39 Questions with Ila, age 5

1. What is your name? Ila Vieu Becker
2. How old are you? Five
3. What is your favorite color?  Brown
4. What is your favorite toy? Midnight
5. What is your favorite fruit? grapes and apples
6. What is your favorite movie? Sleeping Beauty
7. What is your favorite food? Ice cream
8. What is your favorite outfit? Pink pants and Anna and Elsa shirt
9. What is your favorite game? Trouble
10. What is your favorite snack? Pirate Smoothies (bootie)
11. What is your favorite animal? hmmmm, a horse
12. What is your favorite song? Let it Go
13. What is your favorite book? Llama Llama Red Pajama
14. Who is your best friend? Justice
15. What is your favorite cereal? That new cereal
16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play on my tricycle
17. What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk
18. What is your favorite holiday? Hmm, what's a holiday? (after explaining it to her): Valentine's Day
19. What makes you laugh? telling jokes
20. What's your favorite thing to do with your sisters? Play with them and play soccer ball
21.  How do you like to help mommy? do the dishes and clean up my room

22. What do you want to be when you grow up? a princess
23. Where does daddy work? at work, at KapStone!
24. Where does Mommy work? at home
25. When you dream at night, what do you dream about? Christmas, stars and clouds and the sun. and valentines day.
26. What's your favorite thing to do at church? Dance and sing to Jesus
27. What is your favorite chore? put my clothes away in the dirty laundry basket and my drawers
28. Can you tell me a secret? I like it when you love me
29. What is your favorite thing to do at school? paint and color with markers
30. What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy and Daddy? have cuddle time
31.What makes you happy? be funny and playing games.
32. What's your favorite bible verse? Luke 12:7, don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.
33. Where do you want to travel? to the park, and go to the city.
34 If you were an animal, what would you be? A zebra!
35. What's your favorite opposites? up and down
36. What would you do on your perfect day? make good choices! and help you learn, and help you be better.
37. Who do you want to marry? Daddy!!!
38. What is something you don't like? I dont like people steeling my stuff.  Only bad people steel.
39. Any other thoughts? I love God and He loves me and I love him and my dad and mom loves me.

Chessidy and Adorae by: Nicole

I realized last week that I haven't written a blog in almost a year!  I neglected to write a 2 year old update on Chessidy OR a one year old update on Adorae!

So, here we go!

Chessidy, at 2 years and 4 months old is quite a toddler!  Full of mischief, wonder, energy and sweetness, she keeps me on my toes!  She has a very large vocabulary, and speaks very clearly, but only in groups of people she knows well.  Her sweet curly hair gets her attention wherever she goes (and at home too, because, really, it's just SO CUTE!).  Chessidy is a very passionate girl!  Hot or cold but never in between, she lets us know when she likes something, or doesn't.  One thing that will always win her over is silliness.  She absolutely loves being silly on her own, or with a friend, sister, parent, whoever really!  She is a determined kid, who will find loop holes in anything I tell her that is against what she wants ("chessidy, don't pick up the apples on the ground." Chessidy responds "don't pick up, just look?"  "Yep, just look at it."  she will then bend over and put her face or eye directly on the apple because she really just wanted to touch it.) which is a trait she inherited from her daddy.  I cannot, for one minute, keep my eyes or ears off her, because she will most certainly get into something she shouldn't be into.  Her favorites are my purse, the laundry room, and the pantry. One on one Chessidy is the sweetest, most delightful girl I could ask for! She really loves being the center of attention, but what child doesn't? In her sibling group she's the first to give kisses and hugs, and the first to take someones toy.  She will gladly let Adorae pull her hair and scratch her face, and never reacts negatively, but she will scream, very loudly, if her toys are taken or Ila tells her no. She often pretends not to hear me when I'm giving her directions or calling for her, and at times it has made me seriously question her hearing.  She loves to cuddle, sing and swing.  She looks up to Ila in a lot of ways but I can see that she is trying, every day, to be her own person, and not to be led too much by her big sister.  Her name quite suits her, and we just love her!  Her favorites are: Yellow, juice, fruit chews, Buzz and Woody, Daniel Tigers Neighborhood (which she calls "tigerhood"), Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, taking pictures and videos then watching them, playing with Ila and Daddy, and her Marma, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa.

