Riley - 5 months old, Kayla - 4 years old

Well, Riley has reached 5 months tomorrow and is chugging along. He is starting to eat rice cereal and chewing like crazy on anything he can get his hands on. He's sleeping 10 hours every night. He loves to sit in his activity chair and bumbo. I wonder where this bumbo was when Kayla was little. He loves to sit in the bumbo and play with any toy he can grab and keep in his hands. He doesn't enjoy tummy time, but when he is on his tummy he can lift up his head and smile. He can roll from his stomach to his back. He grabs his bottle and pushes it away when he's done. (So, unlike Kayla who would eat until she puked. Can babies be bulimic?) He loves to smile and giggle especially at his big sister. She can always make him laugh in the back seat of the Lexus.

I'm working really hard to make my own baby food. I am really enjoying it. We've started Riley on brown rice cereal. Brown rice is really tricky to get to the right consistency. I've been working hard to nail down a good recipe. He loves it though. I can't wait to start introducing other veggies and fruits soon. I'm definitely taking it slow this time with Riley. I want to be sure his stomach can handle the food. I'm also looking for a good recipe book so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Kayla on the other hand is a sponge. She is learning things left and right. She can write her name, and it actually looks like her name. She can spell the word of the month, TWO. She is loving her dance class, but nothing beats spending time at Grandma's house. She loves to play outside with the basketball hoop Uncle E gave her for her birthday. She still loves to play baseball with daddy. She's definitely a girl through and through, not sure where she gets that. Must be from Mike. She loves to play with the many dolls she got for her birthday. But, she's also got a little of her mom in her, her teachers tell me she's a tomboy and loves to run around with the boys. She's a little athlete. She can hit a moving ball with a bat, and can even shoot one handed on a 5 foot tall basket. Mike and I are starting to teach her responsibility and the value of a dollar. She is given "chores" to do around the house and earns a little money every week. She got used to "buying something" every time we went to the store that we knew we had to teach her about money. She is smart that one. She remembers everything and she will even reason with you. I guess its payback for how I was with my mom.

All in all, life is really good right now. Work is stressful, but everyday I can't wait to pick up the two kids and head home to play, cuddle, and give them tons of kisses.

Riley - 19 weeks old, Kayla - 4 years old

At Riley's 4 month check up he was, again, perfectly average. The nurse weighed him at 15 lbs. 10 oz., 25 inches long, with a head circumference of 17 inches. After she looked it up he is in the 50th percentile in all three categories. We were also told his head is a little flat in the back and were advised to keep him off his back as much as possible. So, I've got to make my way to Babies R Us and buy a Bumbo so he can sit up and play. He doesn't like tummy time too much so that's probably not an option to use

Riley has been taking a big interest in the food that we are eating, so I got the ok from the doctor to start giving him some rice cereal. I'm determined to make my own baby food this time, so I cooked up some brown rice and blended it really fine, added some formula and he loved it. He was totally eating it up to the point where he was opening his mouth when the spoon came near his face. He would even push away his bottle. He's growing so fast.

Kayla is doing great. She's moved into the Pre-K classroom and is starting to learn more than recognizing letters and numbers. Her class is learning the number two, what it looks like and how to spell it. I can't believe she can spell the word two. Lately, Kayla has been against going to school so we have talked to her more to find out why she doesn't want to go to school. We found out that no one at school wants to be her "best friend." I decided I needed to figure out why this is happening. I've had lots of conversations with her and discovered she more Munesato than we all thought. Although she seems very outgoing at home and around family and friends, she's really an introvert at heart. She's a lot more like me than I realized.

This time last year she told me, "Logan is not my friend anymore because he doesn't do what I say." I thought "Oh man, she's bossy." But there was more to it than that. Some days I would pick her up and ask her who she was playing with and she would say, "No one, by myself." Then I had huge insight yesterday, when we went to the mall. There is a little playground. She had a lot of fun, but was playing by herself the whole time. After I asked her "why didn't you play with the other kids?" She said, "I like playing by myself mommy." Ugh. How do I get my introverted child to socialize? I'm going to have to try a bunch of different things, I hope I can get her to break out of her shell.

Riley - 14 weeks old, Kayla - 3 years and 11 months old

Riley has been growing leaps and bounds. He is starting to grow out of his 3 month old clothes and has made the leap to size 2 diapers. He is smiling up a storm and gave us his first giggle Monday August 3rd. We're convinced his first tooth is trying to break through because he's pretty fussy and chewing on his hands and our fingers like there is no tomorrow. He sleeps through the night, most nights, and if he doesn't will only wake up once for a diaper change and a bottle. He's a laid back little boy who is perfectly content sitting in his bjorn watching people walk by.

Kayla is turing into a little girl. She has a mind of her own and is enjoying life. Two years ago we took her to Sea World and she was afraid and uninterested. We took her to Sea World on Monday and she was excited to see everything. She fed the sea lions, touched the starfish, and walked through every aquarium. She absolutely loved it! And, Sea World has a new thing where you buy a wristband for $30 and an adult can eat for free all day. It was definitely worth it.

She's starting to get pretty sassy too. You have to watch everything you say around her. Her favorite sayings are:

"That's nasty!"
"I want that for my birthday!"
"You only have two hands, right mommy!"
"Can I watch my show?"
"I want hot chocolate milk. HOT!"

Its great to see the contrast of the two. I can't wait to see what kind of personality Riley has when he is Kayla's age.

Sleeping Through the Night

Well, I think it is safe to say that Riley is sleeping through the night. I put him down around 9pm and he doesn't wake up till 5am. I am so thankful although part of this miracle is due to Riley finding his hand. I walk into his room in the morning to him sucking on his hand. Not quite his thumb, but his hand. Well, it was inevitable. Mike and I both sucked our thumbs and Kayla does. I just hope he only sucks on his hand when he is sleepy. I'm still trying to figure out when to work on Kayla's thumb-sucking. I guess its better than a pacifier.

4th of July

After the busy weekends we have been having, we thought a nice quiet 4th of July weekend was in order. So, Mike marinated his steaks and we ate steaks with broccoli for dinner. The past couple years, Kayla wanted nothing to do with fireworks so we decided we would try next year. But, Mike took Kayla outside and watched all the illegal fireworks. She loved it and asked why we weren't doing fireworks ourselves. So, next year fireworks.

You be the judge

We always ask people, "Who do you think she/he looks like?"

We get a variety of responses.

"She looks just like Mike."
"He looks like Mike."
"I'm not sure who he looks like."
"I think he looks like both of you."

Mike and I both have the same opinion that Kayla and Riley don't really look like either one of us. But, we both do agree that Kayla and Riley look exactly like each other. Above is a picture of both Riley and Kayla at about the same age. They could be the same child. We sent these pictures to Mike's parents and they thought we were emailing two pictures of Riley.

Mike: "I guess the two of us equal this..."

What do you think?

You only have two hands right

Kayla has a way to crack me up when she says the funniest things. Yesterday, Riley started crying while I was making a bottle.

I responded with "Ok, ok, baby Riley I'll be right there."

Kayla responded, "You only have two hands, right mommy."

I asked, "Who says that?"

Kayla replied, "All my teachers at school."

She's a smart one.