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At about 6 this morning I woke up to a soft lullaby coming from the baby monitor. It was the sweetest way Derek has ever woke me up. He’s gotten really smart and can now push the button and turn his mobil on. It’s a fishy aquarium mobil and he loves it!! It plays for about 20 minutes at a time. So I’m assuming he watched it play for the 20 minutes and maybe even fell back to sleep. After it stopped I heard him fuss for about 5 minutes, then he turned it back on again. I didn’t end up getting out of bed until 7 because he seemed like he was entertaining himself quite well.

Sophia and I had a fun Mommy/Daughter day. We went to the 10:30 Sesame St Live- Elmo Makes Music. She was amazed by Elmo and the gang at first, then she seemed to get ants in her pants about half way through. Once I gave her a snack she did much better. I should know by now that GoldFish always makes her happy! Sophia and I both had a great time!!

On the way out one of the doors was propped half open and she walked over to it, grabbed the handle and stood there. It looked like she was holding open a really heavy door open. So for 10 minutes we stood there while Sophia “held the door”. Everyone thought she was adorable!! Person after person commented, most of them said thank you, laughed and commented on how cute she was and others commented on what a heavy door she was holding. I got about a minute on video tape and it is soo funny.

After most everyone had left the building, Sophia closed the door, then we were able to finally leave. We went out for lunch then visited a friend and new baby in the hospital. Sophia thought baby Lydia was so cute and kept commenting on her smiling and crying. “Baby Happy” or “Baby Crying, Mommy!” She didn’t like it when Lydia cried.

Sophia had such a fun day, she fell asleep on the car ride home. However, the 15 minute nap in the car was definitely not enough. How can such a fun day turn so fast? We had a couple of time outs and a walk that ended in Kevin carrying a screaming child home 5 blocks. After the night we had, we’ve vowed to not skip naps…ever! How long do the “terrible twos last?”

Oh- one more thing…Sophia read (recited) her first book tonight. There’s this cheesy little book that she just loves to read every night. Each page has two words on it. She read every other page all by herself (a total of 4 pages all on her own!). Kevin and I were both stunned, so we had her do it again…she’s so smart!

I had a very stressful and LONG week at work this last week! The kids started my Mother’s Day week off great by sending me flowers to work on Thursday. I was shocked, it was such a great surprise!

Saturday was actually Kevin and my 5 year anniversary. We didn’t do anything special, just spent some quality time with the kids. I actually spent a few hours organizing the file cabinets that had been needing a bit of attention. Oh yeah, Saturday was also Derek’s 7 month birthday. What a busy weekend!!

Derek greeted me early on Mother’s Day with his normal 4 AM “I’m Starving” screaming!! This time, he decided that he wanted to spend some quality time with Mommy, instead of eating and going back to bed in 15 minutes. We spent a good hour and a half together before I realized I could use my “but it’s Mother’s Day” powers and hand my sweet little boy off to his Daddy.

My next greeting was at 9 AM by sweet little Sophia, “Happy Mommy Day”!! She’s so cute. Kevin decided they didn’t have enough milk to make blueberry muffins, so instead they did a breakfast run to BK. I had all intentions on taking Sophia on a Mother/Daughter shopping spree today, but she refused to take a nap so I decided to go by myself.

It was a great day and it reminded me how lucky I am to have a wonderful husband and two great kids!! I have to apologize to our Mom’s and Grandma for not getting cards out this year…yet, they will be in the mail sometime before June!! And a special shout out to Karissa for her very first Mother’s Day! Hope it was a good one for everyone!

Last night, while wheeling around on her grasshopper (three-wheeler), Sophia ended up doing a header over the handle bars and scraped her chin up pretty good. It was crazy how fast it happened, and even wilder how despite the raspberry on her chin, she wanted to get back outside.

Anyway, it really made me think she needed something a little bigger. So today, while running errands over lunch, I found something I figured she would enjoy - a Barbie Big Wheel:

As you can imagine, she was pretty excited when she saw it. But…there is another certain someone, who seemed to really enjoy it as well:

Derek fussed (quietly) for a few hours during the night last night. I finally got up with him around 4 AM. I nursed him for 15 minutes and he passed out cold…until I put him in his crib. Then “blink” his eyes opened wide and he gave me this huge smile. He tried to get comfortable, but after 5 minutes he started screaming at the top of his lungs. So back to the living room chair for some more breakfast. About that time I heard Sophia making a little noise in her room.

