The Pool

We went to the pool today. I think we'll be going a lot this summer, it's a great afternoon activity for the kids and gets them nice and tired for their nap. The kids pool is only 1.5 feet deep but John refuses to stand in it. We won't put he's feet down and even when he does just stands there screaming. But he loves to stand on the steps and play. They both also enjoy sitting on the edge and dipping their feet in.

Bella's been driving me nuts since she got sick. She now insists several times a day that she's sick. She cries "bay's sick" and tells me she's going to throw up and that she needs medicine. Seriously isn't she a little young for that. Of course then I just offer her the yucky green medicine and she's suddenly all better (anything to avoid drinking that stuff.)

So much for our super fun weekend! Bella got me sick and Corey was still getting over the cold he had. So instead of kicking off the summer with a great 3 day weekend we all sat around sick. Better to get it over with this weekend instead of next though. Bella is finally all better, she was so pitiful sick. John the one you'd think would be sick all the time has some kind of super immune system though. Seriously he never catches anything. He's had one stomach bug and two colds, and that's it. I though he was getting sick last night but I think it was just a food reaction (we thought he had outgrown his food allergies but apparently thought too soon.) An hour of severe pain and screaming and he was back to normal, it was heartbreaking to watch though.

Friday we head to Vegas for our little vacation. We're really looking forward to that, although I'm still not sure exactly what we're going to do there. Planning to meet up with an old friend from high school though, and hopefully she'll have that baby before I get there ;)

Our pool is finally open too so the kids and I will be going there a lot now. They have a kiddie pool that's the perfect size for them. John's not to fond of it yet though.

Bella's sick. This is her first time being sick since she's started to really talk. So this has been the last two days. "Bella's sick, throw up, need medicine." She tells us she's going to throw up all the time even though she rarely does. She's so pitiful to watch. She was acting pretty okay this morning so we went ahead with our Saturday plans for a picnic at the park. Bella had a lot of fun feeding the ducks and other birds but John wouldn't get off the blanket. Then at the water area John had a blast and Bella wanted nothing to do with it. There were a bunch of dogs at the park and John LOVED them. He seems to be just like Bella with the animals.

John is now say and signing "me, eat, drink and more." He actually came up to me yesterday and signed eat. We tried to teach him signing before but he wouldn't pay attention to learn it and refused to let us show him how, but now is really picking it up. I'm sure he'll be graduating from speech therapy in no time at this rate. He also say "ow" but it has nothing to do with being hurt. When he gets mad he screams it over and over really loud, we get lots of attention in public for that one!

John's speech therapy went really well yesterday. He's repeating a lot of different words and still saying "me" to take turns. Still not a lot of understanding though so that's what we're focusing on for now. John's in a cranky mood today though so I'm off to deal with him.

Oh and putting them back in separate rooms has been a lifesaver. I've had to wake John up every morning at about 10:30am. And he gets more sleep at naps too because Bella doesn't wake him up. And instead of them waking up and screaming Bella plays quietly in her room. She's very into books lately and loves to "read." Whenever I check to see if she's asleep she's laying in bed reading a book.

John loves wearing his daddy's sunglasses so when Corey saw these little glasses at the store he couldn't help but buy them. It's rare that there's something he can't resist buying the kids and I find it so cute. Anyway John LOVES his glasses, guess the world just looks better in blue.

Corey also couldn't resist buying Bella Pooh's Heffalump movie either and she's been watching it constantly since Friday. I normally don't let them watch that much TV but it's a lifesaver when I'm trying to make a meal.

John didn't even last 10 minutes in the nursery at church this week. He a had a meltdown and they brought him to us in Sunday school. I took him back and he happily played with the toys (turns out he loves to play with toy cars) but as soon as they put the toys away he flipped out again. I discovered it's not about being left alone there it's about the structure of it. He screamed and cried about snack time. Food is usually the one thing that shuts him up but he wanted nothing to do with it. I did make him stay and try and eventually he sat at the table with the other kids for snack. But then during singing time he flipped himself out of my lap and slammed his head into a table and that was the end of trying. Hopefully he'll outgrow it with time because he doesn't react like that at home or when we go out in public so it's not something I can really work on with him at home.

Our first bite

John bit Bella yesterday. It's our first offical bite. They were playing and she just walks up to me and says "nice bay, hurts." Nice bay is what she says to tell John to be nice to her. And she had a deep bite mark on her wrist which I'm surprised didn't break the skin. Even now almost two days later you can clearly see the mark it left. No bites since then though so hopefully it's not a new habit.

