Dirt and Other Things

Now that I FINALLY finished my Disney blog, I'm trying to get caught up on other things that have been going on although I'm pretty sure I'll never fully be caught up:(. Sorry, kids, since this is basically your baby book:(.

This is from a few minutes ago. I haven't put the Backyardigans on in a very long time but it was on now and Gibs is actually really liking it! I don't need him LOVING tv, but it'd be nice if he watched it a bit! They both danced along to the intro song and Gibs has been bouncing along to the songs while sitting here since then:). I love watching them dance together, too cute! And yes, Layla's hair could stand to be brushed after her rest time (she didn't even sleep--just laid in bed for awhile and played) :).


We had some birds take over our grill awhile back when we were gone for the weekend. So now our grill is out of commission until they flee the nest. Here they are shortly after being hatched. Layla has found the whole thing quite interesting and wants to still look at the birdies, but since they can now sort of fly I don't dare open the grill or I'm afraid they'll fly out and then fall and crash onto our deck:(. So we're letting them be for now. Once they're gone we need to get our grill fixed and powerwash our deck to get the bird poop off!

The kids are always excited to see Joe when he gets home!

Typical Gibs...walking in Daddy's shoes, er, sandal, and holding Layla's sunglasses:). Don't mind his onesie--he had just gotten up and I had taken off his jammies.

This week the kids have been really into playing with pillows which turns into huge fights since Layla wants to build "tents" with them (connecting our chair to our ottoman) and Gibs just wants to climb on top of them. They especially love my body pillow:). Layla just learned how to fully do a sumersault so she likes using them for that too:).

Don't worry, the fork is clean:)...

I thought it was cute that he was watching tv like this (for about a minute:D)...

Last Saturday Joe took the kids to see Uncle Steve move some dirt around for his and Heidi's new house. Joe said they might get really dirty so they wore basically the ugliest clothes they own (or stained) :). Here's Gibs walking with Auntie Rachael in his shorts that are more like capris and hiking shoes...

Joe having too much fun:)...

Hanging out with Grandma...

18 Months

On June 30, Gibs turned 18 months! I can't believe my little guy will be 2 in a half a year! Just in the past 2 months he has really picked up on his words. For a long time he only said around 5 words maybe--mama, dada, Elvie or Elva (for Elvis our dog), doggy, all da (all done) and mo (more). Now he says new words all the time. Just recently he's said two words together a few times, but only when repeating--like if I say, "Say hi to grandpa" he'll say "Hi Bapa". I wrote some down a bit ago and then tried to think of more, but I'm sure I missed some!

Every once in awhile he says Lala for Layla
Dora
Deedo (for Diego)
Mil (milk)
Nana (banana)
Hi
Bye
Gi [pause] Gi (Gigi)
Ball
Ducky
Uh-oh
Owie (he loves this word lately and says when he's barely hurt at all)
Cheese
Daisy (as in Daisy Duck)
Doknow (Donald Duck)
Dolly (that's Layla's lovie she's always had and I think he's been calling his pacifier that lately, otherwise he doesn't have a name for it.
That
Elmo (he loves Elmo--not to watch him on tv, just the stuffed animals and books, he still doesn't like tv or at least not for more than a couple of minutes)
Wawa (water)
Bapa (grandpa)
Ha Daw (hot dog--as in the food and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song:D)
Up
Dow (down)
Wow
Ama (Amen - and he folds his hands so cute with it:D)
And thankfully he hasn't learned "no" yet:)

He loves playing with his big sis, but they definitely do not always get along! Lately they both love playing with Little People b/c Gibs loves to stick the people in things and really loves the school bus. And since Layla likes to play with any little dolls or whatever, it's actually something they both really like. He also really loves cars and always has more then Layla ever did. However, he also really likes brushing Layla's dolls' hair, playing with her purses, kissing stuffed animals and trying on my shoes (which is now banned b/c he left one of my spikey high heels out upside down in the bathroom the other day and I stepped right on it and it took a cut my foot, it's now a few days later and it still hurts to walk on it--and then the next night Joe accidentally pushed a chair back into my big toe when we were moving Layla's new bed in, on that same foot, and part of my toe nail ripped up off my skin--that foot is in a bit of rough shape! :) ).

I just love the age he's at now--he's still very dependant on me, but definitely learning to be more independant. He still has no fear (most of the time) of wandering off, but is getting better at listening to us when he needs to stay by us.

