Week Wrap-up

I made it through the week, although next week isn't going to be any better. I ended my busy week by calling Kendall to come home from work at 8:40 because i forgot i had a follow-up for research at 845...after running up there and getting everything prepared...the participant didn't show...AW!! I guess it is just that time of the semester where everything is either due or all exams fall within a week making studying an endless task. The kids have been growing up so fast, they are beginning to say two syllable words, Aidan's favorite this week? Apple. They both say it very good, and it seems that having an apple a day for the past three days has made them want an apple ALL the time. They wake up saying "Apple" they run and point into the kitchen saying "apple". I am not complaining, apples are a great fruit and good for them, but unfortunately we are all out, and i work this evening so i won't make it to the store unless i walk them to Safeway today, which i am debating to do since it is supposed to be pretty warm (45, with wind it will feel like 35). Plus a bonus of walking to the grocery store is Kendall's office is right on the way. We have tried to stop and see him 2 times this past week but he was unfortunately out doing Realitor work i guess, so we just made a loop up to a park nearby. It also works that i have two good friends who love the kids that live along that loop. The kids LOVE walking alongside the wagon instead of sitting in it when we are at the park, even though they drove me nuts by walking opposite directions and made me chase them all over. We will see, i love walking with them because they point out everything even if they are unsure what it is, plus it will help me lose a few pounds too!

Pictures from Here and There

Aidan climbed on the merry-go-round and well it started to go around...he liked it!
Ok, many people have asked me to have the kids NOT have their paci's in, this is what happens. as soon as i took their paci's, "pop" in goes the pine cones...
Layla enjoying the merry-go-round! They enjoyed spinning round and round...
The kids wearing their new Valentine pajama's....Aidan seems to be reading to Layla and her baby.
A REAL baby, the kids were so curious when our friend brought over her newborn baby...Aidan would hover over her like you can see here, then he got an idea, ran to his table grabbed a cracker and tried feeding it to the baby...hehe REAL nice to share but not to little babies!

Giggles Starting a Busy Week

This week is going to be pretty busy for me, right now i am procrastinating a paper that is due at 8am tomorrow. I need it typed before work so i can print it, i just do not like the whole research style of writing a paper, no 1st person references and such. Oh-well, its required and 3 pages maximum so that is a pretty easy thing to accomplish. I also need to make time to meet with my boss today about different work stuff, do a follow-up research thing tomorrow evening, have an exam on Thursday *(which i have to pass this time!!) and more research on Friday. Through all of this i have to keep the kids occupied, hope that its warm enough to go play in the snow today, and start planning my brothers St. Patrick's gift box to the middle east...Another thing is i would like to start working more on potty training, i slacked off this past week or so, and Layla had gone 3 days in a row! So today she was acting like she needed to use the potty, i asked, she nodded yes. Soon as we got in the bathroom though Aidan went and sat on the little potty proudly(he likes to practice sitting on it for now), so i hurriedly put her on the big potty and sure enough she went! YAY! Only bad thing was, when i was praising her and carrying her to get a new diaper i bumped her head...so she is probably thinking "great i pooped and now i get my head bumped...not happening again!"

Sign Lanauge

I have really been working with the kids on their sign language, each signs their own little form, and each can sign somethings the others cant. In this video it is mostly Layla signing about 20 signs, Aidan wasn't feeling up to it, he wanted to take a nap. It is hard to get both their attention at once but at least you all can get an idea of the work i have put into teaching them! :) i am proud of them! I have a bout 50 pictures of some park fun and walks from this week since it has been warmer (35 degrees is a great here!) i am actually going for a walk with a friend and her new little baby in an hour so i best go feed these little tykes and head out!

Research

I haven't been updating as much as i would like to. Part of the reason is i have been so busy with school, kids, and work (oh and its been 30-40 degrees so been taking long walks...its warm! haha). The other part of my time has been doing research under a Dr. here at school. It is an amazing opportunity, i am able to work in the anxiety disorders lab to where i run research for him and a few of his graduate students. I started this last semester but i was only signed up for 3 hours a week so i only ran the control studies and entered data. This semester i am getting the opportunity to not only run the control studies but also the condition (ok i know i am using a lot of psychology jargon, a control study is pretty much the part of the study that is not manipulated to get results, it is more of a "placebo". A control is manipulated in order to get some results or test certain therapies for a result). I probably still will have to enter data, but i may be able to review some of the videotapes to asses the nervousness of public speaking anxiety students, and also if i continue doing well in the lab, maybe next semester i will be able to set up my own study. So that is some of what i am doing with my spare time, about 6 hours a week.

