Our crazy yet wonderful life

Having grown up with 4 sisters I was very nervous about raising children from the moment I found out Remy was a boy. I didn't know what I was going to do with a little boy and all of the craziness that comes with them. I have to admit though, I love my boys!!! Boys are just so different from girls right from the get go. They do things that girls wouldn't ever dream of but that is part of what makes them so much fun. I am also told that they are not nearly as dramatic as they get older. I guess only time will tell with that one. I really enjoy having my little Mommas boys and of course they are very much so Daddy's boys too.

Since I am not very good at actually writing in my blog I have been trying to keep a list of the funny things these two sweet little boys do. Remy has really started talking a lot more than he used to. Now don't get me wrong he has always been a gibber jabberer but he is actually starting to be more understandable and put words and phrases together that actually make sense. I think a lot of this is from going to the babysitters during the day and talking with other kids and Ali. Some of the things he will tell me now are "Grayson Handsome!!", "Remy Handsome", "no now!!", "thanks", "It broken", "go to Granny's house", "treat" "It's Daddy's (or Mommy's, and recently Memy's(Remy), "Baby kying (crying)", "baby stinky", "It (was) Grayson". He says a lot more things in longer sentences (2-5 words) but these are the phrases he says all of the time. He is already starting to blame Grayson and Chappy for things, I'm in trouble with that one. He will also ask for various food items and straws for his cup. He is very demanding that you get things right and will continue to tell you what he wants until you just understand and do it.

I am very nervous about choking so if Remy ever looks like he might be having a hard time swallowing I'll pat him on the back and say "are you ok?" He has picked this up and anytime he can he will come up to me, Shaun, Grayson, or Chappy and pat us on the back and ask "you ok?" It is really sweet. He is also calling Chappy by his name rather than Puppy D like he used to. It is funny that one day they just can say a word perfectly. He has the cheesiest laugh ever. It seriously is really deep and almost sounds like it is fake. It is a big Ha,ha,ha type of belly laugh. People will ask if he is just faking his laugh but nope, that is how he laughs. He also will get a serious voice sometimes and talk in a deep more quiet and serious type of tone. He loves it when Shaun stands him up on his chest and swings him down between his legs. He is starting to want to jump off of things. He likes to climb on things like stools, boxes, couches and he counts to three and than jumps off. He used to just say "day, day, day" but now he actually does count one, two, three. He also says ready, aim, fire. Remy also likes you to chase him around so he will run up to you and say "I get you" and than run away because he wants us to get him.

Here are Grayson and Chappy taking a mid-afternoon nap. Chappy is very protective of Grayson so he likes to stay close to him. Of course he likes to be covered with blankets and sat there rooting around trying to get under the blanket as best he could. Poor little Grayson was flopping around while Chappy was rooting around under that blanket. I tried to help him get under but I wasn't doing it just right so he continued to root until he was in there nice and snug.

Grayson is such a busy body and is always very excited to see the world. He has the biggest eyes and always wants to be sitting up or standing so he can see around. Sometimes he gets so excited with all of the things to look at he will wave his head back and forth trying to take it all in. He is also becoming quite the smiler and cooer. He will talk up a storm to me when I'm changing his diaper or holding him so he can stand and look at me. He likes to look at himself in the mirror, probably because he is so handsome :-). I wish I had a more updated picture of him but unfortunately my camera broke 2 days before his baby blessing so I haven't taken any pictures of him lately. Don't worry, I am getting a new camera so you can all be updated. ;-)

Grayson also really loves his mobile in his crib or swing. He will sit there and watch it go around and if it stops he will cry so you come and turn it on again. He is getting more alert and likes to play with his toys in his little chair. He bats his arms around furiously knocking those little toys too and fro. He than will let out a big coo that sounds like a sigh of being so busy.

Grayson is definitely all boy, I have never heard anyone toot like Grayson can. He seriously sounds like a whoopee cushion sometimes. Especially if I eat something greasy like Johnny Carinos or Puerto Vallarta for lunch or dinner. All in all he is a very sweet baby.

Remy is very much like his parents and likes to be outside all of the time. It doesn't matter what time of day, what the temperature is, or if he is wearing any clothes. If that door is slightly open he is outside before you know it. He is also very hard to get in. When he is outside he likes to throw rocks in the window wells of course, that has been his favorite for a while. He likes to follow Chappy around the yard. Chappy tries to run away from him or scamper around Remy which Remy thinks is just the most hilarious thing he has ever seen. Chappy has some vole holes in the back corner that he likes to go check on. He has dug some perfect Chappy head size holes and he will sit there with his head up to his ears (so he can still hear intruders above ground) snorting around in the dirt. Remy likes to go up next to him and pat him on the back and say, "Chappy ok?" and than laughs that Chappy has his head in a hole. Yep Remy and Chappy are good friends sometimes in fact Remy is even trying to be more like Chappy. He loves to eat Chappy's food. It is a race to see whether Chappy can eat his food fast enough before Remy reaches in the bowl and eats handfuls of food. He calls it his "snack" and is always trying to get into the closet where I keep the dog food. Could be worse I suppose.

In the picture above at least he was wearing his pajamas. One time he snuck out with Shaun there and he only had on a diaper, one sock and no coat. It was freezing that day and the wind was blowing. Shaun kept saying come in Remy it's cold. Remy was standing there shaking because he was so cold saying, "outside not cold, not cold Daddy".

