Moving

I have no pictures to post because I've been slacking in my photography lately. I definitely have some updates, though. Our family will be going through a major life change in the very near future. We are moving to south Florida on Friday! When I went to visit my parents a couple of months ago, I realized how much I missed my parents, my friends, and south Florida. Matt started job searching and he landed a great job! I'm so proud of him. We will be staying with my parents for a few months and then we will find a place of our own. I am very sad to leave the great people I've met in Tallahassee, especially my aunt, uncle and cousins, and the women I've met at Wildwood church, but we really believe that this move is what's right for our family. I am so excited to be near my parents, my friends, and the beach! Tyler Update: Tyler is TOO cute these days. One big thing that has happened recently is that I turned his car seat from the rear facing position to forward facing. He was SO happy. On his first ride, he had a huge smile on his face and kept saying, "This fun!" He also said, "I like Ah-Ah (Curious George), I in a race car!" (There's an episode of Curious George where he drives a race car.) He kept telling us everything he saw out of the window, "Wow! I see flowers!" It was adorable. He's so excited to live near G-ma and G-pa. He says, "We move to G-ma and G-pa's house in two weeks! And I go in the fish boat (they bought him a boat for the pool that looks like a big fish) and it a pirate ship boat, Arrrggg!" Tyler lost his "Woody" doll a while back. Recently he has been saying, "I lost my boo (big) Woody at the park. G-ma get me a new one." So, when he saw my mom this weekend, one of the very first things he said to her was, "I lost my boo Woody." It was so funny! So, of course, my mom pulls out a box with a new Woody in it! He had such a big smile on his face and said, "A new Woody!" He has a book that labels lots of different trucks. He can name almost all of them. His little voice sounds so sweet saying, "And dat a Brush Rig! And dat a Excavator! And dat a Car Transporter!" He also has a big book that names lots of animals. He knows SO many of them. He can tell the difference between very similar animals like the "Panzee (Chimpanzee)", the "Rangutan" (Orangutan), and the "Rirra" (Gorilla). He's so smart! I love his grammar...He will say, "Where is him?", "What him doing?" Sometimes when he knocks something down, he'll say, "What happened?! Me happened!" Cora Update: I noticed that the title of my last post was "Sleep". The night I posted that, Cora's sleep patterns regressed a bit. For a few weeks, she would wake up at least twice and it would be difficult for her to get back to sleep. Currently, she is typically waking up twice each night. She has recently been working toward rolling from her back to her belly. Today, she totally nailed it! Almost every time I lay her on her back, she rolls to her belly. Then, she gets really mad that she's on her belly. She loves watching Tyler and Buster. She will just follow them around the room with her eyes. She's also been giggling a little bit, which is so sweet. Once we get settled in, I will take some pics of these ever changing babies!

