Happy Father's Day (2.4 years and 9.75 months)

Since we have been home, Brian has been busy starting to build the swing set.  Austin loves to help Brian with it.  Most nights they are in the back yard working on it.  They have dug holes together.  It rained the other day and the holes got water in them so Austin helped get the water out of the holes.  Austin loves to bring Brian any "mouse-ka-tools" he needs like levels, a tape measure, etc.

On Father's Day weekend, Brian and my dad cut wood and built the first tower.  Then on Sunday, they placed it into place.  I helped with that since it was so big and heavy.  It was a lot of work.  I felt so bad that Dad and Brian spent all day Father's day working on it.  They did not get a day to relax.  My parents stayed at our house until 7 pm helping.  Brian continued to work until 10 pm because he wanted to get in concreted into the ground since it was perfectly level.  I even put the kids to bed that night.  Usually Brian puts Austin to bed every night.  They were so busy we never gave Brian his Father's Day gifts.  Hopefully we will do that tonight.

Austin is growing up so fast.  He has gotten noticeably taller.  And his vocabulary has taken off.  He can say 5-8 word sentences easily.  He can repeat everything you say so we have to be very careful with that.  Luckily he has not said a bad word yet.  We usually don't curse but every once in a while one comes out.  Austin can also ride a tricycle.  We have gotten him 3 bikes.  One bike we still have not put together, one bike is still too big, and the other bike he can petal all by himself.  It is crazy that he can ride a bike already.  He's has gotten so big.

Sydney can really move around now.  She can crawl fast and even crawl up all of our stairs without any problem.  She loves to stand and is starting to furniture walk.  She wants to walk so bad but has not figured it out yet.  She can stand alone for about 10 seconds now but if she moves her feet she will fall down.  She cannot crawl down the big stairs yet because she continue to insist on going forwards.  She can go down our 1 living room step forwards fine.  She reaches her arms out and does great but she wants to do that for the big stairs too.  That will not work too well.

Last week Austin and Sydney both had ear infections.  Sydney got her's first.  It was weird because she did not really have any cold symptoms.  There were 2 sleepless nights so I took her to the doctor and she had a right ear infection.  Austin complained of left ear pain one night and would not lay down in his crib to sleep.  He wanted to sleep sitting up.  So Brian took him out the the car so he could sleep in his car seat.  Brian made himself a bed in the back of our Ford Escape next to Austin so he could try and get some sleep too.  Brian took him the the doctor and said he had the start of a left ear infection. There were also questions about Austin's ear tubes (whether they had fallen out and were still in the ear canal or not - Brian has seen them in both ears still although one doctor claimed the one was gone and the other was there while another doctor said the complete opposite about which ear was missing the tube).  Brian and Austin slept in the car for two nights and then he felt better and began sleeping in his big boy bed again.

We are enjoying summer.  We play outside every day that its not raining.  The kids have a lot of outside toys.  I love that we play outside because it keeps my house clean.  :)  We have lots of kids in the neighborhood that come to play too.  Most of them are older but they still enjoy playing with Austin which is nice.

We have had a birthday party and graduation party this month.  We had a lot of fun going to them. I am starting to plan Sydney's first birthday party.  I am excited about that.  We are going to have it at our house.  Since it is summer we can have it outside at our house.  We are going to get a tent and chairs too.  I really hope it doesn't rain that day!  Hopefully Brian will have the swingset done by then too.  It will be so much fun.

Trip to Myrtle Beach (2.35 years old and 9 months)

We left Saturday at 1 pm for Myrtle Beach.  Since I worked Thursday and Friday, I did not have any packing done  so we had to do it all Saturday morning.  So we got everything ready and then left at nap time so the kids would sleep some in the car.  We were not even driving 2 hours and Sydney woke up and she was not happy.  She did not like being in her car seat for that long.  It is hard since she is rear facing and there are only so many toys she can play with that entertain her for more than 5 minutes.  There were times she would cry for at least 30 minutes at a time.  It was awful.  Austin was fantastic in the car.  He would play with his toys and Kindle.  He is a great traveler.  Sydney is just not at a good age for long road trips.

We stopped in Wytheville Virginia around 7 pm.  It is about half way from home to Myrtle Beach.  Brian got a really good deal on a motel there.  They did not have any cribs but it worked out okay because Sydney slept in the pack and play and we put the other double mattress on the floor and Austin slept on that fine.  We  went to Waffle House for dinner.  I have to say it was not that good.  I know many people like Waffle Houses but I was not a fan.

