Sad La La

Poor La La. Jacie was helping me put clothes down the laundry shoot the other day. Usually, she finds a thing or two to throw down that shouldn’t go down. Last week it was Ryan’s toothbrush from his gym bag. This time, she tried to shove La La down. She stuck her in, closed the door and couldn’t get it back open. I first hear her whimpering, then I hear her crying. It got more frantic by the second. When I went to see what I could do to help, it looked like she was just trying to open the door. I took her tiny little hand and put it on the knob and pulled. To my surprise, there sat La La, looking sad and all alone. Jacie nabbed her right up and giggled with delight. Needless to say, La La has not seen the laundry shoot since. Although, I still get the occasional lotion bottle or toy down there. Remember the post about frantically searching for La La only to find her under the bathroom sink? We really need to find a duplicate La La...

Momma's helper

Jacie loves to help out around the house. Mostly, though, she undoes whatever I just did. I was sweeping the floor the other day, and she watched every step. Once I was done, she got the small broom and dustpan out of the closet and began sweeping up on her own. I just hope she is this eager to clean when she gets older!

Playland

This was Jacie’s first indoor playland experience. When I first put her down, she kind of walked around like she didn’t know what to do. She would flap her arms up and down as if to say “Now what? You put me down and now what am I supposed to do?” Eventually, she got the hang of it and had a great time.


Courtesy of Violet, she learned how to crawl threw the giant drink cup.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, we got together with some friends and had a BBQ. There were a lot of kids there, ages 1 month to 7 (I think). In fact, there were 12 kids and 8 adults. We had a really great time and had some awesome food. From the left: Jaymie (mom of Ivy, Violet, Oliver); Andrea (mom of Kaylan, Madeline); Erin (mom of Eddy, Annabelle, Isaac, Noelle); Rebecca (mom of Ryan, Zach and Katherine). Kids are Violet, Madeline, Noelle, Katherine, Jacie and the small piece of head is Kaylan.
This is of Jacie's first sucker. She loved it. By the way, isn't that little turtle the cutest thing ever? When I put this outfit on her, she pulled the turtle out of the pocket and gave it a big old kiss. I think she liked it.

Something in the hand, always!

Jacie has taken to carrying around one of her little baby washcloths where ever she goes in the house. I find them everywhere. I can’t keep up with them. Just as I think they are all put away, I will find another one. She gets them from the bottom drawer in the bathroom. I keep them in there as something to occupy her while I am drying my hair. It used to work well. He would take them all out, and then put them back in. Now, she goes into the bathroom when nobody else is in there, takes one out and carries it around. She uses it for various things, such as covering up the baby doll, or to put on her head. She just loves them! Should I get her into some type of therapy program for the wash cloth dependent?

Notice the washcloth sitting by her. She sits by the window all the time, just waiting to get out. While she waits, she has her most precious washcloth and La La. Nothing else needed, except an accasional cup of milk.

Post Wagon Ride

After the wagon ride, and after the chalk and bubbles, the little kids (and I'm sur ethe big ones, too, but they were in Ryan's charge) were filthy dirty! I decided to throw them in the tub together. This is Jacie's first tubby with someone else in the tub. I put Violet in first, then Jacie. When she first got in, she scooted all the way to the top and just stared at Violet as if to let her know she was invading her space. Eventually, she began to play nice and was up to her usual tub tricks.

As you may recall from a previous post, Jacie loves to put things on her head. This time, it was the number 7. It sayed there quite some in. In fact, I think she forgot that it was even on there!
Violet, not to be outdone, took that same number 7 and stuck it to her own head. Kids...I tell ya.

Babysitting

Ryan and I watched our friends kids the other night while they went out on a date. You have seen these kids before on the blog numerous times. You might even think they are the only friends we have! Not so…I just happen to have a camera when they are around. Anyway, back to the story. They came over on our yard work day. Thank goodness because they rescued me from pulling weeds, which I hate to do. Since it was such a nice afternoon, we decided to hang out outside for awhile. I got out the bubble blower mower, the regular bubbles and sidewalk chalk. We had a good time drawing and blowing.

This amazing picture was created by Ivy, age 6. In the picture you will see Ryan, me, Ivy and Oliver. Why the two little ones aren’t in there, I don’t know. They didn’t seem to care, though.
Looks like we need to pull up the cement and lay a new drive way, too. Add it to the list...

