A child's Imagination

It is so cute to see children develop an imagination. Colton has a VERY strong imagination. He colored on the floor the other day but I couldn't get too made because he said he drew "a hot hair balloon." For him to know what a hot air balloon is was amazing and to see him think his scribbles were one. This week he has displayed the funniest imagination so far. If you have kids or grandkids you probably know who this is...

Handy Manny!

Handy Manny is a chartoon character who he, along with his talking tools, fixes things. He is supposed to be Hispanic and they ocassionally say certain things in spanish. Well, the other day we had some maintenance done in our apartment. I was in the bedroom feeding Tayler and kept hearing Colton scream "Handy Manny! Handy Manny!" over and over again. Sometimes he gets excited when certain shows he likes come on TV, so I thought maybe the Handy Manny cartoon was on. Boy was I wrong..... There was a short plump hispanic maintenance man working in the apartment. Apparantly Colton thought he was Handy Manny! LOL It was soo funny. He was so excited to see "Handy Manny" and kept asking him about his tools. I laugh sitting her thinking about it. It is crazy how children have such an imagination for things!

On a GREAT note..... I have exciting news...

- In addition to Colton knowing all of his colors, he can now count 1-10 perfectly!! Next we will begin working on his ABC's.

- Colton poopied in the potty the past 3 days in a row!!! WAHOO!!!! Since we got new furniture, Kyle and I have been on Colton a lot about pottying in his pants. (He is getting so big and goes so much that sometimes he leaks through the pull up!) We make sure to take him any time he wants on the couch, which is very frequently. I take him as soon as he wakes up so he as actually told me when he wakes up that he needs to go. So exciting! Colton likes to run away and hide when he was to go #2 so we have been catching him and making him sit on the potty and when he goes tell him how much of a good BIG boy he is! He also gets a lecture when he goes in his pants. Well we have been doing something right because today he told me "me poo poo pleaseeeee." He wanted to go in the potty and told me before he actually went! Today is a great day! YAY for not having to change a toddler's dirty diaper for 3 days now!!!!! :)

Play Date Craziness!

This afternoon, Kelli and I got together for a lunch date. Kelli came with her daughter Brooke who is going on 2 years old and her son Maddux who is 6 months old. I came with Colton who is going on 3 years old and Tayler who is 2 months old. I was excited for the kids to get together and play and also conversate with Kelli. Unfortunately, we did not get to conversate as much as other times we have gotten together.... between Colton and Brooke playing with each other under the table, them both screaming at each other (in a fun way) Maddux getting fussy from tiredness and Tayler getting fussy from being hungry, I felt like I barely had time to take a deep breath. It was CRAZINESS having all of them in a public crowded place! They both wanted to play in the kid area. It was soo crowded and LOUD in there. There were soo many kids (especially a lot of big kids!) Colton was pretty frightened almost the entire time from the roughness and loudness of the big kids. Well, within a matter of 10 minutes, our kids had the play area cleared out... literally. Every single kid left, leaving only Brooke and Colton to play. Well, this wasn't just a happy coincidence. They all left because it smelt REALLY bad because both Brooke AND Colton decided to poopy their pants at almost the exact same time! lThey had that room smelling BAD!! lol. Well when we got all 4 kids into the restroom to do diaper changes, I looked at Kelli and said.. "So I think our next lunch date needs to be at one of our houses." We both laughed because we both knew that the past hour had been loud and crazy. Needless to say, it was an experience, but a stressful one at that.

Organizing

So this morning I was doing some straightening up and some more unpacking. One thing that I LOVE about our apartment is that it has sooo much storage! That is one thing that was so difficult about our house - there was no where to put everything! In our new bathroom, we have 2 sinks, 2 cabinets and 9 drawers... at the house we had 1 sink, 1 cabinet and 3 drawers. I love having a spot for all of my stuff and now my husband can't complain that i have too much stuff because I have my own drawers and cabinets so he doesn't ever have to see my stuff! In addition to a regular closet in our room, we also have a walk-in closet - something we did not have at our house. We also have more counterspace and cabinets in the kitchen so everything is a lot less packed. We also have an actual laundry room which is sooo nice. Even though we are in a smaller place, we gained sooo much storage space!

I thought that going from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom would be reaaly difficult. To my surprise, it doesm't feel any different. Colton is never in his room except to sleep. He always brings his toys to the living room. So, I don't even notice much difference. The kids room is very large and has a big walk in closet so all of their things fit and it is not over crowded.

Here are a few more recent pics...

