Found my feet!

Grayson found his feet! And he loves those tasty little nuggets.

I wasn't sure if he was going to find them over that belly of his but I should have known if there was an opportunity to put something in his mouth he would take advantage. Especially for something that he could always access. It is a bit difficult when he is eating...it makes for a very messy meal time. Love that little bug!

Building Vandy - Floors

Last Saturday they started installing the wood floors! It's amazing how much flooring changes the house! They look awesome and they aren't even finished - they still have to hand-scrape and stain them. 

This is the view standing in the living room looking at the kitchen. It won't look this empty for much longer!

And in the kitchen looking at the living room. It took them about a week to get all the wood installed. 

Over the weekend they started installing all the tile/marble. Here is the boys bathroom with the Plaza Nova gray tile we selected. 

This is the guest bathroom with P'zass White Ritz tile. 

And the master bath with Fabrique Blanc Linen tile

They also started laying tile in our shower. This is Carrera Arabascato which looks incredibly close to regular Carrera marble. We are doing Carrera marble (from Italy) countertops but our builder suggested using the Arabascato marble for the shower area because it was significantly cheaper. We are talking $5 a sq ft vs $20 - so why not?? The major difference is that this is from China versus Italy. Depending on where they are on the rock there can be more of a brownish tint vs. all gray. You can kinda see a little brown in the shower pan above but overall it looks pretty darn close. It wasn't a huge deal to us to have all carrera marble so decided to save some $ and use this for the shower. 

Building Vandy - Stone

The have basically finished the stone on the exterior and we love it! 

We decided to do a mix of stone and stucco because we really loved the way it looks plus it saves money.  It's crazy expensive to do an entire exterior in stone - that's why you mostly only see it on the front of houses (something I never really paid attention to until now.) The front of the house was originally proposed to be all stone but we really loved the way stucco mixed with it - so we changed it up a little which we really love. We decided to do stucco on the side of the house because no one really sees it, it's not really a focal point and we were able to save some money - hooray! We did use more stone in the courtyard and backyard since those were places that were important to us. 

This is the courtyard...the wall on the right is the back of the garage and the left is the dining room. 

This is the other wall in the courtyard

And the back of the house...

Yiayia & Papu

My parents decided to come in town last weekend which was a wonderful surprise. My dad was in Houston for work - he flew in on a Tuesday and was only there for a week. He spent his days in meetings and I am sure was completely exhausted but we were so excited when they decided to make a 24hr trip to Dallas to visit us.

The G man loved hanging out with Papu

And of course his Yiayia!

The weather was great on Sunday and we all headed to Kyle Warren Park for some park fun! Ryan had a blast running around having Papu chase him! So much fun - can't wait for our family trip to the back in May!

Valentine's Day 2013

So I meant to post this last week...but as you can tell I didn't quite get it done. Story of my life lately...

Somehow I got it together and pulled together some Valentine Day goodies for the boys! Nothing crazy...just some sweets, a couple of stuffed animals and a Leap Pad game for R. Clearly G cannot enjoy the sweets but he really loved the balloon! We also made some Valentine's for Ryan to give away at school and to his play group buddies. I wanted to come up with something creative on my own but in the end I ran out of time so I turned to pinterest.

Enjoying some skittles!

The boys wore their matching Guadaloopy Design Valentine Octopus shirts and I attempted to get a good picture of them both. It's hard. 

At playgroup we had more sweets!

 

When we got home daddy was already there preparing dinner! He grilled out steaks and served roasted potatoes and green beans - yummy! And of course Grayson was super pumped for his dinner as well...little man loves real food!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone had a sugar-licious Valentine's Day! I know we sure did!

 The boys even let me have a mini photo shoot with them...well kinda. As you can see my normally smiley baby was all "huh?" But I love this picture because Ryan is holding his hand! So sweet!

And I LOVE this one even more because Ryan is giving him a kiss! Melts my heart! Love these sweet little boys and their daddy! More pics to come of our sugar filled day...but I'll have to post later!

Flavor of the week

As I mentioned before Ryan is a bit of a picky eater! He does however have random love affairs with food and this week it is EGGS! It's kind of awesome to make something and have him gobble it up...I love it when he comes to me and asks me to make him EGGS! We have been eating them for breakfast and even had them one night for dinner. Yum!

Building Vandy - Update

We have walls! Yay! The past two week things have really started to pick up - which is all very exciting for us! The walls took about a week to complete. Once they installed the sheetrock they had to go back and cover all the seams with some sort of drywall tape/putty.  They guys were pretty impressive to watch - really at any phase of the home building - they just do things so quickly and effortlessly. Anyhow, our ceilings are pretty high so these guys were walking around on stilts like it was no big deal. I still don't quite understand how you get up in those stilts...Anyhow, once the seams were filled they sprayed the walls with texture and wa - la!

While this was going on inside another crew was prepping the exterior for stone and stucco. The stone arrived about a week ago and both Kevin and I were a little skeptical. Our builder had suggested we find houses that we liked in the area (or online) and he could order based on what we liked - so that's what we did. We found a house that used stoned we really liked and sent him a picture (and address) and he ordered based on that - but the stone sitting out front didn't look like it! Mini freak out. Apparently it looks a lot different once it is actually cut and stacked on the house - and of course Jeff was right. Whew!

