Little walker

Look!  Kellan can walk!



He is so wobbly though, it is funny.  Sawyer didn't try to walk until after he turned one, so he could practically run as soon as he caught on, but Kellan is a bit more floppy.  He is getting better every day though, he could only do a small shuffle thing just yesterday!  Pretty good for a 9 1/2 month old :)

Groovin' and a check up

Kellan just started dancing out of nowhere.  I noticed it the other night but thought he was just being goofy.  The next day Andy had off and he noticed the same thing while that song at the end of Lazy Town was on.  He thought it was a fluke but he rewound the TV and played it again...wouldn't you know it, Kellan started grooving again!  He got a good video he put on instagram, but here was my attempt later:




Also the little guy is starting to go a few small shuffle steps once we let go of him.

He is getting so big!

He had a doctor appointment today and he is 20 lbs 10oz (50%) and 30.5 inches (95%).  She said he is doing really well (which was good to hear because he was smacking his ear last night and I thought he might have had an infection) and that he was a little ahead with his walking.  Go Kel!

Shift work

Ok, so I've been at my job a couple months now.  I've got in the groove of things, I had my appraisal today, and just one week ago today would have been my last day of work with the company if I didn't get my new job.

First I have to say how sad I am for the hundreds of people that didn't find new jobs and will be leaving.  Some had been there for 10 or 15+ years.  Some had families and were the only providers.  Some will be taking the opportunity to start or finish school, or actually use their degrees in the correct industry.

Anyway, things have been going well with the new schedule we have had to adjust to.  I started out leaving at 5:45am, dropping off the kids, sitting in traffic, working 8 hours, sit in traffic again, and get home.  Due to rush hour, I'd sit in traffic 4 1/2 to 5 hours a day.  It was really hard at first, but I started to get used to it after a week or two, and actually enjoyed the drive listening to the Bob Rivers show in the morning.  Traffic can be SO different day-to-day that I am very lucky to have a job and boss that doesn't really care when you come in as long as you work 8 hours.

I decided to ask my boss if I can start to work four ten-hour shifts instead of five days a week and it was a GOOD decision for these reasons:
-I eliminated 5 hours of driving just by taking a day out of my week
-I get another full day with the kids/family
-It puts my drive home (which took the longest) from 2-1/2 hours exactly to 1-1/2 or sometimes faster since I am no longer in the heart of i-405 rush hour.  This means I am only away for another hour tops.
-Andy started taking the kids to daycare so I get there earlier too
-My week is split so I pretty much have 2 Fridays.  It is easy to get through the week only having 2 days tops at a time before another work break.

Andy also decided to change his days off.  He now is off Tues/Wed so that is also a GOOD decision for these reasons:
-Our day off together isn't at peak days so we can visit things like museums and other places without massive crowds
-He gets home super early on weekends anyway, around the time we are getting ready so we aren't losing much those days
-The kids have another day off daycare.  They only go 3 days now which is actually good because they enjoy going and playing with their friends, but the majority of their time is with us now. Saves us money, too!

As far as actual work goes- it is good.  I actually really like it, even though I have a hard time sitting still for so long.  I get to talk to the stores and figure out their deposits and transactions when they are not what they should be. I am in charge of about 90 stores from AZ to AK, but mainly in So. Cal, AZ, and UT.  I am actually doing really well and got a good appraisal today.  He said I am actually doing better than everyone else in my group at the moment which is nice, but of course they all help me.  I think their stores have harder issues, but I also think they are all old and watching them work shows me how slow they do everything so I think part of it is just me being fast at that stuff.  So that's good :)  I am technically "management" now so I am also eligible for bonuses.  It's funny because half the stores are terrified of me and the other half are more like "ugh, whatever" haha.

I finally got to move my cube the other day.  I had been waiting forever since me and someone were supposed to switch and we had been waiting since my first day to move.  All they had to do was switch our phone numbers to the right desk and it took forever!  Turns out my boss was supposed to do something to approve it that he had no idea even existed because they didn't tell him.  Anyway, I was finally able to decorate a little, so that was nice, but I also lost my window view.  Oh well, the glare was annoying, it was smaller, and it was a bit distracting.

My old cube

New cube/pictures up

Still bare, but a few more things (on the left is a mood chart thing, the right is awkward family photos calendar.  Both courtesy of my old store :)

Waving and walker rollin

I taught Kellan to wave today and it is adorable.

Here he is waving with both hands, but he waves with one a lot too.

Here he is on his walker. This was his first round so he is a bit faster now.

