Say What?

The girls said some really cute things today:

Age 4:
Kylee: "Mommy every time I take a drink it goes down my stroke."
Me: "What you didn't have a stroke?"
Kylee: "You know it goes down my stroke and into my tummy."
Me: "Oh you mean your throat?"
Kylee: "Yeah that's what I said, my stroke!

We are keeping my sister's dogs for a week. Bailey often follows them around and repeats what she hears us saying to them. She loves to throw the ball and have Wallace bring it back. When she throws it she says, "catch!" I have never heard her say that before. She also hears us tell the dogs to hush when they start barking so now she goes around and tells them to "ush." Too cute

Too long!

I feel bad that I have made only a handful of posts in Bailey's life. So I need to update about her. She is 21 month old now and has such a sweet personality. She still like to snuggle every morning when she gets up and lots of times throughout the day. She is definitely a Mama's girl. She probably says Mama and Mommy about a thousand times a day. While I know it drives me crazy now, I will long for her sweet little voice in days to come.

Bailey likes to do everything that her older sister does. She loves to play with markers, paints and anything else that you wouldn't normally let a 21 month old play with. But it is hard when you have an older sister that is doing so many fun activities. She has only drawn on the couch twice :)

She is talking a lot. Her favorite words are no, uh-huh, juice (which is odd since she doesn't drink any juice), dister, dog-dog, pat-pat (movie), mine, and banket. She can say a lot more and we are amazed at the things she comes up with everyday. She always has a blanket in her hands, but isn't particular to a certain one. It just has to have a soft and silky side.

She likes to impress us with her tricks and say "ta-da." She has always been a great sleeper and we are so thankful. She goes to bed at 7 every night and sleeps until 6:45. She only wakes up if she is teething or has an ear infection. She is just starting to notice that others stay up later than her and she might miss something. But if we take her in the other room and read her a couple of books and sing some songs she is usually okay.

Bailey is still very small. She is in the 5th percentile in height and weight. We still give her formula once a day because she just doesn't eat very many different things. She loves her formula and cries when you give her plain milk. She has a big belly so we don't fear that she isn't getting enough calories. I do feel that I treat her a little bit more like a baby than an almost 2 year old because she is so tiny.

She also has the sweetest disposition. It is really hard to get upset with her because you know that her intentions are sweet. Well most of the time...she likes to run in the street, color on anything except paper, pull Mommy's earrings, and scream when she doesn't get her way.

Bailey likes to entertain us with such games as peek-a-book, pronounced "peek-boo," run away from Mommy and Daddy and giggle and act like she doesn't want to be tickled, but always comes back for more.

I am still waiting for her hair to grow out. I can only put it in a whale spout on top of her head. Bryan calls it a pole lol! She has started telling us when she has pooped. Sometimes she tells us that she pooped when she has peed, but at least she knows that there is something going on down there. Today I ignored her and paid for it! She told me she pooped and then I got distracted and forgot all about it. The next thing I knew there was poop on the floor that had come through her pants. It was GROSS! Lots of wipes and a bath later we were better.

Kylee will be 4 in just a couple of weeks and I must say that 3 has been very difficult. She is still trying to figure out what she can get away with, but is so sensitive that any kind of scolding really sends her into a mess. She always thinks that we are mad at her if she gets in trouble and is constantly apologizing. We of course assure her that we are not mad, but that it is our job to make sure that she learns how to behave etc. I think she gets her sensitivity from her Daddy and that is something that I love about both of them.

She is really into cutting everything up. I know that it is good for her fine motor skills to practice this skill, but I get really tired of picking up all of the pieces. Plus she thinks that everything that she cuts is very special! Luckily when she gets up in the morning she doesn't remember these special pieces and doesn't notice that I have thrown them away.

Kylee is really into cooking with me. She loves to pull a chair up next to me when I am doing anything in the kitchen. Her favorite is washing the dishes, but now that we got new floors that don't do really well with lots of water, I have to watch her carefully. She really loves anything with water. She would take 4 baths a day if I would let her. Sometimes I let her take a bath so that I can get stuff done :)

Kylee is very protective of me. If Jonathan and I get in a disagreement she quickly tells Daddy to leave me alone. It is cute, but can get on Daddy's nerves fast. She is protective of her sister too. Sometimes she will randomly knock her down, but she won't let anyone else do it to her.

