Red Rock with the Thalmans

The Thalmans had their baby! Little Tobias Joseph made an early debut at 37 weeks and 1 day while they were still in California for the holidays. It was a surprise and luckily little Toby Jo waited just long enough to be full term. He was 6.5 lbs, so not too small, but if he had been born before 37 weeks they would have considered him a premie and he would have had a mandatory week in the NICU.

We were so thrilled to finally meet him when they made it back to Vegas with a borrowed car seat since they had packed no baby things. There was so much love in their house with the new baby that it just about made my heart burst with happiness for them. As a side note, Robert told Ryan that holding Tobias would make anyone baby-hungry, so Ryan refused to hold him! Ha!

Last Monday on his two week birthday, Kim was ready to get some fresh air so we planned a day at Red Rock for the holiday. The Thalmans hadn't been before, so Ryan and I were out to convince them why they should move to this side of town. It turned out to be one of the most perfect days. The weather, the company, the surroundings, everything was perfect.

The girls were little mountain goats and June wanted to be up there with them. There were some tense moments to watch them, for sure. At one point, Ryan was going back to the car to get our picnic. Robert was going to help him and I was like, "No! You can't leave us alone. We need your help to keep the girls safe." Kim was great company, but not so much a safety helper since Tobias was snuggled close in a wrap.

Wills surprised us by climbing from where June is and getting up on that rock all by herself.

We jokingly told Abby to scale the wall and climb in the little hole, the joke was on us.

June, in the action.

Can you see why I was nearly having a heart attack?

Willa and Bridgett going to sleep in their room.

Probably my favorite picture from the day. This rock was actually really high up and the girls needed help from two adults. Rob is such a great guy. He looks after Willa and June like they are his own.

The descent from the location in the picture above.

We are so blessed to have such good friends and to live so close to such a beautiful place. Between this and Disney on Ice, it was a banner weekend all around.

Disney on Ice

Is this not the cutest and happiest girl in the entire world at this moment?

I had seen that Disney on Ice was coming to town and I realized that Willa would be the perfect age to be mesmerized by it. We've never taken her to anything like it before, we haven't ever even taken her to a movie! I hemmed and hawed for quite a while because spending money right after Christmas is a huge bummer and we were also getting some of hospital bills from the arm (one egregious bill is currently in dispute and I will update you with the whole story when it has ended). In the end, though, my love for Willa won the battle over my tight-fisted, money hoarding tendencies. 

Ryan and I thought it would be the perfect daddy-daughter date. I was originally going to keep it a surprise, but I ended up showing her some YouTube clips to persuade her to get in the car so we could go get the tickets. She was in love immediately. She was SO excited and I'm so happy we prepped her. It prolonged the whole experience and made it richer for her to be able to talk about and look forward to it.

Ryan felt like it enriched their relationship to do something like this together. That evening she told Ryan "This was a great day." I also think it made her happier for the next several days; the power of one-on-one time and something special just for her. It was a good lesson to me that she needs occasional, special time. Lots of the time I don't do things because I figure that she doesn't know what she is missing, therefore it's not a big deal. I guess it really isn't a huge deal, but it was very nice and very special to her to have such a treat like this. 

A few pictures

The girls have been so much better at playing together. It doesn't last for long and often ends in tears but it makes my heart happy. June loves playing "going to bed."

Sister love and wrasslin'

Rocking babies

Remember how June is such a fussy eater? She will run back and forth between the fridge and pantry crying "hungy, hungy" and still not find anything she will deign to eat. I've noticed that she's a lot less picky about Costco samples and will try just about anything. Earlier this week she ate two big helpings of broccoli and asked for "more pease." She has been saying that phrase a lot and always in context. It is so adorable.

Every child needs at least some outdoor play everyday. I can tell from our grouchiness if we haven't been out.

Willa was playing with chalk and drew this face. Sure, it's creepy looking, but I am impressed by the details!

Finally, June takes full advantage of Willa's preschool to play with forbidden things like sister's car seat, purse, and water bottle. While the sister's away, the baby shall play!

A job well done

I've felt for a while that we really needed to do a job chart or some sort of chart with Willa where she could earn stickers and a final grand prize for certain behaviors. I wanted to change some behaviors but also give her a sense of control about wanting certain toys and feeling like she could do something to earn them instead of getting perpetual "no's" from me.

Of course, I was too forgetful and lazy to execute this plan until recently. It has been so great. She loves it and I love being able to get her dressed and do her hair without major meltdowns. Last week she completed the first chart and was so, so proud. She wanted to FaceTime Ryan at work to show him and I think she proudly showed her chart to both her grandmas.

