Thursday, March 29, 2012

March Madness

Marsh Madness is having a little bit of March Madness!  This month is always a crazy one for us, so I haven’t had much time to post about all of our happenings this month, so here is what we’ve been up to besides being sick and celebrating birthdays!

March 8th Mommy & Daddy celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary!  We went away for the night and stayed in the hotel we had our wedding reception at.  It was nice being out alone but not too far from home.  We enjoyed our time together reminiscing about all of the years we spent together that led up to us getting married and having two beautiful children.  My friend Emily posted old pictures of her & her husband Brad on their anniversary and I thought they were so cute to see, so I’m going to follow suit and dig up some old ones :)  We were 17 & 20 when we started dating.

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Okay fast forward back to March 2012!  Maisy has been trying lots of new foods this month, including Mac & Cheese which she loves!

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She has also moved out of her bath seat in the bath tub!  She loves all of her new found freedom, although she gets yelled at about 25 times to “sit on your butt in the bathtub!”  Well make that 50 because every time I correct her Ryder takes it upon himself to be the re-enforcer!  They got these new body paint/soaps so here Ryder is “making my baby sister beautiful!” as Maisy chews the lid.

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In the evenings we’ve been taking the kids out in the neighborhood to do fun things like fly kites and go fishing.  Okay well Daddy takes Ryder, Me & Maisy just come along for the ride and the photos!

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We’ve learned that Maisy doesn’t like crawling in the grass…so she does this interesting move!  (oh that little butt in polka dot booty shorts…can she get any cuter?!)

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It’s a little crazy that the kids were in shorts and t-shirts on Friday, then by Sunday they were back in sweatshirts and hats!

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They finally got the kites flying though, although as soon as Ryder was allowed to hold his by himself “the wind stole it out of my hand” as he explained. The power lines caught it and it stayed up in the sky flying high with Daddy & Uncle G’s.  Of course they didn’t think theirs was high enough, so they had to rig up some concoction to make it better!  Yes, they tied it to a fishing pole and cast it further into the sky…

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Even Maisy got a turn flying…they never leave their baby girl out.

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Ryder got a cowboy hat and cowboy boots from Paw-Paw & Aunt Megan for his Birthday. 

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He has been starting to yell “No Pictures!” at me now, as if I’m the paparazzi and he’s a celebrity!  So what does Daddy tell him “just show her your monster!” and this would be the next picture I snap!  My goodness these boys, this is the first smile picture I’ve gotten from him in months!

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He is quite the cowboy these days “and a real country music singer” as he’d like to add!  Here he is tonight in his pajamas, walking around singing songs on his tablet.

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We had a dinner date at CJ & Angela’s one night, which always works out perfect because we each have a friend!  Here are Ryder & Carter Spider Man/Hulk & Wolverine (sorry!).

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Maisy & Callie are finally able to be up and playing together!

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Okay I think that’s all the pictures I have, but I’m not done with the updates!

As you know, Ryder didn’t get his Botox procedure done as planned, and as I’m sure you see, he doesn’t have a cast on his arm!  All of the things we thought we had planned for March have now been moved to May.  I think both things getting pushed back was probably a blessing.  We had so much going on with his Birthday that I’m glad he got to just have a fun month instead of a frustrating one!  Speaking of, he got SO much awesome stuff for his Birthday.  Before we let him bring anything inside though we told him he had to fill up that huge box his kitchen came in with toys he wanted to give away.  He suddenly had no problem and became very generous!  We’ve been having a blast playing with all the new toys, he’s one lucky little guy that’s for sure.

One HUGE announcement is that ever since his actual birthday on Monday he has been in big boy underwear!  No more pull-ups (except when he’s sleeping) and he’s been doing very well!  He has had a few accidents but nothing terrible, so I’m glad we made the leap, no looking back now. 

Ryder had his 3 yr check-up…he weighs 27 pounds and is 3 feet tall.  He’s in the 10th percentile for weight and height.  He is still behind on all of his motor skills, but that doesn’t phase me.  I know he is working on all of the things he can’t do in therapy and will get there eventually.

Maisy also had her 9 month check up the same day.  She is 17.4 pounds and 28.25 inches.  That’s the 10th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height.  She had to get a shot, luckily big brother was there to hold her hand.  He was probably squeezing hard enough that she barely noticed the pain from the shot.  She’s developing perfectly, nothing to worry about there. 

So that’s that.  As we approach summer I don’t think our months get any slower or less busy.  But hey, it wouldn’t be “madness” if things were ever calm! 

