Little things

Yesterday we got a new niece!!! Lucy Fox Kramer made the 5th girl on my side of the family. Watch out world!!!
Kaitlyn's speech cracks me up. Here are some funny things that she says...
Tutu-bow: Tinkerbell
Mose: nose
Nok: Milk (<---I don't understand how she confuses it either but I LOVE IT)
Nonster: Monster
She told me today, "I need one big poot and then I can go peepee." Then she did. Both!
I am half way trying to potty train. She is not a willing participant and I'm not a willing teacher. We are really having a battle of the wills right now... We'll see who wins. I want to quit. She can wear pullups to kindergarden.

Nothing New

As you may know I lost my camera a couple weeks ago so sorry for no new pictures. Poor Kylie is really getting the second child treatment now. She is crawling everywhere. She is eating her baby food fruits but not veggies. This week she decided to try sitting up and looks like an expert. I love how good baby's posture is. I wish I still had it! Even Kaitlyn doesn't sit up very straight. I'm praying for this silly rash to go away. She has been to the doctor and they don't seem to know what it is. Some days is worse than others. It could be worse but I like it when I don't have anything to worry about.
Kylie loves her momma. I swear she can sniff me out. No matter how quiet I am she crawls to me and climbs my leg! It's sweet and I know that soon enough she won't want any part of me!
We are getting ready for Disney. Kaitlyn is so excited to see Tinkerbell. I wonder what Kylie will like. I hope she is well behaved. I'm going to stock up on the saltines! I hope we have a camera by next week!

Potty Training update

The good news is Kaitlyn went and pooped on the potty. The bad news is I had to clean it up.

Slug

I'm not doing so great at keeping up to date with this but I had to write this one down for the memory book. K was following me into the bathroom and there was a slug on the toilet. I jumped and said ewe! and just looked at it trying to decide what to do. She looked at me and said, "Get a napkin mommy!" Well, it was just too gross and John was almost home so I told K to get out of the bathroom and daddy will clean it up in a minute. So, I went to the bathroom upstairs. You know something will happen if I leave two baby monsters unattended. So I left Kylie in the floor. I came down and she wasn't there. So I walked to the bathroom where both girls were sitting (and Ky DOESN"T sit) in the bathroom floor smiling at me. Kaitlyn said, "Mommy, I show Kylie the bug. I'm so happy!" I wish I could have gotten a picture of my two girls, thier silly grins and the slug climbing up the toilet but alas, I lost my camera at the aquarium....

Ky and K are so funny together. They really feed off each other constantly. K is always saying, "I love you so much Kylie." Kylie is always getting into whatever k is. Tonight, K was making faces and Ky was cracking up. I didn't even notice for a long time and I don't think K did either. It is unbelievable how much Kylie understands. I'm so glad they have each other and are sisters. I pray they are always best friends!

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Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend we took a trip to Burt's in North Georgia. The weather was chilly but just right to make it feel like fall. Unfortunately Kaitlyn was a little sick and I gave her Benadryl so she wasn't really acting like herself. Kaitlyn's favorite part was that we bought her her own cup of hot apple cider and she drank every last drop. "Mmmm this is rearry dood." she said! I'm feeling lazy. Check out my facebook for pictures. There are some of my favorites ever though!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2040720&id=1349685689&ref=nf

Catch up

I have been feeling very overwhelmed with all of our activities lately. Its not that I've been super busy but I felt that way. I'm going to try to catch up on all that I have missed.
I may have mentioned this before but September 3, Kylie became mobile. She doesn't crawl in the traditional sense yet but she gets everywhere she wants to go and in to everything! She crawled from the toy box to the kitchen a couple days ago- a good 20 feet. Also, she must be involved in whatever Kaitlyn is doing. Kaitlyn reads, Kylie wants to read the same book. K plays with dolls, Ky wants the same doll. She is totally fascinated with K in every way. Ky always wants in K's bed in the morning when I get her up. Kaitlyn told me a couple really cute things. First of all, she says Kylie is her best friend. Now I'll remind her of that in 13 years! And last week with no input from me she climbed in Kylie's bed (oops) and gave her a huge kiss and said, "I love you so much Kyee!" I about cried!