A few minutes later Lexi came strolling around the corner, with Kevin right behind her. Kevin took Lexi out for a quick stroll, then came back and made the hungry man, Derek, a bottle. He looked like he had everything under control, so I went back to bed (by this time it was around 5). About 15 minutes later, Kevin came into my room with Derek in one arm and Sophia in the other. I didn’t even asked, I gave Sophia a quick kiss and said “good morning”. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep. About a half hour later I heard Sophia say “I feed Derek, Daddy?” So I of course had to go see what was going on. I walked into the living room and there was Sophia in the rocking chair, with the boppy around her waist, and Derek on the boppy (slurping down a bottle). They were so cute…then I went back to bed, again!

This time I was out for at least an hour, I don’t remember hearing too much until about 6:45 when Kevin and Sophia came to wake me up. Kevin told me he was going to jump in the shower. Sophia piped up and said she was going to shower too. Kevin didn’t put up too much of a fight; he must have been too tired. So into the shower Sophia jumped. She took a double shower, since she wasn’t done by the time Kevin got out, so I let her take one with me too.

Turns out she was really tired around 9:45 this morning, because Denise took a really cute video of her passed out cold in the dining room chair. We hope to not have another night like that for awhile. It’s a good think Kevin is such a good dad, such I’ve become quite a slacker these last couple of weeks!!

Oh…Sophia got her first cut on her face tonight. She took a header over the grasshopper and landed square on her chin. She’ll be just fine and is recovering quickly with a SpongeBob bandaid across her chin. And our big man Derek is doing very well at sitting up all on his own!

We woke up Saturday morning to NO rain, despite the forecast from the night before. YEAH!! So we hurried through or morning routine (plus I got a little garage sale shopping in next door). We were out of here around 8:30. Amy and John had decided not to walk, due to the frigid temperatures. Which worked out great for us, because she offered to watch Derek while we walked. After we dropped off Derek, we made it to the park right on time, where we met up with Monica and Jim.

It didn’t take us very long to second guess our decision about going. It was cold and windy!! After the kick off speech everyone was eager to get on the path. Sophia decided that she was going to “walk around” just like everyone else. We decided to let her, since we didn’t figure she would walk very far. To our surprise, she walked a little over a mile. The entire time we begged her to get into the stroller or prodded her to run so that we didn’t get run over by the 100s of people behind us. Despite the stress on us, she actually did really well. The first mile (that she walked) was probably about the warmest mile, since we were covered by trees.

After the first mile Sophia got really cranky, along with the rest of us. The trees disappeared and the wind gusts picked up. I think it was below freezing wind chills (no joke). Sophia still refused to ride in the stoller, so Kevin picked her up and put her on his shoulders. It didn’t take long for her to get way too cold on his shoulders, so for the rest of the way he ended up carrying her like an infant. Off and on she would get into the stroller for awhile, then walk, but inevitably she ended up in Kevin’s warm arms.

Who would have thought that it would have been so cold in May!! Anyway, thank you to Monica and Jim for walking with us and pushing the stroller most of the way. Thank you to Amy and John who watched Derek so that we didn’t have to take him out into the cold. And a special thank you to everyone else who helped TEAM HILLABOLT earn $755 in our first March for Babies. We by far exceeded our goal and we appreciated everyone who contributed!!

Geez, it sure has been a long time since I’ve posted a photo, especially of the two kiddos together. Life sure is busy with two kids…

Today was picture day for Sophia and Derek, this is one of our favorites:

And for some reason, Sophia was extra “cheezin” today. This is here snarfing down a brownie:

Derek tried fruit puffs for babies today. As you can tell in the photo, he’s not really a fan (yet):

Another busy weekend gone. Please don’t forget we’re walking for the March of Dimes, Walk for Babies next Saturday. If you can, we’d love your support: visit our team page.

Can you believe it snowed most of the day in Sioux City on Friday?

Anyway, I just want to thank my darling husband for holding the fort down and for keeping the house standing while I was gone. That’s right, I left Kevin with the kids overnight!! I had two days worth of meetings at our Sioux City office on Thursday and Friday, which meant I had to stay over night. I think Kevin was a bit nervous at first, but he did a great job. Miraculously the kids even slept through the night!!

Thank you Denise for cooking supper and making things much easier for Kevin to survive the night!!

