My Baby's Growin' Up!

Brayden's Big Boy Bed!
I'm pretty sure that we kept Brayden in a crib much longer than most parents do. I was just so scared to make the switch until now because he has always played so actively his crib. I really didn't think there was any way he'd actually stay in bed if he wasn't surrounded by 4 walls. Since he'll be 3 years old in 3 short months, we finally decided to see what would happen if we took the front off of his crib. Both kids were super excited to play on Brayden's new bed...I wasn't so sure that that was such a great sign! ha!
Brayden's first time in his new bed was at nap yesterday. As soon as we got into his room, he hopped on his bed and gave me the biggest grin!After tucking him in he still had the biggest grin on his face. I could tell that he liked his bed, but I still wasn't so sure that he was actually going to stay in it. I must have told him at least 20 times that morning that he wasn't to get out of bed on his own...he needed to wait until Mommy or Daddy came to get him. Since he's such an active sleeper, I wasn't sure if he was going to fall out...so I also told him that if he fell out, he needed to climb back into bed!
Brayden slept like a champ! He slept for 2 hours before Chris woke him up and he never once got out of bed (we have a video monitor so we know exactly what he's doing in there). Wohoo! The first nap was a success, but would bedtime go so well? At bedtime I was amazed once again...he did great! We actually got to read books on his bed instead of the floor and when we were finished he got right into bed so I could tuck him in. And once again, he stayed in his bed all night until I woke him up at 7:30 this morning! Although he stayed in bed all night, you can see in the picture below that he didn't quite stay "tucked in" (his sheet and fleece blanket ended up squished at the bottom of the bed)...I guess that will take time. Now the only question remains: will this continue to go so well??? I certainly hope so. I am so proud of him for staying in his bed. I guess our next item to tackle is potty training!
Random Pictures
Sienna had fun wearing her new sunglasses while she ate lunch!

Catrina found this cool Loopa Bowl and I just had to buy a couple for the kids. Every day I let Sienna eat crackers in the car so that she doesn't fall asleep on the way home. I'm pretty sure that for every cracker that ends up in her mouth, at least one falls on the floor. I absolutely cannot stand having a dirty car so I thought this bowl would be the answer to my problems. We gave the kids some cheerios in them yesterday and they thought that they were pretty cool. And they really are great...
Unless you have kids that like to figure out how things work...and then you have a mess! Sienna dumped all of her cheerios out of the bowl at least 3 times. Hopefully once the bowls aren't so new and fun, they really will serve their purpose and keep the food off of the floor!

Can't find Sienna? Check the office!

The kids are still sick, so yesterday I decided to take a day off from all of our activities and just stay home. For what seems like the first time in forever, the kids played nicely together...except for the occasional incident. I would even go as far as to say that it was actually kind of relaxing! For whatever reason, the kids decided to play in the office most of the day. Sienna usually goes in there quite a bit to sit on the sofa to eat snacks and read books. It doesn't matter how many times I go into the office to check on her...I always think she looks too darn cute hanging out by herself on the sofa!

Here is Sienna eating her afternoon snack (grapes) in the office... Of course as soon as I came in to see what she was doing, she high-tailed it out of there!
Sienna also likes to run into the office when I'm trying to put her clothes on! Lately I've managed to get her to lay still long enough for a diaper change (for awhile I had to change her diaper while she was standing) but as soon as the diaper is on, she takes off running! Luckily she runs right into the office where she has nowhere to hide! ha!
As soon as I get her cornered in the office, she takes off running for the living room! It may take awhile, but I do finally get her clothes on!

Yesterday Brayden made Sienna tea (he loves to make frog and turtle tea/soup) which she decided to take into the office to drink. When I went in to check on her, it looked like she was trying to hide on the sofa!
I asked her if she was drinking her tea and she sat up and pretended to drink...too cute! I love the age when they start understanding what you are saying. Now if only she'd start talking to us more...using real words!
I really do think that the kids spent most of the day playing in the office. Well, that was until I had to lock Sienna out of the office for playing with the TV buttons. Sienna has really developed a love for books and she spends most of her day pointing at the pictures and telling us what she sees.
And occasionally she'll make some music with her drum!

