Christmas 2009

Christmas was so much fun this year! I remember Adilyn's first Christmas, and how I was so disappointed that she wasn't opening any presents. She was only 6 months old, so I don't know what I expected, but it was a let down. Last year, she got a little more into it, but this year was a totally different story. She was so excited to open the presents, so excited in fact, that she opened everybody's presents. She just picked a present from under the tree opened it, then decided who it belonged to. Poor Kacy, she just had toys and wrapping paper all around her...she was just left to fend for herself.







Let me back up a little bit first...

Adilyn finally sat with Santa this year. Of course, that only happened after Kacy sat with him and survived. She got into all the decorations and lights everywhere. Any time we saw a Santa, she would yell out, "Santa!"

Whenever I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she would always respond, "Ummm, a choo choo!" I didn't really think she wanted a train, but she stuck with it. I never got around to getting one, and I thought she would drop it. On Christmas Eve morning, I asked her again if there was anything that she hoped Santa would bring her, again with the choo choo response. Well, crap, I hadn't ever gotten the choo choo, but I couldn't have Santa let her down on the very first year that she understood the concept of Santa! It would ruin her for years to come, I'm sure...So, I sucked it up, and I went to Walmart. Yes, Walmart on Christmas Eve is exactly what you would expect from Walmart on Christmas Eve. It took me over an hour just to get a stupid train and a few groceries! I had to wait in line just to get down the aisle. Never again!!!

Christmas Eve, we decorated cookies for Santa. I also told her the story of Santa Mouse (Santa's littlest helper). Santa Mouse likes cheese, and the reindeer drink Coke, so we left cookies, milk, cheese, and Coke to make everyone happy. Adilyn ate so much icing as we were decorating that I thought she was going to make herself sick!
Ashley came into to town to surprise everyone, so she came over to spend the night on Christmas Eve. I still had a lot of presents to wrap, and Kacy was not tired, so Cory, Kacy, Ashley, and I stayed up until almost 2am wrapping and getting things together. Luckily Ashley was there to help keep Kacy entertained. I guess Kacy was excited about Santa coming, too!

We all slept in on Christmas morning until about 10am, which was awesome! When Adilyn woke up, I brought her downstairs, and she didn't want to open any presents. That surely wasn't the response that I thought she would have! I think she was tired, and once she woke up, she decided she was ready. Boy, did she get into then! Almost every present she opened, she would say, "Maybe this my choo choo?" I was so glad that I had actually gotten that stupid train for her! I think my heart would have been broken each time she said that if I didn't have one for her. The train was her last present in the "hunt", which is a tradition my mom started years ago. Man, was she excited to see that little train!
Later that day we went to Tommie's house for more family fun and great food. It was a long day, but a very fun one!

Fort Worth Christmas

We had our first Christmas celebration this weekend. We went up to Ft. Worth to celebrate with my family. Cory came back from California, and we all drove up there on Saturday. The drive went very well; we weren't sure how Kacy would do in the car because we hadn't driven anywhere since she was really little. When we had to drive to Atlanta, we got a DVD player, so after Adilyn asking us a million questions in the first hour and a half, we put that dude on to entertain her. Our first stop on the agenda was Mom's house. We got there around 1pm, and we hung out there until Brandon came over for pizza and presents. Adilyn definitely got into to the opening of the presents. Kacy just wanted to eat the paper. She actually slept through most of the present opening, but we saved her presents for her to open when she woke up.
After Mom's house, we loaded up for our next stop, Dad's. We got there, and Adilyn was wired - go figure! She was going to sleep on a pallet in Dad and Kris's bedroom. We got it all ready, and she told us that she was not tired. It was about 10pm, and she had not taken a nap. The girl was exhausted. Finally, I got her to lay down, and with the help of her magical music (the CD she has slept to every night since she was 6 months old), she fell asleep. The next morning we woke up, and everyone came over for breakfast. Luckily, everyone was able to be together except for Nina, who lives in Seattle. We had a great time. There were presents, playing outside on the new swingset, eating, and more eating. Cory's flight out to Sacramento from DFW left around 8pm, so Brandon, Kacy, and I took him to the airport.
I had planned to stay in Ft. Worth with the girls until Wednesday afternoon, but Kacy had been sick, and she needed to go in for a follow-up appointment on Wednesday morning. On Monday morning, Dad and I went to breakfast after we all slept in a little. After that, I went over to Mom's house to hang out a little with her. We stopped by Laura's (high school friend) mom's house for a visit. She is expecting her first little one in February. Adilyn had a blast over there! She has a bunch of grandkids, so her house was filled with "new" toys. I heard my mom and Adilyn cracking up in the playroom, and I glanced in there to find Mom on one scooter and Adilyn on another. They were running the scooters into the wall and acting like they were crashing. It was really cute. Then, on Tuesday, we drove back. Adilyn played with her new computer for a lot of the drive home. She kept saying, "Mama, my 'puter not working." Then she would get mad and throw her computer on the floor. Then she would change her mind and scream to get her computer back. It was a love/hate relationship...the same that we all have with our real computers. :) Finally, I realized that her computer was working, she just doesn't know her letters yet, so it wasn't moving on from that letter. Poor girl! Maybe she'll learn them soon.
It was a great time, just as it always is when we go visit Ft. Worth. I feel like I have the best family ever! I love spending time with them every chance I get!

