Oraeley: My Site

Can you have winter blues when you have two beautiful babies?
I can. And I did, today.

But then when Deeder wasn’t sleepy at his bedtime I let him stay up. Know what? I loved it. We sat down in Darren’s big armchair with a few books and read them over and over. While Deeder was eating a snack Carly woke up. We got out the blocks and Deeder lined them up, Carly joined in the fun by knocking her brother’s neat line out of order. Thankfully he thought this to be hilarious and recreated the line to see her mess it up again. He laughed and so did I.

This ending to the day was so much nicer than it would have been if I just put Deeder in bed to fuss out his disappointments of being put there when he didn’t feel ready. I would have snuggled in the chair myself with a book of my own in hand but not have enjoyed it as much tonight as I did his toddler books.

I’m tired, I would have been either way. However in the end this route left me feeling a couple shades lighter in the blue department, less self centered and move loving.

Tomorrow I’ll hope to have a more sunshiny day than the overcast one I lead today.

From our Family

to yours!

Thanks for reading oraeley.com and please come back next year as the adventures only get bigger and better. The unknown part of life can sometimes be the most interesting, so stay tuned for further developments. :)

In 2008 I learned that laundry and dishes keep coming.

January 2008 I was pregnant with Carly and busy watching 18 month old Diederick. Finally Deeder’s baby jabber sounds were beginning to evolve into actual words–I was strongly trying to encourage this but had no idea that it would take him a whole year to actually speak in a consistent legible form.

February 2008 We were snowed in and trying to make the best of it, going outside even at freezing temps just for the air and to take day after day of snow pictures. I started to worry about falling down as pregnant girls are apt to do on ice. Thankfully, aside from a scraped up Diederick face and a case of cabin fever we got through that month unharmed.

March 2008 The first robin of the year graced our yard! I hopped out of the house faster than I thought I previously thought possible to catch a picture of him. The photo turned out to be little more than a blur, but all the same he was there and I was thrilled. Robins mean Spring and are an obvious sign that Winter’s forever feeling will end.

April 2008 We met the neighbor Carol and her dog Luca. They became good friends and their yard was within no time one of our favorite hang outs. After arriving in Washington we sent them a postcard telling them how much we missed our daily visits.

May 2008 Darren turned 40, and a couple weeks later I gave birth to his daughter. We named her Carly Annalise Taryn. Her brother Diederick attended the delivery, and seven months later I still believe that his being there made it all more bearable. The joy in bringing new life into the world is amazing beyond words and I’ll remember every bit of that day forever.

June 2008 My husband and son flew to Washington and stayed with my family there for one week. I had a special time to bond with my new baby and the chance to realize how incredibly strong the attachment I have to my two-year-old really is.

July 2008 Diederick Dale turned two years old. That month Darren returned to work after a two and a half week off break. I experienced exhaustion and often found myself overly emotional. Deeder shows signs of jealousy and requires constant supervision around his sister.

August 2008 We make the final decision to move our family to Washington from Vermont, a 3,052 mile journey. For some crazy reason we choose to do it ourselves; buy a storage trailer and prep Darren’s 15 year old truck to pull it across the country. Darren gives notice at his work and we begin packing up our house with a departure date set for the first week of September.

September 2008 The journey proves to be challenging, an emotional and spiritual pilgrimage as the truck at times looked like it wanted to go into retirement. Darren’s best friend and long time faithful companion, Heidi Dog, visits the farm where she spent many a happy day for the last time and is buried there. Darren and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary.

October 2008 After making it to WA in time for my sisters wedding we begin settling in with my mom and dad’s place, our temporary home until we buy/rent our own home. Deeder challenges rules, and struggles a little with being a part of a bigger household. Darren begins his new job at the local hospital.

December 2008 Diederick has found his place and I begin to wonder what he will do without his aunties and uncle around. What will he have to look forward to without having them come home at the end of their school day? Carly too is settling in, although to my disappointment, is not sleeping through the night or taking long naps leaving me with little sleep myself.
Darren continues to enjoy his work.

Carly adores her big brother, and I’m so happy for that.

