a great day

I figured that if I write about my days of struggle I ought to also write about my days of joy.  Yesterday was definately a day of joy.  Tyler and I stayed home from church that morning because he had been running a very high fever and he wasn't completely back to normal yet.  Since we stayed home I was able to get a little more sleep than normal which was a huge blessing for my sleep deprived body. 

One of my favorite times with Lyla as a baby was in the morning when we would hang out in our pj's just staring at each other and making silly faces.  There was no rush to get up and get our day started.  We could just enjoy our time together.  I would love to do the same thing with Tyler but it's hard to do that.  Lyla is around, wanting to get up and have breakfast.  But yesterday morning Kyle and Lyla were gone and the house was quite (other than Tyler's snorts and sneezes from being congested).  He and I had the morning to hang out just the two of us relaxing and staring at each other.  It was wonderful.  To top it off he was starting to feel better and was just full of smiles.  He even giggled for the first time.  I love it!  I couldn't help but grab the camera and record his adorable face.  Here are a few favorites of the MANY pictures I took.  (I love SLR cameras!)

Later Kyle and Lyla came home, we had lunch and then Tyler went down for a nap.  We had a little while until it was time for Lyla to nap so the three of us headed outside to take advantage of the little bit of snow we still had left.  Lyla wanted to play on the swingset so we did that for awhile and then we grabbed the sleds and went down our hill a few times.  The main hill was so iced over we ended up going down the more subtle hill.  It was still pretty fast and lots of fun.  I love hearing Lyla squeal in delight.  (I tried to upload a video of her squeal but it won't upload.  Sorry, you'll just have to imagine it.)

That evening Lyla helped me pack up for Florida.  She is SUPER excited about going on a plane to visit her great grandparents and Auntie Ando and Cousin Ethan.  She would go through all the stuff I had packed, checking everything out which made it a little harder to pack but it was fun seeing how excited she was.  She'd say "yeah, animal crackers for Iyah...ye-a-ah!" 

These are the days I want to forever remember....

catching up

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try to stay a little more on top of things this year to keep from getting behind.  I realize that isn't always possible but I'm working my best to make it happen.  That includes the blog.  I certainly won't be posting daily but more than once every month or so would be good.  :-)  I hope to get you all up to date by the end of the day today.  We'll see if that happens.  Either way, I've added a bunch of new posts so keep scrolling down to see them all.  Some of them are new posts but I dated them closer to when they actually happened so they are listed below some that you might have already seen.  (I think the farthest back I dated something was Dec. 22, Lyla's birthday.)  Thanks for stopping by to catch up!

kids say the darndest things...

Lyla is starting to approach my favorite age for kids.  Each day they surprise you with the things they say and do and Lyla is no exception.  She is constantly saying funny things.  I'm trying to write them all down for her to have someday.  Or maybe just for me to have when I need a laugh.  Here are some of the latest:

1.1.11-after sledding once down our big hill...
Lyla: No sled daddy.

Kyle: Was that fun?
Lyla: Fun!
Kyle: Want to do it again?
Lyla: No!
Lyla: No more playing snow daddy.

Lyla can count to ten.  This is what she says:
one, two, phee, pour, phibe, six, seben, eight, nine, ten  (ten is said with umph!)

1.27.11-Lyla yawns

Lyla: Someone’s sleepy
Mama: Yeah? Who’s sleepy?
Lyla: Iyah* sleepy!
*Iyah is how she says her name.

1.28.11
Lyla: I went poopies!
Mama: You did go poopies!
Lyla: Iyah bottom stinky.

2.8.11-Lyla and I sitting at breakfast...
Mama: Lyla do you want to pray?
Lyla: Yeah! (she says enthusiastically)
Mama: Dear…
Lyla: Daddy (How fitting is that???)
Mama: Yes, Dear God…
Lyla: Thank you for my food
Mama: What else?
Lyla: Thank you for my juice
Mama: What else?
Lyla: Thank you for Mommy, Daddy
Mama: Who else? Baby Brother?
Lyla: Thank you baby Ty-er
Mama: In Jesus’ name…
Lyla: AMEN!

more snow

There's a holiday song that is a good summary of how our winter has been this year: "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow".  So far this winter we have gotten 76" of snow.  In case you are wondering, that's a LOT of snow!  We've gotten so much the towns are having to truck the snow to nearby fields because there's now where else to put it.  Many of the roads are rather narrow from the build-up of the snow and at several intersections you have to creep out into the traffic a bit just to see if you can turn because there is so much snow piled up it blocks your normal view.  It's beautiful and very fun to play in!  And truthfully, while it's been frustrating to be locked up inside, the sun almost always comes out the next day gracing us with a bright blue sky to shimmer on the freshly fallen snow.  Here are a few pictures from a snow we had a few weeks ago.  It's at least one and a half times this now.  Since we live in the cul-de-sac all the snow gets pushed our way which means that the snow at the edge of our yard is a good 10' high.  It's so tall you can't see any cars pass by. 

a long day...

