Caught On Camera

Lookie what I caught on camera the other day...

I was testing out my speedlite (flash for my camera) with Naiyah. I gave her the blocks to occupy her and hopefully dissuade her from crawling away. I was partially successful, but this is the best shot I got:
So then I decided since Tristan was interested I'd put him and Naiyah together and take some pics of the two together. (The last ones I have are from Christmas.) Not successful at all, but they did start playing with the blocks so I decided to keep practicing anyway.
This is what happened...
Then this...
What a stinker, huh? And now I have photo evidence to prove the truth of my words when she does something bratty to him when he's older and he tries to tell me he NEVER EVER did ANYTHING mean to her at all!

One Of Those Things

Tell me you can watch this and not laugh. Go on. I dare you.

**Edited: I had to remove the video because it was no longer available on Youtube. If you missed it, sorry!

Seattle Children's Museum

Since I had today as a holiday, I took the kids and went with my neighbor and her little girl, and also my mom and her daycare, to the Seattle Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun, with two exceptions:

1. Naiyah threw up in the car not five minutes into our drive.
2. Apparently everyone else had the same idea to go there today so the place was a MADHOUSE.

Despite Naiyah being sick, I went anyways because my mom needed help with her daycare. Outings are just too much work for her without an extra set of hands. If Naiyah had been any older (ie, down and interacting with the other kids) I would have kept her home so as not to spread the germs, but since she's small enough to be content being held there wasn't much risk of that. So, we went and it was ok. Tristan absolutely ADORES Curious George these days, so he was very happy to explore the new traveling exhibit which was all about the little monkey. We'll have to take him back before it leaves, sometime when Naiyah isn't sick and when it's less crazy so that we can investigate more thoroughly. There were just too many people today.

Naiyah's been on pedialyte all day, and some cheerios here and there so she's been doing better. Me on the other hand, not so much. Tell me, why of all places did she have to throw up in the car??? Furthermore, how is it even possible for the mess (which wasn't even a huge amount of...liquid) to make it's way UNDER the carseat cover, DOWN the seat, and ON the floor UNDER the bench where her carseat sits?? Seriously, someone explain this to me. I really don't get it! Currently her carseat is dismantled and in four different locations after being cleaned. At least it comes apart, right? Now tomorrow I have to put it all back together and in the car. Fun times.

I'm posting pics below, but I'm going to end the text part by saying I love Febreeze. It's my new best friend.


Tristan is actually asleep in this pic. Even though it looks like he's hamming it up. The kid must have melodramatics in his blood to do this in his sleep!

Aaaand here he is pretending to sleep. Ah remember the days when we thought we were so clever and that no one would notice we weren't really asleep if we just squinched our eyes closed tightly enough?
Naiyah scavenging cheerios from under her Exersaucer. Yes I let her do this.
Eating chocolate chip pancakes. Which she LOVED. That's my girl!
From today. She's actually still sick. Who woulda thunk?
Daddy tickling her today.
I love how this pic turned out. It's one of my new favorites.

Naiyah's 9 Month Checkup

I'm very late blogging this, I got so busy this weekend that I haven't been able to write it until now. But we had Naiyah's 9 month checkup last Friday. She weighed in at 18lbs 6.5oz and 27 and 1/4 inches long. Of course, I had to pull out Tristan's baby book to compare his stats at the same age.

Now here's the funny part: as she's gotten bigger, I've been thinking poor Tristan, his little sister is so much bigger than him. He's gonna be so tiny and she's gonna be so big.

So imagine my surprise when I open his baby book to the appropriate page and what do I see for his 9 month stats? 18lbs 10oz and 28 inches. It's amazing the tricks your memory will pull on you isn't it? They are pretty much following the same growth curve, when my memory was telling me that he was so small. I think I have those...adjusted...memories now because he hasn't grown as quickly as he's gotten older - he's still in a 2t at 3.5 years old!

Since I had the baby book out, I started flipping through it and looking at his early milestones to see what he had achieved by the same age as Naiyah is now. Yes, I wanted to compare them. Bad mommy. But it's amazing to see that they got their first tooth at the same age, they sat up at the same age, and they rolled over right around the same age. The only place they differed is with their first word. Naiyah said hers about a month ago at 8 months, and Tristan didn't say his first one until a year. Funnily enough, he said Daddy first, and Naiyah said Mama. She's added a few new words to her vocabulary since then, she now says "hi" and "all done" too.

Oh and what is also entertaining is that neither one did the traditional crawl on hands and knees...Tristan did a 'gimp' crawl where he crawled on two hands, one knee, and dragged his bum and other leg along for the ride. Naiyah does a modified, very efficient army crawl which sort of looks like that move that breakdancers do when they do the 'belly flop' thingy. Hm. Maybe you'd have to see it to understand. Anyway, it sure is funny.

I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again...they are both growing way too fast!

PS...Tomorrow we're going to the Seattle Children's Museum, so hopefully I'll have some new pics to post soon.

Something I'm Proud Of

I really didn't have too much to write about this week. We've had another round of NASTY colds hit us, so Naiyah and I have pretty much been down for the count for the past week and a half or so. And now that we're doing better, Tom has it. Luckily (?) Tristan seems to have escaped with only some sniffles and a short fever, and is back to himself now.

In unrelated news, I have been busting my butt at the gym for the past few months and it's finally starting to pay off. I am quite proud that I now fit into a pair of pants that I haven't been able to wear for at least three years now. I only have about five more pounds to go before I reach my pre-Tristan weight, and my target weight. Most importantly, my blood sugar levels are much better than before I started exercising regularly. I still have to take my diabetes meds (oral, not insulin), but I can pretty much eat whatever I want. And hey, that was ultimately my goal (aside from better overall health of course!). I decided to exercise so I can eat what I want, so I don't have to restrict my diet. I'm very happy it seems to be working well.

If some of you are wondering why I seem to be bragging about myself, I think it's good to be proud when you achieve a goal you've given yourself. I set out to do this for me, and also so I can be healthy and around for my kids as long as any other mom. It's taken a lot of perseverance and effort, and I wanted to share as this is a major accomplishment for me. And not to sound too Oscars-ish, but I also wanted to thank Tom and my mom for all the support they've given me in this journey. I truly couldn't have done it without them.