Busy Weekend!

The girls had a blast on the 4th of July. We met up with friends for a picnic (Kyra had LOTS of fun "helping" me cut up fruit for the picnic) before the fireworks and Kyra played and chased bubbles with their kids until it got dark. Both girls watched the fireworks and like them. Kyra got just a little tense to start with but then relaxed in Dad's lap. I think she got more upset when we put two earplugs in and she couldn't hear us than she actually did about the fireworks! (We had to take one out before they started.) Paige liked them and actually kept her earplug in but she did get hungry and needed a snack in the middle of the show. We got home just before midnight and both girls were tired. Kyra slept until quarter to ten!










Yesterday afternoon we were invited to a 3rd birthday party for a friend's daughter and Kyra had a wonderful time! This is the first kid's birthday party she's been to (with the possible exception of her own where she wanted to sit on one of our laps most of the time) where she's been old enough to participate some. She loved playing in the little kid wonderland of plastic Little Tykes outdoor toys in their backyard and THOUGHT she wanted to play in the pool until she realized the water was a little chilly. She never did get in the water, even though the other three girls were already in.









When we got home, we got out the Color Wonder finger paints before bed and she did some painting for the first time. I think we need to get her some regular finger paints to use outside so she "gets" it a little better but she did pretty good with a little help!

Little Sister's first Easter!!!

Easter started pretty early at our house this year since there were THREE ladies to get ready! Kyra was nice enough to sleep in some so Paige and I got to shower and eat before she was up and then Phil gave Bean her breakfast while I dressed Paige. Kyra was great when it was her turn to get ready, she even let me really FIX her hair for the first time ever! I can't believe how patient she was. She didn't get antsy until the very end so she did have sort of and odd spikey ponytail sticking out of the back that kept coming untucked since she didn't let me secure it down at all. :) The hairstyle stayed in really well though, even through nap so I think we may have a fix to keep the hair out of her face until the front part grows out a little more, at least on days when she'll let me do this! We were ready to go on time, but I wasn't quite as ready as I would have liked! It seems like no matter what time we start getting ready, I always run out of time for getting MY hair, makeup, etc. the way I'd like them to be! I'm guessing it's going to be that way for many years to come.
When we got to church, several of our friends little girls were in the sanctuary "visiting" with each other while their parents talked and Phil let Kyra down to play with them. She was just SO thrilled to be down running around with the other girls, she's finally big enough to (sort of) keep up. They were all so cute in their Easter dresses, just like a bunch of little flowers! Paige did great during service again, slept right through. She's good company for me to since this is Phil's ushering month and he sits at the door throughout service.




























After church we all came home and had a nap (well, everyone but me had a nap). Phil's nap got cut a little short when Kyra got up and decided it was time for him to get up too. :) We went to Shari's for dinner around four thirty which was the perfect time as the restaurant was almost empty. Kyra was very patient at the restaurant and lots of fun even if her table manners still do leave something to be desired and Paige slept right through the meal while all the waitresses fawned over them. We had lemonade pie when we got home that I'd made during naptime (so easy and SOOO yummy) and Kyra "hunted" Easter eggs on the livingroom floor after she got her jammies on. She was more interested in figuring out how to open and close the eggs than picking them up, but she had fun!

Kyra's First Christmas

Christmas morning, Kyra got up just after six!!! Someone must have told her you're supposed to get up early on Christmas for presents but it sure wasn't me or her Dad! After she had some breakfast, we settled down and let her "open" her presents from us with some help to remind her to TEAR the paper, not EAT the paper. I was surprised how good she did for her age actually! She got some jammies, a book and a hokey pokey Elmo and in her stocking were some bath toys (ketchup & mustard squirt bottles and measuring cups & spoons), a tiny stuffed Zoey monster like the Elmo she opened the other day and a toothbrush. She opened her book and immediately took it over to Dad, waving it around for him to read to her! She did ok for the first few pages but was just too excited to really settle down and read so after about half the book we moved on to other stuff.


When she got to the Hokey Pokey Elmo, she was sort of bored after taking off the paper and just finding a plain brown box, but boy, as soon as I got the tape split and she got a peek in between the flaps that changed fast! I'm pretty sure she thinks it's the REAL Elmo that came out of that box! She got very excited and leaned right in to pull him out. While she was having a bottle after opening presents she laid down on her dog in her Super Yard and just stared out watching her Elmo.









After she was done opening presents, she had a nap and a bath. She tried out the new bath toys and thougth they were pretty great and just right for playing with in her ducky tub. After her bath, I did the best job of weighing and measuring her that it's possible to do at home with a very wiggly 11 month old who doesn't really want to be weighed and measured!!! The best I can tell, she's about 17 lbs and 27 inches.


















