The Rays of Sunshine

In 4 short months, we will be celebrating this sweet boy's 1 year birthday, and I can' wait. How is it that he is already 8 months old? Dylan has grown so much this month. He isn't crawling yet, but he is able to scoot anywhere he wants to. Dylan loves to talk all the time. Crib Training Update: This has gone great. Dylan and I have a great routine, and as mentioned in my earlier post, each night we do our routine, and most nights within 10 minutes, Dylan is asleep. On average Dylan is sleeping through the night about 5-6 nights out of the week, and I am so grateful.  Of course, there are some nights that he will wake up a few times, but he will eat, then go back to sleep. If he isn't ready to go back to sleep, I lay him in his crib, go back to bed, and he will go to sleep on his own. Traveling: We went strawberry picking this month, which was one of the longest car rides we have taken with Dylan, and he did well. He is getting better, but I know not to test...

Can you believe it been 7 months since we brought this sweet boy home? As I mentioned in my last post, about the need to get Dylan out of my bed and into his crib, well we started the process and I will provide an update next month. This month has been a good month for Dylan. He has been eating his baby food really good and enjoying each new flavor. I also got to spend my birthday and Mothers Day with these awesome boys. Also looking back at Derek picture from his time as well, here is a picture of both boys in the exact same outfit. At this point, I really don't think they look too much alike.  Here are both boys at 7 months old. 

When Dylan was 6 months old, I knew crib training was in our near future. I was not sure how I was going to go about starting the process, and I was very nervous. Since Derek was such a horrible sleeper, I keep having flashbacks to those sleepless nights with a screaming baby for hours; no matter what we did. I was not ready to go down that road again. As soon as Dylan was born, we knew that we wanted Dylan in his room from day 1; therefore we moved our extra bed into his room. Like most parents, I didn't want Dylan in the bed with me, as that was a habit, I didn't want to have to break later. As a newborn, Dylan slept pretty good, but has he got older, he began to wake up 2 and 3 times at night. Since breastfeeding was going so well, I was constantly reading articles about co-sleeping and dream feeding, and before I knew it, Dylan and I were co-sleeping all night every night. At the 6 month check-up, the pediatrician strongly recommended I allow Dylan to sleep in his crib...

Every year we celebrate our moms to show them how much we appreciate them. On this Mother's Day, I wanted to leave a message to the ones that mean the most to me, the ones who made me a mom. To my wonderful husband: You make every day special and I am so lucky to have you on my side! You are the best partner anyone could ask for! You are my right hand. You always have my best interest at heart and through your words and actions, I see how much you care and love your family!  You are a wonderful dad to our kids and I am so glad you chose me to start a family with! Your kids adore you and want to do everything to make you happy. You never fall short to make me feel special, and this year was no different. I love seeing you as a dad to our kids, and even when parenting gets tough, you are right there in the trenches, helping me mold the kids into the people we want them to be. Thank you for being present in all of their little moments.  To My firstborn son...

Dylan has been with us for 6 Months now, and we are enjoying every minute with him. I could not wait for Dylan to reach the 6-month mark, cause I know we could start feeding him baby food. I also hoped that with food, he would sleep through the night. Just like with Derek, we wanted his first taste of food to be a banana. I think he liked it, as he kept leaning towards the spoon.  In addition to baby food, we are still nursing and going strong. I know that BF babies tend to wake up during the night since the milk does not stay with them as long, so we have still been co-sleeping, even though I am trying to put him in his crib more. I started that process this month, but by midnight, he is usually in the bed with me. Baby steps right? He also cut his bottom 2 teeth this month, so I have a been a little laid back on crib training, even though it doesn't seem to bother him that much. This swing was given to us when we had Derek and we held onto it for our next kid, and o...

WOOHOO It's Friday!   Today, I am linking up with Andrea for Friday Favorites, where we share our favorites from the week. Last weekend, we were busy with a lot of fun activities. Every year our town hosts a Touch-A-Truck event and it was a top favorite on Derek's list.   Monster Trucks for the WIN!   Little Boy- Big Truck When your 4 year old ask to go outside to ride his bike, early in the morning, you say YES! Batman pajamas and all. I have been wanting to try this great sushi place in town, and Saturday was the night. Fuji Kim's didn't disappoint. I feel like I need this in my life each week now. Every month I get an amazing bag from Ipsy, and this month I received this lip gloss, and I love it. I typicality don't use lip gloss, but this one is perfect. I found a few other colors to try HERE Hope you guys have a great weekend.

Round two: A few weeks ago Ricky and I were visiting with some friends who have kids the same age difference as our kids.  As we are reminiscing about good old times and how our kids are getting so big, we begin to talk about school. This lead to the question of if we were going to put Derek into kindergarten or have him repeat Pre-K a second year.  Ricky and I had talked about it a few months prior to this but we didn't really reach a decision, so when they asked, we didn't have a Yes or No answer.  As we were talking about the benefits of repeating Pre-K it sounded like a good idea. As Derek would have the opportunity to be the big kid in class, and the advantage of more one on one, in a second year of Pre-K. A few days passed, and this subject was all I could think about. I begin reading articles, gathering opinions of other moms with summer babies to see what their plan was. I followed up with prayer, to allow God to help us make this very tough dec...