Santa baby.

I totally forgot I bought this outfit for Carson's pro pics back in 2007. If you remember this post, he really didn't like it at all! Tyler actually didn't mind it though.

Here's my little cutie santa baby....

Merry Christmas Eve.

I am sure tomorrow will be super busy since we have Cara and the family coming over and Dan's mom too. My parents aren't making the trip east this year and we will surely miss them. Dan's dad and his wife Nancy came over tonight which has been our Christmas Eve tradition for a few years now. Last Christmas Eve was when I told them we were pregnant with Tyler, boy does time fly.

The boys are both in bed and before Carson went up for his bath, he left a plate for Santa. He told me he had to leave a "really big plate with 3 cookies and a juice box too." He also left the reindeer food which was a gift to him from one of his teachers. Here is the plate he set up:

Oh and Santa has already eaten 2 of the cookies!

Carson is also so afraid of Santa that he refused any opportunity he had to go see him and sit on his lap. I didn't push it because I figured we have many more years to do so and why traumatize him now. He's even afraid of any santa looking ornament and our tree topper! Then tonight at bedtime he was so upset and crying because he didn't want santa to come into our house. Finally I convinced him that I would call santa and have him leave the gifts at the door. I mean, I kind of don't blame him. He's only 2 1/2 and the thought of a man in a red suit breaking in to leave gifts is kind of scary!

I have to run and help santa put the gifts under the tree now. I will be back, I have some pics to share of Tyler from today too.

Carson's Christmas Show 2009.

Remember this? Well last week was Carson's Christmas pageant and my gosh has he grown up. He totally rocked it. Check him here!


p.s. I've been having issues downloading the video which is why I had to link it above, sorry but it's worth a look!

Gingerbread House.

I thought it would be fun to do a few projects last weekend when we were snowed in so I bought a Gingerbread house kit and a Christmas tree paint your own cookie kit.

My sister has always done the gingerbread house kits with my nephews and made it look so fun and easy - yeah not so much. I somehow didn't get the crafty/artistic gene because this project was SO challenging and I even bought the house pre-made!

Carson sat oh so patiently while I attempted to put the icing on the thing but I gave up after the roof, windows and doors (only on the front and back). The side of the house has no icing at all. But honestly he did not mind at all. He thought it was just perfect and I love him for it!

Admiring his work. He called the peppermint candies "wheels" since we have an ornament that is Santa in a car with wheels that look just like those candies. He cracks me up!


The finished product. As you can see I skimped on the icing.


Oh and I won't even dare post pics of our cookie debacle.....

Sledding with daddy.

Snow.

We had a ton of snow fall this past weekend and Carson had a blast. There was well over 2 feet by the time it was done in addition to the wind that caused some pretty large drifts. To say that Carson enjoyed it is an understatement! He begged to go out in it and didn't want to come in. Thankfully we were prepared since we had just gotten him a sled as one of his Christmas presents.

The day after. Carson uses his sand shovel to help daddy shovel the snow!

I took Baby T out to check it out. He was not very happy with me or his big bro who threw a shovel of snow in his face.

Tyler - 5 months

The day got away from me yesterday so better late than never to say that Tyler is now a 5 month old!

He is just so much different than Carson was at this age and I am wondering if it's because he has a big brother to watch and there is always so much going on around him or maybe because he is in daycare and stimulated by all the people and noises while Carson was alone with a nanny all day. Who knows but Carson was so "chill" while Tyler is just CRAZY!

A little about Tyler at 5 months:

- He loves to grab everything in sight and whatever toy Carson is playing with he wants to hold it.

- He loves blankets and covering his face with them so we got him a lovey which he now cuddles with nightly.

- He loves to pull up and sit up and is no longer content in the bouncer or bumbo. And if he is sitting on our laps he is constantly moving and kicking. This kid does not sit still.

- He can self soothe and put himself to sleep but he is still waking up a few times a night. Ugh!

- He loves bathtime and kicking water all over the place.

- He loves to watch us eat and gets mad when he doesn't get a tostito too.

