10 MONTHS & A MILESTONE!

At long last, this curious little girl is crawling. I was beginning to wonder if she would ever actually do it since she has been rocking on her hands and knees for 2 months now! But yesterday, I held onto her chubby little legs and gently lifted her knee up and forward. This is how you do it, Lyla. A few minutes later, she was off and destroying Jane's game and ripping pages out of her coloring book. A suddenly mobile baby is a quick game changer, as Jane is not-so-happily discovering. I had to have a little pep talk with Jane to let her know that since Lyla is very curious and excited about everything, she is going to need to have a little more patience. And if we ever want to play memory together again, we will save it for when Lyla is napping ;)

 Don't you hate it when you fall head first into a dandelion?

A few quirky lyla-isms:
- When she cries, she always blows raspberries with her lips, it's her signature cry.
- When I change her diaper, the only way to get her to stay calm is to give her another diaper to play with.
- She still flexes her legs and twirls her feet when she gets excited :)
- Her increasing obsession with nursing stands as the opposition to her severe bottle aversion. She is so very offended if ever offered one. I might be nursing forever. (I also might be dramatic)
- She gives very intentional cuddles, as if she knows very well that there are few things that I adore more. On some hard days, a 3 second cuddle up to my chest may be the one thing I needed to give me enough strength, patience, and love that I need to finish out the day. And this little Lyla girl has pulled me out of more than one pit of frustration.
- I love her, despite her poor sleeping habits. Despite the seemingly constant vomit. Despite the slapping of my chest when she is hungry. Despite the crying and whining and clingy-ness.
- I love her despite of anything and everything. And always will.

april little things

April has not been the most glamorous month, let me be real. Jeff left the first day of the month so we have been trying to keep ourselves busy with lots of play dates and lots of fun activities. It really was going well until the big bad wolf called sickness came to visit and basically had us quarantined for a good while. I've always had a darn good immune system and before moving, Jane had been sick once her ENTIRE life. But something in the air here- everyone is sick ALL THE TIME. It's weird. I do realize April isn't over yet, but we have something really fun planned for next week, and I wanted to write about the little things first. 

 Let's start out with this picture of my window flowers. Trying to be a german flower woman and guess what, I suck at it. These flowers have been dead for 2 weeks now. I tried planting them in the front yard too, and those also died. I tried, ya know? I really tried. And I really failed. 

 Ok this picture is blurry, but look at this child! Already perfecting the cheesy grin! Obsessed.

 ^^ Lyla hates it when Jane tries to cuddle with her. Haha. These cute girls before church. Sundays are my favorite days to do little sister photoshoots in the living room.  ^^

 ^^ this moment made my heart sing! One of those moments i've always dreamed of. My two sweet girls mesmerized by our wedding video. That video is probably one of my most prized possessions. I'm so glad we have it. And that is has documented all the people who were there on that wonderful, happy day! :)

 I took this picture because it just screams "happy childhood" to me! Taking a break from playing out side and riding her bike to shove food in her face. Unwilling to take off the helmet, or turn it around the correct way. I just can't believe my baby is a full fledged KID. It's just crazy, but I LOVE that I get to witness practically every second of it :)

 Let's squeeze in a little 9 month update for Lyla-Loo. This 9th month has been a rough one for her as evidenced in the picture above. That is how she has looked for a good majority of the past month. (does she not have the most pitiful cry face you've ever seen? breaks my heart every time!) She had Roseola for about a week and I didn't know what was wrong until she broke out in the rash and my wise sisters in law identified it for me. She was 100% miserable for a week straight. I've never, (in all my 3 WHOLE years;) dealt with that sad or inconsolable of a baby. I thought it was teething, but NOPE- that babe is still rockin' the toothless grin. She finally got over roseola and thats when the DEATH cold hit us all. I got it first, then jane, and now Lyla. Right when she was getting happy again, the poor baby is back to being miserable.

 That cold was a doozy. Or maybe I'm a wimp. But either way, I was feeling very overwhelmed trying to take care of my kids, and everything else I need to do in life, while I felt so sick. It made me miss jeff even more. Speaking of jeff- he is doing great. He is doing some really hard army guy stuff. He tells me about the things he is doing and I just sit there and think....if i were the one doing that, i would give up, sit my butt down, and bawl my eyes out.  I don't know how he does it.

 Jane hasn't had the easiest month either. She REALLY misses her dad. I had maybe the most brilliant idea ever. Actually, my friend Nikki gave me the idea- to buy a "daddy bear". I went that very minute and bought one for Jane. I wrapped it up and told her a present was sent here from daddy. She was purely delighted! I told her that whenever she misses daddy, she can give that bear a big hug. Needless to say, that bear has been gettin' lots of love. It breaks my heart, but at the same time makes me SO grateful to have a husband who is such a wonderful father.

 I'm loving that Lyla and Jane are starting to play in the bath together. Lyla even lets jane splash her in the face and is completely unphased by that at this point. HA! Lyla LOVES the bath like Jane never has, so it's one of my favorite things to bathe her.

I have to mention my favorite thing right now with Jane. Every time I put Lyla down for a nap she gets a giddy grin on her face and starts singing "Mommy and Janie time, Mommy and Janie time!" We use this time to do school, or play memory, or read books. Whatever her request may be that day. I love it. We're friends. In fact, the other day she said "Mom, you're my best friend!" And I smiled, but didn't respond immediately. She said "Mom! Say 'AWWW!'"