Her Mickey Mouse lounge chair

She is searching for more presents

Smiles from Kacy!

Kacy got into the presents more than I thought she would

Laughs and fun!

Snow, in Houston???

Kacy's snow ball (ball of ice)

Growing up in Fort Worth, having family in Michigan and New England, and being able to travel a lot, I have seen a lot of snow. Well, not a lot, but enough to not make snow a complete life changing event. Still, when it snows in Houston, it is pretty exciting. It's only snowed about three times since I have lived here, so when snow was in the forecast for Friday, everyone was hyped! School was crazy, just as I expected. Katy decided to let the kids go home early, so I was excited to go get Adilyn and play her first snow. As I drove north on Fry Road, I started to realize that there was not anymore snow on the ground. At my school, there was a good two or three inches. Just 10 miles north of that...nothing. I was determined to have some snow fun, so I bundled Adilyn up in her new snow jacket, put Kacy in her full body jacket, and we went on a snow hunt! We found some snow in our neighbor's backyard that had piled up on the side of his shed. Nothing to get that excited about, but enough to make a snowball. Adilyn had a great time once we showed her that she could throw it. I wish we would have had a little more to work with, but we are in Houston...gotta roll with what ya got!

Contagious Laughter

Tonight Kacy was drooling (as usual), and Adilyn thought it was funny, so she started to laugh. As she started to laugh, she started to drool, too. She thought that was even funnier, so she started laughing again. Something about the situation made me start laughing, too. Before I knew it Kacy was laughing hysterically, also! She giggles every now and then, but this was a true "belly laugh". We were all giggling. It feels great to laugh! Some things are actually good to be contagious! We usually just share our germs, but tonight we just shared our laughter and our love.

The holidays are here!

I have always loved Christmas. I used to beg my mom to let me have a tree in my bedroom while I was growing up. Each night I would lay in my bed and just stare at the tree. It was a symbol of happiness, a symbol of family, and a symbol of hope for the new year. In an interview one time, I was randomly asked, "If you were a tree, what tree would you be?" Without thinking for more than a minute or two, I answered, "A Christmas tree." I had knee surgery one winter break in college, and the only thing good thing I remember about those horrible three weeks was laying on the couch looking at the tree and my mom throwing cotton balls all over the living room as fake snow. We always had a fun time celebrating Christmas and being silly as a family. Now that I have kids of my own, Christmas is even more fun! I remember the first year with Adilyn, I was all excited about buying her gifts and starting new traditions. Unfortunately, since she was only 6 months old, she didn't quite get the whole opening of the presents or visiting Santa Clause, go figure. I ended up opening them for her and trying to make her get excited about books, stuffed animals, and other little toys. What a let down it was! The whole anticipation of it sure was fun, though. Last year we had a lot of fun with decorating cookies, looking at Christmas lights, and opening presents. I can already tell that this year is going to be even more fun!

We started the tradition of going to the Christmas Tree farm last year. This year we were all ready for Adilyn to run around and get excited about all the trees. We were ready for her to pick out whatever tree she wanted. When we got there, she was nervous. Nervous about the "scary man" and the loud tractor noise, so we had to carry her. Finally, she at least got down and walked around a bit. She then relaized that the Christmas trees tickled her every time she walked by, so she had fun with that.

Our family picture...we can never get everyone to look at once time!

Adilyn is still scared of Santa, so I figured I might as well snap this picture of her since it's probably the closest she will get to any Santa! :)

I can't wait for these next few weeks to experience all the rest of the holiday fun!

Who Made This?

Adilyn is maddening and hilarious and frustrating and so stinking cute all at the same time! She gets her feelings hurt so easy, and she is so moody. I can't imagine what she will be like when she's a hormonal teenager. Yikes!

