Irwin Family

Potty Time

2011-11-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

So, Braden's been wanting to sit on the potty for a while now and we've been letting him but he's never actually gone while sitting on it. We have one of those little training potty chairs. Today he sat on it and went pee, Yay. Granted he didn't actually get anything in the potty chair, but it's a start right?

That Girl!

2011-07-26T21:39:00.001-07:00

Cailyn: "You brush my teeth, then I brush my teeth".

Mommy: "No, just I'll brush your teeth tonight, we don't have time for both".

Cailyn: (In her drama queen voice)"Uoh, how could you say such a thing"?

A few minutes later.........

Mommy: Cailyn you feel warm, I need to take your temperature.

Cailyn: (sobbing) But I don't have a temperature.
(She thought I meant that I was going to take it away from her)

What a goof.

What the?

2011-07-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

What the heck kind of melon is this? It looks like a honeydew on the outside and a cantaloupe on the inside. It tasted like a combination of both. It was really good. I ate the whole thing all by my lonesome. My kids apparently don't like melons. I'd love to know what it's called so that I could get another one sometime, it was scrumdiddlyumtious.

Oh Cailyn

2011-07-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

This kid cracks me up. This morning I was walking down the hall and I noticed her standing in the doorway of her bedroom. I said, "good morning Cailyn". She then yells, "no, I'm not awake". Then she ran to her bed and remained there for a few minutes until she was ready to be officially awake. She's too funny. Okay, so maybe you had to be there. It was funny to me.
She's wearing the "pink princess tutu dress" that Grandma and Papa Cobb got for her for her birthday.

And here's the token twirl.

Work In Progress

2011-07-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Oops, I just realized that I totally just posted this on the wrong blog. Oh well, now you all get to see it too and I can advertise my new blog. It's called "My Sister and Me" It's a blog dedicated to the crafting adventures of my sister and myself, hence the name.

This is a little quilt I'm working on for the Bazaar.

Oh yeah, and Kate reminded me that it is called "Jacksonville Celebrates the Arts". So this will be a baby quilt and it's taking forever, the only time I have to work on it is when the kiddos are napping. But it's coming along nicely and I think I will have the top and basting finished today. I'm so excited, this is the first quilt I've done completely on my own without help and it's turning out really nice. I'm finding out that my projects work out a lot better when I plan them our before I start cutting a sewing. It also makes for a lot less wasted fabric. More pictures to come when it's a little more together.

Love

Ta Da!

2011-07-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

She's walking! Okay so this post is a little late. It turns out I'm really bad at keeping up on a blog. These pictures were taken about three weeks ago, just before her first birthday.

I'm so proud of my little button. She's getting sooooo big.

She's improved awesomely since then. She's even trying it in shoes today.

I'll try to be better at keeping up on things in the future!

My Angels

2011-03-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

Jumping on the bed

2011-02-13T10:49:00.000-08:00

The kiddos like to jump on our bed. I figure why not let them, it's exercise right? Anyway, it's cute so here are some pictures.This is what Cailyn gives me when I ask her to smile pretty for the camera.

I did it again-yes I'm still a nerd

2011-02-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Here's my awesome deal from yesterday.

I got:

2 Excedrin-24 count
2 Garnier Herbashine hair color.
1 Garnier Fructis Shampoo
1 Garnier Fructis Conditioner
1 Finesse 2in1 Shampoo/Conditioner
3 Finesse Conditioner
1 Boiron Adult Cold Calm
1 Boiron Child Cold Calm

Before coupons this would have cost $56.28, I paid $32.63. Plus I got back $15.00 in Register Rewards and Up Rewards, and I will get back $12.98 in rebates. Which makes the total final cost $4.65. It would have been less but they were out of two products that would have made me some money, if I had been able to get them I would have had two more products and a total cost of $1.64. Oh well, better luck next time. I still think I did pretty darn good. I saved $51.63, right on!

Awesomeness

2011-02-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

This is my coupon deal of awesomeness. I got all this stuff for $-.96. That's right a actually made ninety six cents on buying this stuff. Here's what I got.

