A little craziness

There has been a lot going on since Christmas.  We've decided that we're going to rent our house and go live at Grandma and Papa G's so we can a) build up a down payment, b) get a rental history.  All in the quest to get into our "20+" year home.  This house was supposed to be our starter home, we bought a fixer upper, have spent the last 6 years fixing it up and now the economy has crashed.  On the plus side the houses we want to end up in are actually within our grasp, the down side is that our house no longer has any equity, not even sweat equity.  We figure this is the fastest way to get into a new home.  So the kids and I have been spending a lot of time over at Grandma and Papa's house helping them sort through the stuff they've collected over the last 20+ years.  We've also been trying to go through our things.  We're making pretty good progress actually.  Now we just need to get somebody in our house! 

New year's eve this year we decided to let the kids stay up to watch the fireworks on TV.  We had "giant sandwiches" (Kayda's favorite thing) and played until midnight.  Carson even decided to stay awake (despite my efforts to get him to sleep).  The kids had a great time and actually went to bed pretty well when it was time. 

Carson is loving "solid" food.  We've done rice and we just started with oatmeal, he doesn't seem to like it as much but he eats it anyway!  We're trying to figure out how to get him on the bottle, I'm ready to be done nursing.  I think it's going to come down to not nursing him at all during the day and just forcing him to take the bottle, only problem with that is that he will be a really crabby baby.  Not sure that I want to try that by myself.  He seems to be growing so fast!  He's got two teeth already and the top ones are getting close too.  Forget crawling, this kid isn't going to need to, he can roll himself all around the floor and he's FAST.  He's got great control of his hands, LOVES people and babbles up a storm.  He has even figured out how to play peek-a-boo!  I've played it with him a few times but now he has decided HE wants to do it.  He'll cuddle down into me, I'll say "Where's Carson?" and he'll pop himself up and grin at me when I say "peek-a-boo" or "there he is!" and then he'll repeat it, again, and again, and again.  He just keeps going!  He is getting pretty good at sitting on his own!  I wouldn't be surprised if he can sit unaided in the next week or so.  He ADORES his big brother and sister.  He just smiles and smiles at them.  He loves it when they get down on the floor and play with him, he even likes to just sit there and watch them play. 

Kayda and Dillon started preschool again on Wednesday.  They're having a hard time switching back to "early" mornings.  They tend to wake up at around 9:30 on their own, for preschool we have to switch to 8:15 wake-ups.  It doesn't help that we're trying to get away from the bed time pull ups.  We're following the doctor's orders: no drinks 2 hours before bed, wake them up about 2 hours after they go to bed and make them go sit on the toilet, and the worst part.... NO more pull ups.  Which means we're changing sheets in the middle of the night.  It's working great for Dillon, he woke himself up in the middle of the night and went potty last night!!!  (For the first time) AND he woke up dry.  Kayda is a little less willing and boy does she get MAD when you wake her up to go to the bathroom.  She spends most of the time screaming at us!  It sucks for her, and I feel guilty but I find it quite funny. 

We're gearing up for Dillon's birthday on Sunday, his birthday party is Saturday.  As always it's a very busy holiday season for us and it looks like we're going to be busy for at least another month trying to deal with the housing situation. 

 Dillon was "teaching" Carson to play with his new toy.

 I set Carson on the floor in his room while I ran to grab something, when I came back I found Kayda and Dillon squished into the rocking chair, they were counting off when to rock!

 ...and Carson was perfectly happy on the floor, as long as there's someone close by to keep him company.

Apparently when Daddy was little he would sit in this "pocket"  and watch tv with his Dad, so he is always trying to get Kayda or Dillon to sit there which they usually won't because they want to be in your arms.  Much to Daddy's delight we have discovered that Carson LOVES to sit there and play with his toys.  He sat there for a good half hour one day, perfectly content!  Notice his SOAKED onesie?  He is quite the drooler, I try to keep a bib on him but he'll even soak through those!  That and sometimes he gets frustrated because he catches the bib on top of the toys he's trying to get to his mouth or he'll flip the bib up in front of his face.

I can't help but to compare what Carson does to what Kayda and Dillon did as babies.  Kayda was already rolling over and wanted to be in the middle of everything.  Dillon was about as laid back as you could get, he was perfectly content to just lay down and look around.  Carson is quick to smile and always wants to be holding something.  He's constantly after a blanket, a shirt, a toy or..... his FEET!  Kayda and Dillon could've cared less about their feet but Carson finds them fascinating!!!

Look at how flexible he is!  Yes I understand he looks a little scared in this picture but you've gotta see those legs!

 Now he's having fun!

He doesn't like it unless he can get to his bare feet so I have to unbutton his sleepers and pull his legs out for him!  He was perfectly happy on the floor, with his feet in his hands, watching Kayda and Dillon play.

On another note, I found more of Kayda and Dillon's preschool art and I needed to get it out of the way for Thanksgiving and Kayda's coming birthday festivities.  So here's Kayda's:

 and here's Dillon's:

Every center day there are three spots for parent's to sign up. The day before there was still a spot open so I called Aunt Sarah and she took Carson so I could go down and help.  Another parent (Kayda's "best friend's" mom had the same idea so we had an extra parent).  It turned out good because the station I was at ended up being so hard for the kids to get done in their eight minutes.   I got to work with Dillon more because there were only four kids in his group and we had three adults working that station. It was a turkey on one side and and Indian on the other. (It's on the right in Dillon's picture).  Natalie (the other mom, Kenzie's mom) and I were talking about how we were NOT going to wait to sign up for the December center day because we wanted to do the Christmas one only to find out they aren't having one!  I'm kind of disappointed about that.  At least I have the Christmas program to look forward to.

