Makenna's Baby Doll

We have been very blessed because Makenna has been such a helper, a little mommy, and loves her baby brother.  She is so cute with him and thinks that he is her own personal live baby doll.  Here are just a few examples of the cuteness of Makenna and her baby doll Kyler.

Using her baby doll's diaper on Kyler

Bathing Kyler

Tucking Kyler into her baby doll's bed

Pushing Kyler in her baby doll stroller

Kyler and Makenna enjoying each other:-)

Splish, Splash in the Pool and in the Bath

My sister, Rebecca, came down to visit and offered to teach Makenna how to swim this summer.  She has always loved water and started swimming on a swim team when she was young and later worked at a community pool teaching kids of various ages to swim.  We are so excited that she is willing and able to teach Makenna to swim!  And since we got a new DSLR camera, this was the perfect opportunity for me to try it out.  Beth and Jason have a community pool and so we headed over there to allow Rebecca, Makenna, Jason, and Wyatt to swim while Kyler and I hung out in the shade and took pictures of the kids swimming.  Makenna was good about leaning back and floating in the water (or sunbathing in the water),

kicking with the kick-board (which was  her favorite part),

jumping in the water,

paddling around,

and very unfavorably going under water.

Although Makenna didn't like going under the water, Wyatt could not get enough of it.  He always came up with the biggest smile on his face and kept wanting to do it over and over again.

They didn't last a long time in the pool as it was a little too cold.  But they warmed up and had such a fun time!

Later that night, Kyler had his first experience with water too.  He got his first real bath!  He loved it and Makenna had a fun time helping to bathe baby brother too:-)

Ren Faire 2012

Sorry...I am going back in time because I hadn't gotten a chance to get this written before Kyler was born.  Way back at the end of May, before Kyler was born, we went to the Renaissance Faire in Irwindale.  We have been for the last several years and have really enjoyed our time.  The three of us went with Kristen and Daniel.

This year the faire was set up differently then it had been in the past.  Usually we can navigate pretty well and know which shows we like to go to, but this year we had to constantly look at the map and figure out where to go.  Even with that hassle we had a great time as usual.  We got to eat yummy food and try chocolate covered bacon (It was good, but not something that anyone should eat very often).  We went to the equestrian show, which was really boring but Makenna liked seeing the horses.

Then we stayed after at the arena for the Queen's Joust, which is significantly more entertaining.  I only got to see the middle and end of every show it seemed because every time that we sat down for a show Makenna conveniently had to go to the restroom...hehe.  The life of potty training:-)  And let's just say that the port-a-potties aren't too fun to go into for anyone, but especially with a 2-year old....YUCK!  Our fair experience would not be complete without a monkey tail (a.k.a. frozen chocolate covered banana)...Yummy, yummy!  We had a great time at the faire and look forward to sharing our fun at the faire with Kyler the next time.

Welcome Kyler

After having some family and friends over for game night at our house until 10 pm on Saturday, June 2nd, I had had enough of the pain of what I thought was false labor.  I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of contractions, but nothing was regular enough to think I was in real labor. We finally decided to go in and get it checked out because I was in pain by this point and the contractions seemed to be coming about 6-minutes apart give or take a minute.  We called up my mom and Jim to watch Makenna, who was sleeping, and packed our stuff in the car.

We arrived at the hospital at 11:10pm, filled out their insane amount of paperwork, an then waited...And Waited...AND WAITED.  For 40-minutes my water broke and I was painfully and not so quietly laboring in the wheelchair in the hallway of the labor and delivery area waiting for a room to be cleaned.  When we finally made it to a room, they went about their usual routine of things to check off the list before you are officially admitted.  I was in too much pain to do much else then change into the gown and climb into the bed.  The nurse finally decided to check me, by now my contractions were so close together with little break between.  She informed us that I was fully dilated and that is when there were a flurry of nurses and hospital staff all getting everything prepared as quickly as they could.  My OB/GYN was not on call that weekend, but luckily the other one from her office was able to make it there in 4-minutes, just in time for me to start pushing.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get an epidural at that point so he came all naturally.

Kyler was born at 12:27am on June 3rd.  He weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 18 inches long.  Even though the birth was crazy, he is such a calm and content little boy.  He hardly cries and is very happy sleeping and eating.

Makenna got to come and visit us in the hospital and was so excited to get to hold "her baby" and to wear her "Big Sister" shirt (which was conveniently bought and washed just the day before).  She wouldn't give him up when grandma asked to hold him until we bribed her with the use of the iPad.  We said that we need to find a shirt that says "Will trade baby brother for iPad":-)  She is such a sweet big sister and always wants to help us, pet, kiss, hug, and comfort Kyler.

We are truly blessed to be the parents of these two wonderful children!

Our Little "Reader"

Almost every night and most nap times before Makenna climbs under the covers we read a book to her.  It is just part of our nightly routine that she loves.  At the baby shower she was given a book entitled I'm A Big Sister Now by Joanna Cole.  This has been a favorite since the shower and we have been reading it to her frequently as her pick for nighttime and nap time reading.  Just after Makenna turned two years old we noticed that she was really getting good at helping us "read" some books that are repetitive or are familiar to her.  She started out helping us with The Three Little Pigs and then Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  After beginning the story I'm a Big Sister Now for the umpteenth time with Makenna today at nap time I realized that she was chiming in quite a lot with the words and asked her if she wanted to read it to me.  She jumped at the opportunity and to my absolute surprise she "read" (had memorized) the entire book almost word for word.  I later made her read the book to daddy who was just as shocked as I was at this new talent.  Neither of us have it memorized that well and we read it just as much as she has heard it.  I decided that I needed to get a video of it.  Sorry, it is a bit long because it is the entire book and I put subtitles on the video just in case you can't understand what she is saying:-)