Last Day of MDO

This past Wednesday was Ryan's last day of Mother's Day Out.  I can't believe how much he has grown since August! The picture on the left is from his first day of school this year and the one on the right is from his last. He is getting so big!

We are ready for summer! Well, maybe not the heat...but maybe it won't be so bad this year? Ha...who am I kidding :)

Mother's Day

While we were in Florida Ryan's class hosted a little party for Mother's Day. Obviously we didn't make it but they still had Ryan create a little card for me - which I think is adorable!

On Mother's Day we had a great time celebrating with a family brunch and then dinner with friends at Mi Cocina. 

8 months

Well this is late. again. things are pretty wild around here but I wanted to get this done before this tomorrow or who knows how long it would take me! This might be a little shorter than usual....

So since he is a crazy moving machine I couldn't really get a good pic against my background...

Woowee it's been a month!

You basically started moving around the day I finished up your 7 month post. It's not technically crawling, but it really doesn't matter but you are moving and that's what counts...for you at least! We call you our little inch worm...it's pretty adorable.

You kinda eat everything...within reason I suppose. Let's see, I nurse you when you wake and then we have breakfast about 30 minutes later. You take your morning nap around 9:30 and typically sleep about two hours. I nurse you when you wake up and then you have lunch around 12 with your bother. Around 2pm you are ready for another little nap - usually about an hour. In the afternoon we try and get out. Sometimes you will take a little catnap around 5ish which is awesome because then I can get dinner ready without holding you :) Anyhow, I nurse you one last time and then we eat dinner at 6:30. Then its bath, bottle and bedtime.

Food:
For breakfast you eat cheerios and some sort of baby food and you typically finish the entire pouch. hungry man.
Lunchtime you have been eating turkey & cheese. Really just whatever we have. Same thing goes for dinner. You have tried grilled cheese, pizza, hamburger, chicken....everything. The only thing that you have tried and don't really like is avocado. You make the funniest face..which makes me want to give it to you just so I can see it.

Stats:
No doctor visit this month so no official sizes
9-12 month clothes
Still not bothering with any shoes
No new teeth but we can see about four of them on their way in...

What happened this month:
- First HAIRCUT!
- Family pictures with McDonoughs
- First airplane flight - trip to Houston with mommy

xoxo,
mommy

Carillon Beach

This year we joined my family in Carillon Beach for a week getaway and we all had a blast. I was a little nervous leading up to it because the weather didn't look too promising but it ended up warming up for us and we has such a wonderful time!

Carillon Beach is about five minutes east of Rosemary Beach.  It's a super cute gated beachside community with adorable little houses. All of them have a house name - we stayed in Bahama Mama. It was  fun to walk around and and read all the house names. We decided if my parents had one they would name it The Sizzle Shack. (Or at least Bob would...) Anyhow, the houses were cute, the only thing that was a little disappointing was the town center...and it may have just been because we were there "between seasons" but who knows. I think it could use a little sprucing up. There really isn't much going on - only one shop (your typically beach stuff), a restaurant, a gym and a yoga center. There is also a hotel. There was a candy shop but it was NEVER open! Seriously....we walked up there at least four different times and it was always closed. We even checked their facebook page for their hours...which were incorrect. woomp woomp. We loved checking out all the adorable shops in Rosemary and Seaside so it would have been awesome if Carillon had something along those lines.

Anyhow, onto the house. It did not disappoint - seriously amazing! The place is immaculate...so clean and so organized. There was so much space - each couple got their own room and bathroom and we didn't even need to use the loft with the extra beds. The kitchen was amazing. I know, who really cares about a kitchen when you are at the beach but it was just so well stocked and had such high quality items. You really felt more like you were at home versus someones "extra" house where they just put a hodge-podge of old stuff. Plus it was so organized which made it so easy to find things! I even took pictures so that I could do the same thing in our new house! lol!

The week started off a little chilly...like too cold to really hang out on the beach cold. Boo. Ryan still wanted to go down to the beach so we did...and he loved it...even though his teeth were chattering.  Each morning we played down at the beach from about 9am to 11am (while Grayson napped). When he woke up we headed to the house to hang out in the pool and eat lunch. It was so nice being right on the beach...especially dealing with naps!

Ryan's Uncle's buried him in the sand...and surprisingly he didn't freak out. 

 And then we buried Uncle Steve...which was fun for him until Ryan kept knocking sand into his mouth/nose and ears. Yum. 

G bug did make it down to the beach...and he thought it was pretty cool. 

Checking out the ocean with daddy. Ryan LOVED the ocean! He would put his floaties on and just lay on his stomach floating over the waves...with a big ol grin. 

Hanging out with Papu watching Finding Nemo

Hanging with Uncle Nick

We got donuts from the donut truck one morning...we had to drive (instead of biking like we did last year) but it was a little chilly so that was ok. 

Building sandcastles with Papu...a little misleading since Ryan wasn't really all that into the whole sandcastle building. Little does he know Papu is one of the best sandcastle builders ever! He will love it soon enough. 

We headed up to a park to try and get some pics of the boys...this was the best one I got. I use to think getting one pic of Ryan was hard...but trying to get two kids looking at the same time is much more difficult. Especially since one of them is usually crying or complaining.