Friday night Auntie Kim, Logan, and Emily drove down and brought Great Grandma and Grandpa Goodburn. Grandma & Grandpa visited with us and played with the kids for awhile, we got some really good pictures, then they left to stay with my Uncle Doug.

Saturday we took Emily and Sophia to Chuck E Cheese’s. They had so much fun!! Sophia was so impressed by Chuck E and the band, that we spent at least a half hour up front waving at him and his friends. However, she wouldn’t get close enough to get a picture with him! Sophia followed Emily around and they had such a great time!!

My favorite video of Sophia playing the whack-a-mole game. Notice how she only hits one of the moles

Afterwards we went back to our house and spent some time on Sophia’s slide. Surprisingly, this consumed most of the rest of the day. Kevin got some great video of them taking turns on the slide. Sophia would climb to the top of the slide, while Emily would hide. Sophia would say “Where did Emmie Go”, then she would slide down the slide. Emily would pop up and slide down the slide. Then Sophia would run to the stairs, grunting…”uh, uh, uh…Phia’s turn”!! She would then climb to the top of the slide and Emily would hide…I think you get the picture. This went on for quite some time…with one addition, lots of screaming. The girls added playful screaming to the mix…it was all fun and games until Kevin’s eardrum popped. Not really, but he kept saying it was going to.

Sunday Kim, Logan and I ran to Target for some speed shopping. Which left Kevin with Sophia, Emily and Logan. He said it was the longest hour and a half hour ever, since Sophia seemed to have sharing issues the entire time. I’m not sure what he was talking about, she was a perfect angel when we got back.

Kim, Emily and Logan left after lunch. We were so happy to get to see them and spend time with them. I can’t wait to get the three boys together again soon! Of course after we left, we tried to get Sophia to ask “Where’d Emmie Go”, but she never did.

So I got a new gadget today: it’s called the Flip. Basically, it’s a super simple, video camera, that shoots 640×480 videos (1 megapixel). You just point, shoot and when your done, share the files; there is even software to upload your files to myspace, or youtube if that’s your cup of tea.

The best part is, I was able to get the Ultra version at Sam’s club for $139 bucks. Not to shabby, considering just how usable this device really is.

You can get more information about it here: http://www.theflip.com

Tonight we shot a ton of video; Sophia even took control of the camera and shot nearly twenty minutes of footage (I’d post it, but the download size is humungous and I’d rather not waste my bandwidth). We’re kind of thinking she might just become a Videographer, while her daddy is the Photographer.

Anyway, here is a fun video we shot:

As a birthday gift for me, Denise surprised us by offering to watch the kids Friday night. What a great gift…thank you so much. Kevin and I went out for supper and ran a few errands. It was nice to have an adult supper out!! Thanks Denise!

When we got home Denise told us that earlier in the day Derek was half asleep in the middle of the living room, sucking on his thumb (something he picked up a few weeks ago). She said she left the room for just a couple of minutes and when she came back he was not where she had left him. He had in fact rolled all the way across the room!

He had rolled for the first time from his back to his tummy last Friday (April 4), but since then he hadn’t done much…until Friday. He must have mastered rolling in his dreams or something, because all weekend long he was all over the place. There’s no stopping him now!!

As you can see from the last picture, Derek really likes his peas. We gave him some peas both Saturday and Sunday. I’m not sure he’s too fond of them, but he’ll choke them down, since he’s so hungry!!

Oh and we have a great Sophia update. She poopied in the potty (kinda) yesterday and today she pee peed in the potty twice. We celebrated both times. Oh the things parents get so excited over. We are so proud of her!!

Our little man hit another important milestone today, he tried the first batch of real people food: PEAS!

As you can see in the picture, he ended up with peas all over his face (not that you wouldn’t have expected that); the good news is, he seemed to really enjoy the taste and was eager to finish the rest at dinner time.

We figured something had to be done, since mommy’s milk just isn’t enough anymore…

Since we don’t leave the house on a regular basis as a whole family, I was a little concerned about getting to the kids’ doctors appointments on time this morning. However, we did really well. We got to the appointment at 7:55 (5 minutes early).

We walked into the exam room and the nurse told us to get both kids down to their diapers. Sophia said “no”. She was insistent that she was not going to take her clothes off. We struggled quite a bit, but finally got her down to the diaper. The nurse was gone a little too long, because by the time she entered back into the room Sophia had sat down on the floor and dressed herself back up. Kevin and I had the same exact thoughts run through our mind…this is going to be a tough morning!!

