Kye Kye's First Word

On March 2nd (the day before he turned 9-months) Kyler said his first word...

"DADA" !!

The crazy thing is that probably 80% of the time since he was born we had been practicing "mama" with him in anticipation that Toby and I would be equal on first words.  I am just thankful that he didn't wait as long as Makenna did to say "mama"...hehe, I think she said everyone else's name before mine:-)  By the end of 9-months he occasionally said "mama" although he still says "dada" way more often.

Final 1st Word Score: Toby 2, Shanelle 0

  

Snow Buddies

We were so fortunate this year to have two days of snow.  Usually we get one, but I guess the weather made up for not really having a good snow day last year.  We never get enough snow to be bothersome or need chains, but a nice enough amount to build a small snowman.  And lucky for us we had just purchased some gender neutral (ok, so it looks more boy than girl) snow clothes for Makenna that will be passed down to Kyler eventually too (hence the gender neutral-ish color).  Unfortunately we didn't have any snow clothes for Kyler, so we just dressed him back up in his bear outfit that he used at the Rose Parade and held on to him.

On February 8th, we had our first snow day and we had Wyatt over too.  The kids were all taking naps when it was beginning to snow, and since I know that it never sticks for very long I was on the lookout for the snow to stop.  They got about an  hour nap before I woke them up so they could play in the snow before it melted (I know...never wake a sleeping child, but it was for a good cause).  The kids didn't seem to mind that I woke them up and were quite happy to get to go in the snow.  We put on their snow clothes and waterproofed their hands and Wyatt's feet with plastic bags.  I was asked if I happened to be a hobo in a past life since I was so good at being "creative" with my waterproofing...but hey, it kept the kids' hands and feet dry:-)

The kids didn't quite know what to do with it at first and Makenna preferred to stay on the sidewalk rather than walk into the grass with lots of snow.  But hey, anything is an improvement from the last time when she cried because she didn't like the snow.

Wyatt however had a great time walking all through the snow on the grass.

And seeing that Wyatt was having a great time Makenna decided that she would venture out too.  They enjoyed trying to make snowballs (the snow was really wet so it was pretty difficult).  I tried to show them how to make snowmen, but all I could manage was a small one while holding Kyler in my arms.  And then Wyatt's daddy came by and he helped them build a much bigger and better snowman.

It was starting to rain so we decided it was time to go inside and get warmed back up.

The next day was Saturday and lucky for us it started to snow a little again.  This time I let Toby go out with Makenna and they built a wonderful snowman.  And we added a hat, scarf, button eyes, a carrot nose, a blade of grass mouth, and daddy sacrificed his gloves for the snowman to have hands.

Since Kyler had not been able to play with snow outside, since we didn't have a snow outfit for him, we brought some snow inside to see what he thought of it.  He dug right in as soon as it was placed in front of him.

And as any baby would do he tasted...

tasted...

and tasted some more.

He thought it was pretty yummy but was a bit shocked by the cold:-)

I love where we live and I love that we get a little bit of snow each year!!  It was so much fun to play in the snow.

Lounge, Sit, Crawl, Stand, Walk

It is so crazy how Kyler's mobility has changed in just a matter of a few months!

In late December/early January (5/6-months old),  Kyler was beginning to get up onto his knees and rock.  Which usually ended up in a face plant and the need for a snuggle because his arms just didn't do what he wanted them to.  From there he figured out that he could get into a lounging position and didn't always have to be on his tummy or on his back.

On January 24th (7-months old) he began to army crawl so either his legs propelled him forwards or his arms did...but not both at the same time.  He got quite frustrated that he couldn't get to places that he wanted to fast enough but at least he could move.

By January 29th (7-months old) he was able to get into a seated position by himself.  And as you can tell he was quite thrilled with himself.  I must admit that I was quite happy too because it meant a more independent and happier child.

February 2nd he was crawling (the day before he turned 8-months)!!  YAY!!  Complete independence; not that he didn't still like to be held, but at least I could put him down a little and he was more content and less frustrated.  When he got a little better at crawling he would even go "faster" by putting his head down...hehe.

And if that wasn't enough, on February 12th (8-months old) he started to pull himself up to standing.  This made him even more content with being down although it led to many bruises on his forehead.  I think he had a permanent bruised bump on the right side of his forehead for about a month.

And then on March 27th (9-months old) he began his journey towards walking.  He took his first three steps.

 

Now he is busy cruising around the house and getting faster at the walking thing.  It won't be long now until he will be keeping up with Makenna and Wyatt.

Mini Golf

At the end of January we decided that Makenna is getting older now and with a weekend free we decided it would be fun to take her miniature golfing.  When we set out we had anticipated that we would go close by, but after driving past (without noticing) the one we had planned on going to we ended up in Riverside at the Castle Park mini golf course.