I'm pretty sure that today was one of the longest and probably most challenging days I've had as a mom so far.  It seemed like one thing after another went wrong and while I can look back on it and laugh I will confess that earlier today my tears were more like tears of frustration than joy.  Does anyone else have days like this? 

When I got Lyla up this morning I noticed that her jammies were a little wet.  I went to feel her bed and sure enough it was wet too.  She is potty trained but at night we still put her in a pull-up.  I took her to the bathroom to get her changed and as I pulled off her jammies I discoverd the problem...  She didn't have a pull-up on.  Confused I went back her room and sure enough, right beside her bed lay a wet pull-up.  At some point she had taken off her jammies, removed her pull-up and then sneakily put her jammies back on.  Now the question is did she wet through her pull-up leaving her jammies and bed wet or did she take the pull-up off because it was wet and then pee in her jammies?  I suppose I will never know...  I finished getting her wiped down and dressed and then went to give Tyler a bottle.  He had nearly finished and I set the bottle down to burp him.  Out of the corner of my eye Lyla caught my attention.  I looked over to see her drinking the rest of the milk in the bottle.  I realize that I breastfed her for a year but now it just seems gross for her to be drinking my milk.  Ick!  Later that morning I was working on stripping Lyla's sheets off the bed when I heard her say "uh oh".  When you have a two year old the phrase "uh oh" is never a good sign.  I ran out of her room to find Lyla standing on the stairs looking down at her feet.  Yep, she peed in her pants.  Normally she will just go to the bathroom when she needs to but sometimes if she gets to playing she will forget.  And with all the commotion the morning had brought, I hadn't thought to remind her to go.  So I had to stop stripping her bed to strip her down, get her changed and clean up the carpet.  Then back to her sheets.  Life calmed down a bit long enough for Lyla to play with her toy kitchen.  She LOVES to wash her hands and swiped the soap out of our bathroom to "pretend" to use. 

Harmless, or so I thought.  More on this in a second.  At lunch time Tyler pooped.  I was clearing the dishes and planned to change him in a little bit.  Lyla however thought he needed changing right then so she started stripping him down.  I caught her after she had one tab off and was working on the second diaper tab.  You can imagine how messy that almost was.   After lunch I decided to give her an old empty soap bottle to use in the play kitchen so we could return the soap back to it's rightful spot in the bathroom.  Then I headed upstairs to make her bed so she could take a nap.  All of the sudden I heard her running across the house.  Normally that means she is headed to the bathroom so I darted downstairs to see if she needed help.  I walked into the bathroom to find her a little jittery and saw a towel on the floor.  After I insisted that she go potty still thinking that was why she was in there, I started to wonder if something was up.  I left Lyla in the bathroom and headed into the playroom.  I got to the playroom slipped on something and nearly fell to the ground.  I looked down to find this:

 

Yep.  Both soap bottles.  The one with soap in it was open and soap was slowly pouring out.  I'm guessing she decided pretending wasn't good enough and wanted to put some soap in the empty bottle I gave her but she spilled the soap and ran to get the towel in the bathroom to clean it up.  I looked at the clock.  How is it only 2:00???  I cleaned up the mess, finished making her bed and safely tucked her in bed.  I collapsed into the chair downstairs with Tyler in my lap hoping to get him calmed down because for some reason he had spent much of the day crying which is unusual for him.  He was just starting to settle down when I heard a loud crash, followed by a thud and then screaming.    I set him down which led him to become hysterical again and ran upstairs to see what happened.  I opened Lyla's door and saw her lamp on the floor, her nighstand half fallen, books scattered on her floor, Lyla face first on the floor with her naked fanny sticking straight up in the air.  Are you kidding me???  So my guess is that she decided to take off her pull-up and after that still didn't want to sleep so she was reaching for her books on the nightstand, lost her balance, fell over her guard rail and landed face down onto the floor.  I picked her up and didn't know whether to scold her or ask if she was okay.  I made sure she was okay and then scolded her.  Sitting there just thinking about all that happened during my day I couldn't help but cry.  I was so exhausted.  But then I kept picturing Lyla's naked butt sticking straight up in the air and my crying turned into giggling.  Then Lyla started giggling.  I'm not sure why exactly this is but it seems like some of her best giggles happen around naptime or bedtime.  I can't describe them but they are music to my soul.  After such a trying day I need a little something to cheer me up and her giggles were just the thing.  And as we sat there giggling I was reminded that while I might have challenging days like this one, it's all worth it in the end.  

