Fridays with Fynnlee

So I just read an article on CNN that they picked the 2016 Gerber Baby!

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that baby Isla is pretty cute. But come on…cuter than this little Squish?

Sorry…but I don’t think so.

Ya gotta play to win though, right? And how many new Moms think their baby(ies) are cuter than that Gerber baby? Show of hands.
All of you?
I thought so.

This week FLEW by and just like that!…it’s Friday. It was a crazy one and we’re all looking forward to the weekend. I have 2 new recipes to try out (and I’ll be sure to share if they’re any good), we have some open houses to attend (did I mention we’re selling our house? No? Well, we are), and the Beans turn 9 months tomorrow (hold me). Oh and we have to pack because we’re heading to the Sunshine State to visit GG, Grandma & Poppa on Thursday! YAY!

Have you ever painted with a tractor? Good times…(that tongue)

We are pretty obsessed with balls at the moment…(that tongue again)

And still obsessed with jingle bells…(that tongue again and again)

We read all about penguins

And PAINTED ON TINFOIL!  Which…crinkly sounds and delicious paint…is the BEST!

That tongue…again and again and again.

Happy, Happy FriYAY!!

Tuesdays with Greyson

Most days, you will find my sweet little love bug like this…giggling up a storm.

and can we talk about this outfit? His clothes are 183 times hipper than mine…

I’ve often said, that Greyson is, quite possibly, the happiest baby that ever lived. His teachers will tell you that too. He’s just got the most delightful, sweet, giggly personality.

It’s not hard to get a picture of him smiling. It’s how he looks 98% of his day.

Until he started looking like this. Seriously, what is this face? It’s a new one for him…part scowl, part frown.

But it’s become his new favorite. It’s kind of like he’s shifting his jaw and grinding his teeth together.

He’d actually be kind of scary if he weren’t so freaking adorable.

Oh and this is his other new favorite face. The “I’ve got a mouth full of puffs” face. I introduced him to puffs and there is no turning back.

so how is school going? Awesome! We’ve gotten some new art projects recently and it looks like he’s had a blast creating. Who knew painting bubble wrap was so fun?!

And the first time using crayons. I see hours and hours of coloring in our future. 

Quick stop in creating to balance a book on his head. 

Then it was right back to his art. Shaking snowflake erasers covered in paint in a tub. Tidy art creation at its finest!

Day in the Life – Winter 2016

Day in the Life posts are some of my favorites as a blog reader…and I’m super excited to be linking up with Julia @ My Life in Transition for Winter 2016. Considering I’m using this blog as a big ole diary of our life, I should have started doing these a long time ago! But there’s no time like the present…so here goes.

January 21st, 2016
Babies are 8 1/2 months old (or exactly 38 weeks)

4:15 am: I hear Greyson fussing in the nursery. I stumble into his room and replace the Bink he’s spit out at some point. Turn the music on his mobile and stumble back to bed.
4:20: Fynnlee starts to babble and I drift in and out of sleep
4:27: Greyson is fussing louder and I nudge Jerry to go shush him. Jerry is the baby whisperer.
4:45: There is a symphony of sounds coming from the nursery…Fynnlee singing and Greyson whining…and Jerry announces “they’re both up”.
Normally Jerry does diapers while I warm bottles and take out Jacob, but for some reason this morning I decided to grab Greyson and take him with me. (See his top teeth?? I can’t stand the cuteness)

Make it quick, Jacob…it’s 11 degrees outside.

5:00: Bottles are warm and babies are dry. We tag team feeding and then put them on the floor in our room to play while we get ready.

5:20: Jerry hits the shower and I start beautifying. I keep an eye on the babes while I get ready. There are random stops…someone spits up, Fynnlee falls over 4 times, Greyson gets stuck in the corner…but I manage to get myself dressed and whatnot within 45 minutes.

6:05: Greyson poops so he’s first to get dressed. (Not his poop face…)

6:15: I get Fynnlee dressed…apparently we still think it’s Christmas around here.

6:25: The Babes play on the floor while I get their bottles and food ready for the school.

