Teething much?

Oh teething, how I loathe you. My poor baby girl has really been struggling with her toofers and I can't see an ending in sight. You can find her with either her hand or a toy in her mouth at all times. And on occassion she will just go for the big guns and chew on her high-chair tray or the laundry basket...yes, the laundry basket (see below). For the most part she has been pretty content but there are those instances where she just gets so uncomfortable and she cries and cries. You know, the kind that totally breaks her momma's heart. We are doing a tylenol/ humphrey's teething strips regimen. I think the teething strips are the best bet but you can only use 4 a day. I HATE putting meds into my baby all the time, so I am trying to just do tylenol at bedtime, What else can I do? Come on teeth...help a baby out!!! Leah didn't get her first tooth until 11 months so I am praying that Kiersten's won't wait that long.

Otherwise, things have been pretty easy peezy on our end. Mitch was out of town all week at a conference so Gigi came to help me take care of the girls. I will write more on that later. And as I type this I SHOULD be packing for our trip to Minnesota. We leave tonight, YAY! So I guess I will have to post more on Gigi's visit later. Bring on the Minnesota vacation...you should hear Leah say Minnesota...SOOOO Cute! I'll try to get a video of it.

Until next time,

~Amy

You Go Girl!

So Yeah...that about sums it up. You Go Girl, and You Go and You GO GO GO! I wish I could bottle up all that energy and sell it to make millions, or at least enough to pay for your college :)

Leah is at such a fun stage. That is when she is not saying no or running and screaming through the house. She surprises me every say with how intelligent she is...what a little sponge!!!

She knows her colors, shapes and can count to 20. She can name just about any animal that you put in front of her and on Tuesday (Aug. 17th) she sang the ABC's perfectly for the first time. She has been singing the ABC's for months actually, but this was the first time that I understood every single letter...she tends to get mixed up at L,M,N,O, P and it comes out sounding like M,M,M, O, P It's adorable and I love it no matter how she sings it. She is also into saying her name. If you ask her she says very loud and proud "I'm Leah Schultz, I'm 2!!!" And last night Daddy started trying to teach her thumbs up so she is all about that, however it is rarely her "Thumb" that is up.

At night she has a new way to amuse us. She is enjoying trying out her acrobatic tricks off the couch. Mitch looked at me last night and said "I don't know if we should be letting her do this." To which I had to respond "too late now and besides, if we try to stop her she will just go to her new tricks off her bed or the kitchen table!" YIKES, we have a little daredevil on our hands.

She is especially fond of helping with her little sister. She tells me when Kiersten is crying (you know, in case I can't hear it) and brings me a burp cloth while announcing that Kiersten has spit up again. She has really responded well to having a baby in the house. She kisses and hugs her every night before bed and has actually started to voluntarily share toys with Kiersten when she is laying on the floor. She is such a fabulous big sister. She is typically very careful of her too. The other day when I had Kiersten laying on our bed while I put away some laundry Leah climbed up on the bed and before she began to jump she told Kiersten to "Be Careful, Kiersten...don't step on Kiersten." I love it...well maybe not the part where Leah was going to jump on the bed with Kiersten on it, but you know what I mean. I'm loving my girls more and more everyday. Here are a few action shots of Leah running around our house like crazy!!! The only way she knows how.

The End

On Monday morning everyone was up and at'em pretty early. We had a cereal breakfast (Mitch made pancakes on Saturday and omelettes on Sunday) and then started getting Matt and Cynthia loaded up for the long haul back west, but there was still one more thing to mark off the agenda. We drove about an hour to Camden, NJ and made a stop at the Adventure Aquarium. We took family photos outside on the Camden Waterfront, that's Philadelphia in the background. The kids loved seeing all the fish and were especially excited to see the sharks and hippos. Normally there are lots of touch exhibits but the only one that was open when we were there was the sharks. Macy and Matt did it. Of course, they are baby ones but you have to reach down far in the tank to feel them. Leah always tries but her arms aren't quite long enough. We ate lunch and then prepared to say our goodbyes. Leah cried, she always does. We had so much fun with our family visiting none of us wanted it to end. We hope that Matt, Cynthia and the kids had a good time...who knows, maybe they will want to come back to visit us in Jersey some day :)

Sunday Night

Sunday night after naps were taken and before it was time to start dinner we took a quick walk to our neighborhood park. We are fortunate to have one so close by. Leah loves to play on the swings and the slide. Even more so she loves to feed to ducks. We always take a little bread with us and if you ask Leah what the ducks eat she will say "sandwiches". I think it is pretty cute. But anyway, it was a nice little trip to the park. The kids had fun feeding the ducks, and playing outside.