- He is still spitting up a ton and still on his reflux meds at an even higher dosage. There is never any warning and one of us is always covered in it.

- He had his first ear infection last week.

- He is rolling back to belly and belly to back although for some reason he only does it for us and not at daycare!

- He can sit in a tripod but gets frustrated quickly because he just has to grab whatever is in sight.

So all in all, he's a very sweet and cuddly little guy who is definitely keeping us on our toes and up at night, lol!

A very unhappy Christmas tree.

Dan (aka Mr. Christmas) decided he wanted a real tree this year and not only that, he has gone all out with the decorating. It's actually kind of fun seeing him get all excited for the holidays now that we have kids. Carson is just all about it so it makes Dan want to do more more more I guess.

Anyway, back to my story. So last weekend Dan went and got the tree on Friday since they called for rain and snow on Saturday and we knew it would be too wet the rest of the weekend to get one. Great. So we spent the better part of Saturday getting it all arranged in the house, putting the lights on, then the ornaments and then finally just enjoying the fruits of our labor. Carson just loved every single minute of it. He had to touch every ornament, ask all sorts of questions, etc.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon, the tree FALLS DOWN. Oh my gosh. I cried. Dan wasn't home, Carson was napping and Tyler and I were just sitting there playing when it came crashing down. And of course it fell on the wood floor so I heard ornaments breaking.

(unhappy tree)


Carson woke up shortly thereafter and came downstairs and immediately got upset because I was so upset. He said "mommy that is not a happy tree" and he was so right. I was so ready to throw the thing outside and put up my fake pre-lit tree that I've been happy w/ for many years but in my heart I knew we had to fix it. We had to do it for Carson. So we removed all the ornaments that survived and along with the help of our amazing next door neighbor, Dan cut down the stump and got the tree secured and ready for round two of decorating. Dan even glued the broken ornaments back together too.

Happy Tree!

And now he does the tripod pose.

Baby Tyler is on a milestone roll this week. From rolling to giggling and now he tripods like a pro. Check him out!

He's a roller.

Tyler's been rocking back and forth for a few weeks now and rolling from belly to back which I read is what a lot of babies do as early as 3 mos but on Thanksgiving he officially became a back to belly roller! He was perfecting his moves all weekend and now can get on to his belly, remove his stuck arm, hang out, and then go roll back to his back.

When he first started doing it, he was rolling at every nap and waking himself up but night sleep hasn't been affected yet and I am hoping it's not so bad and he can figure out how to get back over and not need me.

I looked back to see when Carson started rolling because I wasn't sure if he was early or right on track and he's definitely earlier than Carson. Carson started rolling at 5 mos 1 week and Tyler is 4 mos 2 weeks. Maybe when they get older they can use this milestone when they try to "one-up" each other!! I can just see it now "well I am smarter because I rolled before you did so there!" LOL!!

Here's a video of him from the weekend showing off his new skills!

Thanksgiving 2009.

I asked Carson what he was thankful for today and he told me "race cars, tractors, mommy, daddy, and baby tyler." Yes in that order too! Gotta love the mind of a 2 year old.

We had a very low key Thanksgiving today with just the four of us. Dan and I had been going out to eat every year but Tyler's age is a bit hard to do that right now so we decided to stay home all day. It ended up being a VERY long day since Tyler only cat naps and Carson was just ON all day long but we are so very thankful for our crazy life right now because we know time flies!

I do have some good news from today though. Tyler has been rolling back to belly all day. At first I loved it but then he started to wake up in his sleep at every nap today from doing it and getting stuck on his arm. So I have a love/hate relationship with milestones I guess.

I also wanted to share Carson's Thanksgiving art project from school. He actually had 3 but this one was too cute to not share. We had a hand turkey from his hand print and inside what he told his teachers he was thankful for:

Tyler - 4 months

Tyler turned 4 months old on Saturday but we just had his 4 month well visit today so I wanted to update with his growth stats.

Height - 24 1/2 inches
Weight - 14 lbs 6 oz

The doctor said he is thriving and is a very strong little guy with great muscle tone too. He was impressed with the fine and gross motor skills he is exhibiting so far and put bets on the fact that he will be early in some of the gross motor skills like sitting up and crawling. We shall see! He got 2 shots and a third one orally and barely cried.

