7.17.2011

The past week has flown by. Everyday gets us closer to our big move! I will be going to Springs tomorrow to do the employee health screening, then headed to daycare to pick up paper work, and stopping by my new job to meet some people and pick up some scrubs. We can wear whatever we want on Monday and Friday, but Tues-Thurs we have to wear the Surgery Center scrubs. That is fine with me...means that I don't have to go out and buy more scrubs!

Jones' vocabulary gets larger and larger each day. I am amazed at how he answers questions with full answers and reasons, like tonight he took his shirt off in the middle of dinner and I asked him why (thinking he was just trying to be like his daddy, who was still in his bathing suit), he said, "I pilled milk on it, mom." He still can't really say the "s" sound. We have been going to the pool a lot more lately and he LOVES it! I am so glad because he has been really scared before but now is counting to 10 and jumping into one of our arms. It is so cute because he will count to 3 with his fingers and then count to 10 as fast as he can and then jump. We started kicking a soccer ball into the pool (btw, this child will end up a soccer player one day the was he kicks) then he would get so excited to get the soccer ball that he wouldn't even count, he would just jump. He is still a little difficult to get to sleep. He wants to sleep in my bed because I have been letting him sleep with me while Jai is gone. So I have to stay in his room until he falls asleep. Tonight, he wanted me in his bed beside him. Then he wanted me on the floor next to his bed. So down I went....and here came Jones. He laid on top of me and laid his head on my chest. Then he took my hand and put it on his face and held it there and would not let me move it til he fell asleep. As much as I wanted him to get in his bed I was loving the "nuggles" from my sweet Jones!

Grayson continues to be a precious little thing. He is the perfect size and snuggle bug. Such a happy happy baby. We are still trying to figure out what gave him hives the other week, between the amoxicillin he was taking or strawberry jello. We gave him a pop-tart yesterday, of course it was strawberry and he had some berry flavored cereal bar, well yesterday and today he has had a rash on his arms and cheeks, some on his back too. Seems to get worse in the heat, may be a heat rash. There is no telling these days. Maybe it is the Septra that he is taking? Too many factors to really know. I did give him some benadryl before he went to bed so we will see if that helps. He is crawling everywhere. Trying to stand on his own, but has a ways to go before that happens. His hair is starting to curl in the back, I LOVE IT! But if it gets much longer people will seriously think he is a boy! He seems to like the pool too but wants to drink the water, just like in a bath. Grayson took a nap with me today, it was wonderful! That child does love to snuggle with his momma. When I was home with him for all those months, we took several naps a day and I LOVED it! When he was an ity bity thing that was all we did! I would have to set 3 alarms so I would actually wake up and do something for the day! Wow how things have changed!

So two more weeks left at Richland and here living in Lexington. Still can't believe it! And college football is right around the corner! Can't wait for that!!!!!!

 Can't imagine if I had to carry him around in that carseat!

 Gaygee supporting the USC Baseball team! Go Cocks!

 After a long afternoon swimming.

Just had to capture how sound asleep he was in my bed.

Mommie and her sweet boys!

Jones being silly, as usual.

Lay Me Down To Sleep

Just a quick entry while Jones sleeps beside me in my bed (another bad habit while Daddy is working in Lancaster!).

One night a few weeks ago I was putting Jones to sleep and he said, "mommie, lay me" and I tried and tried to figure out what he was saying. Then it came to me. He wanted me to say his prayers! I thought it was the absolute cutest thing ever! He takes his paci out, folds his little hands together and while I say the prayer, he says it with me for the parts that he remembers. He mostly only knows the end of the last few sentences. Tonight when I put him to bed, he was ready for his prayers and he actually said the last sentence. SOO Cute!!!!! I guess he has heard me say it to him every night for the past 2 1/2 years so he is ready to start saying it with me. This is the prayer that we say every night:

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Keep me safely through the night
And wake me with the morning light.
May God bless you and keep you safe.
Amen.

