EVYNN CLAIRE | TWO AND A HALF YEARS

Evynn is at such a fun age, also very much a moody toddler, so I want to remember this specific stage! With her entire being she LOVES fruit snacks, her baby dolls and singing songs.

She could dress up in princess dresses, wash dishes in the sink, and breastfeed her baby dolls everyday.

Over the last 6 months, her vocabulary has picked up SO much!! She is speaking in full sentences. We've moved her to a big girl bed, and she's working on potty training. 

big girl bed

This kind of happened by accident. We bought an inflatable mattress to prepare for holiday traveling and knew we should test it out with her before traveling. She LOVED it and from that moment on, napped and slept through the night on it. I felt bad after a week of her sleeping on an air mattress, ha!, so we went on a bought the cutest twin size low to the ground cream wrought iron bed. She picked out her sheets-hearts and ice cream cones. We haven't fully decided on the "theme" of her big girl room, so I haven't bought a new comforter yet, just stick with a blanket. Which, she hardly uses anyways. Guess thats what happens when I didn't allow a blanket in her crib for 2 years, ha! She has a hard time staying in bed at naptime more-so, she needs some convincing to stay in her crib. At night she does better. But so far, no middle of the night walks around the house so thats a win! We just hear her door open at 7:30/8 am and here she comes.

potty training

This process is dragggggging out. A few months ago (i don't even remember when?) she showed alot of interested in going potty. We bought panties and celebrated BIG the first time she peed in the potty. She has a portable potty and a toddler seat on her bathroom toilet. She for the most part has worn panties while at home and has stayed dry. She tells us when she needs to go potty, pulls them down herself, pees, wipes, flushes, the whole bit. We've even left the house a few times in panties and stayed dry. Every time, without fail, she pees and asks "I want a black treat" (brown m&m). Haha! Why she doesn't want a red, blue, yellow, orange M&M is beyond me?! HOWEVER, she refuses to poop in the potty so she either 1) makes a huge accident or 2) stops herself up and waits for a diaper (insert eyeroll). I've bribed her with everything and she knows the conditions "black poo poo, chocolate milk". I'm hoping something will click soon and she will want to go?! maybe?! any advice?!

chatterbox

This girl talks all.the.time. Over the holidays her vocabulary increased by a TON and its amazing to have a conversation with her!

-her favorite saying is "my turn" meaning she wants to do it and doesn't want anyones help!

-second place phrases are a tie: "uh oh what happened?" and "no brother, thats mine!".

-she is conscience of her surroundings and will ask "mommy, wheres daddy?" and vise versa
-she is putting things together in that little head of hers. "I take a bite, mommy take a bite, we share"

new tricks:

- loves singing "twinkle twinkle little star", "Jesus loves me", "wheels on the bus"

-at Christmas when we had the nativity set out, she set her animals in a line, picked up a bible and read (in gibberish) scripture to them, hahaha!!

-She can count to ten, and points to items to a 1-1 association, BUT if you ask her "how many cups are there?", she first answers "four five six", so we have to prompt her to start from number 1!

-she recently started playing hide and seek and i love it! she hides her face, says "four five six, i'm coming!" and chases you

-if we tickle brother or play with hi, she says "my turn" and wants the same attention

-she loves taking pictures of her toys/things. Usually with her pretend camera facing the wrong way.

-She loves target and often pushes her cart saying thats where she's going "for fruit snacks"

-she loves playing doctor and checking on anyone and everyone

-also loves makeup and purses, princess dresses, and being a mama to her babies

-she loves jumping on her bed singing "no more monkeys jumping on the bed"

the tough parts:

-she is at a stage that fights eating SO much! Every meal is a constant battle of "sit down", "eat one more bite", etc.

-she is SUCH a creature of habit. One day I let her have a popsicle after nap time, now every day after nap time, she expects a popsicle. she does this with EVERYTHING.

-she constantly wants to take all her clothes and socks/shoes off. At home she rarely wears a full outfit. And when we're in the car, within 30 seconds, her socks AND shoes are off.

-she still hates the car and being overly tired

-she is your typical stubborn, defiant toddler. Give us grace.

we love:

-she gives the SWEETEST, TIGHTEST, and LONGEST hugs and kisses. 

