Vacation Part 1

Living far away from family STINKS. I miss them :(

But it's so much fun when we do get to see them.

We started out our vacation in New Mexico for a few days and then headed on over to Colorado. Here's some of the pictures of our adventures in New Mexico. I love it there. The first thing I do when we get to the dirt road that leads up the canyon to my grandparents place is insist that the windows be rolled down and the music shut off. I LOVE how it smells!

Sorry about the gazillion photos. I really should figure out how to do a collage, but I'm too lazy to be technologically savvy.

Eva and Jared playing on the bulldozer. This is Jared's favorite thing to do there.

Takin' a spin around the pond

Somehow all the kids ended up in our car watching a Barbie movie one morning. It was pretty nice! We just kept passing food and drinks in through the windows and everyone was happy.

The alpacas were a big hit with Eva. I was explaining to her on the way there that alpacas don't have any top teeth so they can't bite you. That night at dinner my brother-in-law asked me if Eva had something wrong with her teeth because she was chewing weird. When I asked her about it she said, "I'm an alpaca!" Well...that explains it.

There was a dog running around with one of those cones around it's neck. Eva had recently seen UP so she starts giggling, "MOM! Look! Dog wears cone of shame!"

Excuses

*caution* You may find the following story shocking. Especially for those of you who know how sweet and kind I always am. *cough COUGH*

Yesterday the girls and I were just getting home from the grocery store. It was so stinkin' hot and I was carrying Lyla in her carseat along with 2 gallons of milk and Eva was leading the way to the house and the blessed air conditioning. Eva was going slow as molasses and there is positively no hurrying the girl.

Me: "Eva! Let's GO we're about to die of heat stroke back here!"
Eva "Mom, don't be cranky!" She has now stopped ALL forward progress and is looking at me with a hurt face
Me: "I'm not cranky!" I begin trying to prod her with Lyla's car seat so we can at least resume snail pace
Eva: "Oh, just tired?"
Me: "No, I'm not tired!" I move on to prodding her with the milk since the car seat isn't working
Eva: still completely stopped in the walkway, looking very puzzled. Suddenly she puts her finger in the air like she's figured it out "Oh! I know! Hungry! It's ok mama I'll get you some food" and confidently strides to the door.

I stood there dumbfounded in the walkway realizing that my two year old has just called me out.

I have a bazillion excuses for ONE thing.

I'm cranky.

Thank You Chik-fil-a

What would you do for free food?

Fill out a credit card application for one pepperoni pizza? YUP. I was a dumb college freshmen. Saving 5 bucks was a BIG deal.

Drive all over creation looking for a darn Seven Eleven that isn't out of their free slurpie cups? MmmHmmm.... I've done it. (How far did we drive when gas was $4.50/gallon? Darn that slurpie)

Wait in a line in the blazing heat for 2 hours with your 18 month old? Been there, done that.

Dress like a cow? YEP. I can now add that to my list of things I am, in fact, willing to do. All in the name of FREE.

Thank you chik-fil-a for this annual holiday. I will be there, every year, black spots, black nose and ears taped to my headband. Just keep the freebies a-comin.

I'm just glad this little girl is still at an age where Mom dressing up like a cow is "so fun!" Give her a decade and she'll be thinking Mom is "so dumb".

p.s. when Eva opened her box of chicken nuggets she took one look and said "HEY! WHERE'S MY HAMBURGER!?!? I WANT A BURGER!"

5 months

Little Lyla Lou is 5 months old and changing so much. She's trying hard to get up on her knees, which has resulted in a lot of face plants. She's managed to drag herself a few inches when she's really determined to get something. If I had to describe her in one word it'd be content. She loves to just sit and watch. She must be big because her size is the #1 comment we get, but she looks normal to me. We love this little peanut.

The Big Girl Bed, Sisters and Fathers Day

Eva has officially made the (reluctant) transition from a crib to a big girl bed. I sure as heck didn't want to buy a second crib, and Lyla was getting pretty gargantuan in the bassinet she was sleeping in. Eva threw a fit whenever we talked about getting her a big bed, so we finally just brought one home and set it up. I guess seeing it made her feel differently because she thought it was pretty cool. She's been pretty good about sleeping in it, but ever since Jared started work again (did I ever mention he was unemployed for 6 months? That's a whole other story) she's been getting up earlier and earlier. It sure makes for one cranky mamma when she's waking up at 5 am and I'm still getting up twice at night with Lyla. But I finally drew the line when I came out one morning to find her sitting on the counter eating the stash of dum dum pops I have on the top shelf of the cabinet. So, we're trying out an alarm clock in her room set for 6 am with the hopes that she'll at least stay IN her room until that hour. (Locking her in was not such a good idea. It resulted in a frenzied fit of kicking on the door and waking up the baby) So far she seems to like the alarm clock idea.She has about a zillion "friends" that sleep on her bed. They have to be placed just so with her favorites up by the pillow and moving down in rank from there.

Eva and Lyla are thankfully getting along. Ever since Eva discovered that other people like Lyla she's VERY protective of her. Eva insists on being the first one to greet Lyla when she wakes up. I'm not allowed in the room until she's said "Hello lyla! Good MOOORRRNING! Ooo you're bigger!" THEN I'm allowed to enter. Lyla thinks everything Eva does is hilarious. Well...except for when Eva tries to catapult her out of her bouncer. She doesn't find that quite as funny.

Father's day was nice and relaxing. I made this cheesecake which we both really loved. I won't get all mushy on here, he knows I think he's a great dad.

I keep telling Jared that he and I only get our hair cut after seeing ourselves in pictures! He's decided after this picture that maybe he'd better get one. :)

Advice?

Does anyone out there have some advice on potty training? Eva has declared "NO MORE DIAPERS!" but...she's nowhere NEAR being potty trained in my opinion. She's only accidentally used the potty a few times. Her pediatrician gave me some material suggesting a one day approach where they basically run around naked all day drinking as much of whatever they want, the theory being the don't like peeing on themselves and will use the potty. I'm willing to try that approach at least to see if she's really interested or not, but I just wondered if anyone has any advice or success with a different approach. I think the hardest thing for me right now is that I have a 4 month old and can't watch Eva intently all day long looking for those hidden "clues". Any advice/references would be helpful!

Four Months

Lyla is four months old today. She's a sweet little girl, and most of the time is happy to sit and watch the craziness or just talk to herself. She's very proficient at rolling from her back to her belly, which she does constantly, and then immediately starts yelling for someone to flip her back over. I'd forgotten about how much fun it is to change a diaper on a kid that MUST roll over. She has never wanted to take a binky, but has found her fingers and those work just fine for her. We're loving having her around.

She is rarely seen without those two fingers in her mouth. I guess the other hand is there to keep them from getting away.