She comes up with some really cute sayings. Her most recent one is, "You're breaking my heart!" She recently said this to Nonny and Papa when they decided to go home instead of spending the night with us. She also likes to tell us how crazy we are.

I love both of my girls and they are growing up way too fast. I am scared to have a third because I am afraid the days will go by even quicker.

Goodnight Moon

Tonight I read an oldy but goody to Kylee, Goodnight Moon. We read this every single night until she was about 2 years old. I can't remember exactly when we let go of the tradition, but Jonathan and I still have it memorized. I remember reading it and asking Kylee to point to the different pictures that we mentioned. She would get excited about the colored pages and looked a little bored when we read the black and white ones.

Tonight I read the same book to my 3 1/2 year old. Boy was it a different experience. I recently purchased a night light that is a moon when it is time to sleep and a sun shine when it is time to get up. The idea is that it will teach your child to sleep later (or really just stay in her bed/room). Kylee has been getting up about 6 every morning and coming in our room. She lays on the floor, but never goes back to sleep. She sucks her fingers very loudly, sings and talks. I can doze, but I don't get to go back to sleep. On days that I have to go to work I am up and getting ready when she comes in and it messes with my schedule.

Anyway, back to the book. I thought it would be a good idea to read this book to her to go along with the discussion of the new nightlight. The website offered a book to read with the nightlight, but I opted to save my money on that purchase. While we were reading tonight instead of pointing and naming the pictures, Kylee was asking questions. Why is there a little house, does it belong to the mouse? What is the little old lady making? These are just small examples of how my baby is growing up. I ask her every day to stay little for me. She says, "I can't Mom I have to grow, but I love you."

Goodnight stars.
Goodnight air.
Goodnight noises everywhere.

Today was the day...

Kylee is three and a half. I have found that three is much more challenging than two! Now she is opinionated and can also voice it. So today it happened...we were in church and one of the elders was doing the communion devo (imagine an auditorium full of people who are intently listening to this devo). Kylee was not responding to me when I asked her to stop singing at the top of her lungs. I gave her a warning and asked if I needed to take her out to give her a spank. Of course she said no, but didn't stop the behavior. I stepped out to the aisle and snapped my fingers and told her that she needed to come with me. This is when it happened. At the top of her lungs this is what she said.

"No Mommy I don't want a spank."
"I won't talk anymore!"
"I promise I will listen."
"Mommy I just love you."
"Can't we just talk about this??"

As I was walking to the back of the auditorium I was laughing and everyone that I walked by was also laughing. So we went into the bathroom and I did spank her and we talked about her behavior. Then as I was walking back to our seat everyone was still snickering as I walked past. Just in case that wasn't bad enough. As the preacher was leaving after his sermon, he stopped by our pew to find out who it was that was protesting. I had to admit it was my Kylee. Needless to say I have heard all about it all day from everyone.

Kylee does have a sweet side as you know :) We have been working very hard to get her to not carry around her silky 24/7. In case you don't know what "silky" is...it is a former silky robe that went with a night gown. It is purple and her absolute favorite part about it is this little bitty belt loop. She puts that pointy part right under her nose while she sucks her fingers. Silky has gotten her through a lot of tough times.

Well we are hoping to break her of sucking her fingers when she turns four so it starts by breaking her of silky. So for the last week or so we have told her that she has to leave it in her bed. We saw her doctor the other day and he told her how big girls leave their silkies in their beds. She does whatever Dr. Burke says, so that was a good start. Plus now I can blame it on Dr. Burke when she gets upset. The first couple of days I wanted to pull my hair out, but it is better now. I have to remind her to go put it back on her bed, but there is very little protesting. Little Bailey knows that purple silky belongs to Kylee and brought it out of her room the other day and handed it to Kylee. It was the sweetest thing ever. I let Kylee keep it for about 10 minutes.

Here are some much needed updated pics of Kylee

 At the zoo

 This ice cream is so good, it takes me to another place!

 She only thought she was going to get out of a picture with her mommy!

 Playing at the Salado creek

 Sisters watching Busytown Mysteries. Notice silky in hand and sister has her silky blanket too

 Playing pretty pretty princess with her daddy

Pajama Day

We were out of town for almost a week and we just got back yesterday afternoon. We got to go down to Austin and visit Jonathan's sister and parents and then we got to see one of my nieces graduate from High School! Way to go Kim! After the graduation we loaded back up in the car and headed north to go visit my sister and her husband in DFW area.

