She's on a roll!

Siena rolled over this morning! She started out on her tummy and rolled to her back. So of course I run to get the video camera and I put her back on her tummy. She rolls on to her back again and then decides to keep on going and rolls back to her tummy! What a huge milestone for the little peanut. I check Cole's stats and he was also 24 weeks when he rolled from back to tummy which is the harder of the two. Good job squishy!

In other new, she has gotten even cuter than she was yesterday. Is that possible?

Mama, cam-rah

An hour after I put Cole down for his nap I hear him calling for me "Mama, cam-rah" (camera). So of course I grab the camera and head to his room. Usually if he is still awake after an hour he has pooped and the last thing I want to deal with is poop outside of the diaper. I get to his door and I can hear him running to his bed as to not be caught out of it. I open the door and he says "Num Num, mama" and points to his bed. This is what I see:

Apparently the rubber lizards got hungry.

When we didn't have kids

Before Cole came along, Onyx was the princess. She went every where with us including the pool. She is water crazy as most of you know from her 4th of July lake extravaganza. Well we would take her in the pool with us and toss her around. She loved it.

Does she look happy or what????

Mike was always tossing Onyx in the air. She loved it!

But now with kids, Onyx doesn't get to come in the pool.

But be careful and always keep your eyes open for a flying back ball of fur to cannonball near you. She has been known to scale the wall of the pool and get in.

Cole learning to swim with dad.

Kicking away!

A 6 month update on cloth diapering

6 months almost to the day, have gone by since we started cloth diapers. I can say 100% that I am totally happy with the decision to switch to cloth. We still have disposables for the day care (they go occasionally) and random trips but 98% of the time they are in cloth. The only blow outs we have had with Siena have been in disposables. Just the other day I had her in a disposable because I was stripping the diapers ( i do that once a month) and I went into the room to get a new diapers and when I came back she had some how wiggled around enough that the poop had shot up her back and into her hair. So gross!

The extra 2 minutes it takes to wash the diapers right after they come off the kids, before putting them in the laundry room really isn't noticeable any more. I am hang drying them so the extra power isn't being used and the dryer isn't heating up the house. The every other day of washing the diapers really doesn't bother me. They come out of the machine perfectly clean every time. I think the only part that gets us behind is the stuffing of the diapers. We decided to do it before hand that way they are ready to use at a moments notice rather than stuffing one when we need it. So some times that extra 5 minutes can make or break us.

The diapers have already paid for them selves and I would recommend to any one even thinking about cloth diapering to give it a chance.

Ready, Set, Jump

Cole spent a good hour doing this. We call it his calm down time before bed time.

Afternoon Trip to Sugar Pine

Yesterday afternoon we decided to take a little road trip up to Sugar Pine Reservoir. A friend that I had not seen in about a year was camping up there so we thought we'd drive up and surprise them.

I learned that you must always double check any type of online directions before heading out on a new adventure. Google maps sent us down an four wheeling road to get to the reservoir. Of course it was fun since we have the most awesome vehicle for 4 -wheeling (X-terra) but a little bit unexpected.

All along the dirt road were these GIANT "wishies". I have no clue what they are really called. By giant I mean like 4 inches in diameter. I have seen "Horton hears a who" about 15 times this past week and all it's all I could think about driving by these "wishies".
Finally! A paved road!

The view of the reservoir from the dam.

We decided to take Iowa Hill Rd. home since it was closer to use than going back into Foresthill. It was a long road but it was paved. Neither of us had been on that road before.
I think I may have found the only sunflower in Iowa Hill. The sun was shining perfectly on it.

The "two" lane road. This is what the road is like the entire 15 miles. And yes it drops straight down into the American River on the right side of this photo.
At the base of the road. The American River and the old Iowa Hill bridge.

The road we took the picture of the car on. Overall it was fun adventure. The kids were as well behaved as one would expect on a 2 1/2 hours road trip with little running around. We never found our friends which was a bummer but we had fun trying.

The mirror

Cole introduced Siena to the mirror. Boy was she enjoying that. I love how sweet Cole was being with her (for about 5 minutes). Helps me gear up for the following not so sweet moments that are right around the corner.

Week of words

People weren't kidding when they said "once a kid starts talking it all comes pouring out". Cole is on a roll this week. He has finally started calling Onyx by her name "on-ah" and every time we get home from the park and she is not with us he instantly starts calling for her. Siena's name has gone from "go ga" to "she she", "baby", or "sista baby". He is always saying "gamma" and "gampa" (grandma and grandpa). He has learned his alphabet and will attempt to recite it if you ask him to. He gets to "c" before looking for help. He is also counting but his favorite numbers are "two" and "one" and he usually says them in that order. He tells us we are home when we pull up the driveway. He also grabs lunch meat out of the fridge and yells "Ham!". Of course "no" and "shoe-er" are still his most used words.

If he is in a really good mood he will pretty much say anything you ask him too. Our favorite this week is pistachio (ta-seee-oooo).

