Trick or Treat!

We had fun tonight!  We were all bundled up... and got loads of candy!  
It seems like all the neighbors were out about at the same time tonight...  leaving lots of chit chatting for the adults!  One neighbor was handing out adult drinks...  too fun.  We decided that we should make that a ritual.  ha.  The kids had fun too. 

Our Friendly Ghost!

Cora's 1st Halloween!

All bundled up!

Some of the neighbors -- Kaed, Avery, Bennett & K

Handing out candy at home...

We were out for about 40 minutes, which was just enough time.  Kayson couldn't really see out of his costume...  it kept slipping off leaving him whining.  ha.  So we got home and he wanted to hand out candy.  We only had a few 'guests', so he was kind of bummed about that...  but he did good.  

It was a successful evening...  we all should be exhausted!

Trial Run

Today...  after 10 weeks of being home with Cora...  she had a trial run at daycare for about 4 hours.  I had a hair appointment, and Ryan and I decided today would be a good day for Cora to try it out and for the teachers to get to know her.  I was hoping Ryan would be able to stay home with her for a bit, but he's just too busy with work...  but it worked out.  

One of the main teachers, Stacy, was there...  she seems very nice and very caring.  I know the other teacher, Jess, through another teacher... she wasn't there today, but that's ok.  I know Cora is in good hands...  it's just me getting used to having her somewhere else.  It's simple as that.  I know I've done this before... I know the routine... I know she's safe and I know she'll be just fine...  It's just one of those things where it doesn't get easier.  

Anyway, Stacy said Cora did well... ate pretty well (a little earlier than I wanted), but we'll all get that figured out... and she snoozed for a little bit too.  Here at home, we swaddle Cora for naps and bedtime...  daycare centers can't swaddle (against the law for them), so she will use a sleep sack.  I'm sure Cora will adjust just fine...  at least I hope!  :)

So after 4 hours, I picked her up and she smiled at me.  Just what I wanted.  I love her.

She'll go back a couple times next week as well... 

I should NOT be tired.

Really... I SHOULD NOT BE TIRED.  But I am.  Emotionally, I think.  

Back it up a little bit...  our sweet, SWEET daughter sleeps all night long - nearly 10 to 11 hours.  So yes, I should NOT be tired.  She still naps pretty well during the day too...  but sure, she has a lot of awake time and checking things out.  Which is great...  I love that - I love to stare at her and talk with her.  But I'm still tired. I guess that wears a Momma out?! 

Emotions.  
I have them.  They are pretty heavy lately.

I have to go back to work in 2 weeks from tomorrow.  If I think about it hard - it's a FULL two weeks, that's great...  a full 14 more days with her and she'll even visit daycare a couple days in between to get used to it there.  It's ok.  But then I think selfishly - and I hate it.  I hate thinking that she'll be at daycare for nearly 10 hours!!!  Will the teachers pay attention to her?  Of course they will.  Will they play and talk with her?  Of course they will.  Right??!  ha.  They will.  We know it, I know it.  It'll be fine.  She'll be fine.  I will be fine - after some time.    

I am simply hoping that when I return to work - I'm still happy... I'm still busy... and the days go fast, so I can pick up my beautiful children and squeeze them. 

So really, I shouldn't be tired... If my mind would stop racing, then I probably wouldn't be as tired!

On to pictures of my awesome kids:

Loves to help his Dad

My ginormous kid in the BUMBO.  ha.

Cora is starting to like the BUMBO.

How sweet is this?

and the smiles!

So sweet.

Reading time at the Taylor's.

Cora - 2 Months Old

Cora turned 2 months old on Saturday... unbelievable.  She's doing awesome and such a wonderful baby!  She is so loved.  Here's her 2 month old picture!

This afternoon we went for her 2 month well-check.  Here are her stats and some other things she's 'doing':

Weight: 12 lbs. 13 oz. (81%)
Height: 23 1/4" (81%)
Head: 15 3/4" (91%)

She got 3 shots and a liquid and HATED.IT.ALL!  Poor thing.  She cried and cried...  even saw some real tears!!  She's resting now... which she needs to!

• Eating 6 oz. about every 3 to 3.5 hours.
• Needs to be swaddled at rest time - if we want to get a good hour to 2 hours out of her!  
• Sleeping nearly 9 1/2 to 10 hours at night time!
• Smiles at us!!
• Coos...  tells us stories!  Beautiful little voice!
• Likes to watch TV.  UH OH!
• Has found her hands... sucks on them!
• Enjoys the BUMBO (so far - have tried it now twice today!)
• Follows toys and us...  and loves our voices!