Sunday, March 25, 2012

9 Months!

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What a fun month this has been!  Here is what Maisy is up to at 9 months old:

  • She’s wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
  • She eats 4 – 6 oz bottles a day, Stage 3 foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus has tried lots more table food this month like macaroni & cheese, beans, peas, crackers, toast, and even a cupcake for big brothers birthday!  She loves puffs and yogurt melts for her snacks.
  • She goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps atleast 10 hours, usually waking up around 5 or 6.  She takes a morning and afternoon nap every day. 
  • Her personality has really come through this month, she is SO silly!!  She keeps us laughing with her little face where she scrunches her nose, her hitch-hiking thumb she likes to wiggle and uses it to point at things, waving all the time, and shaking her head no!
  • She has also become more vocal, growling when she’s mad, actually saying “hiiiiii” when she waves, and of course saying Dadadada all day long, and only Mama when she’s tired and upset.  She has thrown a couple Nana’s in there this month and finally said Pap-Pap 1 time!  (Pap might still be smiling about this!)
  • Her favorite games to play right now are Patty Cake & Peek-a-boo.  She look so adorable clapping her hands and it’s hilarious when she covers her face up with something, then pulls it down and gets the biggest grin when you tell her peek-a-boo!
  • She has become quite the Daddy’s girl this month!  She is the happiest when he’s tossing her around, doing flips, tickling her, or just squeezing her tight.  She crawls the fastest when she hears his voice and tries to find him, when he’s holding her she grabs his face and licks him, the girl just can’t get enough of her Daddy.
  • She’s still very cuddly, when you pick her up she lays her head on your shoulder and snuggles right in.  The lady’s in the nursery at Church love this about Maisy because she literally lets them cuddle her for an hour!
  • BUT…as soon as you put the girl down, she is OFF.  She crawls so fast, pulls up, cruises along things, squats down to pick stuff up then stands right back up, she transitions from one thing to another, and even lets go only to come crashing down!  She has 100 accidents a day and gets right back up to try it again!  She’s a tough little girl for sure.

How can she not be tough when she has a brother who likes to pick on her all day long!  Or ride on her back…this poor girl.  She’s so strong though, she will actually pull him along when he gets on top of her! 

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Our family has been truly blessed by this little girl.  She has been an easy baby, sticks to her schedule, goes along with whatever we’re doing, keeps us smiling and laughing, what a joy she is to have around, I just can’t say enough about her!  We’ll see what the next month brings :)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Birthday Celebration – Part III

Okay yes I realize this is getting a little excessive!  But today was Ryder’s actual Birthday so we couldn’t just let it go by with no celebrating!  We told Ryder he could have anything he wanted for his Birthday dinner and he picked Hotdogs & Corn…so that’s what we had.  After dinner he got one last Birthday surprise:

It’s an Octonauts Octopod Playset!!  Can you believe it??!!  You really won’t believe it once I tell you the back story.  The Octonauts is a new show that just recently started airing in the United States.  Ryder saw it on TV at Nana’s one day and came home asking over and over to watch it (he thinks I instantly have every show he could ever want to watch recorded).  Luckily I checked YouTube and there were plenty of episodes on there he could watch, only problem is those shows were the ones from the UK, where the show originated, which meant Ryder started seeing commercials for the toys that went along with the show.  When this was his #1 request on his Birthday list, I checked everywhere online only to find that they don’t sell this stuff in the stores in the United States!  Greeeeaaaattt.  So obviously, I made my first ever International purchase.  And paid International shipping.  Needless to say, when they start selling this in the US stores for $29.99…it might burn just a little.  But it was worth the price to make his Birthday wish come true.

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Now this officially ends the Birthday posts…until next year! :) 

Birthday Celebrations – Part II

When I asked Ryder what kind of Birthday party he wanted to have this year, he said he wanted a “Blast Off Birthday!”  So blast off it was!  Poppy’s garage was covered in rockets and spaceships and planets…and people who wanted to come celebrate with Ryder! 

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Ryder singing Happy Birthday to himself, haha.

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He got a drumset!!!  Thanks Gary & Angel!…(thanks a lot.)

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OH Maisy, we are so blessed that she’s so low maintenance!  She stayed content through the whole party, being passed around, letting her Mommy completely ignore her and focus on her older brother.

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She hung on as long as she could!

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Poppy had an extra special present to give Ryder…

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His very own “Big Green Tractor!”

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After all the party fun was over, the big kids got to play with the Birthday toys too!  Here they are blasting off a real rocket that Ryan got for Ryder!

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Ryder was a little overwhelmed at his party so he had moments of not wanting to share and having his little attitude when people would try to talk to him.  As soon as everyone left he said “I love everyone that came to my party!”  Funny how that happens.  He really did have a great time and got a lot of awesome presents!  Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us!!