Kismas Tee!! (Christmas Tree)

On Friday afternoon/evening we took the boys to get our Christmas tree!!! Jayden went with us last year but of course was just a teeny guy (like Eli this year) but this year he was all about the adventure!!

Daddy wouldn't let him play with Mommy's cell phone on the way...


Once we were there, though, all trauma was forgotten cause there were TREES!!



The line to check out was horrendous so while Daddy and Eli waited in line, Jayden found a cart to keep himself entertained!!


Here's Daddy, holding Eli, and moving the Christmas tree up in line! Such a super dad!


The tree is now all decorated and looking pretty. I'll try to post a pic later!

Jayden....and Uncle Matthew

Tuesday afternoon and evenings around here is Uncle Matthew time!! Grandma Dottie, Grandpa Phil and Stephanie all head for bible study and Daddy is at school. So Uncle Matthew comes over for play time with the boys and to help Mommy by bringing dinner and supervising during bedtime!!! Jayden LOVES it. Today I said, "Jayden, Uncle Matthew is coming to see you today" and he ran to the door and said, "Out! Out!" Uncle Matthew always takes him outside which he ADORES!!! Here's some precious moments caught on film today!

oh the cuteness....it melts my heart!

So we took some pics of both boys today while taking pics of Eli for his 5 month birthday. So here's how it went....

CUTE

MORE CUTENESS

Mommy thinks, "Oh, let's get the snowman in the pic to make it festive!" Boys aren't so sure.

Eli tries to grab it...Jayden suddenly loves the snowman...

"Oh you want the snowman, Eli? Here, I'll smother you with it!"

"Its ok, Jayden I still love you" says Eli.

"Aren't I SO cute?"


Their different personalities are so evident in these shots!!!

5 months!!!

For once, I am actually on time with one of these posts!! Eli is 5 months old today! Hard to believe! He is growing and changing so much these days. And we are falling more in love each day.

So here's what he's up to!!

*still rolling all over the place. still doesn't like to roll from tummy to back on the floor but does it CONSTANTLY in his crib and pack n play.
*VERY close to sitting up by himself for extended periods of time
*getting better with his napping. most days, he has one good long nap. most days its during Jayden's nap. GOD IS GOOD.
*wearing mostly 6 month clothing. some 6-9 month. let's just put it this way. the Christmas pajamas that were too big on Jayden last year, when Jayden was 7 months...I'm worried about them fitting Eli at all on Christmas, when he is 5 1/2 months!! the difference in their body types is amazing!
*in stage THREE diapers already. I feel like Jayden just got out of stage three. we are on a break from cloth diapering after the Thanksgiving stomach flu event. apparently the virus can stay in their diapers (poop) for three weeks. so Mommy is getting a break from the cloth and the boys don't even know the difference. eli's in stage three, Jayden is in stage four. again, so different!!
*laughing like crazy all the time
*grasping objects all the time. he reaches for everything..our faces, our hair, Jayden, toys, etc. its adorable!!
*has all of the sudden become a paci kid. he was super fussy one day so i stuck one in his mouth and now there's no turning back. we have decided we will not use it as a sleep aid. but he enjoys it during the day!
*a lot of people have been asking about his reflux...its slowly improving. apparently 5 months is the "peak" of reflux. not in my experience...in my experience its three months...BUT, either way, we should be seeing drastic improvement sometime soon. PHEW. he's still on meds and we have an appointment with the GI doc next week to discuss weaning off the meds.
*all in all, Eli is wonderful. he seems to have a more mellow, serious temperament than his brother...but that's not hard. :) we adore him!!!

Here's some pics from today.


He has found his feet as well!!

Smiling at Steph...she has won his heart as well. My boys LOVE their Stephanie!!

18 month check up!!

Well we finally made it into the pediatrician for Jayden's 18 month check up!! We even made the trek down to Orange County to see the pediatrician we saw when we lived there. He has been with us since Jayden was a squirmy 5-day old with a bleeding umbilical cord stump. We are having a tough time making the break! It was great to see Dr. Ball. He is, by far, the best doctor, of any kind, I have ever encountered. And even though I told myself that this was it, and we had to just make the break, when he said, "We'll see him in six months?...", I said, "ok!" You just cannot put a price on a doctor you feel genuinely knows you, genuinely cares, is super knowledgeable, and makes you feel like a good parent!!! We love you, Dr. Ball!!

So here are Jayden's stats.
Weight: 23 pounds, 5 ounces (50th percentile)
Height: 32.75 inches (80th percentile)
Head circumference: 18 inches (50th percentile)

In regards to weight, this is the highest he's ever been percentile wise!! Yay for Jayden. But he remains tall and skinny. He got a clean bill of health, a few shots, and home we went. See you in six months, Dr. Ball!

a snapshot of our life..

a dose of some cute!!!

Eli is laughing up a storm these days!! This is his first time in his exersaucer. He LOVES it! Pardon Jayden's sick moaning in the background.

4 months

So I am SUPER late with this but Eli is four months old, soon to be five!!!!

His stats at the doctor:
15lbs, 2 ounces (50th percentile)
25.5 inches (50th percentile)
16 inch head circumference (just below 50th percentile)

He got two shots and did well with both of them. The doctor said he's in good health and we should see some relief from the reflux soon. That would be wonderful!!

Here's what he's up to recently:

-he is now rolling both ways and loving it! although he still rolls onto his tummy and gets frustrated, forgetting he can roll back.
- working on sitting up (see pics below)
-gaining a voice. he gets REALLY loud sometimes, just yelling for no reason.
-sleep is an interesting topic. he has now started putting himself to sleep for naps and bedtime. so his naps are better. however, his nights are terrible. the last three nights he's been up every three hours and demands to eat. maybe a growth spurt, maybe a sleep regression, maybe his idea of mommy torture. so we've moved his bedtime earlier and we're hoping to see some improvement.

