Kylie's 1st Birthday Invitation!

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Look Who's Two!

“I can’t believe he’s two!”  I’m certain I said that sentence about 58 times on Bryson’s birthday weekend.  It’s truly crazy how quickly time flies.  I know it does, so I’m not sure why I’m surprised when it sneaks up on me during these big moments, but I wish it would slow down more.  On the flip side of that, it’s so wonderful to watch Bryson grow into a toddler and surpass the baby stage.  He is such a bundle of energy, happiness, hugs, laughter, and surprises.  What more could I ask for? 

Bryson now understands what presents are, so he gets excited to see one.  He was getting the hang of unwrapping them at Christmas time, so by the time his birthday rolled around, he was a pro.  Although he still gets pretty entertained by the paper itself and the boxes the gifts come in, he is now realizing the gift itself is the best part.  Before, he would play with the paper and not notice the cool gift inside.  Now the paper only gets a brief tossing before it’s on to the present.  Fun stuff!

We had his birthday party at Pump it Up, which is an indoors inflatable jump park.  They have two rooms with a total of six giant inflatables.  Some have slides, others have obstacle courses, and some are just a free for all jump spot.  Bryson loves them all.  I don’t think I’ve seen him have as much fun as his birthday party.  He had friends from school (including his previous girlfriend, Julia) and lots of our friends and family came, so he had tons of little ones to play with.  Not to mention he had lots of grown ups to play with – they let the adults bounce too.  I think the funniest part of the day was watching my Dad take him down the giant inflatable slide.  I’m still not sure who had more fun.  Every time I would see Bryson, he was running or jumping with the biggest smile on his face.  It was definitely his day.  I know he enjoyed it, and that makes my heart smile.

Transition time:

Now that Bryson is two, his school decided to transition him into the next classroom for the early preschoolers.  Just thinking about the word preschool makes me realize my Little B is growing up quickly.  It’s a great transition, and he continues to learn so much, so fast.  The only sad part is that we had to say goodbye to his previous teachers, Mrs. Hannah and Mrs. Bailey (or in Bryson’s word, Bebe).  They were amazing teachers and genuinely cared about Bryson.  He loved them dearly.  They both left Primrose when he transitioned to pursue other things, but Bryson still talks about them to this day.  When we pull in the parking lot, he will excitedly yell “Hannah and Bebe!”.  It breaks my heart because he thinks he’s going to see them.  It’s been two months since the transition, so I’m hoping he grows to love his current teachers this much. 

Bryson is learning so many things so quickly.  It amazes me how much he picks up from school.  The other day he started singing his ABCs, and I thought, when did he learn that?  Granted, it went something like A-B-C-D-E-F-E-A-B and so on.  He gets pretty close around the middle of the song, though.  It makes me a proud mama.  He can now count to about 13 or so.  I attribute that more to Sesame Street, being that the number of the month at school is only at 5.  So thanks, Elmo! 

He can now eat just about anything without me having a minor heart attack.  The first time he ate a gummy vitamin, I freaked out because I didn’t know if he would understand how to chew it.  I know, I know, he’s 2.  But still, it’s gummy.  Gummy can be tricky.  My dad gave him crab for the first time when we were out celebrating his birthday.  Of course, he instantly starts making a choking sound, and Sandi and I stared him down until the realization hit that he was fine.  He instantly wanted more and was probably wondering why his mom and Mimi were giving him crazy eyes.  So I suppose I do still have those moments with new stuff, but not quite like I used to.

One of his favorite pass times is his swing set that Grandma and Boo (Mike’s parents) got for his birthday.  Mike spent two full days putting it together and did a wonderful job.  I still don’t know how he did it by himself.  I helped him the second day, and it snowed about a third of the time.  It was COLD!  I couldn’t feel my extremities after about an hour.  Trying to turn the instruction pages with gloves on was not an easy task, either.  My job was reading instructions and bringing supplies.  Mike covered the rest.  I will post a picture of how awesome the swing set is to show how much work Mike put into it.  We also had a privacy fence installed, so the kiddos and Aspen can roam freely.  It’s awesome!  

Bryson loves the swing set.  Every day we get home, the first words out of his mouth are “outside”.  Rain or shine, he says it.  The clear days are my favorite.  He plays outside until dinner time, and it’s almost like pulling teeth to get him in.  That is until he realizes food is involved.  Then he’s a happy camper.  On the rainy days, he doesn’t understand why he can’t play outside, so he usually gets a bit unruly for the first 10 minutes of our home arrival.  