Adorae, is 1 year old (and 8 days if you want to be picky)and she is MY girl, and if you've spent any time at all with her, you know what that looks like.  She LOVES her mommy! She has grown a lot in her mommy needs, and now tolerates (and sometimes even enjoys), fairly well, others.  She does much better with other people if I'm not in the same room.  She is full of joy and sweetness, but is uncertain about the rest of the world outside the group of people she knows well.  I've come to accept that it's more than okay to be skeptical of others, especially when you're so young!  She can walk, but prefers to crawl. She would be carried around all day if I would and could carry her around all day.  She absolutely LOVES her sisters and they can bring out a smile or squeal of delight faster than anyone.  She enjoys her daddy time too, but is still learning to enjoy his style of playtime.  It's growing on her, but she is still uncertain about the wild play that her sisters so love.  I'd be surprised if she grew up and was an extrovert, but stranger things have happened!  She seems to like very small groups and alone time quite a bit.  Her first word was Ila, and it's still the only repeat word in her vocabulary, although she has two or three times cried out for "mamama" and I'll take it! She loves giving me kisses, and I love getting them even though they are super slobbery and wet.  She has 5 teeth and eats everything.  She doesn't appear to have any allergies or many food dislikes at this point. My favorite thing about her is that she can't really laugh.  She kind of screams instead of laughs, and it just about kills me every time! She has a face of pure joy, but the sound comes out and if you're not looking at her you'd probably think something was wrong with her! It's so funny and weird, but I'll always remember her baby "laugh."  She also loves to be silly.  Her favorite game is the "blanket game" which consists of Ila and/or Chessidy pulling her and moving her around in a blanket.  They parachute it over her head, and put it on the ground and she throws her body onto it and screams with delight as they twist and turn and pull it all around.  It's a very supervised game, as injury is just waiting to be had playing it, but they all love it so much we just go with it!

So there you have it, a little glimpse into our sweet girls personalities.  We are sure busy with them, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

31 Questions with a Four Year Old!

1. What is your name? Ila
2. How old are you? Four
3. What is your favorite color? Blue 
4. What is your favorite toy? Bullseye
5. What is your favorite fruit? apples
6. What is your favorite movie? Atlantis
7. What is your favorite food? The noodle shop noodles
8. What is your favorite outfit? a dress up dress
9. What is your favorite game? zombie tag
10. What is your favorite snack? Cheetos
11. What is your favorite animal? Elephant
12. What is your favorite song? Create In Me a Clean Heart
13. What is your favorite book?  Llama Llama Time to Share
14. Who is your best friend? I like to play with Abby Waldal
15. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Cheerios
16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? I like to work with Daddy on the sticks!
17. What is your favorite drink? Mango Strawberry Lemonaid
18. What is your favorite holiday? Valentine's Day
19. What makes you laugh? Chessidy
20. What's your favorite thing to do with your Chessidy? I like to run around!
21.  How do you like to help mommy? I like to do the dishes and hold up Adorae's toy for her.

22. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be um...taller!
23. Where does daddy work? to the playground
24. Where does Mommy work? the kitchen
25. When you dream at night, what do you dream about? swimming with Eda (from Atlantis)
26. What's your favorite thing to do at church? play with the vacuum
27. What is your favorite chore? putting away the clothes
28. Can you tell me a secret? baby animals
29. What is your favorite thing to do at school? go to the quiet area
30. What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy and Daddy? I like to ride in the blue cars (car carts at the store).
31.What makes you happy? God makes me happy!!!

.

The story of Adorae Shine Becker, By: Nicole

The Birth Story:

Saturday night we had some friends over for snacks and pinochle.  When they left (after beating the Beckers in 2 out of 3 games) at midnight all seemed normal.  We drifted off to sleep at 12:45 am, and I woke up at 3am with a full bladder and one heck of a contraction.  I dismissed the hard contraction immediately, because these things happen (especially with a full bladder), emptied my bladder and went back to bed.  At 3:45 a very hard and long contraction woke me up.  I thought there was a chance I was in labor,  but after 3 weeks of "thinking I might be in labor" I didn't get all too excited.  Eight minutes later, I had another hard contraction that lasted for 2.5 minutes, followed 7 minutes later by another 2.5 minute contraction.  That was enough confirmation for me to wake up Trent and let him know the time had finally come!