Poor little Grayson fell tonight and bumped his little head. He pushed over a chair that had some bags hanging on it and when he did that, Jones thought it was funny and wanted to push one over also....except he pushed over the chair that Grayson was using to hold himself up with....yeah you can guess how that turned out. Grayson had a red cheek and a big bruise over his right temple. He cried and cried and Jones cried and cried. I think Jones felt bad for hurting him. He gave Grayson a big hug and kiss. I felt bad for my little fella though.

I guess I should probably put Jones in his bed. As much as I love to "nuggle" with him, as we call it, having him in my bed is like sleeping with a Mexican jumping bean (my mom coined that one and nailed it). Maybe I'll let him sleep here for a few hours..........

Nite nite!

Blog needs a face lift!

There is no possible way that I could catch everybody up on the past 6 months...or has it been more? But it is time that I begin blogging again. Everyday these sweet boys do the cutest things that I swear I have to remember. I absolutely can not believe how fast these past 2 1/2 years have gone by and it scares me to think of what I have already forgotten. So, here we go, I'm back on the blogging bandwagon...

Jones is a typical two year old right now. I don't want to title him as being in the "terrible twos" simply because I love this stage that he is in. He LOVES his momma right now and he isn't afraid to tell me or show me how much. I have a bad bad habit of sleeping in his toddler bed until he falls asleep (I actually really like the bad habit, myself). And everyone that knows me knows just how much I am always kissing my boys. It's like I can't ever get enough kisses from them. Well, last night I had just laid my head down on Jones' small "night night pillow" and had just closed my eyes, when I felt this really soft, wet kiss on my forehead. That's right. It was precious. Jones had leaned over and kissed me good night. Then it was as if he couldn't get enough kisses! He kissed each cheek, then my nose, my forehead and gave me one right on the lips! It was the most precious thing!!! 

Jones is in the stage where he has to do everything by himself. He has just become potty trained and I think he really likes it. He wants to be the one to take off his shorts and cute Elmo underwear, not mommie or daddy. When he needs to poo poo, he demands that we turn on the fan and shut the door. It is hilarious. Then when he is done, he yells, "mom, I'm done" and usually he is. Thanks to his sweet friend Eli C, he is extremely fond of going pee pee outside in the grass now to and I usually let him! 

Jones loves for me to "make a noise."  This started out as him saying "mommie, makin a na noise?" with this curious, yet excited look on his face. At first I had no idea what he was talking about until one day he pointed at my stand mixer in the kitchen...he wanted me to make "pupcakepes." He even told his teacher "Ms. Dallah" (aka, Marcella) that he loves his Mommie because I "cupcakes, eggs, and make noise." He still asks me if we can "make noise" although now he can actually say, "make noise" and not "makin a na noise" although I really thought that was cute. 

Jones is in love with Gaygee too. He has always called Grayson "gaygee" but has now started to say "Gaygon." He has a hard time saying the "s" sound but is doing very well talking. Jones loves to kiss his baby and rub his head. He is very protective of Grayson and likes to check on him, wake him up in the morning and hug him. There are many times that he is jealous and he acts out but he truly loves his baby. My favorite thing has has said about Grayson is when Grayson was sick and had really high temperatures. I had both boys eating breakfast at the table and Jones got up out of his chair, felt Grayson's forehead and said, "Mom, my baby is hot, he needs medicine." I just about died I thought it was so sweet. One day this week, I will make a list on here of all the sweet, funny things that Jones says. I want to remember all of them!

Grayson is such an amazing little baby. I can believe how much he has grown. He now has 4 teeth, 3 on the bottom and 1 on top. He is 21 pounds and about 28 inches long. He is the best size, still feels like a baby but very much growing up to be a little toddler. He is crawling all over the place. His favorite place to be is under the kitchen table. He loves to take a chair and push or pull it around the kitchen. He absolutely loves the little door stoppers. He will play with them for a good 30 minutes. Jones used to be terrified of them but now loves them too. Grayson is cruising between furniture and will now take about 10 steps while I hold one hand. He is a very very happy, content baby. Rarely fussy unless he has an ear infection...we are now on the 3rd antibiotic since Memorial day and have been referred to the ENT for tubes. I am SO READY for tubes. They were great with Jones and so I now want Grayson to get them. 

