Toots is TEN months!

Awe, only TWO months left of her first year! This is just too crazy :(

• girlfriend is quite the dancer. she loooves to dance! if you tell her to dance, she'll start shaking back and forth, or bouncing up and down. or if you dance in front of her, she'll join you :)

• she has taken a serious liking in her grandpa Tabet the past couple of weeks. I mean, she's always loved him, duh, but lately she is OBSESSED with him. 3/4 of the time, she'll choose him over me. which is extremely strange for my child to choose someone over me, if you know her, you know what I'm talking about!

• she says: grandpa (which sounds like 'bampa' when she says it, but we know that's what she's saying because she repeats it when we tell her too. plus, it actually sounds like that is what she's saying when SHE says it), bubba (that's what she calls bransyn), bubye, up, dada, and sometimes (and that means like once a month) she'll say mama still. 

• she loves playing in her car seat. she'll climb in there, sometimes lay down in it, sometimes rock back and forth in it, depends on her mood, but it sure is a fun jungle gym for her ;)  haha

• we went to Jumpin' Jacks a few weeks ago, and babe LOVED it. she got to go down the bouncy slides (being held, of course... she's not THAT big yet ;)  and she got to crawl around the big bouncers and she had a smile on her face the whole time! 

• she's obsessed with my cell phone. if she sees me with it, she'll come over to me and grab it from my hands. one day when she was fussing in the car, I pulled up one of bransyn's activities on my phone, it's an app where every time you touch the screen, stars pop out and make a sound. well she has been pretty obsessed with that, & it keeps her pretty dang content ;)

• she is constantly pulling her socks off! I don't know why, but once they go on, she's got her feet up and she's pulling the socks off. she has also started sucking on her toes once the socks are off. it's pretty cute if you ask me ;)  

• she waves now :)  she's still trying to get the hang of it, but she will do it! and at the right time, too! if we say 'bubye' to her, she'll start saying it, and waving her little hand. one day when I was putting her in her carseat, she said 'bubye' and started waving all on her own! we hadn't said it to her at all! such a smart baby :)

• her 6th tooth popped through on February 25th! it's the one right next to her very middle tooth on the top, on the right side. it's been trying to work it's way through for quite a while now, and it finally made its debut!

• she gives kisses! not ALL the time, but she randomly will when you ask for them! and she gets in 'kissy moods' where she will just kiss you over and over! :) they're the mouth wide open, get drool all over your face kisses, but they sure are the best! :)

• she eats like a teenage boy. homegirl will seriously eat anything, and she eats a LOT of it! she eats probably TRIPLE what Bransyn eats, I wouldn't even hesitate to say she eats as much as I do at one sitting. PLUS, she still nurses every four hours! she has a few things that she hasn't really cared for, but for the most part, she loves pretty much everything. a few of her favorites right now are blueberry waffles, avocados, and strawberries! 

• if you give her a comb/brush, she will try to brush her hair!

• she loves looking at herself in the mirror. she knows she's cute ;)

• she'll randomly throw fits when I put her in her carseat. I don't know why, she's always loved her carseat. but she'll arch her back, and start screaming. i'll tell her over & over, 'lets go bubye!' and she'll stop, but I dunno why she freaks when she first goes in  there, ha.

• she throws fits. she'll arch her back, and lay her head back and cry/scream. ohhh, the joys of transitioning from baby to toddler ;)

• she still isn't walking (which I am MORE THAN FINE WITH! one 9 month walker was plenty for me!) but she is starting to stand a bit more now without holding onto something. 

• she loves climbing onto bransyn's bed! she gets up there all by herself! she has also figured out a way to get onto OUR bed all by herself, which is about twice as high as B's bed is. there is a box sitting right next to our bed, and she'll go climb onto that, then climb onto our bed from that. she also knows how to safely get down from both beds/couches/anything too high to crawl off of. in her last update I'm pretty sure I mentioned that she was doing this, but then she kind of stopped. she'll turn her little body around, and scoot down booty first off of the high spot, and gets on the floor safely :)

• she likes to steal food out of people's mouths :)

• she's still as obsessed with paper as ever. any kind of paper she can get her hands on, she loves. and FREAKS if you take it from her. I dunno what this girls deal with paper is! haha

• her sleeping has been a bit better, lately. she has only been waking up one time the past few nights. and she has been going to sleep easier at night, and for naps. CROSSING my fingers she continues with this, because it's pretty nice only having to get up one at night ;)  Oh, and usually her wake up is between 3-6, so she does sleep pretty long!

