The difference between a mom and a dad

When a dad gets sick, he's allowed to just be sick. His wife takes on the mom role for him and takes care of him and the kids.

When a mom gets sick, unless she managed to time it to fall on a weekend or holiday, she has to continue taking care of everyone else while being sick. Because the dad is not sick and is at work, what choice does she have?

A Christmas Letter

We have the best intention each year of sending Christmas cards and we never have actually sent them. So we decided to do a newsletter via blog and email this year – better for the environment, right? ;) Although we haven’t had a slow year yet, 2008 has been especially busy. But first, a recap of the highlights of the last couple years:

• Steve and Paula were married on December 10, 2005 along with Tracy and Donovan.

• Paula began grad school for counseling in August 2006.

• Ella Renae joined us November 19, 2006.

• We bought a house in Jackson in August 2007. Reid moved into his house the same day. Becky and Zech bought their house in the spring.

• In September 2007, our niece Chloe Lynn Galleck was born and Paula’s dad (Russ) had a heart attack. Both are very healthy and happy now.

On to 2008...
Our biggest news was the arrival of Amelia Jane on April 15. She is now eight months old and a lot of fun. She loves the camera and her favorite toys are anything Ella has touched. She can crawl now and chases Ella around the living room. It’s been a lot of fun to see how they are different and watch them interact. Ella ignored her for a while, but now shares toys and gives Amelia “kisses” before bed. The girls share a bedroom and sometimes sing together in the morning. Amelia has blue eyes and what little hair she has appears to be red. She is very giggly and has a tendency to stick her tongue out when she smiles. She loves shoes and slippers and does this adorable bobbing dance.

Ella turned two last month and is talking more and more. She can also count to twelve and knows her colors, numbers, and some letters and shapes. One of her favorite things right now is coloring. She loves people and books too and if someone comes over, she’ll hand them a book to read to her. She sings and dances too, which is hilarious. She’s quite the entertainer. She has blond curls and her daddy’s blue eyes.

Paula is in her last year of grad school and began her internship shortly after Amelia was born. She also took her electives, which made for a very busy fall, but only has her internship and one class left before graduation in May. She has been working hard at losing weight and has lost about 70 pounds since Amelia was born. A few days ago she fit into her wedding dress again! She’s decided to combine her counseling degree with her knowledge of weight loss and counsel people trying to lose weight. Between the girls, school, and working out, she’s become an expert at multitasking and a big fan of coffee!

Steve recently began a new position at Comcast, which means a better shift, guaranteed holidays off, and no sales! He spends a lot of time with the girls when he is home and has also been honing his cooking and handyman skills. Since we moved in, he has added a porch light, fixed the railing on the stairway, built steps down to the driveway, fixed the ceiling fan, and fixed the light in the laundry room.

In other news for the year, we bought a minivan and sold Steve’s Concorde in April. It’s been wonderful for trips to Evart. Russ (Paula’s dad) bought a newer PT Cruiser in the spring and recently traded it in for a Scion. Carol (Paula’s mom) turned 50 in September and Russ and Carol celebrated their 30^th wedding anniversary in July. Jonathan (Steve’s brother) graduated from high school in May and Doug (Steve’s dad) graduated from Spring Arbor University with his MBA in November. Finally, some very exciting news: Ella and Amelia will have TWO new cousins next summer! Tracy and Donovan are expecting their second at the end of June and Becky and Zech are expecting their first at the beginning of July. We are very excited for both families.

We hope everyone has had a wonderful year and that next year will be even better. We look forward to the new changes and challenges in our family in 2009 – two walking girls and potty training! Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year…

With all our love,
Steve and Paula
Ella and Amelia

Two mobile daughters and a paper chain on a pine tree

As of Saturday morning, Amelia can crawl. She's been really close for a few weeks now, scooting all over the living room and getting into the crawl position. And she can crawl backwards. Saturday she actually moved her arms and legs and managed to move forward. Yesterday she got better at it and today she's all over the place. She also pulls herself up on things to a kneeling position. Amelia already chases Ella and pulls on her clothes. Ella has taken refuge on the couch because Amelia hasn't figured out how to get to her there. Yet.

Our Christmas tree is blocked off in the corner of our den by the toy box. Ella kept pulling on ornaments and pulling the books off the bookshelf, plus we figured Amelia would be crawling by Christmas and didn't want her to be able to get to the tree. But we do have a small Christmas tree that Ella can get to. It's maybe 18 inches tall. Two years ago we put bulbs on it and last year we strung it with lights. This year we thought those might be dangerous, so it was bare for a few days. Sure enough, Ella pulled it down off the little table it's on. At this point I should explain that Ella loves to color. We have a huge stack of paper that she's colored on and discarded, because she can't color on it again. So I decided to cut several sheets of her scribbles and make a paper chain for "her" tree. It turned out well and looks more festive than it did bare. And she hasn't ripped the chain off yet.

Steve and I went shopping yesterday, for clothes, gifts, groceries, and miscellaneous other things. We also went out to dinner for our anniversary. We love our girls dearly, but it's so nice to get out alone once in a while. As an added bonus, we got almost all of our Christmas shopping done too! We also ran into different friends while at the mall - Nate, Jenny and Kelly, Matt. It was good to see each of them again and maybe with Steve's new schedule we can actually start having people over! Anyhow, I better go make lunch. And help Ella before she falls off my shoes...

