WE'RE FINALLY BACK!

After an almost 7 month hiatus (excuse: broken camera, and you only come here for the pictures), the Chicago Stratfords are finally back on the web with new and exciting pictures! I had intended (like my amazing older sister) to take pictures with my new camera (thanks, Mom and Dad) of the kids using/wearing/holding all their Christmas gifts, then print them and send them with the thank-you cards they wrote. But January's more than half over, the thank-you cards are done, but the pictures are only half done. So I'm just going to post some here and then everyone can see them anyway. And I haven't yet taken any of Mary and her Christmas loot (she was at school when I captured Isaac and Linda), so I'll post those as I can.

Here's the newest member of our family (at least until the beginning of June): Chaco the Chewbacca cat who thinks he's a dog. Thanks to Chaco we no longer see any signs of mice in our apartment, but for heaven's sake, does he have to climb on my head in the middle of the night? He also sounds just like a baby crying, which can be incredibly annoying. But he lets the kids do almost anything to him, and I swear he wishes he was human. One evening Ed and I were sitting at the table talking, I looked to my left, and there was Chaco, perched on the stool with his front paws on the table, looking back and forth at Ed and I as if he were following every fascinating word.




If you've seen the Chicago weather report, you know how much snow we've had around here. Linda loves to go outside and play in it, but this was one of the rare days I could get Isaac to go out. It helped that his backyard neighbor and best buddy Mwenda was already outside building trails. Mwenda's in full-day preschool so they only get to play on Saturdays. They are at the same school and right across the hall from each other, but never see each other.

TA-DA!!!!!

Linda didn't really crawl until she was eight months old, but ever since then she has been flying from one milestone to the next. Last night I turned around while making dinner, and there she was--walking across the kitchen floor. Luckily, Ed was just walking in the front door from work, and Mary and Isaac were here, so we all got to enjoy the big moment together.

Sorry for the noise from the parents on these videos. Linda makes the cutest sounds by far, but we were just as excited as she was!

Isaac, Citizen of the World

Isaac and Mary have both been increasingly interested in world events lately, especially since Mary's school unit on Earth Day. Last week we read a Mercer Mayer book in which Little Critter tried to save the polar bears by turning a fan across ice cubes to cool down the world's air. We were listening to the news this morning and a report came on about the earthquake in China:

Isaac: Did they say earthquake?
Mom: There was a very big earthquake in China last week and it ruined lots of buildings and hurt a lot of people.
Isaac: I'd better fix the broken world! With a hammer! And that would save the polar bears!
long pause
Isaac again: Is China on the earth? Is China cracking on this earth?
Mom: China's on the other side of the earth from us.
Isaac: Can we go there? Let's go there!

Linda at One

It's hard to believe it's only been a year since I was giving birth in a parking lot in Denmark. It's hard to believe this amazing little girl has only been part of our family for twelve short months. She's such an integral part of our daily dynamic I can hardly remember what life was like without her. Mary and Isaac are forever trying to help her sit, walk, climb the stairs, eat, drink, dance and all sorts of other things that turn dangerous with 4- and 5-year-old help. For her birthday they frosted her cake, blew out her candle, and opened her presents.

Linda has moved to the "out-to-in" stage, in other words, putting toys into a box, which is illustrated in the sink/bath video below. She's not inherently destructive and only has one drawer of tupperware she consistently feels driven to throw all around the kitchen. She only throws food from her high chair when she's finished eating, but loves the sound of her sippy cup landing in the garbage can. (Anyone seen her green cup?) She loves to be outside and throws herself with reckless abandon down the slide. Her clothes are always a mess but she doesn't put everything in her mouth like Mary did, so she easily earns the opportunity to roam the playground at her leisure.

In the morning when she wakes up, she lays in bed and calls "Isaac! Isaac!" When she is laid down in bed at night she smiles and waves and says "night, night." But if you take away her spoon or her car or her ball or don't deliver fast enough the apple or banana or tomato, the screaming begins. Her favorite people are the aforementioned Isaac and her daddy, but she enjoys Mom and Mary well enough if they give her what she wants.