Kylie being up in Kaitlyn's business.

Over the past 3 days, Kaitlyn's vocabulary has probably tripled and she is trying to make full and complex sentences. It is really facinating to watch this rapid development and also to see her brain think. She will go through a process similar to this example. "More cereal. I want some more cereal. I want some more ABC cereal please." While I wish she wasn't stuck on permenant repeat, her speech is really cracking me up. Friday she was so upset she couldn't talk and when I finally got her calmed down enough to tell me what she wanted she said, "I need a time out!" So I said, okay and when I went back to get her she hugged me and said, "Sorry mommy." For what I don't know. She wasn't really even in trouble.
Lately she has been very insistent that I close the closet door when she is asleep. I didn't really question it but then she woke up in the middle of the night screaming that there were monsters in her closet. It must have been a pretty scary/serious dream because she would not go back to sleep until I made her a bed in our room. The next day she kept telling me about it. There were monsters in her bed, monsters in Kylie's bed, monsters in the closet. I just wish I knew what a monster looked like in the mind of a two year old. I'm going to go with something from Yo Gabba Gabba.
Kylie has trimmed up a little bit I think. We go back to the doctor on the 27th so I'm anxious to see. I'm slightly worried though because she will NOT sit up. She pushes herself backwards. I know they are going to ask me. She also started cereal yesterday. We are still getting used to it but she tries to eat everything so I know she'll get the hang of it. We went out to eat recently and she was being so bad. I let her chew on a cucumber and she inhaled it! Maybe I should skip the cereal and go right to solid foods. HA!
The other day I went to the bathroom upstairs and came down to find this:

I haven't abandoned my blog I have just been overwhelmed lately. Too many rocks in my wagon I guess. Anyway I should be back on track next week. I need to write about Kylie crawling, monsters, potty training... probably many other things that I already forgot!

Pictures

Here are a couple to go along with the post:

Memories

I really write this as a journal for my girls. I'm actually not sure anyone at all really reads it! Anyway, since this is thiers, here are a few things that I want to remember about them.

Kylie:

• Is an animal. She gets on all fours and moves. Her arms and legs don't move in sync so its not exactly crawling but she get across a room in a matter of minutes. Yes, she is four months old.
• She is obsessed with Kaitlyn. She tries to be everywhere K is and play with the things that K plays with. She doesn't' like to ready board books but she likes paper books because that is what Kaitlyn reads.

Kaitlyn: (sorry she has more things but she does more!)

• She likes to talk about her mose (nose). We have a book called "Whose nose?" and she reads it "Whose Mose?" My mose!
• John is out of town so I let her sleep in the bed with me. It was all fine and good until 3:45 am. I felt something crawling on the bed and I looked up and she was getting cozy at the foot of the bed. She said,"I sleep down here Mommy." I convinced her to come back up to the pillow and she spent the next HOUR singing, talking, saying ABC's, counting one, three, six. Everything but sleeping. At 4:45 I had enough. She went to her bed!

9/11/01

I remember exactly what I was doing the exact moment I saw the first plane hit the tower. Does anyone not remember what they were doing when they heard? I was in my apartment bedroom getting ready for French class. The TV on my dresser was tuned to the Today show just as it was most mornings. I remember hearing Katie Couric scream and they switched to a live shot of the plane hitting the building. I stopped and thought, what the heck just happened? A few minutes later the second plane hit.

Going to class wasn't always a priority for me but that day I went. I think I went so people would talk to me about it. No one said a word. I was thinking, "Why isn't anyone talking about this?" I wish I had spoken up because I don't think most people knew that it happened yet. I wish we had the TV on. I missed the buildings fall. I, like most Americans, was glued to the TV day and night trying to understand why.

