Two Months Old!

Elyana, I can't believe you are two months old already.  While these past two months has flown by, it seems like you have been a part of our family forever!

You are still such an easy-going baby.  You started sleeping through the night about a month ago and lately have been sleeping 11-12 hours at night.  Your naps are a bit unpredictable, though - some days are long and others you wake up after 15 minutes.  That's ok, though, I'll live with inconsistent naps since you are such a good sleeper at night! 

You have fun tagging along to all of our summertime play dates.  You either sleep or are content being held by just about anyone!  You love the sling and it will almost always put you to sleep within a few minutes!

You are happy most of the time you are awake.  We can get you to smile all the time and even get a few giggles sometimes now!  You like to talk to the animals on your swings and are starting to bat at the hanging toys on the bouncer and rocking chair.

There are a few things you don't like....the biggest being your car seat.  If you are not sleeping in the car, you are generally screaming. 

Summer Fun

We are definitely enjoying summertime around here!  I think I am in denial that eventually (7 more weeks actually) I have to go back to work.  I am making the most of our time home before life gets even crazier!

Thank to Pinterest, we have lots of fun projects.  This one was a big hit - baking soda, colored vinegar, and an eye dropper!

It ended with quite a mess!

Ayden is more helpful this summer than ever.  I can trust him to help unload the dishwasher, put away his laundry, and much more...

On his day we took his car seat apart to clean - he hosed and scrubbed it down. One more thing I didn't have to do!

His biggest accomplishment to date this summer is learning to ride his bike without training wheels!  He is a quick learner - it was so fun to see how proud of himself he was!

And what has Miss Elyana been up to?  Being cute, of course! 

  

Elyana went swimming for the first time with cousin Violet at Beth's house!

 

We were able to have a fun play date with a few friends from Holy Cross to visit the new playground at the mall!

 

We put the boys in the hurricane simulator!  Poor Jayden didn't like it very much, but the other boys thought it was cool!

Happy Father's Day...

...to the best Daddy my kids could ever ask for!

Our Cuties

I had the kids' pictures done in secret for a Father's Day gift for Ken.  I think we make pretty cute kids, if I do say so myself ;-)

 

Endings...

... of Kindergarten (and Ayden's years at Holy Cross)
and
... of the T-Ball season

Ayden's class had a "Celebrate Me" Party for the end of Kindergarten.  Sadly, I had the wrong time and so we missed it :-(  Yes, the bad mom award goes to me.  We have been trying so hard to make sure having a baby in the house didn't affect him negatively - definite fail on that one.  Believe me, many tears were shed over this (by me, not Ayden)!  Both Ken and I picked him up and his teacher was sweet enough to give us a little reenactment of what they did.  I was still feeling extremely guilty for missing it, so we took Ayden out to lunch at Red Robin, followed by a little Big Spoon Yogurt.  Our little guy is so sweet.  When I apologized for probably the thousandth time, he said, "That's ok, Mom, it was pretty boring."  Well, later that night when Ken thanked him for being so sweet to me and understanding about this whole thing, he said, "Daddy, I told Mom that it was boring, but it really wasn't.  It was actually really fun, but I told her that so it would make her feel better."  When I heard this, the tears came again of course (stupid post-baby hormones!)......We are so lucky to have such a compassionate little man!

Ayden recieved awards for perfect attendance, running a marathon over the course of the year, and the "Super Sponge" award for always remembering everything!

Ayden with Ken in their similar shirts.  When we were picking out his clothes for the week, Ayden said he wanted Ken to wear his shirt that's similar to the one we picked out for Ayden so they could match.  So cute!!

Ayden and his awesome teacher, Ms. Kim.  We all feel blessed to have had such a wonderful teacher this year!

Once again, I was a complete mess on Ayden's last day at Holy Cross.  We are so lucky that we found such a great preschool (and Kindergarten) where we know Ayden learned so much, but was also loved so much!  He is already talking about when Elyana gets to go there!


His last day at Holy Cross

 A little blast from the past...his first day at Holy Cross in January 2009....the last 3 1/2 years has flown by!

That brings us to the end of the T-Ball season....we were no so sad to see this end.  Ayden had a lot of fun, but the two practices and one game a week were quite the commitment.  Ayden made quite a bit of progress, although focusing on the game and keeping his eye on the ball when it was in the field was still a challenge.  He played pitcher for the last game and had several great "plays", which in T-Ball terms means he stopped the ball and threw it actually near first base.  When we were giving him some praise about playing so well, he said, "Well, I wanted to do a really good job since it was our last game."  Lesson learned - next year we make him think that every game is the last game :-)

Nice and focused as you can see

Daddy doing a great job of keeping Elyana out of the sun

Ayden with Coach John

His trophy, the new most prized possession

Elyana's Newborn Pictures

I just realized that I never posted Elyana's Newborn pictures.  We have a friend who is a photographer and she came over when Elyana was 10 days old to take these wonderful pictures of our little sweet pea!  I love the way they look in black and white!

Playing dress-up

I've been having so much fun dressing Elyana up in all of her cute clothes!!!  Here are a few outfits from the last couple of weeks!

Three weeks old

Three and a half weeks old

Four weeks old

Five weeks old