Fall Favorites.

I had a whole bunch of old frames and some glass gems.  Leah squirted an entire bottle of glue onto the glass and stuck the gems onto the glue.  She had a ton of fun.  Once it dried I put suction cups on it and put it on our front window.  She loves looking at it every time she goes into the kitchen.  She always says, "I made it, Momma!"  It is actually really pretty too!

Ever since Leah was 10 months old she has loved baby dolls.  She has a favorite doll named Nora.  She received Nora the day Brayden was born.  Nora is one of her very favorite toys (taking second place only to Puppy Moey).  I often see Leah changing Nora's diaper, wiping her face, putting a blanket on her, and even nursing Nora.  It is so adorable.  She is very open about it and even nursed baby Nora during church on Sunday in front of everyone.  I honestly am so proud.  It may seem silly, and even weird to some people, but my little Leah has a normalcy and confidence with breastfeeding.  She doesn't know or think there is another way to feed a baby.  I love it.

We went to a local church's Trunk-or-Treat this weekend.  It was a lot of fun, and Leah enjoyed playing different games for "treats".  My favorite part was when she just got done fishing for candy and she pulled me down to her and said, "This is so fun Mom!".  She truly had a great time.  She had a tight grip on the little bag of candy, and smelled every piece about 10 times.  We gave her a tootsie roll (her first ever), and she very much enjoyed it.  Luckily for us, she forgot about the bag of candy thanks to the distraction of Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We had a huge piece of paper laying around so we let the kids do whatever they wanted with it.  At first they crawled back and forth laughing the entire time.  Then Leah said she was hopping like a "kandaroo" (haha), and after that we decided to color.  Brayden wanted to eat the markers and got upset when I told him not to, but he did a decent job coloring too.  Leah was very into coloring and drawing different shapes and animals (with a little help from me).  They really enjoyed it, and with a little music it kept them occupied for a good 2 hours.

Brayden is on the verge of walking.  Just today he has improved so much.  He almost always starts off walking and about half the time he actually gets to where he wants to go without falling.  He is so proud of himself.  I bet by the end of the week he'll be walking full time.  Speaking of the end of the week.. My mom, brother, sister-in-law, and niece (and niece to be - Janelle is 5 months pregnant).  I cannot wait.  I am honestly beyond excited!

Enjoy the pictures!

Spicy.

I cleaned and organized our entire vitamin cabinet and our spice cabinet.  It was a huge task that was long overdue.  Leah was so intrigued by some of the spices I was throwing out, so I decided to let her play with them.  We got a large sheet of paper and spread glue all over it and she went to work.  She said she was cooking spices.  She loved smelling them all, and really enjoyed the project.  She emptied 4 bottles, but she sure had fun!

We have Life Factory glass sippy cups for the kids, and since they are heavy and an odd shape, Brayden has always had trouble holding them by himself.  I am proud to say, he has finally mastered holding his sippy cup.  He is growing up!  Now, all he needs to do is walk!!  I always said I was glad he isn't walking and getting into everything imaginable, but I am ready.  He knows how to walk, he just chooses not to.  Oh well... I know he'll walk some day soon!

Oh, a Leah update.  We have been very consistent with her lately - probably excessively consistent - but it seems to be working.  Her whining and crying is easily down 80%, and the other 20% is probably better than most 2 year olds out there.  Once I realized she was playing us, I decided to not give in so easily.  Yep, Leah knew exactly what she was doing.  I caught her doing it.  She was whining and crying about something, and I just smirked at her, and she started giggling... right then and there!  It was like pure sadness one second, then complete joy the next.  Stinker!  Now that I am reading into her game, she has been much happier and so much more pleasant to be around.

Brayden is cutting more teeth.  He now has 8 with numbers 9 and 10 showing, just not through the gums yet.  He was doing so well about going down for bed.  I always lay on the mattress with him and nurse him until he smiles and doesn't want anymore.  Then, I pick him up and he snuggles with me for a good minute or two, I kiss him goodnight and he giggles.  I then put his paci in his mouth and give him his Issie and he smiles and waves bye bye.  Lately though, he has been crying the second I go to put him in his crib.  He has never done this before.  I am so sad, I hate hearing him cry, and the only thing I can think of is his teeth are hurting him.  Poor buddy.  Teething can be so hard.

