South Florida

Since I'm nearing the end of my maternity leave, Cora, Tyler and I took a trip to south Florida to visit my parents. I've only taken Tyler down to see my parents one time (when he was 2 months old) because it is very stressful taking such a long trip in the car. When my mom offered to drive up and drive back down with us, I decided that we'd go for it. We missed Matt very much, but we had such a wonderful time at G-ma's and G-pa's new house. My sister was able to come from San Fransisco for half of the week and meet Cora for the first time. It was great being together as a family.

The drive down to south Florida went very well. Cora slept almost the entire way there and we only stopped to feed her once. Tyler watched movies, took a short nap and played with the trucks his G-ma brought him. We weren't as fortunate on the way home. Tyler was disinterested in movies and toys, didn't nap, and kept screaming at the top of his lungs (not crying, just screaming...SO annoying!). Cora cried quite a bit on the drive home and we had to stop twice to feed her. It was worth it though (right, Mom?)!

Cora was very fussy on this vacation and it was hard to keep her happy. She started off the week waking up at night A LOT. But as the week went on, she had a few really good nights. It is still hit or miss, but having those occasional "good nights" really keeps me going! Tyler had such a great time swimming with G-pa in the "pool" (the jacuzzi, since the pool was way too cold), feeding the ducks, throwing rocks in the "yucky water" (the lake behind their house), going to the zoo, going to the beach, going to the park, going to Busch Wildlife, going on walks and just being with two of his favorite people (G-ma and G-pa).

Tyler did and said so many cute things on this trip that it's hard to remember them all. He is talking SO much. Every week is just so different from the previous one. His vocabulary is constantly growing.

I took LOTS of pictures (like, over 300) while I was there, so I tried my best to only post the best ones. There are still a lot, though!


Tyler got lots of presents last week, but one of his favorites was his new Rex, from Toy Story.




Best buddies!










All dolled up in the name of St. Patrick.










Smiling at Aunt Joy on the beach.












"Mommy, I hear a air-pane!"


Driving the tractor at the zoo.
















Tyler was SO cute on the carousel! He was laughing so much, and didn't want his mommy to hold onto him (such a big boy). Every time we would see my sister and my parents, he'd wave and say, "Hi!" or "Hi G-ma!" When we stopped, I tried to get him off the ride and he yelled, "Nooo! One more minute!" So, of course we had to ride one more time.






I love this shy little smile.


Cora slept the entire time we were at the zoo.


The zoo is centered around these fountains. Tyler was thrilled! He was so cute running around the fountains, jumping up and down and laughing. Just before we were about to leave, he collided with a bigger kid, fell back and hit his head on the concrete. Poor little guy.
















We promised Tyler an M&M if he took these pictures. Then, later on in the week, when he'd sit still for a picture, he'd say, "What I get, Mommy? What I get?"












Wearing G-pa's shoes.








We had a play date with two great friends and their precious kids. It was SO great to be with them and I was so sad when they had to leave.


Ladies' Man.


I think he ate more than the ducks did.


















Cora meeting "Kiki" (Corrie) and "Tia" (Jessica), two of my oldest and best friends.



Cora update:

About two weeks ago, Cora rolled over from her belly to her back. Matt witnessed it before I did (and he likes to remind me of that fact), but then she did it two more times while I was watching (Although, she hasn't done it since). Tyler thought it was hilarious. He was laughing, saying, "More!" Then he got down on the ground and kept rolling over for us.

At her two month check up, she weighed 9 lb., 15 oz. and was in the 35 percentile. Quite a drop from her one month appointment when she was in the 70th percentile, but the doctor wasn't very concerned. She's grown an inch since her one month appointment.

She smiles quite a bit now and I just love it. She is getting cuter and cuter as she grows and I just can't wait to see what type of personality she has.

Tyler update:

Tyler can throw a MEAN tantrum, especially when he's tired. He gets into a frenzy, he doesn't know what he wants, he throws stuff, he hits...It's no fun. Other than his tantrums, he's at such a fun age. He's so cute, funny and SMART. He can say pretty much anything that we say, and his memory is excellent (We were talking about his Uncle Chris and he said, "M.M.?" because Chris had brought him M&M's at Christmas.). He is also very observant and doesn't miss a thing (I recently bought a certain brand of almonds and Tyler saw them and said "G-pa's almonds!" They were the exact brand that my dad was eating at Christmas.).

In my parens' neighborhood, there were three trees that had "happy faces" (decorative faces on the trees). My dad took him to see two of them (My dad didn't know about the third face, but Tyler had seen it while on a walk with me) and Tyler kept saying, "I missed one!" So, for the rest of the week, Tyler would always say, "Ty-Ty go see the one I missed?"

One morning, he caught a lizard, brought it into my parents' house and excitedly said, "I caught it! I caught a yee-yard (lizard)!" Then he dropped it and my dad had to go chasing after it. Another time, he caught a lizard and he broke its' tail off by accident. The tail was still moving and Tyler said, "A worm!"

There were trucks working on a road in my parents' neighborhood. While on a walk with Tyler, my mom told him that they were fixing the road. So when they came back to the house, my mom said, "Tyler, tell mommy what the trucks were doing on the road." Tyler said, "They're pixing da road. Somebody broke dat road!"

The other day, Buster and Tyler were out on the deck. All of a sudden, we heard Tyler yelling, "Bubba! Right now!" Buster had somehow escaped off the deck (even though we had it blocked off) and Tyler was calling him back.

When Corrie and Jessica came over and were holding Cora for the first time, Tyler got upset and said, "Dat my baby Toya!"

One morning at my parents' house, Tyler was really whiny and ready for his breakfast. So, in a super whiny voice, he told my mom, "I need pancakes!...I need syrup too!"

I want to record all of the funny things Ty says so I can look back at it, but it's hard to remember it all!

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!