He typically wakes up right around 8 or a little before. Last week a few days he was up at like 7:15/7:30 b/c he had pooped, but thankfully he seems to be back to his normal 8am now. Anything earlier than that is too early for me! Yesterday he even slept until a little after 9 which is normally when Layla wakes up, but of course when he slept until 9, she was up at 8:15. He then naps from around 1-4, although the past couple of days he's only napped a couple of hours:(. Although as I write this he's been asleep for 3. He has always been so good at going to sleep. You set him in his bed and he instantly cuddles up and falls asleep (unless he's not at home--then it's not that easy). Recently he's had some nights where he hasn't gone down for a little bit, so hopefully that's not a new trend! You normally know he's ready for bed though b/c when you mention bed time he runs excitedly to the drawer where I keep his pipes (I try to only let him have them while sleeping and in the car--or if he's super crabby:D), sticks one in his mouth and one in his eye (weird, I know) and goes to his bed. He still doesn't really have a "lovie". He likes his monkey that when you pull the tail it sings a song and that always puts him to sleep. He also loves his Panda pillow pet, but that's quite big to carry around:). He may need the smaller size soon:). And he sleeps with a Mickey and Tigger thing with a blanket body and likes them but doesn't seem to have a huge attachment to them.

He's in size 18 months clothing. 12-18 month fit good, but 18-24 month are still too big. Hopefully he grows a bit soon b/c he's got some summer 18-24 stuff just waiting to be worn in his closet:). He has his 18 month appointment on Monday, so I'll be curious to know what he weighs. I'm guessing he's a couple of pounds less than Layla. Had he continued to grow like he was at first I would have guessed he would have passed her up, but he's somewhat spread out (although still definitely chunkier than she ever was!). He's in size 4 diapers and has been for what seems like forever. He acts like he has to go the bathroom when Layla goes, but there's no way he'd be ready to start potty training for a long time yet!

He finally got his 6th tooth:). I just had to look to even check how many he has:). He has 2 on top and 4 on the bottom and has 2 molars starting to come in so he's really been chewing on his hands lately. He still eats basically anything you give him. If he doesn't eat it, it's because he doesn't feel like eating, not normally because he doesn't like it. Although at Buffalo Wild Wings the other night I accidentally gave him one of my Asian Zing wings thinking it was bbq and he did not like that! He thankfully didn't throw a fit--just puckered his mouth up. He was then scared to eat any more chicken. Oops! I hope he continues to be a good eater though. I feel very fortunate to have two kids that so far eat basically anything I give them. His favorite food seems to be fruit--if you give it to him at the beginning of a meal he'll just keep whining for it so we often fill his plate with other foods first.

We just love our little guy so much and are having so much fun watching him grow! It'll be interesting to see him become a big brother coming up, he's already used to sharing my time, so that shouldn't be an adjustment at least. He'll be a few months older than Layla was when I had her (well, depending on when I have this baby) so it'll be interesting to see how differently he adjusts. She doesn't remember now not ever having a little brother. Hopefully he adjusts as well as she did! We're excited to watch our little guy continue to grow into his personality and learn new things. He's such a funny and mischievious yet sweet little guy and we just love him to pieces!

Indy

In June we took a weekend trip to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. 

 Saturday there was a PBS even in a nearby park so the kids liked seeing the characters.  This was close enough to Elmo for Layla though whiched worked well since the line was pretty long:).

 They enjoyed the hotel room...

 It's amazing how quickly they can make a mess! We had just gotten there!

 Dinner at a place close to our hotel...

 Swimming in the hotel...

 Layla loved all the phones at the Barbie exhibit!

 I just had to take a picture by this house since this was one of the houses we had growing up...

 

Dentist and Blood Draw

This morning Layla had her first dentist appointment! We went to see Auntie Heidi at the office that she works at.

She did not enjoy the exam. She let her look at her teeth and count them, but did not want them cleaned. She ended up only getting her front two teeth cleaned. She says she'll be better next time:). Auntie Heidi still gave her a balloon and she got to pick out a toy, but I'm not sure she really deserved it:).

She wasn't so sure about the moving chair:)...

On Wednesday she had blood drawn to test for food allergies since she has some tummy issues, and she did really well! She asks often to get the "tv cart" so I let her that day for being such a big girl. They both loved sitting in the little car, but towards the end Gibs wouldn't sit down and neither seat belt worked. Plust it's $1, doesn't fit as many groceries and is a pain at check out b/c you have to switch carts and then go back and return this one. So we will not be getting this cart very often, but I'm pretty sure she'll be asking every time now:). The Penny Pony will just have to do:). Too bad Walmart doesn't have one as I much prefer getting groceries there over Meijer (I know most people do not like Walmart, but I for one never have issues there and never wait in line, unlike at Meijer)!

