"No, No, Mommy! Stop It!"

Everybody who has met Layla knows she is a sweet little girl, but there is a little girl inside of her that comes out as very bossy...daily...and mostly to me. I will tell her to stop something or to ask her to do something, this is the response normally "No, No, Mommy!" Often times she will add "stop it mommy!" when i walk in front of her Dora time, or if i am taking something away from her. Awww... the joys of a little 2 year old pointing her fingers at me telling me "No!". There are three things i do for this "no"ness. 1) I grab her finger and say "You mean Yes mommy, Ok Mommy!" 2) i put her in timeout if it is in a huge fit. 3) i ignore her "no's". Whichever i choose to do, she still has to do the request i had in the beginning, i refuse to give into anything they both try and hassle out of me, because it will just increase this behavior in the future. She is getting better about saying "Ok Mommy" and every time she does i praise her and let her know that i appreciate her obeying me. Looking at the picture above it is obvious she is saying "No Mommy!" and look two fingers waving at me!!

Two Years Old

I cannot believe that two years ago marks the beginning of motherhood for me. The time has passed and i have grown so much within the life role i have been given and would never trade this opportunity for the world. Layla and Aidan were born two healthy babies and a thank God everyday they remain to be healthy and grow strong. Even though the birth was not so easy on me, i would never trade the pain i went through as long as i know it was to keep them safe and pain free. Born on August 11, 2006, they weighed in at 5 lbs 2 0z and 5lbs 3 oz. Now i imagine they are creeping by 30 pounds two years later.
Layla and Aidan grow together, they do everything together, and even slept in the same crib up until they were rolling. It was at this point we made the decision to move them to separate cribs, mainly due to Layla kicking Aidan and keeping him awake. Their cribs have remained next to each other, where still each morning i hear them giggling and talking to eachother.

Even after a year, i have seen such a tremendous change in their faces. Their personalities remain the same since they were born, Layla has quite the facial expressions to go with her mood, but still is a sweetheart at the end. Aidan has always been the one to push his limits physically, if it was bouncing his bouncy chair till the bottom fell through till now, jumping off anything he can climb up to.
Layla picked up a companion at Christmas 2006, whom she still carries with her to this day. Eeyore. He has been a faithful friend to her, and even though she has a few more little babies and pals to carry around, in the end she asks for him when she needs comfort. Even though this raggedy stuffed animal has seen better days, she loves him the same. Aidan enjoys his blankets for comfort, but when around the older boys he seems to avoid it, as to seem tougher.
Two years old today and the kids can carry on a conversation with us, it is so hard to believe that they were once so little that they could barely grasp an object to now, stirring their birthday brownie's proudly. Layla has grown into a sweet little girl, who loves to help. She lives to help and please us. Kendall and I joke that she is going to grow up to be a mommy, that is her future. She rocks her babies softly, kisses their foreheads, and pats their backs gently. She can pick up on cues when i am upset, or tense. She senses this, puts her little hand on my back or arm and softly says "ok mommy, ok." as she leans into kiss my cheek. That alone brings tears of joys that she has grown to be a compassionate person and understands how to console someone. Her imagination is growing, she has even been caught putting Eeyore in time out, and often times blames her dirty diaper on Eeyore.
Layla is in love with babies, she tries so hard to be "big" so she can hold a real baby. Even though she is still too little, i let her help me when i watch a friends baby. Here with Karl II, Layla tickles and he smiles back happily. When i ask her to grab a diaper (even though i can reach it fine) or to give the baby a kiss, she smiles big. The terrible twos are definitely hitting our house, and no matter how frustrated i get, Layla always seems to lighten the mood. Daily do i hear them both begging to watch Dora, and when i say no, she will wave her finger at me and say " no no mommy dora!", this is enough to make my blood boil, a two year old waving her finger at me and telling me no?? Last night she asked "movie dora mommy please!", keeping my cool, i turn to her and say "No sweetheart, mommy is watching the Olympics, it is her turn for the tv." And then she said quickly.."ok, byebye mommy" and ran off to play. Slowly she will learn that telling me no won't get her far but politeness will, i ran and gave her a big hug.

