Jaylen

Oh I love my boys. I've been having such wonderful little moments with and thinking about them that have been really special this past week.

One time in particular, we were coming home from the YMCA, and Jaylen was singing and sharing a treat with Gavin and Gavin was jabbering like crazy and I was reflecting back on Jaylen's life and listening to them loving and enjoying each other. I got teary eyed thinking about them, and told Jaylen I really loved him and was glad he was my little boy. He noticed my tears and said, "You sad mom?" and I told him I wasn't, that I was just thinking about him and how proud I was to be his mom. He said, "Oh mom, you don't have to cry over me."  It was really cute.

Jaylen is so cute with sharing his feelings. Like today he was upset at Birgita and came to tell me, "Mom, I'm very disappointed and upset with Birgita that she's not listening to me!" It's funny to hear him use some big words to express his feelings.  "Mom, I'm very exhausted at trying to tell you that I don't want to."  When he's going potty and we walk by, he'll say, "I really need some of my privacy." Sometimes he uses the words correctly and sometimes not. I love hearing him voice his thoughts and feelings. 

As we were driving down the road, Jaylen rolls down his window, peaks outside and says, "Oh, what a wonderful world Mom." It was really sweet! I love what a positive little boy he is!

Video catch up

Videos take forever to load, so I don't usually put them on here (and they don't print out onto the blog book that I hope to make this into one day), so I'm finally catching up. I love looking back on video and seeing them- so cute! Here are Lyndon's birthday, Jaylen riding the dizzy chair at the zoo and Gavin during February- 11 months old.

Jaylen's songs

Jaylen's hilarious with all his song singing lately. The peanut song came completely out of the blue and we couldn't stop laughing when he first sang it. He hasn't stopped singing it since either. Here are a few of his favorite songs:

Gavin eating corn on the cob

Gavin is so funny to watch eat- especially corn on the cob.

Well child visit updates

Both the kids had their well child visits on Monday. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. As soon as we got in the room Jaylen LOST IT. Crying, running from the nurse, refusing to do anything. Jaylen was acting up so much it got Gavin crying and upset too. So both kids out of control, both wanting me to hold them and the appointment was LONG. 3 shots each. Definitely not a fun appointment. But good news, Jaylen doesn't have to get anymore shots until he's 11, but I think he's officially freaked out of doctor's offices (dentist was also a nightmare 2 weeks ago). Good news is, both kids are happy, well and we all survived the appointment.

Here's the stats of our lil growing gremlins:

Jaylen: 4 years old

Height: 44 inches (97%),
Weight 42 lbs (90%)

Jaylen is one smart, curious kid. He has been loving and doing really well in preschool. His teacher says he is very predictable, smart and doing really well. His behavior is getting much better. He spells his name, some of his classmates names, and can draw stick people. He can count to 100 with a few mishaps. He chatters a lot, loves to ask questions and loves being around anyone he can play or talk to. His questions are very meaningful, thought out and can be pretty deep. He loves to know why things are the way they are and how things work. He still is crazy about his trains, loves playing on pbskids.org, and enjoys extended care at the YMCA playing with "big" kids. He loves putting on shows, jumping on the couches and telling us stories, and singing us songs from primary and preschool. He loves eating Subway sandwiches, Icees and bubble gum. He's adjusting to Gavin being able to get in his toys, so definitely a transition for him learning to share and be nice to Gavin. He is definitely going to be a big boy- he's wearing size 7-8 in clothes now and size 2 shoes. Jaylen just seems so much more of a big boy now- we've found ourselves adjusting our parenting lately to listen and communicate better with our growing boy. It's been great to communicate better with him and hear his cute feelings come out. He's got a heart of gold and such an eager curiosity and energy that can be maddening at times, yet so fun to watch his little smart brain work through things. He's perfect for our family.


Gavin: 1 year old

Height: 30 inches (75%)
Weight: 23lbs 3 oz (50%)
Head circumference: 90%

Gavin stands and walks on everything, but hasn't branched out to step on his own. He babbles alot, saying momma, dadda quite a lot. He loves waving. He has 4 teeth up top and 4 on the bottom and more are coming in soon. He's into EVERYTHING. Any bottom drawers in the kitchen and bathroom he loves getting into and pulling everything out. He loves getting into any trash can and pulling all the garbage out. He eats constantly!!! He call him our little piggy because he eats everyone's scraps and leftovers from dinner and loves to eat anything he can find. Anytime someone is in the kitchen making anything he grunts and screeches for food and wiggles all his limbs like crazy. It can get annoying, yet we have to laugh at how intense his liking for food is. He's a GREAT sleeper. He goes to bed about 7:30 pm and will sleep till 9 am if we let him. He only goes to bed easy if it's in his own bed. He doesn't like being snuggled to sleep. He does love being tickled a bit when he's put down in his bed for sleep. He loves his thumb, but only really uses it when he gets sleepy. He loves to shake his head. He's in size 2T clothing. He is such a joy to have in our home. Calm, hungry, happy little boy.

Beautiful spring day

I know it's not spring yet, but it sure felt like it a couple days last week. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand box and grass. Jaylen and Birgita didn't fight once! Hooray!!! They were so cute using their imagination to build and create things. Gavin loved feeling and exploring the grass.

Guess who decided to cut his own hair the weekend before his first school pictures??? Yes- Jaylen. That dang kid!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had to buzz off all that beautiful hair and it still looks chopped up top. ERRRRRR!

Poop continued

Remember that stinky day of poop I had? Well this happened later that night-

 

Not my day.

Little Jayhawks basketball

Aaron helped coach Christian and Caleb's basketball team with Ben. It's been a fun season- full of wins and losses. Aaron loved doing it with Ben. It was fun to cheer on our team!

Gavin's 1st birthday

Gavin's birthday was fun. Rachel took a little photo shoot of him, Aaron got home early so we took the kids on the light rail down to the new children's museum in downtown Tacoma, then ate pizza and had cupcakes and ice cream with Nastasha.  Can't believe what all has happened in a year!

These pictures uploaded in the wrong order, but here is Gavin opening his presents- kisses to a cute bear from Great Grandma Betteridge.

LOVED these toys Merilee sent! Jaylen too...

Wrestling his present open

Yum!

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Gavin is 1!

 

I LOVE THIS FACE!

Rachel took some pictures of Gavin on his birthday with her nice camera. So happy with how they turned out! So awesome to have such cute pictures to remember this age with! He is such a happy, sweet boy!