Babies' First Fort!

Kayda now has a special play place, which she kindly allows Dillon to sit in with her on occasion. She discovered the space behind our couch! She liked to go back there so I moved things a little so she can walk back there on her own, added some blankets, pillows and a little bin of books and she sat back there for about 45 minutes today looking at books. Dillon sat back there with her for a little while, also attempting to look at books, he can't really turn the pages yet but he likes to try!

More Random Things!

Kayda wearing Daddy's socks and Mommy's flip-flops.

Dillon watching a movie and playing with his piggy.

Kayda discovered an old stuffed animal of mine at Grandma G's today. We brought it home and she decided it was made for her to lay on! Good thing it's not a real dog, most of them won't take too kindly to that. With the exception of a select few.

Crawling!

Dillon is trying desperately to crawl! Last Saturday he did it for the first time, managing to move forward about 6 inches. Then today he decided to do a repeat performance! He managed to make it about a foot, maybe more. Of course when I saw him and ran to get the video camera he decided he would much rather be in mommy's arms so he started crying and wouldn't stop. Yesterday he also stood, perfectly balanced for about 5 seconds without holding on to anything or anyone! The little guy is on the move. I'm excited but it's kind of weird having my little baby boy becoming so active when he's always been such a mellow little snuggler. Fortunately he isn't abandoning his snuggling ways and his favorite place is still in someone's arms.

Meanwhile little miss Kayda is adding to the animal noises that she knows and refers to the animals based on the noises they make. The other day she selected her pajamas that have dogs on them by saying "woof woof". I would ask her, "what's on your 'jamas" and she would say "woof woof" again. She says "mum" now instead of "mama" which I had a hard time with at first and today she actually talked to her daddy on the phone as opposed to sitting there and listening to him talk. She has also added "ice", "bubble" and "apple" to her vocabulary. She's getting interested. I want her to talk but at the same time I want her to slow down. Talking just seems like she's getting so big and I'm trying to adjust to that phase!

Making up for lost time

Dillon has decided to make up for his months of just sitting. On Wednesday I believe it was Brian saw him pull himself to standing with the couch. He did again today at Aunt Anna's. He is also starting to make his way little teeny tiny bits forward on his hands and knees now. It's exciting.

Kayda is being VERY affectionate of Dillon and tries to hug him and kiss him and help him walk. She is actually very good at being a stable person for Dillon to hold on to when he's standing up.

They're so sweet!

Kiss it all better...

When Kayda gets hurt Brian and I act like the typical parents. We snatch her up, snuggle her in and smother her with kisses until she feels better. Well, apparently Kayda has picked up on it and enjoys it. She pinched her finger and it hurt just enough for her to whimper a little, not enough for me to come running for our ouchie routine. When I didn't come running she walked over to me, still whimpering and stuck her finger to my lips so that I would kiss it. Once I'd given it a few kisses she stopped whimpering and went right back to playing. I guess mom's really do have the power to kiss it all better! Needless to say I was very pleased with myself that she wanted me to do that for her. At least she knows we love her! Hopefully Dillon will learn this too, it's one of those things that just makes you feel all warm and gooshy inside!

A Long Long Time Ago... in June

Way back in June Grandma G decided to have some pictures taken of her three grandbabies (which is now up to four). We just got the pictures and I thought I would share some of my absolute favorites. You can tell how much fun it was to try to get the pictures. We had Dillon who was tired the first half, took a nap and had great fun the second half. Kayda who apparently was hungry which you can tell by the fruit snacks in the later photos and Mason who would much rather be running around the yard. Needless to say it was an adventure but there were still some very cute ones and some that just scream "cousins" with the three of them poking at each other or ignoring each other, or fighting over the sunflowers... I found them to be incredibly entertaining!

Rockin' and Talkin'

Finally caught some good videos. Dillon was trying to get the dominoes and Kayda was doing really good until she got distracted because Daddy came home and I didn't have my next question ready for her in time. They're still adorable though!!!

