Halloween 2011

We had a lot of fun this Halloween Season. For our first date post-Sasha we went to a few haunted houses with my sis and her hubby. Here we are with the crypt-keeper person. No idea if it was a man or a woman.l The best part was the giant guy in a tuxedo that followed my sister around saying, "Hi, Jess... You smell pretty." We had a blast!
We also visited the Spirit Store to get ideas for costumes. and got nothing, but the boys had a lot of fun trying on hats.



Kaleb really wanted to be a hockey goaley... or Jason. Let's hope it was a hockey goaley.

Here we are as a family at our truck-or-treat. See if you can guess what we all were:

Well I was "The Center of the Universe" and Sasha was "My Whole World."

Kaleb dressed up as Ammon and Ammon dressed up as himself... cuz people wouldn't know who Kaleb was otherwise.

Kaleb was the best candy-giver-out-er. He especially liked the unlimited access to the candy bowls and would casually grab handfuls and put them in his bucket!

Since I made Sasha's costume with a white onesie coloered with washable marker, I ended up with part of a map on my arm.

and Sasha got some on her chest as well.

On halloween night we went trick-or-treating at the mall with my sister and her kids. Here is Kaleb taking a break with a mini Snickers.

Kaleb learned very quickly how important the phrase "Trick or Treat" was. In fact, I don't think he knows that this holiday is called Halloween. It's called "Trickortreats" to him. Anyway, here is a video we got with the kids visiting See's Candy .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02H5c-uGCzU

Oh, so tired!!

Washing the face away. Our truck or treat was Saturday night, so I had to scrub Kaleb's face pretty hard to get the marker off for Sunday. But I barely tried Halloween night cuz we weren't goin anywhere the next day!

And of course, the purpose of it all: CANDY!! Kaleb's favorites seem to be Sweettarts andf Smarties (cuz they look like medicine...?) and suckers. Between the Trunk or Treat and the mall, Kaleb ended up with a full bucket! It was soooo worth it!!

Kaleb-29 months

Kaleb is just shy of 29 months and continues to be such a blast for us. Some of his favorite things include tractors, trains and trucks. Plus he loves hi puzzles, though we have had to cut back on them since he would leave several 25-piece groups all over the house.

Recently we cleaned out our coin jar and gave all the pennies to Kaleb. He got a HUGE kick out of it... until he realized we weren't giving him the nickels, dimes and quarters... it was an opportunity to teach about sharing.
Pretend is also a fun new activity for Kaleb over the last few months. Kaleb took a liking to having a bucket or bag with him to carry his things, including a twisted up slinky, a broken cell phone and a torn-up foam hammer... ya know, the important stuff. To Ammon's shame, his favorite carryall is one of my old purses.

Anytime Kaleb has had any item of clothing removed he is "NAKED!!" and will shout it around the whole house. After showers/baths is particularly fun since he gets to run around in a towel.

With potty training in his near future, we have been trying to encourage Kaleb to put on/take off his clothing. Sometimes it is more effort than it's worth to correct whatever mayhem he has created, but sometimes it just reminds me how cute Kaleb is!!

Along with his pretending is his desire to project certain things on his toys. Now that Mommy has baby to 'play with' he likes to make sure he has someone to take care of. Usually it is his blue bear or his toy baby. Here he has sat bear down for lunch.

As for baby, the other day I was feeding Sasha, so he had to feed his baby... bologna. I caught some of it on video. At first he was lifting up his shirt to feed baby (for better or worse I didn't get that on video), but eventually he resorted to the bologna.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeY55ksp4RI

Mr. Potato Head's Eyes... for those who have seen Toy Story 3, this is that much funnier.

The cold snap a few weeks ago brought us back to the park. I LOVE living s close to a park!!!

Unfortunately for Kaleb, Mommy forgot that just because it's cool doesn't mean we shouldn't wear sunscreen. After three days at the park, Kaleb got quite a pink hue!

It has become VERY evident that Kaleb prefers to be a follower at this stage in his life. In some ways that can be a good thing because he is always fairly well behaved toward other kids. However, this also means Kaleb does anything the other kids do, whether it's against the rules or not... which drives me crazy sometimes.

Sometimes Kaleb's following can be awfully entertaining as well. On day at the park, he just wanted to follow his cousin Ellie around. She runs a lot faster than him (being one year older and the daughter of a marathon-runner), so just imagine the wolf from Disney's Sword and the Stone and you'll get the basic idea. Ellie running yards ahead, Kaleb puffing behind, barely reaching her before she would run off again. My poor little chubby boy!!

Kaleb loves his baby sister and always wants to hold her and touch her and play with her. He is the best helper and I couldn't ask for a better big brother for our little Sasha. She loves him too, always smiling and watching him whenever he is around.

