Winter Wonderland...AGAIN

The snow was gone and now it is back! BUMMER!!! I am not even sure how much we have so far, maybe 16 inches or so. It looks like it is currently taking a break but the weather report says there is more ahead this evening. Here are a few pics from this morning. Brant and I went to workout at 8:30 this morning and came back around 10:30. In that time the city had come by and plowed the roads and blocked our driveway with a big pile of snow so Mike had to come and plow it out. He got stuck!! One of the big city plows had to come and get him out.

Stats

Miss Ayla Jane at 9 1/2 months weighs in at 17 lbs 14.2 oz. which is in the 25%tile. She is 28 in long 56th %tile and her head circ. is 17.4 in which is the 47th %tile. She did not have any shots today YEAH!! I never like it when she has to get those, breaks my heart to see her in pain. She did just finish taking antibiotics for her 3rd ear infection. The doctor said that the average number of ear infections in a child's first year is 3 and it is cold and flu season so it is all normal but if she continues to get them thru the summer season then we may have to go see an ear specialist. Brant had to have tubes in his ears when he was little so Ayla could follow in his footsteps. We shall see, as of right now her hearing is great and she is happy and healthy.

Been a month...oh my

Let's start with the youngest of the Schmitz clan. Tomorrow is Ayla's 9 month appt. I don't think she gets any shots for this one just a checkup. However Brayden said that she is coming along to hold Ayla's hand and make sure she doesn't get sad. :) Such a good big sis. She now has 5 teeth! 3 on top and 2 on bottom. Now that she has some teeth we have been experimenting with table foods. So far her favorite is grapes and crackers. She has also tried tofu, noodles, strawberries, bananas, pancakes, bread, and mandarin oranges. She WAS NOT a fan of the mandarin oranges. I don't think she liked the texture of them as she did not even want to touch them.



Brayden is enjoying every minute with her little sister. Especially now that they can share snacks. Sort of funny how they work. If Ayla has some crackers and I have already told Brayden she cannot have anymore, somehow Brayden still ends up with more. She gets all excited and tells me that "Look mom, Ayla gave me some cracker!" She also said "It's ok we can share cause Ayla is my best buddy" Oh melts my heart! However I know this is just the start of some innocent manipulation. I can already invision them working out some sort of scheme in the future.

Brayden has become alot more inquesitive. She is always asking "Why", sometimes to the point of annoyance but I guess that is how they learn about the world around them right. For example, have you ever been in a bathroom where a kid and mom or dad are in the stall next to you and you can hear the kid asking if you are pooping and why and is peeking under the stall at you? Yep I am now the mom with THAT kid. So embarassing.

This weekend was actually a nice one so we decided to take advantage and do some outdoor things. Brant started it off by picking up dog poop in the backyard that has now been uncovered since most of the snow has melted. SO GROSS! Saturday we went to the Red River Valley Zoo in Fargo. It is no Woodland Park Zoo that is for sure but Brayden still enjoyed it. We got to see a baby camel that Brayden thought they should name Gracie (that was one of the choices that they had up for the camel). We also saw some Red Pandas which were really cute! I just wanted to cuddle them. Brayden's favorite's were Ralph the Bald Eagle. I named him Ralph because she kept asking me what his name was so that was the best I could come up with. She also really liked the wolves especially one named Sirius (No I did not name him). After the zoo we went to the dog park because we had brought Abby with us. We were hoping there would be some dogs to play with but it was pretty muddy and noone (except us) wanted to bring their dogs in there. Abby got to run around for a little bit though and of course was happy to be anywhere we were.

Today,(Sunday) We decided to go for a walk out at Dunton Locks which is a couple miles from us. It was pretty slushy but we had a great time just being outside. It was a really nice family weekend. We had a nice springy warm weekend but it looks like the week ahead may be nasty. The forecast calls for rain and snow YUCK. Come on Spring quit teasing us already!

