Blog 3 year anniversary

Well, July 8th made it 3 years since we first started this blog. I am always in amazement at how many people come up to me & tell me they've been keeping tabs on us. I'm sure there are many others I'm still unaware of.

Here's what sitemeter has on us as of today (I implemented this a few months ago):


VISITS:

Total
3,369

Average Per Day
28

Average Visit Length
1:15

Last Hour
3

Today
11

This Week
196

PAGE VIEWS:

Total
5,274

Average Per Day
41

Average Per Visit
1.4

Last Hour
7

Today
17

This Week
284

So, here's a shout out to you.....our international audience of family & friends! Thanks for sticking with us as I went multiple weeks w/out posting any kid pictures a few too many times.

Maybe we can make the comments for this blog like a "guest book" and you can all let me know who visits.

Brody at 2 months

Lets start out of a few sweet pictures of me soothing my boy. We do lots of this on the "not so good nights". I'm pretty sure he couldn't be any cuter

Brody Parade:

5 days

1 month
2 months

Some diddies about the little man of the house:

• coo's & ah-goo's after bath time, when you say "hi", and when you make a kissing noise at him



• laughed out loud for the first time on Monday



• loves to sleep everywhere except for his own bed



• hasn't had an "episode" in a month (hooray!). He's on Axid for reflux & got another Rx today for bowel spasms that is "as needed". We try it for the first time tomorrow, so we'll see if that eases him any. He's really not that crabby, just 3-4 nights a week we can't get him to sleep for 5+ hours because he's too uncomfortable and then he gets all overstimulated from being up for so long.



• is "lazy" at tummy-time according to our pediatrician (apparently the "lazy" gross motor gene has struck again. you may recall Syd being a little delayed in this department & having months of therapy. I'm not as freaked out about it this time)



• fits well into his 3-6 months clothes. some 0-3 month clothes still fit, but none of the sleepers or onsies do, and none of the little socks we have fit his feet anymore (bet you can't guess who he inherited the big feet from!)



• is still fussy in the evenings & waking up 1 or 2 times at night to eat. Syd was sleeping through the night at this point, but we had also implemented a strict sleep schedule on her & were letting her cry-it-out to go to sleep. because of the earlier drama with Brody, we've decided not to do sleep training until after our Florida vacation



• loves to be outside. this is one of the cures for fussiness, we take walks when it cools off late in the evening



• He's a big boy! Stats: weight = 13 lbs 3.6oz @90%, length = 24 1/2" @ 90%, head = 16" @ 60%

• still takes a pacifier (binkie) when he's tired, with some encouragement usually. I said if he liked them past 2 months I'd switch from the green soothie kind the hospital gives you to the more fashionable mums. He seemed not to mind the switch.

• makes goat noises when he plays, poops, or is unhappy

• has blue/gray eyes. sydney's were much darker than his at this point, so I'm wondering if he'll end up with my hazel eyes instead of Jeff's brown

Family Time

2 weeks ago it was VBS. Technically Sydney was 6 months too young for the 3 year old class, but they were nice enough to make an exception for her since I was co-MC and help with decorations. The week really took a toll on all 4 of us, but she had so much fun that it was well worth it. One of the little treats she brought home from class was this crown w/ her name on it. She hasn't taken it off since! Seriously, she wears it every minute!

My cousin Lauren married Larry last Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding, but weddings can be tricky with two kids! You just never know when one of them won't be able to keep quiet & have an outburst, so we sat in the back near an exit door just in case.

Here Katelyn (Syd's 2nd cousin I believe??) helps her pull rose petals off for decoration.
Addie Sue helped decorate too.
Sydney pushing her buddy around. They are still as close as ever. I think she's going to be one of those kids who takes her blankie with her to college!
The cousins playing a little b-ball
After Lauren's wedding we went to a KC Explorers Tennis event. It was a first for the 4 of us. Reece (my little step-bro for those who don't know) is big time into tennis. He got to meet the Bryan Brothers & owner Mel...I think this was the highlight of his trip to KC!
Brody got a little bath time. He sure loves to be naked & sudsy!

He just talked & talked to me afterwards. My dad was quick with the camera & grabbed a few shots of him cooing & a-gooing a way. Too bad the video camera wasn't handier.
(You'll have to excuse me, I'd just gotten out of the shower myself. Nothing more humbling than seeing yourself w/ all your baby-weight, no makeup & wet hair!)

Papa enjoying a little Brody time.

Kindermusik Star

Its been a while since I was on the website, but look who's made the Kindermusik page:

http://www.musicalfootsteps.com/page16/ourtime/ourtime.html

Independence Day

We went to St Louis to celebrate the 4th. The kids had a blast at the parade. They awaited the firetrucks with plugged ears.They waived their flags in celebration.They ate so much candy they puked. Okay, only Sydney puked. She's always been a puker at the slightest little thing. She bumps her head & pukes. She cries & pukes. She tries a new food she doesn't like & pukes. She takes too big of a bite & pukes. And, as of this past 4th, she eats too much candy & pukes. Thankfully I packed a backup dress in the diaper bag so she didn't have to wear the puke clothes home. The people's yard we'd borrowed for the morning were nice enough to lend us a hose to clean up the brightly colored mess. I felt like such a bad parent! Who lets their kid eat so much candy that she pukes! I honestly didn't realize she'd had that much, jeeze!Brody peacefully enjoyed the trees above the parade, puke free. Cold or not, here I come. The girls enjoyed a freezing wading pool.After some encouragement, Trevor joined the fun.Aunt Meghan does such a good job keeping the kids happy & out of trouble. Maybe she should have come with us to the parade so we didn't let Syd eat so much candy!

And this is exactly why we don't do ketchup in our house! Our view of the fireworks. This was Sydney's first year going & she loved them. She asked for them constantly for the next 3 days & made everyone look up at the sky in search of them.

They are growing up so fast! Trevor taught Sydney how to use his Leap Pad. She loved it so much there is probably going to be one in our house soon.
I played a little game called "baby-in-my-lap Mario Cart"! I'm pretty bad at it when I use two hands. so you imagine how comical my driving was with just one hand!
We didn't eat any watermelon on the 4th, and its just not Independence Day without it, so we carved some up when we got home. Its the new hot item on Sydney's favorite foods list.

These pair are now known as Jeff & Little Jeff.

My beautiful brown eyed girl.