Finally a Spring day!

Lounging with Uncle Matt


I can push the wheel barrel!


Uncle Matt, what are you doing up in that tree?


I want up there too!


What's that? It's sorta scary looking!


HIIIII!!!!!!!!!


Gramma's lap is a safer place to watch from.


Now I'm a little too brave...It almost snapped my finger!


I'm a master fake-cougher.


Hi Mommy!


Pick me UUUPPPPP!


Won't pick me up? Fine then, I'll ignore you. (See how much I look like my daddy from this angle?!)


Goofy face!


It's time to play the drums!






Funny faces with Gramma!








And more from the other day...

grrr....

Will someone PLEASE explain to my son that 2 1/2 hours does NOT equate to a full night's sleep. It doesn't count for him. It doesn't count for Mommy.

Poor Alex

One day I really will dedicate an entire post to Alex. I had fully intended for this post to be that one. But it's not. Instead, the entertainment for this evening contains an Alex story, a Kairi story, and a sibling story. Enjoy!

Alex
Alex is fascinated by anything he can get ahold of, but especially Diet Coke cans, coke/water bottles, and food containers.
Here's the latest of that:







Tonight's supper -- bananas. YUM! (Seriously, this is one of the only things I am guaranteed to be able to get him to eat... he'd eat them all day long if I would let him.)













Kairi
We were at Walmart last Friday when we passed the massive ball display. You know the one, where the display reaches to the ceiling and there are all sorts of giant balls in it. As we walked by, Kairi in an almost whisper goes "oooooo, oooooo, oooooo". My mom grinned and slowly stopped the shopping cart. Kairi immediately begins a chorus of "pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees pees " so quietly that we almost didn't hear her. I found a green ball, handed it to my mom who was buying the ball so that Kairi would know who gave it to her. The moment she wrapped her arms around it, "ANK OOO ANK OOO ANK OOO" was shouted from the top of her lungs. The ball was so big that she could not be seen behind the ball. The thank yous lasted all the way to the register, when Mama had to take the ball to have it scanned. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Hand the ball back to her. ANK OOO ANK OOO ANK OOO. She held the ball in her lap all the way to the house. It's now her favorite toy. And while I have no picture of her playing w/ the ball b/c I'm usually playing at the same time, here's a picture of the ball that she's so enthralled with.




Siblings
Kairi can be a very sweet big sister -- gentle rubbings of the head, sweet hugs, sharing toys, reading books to him. Then about 50% of the time she tolerates him. But we still have bursts of jealousy, during which, she at times becomes violent.

Mama and I were exercising in the living room while Alex was sleeping in the den near Kairi's chair. Kairi was watching King George and the Ducky for the 5th time that day in said chair. Suddenly we heard Alex scream louder and more panicked than perhaps ever before. I ran as fast as I could into the room. Kairi saw me running towards her, her eyes grew as wide as an owl's, and she darted into the living room. I picked up Alex, and immediately noticed red marks on his forehead.

In the meantime, Gramma is trying to figure out what happened. Kairi tried to give her a hug, but instead Gramma asked "Kairi, what did you do to Alex?". Kairi's response was a lot of babble, and then she took her hands and smacked them together -- hard.

Confessing even at 20 months .... good girl.

Alex immediately cried when he saw his sister again. And neither Gramma nor Mommy hugged Kairi until she hugged Alex and told him that she was sorry. That took a good 10 minutes, but it eventually happened, at which point she did the rounds. Love Alex, love Mommy, love Gramma, love Alex, love Mommy, love Gramma....

I have no pictures to go w/ this story, but there it is for you anyway.

The final word on Nashville Star

An excerpt from an email from Chris. Names and places have been removed b/c "Loose lips sink ships".

I got email that _______ didn’t even send the tapes to the Nashville star thing. That sucks, but it doesn’t surprise me coming from ________. We are welcome to go to the open tryout, and the immediate chain of command is cool with it. But the problem is that I don’t think I’ll win the whole competition and I don’t want to pay for lodging and a plane ticket from _______________ for me to lose. C’est la vie, but at least I know that I wasn’t rejected. It makes me feel better.

Already Awake?

I don't understand this. Monday Kairi decided to get up at 6:15. Since that day, she's gotten up everyday no later than 6:30. And when she gets up she gets hysterical if I don't get her out of her bed w/in 5 minutes. I mean, so upset that she's hyperventilating. There's no going back to sleep, b/c she can hear other people in the house up most of the time. But then when she is up she's sooooo grumpy that it's unbelievable. She's going to bed b/w 7 and 8:30, although last night she didn't go to bed until 9:45 ... but no matter how late or early, the results are the same. I tried to cut out a nap (she's still taking 2), but she passes out in the den floor and is absolutely miserable all day long.