 Hanging on the porch. This boy is obsessed with balloons...and this jumper! So happy!

Of couse they had a ton of matching jammies and outfits but I didn't do a good job getting pics of it all. Oh well!

The grocery store was basically across the street which was super convenient as we ended up making quite a few trips over there. We ate most of our meals at home which was so nice especially since we had the two kiddos! We did get out twice for dinner. Our first dinner out we ventured into Panama City...which was a mistake. The owner had a list of restaurants and one called The Back Porch was on it. Since it wasn't a chain I assumed it would be ok but it really wasn't anything great and it was in Pier Park...which is basically a Spring Breakers haven. Let's just say it wasn't really our thing...

Anyhow, on Thursday night we got a sitter from Nanny Can and all the adults went into SeaSide for a yummy dinner at Bud & Alley's. It was delicious and totally made up for the horrible restaurant choice before! 

The last place we ate was George's - which is one of my favorite places! We headed there for lunch and it was delicious! 

 Headed to dinner at Bud & Alley's

 Family pics

 and with Kevin

One of our after dinner walks to the candy shop...that wasn't open. Good thing Ryan enjoyed the walk and didn't seem to notice that the candy store wasn't open. That probably won't fly next year...

Oh and by the way Ryan has decided that he loved to push the stroller. Grayson is such a trooper. I guess he doesn't really have a choice in the matter. 

 Just a couple shots of my little bugaroo!

 Action shot...

Isn't this place beautiful??? The walkovers were so picture perfect...

My boys...

Such a fun family trip! We had such a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!

Sleeping and fighting the virus

We kept Grayson in a pack n' play in our room and Ryan was the wildcard. His crib had wheels so we wheeled him in Claire and Steven's room (they actually welcomed him - so sweet).  He did well until about 6am when he woke up screaming for "daddy". Kevin and I didn't hear him but my mom did so she ran and got him. She brought him in their bed and he slept in there! I couldn't believe it! He has never slept with ANYONE! You can't even get him to go to bed with someone else in a bed because he just giggles. Anyhow, he slept forever...like a big boy in a big bed. Practice for next week!!!

Just snoozin away...

Our littlest bug slept through the night but woke up with his fever again the next morning AND a horrible rash all over his back. I was slightly panicked about it but it went away after he hung outide in the cool air for a little bit - whew! He continued to fight his nasty virus and actually slept most of the day. We also learned that when he is sick he doesn't want anyone but mommy and daddy holding him. Poor little man did not feel good.

By the third day he seemed to have finally kicked the virus...and successfully passed it on to mommy and daddy. yay! Kevin and I ended up catching whatever Grayson must have had but luckily it didn't last long. The good news was that no one else caught it... at least while we were on vacation!

So the whole sleeping situation started out great but came to an abrupt stop about a couple days into our trip. Our little fantastic sleeper Ryan all of the sudden was waking up and screaming in the middle of the night....each night for a different family member and then waking up for good around 5:30AM!!! What? That's crazy! This is the kid that we have to wake up at 8am every morning - what on earth is going on? I guess we can attribute it to him being in a different place and the fact that it is light outside at 5:30 in the morning.  Grayson also felt the need to wake up at 5:30am. It so much easier to 'ignore' the boys at home when they are in a different room...but since they all had roommates they happily dictated when morning would start. Who said you get rest on vacation? Not with kids!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends! I hope everyone has a wonderful day relaxing and getting some extra snuggles with their little ones!

I am so excited to share my day with my two little boys (and husband - of course!)

 It really is the best "job" in the world and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

 love my sweet little boys so much!

And of course Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world (so I am a little biased) 

Love you bunches!

Headed to the beach...

So Saturday morning rolls around and little G wakes up with a fever. Yikes! My poor little baby has never had a REAL fever. It was 101/102 so I knew he probably didn't feel so great. We were already a tad nervous about his flying behavior as he is a little more energetic than his brother but now adding the fever made us worry a tad more. 

Oh well. 

We had to suck it up.

 

We made it to the airport and had time to play in the play area. genius. 

Loving it. 

Pilot Ryan

Then we boarded our teeny tiny plane. Yeah...not a huge fan, but my little bug enjoyed it. 

I mean..check him out! He's adorable. Such a relaxed flyer...

 And the good news was that my little tiny bug slept the whole time! We totally didn't expect that!

The plane had two seats on one side and one on the other. Grayson could only be on the side with two seats so Kevin and I switched back and forth. 

 It was a SUPER easy flight. Now for the hour drive...

Ryan decided he wanted to help. He was really into pushing Grayson in the stroller. 

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Kevin and his minivan. I swear he loved family vacations because he gets to rent a minivan. Anyhow, we made the hour drive and Grayson fell asleep AGAIN! My poor little guy felt so yucky but we were so happy that he was able to sleep. 

We finally arrived around 6pm and got settled. Claire, my mom and I headed to the grocery store to get food for the week and then we all headed to bed somewhat early. The next morning we had a yummy breakfast and best of all...woke up to the beautiful beach! With a mimosa...greatness!