That night I was hanging out at my (slightly redneck) boyfriends house, scared to death because nothing like this had happened in my lifetime. There was the first Gulf War but that hardly seemed like a threat. It happened when I was 8 years old. He and his roommates had bought an American flag and counting their shotguns. "Woooooo! We're gonna kill those bastards!!" I remember them chanting.

That one day changed my life and the lives of my children forever. I used to fly to Texas when I was just a small child and my aunt would pick me up at the gate. No more. I never used to question my personal security. To this day, anytime a plane or helicopter from Dobbins flies over our house I get chills and secretly think to myself, "this is what it feels like to be at war."

I pray every day that our leaders are watching out for us. I pray that my kids will only know an event like 9/11 in our history. I also pray that my girls will grow up feeling safe and secure in their home and country like I did for so long. I know people always say this but I will NEVER forget.

School today

I thought I was missing that gene that made moms cry when they dropped their kids off at school but lucky for me, I found it today. I didn't cry at parents night. I didn't cry on the first day of school. I didn't even cry when Kaitlyn didn't run to greet me. But today I cried. I was supposed to go through carpool today but I had to nurse Kylie in the parking lot so I went in to get her. All of the kids in the whole preschool were sitting lined up against the wall and I could see Kaitlyn laughing at whatever her teacher was saying. She was the cutest and most animated kid in her class. I have never felt so proud.

Or maybe I was jealous that her teacher got her to sit still without the TV or a lollipop!

4:45

Something reminded me of this just now and I want to post it before I forget. (Which might happen before I finish typing this sentence!)

Okay... Kylie started sleeping through the night pretty young and then she just stopped. She began waking up every night around 4:30-4:45 and it was so frustrating. She would just eat for like one minute and go back to sleep. I just couldn't figure it out. She didn't seem to be hungry and she was definitely tired. A couple weeks ago John and I went out for the night and I got the pump out of her room so I could pump in my room before I went to bed. Well... at 4:30 in the morning an alarm started going off. I thought it was John's but it wasn't coming from his side of the bed. Wouldn't you know that the alarm clock that I kept in the pump (to keep up with how many minutes) was turned on!!! So Kylie, I'm sorry for this.

This goes down with the zoo trip as one of the dumbest things I have ever done.

Time Flies

Yesterday, sweet Kylie didn't want to nap during our regular nap time. Instead she rolled around on the floor for hours. I began to think that Kaitlyn began sitting up at four months so just for grins I thought I'd try it out. Well she can do it... Her babyhood seems to be going so much faster than Kaitlyn's did. I was in a hurry for K to do everything. I loved each new experience. I remember thinking, I'm having another one so I'll enjoy it then. Now that I'm maybe, probably, dunno done having babies I try to hold on to every minute but it is just going too fast. But Kylie is in a hurry to do EVERYTHING she can scoot/push/roll across our huge den in a matter of minutes. If I would show her how I KNOW she could crawl. Remember she is FOUR months old! I am really thankful for all of the support and encouragement from my friends regarding breastfeeding. That is the only time that I get to admire the little baby miracle. Once we are done with that, I might as well just send her to college.

I have always known that God is real and I have never questioned his presence in my life. If someone were to ask me what proof I have, the proof is in my children. Once you experience the miracle of life you will know that life didn't happen by a mere accident. If that in itself is not enough to convince you watching something like THIS grow into something like THIS should!

Now stop growing up Kylie!!!

School and other stuff

I guess I need to catch up... but I can't think of anything that happened last week. That doesn't mean it didn't happen-it just means I can't remember it.