At this point, I was unsure about what sort of labor I was going to have.  Ila's was 4 hours and Chessidy's was about 8 hours.  The best, and quickest way to explain the difference between the labors (other than the time itself) is to say that a 4 hour labor is INTENSE and an 8 hour labor is EXHAUSTING.  As I stood there, having an incredibly hard, intense contraction that was MUCH longer than a normal contraction I prayed that labor would be quick.  More accurately, I cried out to the Lord "God, if it's going to be like this, I can't handle a long one!"

I got into the tub and left the timing of contractions to my husband.  I knew they were close together, and I knew they were hard.  After a few more, I told Trent that he needed to call his mom, because I really wanted to get to the hospital before transition.  He wanted to wait it out a bit longer, because my contractions appeared to be a bit inconsistent.  It was very difficult to be in disagreement on the matter while in labor, but thankfully, my body let us know in a short time that we needed to make the call and get going to the hospital.  We called Tammy at 4:50 and she was there by 5am.  Getting to the car took longer than one would want it to, but I made it.  At this point I was in full blown transition, and feeling the urge to push.  Thankfully we live all of 3 minutes from the hospital.  Trent called our doctor on the way and told him I was having contractions every 2 minutes, and they were a minute long.

Trent got the wheelchair and was followed by several employees who seemed very concerned about me delivering my baby outside the emergency room.  They were on the phone with OB telling them to have a room READY and as Trent parked the car the poor wheelchair man wheeled me to the elevator while very kindly asking me not to push and encouraged me to breath.  Trent and I arrived to the room at the same time, the nurses checked me and told me I was at an 8 and NOT TO PUSH.

I'll interrupt myself here and mention that I was taught to listen to my body while in labor, and when a body says push, doing the opposite is dang near impossible.

They hooked up the monitors and the next 11 minutes ticked by at the speed of a snail for me, and flashed by like lightening for everyone else.  I was having contractions with just a few seconds in between for rest and with each contraction I was trying my best to breath, and not to push, but I was mostly pushing and not breathing all too much.  At this point I would say I barely had my stuff together and if it weren't for Trent's encouraging words and the calming touch on my arm from one of the nurses I may have gone totally off the cliff of uncontrollable flailing and wild animal noises.

My doctor arrived and the nurses asked me for the 100th time to get into a different position, so they could 1. check me again and 2. so the baby wouldn't fall on the floor if it came out.  They checked me and said I was almost there at a 9.5, just wait a little longer to push, to which I responded "I've pushed at a 9.5 before!" My doctor gave us (mostly the nurses) the go ahead and after a few pushes Adorae was here!

The Statistics:
9 pounds
21 inches long
35.5 centimeter head circumference
Born at 5:40am on Sunday, August 25th, 2013.

The Name:

Naming her was more difficult than in the past, as we had fewer choices than ever before.  It's amazing how many names we liked when I was pregnant with Ila and how few we like now!  We thought we made up the name Adorae a few months ago, but when we researched it we discovered it was indeed a name, albeit a very uncommon name.  You can read about the name here, but it means "gift; beloved; adored." Adorae really is a gift from the Lord.  All children are but Adorae was a gift the Lord chose to give us completely in His timing.  Shine means to "give out a bright light."  We have hope that our Adorae will give out a bright light with her personality, but also that the light of the Lord will shine out of her.  The definition of Adoration (Adoraeshine) is "deep love and respect. Worship; veneration."  This is how our hearts should be for the Lord.  We deeply love God, we respect Him and His power in our lives, His will for us and we should worship Him in all we do.  This is the hope we have for our children as well.  We will raise them knowing His power and love and raise them in His will and direction, and pray that as Adorae grows into her own person she will have adoration for Him, shining out of her!

Chessidy is 16 months old!

On August 20th, Chessidy will be 16 months old!  My sweet baby girl, who really is a toddler, is such a baby at heart still.  I am partially to blame for that.  I probably baby her more than I should, partly because I haven't had a baby around for so long (so it seems) and the other because somewhere, deep inside of me, I feel a little guilty that Chessidy only gets to be the baby of the family for 16 months.  Probably a silly thing to feel, but I recognize these feelings, and remember that God has a plan for our family, and this is part of it!

Eating some chips after enjoying a teething biscuit.

