Weekend get away

Kyler got a chance to play with his friend, Sophia, on Friday. It's crazy how much they change each time they get together.


And now Dominic has been added to the mix!

Kyler stayed with Grandma and Pop pop Saturday night while Chris and I got a night away in New Hope.

As you can see, baby number 2 is well on its way!

A great 2 years

Kyler's actual 2nd birthday was on Thursday. It was much less exciting than his party on Saturday (pretty much a cupcake with a candle after dinner), but it was very meaningful to me. I kept replaying the day 2 years ago in my head. I would look at the clock and think, "what was I doing right now 2 years ago"...mostly feeling tremendous pain, but it was the best day of my life. And every day since has been better because of that day.

I can't believe it has been 2 years. They grow up so fast, but it has its benefits too. Now that Kyler is a kisser and a hugger, I take full advantage of it. I know it won't last forever. And when he says, "Yuv you" it just melts my heart.

Friday we moved Kyler into his new big boy room. We moved the crib in too just so he could get use to the room before switching to the big boy bed. So its a little tight in there right now with a 2 dressers, double bed, and a crib and changing table, but we are managing. There is no room for the rocker so we do story time in his new bed. He seems to like it. It all goes so fast: new room, big boy bed, potty training... Next thing you know, he'll be packing for college.

Kyler's birthday party

Kyler's birthday is this Thursday but we had his party this past Saturday. The Grandparents and all the Aunts and Uncles were there. Kyler pulled in a good haul, as usual, and everyone had a great time!

Smart guy

It's so fun watching Kyler learn new things, and learning things you don't even realize he's learning.

A couple weeks ago, we noticed Kyler would point to the Cat in the Hat book saying "apple". There is no apple on the cover. Then he pointed to Chris' Florida State shirt saying "apple". We finally realized he was pointing to the A's, A for Apple. So I wrote out letters to find out that he knows a bunch of letters by name. I didn't even know it. So now when we read books, he likes to point out letters he knows.

We have been using a baby doll to get him use to the idea of having a baby around. So he hugs it, gives it a bottle, and throws it on the floor...luckily, we still have time. Anyway, the other day he picked up the doll, turned it over, sniffed its butt, made a funny face, and said Poo-poo! At least he can help identify when the baby needs a diaper change.

Here he is enjoying Mama's hummus. If you try to give him a pretzel, he does a dipping motion with it, pitching a fit for some hummus.


Our little monkey.

Smoochfest 2008

As some of you may remember, I was going to put up a video a couple of months ago of Kyler & Isabelle. Chris, just now got me the thing I needed to download it from my camera. So here it is.

#2...

...and I'm not talking about Poo-poo this time.

Chris and I are happy to announce that baby #2 is on the way. I am 13 weeks right now with a due date of October 16th. We had a second ultrasound today and everything seems to be going well.
I have not been feeling so well, though. Much more fatigue and morning sickness than with Kyler but hopefully that will be improving soon. In fact Kyler is always saying, "Mama night night", because I guess he thinks all I do is sleep and lay around on the couch :( I apologize to those of you that I have been bad about calling back, emailing, making plans, etc. I've been "night night" a lot.
We won't be finding out the sex this time. Since I'm having a scheduled C-section, we want something to be unknown.

How we announced it to our parents, Michave and Renerik on my Dad's birthday


And to my cousin Kristen: I got your October!

Mama's Birthday and Easter

Yeah!! I turned 35 on Friday.
You may be wondering why I am so happy to be turning this milestone birthday? Although, I do officially feel old now, I am very happy to make it to 35. When I was 23, a so-called "palm reader" told me I was going to die when I was 34. Yes, really. I know, that's no way to make money. People don't want to hear that. Tell me I'll be rich, live long, and marry a great guy. Nope, not for me.
It actually went something like this:

Palm reader: You have a very short life line.
Me: Really, how short?
Him: About 34 years.
Me: So that means I'm going to die when I'm 34?
Him: Looks that way.

So although I don't put much stock in these things, I couldn't help but have it in the back of my mind this past year. Anyway, Yeah ME!


We also had a fun Easter.
Yes, these are Christmas jammies, but the Easter Bunny had to know he was good all year too.


The Easter egg hunt went great after Kyler realized there were jelly beans in the eggs and that they taste good.


Chocolate bunnies taste good too.

Playing with his buddy and cousin, Ethan.

Breakfast with the Easter Bunny

We had breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Saturday. Kyler was pretty interested in him and not afraid, but wouldn't high five him. (Still an improvement from Santa). In fact, he was so busy watching the bunny, he hardly ate any of his breakfast (Good thing kids under 2 are free!).

