Different as Night and Day

You always know in the back of your mind that your second child is going to probably be nothing like your first. As much as I knew this, it still came as a big surprise to me. My two kids are as different as night and day on everything so far, down to the really small things. Here are some of them. Yes, this is only some of them!

Shyla always liked her bottles/food warm.
Jacob temperature doesn't matter.

Shyla loves to swing.
Jacob doesn't.

Shyla liked to be held up on the shoulder all the time.
Jacob likes to be cradled.

Shyla at bedtime/naptime wanted to be put in her crib while still awake to go to sleep on her own. She would wake up and play with the crib toys for about an hour (sometimes more, sometimes less) before wanting to get out of the crib.
Jacob at bedtime/naptime wants to be held until he's asleep, or at least REALLY sleepy. He won't play in his crib. He wants out as soon as he wakes up.

Shyla wanted/wants to stay up late and then sleep in.
Jacob wants to go to bed early and wake up at 7am (regardless of what time he went to sleep).

Shyla's teeth came in early, fast, and didn't bother her much (except her top 4 front teeth that all tried to come in at the same time).
Jacob's teeth are coming in slow (actually they are probably coming in at the normal time but it seems slow compared to Shyla), one at a time, he gets really cranky and wants to be held (more than usual if that's possible), always wants a bottle, and will wake up during the night.

Shyla talked/babbled a LOT.
Jacob not so much. He's 8 months now and is fairly quiet most of the day/week/month.

Shyla was a skinny minny.
Jacob is a little chubbier.

Shyla wasn't a cuddler.
Jacob is ALWAYS ready and wanting to cuddle.

Hansen Park (Lots o' Pics)

It was beautiful weather today and I just couldn't justify staying in the house. We packed up the car, took lunch to Jake at a house he was working at in Oakley, and came back to Antioch to go a park near our house. I love this park because it's in a safe area, it's not too busy (though sometimes I wish there were more kids/parents there), and it doesn't have sand/tanbark stuff to get everything messy. There is a sandbox there to play in but the rest of the play area is bouncy ground type of ground. Shyla absolutely LOVES swings! She has since the very first time she sat in one. She loved to sit and swing in her baby swing for HOURS as a baby and even enjoyed it when we'd swing her doorway jumper! She definitely has a great fondness for swings. Maybe it's the feeling of the wind in her hair, haha! Slides come in a close second for her. She likes to climb up them. Climb down them. Go on them by herself or with someone else. Anyone really who will play with her on the slides she'll play with. I went down the twirly one with her today and it was fun. EXCEPT for the fact that I just don't slide as fast as I used to. Although I can still remember going down them as a child! I did used to go faster. Jacob didn't like the swing, but he did enjoy crawling on the ground where some sand was that got misplaced from kids taking it out of the sand area. It was very comforting to see my baby so happy. While he was loving the sand and leaves on the ground I could hear Shyla laughing on the slide. I enjoyed being able to take my kids out to play at the park. It's a blessing that in other countries may never be possible. I'm so blessed to be able to provide happiness and growth for my children. I tried to get some shots in of the kids in the grass, but as you can see Jacob didn't want to cooperate. Shyla tried hard to get him to sit and smile. Again, I need another hand while I'm taking pictures. One of these days it'll happen and I'm sure to get awesome photos!

Secret Sister

For Valentine's Day, my Relief Society is doing Secret Sister. It's like Secret Santa, but with the sister's in the ward. There is one gift per week and I got my first one! Cookies and oranges, yum! I got a juicer for Christmas so I best be getting to work making some homemade OJ.

