4 Year Check-Up

      Today Rylee had her 4 year physical and shots. She weighs 32 lbs and is 3 ft 5 in. tall. They don't do percentiles anymore after 3, but he basically said she's a little taller and a lot thinner than the average 4-year-old. There are no concerns about her weight though because she always always been tall and skinny. It's just her build. She had to have her finger pricked and pee in a cup, which she didn't cry about either of those. She was even smiling and talking to the nurse who pricked her finger while she was getting her blood sample. She failed her hearing test because she has impacted wax in her ears, so they tried to rinse it out in the office, but that didn't work because it was irritating her ear and she began to freak out, so they just told us to continue to rinse them out at home until we see the wax come out... Gross! Then she had to have 2 shots, she cried for the shots, but calmed down the very second they were done. Once we left, we went straight to chik-fil-a, as is our doctor visit tradition! :)

     She wears size 5T, 5, or 5/6 shirts, pjs, and dresses depending on the brand, and size 4T or 4 bottoms, and swimwear. She wears size 9 tennis shoes, flats, and closed-toe sandals, and size 8 flip-flops and open toe sandals. She typically sleeps from about 8:30 pm -7:30 am, and she hasn't been napping lately. She just decided about 2 weeks ago that she didn't need a nap anymore. She can write her name: Rylee Love without any help, but we are still working on Massengill, all she's got by memory so far is the M. She can also write Payton's name without help. She has been learning to spell and read and write some words, just by playing on her nabi, paying attention when Ryan or I read to her, and noticing her surroundings. She picks up on everything. I try to work with her, but she doesn't really like to work with me, and I don't want to force her. She's already ahead of where she needs to be, so I'm not going to force it.

      Rylee is such a special little girl. She has the biggest heart. She is such an amazing big sister to Payton. Every moment that Payton is awake, Rylee wants her to be wherever she is, and when she is sleeping, Rylee checks on her on the baby monitor. Rylee is also super creative. She loves to play Barbies, and she makes up the cutest little stories for them. She also likes to make up her own little songs. I love her little singing voice.

     And she is fearless. It amazes me how brave she is. She loves water and loves to swim. She has become so active. She is up for anything lately, and it is so not like the frightened and reserved child I had before.

       And she has become a major Daddy's girl. Their favorite thing to do is play Super Mario on the Super Nintendo. I spend most of my day answering the question, "When will Daddy come home?" She's still my buddy though, and I love spending my days with my little sidekick. I still can't believe she is 4 years old. Time needs to slow down!

9 Months Old!

     Payton Joy is 9 Months Old! She is 19 lbs 9 oz (75th percentile) and 27.75 in. long (75th percentile). She wears size 12 M clothes and size 18 M sleepers. She wears size 4 diapers, and size 2 shoes on the rare occasion that I put shoes on her. She doesn't really like shoes. She goes to bed around 8 pm and wakes up around 7 am. She takes 2 naps per day usually around 10 and 3. She typically naps anywhere from 1-2 hours at each naptime. All she needs to fall asleep is her paci, her silky, and her singing glowworm. She is such a little chatter bug and still says her words, but she's added 1 more word to the mix: "MAMA!" She is so cute when she calls for me. It is the most precious sound.

 She still only has her 2 bottom teeth, but they are stinkin' adorable! She is acting like she may get her top 2 soon, but we shall see. She has mastered the army crawl and is fairly mobile, but she still hasn't officially crawled yet. She's learned how to pull herself up into a standing position, but once she does it, she can't figure out how to get down. I'm trying to transition her from silicone spout sippy cups to a harder (but still soft) spout. She doesn't care much for a bottle anymore, so I am thinking of just completely getting rid of bottles, too. I haven't fully decided. I'm going to wait to see how well she transitions to these new sippy cups before I fully decide.

