Summer 2013

Christmas 2012

16 Months!

25 pounder (50th%)

 

33.25 incher (90th%)

 

You are a Keeper!

 

 

 

 

You are really 16 1/2 months but I just took you to your 15mo checkup. Doctor said it looks like we are taking good care of you, so we have that going for us! And he didn't even mention how tan you are so I didn't get in trouble!

You are wonderful. You are a hugger and I mean a good one. You give arms around the neck squeezes and we can't get enough of them. I don't think your hair could get any blonder. You are a climber and climb up on anything. You follow your sister around constantly. You wave bye and blow kisses. You don't talk much. You pat your diaper when you poop. You love to be naked outside. You laugh when you pee outside. You love fruit and pretty much anything we give you. You shake your head no when you don't want something. You run to your room at bedtime and beat me to the rocking chair. You take one 2-2 1/2 hour nap each day. Your go to bed at 7 each night. You snuggle in bed with me each morning. You climb up for little snuggles throughout the day. You make "vroom" noises with your trucks. You love the broom. You like to help pick up the toys. You love to get tickled and you have the cutest little giggle. You instantly put your hand down my shirt and rest it between my boobs every time I am holding you - this can stop anytime please)

I could go on and on. We love you forever and ever! YOU ARE WONDERFUL!



Island Summer 2012

I was due...I have had too good of luck traveling with my kids that I was due. Our 6 hour trip to Milwaukee ended up being a 3 day ordeal. Due to thunderstorms and fires in Denver we were bumped off our flight and rescheduled a 2 day detour in Vegas. Which turned out well for us since we had a place to stay and a pool to swim in since it was 106 degrees out. Finally on our way to Milwaukee with a severely hungover person (thanks Roberto!), one kid with a fever from getting 4 molars in at once, Lily had this to say:

"Shut the front door! Are we finally going to Milwaukee?"

This was yelled as loud as can be standing in line to board our flight. It made for a definitely much needed laugh.

With a quick sleep in Milwaukee we were on our way to the Island. Our first night we left our kids with a teenager I had never met before and at this point I could have cared less, and headed out for a night to a friends wedding reception. A much NEEDED night out!

Unless you have been to the Island, you won't understand it. I love this place. I love that I can walk on the beach and ALWAYS find someone I know and can sit by. Who I can say "can you watch my kid while I take the other kid to the bathroom." and know they are perfectly ok. I love that my kids love it. I love that I can take my kids in a bar :) I love that at the end of the trip Lily was giving random people hugs just cause they said hi to her. I love that Lily was telling everyone that we were going to move there. I loved the free swimming lessons and that Lily will now go under water and swim to the raft. I love hanging out with my sister 24/7 for 3 straight weeks. I love that my brother surprised us and showed up for a quick 2 days. I love that my nephew is obsessed with Star Wars. I love that the stewardess actually suggested I pinch Brock so nobody would sit by me. I love the smile on my kids' faces when they saw their Daddy. I could go on forever...

We had a run in with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. I could have gone without that.

Enjoy a glimpse into our Island Summer 2012



Am I Mom Enough?

Am I mom enough? You bet your ass I am. No thanks to TIME magazine. I know this is old news but it is still bugging me. I might not still be breastfeeding Lily or wearing Brock in a sling 18 hours a day or have a family bed, but I do love my kids. I love them more than anything in this world. So when I see a stupid magazine trying to sell issues with a insulting title question of "Am I Mom Enough," I take offense. I am talking only about TIME's cover, not the article itself. I have nothing against "Attachment Parenting" if that is your choice, good for you. But don't disrespect anyone else's parenting style. As a mom we have to deal with enough quilt and worry about if we are doing right by our kids. I don't need to see judgement in the supermarket isle, or on msn.com or on the today show. Good for you TIME for selling a few more issues and getting a buzz going. Shame on you for adding more stress to mom's across America.

With that being said, this week has been crazy! Lily's last week of preschool ends tonight with her moving on ceremony. I have been totally consumed with making cookies and cake pops this week that my house is a complete DISASTER! Oh and Shane's parents come on Saturday. So no rest for the weary. Friday, I might have to strap the kids to their beds Mommy Dearest style so I can get the house clean.

 Lily's last day of preschool's teddy bear picnic

 Brock enjoying the park.

 My all consuming cookie project

So I might not have been standing at the counter with boob exposed feeding my kids, but I still stayed up way past my bedtime every night decorating 50 cookies (two of which Brock managed to steal off the table). That is what I call attachment parenting!