Daddy showed Makenna how to hit the ball with the club.

But she ended up preferring the "granny shot" golfing technique instead.

It was pretty hilarious to watch!!  She totally didn't get the whole idea of miniature golfing:-)  Then any time the balls got close to the hole at the end she would say "Let me teach you."  Which basically meant, I am going to hit the ball in the hole for you.  Thankfully we didn't bother keeping score.

Kyler "helped" me golf too.  Or, rather he gave me a handicap...not that I needed one...I am quite mini golf challenged enough on my own:-)

I think we will wait a little while longer before we attempt to go miniature golfing again with the kids.  But it sure was a fun and funny experience!!  We all laughed a lot:-)

Little Chompers

We were beginning to wonder if Kyler was ever going to get any teeth.  Makenna got her first tooth in at 4-months old and so it was quite nice that Kyler waited a while longer until he was 7-months to get his first tooth.  On January 16th out popped his first tooth on the front, bottom, right side of his mouth.  Three days later he got his second tooth right next to the first.  Two cute, but very sharp, little teeth and not too much fussing about it...YAY!!  My hope is that all of his teeth come in easily.  Here is the best picture that I could get...it was quite challenging to even get this picture.

Tea for Two

Makenna was so excited to have gotten her very own glass tea set from Santa at Christmas.  Kyler cooperated and took a nice long lunchtime name so we finally got around to doing a tea party with just Makenna and mommy for lunch and it was such fun.  We had small peanut butter and jelly tea sandwich, bananas, cookies, and then I made very watered down peach tea.  Makenna decided that she didn't actually like real tea even with the several scoops of sugar that we added.  So, she decided just to put water into her cup and was content at just drinking that.  She had a great time with her tea party.  We definitely need to get around to doing this more often.  I love spending time doing something girly and special with just her.

Discovery Science Center

We had never made it out to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana and decided that the first Saturday in January was the perfect time.  Toby and I really like children's science museums, I mean who wouldn't love to play with toys in the name of science, and we're thrilled to be able to check out the museum:-)  And to make it even more exciting Makenna's friend, Brielle, and her mommy could go also.

We began our time making hand prints in the metal pin art wall, playing with the model of airplane flight, and the sand dune maker.  Then there was an area that had and air-stream demonstration where the beach ball looked as if it was hovering and you could change the direction in which the ball floated.  It was pretty hilarious to see the kids standing with their hands raised waiting for it to fall down into their hands and wondering why it didn't happen:-)

And to think that this was just in the opening walkway of the museum.

We went through the next area where Makenna wanted to climb the rock wall but found that she wasn't quite strong enough; so daddy helped.

Then Makenna, Brielle, and Jessi got into the earthquake machine and thought it was quite fun and maybe a little bit scary too (a few nervous giggles).

They played with the air machine and the laser harp.  They didn't quite understand the concept and just had fun putting their hands in the way of the laser beams to make sounds.

Then we went outside to a wonderful area that we could have spent all day at.  We had so much fun that we didn't take any photos...oops.  They had "magic wands" (as Makenna called them) that opened up various rock and shell objects.  The goal was to be an archaeologist and to find all of the hidden objects on your chart.  What was really neat was when you wave the wand in front of the shells and rocks they would open to reveal various items.  Then when they returned the wand they got a little wooden token.  While Makenna was interested in the wands, her friend had a great time watching the dinosaur movie; although Makenna was a little scared of the movie.

We then went up to the special Bob the Builder exhibit.  Bob was there to take pictures with the kids and Makenna wouldn't go up until Brielle said that she wanted to and then we were then able to convince her to get a group picture...the peer pressure:-)  And what was even more amazing was that she gave him a hug.

Then they played around in the area, building things and climbing in and out of tunnels and tractors.  And then they had fun climbing on the benches and bars in the Earth room.

And yes, Kyler was there too but he wasn't really old enough to do too much else than observe from the comfort of his wrap on mommy.

We went to a grocery shopping area next where Makenna was a bit disappointed because the food was not actually able to be collected and put into our shopping cart.  Although, it did have a scanner and that entertained her for a few minutes.  You did have to make sure that you scanned the correct grocery items though, so I think it might have been better for a little older children with more patience.  Then it was time for lunch and heading home with sleepy kiddos.

We will definitely go back to this museum again.  Maybe next time it won't be so crowded, although we still had a wonderful time!

Professor Pennypickle's Workshop

Excited that grandma was off of work the week after Christmas, we decided to get together and do something fun with the kids together.  My mom had found this cute little children's museum in Temecula called Pennypickle's Workshop and I jumped at the idea of trying it out.