Quite the talker:

Bryson is a big fan of talking on the phone.  He loves to answer any item (toy phone, play corn-on-the-cob, hair brush, etc.) and say hewwo.  From there, who knows what he’s going to say.  I call my Dad during the week on my way home from work on my car’s Bluetooth.  This way, it’s handfree and Bryson can hear Papa.  I also call Mike on my way home every day.  So once we’re in the car, Bryson usually dictates who we call.  It’s generally either “Dadda talk” or “Papa talk”.  Sometimes he will throw me a curve ball and say “Mimi talk” or “Mamaw Papaw talk”.  I will call whoever he says, so keep your phone handy, everyone!  It could be you!

He can generally carry on a conversation by himself.  He will start talking in the car, and I don’t always understand what he’s saying.  But instead of answering him, I just let him continue on his own.  He will go a good five minutes without taking a breath and be thoroughly amused by his own stories.  Every now and then he’ll crack himself up.  Funny joke, maybe?  For the most part, and thankfully so, I understand him and can keep up with the conversation.  He is certainly an entertaining car companion.  Mike would say that he gets his chattiness from me.  Perhaps he’s right.

Some cute things he says now:

Basasuum = Vacuum

*If he sees a vacuum in any store, he will scream “basasuum!” and point at it.  This has happened in Target and Sam’s on many occasions, and it makes me    laugh every time.  Some things never get old. 

Tylie = Kylie (but it’s usually Sissy)

Byson = Bryson

Assen = Aspen

I did it, Mommy (or Daddy)!

I wuv you, _____.

Nigh, nigh, _____.  (Night, night)

**Please never ask him to say Fox.  It turns out badly 100% of the time.  Feel free to your use imagination on how that comes out.

“Ewww, buggn!”.  That’s how he says bug.  And by bug, I mean anything that’s on the floor that’s small and not a toy.  It could be a fuzzy, a piece of string, a rock, or an actual bug.  I never know, so I have to assume it’s a bug before I wander over.  Bryson use to hand me “bugs” after he picked them up off the floor so I could throw them away.  I was used to getting non-bugs, until one day he handed me a roly poly.  I squealed like a five year old girl and flung it across the room as I shook it out of my hands with lightning speed.  I guess that’s what I get for assuming it wasn’t a real bug.  Bryson is not allowed to hand me bugs anymore, real or not.  He now understands to throw them away on his own.  He sometimes says “ewww, buggn, mommy get it”.  I’m trying to teach him that mommy doesn’t get bugs, and that’s a daddy job.  When I tell him that, he laughs and says “no, mommy get it”.  Not happening, kid. 

Big Brother and Loving It:

Bryson is the best big brother ever.  He really does love Kylie.  He enjoys giving her kisses, tickling her, hugging her, playing with her and holding her.  He is great at handing her toys that are beyond her reach, giving her a paci when she gets fussy (which is seldom) and telling her it’s ok by patting her belly, making her laugh at any given moment, and so on.  She absolutely adores Bryson.  She could spot him anywhere in the room and won’t take her eyes off him.  She would prefer Bryson over Mike and I any time.  He can do anything, and she will laugh with a giant smile on her face.  They have the sweetest interactions.  Sometimes I’ll see Bryson bring her toys and sit down and play with her, and I can tell she is soaking it all in.  He will talk to her while they play, which I love to listen to.   

Ready or Not...

Time to return to work did not go so well for me.  I was really getting used to staying home with Kylie.  She was so easy to take care of since I knew what I was doing this time around that I was brave enough to take her out of the house.  We would go to lunch with Mimi, go shopping, get groceries, run errands.  You name it, we did it.  With Bryson, I was terrified that if I took him out of the house, he would cry.  Then what would I do?  I had no idea.  Of course, the few times I took him out, he did great.  But I couldn’t shake that fear.  So I was going stir crazy when it was time to return to work.  With Kylie, I was anything but.  So was I ready to return?  No!  But I did…and have survived just fine.

When Kylie was about two months old, she was hitting the scales pretty hard, just like her brother.  She weighed about 12 pounds, which was almost in the 70^th percentile.  She was also starting to develop her joyful personality.  She was learning to smile, and I would get an occasional giggle from time to time, which would melt my heart immediately.  She would very rarely cry, so when she did, I knew it was for a legit reason.  Some babies cry just to cry.  She is certainly not one of “those babies”.  She rocks! 

She started sleeping through the night at two months as well.  I’m not sure how we got so lucky.  Of course, just because Kylie was sleeping through the night doesn’t mean that Mommy was.  I was still pumping at 2 am until she was almost four months old.  That’s for the birds.  Waking up when you don’t have to and knowing you’re the only one up.  Ugh.  There were many times I wanted to wake Mike up just because.  But that would be mean, so I resisted. 

