Our Hallowee-kend....

Was BUNCHES of FUN!

Here's a recap of all our TRICKS and TREATS...

Halloween Morning TRICK:

Starting off our day waiting in line for 2 hours to get the H1N1 vaccine.

Halloween Morning TREAT: The relief of having this controversial decision behind me and the hopes for a healthy winter! I'm done obsessing.

Halloween Afternoon TRICK:
Killing Rylee's beloved pumpkin

which was quite traumatic...

for both kids.

Halloween Afternoon TREAT:

Eventually realizing that pumpkin guts are FUN!

And even Jacoboo cheered up.

temporarily.

Halloween Evening TRICK:

Trying to get a monkey and a bunch of bananas to sit still and look at the camera.

We finally opted for individual shots...

and yes, they are certified organic ;)

Halloween Evening TREAT:

Duh!

Although at first collecting leaves was far more appealing then candy for this little monkey.

but eventually there was a change of heart.

Especially after she got her first taste of Hershey's chocolate :)Day after Halloween TRICK:

Our Security alarm going off and Rylee making friends with the policeman that showed up in our driveway.

Day after Halloween TREAT:

Enjoying some gorgeous fall weather outside as a family.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

The Jake-O-Lantern

And a halloween message from my other little pumpkin...

Quarantined

I apologize for the little bloggy break, but Rylee, Jake and I were "vacationing" at my parents house all last week. Ryan is super busy at work right now, so the kids and I headed to Ytown where Grammy and Papa could enjoy the little ones and I could enjoy the the extra hands :) We had a busy week planned with lots of visits with friends and family, but that all came to a screeching halt when Miss Rylee woke up Sunday morning with a red, puffy, rashy face and a low grade fever.

does it look like i smacked her in the face?!

For fear of the darn swine flu swarming all the doctors offices and urgent cares, I refused to take her to the dr's unless the symptoms got significantly worse or her fever spiked really high (thankfully it never did!), so we never really found out what it was she had, but from what I have read and heard it sounds like it could have been Fifth's Disease. Or just a virus. But regardless... unfortunately it lasted the entire time we were home....for 7 days she had a low grade fever and a rash that would come and go all day long. Literally, one minute her face would look normal and the next she would have red "slap" marks all over it. She also had little red bumpy rashes all over her arms and legs that would come and go. it was really weird. So poor Rylee...I had her on house arrest the whole week! Supposedly once the rash breaks out, she is no longer contagious, be we still wanted to play it safe and keep her away from people, considering she had a fever. But anyways, regardless of the fact that it stunk that Rylee was sick, I still had fun catching up and seeing lots of my high school friends that were in town, as well as just being home with my family, watching them enjoy my little ones! And honestly, if it wasn't for the rash that kept appearing on Rylee's face, you would never have even known she was sick! Her spirits were still high and whatever it was she had didn't keep her from having fun....

watching football...TOUCHDOWN!

and finger painting with Aunt Maura

and tormenting her brother... (notice Jake's little bare feet and the thief caught red handed!)

and just being her silly little self!

And of course, sick or not, my parents enjoyed having the little pumpkins all week!

Thanks everyone for a great week! and sorry for those of you we had to cancel plans with because of Rylee's mystery rash. We were so bummed :(

Tummy Time for Two

Finally there is something Rylee will do with her baby brother. She doesn't show much interest in him at all, but the second I say we are going to do "tummy time", she wants to lay right down on the floor and do "tu tie" with him. So maybe there is hope! We just have to keep a close watch to make sure she doesn't whack him in the back, kick him in the head, or drop her books on him ;)

Family of three, we'll no longer be

We didn't know it at the time, but this was our last weekend as a family of three. Five days after these pictures were taken, our new little man entered our lives and made us a family of four.

Who knew life could be any better than this?

But now it is.

We are so blessed!

One Month Already?

Seriously?! How did that happen? I guess time flies when your having fun. Or when all your days all blend into one because you are sleep deprived and exhausted and breastfeeding around the clock ;) But whatever! Things have actually been much better than I had expected (except for the mall/blanket incident). Being on my own with two really isn't so bad, as long as we don't leave the house ;) It does help that Jake is a really good baby and that Rylee is great at entertaining herself. And for the most part her behavior has been so much better. I mean, don't get me wrong, she still loves to climb all over the couch and the chairs/kitchen table and pretty much try to kill herself whenever I am nursing Jake. And I for sure can't trust her to be anywhere near her little brother without me being right there within arm's reach of both of them. But overall, she pretty much ignores poor little Jake and does her own thing. Unless he is crying and wants my attention, then for sure, she does too! So, there are good times and bad times and definitely times when they are both screaming their heads off simultaneously and I don't know what to do with myself and wish I had four arms. But like I said, really it is going so much better than I had expected. Certainly not easy, but I mean, I think I can handle this ;) Anyways...on to the point of this blog....Jake is one month old! I know, I can't believe it either.

So I have decided that after 18 months of documenting Rylee's monthly milestones, I think it is time to pass the torch onto Jake. I can't promise that pictures of Rylee won't make an appearance in Jake's monthly posts, and obviously I will still be blogging about Miss Rylee, but I am done documenting her month to month developmental milestones. It is just too much right now. She had her turn and now it is Jake's. PS. I do this because I am AWFUL with the baby book thing :( so this is my way of documenting and keeping track of what the kids are doing every month developmentally. It's what works for me :) And someday (oh, someday) I hope to turn this into a book. Probably wishful thinking, but the intentions are there.