Here are a couple pics.


Aren't his ears amazing?!?!? We love them!

Mama love!!

Jayden is in quite an intense Mama's boy phase. I can't leave the room without him crying. Cute and problematic all at once! Jayden has also started giving very sweet kisses!!!

Here is a rare shot of me and both the boys. Pardon the rough appearance. I was still recovering from the flu.

a Thanksgiving case of the sickies!

Our family decided to celebrate the long Thanksgiving weekend by getting the stomach flu. It started on Monday when Jayden spent the whole day throwing up. Then Tuesday mommy, daddy, and Stephanie got it. Sometime during the night Grandma Gayle got it (after coming over Monday and Tuesday to help the sickies!), Wednesday Grandma Dottie got it and Friday Grandpa Phil got it. Needless to say, we did not eat our Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving.

Here are the boys on the couch, laying around, recovering. Well, Jayden at least. We realized that we really wouldn't know if Eli had the stomach flu since he spits up all the time anyway. hee hee.


We finally celebrated tonight (Sunday). Here's Eli at his first Thanksgiving. He celebrated with a hearty meal of breastmilk!

18 months!!

Jayden is 18 months! Holy smokes. Where has the time gone? It feels like yesterday i was posting about his 1st birthday and now we're halfway to two! We have yet to go for his 18 month check-up (the whole house got a case of the sickies, see other post) but for now, here's what he's up to!!!

-talking up a storm!!!! he comes out with new words everyday. I don't even think I can attempt an exhaustive list so I'll just share some of his newest ones. Here they are: radio, careful, cold, shoes, toes, juice, milk, thank you, Matthew, go, car, hot, cookie, pelican, hormone (don't ask). But the best one yet..."I love you." I was telling him I love him when we were getting ready for his bath one night and he all of the sudden just said, "I love you!" Melts the heart!
That's all i can think of for now
-still sleeping well at night. taking one nap. some days three hours, some days an hour and a half. we like the three hour ones!!
-wearing 18 month clothing and some 2t
-when he wears disposable diapers, he's still a size 4. mostly he's a cloth diapered babe, though!
- he has now started climbing everything in sight, ushering in a whole new era in our house. nothing is safe!
-we are seeing more and more of the "terrible twos" behavior. he cries hysterically when he doesn't get what he wants and has even thrown himself on the ground a few times. we're keeping consistent and firm though.
-in general, Jayden is a happy, happy little toddler who fills our lives with laughter. he is charming, funny, and LOVES attention.

Here's a couple pics for your enjoyment. We don't have any pictures on his actual 18 month birthday cause he spent the day throwing up. :( But this is as close as we can get!

two handsome guys!

new cute outfit!

sweet boys

Pluto the Dog and a hot dog

Our Halloween costume theme this year, although unintentional, was dogs!! Here are our two boys dressed up!

pumpkin carving....

Yes I know Halloween was almost three weeks ago. But when you have two kids under two, there's a lot to get done. And sometimes blogging slips between the cracks!!! Jayden and I carved a pumpkin on Halloween. He enjoyed digging out "the guts." :)

ah....breakfast!!!

Now that Jayden as taken to feeding himself entirely and is trying to master utensils, meals are.....well, an adventure. And by adventure, I mean MESSY!!!

17 months!!

So Jayden turned 17 months old a couple weeks ago now. Sorry I'm so behind with the blogging!!! The months fly by. The biggest change around here in regards to Jayden is that he is adding new words to his vocabulary everyday. Let's see if i can list them all: dog, kitty, Jakey, Grace (GACE!), grandma (ga-ga), Mama, Dada, Papa, Boppa, Stephanie (ne-knee), Oma, birdie, brown bear, baby, Eli (eye-lie), trash truck, airplane, french toast, banana (nana), juice, thank you, please, bath, diaper, night night, light, car, shoes, Rogers (ra-ra), outside, off, on, no (although not used in defiance, thankfully), cracker, ball, bubbles, and hot. I might be missing a couple. But he is quite the little talker. Still sleeping 11-12 hours at night. Takes one long nap. In a lot of 24 month clothing, which is hard to believe. He is very tall so he needs the 24 month pants but they're often big in the waist. Eats like crazy.

Oh, our other big Jayden news is that he seats in a booster seat at the table now. he loves it!!! More mess to clean but he was getting too big for the highchair!!!

One more big item. He has THREE new teeth. He was drooling like crazy for weeks and then he opened his mouth one day and BAM three new teeth. Two 15-month old molars and one new bottom tooth. That makes 6 top teeth and three bottom teeth. Silly boy.

Ok, I was wrong, there was more to update than I thought!!

Pluto the Dog!!!

Jayden was Pluto the Dog for Halloween. On Tuesday he dressed up for Mommy and Me class. Here he is all ready to go!!!


We go to Mommy and Me with Jayden's bestest buddy Jake and his mommy. Here's Jake as Scooby Doo!!


More pics to come of actual Halloween!!!

PUMPKINS!!!!

Jayden discovered PUMPKINS a couple weeks back while on a walk with Grandma Dottie and Grandpa Phil. Since then there is no stopping him. I bought him a small one at the grocery store. He cried when they took it to weigh it and he had to bring it TO the restaurant we ate lunch at that day. So, of course, like any good parents would, we took him to the pumpkin patch. Much fun ensued, including a pony ride and a petting zoo. Jayden had a BLAST!!!

"Pony rides are awesome, Mom!"




Checking out the animals!!

"Oh, baby chickens!"



"I love my dad!"

"Hay is fun to throw in the air!"

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins!!!







"And, finally, did I mention I love my mommy?"