1 Month Old

Its true. Its really true. Kate is one month old today. She's a good baby. Many nights she'll go 5 or so hours without waking up so we are only getting up once or twice. Of course we have some rough ones too but I really can't complain (and they wouldn't be nearly so bad if Brynn and Dylan would sleep through the night)!

Her siblings are still all over her and its becoming quite the chore to keep them away when she is sleeping or I need to get something done. But at least its out of love and not vengence! She has been getting a pretty yucky case of baby acne - Brynn had it really bad too (but the boys never did). And she and I had a moment the other night when she decided to smile at me. Tried to capture the moment since daddy wasn't home but it didn't work out too well and she hasn't done much of it since. But she's a keeper!

Finally a fieldtrip

Tyler and I always had a lot of fun going on the fieldtrips with his preschool class last year. I love having one on one time with my kids. Well, its finally a new school year, at a new preschool, and we didn't have to wait that long for our first field trip and bus ride together...

And of course it was to the farm to go apple picking!

It actually wasn't very structured at all so we just hung out and did all the fun stuff their was to do.

He said he wanted to feed the llama. So I put the quarter in, we got the food, he changed his mind, gave the food to his two friends who were near by, watched them do it, decided he was that brave, we dug around for another quarter, he took the food and mustered up the courage to feed the llama. Found out it wasn't that bad at all. It actually tickled his hands. So then he was brave enough to pet all the other animals.

And for lunch I bought him ice cream. I know, I'm a great mom :)

I had fun today... just me and my buddy...

Back to Back to School

Unfortunately, August 26th, the day Kate was born, also happened to be the Back to School Open House at Scott Elementary. I say unfortunately because I love going to those and of course I couldn't make it. So PJ was under strict instructions to make sure he went.

Kate was born at 4:30pm. After we got cleaned up and settled PJ rushed off to get the kids and Gramma. They came to the hospital for their visit and then all of them rushed off to get to the Open House before it ended at 7:30pm. But they made it! And PJ was very obedient and took a few pictures for me.

Brynn with her teacher Miss Von der Linden...

And at her locker and desk...

Terrible Twos??

On Friday Dylan had his two year well check. He lucked out because their computer systems were down so they couldn't see which immunization he was missing so no shots that day.
He weighed 31.7 pounds and is in the 88th percentile for weight.
He measured 35 inches and is in the 73rd percentile for height.

So I've never believed in the terrible twos. Brynn was always "fun" and even at the age of one had quite the attitude and difficult personality. Tyler's always been happy and easy going for the most part and I can't remember any phases he went through. But it was like a flip switched in Dylan last Sunday when he turned two. He insists on doing stuff by himself or doing what the older two are doing because he's a big boy now. He decided he wasn't going to sleep in the crib anymore. And figured out how to get out so he didn't have to sleep in it. Brynn and Tyler never climbed out of their crib. And I can't exactly say Dylan climbs out - because really I think he just gets his one leg over and then falls out. But either way - he gets out - so we have Tyler up on the top bunk and Dylan on the bottom bunk now. Which shouldn't be a big deal except my kids sleeping habits always seem to go even wackier when they reach the age of two (which is also when we usually move them out of the crib). But since Dylan has always been our good sleeper I didn't think I needed to worry about him. But sure enough... after a few hours of sleep he is up in the middle of the night ready to go for the day. He gets up multiple times during the night (yes more than my newborn) and is still up at the crack of dawn. Very fun - also why he is sleeping in this picture on our Sunday afternoon stroll yesterday. He's a little bit whinnier and says "mommy mommy mommeeee" over and over all day long - in fact he's standing by my side doing it as I'm typing this ;) And he cries whenever PJ or I leave the house. I'm not sure if this is all because he is in fact hitting the terrible twos - or if it just so happens that his 2nd birthday fell on the same day that our constant company stopped after Kate being born and he is finally being forced to adjust to his new way of life. Either way, our happy kid is struggling a little bit now. And not to sound too drastic, it isn't all the time, but its a noticeable difference.
Something cute about Dylan I want to remember:

When you ask him to close his eyes, he uses his finger to close his eyelids (he doesn't just shut them).

And when he's being carted off to bed I point my finger at him and say "I love YOU!" and he points right back and tells me the same.

His favorite words...

• REMOTE - which he uses frequently. He's usually trying to locate it because he wants to watch Einsteins.
• CHIPS - as in chocolate chips. PJ loves to reach in to the freezer and grab a handful of chocolate chips. And now Dylan does too. All too often he convinces his siblings to open up the freezer door for him so he can sneak a few.
• POP - yes, it seems PJ is creating a monster. Dylan knows what pop is and requests it!
• CHEESE - he sure does love his cheese. Another snack that he can get his siblings to get for him.

Dylan's big weekend

Today Dylan turned two!

So of course we had a weekend long celebration for him - even though I'm not quite sure he understood what was going on. But Friday afternoon, Gramma Peper came back with Katy and the boys. And we also got to have my mom's parents - Grandma and Paw Wainwright - here with us. We were so glad they got to meet Kate so soon after she was born!

I think Brody missed Uncle PJ :) in the one week he's been gone...

But as luck so happened, this weekend was also the big Air Show here at Scott Air Force base... ...and Dylan does love airplanes. So we had an airplane birthday party!

I had to go low key on the "cake" this time around. But I don't think it really mattered...

He got some wonderful presents. And he was SO the opposite of Tyler - who gets so excited and can't stop talking, even when they aren't his. Instead, Dylan very calmly and collectedly opened all his presents, getting all the bits of paper and tape off of each one (too slowly for his siblings liking) and then studied each item he opened until another one was thrown at him.

And we did some activities of course: They colored and made different kinds of paper airplanes. They decorated some bags to collect all of their stuff in. And then they "searched the clouds" for different items on their "map". Don't worry, the packing peanuts were such great fun and entertained them for hours. And the mess?!... well don't you worry about that. They were biodegradeable and melted in the water they played in later :) And then we took the big foam airplanes off the ceiling and colored them and played with them for hours also.

But of course the real fun came when we went to the Air Show Saturday morning. We went over to the festivities for a while so that the kids could look at and climb through the fun airplanes, helicopters, jets, etc. Then we came home for lunch and some downtime before heading out to the neighborhood park to play and watch the big show up in the sky.

Dylan's favorite show is Disney's Little Einstiens. And in that show there is a big blue jet. The Navy's Blue Angels were the big attraction this year. And so all weekend Dylan would look up in the sky and see "Big Jet" and get very excited. It was too cute.

Oh and we saw some trains too...

And remember that hearing test that Kate needs to go take?... Well even though I spent the weekend covering her ears from all the loud jets, we're just hoping she'll still pass!

It was a weekend full of high flyin fun and my baby boy is now a toddler...