Washington getaway

First of all I want to clarify that Chris and I are from the Tri-Cities area in Washington (Chris from Connell, and me from Pasco). Not anywhere near Seattle. Its in the lower right corner (southeast) where it is a desert; similar to Utah... minus the mountains and snow. It does not rain like Seattle and is actually warmer than Utah. Spring comes at least a month sooner here and it is really green already, even with it being a desert. Not like Arizona desert, like sage brush. Grass and trees grow. Its farm land so things grow really well here. My parents own a dairy, organic apple orchard, and some crop land that is usually corn or alfalfa (hay). This is where I lived my whole life, until I graduated high school.

Ok, so I have been wanting to make a trip up here to visit my family for at least a month, but its a 10 hour drive and I was going to go alone so I never did. Two of my sisters and my dad came to Utah for my brother in-law's graduation from BYU MBA program so Amy rode with me on the way home to Washington. My little neighbor boys, practically Addysin's best friends, both had the flu on Friday and Addysin didn't get it.... until I am filling up at the gas station a few blocks from my house at 5:30 am Saturday morning on my way out! It was just a tiny tiny bit so I thought about it and decided it wouldn't be a huge deal since I had Amy to help (and Jack and Drew- the little boys with the flu only threw up a couple times and then it was over). Also I had been preparing for this trip the whole week. So Addysin threw up like 5 times in the next three hours. It really wasn't bad though since she had hardly eaten the day before. It was just like the boys, short lived. But that was the least of our problems. Caiden and Addysin had very mild colds for the week before and I warned my mom of it, but she didn't think it was a big deal and I thought they were getting over them. OOOOOH NO! Sunday, Monday, and Today have been awful! Caiden is miserable and has Croup. Caiden threw up Sunday night once before bed, and Addysin randomly threw up again monday night. They both wake up soooo much during the night, go to bed late and wake up early. And we're staying in the same room together so there's no letting them cry it out.

Oh wait, one more complaint. Its been raining so we're stuck inside and we are too sick to visit anyone. So yes, this is an AWESOME trip! Its nice to be with my family, but I am not happy that we drove so far to sit around and get everyone else sick. Nobody has gotten it, and I will be very surprised and relieved if they don't. Well, hopefully they will start getting better soon so we can get out and see people or do something fun. On the bright side, the weather is supposed to be nicer Thursday- Saturday, up to 75 degrees! YAY!

Our children's sleeping habits

Let me give an extended background on Addysin's aweful sleep habits... (feel free to skip over this, its more of a journal entry)
We'll start from day 3. Home from the hospital and up all night. The next few months consisted of me and Addysin hanging out AWAKE seriously most of the night a few times each month because she was so mixed up and I wanted to spend every waking moment (of hers) with her. I couldn't just leave her in her crib because I was an obsessive mother. She never cried. She was just happy and didn't want to sleep so I kept her company. Would I do that now? NO! At 5 months old, we moved to a single bedroom apartment in Minnesota for summer sales. She went to bed when we did at 3 am due to Chris' work schedule! And she slept with us! She has always gone to bed when we do (around midnight, at the earliest). I gave my honest effort from 13 months-24 months but failed time after time at getting her to bed earlier. Sometimes I would get her to bed around 10 and I would feel like super mom. She would do it for 3 nights and I would think "this is my big break! Thank you Heavenly Father!" Then she would snap back into her regular routine. Failure. I just couldn't handle it anymore. Seriuosly couldn't. So I devoted all my energy (which wasn't a whole lot due to lack of sleep with two terrible sleepers) in January to "fixing my children". Caiden wasn't too bad since he was only 5 months, but Addysin was work. By about the middle March (27 months old) she was going to bed at 9 and sleeping untill 7 or 8 in the morning!!!! I did it! (With a lot of help from Chris.) But that was short lived. She now wants to stay up untill 10 or later and when we put her to bed she screams out any reason she can think of to get out of it. "MOM!" "DAD!" "HUNKRY!" "TURSTY!" "SCARED!" "NO, NO, NO!" After we get her calmed down and she sings some songs, she is just wide awake and not tired. Who wants to go to bed not tired? I hate that. So I decided she might be getting too much sleep. If she does take a nap from now on, which I'm positive she still will pretty often, it wont be her usual 2 hours.

This is a special note to first time parents. DONT LET YOUR CHILD DECIDE WHEN HE/SHE WANTS TO SLEEP. AFTER A YEAR, YOU'LL BE SICK OF IT AND THEY ARE HARD TO FIX AT THAT AGE. ENJOY EVERY SECOND WITH THEM DURING THE DAY AND PUT THEM TO BED AT 8.

