This morning I put on the movie "Beuaty and the Beast" for the kids to watch for a while. A little ways into the castle scenes Alyna gasped, looked around, and then ran over to the snack table to retrieve her teapot and teacups. She recognized them as being Mrs. Pots and Chip in the movie.
The "Turnaround, Fall Down" game is even more fun in the baby pool.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Weekend of Firsts
First Garage Sale
We had our first garage sale at our own house on Saturday. We'd done one up in Washington with some friends, but we hadn't done one on our own. When we called to place an ad in the paper, all the space was full. Because we're in a good location (1 block from 2 major streets), we didn't have a problem with lack of people anyway. Lots of people were out driving around looking for the sales because so many were listed in the paper. We had our first customers at 6:30 as we were pulling some tables onto the driveway. We had a steady flow until about 10:30. By then it was 100 degrees, and only 1 person came that half hour, so we closed up at 11 am... because it was just too hot. We were glad we hadn't posted times in the paper or anything.
We got rid of a lot of clutter we've collected over the years since we'd both left our parent's homes. Books, clothes, vases, baskets, candles, massage pads/tools etc. Our criteria was that if we hadn't used it in this house (3 years), it should go. Our storage rooms are no longer overflowing which was the goal since there's a baby on the way.
First Scorpion Sting
At the garage sale we sold ice cold bottled water and sodas to the hot customers (and made a profit too). The cooler was sitting by the kitchen table on Sunday morning, and Ryan flipped open the drain on it. Water gushed everywhere so I grabbed a couple towels by the back door that we use outside or when our dog is wet.
As I rearranged a towel to soak up the water, I felt a sting like I had a thorn in the palm of my hand... only it got worse and worse. I looked down and there was a scorpion. I screamed for Barry, who came and squashed it with a shoe as I continued to scream, "Ouch." It hurt a lot.
I ran my hand under cold water while Barry tried to look up what to do on the internet. We found some things, but weren't satisfied so we called the New Mexico poison control. The lady was very helpful telling us what symptoms in the next couple hours would indicate I needed to go to the hospital. Otherwise, you just clean it, and apply an antibiotic and cortisone cream to it. An ice pack helped keep the stinging away until it was at a manageable level. It still bothered me throughout the morning, but by the time we all woke up from our Sunday afternoon naps, I was fine.
The lesson is that clothing, bedspreads, and shoes need to be shaken out before being used at this time of year. Scorpions go find a new den about this time every year.
Ryan's Potty Training Successes
Sunday night before bed, after I'd already put on their pajamas and night time diapers, Ryan started pulling at his shorts. I put him on the toilet in my bathroom (with an insert), and he actually peed.
This morning after breakfast at 7 am, they both sat on the potty chairs. They'd both already wet their diapers just since waking up, so I didn't expect much. We put pullups on this time... and went on with the morning. I've been trying to take them to the potty about every hour, but it was about 8:30 when they both started to fuss. I took them both to the bathroom. Alyna had wet her pullup (which doesn't upset me at this stage at all), but Ryan was still dry.
Ryan peed in his little potty while Alyna sat on the big toilet. But then he reached inside and touched it... so we washed his hands before putting on the same Pullup he'd been wearing. I had to put the little potty chair on the back of the toilet while I got Alyna off the toilet and into a Pullup , and then could dump Ryan's pee.
This is one complication twins bring to the whole potty training exercise. They really like to sit on the big toilet, but always want to do it at the same time. And they always seem to want the same book during that time too.
Alyna's had quite a few near misses lately... a lot of times she'll tell me she needs to pee, but does it before we get her on the potty. Once this weekend, the flowers on her Pullup faded (to indicate wet) just 3 minutes after she got off the potty where she had sat for at least 5 minutes.
Ryan's favorite part of the potty is flushing the toilet, and waving "bye bye". Alyna's favorite part is getting to wash her hands afterward.
