Growing up, sickness round 3 and travels

so much for the new blogging plan, but I do still like the idea. I've just been busy. With what? Well. . .

1. My boys, who are growing up so fast!

2. My SICK boys who have a 3rd round of the stinkin common cold. I don't know how much more of this I can handle. If you have sick children, please keep them away!! No offense.

3. We've been on the go constantly. After we were in Orlando with Preston's parents, we went back to Orlando (where we went to the pool) for a conference Preston went to. 3 days after that, we took a flight to Columbus Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with my sister's family and her in-laws. Now we're home for another week and a half before heading off to Utah for nearly a month!


That's the nutshell of what we've been up to, but here's some more details for whoever may be interested.

BRAYDEN

watching some birds from our porch in Orlando.

snuggling tigger

Brayden's biggest update is his growing vocabulary. He said "no" for the first time while we were in Orlando for the conference and now he says it regularly. It's still in the cute phase. Besides that, here's a list of my favorite words he says:
Up
Down (da-oon)
Please (dees)
Me (while he points at someone else :) )
food (foof)
phone (voof)
Flower (fuf fuf)
Butterfly (buf fuf)
Bye (bah-ee)
Amen (men)
Sadie (Dee)
Binky/Blanky (hard to type. . . closest to guk)
Ah oh
Oops (ops)
All done (nan nan)
Nap
Out
Juice
Milk (uk)
Train
Truck
Bus
Dad (dada)
Mom (mum mum)
Bless (dess)
Yellow (yeyow)
Black (bak)
Green (een)
pink (gik)
Blue (boo with a slight s sound at the end)
and the word that he uses for anything he can't actually say (Dus)

In addition to his words (which may not be a good representation of how clear he does say a lot of things) he can identify any letter of the alphabet and make basically all of their sounds. X is funny because he makes a K sound and then an S sound. Z is also funny because he ends up spitting while he does it. R sounds more like a growl for now. L is still not quite there, but otherwise he'll tell you all the sounds! He can also pick out numbers 1-10 and count to 5 (sometimes). His favorite way of counting is 1, 2, 3, 2.

Brayden's also getting better at timeout. More like I'm getting more consistent with it :) He gets to sit where his laundry basket goes and stay there for 2 minutes (or until we say he's done) and then go give a hug and say sorry for whatever the case may be (usually hitting). He's got the routine down now. Earlier today he hit at Zander and I gave him my best intimidating look and said "did you just hit Zander?" We happened to be in his room, so he just walked to the laundry basket, moved it and sat down. hehe. He doesn't even cry while he sits there and he gave up binky when I told him to.

Brayden turns 2 next Friday and I still can't believe it!!


ZANDER

holding his head up at tummy time

our big cheeser

very handsome

Zander rolled over on Thanksgiving but not again since. He was close yesterday. He holds his head up very high while on his tummy and has gotten even more giggly. Although not many people seem to witness it but me. . . I guess I'm just funny looking :)

Yesterday there was a point that I was holding both boys and Zander laughed.  I pointed it out to Brayden so he looked at Zander and laughed, which made Zander laugh at Brayden.  It went back and forth a couple times. Those are the best mommy moments! My pay days :)

Zander's sleeping reverted back to waking up once or twice every night after he got sick the first time and is still crazy. I just don't have the heart to make him cry it out while he's sick, but you better believe that we will sleep train him when I know he's better. I just need my sleep. And I do believe that they need their sleep and it's good for them to get on an all night schedule. So, it's not all selfish.

We'll take both boys to the doctor next week and have some stats to report.

SICKIES
The first round of the cold was hardest on me, but went away fairly quickly for everyone else. The next round was the longest lasting cold I've ever heard of. Brayden was full on sick for a week and a half and then it started to die down a bit and finally went away. Zander only sounded sick for a couple of days and Preston and I were more mildly sick than Brayden but for the same amount of time. Then Preston picked something new up and just spread that to Brayden the day after Thanksgiving. Once Brayden got it, everyone else did too. He's not so good at containing germs yet. We felt bad for Kim, Trip, Makaila and Chris and Kathy who all got it too.  This time, Brayden has a pretty nasty nose, but I feel worst for Zander who can't breath laying down and thus can't sleep well. We've propped him up on a pillow which helps, but he won't sleep that long on his back for some reason. He's starting to get better as of today. YAY! I think we've had our fair share of sick, so maybe now we can enjoy our Christmas holiday with staying healthy.

