important stuff

Tonight as I was tucking Rowan into bed, we were talking about the day. She's been doing lots of playing with neighbors and cousins...crossing over into that age when she often prefers to be with friends than with mom or dad. I've been thoughtful about that process, and aware of the things in her life I might not know about anymore, simply because I'm not with her every minute.

Me: Rowan, you know you can tell me anything, right? And you can ask me anything. Always, anytime.

Rowan: Like what do you mean, Mom?

Me: You can always talk to me about anything. Like if you want to tell me about something that happened with a friend, like if your feelings get hurt. Or, if you want to ask me about heaven, or growing up, that kind of thing.

(She's thoughtful here for a brief moment, then perks up with this:)

Rowan: Or, if I want to know how the sewer works?

I had no words, I just smiled and laughed out loud. Exactly, Rowan. Come talk to me if you want to know how the sewer works. Save that relationship and heaven stuff for later.

I love this kid.

We have a crawler on our hands

It's official. Piper is crawling.

She's been working on it for a few weeks. That adorable thing where babies get up on all fours and rock back and forth, like the rocking just might propel them forward. She's managed to scoot around, sometimes by rolling or by going backwards, for awhile now...but in the last few days, crawling has clicked.

For proof, check out this short video on my mother-in-law's page: click here.

One might think that learning a new skill would please a developing baby. Not so for Piper. This developmental milestone has been accompanied by some serious personality changes....namely: whining, being bored, frustrated, more frequent crying, and loudly scolding us for reasons we aren't quite sure.

She still doesn't have any teeth, so it's easy to hope that it's just "teething." We'll see. I have a growing suspicion that the crawling deal has given her just a taste of freedom and control over her environment---and she wants more. NOW please. Where did my sweet, quick to smile, easy-going 6 month old who stayed in the place I set her down go?

Oh, that's right. She's crawled to the bathroom.

My Family is Famous, Sort of

I've posted before about selling some photos through istockphoto...if you haven't seen my portfolio there before, you can click here to check it out. I've sold over 400 images through istock....but you never really know where they are being used. Some in print, brochures, that kind of thing. But also on websites.

Well, we've gotten a few calls from friends this week because a few of my images that were sold through istock are being used on many different photo sites as place holders in their greeting cards, announcements, that sort of thing. We had 2 different friends who were randomly looking at making announcements or other cards see a photo of Joe and Rowan!

One picture is of Joe and Rowan...the other is just of Rowan, kind of hiding her face behind a towel.

Click here and then click on "photo cards", then scroll down just a bit, to check it out. They are using both photos in several different spots all over the "card" section.

They are using the same template and photos at Walmart, Walgreens, and Meijer. Kinda cool!

In other photo news, I've been really busy with shoots this summer. Trying to keep up with all the editing, which is a good thing! I need to post some of my most recent work...I've been really pleased with some of my new stuff this summer. Fun fun!

Hula-Hooping Rowan

For as good as I am about taking photos of my kids, I am equally bad at taking video of them. Good thing my mother-in-law is diligent about it, and apparently more technically-savvy than me, too, because she figured out how to put these little clips on Flickr!

To see Rowan and her amazing hula-hooping skills (notice the TWO hula hoops), click here.

To see a cute little video of Piper making noise, click here.

Maybe this is motivating me to catch more of their antics in live-action....we'll see!

Piper at 6 months

So Piper is actually 7 months now....but I've been meaning to post this since she was 6 months, so that counts for something, right?

Ah, 6 months. 6 months is a huge sigh of relief. Half way to a year. But more importantly....6 months is a whole bunch of other fun things.


6 months is sitting up. Not wobbling, but steadily. Sitting up gives you a whole new view of the world, a whole new sense of control over your environment. Siting up is a Good Thing. 6 months is also rolling over with proficiency, starting to scootch, and just in general feeling more engaged with the world in a physical way.


6 months is eating lots of new foods. I've been making all of Piper's baby food (I may not have a fully functioning kitchen, but gol darn it, I have baby food cubes in the freezer to feed triplets through the winter, it's at least one thing I can have control over!) I've enjoyed cooking and pureeing all sorts of veggies and fruit. She's eaten the basics (sweet potatoes, peas, pears, green beans, squash, peaches, bananas, etc) but also the slightly more exotic: avocado, artichoke (yes, artichoke), mango, papaya, apricot, zucchini, chard (yes, chard), kale, tofu, and tomorrow she'll try her first egg yolk. And rice and oats, of course. She loves it all, as far as I can tell.


