Friday, May 29, 2009

Some people think Grady looks like Pop, so I got a picture side by side for comparison.

It's 8:30 am and both kids are sleeping so I have a minute to blog before somebody gets up. Grady has already been up twice, but he is back down for his nap.

Yesterday I went to pick out some pants to go with the fireworks shirt that Moira got as a hand me down from cousin Maren that she is "never taking off". I picked some pink pants and Moira said "Mommy, that doesn't match, but thank you for trying".

Moira has an irrational fear of bug. Well, she did get stung by bees 3 times last summer, so maybe it isn't completely irrationall, but it is ridiculous. I think a fly landed on her yesterday at playgroup and she flung herself onto her front off the swing and was screaming and crying hysterically, like she couldn't even talk. The other moms thought another kid had pushed or hit her or something and I explained that she just saw a bug. Patty told me to tell her that the bugs that land on you don't bite and are nice and to make up a special "bug spray" bottle with water and a little bit of off that she can spray herself. She seems excited about that.
Grady is really into grabbing his toes and sucking on his fingers. He can also take his Mam out of his mouth and hold it. He's trying to get it back in, but most of the time ends up tossing it all over the place.
Well, I have more, but Grady is up....

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tuesday, May 19, 2009


Moira and Daniela on her teeter totter.








I've had a headache for about 6 days now. It is different than my usual headaches that are related to the weather. This one is like a dull ache, but painful. It feels like someone hit me in the head with a baseball bat the day before or I ran into a pole or something. Go away! Tylenol and Excedrin have not been helping. Anywho...
Not much new here. Just doing our thing. Moira has started reporting her dreams to me in the morning. This is cute to me b/c I am a big dream person. Mine are very vivid and I always feel the need to share them in the morning. When I used to have an office job whoever sat next to me in the morning got the pleasure of hearing my dreams from the night before. Moira's dreams seem to revolve around articles of clothing so far. She always tells me what she was wearing or frequently she is going shopping in her dreams. That's my girl.

Grady continues to be an awesome baby. His new trick is grabbing his feet. We got out Moira's old toys and his new toys this weekend b/c he has started checking them out. He's not really doing anything with them yet, but he does seem to be checking them out. Also cute- when I pick him up, he tucks his head into the nape of my neck and snuggles with me. And he always has a smile to return whenever you give him a smile. Not just me either, pretty much anybody.
We got the outside of our house painted. They finished up today. Looks pretty spiffy.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

"The Most Special Thing Ever"


We went to the mall Thursday. It was a rainy day and I needed some new makeup from Sephora. We almost made it out w/o a purchace for Moira until she spied the Disney Store. and it was all over from there. She talked me into this princess night gown, saying it was "the most special thing ever". I got it a size 5/6 so she can wear it for a few years. She freaked out today when she saw it in the laundry room saying I can never wash it b/c it is "too special". She wanted to wear it to school on Friday but I was able to talk her out of it w/o much of a fit. She just wanted to tell everyone about it. She claims all the kids were VERY excited to hear about it. I could hear her talking about it as I left the classroom. She actually asked me to take this pictures, even though she's been protesting pictures as of late. Friday was her last day of school. Of course, on the last day of school she was dancing around saying how excited she was to go to school. We were in charge of last day of school party cupcakes. It ended up being a disaster. They took twice as long to make b/c Moira wanted to help ice and frost them. Then I dropped the cupcake carrier upside down on the walk to school. I spent 1/2 an hour in the breakroom trying to fix them and came back early with extra sprinkles to make them even better. I would have just got new ones but Moira would have busted me. Then, right after the kids sang their songs, all the parents and kids busted out of the room, nobody stayed for the party but 2 kids! I was like, oh great, I spent all that time for nothing. One really nice dad made a big deal about the cupcakes and said thank you like 5 times. That was nice. I don't know what the deal was, but I was sad all our hard work was for nothing! But I digress...
Grady is still a good sleeper at night! I tried taking him out of the fisher price cradle rocker and it was back to 5 hours, so he is back in it for now and doing 10 hours again. He's been going to sleep at 7pm, not waking until 5 am (sometimes I have to put the paci in around 3 or 4) and then going back down for another hour or two!!!! Can you believe it? We'll take it while we can get it, I know babies sleep schedules are ever changing, but as of now, not to bad at all.

