Spring has sprung

Alaina's 6 month picture! Too cute!


The birthday boy with his girl.


Alaina's present to Daddy. It says "Mom Says...I don't have enough fingers or toes to understand how old you are, but I love you anyways."


A visit with Grandpa Herbst. Alaina Autumn meeting Grandpa for the first time. Herbst is the german word for Autumn.

Daddy! That's not how you swing!

My boy!

Feeding the ducks...

He is using the pedals now!

Just plain cute!

Swinging together!

First time in a swing. She loved it!

I call this "Peas."

At the waterpark---Alaina took a while to warm up to the water.

Ky had no problem with the water.

Look closely and you will see a splintered bat sticking out of the ground by the pitcher's mound.

My camera has poor zoom..but you can see we were only a few rows back

Dominic at Easter

Pops with his littleist"princess"

Uncle Rick

Alaina giving Grandma Debi a kiss!

Kylan on Easter

Kylan found his Easter Bag.

The best Easter pic I could get with both of them.

Waiting not so patiently for the Egg...

The dirty face Mom should have cleaned better....

Ky pulling out his first egg.

"Is it done yet?"

Ky's first Easter Egg hunt.

Napping in the boppy....

At the children's museum. Ky the construction worker and...

Alaina

Sleepy boy....stuffed with good food..

Future drummer?

"BLAH!"

The days pass so quickly! I am so excited the warmer weather is here. It is time to get the garden underway--though it will be interesting to see how my time is vested in it with two little ones now.

As you can see updating my blog has been a lot more difficult with 2 little ones. I have lots of pictures, but my entries are becoming more sparse as I try to find the time to sit down and write. Thank goodness I have my camera with me often to help remind me what to type about. So lets start at the beginning of April.

Rob's b'day was on the 4th. We had a good day. Alaina and Ky both painted pics for daddy. And yes I am a bad mom, I took a pic of Alaina's pic, but not Ky's. I hope he will forgive me. We gave daddy some good presents and then Nana & G'ma Jan joined us to take him out for lunch. After lunch I took Rob shopping for some clothes--Some much needed clothes. We then celebrated with some sweet treats with the family and I decided on what vacuum I was going to purchase---yeah I know--sounds pathetic...but I am very happy with my choice!

The next day we took the kids to the Children's Museum. I have to say, it just wasn't as fun as the past times we have been there. They are building a new museum, so I think they are just putting less effort into the old one in order to conserve money for the new. Alaina enjoyed the drums and Ky especially enjoyed playing with the construction equipment stuff. The highlight was dressing both kids up as construction workers.

That week I took Ky to a church for an Easter party. He had a lot of fun making his own cookies, hanging out with friends, making an easter basket & necklace, and then searching for the eggs. FUN FUN!

On Friday Ky dyed some eggs for easter. He had a lot of fun sticking his fingers in and out of the colored water. I think his fingers got more color on them then the eggs. On Saturday our friend Wendy came over and watched the kids so I could take Rob on a birthday date. Ky finished decorating his eggs with Aunt Wendy--and she said he was amazed to see what was inside one of the eggs (one of them broke.) It's funny how sometimes you just assume they know things when in fact, I have never peeled an egg with him. So she had a lot of fun talking to him about the inside of the egg and then getting him to eat some.

I took Rob to a local Belgium restaurant that specialized in imported Belgium beers. I know he enjoyed it. He's German afterall. We then stopped at Bluephies for some yummy cookie dough egg rolls for dessert---they are so yummy! Mmmmmm....

The next day was Easter and it was a busy one. In fact we never gave Ky his presents because we just forgot with all the hustle and bustle. We got the kids up and went to church early for brunch. After church we stopped briefly at home to feed the kids and then left for Milwaukee. We celebrated Easter with Pops and Debi and then left to go to the Brewer's game. For Rob's birthday, Debi had gotten him tickets to the Brewer game and told us that she & Pops would watch the kids while we went. The game sucked---Suppan is a horrible pitcher and really threw the game--however the seats were awesome. We were 8 rows back from home plate. In one of the pictures, I think it was Cory Hart, cracked his bat and it splintered and actually stuck in the ground by the pitchers mound. That was pretty cool. The best part of the game was when Fielder was robbed of his "grand slam" and then the Brewers pitcher later hit the guy in the back with the ball. I had never seen anything so blatant before. "OUCH!" That had to hurt.

