She's just so adorable!!!

Ainsley cracks me up. We have full on conversations with each other. She uses way less words, but communicates wonderfully. When she wakes up I am greeted with "Hi Mommy." I say something like. "Hi Sweet Girl, are you ready to get up?" "Eady!" She then stands up and hands me everything in her crib. "Ion (lion), Melmos (Elmo), Uh-Ha (Aubrey's been sharing one of her monkey's lately), "banket (blanket), and then "Out, Mommy." As I carry her downstairs she either gives me a rundown of the parts of her face or says kiss and hug while loving on her animals. She is such a sponge, I have to remind myself to intentionally grow her vocabulary. I'm hoping she'll learn to say "Trick or Treat" for Halloween.

Fit Family

On the days I don't make it to the rec center, I try to squeeze in a 30 minute workout here. It is usually a 30 minute Abs workout from the Firm. Aubrey and Ainsley are working out their abs too. It just reassured me that it is a good use of my time to exercise in front of my kids. They are learning from me everyday, and a healthy lifestyle is definitely something I want to instill in my children. That being said, Ainsley likes to sit on my chest and bounce while I am doing crunches. It is much easier to exercise away from home, but I am finding a nice rhythm between the two.

All about Little A

Ainsley has enough hair to wear half up or even in pigtails with all her hair up. Unfortunately, she pulls everything out of her hair within the hour. I give it an attempt for Sunday and let it be shaggy the rest of the week. I've been keeping her bangs trimmed up and am trying my hardest not to have a repeat of the 2006 bang-debacle with Aubrey. Aubrey was also 16 months at that time, so you can take a look down memory lane and see how different they are starting to look from each other.
Miss Independence wants to walk down the stairs now. Ugh. I am terrified that her adventurous spirit is going to end up with all of us in the ER and me being questioned by police!!!! I taught her to at least use the railings, and have started to put the gate back up if I am not paying close attention to the kids. For the last several months they have had a run of the house so the kids are none to happy about being locked downstairs again.
Ainsley has always been a bedtime thumb sucker, but she has started to suck her thumb a lot during daytime hours too. I don't want this to be an awful habit that we need to break later, but short of taking her blanket away I am at a loss.
Ainsley also has a lot more "big girl" activities in her day now. She really likes crayons, to eat that is! She has to be strictly supervised. She is very oral and is constantly biting the tips off the crayons. She also likes to color on non-paper items too. My little baby has slipped away from me and gracefully transitioned to a toddler. As much as I miss the cuddles and cooing of my four month old, the adventurous toddler is a blast too!

My eyes must be playing tricks on me!

We opened up Ainsley's blinds last night while we were getting her into jammies. Yeah, this is what I saw! I said, "Um, Mike, there is a funnel cloud out there." You see I don't have much experience with storms of this nature, so to me a funnel cloud and a tornado are the same thing. Mike's response, "Shut up! (thinking I'm kidding) No Rachel, that's a tornado." We hadn't had the TV on so we didn't know that Castle Rock was supposed to be taking SHELTER. This was still out about 7 miles or so, but it freaked me out. Storms can travel 7 miles, can't they?
We spent the next hour glued to the TV, the Internet, and the windows. That funnel had already dissolved, but I've see movies, they can just start right up again and we were still under a warning. The temperature dropped dramatically, it was hailing and pitch black. CRAZY times here in Castle Rock.

Oh, and early on it the experience, I also freaked out because it looked like it was in Parker, where Jay and Jenna live, and there phone was busy. She called me about five minutes after I tried to call her to tell me what was going on and that they weren't in immediate danger either. I knew tornadoes are a possibility here, but I didn't think I would ever see one since we are in the mid part of the state. There is still a greater chance of being hit by lightning after all, but that doesn't seem as grave as a tornado touching down with line of sight from your home.

Family Update

Aubrey- She doesn't think she is sick anymore, but she is totally congested and her voice is pretty funny. We are still home bound. I can only imagine the looks I would get if I tried to sign her into pre-school at church today.

Ainsley- Cranky, no fever. She may be sick, she may just be a toddler!

Mike- On an antibiotic for blood poisoning, or something along those lines. He is also scheduled for a tetanus shot tomorrow. Being a Mortgage Consultant is dangerous work! He was part of a charity event late last week and ended up shoveling for nearly 8 hours. His delicate hands blistered, popped, got infected, and began to spread with a nice red mine crawling up his arm. Oops. Luckily an ex-nurse, turn Realtor, was able to give Mike some on site medical advice.

Me- I'm sick too. I never spiked a fever, but lots of drainage which is making my throat raw, my ears feel thick, and my head feels heavy. This is why Ainsley's cranky demeanor may mean more. I'm pretty cranky too!

Hopefully we will all be well soon. I would really like to take advantage of the last full weeks of summer. Fall is hit or miss around here!

