Justin's Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Justin's 27th birthday. I surprised him with a new hip pack for hunting (after last hunting season any expression of my support of this hobby is just short of a miracle) and he used some of his birthday money to buy a fishing vest and chest waders. I also got him a North Face backpack for $2.00 at our church rummage sale. He was almost more excited about that than the hunting pack. I should have saved money and wrapped up the backpack; he wouldn't have known the difference.

*I am to note here that Justin was an unwilling subject and violently protested against having his picture taken. Why...I'm not sure. He's getting crotchety in his old age.*

Even though the weather was really cold this weekend, he made it out this afternoon for a quick fishing adventure. He didn't catch a thing but as one of his favorite sayings goes...a bad day of fishing beats a good day at work. He really looks forward to using all of his new gear later this year. If he gets lucky, he'll even get to try out his hunting pack if Junior decided to come either early or late. We'll have to wait to find out.

Confessions of a would-be sneaky mom

Ok, so I don't really have any Easter pictures to post. I tried to take some pictures of her in her Easter dress last Sunday morning but the little bugger wouldn't stay still long enough! This is the only one I got:

(A nice rear shot as she booked towards the mirror. She now likes to lick mirrors, windows, refrigerators, etc. I hope this stage passes soon!)

Now my secret plan had been to dress her up again in the same outfit and take cute pictures outside, just as I should have done on Easter Sunday. Instead, we all got hit by this cold and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees outside this past week. So there you have it...

As the dress is perfectly gorgeous and will fit her for a while yet, I'm hoping to get her into it again one of these days when the weather is warmer and more flowers are out. For now, she's chilling out in her Gap sweatshirt (Justin and I are in our Messiah ones) and we all have tissues hanging out of our noses. Maybe I'll get a picture of that to post sometime.

The family cold

It has finally happened: three people sharing one icky cold. Madeleine has the runny nose, Justin has the sneezies, and I have the perpetual need to swallow. Gross, I know. We make a great threesome.

So what have we done to celebrate our communal sickness? We went and waited for an hour in the cold to see the breaching of the Milltown Dam. Not the smartest thing but it was history in the making. You can go to www.missoulian.com to read an article about it if you want.

After waiting an hour in the cold without any evidence of the supposed wave of water that was to rush down the Clark Fork River, we decided it was time to head home. We were all cold and hungry by then. So now I'm checking out the live web cam from the comforts of our warm home instead. If you want to see the live picture, go to http://www.clarkfork.org/Water-Watch/Milltown-Dam-Cam.html.

Better late than never

I had to put up these few pictures from my trip to Massachusetts even though they're now "old." I personally think I look prettier when I'm with Carol so here I am looking my best! (And not my best but the picture has Soren in it so look at him instead.)

And Easter pictures are on the way...

Birthday celebration #2

On Saturday, we invited our friends Jen and Molly over for another celebration of Madeleine's birthday. This time she tried carrot cake and she ate the whole cupcake, much to Maggie's dismay. We were delighted to see Madeleine enjoying her time with Jen and Molly, especially after going through a very clingy spell these last few months. Our little baby has become a little girl!

Birthday celebration #1

We celebrated Madeleine's birthday a day late since I returned from my trip to Massachusettes late in the evening on the 18th. So on the 19th, Madeleine opened cards and presents (thanks to all) and she had her first cupcake: anglefood with whipped cream. After licking off some of the whipped cream, she proceeded to try and shove the whole cupcake into her mouth. We tore off a few pieces but she was more interested in Maggie who was excitedly pacing below her. She eventually chucked the entire cupcake onto the floor (to Maggie's delight) and then smeared whipped cream all over her face. Maggie scarfed up the cupcake then proceeded to lick off any whipped cream that she could get whether it came from Madeleine flinging it onto the floor or straight off of her hands. We all got a good laugh out of it. I hope you will too.

Still more...

Big brown eyes.

Swinging at the park.

Can you see my two top teeth? I have a gap like my Momma.

Walking back from getting the mail.

A family picture at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. This was our last day with JoAnn here.

More pictures

All bundled up to go snowshoeing.

Lolo Pass had more than 10 feet of snow...more than we've ever seen before!

Madeleine loves her stacking cups.

JoAnn got Madeleine a stuffed sheep, or so she thought. Turns out it's really a mountain goat which fits into our Montana experience quite nicely! We named him Billy.

Goofy girls.

Filling in the blanks

This is an update of Justin's time with Madeleine and his mom while I was gone. They had a lot of fun together, including snowshoeing at Lolo Pass, and JoAnn took a bunch of great pictures of Madeleine. JoAnn flew home to Pennsylvania on Thursday and we've been adjusting back to normal life.

Madeleine's favorite toy is Maggie, our dog.

A new favorite activity of Madeleine's is to look out the window and talk to the birds and neighborhood dogs.

Out for a walk with Gramma.