Crawling, Running, and Daddy's Sweatheart

Oh news news news! After 8 1/2 months Ayla is now crawling! YEAH This morning she decided to go after the kitty toy. Of course she has to do this when I am trying to put clothes on her so in the video she is just in her diaper. :)


Brant and Brayden had a great time at the Daddy's Sweatheart dance. Before the dance was a grand march of the daddy's and their sweethearts. After that we all had to leave. A few of Brant's friends were there with their little girls as well. Brant said that Brayden had a great time running around with all the other little girls and dancing with the Polar Fest Princess'.


Last weekend was also the Freeze Your Buns 5k. Since we had not worked out very much if at all before the run my only goal was to run the whole thing. I not only did that BUT I also beat my husband by about 2 minutes hehe. It was really cold out I didn't even warm up until some time after mile 2. Brant came in looking like the abomadible (sp?) snowman. I am signed up now for the St. Paddy's run in the cities in March but Brant will not be joining me cause running is not for him.(BOO)

Brayden's favorite movie is Mamma Mia. Here is a clip of her singing the song Super Trooper from the movie. Usually she is singing Dancing Queen but this is her second favorite song from it.

Please warm up!

I am sitting here looking out the window wondering how the weather changes so much!! 2 days ago it was 40 something and the snow was melting and now it is snowing and the temp is probably in the 20's and it's supposed to drop even more this weekend. Ugh I just want Spring to be here. I feel so couped up. When it warmed up just that little bit I bundled up the girls and my mom and I took them for a walk. The BOB (stroller) did pretty well in the slushy mess. The girls really enjoyed getting out into the fresh crisp air. I took them during their nap time hoping they would fall asleep. (YEAH RIGHT) Not sure what I was thinking. Neither of them slept.

Speaking of cold. This weekend Brant and I are running the Freeze Your Buns 5k here in DL with our friends Kara and Grant. I think that may be exactly what we are going to do is freeze our tushies. In the morning during the run I think it is supposed to be around 2 degrees. That is right 2 DEGREES!! On top of that I we haven't been working out lately haha I am not sure what we were thinking but that is what I told Brant we were doing for Valentine's was RUNNING. :)

Ayla still is not crawling but she is getting so close. Yesterday she started going from her belly to pushing herself up into sit position. She also is ALWAYS trying to pull herself up to stand if there is any sort of object next to her that she can grab onto. I have the video camera and the regular camera out and ready for that moment. Some other great news is that Tuesday night she slept from 7pm until 5:30am!!! Wednesday she did the same. However 2 nights in a row was good enough for her, last night she decided to wake up at 10, 2, and 6. Thats ok though the 2 nights before really gave me some extra energy. :) I will take whatever I can get!

Some really exciting news for Brayden is that she got a new car seat that stays in Grandpa and Nana's car. She was so excited. When she sits in it she thinks she is just the coolest. She tells me now that they can pick her up whenever they want! She also just started back up with her swim lessons last week. Dad gets to take her and she LOVES her time with her Daddy. In fact, this Friday Brant is taking her to a Daddy's Little Sweetheart dance at our local community center. Mom's are only allowed to be there for the grand march and then we have to leave. She is excited. We bought her a cute dress that she can spin around in. I can't say much about it other than it is pink cause Dad hasn't seen it yet. It is going to be a weekend full of family and love!

Will she or won't she?!

And it starts!! :( This past week Ayla has been doing all the things that a pre-crawler does. She can get herself into the all 4's position but then she cries and rolls over like a dog that wants its belly scratched and begs for me to pick her up. Brayden the awesome big sister that she is was trying to help me tempt Ayla into crawling. We were putting her favorite toys out in front of her and going so far as to put the cat in front of her because she loves pulling on him. Poor Bennie! I think he likes it though. None of that worked. BUT after her nap the other day I went and sat her up in her crib because Brayden likes to play with her while I was finishing something. I went back in and I found Ayla had pulled herself to standing. Boy was she so excited about that! I asked Brayden if she did it by herself. She said yes. So I wanted to see for myself. I sat her back down and yep she pulled herself right back up with one gigantic smile. It was so cute Brayden was cheering for her. Now lesson learned, I cannot leave her sitting in her crib anymore. Luckily my bed is right next to it incase anything did happen. She might just skip the crawling and go right to walking to keep up with her big sister.

