Santa baby.....

We have a family in our community that deck out their house and dress up as Santa and Mrs. Claus. They sit in their garage Friday - Sunday evenings so people can stop by and take pictures of their kids with Santa. The only thing they request for this are toy and/or food donations. They then take ALL the donations and turn them over to a holiday drive that is coordinated by our local fire department to benefit needy families/children in our community. It's the COOLEST thing!

It is SOOO much more convenient then fighting the crowds to get to the mall to stand in line for an hour plus to "maybe" get a picture. Nick's reaction was comparable to Laynie's at this age... except we were in a mall, she SCREAMED and it echoed!

Now that we have our new toy I'll try to do better with updates!!

We got a new mini camcorder. David took a few videos of the kids. Here's a 'test' one. The best part is that it was filmed today... and look what our kids are wearing - OUTSIDE!!

Princess and Stinky Boy

This is what we call our kids... all the time. Our shopping for Halloween costumes was going to be fairly simple; Laynie wanted to be Wonder Woman, until she saw the "Ballroom Princess" costume at Wal-Mart and begged on a 'low creativity' day for it. Dominick was going to be a bumble bee... the same costume Laynie wore when she was 1.

All my nicknames for Dominick seem to center around the fact that the kid is cute but stinky... "Stinky Nick", "Mister Stinker", "Stink Butt", "Stinky Boy".. you get the idea. His nicknames all centered around butter when he was smaller so I'm not sure which is worse... Anyways, our neighbors went shopping and found the PERFECT costume... a SKUNK! He wore it well....

We had a good time with trick or treating.. or should I say David did considering the only house I took the kids to was the one across the street... that counts though, doesn't it?!

Here are a few pictures from Halloween (I should just take the time to put together a slide show considering I have pictures from all the major events from the past couple months to post still... urgh!).

Here's a video of Laynie working on "sight words". Hopefully the sound on this will work out better then the video of Dominick. **So the sound isn't better, I'm not sure what the issue is but you get the idea!**

Dinner at our casa

I'm going to just post this quick so my 'mini - me' can see what dinner at our casa is like! Hopefully this will work!

I've been trying to get Dominick off the bottle and on a sippy cup. It's not going so well, he hates sippy cups. SO I had the idea of giving him a "zoo" cup which is a normal cup with a cap and a little hole. That didn't work so well either. He's getting better now... just needs to figure out he needs to close his mouth to keep the milk in. He has figured out how to drink through a straw now so maybe we'll just skip the sippy cups all together!!

*I got the video on here but for some reason the sound isn't matching up to the video... I'm going to try again so maybe it will work, maybe it won't... Either way the point of the video was to highlight the funny nature of the cup & the screaming we endure each night from our handsome son (who's lucky he's cute or he'd be eating dinner in the backyard each day! haha)!

Via Talk

We just signed up for this phone service!! I'm pretty excited as they're offering 2 years for the price of one ($199 + taxes/fees). The upfront fee was under $240 then they charge $2.50/month for the "FCC Charges". Still under $300 for 2 years of fully loaded phone service!! That's less then $12.50/month and includes ALL our long distance calls. I'm especially excited because it's cheaper then SunRocket was and the only difference is that rather then having a second phone number we'll have a second 'line' so David and I can be on the phone at the same time talking to different people... EXCITING STUFF, that's for sure!

Anyways, if you're interested in this and want to check it out please do so through my linky lou up top.. I'll get credit! HOW COOL IS THAT?!!!

Aside from our exciting PHONE news...

Laynie's party was today. It was a big hit and she had a BLAST! Both kids were so tired by the time we got home. We let her open her gifts here rather then at the restaurant to keep it all in check. Probably not one of our brightest moves as she was soooo sad she didn't get to play with ALL of them. Nick was happy to just play with her wrapping paper and cards.

Anyways, I'm exhausted. I'll try to get pictures up in the next couple days!

TOUCHDOWNNNN!!!!!!!!! vikings!

SO... I've been working with Dominick on this practically since the day he was born. It has taken until TODAY for him to figure out what his "role" is. Prior today I would say "TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS", throw my arms in the air and clap. His response would be to look at me and smile.

TODAY we hit a MILESTONE!! While at a restaurant in our typical frenzy of "speed eating" I tried to stave off a screaming fit by saying, without the hand gestures "TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS" and guess what he did..........

ARMS UP.. FULLY up then a couple claps!

It was a great moment... even if I don't know the name of a SINGLE player on the Vikings roster!

Time continues to pass........

So.. Dominick turned one a few weeks ago. It's hard to believe as this year seemed to be the quickest to pass. I'm not sure if it's because I spent most of it in that transitional awake but asleep stage that parents with babies know too well or just a simple case of denial. Either way, my scrawny skin and bones boy is now a robust almost toddler constantly on the go boy.

