Garage Sales Rock!

We really like garage sales. Most of Gemma's clothes are awesome finds by Nana. Literally, I've barely had to buy her any clothes the last two years. It's amazing! Oddly enough, I don't like going to very many myself. I'm somewhat intimidated by them. I'm not sure why...it could be that I don't like going through things while the owner is watching me, or maybe it's that I'm not very good at bargaining, or perhaps I get overwhelmed trying to go through it all...definitely all of the above. However, this past weekend, I passed one on my street on my way home from a run and saw a great picnic table. I mentioned it to David when I got home and mustered up enough courage to go. I decided to take Gemma with me, thinking she might like picking something out. Boy was I right! She immediately zeroed in on a bag of bath toys...yes, regular bath toys like ducks and fish and boats. You would have thought she had just found a huge bag of candy by how excited she got. She was beyond herself! I tried to get her to look around some more, but nothing could quite capture her attention like that bag of bath toys. So we bought them, as well as the picnic table that got us there in the first place. And I'll admit it was really fun...I might just have to try it again.
Aunt Elly also has awesome success at garage sales. She bought Gemma a great kitchen set as an early birthday present. Gemma's in love! Ariya has a set just like it so when they left after bringing it over, Gemma asked if the kitchen got to stay. When I said yes, she ran over to it and gave it a hug. The rest of the day she would periodically give the kitchen hugs while she played...it was so cute!
Here are some pictures of our latest garage sale finds :)

Her picnic table

Her bath toys

Hugging her kitchen

5 weeks!

Makael is 5 weeks today!! How unbelievably crazy. Not too long ago, I wrote about how strange it was to think of us becoming a family of four, and yet here we are five weeks after his birth, and it's strange to think of life without him. He's truly something special! I absolutely love that little guy! Unfortunately he's no longer that "easy" baby I was blessed with for the first couple of weeks. I'm no medical doctor, but I'm pretty sure he's developed reflux and has become somewhat of a more "difficult" baby. If anyone who reads this has ever had a baby with reflux and has some suggestions, PLEASE send them my way. He's not spitting up a ton, but he's constantly chocking, or making a "chewing" motion while swallowing hard. He doesn't nurse or take a bottle without chocking and taking a gazillion breaks to fuss. And he seems to be eating less and less. It's hard to get him to even drink an ounce and a half from a bottle these days. Not to mention he makes the most pitiful little faces and fusses for a good 20-30 minutes after every feeding, and we are barely sleeping at night. So yes, tips and advice are very welcome.
On the bright side, he's getting ridiculously cute :) Yesterday we shared what instantly became my favorite moment to date. He watched me fold two baskets of laundry...I have never had so much fun folding laundry. He smiled almost continuously the whole time. It was so sweet!! He doesn't give out a ton of smiles yet (probably because his stomach hurts HA!), but when he does, it's just about enough to make me melt.
In other news, the boy can move! If you've held him recently, you've probably noticed he likes to wiggle non stop... but he's also incredibly mobile on the floor. He's already rolled from his stomach to his back a few times...I don't recall Gemma doing that this soon. And just a few days ago, I was taking pictures of him and his little buddy Jackson (who was born 4 days before him), and he would not hold still for a single picture. He kept rolling side to side and came ridiculously close to rolling onto his stomach...in both directions! I tried explaining to him that he's only a month old, but he won't listen to me...he's determined to go places. I can't say that I'm surprised he's so desperate to get on his stomach. I've let him sleep that way (only for supervised naps) and he loves it. I'm pretty sure if he had been born back in the day when that was considered the safe way for babies to sleep, he would be giving me much longer stretches at night. Oh well.
I'm keeping this post only about Makael. I've noticed that if I write about both kids (still not used to saying "kids"), I'm always worrying about how long the post is getting so I end up leaving out a lot. So my goal is to write one post a week about each of them. That may be a little ambitious right now, but I'm going to give it a try.

Here are the only three ways Makael will sleep:

In his swing

In his bouncy seat

On his tummy

So Makael has been really good about waking up every three hours at night to eat (sometimes sooner) which I'll admit is a little draining on me. I'm not complaining though, I love my one on one time with him, but it does means I'm pretty tired most days. Last night I was having a hard time getting him to sleep. He ate at 10:00 p.m. but didn't settle down and really fall asleep until 11:00 p.m. Right after I put him down, I looked at the clock and thought to myself, how great it would be if he slept until 2:00 a.m. Well, at 2:15 I woke up and realized he hadn't made a sound. I obviously freaked out and ran into his room to make sure he was still breathing...he was :) He was beginning to stir so I went back to bed and waited for him to start crying before I fed him. I woke up at 3:20 freaking out again. Yes, he was still breathing. This time he was starting to make noises so I went ahead and fed him. That's right...he held out almost five and a half hours!! Although I didn't really get to sleep the entire time since I kept thinking something was wrong, I'm so grateful for the longer stretch of time! I hope it becomes a new habit.