Then we left the next morning around 8 am and we arrived at Myrtle Beach at 2 pm.  It wasn't too bad but we were really glad to get out of the car.  On Sunday, Melissa, Jonathan, and Camden came over to Nana's house.  Melissa was having a rough day.  I totally understood.  I have been there and its rough at first but I reassured her it will get better.  It was great to baby Camden.  He's so small.  He was only 6 pounds 13 ounces when he was born.  Austin and Sydney were never that small.  I loved holding Camden but I was also glad to give him back to his mommy and daddy.

We had a lot of fun in Myrtle Beach.  Austin got to drive Nana's and Grandpa's golf cart and he LOVED it.  He likes to pull our cars out of the garage so for him actually driving the golf cart was the best thing ever.  They would drive around the neighborhood.  They have a playground, pool, and ponds with turtles in their neighborhood.  So Austin would go visit those fun places.

One day we went to Alligator Adventure.  Austin liked looking at the alligators.  It was neat to do something different like that.  Also one night we went for ice cream.  Austin got his own cone with blue ice cream.  Austin loved it.  His tummy was even blue though his shirt.  He really enjoyed his ice cream.  He also got to make homemade ice cream in a coffee can.  It was really cool to do that too.  He liked rolling the can in the driveway.  He really liked eating the ice cream too!

One day when I was with Melissa, both Austin and Sydney went swimming.  They love swimming so that was fun.  Austin also enjoyed playing on the playground.  Nana and Melissa live in a great neighborhood for us to come and vacation in.  I did not get to spend as much time with Melissa and Camden as I hoped.  It was hard because Melissa needed to feed Camden all the time and try to get some sleep.  I needed to be with Austin and Sydney to keep them entertained.  Next year will be better for Camden because he will be out with us playing.

Nana and Grandpa have an extremely nice house.  When I walked in I was so nervous.  All I could think about is my kids are going to destroy this beautiful house.  We brought the kids portable high chairs but they need to go on actual chairs.  I convinced them that needed to cover their nice dining room chairs and the floor or it was going to get ruined.  They thought I was crazy at first but by the end of the week they were thankful of that.  Austin and Sydney are really messy at dinner time.  Most nights we take Sydney's clothes off during dinner because she is so messy.   And I have to say, Austin and Sydney did really good.  They did not break anything!  Thank goodness!

Austin really enjoyed playing in their big pantry that has a light that turns on everything you open the door.  It was like the bathroom on the cruise ship for him.  He loved playing in there.  Austin also spent a lot of time outside.  So it worked out well.  Sydney would stand next to the bar chairs or play on the floor.  She was fine and very happy not to be in her car seat.

We went to the beach one afternoon too.  I was happy we made it there.  We knew it was going to be a mess but it was worth it.  We have our beach tent shade that works nicely for the kids.  Nana got the kids a lot of beach toys so they could play with them in the sand.  It was really nice.  Austin does not like the sand. He got use to it a little bit and did like playing with his toy bucket with water hose.   He does not like to be messy.  Sydney loved the sand and she really liked eating it.  She kept putting handfuls of sand in her mouth.  She would cry when we stopped her.  We put our feet in the ocean.  Austin was not a fan but Sydney did not mind it at all.  It was fun.

On our last day there, Brian spent most of the day installing baby camera system for Melissa and Jonathan.  I  was with the kids.  It is hard when we are not in our own environment.  I had limited toys and Melissa's house is not baby proof yet.  It will be soon.   She has a really nice house too and I could just see Austin throwing and breaking something.  I tried to play outside with them as much as possible.  Austin was playing in the golf cart so he was happy.  He would pretend to get doughnuts.  And that morning we really did take Austin for doughnuts.  He enjoyed eating one.

We had a great time in Myrtle Beach!  We left at 4 am on Friday morning to get home and relax a little bit.  It was an extremely long drive.  It took us 13 hours to get home.  But we had to stop for breakfast, lunch, and a poopy explosion break.  We were glad when we made it home.  Vacations are wonderful but it's always nice to be home!

Baby Camden Arrives (2.30 years and 8.90 months)

A few weekends ago, Nana and Great Grandma came up for the weekend.  They came to get a bunch of baby stuff that I was giving to Melissa.  We gave Melissa the car seat, breast pump, and a ton of clothes.  It was bittersweet getting rid of these things.  I haven't pumped for over a month now and I am totally okay with it.  But at first it was really hard to give up.  The baby car seat was sad to see go but we are looking forward to not having to carry around that heavy thing.

A few weekends ago, it was Mother's Day.  It was nice because I worked the weekend before so I had Friday off.  I was able to go to Muffins with Mom at the kid's school.  I asked Austin if he wanted Sydney to be there too and he did.  It was cute so I brought Sydney into Austin's room and we all ate muffins and juice together.  Austin was sad when I left.  He is now in the "Get Set" room which is the older toddler room.  He is the youngest in the class.  Ever since he switched rooms, he cries when we drop him off.  Hopefully he will get use to it again and will not cry when we leave.  Brian usually drops hi off, but I got to experience it today.

