It's been a while...

Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated so here's a quick summary... Our family has been hit with illness after illness after illness. The kiddos were basically sick from mid-December to mid-February. So we haven't been doing a whole lot. Here's a few things we've done that I have pictures to go with.

Kayda and Dillon love to ride their trikes, this is their newest invention. Dillon figured out how to pedal and then stopped all together, maybe this is why.

Kayda and Dillon love to color. Kayda has discovered that she LOVES glitter, I haven't been brave enough to try that one with Dillon yet. Here are some examples of her masterpieces. I drew out the shapes and then she did most of the cutting, I helped hold the paper while she did it though.

While our little family has been sick we've spent a lot more time than we like indoors. Well a couple of weekends ago it was gorgeous outside and Daddy decided that we should go for a walk. A walk turned into a trip to Lake Meridian with our little family, Hank, Grandma H. and their new dog Jake. Gotta love how nice the weather has been. It definitely doesn't feel like March, and it didn't feel like February and it didn't feel like January. Not so sure we had much of a winter... maybe 2 or 3 weeks worth.

For Christmas Kayda got moon sand and I was finally brave enough to take it out again. Kayda had a blast, Dillon liked to smooth everything I made for him but got bored quickly.

Another big step this month was a trip to the movies...again. We took the kids to see "Planet 51" at the $3 theater. They BOTH did great this time. They sat and watched the whole movie and had a great time of it. Kayda recently went with Grandma and Grandpa G to see "The lightening theif" and did very well.  She didn't get scared at all and wanted to go see it again!

As I've said before Kayda can officially write her name, but now it's without help! Way to go! She even wrote out every letter of the alphabet with me a couple of days ago and the important part...most of them looked the way they are supposed to! She wasn't learning her letters very well because she would get bored so I finally bought the letter factory and it has made a huge difference! She knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She's so excited to know them that she'll read off the letters on posters and such. It's helped some with her speech but we'll still be happy to get her into speech therapy; we're still waiting for the official results of the evaluation. Kayda loves the book "Snug House Bug House" and enjoys reading it to us (she has it memorized). Last but not least, Kayda is officially signed up for little chargers starting next fall. Now we just need to get her to potty train. I wish she was interested. Hopefully the no potty, no school rule will help.

Now for little Dillon. We have discovered that Dillon does not like it when Kayda isn't home. She has started staying the night at Grandma G's a lot and he is miserable without her. He adores his sister and is more than a little lost without her nearby. One good thing about it is that he gets to ride in the Jeep which he adores! He is starting to talk like crazy and many of the words are recognizable. He is the most charismatic little boy I know. When we go anywhere he's waving at everyone, talking to them, saying bye to them and giving them his sweet smiles. He's a charmer, watch out girls here he comes!

Man they grow up fast...

Well several major things have happened recently. Kayda has learned how to write her name! You still have to prompt her on which letter to write and sometimes how to do it but she is doing great considering she's not even 3 and a half! (I'll get pics up as soon as I get some). That's one of the big things going on for her. Those of you who see Kayda know that she has some problems with her consonants. She can say them individually but she tends to just leave them out when she's talking, this obviously makes it pretty difficult to understand her. She is starting to get very frustrated, she'll tell us big long stories and we can't understand her. We've decided to take her to speech therapy with the school district. They did some testing last Monday and will complete that testing this coming Monday. Once the testing is complete she will be seeing a speech pathologist to help her sort out her words a little better. I figure this gives us some time to get her speech better in time for preschool next September.

Dillon has now officially figured out how to pedal his tricycle! He's been thinking about it since Christmas but preferred to simply sit on it and push around. The last week he has been putting his feet on the pedals more and more. Well today was a beautiful day so we went out and got our front yard up to snuff and then the kids were riding their bikes. I hooked a belt to the front of his trike and would just pull when he got stuck (when you have to switch the foot you're pushing with). Soon thereafter he was pedalling just fine on his own. Every once in a while I have to give him a little push to get him started but he was pedalling for quite a distance, he was pedalling himself from the cul-de-sac all the way back to our driveway (about 40 yards or so). Barely over two and riding his trike!

