Young Minds!

Well to start off, I am not a consistent blogger! My goal was to blog every couple of weeks this summer, and really I have only blogged a couple times this summer. Oh, well! I am not going to bore you with every detail of the past few months, just the last couple of weeks!!! ( :

I titled this entry, Young Minds, because Laney's little brain and mouth are cracking me up lately. I love having conversations with her and watching her play when she is not looking. Today, we were on a walk in our neighborhood. I pointed out an American flag to Laney, and she asked what America was. I tried to explain that America is our country and where we live. Well let's just say, it became a heated debate between the two of us! Laney was appalled when I told he we live in America. She said, "NO Mommy, we live at home!". With a little chuckle, I responded that yes we live at home, but our home is in America." This debate went on for a couple of minutes until I said that America is a country like China. This statement must have sparked something because her response was, "Oh, like how Kai Lan's home is in China!". It is amazing how everything can relate to a Nick Jr. show. ( :

Both Laney and Leah have enjoyed their summer. We have done lots of swimming at Nana's and Papa's. Andy has finished about 1/2 of the girls' swing set and they both love to swing. Laney is anxiously awaiting the completed project so she can slide and go through her tunnel. Earlier in August, the four of us went down to Arcola for the day to visit with Dad, Cinda and her family. There is a small lake there and a beach. Laney was in heaven! She played in the water and sand all afternoon. Leah loved the water also, but spent most of her time under the tree.

A few weeks after that, the girls and I went down to Rochester for the weekend since Andy was busy working on his parents' new house. My original plan was to take the girls to the State Fair. I thought it would be fun for Laney to go down the big slide, see the farm animals, and the butter cow. Not to mention, I was really looking forward to a Pronto Pup and some french fries! It was a typical State Fair weekend with temps reaching around 97 degrees. Needless to say, I put a kabosh on the fair. So instead, the girls and I went to Knight's Action Park with Dad, Cinda and her daughter's family. What a great afternoon it was! Laney showed no fear and went down the little kids version of the big water slide. Leah lounged in the pools and drew oohs and aahs from people passing by.

Poor Andy has been so busy this summer with his parents' house that he has missed out on a few of our adventures, but that project, that I jokingly and lovingly call "Habitat for Humanity", will be wrapping up soon. We are trying to plan a weekend getaway for our six year anniversary in October. I am also trying to talk him into a Disney trip for early next year because Laney is completely fascinated with all the Disney Princesses. He is not all that jazzed with that idea, but I am sure us girls will get him to come around. ( ;

Well, I must be wrapping up due to the fact that Leah is trying to help me blog! Enjoy the rest of your summer everyone!

Summer Fun!!!

Hello again!! It has been awhile since I have had a chance to update the blog. Life has been busy around here. Andy is super busy building his parents home and with numerous side jobs. He will be leaving on a business trip with my brother-in-law, Paul next Thursday. He will be in Beijing, China for ten days!!!! Yes, I will be alone with my babies by myself for ten days!!! I am a little nervous for a number of reasons.
1. My hubby is traveling around the world to someplace he has never been.
2. I will be by myself for ten days with a 4 month old and two year old.
3. I have never really been by myself here alone since we moved in 4 years ago.
4. Laney is going through a nightmare stage right now!
Actually, I am not that nervous. I mean, my sister has done it many times and she has more than double the amount of kids than me. Anyway, I am sure I will have a few stories about Andy's travels and my adventures here.

Well, on to some exciting news for me. Starting July 5th, I will only be working 3 days a week. I am dancing a little jig as I type. I will be working M-W-F and off on Tu & Thurs. I am not going to lie. I will miss my Mondays off, but another extra day with my girlies is going to fabulous.

This morning I got online to check my bank account so I could balance the checkbook and pay bills. I was ecstatic to see that my direct deposit from work was 4 1/2 times my regular pay!!! I thought to myself "Do I just pretend I did not notice or do I call my boss?" Well, my boss called me. I was on-call this weekend and you have to carry a cell phone that rings 24/7. Well, we get an extra 200$ for carrying it. Instead of 200$, they accidentally paid me for 200 extra hours. Ooops!! So needless to say, I won't be keeping that dough. I already had a trip to Maui planned. Oh, well!!!

Laney and Leah got to enjoy Nana's and Papa's pool the last two weekends. They both love the water. Laney is trying to be independent. She wants everyone to watch her jump in off the ladder. She is so proud of herself. She will say "Laney did a big jump". But in all actuality, she takes a nice leisurely step off the ladder. In other Laney news, she is officially potty trained. I was so lucky! She has only had a few accidents and we are down to only a hand full of pull-ups. Once those are gone, we will be sleeping through the night in big girl panties. My guess is that will occur while Andy is in China, and I will have sheets to change every night.

