where oh where does the time go?

Man, I cannot believe it is already April. I guess I was waiting for the "lamb" weather to signal in April but alas, it did not come. In Idaho I really think the saying should be May, in like a lion out like a lamb because that is more when the transition of good weather comes. Grayson is 3 months old now. Time goes by too quickly!!! He is really such a little busy body and likes to be looking out and sitting up or standing all of the time. He has such big eyes and he likes to take everything in.

In Idaho and our seasons are winter, wind, and scorching hot. I thought that I would buy a little kite for Remy since it is windy all of the time. I think kites may have been invented somewhere else but they certainly are probably sold the most here. Shaun has been going outside with Remy to fly his little owl kite. Really it is mostly to give Shaun something to do but Remy likes the streamers. He hasn't wanted to fly it himself yet. I suppose he is only 2 and running around in circles trying to have someone "get you" is much funner.

Remy also likes to spin in circles and get dizzy. The funny thing about this is that when he is spinning he looks where he has been rather than where he is going. It looks so weird and is hilarious to watch. I have tried to get a video of him but have been unsuccessful thus far. I will keep trying though because it is hilarious. I seriously bet he gets so dizzy looking the wrong way to spin around.

Here I am with my two little boys. I couldn't find any pictures with Grayson looking at the camera because something was very interesting to look at on my pants. Probably a baby barf stain from him earlier on in the day.

Here is Grayson in the play gym at work. He likes to bat his arms around to hit the toys. He also loves looking in the mirror. He is a smart little boy though and doesn't want to be in there for very long. Who wants to be in a play gym when someone could be holding you right?

I love this time of year because my Pussy Willows bloom. I love pussy willows because it is really the first thing around here that comes out when it is turning spring. I have been busily trimming the bush back and taking around the sticks to family and friends. Here Shaun and Remy were out in the yard playing and having a "man" conversation under my pussy willow bush. One of Shaun's favorite things is when Remy says "Hi Daddy!!" one day during the prayer for dinner Shaun looked over the counter to see if Remy was folding his arms, Remy saw this and whispered "Hi Daddy" so quietly and sweetly. He loves his Daddy

While I was trimming this bush Chappy got very nervous and was freaking out. I was really hoping it wasn't because there was a mouse in the old grass around the base of it. As it turns out he had buried like 3 of his nasty bones in there and was afraid I was going to steal them, yeah nothing sounds better than a soggy, moldy old rawhide dog bone. He quickly snatched them away and tried to eat them. I did steal them away from him to throw them away, Chappy knew he had to be nervous of me doing that.

Shaun and Remy were also pretending to go "night night" in the grass which was funny. They would sit up and than say night night and tip over and pretend to snore. Bunch of nerds :-)

I never know what to expect when I look out in the yard to check on Remy and Chappy. One day Chappy was of course checking on the vol holes in the back yard and Remy took this opportunity to do something he always wanted to do. He was sitting on Chappy bouncing like he was a horse. Another time I looked out there and Remy had a giant stick and was chasing Chappy with it who was running in circles just out of the sticks reach. They love to play out there and actually have a good time chasing each other around for the most part. Remy is also very concerned about Chappy because he loves him so much. Chappy gets lots of ear infections from all of the dirt dropping in them from the vol holes so I look in his ears a lot. Remy has picked up on this and will go up to Chappy, gently pick up his ear, and say "ooooh Chappy" in a sad sympathetic voice. Such a sweet boy.

Grayson is such a little busy body I think he will definitely be moving before too long. He rolled over for the first time when he was like 2 weeks old. I think that was more of a head bobbing accidental roll over though. He can roll over now from his belly to back on purpose. Last night he was showing Shaun his "mad skills" and accidentally rolled too quick and rolled off of his pillow. It really scared him so he cried for a while but eventually got over it. He also started laughing this week a little bit. I love it when they coo and talk and start to laugh. It just melts my heart to see their sweet little faces and hear their sounds.