Cousins!

Tonight while Ryan and Mike were at the Hawkeye game (which was a complete blow-out --- BOO), we hung out with JeanAnn, Blair, Martina & Tate.  We had a ton of fun... the house was a complete mess with toys everywhere!!  It was awesome!  Tate and Kayson played awesome together...  a little on their own and some together.  Tate is really telling stories (not understanding much he says), but he sure does know what he's trying to tell all of us... it's so darn sweet.  Love that little boy!  Kayson did great too...  he's starting to write his name and it was the best feeling seeing him do that tonight.  SO PROUD!  The kids ate well, played well and NO meltdowns, impressive, I'd say!  :)

Here are some pictures of the cousins...  priceless!

Helped Grandma make the Ice Cream Cone cupcakes!

The ONLY calm moment in the tub.  Let's just say the bathroom floor was flooded!

No more jumping on the bed!!!  WHAT?!?!

One second of mid-jumping!

Tate liked Cora's swing...  look at that face!

Thank goodness for Aunt Tina (and Grandma) to keep Cora safe from those boys!

Random

• Cora's burps STINK.  LOL.  Funny.   Also another funny thing - I seem to always burp when I'm trying to burp her.  ha.
• Kayson is just plain growing up too fast.  Period.  
• It's wonderful being home.  I love it.
• It's cold and rainy today.  Perfect for napping.  Why am I not napping now?  Cora is.
• Formula is expensive.  I've been online trying to find a 'cheaper' route, I'm not having much luck.  Disappointing.  
• Lacey and I have been able to hang out at least once a week since both of us are on maternity leave - it's awesome.  Even if it's just for a couple hours, we get our chit chatting in and see the girls too.  
• I'm starting to really like putting headbands on Cora - they are pretty darn cute.  :)  Shhh... don't tell Ryan. ha.  
• For those of you on Facebook - sorry for posting such cute pictures of Cora all the time.  I probably should stop, but it's just so darn easy!  ha.
• I'm ready for Ryan to be home.  Missing him.

Great Two Days!

Friday evening we had some old friends over...  Ryan grew up with Lindsay and always had such wonderful things to say about her.  I've met her before - maybe a handful of times... but never did we really spend time with her and her family.  For 7 years, I've been saying - "Let's get together with Lindsay and her family."  And we finally did.  We had a blast!  Her, her husband, Mike (Taylor) and their two fun children AND her parents joined us Friday evening for some pizza and catching up.  We had such a great time.  I hope we can do this more often - no real reason not to - they just live in Adel!

Today has been a great day.  Ryan did some working this morning... meanwhile, Kayson and I played this morning and just hung out.  Cora took her normal 2 hour nap, so she was kind of out of the picture this morning.  :)  My parents came down for a visit.  We originally were going to go to a pumpkin patch today, but the weather left us staying home, which was fine.  We got a ton done!  We've decided that whenever my parents visit, we put my Dad to work!  After a nice lunch, me, Dad and Ryan bought a new mattress for Kayson's bed - turning his toddler bed into a full size bed!  After K's nap, we got to work...  cleaning his room, taking the toddler bed apart and creating a HUGE new bed for Kayson.  It's crazy big!  ha.  He looks so small in it!  We ended up not even using the box-spring part due to it sitting SO tall that he wouldn't be really very 'safe' in it (if he fell out!)  ha.  So he's just on the mattress for now...  we'll see how everything goes and eventually will use the box-spring.  He climbed right in and thought he was pretty cool.  :)  And he went to bed great for us too!

So back up a little bit... after my parents left and we ate a quick left-over supper, we had told K we would carve one of our pumpkins.  We should have known that he really wouldn't participate in it!  But that's ok... Ryan and I enjoyed it.  Trying to use a knife for it was interesting, so Ryan had an idea to borrow a Dremel from our neighbor... that worked PERFECTLY!  It looks great and now we know we'll be doing this every Halloween!  :)

Enjoy the pictures!

So awesome - growing up right before our eyes!

My babies!

The magic tool!

Our awesome front stoop!

Cora wasn't having it!   Sorry Sugar!

Jinxed.