We have been busy getting K ready for her first day of school and today was the day! Last week we went to parents night and meet the teacher. I've never felt more claustrophobic in my life that going into a preschool classroom with 9 moms and their two year olds but I got over it just in time for Miss Nervous Colon to poop in her pants. Poor kid, I made her finish playing before I changed it. I have been talking to her alot about school in the last couple of days and I think this morning she might have been a little nervous. Here is the picture I tried to take before we left:

She did relax a little bit when we got to school. John and I walked her in and she took off! When I came to pick her up they made all the parents wait in the hall until everyone got there. When they let us in all the kids ran out screaming "Mommy!" I couldn't get too close to the door because I had Ky in her carrier but I waited and waited for Kaitlyn to come out. After literally five minutes, I squeezed my way through the door and saw her running around playing. I don't think she even realized there weren't any kids left! Needless to say, she must have liked it.
I'm slightly nervous about her teachers though. No one really talked to us about how the kids did. All I heard was something from the assistant teacher saying what a wild and crazy day it was and two kids peed their pants because the teachers couldn't get them to the potty...

And here's a picture of Kylie:

That is the EXACT look John gives me when I spend money.

Maturity

As a stay at home mom, I am always trying to come up with activities to make our day go by faster. Art projects are a big part of that. We make cards for our family, we glue things, paint whatever wooden thing I find on clearance at Michael's but if I'm really lucky, we color. Not only is that exciting because the clean up is easy but I find coloring surprisingly relaxing. Staying in the lines and creating an even color feels so rewarding. I was a kid that quit coloring long before I could stay in the lines so it almost feels like I have accomplished a life goal when I finish a picture. (yeah weird I know.) Coloring was my favorite thing to do with Kaitlyn until we bought markers. I am all about orange dogs with red ears and green tails but with markers there are only eight colors. Kaitlyn "needs" five of them which leaves me with brown, yellow and black. Am I the only adult that gets mad because my two year old won't let me have the purple? Did I really just take it from her pile resulting in a tantrum the size of the grand canyon?

Yes I did because my orange dog with red ears and a green tail needed a purple tongue.

Why does it seem that no matter how old we get we never mature more than a 14 year old.

Comparison

For Kaitlyn's whole life people have always said she is a spitting image of her dad. Now they are saying that about Kylie so I have been wanting to look at their pictures side by side. Now let me tell you this... Kaitlyn may have some of John's features but Kylie is John's shadow!!!

I may be the only one but I actually think Kaitlyn looked like me when she was younger. What do you think?

By the way- comparison #1 the girls were a couple weeks apart in age. Comparison #2 they are almost exactly the same age.

Comparison #2

Comparison #1

Moving forward

As much as I hate to admit it, I have a two and a half year old, who is not a baby. Since I have quit potty training- pretty much forever, I have to do something that big girls do. I quit potty training. John won't buy a bed. That leaves the sassy. The other night she went to bed in our room with out sassy. I put her in her crib without it. The night went pretty well so when she woke up asking about her sassy I told her the sassy fairy came and took all of the sassys away. That went over pretty well so I put her down for her nap without one too. Then again last night... I'm just waiting for her meltdown because we haven't had one yet. She just keeps telling me we have to go to Wal-Mart and Target to buy more. She is also using her sign language to make sure that I understand what she is telling me. Yes, I understand. I told her we don't have any money to buy sassys. I'm waiting to see what her come back is because I can see on her face she is really thinking about it. HA!

Joys of Motherhood

Today was Kylie's poop day. So she did it. It was everywhere. She probably lost 20% of her body weight. It was too messy to carry her upstairs so I changed her down on the blanket. After 10 minutes of diaper changing I got up to throw the diaper away and Kaitlyn announced, "My turn!"

What is so hard about a toilet?

Ahhh Kylie...

I love my new baby girl. She is so sweet. I love her little toes and her chubby rolls and her four chins. I love her strength and determination. I love the way she looks so happy to see me when I'm away for a while. I love that she rarely screams. But I am not loving my nightly wake up calls. I know that lots of babies wake up in the night when they are much older than four months however, I am not their mommy. I have always required a little more sleep than the average person. With Kaitlyn, I just let her scream it out. And scream she did for more than a few nights! For some reason, I just can't let Kylie do that yet. She is only comforted by my boob. I have tried to rock her and shh her but she is not having it. All she wants a little drink- no more than a suckle. All I want is to sleep uninterrupted until 6:30. One of is is going to have to get over it.

