Making it Quick

Ok the guilt got the better of me so I am making a quick post. I should be in bed because I feel like crud. Our family had been healthy for at least a month, but we all had one ailment or the other this weekend.

A couple weeks ago Steve took Jace to the Texas Speedway on the north side of town and Jace loved it- of course.


Last weekend we took the kids to Sea World. I have to say the trip went better than I expected. It was the first time we all stayed in a hotel room together, which with a white noise machine, and two kids who are heavy sleepers, we did ok. Then I did not know how Sea World would go. In June I was afraid of the crowds and heat, both of which were not ideal, but we had a lot of fun. Jace loved it a lot. Kylie was just along for the ride. Jace rode his first roller coaster (kiddie version) and log ride. I am actually looking forward to taking them back, but it will be cooler and when school is still in session next time.

Today I had to catch some video of Kylie playing with Jace. I found out in her new classroom they call her The Wrestler. She supposedly tackles everyone in sight, no matter what their size. I cannot imagine my sweet girl- hah!

Manic May

Well, the rest of the month disappeared, quickly...

Kylie keeps making leaps and bounds towards being a big girl. She is now drinking from a sippy cup though she loves to play with it too. She did finally get her first tooth. It has been a couple weeks, but there is a ridge of a tooth barely above the surface. If it makes its way out a little more I will try to take pics. She is really getting good and walking behind something and her balance has greatly improved. Today she started in the Toddler 1 class and had some challenges. It is only one nap, not until 11, and first bottle not until 9:30. She made it through that alright, but was exhausted tonight, and ended up with a pretty good bump on her cheek from trying to bend over to get something while standing up. I have signed more incident reports for Kylie bumping/bruising something in the last 6 months than we have for Jace in the last three years!

Jace made it through his first two weeks of swim lessons and graduated from being a guppy and is now a goldfish. The second to the last day the fire alarm went off (false alarm) and I was afraid he would never go back because he hates loud noises, and it was piercing. So now we have moved on to twice a week maintenance, and with the neighborhood pool open we practice on the weekends.

For Memorial weekend the whole family made the trip to Mississippi. Luckily the engine on the plane, combined with good timing, had Kylie asleep for the trip. She was not about to sit on my lap patiently for even five minutes. We had a good and relaxing time. Jace tried out playing the drums (video included below) and loved to play in the water. This was Kylie's first bathing suit experience- and she loves to splash. The kids loved playing with their Meme.

Jace's drumming debut...

And last but not least we got the pictures back from our session in April (you may have noticed a new pic in our blog header). I love our photographer! Getting two little ones to take a good picture is a feat, but getting all of us is a miracle! Just a couple of my favorites...

Rocker chick

So all weekend Kylie has had her tongue stuck out. Not just a little- more like she has been watching too many Kiss videos. Coupled with a little crankiness, and lots of drool, this girl might be actually getting a tooth finally. Jace got his first tooth at 7 month old and Kylie is going on 10 months old and has none. Just one more thing, on a very long list, of the differences between my two children. But we don't have a visual of the tooth yet, so who knows.

Jace is doing world's better at swim lessons this time around. I am not sure if it is because this teacher seems more interested in making sure he feels comfortable (the other was all business), or he just had a better idea of what was going to happen. Whatever it is I am glad he is having fun. He walks through the door by himself, with no prodding- yeah!

Crazy Mommy Weekend

Well this weekend it was Mother's day and my birthday all rolled into one. I had Friday off, but spent most of it working on projects for Jace's room. I sewed some curtains and a bed skirt, and made a cornice. I also put some vinyl stickers up- supposed to be the easiest. Well within 20 minutes they had all peeled off. I used them because when he outgrows construction equipment I just wanted to peel them off with no damage to the wall. Well I ended up using scrapbook adhesive, and so far it is holding. Here is the end result.

There is still more to do, but I have to decide what that is exactly.

Mother's day was pretty low key. I did get to sleep in a little so that was nice. I scrapbooked a lot (I had not done any since January). But looking at all those pics reminded me that I had not taken many lately, so I broke out the camera.

Tomorrow we start swimming lessons again. It is a two week class. We started this once before but Jace missed the second week because he had a bad stomach bug. I am hoping it goes better this time- he was pretty scared. He had started to warm up at the end so I am hoping we pick up there. Tonight we practiced in the tub- I am crossing my fingers.

Progress

Geez, I keep saying I will get back to weekly posts but I am not there quite yet. So we have had a couple progress reports as of late:

#1: Kylie has started taking some first steps. Of course using a walker, but walking nonetheless. She just turned 9 months old! Jace was at least 11 months old when he started this all.. And she pulls up on things with the greatest of ease and is getting brave enough to let go every once in a while. I am sure running is around the corner (especially if Jace's teasing continues).