This time she got a big plush Elsa doll. I had planned to give it to her for Christmas, but then she had so many other things coming that I held off. It's a pretty big prize and hopefully we can keep future prizes to a Dollar Store amount, though we are hard at work on the second chart because she wants a prince for Cinderella and I'm not sure how to get that.

So proud! Here were her jobs:

Get Dressed

Make bed

Do hair - no yelling or screaming 

Clean room before bed

Willa's cast comes off and she works toward breaking another bone

We met with the doctor on the 28th (last Monday). They looked at the arm and took the cast off. Hooray! They said with this type of break that we still need to be really careful with the arm for the next month.

Three months is the magic mark, and we have to go in then for one last x-ray. Until then, they told us to stay away from playgrounds and rough play. I asked if the PA (our doctor was out that day from his own surgery) if he had ever had young kids and that it was nearly impossible to not have rough play. For a four-year old, she will do just as much damage jumping on the furniture and running crazy at the house as she will at the playground, so I take her there and tell her to be careful. We have to burn the energy somehow.

The funniest story is that soon after the surgery when we just had the soft cast on, we went to the park where she originally broke her arm. As we were getting out of the car she started telling me how she could go jump again now that her big cast was off. I told her that it wasn't a good idea to jump very far, but during that park visit she was running around and climbed up on the very same structure where she broke it the first time and jumped off again!!! Though, she only climbed about two feet high instead of the 3-4 feet distance of when she broke it. That child is going to break another bone, I just know it.

Running like a crazy person after church, ready to trip and fall any minute. Our 1:30 pm church is finally over! We had 8:30 yesterday and it was marvelous. Home by noon then lunch, naps, and quiet time. It definitely beats getting home at 5 pm in the dark.

Attempting to break her arm again. She has been swinging from the monkey bars, but here she decided to just use them to balance her as she walked on the rope.

No cast!

My parents came for a few days after Christmas. Every house needs a ratio of 3:2 for adults per children. June like following Grandpa around the house to give him hugs and then climbing up on the couch to sit with him.

Doing Uncle Brandon's hair with some toys curling irons and a blow dryer. It was quite the wind-swept look.

I was folding Willa's blanket and found a long, thick lock of hair on it. "he horse needed a haircut," she told me.  It actually does look better this way.

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas with ourselves this year. Ryan's office was only closed Christmas Day and he didn't want to take days off since he's new, so we decided to stay in town. Rebecca and Brandon came for Christmas Eve dinner and then for breakfast Christmas morning. It worked out perfectly because Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house. The girls could get up and play with their Santa gifts until they came, we ate breakfast, and then all sat down to unwrap presents together. Poor June had been really crabby the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve. She kept crying during the night and when I went in there she had become really congested. She would calm down and go back to sleep if I laid on the floor with my hand through the crib. After a few minutes of steady breathing, I would creep back to my room for a few more hours until she woke up again.

She mustered enough energy to be thrilled about her new pink car - she made a beeline for it and immediate began turning the wheel and trying to drive - but after that she needed an early nap. We put her down right as we were eating breakfast, which was a Christmas present to me because then I could enjoy the meal and opening presents without having a sick, whiney baby to hold.

Lincoln logs. It's just a starter set and she needs a grownup's help but I was glad to bring this toy into our home.

The lesson of this Christmas might be that if one child get a riding thingy, then the other child should get a riding thingy. Many tears and arguments were avoided. Willa lusted a little after the Crazy Coupe, but was very easily redirected to get on her wiggle bike.

Aunt Shannon's tea set has been a big hit. Willa adamantly wanted a Sofia dress (which she immediately changed into). It was a harder sell to tell her that the purple Rapunzel shoes would match the dress and that Santa couldn't find purple Sofia shoes.

The girls had adorable red silky jammies for Christmas Eve. Willa didn't want to put hers on at first, but then she saw it came with a matching cape (robe). Then, she was so embarrassed about how much she liked it that she wouldn't look at anyone the rest of the evening. You can see June is starting to lose it. Not the greatest picture of all four of us, but at least we're all in it.

It was a nice Christmas and nice to be together. It's the first time we've ever had a budget to buy a few more gifts which was nice and strange. The girls got so spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles that we hardly needed to get them anything from us. Christmas afternoon we headed to Brandon's parents' house in Henderson for dinner. It was great to be with the Kembles and the food was delicious. A very, merry Christmas!