Around 3 months, Kylie had the giggling down.  It didn’t take much to make her laugh, which was even better.  She is also very ticklish, so if for some reason she didn’t think my goofy faces were hilarious, I would just tickle her.  Works every time.  She is still enjoying bath time as well.  She hasn’t started splashing to figure out what all the water does, but that’s probably coming pretty soon.  She eats well for the most part and naps like a champion when her belly is full.  That’s the one thing I have missed the most since being back at work is her napping on me.  I still get our snuggles every now and then on the weekend, but I miss them daily. 

Now that she’s started daycare, she has a new love…her daycare teachers.  Although it makes me a bit jealous (and by a bit, I mean a lot), that she is loving on other people when she should be loving on me at home, I have to embrace the fact that they love her back.  And I couldn’t ask for anything more.  They are so good to her there, and that’s what counts.  They also do tons of footprint/handprint art, which is my absolute favorite!  I will cherish those little treasures forever.  J  She has seven friends in her class, and one of the boys, Carson, was especially fond of Kylie.  Mike had a huge opposition to this.  I soon realized that my poor daughter is going to have one strict Daddy.  Carson has moved on to the older infant classroom, which is over 6 months, so he was only in Kylie’s class for about a month.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Mike paid some under the table cash to get him moved over quickly.  This is only the beginning.

At 4 months, her personality was really starting to sprout.  She’s trying to become more mobile every day.  She started rolling over, especially toward the end of 4 months.  If I lay her down to change her, she immediately rolls onto her belly.  It’s so funny.  She also has learned to flip back onto her back, but she prefers tummy time the most.  I think it’s because she can get more active.  I will put her in one spot, and in just a few minutes, she much farther than where she started.  She is a professional wiggler.  She doesn’t crawl anywhere yet, thank goodness!, but she will wiggle herself anywhere she wants to go…backwards.  She hasn’t quite grasped the concept of moving forward, so she wiggles backwards.  She doesn’t seem to mind.

So now I’m up to the current time (5 whole months!).  I can’t believe how fast the time has gone.  I wish I had more time with my girl.  Nights are soooo busy.  I usually get the kiddoes home around 5:45 – 6:00.  We have to get Bryson feed, bathed and in bed by 7:30.  While all of this is happening, Kylie is either bouncing around in her jumping, rolling around on the floor, or being held by Mike or I.  She eats around 7:15, then I rock her to sleep.  This is our special time every night, and sometimes the first time I get to really hold her at night, which is ridiculous.  I hate not spending hardly any time with her.  But I make it my point to spend as much time with her on the weekends as possible.

Another exciting “new” for Kylie is that she’s getting two teeth!  Already!  They are her middle bottom ones.  I first noticed when I was breastfeeding her and she bit me!  Ouch!  So no more breastfeeding for Kylie…ever.  It’s just me and the pump.  Bryson didn’t get his first tooth until 7 months, so you can imagine my surprise that she is already getting two!   We also have attempted another first – her first cereal feeding.  We quickly decided it was too soon and will give it another week or so before we try it again.  Poor thing had no idea what we were doing.  At one point, I thought she was getting the hang of it, because I would put the spoon in her mouth and the cereal would go it.  After the third or fourth spoonful, the entire amount of the past three came dribbling out of her mouth.  She didn’t understand that she was suppose to swallow the cereal.  I tried to let her suck on the spoon, but that didn’t work either.  Once she got mad, and rightfully so, we gave her a bottle.  Better luck coming soon, I’m sure of it.

She has been a little under the weather lately, thanks to Tennessee weather.  One day it’s 30, the next day it’s 60, the next day it’s 30, and so on.  Mike took her to the doctor last week, and she weighed a whooping 16 pounds.  When most people that meet Kylie ask how old she is, and I say 5 months, their initial reaction (after they oogle at how beautiful and cute she it), say Wow, she’s a big girl!  The scale at the doctor just confirmed what we already knew. 