1 Blood glucose monitor kit
1 pack of five child plates
2 sectional child plates
2 child bowls with lids
1 sippy cup
1 three ring binder
1 box of 30 ziplock 1 gallon freezer bags
1 jar Neuragen joint pain relief gel
2 one night movie rentals from Redbox (Alpha & Omega-for the kids, Letter to Juliet-for me)

The price before deals and coupons would have been $51.99, that's a savings of $52.95. Yep, I actually saved more than I would have spent in the first place. I bet your wondering why I'm posting about my super cool shopping trip, and the answer is, I'm a nerd.

Gracie Jo Irwin

2010-11-16T17:36:00.000-08:00

Gracie Jo Irwin was born on June 25th 2010. I had her by c-section so I have no exciting birth stories, unless you want to hear about the panic attack I had as the anesthesia was setting in. My Mom came up to see her and to help with the kids while I was in the hospital. She was 7lbs. 14oz. and I can't for the life of me remember how long she was, somewhere between 20-1/2 and 21-1/2 inches. She has really dark hair, which is weird because Braden's is only kind of dark and Cailyn's is super blond and Jordan and I were both blond kids. We'll see if it stays dark. Here are some pictures from the hospital.

Roller Skates

2010-11-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

Jordan and I got Cailyn a pair of roller skates for her birthday, you know the ones that strap on over the shoes. She loved them but was a little scared of them. She hasn't been on them very much and I'm worried that she may have outgrown them already. But at least we got some pictures of her first go on them.

Lot's of Catch Up

2010-09-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted since Braden's birthday, and a lot has happened since then. So plan on seeing a whole lot of post over the next few days. Braden started walking about 2 days after his birthday, and has been all over the place ever since. Then again he should be, he's almost 18 months now. Maybe I should start posting things sooner. Anyway, we had a birthday party for Cailyn and Braden on June 12th. My Mom and Dad and Nathan came up from Medford for the party. It wasn't the best planned party in the world but it was fun. Here's some pics of the day.

The awesome cake Heather made for them.

Kids eating the awesome cake Heather made.

Cailyn and Braden opening presents.

The Birthday Girl.

The Birthday Boy.

Gracie's Blessing Day

2010-09-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Oops, I wrote this forever ago(back in September) and forgot to post it.

Yesterday was Gracie's blessing day. My Mom, Dad, Nathan, Katie and Wesley came up from Medford for it. Also Jordan's sister Jenny and her family came to our ward for the blessing. So, super cool story. Jordan gave a beautiful blessing and afterward the bishopric asked that we all sit quietly while they prepare the sacrament. I thought, "that's weird, why isn't the sacrament ready yet." So after a few minutes of waiting and wondering what was going on, the doors on the side of stand open and a group of men walk in, and who was with them? That's right, Eldar David A. Bednar. He said that he was meeting some other general authorities there and was 20 minutes early so he decided to go to sacrament meeting and "freak some people out". He stood up and bore his testimony of the living Christ and then left. It was such a neat day for our family, I felt so blessed to be in the same room as a prophet and listen to him testify that Christ lives. Now we have a cool story to tell Gracie about her blessing day, it was super special.

Birthday Boy!

2010-05-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Braden's first birthday, I can't believe he's 1 already. And in just 10 more days is Cailyn's third birthday, wow 3. My kids are getting so big. We didn't get to celebrate Braden's birthday last night because I had to take Cailyn to the doctor, her tonsils are swollen, sad day. But she's fine. So anyway, we're doing a little birthday thing tonight, just us, and then after Cailyn's birthday we're having a combined party for both of them. Anyway, Happy Birthday Braden!!

Cailyns New Bike

2010-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

We got Cailyn a big girl bike a few week ago and she's loving it. She's been riding her tricycle up until now. She looks so big on her new bike I can't believe she's even big enough for one already. She's been riding it almost every day, except for when she got sick last week (poor thing was stuck inside for three whole days). Anyway, with all the riding she's been doing she's getting really good at it. Jordan usually takes her out to ride and I was inside with a sick Braden for a few days and didn't see her ride at all. When I went out to watch her ride I was so surprised at how fast she could ride it. I foresee taking off her training wheels next spring or summer. I'm so proud of my little angel.

This was her first or second day on her new bike.

Here she is a few days later, getting better.

Braden can't wait for his turn, maybe in a couple of years kiddo.

