No More Naps

Around the start of October we decided to stop giving Kaitlyn her afternoon nap.  It was just becoming too much of a struggle to get her to finally fall asleep and then by the time she fell asleep it would be so late that she wouldn't be tired for bedtime and that was becoming a nightmare.  So as much as I hated the idea of not having the sacred naptime anymore, I consented that she could just stop.  We still try to give her "quiet time" where she is supposed to stay in the playroom and watch a movie or play by herself, but usually this just ends up in the playroom getting destroyed everyday.  But I still need this "break" to try and get my Shea Homes work done.  Unfortuantly I have started working quite a lot at Shea again and have been pretty busy.  It is actually stressing me out.  I'm going to give it a few more months and then I'll have to reevaluate again.  We are saving up to buy a van, so the extra money is really helping out with that.  Otherwise I really don't see how we would be able to afford one.  Anyway, back to the naps!  The other day I was working and had put on a movie for Kaitlyn.  When I went in there to check on her a bit later I found her like this!

Then about 10 minutes later, I guess her head was getting heavy so she laid back and crossed her leg! haha!  So cute!  You can also see her drool spot on her shirt from the first sleeping position! haha!

Kaitlyn turns 3!

Kaitlyn turned 3 years old on September 28th.  It was a nice day, but we didn't have a party.  Since Kaitlyn's in preschool and we have a playgroup with some friends as well, I made cupcakes for both events and we sang to her at them and she blew out her candles for her friends.  On her actual birthday we didn't have any obligations so we had a fun day of just playing together.  My dad came over with lots of presents that morning and then that night we made one of her favorite meals (stouffer's lasagna) and my mom came over and we had cake and opened presents.  It was low key, but at that point she was still having a rough transition to being around lots of kids and I just didn't think a party was something she would even enjoy.  Maybe next year she will understand more about what it is and have real friends she wants to invite over.  She love it though.  She kept saying it was her birthday and loved time with family.  Here's a few pictures of her opening her presents...

 

Disney Trip September 2012

I am a little late posting, but here are some pics from our Disney trip about a month ago.  It was a good time.  Not as much fun as the times we would go before kids, but still fun.  Vacations just aren't relaxing anymore.  The trip started out really bad.  Kaitlyn got a cold literally the day we got there.  It cleared up half-way through the week, but for those first few days she was NOT FUN!  She wouldn't eat and would just cry the entire time through our meals.  Luckily Brayden never got sick and was an angel the whole trip!  He was great at meals and napped in the stroller during the day.  He didn't really care one way or another about the rides, but once Kaitlyn was feeling better, she loved the rides.  She also liked to dress up in her Cinderella and Tinkerbell outfits.  We tried out a lot of new restaurants this time around that we hadn't been to before.  Some were hits, some we would not go again.  My favorite was O'hana.  We've been trying to eat there for 6 years and it's always been booked.  We finally got in and it was worth it!  We probably won't go back again for at least 2 years b/c we want all of the new Fantasyland to be open, plus give Kaitlyn and Brayden time to get older for some of the more fun rides.

 

Kaitlyn with the statue of Cinderella.  She refused to get near any characters or princesses! haha!

 

Brayden's favorite stroller activity.  This trip wore him out!

 

Kaitlyn and Nana on the new Dumbo ride!

Preschool and Kaitlyn update

Well Kaitlyn started preschool back around Labor day.  Life has been pretty sucky ever since.  See these pictures above from her first day?!?  She was SO excited.  She even did great the first day.  No crying and was excited to go back.  Then on the second day I get a call that she is very upset.  It is a homeschool preschool group of 6 moms and we each take turns teaching every 6 weeks.  Then everything went downhill after that.  She screams bloody murder getting dropped off at Nursery at church, as well as while she is at preschool.  It is literally driving me crazy.  I am just so frustrated.  I really don't know what to do.  If she doesn't start getting better soon at preschool, then I am going to have to drop out.  Not because I have a problem with her crying, but just b/c I don't think it's fair to the other moms to have to deal with her and try and teach the other kids at the same time.  Nursery is horrible as well.  For a while the leaders always brought her to me when she cried.  But I really feel that is making it worse.  It just teaches her that every time she cries she gets what she wants.  So I have begged them to let her stay in the whole time.  Same with preschool.  I just feel guilty.  B/c its not like I pay any of these people.  If I was paying for a real preschool then I wouldn't care in the least. 

