Munchkins

I never thought I'd find a moment to blog again! Both of my babies are asleep (for the moment), so I'm sitting here with a Corona, enjoying looking through some pictures that I've been able to take of the kids recently.



Cora is 7 weeks old now. She is still waking up at night. I try to put her down between 7 and 8, then I'll wake her up between 10 and 11. She'll wake me up once or twice after that. This week, she's finally started going right back to sleep after I feed her at night. For a while, she'd be wide awake for over an hour after the nighttime feedings and it was absolutely exhausting! Now that she goes right back to sleep, waking up through the night is bearable for me. I recently cut dairy out of my diet, hoping it would help Cora feel better because she was very hard to keep satisfied while she was awake. She seems to be doing better during her wake times. She likes when we talk to her and she tries very hard to coo back at us. She has been smiling more, which is wonderful. She has the most beautiful smile - I can't get enough! Last night, we put on some Bob Marley and we danced around with the kids. Matt was dancing with Cora and she just stared at him for the longest time, was smiling at him and she was so relaxed. Tyler loved dancing! He was laughing and had a great time.




Baby feet.

Tyler has been talking SO much. We can't believe some of the things he says. It's so funny how he'll hear things and repeat them. His new thing is, "How 'bout...". I'll ask, "What movie do you want to watch?" and he'll respond, "How 'bout...hmmm...Buzz movie?" (Of course, it's always the "Buzz movie"). When he chooses books, songs, puzzles, etc. he'll say, "How 'bout...this one!" The other day, Matt was watching a soccer game and he paused it for a few minutes. When Tyler noticed that it had stopped he just said, "Heyyy...What happened Ty-Ty's soccer?" Other things Tyler has been saying and doing:

-He loves playing "A-Bah" (Angry Birds) on Matt's cell phone. We let him play it in the car. Just before getting home the other day, someone called Matt's phone while Tyler was playing Angry Birds, so Tyler answered it, had it up to his ear and was saying, "G-ma? G-pa?"
-Every night while I'm rocking Tyler before bed, I've started to ask him what he did that day. It's so sweet hearing him list off all of the things he did.
-The other day, I was going to feed Cora. Tyler got really upset and kept saying, "No! No baby Toya nummies!" and kept trying to pull my shirt back down. He gets kind of crazy sometimes when I'm with Cora too much. He'll keep saying, "I need mommy. I need mommy." It breaks my heart.
-Tyler's new favorite thing to do is "Peed Bubba" (Feed Buster). So, he has his first chore. He'll get Buster's bowl, go out to the garage and fill it with food. When he puts it back inside, he'll call out for Buster and tell him that his "nummies" are ready. He also loves giving Buster "Peats" (Treats). He'll get one out of the bag, look at Buster and say, "Sit, Bubba! Bubba, sit!"
-The other night I asked him who his favorite people are from the Buzz movie. He said, "I like Bullseye, I like Woody, I like Buzz, I like Jessie, I like the bad monster (Zurg)...and then I need the dino Rex, and then I need Ham..." He listed off all the action figures he has, and then added two he still "needs", Rex and Ham.
-Another new thing he says constantly is, "I need..." He thinks he "needs" everything.
-He has started wanting to help me. When I'm putting laundry away, he'll say, "Me help?"
-When he uses the potty, he tries to squeeze out a little pee just so he can get an M&M, so we've been telling him that he needs to go "all the way". After he squeezes some out, he'll look up with a big smile and say, "I did it! Enough?"
-Whenever he burps, he smiles so big and says, "I burped! Eku me (excuse me)!"

We recently went to Gigi's house with my mom and had a great time, although it was exhausting for everyone. My mom was constantly chasing Tyler down and trying to play with Cora while I was constantly feeding Cora. It was crazy. I got the chance to take Tyler over to the beach and to play on the playground. It was so nice to get away with my little boy by ourselves. We had a great time. As we were leaving, Tyler saw an older woman wearing a hood, so he stopped and pointed at her and kept saying, "My G-pa? My G-pa?" As we were packing the car to leave Gigi's house, Tyler found an "umbreya" (umbrella) in the garage and he was upset when we said he couldn't take it home with us. So, of course my mom said she'd take him to Target on the way home and buy him one. Then, Gigi came over and handed Tyler a $5 bill and said he could buy his umbrella with it. He was so excited and kept looking for a pocket to put it in. He couldn't find one, so he just stuffed it under his shirt. When we got to Target, he had the $5 bill in his hand and just ran into the store. He ended up picking out a Jessie action figure (from Toy Story) instead of an umbrella. When we got in the line to pay, Tyler walked right past everyone in line and held up his $5 bill for the cashier. It was so cute. We explained that he had to wait his turn. He was so happy to have another addition to his Toy Story collection (He sleeps with ALL of his Toy Story toys every night. The other day, he came to me around 11:30am and said that he wanted to go night-night. I looked in his room and he had put all of his Toy Story toys in his crib, he had his Buzz Lightyear in hand, and he had his books stacked up on the table next to the rocking chair. So, I let him take an early nap that day (he usually doesn't go down until 1pm).).




