Day 60

Nina & Baby Inga!

Saturday October 16, 2010

This morning the Fliflet family arrived! Dan is Todd's oldest and dearest friend. Todd, Dan, and Joe have been best buddies since college. Dan has the most exquisite family....because of his precious wife Brandi!! Dan and Brandi have three kids: Henry (6), Joe (3) and Inga (6 months). The kids are darling and the Fredeen kids adore them...they are all cousins!!! Not only is Brandi an astonishing mom and wife (the kind the rest of us aspire to be!) she is the most phenomenal of friends! She is the kind of friend that irrespective of how awful, needy, and desperate you become, she loves you unconditionally. Every woman needs a friend like this and I am blessed tremendously by Brandi's love!

As soon as the Fliflets arrived, Nina and Addie were glued to Inga! Inga is the perfect baby....one darling ball of love and pudginess! Nina and Addie adore Inga and help Brandi with every care taking effort. They feed her, burp her, hold her, play with her, dress her, and try to make her laugh! Ever since Inga's birth, Nina has been obsessed with hearing stories about her childhood and Teddy's. Seldom does a day pass where she doesn't want to hear about her birth and the funny things she used to do as a baby and toddler. I especially love hearing Nina retell the stories I've shared with her. She beams as she recounts the silly and sweet things she and Teddy did as babies! 

Today was a bit cooler so Nina wasn't as apt to exploring the outdoors. After lunch, she and Addie went on a brief walk but Nina decided to return indoors because it was too cold. The cold wind did not deter the boys from spending the majority of the day digging, building forts, collecting shells, and looking for strange things. In fact, the boys were totally excited about finding 2 dead seals and 1 dead sting ray! Only our boys would delight in smelly carcases :) At least this time they didn't try to poke them with a stick...at least I didn't hear about it!

Although the oven and stove were out of commission we still ate like kings! The other thing I appreciate about Brandi is that she is capable! She is not the stereotypical helpless Christian mom of young kids. Brandi is tough and she is always prepared! I never have to ask Brandi to pitch in....she does automatically because she loves taking care of family as much as I do. As such, she came prepared with oodles of amazing food. Between what Brandi and I had prepared, every meal was taken care of! We had the roast beef Nina and I had cooked Thursday morning in Santa Barbara. Thank goodness for crock-pots!!! The kids gobbled up all the grub and were ready for Uncle Todd's rice crispie cookies. The only problem was that we were out of milk....so I did what I love...ran to the store for the umpteenth time :) As silly as it sounds, I love grocery shopping. It is a bit of a reprieve...boy that sounds so "momish" but then again that is what I am....Teddy and Nina's mama :)

Sosie & Nina: Smiley Girls!!