July 19th, Jameson had his first dentist appointment. I was a little nervous, especially since the regular hygienist was gone. The guy was so nervous, but Jameson opened up like a champ.

Our dentist was so good with him. He said he had great teeth and no cavities. Yay, go me! Not really. I’m not so good with the whole making him brush his teeth every day.

It was a successful visit for Jamo. I had him take a quick look at Ella’s teeth, too. She, on the other hand, might have her dad’s teeth.

(July 24th)

Jameson has figured out letters, and how they correlate with people. I came home from my activity with the young women Tuesday night, and found Jameson still awake. I couldn’t get too upset, because he was so excited to show me his letters he drew.

Don’t ask me why, “M” is for Mom, but “K” is for Kevin. Not sure why I don’t get a “B” but oh well. His “J’s” are backward every time, and “A” is for his friend, Abby. He also drew his head and neck, but not his body. Maybe another time.

I think he’s doing pretty good for a 3 year old, don’t you?

(July 2oth)

And now, bike riding skills. That’s right. Jameson is now the proud rider of a 2 wheel bike without training wheels. Kevin decided to try taking his training wheels away to see how he would do. Instead of taking them off, he just turned them up. Then, if Jameson didn’t catch on, he could just twist them back down rather having to put them back on. He had his knee pads on, elbow pads, and helmet and was ready to go.

Kevin held his seat, and ran along side him for a few times down the hill, but then… he took off. Check him out!

It took about 3 days before he no longer needed help getting started. After a few more days, we took the training wheels off completely. Now he is an all out bmx biker over the bumps in the grass.

(June 28th)

Are you tired of seeing Ella’s hair in a pony tail? I get tired of it, but that’s the only way to keep her hair out of her eyes. So, I got brave. I loaded up her tray with strawberries to keep her occupied, and went as fast as I could with her soft hair. The result? Her first braid!

I couldn’t help myself and 2 days later, we tried 2 braids. I had to put more food out to keep her busy, but we made it through.

At least I know that there is an alternative to the pony tail. As long as I have good enough food to keep her occupied.

(June 13th)

We finally decided it was time to move both kids to one room. Jameson was all for sharing a room with Ella, but he wanted her to move into his room. The only problem was that she was in the bigger room. After a lot of convincing, and picking out some decorations for his room, he was finally excited to move into her room. Kevin was helping some friends move that day, so I got to work moving all the furniture around.

There were a few reasons we moved the kids around. The kids need to learn to share and sleep through each other. Kevin and I also wanted a room for an office, and to work on projects without having to put it away every night. Kevin can work from home, if he has a place to work from. So since we moved the kids around, we’ve seen a lot more of him.

Jameson helped me put the stickers on the wall, which was really hard for me. He would just stick them on where he wanted, which was not necessarily where I wanted them. Hard for me? Yes. But, he loved decorating his wall.

I guess Jameson was a little too excited about the days events, and fell asleep before making it into his new room.

Poor kid. He was carried to his new bed, where he would soon wake his sister in the morning.

To bring you a different update!

Ella is now 15 months! I missed her 14 month update, because we were out of town. This girl is crazy. She just woke up from her nap when these pictures were taken today. Ella is a very demanding girl. She is also emotional. She can fall and get hurt, cry for just a minute, and then be fine. But, if you tell her “No,” it’s a total meltdown. She still just has the 4 top and bottom teeth, but no longer has the long comb over hair. She got a haircut while in Vegas. If you ask Ella if she wants a bath, she will run to the bathroom, and start pulling on her clothes. She has even managed to hand me her diaper a few times. That’s a little unnerving. She loves to torment Jameson. Today, she threw my cell phone at his face. He started crying, and then she started crying. Why was she crying when she was the one that threw the phone? Because, she’s emotional. Just what I was looking forward to. She loves to hold anything to her ear and pretend it’s a phone. Her milestones are:

• Ella says “uh-oh” now (we’re a little slow on the talking part)
• She also says “Hi Diddy”
• Everything is “Mama.” Sometimes it drives me crazy.
• She burps louder than Jameson
• Ella gives high-fives
• She waves bye
• Tantrums are becoming more frequent. Actual on the floor kicking.
• She still eats certain kinds of baby foods, but is becoming picky.
• She loves sweets like her mom.
• She can’t eat a Popsicle, because she holds the actual Popsicle.
• She loves to ride her tractor, and her car
• Ella is starting to be more steady when she’s running.
• She has become very attached to her blankets.

Funny story. Monday, we were bar-b-quing with friends and Ella, being the smart child she is, put a blanket over her head and started walking. Yah, I know, smart. Well, she takes off, and walked right into the sliding glass door. Do you know how funny a little person with a blanket over her who smacks into a window is? Pretty sure she made all of us laugh. She really is a fun little girl. She loves her Daddy, and cuddles with her mom. She teases her brother, but he still protects her. It’s really cute.