SO happy to be at Gigi's.




G-ma brought him his first lollipop. When he was done, he ran to find my mom and said, "G-ma! I ate the candy! It in my tummy now!"


Playing "dinos" with G-ma. My mom found a small dinosaur and told Tyler that she thought it looked like a turtle. He shook his head and said, "No...That dino, not turt."


Sleepy smile.

















Last week, I went with a few friends and their little boys to the fire station to see the "Boo, boo firetruck" (Big, big firetruck). When we arrived, I stepped out of our car and the alarm went off in the firestation. Then, the truck pulled out and left. So, the boys ran around and played with a basketball they found for a while. Thankfully, the truck came back and the boys got to see it. They even got to go inside. It was adorable.










Daniel brought out a bag of goldfish crackers while we were waiting for the firetruck to return, and all the boys were following him around with their hands out. Then, they all went and sat down together while they ate their snack. Adorable!




















He LOVED the firefighters' hats.


Tyler, Cole, Tyler and Daniel.


When the boys left, they gave the firefighters high-fives.

Things around here can be very overwhelming, having two little people who need me constantly, but I know that we are so blessed to have two beautiful and healthy children. They are amazing.


Tyler putting Jessie's hat on Cora.

The First Month

We have survived the first month as a family of four! At Cora's one month check-up, she weighed 9 lb. 9 oz. (70%) and was 20 3/4 in long. She is still waking up at night every 2.5 to 4 hours, and unfortunately she usually doesn't go right back to sleep after the nighttime feedings. So far it has been difficult to keep her content while she's awake. We can't put her down for more than about a minute until she starts screaming. So, we are constantly holding her, bouncing her, etc. We are sincerely hoping that this is a phase that will pass soon! She is successfully breastfeeding, though, which is such a blessing and I'm loving it. It doesn't happen often yet, but she has smiled a couple of times for me.

For a week or so, Tyler was very whiny and mommy-needy, but it seems to be getting a little better. I think he's tired of me constantly holding and/or feeing her. He is getting SO smart. He's constantly impressing us with his extensive vocabulary and understanding. This morning we were skyping with my parents, so I paused his morning cartoon ("Bob the Builder", or in Tyler's words, "The Truck Show"). About five minutes into our conversation, he noticed that the show was paused and said, "Heyyy, what happened Ty-Ty's truck show?" He is also getting the hang of going pee-pee in the potty. We aren't officially potty training, but we casually let him go in the potty when he wants to (It's all about the M&M's). He's definitely starting to dislike the feeling of a full diaper. The other day when I went in to his room to get him after his nap, he was completely bottomless and his room smelled TERRIBLE. I walked in, he points to his diaper lying in his crib and said, "I got poo-poo!" Thankfully, it was still in the diaper and not all over the walls. He's hilarious! I love asking him, "Tyler, what are you thinking about?" I've gotten the following answers: "Daddy." "Gigi's house." "Christopher Robin." I recently met a few friends and their kids at the park near our house. Usually when Tyler enjoys being around other kids, but he plays by himself. When we were at the park, he really connected to a friend and they played so well together! Daniel and Tyler were playing together in the dirt, hunting for deer in the woods, playing with sticks, following eachother around and singing. It was so cute. When we left, he kept saying, "Where'd Dan-yo doe?"

I haven't taken very many pictures lately since I'm always either feeding or holding Cora. And if I'm not doing one of those two things, she is crying. So, hopefully next weekend I can get some good photos of the kids because we will be meeting G-ma at Gigi's house for the weekend! Tyler is very excited and he keeps talking about it. He's also very excited to go to G-ma and G-pa's house in March. He is really looking forward to gonig in a boat and swimming in their pool. I don't want my maternity leave to end!