Gilbert 1 Years Old! A year in Reflection...

12 Months

Height: 29"

Weight: 20 lbs 10 oz

Gil's Highlights:
Smiling
Playing with TJ
Throwing food on the floor
Blowing kisses
Snuggling
Sleeping through the night
Words: Mama, Dah-de, up, uh-oh

This little one is so proud of the big boy he is!  So happy to Celebrate 1!

When I see this sweet face and this little body goes limp on my shoulder, I wonder why I worried about the arrival of this little love.  By the time I wrote about preparing for 2 babies so close in age I felt somewhat prepared and equipped for the task.  However, the first 2-3 months were a roller coaster. It seemed as if every time I felt I had a handle on it, I would be met with multiple days of disaster.

I finally found my groove and then it felt like time was slipping away.  With TJ, I had all the time in the world to take every moment in.  With Gil, a successful day sometimes just meant survival. For a while I felt like I missed things because I had been surviving instead of thriving.  So naturally, all my true crazy came out and I was trying to relish EVERYTHING.  I tearfully watched my baby grow. (Because this is GIL'S birthday post, I won't even get into my feelings on TJ growing up during all of this)

We all know a Mom who wishes each day away...they will be happy when/if: the baby sleeps through the night, they don't have to make dinner, their toddler is potty trained, they can run errands without buckling/unbuckling little ones a thousand times......I've been there.  I've wished the moments and days away.  But in that, I missed all the joy of what was happening.

Then there is the Mom who tries to hold on to every moment......everything they do on social media is #slowdown #growingtoofast...I'm kidding, but seriously, we all know how fast they grow.  This is the Mom who tries to hold on......with every step they are over emotional or try to hold a little too tight to their children.  Not allowing their children to truely meet their full potential.  I've been there.  I wanted to hold on tight and hope time would slow.  Once again, in wishing for what wasn't, I was missing what was.

 I had swung from one extreme to another (I'm sure post pregnancy hormones, sleep deprivation and husband gone on business travel had nothing to do with it ;)   I needed balance.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

 "therefore I will hope in him."  

Lamentations 3:22-24

I am so thankful for a Savior who has met me at each swing of my crazy pendulum and helped to restore balance.  With my hope found in Him I have experienced joy right where I am.  I am joyful in days that our greatest achievement is survival.  All family members and body parts are accounted for.  Sometimes in different times zones or countries, but accounted for nonetheless.  I find joy in days that I thrive.  Days when the house is spotless, the errands are complete, I fully engaged my children and my dinner should have been showcased on FoodNetwork.

Either way, "the Lord is my portion"

So, Gilbert Michael Gramp.  You are such a little dream.  You are so happy and sweet, no matter how tired or hungry.  You are friendly and love to greet people and you always make sure they notice you.  The word "No" does not faze you, no matter how stern it is said (oh boy).  You have become a blankie lover and quite the little snuggler.  TJ loves to play with you and often requests I make you stay by him. You are  the perfect addition to our family.  I can't imagine our family without our Gilby-do

9, 10. 11

9 Months

Height: 27"

Weight: 19 lbs 3oz

Gil's Highlights:
6 teeth (almost 8!)
smiling
eating
bothering TJ
smiling
almost/kind of crawling
Still only waking up once a night :)


*This little guy loves to eat!  He refused all types of baby food, including cereal!  But when it comes to table food he can't get enough

10 Months

Height:
Weight:

Gil's Highlights:

8 teeth

Full crawler

Smiling

Bothering TJ

Sometimes sleeping through the night :)

Like my haircut?

11 Months

Height:

Weight:

Of course, I forget to take the last picture before he turns1! This is the only  picture I have closest to the right date.

Gil's Highlights:
Smiling
Climbing up the stairs
Blowing kisses
CONSISTENTLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!

Come On In!

I'm linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for her series of "Come On In!"  This is my first time joining in.  I usually just stalk all the other participants homes like the true creeper I am :)

We moved to our house about a year and a half ago.  We haven't really done much of anything yet.  We have painted a 3 rooms, but that is it.  After moving from our 800 sq ft condo in Hawaii to a much larger home in Maryland, we have spent time/energy/money just trying to furnish this place.  Now that we have all of our major furniture the decorating will begin.  As I type these words Big Love and his bank account tremble in fear :)

Toady's feature is Kitchen & Dining Rooms

Kitchen: The overall view

This is the view from the family room.  One of my favorite things about our kitchen is that leads into the family room and deck.  The two main places you will find my babies playing at any given time depending on the season.