He also loves to describe things to us. Every time it starts out with "it's ......" So if he wants to tell you Onyx barked he says "it's woooo woooo". His all time favorite of the week is finding his fake lizard, holding it up in the air and saying "mama, ahhhh ahhhh". He is referring to the air borne lizard attack two weekends ago. Mike swears he did not teach Cole to do that. Some times Cole takes us into the bedroom where it happened for better dramatic affect. He points to the blinds and imitates me.

Cole told me exactly what he wanted for lunch today. He called to me while I was bringing Siena in from the car. He said "Mama, humm-is" (hummus) and then once I had that on his plate he ran to the fridge and said "cheese" and pointed to the container of shaved parmesan cheese. He certainly has strong tastes.

Goodbye Swing

It's time to say good bye to the swing. You've been a great friend when I needed you. You kept my babies happy when they needed to sleep and refused to sleep in the crib.

Cole has enjoyed you more than ever. In fact I think he has used you more since Siena arrived than he did when he was little.

But when I leave the room to change Cole's diaper and my sweet, precious little girl looks like this.

And then I hear a blood curdling scream. I run into the room thinking the worst (coyote got my baby or a bee stung her). I get in to the room and find this. No baby in the swing. I finally look
down and find her on the floor. She was buckeled in but she would have needed a harness to keep her from falling out the way she did. I blame her non stop moving legs. If she would for on sec not be kicking everything in site then this would not have happened. I think she must have pushed her self out buy using the tray as leverage.

**this was a reenactment. Notice the "look" on her face when she is in the swing. She is thinking, "Holy crap! I'm back in this thing that made me do a back flip".

I took her to the Dr. yesterday afternoon. Perfect exam. No head trauma. No concussion or broken ribs. She might have a slight bruise on her left eye brow. She weighs 13# 10oz. We are so lucky she flipped the way she did and didn't land on her head and break her neck. That rug is no softer than the hardwood floor underneath it.

Now I know (sorta) my ABC's

The alphabet as repeated by Cole.

A: aaaa

B: bee

C: see

D: deeeee

E: eeeee

F: cries

G: geeee

H: why

I: oh eye

J: Bee ya

K: ka

L: l

M: am

N: nnn-a

O: owe

P: please

Q: hi

R: rrr

S: shoes

T: tease

U: you

V: bee

W: double do

X: eye

Y: why

Z: why you or bee

He was watching super why on PBS this morning and they were jumping on the letters of the alphabet to get to the stars and I walked into the room and Cole was repeating each letter with the show and then he cheered when they got to "z".

HFL Company Picnic

Yesterday was the HFL (Mike's work) company picnic. Every year it is held at Pioneer Park in Nevada City. Like usual it was scorching hot and we were all sweating like we lived in the south.

Cole spent most of his time in the river. He made friends and one kid even made him a boat out of a cork, a pine needle and a leaf. Cole had fun floating it. I tried to get a picture but he would not hold still and I only had the point and shoot with me.

Future hiker
Every year Mike wins something in the raffle. I don't have that kind of luck. This year he won the best gift of all.

Cole was super excited about the win. "Oh wow! A baalllll". Now we have to keep Onyx away from it since she is on a ball eating spree. Last night she vomited up half a baseball (in chunks).

How to diaper a baby - by Cole

Every time Cole sees Siena naked he yells "poo!" and then runs to get a diaper.

Just another example of how he NEVER leaves her alone.

I have got to use this lens more often!

Naked tummy time

Since Siena is such a fan of naked time, I decided that maybe she would deal with tummy time better if she was naked. And it worked! She doesn't mind tummy time anymore.

Next milestone - sitting up. Will it happen before the big roll over? We will see. She certainly has the rolls for added support in sitting up where as in rolling over they might be a disadvantage.

Disclaimer: she was being monitored by Mike (that's who's getting the huge smile) and yes she fell over with in seconds.

A visit from a friend

A good friend that I have not seen in person in 12 years (wow!) came over today with her family on their way to Tahoe. The kids got to meet and that was a lot of fun since they are all very close in age. Cole and Natalie are 3 months apart (Cole's older) and Owen and Siena are 3 week apart (Owen's older).

Owen's ahead of the game on a few things including weight. This guy's 19 pounds! Siena is 13.
Aren't they just so cute.

I am so surprised we were actually able to get a picture of the four of them. Yes Cole's not looking up but I have plenty of him. And of course there are no pics of the mom's cuz that's what always happens.

It was great to see you Jac and I am so glad I was able to meet Roger and your beautiful kids!

Chores

I'm all about giving the kids chores as soon as they are old enough to handle them. Cole has reached the age where he is able to have one chore.

He gets to give Onyx her dinner (if you call 3 in the afternoon dinner, but that's when she likes to eat)

It's been really good for him. Ever since he has started his "chore" he has been A LOT nicer to Onyx. It's been at least a week since he has pulled her ears.