Phil's mom and step-dad came and picked us up in their Hummer as the roads here were still way to icky to get our car out and took us to a family friend's for a Christmas party during the afternoon. Kyra LOVED the ride in the Hummer, even if she had to ride in her old carseat that she's not fond of. She had fun at Tricia's and was actually a VERY good girl considering that she couldn't get down and play! She loved watching all the people and ate lots of turkey, stuffing and rolls off my plate (and drank lots of my water.) Grandma and Grandpa had brought her some presents and after we got home that evening, we let her open them in an attempt to keep her awake until it was closer to bedtime!! (It was only around 6:30 when we got home.) She got some cute rubber duckies and squirty fish for bath time, some cute clothes in the next size up and some Christmas themed Weebles. She sat right down on the floor and played with her Weebles, ducks and fish for around half an hour, not in her Super Yard or anything, just sitting and playing! It was amazing! When she did finally get to bed, she was out very fast, the poor thing was just exhausted. She had a very fun first Christmas!

Sitting With "Daddy" Claus

Since we plan on letting the girls know right away that Santa is just fun to pretend, we don't have to worry about them knowing that Santa isn't real! One very nice thing about that is that instead of lugging Kyra to the mall to sit on a stranger's lap who she probably would yell at anyway (or pull his beard knowing her), Phil just put on his Santa suit and she sat on his lap for pictures! She knew immediately that it was her Dad, even though he changed in the other room and then came out to "surprise" her and was not at all upset (in fact, she barely even seemed to notice other than trying a couple times to get ahold of that beard!) She did definitely decide that she was not going to kiss him with all that fuzzy, curly stuff on his face.
She also got to open her very first Christmas present while she was sitting in his lap to help keep her occupied long enough for Mama to get a bunch of pictures. (Technically, her first Christmas present was the wagon that Gramma Susan and Papa got her when they were here, but she didn't actually OPEN that one.) She had lots of fun opening it, even if we didn't let her eat the paper and was quite impressed with the Elmo inside. The next time she was on the floor crawling around, about five minutes later, she made a beeline for the first present she saw. It sure didn't take her long to get that figured out! Luckily I wrapped all hers in the same paper, so hopefully she'll be able to tell which ones are NOT for her too.

Thanksgiving!!!

Kyra's first Thanksgiving was pretty laid back (which was great for me!) Since it was Phil's nephew's birthday and his parents didn't know if they'd have plans or not and since we didn't know he was going to be able to be off work all day until the weekend before, we planned a quiet Thanksgiving at home with just the three of us. It was wonderful, although, I strongly reccomend against planning on cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner with a 10 month old and while 4+ months pregnant! This was the first time I've made the whole dinner by myself but since it was for just us there was no pressure and it was really pretty fun! There are a few little changes I'd make for next time (especially now that I know more what I could have ready the night ahead of time to speed things along) but all in all I think it turned out pretty good for a first try. Phil was great with keeping Kyra entertained and out from underfoot and for the most part she was in a pretty decent mood! She really enjoyed her dinner, even if all that variety at one meal gave her a bit of a belly-ache the next day. Phil took some pictures and videos of her EATING her first Thanksgiving dinner but she wasn't feeling very cooperative so it wasn't until he put the camera down that she started all the grinning and going "NUM NUM NUM!" while she ate! It was really a wonderful Thanksgiving, especially this year when we have so much to be thankful for with Kyra healthy, happy and growing to share it with and another little girl on the way who so far seems to be just as hale and hearty as her big sis!


So here's our dinner, served of course on my Fireking and Lusterware because there isn't a more appropriate time of year than Thanksgiving for shiny orange dishes.










Kyra's dinner included roast sweet potatoes, baked acorn squash, turkey, jellied cranberry sauce (yes out of a can... I figured she'd choke on whole berry sauce and jellied cranberry sauce homeade is something only Martha Stewart does), mashed potatoes with broth substituted for the butter and milk, stuffing and a very few bites of pumpkin mousse. And no, she did NOT eat this whole plate full of food, even though it is just a saucer. :) Her favorites were mostly the things she could pick up and feed herself, as usual but she did decide that the mousse was pretty good, even if she did have to eat it off the spoon!

Slept ALL night!!! (And baby's first Halloween)

Friday was Halloween and we were all invited over to John, Amy & Tristan's house for a party that was LOTS of fun!! Kyra dressed as a bumble bee. (We were very glad we'd gotten her two costumes on clearance last year since she'd outgrown the banana!) She loved watching the kids at the party and thought trick-or-treating (she just went along to watch) in her wagon was a blast until she got a little hungry and tired. She was a very cute little bee!
She's been sleeping really well most night lately since she's over her cold. (She does have a little bit of an occasional cough still hanging on, but other than that she's doing good.) She's been waking up just once around 5:30/6:00a.m. to eat and then sleeping until 8:00. Last night she actually slept through until 7:30a.m. with NO waking up! It was great!