Update

Zoee is really putting on the chubs, as you can see in these recent pics. She's definitely not a starving baby. She rolled over from her stomach to her back for the first time yesterday (Sept 28)! After she rolled, I had to turn her back to her stomach to make sure she could really do it - and sure enough, she went right over again. I was surprised that she rolled so soon; she gets very little tummy time because I am always afraid she will get attacked by her big brother if she is on the floor for more than 5 seconds. He gets so excited to try to pick her up and drive cars on her and "fix" her with his plastic hammer. You can see the terror in her eyes in some of the pictures below, where Jaden is holding her. :)

Jaden's got a million dollar smile now, and loves to show off his mouth full of 16 teeth. Since we are potty training, Jaden has his own little potty chair. Well, the other day, I showed him how to use it as a stool to stand up to the sink and wash his hands...What a mistake! Now whenever he wants to reach something he'll say "Grab a potty!" and come running out of the bathroom carrying his potty.
Sometimes Jaden wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks he needs to cuddle with mommy to get back to sleep. Usually he'll pull on my hand or shout, "help mommy!" so I'll lift him into my bed for a few minutes, until he falls asleep. The other night I woke up and Jaden was there in bed next to me just staring at me. I was a little startled, and wondered how on Earth did he got in there. Did I help him in when I was still sleeping? As if he could read my thoughts, Jaden started wiggling off the side of the bed and said "grab a potty!" and then proceed to try lifting the potty into bed with me. I told him no, that he needed to put the potty back on the floor. So he bent down to put the potty down, but his little head didn't pop back up. I peeked over the side of the bed to see what was going on, and there he was, bent over at the waist holding onto the potty with his hands, with his head resting on the lid, sound asleep. I guess the task was just too exhausting and he instantly fell asleep when he lowered the potty to the floor. I laughed and then thought, "well it's not causing any harm...," and just let him continue to sleep there on his beloved potty.

A couple of days ago, while Jaden was napping, I was feeding Zoee and putting her to sleep. I wanted to hurry and get her down while Jaden was sleeping because I had a long list of things to do like get the dishes done and fold laundry and make bread and get dinner started. But when Zoee fell asleep, I decided that today all of those things didn't really HAVE to get done. I just cuddled her and looked at her and held her and loved her. After about a half an hour, Jaden woke up from his nap, and came up to me and said, "Cuddle, mommy." So I put Zoee down, and had some quiet cuddle time with Jaden. It was nice to just love and enjoy my babies, and take a breather from everything else...

I decided that I had better hurry and write that experience down, so I can read it when I have more days like today - when both kids are screaming and won't take naps and I've been cleaning up poop all day (yes, we've had a potty training slip-up...we were doing so good!). :)

BREAK THROUGH!

Posting on the blog has been a little sporadic lately. When I get the chance, I post everything that I've been waiting to put on. So you either get 4 at once or none for a few weeks. Whoever you are, thanks for checking back anyway! There hasn't been much blogging time lately because we are undergoing the lovely task of potty training. I decided that I was tired of changing 15 diapers every day! We have been struggling for the past almost three weeks. I've just been guessing when it was time to go potty and being wrong most of the time. Or else sitting in the bathroom with Jaden for half an hour and then giving up, and having him wet his diaper the moment I put it back on him. My, this is an exhausting task! Then finally, yesterday, when I was seriously considering giving up for a while, Jaden told me he had to go potty for the first time. We celebrated with tootsie pops and stickers and pennies for his piggy bank. (Bribery is the only way to go! :) Today he's shown further success, and I've decided that we'll keep at it.

Zoee has had a break through of her own, as she has finally figured out that there is a daytime and a nighttime. She has slept a consecutive 6 hours for the past few nights and it has been wonderful. Jaden never did this until he was 11 months old, so it has been a pleasant and refreshing surprise! I just hope she keeps at it! I'm a couple of weeks behind on her update, but at her last check up she was 10 lbs 5 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She's growing like a Dixon - at least at a Dixon rate if not quite a Dixon size!

So this week, I am just enjoying success... These may be silly successes for the average person, but for all of you mothers, I'm sure you can appreciate my excitement and relief! :)

Zoee Update

Zoee is 5-weeks-old now. Time sure does fly, especially when life is so crazy! At 3 weeks, she weighed 8 pounds 11 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We have another appointment this week, so we'll see how she's doing.

My favorite things about having a newborn:
*2 little eyes that stare up at you like you are the most important person in the world
*little lips that suction to your cheek, when you are not as quick as you should be at feeding time
*when it takes 5 tiny fingers to wrap around one of yours
*brand new baby soft skin
*the pleasant new baby smell (at least the top half :)
*cuddling that little tiny body

Jaden Update

Here are a few of the photos from Jaden's fun Summer. At his 2 yr appointment, he weighed 28 pounds and was 34 1/3 inches long. He's got an amazing vocabulary, and is starting to use some complete sentences. He is starting to say some of the funniest things. Here are some recent "Jadenisms":

Mommy : Just a minute, Jaden, I need to fix my hair
Jaden: Mommy's hair broken...

When my stomach growled..."Whoa, mommy..Lion!

Just this morning, after I got dressed : "Oh, cute pants, mommy!"

Zoee's Baby Blessing

Sunday, August 31st was Zoee's baby blessing. Daddy surprised us by bringing home this beautiful blessing dress after work on Friday. (He's such a great shopper - what a man... sigh...) Zoee received a wonderful blessing. Grandpoppee and Grandmomma B were there, which made the day even more special.

