1,000 Days of Marriage

Today marks 1,000 days of marriage. That's right, 1,000! 

As a surprise to Danny I gifted him with the Family Proclamation printed over one of our wedding pictures. His cousin in Idaho got it done for me and I planned on keeping it a secret which lasted almost three months until I blew it about two weeks ago. I still have two more secret surprises I'm working on for the next month so here's to crossing my fingers that I'll actually keep them a secret. 

Happy 1,000 days of marriage Daniel George! We only have eternity to go. 

Addie's Binky

Last week was Mother's Day, but this post isn't going to be about that. This post is all about a binky and about what happened to it last Sunday. If you want to spend a little while reading about a pacifier then keep reading. :)

Addisyn's binky was her world. Danny always joked that we came second on her list of 'loves' with the first spot belonging to her binky. She just had to glance at it and would always end up giggling from pure excitement. She absolutely loved it and chose it as her object of comfort. I knew the day would come where she would have to part with it but I tried to prolong it from happening anyway. I justified it by saying that she only used it for naps and bedtime but the truth is if she could see it then she would have it in her hands in an instant. We had to hide it from her in the mornings and after her naps or she would want it all day. We avoided the word 'binky' around her because she would start looking for it. We started calling it 'the green thing' but it didn't take long for her to figure out that it was code for binky. The funny thing is that she had her own code name for it; she called it her 'ah-ha'. We think it started because she would find it from our hiding places and then show us she had it while shouting "ah-ha!". She was always so proud of herself for finding it. Another possibility for the nickname could be because Danny would grab it from her hands or mouth, say "ah-ha" and then hide it from her.

This is the same binky that she's had since an infant at the hospital. I remember the morning after I had her and she was rolled into my room by the nurse with this big green pacifier in her mouth. I remember thinking how big it looked compared to her small body. We weren't planning on having a binky baby but the decision was made for us regardless of our plan. That same binky became her pride and joy.

It became so worn out and was falling apart. She recently bit a hole through the nipple from her constant chewing on it. It was starting to become a choking hazard so I knew the day had come for the binky days to end. Neither Danny or I wanted to be the one to get rid of it because we were both secretly afraid of seeing the betrayal in Addie's eyes and completely losing her trust. We decided that it would happen away from Addie's view and we would leave it where Addie would find it already broken. I was on a video call wishing my stepmom a happy Mother's Day (my parents are on missions) when Danny decided to grab the scissors and do it right then. He cut the nipple off where the hole from her chewing had formed which was practically at the base of the pacifier. I ended the call with my parents because I knew that Addie's world was about to be crushed.

We knew she would take it hard but we weren't ready to see the look of pure sadness on her face. She was so confused and let out the saddest whimper. I don't think I'll forget how I saw her lips slowly quiver to the point where she couldn't hide the devastation she was feeling anymore. This was the first time that I can recall where she cried because she was sincerely and deeply saddened. I've heard her tired cry, frustrated cry, hurt cry, hungry cry, and scared cry but this new cry was different. It broke our hearts to see her this way.

It's been a week now since she first discovered her cut up binky and she's slowly over her grief period. The first two days she would still giggle when first seeing it before stopping because she remembered her binky was no longer the same. I regret not recording her relationship with it before we cut it up. She still sleeps everyday clutching onto the little piece that's left of it which is both sad and cute. Danny thinks we should throw the whole thing away because it still makes her a little sad to see it destroyed, but I can't get myself to allow her last piece of green comfort to be thrown away.