Adilyn is getting to be quite the little bossy girl. She gets mad when we don't play with her the way that she wants. She gets mad whenever we don't give her cookies or candy when she asks for it, but I guess that's all part of being 2. Somedays it's okay, but other days it drives my absolutely bonkers! Timeout is not very effective since she just gets right up. I guess it's all just a phase. The thing that I cannot stand is the hitting. She has started to hit me when she gets frustrated or she's just tired. It's really annoying, especially after a long day at work. She will usually say she is sorry after a short sit in timeout, but it's still not fun. Hopefully it is just a short phase. =)

Funny things that she has said or done lately...

*Her favorite question is - "Who made that?" In most circumstances there really isn't an answer. Adilyn - Who made the park? Me - The park man. Adilyn - Where park man at? Me - His house eating dinner. Adilyn - I wanna see him. Me - anything to change the subject Adilyn - Who made the girl? Me - God did. Adilyn - Where God at? Me - Heaven Adilyn - I wanna see him. and on, and on, and on....

*She likes to put her babies and anything else in timeout when they "aren't listening." You would think that she is in timeout all the time for the amount that she talks about it; she really isn't! I think they use timeout at school a lot. Here are some of the interesting timeout situations...she put her blueberries in timeout for not sitting in a line. She put the washcloth in timeout in the bath because it hit her baby doll. She put me in timeout for tickling her. =) At least she gets the concept! Too bad it's not very effective for her!

*We were talking about jammies, and what color of jammies everyone wears. I said that Daddy wore pink jammies. She said, "Noooooo, Daddy wears panty jammies!"

*Sometimes she just likes to talk about everything that she knows - "Daddy is a boy, Mama, Kacy, and me are girls. Willow is a dog. and on, and on...

*She is obssessed with poopoo and peepee. I guess when you are potty training, it is a huge part of your life. She will just yell out "peepee" for no reason. She pretends to call people on the phone, when I ask her who she is talking to she responds, "peepee". When I ask her who we should take to the store with us she responds, "peepee." It's funny, but I try not to laugh because I don't want to encourage it!

*Her hair gets crazy when she sleeps. We call it her "funny hair", and she gets a kick out of looking at it in the mirror when she wakes up. She still refuses to let me fix her hair with a clip or hairband...

*I know when she wakes up from her naps because she pushes a toy that makes animal sounds. So, instead of, "mommy" I hear, "moo moo"!

*She LOVES Kacy! Even when she's in her grumpy mood and hitting me, she still gives Kacy lovin'. She still loves giving me updates on her, "Mama, Kacy is talking to me. Mama, Kacy is touching my arm. Mama, Kacy is grabbing my shirt."

*The girl still loves Mickey Mouse. We had a little interest in Handy Manny, but it was very short-lived. Now she actually requests certain episodes. Thank goodness for DVR!

*She loves the park, and she is actually getting to the point where she can play by herself. She still gets nervous when other people come, and she says, "Mama, too many peoples..."

Kacy - almost 5 months!

Kacy has still been a great baby, although she is not the amazing sleeper that she used to be. She wakes up at least once a night these days, but luckily goes back to sleep pretty quickly...one of the best things about breastfeeding!!! She is rolling over, but gets stuck on her tummy sometimes. She is really good at grabbing things. Most of the time she can get something the very first time she swipes at it! She has pretty good hand-eye coordination. She loves to look in mirrors, and unfortunately she loves to watch tv. Anytime she is on the floor, she manuevers herself to be watching the tv in a matter of minutes. She loves it when Addy and I make weird noises. She cracks up when Cory bounces her on the bed. She coos and "sings" all the time. It sounds like she's just telling stories all the time. She loves touching people. She is always reaching out to touch my face or my arms. She is more cuddly than Addy was, but only when she's tired. She was a little grumpy last week, and was not sleeping well at all. I took her to the doctor after about 4 days, and it turns out that she had a double ear infection. It is obvious that she takes pain pretty well because she sure didn't act like she was in that much pain. She is not sitting up by herself yet, but she's pretty close. I know it will only be a matter of a month or two before she off crawling and chasing Adilyn around. She still loves Addy, and anytime she is around Kacy just locks in on her. I think I'll be starting her on solid foods here in a couple weeks, so we'll see how that goes. She always tries to grab my food when I'm eating, so I'm sure she will love eating! I still love her teacher at school, and her teacher seems to love her. She said that wehn they go outside in the stroller, Adilyn will come over and say, "that's my sister" and she'll stand by the stroller. She will cry when they take the babies back inside. So sweet! I love my little girls!

