Happy Birthday Sydney (2.65 years and 12.5 months)

Sydney's birthday was actually on Monday. It was not a good day for her.  She cried a lot.  I am not sure why but she was definitely not happy.  When she was born she cried for the first 2 hours then she was such a happy baby.  Then on her birthday she cried most of the day.  She must not like that day of the year.  We wanted to take the kids to the park and let them do a smash cake again but since Sydney was so cranky we decided to wait until Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening, we went to the local park and set up for a second smash cake just for pictures (she also had one at her party).  Interestingly, Sydney was not a big fan of the cake this time.  Austin loved it though.  He really enjoyed getting messy and eating the icing from the cake.  Nevertheless Brian got some good pictures.  Sydney opened up her presents from Nana, Grandpa, and Great Grandma that night too.  It was a great few days of celebrating her birthday.

We love Labor Day weekend.  Usually Cleveland has its airshow but this year it was cancelled (government funding cuts).  I think Brian was bummed about that since Austin would have liked to go.  Every year on Labor Day weekend we go to the Taste of Hudson.  We get to sample some very good food pretty cheap and the kids can play in the Little Tikes area.  This year it was great because they both played there.  We were there for at least an hour and they loved it!  They also had a duck tape art project that they both did too.  Austin enjoyed cutting the tape with scissors and Sydney liked to color.  It was a lot of fun.  We enjoy doing fun family things like this.

Recently the weather has been very hot, so we went swimming in Kaitlyn's pool.  The kids love to swim and they have a very nice pool.  It makes me want a pool too but we will see.  It is also a lot of work and is dangerous with the kids being so little.  We have not been taking swim classes since this summer was so busy with the swing set.  We will probably start again in the late fall.

Also this weekend we had to make "All about Me" posters for the kid's school project.  Since Brian is so good at taking pictures we had pictures for all the things.  It is a fun project.  We learned that last year at this time we did not know Austin's favorite color.  This year we clearly know that his favorite color is yellow.  It is cute to see how much he has grown too.

On Tuesday after Labor Day, Sydney went to the doctor for her 1 year check up.  Everything looked good although it was difficult to talk with the doctor since Austin was running around and climbing on everything.  Sydney had to get 4 vaccines and Austin got his flu shot too.  There was a lot of crying.  Then they got a sticker and we went home.  The doctor wanted Sydney to have her blood drawn to check her blood count and lead levels.  I knew I could not do that by myself.  So later that week, Brian picked Sydney up early from daycare and he took her.  Sydney did so well getting her blood drawn.  She did not even cry!  The technicians couldn't believe it.  She just looked down at the needle, looked back up, and smiled at them.  The blood tests all came back normal too.

I am only nursing Sydney at bedtime and when she wakes up in the morning.  Sydney is going to bed awake now and I rub her back and lay on her floor until she falls asleep.  At least I am no longer nursing her to sleep.  She has been waking up a lot during the night and I am making her cry it out.  Last night Brian rubbed her back for 30 minutes until she finally fell asleep.  I really want to stop nursing her during the night too.

Brian puts Austin to bed every night.  They brush their teeth.  Austin now uses big kid toothpaste and is able to spit it out.  Then Brian reads to him in his room and Brian lays on his floor until he falls asleep.  It usually takes about 30 minutes.  Brian and I don't get back downstairs until about 9:30  pm.  That leaves very little time to watch any TV.

Sydney is walking all the time now.  She will rarely crawls.  She still is not saying much other then baba, dada, mama, and uh oh.  But she will go get a book or shoes if you ask.  It's clear she understands so much.  She likes to get her shoes and sit on the steps for them to be put on.  She can climb up the step ladder in the kitchen too.  She really likes to be on it.  We have to be careful because they will fight on who gets to stay on the top of it.   The kids are keeping us extremely busy, but we are having fun.

Sydney's First Birthday Party (2.60 years and 1 year)

Sydney's party was on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperature around 80 degrees. The weather was perfect. The party turned out fabulous!

The week before the party we had a lot the things we needed to do.  Brian finished the swingset two weeks ago so that was finally done, but he did need to sand one last time.  We washed down the house.  We also had to pick up the chairs we ordered from Walmart.  We decided it was better to buy tables and chairs instead of renting them so we will have them for future parties.  We also bought a tent that was great!  The tent was high so people did not hit their heads.  I took Friday off so I could really clean the house and start getting everything set up for the party.  With two little kids, it is hard to keep the house clean.

Saturday morning was extremely busy.  There was so much to do.  We went to the store early and got ice, water, and beer.  Then came home and set up the tent.  My parents came over which was nice to have some help.  Our first job was to set up the tent.  It was fairly easy to set up.  We just needed to make sure Austin did not run away with any of the parts.  It was large so we needed everyone to hold things at times too.  It looked really nice once it was up.