The Macnab Family Reunion

We just got back from 5 fun filled days at my parents house in Bend. This was our 5th trip since Sienna was born and the 4th trip that both kids were sick while we were visiting! Except for the multiple boxes of kleenex that we went through, you'd never even know that the kids were sick. Not only was Sienna sick, but her 11th tooth (a top molar) broke through over the weekend! I took a mini-vacation from picture taking during this visit...I think that I was too busy wiping noses! But every once in awhile I just couldn't resist grabbing the camera and capturing the moment. Enjoy!

Our first full day in Bend (Saturday) was spent at a park in Sunriver at the Macnab Family Reunion. Brayden had fun throwing rocks in the lake while Sienna just walked around...that was until she did a face plant on the bike path! After she fell, we decided to hold her to keep her out of any more trouble. Luckily she was super tired (she didn't get a nap) so she really didn't mind being held for 2 hours. Under normal circumstances we are lucky if she'll let us hold her for more than 2 minutes!

While we were at the park, I caught Chris and Brayden sitting on the bench looking out at the water.

The next day everyone came over to my parents house for brunch before heading home. Brayden attached himself to my cousin Alex and before I knew it, he was asking to sit on his lap and read books. I'm not too sure that Alex's 18 month old son, Cole, was very excited about sharing his daddy, though!
We were lucky enough to stay another 3 days after the family reunion ended. We went to the park several times, went back to the High Desert Museum, went on a walk and played outside a lot...in addition to lots of relaxing! However, we always start the morning the same: wake up, drink lots of coffee (tea for Chris), read the paper, play outside, etc. Sienna usually skips the coffee and goes straight for the newspaper. ;) I couldn't decide which picture was cutest so I just decided to post them both.

Once again the fountain was the favorite spot for the kids. Brayden still loves the fishing pole that Grandma & Grandpa bought for him to play with the last time we visited. This time Grandma & Grandpa bought the kids cute CARS and Winnie the Pooh chairs. Brayden came up with the great idea to sit on it while he was "fishing" in the fountain.
Sienna didn't really care where the chair was...she just wanted to sit on it! Unfortunately the chairs weren't very stable and she took a tumble while climbing up to sit on it the first day that we were there. Somehow she managed to get her head stuck in the hole of the arm as she fell. Grandpa was there to rescue her but it took him awhile to get her head out, which of course Sienna wasn't too happy about. You would think that after a somewhat traumatic incident that she would have stayed cleared of the chairs...but she continued to sit on them all weekend long!

More fun in the fountain!
A couple of days before we left for Bend, both Brayden AND Sienna were having so much fun doing their happy dances together that I just couldn't resist capturing the moment!

Random Post Friday!

Our Little Monkey (again!)
Not only can Sienna climb up on the picnic table, but she can climb up on the couch, too! The other day I caught her sitting on the couch with Brayden while he was watching TV after his nap...hence his huge yawn! The Play Boutique
Catrina, Lilya and I took the kids to the Play Boutique for a "Coffee Break". We were under the impression that we'd be able to sit back and relax while they played with the kids. However, we couldn't have been more wrong! We were still responsible for watching our kids which meant that we were the ones who had to break up fights, encourage them to share, save them if they were about to fall off of something, etc. The room was actually so big that I didn't find any part of the experience "relaxing"! ha! The kids enjoyed story time, bubbles, dancing, and lots and lots of free play! Next we are actually going to check out their "Drop 'N Go" preschool class...it sounds much more relaxing! I didn't have my camera so I tried taking a few pictures with my cell phone. Unfortunately only one picture was worth sharing. Sienna absolutely loved driving the fire engine! Good thing that there were 2 of them because Brayden also loved driving it!

Flips!!!
I'm not sure when Chris and Brayden started doing "flips" (it has been quite awhile), but I finally remembered to take some pictures of it. Doesn't it look like fun???