Oh how Aidan has grown, he has passed Layla in the physical aspect, and learns a lot from her since her language is increasingly ahead of him. Aidan is my little clown, he loves to do things to make others laugh, he loves to laugh himself. As a close friend said to me the other day "Aidan's laugh is contagious!" Aidan loves to explore, so much that he often gets in trouble when he wanders off and scares me! He climbs as high as he can on jungle gyms, couches, picnic tables, rocks, whatever there is to climb on. He proceeds to jump off of things, as he realized "oh i can jump off the couch and not get hurt, why not try off the arm rest of the couch?" He can kick a ball like no other, he actually takes the time to put the ball where he wants it to line it up, and then kicks it straight to his target 4 out of 5 times. I often set up a goal for him to kick through and sure enough, he lines up the ball and boots it through.
Although he is all that is boy, eats more meat than veggies, he still has a sweeter side that makes me smile. When Layla is upset and crying, he will walk to her and pat her on the back softly as to comfort her, if this doesn't work he will run off to find Eeyore and hand him to her. Our time outs in the naughty spot here involves me counting to 10, 20, 30 or higher depending the crime done. I figure this teaches them counting while being punished. Layla was in the naughty spot in time out, and Aidan was sitting next to her playing, before i began counting i heard his voice counting "1...2...3...4..."he then paused and continued with"...2...6...2...8" he had realized he wasn't good at counting past 4 so just named numbers he knew. He loves to learn, figure things out. He figured out how to put the shapes into a block months before Layla, and now its not of interest to him because he is on to figuring out bigger things. We often catch him counting quietly to himself, or hear him over the monitor at night. Even though he only plays with the baby dolls now and then, after he is done rocking and kissing him he throws them across the room, something Layla would never do because she really feels they are alive.
I cannot believe that two years ago, you were just learning how to eat, to turn your head, and grasp with your fingers. Now you are learning to ride bikes, go hiking with us, jump like crazy on your air bouncer, and never stop running around playing. Although so little time has passed in your lives so far, so much has happened, you have grown and developed quickly, making time pass by too fast.

One Man's Trash is Another's Treasure

Something i have figured out these past years is that if you label something "free" and sit it in your yard (if you live near other people of course) every case i have had that item taken. From a bent up futon, to a computer desk, to yesterday, the kids cabbage patch kitchen in which had taken quite the beating from the kids over the past year of using it, a kitchen set which Emily bought for them for 5$ the previous year at a garage sale, so it has seen its years. There are many internet sites such as craigslist.com or freecycle.com where you can list your items for free or a price and people will come and get it locally. Even though i have not used these sites , just a simple "free" sign on the item itself has worked, the fastest was the desk, gone in less than 20 minutes. I am happy to know that these items will be reused saving the overfilling of our landfills with items that others may want. So next time you plan to bring something to the dump that is still in ok condition, give it a try first with the free sign or advertising, never hurts if your going to toss it anyway!

Backward Look at the past month!

