New beginnings

We moved into our new house. Amanda started her new job in her new profession. We are trying for a new baby. I am trying out a new life as a stay at home mom/in home child care provider. We are struggling financially at the moment and hoping everything falls into place here in the next few weeks!
The girls are growing like weeds and growing up way too fast. They absolutely adore each other and are really starting to play really cute together. I need to try to blog more often so I can look back and remember everything. Haidyn is walking, pretty much running already. She stopped taking a bottle 3 days ago. She is refusing to talk other than "mama" and "this" and I swear she does it on purpose because of the devilish grin we get when we ask her to repeat something.
Lexi is too smart for her own good sometimes and the most hilarious things come out of her mouth. She is big into her play kitchen, baby dolls, gymnastics, soccer and singing. She was recently introduced to Play Doh and really digs it so that is a definite birthday or Christmas gift this year.
Things are awesome but hard right now and hoping to really settle in ASAP!!

2 more years

So we were all prepared to move back up to Jersey. We miss the change of seasons, the snow and cold weather and the friends and family we have there. The kids have very few other kids to play with here and the ones we do have they rarely see because of distance. Up there they have cousins galore ranging from 8 months to 9 years old. We were planning and preparing for the big move and everyone knew we were coming/leaving. THEN....Amanda got offered a great job....in....Florida.
SO she'll be signing a 2 year contract to get this awesome critical care experience STRAIGHT out of school and we'll be here for 2 more years. We are happy to be around my parents for a while longer as our girls absolutely LOVE THEM. We have 2 more years to convince them to move up with us, which won't happen, but we'll try!
So I get to quit my current job VERY soon and I am THRILLED!!!! Then I'll stay home for a few months and live my dream of stay at home mom, then work part time. We already found a nice 4 bedroom house we'll rent. Not looking forward to the actual moving part, but at least we are packing over the course of a month or so so it won't be too bad.
REALLY hoping the girls will take to having their own rooms and let us have some restful nights. Lexi is excited to decorate her new room and we will get her either a twin or full size bed as she has told us that her toddler bed is for Haidyn. Hoping for a smoothe transition and we WILL make it to Jersey eventually.
And totally unrelated...
Haidyn FINALLY got her first tooth 4-12-10 after about 4 MONTHS of teething! She is standing on her own and walking with her push toys. She will take her first steps any day now. Time goes too fast!
Lexi is obsessed with singing the ABCs lately. It is too cute...except when she wakes up at like 2 am and wants me to sing it to her. But I try to cherish every moment, even the middle of the night ones.

Camera fun

First Haircut!

Funny face

BFF

It's Princess Tomboy

This is what sleep feels like

We recently realized that putting the girls in the same room at night quickly turned our nights into a disaster. We only have a 2 bedroom house until we move up north in a few months. Haidyn had been sleeping in our room, but we were more than ready to have our room back. So, since she had been sleeping very well at night we made the move and put the girls together. Lexi has never been a great sleeper and is by far not a heavy sleeper. We got a white noise machine, even equipped with a projection on the ceiling of either moons and stars, animals or sea life. Haidyn goes to sleep very easily and is totally uninterested in it, but Lexi liked picking which one she watched each night. However, for some reason Lexi decided she now wanted us to sit in her room with her until she was asleep. If I tried to leave she would yell MAMA!!! Of course I'd have to go running back in because if she woke Haidyn up then that would, well, SUCK. So she got to thinking I was a her beck and call. Then, when I got Lexi to sleep finally.....usually after waking up an hour or so later on her floor wrapped in one or 2 child size blankets with my head on a boppy or a stuffed animal.....every sound Haidyn made we would run into the room and shove the binky in her mouth and try to pat her butt back to sleep. If that didn't work she got swept out of the room and rocked. It got to the point where then she was awake and after 2 hours of fighting with her in the middle of the night we'd end up giving her a middle of the night bottle which she'd already given up a month ago!! Also, at some point Haidyn either woke up Lexi or she woke up on her own and once again screamed "MAMA" and wanted to come in our bed. So we said to ourselves, this is D-U-M-B.
In a few months we will be moving and they will have to deal with a move, a new house and a new schedule and make a big adjustment anyway which is sure to mess with bedtime big time. So since Haidyn sleeps very well on her own(well she did before we screwed her up) and Lexi is the one who wants to be attached to us at all times at night, we decided to move the extra toddler bed we had into our room. What we hoped for was that 1) with a few nights of sleep training and not taking Haidyn out of her crib that she would go back to being our super sleeper and 2)Lexi would go to bed much easier and spend the whole night in her own bed even if it was in our room. I'm happy say that about 2 weeks later we pretty much got all we were hoping for and for the first time in over 2 years we have almost slept through the night each night. Haidyn stirs once or twice a night and occasionally we have to just go pop the binky in her mouth when she can't find it but she mostly puts herself back to sleep. Lexi still wakes and yells mama but I can usually just say "I'm right here Lexi" and she lays back down and goes to sleep. Aaaahhhh sleep is good. Now we are looking forward to planning for baby #3.....are we nuts??? yeah a little I think LOL

