Christmas 2011

We spent this Christmas in St. George Island with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Joy and Uncle Chris. We had a great time relaxing, walking (or, running, in Tyler's case) on the beach, and being with family. I'm SO sad that the week is over! Tyler had so much fun playing with his grandparents and bonding with his aunt and uncle.

We spent Christmas Eve at Gigi's house with aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and friends.


Watching Charlie Brown Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa


The Nixon family at Gigi's on Christmas Eve


Cute little Benny!


Tyler just walked over to Benny on the floor and sat on him. Hilarious!

Christmas morning was really fun. Tyler ran right past his presents and gave his grandma a big hug. Then, he saw the presents and was so excited. He got a tricycle, a comfy chair, a train set, a fish tank, a car ramp, a rock-and-roll Elmo, and LOTS of other stuff. I put a cheap little net in his stocking and he was so excited about it. He kept holding it out saying he was going to "catch the bee!" He even ran toward the stairs and when we asked where we was going he said, "to catch the bee!" Then he said, "catch baby Jeeus", walked over to his Little People nativity set and put baby Jesus in his net. We had a great morning watching him enjoy everything. He loved his train set from Grandma and Grandpa. They gave him a hat with a train on it to wear when he plays with the trains...Tyler didn't take it off all week! When he was opening his train set he said, "All aboard!" I have no idea where he picked that up from. He's amazing.










We were trying to show Tyler how Elmo worked, so we asked him to give Elmo the instruments. He said, "Noooo", took the instruments and ran into the kitchen, sat down on the floor and played by himself. I guess he doesn't like to share!


Tyler got this silly Toy Story outfit from my grandma Laub. He opened it and said, "On?" The pants are a tad large.


"Boo!"






Tyler loves his new Toy Story shirt. He loves the "Buzz movie". When I'm rocking him before bed, he likes me to sing the "Buzz" song: "You've Got a Friend In Me".

My little beach lover ran on the beach all week. He literally couldn't walk one morning because he ran on the beach too much the day before.




Getting Aunt Joy!








Chasing birds




Touching a fish

























Pregnancy Update:


My belly at ~ 37 weeks

I'm huge! I feel like my skin cannot stretch anymore and that I'm going to burst if Cora gets any bigger at all. I can't believe that I'll be meeting my daughter in less than three weeks! This is a very overwhelming time. Now that the holidays are behind us, I'm trying to tie things up at work, get all the last minute things done for Cora's arrival, and cherish every moment with my boy. It makes us so sad that our time with just him is coming to an end. I hope he adjusts well to the changes. It breaks my heart thinking of him feeling sad or left out. I know everything will turn out okay, but there are just lots of emotions right now. I wonder if my next post will be when my baby girl is here!

Tyler's Second Birthday

How did this...



...turn into this?



I can't believe I have a 2-year old! These past 2 years have been the most wonderful, challenging, love-filled years of my life. What a special, amazing, smart, silly, good-natured, funny little guy. He has such a vibrant personality and he brings so much joy to our lives.

My parents came up for Ty's birthday weekend and we had a little party for Tyler at the park across the street. He loves bugs, so after we played on the playground, we had a bug hunt where the kids looked for plastic bugs and put them in their bug houses. Then we brought out some live ladybugs and let the kids play with them. Tyler kept saying, "I got one!" every time he saw one crawling on him. After the excitement over the ladybugs, we had some lunch and cupcakes. Tyler just ate the frosting off of the cupcake and instinctively worked his way over to the pile of presents. He and the other boys tore into them together. It was so fun to watch them.


This was in the morning before his party. Grandma and Grandpa got Tyler balloons, including a "Happy Ball" balloon and a "Melmo" balloon. He was carrying them around the house for quite a while.





Birthday Party:
















Hunting for bugs.






















Maybe his favorite gift: The "Woof-Woof Piggy Bank"



The rest of the weekend with my parents was great. We took Tyler to get pizza that night and to see the Christmas lights at Dorothy B. Oven park. He was so exhausted that night that he gave us a very hard time before bed. Too much for one day!

My parents helped us get Cora's bedroom all set up. I am very pleased with how it turned out:








Belly at 33.5 Weeks

The weekend following Tyler's birthday, two of my best friends came up from south Florida for a visit. I had such a great time watching them bond with Tyler, talking to them and laughing with them. Tyler calls Corrie "Kiki" and he calls Jessica "Tia". They taught him to say, "Mayday!" and he kept saying it over and over. He thought it was hilarious. They also taught him to fist pump. We took him to see the Christmas lights at Dorothy B. Oven park one night, so he was just running through the park, saying "Go, go go!" and pumping his little fist in the air. A couple other cute things from that night were when we walked past this little girl, he said, "Hey baby!" Then, when we passed by the nativity scene, he said, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"


Watching "Ah-Ah" with Kiki.