After the big kids went inside to play a little Wii with Ryan, the little kids went for a wagon ride around the block. Jacie did everything Violet did. She copied her every move. They were so cute, just jabbering away and pointing at birds and squirrels. About halfway around the block, Violet started shrieking over something she saw. What did Jacie do? Shriek. It was really pretty cute. After we went around once, I stopped at the house and got them each a cup of watered down V8 Fusion. They just sat there drinking and sucking away. Cute kids. I must say, Jacie sure loves Violet! She loves any kid that will play with her, but she mimics Violet the most.

Yard Work

We have a lot of yard work ahead of us this summer. And I mean a LOT! We need to build a new front walk way. We need to completely remove all of the mulch from the back part of our yard that is landscaped, plus the areas around the back of the house and redo it. I hate yard work, so this is a real chore. Worse, Jacie hates the grass. How are we gonna get this done? Well, we tried it the other night with Jacie walking around. It didn’t go over so well. If she stayed by the patio (which also needs to be covered with some sort of deck that I have yet to design), then she ate chipped cement and rocks. If she walked in the grass, she fell over and would lay there like an old lady and whimper until she was rescued by whichever parent was closest. I’ve tried to find her a sandbox that we could throw down, but no luck. Ryan might have to build one of those, too. However, our friends lent us their toddler play set and it rocks! Jacie is a pro at going down the slide, and plays on it pretty well. Only draw back is she loves the swing, and she hasn’t quite learned how to pump her legs yet, so we have to do a lot of pushing. Still, it gets us outdoors where there is a lot of yard work to do. I hate yard work. Did I already tell you that?
She doesn't want to touch the grass, so she hold her arms and legs up to avoid the prickly green stuff.


Here is the wonderful little play set. There is a small ladder on one side for her to climb up and a slide just her size to go down. On the inside there is a steering wheel that she loves to play with, too.

And now it begins...

These pictures may not look like much, but they are of one of the first tantrums Jacie threw. Yep. She started throwing them last week. Picture this: Sweet Baby Jacie, the innocent Baby Girl, the Precious not getting what she wants. The wailing starts, then she falls to the ground on her knees or bum. Next, she carefully, and I mean carefully, lays herself down on the floor and kicks her arms and legs while she screams. The first time, I thought 'Could this be real? Already?'. Sure enough, its real, and we have had many more since then. When its time for naps or to go to bed, I have her walk to her room. Sometimes I will have the most precious La La in my hands, or a cup of milk. If she thinks she needs to carry it back to the room, she will get down on her knees, throw her arms forward onto the step and begin screaming. What does the Mama do? Walk away. Eventually, she gives up and comes to where ever I am. She is usually still crying, but not real tears--just the fake ones. Crazy that its already happening.
Look sweet an innocent now, but when she does it for the first time at the mall, it might be a different story.

Tired Ones

Ryan and Jacie are still trying to catch up to the Eastern timezone. This is at 6:30 in the evening. I don't recall ever seeing Jacie sleep with her mouth open, and I have certainly never been able to carry her into the house still sleeping after hauling her out of the car. Both occured tonight. Poor kids.

More Idaho Trip

We took the chance to hit the Idaho Falls zoo-twice! The first time we went, it was Jacie and I with my sister and her daughter Faith. It must have been 50 degrees. My running shoes were in the trunk, so I had to wear my flip flops. Freezing!! Jacie loved it though. She musta said "whoah" or "wow" a hundred times. She loved all of it, but I think her favorite part was the Goldfish snack at the end of the trip. Above picture is Uncle Craig (Ryan's brother). He was a good sport and hung out with us the entire time we were in Idaho, and even suffered through the zoo, which seemed to bore him quite a lot. We love ya, Craiger!
Tunnel vision...Jacie loves the slide. She seems to be the kind of kid that likes fast and high moving rides. Thats good, because I love roller coasters. This shot is really a deja vu moment for me. I have a picture of the one of the kids I nannied in the same way--they are at the top of a tube slide. I called the shot tunnel vision.
She is trying to figure out how she can get up that giant step.

This goat (it is a goat, right?) was pretty patient, but a couple of times he was getting a little irritated. In the video he looks like he is getting ready to charge. Jacie loved it, though.

Family Picture. Jacie could care less.
As we were leaving the park, I spotted these little babies! I love baby animals, and there were so many baby ducks with this Mama. Not the best picture, but cute ducks none the less.