View into the family room

Overall, I love my kitchen.  I've always loved white kitchens.  The previous owners had recently replaced the appliances...thanks for the white kitchen with new stainless steel appliances and a new BLACK dishwasher!?  Oh how I hate this dishwasher.  I have looked into replacing the front panel, it isn't offered for this model.  I can't seem to convince Big Love it should be replaced based on color not function....ahh, I girl can try :)

In my dream kitchen I would have an island big enough for seating

Little Corners:

This is TJ's art corner/snack table.  However, after a recent wall/floor/carpet/brother art exhibition, the art supplies have been removed until further notice or complete attention from Mama ;)




Love our little wood high chair!



The fridge is always filled with my loves




Ok, so I pride myself on my honesty.  Honesty says, that although my kitchen does typically look like this, this counter does not.  It is usually filled with mail and all of life's randoms.  It can get really embarrassing over here.  I happen to have just had a dinner party so it was already clean!




Love my little window.  I spend a lot of time staring off into our back yard while I do the dishes.

Dining Room

View from the living room.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do in the room.  I don't mind the wall color, but the window treatments aren't my style.  I like the light fixture, but I can't figure out why they didn't center it?




All I have to say is THE TABLE, oh how I love the table.  What I love about this table is that it is a beast, solid wood.  It weighs a ton and is hand made from refurbished barn wood that was over 100 yrs old.  In the current configuration I have one of the company boards (extensions) on.  I normally have it set for 6, but with chairs at the ends.  If both boards are on it can comfortably fit 10 and if we use benches we can fit 12-14.  This is my forever table.




I love all the knots and gouges.  Beautiful, beautiful one of a kind character.



Well, that does it.  Thanks for stopping in and visiting our kitchen and dining room!

8 months

Gilbert Michael

Height: Starting to wear 12 month clothes

Weight: 18lb 6oz (about 2 weeks ago)

Gil's Highlights:

Smiling

Clapping his hands

Pulling TJ's hair

Talking

Showing off his 5 teeth

Smiling

Starting to sleep at night :) 

*Finally we are back to up only once a night!!

Seriously, this little guy is such a dream!  He is the sweetest thing ever. Ever.  Obviously every mama thinks their baby is the sweetest.  I did too when I had TJ.  Then I had Gil, and I found out what it was to actually have the sweetest baby, not just think I had the sweetest baby.  I am so in love.

TJ

Height: Finally fitting 2T pants

Weight: no idea

TJ is 2.  Very, very 2.  I love it.  Every single minute.  From stinky to sweet in the blink of an eye.  My biggest challenge is trying to keep a straight face when giving serious 'I'm the one in charge' talks.  When I ask for a picture he says, "no pit-ers mama"  But, when I try to take a 'pit-er' without him this is what I get :)

*note the sweet little skinned knees peeking out of his FAVORITE "daddy shorts" aka basketball shorts.  Big Love goes to the gym every night before he comes home from work, so I think TJ thinks this is all Daddy wears :)  In true little boy fashion, he wants to be just like Daddy.  This kid wants to wear 'daddy shorts' everyday.  I had to go out and buy plain t-shirts to wear with them.  He was looking real silly with his polo shirts and basketball shorts.  Gosh I despise these shorts.  I may have willingly lost the battle of these ugly shorts and my personal rule against wearing tacky play clothes, but we have yet to own or even desire any sort of character clothing.  I will stand my ground on character attire.....until  it makes him just as happy as 'daddy shorts' ;)

Mother's Day

Morning kisses
Peonies
Donuts
Church
Centennial Lake
"no pit-ers mama"
Family walk
Sleeping baby
Park
Daddys and big boys play
Chipotle
Naps
Family walk
Vanilla ice cream with chocolate jimmies
Thai food
Messy, sweaty babies
Baths
Sleep

It was spent together on a beautiful day.  Big Love is recovering from surgery and felt horrible, but he still did all the things that would make me happy.  Flowers {peony bushes to be exact}, quality time and food.....he knows the way to my heart.

