Bathroom Baby

As soon as Ayden spies someone walking toward the bathroom he sprints as fast as his little hands and legs can crawl him there, drooling and giggling all the way.  He is fascinated with the toilet!  There have been many occasions where I have forgotten to close the bathroom door and I don't come to realize it until I hear "splash, splash, splash!"  Next to the dishwasher and garbage can, he'd much rather play with toilet water than any other super cool, expensive toy we own.  One of these days I'm going to find Ayden practicing his swim moves in the porcelain thrown.
 

Happy Birthday, Todd!

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy around!  We hope you liked our cookies...made with lots of LOVE and learning too!  We practiced our shapes and learned what a pentagon and octagon was.  Allie thinks these were the best...she made sure to test the dough...LOTS!

Work'n On My Fitness

I have to admit that trying to take some time and do something for yourself can be a bit of a challenge with two kids at home. I usually wake up before the littles and rush downstairs to our home gym and sweat it out before I'm consumed with feeding, changing, cleaning up after and playing. If I don't exercise first thing, I don't exercise at all. Most days Allie will wake up when I'm finished (or almost finished). But sometimes I'm blessed to have a little motivator workout beside me...and sometime under my feet. 

When Allie does workout with me, she INSISTS on changing into her exercise clothes (aka: her cheer practice clothes she got in her Easter basket this year)...just like her mom.  Allie is pretty good at working out...she can hold a plank for a good 15 seconds and her squat has perfect form. Allie says her favorite moves are jumping jacks and crunches...because she likes to exercise her belly muscles. Allie now has her own set of pink dumbells (I was terrified she was going to drop my 8lb-ers on her foot).  She often requests which video she wants to do...the girl video or the boy video (referring to who the instructor is). But more often than not...Allie will participate for about 15 minutes before she is off reading the books I keep in the gym or giving her dolls a check up with her doctor tools. Allie thinks that when I workout, she had free reign to turn my gym into her second playroom. My workouts with Allie usually end with me jumping over a Cabbage Patch having her temperature taken or kicking some toy out of the way so I can do my burpee's. 

On those days I feel a little lazy...it's good to know a little someone will give me some motivation to get a move on!

Dress to Impress

This little princess wants to be dressed in her finest...even at 5:00 am.  No matter what the plan is for the day, Allie insists on wearing a DRESS each and every day...to the park, to the mall, to just lay around the house all day.  Allie also LOVES to have her hair done and she is very particular about which style she wants with each dress (the Elsa braid has been quite popular with Allie this summer).  My little stylist is going to be one expensive gal.

 

Photo taken at 5:00 am...no sleeping in this day

 

 

Bye Bye

Well...daycare is getting a little better with this guy.  The report I received today was that he cried less...yeah, good news...and that he was very serious.  Not too, too bad.  When I pulled up to get my little man, he was all smiles?  When Debbie started to walk away, Ayden gave a little wave and said, "Bu-bye."  I can't believe he is already understanding so much!

The Monster I Created

The top three reasons I became a teacher...June, July and August...I cherish and LOVE summer because I get to spend sooooo much time with my OWN children.  We eat every meal together, we work together, we play together.  I get to be with two of my favorite people ALL DAY LONG! 

Unfortunately with all these positives come the big fat negative of Ayden totally forgetting who his caregivers were for the past 5 months.  When school ended Ayden left daycare.  We went on vacation and took a week to ourselves when we returned.  Ayden was away from Lynnie's for about a month.

I decided to give up my precious baby boy for a whole FOUR hours a week so he could stay accustomed to his daycare lifestyle and not be a crying, stressful mess when I return to work...because I will probably be a crying stressful mess when I have to report for the new school year.  I was hoping that when Ayden saw Lynnie and Debbie's beautiful faces...he would smile his gummy smile and all would be fine in his world.  That was not so much the case. He cried...and cried and cried and cried until I darted for the door...and then he continued to cry some more, for pretty much the entire time he was there :(  My poor little man. I can't believe that only after four weeks, he completely forgot his "other family." 

Ayden went back the following week and was a little better...and is getting better with each visit.  Today I got the best text photo of my love...calm, content and NOT crying.  Thank you Debbie for sending me reassuring updates of Ayden.  It makes my morning to know he's ok without his momma.

Girls Just Wanna...

While Ayden was spending some quality time with the ladies at day care, Allie and I got some much deserved girl time. After I drug her to Meijer (she was super excited to ride Sandy) and the mall (quick pit stop at the play area), we headed home and straight to our pantry.  Allie's new favorite hobby is BAKING!  She asks me just about every other day if we can bake cookies...even if we just did so the day before.  Whenever we do some baking, I find myself making twelve trips to the pantry to get everything we need on the ingredient list.  Well...NOT ANYMORE!  Whaaa-laaa!  Problem solved! 

This play shopping cart used be an outside toy...until Allie decided to run with it on too many times and hit the crack in the sidewalk....which did not end so well.  I decided to bring this toy inside but then we were afraid it was going to crash into our walls and we'd have missing paint everywhere.  Sooooo...one day I put it in our pantry and it officially became our "pantry cart." This is one of the main reasons Allie likes to bake...just so she can go "shopping" in our pantry.