18 months old...

Wow, I can't believe Vera is 18 months old already! We met her when she was 13 months old and now she is a year and a half old.

We went to the pediatrician last week and I knew Vera had grown, but she has grown beyond my expectations. 3 months ago, Vera weighed 20 pounds and was 6% on the growth chart. Today, she was a little over 24 pounds and almost 50% on the growth chart! 3 months ago, Vera was 30 inches and 37% on the growth chart for height and today she was 32 inches and a little over 62% on the growth chart! Our little girl isn't so little anymore!

This is a picture of Vera and her cousin that is only a month older. Aren't they cute?

I had a couple of concerns to talk to the doctor about. Vera has a bit of a "duck" walk, but he said that should correct itself by the age of 3. You can almost always hear Vera breath, so I was a little concerned about that. But, he said he couldn't hear anything in her chest or lungs, so she just has a cold. So, my question was, "So, she has a cold all the time?". He said that kids have 7-8 colds a season.

I have noticed that when Vera gets hurt, she looks for me to comfort her. I didn't realize that she didn't do that until she actually did it, does that make sense?

Vera now will sit and look through books or bring a book to me to go through the pages with her. Vera also loves music. When she hears it, she will bop around. It is so sweet to see Kiara and Vera dancing together.

Vera can say 3 things. Mama, Dada & Night Night. I think she calls her blanket her Night Night. She is becoming more and more attached to her blanket. One of the corners of the blanket has a knot in it, she will find that corner and put it under her chin and then pop her thumb in her mouth. It is so cute.

Vera loves to go places. She will bring me her shoes or coat because she wants to go somewhere. Here is a picture of Vera waving goodbye to Kiara as she leaves on the bus.

Easter 2009

Easter weekend started with Ryan and Kiara dyeing eggs on Saturday. It was even nice enough to do it outside. It is always so wonderful when a messy activity can be done outside!

On Easter morning the girls were up a little early, they must have known the Easter bunny had left them some goodies.

Next, we were off to church. Kiara went to Sunday School and then all 4 of us went to the second Easter service. Kiara was able to go to children's church for the second half. Vera lastest the longest in church that she has ever, so the morning was a success. We need to work on getting her to be able to stay in the nursery, but I am not sure how to make that happen.

Then, it was off to my aunt's house. We had a yummy lunch and then had an Easter egg hunt. One of my cousins has 2 year old twins and they were so much fun. One loved the Easter egg hunt and the other just wanted his grandpa to take him for a ride on the riding lawn mower.

Vera and Mi Mi

Vera and Pa

Then, it was back inside to open the Easter baskets. It was like Chrismas! Here is Vera modeling one of her gifts. Vera even took a 2 hour nap on the floor in a make shift bed Ryan made.

Next, we were off to my other aunt's house. Kiara got to play with her cousin the same age and we had yummy ham sandwiches for dinner.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I feel very blessed to have such a great family and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose again, so I can spend eternity in heaven.

Hard night and life lessons...

I had a hard night last night. A week ago I had taught the new choreography for Body Step and it didn't go well at all. So, I worked really hard this week to make sure things went better. And, they did, but still not as well as they should have. Unfortunately, the wrong person was in the class to see that. Others were very encouraging and thought things went pretty well. The hard thing is that from my conversation, she thought things went worse than they did. I KNOW I can do better and I have done better, for some reason this new choreography just isn't sticking with me. At my gym the expections are extremely high and probably border on unrealistic, but that is why the instructors are phenomenal.

So, I had a great conversation with my husband when I got home. He helped me realize that just because I am not meeting one person's expectations, I am not failing. I crave the feeling of success and accomplishment since becoming a full-time mom. So, it is so disappointing when I have worked SO hard, put in SO much time and energy to become a good instructor, and I feel like I am not succeeding. I need to learn to focus on the positives and not the negatives. The fact is that I have had several of my participants tell me that they enjoy coming to my class, before this new choreography I was teaching great classes and things were coming more naturally. One of the other instructors has been a great encourager and is willing to help me even though her life is very full. I made it through training and accomplished getting certified as a Body Step instructor. Those are the things I need to focus on.