Alex isn't letting me go to bed until after midnight .... Kairi's getting up at 6:30. We still have a minimum of one (up to 3) feedings night. I'm exhausted -- and at a total loss about what to do. I've been napping on the couch while Kairi naps, if I can get Alex to go to sleep, but those rarely last longer than 30 minutes b/c Alex just catnaps.



Such is a mother's life..........

Conditional Statements

I hate Saturdays. Why, you ask? Because in my mind, Saturdays equal sleep. But since having Kairi, that no longer holds true. Instead, my body preps itself for at least 2 extra hours of sleep, and then when I don't receive it, my body acts as though it's been extremely deprived. My head hurts, my eyes barely stay open, and all I can do is think of nap time..... As soon as naptime hits, I'm going back to sleep too.



Alex is laying on th floor watching Kairi while she watches tv. She's much more interesting and funny than any television. He makes such sweet noises. Alex's favorite game right now is peekaboo. He pulls his blanket over his head and then you're supposed to say peekaboo when he pulls it down. The problem is that sometimes he gets so excited that he doesn't get the blanket all the way over his face. :) hehe ... It's sweet. But he laughs and giggles the whole time.


Aslan is an amazing cat. Not because he's learned anything -- he hasn't, he's still just as stupid as he was two years ago. But he lets Kairi do terrible things to him. She means well, but is NOT gentle. For the past 4 days, every time she has wanted to pet him, she traps him, lays on him, and pets him while laying on top of him. She hasn't tried to pick him up yet, so I suppose that I should be thankful for that. My goal for this weekend is to get a picture of her laying on top of him.



A few days ago I said that I was posting pictures, but then I didn't. So here they are instead!



Kairi found a banana and began eating it. When we found her, we put her in her highchair.







Alex asleep on the best $10 I ever spent.



At a birthday party at GymBuddies .... This is where Kairi has tumbling every Monday. She was exhausted and hyper in these pictures. She's wearing a dress that my mom and I made.

Mad at Mommy

One day I'll have stories about Alex and his tantrums, meltdowns, and cute moments. But in the meantime, all I have are stories about Kairi. And boy oh boy did she give me stories to tell today.
But I'll give you just one.

For the fourth time in a row, I pulled Kairi out of the cabinet under the bar and swatted her for pulling cans of food out. She immediately screamed and ran to my mom for comfort. Being a good Gramma that minds Mommy really well, Gramma refused to comfort the girl until she gave me a hug first. So Kairi ran into the den screaming bloody murder. Several times over the next few minutes she would run to my mom for comfort, get told to hug me instead, look at me, and scream bloody murder while running back into the den.
Eventually she ran to me with her arms up for me to hold her, but she paused right as she reached me, you could see it suddenly hit her ... Wait, I'm mad at her.
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And she ran, arms flailing above her head, back into the den.


I'll share a few pictures w/ you tomorrow.

Co-Coke Mama!!!!!

All of Kairi's sippies were leaking so last night while at the store I bought two new packages (4 each). I got home and gathered all of the old ones up except the one she was using for the night and threw them away. They were well-buried in the trash, and I didn't think that there would be a problem.

When Kairi woke up this morning I noticed that her last sippy was still out, so I made her a new one, and trashed the last one. I didn't even think about burying it in the trash. She didn't notice for quite a while.

Then I heard it. The wails.

Co-Coke! MAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! COOOOOOOOO-COOOOOOOOOOKEEEEEEEEE! MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA! WOOK! CO-COKE!

She frantically tried to pull it out of the trash sack but was so upset that she couldn't get it untangled.

It's okay baby, here's another co-coke. Leave that one in the trash.

NO MAMA! CO-COKE CO-COKE COKE! PWEASE!!!!!!!!!!!! MAMA! CO-COKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

And real tears fell.

Okay, baby. Here, I'll get it out. Look, it's out, but it's dirty. Use this clean one and I'll wash that one later. Okay?

.....k. mama co-coke. And tears continued to slowly fall as she set in front of the tv clutching her clean co-coke. She then muttered about her co-coke for the next 30 minutes. The bad co-coke got thrown in the big trash can that she can't see into when she took her nap.

It is official: My little girl does not like change.




In other news, it looks like Chris didn't make it on Nashville Star. We would know by now if he had, and we haven't received that word, so I guess he didn't.

Kairi's eye teeth are finally coming in. AFTER her molars are already in. ??? My daughter's weird. All her teeth have come in out of order. Regardless, it's making life miserable. Especially at night. She's not sleeping well, and then getting up at 6am. *sigh* I'm ready to be done w/ teething for forever.


Remember: www.marykay.com/StephaniePyle
I've got lots of new and fabulous products coming in soon! Contact me and we'll try them out together! :D

Need to Update

Need to update

So tired can't complete sentences

Alex placed second -- didn't win our picture

Thank you for voting though!

This is to remind me to blog in the am

Long day

No word on Chris and NS yet

Hello new reader Marni -- hope to get to know you better!

Tired


Bed.............