Swimming Time!

Last week Kelvin said he wanted to go swimming because it was such a nice day.  I told him that it would be cold but he didn't believe me and so we went.  Lydia and he swam while I watched with Jason.  It was a little hot sitting out of the water but I was right in the end and those two were cold in the water.  He just wanted to do something active with the kiddos but it was too hot and muggy to go for a walk.  They both had fun however and Lydia, even through her chattering teeth, put up a fight when it was time to go home.

Isn't this such a great picture?

Let the swimming lessons begin.

Two Kiddos....One Room

Yep!  You saw that right.  I have now broken down and moved Jason into Lydia's room.  It is now the kids bedroom and not just hers anymore.  We had decided to do it last weekend but I got a little attached to him and wouldn't let Kelvin move him yet.  So amid Kelvin's laughter, Jason continued to spend the next couple nights in our room.  Well, the other day, I told Kelvin that it was time.  I was finally able to let go and now Jason and Lydia share a room.  It's nice that we have our room back to ourselves again and I haven't been feeling bad about moving him.  I always have to wait until I am really ready to do things sometimes or I can regret them later, but I was ready to move him when we did.  He still wakes up once in the night to eat but it's not a big deal to get him.  Plus he eats really fast anyway.

Lydia loves the change.  She really likes not being alone and has been SO much better about going down at bedtime.  She used to fight us for about an hour on most nights, but now when we put him down with her, she just quietly plays by herself until she is ready to go to sleep.  It is a very welcome change and I know she feels some sort of comfort knowing that she is not alone.

Jason in his crib.  I think he likes that it's bigger and he has more space than the bassinet.  He has out grown it pretty quickly.

Toddler Time

I enrolled Lydia in a toddler class that a lady in my ward told me about because she teaches it!  I was intrigued at first and thought that it might be a great thing to do with her to get her ready for pre-school.  So I signed her up and an I ever so happy that I did!  She loves the class and it is perfect for dealing with toddlers with short attention spans but teaches them to sit quietly at times and other times it it great to up and moving around.  We have both loved it and Jason has been very good!  He just sleeps quietly in the Baby Bjorn the entire hour.  Other moms have even commented how good he is during the class.  It's been so fun to see her learning and making new friends.  I have been making new friends too and it's a great mommy toddler support group.  Heaven knows what a challenge toddlers can be.

Puppets that the kids wear to sing songs with.

Music Time!  She has a tamboren in her hand.

Craft time.  We went outside and picked grass and glued it to the picture of the cow.  It was so cute.

Who doesn't remember the parachute being the best gym activity as a kid!  Well, these kiddos loved it just as much.

Discovery time!  What can you find?

So excited that she made a star out of play doh.

We made the lamb mask one class and the next the kids "wore" them and walked around the mat singing Mary had a little lamb.

Tornado Valley!

That's what it felt like a couple weeks ago here in Texas.  We had a HUGE storm with lots of tornado's.  I was home while Kelvin was at work when I turned on the news after I put Lydia down for her nap.  It was then that I found out the storm brewing outside was a little more than just rain.  I sat nervous for a while listening to the rain and the news commentators.  While I was watching pictures of tornados landing near Kelvin's work place I called worried because our little town was directly in the path of the warnings.  He told me what to do so I started to put things in the bathroom in case I needed to grab the kids and head for cover soon.  He couldn't talk much because the plant was being evacuated into tornado safe shelters.  I let him go and sat glued to the TV.  Then I started to hear a very loud noise and realized that it was hailing.  When I took a peak outside, it was the size of a golf ball!!!  The blinds were closed to prevent any glass from coming in the hose whether from the tornado or the hail.  Kelvin tried to call when he got out of his safe area once the storm had passed him but couldn't get a hold of me.  After a little while he got nervous and called his dad to go get me.  His dad finally got a hold of me and told me to get my bags ready because he was coming.  I did so not really wanting to leave but knowing that I probably should.  When he got there and just as we were about ready to leave the apt, a tornado hit a mile or two just north of us.  We were driving down the highway watching the sky turn green and knowing that another one could hit any minute.  Kelvin's dad was of course cool and calm and not worried about a thing but I will admit I was a little nervous.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at their house and Kelvin came an picked us up after he got off work.  It was crazy and there was a lot of damage to places but we were lucky that we didn't have much damage.  Our van was even thankfully parked in our covered parking so it didn't sustain any hail damage and the hail didn't make it to Kelvin's work.