TV has become increasingly fascinating to Kylie.  Bryson has starting watching Sesame Street and Thomas the Train pretty consistently at night, and whenever it’s on, you can bet she’s craning her neck to watch with him.  Sometimes I will lay her on the ground facing the opposite direction of the TV, and within nano-seconds, she will flip herself around and stare.  I can get in her face to distract her, and she will outright tilt her head to the side to get my face out of her way.  I’m sure she’s probably thinking “will you move, already?”.  Mike will sometimes allow this tv watching to occur when I’m not in the room. I’ll come in, and he’ll have her propped up under his arm, facing the TV.  She is as content as can be.  Of course I give Mike the stink eye when this happens.  Over-stimulation of a little one is not fun to contend with right before bedtime.  He will say “aw come on, she likes it”.  I’m in big trouble if that’s his reasoning for doing things for Kylie in the future. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was awesome this year.  Not only did we get to celebrate with two amazing children, but we got to experience Bryson’s first Christmas where he sort of understood what was happening.  He knows who Santa is, he understands how to open presents with lightning speed (whether they are his or not), and he got to wake up to a Santa visit.  I’m not sure he quite figured out that Santa came, but it was exciting to see his reaction either way.

 

Both the kids got all kinds of wonderful things from our family and Santa.  Bryson hit the jack pot on toys, and Kylie hit the jack pot with both toys and outfits.  The outfits she got came complete with head bows, bibs and socks to match, of course.  I have restrained myself at least four times since Christmas from doing a fashion show with all her new clothes.  She would be fine it with for the first two or three, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t stand for much more.  I’m so thankful for all Bryson’s new toys, because he was getting easily tired of his “old” ones.  They just didn’t hold his attention very long, so the new toys benefit the entire Arbuckle household. 

Christmas nap with Daddy

One of Bryson's favorite things is socks, of all things.  Sometimes he will take them off and put them on several times before he's satisfied with the end result.  If he finds any lone socks in his bed, he is sure to put them on.  One morning when Mike was changing him when he woke up, he took a sock off only to find Bryson had a sock on underneath that one.  When Mike took that one off, he had another sock underneath that one!  So he was rocking three socks on one foot.  Why not?  He also loves to put them on upside down, and more importantly, he loves to put them on his hands as mittens.  It's not unusual to turn around in the car and find that Bryson now has sock mittens on.  He also loves my soft jammie socks.  I got some for Christmas and when I was removing the tags, he saw what I was up to and immediately took over.

Bryson and Kylie got to meet Santa.  It was Bryson’s second time to meet the big guy, and this time it didn’t go over so well.  The first time he didn’t really care one way or the other.  This time he had a strong opposition to being on Santa’s lap.  They were cool with each other from a short distant, and Bryson allowed Santa to read him a story while Bryson sat in the floor by his feet, but when he realized his next destination was Santa’s lap, it was all over.  Of course, I was like every mother who forced their terrified child to sit with Santa, but only for a brief moment to get the classic picture every child surely has.  Kylie has the same reaction as Bryson did for his first time.  Complete indifference.  So that made a nice picture as well.  Maybe next year will be more jolly with Santa and our children.  Ho ho ho.

 

 

 

 

This is the safe distance I mentioned.

Poor thing!

And then there were two

Ever since the day we brought Kylie home, Bryson has loved her (sometimes it seems more than me and Mike).  I hope this stays true forever. Every day Mike brings him home from school, he yells “Sissy!” (he hasn’t learned her real name yet), runs straight past me like I’m not even there, and gives her a kiss on the forehead.  After a few brief moments of making sure she’s happy, he will realize that I’m in the room and finally come and give me a hug.  He’s great at giving her a pacifier when she cries, he loves to hold her for about 18 seconds, then he’s over it, and he loves to feed her, but again, only for about 18 seconds.  Then it’s off to his toys.

 

I went to pick Bryson up from school yesterday since Mike had to work late, so I had Kylie with me.  Usually when I pick him up, he yells Mommy and runs and gives me a hug and won’t leave my side.  Today, he yelled Sissy and ran right past me to kiss her forehead.  Ahh, just like home.  I thought school might be different, but I was clearly wrong.  Apparently she is still cooler than me.  I set her carrier down, and all the kids gathered around her in a circle like a show-and-tell doll.  Bryson then said, “That’s my sissy!” and walked around her so they had to back up.  Then he played with her toy bar to further impress the kiddos.  He finally realized I was there when a little girl named Sophie came to say hi to me, so he ran past her and said “No! That’s my mommy!”.  Although probably rude to others’ eyes, I was proud that he at least acknowledged my presence.  Thanks Bryson, Mommy loves you too.

 

He hates when she cries, and there has been more than one occasion where her crying has invoked his desire to do the same.  I don’t know if it’s because he’s so distraught that his beloved sissy is upset or because she’s so dang loud that he just wants the noise to stop, but either way, it’s quite a time when they’re both at it at the same time.  But then again, nobody ever said this would be easy.

