Meet my new nephew Gavin

We finally were able to meet our newest family member on Saturday. Gavin Luther was born 8/22 and was 9lbs 7oz. and 20in. He is absolutely gorgeous!! Here is a picture of the sleeping boys together (guess who is who - ha). I also took newborn shots of him that I will share later. :)

Grady - 2 Months Old

Grady was 2 months old on Tues. We actually took him for his 2 month Dr. appt. last Friday. Grady has continued to grow, grow, grow and now weighs 12.5 pounds and is 23 inches long. Dr. Schmid said that he is looking really well and she checked him over really well as we mentioned all his crying in the evenings. She agreed that it was colic and that is should go away within a couple months. However, maybe we got lucky and don't have to wait that long as it seems to have gotten better already - yeahhh! At the end of the appointment, those meany nurses came in and gave him some shots and an oral vaccine. I think Grady cried to his daddy saying please don't make him have to go back there!

Overall Grady is doing great. He is "talking" more and more and of course his smiles sure come easy in the mornings and then in the afternoons after we pick him up from day care. He has been sleeping through the night for over a week now, which is great--especially since I had to return to work. Work has been stressful enough, so the extra sleep is nice. We get good reports from day care on Grady's day. He's not a real content baby with just laying down, so I worry about him as I know she has other kids to take care of and can't just hold him all the time.

Here are Grady's 2 month pictures. I'm still having a problem picking out my favorite for the 2 month picture.

First Day back

Today was Grady's first day to day care as I had to go back to work. (boooooo!!) It's the day that no mom really wants to go through. I did good getting the kids around to take to day care. Got there and gave Kathy some instructions on Grady's eating schedule and such, gave Ryane her kisses good-bye, went to pick up Grady to talk to him a bit. That is when it all went down hill! I think I may have gotten a couple words out to him as he was smiling away at me, then I had to go put him down and make myself walk out before he was drenched in my tears. :( It was a long drive to work as I got my emotions out then composed myself before walking in. WHY can't I just get paid as well to just be a stay-at-home mom????

I went by 3 hours later to check on Grady and Ryane. Ryane was having fun with the other girls and Grady needed his mommy of course! Overall, the report from Kathy for the day was good though. Grady did manage to get some naps in and eat alright. She said Ryane was pretty oblivious to Grady being there. I guess the newness has worn off to her and she's forgetting about him already! ha!

Thanks to everyone for your emails and such checking on me on my first day back. It was tough. For some odd reason, I didn't think leaving the second child would be as bad as I've 'been there, done that' before. It was JUST as tough as the first time.

Comparison time....

What a difference almost 2 months makes! :) Ryane loves to hold her little brother, but at what point is she going to think he is too big? My sister is scheduled to have my little nephew tomorrow, so I can't wait to see the size difference in a 2 month old compared to a newborn...stay tuned for pictures. :)

More!

More sleep = more happy family!!

Grady sleeping 8 & 9 hours straight the last two nights sure makes for a happier baby (much happier mommy too!).

Wanted to share a couple fun videos of my little man. First one is smiles and second one is more of his talking. I just love being able to share videos as I think it gives more an insight into my kids instead of just still photos.

Last Day at home with Ryane

Ryane returns to day care tomorrow after being home for 9 weeks. We are giving her two days to get readjusted to day care and their schedule before taking Grady there on Monday. Yes, my maternity leave is coming to an end. *sniff sniff*

I feel kinda sad knowing this is my last day at home with Ryane. I feel so blessed to have been able to spend the last 8 weeks at home with her and I know a lot of working moms don't get that opportunity. So, since it was our last day I wanted to get out and about and do something with Ryane while I had the chance. It is hard getting out with both kids, but I put those thoughts out of my mind and loaded them up. Off to the zoo we went and it was so nice there. Ryane loved all the animals as they were all pretty active.

I pulled Ryane away from the zoo and off to Wal-Mart we went as there was a couple items I needed. Well, we are looking for the first thing and Ryane has to potty. Fabulous! We rush to the bathroom and I unload Ryane from the cart and get Grady and his seat out and hoping we made it in time--yes, we did, yeahhh! We gathered up our items from Wal-Mart and time to check out as Ryane is starting to melt-down. This is where our fun began. I'm unloading the cart and Grady starts crying CRYING! I can hear the usually "oooo's" and "awwww's" as I'm shoving a pacificer in his mouth. That doesn't work so I pick him up. I try to pay for some things with a gift card and my cashier is new-ugh. She doesn't know how to do it, so we have to wait for a trainer to come as I'm standing there with a crying baby and a 1 year old having a melt-down that keeps saying "bye-bye". I get checked out and ask where the gift card is that I was trying to buy? Well, the cashier doesn't know, so I put down a screaming Grady to try to find it. His screams get louder and I can feel the stares coming on and the temperature rose about 10 degrees in Wal-Mart. All I can do is look at the guy behind me and apologize for everything taking so long. He says it's fine, but I know that look, he wishes he went to a different line! ha! Oh, and I'd also like to apologize to the person I about cut-off on my drive home as I was distracted by a very mad Grady in the back seat exercising his lungs. :)

Oh, the joy of having 2 under 2!! As stressful as it was today and is most days, I am going to miss Ryane tomorrow as she goes off to play with her friends.