Learning to Walk

2010-05-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

Braden is getting super good at walking, while holding someones hands at least. If you let him get a hold of your hands, he just starts going. It's so fun. He also stands up on his own quite a bit. Sometimes he even takes a single step before sitting down or grabbing on to whatever is closest. Pretty darn good I'd say, since Jordan and I haven't really been pushing him to walk. We're starting to now though because it's obvious that Braden really wants to walk and it would be great if he could do it without me having to bend over holding his hands, it's a little exhausting. I'm hoping he'll at least take his first real steps by his birthday, which is in about 10 days. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, except for when he grabs them and starts walking away with me.

Oh, on a side note. He just did the cutest thing. I was playing with him by putting a blanket over is head and saying "where's Braden?", then when I move it I say, "there he is". I did it a few times, then when I stopped he picked up the blanket and held it in front of his face. I didn't realize what he was doing at first and he just held it there. Then it came to me and I said "where's Braden?" and he threw the blanket down and started laughing. He's so smart.

Anyway, here are some pictures of him walking at the park with Jordan.

Baby Gracie

2010-05-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

We got my C-section scheduled for June 25th at 12:00pm. Lets hope I don't go into labor before that. So far I've had two C-sections and neither were scheduled. It'd be nice to have a normal one just once.

Also, as you can see from the title, we've decided to name our baby girl Gracie. We don't have a middle name yet, hopefully we come up with one before she's born or she just may have to go without.

Also, Braden is getting really good at walking while holding onto someone, he's also started standing up on his own and for longer periods of time. He gets better every day, I hope he's starting to walk by his birthday, which is in less than two weeks I can't believe it. He's getting so big so fast, and Cailyn will be three only 10 days later. All my kids' birthdays are going to be within one month of each other, that's gonna be crazy when they're big enough to want their own birthday party. Luckily this year we can do a combined one for Cailyn and Braden.

It's a GIRL!!

2010-04-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

Um, oops. I just realized that I haven't posted this yet, we've known for a while now. We are so excited to be having another baby girl. We don't have a name yet, so don't ask. We're really bad about waiting until we're really close before we decide on a name. We'll probably come up with a list of options and then ask people their opinions on what we should name her. That's what we did with Braden. Though, we'll pick the one that we like no matter what anyone says. It's just fun to hear everyone's opinion. Okay, now I'm rambling. Anyway, there you have it, we're having a girl. She's due on July 1st, though since I'll be having a c-section it will actually be about a week before that. I'll post as soon as we get the c-section date scheduled.

Everything's coming up tulips

2010-04-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Heather C. and I took our girls to the Woodburn Tulip Festival. 45 acres of over 100 varieties of tulips, Beautiful. It was so nice to go out together, and the girls loved all the flowers. They were also thrilled to see each other. It was also a great place for photos. I took tons of them, so brace yourself.

Easter

2010-04-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I'm slow with my posting, but I had a lot of pictures to go through. Okay, so Easter was lots of fun, Cailyn had a great time. Poor little Braden was still sick and had a rough day, but he was a trooper and made it through without too much of a fuss, he actually slept a lot.

The night before, we went over to Jim & Heathers for egg decorating. All the Irwin's were there except for Brian and his family, so Cailyn got to see most of her Irwin cousins. She had a blast, even though you can't really tell by the look on her face.Easter morning, the kids got their Easter baskets. Cailyn knew the Easter bunny was bringing her candy so she woke up very happy. We let them eat candy for breakfast (terrible, I know), while I made some food to take to lunch/dinner. At noon, we headed back to Jim & Heathers for a full day of Easter fun. Heather had all kinds of activities planned for the kids. They had an Easter egg hunt(of course), egg races and a scavenger hunt. They also had a visit from the Easter Bunny/Peter Cottontail (aka, Uncle Jeff in a bunny suit). They called him Peter Cottontail but Cailyn only knows him as the Easter Bunny. After the activities were over the kids had lots of time to play. While the grown-ups played a card came, an Irwin classic I'm told, called Spite and Malice. I won my first round ever playing the game, I was pretty proud of myself. I played horribly after that. Beginers luck I suppose.