Thankgiving

We had our first official Thanksgiving at our house yesterday. We had the all the Hendersons (minus Ashley), and a couple friends of Chad's. We had a great time - great food and great company! There were no Thanksgiving feast tragedies (except, of course, the poor turkey that got fried)! We planned to eat around 1pm, but it was not really until about 2pm that we all sat down to eat. Adilyn was way past nap time, so I spent the last chaotic minutes trying to get food ready with a 30 pound 2 year old hanging on my back pockets. Literally...she had both her hands in my back pockets saying, "Mama, I hungy, I hungy!" Once we sat down her favorite's were Grandmother Henderson's deviled eggs (fitting since she can be such a devil-child these days) and her second favorite were the rolls. She did not like much else, but she tried most of it. My favorites were the green bean casserole, and Holly's yummy sweet potatoes! It was a good day, and it was a great reason for me to give my house a good cleaning! =)

My Funny Girls

I try to write my favorite things about Adilyn and Kacy every now and then because I know that I won't remember the little things they do that make my heart happy...

Here are some of my favorite things about Adilyn lately.
*Cory told Adilyn good night, and she responded, "Good night, baby." That's what he says to her when he tells her good night. When we were laughing at her because she said that, she then said, "Good night, daddy baby."
*She says "poohnie-noonie", don't know what it means, but it's a funny word!
*She tells me who is nice at her school and who is mean. It changes from day to day, except for a boy named Cole. He is always "mean, not nice" as she says.
*Her favorite questions is, "What happened?" Anytime there is a noise or anything like that she has to ask.
*Whenever I come home from my volleyball games and she is here with her babysitter, I hear her sweet little voice scream out, "Mama's here, mama's here!"
*If she is ever around when Kacy starts to cry, she says, "Mama I do it." Then she turns to Kacy and says, "Kacy, I sorry." Most of the time, she never even did anything to her.
*She loves singing to Kacy. If Kacy makes a noise, she will say, "Mama, Kacy like me singing."
*She gets right on top of Kacy, right in her face and "talks" to her.
*Her hair is a mess, and it is always in her eyes. She refuses to put clips or anything in it.
*When I put her to sleep, I read a couple books and try to leave. She always stalls, and she will grab my face in her hands and talk to me. Sometimes she talks about our day, sometimes she asks me questions, but always, without fail she says, "Mama, I wanna go park." I always tell her that we will go to the park "tomorrow."
*If I ask her something like, "You don't like blueberries?" She responds, "I DO like them. I do." She really emphasizes the "do".
*She loves wearing Dora panties, even though we have only seen one Dora episode ever, and she hated it.

My favorite things about Kacy -
*She is so patient. She always waits patiently while I deal with Adilyn's issues.
*When I lift her up above my head she keeps her body completely horizontal, like she is flying.
*She sucks on her pointer finger, and she always looks so intense.
*The hair on top of her head is still sticking straight up.
*I could probably leave her in the bath for hours, and she would be fine. She loves the water!
*She likes watching tv. If I have her playing on her mat on the floor, she will twist and turn until she is facing the tv.
*She will wake up in the middle of the night and just start cooing and singing. I can't ignore her when she starts "talking".
*She puts up with Adilyn doing pretty much anything to her. Anytime Adilyn is around, she just locks her eyes on her and watches her the whole time.
*She is still super smily.
*Her eys are so wide open all the time. It's like she is trying to take in the whole world with one glance.
*She can hold her head up, but she doesn't like to sit up straight. It's like she just crumples up in a ball.
*When I try to burp her, she likes to look at me and smile. this puts her about 1/2 inch away from my face. It's super cute, but she is a spitter-upper, so it makes me super nervous.
*She has mastered her grabbing skills, and now she grips on to everything that comes her way!

I love these little ones!

October Fun!

We have had quite a busy month, and as a result I have not been keeping up with the blog. I will give some updates in short posts, so it doesn't get too boring. I will start with what has happened first...The first fun thing that we did this fall was go to Dewberry Farm. Cory and I had gone there last year with some friends, so we decided to make it an annual tradition. We had a great time again, but unfortunately the whole world was there having fun too! It was one of the first weekends with great weather, and it was featured on "Good Morning America" earlier that week. We still had a lot of fun, it was just really busy everywhere! Adilyn had the most fun running down the dirt pile with Cory and Shane. We stayed all the way to dark, and had fun playing around and hanging out with friends. It was a great way to get the fall holiday season started.