The Happy Dance
I mentioned Brayden's "Happy Dance" in a previous post and thought I should take some pictures to try to capture it. Brayden had so much fun doing flips with Chris that he started doing his "happy dance" afterwards!

Rocks!
We have been spending quite a bit of time outside and Sienna has become quite interested in rocks (& the cherries that drop from our cherry tree). Unfortunately she loves to eat the rocks! Hopefully all of the rocks in our yard are too big for her to swallow...we've already had to fish 3 rocks out of her mouth in the last 2 days!
Chris and I love sitting on the swing with the kids...if only they'd sit on it for more than 1/2 a second!!!

Sienna's 1 Year Pictures!

For those of you who haven't seen Sienna's pictures, here are 2 of my favorites. We actually ended up with a ton of pictures this time but they are already in frames and I'm way too lazy to get them back out to scan them! Unfortunately our scanner isn't great so try to ignore the quality of the pictures. ;)

Random Post Wednesday!

The Wilsonville Water Park
This was actually our 2nd trip to the water park this year...last week's trip was a complete disaster so I didn't take any pictures. When I met some friends there last week, Brayden was scared to go in the water and Sienna was stuck in the backpack where she ended up falling asleep...probably because it was so HOT! Fortunately for me, she still took a short nap later that afternoon. This week Grandma Boley came with us so that both kids could play in the water. Sienna went right into the water and once again, Brayden was scared! Last year he had fun at the water park the 2 times that we went (July 2007 & August 2007) so my only theory is that he's still scared of the water from a few weeks ago when he fell face first into the water at the West Linn water park. Hopefully if we keep going to the park enough times he'll warm up to it again. At least he still loves his baths!

Sienna had fun playing with some random toy boats...And then she found the fountains!
After a few minutes Sienna became bored with the fountains and decided to see what else the park had to offer...

I must say that Brayden did do better with the water during this visit. He started out standing in the shallowest water, which was a step up from our last visit when he wouldn't even touch the water.
After carrying Brayden around for awhile he finally decided that it wouldn't be so bad to touch the fountain. So I held him upside down so he could reach it (he still wouldn't let me put him down). After that he decided to have some fun standing on all of the fountains! He would occasionally walk between the fountains (other times I carried him) and he'd let go of my hand just long enough for me to get a picture. What surprised me the most was that he wasn't scared of the fountains...he was more scared of the very shallow running water.

So this isn't the best picture, but I guess I can't be too picky when I finally manage to get in a picture with both of my babies!

Brayden was interested in checking out everything that didn't have to do with the water...he found these interesting chairs to play on with Grandma!
Sienna really enjoyed the water but as with all things, she quickly became bored so we headed back to our blanket and relaxed while the kids filled up on fishy crackers. Hopefully the next trip will be even more fun! Thanks for coming with us, Grandma!

Our Little Monkey

The kids' new picnic table has become a new playground for Sienna. As soon as we get outside, she heads directly for the table. She climbs right up to the top of the table and sits! I can't even keep track of how many times she's fallen off...luckily she hasn't had any serious injuries!

To Share or Not to Share?

Sienna got this cool bubble mower for her birthday and they both love it. Well, Sienna loves it when Brayden lets her play with it!

As you can see, Brayden isn't very good about sharing with Sienna...he'd rather sit on it so that no one can play with it! Oh, boy!
The Office
As I mentioned in a previous post, we've worked pretty hard to turn our previous office and recent junk room into a mini-playroom. It still needs some work but now Brayden has his own TV (he gets to watch a 20 minute show when he wakes up in the morning and another one after his nap) and now the kids have separate rooms they can play in...as if Sienna would ever let that happen! ha! Now that the newness has worn off for the kids (it's been a whole week and a half!!!), they aren't playing in the room very often. Although, occasionally I'll catch Sienna in there sitting on the CARS sofa reading a book. These pictures were taken a couple of days after they were given access to the new room...

Fun with aquadoodles!
When the kids first started playing in the office, they discovered a new toy...Chris' old keyboard! The keyboard kept them busy for days, but it's old news now...I don't remember the last time I saw them play with it!