Dalaynie started pre-school a couple weeks ago also. There's another moment of denial for mommy Johnna. David, Dominick and I all took her for her first day. We wanted to make a big deal of it... I was secretly hoping she'd have a HUGE meltdown and the teachers would see she just isn't ready. Of course, that wasn't the case.

We got there and she talked to her teachers and played with sidewalk chalk and kept going to the drinking fountain (just so everyone knows drinking fountains have always been a little obsession of hers). About 10 minutes of standing there David starts to suggest we get ready to go, she isn't really paying attention to us anyways. I stalled for a bunch more minutes (although it was over 110 while we were standing there, thankfully we were in the shade). Something got Laynie's attention and David took this as our time to go.

So... we walked to the truck, one of us much slower then the other. As we were getting ready to pull away I wanted to take pictures. She was playing on the climbing equipment. At the same time Laynie decided she wanted to swing so she made a beeline for them. I told David "OH NO, she's going to see us and scream thinking we're abandoning her because we (HE) didn't take the time to say good-bye!" She was run/walking to the swings when she came to a complete stop and had a blank look on her face. I thought this was the moment when we'd be able to run to her rescue, throw her in the car and bring her back home where she belongs. After about 10 seconds my fantasy bubble was burst as she cracked a HUGE smile, waved and said "BYE-BYE, I LOVE YOU" and that was that....

I was fine that day. The next day, not so much! I was in tears before I even got back in the truck then cried most of the way home. I settled myself down just in time to get into the house and pull up the Evite I sent for Dominick's FIRST birthday party. That sent me into another tizzy and I spent some more time in tears. Then I decided to take a nap with Dominick, which was really nice. I don't know what I'm going to do when they grow up and move on...

Now that this has been a book and it's almost midnight I'm going to sign off. I promise to post pictures of the past few months soon! (Including our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carol and family, Birthday parties, first day of school, first time "walking"...etc, etc, etc!)

OH MY... I've figured out how to add video! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?? All I had to do was click the little "video" button. Here's one of Nick eating birthday cake. I'm also going to attach the "first steps" one I tried to add last month!! THIS IS SOOO EXCITING!!

URGH!!!

I took a little video of Dominick walking this afternoon to post on here. Wouldn't you know "Ms. Technology Challenged" can't figure out how to get it here.

I have a bunch of pictures from my friends visit last week also. We had a great time.. went to an ostrich farm, the National "Cactus" Park and the Grand Canyon. It was loads of fun.. one of these days very soon I'll get pictures loaded onto a slide presentation.. maybe I'll find one with music. BUT I'm going to post my video of "Stinky Nick" walking first!

Is it REALLY almost August??

WOW! Where did the summer go? How did I miss it?

I've had lots of people recently email with "you haven't updated your blog".... Sorry. We've had a busy summer and I haven't really had much to say. I start to think about things to say then either get distracted or end up feeling negative and not wanting to be "crabby cakes" for all to read.

Just so I get this out of the way.. here are a couple recent pictures of the kiddo's. With all toys strewn about my house one of their favorite is this laundry basket, that's falling apart!

I have a bunch of GREAT pictures I took in Minnesota earlier this summer. Unfortunately they're stuck on my old laptop that I can't get to boot up... urgh! I had our 'removable' hard drive attached to the darn thing when I downloaded the pictures and thought "Just put them there". Then the voice of "LAZY" spoke up and reminded me how much extra work it'd be to walk aaallll the way to the front of our bbbbbbbiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggggg, hhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggeeee house to get it each time I want to look at the pictures. UURRGGH! (See -- Negative Nellie is here to ruin the party!)

So.... In the last 3 months what have we done?! We spent a week in Texas where we went to "the beach". (Pictures are on said removable hard drive and I'm too lazy to get it to share them.....). Laynie was afraid of the seaweed at first but got over it quick enough. She's looking forward to going again soon so SHE can fish with Grandpa for "hardheads" and make orange juice with Grandma. Funny thing is that I can't get the kid to eat oranges or drink orange juice but each time I eat an orange she reminds me that she's going to make juice in Texas with Grandma.

We spent 2 weeks in Minnesota. I thought that would give me plenty of time to see everyone and just relax. Within 12 hours of getting off the airplane and settling in at my friends Nick started coughing up a storm. After a midnight run to Walgreen's I thought I had the situation under control. Waited it out a couple days thinking he just had croup, decided to take him to the MD just to be safe. Nope... not croup for my boy. He had his first case of pneumonia... URRGH! We're pretty confident he's allergic to cats. My friend has a couple and after spending lots of time debating with her about it (she was the first to say it... ), I'm pretty sure she is right. Poor kid will never have a soft furry kitty cat. David's not so upset about that considering his worst allergy is cats!

