30

This post is now several weeks late, but turning 30 was kind of a big deal to me, so I thought I should still write about it!  The best part of this birthday was definitely the presents... Tim got me a dual shower head for our bathroom, which I have been asking for for about a year now, and it was such a nice surprise to wake up and find it already installed on my birthday morning!  My parents and Joe spoiled me with a new point-and-shoot camera and gigantic memory stick.  I have been mostly using my SLR these days, especially around the house and for big family events, but back on Timmy's birthday, I pulled my point-and-shoot out of my purse at the aquarium, only to discover that it would not turn on.  (Hence the grainy cell phone pictures in that post!) I thought I could live without one, until all the weddings we attended this summer.  I kept borrowing my mom's camera, but then I would forget to give it back to her and she missed out on pictures of a couple things she took the boys to, so I finally realized I needed a new one.  Tim bought himself a new toy, that I will be posting about soon, and when he ordered it I asked him to start researching a camera so I could have a new toy too.  I then spent that day, which happened to be my birthday, researching them myself and was then shocked to open one from my parents that evening, it was such a great surprise!  I ended up getting this one and have only just started learning how to use it, but the best two features are that it is waterproof and it takes panoramic pictures!  I am sure that I will have LOTS of examples of both next week when we get back from the beach!

After opening presents on my birthday, my parents, Joe, Uncle Bobby, Tim, the boys and I went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory for a yummy dinner.  That weekend Tim and I met up with our friends at Clyde's at Reston Town Center for a rare night out at a bar!  It was really nice to see everyone, and I especially enjoyed spending some time with my birthday twin, Sami, who is about to get married and has been busier then usual lately!

That evening someone asked me how I felt about turning thirty, I really was fine with it, but I did have to admit to having a little panic attack in the morning when I first signed into facebook and saw my brand new profile picture:

The rushed thoughts, "Ohmigosh, I'm 30, I'm a family of 4, my life is 1/3 over!" briefly ran through my mind, but then I was okay with it, because I am very happy with where I am in my life!  Joe very nicely responded, "Panicked? You're winning at being 30, you are married with great kids and a job you love!"  Which made me feel very good, and I know to be very true!  I am so blessed!

Photo Shoot

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for Tim's Step-Grandmother.  It was really nice to visit with everyone, and we had the opportunity to get some great pictures, as one of the guests brought a backdrop and his fancy photo set up with him!  I was SO glad that I had brought my DSLR to the party as well, I poached on all of his shots and set up some of my own while he was busy.

Anne Marie's Wedding

I had a WONDERFUL weekend!  Tim and I traveled to Williamsburg for my friend Anne Marie's Wedding.  This was a fantastic event for several reasons.  Firstly, I am SOOO happy for Anne Marie!  She came into our lives as a random roommate for my friends Brittany and Natalie, but became a true friend so quickly, and eventually I got to live with her for a year also.  She is so fun and silly and wonderful to talk to.

AM always had boys interested in her and would frequently go on dates, but there was never really anyone that she was interested in, so I never knew her with a boyfriend.  Last summer, her best friend was getting a pedicure and started chatting to the complete stranger sitting next to her.  By the end of the pedicure, she had given the stranger Anne Marie's phone number to give to her brother-in-law!  AM begrudgingly agreed to go on the blind date, AND NOW THEY ARE MARRIED!!!  I'll be honest, I felt a little weird about AM getting married... it seemed fast, and I had not gotten to meet this guy and make sure he was good enough for her.  ;)  But as AM came through the church doors, looking STUNNING, the prettiest part about her was her gigantic smile!  Speaking with her friends who have gotten to know Jeff and see them together, it sounds like he is the absolute perfect match for her and I cannot wait to get to know Jeff better, starting at the next wedding we are both attending in September!

The other reason the weekend was so wonderful, is that I got to see all of my girls from college, all at once, for the first time in 22 months! I hadn't seen Brittany at all in 9 months so it was especially great to see her.  It was also fun because we are all (practically) married now, with Sami and Miller being that September wedding I just mentioned!  It just really did my heart good to get to spend time with everyone, I feel recharged.  There is talk of us planning fake weddings in the future, because they are the perfect excuse that actually gets us all together!

Feeling sentimental this morning, so I've gone back to pull some other group pictures of us girls, college was amazing!  :)  I am so happy for all of us and where we are in our individual lives now, and so thankful that we are still in each others lives!