6 months is a slightly more predictable sleep pattern. Especially during the day. She takes a morning and an afternoon nap, each ranging in length from an hour to two hours. Depending on the quality/duration of those naps, she sometimes needs a little 30 minute power nap in the late afternoon to get her through until bedtime. No more napping in the car or stroller...and seldom even in the Moby. Give this girl a flat surface please, and her paci, and a blanket, and she's good to go.

Night-time sleep is still a bit up and down. She's sometimes going with only 1 brief wake time during the night (I can do that)....but some nights she is still waking 2 or 3 times. Not always to nurse, just to see what's going on. She's getting better at putting herself back to sleep after these wakings...so we're progressing in the right direction.

I've started to do a "dream feed" with Piper before I go to bed at night. Basically I just pick her up while she is sleeping, nurse her, and lay her back down. She never wakes up...and the hope is that it tanks her up enough to make it through the night without waking. It seems to help sometimes...and at least puts my mind at ease when she does wake between midnight and 5:00, I know she isn't hungry. But mostly, I just loving doing it. She is still such a fast nurser that the whole thing takes me about as much time as it does to brush my teeth. And it's just so sweet...a sleepy baby, still groping for the milk, her face all warm and snuggly and soft. It's the only time I hold her while she's sleeping anymore. And I kinda love it.


6 months is flirting. This girl can flirt! She smiles, coos, flaps her arms like she is about to take off, smiles at you and then buries her head in the nearest neck. We are all just madly in love with her!

Oh, and the stats: Piper is 19 lbs, 13 oz, and 27 inches long. She's a big girl!

To see some more photos of Piper at 6 months (and her sister and momma!) click here.

Huge May/June Update

I have missed many events and updates over the last few months, so I'm just going to hit on some highlights...but this will still be a long post! And there are a bunch more photos posted to Flickr here.

The first of the photos is from a very sweet, spontaneous wedding here on Allerton. I don't know whose idea it was, but the neighborhood kids staged two very cute ceremonies, complete with bouquet tosses and celebratory dances. Not surprisingly, Rowan was a spectator. I did get a few hilarious photos that will be great for taking bribes if we still live here when some of these kids are teenagers. All my Allerton friends, let me know if you want any of these photos of your kiddos for the same purpose :) And excuse our backyard, the scene for one of the ceremonies...complete with it's gas can and dandelions. Let's just say that the outside of our house is low priority at the moment.

We've continued to love living on Allerton. We spend many afternoons and evenings hanging outside, talking to whoever is out, watching the kids play. We've been swimming at Phil's pool, getting ice cream from the ice cream truck, and swapping play dates. Rowan's at the age where a play date is usually a help for me--she's so occupied, I can get lots done.

Check out these handsome neighbor boys!

What else. On Memorial Day, my sister-in-law Stacia and I decided to take all 6 of our kids to the beach. First we stopped at the cemetery where my Grandma and Grandpa Hoeksema are buried, then we stopped at the cemetery where my Grandma Pekelder is buried. We had the kids put lilacs on the gravestones. I hadn't been to their graves in awhile and it was really good to share that with our kids. The beach was fun, too, albeit a little bit chilly. I didn't take any photos there...I haven't been able to figure out how to lug my big camera on excursions like this when I am responsible for 2 kids (one in arms) and all our stuff.

I'm so thankful to live by Tom and Stacia. I love conversations with Stacia...we have a good time together and I respect her deeply. And there is just something about cousins being together. So much fun to see them know each other and see each other with regularity.

Grandma Thomas (Joe's maternal grandmother) also came up to visit from Illinois for almost a week. It was really good to have her in town. We had several meals over at Joe's parents' house and Grandma got to see our house.

Rowan had her first sleep-over with her cousin Shae. They had a lot of fun....took a bath together, watched a movie and ate some candy...even fell asleep eventually! It's fun to watch their relationship grow.

Joe's cousin, Megan, was in the area for a week working on a Habitat for Humanity project. She just graduated from college out east and it was so much fun to see her! We got to have dinner with her whole crew...she came over to visit our house another night...and I met her downtown at Festival of the Arts with the girls. Joe has a lot of really cool cousins and I love that they feel like MY cousins, too!

