26

That's how old I am today. I had a pretty good day today. John woke up the girls and had them (Cadence) sing "Happy Birthday" to me when I got up. He had a small store bought cake for me, along with a new purse and wallet. He actually did a good job of picking it out. This weekend, we will celebrate with dinner and I get to go SHOPPING! By shopping, I mean that I get to go to one store and buy one outfit, but that's cool.

I wasn't really looking foward to my birthday because birthdays means you're getting older. As the day went on, and sooooo many people assured me that I was still young, I loosened up. Twenty-six is just really close to 30 and I'm afraid of 30. I'm starting to realize that it may not be so bad now. I have a great life. I have a husband, 2 kids, a good job, a house, a college education, and I'm happy. I look at some of my classmates and realize that my life is to die for in comparison to some of theirs.

So, I'm going to enjoy being 26....until next year.

Aaryn is Walking!!!!!

She's been working at it for a while now. I'm so proud of her. I'm proud that she didn't give up. She would fall and get right back up again for another try. All of her hard work has paid off. As proud as I am, I'm also sad. My baby is growing up way too fast and there's NOTHING I can do about it. Its all downhill from here. Now she's going to prefer walking over being carried and before I know it, she'll be wiping away my kisses and be embarrassed to be seen with me. Well, maybe its not going that fast, but it sure seems like it.

Back on Schedule...Finally!

My husband, the girls, and I visited Oregon last week during my husband's spring break from school. My husband's paternal family lives there in the Medford area. We had a great time. I took my camera, intending to get some pictures of everyone with the girls, but issues with my camera prevented me from getting the shots that I wanted. I'm pretty sure, though, that John got some on his phone. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload those here later. The quality will suck, but its better than nothing, right?

The plane ride over was long...12 hours with 2 changeovers. We arrived in Medford around 12am PST(3am our time). Surprisingly, the girls did great. Aaryn slept most of the way. Cadence did some schoolwork, colored, and watched movies. She did take a little nap on the longest flight.

By the time we landed in Medford, I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was go to bed. The girls had different plans though. They did not want to go to sleep. Cadence was running back and forth through the airport. We finally got them to sleep around 2:30am (west coast time). They woke up at 7:15am....not fun.

For anyone who has ever traveled with children, you know that it is hard to keep kids on a schedule, with visiting, going out, staying up late, etc. So for a week, the girls stayed up late and only got to take short naps, if any at all.

Well, the vacation ended and we had to come home. We had another long flight back. We made it home around 9pm (EST). Appareantly the girl's didn't get the memo on what time it was. They were both wide awake until nearly 12am. They were still on Oregon time...3 hours earlier. I suffered with their schedules all weekend. Cadence adjusted after Monday. Aaryn struggled to go to sleep up until Wednesday. I tried putting her to bed earlier and earlier each night until we got to a decent bedtime. Both girls are sleeping as I type this.

Thank God for that!

Easter Portraits

Hello. My name is Shalonda and I'm a picture junkie. Well, actually these Easter pictures were made possible by my BFF. Thanks Kristyn! Once again, the girls did great and the pictures turned out perfect. I blame my picture addiction on the fact that I have the most beautiful girls in the whole world.....bwahahahah! Enjoy.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

So proud of her!

Aaryn is 10 Months!

Time flies! Happy 10 months Aaryn!

RIP Layla Grace

I came across Layla Grace's story through a friend of mine's blog and have been following her journey ever since. Layla Grace was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare cancer normally found in small children and infants. After many months of pain and suffering, sweet Layla Grace's suffering ended and she went to play with the angels early this morning. Layla was 2 years old. I can't imagine what her family is going through right now. Please pray for her parents and her 2 sisters while they grieve their loss. I can't imagine what they are going through. I can't imagine.

2 Years( + 1 day)

That's how long I've been married to my wonderful husband. After several years as friends, 5 years of dating, two years of marriage, and 2 beautiful children, I can honestly say that we are still as happy and in love as we were the first day we met. Our marriage isn't perfect and of course we argue from time to time, but we're inseparable. I am so glad that God made him just for me. I look forward to the many more years that we will have together. Happy Anniversary!