At 16 months, Chessidy walks, runs, climbs, spins and gets into all sorts of trouble.  She is in that stage of exploration that puts a mother on edge. I'm always (trying) watching and hoping I'll be there to catch her before she falls. It's good to let them fall sometimes, but other times, it's best to catch them.  Chessidy loves to do things that Ila does, and lately that is jumping from one section of the couch to the other.  Unfortunately, Chessidy can't jump, and really just steps off the couch, which often ends with tears, bumps and bruises.  

Climbing on big sisters bed.

Chessidy has an amazing appetite, and out eats Ila at every meal.  She is not the least bit picky about what she eats, but she is VERY demanding about having food the moment she sees it or smells it. The hard thing for Chessidy is chewing, as she only has three teeth.  Yes, you heard me right, THREE teeth at 16 months is pretty dismal.  She is currently working on five though, and that makes her grouch and irritable.

Chessidy camping in Yellowstone

Chessidy LOVES to cuddle, and be held.  She gives the BEST kisses in the world.  If you ask her for a kiss, she puckers up and waits for you to lay one on her. If you ask her to cuddle or for a hug, she'll gladly do that too.  She often wants to be read too, and the moment she gets on your lap she settles in for the story by laying her head against the reader.  When she watched Baby Einstein with Ila, she will lay her head back on the pillow, and lounge, or lay her head on Ila.  

With her favorite play buddies!

As for communicating, Chessidy is doing great.  She has a vocabulary consisting of the normal words her age speaks, and she says  "Ila" so clearly.  She still signs a few words, but she is also speaking them more and more.  Chessidy is very vocal, about everything!  This often means you'll hear her yelling, squawking, or growling.  We are working on some of these choices, and trying to teach other ways to communicate her frustrations, but being patient with her, as we should be!  

Posing for the camera.

I have to tell you about Chessidy's silliness.  She is a ham.  She KNOWS when she is being funny, and will laugh at herself.  No matter how upset she is (mid-fit even) you can get her to laugh by tickling her feet or swinging her upside down.  She is adventurous, and tough!  Ila and Chessidy wrestle with each other and rough house often.  Sometimes it doesn't go well, but most of the time it's full of laughter and sequels of delight!

A beauty and a ham!

I'm sure I haven't really captured the essence of Chessidy with this blog, because she is just so full of light and joy it's hard to explain.  Her name is so perfect for her, because she really is a delight to be around!  I look forward to seeing her learn about being a big sister, and she has a great big sister to teach her all the ropes.

Hanging out with Ila in the morning!

  

The Owl

Having a three year old is quite an adventure.  We have our ups and downs here in the Becker house, good behavior and bad behavior.  Sometimes we listen and sometimes we don't.  But what we ALWAYS have is a very imaginative little girl.  These days it's all about the owl.

It all started a few months ago.  Aunt Telcia came over and watched the girls while we were at an OB appointment seeing our little baby in-utero.  When we got home Ila said "Aunt Telcia has a baby in her belly, and mommy has a baby in her belly an
d Ila has an owl in her belly."

An Owl?

"Yes, mommy, Ila has an owl in her belly."

We went with it because it was pretty cute.

A few weeks after that, Ila got up from a nap and wouldn't eat a snack and was moping around the house.  Fairly uncommon behavior for her.  I even tried to give her a cookie and she turned it down.  She laid on the kitchen floor and said " Mommy, my owls hootin'."  Trent, in all is wisdom deduced that Ila had a tummy ache.  Sure enough, within minutes she was in the bathroom barfing and pooping like crazy.

Over the next past weeks (about a month now) Ila has been saying with every little tummy pain (which usually comes right before a poop) "My owls hootin'!" Off she runs to the bathroom to go. It's become pretty funny to us, and we never discouraged or encouraged it, we just go with it.

