Weather and child labor laws

We had a nice Spring blizzard here last weekend. Being a bit of a weather nerd, I took some pictures for posterity and for our relatives in the south. Despite being snowed in, we had a pretty nice weekend. Sunday morning the sun came out and the three of us (Reina was exempt from chores mainly because she can't hold her head up all the way - and the whole lack of upper body strength. . . ) tackled the driveway after church.

Here's the view from our back porch. And the front porch (before):And after:

Here we are violating child labor laws - the kid loves snow. He especially likes to eat it which leads to this . . . A face plant in the giant snowdrift behind him. . . we went inside shortly after.

In other breaking news - and file this one under "things I never thought I would talk about in public" - Will has pooped in the potty two nights in a row! Tonight he even asked to go to the potty which was a first. I think the fact that he gets a lollipop if he actually poops is helping to motivate him, but we might be on our way to potty training this 2 year and 1 month old. I feel like we are doing the whole potty training backwards by starting with the poop but I also feel like we should capitalize on any interest he does have. I hope I'm not jinxing us. If we are still working on this process in a year, no one remind me, ok? (I can't believe I just typed a whole paragraph about poo. Sorry.)

Smiles!

We've been getting lots of smiles from Reina but they are hard to capture on the camera. Here are a few attempts:

Here's a smiley picture of Will - he loves his bathtime!

It's been a good week at the Pauley household. Will's adjusting to his little sister very well. So well in fact that he offered to nurse her at dinner last weekend. We couldn't figure out what he was saying at first but when he lifted up his shirt and said "Baby snack snack" we caught on. He's going to love it when we re-tell that story at his high school graduation party.

In other embarassing stories, Glenn dressed Reina for me in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. When I got up, I put her in her bouncy seat and went about my morning. A little while later I picked her up to change her and noticed that her seat and herself were soaking wet. I couldn't figure out what happened until I felt her little bottom and realized that she was going commando - she didn't have a diaper on. Part 2 of this fascinating story happened last night. Will went to bed at 8:00, Glenn went to bed at 9:30. At 10:30 on my way to bed, I came upstairs and Will was standing in the hallway in the dark. I led him back to his room (have I mentioned that he's sleeping in a big boy bed now?!) and when I went to put him back in bed, I realized that his sheets and his jammies were soaking wet. Again, I felt for the diaper and realized that we had another diaper-less kid in the house. Glenn changed Will last so I knew who to blame. Apparently I need to be more specific with my instructions. "Glenn, will you change the baby/Will but make sure you put a new diaper on when you take off the old one?"

Here's wishing you a diaper-free weekend.

More pictures before my computer poops out

Reina in her baptism finery. She's wearing tights! Reina exhausted from all the baptism excitement. It's very tiring to scream at the top of your lungs for 5 whole minutes.

What happens when you leave a toddler alone for 4 minutes while you are changing his sister's diaper? One can of instant coffee later and you've got this mess. At least he got the little broom and dustpan out to start cleaning up. Not sure what role Canyon's retractable leash played . . . or the umbrella . . .
Will's expression whenever we bring out the camera lately - he says "I see!" because he likes to view the picture after it's been taken.

Reina looking concerned or confused.

Will blowing out his birthday candles. Actually "blowing out" is a slight exaggeration because he extinguished that first candle with his hand. ouch!

My new favorite picture of our princess - even if she looks a little elfin.

Reina's baptism

I was going to title this post "Holy Croup" but in light of the fact that it was also Reina's baptism weekend, I thought it was probably a tad bit inappropriate. We took Will to the ER late Friday night/early Saturday morning. He woke up coughing and making this horrible wheezing sound at about midnight and it scared us enough to take him to the hospital to get it checked out. I was pretty sure it was croup and that was confirmed after being in the ER for about 30 seconds. We had to spend a few hours there just to make sure he was responding well to the treatment but at least we didn't have to spend the night.

Saturday was a blur - we all had major sleep deprivation. Luckily Aunt Vicky was around to help out. It's amazing how much easier it is to have 2 kids when there are 3 adults in the house. We can play a zone defense instead of strictly man-to-man.

Sunday was Reina's baptism. It was a lovely ceremony even though she screamed her head off from the minute the baptismal water touched her head. We asked our good friends Matt and Beth Hoobler to be the godparents and they did a terrific job.

I have a ton of pictures from Will's birthday and more shots of Reina but my computer is acting up so stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Will!

Today is Will's 2nd birthday! Hard to believe that it's been 2 years since he burst into our lives. Glenn and I bought him a basketball hoop because he's very interested in basketball right now. How fitting that his birthday falls on the first day of March Madness this year huh? Anyway, Will loves to watch basketball and as we discovered this morning, he loves to put the basketball in the hoop. The hoop is low enough that he's only working on the 2-handed dunk right now. Once we move it out of the (newly painted and still in disarray) living room, we'll raise the backboard a little bit so he can practice actual shots. Is it possible to be a basketball savant? Is it too early to start imaging myself 17 years from today sitting in some coliseum watching my son lead the Wyoming Cowboys to a first-round win in the NCAA tournament?

Here he is practicing his turn-around jump shot. Actually he's trying to figure out how to simultaneously hold his basketball and the four matchbox airplanes that Aunt Vicky bought him - so that no one else can play with them.

On Saturday, Will's preschool had a little program and fundraiser. Will's class sang a couple songs. Will, however, did not. He wouldn't go up on the stage unless I went with him and during the songs, he jammed his whole hand in his mouth. I guess we don't have to worry about him ever appearing on "American Idol" or headlining a Chippendale's revue. Of course later that afternoon, from the safety of his own home, he sang all the songs and even did a little dance.

In other breaking news - Reina wore pants!

One Month Old!

One month ago today, I was doing this . . . Yes, I'm actually smiling. Apparently unaware that I look like I'm carrying the baby in my face . . . glad those days are behind me.

Today Reina is officially one month old. What a wild month it has been! She continues to be the cutest, most well-behaved baby girl in all of Wyoming. She definitely prefers sleeping on top of someone (usually mom) rather than by herself and she still hates the carseat. BUT, she's becoming much more alert and everyone thinks I'm crazy to say this, but the girl is on the verge of smiling. I swear! She smiles with her eyes a lot. Judge for yourself with these two pictures.

Okay, so maybe she does look pretty darn solemn in both of those pictures - but look at this one. Clearly she knows how to read already and I do believe that is the latest issue of Field & Stream.

I tried to find a picture of Will at one month old but since I'm the Queen of Disorganization - this was the best I could do - he's about 3 weeks old I think.

There are definitely some similiarities in their little faces although she's got more hair. I think they both look like little old men. Cute little old men.

Toddler tantrums and sleeping babies

"I'm wearing my sister's hat to the grocery store and you can't stop me!" He did wear the hat and I didn't stop him. Glenn somehow managed to get him to leave it in the car. Will has fully embraced the idea of picking out his own clothes. Look - a picture of Reina sleeping someplace besides her mom's lap - what a shocker! I took that picture about 10 minutes ago and she's already awake and screaming her head off. My respite was nice while it lasted!