Kevin and I were both happy with the end result of the stone, which is Austin Stone in cream and nicotine - it definitely has more color than we originally thought. They have been working on the stone all week and it really looks great!

There will also be stone around the garage door. The top half of the house is stucco - we still need to pick a color. You can also see that they installed the garage. This was a surprise - we just picked it out last week! They still have to stain it but that will happen later.

And while all this was going on at the house we were still having meetings and making final selections. We have had two meetings to go over all of the cabinets/built-ins which are basically now finalized.  We also made final decisions on lighting and on trim - including baseboards, window and door casings and crown moulding. So many decisions!

Next up in paint (which I know can be tricky) and hardware (ugh...not excited about that one).

They are installing the flooring this week and next week they will start on the trim.

Lastly, the move in date has been pushed back to late April (from mid-April) with the main reason for delay being that subs are difficult to get (because building has picked up so much!). Anyhow, hopefully it won't continue to get pushed back and we will be in by the start of May! Here's to hoping!

Grayson 5 months

We actually took these pics outside - yup! In February...that's Texas for you. The ground was a little fluffier than I had thought so you kinda sink down into it - oh well! You enjoyed being outside!

Your eyes are still very blue - i wish I knew how to get a good pic of them!

I love those chunky thighs!

Milestones:
You started rolling over at the beginning of the month (basically right after I posted your four month post) and haven't stopped since. You very rarely lay on your back anymore...the second we put you down you are flipping over to your belly.

You started to reach out for things when you are on your stomach and I swear you are starting to try and move...

You still love standing

Try to put you in the bumbo but you slouch over and it looks incredibly uncomfortable.

Almost out of the swing. Whenever I set you down in there you try so hard to flip over. Good thing you are buckled in or I am sure you would have found your way to the ground by now.

Eating
You started solids!  At your four month appointment Dr. N gave us the go ahead...so we did. At this time you are still getting everything you need to grow through mommy's milk and food is just practice...but you really like "practicing". We have tried butternut squash, sweet potatoes and green beans. You LOVE the squash and sweet potatoes but not such a fan of the green beans. You ate them fine but I don't think they did well in your belly so we didn't try them again. We are still dealing with lot s of spitting up so we don't need anything else to complicate things.
So yes, you are still spitting up ... a lot. Some days I swear it doesn't seem like you keep anything down and others are much better. I am really trying to be good about what I eat - dairy/milk really seems to bother you so I am doing my best to cut it out...which is so hard for a cheese lover like me! I have discovered almond milk which isn't too bad of a substitute for cows milk. The only time I notice a sweet taste is when I use it to make scrambled eggs.
I still nurse you about every 2.5-3 hours during the day and then you get a bottle of 6-8oz of breast milk around 7:30pm. You are also still taking Prevacid for your acid reflux and we give you a dissolved pill at night right before your bottle.

Sleeping
More progress. Yay! So at the beginning of the month you were still waking up at 11, 2, and 4am but I was only feeing you at four. However, I was still getting up and helping sooth you....however, we decided to start letting you "cry it out".  I don't let you cry hours on end, basically for five minutes and if you are still crying we go in and let you know we are there and help calm you down then leave again. My goal is to drop that 4am feeding because I don't think you really need it anymore...a full night of sleep is getting so close!!! I hope :)

Routine
So while we are working on the wake, eat, play sleep routine I am so ready for a more defined daily schedule. I am ready for you to be more predictable...I don't think that will happen until our nights are more consistent. You typically take a morning nap and an afternoon nap...but the timing of them depends on when you get up in the morning...which changes daily. You also try and sneak a catnap in around noonish if you are lucky.

As important as nap times are I feel bad because sometimes you aren't able to get a good one.  You nap best in your crib.  I hate having to wake you up from a nap but sometimes its unavoidable. You really don't nap if we are out and about - I think you are so worried you might miss something. You have been known to fall asleep in the baby Bjorn but you don't transfer well....to a car seat or from a car seat. In fact, I would say that you aren't the biggest fan of your carseat...you usually scream for a while and there isn't anything I can do for you until we get somewhere. The second we are out of the car you are happy again. It will be nice once you have a more defined nap schedule because then I will be able to plan ahead much better. Now I never know if you will nap 30 min or 2 hours....and of course I need to be around when you wake because you usually want to eat! (I know, I know...I can leave a bottle...but I only like to do that if it's completely necessary.)

Size (unofficial)
Height: 27in (I am pretty sure they must have measured you wrong at your last appointment because I doubt you have grown 2 inches in a month! I double-ehcked my measurements AND your Gigi also measured you.)
Weight: 16lbs

January kinda flew by...which is great since its my least favorite month. Anyhow here is a glimpse of what filled our days:
- Trip to Houston with Yiayia
- Meeting buddies Pierson & Jett for first time in Houston
- Hanging with all of our Houston friends/family
- First trip to Lupe Tortillas (Is that odd that I include this? lol....)
- Play date with Dom and your grandmas (without mommies)

And although I usually only post my favorite pictures I thought I'd throw this one in there since this is also a good representation of your life :) A photo shoot (or day) wouldn't be complete without a little spit up. Yum!

So much fun with my sweet little boy! Ready for what next month has in store for us!
xoxo,
Mommy