1/2 a year old

1/2, 0.5, 6 months!!! Kayla Joy I can hardly believe you've been here for 6 months! So much so that I had to double check the calendar to make sure! We started the 1/2 birthday celebration tradition with Sean so we must continue with Kayla.
    You do quite well in the Bumbo seat, occasionally slumping to one side. You enjoy the activity saucer and will spin the froggy, grab at dangling toys or hit the piano buttons with your elbow ( unintentionally of course). You can sit up unassisted for a few seconds before toppling over. You do very well lying on your back playing with toys dangled over you. You are not as excited about time on your tummy but we practice anyway. You grab at anything within your reach. You most enjoy me holding you!
    At the beginning of December you moved to your room! You still wake during the night a few times but will sleep for a five hour stretch somewhere in there. With that move I transitioned you to a back sleeper. You seem to favor sleeping on your tummy but when you wake up you become frustrated. Sometimes you'll roll yourself over. Just two weeks ago you discovered you could make raspberries with your mouth. We think you saw your baby friend in church doing them and picked up the skill for yourself! (Not with sticking out your tongue but just forcing air through you lips.) Too funny!
    You can squeeze into 3 month clothes but 3-6 or 6 month is a much better fit. You still wear size 2 disposable diapers and I sometimes squish you in the xs fuzzi bunz cloth diapers, but you fill those up fast. I'm not a very good scheduled mama so your nap times are all over the place. I feel like as soon as I figure out what you need you go and change it all. But as soon as the crazy holidays are over we're going to get on a schedule! I look forward to seeing you grow more and more. Such a sweet happy baby!

iphone pics week recap

My dad got this years and years ago. (Just like the one in your 8th grade science class!)

Sean at daycare with his little buddy. They were scream singing, so funny!

Christmas 2011

December 5th

Thomas is in finals week so our nightly Christmas activities are on hold until his finals are over. Which is this Thursday, not a long wait! We hope to go to a drive through light display Thursday night. I think Sean will really enjoy it.
    As for tonight, Sean and I are watching a Thomas the Train episode! This boy really, really likes Thomas the Train. I told my self I wouldn't have a kid who was fixated and obsessed with a character. I'm sure every kid is attracted to a certain character for a time. I really don't mind watching them and I rather enjoy putting tracks together for him. I think he'll be very excited to one day learn his middle name is Thomas, haha.
    And on another note, Kayla is dressed like a elf/fairy.

For to us a child is born,

   to us a son is given;

 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

   and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6

December

I'm so very excited for Sean to experience Christmas this year. He is fully mobile, aware of his surroundings, entertained by observing things, can laugh, talk and do so much more than Xmas last year.
    'Tis the season for going and doing so we have a countdown to Christmas calendar with fun things to do as a family. Now we won't be going big everyday, but there are several activities we want to include. When I started jotting down activities I could only come up with 6! Looks like we will be adding some silly and random things into the mix as well.
    We kicked off December with a local event at our Alma Mater. Baylor's Christmas on 5th Street was conveniently scheduled on the 1st! We have been the past several years and it is loaded with sights and sounds and animals! The lines are always very long for the carriage ride, pony ride and Santa so we skipped those. But we did take Sean into the petting zoo with goats and donkeys, we ran around the quad while listening to a live band, had a family photo, and ran into several friends.
    They had a photographer set up in front of a fireplace and couch for portraits. Oh Baylor, you're so thoughtful! The best part was having a photo of all four of us... in one photo. Those are rare for sure! I hope it turned out decent.
    In addition to the activity countdown calendar I found a printout for an advent chain on Pinterest. Each day has a name of Jesus and a verse reference.

Countdown to Christmas activities:
Friday and Saturday night we strolled our neighborhood to check out the Christmas lights. The weather was not too cold and it was a nice post dinner walk.

Kayla bundled during our walk

Sean taking in the magic

the best houses are the most chaotic

Kayla as Baby Jesus 

 Then Sunday night we went to our church life group for some good fellowship. All the kids participated in the Nativity scene.
I mentioned before we also have a paper advent chain with the names of Jesus. We forgot to read the verses from the first 3 nights. So, we read them tonight.
 December 1st's verse was...

 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Revelation 22:13

December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were all this verse...

For to us a child is born,

   to us a son is given;

 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

   and his name shall be called 

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Are you already saying Merry Christmas to people? I am.

December

Kayla is 5 months old!