The idea of this museum is that Professor Pennypickle is an inventor and so you are entering into his workshop to find all of his special inventions.  It was such a cute idea and so wonderfully decorated inside of this small children's museum.  Makenna had fun going into the different rooms to discover new inventions, although she did get bored pretty quickly and just wanted to run to the next area instead of investing much time in one place.  That could have been because some rooms didn't have as many things to do as we had anticipated, that some of the items were broken, or that she was just too excited.

She did enjoy climbing into the basket of the hot air balloon and pretending to steer.

Building a "house" out of blocks and then turning on the earthquake machine to see if her house would survive.  I think she just really enjoyed seeing all of the blocks fall down.  I think possibly this means she shouldn't be an architect:-)

The room that she had been wanting to see the most was the music room.  She enjoyed sitting and singing her heart out while pushing on the keys of the grand piano.  Unfortunately the keys to the piano didn't work much, but that didn't deter her performance.

But, the area that she liked the most was the basement because she could go in and out of the tunneled area and enjoyed the freedom of being able to escape by herself for a few seconds before popping back out to see us.

It would definitely be a nice place to go often if you lived close to the area, but to drive a while to get there isn't something we would do often.  Not that we didn't have fun; we did.  We finished off the day with a yummy lunch at Pat & Oscar's and the kids zonked out on the way home and my mom and I had time to just talk.  Fun day!!

"Princess" Bear was Born

In my haste of trying to get caught up on my blogging I forgot an event.  This is what happens when I have different pictures on two different cameras.  So, rewind with me to the beginning of December 2012:-)

My mom and Jim had told Makenna that for her birthday they were going to take her to Build-A-Bear.  Makenna didn't really understand what she was going to get to do or see until we were actually there, even though I tried as best as I could to prepare and get her excited for it.  Unfortunately, on our 30 minute drive out to get there she fell asleep in the car and she is what you call a slow-to-wake child.  She was pretty grumpy but we decided that my mom, Jim, Alycia (my sister), and Scott (my brother-in-law) were all there so we were going to do it anyways and hopefully she would snap out of it as soon as she saw all of the excitement.  We met the four adults outside and already she was in a better mood...phew!  Then when we went inside we explained to her that she got to choose one stuffed animal and immediately she saw the pink bear and was sold; don't even try to sway her decision.

Then we explained that next she would get to put a sound in the bear if she wanted to.  She decided not to put a sound in it because she wanted to be able to sleep with her new bear and didn't want it to wake her up with a noise...so no sound.

Next step was to stuff her bear.  The only problem was that she was already attached to the bear and really didn't understand why she needed to give it to the lady to put stuffing in it.  We tried to explain to the slow-to-wake child that she would be more soft and cuddly that way and finally persuaded her that the nice lady was just going to put stuffing in it to make it fluffy and then would give her right back.

I don't think she was totally sold but she did relinquish her death grip on the bear and gave it to the lady while grandma and her patiently watched.

Then she was asked to choose a heart (of course she chose pink) and did all kind of things like wave it in the air, wave it down low, and give it a kiss...I don't remember the exact wording but it was cute and Makenna played along.  The heart was then placed into the bear and the bear was stitched up.

We went over to the area that you can "bathe" the bear and brush their fur.  She decided that her bear didn't need a bath but that she would brush the bear a little since there was a pink brush available for her to use.  Then she found some pink underwear for the bear that she thought she must have.

Now Makenna was really getting into this whole idea and at a good time because it was now time to dress the bear.  And since she is a child that knows what she wants, she told us that she wanted a pink outfit for the bear (can you tell the kid likes pink:-).  So we searched around until she found a pink Aurora princess dress with a matching crown.  Again, as soon as she found it she was set on that outfit and nothing else would compare.  I love that she is so definitive and knows what she wants (well...most of the time it is good).  Then to look for shoes.  She fell in love with some sparkle boots...guess what color they were...PINK!!  And then to accessorize she had to have a pink purse and pink sunglasses to go with her pink, pink, pink outfit.

She and grandma decided that maybe she also needed a more casual outfit so she got another little pink skirt outfit to go on the bear too.  She went over to the dressing room station and got her bear all dressed up in her princess finery.

We filled out information on the computer and she decided that a good name for her new bear was "Princess".  Upon checkout she was given a special house (aka. box) to put her bear in and the birth certificate for her bear.  She had a great time and it was so cute to see how much she loved that gift.  Now, several months later she is still so in love with Princess and takes  her to bed with her nearly every night.  That was the perfect idea for a gift from grandma and papa.  You made one little girl very happy!!