Time For An Update

So, apparently this blog does have readers! Thanks to those who have left comments. Much appreciated to know you are out there.

Alright, an update on the family:

Kayden is becoming quite the character as his personality continues to bloom. These are a few his latest talents and findings: shaking is head when told, "no"; Clapping for himself or when he sees/hears it on TV, got his first pair of walking shoes and has taken one step on his own this week (I don't understand why the kid won't walk, he has been able to for months!), he loves to push Keilana's ride on toy that is the video below, got his one year pictures taken this week, has added more sounds to his vocab and is trying to sign "all done" by shaking his hands. He doesn't yell for food as much but more or less makes an mmmm sound very loudly or will say, "ah, ah, ah". He loves to climb on things and is trying to get IN things, love to throw (doesn't matter what), enjoys a good cuddle and still is a BIG time fan of sucking his thumb. I have been taping them during the day with first aid tape and giving them to him only at night. This method works great and MOST of the time he isn't able to get the tape off but he does get frustrated when he wants to suck them in the car or relax during the day. Kayden is hillarious when he eats, not to mention he can eat out me and keilana any day. I tell the kid can mow over some food, he's usually the last one eating at the dinner table. And desserts, wow. He'll shove his mouth full of dessert--which, I can't blame him, but it's funny to see a one year old show much fondess for sweets and bite off big chunks at one time. I wish he would do that when it came to vegetables.

Keilana is stepping into some uncharted territory of "I Want It!" and throwing temper tantrums, crossing her arms, scowling at me, and stomping off if she doesn't get her way. When she watches TV, she'll now say, "Look Mama, I want that" or if she does have it, "Hey! I have that". The girl still is attached to Day-Day (her baby), loves to read books, continues to dispise sleeping, feels she is deprived of TV if she doesn't watch at least 3 episodes of whatever and adores her favorite pink dress (i'll have to take and post a picture of her in it). She is still a good help with Kayden and takes care of him, but I can start to pick up on a little sybling rivalry when she doesn't want him to have her stuff. That's okay though, it's healthy. Keilana is very good to reason with, and her temper can be killed with kindness! Sometimes it takes a little longer but perseverence pays off. She is GREAT in the stores, occassionally she'll need to be reminded of consequences and she even got a compliment from the checkout lady yesterday.

Yesterday we had a busy day, trying to prepare for Easter, and she went with only sparatic 15-20 minutes naps in the car. At the end of the day, and many requests for fun things she saw along the way, I gave in and bought her a small, cute, Easter basket that she had carried with her the whole time in the store. I told her it was for being such a good girl in the store, and that I appreicated it very much. I didn't mind either because it was 50% off! Definitely the least expensive thing that she had asked for all day.

Jon has been out of town, and it's been great to be able to have the car to myself and go and do as I please. It is so depressing being stuck in the house every day! I've done really well with both kids on my own too. My patience has held out pretty darn well considering I'm not a patient person. I've worked hard on aquiring more after having children. Anyway, he's in Tampa right now and will be home after tomorrow.

On Tuesday we went to see the Easter bunny. These are suppose to be fun times for children, right? All smiles and laughs that they get to see the creature that "brings" them goodies in the baskets. Likewise, with Santa and his sleigh full of presents for girls and boys. Yeah, RIGHT! Not for Miss Lana. This is torment to see them let alone take a picture with them. I talked to her for a whole day and the night before about taking her picture with the Easter Bunny, I even went and bought cookies for a bribe. I guess she had pumped herself up this whole time but when it came down to the time of actually getting near Peter Cotton Tail...no way, no flippin way. In her moment of torture she screamed at me, "I wanna get a time out". I just laughed...it was THIS bad folks. Needless to say, she didn't get a cookie. Kayden did great though, he smiled and took a very cute picture.

This past weekend we decided to do something different. We used some of Jon's hotel points and booked a Hilton hotel 15 minutes away in Kennesaw to stay the night. We had planned on swimming when we got there but it was storming really bad and half of the pool is inside and half is outside. We didn't want to take a chance with half of the pool being outside and lightening maybe striking. It wasn't until the next morning that we would find out just how bad those storms were as we watched the weather and saw that a tornado had destroyed parts of downtown Atlanta.

Anyway, It took the kids 2 hours to fall asleep and Keilana wanted to sleep in the sofa chair instead of with us in bed. Once we all fell asleep we were all out like a light! The next morning we enjoyed a complimentary breakfast that comes with Jon's status at the hotel (Thank You Coke!). Afterwards we went swimming and the kids had a great time with that. Came back, cleaned up and then off we went to watch Horton Hears A Who. Jon said the reviews weren't positive stating it had a bad screenplay (?) but I don't see why, it was so cute! What more can you do with a movie that is based upon a book?! I liked it, however, there was one part that added a japanamation/puff girls kung fu scene that was really lame. They could have done without that but still, I would purchase the movie. It was at this time in the theatre that we had really bad storms, and tornados. The movie was stopped for a little while and we were warned that there was a tornado warning nearby. Some people left, but Jon and I knew we would be fine where we were. They were further north any way. Here are a few pictures of our weekend.