This double jogging stroller was at Nana's house and came in quite handy when we went to the zoo. Jacie and Kyler are not too far apart in age. Kyler was just a newborn when I broke the news that I was almost three months pregnant. It was pretty fun. I held him the entire weekend that Ryan's sister Lori and her boys were out to visit us with Nana. I didn't go on any rides, or do anything at all except hold Kyler--he was so tiny!! Good excuse to not have to do anything that might make me throw up. They couldn't figure out why I was such a fuddy-duddy that weekend. We finally broke the news the day they were leaving. Fun times!
Nana, Kristie, Craig, Kyler and Jacie. Looking at the monkeys. Sadly, one of the new baby monkeys fell and broke his leg the day before and died. Very sad.
Jacie loved the Flamingoes! In fact, the adorable little capris she is wearing at the zoo have flamingoes stitched into them. Way cute.
Have you ever seen a black swan? I haven't and thought this was was beautiful! The phrase "stop looking at me, swan" comes to mind.
We got there in time for the penguin feeding. We thought it would be so neat, but it wasn't really. The zoo keepers just give a fish to each penguin. Jacie seemed to not care so much

Finally, we are home and out of the car. The unpacking began. Three weeks of stuff to unlaod! Jacie decided she just HAD to help out. Such a helper, she was.

To everyone I missed getting pictures of, I'm so sorry! the camara was forgotten a lot of the time, especially the first week when we were sick. Better luck next time!

Last disclaimer: to anyone we did not get to see while in Idaho...so sorry! We did our best to get in as much as possible, but there is never enough time and someone (usually lots of someones) get missed. We love ya anyway!

Graduation Weekend and Idaho

Finally, graduation arrived! I don’t know how I pulled it off, but I somehow managed. One of my sisters, my brother, and my Mom made the trip out for the big day. We did a lot of shopping, eating and playing. It was such a freeing feeling to be done, but the weekend was so busy that I hardly felt relaxed. This being said, my family was really great all weekend, and helped out a LOT with stuff. We had a few friends over after graduation for a BBQ (no pictures for some reason), and Jacie managed to sneak past every single adult in the house and fall down the stairs. How in the world did that happen? When I got down the stairs to her, one of the boys was holding her down and looked up at me with the Deer-in-the-headlight-look and said “She just fell down here, I didn’t do anything. She just landed right here!” It was so funny, I almost laughed. Jacie was hysterical for quite some time, but she was mostly unharmed. I think that she must of started down the stairs the right way, but turned around to see the kids and toppled. She sure was freaked out and it took a good long time for her to go near the stairs again. The day after graduation, I drove with my brother (thanks, bro!!) to Idaho for three weeks of relaxation. So, still busy! However, it was really nice to pack a few books to read that I wanted to read, instead of had to read. We drove straight through—27 hours!! Jacie did really well. She only had three melt downs. All three were in the last leg of the trip and were related to her soggy and poopy pants. What a trip! Once we got to Idaho, Jacie and I came down with fever s that lasted for four days, and ended with serious congestion. What a way to begin a trip! We stayed with my brother for the first few days, them my sister in Burley, moved on to Boise for a week where Ryan joined us, and ended the trip in Idaho Falls. Jacie and I drove almost 5,500 miles in 3 weeks! I think I can safely say that long road trips are out for awhile. Cu-razy!!
The picture is blurry, but thought I would share it anyway. Thanks for coming out, Mom!
This is post ceremony. There were two really great speakers that day. However, the passing of the diploma tube was pretty long. Thank goodness for cell phones that can send text messages. Ryan and I communicated quite a lot that day.
Who ever created the hat was a weird person. Why that shape and style?This little picture of the kayak is Jacie and her cousin Allison. She wasn’t real excited about the kayak.Among other things, we had a BBQ with Grandpa, or Papa as Jacie calls him, Grandma Darlene, Aunt Teresa, Uncle Skip, cousin Angela, brother Rob, and Jacie and I. It was a really fun evening. Well worth the trip, I’d say! (Pictured from left to right: Darlene (Stepmom), Judy (self), Rob (brother), Teresa (Aunt) and Ken (Dad)

Somebody (I won’t mention any names, but the letters in the name are R-Y-A-N) taught Jacie how to blow on windows. Problem is, Jacie does it all over the place. She loves to do blow kisses on mirrors, glass doors, or anything else she can come up with. These two little video clips show the fun she had with Aunt Teresa and Uncle Skip. They did a lot of laughing with her around.