Joe's best man in our wedding, Curtis, and his wife Amanda came to visit for a few days. They had their first son, Micaiah, just 6 weeks before their trip from Florida to Chicago...they are brave! They came up to GR to see us and so that Curtis and Joe could camp for a night out on lake Michigan. It was great to see them and get to spend time with the new baby.

Our time got cut a little bit short because Piper was diagnosed with pneumonia while they were here! And they decided to play it safe with a newborn and not expose him to Piper.

Piper had been running a fever for 2 days and was just out of sorts. She's never slept great, but she was sleeping particularly poorly. I really thought she had an ear infection or something minor, so I took her to the Doctor to get checked. I was so thankful for thorough care from my doctor, because I honestly thought my doctor was over-reacting the day we went in! Piper didn't have an ear infection, so they did a catheter to check for a UTI...wasn't that either. Then they had me go to the lab to draw blood....and finally over to Children's hospital for a chest x-ray! I'm an eternal optimist so I really wasn't stressed out through all of this, mostly just wondering why they were making me do all these needless tests on a poor baby! Joe, who was still camping with Curtis, has too much science knowledge...and knew that a high fever without clear reason could mean something really bad. Strangely enough, even though Piper was not coughing or wheezing and no one could hear it through a stethoscope, the chest x-ray came back with several spots on both of her lungs. Pneumonia. She had a course of antibiotics (was allergic to the first one, but we took care of that, too) and recovered quickly.


A really special day in June was the 9th, when Tom and Stacia went to court to officially adopt Shae and Tayva. We all got to attend and it was just a joyous occasion. The girls have been a part of our family since November, but it still felt great to have it all be legal and done and closed and final. It was cool to watch the proceedings in court and listen to the judge talk about how good it was to do adoptions...that usually his job can be quite depressing, and adoptions are so filled with joy. Another highlight was that the girls' foster mom (affectionately called "granny") voluntarily got up to talk in court--she expressed her support of the adoption and how much she has seen the girls grow and develop and how much she appreciated the Hoeksemas. To see photos of this adoption day, click here.

After that, we made a trip to Jonesboro for a visit and to photograph a wedding of a good friend of ours. It was great to be in Jonesboro again, but we agreed that we felt more nostalgic about Jonesboro in March...when it was 70 degrees there and still late winter here. Late June in Arkansas can be very hot...and the wedding we attended was outside, both the ceremony and reception. It was close to 100 degrees and humid as all get out. Plus, we were working our butts off taking pictures! I don't think I've ever had so many people ask me if I was okay or if I needed a drink of water. Hoeksemas get red in the face when we get hot...and we sweat on the face. A lot. I was looking pretty ragged! If you are interested in seeing some photos from this wedding, go to my website (www.cebulskiphotography.com) and to the right, click on "client proofs" and the password is: adairwedding

We made a detour on our way home to GR and stopped in Moberly, Misouri, to see our good friends Jeff and Ruby. Jeff and Ruby lived in Jonesboro when we did. Jeff competed in the decathlon with Joe (plus they worked on many other projects together) and Ruby and I were fast friends. They have a 3 year old daughter and also added a son in February, so we were all eager to see each other! Jeff built a beautiful house near their families in MO and we had a great time relaxing, catching up, swimming, and fishing. Check out a few photos of our time with the Sanders here.

To see photos of everything else in this blog post, here is the link again: click here.

little gestures

Before we had a second child, it seemed like most people with two or more kids would always talk about how different their children were from each other. And truly, it is amazing how different two offspring can be....from the same genetic materials!

