to see you toddle around. You have figured out how to shut doors, but don't quite have the coordination to turn the knobs to open them again. You are finally drinking out of sippy cups. Graham crackers are your new favorite snack. You hate cold foods. You are getting so close to talking!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dear Dash: Four Months

Dear Dash,

We can't tell if you are teething or not, but you sure do chow down on your hands on a regular basis. You love talking to yourself, grabbing toys and blankets, and the song "patty cake."

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

Dear Dash: Two Months

Dear Dash,

You're starting to notice the mobiles on your bassinet, changing table, and swing. They provide several minutes of entertainment before you are distracted. You are also cooing, smiling, and sleeping (5 hour stretches at night!) more, which is awesome for your parents.

You are rocking out in the 77 percentile for height, which means you have started to fit into 3 month clothes because you are so tall. You still fit in newborn diapers, though, as your weight is in the bottom 25 percentile.

Now that cold and flu season is coming to an end, your next milestone is going to church for the first time this Sunday!

Also, you were soooo cooperative for this month's photo shoot. And I really appreciated it.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Dear Dash: 4 Weeks

Dear Dash,

At four weeks:

• You've gained a pound from your weight when we were discharged from the hospital.
• You are taking Vitamin D like a champ! This is a big deal, since it's a nasty cherry flavor and you threw it all up (and them some) the first time we gave it to you.
• Your neck muscles are getting so strong! You hold up your head whenever you can, usually when you are being burped.

• Speaking of burping and spit-ups, your favorite position to spit-up in is your back. We always try to remember to put a burp cloth under your head at all times to prevent doing laundry as much.
• You have so many cute mannerisms. My favorites are: your huffy snorts when you get frustrated, when you put both hands by your face when you nurse, and your happy smile when you've had a really good feeding.

• You sleep an average of 10-11 hours a day. We usually have to wait 6-7 minutes after you've fallen to sleep to put you in the bassinet- otherwise you wake up. Your favorite place to sleep is on the Boppy (see collage below).

We love you, little dude!

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

2014 in Review

JANUARY

Where we started out: House-sitting by Timpview High School, muddling through the middle of graduate school, enjoying life as newlyweds:

FEBRUARY

Matt went to a Psychology Conference in Las Vegas, and I attended a Writing Conference in Provo. We still had time to celebrate Valentine's Day, though:

MARCH

We enjoyed spending time with the Hiatt side as they all came for the wedding of Matt's oldest brother:

APRIL

It was the Lund's turn as we celebrated the wedding of my younger brother:

MAY

We didn't announce it for two more months, but this happened on Mother's Day:

JUNE

New jobs for Matt and I! Matt started working at the Church Office Building, and I split my summer between two immigration Law Firms.

JULY

We moved and we found out the baby's gender!

AUGUST

Matt's birthday and our vacation to Oregon.

SEPTEMBER

Sister Lund returned from her mission!

OCTOBER

We enjoyed attending General Conference and celebrating Halloween at home.

NOVEMBER

We were thankful for family and friends who helped us get the nursery stocked:

DECEMBER

Where we ended up: In a basement apartment by Provo Center Street, seeing the end of graduate school in sight with a dissertation approved and one semester of law school to go, anticipating parenthood.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Babymoon

This trip was kind of last minute, but we decided in July that a vacation was due after a full summer of work and pregnancy. We settled on going to Rockaway Beach, Oregon to visit my great grandparents and enjoy a little bit of Portland on the side. So here is the barrage of pictures: 

Of course, no vacation would be complete without a friendly game of Bingo. While we had fun completing the different assignments (ex: find a Utah license plate, make a dairy related pun at the cheese factory, eat something off of the other person's plate w/o them knowing, etc) we realized that we should probably mix up the order on both of our sheets, since we kept on getting the same Bingo squares.  

It's a two hour drive to Rockaway from Portland, so we had a rest stop at Hug Point.

And here's the main reason for our trip: Jim and Ilene. Some of the sweetest people I know, and they sure are spry for being 88 and 93!  I have the privilege of being named after my great-grandma, and have enjoyed visiting her over the years for our Lund family reunions. I was so grateful to squeeze in this trip to see her again, especially since this time we had her all to ourselves.

Rockaway is 14 miles away from Tillamook, which is famous for its Cheese Factory.

We had enjoyed beautiful weather with no rain on the beach! We basically completed the ice bucket challenge by submersing ourselves completely in the water. 

Matt learned how to play pinochle and quickly dominated. This was a picture of my and grandma's early win before Matt and Jim stole the lead. (I won't post the final score, but I will say we played 18 games of pinochle.) 

The Portland Temple!

Voodoo Doughnuts. Apparently a Portland icon. I will say, the line was extremely long to get in and they had some unique flavors. Matt's favorite was the mango jelly filled (bottom right) and mine was the Oreo topped (upper left). 

We would highly recommend Babymoons. It was a great trip.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah