Half a Year!

You would think after having one child already that this second child it wouldnt be a suprise as to how fast they grow. It still is. Shocking. Our little lady has been with us a whole six months. Thats crazy. She is so much fun to have around. She keeps life 'real'. She is sooo different from Kyler. Not much is the same about these two kids. But, they get along so cute. He can get her to giggle far more often than me and Brandon can. She lights up when he comes up to her to talk. I hope it always stays that way. Thier favorite time together is bath time. She giggles the entire time...i have to admit he is pretty entertaining in the tub. He is slightly insane in there. :)
She is so wonderful and such a mystery to me. I love figuring her out and getting all my slobbery baby kiss I can stand. Here is some updates on her
*She does not sleep through the night (biggest differnce from Kyler) She at times will still wake up 3 times in the night. Killing me, seriulsly killing me.
*She loves her mobile, it can put her right to sleep.
*When she is really tired...which happens often. She doesnt like to be snuggled. She want to be layed down in her crib and puts herself to sleep. (also different from Kyler, he wanted to be rocked)
*She went from loving her binki to hating it, to now LOVING it again. A good friend down here tended her for me while i taught a class and when i went to get her a couple hours later she was sucking away on that binki. Since then she loves it. Bless you Cheryl, Bless you. We like to call her the baby whisperer around here. :)
*She is starting to love her blankey. Last night it is what finally put her to sleep just holding it and rubbing her face on the softness. Cute.
*She doesnt appriciate our attempts to make her take a bottle. She likes her mommy.
*She is a bugger to feed. Some days she will chow down a whole 2nd foods container, and then other days its like pulling teeth to get her to eat half of a 1st foods container. (also different from Ky, he was all about food)
*Her favorites thus far are definatly sweet potatoes, peaches, and bananas. She tolorates beans, peas, and applesause. She hasnt down right refused anything which is nice. She LOVES mashed potatoes...the real adult kind, she has has them a couple times (yes bad mom letting my little babe eat salty buttery mashed tatos). She smiels the whole time and is begging for more.
*When she is mad, you had better watch out. There is no denying when you have upset her. (such a girl)
*She isnt a good traveler. Ky was so graceful about being put in the car. Rarely fussed about it. Holy cow she lets you know she is mad that she has to be in there. She does give up after 20-30 mintues and will sleep, so i am grateful for that, but i wish she would just get over it, we travel A LOT.
*We had to move her to a convertable seat much earlier than we had to for Ky. She is more broad than him and chubbier so she was not comfy in that infant carrier. This did help in the taveling stress, but didnt fix it all together like i was hoping
*She is rolling all over the place. She started to roll several months ago, then completly stopped. Then 2 weeks ago started trying, and a week later she is rolling all over the room. She likes to roll to the right the most which lands her always up against the couch, but out of desperation she will roll to the left a couple times to change direction and then go back to the right. She is so entertaining.
*She is loud. Loud to talk, loud to cry. Not too lady like. :)
*I havnt had her 6 month check up yet...its in another week and half...my schudle is much harder to work around now that i tend kids all day. So it will be added to 7 month update i assume. But i had her weighed when i took Ky to the dr 2 days ago and she was 19.5...yup my 'little' Lady is almost 20 pounds! She fills out 12 month clothes perfectly.
All in all this little lady is a joy beyond all meausre. She is so fun to play with, I melt at her smiles and giggles. Daddy is wrapped around this girls finger...she already can do no wrong. Big brother adores her, and all who meet her are taken by her beauty. Where ever i go, i am still stopped atleast 2 times to be told she is beautiful and they love her hair. Then when she smiles at them (cause what girl doesnt love being told she is beautiful) they are totally sold on her adorableness.
We love  you Brookyln, Brookie, Brookly, Little Pea, or just Pea. Keep up all that hard work growin!

i had a blast taking/editing her 6 month pictures here are my favorites

my favorite

Window Fun

After becoming addicted to pinetrest i saw an idea to paint a tree on the window..here is the site that started the fever. Here is my rendition

We used coffee filters dipped in colored water to make the leaves...i then cut them all out and we glue them up there with a washable glue stick.I painted it with washable kid paint. I drew it up there with a dry erase marker and painted just in from the line so i could erase it. Worked like a charm.

after loving the fun of having the kids help decorate it i have caught "decorate the window for every holiday season" fever Here is Thanksgivings

We painted and used glitter glue to decorate the feathers for an activity. Then glued them up with the washable glue stick as well. I was nervous that it wouldn't come off when i used it on the leaves...but it wiped right off and this window gets hot hot in the afternoon. Yes i painted that turkey, yes i am impressed with my skills, no i am not an artist. I hate drawing and being an artist, but yes i am in love with doing these on the window so i figure out ways to make it easy. (this time i used a big round tub for the body and traced it with a dryerase marker, and the head is a lid to a bucket of toys traced as well.)

No that turkey or tree is not that impressive of a drawing, but if you knew my creative skills when it comes to drawing you would be soooo impressed.  Just thought i would share our fun.