We went back to Pops & Debi's for the night. The kids slept pretty well. The next morning we then went to a water park in Sheboygan. We had been given tickets at Christmas for the park so we figured we should take advantage of it. Ky had a blast. It took Alaina a little while to enjoy the water. She didn't like it at first. I wish I could have taken more pics, but the place was so humid it kept fogging up the camera lens so I gave up. Alaina was so cute in her little swimsuit. And Ky--he loved the water slides. There was one little slide he went down and he just forgot to stand up at the end, so the lifeguard had to help him up. Sometimes he acts so mature that you just forget that he is only 2...Speaking of which--3 is just around the corner!!! But I am not going to go into that right now.....I will start getting too sentimental.

We only spent a couple of hours at the waterpark. When you have 2 little ones, that is about all they can handle. We then headed home--and both kids slept the entire way. They were wiped.

On to the milestones. Alaina continues to surprise me. She started clapping her hands and signing milk in the same day. She will also say "Hi" to people as they greet her or walk by. She will get on all fours, but not usually stay that way too long. Her two bottom teeth have popped through. And the biggest news is that she has pulled herself up to standing--and sadly I missed the first time she did it. I was talking to someone, then I turned around and there she was very proudly standing up and wiggling her butt. She has to find the right type of furniture to pull herself up, but when she does, there is no stopping her. She also says "Da Da" alot...It was funny. Rob came home and she said "Hi Da Da". Her first sentence! Though it is really hard to know if it was on purpose.

Ky is now reading books to us (I should actually say reciting--as he isn't reading yet.) It is pretty neat for him to get the books right word for word. It shows how much he pays attention to us when we are reading to him. He is starting to identify words and ask what a word says if he sees a sign or he sees a word appear a lot in a book. Sometimes he will stop me in a sentence and ask me to point out the words as he repeats me. Very smart kid. I know he will be reading soon. I am sad to say that I have actually pulled back a bit on Ky's schooling as I have been working with him more on his attitude. Manners & keeping emotions in check, to be precise. We battle a lot in the morning--as he can often be a grump and does not want to get dressed or brush his teeth. I have gone through a lot of different methods to try to get him motivated and to be happy about it. I often send him to his room and tell him he can't come out until he has a smile on his face...It is pretty funny when he comes out minutes later with this tight grin and tears running down his face. He is my sensitive boy and I love him for all those extra cuddles I get with him. He is my snuggly kid and I love that--we just got to get the rest of the sensitivity in check.

Alaina is not snuggly. She rarely falls asleep in my arms (though will on occasion when nursing.) She is so active that nursing has been a struggle with her from the beginning. Once she got long enough she figured out how to brace her legs on the arm of the rocking chair and push off. ARGH--makes for miserable nursing. I often nurse her on the couch or an armless chair now--but even the she will use her arms or arch her back. She is just always moving. I am surprised that she isn't crawling yet (though she rolls around a lot.)

Wow so much..I need to do a better job at keeping track of my stories. I guess I should mention my bout with pneumonia. After being sick for almost 3 weeks I went into the doc. They told me I had a cold and to go home. I went back 2 days later feeling worse than ever and saw a different doc. She listened to my lungs and told me my right lung was full of fluid and it was definitely pneumonia. Gave me antibiotics and I was better within days. I was very angry with the first doc. I was having dizzy spells and everything--and she told me I had a cold. Boy--you think the doc would be a little more concerned when I tell them I have been having fevers for 2 weeks. I also paid 2 copays....But enough of my whining. I have been very blessed to have had little sickness this winter and to have two pretty healthy young ones. I am going to bring this blog entry to a close....I will hopefully do better at giving good stories in my next one. Later Gator!