Melissa's Baby Shower (2 years 1 month and 6 months)

This past weekend was Melissa's baby shower.  I have been planning that for over 2 months now.  It seemed like any free moment was spent working on that.  It was worth it though.  It turned out beautifully.  Melissa enjoyed it so that is all that matters.

Melissa, my mother in law, and Jonathan's mom came up Friday night.  Carol stayed with us so she could see the kids.  They got in Friday around 7 pm.  In the morning, we all went down to set up for the shower.  Brian was nice and stayed though the shower so he could take pictures of it.  Sydney also stayed though the entire shower too.  Austin was there in the beginning.  He helped setup.  He liked throwing trash away for us which was helpful.  Then after we ate he went with Papa to McDonald's and played.  Austin and Sydney were so good during the shower.  I was so happy.

Sydney got a little fussy because she was tired.  Brian had her face the wall in her car seat and she fell asleep within minutes.  It was impressive.  Brian got a lot of good pictures.  I was so happy everything turned out nicely.  We had breakfast.  Then we played some games.  We played word scramble.  Then Melissa's best friend and her mom set up a Customize for Camden station.  People could make onesies and bibs for him.  It was so cool.  Then we made babies out of play doh.  People seemed to enjoy the games we had.  Melissa got a lot of really nice things too.  Overall it was great.

Brian caught Melissa making a funny face that made it look like she was crying.  He sent it to Jonathan and said that Melissa was holding up good until we starting opening up gifts.  Since pregnancy has her a bit emotional, it was believable that a breakdown may have occurred.  It didn't though, but Brian had Jonathan thinking it had.

Austin has chosen names for both of his grandmas now.  Austin can't say "G" words yet.  So he calls my mom Meemaw and Brian's mom Nana.  Nana got to spend some time with Austin and Sydney.  Austin enjoyed having Nana read to him.  Austin is really into his books right now.  It's cute because he knows the stories so well he can basically read them too.  Last night, he read Goodnight Gorillia to us.  He leaves out a lot of words, but you can tell that he's still thinking them even though he can't articulate all of them.  It was so sweet.     Before story time, we do circle time like they do in school.  There is a little song they sing which is  "You have a name, I have a name, now tell me what is your name?"  Austin can say his first and last name.  He really likes doing that. We also often go around patting our knees and saying, "Me, me, me, me, me, me, Mommy!"  Austin does it with his name when it's his turn.  They do that at school too.

Austin is a talking machine now.  His communication skills are great.  It is so much fun to talk with him.  He can tell us what he wants.  He doesn't always get what he wants but he can definitely tell us.  One thing he says is "pushy" which means come here.  He also still loves to say "Upies"  which is "up please".  He can now tell us what what hurts.  Like today he fell off his step ladder while I was changing Sydney.  I did not see what happened and after he was done crying I asked him what hurt and he said his back.  I was impressed with that.  He was okay after his fall too.

I have settled into a good routine.  I believe as time goes by things get easier.  Early on some days I could not wait for nap time   Now it seems to get here so quickly.  I enjoy playing with them and all the time I have with them.  They are so precious.  Right now Austin loves to play with his play doh.  We can easily spend 30-45 minutes playing with that.  That is a long time for a toddler.  Austin also enjoys playing with his bus while Sydney plays with the little people plane.  They play very well together.  Almost everyday Sydney and I watch Austin make baskets downstairs.  For the wintertime, we brought in his basketball hoop.  He really likes playing basketball and he's good at it.  That reminds me I need to take a video of that.

We have lots of videos of the kids.  Pictures and videos are really important to us.  They will only be this little for a short period of time and we want to cherish all these memories and be able to look back on them.  I am lucky that Brian is so good with the camera.  He has two really nice cameras.  He takes all the kids pictures. We realized early on that its not worth going to the photo studio.  Brian can take way better pictures at home and on the kids schedule.  Sometimes they don't want their pictures taken and I couldn't imagine trying to schedule a photo shoot at a studio around their happy times.  Austin will say "cheese" if he wants his picture taken or he will say "no pictures" if he doesn't.  It's so cute.

I can't believe Sydney will be 6 months tomorrow.  The time has went by so fast.  She can sit up now.  She really doesn't even fall over unless Austin pushes her over.  She is working on crawling but hasn't yet.  It will be soon though.  She can stand on her feet too with assistance for balance.  She weighs 15 pounds.  When Austin was 6 months he weighed 21 pounds.  I find that interesting.  It is nice because she did not go though her clothes as quickly as Austin did.

