Things will be different. I promise!

Obviously, my current blogging method is not working. What I try to do is post weekly so that I can make sure I have enough pictures and stories to make one big entry. What ends up happening is that I end up with too many pictures and its too daunting a task to sit down and resize and upload and journal and blah blah blah. So I put it off, I put it off, I put it off. And suddenly, a month has gone by and not only is the task of resizing pictures totally overwhelming but I've forgotten half the stories I want to share. That's no good. Not to mention, it apparently irritates my blog readers that they check here regularly only to find that I still have not updated. Sorry faithful readers :( I'll try to be better. Thanks for caring enough to check still. Wait, you're still checking right? I didn't totally lose you all did I?

So what I'll start doing is posting WAY regularly. We're talking several times a week, maybe even daily. I'll just post pics as I download them from my camera. Post stories as they come to me. I'll also share the pages I've been creating via my new love - digital scrapbooking. Can I just babble about that for a few? Did anyone else know about this whole little sub-genre of memory preservation? I was really skeptical at first. My friend Gina started sharing her pages a while back. Then more and more of my friends started getting involved. I was determined to NOT jump on the bandwagon because it seemed much too complicated. But as time went on, I realized that regular paper scrapping was so costly and time consuming and messy. And it was taking me long enough just to order pictures much less to sit down and create a single page. I wanted to be able to scrap the moment I felt inspired. Not 7-10 business days after I'd ordered pictures from shutterfly. So with the help of my generous friends - providing me with software and free tutorials and free designs and leads to all sorts of awesome resources...I have a new hobby. And I LOVE it! I can scrap any time and as soon as I feel inspired. Whatever I need, I can find online. And if I can't find it, I'm learning how to make it. If I hate a page, I can re-do it and it costs me nothing. Once its created, I can print it right from home and put it in my scrapbook. I can frame them and give them as gifts. I can make cards, invitations, birth announcements. You name it. I'm learning so much. Anything I don't know, Gina is just an email away (thanks G!) And the best part is I feel like I'm using my brain again! All the technology aspects make me feel like I'm truly learning something new. And getting to create makes me feel like I have some spark in my personality still. Its been a really fun hobby but it also has a purpose - to create beautiful scrapbooks for my girls. So I can devote a couple hours of my time and not feel guilty because I feel like there is a perfectly valid reason for it!

Ok, whilst I'm talking about myself...I've lost most of my pregnancy weight! Just 10 more pounds to go! I had my 6 week post-partum checkup yesterday and the nurse (God bless her) told me that I looked wonderful and that I did a great job dropping the weight. The best part is, I haven't even started exercising yet. I think I probably will need to exercise to get rid of these last 10 pounds though. That's fine. I need to exercise for energy and muscle tone anyway. I'm just glad that I'm so close to my goal weight already!

I have to say, this has been the BEST post-partum period I could possibly hope for. And I don't feel at all guilty about that because my pregnancy was exhausting and my labor was 17 hours long and my epidural only worked for an hour. So believe me. I got mine. And my reward has been the past 6 weeks. I mean, the weight came off easily. Five days post-partum I felt like I hadn't even delivered a baby. No soreness or anything. McKenna adapted to being a big sister better than I could have ever imagined. She adores Kyla. She hasn't shown her even a bit of anger or resentment. She's very loving and affectionate to her. She wants to help me with her all the time but is very good about leaving Kyla alone when I ask her. If I ask her to talk quietly because I'm trying to get Kyla to sleep, she will lower her voice or just not talk at all until I put Kyla in her bed. She's been awesome! And Kyla! Apparently, she is exactly like Erick was as a baby - super laid back and easy to care for. She almost never fusses. She only fusses if she has gas and Mylicon drops help her almost instantly. Other than that, she is so content. She does prefer company almost all of the time. She'll lay on the floor or sit in her bouncy seat. But she likes to have someone near her. She sleeps like a dream! For awhile, she would take a bottle around midnight and then again around 4am. She'd always go right back to sleep. So Erick and I each took one feeding and it was really easy on us. Now she sleeps from about 9:30pm-6:30am without any waking!! Erick takes her 6:30am feeding and then stays up with her until about 7:15. Then he wakes me (I like to be up for the day earlier than he does) and I get up with her and McKenna while Erick sleeps in until about 9am. We both LOVE this schedule. We just can't believe she's already sleeping so well. McKenna slept that long starting at 8 weeks and I knew we were blessed with a good sleeper then. Then everyone tells you "Oh, if your first is a good baby then your second is gonna give you hell." Well neener to you nay-sayers! Kyla is sleeping through the night at 6 weeks! So for all you mommy's of one who are scared to have baby #2 - I offer you this ray of hope. Second babies CAN be just as wonderful as your first!