Here is a little more about Tyler at 4 months old:

- He is moving all over the place. He is often found in his crib in a different direction and he likes to spin and kick his music on and off.
- He loves to sit up in the bumbo, on our lap or the exersaucer and see the world in a new way.
- He smiles all day long. It literally melts my heart.
- He talks a lot and is starting to giggle in his own way too.
- He lunges at toys from the bumbo and likes to always be holding something.
- He rocks from side to side.
- He can roll belly to back and has done it a number of times.
- He loves to watch Carson play and Carson loves to entertain him.
- He doesn't sleep that great. He was waking up only once to eat but now sometimes he wakes up to 3 times per night. Ugh.
- He gets so excited when you walk into his room to get him and starts to kick his legs and smile so big at us.

I can go on and on but I will stop now. He is just such a love. It's amazing that a year ago this week, I found out I was pregnant with him and now he is here and filling our lives with so much love.

Conspiracy.

I think my kids have a conspiracy against me. They sleep great on the weekends and then when I have to go to work, they decide to wake up at crazy hours.

This morning for some reason Carson woke up before 5 am. I had already been up at 11, 1, and 3 with Tyler and was back to sleep and hoping no one needed me before my alarm went off at 5:30 but at 4:54 I hear "mommmmmyyyyyy" come across the monitor and in my sleepy daze I imagined it was Tyler but then quickly realized he can't speak yet. So I go up and get him and he said "I just want to be holded mommy" and of course I don't deny any cuddling time these days since they are so few and far between. I embraced it even at 5 am.

Yawwwwn!!

Fast forward to as I'm leaving for work and I was saying my goodbyes. Carson didn't want me to leave and I told him that mommy has to work and his response was "why?" as always so I said "because I have to make money" and he said "so you can buy more toys?" and that put a huge smile on my face. I just love how the mind of a 2 year old is so focused on toys so I said "why of course, yes that is exactly why I work honey!" and all was good.

My sleeping babies.

They just look so sweet and peaceful when they are sleeping and I love to peek in on them and just relish in the moment since they are growing so fast. Plus, I know I will never get this time back when they are both contained in cribs!

This was last night before I went to bed at 9 pm. Yes I go to bed very early but I also wake up super early and am at work by 7. Oh and last night was nice. Tyler has been killing this mama with multiple wakings since he's been so congested. Last night however, he went back to normal and only woke up once in 12 hours!

Wordless Wednesday.

So....what do you think?

Do you like these colors better? I was sick of the blue and green and really didn't like it with the orange.

Worst picture taker ever award goes to....

My darling husband. He claims that he 'tries' to take good pics but either he just really sucks or he just doesn't care! I have maybe 5 pics of me with one of the boys in total from the past 2 1/2 years and the reason is because most of them end up needing to be deleted because they are out of focus, too dark, bad angles, you name it.

And the reason I am posting this is because I was downloading pics and came across these....

And you are probably wondering what I am. WTH are they supposed to be?! Knowing my husband like I do my best guess is that he was trying to take a pic of him and Carson and thought the mirror would be a great idea for self portraits!

I really do try to give him the benefit of the doubt but it doesn't matter what the light is like or the event, the pics are just horrible. I asked him to take one of Tyler while he was in my arms at the pumpkin farm and this was the end result. Grainy and out of focus!!

I am not saying I am that great or anything but at least I try!! Honey, I love you to death but you really need to work on your skills!!

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to post some pics of the kids and a few of Carson from his previous Halloweens.

Tyler didn't have a costume because I couldn't find one I liked in his size and I figured he wouldn't know the difference anyway. But today I really wanted to get a cute pic of him so I put the hat from Carson's first Halloween costume on his head and hit fit. The rest of it was way too big since Carson was 6 months old when he wore it.

So here is the cute little pumpkin!