Grayson sees an Early Interventionist with Easter Seals once a week as well as a physical therapist and speech therapist. I can really tell a huge improvement since we added the physical therapist and the speech therapist. The other day he reached his arms up for me to pick him up and said, "ma ma ma ma ma" at the same time. He did the same thing to Jai, but obviously said "da da da." That is huge!! I am just constantly amazed at how far he has come from one year ago. He wasn't even out of the hospital yet this time last year! AMAZING! 

Grayson is so cute when he gets excited. If he is sitting, he moves his little legs up and down until he is bouncing on the ground. He also loves to play with Jones. At night I rock both of them at the same time and if Grayson is in a playful mood (he usually is) he will play a game with Jones and try to take Jones' paci....oh it is hilarious bc Jones plays back and tries to get Grayson's. Grayson is always very curious to know what Jones is doing. 

Jai has started working at Founders FCU in Lancaster so we will be moving to either Rock Hill or Fort Mill very soon. We will live with Jai's parents until our house sells. No clue how long that will take. We have had 2 people look at it so far....I'm afraid this is going to take a while but at least I will have somewhere to stay during football season!!!

I just accepted a job at a small outpatient surgery center in Indian Land. It is directly across the street from the boys new daycare and I am really excited about that. The job sounds great. It will be full time but the hours will be 5-1 on an "early" day or 7-3, 7-5 depending on  the day. To me, the earlier the better so I can get the boys and go home. Although the job does not sound as challenging as my current position in management, I think I will really like having good hours for the boys and I certainly won't have any work to bring home so that will be nice. As hard as it will be to leave Lexington, I am ready to get back into the same house as Jai. He is living in Lancaster Monday - Friday and being a single momma of 2 young boys aint easy!

It will be VERY VERY hard to leave Lexington. As much as I have always wanted to, I am really upset about it. We have joined a church and made a lot of friends. I can't even begin to talk about leaving my job,  friends and co-workers at the good ole Rich-land. It hurts my heart. Nuff said cause I could go on for hours. Time for bed but here are some pictures of my sweet family!

My Sweet Grayson, a little over 1 year

Jones loves his baby

He is all about making silly faces these days.

This was 4th of July and celebrating my Grandma's 91st birthday

Christmas three

Pine Cone Frame Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Fabulous Christmas Cards from Shutterfly!

11.26.2010

Wow this year is flying by! I can not believe it is time to order Christmas cards already! I love shopping for them and this year Shutterfly has the best Christmas cards! I just ordered Grayson’s birth announcements from Shutterfly. I ordered them on a Wednesday and I had them in hand by Friday…talk about great service! Great, quick service, along with the fabulous, stylish Christmas cards is why I will be ordering mine from Shutterfly again this year. They have hundreds of styles. Here are a few of my favorites:

Monogram Ribbon Card

 Merry Christmas Card

Monogram Collage Card

Shutterfly has many options to choose from including cards with initials, which I love. You can also add tons of pictures to them, which is great because I have so many cute pictures of the boys! The website also makes editing pictures a breeze so that you can feel sure your Christmas card will be the best yet! Shutterfly also has so many great Christmas gifts (Christmas Gifts Link). The pewter ornament is my favorite (Pewter Ornament). For Father’s day, I ordered Jai a photo book from Shutterfly and he loved it! I think I am going to make a book every year!

I can not wait to order mine…be looking for your Christmas card from Shutterfly in the mail! If you would like to participate in the Shutterfly blog promotion, visit this website: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Stay tuned for an update on the boys!

Camille

Roll over, roll over!