And a HUGE thanks to a friend for suggesting the book "Twelve Hours Sleep By Twelve Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano. Its the best and I want every mother to read it before your baby turns 8 weeks. Caiden still wakes up every four hours so obviously I didn't do it right but it taught me a lot and made his sleep habits better than if I let him do whatever he wanted. Also another really interesting sleep book for any age baby/child is "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Richard Ferber.

Today was Addysin's first day of NO NAP for the first time in her life! She has almost completed this feat a few times, but then falls dead asleep too early for the night so it becomes a nap and then she goes to bed REALLY late. I always get nervous that that is going to happen (because it always has) but today she stayed awake untill she was eating a waffle for dinner at 7:45. I saw her head slowly falling and her eyes closed as she chewed so I began singing "the wheels on the bus". She, with her eyes literally half shut, tried with all the energy she had to do the motions. When I finished singing, she passed out. I carried her up to her bed, put her jamies on, and that was it. So easy and sooooo nice. I am sad she doesn't need naps, but I would rather have her awake from 8 am-8 pm and sleep from 8 pm-8 am than have a nap and go to bed at 10:00. She is so easy during the day and I desperatly NEED a break at the end of the day.

As for Caiden, he is in bed 12-13 hours (about 8 am-8 pm) at night, but wakes up 2 times to eat. He goes right back to sleep so its not too bad. Its not great though, but soooo much better then Addysin ever was. He takes 1 or 2 naps totalling about 3 hours of napping. He loves his fuzzy blanket and his binky, but only for sleeping- thank goodness!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! I got a bunch of dollar zone stuff at Target. You can get great board books there, and they're sooo cheap! Chris and the Easter bunny got Goofy and Eeyore to add to our collection of Disney characters. Addysin loves the Disney Channel.

In this picture she was saying "Oooo!"

"Cainen and Goopy"- Addysin's language
For Breakfast Addysin ate gum and Twix.

We went to David and Kira's for Easter dinner. Addysin had just woken up from her nap so she didn't do the egg hunt.

Caiden's first tie

He rolled under the coffee table and was so excited. It was cute. I've never seen him get so excited about being in a new place.

Addysin was still in a daze from her nap.

Addysin's first time bowling!

On March 10 (Friday), it was Braxton's birthday and Rachel (my friend from hairschool) had his party at the BYU bowling alley. Braxton LOVES bowling so everything was bowling themed. Addysin loved bowling and I'm sure we will start going more now. Its so fun to have a toddler that has likes and favorites. Wait for it....

"YAY!!!" she clapped after every turn. She got a stike once, but I was really mad i lined it up so well because she only got one turn, instead of two.


"Here, have a sticker"

Every since she was 18 months, she has loved stickers on her hands. Thats the only place a sticker belongs. They paralize her arms and hands for a few minutes- untill she forgets they are there.

Look what a cute cake Rachel made! The ball holes are tea light candles.

Three dramatic haircuts

I gave Caiden his second haircut March 25 (7 1/2 months old). I just cant stand bald spots and I'm so glad I can cut his hair short because he's a boy. I sat him in his bumbo seat in front of the mirror and it worked really well.

Before

Ewww...

After. Ahhh, much better.
And I gave Addysin her gazillionth haircut February 18. This was a dramatic haircut with more length taken off then ever before. I Love her long hair but it never evened out from her bald spot. Hers was worse than Caiden's. You have to look closely because the next picture is so far away, but see that chunk of hair that looks like a shorter layer? That shorter chunk was always sticking up. I wish I had taken a picture of her bed head. Her long hair would be matted and straight up. So I just cut it. It'll grow back...

Evened out...

And goodbye shaggy Chris. Its a toss up. I like his hair both ways. See Easter post for the "after" picture.

Our little church goer

I LOVE his vest. Chris' sister anna gave it to him and its only 0-3 month size, but stretches :)

This is Chris' favorite way to style our babies hair while they are sleeping...

Here's a pic of Addysin at 10 days old with the same hip hair do. Addysin's hair was so black!

I AM RICH!

Last week I went to the grocery store with just Caiden while my nieghbor watched Addysin- that was so nice Sarah! So while I'm there this older woman started playing with Caiden and said he looked like me, which nobody has ever told me... ever! I was happy but wanted her to know how much he looks like chris, and not much like me. So I flipped through the pictures on my iphone to find one of Chris. I apoligized for how long it was taking me. She said something I thought was kinda funny, "dont worry, i'm old, I have no where else to be. " Anyway, I found a picture and it was this one of Addysin and Chris:

I dont think the picture was good enough for her to notice that Caiden is a Christopher JR. but she said, "Oh, you are so rich! Dont ever let that one go, he is so handsome! And your little girl is beautiful!" Well, that made my day!

I am so blessed to have such beautiful, healthy children.