Sleep

Cora is finally sleeping well! It is amazing how much more wonderful motherhood is when your child sleeps. I usually feed her before she goes down to sleep and after she wakes up (from naps and for the night). She's taking between two and three naps a day (usually two). She has been going to sleep around 6:30pm, waking me up once during the night, and waking up around 7:30am. Although, two nights this week, she slept through the night. It was amazing! I'm still breastfeeding, so waking up after 12 hours with no feedings was pretty uncomfortable (but totally worth it). Cora is starting to move around a little bit more. Sometimes when she wakes up from a nap, she will be facing a different direction than where she was when she fell asleep. I think she'll be flipping from her back to her belly soon. She can turn on her side. She loves to coo and smile, and she is much easier to keep happy these days, although she still prefers to be held and to have our constant and undivided attention. Tyler is so smart. I can't get over it. We can pretty much carry on a conversation now, which is awesome. I love that he repeats so much of what he hears. Some cute or funny things he has been saying: Recently, Matt was heading out the door and said, "Tyler, let's go." So, Tyler said, "Otay! I be right there, Daddy! I coming, Daddy!" Recently, we were about to sit down and have dinner out on the deck, and we had forgotten to give Tyler a drink, so he said, "Heyyyy! What about my water?" We spend a lot of time outside. I almost always take the kids across the street to the park when I get off of work. A few times recently, we've been outside and Tyler says, "It beau-ful outside!" He says, "Aww nuts!" which I think he picked up from Curious George (still his favorite show). When he wants diaper rash cream, he says, "I need med-cine on my butt." Matt took Tyler shopping with him at Kohl's last week. When they left the store, Tyler looked up at Matt and said, "I yike dat store. It my favorite." Whenever he and Matt get back home after being out, he comes in yelling, "Mommy, I here! I back now!" Today, he said, "What the heck Ty Ty do to my ball?" I've saved the best for last: Last week, he gave me a big hug and said, "I yuh you so much." We went to a friend's wedding last week and Tyler was so excited to "go dancing". He was so cute out on that dance floor. He danced so much and didn't care who was watching; It was so sweet. Here are some pictures of our super classy front yard fun: On Sunday, we went to the beach with a group of friends and their kids. Everyone brought lots of toys, so there were toys EVERYWHERE. The kids spent the day playing on the beach, and finding horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs and snails. Then, we grilled and ate dinner out on the beach. It was such a great day. The kids kept getting cut up on the rocks...One family had to head back to Tallahassee for stitches. I didn't know Tyler had hurt himself until the next day. He had scrapes on both palms, both knees, his back and one of his feet. He didn't even cry or come to tell me about it. Tyler and Cora both screamed the entire way from Tallahassee to the beach (over an hour drive). I was about to lose my mind when we got there. Tyler was supposed to nap on the way there. He passed out on the way home while Cora screamed almost the entire way back. When we got home, I just changed Ty's diaper and put him in his crib. He was really out of it saying, "What happened? Where's Dan-yo (Daniel)?" He was SO tired. So was Cora...She slept through the night.

Baby Benny

"Baby Benny" isn't a baby anymore! But, I'm sure Tyler will continue to call him that for a long time. My cousin Colleen's son, Benny, had his first birthday party on Saturday. I love this little boy! He is so mellow, happy and sweet. I'm so glad our boys know eachother. Blogger has a new layout, so this post might look different. I guess I'll just have to figure it out eventually. If anyone knows how to make my pictures larger, let me know because I think that might help. Cora Update: She usually goes to sleep around 6:30-7:00pm, wakes up twice during the night, and wakes up between 7:30-8:30am. She still takes most of her naps in her swing. It seems like she hasn't been eating very much during her feedings lately. She pulls away a lot and just smiles at me. I feel like she tries to laugh sometimes, but it comes out like a high pitched cough. Then she'll act startled/surprised after hearing the sound that she just made. Tyler Update: He loves to sing "You Are My Sunshine" with me. We will end the song with various things, like: "Please don't take my Ty-Ty away" or "Please don't take my Nana away", etc. He knows almost all of the words. It's so cute. He has a Leapster2 by Leap Frog educational computer-type game (He calls it his "Frog Game"). The game he plays is a shapes game. It's hard to explain, but the game is pretty complicated and he is really good at it. Sometimes, though, when he can't figure it out he screams and throws the game. Then, we need to take it away for a while. He's not always so good at handling his emotions!

Easter 2012

Matt had Easter weekend off this year, so we packed up enough stuff for a two week vacation and headed down to Eastpoint to see Gigi. Tyler absolutely loved being there, and we all had a great and relaxing time. Tyler played in the hose and explored the yard, Buster ran around chasing squirrels and the neighbors' dog, Cora played on the deck, and we sat back with our Coronas and had some quality time together and with my Grandma. We also saw some beautiful sunsets (Tyler would say, "The sun going down!"). We were so sad when it was time to leave.



















On Saturday afternoon, Tyler dyed Easter eggs. He started off using the spoon, but quickly abandoned it and chose to use his hands. He was just dropping the eggs in and cracking them in the process, mixing the colors and dripping the dye all over himself. He was a mess! It was really fun. After he was done, he put his eggs in a basket and carried them around for a while. At one point, he fell down and cracked all the eggs. So, he was carrying around a basket of multicolored, cracked eggs that were covered in dirt. It was the ugliest batch of Easter eggs I've ever seen, but he carried them around so proudly. It was adorable.