Little Miss Kayla Joy is five months old as of Nov 27th
    She is such a joyful baby and is cute to boot. It's fun going through the baby stages again that we had forgotten about with Sean. You forget just how fast they grow, change and learn.

-Kayla weighs about 12 lbs.
- Eats 3.5 oz every 3 hours
- smiles a lot!
- coos the cutest little sounds
- is beginning to intentionally grab at things
- enjoys bath time, just like Sean
- she eats well in the middle of the night but is a squirming handful during daytime meals

Happy 5 months Kayla!

Pinned It, Did It

With all the Pinterest craze there is always a joke to be found in the fact that we pin 1200 things and only follow through with 3 of them, ha! Well, some pins are just inspirational pictures but a lot are "to do" pins. I am thoroughly enjoying Pinterst and have pinned many to do projects. I'm proud to say I've actually carried out some of those projects! So I thought I'd share. (Please excuse my iPhone quality photos, my camera's auto focus is kaput!)

This project for Sean's play room required very little effort! I thought this would be cute to hold both pictures and Sean's art. I already took down his little pumpkin art. I used an old frame I've been holding onto and the twine and clothes pins we already had. The mirror broke years ago, but I liked the frame so much I didn't want to toss it! There were staples still in the back side of the frame so I just strung the twine through those.
I also bought a cookie jar from Wally world to hold Sean's crayons. I have since moved the crayons into a screw top jar (that he can't open) to prevent the frequent crayon torando that used to occur.

Also in our playroom are these shelves Thomas built out of 1x4s and 1x2s. The pinned photo shows shelves from Ikea, but they truly are simply to make. Look here to see just how easy. We just painted and screwed into the wall studs. We hung them fairly low so Sean could at least reach the bottom shelf.

I thought this birdie art was so cute and would be just right for Kayla's nursery. Already had the frame, wire and ribbon. I found the wooden birds at Michaels along with the scrapbook paper. I modpodged the paper on the birds and hot glued the ribbon to the birds. I'm debating putting a rustic-y coat of white paint on the frame like the other one...what do you think?

We had our Life Group Thanksgiving dinner at our house and I thought this guy would be fun for us all to write our "I'm Thankful for..."s on. I had to give him feet for balance, I guess my turkey was a little heavy in the head area, ha!

The wall in our living room above our couch has needed art since ohh 2008. I had these four canvases  from a previously ditched project. I decided to do a gradient of colors in stead of solid. It works for me!

I hope you are pinning like a mad woman too, and actually finding time to do them!

27 months

    I haven't been consistent at all with doing posts about Sean or Kayla's monthly updates. I enjoy reading other moms posts on their kiddos. Other than just plain lack of time I also have poor writing skills that keep me from posting. And since both of them are premies I have a little paranoia about their lagging behind in the development arena. I know I shouldn't care what people think but what parent doesn't compare their child to another? Regardless I decided to write a bit about Sean at this age, 27 months.
Sean is so fun! Some things I find particularly entertaining these days are...
when he "reads" books (jabbers as he turns pages)
he colors the eyes of people/animals first, sometimes only the eyes
throwing away his diapers
collecting all his stuffed animals in bed
hugging Kayla unprompted
turning non toys into toys... like nail clippers into a car, making it fly around the room with sound effects
using your play screwdriver on any screw looking thing
    Sean does certainly have his toddler moments. He will respond to almost all questions with "no." He falls to the floor in protest a few times a day. He wants what he wants when he wants it. But there are several times when he surprises me with obedience and I am given hope that we are doing this stuff right.
    He loves trains and cars. Specifically Thomas the Train and Cars the movie. They are our goto shows when we just need a break and want him to stay still. He has wooden train tracks he just loves. He would much rather have a partner to play with and often gets upset if you walk away.
    He adores the outdoors. He asks to go "ow-sy" many times a day. It's a struggle to get him back in with out a crying fit. He doesn't even need toys out there with him. He'll just wonder the yard, sometimes following the dogs. But when he does take a toy its usually the little push lawn mower or the giant GI Joe truck which he also pushes around.

Insta-Friday

Sunday

 Monday: Beautiful Cameron Park

baby leggings

Tuesday: Probably watching Cars the movie

Spotting the trash truck

Wednesday

Kayla's Nursery: Painted Changing Table

I was excited to jump into decorating Kayla's nursery. Our pocket books however were not. But that only calls for more creativity!

