Our little girl turned 2

What a busy week in our household this week. Friday was Amy's 2nd birthday which unfortunately for her started with a trip to the doctors for her and her sister. I took the day off work so I could take them. Amy is now 23.5lbs and 35.5 inches tall. She is in the 10th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height. She had to have 1 vaccination but is now all set until she is 4. Caitlyn had her 4 month check-up and now weighs 13lb 11oz and is 24.5 inches long. She is in the 50th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height. Funnily enough she is tracking nearly identically to Amy when Amy was that age. Caitlyn was a brave little girl and also had 4 vaccinations and an oral vaccine. Of course as soon as she started crying Amy started too. So for about 10 mintues I had them in stereo!! Luckily by the time we left the doctors both had calmed down and all was well as we headed to shops for some retail therapy. In the afternoon Amy had fun opening her gifts she had received from the family. She received a Tinker Bell pop-up book, Tinker Bell blankets, Tinker Bell DVD, Tinker Bell wand (are you picking up a theme here :-), a growth chart, new pair of swimmers, cover-up, Peter Rabbit books, crayola crayons, crayola magic coloring books and a dirt devil toy vacuum. By the end of it she was an expert at unwrapping.

Friday night we went to Madison's house for her 2nd birthday party. She lives in The Dominion in a very nice home. We arrived there in the afternoon with 3 other little kiddos and played in her playroom before heading downstairs for pizza, cake and ice-cream. Before leaving Amy was given 2 pink balloons to take home and she has been playing with them ever since. On Saturday we went to Little Gym in the morning and then came home for an early nap. While Amy and Caitlyn were sleeping I headed out to pick up the Tinker Bell birthday cake. Then it was nearly time to get the party girl dressed and head downtown for her party. Amy looked so cute and when we arrived there and her little friends showed up she was so excited - literally squealing with excitement. We had plenty of food and drinks for everyone and the kids loved looking around the Children's Museum. It is so great because everything is their scale and they can touch everything. Amy had the party room upstairs and they had signs made up for her and the room of course was decorated nicely. The host we had for our party was great - she helped with everything. After the kids had played for a while we called everyone back into the party room and each child decorated a fabric square with handprints and pictures. At the end of it our party host tied all the squares together with bright colored ribbon and made a quilt out of it. It is such a neat momento and we love it. We have it hanging in the girls play room near where Amy does her coloring in. I took a photo to add to this post. Once the quilt making was done it was time for more play out in the museum. Then it was back to the room for cake and gifts. As you can see from Amy's choclatey grin she loved her cake. She was a very lucky girl and received some fantastic gifts from her friends (clothes, a Tinker Bell doll, Tinker Bell book, Build-A-Bear gift card, Little People play castle, puzzles, coloring books, clipo hippo). And the Children's Museum gave her a t-shirt, pencil and beanie toy. Needless to say when we left she was worn out and fell asleep in the car on the way home. But once we were home it was time to watch..........you guessed it Tinker Bell. Mummy and Daddy are tinkered out to say the least. It was a fantastic day though and while it saddens us to think she is growing up so quickly it is great to see the little girl she has become and how happy and friendly she is. It also reminds us how quickly Caitlyn is growing up too and we can't wait to celebrate her milestones too.

Where does the time go?

I can't believe it is February already with Caitlyn turning 4 months old last Friday and Amy turning 2 next week. The weeks and months just go by so quickly. Both of the girsl have their well visits at the doctors next week so we will see how much they have both grown then. Nothing too much to report this week. Amy and Caitlyn had fun during the week playing in their playroom - and big sissy did a very nice job of reading to little sissy (as you can see in the picture). Of course I don't think poor Caitlyn has a choice as Amy is always sitting next to her or on her and giving kisses etc. Poor little Caitlyn probably wants some time to herself some days :-) Jerad also took the girls to the park during the week and Amy went down both of the big slides on her own. Jerad said she absolutely loved it and went down about 10 times. Needless to say she was very disappointed when it was time to come home.
We have been talking to Amy about her birthday and seeing if she will hold up 2 fingers to show old she will be. She doesn't quite do that but gives a great two thumbs up action instead! It was also funny this week she has started to mimic Jerad and I when we hold a finger to our mouth and say "Sshhh". At night after Caitlyn goes to bed whenever Amy is heading upstairs she now with a quite little voice says "Sshhh" but holds her finger sideways across her mouth. It is very cute to see. I am taking the girls later today to have some photos taken. Fingers crossed they both behave and smile for the camera. Sometimes Amy is really good and will pose for the camera and sometimes she just screws up her face and looks everywhere except at the camera. Caitlyn thankfully doesn't really misbehave for the camera just yet - I'm sure that time will come.

