Halloween

I love Halloween and dressing up my kids! I think my husband thinks that it is the equivalent of dressing a dog up in clothes, but I think he got more into this year than last. Garyn was a pirate this year--complete with a mustache and chest hair. Ellie was a Tinkerbell fairy. What was great about her costume was that it came with a smaller version of the costume for her baby doll, so her dolly dressed up too! We didn't do much but go to the grandparents' houses, but that took 3 hours! I think that I was more tired than the kids were when we got home.

ARRRGH!

Ellie the Tinkerbell fairy and Baby Rake

Can you believe that Garyn is already 6 months?! He weighed 17.4 lbs and was 28 inches long at his 6 month visit. Some things that Garyn is doing: rolling everywhere, plows with his head on the floor, tries to grab whatever you are eating, squeals when no one is paying attention to him, sits up, grabs toys and whacks himself in the head with it. He also has two new teeth! They are so cute and he shows them off whenever he can. We think that he might be a lefty like his sister! When he grabs food or plays with toys, he grabs them with his left hand! He hasn't mastered the sleeping at night thing yet. (Any suggestions?) But all in all, he one cute, fuzzy headed, happy baby!

Pretty new toofers!

Can you see my new pearly whites?

Guess what?! My husband and I are going on vacation this weekend...without our children! I am so excited! We are going to Santa Fe to 10,000 waves, so think of us on Saturday--we will be at the spa! Not to rub it in or anything!

I'm still here...I think!

Yes we are still alive and kickin'. Wes and I have been so extremely busy at work the past couple of weeks. By the end of last week, I was beginning to wonder if my kids were going to recognize me!

Garyn is doing really well. He is starting to sleep better. We will be going for his 6 month visit soon. Can you believe that it has already been 6 months?! He started sitting up Sunday. He is really starting to get attached to Ellie, too. The other day, I was at work and Wes was getting ready. He had the kids on our king size bed. Garyn was propped up on my pillows, and he grunted and groaned until he got himself right next to Ellie, and then the two of the snuggled and watched Handy Manny.

Ellie is getting quite attached to Garyn as well. She is such a good big sister. When he is crying in his crib after his naps, she will go in and climb up in his crib with him. She loves to "hold" him and love on him. She is absolutely devastated when he grabs a handful of hair, though, but she never lashes out or retaliates at him.

In other stuff...I am so excited to send out Christmas cards this year because I have already made mine! Now I just have to have my brother's girlfriend take some family pics so that I will have something to put on the cute card that I made. It's pretty funny (or sad) that I am getting so worked up over Christmas cards. I can see that things may be going down hill fast so I will say goodbye for now!

Pics

As promised here are some pictures!




I know that some of you may think that I am being mean to my child, but actually I discovered that when I squeeze his little cheeks together, he laughs hysterically! In this one he is trying to smile at the same time.



This is a picture of Garyn eating his first rice cereal! He loved it but when it didn't get to his mouth fast enough...



this is what happens!



This is Ellie at the park.




This is Garyn at the park.

In other news, I won a free blog makeover from Fabulous K Designs! I am so excited to see what Kelly decides to do with my blog!

I also have a new hobby (yes, another one)! I have been digital scrapbooking! I loved paper scrapbooking, but it is hard to find the time to get everything out and put together a page without interuption from my small children. Here are a couple of my layouts!




This is one of when we told the grandparents that we were expecting Garyn!



This is a layout of Garyn over Memorial Day.

I hope that everyone is doing well. Have a great rest of the week!

Garyn's 4 Month Check-Up

Well...Garyn's doing very well, despite his little mishap! We had his 4 month visit yesterday. He weighed 15 lbs 6.4 oz (50-75th percentile) and was 26 1/4 inches long (90th percentile). He did drop off a few percentile points for his weight. He was previously in the 90th percentile fo his weight, but I guess he's just been more active since then because eating is certainly not his problem!

Speaking of eating...Garyn had his first rice cereal last night! He did pretty well with it (better than Ellie did), but he decided that it wasn't fast enough and soon was crying! He liked the few bites that he did get. I think that we will have to feed him a couple of ounces before we feed him the rice so he doesn't get so frustrated!

