11 Months!

Gibson turned 11 months a couple of days ago! I can't believe my baby will be 1 in less than a month!! He's a growing boy, I thought for a bit that he was spreading out, but with how much he eats, I'm pretty sure he's as chunky as ever:). The "Baby's First Christmas" shirts I've seen don't even come in a big enough size:). It does seem weird that it'll be his first Christmas seeing that he came only 5 days later. In the past month he's finally learned to pull up on things. Once he figured it out, he's been pulling up on everything and has learned how to take steps forward (holding on) to get closer and has gotten brave using only one hand. It'll be interesting to see if he walks at a similar age to Layla. They've been very different on eveything else. I know it's not always nice to compare, but it's hard not to. He doesn't say any real words yet and Layla at 10 months said some words. I just started to sign "all done" to him a couple of weeks ago and just this past week he started sometimes doing it back to me and will sometimes say "ah-dah" with it. So I guess that's sort of a word:). But he doesn't do it at every meal. He rarely says "mama" but still loves saying "dada":).

He still loves getting into trouble. He doesn't listen good to "no" when I tell him to not open my cupboard doors and he ALWAYS goes over to Elv's food dish. I don't know what it is with babies' facination with dog food! He has, however, been really good with the Christmas tree which totally surprised me. He's pulled on ornamants a few times, but I tell him "no" and he stops. Him and Layla surprisingly still play pretty nice together (of course at times they fight). They love to play in his room away from mom. Guess wanting to get away from mom starts at a young age:). He loves to copy Layla and she'll sometimes come and complain to me if he won't copy or follow her:).

I just dropped his dinner bottle last Saturday since I didn't have formula with me while we were at the mall (it had fallen out of my bag b/f we left without me noticing). I figured since he can be done with bottles at 11 1/2-12 months, I might as well continue to skip his dinner one since he did fine without it. So now he just gets a morning one with breakfast, one with lunch and a snack one when he wakes up from his afternoon nap (he still naps for about an hour in the morning and a few in the afternoon). I'm hoping he soon starts showing more interest in his sippy though, he can get milk/water out, but sometimes completely rejects it. Hopefully in the next few weeks he starts to like it better so we can quit bottles all together. He goes to bed at 7 or a little before and sleeps until 8/8:30. Layla and him often get up around the same time now. She used to always sleep longer, but often now she's up at 8/8:30 too, well, except this week b/c she hasn't been napping! :( Now she's been sleeping until 9 the past few days. He's wearing mainly 12 month clothes and although he hasn't been weighed in a bit, he feels like he weighs about the same as Layla:).

He never stays in one place for long, so I didn't even try very long to get a good pic since it's practically impossible...

As I mentioned earlier, Layla has skipped naps the ENTIRE week. For the past month or so she's been napping about every other day. When she won't nap, I put her in "rest time" in her room. I thought she was awefully quiet during rest time today so I went to check on her and was SHOCKED that she had fallen asleep. That is SO unlike her. She never sleeps anywhere besides her bed or her carseat. Maybe this means we should switch her to her big girl bed soon and maybe some days she'll actually still nap if she has the choice of playing or sleeping in her bed during rest time. And you can sort of see that her mattress is out of her bed--I took it out one day to see if she wanted to sleep on that during rest time as an option and ever since then she wants her mattress and all her stuffed animals out during rest time, good thing it's not too heavy:). But I thought it was funny that she chose the floor to fall asleep on rather than her mattress:).

Look closely to see the little girl in aqua sound asleep:)...

Early Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

The kids playing games in the basement...

Gibson meeting his "cousin" (my cousin's kid) Ryan...they are really close to the same age (sort of--we had really close due dates) and were playing cute together (well, for a little bit--Gibson doesn't ever play in one area too long:D)...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day! We have so much to be Thankful for. My list could go on and on, but at the top is my faith, my family and my friends. It was a great day spent with (some of) our family and it was great having Joe around for a whole day:). Now if only he didn't have to work tomorrow and Saturday:(.

I figured it'd be easiest to get all my Christmas stuff up from the basement while Joe was around. Gibson had fun helping:)...he just in the past week or so started pulling up on things. He's been so close for so long, bust just didn't quite try hard enough. He'd get to his knees and think that was good enough:). But now that he's figured it out he pulls up on everything which means he can get into even more trouble:).

Playing in his bedroom (yes, I know it's weird the baby swing is still in there, but he likes playing with it and it works well to just store it there:D)...

Story time!

No, Layla is not allowed to climb on toys, I just reminded her right after I took the picture:)...

This morning we went to our church service, then wasted a little time before Boston Market opened at 11, ate our turkey dinner there, then came home so the kids could nap. We then had our Thanksgiving/Christmas party with Joe's mom's side of the family tonight. It's always fun to see his cousins, although with kids there isn't always a whole lot of time to talk to everyone:). Gibson decided to have a horrible blow out diaper while we were there which put him in a sour mood plus the fact that it was 2 hours past his bed time didn't make for a happy Gibson so unfortunately we had to leave before even playing any games. He wouldn't fall asleep while we were there (which he normally is pretty good at falling asleep in his carseat--we just switched him to his big boy seat since he outgrew the length of his carrier but took along his carrier for him to sleep in). I think he was just so overly tired since he also missed his morning nap while at church. Hopefully both kids sleep in tomorrow after their big day today, but that never seems to happen! I wouldn't mind going shopping, but they'll both be so tired and that mixed with busy crowds is probably just a disaster waiting to happen so I'll just enjoy the day at home putting up some more Christmas decorations:).

Layla with Dolly after church today...

Gibson was eager for his nap once we got home, so I just quick took this pic of him in his cute lil' bow tie and matching hat:)...

This is post his blow out diaper in his back up outfit playing with Joe's cousin's daughter, Isabelle...