TRAVELS
I already talked some about the trip to Disney. But then we went back to Orlando for the conference. It was fun, but I did have that lonely single-mom feeling a couple days.  Preston was busy at the conference all day long. He left before we woke up every day and came home late every night. One night he didn't get home until 11:30. It wasn't exactly like I imagined the trip going. . . but I did make the most of it and was much happier being stranded there than here at home! I got to see Angela Durtschi, who moved out of the ward in May. She came to the conference with her husband and brought me lunch one day. So nice! Then I went to the pool with the boys (pictures in previous post). And Friday Preston took a half day off to go to Animal Kingdom with us. It was lots of fun! We needed a little more time, but it was fun. I was slightly annoyed that Preston told me about a dinner that he wanted to go to that night about 2 hours before we'd have to leave for it, but only because I was looking forward to the evening together. It wasn't nearly as bad as him telling me Saturday afternoon that we needed to leave soon because we had a house guest for the weekend. Apparently he knew about it a while in advance but just forgot to mention it until he was almost at our house. We were hanging out with one of our friends from BYU who was at the conference as well, so we actually didn't get out until late and got home at midnight. Poor Nate was here since about 3 or 4. I love my Preston, but he really has issues with sharing schedules.

Our trip to Ohio was different than I imagined as well. I think that Trip and Chris spent as much (or more) time in the kitchen as they did hangin out with us. Which made for some very yummy dinners and desserts, but not as much games and talking as I had imagined. Don't get me wrong, we had lots of fun and would definitely go again! Plus, I got to meet my new niece Makaila! Even when I have a baby of my own, holding her was so much fun! She has "scary eyes" because their so big all the time. She's just taking in the world around her.  She's also slightly bigger than Zander who is 2 weeks older! I think Zander's growth has slowed down a bit, but he's still a good sized boy.  Makaila's quite the big cute girl! Makaila was blessed in an LDS sacrament meeting while we were there, so Preston got to help out with that. It was good to be there! We got home about 3 am on Monday and jumped right back into life.

Ah, that feels good to just get everything written down. I've been building up on stressful "to-do's" and was having quite a hard time today, but I feel much better and am now ready to go tackle a few more things!

Pool Fun

Brayden's a water boy. He could play in water all day long.  So, I wanted to take him to the pool while we're in this great resort in Orlando.  I'll admit I was pretty nervous to take both boys by myself though. Brayden can't swim and Zander can't even sit up.  So, they'd both need a lot of help.  I finally decided to just at least go walk by and see what the pool area was like and if I thought I could handle it. It was a huge success! As soon as we got there I knew Brayden would just love it so much, so we went to the bathroom and changed into swimsuits. That's when I discovered I had forgotten the swim diapers. Oops. Sort of important. I decided I'd just let him play in the fountain area with a normal diaper and maybe we'd go back later for the pool. Brayden loved it and was so good. Eventually more kids came and started getting in the pool and of course Brayden kept saying "pool" (more like "ool") so I went in the gift shop to ask about buying a diaper. They wanted $3.50 for ONE DIAPER!!! Heck no! We made the 10 minute walk back to the room, ate apple sauce and made the trek back with all our gear.  Of course Zander was hot in the stroller but cold in the water (I didn't get him all the way in cuz he gasped just with wet feet) so I had to either hold him or go back and forth between pool and stroller the whole time. It worked out though and Brayden was being a great listener when I'd tell him to stay close or just sit and splash for a minute. The pool was 0 entry and only went up to 3 ft. So, it was perfect for him. Plus, I tried out some arm floaties that my mom picked up for us for $.50 last time she was here. He didn't like them at all until I showed him how they made him float and then he started doing his goofy giggle every time he'd sit and float. It was darling. I even got him to float on his stomach and kick his legs. He'll be a swimmer in no time :) Zander did well with the water after the initial cold shock on his feet, but I would have loved to take him out swimming a little more to see if he likes the water as much as Brayden always has. Another time I guess. Anyway, here's a few pictures of our fun morning/afternoon. Gotta love the pool!!

Stepping on the water hole waiting for water to come out.

walking into the water, belly first. He did this a lot.

Zander was a champ in the stroller the whole time Brayden played in the fountain.

back for some real pool fun!

OK, so not a great picture, but he was so cute in his little suit and rash guard so I tried. It's hard to find time to take pictures when you have two kids at a pool!

PS- HAPPY THREE MONTHS ZANDER!!!! I can't believe my baby is 3 months old already!

New Blogging Regime

I've been having a hard time keeping up on blogging lately, which has been a bummer because I haven't been real good at taking pictures of my cute kiddos who are growing so fast! The blog is half the reason I take pictures. So, I've decided that since I can't blog every day about the happenings of our lives that I will start blogging on a weekly basis. Sundays for now. And here we are at the first "weekly blog post."

