She's 2!

Officially, Laila turned two on August 22nd. We didn't celebrate until just last week though due to some lack of planning on my part. Part of that lack of planning means that instead of a real party with cake and ice cream, we had Swedish pancakes for dinner and put a couple candles in Laila's. The kids thought it was pretty great.

The main reason for postponing the party was because I didn't decide until the night before her birthday that I wanted to get her a rocking horse. I had to order it, but it was worth the wait. She Loves it!

So hard to believe my baby it 2! She is turning into such a fun little lady full of personality and spunk. She knows exactly what she wants and doesn't let anything stop her. Some days it can be really frustrating, but mostly I admire that quality in her. Love you Bug!

Super Slugger Laila

Poor Laila is the only one that does not get to play baseball and she does not like to be left out! This evening we were sitting on the back porch together and she decided it was her turn to practice batting. She got the bat and tee out of the box all by herself and started hitting away. I guess we will have another tee ball player in a few years.

And for anyone still holding out hope that I am going to post the talent show videos, I promise they are coming. I'm working on uploading the videos right now which takes forever. I'm hoping to have them all done in the next few days.

Just a picture of my two shopping buddies

 

Now that we are eating differently I can't just head to one grocery store anymore and get everything I need , which usually means grocery shopping day is very long! These two are such troopers and hardly ever complain. In fact, Macy always asks "Can we go to Trader Joe's today?" Two little girls pushing little carts makes for very slow shopping and sometimes reckless driving, but it's worth it.

 

 

Oh, and if my blogging is a little scare for the next couple of weeks it's because I am busy painting and sewing a special surprise room for James. Here is a sneak peak.

Party in the USA

The activity day girls are performing a little dance routine to this song at the ward talent show next month. Samm and I came up with the choreography for the chorus that all the girls will be doing together so this song has been played a lot at our house the last few weeks. We just realized the other day that Laila was dancing along doing the moves and even has the air guitar down. I wish we could have gotten more of it on the video but she got distracted.

I wish you could all see the video of this

The microphone plays a couple My Little Pony songs and she was singing her little heart out.

 

After I smiled at her cuteness and took a few pictures (and shot a little video for future laughs), I sent Josh a text. "should we be worried about this?"

The girl loves music. We just need to chanel it in the right direction!

Is it really possible?

There are two things that immediately enter my mind as soon as I look at a positive pregnancy test. the first one being "Yay! Oh wait, this thing eventually has to come out some how..." and the second one is "Oh crap! Now I have to potty train again!"

Samm wasn't so bad, she just absolutely refused until she was 3. Then she was pretty much a breeze except for occasional night time accidents.  James I started at 2 1/2. He was completely willing to pee in the toilet as along as I set the timer and took him every 30 minutes, which after a few months I was not so willing to do all day every day any more. And the pooping situation? One time he pooped in his underwear while jumping on a trampoline (doing canon balls) and when I asked him why he replied "it makes me happy." It ended up being a YEAR long process. After James I planned on waiting until Macy was 3, but it was Josh's first year of residency and we just couldn't afford diapers any more so I took a chance at 2 1/2. She wasn't quite as easy as Samm but caught on fairly quickly. Her big hang up being the poop. She was terrified of it. Like, started screaming if she saw it. She still has issues with it to this day and will not be in the same room as me if I am changing a poopy diaper.

So, last month Laila started asking to sit on the toilet. At first I just thought it was cute and would let her sit on it for a second with her clothes on. After a while though it was pretty obvious that she was ready and willing for more than that. I however was not! She was only 18 months old. Potty training was no where on my radar yet and I had not properly prepared myself mentally for the challenge.

A few weeks ago however I reluctantly gave in and started just testing the waters with our toes a bit. Letting her run around naked for long periods of time and sitting her on the toilet periodically. The first day we didn't have any success and several accidents, but every time it happened she would get really upset and come and show me where it was. The second day we finally timed it right and she had the biggest smile of pride on her face I have ever seen.

Less than a week and a lot of running around naked later we are all but finished with diapers. She still needs them for naps and bedtime.

Today we finally went to the store to pick out her big girl undies. She chose Hello Kitty, and of course wanted to try them on as soon as we got home. And not just one. we had to put on all 8!

So proud of her big girl self!

And this picture I took of her a few days ago. She was a little hesitant about pooping at first as I am figuring out is pretty normal with most kids. She had been holding it since the afternoon before, but went as soon as I let her sit with a book.

And, now that I've typed this whole post I'm sitting here thinking that it might be slightly strange to post about potty training and I've probably used the word poop way too many times. I'm sure I could have used it a lot more though, so be grateful for that!

And yes, it is totally possible to have a 19 month old that tells you when she needs to use the bathroom. They just have to be completely brilliant, as I am convinced of course that she is!

It's the little things

Winter has settled in to stay for a while, so were doing the best we can to make our days less blah.

 

Laila and Baby

 

I finally have a girl that likes dolls!

 

 

We've had this doll for quite a while but she's always been just another toy in the box until Laila came along. Now at nap time it's baby and fuzzy or no deal! 

 

And for the non facebook crowd, I wanted to share this cute picture again that I took of her yesterday. Josh asked me if I stage these pictures of her and No, I do not.