Dancin Machine

We went to a wedding this past weekend. Actually, Amanda was in the wedding as a bridesmaid. For whatever reason we decided to also get Haidyn a vaccination that same morning, followed by Lexi's Little Gym class. We had scheduled the "shot only" appointment a month ago and weren't really thinking about it. Haidyn ended up being fine that day, unlike her big sis who always ran a little fever and had a cranky day after her vax. Of course, we didn't spread her vax out like we are Haidyn's so that could be the reason why. Anyway, the dr visit and Little Gym themselves went smoothly. We even were able to see the doc real quick to get Haidyn's Zantac dosage adjusted due to her most recent growth spurt and a new script. Maybe she'll slow down with the spewing of a rainbow of colors everywhere all day depending on what she's had to eat that day.
We had been trying to decide whether or not to take Lexi with us to the wedding. We had a babysitter set ahead of time and they were definitely watching Haidyn. Lexi usually loves to play with them, but at the same time she looooves a good party :) Also, she had been dying to get into her new party dress for weeks now. We figured we would see how the day went and decide when the time came. That morning was the epitome of TERRIBLE TWOS!! Lexi had 5 twenty minute long screaming crying fits between the hours of 7 am and 2 pm. Amanda had left straight from the Little Gym class and I had gone home to get things together, have lunch, and head over to our friend's house to get the girls settled and myself dressed for the wedding. I called the babysitters on the way down to tell them I would NOT be leaving Lexi with them after the temper tantrum frenzy that day. I was afraid she would torture them with screaming all night. So instead I took her with me to the wedding figuring I could take her outside if she tantrumed or just leave all together.
Anyway, Lexi was thrilled to have her pretty party dress on. She was almost the center of attention....a CLOSE second to the bride herself. She was an absolute angel the whole time, even during the ceremony itself (which luckily was short and sweet). We got up to the reception and the DJ was trying hard to make friends with Lexi but at first she was overwhelmed with the loud music and lights and was playing shy. He quickly won her over with magic tricks and became her new BFF. I think Lexi danced for about 2 hours straight....even during the NON dancing type music played during the "it's time to sit down and eat your meal time". The DJ asked her what song she wanted to hear because he would play anything she wanted. After a few minutes she decided, "I want Boom Boom Pow, I wanna DANCE!" As the word dance escaped her lips it coincided with a wiggle and shake of her shoulders. They did play Boom Boom Pow, the party got totally rolling at that moment with everyone dancing and the groom even singing in the microphone. Yes, my 2 year old already knows how to party. I think they could create a whole separate Lexi wedding album and video with all the pictures the photographer took of her throughout the night. We can't wait to see them!

Trip to the zoo!!

Well we were supposed to have a trip to the zoo for Lexi's birthday(November 19th), but on the morning of the zoo day I hurt my back and ended up in the ER. Soooo, then I recovered but it was Christmastime so we FINALLY had our zoo day yesterday! It was actually great weather for the zoo...about 77 degrees and cloudy. We didn't have to sweat our butts off in the sun but it was just warm enough for the kids to play in the interactive fountain without freezing. We had good company with a bunch of our friends and their kiddos. Lexi looooves animals so she had a blast and Haidyn was pretty intrigued as well. It was lots of fun and we need weekends like this more often! Today is Grammy's birthday!! She wants to take the kids to the park and then we'll have a nice dinner and cake :)

Boogers boogers everywhere!

Haidyn started with a runny nose Monday night at bedtime....actually an hour after she had been asleep she woke up with a face full of boogers. She had been really cranky all day but no signs of a cold and then SURPRISE!! The next night Lexi did pretty much the same thing. So, we are 2 tired moms right now between the 2 of them waking at night. I feel so bad for them (and us, but more them!). Haidyn has been getting the saline drops in her nose and using the bulb syringe. You might say she HATES it more than anything in her little 6, almost 7, month old world. I went and found a natural homeopathic cold medicine for Lexi today since they no longer sell cold meds for her age anymore. It seems to give her some relief for about 2.5-3 hrs or so. She can take it every 4 hours so we have a miserable cranky pants for about an hour before the next dose. They sleep with the humidifier in the room and tonight I am going to put the Vicks Baby Rub on them. Not sure if it helps, but I'll try anything for a little bit of relief for them and a little sleep for us:)