Wesley's 1st Prayer

"Heavenly Father, really fun day........and toys.  Amen."

Laughing

One evening Brynn was fussing a little while I made dinner.  She had fallen asleep in the front pack and I put her in the swing still wearing it.  She stopped fussing after a minute or so but was making little baby noises.  When I went to check on her she was smiling and laughing because she had gotten a her strap, and she was pretty excited about it.

Brynn has also started a new thing where if I laugh while she is nursing she'll stop and laugh, too!

Brynn is such a happy smiley baby.  I love it!

2 months old

Brynn turned two months old on Monday.

She is 22.5 inches and 11 lbs. 11 oz.

She is in the 50th percentile of her height and 75th percentile for her weight.

She is getting so big.  I love this stage.  She is starting to sleep better and is more responsive.  She is so fun!

New Years Resolutions

I always want to write long blogs about all my thoughts.  Not that they are particularly interesting, and I have no talent for writing, but still I want to put them down.  I love thinking about life, the gospel, ways to make life better, people I love, memories of the past, plans for the future...on and on.  I usually don't put them down because I blog in 5 and 10 minute intervals, and many times I am typing with one hand.  Brynn is taking a long nap tonight.  I have cleaned and organized for awhile.  I still have a ton to do, but I would like to take a little brake.

When new years come around I start to think about my resolutions.  I really have such a long list of things that I want to improve on that the problem is narrowing it down.  I have found though that the longer the list the less likely it is to happen.

Last year I made my goal simple...to make things more simple.  I like to plan bigger then is practical.  So I worked on scaling things back.  It truly is an on going goal.

This year I want to organize.  I am naturally a very scattered person.  I want to organize my home and my time.  I would go into more detail about how I am going to break it down, but the baby is crying....

Besties from Birth

What happens when your dearest friend has a baby girl two days before you do?

Why they become best friends themselves of course!

Exquisite

Conversations with a 2 year old

Wesley: "Wesley a naughty boy?" (Said in jest)
Me: "No-oooo."
Wesley: "Jesus naughty?"
Me: "No, Jesus is not naughty."

Wes kissed Bynn's head, my head, Bynn's hand, and Brynn's ear.
Then he started getting up set and crying, "Wes kiss ear!"  I tried to let him kiss mine, and then tried to kiss his, but that is NOT what he wanted.  Then I realized he was trying to kiss his own ear.  I explained you can;t kiss your own ear and showed how I couldn't either.  Days later Wes still tries and laughs at his own silliness.

Wes: "Blow nose?"
Me: "No, don't blow your nose on Daddy's foot."

Wes: "Hellllooo, Mommy."
Me: "Hello, Wesley."
Wes: "Hellllooo, Mommy."
Me: "Hello, Wesley."
Wes: "No, Mommy!  Wesley do it!"
"Hello, Mommy.  Hello, Wesley."  Pretends to talk on the phone for a little bit.  "Waaaaaaa.  Call you back?  K Bye."

Colored Shaving Cream

We had so much fun dying and playing with shaving cream.  I got the idea from havingfunathomeblog.blogspot.com.

We mixed the food coloring with our hands because it was a fun way to persuade Wes to touch the shaving cream.  Once he touched it he loved it.  If your child doesn't have issues with texture it would probably be better to use something else to mix it because the food coloring stains fingers.

We decided to play with it in the tub to control the mess factor.

We had an absolute blast.  Wesley has already decided next time he want the color blue.

milk and baking powder

We stumbled on to this fun slim mixture.  I left a box of baking powder on the counter and he wanted to eat it.  I told him it wouldn't taste good, but I put some on his tray to try.  He decided to mix it with his milk.  It was such a next texture that I gave him a bunch of it.

I also just had to add a picture of him painting.  Since our problem is getting Wes to put things in his mouth not keep things out paints work just great.  I told him not to eat it, and he had a great time.

Other events from the weekend.

Wesley put Brynn to sleep as he talked to her about not being able to reach the bug clock (I never knew he wanted to).  I also think being close enough to rub her lips on his shirt helped put her out.  Wesley was disappointed that Brynn is still too little to sleep in his bed.

Brynn chilling in the front pack.  She has never been facing out before.  Naturally she enjoyed trying to eat the front of the pack.

Cant' get over how much I love her smiles.  Probably never will.  I still haven't gotten over her brother's smiles.

I love this face soooooo much!

It snowed for the first time in a long time.  Wesley was a fan of putting his hands in his "pockets."

Brynn loves her changing pad and getting her diaper changed.  It's so fun to see her smiling face.