Aidan after his birthday bash walking his friend Zoey. Notice there big Mickey Mouse Clubhouse air jumper in the background? They had a blast, this year was great not only were they surrounded by great friends and family, they also actually had kids at their party this year!! Their cousin Ebony (8), their cousin Adrianna (3), their friend Madison (16months), Stacy (7 months) and Tyrus (3 months). IT was a lot of fun for them and i am real glad it all went smoothly
Ebony helping Layla and Aidan open one of the many great gifts they got for their birthday. Adrianna watches them open the gifts. The living room was COVERED in gifts and wrapping paper by the end of their present opening!
The kids loved their bouncer mickey mouse club thing, we will probably set it up on the weekends for them from here on out. The only down point was the rain off and on throughout their party, but it didn't stop anyone from playing horseshoes, or jumping on this. There was probably 20+ people who attended their birthday bbq bash, it was wonderful.
We went to Guernsey Lake before their birthday party on Sunday for the weekend and the kids loved every minute of it. Layla enjoyed the boat more than going in the water, but after a day in the sun she was passed out on Katie's lap from the rocking of the boat.
Aidan loved the water but would never smile. He was VERY serious when he was floating on his raft, but you could tell he was enjoying it. Everybody pushed him out pretty far into the water and he loved watching the boats!
We went back to Kendall's hometown to visit his grandma who was in the hospital. The kids hadn't seen her for awile and they enjoyed their time there and with their Grandma Gail. Here Layla is splashing in the lake nearby.
Aidan enjoyed splashing and was more adventurous in the water, if we wouldn't have stopped him he would have tried to walk to the middle of the lake!
The kids enjoyed there time with their Grandma Gail, here everybody is swinging at a nearby park.
The houswarming party was a lot of fun and a great success. Many friends and family came to share this time with us. Here are all of my parents grandkids, Adrianna, Aidan, Layla, and Ebony.
Aidan was showing Gary "bobbob" how to through some horseshoes. He was in and out of the pool all afternoon.
After we moved into our new house, A friend brought over his pet rabbit, Leroy. Layla loved this rabbit, i had to teach her however that dragging him by his ears hurt the bunny and not to ever do it again.
The kids enjoying a quick bath outside in their little tub while Kendall worked on setting up the picnic table with Geoff. It was a housewarming gift from Geoff and Gina.
I then left with the kids on July 12th to a Family Picnic held each year from my Dad's work. Looking at the picture..where are the kids on the teeter totters?
On July 7th we painted the kids room, fairy tale pink, 100acre wood morning blue, pooh bear yellow, and white for the trim and stripes...the reason we painted their room was the previous owners had a love for purple and lavender...

July was a busy month for us, we moved into our new house on July 8th even though the closing was July 7th! It couldn't have come any sooner!

Happy 4th of July

I hope everybody had a safe and fun 4th of July, ours was pretty active for the kids, they ended up taking a 2 and a half hour nap, an hour over what they normally do! It was a lot of fun to hang out as a family with Kendall...ALL DAY! Aww holidays...and should i mention that we have 2 more nights before we are in our OWN house, it couldn't come too soon. Kendall ordered our washer/dryer and dishwasher, all to be ready on Tuesday for us. We have some nice patio furniture with a firepit to pick up on Tuesday, and Kendall is getting his bed back home so we do not have to pump up half our deflated bed each night only to wake up in the morning completely deflated...Yay!
Our day started out by going to Freedom has a Birthday celebration in a local park. We met Karen and Zach there for a bit. I always enjoy this part, because the whole town comes together for a little hometown celebration, were vender's, local business's, churches, whoever comes and set up booths, giving away and selling different things. Union Pacific had this little train that they would give kids rides on but we never caught it in time to get a ride, it was always parked. There was firetrucks, bouncy toys for kids, a lot of food vender's, a dog fly ball and agility course set up for the public to watch, and a pool for kids to play in. There was live entertainment, starting from the band shell having different culture groups come and teach their music/dancing, along with local bands. To the middle of the park there was a stage set up for rock bands bands to come and play a set for people, and as you made it across to the other side there was another stage for local entertainment by kids and teens. It seemed like 1 of out 3 people there had a dog, so the kids got to enjoy seeing every kind of breed of dog, Beagles, Mastiffs, Border Collies, Dachshunds, Retrievers, Labs, German Shepard's...a variety breeds!
We met up with Gary and Nikki downtown for the farmers market, it was still pretty small, being the first of the year, but we ended up on this walking bridge over the railroad tracks so the kids could watch a train REAL up close since lately, all i hear is trains going by, and Aidan LOVES it. He will turn to me every time he hears one go by and yell "Train! Choohooo!" So now and then we go out on the sidewalk to watch.
Here comes the train!!! The train engineer honked as neared us, we were waving big and they saw us! The kids absolutely loved it, yelling "GO! GO! Go!", "Choooochoooo Train!", "Look Mommeeeeeeee, Daddeeeee".
Aidan gave running through the sprinklers a go. He didn't like them hitting his face though.
The kids enjoyed the puddles made from the sprinklers more than running through them, i don't think they liked the noise from them or how hard it hit their faces.
The kids got to see and touch their first earth worm. We first showed them one that had unfortunetly drowned, and Aidan would not leave it alone, standing over it saying "Night night worm!! Shhhhhhhhh (as he put his finger to his mouth). " So i was determined to find a live and moving one for him.
Aidan enjoyed the live worm a lot, but still kept going to the "sleeping" one as he thought to point it out.
For fire in the sky fireworks, we drove up the interstate to near the summit to a hill to watch, hoping the kids might enjoy it better without the loud booms. This place overlooks the whole valley and we enjoy going up there to see everything. The kids did enjoy it, we pulled them out of their car seats to sit on our lap and point out the different colors.
Aidan on my lap, this is about 10 pm, they were real troopers staying up this late from such a long day!
Layla smiling on Kendall's lap, i am glad they enjoyed it, even though they were exhausted, they were REALLY good about staying up 2 hours after bedtime. I think it made their evening just to be in the car OUT of their car seats for once and in the front seat, a first time thing!