Belly at 34.5 Weeks


This picture needs to be explained. At my last OB appointment (~33 weeks), I discovered that Cora was breech. I was so nervous that she would stay that way and I wouldn't be able to deliver naturally. So, my cousin's father-in-law graciously did an acupuncture procedure for me called Moxibustion. He gave me a couple of the candles so Matt could do the treatment for me at home. So, while the girls were here, they took turns doing the treatment for me. They are the best!

I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant and going to the doctor every week. The Moxibustion must have worked because I discovered today at my appointment that Cora is in the head-down position! I was so relieved that I almost cried. I can't believe that we will be a family of four in one month.

Here are some 4D ultrasound pictures of Cora at ~33 Weeks:







We recently took Tyler to see Santa at the mall. We took him out of his stroller and his reaction was to say, "No, no, no, no!" as he climbed back up into his stroller. We put his stroller next to Santa and at first Tyler wouldn't even look at him. After a few minutes, Santa made him smile and he even let Santa pick him up. Then we left because he started getting upset again and we thought he might cry. He's so silly.













Tyler Update:

It's hard to share all that Tyler is doing because he is doing and saying so much!

-He loves to sing.
-He's saying multiple new words every day.
-He's saying many phrases and full sentences such as, "I ate it!", "I got one!", "That one.", "This one.", "I love you, mommy." (Personal favorite), "I love you, daddy." (He also tells his stuffed animals and Buster that he loves them: "I love you: Bubba, Ah-Ah, Doggie, etc.)
-He told my dad, "Happy Birthday!" on the phone the other day.
-He loves Pixar movies! His favorite are the Toy Story movies, which he calls "The Buzz Movie". In Toy Story 2, Emperor Zurg makes an appearance and Tyler calls him "the bad monster". There's also a duplicate Buzz Light Year who Tyler calls "the mean Buzz". I have no idea where he got "the mean Buzz" because we didn't tell him that he was mean. Genious! He also loves the "Memo Movie" (Finding Nemo) and the "Monster Movie" (Monsters, Inc.).
-Tyler is obsessed with his FSU hat. He wears it all day, and anytime we go anywhere he says, "Ty-Ty's hat will come?" Whenever he says "hi" to someone he'll grab his hat and say, "Ty-Ty's hat!" He is so proud of it. He even wears it to church.
-After we took Tyler to see Santa, we planned to come home and watch the classic, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on TV. Tyler was so scared of the Abominable Snowman. He was covering his eyes with his hands and just as I was about to press Fast-Forward, he looked up at me and said, "Night-Night?" So, we put him to bed. We felt so bad! He still talks about the "reindeer movie" and the "monster" from time to time.
-He loves to dance. The other day, he pointed up at his iPod (my first iPod that no longer works unless it's docked to the speakers in his room) and said, "Dance?"
-My parents got him a Little People Nativity Set for his birthday. He loves playing with it and he knows who "baby Jesus" is. It's so cute to hear him say "the baby Jesus". I was getting him ready for bed last night and he asked, "Where'd the baby Jesus go?"
-Last night he brought me the book, "Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?" and he recited the entire title of the book to me. I was shocked! We've been reading that book every night for the past week or so, but I had no idea he could say that. I was very proud.
-During last night's dinner, I was reading a story to him out of his Curious George book. It was about George's birthday and all of a sudden, Tyler got a big smile on his face and said, "Happy Birthday, Ah-Ah!"
-Lately, he wants me to rock him before naptime and bedtime. So, I'll rock him for a few minutes and he loves it. Sometimes he'll be quiet, and sometimes he'll list off things we did or saw that day. Then when I get up to put him in his bed, he'll almost always say, "More rock?", and then, "B-I-B-I-B?" (The B-I-B-L-E Song) I'll sing it once and then tell him to sing it to himself. Sometimes I'll leave the room and after a minute of silence I'll hear him start singing, "The B-I-B-I-B..." It's so sweet.

We have a weekend ahead with no plans, but then the next week is Christmas! He keeps talking about going to Gigi's house and going to the beach. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he acts on Christmas morning.