Then the day came, the day for Aunt Telcia's baby to be born.  I waited several hours to tell Ila that Aunt Telcia was going to have a baby.  Here's how that conversation went:

Me: Ila, Aunt Telcia is going to have her baby today!
Ila: Aunt Telcia is going to have a baby?
Me: Yes, Aunt Telcia and Uncle Jon are going to have their baby today!
Ila: Aunt Telcia is going to have a baby and Uncle Jon is going to have a baby?
... conversation about how the baby will be Aunt Telcia's and Uncle Jon's...
Ila: Can they come over to my house and play?
Me: No, not today.  You can meet the baby in a few days.
Ila: Mommy, can Ila have a baby too?
Me::::pause::::  Ummm, yes, you can, but not yet.
Ila::::longer pause, looks to be really thinking something over::::  Ila needs to have her owl first?
Me::::  silence, unsure how to answer::::
Ila: Yep, Ila needs to have her owl first. Then she can have a baby!
Me::::silence continues, trying to think of SOMETHING to say:::
Ila:::runs off to the living room::: Chessidy!  Aunt Telcia is going to have her baby today! And I can have a baby too, but I have to have my owl first!

So, if you are ever around Ila, and she tells you her owl is hootin' please take her to the bathroom.  I'm not sure when the owl will be born, but I think at this point we're planning on giving her a toy owl when our new baby is born.  A couple more months of carrying around an imaginative owl in her belly can't hurt, right?!

Chessidy, walking

Everyone else is doing well here.  Trent started his new job a few weeks ago and it's going great. He's even had time to continue working with his dad some, and I know he loves that!  Chessidy is walking all over the place and I am doing my best to stay caught up on my household duties and chase after the kids and grow a baby.

The best homemade Fish Tacos you'll ever make/eat!

Nicole's Fish Tacos

Here is what you need:

heavy cream, half and half or fat free half and half

mayo, sour cream or plain greek yogurt

2 habenero peppers

4-6 cloves garlic

2 bunches cilantro

white fish (4 large pieces of tilapia was enough for the 3 of us)

corn tortillas

finely shredded cabbage (they sell packages of shredded cabbage at the store. the also have coleslaw packages, which would work, but I found the cabbage by itself.)

1/4-1/2 onion

2-3 limes

cumin

chili powder

dried oregano

dried dill

olive oil

Awesome sauce

-1 c. mayo, plain greek yogurt or sour cream

-1 c. heavy cream, half and half or fat free half and half

-4-6 cloves garlic (keep in mind that the garlic flavor will get stronger the longer it sits in the fridge, and you will have leftovers)

-1 bunch fresh cilantro

-2 habanero peppers, seeded *USE GLOVES WHEN YOU HANDLE THESE BABIES.  THE WILL BURN YOUR SKIN LIKE CRAZY IF YOU DON'T! (You can use 3 peppers if you REALLY want some kick, but beware that this sauce gets hotter the longer it sits in the fridge and you WILL have leftovers and you WILL want to eat it!)

-Salt to taste. I used approximately 1.5 tsp. sea salt
-One whole lime (the juice from the lime that is, squeeze every last drop out of it!)

Throw it all in a Cuisinart (or blender) until everything is finely chopped and well mixed. Refrigerate while you cook the rest of the meal so it can set-up.

*It WILL be runny if you choose NOT to use mayonnaise and heavy cream, but it will be just as tasty!

**This sauce IS spicy, but not dunk your tongue in milk spicy.  My toddler eats some on her tacos, but if you can't handle any heat, reduce the amount of habanero's.  I do not recommend leaving them out entirely though, as the flavor they give is important and good!

Fish

4 large tilapia fillets, or other white fish

Sprinkle on top of fish:

1.5 tsp cumin (or more!)

1 tsp chili powder (or more!)

some oregano

some dill

squeeze half a lime on fish

drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top.

Stir and cut up the fish while it's cooking (mine looks like the shredded/ground fish when it's done, which sounds terrible but tastes great!). Cook on stove top till done.

*You can fry your fish and/or keep it in big chunks if you'd like.  I just find this cooking method to be much healthier and quicker and just as tasty! I think my parents even used fish sticks one night and they had no complains.

How to dress them:

-Heat some corn tortillas up

-put a spoonful of sauce on each tortilla 

-add a little bit of tomato based salsa if you want, or pico de gallo, or not at all

-add raw diced onion

-fresh diced cilantro

-fish

-cabbage

-fresh lime wedge squeezed over it

ENJOY! We put extra (and I mean extra, I like every bite to be DRIPPING with sauce!) sauce on our plates for dipping.  I usually serve it with Mexican rice and beans. 

Just one more note, this makes a lot of sauce. We only used half of it. So if you make this for more then 2 people, double the fish and toppings, but not the sauce! It's also a yummy chip dip, chicken taco topping and enchilada topping!