Conversation

Ainsley: (handing me the remote) Please.

Me: Do you want to watch a show?

Ainsley: Jes (Walking to the couch and climbing up)

Me: What show do you want to watch?

Ainsley: Yinines (Little Einsteins)

Me: (sifting through the memory to find the show)

Ainsley: (pointing a play remote at the TV) elp?

Yesterday, after a sneezing fit, Ainsley ran up to me and said "bless you!" How sweet is that? No new pictures for this post, I cannot find my cord to download pics!

Vivid Dreams

Aubrey went to bed last night sporting 104 temperature and a lot of Tylenol. She woke up at 10pm crying. Mike and I soothed her, changed her into dry pajamas (she had sweat through hers when her fever broke), and went to bed. She woke up at 3am, boiling hot, and saying she didn't want her beloved pink blanket. I asked her what was wrong and she said "my blanket has eyes! I don't want it, no, no," Oh, so my three year old had a nightmare about her blanket having eyes. That's creepy. And that's how things went until 4:30. About every twenty minutes, right when we were almost back asleep, Aubrey would start shouting that her blanket had eyes again! The first thing she told me when she woke up this morning is that her blanket does not have eyes anymore. She seemed relieved. So was I! We're all tired, and scared of baby blankets!

Oh Ainsley!

Ah, my little 16 month old. Ainsley is a super fun kiddo with a great personality. She is such a joy to have around and I am so thankful that she was added to our family in April of 2007. That being said, yikes! She decided to drop her morning nap over the weekend. This morning I was successful for 16 whole minutes of her being in her crib. That normally wouldn't be a big deal, but Aubrey is sick with a fever and sore throat again! What does dropping a nap look like in our house? It looks like an overly tired cranky kid for the first few weeks. Yesterday she napped from 11:45-1:20 and today she went down at 10:00. Most likely this will be her only nap for the day, but I will try to give her some crib time in the late afternoon so I don't lose my mind. The good news is that this is a much faster training that potty training so I will hopefully only be in the trenches for a few weeks. The bad news is that I will still have to tackle potty training in a year. I just hope that I can get the girls back on the same afternoon nap schedule quickly. I need to have a little time in my day that is kid free! Speaking of kids. Aubrey seems to have strapped herself into Ainsley's high chair and wants out. Back to work!

A little OCD???

A while back I posted about how I wanted to buy Aubrey a coordinating wardrobe so she would always match. Well, there is no need. She is really anal about matching. She will actually take off jean shorts to put shorts on that are the same color as her shirt so she matches. I explained that jean is a neutral and goes with everything, but there is no reasoning with her... She actually prefers to wear two piece outfits where there is a coordinating theme through the pieces. Yesterday we were getting dressed for the park, her pants had a print and her shirt was a solid. I had to convince her that there was enough pink in the pants that the shirt matched. She wanted to wear her purple sandals, but they didn't match. She ran to the hat box and found a purple hat to match her shoes. Then at dinner she wanted a pink plate to match her shirt. Umm... Aubrey, we cannot always coordinate our plates and flatware to our outfit. What a GIRL!

Funny things Aubrey says

"Basedump" Yes that's what she calls the basement. It works pretty well. A lot of times we walk to the bottom of the steps and dump a box of something to be dealt with later. So it is the basedump.

"Not right now Mommy, I'm talking to my sister (monkey, baby, on the phone). Hmmm... I wonder where she learned that from?

"Eh-do-buddy" It's everybody, and it is just so cute how she says it.

"bobbom" bottom

"I'm just fine. I hold my peepee's for 4 more minutes."

"Come on sister, play with me! Do it!" "Mommy, sister is not playing with me!!!" She gets very frustrated when she wants Ainsley's attention and doesn't get it.

I'm sure there are hundreds more, but this is what I've heard in the last day or so that made me laugh.

The heat wave finally broke

We had something like 25 consecutive days in the 90's in Denver this summer. While I was in California enjoying their 90 plus weather, Colorado finally dropped, wait for it, into the 40's (in the middle of the night at least)!!! What is with this crazy state? We went to a pool party yesterday for a 2 year old, it was 50 degrees and raining. No pool play for us! This morning I came downstairs to find the heater on, which meant it dropped below 67 last night downstairs. Luckily I just got a bag of Zoe's outgrown clothes or Aubrey would be going to church in high water pants this morning. Thanks Tanya!!! Who knew we would need jeans and long sleeves in August! Ainsley, of course, has something like 15 pairs of pants in her current size thanks to AJ's old wardrobe. So she will manage the cold just fine. Happy Sunday! I am off to church in jeans and long sleeves.

When the cat's away, the mouse will... paint?