We had our first garage sale at our own house on Saturday. We'd done one up in Washington with some friends, but we hadn't done one on our own. When we called to place an ad in the paper, all the space was full. Because we're in a good location (1 block from 2 major streets), we didn't have a problem with lack of people anyway. Lots of people were out driving around looking for the sales because so many were listed in the paper. We had our first customers at 6:30 as we were pulling some tables onto the driveway. We had a steady flow until about 10:30. By then it was 100 degrees, and only 1 person came that half hour, so we closed up at 11 am... because it was just too hot. We were glad we hadn't posted times in the paper or anything.
We got rid of a lot of clutter we've collected over the years since we'd both left our parent's homes. Books, clothes, vases, baskets, candles, massage pads/tools etc. Our criteria was that if we hadn't used it in this house (3 years), it should go. Our storage rooms are no longer overflowing which was the goal since there's a baby on the way.
First Scorpion Sting
At the garage sale we sold ice cold bottled water and sodas to the hot customers (and made a profit too). The cooler was sitting by the kitchen table on Sunday morning, and Ryan flipped open the drain on it. Water gushed everywhere so I grabbed a couple towels by the back door that we use outside or when our dog is wet.
As I rearranged a towel to soak up the water, I felt a sting like I had a thorn in the palm of my hand... only it got worse and worse. I looked down and there was a scorpion. I screamed for Barry, who came and squashed it with a shoe as I continued to scream, "Ouch." It hurt a lot.
I ran my hand under cold water while Barry tried to look up what to do on the internet. We found some things, but weren't satisfied so we called the New Mexico poison control. The lady was very helpful telling us what symptoms in the next couple hours would indicate I needed to go to the hospital. Otherwise, you just clean it, and apply an antibiotic and cortisone cream to it. An ice pack helped keep the stinging away until it was at a manageable level. It still bothered me throughout the morning, but by the time we all woke up from our Sunday afternoon naps, I was fine.
The lesson is that clothing, bedspreads, and shoes need to be shaken out before being used at this time of year. Scorpions go find a new den about this time every year.
Ryan's Potty Training Successes
Sunday night before bed, after I'd already put on their pajamas and night time diapers, Ryan started pulling at his shorts. I put him on the toilet in my bathroom (with an insert), and he actually peed.
This morning after breakfast at 7 am, they both sat on the potty chairs. They'd both already wet their diapers just since waking up, so I didn't expect much. We put pullups on this time... and went on with the morning. I've been trying to take them to the potty about every hour, but it was about 8:30 when they both started to fuss. I took them both to the bathroom. Alyna had wet her pullup (which doesn't upset me at this stage at all), but Ryan was still dry.
Ryan peed in his little potty while Alyna sat on the big toilet. But then he reached inside and touched it... so we washed his hands before putting on the same Pullup he'd been wearing. I had to put the little potty chair on the back of the toilet while I got Alyna off the toilet and into a Pullup , and then could dump Ryan's pee.
This is one complication twins bring to the whole potty training exercise. They really like to sit on the big toilet, but always want to do it at the same time. And they always seem to want the same book during that time too.
Alyna's had quite a few near misses lately... a lot of times she'll tell me she needs to pee, but does it before we get her on the potty. Once this weekend, the flowers on her Pullup faded (to indicate wet) just 3 minutes after she got off the potty where she had sat for at least 5 minutes.
Ryan's favorite part of the potty is flushing the toilet, and waving "bye bye". Alyna's favorite part is getting to wash her hands afterward.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Fun Stuff
Ryan's favorite new game for Mommy to play is "Oh no, I'm stuck". I give him a kiss on the cheek, but my lips get stuck to his face. I have to zerbit (Bill Cosby's term) him to get unstuck. He laughs, and wants me to do it again and again. He's such an affectionate little boy and is always giving Alyna hugs and kisses.
Everytime we get in the van now, they throw a fit if they don't get to play up front for a few minutes first. Most of the time I just plan for 5 minutes ahead to give them that time. Ryan loves to drive, and Alyna messes with all the knobs on the air and radio controls. When we finally get in the driver seat we have to check that everything is set back to normal: hazard lights, wipers, a/c temp and speed, sliding door controls, etc. Sometimes when we aren't going anywhere I just let them play in the garage and the van for extended times. It's good that they like to do this because Barry and I need to prep for the garage sale we want to have soon.
