Feeding ducks, a new camera lens and solids!! (Week 162/24)

I got a spider bite tonight! AHHH!  Just had to add that because it really is my worst nightmare since I am horribly anti-spider. AHHH!  I needed Will to assure me that I was not going to die.   I'm not, right?  

First off, Will got a new toy to play with this week.  A fancy-smancy huge and heavy new lens for his camera.  Look to see if you can tell which photos were shot with the new lens!  It's quite a doozy though - super heavy and quite expensive.  We'll see if it has a future with our family... I told Will he had to take some pretty amazing shots for me to be sold on it! haha!

Things are finally returning to somewhat normal around here - everything has been kind of hectic with Will out of town for a week, and then my nanny being out last week.  I need normalcy in my life.  That and sleep.  Much more sleep.  Katelyn has become quite the Houdini when it comes to worming her way out the wrap we have her in.  She'll flip onto her back and wake up immediately!  It has become REALLY exhausting flipping her back.  Sigh.  But can you really hold it against such a cute little face?

Isn't it silly that her hair grows straight up?  And it's still so light too - Tyler's was like that also I think.  How stinking cute is she! Haha!  We are working on some more tummy time during the day - she can scoot around on the floor but doesn't seem anywhere close to actually lifting her stomach off the ground.  She did get in kneeling position today though!  She's really content just hanging out on her back and playing with toys, and can roll easily from tummy to back, but doesn't have much interest to roll back onto her tummy (although I've seen her do it maybe a handful of times..)

This age is getting to be a lot more fun!  We spend a lot of time on the floor, playing with different toys and scooting around.  She is so smiley and loves to chew on everything.  Her wake times during the day range from about 1hr 10min - 1hr 45 min, and then she needs to go down for a nap.  If we wait too long, it gets much more difficult.  I am proud that we're able to put her down awake and pat her a little and she'll fall asleep (with some fussing usually)!  It's a big step from where we used to hold her until she was asleep and then put her down.  Of course, there are good days and bad days, and we do have to resort to using a loud bathroom fan to knock her out sometimes.  Usually those instances are when she's been up close to 2 hours.  We're finally getting the hang of things again.  But, flipping over midst sleep is still causing us issues, and she inevitably seems to wake up around the ~40 min mark during naps when she's transitioning to her next sleep cycle.  Sigh.  Baby steps.  But she's worth it! :)

We went to pick up Tyler from school together the other day.  Drop offs are much better now, thank goodness.  They were quite horrible for a week+ after we got back from Texas.  Tyler did NOT want to be at school when he was used to playing with us all day!  It was H A R D.  We're lucky that Tyler has a teacher in his Pre-2 class (Deena) that he really likes, and he looks forward to hugging her in the morning.  Good thing she opens in the morning.  Not so good though last week when there was a day that she was off!  Ahh!  There's also another teacher Vanessa that has taken a special liking to Tyler - I LOVE that he has a special bond with some of the teachers!

Tyler was very excited to get on the tire swing with his friends while Will took some photos.  That's his buddy Catherine in the pink that he plays with a lot.  (Katelyn has those shorts!)  Check out the kid next to Tyler on the ground.  The assaulter from last week's black eye incident!  Grrr.  He was trying to get on and Tyler wouldn't let him.  Haha!

After school on Friday we headed to Woodbury Town Center with some friends for dinner.  Tyler liked playing near the fountain.  Action shot!

Please don't fall in Tyler!  Which reminds me, we need to get Tyler into some swimming lessons before the Summer is over...

While Tyler was playing with his buddy Kaden, another kid came up and wanted to play also.  Tyler was not very welcoming.  Come to think of it, the last time we were here, he wasn't very welcoming to another kid that wanted to join in.  Hmmm, that's not very nice...I hope we're not raising a snob! haha!

Tyler and Maddie liked watching videos on Tyler's iPhone.  We ate at this place called "Asian Tapas" for the first time, and it turned out to be a pretty authentic Chinese restaurant!  Tyler ate a ton of fish filets - Yum!  (And, just to toot my own horn, I made some for us this week too!)

What a difference a week makes.  Last weekend Tyler had no interest whatsoever in Legos, and didn't really participate in any of the activities held at the birthday party at the Lego store.  This week - really into his Lego set (the favor from the party).  Will made a helicopter and then Tyler ran around with it!  I was at Target checking out Lego sets, but they're for ~5 year olds.  I don't know if I want to get the Lego Duplos for younger kids but Tyler would LOVE the Disney Cars themed ones though.. 

Saturday we headed to a nearby park (Heritage) to feed the ducks.  We've had a full bag of hot dog buns that had gone stale and we had put aside just for this purpose.  There's some crazy event going on at the Aquatics Center at the local Irvine High School (Michael Phelps was there!) but thank goodness we didn't have any issues finding parking.

I remember coming to this park with Tyler when I was on maternity leave with him.  Had him in the Bjorn and just needed to get out of the house and walk around.  LOTS of ducks here.  And turtles too! I didn't realize until we were leaving that there was a sign that said no swimming, no fishing, and no duck feeding.  Oops.

Katelyn was happy to be out of the house too.  As she gets older, I'm looking forward to spending more time outside - especially with her wake times getting extended.  I was reading there was research that showed that getting sunlight helps with the circadian rhythms of babies, and can help them sleep longer at night.  I'm willing to try anything! :)

Serious Tyler.