Friends forever

I'm currently sitting in the living room of my best friend Carol Johnson typing this. Justin graciously allowed me to take a long weekend to fly out to the Boston area to visit Carol, her husband Jeremy, and their 5-week old son Soren. It has been a ton of fun hanging out with their new family and watching them in their new roles of mom and dad.

After finally convincing them that I'm here to work, Jeremy let me take his shift for the night feeding. Specifically during that time while holding Soren in his dimly lit room and watching him look up at me and eat, I was affirmed that I'm really excited we'll be doing this again soon too!

Today is girls' day out (plus Soren) as Jeremy must work in his lab so we'll be doing the traditional errand running but anything I get to do with Carol is great. She and I have been best friends since 8th grade...before babies, husbands, and college. It is wonderful to share time with someone who knows me so well and for so long. Although it's a far way from Montana, it's still like I'm at home in many ways.

I head home on a very early flight tomorrow to make it home in time to celebrate Madeleine's 1-year birthday! I'm sure we'll have something to post for that. Hopefully it won't involve cake on my face.

Progress

Madeleine is gradually getting better. She started out sounding like a 78-year-old smoker but since has moved more towards the likes of a wheezy 1-year-old. It will still probably be few more days before she's back to normal.

Yesterday we welcomed Gramma Cline (Justin's mom) to town. She will be here for 10 days to help watch Madeleine while I go to visit my friends Carol and Jeremy who just had a baby boy named Soren about a month ago. I leave on Friday and return on the 18th...just in time to celebrate Madeleine's 1-year birthday! So far, Madeleine has remained skeptical about this new lady in our house but we're hoping she'll warm up soon, especially because Justin and I are going on our first baby-free date tonight in months. Well, almost baby free :)

The Croup

Madeleine made it almost a full year being sick only once (she and I shared a cold back in June). Last night though, we detected a really dry and "barky" cough and called the pediatrician on-call. He believed she has all of the symptoms of croup which is primarily characterized by a seal-like cough caused by swelling around the vocal cords and windpipe. While it is nice to have a name for her discomfort, unfortunately there is little we can do for her except keep her calm, give her lots of fluid, and try to help her rest as much as possible...all of which can be difficult when you're dealing with a virtual toddler. She woke up last night coughing after being asleep for 2 hours and decided that her "nap" justified some playing. She played for three hours until midnight when I finally got her back down. We're all pretty tired so I'd appreciate any prayers you can send our way, especially for this to pass quickly.

Heart to heart

Here's another video from our appointment. By the way, Junior's due date is October 1st.

Our little surprise

This is your formal introduction to "Junior." We had a great appointment at The Birth Center today with our favorite midwife Jeanne. Everyone there even remembered us from a year ago! Jeanne said we are the sixth couple back there for a second baby. Things look great for both Junior and Melinda and even Madeleine seems to enjoy herself, even if she doesn't realize what's going on. We hope you'll tag along with us for the rest of this journey as the Cline household continues to grow :)

A new era

I just celebrated my second full week home as a stay-at-home mom. We decided that it was best for me to leave the world of publishing (and dictation) for the sanity of the whole family. I had gotten stuck in a rut of making easy and quick meals that ususally weren't the most nutritious. But now, since leaving work, we've had venison roast, asparagus, homemade broccoli cheddar soup, homemade bread bowls, venison chili (we have lots and lots of venison/elk meat in our freezer!), fajitas, etc. I'm in the mood to bake cookies next. Chocolate chip oatmeal ones, to be exact.

Being at home hasn't been all flour and sugar. Madeleine and I just finished a particularly difficult week of teething. Her second top tooth finally broke through Thursday night and since then we've gotten back on our regular eating and sleeping schedule but for a few days there we were both looking pretty rough. I broke out the baby tylenol for the first time and that seemed to help with her sleeping. The poor baby couldn't use her pacifier because of the pressure it put on her gums and since she usually puts a pacifier in when she takes a nap or goes to bed, that made falling asleep tough. I'm hoping that we're through the worst of the teething now and that both she and I get better at this stuff as she gets older.

Justin's been working really hard these last few weeks. He has his portfolio presentation (the big requirement for his program) is this Tuesday. Fortunately, one of our favorite beers gets released at the local brewery on the same day so he'll celebrate with a growler of Slow Elk. He's also been busy with regular school work and applying for jobs. Unfortunately, he hasn't gotten an interview yet and three of the four jobs he's applied to didn't even get to his resume. Since he's applying to work at a Vet Center, there's preferential treatment for vets. For those three jobs, he's gotten e-mails saying that due to the number of applicants, they didn't even get to his application, which means people with preference are applying. We're keeping our eyes open for new postings every day but we're still holding out when it comes to applying for California. We really don't want to go there unless it's far northern CA. Right now they're all southern positions. I'll keep this updated.

So neither of us have paying jobs but we work our tails off, our lease expires July 1, and there's no job prospect or any clear idea of where we'll be spending the second half of our summer. It wouldn't be life with the Clines if things were any clearer. And there are even more surprises in store, I am sure.