Lily outgrew her carseat!

The time has come to move Lily to a new carseat. We went back and forth about whether to buy another rearfacing carseat that held more weight or to just turn her around. I don't know if all of you are aware, but it is now being recommended that you wait until your child is 2 yrs old to turn their carseat around. I know everyone has there opinion on this and that it could stir up quite a debate, but I just feel like a happy child in the back seat makes for a SAFER car ride for everyone. I want my child to be safe and secure in case of an accident, but I want her to be happy and comfortable also - not cramped and staring at a gray wall the whole time. 

I asked the doctor at their well checks this week what he thought about turning her around and do you know what he told me? Go right ahead! She is definitely okay to be facing forward in the car now. He did unfortunately tell us Crystal should be in a 5-harness until she's 4 so we were still going to have to buy ourselves a new carseat. 

So yesterday we went shopping! We checked a few different stores, but we of course found the lowest priced carseat at Walmart (And don't think that it must be a cheap carseat because the other stores we went to sold the same seat for upwards of $30 more than Walmart did. We should have known to just start there. lol). 

This is the car seat we decided to go with. I love that its so easy to adjust the straps. Crystals adjusts weird and makes it difficult to loosen and tighten when needed.

We installed her car seat this morning and went out to lunch so she could try it out. (Yes I suffered and didn't cook lunch just so she could sit in her new seat! lol! jk)

She actually wasn't so sure about it. I'm seriously wondering if she likes it better facing the other way! lol. She was hungry and tired so it may not have been the seat that had her upset, but it sure was easier to comfort her with her facing this direction!

Crystal and Lily watching a movie in the back seat (well Lily was until I pulled out the camera. lol)

Crystal and Lily's Well Checks and Stats

Crystal and Lily had their well check appointments today though neither of them were overly "well." It's been a SUPER long and EXHAUSTING week with two girls who weren't feeling well. Crystal had canker sores in her mouth that hurt so bad she couldn't eat and she didn't want to do ANYTHING! For Crystal to sit down and watch an entire movie is extremely rare, but Sunday and Monday that's all she wanted to do all day long. Lily has been teething, so she's had the runs and was even throwing up here and there.

Thank goodness both of them were feeling quite a bit better today because I didn't want to have to reschedule vaccinations ... again! The doctor checked them both out. He was quite puzzled that they were both sick with completely different symptoms. At first he thought it just HAD to be the same virus. But after further discussion and after examining Crystal's mouth (it took him a while to get her to open up), he came to the same conclusion as us. Lily was most likely sick from teething, and Crystal had a bad reaction to something. We are hoping it was just from her sticking her fingers in her mouth all the time and not an actual allergic reaction to food. I guess we'll find out if it happens again.

When the nurse came in to give the girls their vaccinations, she was kind enough to bring 2 extra flu shots for Ty and I. It's kind of hard to say no to a shot when you are forcing your children to get them, so without a good excuse not to, we were vaccinated too. I don't like needles, so I wasn't very excited about it. But don't worry I was a big girl and didn't even cry. lol.

WARNING: Prepare for a little bit of bragging... who am i kidding? ...  A LOT of bragging! :D

Crystal Stats:

Weight: 34.4 pounds - 75%  

Height: 38.25 inches - 80% (She's over 36 in. so she can legally ride the rides at Trafalga. ;-) In the past they've just turned their heads and let her ride them anyway. lol.)

 (Can you tell it was hot outside?)

I just love her adorable smile! :D

The doctor was impressed that she could stack her blocks taller than her own height. Apparently at her age she is expected to be able to stack 9 blocks, but lately her blocks have been her favorite toys, and she can stack at least double that.  All in all she is right on track for her age group.

Lily Stats:

Weight: 20.4 pounds - 30%

Height: 28 inches - 20%

Head Circumference: 43.4 cm - 30%

She is still in the lower percentiles but the doctor isn't as concerned as he was at the last appointment. She has started moving back up on the curve.  She was just ahead of the game and started thinning out a little earlier than most babies.

Lily started walking around 11 months. All my videos of the occasion are on the missing flip cam. There will probably be a very late post about it later on.

This is typical Lily. She had to put the headband on herself! She's extremely stubborn. lol.

The doctor was surprised at her vocabulary and her ability to understand and problem solve. Not to mention how well she's already walking. I can't remember what Lily did in front of him (seems like she followed directions or repeated something... I can't for the life of me remember exactly), but he was extremely surprised. He said she was developmentally in the 15-18 month range and he gave us ideas on things to help her continue to progress.


All in all I'm an extremely proud Momma and I'm SO extremely thankful that both my girls are healthy, strong and developing well.  As hard as it is to see them growing up and leaving my arms, I LOVE watching them discover and master new things! I feel so blessed to be able to be with them and witness their sweet spirits every day!

"Harvest Break" :D and Halloween

One of my preschool girls was going to be out of town the week before Halloween, so Emily (cousin) and I decided I should have scheduled a Harvest Break. And I did just that! I cancelled preschool that week and Emily, I, and 3 little girls piled in my Elantra and headed to Idaho Falls.