Cory is still going out of town every week. It's still hard to have him gone, but the girls and I have gotten comfortable in our routine. Luckily, the one week that Adilyn was sick my mom was here to help with all that. We have our Sunday night "go to a park, watch a movie, and eat dinner in the living room" routine. Adilyn always thinks it is so much fun to eat in the living room. The sad part about that is that she actually eats much better when she is in front of the tv. I think she doesn't think about what she is doing because she is in the "television trance". It's crazy how people of any age just zone out when the tv comes on. I really try to limit the amount of tv she watches because it just drives me nuts to see that blank stare on her face while she is watching it. Her favorite show is still Mickey Mouse, but we also watch Handy Manny every now and then. During the week, we pretty much just come home from school, eat dinner, play for an hour or two, then go to bed. Some days (especially the ones when she is grumpy) I wonder what it would be like if I didn't work. I wonder if I would be more irritated with them, or if I would love it because I would not be so rushed all the time. I sometimes feel like I never have any time with Kacy. I know that I have a lifetime to spend time with her, but I wonder if I will regret the time I have missed with her (and Adilyn) while I am at work. Oh well, with the economy the way it is and with Cory's job being so uncertain, we really don't have an option right now. I think that all that matters in the end is that your kids know that you did the best you could, and that you loved them with all your heart. I believe that I am doing both of those things right now, so that's all I have to give.

The Big Date

Cory and I went on a date Saturday night. I would have to say that this was our first date in many, many, many months...Living in Houston and not having much family around to babysit, combined with the fact that I just don't like leaving the kids on the weekends makes for very few date nights. Dad and Kris were here this weekend, so Cory and I decided to go ahead and go out to dinner. We went to a fancy sushi restaurant down by the Galleria. We actually could enjoy our dinner without worrying about someone crying, pooping, or throwing food across the restaurant. There was nice conversation and time to catch up on our lives. Ovearll, it was a great time!
I always have a hard time making the effort to go out on dates. Before I had kids I totally thought that I would have a "mandatory" date night once a month. I thought that we would still have lots of couple time. Now that I actually have the kids, it is so hard to leave them. I think that because I am a working mom, when I am at home with them on the weekends I feel like that time is so precious. Sometimes I feel selfish for working and not staying home with them, and than I feel even more selfish for wanting time alone with Cory. After our date on Saturday, I did realize just how important it is for us to have that time together, especially when he is traveling. We had a great time, and it made me feel like we were a "new" couple again!

Big Girl Bed and Panties

Here she is in Kacy's Bumbo...She may be growing up, but she still likes to pretend to be the baby.

Well, my baby is growing up right before my eyes. We have been "dabbling" in potty training for a while now. There was no pressure, and I really didn't care at this point if she was potty trained. They decided to go ahead and work with her at school, so a couple weeks ago they told me to send her with panties. I thought they were crazy, but I obliged. She had a couple accidents here and there at school, but at home, she didn't want to wear panties. One night after we had to run inside to pee she refused to put panties back on. I asked her, "Addy, why don't you want to wear panties at home?" She replied, "work." From that I got that she just didn't want to think about having to stop and go to the bathroom. I can sympathesize with that. If it was socially acceptable for me to wear diapers, I probably would too! :) Anyway, on Saturday she was good with panties, so we went with it. We were going to go to the park, and I asked her if she wanted to keep panties on. She said yes. We were at the park for about ten minutes, and she screamed, "I go pee pee! I go pee pee!" There was nobody at the park, so we went to the trees, and I taught her how to "outside pee". I held her hands and she squated like a champ! She might be a camper yet!

Later that night, we were talking about her "big girl room". I told her that she was going to have to sleep in a big bed one day. She said, "I sleep big girl bed tonight." I thought to myself, "yeah, right!" Anyway, we read our books in there and just as I thought she was going to ask for the crib, she said, "I go night night." I freaked out! I was not mentally prepared for this! My baby was going to be in a big bed...no rails, no soft crib bumper to shield her head, nothing...I walked out of the room, still expecting for her to change her mind. There was nothing but silence. She had fallen fast asleep. About an hour and a half later, Cory and I hear a big thud. We hear her cry out just a little bit, then it got quiet again. We just assumed she bumped her head or something. Before I went to bed, I poked my head in. Poor girl was face first on the ground, dead asleep! I had to hold back my laughter! I picked her up and put her back in the bed, she never even moved a muscle. She slept the whole night there. Tonight is her 3rd night in there with no problems. I was so worried about how hard this transition was going to be for her, and it was absolutely no problem at all.

Some of my favorite potty training moments so far:

*She had panties on, and she was walking in my tennis shoes. All of a sudden I hear, "Mama, pee pee in shoes." She had peed and left two big puddles in my shoes.

*She grabs her bootie and says, "Poo poo coming!"

*She likes for her panties to match her shirt.