They love to sit on the potty, (usually right after I've gone). The biggest problem right now is that both of them always want to sit on the big potty at the same time. We have 2 little potty chairs, so I make them take turns for who has to sit on one of those. I plan to start taking them more regularly this week, and we'll see how that goes. Barry is off for the next 5 days, so he'll be here to help with all the bending over that it entails.
Alyna was fascinated by her pink pullups with Princesses on them. I put a bunch of boy and girl Pullups in a box in the bathroom, and... well...
Alyna then piled them all up together... she's my little organizer
while Ryan decided to climb... no surprise there.
Update: Upon being asked, Alyna put the pile of pink Pullups back into the box. She's such a good girl.
Everytime we get in the van now, they throw a fit if they don't get to play up front for a few minutes first. Most of the time I just plan for 5 minutes ahead to give them that time. Ryan loves to drive, and Alyna messes with all the knobs on the air and radio controls. When we finally get in the driver seat we have to check that everything is set back to normal: hazard lights, wipers, a/c temp and speed, sliding door controls, etc. Sometimes when we aren't going anywhere I just let them play in the garage and the van for extended times. It's good that they like to do this because Barry and I need to prep for the garage sale we want to have soon.
They love to sit on the potty, (usually right after I've gone). The biggest problem right now is that both of them always want to sit on the big potty at the same time. We have 2 little potty chairs, so I make them take turns for who has to sit on one of those. I plan to start taking them more regularly this week, and we'll see how that goes. Barry is off for the next 5 days, so he'll be here to help with all the bending over that it entails.
Alyna was fascinated by her pink pullups with Princesses on them. I put a bunch of boy and girl Pullups in a box in the bathroom, and... well...
Alyna then piled them all up together... she's my little organizer
while Ryan decided to climb... no surprise there.
Update: Upon being asked, Alyna put the pile of pink Pullups back into the box. She's such a good girl.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Feelings
This is one of those mornings where I feel like putting away all the toys that require any help/assistance from Mommy. When Barry starts a shift after I've had a couple nights of very little sleep, I feel very cranky. Two toddlers constantly wanting my attention seems overwhelming.
They are playing with some of Barry's old transformer toys, and whenever they become mis-shapen, I have to fix them. That's about every 2 minutes. The shapes cookie jar also requires assistance because they can't always get it to fit in right. Mommy even has to be sitting right there on the floor for Alyna to do her puzzles even though she has them memorized and can do them herself.
The reason for the lack of sleep is that both twins have molars coming in, and sometimes wake up at night and scream. They usually go right back to sleep, but it's enough to wake me up every couple hours. The past 2 days, Ryan spiked a fever of about 102, and was very fussy and uncomfortable. It's not fun when you don't really know what's wrong. His temperature is back to normal today, but he's still fussy.
BUT... I also feel blessed.
I'm officially in the 3rd trimester with Kellyn. Aside from normal pregnancy fatigue and always being HOT, everything is going well. Nights where the twins let me sleep all night long, I usually feel great the next day.
This week I took the screening for gestational diabetes, and it was negative.
My thyroid levels, which were irregular during the twins' pregnancy, were also normal.
They are playing with some of Barry's old transformer toys, and whenever they become mis-shapen, I have to fix them. That's about every 2 minutes. The shapes cookie jar also requires assistance because they can't always get it to fit in right. Mommy even has to be sitting right there on the floor for Alyna to do her puzzles even though she has them memorized and can do them herself.
The reason for the lack of sleep is that both twins have molars coming in, and sometimes wake up at night and scream. They usually go right back to sleep, but it's enough to wake me up every couple hours. The past 2 days, Ryan spiked a fever of about 102, and was very fussy and uncomfortable. It's not fun when you don't really know what's wrong. His temperature is back to normal today, but he's still fussy.