Carwash

Ok, so i love sharing little funny stories. This one involves more of Kendall and murhpy's law than the kids. We were off driving around town looking at different houses, businesses, and of course taking Kendall's picture in front of his first real estate sign that is hung up in front of a house(YAY). Anyway, it was a nice day, no snow in the forecast, and everything had pretty much melted off the streets. Kendall got an idea to take the kids through a car wash, and especially since the suv has been looking pretty ucky with the melted snow and dirt on it. As we pulled into the car wash i jokingly commented "You know it is going to snow now right?" With that i pulled out my camera to catch Layla and Aidan's reactions...as you can see from Layla's face, she is petrified, she did not cry until the last second as we were beginning to pull out, i think she was froze. Aidan had about the same reaction with the huge eyes, but a little less than her. He didn't cry but they were both VERY quiet (unusual since they both chatter all the time).
After we got home, i would say in less than 2 hours it began to snow...a good few inches. Pretty good for it not being in the forecast at all! haha. Guess i jinxed it.

New Room

Recently we noticed Aidan's crib joint on one of the rails was beginning to disconnect (this of course is the once already recalled crib). Because he shakes and jumps in his crib so much, we were afraid that his rail would snap at that joint and he would tumble out, so we decided to line his crib against the wall so the bad joint wouldn't let him fall out. So this is how it is rearranged, you can see their little kitchen in which Layla begs all day long to go "cook". They are only allowed in their rooms with one of us since i am afraid they will pull their dresser, changing table, or book shelf down on themselves. The rug on the floor was mine from a little kid, and they love running around on it pointing out the "trees" or "houses".

Valentine CupCakes!

Valentine's day went pretty good, especially when it started on Monday because Kendall was so excited to give me my present...Yes he got me a wonderful 3 hour spa treatment! I am WAY excited to use it, but i want to wait for the perfect time!! :) Maybe a great little spring sprucing up for myself? We will see. Anyway, the kids got wonderful gifts, they got 6 new books from their Grandma Gail, teaching opposites to the kids, we gave those to them yesterday and they played with them for some time. Kendall and I bought them a pair of new pajamas each, real nice fleece, and warm. To add to the festivities of Valentines Day, we decided to bake cupcakes for the kids to give out to some friends and family around town. The first round of sprinkles resulted in a real tired Layla meltdown (Em has it on video, it was some meltdown). But after that miss hap and a good long nap, things went a lot more smoothly the second time around! Here are a few pictures of the cupcake ordeal...i have a few videos, still deciding if i should post one or not.
Here is Layla concentrating hard to get her sprinkles on the cupcake...as you can see not very many are on the cupcake compared to the table...
Aidan kept missing the table completely, i think he enjoyed the shaker more than what came out of the shaker. He still did a wonderful job, i mean 4 dozen cupcakes to sprinkle, they became pros.
Ooops, we turn our backs for a second to swap a cupcake to be sprinkled and Aidan has dug into one! Oh well, a small set back we let them eat it and get all messy.
Afterward the kids figured out that the sprinkles stick to their hands and they can lick them off...yes this is when the REAL mess began! They had colorfully dyed hands and mouth!
Here is Layla trying to shake off some of the sprinkles stuck on her hand, notice the frosting on her nose? That is from the poor cupcake that didn't make it past the sprinkling hehe :)

18 Month Check-up

Today was Layla and Aidan's 18 month check-up at the Doctors. The kids are really healthy, and i had the Dr. look Aidan over since he fell down the stairs this past weekend, he is perfectly fine. The only thing to watch is Aidan hasn't grown since November, he is still 31.5 inches, and Layla only grew a quarter of an inch to catch up to Aidan at 31.5 inches. He explained to us this is obviously genetics since they are staying so close in growth as they have their whole life, and we aren't doing anything wrong, and that in the next couple months it won't be uncommon for them to just have a big growth spurt. Of course since they didn't grow height wise, their weights are still about a pound a apart, Layla at 22lbs 8 oz, and Aidan at 23lbs 14 oz. Again nothing to worry about. They have always been skinny kids, and no concern, i mean they EAT all the time, they just ate a bagel between the two of them, after sharing mine and Kendall's lunch (this all a snack, they had lunch 3 hours ago). They got their last 2 shots for a couple years, until they start kindergarten (YAY)! They also have started a fluoride treatment for kids every three months, so they got that first treatment today to help prevent cavities and tooth decay. I think it is good that Wyoming has so much to offer for children, with Equality Care supporting it so we don't have to pay tons of money that we do not have, they also have a Read program that gives the kids a new book each visit. Real cool. The best news is they are over 2 years developmentally in other areas, an example being motor, cognitive, and language. So this puts them 6+ months ahead on the average curve...our next goal is to make sure they do not talk with their paci's in, it causes them to learn to talk with it in, and can effect their language later when it isn't in.

