Gibson's 18 Month Stats

Gibs had his 18 month appointment and all went well. Well, the worst part was that while waiting in the room for the doctor to come in he kept itching at his dry skin and pulling the back of his diaper down so much so that his scratches were bleeding by the time the doctor came in:(. But the doctor told us what to do so hopefully that goes away soon. Otherwise his ezcema seemed to be gone, but then just recently has started itching in places again.

The doctor said he's doing fine with his talking. He said they only expect a minimum of 4-10 words at 18 month and Gibs says a lot more than that. I had thought he was really behind b/c I thought he should be putting words together since Gavin went to speech therapy at this age for not putting words together, but apparently not. The doctor said he's doing well with his fine motor skills since some boys tend to be a bit slower with fine motor skills and he's doing just fine with everything else too. I was surprised how well he did with his exam. He didn't mind the measuring or checking him out or anything (which is pretty good for a kid that doesn't like to sit still). He did cry right after his shot, but then calmed right down after it (he just needed one).

Head: ?? -- 50th %

Height: 33" -- 50-75th %

Weight: 25 lbs 11 oz -- just under 50th %

A pound and a half and he'd weigh the same as his big sis:). We're so blessed to have two healthy kiddos and pray this next little one is just as healthy!!

Before his appointment, Layla had her first Vacation Bible School experience. I was wondering how it would go since she's shy with that kind of stuff. Yesterday we told her she had to go up front for the children's message in church, but as soon as they told the kids to come up and we told her to go up she was yelling that she didn't want to go up there and then started crying. Next time we'll need to prep her ahead of time better. It wasn't worth causing a scene yesterday so we didn't make her go. Although then they handed out suckers up front so she did feel bad that she missed out. But they also put sand/stones in the kids' shoes (as part of the lesson) and she later said she didn't want to go up next time because she didn't want stones in her shoes. Anyway, VBS went well. After I got her signed in they said she could just go play with the other kids, but everyone one else was busy playing kick ball or on the swing set and she didn't know anyone so I stayed until it was time for all the kids to head inside for it to start. Then thankfully when they all headed inside, one of the leaders noticed she looked a little confused as to what was going on, so they held her hand while walking inside. I didn't think I'd ever be the type to have a hard time dropping my kids off places, but I seriously might cry the first day I drop her off at school (she's not going this year--the next). :) So anyway, while Layla goes to VBS this week, Gibs and I need to find things to do on that side of town each day. Today we didn't have that much time since it started late with registration and such and then I had to pick her up just a little early to make it on time for Gibs' appointment, so we grabbed a few things we needed from Family Fare and then we were both hungry so we went to McDonald's for a late breakfast/snack:). Tomorrow I think we'll go clean the toys in the nursery at our church (since I'm on the nursery committee). I'm not used to spending time with just Gibs (except that he often does wake up about an hour earlier than her). Normally if I drop one of the kids off, it's him and I run errands or go to appointments with Layla. It's nice to get one on one time with my little buddy too:). Oh, and when I picked Layla up from VBS she said she had fun and talked about the songs they sang (she loves singing), the feathers they played with, pandas, and the chocolate cookie she got for a snack:). I asked if they had a Bible story and she said they did but all she could remember was that it was about God:).

Thankfully we didn't have to wait in the room at the doctor's office for as long as we did for Layla's 3 year (which he wasn't along for), but it's really a bummer they don't have toys in the rooms. It's probably for germs since the waiting area seperates sick kids from the healthy ones, but pretty sure my kids touched everything else in the room anyway, so they'd still get germs. Don't get me wrong, I really like our ped's office, I just need to learn to take more toys along for them. They love the toys in the waiting area, but we were harldy there.

New Bed!

Layla has my old furniture I had at my parents' house during my late college years (so I hardly used it). She was in a toddler bed and the big bed that matches her furniture was in Heidi and Steve's basement. With Heidi and Steve moving out of their house very shortly (and starting to build a new one!) we figured it was easiest to just move the bed here rather than move and store it somewhere else for awhile. It takes up a lot more of her room than her little toddler bed, but we've moved some stuff around, so it works:). And she really loves her new big bed. She's never fallen out of bed at home, but she did fall out camping (which was a rude awakening for her to wake up to in the middle of the night on the hard kitchen floor!), so for now we put the bedrail on.