Another Jane quote. The other day we were making cookies together and as she was sitting in front of the oven, watching them cook, she says: "I wish these cookies were water so I could swim in them!"

 Lyla still isn't crawling. Not even scooting. She hates, HATES being on her stomach and will flip around as soon as she can. I try to flip her back, and she is quite persistent and will eventually just scream. She spends a lot of time rocking on her hands and knees but as far as mobility goes? She is quite limited. I'm anxious for her to just learn. But also, not. My house isn't baby proof. Dumb of me, right?

This little sunshine just makes me so happy. Jane's favorite thing lately is for me to tell her the story of "When you had the Jane baby" or "When you had the Lyla baby" and I absolutely love reliving these 2 MOST spectacular and heavenly days of my entire life over, and over again. It also helps me to just appreciate them that much more, and kiss their cheeks to death. I love my girlies.

5 months of baby dejavu

Lyla is 5 months old now. And for kicks and giggles here is jane at 5 months.  Like I mentioned in my last post, Lyla has been an angel the past two weeks. But then started being cranky pants again 3 days ago. I think I'll just accept the fact that she is a bi-polar baby. I guess they all are, huh?

But here is the biggest thing I've been thinking lately. Taking care of baby Lyla is like taking care of baby Jane all over again. They are SO SIMILAR. Enter:constant de ja vu. She started sucking on her two fingers at the exact same time Jane did. She has the same smile, the same laugh. She seems to have a very similar personality. Parents are always talking about how their kids are each so unique, but uhm, yeah I am not about to jump on that wagon yet because mine are pretty much the same. We broke out the baby jumper that we had used for jane. The toy that Jane was obsessed with, Lyla is obsessed with. Surprise, surprise! It's almost like re-living the past and I actually love it.

A few differences obviously. Lyla, for example, loves to wake up at 5:30 am every. single. morning. And she usually only takes one nap throughout the day! Like, Jane sleeps for about the same amount of time as Lyla each day. Whatttt? Jane was always a fantastic napper, still is! That's one thing Lyla didn't copy.

She has found her toes and is quite happy about it. The other day I took her socks off and let her have at it. It was quite a treat.

Like all humans, Lyla has her flaws. Mostly just one, and that is that she pinches the living heck out of me every time she nurses. Over, and over, and over. I always am somehow unprepared, even though I should be prepared, and yell "ouch!!" Jane is always concernced and says "Oh Lyla! What did you DO to mommy??!!"

My favorite part of the day is when she wakes up (even though it is wicked early) and sees my face for the first time, She erupts in the biggest smile and it stays there for about a whole minute until the novelty of my morning face wears off ;) I seriously love it. Makes waking up early that much easier. I am starting to really enjoy my quiet mornings with her though. We talk and smile at each other. Sometimes she is content to watch me do a work out, and some times she just wants to cuddle. We usually listen to a conference talk or I read scriptures out loud to her. I do like having that alone time with her.

Lyla LOVES jane. If she can hear her, but can't see her, she screams until she can. Her favorite past time would definitely be watching Jane play. Although I regret to inform you that sibling rivalry has begun. See pictures below ;)

And here are a few normal ones. I love the first one where Lyla is straining her neck to it's maximum strain in order to see Jane's face. So precious to me :)

My favorite thing about having 2 kids so far is watching them start to interact more lately. Sisterhood is a fun thing to watch. Especially when you helped create it!

4 months of Lyla

Little Lyla, my little babe who has become an attractor of nicknames. Well, at least compared to her sister who has always been called Jane or Janie. Lyla is Lyla-Loo, Lyla-bug, and the most popular: Moose. Jane wakes up every morning and says "Where's Moose?", and another common one "Moose is crying!" I love how Jane takes it upon herself to remind me when Lyla is crying as if I'm deaf to her relentless screaming. Quite the opposite, actually. You moms know how your baby's cry kind of rips your soul apart, and inhibits your ability to do just about anything efficiently, unless that thing is getting your baby to be happy again.

Lyla's number one favorite thing is when I lay her on the ground and kiss her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, her lips. Over, and over, and over again. She gets the sweetest little giddy smile on her face. And if I ever stop, she starts immediately screaming. It's my favorite thing too, and if I had no other agenda in life, I'd be content to do it all day long.

She stopped cuddling. She has also started to hate nursing. All in the same week! This breaks my heart. I'm staging an intervention this week, before I take the leap to either buying formula or an expensive pump and feeding her pumped breast milk from a bottle. And what does a breast feeding intervention entail, you may ask? I really couldn't tell ya. Mostly just some extra prayers and extra nursing.

When Lyla was born she looked way different than newborn Jane, but now every time I look at her, it's like dejavu. They look a lot alike to me! Here is Jane at 4 months

She loves Jane, and watching Jane play, and get this!! She LOVES when I read books to her. I can easily get a 30 minute book reading session in every day where both girls are glued to the pages in the books and totally happy. It's awesome. I had no idea a 4 month old could love reading books so much.

My favorite Lyla quirk is just about the most adorable thing on the planet earth. She loves to hold her own hands. She will just clasp her hands together right underneath her chin, and it is instantly calming. She also loves to hold swaddling blankets in her fist too. If she is crying, sometimes all I need to do is give her a good chunk of blanket to grab onto, and she is a happy camper.

I love Lyla and I love kissing her sweet, squishy, lotion scented cheeks.