SparkPeople

A friend recently sent me a link to a really good website: www.sparkpeople.com.

It's a free site for supporting people in healthy lifestyle choices--not dieting but learning to be healthy. I'm excited about this because I want to exemplify a healthy lifestyle to Anna and I have been struggling with that for the past several months.

One thing I like about this site is that they encourage you to start slowly and have small, manageable goals. So, my three goals for getting started are:

1) eat oatmeal and plain yogurt for breakfast each day (that's actually a breakfast I really enjoy, believe it or not)

2) go to my aerobics class two nights a week and try to do 15 min. of stair climbing one other day

3) tell people about my goals and my progress (thus, this blog entry)

Some might say that the week before Thanksgiving is a strange time to be making these sorts of changes, but I have learned from past experience that I need to respond to motivators when they come and not put it off. So, thanks to my friend for sending this loving nudge and I hope to "spur others on" to taking some small steps toward wellness this week.

Blessings,
Jenny

Little Foo

I've been a mom now for about 7 weeks. Wow! I am having so much fun with it--which surprises me a bit because I had braced myself for it to be very stressful--and it's hard to remember what is was like before.

Anna is becoming a full-blown toddler. When we first met her, she still seemed more like a baby because she was only 17 months but looked about 12 months and was being fed in a high chair. Though we still feed her in her beloved high chair (we've taken to calling it her "throne"), she is much less baby-like in most other ways. She walks like a pro now and is mastering the stairs through daily practice up and down the many flights in the building where we live. She literally learns at least one new word per day. Some of her latest:
*weeeeee!
*apple (spoken and sign language)
*cracker (sign language and "kiki")
*meow (comes out like "naaaaah")
*hachi (this is Czech for sit down) and haji (Czech for lay down)
*shhhhhhhh! (accompanied by a finger to the lips)
*beeeeeeep (while pushing someone's nose--she learned this from grandpa Ron)

She has even said a few two-word sentences like:
*tay tay Mama (which means "Take this, Mama")
*Up Dada!
*Ne ne ham ("I don't want to eat that")
*All done! (comes out like "Allllllll duh")

Another thing she has discovered lately is her own reflection in the mirror. She is delighted by herself and loves to make funny faces and see if Mirror Anna will do the same. She seems to find herself very cute. The other day, she was looking at her reflection in a small mirror and she pushed the nose of her reflection and said, "Beeeeep!" Smart girl! :-)

We're also pleased that she has figured out the joy of reading books and often comes running up to us with one in hand saying emphatically: "A buh!", which translates to: "Look! I have a book that I want you to read to me." She spent ages this morning examining the last page of her Baby's First Bible in which little children of many ages and ethnicities are running up to Jesus ("let the little children come to me"...) We hope she comes to understand his love for her at a very early age.

One of the fun things about being a parent is making up nicknames for your child. We have many for her including:

(From the orphanage--her Czech nicknames, I'll spell them how they are pronounced):
*Ani (this is what we call her most often--it's equivalent to Annie but pronounced with a long "a")
*Ancho (another short form of Anna)
*Anichko (Aneechko)--means "little Anna"
*Andulko--similar to the word for "little Angel"
*Yablichko (Yahbleechko)--means "little Apple"

Random things we call her:
*Foo (don't ask where it came from but it has become our main silly name for her)
*the Foo
*the Foofer
*Foofy
*________ Mc Foo (as in: Cutie Mc Foo, Screamy Mc Foo... or whatever adjective seems to suit at the moment)
*Stinky Foo (when she's being naughty)
*You Fooligan! (when she's being REALLY naughty! :-)
*the Bug (Matt's favorite)
*Ani-Boo
*Anchi (my own permutation of her Czech nickname)
*Her Royal Highness when she's being bossy or vetoing our food suggestions :-)
*Little Freddie (if you have known Matt and I for very long, this probably doesn't need any explaining, however Freddy/Freddie has been our nickname for each other since before we were married. It's a long story, but we call each other that so thoroughly now that it feels really weird to use our given names with each other...)

So, there are lots of fun things about life lately. It's certainly challenging at times parenting a 20 month old who was basically parented by someone else during one of the most critical phases of development, but we've actually been amazed at how well we fit together as a family.

On another note, I have been wanting to reaffirm that motherhood is not the only facet of my life these days and I have really been enjoying teaching a few hours a week in the Certificate in Applied Theology program at the Seminary. I teach intensive English and it has been a great outlet for all the stuff I learned in my master's program. Praise God for bringing us to a place this year where both Matt and I can live out our call to teaching as well as welcome Anna into the family. We feel so blessed to be here at the Seminary.