Rick's gift for Christmas was a much desired calf and foot massager.  He has used it every day.  Cole has definitely noticed and has decided that he needs to use it too - but not Lyla.

Lyla is moving along swimmingly in her development. She learned to clap the other day for the first time and I caught it on film.  She would only clap while eating (which is where she first learned it) but now she does it all the time and it's getting louder too.  She loves to do it because everyone gets so excited. 

Her interactions with people are so fun.  She gives hugs, kisses, waves good-bye (sometimes), gives "touch" and high-fives.  We are working on fist bumps which she currently finds funny when we do it so I'm sure it won't be too long before she has got that down. I think the problem there lies in that she doesn't voluntarily make a fist (hence her slack in signing milk too.  That or the fact that her fingers in her mouth with a little whine is enough said, right?). 

Lyla also understands the game of chase.  She will get so animated when Cole crawls towards her and she jumps into my arms so I will take her away while giggling with delight and kicking her legs for all it's worth. Daddy loves to play this game too. 

And finally she has mastered "Peek-a-boo".  Cole never really got into this game but Lyla adores it.  I will find her randomly putting things over her face and head only to drop it and look at me with anticipation.  I love it and so does Cole. He really loves to interact with her more and more each day. Although he is still a little unsure about sharing some of his favorite toys all the time.  There's a two-year old for you!

A day in the life...(with cell phone pics)

This morning we took Lyla to the doctor as I was concerned that she might have an ear infection and didn't want to go the weekend with it getting worse.  Her norm is to suck her fingers when she gets sleepy or when she doesn't feel well. The fact that she was doing it most of the day had me concerned. She had been rubbing her ears as well.  So after a few days of debating I finally brought her in. Turns out she didn't but doc says she does have a sore throat which could be the sucking fingers - in addition to teething of course. 

Cole wanted to go with me to the doctor even though Dad was at home because he knew that these little gizmos were waiting for him.  Having a cool toy that isn't anywhere else at home is a great attraction to go to the doctor!  As soon as we walked in, Lyla almost jumped out of my arms to get to them as well.  They played with them about 10 minutes after our appointment too. Cole calls them "Choo-choos".  And he makes the train sound when he plays. I love it!

Cole and Lyla playing with the mirror at the doctor's office. Cole usually loves to play with all the doctor instruments on the wall too.  He holds the otoscope to his ear, then mom's ear, then Lyla's ear, etc.

We then went to the mall to go shoe shopping for Cole.  He needed some church shoes and a new pair of decent casual shoes.  We had him sized and he is a 6.5 but a 7 or 7.5 was recommended to have growing room (especially since dress shoes are hardly ever worn and won't wear out before he outgrows them).   After some shopping we had lunch and Cole begged to go in the play area.  I usually avoid this place since it is so dirty but he had been so good all afternoon we went for it. 

Cole loves to climb on these red mushrooms and slide down the other side.  He prefers this over the real slide (the height thing again).  And the biggest surprise to me was how much Lyla LOVED this place.  She was squealing with delight and scampering everywhere. Every mother and child there became enamored with her. When she finally got bombarded with children trying to hug her and kiss her she only became more enthused (instead of scared).  But I rescued the tot from the germs dying to get on her fingers and eventually in her mouth. 

With smiles and excitement like that, we will just have to come more often but prepped with lots of wipes and hand sanitizer!

Well, it appears I should be playing catch up as I have so much to report on and I'm positive I will miss something.  I have been slacking on taking pictures which usually means I'm not prompted to blog. So sorry. So most of these pictures posted are actually from the worst camera known to man on the market today - my 2.0mpx cellphone.  It's a nifty tiny thing but, man, does it take awful pictures.  I just have forgotten to put my camera or ipod in my purse. Well, also because the camera seems to be having lighting issues too.  I'm hoping a new battery will help that out.  Anyway...

Christmas was so fun for the kids.  Cole & Lyla love absolutely everything they received and play with all of it.  This has been so great because they have started to play together and without Mom!  We spent Christmas in Austin.  And sadly, I only have one picture.  Lyla doesn't really like to use walkers anymore or even hold your hands and walk. She is determined to stay a crawler because she is TOO AFRAID of getting hurt.  She won't even go up the stairs at all - not even one step - because she got hurt once.  So seeing this event was big.

She definitely is strong willed this girl.  Many times she refuses to eat unless I give her something she can feed herself.  She loves to make a mess with food. Even if I'm feeding her she will put her fingers in her mouth (I guess to feel it) and then get it all over her face and everywhere else.  Yes, feeding a child is such joy.  She has even refused to eat in her highchair because Cole and I were not sitting down.  (i.e. I was making waffles and feeding them to Cole while I cooked more.  She wouldn't eat anything and sat in her chair making sad faces, sucking her fingers and moaning.  I picked her up and she signed "eat" and then proceeded to eat an entire waffle while being held.  Silly girl!)  But she is such a delight.  Truly there could be no better temperament on any child.  Just a little determined, which isn't a bad thing at all.  I know she isn't the happiest in this picture but she was just dang cute being all demanding!