*She cheers for everyone when they go potty.

*Her favorite thing is flushing. She will flush before she goes and after. I will have to teach her about water conservation.

*Her 2nd favorite thing is washing her hands. She will stand on her stool and wash her hands forever!

*We were in Walgreens (she had a diaper on) and she grabs her crotch and yells, "I go pee pee! I go pee pee!" Everyone turns to look at me expecting a huge accident. When I reminded her that she was wearing a diaper, she said with a smile, "Oh, otay."

Bites and Scratches

Addy has been getting beat up at school. At least once a week she gets bit or scratched. I have asked her teachers if she is instigating anything, but they have told me that it usually happens when someone wants her toy, and she doesn't want to give it up. I am proud of her for standing up for herself, but I feel so bad that she is so abused. The school has assured me that it's just the age of the kids, and that they are working really hard to get the kids to deal with their frustration in other ways....in the mean time I guess my little one will continue getting beaten up. :(
The worst part about this last bite is that it was her little friend that did it. The other times it has been kids that she doesn't necessarily talk that positively about. She says that they are mean, and that she doesn't like to play with them. This time it was one of the little girls that she says she likes and plays with all the time.
It's so hard to know that she will have to deal with kids being mean to her at different points for the rest of her life. Sometimes I will be there to protect her, but many times I will not. I guess that as she learns to deal with these situations now, it will help her as she has to deal with them when she gets older. It's just hard to know that sometimes she cries, and I can't comfort her.

"Mama, I spit up"

Adilyn got her first stomach bug on Saturday. She woke up from her nap, and she was acting a little weird. She was saying that she had an ouchie on her belly, and kept grabbing at her belly. We were sitting together at her little table drawing, when she exploded! Cory was taking a nap on the couch, but woke up quite quickly when I screamed at him to help. I took her over to the sink; poor girl didn't know what in the heck was happening. After it stopped coming out, she looked up at me as I was cleaning her off, and with sad eyes said, "Mama, I spit up." She sees Kacy spit up all the time, and I guess she just assumed that is what had happened. Amazing how cute she can be even with a stomach bug! I felt so bad for her though. She was so hungry, but we didn't want to give her anything to eat. She didn't understand what was happening at all! Thankfully, today she was better, and she could actually eat a little bit. Poor sickie! Luckily, none of us got it...hopefully we will all stay well. :)

Kacy's New Skill

Kacy is doing a great job holding her head up. I have to say, that is probably my favorite thing that they learn to do. Once they can hold their heads up, then they get so much easier to hold and they have so much more control over their movements. She likes her tummy time, but only for a few minutes. :)

Little Cutie and Big Cutie

Kacy is 10 weeks old now, and I can't even remember our lives without her in it. She is such a sweet addition to our little family. We went for her 8 week appointment a couple weeks ago and she weighed 13 pounds 6 ounces. That is what Adilyn weighed at 4 months! She is a big girl; she already wears 3-6 month clothes, barely. She is super smily all the time. We no longer have to act super crazy to get one of her sweet little grins. There is nothing better than seeing a face light up with a huge toothless grin. I love it! She sleeps every night for at least 5 hours at a time. She has slept from 11pm - 7am twice! Adilyn didn't sleep that long until she was about 8 months old, so I am very thankful to be getting more sleep than I did with my first baby. I have noticed that when she goes to daycare, she sleeps way better at night. I think they keep her up when she's there. Fine with me, I am getting more sleep than I ever thought I would at this point.

A few things about Kacy that I love at 10 weeks...

*She goes to town kicking her feet every now and then

*She loves chillin' in the Baby Bjorn

*No matter what, when Adilyn comes around, she is completely fixated on her

*She loves being outside

*She stops crying in the car when I open the windows

*She absolutely loves her baths

*She loves grabbing on to my shirt or a blanket or whatever she can get her hands around

*Her hair is still sticking up on the top of her head just like Adilyn's did

*I feel like I can have a whole "conversation"with her now because she "talks" so much

She is my Little Cutie!

I think that Adilyn has finally accepted life as a big sister. She very rarely has any jealous moments anymore. She seems to love Kacy, but I think she is a little bored with her. She seems to want to play with Kacy, but all she can do is lay there and look at her. She still loves bumpin' knuckles with her. I have caught her singing ABC's or Twinkle to Kacy a few times...so sweet! She also tells me every time Kacy is crying, like I can't hear her. I can't wait to see what they will be like when Kacy can crawl around with her. Adilyn has become a little helper. She always wants to help me cook and clean. Sometimes her help creates more of a mess, but it's still really cute and sweet of her to try. We are still dealing with some typical "two" behavior - not listening, throwing fits, etc. It makes me laugh most days. It just cracks me up that she can go from super happy to a raging fit in a matter of minutes. I included a picture of her during a fit because we took her crayons away after she wrote on the chair...we are such mean parents!

