Pictures from last week

Dylan mashing the bananas for banana bread.

Mixing the ingredients!

Sophia at 5 months. Every month we take a picture of her next to her bear to see how much she's grown.

Dylan driving the boat with dad

Having fun at the lake!

The end of an amazing visit

So Josh came home for a few days to visit. These last 4 days flew by of course and now he's on his way back to training. We had so much fun going to dinner, the lake, a resort, and taking the kids to a bbq/park play date. I'm sad that it had to end, but I know that compared to his last deployment we are the strongest that we have ever been.We have prepared as much as we can, and we will get through this separation together.The worst part is having to say goodbye again. Every time he leaves, I try to hold it together and then I end up breaking down. I'm getting better though because this time I didn't break down until after he left. Then I had to pull it together really quick before Dylan saw me. He just had to say goodbye to his dad so the last thing the kid needs is to have his mom acting all hysterical like a crazy person. The rest of the day went by pretty quick, and now I'm focused on trying to get us back into a regular routine. We'll just take it one day at a time. I'm sure that time will go by fast, but the beginning of the countdown is always daunting. I have a ton of pictures to upload from the past few days, so maybe I'll get a chance to post them tomorrow. 

Here is a cute picture I snapped as Josh was talking to Dylan about him having to go fight the bad guys. 

 

Summertime!

Wow, I've already neglected my blog for a week. Hmm...let's see. What has happened in the past week? Sophia started sitting up all by herself last Friday. She is also all over the place at night, so I've decided to start transitioning her to her crib. I'm sure that won't be as easy as it sounds. I couldn't wait for Dylan to sit up, crawl, walk, but I find myself wishing Sophia would stay a baby just a little bit longer. She, however, has other plans. I keep telling her not to rush, stay little! I have a feeling that the words "don't rush" will be said to her many times as she gets older.

So now for some summer fun, I bought the kids a pool for the backyard. (just to clear any confusion, Sophia is in a diaper)

Sophia is 5 months old!

We are 1 month away from Sophia's half-birthday. Time is going by way too fast. I totally meant to take pictures of Sophia today but she was in a onesie all day and I never got a chance to put her into a cute little outfit. I will definitely do it tomorrow. So at 5 months old she is sitting up, rolling, and scooting herself all over the place. It won't be long before she starts to crawl. No teeth yet, but the constant drool and biting makes me think that they will be popping out soon. She's been doing really well taking naps in her crib so tonight I'm letting her sleep in there. Hopefully it lasts longer than an hour or two. I'm sure the flash from the picture (below) didn't help. In honor of Sophia's 5 month birthday, Dylan and I made banana bread and cookies. I took some really cute pictures of him mixing the ingredients, but I'll have to post them another day. Gotta get some sleep because Josh will be home for his 4 day pass in a few hours!!!

Double Trouble goes to the doctor

Dylan and Sophia both had check ups today. Thank goodness the doctor saw both of them at the same time because the last thing I want to do is make 2 trips to the doctor this month. This was Sophia's 4 month appointment (although she's technically almost 5 months), and Dylans 4 year appointment. Let's go ahead and get the stats out of the way:
Dylan-Height 3ft 4in; Weight 31.5lbs
Sophia-Height 24in; Weight 13lbs 11oz

Just as I suspected, Sophia is almost half Dylan's weight. This was actually my only concern at their appointment. Dylan is sooo skinny. When you see him around kids his age, he's average in height but they are way huskier than him. Most of the defiance that we get from Dylan comes from his eating. He can't just sit down and eat a meal. He runs around, picks at his food, refuses to finish. He actually had a huge meltdown at Carlos O'Brien's the other day that included hitting the chair, spitting, and crying all because he didn't want to finish his piece of cheese crisp. To my surprise, the doctor is totally fine with his weight. She said that he's actually probably healthier than a lot of kids his age because he is very active and likes to eat healthy food. Hearing that was a huge relief.  

 Then it was time for shots. Dylan had to get 3 shots, and Sophia got 2 and the oral vaccine. Dylan volunteered to go first so that his sister would see that it was ok to get shots. How adorable is that? I'm going to remind them of these sweet days when they get older and start bickering. Dylan took all 3 shots like a champ, not one tear! Sophia cried after the 2nd shot, but she was totally fine after I picked her up from the table. I was amazed that it went so well. I considered bringing an ice pack just in case Dylan had a dramatic meltdown, but I figured it wouldn't be cold anymore after waiting in the doctor's office. It turns out we didn't even need it. Sophia has been blessed with an awesome older brother. 