This little video is of Aidan and Layla "mixing up food" for Big bear. Make note that Aidan is "eating" off the spoon like there is food on it, there is NOTHING, it is make believe....REAL cute.

Driving Under the Influence...of Our Cellphone?

Being a Psychology major i learn about many different studies that people may not normally here about, or hear the full story. Recently in my Cognitive Psychology we went over a few studies dealing with Attention. These studies find that it is very hard for us to multi task with something auditory and visual, such as driving and talking on the phone. Very shocking to me was what they found from accidents, and studying attention of those who drive while talking on the cell phone. The results? Driving and talking on the cell phone is equivalent to drinking and driving when it comes to how much attention we can focus on driving. Now i know many of us would never dare drive under the influence, let alone with our children in the car, but yet, we all have talked on the cell phone while driving. Not to say that we will get in a wreck necessarily if we do drive on the phone, or drink and drive(please don't) but the stats show the likely hood is the same for both. And headsets for phones or speaker phones? No better, because our attention is still directed toward what we are hearing. Pretty Scary. Just a little information to think about when talking on the phone next time in traffic!

Frightning Accident of Toddler Curiosity

I guess this story falls under the category of "freak accident". My poor baby boy had a mishap with the stairs. We were all getting ready to go, the gate above the stairs is normally there, always, but with us running up and down the stairs cleaning, and so forth, the one time it was moved, is the one time Aidan attempted to be super baby boy and walk down on his own...Since we were all scattering to get going, it was one of those times where we all thought the other was watching my sweet baby boy. I walked out of the bathroom and heard my dad yelling at Aidan to stop, it was almost slow motion, none of us could move fast enough to reach him (Aidan was not in slow mode!). I tried to run, but nothing worked, Aidan just kept walking to the top of the stairs and straight over the edge. I only heard the sound of him bumping down the 12 stairs to the bottom. I do not know what came over me, as soon as i heard the horrifying nose of my baby falling down the stairs i let out a scream...a terrified scream. I ran down the stairs to where Aidan was laying pinned between some junk that was to be brought outside and the bottom step.

He began to cry...good sign. I scooped him up and held him close. Surprisingly he did not cry long at all, luckily in the end he just had a bump on his head which was gone the next morning. We all just stood in shock afterwards, not knowing what to really do next...did this really just happen? My stomach was light, and felt horrible for hours afterwards until was for sure he was fine, which he is, afterwards he still was doing silly dances and again trying to go down the stairs peering over the gate (which was a permanent placement afterwards, along with everybody watching him and his cousin closely just in case). I am so thankful that he is ok and not seriously hurt, he was just scared and shaken up.
On a lighter note, Aidan the rest of the weekend had a great time, he played outside for a bit with my dog S'mores who is sooo great with children i can't wait till i can have him here so the kids can play with him daily, he is so sweet, never jumps on children, he has this sense in him that just "knows" that a child is near and is relaxed.

Home for a Visit

This weekend all us girls headed to my parents house to help clean out some of our old junk from Highschool, and to also take home a few things that we have room for right now. Kendall stayed home and hung out with Layla, i guess she went bowling and had help pushing the ball down the lane...8 pins was her highest? Anyway, Aidan came with me since i choose every other tot each time i go home, it was his turn. I think the weekend went great, i threw away 3 large trash bags full of junk and whatnot, and filled another bag with clothes to give away. Aidan's and his cousin Adrianna had a lot of fun playing together, he would copy her a lot, and she would like telling him different things to do or not do. She will be 3 in April, so they are only a year and a half apart, and each time that gap gets smaller and smaller on the developmental area so they have more fun and interactions.
Another great thing about getting together is we get to scrapbook. I am WAY behind on my life in general when it comes to scrapbooking, however, i finally just skipped to working on getting Layla and Aidan's life caught up. I am only a year behind on them, haha so that means i only have their first 6 months scrapbooked, but c'mon, i take an average of 150ish pictures a month, how can i choose from soooo many!?!




We had plenty of silly time, and sorry Karen, the candid pictures didn't really turn out so candid. haha!














Aidan really has taken to my dad over the past months, he always reaches for him to pick him up, and enjoys the attention that he gets. Real cute. My parents have all the toys we had from growing up, which is part of the reason we went to help clean out a bunch of those to give away or keep for our own kids.

