Randall Children's Hospital

February 26, 2012 was the big day. Randall Children's Hospital opened for patients. This was Kelley's 3rd baby. All his hard work and hours of time over the last year culminated in the successful "completion" of the project. From what I understand the transition and opening went smoothly. Kelley was the lead for his portion of the project, and he did FANTASTIC! I think he said he worked 86 hours the week before the hospital opened. CRAZY! He and his team were even nominated for an award, although we haven't heard results yet. 

We're so proud of him, and we're so glad we get him back! We missed him while he was gone so much.

He would spend partial or full days working at the hospital site getting all the computers set up (yes, this is a HUGE over-simplification... but I'm not about to try and explain what it is he does!). The girls and I would go visit him for lunch and he'd give us tours of the new portions completed. Seoul and Sydney had a ball making sure all the toys were ready for the kids to use.

The building is incredible. So beautiful and open. Each floor has a different animal as a "theme," including these colored light panels. The girls loved running to each and touching them. The artwork was extremely kid-friendly and colorful.

Kelley was so pleased so show the girls all the cool features of each floor. Sydney practiced her walking skills a lot!

One floor had a movie theater and we were checking out the big screen. Yep, the girls were entranced.

I think the ultimate favorite was the different wagons and cars the girls got to ride in.

No matter what the experience, these girls love each other and spending time together!

GREAT JOB KELLEY!! 
We love you and we're glad we could support you!

happy morning!

Seoul loves to sing. She serenaded us this morning at breakfast with this little ditty.

breakfast of champions

Cottage cheese and strawberries is a fave at our house. Sydney likes to feed herself these days.

Our days...

... fly by. Not kidding but this year is ridiculous already.

Kelley and the girls playing a game on the iPad. Seoul and Kelley enjoy playing 'Tap Zoo'.

Silly faces!

I love my Sydney! Not seeing the resemblance, though...

Sydney's playing baseball!

One day I got an itch and rearranged the office to become the office/playroom. The toys had always been in there but there was also a spare bed. I took down the bed, kept the mattress (see it behind the toys?), and spread out the toys. The girls [and I!] love the space.

Seoul loves her Baby Toot-Toot!

The girls love to play with each other and one of their games is to make faces at each other and laugh. It is so cute to watch and listen to them! I love that we have two girls, and they are best friends!

I love my Seoul! Also, not seeing the resemblance...

I love my handsome Kelley-man, too!

Happy little girl!

She looks like such a big girl! She had fun climbing the stairs, but she doesn't know how to go down yet.

Silly girls!

Singing me a Princess song.

Having fun with her birthday present  - a cupcake maker. She made most of it by herself... and definitely ate it all by herself!

Seoul is getting into dress-up these days. This was her gorgeous outfit she chose before we went to run a few errands. She definitely turned heads while we were out and about.

Seoul passes the time doing puzzles - she's getting pretty good at them!

Seoul does enjoy sharing her food with Sydney.

The stink eyes are because I said it was time for me to put the toys back under the desk. They didn't want to leave their new fort.

This was an outfit I wore when I was a baby - so fun!

Sydney makes a "horsey face" and it makes me laugh every time!

Mid-horsey face. How is this baby so cute?!

We got the game Qwirkle years ago and Seoul has loved it! Every once in a while she asks for it and it was great for helping her learn her colors and shapes, I think.

We had a great play group activity and Seoul was so proud of her little snowman. She placed all the marshmallows herself.

Seoul's favorite treat these days is going to the Yogurt Shack. Frozen Yogurt. Yum. She always has vanilla-chocolate swirl with sprinkles. She is branching out to add a few pieces of candy.

Seoul loves to play the game with Sydney where she hits herself on the head while she's eating. Of course Sydney imitates her actions.... and then we get food everywhere.

I'm ready for a bath. Sydney is the messy one - food all over. Seoul was so clean and ate with utensils by this age.

Daddy and Sydney. Of course he's making a funny face - that is totally where the girls get it!

These pictures are from January.

Rewards for sleeping? Oh, c'mon!

I never got around to posting this in January when we did it. Oops.

I love sleep. It baffles me a bit that my girls don't so much. I get it, kids think they're missing something exciting. They're not (at least in this house).

This project had two purposes:

#1 - Seoul was getting out of bed. A lot. When we put her down to sleep as well as multiple times through the night. I was hating the bedtime routine because it was stressful.

#2 - Seoul has been trying to eliminate her afternoon nap for months and I refuse to let her. So I thought a reward chart might be helpful.


Consequently we have two charts: a bedtime routine chart and a sleep reward chart. For the bedtime routine chart she had so much fun helping with pictures and gluing them on the poster board. It has helped streamline bedtime and keep her on track. To this day she still refers back to the chart for fun. The best part? She enjoys picking up the house before going to bed. The nights it is late and we say we can skip it she is bummed. For the sleep reward chart, there were three parts: taking a nap, staying in bed when we put her there at night, and sleeping through the night in her own bed. We would set a number of stickers she had to earn and then she got the reward she chose. A DQ ice cream was the most motivating reward. Last week she straight up told me she's done with the reward chart. Boo! At least she is still in decent habits for sleeping, although she is back to refusing to take naps.

Here's a video of Seoul explaining the charts to Kelley when he got home from work. Don't mind Sydney eating the plastic strawberry!

At least for a while the days were less stressful for me - fighting to get her to sleep twice a day was definitely taking a toll on me. It's been nice the last couple months. Any suggestions for getting her to take naps?? I cannot wrap my brain around no naps permanently. I love that girl to pieces, but she is ridiculously stubborn!