Lately, though, I've marveled at some little details that make me feel like I'm back in rowan's infancy.

exhibit #1: the thighs. oh, those thighs! i squeeze them with regularity....my hand doesn't even fit around their widest part anymore. Rowan had a very similar body to Piper. Their faces (and their hair) are as different as can be...but their 6 month old bodies, so much the same. I love the heft of a 6 month old on my hip. Lurching here and there, so strong really, but still so portable. Sitting up with some degree of confidence on those sturdy, meaty thighs.

exhibit #2: the full-body excitement about eating real food. Legs kicking, arms flailing, short breaths in-and-out, in-and-out....I remember this well. I just wish Rowan still got this excited about sweet potatoes, peas, and bananas.

exhibit #3: the "mamamamamama." Piper's favorite syllable. I looked back in Rowan's baby book and in her sixth month...I had written down that she was constantly repeating "mamamama." I secretly like to believe that it is directed towards me, but I know better. It's just an easy sound to make....but both my girls have made it with gusto, in their sixth month.

exhibit #4: the fake cough. Joe plays this little game with Piper where he fake coughs, she mimics him, and then he rewards it with some fabulously excited gesture or surprised face. Piper has started actually instigating this game (only with Joe)....it's the first time she has controlled her world in this specific way. And we remember Rowan doing the exact same thing....fake coughing, lots of laughs.

exhibit #5: lurching for her crib, arms extended, immediately when she is through nursing and ready for sleep. This is the most heart-breaking one of all: the desire and the ability to sleep alone. So you know all those baby books tell you to lay your baby down while still awake, so they learn to "self-sooth" and sleep through the night better. I was never good at that....mostly because I love snuggling a sleeping baby. As Piper has gotten older, she has become increasingly less willing to snuggle...and I can hardly remember the last time I held her while she was sleeping. The last few weeks I have tried, unsuccessfully, to hold her for awhile after she nurses. To smell her baby smell, look on her sleepy face, and just hold on to this for awhile. She protests the snuggling. And then, a few nights ago...she started doing exactly what Rowan did at this age: lurch for the crib right after nursing. Literally, a physical throwing of her body, all rigid and extended, in the direction of her crib, as if to say: I'm tired, I'm ready for bed. Please just put me there.

I know some kids don't do this...and always seem dependent on a parent to get to sleep. You gotta admire a girl who knows what she wants, but I'll tell you one thing. Should a third child ever bless our lives, I am not going to spend ONE SECOND feeling guilty about not laying my awake child down for sleep. I'm going to hold my sleeping baby whenever and wherever possible. Because now I know (reinforced by child #2): the time comes too soon when your baby is too big to hold, too old for snuggling, too independent to need you for sleep.

Pictures soon, I promise. I'm almost there.

a few photos

We've been traveling and I've had too many photos to go through...I will get around to them eventually, but wanted to post just a handful of my girls from Lake Michigan last week. 6 month baby bottom and a cowboy hat on the beach...can't get much cuter than that.

pretty things

Rowan was playing with her friend and our neighbor, Eden, yesterday. They were playing lots of pretend in Rowan's room. I love listening to conversations between kids when they don't know that an adult can hear.

A little back-story. Rowan is fussy about shoes...so we've had some drama again as the season has changed about what shoes she will wear for summer. Sandals have not felt right to her after a long winter in boots and regular shoes. A few weeks ago we tried on some of her sandals from last summer/fall that were her favorites---wore them every day. They are plain black sandals...similar to tevas....I got them in the boy section, but other than being black, there isn't anything particularly "boy" about them. I guess a lot has changed between the summer of being 3 and the summer of being 4, because Rowan told me that the sandals felt comfortable...but she didn't like how they looked.

So Eden apparently took these sandals out of Rowan's closet...and this is what I overhead Rowan saying to Eden, in a sort of defensive voice, as I passed by her room:

"Those are the sandals I wore when I was a kid and I didn't care about things being pretty. Now I'm a princess and I care about things being pretty!"

Oh my. It's certifiable: we have a girly girl on our hands.

I have so many personal photos to upload, edit, and share. It's a bit ridiculous. But I also have lots of photos I'm working on for other people (and have 3 more photo shoots this weekend!)....so that's a good thing! Eventually I will get caught up and get everything uploaded.

Also have some updates...including a surprising diagnosis of pneumonia for Piper last week (she's fine now, except for some pretty horrible night-time sleep habits!)..continued progress on the house....and lovely things in Michigan in the summer. I'll get to it all one of these days, promise.

Piper at almost 5 months and Other Stuff

Piper had her 4 month check up last week (a few weeks late!) In addition to the dreaded shots (one in each leg, she handled it with a few good cries, then some grace), she smiled endlessly at the nurse and doctor, weighed 15 lbs 13 oz, and is 25 1/4 inches long. She seems really big to me...but the weight and height put her in the 75-90%, so nothing off the charts of anything!

