Our month of April

You have no idea how glad I am that spring is here! Not that we had a very bad winter or anything, but I was so ready to get outside. And I'm even more excited for summer. Not only will this be our first summer with a pool membership (we'll be there everyday!) but David and I also have a trip to Mexico planned. We planned on taking a trip for our 5th year anniversary, but since I was pregnant last summer, we're going this year. Lots to look forward to!

Unfortunately the sickness continues...we get about a two week break before it's starts all over. This time I've been thrown into the mix too. The only thing worse than having two sick kiddos, is being sick and having two sick kiddos. We're suviving though :)

With Spring also comes bubbles. Gemma's favorite!

Twirling in the bubbles!!

Ester 2012 was a lots of fun. We spent the first part of the day with the Yarbrough side of the family, and the later part with the Boyd side. Needless to say, there were multiple egg hunts, lots of candy, and lots of pictures.

Gemma during her 2nd egg hunt.

Mr. Smiles!

The fam

You can see more pictures from Easter here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.396512813705855.97621.100000414194522&type=3

Little man is a crawler!! And just as I predicted, he's much more content and able to entertain himself for longer periods of time. I LOVE the crawling phase! I'm not sure how long we'll be here before we hit the walking stage since he's been pulling up on things, but I hope it's a few months anyway. It seems they lose a lot of "babyness" as soon as they start walking.

This was taken two days ago (the night he officially started crawling).

Inchworm

I don't even know where to begin. The last month has been a whirlwind of good, bad, and everything in between. Life in general has been somewhat overwhelming for me so I have found no motivation to sit down and blog. Today however, it hit me just how much has happened in the last three weeks, so I decided I would make myself sit down and put some of it down in words instead of just posting pictures.

From the moment I found out I was pregnant with Makael, I started trying really hard to appreciate Gemma's littleness. One of my fears of having #2 so soon was that I would force her to "grow up" too quickly or miss something. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of focusing until the other night when I was tucking her into bed, I realized I can no longer see any baby...or even any toddler in her. She's all little girl now. During our last outing to the park, I never worried she might get trampled over by one of the "big kids", instead I found myself telling her to be careful around the "little kids". As hard as I've tried to take it all in, I still feel like I missed something. Where did her littleness go?

I can't keep up with Makael either. Every time I think "I need to get a video of that" he's on to the next thing...seriously! Two days ago, he started getting up on his hands and knees, yesterday he started moving forward by doing an "inchworm" type motion, and today when I walked into his room, I found him pulled up (still on his knees) on his little brown chair. Please tell me he's not going to skip the crawling phase all together! He's not even 7 months old yet!

The biggest change I've noticed, is the way G and M are interacting. They are officially siblings. Yep, the fighting has begun. Makael has figured out he can get mad when Gemma takes a toy away, and if he gets REALLY loud, he can typically get it back. I already can't count the times I've had to say, "Gemma give that back to him". Thankfully, along with the fighting also comes playing together. It has to be one of my favorite things to watch. I'll leave Makael on Gemma's bedroom floor to get something done, and she'll do anything and everything to get him to laugh, and she succeeds 100% of the time. Yesterday I walked in to find them playing "tea party". Gemma had set out her whole tea set and was pretending to feed him using her little plastic spoon. Makael LOVES solids these days, so of course he was gladly opening his mouth everytime the spoon came near his face. I guess it could be considered a little mean that I let her keep "feeding" him since there was nothing on the spoon, but they were both giggling non stop, so I just watched and listened. It was pretty adorable.

Little or big, they're definitely the best part of my day.

I figured I better post a video of Makael trying to crawl before he actually figures it out...who knows, that might just be tomorrow.

Musical Talent??

I've been taking some piano lessons...I think she might be better than me.

A few things to note in the next two videos:

1. They were taken on two different days, though you wouldn't know that based on the fact that she's wearing her swim suit in both. She doesn't want to wear anything else these days.



2. In the last video, right after we finish the song...if you listen carefully you'll hear her say, "I love you mom". So sweet :)



3. I'm well aware Makael comes VERY close to hitting his head on the crib.

Catching up on some videos and pictures

One of my favorites pictures of him!

Enjoying a teething biscuit...

But then this happens....