We left Wednesday, April 27th for Las Vegas. This was the start of our 3 week, 3,00 mile trip. Our first event was Thursday, the 28th. what was it you ask? A much needed haircut for both of us from our favorite girl. I used to get this girl out of her crib and now she’s cutting our hair. (Sorry to embarrass you, Laura.) So, I look like I’ve been hit by a truck. So don’t mind me. My kids were sleeping in the same room with me, except they weren’t sleeping. Ella ate her breakfast while she got her hair cut.

And the comb over is gone.

Our happy girl, with her new hair do. A new hair cut always makes you feel better.

Laura was a little nervous to cut mine. I kept telling her shorter, and she couldn’t believe I would chop my hair off. I had told Jameson I was getting my hair cut like Rapunzel does in the movie Tangled, so he was prepared. He told every one once he saw me that his mom cut her hair like Rapunzel. Later that night, my Dad stopped by (we were staying with my Grandma) and I found the boys both asleep in the same position.

It’s a good thing they Jameson fell asleep, because Grandma was watching the kids for me that night. She had a pretty easy baby-sitting night. I was able to go to “Singing in the Rain.” My dad built the sets for it, and even had to help develop a whole rain system. The students at UNLV designed a rain system, which on paper looked great, but in reality, wouldn’t work. So he had to reconfigure the system, and it was a success. The girl behind us just kept saying, “This is awesome!” and “This is the best one they’ve ever done!” It was pretty funny listening to her. After the play, Dad took us up to see the sets and the rain system. It was weird walking around the theater. I haven’t been there in a long long time. Crazy how time flies.

Grandma sent a package, and it arrived with Ella’s birthday present in time for her 13th month mark. We love this girl, but she is feisty. Currently, she has the top 4 font teeth, along with the bottom front 4 teeth. She is pretty much grown out of her 12 month clothes and is into 18 month clothes. Her feet are a size 4, and her hair is getting curlier as it gets longer. She loves Jameson, and will knock on his door in the morning if he is not up yet. She also loves everything to do with Jameson: his juice, his food, his clothes, etc.

Some things she’s good at:

• She walks all over now, and never crawls. She is even starting to run, but is still a little stiff legged.
• Waves bye bye
• Plays peek-a-boo
• loves to climb up, then jump on Jameson’s bed
• shying away from 2 naps and going to 1
• sleeps 12-13 hours at night and the last 2 days took only one 4 hour nap rather than 2 naps
• doesn’t prefer car rides. After a while she just screams… not so fun
• loves to “play” the piano and sing with it
• tries to put everything on like a hat
• loves grapes
• hold phones/remotes up to her ear and starts to “talk” to them

Jameson was so excited to open the box, no matter who it was for.

First of all, do you all have your comments in here? So far it’s been fun to hear from all of you. The following pictures could possibly be items sent your way in the future.

Like I said before, we have some fun stuff planned for Ella on Saturday. Today, I started making a few things in preparation. I am planning a Lady Bug theme, so everything is red and black. Even our dessert will be… chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream.

I also got the cupcakes and cake made, so tomorrow I can decorate them. Let’s hope the idea in my head will turn into a cupcake. This can either go very well, or we might be starting over.

I also had a million bananas. Ok, not a million, but I got my order from Amazonfresh, and somewhere, my bananas didn’t get taken off. I have an order that comes every Friday, but I still had some from the previous week so I thought I took it off my order. Apparently not. So I had tons and tons of bananas. Because of this, Jameson and I made some banana bread today. Since I don’t want to eat 2 loaves by myself, we cut some up and took it to the neighbors. Yes, that loaf does have chocolate chips. I don’t add nuts, I add chocolate chips.

So that was our day. Jameson got to play with a friend all morning, and Ella slept most of the day. Literally. Neither child woke up before 8:30 am (Oh Heaven). Ella went back down by 9:30 and slept till 11:30. Then went back to bed at 1:30 and slept till 5 pm. By 7 pm she was back in bed. Those shots yesterday took it out of her.

Which, by the way, in case you were curious, her stats as of 3.2.2011 are:

22.13 pounds= 75th%

30 1/8 inches= 90th%

18 cm head circumference= 50th%

She got her Hep B, PCV (chicken pox), and MMR shot, so she was not happy. That has to be one of the worst things. To hold your child down so that someone can stick a needle in their little body. Her Ped. was very impressed with her walking while carrying toys skill. The nurse also weighed her on the big scale, because she can stand alone. No more baby scale for her. Ella has also started to grind her teeth, so I asked about that. We pretty much determined it’s only because she’s just discovering her teeth. She only does it while she’s walking around, which sounds horrible. The other news is that the doctor didn’t hear her heart murmur. We won’t know for sure what is exactly going on till next month when Ella is scheduled to have EKG and ultrasounds, but that would be awesome if the hole in her heart has closed up.

As a parent you do lots of dumb things, just to watch your child do something for the first time. Every time Ella does something new, we are clapping like it’s the final scene of the play. Well, now any time she does anything, she claps for herself. If you say, “Yay,” she will clap. Proof in point…

She will also laugh any time anyone in conversation laughs. She loves to be part of the conversation.