Greyson needs his extra clothes supply replenished as he soaked himself with drool twice yesterday. They each get 2 bottles (Greyson 7oz and Fynn 8oz) and a fruit/veggie puree. Fynn has apple/green bean & Greyson has apple/prune (little dude needs a little help getting things going).

6:35: Jerry takes Jacob out for his long walk and I pack up the kids and our junk.
6:38: On the road! We have an 8 minute drive to work/daycare
6:46: Check in the kids, fill out their daily experience sheets, fill out a form to dispense saline for Fynnlee (she had a bloody nose due to dry sinuses) and put their food in the fridge. Kiss, Kiss…I’m off to work!
7:10: Grab coffee in the cafeteria and head to my desk.
7:15: Eat breakfast and fire up the computer. Work, work, work.

I get a daily report on their day from the Daycare. Their notes in italics.
7:55: Greyson gets a 7 oz bottle. Fynnlee gets an 8 oz bottle
8:10: Diaper change for Greyson
8:15: Diaper change for Fynnlee
9:45: Fynnlee goes down for a nap
9:50: Time for more coffee and a snack. I’m back on a Clementine kick, big time. Maybe I’m pregnant.

10:00: Diaper change for Fynnlee
10:05: Greyson starts his nap.
11:30: Fynn wakes up and gets a fresh diaper
11:35: Head to daycare to see the babes. Greyson is asleep when I get there but he wakes up when within 10 minutes.

11:30 We play for a bit. Fynnlee is trying so hard to crawl. Not in this picture though.

11:45: I help feed the Beans their lunch (I try not to take too many pics at daycare for privacy reasons)
12:00: I head back to work and eat lunch at my desk. Work, work, work.
12:40: Diaper change for Greyson
1:15: Diaper change for Fynnlee

1:45: What in the World hits my Inbox. Daycare sends us a daily newsletter of the day’s activity. It’s pretty much the highlight of my afternoon.

2:10: Diaper change for Greyson. Greyson starts his nap.
2:25: Fynnlee starts her nap
3:00: Greyson wakes up and gets a diaper change
3:15: 7 oz bottle for Greyson
3:20: Fynnlee wakes up and gets a fresh diaper and an 8 oz bottle

4:00: I head to daycare to pick up the kids. Jerry meets me to do the heavy lifting.

4:15: We get home and get the kids situated on the floor. Jerry plays with them while I empty the dishwasher.

It’s a daily occurrence.

4:35: Jerry has some work to do so I put the kids in the jumpers and they entertain themselves while I prepare bottles and food for tonight and tomorrow. Helmets off for their hour or 2 of free time!

Bottles for bedtime, wake-up and daycare ready to go! Pumpkin, banana, spinach puree for tomorrow’s lunch.

5:00 Time for dinner!

Fynnlee has mangos and bananas

And Greyson enjoys green beans and apples. Oatmeal mixed in for both!

5:45: We facetime with Grandma & Poppa in Florida and the kids tell them stories and show them their playtime skills.  I pop our dinner in the oven (Salsa Chicken).

I get the kids room ready for bed (fill up humidifier, get the ipad set up, lay out sleep sacks) and pick out their clothes for the next day. We’re expecting a big snow storm so I choose appropriate outfits.

6:00: Kiddos are getting cranky and rubbing their eyes. No baths tonight so I take Fynnlee upstairs first to get changed into jammies.  And a bib bc omgsomuchdrool!

6:10: Next up is Greyson.

I have to clean up a bit more so I plop him in the (dry) tub for a couple of minutes so he can’t get into trouble. Brilliant plan until he squeezes water from his ducky all over him and gets soaked. New jammies follow.

6:20: I feed Greyson

and Jerry takes Fynnlee

6:30: Both babies are asleep in their cribs so I finish up dinner. Corn and black bean sauté comes together quickly.

7:00 Jerry and I eat and watch The Challenge. We tag team clean up and are relaxing by 7:45.

8:00: We watch Flip or Flop

8:30: I take my shower

9:09 Lights out. 4:15 am sneaks up on you.

And that is a little peek into our day.

