Look out, here she comes...

Jayden Rylee is one now (has been for a month) and she is changing by the minute. As she grows, so does her personality. Her sister has a HUGE personality. Jaycee is very in your face and needs 100% of your attention whether you are able to give it to her or not. Jayden, on the other hand, has always been a bit more subdued. She is a watcher. She watches Jaycee stomp around screaming like a human air horn most of the day and she isn't bothered by it one bit. If you hang out with Jayden, you figure out pretty quick that she is pretty relaxed and easy going; she has been that way since she was born. However, recently we have seen an interesting side of our little baby. The observation skills she has been developing are now taking on an entirely different purpose. Like I said, Jaycee is very in your face. It would be next to impossible to not realize she is around. Well, this is not lost on Jayden. Jayden's favorite things to do is play with are "big girl toys" rather than her own. One of those big girl things is her sister's kitchen set. Well, Jaycee's prized possession is her kitchen set. If Jayden even looks at it while Jaycee is in the room, Jaycee throws a fit. So, what to do if your car alarm of a sister won't let you get within arm's length of her stuff, but you really want to play with it? Be patient. Eventually, big sister has to run an errand or two. Maybe she has to go outside and make sure all of the roses are pulled off the rose bushes or perhaps she has to change her outfit for the 7th time in a day. Whatever she is up to, when the coast is clear, make your move. That is exactly what Jayden does. When sister is preoccupied, it is a free for all. Jaycee gets two steps out of the room and Jayden heads on a bee line for the forbidden items. She can usually get a minute or two in before her sister returns and brings the fun to an end. She enjoys the time she gets then goes back to patiently waiting for the next opportunity.

I find it so interesting to have two beings, so close in age with such different life strategies. It makes me wonder as a parent which is going to be easier to deal with? You have Jaycee, who upon hearing no will make every attempt to explain to you why you are wrong and why she is entitled to eat whatever candy she wants at whatever time of day. Or Jayden, the one who waits until the right moment and gets the candy without anyone knowing.

Then it gets real scary. What if they team up? I had a glimpse into my future earlier this evening. Jaycee and I were playing rough and she was trying to get me knocked over so she could beat me up the rest of the way. Then without warning, I feel little fists beating the side of my head followed by the war cry of an Apache indian. I looked up and it was my innocent little baby with the biggest smile on her face, so happy to be ganging up on me. They say dogs can sense weakness, I think my kids can too...

"Dada don't be mad at me..."

So much for my plan to blog more. So much has been going on. Its a good thing Jess is a better blogger than me.

Jaycee is almost 3 and we seem to be rounding the corner on her 2 year old adventures. It seems like the terrible 2's are hopefully coming to a close. Now that she is older, it is much easier to reason with her. She understands consequences for her actions, so timeouts are much more effective (and less frequent). Along with understanding consequences, she has a clear understanding of how to butter up her dada.

Her latest maneuver is to come over to me (after she gets caught doing something she's not supposed to do) and she gives me a hug. Then, in her nicest voice she pleads "Please don't be mad at me dada". Where does she learn this stuff?? The crazy part is, it works. I instantly feel like I did something wrong instead!

Every time she busts that out, I start to worry about her teenage years. She isn't even 3 yet and she already knows how to pull my strings, what will she be able to do when she's 15? Its obvious I lack the ability to fight it, so I can only hope she goes easy on me...

Moving on up...

Things have been crazy around here! In addition to the girls growing like weeds, we have been busy adjusting to our new life. By new life, I refer to our recent move. We have more space to spread out now and we don't have to worry about rattle snakes anymore. But, the most dramatic change has been Jess' commute to work. It went from 50 minutes one way to 7. Yes thats right, 7 minutes! I knew it would be a big change, but had no idea how much it would affect us. Before moving, Jess would come in and we'd see each other for about ten minutes before I went to work. Now we have an hour (since my drive was also shortened) together before splitting off. That gives us enough time to sit and have dinner together and be together. The kitchen is close enough to the living area that Jess doesn't feel cut off when she's cooking and our newly acquired dining table (thanks to the kindness of a family friend) is big enough for us to entertain.

On that note, the girls are really changing their eating too. Now that we can all sit together, we have noticed that Jaycee is making some major strides in her eating habits. Now she wants to eat what we are eating and not a special meal. Jayden is finally taking to her baby food and I credit the fact that we are all eating at that same time for being the motivation for that.

I now have a room I can shut the door to when I do homework, which is a big change for me. Its nice to not have to make everyone go outside while I work.

Our backyard isn't big, which actually works out for us; partly because Jaycee can't get into too much trouble and partly because when we get the chance to fix up the backyard we won't have as much to take care of.

This is a blog about our new life here, so I don't want to go into the things we miss about the old house. I can assure you there are many things we miss, but getting that time we were missing out on together has become the most important thing to happen to our family.

By the way, we now have a guest room, so anyone reading this can give us a call and let us know when you're in town!