Happy Tyler!  A real smile for once and not a fake one!  It IS possible!  Seriously, some of the photos with Tyler's fake smile make me, his mother, even cringe! Haha!  I like the little duck in the background too. 

A picture of Katelyn and me!  Not such a fan of me in this picture, but love that K is looking at me and smiling.  She loves her mommy! 

Afterward we headed to the playground.  Recently renovated, it had all new things to play on!  This park used to have a really old rocketship - the kind you can climb stairs up each level and then slide down.  Very dangerous and rickety looking.  I think the last time we were here they might have even closed it off.  Now everything has been replaced with shiny new blue things - such as this swaying boat!

The whole playground had a nautical theme.  Here's Tyler selling stuff at his Bait & Tackle shop.  We're open for business!

He's listening intently to me ordering.  I think I ordered an octopus.

After "preparing" the octopus, it was ready.  Here you go mommy!  And he also waited to be paid.  haha!  I like to ask for my change and have him look at me and go "huh?"

Ooh flashbacks of lunch from that day.  Reminders of how stubborn Tyler can be lately.  He wouldn't eat his chicken and threw a FIT.  Drives me nuts when he does this, but I have even less patience when Katelyn is upstairs sleeping.  GRRR!  We give him choices of A or B and his answer is usually I want A AND B or NEITHER.  Hmmm, that's not an option.  He managed to squeeze in a little nap that day, and still woke up grumpy.  Sigh.  It sucks dealing with TWO babies at the same time.  Later that afternoon, Will's parents came by with his grandmother and 3rd aunt.  Katelyn, as usual, was in a great mood!

Here's Katelyn with her great grandmother!  She was very happy to hold and play with Katelyn.  She even recommended that I have a 3rd kid - insisted even!  Hmm...

Tyler even got to have some YogurtLand that day, even though I was hesitant due to his bad behavior!

Sunday we headed to Bill Barber park (near Tyler's school) to meet up with some friends.  Tyler immediately went to climb the fountain when we got there.  Dangerous!

He wasn't scared in the least.  He can be so adventurous, but all of a sudden he's afraid of the dark?  Sigh.  His nightlight right now is SO bright you might as well have a normal light on...

Here's Tyler playing with his friend Maddie on the rocks.  Something was very funny, I guess!  It's a beautiful park - has fountains and these shaded terraces.

This picture I thought was really funny.  Tyler and Maddie are just chilling, and Jackson (Maddie's little brother) is popping up in the background. 

After a bit we decided to head over to the other fountains.  Tyler's showing off his ability to walk backwards.  He really is quite silly, especially when there are other girls around!

Tyler playing with the frog fountain.  Here's a picture of him playing with the very same frog when he was barely 1 years old!  Wow time flies...

We thought we would try to get some photos of Tyler and Katelyn together.  First of all, look how fair Katelyn is compared to Tyler!  She could almost be a mixed baby or something in this photo! Hah!

Yes, I was very close on hand to make sure they didn't topple backwards into the fountain.  Tyler loves sitting with Katelyn though.  He's so gentle and loving with her!

Then we figured (for safety reasons) to get off the fountain and found a nice spot on the grass.  I LOVE this photo of Katelyn.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  She has such a funny little expression, and she's sitting up all by herself too!  I realized she looks more girly with the hat on - so you can't tell how little hair she has!

Love this photo too!  It was such a nice and beautiful (well, still hot by my standards) day.

It is SO hard to get a shot with both kids looking at the camera.  Seriously.  I'll settle for none.  :)  Sadly, you can still see a little of Tyler's black eye in this photo.

A couple cute ones.  I can't really expect Katelyn to know her name and look at the camera yet, can I?

And a few more, because I simply couldn't decide which one I liked best.  (And if I don't put them in the blog, the photos go into the black hole of our zillion photos...).

Silly Katelyn!

Both smiling!  Don't be surprised if this one ends up on our Christmas card this year! :)

And a last one.  Aren't the flowers in the background a nice tough?  I loved that they were scatted on the grass where we were taking photos.

And we had a new visitor this week - my friend Jenn from college.  She's a doctor.  Yes.  How awesome is that?  She just moved to Irvine and she came by to meet the family and hangout.  I can see fun things in the future for us! 

Katelyn's new favorite toy - a teether/stuffed animal that I got from Ikea back when Tyler was a baby!

Here's a video of K playing on her mat:

I also started putting her in the exersaucer.  Tyler was never too interested in it, but it looks like K can get some enjoyment from it. 

We've started K on some baby oatmeal the last couple weeks.  Just once a day, and not even that much.  We've made it really watery and it's really just to help her get the hang of eating something.  However, one day I accidentally made it super thick and she ate it much happier!  Then she stopped having bowel movements.  It's been 3-4 days.  Yikes.  Talked to my pediatrician's office today and they recommended some prune baby food.  Exciting!  Here's a video of K eating prunes baby food.  She ate it like a champ - didn't spit it out or anything - she is totally ready for food!

Have a good week everyone! (BTW, while I was writing this, Tyler fell off his bed. Seriously. He has a bed against a corner in his room, with the bottom mostly blocked off a shelf, and a guard rail along the side. He moves SO much when he sleeps that he managed to fall out of the bottom of the bed. Yikes! Also wanted to mention that K flipped herself over earlier in the evening and fell asleep!  For like an hour or so, but still - that's progress!)