Meet the Family

About five hours after she was born (when Adah was finished with school and piano lessons), Holly got to meet her sisters, brother, and grandparents.

Adah was delighted to hold her newest little sister. She has been excited by and interested in nearly every aspect of Holly's arrival, asking lots of questions while I was pregnant. Now that we're home, Adah is very attentive and wants to hold Holly whenever she can. Damon and I are both surprised at how well she holds her, and I'm grateful that I can rely on Adah for help when I need it.

Maggie is also thrilled to be a new big sister. She is most delighted that she now has a little brother and a little sister, just like Adah did. Maggie doesn't remember when Gunnar was born, so it has been fun to help her build memories of a newborn baby. At 5 she should be able to always remember welcoming Holly into our family. Like Adah, Maggie wants to hold Holly whenever she can. I have been very impressed by Maggie's composure when she's got a screaming baby on her lap and a mother who's trying to just get one more thing done before she comes to rescue her.

Gunnar has, gratefully, remained largely indifferent to Holly's presence in our home. He came into the hospital room saying, "Baby sister. Oh, cute," and took his turn holding her (for about 5 seconds). When we brought her home from the hospital the next day, Damon walked in the house and said, "Gunnar, do you want to come see Holly?" "No, I watching Bob the Builder." It's probably all for the best that our rough-and-tumble little boy doesn't have much interest in his baby sister. We actually expected a lot of jealousy, but he doesn't seem to mind her one bit.

Nana and Gumpin (my mom and dad) came to help with the children while Damon and I were at the hospital and once we were all home. This is the first time that my parents were able to come visit me in the hospital when I had a new baby. With the other children--save Maggie, who never went to the hospital--my mom came to help after I was home.

It was so nice to have my parents here. I knew my other children were in good hands while we were away...and they did all the cooking and dishes and laundry and mopping while they were here. Thanks, Mom & Dad!!

Baby Before, During, and After

Ultrasound of Baby McMillan #4 at 26 weeks:

Photo of Jillaire on May 14, nearly 39 weeks pregnant (full term is 40 weeks, for you pregnancy neophytes):

In the hospital on the due date, May 24:

Holly McMillan on her birthday, May 25

8 lbs. 2 1/2 oz.

22 inches

Cute Holly at 4 days old:

More details (and photos) of Holly's entrance into the world and our family to follow.

Columbia River Dance Spring Recital

Maggie and Adah have spent the year in after-school creative dance and gymnastics classes, respectively. I was a bit anxious about making it to their May 22 Cats recital, since it was just 2 days before my due date, but we all made it, including my parents who had already driven up from Salt Lake City to help out with the kiddos and new baby.

Maggie's creative dance class performed to the song "Llama." (Is that part of Cats? I have no idea.) They were adorable little ballerina "mice." Unfortunately the lighting was not ideal for photography during the performance, but we did our best.

Adah's gymnastics class performed to "Skimbleshanks," going back and forth on the mat displaying the various skills they had learned. Adah was the only one in the class who got into her headstand unassisted and held it with excellent balance. Way to go, Adah! (Backstage--and audience--confusion caused Adah to remove her costume a little prematurely, so we didn't get a good close-up of her.)

Our "Superior" Pianist

On Saturday Adah participated in a Festival of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Each year her piano teacher prepares students to play 2 pieces in front of a judge. This was Adah's first year playing in the Festival.

She earned a SUPERIOR RATING (which is the highest level), signifying "complete, outstanding performance, attention to all details, rapid recovery from minor slips (do not detract from interpretation)." The judge said she had great dynamics, called her "charming," and said she had "graceful preserve." Damon and I were just happy she didn't "choke" (as Damon put it) and burst into tears. Really, I was so proud watching her at the piano playing the pieces she'd been working on for months.

Photographs were not allowed at the Festival, but here is one of Adah at the keys with her dad, playing the (in)famous duet "Heart and Soul."

We're so proud of our pianist! Next up: the recital.

Gunnar at Two-and-a-Half

Here is our darling little man who loves to growl like a monster, play in the sand, throw balls, read books, eat "Honey Bunches of Goats," and give great hugs and kisses.

Gunnar has no fear of heights. When he knows what he wants, he will happily scale cabinets, pantry shelves, bunkbeds, or any other obstacle to get to it. I came down the hallway into the kitchen one day to find him atop the counter eating a banana (a very ripe one I was saving for some baking, darn it!).

A few nights ago we found Gunnar fast asleep with two of his great loves: a ball and a book all about airplanes. The next night he took a plastic shovel and a small baseball to bed with him. He also usually has his airplane-and-helicopter-covered "bean-bean" (blanket).

In preparation for the new baby's arrival, the crib has been set up in Gunnar's room for about two weeks. While he's learned to not get in the crib during the day, behind closed doors at bedtime it's another story. The crib has become a new climbing apparatus that allows Gunnar to open his window blinds. So, we'll go in after he's been put in bed to find his light on, the blinds open, and previously-cleaned-up toys scattered across the room. Once I went in when he was making a big fuss and he confessed: "I made diss mess." The next night: "I keened up deh cars all by myseff." (That was after pulling all the cars out in the first place!) I'm just a little bit anxious about the baby sharing a room with Gunnar, what with all of his clandestine nocturnal activities. I'm hoping that an actual living thing in the crib will help Gunnar realize that he can't be climbing in there and turning on the lights. We'll see....

The crib also spawned another fun pastime with all the kids. It's the zoo. Here's Gunnar, the giraffe, in his cage. The zookeepers (Adah or Maggie) will block him in and then bring him food.