In fact, they’re together so much that the casual photo snaps aimed her way also include 28 month old Diederick. It’s the prompted photo shoot done during his nap time where I can capture Carly working on her sitting skills that you might expect in a baby her age. She’s a strong baby, with amazing balance–perhaps this has come from having to hold her own with her active brother. We are all guessing that Carly will be walking by her first birthday.

In addition to loving the company of her brother, Carly also has a vast love of food. We have yet to see even the smallest bit of finickiness in her whole being. When someone is eating and she doesn’t have a dish of her own Carly grabs desperately for whatever it is that she has spied and cries out at the unfairness of the whole ado. Her craving for more than what the baby nutrition guide says is appropriate doesn’t end with wanting more food than is officially hers, she also wants our drinks–including uncle’s beer.

This little girl, a blessing and such a fun bundle of personality craving to move and eat and speak needs her down time too. And she’s so beautiful in those quiet moments, just watching her is a dream.

Not only a dream because she’s so sweet but because it doesn’t last long (the sleep that is) and as quickly as she grows it seems the less and less she sleeps.

Those naps seem brief flighty seconds–little pauses between her ongoing exploration project. The project involves handling, examining and after thoroughly inspected, tossing any household objects within her reach. My mom says that it’s a sign of intelligence.

Carly can’t crawl yet, has just newly mastered sitting but her mind is going at top speed.

Deeder loves to help Carly learn, I hope it’ll always be that way!

In this case he’s moving the walker forward…

Which Carly, like her brother before her, can’t do alone.

Hey guys,

As you might have guessed I’ve been snowed. Yep, snowed. Our tall internet receptor pole thing fell off and has been hidden under snow. This happening makes getting on line impossible and that’s the reason I haven’t been here to post more and more snow pictures. Have you missed having those? If you have, just skip back less than a year to when we were completely covered in snow over in Vermont. It’s not quite like that here and today we’ve been getting quite a sudden mess–it’s just a lot of slush, messy and inconvenient.

Thank you for continuing to come back and check for new entries–there’ve been 30 visits since I was last on and I appreciate that, your taking time out of the day for me.

A couple pictures later on if I’m able to get on the Net again. :)
We just got home from church. I need to get some food in my tummy and then in about half an hour after feeding the kids too we’ll take a nap.

See ya around. I look forward to visiting your blogs and writing more too.
Hey, notice how near I am to my 1,000th post?

When I saw these two pictures on Facebook I decided that they’d make the perfect post for my blog somewhere in these last days of 2008, so here they are. I have no idea what year the first one was taken; I think Philip, Laura, Sarah, Michael and Kayla were in college and Rebecca, Lydia and Seth, and maybe Debra were homeschooled.

The only Taron kid missing in the second picture is my sister Sarah who was married this past September.

This time of the year people like to be with their loved ones, on holidays and as a new year begins. I’m no exception–every moment that all of “us kids” have had together are so precious to me, just that we’re all able to be here sharing in the beginnings of our new lives.

Michael, Debra, Lydia, Seth, Seth, Kayla, Joyce, Laura, Sarah, Rebecca, and Philip.

Darren’s arm, Deeder, me, Seth, Debra, Michael, my mom, Rebecca, Lydia, Emmy Lou (Kayla’s bff), Kayla and half of Philip.

Note that our dinner in these pictures looks similar? We must have quite a pattern going on. I also see that all former glasses wearers now have contacts, with the exception of Philip who got his laser eye surgery last year.

Officially snowed in! With the snow coupled with ice being unusual for this area venturing out wouldn’t be wise at all. We plan to hang out at the house, cozy by the fire with loads of fun board games just enjoying each other’s company.

This is a record snow fall since 1996 and 30F is feeling pretty cold.

Snow nearly level with the back porch

More white in the yard, fluffy white and untouched…

From the kitchen window…

And inside, me and the kiddies…

Those who wish year after year for a white December 25th have certainly got it this year! We had planned to get together at my sister Kayla’s house for a meal and gift exchange but due to road conditions wont be heading into town.

Do all toddlers line things up? Many moms I know have told tale of their kids doing it, some worry about this activity being a sign of Autism.

When my son lined up the picture dominoes snow above I told him how cool it looked and snapped a quick photo. He worked on carefully arranging the line and getting it just right by some pattern in his mind. Then when it reached a certain point he swiped the pieces all across the living room floor in one fluid movement.