And She's Off!

My favorite dress of hers. . . for now :)

Is it okay that all of our posts are about Reina? We just can't help it since she is soooo entertaining! Ever since she started walking (at about 12 1/2 months) our little Suvi has really taken off- physically, mentally, verbally, and musically. Okay, so we are still waiting for more hair and more than 3 teeth! Sheesh! The last month or so I have been quite busy at work, so she has been spending a lot of time at Mummi and Papa Will's house which she loves! She has space, toys and playmates who treat her like a little doll. She knows she's getting close to Mummi's house when she sees rows of trees along the street nearby and begins to giggle and "talk" to herself. When we pull up to the house she squeels and says "Oooh, baby!" Okay, baby is definately her favorite word, but I think she considers all of her contemporaries as "baby". She greets anyone she is comfortable with with a "hi" which is usually daycare dads. One of the children always greets her saying, "Look, it's Little Baby Reina. Hi Little Baby Reina," as if that is her full name.

Playing at Mummi and Papa Will's. Can you find Reina playing outside?

Reina's new favorite past time is the great outdoors. I think if it weren't for getting hungry or tired she'd prefer to play outside the whole day! She recently discovered the park and oh my goodness- loves it! Since we've had some great weather (i.e. no rain) we've taken this rare occasion to go often. She watches kids go up the slides and gets frustrated that she can't do it just like them, so I help push her up so she feels like she did it all by herself. She can walk back and forth across the "shaky bridge" and the bigger the slide the better! I haven't let her go down alone yet since she hasn't figured out how to keep her legs from splitting and getting caught on the edge of the slide- no broken legs please! It's amazing how much more brave she becomes with each trip to the park. She now can run on the bark dust and will let the dogs come right up to her face and lick her. Paul insists she needs a puppy to grow up with her, but I insist that I'm not ready to take care of another baby.

She got this tube for her birthday that attaches to a tent. She likes it as long as there's someone to play with her...but it will be great when she's a little older for a nice little "hideout" with friends.

This little girl just loves to move! She enjoys the feeling of the body in motion. I call her my little "yoga baby" because she has always enjoyed moving into different yoga poses. I think she subconsciously remembers how yoga felt while in the womb. She is very careful with each movement and does it with care and concern to make sure it is stable, no matter how contorted it may look.

Mummi has been doing a lot of singing with Reina. So now she not only imitates sounds but freely sings to herself while playing or reading a book. I would love to capture this on video but all you parents know how once the camera goes on, the cuteness stops.

I can't remember how to get videos from the camera to the computer to the blog all by myself, so maybe next weekend when Paul is home he can help me put some videos on to share all the cute things she's been up to. We've enjoyed the sun while it's lasted!

Steals for Storage

I got all of this (plus a few other things that didn't make it in the photo for $51.72. This includes some usually spendy items: 16 lbs. oranges, a large block of Tillamook cheese, two packs of double-12 pack toilet paper and two whole chickens! What a deal!
I sure do love WinCo and will miss it in Tacoma! They had a few special coupons, but the majority was without a coupon and no manufacturer coupons either, so this was just pulling what I needed off the shelf. Now Paul will have at least some chili, TP, and tuna on hand while he's gone all week long.

New Adventures have Arrived!