Since Jonathan is still without a job, he happened to have some time off at the same time as me. Karen's husband Scott also had the week off, so they quickly got started on a manly project. They built a new floor for their shed and Jonathan constructed a pretty cool ramp. I always love to see my man in his tool belt :)

One of the girls favorite things about Karen and Scott's house are their dogs. They have two and also have to kennels. The girls loved to climb in those things. Kylee was trying to lock Bailey in and I looked up to find both of them in the kennel together. So cute. Please don't call CPS, they were only in there for a minute.

It was nice to get away and think about something other than the fact that Jonathan lost his job. Coming back to reality was not fun, but I thought we would just have a pajama day to catch up on our energy. We ended up meeting my mom and dad for breakfast/lunch at IHop and then we headed over to a little water park here in Temple. The kids had a blast and Kylee threw a fit when it was time to leave. I literally had to carry her out. Of course I took no pictures, you know how I am, but I will record some memories. Kylee was very scared to go under the mushroom that poured water on your head, but she kept calling it the cupcake. Bailey enjoyed the lazy river in her little hippo floaty. She nearly fell asleep while floating!

Kylee has always loved to watch tv. She is truly her daddy's daughter. She loved to watch shows like Imagination Movers, Little Einstein's (Pat Pat) and other various 20 minute kids shows. Needless to say I got really tired of these. We tried watching movies with her, but she would have have nothing to do with it. She would watch for about two minutes and then beg to watch a "show." But I finally found a movie that she loved, the Barbie Fairy Princess Movie. I don't honestly know what it is actually called, but that is what she calls it. JOnathan and I aren't really into the ideas that Barbie puts out, but the movies are pretty cute. The first day that we had the movie, she watched it 3 times!

So we now have a handful of movies that she will sit through. One of which is Tangled. Cute movie. Today Jonathan and I were quoting some lines from the movie while riding in the van. Kylee piped up from the backseat and said, "You broke my smolder!" She is so witty.

Bailey is quite active now and wants to do everything sister does. She steals her silkies from her and now she throws a fit when Kylee takes them back. She also wants to play with all of the same toys that Kylee is playing with when Kylee is playing with them. The cutest thing happened today while we were waiting to pay at IHop. Kylee grabbed Bailey's hands and played Ring Around the Rosies with her. It was so P R E C I O U S!! Those are the kind so of moments that  I hope I can remember forever bc of course I didn't get it on tape.

Guilt

So I know that it has been forever since I have posted. I laughed a little when I checked just now and saw that the last time I posted was in December! I feel a little guilty b/c I have not documented Bailey in the same detail that I have Kylee. But it is never too late to start, right?

Bailey is 14 months old tomorrow. I can't believe how fast it has gone. She is such a joy to all of us. She is definietly independent. We went to the splash pad the other day and she just took off like she lives there. When Kylee was her age I had to hold her hand to get her to even try it out. I tried to go out and hold Bailey's hand and play with her, but she didn't want it. She wanted to do everything on her own.

That is just the kind of kid that she is. She doesn't want to be rocked to sleep, she cries for you to put her in her bed. She doesn't want you to feed her, she has to put the food in her own mouth. She doesn't care if sister wants her company, she is going to provide it! I am looking forward to this independent little darling turning into a sweet and independent little girl. I can't wait to see what lies ahead!

She is basically done nursing. This is my second day to wear a regular bra. She still wanted to nurse this morning, but only on one side and then I followed it up with a bottle. I don't think I have much milk left, but I guess I'm not quite ready to give it up even if she is.

Bailey loves to go to school and play with all of the toys. Her favorite part of the day is when she takes a walk with the other sweeties in her class. She usually gets to come by my office and I get a hug. Then she cries to get back in her stroller.

Bailey doesn't hardly eat. I usually still give her bottles of formula instead of milk b/c I am afraid she isn't getting everything she needs. She loves bottles! As soon as she sees one, she starts screeching to have it and cries the whole time that I make it. I know I am going to have to wean her to a cup some time, but she only wants her milk in a bottle. She will drink water out of a cup, but isn't interested in juice of any kind. Oh well, she doesn't need the sugar right?

Kylee is all 3! I definitely agree with everyone that says that 3 is harder than 2. She now has an opinion and can voice it. She really loves to play with friends now. In fact every morning when she wakes up she asks who is coming over today. If no one is coming over, she asks why!