So, here's our week (and a half)  in review:

- Had our ward trunk-or-treat

- Carved our second pumpkin

- Met Preston's parents in Orlando for Halloween and a week of Disney/Universal (the Harry Potter stuff is AWESOME!)

- Brought Preston's parents to our see our home and town

- Played games for the first time since Zander was born

- Played at the park

- Did 5 loads of laundry

- Brayden decided to have a mess in the bathtub.

Yep, it's been a good week. We loved having Preston's family here. They took us to trick or treat at a place called Old Town in Orlando and that was pretty fun. We got a late start so a lot of places were out of candy, but Brayden certainly doesn't need much. Brayden was dressed as a spider, Preston and I were the web and little Zander was a fly caught in the web :) Hehe.  Most people had to ask about Zander, but oh well. It was still a fun idea. 

Mom and Dad treated us to Disney World and Universal Studios and since we're Florida residence we upgraded to weekday season passes to both places for only $35 total. We're pretty excited! Brayden loved both places and I'm excited to take him back. He's been to Disney 4 times now since he was 6 months old and it's been really interesting to see him become more interested in everything! This time I did something I always thought was crazy . . . waited in line to see Pooh and Tigger. But, as soon as Brayden saw them walking he took off running after them and I just had to wait the 15 minutes to get his picture with them :) I hope that we don't have to do it every time, but just to see that look of pure joy it's totally worth the wait. Now I can understand why there's a long line for characters. Brayden's favorite rides were the carousels, all the rides like Dumbo that go up and around, Pooh, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, The Cat in the Hat. He didn't like Snow White, a Magic Show, Poseidon's fury, or the Olivander's wand shop. They had loud noises that were scary to him I guess. The magic show was just boring for him I think. Oh, and he wasn't too sure about the Pirate's of the Carribean. He seemed to like the drop ok, but it's the dark scary stuff he didn't know about. But, as we pointed things out to him he seemed to do ok and enjoy it in the end. He did really want to ride space mountain and cried when he couldn't get on :)

We haven't used our time to play any games since having Zander for obvious reasons, but we did finally head over to some friends and played a little and then we got to play some with Mom and Dad. I think we're about to the point that we can get back into playing more often.

Zander is either growing or has decided to get into a habit of eating in the middle of the night again. And he still has issues with actually falling asleep and staying asleep at night. Poor guy. We may have to take matters into our own hands soon. I've discovered that I do get ornery when woken up multiple times every night.

Brayden was in the bath Sunday morning and after I washed him off I had to look up a recipe for dinner because I had to get it in the crock pot. So I came to the next room and looked at the ingredients. Right when I was finishing I heard a little whine from Brayden and I told him I was coming right back. By the time I got there I saw a little floaty and there were three logs on the bottom of the tub. Super gross. So, I hurried and pulled Brayden out, got him dressed, tucked him in some covers because our house was 60 degrees that morning (we're trying to save on utilities by not turning the heat on yet and it was a cold weekend) and went and had to put the mess in the toilet and disinfect the bathtub. This was Brayden's first offense with having a mess in the tub and I sure hope it's the last. I was actually impressed that Brayden stayed in his covers the whole time I was cleaning. He wanted a hat for his wet hair, so he had a little beach hat on for quite a while after that. It was pretty cute.

PICTURES TO COME.... I wrote this up on Sunday and then haven't gotten around to loading pics. Now we're on our way to Orlando yet again for Preston's conference and maybe another day at Disney :) But, that's for the next post!

2 Months

Just got back from the doctor and have some stats to  report. 

Height: 23.75" (83%)

Weight: 12lbs 12oz (76%)

Head: 39.7 cm (18%)

Obviously growing well. We give him a bottle every night and lately he's been drinking 6-7 oz before bed! I don't know how he fits it in there, but it sure helps him sleep. He sleeps 8 hours every night. Last night it was 9.5! Our struggle is with getting him in bed... He won't fall asleep until 10 or 11. We've tried just laying him down but if he doesn't cry right off he squirms so much that he spits up a bunch of milk and then cries and we have to clean up. I guess that's partly why he eats so much- we keep feeding him until he finally falls asleep.

As for me, I'm back down to 108- pre-pregnancy weight. But, I feel far from pre-pregnancy body. And my plan for fixing that? Nada. I'm relying solely on my boys to get/keep me in shape. I think it's working so far :)

Oh, and we're all doing much better with the sickies!