Daddy's girl

Of course Laila has always loved her daddy. It is just that lately, with her increased vocabulary and maturity she has been able to show it in lots of different ways. Here are some examples; 

*Most mornings Laila will ask her daddy to hug and kiss her multiple times before he can leave

*She has stood in front of the doorway so he can't leave

* As soon as he leaves Laila will look at me and say, "daddy went to work?"then a couple hours later she will say, "where is daddy?" I say "at work dear" and then wherever we are she will reply that he needs to be there. For example today we were on our way to the grocery store and our convo went like this....Laila~ where's daddy?

                                        me~ at work

                                        Laila~ he needs to be in the car with us right now. 

* Whenever something in the house breaks..big thing or small..Laila automatically will say...

"daddy will fix it" (awww so cute)

* A few minutes ago Laila was coloring a picture and I asked her if she would make me one. Her immediate response was "ok..but you have to share it with daddy" :) 

I think it is great when daughters are able to look up to their dads. Also, Laila is at such an age where she can say the cutest things, as well as not so cute..but I won't share those:) 

Race for the cure

top: Cousins Katie and Julia(preggo..due in March yay!, Aunt Linda, Aunt Jeannie, Cousin Aaron and his gf Melissa, Mom

bottom: me and kiddos. FYI: Brad is taking the pic

We had a very busy weekend with a lot of running around. Saturday morning we had to be up at 5 in order to make it to downtown Portland(from Beaverton where we were staying) with enough time to get in lines for a bunch of free stuff before the walk started. I got pink underwear and a bag donated by macy's, a scarf, pins, stickers and a keychain. So it wasn't really about all the stuff..it was about being there to see what the whole thing was about. 

All of the survivors were wearing pink t-shirts and received pink roses at the end of the walk. They had their own tent for eating breakfast, visiting, etc in. It was great to see that so many woman were able to live on cancer free. At the same time, I could not help but wonder how long that would last because at one time my grandma had been declared cancer free, but it came back. Statistics say 1 in 8 woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime. This seems like a lot, so it is surprising to me that I personally don't know of any other families who have been affected by it. It was helpful to me to be around so many woman and their families who have felt the same pain I have and probably share the same fears as well. There was a tent with pink sheets of papers that said either, in memory of(if you lost someone) or in celebration of(someone going through chemo, or a survivor) where you put their name on it in marker and pinned it to your body. I saw lots of families with in memory of their mom and below mom it said aunt blank and aunt blank.  There were lots of people who had multiple family members names pinned to them. This is what scares me. 

I may be wrong about which people on my mom's side died from breast cancer but I believe my mom's grandma died from it, my mom's aunt, and of course my grandma(my mom's mom). So my mom and her sister's are high risk, making me and my two girl cousins on that side high risk as well. My mom gets mammograms yearly and each time they say that they have found something unusual and then she has to have a more in depth look which so far has turned out fine(thank God!) My mom's sister also had a mammogram last year which came out abnormal. In totally unscientific terms she has pre-pre cancer and is now taking medication which is supposed to keep it from turning into cancer. So basically I feel like I'm headed towards  having a life filled with uncertainty but I guess who doesn't?? 

Anyway..we had a good time. The walk itself really should not be called a race because it wasn't. We walked a mile in 40 minutes I believe. There were lots and lots of people and everyone was stopping taking pictures along the way. By the way, I did expect this. However, next year Brad and I think we might do the 5k run. Yes, we will be pushing the kids again(well maybe) and yes I will make Brad wear all pink:) All out next year.....

what a week!

