Mooncakes

Today I was reading Kaylee a book called Mooncake by Frank Asch. He's turning out to be one of her favorite authors. Hmm... maybe I should've put that on her top 10 list. Oh well. After the 2nd reading when she asked me to read it AGAIN, I suggested that we go make mooncakes instead.

She was all excited and out the door looking for her mooncakes before I could even get out of her bed.

At first I planned to make a batch of play dough, but then I thought maybe we could try making this:

Divinity...hereafter known as Mooncakes!

So we had a cup of tea and ate our mooncakes.

I'm not sure the mooncakes turned out to be what she was expecting. Kaylee had to study them first to see how they were to be eaten. First, she asked me to "open" them. So I picked it up and took a bite for her.

Then she thought she should try it this way:

Kaylee has her own peculiar ways of drinking tea also. Usually she drinks with a spoon. Then she swishes the tea in her mouth. I even spied her pouring the tea on her plate and sucking it off.

Alright, looks like she's going to pick up that mooncake and go for it!

Candy making isn't easy. You really have to follow directions EXACTLY. My first batch didn't turn out. It ended up a thick, sticky pink soup!

Really, REALLY sticky!

Too Big for His Britches

I can literally see Hudson getting bigger.

Yesterday he was just barely fitting into his 3/6 month pants. Today, I just couldn't get them on. Not without a lot of wrestling and pinching. What's worse is that there must be a bunch of babies getting into the 9 month size now, because I went to the consignment store and they had a whole lotta nothing for him.

Except I found one 9 month shirt. I brought it home, washed it, and then couldn't get it on him. Grrr...

So now he's in some overalls and that'll be his pants until I can find some that'll fit him. He's having the same problem Kaylee had. If I find pants that fit around his waist, then the legs are too long. Or if the legs are right, they don't fit his waist.


Look at him. Doesn't he look so much older today?

My Little Turkey

Kaylee's Favorite Things

Here are some things that are really "in" for Kaylee these days:

10. The Kaylee Show and the Slide Show - the dvd and slideshow of our year's pictures and videos has become Kaylee's favorite thing to watch. It'll really come in handy when we travel!

9. Bath time - bored? anytime is a good time for a bath!

8. Bottles. She never took them as a baby, but now that Hudson gets them sometimes, she wants them too.

7. The high chair, infant car seat, pack-n-play, and the exersaucer. (see #8)

6. Hanging out in a diaper. Clothes are definitely "out" for Kaylee. It's hard to keep her dressed for very long.

5. Balls. Her favorite toy is definitely a ball. She loves to throw and kick.

4. Flowers. She likes to smell fowers by puckering her lips and giving them a kiss.

3. Hudson of course.

2. Mom & Dad too.

1. Pancakes...or "cancakes". She wants them all the time. When I say I'm making dinner, she says "no, I want cancakes".

This list is probrably in order. I believe she truly does love pancakes more than anything. :)

Hudson Loves...

Want to get to know the little one a little better? Here's a list of his favorite things in no particular order:

10. Football - we found that out yesterday (Thanksgiving) when Dallas creamed the Seahawks. Maybe Hudson is a Cowboys fan.

9. To be bounced in his crib - such a springy mattress - it always gets a good laugh even when he's really tired.

8. Tickles on his chin (that's one of my favorite spots).

7. Kisses on his cheek (my VERY favorite spot - oh, those cheeks!!)

6. Playing in his exersaucer. He's starting to spend more and more time there.

5. Books. He gets so excited when we look at books. He grabs for the pictures, he stomps his feet, he tries to eat them up!

4. His big sister. Instead of flinching anytime she comes near, he's now more apt to look up and smile at her. (Kaylee's learning how to be more gentle with him)

3. Me - of course. I'm his bread and butter (and he's quite a little butter ball!)

2. His Daddy. He lights up like a Christmas tree when he sees his Daddy. It's so fun to watch.

1. Fish. I think he could sit all day and watch the fish in the fish tank. They really seem to calm and soothe him.

Again, I didn't put these in any particular order. I'm not saying he loves fish more than Daddy and Daddy more than me. I think we all know that I'm his favorite! ;)

Tidbits

I've discovered Kaylee really loves flowers. Whenever Mom gets flowers, she's all over 'em! I think maybe Daddy needs to get his little girl flowers every now and then too! I'd love to see how excited she gets if she got flowers of her very own!

Hudson is such a good sport. He lets Kaylee push him all over the house.

That Hudson sure is an easy baby. Yesterday I told him it was a good thing he wasn't my first baby, because then I'd be a very spoiled mom. He just smiles all the time. He's so happy, it just warms my heart. When he fusses he just sputters a bit and turns his head to the side. Then I know he's tired and he'll go right down to sleep in his crib. The best is getting him to laugh while he's crying. He has this half laugh, half cry thing. Funny!

Jeff has already begun indoctrinating Hudson to be a Browncoat. Those of you who are Firefly fans will understand when you look at the picture above. Those of you who aren't firefly fans...well, just watch it, you'll love it.

Sunday Fun

The last two Sundays have brought us much needed family time and fun. Two weeks ago, I was trying my hardest to get everyone ready for church in the morning, but one thing after another kept happening and I just knew we were going to be late...very late. All week I had thoughts of going down to the Seattle Aquarium and that morning seemed like it was the right day to go. I was surprised when Jeff had suggested it. It had been on his mind as well. Instantly the stress of time pressure just fell off us both and we went about getting ready to have a day trip to Seattle.

The kids both traveled very well and we had a great time!

above: Jeff and Kaylee checking out the Windows on Washington Waters exhibit.