We thought 2009 ended in a whirlwind, but this year we haven't gotten a minute to catch up! I'm taking this Friday morning while Reina is napping to quickly jot down some major changes in the Guinn family!
1. We rang in 2010 with a road trip from Las Vegas to Vancouver with Grandma and Grandpa Guinn in their Honda Odyssey. We had a Guinn family reunion after Christmas and flew down, but saved a little by riding back home to Vancouver. This was two LONG days of driving. The first few hours were horrible as Reina was screaming in her car seat on and off. Come to find out she had a triple explosion which required a complete onesie change and rinse in the sink in a restaurant and then peeing on the seat in the car during the diaper change as the restaurant did not have a changing table. I told Paul I will NEVER do a long road trip again...but after that she was perfect the whole time! So maybe I take back the NEVER.
2. Reina had her 1st birthday party with mostly family and close friends. I made a princess cake completely from scratch and even put different flavors and fillings for each layer. This was my first attempt at a "pretty cake" so I am pleased how it turned out. She even got to eat the whole top layer (thank you daddy and Uncle Steve)! I had the hardest time watching her shove that frosting into her mouth (luckily she stopped and preferred to throw it over the highchair). Her favorite gift was definately the elephant chair that Grandma Guinn made...just her size!
3. Reina officially walks 100%. She started taking her first steps December 16, and has become more confident each day...then one day while at Mummi and Papa Will's house she spent the whole day walking from room to room, just like the rest of the kids. This was about 10 days after her birthday that she decided walking was so much quicker. I walked in after work and she usually walks about 7-8 steps then stumbles down and crawls quickly to me, but that day she looked at me, turned around and kept walking the other way. Kind of sad for me, but so rewarding as well.
4. We have no more savings:(.............................BUT that means that we bought a chiropractic office! The practice we were moving towards in Austin, TX fell through when the seller decided not to sell after we got approved for a small business loan. We got that news right after Thanksgiving, so we were disappointed, mad, sad, etc....back to square one. Paul kept checking for practices for sale and looked into a few in the area. Then on January 5th there were a couple postings for practices in Tacoma and thought we might as well take a look since I still had a break from work. We went and looked two days later and felt really good about it, as well as the sellers. Things moved RAPIDLY as we scrambled to get lawyers, accountants, business accounts, legal documents and all other sorts of grown-up things together. We had to learn quickly what documents were required for what and how I should have become a lawyer or accountant with the kind of money they make :) Phew! But alas, we signed our lives away and Paul officially started February 1. I will still be in Vancouver with Reina for quite some time as the business needs a lot of growth and we still need income to survive. Paul is up there during the week and comes home on the weekends. It's only been about a week so this is all new to us, but we are trying to put things into perspective and remember that some families live like this all the time.
5. We are very thankful! We have family who have been so supportive towards us and have helped us throughout this process. It has been a long road and it is still a bumpy and curvy road, but we are beginning to see glimpses of the sun and beauty at the end of the road. I have to remind myself not to forget how beautiful the path is on this journey; stop and look around at the perfect leaves, the smell of the moss, the trickling of the stream, the yucky bugs that are content in the dirt. There is joy in these things that take us to our goals. I have a lot to be thankful for and I let my Heavenly Father know daily, bi-daily, sometimes hourly how grateful I am for my life.
My greatest joy is Reina, so of course I can't post without some pictures of her sweet, sweet face. She is such a good girl in every way!

Cousin Christina and Reina in Henderson, Nevada for Guinn family reunion Dec. '09.
Reina and cousin Madeleine meeting for the first time! (Born 18 days apart). This is Paul's twin brother's daughter.

Reina was getting a cold for her birthday party, but she was a champ and enjoyed all of the toys and people. Her favorite words at age one are: Baby followed with an Ohhhh, Doggy, and Dada.

Eating her first sweets and feeding them to Uncle Steve. By the way, this high chair is the exact same one that Paul had for his first birthday cake AND in the exact same spot in the kitchen. (tear)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Reina's 1st Christmas! She is 11, almost 12 months in these pictures. She can stand well and has taken 5 steps to Mama or Dada. Reina also tries really hard to copy words that you say. She does great with the words: baby, Mama, Dada, and many consonants that begin words such as zipper, stars, monkey, and bunny. And for bird she says "Ttt."

p.s. Paul's beard is only TEMPORARY. Long story but it's his turn to have the beard for a family picture which will be posted at a later date.



What a BIG girl standing all by herself! She is at Papa Will and Mummi's house where she spends a lot of time. I think I'll post a video of some of her favorite things to do at their house :)

The Biggest Binki Ever!

Reina cracks us up daily, but this incident was picture worthy. Below you see a binki and a rubber octopus bath toy. Reina hasn't used a pacifier for months but she discovered the biggest binki ever and couldn't resist!





Here she is with some other silly faces:)


She looks like Grandpa Guinn in this picture when he is concentrating on a task (at least the tongue looks like him).

And below she looks just like a picture of her uncle Matt when he was about her age. Although uncle Matt is a twin to daddy so I guess it's in the genes.

Candy, Carving, and Coeur d'Alene!

We just love Halloween! I guess I'm speaking for the family, but Paul and Reina seemed to enjoy dressing up and getting free candy as well. This year our costume theme was somewhat "Lord of the Rings-ish". Reina was a fairy princess, Paul a Knight (next time I promise his costume will be homemade and much cooler), and me a wood elf. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I had elf ears as well. I was pleased with myself in that I sewed/put together most of my costume and also made Reina a cloak to go over her dress thanks to verbal instruction from my mother-in-law. We took a quick 6-hour trip to my brother's house in Coeur d'Alene to enjoy the picturesque fall town scene that thrives there. The little shops on Main street all gather and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters at closing time, and then all of the houses, which are well-kept Craftsman and Victorian style designs are decorated for fall fun.