After cards we had a delicious meal. Heather makes awesome prime rib, super fantastic. Then there was more visiting and playing, and it was so hard to make Cailyn leave her cousins at the end of the day. Braden also got to spend some time with Grayson, his closest cousin in age. But they didn't really take much notice of each other, they're a little too young. All in all it was a great holiday for kids and parents alike. Here are some pictures of our fun filled day.

Some Easter Portraits, well the best I could get anyway. Sick baby and sugar high toddler don't make for great portraits.

Easter Egg Hunt (I love her hat). Papa Irwin helped her find the higher eggs.

Meeting the Easter Bunny, she wasn't so sure about him at first but she warmed up later on.

March Pictures

2010-04-01T00:50:00.001-07:00

February Pictures

2010-04-01T00:47:00.000-07:00

Surgery

2010-03-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been having problems with my gall bladder since Cailyn was about 4 months old. Yeah, that's a long time. I'd called an ambulance twice, and been to the emergency room 6 times because of it. No fun at all. The first time it happened, I thought I was having a heart attack.
So anyway, Friday morning, I finally got my gall bladder removed. It was done laparoscopically, so it was only a day surgery, and the recovery is supposed to be far easier. Though surgery while pregnant is very scary and no fun, no matter how easy the nurses say it is. It was the first time I'd been put out with anesthesia, It was a very weird feeling. All went well with the surgery, the gall bladder came out and me and the baby are doing well. I had a couple of panic attacks, thinking I wasn't healing properly, but I tend to do that with surgery. Today I finally feel like I may actually recover. I'm just taking it easy for a while and enjoying all the waiting on I get from Jordan.

January Pictures...warning: picture overload

2010-02-01T23:19:00.001-08:00

More pictures for the Grandparents.

Playing at the park

Daddy's good at making him laugh

He looks so cute in the big bed

Well, that's all for now. Hope it didn't overload your brain.

December Pictures

2010-01-31T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is for the Grandmas and Grandpas.

Being chased by Daddy

Playing at the mall
As cute as this face is, it's the most irritating of all. It's her defiant face.

Christmas eve in their new Pajamas

Christmas morning in her new princess clothes

Ready for church

I just think her hair looks so perfect in this one

Making googlie eyes at me

Tired girl

Snow Day

2010-01-30T18:52:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids up to play in the snow. Well Cailyn played, Braden watched. We left a lot later than we'd planned and it took a little longer to get there than we'd hoped, we were starting to wonder if we would ever find any snow. But we found a fun little snow play area and pulled out the sled. Cailyn loved sledding "like Kai-lan" she said, she loves that show (so does Jordan). It was a bit irritating though, when we got there there were signs all over the parking lot that said "snow permit required to park". What the heck is that all about? And there wasn't even a place nearby to get one. Dumb. But we played anyway, we figured it was the end of the day and no one would care. Anyway, here are some pictures of our snow day. We got some video too, I'll try to post those later.

Braden looked so cute in his little hat.
She loves the snow.

Okay, so I don't have as many pictures as I thought. We took more video that day.

New Baby (yes, again)

2010-01-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, for those who don't know, we're having another baby, yay. The due date is June 1st which means it will probably be at least 4 days before that because I'm having a c-section. We don't know what it is yet but we'll hopefully find out very soon. We already have one of each so I'm happy with whatever it is. I have some ultrasound pictures from a couple weeks ago but I don't have them scanned into the computer yet. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Some major catching up to do

2010-01-27T19:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's been a long while since I've posted last, a very long while. So lets see what we've missed.

Visit with Mike and his family

About a week or so before Haloween we went down to Medford to visit with my family. Mike and Alex were in town and it was the first time my Mom and Dad had all four grandkids together. While we were there we took a trip to the pumpkin patch. It was lots of fun.All the Grandkids together.

Cailyn found her pumpkin.

Cailyn and Aliyah.

Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun. We took Cailyn and Braden trick or treating with their cousins who live in Salem. Cailyn loves playing with Ethan. You can't really tell because I didn't actually finish the costume, but Cailyn is supposed to be Sleeping Beauty. Braden didn't do any trick or treating, and we couldn't find his costume. He was going to be a frog. It would have been cute but oh well.

This is how Cailyn went to sleep that night. She refused to take the dress off.

