We're Famous! LOL

A few friends had told me that a picture of me, Ryan & Will were in the July Horizons Magazine for Yokota Air Base. It was taken of us last year when we were at the 4th of July Celebration.

I kind of forgot, but then Leslie commented that she would send it to me. On the base services website I found that they have the magazine posted so here's the link.

http://yokotaservices.org./documents/general_docs/JulHorizonsWeb.pdf

We are on page 3, on the right hand side with a clown and 2 little girls standing in front of us. That same picture is used again on page 20. The funny part is that it was also used in last year's magazine showing highlights from the celebration. I guess it must be a favorite.

Hate being sick

And here we are again.

Everybody is sick today. I'm the worse and Will is nearly all better... just head colds. We've had a miserable few days with all the whining, snot, coughing, and loss of patience. At least it is now the weekend so I can recover a bit and let Ryan deal with the kids.

We've had some doctor stuff with Will. We went for his follow up and apparently he is not growing and he doesn't want to eat hardly anything. After his examination they said he looks healthy, but did some blood work. The only off result from that was his white blood cell count was a little low, but nothing to be concerned about. When we go back in 2 weeks they might test that again. From all this Ryan has finally come to terms with the fact that you cannot have a 2-year-old on a balanced diet and should have no fear of childhood obesity at this time so let the kid eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Its about time!!!

Alanna is still being great. She's just had a bit of a cough and some congestion with us being sick. She is slightly more fussy while awake, but has just been sleeping more. Last night she almost slept through the entire night -- something Will didn't do until he was 9 months old. She fussed a bit at 4 am but didn't wake up. Then at 6 she woke to eat a bit and went back to sleep until around 8 when she wanted to eat again. Amazing!

Lana smiles whenever I smile at her and she can roll from side to side right now. She has also begun to slightly reach/bat/kick at things. Alanna also likes when Will is by her chatting and touching her. Right now I don't think she enjoys the dog -- Maya always tries to lay on her.

Anyway, here are pics and a video.

Haircutting Adventures

So today I had an appointment to get Will's haircut at Kids Jungle Cuts. That's where we went before and Will did awesome and I really liked the place.

Anyway, Ryan and Alanna and I had been out all day and Will was home with Hannah. Once we get back it was only about 15 minutes before we had to leave for Will's appointment and Ryan went off to take a nap.

We get there and Alanna is crying because she decided she was hungry on the ride over. I figured once Will was in the chair I could feed her. WRONG. Will decides to have a literal FIT when it was time to sit down and cut his hair. Ug. Both the stylist and myself are trying everything to get him to sit down; bribes, threats, holding him down... everything -- and Alanna is still crying.

Eventually he's down enough for her to take the clipppers to his head. Usually I have the top longer and comb it over but with how he was acting I just told her to use the clippers on his whole head, make it nice and short everywhere. She did, and he's very "big boy" looking now. Then she took the buzz clippers and cleaned up around his ears and nape of the neck. By then he calmed down and actually enjoyed the blower getting all the hair off him.

Alanna was fussing nearly the whole time even with me trying to make her happy. Oh, and she pooped her diaper which I then had to change. Once Will was finished I paid and then sat down to feed Alanna since I didn't want to hear screaming the whole way home in the car. As she's eating Will comes to me and he has to go potty. *sigh*

So I finish feeding Alanna and go to give her a burp and she spits up ALL over me and herself. I just wipe it off, put her in the carseat and take Will to the bathroom, where he actually cooperated.

When I finally was ready to leave Will is taking his sweet time and didn't want to leave.

ARGH!

Thankfully there weren't many people there and everybody knew what I was going through so I got lots of sympathetic smiles.

What an experience, and it wasn't even an hour! Gatta love motherhood.

New Pictures and Video!

Whew! I have actually been busy most of my days lately. This past week I started the P90X workout so mornings are a blur getting up, getting breakfast for the kids and Maya and getting my workout in. By the time that's all finished it's a quick shower (often shared with Will) and then lunch time followed shortly thereafter by nap time. The recent big accomplishment was cleaning the garage to where we can park BOTH cars in it. That took me over a week and Ryan even helped me a bit. SO many things have now been organized and I love being organized.


We just discovered the series "Arrested Development" and stream it through our Netflix. Talk about a funny show! We enjoy watching an episode or two together in the evening. There really aren't any shows on right now that we like to watch on TV. We've been going through a lot of Netflix -- my new love is the BBC show "Robin Hood" --- sometimes I wish characters were real, LOL.