The day before we left, we carved our pumpkins and sat them outside:

Aren't they adorable!

When Ty asked Crystal what kind of pumpkin face she wanted she said she wanted a "scary mouth with scary eyes." She thought daddy did a pretty good job!

IDAHO FALLS

We carved pumpkins again for FHE. We left them on the table to enjoy them for a few days because my parents' pumpkins always get smashed. When they started to smell we moved them to the back deck. Crystal was again very proud of her "scary pumpkin"

Tuesday we went to a Ward Carnival at Ty's parents ward.

Crystal LOVED dessert!

Grandma Cook and Lily

Grandma Cook and her 2 favorite grandkids ;-)

 

Friday we went to Boo at the Zoo with my Sisters-in-Law, their kids, and my mom.

Waiting for the zoo to open!

Holding out her bucket for candy!

Heading to the next booth.

Fairy Princess giving out candy.

Bowling!

Fascinated by the goats! 

Grandma Gordon's Grandkids (short brennin - he was MIA... don't worry we knew he was with another person in our group, we just lost a portion of the group for a minute! lol.)

The sloth bear was very active. All the animals seems surprised by all the people.

Finally a picture of all 5 of them. Notice the tiger behind them? I've never seen the tigers move around that much! He was watching all the people as well!

Crystal wasn't so sure about Darth Vador! She was okay as long as Brennin was standing between them! lol!

Watching the otters lounge!

The best part of the zoo I didn't get any pictures of because I was holding Crystal. But I have to mention it! When we went to see the lions both of them were out of their den (male and female). The female lion was pacing around and the male lion was standing outside the den watching all the people. The female lion started growling at us, then the male lion growled, shook his mane and went back into his den. By then everyone had moved on and there were only a few people still watching. Crystal was SUPER excited that the lions were growling. Just their size and magnitude of their low growling was fascinating (for me too!). Crystal growled back at the female lion and she turned and growled back at her!! They growled back and forth a few times! Crystal thought it was GREAT! She talked about it for a week. "Mommy, the lion growled at me!" lol. We had a lot of fun!!!

Just a random picture of Crystal playing at Grandma Gordon's house. She would put the couch pillows on the ground and lay my mom's bear statues on them and tell us all they were sleeping. Problem was they always slept in a line between the dining room and living room so we had to step over them all week. lol.

My mom did it again! Sunday night we had a party for my nephew Conner. He turned 3 on Halloween! Conner LOVES "Memis" as he calls them. So my mom made him a Semi Truck Cake.

HALLOWEEN

We left Idaho Falls bright and early so that we could get back home to Daddy (the girls were seriously missing him) and visit with him for a while before he had to go to work.  He forwarded calls to his phone for an hour or so, so that he could go trick-or-treating with us. 

Ward trunk-or-treat

The girls stash. Its gonna take the whole year to eat all this! Maybe we'll give some to Santa to put in their stockings! lol! Otherwise we're never going to get rid of all the candy!

After trunk-or-treating! I took Lily's costume off before I remembered we needed more pics ... oops.

Eating her sucker

Both of them LOVE suckers! Good thing because they got a lot of them! lol!

Lily's One Already!

I seriously can't believe my tiny newborn baby is ONE YEAR OLD! I'm really not sure when it happened. It doesn't seem like its been that long!!!! I feel like I'm trying to cherish every moment, but the moments are still slipping away too fast! It all makes my head spin! But whether I like it or not, time moves forward and she keeps getting older and growing up. :D

We had a little party for her the Saturday before her birthday. This time we didn't have it during a BYU game, but it was an hour before the game (I know we can't get it right... one day we will learn that in Utah the world revolves around BYU football... lol ... at least it was an away game). It worked out though and the kids had a lot of fun outside playing with the toys!

I was out of town up till the day of the party so TY MADE THE CAKE!

 He made a fountain!

I think he did a pretty awesome job!

 Lily playing on the toys

Ty's cousins were kind enough to come celebrate with us! :D

Jackson and my nephews playing on the toys

Another pic of the cake!

Lily wanted the cake topper.

We just wanted her to blow out the candle!

Crystal had to help her.

Samantha (cousin) telling Tom and Emily (more cousins) 

how her fiance proposed to her the day before.

Grandma Gordon was here from Idaho. I was so glad she could stay for the party! :D

Lily REALLY liked the cake topper.

LILY DIGGING INTO THE CAKE:

 OPENING PRESENTS:

 She tried to put it on! lol!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 18, 2011: Lily's Birthday

We saved a present for Lily to open on her actual birthday (not that she knew the difference, but we did it anyway.. hehe). She got a little picnic basket with a picnic for 2 inside. The basket sings and teaches shapes and colors. We thought she'd like it because one of her favorite things to do is stick toys inside boxes (or the garbage which is her favorite place to put things now... ugh). Now she has a basket to stick things in.