Thanksgiving

Um, I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving, we went down to Medford and Butte Falls to visit our families. It was nice and the food was yummy.

Christmas

Christmas was great, we stayed home and had Christmas eve and Christmas morning with the kids. Cailyn and Braden loved their presents. Cailyn got really into Santa Claus this year. She still isn't completely over it yet. She loves to point out the toys that he brought to her on Christmas.Opening her Christmas pajamas. She loves them.

Braden in his Christmas Pajamas The first gift she opened was this princess dress up set from Grandma and Grandpa Cobb. She had to put it on immediately. I think we ended up letting her wear it to dinner at Heather and Jims.

Our Christmas morning spread of gifts. I know it doesn't look like much, but the kids were happy with what they got. Especially Cailyns kitchen.

Okay, that's all we'll do for now, I really just wanted to get holiday pictures up.

Bad Day

2009-10-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today is just a bad day. I got no sleep, I was up half the night with Braden and when he finally went to sleep Cailyn woke up. She stayed awake for two hours whining about wanting me to lay on her bed. At 8:00am she decided she was ready to get up. So I put on a movie for her and went back to bed, then of coarse Braden wakes up again. So I laid in bed with him and nursed him and he fell asleep, but I had to keep in in bed with me to keep him asleep which meant I didn't get to sleep very comfortably. I slept in until 11:00 and ended up missing church, again. So now I'm grumpy and not looking forward to school tomorrow. Despite it all I love the little runts.

School's In

2009-10-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

I started school last week, I should have started at the beginning of the week but I was sick so I started at the end of the week instead. Though I'm still a little sick. So far I'm really loving it. I think I may have a little trouble with my writing class though, it never was my best subject. I'm super excited about my Japanese class, I'm really going to like learning this language. And my teacher is great, I really like her and she really knows her stuff. I'm also taking a basic computer class, oh my goodness, how Microsoft Office has changed in the last 9 years. Also I have an online Math class, love not having to go to class for that one.

Riverfront Park

2009-10-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we found a great park here in Salem, it has a carousel. Yes a real carousel, I love carousels. It's also right on the Willamette River. And there's a river boat right there. The river boat is like a restaurant that takes you up and down the river while you eat. We didn't go on it, but we got some pictures of it. There's also a childrens museum that we didn't get to go to because it was closed, but we will visit it soon.

Katies visit

2009-09-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so I actually wrote this post a couple of weeks ago but didn't publish it. Oops. Oh well here it is now.

My dear sweet little sister and her darling little boy came to visit us last weekend. I haven't seen her since last Thanksgiving so I was very excited. We had lots of fun watching our little ones get to know each other. Wesley has gotten so big, he wasn't walking the last time I saw him. Wesley and Cailyn had so much fun together, I enjoyed watching them so much.

Day One

Katie arrived around 3:00pm I think, she would have been there earlier but there are apparently two places in Salem with my same address. So, after using all my prepaid cell phone minutes and running up a roaming bill on Moms cell, Katie and Wesley eventually got to my apartment. It wasn't a terribly eventful day, lots of meeting and greeting. Hugs and kisses and such. Cailyn was excited to have someone there to play with her. She took Wesley into her room to show him her toys, she was hoping he would look but not touch. She eventually warmed up to the idea of sharing.

Later that day we went to this great little park near our place. It's right next to a school and has a cool little water pad for the kids to cool of with. Then we came home, had dinner, put the kids to bed, and sat up chatting all night like I knew we would.

Day Two

Saturday we had Emmie over to visit while Heather and Ammon went to the Temple. We took them all to the park and had a blast. Then Heather and Ammon stayed for dinner, Jordan cooked fried chicken. He makes the best fried chicken.

Our day at the park.

Day Three

Sunday morning we got up late and decided to try to make it to the last two church meetings. We got dressed, got the kids dressed and went to church very late. When we pulled into the church parking lot it was empty. What? apparently we had stake conference that day and I totally forgot about it. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home.

This is sure sign your having dinner way too late.

Day Four (last day, so sad)

Monday morning, we planned on going to the enchanted forest. We got the kids ready and headed out. Deja vu, again we face an empty parking lot. They were closed, sad day. I was so disappointed. Luckily the kids are to little to realize what they missed out on.