Some things I love about Adilyn at 2 years, 2 months...

*Her hair makes her look like a little rag-a-muffin baby, but I don't know what to do with it! She won't keep anything in it, and I don't want to cut bangs. I'm just happy she finally got some hair!

*Her new favorite thing to say is, "Mama, look!" and then she shows me something spectacular.

*She only likes to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I try to show her some variety, but she stays faithful to ole' Mickey.

*She still loves to play "night-night", which is also one of our favorite games! Lay in bed and cover up with blankies. :)

*She tells me when people are mean to her at school.

*She wants to wear panties instead of diapers, but then she realizes how much work it is to go to the restroom every time she has to pee. Then she wants to wear diapers again. I don't blame her, I would wear diapers if it were socially acceptable!

*Every time I take a picture of her she wants to see it on the camera's screen.

*When she gets bored with dinner, she squeezes her food until all the juice comes out of it. Watermelon is her favorite.

*When she wants something she'll say something like - "Mama, Addy color right here, o-tay?" It's almost as if she ends it with "okay" then I will always agree with her and say okay.

*Every time the dogs bark she asks, "What's this? Truck? Man? Kitty?" (those are all the things that she has determined will make the dogs bark)

I love my "Big" Cutie! :)

"Helping" me make brownies...

It's as if the world is going to end...

Kacy's First Smiles

Cory had been trying to get Kacy to smile for him all week long last week. Finally on Sunday morning, she was in a smiley mood. I ran to get the camera since I had been able to catch a good smile yet. She cooperated, and I got every phase of her smile. Those little toothless smiles make me smile, even on a bad day. (:

"Two Babies"

More Adilyn short funnies...the girl cracks me up.
*One time when I was holding both Adilyn and Kacy I said, "Look, I have two babies!" Now, every time Adilyn wants me to hold her when I have Kacy she'll say, "Mama, two babies?"
*When Cory is out of town, we talk to him every night on Skype. Adilyn loves it. The other night she went and got every single one of her baby dolls and brought them to the webcam for Cory to see. He had to say hi to the whole "family".
*She usually cries a little bit when I leave her room at bedtime, but the other night as I closed the door she said, "Bye, Mom." She sounded like she was about 12 years old!

Kacy Update

Kacy has been doing well. She just hangs in there and rolls with the punches. I couldn't believe how great she did on the Georgia trip! She just slept and hung out in her little seat. What a trooper! She is sleeping really well right now, but we'll see what happens when I go back to school. I hate that I have to leave her so soon! I'm ready to get back to work, but I don't want to leave her. I love the daycare that she will be going to, but I just hate to leave her when she is so small. I feel like I don't even know her yet. I try to spend as much time with her as possible when Adilyn is playing or sleeping, but I still feel like we haven't completely bonded. I know it will all work out, but I am just feeling sad about leaving her.

Her new skills -

She will smile at you, but she makes you work for it!

She has made a couple little sweet cooing noises when she gets excited.

She is trying to grab at things. She especially likes to grab for Adilyn.

Future Cheerleader?

"Little Bit"

Adilyn is still cracking me up with the things that she is saying. Here are some of my recent favorites...

*She loves Cheetos. I told her that there weren't anymore left in the bag. (I guess she knew that there were some crumbs.) She looked at me and said, "Mama, little bit, little bit."

*Cory has a friend that we call "Big Nate", so Adilyn started calling Cory, "Big Daddy."

*Cory has been working out of town in California, and she likes to talk about him when he's gone. The other day she said, "Daddy airplane working go bye-bye California kiss him."

*She randomly started calling Kacy, "Little Baby Kacy."

*When we were in the car, Kacy started crying - she started yelling, "Kacy, stop frying!" That's her version of "crying". I had to tell her not to yell at her, but to say, "Kacy, it's okay." So, now everytime Kacy cries she runs over to her and tells her that it's okay.

*I told her that she was funny the other day, and she said, "No, Mama - you're funny!"

*My friend told her to say "boom-shaka-laka", and she went around saying it a million times and laughed hysterically everytime.

What a little goofball!