Mike was crazy busy while I was gone. He only had Friday night and four hours on Saturday free. He recently borrowed a new video game from a friend so I was sure that was how he would be filling his free time. I was so wrong! Mike and I are getting ready to move forward on finishing our basement. I had said that I was reluctant because we still had a lot of unfinished projects in the rest of our house. We had also talked about finally getting some paint on our bedroom walls, but again I wanted to finish up the upstairs hallway before we started yet another project. Well, Mike took on the whole project while I was gone! How did he fit 20 hours of painting into 7 hours of free time? He worked nearly every night from 8pm until midnight. He also worked from home on Monday so he could get an early start and had another work from home buddy come over around 3pm and knocked out our bedroom. I was shocked! Of course I didn't show the right level of shock since I'm not a surprise person, but I was way impressed. It's like we have a whole new upstairs!!! So check it out! Our bedroom has pretty high ceilings so this was a harder job than most. Don't you love the color?
That armoire (sp) is super heavy. After we got it delivered we were certain that it would be in that position unless we took an ax to it. Luckily Mike is so super strong that he was able to move it to paint. And check out those ceiling angles around the door. That was definitely a designer flub.
One more angle of our room. That's a lot of paint.
The upstairs hallway. Lots of door frames to paint around.
Looking into the playroom. Man I should leave with the kids more often!

So much to post, so little time

We had such a nice trip to California. The girls are at a nice age for traveling. They are easily entertained, they don't need a bunch of fancy toys to keep their attention, and they are old enough to be left with my parents without thinking I am abandoning them. So the trip started off with some adult time for me! My parents reacquainted themselves with the kids while I stole a few hours away with a group of my friends from high school. We met up at a local Starbucks and sipped iced coffee drinks and laughed about the good ol' days and talked about where we all see our lives going in the future. Good times!!!

The next day was spent with my good friend Tammi. She spent the day with my family catching some sun by the pool while I tried to convince Aubrey that yes, the floaties would hold her up. She wasn't convinced, and hung out on the steps for the most part. Tammi and I went out to lunch and hit up Coffee Klatch for a "javalanche." It was yummy and brought back many memories of late nights at with my Patio Special (an yes Erin, I told her what the secret ingredient was, I couldn't resist). I was sad to see her go, but it was nice to spend several hours with such a good friend.

Friday was another pool day, and my dear friend Seanna and her daughter joined us for the fun. Even though Alex's floaties kept her from going under, Aubrey wasn't about to test hers out. And I am a dork and have no pictures of any of this. Oops!

Saturday was spent poolside with my parents and longtime family friend Sue. I forced Aubrey into the pool, shoved a noodle under her and swam with her to the middle of the pool. She had a crazy smile on her face and said, "let go Mommy! I can do it all my byself." So I let go and that was that, she kicked her little legs and swam back and forth for nearly two hours. After that it was impossible to keep her mind off the pool.

On Sunday my grandma and aunt joined us for the fun. We hung out inside and watched the girls build with blocks, and yes eventually it was back to the pool. I opted out and let my dad have all the fun with both kids in the pool.

Monday we went to the aquarium and met up with my nephew Brandon. Ainsley LOVED it and was enamored with all that there was to see. Aubrey wasn't as into it as I would have liked, she couldn't get her mind off that pool. We went back to my parents house and hung out with my nephew while the kids slept. My aunt and 2 of my cousins arrived in late afternoon and it was a great time of catching up and hanging out. We eventually went to the backyard, and you guessed it, went in the pool!

Tuesday was travel day and you already got that story. So there was the quick version of my vacation! It was great. It will be even better next year when we are only dealing with one nap a day!

Oh the joys of airports

To save a little money, we traveled through LAX instead of Ontario International this time around. The price was DOUBLE to fly into Ontario, so I am glad I did it, but let's just say LAX was the worst part of my traveling. Now, that means the plane flights went well so I can't complain too much, but I am going to complain a little. We left out of DIA around 8:30 am last Wednesday. I was put through the First Class security screen line since I was traveling solo with young kids! That meant absolutely no line for me! People helped me with my stroller and were very polite. It was great! Well, Aubrey cried hysterically when she had to walk through the metal detector and didn't stop until we got to the terminal, but besides that, it was awesome. She was upset that her backpack had to get X-rayed, the train was crowded, and that we left Daddy. I'm pretty used to her mood swings so it didn't even bother me.

The kids were great on the plane. I decided to drop all the bells and whistles and assume that my kids could handle a few hours without too many extras. I recently read a blog post on reactive parenting and I took from it the phrase "Start as you plan to go on." I am going to be traveling with these kids by myself a lot in the next 17 years so I don't want to make a production out of it. We played with our seat belts, ate apple and cucumber slices, watched a few shows on the DVD player and played peek a boo with willing people in our vicinity, add a bathroom break into the mix and we were safely in LA in no time.