"no pit-ers"

"NOOOOOO, no pit-ers mama"

sweet sweaty baby

Gramp Randoms

Here are the randoms of our Gramp family this week:

1.  I love TJ's version of words these days.  Nothing makes me happier than asking him to repeat these words.  I act like I'm not sure what he said and I repeat the word.  He's always real serious and adds a head nod while he says it again :). Here are some of my personal favorites:
touch = truck
hell-topper = helicopter
farsher = parmesan
dammer = Grandma/Grandpa
*dammer is probably my favorite.  My parents where just visiting and he can say both of their names clearly, but chose 'dammer' as their interchangeable name

2.  I re-found these recently.  I haven't ordered them yet, but I imagine that they may be a motherhood life changer :)

3.  I just got this cute scarf and I love it.  I never find scarves I actually like, so I was so excited to wear it.  Problem is, it is impossible to wear a scarf as an accessory with babies.  The scarf ends up being eaten, choking me or just falling off.....then I end up looking like a hot mess which sort of defeats the purpose of wearing it.  I may be giving up on it for the foreseeable future.  I'm bummed but relieved at the same time.  Wearing these things kind of ,make me feel like I'm trying too hard anyway.

4.  Tim has been traveling for work quite a bit more in the last few months.  I think out of force of habit, I continue to make dinner every night....until last night.  Why was a making a full dinner for 1 1/2 people?  TJ would be just as happy if I handed him a cheese stick.  So last night we ate the following: garlic toast, blueberry muffin, peas and chips and guacamole.  It was delicious!  I think there may be a permanent change to our meal plans when Tim is traveling :)

5.  Diaper rash.  Horrible, horrible diaper rash.  This is new to me.  TJ has had an occasional red bum, but nothing like this.  Poor Gil.  After 2 weeks, every trick in the book, prescription strength butt paste {butt paste is in fact the name of the prescription} and airing out on towels {that are now forever changed} all day long, I think it is finally clearing up!

After a week of rain and being alone with the boys, we are so excited for Daddy to come home and play in the sunshine!  Hope you all have a great weekend too!

7 months

Gilbert 

Height: 9 month clothes just fit in length 

Weight:  Chub, chub, chubby

(agian, my very scientific measurements)

Gil's Highlights:

Completely independent sitter

3 teeth (all on the bottom, the top 2 are coming any day)

Wants desperately to crawl, but makes almost no progress

Smiles at everyone
Reaches up his little arms to get picked up (my heart melts every time)

Loves to watch/play with TJ

Still gets up 2-3 times a night :(

I am so in love with this crazy haired happy boy.  My 5 month post on Gil was filled with my laments about him growing too fast.  Well, in the last week we put away the swing, bouncy chair and bath chair....and I'm proud to say I did so without crying and shaking my fists to the heavens.  These transitions/milestones felt natural and joyous.  I guess I'm growing too :)

6 months and 2 years in Hawaii

Tim had a work trip scheduled for Hawaii and suggested that I go along.  This sounds wonderful in theory, but that is one long flight for an almost 2 yr old, a 5month old and their 2 tired parents.  After much debate I finally agreed.  We decided to extend the trip to make it more of a vacation and worth the travel.  So off to paradise we went!

The fights:  I had a ton of anxiety over the flights.  Last year when we took TJ to Hawaii, he proceeded to cry, fuss and scream the entire 9 hour flight from Atlanta to Honolulu.  We vowed never to fly with children again.  We went back and forth on different routing options to determine optimal 2 yr old compliance. We settled on flying out of Philly to Salt Lake {4:30 min flight} and Salt  Lake to Honolulu {6:30 min flight}. The Philly thing wasn't ideal {it's 1:40 min drive}, but it was either that or DC which can be even worse with traffic AND most importantly, Kim{Tim's sister} decided to join us on our adventure and this ment she could fly out with us.   We left our house at 3:30am for our 7:15am flight.  We were banking that the boys would sleep the entire drive.  TJ didn't close his eyes once.  I was anticipating the horror about to ensue.  However, the flights turned out wonderful.  Both boys did awesome on the first flight and TJ even took a decent nap.  The second flight was a bit harder for TJ.  We were super blessed and sat next to multiple "grandparents" who thought our boys were the cutest things ever and loved to help entertain them.  There was also another little girl a few rows up that TJ befriended and they spent 1-2 hours chasing a ball up and down the aisle. This sounds a bit silly, but it was honestly a faith building day of travel.  I wanted no part in flying with these two babies.  I prayed fervently in the days before, I prayed on the way to the airport, at the terminal, when I sat down and continually throughout the flights.  I had my parents praying throughout the flights and openly asked others to pray for us.  It was one of the things I felt embarrassed to complain over....my life is so hard, I have to go to Hawaii with my family in the middle of winter for almost 3 weeks and my babies might have a hard time on the flight...wha, wha.  Despite the trivial nature of my circumstance, God was reminding me he still cared.