causing trouble

These days Lyla is always doing something or saying something that has us laughing. Today was no exception. I had just come inside from taking pictures of the snow and my conversation with her went something like this:

Lyla: Hi mama

Me: Hi Lyla

Me: Are you behaving

Lyla: Yeah

Me: Are you being sweet to your brother (who was sitting in the bouncy seat last I knew)

Lyla: Yeah

I rounded the corner to find this:

Lyla has had quite the facination with "naked" lately. If she sees skin at all she thinks you're naked so we're trying to tell her that naked is when you don't have any clothes on at all. Apparently she's just checking to see if Tyler was naked under his clothes...

snow days

For those of you that grew up in the north, you probably remember those days as a kid when you heard rumors of snow. You'd go to sleep wishing and praying that you'd wake up in the morning to find that snow had come and you were forced to stay home from school to have snowball fights, build snowforts and sled down the nearest hill. I loved those days and I'm sure you did too. The funny thing is that I still have that excitement as an adult. I'm sure it's partly because I don't have a job to get to and deadlines looming over my head but I think it's also because those days rarely come anymore. It seems as though our weatherment have a tendency to predict a decent amount of snow but hardly ever get it right. Last year they forcasted 14-18" of snow so they called off schools and shut the city down (why make the call BEFORE any snow has fallen???) only to find that we barely got a dusting. Then last month they forcasted a good 12" and we got about half of that. So as the rumors started swirling a few days ago, my excitement and hope grew about the possiblity of a good snowstorm. They were speculating at least 10" of snow and possibly as much as 20". I awoke this morning and with excitement and anticipation pulled back the curtains to see if it was true. Finally, the weathermen were right!!! We definately have snow. As of 10 am this morning we measured 16" but it's been snowing so hard that I'm pretty sure we'll hit 20" by the time it's all done. The snowfall rate has been as much as 2-3" an hour! The sad part is that it is so deep your sled just sinks. Hopefully we'll be able to pack it down a little and head out this weekend when you can actually see in front of you. :-) Our side yard is PERFECT for sledding and has a nice long run. It's the kind of yard the neighbors are jealous of in the winter because of the sledding potentials but hate to mow in the summer because of the steepness. On days like today, it's worth the hassle in the summer!

being a big sister

I needed to put another load of laundry in the washer so I left Tyler on the bed for a second. He was crying so I told Lyla to sing him a song. Her defalts are "Jesus Loves Me" and "Holy, Holy, Holy". She started singing "yes, Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me..." Tyler's crying just got louder and by the time I got to the washer so did Lyla's singing. At the top of her lungs she started singing "holy, holy, holy, Lord (God) almighty..." I guess she thought he would calm down if she sang louder.

lyla's butterfly birthday

Once Christmas and New Years were over we had a birthday party for Lyla and invited her friends from church.  The party theme was butterflies so I made cupcakes with chocolate butterflies on them.  In lieu of tradional party favors we let each of the kids decorate their own butterfly house and then sent them home with a few live caterpillars.  Over the past few weeks we've gotten to watch the caterpillars spin their cocoons and then emerge as beautiful butterflies.  I have pictures of the caterpillars and such but they are floating around on one of my memory cards somewhere so I'll have to post pictures of those later.  It has been very fun watching the butterflies hatch.  We actually had on hatch just a few minutes ago but I missed it.  :-(  Here are a few pictures of the party.  Lyla loved it when the kids sang happy birthday to her!

rambo band

One day a few months ago Lyla spotted this headband in my drawer and insisted on having it.  Now it's a staple in her wardrobe.  She loves to wear it on her forehead so we call it the rambo band.  I have a couple more of these that she will sometimes have Kyle and I wear but fortunately I don't have any pictures of us wearing them....