In about 2 hours it will be a year since I went into labor with you. In about 5 hours you will be 1 year old...With tears in my eyes I try to accept this fact. Did you know that I was scared out of my mind to have you? When Lily came out and they said "It's a girl!" I sighed with relief. I thought I knew how to deal with a girl (your sister has proved that wrong!). When they told us at the ultrasound you were a boy I cried. Part of that cry was "Wow! We get to have a boy and a girl" the other part of that cry was "oh shit! what am I suppose to do with a boy". But boy oh boy, you have filled my heart. You have made me completely freak your dad out and wonder if we could have another. You have been THE best baby since day one! Your smile lights up our lives. Lily's main goal of the day is to make you laugh. You love your sister, as long as she keeps a respectable distance from you and isn't trying to squeeze the crap out of you. You follow her all day long. You  ALWAYS follow her into the bathroom. This drives me crazy. Yesterday you swirled her toothbrush in the toilet. Regardless she still loves you to pieces. We all love you to pieces. You love to cuddle. You will sit still on my lap for longer than 10 seconds. You grab for my hand to help you down/up stairs instead of swatting it away and wanting to do it yourself. You love to play peekaboo and have the cutest little laugh on the planet. You like to climb off our bed in the morning and go sit next to Ringo on his bed. You LOVE being outside. When you are outside you are constantly carrying around a golf club or a broom. You like the sandbox. You like playing in the dirt. You fit perfectly on my chest. When it is nap/bed time when we sit in the rocker you instantly put your head on my chest. I love feeling your skin on my cheek. I love these moments. I want to freeze time. I want to remember every little perfect moment with you. This has seriously been the fastest year of my life. I want to thank you for being my son. I want to thank you for being you. You completed our family in a way we didn't even know we needed. You made us all love more. We love you Brock Thomas Gaylor. To the moon and back. You are our sunshine.

5 Years/60 Months/260 Weeks/1825 Days

How are you 5? How did this time fly by us so quick?

 Days old...

 1 year....

 2 years....

 3 years...

 4 years....

5 YEARS OLD!!!!

Our baby girl, our first born, our practice baby, our adventurer, our hyper active hypo, our dreamer, our daddy's girl, our mommy needs a drink girl, our drama queen girl

I could go on and on, but right now I am so overwhelmed by the fact that you are 5 and all that goes with that. Do you know that I have to register you for kindergarten next week? Do you know that I actually had no idea that I had to do all that? Do you know that I can remember every minute of being in labor with you? You were stubborn from day one! You didn't want to come out! You have made me a parent. Sometimes I am not the perfect parent, so sorry about your bad luck on that one. Your dad and I are stubborn too. You might win some small battles but I WILL win the war :) You have made me appreciate my own mother so much more. You have made me change my outlook on life and what my priorities are. You have made me question my sanity sometimes. Until I had you I don't think I really envisioned what my life as a grown up was going to be like. Now I know that I was meant to be your mom and I get the pleasure of seeing you grow up. I just didn't realize it was going to go so fast. Your imagination has taken off! Lately you pretend to be a nurse and I get to be a doctor and our living room is full of stuffed animal patients that have a lot of ailments from a hurt bunny ear to a pelican with a broken wing. You try to give Brock the doctor responsibilities but he isn't as gentle as you would like him to be. You dance really funny. And today I heard you singing every single word to Taylor Swift's "Mean". You like to call your brother "Charlie". And for some reason you do puppy sprints from one end of the house to the other. You love to be outside and actually ran outside in the snow with no shoes or socks on because you wanted to feel it on your toes. You love school but never want to talk about it. You love to read books and I really think you are starting to recognize a lot of words on your own. You are so good at math, it amazes me sometimes. I was told that one of the things you had to know for kindergarten was to be able to count to ten and I was so impressed with how much you know beyond that.

You have personality kid! I love that about you. I love that you are a little weird. I love that you boss the babysitters around and make them do whatever you say, but also follow the rules and don't give them trouble when it is time to brush your teeth and go to bed. I love that you prepared me for Brock because I think he is going to make you look like an angel. I love your smile and the way you say "pretty pleeeeaaaase" when you want something sweet. I love that you push a chair around to the counter every time Daddy or I are cooking something. I love watching you with your dad. It makes my heart melt even though I know he is your favorite over me. I think it is funny that you talk to your poop and say goodbye when you flush. I love when you say "silly me" and go do whatever it is you forgot to do.

I could go on and on and on and on.

but seriously, 5 YEARS OLD?