Then we set up the tables, chairs, and things inside the house.  I went to pick up the food at Giant Eagle.  I chose to order the food except my mom made macaroni salad and my dad cut up fruit.  We had chicken, macaroni and cheese, and sandwiches.  I thought it was a good and kid friendly menu.  Once I got home, it was time for the party to start.

Everyone had dinner and socialized for a while.  Then it was time for Sydney to have her cake. Brian's cousin Lauren made her cakes.  They were so beautiful! Sydney's cake was strawberry.  She played with it for a while.  Then we had Austin come in and help her.  They were so cute together.  They would feed each other cake.   Austin would then wipe the icing on Brian.  It was so funny.  Austin only did it to Brian.  Brian was covered in pink icing.  I wish I would have taken pictures of him, but it was great.  Then Sydney tipped her cake off her tray.  Sydney had a great time!

After cake, Sydney opened all of her gifts.  She got so much stuff.  She got a lot of clothes which was great because she really needed new clothes.  She also got a few new toys as well.  The toys were great ones.  Austin and Sydney are really enjoying playing with a tea pot, picnic basket, legos and little people castle.

It was a perfect day!  I am so happy that her party turned out so great.  I think everyone had a wonderful time.   I am so grateful that Brian took so many amazing pictures that day too so we will always have the memories.  It is hard to believe that Sydney is already one year old.  Our babies will never turn one again.  That is kind of sad but we are looking forward to the new milestones they will reach.

Sydney is now able to walk a lot.  She actually prefers to walk rather than crawl now.  She is getting so big.  She weighs 20 pounds and is 30 inches long.  She likes to do everything Austin does.  She can even climb up a ladder without any help.  She is so cute!  Austin is teaching her how to do so many things.  Sydney watches him and then tries it out herself.  We have
two daredevils on our hands!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

Baby Camden's Visit (2.55 years and 11.5 months)

It was so nice to have Melissa and Camden in town for an entire week.  We really enjoyed their visit.  Jonathan was able to come up for a weekend too which is nice because usually he doesn't come up.  We just hung out around the house.  It is amazing looking and holding Camden.  How crazy is it that I really don't remember Austin and Sydney ever being that small.  Time goes by so fast!

Camden is a great baby.  He is really spoiling his parents.  He hardly ever cries.  He drinks milk like Austin did though.  He can down 5-6 oz easily just like Austin did.  Sydney doesn't even drink 4 oz at a time and she only gets milk 5 times a day.

Melissa and Jonathan took Camden to see Grandpa Frack on the anniversary of his death.  We went down with them with the kids.  It was so sad.  It was weird too because Brian and I were not prepared with Austin.  Austin understands most things now but this was a little too much to start to explain to him.  Austin did knock on this grave and we told him maybe Grandpa Frack would come out but sadly he did not.  We still wish he was with us.  He would have loved being a grandpa to the kids.

Melissa and Jonathan had a wedding on Sunday so I watched Camden all day.  It was great spending time with him.  It makes me sad to know he will be so big the next time I see him.  Kids grow so fast - it is amazing.  Camden was so good for me.  I even got to carry him around the block in my baby carrier.  I love that carrier but now Sydney is too big for it.  When I took Camden back to his parents I was sad because I wish I could see him more.  Being an aunt is great because I have him for a little while then bring him back to his parents.  I realized while watching him, I don't think we will be having another baby.  Three kids is A LOT of work!

I'm not sure Sydney was a fan of not being the youngest baby in the house as this photo shows!

Brian has almost finished the swing set.  The only think left is building a ladder and putting on the accessories.  I am so happy he is almost done.  There will be enhancements for next year but he will be done for this year.   He spent so much time on building it.  Austin loved to help him but there were many things he could not help with.  Some things he did help with caused Brian more time to do it.  I give Brian a lot of credit for building this for them.  It is really amazing!  I am glad Brian will be able to help more with the kids now that he will not be building a swing set every day!

Sydney is walking more and more.  She takes about 8 steps before she falls down.  She loves just to stand up alone and try and walk.  I am glad she is starting to walk.  As she is getting bigger her and Austin are playing more and more together.  It is great!  Sydney can also say MaMa, Baba, Dada, and Uh-Oh.  She can also sign the word more.  In preparation for her upcoming 1st year birthday, we took Sydney to get her first haircut too!