However, for no apparent reason Sophia decided she did want to run around naked. So about the time we were getting Derek’s big weigh in Sophia decided to cooperate. It all went smooth from there.

So Derek tipped the scales at 18 lbs 9 oz. Can you believe our little man is in the 75%ile of other babies his age (that’s not even age adjusted)!! Even more exciting is that he is 27 3/4 in long, which is the 90%ile. We knew he had grown a ton over the last couple of months, but that is a lot!! The doctor was pretty surprised to see how big he was when she walked in too. He had 4 more shots today, one of them was his last synagis shot. That means we are free and clear of scheduled doctors appointments for an entire 3 months!!

Well it looks like Derek is following in his daddy’s big foot steps and Sophia is right there with her mommy. Our little girl has gained 6 lbs over the last year and grown 4 inches. She is 28 lbs 2 oz (70%) and 34 in (60%). After getting her weight on the big kid scale, we took her back into the exam room. The doctor asked which ear Sophia would like her to look in first and she pointed to her left ear. From there everything went great, we had a little trouble looking into her mouth but in only took two attempts. She was a perfect angel!! She passed the healthy two year old test. The doctor did say that her left tube has already fallen out of her ear (it’s only been 3 whole months).

After the appointments, we had to run over to the lab to get Sophia tested for lead and one other thing. We again were not looking forward to how loud she might scream or how hard she might fight us. She surprised us yet again by just sitting there without any issues. The hardest thing of that whole process was getting her to keep her bandaid on.

So looks like we survived our first family “field trip”. Our kids are happy, healthy and two of the best kids ever!!

The day was going really well, we had everything ready to go and Sophia even went down for a nap before 1 o’clock. I woke her up around 2, to give us plenty of time to get her dressed up all pretty and her hair done. A half hour should be sufficient…right?

Well after numerous tries and about 10 choices of pretty dresses to wear, I had no success. Kevin tried, Auntie Karissa tried (and got her in a dress for an entire 2 minutes) and Denise even tried.

Finally the shy little birthday girl came out wearing…purple sweatpants and an old Dora T-shirt. It’s her day, I guess she can wear whatever she wants.

By the time she finally came out almost everyone had already arrived. She came out and played the little shy girl for the first 10 minutes, but then warmed up very quickly. She is so lucky to have such great family and friends!! After a little bit of playing, Sophia “open open open” as she tells us. She got a lot of really great gifts. People bring the most thoughtful gifts. But I must say, if all the kids had to vote on the best gift, it had to have been the 4 ft. slide from Grandma Robin. All the kids had such a good time taking turns down the slide. A special thanks to cousin Josh for making sure they all landed softly at the bottom.

It was hard to tear the kids away from the toys for cake and ice cream, but we couldn’t let anyone leave without trying Sophia’s SpongeBob cake, made especially by Angie. It was so good!! Thanks for all your hard work Ang!

All in all it was a great party, I hope everyone had as good of a time as Sophia did! She babbled most Saturday night and Sunday about how much fun she had!!

On a side note, Aunt Karissa and Devin stayed the night on Saturday night. Uncle Lee, Amy, John and Quinton stayed for supper. Quinton let Derek borrow a ton of his clothes and his bumbo! Thank you so much!! Sophia and Quinton spent quite some time crawling around downstairs chasing one another. They are so cute together.

Sunday Kevin took some great pictures of Devin and Derek together. I’m sure he’ll post them on flickr. Of course we couldn’t get Sophia to dress up and get into any of the pictures. She’s two and she knows it!! She didn’t miss a beat with the “terrible two’s”, I think it began on Friday at exactly 10:44 am…hmm, interesting.

Thank you to everyone for celebrating Sophia’s special weekend with us!!

Jack Jack and bubbles.

Just one of the many presents I’m sure she’ll be getting for her birthday.

It is so hard to believe that our baby girl turns two today. Seems like it was only yesterday, we nervously drove to the hospital, for a night that will forever have changed our lives.

She is growing up so fast, and continues to amaze us everyday.

Sophia: you have been the best daughter a Mommy and Daddy could have ever hoped for; your Mommy and I love you from the bottom of our hearts and couldn’t imagine life without you.

Today is your day and we celebrate for you.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Oh my, tomorrow is when we officially start the “terrible twos”…