This is definitely something she is just going to need to outgrow, but until who knows when that will be I am at my wits end.  She has also been WAY more whiny and cries all the time at home as well.  I am just at a loss.  I told Justin the other day that she is truly my greatest challenge here on earth.  I feel so guilty saying something like that about my own daughter who I love to death, but who also knows every button of mine to push.  I just don't know how to work with her.  She literally whines or cries about the littlest things ALL day long.  Most mornings her crying starts the second she wakes up.  I am just stressed out.  This semester has been super busy for Justin so once he is home from work, he is doing school projects and meetings all night so I am stuck with the kids all night as well.  I just count down the hours until bedtime every day.  I've also been super busy with Shea homes work as well so I'm sure that is not helping my sanity.  Luckily Brayden is still the most perfect baby.  He rarely cries and is the sweetest, most laid back baby ever.  If he was like she was, then I really wouldn't know what to do.  I feel bad for him though b/c I feel like he is always second in attention to her.  Although I think a lot of Kaitlyn's whining, etc at least at home is stemming from wanting more attention from seeing me with Brayden.  She has started regressing in a lot of things trying to "act more like a baby" such as wanting me to help her potty, wanting me to feed her, etc.  I really need to try and devote more one on one time with her to try and see if it will get better.  I just feel like such a horrible mom complaing like this.  She whines and cries so much that I just get so frustrated that I feel like I am always yelling at her or sending her to time out.  I just don't know what else to do.  We go to playgroup most weeks and she won't even really play with kids there either even while I'm there.  She only has one real friend and that is our friend's son Brigham who we see a few times a month.  She loves him.  Everyone else, she gets nervous around and clings to me. 

Now after my complete vent about her bad qualities, I will say that she is a very sweet child.  She really does love Brayden so much and takes such good care of him.  She is always protective of him and really watches out for him.  She is also very smart.  She picks up on things so quick and loves to learn.  Most days she begs me to study flashcards we have.  She is also a pretty good eater and sleeper so at least I don't have to deal with those battles.  Nap time, yeah, but I figure that is most any kid.  She also just truely loves her family.  She gets so excited spending time with family. 

I feel I must stress after this post that I LOVE MY DAUGHTER!  She has definitely never been the typical child, ever since she was 2 weeks old, but I am just praying for the day it gets easier.  Until then you can find me slowly losing my sanity.  Day by day.

Beach and Amish Country

I have been SO behind in my posting!  I have a lot to catch up on.  We have had quite a few vacations already.  Our first was just me and the kids with all of my family to Myrtle Beach.  We went over Fourth of July week.  It was fun, but it is SO exhuasting going on vacations without Justin.  Even though I have other family there, I am still the main one that has to do everything.  And there is just so much extra stuff involved that makes taking care of small children on vacation harder.  So I am not sure how many more vacations I am willing to go on alone!  Kaitlyn had blast though.  Brayden didn't really care.  He hates being hot and was a mess in the sand b/c he literally wanted to eat it nonstop!  So I wasn't a fan of being down there with him.  Kaitlyn on the other hand got over her fear of water and was swimming wonderfully!  She would jump in and swim by herself (with her floaty on of course)  Unfortuantly I can't find any pictures from my trip!  But not to worry, I have TONS from our next vacation.  In early August we went up to Amish Country Pennsylvania.  I had low expectations for the trip, but it was actually pretty entertaining.  There is so much to do up there.  It is a great place for kids.  Kaitlyn LOVED seeing all the farm animals.  I was suprised at how integrated the Amish are into normal society.  We stayed in an old farm house on a working farm.  It was really nice.  We went to a lot of farms, rode in some horse and buggies, and went and ate dinner at a real Amish family's home.  It was really good.  Although I can definitely say I have ZERO desire to be Amish.  Especially being a woman.  I feel like they were slaves.  They worked nonstop all day.  The girls were the ones cooking our dinner and serving us.  Definitely not my cup of tea! haha!  I prefer having a husband who helps out with cooking and cleaning!  The Amish women are even expected to do all of the yard work! One thing I really enjoyed from our trip was all of the HUGE Smorgasboard buffets.  They were everywhere and I mean HUGE.  One of the ones we went to was like 5x the size of a Golden Corral.  I was in Heaven!  I love me a good buffet.  We ate very well while we were up there!  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

An Amish man out working on the farm

 

Kaitlyn jumping at Cherry Crest Farms, running away when the Strausburg Train rode by

The fam sitting in an Amish Buggy.  These things sell for around $6500-9500...not including your horse!  Crazy!