He could care less what I put on him and how many times I take his picture but what I discovered is that you get to dress them in cute costumes that YOU like for the first two years and then they get an attitude and an opinion and actually want to pick out their own costume and you have to just relax and go with it even though you don't like it!! Oh and they also start to hate getting their picture taken too. (((rolling eyes))))

Carson was Diego because at the current time he LOVES Diego. And here is he is telling me that he doesn't want me to take his picture and to stop. And the costume was so thin and cheap that he had to wear it over his clothes as you can see here.

He even had a rescue pack like Diego too and Dan had to fill it up with his favorite cars and random things from around the house. The imagination of a 2 year old is just so much fun!

And here is my sweet innocent Carson at 6 months old on his first Halloween...

And as a monkey on his 2nd Halloween.....

Oh and what am I going to do with all this leftover candy?!! We live in a neighborhood full of kids and got like 10 trick-or-treaters total. Ugh.

Wordless Wednesday.

Long story about our long week.

I am sick and typing this all out because I am feeling sorry for myself and can use some happy thoughts please!

I have a terrible cold and a cough, I can't stop sneezing, my nose is running like a faucet, and up until last night I was achy for 2 days and my throat was on fire. I don't think there really is anything worse than being sick when you have 2 kids to take care and work full time.

Let me rewind a little bit to give you the full story. Last Monday, Carson went to bed just fine but woke up at around 2 am (I guess that would be Tues morning!) crying. This is so out of character for him and he felt a tad warm so I gave him some motrin and he came into bed with me. He has never slept in our bed before but since Dan had fallen asleep on the couch and I was very tired having just finished feeding Tyler, I thought one night won't hurt anything. I went to work as normal and got a call around noon that he was running a fever and I needed to pick him up. I got there about an hour later and he was burning up. I gave him more motrin and lots of cuddles the rest of the day. Then at bedtime, he sounded terrible. His breathing was definitely off and it was making me nervous so I let him sleep in my bed. I always tell him that when he is sick we have to see the doctor and that he has to speak up and tell me so we can fix it.

So around 9 pm, he is crying for me from my room and I go in there and through his tears he tells me he can't breathe and wants to go to the doctor. He had a pretty high fever and I was definitely scared since he was gasping a bit to speak and you can hear how his breathing was very labored. I quickly got ready and took him to the ER while Dan stayed home with Tyler. As soon as we got there and they heard him breathing/gasping (it was very loud even from a distance) they took us right back to pediatrics and got us into a room. Within minutes he was given a steroid shot and a breathing treatment. Turns out he had stridor which is basically like croup where his upper airways were inflammed from a virus he had caught. We were there until about 3 am because they wanted to monitor his oxygen levels and make sure he was breathing ok.

He ended up sleeping in on Wednesday because he was up all night and when he finally woke up he came busting out of my room to show off his hospital bracelet and stickers. He continued to have a terrible cough but his fever went away. Then on Thursday he was acting fine and still no fever so he went to school. Thankfully I was working from home because they called me again after naptime to tell me his fever is back and is pretty high. So I go get him again and we repeat the motrin and cuddles. etc etc. He's not allowed back into school at this point since the fever has to be gone for more than 24 hours so he stayed home on Friday and Dan took him to the pediatrician. Turns out he has croup and it's lingering which is why the fever is coming and going. Also, the ER doc should have given him a prescription for a 3-day oral steroid but didn't. So we get that filled and going and cross our fingers he is better for school on Monday.

This is when I start to feel like I am coming down with something too. He has been sleeping w/ me every night so it was inevitable that I was going to catch something. So we go about our weekend and didn't really do too much at all. Carson slowly got better as I got worse and still has a yucky cough but thankfully no more fever. Much to his disappointment, he had to sleep in his own bed last night too. He begged and pleaded to sleep with me but in the end we won and all was good. Now I know what it's like when my friends tell me they can't get their kids to sleep in their own beds. It's much more comfy with mommy!! And secretly I sort of enjoyed it too. I loved his snuggles and the middle of the night hugs but I didn't like the kicks that woke me out of a deep sleep or finding his stinky lovey on top of my head.