• she still goes to bed at 8pm every night, but she has been waking up earlier than she used to lately. she used to sleep until 8-9am, but now she wakes up between 7-7:30 am. kind of sucks cause I am SO not a morning person, but it's worth it to have her cute face to get up with :)

• if she is on the floor, and you walk by her, she will put her hands up like she wants to be picked up. it is just TOO cute to pass right by her, you just gotta pick her up! ;)

• she is obsessed with climbing over things. she'll crawl through the kitchen chairs or bar stools, to get to the other end of the kitchen, instead of going around them. it's like she's going through her own little obstacle course ;) 

• she loves climbing on things, period. she is constantly climbing on the treadmill, on top of boxes, anything she can get on top of, she does!

• she loves going into the exercise room. i don't know why, but she is ALWAYS sneaking in there, and trying to play on all the equipment! 

• she still loves baths! and she does sooo good! when I wash the shampoo out of her hair, it doesn't even phase her if the water gets in her eyes! I have also been giving her baths in the kitchen sink again (cause it is SO SO SO much easier!) and she LOVES it! she loves playing with the faucet, and turning the water on and off. 

• she has never really had an interest in TV, like at all. which I think is GREAT, because Brans is obsessed with TV, and it drives me nuts. but one day he was watching Yo Gabba Gabba, and she was SO intrigued by it! she crawled over to the TV, stood up and just stared at it! she hasn't really watched it since, cause she doesn't pay enough attention to the TV, but it was just so funny how it got her complete attention!

• she loves being outside and going on walks. I'm so glad it's getting closer to spring so we can start spending more time outside soon!

• she is still in love with her brother. he is seriously the best thing in the world to her. I love it so much.

Sickies. Kind of.

I have been very pleased with the fact that Taislee has made it all the way to 9 months old without getting sick. I was crossing my fingers we could make it a whole year without her getting sick. Totally seemed like it was going to happen. 

Until Friday.

You see, she was laying in bed with me, sleeping, and she woke up and started crying. I sat up to pick her up, and she felt so warm to me. SO warm. I didn't know if she had a fever for sure or not yet, because there have been NUMEROUS times that I thought she felt warm, so I take her temperature, and she's completely normal. (I have this HUGE fear of fevers, so it seems like that thermometer is in their ears like every week lately)  But she felt EXTRA warm this time. And I just knew she wasn't in her normal 98-degree range. Ryan was already up with Bransyn. B was on the couch watching some 'toons, and Ry was making himself some coffee. I went straight to the medicine cabinet and pulled the thermometer out. Ry asked me if everything was okay, and I waited until the thermometer was done to respond. "Nope, she's going to the doctor RIGHT now! Get Bransyn dressed, please!" And I rushed off to get Tais and myself dressed, and as I was walking away I said, "Her temperature is at 103.6! I need to get her in right away!" This girl has never had a fever before. And for her first one to be almost 104?! Yeah, that puts me in a straight panic. So I get her diaper changed, and dressed, and get myself dressed, Ry got B dressed, and we were out the door. Ry had to work, so he helped me put the kids in the car, and we were off. I called into the St. George Clinic just to see if I could get an appt with her pediatrician right away, instead of using the walk in clinic, but they didn't answer, and I didn't have time to wait. We got to the clinic, I told them what was going on, and they got us back to a room pretty quick. The nurse weighed her, took her temperature and asked a few questions, then left to let the doc know what was going on. 