 

Fridays with Fynnlee

Currently: 8 1/2 months old

Current WAKEUP: 5:15 am
Current BEDTIME: 6:30 pm

Current TOY: there were tears when I tried to take this dump truck away from her.

Current EATS: Blueberry Carrot Pear puree & oatmeal

Current GIGGLE: not sure what’s so funny…but Squishy has the most adorable laugh.

Current OOTD: her special sweater made by Grandma still fits!

Current BATH TIME: new fox towel from Grammie

Current SCHOOL TIME:

First time coloring with crayons

Practicing her posture and balance

Painting bubble wrap is always a favorite

Shake shake shake to make a masterpiece!

Current TEETH: 2 (see em?!)

Tuesdays with Greyson

Currently – 8 1/2 Months

Current WAKEUP 5:00 am

Current BEDTIME 6:30p

Current TOY  Baby Einstein Activity Table

  

Current EATS  Pumpkin Banana Spinach 

   

Apple Spinach Puffs

 
Current GIGGLE Jumparooooo!

  
Current OOTD  Feeling Preppy This Week

  

  
Current BATHTIME Is The Best Time!

  
Current SCHOOL TIME Buckets of Books

   

Glitter painting
  

Cookie Cutter Snowflakes

  

Piggies are the favorite!
 

Current TEETH  5

 

   

Fridays with Fynnlee

According to Facebook, I hit it out of the park with Fynn’s fur vest. I recognize that I have zero fashion sense…and I’m trying not to pass that onto my child. But according to Jerry, I’m not doing as well when it comes to Greyson. Come on! All little boys need fair isle pants!

And where fashion meets function, I picked up a bunch of these little drool bibs from Amazon. They are fabulous! Kiddos are drooling buckets at the moment and these bibs have a nice, thick fleecy back to them. They’re really absorbent. And they look cute too!

So what’s new with my pretty Squish? Well, we’re still loving bath time. Rubber ducky is the one…

And we have some other fun little floating toys to play with.

Seriously, these kids are so happy now during baths. I’ve been laying them down (I support their head) to rinse their hair and Fynnlee kicks her feet like crazy! I’m dying to get to the pool with these Nuggets. 3 Weeks until we’re in Florida!!

I can’t even with those cheeks.

And while I’m posting half-naked baby shots…how is this for a modern day baby on a bear skin rug photo?!  She legit poses for pictures. Miss Mariann has taught her well.

Speaking of Miss Mariann (I’m just nailing these segues today, aren’t I?)…I had my very first “parent/teacher conference” this week! I know, right? At eight months. But I think it’s fantastic. I feel like I have a great line of communication with our teachers, but it doesn’t hurt to sit down and just chat about what is going on with my babies. And I really value their opinions so it was good to get some feedback. Because sometimes you just need a pat on the back and someone (other than your family…who are obligated) to tell you you’re doing something right.

So Miss Fynnlee Ann:
* She is social. She really enjoys playing with the other kids.
* She can be a bit possessive. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine. . But she is not mean and is easily redirected.
* She is a bit stubborn. She will do things when she wants to do them and not a minute sooner. Which is why she hasn’t started crawling. She hasn’t figured out how it will benefit her. (And when she does, lord help us.)
* She has excellent fine motor skills.
* She is exceptionally loveable. She’s very affectionate. She takes to strangers well and hasn’t shown too many signs of stranger danger
* The mirror is her BFF. When she in a mood, she snaps out of it if you plop her in front of a mirror.
* She’s on a good nap schedule. It’s probably time to tweak her food a bit and get her on a 3 solid meals a day schedule. I need to keep trying to introduce textures and finger foods.

We will probably transition her to a Toddlers class (NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO !!) mid to late May. She doesn’t need to be walking but she needs to be interested in walking. They will not separate her and Greyson until they are at least 4 as transitioning from one class to another is very hard on the kids.

I think that’s it. In a nutshell, she’s perfect. But we already knew that.

I also recently found out that Fynnlee rarely sports her big bows anymore…because she pulls them off. And eats them. {{sigh}}

It was a fun school week playing with toys.

