Carsyn updates

I'm way behind on blogging.  In fact now I really only have time to write about milestones and big updates like birthdays, etc.  Life is just flying by so quickly!

Carsyn has had a couple of 1st this year!!

She lost her very first tooth in July at 5.5 years old!!  She was SUPER excited to finally receive some money from the tooth fairy.

Then in August, right before school was to start, she finally asked to learn how to ride her bike.  We'd been trying to get her to try it ALL summer and she refused.   She asked for some knee and elbow pads and was ready to tackle the bike.  Once Malek started working with her, she had it down by her 3rd or 4th day of practicing.  Now we need to upgrade her to a bigger bike!  Guess it's a good thing her birthday is in Oct, now we know what to get her.  :)  Though that would make for a good Christmas gift as well....

Ry's 1st loose tooth!

Ry lost his very 1st tooth in May, almost 1 month after his 6th birthday and 1 week before graduating from Kinder.  The boy was super excited to see what the tooth fairy would bring him.  Lo and behold the next morning he woke up to a $2 prize!  Ry was thrilled, and now he's got a 2nd loose bottom tooth!

1st bottom tooth is out!

With his monster tooth pillow

Tooth fairy has arrived!

22 Months

Growing leaps and bounds!  We really noticed that Carsyn has been talking a lot more this past month.  She's stringing together 3-4 words now.  The other day she said "Ry-Ry where are you?".  Some of her favorite words are 'paci', 'cereal' and of course 'mama'.  Her favorite movie is Wreck-It-Ralph and it must be watched at least 2x's a day on weekends, and every night during the week.  She loves her big brother Ry and must copy him in all things; such as climbing walls & fences, eating the same snacks and playing with dinosaurs.  I love that she's such a tom boy.  :)  This girl's got spunk, character, smarts and will bust a move to music at any time. My tiny dancer.

Hook em - ready for football! 8/13/2015

stacking extraordinaire 8/4/2015

earning her keep 8/26/2015

At the beginning of August we took the kids on their first airplane ride to Cincinnati to visit my brother's family (Uncle Steve & Aunt Lil C, Mason & Harper) and meet the newest addition to their family, baby Harper.  The kids had a blast and flying didn't phase them one bit.  It was great to visit with family and check out the local zoo and aquarium!

Visiting family in Ohio 8/7/2015

extended family! 8/8/2015

all the littles - cousins/2nd cousins

monkeying around at the zoo 8/7/2015

at the aquarium

under water tunnel

This month we upgraded Carsyn's room from a crib to a full sized bed!  It took a couple nights for her to adjust and sleep through the night in her new bed, but it was totally worth it to be done with that crib.  It still takes a while to put her down because she wants you to lay there with her until she falls asleep, which sometimes takes a good hour!  Poor daddy gets stuck with this routine the majority of the time as Ry-Ry now wants mommy to take him to bed.  All in all a successful transition.  Next up is potty training, we still haven't mustered up the energy to tackle that new adventure.

new bed for the little lady 8/25/2015

Lots of changes for the little lady (and family) this month.  The last of Carsy's teeth finally broke through, all 4 canines at once!  That made for a rough couple of nights and lots of Tylenol.  Then we took a trip to San Marcos to visit Bro-Bro's new college apartment and stock up his fridge.  The littles got a nice taste of college life.  And finally Ry-Ry started pre-K in a new school, so Carsy is on her own now at daycare and at Opa & Juju's.  They are growing up way too fast!

They are like an old married couple...in their rockers with their blankets at Opa & Juju's  8/11/2015

sleepy girl 8/22

Visiting bro bro's apartment at college 8/22/2015

college beanbag chair...big enough for 2 littles!

Towards the end of the month we bought the kids a new toy, a bike trailer!  I've been wanting a bike trailer for a while now to cart the kids around, I can also use it to take Ry to pre-K as its only 1 mile away from our house.  The kids LOVE it, especially when mommy goes fast.  They rode in it all weekend long, mommy took them out in the morning and we hit up all the parks in the neighborhood.  Tons of fun for the kids, lots of exercise for mommy.

2 peas in a pod, Wheeeee! 8/29/2015

Carsy & Ry, must climb all the things together 8/30/2015

tunnel adventures 8/30/2015

Next up is planning Carsy's bday.  I've already confirmed the location, found her birthday present and sent out invites.  Now I just need to figure out her cake!

19 Months

19 months young!  This girl is on the move and definitely keeps us on our toes.  I just love her smiles and giggles and the girl is crazy smart.  I had no idea how many words she could actually say until my mom wrote them down.  She's got a good 20 word vocabulary!