Dr. Pendleton came into the room a few minutes later. He checked her ears, listened to her heart & lungs... the usual. Everything looked perfectly normal. He said that it is possible that she might have a UTI, but it's really hard to tell with babies, because it's really hard to get them to pee in a cup. He said he could get a urine sample with a catheter, but it was totally up to me to do that. I figured that was our best bet, cause who knows if or when we would of been able to get the girl to pee in a cup. I was suuuper nervous for this. I didn't want to watch her go through that. But I stood right next to her, and held her hand and talked to her, while the nurse held her legs still, and the Dr got the sample. She kind of tried to squirm, and made little noises like she was uncomfortable (understandable) but it was over so quick, and she didn't cry at all! My brave little babe :)  So we waited for those results for about 15 minutes, then he came back in and said everything was normal. Good thing, but frustrating that we still don't know what is causing such a high fever. He gave me a script for Tylenol, and said that if it gets any higher, or doesn't go away by the next day, to bring her right back in, but he's pretty sure it's just a virus that just needs to run it's course, then will go away.  So the plan for the rest of the day: Tylenol, snuggles & watch her like a hawk.

So Saturday comes, and I take her temperature and it is ranging 98.8-99 degrees. PERF. Her fever is gone, thank goodness, no clue what caused it, but we're just glad to see it go! No need to go back to the doctor.

Then comes Sunday. I check her again, and her temp is up in the high 99's. Still a low grade fever, but it had gone up from Saturday.... weird? I just decided to watch it & see what happened, and if it didn't go away completely, we'd be taking another trip to the doctor.

Monday comes, and the fever is still there. Except now it's higher. Not TOO much higher, but it was over 100 now. I decide to call into the pedi's office, but I just kept getting a recording saying all the receptionists were busy, and my call would be answered in the order it was received. Well, to make a long story short, I didn't wanna wait, I drove over there, and they were closed for Presidents Day. BOO. So, we got to wait until Tuesday.

Tuesday comes, and Tais still has a fever. And not only her, but now BRANSYN has a fever, too. Justttt awesome! So I get them ready, and we head off to the doctors to get them checked. Luckily this time we got to see their normal pediatrician, Dr. Hubbard, because the other guy was just a wee bit awkward ;) haha, anyway. He asked me questions about each of them, we went over what went on when I took Taislee in a few days prior, and he said he wanted to test them for RSV, because it has been going around a lot lately. It wouldn't be too horrible for Brans, but since Taislee is still an infant, it would be pretty bad for her to get. We only had to wait about 20 minutes for the results for their RSV tests, and when Dr. Hubbard came back with them, he confirmed both of their tests showed up negative. Thank gooooodness! I've managed to keep my babies RSV free for this long, I'd like to keep on that streak ;)  He said that there are a bunch of viruses going around right now, and they seem to have caught one. He said it lasts about 5 days, and all it really is is a fever. Tais should be just about over it, but since B's fever just started, he will most likely be dealing with it for a few more days :(  Just gotta keep an eye on them both to make sure the temp doesn't get too high, and that it goes away completely within a few days, annnd, even though I hate to, keep giving tylenol to keep the fever from getting too high, and hopefully help it pass quicker.

So there it is. Viruses suck, but I'm glad it's nothing worse! I'm just glad my babes very rarely get sick. Actually, this is the first time Taislee has ever been 'sick'.

3 1/4 years.

Mr. Brans is already a fourth of the way to four! Whewww, this is goin craaazy fast. Here's what the little bugger has been up to for the past little while :

• he no longer uses a sippy cup (hasn't for a while now, actually) he is 100% drinking out of a regular cup, and home boy rocks it. he very rarely spills, and does so, so good with it!

• I'm pretty sure he is practicing to become a professional arguer. it is insane. this kid will argue with ANYONE on ANYTHING. You say, 'the sky is blue' and he will argue that until the cows come home.

• he can dress himself if I ask him to. but when he doesn't want to, he will say he's not strong enough, or start whining. so i have to remind him that he needs to TRY before he whines, or says that he can't do it.

• he's stripped down to his undies by 11am, usually. kids a stripper.