Teem (pirate), Emily (witch), Miia (unicorn), Kaija (witch), Luukas (spidy-man)

My brother Teem created this carnivorous man, and Paul created the victim!

Favorite Things!

Reina's Favorites at 8 months:

Food: Raspberries (fresh), peaches cut up (but those slippery buggers can also make her a little impatient), cereal puffs, and bits of things found off the carpet. If I come to sweep her mouth to see what garbage she found she quickly clamps her jaw shut so I can't steal it from her. I've been making my own baby food to add protein in her diet and she loves it just as much as everything else. I haven't discovered anything she doesn't like...even fish! You can freeze homemade baby food by putting it in a muffin tin and stick it in freezer until hard, then let them thaw a few minutes on the counter until you can pop out each individual serving size of food. I store in a ziploc in the freezer and take a serving out as need be. My sister Sanni told me this inventive idea.





To Do: Her new thing now is to clap her hands all by herself, crawl EVERYWHERE (right now she is pulling daddy's Robert Jordan books off the book shelf). And just this week Grandma Guinn and daddy taught her to pull herself up from sitting position to standing! You go girl! Since Grandma Guinn had surgery and is in a foot cast, she likes to stand up to Grandma's recliner and squak to get her attention. Reina still loves peek-a-boo and will play it with herself if she finds a shirt, a pajama, anything made from cloth. She loves it when we sing and dance with her. Some of her favorite songs are: "You are My Sunshine", the Finnish "rowing" song, "Bimbala Bima" (also Finnish), and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Reina also loves to babble...she actually says "mama" like 25 times a day, especially when she wants something.





Funny things she loves: She still likes to head-bang (literally), something she picked up at 5 months. The past month or so she has been closing her eyes really tight...like you do when someone splashes water. For some reason it looks so funny on a baby. She notices that we laugh so she'll do it more and more. I'll try my darndest to get a picture of this but she gives no warning. She is very flexible and often gets herself into splits (well, splits like an L) and prefers to sit side-saddle (legs dangling to one side like riding a horse). She's hilarious when she's cocking her head to one side while observing people.





Daddy's Favorites at 28 years: (all answers are what Mommy believes are Daddy's favorites...he's not home)

Food: Red Robin Whiskey River Barbecue Chicken Burger and Bottomless Fries, Burger King Whopper (although rarely gets), Tillamook's Udderly Chocolate Ice Cream, any diet soda, Sweet Tomatoes salad that he creates along with their clam chowder, and my homemade hamburgers. (These are favorites, not staples...except for the ice-cream. We're trying to cut back on that.)




To Do: Spending free-time with mommy and Reina, especially running trails with me while Reina's in the jogging stroller. He also likes to read sci-fi/fantasy books (currently reading Jim Butcher novels), listen to talk radio (Glenn Beck, Laura Ingram), play Guitar Hero/Rock Band with whoever will play (usually Steve his bro, my bro Teem, and maybe even Mommy).



Funny things Daddy loves: Daddy loves to watch literal version videos on Youtube over and over (in fact, one of the songs was on the radio and he knew 90% of the words to the literal version song)! Likes to check-out his "nerdsite" websites everyday i.e. Forgeworld, Bell of Lost Souls, Blue Table Painting...just to name a few and dreams of days where he can paint and play Warhammer...which doesn't happen. And also likes to watch Mommy be silly with Reina.




Mommy's Favorites at 28 years:

Food: Pumpkin pie with whip cream (a whole pie), beans in any form (not green beans), Tillamook's Black Cherry Vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips, salt and pepper popcorn, blueberries, any kind of soup, and lately I've been really craving Mongolian Grill.

To Do: Anything with Daddy and Reina together which may include trail running, camping and recently picking out Halloween costumes together. I like going to Zumba or Quad step at the gym (those that are bored to workout should really check out Zumba), going to Spanky's (a local consignment store where I can take my clothes in and get store credit to buy Reina clothes, or myself)! I like to take pictures and would love to own a great camera some day soon! Of course I love to ballroom dance but since I still nurse Reina it's been on hold for a while (dancing time is Reina's needy time).




Funny things Mommy loves: Giving Reina a bath (just so I can see her splash in the water with that naked bum), watching "America's Next Top Model" (completely lame I know, but sinfully addicting), picking up things I find for my home that doesn't exist, playing Madlibs with my family and using very juvenile words.