• mama
• dada
• RyRy
• apple (ahh ple)
• bye-bye
• more
• ouch or ow (ususally ow)
• puppy
• red
• green
• yellow
• blue
• cheese
• ball
• bro-bro
• sissy
• uh-oh
• go
• mine (daddy taught her this...)
• ashes

cool as can be 5/3/2015

I realized about a month ago that we needed to set up a dentist appointment for Carsyn.  When the dentist called to confirm Ry's appointment this month, we scheduled her at the same time.  Ry's checkup was in the general room with me while the hubby and Carsyn went to a private room for her very first cleaning.  The dentist said everything looked great and that she possibly had some more teeth emerging as her gums were swollen, I think it might be her canines.  Overall she scored a B+ and Ry got an A.

1st Dentist visit 5/20/2015

This month we went to Ry's soccer closing ceremonies, which was really just a big celebration at the soccer fields.  They had tons of jump houses, a train and a petting zoo!  The littles with insane with the petting zoo!  Carsyn especially loved the bunnies and was not happy unless one was in her lap.  Ry had a ball catching all the animals he could, every time the hubby and I turned around he had a different bird/bunny/pig in hand!  That was the perfect way to end a Friday and wear those kids out for bed.  ;)

My bunny!  Soccer closing ceremonies 5/1/2015

Ry caught all the animals!

Look I caught a rooster  mommy!

We love bunnies

The kids love the help out in the yard, or really just be outside.  One weekend us girls decided to relax on the back porch and watch the boys at work.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and from the picture below I think Carsyn did as well.

Working hard 5/2/2015

During the month of May we also attended several birthday parties.  One of them was at the Main Event bowling alley, which was a first for the littles!   Ry was so excited it was hard for him to wait his turn, and he was a great helper when it was Carsyn's turn.  I loved the dino bowling aids.  We even hit up the arcades after cake and ice cream.  Those kids were so enthralled with all the lights that it was tough to drag them away when it was time to go.

bowling!!  5/3/2015

Ry loved to help Carsyn bowl 5/3

We've been to Safari Champs before, but this time Carsyn was able to do a lot more on her own.  While Ry was off playing with his daycare friends for a bday party, Carsyn was off on her own adventures.  She easily mastered the toddler section and then moved onto the main playscapes.  I of course had to follow her around but she really did it all on her own.  She loved keeping up with the big kids, sliding down the slides and exploring. 

Safari Champs fun 5/23/2015

I think she's tired...

Next month (June) we start 2 months of swim lessons for both kids.  I can't wait to see how Carsyn does, of course one of us has to be in the water with her, most likely me.  3x's a week for 2 months will be quite the workout.  At least I know Ry is excited for the classes, he actually asked me a few weeks ago when swimming would start again.  Fingers crossed!

16 Months

WE HAVE TEETH!!  Tons of teeth!  Within a 2 week period 8 teeth emerge from Carsyn's gums:  4 front top incisors and 2 molars, 2 bottom lateral incisors and 2 molars.  The funny thing is they dropped several days apart so they are currently uneven in length, she looks a little hillbilly-ish.  At least she finally has some chompers to help with all the food she consumes.

Teeth!  When they first started dropping.  Fun for everyone!  1/30/2015

Carysn is now 22.6 lbs and a ball of fire.  You can't slow this girl down, except for when she crashes during nap time.  :)  She loves to play with her big brother Ry, the two of them are usually in cahoots somewhere.  Her newest game she likes to play is to run down the hall, turn around and eyeball you, then come running at you. Once she reaches us we toss her up in the air and set her back down and she repeats the process.  She will do this for quite awhile, usually until we get tired.  Car-Car also loves books.  She can't get enough of them and at bedtime she will go through 8-10 books!  Carsy and Ry will fight over the same books...the same toys...sigh, siblings.

Cutting teeth is hard work, crash. 1/31/2015

Carsyn has added a couple new words to her small vocabulary, she says 'mama' and 'dada' now, however her main form of communication is still grunting.  It's amazing how much Carsy understands even though she really isn't talking yet.  We'll ask her questions all the time and she always surprised us with her response.  She's just too smart for her own good!  