9 Months/5 Years

Took the kids to their 9 month and 5 year check up the other day. Brock was 9 months on Friday 13th! Yikes! That might explain the up every hour last night :)

9 month stats:

21.9 pounder

29 inches

75% for both height and weight

He is pulling himself up on everything. pushing his walker and highchair and dinning room chairs all around the kitchen. He is obsessed with the dishwasher and wanting to be in the bathroom and Lily's room. He hates getting dressed and runs (crawls really fast) away from me once he is nudey. He is a snuggler and loves kisses and tickles. He WILL NOT be ignored! The other night Shane got home from work and had to use the bathroom. Brock had crawled really fast towards him and screamed until Shane was done and able to pick him up. Both kids get really happy when Shane walks in the door. Shane said it is the happiest time of day for him. Brock says "Dada" most of the time and calls us all Dada. He is starting to point and I think he has waved at me a few times. When he is excited he jumps up and down. He is in 12 month clothes. He pretty much just passed right over 9 month clothes. People are always surprised when I tell them he is only 9 months. He has 5 teeth and is working on 6 and 7. I really hope we get a break from teething once these ones come in. He is pretty much doing everything a month or two earlier than Lily. At this time Lily didn't even have any teeth and was still only army crawling.

 My 1st project competed from an idea I saw on Pinterest. It will be going on the picture wall for now. I hate my handwriting but I think it would be wierd if I had someone else write it.

Lily's 5 year check up went really well too. She won't be 5 till February but thought I would get it out of the way since we were going for Brock's 9 month.

Stats:

40 pounder (50th percentile)

43 inches (75th percentile)

Good news is she is tall enough to go on the majority of the rides at Disneyland!!!! and we can now use the regular seat belt with her booster seat. I can't believe she is going to be 5.

She had to get her 5 year shots. Three of them. 2 in one arm and 1 in the other. She was so brave for the 1st two and just said "ouchy". She told the nurse that was enough, but we had one more left. And unfortunately the worst one. She screamed the whole way home that she couldn't stretch her arms out and that she couldn't believe the nurse would do that to her when she wasn't even sick. Maybe she will be an actress when she grows up and can take care of us when we get old.

Taking advantage of some winter sunshine

Oh hi chunky chunkersen!

Some cuteness from today

 pretty much the cutest thing ever!

Alyssa came to visit today. Lily was a pro at holding her!

A Merry Christmas Message

 Skyping with Grandma and Papa

 Cookies!

 Master cookie decorator and mess maker

 These are already all gone by the way

So proud! She wouldn't stop or take a break until they were all done!

I want to start off by saying that Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. Growing up my mom and dad always made it a big deal too. I remember making cookies with mom. We always made a ton and I still make the same ones that were always my favorite. My dad always made a big deal about the tree. I will never forget the year he decided that the tree needed a color theme and wanted a tree that was blue and silver/white, with ONE strand of tinsel on each branch! Katy and I joked that it was a department store looking tree,but it was beautiful. After that it was always something like that-red/white, blue, red/green. To this day my tree is pretty much always red/silver/white. I do love a blue themed tree, but my collection of ornaments hasn't grown to that level yet. I love that this year Lily has really fell in love with the holiday. She loves the tree and everyday rearranges the ornaments. The advent calenders are a hit and the elf Kyle has yet to disappoint.  And of course she loves the cookies and the rest of the treats.

With all that being said the last couple of years have been hard for me. I miss my family so much. I miss the huge Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Jill's and Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's house and seeing how many people we can fit into that small little house. And I miss playing games with everyone after dinner. And I miss meeting up with friends that are also home that can make me laugh so hard it hurts.

You might be asking yourself if you miss it so much why do you live 2000 miles away? I too ask myself that same question and believe me we are trying our damnedest to get back in the Wisco area. If I could go back in time I would tell my 25/26 year old self to think about what it is going to be like when you have a family. I don't regret moving here. Shane and I were on our life adventure together. We fell in love here, got engaged here and made our beautiful family here. Our intention was to always move "eventually". We didn't anticipate a housing crisis/disaster. We didn't anticipate how much we would need our families. We didn't anticipate needing our friends companionship so much. We had each other and that was enough. 98% of the time it is enough. I have a house full of blessings. But I find myself feeling lonely sometimes for all the people who love me and mine so much. So the message here is don't take your family for granted. If you have them close scream with joy from the rooftops!

Disclaimer: This post might be stemming from lack of sleep and the tantrum I threw at 3:30 am last night (foot stomping, snot filled sobbing kind of tantrum) because a certain little 8 month old wouldn't go back to sleep and didn't want to be held, fed or rocked. And another certain 34 year old husband just stayed sleeping

8 months!

It was not easy getting a picture this month. I think I took about 70. Thank god for digital cameras!