 Seeing how strong we are.  Justin actually hit the tallest bell.  I was impressed!

 

Hershey's Chocolate World

 

One room Schoolhouse

 

 Covered Bridge

 

 Amish women's dresses.  They pin their dresses with straight pins!

Our House we stayed in

Riding the Strausburg Railroad

Wood Family Update (Spring)

I have been soo slack with my updates! So then they turn into this long rambling of my trying to squeeze it all in. Hopefully this post won't be as depressing as my Soxy post. Kaitlyn and Brayden have both been doing great. Kaitlyn is 2 1/2 years old and Brayden is now 6 months!

Brayden: (6 months)
Brayden is still a big boy. He is only about 3 lbs lighter than Kaitlyn! He is soon going to outgrow his infant carrier...which i guess is fine since I can barely lift it! Kaitlyn used hers until she was about 15 months old! He is still in the 75-90% for weight (almost 20lb) and only 25% for height. Up until two days ago, Brayden did not do anything but just lay around. And then on April 24th he decided that he could roll over and sit up both in one day! He rolled over 2x that day and no more since! haha!  Although he is getting better and better at his sitting up. I mentioned to our Doctor that I thought his weight was probably slowing him down and he agreed saying that torso is heavy to try and hold up! haha! I tried to take a naked picture to show all his rolls but it is hard to tell in a picture:

Brayden is still such a happy baby!  I love it.  It is so easy to make him smile.  Whenever someone makes him smile, he always pulls his hands up to his mouth like he's bashful.  So cute! 

 We also started Brayden on Solid foods a couple weeks ago.  At first he did really well.  He would gobble up anything I gave to him.  Then there were a few days where he didn't really want anything.  But thankfully now he seems to be back to normal letting me feed him again.  Kaitlyn likes to watch.  Also she likes to stick empty spoons in his mouth all the time when I am not looking and gag him!  One downside that seems to be getting better is that he has been fussier since the solids.  He got really constipated and has had a hard time pooping every since.  I try and feed either prunes or pears or something else really good for constipation every day to help out.  His system seems to slowly be adjusting to the solids now.  So far he eats most anything I give him.  He loves sweet potatoes...something that Kaitlyn hated!  The only thing he absolutely refused to eat and got really upset was peaches.  I am still pumping breast milk into bottles for him.  I pump 4x a day and he eats 5 7 oz bottles a day.  I hope to eliminate one or two once he starts getting better with the solids.  Then I can go down to 3 pumps a day.  He used to have breastfeeding snacks in between some bottles if he couldn't wait his 3 hours, but now that he has solid foods he has given up the snacks.  Which is fine I guess, but I did like the fact he would latch on if I needed him to if I forgot a bottle.  Now if I try he only wants the bottle.  Kaitlyn would never latch on.

 Here is my big boy finally sitting up!  Yay!  He only lasts for about a minute or so right now and falls quickly so I can't leave him alone yet.  Kaitlyn was already catching herself at this point, but I don't think he's anywhere close to being able to do that.

 Kaitlyn (2 1/2 years):
Kaitlyn gets better and better with age.  It's no secret that we thought she was a horrible baby, but she is getting to be a much better toddler.  She really is a very sweet girl.  She is never mean to any other kids and is a big "rule follower."  She transitioned out of her crib about a year ago and still NEVER comes out of her room unless one of us goes to get her.  Sometimes I wish she would, but it makes naps so much easier when she think she has to stay in her room.  Also we FINALLY got rid of her pacifier!  Completely!  At 12 months we took it away except for naps and bedtime, but she was quite attached to it.  I actually tried taking it away for about a week around 2 years and her naps became nonexistent.  She would eventually fall asleep at night, but it took a long time.  I gave in and returned it.  then I read about this idea to take them to Build-A-Bear.  We took her paci and placed it inside a Kitty and then it got sewn up.  She knows that the Kitty "Ate" her paci and she can feel it inside the Kitty's leg.  She didn't even cry for it!  I was shocked.  She whined the first couple days but still went to sleep.  Naps and All!  I was so happy!  It was funny too, this picture of her and her Kitty is recent (we did this about a month or so ago) and for a couple weeks she did not like the Kitty.  It wasn't allowed in her bed and had to sit in a corner of her room! haha! 

