Fall Time

The last couple of weeks have been pretty good for the most part. However, we have all been sick. The kids got sick first, followed by Chris, and then myself. We were exposed to the swine flu, and thought that maybe we contracted in. Under the doctors advise, we kept them home and treated the symptoms. Yesterday, we finally took them in to see their doctor. He was pretty sure they don't have the H1N1 virus, and said if they did, it was minor. We all have cold symptoms, but no fevers, aches, or pains. Anyways, we have been enjoying this time together.
Update on the kids: Brenton at 4 1/2 months: 13 lbs 12 inches. He has just started eating baby cereal (a couple of weeks ago), and baby food. In fact, yesterday he had his first jar of baby food. He scarfed down a jar of sweet potatoes in about 15 mins. He liked it quite a bit. As for the green beans he had today, not so much. Also, on Oct. 6, he sat up for a few seconds on his own. Now he is sitting up for longer periods of time...about 20 seconds...lol. With just a little help though, he can sit up for several minutes.
Aleigha at 2 years old: 2o lbs and 31 inches long. I once was told that if you take the height of your child on their 2nd birthday and double it, then you will have their height when they are full grown. That puts Aleigha at 5'2", that's a half inch taller then me...so I'm happy with that. Aleigha is counting to 4 and sometimes 5 with absolutely no help. She knows how to reason quite well. I was finally able to ween her on her 2nd birthday. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we often count down the mins before she has to either do something or stop something. In the last 4 weeks, she has rarely made mention to even want to nurse (except for the first few days after she was weened...she would tell me "I'm not yet 2, mom."....she knew that 2 meant she was a big girl.) Anyways, the other day, I was nursing Brenton on the couch. She climbed up and sat next to me. She says, "Mom, I need 2 minutes (as she holds up 2 fingers)." I respond with, "2 mins for what?" Her reply, "2 mins to drink booby juice." I was pretty shocked at this, but was certainly impressed with her. Of course, I reminded her that she was 2 now, and that was the end of it. Now, something I'm not so proud of (my parenting skills that is). She has had a bad habit of saying "shut up." I'm embarrassed to say it, but I think she has learned it from me by yelling at the dog when he barks. Also, her favorite movie Annie, uses this phrases, which only has reinforced her to say it. Anyways, we have tried breaking this habit. My latest attempt, to ignore her. The other day, she told me "shut up, mom." I said back, "That's not a nice word, and I'm not going to talk to you when you say that to me." She kept saying, "talk to me mom, talk to me." After a couple of minutes of not talking to her, she says, "Brenton, I get mommy to talk to me." She then stands on top of his bouncer (which he was in), facing him, and then grabs the top of it and starts shaking it. She knew she would get attention from this!!! To make a long story short...about 20 mins later she finally told me, "Sorry saying shut up." Sometimes, I think she is too smart for her own good. But on a good note, I have learned a very valuable lesson from this. I have since started to try to redirect her attention to do something more positive (when she is doing something she shouldn't be doing). This way she is not getting the negative attention and she usually stops doing the negative behavior once she realizes there is something else to do. On a side note, I know (and have known well before having children) that by yelling at her when she acts out, isn't the best solution, but it's a lot easier said then done to do something else....I'm sure most all of the parents out there understand what I'm saying...or at least I hope they do. Anyways, enough writing...on with the pictures. I hope you guys enjoy.

I made potato soup the other night, and Aleigha decided to take a bunch of potatoes out of the sack and play with them. I found potatoes in Brenton's swing, pack-n-play, and a bunch of other places. Here she is showing Brenton her new found collection. As you see, he thought it was just as cool as she did.

She had 10 potatoes stuffed in her purse

Brenton's going to be Tigger for Halloween

In his pumpkin outfit

sporting their Halloween attire

She thinks this light-up Halloween shirt is the coolest shirt ever

Okay, so I know this is a Christmas outfit, but it obviously won't fit him at Christmas time (hopefully the hat still will). I thought it was too adorable to not get a picture of him in it. And hey...all the stores have their Christmas items out...so what the heck....Let's be jolly!

The rest of the pictures are some outside pics of the kids. It was a beautiful fall day and we got some really good pictures of the both of them in our backyard and at the park.