July Part 1

We had a really busy July full of wonderful pictures. 

Look at that ponytail!  How did she get so much hair?  A year ago she was bald!

 

 Leila loves the kitchen set she got for her birthday.  Gavin and Leila play with it almost everyday.

Swimming has become a necessity at our house.  We swim a few days and then dump the pool and start all over again.  Daddy even rigged up the wash tub with a hose attachment so we just fill the pool with hot/warm water. 

The 4th of July.  I tried getting a picture of the two of them together, looking at the camera and smiling but its hard!  This one is pretty cute of Leila.  Gavin was just too excited that he was on the couch and just wanted to crawl away and play with the light switches.   

We decided we needed a little getaway so we booked a room at "The Lodge" in Brainard for the night.  They had a waterpark and the kids really enjoyed it.  Leila slept on the fold out couch bed and Gavin slept in the pack n play.  On the way home we stopped at Paul Bunyan Land to look.  Leila loved "Babe the Big Blue Ox" and she just stood there staring at Paul.  Maybe next year we will actually pay to go in and see Paul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gavin turned 11 months on July 5th!  He is into balls right now and it's one of the few words he actually says.

We spend the day visiting my mom and Leila wanted to sleep in my old bed.  I thought it was kind of funny that she decided not to use the pillow to sleep on!

Making cookies :)

I did a mini photoshoot with Gavin for his birthday invitation.  I thought I got some pretty good pictures that show off his personality.

We had to get a new pool.  Brittany decided she wanted to go for a swim in the old pool and popped the top ring :(  I really like the new pool.  It's bigger, holds more water and Chad drilled a hole in the side so I could just pull the plug to drain the pool!  The kids love the new pool too.  Leila's new thing is to go down the slide into the pool.

Gavin

Are you sure these kids are related?  Everybody tells me they look alike but I never could see it.  Leila was always a string bean and Gavin was always plump.  Leila was bald and Gavin had way more hair.  I can totally see the resembalince in this picture!

Leila

Leila was hooked on m&ms so we made a potty chart.  When she peed she got a sticker to add to the chart and when she pooped she got a sucker.  When she filled a row we went to the dollar store to pick out a prize. 

Her first sucker...so proud!

Her first prize!

 

 

And thats the first part of July...

Some Summer Pictures

Here are some highlights from June 2010.  Leila is a doll...I absolutely love when she wears these rain boots!  She has such a personality...happy go lucky to whiney.  The whining usually happens in the evening when we are both home.  She loves personal attention but what kid doesn't?

















Gavin popped through his two new front teeth and now sports 4 teeth!

















The next few are Miss Leila showing off her many personalities.

Mr. Gavin...always full of smiles!

The last time they rode in these car seats and they both fell asleep!

Gavin started walking more than crawling this month.  He is always on the go but always full of smiles for mom.

Checking out their new car seats!  Gavin got Leila's convertible seat and Leila got a new forward facing seat.  Apparently its fun to play with your feet while in a car seat in the living room :)

First car ride in their new seats.  I can honestly say I don't understand people who say forward facing their kid makes the car ride easier.  Now Leila bugs me all the time.  Go Mommy.  Go faster Mommy.  What are you doing Mommy.  Where we going Mommy.  I kind of liked when she couldn't see anything except the sky and trees out her window!

What is summer without a few swims in the pool?

And it's always more fun to have four cooks in the kitchen!

A Doe and her fawn came to visit us one morning.  The doe stayed back while the fawn came out to check out the yard.  The fawn made it almost to the front yard before noticing me in the window and slowly it walked back down the path to find mom.

And sprinkler fun on a really hot day.  Leila wasn't too sure about the sprinkler and spent more time stomping in the little mud puddles than running through the sprinkler.

Gavin learned how to crinkle his face...one of the cutest little faces.

Pigtails and a big girl cup!  Leila finally has enough hair to have pigtails.  She asks for them a lot but it's not long before she is pulling them out.  We also tried giving her only cups so we could wean her off of sippy cups but that failed on us.  She was upset that Gavin got a sippy cup and that she couldn't bring her cup in the living room.

Leila loves helping.  Dishes, cooking, baking, laundry, sweeping...anything you are doing she wants to help with.  Even though Gavin doesn't need help holding a bottle she has to help feed him.  Its cute at first but then it turns into "Gavins done" or "Gavin has to burp" or "I have to see how much is left" or "Gavin needs more"...you get what I mean.  And Gavin is left crying because he just wants to hold that darn bottle and feed himself!