Snow Good!

The kids love eating snow off of our shoes, which drives me nuts! So i occupy them with their own bowl of snow, that hasn't touched dirty shoes...
Yummmmm Layla shoveling snow...into her mouth.
Aidan enjoys eating the snow AND wearing it....
All done, lets drink the rest!! :)

Turn Up Some Bob Dylan

Well, from the video attached of Layla and Aidan enjoying some dance time to Bob Dylan on Monday, it is hard to believe that today Layla is running a fever of 103.5 (started last night) and the Dr. says she seems to have a bit of a sore throat too. Poor girl, her eyes are so droopy, her body is sweaty and hot. I feel that i cannot do enough for her, since it is a "viral" infection all i can do is dose her up on tylenol and motrin and hope this helps with her discomfort. If it seems to hurt when she pees then a new theory of urinary infection will be in place, and i will have to again run to the Doctor. Aidan is fine, very happy, and seems uninfected, i hope it lasts for him, one baby keeping us up all night is enough! On the upside, after Layla's little potty in the toilet on Monday, yesterday she actually did the potty sign on her own and did her thing in the toilet...So far today nothing, but i have to keep in mind that she is feeling horrible, she just sits on my lap, half staring out, half sleeping.
Anyway, i hope the video is enjoyed, it is almost 4 minutes so sorry if its boring! haha i think its darling, you will notice after Aidan starts falling, Layla just falls to imitate him, and then continues copying all his moves...there is even a short dance with Big Bear II. :)

Potty Training 101

The kids have been learning to sit on the potty, and lately i have been taking their diaper off (really need to get pull ups make things REAL easy). They will sit there for a couple of minutes, humor me and "push" when i tell them to. Well today was very good, i saw Layla pushing next to me so i asked her "Do you have to potty?" and she made her potty sign and ran to the bathroom, so i sat her down and sure enough "plop" there was a poop. YAY! Yes i am sure it was accidental that she went in the toilet, another minute with her diaper on and she would have in it, but still i praised her, showed her what she did, and let her flush it down the big toilette. I then gave her some fruit loops as a little prize...So now i am just trying to take them in every hour or so to sit, and hope i catch a potty moment again to encourage! I don't have a lot of time to stare for signs of them going to the bathroom, but i have been watching 30 minutes after they drink. I got Aidan to the potty a few seconds too late, and the same for Layla, she didn't want to go into the potty but play, and dang-it next thing i know her diaper is wet...Timing is everything. Note: I am taking my sweet time training them, they are only 18 months, so i figure by age 2 i want them trained pretty well...that is my goal! :)

Superbowl Party

Yesterday was the superbowl as many of you know, and Kendall had a little party with a few friends. Actually it was more of a come over eat a lot of food, be entertained by the kids, and THEN watch the Superbowl. Either way the kids loved the company and showed off a bit for sure. The first picture is Layla with BBQ sauce on her face from the chicken wings she is stuffing in her face. The second is Aidan thinking up something mischievous to do to get attention. Either way it was a lot of fun and yes i am REAL glad the Giants upset the Patriots...Whoohoo...but on the other hand i'm a little upset that their wasn't any really memorable commercials...bummer...Ohwell Tom Petty's half time show was pretty good, the kids and i danced while everybody went to feast on food. :)

New Camera Fun pt. 1 Layla

Ok, so i splurged and bought a new camera for myself. I love it. I love my other one too, but it was just to big for traveling or keeping in my purse. I realized this when i was afraid to bring it to vegas in fear that i would lose it or break it. So i sacrificed many wonderful priceless pictures. So, now that i have this new sleek little one, i hope that i will not have another regretful time without pictures...since we know i LOVE taking pictures...here are a few of Layla from the day...following is a few of Aidan from the day...
Layla sucking on her thumb staring at something...

Layla showing me the new discovery of door hinges..she was pretty excited.
Giving Big Bear a hug, this happens dozens of times throughout the day.
Bath time fun!! Layla laughing in the tub...
Layla being silly showing off her crazy hair do...very cute!

New Camera Fun pt. 2 Aidan

Aidan heaving a ball over his head at me...for a ball full of air it seems it is taking all his effort!
Big Bear needs hugs throughout the day too! :)
Here Aidan is jamming to Gary's music on his headphones...he was moving his head a little to dance.
A long day requires some down time on Big bear...with Aidan's blanket that is now like an Eeyore to him. Aw, the joys have childhood attachment!
Aidan holding Scruffy Teddy while being real into a Baby Einstein movie.