• "It's time for dinner" - Carsy will run to her chair and try to climb into her booster seat, so ready for food!
• "Do you need a diaper?" - Runs to her changing table.
• "time to change clothes, hands up" - raises her hands so you can pull her shirt off
• When we ask her yes or no questions, she will shake her head yes or no depending on what she wants.
• "Where's your belly button" - picks up her shirt and looks for her belly button
• "Want to go outside" - grunts, points to window, gets really excited...she loves being outside
• "let's put your coat on" - runs over to her coat and starts putting her arms in the sleeves
• "ready for bed?" - waves goodbye to everyone, gives kisses (tongue out), runs for the stairs.  :)

February was a busy month filled with birthday parties, snakes, sweeping the sidewalks, painting and eating cookie dough (just like their mommy).  So blessed to have happy, healthy and loving kids.    

Mt Playmore for a bday party 2/1/2015

The kids loved climbing the playscapes, so did mommy and daddy.

Painting at daycare, so talented. 2/2/2015

She loves to stack blocks, budding engineer? 2/28/2015

Fun with snakes 2/7/2015

Happy Valentines 2015!

Street sweepers, child labor :)  2/15/2015

Definitely my offspring, we love cookie dough! 2/15/2015

15 Months

We have teeth!  Carsyn has finally cut some top teeth, it looks like one upper lateral and one upper central incisor have poked through with 2 more in close pursuit.  The funny thing is that the 2 that are through are on opposite sides so she still looks like a funny old man missing teeth.  My guess is that she's going to have a slew of them pop through in the next couple days/weeks.  I haven't tried taking a picture yet because she DOES NOT enjoy us poking and prodding around in her mouth, she turns bright red and throws a fit.  At least we've got her on the right track and have been brushing the few teeth she has for the past few weeks, she loves toothpaste and will demand more on her brush!  I just wish she felt this way about baths, she screams bloody murder if we put her in the tub.  For the moment she prefers to take showers with mommy.

Carsyn has also started to talk.  I will admit some of it still sounds like baby babble, but other times we know exactly what she's attempting to say.  

List of words so far:

Uh-oh!  

Oh no!  (puts hands on head)

ba'  (ball, she says this every time I read her this one book that contains colorful plastic balls)

baba (Grandpa on daddy's side is known as Baba....this could be coincidence though)

Ry-Ry (she loves her brother!)

Bye-Bye

please (signs it)

more (signs it)

Carsy is so sweet with her stuffed animals.  She has these 2 monkeys that she just LOVES and will hold and cuddle them as if she were their mommy.  She does like to dance as well, especially to the Mickey Mouse hot dog dance.  When she hears that music come on at the end of the show she will rush to the TV to bop up and down and sway side to side.  Super cute!   However watch out if you make her mad, she's totally got that angry look down.

Jumping on trampoline at Nana's 1/19/2015

This girl is growing up so fast!  Recently she has started demanding to sit in her kitchen chair without a booster seat.  We had to bring back out the kids table and chairs so her and Ryland could enjoy meals together without us worrying about her falling out of our high kitchen table chairs.  Most mornings Carsy and Ry will share a bowl of oatmeal together at the kids table, she loves this new morning routine.  Of course at dinner time we all sit at the big table so she will begrudgingly sit in her booster.

Popsicles at Opa and Ju-Ju's - 1/6/2015

For a while there Carsyn was eating way more than Ryland.  It was amazing the amount of food she'd put down, and then she'd crash by 8pm on the dot!  I think she was going through a growth spurt, perhaps building up the energy to push those teeth out?!  :)  She seems to have slowed down a bit on all the food lately, albeit she always goes for her snacks (apple sauce, fruit, cheese, etc).  I swear it's suicide hour(s) when we get home from work.  From ~5-7pm these kids are insane; constant whining for food, taking toys from each other, melt downs...it only subsides after their appetites have been appeased.  AMOK AMOK AMOK!

1st pony tail! 1/6/2015

Carysn is crazy energetic, she's trying desperately to keep up with Ryland.  They love to climb up and down the stairs together and she really loves the playscapes at the park.  Lately on weekends we've been taking Ry out on his bike or one of his motorized vehicles and Carsyn loves to follow in either the wagon, her stroller, and/or most recently the little tykes cozy truck (so much fun for mommy as I have to push her).  Thankfully Carsyn still takes naps once a day, usually from noon-2pm.  This gives us a much needed break on weekends.  Even Ry will calm down around this time and relax by watching a movie or playing games on our phones.  Anything for quiet time...

Outside adventures 1/18/2015

Rocking siblings 12/30/2014

Always together 1/16/2015

Dino park fun 1/17/2015

Eating batter, YUM! 1/22/2015

Phil's Icehouse 1/25/2015

Weeeee!