Shaun's sister Kymm also had her baby 1 week ago. Grayson was especially excited about this because it is a little boy named Carter and they are only 3 months apart. I think they are going to be good buddies. Before Kymm had her baby we went to her house and Shaun's sister Colette was giving her a foot massage. Remy of course wanted to help so he was busily rubbing Kymm's legs, his own face and Colette's face with the soapy bubbly foot water. So nice of him wasn't it?

Remy really loves having a little brother. He has only been jealous one time where he threw Grayson's binky and tried to pull his hair. Luckily Grayson doesn't have any hair. But for the most part he wants to help me put in his binky, cover him with blankets or hold him. Well he doesn't really get to hold him but he surely tries to run in his room first before I can to get him. The other day Grayson was sitting up on the couch and Remy climbed up next to him, put his arm around him and than put his blanket over both of them to watch tv. I thought that was so sweet. I just can see what fun they are going to have as brothers. Don't get me wrong they will also have their fair share of wrestling matches and fights but I love to see them together.

The other day was laundry day and I washed my sheets. I was trying to make the bed as quickly as possible because Grayson was tired and hungry. So I put on the bottom sheet and my pillows and sat Grayson up against my pillows. he was still crying so I continued on putting blankets and other sheets over him. he loved the warm blanket out of the dryer and was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. It was so funny seeing such a little boy in such a big bed.

I don't know why but Remy has always stored food on his head. When he was a baby he would put it up there so that I would think he had eaten it and let him down. It sort of made sense because he couldn't see it anymore but totally obvious to the rest of us. I think he puts it up there now to store it for later. I see a mustache in his future for storage :-). It is hard to see but he has half of a granola bar up in his hair he put up there on our way to Granny's house. He was so proud of it.

My sister, bro-in-law, and their two little boys came up for my Mom's birthday on April fools day. Remy had such a good time playing with his cousins and when he and Eli were playing on the teeter-totter he would look to Shaun and point to Eli and say "we fends (friends)" and shrug his shoulders all matter of factly. They also had a good time climbing in the tree house to slide down the slide and than playing tag or "get you" as Remy calls it. So fun to see family and "fends"

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.

grayson birth announcement

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Our daily activities

Boy time goes by so fast!! It is hard to believe but Grayson is already 5 weeks old. It has been so fun to watch him grow and change every day. He is starting to get chubby little cheeks and has also started making some noises other than crying. I love it when they start to coo. He also is starting to get very feisty and likes to be awake looking at various things. Luckily for him Remy is a wild boy who loves to run around and keeps him entertained. It is so sweet because he loves to look at toys and I put them close enough he can try to hit them with his arm which is very exciting for him.

Here is Ol' Remy doing one of his favorite activities, making dough. We got him this little mudpie kitchen for Christmas and he has been pretty much been playing with it since. It is amazing how observant he is. He will make his dough, scrape off the beater with a spoon and "taste" the dough. He will also bring the bowl over for us to taste and say yummy. His favorite days are when I will make real dough with him in my mixer. All of this dough making is not helping with my post pregnancy weight loss though.

Another of Remy's favorite activities has been helping Daddy with his dirt bike. He will go out in the garage with Shaun to work on it when the weather is warm. Lately he has been watching motocross with Shaun because it is to cold to stay in the garage. Remy thought it was so funny when Shaun let him wear his helmet.

A funny thing that Remy has started doing the past couple of months is whenever he goes to bed we have to put his puppies and gator on him just like this. He will laugh and laugh while we are doing it and he will go right to sleep. He even sleeps most of the night in this position. What can I say my boy loves puppies.

Mommy and Remy just getting a closeup. I was nervous that when I had Grayson that Remy wouldn't be a Mommy's boy anymore. The first day we got home from the hospital Shaun had to run out for about 20 minutes and I said I would be ok. He no longer left and Remy started freaking out. He was crying and throwing himself on the ground and I would try to pick him up but he would just hit me and scream more. I didn't know what to do and of course having just had a baby 2 days previously I was basically a crying mess. Luckily Grayson was sleeping. I just grabbed Remy in a sumo wrestler type of hold and held him and just kept saying "I love you Remy, I love you Remy" until he settled down. i got his blanky and binky and held him until Shaun got home. Poor Shaun walked in and saw that Remy had obviously been crying, I was crying, Chappy was freaking out. He wondered what on earth had happened in the 20 minutes he had been gone. Since that incident Remy has been really great. He loves his little baby brother and calls him "baby bun" because we call Grayson little bun.