Kylee loves her sister. She wants her to play in her room with her, take a bath with her and sit at her table with her. But sometimes she wants Bailey out of mommy's lap so that she can have it to herself. Sometimes she wants Daddy to only hold her when he gets home.

She also loves to eat! She will eat just about anything and everything. She immediately want breakfast when she gets up and wants a snack before bed. If I let her she would eat all day. She weighs in at about 37 lbs and is about 3 feet tall. She is trying to find ways to outsmart mom and dad everyday. She uses every excuse in the book when it is time to go to bed and loves hugs and kisses more than anything.

Christmas parties

So I got some cute pictures of Kylee at her Christmas party today, but of course I still can't find my cord. I think some weird person broke into my house that likes cords. They seem to really disappear around here. So you will have to imagine how cute she looked in her Santa pajamas eating her Christmas cookie and sitting with Santa.


Jonathan and I are going to our class Christmas party at church. There will be babysitters at church to watch the kiddos. On any other night that would be no problem, but Bailey didn't sleep AT ALL at preschool today. That is very strange...she is a 2 naps a day baby and they are usually each at least an hour and a half. She hasn't been able to nurse today and hasn't really wanted a bottle, so maybe that was why. She is now laying in her bed, but still awake just talking. Crazy girl!!


Kylee came into my office today and said, "Mommy I have something to tell you." I nearly fell out of my chair, she sounded like a teenager. When I asked her what she needed to tell me, she said, "I need to poop." So maybe she is still 2 LOL!


I am so tired these days. I can't wait until our weekend getaway to Austin this weekend. I am hoping to catch up on lots of sleep!! Jonathan is going to take me to the place where he proposed to me over the 360 bridge. I think it will be fun to relive the memories. I still can't believe that we have been married 10 years, it makes me feel so old!


I better go get my tacky sweater on for our Christmas party. I can't wait to see everyone else's getups :)

Doctor

I headed out to the doctor this afternoon with the symptoms of a sinus infection. Well I was right. He gave me a shot to open up my nasal passages and one with a steroid. I am feeling better, just run down. Kylee was very nervous that the doctor was going to see me. She kept asking, "What is he going to do?" She also wanted to know if he had suckers in his pocket like her doctor. Luckily I had stuck one in my purse so I told her that I would give her one if she was brave at the doctor. I looked down to reach into my purse to discover that I didn't have my purse.

I had taken Kylee to the bathroom while we were waiting for my appt. But of course I hadn't used the bathroom in the office, but the one in the lobby. So I grabbed Bailey and Kylee and I ran to the bathroom hoping to find it there. Kylee really liked this game of where is Mommy's purse? She ran down the long hallway to find the bathroom. Then she had the best smile ever when she found my purse hanging on the door in the bathroom. Yay for the handicapped stall that no one had used.

With our purse in tow we washed our hands again and returned to the doc. I found her sucker and all was well as we waited for the doc to come into our room. While the nurse gave me my shots Kylee held my hand. She was so sweet!!

Bailey had to take a couple of bottles today b/c I can't nurse her for 24 hours after the steroid. She did quite well. My friend gave me some Mam bottles to try and she really liked them. I am actually looking forward to a break from nursing. I guess Daddy can get up tonight to feed her in the middle of the night!

We are still searching for that camera cord so we still have no pictures :(

We survived!!

Well our first week of preschool was last week. Both of my girls are going with me :) Kylee is in a 2's class and Bailey is in the tiny class. Here are some pictures of them on their first day. I didn't get to drop Kylee off so I don't have a picture of her with her teacher.

We have been busy the past couple of weeks. We got to go see Barnum and Bailey's circus in Austin in August. This is the circus that I used to go to when I was little. I was excited for Bryan and Kylee to get to see it. My mom was sweet and watched Bailey for us while we went to the show. It's really different watching the circus as an adult. I was thinking the whole time about how all of the performers could easily fall/injure themselves. It took some of the magic out of the show, but I still enjoyed it! Kylee thought that there would be ladybugs at the circus. When it was over Kylee asked, "Where are the ladybugs?" I replied, "They must be at the zoo."

Kylee was wiped out!

We also got to take the girls to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. It was a good time. Great weather and the girls had a blast. Kylee was determined to find those ladybugs at the zoo. These are the only ones that we found.