      She's been eating more and more table food and she loves it! I even let her try a tiny bit of cake at Rylee's birthday party just for fun. It was her first encounter with chocolate, and she won't have another until her 1st birthday party. For breakfast she eats a Gerber stage 2 fruit, a Gerber stage 1 veggie, and some cheerios or whole-grain toast. For lunch she eats a Gerber stage 2 veggie, a Gerber stage 1 fruit, and some puffs or yogurt melts. For dinner she eats a Gerber yogurt, a Gerber stage 2 meal, and bites of whatever I cooked for dinner. She drinks water and diluted 100% juice with her meals and nurses in between meals. She is still mostly breastfed, I only give her formula if we are going somewhere, or if she is extra hungry and I can't keep up. She's had maybe 5 formula bottles in the last month... not very much formula at all. I nurse on demand, especially now that it seems she is going through a growth-spurt, but on a typical day she would nurse 4 times a day. Lately it's been more like 6 times a day, but a growing baby needs lots of milk!

     She is such a water bug! She doesn't mind floating in deep water in her little floatie for short periods of time, but what she LOVES is shallow water that she can sit in and splash-splash-splash! She could sit and splash for hours, even in cool water. She also loves bathtime for the same reason. 

       Her eye is still draining, so we have scheduled her probe for July 8th. I will be relieved when it is over, and I know she will be glad to not have goop coming out of her eye all day every day anymore. I am a little nervous about it, but she is a champ, and I know she'll be fine. She barely cries about anything, so I'm hoping she is just as chill about this procedure!

Rylee is 4!

       Saturday, my sweet love-bug turned 4 years old! I cannot believe 4 years have gone by so quickly! Even though I am her mother, we have grown so much together, and she has taught me so much about myself. Her middle name is Love, and it is very appropriate because becoming her mother taught me how much I was capable of loving.

      We had her birthday party at the Ripley Water Park. She has been excited for months about this party, and when the day finally arrived, she could hardly contain her excitement. She woke up, and immediately informed us that she had grown during the night, and now she was 4 years old because it was June 21st. Then she proceeded to inform us that it was okay to have cookies for breakfast on your birthday. I gave her some cookies, and we got ready for the party, and off we went.

       We all had so much fun swimming. The favorite was the giant water slide. All the kids had the adults take them down the slide again and again. Rylee got to slide three times with me, twice with her daddy, once with Aunt Mary, and once with Aunt Liz. She also slid down the smaller (but still pretty big) water slide countless times and swam and swam until it was time to get out.

       After we got out of the pool, we headed to the pavilion for pizza, cake, and presents. Everyone was starving from all the water fun so we got right to eating the pizza. Rylee decided she didn't want everyone to sing to her, so she blew out her candle and then we cut into her pizza cake. It was delicious and everyone enjoyed a dessert of cake and ice cream.

     After food, came presents. Rylee got so many wonderful things. Everyone knows what she likes. Today her favorite has been a Barbie pool and water slide that she got. She's been using it to reenact her birthday party. Yesterday she played with her new baby doll that she named "Lillie" pretty much all day.

     After presents, the kids took turns whacking the pinata. After all the smaller kids had had a chance to hit it, Maleyia finally got it to open up, and everyone filled their goodie bags with candy.

        As everyone headed home and I cleaned up, Brandon and Ryan took Rylee and Kaden to the playground because they were asking to play. It was hot, so they didn't last long, but they had fun. Then we headed to my house where Liz, Brandon, Kaden, Mary and Bailey came to play with Rylee's new toys. Elizabeth, Brandon, and Kaden stayed and played until it was time for Rylee's birthday dinner of spaghetti and Texas toast. Everyone ate their fill, then they headed home.

       Then we let Rylee open her presents from us. We saved them so that her birthday could last a little longer and so that we could enjoy her opening our gifts as a family. From us she got angry bird skates, a guitar, a my-size Barbie and Hot Dots. Her birthday was a perfect day. It was definitely her best one yet. I had so much fun, and she had a smile on her face for the entire day. I could not have asked for things to have gone any better than they did. Happy birthday, sweet girl. You are so very loved!

        Becoming her mother was an unexpected road and it was challenging for many reasons. The day I found out I was pregnant with her, it was sophomore year of college, Ryan and I had been married for only 5 months. That October day, my class had been canceled, so I went shopping with Liz while Ryan went to school. She had been trying for a baby for a few months, and was beginning to get frustrated. She was venting to me and randomly said, "I bet you are pregnant right now on accident, and I've been trying, and I'll never get pregnant!" I just laughed it off, but I got to thinking, and when I got home I decided to take a pregnancy test even though it was still a week before I was supposed to get my period, just because I was getting paranoid, and I didn't want to worry about it anymore. I checked the test after a few minutes, and it was negative, but I didn't throw it away because it hadn't been a full 10 minutes yet, but I figured because it was still negative at that point, I wasn't pregnant...