This is what our porch looked like after the hail.

Easter

So I have a few posts out of order but I am still playing catch up so you will have to bear with me.  Our Easter was pretty low key.  Lydia got a coloring book and some twist-able colored pencils.  We didn't do much because she already got to do the Easter egg hunt and really didn't need much more.  After Church we went to Kelvin's parents house and had my favorite dinner of Ham and Yummy potatoes.

I made a fun dessert of rice crispy treat "nests" with coconut grass and Cadbury eggs.  I got the idea off Pintrest and think I will stick to other sites for ideas.  Pintrest is a very used site and for some things is great but for creative things that you want to wow people with, it almost comes off as been there done that sort of thing.  Oh well.  They were delicious anyway!

2 Months Old

Jason is now 2 months old and such a sweetheart!  He is definitely a chunker weighing in at 13 pounds 13 ounces which is more than half Lydia's weight.  He is in the 90th percentile in his weight and height.  I love having a chunky baby after having such a skinny little thing.  Although Lydia is now in the 50th percentile of her weight at 27 pounds but still 75th in her height.  Jason is smiling and laughing now and loves being talked to.  He will respond with lots of cooing and shows so much love.  Lydia is in love with him and always wants to make sure he is okay and he loves her too always watching her wherever she goes in the house.  He is such a good sleeper too.  We are so blessed to have such an amazing little spirit in our family.

Yes he does nap with his arms in the air!

Easter Egg Hunt

The Facilities Dept at Lockheed Martin put on an Easter egg hunt for the little kids of the employees there.  Since Kelvin had just left them from his first rotation as an OLDP (Occupational Leadership Development Program) they invited us to go.  They LOVE him and really really want him to work for them when he graduates the OLDP program.  We were excited that Lydia is now at an age where she can understand more about holidays and such.  It's been much more fun for us as parents to see our children in wonder.  We took his parents with us to the Easter egg hunt and Lydia had a great time.  She was excited to find eggs and even saw that a little boy didn't have many in his basket so she put the one she had in her hand into his basket!  What a little sweetheart.  The mom of the little boy was so impressed but Lydia just walked on like it was no big deal.  She is so good sometimes.  The Easter bunny even came for a visit and Lydia just followed that poor bunny everywhere it went.  They had the event the weekend before Easter so it was on the Saturday of General Conference but we made it back in time for the second session.

When are we going to start?

Lining up and so excited!!

Are there any more?

Whoa!  Look at how much I got!

The Easter Bunny handing out treats for the kids.

So cute!

After the egg hunt they had a little relay race with the kids to run across the field with a plastic egg in a spoon. It was hilarious to see this group of 4 and under trying to run across the field while being coordinated.  Needless to say more than a few grabbed their eggs with their hands and just ran!

Funny Girl!

It's amazing what kids will pick up on from watching parents.  Lydia has been doing things that we can't help but laugh because they are her versions of what we do as parents.  She has gotten more attached to her dolly and it is now her baby.  She will get her sippy cup and feed the baby as well as burp the baby and wipe her mouth, all things I do with Jason.  The funnies thing though is when she will come up to Jason or her baby and pat their back and tell them "it's okay"!  We do this to Jason when he is crying or upset and fussing.  It's adorable and I love to watch her learn new things everyday.

Putting her baby in the Baby Bjorn.

Family Pictures

We decided to take some family pictures the weekend of Lydia's birthday with Jason being new to our family.  Lisa kindly offered her services and we jumped on it.  I think they turned out really good!  We are a good looking family if you ask me.

Crazy Sleeper

This is how we have been finding our daughter lately after she falls asleep.

It never ceases to amaze me how she can literally fall asleep doing most anything.

