Updates of All Sorts

So, the sleeping-in-the-same-room thing? Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Thankfully they don't really cry much, (I know I would be having an even harder time with that) we are already using two noise machines, and I do have hope that it will get better! Currently the only real problem is instead of it taking Jaina 2-5 minutes to get to sleep at night, and it taking Reilly 5-30 minutes, they collectively take 30-60 minutes to get to sleep. They're constantly just making NOISE and keeping each other up. It drives me crazy knowing they're tired, but they're keeping each other awake. And I drive Jeremy crazy cause I'm stressed out and almost CAN'T listen to the monitor. I have to distract myself with something, usually on the computer. So this whole thing might be more of give-Mommy-time-to-adjust rather than it being about the kids. But I have faith that they'll get more used to it to. If not, I'm not sure WHAT I'll do! Adjust, I guess... Also, Reilly has been sleeping in some mornings (if I get to Jaina fast enough) due to the later sleep-time, but Jaina has been waking up even earlier. Sigh.

In other news, Jaina has finally figured out that she can roll over on PURPOSE (yes, she's slightly behind in that category...) and she does it religiously now, almost any time you put her on her back. She is trying so hard to figure out the crawling thing, and has gone backwards several feet, but can't figure out the up-on-her-knees thing or the forward motion. Reilly didn't start army-crawling until he was 9 months, and he was still walking by his birthday, so I'm not too worried... :)

I spent some of the last day and a half reading the first 200+ pages of Stephenie Meyer's (Twilight author) manuscript "Midnight Sun." Very sad the way that it got leaked out, and the fact that she's put it on hold for now, but I definitely enjoyed reading it, and look forward to reading it all someday. (It is "Twilight" from Edward's perspective - more interesting than I thought it would be, without all the angst, because you already know how the story goes...) Thanks to Katie Cluff (see Katie & Brendan sidelink) for making sure none of us miss anything Twilight-related. :) You can find the .pdf file on Stephenie Meyer's site, as she has made it available herself, since it was out anyways...

Sorry. This post has no rhyme or reason. :) We went to Nauvoo last weekend for Jeremy's birthday and stayed in some condos and villas there for an awesome price. (Since we are in the temple district, we were going TO the temple, and it's off-season) It was $50 for a 2-bdrm, 2-bath, full kitchen condo, and we loved it! We had a room, Reilly had a room, and Jaina slept in a bathroom. :) We also took the kids to a Vocal Point concert that night. It started at 8:30, and they normally go to bed at 8, but with late naps, they did great! They really seemed to enjoy it, and they were so tired when we got back to our room(s) that they crashed even though it was a strange place. All in all a great trip. :)

And the last piece of news today? Reilly is no longer a safe napper. J/K, but not only does he only take a nap 5 days out of 7 now (he plays in his bed for a while instead on those 2 days), but today he was talking and then fussing and then crying about 30 minutes after I put him down. I ignored him for a while, because I was on the phone with my friend, Isabelle, but finally I needed to go check on him. First I realized his bed was wet (really wet), and I thought his sippy cup had come open somehow. But there was still so much liquid in it! So I turned on the light, and that's when I realized he did NOT have a diaper on. I usually put him down for a nap in just a diaper and a t-shirt, because he gets really warm when he sleeps in the afternoons. Well, no more. At least not with his velcro/aplix diapers. The little angel had removed his diaper and peed all over his bed! I was so grateful it happened at naptime, and when I didn't care much if he took a nap or not, and that there wasn't anything worse in his diaper... So yeah. Snapping diapers, or shorts over the diaper, from now on.

He is getting so big! In less than one month, he'll turn 2! I can't believe it. He's saying so many words, and we're starting to actually understand some of them. He also understands a lot more. Yesterday Jeremy took him to his first "movie:" they saw Wall-E at the theater in Moline. Jeremy said he did really well after he got used to how dark it was. Just crazy stuff... Here is a shot of his best smile yesterday, and a comparisom by the same door this time last year...