So now we just strip down beforehand.

I love my kids in hats!

Loving the outdoors.

And we thought he was going to be our quiet baby...

Wanting to move!

A girl and her ball

" Whoah dad, that is soooo high!"

"Throw it to me!!"

"I'm going to catch it!"

"Maybe I can do it, if I just close my eyes and wish for it to happen."

"I did it?"

"I'm so cool"

6 months

I've been trying to post a blog since Makael turned 6 months old (last Friday) but for some reason only pictures I've taken with my phone will upload. Very frustrating! I've gotten some really cute ones of him recently that I wanted to include. Pictures or not, I have to give an update...6 months is a big deal!
Makael now weighs 13 lbs 12 oz, and is 25 inches tall. He's consistently staying in the 2 percentile, which is fine by me so long as he continues to grow. He's now getting real food which has been interesting. So far, we know that he hates zucchini, is okay with broccoli and sweet potatoes, and is a huge fan of apple sauce. He's also starting to insist on holding his own bottle, and is sitting up on his own (note the pictures above)! Most importantly, depending on how swollen his gums are I can feel his first two bottom teeth. He's been busy!
He's getting more and more playful by the day, and I just love it! He has learned how to give kisses, growl, and make all sorts of cute gibberish noises. Along with being more playful, he's also getting louder. We are going to have to start sending him to Sunday night day care during small group since he's becoming quite the distraction trying to "partake" in the discussion. I'm a little sad about it, I have yet to even send him to the nursery on Sunday mornings, but I think it will be good for him. He's much more reserved than Gemma was at this age, and has started to get upset if I leave the room, so it will be good to get him used to being okay with other people taking care of him.
I'll sound like a broken record and say it again, time is going by way too fast...but in a fun way :)

These are a few of my favorite things

I love going back and reading pasts posts. It's amazing how much I forget...even those things I think I never will. So this is specifically meant to "document" some of Gemma's current favorites.

• Puzzles- Putting puzzles together is by far her favorite thing to do right now...and man is she good at them. I'm not sure if she's advanced in this area or not, but I'm sure impressed by her. Not only does it impress me that she can basically put any puzzle together by herself, but also the length of time she can sit and concentrate. The only puzzle she hasn't been able to completely finish on her own is a 48 piece picture of a pirate ship, but she has sat for 40 minutes trying. It's pretty crazy.
  
• Riding the merry-go-round at the mall... or as she calls it, "the horsy round". I can't even count how many times she's been on it. She always decides on our way to the mall what animal she wants to ride. It's a big decision after all. Typically, she chooses the bear, the cat, or the horse, but occasionally she'll decide on the lion or the tiger.
• Hide and go Seek- This is probably the cutest thing in the world! She still hasn't figured out that just because her face is hidden, doesn't mean we can't see her. But of course we humor her and love every second of "finding" her.
• Going to the park- Luckily, we've been able to go a lot this winter with it being so warm. I have no doubt she'll want to be outside as much as possible this summer, and this year we'll have a pool membership!
  
• Wearing Hats- She has a pretty good collection of sun hats which she pulls out on a daily basis and takes turns wearing all of them. Hopefully the enjoyment lasts into the summer when it will actually be beneficial to wear a hat
  
• Taco Bell- We have made it a tradition to meet David for lunch about once a week, and TB is where we go almost every time since it's so close to his work. She loves their cheese roll ups! If I gave her the option, she would eat one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• Chocolate milk- This is the cure all, go to beverage. It will instantly put her in a good mood regardless of the situation.
  
• Grandpa crackers- The first time she ever had Wheat Thins was at Lita and Grandpa's house, and for some reason got it in her head that they were Grandpa's crackers she was eating...so naturally that's what they are called.
• Go Diego Go- I'm not sure why she has suddenly decided she likes Diego more than Dora, but it's the only thing she ever wants to watch these days. I have to admit...it's a pretty good show.
• ALL of her stuffed animals: I have no clue where she learned to love them so much or where they even all came from. They mysteriously keep reproducing but she keeps track of them and plays with all of them equally. It's like she has them on rotation or something... though her favorites are Tiger, Kitty, and her little dog Harley.

This picture shows how beautiful she's getting...

While this one reflects more accurately her personality. Ha!