On Easter morning, Tyler opened his Easter basket and then we packed the kiddos up for the beach. On the way over to St. George, Tyler was whining and I asked him what was wrong. He said, "I got some-ting in my eye!" He had sunscreen in his eye, so from there our beach trip was a bit of a disaster. Tyler tried so hard to have fun, but his eye was red and puffy and he was definitely in pain. He was so cute laughing when the waves would come up and hit him. But, he got more and more uncomfortable, so we had to end up going back to Gigi's so we could put him in the bathtub and rinse his eye out. We had both kids screaming on the way home...All we could do was laugh at our beach trip being such an epic failure. Just before we put him down for his nap that afternoon, he was upset. So, he took one of the rubber snakes he got in his Easter basket and started whipping Cora in the face with it. She screamed so loud and Tyler got in big trouble. That was his first brotherly act of violence.




Look at Buster's face...What a freak!


Thanks for the swimsuit, Aunt Linda! She looked so cute.

We put the kids down for a nap after the beach fiasco, and when Tyler woke up there was an Easter egg hunt ready in the back yard.



































This was my attempt to get a good one of Gigi and the kids:






Tyler wouldn't look at the camera, so Matt said, "Tyler, look at Mom!" He snapped his head toward me, put his fist in the air and yelled, "Mom!"

We are so thankful for the Eye of the Storm.



Tyler and Cora updates:

Yesterday, out of nowhere he counted to nine. I asked him to do it again, and he would say, "Three, two, one, three!"

He can say just about anything now. I love it!

He is still the pickiest eater in the world and will hardly ever try something new. If he ever rejects peanut butter and jelly, we are in major trouble!

Cora has still been getting me up all throughout the night. Sometimes she gets up 3 or 4 times a night, and many times I will need to put her in her swing to get her back to sleep because she will be wide awake after I feed her. But within the past week there have been a couple of decent nights. Last night was the best! She went down at 7:30pm and slept until 1:00am. Then she went right back down in her crib and slept until 7:45am. It was wonderful, especially because I was so exhausted that I fell asleep by 8:30pm. I haven't had a night's sleep like that in months.

She is gaining weight but very slowly. She should be gaining about 2 pounds each month, but she is only gaining about half a pound each month. I'm not sure how that's possible because she eats constantly! The doctor prescribed some medicine for reflux just to see if that helps at all. I'm hoping it helps her feel better...I'm not sure if she has reflux but she seems uncomfortable and in pain sometimes. I know she's very gassy, but there's not much more I can do about that. We will see if this medicine helps her at all.

She tries to suck her thumb, but hasn't quite gotten it yet. I'm hoping that she will since she will not take a pacifier. The other day I tried to give her a bottle with a little bit of pumped breastmilk in it; She gagged, coughed and cried. I guess she won't take a bottle!

She is still difficult to keep happy unless she is getting your full attention. She's usually content if Matt or I am holding her propped on our hip, facing her out and walking around and/or bouncing. But, now we can sometimes leave her on her floor mat play gym for about 15 or 20 minutes and she will happily look at, bat at and grab the toys.

Tyler typically ignores Cora, but occasionally he will acknowledge her and it's so sweet. This morning I took him out of his high chair after breakfast, and he ran over to where Cora was laying, knelt down in front of her and said, "I got out Baby Toya! I got out!" Last week Tyler threw a toy on the tile and it made a loud noise that startled Cora. She jumped and started to cry a little bit. I said, "Uh-oh you scared baby Cora." So, as he was running over to her he said, "Otay! Otay, Baby Toya! I coming, I coming!" Then, he kissed her on the head. Precious!

I went back to work last week so Matt is on daddy duty during the day. He's doing a great job and I can already tell that he and Cora have grown closer.