On Mother's Day, my parents came over.  I baked lasagna and a cake.  Austin helped decorate the cake.  We also went and looked for playgrounds for ideas.  Brian is building a playground in our back yard.  I am super excited about that.  For mother's day I got a picture with me and the kids and a photo book with lots of pictures of us in it.  I love the photo books.  They are really nice and Austin loves us to read them to him.  He enjoys looking at pictures of himself and his family.  It was a nice mother's day.

We are getting ready to leave for Myrtle Beach.  Melissa had her baby on May 18.  She had a boy and his name is Camden.  We are very excited for them.  It will be awesome for them to be parents.  We are looking forward to meeting him.  We are driving my parents car down there because our car is not big enough.  I'm not looking forward to the drive down there but once we get there it will be fun.  Hopefully I will be able to spend some time with Melissa and Camden.

Sydney went to the doctor for her 9 month check up.  Austin went with me.  He is a very good helper.  Sydney weighed 17 pounds and 14 ounces.  That is 49th percentile for weight.  She is 28 inches long.  She is in the 57th percentile for height.  She is following her growth chart perfectly.  When Austin was 9 months he was 24 pounds 3 ounces and 30 inches long.  It is interesting to see how much bigger Austin was at the same age.  We are so happy that Sydney is finally eating.  She will eat anything.  She loves table food and usually eats more than Austin every night.  She loves her vegetables - especially peas!

Austin gets a Toddler Bed (2.29 years and 8.25 months)

A few weekends ago, we had the consignment sale and prom.  We went to the consignment sale on Friday night.  We were excited to go but it did not turn out liked we would of liked.  Austin kept running away.  So Brian was not able to look at any toys. He spent most of the time exploring the hallways of the high school with Austin.  He even ended up taking him to the gym to see a basketball tournament being played.  Sydney got heavy and fussy after a while so it was difficult for me to look at clothes.  There were not many good big toys either.  We were a little disappointed.  But I did get a lot of desperately needed clothes for Sydney.

Saturday morning I went back to the consignment sale with my friend Mara.  She had never been there before so it was good to go with her.  I helped her pick up some things.  Mara's daughter, Alexa, is 2.5 months older than Sydney.

Then I came home and got ready to go back to the consignment sale to work.  To be able to sell at the sale you must work a three hour shift.  I worked 11-2.  I was placing stickers in the book.  It was a little intense for about an hour but then it was fine.


After the consignment sale, I came home and got ready for the Prom.  I have been working with Austin's and Sydney's school on their Prom.  So I needed to get there early to set up.  Brian stayed at home and got the kids dressed.  Then they came up.

Again Prom was not exactly what we expected.  It was fun, but Austin ran around the entire time.  We have to understand the he is a toddler and likes to run around but we really wanted him to sit for a few minutes to at least eat.  It was nice to see everyone dressed up.  Lauren, Brian's cousin, made cupcakes for it.  They were delicious.  It was an adventurous night out as a family.

Then on Sunday, we decided to change Austin into a toddler bed.  Brian and Austin took apart his bed before nap.  They put up his toddler rail.  Austin loves doing projects with his daddy.   Austin loved it because he knew he could get out whenever he wanted.  It took Brian and I 1.5 hours to get him to finally go to sleep in his toddler bed.  This was going to be a challenge.  That night it took us about 45 minutes to get him to sleep.

Every nap time and bed time is a challenge.  Before the toddler bed, we would put Austin in his crib, he would play and put himself to sleep.  Now he continues to get out of his bed.  He also wants us in the room while he falls asleep.  We are hoping it will get better with time.  He usually goes to sleep in about 30 minutes.  Austin now falls out of bed a lot too.  Brian then puts him back to bed.  Austin doesn't really wake up when this happens.  We are looking into a larger toddler rail. It is hard to believe that Austin is no longer in a crib.  Time went by so fast.

Brian took this photo of Sydney outside.  He really loves it because if you zoom in on her eye, you can clearly see him, the camera, and the stroller all in its reflection.  It is pretty cool.

 

Sydney continues to crawl everywhere.  She loves to stand up now too.  She will stand up in her crib within minutes   When we are on the floor, she will crawl all over us and stand up next to us.  She has two bottom teeth.   Her top teeth are starting to come in too.  It seems like she was just born and now she is becoming a big girl too.

We realized this summer Austin will be 2.5 years old and Sydney will be 1.  That seems unbelievable   I no longer have a lot of baby stuff.  It is kind of sad but it's also exciting because as they get older we can do more and more fun things.  The weather was be beautiful.  We have been walking every night.  Austin plays outside a lot.  He got a cozy coupe car and bike. Austin helped Brian put the cozy coupe together.  Brian is making plans to build a swing set in the backyard.  I am super excited about that.  I think Austin is going to love it!  Austin talks about it a lot and always wants to go in the backyard to look.  He keeps telling dad to build the swingset as though it would take 5 minutes and he'd have one.