Here is one picture from my phone after Christmas. Actually this was taken the same day as the above highchair pic. Don't ask me why I didn't grab the camera instead. 

What have we been doing with all of our time you ask?  Well, on the nice days (which have been many until this week) we go to the park down the street.  Cole does his usual digging in the rocks but has backed off the slide.  He seems to have developed an odd fear of heights.  Nothing has happened to him (that we know of), but he just is afraid now. I don't know if this is a phase he will grow out of or not.

Lyla would love it if she stayed all day in the swings.

Sometimes we go see the ducks at the community park. We discovered these ducks as we went to see the lights at the park.  Cole loves them and they are not afraid of you.  I don't usually bring food for them because Cole is usually hesitant for them to get really close so I don't want to give them any reason to come closer.

Last week was bedding and towels wash day. The kids were in such good moods which made it so much easier for me to be busy doing chores.  But they were so dang cute I quit working and just started playing and taking pics.

Like I said, we were washing bedding. They love the guest bed the most to play on. Maybe because that room is so sunny. Who knows. But they were stinkin fun to watch! They were just moving around too quick for my dying batteries in the camera to get any really great shots.

Lyla will pose for pictures or depending on her mood, lunge at the camera. Example:

But Cole almost never looks at the camera.  He always moves right before you take it and they end up like this.  You can see that he is just thrilled with himself for tricking me once again. I'm glad he gets such joy out of the little moments in life.

But Daddy can hold him still for a minute so I can at least get a pic of those precious eyes.

And here they are being so, so, so cute. Oh, and one more thing...Cole often doesn't like to get fully changed. If it's bedtime, he will want to keep his shirt on usually. If it's morning, sometimes he will only let you put a new shirt on and keep his PJ pants on. This was one of those mornings.

Yes, Lyla sometimes gives kisses open mouthed. You never know what you are going to get! But that's why Cole wouldn't kiss her back. Haha!

So yesterday I bought Lyla and Cole some new jeans at the consignment shop here.  I was so excited to put them on Lyla since they were some cute flares.  I mean, just look at her little cute little butt!

They looked like a nice fit to me...

But when she tried to crawl or pull her legs under her to sit back down she ended up laying face down on the ground sucking her fingers. I wondered if she felt okay or if the pants were too tight after all. Well, after leaving them on for about and hour I decided to take them off and see what happened. She was being so sad and that just isn't Lyla. As soon as I got them off she scurried across the room, sat up and laughed. Yep. Too tight. Wonder if she will ever want to wear tight jeans as a teen? hmmm...

P.S: Yes that is Lyla standing all by herself. She can do this for a while and squat down to sit from there instead of just falling. Therefore, we know this girl can walk, she just chooses not to.

P.S.S: Isn't she looking CHUNKY! Love my chubsters!

And here are more videos...

Lyla really does enjoy feeding herself. She gets so excited when it comes to food.

Lyla loves to play with anything Cole has really but she enjoys knocking over blocks, hanging upside down, giving high-five, "touch" (using your pointer to touch someone else's pointer), waiving, standing on her own then falling into your arms, swinging, chattering and smiling.

Cole is very into pretend play right now. He enjoys cooking, eating, dusting, vacuuming and mowing.

He also enjoys
coloring (but mostly asking mom to write everyone's names down),
building towers with blocks (and of course knocking them down),
playing games on the ipod touch (one of his favorites is Tom Cat - a cat you can pet, knock down, give milk to, and more. The best part is the cat will repeat anything you say so he loves to talk to it!),
singing (he sings loud in church),
praying (he now babbles when we are praying a lot of the time),
counting (knows 1 and 2 by sight, 3 is getting there),
pointing out colors (his favorite are green and purple),
singing the alphabet (he gets a letter here and there and is very excited about it),
watching the tractors outside (says backhoe, "truck-door"),
watching the ducks and the goose at the city park,
running around grocery stores while mom keeps calling his name so he will stay within arms reach!
talking on the phone (real or pretend)

He's a great big ball of fun. We love our little man!

Okay, okay, here is at least one video. Lyla is strong and stands on her own. She can go from sitting to standing quickly and vice versa but she does not like to get bumped, jarred or hurt. This keeps her from walking and from going up the stairs usually.  But on this day she tackled the stairs and did it like a champ. She has only attempted it two other times since though. Good. I don't need to keep checking the stairs to make sure she isn't on them yet!

 

Oh yes, and Cole got some PJ's he was pretty excited to have on.