He has also learned that the easiest way to hold baby is with the boppy!

Sasha-7 Weeks old

I have been a slacker about posting anything about little Sasha's first few weeks of life, so here we go. Kinda in a hurry, so I will do my best to keep this brief.

SLEEPING:
The hardest part about raising Sasha so far has been her pickiness during sleep. She didn't like to be swaddled from the beginning. She woud just scream and squirm. If she did fall asleep while swaddled, she would still squirm out (Sasha is anythig but the 'Sleep like a baby" type. Her arms flail and she makes a lot of little noises. Cute, but a little unnerving for the first few weeks. )
Since Kaleb had serious spitting-up problems and our two most recent nieces were diagnosed with acid reflux, we were a little wary for our little Sasha. Her doc suggested keeping her propped up a little while sleeping, so I came up with this little nest in her crib. So far it seems to be working great.

Another issue with Sasha's sleeping was her distate for anything slightly chilly. She didn't like breezes while she was sleeping which made it difficult for her to sleep in our room the first few weeks since I am a fan-a-holic. We had to make a fort-type cover on her playpen. Plus, we resorted to using a hotpad to preheat her bed at night since she seemed to hate sleeping at night (we assumed due to the cold). Thankfully it has worked. She consistently sleeps 5-6 hours every night and occasionally goes for 7.

One God-send is the swing Ammon's brother and his wife let us borrow. She will fall asleep almost instantly (as long as she isn't starving), so it has been really nice as a last resort when she just doesn't seem to want to settle down.

HANDS: I've already commented on Sasha's super-long fingers and finger nails. But one great thing is how quickly she has learned to use them... or not use them. Within her first week, Sasha almost never scratched herself. Thank goodness cuz her nails grow like weeds!!

DADDY: Ammon has SOOO looked forward to having a little girl! I get pictures of him with her ALLL the time... but none with me. Go figure.

Anyway, This is when she wore her first dress.

Daddy coming home from work:

And sleeping together at church:

FIRSTS: Of course the first month is filled with many firsts, like her first bath (delayed a bit by a belly button that just wouldn't heal):

Her first time to the park (obviously very exciting):

Her first real smile was the day before she was a month old. This picture was taken more recently. She has been really smiley over the last week or so.

EATING: I have been nursing Sasha as well as giving her formula since her second day, but unfortunately it took quite awhile to get her used to formula. Then, about her third week she started having horrible, noisy gas bubbles churning around in her stomach. Gas drops didn' seem to make a huge difference so the doctor suggested I lay off dairy and maybe try a new formula. So now I keep my milk intake to a minimum and we have her on a special gentle formula. That seems to do the trick, but it gives her really stinky poop. However, I'm really happy to say she hardly ever spits up, so our acid reflux fears seem to be in vain.

ONE MONTH: At her one-month appointment, Sasha weighed 9 lbs, 13 oz and had grown to 21.5 inches, both in the 75th percentile. I like to take comparison pictures in the same outfit so here Sasha is at 3 days old:

And here she is at one month in the same outfit:

I love it when babies cross their eyes!!

Just for laughs we put Sasha in Kaleb's Size 6 diapers:

Blowing bubbles. A new hobby as of week 6.

Sasha can already stand up without help, and she loves to use those cute little legs of hers!!

KALEB: He is the best bigger brother I could ever ask for. He loves the baby (and I will go into more detail in his post. Here is a picture of his first attempt at holding her.

Just for fun, I did a random little photo shoot of my own while Sasha was asleep the other day! We did the wedding ring thing with Kaleb, so I decided "WHY NOT?"

Photo Shoot

When Sasha was about three weeks old, a friend of mine came over to do a little photo shoot with my adorable little munchkins. It was a learning experience for me: Firstly, do photo shoots either after five weeks or before two weeks because you want the baby really sleepy or happy awake, not cranky awake like she was at three weeks. Then again, Sasha isn't the best sleeper, so that didn't help. See a later post about Sasha's first month.

Also, one of the few ways to get Kaleb to sit for a 'stranger' for pictures is to let him have his bear with him and to jump off the furniture:
I also learned that day that Kaleb has a great little fake smile. I would say "Teeth" and this is what he gave us. Not too shabby for a two year old!

HOLY SMOKES THIS KID IS SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!!!!!

OF course, cuddling with the bear!

And with his baby Sasha:

Finally, Kaleb let us take some pictures of Sasha.

This is what I call 'The Lindsey Face'

SOOOOO Beautiful!!

That's right! It's a tutu! The photographer actually made that for her for the photo shoot. Sasha wasn't a huge fan, but it was so CUTE!!

This is the way I see her most often.

And of course, snuggling with the bear!

Thanks, Julie!!!