The pool is literally right outside our unit so we try to take Colton in the evenings to get energy out before bed but also bc its not hot and sunny for Tayler.

Below: Colton playing in the shallow section for kids.

Below: swim lesson with daddy.

Below: Tayler sleeping in mommy's arms while daddy and brother swim.

I'm Back!

I'm back! It feels like forever since I have posted. We are finally settling in to the new place and have internet. All is well and we are all enjoying the new place. Even though we just moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment, Kyle and I are both so much happier here...

- We get a fresh start with cleanliness and organization! We did not realize how much JUNK we had until it was time to move. (Mrs. Stacy - to answer your question from my previous post, we did get A LOT sold. We got all of our big items sold.. furniture, yard equipment, pool, etc. We also had a garage sale where we made a good bit of money. We have a lot of clothes and toys that didn't sell that we are just going to take to good will.) Our goal was to make enough money to buy a new couch. We had an L sectional that is simply too big for the apartment. In addition, we didn't want a table or ottoman in living room but still wanted to kick our feet up. We went with cash in pocket knowing what we wanted. We wanted a recliner sofa and hopefully a recliner as well. We went to Gallery Furniture after an unsuccesful trip to Rooms To Go. We did not know that furniture was negotiable when it comes to the price tag. However, we quickly learned that it is. We knew what we wanted but saw it was more than we were willing to spend. We showed our sales rep what we liked (which is very similar to what we told him we were looking for upon arrival.) We were ready to leave and Kyle told the guy if he could do it for what we had cash then we would do it. Well, surprisingly, they accepted our offer and we got our recliner sofa and recliner for $700 less than ticket price!! So, if you are ever furniture shopping at Gallery Furniture, go in with a mindset as if you were car or house shopping - prices are negotiable!!

- Another plus about living out here is that we feel like we will actually be able to have a social life since we are not so far away from everyone and everything. We live 10 minutes from my sister so I went walking with her on Monday at Katy Mills Mall. She goes every day so I hope to start next week making it a routine! It was great to get out of the house and exercise (we did 4 laps - 3 1/2 miles!) But it was also so great to spend time with her since it's not too often we see each other especially now that we both have newborns. So I am looking forward to the sisterly time and exercise and the cousins get to see each other! In addition, Kyle has several friends that live in the area. We went to his friends house on Thursday evening for dinner. They have a 7 year old daughter and a 14 month old son. Colton had soooo much fun playing with the 7 year old girl. Kyle played video games for a couple of hours with his buddy so he enjoyed the boy "play time." Last night my mom came over and watched the kids and Kyle and I had a baby-free evening. It was so needed and could just feel the unspoken new happiness. We went out with my middle-school best friend and her husband. They treated us to an evening at the country club they are members of that is just a few minutes down the street. They also live only about 10 minutes from us. It was so nice socializing with people our age and another married couple. In addition, I am only about 10-15 minutes away from my best friend now (verses 45 min before) so I am really looking forward to play dates, girl time and hopefully couple time with them!

- In addition to our new found social life, Colton is also getting one as well. I took Colton the pool a couple of nights after we moved in and he LOVED it. They have a section of the pool that is only a foot deap so he loved splashing around in it. In addition, there was a little boy out there who is only 3 months older than Colton. They had soo much fun together! I will have to take a picture of them together because from a short distance, it's hard to tell them apart because they look so similar!

- CONVENIENCE! We are soo close to literally everything! The mall, grocery store, restaurants, etc... everything is literally 5-10 min away (vs our 30-40 min drive at the house.) Kyles new drive to work is literally 7 minutes (vs 45-50 min) and my drive to school is on the same street and is literally 3 min away!

So, so far everything is going great and we love it here. We still have a lot of cleaning to do at the house that we hope to get done within the next week or so. We had planned on going this morning but we all ended up sleeping in and now just feel like having a lazy day :)

I hope to post some new pics soon but for the time being, here a few... Tayler is growing so fast! She smiles soo much and yesterday giggled for the first time!

Updates

Update #1:
I think Tayler is teething!

I am worried... I read that some children can teeth as early as 2 months, although it is rare. However, she is 1 1/2 weeks shy of 2 months.. She has been really cranky lately... cries and wakes up every time she is put down. She has been sleeping 1 1/2 hours at night the past few days.. She has been eating very frequently but only little amounts. In addition, she has been VERY fussy during breastfeeding and kicks, punches, gets red and seems angry. She will latch and then do the same thing. So, I have given her a bottle of breastmilk more than usual lately because we have both been frustrated during nursing sessions. In addition, she developed a rash on her face a few days ago and has been having a lot of loose stools. She has also been sucking on her first a lot more than usual. All of these things she has been doing fall under the list of teething symptoms. I didn't think too much about these things until this morning when she was crying, I saw 2 white dots on her bottom gum. I felt her gum and could barely feel them, but I could feel something. So, I think she might have teeth coming in! Is this normal? Surely not! She has an appointment sometime soon for her 2 month check-up, but I will be calling tomorrow to see if I can get it any sooner. I just hope that if for some strange reason she does have teeth coming in then that just means she is an early developer and they don't have to remove them!