Sisters

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips.
~Author Unknown

"Sisters are for sharing laughter and wiping tears."
~Author Unknown~

If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.
~Linda Sunshine

"Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of.
You know whatever you do, they'll still be there."
~Amy Li~

Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.
~Margaret Mead

How do people make it through life without a sister?
~Sara Corpening

6 and counting

Aaryn now has 6 teeth! They're really coming fast now. I didn't even know until Cadence (who makes sure she counts Aaryn's teeth almost everyday) told me. I had just picked them up from daycare and had strapped Aaryn into her carseat already. As I was buckling Cadence, she was "forcing" Aaryn to show her her teeth. Then she says, "Aaryn has 4 teeth on top". Last time I checked, which seemed like just a couple of days ago, she only had a total of 4 (2 on bottom and 2 on top). I say to Cadence, "Are you sure. I think she just has two on top and two on bottom". She says "no, there's 4 on top". Well, naturally, I take a look, thinking all along that I'm going to have to count Aaryn's teeth for Cadence to prove to her that her sister only has 4 teeth. I open her mouth and take a look and what do I see?......6 teeth! The only explanation that I have is that they grew overnight. Now that I think about it, a couple of nights ago, she did wake up in the middle of the night crying. When I went in to check on her, she was biting on her blanket. I actually did assume that she was teething so rubbed a little Orajel onto her gums, changed her diaper, and put her back to bed. I never once looked into her mouth. That must be the night they made their appearance. Ha! I would have seen them eventually, but having an observant 4-year old has its benefits.

Gah, I'm Such A Slacker

Shame on me. I'm finding myself doing exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do...neglecting this blog. So much has happened since my last post, so I can't use the excuse that I have nothing to blog about. I'm going to attempt to update everyone on what's been happening these last few weeks.

Cadence's Birthday Party
Cadence's 4th birthday party was supposed to be on Jan. 30th, but we had to postpone it because of snow...well sleet and ice. I was disappointed, but she understood. I broke the news to her that morning when we woke up to find that it had sleeted all night long. I thought she was going to be devastated, but she surprised me and said "We can't have my party today because its snowing and I don't want my friend's tires to get stuck." What maturity? I will admit though that I was quite disappointed. We postponed the party a week. It turned out really good. I put lots of time and energy into planning this party. She wanted a Tinkerbell party theme. The girls were dressed as fairies and the boys pirates. We provided wings and fairy headbands for the girls and eyepatches and swords for the boys. The party was held at a small arcade/party room. Here are a few pictures:

Tinkerbell

The Cake: It was really good (especially for being in the freezer for a week) - Chocolate with buttercream icing. YUM!

Playing Basketball

Opening Presents

Later that day...
I hosted my first ever baby shower for my cousin. It turned out much better than I imagined. I am so proud of myself for being able to step up and give her and "Baby Boy Issial" the shower that they both deserved. I even made my first ever diaper cake. It turned out so well that I wanted to keep it for myself. Just kidding. Here are a few pictures from the shower:

Valentine's Day
For Valentine's Day, John surprised me with tickets to Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family. We celebrated V-day early because the play was performed on the 7th. Tyler Perry is one of my favorite entertainers. I highly recommend all of his plays and movies to anyone who appreciates great entertainment. The show was great and we had a wonderful time. I love my husband.

Snow Day
WE GOT SNOW! Snow without sleet and ice is a rare occurence around here. It happened on the Friday before Valentine's Day (too bad it didn't happen during the week so I could have an excuse not to go to work). It was pretty much gone the next day, but we enjoyed it while it lasted. This was Aaryn's first snow. We took the girls out for a little while to play in it then I made snow cream afterwards...YUMMY!!

I realize that this is a long post, all because I've been such a slacker. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I promise I'll make a better effort to update more often.

Happy Birthday, Cadence!