And making snowflake pictures with cookie cutters

She stacked cups

And painted with glitter. Mmmmmm, glitter.

Now it’s FriYAY and we have a jam packed weekend. Go STEELERS!!

Tuesdays with Greyson

That tongue. Oh that tongue. It’s always out. I’m guessing he can feel his TWO new top teeth with it.

So let’s talk about how my baby now looks like he’s 14. I don’t know if it’s because I’m so used to looking at him with his helmet on…but when it’s off, he looks so grown up. I don’t like it.

And yes, I know it’s Wednesday. My 2016 blogging is off to a stellar start. Let’s just move on.

Not sure if I mentioned it but my brother’s entire family was sick over Xmas. Even the dog. This is the second year in a row for them. Then the doctor diagnosed my poor niece with hand foot & mouth, basically throwing everyone into a panic because it’s super contagious. After her fever didn’t come down for 5 days or something ridiculous like that, they changed their diagnosis to an ear infection. And we’re happy to report that everyone seems to be on the mend. And they get a get out of jail free card on any more illness for 2016.

We finally got to celebrate Christmas with them over this past weekend. We kept it simple with pizza and salad and the kids had a great time opening lots and lots of presents.

I just love these 4 amigos!

So what’s new with Greyson? He has his 6 month evaluation with Early Intervention this week. I can’t believe it’s already been 6 months! He has come a long way with his torticollis and we may drop physical therapy to every other week. He also has an eye appointment tomorrow to check out his left eye. It still gets very irritated and he rubs it constantly. His eyeball seems to be fine but we want to just rule out any issue as this was the eye with the really bad clogged duct.

And his 2016 school year was off to a great start!  There was playing with cups.

Looking cute (I think they painted this day)

Story reading

And painting with glitter!

Happy Tuesday Wednesday!

Life with Greyson and Fynnlee – 8 Months

So the Beans are 8 Months old. 8 Months and 8 days, actually. Wrap your head around that little piece of info. What kind of alternate universe am I living in? The crazy kind where time flies by at warp speed and you just stand there shaking your head wondering “How did I get here?”

December tends to fly by as it is. All the holiday hoopla and festivities make things just coast along until you blink and it’s New Years Day. But this month has gone by so quickly. And it’s so sad because it was a really, really good one!

  

 Eat

The kiddos are still drinking 24-28 oz of formula every day. Wakeup, mid morning, mid afternoon and before bed. They are also eating 2 solid meals consisting of 4-6 oz of puree and 1-2 T of oatmeal. I’ve offered them some bites of soft food (including a bit of a Christmas cookie…shhhh, don’t tell Jerry) but they basically just spit them out. They’ve also had those puff things and some yogurt melts and they spit those out as well. And Fynnlee choked on one so that freaked me out. Not Heimlich choking, but cough::cough::cough choking.  And I mashed up a banana so it had a chunkier texture and she legit vomited all over her highchair and herself. So I guess she’s just not ready. Greyson doesn’t love texture yet and basically just spits it out. I’m trying not to get too worked up about it…but I’ll admit I’m a bit concerned.

They still love all fruit and any veggie mixed with fruit. I’m still making most of our food at home but the pouches are really nice to use for travel. The only dairy we’ve done is yogurt. Our pediatrician said to give them pretty much any and all food now but I’m still a little gun shy on peanut butter. I need some baby Benadryl on hand first, I think.

Sippy cups are exclusively given at school but they’re still getting bottles at home. I’m going to phase those out over the next couple of months. Goal for this month is sucking out of a straw and eating directly from a pouch.

Sleep

I know we had some awful nights, but I don’t really remember them. I think it’s natures way of insuring the human race lives on. Both Beans were sick and supposedly Fynnlee is cutting teeth (for the last 3 months) so that made for some fitful sleep. But just like everything with these babes, it was a temporary situation. As was the 6:30 – 4:07am cycle we had that lasted for two weeks. Yes, 4:07am. Exactly…at least a half dozen times. Weird, huh?  I would love to have the 6:30 – 6:30 bedtime deal that I’ve read about so many people having. But my kids have rarely (if ever) slept for 12 hours straight. I’m lucky I’m a morning person. And I don’t mind going to sleep at 8:30.