So now I just need to feel better and make sure that Tyler doesn't get sick too. I love my husband to death but if he felt as yucky as I have been feeling, he would have spent the weekend in bed but noooooooooo, I had to be supermom too. Maybe he will read this and realize that he should have let me stay in bed all day yesterday!!

This is getting long and if I continue I will start to sound really whiney which is totally unlike me since I am normally very happy and grateful for my family and the life I've been given.

I will come back in a few days hopefully feeling better.

He will hate me for posting this some day.

But I have to! I keep telling my mom that he does this with food and so I finally took a video. Tantrums are few and far between in our house thank goodness but when it comes to eating, Carson is a nightmare. This is an example of him wanting snacks and not dinner. Oh the drama!

Feel sorry for us?!

Mommy brain or what?

Not sure if it's the fact that I am now a mom of 2 or just that I am exhausted but I totally forgot to post the news that my maternity leave ended and I am back at work now. I confess that I was practically running out the door on October 5th which was so different from July of 2007 when I went back to work after having Carson and I cried for days that I had to leave him. Gosh, typing that out made me feel so guilty.

I do love my boys to death BUT I also love my paycheck and using my brain in such a different way then making bottles, getting tyler to nap, washing clothes, cleaning the house, playing with trains, begging carson to eat, and all that other stuff I was doing all.day.long!!! I give stay-at-home moms SOOOOO much credit because it is so hard and probably the hardest job in the world. Quite frankly, it's just easier to work. There I said it!

So I am back at work and it's all good. Tyler goes to the same school as Carson and the infant care is top-notch. We LOVE the teachers and feel 100% secure with the care he is receiving. Plus, Carson gets to visit him when he wants and I love hearing him tell me that at the end of the day.

Three months old.

Baby Tyler is getting so big. He is such a little love and his little personality is starting to shine through already.

You can see in this pic that all of his hair is officially gone. Now we wait and see what color it will come in as and I secretly hope it's dark like me!

Happy 3 months baby boy. We love you!

Last night was a good night.

Tyler only woke up once to eat at 2:30. Woot!! The night before he was up about 5x between 4:30 and the time I left for work at 6 which means I was up from 4:30 on. Thank you Tyler for letting mommy sleep last night. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!

It's not too late for a summer recap is it?!

Yeah yeah yeah it's already the first week of October BUT I have a great excuse to be a slacker since I was on maternity leave and my hands were full (literally) all the time with no time to download pics.

So, I would like to recap our summer of 2009 if you don't mind....we stayed home and didn't go anywhere really but we still had a nice summer.

-Carson got a new tricycle and a helmet too. He got to take his bike to school on Fridays in the summer for "bike day" and ride around the parking lot with his friends.

- Carson and daddy enjoyed MANY trips to Home Depot.

- We hit a local fair on the 4th of July and Carson won his first goldfish.

-Daddy and Carson also enjoyed swimming in the pool while I watched with my big pregnant belly since I wouldn't dare put on a bathing suit!

-Carson washed cars, rode his bike, cleaned the garage, and played lots of t-ball.

- We decorated and got ready for baby Tyler's arrival

- The papi fairy came and took away the papi!!! She left behind lots of new presents too.

-We played with a spray bottle day and and day out and also had to deal with a tantrum when it was empty!

- We welcomed baby tyler into our family

And watched Carson fall in love with his baby brother

-And last but not least I fjnally got a double stroller that met my needs and did a ton of walking and got this baby weight off!! Only a few more lbs to go.

Oh and I realized I had tyler in july and I didn't include any updated pics of him but I am getting there, I promise!!

Our BIG baby!

Just had to share a few pics I snapped of Carson "acting" like Tyler. He loves to do whatever it is we are doing with Tyler and I just laugh it off since he's so darn cute!

Here's Carson doing "tummy time" and let me tell you it's so easy with him since Tyler likes to fuss after a minute. :)

And here he is enjoying the swing which again Tyler hates right now! At least someone likes it.

Tyler - 2 months stats!

Just a quick update from Tyler's 2 month pediatrician appointment today.

Height - 22 1/2 inches
Weight - 12 lbs 1 oz
Head - 41 cm (no idea why they give it in cm??)

