2011!

Wow! It's 2011 already! It seems so wierd to write that down. So far this year has been good. Jodee has been to the emergency room on Saturday morning due to a form of croup, but so far is good. I caught it at the early stage, so they treated her with a oral steroid treatment and nothing has been given since. I have a humidifier going in the girls' room at night, so we hope it will go away soon. It's a good thing I had most of last week at home and nothing planned this week to cancel. We kept the girls home from church this morning so they wouldn't pass/catch a cold.

Wow, what to write. It's been a while since I've updated. In December Byron's work party was at Harrison this year, so we brought the girls to my parents for the night so we could spend the night at the hotel. Oh, it was nice and relaxing just hanging out in the hot springs. We hung out with his owner-boss and wife, mill-boss and wife and the accountant and her husband. The girls did well and Jodee took a bottle for almost an entire day and did well with it! We've had 2 family get-togethers for Christmas, a big Bredenhof family skate, and for new years we went to some friends for a small gathering down in the states and sat in border lineup for 1hr, 15 min to find out only 1 lane was open. We came home to discover our Petey missing but he was found the next day down the road from us, so we're glad to have him back!

Byron's still enjoying his job. He tried to take on any full time work that he can because he enjoys keeping busy. I do love it when he's home as he helps me out with the girls. I can't imagine how single mom's do this on their own! He still enjoys going out to the shop to play around with his tools. It's a bit cold for it now, but on a "warmer" day he can. Just yesterday he took Sidney outside with him for a few hours to do some yard work.

I'm still enjoying being with my girls. Life had gotten better for me. The first 4 weeks that Jodee was here was rough, not enough sleep = cranky mamma. Then around 3 months, Jodee became more fun so it got better, but I still was cranky towards Sidney. Getting her in trouble when it wasn't necessary all the time. But in Jodee's 4th/5th month, life has just gotten that much easier for me. I'm getting a bit more sleep (even thought Jodee is SO inconsistent), but I'm having more time these days to spend 1 on 1 time with my girls, reading Sidney stories, playing with her, baking/cooking with her "helping" me. I should let her start to help me pour the ingredients in the bowl, but I keep forgetting. Someday! I am housebound this week and with the snow forecasted, I think I will be! I'm hoping to get some sewing done this week too. If I stay on top of a clean house, I'll have more time to do my "own" things.

Sidney is now 2 and life is getting
much more exciting for us and her! She's talking a whole lot more, putting her sentences together, and coping almost everything we say! Gotta REALLY watch what we say! It's so cute watching Wheel of Fortune as she copies what the contestants say. We just have to work a bit on her pronunciation as she uses her tongue to make "s" sounds when it should be an "f" for example. I know she's only 2 and just putting her words together, but we'll try to work on it slowly so she doesn't pick up bad habits. She's full of piss and vinegar. Last night and today she was extremely hyper and doing silly things. She can get "mouthy" lately by saying "go away mommy/daddy" or throws hissy fits when she doesn't get her way. But, that's life and we have to deal with it. She is getting SO much better in the stores that I can have her walking with me and she'll mainly listen. She's so full of love for her little sister! Her most commonly used phrase is "Jodee happy?" Yup, Jodee's happy. When isn't she?! Sidney is into playing with my brush and her barrettes. She always wants to brush my hair (to my excitement!!!!) and take my clips out and put them back into my hair. There's been times where she comes up to me and gives me a hug and says "I love you" in her gibberish, but I can understand her perfectly!! Sigh, it just melts my heart! She gets SO excited when Byron comes home from work and plays hard to get with him. She'll greet him at the door, but then run off all excited and hyper. She may refuse to give him and kiss and it can be a fight for Byron to get one out of her. She can get a bit choosey over what clothes she wears, she doesn't like to wear socks (you'll find her bare footed all day) but if it's too cold or she feels cold, I make her wear them. Byron and I are both loving our big girl and love seeing what's new with her every day!

Jodee is such a happy girl that there's rarely a moment that she's not smiling or making noise. As mentioned before, she is so inconsistent with her sleeping habits. I know that every child is different and I just take it day by day. I've been home alot lately, but that doesn't see to help. If she does wake up at night, it is only once, but hopefully I can cut that out soon once she gets better. Most often though, it's between 5 and 7am, so it's not too bad. We can just fall back to sleep though. Jodee just loves the water! She splashes in the tub, kicking her legs and flailing her arms with a huge smile on her face. We went to the pool in town on Friday and she loved it! It was her 3rd time there but with being older was more fun. If you're holding Jodee, she'll almost always stare at the person who is NOT holding her, so if you want her to look at you and smile at you, then don't hold her and sit next to them :) It's really cute to watch her bounce in her exersaucer.

Here are a pile of "recent" pictures that have been taken in the last few months. Most of them are from Dec/Jan, but a few are of Nov too. Just so you get an idea of what we've been up to. Well, most of these were taken at home, so not much to see except the important ones of our girls.

These were taken tonight before Sidney went to bed, to show off the most recent pictures of us!

Byron's brother Ray made this go cart for him and the boys. He made the frame and threw a motor on it. It goes pretty good and doesn't tip so far :). The brakes don't really work, but it's tons of fun! Sidney didn't really care for it, but I forced her to go on with me at the end of our time there and she wanted to keep going she had so much fun!

Here we were at Minter Gardens and went for a train ride. Sidney was so excited to go, but once we were seated on the train, she wanted off, but she didn't! She had fun!

Here we are at the family skate. Sidney even was able to borrow skates from a family member and we tried them on her at the end! She had fun, we think :)

Some pictures of my girls together, sorry if Sidney is looking rather dull in a few of the pictures, but it's hard to get a picture of the 2 of them smiling, as Sidney plasters on a "cheeze" face and looks somewhere but me. Oh well! Oh Dec 17 I believe, we went for a 5K bike ride around here which felt amazing, as Byron was in shorts and I was in capris! Who would have thought for that time of year!? The girls did so good in the bike trailer!

Random pictures of our beautiful Sidney just goofing off and being herself. She looks like such a big girl sitting at the kitchen table putting pins in my pin cushion, something she really likes to do. Oh, and dressed in the giraffe costume we got handed down from a sister that she just loves! She did nap in it that day! Excuse the hair in some of the pictures, but you get the point!

This is the facial expression that is often seen on Jodee when she's squealing in a really high pitch, just her way of talking and showing that she's really happy. And, she's showing off her ability to roll from her back to her front. She can do it, but not often.

This is to show how big Jodee has gotten. I found on a blog to put your child beside a teddy bear to show the growth, so that's what I've done with the pink teddy she got from her Uncle Verne in the hospital, her first teddy :).