Grrr....

Vaughn is in the stage where if she's not touching me, she's screaming. 

She follows me around and grabs ahold of my clothes. It's hard to get things done with a 27 pound child loosely attached to you. Specially if she's crying to be picked up. To make things even better Daisy follows Vaughn around, looking for stray food and sticky fingers to lick. We're a sad 3 person/dog choo-choo train.

Vance was a good shopper. He was easily amused, never threw fits, just sat in the cart or stroller and played with the toys I brought along. Vaughn is the opposite. She doesn't want any toy that I bring for her. She chews on the shopping cart. She tries to get out if she's not buckled in. And it's a good thing that our stroller has the 5 point harness thing. Running errands with her is a pain.   

I'm writing this because I'm supposed to be grocery shopping right now. Getting stuff done while Vance is in school. But Vaughn was cranky and already crying as I was backing out of the garage. I don't feel like battling her today.

I got used to Vance being older and not requiring as much stuff. I loved being able to run out of the house without a ginormous diaper bag strapped to my back. No diapers, no toys, no snacks, no sippy cups. As I was trying to rush and get ready to leave the house yesterday morning it hit me that I didn't have snacks or a drink packed for Vaughn. And did I have an extra diaper? Was there enough wipes in case she had a blowout at the Butterfly House? Crap, I'm not used to this mode of thinking! 

I'm just annoyed with everything today. I'm blaming the rain.

Birthday Conclusion

Birthday Update!

After Vance went to bed last night, Justin and I snuck some balloons into his bedroom to surprise him in the morning. He loves them. What kid doesn't like balloons?

I took Vance and Vaughn to the Butterfly House this morning. Click on the picture to enlarge it and look above Vance's head...I actually caught a huge blue butterfly in the shot. Didn't know I did that until I downloaded it. He was flapping his arms like a butterfly in this shot. 

We played on the playground afterwards. The playground surface is rubber, so it was perfect for Vaughn to play on. The kids had a great time and I'll definitely take them back. Such a nice playground!

Vaughn is down for a nap, Vance is sitting next to me playing Mario Kart. We're getting ready to head downstairs and watch a movie. 

Justin and I are planning on taking the kids to the pool for dinner and swimming tonight, so hopefully the rain goes away. If it's still yucky out, maybe just pizza "picnic style" in the family room with a movie or more Wii. We'll see!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for Vance. He's having a blast today and is looking forward to blowing out candles tonight. Can't believe there will be 4 of them! 

Happy Birthday Vance!

At 2:04 pm today Vance officially turns 4 years old. 

All his baby pictures are on my old computer, so here's a favorite of mine.

Lots planned to do today!

Like I traveled to India myself

While in India, even with being extra careful about what he ate, Justin picked up a stomach bug. He was given a prescription by the doctor before he left just in case something like this happened. Good thing he had a couple pills left over. 

Turns out you don't have to travel to a far away land to pick up a parasite. 

I'm guessing I picked up my little buddy while in Wisconsin or on the trip home last weekend.

I don't know for sure, but I'm the only person who got sick. I thought it was just a stomachache, probably from eating foods that I'm not used to while traveling. It started last Sunday and got progressively more evil throughout the week. Friday morning I took one of Justin's pills that he had left over and made myself a doctors appointment. I walked out of the office with my very own prescription. A great way to start the Memorial Day weekend. 

Justin had to take Friday off so that I could go to the doctor. He's been doing extra stuff with the kids, even taking them to the pool by himself. He's been great and I really appreciate it! I'm a lucky girl! 

Yes, a lucky girl even with a parasite, or bacteria, or whatever you'd like to call it. 

Vance and I talked about broken arms last night. After he woke up this morning (Way too early, again...), he scratched his arm on a toy and was convinced his arm was broken too. 

Vaughn is going through something new. She doesn't want to go to bed at night. (Background info: We never have to rock her. Can put her in her bed awake and she goes to Dreamland on her own. We've been lucky that both kids have been easy at bedtime.) For the past two nights we've been totally confused. We haven't done anything different at bed time, she's clearly tired, but she just screams and screams. Last night she woke Vance up twice because she was crying so loud. Not little whimpers or cries, but hyperventilating screams. We try rocking her to calm her down, nothing. We've been bringing her back downstairs and she plays happily for hours. She was up until after 10:00 last night. She's working on a new tooth, and I've been giving her medicine for that pain, but no fevers or any other sign of sickness. Maybe she's ready to drop her morning nap? Getting too much sleep throughout the day? I don't know, but she's sucking the air out of my Me Time at night.

Totally not related, but whose allergies where awful yesterday? We all suffered around here.

Black Bean Salad

(Picture credit to simplyrecipes.com)

I made this Black Bean Salad last night. It was fantastic. Here's the recipe - totally stolen from simplyrecipes.com 

Black Bean Salad Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, thoroughly rinsed, and drained (or 1 1/2 cup of freshly cooked black beans)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn, defrosted (or fresh corn, parboiled, drained and cooled)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions or shallots
• 2 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced, or 1 whole pickled jalapeño pepper, minced (not seeded)
• 3 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
• 2 Tbsp lime juice (about the amount of juice from one lime)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar (to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Make sure to rinse and drain the beans, if you are using canned beans.

In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, onions, jalapeno chile peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, basil, lime juice and olive oil. Add sugar and salt and pepper to taste. (The sugar will help balance the acidity from the tomatoes and lime juice.) Chill before serving.

Serves 6 to 8.