We love fall.

We have been enjoying the cooler weather lately.  Leah loves running around our wonderful back yard.  Brayden puts just about everything he finds in his mouth, but really enjoys exploring.  He was so cute crawling in the yard.. he didn't like the feeling of the grass on his knees, so he was crawling with his butt in the air and only using his hands and tippy toes.  He is so funny.  Cavan was exhausted by the time we went inside because Leah kept playing tag with him.  They are too cute.

We have been struggling lately with disciplining Leah.  She is such a sweet, funny, smart, wonderful little girl,  but when she's happy.. she's super happy.  When she is mad/sad it is hard to be in the same room with her.  She cries so loud and she is so persistent it is so hard to say anything to her let alone reason with her.  I am reading the book, "The No-Cry Discipline Solution".  It has so many amazing tips and I highly recommend it to anyone with a toddler.  We are praying we find something that works for Leah.  I don't want her to be so upset, because she is the biggest joy when she is happy.

Anyway.. enjoy the pictures.  They really had a great time!

Oh boy.

I have been wanting to do hand/foot prints of the kids for a while.  It would be a fun project as well as a cute keepsake.  I asked Leah how she wanted to do them... either paint or sand.  She wanted to do "SAND!!!"  We had so much fun doing them, even though it was so much messier than I anticipated.  They turned out so cute too!

Leah has been weaned for about 5 months now.  I have occasionally pumped for her, but other than that, she has been num num free for a while.  Recently she has been asking to nurse.  I always giggle at her and tell her num nums are for babies.  Lately, I have been looking at her more closely when she asks, and she isn't just asking to be silly... she really wants to nurse.  I didn't know if I wanted to go down that road again with her, but we decided to let her.  We are changing the time of her nursing session to night time (right before bed), and she only gets it when she is good and doesn't suck her thumb at night time.  She got to nurse for the first time tonight again.  She was HAPPY.

I know it probably weirds people out that I am nursing an almost 3 year old.  But quite honestly, I don't care.  I know what Leah needs.  I know what she can handle, and I know what is best for her.  She needs her Momma, and this is the best way for her to get that comfort.  I also know she'll wean before college (totally kidding here!).  I love it too.

Pumpkins

I had to pick up our kittens from being spayed yesterday so Daddy got to do a special project with the kiddos.  Brayden got to join in on this one too, and from the pictures, he really enjoyed himself.  I was gone about an hour, and when I got home the entire floor was covered by red tinsel.  I honestly thought it was going to stay neatly contained in the bin... boy was I wrong.  At least they had fun (and it was easy clean up)!!

After a messy dinner (lasagna) we had to transfer the kiddos from their chairs directly into the bath tub.  Brayden took first place by being the messiest.  He was so adorable though!  The kids have been playing with the same glow sticks in the bath tub 3 nights in a row.  We keep throwing them back in the freezer right after bath time, and I am amazed how bright they still are.

We went to the aquarium again today.  They love seeing the fish.  Leah isn't afraid of the sharks anymore.  We told her they were dolphins at first because she was so afraid.  Now we graduated to "mommy sharks and daddy sharks".  She thinks they are cool.  Her favorite part is finding the sea turtle and seeing the little poison dart frogs.  She of course likes seeing Nemo and Dory every time.

Leah had fun painting with watercolors today.  She could paint all day long... sometimes she does!  She thought it was really neat painting with the little paintbrush and loved it when I put the paper on the light box.  It almost made the watercolors glow.  I have a suspicion she will be requesting to do it again tomorrow.

We ended tonight with de-gutting pumpkins.  The kids were hilarious.  Leah didn't want to touch the guts but had fun scooping them out with a spoon, and Brayden wanted nothing more than to eat everything (yuck).  We will probably carve them tomorrow.  Enjoy the pictures!