Now for Grandma and Grandpa H. Normally I don't write much about what's going on with other people's lives but they just got a new dog. He's a ~6 year old beagle that was at the pound. The kids HAD to go see him yesterday and he's a sweet heart. They love him to death, hopefully he'll fit in as nicely as Sandy did before and he and Hank can be pals.

Nice and Tidy

Kayda has always been our little cleaner. Ever since she was little she would take a wipe and start wiping everything off. If her clothes get dirty she wants to change, if she spills something she gets upset. She decided to add to her normal "cleaning" behaviors yesterday when we were at Grandma and Grandpa G's house having dinner. Grandma was loading the dishes and left for a minute to deal with something else. When Grandma came back suddenly the dishwasher was fuller than she remembered it being. Kayda had loaded her play dishes into the dishwasher. Here she is unloading them!

More important info! Kayda can officially count to FIVE!!! After five she'll throw around eight and nine. Pretty impressive. She is trying to say more words everyday. Yesterday she and I were reading "Go Dog Go."  We went through it once together then she started telling me the story. She would go through and tell me what color the dogs were, if they were big or small, what they were doing (up/down, in/out, driving cars) without ANY prompting from me. In case you haven't read it recently there are four parts in the book where a dog asks another dog if he likes her hat. Each time they say hello and goodbye. Kayda knew these pages and would say "hello, hat, bye".

Dillon is trying to talk as well, he has sounds that are almost words for: fish, dog, dad, mama, drink, that. He also makes some sound effects. He is trying to jump now, it's really just one foot that "jumps" but he tries.

Daddy and I joined a gym and have been bringing the kids in to the play area. Kayda has a hard time warming up to it at first but once she gets going she's fine. On the otherhand Dillon runs to the door, opens it himself and takes off chasing the other kids. It's funny to see the difference in their personalities.

Hurray for Good Weather!!!

When we were in Palm Springs we bought some flash cards with the alphabet and numbers on them. Kayda LOVES them! I was surprised by how many of the letters she knows! Speaking of knowing letters, she is starting to talk like crazy. It seems like she's trying several NEW words a day! She started talking a lot while we were in Palm Springs and now she is just going nuts! She is saying: green, pink, purple, yellow, red, brown, black, blue (she can recognize all these too), train, plane, bunny, deer, truck, one, two, tree, bird, duck, cat, dog, potty, hot, hat, hold, help, apple, room, bubble, bath, pool, swim, walk, up, please, more, tv, ball, sit, come, drink, water, cup, pop, ant, bug, open, bee, home, house, eat, food, no, yes, fish, chip, cracker, snack, go, stop, down, done, in, inside, outside... wow there are so many I really can't think them up all at once! I need to start a list and add to it every time she talks. She is stringing up to five words together. My favorite was when we came home from Palm Springs. Grandpa G picked us up at the airport and the whole way home she said "no home go pa house".
Speaking of accomplishments Dillon is starting to talk/make sound effects some now too! He says: bye, dada, ball, fish and he has a whole bunch of sounds that he makes that mean something but don't sound like the word just yet. He makes the sounds: vroom, woof, moo, baa, and grrr. He is trying to hop like big sister and is getting better and better at climbing up on things like the couch. It's hilarious when he wants out of the bath tub. Kayda can climb out so he tries. He basically gets one leg laying up on the edge of the tub and leans forward.  He DESPERATELY wants to do things on his own!

We borrowed a doggy door that fits into the sliding glass door and when Daddy was mowing the yard last week Dillon sat there with his head hanging out it to watch. He is FASCINATED by anything that makes noise, vaccuum, mower, weed whacker...anything loud.

It is so much fun watching them learn to do more things and seeing how excited they get when they realize they can do something new. It's kind of bittersweet though. They grow up WAY too fast!








A couple of weekends ago we went to the park with Grandpa G. The kids LOVED it. Kayda took off running as soon as I let her. She went straight to one of the climbing spots that she was too little for not so long ago. She did really well, Grandpa G helped her with it but she's so good at it now you don't even have to hold her anymore, you just stay close by. Of course whatever Kayda does Dillon wants to do too. He walked over to it but he's still little enough that his "climbing" is really Daddy moving him from bar to bar!






















































Both of the babies enjoyed the slides. Dillon went down with Daddy the first few times and then he started going down on his own. One of the things I like about this park is that there is the big play toy and then there is also a toddler sized one so he could climb around a little easier. Not that he stayed there, Kayda and Dillon both used ALL the toys pretty thoroughly!





