He got 4 shots total and took them like a champ and only cried for a few minutes. We discussed a number of things today including a flat spot that Tyler has developed on his right side. I just noticed it on Monday and I am sure it was caused from all the holding I had been doing during his "awful" phase in addition to him sleeping in the bouncer all those weeks too. Our doc always has a way of making me feel better though. He thought Tyler's flat spot was nothing bad at all whereas I see it as pretty bad and thought a helmet might be in our future. I guess he's seen it all. I've been rolling up a blanket and propping it under him so he leans toward the other side when sleeping and trying to do as much up and tummy time as I can. He said this is so common between 1-4 mos since they do spend so much time on their backs and their heads just like to favor one side.

We also discussed his horrible sleeping and he said it's a phase I unfortunately have to go through and there isn't anything I can do but keep trying over and over and over to get him to sleep like I have been doing. He has to get used to sleeping on his back and in the crib and I just need to keep at it so at least I am doing something right. I haven't given up. He said I can count down the days to 4 months where he says it's ok then to sleep train. Maybe Tyler will surprise me and start to sleep better by then.

And finally we discussed the reflux, formula, etc and I've been instructed to stop the meds today and see how he does for a week. There's a long story as to why they want me to do this but basically it's to see how his body reacts to just being on soy. We haven't had any episodes of the arching and the gasping has only happened a few times with one being yesterday. So that's where we are. I have to call them back next week with an update or if he gets bad for some reason I have to call immediately.

Tyler is 2 months old today!

Happy 2 months baby Tyler!!

I cannot believe how fast the time goes and I say it ALL the time. We don't have his 2 month appointment until Thursday so I will have to update then with his stats but for now I wanted to let you all know that the soy formula is a life changer for us. He is now like a new baby and no longer crying and fussing 10+ hours a day. I cannot believe I didn't use my mommy instincts sooner to know that it might be the formula causing him so much discomfort and could kick myself for it. We lived in hell for 4 weeks and I cannot imagine how his little body felt too, poor guy. He is still on the reflux meds and I plan to talk to his doctor on thursday on a plan of action because I am not sure if he still needs them or not. I do believe he has reflux and still see the signs and symptoms but not sure if he is on the right medication or not since they never seemed to help when he was on the regular formula.

Anyway, here is the little cutie this morning doing some tummy time....

Future all-star.

Carson loves sports just like his daddy so we have all sorts of age appropriate sports toys for he and Dan to play with which they do on a daily basis! He has really gotten good at t-ball and can now hit the ball pretty hard and far. When he first started he wasn't even holding the bat correctly but in a few short weeks, he was a pro.

Check him out...

Tyler update.

Just a quick update to let you know the men in white coats haven't come to pick me up.....yet! We have had a rough few weeks with Tyler and I haven't been able to even get on the phone to update anyone. To give you the short version of the story, Gammy (my mom) came to visit about 3 weeks ago and it was that week that we noticed something was not right with Tyler. He was super gassy and irritable and just overall uncomfortable. Things got worse and more like he was in pain. His sleep became bad, he would pull off of his bottle and cry, arch his back, kick his legs, etc. This was happening 24/7.

Fast forward to last week when we had him seen by a GI specialist at our pediatrician's office and they determined by his symptoms that he has "silent reflux." Not fun for a little guy at all. So he's not spitting up the formula but rather swallowing it back down so it's causing him a lot of pain. He is now on meds for a week now and still no sign of them helping. He cries and fusses non-stop and gets so inconsolable at times that it makes me cry and feel so helpless.

We are supposed to keep chugging along until the 17th when he goes for his 2 mo appt and at that time determine a next step but we took matters into our own hands because that is way too long to wait it out. A lot of moms I have spoken to have told me they had similar issues and they switched to Soy formula which seemed to help a ton so that is what we did today. Wish us luck that he does well on it and our baby starts to feel better.

It breaks my heart to see him so upset and unhappy. No baby should be this miserable, right? I will update once we give the formula some time to do its work. Cross your fingers.

Here he is oh so cute....

And one of him with his Gammy...