The fact is that preparing for Body Step takes a HUGE amount of my time. I think as time goes on it will get better, but there will always be new choreography to learn. I need to decide if this is a good fit for my life right now. Right now, I don't feel like I can not do much else than work on Body Step and take care of my girls. I love that the process keeps me working out even when I don't feel like it. The best part for me is actually teaching the classes. Teaching has given me something that gets me out of the house and something else to focus on other than kids. So, I know I would miss those things. I am not ready to make any decisions right now, we will see how things go.

So, of course I couldn't sleep last night and got up to watch some TV to get my mind off of the night. While I was up, Vera was rocking a lot in her bed, so I went in to see if she had gone #2 since she didn't do that at all during the day. She hadn't, but her diaper was full and I got her out to change her. After that, I rocked her while she layed her head on my shoulder. After a little while, I put her back in her bed. She sat right up and then stood up, so I picked my sweet baby back up. She was pointing at something, at first I thought it was the nightlight, but then realized that she was pointing at the rocking chair. She wanted me to rock her again! That just melted my heart because this is the child that barely lets you rock her and she is pointing at her bed. So, I sat and rocked my baby and probably cried as much as I had earlier in the night. This time they were tears of joy! God helped me realize that I am succeeding and accomplishing being a mom. The accomplishments aren't always obvious and don't always come right away, but they are the most fulfilling accomplishments of all.

First family vacation...

We took a little trip together as a family of 4 for the first time. It was a lot of fun and soooo good to get away. We went to Fun City in Burlington, IA. It is a complex of 2 hotels, event center, restaurants, arcade, laser tag, bowling, indoor go carts, small indoor waterpark, and an outdoor waterpark. I think I got it all! It was less than a 2 hour drive up, which was nice to see how Vera did with an extended car ride. She did pretty well.

When we got there on Sunday, they were having a special Family Fun Day in the event center. It was nice, but everything was in one room and it was packed. We waited an hour to have Kiara's face painted, but it turned out great. Then, we lined up for the easter egg hunt. Well, I think there were four times more people than they expected, so they basically ran out of eggs. Kiara got to go in and find one egg! But, a nice lady gave her a couple more eggs. She ended up with $15 for the arcade, so I think she made out okay.

Our little tiger!

Next we had dinner at one of the restaurants and then went back to our room. No joke, below is the amount of leftovers that we took out with us! I don't usually get an appetizer, but they had fried cauliflower and I couldn't resist. I filled up on that and could hardly eat any of my main course. Ryan got fried shrimp and I have never seen so many in one order before! He ate the rest of them for breakfast!

Ryan and Kiara left to swim at the waterpark and I put Vera to bed. She did great for only sleeping a half an hour in the car on the way up for a nap. She basically went right to bed, but did wake up several times in the night. We were all up at 8 AM and got ready to swim.

The waterpark has a great toddler, younger kid area. It has lots of different little slides and things to play with. Kiara loved it. Vera loves her baths, so I was hoping she would like it too, and she did! Ryan would take her down the slides and she would make the sign for more because she wanted to go again. It was Vera's first time in a swimsuit and first time swimming!

My little poser!

After swimming, we went and ate at the buffet restaurant. Then, we hit the arcade to use all our arcade money. There really is only one kiddy ride in the arcade for Vera's age, but she seemed to enjoy watching everything going on.

This is Kiara playing Deal or no Deal.

Next, we packed up and were headed home. Vera basically fell asleep right away. I think she would have slept the whole way home, but we had to stop to let Kiara go to the bathroom.

It was a great vacation for the first time as a family of 4. Now, I am praying that my kids travel as well when we go to Phoenix in a couple of weeks.

Home 3 months...

It really feels like we have been home with Vera much longer than 3 months. I say that in a good way. We did meet her nearly 5 months ago, but she has only been home with us for 3. It just feels like she has always been a part of our family.

She has mastered walking. Now that she walks, we have noticed that she explores a lot more. Not that she didn't get around by crawling, but she will just now kind of amiously walk around carrying different toys.

She really doesn't say any words yet. Maybe "dada" and "mama" once in awhile. But, her jabber now seems to be more defined like she really is trying to say something. Every time she waves goodbye, it sounds the same, "ga-ga".

Vera will also now sit and look at at picture books. She also likes those greeting cards that play a song once you open them up. She has already wore one out and another sounds like it won't last much longer. It is so cute. She will either sit and look through the book or bring a book to me and want me to flip through the pages with her. I never thought the girl would sit still long enough to look at a book!