Cora:
The routine --- I jinxed it.  ha.  With Cora's cold and cough, we aren't sleeping through the night!!  BOO!  But that's ok.  I'm tired, and have decided I'll always be tired from here on out.  Right?  

With the cold, things have been interesting around here.  We've had to throw out a couple bottles ---> REALLY?  She's showing us she wasn't hungry, which has been weird!  Our tubbo child!  ha.   Speaking of tubbo - I ended up taking her to the doctor Wednesday afternoon due to us being worried about her cough and her not keeping anything down.  Doc wasn't concerned, just need to fight through it.  Her weight was 11 lbs. 8 oz.  BIG GIRL!  Side note - her right ear was pink.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??!  Ryan has already apologized.  haha.  :)

But the routine has somewhat stayed the same, but shifted a little...  She's now taking about a 2 hour nap in the morning and then hour and a half in the afternoon (depending if I have to wake her to pick up Kayson).  Either way, she's doing awesome.  Over the next 3 weeks or so I hope the cold goes away and we nail down a routine for good.  (Which includes sleeping the 9 hours again!)  ha.  

Kayson:
We are still doing awesome with the #2 thing...  so proud of him.  We found out this morning that he goes #2 with his little girlfriend at daycare.  haha... LOL.  I think that's hilarious.  :)  And as some of you know, Kayson still wakes in the middle of the night needing/wanting to be patted (or the monster won't go back to sleep).  It's a terrible habit we've gotten in to, however, last night he woke up and told me he had to potty!  (This is a first - we still do diapers at night cuz he soaks them!) But he pottyed and then woke up dry this morning.  Holy crap our little boy is growing up!!!  (even if I jinx this, I don't care either!)  haha.

Recent Pics

my Sweet Girl and my Monster Boy  :)

Grinning a lot!

The prettiest little girl I've seen!

Thrilled & Relieved

I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but I wanted to express how happy we are with an issue we've been having. 

Over the past 4 to 5 months, Kayson has been giving us a hard time with 'going #2'.  There has been a lot of fighting, arguing, crying and just at a loss for how to handle.  Finally, after much too long, the doctor was seen (last week) and we had an answer.  Ryan and I were thrilled there WAS an answer and were hoping to see some results.

Soon enough, medication was taken and we slowly started seeing results.  We, again, were thrilled!  We still had some issues (arguing, crying), but things got so much better...  

And to top it off, over the past 2 days, Kayson has even gone #2 AT DAYCARE!!!  This is HUGE.  I mean, the best thing that's happened in a very long time!!  We are thrilled and relieved that things are working out.  

We just hope Kayson continues to build his confidence when it comes to this struggle!

YIPPEE!

My little girl

Poor Cora has a cold...  an official snotty nose and terrible cough.  What do you do for a 7 week old?  NOTHING...  besides suck her nose out as much as possible, keep her upright, run a hot and steamy shower... and snuggle.  Poor thing.  It absolutely breaks my heart.

She's in good spirits, however, she's not very hungry.  This morning she took about 3 oz. and about 40 minutes later puked it all up...  with a big cough.  Of course it was awful and I felt terrible, however, I think it might have loosened up some of that junk in her throat (or at least I hope so).  

She's also exhausted, so she's napping a lot...  I hope she fights through this FAST.

Lots of Stuff

In no particular order, these are my thoughts:

1. We went to the circus Saturday evening.  (Thanks Papa & Grandma Taylor)  Kayson liked it, but of course, when we asked him if he liked it, he said 'No' with his pouty face.  He can be such a brat sometimes!!  The music, lights, stunts and elephants were great.  I think Kayson said he liked the motorcycle stunts the best... which were pretty cool, and nerve-racking for adults, not kids of course.  ha.  
2. While we were at the circus, Great Grandma Janis got to stay with Cora.  She loved every second of it, so that was nice.  That was the first time Miss Cora has had a 'sitter', and of course she did just fine.  I knew she would, but still leaves me sad not being with her.  She's so darn sweet.  
3. I took my niece, Ashley's, senior pictures today.  Well, we did half of them.  We are going to finish up in November sometime when we are in Clarion - and do some more at the farm.  We had fun... she's so sweet and funny... and her smile is exactly the same for each picture.  ha.  While we were doing pictures, Kayson and Lil' Ryan played and laughed and were naughty I'm sure.  Kayson was worn out - leaving him naughty tonight.  
4. Speaking of tonight - I'm starting to not like bedtime.  I remember (way back when), bedtime was so sweet, calming, loving...  not so much lately.  It's a fight every night.  It's so exhausting.  As I was taking a break from Kayson, I held Cora tight and whispered to her, "Please don't do this when you get older!"
5. We all have colds... well, kind of.  My allergies have been stupid, like annoying.  ha.  It's been so chilly, I would have thought I'd be over the allergy thing.  Ryan's terrible cough is back... he needs to squeeze into the doctor soon!!!  Kayson has a cough too - a raspy one.  And even little Cora is stuffed up.  She was a little out of sorts today...  extra tired, extra fussy.  I sucked some stuff out of her nose, so I'm hoping that helps.  Poor Taylor family!
6. I'm starting to think about Christmas.  I don't want to, but I am starting.  We are starting to be asked what the kids want...  well, I really don't know.  And it's hard.  (Who knows about Cora... oh gosh!)  But as for Kayson - we were at WalMart Saturday morning, I let him look through the toys to get an idea of what he likes, etc...  and am realizing that he's at a weird age.  There's a lot of baby stuff and then more older type stuff that I don't think he's ready for.  It's just kind of weird... and tough.  I left there at a loss for ideas!  BOO.  We'll maybe try going to Toys R Us to look.
7. I'm loving the fall weather.  Awwww it's wonderful.  I like the sweatpants (even tho that's all I wear these days - jeans are still not a 'fun' option for me) and sweatshirts.  I just like being cozy.  

That's all for tonight.  I have pictures, but I'm not going to upload them tonight... or maybe at all!  I'm putting my feet up and will be feeding Cora soon.  Here's to a new week - with a 7 week old.  OMG.

Our Daughter

I'm going to boast a little about our 6 week old.  I don't even care if doing this boasting and bragging will jinx us or not.  I'm thrilled at how our daughter is creating a little routine.

First, she's 6 weeks old - can't believe it.  It's been a wonderful 6 weeks with her.  
Second, she's eating nearly 5.5 ounces every 3 hours - she's a tubbo!  :)  I'm loving her fat rolls on her thighs already!
Third, she's sleeping nearly 9 hours at night - NINE HOURS!

As for her routine...  we are somewhat on one already.

Between 6:30 & 7:00 am - wakes... happy, smiling, not too mad!  Eats.
Within 40 minutes - POOPS.  :) (this has happened the last 5 days in a row!)  Funny to me.
Between 8:00 & 8:30 am - gets fussy and wants to nap...  I wrap her in a blanket, we walk for about 2 minutes, I lay her in her bed - sleeps for nearly an hour and a half.  Sometimes, she'll wake about 30 minutes in and need her diaper changed.  (She does not like a wet diaper!)
Between 10:00 & 10:30 am - mad... hungry.  Eats.
Lays around, "plays", "talks", kicks legs for about 40 minutes to an hour.
Between 11:30 or noon - naps
Around 2:00 pm - mad again... hungry.  Eats.

From then on out, we are kind of the same routine:  awake time, nap time, pick up Kayson time.   She usually snoozes in the car seat.

Between 5:30 & 6:00 pm - not nearly as mad... but hungry.  Eats.
Most evenings (between 7:00 & 8:00 pm) - she's fussy, restless, nothing really makes her very happy...  we do a lot of walking, talking, Shhhing, pacifier time, swaddled, etc.  Tonight, however, she was delightful - she had awake time from 7:30 to 9:00 pm.  Very enjoyable!
Between 9:00 & 9:30 pm - mad... hungry & VERY tired.  Eats.
BED.  We swaddle her and lay her in bed - awake.  (I've realized over the past week or so, she really doesn't like to be rocked.)  It's pretty interesting.

Like I said, if I jinx this, oh well - Ryan says I will be the one that gets up in the middle of the night.  Yes dear.  :)

I'm heading to bed - cuz she may wake me at 3:00 am. (I don't care tho, who can resist that sweet face!?!?)

Family

Yesterday we spent the day in Creston seeing some family.  
Aunt Maagie, Jim & Diana made the trip up from St. Joe.  It's always nice to see them! And Great-Great Grandma Ann got out and saw us as well.  It was a very special day for all of us... especially Miss Cora - meeting some very special people in her life!

We hung out, had a fantastic lunch, and hung out some more... 

with Aunt Maagie

with Great Grandma Janis

5 Generations - so special

with Great Great Grandma Ann (96 years old!)

The Taylor's!