At school, Austin and Sydney had a valentine's day party.  Both Brian and I left work early so we could attend.  There was a flurry of activity in Austin's room since all the kids are mobile.  We spent some time in Sydney's room too, but eventually just brought her to Austin's room.  Some of the older kids really liked her and started playing with her there too for the party.  Austin and Sydney both had a lot of fun.  It's really nice to get to see them at daycare like this.  Normally we just see them briefly during drop off and pick up, so spending more time in their room with their teachers and friends is nice.

I joined the preschool parents club in our community.  They have a consignment sale every year and I really wanted to sell our baby things this year.  Plus it is nice to meet new people and have activities for the kids to do.  Last week, they had a field trip to Chick-fil-A.  So Austin and I went.  It was a lot of fun.  We toured the place with about 12 other moms and kids.  Austin got to color pictures.  He got a balloon and made an ice cream cone.  It was a fun morning out with him.  I really enjoyed my morning with Austin.

In 3 weeks, we will be on a cruise.  I am excited and nervous about it.  I am interested to see how Sydney travels.  Austin we know is a good traveler.  I hope Sydney is too.  She is an easy going baby but we are hoping for no illnesses or any issues.  It will be excellent family time and that is what I am looking forward too.  Now I just need to get everything organized for it.

Austin locks himself in bathroom (2.0 years and 5 months)

The weather was really warm for a few days.  We took advantage of that.  Austin loves it outside so anytime we can be outside we are.  Brian and I enjoy our evening walks.  When the weather is nice, we walk every night.  Austin sits in his stroller and chills out too.  It is wonderful.  We got to go on two evening walks last week.

Last Tuesday night, Austin was getting ready for bed.  We had been busy playing outside and it was a little past his bedtime.  Austin was upstairs with Brian getting ready for bed.  Brian went into Austin's room to get his stool when Austin ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.  We think Austin thought he was not going to get to brush his teeth, so he made sure he was in the bathroom.  Brian went to open the door and the door was blocked so we could not get in.  There are drawers next to the door and one the the drawers was left opened.  Austin must have bumped it to open it even more and it blocked the door from opening at all.  There were no lights on in the bathroom either since Austin had just ran in there suddenly on his own.  I started to freak out inside.  Sydney started crying so I went downstairs and got her.  Brian was extremely calm and kept asking Austin to close the drawer.  Austin was not talking for the first 20-30 seconds so Brian was nervous what Austin was doing.  Then Austin started talking.  He was probably in there for about 4-5 minutes before we finally got in.  Somehow Austin bumped or closed the drawer just enough for Brian to get the door past it and we made it in there.  It was so scary!  Austin started to cry towards the end too.  But he really did a great job.  Austin thought Brian had locked him in there so he was mad at him for a little bit.  After some tender loving care, all was better.

Things have been going well.  Austin is a talking machine.  He will repeat anything you say so we are careful what we say.  He is full of energy and always getting into something.  He really like Play Doh.  We will play with that for an hour or so on my days off.  He pretends to make pasta and "Daddy" sandwiches (Brian has a sandwich for lunch every day and Austin will sometimes help me make it).  It is cute.  He is also good at making baskets with the basketball.  Austin knows all of his colors.  He is starting to count.  He really knows 7,8,9 in that order.  His favorite number is 2.  He loves saying that whether or not it works to his advantage (Do you want five cookies?  No, two!)

Sydney is rolling all over the place.  She loves to grab things now.  Brian had the camera taking pictures and she was holding on the the flash.  When she gets her diaper changed she doesn't like to sit still anymore either.  She doesn't move like Austin but she can definitely squirm around.  She loves her chew book and play ball.  She spends a lot of time in her exersaucer and with her activity mats.  She also enjoys playing kitchen with Austin.   They play together very well.

Since Austin has reached toddler hood he likes to really test the limits.  Brian and I are usually laid back but he knows how to push our buttons at times.  We went to the library and got some books on communication and discipline.  Rising a child is so important.  We want to do the very best we can so we are educating ourselves on it.  Hopefully it will work.  I don't like all is his whining and tantrums   I know it's part of growing up but perhaps we can minimize them.  If so, I will be very happy.

I am surprised how well breastfeeding is going for me.  I would have never thought it would go as well as it is.  I am not sure what I am going to do coming up.  Sydney will start eating solids soon.  My goal was to make it until 6 months and I did that.  Breastfeeding is so much easier than bottles though.  There is no washing of bottles or wasting any milk.  It's perfect.  I hate washing all the bottles!  Especially the Avent ones!  They seem so much harder than the Medela ones to wash.  Plus because I pump with Medela ones I have twice as many bottles to wash.  I don't like pumping and I am considering giving up pumping at work.  That would mean she would get formula during the days.  I would still hope to nurse in the morning and nights.  I guess we will see how it goes.  When Sydney starts cereal though, she will get it mixed with formula.  I am not going to pump extra for her cereal.

Austin is now up from nap.  It is playtime!