We got to our hotel around dinner time and surprisingly both of the boys were doing great.  We felt a little too confident after our flight and decided that going out for a walk to get dinner was a good idea.  Let's just say it ended in our first ever full blown tantrum {over not getting to push an elevator button that he had refused to push in the first place}.  I'm talking bloody murder, vocal cord damaging, ear drum rupturing, kicking, arching and flailing kind of tantrum.  Yikes, my oh my the stares we got.  Tim sort of just swallowed his dinner and mine was  packed up before I got a single bite.  Lesson learned.

I could write a book trying to remember all of the details, so instead here are the highlights

My very own little Dole Whip

1.  TJ loves to chase the pigeons.  Pigeons can run faster than he can so they pretty much ignore him.  After chasing pigeons for well over an hour during a walk, one of the pigeons decided to fly away.  TJ thought that was the funniest thing, he was belly laughing at it.  Up until that point I don't think he realized they could fly because they all just scurried away.  Once he realized they could fly, he became more of a pigeon abuser than chaser.  We had to finally put the kibosh on it when it turned into gleeful attempts to kick the pigeons.  He spent most of the trip pointing out and running after all kinds of birds.

2.  Gil is (has become) such and easy baby!  He was happy no matter what we did.  He was happy sitting in the stroller, swimming, watching TJ play, sitting in the shade at the park and pretty much napped whenever and wherever I needed him to.  Everyone loved baby Gil.  This sweet baby will smile at anyone, there is no discrimination when giving out smilies.....except for the 2-3 times he had his first brush with stranger danger and decided a screaming cry would be more appropriate.

2.  TJ is basically part fish.  He loved the ocean, in a scary no fear kind of way.  We decided to walk on the beach the first day, but didn't have any intention of swimming.  TJ made a straight beeline for the ocean fully clothed.  He ran full force right into a decent wave that threw him under.  Thankfully Tim was close behind and got him right away.  He was startled at first, but went right back for more.  He wanted to be in the water (ocean or pool) at all times.  The last few days I was running really low on swim diapers so I ended up having to dry them out and reuse them.  Yes, we were that desperate.

The pool floaty that he wouldn't part with, but refused to actually wear it into the pool

3.  Aunt Kim was a blessing.  Having an extra pair of hands the first week was priceless.  Even after Kim left TJ would ask for "An Nim" every time we would come back to our room.

"An Nim" playing with the babies

5. We were able to eat at all of our favorite local joints.  I may have eaten at Teddy's Bigger Burger no less than 3 times :)  I can still taste that beautiful bacon cheeseburger.....

6. This has been such a hard winter, a person literally forgets what it feels like to walk outside and feel the sun.  Every morning we got up and went for a walk in the sun.  Our hotel was right next to a beachfront path,  I took that path everyday to a little play ground.  I would sit with Gil under the shade of the beautiful trees and TJ would run around like a freed animal.

7. Ko'Olina, Ko'Olina, Ko'Olina.  We were able to spend a few nights on this part of the island....it's truly my happy place.  Ko'Olina is where Tim and I got married so it was also fun to have a few moments to reminisce about when our fairy tale began :)

This was an accidental picture, but I love the (sort of) shadow of me and the boys

These two little honeys celebrated their monthly "birthday" while we were in Hawaii.  Gil turned 6 months and TJ turned 2!

Gilbert Michael

Height: 26 3/8 inches

Weight: 17lbs 6oz

Nice little view of his 2 new teeth

Gil's highlights:

He has 2 teeth

Loves to smile

Loves to smile

Loves to smile

Sits up, but still needs a safety pillow

Loves to watch and laugh at TJ

Great napper

Still waking up 2-3 times a night

TJ

Height: 34 inches

Weight: 27lbs 8oz

TJ's Highlights:

Talking about: "touch" trucks

Making Gil laugh

Vacuuming

Running

Finding rocks and sticks

We had such a great time enjoying the warm weather and time as a family.  Hopefully spring is right around the corner because the cold just doesn't seem natural  when I think about these pictures!

It seems impossible to get a good picture sometimes

impossible :)

This boy and his sticks