The Unexpected Roadtrip

One of Adilyn's little tantrums on the way home. :)

Swimming in Lake Placid

We had been looking forward to our lake trip all summer. A bunch of Cory's friends from high had all rented a lake house, and we were going to have a fun family vacation. Unfortunately as we pulled up to the house, Cory got a phone call from his stepmom telling us that his father had passed away. He had been sick with cancer, but he had been doing much better recently. We didn't really think that he was going to pass away so quickly. In some ways it is for the best, since he didn't have to suffer very long.

With all our friends' help, we packed up the family and drove home. His father lived in Georgia, a 14 hour drive. We originally thought that we would fly, but the tickets were very expensive. Also, as we thought about carrying the car seats, pack 'n plays, etc it seemed in our best interest to drive. I thought that I would rather have our kids screaming in our ears than a whole plane full of people's ears! The first thing we did was buy a DVD player for the car for Adilyn to watch some movies. I was always against those, just because I thought that you should have fun with your kids when you roadtrip...now that I have kids, I have realized that movies can be a lifesaver at certain times! This was just one of those times. We had enough time to get home, unpack our lake clothes, repack other clothes, and head out. We left around 9pm. Our plan was to drive until we couldn't drive anymore. Adilyn started out watching Nemo, but got bored with it pretty quickly. We realized that although the DVD player kept her entertained and quiet, it also kept her from sleeping. Once we decided she had had enough movies, we turned it off and had to listen to her scream, "I wanna watch movie! I wanna watch movie!" for a while. She finally dozed off. We had to stop a few times to feed Kacy, and unfortunately Adilyn would wake up anytime we stopped. Around 5am, we stopped and Adilyn woke up super scared. She was throwing a fit and wouldn't stop screaming and crying, poor girl...We finally got her calmed down, and we brought back the DVD. :) My mom flew in to Atlanta to help us out, so we picked her up at the airport around 2pm, and got to our hotel in enough time to change and go to the visitation. Cory's stepmom got us a great hotel! It had two seperate rooms, so it was perfect set-up for Adilyn to go to sleep a little earlier than us. We made it through all the funeral events, with my mom's help, of course. Then, we began our journey home. We stopped at Cory's cousin's house and let Adilyn play with her girls. We had a great time visiting with them. Around 4pm, we headed out. Again, we were planning on driving until we got too tired or the girls had had enough. The girls did amazing once again! Adilyn had a few little fits about getting into her seat or not being able to do what she wanted to do, but overall everyone did great. We stopped about four times to feed Kacy, go to the bathroom, and get gas. We pulled in the driveway at 4am. Of course, we were all exhausted, but we had made it! Two 12 hour+ car trips, lots of different situations and new people, and a whole lot of snacks...but we made it!

Funerals always make you think about the things that you want to do before you die, things that you want to say to people, and the life that you want to live. I hope that when it is my time to go, I leave on good terms with the people that I love and that I have accomplished things that have made a difference in this world.

Kacy

Our little Kacy is such a sweetheart. Here are some of my favorite things about my little cutie. She has started smiling for me, and I am convinced that it is not just gas anymore! She makes little squeaky noises when you move her when she is sleeping. She snores. The hair on the top of her head sticks straight up no matter what I do to it. She always likes to have a blanket on her when she sleeps. She loves her "tummy time." Anytime Adilyn is in the room, she stares at her, and it seems like she reaches out toward her to touch her. I can't wait to watch her grow and learn.

"Mama, me and you"

So, as Kacy has become a part of our family full time, Adilyn has had her share of tantrums and fits when I can't carry her or play with her because of Kacy. Honestly, she has done much better with the addition than I thought she would. Some of the funny things she does is that when Kacy starts to wake up or starts to cry a little, she will run to me and say, "Mama, hold you." The funny thing about that is that Kacy could have been asleep for hours, and she never wanted me to hold her until she knew I was about to hold Kacy. If she wants me to hold her, and Cory is around. She will say, "Kacy hold Dada, Mama hold Adilyn."

I can't imagine how hard it must be for her to have her whole little world turned upside down by this little baby that has taken over the family. I know that kids have been dealing with new siblings for years, but it just makes me so sad for her at certain times. She was my entire world for two whole years, and now she has to share me. I know that she understands more than I think she does, but I still wish she could express herself to me a little more, so I would know what she was thinking. Bedtime used to be my favorite time with her - reading and relaxing after the day, now it's so hard because Kacy is in there and it's not our special time together. I know we'll all get our new routines in place soon; it's just an adjustment period for all of us.

I really try to spend as much time with Adilyn as possible when Kacy is sleeping. Her favorite things to do these days are coloring, hiding from us, dancing, and reading books. Whenever she wants me to do one of those activities with her she'll say, "Mama, me and you? Me and you?" No matter what I'm doing - I cannot resist when she says that. So sweet.