The Swarrell Life

Life brings lots of firsts. There are first kisses, first cars, first jobs, etc. There are all of these and many more. And there are your first pair of Chuck Taylors. We've all had them. Can you believe they used to play basketball in these things? I mean, I like them and all but they wear more like slippers than shoes. Nothin' but a style thing now. Not one to be left out, Trinity just HAD to have a pair of Chuck Taylors for school. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't work out so well. Enjoy! Yeah, she likes the camera...maybe TOO much. I can't get far enough away to get a decent shot... Here's what you get, just the shoes. Also, we've given Trinity her first real boundary. We've controlled things before, but now we teach her how to control herself. She is not allowed in the kitchen for obvious reasons like sharp knives and bacteria. To reinforce this idea, we put down blue tape to show her the boundary. She pouts something fierce, but knows where the l...

Okay, so "every couple of days" has become "weekly", when it comes to blog updates. I find that the further we get from "the Trinity Incident", the further apart my blog posts become. But the truth is that every single day is fun and new when you have a baby! For instance, one day Autumn and I made home-made pizza for dinner. It's one of our favorite meals to make at home and we get to choose EXACTLY how it is made. Yum! We made a special piece for Trinity with just cheese and sauce (light on the sauce). Here she is waiting anxiously for dinner to arrive. Of course, she is always anxious for dinner to arrive, so this expression isn't really unique to pizza! Waiting for the pie! Reaching for pizza! Autumn had cut it up into small pieces. It seemed a little bit like extra work when all she did was shovel it into her mouth by the handful! We went to Portland for a doctor appointment this last weekend. We left Saturday just to make a whole weekend of i...

I talk quite a bit about my girls. It's no secret that they have always rocked my world. That is even more true since Trinity went into the hospital. To see both of their character shine through has been nothing short of amazing. My daughter has been through a lot, but I think that my wife has been through more. It's like in Proverbs 31, wherein lies the description of a noble woman: Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. I feel exactly that way about Autumn. She has been my rock and she has brought more good into my life than she or I will ever know. Here is one of my favorite photos of late: Trinity doesn't like hats on her head much anymore, but she left this one on for a while. She and Autumn are so dang cute! Okay, so she didn't leave the hat on for too long, but it was great while it lasted! Last Friday we traveled to Ontario (Oregon) to watch my nephew Mark play football. It was ...

So it's been a while since I blogged, since before Halloween. Was it that long? Well, as soon as I can find the camera, you'll see the cutest little ladybug this side of everywhere! In the mean time, let me fill you in on a few details of her amazing recovery. First of all, she is turning into a little monster! I say that with all the affection I can summon, because I am so happy to have her progressing like a normal little baby. Although...she's not so little any more. If you count the clothes and FULL diaper, she was over 20 lbs last week when we visited the doctor! That's a pretty big baby if you ask me! She is now starting to eat things...wait, she was already doing that. But now, she is starting to leave teeth marks and tear things apart with those little choppers! Also, she is learning about the word "no". She is also learning to express how she feels about that word. Fun. Yeah. Really fun. But seriously, she is so much fun right now. She is learning to ...

Here is my little pumpkin: The last few days have been mostly uneventful. Trinity received her flu shot finally. I know there are quite a few differing opinions on vaccinations for babies, but with Autumn and me in the healthcare industry, it's the responsible thing to do. By the way, the vaccination you receive from the injected version is dead. You can't get the flu from it. Okay, 'nuff about that. Trinity is doing great! She continues to develop and her eyesight seems to be mostly back. It's hard to tell, since she is a baby and can't tell us what she sees, but it is back enough to see things near and far, and enough to see us from across the room and know it is us. That's pretty good! She is still lagging a little bit in some cognitive areas; she was babbling before but hasn't really started again, and some of the games she used to play haven't returned. Please pray for that, since that is still a concern. We went to Boise yesterday so that Autumn c...

So I thought that I would wrap up the last week or so with a few fun pictures from our latest adventures. As you may or may not know, Autumn and I took a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona. Autumn had a work conference there and I worked a little from the hotel. The (dis)advantage of my job is that I can do some of it from almost anywhere. Still, we managed to squeeze in a couple of fun activities here and there. Already I have blogged about hiking and the biosphere , and now we get to wrap it all up. I'll bet you are getting a little bit bored of Autumn and I and wish that I would just go back to blogging about the baby. Well, don't worry too much; it's coming! In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Arizona and my family: So, this picture looks to me like some sort of commercial for a sports drink or something. Autumn was also pleased that her outfit coordinated well with her mountain bike! This is me and the Arizona desert. The singletrack was rocky but fun. I would highly ...

I know that most of you are dying to know about Trinity, but this update is an update from Scottsdale, where Autumn and I have been all this week. Autumn has been conferencing and I have been working from the hotel. We've been able to visit a couple of neat places, including Biosphere 2 . It was an interesting tour of what amounts to a VERY large greenhouse. Back in the early 1990's there was a group of scientists who lived sealed in the Biosphere for 2 years. Now THAT would be an interesting experiment. The University of Arizona manages it now and they are studying the affects of water on climate change and vice versa. Very interesting if you are into that sort of thing. Here are some pics of the Biosphere 2: It looks like something from a science fiction movie The guided tour took us through the environment that was created for maximum oxygenation. There were 5 biomes that were all tropical in nature. There was an ocean, a rainforest, a savannah, a desert and a zone that re...