First official day without work!!!

Yesterday was the first day without having students but I went in to work and did some curriculum development in the hopes that it will make next school year even easier. The kiddos stayed with Grandma Peggy while I did that. Since I worked yesterday the first day home!!! We're having a great time, of course the day isn't over yet but we're pretty close to when Daddy will get home and that part is pretty routine.

It is absolutely beautiful outside today so we took advantage of it. The three of us were outside for as long as I dared having two little ones. Meaning we were out there a total of about 3, maybe 3.5 hours all day. Kayda spent it running around between the slide, the sandbox, the pool and (this one surprised me) the trike! She hasn't figured out how to ride the trike yet but she sure wants to. She tried so many times to get on there and pedal, she's not quite tall enough to get a good push on the pedals so I ended up pushing her around on it. She thought it was great. She did manage to move about 6 inches on her own while I was feeding Dillon. Unfortunately, that moved her right onto the grass so she couldn't move any further. Dillon played in the exersaucer when I was playing with Kayda and when I could be close by he was sitting on a sheet and playing with some toys. He is getting really good with his hands now. He can grab pretty much anything that he wants and get it up to his mouth. He was wearing his little hat to protect his scalp... He doesn't quite have enough hair to keep it from getting burned but it's too much for me to get the sunscreen down to it.




We went inside every time it was getting close to Dillon's nap time. This is the most recent time. We came inside and I got Kayda dressed. She was mad when she realized we weren't going back out right away. She overcame her anger by sitting down with the tv remote and she turned it on. (I think we watch too much TV) I asked her if she wanted some food and she shrugged her shoulders at me (if you look closely you can see it in the picture).

The kids were WONDERFUL for me today. Kayda and Dillon went down for 2 hours of overlapping time! I'm so excited for the rest of the summer!

Catching up

Been a while since I've put up more pictures. But don't worry they're still beautiful and sweet. Kayda still adores her little brother. The other day she sat in his car seat and then motioned for me to put him in her lap so I did. I picked him back up again after a few seconds and then she wanted me to do it again. Brian and I got a kick out of it and Dillon enjoyed it.

She also decided to help me with Dillon. I put him in the swing and she turned it on for me. Then she proceeded to turn on the music and change the speed several times but Dillon enjoyed watching her so it was fine.

Her fine motor skills amaze me. She pushes buttons, does puzzles and even plugs in Daddy's headphones for him. She is such a great little helper.

While she continues to surprise us little Dillon is starting to get people's attention. He's quite the smiler and talker. He'll grin at you and talk to you for as long as you'll pay attention. He LOVES to chew on his little hands. He gets pretty mad when he wants them and wiggles too much to keep them in his mouth. He's also figuring out how to hold onto things; his favorite things are towels or bibs. He really likes to swing the fabric around.

Today was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. It was a little on the hot side but we enjoyed it none the less. We spent half of the day outside in the sunshine. Dillon in his diaper, trying to keep him covered in sunscreen and in the shade as much as possible. Here he is sleeping on the couch his little rolls are my favorite!


Kayda spent the day in her swim suit running between the pool, the sandbox, the swing set and the ladder Daddy was trying to use to do yard work. She wore herself out enough that the couple of pictures I managed to take while Dillon was sleeping were all either of her yawning or rubbing her eyes.

They're SO much fun!

Well, today is a first I am putting a picture of one of the parents on here. I absolutely love this picture.  Dillon adores his daddy! I know the picture will show up kind of small but Dillon has the biggest grin on his face. He was having so much fun talking to his daddy.

There has been all kinds of things going on the last couple of days. One BIG thing is that Dillon is starting to hold on to toys. He's not entirely sure what he's doing yet but he was having a good time with the pooh bear rattle. He was trying to eat it for a while. It's amazing to me how quickly they can figure stuff out.

While he was on the floor playing with me and his toys Kayda decided to join him. She laid down next to him and for a while kept giving him kisses. She finally decided to give him a break and watch tv, this is just after she stopped paying attention to him it's almost like he's saying "hey sis come back, I'm over here!".

I am enjoying having them so close, I never would have planned it this way but it has been a ton of fun and they are so sweet. Dillon doesn't just watch her every move anymore, now whenever Kayda is around he smiles and smiles. She is trying to teach him things too. I've been spinning his arms (like in pat-a-cake when you roll it) and saying "chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo train" and she has decided she wants to do that for him so she'll come over and grab his hands and try to spin them the way I do. Of course she's not just fun to watch with him. She went to a birthday party last saturday and got a balloon. On Sunday most of the hellium was gone but there was just enough to make the balloon float down VERY slowly. She was tossing it above her head and she would just wait for it to come all the way down. She just laughed and laughed and then she would do it again. Kids are just fascinating. I could watch mine forever, course I'd probably get bored watching any one else's but that's the beauty of being a parent, you just can't get enough of your own babies! Fortunately that's also the way grandparents feel about their grandbabies so we always have other people to talk to about them.