Our morning

The kids, picking out movies

They seem to have a difference of opinion..She says Shark Tale, he, apparently, wants Saving Silverman.
He doesn't actually care what they watch. He's such an easy child!!

They LOVE to look at my scrapbooks.

Hugs!!!!!!

"Why do you let her do that to me??? I barely survived!!"

Just a glimpse into our morning :)

The "look"

Yes, this is the look I usually get when I pull out the camera....

Yup, every time....

When do they actually start smiling for the camera? I know she used to smile all the time. Now that she is aware of the stupid camera, she won't smile to save her life!!!! Grrr....at least Alex still smiles :)

Concentration and sadness

Utter concentration.

A little sad at his big sister :(
Why is it that Cara likes to slam the door on Alex's head? It's like she hit two years old and started acting "two years old". We have many many lessons to learn!! Thankfully, both kids are sleeping through the night again. Granted, they wake up between 5 and 6am, but that's okay. I can handle that. I am starting to be a grown up with my bed-time. No more staying up until 2am. It just doesn't work. It helps that Blake is on a day shift schedule for the next six weeks. I sleep much better when he is at home :)

11 months old :)

Alex at 11 months

Cara at 11 months

Lunch

Soooo happy about his ham and cheese sandwich

Eating her apple like a big girl!!

Feeling better :)

"Shoe!"

So, we have had a rough couple of weeks. Cara had her first ear infection and Alex had the WORST diaper rash I've seen in a good long while. It was his first. Yuck. Poor Cara was just not feeling very well, so I (on a whim) decided to take her in to the doc, just to have her checked out. She had been running a fever for a few days, nothing tragic, only about a hundred or so, but still constant. She had just had her well baby check up a few days before and everything was fine. I was SHOCKED when the doc said it was an ear infection. I apparently have a child that doesn't give me any signals that she has one. Great!! She got her antibiotics that she had to take for ten days. Her 2nd birthday party was right in the middle of these ten days. Can I just say, a little girl whose meds havn't really kicked in yet, around a bunch of people....yeah. She was "that" kid. Her tantrums have reached an epic point. She crumples to the floor like a puddle of water. Cries, kicks, screams....the word "mine" is now part of her vocabulary. Where do they learn that???? Well, I could tell when her meds finally kicked in. The last two days have been awesome!!! I just love it when she is happy :)

On to Alex. This poor little boy had such a bad diaper rash. He has never had one before and I just wasn't sure why he had one now. He didn't really have any tooth nubs, so I didn't think he was teething. He's had a cough for a couple of weeks, but nothing serious. Just the end of a cold. I was lost. Nothing I was doing was making it better. He would cry when he saw me grab a diaper. I had to stop putting desitin on him, becuase every time I changed his diaper and cleaned him off, he would bleed. Poor kid. It occured to me after 4 days that this diaper rash happened to show up when we switched brands of diapers. The kids wear Huggies Supreme, but not a whole lot of diapers come in a pack and they are super expensive. I decided to switch to Luvs. Cara has no problem with them. Alex is apparently allergic to them. I switched him back to Huggie's and two days later, his rash is almost completly gone. Yay!!

This is all happening while Blake is on 12 hour night shifts. Yuck. He works from 7-7. The days he has pt, meetings or anything else, he doesn't get home until 10, just go to to sleep by 11 to wake up by 6 to go to work at 7. This has not been my favorite shift....not at all. Thankfully he goes to NCO academy (a school for the airforce) and that is 6 weeks long. He starts on Monday, so we get 6 weeks of normal life :) He will have to go to school, which starts at 6 and goes until 5, five days a week and is off on the weekends. Woo hoo!! This will be a nice 6 weeks.

Other than that, we havn't really been up to a whole lot. We are waiting for our assingment list to come out next month. Then we should find out where we are going in April or May. I can't wait!!! It will be interesting to see where we will end up. I just don't even care, as long as we are back in the states. I am excited!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Cara!

Our pretty decorations

The birthday girl. She once again didn't really smile for any pictures.
Being told NOT to touch the cake

Blowing out her candles. She actually blew, too, just not enough to blow it out :)

Briana and Ashley

Alex just hanging out.

He didn't have a clue as to what was really going on!

She got a fabulous ballerina Snow White barbie. This is her new favorite baby that goes everywhere with us. She even puts her to sleep on her pillow with her own little blanket.

An awesome pink Barbie convertable!!

Her awesome new tricycle

Her wonderful dollhouse!

Everyone loved the dollhouse

Learning to ride the tricycle

We had to take the streamers off...Alex kept pulling them off and trying to eat them!

The next morning, her actual birthday

Playing with her new Little People bus. She loves it!She was sooooooo tired, she fell asleep sitting next to me while I was talking to my friend Anna. This has never happened before...ever!!

Cara's 2 year old stats

We had Cara's two year old well baby check this past Friday. She is doing awesome!! Her stats:

Weight: 29lbs 80%

Height: 35 1/4 in 88%

She is still behind with how many words and phrases she can actually say, but she's come a loooong way since December! I just know she's going to start chattering away just any day now. It's difficult not to compare her to other kids her age who are totally talking. We have started a mini-preschool program of sorts now. I got some fabulous idea's from my sister and Cara and I work together everyday to try to enhance her speech skills. She tries now, which is more than she did a few months ago. She and Alex still sound similar, but she is learning more words. I figure where she is a late talker, Alex will probably be and early talker and they will talk at the same time!

The little peanuts :)

She loves to go and find her favorite movies, Flushed Away being near the top of that list!

"Mom, did you reeeaaallly mean to put the dvd down??"
The little guy, just hanging out playing with his toys!

Can I just say I am very happy that when I had her hair cut, it didn't seem to cut off the curls! I was pretty sure they would have been gone.
Oh, and Alex can totally walk across the livingroom....as long as he has his big walking toy to hold on to! No walking by himself yet, though...