11.1.10
Tonight Grayson rolled over for the first time! I am still shocked! We were doing tummy time and he was holding his head up so well, pushing with his elbows and lifting his chest. Then all of the sudden he pushed with his left hand and threw his left leg behind him and off he went! I was just in shock!!! So, of course I put him right back onto his belly to see if he would do it again and had Jai come and watch and he did! Then I cried!!! That is such a huge milestone for him! When I finished crying and giving him hugs and kisses, I got out the video camera and tried to catch it. I was waiting and waiting and he was just about to do it again when Jones came over to join in on the fun. He wanted to lay down on the floor with Grayson so I had to put the camera down, by the time i picked it up, I was only able to catch part of it...but he had done it again!!!

Since Grayson was 2 months early, he is only supposed to be doing what a 2 month old is able to do. It is called his Corrected Gestational Age. For ex, if a full term baby sits up at 6 months, Grayson is expected to be able to sit up by 8 months. If he can not by 8 months, then he is considered delayed developmentally. Babycenter.com says that by 4 months old a baby should be able to roll from tummy to back. Grayson is 4 months old so maybe this means that he is catching up with other 4 month old babies!! I am so proud of him!!!

Grayson and I both have a little cold. He was pitiful this morning with a runny nose, but otherwise he doesn't act like he is miserable. Hopefully this will pass soon.

As it turns out, we may end up stopping Grayson's caffeine earlier than we thought. I got his prescription filled on the 22nd and received a 30 day supply. The caffeine is in vials, 10 vials per box. I usually hang on to the caffeine box and just throw it all away when I get the new supply. Now I can not find the other two boxes anywhere and I think I threw them away thinking that they were the older boxes. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do and it has me in a really bad mood. Insurance will not let me refill the prescription until Nov 13th. Of course I could buy a months worth of medication without insurance for $1700...yeah that's not happening. The caffeine vials are 3mls, and he only needs 1.2ml/dose, however the manufacturer says that they are single use vials because they are preservative free. So, I don't know what to do. I will call Dr. Head tomorrow and see what she says. Yet again, I can't help but get really upset at the lady that erased an entire months worth of Grayson's apnea alarms because if I had that information, I might know if he really even still needed the caffeine. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

On a lighter note, Jones had a lot of fun on Halloween. He was the cutest Lil Count. I have the cutest picture of him and his friend Elaina walking hand in hand up the side walk in their costumes! It was so cute, how he reached out to hold her hand and walk up the side walk! He was very shy with trick or treating, but he loved answering the door bell and passing out candy at home. By the end of the night he was picking up our bowl of candy and giving each child one piece of candy! Then we all sat in the living room and ate TCBY! YUM!! It was a lot of fun!!

I will upload some pictures tomorrow. This cold is getting the best of me and it is time for a bubble bath! Nite nite!!

10.25.10

I thought this was so sweet. Jones just woke up from a nap and looked up at Jai...sooo sweet!

With a belly full of milk...happy, sleepy Grayson!

This picture makes me laugh because of Elmo's eyes!

One of Grayson's first smiles!

I LOVE THIS SIGN!!! It was given to me at the doctor's office where Grayson got his Synagis vaccine

Wow, I've finally found the time to update the blog!!! Now, where to start:

Grayson is growing like a little weed! At the last doctors visit, he weighed 12 pounds and 3.5 ounces! What a chubbie lil guy! He has filled out and really looks like a cute little baby now (he has always been cute, but turned into a baby from an infant, and yes, there is a difference!). He is now smiling and interacting more with us. Developmentally, he is right on track with a 2 month old which is perfect for him because his corrected gestational age is 2 months.

BCBS did approve the RSV vaccine, so he is getting that shot, Synagis, monthly through March which will really help through the winter RSV season.

Easter Seals has started to come see him. They will follow him until he is about 2, I believe. They plan on seeing him weekly and will do developmental assessments, play with him, etc, to track his development. The idea is "early intervention" so that if a developmental delay is identified, they intervene early with the appropriate therapy, but hopefully there won't be any delays.