We landed in terminal 6 and our luggage is being sent to terminal 7. It was a LONG walk in many hallways that were not air conditioned. The signs for those of us that couldn't use the escalator were few and far between. When there was a sign, it didn't specify which terminal it was for, and the elevator didn't have those helpful little plaques next to the buttons that tell you what floor you need to go to. Luckily I latched onto another mom with a stroller and followed her lead!!! We were also told to "keep moving" by a security guard when we came to a fork in the road and were not sure whether to go down a level or stay on our current path. He did tell us which way to go, but I have never been told that I can't look at signs before when I was at an airport! End rant.

We returned to LAX yesterday for a flight. It was delayed an hour and it was already scheduled to take off when my kids get up from their naps. So the girls didn't get naps yesterday and the extra hour before we got home had me a little worried. From the pictures, you can tell the worries weren't needed. They ran around the airport, shared a happy meal (Aubrey ate the chicken and Ainsley ate the apple slices) and then they colored for a bit. They were tired on the flight, but the overtired kind, so Ainsley never sat still and Aubrey was a bit argumentative. Again, they didn't disturb anyone and only spilled half of my cup of water down the front of me by slapping my tray table up, so all in all, it was a lot easier than it could have been. Aubrey cried once we got on the train and told Mike not to look at her when we saw him, but again, I am used to that. I was glad to be home.

What I had not anticipated was that Ainsley would start vomiting a few minutes before we got to LAX. She was pretty cranky on the way there, but hey, it was her nap time and my kids don't sleep well out of their beds. She was getting really worked up and I turned around to soothe her and I saw a few white chunks on her tongue. I figured she just got too worked up. That's when the river started flowing. SICK! I climbed into the back and wedged myself between the two car seats and started cleaning her up. We got to the airport a few minutes after and the real clean up began. I don't handle that smell well so I lost a bit of my lunch too. I cleaned up her car seat as best I could (Dumping the pool out and using baby wipes) and got her in fresh clothes and stashed an extra pair in my carry on. Th worst of it was when I was checking her car seat and the lady stuck her hand on a part of the seat belt I missed and got throw up on her hand. Sorry nice lady in LA, I hope you don't blog about me ruining your day. Oh, and nice lady gave my mom a pass to go to the terminal with us since Ainsley wasn't feeling well. So that was a plus too for bathroom breaks and diaper changes. I don't think Ainsley is sick, but I was pretty scared on the flight home. I had that little vomit bag near me just in case she had a repeat performance.

So there you have it. DIA was great, the plane times were better than expected, LAX was hot and not signed well, and the United employees are understanding of vomit and helpful. Oh, and I didn't really post about this, but strangers were constantly helping me with my luggage. So strangers were also a plus. I'll post about the trip soon. I have nearly 60 blog posts on reader to catch up on, a ton of email, a dentist appointment today, and of course kick boxing at 6pm, oh and a family to take care of!

All by myself...don't wanna be...

So here I sit all by myself. Well, actually, I am at work with all my coworkers, but that isn't the point. I delivered Rachel and the girls to the motherland (California) yesterday morning. Yay! Mike time. WRONG! I stayed home sick all day and watched about 16 episodes of Seinfeld, which was the highlight if you can count it. I was not off to a good start.

It only gets better. I was driving to work this morning and allegedly rolled through a stop sign close to my house. "That's how we do it in California, officer." No, I was much more apologetic, but it didn't keep me from getting a ticket. Ugh! There's another $162 I'll never see again. I was only 3 months away from dropping the last points on my record and now I'll have these 2 hanging around for a few more years.

So, what have I learned? When the family leaves, I get sick and poor! Come home my ladies. Come home!

Those Crazy Kids

With our house under quarantine last week we got pretty bored. Not only were we cooped up, the kids were feeling so bad that they rarely played with toys. Here are a few pictures of their couch time.

Friday Thoughts

Exercise makes me hungry! That isn't good when you are hoping to lose weight.

Sick kids are cranky, that makes me cranky too (eventually).

When your kid is only swallowing a few hundred calories a day she can be rather cranky. Poor thing. It shouldn't hurt to swallow yogurt.

Ainsley has started protesting naps. When I gather up her nap gear she starts vigorously shaking her head no and and yelling "no, no, no" until I get in her room. By the time I close the door she is laying down and sucking her thumb. Big Fat Faker!!!

I went to the gym three days this week and did a workout video here one day. Hopefully I can squeeze one more workout in this weekend.

Breaking Dawn comes out in 10 hours!!! I will be reading a lot this weekend.

It is always scary when an anticipated book (or movie) comes out, you have to read, read, read, before someone ruins it for you!

I get to see my parents in 6 days... and various other important people to me.

I'm going to an 80's party tonight and don't have anything to wear. I'm hoping I can throw something together with a little help from Target.

It's August already. How did that happen???