So, Will's potty training is going well. He consistently goes pee on his potty and even lets us know in public and will use a public toilet (at least with me). We still have issues with him going poop though. *sigh* We're getting there.


On the other side of things Maya seems to be reverting to her old, bad behavior. She has been having a number of accidents in the house. I can't leave her out at night anymore to roam free so she is quarantined to the kitchen again when it's bedtime. It's easier to clean messes from linoleum rather than carpet. She also will consistently pee in her kennel and I don't always have time to give her a bath so I don't put her in there. For the past 2 weeks Maya has been spending a lot more time outside during the day as well. It is shaded and she always has plenty of water.


Alanna is still being an amazing baby. Still sleeps well at night, only waking to feed once around 3 or 4 and then again around 8 in the morning when Will is already up. She is growing so fast... I forgot how quickly time flies with little ones.


Here are some pics and a little movie of everyone.

Will napping with his baby doll.

Playing with dirt in the yard.

Checking out the jellyfish at the ABQ Aquarium.

Alanna, Maya and Will

Alanna's early smiles

Alanna hanging out at the ABQ Zoo.

So Serious!

Spending time together

Catch Up and Potty Training

Wow, I really cannot keep up with this blog. It's kinda hard to spend time on the computer long enough to write something with how busy I am these days.

Life is going fine. I'm getting a bit of a routine down with both kids and that's incredibly helpful. Also, I usually have a project that I work on each day which gives me a goal besides just doing the chores. I've gone through ALL of my clothes; some thrown away others donated. I put all my maternity clothes away as well. We had tons of mail piled up that I sorted, filed and shredded. My most current project is working on the garage so that we can actually park both of our cars in it. 1 box at a time.

We had a good Memorial Day Weekend when it came around. Ryan surprised me with a completely planned out date and even arranged the child care. We went to see Letters to Juliet at the theatre downtown (Alanna didn't want to see it so Ryan spent most of the movie out in the hallway). Then we went over to the Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town. It is the largest display of different species of rattlesnakes in the world. Overall it was a small place, but interesting. After getting a few things we wandered around Old Town looking at some neat little shops. Once finished we had lunch at a cute little cafe and then went home.

Later on I went to the mall with a friend and spent waaaaay too much money and things I did and did not need.

Tuesday I met up with a new friend and her 3 kids and we went to the Albuquerque BioPark which is the aquarium, botanical gardens, zoo and beach place. We only went to the aquarium and zoo and rode the train between them but the kids enjoyed going and Will was completely tired out from all his walking around. It was a hot day but we did NOT get sunburned.

It's always hot here it seems... at least right now. This weekend it's supposed to be over 100 degrees. Wow.

Potty training for Will has begun in earnest. Pull-ups just don't work because they are basically diapers. Yesterday I bought Will trainers and within 10 minutes of him wearing them he was soaked and completely shocked and not happy. All that day it was wet pair of undies after wet pair. So far this morning he's been in the same pair. He even whined at me that he had to go potty (since he doesn't talk) and he promptly went in his potty. Good job! I think it also helps that I have a timer and he is forced to go potty every 30 minutes. LOL. We are still giving him pull-ups when he goes to sleep but I plan to put him in his underwear once he gets the potty idea down better.

The other week we met with some people with Early Intervention about Will's speech. After their evaluation they said basically what we knew -- Will is developing normally in all areas but he is far behind in his actual speech. He communicates "socially" but there are no actual words. In the next few weeks we should have some contact with the actual speech therapist and once or twice a week that person will come by and work with us and Will.

Also, in New Mexico the Early Intervention program allows children who will turn 3 during the school year to start classes. Will is eligible. So it is possible this fall that Will might begin going to school twice a week to work on his speech. We kind of want to see how the summer goes though. There is even the possibility that we'll send Will to Bible Camp at our church a few times a week during the summer depending on how much it costs.

Well, guess that's all for now. Alanna has woken up and wants fed. She is such a great sleeper in the night but in the day time she hardly sleeps and wants LOTS of attention. Oh well... in reality that is probably how I would prefer it. My sleep is important to me and I'm incredibly thankful that I actually get it!

Oh, and maybe in my next post I'll actually include the recent photos I have of my kids.