As for milestones that Garyn has met...he can roll over from back to front, roll over from front to back (although he doesn't do this very often and doesn't like it), he can hold his head up very well, and he is starting to try to sit up. Garyn love to laugh and coo all the time and he has recently has discovered the art of the raspberry! Sometimes he likes to suck on his thumb--sometimes both at once! He is sleeping in his big boy crib for part of the night and for naps, and he is starting to sleep better at night. He usually goes to bed between 10 and 11 and sleeps until about 3 am when he comes to bed with us and then sleeps until about 5:30 or 6 when he eats and goes back to sleep until 9 or so. Garyn still loves to snuggle. He would snuggle with me all day long if I would let him--which we do some days!

I have to say, not that I am biased or anything, he is so cute! I will post some pictures as soon as I download my camera!

Garyn's Noggin

Thank you for all of the phone calls and concern for my sweet little boy. He has not been sleeping all that well the past few nights, but he's a little trooper. He's pretty much back to normal, but he does have a lovely colorful scalp. Luckily, he has not gotten a black eye!

This was an absolutely terrifying experience, but I think that the outcome was the best it could possibly be. God was really watching over Garyn on Sunday.

The Broken Teapot

Just a quick update for those of you that don't know. When I was walking into church on Sunday, the heel of my shoe got caught in the cuff of my pants and I fell in the middle of the street while carrying my beautiful 4 month old son. He hit his head on the street--fortunately he didn't split his head open.

We went to the ER and had a CT scan and he has a pretty good size skull fracture. There was no damage or bruising to his brain. He has some swelling and bruising, which will probably spread and leave him with a shinner. We stayed in the hospital over night for observation and got home about 10:45 this morning. Aside from the swelling and bruising he is back to normal! God was definitley with us yesterday morning. Please pray that Garyn has a speedy recovery and that his pain is kept to a minimum!

You may be wondering about the title of the post...Garyn is really into the song "I'm a Little Teapot" lately and we told him yesterday that his teapot was broken. He briefly grinned and then started crying! Poor baby boy!

A new respect

I have a definite new respect for single moms or for women who's husbands travel a lot. Wes has been out of town since Thursday for a brother's weekend. He and his brothers went to New Mexico to hang out and play golf since they all live in different cities. I am very glad that they had the opportunity to do this and that Wes is getting some guy time.

It is a little tough not having a break, but it has been really amusing. On Thursday night, I was expecting battle royal when putting Ellie to bed because her daddy usually puts her to bed, but much to my surprise, she went to bed fairly easily. Before I went to bed, I was getting something out of the hall closet (right across the hall from Ellie's bedroom). It was about midnight, so I was trying to be very quiet, when I heard a little, "Mommy?!". When I went to check on Ellie, she was asleep, completely naked, and soaked--she had wet her bed. So, I get her out of her bed, found the one blankie on her bed that wasn't wet, got her diapered and dressed, and carried her to my bed. She stayed asleep the whole time...until I got her to my bed, then she stayed up for another 30 minutes or so.

The next day, we had a play date to go to the pool with our friends Bridget and Nyah. I decided that since we were going to the pool it would probably be a good idea to shave my legs! I was in the shower and a few minutes later Ellie came into the bathroom and started talking to me. I opened the shower door to see what she was talking about. She says, "EEEWWW! It's gross," and hands me her poopy diaper that she had removed herself. After I got out of the shower, I took her to her room to get her swim suit on, and discovered there were skid marks on the carpet! Fun!

We went to the pool and had a good time. I'll admit, I was a little nervous about leaving because I was afraid of a big, crying fit, but there was no fit. Ellie fell asleep in the car and luckily I took her out of her swim suit and swim diaper at the pool, so all I had to do was lay her down. OOOPPPPS! I forgot that her sheets and (waterproof) mattress pad are in the washer, so against my better judgement, I laid her down on the bare mattress with her blanket and pillow. About an hour later, I was awakened from my peaceful slumber with Garyn to Ellie screeching at her door, "I want to go potty!" which usually means that she's already dirty. When I went to get her, she was naked...again! I panicked at the thought of her mattress being wet, but to my amazement the only thing that was wet was her blanket!

Needless to say it's been a laugh a minute at my house--more than usual. Do you think that children can smell fear?!

On a different note, happy birthday, Mom! My mom is in Colorado with a bunch of friends on her birthday. I love my mom dearly and she is a great friend to me and a great grandmother to my kids. We love you, Gigi and hope that you have a great birthday!