So I will not be posting about all the ways I have been wronged this week..haha( I am being sarcastic) but I will tell you about the kids's 1 yr and 3 yr checkups yesterday.  I just want to start off by saying doctors visits are always so stressful for me especially when I am doing it alone. Brad has been very good about helping me when he can, but yesterday he was in Portland until noon and raced back to Oly to catch just the very end of the visit. Anyway , they started with Laila and weighed her and measured her. She is 33.6 lbs(up 5 lbs from 2 yr visit) I don't remember what they said her height was..dang it! I can measure her at home. However, the important thing was that she was  in the 75 percentile for height and weight so she is well balanced..yay! Next the nurse said she was going to test her eyes. This made me a little nervous because I was wondering how the heck they do that with a 3 year old..I was like is she supposed to know all her letters? Thank goodness the answer is no. They had flash cards with small black pictures of things like a bear, a tree, a cake, etc. They had her identify them close up at first to make sure she knew what they were to begin with. Next they had her step out in the hall and the nurse stood about 8 ft away while Laila held a big black spoon looking thing over each eye one at a time. My daughter is a champ. My main worry was that she would just ignore the nurse because Laila can be shy and not talk to people she doesn't see often. I was so proud of Laila. It excited me to see her interact so well with her nurse and her doctor. Landon was up next to be weighed and measured. He is now 22lbs 11 ounces(which is up almost 3 lbs from 2 months ago..I think its his love for whole milk) Again, I don't remember what she said his height was..but I do know his percentiles. He is in the 45th for weight and 75 for height. It's funny to me because I would have figured it to be the other way around. I thought he was short and a little pudgy. Anyway Landon did well with his checkup...until dum dum dum...shot time. I had Laila go first because I knew if she saw Landon cry first with his she would be even more difficult. Laila only needed one(the Hep A). Brad was not there yet so they called in the secretary to hold Laila on her lap so I could hold her other hand(mind you I was holding Landon..Brad was not there yet) We tried to do it with Laila sitting by herself but she wasn't willing to give up her arm..she just kept holding it with her other arm. No complaining..just resisting. She whimpered a little, but I was impressed.  Next Landon had his 4 shots. My poor baby. He wailed from the first poke until we left the office pretty much. I almost cried..ok I teared up a little. After I got Landon fully clothed again, the nurse sent me to the lab(luckily right outside the door pretty much) . It turns out he needed to have his finger pricked as well to test for anemia. Anyone else do this with their kids? I don't remember if Laila had it or not. It was a real struggle to get Landon to give up his hand after all those shots. I think we were both pretty well traumatized. I keep trying to tell myself well at least now he will be healthy..in case we decide to hop a plain to Africa or something:) Laila and Landon are doing fine today. Neither of them have ever had any adverse effects from shots. Although, most of the effects don't show up for weeks supposedly. I wanted to mention something kind of interesting my nurse told me when we discussed the shots before hand. Laila had her mmr shots at 1 yr and another at 2yrs. Landon had his first yesterday and won't have his second until 4 yrs. I asked her why that was and she said that there has been a shortage of the mmr vaccine lately. Isn't that kind of strange that with all the hype lately about mothers( or should I say parents) deciding not to give their kids the mmr that there would be a shortage? hmmm

Anyway, I am so glad it's friday. Brad and I and children of course are going to Portland tomorrow until Sunday. One of my mom's sisters and her kids live there and my aunt from Missoula Montana and one of her sons(and gf) will be meeting us in Portland to spend Saturday getting Pedicures(sorry Brad) and shopping. Sunday(the reason we are going) is the annual  Breast Cancer walk. They have a run too but since we are doing it with family, we are walking. My grandma, Helen Anderson passed away 2 years ago this coming January from a 10 year fight with breast cancer. She was so beloved by the family and we miss her dearly so we are doing this to remember her. I am planning on bringing the double jogger to push Laila and Landon along too. I am really looking forward to this, although I am sure it will be depressing at the same time to see families with t-shirts and signs in remembrance of loved ones lost. However, at the same time it will be inspirational to see woman wearing pink shirts representing that they are survivors. I will post pictures when we get back...I really should have made this 2 posts..sorry..

Now you want to sleep

This is how I found Landon after stepping out of the room for about 2 minutes. I had just got done changing his diaper on the floor in this same spot. I went to throw away the diaper and put another load of laundry in when Laila came running to me saying Landon's sleeping..Landon's sleeping..I was really confused. When I first saw him like this, I thought oh no! what did Laila do to him!? I then bent down to check him out and at the same time he let out a loud snore:) Why is this blog worthy?? Well because this is the boy I had to rock to sleep during naptime and at night. For a couple weeks he has been putting himself to sleep at naps, but in his crib. I still rock him at night, however. Don't ask why..I dont know!!?Anyway..he has never fallen asleep randomly like this..maybe he was up last night waiting for dad to come home....

Too cute

When Brad got home from work last night he put Laila's trike together and the whole family went for a walk/ride. I still can't get over how cute she looked in her little princess helmet!

cake anyone?

 I am sorry if this grosses someone out but I just had to share! As you can see Landon thoroughly enjoyed Laila's birthday cake:)

Laila Mari

Three years ago today I became a mom and life has never been the same. These three years have been tough emotionally, financially and even spiritually. However, I am sure that many will agree that I have been blessed immensely with the kind of joy and love many will never get to know. I love being a mother and often wonder why I got so lucky.
To celebrate Laila's birthday I made her favorite, waffles for breakfast. We went to church like most Sundays and then headed over to Chuckee Cheese in Oly for lunch and lots of games. Laila has been twice before for short visits, but today we went all out. Both sets of grandparents and even one set of great grandparents were there for the festivities. I am actually quite impressed with the Chuckee Cheese in Olympia. They have a lot of rides and games that both Laila and Landon can enjoy. After we used all 50 or so tokens we headed home for cake and icecream and presents. Laila got her first trike today from gma and gpa Hanson. I can't wait to for her to try it out tomorrow. Too bad the rain has arrived. I think fall is coming soon which reminds me I need to go get my box of sweaters out of the garage.....