I know you are thinking this is the longest blog ever but I have been trying to keep track of everything these silly boys do. One day I was getting Remy up from his nap and he was like "mommy here, here Mommy" and was trying to hand me something very important. I reached out my hand to see what was so important that he had saved it his whole nap time. It was a giant booger. Oh just what I wanted, a big crusty leftover booger. Some days he likes to wait until the most inopportune time to put his finger up my nose and say, "it stuck mommy" I reply so sweetly of course "get your finger out of my nose it isn't stuck". Silly boy.

He loves to go to play with his "friends" and "ball" at the babysitters house. When I picked him up one afternoon Ali told me that Remy was very sweet and liked one of the girls. They were hugging and would kiss each other all day. She said she was starting to wonder if she should break it up. This week on my day off I was clearly not fun enough for Remy so he wanted to go to Granny's house. He put on my high heels and grabbed my purse and said, "granny's house, bye!!" and was trying to leave. I of course got this on video to whip out at a later date. Like if he brings over a girl to our house. Muh hahahah (evil laugh)

Shaun recently turned the big 32 and on his birthday I decided that it would be a good day to try Remy in his big boy bed again. Our last attempt was before Grayson was born and it didn't go so well. Remy is 26 months now and I decided to try again. I didn't just switch him to a bed I just took the side off of his crib and left the bumper pad in place. He slept like a champ!! I was so proud of him and he has slept in it like that a few times since. I have only had him do it for nap time because I don't want him to get confused and roll out during the night. Hopefully before long he will be done with that crib so Grayson can have his turn in it. Remy is getting really good at wanting to sit on the toilet to "poop". He doesn't actually go to the bathroom but he sits on the toilet and clenches his fist and gives her the ol' push. It's hilarious because he turns all red faced and will be so proud of himself. Then he will unroll some toilet paper and throw it in the toilet. Well now that I have probably gotten most of you to sleep with my rambling I will call it good for the day. Hope you enjoyed!!

Grayson's first two weeks at work

Being a mother and having to work is very difficult. I have always been very fortunate that I can take my babies to work with me. I started taking Remy to work when he was 3 weeks old, he came with me for two years up until I left for maternity leave. It has been such a joy to be able to work and also take care of my children full time as well. I'll be honest sometimes I feel like punching myself in the face for adding on all of the stress of juggling kids and work but I get the best of both worlds this way. With Remy I got to watch all of his milestones, well almost all of them because he would do some of them when I walked out of the room. For example the first time he rolled over we were home and Shaun and I were playing with Remy. Shaun said, "Becky hurry and get the video camera I think he is going to roll over". I kid you not as soon as I walked out of the room Shaun yelled that he had in fact rolled over without me watching. Or another time I missed a milestone I was at work and had to leave for an emergency c-section. My nurse is nice enough that she said she would watch Remy while I was gone. I wasn't gone for even 50 minutes and I got back and she said he had just started walking up and down the halls by himself. Oh sure he had taken 1-2 steps from me to Shaun but he just started full out walking around in those few minutes.

Remy does not come to work with me anymore for the most part. He has come a few afternoons to take his nap but usually is at the babysitters. You can see in the picture that he was sad at work because someone else was in his bed. During the end of my pregnancy with Grayson I actually had a lot of stress about what to do with Remy. I knew I would not be able to have two children in the office and almost felt like I was betraying Remy by having someone else watch him during the day. Luckily one of my friends in the neighborhood watches children and has been babysitting Remy for me 2-3 days a week. He loves it which makes me happy. With Remy relinquishing his office mascot title, it is now Grayson's turn to become a full time working baby.

Grayson has many jobs to do. He is the office mascot, he helps me with my charts by sitting on my lap and supervising, and he also is in charge of "tummy time". I most certainly wouldn't fit in the crib to do tummy time so he does it. So far he has enjoyed work as much as a 2 month old can enjoy it. The nurses certainly enjoy holding him as well. Our first two weeks were pretty crazy because I was the only provider in the office and was also on call. We survived though with lots of help from the nurses holding Grayson so I could go and see patients.

One thing is for sure, Grayson loves loves loves tummy time. He is perfectly content on his tummy and has liked it from day 1. He will happily lay on his tummy and look in his little mirror at work for like 20 minutes at a time. Shaun calls him his little turtle because Grayson likes his head so far back all of the time and looks like a turtle in a shell with his head cranked up like that. Remy hated tummy time and wouldn't do it for more than a few seconds before he was screaming like I was just torturing him. Remy didn't even roll over until he was like 5-6 months old because he wasn't ever on his tummy long enough to learn. He never army crawled and wouldn't roll around to get places. He was just content to sit still until one day he just started crawling normally when he was 10 1/2 months old. I think Grayson will definitely do these things earlier. He can roll over now if his head gets whipping around too much. Those big heads on those little bodies just are hard to control. He will try to get his little legs under him already, I say it is cute now but I'm definitely in for some mischief later on.

Grayson 3 week pics

I took some pictures of Grayson when he was 3 weeks old and have never posted them. I do want them to be in my blog book when I print this off so here they are. I am by no means a professional photographer but some of these turned out well. I also just used my point and shoot camera so the lighting isn't very good but he is such a cute little thing that I put them on anyway. The top 2 pictures are actually of Remy at this age. I didn't have my blog when he was born so I thought it might be fun to have these pictures in there as well.

Remy at 3 weeks

Remy's first day home

Grayson at 3 weeks

My babies have such big eyes when they are born. Remy always scowled like Shaun and Grayson always wrinkles his forehead like me. Genetics are such a funny thing.