8 MONTHS!

So happy!

 Pucker up

 Yeah, I'm 8 months

He is on the move! Crawling, pulling himself up on anything and everything. He stands up next to his walker and walks it around the kitchen. He is the proudest, happiest baby when he stands up. He is saying Mama and Dada. In the middle of the night I hear "Maaaammmaaaa" coming from his room. I go in and the sweetest little monkey is reaching out of his crib for me. When I pick him up his head instantly rests on my shoulder. We snuggle for a few minutes in the rocking chair and then he is ready to go back into his crib back to sleep. As much as I love my sleep, I do love these moments with my babe.

As you can see he is a good eater. He still loves squash and bananas and is starting to eat little bits of pasta and pancakes. He is really interested in what we eat and wants to try it all.

His hair has turned completely white, his eyes are still blue and his ears stick out a bit. He is starting to get a third tooth. Everything goes in his mouth. We have trained Lily to keep her small toys in her room and make sure to pick them up when Brock comes in her room to visit. He still loves being out and about. He barely makes a peep when we are out shopping or eating. People are always commenting on what a good baby he seems to be. It is true, he is a good baby, but sometimes he doesn't like the car rides or being cooped up in the house all day. He likes to look at new things and see what is going on in the world. He still loves to watch his sister do anything. sometimes he uses her hair to pull himself up, but she doesn't seem to mind too much. She adores him. He is the first person she asks for when she wakes up in the morning.

Diaper changes have turned into a WWF wrestling match.

Nicknames: Lily and I call him "Boobers" Lily's also calls him "Luigi" and Shane calls him "Bubba" or "Buds"

Two kids, holy cow, they are exhausting! I think we were in bed at 8:30 last night.

As much as I love my two little wonderful monkeys. I am thankful for the babysitter tonight and Shane's Christmas party!

Christmas happenings

Christmas has arrived at the Gaylor house!

 We got this beauty of a tree. Lily was very excited to decorate it and told us how each ornament was very special.

 We went to Bellevue botanical gardens for Garden D'Light and Lily was in heaven. Brock was just happy he had on about four layers.

 Lily was amazed that they used all her favorite colors in the lights and that there were butterflies, dragonflies, turtles, spiders, alligators made out of lights. All her favorite animals of course. How did they know?

 She stopped to smell all the "flowers"

 checking to make sure my babe was nice and toasty

 "I just love this!"

 kisses

A Pucker up and a poke in the eye. Now that's Christmas!

 This is our elf Kyle. Grandma Lois sent him to stay with us this month

The Grandmas gave us these advent calenders. 1st thing Lily does each morning!

Ghosts of Halloween

Ghosts of Halloweens Past.....

Present.....

and hopefully not our future!



6 Months and Other Happenings

6 Month Stats:

19 pounds 14 ounces

27 1/2 inches

90th percentile in both height and weight!

He is our happy boy as you can see. It doesn't take a lot to get a smile out of him. I can get him giggling pretty good too, but by the time I get the camera ready to take a video he is over it. He is sitting up on his own. He hauls ass in his walker. He is trying to crawl. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. He gets himself around doing an army crawl just like his big sis used to. He is rolling from front to back and back to front. He likes to watch Ringo eat. He likes to take Lily's artwork off the fridge and eat it. He likes to watch the washing machine agitate. He likes watching his sister play and always has one eye on whatever Daddy is doing, but I am still his fav :). He loves the hot tub and being outside. He loves to swing and take walks in his stroller. He loves to sit in circle time when we go pick Lily up at preschool. He has started eating more foods. Sweet potatoes are his favorite. He also like to suck on peach chunks in his mesh feeder.

As fun as this age is - Holy Cow! This month has kicked our butts! But today, on his 6 month bday, the little bugger pushed his 1st tooth through! I really hope this means he will start sleeping a little better - day and night. Getting him to sleep hasn't been the issue, he rarely even whimpers when I lay him down awake and leave the room. The problem is staying asleep. I have tried everything, and I mean everything. It is really difficult to hum, "Go the f*%$ to sleep" at 2, 3,and 4 in the morning. Whatever advice you throw at me I am sure I have tried some version of it. Hopefully now that this first tooth is here we will see some changes. cross your fingers for me! What is frustrating me the most is the 20-30 min naps. I am hoping that once we get the nighttime down the nap situation will regulate itself out. For now I will just keep trying. But when he sees me come into his room he smiles and all I can do is shake my head.

Sister and brother



Watching Ringo eat!

Pumpkin patch and corn maze with Branyan

 "Trust me daddy it is this way!"

couldn't resist!