4 months old is so much different than a newborn. She's so strong...really wants to be sitting up or standing up. Doesn't tolerate the reclined angle of a bouncy seat or car seat very well, primarily because she is working her abs the whole time to get more upright.


And she wants to be upright because she wants to engage. That's the fun part. She smiles so easily, talks and coos a lot, laughs out loud (mostly at Rowan). She tracks what's going on in the room, who's going where, and all of this is just easier to do when you're sitting up.

She reaches and grabs for toys and makes a fast panting noise when her favorites come into view.

When she is awake, she is generally happy. I've recently gotten brave enough to take both girls to the grocery store. Not for a long trip, but definitely not and in-an-out trip, either. Piper actually stayed in her car seat the whole time (a revelation!)...happily gazing at the lights and ceiling fans, the whirring groceries as we passed. This may seem like a normal occurrence for a baby at the store, but for me, after Rowan's baby-hood, this is a minor miracle. To go to the store with my hands free, with no crying. A miracle.

And the car trips, too, are much improved. She will cry if she is tired, but that seems to be the only time she cries in the car nowadays.

I've been putting Piper's hair in two ponytails. I had to do something, it's getting so long. My friend Jill (thank you very much for doing this without asking, for helping a hairstyle deficient momma out) put her hair in one ponytail on top of her head a few weeks ago...and I realized it was possible. And sort of cute. It just makes her look so old. If old is 7 or 8 months, at least :)

Sleep has been our only frustrating category. For about a month now she's been back on her schedule of waking every 3-4 hours. Usually happy, sometimes hungry. But way too frequently for an almost-16 pound 4 month old. She isn't waking up in discomfort, as far as we can tell....she's just waking. Maybe out of habit. Who knows. Last week we decided to let her cry for graduated periods of time. The first night, she cried an hour and a half, then later in the night for 45 minutes, then later for 30. We thought we were on the right track. The next night, she cried from 4:00 AM until after 6:30 AM...it was quiet about 20 minutes (did she even go to sleep, or was she just pondering child abandonment?) and cried out again at 7:00...at which point we decided she must really be hungry by now, it was, after all, morning.

Those are the worst times. I think hell might be perpetual waking between the hours of 2:00 AM and 4:30 AM. Time would never advance past those hours...just get to 4:30 and go right back to 2:00 AM, and you're still not sleeping. Or maybe you've just finally fallen asleep, only to be woken again.

Then you just start questioning everything: does this qualify as child abuse? is she really old enough to know that we will be here in the morning, that she is safe? could she be hungry? maybe she is sick. maybe her diaper is full. maybe her foot is caught in the railing. maybe a spider bit her.


But then, at 7:00 AM, after basically 3 hours of crying, she greets me with a huge smile, wants to coo on the changing table. Huh.

So we're still figuring the sleep out. Most people say to go in and check periodically to make sure there is no pressing need...then to let them cry for graduated amounts of time. Seems easy enough. But there are still a million things to question!

She has done this 2-3 hour period of crying more than a few more times...usually in the early early morning hours....and never succeeds in falling asleep. Needless to say, we're tired. From listening and waiting it out. So we're giving it a break for a few weeks to see if she makes any improvement in her sleep naturally. The last several days she's experimented with the very fun possibility of waking, for good, at about 5:00 AM. Good times.

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr from the past month or so. A few shots from Mother's Day (of the girls with their Nana, a few with me), some more pictures from the actual day Piper was 4 months old, some pictures of Piper's evolving hair-dos, a few pics from an apple orchard, some silly dress-up. You'll also find a random shot of some retro wallpaper we found while doing some demolition at the house, a picture of Rowan working on a mural we're doing in Piper's room, and several pictures from a nice Sunday hike we took when the leaves were just budding. To see this random assortment of photos, click here.


We're just pointing out the resemblance, that's all :)

Joe should really write a post about what he's been up to. In addition to trying to finish our kitchen, he has been really busy doing some side projects for other people, and coaching pole vault a few days a week at a local high school. He has some fun stories to tell!

My New Photography Website!

It's time. I have a website for my photography! I've been working on it for awhile, and it's finally ready. Check it out at www.cebulskiphotography.com

Most of you know that I take a lot of pictures (just look at the blog and at my Flickr account!) I've loved photography for a lot of years now. Several years ago, while we lived in Jonesboro, I started to get a lot of requests from friends and friends-of-friends to take their photos. What started, quite organically and with little effort on my part, was a nice little side business/income from taking photos.