Laynie had her dance recital. She was so excited and so cute in her outfit. I think we might try gymnastics this year though. If anyone has experience with little girls and dance versus gymnastics I'd love input. I want her in one of them to help develop her gross motor skills. She's going to be starting pre-school in a couple weeks. I have mixed feelings... happy for her, sad for myself. I'm still torn over the 'kindergarten' issue although I talked to my neighbor growing up and she helped some. She was a teacher for many, many years and said "if she knows her letters, numbers, shapes and colors then she's ready". Thanks to a wonderful daycare provider in Colorado she knew most of those things by her second birthday.

Nick is growing like a weed. I think his eyes are actually turning brown!! He still looks like my pasty little Irish boy though. For whatever reason the camera seems to catch 'red eye' with him every time an indoor shot is taken. I thought I'd outwit the camera and take him outside to get a few pictures and eliminate red eye. Those pictures didn't turn out any better. I'm pretty sure his skin could be used to reflect sun light! urgh! At least I don't ponder whether he was accidentally switched at birth like I did with Laynie until the day I looked at her and saw my DAD.

Laynie and David went to a "Daddy Daughter" dance. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more. Laynie was so excited and David was humored. It was from 5 - 7 and all they served was juice, cookies and cake. Layne was in heaven, like mother like daughter when it comes to the sweet tooth!

Dominick is going to be ONE in a couple weeks. All I can say is "How did that happen so fast"?! He's starting to take steps now after 3 months of walking along anything and everything he can get to. He's a climber... put him on stairs and he went right up, like it was a natural thing to do. I flipped the laundry basket over and put it in front of the end table to keep him away from my plant (that I've kept alive almost 7 years!!). Imagine my surprise to see him on top of the basket with two fists full of leaves.

I think I've had my blog for a whole year now... WOW! I'm starting to ramble so......

This brings me to my next post... LUCKY!! It could happen in a day or it could be a month but in a nutshell... I have SO much to be thankful for!

Growing Fast

I find myself amazed with how quickly the "Two D's" are growing. Dominick just turned 8 months and still hasn't cut a tooth.. I'm pretty sure he's in competition with Dalaynie to see who can go longer without teeth. He has until April 27th to "pop" a tooth, actually April 28th because of Leap Year in 2004.....

Dominick just started "reaching" for me last week. It's funny I forgot how great that felt when Dalaynie did it.... David and I passed him back and forth about twenty times just so we could each experience it over and over again. Dominick was a little confused but was a good sport and went right along with us!

Today he was in his walker (we have a single story - no stair house so no worries about our darling kid crashing down a flight of stairs!) and Laynie walked by him. Right as she got in front of him he stood up and flung his arms out in her direction. She didn't notice so he feel back into his chair and went "AAAHHHH!!!" to get her attention. She turned around and said "HI NICKERBOCKER" and went about her business. He sat there with a half smile toward her then noticed I was looking at him. Then he smiled real big and ...... REACHED FOR ME!

Dalaynie is getting mouthy with her growing independence. In the last couple weeks she's told me :

"You're going to be fired" because I wouldn't give her a treat. I told her "I'm a volunteer, you can't fired the unpaid help".. huh?

"This is your last chance" because I wouldn't give her a treat. I asked her how that could be my last chance when she never gave me any other chances. She told me "it just is!". Sometimes she sounds like my mom!

She gave me the choice of "giving her a treat or taking a nap". I'm no dummy so I told her to get pink blankie that we were taking a nap. I don't think she realized this backfired on her until right before she drifted off to sleep. It sure worked out nice for me though!

She's said more then this.. I just made the mistake of looking at the clock and realizing it's way past my sleepy time.

I'll post again when I have something witty to say! Until then here are a few pictures of our trip to the Grand Canyon a couple weeks ago! It was so beautiful!!

A Lesson Learned - FOR REAL this time!

So.. I learned a very valuable lesson this morning.

To start the story: The other day Laynie was playing with her two grandmas. She was cutting paper, showing them how she knows how. The attention was taken off her, while she had the scissors. Needless to say we figured it out when she asked if someone could fix her dress. She put a couple small holes.. she "just wanted to cut" was her response when asked why she did it. Luckily the holes really are small and with a couple stitches can probably be made to look nearly invisible.

This morning we were getting ready to be "crafty" and I had all the goods out. I got her started on cutting a circle for a bunny head for a "HAPPY EASTER" sign to put on my front door (hoping to ward the Jehovah's Witness' off - another long story about "Miss TOO nice to say NO THANK YOU, I'm Catholic and not interested in praying with you"). Anyways, Dominick is now in the "IF YOUR NOT WHERE I CAN SEE YOU I'M GOING TO SCREAM BLOODY MURDER" phase (assisted by a houseful of family all googled eyes over him this weekend, I'm sure). He was napping in his crib when he woke up and realized he was in there alone and YUP, you guessed "WWWHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA". So, I went to get him and came back to the kitchen where darling Dalaynie was busy being "crafty" when I noticed a chunk of hair on the floor. Luckily she has uneven curly hair anyways so I don't think it's really noticeable. I haven't taken the time to brush her hair to really assess the damage though.