Two weekends ago we went to Sami and Miller's Engagement party.  Natalie, Sarah and I had the chance to pose with our kids, ages 3.2, 2.2, 1.25, .25 and -.2!  Natalie is due with a daughter in early October!  Can't wait to see who is next and where we all go from here!

3 Months Old

Tyler turned 3 months old yesterday and I can't believe how fast time is going, again!  Tyler is starting to want to sit upright all the time, he's not interested in just laying back against you and cuddling, he wants to sit up and be able to see everything that's going on.  I really can't blame him, Timmy does command a lot of attention with his jumping around and screeching these days!  Tyler's 3 month accomplishment came right on time, while laying on the floor at my mom's, he managed to scoot himself around 180 degrees over the course of about half an hour.  He's becoming mobile!!!

Tyler is so laid back, I really can't explain it.  My dad compared him to a stoner yesterday... haha, as long as he doesn't turn into one in 16 years, I'll take the attitude!  ;)  Really, nothing bothers him though!  Our fat cat, Alice, walked right across him on the ottoman the other day, stepping directly on his stomach, and he didn't make a peep!  She probably weighs more then him too!  Here is a little video of Tyler being happy the other night.  (Sorry it's shaky, hard to hold him up and the camera at the same time!)  Timmy doesn't usually call him Bubba, my mom might... or it could have come from me calling him a bobble head at the beginning of the clip.

It is nearly impossible to get a picture of Tyler by himself while Timmy is awake... but I got a few last night. 

This is his hungry face!

He looks like my baby pictures in this one! A first for me!

As long as Timmy just wants to be included and isn't unhappy-jealous, I am happy to get pictures of my sweet boys together!  I love how much they love each other!  Tyler still responds to Timmy more then anyone else, his eyes are always on Timmy too!

We couldn't get Tyler's hands out of his mouth so Timmy put his in!

Eyes on Timmy

The below pictures are from last week.  I have completely fallen in love with this first picture.  When I look at Tyler on his own, I don't see Timmy, but looking at this picture, there is no question that they are brothers!

Talking to Timmy

37 Months!

Timmy is now 3 years and 1 month and we have FINALLY hit a major milestone that Tim and I have been looking forward to: Timmy is using the potty!!!  This was a particularly painful milestone to accomplish, we started and stopped the process with him a couple of times in the last few months.  I really think we were as bad at potty training as he was, starting on a Saturday morning asking him constantly if he needed to go, and by Saturday evening not asking him at all... but he really fought it the first few attempts also.  Last week we were finally committed enough, at our house we just left him bare bottomed, Mom tried going straight to undies.  We each had a major accident happen on our couches, and mom went back to pull ups!  After that I went on a shopping spree, I bought every Chuggington and CARS toy I could find, I'm talking two Targets, Kmart, Walmart, and Toys R Us in one day.  I told Timmy that every time he pooped on the potty he could open a new toy, and every day that he had no accidents all day, he could open a toy.  Timmy went 48 hours without pooping at all!  When he finally did it on the potty, he was so excited!  He even called Baba to tell her before opening his new toy!  There has not been an accident, in the pull up or otherwise, since!  And there have been days that he's managed to poop 5 times... I'm pretty sure just so he could open 5 toys!  We have stayed pretty much homebound for the last week... I'm nervous how it will go as we start venturing out of the house a bit more, but I'm sure by next week he'll be in undies during the day and pull ups just at night. Last night I knew we are in the home stretch when he stomped off in the middle of a temper tantrum to go pee in the potty!  ;)  This is such a relief, for all involved!  And I'm very thankful that I won't have to feel like I'm running an assembly line while changing diapers any more!  ;)  One child in diapers is more then enough!

"Baba, I have too many paper," said the voice from the bathroom.

I will have to get a video of him climbing onto the toilet too, it is acrobatic!  For now here's a snap shot:

We did have a fun outing over the weekend though, I took Timmy to a birthday party at Great Country Farms, for my friend Mindy's son, Blaine.  The kids all had a blast and it was nice to get outside and do something fun with Timmy.  Our weekends have been consumed with shave ice and then trying to recover from shave ice recently! 