I've never done any official advertising or marketing...and have also always kind of flown by the seat of my pants when it comes to what I charge for what. It seems like I am always making up new ways to approach it...and it hasn't been very efficient.

So now we're back in West Michigan. We'll likely be here for awhile. And I've made a personal commitment to learning more and more about photography...to know my camera better, to know photoshop better, and just in general to keep improving. And part of that commitment is putting myself out there in a more intentional way. Hence the website.

This website is a big step for me. I've never liked the "business" side of taking pictures. I really don't like having to charge friends, for example...but the truth is, it's something that takes a lot of time (for every hour that I shoot, it takes 2-3 hours afterwards in editing). I also don't like charging what is clearly a higher price than you could get at a mall studio...but the truth is, I can take pictures better than most. I'm good at it. That last statement is particularly hard for me to claim. I don't know why, I just have this real hesitation and fear when it comes to confidence in this subjective creative skill. It's easier when it's "just for friends" or "no big deal." Joe has always encouraged me to be more confident in my attitude towards my photography...but my natural inclination is to lean on the side of under-valuing it. Partly out of a fear of failure, honestly.

So that's my little confession. All this to say: I'm proud of this website, of a bunch of my work gathered in one place. And I'm also a little scared: now that it's out there, I risk the chance of not getting any work!

Spend some time checking it out, and if you want to, let me know what you think. If you are a regular blog reader, you might recognize some photos. But there are new ones, too. If you are a friend and I have photographed you, you might just see your face!
www.cebulskiphotography.com

there are so many moments as a mother that i wish someone, paparazzi-like, could snap a quick photo of a sweet interaction, a quickly-passing gesture between me and my girls.

there are times when i try to figure out how to take that photo myself, but i can never manage to hold my clunky camera at the right angle to include me in the picture.

this is the series of photographs from earlier today:

it is this morning, but it could have been any morning, in the early (too early) morning light. the window by our bed is open wide, and fresh, cool air blows carefully over us. a few birds are singing, but otherwise it is quiet.

at some point (i can't remember when, after too many footsteps to the nursery and back) i carry piper to bed with us, too weary to make another trip to her bedroom. i don't know how long she's been with us, but she rouses, and i instinctively, confidently, pull her to me.

we are belly to belly. i'm on my left side, she on her right, mirrors of each other. my left arm rests under and above my head. she doesn't need much help anymore...she's an expert at this nursing thing by now. her mouth makes that sweet O without much effort as she waits for the familiar breast to come near.

i never know what to do with my free arm when we nurse lying down. it always seems to be in the way. this morning, i realize that it finally fits just over her torso, no longer seeming to smother her tiny (not anymore) frame. i lay my right arm there, tugging her closer to me. we fit together perfectly.

just as effortlessly, her left arm springs up in response, she lays her hand on my forearm with purpose. by now my milk has come in, her eyes are heavy with satisfaction. we are intertwined, as close as can be.

her fingers don't stop moving, but her hand stays firmly planted on my arm. keep your arm here, mommy. hold me tight. i am warm, i am safe.

when i finally lift my eyes from this perfect child at my breast, i realize that rowan has also joined us in bed. she has a cold, and had a rough night of sleep. i don't remember when she joined us, either, but i am thankful for a king bed.

rowan is snuggled up really close to her daddy and they are both sleeping, looking surprisingly peaceful after a rough night for everyone. their skin looks smooth and flawless in this early morning light. they are both so warm-blooded, feeling comfortable in this coolness, even with significant amounts of skin exposed to the air. i am thankful for it this morning as i admire the contours of their bodies, not sure where one starts and the other ends.

piper is calm, slips off of my breast. she looks up at me with her big blue eyes. this morning light (ideal for photographs) catches their color and adds sparkle to the full-faced grin she offers, looking me directly in the eye.

we are both weary, surely, after such truncated sleep. and yet, we pass the next hour in bed...cooing quietly, smiling, snuggling, in love with each other....until i know she is ready for her first nap of the morning.

it could have been any morning, filled with actions mostly small, mundane.

of all these actions, i want a photo of her little hand on my arm.

so i won't forget.