Candy Themed Party

The theme of the party was C-A-N-D-Y! There was candy on all the tables, in the goodie bags, on the centerpieces, etc. Candy everywhere! Jake and I came up with the idea for the centerpieces to make lolipops. One idea led to another and it turned into paper plate lolipops with a puffypaint covered base and DOTS candy on toothpicks at the bottom. Very cute and actually not very expensive either. I have so much fun planning parties! It's super stressful before, during, and after, but it's fun after the fact when you're looking at the pictures. The party started off a little slow. Once the latecomers showed up it picked up the pace. One of my friends was set up to do facepainting. Even I got my face painted! After a while of watching, Shyla took to the table and at one point had a line of several kids waiting for her to paint theirs too!We played a couple games. I think they were too "old" for this party though. Oh well, you live and you learn. Musical chairs (but when someone's "out" they got a kazoo!) would've gone better had the CD played not stopped working. Jake found some MARIACHI music to play since there wasn't enough power left to run the CD player portion. Good times!There was a table set up to the side where the kids could either frost a graham cracker and decorate it with candies or on the other side of the table they could make a candy necklace. I tend to overbuy "just in case". I'd rather have too much than not enough. So I made sure the parents also made a candy necklace and decorated a graham cracker. There was certainly enough to go around. We sang to the birthday girl. Some people had to leave early and others came late but I didn't know what time the latecomers were coming. We decided to sing early in the party before people had to leave. Had I known so many people were coming late, I'dve left the cake until the end. That's the last time I change the course of the party for people!After the party, Shyla got to open a few of her gifts. Her friend Hailey played dressup while the rest of us cleaned up (oh yay).

The Week From H#$$!

The last few days haven't been too good to us. We had a busy weekend between Shyla's ballet practice, Jake working late at a DUI checkpoint, early church, and birthday celebrating. If that wasn't enough, there was preschool several times a week, Jake hurt his knee on Tuesday, I had to help him at work on Wed and Th (and we had to bring both kids), the baby's been cranky all week. By Th we figured out that Jacob was sick. I hadn't been feeling well all week, I was really tired, but it really hit me on Th. Jake had started his night class on Th. All of Th as the day went on I felt sicker and sicker until Jake got home from his class and I was already stuffed up. Friday (yesterday) we were meeting up with Candy and Aunt April, Uncle Bruce, and Chase to go see Wicked (again) out in SF. With Jake limping around and me sick we still made the trek out there. I wasn't going to miss the show. It was awesome the second time around and I'd totally go see it again. I was loosing my voice on Friday and come Saturday it was gone. All the while, all week, we were prepping for Shyla's big birthday bash today (the festivities will be in a seperate post). I was SO SICK on Friday and Sat and really should've been in bed, but those were the biggest days I didn't want to miss. So I sucked it up and made it through. Tomorrow, after church (which I probably shouldn't be going to but feel that I need to be there), comes a much needed DAY OF REST!

Shyla Turns 3

My little girl isn't so little anymore... she's 3! January 24th. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHYLA! A few fun current facts about the birthday girl:

Height: 37” (3ft, 1in)
Weight: 29.8 lbs.

Started a ballet class that she LOVES on 1/16/10 and will start preschool 4 times/week for an hour and a half tomorrow on 1/25/10.

Potty Training. She'll kill me when she's older for posting this, but I find it good "proud mommy sharing time". She was out of diapers during the day a few months after turning 2. No diapers for naps when she was about 2 ½. No diapers even at nighttime a few months before turning 3. In mommy’s opinion, she could’ve been out of each stage of diapers sooner than she was, but we took it slow since we weren’t really sure what to expect.

Puzzles. She can now do 9 piece puzzles without help.

Drawing. Can draw stick people with details. Head, eyes with eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears with earrings, hair, body, arms/legs with hands/feet.

She amazes us every day with each ability she gains. Her self confidence is through the roof and she's always telling us, “Me do it.” and “I can do it by meself.” Mommy and daddy have a hard time letting go and letting her do things by herself, because she's just growing up so fast! We love you Shylabug!

It's been celebration after celebration for this little one. I don't know why were did so much celebrating. We are just party/celebration type people. We made it fun for her. Pretty much everything was "birthday". When we wanted her to do anything it was "Let's have birthday pop tarts!", "Let's go birthday potty!", and "It's your birthday, let's sing a song!". It's been a blast. Saturday, before Jake was going to work a DUI checkpoint for Concord PD, we took Shyla out for birthday lunch at Chili's. They brought her a dessert to celebrate, but we didn't expect a FULL SIZE LAVA CAKE! YUM!

The second celebration was at church on Sunday when they sang a birthday song to her in Nursery!

Celebration #3 was after dinner. I bought a large piece of chocolate cake that she loves and we sang to her at home. Then we gave her our gift to her, which was a life size doll that she has named Penny.