So instead we decided to visit the state capital building. We got there and realized we had no change for the parking meeter. The place where we parked had about 15 minutes left so we walked around and took pictures for awhile then I ran back to the car and moved it to the next space over that was occupied before, it still had about 12 minutes left, yippy. Katie got to buy something for Wesley at the gift shop like she wanted to.

The weird golden guy at the top of the Capitol building

Katie and Cailyn at the State Capital

Cailyn and Wesley sitting on what looks like a replica of the Liberty Bell, I'm not sure though.

After the state capital we took the kids to play at the park. Wesley had a great time in the water, Cailyn did too, although she didn't actually go in the water. She seems to think that running around it while it sprays is the same as actually getting wet.

Cailyn reading

2009-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is Cailyn reading one of her favorite books, "I love you through and through". The first part of it is me reading it to her, so you could get a little bit of an idea of what she's saying during the second part. I read this book to her every night, she's memorized what it says by the pictures. It's very cute.

Pictures for Grandma and Grandpa

2009-09-15T00:04:00.001-07:00

Irwin Family Reunion

2009-09-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

Last month we went to a family reunion for Jordan's family. It was really great, he got to see all his cousins who he hadn't seen in a very long time. Here are some pictures, some are sort of blurry but, oh well.

Lots of catching up to do

2009-09-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated is so very long. Lets see, where to start. Here are some pictures from Cailyn's two year old birthday party. It was a small, family party in the park. Cailyn had a great time, she loves being surrounded by the people who love her.

We've since moved our little family to the lovely city of Salem Oregon. We are so happy here and love this city so far. Here are some pictures of our last day in Butte Falls and our first few days in Salem.

Here we are in our new apartment.

Braden Taylor Irwin

2009-06-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yay, he's finally here. Okay, he's actually been here about a week and a half but I haven't got around to doing much other than take care of my TWO kids. I can't believe I'm a mother of two. That's crazy. Okay so here's the info. Braden Taylor Irwin was born on May 28th just before 8:00am, I'm not sure of the exact time, it's like 7:57 or something like that. He was 8lbs 8oz. 20 and a half inches long. Somehow he has dark hair, like really dark, which is very surprising. Jordan and I were both blond little kids, and Cailyn is super blond. He's very sweet, he's eats and sleeps very well and Cailyn adores him. The first thing she said when she came into the hospital room was "I hold baby", very cute. She likes to hold him all the time, only for about a second though, she has a very short attention span.

Getting closer

2009-05-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had my last prenatal check up. Yay, we're getting really close. I think this will be the longest 10 days ever. I'm so happy to see my little boy. I'm excited to see Cailyns reaction to him. She loves babies so I'm hoping she'll really enjoy being big sister. I tell her that I have a baby in my tummy and she repeats it a lot, but I don't think she really understands what's going on.

Oh yeah, Jordan and I decided on a name this morning. He will be Braden Taylor Irwin, the doctor thinks he'll be about 8lbs. That's less than Cailyn was. My c-section is scheduled for 2pm and I can't eat all day. That won't be very fun, but I'm sure he'll be worth it all. I'm really excited because I've only gained 11 1/2 lbs this pregnancy so I'll probably come out of it about 15lbs less than I started off. Super cool. Now I just have to make sure I don't go into labor in the next 10 days. Oh darn, an excuse to sit around and relax.

Confusional Arousal

2009-05-13T12:27:00.001-07:00

Cailyn's been having these weird sleeping fits for a while now and I've been a little worried that she may have sleep terrors. So, yesterday I got this e-mail (I get these weekly newsletters from parents.com) that had an article about knowing the difference between nightmares and sleep terrors. I read it and it talked about something called "Confusional Arousal". It sounded exactly like what Cailyn's been having. Here's bit of the article that talks about what she seems to have.

"A confusional arousal begins with the child moaning and moving about. It progresses quickly to the child crying out and thrashing wildly. Even if the child does call out her parents' names, she will not recognize them. She will appear to look right through them.

During these frightening episodes, the child is not dreaming and typically will have no memory of the event afterwards. If any memory persists, it will be a vague feeling of being chased, or of being trapped. The event itself seems to be a storm of neural emissions in which the child experiences an intense fight-or-flight sensation. A child usually settles back to quiet sleep without difficulty.