Helicopter Museum

On Friday, we went to the American Helicopter Museum with our Mom's group. Kyler had a great time, seeing helicopters take off and climbing around the helicopters on display. They let the kids climb right inside and push all the buttons and joysticks.


Some of Kyler's buddies from the group.


Pictures courtesy of Denise since I totally forgot my camera.

PEE-PEE

Yeah Kyler!!!!
Kyler did pee-pee in the potty on Friday and then again on Saturday. He wasn't diggin the little potty so we put an insert on the big potty and he really likes that. Once every couple days I would put him on for 15 minutes or so. I figured eventually he'll just happen to go while he's on it. And that's exactly what happened. He was so excited!

Kyler and Isabelle sittin in a tree...

Our friends, Leslie and Carl, came up for the weekend with their daughter, Isabelle. She is almost 14 months now and so cute it's ridiculous and smiles ALL THE TIME.

Kyler and Isabelle had a great time and were quite smitten with each other. Kyler is a real smoocher and apparently so is Isabelle. So we kind of created some monsters trying to get them to kiss, because they wouldn't stop. We pretty much had to pull them off each other. It was so cute. I'll put up some video if I can.

THE TWINS

Introducing Karena Michele and William Ryan.
Born 2/7/08 5:36pm and 5:37 pm.
Weighing 7 lbs and 7 lbs 3 oz.
Congratulations Angela and Greg!!!!!!



Be sure to check out their NEW blog that I FINALLY talked them into:
Perry Family Blog

First playgroup

We had our first playgroup at our house today with our Mom's group. I was a little concerned how Kyler would handle sharing his toys with 10 other kids, but he was great. At first, he just stood there, dazed, looking at all these kids run around with his toys. I figured that was better than the thrashing I feared. But even when he got into playing, he was good. Again, I gottta thank The Malvern School for that. I wouldn't have tried this a few months ago. It would have been shove-fest 2007.

Sick again...and again...and again...

This winter is really kicking our butts. It seems like we are always either getting sick, sick, or getting over being sick! I'm on my 3rd round of antibiotics for the sinus infection that won't quit, and for the heck of it, threw a stomach virus on top of it. Of course, the stomach virus got passed on to Chris. Kyler seems to have been spared from that, but he is getting over pink eye and an ear infection. Doesn't our house sound like fun!?!?

In our spare time, we've also embarked on another adventure: PRE-potty training. Kyler will be 21 months in a week or so, but I have a friend who's little girl was fully potty trained by that age! I'm not expecting anything, but it can't help to introduce the idea, right??? I noticed my cousin, Kelly, is going through the same thing with her little boy, Jake.

So I bought a book (of course, those of you that know me, know I buy a book for everything) but I think it may be back-firing. It says to start teaching the terminology. So Chris and I had to go over a long list and decide on our words, ie pee-pee, tinkle, wee-wee, willy, poos, caca, BM, tushy, bum, etc. So now Kyler is running around saying, "PEE-PEE, POO-POO". Great. Then, we taught him not to fear the flush. So he cranks on all the flushers in the house until the chains break! Great! There is also another good story about putting some of the poop from his diaper into the toilet and flushing it, but I've been banned from telling it.

Anyway, we got him a little potty just so he can get used to it, but he won't be still long enough to sit on it, especially not with his pants off. So for now, we'll take what we can get.


I'm starting to think this would be easier.

Frosty the ....Scary Man

We finally got some real snow to play in today!

Getting geared up in my new digs.

Watching Mama carefully as she works.

What a great creation she made!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!


Kids just crack me up. Kyler had a great time watching me build the snowman from snow on the ground, but once he had a face and arms......HE'S SCARY!!!!

Library and Date Night

Kyler is finally feeling better having some fun. We went to the library this past Friday for story time and it was great. We had tried a couple months ago and had to leave after a few minutes because he just couldn't sit still. This time, he sat the whole time and did the songs, finger plays, and listened to the stories. I couldn't believe the change. I gotta give props to The Malvern School for that. We're very happy about him going there. He got his first "report card" and I had my first parent-teacher conference last week. He has learned a lot- I guess that balances with him being sick ALL THE TIME!!!

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather last week!


Who taught him that?

My Mom and Dad took Kyler over night Saturday night so we could have a date night. Since it was the first in a long time, we crammed it all in: movie, dinner, and Erik's gig. I stayed out until...(brace yourself)....12:15 AM!!! It was great. We saw "I am Legend" and loved it..intense, scary at times, but awesome. Kyler had a good time at Grandma and Grandpa's too.