Happy 2nd Birthday Hayley!

Our little angel is TWO today! Mimi and Grandpa came to town to help us celebrate and we had a wonderful birthday party at Nana and Papa's!

Ironically, Pooh was the theme of Hayley's party and just yesterday Pooh "magically" reappeared! Hayley came walking out of Todd's room with Pooh like he'd never been gone! I had searched all over Todd's room and I still have no idea where Pooh actually was. Hayley knew the whole time though... whenever I would ask her about Pooh she would just tell me "Pooh seeping." I'd like to know where Pooh was sleeping because if he got that much uninterrupted sleep then it sounds like a location that I would GREATLY enjoy right now!

Welcome to the party!


The guest of honor


Enjoying the conversation


Getting ready to make a wish


Trying to figure out this wrapping paper thing


Little brother enjoyed the party festivities

Amber Alert

Sound the alarms. Pooh has gone AWOL. And I'm pretty sure he had an accomplice. I have searched high and low in this house and cannot find Hayley's partner in crime ANYWHERE! She was playing with him yesterday morning and then he was nowhere to be found for her afternoon nap. I've asked her several times what she did with Pooh and she'll just say "Pooh!" and laugh. See what I mean, accomplice to AWOL... and I think Chloe is jealous. I'm pretty sure that if she could open the front door by herself, she'd run away.

For those of you that know Chloe, you know that Chloe likes the finer things in life. She enjoys being pampered and it is important to her to look good. After all, God did not give her impeccable eyelashes for nothing. For the most part, Chloe has led a spoiled and pampered life that consisted of frequent shopping trips with Mommy, regularly jetsetting through the airport to Denver, apple-cranberry crumble (her favorite dessert), and lounging on a raft in Nana and Papa's pool. However, life changed for Chloe with the birth of her little sister, Hayley. The shopping trips stopped, the apple-cranberry crumble dried up, and the last time she flew she had to ride... GASP... cargo! Once Hayley began eating dropping Cheerios, bananas and other assorted goodies, Chloe started to see that this "sister" thing wouldn't be the end of the world. But then we brought home another screamer and well, Chloe is NOT happy. She's been coping, but she isn't happy. I'm afraid that what happened yesterday may be the straw that broke the camels back though. Seeing as how I have my hands full right now, it's been near impossible for me to keep up with the demands of keeping my little pooch groomed properly. Summer is coming and I know that Chloe has such a heavy coat of fur so I broke down and took Chloe to De La Pooch Salon for a... puppy cut. While the spa treatment was a good time for her to unwind, because after all a day hiding under the bed from the two year old that is obsessed with her can stress a gal out, I'm not sure Chloe is exactly thrilled with her new cut. Yes Chloe, I think we can all relate to that bad haircut feeling at sometime or another. I've been trying to convince Chloe that she didn't get a bad haircut, but when you go from luxurious locks like this:


to this:


it can take a little getting used to. Of course Chloe should be thrilled with her new cut. Ever since we picked her up from the salon Hayley has been calling her "Puppy." I've been trying to explain to Hayley that "Puppy" is actually Chloe with a new hairstyle, but she refuses to believe me. I may book an appointment for myself at De La Pooch because I could stand to look like a "pup" again. Little Hurricane is making me old before my time.

In other news, Todd is now an official "citizen" with the number that makes him vulnerable to identity theft to prove it! He looks excited. I don't think he understands how taxes work just yet.

Oh brother!

I had quite the interesting week with Hayley last week. She's starting to say a lot more things (and yes, we're still having the problem pronouncing truck) and I can only wonder where she comes up with the things she does. On Thursday she decided it was appropriate to start calling me by my first name. I would ask her to do something and she would respond with "okay Selweey." WHAT??? You'd think she could at least refer to me as Ms. Selweey.

She's also becoming more bold with Todd which means I have to watch her like a hawk. Poor little brother has had the pacifier rammed in his mouth more times then I'm sure he'd like. Each morning before swim lesson I pack up all the towels and items we need and take them out to the car before I load the kids up. Hayley always follows me out to the car, except last week she would run out and babble something that ended with brother. I'm pretty sure she was telling me not to forget him. Or she could have been saying "hurry up let's go before brother knows we're gone!" Either way, it is sweet for her to think of him!

So Friday we spent the morning filling and playing with her water table. After getting scolded for trying to climb into the water table, apparently Hayley decided she could get the same effect by just dunking her head in the water. She did this repeatedly. Once again, if only I could figure out what was going through her head.

