Boys update

It's been a while since I have updated on the boys.  My camera died and I couldn't charge it so with some of our saved money, I finally went out and got myself a new camera and now I can update on the boys. 

Merrick is just growing like a weed.  He is so chunky and we think he is just adorable.  At first glance he looks almost exactly like Kayton when he was a baby but the more your around him, we think he looks more like me.  He is so cute and still doesn't do much but eat sleep and poop, but he is smiling so much now which makes him even cuter.  Here are some updated pictures of him. 

Smiles

Brothers

Kayton on the other hand is just growing and changing so much.  He is talking so much more now and copies our words so great.  We have upgraded him to a booster chair at the table and he loves to eat there with us at dinner now.  He is such a great big brother.  He loves Merrick so much.  When he wakes up, usually the first thing he says is baby and points out the door and then he runs out to see him.  He loves to help me change his diapers and hold him and give him kisses.  He is very much at the age where he wants to help out with everything.  He likes to hold onto the carseat with me when we are walking out to the car and last night he held onto the laundry basket and went with me to load the laundry.  He still has a shoe fetish for some reason and he has been wearing my slippers a lot lately.  He is so fun and makes us laugh all the time.  

I love that I get to stay home with these kids.  They make life the best.

Bearizona

So two weeks ago, we felt like getting out and doing something fun together and so we decided to go to Williams and go to the wildlife park called Bearizona.  Our friends went there and said it was awesome so we decided to go.  You have to pay to go in and the first part you drive through and see some of the animals just off the road roaming around their little area and some of them blocked off the road a little bit by a fence.  Kayton sat up front with us and we pointed out all the animals to him.  He enjoyed it and thought it was fun.  The drive through took like 45 minutes and we saw these animals.

donkeys - they are a certain type, but I don't remember the name

Kayton looking out the window at them

helping Dad drive

Bison that were farther back off the road

wolves

sheep

sheep

white bison - i can't believe how big their heads are

big horned sheep - there is a baby in there somewhere

he walked right by our car and posed for us

Now the main exhibit of the park.  The black bears.  I was only expecting to see like 1 or 2,  but they had like 12 of them in this little area.  When you drove through you had to keep your windows rolled up and your doors locked for safety, but they were so awesome.  One of them literally walked right by our car and if we could have rolled down the window, we could have pet it.  

sleeping so comfortably

this was so fun for Kayton

leaning up against the tree scratching his back

The next part of the park is a petting zoo.  On the day that we went though, there just happened to be a bird show that day so we decided we would go watch it.  The birds were so pretty and fun to watch and learn about.  They had them fly around to different perches in the area where we were sitting and they flew so low that it felt like the bird was going to fly right into your face.  I got scared a couple times and ducked down every time.  

Falcons

the owl right above the ladies head

After the bird show, we got to walk around like at a zoo and we saw pretty much baby animals of all the bigger animals that we saw on the drive thru.  They were all so cute and I can't believe how many they had.

Baby wolves

Baby bears

Checking them out - Merrick slept the whole time

Baby Lynx

In the petting zoo area. There were chickens and pigs and goats and Kayton loved it

Feeding hay to the goat

We will almost definitely go back again.  It was fun for Kayton to see all the animals and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.  I highly recommend it for anyone in Arizona.

18 months

My little boy is now a big 18 month old boy.  I am having a hard time with him being so big cuz I still see him as my baby.  He is so much fun though.

• He is almost a pro at walking on stairs.

• He loves to play with balls and be outside, doing anything.  He loves to go down slides at the playground and bounce on the little horse toys that they have.  

• He is working on the talking stuff.  He knows a lot of words and says about 10 or so on his own, but he is doing really good at starting to repeat words that we tell him to.  He still hasn't learned some letters like s or r and he sometimes will say words backwards or mix up the letters a little bit.  It's really cute.  I got some flash cards for like a dollar at Target and we have been working on letters and objects with those.  He loves them.  He also likes to go around and point to things and then have me tell them what it is.  

• He is such a good big brother.  He loves to hold Merrick and look at him and say hi.  He has to tell him good night before he goes to bed.  Whether he needs it or not, Kayton will usually bring me Merrick's pacifier and blanket if he is crying or just because he found it.  He calls him baby cuz he can't say Merrick yet. 