The first two pictures were taken at the Curnutts in New Mexico in February. The next batch are of her birthday. The last video and two pictures are at the Museum of Science and Industry on her actual birthday, where she got soaked playing in the water (mother of three knows to always bring extra clothes).

Fashion Show for Grandma

The sweater has fallen a little out of favor now that the weather is warm, but he wore it a lot over the winter.


He loves this sweatsuit, and not just because it has Mater on it. Like Mary, he doesn't like the feel of jeans and would much rather have soft cotton on his skin. He often steals Mary's hot pink flannel nightgown to wear to bed, but we won't let him out of the house in her skirts and dresses.






Now MARY.......
I told her we were going to try on some of her dresses and take pictures, and this is what I got. I think I took a hundred pictures and couldn't stop laughing. I also couldn't get her to hold still and take a real picture. She was either striking dramatic poses or dancing like a ballerina. Until, of course, we got to the pants and shirt sets. I think the depth of her disgust for pants will be evident from these photos.

Winter, winter and more winter.

Granted, 17 degrees at the end of February doesn't feel quite as bad as 17 degrees in early January. But it's still 17 degrees. We are still getting a healthy-sized winter storm about once a week and now that it's a little closer to spring, bouncing between rain and snow produces huge sheets of ice. The picture to the left was a pretty good day when the weather was in the upper 20s and sunny. Both of the kids have new boots that have significantly increased our mobility (it's such much more fun to stomp around in frog and kitty-cat boots). Also, Isaac just got this pair of sunglasses and he is definitely the epitome of cool. We constantly pass women on the street who just laugh when they see him strutting along in his duds. It's even better in his big bulky snowsuit. Mary's snowsuit is leftover from last year and getting really tight in the torso. I keep telling her "just another week or two, and you'll never have to wear it again!" She still wears a dress every day, despite the weather, so we've been investing in heavy tights. These "triangle tights" are her favorite, and since they have a lot of pink in them, they match everything else in her wardrobe.

Thanks to my generous sister Kristi and my sweet husband Ed, I get to leave this frozen wasteland for five whole days this weekend and go to New Mexico, land of 70 degrees and sunny. I was looking at Mary and Isaac's faces this morning as I helped them to get dressed and realized how pasty white they look. After a year in Denmark and a year in Chicago, I guess we all could use a little vacation in the sun. Perhaps I'll try to bottle some sunshine and bring it back with me.

Chicago in February

Out of our last eight years in Chicago, this is the snowiest year either of us has ever seen. The weather was down around zero for a week or two, but otherwise it has snowed what feels like every other day. And not just flurries either, but inches at a time. It melts just enough to make a great layer of slush, then freezes and dumps another six inches of snow on top. Walking Mary to school has become a no-stroller forced march with Linda in the Baby Bjorn and Mary and Isaac tromping along in their boots. People do shovel their walks, but no one can keep up with all this snow. I just heard on the news today that one of the north suburbs actually ran out of salt--and they got a foot of snow yesterday.

Ed's missing all the latest snow fun. He left late Monday night for Copenhagen to meet with his fellow scholars and won't be back until next Monday evening. Of course we all miss him. I've decided he needs to start traveling to a different time zone, because the only time we can Skype each other is when one of us is exhausted and the other of us is in the middle of something. This trip isn't like his recent one to Turkey, either, where he had lots of his own time--this is a busy trip filled with meetings. I think he's really enjoying himself, but I'm sure he'll be tired when he gets back.

Here's a recent and somewhat unscripted photo of the family. Ed always complains that he never looks good in our photos, and he'd like to get a professional one taken. So maybe I'll have to go shopping for our matching and/or complimentary outfits and schedule one. In the meantime, at least you can see our faces.

