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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Our New Playground - Stage 1

Yesterday was a great day - We have been wanting to get Dane a playground here at our house for quite a while now. We had told him that once he is potty trained, we'd get it. Well, that time had come, and yesterday was P-Day, Playground Day. There are so many cool playgrounds out there, but unfortunately, most are super-expensive. So, Lane and I got to looking at the different styles, and we realized that we could just buy the individual components and the lumber all at Lowe's. Also, doing it this way, we could design it exactly how we wanted it, make it exactly the size we wanted, make it affordable, and do it in stages, on our own time. Dane has always been a big fan of slides, so we knew that the fort and slide part would be the first stage to build. Also, everything builds off of the fort section, so it had to be first. Hopefully, next spring, we can add on the swings and the rock wall. We'd also like to enclose the lower part of the fort and make a playhouse for Sydni in a couple of years. Then, it will be complete.

Lane was off yesterday, so we headed to Lowe's to pick up the lumber and slide before lunchtime. The construction went very smoothly, and I have to say, I was very impressed with Lane and his carpentry skills. We both have dads who are amazing carpenters, and they both seem to like to help us out when we need any work done, so I've not had many opportunities to see Lane in action all on his own. I guess he must have paid attention to Skeetz and Daddy and learned a few things, because he did such a great job! I know that Dane and Sydni will always be proud to tell their friends that their dad built their playground. Enough bragging on Lane - on with the pictures!

The men in action!

Dane would measure the lumber, and then he would say a measurement out loud - most of the time, the number he would say would be something like 32.7, and he would say the "point"! My Accountant brain LOVES that!

The finished (for now) product!

A happy boy!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Four Months/Spiky Hair/1st Attempt at Cereal/Fur Coats/National Geographic

Dane with Mr. Monkey, and Sydni with Miss Monkey


It seems like just 31 days ago that I was telling you about Sydni reaching 3 months! Actually, it was 31 days ago. How strange! No, it really seems like time is flying by, and we are having so much fun watching both Dane and Sydni grow and develop. Over the past couple of weeks, I have captured a few moments on camera of my two sweeties that I felt I had to share.

One of Dane's best friends is Chase Mays. Well, Chase recently got glasses and starting wearing his hair in a spike. So, this morning, out of the blue, Dane told me, "I wish that my hair could be spiky like Chase's." You had better believe, I couldn't resist that, and we got his hair spiky right away. Angela, Chase's mom, and I had already planned to meet for lunch, so the boys had spiky hair together, which Dane pointed out to us all repeatedly.





Back in 2005, I had a year's subscription to National Geographic, and Dane has always been intrigued with one picture in one of the issues. It's a picture of a little child with its face painted white and its nose painted black. Dane has always referred to the little child as "the dog boy". So, the other day, I had set Sydni in the chair so I could fix her a bottle. Dane asked if he could sit beside her and read her a book, so I said "Sure". He grabbed his favorite National Geographic and proceeded to look for the picture of the dog boy to show Sydni. It was pretty funny. He is so sweet with her and is so protective of her. Also, if you notice in the pictures, Dane is wearing big boy underwear! I never thought I would live to see this day come, but we are officially calling Dane potty trained. He still wears a pull-up at night, just to be safe, but he has not had an accident during the day for at least two weeks now, and half of the time, he is dry in the mornings! So, we are staying true to our word, and Lane is building him a playground and fort tomorrow, as his reward for being potty trained. Luckily, we had a pretty successful garage sale Friday and Saturday that completely paid for the playground project. I'll have to do a post on that tomorrow.





Then, one day last week, I thought that I would let Sydni try a little rice cereal to see if she is getting ready to start solids yet. She really didn't seem very interested, so I'll just try again in a week or so and see how she's coming along. Of course, I thought it was a great opportunity to take pictures, so here's the result...






My parents recently went to Branson on vacation for a few days, and while there, they shopped at an outlet mall. My mom found the sweetest little fur coat at The Children's Place, and she called to confirm with me that Sydni did, in fact, need a fur coat. I agreed, so the purchase was made, and now Sydni's got a fancy coat. This past Sunday morning, it was pretty cold outside, so she got to wear it, and I think she looked so pretty in it. She also got to wear her red tights for the first time.


Now, for her 4 month report...

She weighs in at 14 lbs. 6 oz. (50-75th%) and measures 25 inches (50-75th%) long. Pretty proportional for a baby, I guess. I looked back at Dane's baby book, and he weighed 15 lbs. 9.5 oz., so he still has a pound on her at this point.

This month, Sydni has been busy doing a lot of things:

She now regularly rolls from her tummy to her back. Sydni is a tummy sleeper, so sometimes during the night, she will get rolled over on her back, and she instantly wakes up, so since she's been rolling over, Lane and I have had a couple more interruptions, where we had gotten a little accustomed to our full nights of sleep again. Soon enough, she'll be able to roll back to her tummy on her own, so our sleep issue should resolve itself again soon.

A huge development during this month is her sucking her thumb. I think it's the sweetest thing ever! She never has taken a pacifier, but she can't get enough of that thumb. She prefers her left thumb, and she immediately sticks that thing in her mouth as soon as she is laid down, if not beforehand. Lane claims that she sucks her thumb the same way that he did, except he sucked his right thumb (until the 3rd grade, I'm told, too).


She is not sitting up on her own yet, but she is starting to try to pull herself up into a sitting position when she is propped up.

No teeth yet, but from the amount of drool coming from her mouth, it can't be too much longer. Dane cut his first tooth at 4 months, 3 days, so we'll see!

She is now wearing a size 2 shoe, so she definitely has a firm foundation like her mother.

She is still very bald, but Lane and I think that she is starting to grow a little bit of hair, and it looks pretty blonde. So, it looks like her hair and eyes will match her brother's.

She smiles and smiles all the time, and she just has the sweetest expression on her face most of the time. I remember seeing her picture on a sonogram picture and thinking that it looked like she was smiling and that I hoped she would be my smiley girl. Well, she definitely is!

She started to laugh out loud this month, too. Sometimes, it's kinda hard to tell she's laughing because she just sounds like she's giggling a little bit. She mainly reserves her big belly laughs for her daddy, who can just about always get her laughing out loud. He tends to have that effect on a lot of people, so it doesn't surprise me.

Once again, I must report that she is just so sweet, and she is just such a wonderful blessing to our family. I just don't know what I'd do without my Dane and my Sydni, oh yeah, and their dad, too! I can't forget him!


And, for a recap...

At 3 months


At 2 months

At 1 month

Stay tuned for the playground construction post to come!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Addendum to the Halloween Post



I never dress up for Halloween, for some reason, but I forgot to post my small wardrobe/cosmetic addition for our evening out Trick-or-Treating...FAKE EYELASHES! Those things are amazing. I'm pretty sure that if I had been aware of them when I was little, I would have driven my mother crazy asking for them. They are not the easiest things to put on, and I'm still not sure that I got them on right in the end, but it was so fun to have glamour eyes for the evening!
Fun, fun!