Update #2:
We are moving!

Yep, if you haven't heard yet, we are moving!

When?: We will start moving this coming Friday. We were scheduled to move Aug. 15th but that has been moved up to the 1st.

Where?: We will be getting an apartment in Cinco Ranch. The address is Richmond but is right on the Katy border.

Why?: As I am sure most of you are wondering, we are moving for several reasons. Overall, the reason is to save money so that we can live more comfortably. We will be downsizing in size and should have a lot lower water and electric bills. (Our neighborhood uses a small private water company. Our bills are usually $150! most of which is automatic service fees. In addition, our electric bills have been over $300! At around 2pm, our AC runs nonstop til about 9pm. We have to keep it on 69 just to keep it somewhat cool, and no one can find anything wrong with it...) In addition, Kyle will be 5 minutes from work (vs. 45) and I will be 5 minutes from school, so we will be able to save a lot on gas. MOST IMPORTANTLY: These are brand new apartments that are scheduled to be finished in September. When they are complete, the complex is looking to add a second security patrol officer. In the event that the second position is added, Kyle is suposed to be up first for the spot. So we are crossing our fingers her gets it, because if he does, we will have free rent!

In addition to saving money, we are looking forward to being back in the city. We are tired of having to drive 30+ minutes to go anywhere and are also far from practically all of our friends. Kyle will be close to 3 of his best friends and I will be close to my sister, my best friend and a couple of other friends. We are hoping the move will help add playdates for the children and also give us a little bit of a social life. Everyone needs friends, other than their significant others. With the busy-ness of our lives and living so far, it has become difficult to see friends and Kyle and I have both began feeling trapped at home. We are hoping that being only minutes away from so many people will help us regain friendships and a life outside of the home.

Although it will be an adjustment moving from a house to an apartment, I am looking forward to the move. I am especially looking forward to having a fresh CLEAN start! :) I am also looking forward to having a pool to take the kids to and a fitness center to work out in. I am also hoping that living in a larger community (our neighborhood is very small and spread out) that it will open opportunities to meet new people, especially those with children.


Those are my updates for now! Have a great Sunday!

Feelin' Good!!

I am happy to say that I am "feelin good!"

Colton and I haven't had much routine or structure in our lives and that is something that I have really wanted to change, just had no idea where to start. After Tayler's arrival, her schedule was backward in that she was up a lot at night just wanting to sit up and look around. They say babies are nocturnal because when they are in the womb, the mom is finally at rest at night, which is their time to move around. So, I had to train Tayler to get her out of this. I gave her a bath at night and then dimmed all the lights so she would start to realize the dark means sleep. She caught on quickly but this still wasn't a solid routine. I have recently added more structure to our evenings...

6:00-6:30pm - eat dinner
8:00pm - go on a walk with the kids
8:30-9:30 - I shower, then bathe Colton and then bathe Tayler.

After Tayler's bath, I dim the lights and she is usually ready for her last feeding. At this feeding, I have began giving Tayler a bottle of expressed breast milk. (I have chosen the bottle for night time feeding because she seems to eat more, which I can actually monitor, and if she tries to doze off I can wake her much easily with a bottle in her mouth.)

Well, several GREAT things have come from our new evening routine..

- I have already started losing weight from walking
- Colton goes to bed without a fight

and most importantly.........

- Tayler sleeps longer!!

I have noticed that giving her a bottle of breastmilk makes her sleep longer than putting her on the breast. I am soooo excited to say that she went 5 hours between feedings, 4 1/2 of which she slept, between the bottle feeding and the next last night! It was sooo wonderful! I have not felt this refreshed since before she was born!! Usually I am groggy and have no energy but I feel GREAT this morning!

I am hoping to add more structure to our entire day but I gotta start somewhere!

Just wanted to share my excitement!!

Pics

Here are some pics of the kids taken this week...

Below: "PEACE"

Below: So proud of the truck he built

Below: He LOVES wearing my shoes!

Below: Daddy wrapped his hair after his bath. It was so funny, gave us all a good laugh.