Speaking of baby bun here he is just hanging out in his usual position on the couch just observing the craziness that goes on.

Here is Remy modeling the cute owl hat that my sister gave him for his birthday. I love how he is holding his little gun as well he looks like an outdoors man.

Grayson just admiring how cool his big brother is. He is so sweet he is even starting to smile a little bit. Not tons but he is smiling more each day. He is such a cute and sweet little boy

Remy hasn't ever been one to watch tv because we are always at work and he just doesn't get a chance. While I've been on maternity leave we have started watching a little tv. I tried all sorts of cartoon shows and he would kind of watch them but just keep walking in and out of the living room not really paying attention. That is until one day I turned on the tv and Paula Deen was on. She was making all sorts of cakes and cookies and scones. Remy was entranced and watched her show for an hour!!! He even drug a stool in to watch as close as he could. He would say "dough, dough, yummy!!!" the whole time. It was sweet. If only I had known this earlier I would have saved myself those cheesy cartoons. Who knows, maybe Remy is an aspiring chef.

Remy turns 2

Every boy needs a cool tricycle for his 2nd birthday. I found this beauty at Sam's club and knew he had to have it. It is still a little big for him but I figure by the time the frozen tundra melts around here he will be big enough. He just scoots it around the house for now. He even has a little step on the back that he likes to stand and jump off or put various toys on to push around.

Well it is hard to believe that my little baby is turning into a big boy. With the holidays and Grayson being born it has been really busy but I tried to make Remy's birthday a special day. One of his favorite things is to make dough. He has always watched me make cookie dough and is such a good little helper. He loves it so much that for Christmas we got him a little "mudpie kitchen" that has a little mixer and sink that he plays with constantly. He loves to "make dough" and it is funny to watch him pretend to scrape the mixer with a spoon and taste the dough and say yummy. I knew that he would want to help make his birthday cake so we got right into that business on his birthday morning.

While it was baking in the oven Remy got his big gator to rest on next to the oven. Shaun was also working on making birthday dinner: smoked pulled pork. Once the cake was done baking and the pork was in the smoker we went out to lunch for Remy's birthday lunch. Of course we let him decide where we went and he only ever chooses one thing: rice and beans. He ate those rice and beans till his tummy's delight and than took his nap while I finished up with the cake and pork.

My family came over and we ate our dinner of pulled pork and than decided it was time for cake. for Remy's first birthday we had a white cake with chocolate frosting but he didn't really like it so this year we made party cake. I also put those oreos with chocolate chips to make puppy paw prints on the cake.

Remy was confused once the cake came out that we had to sing to him. He was very excited and kept sticking his finger in the frosting. I had to blow out the candle because he thought it was strange that I lit his cake on fire.

Here is part of the fam waiting patiently for their cake. Ivy was taking pictures and we didn't end up with a picture of her. But she was there taking pictures.

Remy patiently waiting for me to dip up his cake.

Andy and Grayson just hanging out waiting for his cake. Well, Grayson didn't get any cake since he was only 3 weeks old.

After all of the delicious food it was present opening time. Chappy was very excited to help Remy. Shaun and I got him the bike seen above and a little tool box and drill. Ivy, Andy, and Mary got him some delicious crackers and toothbrushes. My Mom and Dad gave him Lincoln logs. To be totally honest Shaun asked for the Lincoln logs but Remy likes them as well. He loves to have Shaun build the logs up and he can knock them down and throw them about. Shaun's Mom and Dad got him one of those ride on cars and Remy loves it.

Remy's 2 year stats:

Height: 36 inches, 88%

Weight: 28 pounds 3 ounces, 54%

Head: 19.25, 57%