These are very different from nightmares. You won't become aware of your child's nightmares until after she awakens and tells you about them. A child may be fearful following a nightmare, but will recognize you and be reassured by your presence."

It also says that some triggers for it are waiting until she's super tired to put her to bed and irregular sleep schedules. So sure enough, last night she went to bed two hours later than her bed time, and she didn't have a nap yesterday, double whammy. She had another episode of it. This time, instead of trying to wake her up, I took the advice of the doctor who wrote the article. He said to let it run its course and not to hold her down because it would prolong the experience. It worked she went soundly back to sleep in about a minute.

I felt a little bad though because she was talking, saying "Mama c'mon" and "Mama sit" asking me to come sit with her like she does on a regular basis when she's awake. I thought maybe she was having nightmares about me not spending enought time with her or something. Anyway, I'm super glad that I know what she's experiencing now. It's supposedly somewhat common in toddlers, I just hope she grows out of it.

Baby Name

2009-05-12T22:18:00.000-07:00

Baby boy is on his way, three weeks from today. Jordan and I still haven't decided on a name for him. We've narrowed it down to four names that we both like. They are:

Braden Taylor Irwin
Conner James Irwin
Tyson Cole Irwin
Christopher Joseph Irwin

Those are our final four. I think Jordan likes Christopher the best, I think my favorite is Conner, I don't know I'm still not sure. This is freaking hard. Jordan sent out an e-mail to some friends and family to vote for their favorite, anyone is welcome to give their input. We obviously can't decide on our own.

Gotta Dance

2009-05-02T15:01:00.000-07:00

This video was too funny not to post. This is what happens when we turn on music in our house. The other little girl with Cailyn is her cousin Destinie.

Cailyns first beach trip

2009-05-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this posting is a bit late. Cailyn and I took a trip to the beach with my Mom and Dad the first weekend in April. Cailyn loved it so much. The weather was perfect, which is a big deal on the Oregon coast. We stayed at the White Rock Resort just south of Brookings for two nights. So I thought I'd share some pictures.

This was her favorite place, she loved to look out at the "ocean water" and she still talks about it, all the time.
This was the view from our back porch where we stayed.

Her first walk down to the beach. She was very attached to Grampa that day.

She had fun making a sand castle (well that's what it was supposed to be anyway) with Grampa and Uncle Nathan.She was very concentrated on her work.

Baby Boy

2009-04-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yay, my c-section has been scheduled. June 2nd at 1:00pm I will be delivering a sweet baby boy. It's really nice to know ahead of time exactly when he'll be coming. We still don't have a name picked out yet, I'm open to suggestions.

Cailyns stitches

2009-03-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a few weeks ago Cailyn had a little accident. Her cousin was spinning her on Grampas computer chair and she decided it would be an interesting adventure to stand up while still spinning. I'm sure all you parents out there know what a great idea that must have been. So I was urgently telling her to sit down and the next thing I knew she was flying through the air. She hit her sweet little face on Grampas computer desk and split it open. She had to have four stitches. If you've ever had to watch you child get stitches, then you know it's not a pleasent experience at all. So here are some not so good pictures of Cailyns stitched up face. I would have had them up sooner, but Jordan's a computer hog. She's since had the stitches removed and it's healing quite well. Though she may have a scar on her face for the rest of her life. =(

Olive Fingers

2009-01-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Cailyn had her first experience with olive fingers. She loves olives and I usually cut them in half because I'm paranoid about choking. Well Jordan gave her some olives whole and he put them on her fingers, she thought it was the coolest thing. Every time she emptied her fingers she'd ask for more and more and more. It was so cute, she was eating them so fast I barely got a picture of her with an olive on all five fingers. Of course she later threw them all up, in the middle of the night all over my bed, but that's another story. All I have to say is if I have to wash the sheets one more time I'm going to scream.

New Baby

2009-01-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, so for those who don't already know, now is the time to tell you that I am pregnant. About 20 weeks along now. We just found out yesterday what the baby is, and congratulations to us, we're having a boy. The due date is June 5th, though since I'm having a C-section I will be having him on either the 1st or 2nd.