• one day he came up to me asking for chocolate milk, and he was picking his nose. I told him he better stop picking his nose if he wanted chocolate milk. so he put his other hand up to block me from seeing him pick his nose. when he was done, he asked for chocolate milk again. I asked him why he was picking his nose, and he said, "cause I have boogers in it, and I need to get them out." so I said, "well you need to get a tissue instead of using your finger." and he said, "no, cause I gotta use my finger to push them out. then I pick them and eat them. pick pick pick the boogers out."

• he got this truck for Christmas, it looks like a semi truck, but the back of it carries tools in it. the wheels, and the stacks come off with the tools. it's pretty nifty. but anyway, he named this truck allll by himself. it's name is "Pater" makes me laugh every time he says it, cause he totally just rhymed that with "Mater" which I actually think is pretty smart of him to already know how to rhyme stuff :)

• he reenacts scenes from the movie Cars. he'll get his Mac truck, his mater, and his Lightening McQueen cars, and act out the scenes from Cars. it is beyond cute, and SO SMART if I may say, because how many 3 year olds remember scenes word by word from a movie and reenact it?! (granted, he HAS seen this movie eight thousand times, but that's beside the point... he's still a smart little cookie ;)

• if I say a line from a movie, he will tell me what it's from.

• he's always saying random words. like, making them up and we have no idea what he is saying! haha

• he also says REAL words that we have NO idea where he got them from. (not swear words, haha) like, big words. and he'll say the most random phrases.

• one day we were in the car getting ready to leave, and I put the kids in their seats while I put some other stuff in the car. well, Taislee was tired, and crying, so Bransyn started talking to her, and suddenly I hear him say, "where's the baby?! THERE HE IS!" and I look over at him, and he's covering his eyes while he says the 'where's the baby' part, then moves his hands and in a deeper voice says the 'there he is' part. Taislee started CRACKING UP. he'll do that every time she cries now to cheer her up, it is just the cutest thing in the world. he's such a nice big brother ♥

• when he asks for chocolate milk, he asks me "can I have some fresh brown milk?" and it's ONLY the pre-made kind, that comes in the milk gallon. if it's just mixing ovaltine with regular milk, he will just ask for chocolate milk. I think it is so dang hilarious how he puts the 'fresh' part in there. every once in a while, he'll ask me for some "fresh white milk", too! haha

• one day when he got up to the counter to eat his lunch, he looks at it & says "this is the best lunch I ever seen!" of course he didn't really eat it, but just the fact that he randomly said that was super silly.

• one day he came up to me and told me to throw one of his little foam puzzle pieces like a frizbee, so I do, then he excitedly says to me, "Good job, mommy!" and kept doing it!

• he is still not a huge eater. I don't know WHY, but the kid just doesn't like to eat. it is SO hard, because obviously he NEEDS to eat, and it is a struggle getting him to eat 3 meals a day. he is still the pickiest kid on the planet, too. which makes things even MORE difficult! he loves breakfast food, and of course Nutella. so he thinks that's what he should have for every meal. it's hard to tell him no on that, because at least he would be eating if I gave him that, but then again, we need to teach him that lunch/dinner is lunch/dinner, and he needs to eat what is given to him. if he doesn't like it, that's a different story... we wouldn't force him to eat something he truely doesn't like (I HATED being forced to eat something that was making me gag because it was so gross) but the thing is, he DOES NOT even TRY it before he says he doesn't like it. so it usually takes us a good half an hour of bribing/begging to get him to TRY his food, which 98% of the time, he actually ends up LIKING. super stressful. I'm really hoping he grows out of this, because it is seriously one of the hardest things to deal with!

• when I give him food, he will always say stuff like "I loooooove chicken!" or "I looooooove green beans!" (and yes, he TOTALLY puts the emphasis on the ooooo part! haha) but then I tell him to eat it if he loves it so much, and he won't. I don't know why he says he 'loooooves' it, if he won't even eat it! haha

• one day I heard him yelling/screaming in the kitchen, so I told him to stop because Tais was sleeping, and he says to me in the MOST soft and innocent little voice ever, "I'm just saying rawr. I'm just a tiger saying rawr. I'm not screaming."
• one day we went out to breakfast, and he saw those little packets of jam on the table, and asked for one. he had Ry open it, then grabbed his spoon and started eating the jam right out of the packet!