Grady had the most gigantic poop expostion EVER today. It was even on his shoulders, no lie. Chris was putting him to bed and rocking him to sleep and then realized he had poop oozing out everywhere. It just made me laugh. Chris was thanking his lucky starts that I was there to help deal with it. We ended up getting him completely undressed and I jumped in the shower with him. It was bad.


Moira has an imaginary friend as of today. Her name is Alison. She was arguing with Alison about who is more of a pirate. Aye matey!

Here is the Moira quote of the day: "I can't wait to go to Planet Earth!"

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Maren with Moira and her friend Mary Grace





Grady and cousin Terra



Moira and Luci at school





Moira getting her diploma





Grady at Moi's school




Their cupcake cake. The yellow ducks are thier mascot.





Outside after school with her goody bag.





























Grady slept 11 hours last night and then rolled over today (from front to back) for the first time. I got his third roll on video after I realized it wasn't a fluke. He just did it with the same chillness that he does everything (Is chillness a word?) Just laying there one minute, on the other side the next!
Moira "graduated" from her 2.5 Tuesday class this week. I had to laugh b/c after kind of fighting school all year long, she kept saying "I am soooo excited to go to school" on the walk down there. She knew they were having a party that the parents were attending towards the end of class. When all the parents got there, we started eating lunch, then they handed out their diplomas (fotunatley Grady fell asleep in the stroller and I just rolled him into the nursery of the chuch, which is connected to their room). I think Moira expected more of a party b/c she said "when is the party going to start?" over and over. Whoops. It's sad that her school is ending this week. It's been good for her and I will miss the break! She starts back in September on Mon. and Wed for 4 hours and every other friday for 3 hours. They sang the "Make new friends song" for the moms. It's funny, when Moira was singing it later she kept saying "Make new friends, but keep me older, one is silver and the other's gold". Almost honey, almost....


We went to visit my cousins, Moira and Grady's second cousins, Maren & Terra today. Baby Terra I guess isn't technically a baby anymore, she is a 1 year old. She is about the cutest thing you've ever seen, I want to just eat her up. I told my aunt Emily that I just can't stop looking at her she is THAT cute! She has some awesome dance moves and just smiles! Moira ADORES Maren like you wouldn't believe. She was so excited to go over to their house she was yelling to the dog and cat "I'm going to cousin Maren's house!" Then of course she fell asleep in the car on the way over b/c she got up at 6:45 and was in a "Moira mood" and I have decided it shall be called (it involves pouting and saying "I'm not doing ANYTHING!") but eventually snapped out of it. I always enjoy talking to my aunt Emily, especially since I feel like Moira and Maren are VERY similar in personality. Every behavior change that Moira goes through, Maren has as well, and it's great to see how they dealt with it and see the end result on the other side!
I was just rereading that "Loving Two" poem that I posted on my Moira blog before the baby was born. I forwarded it to a lady whose blog I read who is expecting a baby and she had a post that reminded me of the poem. In rereading it, I realized I haven't really seen any of the new baby in Moira, although it would have been completely normal of her. Sure, she is more clingy at times (although who knows, that may have happened at this point in her development anyway) and sometimes gets frustrated when I can't get to her immediatley, but really, for the most part, she has been sooooo WONDERFUL. I have to laugh sometimes b/c Grady will be in his crib fussing sometimes and then he stops- when I go to check on him she will have climbed in there and is just smiling and grinning and entertaining him and his eyes are so wide open. It is too funny and hopefully the beginning of a life long friendship.
Okay, it's 5:30 am and both kids are sleeping so why am I bloggin? Well, I had to reinsert the pacifier and it seems to have worked. Now just need to figure out if I should go back to bed or not...

Monday, May 11, 2009

Happy 3 Month Birthday Grady!

Grady 3 months
MOira 3 months

Grady 3 months



Moira 3 months


Grady 3 months




Moira 3 months

Here are some comparison shots. Moira and I had fun playing a game where I pulled up a picture and made her guess which baby it was! It can be tricky, they look pretty similar. I think they have the same mouth and nose, but Grady has Chris's longer eyes and she has my round eyes. They are both blue like Chris. Sigh, I guess the dog and I are the only brown eyed ones in the house.