SO.. Moral of the story: Don't leave the 3 year old alone with scissors! Even only for a minute!!

ON ANOTHER NOTE:

Dominick is really taking notice of Laynie. It's funny to watch him, his face lights up every time she pays attention to him. When she laughs, he laughs. When she screams, yup he screams too! She cries, he gets concerned. I'm going to buy a digital camcorder and start posting videos on here (assuming I can figure out how to do that and find a secure site I can host the video on). I feel pretty safe doing this as I believe the only people that ever look at my blog are the ones I sent the link to.

Well - I've got one kid sleeping and the other on the way so I must go and start all my fun chores so my husband sees what a value it is to keep me home full time!

Little Going Ons....

So - We've been going to Church and working on praying with Dalaynie the last few months. I finally taught her 'The Lords Prayer' - in full. I'm pretty happy about that as we've been working on it on and off since before her birthday. Today I asked her to say it for her Grandma, expecting she'd get the whole thing. We've been going to church for the past month, EVERY week (pat on our backs) so when she got to "Give us this day our daily bread" she stopped then said "NO - We BROKE the bread". I didn't think she was paying much attention in church. As long as she sits quietly and reads books I don't try to push it. Last thing we need is a 3 year old power struggle during the homily. Our church is pretty small so there is no 'cry room'.

Nick is eating more solids. I'm being the 'crunchy' mom and making it all from scratch. So far he's had acorn and butternut squash, green beans, peaches and asparagus. His favorite is the asparagus -- by far. I thought it was kind of funny because when I was in the morning sickness stage of my pregnancy with him the most vivid memory I have is yakking asparagus up. I still can't eat it like I use to.... It's slimy and stringy the wrong way! YUK, YUK, YUK! We're going to be trying cauliflower this week considering I have on in the fridge that needs to be cooked up. Laynie will be really happy about that -- NOT!

Okay.. off to sleep for me. I'm battling a perpetual cold, I think I'm over it then I clog up and realize no such luck!

Just a Quickie

I only have a couple minutes so this will be quick. We had my sister, her boyfriend and my two year old niece visit last week. It was nice. We took the kids and had pictures taken (hence the new slide show). Laynie and her cousin played, fought, then played some more. It was comical to see how Laynie interacted with a child younger then her. Last time they were together my niece was a target for my darling Dalaynie. Laynie would walk up and smack her out without provocation. I'm really thankful we weren't blessed with a 15 month age difference in our children. I'd be in a loony bin, for sure!

Check out my Slide Show!

Been Lazy

It's been a while since my last post. I wish I could say it's because I've been so busy I haven't had time to do so but this isn't the case. I've just been lazy...
We had good holidays, Laynie still says "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" every now and then out of the blue. We took her to the beach for the first time. She had a BLAST! I was trying to get pictures but it was hard because she was constantly on the go.

Not much is new here... maybe that's the real reason I haven't been posting.. NOT!

Nick is cutting teeth. Somehow I thought we'd be spared a few more months considering his preemie status and the fact that Laynie didn't get her first until after she was 8 months. No such luck. The kid is a drooling, teething machine. He reminds me so much of Laynie. He's just a happy kid. He has my pasty white complexion and the jury is still out on his eye color. Sometimes they look like they're going to turn brown and others they look deep blue/grey.

Oh... I came on because I've had requests for pictures... The ones of Laynie are from a couple days ago. I went to check on her at nap time. Needless to say she was sleeping on the floor in one sleeping bag with her "girls" sleeping in the other one. I asked what she was doing when she woke up and she said "We were camping under the stars". We went to the Science Museum a few weeks ago. She was so good so we bought her some stars that glow in the dark for her ceiling. She loves them! OH.. here's a funny story about the science museum. I had free tickets for the IMAX theater. The only movie we had the option of watching (we're not morning people) was about the human body. I asked if it'd be appropriate for a 3 year old and was told yes. It was actually very intersting and Laynie seemed to like it. One part showed a baby born.. not the full on shot of the birth but when the baby was lifted up all goopy. We were eating breakfast a couple days after going and the conversation went like this:

L: Mom, Do you remember when Dominick came out of your belly?
M: Yes, why?
L: Did they clean him off?
M: Yesssss, whyyyy?
L: I was just wondering.

That was that.....



The pictures of Dominick are in his jumper, which he loves. He was jumping away a couple days ago. I went in my room to put something away and came out 2 minutes later to find him sleeping. It happened so fast the jumper was still slightly bouncing. I had to look close to confirm he was ASLEEP!

That's all for now...
JP