• I'm pretty sure he has no understanding of what "be quiet, your sister is sleeping" means. he wakes her up from being loud all.the.time.

• we were at walgreens one day, and we passed the toy aisle, so of course, Brans had to stop and look at all of the toys. after letting him play with the center aisle display of some toy cars for a  few minutes, I told him it was time to go. he told me he was still playing. so I told him okay, I'm leaving then! (usually when he doesn't want to leave somewhere, I tell him i'm leaving and he will instantly walk away and come with me!) he said okay, and just continued playing. I went and stood at the end of the aisle, where he couldn't see me, but I could see him. he just continued playing, thinking I was gone. other people started to walk down the aisle, and he would kind of stop playing & look at them, then look around for me, then go right back to playing with the cars. about 15 minutes passes, and I'm STILL watching him, just waiting for him to come looking for me. all of a sudden, I see him doing a little dance, and looking down at his feet. he peed his pants. AWESOME. so this is when I go tell him he is done playing, and we are going because he just peed his pants. he starts screaming, and trying to get away from me, kicking me, hitting me, scratching me, biting me! it was horrible. I get up to the register to pay, and everyone is looking at me - the lady holding onto the screaming child so that he doesn't run away! it's finally my turn to pay for my stuff, and the cashier asked what happened, so I told her. she tells me, "next time bring the toy up with him, and I'll take it after you're done paying." ummmmmm. no. because then he's going to THINK we're buying it, and throw an even bigger fit when he has to give it back! haha. so I left the store with my hand ALL scratched up, and it was probably the most embarrassing thing I have ever experienced! haha, he got to ride home with no pants & no undies on, cause it was supposed to be just a quick trip, and he usually tells me when he needs to go potty, so I didn't have any extras.

• he is so obsessed with playing with his tractors and trucks in the dirt, it's been hard on him with it being too cold some days to not be able to go play with them. one day he was begging me to go out back, and it was rainy, and freezing outside, plus he was working on getting over a cold, so I told him that he couldn't because I didn't want him to get even sicker, and be cold. He tells me, "but I love being cold, and I love being sick!"  now every time he wants to go play in the dirt, he tells me "I love being cold! can I go play with my dump trucks?!"

• I asked him what my  name was one day, trying to see if he remembered my actual name, and he tells me "mommy" so I say, "what's my other name?" and he answers with "mommy Tabet" haha. I'm glad he gets the concept of last names, even if he doesn't realize that I have a different last name than him!

• he loves to climb into Taislee's bed and play with her in there. they have the funnest time jumping around in there with each other :)  kind sucks when he does it when she's supposed to be taking a nap, though!

• he is CONSTANTLY asking to go to the farm. yeahhh... the farm we went to in OCTOBER. every time I tell him that they are closed until Halloween comes again, and he always tells me, "NO! THEY'RE OPEN!" don't ask me how he STILL remembers 4 months later, this kid has one heck of a memory!

• one day he was in the kitchen playing with is toys, and I kept hear him saying over & over, "who let the dogs out? ruff, ruff!" it was HILARIOUS.

• we went to the wildlife museum here last month, and the whole time we were walking through it, he kept pointing to the animals and saying, "That's an ELK! That's a BIG HORNED SHEEP! That's a DEER!" kid knows his animals, and as much as I don't want him to, he's gonna be a hunter just like his daddy and grandpa! :(

• he'll randomly start dancing, and say "go Bransyn, go Bransyn!" or he'll do 'tricks' or dance, and tell me to say that! haha

• he likes to share. but ONLY if it's something of YOURS that he wants some of. if I have some candy, he'll say, "let's share, mommy!" but if he has something, and you say let's share, it takes a little bit of begging to get him to share ;)  although, one day we were laying in bed snuggling, and he says to me, "let's share, mommy" and puts half of his blanket over me. melted.my.heart.