As for her development, Kaitlyn has grown tremendously in the past few months even.  Her talking has gotten so much better and she can now count to 10 and sometimes 20...though rare.  She still knows all her alphabet and can call out the letters, but cannot sing the song in order yet.  She has also turned into a big "helper."  She loves to pull chairs all around the kitchen watching me cook or do dishes or feed Brayden.   Kaitlyn also went to Disney World with my mom for a few days in March.  She had a blast and did really well away from me.  They stopped at Justin's parents house for 2 days and then drove on down to Disney for 2 days.  She loved all the rides.  So we bought Carowinds season passes and I was very upset to find out they have a 36" height requirement for most of the kiddie rides!  She can't even go on the little swings!  I was pretty mad.  Here's Nana and Kaitlyn at Animal Kingdom!

Kaitlyn has also gotten so much better about playing with other kids.  She actually enjoys being around them now.  Not to say she doesn't still like me there, but she is getting better at playing with others.  I really wonder how she would do in Nursery without me, but since I am the leader I guess that is not going to happen anytime soon.  I really think she would do OK though.  The only thing I would maybe be concerned about is her going potty.  She may be too shy to tell someone else when she needs to go yet.  Today Monkey Joes was offering free admission if you donating a roll of wrapping paper.  Below are a couple pictures from our visit!  She eventually loved it, but it took some warming up to the slides.  She can be a big scaredy cat on slides.  It takes a long time of coaxing to get her to come down. 

Soxy

I have been an emotional wreck this last week or so.  I don't think I ever mentioned on this blog before, but about 4 months ago or so we gave our cat Layla away to a nice young girl who was looking for a companion.  Layla had been peeing outside the litter box and I don't think was very happy in our home anyway.  She was a timid cat and hated Kaitlyn and never even really came around me.  I figured she would be better off with someone without kids.  So that left us with my sweet Soxy.  I have had Soxy for almost 5 years and in that time she had never had an accident.  Then all of the sudden in the last few weeks she has been consistently going on our furniture.  It started out as only poop.  Which was of course annoying, but easy enough to clean up.  I talked to our friend who is a vet and he told me it definitely sounded behavioral and gave a me a few suggestions to try.  He said she was mad about something and cats often do this to express themselves.  Well, then one day she decided to pee on the couch.  As most of you may know, cat pee is something not easily cleaned.  They say the odor is equivalent to a skunk and almost nothing can remove the smell.  We have doused it with cleaners and chemicals and nothing is working.  Justin who is not a cat person was very annoyed and did not want to put up with this.  So I gave in and put an ad on Craigslist for a good home being honest about why we were giving her up.  A lady contacted me and I met her with Soxy and said goodbye.  I cried the entire rest of the day and all night long.  I became a crazy person and called the lady saying I made a huge mistake and wanted her back :)  So they returned her and I tried working with her a little more.  She was fine for about a week being out during the day and then I would lock her up at night so she didn't get into any trouble.  Unfortunately she still had another accident on the carpet.  I was so upset but still wanted to give her another chance.  Then this past Sunday was the last straw.  I was sitting on the floor playing with Kaitlyn and she squatted right in front of me and peed on the furniture again!  Later I went upstairs and came back down and she had pooped on our different couch!  And then later on she peed again right in front of Justin!  I was devastated.  Not only was I annoyed that she is ruining all my furniture, but I knew I could not keep her like this.  She has been so mad at us and is showing herself.  I don't know if it was losing Layla or if she is mad about Brayden.  B/c one of the accidents was right outside his room.  Anyway, I reposted an ad and finally ended up giving her to two gay guys.  They seemed nice enough and they had two other cats they rescued.  I thought maybe she would actually enjoy life with another cat again.  Then I became crazy person again today.  Emailing them 3 different times saying I am not sure if I made the right decision and I might need to find her another home.  I have stalked them on Facebook trying to find out more about them.  So there you have it.  I am a crazy, stalking, emotional wreck.  I am so sad I had to give away my sweet Soxy.  I really loved that cat, but unfortunately cat pee is something Justin most definitely was not going to deal with.  And I can't say that I blame him.  As I sit here on our couch typing this I can still smell it seeping into my nose.  Guess we are going to be couch shopping come Memorial day.  We are now a catless family.  We are definitely not dog people and I am too afraid to get another cat.  Plus I gave everything away with Soxy.  I just can't bear the thought of getting attached to another one and something horrible happening.  So I guess I just have to hope she will adjust well to her new home and that they will treat her well.  Here is one last picture Justin took of Kaitlyn and Soxy before she left us :(