Happy Birthday to My Love Bug!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Jaden's 2nd Birthday!

We recently celebrated Jaden's birthday. This was the first holiday/birthday celebration that he actually realized what was going on and was excited for it, which made it so much fun for mom and dad! :) Since he had seen his Grandma's birthday cake this past Summer, he knew he was getting one, too. Several days before his birthday (when we told him it was coming up) he talked and talked about how he was going to get a cake with "fire" on it, and how he was going to blow the "fire." However, he wanted the whole box of candles on his cake instead of just 2, so he was a little out of breath by the time he got down to blowing out the last one!
Jaden had a great time opening and playing with all of his presents. He especially loved his almost new motorcycle looking tricycle that mom & dad found at a yard sale. (AZ yard sales are the greatest, but that is the subject of post all its own!). Jaden rode motorcycles and 4- wheelers all Summer with his Grandpa and his Uncle, so he was so excited to have one all his own, which he calls his "birthday bike-cycle." :)

The Joys of Motherhood

Yesterday we went to visit Daniel's seminary class and meet some of his students. Jaden fell asleep in the car, so I decided to feed and change Zoee there in the car and give Jaden a few more minutes to sleep before going in. While changing Zoee on my lap, she spit up. I felt it hit my knee and start running down my leg, so I was trying to hurry and get her changed before the spit up got to the floor. As I had Zoee's legs lifted, wiping her little bum, she decided she wasn't quite finished. Out flew some lightning speed airborne yellow poopies... right onto my face. I screamed and woke Jaden up, but couldn't do anything about my face until I got that little bum wiped and covered with a new diaper. Then I proceed to use the baby wipes to clean up my poopy face and my barfy leg, and finally got into the seminary class when it was half over.

Then today...I laid Zoee down in the living room on her changing pad, and took Jaden with me to "help" get Zoee's bath water ready (my motive was really to keep him from poking Zoee's eyes or shoving a plastic lizard in her mouth, two of his favorite activities as of late). We got the water ready, then I went out to undress Zoee and bring her into the bathroom. Well, when we arrived, Jaden was stirring the bath water with the toilet brush. I immediately told him to get that toilet brush out of there, so he responded by throwing the whole thing into Zoee's tub. So while I'm trying to rinse the tub out with hot water with one hand, and hold a naked baby with the other hand while praying she doesn't poop on me again, Jaden gets the only clean baby towel off the sink and throws it into the water. I managed to salvage all by one corner that got soaked. I decided that Jaden must be having a little bit of jealousy/lack of attention day, so I tried to let him help me. I held the baby shampoo bottle over Zoee's hair, while he helped me squeeze a drop on. Well, after several minutes of rinsing, I got the half of a bottle sized "drop" of soap washed out of Zoee's hair, and wrapped her in her half wet bath towel. While putting Zoee's diaper on, Jaden suddenly started back to the bathroom yelling "tissue!" He came back and started cleaning the Desitin off my elbow that he had squeezed on there without me even noticing (at least he was trying to clean it up! :) While finishing up the dressing, Jaden some how got a box of cereal off the counter top and attempted to dump it all over Zoee's floor. But since I was already on the alert for naughtiness, I grabbed the box right as it was in the first dumping phase.

I decided Jaden must be needing a little mommy time, so I laid Zoee down, fed Jaden some lunch, read a book with him, and put him down for a nap. Now they are both sleeping...at least for a minute. Today I must give a hats off to all those mothers out there that survive having 2 children, and I am in awe at how anyone ever has more than that!

I saw this quote in the doctor's office yesterday. So to leave this post on a happy note, I'm so glad for the wonderful moments of motherhood, as they usually far out number the catastrophes! :)

"We find a delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body" ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

HOME SWEET HOME

We're home! And we're finally back online with the internet! The family has now been together in our new home in Arizona for two weeks now. The house is great - I love it! Daniel did an amazing job of home shopping. It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house, all on one level, so there are no stairs for babies to fall down. It's very open and spacious and has a great layout. It's only a couple of years old and is located on a quiet street. Our back yard is pretty tiny, but so far it's been too hot to spend much time outside anyway. We do have a lime tree in the yard- which I had to make some Brazilian style limeade with shortly after I arrived! We have plans for a peach tree soon - my favorite!

I've mostly been hiding inside with the air conditioner on full blast. Hopefully I'll acclimate soon. I've also heard that Winters here cool down to perfect temps. So I'm looking forward to that. We have had lots of family visitors these first few weeks; they have helped us out tremendously - from incredible help unpacking to cooking and cleaning and entertaining little ones. We are very grateful for them! I can just imagine the mess I would be in trying to get organized with a new baby and a two-year-old!

Baby Zoee is doing great. She is still sleeping a lot during the day and not as much at night, but that's how it is for a while! :) Jaden is a little bored without all of the amenities he has enjoyed all Summer- a whole farm to roam around on, chickens and puppies to feed, sprinklers to run in, and 4-wheelers and motorcycles and horses to ride, but I'm sure he'll adjust to city life with some time (and hopefully mommy will too :)! Daniel is really enjoying his new job as a seminary teacher and is doing wonderfully! Here are a couple of pics that I have of the house - ones Daniel sent when he was house hunting - I'll get some more up soon, as well as some new pics of the little ones!