Gunnar loves tools, being outside, and helping his dad. Damon has been working on a new front porch, which involved excavating for concrete piers. After seeing his dad work with a post-hole digger, Gunnar tried his hand with a similar tool: lopping shears. Of course he couldn't really pull up any dirt with it, but the scissor action was the same for Gunnar, and that was all that mattered. (Gunnar also spent some time filling up the holes that had already been dug! sigh.)

Gunnar can make some big messes and cause some worry when he temporarily disappears out the backdoor, but we're so glad to have his happy smile and funny personality in our family.

Sold! . . . to the Highest Bidder

Each year the PTO (not PTA here for some reason) at the elementary school hosts a silent auction as a fundraiser. We have attended since our first year in White Salmon, and now that I have a student, I've helped for the last two auctions.

It is a HUGE undertaking involving months of preparation that begins with contacting donors who are willing to give merchandise, gift certificates, tickets, and services to be auctioned off. I helped make phone calls to local businesses and we also went through the house and donated some things that were in great shape but that we no longer wanted. Damon also made 2 apple pies to be auctioned off.

My big auction job is to be in charge of gift certificate display. That means that for each donation for which we don't have actual merchandise, a sheet is printed off listing what the gift certificate is for. My task is to make these items a bit jazzier than their black and white print-outs by mounting them on colorful paper and adding logos, clipart, or brochure photos. The idea is to make the items more eye-catching to bidders, therefore getting more people bidding on an item, which leads to competition and higher prices.

The job is a pretty big one because probably at least half of the donations are gift certificates and none of the sheets can be printed out until a day or two before the auction. Last year I did all the cropping and mounting by myself the night before the auction and didn't go to bed until 3am (or later?). Then I was at the school from 8:30 to 3:30 getting it all hung up along with all of the other set-up people. This year I was determined to be a bit smarter and enlisted a couple of friends to join my little cropping party. Even with two other people working for 3 1/2 hours, I was till up until 2am the night before the auction! But, I was much more organized during set-up and got it finished earlier and with less stress.

The final set-up product is definitely worth the effort. Everyone tends to come into the gym pretty wide-eyed as they see the decorations of children's art hanging from wires strung across the room, the colorful banners indicating what items can be found, and the tables and walls full of the actual donations.

The auction has traditionally also been double billed as an ice cream social and has been a fun night for families and community members to gather and eat hot dogs, play on the school playground, get faces painted, jump in the bouncy house, and get balloon animals. However, it was also very crazy to try to keep an eye on children, wait in line for the balloon man, and try to bid on items. After all, the real reason for the event was to raise money to be used for enriching school programs.

So, this year, the fabulous auction coordinator (pictured above) decided to try something new. She planned children's parties where parents could send their kids while they were bidding. For the mere cost of $5 a piece, our girls each went to a well-planned party in one of the school classrooms where they were supervised by adults and teenagers; got pizza, milk, and ice cream; and had loads of fun!

Maggie, of course, attended the princess party. She came dressed in her royal finery, but then got to decorate a wand, crown, and fairy wings before having her face painted. (That's a star, if you can't tell.)

Captain Adah attended the pirate party....aarrgh! It was quite a difference dropping off Adah at a room full of rowdy boys and (a couple) girls who were climbing all over the place sword fighting and then going down the hall to drop off Maggie where the girls were all sitting quietly glueing jewels and sequins onto crowns. I laughed out loud at the contrast.

When the bidding closed and we were waiting for the cashiers to open, all the princesses and pirates paraded through the gym. We went home with dried apples from a local orchard and multiple gift certificates. Damon's two pies sold for a total of $35.

The PTO went home with over $16,000!!!

Rain, Wind, Sand, & Shorebirds

For the last few days of Spring Break, we went to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast. We arrived during one of the only sunny patches of the weekend and headed straight for the beach for some sand-play.

The kids found a little "stream" with some extra wet sand for help with sand castles.

Damon went straight for wind-play:

We always love flying kites at the beach. Damon's kite is a stunt kite, which I invevitably crash. I nearly took out an entire family this time! Damon does much better. The kids were too busy in the sand to get out their kites...plus it was SOOOO windy and cold that we only lasted about 30 minutes before everyone was ready to head back to the car.

We got in the van just in time. It started raining as we buckled up and poured the whole way to our hotel. Here's Maggie in our suite. We had an awesome ocean view (see it through the window behind her?), a gas fireplace, a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. The girls got the hide-a-bed, Gunnar got cushions on the floor, and we got our own room!

The view from our hotel really was spectacular. The hotel sat right on a rocky bluff and we had a corner room. Out of one window we could see seagulls approaching and then they would whoosh right in front of us at the other set of windows. We saw magnificent clouds at sunset and everyone loved observing the different levels of the tide at different times of day. There were large rocks on the beach below us that made good landmarks for really seeing how far up the water was (or wasn't).

We had loads more fun the second day of our trip, but unfortunately forgot the camera in the hotel room! We visited tidepools at Yaquina Head Natural Area where we saw sea anemones, starfish, and sea urchins. The last time we were there we also found crabs and a seal pup on the beach.

After lunch we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The Aquarium is a bit pricey, but worth a visit every once in awhile. The girls' favorites were the "somersaulting" sea otter and a silly shore bird that was puffing up its feathers. I liked the little moon jellyfish. I think Gunnar enjoyed watching the sea lions and seals swim by and seeing them get fed. We all enjoyed the sharks. You walk through a glass tunnel where the sharks and rays are swimming all around you. It's really neat.

The next day, on the drive home, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we watched them packaging cheese, sampled several varieties, bought cheese curd, and had ice cream cones.

It was a fun little trip, despite less-than-desirable weather. We made the most of it and enjoyed being all together.