Rylan's 18 Month Checkup

Rylan had his 18 month checkup today. We tried out a new pediatrician in the same practice because we weren't liking the last one we'd seen. Today I saw the pediatrician that Missy takes her boys too. I liked this doctor a lot better but I still didn't absolutely love her. I think I just miss our pediatrician in Knoxville. He was laid back and much more realistic with expectations regarding diet, potty training, etc. I don't mind being told that the boys need to eat more vegetables and such, but I just don't love the approach these doctors have been taking.

Ultimately, this pediatrician listened to all my concerns, asked lots of questions about Rylan's development so she could make sure he is on track, and was sweet to him. So we'll see her again and then decide if we want to stay with her.

The pediatrician said Rylan looked great, was developing normally, and only had to get one shot. Here are his stats. She wasn't worried at all about Rylan's weight since he's proportional with his weight and height.

Rylan's 18 month stats:

• Weight: 27 lbs, 3 oz (50-75th percentile)
• Height: 32.5 inches (50-75th percentile)

Rylan's 15 month stats:

• Weight: 26 lbs, 2 oz (75th percentile)
• Length: 31.75 inches (70th percentile)

Carter's 18 month stats:

• Weight: 23 lbs, 1 oz (14th percentile)
• Height: 31.5 inches (26th percentile)

Today was Carter's first day back at Parents' Day Out and we went to the Predators game tonight (I'll post about that later). Tomorrow is going to be a rough day with short naps and getting to bed so late. Oh well!

Christmas

Christmas morning was a frenzy of present opening. There was so much for the boys to open that Carter eventually was having more fun passing out gifts for other people than opening his own!

Carter was excited to see that there were presents from Santa under the tree. He was very happy that Santa brought him the "real BIG treehouse" ...


Rylan's favorite present from Santa were these Handy Manny Pez dispensers (he doesn't eat the candy but he LOVES Handy Manny right now) ...


The boys got Little Tikes cars from my mom and Brian got to do the Dad thing and spend the morning putting them together ...


Unfortunately I took almost no pictures on Christmas morning. At least that means I got to experience everything with the boys instead of focusing on taking pictures.

Brian's parents and sister and my mom were staying with us so they got to experience Christmas morning with us. Then we spent most of the day cooking and eating.

After an early Christmas dinner, we went over to Opryland to see the lights. It was insanely crowded again but we enjoyed showing our family all the lights. And we managed to get a few group pictures.

Music and a Soccer Ball

Brian and I don't usually exchange presents for Christmas, but we decided to have Carter pick out presents for us that were around $10 each.

A couple of weeks ago Brian took Carter to Target to find something for me. They apparently went over several times that Carter was not supposed to tell me what he picked out. As soon as Carter walked in the door, he told me he wanted to open my music. It became obvious that Carter had picked out a CD as he kept asking me to open my music.

A few days later I took Carter to pick something out for Brian. We were again at Target and looking through the sporting goods section. Carter first picked out a skateboard, and if it hadn't been $25, we would have gotten it. Eventually after about 15 minutes of searching, Carter picked out a soccer ball.

I thought it would be funny if Carter told Brian he got him music so I coached Carter on it all day. I must have asked him 30 times what he picked out for Daddy, and he answered "music" every time. And of course as soon as Brian got home from work, Carter told him that he got him a soccer ball.

However, that was the only time he told him that. Until Christmas, Carter kept telling Brian he got him music. And then he started telling me he got me a soccer ball.

Carter did keep what he made for me at school a complete secret. This is what the kids made ...


Looks familiar :) The kids and I made these for our tree and all the grandparents ...


We also made these ....


I had the kids put brown thumbprints on the ornaments and then I painted on antlers, eyes, and noses to make them into reindeer.

Carter also made two other ornaments at school ...


Carter has been absolutely obsessed with baby Jesus this year. I still don't think he completely gets how baby Jesus is associated with Christmas, but it's a start.

Happy New Year!

Last night we went to one of Missy's friend's house to celebrate New Year's Eve. There were several families there and most of them had young children. Lauren has a beautiful, huge home and all the kids had a blast running around and playing with all her kids' toys.

Since all the kids are young, we did a ball drop around 7 pm and then most people headed out around 8 pm. It was a lot of fun and Brian and I were in bed by 9 pm (we are exhausted from unpacking!).





A terrible picture of the ball drop, but you get the idea ...

It's Been Crazy

It has been a crazy week but we made it through. We made it through moving and having a bunch of our family visit.

My mom got here last Wednesday. She helped me out by watching the boys while I finished up packing the apartment on Thursday.

Friday (December 23rd) was our insane day. We did a final walk-through of the house at 8 am. Our closing was at 9 am. The movers showed up at the house around 10:30 am with our stuff from storage. Then our refrigerator was delivered, we had an estimate for a fence, temporary blinds were installed, and our cable/internet was installed. Then the movers drove over to our apartment, loaded up our stuff there, and moved it into the house. The keys we were given at closing didn't work for the house so a locksmith showed up around 4 pm and recored our locks. The movers finished around 6 pm and we got cribs put together so we could get the boys to bed on time.

Luckily everything went well on Friday. The movers did very little damage to the house while moving (only some marks on the walls). Unfortunately a lot of our furniture that was in storage has damage. A lot of the wood furniture is scratched up and upholstered stuff is insanely dirty. We'll see what happens when we submit an insurance claim with the moving company.