3rd Anniversary

As of today, Steve and I have been married 3 years. So have Tracy and Donovan. Anyhow, it's been a very busy 3 years for us. We've had two baby girls, bought a house, bought a minivan, I've had multiple jobs, and I've been in grad school and doing my internship. Very busy. I can't say things have happened on the time table I would have originally wanted, but this is way better. And I am definitely better at planning and working ahead now. :)

Last Sunday I went to a "baby" shower for Steve's aunt and uncle who are adopting a 4 year old girl from China. While there I was talking to Great Aunt Rita (MaryLou the first's sister) and Aunt Ruth, who married one of the Scott men. After I explained that Ella was home with Steve because the shower was during her nap time, Rita commented on how great he is with the girls. I agreed and Ruth said that all the Scott men are that way, sensitive, genuinely partners in marriage and parenting, and they love babies. I wholeheartedly agree - Scott men make good husbands. At family gatherings, the uncles are as likely to pass the newest baby around as the aunts are. They spend time with their wives and play with the kids. It's a great family to marry in to. When Steve proposed, it was only six weeks after our first date. But I knew his family well and I saw the example his parents set and I had spent enough time with Steve to know that he is a lot like his parents. He is wonderful with the girls and he always does bath time. He gets down on the floor and plays with them but he also feeds them, changes diapers, and disciplines them. And he even gets up with them during the night. He is a great daddy and adores his little girls. I knew he would, because I could see that from his dad. And now I know that's how all the Scott men are.

But there's more even than Steve being a good dad. We have a great time hanging out together and he makes me laugh. He is unwaveringly supportive, whether it's school or losing weight or trying something new with the girls. He is affectionate and he really tries to make me happy, even if he doesn't completely understands why something upsets me or is important to me. And while he doesn't always do something special when I'm hoping for it, he does thoughtful things for me a lot, like buying me flowers for Ella's birthday or scraping the snow off the van for me. The little gestures like that mean more to me than grand gestures. I have a wonderful husband who is truly my partner and I am thankful for him and for all the other Scott men that set that example for him.

Amelia loves Ella

In my family we show affection by bugging people. Poking, teasing, even tossing things at people. When I graduated from high school, a friend came for the weekend. Dad threw M&Ms at her. I explained to her that if Dad throws something at you, it means he likes you. To be fair, this comes from Dad's side. We always got into huge wrapping paper fights at Christmas every year. And even Dad's aunt and uncles do this. It's normal for them to be running around at the reunion, having a big water fight. This is one way I've learned to show affection. And apparently my girls are learning this early.

Yesterday Ella was standing up watching tv. Amelia was sitting on the floor. While she's not exactly mobile yet, she can scoot forward on her butt. She was doing that yesterday. I was sitting in the same room but not paying a lot of attention when Amelia started giggling. Hysterically. I looked up to see her sitting right behind Ella, poking her in the butt with her toys. Ella moved away. Amelia moved closer and then starting tugging on Ella's pajamas, giggling and grinning the whole time. Ella screeched "STOP!" and moved away again. By this time I was giggling too. This cycle continued for a few minutes longer, until Ella finally moved far enough away that Amelia couldn't reach her. I'm still giggling thinking about it. Amelia is learning very early that antagonizing someone is a way the Atherton family shows affection. Amelia loves Ella. She also loves to annoy her.

Two years old

Ella turned two yesterday. Already. Time is passing quickly and I swear it is speeding up. Maybe it just seems like it because I have more demands on my time.

Anyhow, Ella is now two. She can walk and run and dance and talk and kind of spell her name. She tries to write it too. She still only scribbles with crayons but they are darker and more deliberate scribbles now. She finally acknowledges Amelia (about time, she's seven months old) and sometimes shares her toys. This is great when it's not a crayon or a book that Amelia proceeds to eat. She's growing up.

Even as I type out the words that I can barely believe time has gone so quickly, I know I'll have this feeling many more times: when Ella begins school, when she has her first date, when she goes to her first dance, when she graduates and then leaves for college, when she graduates from college, when she gets married, when she has her first baby and makes me a grandma. Yeah, I know, I'm only 25 and she's only 2. But if the last two years are any indication, the time will pass quickly.

In other news, tonight I wore an old, faded tee shirt to class. Nothing special, just the kind of shirt you've worn so much that it's really soft and comfortable. The part that makes this newsworthy is the fact that I have not worn this shirt in about three years - since shortly before I got pregnant with Ella. It wouldn't have fit. In the almost three years (so 36 months) since we got married, I have been pregnant for 18 months. When I wasn't pregnant, I was trying to lose the baby weight and was rather heavy. In August I started doing Turbo Jam again and started counting calories. It has worked GREAT. I'm currently down 30 pounds and am lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Ella. I still have a little ways to go to my long term goal, but I can wear clothes I haven't worn in a few years. It's so nice to dig out a box of clothes that have been too small for a long time and have them fit again! Very exciting.

Procrastinating...

I'm supposed to be doing homework. We haven't even had the class yet, but there's reading and a quiz to study for. Not fun, but what can you expect when it's a masters class that is only 8 weeks long? I've always procrastinated, even in elementary school, and I come from a line of procrastinators. Grandma once told me stories about Mom writing papers the morning they were due and going to school late because of it. And then she told me how she, my little 80-something grandmother, once waited too long to read a book for a book report so she just fixed up one from the year before and turned it in. She said she got a better grade on it the second time around.

Anyhow, I've been doing other things today, like making lists. People to contact when labor starts, when the baby is actually born, and to contact at some later point. Things we need to get for this baby - diapers, new onesies, a baby book, bottles, among other things. I think there's another list I was going to make but my pregnancy-muddled brain can't remember it right now. Oh right, what to pack for the hospital...Enh, that can wait until later.