Can you believe this little angel is almost 10 months old?!?!

And it was just last week that she had her 9 month well-check. She is doing fabulous and even took the shots with very little crying and it was the first time she didn't lose her breath from them.  Our little girl is pretty petite. I knew that was coming because I look at other little girls even a month or two younger than her and they look older, taller, and more mature in the face. Lyla still looks like a little baby. She is 26 inches long (4th %) and weighs 17 lb 5 oz (16th %).  She's been about that weight for a while now as we've had to take her to the doctor a few times in the past couple of months.  She sure eats like a champion so it's just genetics that keep her small.

She is short so she still looks chunky all around.  To give you some idea though she still fits in her 6 month PJs (starting to push the legs, but still we manage) and she wears the tiniest shoe sizes. She fits in her 0-6 month Robeez we got at a consignment store.  We just bought her a pair of shoes and they are 6-9 month shoes with room to spare!!  Little feet, little legs, little girl with two little teeth!

Oddly enough Lyla weights THE EXACT SAME that Cole did at this age too.  He was just two inches longer so looked a lot skinnier.  But look at him now...he starting to lose his toddler looks and becoming a little boy. (So sad...)

There is so much more to add and update but I don't have the time right now. I wanted to at least provide more pics of the kids. I will post new videos and updates tomorrow...hopefully!

Each Christmas season we say we are going to get out Christmas cards. Yes, it is a dying tradition, but I love getting them and so I should be sending them. But, alas, another season will pass and I will NOT get them out. Life is pretty busy and hectic but so delightful too. I love this time of year. 

Christmas and Easter are my favorite times.  I love the slight chill in the Texas air (nope, not a fan of cold). I love the newness of life around Easter. Truly the two are linked for we would have no Christmas, no rejoicing, no giving if there was no Easter. We celebrate Jesus' birth because of the life he lived and the sacrifice he gave.  We celebrate Christmas and show our love for others because He loved us. 

No matter what you may believe, it can be an occasion to give and to love.  It need not be founded in a faith in Christ, but I am grateful for the faith that I have.  This is a video reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas set to a beautiful song.  I rarely share personal insights like this or even topics at all related to religion, but I felt it important to share a little of the joy that is taking place in our home at this time of year and this video and song represented it perfectly. I hope you take it as a little "Christmas Card" from the Polings.  Maybe next year we will finally get the real thing out. Merry Christmas!

So many things going on!! First, Thanksgiving was fabulous at my Uncle and Aunt's home here in College Station. My brother Robert and his family came into town and stayed at our house afterward as well. Cole loves their kids and Ally is the same age as Lyla. It was so fun to see them interact. Ally is afraid of everyone really but she adores Cole, and vice versa. She would let him kiss her and hug her. He was so gentle about it too. Jade is 8 and Jeremiah (aka "T") is 7 so Cole enjoyed hanging with the big kids. I guess T slept a little bit in the rocking chair in Cole's room and Cole still talks about it. He loves re-living past events. As a matter of fact, he still tells stories of when Grandpa Poling was here and when playing with a toy one of his grandparents gave him he will tell me which one as he picks it up to play with it. I love it. I love hearing what is on his mind.

Speaking of what is on his mind, it seems to be going POTTY! A few days ago he pulled off his shorts and tried to take his diaper off. I asked him what he was doing and then wondered if he wanted to go potty. He said "Yes" (which he pronounces "hh-es"). And, well, HE DID. And he goes at least twice a day if not more now. I ask occasionally and sometimes he wants to and others he doesn't. Sometimes he comes to me and asks. My little baby is growing up!

Lyla is back to her bubbly self. She is still hesitant to walk. I think it is because she is always so dramatic when she falls or bumps her head, etc. She wants to do it without falls I think. However, she has popped a second tooth and I noticed the top two are coming in as well so perhaps her head is elsewhere and less focused on walking. She laughs so much. She thinks it is hilarious to put her finger in your mouth. Oh yes, and mommy is trying to wean her completely. She nurses 1-2 times a day now and takes formula for the remainder. She has been wanting to nurse more with this new tooth though. I'm just ready to be done though. Odd, I know but I have my reasons which are probably TMI for the blog. Anyway, I'm glad to have my little personality back after her ear infections and virus. It took a bit to recoup from all that. Oh yes! And she sleeps through the night!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!! And here she is just being Lyla.

While Robert and Beverly and family were here we went to Santa's Village here in town. It was a very magical place with little shops, petting zoo, bullrides, smores, firepits, etc. Like stepping into a winter cowboy town. Here are some pics from the event.

The family in front of the TX Flag of Lights

Ally and Lyla. It was COLD that night (well, for TX). Of course it was 70's a day later.

Cole, Jeremiah and Jade in the fake snow.

The family with Frosty (they call him Frostbite).