It was only after she was born that I finally pinned down a theme and colors. Her room was already painted a tannish brown on the lower half with a white chair rail. I would love to paint over all the walls and rip out the chair rail. But Thomas is pretty sure he glued those suckers on there and no telling what damage we'll do trying to take them off. Since we are the kind of folk that don't like extra work (oh you too?) we decided to stick with what we had.  Including the deer head? He now wears a bow, you know, so it'll fit in the girl nursery;Thomas' idea.

On to the furniture. Kayla has inherited Sean's crib which is dark wood and I thought about painting it yellow or white. But we were given a honey oak changing table that didn't fit in and begged to be painted! Given to us by a college boy at our church...odd, but we'll take it!

 I disassembled the changing table with Sean's help.

 oh and a little Veggie Tales entertainment

This little project took FOREVER. First I sanded the wood and decided a primer coat would be best to help the spray paint stick. Don't want paint chips lying around the nursery now do we? I used Kilz brand spray paint primer. I ended up sanding that primer coat so so so much. There was a lot of texture due to my poor spray painting skills. I guess I ran with the wrong crowd in HS, should have spent more time with punks to get my graffiti experience. I have no patience so working with spray paint and letting it dry was killer. It got to a point where I just wanted it done and was being sloppy. I'm thinking no one is going to notice the imperfections, only I will. Eventually got it finished!

When I took this pic I was in the middle of another little project.  I decided to cover diaper boxes for storage baskets instead of buying new ones. Those fancy baskets are so expensive and it was hard to find ones that fit just so. When choosing which material to cover them I had to implement my new open mind decor philosophy. I was so tempted to go with solid or dotted material in either red yellow or blue, but knew I needed to have a pattern. I eventually settled on that print, I think I like it.

Covering the boxes was super easy and I'd like to show you how I did it in another post. I'm sure there are other tutorials out there but it's always great to see a different way.

So in conclusion painting furniture is definitely a great option. Just don't work too hard.

Kayla 4 month stats

Kayla had her 4 month appointment on October 31st. 

I was able to take Sean to a friends to make the visit easier. 

Sorry Sean but you are a hand-full. 

Weight: 11 lbs 2 oz

Length: 21.5 inches

    Since she was born two months early she was evaluated as if she were 2 months old. All aspects of her development, except some social skills, are like a 2 month old. Social skills like eye contact and smiling are a little more advanced than a two month old cause she's been here longer and been able to practice those skills!

She finally got released from her monitor after two full months of no issues. So back it went to the medical store. Woohoo! Sean had one also so it was the same ol-same ol with this gadget. It served its purpose well, but we're glad to not be woken at 3am by the many false alarms. Oh, but we still wake at 3am to feed her...("we" meaning "I")

She got two shots and was given neon band-aides, so trendy!

Other Kayla Stats include...

• size 2 disposable diaper and x-small Fuzzibunz, and she can now fit in Sean's one size diapers on a super small setting. She's starting to leak out of the x-smalls!
• fits in some NB things like pants and skirts, 3 month or 3-6 for all else
• She eats 3-3.5 ozs every 3 hours. Still wakes through the night.
• smiling like a champ
• her eyes are still dark brown and I think they'll stay that way
• cooing and making shapes with her mouth
• brings her hands to her mouth but not too controlled yet
• she has good head control and a strong torso
• no rolling over yet
• loves being in the Moby wrap. I wear her to my bible study weekly and the older ladies always comment that they wish they had one in their day. (I really don't know how I'd do it other wise)
• Sleeps on her tummy (yes I know, but she sleeps so well this way)

She is doing so well and it is fun seeing Sean and Kayla interact. I'm excited for when she can move around and they can play together more. Grow Kayla grow...but not too fast!!

October Review III

Yet another trip to the zoo. Wow, I think we've gotten our money's worth now! We also continued the tradition of going Trick or Treating with friends on a flat bed of hay pulled by a truck...

 

Sean the skeleton

Kayla the salmon roll.
Note the wasabi and ginger on her head band.

 Sean basically went up to each home owner and took candy out of their bowl.

we got glow-stick happy

Both Thomas and I did trick or treating as kids. I wouldn't say we celebrated Halloween, but we observed it, ha. We didn't grow up associating evil with the holiday so we think its fine to let our kids trick or treat. We just treat it as a day to dress up like weird things and take candy from strangers!