"Giraffes Didnt Come"

Several weeks ago we took Kyler too the Zoo. Brooklyn came along too. :) I had planned on taking him every weekend in the summer, we never made it. It was making me so mad that we couldn't take this little animal loving boy to see something other than horses, cows, dogs and cats. He loves animals. He loves all his animal books. This being the reason why finally I made us go. We had to squeeze it in, literally. But it was sooooo worth it.  Kyler loved it. He was in animal heaven. He loved seeing real tigers, loved the Gorillas, thought the camels were funny, was fascinated watching the elephants, really he sat and watched them for quite some time. He still talks about how the Elephant was throwing dirt on his back. He has an amazing memory for a 2 year old. But, his all time favorite animal that we saw, the best of the best, the animal that took the cake was simply the Giraffes. We watched them forever. He was super super distraught that they never came over and said hi to us. Really, just ask him, or just hang out with him for an hour or two and he will bring it up. And no i am not exaggerating.  It has been since the 1st of October, yes a whole month ago and we still hear a couple times a day about the "Giraffes that didn't come" and about the grandpa Giraffe that was tired. He also, every night for prayers and every prayer on the food, he mentions to Heavenly Father about those Giraffes that didn't come and see him. He cannot finish, or for that matter start his prayer until he tells his Father in Heaven about those Giraffes. It cracks me and Brandon up every time. He rarely misses a prayer that Giraffes aren't mentioned.
I am so glad our trip was what i thought it would be. He loved the carousel (he wanted to get back on it each time he saw it from a distance as we walked around), and loved the train ride. He might have smiled in the pictures if we wouldn't have kept him out way past his nap time. He was beyond exhausted by the time we made it to the train ride and crashed before we left the parking lot of the zoo. Poor kid, being a kid is exhausting.
Here are some pictures of our trip. 

can you go to the zoo and not get a picture by the lion fountain??

He is super focused on those elephants

Still watching those neat-o elephants

Loved this horsey

Yea for the weird animal that looks like a cross between a zebra, giraffe, and lama. :)

Daddy and Brookie went for a ride too

Happiness

mommy and the infamous giraffes. I forgot to mention before one reason why he was so sad after we finally left the giraffes is cause they did come up to some people and were licking their hands....he wanted in on the giraffe action, they didn't have the same desire. Next time buddy, next time.

ya so tired. He really did have fun on the train...or at least i think he did.

 

Bakers Best Friend

  This little lady helped mommy make some cookies today...She was mostly interested in the chocolate chips, ok she was REALLY interested in chocolate chips. :) Trust me I didnt give her any...but she really wanted to figure out what was in that awesome noisy bag...must be good if the bag is that much fun to play with.

Woody and a Cow

I love Halloween. Love it.
 For daycare today we played in orange water, we painted some pumpkins, and had an Halloween lunch

mummy dog, pumpkin carrots (food coloring for faces) batty applesauce (cinnamon sugar bat) and batty bread

Brooklee as a lot of the kids call her, just chilled and watched the boys playing in the water...she even was even lucky enough to have brother share his "B" while she sat there.

Love dressing the kids up.
Kyler had a blast trunk-r-treating. He had it down after a couple cars. He didn't like it when he didnt get to choose the candy he got. He was on a mission to get all suckers and smarties. :)
Brooklyn was just happy to go for a walk outside and be ohhhed and awwed over. She was all smiles tonight too.
Kyler was so excited to be Woody, even though when taking pictures it was like pulling teeth to get a smile out of him. He got frustrated with his Woody hat cause it kept falling off, but over all it was an exciting night full of candy, chili and bread sicks.

like i said he wouldn't smile for his pictures

He LOVED the hot choco. LOVED IT.

Swiper NO Swiping

Ok my littlest man is killing me lately. He is hilarious. H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S He never ceases to surprise me with things he is saying. I wish i could write them all down right after they happen...just to share the fun, but alas i have a life and cant run to the computer every 10 minutes. BUT tonight i can remember this one cause i about died laughing inside---yes inside cause i should have been irritated he was being so rude. I did cave in and laugh a little, but i was dieing inside...dieing.

Let me set the stage...
Lately we struggle getting Ky to eat...ok for a while we have struggled. This kid would live on a pure liquid diet if he could. Seriously. Anyway at dinner time we have to keep his cup by the parent sitting by him or he will drink it all down and then refuse to eat. . . .so the sitter next toer has to give him his cup after each bite and then hurry and take it away before he downs it all. Its a hard job, we take turns. :)
Tonight it was me (Brandon was at scouts) I am begging him to eat asking him to please not make me take his cup...he hates it as you can imagine. He was not complying to my pleadings. So i took it. he gives me a dirty look and eats his bite. I give it back. Quick sip, i take it away. He then says,

"Swiper, no swiping, Swiper no Swiping!!!"

No for anyone who hasn't watched Dora, Swiper is a sneaky fox character that steals things in the show. Yup tonight i was labeled a sneaky fox for taking his cup. He told me this several times tonight when i would take his cup. Totally serious. My only response could be Swiper would not swipe if you would just eat. Nope he didn't care. He was just mad that i kept taking his cup tonight.