I used shallots instead of green onions and only a 1/4 of one jalapeno because the kids were going to be eating it. Definitely chill before serving.

3 Words

This was all my memory card would allow. Too bad, cause he kept going and going and going...

Downward Doggies

Vaughn has been taking more and more steps everyday. It's been exciting to see how much better she gets every single day. Maybe today will be the day that she takes off!

She's also been doing more bear crawling, instead of normal baby crawling. She then takes a rest by putting her head on the floor. Since this is a new perspective for her, she's been doing it all the time. It's so funny to walk into her room and see her this way in her crib. She kept doing it last night, so Vance decided to do it with her, and I grabbed my camera and this awkward shot was the best I could get. 

Weekend Update!

We packed up the kiddos and headed back to Wisconsin for the weekend. We pulled into our hotel around 11:oo pm on Thursday night and our sincerest apologies go out to our surrounding rooms. Vance was over excited (loud) and Vaughnie was over tired (crying). Took them only an hour or so, but they finally quieted down. 

Although the weather was chilly and windy we had a great time seeing friends. 

And we drove past our old house and it hurt. 

And we stocked up on cheese.

And Vaughn's lower right canine tooth poked through.

And we rolled over 100,00 miles on our trip back.

Harvest Time

Our first strawberries were ready to pick yesterday. This brought the crankiness out of Mr. Vance...and a big ol' nap. 

On a side note, how did everyone sleep last night? Rough night for us around here. Not sure what Vaughnie's problem was and Vance was scared of the storms. Busy day today. Lots to do, lots to do.

Haircut Wednesday

Vaughn got the shaft again today: We took her to Great Clips for her first haircut and I forgot to save a clipping of her hair for her baby book. 

Funny how things are so different with kid number 2. Vance's first haircut was a thought out plan. We were still living in Wisconsin at the time, but we waited until we were back in Illinois to have it cut by the man who cuts my dad's hair and also gave Jack (our nephew) his first haircut too. We took pictures, saved hair, received a cute certificate, and even saved the receipt from the transaction. 

Vaughn needed a haircut. I attempted to make an appointment at the cutesy kids place in the Chesterfield Valley, but found out that location was closed. We were on our way to pick up Justin at work, needed a place close to the Valley, and of course were in a hurry because we had other stops to make. 

Vaughn was great during the haircut. At Great Clips, you never know what kind of experience you're going to have, but I think we lucked out. The lady was nice and took her time with Vaughn. It wasn't until we were in the car and backing out until I remembered about keeping some of her hair. Running back is wasn't an option. The hair was already swept up and into a pile. Will have to save some from her second appointment! That's if someone reminds me! 

Here Vaughn is modeling a hand me down from Ryan.

I'm looking forward to pig tails.

 

Oh, and Cranky Pants got his hair cut too. 

Snack Ball

Here's Vaughn stealing a snack. I love Boon products, but the Snack Ball irritates me. If it's dropped the orange sliding lid comes open and BAM! Cheerios everywhere. So now, I use the Snack Ball to transport snacks, then pour the snacks into the Snack Trap. Vaughn can hold onto that better, which means less time for me picking Cheerios off the floors of stores that we visit. (That's too many times to use the word 'snack'.) 

I'm requesting your nuggets of information. Info that may seem like common sense to you. Here's an example, "If it's raining and lighting outside there's no swimming in the indoor pool". That would have been a good one to know. 

I headed out last Friday for Vance's swim lessons. He didn't want to go, I didn't want to go, and Vaughn didn't want to be woken up from her nap to go. But, we must! We trudge out, in the rain, running late, and hitting every red light. We get there, still pouring down rain, and I'm soaked from getting Vaughn in her stroller, getting Vance out of the car, and running into the building. That's where I'm told that all swim lessons have been cancelled. Grrr... So, turn around, back out into the rain where I get even more soaked getting the kids into the car. 

So, what else do I need to know? Anyone have any good ones? 

1 year Doctor Appt.

Sorry for leaving you hanging...

Our (not so) little lady weighed in at a few ounces shy of 27 lbs. That puts her off the percentile charts for weight. She measured 30 inches long, which is around 80th percentile (I think). So, her vertical growth has slowed a bit. (Her last check up she was 97th percentile for height.) Hopefully, her horizontal growth will now slow down. If not, well, we'll have a blueberry for a daughter.   

The doctor told me that it is now suggested to leave car seats in the rear facing position until 2 years old. We had already switched her to forward facing a day before her birthday and doubt that we'll change her back. (The law is 20 lbs. and 1 year old to sit facing forward.) What's everyone else doing?   

Ole

Over the past two days Vaughn has eaten what I would call an unnatural amount of Spanish rice.   

Doctor appointment (first time seeing the new doctor) today for her 12 month appointment. Anxious to see what she's weighing and how tall she is. I'll report back with results. 

One Little Lady

I started a post about Vaughn's first year and it was becoming too long, too boring for anyone other than her parents, and more for a page in her baby book. 

So, what to say about Vaughn?

Vaughn is One and she's fantastic. She's beautiful, silly, smart, and absolutely adores her big brother. She's everything that we could have hoped for. We couldn't be luckier. 

(These pics are from month 11. I love the bottom one, but it kills me that she has that nasty bib on. Grrr...)

Vaughn is One

No time for words yet. Just a couple of pictures of the birthday girlie. 

Happy Vaughnie Day

Here I am exactly one year ago, almost to the hour. The second after this picture was taken Justin and I kissed Vance goodbye and headed to the hospital.