Erin's Baby Shower

On Saturday I had the privilege of attending a baby shower for my dear friend Erin. After years of trying and multiple devastating miscarriages, Erin is due with a baby girl in May... and I couldn't be happier for her! It was fun to see her (she moved to North Carolina last year) and catch up, and I look forward to meeting her sweet baby girl when they come back to Idaho in August!

Play Dates

I know I mentioned before that Kylee has weekly play dates with Laura, but I wanted to post a quick picture. Here they are making playdough pizzas. Laura is dressed up like a princess. Kylee didn't put on a princess dress because she said she was a ninja :-) They are such good little friends.

I decided play dates are awesome not only for Kylee, but for me too! When she has a friend over, I have a couple hours where I can get some chores done around the house or make dinner or just veg with Tyler and not feel guilty about not keeping Kylee entertained. Laura's mom and I have an arrangement that Kylee goes to her house every other week for the play date, so I can even get a nap in if I want!

This week, Kylee also had her friend Murphee over. I'm going to see about scheduling for her to come over more often - Murphee just lives two houses down!

Three Months!

Wow, has it been three months already? I thank my Father in Heaven each day for this beautiful blessing in my life. I love every minute of my time with my sweet baby. Here are a few highlights from the last month:

I think my favorite is that Tyler started smiling!

I mean, don't you just get happy looking at this little face?!

Tyler has also recently found his hands. Just within the last week he has started chewing on them when he gets hungry and today I caught him sucking his thumb. I told him we would have none of that! :-) I would rather him take a pacifier than suck his thumb because I figure that will be an easier habit to break in the future. The only problem is Tyler has a pretty bad gag reflex. He will just randomly make a gagging sound (which I hate!) and he often gags when trying to take his pacifier (which he won't take very often). I hope his gagging goes away with time! Here he is holding his own pacifier in his mouth.

I was totally impressed earlier this week when he picked up a toy all on his own! I was changing his diaper and he just reached over and grabbed it! I think it was on accident, but it was still pretty cool. This isn't the best picture because I was in a hurry to take it, but it's something! He was trying to chew on his toy! He has also started grabbing onto my hair when I'm holding him, and I am frequently untangling strands of my hair from his little hands. My hair seems to be falling out like crazy right now - I don't need any help from Tyler!

Tyler is definitely starting to get more interested in toys. He's finally big enough to sit in his bouncer seat and he will just fixate on one of the toys hanging from the bar. It's nice because this often keeps him entertained while I pump.

Speaking of pumping, if I need to pump in the middle of the night & Matt's not home, my little guy will go from sleepy to wide awake if I lay him down on his boppy. See what I mean?

I've started trying to lay him in his crib instead. As I've mentioned before, he refuses to sleep on his back (he'll wake up & cry any time I try), so I've been laying him on his stomach and he stays beautifully asleep. I am right there watching, of course, and wish I could just leave him like that because he's so comfy. Darn SIDS!

We are finally done with all of Tyler's "extra" appointments. The home health nurse and physical therapist are no longer making their weekly visits. The one down side to that is we haven't had Tyler weighed in a while. I'm guessing he's almost 9 1/2 pounds. He's still in his newborn diapers and most of his 0-3 month clothes are still quite roomy, but he's finally big enough to be carried in my Baby Bjorn, making my days much more productive (although I can't say I've been that productive lately since I've started back up at work part time & the Olympics are on!).

One final "first"... Tyler had his first day of church last Sunday! I think we were "technically" supposed to keep him home until March, but I'm going stir crazy being in the house all day and it was so nice for all four of us to be able to go to church together. Oh, and Tyler's first time of wearing shoes was at church last week! I look forward to Tyler's baby blessing day, which will be Sunday, March 9th if anyone would like to join us!

Overabundance

I have been blessed with an overabundance of milk. It sure is a lot of work to pump so many times a day, but I'm happy I don't have to supplement with formula. The only problem is we are running out of freezer space! Each of the three bins you can see in the picture are full of bags of milk, and you can see more bags not in a bin on the top 2 shelves. This picture was taken over a week ago, so I would say now the freezer is about half full of milk. I have even thrown away some food to make more room! It should keep up to 12 months in the freezer. Needless to say, Tyler will never go hungry :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I sure love my Valentine. He surprised me this morning with a beautiful perennial rose plant. I am going to do my best to keep it alive for another month or so until it;s warm enough to plant it outside :-)

Speaking of valentines, Kylee and I had fun making valentines for her friends. I downloaded this bag topper - "You're a GEM Valentine!" What kid doesn't like ring pops? :-) Kylee took care of the gluing and writing the names on the valentines.

We've had a couple warmer days, so we went on a family walk to deliver Kylee's valentines. I love how she also drew a picture of our family on our walk!

Two Years!

Matt and I celebrated our two year anniversary last week... and I can't believe how blessed we've been in the past two years! It has gone by quickly, but at the same time, we've accomplished so much. We were definitely happy on that special day two years ago, but I can tell you that I am even happier and more in love today. My life feels so much fuller. I feel so blessed that we get to share our lives together and that we have two beautiful children to brighten our days. I love you Matt!

Look at Me Grow!

Tyler weighed in last week at 8 pounds, 2 ounces!  He is doing so well and is generally a pretty happy baby. Even though he is growing, he's still pretty small.  Keep in mind that he just hit 8 pounds at 2 1/2 months old! But check out the comparison above. The picture on the left was taken mid-December, so Tyler was less than 5 pounds. The picture on the right was taken just this week. A lot of people want their babies to stay tiny... and I might want him to stay little at some point, but for now I love that he is getting bigger!

Monster Magnets

Kylee loves the "Monster Magnets" that she got for Christmas.  She will spend forever creating new monsters.  She made these monsters on Monday and wanted me to take a picture of each one!

One other thing I wanted to record... It doesn't really go with this post, but oh well!  I love the cute things Kylee says, especially when she mixes up the real words.  Recently she's told me that she did a "plant face"... meaning face plant!  Haha, I love it!