I am interested to see how Brayden is going to be with Ayla once she does start crawling and walking. She is so good with her now. Always brings her toys, shares with her, plays with her, and makes her laugh all the time. But what is it going to be like when Ayla can go to her and grab her toys and follow her around everywhere? Will the "That's mine" and "You can't play with that" start? Will she lose her sensitivity towards Ayla? I still kind of think she sees her as this doll that she can do whatever she wants with. We will see. I am excited to see their relationship grow when already it seems like they don't want to be without each other.

The Princess is Back

Yesterday we woke up and Brayden STILL had a fever so it had been since Sunday and I decided that it was time to go in and see the doc. The girls' doctor is in Fargo which is about 45 minutes away (kind of a pain) but I didn't want to just take her to Urgent Care here in DL- not such a great experience last time we had to do that. I was able to get her in within 2 hours of the time I called so I had to hurry and get myself and the girls ready. Grandpa Mike decided to come tag along to take care of Ayla so I could get Brayden in and out. Brayden is actually a really good sport when it comes to seeing the doctor. She did say "no shot momma?" I had to reassure her that she wasn't there for a shot this time. She came to every prenatal appt with me when I was pregnant with Ayla so she knows what is going on. She especially loves to hear her heartbeat which was her favorite part of the prenatal appts as well. It was like she knew she was there to get better she skipped down the hall coughing and all. She was especially excited because this was the first time they made her put on a gown. It had tweety bird and Sylvestor on it. She thought that was pretty cool besides the cool breeze on her back. Finally the doctor came in, turns out Brayden has a double ear infection. She wasn't even complaining about her ears. He said they looked pretty bad. Poor thing. So he gave her a heavy dose of antibiotics which we got in her right away.

This morning I knew she was feeling better when she came out of her room in a tiara and her dress up heels asking me to play with her. Finally a day where she doesn't just want to lay on the couch. :) No fever today just a really runny nose and a cough. Now Ayla has a cough and is not looking so good and I don't know if it is just in my head but I think it may be coming my way as well ugh!

Our Blog

So I have seen so many great blogs from our friends that I decided to jump on the band wagon and create one for our family as well. It seems like an easy way to keep everyone updated and something for me to do while the girlies are napping. :) So here goes my first post.

First of all I have to mention that Brant really wanted to name this blog "Poopinmyear" but I decided against that because well I wanted this to be a blog about our family and not sound like something disgusting. However I am sure in the future Brant will be posting something that he thinks is funny and witty so that is my disclaimer for him. :)

We are ready for winter and sickness to be over with! Last week I had the stomach flu and this week Brayden has had a fever for the last 3 days and a wonderfully runny nose. Ayla has also had a runny nose but I think that may be due to the fact that another tooth has come in. This is her second one so now both her bottom front teeth are in. YEAH! Solid foods here we come and hopefully sleeping through the night will follow ugh! She is 7 months now OMG time goes by so fast. Faster I think with the second kid than the first.

This weekend another cousin has a birthday. The month of January is full of family birthdays for us to celebrate. Such a fun time for us all to get together and one of the many reasons why we moved back to Minnesota so we didn't have to miss them. This weekend happens to be Onika's birthday which is the closest in age to Brayden. She turns 3. Onika is Brayden's little partner in crime although I shouldn't really say that, they don't get into trouble together YET. :) They do LOVE to play dress up and trade socks and shoes whenever they have the chance though.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ONIKA!
Hopefully noone will be sick for the festive celebration. (knock on wood).

Well that is all I have for my first blog ever. I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy! Have a great week.