Bath fun!

A little bath time fun! Tyler enjoys taking a bath with his little sister and while it's typically easier to throw them in there together, it often creates more work for myself as well (like, when little Miss Kinley has an "accident" in the tub), but it's still fun. They're usually both smiling, so that makes me happy. :-)

Tyler's 3 year pedi appt

In addition to Kinley's two month appointment, Tyler had his three year check-up. I think I can safely say that trying to manage two different appointments and having two kids receive shots at the same time is no fun! Whew! Tyler received a clean bill of health as well. He had his first vision screening today and did excellent. It's 20/40, which is typical for kids his age and should hopefully improve to 20/20 (fingers are crossed as Travis and I both have horrible vision!). I was really impressed with how well he did do on the screening. They assess it by getting the kids to name off the objects they see as opposed to naming letters/numbers and after he would say something, he'd follow it with a story: "a star... that goes way way up in the sky..." It was cute. He got every single object right. He weighs 31 pounds (25-50%) and he is 38 3/4 inches long (75-90%). (I have to laugh at how completely opposite the percentiles were for him and Kinley today). They also assessed his body mass index and he's in the 5-10%. He's my tall and lean kiddo... growing like a weed!

Kinley is 2 months old!

Two months old! To recap, we took Kinley to see the pediatrician a few weeks ago because of her constant grunting and fussiness and we tried her on an acid reflux medication to see if she could be experiencing some pain due to that. We only tried it for a week or so before taking her off of it because not only was it a struggle to get Kinley to take the medication twice a day, but I didn’t notice any improvement. I did some more research on babies with gas and their signs and symptoms and Kinley fit the description pretty well, so I think that’s been the problem. I still give her gas drops when needed, burp her often, massage her tummy when she’s grunting and give her warm baths to help soothe her and it all seems to help. The good news is that babies usually outgrow this around 2-4 months old so hopefully, she's on the downside of it and it will only get better from here!

She had her two month pedi appointment today and received a clean bill of health. Justin called Kinley a Cabbage Patch the other day and I have to laugh! She DOES look like a Cabbage Patch baby and her weight/length from the appointment today confirm that I do have a short and chubby little Cabbage Patch. :-) She weighs 12lbs. 6oz. (75-90%); is 21 1/4 inches long (10-25%); and her head circumference is 15 1/4 inches (25-50%). For comparison purposes, at Tyler's two month pediatrician appointment, he was 13lbs. 3oz (75%); 23 3/4 inches long (75%); and his head circumference was 15 1/2 inches (25%).

She is really starting to notice objects and recognizes us, especially Tyler. She already seems to really love him! When she’s crying and generally upset, I have Tyler go talk to her because that will usually calm her down a little (and it gives me a slight break!). Haha. She smiles a lot when we talk to her now and it’s super cute! She still prefers being held, BUT she is finally spending time in the swing. One of the very few things we bought for her was a nice swing that was supposed to mimic mom’s motions and she hated it. We got Tyler’s old swing out of the attic and she took a quick nap the first time I put her in it so the new swing went back! The old swing is working out great for my arm breaks and she takes a long nap in it while Tyler is napping so that I can actually work (don’t ask me how I’ve been so lucky to have them both sleeping at the same time, but I have!). (Pam- I bet you didn’t realize how much use we would get out of the swing you guys bought us or how helpful it would be now?!?).

Kinley is sleeping better at night, waking three times during the night and usually with at least one 3-4 hour initial stretch. In general, I think things are getting a little easier with managing both kiddos and we are settling into a very small routine. And now we'll see what the next month brings us.

Enjoy a few pics of my sweet girl~


(Okay, teasing... there is a little resemblance though)



Somebody is showing off their guns~






and photo session is over....

Kinley's 'George'

I wasn't blogging when Tyler was just a little guy, but he had this stuffed monkey that we named George. Tyler would absolutely light up when he saw it and we eventually had to start taking it with us when we went somewhere. He loved his little George until he got his first lovey and then he quickly became a lovey kind of boy. :-) I think Kinley has her a little George. A giraffe that Andrea gave us the day she was born. I put it on her changing table weeks ago to give her something to look at while I was changing her and now she lights up when ever she sees it and will just start smiling sometimes like it's going out of style.

Here's Tyler and George~




And here's Kinley's 'George.' I guess we need to come up with a name. :-)

3 going on 16

Tyler is LOVING his new truck and enjoys cruising the streets.

First smiles

... at least caught on camera. Travis told me not too long ago that he didn't like the baby stage and prefers toddlers. He said babies don't give you anything. I couldn't disagree with that comment more. Seeing this sweet grin is a HUGE reward for all the hard work, frustration and sleepless nights. I'm glad we're starting to see it more. :-)

Third Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to our Little Dude! We wanted to have big shin-dig for Tyler since this was the first birthday party that he was really excited about because he understood what was going on and because there has been such a fuss over Kinley lately. Mission accomplished! Tyler had his train-themed birthday party, complete with train rides, and spent the afternoon with all of his grandparents and having fun with his close buddies. There was so much going on~ a yummy lunch, snacks, treats, cake, jumpy house, bubbles, train rides, pinata, presents... and I'm the only person in the world that can take 300 pictures and not feel satisfied with what I got! haha. I did get enough to make a wonderful memory for Tyler and I'm just so glad that he had such a fun day! Thank you to everyone that came and made this such a special day for him.

Tyler's birthday started out with him waking up to his floor and bed covered in balloons. He was very excited about this and we plan to make this a new tradition!






And then it was time to get ready for the party. Here's my little conductor~




Party time~


(The kids' snack table)






The show-stealing train. All the kids loved this, especially Tyler!






















Blowing the horn~


























Tyler had been talking about his cake for days and was so excited to have everyone sing happy birthday to him. He even sang along! :-)






Tyler and his best buddies. This is as good as it gets when trying to get a picture of 16 toddlers. Clearly, I was just making sure Tyler was looking and smiling. haha. ;-)


Kinley and her new buddies, Kash and Reid.


Some of the party-goers






















I have more pictures than I know what to do with of the kids being cute and tearing apart the pinata. Way too many to post. Here's what it looked like. :-)






I felt bad that Tyler didn't open gifts while our guests were here, but the party was already so long with having the train and it became naptime for most of the kiddos. He really made out with some great new stuff! A new bike, scooter, living room chair, Thomas stuff, cars, legos, clothes, books, bubbles and so much more! He's one lucky little boy! Here's some of the fun we had once Tyler woke up from his nap.


























And the BIG present for a BIG three year old! A new truck! Here's Daddy and Tyler both showing off their new rides~