 

 

How to torture Laila...

Make her stand behind a glass door and watch everyone else outside having fun!

 

 

The first wobbly steps never get old

 

Even the fourth time around, it's just as cute as ever!

 

Dancing Queen

Before you start to think this has turned into the Laila blog, I do have one funny thing to share from James.

On our way home tonight James said "For Christmas, I'm going to ask for a real force field." I said "OK" and didn't think much of it, but Macy wanted to know why, so he explained that he wants it so dad cant beat him up anymore. Um. Yes. So. every once in a while I tell Josh that the kids need to be roughed up a little and it usually ends in tears, but it's good for them! Apparently James does not agree however.

Alright, now on to the Laila part. She is by far our most serious child...until you turn on the music! I took the kids to skate night tonight and was a little worried about how to keep Laila entertained, but she had a blast! She ended up entertaining the lady sitting next to us.

Loony Laila

Wow, this week has been crazy! I was planning on having a laparoscopy done sometime next month to remove my IUD that got put in wrong 3 times to begin with and then somehow burrowed it's way out of my uterus and into my abdominal cavity. And then suddenly on Monday I talked to a different doctor and she was willing to do the surgery on Thursday so I said "why not!"

 

The surgery went really well and Josh was able to stay home and take care of me and the kids so I could rest. Friday even seemed like it would be a good day as well since one of my friends took Laila and Macy for me for a good chunk of the afternoon so I could rest some more. By Friday evening though I was utterly exhausted and all I wanted was for Josh to walk in the door so I could go lay down again. Of course it turned out to be one of the worst days he has had in a long time and didn't get home until 10:00.

 

By, 7:00 I was feeling loony, and apparently so was Laila. I gave her some Motrin because her darn top tooth just won't break through and the poor thing has been suffering for weeks now. Afterward she was thoroughly entertained by the medicine dropper so we sat on the stairs for about 30 minutes playing this little game, but I eventually had to cut her off because I was laughing so hard that my incisions were starting to hurt. (keep in mind that I was still under the influence of several medications!)

 



Saturday was the worse day yet, where I experienced some sort of crazy anesthesia hang over, and of course Josh was on call so I was on my own again. Thankfully I have really great friends who helped me out getting kids shuttled to birthday parties and brought us dinner. I would not have survived without them!

Today I am feeling tired still but more like myself again, and that feels great!

Makes me SO sad!

 

One Year Photo Shoot...aka The Day I'd Like to Forget

Warning: I'm going to gripe and complain, and then throw a whole bunch of pictures at you, because I'm that mom who thinks her kid is THE cutest and you all are just dying to pour over 32 pictures of her.

 

OK, let's begin. Josh left for Utah yesterday morning at 5:50am, which means that at 4:30am myself and four sleepy children escorted him to the airport. I should have known just to stay home after that. No good day starts at 4:30 in the morning. I did eventually get everyone back to sleep by 6:30 and Samm and James got themselves up and ready for school an hour so I shouldn't complain too much. Around 10:30 I finally got a call from the Dr's office that I have been waiting for for over a week, with the news that I will in fact have to have a minor surgery, but that is a rant for another day. After that we met some friends at the park, which was the only thing that saved Thursday for me. I need more grown up girl bonding time (name that movie)

 

Anyway, I had been going back and forth all day about whether or not I really wanted to drag all the kids out after school to take Laila's pictures, but in the end I wasn't sure if we would ever have another day that would be warm enough at 5:00 for her to not have a shirt on, and I had already blown up the helium balloons that were to be used in the pictures, so we went. At approximately 5:30 we arrived at the photo shoot location, and around 5:32 James let go of said balloons before even one picture could be snapped. (Just imagine really cute yellow and white polka dot balloons in the background)

 

Laila smiled and laughed for the first five pictures while Samm stood next to me squeaking a little elephant toy, and then she caught on to the game we were playing and pretty much refused to even look at me after that. If she did look up, she made sure to have her hands in her mouth.

 

There were some other lesser highlights in the middle, including James jumping in a creek with his tennis shoes on, me hitting my head on a beam, and loosing the lens cap to my camera, but let me just jump to the end. It's the best part.

 

I was a really great mom and let Laila sit up on a bench next to the other kids that was way too high for her to be sitting on, and then I walked out of reach of her just as Macy hopped off the bench sending her plummeting face first on the ground. Bloody noses don't make for good pictures, so we called it quits. And, the best part is that her nose might be broken. With Josh out of town, I don't know for sure, but the bridge of her nose is nice and purple and swollen. I keep seeing the image of her face hitting the ground in my head, and it makes my stomach lurch every time.

 

On a happier note though, out of the hundred or so pictures that I took, there were some good ones, and a few that are even good enough to hang on the wall. And, Laila doesn't seem to be scarred, emotionally that is, from our little escapade yesterday.

 

Now for the picture spew. Just focus on the cute face and not my picture taking skills. OK. I still have no clue how to use my camera, and after a few frustrating and completely blurry shots I just put the dumb thing on auto.

 





 

She looks so sweet in this picture, but don't let that fool you. She is a diva! What I really needed was a picture of her doing her eyebrow furrow.

I love her face in this one! I'm really bummed that it's blurry.

 

I think this is the one that will probably go on the wall!