Austin's favorite thing right now is Play Doh.  He is obsessed with play-doh.  When he wakes up in the moring he usually gets to watch his kindle for 30 minutes.  He use to watch Micky Mouse club or trash trucks but now he will only watch play doh videos (often advertisements).  Once he's done watching videos he wants to go play with play doh and build pretend sandwiches and other things he saw demonstrated in the videos.  He could play with play doh for hours if I would let him.  I got a play doh table online from my mommy website for $5.  It is worth it because now play doh stays downstairs and my living room carpet will not be ruined.  The downstairs carpet may be but we can replace it once the kids get older and no one really sees the downstairs carpet anyways.

Austin can say anything.  His vocabulary is amazing.  It's great that he can talk and tell us what he wants.  But there is never a quiet time at our house anymore.  Someone is always talking.  Since Sydney can't talk she will scream if she wants something.  It's very annoying so hopefully she will grow out of that soon.  Dinner time is especially loud with screaming.  Sometimes the kids will echo one another - Sydney screams so Austin screams the same, then Sydney, then Austin, etc. The two copy each other.

I have been working on Sydney's birthday party.  I can't believe she will be 1 in less than 2 weeks! This past year has went by so fast it is scary.  I am very excited for her party and hope the weather is nice for it!

Summer Fun and trip to Cincinnati (2.5 years and 11 months)

A few weeks ago Nana and Grandpa drove up here for the weekend.  They spent Saturday with us.  Like every weekend this summer, Brian was working on the swing set.  This weekend was building the slide.  It was wonderful that they were here to help us.  It took all 4 of us to put it together.  It was a project.  Austin and Sydney also helped.  It was great to see them.  Austin still talks about everything he did while we were down there.  In particular, he will call something "fast like a golf cart" when he wants to say something is moving fast.  We all had fun.

Austin's best friend Kaitlyn turned two that weekend too.  We went to her party.  Kaitlyn lives a block from us.  We see her and her parents also every night.  They walk around the block and then play outside until we get to their house.  Then Austin and Kaitlyn play outside for 15-20 minutes before we finish our evening walks.  We love our walks.  It is really the only time Brian and I talk.  Austin and Sydney enjoy their stroller ride.  Austin has become very talkative so sometimes Brian and I don't talk as much because he's talking too.  Kaitlyn's party was a lot of fun!  It was really hot but we still had a great time.

This weekend went went down to Cincinnati.  We left Thursday after work around 4 pm and drove down.  It wasn't too bad of a drive.  Austin is a good traveler.  Sydney slept most of the way which worked out perfectly.  We stopped for dinner at A&W root-beer.  Before kids, we use to go there all the time.  It was our favorite summertime restaurant.  Now we don't go at all.  It would be too hard with Sydney in her car seat.  This A&W had an inside though so it worked out.

We arrived at our hotel in downtown around 9 pm.  I was happy to finally get there.  Austin helped us get our things into the hotel.  We looked out our window and there were fireworks.  We had a great view.  It was fun to watch them with the kids.  We got settled in and went to sleep.

Brian had to work all day.  I was hoping to meet my friend down there but she had to work Friday too.  So I decided to take the kids the the children's museum.  The Cincinnati children's museum is very nice.  It is much better than Cleveland's.  We finally got there around 11 am.  First we dropped Brian off at work.  Then went to Walmart to buy Brian a belt since I forgot to pack one.  Austin was not very good in Walmart. I was nervous it was going to be a terrible day.  Then he had a poopy explosion so I cleaned him up and went back to the hotel for some "pink stuff".  Pink stuff is Pinxav which we think is the best diaper cream.  Then I nursed Sydney.  We were finally ready to go to the museum. Being alone with the kids in a strange environment is a little overwhelming at times.

We got there and it was a little bit of a walk from the parking lot.  Obviously I have to carry Sydney.  Austin walked until he got distracted and wanted to stop and look at everything.  I was getting annoyed since Sydney and the diaper bag where getting heavy.  Finally we made it inside.  There was an escalator going down but Austin was scared of it.  So we walked down the stairs and finally I had lost my patience and I carried him the rest of the way.  He was screaming.  I was thinking "Great I am taking the kids to this great museum and he's crying.  Why didn't I stay at the hotel".  But once he got inside, he loved it!  We had a great time.  We were there until 1:30pm. By that time, we were hungry and tired.  I thought about eating lunch there and going back but I did not want to do that alone.  I drove back by the hotel and stopped at the McDonald's drive thru and picked up lunch.  We went back into our hotel and had lunch and took a nap.

After nap we picked up Brian from work.  We came back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.  We were going over to a guy's house that Brian works with.  I was a little nervous about this because our kids are active and don't like to sit still long.  I was worried they would ruin something at their house.  Luckily the gathering was basically outside.  It worked out very well.  We had packed some balls so the kids played with them and everyone had fun.