Cruising!!!

Dillon managed to walk a few feet along the couch to get to me yesterday! He did it a few times. Of course I didn't actually see him doing it because he wouldn't move until I looked away but we're excited!!!

To the Park!

After work today I decided that I was motivated... Since it is a BEAUTIFUL day today we went to the park! There's a new park over by horizon elementary that we went to. It's great! It has EVERYTHING, a merry-go-round, big kids toys, rock walls, little kid toys, swings, the little rocking horses etc. Kayda thought it was WONDERFUL and I think Dillon enjoyed it too.

As always we HAD to go on the swings. It's Kayda's favorite toy. Dillon cracked me up, he looks all cool and suave leaning back on his arms like that while he swung. Kayda had fun but fortunately there were enough interesting things around that she didn't want to be pushed on the swings the whole time. She LOVED it when I did underdoggies. She just laughed and laughed. Unfortunately I couldn't get the camera ready fast enough after I did it to catch her smiles.

They had a car on a spring that kids can sit and rock in. Kayda climbed into it and immediately wanted Dillon in there too so I set him in there. (Yes, I'm holding him there so he won't fall and smack his head on the bar). I thought this picture was funny because Kayda looks like a serious driver while Dillon is the laid back passenger. Her hair was doing some pretty fun things too because of the wind.
Kayda decided that she really likes the merry-go-round. She absolutely refused to sit down. Which was kind of good actually considering it was pretty warm.  She spun around a few times and then decided she wanted us up there too, so we were all three spinning for a while.  She kept telling me "more"!  So we just kept spinning.
Kayda had fun climbing through the tunnels and Dillon just kind of sat around and looked at things. I put him down close to things I thought he'd want to explore but all he wanted to do was watch either Kayda or I. It was a really fun adventure. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be because we were the only people there so Kayda could kind of explore on her own as long as I was pretty close by. We stayed for about an hour and then on the way home they crashed. Maybe I'll do this more often!!!

I HAD to post a picture of Dillon on his hands and knees. He's starting to try to move now, he'll kind of throw an arm and a leg forward but his arm won't be ready for the extra weight so it'll collapse. He's going to be crawling soon. 
And last but certainly not least, being the water family we are I had to put this one of them in the bathtub! They're too cute sometimes... alright so I lied. They're too cute ALL the time!

They're growing up so fast...

Dillon has decided to make up for the fact that he didn't roll over for over 7 months. Since figuring out how to roll back to tummy he now...

1. Rolls around ANY time you set him down or spins himself around on his tummy.

2. Gets on his hands and knees and rocks (he managed to move forward a little bit yesterday)

3. Wants to stand up whenever possible (he holds onto things and plays, if he's holding onto your hands he'll let go with one hand now)

4. He's figured out the motion of walking and if you hold his hands to support him he'll start trying to walk where he wants to go.

5. Has started thinking about cruising around furniture (he made it several inches moving his hands and his feet around a footstool yesterday)

We're so excited for the phase he's starting into. I love the crawling/walking phase! He's starting to lose a little baby fat since he moves so much now! He's still a cute little chub but he's definitely trimming up.

Kayda is still trying to figure out talking. She's added the word "go" (she loves to race) and has learned some animal sounds. Cow (she's known for a while), dog, chicken, sheep and monkey. She is starting to want to help me make Dillon's bottles. Sometimes she helps me scoop in the formula.

Last Friday, Monday and Today they stayed over at Aunt Anna's with her, Peyton and Mikey while I was working. (Grandma G is in Pullman) Kayda has been having a blast! Apparently on the first day there Aunt Anna discovered that Mikey had a poopy diaper and Kayda went and got her the diapers and the wipes. Kayda loves playing with them and apparently Peyton has been enjoying it becasue today he said" Kayda's leaving?" Aunt Anna told him yes and Peyton's response was "I will miss her." I'm glad that he enjoys her company so much. Dillon is having a great time with Aunt Anna too, she was playing "boo" with him yesterday so when I got there she showed me. Everytime she said "boo" Dillon just cracked up laughing. Thank you SO much Aunt Anna. It's wonderful to know that they're with someone that they know and are comfortable with while Grandma G is off in Pullman.

