A few pictures before Papa left.

While my dad was here visiting we noticed that Kaleb seemed to be scratching his face or rubbing his eyes. We wondered what was bothering him. Well, last night I figured it out. Kaleb is officially a thumb sucker!! He was scratching and rubbing his face while trying to find his mouth. I went in to check on him about 10 minutes after laying him down last night and this is what I found. So cute! Hopefully he can knock the habit before 3rd grade. Unfortunately that's how long I sucked my thumb. :) Thankfully I had the decency not to do it in public at that age, but still... I'm glad he is sucking his thumb because I cannot get him to take a pacifier for the life of me. I've tried two different types. So he now has a way to comfort himself other than me feeding him.


The haircut -- before being exposed to the elements. :) Gives you a better look at the cut. Had to take this one myself... sorry for the funky camera angle.

Random Picture Wednesday

So my friend Connie is starting to do Wordless Wednesday on her blog. And I have several other friends who blog this way too. For those of you who are going -- what is she talking about... Wordless Wednesday is when you post only a picture and don't put any narrative with it.

I've thought about doing this several times. However... I can't be wordless!!! No matter how hard I try, there is always something I want to say. For example. I considered posting this picture for Wordless Wednesday. But I just have to tell you that somehow at Bekah's wedding we did not get any pictures taken of just the three of us. So Rebekah's awesome photographer (who I would give credit to if I knew their names) photoshopped this picture for us.

See... you needed the narrative, right? :) It makes the picture so much better. Anyway... because I am wordy, I am creating Random Picture Wednesday.

Thank you!

On the chance that the person who sent us an anonymous letter happens to be a blog reader...

THANK YOU!!!

It arrived this weekend and was very timely. We are thanking God for using your gift to bless us.

Haircut etc.

Okay guys... I was waiting until I had an attractive picture of myself w/ my hair all styled to show you. But according to your comments, you are all impatient. :) Here was a picture taken of me over the weekend. You can get a general idea of the cut, but can't really see the bangs she cut me. It was taken at the end of the day so the hair is a bit worn out.

Kaleb's shirt: SBG stands for Spoiled by Grandpa

I've got another cute beach video of Kaiya that I will post later.

Here are some pictures from the week. We've had lots of fun with Papa! Wednesday and Thursday we went to the park, Friday we headed to the beach, and we spent yesterday in Sebring with my dad's college friends and their families.


The following two pictures sum up Kaleb's time at the beach. :)

Lovin' the $1 kite from Wal-Mart. Papa got it in the air without any trouble.
And I'll leave you with some short videos of Kaiya at the beach.

Hair Cut Time

Okay. I am extremely overdue for a haircut. Right now my hair is most frequently in a pony tail because it feels heavy, hot, and in the way when down. So... Tony is crying, but it has to be shorter. However, I lack style and am incredibly indecisive so I put the decision in your hands. Once you all helped me choose a dress to wear to a formal event. Now you get to choose my latest haircut. Comment quickly though... I am dying to get this done ASAP. Especially while my dad is here because he can occupy Kaiya at home while I have it done. Here are a few pics I found online that I like. I promised Tony I wouldn't go too much above my shoulders. And sorry -- I've been browsing online forever and couldn't come up with much.

#1

#2
#3
#4

(This is actually a childhood friend of mine. Christi if you are reading this, please do not think I am psycho for stealing this pic off your myspace. :) What can I say... I like the hair!)

#5
Christi's picture again but imagine with a little more sweeping bang action.

Swing update

Okay... time to grovel a teeny bit. :) Apparently Graco swings do not like Rayovac Batteries. The 3rd motor arrived yesterday and I put the brand new Rayovac batteries in and again, nothing happened. My last ditch effort was to buy more batteries... so Ruthie was on her way home and I had her pick up Duracell. We popped those in and wah-la! The swing worked. So pretty much, I have 3 working swing motors. So... if anybody needs one, let me know! :) ha ha... All that hassle and it was just a battery issue. It was so weird because the batteries worked in the old motor that came with the swing.