Scary Sleeping Situations

So, Reilly and Jaina have both been sleeping pretty well. (Well, except for last night, which we're not discussing right now...) And we're tired of sleeping in the basement, and even moreso, of having the basement be our clothes closet. So as we speak Reilly and Jaina are both in Reilly's room, trying to fall asleep. I finally had to go downstairs and turn off the monitor (Jeremy is upstairs playing Wii and listening to them) because I'm just stressing out. They're not crying, but one or both keeps making noise, and I just don't know how this is all going to turn out! I really want this to work, but knowing how they each sleep, I'm not sure how much time it might take, and I hate the short-term messing with their sleep! Sigh, sigh, sigh... Anyone that has done this (put two kids of similar ages - he's almost 2, she's 8.5 months- together) give me advice and/or encouragement!

In other news, we took our first family pictures today at JC Penney's. It was a little crazy, mostly because I was worried about everything and because Reilly was very grumpy, but we got a few cute shots. I'll show you sometime. ;-)

And, oh yeah: my little sister, Emily, is engaged. She's marrying Jason Gardner (from Joseph City) on October 10th, in the Mesa, Arizona temple. Jaina and I will be going; Jeremy's schedule puts him right before finals (and right after a NUCCA conference in San Francisco) and Reilly will be 2, so we'd need 3 tickets, and... so they're staying in Davenport for the weekend. I'm very excited for Emily and Jason, and I hope that all the planning goes well for them!

She really is a girl, we promise!

Poor Jaina. At our WIC appointment today they put her in the 99th percentile for her height/weight ratio (and Reilly is still in the 97th). All weighing and measuring my kids ever tells me is what I already know: they're chubby and short! But, back to Jaina: at 8 1/2 months, she is very ready for 9-12 or 12 month clothes, especially in the footed-pajamas department. But we don't have any 9-12 month stuff somehow (it doesn't seem to come in that size often), and her 12-month pajamas (and clothes) are all warm, wintery ones. And winter's not quite here yet. So today I dug through Reilly's 12-month box to find her a few things to get her through the next month or two, at least pajama-wise. So, she's a very, very cute little boy after about 7 pm on any given day now. I just try not to take too many pictures. I couldn't resist this one, though I did throw the bow on to avoid any confusion. :) Don't you love her big rabbit-feet? That one's actually size 18 months, and is definitely too long, but fits perfectly width-wise.

8-month Photo Shoot

Yesterday Jaina turned 8 months. So crazy... we had the car, so we went to the park after naps and I got a lot of really cute pictures of her. A few of Reilly as well, but he doesn't hold still so well these days... If you want to see the rest of them, go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=66243&l=06bce&id=525931074

Playing Hard and Sleeping Hard

Reilly and Jaina keep pretty busy trashing the living room every day. They love to play with the Little People, and Reilly loves his puzzles too. He's also been feeling a little destructive lately and likes to throw things all over the place while yelling happily. We think it might be from watching "Lilo & Stitch" a little too much. We've decided to take a break (perhaps for a few years) from that one, even though he loves it and often asks for "Stitch!" Hopefully that will help? It might just be his boy-ness...
The last pictures are of both of them during nap time. Both taken at some point when we needed to go in and wake them up for appointments or church or something. :)

New Car Seat

Jaina's finally about to outgrow her bucket seat (and I'm way over trying to carry her around in it...) so we ordered her a "big" car seat. It's just like Reilly's, but with a slightly different cover. He got upset nearly every time we put her in it the first week. He thought they were both his, and kept saying "mine!" while pointing at her seat. She isn't overly fond of it yet, but it will fit her even better as she gets a little bigger. Here are pictures of her in her new seat. Those last ones were taken last? Saturday. We were on our way to the mall in Moline (just for a change). It was so bright outside Reilly even left his sunglasses on until we got inside!