Then came today, in Preschool the class sang to her. She brought animals cookies for each kid to take home! She kinda froze up when the whole room started singing to her. There were a lot of people in there. She was still cute though. The teacher made a birthday hat for her to wear and take home.

More Ballet Pics

This is Shyla from her second ballet class. I didn't know last week that they let you take pictures so I had taken some on my phone. This time I was able to get some video as well! I'm so excited for her recital, maybe even more than her :)

Playtime

Part of being a parent... is being a kid! What started out as just a playhouse for Shyla, has turned into a 2 bedroom house with a tunnel doorway and path leading to the door. It now takes up 2 rooms in our house. It's a lot of fun to play with her in it though, because she gets so happy. I have to inchworm my way into and down the tunnel, but Shyla is patient with me. She knows it's hard and even says, "Oh, it's hard" while climbing over the bar inside the house when she goes from one room to the other. It's probably one of those things where "you had to be there", but it's still really funny!A few of the shots that I got while trying to capture the PERFECT picture.

I tried to make chocolate covered pretzels with Shyla last week but for some reason the chocolate didn't melt, it burnt. I think because it wasn't fully chocolate, it was the chocolate-peanut butter chips. I bought more chips that were only chocolate and tried again. Jake helped her while I made dinner and Jacob looked on in his highchair. Can you tell which ones she made. I'm so proud of her ability to follow directions and the detail she pays to whatever she does.

Ballet Class

Shyla, as I've mentioned many times before, loves to dance! She has started a ballet class that she really enjoys. I love watching the little girls learn their dance skills. The class is in session for 8 weeks and then there is a recital. I'm not sure if she'll stay in ballet. We'll probably try her out in a few classes until we/she finds the one she most enjoys. I didn't know you could take pictures in class so I didn't bring my camera the first day. I took these pictures on my phone. Next time I'll be sure to bring my camera.

An Eventful Day (with slightly bloody pics)

If you know Shyla at all, you know she LOVES TO SPIN! Maybe she likes the wind in her hair or maybe she likes the dizzy feeling she gets, but either way, she loves to spin. When she gets really dizzy, she falls over, and we're always worried she's going to fall and hit something and get hurt. It was bound to happen some day and today happened to be the day. She was spinning around in the family room and I was talking to Jake on the phone. I heard a *thunk* and turn around to find Shyla on the floor bleeding! My first thought was that because there was so much blood in her mouth I thought she knocked her teeth out. Thankfully that didn't happen. The blood was just gushing out as it does with head wounds so I ran her to the bathroom and laid her on the floor so I could get some towels to clean her up. Well, blood and laying down don't mix, so she starting coughing/choking on the blood. It got all over her clothes, my clothes, and the floor. I don't know what I was thinking. I looked like a chicken with my head cut off I'm sure. I knew what to do but my body wasn't working as fast as my thoughts were.

At the time this happened she was in her Tinkerbell dress-up clothes. I was able to wash the clothes fast enough that the blood didn't have time to settle. WHEW! Dodged that one! After some of mommy's TLC, I got Shyla to lay down and rest. She eventually took a nap. When Jake got home he looked at her lip and thought we should call the doctor to see if she may need stitches. It was more swollen and looked more gross than it did earlier... I'll spare you those details/pictures. In the end she didn't need stiches. I'm sure in a week or so her lip will be back to normal.

While this was all happening Jacob woke up from his nap. I went in to get him and found him pulled up at the side of the crib on his knees!

After lunch playing with his toys on his knees! He was just off to the side minding his own business quietly, that is, until mommy showed up with this big camera and wanted to take pictures.

Later on, after his afternoon nap, I was on the phone with Jake telling him how I again found Jacob pulled up to his knees and that we needed to lower the crib that night. I turn around and find this...He now can pull himself to standing! This little guy is growing just as fast as his sister, which in my opinion is TOO FAST! In the first year to year and a half I think the kids grow the fastest. They are growing now only in size, but shape, their hair, abilities they can do, speech, etc. SO much happens and so fast. I wish I could slow time down just so I can savor a little more of the fun that comes with babies!