2nd Birthday Pictures (and update)

It's been really busy in our house the past 2 weeks. Nana and Papa were here to help celebrate the twins birthday on the 15th (and Barry's too). They left on Friday morning, and then my brother Matt and his family arrived from Austin that evening. Ryan and Alyna love playing with their cousins Sean (11) and Joshua (7), so it was a very loud and active weekend.

They left on Monday morning, and Barry was on day shift at work... so this was my first week home alone with the 3 kids. They kept me so busy I barely could find the time to eat or go to the bathroom. We survived the week. I did almost have a breakdown on Wednesday and called on a friend from church to play stand-in Grandma and take the twins for half the day. It was a much needed break after the twins kept us up every couple hours the night before. I think they are just now adjusting to having and now not having all the company here.

Kellyn starting to interact with us more, and reach toward things she sees. Ryan and Alyna always want to kiss her, hold her, and play with her.

Here are pictures from the birthday party with Nana and Papa. We had an ice cream cake. They got lots of books, some stuffed animals, and other assorted small toys. Alyna got a kitchen setup with dishes, and Ryan got a basketball hoop. They both love both of those toys.

Triple Birthday

Happy 2nd Birthday to Alyna and Ryan... and Happy much older birthday to my wonderful husband Barry.

It's amazing to see how much can change in a family in just 2 years. Barry and I went from no kids to 3 kids in that time and so much has changed in our perspective on the world. Alyna and Ryan have learned so much this year and have definitely lost that "baby" look.

They are saying more words and sentences every day. They are learning their colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. Both of them can pick out "A" and "R" all over the place. Alyna also knows E, O, K, and sometimes other letters. They are great big siblings and very loving toward the new baby in the house. Alyna loves to hop like a bunny everywhere she goes, and Ryan still climbs on anything we'll let him. It will be a challenge to have two 2 year olds at one time. They are both already very opinionated about what they want to eat, play with, and do during the day.

Barry works very hard to provide everything our family needs. We don't enjoy his shift periods where he is gone most of the time, but we all treasure his long off periods when he is around all the time. I love having him as my husband and parenting partner.

I pray God's blessings for many more years on our family as we all grow older, and hopefully wiser.

3 week update

I'm tired... but that's to be expected. At 3 1/2 weeks old, Kellyn is an easy baby. She eats well when she wants to eat, and sleeps well when she wants to sleep. She still sleeps for long stretches at night as long as she's eaten enough during the day. 2 nights this week she's gone for 8 hours between feedings and I've woken her up at about 5 am to eat. Of course, we've also had a couple nights like last night where she just won't settle into that deep sleep until around midnight and keeps waking up every 20 minutes or so for various reasons. Kellyn has baby acne really badly over her neck and face right now, but there's not really anything we can do about it but wait it out. It's already getting better on her forehead which is where it got bad first.

Alyna and Ryan seem to be having lots of trouble sleeping right now. They had small colds last week, and I think both have the last few teeth pushing into their mouths too. They keep waking up way before 6:30 am (their usual time) and taking much shorter naps than usual as well. It makes for 2 whiny almost 2 year olds during the daytime.

They are both talking a lot more each day. Alyna is working on full sentences like, "I need help" (to get up into the booster seat), and "I ready go play." It's nice when I decipher a word like "pie" into "play" because knowing what she wants takes a little bit of the frustration out of my day.

3 of the 5 members of our househole have birthdays on Wednesday, September 15. Ryan and Alyna turn 2, and they were born on their Daddy's 30th birthday... you do the math. Barry's parents are still here, and since Barry is working a lot this week, we actually did their birthday party last week. I'll post pictures of that later. I figure I had this whole week to work that out.

Kellyn is crying... gotta go feed my littlest munchkin...

Changing of the Guard

Grandma Lee left this morning to fly home to Tennessee... Nana and Papa Love arrived last night and are here for about 2 weeks.

(Nana is on the left, Grandma on the right)

It was great having my mom here for so long. She did so much to help with the twins, the baby, my recovery, the housework, the cooking, and the cleaning. I'll miss having her here. Alyna couldn't quite pronounce "Grandma" so it's been coming out Mamaw. They really got used to how she did things, so hopefully the transition isn't too difficult. I'm sure it will be more difficult for me than for them.