Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Family Letter - New Years Edition

Last week was a pretty good week.  We stayed home for most of the week.  Tyler worked minimal hours and spent a lot of time working on our crawlspace.  We are finishing it and making it into a play room.  There's still a lot to do, but I'm amazed that Tyler knows everything that needs to be done and can do it all himself.  He will probably do everything but the carpet.

Monday morning, Tyler took Ada and Kate to Kaysville to watch 'Puss in Boots' with his family.  I didn't feel like taking Lyla to a movie, so we stayed behind and ended up going to Amy & Eric's house with Ang & Hyrum.  It was great to see Becky, Seth, the Parrishes, the Hickersons, and the Wolfs.  Ang & Hy had to stop by Fashion Place Mall on the way back, so I was able to get in my weekly Chick-Fil-A fix. :) 

On Thursday night Tyler and I went to see 'Savior of the World' at the Conference Center.  His brother was in it and it was one of the last nights to attend.  We really enjoyed the show.  Ang & Hy were kind enough to watch the girls while we went.  Abby & Scott came over to hang out too.  I was a little nervous about leaving Lyla for so long, but she was great.  Kate, however, peed on the floor before she went to bed.  Later that night, Ada peed the bed.  Even later, after Kate climbed in bed to sleep by Tyler, she peed our bed!  It was quite the night.

The next day, after watching a BYU bowl victory, Ang & Hy came to hang out one last time before flying back to Houston.  Dude & Korrin and their girls hang out also.  We ate pizza and hung out.  I love hanging out with the Marstons and was sad to see them go.  Who knows when we'll see them again. :(

We pretty much lounged around on NYE watching football until our annual party that night at the Spencer Dickson home.  Tyler was very happy to see his Utes come away victorious.  Abby got sick, so they were unable to join us for the party.  They were missed.  We ended up snacking, talking, playing Trivial Pursuit, and playing Catch Phrase.  It was a pleasant evening.  The little girls, however, had trouble getting to sleep and stayed up way too late.  The only one who fell asleep (besides the babies) was Kate.  Ada didn't get out of her sleeping bag, but she stayed awake as long as the rest of us.  We usually try and predict who is going to die in the coming year.  Nobody but me really said anyone this time.  My prediction was Hulk Hogan.  We'll have to see what the new year brings!

I decided to include some updates on the girls since I haven't been good at keeping up on the blog.  I haven't really said anything about Lyla aside from her birth story.  Here goes:

Lyla

-Lyla is such a sweet baby.  Early on she started sleeping through the night.  It was a blessing from heaven!  Most mornings, she wouldn't wake up until after Ada left for school.  I would then feed her and she'd go down long enough for me to work out and shower.  Unfortunately, that stopped.  She has done much better the last two nights, so let's hope she keeps it up! 
 
-She really likes to be held.  This makes it difficult for me to get anything done.  I don't mind holding her, though.  She is already getting too big!  She's always been pretty fussy.  I purchased a Baby Bjorn to help me get some stuff done since she usually cries when I set her down.  The new swing she got for Christmas also helps for a while.  I have figured out how to type while feeding her, though, so hopefully I can keep up the blog a bit better now.

-She loves to smile.  She could smile very early on and after about five or so weeks she started smiling a ton.  I love it.  I'm usually greeted each morning with a huge, gummy grin.

-She puked a ton her first several weeks of life.  This made for many extra loads of laundry.  Luckily, this has passed.  Kate would get really grossed out by it.

-She doesn't poop much, but when it comes, WATCH OUT!  Her first blowout happened all over Grandpa Squire.  She hasn't had too many since then, but they always seem to happen at inconvenient times, like when I'm hanging out with my friends.

Kate

-Kate has had an interesting time adjusting to having a baby sister.  She got sick right when Lyla was born, so she didn't really pay much mind to her (though Lyla got sick at only two weeks old with a stuffy nose and ear infection).  I thought that she was adjusting really well, but then realized that she was being extra naughty when I would feed the baby.  She would provoke Ada and they would fight every. single. time.  It was really frustrating!  She has since settled down a bit.  She's still my sweet Kate, but three is just a tough age.  It's harder for me than two was.  One thing that helped her adjust was that she somehow became a Daddy's Girl a few months before Lyla was born.  This was a shock because she was so attached to me before.  She's not terribly gentle with Lyla and likes to wake her up, but we haven't really had any big problems.

-Kate is LOVING preschool.  She gets sad on the days she doesn't have it.  She loves her friends there, especially Kayla, who happens to be the only other girl.  I've loved seeing her learn new things, like the Pledge of Allegiance, the days of the week, and many different songs.

-She always makes us laugh.  She has started to be scared of floaties in the bathtub.  She named them morps and will not get in if she sees any.  She doesn't want them to touch her.  Ada has somehow convinced her that "red ones don't get us".  Another thing that makes us laugh is that she refers to her grandmas as 'the grandma with Smokey' (my mom's cat) and 'the grandma that doesn't have Smokey'.  She can't seem to keep them straight by their names.

-She has never been a great sleeper and would always get in bed with me at night.  I would always wake up and put her back in bed.  After she started preferring Tyler to me, she started climbing in bed with him.  He is a very heavy sleeper, so she started sleeping in our bed every night.  We're working on getting her to stay in bed and she has done okay.  Tyler told her that he would pee on her if she slept by him, so now she's scared and just bugs me when she gets up.  Hopefully we can end this habit soon!

Ada

-Ada is loving kindergarten.  She has made lots of new friends and looks forward to going every day (if she can get out of bed).  Her new best friend is Quinn.  Today she was so excited to come home and tell me that Quinn has the same shirt and shoes that she was wearing today.  She loves learning French and learning how to read. 

-She is enjoying ballet more this year than she did last year.  Their recital this year will be 'The Sea Fantasy' and Ada was happy to inform me that her class will be clown fish, "like Nemo".  Late that day, though, she said, "I wonder if we'll have to wear red noses."  She's a crack-up too!

-I am so happy to report that Ada's bad behavior is mostly in the past.  She had a really bad episode yesterday (which I'll blog about later) that made me question this, but I'll blame it on the lack of sleep from NYE.  She's probably my easiest child now.  Phew!  It was a long time coming.  She's pretty good at cleaning up and obeying.  She and Kate still do their share of fighting, but things are going well. 

1 comment:

Rachelle said...

2 words: Hulk Hogan.

I think you might be right.