Next week we'll have a lot more to report as we have Madison's birthday party on Friday and Amy's on Saturday. I'm sure we'll be on Tinker Bell overload by then!

Jerad's in business

Another busy week for the Clay family. Amy is really enjoying listening to music with Daddy during the day. As you can see in the video she loves dancing and is trying to show her little sister how to dance too. It was the start of a new semester at Little Gym and they have now split the class so some of Amy's friends are now in the older kiddies class. But she still has Blake, Abigail and Lillie in her class and is now able to meet some new little kids too. She had fun with her new teacher Miss Beth and was also able to hand out her birthday party invitations to her friends. This week has involved a lot more birthday party planning - we have ordered her cake and went to Party City to buy party supplies (all Tinkerbell of course!). Mummy and Daddy had fun picking all the little gifts to go in the favor bags too. We also went shopping on Saturday and bought Caitlyn some new clothes and socks. I love shopping for little girl clothes - they are so cute and so much to choose from.

This morning we all went out and got the car washed, did the grocery shopping and bought Amy some birthday presents with money sent by Grandma Liz. Thankfully Amy had a nap after getting home so we can hide the gifts without her having a meltdown as she sees us unpack them and not allow her to play with them! Caitlyn had fun playing with Mummy while we were waiting for the car to get washed but then while we were shopping it was all too tiring and she had to have a nap. She has been such a good girl lately - sleeping through the night, not fussing when we are out (e.g. we ate out twice during the last week and she just lays there while we eat our meal smiling at everyone), laughing and giggling at nearly everything. Of course she is also getting cuter each week. Hard to believe she will be 4 months old this week - she is growing up way too fast. But it is so much fun seeing her with Amy as they interact more.

The other exciting news this week is that Jerad now has a business of his own. He signed up this week to become an Arbonne Consultant. His friend Amy in Oklahama is a stay at home mum and has been doing it for 2 years. They specialize in skin care but also have a baby care line, mens products and health supplements. So Jerad thought this might be a way to make a little extra money while being a stay at home dad. Check out the products at www.arbonne.com
If you want to order something just use his Consultant Number 18105090

Well until next week...................bye

Presentation Day at Little Gym

We all had a fun day yesterday. It was Amy's Presentation Day at Little Gym where all the kids get to show off what they have learned throughout the semester and do it on their own. At the end the kids all get presented with a ribbon. At least this time (unlike last year) Amy didn't throw her ribbon on the floor. She was quite happy to show off for us and the camera. Unfortunately when I went to upload the video of it this website was having issues so the video didn't upload. I'll try again next week.

Jerad did get some good photos of Caitlyn this week though. One of her smiling and enjoying her BIG beanbag and another where she is worn out from playing in the Jumperoo and has to catch a few zzz's. It's amazing how much she is changing week by week. Jerad was also very pleased during the week with Amy and the fact that she appears to really like Tom Petty. She was dancing up a storm when his music came on the TV. Jerad is a huge Tom Petty fan for those that don't know. We also had fun yesterday upgrading Jerad's cell phone and adding me to the plan. Of course when we got home we had to work out how to use the new toys! Nothing is simple any more it would seem.

Mummy had a busy week at work and it will be that way for the foreseeable future as things are very hectic. Then when weekends get here they seem to go by so quickly - too quickly. Nothing much else planned for the weekend other than grocery shopping. So it should be a quiet Sunday, and if the weather improves we'll be planting some seedlings out in the garden.