My oldest daughter turned 4 on Wednesday. I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again..."Boy, does time fly!" It is really hard to believe that I have a 4-year old. It seems like it was just yesterday that she was born. She is really a sweet and very smart child. She never ceases to amaze me with all of the words and phrases that she knows. She's also a clown (she gets that from her daddy). She loves to act silly to make people laugh. It's her gift, and its a good one. Laughter is good for the soul.

When I found out that I was pregnant with her, I wondered what kind of mother I would be. I was a little scared at first. I didn't think I had much to offer her. I wondered what would I teach her. It's been four years and I realize that I'm not the perfect mother, but I am a good mother. I've realized that although I don't think I have much to offer, my children think the world of me. Most importantly, I've realized that motherhood is a learning process. I've learned just as much from my children as they've learned from me. They've taught me both forgiveness and unconditional love.

So Happy 4th Birthday, Cadence! I love you and am so proud of the child that you have become. You are my first born, but you will always be my baby.

Richard Ferber...

...is a GENIUS! Who is Richard Ferber, you ask. Richard Ferber is a pediatrician, best known for the Ferber sleep training method. Most of you may know this as the cry-it-out (CIO) method.

In a nutshell, Ferber says you can teach your baby to soothe himself to sleep when he's physically and emotionally ready. He recommends following a warm, loving bedtime routine and then putting your baby in bed awake and leaving him/her (even if he/she cries) for gradually longer periods of time. The point of this method is to successfully teach a child to go to sleep on his/her own.

Ferber recommends waiting 3 minutes, then going in to check on the child, patting him/her on the back to reassure them that you are still there and that it is okay for them to go to sleep. You should gradually increase the time to 5, 10, then 12 minutes until he/she falls asleep. After a few days to a week of gradually increasing the waiting time, the theory goes, most babies learn to fall asleep on their own, having discovered that crying earns nothing more than a brief check from you.
(http://www.babycenter.com/0_the-ferber-method-demystified_7755.bc )

I thoroughly researched this method beforetrying it out. I'm the type of person that researches EVERYTHING. I rarely ever make huge purchases before reading reviews, etc. I even consulted with my online friend, Trinity, who had gotten results from this method. I had my whole plan worked out before even trying it out. The research paid off, because I was skeptical at first. I admit, like a lot of parents, that I thought that this method was cruel and that my baby would hate me for it. I've learned now, that this can be done in a loving way and that the results are worth the few minutes of guilt that you feel as your baby sit in his/her room crying their little hearts out.

The first night that we tried it, I fed Aaryn her usual dinner of 4 ozs of fruit and veggies at around 6pm. We all played for about 2 hours, then I got both girls a bath and into their pajamas. I gave Aaryn a 5 oz bottle of milk, just so I would know that she was not hungry. After she finished her bottle, I layed her down and braced myself for the worst. She cried and even stood up in her crib wanting out. I went to the living room and watched the clock and waited for 3 minutes to be up. After the 3 minutes, I went in to check on her. She was still crying. I put on so nighttime music from her toy puppy, Violet, and left the room. I repeated this, waiting 5, then 10 minutes. Finally, after a total of about 30 minutes, she was asleep...and she slept ALL NIGHT. I had to wake her up the next morning.

The next night, we followed the same routine. She only cried for about 10 minutes this time. Each night thereafter, she has cried less and less before finally falling asleep. Last night was the sixth night in a row that she has fallen asleep and slept all night on her own. We're at the point now where she only whines for about 2 minutes before going to sleep.

Ferber acknowledges that this method will not work for every child, but it worked for us. My only regret is that I didn't try this sooner. We've all rediscovered that a full night of sleep equals happier mornings. Did I mention that Richard Ferber is a GENIUS?

Blog Issues

I've been troubleshooting my blog today. For the last several days, I've been having trouble seeing my blog, which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. It seems that the culprit was some of the widgets that I had on the page. I'm taking this opportunity to recustomize my page. Please bear with me through this process. Also, if you're having any problems viewing any of the elements on the page, please let me know by leaving a comment to this post. Thanks!