BUT... I also feel blessed.
I'm officially in the 3rd trimester with Kellyn. Aside from normal pregnancy fatigue and always being HOT, everything is going well. Nights where the twins let me sleep all night long, I usually feel great the next day.
This week I took the screening for gestational diabetes, and it was negative.
My thyroid levels, which were irregular during the twins' pregnancy, were also normal.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Cleaning Out
As we keep cleaning out closets and our guest/storage room... we keep buying new things too... it seems we'll never make any headway.
But it is a nice feeling to decide to sell or throw away things that made the move here from Washington 3 1/2 years ago, but we haven't used since. I think we'll attempt a garage sale on June 5... if we can get it worked out by then. Our storage rooms are overflowing.
The guest room is starting to look more like a kids room than a storage room. Most of the clutter is out of the closet, and the rest should be able to follow during or after the garage sale.
The plan is that the guest room that already has twin beds will become the twins room in July. That will give us about 6 weeks to get them used to that room before the baby takes over the nursery.
Garage sales are a lot of work... hopefully it'll be worth it. I know we'll end up donating a lot to the clothing room at church, or to the Salvation Army. That's fine, it just needs to be out of my house.
But it is a nice feeling to decide to sell or throw away things that made the move here from Washington 3 1/2 years ago, but we haven't used since. I think we'll attempt a garage sale on June 5... if we can get it worked out by then. Our storage rooms are overflowing.
The guest room is starting to look more like a kids room than a storage room. Most of the clutter is out of the closet, and the rest should be able to follow during or after the garage sale.
The plan is that the guest room that already has twin beds will become the twins room in July. That will give us about 6 weeks to get them used to that room before the baby takes over the nursery.
Garage sales are a lot of work... hopefully it'll be worth it. I know we'll end up donating a lot to the clothing room at church, or to the Salvation Army. That's fine, it just needs to be out of my house.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
recent stories
Ryan the Flirt:
We went to lunch at a local cafe yesterday with the ladies after Ladies Bible Class. I put in our order and took Ryan back to our long table. He turned around and headed straight toward a blonde teenage girl sitting at a table with about half a dozen other teenage girls. He lifted his arms to be picked up, and she got a wide eyed look on her face. I was about to stop him, but then said, "Go ahead, if you want to." She picked him up, and in typical Ryan fashion he dug his head in to cuddle on her shoulder. There was a collective "Ah" from the group of girls. I just smiled and turned around to get the high chairs situated. They asked his name and how old he was, and he was passed to at least 3 other girls arms as they deposited their trash and prepared to leave.
The Ants Go Marching:
We've discovered a great activity for staying in the shade of the porch on hot afternoons... watching the little ants crawl around. Alyna was the first to notice them the other day, and now we look for them all the time. She gets on her knees, and tries to put her finger on them. She calls them "Ace". Ryan joined in the fun of tracking the ants yesterday too.
Dirty Knees:
Sunday morning Alyna wore really pretty pink dress to church (a hand me down from someone Nana and Aunt Robyn know). It came with a matching duster coat that is pretty long on her right now. Since the wind was still cold in the morning, she was wearing the coat too.
I had Ryan out of his car seat at church, and was holding his hand teaching him to walk across the street to the building. Barry was carrying Alyna at first, but decided she could walk too. She went about 3 steps before tripping on the dress, falling on the asphalt, and scraping her knees. (I think having her hand up to hold Daddy's hand on the one side lengthened her coat on the other side.)
We found the church's first aid kit, cleaned the scrapes, and put a band-aid on the one knee that looked like it needed some coverage as she played in the nursery. She didn't cry, but she was just a little upset.
The funny part came on Monday night. After wearing pants all day, she got in the bathtub and noticed her knees. She took the washcloth and tried to wash the scabs off. I tried to tell her that it wasn't dirt so it wouldn't come off. Tuesday morning she did the same thing when I put her shorts on her. Every time she saw her knees she would try to wipe them off. Silly girl...