Hiking Around Pictures

Oh, that is what a butterfly looks like without his wings spread? Layla not sure what to think about the butterfly on my finger.
Aidan loves the rocks...so much so that he is giving this boulder a nice big hug!! I caught him crumbling off pieces of it and eating it a bit later.....
Layla and Aidan LOVE flowers, they have to smell them all the time, here she picked me some wild yellow snapdragons! You can see the river behind her.
Aidan taking a stop to smell the purple snap dragons. I am planning on planting a little flower garden next week (yes in our NEW house!) with the kids, i think they would love it!
Layla stepping off the trail to pick more flowers. Yes she is wearing a dress with pants, i slipped pants on both of them because they are so little they can't step over the brush and get all scratched up.
Taking a rest before we headed back down the way to the vehicle. There is a river behind them but hard to see with all of the trees.
Layla striking a pose to look extra pretty for the camera!
Throwing rocks in the river, they were thrilled that we didn't yell at them to stop throwing rocks! We couldn't really anyway, Kendall was throwing rocks in too, haha.

Bucko...Poop!!

I really am starting to worry about my little man, he seems to get some bad constipation at least once a week, so bad indeed that he pushes randomly throughout the day until his face is bright red and his body is stiff as a board to gain nothing from the effort. He goes meal after meal not eating but maybe a bite here or there, so i imagine his tummy hurts. He screams out in pain, and reaches for me to hold him and rub his back to offer him some sort of support system during these times. I try everything, i change his diet, fruit usually does the trick by the end of the day, and i heard plums may also get the process to go along. He gets plenty of fiber, plenty of fluids, and i just worry that its something deeper that i cant see physically. It doesn't help when we go away or leave him over night because then he forceably holds it in until he is home, and well it makes it worse. Today he worked all day trying, nothing. That is until bath time, it was although the hot water sped things up (i am actually glad for his sake!). Although it was our first poop incident in the tub, i wasn't upset at all, i was prepared just couldn't reach him in time to plop him on the potty. He sat on the potty afterwards, with his little towel wrapped around him and this sad embarrassed look on his face, i smiled and reassured him that it happens, and i am glad he is feeling better! If anybody else has an idea on what can speed this process up that would be lovely...i'm willing to try most anything to help him feel at ease.

Let's Cheer Up Mommy!

These past few weeks have been pretty stressful for me, and with the news i received yesterday things seem to be getting even more stressful. It is something that i now have to balance school, doctor appointments, paying money to receive medical records for myself, Layla and Aidan, and lastly, figuring out if i need to progress forward with talking to a lawyer, or if its something that could have been for seen and somehow i missed the concept. The kids have picked up on my negative mood, and seem to be acting a lot sillier as if to cheer me up. So i decided if we are going to make silly faces at each other, why not to the camera too?
When i told Aidan to smile big for the camera, this is the face i got. Him squinting his eyes and pressing his lips together...he did this every time i asked for a smile!
So i decided, ok lets get a picture of this face and me doing it with him...so i said "smile Aidan!" and i made the face knowing this was a smile in his head!
Layla will stick out her tongue when i ask her too, so this picture was a little easier to get! :) She hasn't yet mastered the whole far out sticking of the tongue (she inherited my loooong tongue, so i need to teach her how to stick it out properly to take advantage of the full length!).
Aidan really wanted to get his "boos coos" AKA "blues clues" in the picture. So he sneacked it in when i was giving him a kiss, and by the look on his face he is pretty happy to get it in the picture...or is he really happy that i am kissing him? :) Either way these photos and silly times with the two really helped to cheer me up!