Pancake Crackers and Burned Fingers

Thursday night I put a frozen lasagna in the oven.  Out of no where asked for pancakes.  Since he just started being willing to eat them (we had to call them pancake crackers to get him to even try them), I decided it would be fine to make some.

Wesley is so good at helping me cook.

A minute or so after I took the lasagna out of the oven I pushed it farther back on the counter without thinking. I totally burned my left finger, and I am a south paw.  I was really worried because when I was a Girl Scout counselor I got a second degree burn by just bumping my wrist on a hot pan.  I could all see spots that were turning into blisters.  I was so mad at myself for being so stupid.  I ran my fingers under cold water and called my husband to see when he would be home.  He said it would still be awhile and asked if I needed to go to the hospital.  I told him I didn't think so, but I would let him know.  Brynn had a poopy diaper and Wes was worried because she was crying.  I told him I had to take care of my burn first.  Ugh.  I hated leaving my kids hanging while I took care of the burn, but I didn't have much of a choice.  I was trying to decide if I needed to call a neighbor friend or visiting teacher to help with the kids.  I decided I would be okay, and I didn't want to disturb anyone during dinner time if I didn't need to.

I was able to change her diaper and take care of what I needed to, but it was a bit of a painful challenge.  I was so mad at myself.  I have had to try to function around pain and nausea for the last 10 or 11 months with morning sickness, other pregnancy symptoms, and my incision.  I was just getting to the point where I wasn't feeling like a had a physical obstacle to overcome.  All of the was worth it for my little girl, but a burned hand out of stupidity...grrrrrr.

Luckily it  ended up not being too bad.  Once Bret got home he was home for the whole weekend, and he was so wonderful to help me with everything I couldn't do.  My burns ended up not being too bad.  I was still able to do things with only some pain, and my fingers stopped hurting after a few days.  Thank goodness for cold water and aloe that brought me comfort all weekend long.

I took this picture before I burned my fingers.  Who knew it was foreshadowing the evening.

Sensory Bin

I put together a sensory bin..bowl for Wes.  I have a bunch of wheat that has been open for a couple of years (at least) that has probably lost all nutritional value, but it is perfect for playing with.  I tried dying some of the wheat with food coloring and that was a giant fail.  I only had yellow food coloring left  which is not the best color for the wheat, and more importantly it didn't stick to the wheat.  So my little guy had yellow fingers for a  couple of days.

I added sprinkles to the wheat to give it a pop of color.  Wes loved picking out the sprinkles to eat them.  I should of seen that one coming but I didn't.

I added magnetic numbers to the bowl because Wes has really been into counting.  When he sees numbers he says, "One, Two, Seven, Eight."  I also added three match box cars, and a little "guy."

Wes has spent hours and hours with the wheat bowl this week.  It was a bigger hit then I realized it would be.  I shouldn't be too surprised since this is the kid who spent the summer digging in the dirt.

It is fun that the magnetic numbers stick to the side of the bowl, but I am going to switch to a plastic bowl with lower sides.  Wes is good about not making a mess on purpose, but the bowl is so high it tips and makes a mess.

I really am having so much fun with this cute creative kid.  He plays peek-a-boo, car wash, dancing, counting,  mashing, and it is so fun to see the things he comes up with.

I didn't cry when we took the tree down

I was excited to take down the Christmas decorations to make more room for decluttering, but I was a little sad too.  Wesley is so cute with the tree.  He would take off an ornament or two to play with, but would always put them back unharmed.  He loved our Christmas tree, but by the 2nd of January Christmas was officially over and so it was time.  Wes was a big helper and assisted with taking down the tree while we talked about putting it up again next year.  It is strange to think Brynn will be toddling around next Christmas just like Wes was last Christmas.

 We can't buy Graham Crackers too often because Wes and I enjoy dipping them in milk a little too much.

 Byrnn chill'n.

 I was going to have Wesley play with hard noodles and play-do, but Wesley insisted we cook them.  Then he wouldn't touch the noodles.  So I put play-do inside the noodle and squished it out.  Then he thought it was pretty fun to squish the noodles.  It takes a bit of work and creativity to get him to touch and play with food, but I am trying to make it fun.  Hopefully he'll start trying new food again.  In the mean time we are at least having fun.

Ringing in the New Year

Wednesday nigth (12/28/11)  I found Wes in his bed like this.  I had heard him playing earlier and assumed he was so tire he didn't make it into bed.  So naturally I had to take a picture of this humorously adorable moment.  I quickly discovered it was actually super sad.  Wesley had vomited all over his bed.  Not only was I sad my little guy was sick, but I was worried because my neighbor had to take her little girl into the emergency room for an IV earlier in the evening.  Luckily he was only sick for a few hours.

