Another Party

Lara had another birthday party up at my parent's house this past Sunday. My dad brought her up there the Wednesday before. He came down to build a little garden for me in my backyard, then Ayla and I went up to Siren on Sunday for the party. Mike was home for the weekend, but had to go to Iowa again, so he couldn't make it to the party. Lara got lots of fun gifts.

Ayla has been good. I'm still fighting with her with the feeding issue. Some days she is fine though. She is growing fast! She's up to around 9 lbs now. On good nights I only have to get up once with her. Hopefully we keep going in that direction!

Happy Birthday Lara!

Lara turned 3 today! I can't believe it's already been 3 years! My friend Ashley came over to hang out with us. She is due with a baby girl in just a couple weeks. It was good to have an adult to hang out with for the entire day! In the evening, Nana, Papa, Aunt Shannon, and Great grandma and grandpa came over to help celebrate Lara's birthday. She got some fun gifts, including beach toys, a Dora beach towel and Dora movie, a couple pillow cases that Nana made, and a birthday Play-Doh set. They brought pizza and birthday cake over. It was a great time! Lara burned up a lot of energy while they were here, and was sleeping by 8:30 tonight!

Ayla has been doing good. She has been giving me a run for my money the past few days though. She has gotten into a very bad habit of eating only about an ounce at a time, so she is constantly wanting her bottle, instead of eating a few ounces at a time and being full for a few hours. So I've basically been stuck holding her and her bottle almost all day long to keep her from screaming. NOT FUN! I'm going to go get a new pacifier tomorrow that is like the nipples on her bottles, hoping that she just wants to suck on that. It has been very frustrating. I can't get anything done, unless I just let her cry, but that's too hard to do. I don't remember Lara ever doing that. Hopefully it ends real soon. She doesn't do it at night though, so that is nice. Other than that, things have been good. Her 2 week check up went well. She weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz, and grew a 1/4 of an inch. She even peed on the scale. That's my girl! She goes at the most inopportune times - whenever she has no diaper on!

Mike is back to work now too. He is working in Iowa right now, probably just for a couple weeks, then I think he'll be moving on to Illinois. It's been kind of a challenge being a single mom to 2 kids, but it's manageable. The hardest thing is going out shopping, or anywhere in public with both kids. I don't like staying home all day, but for now it's the easiest thing to do. I'm sure we'll venture out more in the next few weeks as the weather gets nicer. Hopefully I will have a job soon though. I only have until the end of June to find a job, so I'll have to seriously start looking soon.

Here are some recent pics of the kids. I don't think Ayla has changed too much yet.

I gave Ayla a mohawk after her bath. : )

A few more pictures...