• He is doing really good at feeding himself.  Sometimes he won't eat unless he can do it himself.

•  He likes to watch his kid shows and movies.  He doesn't sit for too long during the movie but he likes when I turn it on.  

• He is officially in nursery and he is doing good.  He has a hard time sitting still for lessons and singing activities which we need to work on with him, but he has so much fun and it makes church so much more enjoyable.

• We are finally free of his pacifier.  Even though it's in his mouth in the picture, he really is.  We only had one and one day we couldn't find it so we just finally had to cut him off.  It was hard for a while, but I'm glad we did it.  

At his appointment he was:
26 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
35 in long (95th percentile)
Definitely big for his age.

3 Weeks

Merrick is 3 weeks old.  I just can't believe it.  He is so sweet and so well behaved.  He usually only cries to tell me that he needs food or a diaper change.  We are so in love with him!  He has been a pretty good sleeper throughout the night, only waking up about 2 or 3 times to eat.  The trick is getting him to go to sleep and then stay asleep when you put him in his crib.  Unfortunately, we figured out that he sleeps a little better on the couch cushions with the Boppy pillow around his head, so I have slept many nights on the couch lately.  It works out ok though so Nate can sleep better since he gets up early for work.  He is starting to put on a chub which is just super cute.  At his doctor's appointment on Monday, he weight 9 lbs, 1 oz and was 21 inches long.  He is such a good baby and Kayton adores him.  It has been hard, but fun having this little guy in our home.

He likes his swing

Brothers

My little guy

From the beginning, Kayton has always been so accident prone.  I have hated it but he has always been fine and I'm grateful.  This time though was the worst.  My poor little guy has almost mastered the art of walking down the stairs by himself without holding onto the railing.  Well the other night, he tried and he went way too fast down some cement stairs inside our apartment complex and he got down the first 3 steps and then tumbled down the next 3 steps and hit his head on the cement.  I was so far away sitting on a picnic bench just watching him and I could see it coming but there was no way I would have been able to get over there in time.  Poor guy looked like he had an egg growing out of his head and he cried for a while, but he cried the hardest when we put the ice on it to get the swelling to go down.  He scares me so much, but there isn't much I can do about it.  Thankfully though, it's gone down and he just has a slight bruise now. 

Also, we have come to find his new love in life is fruits and vegetable.  His favorite though, tomatoes.  At dinner, I will be dicing up some tomatoes and of course he is hungry so he comes over begging for pieces to hold him over until dinner starts.  Now I will cut them in slices and give them to him to eat.  He takes it and sucks and chews on it and it is so cute and so funny.  Just one more thing that makes us say "Like father like son."  

 

 

And I know every kid does this, but this was the first time Kayton ever fell asleep in his high chair and it was just too cute for words.  I love this kid so much!

This song

 Normally, things don't make me cry really easy, but these last 2 weeks have been the most trying weeks of my life.  I love being a mother and having someone to take care of and come run to me with their problems.  I just get sad when I think about them getting bigger and growing up.  I love my babies as babies.  I just couldn't imagine being anything but a mom and I'm so grateful to my hubby that it makes it possible for me to be a stay at home mom.  There is no music video for this song so I just wanted to put the lyrics on here.  It's by Taylor Swift.

"Your little hand's wrapped around my finger
And it's so quiet in the world tonight
Your little eyelids flutter cause you're dreaming
So I tuck you in, turn on your favorite night light
To you everything's funny, you got nothing to regret
I'd give all I have, honey
If you could stay like that

Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up

You're in the car on the way to the movies
And you're mortified your mom's dropping you off
At 14 there's just so much you can't do
And you can't wait to move out someday and call your own shots
But don't make her drop you off around the block
Remember that she's getting older too
And don't lose the way that you dance around in your pj's getting ready for school

Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
No one's ever burned you, nothing's ever left you scarred
And even though you want to, just try to never grow up

Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room
Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs
I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone

So here I am in my new apartment
In a big city, they just dropped me off
It's so much colder that I thought it would be
So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on

Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up

Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
I could still be little
Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up
It could still be simple
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little
Oh darling, don't you ever grow up
Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple
Won't let nobody hurt you
Won't let no one break your heart
And even though you want to, please try to never grow up
Oh, don't you ever grow up
Oh, never grow up, just never grow up"