Three Girls Under Three

My sister Pollyanna and her husband Rick went on a cruise for a week so we offered to watch their daughter Aria while they were away. Aria will be turning three at the end of this month. It's been fun having a little person around who can speak in full sentences. She's also potty trained which Addie found fascinating. I'm not looking forward to when Addie and I hit the potty training stage. Aria slept in Addie's room every night and did amazing. I was worried that Addie wouldn't go to sleep easily. Some nights they would talk to each other for a few minutes but it wouldn't take long for both of them to pass out. Danny is out of school for six weeks, until his classes start up again during the summer second block, so we had an exciting week of different activities. We picked her up from my sister Beckie and headed to the zoo. It was fun to be there with her and it was especially fun that Addie was older and very interested in the animals this year. I think her favorite animal is a tie between monkeys and elephants. She's always been a fan of monkeys but lately she gets excited whenever she sees elephants in a TV show, book or game. She was completely mesmerized when we took her to the elephant exhibit. Danny enjoyed the bird show with Aria while I waited by the carousel with Addie. Our daughter is not one to sit still so we knew she wouldn't do well for the bird show they have. I let Danny enjoy that time with Aria because I feel like the bird show is his favorite part about the zoo. Addie literally ran around the carousel ride for twenty of the twenty five minutes that we waited for the show to end. We think she's going to be a runner in the future. Within minutes of driving home from the zoo Aria and Addie were both passed out in their car seats. They were so tired.

The girls had so much fun at the zoo that we decided to take them to the BYU Bean Museum. It's a museum with hundreds of stuffed animals displayed for people to see up close. They went from seeing live animals one day to seeing animals that used to be alive the next day haha. There was one section where a bear was taking down a moose and Aria asked us what it was doing. Instead of telling her that the bear was getting its meal we told her that he was trying to give the moose a hug. We started second guessing our decision once we got to to that area. I had never been there before and found it pretty interesting. Addie was doing just fine in her stroller until she saw the giant elephant. She got pretty excited so we took her out to take a picture which was a mistake because after that she did not want to get back in the stroller and instead tried to run around for the rest of the time.

The third day of Aria staying with us we had our other niece Georgia here. I watch her regularly up to three times a week. It was fun spending the day with all three little girls. Aria is about 16 months older than Addie and Addie is 11 months older than Georgia. All three of them are in different stages between baby and toddler and they all enjoyed together. At one point we got all three of them to nap at the same time which was heaven. I completely forgot to take a picture of all three of them together. I had plenty of opportunities but I never got it done.  That night we all went to the family farm so that Aria could see the farm animals they have there (which I also did not take any pictures of). She's probably going to associate Danny and I with animals since everything we did was animal related.

As I watched Danny interact with all three girls this week I couldn't help but picture our future family. If we ended up with three girls I would be happy with that and I got the feeling that Danny would be just as pleased. :)

Other pictures from that week. 

Their favorite place was Addie's crib.

Aria LOVED playing doctor and Addie was a good sport when it came to being her patient.

DNA Results

I mentioned that for my birthday I got an ancestry's DNA kit from my mother-in-law. The results were expected to be finalized around 6-8 weeks but I got them back earlier than expected and was thoroughly surprised. I've gone my whole life not really knowing what my ethnicity was made up of so to now know is an awesome feeling. It's funny the random knowledge that some might take for granted when for another it could be the coolest feeling ever. I was pretty excited when I got the email back with the results that I called my parents in Germany before realizing that it was after 2am there. Oops. I took screenshots of my results so that I could always have them handy.

The only thing I knew beforehand was that I was Brazilian. What I was shocked to find out is that only 11% of my DNA makeup comes from the Americas. The majority (85%) of my DNA traced back to Europe.

The following pictures are screenshots of what pulled up when I clicked on the links on the left. They show more details as to what Italy/Greece, Europe West, Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Trace Regions include.

I wasn't very surprised to see that this included Spain, Portugal.

4% showed I have African ancestry but I noticed that this also includes Spain and Portugal which makes sense to me.

11% showed Native American but when I click on that it shows that this includes America, Central and South America. Naturally I'm assuming this is really South America because that was the only information I did know before getting these results.

One day when Addie and any other future children ask me about my ancestry I will at least have an idea and an answer for them. Now if only I could find out what my biological family's medical history is then all my questions could be answered. :)