TGIF

Grady was just telling me how happy he is that it's FRIDAY!!!

Privacy please?!

So, now my 22 month old daughter thinks she needs to be by herself to go to the bathroom! Seriously, how much privacy does not quite a 2 year old need??? Sunday night Matthew turned Ryane's little potty chair into a step stool and showed her how to climb up on the big potty herself. Well, yesterday, Ryane decided she needed her own privacy when going to the bathroom. After she told me to "go", I think she stayed in there 10-15 minutes before she was done. I continuously checked on her trying to be patient and was continuously told to go back downstairs. Another time, she said potty and took off by herself. Fine - I gave her some time to do it by herself and when I went up to check on her, I found that she closed the door! Yikes as I still know our cabinets locks that we bought for the bathroom are still on kitchen counter (good parenting, I know)! I held my breath and opened the door not knowing what I'd find. Ryane was close the door and told me no and pushed it shut. Fine, I can respect her need to be independent and gave her a bit more time. Finally she opened the door and was so proud of herself for going potty all by herself. I was just happy I didn't have a mess to clean up in the bathroom, so we celebrated together. Leaving her alone makes me nervous (the baby oil incident is still fresh in my mind!). I know she has to learn and be given a chance, but I still fear what I'll walk in on. One of my many lessons of patience for me.

Random Pics

We went and visited my sister and her family this past Saturday to return some newborn baby items as they are expecting their son in 2 weeks. Ryane was excited to see her cousins 'Tendra and Kaulee' (Kendra and Karlie). Anyhow, it was a long ride home as we left from shopping after 8 (Ryane's bedtime) and then Grady cried/screamed in the car off and on so Ryane couldn't fall asleep. Finally after stopping to feed Grady to make sure it wasn't his colic. That didn't work, so Matthew rode in the backseat between the carseats all squished to try to console Grady, Grady finally fell asleep. So after, Ryane found a comfortable position and fell asleep about 10 miles outside of Emporia. :)


Grady having conversation with his chick this morning.


I was taking Grady's picture and Ryane kept saying "Cheese, cheese, cheese" next to him, so I couldn't leave her out. She has is growing in her incisor teeth lately and they are almost into complete her smile.


Oh, one more picture. My sister "let" me take some maternity pictures on our visit. She looks amazing and is so close to her due date. My little nephew has a beautiful home for a couple more weeks. :)

It's Raining...it's raining....

Anyone else getting as much rain as we are getting here in Emporia the last couple of days??? I've been itching to take Ryane out in the rain with her umbrella and this morning it was just drizzling out and Grady was content, so we took advantage of the opportunity. Ryane got the umbrella as a Christmas gift and this was the first time she's used it. There was a slight learning curve of how to hold it and to keep it over the head to help her stay dry. I think she did pretty good!

Anniversary

Three years ago today, my life changed so much for the better. It has been the happiest 3 years I could have asked for! I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children.

Nap Time

While I am still home on maternity leave, it is always a small victory for me when I can get both kids napping at the same time. Well, today "should" be one of those days and everything looked good......until Ryane does her thing! :) She is so cute, but can also be such a stinker at times. I thought I'd share some of our nap time today. I put her down for a nap after she is delibertly doing things that I tell her not to--like hitting her brother. After a minute in the naughty spot, she is right back to being not so nice to him. So, off to naptime for her. Over 30 minutes later, I can hear some banging in her room and talking...off to check it out. This is what I find. What is it? Those are all her letters to her name that were hanging on her wall. She'd taken them all off and untied all the ribbons too. BUT, when I walked in she was laying down on her pillow like she hadn't done anything wrong and heard me coming. She did say "uh oh" and asked me to put them back up. I quickly tell her no and to take a nap and leave the room. I'm gone no longer than a minute and can hear her talking away, so I go back to take video. :O) Notice NO name hanging on her wall anymore.
Alright, now I got the situation under control. Ryane is off to sleep, right?! I take like 3 steps out of her room and she is chatty again, so turn around with the camera...
Ryane definitely keeps us on our toes and tests our parenting will every now and then. Grady can be some work as well. Today, I actually got him to fall asleep in his bouncy seat. He rarely, rarely, rarely falls asleep without us holding him or being in his car seat in the car.