Speaking of not being easy, adjusting to two has been a challenge.  Mike has been kind enough to only leave me with both of them a handful of times on my own.  I love it, but it sure can be tough to balance them both with Mike and I there together, much less on your own.  I still have a ways to go to master that skill.  Any tips would be great.  Elmo has been a huge factor to my success when I’m on my own.  Don’t judge.

 

I’m certain if Kylie and Bryson weren’t such great kids, I would have lost my mind by now.  When I see how some kids are wild and crazy, I’m thankful for mine even more.  Don’t get me wrong, sometimes Bryson can act like a monster and a tornado at the same time, but overall, he rocks.  Kylie is also a fabulous baby.  She rarely cries, and when she does, she is easily calmed by either being picked up or given her pacifier.  It’s rare for it to take longer than a few minutes to turn her into a happy baby again.  We are truly blessed.  I’ve always heard that “easy” children make you want to keep having more.  Whoever originally said that was both insane and accurate.  There are times when I think we may be open for another, many years down the road.  Then Bryson turns into that tornado I mentioned at the same time Kylie starts her dinosaur cries, and I change my mind.  It’s a seesaw battle, for sure.

 

Bryson has begun to talk so much lately and is even putting sentences together.  The other day he looked at a picture on the wall, pointed to it, and said “that’s a picture”.  Then he pointed to the one beside it and said “that’s a picture, too”.  I was seriously impressed. There are a few rogue words we’ve had to interpret using excessive trial and error.  In case you’re ever talking to him, here’s the breakdown of the most popular versions:

• Bless you = Bless yous
• Sat = what’s that (Originally we thought he was saying s#@t. Also, in case you didn’t know, curious children say “what’s that” A LOT, so I was constantly embarrassed until we cracked the code.)
• Water = rum
• Milk = mulch
• Noodles = noonles
• Elmo = Melmo
• Snack = Nack
• Bath = Bass
• Hello = Herro
• Off = Oss

Some exciting things that Kylie is into is smiling and cooing.  She is so easy to please and you can get her to smile within a second of making eye contact with her.  She loves people watching, as do I, so she’s very content when I take her places.  One day when I get very brave, I may take her to Wal-Mart for the ultimate people watching experience.   All in due time, Kylie. 

She is growing so much, so quickly.  At her two month check up, she was already up to 12 pounds.  This puts her in the 62nd percentile.  Her length was in the 28th percentile, so I'm certain she has inherited my height.  She is already wearing her 3 month clothes, which I'm excited about because that's when her wardrobe officially begins.  I didn't request many newborn sizes since I knew she would only wear them for about a month.  So most of her outfits consisted of jammies.  Moving into the 3 month clothes means super cute outfits with matching head bows and socks, dresses, cardigans, and more.  There is so much to choose from thanks to our family and friends that every day feels like a fashion show.  I'm loving this!  I sure hope she is too. 

The only downside to her outgrowing her newborn clothes is that is means I have to pack them away. That brought on tears when it sank in that she wasn't as little as she once was.  The thought of my little girl growing up is bittersweet.  I'm looking forward to all her firsts, but I'm also sad that she has outgrown certain things I love.  For example, she no longer latches onto my finger when I give it to her.  She now picks and chooses when she wants to hold on.  Her startle reflex is non-existence for the most part as well, which she is probably happy about.  It always made me laugh though when the slightest noise made her throw her arms and legs out instantly.  It was so cute.  Now we're on to bigger and better things.
 

Bath time isn’t a favorite pass time yet, but I’m hoping she will eventually love it.  Don’t get me wrong, she doesn’t hate it, but she sort of stares at you with this look that says “are we done yet?”.  I generally feel like an idiot when I make silly faces at her and she keeps staring at me with that same face.  So I try to rush through bath time so I can get her sweet looks back.

Feeding Kylie is like night and day from when I fed Bryson as a baby.  He would practically yank the bottlesfrom your hands before you even sat down with him.  As soon as he laid eyes on the bottle, nothing else mattered except eating.  With Kylie, she could care less.  Sometimes she falls asleep eating, and good luck waking her back up to convince her to eat.  That's simply not happening.  Another huge difference is burping.  When I would stop feeding Bryson midway to burp him, he would get so mad that the feeding abruptly ended and would sometimes start to cry like he would never be fed again.  There were countless times that I would stop trying to burp him and give him the bottle back to get him to settle down.  I’m sure he was pretty gassy because of it, but can you blame me?  With Kylie, I burp her and settle her back down in my arms and she is happy as could be.  She doesn’t care if you feed her more or not.  It’s just a nice surprise if there’s more to go, but I’m certain if I didn’t keep going, she would be fine with that too.