Holiday Express

Amy and I took the kids to the Holiday Express at the UT Gardens today. I told Carter a few times this morning about where we were going because I thought he'd be excited. However, when I'd ask where we were going later, he'd answer with "zoo, ahh-ahh". About an hour before we left though it finally sunk in that we were going to see trains and he got excited and kept saying "choo-choo!".

Carter really liked the trains, of course. He also liked running around with Caitlyn. Luckily he never destroyed anything or got hurt (he was a little crazy).

Rylan was awake the whole time so I put him in the Bjorn. He also seemed to like the trains. He was just looking around at everything and was content.








Here's a video showing just how excited Carter was ...

Oatmeal and Bananas

While we were in Raleigh, I started trying to feed Rylan oatmeal. The first attempt last Thursday wasn't very successful.



But when I tried again on Saturday, Rylan actually started opening his mouth for me and diving at the spoon. He didn't eat a lot, but I know some finally went down.

Today I tried feeding Rylan a banana and he loved it. He ate everything I had mushed up (which was about 2 inches of a banana).

He wasn't sure about the first bite ...


But then he got used to it ...



Here's a video of Rylan eating today ...

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree last night from Lowe's. We met Brian there after he got off work and it was COLD (around 30F) and dark already. There weren't many trees to choose from and I didn't want to keep the boys out in the cold for too long. We could of gone somewhere else but since it was already December 7th, I didn't want to wait any longer to get our tree.

We have always gotten Frasier Firs in the past, but they all looked terrible (not very full with lots of holes). So we decided to try a Douglas Fir.

I took the boys to Lowe's last week to get a tree for Brian's parents. Carter got so excited when they cut off the bottom of the tree with a chain saw. He was telling everyone "tree, cut" when we got it home. When we got to Lowe's last night, Carter kept pointing at all the trees and again saying "tree, cut". So he was very happy to get to watch the bottom of our tree also get cut off with a chain saw.

Carter and I decorated the tree today (after his playdate with Caitlyn) and I like how the Douglas Fir looks.


This is what happens though when you let a 2 year old decorate ...





Carter would only hang ornaments from the strands of beads (and really liked grouping them together).

He also tried to add some animals to the tree ...


Rylan has been fussy a lot the last few days (he's been sleeping awful), but he did a good job of chilling out some so we could get the tree up.

Zoo, Ahh-Ahh

Carter is obsessed.

Anytime I say ...

"What do you want to do today?"

"Where's ___ going?"

"Let's go!"

Or anything similar to that, Carter says "Zoo, Ahh-Ahh!!!" (In case you need interpretation, "Ahh-Ahh" is Carter's sound for a monkey.)

Paci Fairy

The Paci Fairy visited Carter last night.

I've been telling Carter since his 2 year checkup all about the Paci Fairy. I explained that if he gave her all of his pacis to give to new babies, she'd leave him a present.

Last night we had Carter put his pacis in a bowl and he left the bowl outside of his door. He wasn't too happy about it, but obliged. Usually Carter goes to sleep immediately but it took him about 30 minutes last night. He never cried but there were a couple of whimpers and then just some mumbling. He slept through the night with just the normal occasional calling out and then turning over to go back to sleep.

This morning when Carter woke up, he had a Playmobil fisherman set. He's been enjoying playing with it all day.

Carter also did awesome at nap time today. It took him about 10 minutes to fall asleep and he only slept an hour and a half, but there was no whining about no pacis. He still asked for them when it was time to go to sleep but he moved on when I reminded him that we gave all of his pacis to the Paci Fairy.

Carter did even better tonight. Brian said he never asked for his pacis and he was asleep by the time I finished feeding Rylan (which was only a few minutes after Brian put him down for the night).

The roughest part of this transition seems to be in the car. Carter asks for his paci a lot and whines/cries/screams because he doesn't get it. Hopefully he'll forget about it soon. Rylan still doesn't use a paci so that should help. We occasionally try to use it to calm him down but he's just never really caught on that he's supposed to suck on it and not chew on it.

Rolling Over

My mom really wanted Rylan to roll over when she was with him. He'd get so close only to plop back down on his back. My mom would sit with him for 30 minutes and then when she'd get up to get something, he'd roll over. So, since she never saw Rylan roll over, here is a video of him doing it. He's gotten really good at it and has been doing it constantly this last week.

Sink Bath

Rylan got his first sink bath while we were in Raleigh (Carter missed out on ever getting a bath in a sink). Isn't he cute filling up that sink already?

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in Raleigh this year. Brian's parents were nice enough to invite my entire family to their house. We drove in Wednesday evening and the rest of my family got there on Thursday morning. My mom, dad, his wife (Jan), my sister (Karey), her fiancee (Mike), and their dog (Bella) all came. It was a full house!

We had tons of yummy food and all ate too much. We fried the turkey, as we have been doing for the last several years, and didn't burn anything down.


The boys did great through the meal and everyone was able to enjoy each other's company and the food.

Even Rylan suffered the effects of a full belly ...


After dinner, we celebrated Carter's birthday again. Once again he LOVED having everyone sing to him and blowing out the candles.

Carter got a tons of gifts and he loved them all. We were really glad he got so many great presents because he had plenty of toys to play with while we were in Raleigh.

Brian's Dad - Update

Brian's dad is continuing to improve. He was moved out of the NCCU (Neurocritical Care Unit) on Saturday afternoon and into a regular room in the neurological area. Art's ready to come home and hopefully it won't be too much longer until he can. He's doing great and everyone is hopeful that he's going to make a full recovery!

We decided to come home yesterday (at least for a few days) so that we can get some things done in Knoxville (such as winterize our irrigation system since it's now getting into the low 20s at night).

Brian's Dad

Brian's dad had a brain aneurysm rupture on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. He had surgery on Sunday and so far is doing well. I'll be back to posting when things get a little more back to normal.