Saturday morning we went and signed Hayley up for an indoor soccer program. She'll attend classes every Saturday morning and participate with Daddy. I'm sure this will be VERY entertaining.

A growing boy

Todd got a passing grade at his one month checkup. He's gained plenty of weight and is the healthy, growing boy that we prayed for. He came in at 21.5 inches long and 9pounds and 7 ounces... a whole two pounds above his birth weight. By the looks of him, I had a feeling he'd gained quite a bit of weight as he seems huge to me now. He's still only in the 35% though for weight and about 50% for length. Hayley was such a slow gainer and is still our little light weight. (Dynamite comes in small packages.)

Here's a picture of both Hayley and Todd at one month for comparison:

We've survived a month!

Today Todd is one month old! Brian and I were talking this weekend about how much faster Todd's first month has gone by in comparison to Hayley's first month. Hayley did nothing but scream at us for her first month of life so having a slightly more laid back baby has been a treat. I say slightly more laid back because we've discovered that like Hayley, Todd certainly has his hot buttons. His major issue is car rides. I'm not quite sure how I ended up with two babies that absolutely hate car rides, but it makes getting out and about miserable. Even Hayley (the Queen of Scream) is disturbed by Todd's distaste for the car. Last week we were headed to Nana and Papa's house when we saw Papa out at the mailbox. I rolled the window down so Papa could hear how healthy his grandson's lungs are and Hayley yelled, "Papa, help! Help!" Yeah, no kidding?!!

Todd is also having "sleep" issues. He sleeps just fine as long as he is in his swing, on his stomach, or cuddled up next to me. Yes, he's a cuddler, which I love. Because in order to get any cuddles out of his sister I first have to catch her and then I have to hog tie her and quite frankly with the small amount of sleep I get each night I just don't have the energy to do that. So I enjoy that Todd is maybe a little bit of a Mommy's boy, but it is making that (much) sought after sleep even more elusive. We're working on sleep this week though and I've officially decided that having a baby that will accept a pacifier isn't really all it's cracked up to be. At this point I think pacifiers are just a cruel trick on a poor, sleep deprived parent who thinks that they're going to get to sleep when really they'll get to lay their head on the pillow only to be awakened five minutes later by a scream because that "wonderful" pacifier has gone by the wayside. I think we're going to be done with the pacifier.

Todd has filled out a lot since the day he was born and I'm anxious to see how much weight he's gained at his one month Dr. appointment on Wednesday. He seems to be getting bigger much faster than Hayley did. We are enjoying playing with his hair. Each night after his bath we give him a new "do."

We took Hayley over to the community pool on Sunday. It's heated, but not very much. She would only go in up to her knees before running back the the "shore" saying "Brrrrrr, cold!" She has continued to go to swim lessons everyday and the Today Show will actually be featuring a segment on the ISR lessons she is going to on Wednesday morning. I'm hoping they'll put the segment on UTube and if so I'll post the link here on the blog.



Getting ready to throw a "hail Mary" pass!

Table for Four Please

Spring has sprung! Looks like we weren't the only ones ahem, "growing our family" over the winter. The sandhill cranes have returned to making their daily trek through our yard. We have a lot in common with Mr. and Mrs. Sandhill... I wonder if they're getting anymore sleep then we are though.


The weather here has been beautiful and we've been spending a lot of time in the great outdoors. Hayley definitely takes after me when it comes to developing cabin fever after just one day at home. With Todd's arrival, it has been too difficult to keep up our pre-Todd errand running and activity schedule so we've spent much more time around the house. If I don't get Hayley out every morning to burn off her ya-yas then I can pretty much expect a napless, whine-filled day. I'll be thrilled when the pool warms up enough that she can spend the mornings in there, but for now we've made frequent visits to the park. Hayley recently discovered bugs. On one of our latest visits, she caught a bug in her fingers, said "bug," and proceeded to smoosh the bug while saying with a gleeful tone, "Ewwwww!" My thoughts exactly. Obviously I saw the need to change my child's attitude about catching bugs because I seem to be raising the type of little girl that will catch and bring home every slimy, multi-legged, antennae wielding and winged critter she can find. I enjoy the great outdoors, but I definitely have my limits. So this morning while playing with some PlayDoh, I began reprogramming my little bug catcher. So far, so good.