Well that's really all I have to report this time :) I know, such exciting stuff happening in the Boyd household.
At least I have several new videos to post.

Learning how to garden.

She was very excited about her new socks.

Can't wait to start capturing some smiles.

This is a little long, but I thought her voice sounded so cute.

Normalcy...somewhat

I don't know if we are finding a rhythm or if my body has just accepted that feeling sleep deprived is considered the new "normal". Regardless, I feel good, and my days seem more manageable (with a few exceptions of course). I don't think I do very well with adjustments so I was pretty desperate to find our routine. I started running again this past weekend, and although I feel like I'm in terrible shape, it felt really good to get back out there. And it doesn't hurt that the weather right now is absolutely gorgeous! I've also started cooking again...not something I particularly enjoy, but again, it means things are getting back normal.

While Gemma seems to be acting more like her usual funny self, she has recently decided she no longer wants to use the toilet. I knew it was a possibility that she would regress in the potty training department, but I was REALLY hoping it wouldn't happen. It's pretty frustrating of course, but I know we'll get through it...we've done it once before right?
The last couple of days she's been a total riot. Everyday is something new...she either has a certain toy she just HAS to have with her at all times, or she wants her hair done a certain way, or she wants to wear a certain shirt. Like today for example...I let her pick out her outfit (I don't do this very often) and she got all excited and went in and grabbed her PJ's...that's right, she changed from one set of PJ's into another. I guess she just wanted to be comfortable today :)

Nanna and Papa came over yesterday with a few presents...they brought several things, but her favorite was the stuffed Winnie the Pooh. That wasn't surprising of course since she has always loved stuffed animals, but we all got a kick out of the fact that she was calling him "Pee in the Poo" hahaha. It quickly got shortened to "Pee Poo", and today she has yet to set him down.

These are her "bug boots" which she likes to wear with every outfit.

Funny story about these bug boots...she wanted to sleep with them one night so I put them in bed with her. When David went in to check on her before we went to bed, he found her sleeping with them on. The next morning when I went in to get her, she was wearing them again. Priceless!

Watching "Fox and the Hound" with Todd and Copper of course!

Makael is growing like a weed! Someone please stop him!! He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz at his two week appointment. I realize that's still small, but it means he gained 22 ounces in two weeks!

We had a really long night with him a few days ago...he decided to stay awake from 2:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. That was the first time I even thought about wishing he was a little older...that thought quickly vanished the next morning when I noticed his chubbier arms and legs. It was clearly just a growth spurt :) Thankfully we haven't had a night like that since.

He's changing so much from day to day. It's amazing how fleeting the newborn phase is. I have yet to get one out of him, but Lita was lucky enough to get his first intentional smile today.

Isn't he just precious!!

Under construction

The blog will be undergoing some changes for the next few weeks. I keep sitting down to change the look, but never get done before I have to go do something else. So don't be surprised if it's a different color or format every time I post for a while.

Two weeks in and I'm still in the process of adjusting to two kids. I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will get there. I'm just perpetually busy! I feel so accomplished and think I'm finding a rhythm on days when I'm able to get the kids dressed, feed them breakfast, and get the cleaning done for the day...and then I realized I still havne't gotten myself dressed. However, I think the biggest adjustment has been getting used to the fact that it takes ten times as long to get out the door to go anywhere. No matter how early I start getting things ready, I still feel like I'm rushing to get out the door on time. It's still a little chaotic, but I'm loving every second of it.

Makael continues to be a really easy baby. We've had a few long nights, but I honestly don't care. My days are so busy taking care of him and Gemma, that I sort of enjoy being up at night and spending time with just him. I just hope I don't suddenly crash from the lack of sleep.

I still can't figure out who he looks like, all I know is that he's getting cuter by the day. He's still pretty small but he is starting to feel heavier, and his head has definitely grown :) I'm excited to find out how much he weighs at his two week check up next week!