I Guess I Spoke Too Soon...

Look at what we caught Aaryn doing today...

I guess she can crawl on all 4's after all.
(sorry the video is so dark)

TGIF!

THANK GOD ITS FRIDAY! I will pay good money to the person who finds that bus that hit me this week. I feel like a walking zombie. This week has really hit me hard due to several circumstances this week. In just this week, Aaryn has been sick and refusing to sleep, my team of 3 at work has become a team of 1 (ME) due to my boss's child being born and the secretary being sick, John started a new semester at school, which means I pretty much have to take care of all of the housework by myself, everything that can possibly go wrong at work has, etc., etc., etc...

The point is...I'm thankful that today is Friday and I'm even more thankful that John has 3 days off so, hopefully, I can get a little rest before starting over again on Monday.

On a Happier Note...

Here's the video I promised of Aaryn pulling herself up. This video was taken with my digital camera, that has no mic, so you can't hear anything. Also, the 'blip' near the end is Cadence trying to take the camera away from me.

Sick....AGAIN!!

Both girls had been coughing for a couple of days, just as I thought they had gotten over it. I decided to wait it out and see if it would just pass. Well, the coughing continued in both girls, so I started giving them the cough medicine that the doctor had prescribed the last time I took them to the doctor. I REALLY wanted to avoid the doctor's office this time. I watched them both closely to make sure it wasn't getting worse...but it did...in Aaryn. She started wheezing and was getting so congested that it was interfering with her sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night Tuesday morning and was burning up. I searched for my thermometer to no avail, then remembered that the last time I saw it, Cadence had it playing Doctor with her dolls.

We decided that she needed to see the pediatrician ASAP, so my husband stayed out of school and was able to get an early appointment with the doctor. To make a long story short, she was diagnosed with a viral chest infection (after being tortured by the NP, the pedi, and the x-ray techs). I'm having to give her Albuterol, via a neubulizer to keep her airway clear, twice a day, and Tylenol every 4 hours to keep her fever down. I bought another thermometer (Thanks Cadence) so I could continue to monitor her temperature.

The breathing treatments have really helped with the wheezing and breaking up all the mucus in her nose and chest. This morning when we woke up, her fever was gone, and she was a much happier and healthier Aaryn. Of course, since the infection is viral, we have to wait for her immune system to fight it off, but at least she was able to get some relief (thanks to modern medicine). We're assuming that Cadence has the same thing. She hasn't gotten any worse, but we're watching her to see if she gets any worse, and trying to keep her and her sister away from each other as much as possible.

So we wait...and pray that this is the last we see of this nasty bug. With both girls in daycare, I highly doubt that...but a mother can dream, can't she?

"You're the best Mommy in the whole entire world!"

That's what my oldest daughter told me tonight as I tucked her in and it made my day. I love her SO MUCH!!!

8 Months Old!

Aaryn is 8 months old today. She's such a big girl now, not my little newborn anymore. It's hard to believe that in just 4 months, she'll be a year old. A YEAR OLD!! Boy, does time fly.

Since my last post, Aaryn has gotten her two bottom front teeth. They popped up right around Christmas (how appropriate). We've all learned that those things are sharp. OUCH! They're also very cute!

The girls are starting to become best friends. Aaryn's at the age now where she can follow her sister around and play with her. Sometimes Cadence is a little rough, but Aaryn seems to forgive her pretty quickly. I love watching them play together, and I pray that they are always close as they get older.

Aaryn is still army crawling. We're beginning to believe that is just her preferred method of mobility. She doesn't seem at all interested in getting up on her knees to crawl. She's also pulling up and cruising around the table (I have a video that I will post later). I don't remember her sister doing that until around 9 months old.

Check out those teeth!!

I really wish I had a PAUSE button, so I can keep her at 8 months old, but the reality is that she's going to grow up and one day have a family of her own...and I'm okay with that.