We have TWO new nephews!!!

Owen 9-5-2008, 8 lbs 4 oz, 20.5 inches

Chase 9-9-2008, 7 lbs. 5 oz, 20.5 inches

We're VERY excited to meet them both!

So many cute random things!

August 16th, yes I know I've updated since then but I found some pictures! It was one of those wonderfully nice Saturdays and both kids were out on the swings and loving it. It's days like these that I'm glad I ended up with two baby swings instead of just one.

We had fun swinging for a while and then I let them both stop for a few minutes thinking "they'll want to get out" but no. Dillon immediately started examining the ropes and Kayda rebuckled her harness everytime I undid it to get her out. So much for that idea.

When I finally did get them out Kayda went inside and laid out Dillon's yellow blanket and her blanket. She pointed to the yellow one for me to put him down so I did. Once I'd done that she went and gathered all of these toys for him then sat on her own blanket and started playing. It was so sweet!

Fast forward to August 24th, Grandma and Grandpa G were kind enough to take us to the zoo again. We went first thing in the morning so that when it started raining we could just leave. It's wonderful that they got the membership and are willing to take us. We can go for just a couple of hours and not feel like we wasted any money. I decided that Dillon was old enough that he'd probably like to look at stuff too so we stuck him in the snuggly which he ended up thoroughly enjoying! Unfortunately he's a heavy little guy so we had to trade. He didn't mind though. He loves his daddy. 

Despite the fact that we've been there before we were able to do completely new things. We went to the kid zone. Kayda had a blast going down the slide, and looking at everything. They even have a few goats you can pet there, you can go in one of the pens and brush them too. Kayda was a little nervous but Grandpa G was able to get her to brush the goats all of TWO times before she was done. We saw one of their little shows that they put on, it was incredibly cheesy but Kayda got a kick out of it. There was even a little "touch and feel" fake aquarium for kids to play with. Amazingly Kayda didn't really want to play with that water much. After that we went to see the elephants but it started raining so we left.












That brings us to TODAY, September 1st!!! Dillon is now holding on to things and standing up. He likes to stand with anything he can. In the bath he's trying to grab onto the sides, of course I'm not sure if he's trying to stand up with it or chew on it. But the most exciting news is that Dillon ROLLED OVER the OTHER way (back to front) today several times. He's decided he likes to move and now he's going all out. When we were reading our bedtime story he was making it difficult. Daddy was making his bottle so it was just Kayda, Dillon and I. We were all laying side by side with Kayda in the middle. Part way through the book he rolled right up to Kayda's side and started playing with her face which distracted her from the book and made her laugh. Since he obviously wanted to move around so much I moved him down by our feet so he had space. He rolled right onto his tummy and squirmed his way up to Kayda's feet which again made her crack up. He kept wiggling his way up until he was up in between us. I'm so EXCITED I love this stage!!!



Now, true to form I'll spend some time talking about Kayda! We made cookies the other day, she LOVED pouring in the ingredients for me. When the cookie dough was done I went to grab the cookie sheets and this is what Daddy caught her doing. She decided that she really liked it and kept going back for more. Can't say I blame her. I've always preferred my cookies prebaked.

Today she discovered a bag full of some old stamps I have. Some of them go on the roller and some are used the normal way. She sorted them and kept putting them in and out of the bag. We ended up buying a stamp pad while we were out shopping and Kayda and I had a great time playing with the stamps. She especially liked the roller, the train seemed to be her favorite. After I was done having ink rubbed everywhere I pulled out some crayons for her. She colored for a while (she's figured out how to make big circles) then decided that she wanted mommy to color the things she pointed at. So I ended up being her little coloring servant. Not that I mind, I'll do just about anything that my babies want!