-if he helped you make, buy, organize anything, she will point at and tell everyone "I made that!!!" with the biggest grin on her face

-she loved Christmas this year and it was so fun to see. We're still talking about "Wesus Birthday"

-her new bob haircut! The stringy mullet had to go, so we took her to her first salon day for a hair cut and get her nails painted!

Everyone that knows her, knows her BIG personality and says she'll go far with that someday! I can't to see her be a leader hopefully with her leadership qualities :)

BROOKS GRANT | NINE MONTHS

nine months in, nine months out.

weight 20 lbs 4 oz (50th%)

height 28.5" (75th%)
we went in for our 9 month well check, which was kind of crazy on my part to try to do that in the midst of a wild flu season but Brooks hasn't slept through the night in a month and we needed to catch up on vaccines. I'm glad we did go, because during the routine exam, we found (the 3rd) double ear infection, yikes. Explains the waking 2-3 times a day and general grumpiness. He also has busted all 4 top teeth recently so I was blaming that, but i'm glad we have more of a diagnosis. So, back on antibiotics we go!

food 
when he reached 8 months old he finally started eating!!! he pretty much eats our table food. he doesn't like baby food or pouches, so he eats what we eat! No yogurt or milk yet, but we may have to give him some yogurt after all these antibiotics! He loves steamed broccoli, crackers, and fruit. He has iffy feelings about avocado and bananas which is funny to me.

breastfeeding
as far as milk goes, he is still exclusively breastfed. nine months is such a big goal so I'm glad I've made it, even though I hope to make it to a year!! He still nurses every few hours, either right before or right after a meal and before a nap/bed time. I leave 4 or 5-5oz bottles when I'm at work. Somedays we have a surplus of pumped bottles in the fridge and other days we're pulling a frozen bag or 2 out of the freezer but I'm hoping we can make it 3 more months!

sleep
teething and ear infection x2 have really troubled us in the sleep department! We put him in his crib awake but know that he is tired/clean/fed and he may cry a few minutes before going down. He takes 2 naps a day usually, at 10am and 2pm. Bedtime is at 7:30/8pm. We do bath/jammies (which he still screams about), then I nurse him. He sometimes falls asleep nursing and I carry him to his crib but mostly he is up and fighting the urge to doze off.

play/development
he crawls so well and so fast!
pulling up on EVERYTHING and maybeeee thinking about cruising along the couch?!
currently getting wrestled by sister several times a day
hasn't said a word yet but more babbly than before.
he loves boy stuff-trucks, loud noises, messes, etc. we can tell he is a boy-his plan is always destruction, ha!!
loves patty cake and peek-a-boo
LOVES splashing in the bath and crawling around sister

loves: pulling up-perferably on the brick fireplace or the bathtub (insert stressed out mom), finding crumbs off the floor (usually the scraps he threw down from the previous meal)

dislikes: putting on pjs after his bath-every.single.night., getting strapped in his car seat, having things taken away from him

Christmas

Christmas 2017 was so great! Especially in-comparison to Christmas 2016 when a stomach virus hit the entire McMurray family and all 7 adults and 3 babies were sick.... thanks to Evynn for bringing that bug! Not going to lie, I was still paranoid and during the holidays if E was wandering off by herself I was so worried she was up to something!

Since I haven't blogged in forever (which I am wanting to do more of this year. I love looking back at memories. In fact, this blog is the only way I would ever be able to fill out the kids baby books months at a time, ha!) I'll catch up with the whole Christmas season.

I had never had a real tree before but we figured why not?! So we heard about Double Shovel Christmas Tree farm in Post. About a 30 minute drive. It was precious and a lot of fun. They have candy canes planted throughout with a bucket, assigned number and a stamp. Ev had a card to fill out with the stamps from all of the candy canes, she loved looking for them and running to go get them all. They also had popcorn, hot chocolate, treats and more. We ended up totally cheating and buying a real tree, but one that was imported from up north. Definitely shed some pine needles through our house but overall I loved it!

In between Christmas parties and all kinds of activities, I had also signed us up for a small santa setting at the Science Spectrum. It wasn't quite applicable for Evynn's age but still had fun. We're not big santa people but I did tell Evynn "he's going to ask you what you want for Christmas, so what do you want?" and her reply: "fruit snacks". She held to that and asked every santa from then on out for fruit snacks.