Brynn did her first and only 6 hour stretch of sleep.  It was sad I was up with my other child for most of the night, but at least I only had to take care of one child at a time.

Flash forward to New Year's Eve.  I thought that the rest of us were out of the clear for the stomach flu.  Sadly Bret's stomach started to feel uneasy.  So I planned on letting him rest.

Wes got to play with markers.  He was doing so well with them I ran to the restroom for just a minute.  I came back to find he had been experimenting.  He quickly got an innocent face on and started coloring in the book again like nothing had ever happened.

Thank goodness for baths and washable markers.

I was feeling tired and my incision was hurting, plus I decided we needed to do something fun.  So I put the kids in the car, and we went to the car wash and drive through at Kneaders.  It was nice to get out of the house for a minute, both kids were happy in their car seats, and Bret got some quiet to rest.  Wes was a little afraid of the car wash, but over all we had fun.

Here are my New Year Kids!

While I was giving Wes a bath the stomach flu hit me.  I am glad that no one else got as violently sick.  I was finally able to fall asleep around 11:00pm.  I didn't look at the clock when I had to get up to throw up again, but there were a ton of fireworks going off.  I noticed them because I was hoping they wouldn't wake up my kids.  Then it dawned on me that it was probably midnight.  When I finished I checked the clock, and sure enough I rang in the New Year vomiting.  Too much information for the internet probable (sorry), but you have to admit it is kind of funny.  I spent 3/4 of 2011 feeling nauseous so it is I guess it is fitting that is how I said adieu to the year.  Luckily, it was only really bad for few hours.

We took it easy on New Year's Day.  Wes had fun pretending the play-do was a train track to drive the train cookie cutter on.

2011 brought me my beautiful daughter so it will always be one of my favorite years.  

Here's to a wonderful 2012.

Dance Dance Party

Wes is such a cute dancer.  He loves it.  The day after my c-section I did a pathetic little dance in my hospital room because Wes wanted me to dance with him.  Last week we had a fun old time dancing to music on my new radio.  Even the toys couldn't resist.

Christmas Videos

I just uploaded these videos from my point and shoot.  It is fun to see my boy in action.

Here he is feeding the ducks on Christmas Eve.  I have to laugh as he parrots back what my mom is saying because he is to busy looking at something else to really respond.

Christmas morning

New bike

Like Mother Like Son

I admit I am no photographer, but I do have an obsession of taking pictures of my kids.  I was inspired by my friends blog (that's the fancy way to say I am a big fat copy cat) to put Brynn under the Christmas tree and take her picture.  I could try and say I did it with Wes, but that is really stretching it.

Moving on.  Wes wanted to help so much.  Here is it trying to move her.  Don't worry I intervened.

 Then I had to hold him between my legs to keep Wes away from his baby sister.  Luckily he had the lens cap to play peek-a-boo with.

 I was going to take pictures of both of them next, but Wes bit Brynn on the forehead really hard and got in BIG trouble.

Then it was time for bed.  Before Wes would get ready he told Bret to dump the blocks on him and me to take a picture of it.  He is already thinking of cool backgrounds for pictures.

 I wonder if my picture taking obsession will be fully passed on to him as he gets older, or if he will be like his dad and get sick of pictures very quickly.  Either way he is so dang funny.

My Favorite Present 2011

Smiles and Frowns

So I usually get the happy fun moment on camera because I want to capture them, and when we are having the hard moments my hands are usually full.  I did catch a couple of sad moments.  So here are some happy and sad moment from the week.

Brynn likes to be held most of the time, but she has started to love her swing for short periods of time.  The other day I walk by to see her just grinning as she swung back and forth.

She also gets really excited about her mobile.

 We took advantage of the warm weather the other day and went out side.  Wesley really likes the "miss miss lights" even when they are off.

 Brynn is usually in awe of her father.

 Bret took Brynn so Wes and I could have some outside time.  We met up with some neighbors that were out walking as well.  Wes looking at the neighbors as we walked away to go home because it was getting cold.  He is so cute the way he says cold and takes about it being dark and cold.

 I did capture a couple of sad moments from the week on film (well, it's not really film any more.  What do I call it?).

When my mom was here earlier in the week she told Wes not to dump his milk on the floor.  That made him sad.  He was crying over not being able to spill the milk.

I don't remember why he was sad here, but he was not happy about having his picture taken.