Nathan's Birthday Part 2

The festivities continued on Nathan's actual birthday. Here is the first picture of my handsome boy at 2 years old.

I took him to the dollar store and let him pick out any 2 things he wanted.  It was the funniest thing watching him walk up and down the isle trying to decide. 

After much deliberation he ended up with a balloon...

and 2 monster trucks (that came in 1 package...smart boy!)

That night we had the DeRoests over for dinner and birthday festivities.  Our families are big fans of Kids Eat Free Day at Chili's, which happened to fall on Nathan's birthday so, of course, we took advantage of that!  After dinner we let Nathan open his family presents.  We got him a play kitchen because not only does he loooooove to play with the one Brenna has, but he also seems the most needy when I am trying to make dinner, so I figured that he could "help" me make dinner during those whiny moments.

Before Nath could open any more presents Brenna had to make sure that he was wearing his sunglasses...upside down.  A nice touch, if I do say so myself.

Most of his gifts were just accessories for his kitchen, which were a big hit. He also got some super cute clothes from Grandma and Grandpa, and a Thomas the Train lunch box from the Socci's.  (Which he carried his trains around all day in.)

Grandma and Grandpa Ashton also sent these super cool magnet blocks. I absolutely love these things!

Kaylee seemed to enjoy day 2 of the festivities as well.

After presents it was time for more cake and ice cream! 

He had a tough time blowing out all 1 of his candles, but Brenna was kind enough to offer assistance when called upon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET LITTLE BOY!

2 Year Stats:  

Height: 34 in (30thish percentile)

Weight: 22 lbs 3.2oz (still 0 percentile)

Head: 49 cm (55thish percentile)

Nathan's Birthday Part 1

My  adorable little Nath-face turned 2 on June 21!  Curtis had the 20th off of work and so we decided to make it a "do all of Nathan's favorite things" day.  In the morning we let him pick ANYTHING he wanted for breakfast, I was expecting him to say something along the lines of "ice cream" but was pleasantly surprised when all he wanted was "Grandma's cereal" aka Frosted mini-wheats.  I also let him watch a show while eating breakfast, which was quite the treat. Here he is in total heaven watching Thomas.  Apparently he was too mesmerized to even think about sitting down at first.

 We considered going to the zoo but it was well over 100 degrees in Tucson and that just wouldn't be fun for anyone!  So we decided first to head to the mall so he could play at the little play place there for as long as he wanted.  

After a LONG time of playing we stopped and let him pick out a treat from the island of gumball machines in the middle of the mall.  He chose hot tamales and was super excited about his special birthday treat...almost as excited as he was about the fact that his treat turned his hands and face red. 

After lunch and naps we then headed to the public pool for some more fun.

Up until that point we had only taken Nathan to "splash time" at the pool, which is when the pool is reserved for toddlers and their parents.  We thought we would brave open swim on this occasion because they turn on the wave pool and we thought Nathan might get a kick out of that.  He didn't.  

He was soon joined by his BFF Brenna, and the two kids chose to stay in the small, safe, warm pool for a while to escape the loud scary waves.  After a while of playing it safe the dads decided that it was time to show the kiddos just how fun the wave pool could be.  After a few minutes they were all smiles.  The dads then decided to try and push their luck a little further by taking Nathan and Brenna down the tube slides. I am not sure that either of the kids really enjoyed it...but I don't think they hated it either!

After swimming it was off to McDonalds!  A few more of Nathan's friends were able to join us for some food and fun. 

I decided very last minute to run out and grab a cake.  We had bought a toy train (Percy to be exact) for Nath for his birthday and so I very talentlessly drew a quick track on the cake a plopped the train on top.

  

We sang to Nathan and then the kids (and Curtis) dug into the cake and Nath opened presents.  

Perhaps blue frosting wasn't the best choice.

It was at this point that Nathan was first introduced to Lightning McQueen (from Disney's "Cars") and I can already tell that this will be a new obsession.  Thank you Jessica (and Ethan and Mason) for that...haha

It was a VERY eventful and VERY fun day.  

Kaylee's new almost trick

I am so far behind on blogging that I can't decide if I should try and get caught up before I post new things or just forget about it and start from here on out.  I have 5 or 6 posts that I have slowly been working on over the past couple of weeks that never seem to get finished.  (They are all 3 or 4 months old).  I suppose I will post new things as they come and just throw in the occasional past due post as I finish them. So I am apologizing in advance for how out of order and all over the place things will be!  I figure it's better than nothing though!

We have family pictures coming up next week and I really would love it if Kaylee would be able to sit on her own for them.  That way we have more position options rather than me having to hold her or having her on her belly. (Even though she is super cute on her belly as evidenced below)

I decided yesterday to work on getting her to sit. Like I said before, she immediately leans back the second I put her in a sitting position.  I had the genius idea (ok, maybe not so genius, maybe more of a "duh" idea) to hold a toy out in front of her to get her to lean forward.  This worked like a charm and she was able to easily sit for as long as she was interested in reaching the toy.  Once she got ahold of it or became bored with it she fell backward.  I worked on getting her to sit again today and she is doing a little bit better, but for every picture I got like this:

I got 3 or 4 like this:

or this:

or this:

Hopefully she will be a pro by next week!