So at one month, Jake really isn't doing too much other than eating, sleeping and pooping. And he does all of the above very well :) he eats about every 2-3 hours during the day, is usually pretty sleepy in the afternoon (sometimes I even get an overlap of afternoon naps which is oh so wonderful!), and does a decent amount of cluster feeding in the evening (eats about every 1.5-2 hours), with the last feed being between 10-11pm. Then he will go until 2 or 3am, and then is up for the day between 6 and 7am. Every once in a while, he will have a bad night and be up for hours, but for the most part, it is definitely not too bad. I know it could be better, or it could be so much worse (it was with Rylee!) and someday, it might be! But for now, I will take it :) When awake, he is proving to be much more needy then Rylee ever was. Rylee was very content to sit and swing or be in her bouncer. She never was a real cuddly baby and still isn't a cuddly toddler. Jake, on the other hand, would prefer to be held. If he is sleeping, he is fine to be in a bouncer or swing or his co-sleeper, but if he is awake, his happy place is my arms :) And I love it! Although, it does make things a little more difficult, given I can't just sit around and hold him all day, because Big Sister has issues with that. But regardless, I love having a newborn to craddle in my arms, even if it is while I am chasing a toddler around the house! And that is about all I have to report for month 1! Enjoy the pics of the kids...

Daddy doing some multi-tasking

Like father like son!And the big sister...being such a little devil!

She is really observing and imitating alot of what I do with Jake...here she brought over all her stuffed animals and picked each one up, one at a time, and patted their backs to "burp" them.

This one is for you, Daddy...GO BUCKS!

And not only does she like to steal Jake's socks, but she also loves to try to put her shoes on him...

Poor Jake!

And this is about as close as Rylee would get

(God forbid she actually hold Jake) for a picture in their matching outfits from Aunt Maura. And clearly, neither are happy about it!

I don't even know my own child's birthday

So, after spending the last three days pretty much house bound (minus a trip to Kroger and the post office), I was dying to get out of the house today. We have Jake's newborn photos and Rylee's (supposed to be) 18 month (but really 19 month) pictures on Saturday, and I wanted to get one of Jake's plushy baby blue blankets embroidered with his name on it for his picture. so we ventured to the mall. Yes, I am crazy. We left the house at 11:30am and got home at 4:30pm. We went to 4 stores. Four stores and we were gone 5 hours. Rylee was a disaster. Not that she is normally a good shopper or anything, but she was exceptionally bad today. Now let me preface this by saying that although Rylee can without a doubt throw a pretty dramatic temper tantrum, rarely are there tears involved. She's a screamer, but not a cryer. Well, no sooner do we walk through the doors of the mall and she starts crying hysterically. Crying hysterically and saying "maba, maba" over and over again and pointing. I have no clue (and still don't) what "maba" is (any translators out there?), but whatever it is, it must be pretty bad because she was pretty upset over it. We're talking real tears people. Luckily while she was agonizing over "maba", my sweet little angel Jake was sleeping peacefully. But that still didn't stop everyone who passed by us from saying "wow, you sure have your hands full". Ya, thanks. As if I didn't already know that. So after I couldn't calm her with anything in my bag of tricks, I decided maybe a trip to the food court was in order. So we grabbed Chick-a-fila (oh how I love being back in ohio for that chick-a-lisious-ness). Fed her some nuggets, while I fed Jake some, well you know. And tried to feed myself the chicken sandwich. It's all about multi-tasking. And the hooter hider (yes - that is what it is called and yes - that is what it does. For real.). Anyways. She settled down a bit after eating. phew. So I gathered myself back together and headed to the embroidery kiosk to get Jake's blanket embroidered. The whole point of this adventure. By the time we get there, Jake is in a tizzy. He has pooped and clearly is not happy about sitting in it. I knew it would take sometime to do the embroidery, so I figured I would get that ordered and then go and change Jake while I am waiting for it to be finished. So we debated over the thread color, the font, whether or not to add his birthday below the name for $5 more...nah, not necessary. But then the guy offered to do the birthday for free since I was a "first time customer". Bonus! This must be my lucky day afterall! (FYI..Jake is still screaming. but at least Rylee is quiet.) I approved the spelling, birthday, lettering, layout, etc. and went on my merry (I mean frazzled) way to kill 45 minutes while the embroidery was being completed. The longest 45 minutes of my life. I would finally get one child settled, then the other would start crying. And this is why I will never go to the mall with the two of them again. Finally 45 minutes is up, we go pick up the blanket. I look it over - looks great! I pay and we head out. We get to the exit of the mall only to find out it is POURING. Of course I don't have an umbrella. Awesome. When it rains it pours, right? Just one more thing to add to my perfect day. Anyways, to make a long story longer, we make it home and I go to get the blanket out of the bag to wash and get all ready for Saturday. I am admiring how nice it looks and thinking how happy I am that I went with the darker blue letters instead of white and how awesome it was that I got the birthday added for free, when all of a sudden I see it. Staring right up at me.....September 9, 2009. Jake was born September 10, 2009. And then it was my turn to cry.