When we got home we made a great dinner. Mitch grilled some HUGE porterhouse steaks to perfection and I made an orzo with summer squash and dill dish...it was yummy. Of course the kids were super happy to have hot dogs, mac-n-cheese and watermelon. Shortly after dinner Mitch got a fire going in our backyard. It was a little warm, but still a lot of fun. The girls loved roasting marshmallows...and the grown-ups did too.

5 months old

On Sunday, August 8th my little Kiersten turned 5 months old. We went to the beach, hence the swimsuit. She was such a trooper. She napped on the beach, ate on the beach, splashed in the water for a bit and got home just in time to take a good 2 hour nap. What a good baby!!! What a little Doll-Baby!!! I just love her to bits and pieces. This morning I took her to the pediatrician for a check-up and to get vaccines. She was up to 13 lbs and 9 oz...FINALLY a good weight gain, almost 2 pounds. I chalk it up to her taking solid foods twice a day now. She actually moved into the 25th percentile. She is a pretty happy baby and is starting to giggle a lot when you tickle her or make silly faces at her and she love love loves to watch her big sister. She is sleeping through the night good too, what more could I ask for???

Day 2

On Sunday morning we got up, packed our bags and loaded up the car and headed to the beach. We could not have asked for a better day. It was about 85 degrees with low humidity and a slight breeze. PERFECT beach weather. We headed east to Spring Lake, NJ...avoiding some of the more commercial areas like Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights (Where they film Jersey Shore) These places have boardwalks with restaurants and rides, but we knew the kids would be fine as long as they had sand and water and they were! Macy and Leah both collected seashells in their buckets. And LOVED when the waves would rush up on the shore. Little Kiersten even got in on the action too. When we got there she laid on the blanket under the umbrella and napped for a little over an hour. When she woke up she had a quick bite to eat, we put her suit on and she headed into the water too. She did okay at first when daddy just put her feet in the water but then he got a little ambitious, he sat her down and a wave came up and splashed her in the face...she was not happy, but recovered quickly. It was hard to pick my favorite pictures from the day. Macy wrote her name in the sand all by herself, and I love the close up shot of Matt and Colby. All the kids did REALLY well, and I am so glad we ventured over to the shore.

Day 1

This past Friday, August 6th, my brother, Cynthia, Macy and Colby arrived in New Jersey. We were so excited to have them come out to visit us on their vacation. I planned lots of kid-friendly activities and made sure that there was never a dull moment. On Friday night it was after 7 when they arrived so we had a quick dinner...Burgers and corn on the cob off the grill and let the kids just play in the backyard for awhile until it was time for bath and bed. Leah and Macy shared a room and did great. I thought it would be giggles non-stop all night long, but they did a really good job of going to sleep and resting up for the next day.

On Saturday we loaded up the bunch and took them to Terhune Orchards just West of Princeton. Leah and I have frequented it quite a few times. They have a small animal area where you can feed the animals corn. The kids loved seeing the goats, geese, horses, chickens and bunnies. They also have a small gravel area with lots of riding toy-tractors so we spent some time there too, but the main goal was to pick berries!!! It was the end of blueberry season and the said that they would be small and hard to find so we stayed out of there, but had lots of good luck with the blackberries. Then we went on to the raspberries but they weren't really ripe for the picking yet. Oh, well the kids had fun.

That afternoon Matt and Mitch went out to play some golf. Cynthia and I put the kids down for a nap, got them all bathed and took them to Target for pictures. We got a few great shots of the kids together and of them individually. We know that Gigi will love the pictures! It was a great day.