These babies are still a dream to get to sleep every night. They do not like to be kept waiting for their bedtime. They start to get fussy around 6:15 and that’s when we start winding down the evening. They get hazy during their last feeding and make no fuss when I take them upstairs and zip them in their sleep sack. They roll on their bellies and it’s lights out.

We’re still rockin the white noise. I would cut off a digit before giving up my vacuum cleaner sound machine. We also bought a Crane cool mist humidifier and it’s really awesome. I add some lavender essential oil to the water and it creates a nice, peaceful environment.

I noticed that I’m rocking and singing them to sleep a lot more. (They still love Wheels on the Bus) It generally only takes 3-4 minutes so I don’t think I’m creating any issues. And if I am, so what. I get a few more months where they fit in the crook of my arm and will let me snuggle them. So I will take all I can get while they’re still babies.

Poop Pee

I was going to eliminate this bullet completely because do we really need to be talking about poop at this point? Babies poop. The End.

But I’m leaving the elimination heading because I have a question for the internets. Greyson has wet through his diaper a couple of times over the last few weeks. I put a size 4 diaper on him every night, nice and high on his belly (think Steve Urkle) and he is till occasionally wetting out the top of it. He sleeps exclusively on his belly and he’s basically just peeing upwards because the back of the diaper is totally dry. Do they make gender specific diapers? I’ve only done a quick google search and all I found were for older boys. Maybe an overnight diaper? Do they have more fluff at the front?

Baby Gear

We’ve eliminated most of our baby stuff. The only thing that’s still up is the swing and I’m not 100% sure we’re not over the weight limit with my petite flower. Oh, and the jumpers. They are still loving those. But they’ve just grown out of the bouncers, Mamaroo, Rockaroo and Rock n plays. Also new this month is baths in the big tub so we’re getting rid of our 4Moms bathtub. We have the activity mats up as well but I see them being put away soon.

I find myself just wanting to get rid of all of it! I sold quite a bit on Craigslist and we’re taking a carload to the consignment store soon.

Greyson Paul

  
Current (unofficial) weight 19.5 lbs
Size 3 Diapers, Size 4 at night
9 month clothes, 6-12 month clothes

* has 4 teeth. The two top ones haven’t fully pushed their way out yet but they are visiable
* still soooooo close to crawling. But not there yet.
* loves to eat. He grunts when you put on his bib until you start shoveling food in.
* says both Dada and Mama but not on purpose. I’m encouraged that he can make the Mamamaaaa sounds!
* Is starting to get ticked off when you take things away from him. But he perks up if you replace it with something better.
* Is constantly giggling. Especially when you snort like a pig or poke him in the belly
* LOVES bath time. He flaps his arms like a bird and slaps the water over and over. We have a water baby!

Fynnlee Ann

  
Current (unofficial) weight 21 lbs
Size 4 Diapers
9 month clothes, 6-12 month clothes

* has 1 tooth! It’s not fully out but it’s there.
* Can stand up while holding on to something for short periods of time
* Says Dadadadadadadaaaaa…but not when she’s looking at Jerry.
* is a maniac in her jumper. She will bounce around for an hour if you let her.
* loves the sound of her own voice. She babbles and yells and AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHs non-stop.
* her fine motor skills are off the charts. She uses her little plastic hammer appropriately and can pick up very small objects.
* is learning to make new sounds. She discovered how to click her tongue and then repeated the sound for 3 hours.

I am just so in love with everything about these Beans. All of it. The good parts and the bad. I love Fynnlee’s passionate hugs and Greyson’s sweet baby giggle. And I love Fynnlee’s dramatic outbursts and Greyson’s ugly cry. It’s what makes them who they are and they are just the most lovely, perfect beings on the planet. Every day brings something new and gives me another reason to cherish them even more. They are growing so, so fast…and that makes me so, so sad. But we have lots and lots fun and exciting adventures in our future. Life really doesn’t get any better than this.