Grayson has a pretty good schedule. He usually starts the morning in a good mood, naps around 8:30-9:15, eats, stays awake until about 10-10:15, then naps for a while. The rest of the afternoon follows the same routine, nap, eat, play, nap, eat, play until his witching hour around 7. He is usually just tired and wants to get in his swing and go to sleep! So he will fuss for a little while and fight sleep (I've never understood that) and then he is usually in dreamland by around 8:30 and if we are lucky, he stays asleep until around 1am, eats, and up again at 4am and thats when we snuggle in the bed (I LOVE that part!). This week, my plan is to get him to sleep in his crib (yes, the Munire crib that I just HAD to have has been a glorified laundry basket since he was born!), so his schedule may change a little.

He is going for his 4 month check up on Wednesday and then he has his first developmental assessment with Easter Seals on Thursday. I had planned on talking with Dr. Head on Wednesday about when to stop the caffeine that he is still taking, so I was being a proactive momma and called Long's Home Medical and had them come out to the house Friday to download his heart/apnea monitor. The plan was to download Friday and put a rush on the interpretation and have something to show Dr. Head on Wednesday. Well, everything was beginning to work out as planned, except when Long's came for the download, her computer died during the download and erased an entire MONTH worth of apnea alarms, readings, etc...so now because of that we are a month behind! GRRRRRRR!!! I am still really mad about that but oh well, it is out of my control and that does mean that I get to keep the monitor one more month, which is fine by me!

Now for our little Jones. I really think that this age, around 20 months, is my favorite so far. I just love interacting with him and hearing the little things that he says. He is now able to count to 10!!! Now granted, it isn't perfect and he only does it when he wants to, but he will count all the way to 10. He tries to use his little fingers but he only sticks out one, and then he will open up all five fingers, and he always ends with "YAY!" and claps. He also can name the following colors: purple, pink, blue, green, red, yellow, orange, brown, white, and black! I am so proud of my little guy!!!! Now we are working on the alphabet. He will sing his ABCs, it usually sounds like one big long letter, but he is doing it!

He calls Grayson "gay-gee" or just says, "the baby." He loves to rub Grayson's head, and he also helps me when Grayson begins to fuss, Jones will say, "Manie, baby crying" or "Uh oh, baby paci." So cute!

He is just the sweetest thing. He loves giving hugs and kisses. When he does give a kiss he says "mmwwaahhhhh" at the same time!!! He is mostly a good boy, but I have been told from the teachers at Windsor that Jones has become a bully. The other day he went to timeout 6 times before 9am!!! They say that he picks on one baby that is new to the toddler room and that he pushes him over and sometimes tries to sit on him! I really think he learned this from other kids in the class because I have seen them do that. But the new baby is only there on Wed and Thurs so those are the only two days that he is bad! So we are learning what things are "not nice" in Jones' terms.

It seems like every day he does something new. He is in love with Barney, whom he calls "Baa-gie." Every time the Barney theme song comes on, he gets up and stomps around the house like Barney does in the video. Jones also loves to sing. He is constantly singing random songs, like Barney's "Clean up" song, or "Hey, Hey, Hey, I learned something new today" which ever song that is. He loves music.

We have spent a lot of time "out-guide" lately since the weather has been so nice. He loves to play with our neighbors, Ashton (6) and Elaina (4) and balls are still his favorite, although he LOVES a vacuum!!! Actually anything that cleans, he loves, but especially a vacuum. He loves them so much that he thinks his corn popper is a vacuum and he actually turns it on and moves it around like a vacuum. It is hilarious! He also likes to use wet paper towels to "clean" the walls where he colored on them with crayon. He is a hoot. I tell ya, this is definitely my favorite age.

Jai and I have been interviewing nannies. I plan to go to work part time sometime in November and then return full time in January. I just hope that we can find someone that we really like.

Ok, I need to upload some pictures, do laundry, and plan on making a sour cream lemon pound cake all before Grayson wakes up...haha, yeah right. Hopefully it wont be another 6 weeks before I update the blog! I apologize to all that follow frequently (Karen Ann and Aunt Mary, especially!)....Love to all!

My two boys...Jones was rubbing Grayson's head

My big baby!!!

I was trying out his hair-do for halloween!

Putting on my deodorant

One of his first times on a swing

Flying down the slide a Monkey Joe's

Grayson looks worried!

My sweet little baby!!!