On Saturday (Christmas Eve), we got the house ready enough for more family to stay with us. We put together beds, found sheets and towels, unpacked a lot of kitchen boxes, and went grocery shopping. Brian's parents and sister (Shannon) got in around 5 pm when we were getting our permanent blinds installed.

Brian's family stayed with us until Wednesday (December 28th). My dad, Jan, and Jan's mom (Beth) were here Tuesday through Thursday, though they stayed at a hotel. And my mom left today (December 30th).

We had a lot of fun celebrating Christmas with so much of our family and getting to do it in our new house. I unfortunately didn't take many pictures, but I will share what I have in the next few posts!

Santa Has Come!

Santa delivered Carter and Rylan's presents tonight after they went to bed (Santa used the black wrapping paper).


Carter is so excited about Santa this year. It has been so much fun for all of us. Carter has even been telling people that he called Santa Claus on his phone to tell him that we moved.

It has been a stressful few days, but we are in the new house. We've managed to put beds together, find sheets and towels, unpack the majority of the kitchen, and put up the Christmas tree. My mom has been here since Wednesday and Brian's family got in this evening.

I probably won't post much over the next few days but I'll have lots of pictures of the house and Christmas to share soon!

Giant Christmas Tree

We met Missy and her boys at the Brentwood Library for storytime today. Afterwards we walked across the street to play at the park for a while. On the way over there, the boys stopped to check out this decorated tree with giant presents. They all thought it was very cool.

Thanksgiving - Part 2

I am so behind on blogging. Between trying to pack the apartment, getting everything set up for the house, doing Christmas activities, Christmas shopping, me and the kids being sick, and potty training (finally), I am exhausted in the evenings once I finally have a few minutes to blog.

Since it is almost Christmas, I definitely need to finish blogging about Thanksgiving!

On Friday, the kids slept in (for them). Once they got up, Brian and I headed out to do a little Black Friday shopping. I had seen that Sears had the Gladiator garage cabinets that Brian uses half off (making them only $100 each) so we ventured over there first. They had several left so we picked up two. They we much bigger than we expected and barely fit in the trunk of our Rav4. I even had to take out the carseats so we could move the back seat up some. More to come on how that all worked out for the drive home later.

Then we headed over to Dick's to pick up new running shoes and Radio Shack to get my mom a new router. Even though it was late for Black Friday, we got everything we wanted.

When we got back to Brian's parents' house, we all took the boys over to our favorite park in Cary.







When we got back to the house, Carter started feeling bad and was burning up. A nap and some Tylenol allowed him to play Twister though with GG (Brian's mom).


My sister and Mike headed back up to DC after lunch and the rest of us hung out around the house the rest of the day since Carter was pretty puny.

Luckily Carter's fever was gone the next morning and he felt better because we had planned to meet up with some friends at Marbles, the children's museum in downtown Raleigh. We went there last year and loved it and it was still just as good. Even better, Rylan got to enjoy it this year!






We met up with Anakah and Johnny (Brian went to high school and college with them) and their kids, Fin and Lainey (who we had never met). Cass (who Brian also went to school with), her husband (Jeremy), and their son (Liam) were able to meet us there as well. Random ... Lainey and Liam were born on the same day.

We managed to get a group picture of the kids: Liam, Carter, Rylan, Lainey, Fin (and Anakah)


And I got a cute picture of Rylan and Lainey ...


It was great to see our old friends and meet everyone's kids. Everyone had a lot of fun and I hope we continue to meet up at least once a year!

After the museum and naps, we took the kids back to the park and then all went out to dinner. Once we got the kids to bed for the night, Brian and I worked on packing the car. We managed to fit everything in but had to turn Rylan's carseat around so he was forward-facing. Plus, we normally have Charlotte in a soft-crate but instead she got a small spot in the trunk to hang out in. Rylan liked her being there at first, but was not a fan when he was trying to eat a snack!


The drive back was a lot worse than the drive to Raleigh. It rained steadily as soon as we entered Tennessee and there were a ton of wrecks that slowed us down a lot. It was painful, but we made it and the kids did great (considering how long they were in the car). However, we aren't so sure we'll do that drive on the Sunday after Thanksgiving again!

Light Shows

We took the boys to see some computerized Christmas light displays tonight. They were both good and very different.

The first one we went to on Old Charlotte Pike was similar to one we used to go to in Knoxville. It was in an older neighborhood and the house was on a large lot so they had lots of lights spread out on their land. Here's a short video ...

Rylan was really in to it, even more so than Carter. We had both boys up front in the car with us while the music played over the radio. Rylan was holding on to the steering wheel and dancing.

Next we went over to Lipton Court to check out another display. That house was in a newer neighborhood and really neat. Brian and I kept trying to figure out how they did it.

Sunny Side

After dinner tonight we drove over to a house in the Sunny Side neighborhood that has amazing Christmas decorations. They have so many decorations that they've expanded into several neighbors' yards. They allow you to walk up their driveway to get a closer look at the decorations, and starting this weekend, they have a Santa there each night.

Carter loved it and was super upset when we had to get back in the car to leave. (Rylan didn't have much of a nap today and was passed out in the car.)