We baked cookies at home and ate wayyyy too many sprinkles.

We decorated, see the real tree? I wanted a 3rd pom garland for the tree but couldn't find one all season so, simple is best, right!?

Our Christmas morning:

We celebrated on December 21st. We woke up, turned on the lights and then started getting the babies up. I've learned to not set expectations for these moments because they will most likely get broken down. Ev was alittle shy, as she is in most "new" situations. Brooks loved climbing on the boxes. We kept it simple, they got stocking stuffers and 1-2 gifts each.

I was pretty excited about this gift I got for Cody-since we have a plan to go to a different state every year/anniversary, I thought it would be fun to have a map for all of it! I'd thought about making one myself but I am so glad I bought one that looks much crisper than I could! I love remembering the trips we've made but we have plenty more adventures ahead together!

Right after gifts we made cinnamon raisin french toast, ate, loaded up the car and headed out to Codys family! We first stopped at his grandparents and enjoyed the afternoon with extended family then to Codys parents that night. The next morning was "Christmas morning"

Like I mentioned above, no one was vomiting this year (praise the LORD!!). We had fun opening gifts with the kids and the big kids (us ;)) 

For days we took lots of pictures, baked cookies, played with cousins, the adults played exploding kittens and heads up a hundred times and we hardly changed out of pj's. It was great except trying to get a toddler to sleep in a new setting.

On Christmas Eve morning we loaded up again and went to my parents! We went to their house, got dressed then immediately went to Christmas eve service at my home church, which is always nice. Since we're in ministry, we're hardly ever able to go anywhere on a Sunday! I got to see my best friend Claire at church, and they had a live nativity scene so Evynn enjoyed that!

The next morning really was, Christmas morning. Brooks, my mom, and I were up first so he got to preview his new whip ;) but everyone else wasn't far behind! Evynn personally loved brothers car, her new (pretend) makeup kit, her dollhouse, and her caterpillar pillow which she calls "lady bug". This visit we also baked cookies and took naps! 

When it was all done we were sooooo thankful for a wonderful holiday with family but ready to unpack our weeks worth of clothes and settle into our overly full playroom. 

BROOKS GRANT | EIGHT MONTHS

Merry Christmas!!

We haven't been to the doctor for a checkup, so I don't have weight and length updates. He's definitely growing and looking more mature, but he's a skinny thing!

eat

this boy loves him some breastmilk. He still eats mostly breastmilk, nursed or from a bottle. He had zero interested in food during months 6 and 7 and just now maybe taking a bite or two. He really doesn't enjoy being spoonfed, unless it's rosas refried beans, ha! He has enjoyed puffs, broccoli curls, blueberries, some shredded chicken, etc. Maybe we'll get there and he won't be primarily breastfed by the time he's 6!? HA! 

sleep

the last week or so has been better, after a month + of waking up several times a night, we're back to normal. He takes naps at 10am and 1:30pm.Bedtime around 8 and usually sleeps until 6ish. We like to feed him at 6, then lay him back down until 8. Most mornings this goes well.

Brooks:

-he's crawling! He's been army crawling for weeks now but as of this week he started getting up on his back legs and really crawling. Sister is unimpressed with this because now he's after her snacks and toys constantly!

-he does good with his fine motor-he can pick up the tiny puff stars and hand them back and forth between hands. I'm always amazed at the tiniest things these guys pick up when they start crawling.

-he's pulling up! he does good holding on to things and standing, perferably against the bathtub (insert eyeroll)

-he babbles but no words yet!

-he has 3 teeth! two on bottom and one on top off to the side just breaking through. 

-I end up calling him so many names throughout the day "brooks", "brother", "bubba", "buddy", "brooks man", etc.

-he has 1 dimple on his right cheek that is adorable!

-such a boy this kid lights up when i ask if he tooted or pooped, ha!

-also, perfers only toys that he can make the most noise out of. Or, he'll get a plate or something and slide it across the ceramic floor making the worst screaching sound.

-he (right now, like right this second i'm watching him from the side of my laptop) looks at me when he has something questionable, like say, fuzz in his hands. I see him raise it to his mouth and say "uh uh!" and he stops and gives me the flirtiest grin. oh sheesh.

he loves

-brushing his teeth! he lights up when I get the toothbrush ready at night and smiles the whole time! (please brooks, keep on keepin on! Currently we have to hold sister down to get her teeth brushed)

-when Ev is playing anywhere near him, he cracks up laughing. Even though she's constantly an inch from stepping on his head and i'm panicking, there is nothing he loves more.