So good to have a working swing!!

Spaghetti

Here is regular dialogue in our house:

Me: Kaiya, what would you like for breakfast?

Kaiya: Noo-noo's!!!

Me: We aren't having noodles for breakfast! What do you want?

Kaiya: Noo-noo's!! (followed by lots of giggles)

Tonight I could tell her we would have noodles. All throughout the meal we talked about noodles and Lady and the Tramp -- they eat noodles together, yada yada yada... Halfway through the meal I looked at her and had to get my camera.

Here's a picture of Kaleb. My little cutie. And yeah... he's wearing a Halloween outfit. $1.00 Kohl's clearance. For $1.00 - I don't care that it is Halloween. :) I actually got this when he was still very new. I was desperate for things that fit him when he was tiny. So... the price was right. And it turned out that I loved him in this outfit. This was probably the last time wearing it. You can see the sleeves are getting too short.




This is a short video of Kaiya eating her spaghetti. I was hoping she would slurp one up at the end, but my memory card was full and it cut off.

Fair

So strange to have a fair in February, but that's how they do it down here. It makes sense -- the summers are so hot and the weather right now is really ideal to be out. Okay... I'm done talking about the gorgeous weather for all you frozen friends. It's completely inconsiderate. :) We went to the fair on Sunday. Tony has been at the fair every day. The chiropractor he is working for has a booth there, so he is there from noon-10 p.m. every day. It is such a bummer for us -- we are really missing him at home! It will be this way until next Sunday. Ugh.

So I loaded the munchkins up and we went to see Tony. He was the only one at the booth when we first got there, so we had to kill some time before he could take a break. So we went to find the animals. We saw bunnies, chickens, turkeys, sheep, goats, cows and horses. Kaiya enjoyed it, but was a little worried that the animals might not stay in their cages. I'm not sure she understood how the cages worked.

When Tony was able to take a break from his booth, we went to check out the rides. Poor little Kaiya wanted to do lots of rides, but she is about 2 inches too short for them. Maybe next year. Here is the picture of her on the two rides that she could do. The first she rode by herself and she seemed to really like it. She had a very serious expression on her face until she would pass by Tony or I and then we could get a grin out of her. She lucked out and was able to go on this one twice for free. The first time she was the only one on it and then another little girl came up so he stopped it and let Kaiya go again. The second time around I thought she looked like she was gonna hurl. It was hilarious. She didn't really crack a smile that time around. But when Tony got her off, she was really, really excited and wanted to do it again. :)
After that she got to ride the carousel. She has been watching Mary Poppins lately, so she was excited to ride a horse just like Mary Poppins does. This is the first horse they chose, but realized that it was one that didn't move at all...
So they switched to this one. She did really good on this ride until about halfway through when I could see her crying. :) She wanted to hold onto Tony instead of the horse. So the rest of the ride she held onto his neck with one hand, and the horse with the other.
The beginnning of the meltdown. :)

So... that's the fair. :) It was good for us to get out of the house. My dad comes tomorrow for a week long visit. I'm so excited! It's perfect timing too with Tony being tied up late into the night with the fair. I'll have someone to help out and keep me company.

Tony's brother, Aaron is in the Reserves. Last fall we found out that he is going to be heading to Iraq in March. Since January, he's been stationed in Georgia for training until they ship out. I finally got his address and thought I would post it here. I know some of our blog readers come from my connections and some from Tony's connections. So I thought that those of you who know Aaron might want to drop him a line. Here is his address until sometime in March. I'll post the Iraq address when we have it. But for now:

*updated with correction*

Fort Stewart
SPC Hyser, Aaron M.
Task Force Scorpion
A Co. 76B STB
845 Hase Rd. Ste 102
Fort Stewart, GA 31314

It's a long one! And Laura, if I have anything wrong, would you post a comment and correct it?
Thanks! If you know him -- or even if you don't! -- would you drop him a note of encouragement? I think today we are going to do some water coloring pictures to send to him. :)

*****
Potty Training Update:
She went again last night before getting in the bath. So two times in one day. Not bad. Today she doesn't seem quite as interested in the whole process. But... she did sit on it for about 20 minutes earlier. We'll see if anything happens this afternoon. I'm trying to be careful not to rush her, but I'm ready for this to be over! :)

Breaking News...

