Vacation

We're in Florida this week visiting Matt's parents. It's nice to have additional hands to help out with the kids and give us a break. We spent the first day and a half in Orlando visiting Disney. Daniel loved the rides (Dumbo was his favorite) and meeting Mickey. He ran toward Mickey and stopped short about 2 feet from him before proceeding to hug him and give him a high five. I'll post a picture when we get a chance to download them. Matt's sister, Rachel, joined us at Disney. She's a park expert and was able to get us Fast Passes to some rides while we stood in line for others. Kyra was great and seemed to enjoy the people and rides, too. Both kids were amazingly well behaved on the flight -- 5 1/2 hours of it -- we'll hope for the same on the way home. We're planning a couple of nights out - just Matt and me - while we're here and maybe even a movie!

Anniversary

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary with dinner at the top of the Space Needle. It was a cloudy day but cleared up enough to view a nice sunset and great rainbow. Here's a picture -- what did we do before camera phones -- although the picture doesn't do it justice. Dinner was very nice as was a night out together.

Kyra's 4 month visit

Kyra visited the doctor yesterday and weighed in at 17 lbs. 6.5 ozs and is 26 inches long - 95% in both categories. She's doing well and the doctor had some thoughts on sleeep improvement habits. He was most concerned about her skin -- it's dry and red. I've already switched to using the same sensitive skin soap that Daniel uses and moisturizing lotion twice per day. He recommends limiting soap altogether except as necessary and possibly even using Vaseline or other heavy skin protectant at night. Other than that, she's doing great.

Pluses on the Kyra side

It occurred to me that I hadn't pointed out all the pluses on Kyra's side... she doesn't spit up all over me all day nor does she cry for 4 hours every night as Daniel did for some time. She is pretty easy to please, grabs at everything and smiles at everyone... She's really adorable. Again, click the x to see the picture -- not sure what's wrong but hopefully will rectify itself... maybe tomorrow I'll send a trouble ticket to Blogger...

Sick kids

Daniel's new phrase is "I have to..." If I say, "No, you can't do that," he responds with "But I HAVE to..." It's really quite amusing. Here's a picture of bathtime with sticky bubbles... Note that something's up with Blogger and the picture only works if you click on it.

In the hope that one of us might get good sleep, Matt moved to the guest room... immediately following this, Daniel got some sort of stomach flu and began getting up with poopy diapers at 3 or 5 am. This flu has both stomach and chest elements so when he's not up with a messy diaper, he's coughing up a lung. Poor thing -- I feel so badly for him because it sounds like it must really hurt. We did have some Jello yesterday; but finally, last night we put the cool mist humidifier in his room which seemed to really help the cough. Kyra seems to have developed the cough as well, though. She goes to the doctor for her 4 month check up tomorrow so we'll see what he says.

I've also talked to enough new moms recently to determine that my perspective on what's normal baby sleep patters is totally out of whack. Daniel's sleeping 10 hours a night at 3 months is not the norm and Kyra's probably closer to the norm... It's somewhat heartening to know that this is normal yet incredibly discouraging to hear that most of my friends' kids didn't sleep like Daniel until 8 months... that's 4 months from now. I imagine there will be progress between now and then.

4 months old

Can you believe Kyra's already four months old? She celebrated with an all night party but we won't get into that since I'm pretty sure I've belabored it in prior posts. Her newest trick is grabbing her toes. She loves to lie on her back and hold her feet. It's adorable. Her smile is so sweet, too.

Daniel's new phrase is, "No, no, no, Mommy (or Daddy)" -- he says it in a very sweet and persuasive way (not as a temper tantrum), letting you know that you're not doing it quite right or that he does not agree with your idea.

More and more?

Well she bottomed out at 1-2 hour stretches last week and with the help of "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" we may be making progress. Two 4 hour stretches last night... we'll keep on the path and see how things go. Here she is sitting up on her own.

Daniel and I made cookies for his teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day. It's funny how quickly such activities get out of control. Daniel used to enjoy the process of making the dough and the cookies -- now he's really just interested in eating the dough and the cookies. Icing isn't really important except for the fact that I wouldn't let him touch the cookies until after we iced them for the teachers. And Kyra wasn't really interested at all and complained loudly so the cookie cutting part was cut short. We did letters for the teachers' names, hearts and butterflies. After Daddy got home, we iced them in peace and added sprinkles. Sprinkles are really the most fun part! So we had nice gifts for the teachers and a disaster of cookie cutters, flour and bowls all over the kitchen...

In advance of Mother's Day I have received numerous emails with stories and poems about Mommyhood that have, for the most part, brought me to tears. Each day is filled with so much emotion with the two year old bouncing off the walls and the baby learning so much and demanding so much. It gets me to the point where I wonder if I can handle it all for one more day. Then I think about sitting with Daniel each night and reading him stories and helping him to bed and sitting with Kyra as she falls asleep in my arms so content and peaceful. Yes, it's the hardest thing I've ever done but the results are amazing...

Less and less

If Kyra keeps on the same path, she won't sleep at all at night... each night is diminishing the number of hours of sleep. Last night, the longest stretch was 3.5 hours. I am searching for answers with the knowledge that there aren't any and that "this, too, will pass". All I can say is ARGH! She did wake up this morning happy as a clam, though!

What's next?

Kyra keeps surprising me. She smiles all the time -- at least when she looks at someone in the eye and when she wakes up. It's so adorable. Yesterday, she sat alone for probably 20-30 seconds, balancing on her bottom. Her back isn't strong enough to really sit up and she doesn't want to put her hands down "tripod style" so she balances herself and holds her toes and LOVES it! Last night she had a tough time going to bed and then was up on-and-off from 3:30 - 6:30... seemed like she wanted to sleep but couldn't. She wasn't fussy or anything so who knows. Maybe it's a growth spurt, maybe teething, maybe just Kyra.

Daniel and Kyra helped me till the garden area yesterday in preparation for planting of vegetables. Kyra sat in the stroller as bits of dirt and bark settled on her. Daniel loved the hoe and shovel and taking out the big weeds. He was grunting and pulling them out. It was cute. He does seem to have realized that he's officially two and that all those things I commented on as evidence of his "two-ness" were nothing compared to the tantrum-like activities we're seeing now.

Daniel did visit the doctor on Monday for his two year checkup. He's 34.5 inches tall and 33.5 lbs. The doctor warned that we'll probably find him on top of the refrigerator one day trying to get something we've hidden from him up there. As proof of that, yesterday evening Daniel decided he wanted the raisins out of the pantry and asked for his step-stool. I told him it was probably upstairs because that's where we keep it. Evidently he couldn't find it but he carried his potty all the way down the stairs and put it in the pantry so he could reach the raisins. I was impressed.