Summer is Already Over!

Well, summer vacation has come to an end already.

Leila has learned to sleep in a toddler bed and does wonderful.  She always calls for mom or dad when she wakes up and has never gotten out of bed before we come in her room.

She is also awake potty trained!  She still sleeps in a diaper for nap and bedtime but does great the rest of the day.  We started the process with m&ms but that ended in us going potty every 5 minutes so we made a potty chart.  When Leila pooped she got a sucker and when she filled a row on the potty chart she got to go to the dollar store or the Target dollar bins and pick out a new toy.  Before the chart was even full she lost interest in the suckers and putting up a new sticker.

Leila still has her pacis but we are making a little progress.  Not long ago she dropped one in the potty.  It sat on the counter for a week before I put it in the tinted cup that was on the counter.  Her little eyes spotted it right away but we kept telling her it was icky because it fell in the potty.  A few days later Chad was giving the dog a bath with Leilas help and she wanted to dump water on the dog with the cup that had the paci in it.  Chad told her she had to throw the paci away if she wanted to help because that paci was dirty.  She was hesitant but finally did it.  After the bath she came out of the bathroom and said "Mommy come see."  I went in and she pointed to the trash.  She was proud of herself and has not mentioned it since.  She still has two left and anytime we say we should throw them away or give them away she cries.

Gavin is getting to be such a little man!  He started walking more than crawling by the middle on June.  He says dada, mama, pupu (puppy), ba (ball), all done, all gone, night night, du (duck) and pa (grandpa).  There is a lot of other gibberish in there but nothing that I can make out.  He waves when we ask him to say hi and loves waving to the cars that go by when we take a walk.  He has the most adorable smile!  He turned 1 on August 5th!!!  He finally started sleeping better and only waking once for a paci and goes right back to sleep.  Naps are usually 2.5 - 3 hours long!  He loves Leila.  He loves going outside and gets upset when Daddy takes Leila out after dinner and not him. He loves playing outside but everything goes in his mouth so it's hard to actually take him out.  And best of all...he is a mamas boy :)

Engergizer Smart Charger!

I just found out about a great contest going on right now from JLeighDesignz.com for an Energizer Smart Charger and $15 Target gift card and of course I want to enter!

The Energizer Smart Charger is a battery charger that has a countdown to show you how long it will be until your batteries are charged. It also shows you the batteries charge status.

I would use my Energizer Smart Charger for charging batteries for toys, the camera, the camera flash and the wii remote!  I'm sure my husband would use it too.  He is always using batteries in flashlights and other household items.

Check out the Enerigizer Smart Charger at http://www.energizer.com/PRODUCTS/HIGHTECH-BATTERIES/RECHARGEABLES/Pages/rechargeable-products.aspx

Blogging Vacation

I have little/no internet access at home (unless I steal the neighbors wirelss) so I will be on a blogging vacation over the summer.

Big Girl Bed

Chad called me Friday after work and asked if he could buy Leila a toddler bed at a garage sale.  He said it was only $6 and was white plastics with little sides.  It sounded just like the bed I had contacted 3 people on craiglists for but never heard back from any of them.  I told him to buy it and he called a few minutes later asking if I wanted the mattress too because the guy was going to give it to him if we did.  I said no since we already have 3 crib mattresses and we really don't need another.  Chad set it up as soon as he got home.  I washed it up with bleach water and made the bed for Leila and when she saw it she was so excited.  She had to climb in to try it out.

Before bed we discussed that she could sleep in her big girl bed if she stayed in bed.  We told her if she gets out of bed she would have to sleep in her crib.  She climbed into bed, got her pillow, blankey and baby in the right spot, found all her pacis and asked to be covered up.

We said good night, shut the door and she went right to sleep.  We didn't want her falling down the stairs in the middle of the night so we put the baby gate up in the hallway just incase she decided to get up.  Around 12:30am I heard some noise in her room so I went to check on her and before I opened the door she started calling for daddy.  I went in and had to laugh.  She had her hands on the floor holding herself from falling out of bed.  We are not sure if she was trying to find her pacis (2 were on the floor) or if she was just turning in her sleep and happened to fall out of bed.  I layed her back down, handed her all the pacis and she rolled over and went back to sleep.  She did not get out of bed all night and it the morning she just called for daddy like she did when she slept in her crib.