I looked back at my blog to see when it was that she moved to her toddler bed, but apparently I never posted about it--or at least not the picture. We didn't move her to the toddler bed until early April. She didn't mind being in a crib and never tried to escape it, so we just left her in her crib until after our trip to the Bahamas so that it'd be easier for her to sleep in a pack n play at other people's houses (although she still slept in a pack n play in Disney in May and liked it--she liked having a bed like Gibs':D).

And here's her new bed...I like the bedding I quickly found at TJ Maxx (after we thought about the fact that with Steidi moving, we should move this bed in), but it doesn't have as many colors as her old bedding, so some of the decorations will have to change...eventually:).

She has always loved sleeping with a ton of stuffed animals, or "buddies" as she calls them, and now she has room in bed for even more:). What you see below is not nearly all the buddies she brings to bed. Whatever makes her sleep good:). Oh, and for some reason she has not napped in a little over a week! Otherwise she was napping about 3 times a week! I can tell she's tired and it makes her act up at times, she just won't nap--just wants to play during rest time. She goes to bed right at 8 or if it's like tonight, 7:30, and then sleeps until like 9-10, but like this week now, she's got to get up at like 8 for VBS so we'll see how tired she gets! I'm pretty sure she'll be sleeping on the car ride home from VBS! I wouldn't mind her dropping naps since she has rest time downstairs for a few hours each day anyway, as long as she doesn't get grumpy from it. Apparently she is just too excited about her toys lately!

19.5 Weeks

I hated pregnancy pics of myself the last two pregnancies and hate them even more this time, but since this is only my second post about this baby (I think the only other one was when I announced the pregnancy), I figured I owed it to Baby:). I feel much bigger this time and already feel uncomfortable. A few weeks ago I was starting to feel a LOT better and was only throwing up every few days or so, but then this past week or so I've felt like I was 8 weeks pregnant again and it's been worse the past few days. I got a UTI this past week that I'm now on antibiotics for, so I'm really hoping that's causing some of the nausea and hopefully that goes away soon! I started having some braxton hicks contractions the end of last week which always make me nervous since I've had issues having contractions with Layla and Gibson, but thankfully they've gotten better and were never consistant and went away when I laid down, so I knew they were just braxton hicks. I have my ultrasound and a dr appointment on Tuesday, so I'm excited for that to hopefully find out that all is well with Baby G. #3! This pregnancy has just been different. If there was a third gender, I'd swear I was having that, ha:). I've felt really down and just really ready for it to all be over even though I know we have so much to get done around the house and such before I go on bedrest, and I know that life with a baby again and two toddlers to deal with will be busy, but I just really can't wait to feel like myself again. Don't get me wrong, I love this lil' babe already, I'm just really ready to meet him or her--just hopefully for not at least 14 weeks! And hopefully those 14 weeks go quickly:).

Princess Gibs and Weekend Fun

Since I never post pics of Elv, here's him sleeping in the sun the other day...he didn't even care that he was about laying on toys as long as he had his sun:)...

A couple of weeks ago Layla was trying on her princess dresses and Gibs grabbed the Minnie Mouse one and seriously kept whining he wanted it on so badly...so I was just doing what he wanted by putting it on him:).

Layla was having fun helping pick peas from the garden yesterday. Before that we had only gotten a few peas, but yesterday picked some zucchini (one a bit overgrown, oops), squash, peas and broccoli...

She liked eating the peas out of the pods...

Friday night we went to Hawk's Nest for Ice Cream instead of the place right by our house like we normally do thinking it'd be fun for the kids to play on the toys for a few minutes, however, after only playing there for about 10 minutes they were so filthy!! Their legs, feet and hands were literally black from the dirt. We then quickly headed back for baths before bedtime so that we could have them both tucked in bed by 8pm when the very last Friday Night Lights was on:(. I said to Joe the other day that I'm not sure I've ever been so sad to see a show go off the air and he said he's never been sad to see any show end but was actually really sad to see FNL go. Not sure what we'll find to replace it with!

Layla ordered her ice cream to the girl at the window as "the weird guy".Not sure why the girl didn't know what she was talking about:). I know she gets that from me because when she's seen Sponge Bob on tv I used to tell her that he was weird and she didn't need to watch him. She took a few bites of him and thought that playing with Gibs was apparently more fun than eating ice cream:).

They both love hiding and playing in small spots. Layla often makes them her "house". They surprisingly didn't even fight behind the chair the other day and stayed back there for awhile (otherwise being that close to each normally leads to fighting).

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...