18 Months

Hello all!

Still here......and getting SOOOOO close to having a finished basement. Can't wait!!!! We start getting carpet tomorrow. I am so ready:) It will be a two day ordeal because we are replacing the carpet upstairs too. This is one two day thing I am okay with because when they are done, so is the basement.....mostly....we still have a few finishing details to finish, but the basement will be fully functional. Can I get a Woot Woot! As you can tell, I'm excited about this. I'm even more excited about being able to use the basement, the lack of mess in my house constantly (with the exception of what the family creates for me!), and some organization down there. Oh, the OCD organizational side of me can't wait:)

Since my camera cord is still sitting in some unknown location in the only unfinished part of the basement, I still don't have a lot to share with you. But I wanted to put something on here. So I'm going with what I have available:)

I can't believe that our little girl is already 1 1/2. She's still so petite, that I think I sometimes forget that she's getting so grown up. But she is. She's getting to have such a personality and cracks us up. It's so fun to see the differences between her and her brother. And it's hilarious to listen to their conversations with each other. She had her 18 month check-up last week, and everything looks great with her. She's still little, but that's okay:)

Height: 29 1/4 inches (this cracks me up! It took her a year and half to grow 10 inches)

Weight: 20 lbs 8 ounces (woo hoo! Finally hit the 20 pound mark)

*she's finally starting to feel a little heavy if you have to carry her around. I don't know if she will ever truly feel heavy because her brother (who still likes to be carried) weighs so much more than her, but after a while, the arm does get tired:)

Kamdyn is such a joy. I think she is equally a momma's girl and a daddy's girl. She definitely already is working on softening her daddy's heart. Something tells me this little one will not have a hard time getting what she wants out of her daddy. With her sweet little voice, and baby blue eyes, he's gonna be a goner. She is also such a little talker. We have no idea what she is saying half the time, but she's starting to get a pretty good vocabulary. I think she's got about 24-25 words now. But most of the time, she uses the same ones all day long. Her favorite words are yeah, mommy, daddy, bubby, doggy, and no. She is such a little daredevil. Not really used to this at all. Eli was not very daring, and still is pretty cautious, but not Kamdyn. She sees everything Eli does, and thinks she can do it too. She has to do everything her brother does, whether she's big enough to do it or not:) She keeps me on my toes for sure. She is full of energy and is always on the go and constantly crawling all over me. She wears me out! I'm excited to see how much more she grows and changes in the next couple of months and as she transitions to being a big sister. That could be interesting:)

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

We have had lots of fun changes going on around here the last month and a half or so. Good, much needed, fun changes, but I'm not necessarily enjoying them right now. And the changes are going to just keep on coming! One of of the perks (?!?, still trying to find the good in them:)) of having a toddler. Not real sure when my baby boy got to be so grown up. He is such a little man now, and it's so funny to see him interact with us everyday. He says the funniest things these days and always seems to be learning something new. For some reason, he has started calling Brian and I kids....if we are laughing at something he says, "stop laughing kids!" Halarious! I don't know where he gets these things.

He even "walks" his own trike now. In the past we've always had to push it for him (which gets very exhausting very fast), now he likes to make it go himself. P.S. These pictures are from April, hence the sweatshirt:) Now he can even peddle it himself sometimes. So grown up!

And what's a good bike ride without a nose pick?!
Besides learning how to use his bike, we've had lots of other transitions. Eli is now in his big boy bed. No more crib for him. This is one of those things I'm trying to find the good in:) Sleeping has been a HUGE struggle lately, and I'm at the end of my rope. This tired mama is sick of dealing with him getting out of his bed when he wakes up (which has been super early, and he hasn't been going to bed until a lot later than normal). He really likes his bed, and it will be nice someday when he realizes the importance and fun of sleep. He just hasn't caught on to that yet. Maybe in 8 years. Not only is Eli in a big boy bed, he now shares a room with his sister. Again, another one of those transitions I'm trying to find the good in:) He keeps her up at night and wakes her up early in the morning with him when he is going in and out of his room. All of this fun has this mama's patience level at about a -50. This is when I wish I still had a crib for both of them! It's so fun to watch Eli grow up, and I'm certainly glad he's getting to be such a big boy, but there are some perks of "baby hood" that sure are nice.

I figured since Eli was sleeping like crap and making his sister sleep like crap, I might as well throw another transition in there for him and me:) Let's just it all over with at once, right? Transitions of toddlerhood suck! (Do you like my attitude here?) Last night we got rid of Eli's paci's. It's something that I should have done a really long time ago, but they were just so easy at bedtime. It has just been recently that he's started getting mad when you take it away and crying for it in the day and then throwing a fit when he doesn't get it. So, I decided it was time to get rid of it. I know I will be glad he gets used to it. Just waiting for that time to come. We let Eli go to Babies r' Us and pick out two new trains (that's how many paci's he had). He got to trade his paci's for his new trains. He was excited about it at the time, but he didn't care when it came to bedtime:) So he got to sleep with him new trains last night.

Next change is potty training....WooHoo!! I wish kids came with an internal clock and just instantly knew how to use the toilet when they turned a certain age. Wouldn't that be a lot nicer? I don't really have high hopes for this transition, Eli just really doesn't seem to care about what, or how long, he sits around in a diaper, but I still have dreams of having him potty trained before his baby brother gets here. Fingers crossed on this one!

So while I obviously don't have a good attitude about most of the changes going on around here right now, they are all exciting things. I'm just too tired and annoyed at this stage in the game to be excited about them:)

On a positive note, the basement is coming along nicely. We should hopefully get carpet by the end of next week or middle of the following week! Yay!!!! Can't wait!