I have a feeling that is going to be me.

Outcome

After 45 minutes shut up in the bathroom, Kaitlyn pooped. In her pull-up. You must be kidding. Nope. My child has figured out advanced engineering. She figured out how to jump rope. She figured out how to make me sing an entire song about poop but she can't figure out how to crap on the toilet. Is this a joke?

To make the joke better, Kylie woke up from her nap covered in poop. Now she only poops every three days so it wasn't an ordinary baby crap. I have also been picking boogers from her nose for two weeks. I am impervious to any sort of bodily fluid. Bring it on!!!

...still trying

Kaitlyn has been locked in the bathroom for 10 minutes. Seriously, all she has to do is pee and I'll let her out. I swear if she pees in that pullup I'll have a fit!

Potty Training

Okay, everyone person over 40 that I know has been harassing me about potty training Kaitlyn. So today I felt inspired. I got her up, gave her a talk about the potty, put on a pull up and gave it my best shot. I asked her every 15 minutes if she needed to go to the potty. I made her sit on the potty once an hour. Every 16 minutes, she would pee in her pull up. Around lunch time I made her go because I knew a #2 should be coming. So we sat on the potty forEVER, Kylie was in the other room crying but I knew she had to go. Nope. Nothing. Until I put the pull up back on.

Todays count- Pull-ups 3. Potty 0.

Toes

Not only do my children look nothing like me, they don't act like me either. Kaitlyn wanted to wear a pretty dress Saturday. She picked out the exact one that she wanted. Then she put on her white patent leather shoes with heels. She insisted on having her hear in pigtails and putting on lipstick (vaseline) twice!

Then there are her toenails. They must always be painted in a fresh coat of paint. She insists on picking out the color. Saturday morning, she decided that mommy need toenail paint too. And she was right so I scheduled time in my day to put on polish. I got it applied perfectly, even with a clear topcoat and here she comes, running into the bathroom and kicked a shirt on my perfectly wet toes. So I tried to salvage it and paint a little more on top of one toe. A few minutes later she moved a toy on top of my f00t. Then she thought I should wear flip-flops. Finally I stopped trying to make it good enough. I took the paint off my big toe and totally redid it and went down stairs. John walked in the door and gave me a hug.
And stepped on my foot.

Life

Now that Kaitlyn really talks (too much), it is really neat to have her perspective on life. How I wish that anything that was wasn't working needed batteries, if it was broke daddy could fix it, and if it hurt, it just needed a kitty cat band aid. I truly pray that life will always be that easy for her.


Here's Kylie and her sweet smile!!!

How to talk to a 3 month old

How to I tell my 3 month old that a six o'clock wake up call so you can suck on one boob and go back to sleep is not the way I like to start my day?

Reading books

I had a really insightful thing to blog about earlier today but as usual I forgot what it was... so here is the best I can do:

Kaitlyn has always loved to read books. Since I am nursing Kylie, that is a good time to read to her. Kylie seems to love to read too which isn't such a good thing. As soon as I start reading, Kylie stops eating. I love the way those wide eyes look up at me with a nipple in her mouth! Lately, Miss Independent has decided that she will be the one doing the reading. Sometimes she looks at pictures and reads the book from memory. She will say things like goodnight moon, cow, chairs, shhh, balloon. But the best thing is when she reads a book that she doesn't quite remember. It sounds just like this: dodapepodipooquack. didadoboopidopa. Funniest thing ever. I would do anything to get it on video but somehow I doubt I can.
EDITED to add link to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va-IlyQu8Ro

Yesterday we went to the end of summer ice cream party. Last year Kaitlyn began her nervous doodoo habit by crapping at the table in a swim diaper. This year was much less eventful. The highlight for me was Kaitlyn sitting in the pool shooting the older boys with water guns. They acted like they didn't notice or were too shy to play back. Then Kaitlyn shot Carter which I guess gave all of the other boys a green light to shoot her back. She totally deserved it and loved it!