-loves playing peek a boo! either with hands or by hiding around a corner

-he has the biggest belly laughs when you tickle him or kiss his belly!

he dislikes

putting on his pj's after his bath he screams bloody murder. every. single. night.

being put in his high chair or car seat, again, every.single.time.

month 7 was rough and I was starting to doubt this mom of 2 thing, mostly due to an ongoing cough for brooks which meant like zero sleep. But we're back to the happy boy who can now move himself to a new activity, i'm loving this sweet stage. 

we love that straight across little tooth smile! And those cheeks with the softest skin ever!

BROOKS GRANT | SEVEN MONTHS

this sweet boy is 7 months!!

does anyone else struggle with this age?! he's no longer a sit still, cuddle, sleep all day baby but he's not mobile and gets bored very easily so I feel like he's discontent a lot of the day and I can't figure out how to make him happy. 

eat

gosh, this kid will be breastfeeding for life. just kidding. but he really has ZERO, zero, zero desire to eat. I have been offering food during meal times and its a fight everytime. If, and only if, I happen to squeeze the spoon in his mouth and MAYBE a touch of food actually makes it down his throat, he gags and spits up not only that food, but also any milk from the previous nursing session. with Ev we did baby led weaning and by this point she was eating bananas, avocado and sweet potatoes practically whole. I have tried a whole banana, mashed banana with breast milk, whole steamed sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with breast milk, baby food carrots/pumpkins/sweet potatoes, baby oatmeal and puffs. All is a no. So, we will wait. I still have a goal to make it to a year of nursing so it's fine that he's still dependent on that, I just feel like without him eating, all of his caloric intake is on me which means he expects me to pump out more milk, which makes it tough! 

sleep

He is a so-so sleeper, aside from the constant dry cough he's had that wakes him up. Still takes 2 good naps at 10am and 2pm roughly each day. On a normal evening, he sleeps 8-6, but lately has been waking up at least once a night, and acts starving (see above). Sometimes we can lay him down and he puts himself to sleep, other times he takes wayyy too long to nurse, console, calm down, etc. to get him to finally go to bed. again, this is a rough age for us.

play/development

-he has 2 TEETH!! as seen in the picture above. both bottom teeth. he was actually not too bad teething!

-he is so close to crawling! he leans over and reachesssss for what he wants, can scoot his bottom, and can somewhat army crawl. He isn't up on all 4's "rocking" like Evynn did. Sister was crawling at this point so I guess I expect that? But, life will only get crazier once he's on the move so I should just enjoy this.

-like I said, he gets bored pretty easily. He loves digging through a bucket of toys and exploring everything, playing in his exer-saucer and scooting around on the floor-but none of these last for a long time.

-he loves Evynn and she loves him! She is the first to bring him a toy when he gets to fuss and tells him "its okay brother" a thousand times a day. he loves to turn around and see her and he lights up.

-he is very motivated, if he wants something, he will try with all his might to get to it and he ALWAYS has to check out "whatever is new". just now, I was nursing and brought my computer close and he sure stopped eating, sat up and reached to try to get the computer.

-he LOVES Bath time and making THE biggest mess possible splashing.

dislikes

being left alone, being tired/hungry, trying food, when he's bored

even as busy as he can be, that smile makes it all worth it!

making our home a (grey)t one!

four months later and I think our home is mostly settled in! The children rooms are still pretty much untouched, so those projects will be saved for much later. 

We moved in late june and knew we had a lot ahead of us. We hit the ground running, painting most of the house that weekend along with moving in. So so much grey paint. We had a few DIY projects we wanted to do sooner rather than later and did them as budget friendly as possible. 

HUGE thanks to our family for helping us.. with everything. everyone in our family had a paint brush in their hand at one point. and my dad for being the carpenter and making our vision come to life! 

our home isn't perfect, but it is perfect for our little family! we have already celebrated birthday, baby showers, get togethers and play dates here and look forward to many many more. 

here's the before and after!

excuse the fact that "before" pictures were taken after we had moved all of the paint supplies in, oops!