Things with Gemma haven't been so easy unfortunately. This week has been especially hard. We've had some pretty major "battle of wills", and I feel like I can honestly say she's showing me the "terrible twos" everyone always talks about. Thankfully I have learned a few things from these battles:
1. She's very smart...but I'm still smarter.
2. As long as I win the battle (no matter how hard that might be), the rest of our day usually goes smoothly.
3. I appreciate her good behavior so much more now.
4. I know without a doubt that I love her unconditionally.
5. She's going to make me a better parent.

There's really not much more to report. I've had two glorious crazy weeks with two precious kids!

It takes serious skill to fall asleep standing up.

Loved his first bath! I don't know why I didn't think to give Gemma her first bath in the bathroom sink. It's much more size appropriate.

Hated drying off!

Clean, content, and oh so cute after his bath.

We survived!

It will be a week from tomorrow that we officially became a family a four, and I have to say, it's definitely an adjustment. It hasn't been overwhelming or stressful, just incredibly busy. We're still taking it one day at a time.

Gemma has been a little more emotional than usual, but she doesn't seem to mind that Makael is around. In fact, she constantly needs to know where he is, and go figure she is obsessed with his pacifier...never mind she has never liked them before.

Makael is an amazing baby! He REALLY likes to eat (and poop), and he loves to be held and cuddled, although he's perfectly content just sitting in his bouncy seat too. He had his days and nights a little mixed up for the first few days, so we weren't sleeping much (or at all) from the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. but I think he's figuring it out. Last night he even gave us a 4.5 hour stretch! What a good little boy...and not even a week old yet!

Although Makael slept well last night, it was still pretty eventful for David and I. Gemma started running a fever yesterday evening so we mentally prepared ourselves for a long night. Sure enough, her fever got high enough to wake her up right at midnight, and true to Gemma form, she threw up just minutes after getting a dose of Tylenol. This all coincided with Makael's feeding, so things got a little busy. I have to say though, I think we handled the whole situation quite well. Within the time frame of 1 hour and 25 minutes, we cleaned up throw up, gave Gemma a bath, washed and dried her blankie, fed Makael, changed his diaper (twice), and had them both back in bed sleeping soundly. And the best part...neither one of us ever got upset. We survived! By the time we crawled back in bed, I had the urge to yell, "go team!" ...don't worry, I refrained.

Aside from last night, we are all doing really well, and slowly adjusting to being a family of 4 :)

A few little details we know about Makael:

1. Likes his hands right by his mouth when he sleeps.

2. Doesn't really like to be swaddled.

3. He hates getting his diaper changed, yet insists on pooping after every meal (sometimes twice).

4. Loves being held.

5. Has the "Yarbrough" dimple on his left cheek (we didn't see this until he got a little fat in his cheeks)

6. He's tiny.

Umm yes, cutest thing ever!

Getting to know her little brother.

Already a mama's boy

Fascinated

Yep, that's his nose.

He's here!!!!

Makael Dawson Boyd

Born 9/9/11 at 11:55 a.m.

5 lbs 7 oz

19 inches

Well, the waiting game is over and we have a precious baby boy! It's still very surreal, and neither David or I are used to saying "he".

I will spare you on the whole labor and delivery story. I'll just say that it was the worst 5 hours of my life, and if you ask David, my mom, or my sister about it, they'll more than likely tell you I turned into a crazy person. But the second little Makael made his entrance, I was instantly smitten! Goodness, he's sweet!

Things are going really well this time...well, I won't speak for Makael since at this very moment he's off getting circumcised (poor little guy). I feel great, Makael is a pro at nursing, and overall I think David and I are much more relaxed. Although we are dying to go home to Gemma, our own bed, and our "normal" life, having time with just our little man has been pretty special. And little he is! He weighed in today at 5 lbs 2 oz, only 5 oz less than his birth weight. He's such a little champ, and such a big eater :)

I'm a little surprised at how completely in love I am with him. Obviously I knew I would love him, but I never imagined it would be so much, so fast.

I'm sure the last couple of days have been a little confusing for Gemma. I'm so thankful for everyone that has taken such good care of her (Papa, Nana, Grandpa, Lita, aunt Elly, and uncle Brett). We owe you guys big time! I've missed her so much the last couple of days, and I can't wait to get home and play, or read books, or just watch "Fox and the Hound" with her for the thousandth time. I still can't believe she's a big sister.

There will definitely be pictures posted this week, and a more gender neutral "new" blog.