Grady is definitely a more chill baby. I had a hard time finding pics of Moi smiling (finally dug out her first year cd's to put on the computer) and had a hard time finding ones of her smiling. Grady is smiling in most of his. Although maybe I jsut took more pictures of her. I was looking at the calendar I kept for her and she was sleeping 3 1/2- 5 hour stretches and every 3rd or 4th night she'd have those nights where she would go to sleep but then start crying inconsolably every 45 minutes or so and it would take everything in my power to get her back to sleep and then she'd do it again.... The shot of them in the bumbos- Moira hated it, but Grady was just chillin out it in, barfed on himself, smiled and kept chillin. It makes me nervous though b/c even with all of her idiosyncracies, Moira is a pretty darn good 3 year old. She is kind hearted, a good communicator, non violent (to other kids at least, which is the most important thing), listens for the most part- so I always told myself I paid it forward with the fussy baby to get a good toddler/preschooler. Hopefully that's not entirely true or I'll be in for it when Grady gets bigger. Although I hear boys are just a whole different animal no matter what, as I can imagine.

We went to music class this morning and a lady was visiting with her 3 1/2 month old baby girl. Grady looked like he could eat her for lunch! I am curious about how much he weighs, but I don't know if I am curious enough to go to a place with a baby scale to find out.
Grady slept for 9 hours last night. Pretty good, I thought maybe he'd be off with the trip for Portsmouth. Also of note, I took him out of the Fisher Price cradle rocker and just put him in the crib. For the second stretch, I did put him back in the cradle rocker b/c he didn't want to go to sleep, but then he slept another 2 1/2 hour stretch. Go Grady!


This is Moira at 4 or 5 months. I wish I had more pics of her at this age to compare with Grady. I need to dig up the CD's.












So I got my dream for Mother's Day- a day all by myself! I feel a tad guilty reading friends facebook status updates about their awesome days with the kids when my wish was that everyone just leave me alone for as long as possible... but I think it's fair to say that I spend more time alone with my kids than the average mom, especially lately since Chris has been working 24/7. It was great- I organized the laundry room, emptied the cat box, cleaned out the fridge, and organized the cabinets. It was glorious. Oh, and I actually sat down to eat my lunch and dinner while watching Desperate Housewives on DVR from last week. I had to force myself to sit down, so not used to it. I did have Moira tell Chris that I wanted a "fancy phone just like Missy". Poor guy had no idea what that was and said he went to bestbuy to try to get a gift card buy there were so many different price ranges, he just "authorized" me to buy one for myself. I've been spending a lot of money lately though, so I don't know if I'll really indulge myself in that. I don't really NEED a fancy phone just like Missy, we'll see.

Grady took THREE bottles in a row yesterday. Chris took the kids to Portsmouth to visit with the Grandparents. I sent 2 bottles of breastmilk and he drank all of that and fortunatley, I sent a packet of formula, b/c he hogged that all down too. It was his first bottle of formula ever! I am a little weepy about that, but I am glad that he liked it. Some babies don't like it at all, so I am relieved that he would drink it if he had to. He continues to suck on anything! What a good baby! He slept from 8 pm last night until 5am, went back to sleep and is still in bed now at 8:45. The bad news is Grady sceamed in the car 1/2 of the way. We are supposed to go to UVA for my reunion in a few weeks, I don't know if I'll make it there with him screaming the whole way! May have to reconsider that....

Moira asked for Daddy to put her to bed last night b/c he is the "most fun"! I was so happy!
Moira has her last day of Tuesday school tomorrow. They are having a Luau party and all the mom's are invited. She is so excited. She has debated what she is going to wear all day. She has also debated what all the other kids are going to wear as well.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Misc.







Playing at the Park








My old friend Jennie Brown Crawford sent these to Grady in the mail. How cute!







Didn't want her picture taken.




Sorry, I've been MIA. Busy busy around here. Facebook is sooo much faster and easier, so I usually update that and then don't feel like doing it again on blog. Plus, I feel like I have to say something of importance here, and it's hard to make sense of all my thoughts these days.