This, just in... Kaiya went #1 on the potty! She has decided to begin potty training herself today. Other than just talking about the big girl potty, we haven't done anything with it. And then she wakes up today and wants to try a million times. She has literally sat on the potty for a total of about 90 minutes today. Just because she wants to. Interesting kid... :) Anyway... we are off to Wal-Mart to let her pick a treat. Not sure what we will get, but she is pretty proud of herself. And.... I must admit... I'm pretty proud of her too. :) Just hoping for a repeat performance!

It's on

The competition is on here at the Hyser house. It's Tony vs. Rachel.

Tony has a machine in his office that measures body fat percentage and some other things. We each had ours taken on Monday and we're starting a 2 month competition to see who can improve their numbers the most. I'm sure I'll be posting periodic updates... My starting numbers are: 33.8% (body fat percentage), 14 pounds to pre-baby weight, and 2 pant sizes.

I'm excited -- and plan on winning. :) Post-Natal Bootcamp Baby!

I called Graco this morning. And I just couldn't be as mean as I had planned. A sweet little grandma answered the phone and she was so perplexed about my situation. I caved in and let her send me another motor. Only this time it will be shipped 2nd day air and she put a note in to have them test it before sending to be sure it works. I know, I know... I'm crazy! But I figured we'd give it one more try. And this -- I PROMISE -- will be my last attempt.

Here are some pictures...

I braved it with them both in the bath at the same time. I survived... and more importantly, Kaleb survived. Kaiya was very hyper and excited about having him in there with her.

Helping to wash Kaleb

So... the Fed Ex truck came today with motor #3 from Graco. You won't even believe it. It does not work. Put the batteries in before attaching the swing to it and nothing powers up. Just like motor #2. At least motor #1 had music come on and worked on one speed. These other two I can't get to do anything.

Even better, I try to call before 5 today (which is their customer service hours) and they have the phones with a message telling me to call between normal hours. Hello!!! That's what I was doing!!!

So... just wait until 8 a.m. tomorrow. The poor representative that has to talk to me. This was my last attempt, so they'll be refunding my money -- including the shipping!! This time they actually packaged the motor halfway decently. It was wrapped up in Chinese newspaper. Strange, huh? Everything was in Chinese characters, except for the addresses listed at the bottom of the ads. Those were California addresses. Anyway... I'll keep you posted on the swing issue. Currently I'm pretty irritated. :) Hey -- maybe I'll get a brand new swing out of the deal -- how awesome would that be?

Meanwhile, my daughter is gated in her bedroom. She was out of control. The nerve of mommy... who wouldn't let her watch any more TV for the day. She's pretending and reading books right now, so it worked.

And my sweet son is screaming his head off in his crib because.... well, actually... I have no idea why. Couldn't be hungry since I spent the past 3 hours off and on nursing him. Couldn't have a burp because I burped him for the past 30 minutes... No dirty diaper... Is 2 months old too early to let him cry it out so I can make dinner?

Better go check on him. :) I'm going to repeat: "I will not let GRACO ruin my night. I will not let Graco ruin my night." Over and over until both Kaleb and I are asleep. :)

Here's our picture on the birth place website! :)

http://www.thebirthplace.org/births/kaleb_riley_hyser

These are pictures from the park today. Kaiya LOVES the park. The other day she came home with a "rug-burn" on her belly from going down the slide belly first. Which in her mind is the only way to do it. We convinced her today to try her bottom so her "belly burn" can heal. :)

Future Chiropractor

Lately Kaiya has been pretending to adjust her babies and her bear. We just cracked up the first time we saw her do this. Tony was able to capture it with the camera today!

You know you don't get out much when attending a seminar with your husband feels like a date.

Yep -- I just was kid-free for about 7 hours today. It was awesome. Tony has a conference for work and I was able to attend this time. So for part of today and all tomorrow, Ruthie is substitute mama. Sweet.