One of the things Dillon kept going back to were the rocking toys. There is a duck, a frog and a car. He enjoyed all three, he could even rock himself (only a tiny bit). Kayda figured out how to get on and off by herself fairly quickly and then went off to explore everything else.

She still likes the rock wall. She climbed up that with Grandpa G's help. She's starting to figure it out well enough that we just need to be there to catch her...just in case. She's getting so independent. Dillon wants to be independent but just isn't physically big enough just yet!

Grandma G went with us to the park another day, it was just the two of us and the kids so unfortunately we were both too busy to take pictures but once again the kids had a great time! Grandma got a small break from the constant trailing after one or the other of the kids when Dillon decided that he just wanted to sit and watch the big tractor drive around on the ball fields. I think we may be dragging Grandma G out a little more frequently since the weather is getting nicer, they're both too busy to take to the park alone. Then when summer comes we can alternate between both Grandmas. It's a wonderful thing having so much family close by!





Last weekend we finally decided to take on the project that is our front yard. We added several garden beds (I'll put pictures on once we have plants) so it actually looks like we care about our yard now. Not that Daddy didn't keep it maintained it was just BORING. So we were outside ALL day Saturday and Sunday. The kids thought it was just great. Kayda knows very well that she has to stay with us and Dillon is picking up on the whole "stay out of the street" and "stay where we can see you" ideas very quickly. We had 10 YARDS of dirt delivered on Sunday and spent the day filling our garden beds. Our little ones didn't go anywhere near the dirt pile... until two of our neighbor girls came over to play with them. The four kiddos played inside for a while but soon enough Kayda wanted to come back out which meant ALL of them came back outside. In no time at all the older neighbor girls had them all climbing on the dirt pile. They were very good with Dillon, holding his hand and helping him work his way up. Next thing we know they have created a "dirt slide". All of them, with the exception of Dillon, were sliding down the side of the pile. By the time Tazz and Kylie had to go home all of them had black bottoms, black feet and little bits of dirt just about EVERYWHERE. I felt like I needed to send a note home with the girls "You knew there was a pile of dirt in our driveway". I don't remember ever having a dirt slide but I certainly remember climbing the HUGE piles of bark my parents had delivered from time to time. It was one of our favorite play things, until we had to help move it. I'm glad that my kids have someone (our neighbor girls) to show them the fun, incredibly messy things they can do.

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!

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!!!

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!

Yay Dillon! Yay Kayda!

Sorry no pictures this time but there's some exciting news!

Dillon FINALLY decided to roll over, ON PURPOSE! He did it this evening. He was playing on the floor and after pushing himself around in a circle he decided he wanted to look around and slowly but surely pushed himself right over (tummy to back). It's so exciting! I've been waiting at LEAST a month for him to decide to do it on purpose! He's done it a few times on accident but I consider this his official "first" since he meant to do it. Of course after we (Daddy and I) got so excited about it he didn't have the opportunity again, Kayda kept deciding she would help him so that he'd get cheers again. Every time he started pushing himself up and twisting a little she'd run over and try to push his side to help him flip over. Cute that she wanted to help but frustrating when we wanted him to keep doing it on his own.

Sweet little Kayda... She is slowly but surely deciding that she is interested in talking. She is starting to work at saying the words now. Granted she tends to get as far as the first, maybe second syllable. She's saying "mama" very well (she used to go mamamamamamama etc) and she is saying "baby" again. She started saying it just after Dillon was born and then stopped a couple months later. She has a LOT of things she has sounds for that kind of resemble the actual word but she is actually trying now!

She has been cracking me up in the morning. She has several things that she does with Dillon. She whispers "hi", pats his back, tries to help him roll over, tries to hold him, grabs his hands and dances with him, and the newest addition... she tries to tickle him. She does "crab hands" on his belly and says "ahhhhh". She's imitating the way we tickle him of course but that doesn't mean it's any less adorable.