#2: As I already mentioned Kylie turned 9 months old April 17th. Time flies so fast. She weighed in at 18#7.5oz(25-50%) and 27.5"(50%). We are definitely noticing some of her baby chub is disappearing. She is on a faster track than Jace was except in one department- still no teeth!

#3: Kylie has outgrown her duck tub. Tonight was her first bath in a real tub. I felt adventurous and decided to let Jace join in. They had lots of fun.



#4: I am hoping I am not jinxing this as I write, but Jace has made progress in the potty training department. After using pull-ups for a month, and fighting him every time to go potty, we talked to the school and went to underwear. He only had one accident a day. And then this weekend none (outside of naps)! We also crossed a big hurdle- going potty in public restrooms. He hates loud noises so flushing toilets and hand dryers strike fear in him. We we were out to dinner and poor thing had to go #2. We went to the potty six times. I finally convinced him to go, promising we would not have to flush (of course I did after he left the stall). After that he has gone all weekend long, and we ran lots of errands this weekend. I am really hoping we have made a step forward, but realize there will be little steps back every once in a while.

#5: I rarely post about myself.. But I got a new job! Still with Ineos, but it is a promotion. I am now the Feedstock Supply Manager. I am responsible for making sure we have feeds for two of our plants. A lot more interaction with the outside world. It has been fun so far.

One day this weekend was miserably hot and humid- I am sure just a taster of what the summer will be like. But I could have done without it. Our outside time was in short increments, so here we are blowing bubbles.



And we had another photo session with Laura. It went fairly well considering it did not start until 5PM and Kylie is usually in bed by 6:45. I love the sneak peaks:

http://www.studiobloomphoto.com/blog/?p=986

Three Strikes We Are Out

So again I went missing again, geez, for over a month. To put it nicely it has been chaotic.

#1: Steve and I went on a real vacation- no kids! My parents came to watch them a few days while we ventured off to Asheville, NC. We stayed at the Inn on the Biltmore Estate- it was gorgeous. We had a fun and very relaxing time. The only thing that could have been better was the weather. Just like spring weather anywhere it was unpredictable. When we flew in it was in the 70s but then the next two days it was in the 40s. So maybe would have been better to wait a couple more weeks- plus the flowers were just starting to bloom. Neither of us packed for it to be quite that cold, so we just wore lots of layers.

Steve wanted to document that I asked to go on a carriage ride when it was 40F outside.

#2- Easter. Steve's mom and niece came to visit for a couple days. Jace and Kylie were thoroughly spoiled. We went to the zoo- Kylie's first trip.

It also gave us some time to work on projects. We converted Jace's toddler bed into a full size bed. Ever since we moved him upstairs a year ago I had not decorated his room knowing that once we converted his bed I would get all new bedding. So we have gone with a construction theme. We painted his room (over the course of the next two weeks) and Steve put up a chair rail. I think Steve is done with construction projects for a while (or until I threaten to hire someone again)- he had some rework on the chair rail and had to call out an electrician after the room lost power when he was hammering in a nail. It was a lot of work, but we like the way it turned out- all for a 2 year olds room...

Jace's room- stage #1. Paint and chair rail.



#3 sick kids. Easter Sunday Jace did not eat very well, which is not like him- and by mid morning he had thrown up the two M&Ms we had let him have. As the day went on he started doing a little better, so we thought it was maybe a 24 hour bug or something he ate. By Monday afternoon they called from daycare that he had a fever. He had picked up a full-on stomach bug that I later found out had started to spread at school the week before. Jace never had a stomach bug that lasted longer than a day, so this was new to us. It took him a couple days, but besides being tired, a mild fever, and an upset stomach it was not too severe. Then Thursday morning Kylie caught it. When I put her to bed the night before she was happy, and had eaten well. When we went to get her the next morning she was dangerously cold (94F), had diarrhea and was not very responsive. So we quickly took her to the ER- our first trip with a kid. They ran a series of tests on her and took x-rays and nothing showed up so that coupled with the fact that her temperature had come up and she was more alert after getting her hooked up to an IV they chalked it up to her getting dehydrated. That day she was not very happy- she did not feel well, I am sure, plus she was not very happy to be getting small doses of pedialyte- she wanted to eat. But by Friday afternoon she had gotten much better and was back to her normal self by Saturday. It hit her a lot harder than Jace, but she got over it quicker.

So we got the kids back to healthy (for now), and I started getting things back to where they had been almost four weeks ago. I need another break....