Meanwhile Bella has taken up the habit of stripping. She's always loved being nakey and has finally realized she can make herself that way. They were supposed to be napping today so when I went and told them to get in bed I found her completely naked (diaper off and all) and she had even taken John's pants off. Then after I got her up later from her naps pants off again, luckily she left her poopy diaper on!

Speaking of naughty nappers I switched their rooms again today. They seem to go through cycles but naps were getting way out of hand. If I put them down together John would get up and go into Bella bed and then they'd play. So I started putting John down 5 minutes early so he'd be asleep when I put Bella in there but then she started waking him up. So today I put John in the playroom in a the pack-n-play and they both slept great (and stayed quiet after they woke up.) So I moved Bella's bed into the play room. They've been pretty out of control lately and driving me to the edge of insanity, I think the alone time when they wake up will be good for them. I also put the side back on John's crib, while he's done really well in the toddler bed I think he's waking up early and since he's able to get up jumps out of bed to play. Whereas in the pack-n-play he accepted that he couldn't get up so he just layed there and went but to bed. We'll see how it goes, I hoping he'll sleep a little longer now and be less moody.

Just call me Mommy

John can say mommy now! I'm so excited, nothing melts your heart like being called mommy. John's speech is really taking off, he's trying to say everything you tell him and after a couple tries usually gets it. Of course there's hardly anything that he says on his own but this is still huge, Bella was basically saying nothing at this age.

No new pictures to share, I need a better lense for my camera being the lighting is so bad in our place and the flash gives pictures I'm not happy with. I did get a couple pictures but I won't share them on the web, Bella stripped off all her clothes and pulled a box of cereal out of the cabinet. Then she spread the cereal ALL over the living room floor and danced around naked eating them, had to get pictures of that!

I'm so excited because we're going on a mini vacation in 2 weeks to Las Vegas. I've never been there before. The HER Foundation ladies are having a get together there and we of course have to attend. I'm dreading the cost of gas to get there but we paid for the hotel months ago so that cuts down on the cost. We all really need a break from normal life. If anyone has any toddler friendly Vegas activites let me know. I'm trying to plan everything and make sure the kids will enjoy it.

John's cute church outfit finally fits. He got it forever ago but he just grows so slow. Bella stayed in the nursery at church the whole time today (and loved it) and John stayed half the time! Guess that's my mother's day present (because I certainly didn't get anything else.) I'm shocked that John stayed as long as he did, apparently he was fine until they put all the toys away and then he lost it. Bella would've been happy to stay all day I think. Our ward just moved into a brand new building that's very nice. The nursery has a bathroom in the room, with a little teeny tiny toilet. It's so cute, I seriously wish we had one for at home. And Bella loved spending the day in her new dress and still didn't want to take it off when we got home.

Play Water!

They filled up the Noah's Ark fountain at Thanksgiving Point finally. The kids had so much fun, especially John. We took way too many pictures of course. Oh and John got his first kiss, a little girl walked right up and gave him a kiss on the cheek!

A Date (a real date!)

Corey and I went on a date tonight! The first one in about two years. It was soooo nice to have dinner without the kids. A lady that Corey works with watched them for us and I was a little nervous about how they'd react. They don't really like new people much. Anyway Bella LOVED it, she made me a Mother's Day card and everything. When we got there to pick them up she ran back into the kitchen to keep playing and didn't want to leave. Then when we left she said "bye bye Mommy" to Jennie! We're so proud of her, hopefully she'll enjoy more activities with other kids now (like actually going to the nursery at church!) John still wasn't happy about it but he did a little better than expected. He was mad that we didn't leave more gummy snacks for him but was happy when he was outside (so that's where he spent most of his evening.)

Bella got a new dress and shoes yesterday because she has outgrown all her other dresses. Despite my best efforts she seems to have some girl in her (she still loves to play in the dirt though.) She loves her outfit and would wear it all the time if I let her. She actually took her nap with the shoes on today. I guess she'll be happy Sunday when she gets to wear it all day.

"Bella!"

"Pooh, Tiger, Bear"

Okay just a cute video. Bella wanted to watch Winnie the Pooh but when she hit play on the DVD player it wasn't her movie.

So I haven't written in awhile. Not much is going on here. Just trying to keep the kids entertained as much as possible which isn't easy. They've completely taken over the apartment. They use two rooms and now I even gave them half of the dining room to play in. Not to mention half the living room and the patio. I'd kill for a backyard this summer.

John's doing amazing developmentally. He can climb up the climbing part of their big slide now and he navagates the huge jungle gym at the park too. At his last evaluation he was completely caught up in motor skills. He had his first speech therapy session on Tuesday and did great. Learned to say and sign "me." I'm sure he'll be caught up to Bella in no time, it's a good thing he has her to help teach him.