Time to play catch up

A New Year's resolution for me:   update this blog at least once a week!

We have been up to a lot since my last post:

Makena is potty-trained, day & night!  It happened one weekend a few months ago and we haven't looked back.  Of course there has been an accident here or there, but for the most part she is doing excellent.  We are so proud of her & mama is happy to only be washing diapers for one.  

Tayler turned one on November 16.  Wow - the year has flown by.   She took her first step the Tuesday before her birthday, but neither Michael or I saw it. She was with Auntie Debi while Kena and I were at our once a week Parent/Child class at the Waldorf school.  Darn it!   She is walking and practically running now, way past the early monkey walk.   She still doesn't have many words, but the girl knows how to get her point across.  She is signing more, all-done and we are working on please, thank you, milk, and eat.  Speaking of milk, we are still nursing about 4 to 5 times a day & unfortunately, 2-3 times during the night...   I keep telling myself she will be sleeping through the night soon.   Makena was well on the way to weaning by this time, but I think it will be some time before Tay is ready.  

Christina & Dan got married on Oct 25 - in Reno at the courthouse.   We were halfway there & running late when we realized we left our garmet bag & toiletry bag at home...  But hey, at least the girls look cute!  It was a sweet & simple ceremony and we are so excited to have Daniel as an official member of the family.  Poor guy!  

Declan Harty Leonard was born on December 16, 2008.  Welcome little cousin!  He is as cute as can be.  In the picture is the first time that the girls and I got to see him.    For those that don't know the other gal in the picture is Jan (or Granjan) Declan's other grandma, Kali's mom.    

We had a wonderful Christmas with family.  Of course we missed all of our family that could not be with us.   This was our first Christmas with out Bear and that was a bit weird.  We found some old photos of him the other night and then the next morning Michael was making me an espresso drink and there was a Bear hair in my cup!  We always said that we would be finding his hair for the next 20 years.  We miss you Buddy!  

I especially missed him the other night.  We have always closed the girls doors at night.  We have monitors in their rooms, but you don't always hear everything.  Tayler woke up and I went in to get her and noticed that Kena's door was open.  First thing I did was look at the alarm panel - still red.  With my heart in my chest I walk in and she's still sound asleep.  Whew!    If Bear was still with us I would not have even looked at the alarm because he was such an amazing guard dog.    He was the kind of dog that didn't bark, just to bark - only when he thought there was danger.  He was one of a kind.  Lola, while I love her to bits - so not a guard dog.  While some are intimidated just because she is a pitt bull, she just as soon love you to death than anything else.    Turns out that Makena woke up and didn't want her door closed, so she opened it and went back to bed.  That happened a couple nights in a row, so now we leave her door open.  

We took the girls to the snow last weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  There was not much interest in sledding - but playing in it was a big hit.  Michael would stick Tay down in the drifts and she thought it was the funniest thing.  We threw snowballs, ate snow, and enjoyed the beauty of it.  Tayler was tired & hungry so she and I headed back to the truck for awhile, but Daddy & Kena stayed out for another hour or so.  They even built a snowman! We took Lola, but it was a bit hectic with two kids,  two sleds, so she got out for a bit, but had to hang out in the SUV for most of it.  Poor girl - but she did enjoy the car ride.  

Okay - and not sure what the deal is with the pictures...   I am trying to figure out how to move them around.  I did have them in order of how things came up in the blog, but I don't know what happened.  So hopefully future posts will be a bit more organized!  

Pleeeeaaaassseeee Sleep............

Can everyone send some sleepy vibes our way?

Let's just say that Miss Tayler is NOT a good teether. As in, for the last three nights I have been up every hour from 8pm until 7am, literally. I get up, stumble into her room, rock her & put her back in bed. She doesn't want to nurse, she doesn't want to sleep with us, she doesn't want me to stay in the rocking chair, on the couch, etc.

Michael let me sleep from 7-9 this morning - otherwise I'd be even more of a walking zombie.

And I hear her calling again...

Okay - I'm back & edited to add that for extra fun - when she gets a fever (in this instance from teething) she likes to projectile vomit as soon as Tylenol & Motrin hit her lips. So I have given her Hylands teething tablets and they seem to help some with the pain.

In other exciting news - she said her first word! And no, it's not Mama, or Dada, or even Kena, but it is "bath". Or her babbling equivalent of it. She has repeated it on several occassions since Friday and it is definitely what she means if only understood by Mama & Daddy.

So cute! Makena sings the Coldplay song "Green Eyes" to Tayler in the bathtub. They both have blue eyes, but hey, you take what you can get.

In Makena news, we are back to a standstill on potty training, sigh. She is doing really well with swim lessons. Working everyday at home on her "kickers, paddles, & bubbles". I'll have to figure out how to upload a video so you all can see it. Precious! Not so precious that she apparently has decided to give up naps during the day. We have tried all the usual & some new tricks to get her to sleep & nothing seems to work short of driving her around in the car for an hour & a half. Which, is well, not practical. So I put her in her crib for some "quiet time" in which she reads about 15 books, builds a fort, and hangs out with Sulley, her big, stuffed monster. She actually does okay with no nap, except around 5pm she hits a wall, is herself a monster, and by 5:30 we are through it. We just do an earlier dinner & earlier bedtime.

Michael and I tried real sushi for the first time the other night at http://www.mikunisushi.com/ it was so good! We will be back there for sure.

Other than that still getting settled in the new house, and enjoying time with friends & family.

Swim Lessons & the Pink Potty Chair

We started swim lessons on Monday. It was a bit of a rough start because Makena wouldn't nap that day so she was grumpy. But after a long talk with Daddy she was ready to go. Tayler went under water for the first time & wasn't thrilled with it. I wimped out and had to have the instructor do it the first time. I took her under the second time & it wasn't as near as scary as I thought it would be. (Yeah, right says Tayler) But we just make sure to make really happy faces when she comes up. We are the only ones signed up for the time slot so we lucked out with private lessons!

Tuesday went much better - Miss M took a long nap so she was ready to go. Apparently someone turned off the pool warmer though so the water was a bit chilly. Tayler was not happy... Makena did really well with her "paddles & kickers". She is also learning how to pull herself out of the water on the side of the pool. Elbow, elbow, pull, pull, pull, tummy, knee, knee. And she is jumping in to Michael. No one is probably too surprised though - as daring as she is. Tayler was freezing in the water after about 10 mins - so after dunking her under & doing a few kicks & playing on the stairs I took her out, dried her off, & nursed her a bit.

Michael & I bought M a pink free-standing potty chair the other day. We have had varying success with PTing. She wakes up dry from night time, & will pee & poop on the potty when she wants, but is just not that interested in actually toilet training. So, we thought - we'll buy a different chair & see how she does. So far today - it seems magic. She keeps running over & peeing in it - doesn't want a diaper on. It might just be the novelty or maybe we are finally making some progress.

I am hoping to get some pics uploaded tonight - so I will either make a new post or edit this one.