Timmy's vocabularly continues to grow and you can have full conversations with him now.  His imagination is really taking off as well.  This weekend he was slipping off Tim's lap on the couch and said, "Save me! Save me!  Don't let me fall in the water!"  I love that he's making up scenarios without even using toys.  Another of his favorite's right now is to be hugging and kissing on me and then start saying, "Oh, Tyler" so I kiss him back and say, "Oh, Daddy" and we are silly together for a while.

2 Months Old

Tyler turned 2 Months old over the weekend!  He is definitely reacting to us more, and he reacts to Timmy the most, watching him play, and smiling pretty often when Timmy kisses him.  Tim is constantly trying to get smiles out of Tyler, but we have not discovered any fool-proof methods to get them yet.  I think Tyler ends up looking concerned or annoyed more often then smiling at Tim's attempts, which I find entertaining.  We have not gotten a great smiling picture of Tyler yet, but I did get one with his eyes closed...

Tyler is such a cutie and just a ridiculously easy baby.  He is so content it is unreal.  If he is not hungry, he is happy.  When he is sitting in his bouncy chair or swing, he can go for hours on his own.  We take advantage of this while we are at the pool, otherwise he gets picked up to be cuddled whether he wants to be or not!  You can almost forget that he's even in the room though, it's wild.  When you are holding him and talking to him, he will coo back to you which is always fun.  He is a very good cuddler and has those wonderfully kissable baby cheeks going for him too!

Tyler's eating pattern is finally stretching out, and he goes longer between feedings at night then during the day, which is just fine with me!  He went 6 hours last night and I slept straight through too, I'm feeling great today!  During the day he'll go anywhere from 3-5 hours between eating.

We are all looking forward to Tyler interacting with us more and more.  I know that once he starts, the mobility milestones won't be far behind though, rolling, crawling, walking... and that snuggling time will get shorter and shorter, so I am thoroughly enjoying the snuggle stage for as long as I can!

Playmates

Even though Tyler isn't even really holding his head up during tummy time yet (which looks more like it's because he's comfortable on his tummy, rather then he can't lift his head, but anyways...) Timmy has found ways to make him a playmate already.  Whenever Tyler isn't being held, Timmy is near him and trying to include him in his activities and play with him.  I'm thrilled that almost all of this interaction is unprompted, Timmy just loves him and wants to do things with him!

On top of singing to Tyler and playing with his fingers, Timmy has instigated 'this little piggy,' and regularly coo's at him, talks to him, and comforts him when he 'fusses', telling him, "It's okay, Tyyyler, Mommy's coming."  He also turns the fish mobile on Tyler's swing back on whenever he notices it has stopped, and will play with it while Tyler's swinging.

Timmy has also found an ingenious way to get Tyler to play interactively with him!  Whenever I put Tyler on his blanket on the floor, Timmy starts rounding up his cars or trains and they circle Tyler.  He'll line them up near Tyler's feet, and as Tyler wiggles around, he'll kick them out of place or knock them over.  Timmy will either laugh and applaud Tyler for managing to knock them over or pretend that wasn't what he wanted to have happen and say his catch phrase, "Hey, what's the big idea?!" 

He is anxious for Tyler to be able to truly play with him though... One evening he noticed me preparing Tyler's dropper of vitamins and asked what I was doing.  I told him that I was going to give the vitamins to Tyler and they would help him grow big and strong, and asked him if he wanted to watch Tyler drink it.  Timmy got a big smile and I was surprised at how interested he was, he was kind of bouncing up and down and said, "I'm watching, I'm watching, I'm watching," as Tyler drank the vitamins, and then continued to stare at him.  After a moment he looked up at me and asked, "He's growing?" and motioned with his arms going from little to big.  I had to laugh a little and explain to him that he wasn't growing big right now, but that the vitamins would help him be healthy and get big eventually.  Timmy looked a little disappointed...

A few times this week, when we've told Timmy it's bed time, he's gone over to hug or kiss Tyler and say goodnight, all on his own.  One night Tyler was in his swing when it was time to go upstairs, and I could tell that Timmy was saying a lot more then goodnight, but I couldn't hear what it was.  Last night Tyler was in his crib watching his mobile when Timmy was headed to bed, and Timmy said, "I almost forgot!"  and ran back to Tyler's side.  He climbed up on the rail, held on to Tyler's foot, gently wiggling it, and sang "Rock-a-bye Tyler" to him before climbing down with a big smile and telling me, "I sang him a lullaby," and running off to his room.  It was so sweet and unexpected!  I'm thrilled that it's now worked it's way into our night time routine!