Leah is 4 months old now and so vocal. She is such a good sleeper. She should give her big sister some tips. When Laney was a baby, you would have to cuddle her to sleep, not Leah. I can lay her in her crib and she will zonk out for the whole night. And to top it off, if she wakes up at 0600, she will talk herself right back to sleep. She loves to eat her cereal at night. She is like a little baby bird with a wide open mouth. Saturday night as soon as I walked out of the room, the little booger rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time!!! Time goes by way too quickly these days. Well, Leah just woke up from her nap so I must be going!!!

Did you say "Chechans"?

So we have been very busy the last few weekends. Myself and both girls made the drive over to Indianapolis on April 23rd to visit my friends Sara and Adam and Jodi. I will admit that I was a tad bit apprehensive traveling with both girls by myself, but they were absolute gems! Laney talked my ear off for the first hour of the trip. She asked what this was and who that was. The second hour we sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the ABC's over and over and over again. About 20 minutes outside of Indy, she finally crashed! It was about 9:30 pm eastern time. Amazingly, she bounced right out of her slumber and was wound for sound until about 11:00 pm.

We had such a good time with Sara on Saturday. We went to The Children's Museum. Laney loved the dinosaur exhibit until the light and sound effects started. Thunder rolled and boomed and the lights flashed and Laney just about jumped out of Sara's arms. I would have to say her favorite exhibit was Bob the Builder which she does not watch. However, she loved playing on the machinery especially the yellow one which is a lot like her daddy's skid steer. Andy is so proud! Leah was a complete doll at the museum and she bonded with Auntie Sara. Sara got a little confused and told someone that Leah was 10 months instead of 10 weeks. The lady responded saying "Wow, she is so small!" Sara was great with the girls. I was a little nervous that 2 little kids for 2 days straight would drive her nuts, but she seemed to enjoy them just as much as they did her. I am sure Angus, Sara's bulldog, was glad to see us go.

Saturday night, we all went to Adam and Jodi's house for a delicious dinner. After dinner, Sara, Jodi and myself were sitting around the table having girl talk. So, Adam retreated to the family room with Laney. At first, Laney was a little shy towards Adam, but after about three episodes of Dora, they were buddies. She even cuddled up onto his lap. We really had such a great time in Indy. We are definitely going to try to plan another visit back, but this time hopefully Andy can come too! We don't get to see Adam and Jodi and Sara often enough, but when we do, it is just like old times. Thanks a bunch to all three of you!!

This past Saturday the whole family traveled down to Champaign-Urbana for Hannhah's first communion and Hope's birthday party. Again, I was a little nervous about taking Laney to church. I will admit we don't go often. Okay, Laney has not been for awhile. She actually sat fairly still and quiet for the 1 1/2 hour service. Both Andy and I were shocked. So, Laney and I are going to attempt to go to Saturday evening mass. I will keep you posted on how long that lasts!!!

After church, we went back to Cindy and Paul's for lunch and cake. Laney loves to go and play and Cinny and Paul's, especially outside. We were all outside so my Aunt Joy took Laney in with the chickens which makes me cringe a bit. For those of you that don't know, I have a very strong irrational fear of birds. So the thought of my little girl in with chickens does not excite me. However, Laney loves the damn chickens!! Anyway, my aunt helped her gather two eggs and you would have thought she had a million dollars. She carried those two eggs around for quite some time. When you asked Laney who laid the eggs, first she said Cinny. When we asked what animal, she replied "The Chechans". She sounds like she is talking about the war torn area of Russia instead of the feathered barnyard bird.


Leah continues to be an excellent baby. Andy and I have been truly blessed with her. She laughs and coos all the time now. Leah loves her big sister. Her little blue eyes follow Laney's voice everywhere. She does not seem to mind when Laney rolls all over her or tries to reposition her pacifier into her mouth. I think they are going to be great friends.

A Week of Firsts!!

Well, this post comes to you after a week of many firsts for the Mohler Family! To begin, Laney has made two major steps into the big girl world this week. On Sunday, I decided I would try to test out the whole "no plug (pacifier)" scenario. It was nearing nap time and Laney was getting tired. I took her up to her bed and kissed her good night. In her most pathetic voice she said, "Mommy, need my plug".