The Week of No Sleep--Jason gets RSV

My parents were scheduled to leave on Monday mid morning and Kelvin had to leave to go out of town early that morning.  Jason woke up not feeling very well and was getting very congested.  It had started coming on the night before and I didn't get a lot of sleep because he kept waking up coughing and congested.  Well, after I dropped my parents off things just got worse.  He seemed to be having a harder and harder time breathing.  I was using the essential oils to help keep his congestion down but I could never really quite get on top of it.  I thought he had just gotten a bad cold and the worst was going through his body.  Little did I know...that night he hardly slept at all.  I was pacing with a very sick crying baby all while trying to keep him upright so he could breathe all by myself because Kelvin was out of town on business.  Lydia had been acting a little sick too on Monday but it wasn't bad so I didn't worry as much about her.  She woke up a few times that night too.

When Tuesday morning came I called and got the first appointment I could with his Dr.  When the Dr looked at him he told me that he had a sinus infection and RSV but luckily it was a more mild case so he didn't think that Jason needed oxygen for now and could be treated at home.  I thought if this was a mild case I would hate to see a severe one.  It's no wonder babies die from RSV, it was really scary.  I left but only with a very emphasized warning that if he got worse at all I needed to bring him right into the Dr's or if they were closed then I had to go straight to the ER.

We got home and I tried to put Lydia to bed thinking that she would sleep since she was sick too.  She screamed for almost 3 hours straight.  She had been pulling on her ears for quite a few days so I thought she might have an ear infection the day before.  I started treating her with oils but when she wouldn't take a nap on Tuesday I thought something must have gotten worse.  So we went back into the Dr and she got an antibiotic.  She had the same thing Jason did with a sinus infection and all.  RSV doesn't affect older children the same as babies so they don't really worry about it that much.  While he was examining Lydia he stopped to listen to Jason because he was afraid that he had gotten worse.  Luckily that was not the case.  I trudged home with 2 very sick kiddos.  My mom felt so bad that she left.  She had a feeling that things were going to be hard with Kelvin gone and both kids getting sick but didn't think that they could change the tickets.  I wasn't worried about it. I know that they needed to get back.

Honestly I don't know how I got through those few days all by myself and Tuesday night was a night of constant getting up with one child or the other.  Wednesday morning I called Maritza almost in tears and asked if she would come over and help watch the kids so I could take a nap.  She did and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and didn't stir until 3 hours later.  Kelvin came home that night and took care of Lydia while I had Jason.  They both had improved greatly and I was very grateful and thankful that they were recovering so quickly.

Thursday was another tough day but I knew that I would be able to get some rest that night because Kelvin told me he would take the baby that night.  I was so excited to get a full nights sleep and wouldn't you know it, the night that Kelvin takes Jason he sleeps ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT!  I was so mad.  I  had spent 3 sleepless nights up with him and then when Kelvin takes him Jason decides to sleep through the night.  Kelvin felt bad so he took Jason the next night too.  Jason got up once to eat but that was it.  Oh well!  I guess being a mom includes lots of thankless jobs.

After surviving a bout of RSV in both kids at once, I think I deserve a break.  Too bad that I don't get one for a long while.  I was going to go with Kelvin on his latest trip out of town but we couldn't find anyone to babysit.  Maybe soon I will get a break and a chance to really relax!

Jason's Blessing and Lydia's Family Party

The next day was Sunday, March 25th, the day we blessed Jason.  Family from around the area came and we were surrounded by family and friends.  The blessing was amazing and made me cry.  I love my little boy so much.

Thank you mom for the blessing outfit!  He looked so handsome in it!

Our perfect little family!  Thank you Tia Marta for the beautiful dress you got Lydia!

After Sacrament meeting we all headed to our apartment for some lunch and Lydia's family b-day party!  Kelvin stayed and taught his class and then he came back.  I felt bad not having a reception of some type for all the extended family, but there were too many problems so I decided to just have a small immediate family gathering.  Lydia was so excited to be sung Happy Birthday again and to get presents.

I did a quick Nemo cake the night before.  It was a hit!  Lydia loved it.

She loved her new microphone!