Crisis in the Shower

Lately Kaiya has been into taking showers all by herself. It is the most wonderful thing. She hasn't mastered washing her own hair yet, but the shower does occupy her for 20 minutes or so. Last week she was in the shower and she started freaking out and yelling, "Stinky! Stinky!" So Tony and I go into the bathroom to find that she has pooped in the shower. She is completely disgusted by it. Tony gets his stern Daddy voice out and tells her that we only go stinky in a diaper or on the potty. She immediately gets her feelings hurt and begins sobbing. Tony quickly changes to the sweet Daddy voice and says, "It's okay, we know it was an accident, but next time you just need to call us and we can set you on the potty to go stinky." Crisis over.

Fast forward to tonight. Kaiya is in our shower and I'm in our bedroom putting clothes away. I hear her break into sobs as if she is hurt. I didn't hear any "thunks" so I wonder what's going on. I get in there and open the door and she is hovering in the corner and pointing to poop on the drain. I get her out and have her stand on the bathmat while I get toilet paper to get the poo out of the shower. I can tell she is bummed because she is really not done playing in the shower yet. So I give her a gentle lecture about going stinky on the potty and not in the shower and then let her get back in. About 2 minutes later she starts fussing again and I'm thinking -- no way -- not again. I go in, open the shower door and scan the shower floor for poo. Don't see any. But she is saying "Stinky. Stinky. Stinky." Over and over and pointing at the drain. I tell her no, there is no stinky in the shower. She insists and crouches down over the drain and points to a discolored ring around the drain.

I sigh and say... "No, that's called mildew."

She looks at me only half-believing what I've said. And honestly... like the child knows what mildew is anyway. So I find another spot of mildew away from the drain and point it out to her. "See -- it's not stinky. Its just means mama needs to clean the shower."

That seemed to satisfy her.

Letter to Graco

Dear Graco,

I love that you sent my order in a reasonable amount of time. However, I hate that you sent me a motor unit that does not work. Normally when you put batteries in something, it should power on. The motor you sent me did not. What a let down. I told Kaleb all day about how the motor would be arriving and he would get to swing all night long. You can't imagine his disappointment when I had to tell him you sent me a broken motor. He cried and spit up several times the rest of the day -- I'm sure it was because he was so upset about the swing.

The customer service rep was very helpful and will be sending me another motor free of charge. She said I don't even have to worry about sending the broken motor back. Thank goodness... because Lord knows I don't have time for that. I'm lucky to get a shower and 3 squares a day.

May I make a suggestion for this time around? Pack the motor a bit better. Put it in a box that is smaller or if you are going to pack it in a box 3 times its size, put some cushioning in it. Maybe then, it would work upon arrival.

You know what they say -- third times a charm! We can only hope...

Sincerely,
This Tired Mama

Here are the pictures I tried to upload yesterday. :) Kaiya could not be left out of the photo shoot I was having with Kaleb. She saw me taking pictures of him and kept saying, "Mama. Mama. Cheese. Mama. Cheese. MAMA!!!!" So here she is in all her glory. :)

I was watching Thursday's episode of Oprah that I recorded on our cable box and enjoyed an interview given by Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm not familiar at all with this actor because he rarely gives interviews and is very shielded from the public's eye (lucky for him). But he said something that really caught my attention. Maybe because I am in the "thick" of it with these kiddos. Oprah asked him about his role as a father and what has surprised him the most about fatherhood. Here was his response:

"I suppose the delight in bondage, because I daresay for a good part of my life I'd enjoyed traveling light," he says. "And there's nothing more wonderful to me [than] to realize that I was now shackled for the rest of my life…and what a wonderful shackle to have."

I couldn't agree more. There are times that I think of my carefree pre-kid life and how easy life seemed then. But really -- these two kids are the most wonderful things to be "shackled" with. :)

Pictures coming later... for some reason Blogger isn't uploading them right now.