Kaylee - 6 Months

So, as always this post is quite late.  Kaylee turned 7 months old a few days ago and as I was making an appointment for her 7 month pictures I realized that I never posted her 6 month one!

At 6 months my beautiful girl has been the perfect little angel! She:
*Officially switched to formula and has gained all the weight she lost back and then some! She went from 11 lbs 15 oz to 14 lbs 3 oz and went from below the 3rd percentile for weight to around the 15th.
*Is in the 50th percentile for height at 25.7 in
*is in the 70th percentile for her head! (Which is actually down from the 75th where she has been every other time)
*Still isn't sitting up and shows absolutely no desire to!  Whenever I try to put her in a sitting position she immediately straightens her legs and pushes herself backwards.
*Is a little rolly-polly, constantly rolling around!
*Still loves to watch Nathan all the time!  Whenever he is around she is usually happy (as long has her other basic needs are met of course.)
*Loves to make gurggling noises, and screams (happily) ALL THE TIME!  She is such a happy baby!
*Eats rice cereal and peas.
*Must be going through a growth spurt because she want to eat us out of house and home and then takes 3 loooooong naps plus sleeps for about 11 hrs at night.
*Loves getting kisses from her Daddy.

I swear this little girl gets cuter every day!  I probably say that all of the time but it's true!!!

Shameless Promotion

For those of you that don't know, my sister Julianne and I started a small business selling jewelry on Etsy.  I promise I won't use this blog to do much promoting of our shop, but I wanted to just get the word out since we are just starting.  There are two exciting things happening right now:

1)  We are having a "Grand Opening" special!  The first 10 buyers will also receive a pair of sterling silver earrings absolutely free!  You can check out our esty shop at www.wexfordaccessories.etsy.com

2)  Four of our pieces are up for bid on facebook.  The auction began today and runs through Wednesday, Sept 28th.  You can find the information for the auction on our facebook page here 

Julianne is quite talented and makes some absolutely gorgeous pieces!  Here are a few samples of her exquisite craftsmanship:

So if you feel so inclined, then head on over to our etsy shop, and check out our facebook page!  Thanks all!

END OF SHAMELESS PROMOTION: WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR NOT-SO-REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG

Tell your friends!!!

Ok, now I'm really done!

5 Months

I can't even believe how horrible of a job I have been doing blogging ever since Kaylee was born.  You would think that having a beautiful little baby would give me plenty to blog about, not to mention a rambunctious little 2 year old, and you would be right.  Unfortunately my problem is not a lack of thinks to blog, but a lack of motivation.  I will try harder!! My baby is already 5 months old and I have hardly posted anything about her.  So, here is a little bit about Kaylee at 5 months, along with her monthly pictures:

* She is turning out to be a skinny little thing, just like her brother.  She started out in the high 50's for her weight percentile, and dropped to the 13th percentile by 4 months old.  Since her 4 month appointment she has actually been losing weight, so we are working real hard to try to get more food in her without having to switch to formula.
* She loves to smile, and will smile at strangers just as easy (if not easier) than she smiles at her parents.
* Although she smiles like crazy, she is pretty stingy with her laughs.  She tends to reserve most of those for Nathan, who has proven to be the best at getting her to laugh.
* She had been sleeping through the night since 7 weeks old, but has been having a relapse lately.  I think it is because she is hungry, as hard as I try, she just doesn't seem to want to eat as much as she should during the day, however she eats like a champ in the middle of the night.  Whatever gets food in her belly I guess!
*She never goes out of the house without a headband and flower, what can I say, I want people to know she's a girl!!!
* She still doesn't have much hair to speak of, but the little bit she does have is pretty blonde, except for a patch in the very back that is a bit darker.
* Her eyes are still a stunning blue and I sure hope they stay that way!
* She can roll from her back to her belly, but still hasn't figured out how to roll back.
* She found her toes recently, and most of the time she is in her car seat she can be found playing with them.
* This girl LOVES to suck her fingers.  Nathan gets quite frustrated by this because he wants to put her pacifier in her mouth but is often thwarted because her mouth it already full of finger.
* SHE HAS THE LOUDEST CRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! No joke!  I have never heard a baby cry so loud, and it's not just when she is very very very upset, no, it is ANY time she cries. It still amazes me that something so loud can come out of something so tiny!
* She very much prefers to be held whenever possible.  This has been a difficult one for me, I have a hard time finding the balance between holding her too much and not enough.  I don't want her to get used to being held 24/7 because that's just not feasible, but I also love to hold and snuggle her and she loves it too!  Nathan was never really this way so it is very new to me.
*On a normal day she takes 3 naps that last 2-3 hours (sometimes 4), and then she sleeps about 9 hours at night (though she has been waking up to eat after about 7 and then going back to sleep for 2 more hours lately).  She eats about 6-8 times a day, and is USUALLY pretty happy the rest of the time.
* She is sooooo easy to put to sleep, as long as she is in a crib.  It is very VERY hard to get her to fall asleep any other way, which makes 3 hours of church pretty difficult.  This is such a bittersweet thing.  It is nice that all I have to do to put her to bed is swaddle her and stick her favorite bink in her mouth and she is totally content, however, it makes it really hard to go out of the house for more than just a couple of hours at a time.
*Most of all she has to be the most adorable little thing on the planet and just gets cuter every day!