The kids enjoyed having the party at a church gym so that they could run around. Not entirely sure what they're doing here:)...Spencer, Uncle Bob, Lawrence, Joe's dad, Layla and Camryn...

Grandpa and Gibs...

Even Gibs got in on circle time:)...Joe's cousin had her baby last night so it'll be fun that at the next family get together there will be yet another little cousin (or second cousin or whatever your cousin's kid is called:D)...

My daughter the athlete...haha, if she's anything like her mother, sports will not be her forte:)...

All the kids having fun together...Gibs, Isabelle, Layla, Camryn, Cassidy and Spencer...

Layla actually made this basket, haha, obviously totally joking:)...as you can see, Gibson thinks he's a big boy, he does not know how to sit still!

Potty Training

I decided to start potty training Layla last week. She has seemed to understand the concept for a long time, but her interest in the potty completely wore off around her 2nd birthday. I thought I would just tell her that she could no longer wear diapers and see what happened after a few days--if it failed miserably, I'd stop for awhile and try again later. However, she's been doing great! I thought since we were going to start, we might as well take a full on approach for a few days since I didn't have anything going on anyway. The first day she just begged for diapers every time she had to go, but by the second day she was doing better and by the third day she really understood to ask to go potty and how to go when I told her to go (like before nap time or leaving or whatever). We started a week ago Thursday and up until yesterday she had been doing good this week without any potty mistakes, but then had one yesterday:(.
I'm really proud of her though and it has actually gone much better than I anticipated. It took a lot of patience the first couple of days, but by the third day we even ventured out to GR with her in underwear and to church on Sunday (and with no mistakes--although she fell asleep on the way to GR which made me nervous that she might pee in her car seat but thankfully didn't!). I'm glad that we decided to give it a try and hopefully she continues to do well!

Elv doesn't normally like sitting by Layla so I thought this was cute...

Pretty sure Gibs got jipped out of some of his pancake:)...Layla wants him to sit right next to her...

Post bath last night with Daddy...and yes, Gibs is wearing a purple hippo towel--poor kid needs his own big boy towel--unfortunately Walmart no longer has the Mickey one like Layla's Minnie one:(...


Layla likes to do everything for herself, including put her pants on, which explains why they're on backwards:)...she also still loves dumping out Gibs' basket of toys for him to play with which he actually does appreciate:)...

My dad and Joyce (and I think Joyce's daughter too) have made TONS of boxes for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child. Grampy had Layla pick out toys to put her in her box (with my help:D) and then we brought it to our church...I'm not sure she fully understood who is getting the box:)...

Gibson being his typical mischievious self...

We started off Potty Day with a special not so healthy breakfast consisting of a cupcake (she's licking the frosting off of the pumpkin that had been in the cupcake). I knew she wouldn't be happy about potty day, so I tried to get the day started on the right foot, it really did help too:).

Who doesn't love a good baby covered in spaghetti sauce (or ravioli actually) picture? :) Had I known I was going to take a picture, I would not have opted for the pink bib:).

Race For the Cure 2010

The last Saturday in September was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I walked it again this year with Em and Gavin, my kids and Lindsey. I hope to continue to do this every year in memory of my mom. She enjoyed walking, when she was able, to celebrate her healing, and I know she would appreciate that we are still walking for her.

Gavin and Layla walking the mall after the race...

Our group...

Layla didn't want to smile normal for the pic:)...

Baby Shower

In September we had a baby shower for Joe's cousin, Kate, and her husband Matt. They are due early December and we are anxious to meet their little guy once he arrives! It was a beautiful day out to celebrate their new little life!

Taylor, Layla and Great-Grandma...I thought it'd be cute to get a picture of them together since they all share a birthday of June 4:)...

From L-R...Layla, Steve, Camryn, Cassie, Spencer, Joe, Rachael, Heidi, Joe's dad, Lawrence, Joe's Uncle Bob and Phil

Camryn, Spencer, Lawrence, Cassie, Phil, Layla, Steve, Heidi, Joe and Bob...

Layla, Cassie, Camryn, Spencer, Joe and Gibs with Rachael...

Looks like Layla is telling Great-Grandma an interesting story:)...

10 Months!

Our little guy is 10 months old! He's getting so big and learning so many new things! When he went in for his ear infection last week he weighed approximately 19 1/2 pounds! He was 28 1/2 inches the nurse said, which is strange b/c a month ago he was 29 inches:). I'm pretty sure the nurse last week did it really quickly so I'm thinking hers wasn't quite accurate. Either way I was happy that he wasn't over 29 inches or that means we need to switch car seats. In the past month he has switched from doing part army crawl part normal crawl to now doing just a normal crawl. He has also started to wave, high-five and clap. He makes lots of sounds, but we haven't heard any real words yet. He is still getting into trouble all over the house and loves to explore! He wears 9 and 12 month clothing mainly. His schedule is to wake up around 8am and have a bottle (6 oz) and breakfast and then nap from about 10-11 and eat lunch of a bottle and food, then nap from 1-4ish, have a bottle, and then have supper which consists of a bottle and food and then go to bed at 7 (or earlier if his nap was short). He's been great with eating so far, we'll see how long that lasts! He'll eat whatever we're eating and loves everything. Clearly he's eating plenty since he's gained a pound over the last month:). Getting him to take his bottles can be a struggle so I think that in a month or so when I start cutting him back, he should do fine with that. I only have a couple more bags of breast milk--he's been having formula when we go out or when I forget to thaw milk and breast milk the rest of the time--I'm just happy the stored milk has lasted this long since I quit pumping 5 months ago! It's nice that we haven't had to buy too many containers of formula! Oh, and I keep thinking teeth are coming, but still no sightings yet!

Not wanting to lay still for his pic...

Enjoying his lunch!