Layla's had a big week of "firsts"! Not sure why she did so well for having blood drawn and her ears pierced, yet didn't want the nurse to take her blood pressure at her appt last week and didn't want the hygenist to touch her teeth today! Crazy girl!

Ear Piercing!

Layla has been saying for awhile that she wants her ears pierced (she loves wearing clip ons), but she'd always say that she wanted them when she goes to school. Well, then she saw another little girl her age have them so I asked if she wanted them done and even after telling her that it would hurt for a minute, she still insisted she wanted them. So while we were at the mall this past Saturday we told her she could get them pierced. I was wondering if she'd back out, but she was really excited! There was a tiny baby getting them done before her, they had to wake the baby up to get them done which was even hard for me to watch, so I made sure Layla was busy looking at sunglasses during that:). If it was me, I think I may have backed out after watching that:).

She did really well sitting nicely for the lady. It was so fun to watch her be so proud of herself for having them done and for having it be her decision. Such a big girl:).

All ready!

Still no tears...

And then came the tears:(...

She was still a little upset after they were pierced, but once she saw them she was excited again:).

She picked out pink ones, not too surprising since she loves pink:).

Uncle Steve and Auntie Heidi came over once we were home and even picked up some sparklers for Layla! Gibs was way too tired and had just gotten a fever, so he missed out on the fun:(.

Sleepy Sickies

Saturday night we went to Rivertown and during dinner Gibs was shivering. It's not like him to be cold, but Fridays was a bit chilly so we didn't think too much of it. But then when we were leaving and took him out of his stroller to put in the car I felt that he was burning up. Layla then woke up with a fever Sunday morning. They both basically slept or laid down all day Sunday but thankfully their fevers were both gone by Monday morning so it didn't totally ruin our holiday weekend:). Don't mind that Layla likes to wear winter pj's to bed:). Her room is in the basement so she stays plenty cool at night and even with her fever she still wanted flannel jammies on.

3 Year Stats

I wanted to quick put Layla's 3 year stats on here so that I can put the paperwork away. She had her 3 year appointment on Thursday and much to her (and my) surprise, she didn't need any shots. I just assumed since she only sees the doctor once a year now that she'd need some so I had warned her about them but didn't even need to! For some reason she was testy when we got there and didn't want to be weighed and then didn't want her blood pressure taken, but then after that she was fine. Apparently I spent too much time on the way there going over the fact that she'd needs some pokes that I didn't cover that she needed to be a big girl for the rest of her appointment. Normally it's not a problem--she's timid in unfamiliar situations and normally does whatever she's told. We did wait awhile so maybe she warmed up a bit too much playing with some other boys in the waiting area. Anyway, she's growing just as she's always been, gaining the expected amount of weight per year, and they had us fill out a long questionnaire on what she does and she was doing all the things on it so she's right where she should with development too. The doctor said to have her start stringing beads and such for her fine motor skills which she can do and to start working on tracing things so she can improve her drawing/writing skills. She can sometimes draw an "L" now but that's about it for letters:). She will sometimes draw things that will accidentally end up actually looking like some sort of object, but it's pure luck:). She likes to color and play with play-doh and such, loves jewelry, dress up and shoes, loves pretending to make food and have tea parties with Gibs:) and is getting more into her Loving Family dolls. Recently her LF dolls have been doing lots of camping around the house:). I can't wait until she can play properly with Barbies, I might just play with her:). Most of the time she likes to get herself dressed and is very stubborn about it--she doesn't want your help but at times still gets her arms stuck so she needs it. She loves playing with other kids and especially her cousin Gavin, even though they fight like brother and sister. Gavin bit her a little while ago and she would show people her bite mark like she was proud of her war wound and was still excited to see him--no hard feelings, so that's good! She is still insistant that she's having a little sister. She came inside from playing the other day to get her "little sister" (a doll) so that she could take her in the Gator with her and on her bike with her. She also says that her little sister could sleep in her bed with her--yeah, that'd work great:). She's very sweet though--let's just hope she's as sweet to the new baby when it arrives--whether it's a sister or a brother! So far she's a great big sister and the typical oldest child with being responsible and obedient (and sometimes a little bossy:D). She'll be a great influence for Gibs and the new little one. Here are her stats:

Height: 36.5" (50th % when the dr looked at the little girl charts (like 0-3 yrs I think) and then just under 50th % when he looked at the big kid charts (must be like 3 to something)
Weight: 27 lbs 1 oz (5th % on little girl charts, 10th % on big girl charts)

We love our sweet little girl so much and can't believe we already have a 3 year old!!