I feel like I have a million cute stories to tell but of course, now that I'm sitting down to share them I'm drawing a complete blank. Maybe they'll come to me as I go:

Kyla smiles AND laughs! She's always been a "smiley" baby. She's always given lots of those little sleepy comfort smiles that newborns get when they experience some form of comfort - be it warm snuggles, full bellies or gas. But around 5 weeks she started to give us some very direct social smiles. And just today, I was tickling her chin and she actually let out this very soft little laugh!! I thought my heart would explode! I remember feeling that same elation when McKenna laughed for the first time. Its such a high for parents to hear that sweet sound from their babies for the first time.

McKenna is a BLAST lately. She cracks everyone up with all the things she says. I think a family favorite is that she will say "Mommy, I a mean girl." And with that, she will put herself in timeout. Then she'll talk about how mean girls go to timeout and nice girls go to Disneyland. Then she'll announce "Mommy, I a nice girl now." And I'll tell her "Ok, then you can be done with timeout." And she'll get up and go about her business. She's doing excellent in school. Her teachers tell me that she does exceptionally well. She plays and shares with the other children very well. She listens to her teachers and changes activities easily. Every week, when I go to pick her up they tell me what a joy she is to have in the class. I am so proud of her!!

Her preschool had a costume parade last Thursday. That was so much fun. Parents were allowed to come and take pictures. She was the cutest, tiniest Cinderella there. I included pictures in the link below.

She has become simply obsessed with her Cinderella shoes. My Dad & Cheryl bought her this accessory kit that came with a crown, glass slippers, a magic wand and a velvet purse. She wears the slippers all day long. ALL day long. Sometimes she sleeps with them on. Sometimes she sleeps with them next to her. They are the one and only thing she will wear when she is using the potty. When she puts them on she announces "It fits perfectly!"

It was the saddest thing. For Halloween, we had my family over for chili and then the plan was to drive to Tustin (about 20 minutes away) to trick-or-treat in Erick's parent's neighborhood so that way they could see the girls all dressed up. McKenna was to be Cinderella and Kyla was to be "A Sleeping Beauty" (again, see the link below for pics). Just as we're approaching Tustin I gasp, my hands fly up to my face and I say "Oh my god! I forgot her costume!" McKenna immediately realized what I meant and her poor little face just crumbled and she said "Cindawella dress!" She started to wimper and tried so hard to keep it together. I felt horrible. It was already 7:15 and getting pretty late to START trick-or-treating so driving home to get the costume was out of the question. I had Erick drive us to Target so I could buy her another dress. They didn't have the blue one but they did have the Cinderella wedding dress. So I bought that and hoped she didn't mind. Fortunately, she was thrilled. This meant she now owned both dresses and got to wear one to her parade and the other trick-or-treating. So all is well that ends well. The only thing you'll notice is that I obviously didn't get time to hem McKenna's dress. So she stepped on it and it would pull down and reveal her little baby cleavage. LOL!

She did great during trick-or-treating. She was so precious. She's walk right up to the door saying "Twick or tweat!" even before they opened the door. Then she'd repeat it for good measure just to be sure they heard her. After she got her candy she'd say "Tay too!" (Thank you) and then "Happy Hawoween!"

Ok, that's it for now. My arm is actually hurting from all this typing! I promise to start updating more often so that way you'll get lots of little posts instead of one ginormous post every month. I'm sure its better for you readers to read lots of little stuff anyway. It must take a little too much commitment to have to sit down and read these novels huh? ; )

Here is a link to a LOT of pictures:
Argh. The link feature isn't working for some reason. C&P I guess!
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Ibs3Ldy5aPzA

And you'll find even more on Kyla's one-month page:
http://biegerfamily.com/1monthkyla.html

And one last thing - a quick shameless plug for my husband's online magazine for men. Its designed for men but plenty of women love it too. They just totally re-vamped the site and it is completely top-notch and pro. Be sure to check it out at http://www.circlesixmagazine.com If you're a SAHM or your wife is a SAHM, you'll want to stop by the site on November 21 (shameless plug for myself as well). I wrote an article and the people I have shared it with already have given it excellent reviews. If you're a SAHM (heck, even if you're a working mom!) you may want to print the article and casually leave it in your husband's brief case.