Vera now takes one nap of 2-3 hours. I have worked it so I put her down just after Kiara leaves on the bus, so I have a couple hours of quiet! I love to see Vera watch Kiara leave on the bus. She will stand in the doorway and yell out the door to her and then raise one of her hands over her head and wave goodbye. She will do that over and over. It is the cutest thing.

Kiara and Vera play much more together now. I love it when they make each other laugh. Kiara can keep Vera entertained with playing peek a boo or with a ball. It has made my life a bit easier.

I think Vera will be a challenge to disipline as she gets older. After you tell her to not do something, she will go to do it again and look at you (and even sometimes laugh) and do it again. She can also thow the biggest fits when you won't let her do what she wants. I mean, full fledge flialing her body and convulsing her body. Sometimes it can be quite humorous to to watch! Unfortunately, she tends to bang her head on something in the process. :(

Sisterly love!

Having fun with daddy!

My cuties. I love them so much!

This weekend we are taking a mini family vacation. We will only be gone one night and going to Fun City in Iowa. It will be a good test to see how Vera travels since we are going to Phoenix at the end of April.

March happenings...

We had been busy this month and have enjoyed the bouts of beautiful weather we have had. Here is a picture of the girls on their picnic table. Obviously, I couldn't get a good picture...

I am happy to say that I did reach my goal of getting the girls to JcPenny to get their picture taken. Yay! They aren't the best, but at least I have done my motherly duty. Vera would not sit in one place for more than one second! It is amazing we got ANY good shots.

I planned the Upward Basketball Award Ceremony that was on March 21st. On the same day, Ryan went to Chicago for his fantasy baseball draft. So, both of the girls stayed overnight at my parent's house. Vera did great! She slept 12 hours and took a nap. She had a great time. Thanks, mom & dad!!

Vera is as busy as ever and is now 17 months old! She is walking a lot, but still isn't completely stable. I put her on the scale the other day and was shocked that Vera weighs 24 pounds! She has gained 5 pounds since we brought her home. It will be interesting to see where she is on the growth charts when we go to the pediatrician next month. Vera loves to open all my kitchen cabinet doors and drawers. Luckily, once in awhile, the Tupperware drawer will keep her attention.

Kiara is as sweet as ever. Some days the things that come out of her mouth make her sound so old, makes me sad. She is growing into a little lady. Kiara loves clothes and will sometimes change her outfit 4 or more times in one day! She loves puzzles and has started to learn to read and can even do some simple addition. She is a very smart girl. Her teachers at school love her.

Kiara went on a field trip to the local children's museum last Friday. A note had been sent home the week before saying that parents could come. Unfortunately, I didn't have anyone to watch Vera, so I wasn't able to go. The day before the field trip, Kiara comes home with a sad face asking if I could go with her. I knew I couldn't, but I called Ryan to see if his morning was clear at work. Luckily, it was and the best daddy ever went on the field trip with her. Below is Kiara and Ryan on the "big bus that doesn't have seat belts", as Kiara would say.

Next month we are looking forward to going to Phoenix at the end of the month! We can't wait to spend time with Dani, Bobby and the girls. Before that, Kiara will be off of school for spring break.

Walking...

I finally captured Vera walking on video! She is walking much more now. She can go quite a ways, but is still a bit unsteady.

She can now easily open the door to our basement and bathroom, unfortunately!

Kiara and Vera seem to get a bit closer everyday. Vera likes it when Kiara will get in her crib with her and do what she does. Vera likes it when Kiara comes to get her up from her naps. But, Vera will still let Kiara know when she is doing something she doesn't want her to do.

I am still getting use to having a little one that you have to supervise 24/7. I am so tired! We did get the play pen out and I put her in there when I need to get something done like make dinner. It isn't her favorite place, but after a few minutes she will sit down and start playing with her toys. Luckily, I have a wonderful husband that has let me get away a week ago Friday night to scrapbook and this weekend on Friday night and all day Saturday. It was so nice. But, I am still tired! I even took a nap today and I NEVER take naps. I think I only took a nap twice when Kiara was an infant.

I feel like I am slacking on preserving the memories of my 2nd child, so my goal this week is to get them to JcPenny's to get their picture taken. Hopefully, I am successful!