Kylee and Mommy on the slide :)

Kylee looking at the fishies (Mommy enjoying the air conditioning :)

Bailey's first time to the park by our house. She was like her sister, she cried when I stopped the swing.

Kylee still loves to swing. I'm kind of thankful that we don't have one in our backyard b/c she would ask me all day to go outside and swing.

Wayback Wednesday

So i am copying my sweet friend Becky in this post!

Kylee and Bailey are getting so big! Here are some pictures of them in a similar pose when they were about 2 weeks old. Can you tell them apart?

4th of July Weekend

I was a bad mama and didn't get my camera out once this weekend. The girls even wore matching dresses to church so I will have to dress them up again and take a picture.

We got to bring Bryan home with us Wednesday night after I me and the girls had a short visit with my mom. Friday afternoon all of the Nystroms came up to visit (this is the family that Bryan is living with now). We ate a quick dinner of stack-ups and all of them went off to the rodeo. They said that they had a great time. Kylee asked to see the horses again all day the next day so i think they made an impression.

While they were off my sister and I went to get a pedicure! This was only my second one in my life. I took Bailey with us and she was great. She nursed part of the time and then just watched a little tv in my lap for the rest of the time. My sister and I were celebrating her birthday that was the day before. It was nice to have some much needed sister time!

Saturday we were supposed to go to the Belton parade where Jonathan drove some John Deere tractor. But I chickened out b/c there was a chance of rain. It turned out that it didn't rain and it was perfect weather, but I enjoyed taking it easy at home and staying in my pj's till lunch.

Sunday we all went to church and then had a leisurly Sunday afternoon. The Nystrom clan left about 5:30 that evening and we were left with our two girls and our sweet Bryan. We put munchkin to bed and played some games with Bryan. Miniature finally went to bed and we watched Alice in Wonderland with Bryan. I couldn't get into it so I went to my room and went to sleep.

Monday morning I went to work for a little bit and then we got all of our swimming gear on. We went over to the Lion's Junction park for some swimming time. Again i forgot my camera. Kylee loved the water! Bailey sat in the water with Daddy and she cried when he tried to take her out. I think she is going to be a water baby!

Then we headed down to Austin to see Toy Story. We weren't sure how this adventure would turn out with a munchkin and a miniature, but we decided to brave it. I thought the movie was absolutely adorable!! For those of you who have seen it, my favorite part was when Mr. Potato head became a Mr. Tortilla Head!! Kylee didn't watch the whole movie, but she did entertain herself with her silky and cow. When the movie was over and we were watching the credits she told me that I needed to come sit on the floor with her and play with a toy. She didn't have anymore toys, so she gave me the nursing wrap instead :) Don't worry we were sitting on the carpet part, not the sticky gross part. Bailey slept most of the movie. When she woke up, she nursed and then sat with Daddy and watched the movie!

We had to take Bryan home after that :( We look forward to our next visit. I hope all of you had a great July 4th weekend and maybe you remembered to take pictures :)

My big girls/Family game night

Today we finally made it to class! We have been sick the last couple of weeks with pink eye, a stomach bug and one week we had family in town. Kylee's friends moved up to the 2 year old class like a month ago, but she hadn't been able to make it to class yet. The way it works at our church is that they start in the nursery and move to the toddler class once they start walking. Then they stay in the toddler class until the whole group promotes in June. So even though she has been two since January, she is just now moving on up to the 2's class.

I got her ready this morning and told her that she was going to her big girl class today. She said, "Mommy I wanna go to my little class." When we got there she quickly recognized a friend and the teacher, Amy. I went in with her and got her started on a puzzle and then kind of snuck out. When she realized I was gone the tears started and poor Amy had to hold her. But Amy said she was only upset for a few minutes and then she had a great time. I am so thankful that Amy was in there. She is such a great teacher and that makes the transition so much more bearable.

The nursery will take babies as soon as Mommy is ready. Bailey has had a pretty regular nursing schedule for about a month so i finally decided it was time to take her to class too. She has no separation anxiety yet so dropping her off was easier than sister. They said she did get a little fussy towards the end, but made it through all of class. I had to go and nurse her to sleep b/c she was a little overtired by that time. Overall our first Sunday of big girl classes was a success!

We had a family game night and played Kylee's favorite, Connect Four. She said that she wanted Bailey to play too so she did.



My sister Karen got to come down for a couple of days. She brought her dog Wallace and her new puppy Cooper. Aren't they cute?