Momma and all her babies

My Dad made a comment that the pictures are always of Chris and Kyler and none of me. I told him that it wasn't by accident. But here is one photo I like of me and all my babies. As you can see, Darby (the cat) has still not taken much of a liking to Charlie (the dog). Charlie if I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open!
~Stephanie

Click on photo to enlarge and see the kitty look of death!

Visiting

On Tuesday, we went into the city to visit Chris' office and my old office. Kyler had a good time but sorely missed his usual naps. (And mommy was sorry he missed his naps as well).
Wednesday was spent at Gramma Rose's house, visiting with Aunt Shirley, Vince, Vinnie, and Ashley. We hadn't had any peeing incidents in a while, so we were due for a good one. Not only did Kyler pee on me and his cute outfit, but he somehow managed to pee into his diaper bag onto his spare outfit! What can I say, the kids got good aim. Ashley was practicing her babysitting skills holding Kyler but I should have "taught" her how to change the diaper. Chris and I went to the Philies game that night and the grandparents were happy to babysit. Thanks Mom and Dad.
It's nice to get back to the usual routine. Here are some pics of the usual weekend routine. Kyler "sleeps in" with Chris after his breakfast while I get things done. Then playtime in bed when I go in to drag Chris out of bed!

~Stephanie

HE DID IT!

On Tuesday night, Kyler went to bed in his crib at 8:45pm and slept straight through until 6:45am!! It's a little early for my taste, but still qualifies as sleeping through the night.
I have been reading this book, "Healthy sleep habits, happy child", and it says that if you want your baby to sleep longer, put him to bed earlier. This seemed backwards to me and we would try to keep Kyler up late so he would sleep longer. I figured we would give it a try, and each night we put him to bed a little earlier. Darned if he didn't sleep a little later each time. Bed at 10:00, up at 4 am. Bed at 9:30, up at 5 am. Bed at 8:45, up at 6:45! He is also taking 2-3 good naps a day.
The reason it took a few days to put up this post is that we were without electricity for over 24 hours and stayed over my parents' house Wednesday night. Kyler even slept good in the crib they bought for him there.
Here's a few photos of Kyler hanging out in his crib, enjoying his James Giraffe mobile.
~Stephanie

Sleeping and Relatedness

At the advice of cousins and friends, we started putting Kyler in his crib at night. He seems to have adjusted just fine, better than Mommy has; she misses her little guy being right next to her. However, this has not helped him sleep through the night yet. He is still getting up 1-2 times per night. But, it ws a big step that had to be done sooner or later and he seems to be getting better sleep.

Kelly and I had mentioned that we weren't sure how all the babies were related. I spoke with Jennifer and she wasn't sure either. It gets pretty complicated with first, second, third cousins, and what's all this "removed" stuff? So I did some research.

Your first cousins are the people in your family who have the same grandparents as you. Your second cousins are the people in your family who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents. Your third cousins have the same great-great-grandparents, and so on. Therefore, Ethan, Jake, Madison, and Kyler are all second cousins. Their children will be third cousins to each other.

When the word "removed" is used to describe a relationship, it indicates that the two people are from different generations. The words "once removed" mean that there is a difference of one generation. For example, your mother's first cousin is your first cousin, once removed. So the moms are first cousins, once removed to the babies. For example, Jennifer and Jake are first cousins, once removed.

Anyway, thought it was interesting and here is a couple more photos. Kyler sleeping in the Bjorn with Daddy and Kyler becoming a TV junky like Daddy!

2 Month Well baby visit

Kyler had his 2 month check up with the pediatrician today and that means....shots! He did not like it (and neither did I). At first, I thought he was going to be fine, but it was a slightly delayed reaction before his scream came out. With each of the next 2, the scream escalated. By the time they were done, he was fully crying (and so was I). In fact, I thought Chris' eyes looked a little glossy too.
The good news is that he is putting on weight well now. He weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces (67 percentile)!!!! His length is 24 1/4 inches (89 percentile). That's an increase of almost 3 pounds and 2 inches since last month.

Because I love photos so much, here are a couple from a luau we went to over 4th of July weekend.

-Stephanie

Family Picnic

We had the annual family picnic yesterday at Aunt Bunny's house.
For those of you that don't know, me and 3 of my cousins all had babies within 2 months of each other. All the babies were there and we had a great time meeting them. They were so good for us and posed for some really cute group shots. They didn't fuss at all and seemed to enjoy laying on the towel all together. To Kyler's right is Ethan (son of my cousin Jennifer), the oldest of the bunch, born March 8. 2006. To his right is Jake (cousin Kelly), born March 30. Next is Madison, the only girl of the group (cousin Kristen), born May 2. And Kyler is the baby of the babies, May 8.
It was nice to learn about how all the babies are doing with eating, sleeping, etc and see that everyone goes through similar issues (blow outs, meltdowns,...). However, I did learn that all 3 of the others are sleeping through the night now!! Kyler still fluctuates between 1-2 times up per night.
It will be really neat to see this gang together when they are mobile!
-Stephanie

Click on Photo to see larger view

Me and Uncle Matt

My uncle Matt sent me these photos today. They were taken when he came to visit me in June. Don't I look sharp in my FSU jammies!

First Page

My cousin Kelly has done such a good job with her baby blog for Jake, I decided to try one for Kyler. I am not nearly as witty with my stories of daily parenting drama, but I figured this is a good way to post some photos. Here are some photos of Kyler's first swimming adventure on Father's Day.