I took a deep breath and said, "No more plugs. Mommy put them in the garbage." Keep in mind, the plugs were really in one of the kitchen cabinets, just in case. I was prepared for the worst. I fully expected to see a waterfall of tears streaming down her face. However, my sweet little girl said, "Okay, night-night". That was it. It was that friggin' easy. I had literally been sweating this moment for the last few months. I thought I was going to be one of those moms who would have to rip the "plug" from her mouth on the first day of preschool. She has only asked for it a few times since. However, she must have been having withdraw cravings on Tuesday night because I found her with Leah's plug. She had it in her hand and it was creeping closer to her mouth. She pushed passed her craving and calmly gave to her little sister.

The second "big" first for Laney this week was pooping in the potty!!! Oh what a glorious day!! The look of pure accomplishment on her face was priceless. We had to call Daddy up at his side job to tell him the news. Then we got in the car and went to Walmart to make good on the Dora toy we promised her. She picked out Dora's backpack, which by the way is extremely annoying, but she loves it!! Now, she has only repeated this a couple times, but we are making progress. This morning, she spent the whole morning in dry big girl panties!!!!

Leah is getting so big way too fast. She is starting to grab for toys and really would like to roll over. She almost had it a few nights back. She is a big fan of my singing and dancing, especially Lady Gaga!! She gets so tickled when I sing "Bad Romance". Who knows if she is purely delighted by performance or just laughing at me? I tend to lean towards the later. She also has been sleeping like a champ. Thursday night she slept from 11p-7a, and Andy had to go upstairs and wake her up.

So Tuesday was my first day back to work. I really was not looking forward to it, but it was inevitable. I work about an hour away from our house so I was really nervous about getting the girls ready and out the door by either 6 or 7 am. Luckily, on Tuesday I was able to go in to work at ten so we had a nice morning together. Daddy took some pictures and I did not get teary until half way to work. I glanced in the rear view mirror into the backseat and it was empty. It was the first time in eight weeks that I did not have two little faces looking back at me. I had a little cry and then was just fine. Leah has done great at the sitters and Laney loves it. She has no problem saying goodbye. Usually, she is pushing me out the door.

Well, I must be going. Laney and Leah are both napping and then we are going to meet McKenna and Nicholas at the park. This weather has been amazing. Next weekend, I am taking the girls to visit some of my friends in Indianapolis. We are hopefully going to hit the zoo and then Sunday we are participating in the Mutt Strut with Sara and Angus (Sara's bulldog). I am sure we will have a few good stories for the blog. Have a great week!!!

Spring Fun and Smiles

Hello Everyone!! I thought I would start off by saying Happy Spring!! We had a very busy week here last week. It started on Tuesday afternoon when Laney took a trip to the beauty salon to get her hair trimmed. This was her first official hair cut. A year ago we trimmed up her bangs, but there was not even enough hair to save. Laney loved the salon and kept admiring herself in the mirror for days. I think Andy and I are in for it with this one.

Laney has become a bit of a drama queen. Her newest thing is when you tell her it is time for bed or to pick up toys, she says in the whiniest, most pathetic voice, "My tummy hurts". She even pouts out her lip and uses her puppy dog eyes. This tactic does not work, but it is pretty cute. We have been moving along with potty training. She seems to have number 1 down, but number 2 is going to be a struggle. She has now started hiding in a corner when the urge comes along. Then she comes running to me with the biggest grin and says "Mommy, me pooped!!". This is usually about 5-10 minutes after she has gone pee-pee in the potty. Oh well, she will get it someday.
Little Leah is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. I was finally able to capture her beautiful grin on camera. We have been dealing with a bit of a reflux problem with Leah. She has a tendency to regurgitate some of her feedings. The poor baby goes through 9-10 bibs a day. Now being a nurse, I know that it does not really bother her, but it bothers me. Her clothes are usually wet with spit up and not to mention the smell. Laney calls it "Leah's uckies". I have tried burping her every ounce, keeping her upright for 30 minutes or more after feedings and other tricks. Nothing really seemed to help so today I am trying out the acid reflux formula. So far so good, we have fewer uckies today, but who knows if it is a fluke.

We celebrated Easter with Andy's family Saturday night at our house and then traveled down to St. Joseph on Sunday for Easter with my family. Laney was very excited to see that the Easter Bunny had visited our house on Sunday morning. Leah was not so impressed. She just wanted her morning bottle and did not appreciate the photo shoot with her bunny ears on. Being the stellar mom that I am, I did not even get one picture of both our girls in their Easter outfits together. Oh well, there is always next year.

Well, next Tuesday I go back to work. I am not thrilled about this, but the time has come. It is going to be interesting trying to get myself and the two girls out the door by 6:00 and 7:00 am. This is going to be especially difficult since Laney is not a morning person. Wish me luck!!!!