Faith 10 Months

Faith stood alone for the first time this week. She has since done it a number of times. She is still walking while pushing her walker, but is mostly on her tip toes. She has also started to walk while holding my hands.

The past week Faith has been throwing some big fits. I don't recall Bryce throwing fits this early. She has had yelling fits over wanting her own spoon, wanting you to spoon feed her rather than give her finger food, wanting to be picked-up, and wanting a toy that has been taken away. She definitely knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it. Sometimes she even throws her head on the floor and cries. I hope this is just a passing phase and not a preview of what's to come.

Faith's sleep is getting better, but she is still not back to sleeping through the night. Lately she has been waking up at least once a night to eat. If she wakes up more than once I let her fuss her way back to sleep. When we are home she naps from about 9 - 10 or takes a cat nap in the car. In the afternoon she generally sleeps from 1 -3.

Her top four teeth came in, one right after the other. Now she has an adorable toothy grin.

Her hair continues to stick straight up. I keep thinking that it is bound to lay down since it is getting longer and longer, but no such luck. Soon it should be long enough to put a clip in.

Bath Time Fun

I can't resist good bath time photos. The kids were playing so nicely.

Apple Sauce

Every year we have a tradition of making apple sauce with the apples from my mom's gravenstein apples. This year Bryce and Faith enjoyed helping. Bryce turned the ricer and Faith sorted apples. Sadie also was a big help and contributed to the entire process from picking to packaging. She also took a break and colored a Mater picture that Bryce got for his birthday. In addition to apple sauce, we've been busy drying apples and pears, making fruit leathers, and making apple and pear butter. Yummy!

Yosemite

We spent August 3rd - 8th with the Husen's. They rented a wonderful house in Pine Mountain Lake. We were spoiled and got the master bedroom since we needed the most room in order to accommodate Faith's crib and Bryce's sleeping bag. The room had a very tall bed and when you looked at the window from this vantage point you could see the lake and the hills across from the lake - so beautiful.

Unfortunately Justin wasn't able to go down for the first part of the week so Emily and Mason rode down with us. We took a detour to the town of Muphys to visit Ironstone Winery. The grounds there are beautiful and the wine is good. For such a long drive, the kids did surprisingly well.

The second day was spent at the lake. There was a wonderful swim area with a giant floating trampoline. The guys and kids had a great time with this. Bryce was fearless and loved jumping off into the water. Faith finally fell asleep in Nathan's arms.

The following day we drove to Yosemite. We were about 40 minutes from the park gate and about an hour and a half from the valley floor where the visitor center is located. After crowding on a few different buses and a stop at the visitor center, we decided that we would hike up to Mirror Lake. The hike itself was only about 2 miles roundtrip. However, rather than have to deal with multiple buses we walked another mile or so to a place where only one bus ride was required in order to get back to our car. The buses were an issue because they made us take the kids out of the strollers and collapse and store them up front - what a pain.

When we woke the following day it was raining. We had intended to spend the whole day at the lake, but instead spent most of the day at the house lounging around. Justin arrived mid morning, and after naps the weather had cleared enough so we went to a playground and to a fishing pier. Gramps and Nathan each caught a tiny little fish. The boys thought the fish were great.

On Friday we headed back to Yosemite. The drive was extremely long. We had to make a few stops just shortly after entering the park because Hannah's friend Brooke got car sick. Then we got stuck for 30 minutes waiting on construction. When we finally got up to the Sentinel Dome trail head it was time for lunch. We ate at the trucks and then started our hike. The hike was only about a mile up, but it was steep. I carried Faith in the pack the whole time. Bryce and Mason were troopers and hiked a lot on their own, but when they got tired Nathan and Justin carried them. The view from the top was amazing. You had a 360 degree view and could see falls, half dome, the valley floor and the mountains in the distance. It was majestic. At the top of Sentinel Dome is the Joshua tree made famous by an Ansel Adams photo. That evening we took a quick trip down to the lake. Gramps, Nathan, Justin and the little boys took a quick swim.

Each night people took turns cooking dinner. We had some excellent meals. Once the kids went to bed us adults enjoyed ourselves by playing games, talking, watching movies, and enjoying wine and other yummy drinks.

Nathan, the kids and I packed up Saturday morning and headed home. The rest of the group didn't leave until later that afternoon and Sunday morning. However, we felt we needed to get home since we would be moving back to our own house after being at Nanny's for almost two months. We knew there would be lots of packing and unpacking and organizing to do.

Thanks to Grammy and Gramps for a wonderful trip!

Bryce 3 Years 1 Month

Bryce has become quite the swimmer over the last couple of months. He is able to doggie paddle for a very long time, do "big arms" (breast stroke) across the pool, take breathes, jump and swim the the ladder, float on his back, and with a little assistance, dive for rings. He has been taking twice weekly swim lessons at the YMCA for the past three months. Next session he will move up to the next level.

He is continuing to nap very sporadically. On average he probably naps 3 times a week. This makes planning very difficult. When he naps, he stays up until 8 or 8:30, however when he doesn't he is cranky so he goes to bed at 7 or 7:30. Sometimes, regardless if he has taken a nap or not, it takes him over an hour to finally fall asleep at night. I feel like he is getting overly tired, but can't shut his mind down enough to let himself fall asleep. The doctor said we are already doing everything we can to help him relax - a bedtime routine of stories, a blessing and prayer, lots of exercise during the day, including swimming which is supposed to help, and not giving him candy or other sweets or caffeine.

His behavior has been up and down. We have been trying to let some things slide, not knowing how much is attributed to loosing Pawka and having his life in an upheaval. Most days he is really sweet, but sometimes he just gets in these awful mood where nothing you say or do pulls him out. He yells, tries to hit, and sometimes tells me "bad mommy" a wonderful saying he learned from Mandy. He knows that bad behavior has bad consequences (time outs, toys being taken, not getting to do fun things like go to the park, etc.) and that he gets good things when he behaves well. Even knowing these things he has still been acting out quite a bit.