Here is a small video of Sawyer at soccer yesterday that I previously forgot to post:

Airplanes and soccer

We had to follow Andy to the downtown plant so he could leave his truck this morning, so I suggested we take Sawyer to the Hangar Inn to watch the airplanes.  He definitely loved it.  He kept pointing out the different airplanes, and couldn't stop talking about the ones hanging from the ceiling inside.  We got to watch a few planes take off and land too.

Later that afternoon was Sawyer's first day of his soccer session, and his first time alone.  We saw Jill and Easton on the way in and I got to hold tiny baby Jensen (which you can't see in the picture unfortunately- thanks for telling me Andy!)

The kids lined up and I noticed one looked to be 5 or 6 and it is a 3 1/2 to 4 year old class (there is a 4-5 class after).  I was annoyed because he played really rough and a few times while Sawyer tried to play the games right he would blast either the cones or Sawyer's ball away.

Sawyer had a bit of trouble because the ball keeps rolling fast in the gym whereas the grass he is used to is more forgiving.  I want him to move down to the younger glass since he is still in the age group for them, but Andy wants him to try another week at least.  I thought he had a bit of a hard time since he is clearly way younger than everyone and he looked to be more stressed than having fun.  He would kick the ball into weird places and you could see the internal struggle knowing he isn't supposed to touch it with his hands but can't get it with his foot.  They had a game where he had to keep dribbling it then stopping it with his foot but he had the hardest time trying to lift his foot to the ball before it rolled away.

This was the same coach he had his first year when he had just turned two and he is a bit more intense.  The coach last summer seemed to be a preschool teacher turned soccer coach whereas this guy seems to be a former soccer player that wants some spare cash. :/  I guess we'll see how it goes.  The next session is outside so he should be able to handle that one better at least.

There were actually about 10 kids in the class, they just hadn't showed up on time

9 months

Kellan turned 9 months old!

Skills:

-Crawls quickly
-walks along holding furniture (can transfer furniture)
-stands for short amounts of time (tests himself by letting go for a few seconds but has stood as long as 20 seconds at a time)
-eats small things, but mostly still baby food
-walks if he is holding our hands
-has no idea what he's saying, but says the sounds "hi" "hey" "hot"(emphasizing the T sound) "dat" and "dadadadada" (again, he's not saying words that we know of, just randomly makes sounds)
-climbs stairs
-doesn't cry too long when Sawyer kicks him over (ugh)
-pinches really hard (I can't even hold him because all he does is pinch your face or neck and it HURTS)

His top tooth is coming in and his hair is getting long and it makes me sad because I thing babies drop 50% cuteness when their top teeth come in.  Add that Ben Franklin hair in back and he's going to be a weird looking bugger here soon LOL.

The kids have been sick so he has been crying a lot more lately, but he has also been in the smiliest mood so it evens out.

Take a walk

It was great weather this weekend!

Andy works weekends and I was hoping to do something when he got off work.  Luckily he got off at 12:30ish yesteray, but he was still so sick he slept for about 4 hours (well, Kellan did too at the same time) and by that time it was dark :(  Poor guy.

My mom said we could come over this morning, so I got there and said we should go on a walk since it was so nice out.  It was a bit cold, but we bundled up and headed to the trail.  We had a good time.  The pond had frozen over so grandpa and Sawyer threw big sticks on it.  It made a really cool echo boing-y noise.

A wild rainbow appeared in this picture

Tossing the stick

The sticks they threw landed on the pond

The pond ice was this thick!

3.5

Sawyer just turned 3-1/2 a couple weeks ago.  This is a bit late, but it has been hectic around here.

It's always weird to update because the older they get, the less they change.  It is such a gradual change that you can't just post "today he ______".

Let's see.  Well, he is quite the little firecracker.  He has SUCH an attitude, which is both good and bad I guess.  He is really good with his imagination and always plays with his little brother.  He also lies, does things he knows he shouldn't (sometimes slowly while looking us in the eyes), and does things like pushing Kellan over, throwing things at his face, and stealing his toys.  I think "terrible threes" are more a thing than "terrible twos" and a lot of people I've spoken with have had the same issue.

His language is pretty good.  He still has a lisp and has a hard time saying L's and R's.  We have been working with him on saying L's especially and now he calls Kellan "Keh-lllllllynn" sounding like a girl's name.  He otherwise tends to talk like a regular person now apart from a few mispronounced words.  He still says "reneber" for "remember", uses the phrase "that's why" instead of "because" (ex: You need to change your pants mommy that's why I spilled my juice on them) and one of my other favorites "hang-ga-burger".  He has started using words like "actually" and "probably" which aren't really advanced words, but they aren't part of "necessary" vocabulary.  He still calls everyone a "him" or "he".  He has a little problem with verbs too, he says "play withing" instead of "playing with" which he uses a lot to tell on Kellan "MOMMY! Kellan's play withing your phone!"