Boot Camp

Well, it's that time again. I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting to work off my baby weight from Kaiya. Actually... that's right... it was just last year! For some strange reason with her I thought the weight would just drop off without me having to do anything. So I waited until I had to fit into a tight dress at my sister's wedding before I started working out. I'm smarter this time around -- I'm not waiting around for the pounds to fall off.

Boot Camp here I come! I'm 2 for 2 this week so far -- my goal is getting in 3 a week. Starting with low expectations -- c'mon -- I'm lucky if I get a shower every other day! :)

Memo to Graco

TO: Graco
FROM: Me
CC: Craigslist
RE: Swing

Please, please please send the replacement motor unit quickly. While I love purchasing things second hand, I hate when they don't work. (Especially when the seller swears that it is practically brand new and that her daughter just didn't like it.) See, my precious son really liked the swing when I put him in it. His eyes got really big and he loved being pushed. I, however, do not like running into the room every 2 minutes to give the swing another push. And since he is not currently coordinating his nap times with Kaiya's naps, I desperately need something to occupy him with.

One more thing -- when the motor does arrive -- please let it work!





Note to my concerned readers: She's supposed to be sending me $20 back in the mail... And if it doesn't show I'd like to go put the smack down on her but she does live in the ghetto (according to Ruthie who picked up the swing) so I probably won't be doing that. No need getting shot over a baby swing.

Evolution of a SMILE

Two cuties cuddling!

Saturday Surprise

Tony got home from work on Saturday and asked me what my agenda was for the afternoon. Me -- congested, sleep deprived, coughing -- with an agenda? Nothing at all... Then again at lunch he says: "So you don't have anything planned for the day?" Um... nope. Nothing planned! Well, he says, I've got a surprise. Now, this is really exciting for me because one of my favorite things is when he secretly plans an activity that I don't know about and we go do it. Granted, it rarely happens, but every time it does I act VERY excited so that he knows just how much it means to me. He packed the diaper bag while I finished feeding Kaleb and then we were off. Tony was so cute with his mapquested directions taking us off to the surprise destination. The drive out was beautiful. The orange groves are gorgeous -- but they tempt me so bad. I want to pull over and pick a few -- they look so yummy hanging on the trees. I'll have to get a picture sometime. Anyway... 30 minutes later we were at Forever Florida, a ranch with animals and hiking trails, etc.

Kaiya had a great time and was much braver than I expected while feeding the critters. She let them eat right out of her hand. Here are the pictures!

Just a quick post. When I thought I was feeling better... I now have a cold! Many of you are wondering -- is it even possible to get a cold in Florida? I'm here to confirm. Yep... despite our lovely warm weather -- I have ended up with a cold. Which I have kindly passed along to Kaiya and possibly Kaleb. He sounded a little stuffy to me earlier this morning... hopefully it doesn't develop into anything. I'm trying to get naps in when I can. Just say a quick prayer for us -- I really would like to get back to feeling 100%.

And I'd like to think this cold doesn't have anything to do with the 1/2 pan of brownies I ate when I thought my boil was gone. Oh... but they tasted SO good. (When we get sick we eliminate all the sugar from our diets -- sickness feeds off of sugar, so we only help our colds and infections get worse when we eat sugary stuff.) I did not eat one drop of sugar while I had that boil -- and lacked a little in the area of self-control once I thought I was in the clear. Paying for it now...

Bad Week

This post has two purposes --

1)To summarize last week
2)To hopefully make you giggle a little when you hear the Chipmunk's version of Daniel Powter's song Bad Day. We played it for Kaiya and she thinks it is hilarious.

Without going into too much detail (because you really don't want me to...) :) my week was bad because I got a boil. Hopefully the first and last I ever get. One of the reasons a person can get them is from a weakened immune system. Which, based on the fact that I haven't had a full night's sleep in the past month, makes a lot of sense. So... after several homeopathic treatments, I am finally on the tail end of it (no pun intended). Ha ha... Anyway... This unfortunate infection was only compounded by the fact that Tony was out of town Thurs-Sunday. Thankfully he is back and we're doing better.

Enjoy the video...