The rest of the day was not bad at all. Sophia was a little fussy and her legs are tender, but it wasn't long before she was back to laughing at Dylan as he ran around the house. 


Here they are resting and watching Smurfs at the end of the day. 

Dylan is 4!

Four years ago this beautiful baby came into our lives. 

We quickly learned that Dylan does everything on his own time and his own terms. He's changed our lives in amazing ways. He seems so grown up now. He gets himself dressed, puts movies on for himself, climbs into the car and buckles his carseat straps. I've been thinking about the things I want to remember about him at this age. Honestly, it makes me want to cry thinking that the way he is today will soon be just memories that I hold in my heart. So here it is-

Things I want to remember about Dylan at 4 years old

-His love of Transformers, particularly Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime

-His lovely rendition of "Love You Like A Love Song"

-The way he refers to all country music as "dad's music"

-His grumpy face when he wakes up because he is not a morning person

-His desire to help me every time I clean the house (I'm sure this won't last long)

-The sweet way that he loves his little sister. He can't get enough of her (and the feeling is mutual). 

-If you have a cell phone with games on it, or an xbox, you have become his new best friend. 

-The way he can't sit still and eat for more than 2 bites

-The way he questions everything ("um, mama, are you sure you know what you are doing?")

-When he is given a dollar, he refers to it as one hundred dollars

-He asks me to let him get Gamefly every time the commercial comes on, but I'm pretty sure he has no idea what Gamefly is. 

-His new love for fun socks

-He wants to play golf when he gets older. Not football, baseball, basketball. Golf, just golf.

-The way he still calls me Mama

Wow, I'm sure I can go on and on about this crazy kid. He says or does something every day that makes me smile.  So I'll end it with this picture of Dylan. It took forever to even get a shot of him because he refuses to stand still. :) 

 

Mother's Day

When I was pregnant with Dylan, I never worried about how I was physically, or even financially going to take care of a baby. In my mind I had those things covered. I was more worried about teaching him how to be a good person. It's a lot of pressure for a new mom. In this crazy world, how do any of us grow up to be normal? There are so many things that I want to teach Dylan and Sophia, but when it comes down to it, some of the biggest lessons they will learn are going to be from simply observing the example Josh and I set forth. I know that there is no perfect way to parent a child, so we're pretty much figuring out what's best for them as we go along. They are going to learn quickly that I'm not perfect and I make mistakes, and that's ok because they will make mistakes too. And when they do, I will be there to show them love. So at the end of another Mother's Day, I want to remember how blessed I am to have this opportunity. I get to teach them what life is all about. More than anything, I hope they always know that they are two of the best things that ever happened to me. 

They're pretty happy kids, so I must be doing something right. :)

Not So Handy Mommy

Dylan has so many toys from his birthday and even Christmas that we haven't opened yet. He has a Buzz Lightyear pop up "tent" in his closet that he got for Christmas, and he's been asking to play with it this week. I finally gave in and opened the box. I thought it would just unfold and pop up. That was not the case...

I'm not gonna lie, when I saw that it required assembly I was ready to put it back into the box and tell him it was broken. I am awful at putting toys, furniture, and basically anything with instructions together. That's a job I usually leave up to Josh. He's good at it, and he understands the ridiculous pictures on the instructions. But what I am supposed to tell Dylan? "Sorry buddy, you're going to have to wait until Dad is home to play with all of your stuff". Yeah, that's not going to cut it here. So I had to do it by myself. Halfway through, Dylan walked over and said "You're doing a good job setting it up mama!". Maybe he saw my frustration and was trying to make me feel better, or maybe he was hoping that the compliment would make me hurry up and finish it so he could play. Anywho, it didn't really take that long, and now I have a huge Buzz Lightyear rocket in the middle of my house.

There's also a kids bbq that needs some assembly sitting in the hallway, but I'll leave that for another day.

Jumping into the world of blogging

My first blog post! I decided to start a blog so that I could post pictures, stories, and fun stuff with the kids without overloading facebook. I hope it will also make it easier for Josh to keep up with the kids while he's gone. Never a dull moment over here, but I'm going to try as hard as i can to keep it updated. A week ago I decided to let Sophia try some baby cereal, oatmeal to be exact. I was hesitant at first because I tried giving Dylan cereal at 4 months, and he wanted nothing to do with it for almost a month. To my surprise, she loved it! She smiles and tries to grab the spoon as I'm feeding her. At this rate she's going to outweigh Dylan in a few months.

 Surprise, surprise! This is what Dylan was doing when he was supposed to be eating.