Faith 23 Months

It is hard to believe that in just one month my baby will be 2 years old.

She is becoming very self sufficient these days. She will often says "No I do it" "no me" or other phrases to express that she wants her independence. She has event old us she wants privacy when she is sitting on her little potty.

She is starting to use her potty occasionally, but only because we bride her with a jelly belly. Bryce also gets one for encouraging her. When she goes pee we all clap and say "yea Faith."

When Faith is mad she has taken to saying "You bad Mommy" or "Daddy" or whomever happens to be doing or telling her something so doesn't like. She will also sometimes spit at you or try and hit you. She has also picked up some potty talk from her brother. She says, "No you yucky poo poo guy." She especially likes to say it to Bryce because he get very upset.

Her vocabulary is continuing to grow even more. She now uses words like "tomorrow" "next week" "next time" all correctly.

Faith's 1st 2 year-old molar came in on the lower left side of her mouth on Sep. 17th. She had been putting her fingers in her mouth for a few days and then all of a sudden a tooth popped through.

Bryce 4 Years 2 Months

Bryce started preschool again today. All summer he has been telling me that he was not going back to school. He says he wants to stay home and play with me and that school is no fun.

I told Bryce that he had to go to school or else we could get in trouble because it was the law that all 4 year old have to go to school.

When we arrived I had to drag him out of the car. He was very grumpy and upset. He wasn't happy about having his first day of school picture taken. Once I got him onto the playground he just clung to me crying and kept saying don't leave me mommy. It was heart breaking. I stayed for about 10 or 15 minutes. Finally I had to leave so that I could take Faith to her first day at Toddler Playgroup. Birte, one of his teachers did a good job of taking him away from me. I tried to assure him that I would be back soon, that he would have fun, and that he was safe.

When I returned to pick him up I was told that he was only upset for about 5 or 10 minutes and then had a good day.

I think Bryce has a very difficult time with change. He has always had trouble adjusting to any new situation whether it be going on vacation, moving, or starting a new school year. His whole system gets out of whack and he becomes agitated and gets upset much more easily.

Bryce has also had a hard time adjusting to our move. It has been about a week and a half since we officially moved in with Nanny. Although we've been here since June 20th my mom didn't invite us to move in until July 22nd and we didn't move out of our house completely until mid August. He tells us that he misses his old house, but can't verbalize why. We try to tell him all the wonderful benefits of living at our new house, but he is very focused on being upset about it. I hope with time he comes to appreciate how blessed we truly are.

I think some of his issues lately also stem from the fact that I've been working a ton on Worth WeeCycling. He is not used to having my focus elsewhere. I feel bad that I've been putting in so many hours, but with the sale just two weeks away I have no choice.

Faith's First Haircut

Faith had her first real haircut today. We took her to Lions, Tigers and Hair in Petaluma. The owner, Chris, made a donation to Worth WeeCycling's raffle, so I decide to give her our business.

They started off by just spraying her with a water bottle and giving her a basket of toys to get her comfortable. She sat perfectly still during the whole haircut. They took just the split-ends off of her bangs, as I decided to grow them out. Most of her curls were cut off the back in order to even things out.

When she was all done, she got to have sparkles put in her hair. She was so pleased with herself and told us that it was "so pretty."

Since she was such a good girl she also got a pony ride on the street in front of the salon.

Faith 22 Months

Faith is now talking in 8+ word sentences. She knows things like underneath, behind, "What are you fixing for dinner?", "Where did Nanny go", "I want to do ___", and she knows tenses like wants, want, wanted, etc. Even Patty, her teacher at Patty's Toddler Playgroup commented that her speech is very adult like after meeting her for the first time.

She is still napping twice a day, however we are often gone during her morning nap so this gets skipped a few times a week. It would be much easier to get errands done, etc. if she'd switch to just one nap a day, but she still seems to do best when she has two.

Faith is still eating just about anything we give to her, including all her fruits and veggies. I sure hope this continues. Now that she is not nursing, I'm trying to get her to drink more milk, but she doesn't really seem to want it. Thankfully she eats lots of yogurt and cheese so she is still getting the calcium, protein and fat she needs.

She spent the night with Grammy and Gramps on her own for the first time. We took Bryce to see Peter Pan and Faith went to their house for the night. She did absolutely fine. I guess she asked about me a couple of times, but other than that she was happy to be with them. I love that my kids feel so comfortable there and that I don't have to worry at all about them.