Update on Linda Grace

What can I say about the baby that the pictures don't say a hundred times more eloquently? Despite developing strong opinions and will, she's still incredibly sweet and fun. She says three words "Hi," "Dada," and "Yeah!" "Hi" and "Dada" usually go together with a wave, and "Yeah!" always includes clapping. I'm working on what sign language I can remember, because she seems very interested when I gesture to her.

She's eating more than Isaac now, and still
sometimes wakes up hungry in the night. Most exciting, she's finally cutting her first tooth! As such, crackers and toast are her new favorites. The pictures below are of her first "table food" meal of cooked carrots and mashed potatoes. It also happened to be the first time she decided to rub her food all over her head. Good thing she doesn't yet have much hair (although what she does have is definitely blond, no longer red.)



Whatever the mood, she always has huge smiles for her family and when not in her high chair or her bed, she's army crawling around to destroy her brother's train track or pick up leftover food from under the kitchen table. The true crawling will be here any day now, and then she'll be unstoppable.

Update on Isaac

Good old Isaac. He still struggles with whether or not to nap, especially when he's been sick. And after never getting sick in Denmark (because they never played with other kids), he's been sick all winter long this year. Last week he had ear infections in both ears, pink eye in both eyes, the flu, followed by a head cold, all in the space of a week. It's no wonder he never wants me out of his sight. All the kids had a rough couple weeks, but I think he's feeling better finally. Some days it's obvious he just has no energy and no attention span, and thus no ability to obey me, but other days he seems happy, healthy and cheerful.

We went to the doctor in the midst of all the sickness last week and got medicine for the ears and eyes, but I also finally was able to discuss with her all my other concerns, and Isaac's health history over the last couple years. She was more than willing to do tests, and he had to give six little vials of blood. Well, they are little to us, but he was wiped out afterwards. His skinny little body just doesn't have much of anything to spare. We haven't got the allergy test results, but all his other bloodwork was normal--thyroid, blood sugar, iron, etc. That's good news. Sometimes I feel like there's something in there that's keeping him from being totally healthy, but maybe not. I have learned, however, that he does better on days when I just let him eat every hour or so. Maybe his body just works better with constant intake. Who knows? We'll see what the allergy tests say.

So his preschool kind of fell apart, but we have two, sometimes three regular playdates each week and he really enjoys those. He's starting to show some interest in letters and numbers, thanks to the They Might Be Giants DVD "Here Come the ABC's". He and Mary love to play hide and seek, and he always greets her after school with a big hug and an "I missed you so much!" Trains are his most beloved possession and he can spend hours entertaining himself on his new tracks. He hates to get dressed, but even more so hates to say prayers. He makes a game out of trying to keep his eyes squeezed completely shut for the whole time, but it's only once in a blue moon that we can get him to actually say a prayer. He like to tell me he says them in his heart.

He sure looks grown up in a white shirt and tie.

An update on Mary

Sorry it's blurry, but here's Mary at her Christmas assembly. She's one of about five white kids in her class of 31--she has friends from all sorts of backgrounds. The first day on the playground it was all I could do to keep her from touching all the little black girls' braids.

Mary has had a runny nose since about September 5th, her first day of school, but despite that is doing pretty well. She has only missed a couple of days, the worst stretch being last week when we all had pink eye. She requires a lot of management when she's at home, either all day or just after school, because she always needs something more to do. Her energy and brain power are set on high all the time, although she goes to sleep very quickly now at 7:30 every night.

Her latest interest is in learning to play the piano. I am teaching just one lesson a week now, but it's with a boy Mary knows well from church and from her old Joy School. So when Taft got to sit down with my undivided attention, with a new book and CD, Mary wanted to try it out as well. Now she sits down almost every day by herself to play along with the CD, and I try to sit down with her a couple times each week.

She's continuing to trend towards "girly" and she now knows the names of all the Disney princesses, only wears dresses except on gym day, and constantly moves in such a way as to shake her hips and her hair. Sometimes it's a little disturbing, especially since she combines all that shaking with some Attitude she's been learning at school. She doesn't spend as much time reading, having replaced it with cutting and pasting and coloring. For Thanksgiving each kid in the class got to choose a Native American name, and Mary is "she who loves to draw pictures." She has taken it very seriously and as a result her drawing and coloring skills have improved dramatically.