We are looking forward to the memories we will be creating in our new home and I plan be a better blogger and write some of those memories as we make them. It seems like life is sort of this continuous uphill grade that we are walking up. Sometimes the slope is steeper than other times but the trick is to just keep moving. Then, every once in a while, you come to a plateau where you can see behind you and all the path you have traveled. That is where we are now. Sitting on the plateau admiring the view... Okay, enough of that. Let the climbing continue...

A little bit of pride...

I learned early on with Jaycee that kids are a source of great pride in a parent's life. When she was little, I was so proud that she was a happy girl and that she was being fed well and that she had everything she needed. As Jaycee and Jayden grow, I notice that the things I am proud of change.

I have noticed that when you have a baby in a stroller or cart, they are mostly invisible to people (except to baby lovers). As they gain communication skills, the invisible effect disappears. Today at Costco, Jaycee was standing at the check out with Jess and the checker struck up a conversation with her. I was so proud to watch her interact with an adult we identified as safe. She was very sure of herself. She stood tall with her hands on her hips in a confident way and looked him in the eyes as he asked questions. The conversation went like this:

Checker: What is your name?

Jaycee: My name is Jaycee

C: How old are you Jaycee?

J: Uhhh ( a slight pause as she situates her fingers to show only two) I'm two

C: You are a very smart little girl, aren't you?

J: Yes (hands on hips)

With that she said bye and was on her way. When I saw her standing there confident and sure of herself, I couldn't help but think we are doing something right. I don't mean that in a bragging way, but it was a real boost to my belief in our parenting methods. I always told Jess that I want to raise my kids to be confident, competent, and kind people. Today I saw two of those attributes displayed right in front of me. Now if we could just work on he kindness...

When life gives you lemons...

Ever have one of those months where everything seems to go wrong? Well I am experiencing one of those months. I prefer not to go into details, so you just have to take my word for it.

Let me put it like this, as the famous saying goes: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But what if life is giving you a truckload of lemons and when you start to make lemonade you realize that you are out of sugar so you get into the car to go to the store, but the car won't start and its leaking coolant from the water pump. Know what I mean? Anyway, I am posting now, because I am starting to think we are finally turning the corner on our stressful month.

For some reason I have this idea that officially stating in writing that our rough patch is done, it will be. Okay, enough of that, back to work...

Not mud dada...

Disclaimer: the following really happened and it is really gross. Consider yourself warned.

For those of you who know me, feel free to skip down a paragraph or two. For everyone else, I have some faults that I willingly admit that I really haven't tried to fix. Today, two of those faults collided in spectacularly disgusting fashion. I am a chronic procrastinator and I hate doing laundry.

I have a research paper due that I should have been working on for weeks, but instead I am doing in in the closing days of the due date. Unfortunately, for Jaycee, that means she is on her own playing. She has been a good girl all day and has been playing nicely and, for the most part, quietly.

I took a moment to check on her and see what she was up to and found her in her room. She was in her bed laying down and reading a book. Happy with the situation, I left her there to enjoy her Elmo book.

About 10 minutes later, I was typing away when I heard her walk up behind me. I turned to see what she wanted and she asked "Dada, what's that?" as she held up her hand. I looked at it and saw poop all over her hand. Realizing I was going to have to do something about it, Jaycee quickly retracted her question and told me "its mud Dada".

She could tell I wasn't convinced and I told her to go to her room so we could figure out what happened then clean her up. When we got there, I looked all over for a diaper she may have found or removed from the bin but I found nothing. Then the stink hit me. I lifted up the back of her shirt and saw "mud" coming from her diaper going all the way up to the middle of her back (no exaggeration). I momentarily contemplated taking her outside to the hose. Then I looked at her bed. It looked like some sort of war had taken place. The picture is the load of laundry generated by this disaster. (If you look closely, which I don't recommend, you can see that her little stuffed doggy got the worst of it.) While Jaycee was in the bath, she wanted to make sure she cleared up the situation and she told me "Dada, not mud".

What did we learn today? When I have something really important to do, something will go wrong. I also learned that if Jaycee is talking about mud and she isn't outside, I should probably get the hose ready...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Another year as a Mother has arrived for my wife. I just wanted to take a quick second to tell her how appreciated she is today and the other 364 days. If she ever wonders if she is a good mother to our little girls, all she has to do is see how much they love to be with her and near her. Jayden can be having a horrible day with dada and as soon as mama steps in she is back to smiling. She doesn't even have to see her, she only has to hear her voice and Jayden is fine. Then there is Jaycee. When she hears her mama's car pull up, she starts dancing around yelling "Mama home, mama home!" Then the rest of the day she spends asking when she'll be here.

Jess is the best mom I know. She lives and breaths for our little ones and I know that her time and attention she gives to them will help our little girls grow into loved and loving people. They are so lucky to have an example like their mama and I'm enjoying watching them turn more like her everyday...