Not so rainy day

We have had a very busy July. Today and tomorrow we have no plans so we (I) decided to take the day off! I have not even got out of my pajamas! I thought I'd take the time to write a few things about Kaitlyn right now. Next time I have nothing to say, I'll write about Kylie.



Kaitlyn is a very spirited 28 month old. Sometimes she is super sweet. She loves to cuddle while reading books or watching Caillou. She is very protective over Kylie, always giving her toys, a sassy, or a blanket but she hates it when she cries. However, she is also very determined and controlling. Her tantrums are 100% of the time over something she wants to do or didn't want me to do. Sometimes I make a mistake and don't do it the way she wants but more often than not, I have no clue what I did wrong. Today, for 2 hours, she cried over... well I can't actually remember. I think it had something to do with the way I carried her down the stairs and a granola bar that she wanted to eat but didn't want to open. TWO HOURS! I see alot of John's personality in her. She watches and analyzes processes and she will be upset if that process isn't followed. She is very interested in tools and technical things. She is not so interested in babydolls. She also likes to reorganize things. That probably comes from me! Even I don't remember where I keep the potholders these days!!!



Today we did two really fun analytical projects. First we strung beads to make a necklace. Now there was no rhyme or reason to the way she was stringing them but she was very thoughtful in which one came next. I'll update this with a picture later. Okay, I'll admit that I almost had a temper tantrum myself when she would't let me make a necklace too. And then again when she let me make a necklace but wouldn't let me use the pretty beads. Okay, who is the adult here? I'm still pouting that my necklace is green with yellow and orange beads.



Its almost three o'clock. I'm going to the gym so there is no need to take a shower but maybe I should go change underwear and put a legitamate shirt on!

Two Milestones

I forgot to mention a couple of really not so fun milestones. Yesterday Kylie rolled over. On purpose. Multiple times. I'm never sitting her down again.

The second thing happened actually Monday. We had the Lyon's over for dinner. The kids were playing and I realize that it is really quiet in our house. Then I think hmmm I think I heard the door open a few seconds earlier (see I'm really forgetful). So Lauren looks outside to see Kaitlyn and Jake on the edge of the street WITH A CAR STOPPED in front of them. Luckily another nieghbor saw them and was running over. Thank God for Lori and the alert driver who was just someone driving around (not a nieghbor). Needless to say, I have put a thing on the door so now no one, including me can get out.

Here is a picture of Kaitlyn playing in the rain today

Awesome Bathroom Trip

There is nothing more fun than taking two kids to a public bathroom. I would rather pee in a jar in the drivers seat than do it but sometimes I can't wait that long- blame hormones, my second baby, and what I learned in 9th grade anatomy is known as, parastaltic rush. So here I go... TJ Maxx. Kaitlyn eating a lolipop, Kylie strapped to my chest in a baby bjorn. My choices are to go on my white shorts or attempt to squat without getting Ky's feet near the toilet and playing a game with Kaitlyn that doesn't involve wipping the pop-pop on the bathroom wall, floor, or door. Well I managed to squeeze it out without getting any doo-doo germs on Kylie's hands and feet so I'm feeling confident enough to tell Kaitlyn not to touch anything. "Dis?" she says touching the wall. "Dis?" touching the toilet paper holder. "Dis?" she says opening the door while I'm still squatting with my pants around my ankles. Yup. Awesome.

Back again

About a year ago, I started blogging instead of napping. Then I got pregnant and started napping again. Now I have too many hormones and can't nap so I eat. And I should probably stop that. So here I am. As you guessed, this is my platform to tell you about my very exciting days and my favorite subjects, Kaitlyn and Kylie! And if you don't want to know... don't read it :)