I've been spending a lot of extra time in Primary due to Isaac's less-than-smooth adjustment, and Mary always has everyone in stitches. The most common aside I hear is "That girl sure is her own person, isn't she?" She really is one of the least self-conscious people I have ever met. She likes what she likes, knows what she knows, and doesn't seem to care one bit what other people think or say, particularly about her. I hope it is a quality that will serve her well.

Isaac's Birthday

One of the hits of Christmas was from Grandma Stratford--a cake mold in the shape of a train. Isaac asked for a train cake just about every day between Christmas and his birthday.




For his birthday we had our old friends the Hicksons over (they were our neighbors for three years at our pre-Denmark apartment) and just a couple other kids from Isaac's primary class. It was a fun day, a lot more fun than his actual birthday, probably because Mom lowered her expectations and reduced the presents. The kids just played and ate cake and ice cream. And speaking of cake....







Keeping the kids out of the kitchen until the party was almost impossible. We had to stand guard duty. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Of course, I guess I'll have to give a little credit to Williams-Sonoma for the amazing cake mold and to Grandma Stratford for sending it to us. The kids really loved it. Let me tell you, the entire kitchen smelled like sugar.




Here's the required candle-blowing video and a few other things from the day:

Christmas

Our holidays started with Mary's first-ever stage appearance, debuting as one of the three "Wise Women" at the ward Christmas party. She was adamant about the "woman" part, as were her two cohorts. She definitely had the coolest costume, though--one of the the keffiyah Ed brought back from Israel matched one of her favorite dresses. Isaac kept wandering up front to kneel down with the shepherds and wise men, so there was an extra character in the creche this year.



Christmas morning was fun, and due to impressive gift-choosing by Mom and Grandmas and Aunts, Mary and Isaac were occupied all day long and Ed and I actually got to relax and even nap. The baby had a scary fever and I ended up taking her to the ER to get her checked out, but it was just a virus and the ER was EMPTY, so it wasn't too bad. We were there and home in 40 minutes, which is a world record, I'm sure.


The big kids love the baby, and the baby loves her big brother and sister. Do you like Mary's extra curls? They are clip-on "pony" tails that go with the fancy ponies given to her by Aunt Lissi (from Denmark). She loves those ponies and spends hours getting them ready to go to their parties. She's even had me sew skirts for them. I told her no, though, when she requested I make them four-legged pants.

What God has joined together, let no carelessness put asunder

***The day after I posted this, I set up my ironing board and my wedding ring fell out of the lining. I swear I use the iron more than once every two months, but I guess it was lodged in there pretty good. Talk about a good hiding place. I would never have found it. Remind me to take my valuables and cash out from under my mattress and stash them in my ironing board.

So the last week in November was less than stellar for Ed and Candice. First, I lost my wedding ring in our bedroom as I was getting ready to go to the temple. I had taken it off to put on lotion, and somehow bobbled it up into thin air. We tore the room apart, moved furniture, looked in and around everywhere and it seems to have simply dissolved into the ether. Perhaps we'll find it when we move.

Four days later, Ed was working in the yard and lost his wedding ring somewhere in the vast pile of autumn leaves. Upon borrowing a metal detector from a complete stranger on the north side, we found nails, tinfoil, bottle caps--but no ring. Ed's ready to head to the beach, though, and find a buried treasure (so we can afford new rings).

Jackpot!

We finally found a food she likes! It turns out Linda is not a big fan of the mushy stuff--she'd rather gum her food to oblivion by gnawing on it. So we started with some zwieback toast left at our house by an older baby, and after a couple episodes with that, she's finally agreed (with vigor) to the more standard mushy cereal. She begs for pancakes, crackers, beans, but I'm still wary of her choking. Now if I can just get Isaac to stop offering her everything he's eating.