 

You can see Sydney's bottom teeth now as this photo shows.  This explains why she had been a little fussy recently.  She was fussy for unexplainable reasons again this week for a couple of nights.  We now can see at least 1 of her top teeth just starting to break through the surface too.  Soon she'll be ready to eat foods like Austin!

Sydney Crawling (2.25 years and 8 months)

Sydney started crawling forwards last week! And as soon as she learned to crawl forwards she has not stopped. She wants to be on the go all the time. She is also very determined to be standing up. I think she really wants to walk too. Now we are in trouble. With Sydney crawling everywhere I can't leave her alone even for a minute. She can crawl fast too. I turn my head for a second and she is off getting into something. We now have the blankets down by our living room step so if she does go off of it she won't hit her head. Soon it will be time for baby gates again. Austin is not going to be happy about that.

Sydney also started eating food last week finally. It is so exciting because she opens her mouth and loves it. It is so easy to feed her now. She eats 3 meals a day with us. I am so happy. I was worried something was wrong. Brian said he knew everything was fine and she was just not ready yet. She also likes to fed herself foods. She eats puffs, cheerios, pancakes, and peas. It is so much fun to watch her eat. She loves her baby food too. She even ate some green beans. She likes vegetables a lot. It is such a relief for me.

Sydney is developing a schedule now too. She eats around 5 am and goes back to sleep until around 8 am. Then she will have breakfast at the table. Breakfast is usually baby cereal and either pancakes or cheerios. Then she will take about a 2 hour morning nap. Around noon we will eat lunch where she eats a fruit or vegetable baby food.

Austin usually eats left overs from dinner or a sandwich. He likes peanut butter and cheese sandwiches. He always has a fruit and yogurt. Austin goes down for nap around 1 pm. Sydney usually goes to nap around 2 pm. Then we eat dinner around 5:30 pm once Brian get home from work. When it is nice outside we go for a walk around 6:30 pm. Austin goes to sleep around 8:15-8:30 pm. Sydney goes to bed around 9 pm. We are loving the weather now that it is getting nice out. We really enjoy our time outside and our walks. Austin likes it too. He enjoys his snack in the stroller and tells us what he sees. He talks in 4-5 words sentences now. We can understand almost everything he says. Something funny he says is "In the chicken". He means "in the kitchen" but for whatever reason he calls the kitchen the chicken. It is cute.

 

Sydney says baba, mama, and duh duh. I stopped pumping at work last week too. It was sad for me. I can't believe how well breast feeding is going. But I told Melissa I would give her my pump so I need to stop. Plus I am busy at work so not pumping at work will be better for me. My breasts were uncomfortable but not as bad as when I stopped with Austin. With Austin I was pumping way more than I needed. The hard part is when I am home with her she really doesn't want a bottle from me. I don't know if its because she is teething or what but she has been cranky the past few days. I need to make sure I produce less milk during the day because on the days I work if I don't pump I will be miserable. I am really trying not to breast feed her during the day but I have given in a few times because I can't listen to her scream. For the most part though she gets formula.

 I have no idea when and how I am going to stop nursing her. I am worried about that. It will probably be really ugly. I am hoping that she will just no longer want to do it but I am not so sure. When she is around a year old I am going to have to stop. I think that is an appropriate time to give it up. She falls asleep on me every night and I put her in her crib. I need to stop that but I am just not there yet. Again I don't like listening to her scream. I know that Sydney is my last baby and I am cherishing all the baby time I can get. They grow up way too fast.

 I can't believe how big and independent Austin is already. It makes me sad. Our next big thing is we are going to move Austin into a toddler bed. He is growing up and needs to be in a toddler bed. We will be doing that in the next few weeks. It is sad because after that Austin will never be in a crib again. Brian and I were talking about all the things he will never do again like drink a bottle or be in a crib. Soon he will never were diapers. It is amazing how fast time goes by with kids. I will never pump again and before I know it I will never breastfeed again.

 As I am writing this I am so sad. I am so grateful that we were blessed with two little perfect angels. They are our world and we enjoy every second of it because before we know it they will be adults themselves. Brian is really great at taking pictures and videos of them. Brian just finished making our cruise video.  It was only 1 month ago, but the kids have already changed since then noticeably. I am so grateful that Brian does that and is good at it. This weekend is the consignment sale and Prom for our daycare. I am also sad I am getting rid of all my baby stuff. I am either selling it or giving it to Melissa. But I am looking forward to all the exciting things to come with Austin and Sydney. I know its going to be a fun adventure.