Ryan Climbs Again:
This is the first pile of boxes we moved out of the guest room to put out in the garage. Of course, Ryan thought it was a cool new playset we made just for him to climb on.
We went to lunch at a local cafe yesterday with the ladies after Ladies Bible Class. I put in our order and took Ryan back to our long table. He turned around and headed straight toward a blonde teenage girl sitting at a table with about half a dozen other teenage girls. He lifted his arms to be picked up, and she got a wide eyed look on her face. I was about to stop him, but then said, "Go ahead, if you want to." She picked him up, and in typical Ryan fashion he dug his head in to cuddle on her shoulder. There was a collective "Ah" from the group of girls. I just smiled and turned around to get the high chairs situated. They asked his name and how old he was, and he was passed to at least 3 other girls arms as they deposited their trash and prepared to leave.
The Ants Go Marching:
We've discovered a great activity for staying in the shade of the porch on hot afternoons... watching the little ants crawl around. Alyna was the first to notice them the other day, and now we look for them all the time. She gets on her knees, and tries to put her finger on them. She calls them "Ace". Ryan joined in the fun of tracking the ants yesterday too.
Dirty Knees:
Sunday morning Alyna wore really pretty pink dress to church (a hand me down from someone Nana and Aunt Robyn know). It came with a matching duster coat that is pretty long on her right now. Since the wind was still cold in the morning, she was wearing the coat too.
I had Ryan out of his car seat at church, and was holding his hand teaching him to walk across the street to the building. Barry was carrying Alyna at first, but decided she could walk too. She went about 3 steps before tripping on the dress, falling on the asphalt, and scraping her knees. (I think having her hand up to hold Daddy's hand on the one side lengthened her coat on the other side.)
We found the church's first aid kit, cleaned the scrapes, and put a band-aid on the one knee that looked like it needed some coverage as she played in the nursery. She didn't cry, but she was just a little upset.
The funny part came on Monday night. After wearing pants all day, she got in the bathtub and noticed her knees. She took the washcloth and tried to wash the scabs off. I tried to tell her that it wasn't dirt so it wouldn't come off. Tuesday morning she did the same thing when I put her shorts on her. Every time she saw her knees she would try to wipe them off. Silly girl...
Ryan Climbs Again:
This is the first pile of boxes we moved out of the guest room to put out in the garage. Of course, Ryan thought it was a cool new playset we made just for him to climb on.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Week 24 of Pregnancy
Here's what the Mayo Clinic says is going on with baby Kellyn this week:
Week 24: Real hair grows
Twenty-four weeks into your pregnancy, or 22 weeks after conception, your baby is regularly sleeping and waking. Real hair is beginning to grow on his or her head.
By now your baby may be slightly longer than 8 inches (210 millimeters) from crown to rump and weigh more than 1 1/3 pounds (630 grams).
With intensive medical care, some babies born this week may be able to survive.
It feels good to be at the point where our modern medicine could help my baby survive if she were born any time from now on. It's never a good idea to deliver before 34 weeks unless necessary, but at least some of the maternal fear is subsiding.
Her kicks are getting stronger, and sometimes make me wince or gasp. I feel very blessed that our family is growing again this year. Alyna and Ryan play very sweetly with our baby doll and I know they will be a good big brother and sister.
Week 24: Real hair grows
Twenty-four weeks into your pregnancy, or 22 weeks after conception, your baby is regularly sleeping and waking. Real hair is beginning to grow on his or her head.
By now your baby may be slightly longer than 8 inches (210 millimeters) from crown to rump and weigh more than 1 1/3 pounds (630 grams).
With intensive medical care, some babies born this week may be able to survive.
It feels good to be at the point where our modern medicine could help my baby survive if she were born any time from now on. It's never a good idea to deliver before 34 weeks unless necessary, but at least some of the maternal fear is subsiding.
Her kicks are getting stronger, and sometimes make me wince or gasp. I feel very blessed that our family is growing again this year. Alyna and Ryan play very sweetly with our baby doll and I know they will be a good big brother and sister.
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