My favorite is the octopus. I just LOVE octopi! I even have a recording of a Discovery special called "The Amazing Octopus" - I think I might have to dig that out today.

This is how Kaylee measures up to a great white shark. Yeah...I don't think we'll be swimming in the ocean any time soon!

This is the last picture I could take before my camera died! Here we are eating our "lunch" outside the aquarium. The sun sets so early these days. What a gorgeous sight back there! I wish I had just a little more energy from that battery so I could've taken a sunset picture. Oh well.

This past Sunday we made it to church, no problem! We even had time to pick up a friend in Ferndale on the way. It was a wonderful sunny, chilly autumn day and I brought along all our warm coats in the hopes of going to the "swing slide park" after church.

Here's a view of Lynden's "Million Smiles Park".

Jeff says that it lost a smile when I went the wrong way on a one-way getting to the parking lot. Now it only has 999,999 smiles :(

Kaylee found a stick right away. She had so much fun with that stick, we almost couldn't get her into the actual playground! Lately, she likes sticks.

Here we are too.

Hudson doesn't look terribly happy here, but he's actually incredibly relaxed. He loves to swing! He's a swingin' fool!

Hudson Update

Poor little guy. I only have one new picture of him. Well, he just kinda lays there a lot, so pictures tend to all look alike.

But he's sure growing fast, look!

At his 2 month check up, he was already 15 pounds! He's starting to get those little lines at his wrists from all the pudge. I love it!

I also love those g-diapers! You just push a little lining in them which are completely flushable. And if you're out and about and can't flush them, they decompose within ten days, so that makes me feel good. I still use the regular disposables at night just because I don't like to change diapers in the middle of the night and the g-diapers tend to leak a lot more if they go too long.

I think Hudson will be an early teether. Quite the opposite of Kaylee who didn't get her first tooth until she was a year old. The last week or so he's been drooling like a faucet and some days extremely fussy. He seems congested and a little warm. He could have a cold, but the drooling makes me think it could be teething.

Normally however, he is just the sweetest baby. I love it when Kaylee is napping and he and I can have some time to ourselves. He is nothing but smiles and his smile just makes my day! I also can get him to laugh already. He has one of those "inhale laughs" which is so infectious!

About a month ago (around 2 months) he found his hands... or I should say they found each other. Now he brings them together and looks at them. Then he brings them to his mouth. He likes to suck on his fingers. Again, teething?? He loves it when I hold his hands and move them around as we sing "goo goo, ga ga!" (a little one I made up myself. pretty creative, right?)

I started reading books to him yesterday. He really seemed to like it. He was all smiles and his eyes got really big as I showed him the pictures and read the little rhymes.

Well blogging time is over. Kaylee is up from her nap and watching the "Kaylee show" - our videos of the last year that Jeff is editing together - and Hudson is also awake now.

Back to reality...

Kaylee Update

I thought I'd take a rare afternoon when both kids are napping (yea!!!) to update this blog and write down what our kids are up to these days.

Kaylee is acting so much more grown up in the last week or so. I've been able to trust her a lot more around Hudson. She is still pretty wild, but she seems more aware of where he's at and is careful to keep her distance. She's also better at being gentle with him.

Whenever we get out an old baby toy or baby gear, Kaylee has to have it. Now Kaylee likes to eat in her old highchair again. She also likes to wear this hat of her brothers. Technically, Grandma L made it for her when she was a baby...she's just not a baby anymore!
Kaylee has not been sleeping well since the time change. It used to be that "Fall back" was my FAVORITE day of the year. I loved to get an extra hour of sleep! Now it just means my kids wake an hour early. I hope Spring forward will be just the opposite and it will seem that they're sleeping in an extra hour...even though we just turn the clocks forward.

She's been waking at 4:30 a.m. for the last three mornings. Last night she was up around 2 a.m. along with her brother. I finally got them both to bed by 3:30 and she was up again at 5:30, then 6:30!

It's a good thing she's so dang cute:

Kaylee likes to help with whatever I'm doing. She wants to help vacuum and dust. She also likes to rake leaves BACK onto the walkway I just cleared!

I'm lucky to catch Kaylee with any clothes on at all. She is able to undress now and she (like any other kid) prefers to be naked. I can't wait until she learns to put her own clothes on!

Kaylee is starting to get into the asking questions phase. Her favorite questions that she asks over and over and over and over are: "What doin?", "What's this?", "What happen?", and "Huh?" (that one drives me crazy the most cause she KNOWS what I'm saying - the other day I tried to see how long she would go with me giving the same answer over and over everytime she asked. I think it only lasted a minute, but that was a long minute!)

But on the brighter side, I'm starting to see a little empathy dawning in her little self. When I cough or if I say "ouch" she'll sometimes ask me if I'm okay. One time she actually said she was sorry when she did something that made me say ouch. Yeah!!

Ya gotta hold onto those little victories! :)

Pumkins

Kaylee really seemed to enjoy carving the pumpkins. Here you see her scooping back in everything I had already scooped out:
It's always fun to use a spoon!

Kaylee was pretty good at figuring out the "puzzle" lid:

Mommy's is on the right and Kaylee's is on the left. In the end though, they were both Kaylee's pumpkins!

I tried for a long, long time to get a picture of both kids looking at me with some sort of pleasant expression, but this is the best I got. Kaylee had too much fun jumping off the welcome mat.

We didn't dress up this year or do any festivals or trick-or-treating. I didn't think it would mean a whole lot to her at this time. Maybe in another year she'll understand a little more and think it's fun.