Shiner

Kyler finally has gotten his first shiner. It took almost 2.5 years to get it...i think that's pretty impressive seems how he is a crazy active kid.

The story behind this shiner is....
On Friday we were over at Branden's parents house helping cut down some trees. Me and his mom were in the side lot talking about stuff while Ky and his cousin were playing on the 4 wheelers. They were having a blast pretending to drive them, crash them and crawl all over them. This isn't the first time (wont be the last time i am sure). Kyler wanted to move to the 4 wheeler closest to where we were standing so he climbed up, over shot the seat and landed on his eye on the foot peg of the 4 wheeler. Now this isn't one of the new kinds with the full plate to put your food on, its the older kind with just a metal peg with the bumps to add grip. Something like this:

Needless to say it scared me to death. The pointier part cut him, and other than that, that is all. I might have freaked, tried to call anyone and everyone i could think of to see if we needed a Tetanus shot cause the peg was rusty. In these efforts the one helper...(Thanks Kaye) provided me with lots of good feed back...and yet i was still not satisfied...so i attempted to call a good friend here in Gunnison that is an OR nurse and took him over to see her....she gave me peace of mind(Thanks Cheryl), so finally at 10:30 we got the kid in bed after a dose of Advil.
He woke up with a very swollen eye. He could barley open it up. I felt so bad...i still do. Poor boy. This morning after he woke up he is still super swollen and now is sporting the black eye. Its a good conversation started when you go to church with a little boy with a cut, bruised eye. :)
Needless to say i feel horrible this happened to my littlest man. But i know things like this happen, it will happen again i am sure. He is too active, too crazy and has absolutely no fear in the slightest. All makes for a disaster in the making.
Love the kid. Love him lots. Makes me sick to my stomach seeing him hurt. But boys will be boys!

potty training. . . . .

Day One (1017/11)
Kyler got up we got all excited to go pee. Showed him his "loot" he gets for going pee on the toilet and poop. Got his sticker chart printed off. Had him open his Big boy underwear. He was so excited. Sat on the toilet. He went. Mommy cheered, Kyler smiled.
He had an accident an hour later...but it was MINIMAL. really barley enough to wet his underwear. He came to me and said "burrrr mommy, all wet" so we tried to pee again...success. New underwear.
The day continues. He is so excited to get his candy and put a sticker on his chart. It is a happy potty day. Only changed his underwear 5 times....i thought that pretty successful for a first day.

Day Two...today
Kyler wakes up. Mommy helps him into the bathroom to pee. We take off his drenched pull up :) and sit down. Nothing. Please try. Nothing. 5 minutes. Nothing. put on underwear. 2 minutes later. Pee on my floor. We go into watch Diego for a while. See him making the Pooing face. Run to potty. Poops tiny bit. Get down. 3 minutes later, making face again when i come into the room from getting Brooklyn out of bed....pants full of nothing i want to touch. We try, nothing. Go out and play. Pees his pants. Change pants. Sit and try again. This time he is not happy. He is crying that he has to try. So we get down. 5 minutes later. Pee on my floor. We try on potty. Tears. No pee. We remind him of Mater toy he gets if he can stay dry. EXCITEMENT. He pees. YEA! 5 minutes later. Pee on my floor. Seeing a trend?
So i let him go play. asking him if he needs to pee. "NO mommy, no pee". Ok ok ok. I ask again. "NO PEE!!" Ok, i set the time for 15 minutes tell him we are going to try when the timer goes off. 10 minute's go by i go upstairs to ask...peed in his pants. (by now i am feeling a little frustrated, besides add that Brooklyn has been screaming all morning to the day...equals a mommy that is going to loose her cool real soon.) We changed his pants again. Which might i add that i am fine with accidents. I am fine doing lots of laundry. I realize this is all part of the process. I'm not complaining...just stating facts. So don't comment that i need patience. I have it, just want to complain, and this is my blog so i can.)
So we eat lunch, get down. Other daycare kids go pee....now this is when he is usually so stoked to go pee. This is why i thought he was ready cause he always wants to go pee when the other kids are told to before nap. So the other kids all go, he is avoiding me. I ask him to come pee. Reluctantly he comes, i help him up and holy smokes...... a fit and tears to go on the record. So we got down. I know he has got to pee its been over an hour and he has had lots to drink. So i let him come in, we read a book. Then go to try again. Crocodile tears, me being nice ask him to try and pee so we can go for a nap. His responds

"never ever, ever, ever pee again mommy, ever, ever!!" 

This in his loudest saddest voice. I take the hint. We get down i say we need a diaper then because i don't want him to get cold and wet during nap. I lay him down to put it on and you would have thought i stabbed the kid. He was out of control. We try on the potty again. Nothing. nothing. nothing. He then says, to me again. Never ever ever ever mommy. So we got down. This time he let me put a diaper on. He then went in layed down and has not budged since.
Ya. I think we are done potty training for a little while. I will let him go if he asks. But we are not pushing it. I only started cause i thought he was ready. I think he is, but isn't. So we will take it slow.
There you have it. I doubt you really care...but this is my journal. So there is my journal entry on how much my boy will go on the potty. Never, ever ever again. :) Funny kid.