We've had a lot of fun this past month and have really been enjoying some nice weather! Here are some pictures taken at the Rose Garden during one of our first glimpses of spring...
Catch me if you can!
Learning to walk up stairs:
Not too many roses at the Rose Garden this time of year:
But, we did manage to find a few:
Shaylie wanted to taste the rose instead of smell it:
Hiking from Washington Park to the Rose Garden:
This past month we've been fortunate to have a few visitors. Grandma Dawn came up for a long weekend as well as Aunt Kolleen and Cousin Aralia a few weeks later!
We LOVE our Grandma so much!!
We miss you and can't wait for your next visit!
Cousin Ray Ray is so much fun!
Not to mention absolutely adorable, too :)
She is also one smart little cookie! She has always been very advanced with her vocabulary and I think she was a big reason that Shaylie started talking more lately (see below for more details). She even taught me what a pomelo is, no joke! I had never heard of it. She told me she wanted one for a snack and I thought she was making it up until she started describing it :) I learn something new everyday.
Who doesn't like to hang out in a diaper box?!
Peek-a-boo:
Magician in the making:
Everyone was sad to see them go, including Sydney who didn't stop harassing Aralia the entire time she was here (from the looks of this picture, though, I don't think Aralia had any problem making sure Sydney knew who was boss :)
This is one of the only pictures I got with Aunt Kolleen:
We love you, Kolleenie and Ray Ray!! Thanks so much for making the long drive to come visit, it makes us feel so special! Come back soon :)
We love you, Kolleenie and Ray Ray!! Thanks so much for making the long drive to come visit, it makes us feel so special! Come back soon :)
We've also been able to spend some more time with Aunt Rachael and Cousin Gracie this past month, which has been a lot of fun. Tyce and Shay Shay loved this old toy of Gracie's so much that she let us borrow it for a while :)
Gracie is SO SO sweet with her cousins!
Tycen relaxing in the lazy boy chair. One of his new favorite activities is climbing onto this chair so he can reach the light switch and turn on/off the lights in the family room.
Here are some of the last pictures I took of Tycen and Shaylie in their superyard (aka. baby cage or jail). It was definitely a great thing while it lasted to keep them safe yet still entertained, but it became evident that they were getting too big and quickly out-growing this space in the family room. So, we took down the enclosed area and put a small section of it around the t.v. (which was part of the reason we had it in the first place, so they wouldn't knock our massive t.v. over on top of themselves). This means they have the entire family room/kitchen area to roam around, which we all love! They also still have their enclosed play room in the living room and the entire up-stairs is all baby-proofed, too.
Shaylie Bunny:
Tycen likes the bunny ears, too:
Out to dinner at BJs in Portland:
Tycen likes the bunny ears, too:
Shaylie's first flowers, white tulips, given to her by her Daddy (he got me pink ones) ...isn't he thoughtful?! :)
Out to dinner at BJs in Portland:
Living so close to the Portland and Vancouver Airports, we see planes flying ALL the time. Tycen's room is an airplane theme and our kids always point out the planes they see in the sky. We thought it'd be fun to take them down to the airport to watch the planes take off:
We parked right along the runway and had front-row seats :)
Tycen is our little monkey. I'd say his favorite activity right now is climbing as it seems he is always looking for something to climb in or on.
Shaylie is our little sweet pea. She is a people-pleaser at heart and is such a good listener these days. She also still loves to cuddle :)
With all this nice weather, we've been able to do lots and lots of playing at the park:
At the park, they are now able to go up the stairs and down the small slide with little to no help (we are always close by, though, because I'm still not so sure they wouldn't attempt to step off the 5-foot ledge at the top of the slide). They are getting better and better at walking up stairs (vs. crawling) and can do so with one to two hand-hold support. I've been working with them on walking down stairs, too, but they are still safest to go down backwards on their tummies by themselves.
Shaylie has really started to talk a lot in the last couple of weeks. As I mentioned before, I think it started quickly after Cousin Ray Ray visited. I can't even begin to guess how many words she is saying at this point because she will often catch us off guard with some of the words she says. A few that come to mind are flower, plane, ball, food, shoe and Sydney.
Tycen isn't quite where Shaylie is at, but it seemed like one day it just all of the sudden clicked with her, so I'm guessing the same might be true for Tycen before too long. He can say about 10 words now (but doesn't finish the entire word, for example "tr" for tree, "dow" for down, "Sha" for Shaylie, etc). His favorite sound now is "ga" and "ca", which he likes to say when he points to most things. Thankfully, they are able to communicate quite well with signs and are both using about the same number of signs as last month (~35-40), which is mainly my fault because I haven't yet learned any new signs to teach them.
I transitioned both kids from two naps per day to one nap per day a couple of weeks ago. They have been adjusting quite well and will now usually take a 2 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon. This gives us a little more freedom in the mornings to get out of the house before lunchtime, which has been fun and also challenging at times. As you could imagine, nursing two babies, feeding them breakfast, changing their diapers 1-2 times each, getting dressed and ready for the day (brushing teeth, hair, etc), and trying to clean up their continuous messes that follow them around like a shadow can be quite difficult when in a hurry to get out the door! Oh, yeah... and I also have to fit in getting myself ready (lets just say I'm lucky to get a morning shower!).
I have been slowly weaning our kids off nursing. I always knew that I'd nurse them at least through cold and flu season this year and possibly up until around age 2 (especially since they are on a selective vaccination schedule). I stopped pumping at the first of the year and was still nursing them 4 times per day. I went down to 3 times per day in mid-February (morning, lunch and after dinner) and then down to twice per day (morning and after dinner) after their 18 month birthday. They are still getting 2 sippie cups of whole milk per day, too.
Our kids continue to be pretty good eaters. Their appetites have slowed down a bit, as I think is normal for toddlers. They are still really good about eating veggies and most fruit and are getting better with bread and noodles. They are also a little bit better about eating foods the first time they try them and have started eating more soups (lentil, split pea, tomato), dips (these are probably some of their top favorite foods: black bean, hummus, tofu pate) and fresh fruit that isn't pureed (watermelon, blueberries, kiwi). They still aren't very fond of cheese, chicken or fish unless it's pureed and mixed with other foods (like fruit or veggies). I continue to present them with these foods, though, in hopes that one day they will start to eat more and more without it having to be pureed. The good news is that they are getting really good with fork feeding themselves (rarely need help) and much better with spoon feeding, too.
We love you so much, Tyce and Shay. More than you will ever know. We look forward to what each new day brings with you in our lives!