Bryce 4 Years 1 Month

Bryce has become quite the swimmer this summer. While he has been swimming without a life jacket or tubbie for over a year, he has made tremendous progress this summer. He can dive down to the bottom of the pool and pick up dive sticks. Sometimes it take a few tries, but he can normally get it. He can also swim the length of the pool, and loves to see how big of a splash he can make when he jumps. He likes to yell cannonball when he jumps regardless of whether or not he is doing a cannonball, belly flop, or jumping straight in.

He has also been enjoying his trampoline a lot. He loves to play tackle with Faith and bounce her down. Thankfully she is one tough cookie and can handle the rough play.

Bryce has been hooked on the show Franklin. Last year he took a Franklin stuffed animal home from preschool for a couple of nights. Since then he has loved Franklin. I finally thought to record a bunch of episodes. He watches a couple everyday while Faith naps. While I'd like for him to not watch so much TV, it is also nice because it allows me some time to work without worrying about him or having to give him a lot of attention.

Bryce has been having a rough summer as far as his behavior. He is acting out a lot, yelling, and being deliberately disobedient. We have tried to be very consistent, but with the craziness of life - moving, me working so much, vacations, family visiting, etc. it has been hard. When he gets in one of his moods, nothing we do seems to help. We try warning him, giving him a timeout, and taking toys away. However, when he really escalates the only thing that seems to work is a spanking. Recently when we've spanked him he tells us that spankings don't work that they just make him act worse and that they don't hurt. However he also asks if I can give the spanking because apparently I don't do it as hard as daddy. Once he gets a spanking we normally see a huge change in his attitude for the rest of the day.

These pictures were taken during a visit to Doran Beach during my Uncle Kim's visit.

Faith - 21 Months

Faith's vocabulary has really taken off. She can now say just about anything and fairly clearly. She tries so hard to keep up with the big kids. She runs as fast as her little legs can carry her, and is one tough cookie.

One of her new things is screaming at the top of her lungs over and over when she is upset. It is very frustrating. When you cover her mouth, she stops, but as soon as you move your hand she starts again.

She has been spoiled the last month. We've been staying with Nanny for the past month. As a result, she has been sleeping in our room and every night when she cries I pick her up and let her sleep with us. Letting her cry it out just doesn't work when she can see us. We just officially decided yesterday to move in with Nanny permanently, so we have got to figure something else out. She has started crying Mama NiNight or Mama Sleep and points to our bed.

The whole family ended up getting really sick this past month. It started with Faith. She got a bad case of the flu and couldn't even keep water down and had diarrhea. She was sick for about 2 das. Nanny and Nathan got a little touch of it next, but nothing like Faith. Then Bryce got the sick, but thankfully he never threw up. I ended the cycle and unfortunately was sick on the 4th of July. With being so sick I was forced to stop nursing Faith for a couple of days. Once I got better she wasn't really asking for milk. It seemed like a logical time to wean her. Since then she has only asked for milk a couple of times. She now says "empty, no nurse."

Faith got the worst looking bruise and cut on her face a few weeks ago. She and Bryce were running through the house when she tripped, fell and landed face first right on the corner of a doorway. Her check split open and her eyelid bruised and swelled immediately. She ended up with a black eye and a solid line of bruising from her forehead down to the middle of her check. She looked so pretty.

I forgot to take her picture today while she was awake, so I had to sneak in while she was asleep. Thankfully she didn't wake up. She is wearing her favorite piggy pj's.

Lake Shasta

We had a wonderful trip to Lake Shasta with Grammy, Gramps, Auntie Hannah, Uncle Blake, and the Garcia's.

Bryce absolutely loved swimming in the water. For the most part, we made him keep a life jacket on, but sometimes when we were right with him, he took it off. He liked the freedom of not having it on. He also loved riding in the boat, and even went on a Jet Ski for the first time. He thought that was pretty neat. He relaxed in the canoe while Gramps or Uncle Blake did all of the paddling. He went for a bike ride on the trail-a-bike with Nathan and I and rode on Blake's skateboard.

Faith also enjoyed the water, but was petrified of the rocks at the shore line. She would cry hysterically, "no rocks, no rocks." She must have stepped on a sharp rock the first day and from then on we had to carry her across into deeper water. She liked the boat ride, but not as much as Bryce. She held on to me very tightly, but did have a smile on her face.

Everyone enjoyed a fun morning at the Shasta Caverns. The boat ride over was nice and relaxing and the coolness of the caves was very welcomed. The tough part was carrying the kids up the hundreds of steps inside of the cave. Some were very steep and the kids wouldn't walk up them on their own. The view from the caverns overlooking the lake was beautiful.

We also enjoyed relaxing at the house, eating great food, and enjoying each others' company.

Thanks Grammy and Gramps for a great trip.