A chilly week.............well by TX standards

It was a shock to the system this week with the cold weather each day. It was in the 30's each day on the way to work and some days only getting into the 40s. Now I realize for others in the US this is pretty warm for winter - but for South Texas, it is almost frigid :-)

Thankfully Amy is doing much better this week and back to her normal self. Caitlyn is fine too, in fact she actually slept for 10 straight hours on Thursday night. I was in a panic at first when I woke up and realized that I hadn't got up in the early hours of the morning. But when I went to check on her she was just snoozin'. Had me worried for a minute there. Of course she hasn't bothered to sleep like that again for mummy and daddy!

I've made more progress on the planning of Amy's 2nd birthday party. I've ordered the invitations and a cute little outfit for her. Next week I'll start thinking about the cake, goody bags and the food. We also had a fun afternoon together in the kitchen making a pumpkin cake. Amy was such a big help measuring the dry ingredients for mummy. We tasted our masterpiece while it was still warm out of the oven and now she has gone down for an afternoon nap. Depending on when she wakes up we may go for a walk to the park. During the week in Daddy Daycare Amy and Caitlyn were busy teaching daddy some songs (and the actions that go along with them of course) as seen in the video :-)

Learning to drive and full of smiles

I think we could best describe this week as tiring - due to busy days and lack of sleep. We once again (or I should say still) have a sick household. Amy went to the doctors on Wednesday but wasn't improving and by Friday still had a nasty cough, runny nose, fever etc. So she is now on antibiotics and doing much better today. Of course she has been very generous and shared her illness with little sissy. So now Caitlyn has a bad cough and runny nose. There isn't much we can give Caitlyn and just need to watch her to see she doesn't start wheezing etc. Daddy still isn't 100% either and it is peak allergy season here in San Antonio with all the cedar in the air so let's hope this coming week is healthier!

Due to being stuck indoors though we did get to take some video this week - 2 in fact. Caitlyn was full of smiles on Thursday and Amy is already learning to drive a car (well a Tinkerbell car). She just needs to learn to keep her finger on the red button (accelerator) and then of course how to steer - minor details! During the week I also booked Amy's 2nd birthday party at the Children's Museum, so now I just need to get invitations and all that jazz. It should be a fun day with all the activities the kids can do there.

As we moved the TV and cabinet from the playroom to the downstairs guest bedroom Jerad found my old Nintendo Gameboys (including Gameboy Color) - they seem like relics now but I'll manage to have some fun with them playing Zelda and Metroid :-) I had forgotten I had them - see the fun you can have when tidying up. Clearly it doesn't take much to amuse me. Well we don't really have much else planned for the rest of the weekend while the kiddos are sick so I'll end the post here. Have a great week everyone!

Happy New Year

It was a pretty low key week for us as most of the household is again (still) battling the cold/flu. On top of that it has been particularly cold outside (well by San Antonio standards at least). I had my first day back at work and thankfully the office is pretty quiet this time of year so I was able to start catching up on stuff without too many interruptions. We didn't do anything special for New Year's Eve this year - I didn't even make it to midnight. But when I woke up the next morning it was 2009! Hard to believe the year went by so quickly.

Caitlyn is growing more and more each week and is now sleeping about 8 hours at a time at night, so it is good to get a night's sleep again. I'm sure she'll start giggling soon, she has huge smiles when you play with her during the day and is starting to make little laughing sounds. We pulled out Amy's old Jumperoo for Caitlyn this week and she seems to enjoy it. Of course she doesn't stay in it long as her little neck muscles get sore being in the upright position. Amy wanted to get back in it when she saw it but seems content playing with her little sister in it.

I'm in the process of planning for Amy's 2nd birthday. I went and checked out one place yesterday but it wasn't that great. So this week I am going to look into booking the San Antonio Children's Museum. They have 3 party rooms and special activities for the kids to do during the party. They really seem to cater to all different age groups and it looks like the adults might enjoy it too. So we'll see what I decide during the week. I have printed out some pictures of dresses for Amy so that she can pick a birthday dress - at the moment her favourites seem to be a hot pink one or a blue/brown one. She changes her mind everyday of course, but we'll try and get her to narrow it down.

No other real news this week, I'll try and post more next week and include some pictures.