We don't draw as much as we should I guess but he is getting more control of his hands and can draw people.  His letters aren't very good, but we don't practice either.  I took some early childhood education classes so I don't want to force him to learn at this age.  He knows shapes, numbers, and letters but he's known those since before he turned 2 so it isn't much progress apart form the numbers, but the lower case letters is more recent.  He also sings some songs.

He is very appreciative.  He will randomly come up to me and say "thank you so much for _______ I really really like it" (toy, food, whatever) and give me a huge hug.

His memory is amazing.  He beats me at those matching games.  He will also remember something the second he wakes up which is funny to me because I can't even register where I am for a few minutes.  He will roll over with his eyes still closed when I wake him up and say "are we going to grandma's today?"

Speaking of sleeping, he normally goes to bed around 10-11 and we take him to daycare still asleep (I plop him on the couch) and when he's home with us he wakes up at 9-ish.  He isn't coming into our room anymore, but I think that was because he was used to me going to work so late that we woke up at 8:30 and he would come in when Andy left at 5.  Now when he wakes up early he just goes downstairs and plays instead of coming in my bed.

I love this age though.  He is like a normal kid now, but he still has some little person cuteness to him.

Here was an attempt to take a few pictures of him.  He would not sit still and would do his Adam Sandler voice which I hate.  He did a few cute things and I managed to get one of him smiling by telling him if he stood still for 10 seconds he could make a silly face at the end... so we did that a few times.

A smiley one

"Mommy take a picture of my butt"

A NYE surprise

Last night was New Year's Eve, and it was awesome.

A few weeks ago one of our best friends Leslie invited us to a secret new year's party where she was planning to propose to Krissy (you will have read about them in our blog many a time before).  We tried to find a sitter but after no avail, Leslie informed us they would have childcare. Phew!  Well, kind of.  We found out Monday that they thought the kids going might be too rough for Kellan.  We were so upset.  We asked around again, saying we would be home by 10 (Krissy was arriving at 9), but still couldn't find anything.  I resorted to facebook (which I hate doing, and have avoided in the past) and luckily yesterday morning an old rugby teammate who is now dating my old coach said that they would be home with his daughter that night.  We took them up on the offer and dropped the kids off right after work.  Sawyer was very good- a little shy, but he just followed Teagan around everywhere.

We got to the bar and were SO excited.  The bar was in 2 halves, and we all went into the half away from the door.  We waited around for an hour and a half or so and practiced what we would do.

 When she first walked in, she just saw random patrons, except her best friend was there with a rose.  She knew something was a little off because her friend recently had a baby and had told her she wasn't going to go out for New Years.  As she walked into the second half, she burst into tears as the DJ played the "525,600 minutes" song from Rent (her favorite musical) and everyone sang along (we had rehearsed).  She walked in and her family and few close friends (Andy was one of the select few) went up and handed her a rose.

The music suddenly changed to Bruno Mars' "Treasure".  She loves him and LOVES dancing so it turned into a dance party.  It was funny because it was really random and she was like 'uh okay' and started dancing with everyone.  Right at the chorus though, the song stopped and immediately turned into a slow Sara Bareilles song.  We (the crowd) parted revealing Leslie with big cue cards professing her love and Krissy stood there crying from down the tunnel reading them while the whole crowd got teary eyed.  Leslie then walked down the tunnel and got down on one knee with the ring and asked her as someone shot the most awesome confetti cannon (it was the metallic square kind of confetti).  It was PERFECT!

I am so lucky that we were able to find someone to care for the boys so we could be a part of this moment.  I couldn't stop smiling!  She had no idea anything was up until she walked in either!

Here are a few pictures but they are TERRIBLE AND BLURRY because it was dark and on my phone and I wasn't about to ruin the moments with a camera flash.

Waiting for her to arrive

Practicing the song.

Andy handing her the rose

The dance party part

The cue cards

I am still smiling thinking about it!  We are so happy for them.

We got home and still had time to watch a few fireworks in the neighborhood and do the countdown to the new year.  I wish we could have stayed, but we didn't want to keep the kids too long, and we wanted to get home before the drunk drivers were out.

HAPPY 2014!!!