     A few minutes later, Ryan came to me and said, "Are you supposed to be able to see another line just a little bit?" He didn't fully believe me when I said a faint second line meant I was in fact pregnant, even after I showed him in the directions that come with the test and took the other test in the box with the exact same result. He finally believed it a few days later, when I tested again on a digital test, and it was confirmed. I think we were both mainly just in shock. We didn't know anything about being parents. We had NO money. We didn't feel ready. But no matter how unprepared or frightened I was in the beginning, everything worked out better than I could imagine. I know without a doubt that Rylee Love was a gift from God, and she is going to do great things one day! She makes me so incredibly happy, and I am so blessed to be her mommy!

Family Time

    Last week, my parents came down and spent the week camping at Chickasaw. Monday, Liz and I headed over there with our kiddos to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

       Even though there was a moment of panic when someone spotted a snake near the swimming hole (that was definitely the end of our swimming adventure), everyone had a blast swimming, hanging out, and playing on the playground. We spent the whole day out in the sun and the drive home was silent with 3 sleeping kiddos in the back seat!

     Wednesday, Ryan took a half-day from work so he could head to Chickasaw with me and the girls and spend some time with just our little family and Grandma and Grandpa. This time when we were swimming, we found some brim and Rylee had a blast feeding cheezits to the fish. Rylee and Payton had a blast being spoiled by their grandparents and then we had a picnic dinner and made s'mores!

    Friday we had a cookout at Liz and Brandon's house. Before dinner, the kids had a blast swimming and playing in the water table. Even after everyone else had gone in to play, Rylee stayed outside in the pool. She is such a water bug!

   We celebrated Grandpa and Mary's June birthdays after dinner, and the kids enjoyed helping make the cake, decorate the cake, blow out the candles, and especially eat the cake! It was good to spend a lot of family time, and I know the kids enjoyed all their playtime!

Fathers Day 2014

       Saturday we began our Father's Day celebration with Payton's first trip to the Memphis Zoo! The weather was nice, and both girls seemed to have a blast. Rylee loved seeing and talking about all the animals and Payton was content cruising around in the stroller enjoying all the new sights and sounds.

     It turns out Liz, Brandon, and Kaden had the same idea and we ran into them while we were at the zoo! Rylee and Kaden were thrilled to see the monkeys together and talk about what they had seen so far, and later they got a chance to meet up again at the playground.

     Ryan got to choose where we headed for dinner and her chose Buffalo Wild Wings. I was nervous about eating out with 2 tired little girls, but they both behaved themselves, and we had a fun, yummy dinner. Both girls were passed out as soon as we were out of the parking lot on the way home. It was a fun day!

      Sunday morning, Ryan and Payton slept in a little while Rylee and I made father's Day breakfast before church. We made him raspberry muffins. Rylee was so excited about Father's Day. She was bursting at the seams to wake up daddy and show him his breakfast and give him his gift.

     She woke him up by giving him sloppy kisses and jumping on his back repeatedly (the joys of fatherhood-haha). Then he opened his gift while the muffins cooled a little. Rylee and Payton made him a poem with their hand prints on it, and his gift was a frosted stein with the girls' pictures on it that said "World's Greatest Dad." He loved his gifts and we all enjoyed the muffins. Even Payton ate one!

     After church, we headed home for lunch and so Payton could get a nap. Then we headed to Nonna and Granddaddy's, so Ryan could spend father's day with his dad. The girls swam in the kiddo pool, and the cover was taken off the big pool. We are excited that it will be ready to swim in soon. Nonna cooked a delicious pot roast dinner, and Granddaddy made homemade ice cream!

     Ryan seemed to enjoy his Father's Day weekend, and I also had a lot of fun. On instagram I posted a photo of him with the girls with the caption, "I knew he was something special when I married him, but I had no idea how amazing he was until he became a daddy. These girls absolutely adore him, and he'd do anything for them. I could not ask for a better partner to parent with. Happy Father's Day, Ryan David! #bestdaddyever #lovemyhubby" & I meant every word.