Shave and a hair cut...lil bit!

So the dreaded hair cut has finally happened......Big sis Sydney has butchered Kiera's hair. Its really short now. So I cried, punished Sydney and took Kiera to the stylist. The stylist didnt do any better than Sydney. Then my mom came and took the girls for the weekend. She let Tanya take a look at the disaster to see if she could do anything. Tanya's a good friend of the family and a stylist herself. (had she not been a 2 hours drive away we would have gone to her in the first place.) She's done the best she could but Kiera still looks like a boy. And despite what loved ones insist is not true, I swear she looks just like my little brother did at that age. So now it's going to be all frilly dresses and lots of pretty bows and teeny piggy tails because I'll be darned if anybody else thinks she's a boy.

Prayers for Natalie

This is my cousin's beautiful baby Natalie. She is 3 weeks old and was born on mine and Jesse's anniversary. She is currently in the hospital in Charleston in the CCU. She has a multitude of problems and they've been running tests for over a week. I've got every person I know praying for her well being, and quick recovery. I've put her name in the Temple and even scheduled a visit and Priesthood Blessing from some local missionaries. The only other thing I can think of is to hold a spec ail fast for her. I can't express enough my thankfulness that I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Where else can you get the comfort and promptings from the Holy Ghost? With out it I would have never thought to put Natalie's name in the Temple, or to even ask her non-member parents if I could send missionaries to the hospital to bless their baby. I don't know of any other religion where all you have to do is make a phone call and there are people far away willing to go and help where you personally cannot...without wanting anything in return. I am usually grateful that I have the gospel in my live, but today it rings throughout my entire being.

All Kids are Created Equal

Or so they think.....Kiera and Sydney are having a particularly hard time with each other lately. I think it all began at Christmas. They got  such different presents. I honestly should have gotten them the same things. I'll know better for next time. Sydney got a Barbie, Kiera constantly wants it. Kiera got a mini tent, Sydney pushes Kiera out of it and takes over. Sydney got a innotab (a kid friendly tablet). She can only play with it when Kiera is taking a nap or the world comes to an end. For breakfast they MUST have the exact same thing or one or the other will notice and let me know they are not the same. Kids are so funny!

This particular trait has translated over into potty training!!! Kiera sees Sydney use the big girl potty and wants to do it too! And thanks to Meme, she got some big girl panties (the training kind) for Christmas! I waited with Sydney to not start training until after she was 2. But if Kiera wants to give it a try I'm not going to tell her "no". She's actually got the idea down. I sit her on the little potty and I can hear her try to go. It's really cute! (sorry, that's a Mom thing to think your kid going potty is cute) But she hasn't quite figured out how to tell if she has to go or not and we have accidents. Those times when she does go in the potty she gets so excited! It's the most adorable thing. (again, mom-thing) I'm not expecting her to be trained over night. So we'll just keep trying and go as long as she's willing to try...or she turns 2....whichever.

In other happenings Sydney seems to think she's a hair stylist. We have to hide everything that could possibly cut hair. She has cut her own bangs 3 or 4 times now. I don't know where she keeps finding these scissors but I now have about 6 pairs in the locked drawer. They're starting to grow out now and I think I'm just going to let them grow out completely. I don't want her to think she can cut her own hair anymore. As a result I have made the decision to not give Kiera bangs. Half the time she looks like a little ragamuffin and the other half she looks like a throw back to the 80's with her little side ponytail. I still think it's adorable.

Sydney is now a Sunbeam!!!! My baby isn't a baby anymore. She's all grown up and in Primary! *sad face* She loved it though. The primary presidency gave her her own church bag with a folder to put her hand outs in and stickers to decorate her bag with and colored pencils. Those guys are so sweet. They loved her and said she was so good for them. She said she really liked singing time. I'm burning her a cd with this year's primary theme songs and a couple of other popular ones and keeping it in the car. I'm also downloading them onto her innotab so she can listen to them while she plays.

Sydney is also doing at home studies and doing them really well. I've been teaching her how to write her letters and name, and what sounds the letters make. We have this curriculum that my preschool teacher used for me and my brother, Miki. She gave it to my mom when she decided to home school us. It's taught all of my siblings how to read and it's wonderful. She's also doing lots of math and now knows a ton of shapes, can count to 30 on her own and to 40 with help, can classify sizes and types and all sorts of things. She's so smart! And her speech is doing so much better. If you didn't know, Syd wasn't speaking well and we were advised to send her to a speech therapist, but couldn't afford it. Just by us speaking differently towards her she has improved SOOOOOO much! One of my friends, Shelia, just said yesterday that she understood every word that Sydney said, when just weeks ago she could only understand half. It really has improved her behavior too. Now that she can verbalize her wants, there are less tantrums. There are still tantrums, but there are much less than there was before.

Kiera is a little parrot. I don't think we'll have the same speech problems with her. Her vocabulary is enormus! Her pediatrician said she should be learning about 1 new word a week, but in reality it seems a new word every day. She says things I didn't even know she new. She even uses them in the right contex. The other day a car drove by the house. She only heard it, she didnt see it. But she clearly asked me "daddy home?" and she bosses the dogs around and loves to tell them to "HUSH!!!" when they bark. It's so funny cause they actually listen to her.

Well I must go....gotta play referee over the barbies again.....