Grady slept from 7pm until 5:30 am last night! That's 10 1/2 hours people! I wonder if it was a fluke. We'll see. Only time will tell. He's such a goooooood baby. So happy, chill, good eater, good sleeper. Exactly what I always say on baby cards to people that I hope their baby will be. He has started laughing too. It's kind of just like "ha ha ha" in a dry way, but it is definitely a laugh. He's kind of batting at things. He can grab things and get them in his mouth, although I don't think he's necessarily trying to. He eats his hand a lot, but he's definitely a paci man. He loves the MAM brand paci's, doesn't like the NUK's anymore. (Moira has claimed them all saying Grady doesn't need them anymore) He can kick really hard, almost kicked himself out of his bouncy seat tonight! He isn't overly entertained by Moira yet. She gets in his face and says things she thinks are funny, but it's mainly really loud obnoxious gibberish. He just looks at her like "stop bothering me".




Moira. Where to begin. Going through lots of things these days that I hope/assume are phases and related to the new baby. She's been VERY attached to me. VERY. I tried to go to the bathroom at a friend's house- I told her I was going, she said she didn't want to go with me, but I soon as I was out of sight she had a complete meltdown. She even does that when I leave her with Chris sometimes. Also, very passive aggressively trying to bother me/Grady when I am trying to get him to sleep. Mainly yelling loud gibberish or playing her instruments really too loud. She doesn't want much to do with any other adults. Which, for the record, how come some people do not get it when a kid CLEARLY doesn't want to talk to you. She will be hiding literally behind me and some people just keep getting in her face, which makes her freak out more and more. I finally had to tell the hygenist at the dentist office SHE DOESN'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU. I was already annoyed at them, so I had no problem being borderline rude to the lady. I asked the teachers at his school if she ever talks to them and they said she'll respond if they ask her questions but very quietly and never initiates conversation. But I guess this is the way she's always been at school. Chris hid under the table for 2 years in preschool just saying "macaroni and cheese" to anyone who tried to talk to him, so at least she's out from under the table! She did, ironically, hide under the table for a few weeks. It's good to know she comes by it naturally. I guess she gets that from him and throwing things when she's mad from me... Ah the best of both worlds. But, if she is also getting the valedictorian gene from both sides, so she's got that going for her. I am trying to get her in some summer camps to help with the separation anxiety, and I've put an add in the Otterbein student job placement office for a part time babysitter. Some of my friends with kids said they'd help and take her for awhile over the summer just for an hour or two here and there so she gets used to me leaving her. So we have a plan.
Poor second kid and safety. I busted Moi with a handful of hand sanitizer and she was getting ready to "clean" his face with it. That could have been bad. I hid the hand sanitizer, no worries. I also asked her to clean his paci, and she got soap all over it and fortunately told me "I didn't rinse it very well" before I put it in his mouth, b/c it was still covered in soap. She head butted him the other day really hard. He didn't even cry though. I told her that was very bad and she could really hurt him and she said "I'm sorry" and gave him a kiss on the head. It was such a genuine "I'm sorry", it brought tears to my eyes. Usually when she gets reprimanded she goes "don't see me!" and runs and hides, but she actually felt bad!

Funny Conversations:
Right before bed, Moi was looking at me and started patting down my hair and said "Mommy, you hair looks disgusting".

Me: Moi, what did you learn at school?
Moi: Goose poop is disgusting!

Moi: Grady is bald just like Pop Pop!

Moi: Who is going to stay with me when you go go the hospital to have your girl baby?
Me: I'm not having anymore babies.
Moi: Why not.
Me: We are just a two kid family.
Moi: Well, we are only a ONE kid family, so where is Grady going to go?

I can't think of everything else I wanted to say, so I will end here. I am being cocky and staying up AFTER Grady and Moi go do bed. Hopefully he'll be a good boy tonight and have a good sleep.
Oh, that reminds me of the other thing. Moi has been FREAKING about bugs. It's going to be a long summer. She got up in the middle of the night hysterical b/c she thought she saw a fly. she was screaming and crying. Chris listens to her monitor b/c usually she goes to bed whenever and we don't hear from her at all all night. But she was up from 1-4 am really upset and in his bed watching tv until he put her back to sleep. Crazy girl.