On Saturday morning we were in the hotel and Sydney decided to take her first steps alone without holding on to anything.  It was so great to see her start walking.  We were all very excited.  She was 11 months when she started walking.  She is trying so hard to do everything Austin does.  And she will be soon!

We were suppose to meet my friend and her family at the zoo but it was raining so we decided to go to the Children's museum again.  Her son was sick and they could not come.  So the 4 of us went and had a great time again.  After the museum, we drove home.  We wanted to get home.  There was still a lot of work that needed to get done on the swing set.  Plus Melissa was coming into town.

The drive wasn't too bad but Sydney slept for most of it.  Austin is a great traveller in the car.  We hope Sydney will get better once her car seat can turn forward facing.

Brian has worked so hard on building this swing set for the kids.  I don't know how many hours he has spent on it but it's a lot.  For some weeks, Brian has been working on it after work in the evening, then he stops and puts Austin to bed, and then he goes back outside and works on it until midnight using spotlights to see.  Brian has basically built this swing set by himself.  My dad has helped on the weekends which was very nice.  And Brian's mom and Mike helped with the yellow slide which was great that weekend.  Jonathan helped for a weekend too when he was in town which worked out nicely for any heavy lifting that was needed. Everyone's help was greatly appreciated but Brian has been working on it everyday, many late nights, and every weekend all summer long!  He is exhausted but he knows it's for the kids so it will be worth it.

Happy 4th of July (2.45 years and 10 months)

This year we decided to take the kids to fireworks for the first time.  I was talking with some girls at work and they take their young kids to fireworks each year.  So we thought we would try it too. On Sunday night we went to Fairlawn for fireworks.  Brian and I use to go to them every year before we had kids.  We know exactly where to park and everything.  That makes it nice.  We arrived around 8:30 pm however fireworks were not until 10 pm.  We walked around the area.  They had a local orchestra playing so we listened to the music.  Austin loved the music.  After every song he would say "one more".  We were surprised at that.  Sydney seemed to enjoy the music too.  Austin also got a light up sword that he played with.  We walked around the park together too.

Finally at 10 pm the fireworks started.  There was a 10 year old girl near us that started to freak out when they went off.  We think that may have scared Austin.  Soon after, he started saying he wanted to go home.  He was not crying, but just kept saying he wanted to go home.  He also kept saying "I can't see the clouds" which we didn't quite understand (maybe he was saying that it was dark out and bedtime).  We started walking towards the car.  Austin kept looking back to see the fireworks.  He was on Daddy's shoulders and actually fell asleep on his shoulders before we got back to the car.  Austin was probably just tired since it was over an hour past his bedtime.  By the time we got home, both kids were out.

On the 4th of July, we took the kids to the parade.  We have always enjoyed the parade and we thought why not start a tradition of taking the kids to it.  We sat by the start of the parade so we were not waiting too long.  The kids don't have long attention spans.  We played with a ball until the parade started.  We knew there were a lot of sirens so we brought ear protection.  Austin likes wearing his but Sydney would not leave them on.  I covered her ears and she was fine.

We stayed for about an hour and half watching the parade.  The kids really liked it.  They handed out a lot of candy and Austin loved that.  He kept putting it in the bag and saying he was going to eat it on the car ride home.  He did not realize how much candy he got.  We all had a great time as a family.  It is a fun tradition we started and look forward to it again next year.  

Brian has been working really hard the building the swing set.  Thanks to my dad they were able to get all the walls up.  Austin enjoyed helping mix the concrete for the walls.  Austin has really enjoyed helping his daddy build the swing set.  Brian has been working all day on Saturdays and most evenings trying to get it done.  It is quite the playground.  The kids are going to LOVE it.  I am so excited for them.

Sydney is standing more and more.  She will stand more frequently and for longer periods of time.  She has not walked alone yet but she is getting close.  Sydney likes crawling around but you can tell she would like to be walking.  Sydney is able to clap her hands.  She has also learned how to crawl down the stairs however we still have to turn her around at the top of the steps.  She still prefers to go head first down stairs.

Sydney loves to eat.  She will eat almost anything.  Most nights at dinner we cannot cut up her food fast enough for her.    Sydney also likes to eat dirt and chalk.  It is really annoying.  We can't turn our back for a second or she will have dirt or chalk in her mouth.  I am so happy she eats but I wish it was only food.

Austin is a little more picky.  He likes macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries, yogurt, and chicken.  Austin is not a big fan of vegetables except corn (which he does love).  He also does not like pizza or hamburgers.  Many times he will say he does not like it without even trying it (technically he says "I can't like it").  I hope he will out grow that soon.

We have been busy with the swing set and planning Sydney's party.  This is going to be a very fun and busy summer.