• he pronounces words that start an 'SM' or an 'SP' with an F. so if he's saying smile, he says it like 'file' smelly is 'felly', smart is, uhh, well, I'll let you figure that one out ;)  if he says spoon, it's 'foon' or sparrow is 'farrow'

• he is obsessed with YouTube. like, COMPLETELY obsessed. he asks to watch 'monster truck mater' daily. he even knows how to choose other videos once monster truck mater is over. didn't think my THREE year old could know how to work a laptop! haha, he could literally sit on YouTube watching videos for HOURS if we let him!

• he loves playing games on my phone. I have a few toddler apps downloaded for him, and he knows how to get to every single one of them by himself, and what to do on all of them. i swear he's gonna know how to work my phone and computer better than me within the next few years! haha

• we got his hair cut a few weeks ago, and we had the guy put 'designs' in his hair, and now he loves showing them off :)

• he is a nose picker! AND booger eater! totally disgusting, I know! but the kid just won't stop. he thinks it's so funny. we tell him that if he doesn't stop, he'll grow a tail... apparently the kid want's a tail!

• 95% of the time that I tell him to get dressed, he asks "where are we going?!" thinking that he's just getting dressed because we are leaving the house. then when I tell him we're not going anywhere, we're just getting dressed, he says, "NO! WHERE WE GOING?!" so half the time I don't even dress him, because I know this will happen! haha

• every time we drive by Baskin Robbins, he says, "I want blue ice cream!" he gets 'blue ice cream' every time we go there, and he now knows exactly where it's at, so when he sees the places that surround it as we're driving by, he instantly starts talking about blue ice cream!

• he loooooves target! (just like his mama ;)  anytime I tell him we're going to the store, he asks, "are we going to TARGET?!" in a high pitched, excited voice. I feel so bad letting him down if we're not going there, haha. he always says he wants to "look at the toys, but not buy anything" haha. he also gets so excited when he realizes we're pulling into the parking lot, and says "Yay, we're at Target!"

• he announces when he farts. he'll either say, "I just farted" or "I just tooted". He'll also randomly say, "I hate to poop!" then run to the bathroom Umm, yeah... thanks for keeping us updated on your bodily functions, kid! haha

Valentines Day!

VALENTINES DAY 2012!

Alright, so these first pictures are totally out of place, but if you blog, you know how annoying and time consuming it is to rearrange a bunch of pictures. SO, since I am a very busy mama of two, and have very little time to blog lately, they will unfortunately have to remain like this... annoying, I know :(

ANYWAY, we had an awesome Valentines Day, and these pics will tell you why :

Babies got a special goody bag from mommy and daddy.

I had the CUTEST Valentines in the world. Hands down.

I made heart shaped PINK pancakes for breakfast! Yummy.

Brans colored pictures for his mama & daddy.

While Tais watched.

There's those pink pancakes again!

I free-handed the hearts... don't judge.

Babies were so excited about their gifts.

Brans got:

A book

A Valentines cup

Valentines Skittles

Valentines Cars Chocolates

Tais got:

A book

A Valentines big

Yogurt

A new cup

{finding Valentines goodies for a 9 month old is kind of tricky}

We had heart shaped turkey sandwiches and heart shaped bacon (per Bransyn's request) for lunch.

I made chocolate covered strawberries for Ryan, {since it's impossible to BUY him something for Valentines Day} and they were DELISH.

And made chocolate covered banana's for the little boy.

I am one lucky girl to have had the best Valentines ever.

Ryan and I went out to dinner at Chili's with the guys he works with, and their ladies {my good friend, Sarah, being one of them}

Ry gave me my Valentine gift a few days earlier... which was the new Twilight Saga movie, Breaking Dawn. I got it early, because we were a wee bit impatient, and wanted to watch it the night it came out! I would normally say no to early gifts but, it was BREAKING DAWN. I was dying to watch it again ;) 

Our Valentines Day was just fabulous, and exactly what I wanted... to spend time loving on the 3 people I love the most. 

Happy Valentines Day, hope yours was just as fabulous! ♥