7 Months Old

Today Tanner is 7 months old! It's crazy to see the changes he has made in the past month. Every day I keep thinking that I'm going to have so many big things to talk about in this post! He's still a little wobbly on sitting up but that is because he spends so much time on his tummy! He is really crawling pretty well. He is doing the army crawl thing but he gets up on his knees a lot so it won't be much longer until he really takes off. It is so funny to watch him army crawl because he crosses his ankles. He'll be really determined to get to a toy and then Izabel will run up and take it right as he gets close. He screams and she looks around to see if either of us noticed what she did. We can see the start of many brother/sister fights to come!

Tanner has gotten his first tooth! It's on the bottom right. He's been a tiny bit fussy but still super laid back. We've given him tylenol and orajel and he's done fine. So far that is the only one but I'm sure more will be coming soon.

We've moved on to level two foods. He has a breakfast jar and bottle in the morning, veggies and fruit for lunch, bottle after nap, dinner jar and fruit in the evening and then a bottle right before bed. We've given him a bitter biscuit a few times and he's working on the sippy cup. The next time I go to the store I'll be getting some early finger foods for him to start with too. He is taking two good naps in his crib and sometimes he still takes his evening nap, but we have finally gotten him going into his bed at the same time we put Izzy to bed! It's so exciting to have our evenings back. After dinner we all clean up and get in jammies. Then we sit on the couch and I read stories while Noah feeds Tanner. It's become a really nice family time for us and we all look forward to it.

He's wearing size 2-3 diapers and he seems to be in between 6 and 9 month clothes which I guess it exactly where he should be. I am having such a hard time buying clothes for him because I am so used to have buy a couple sizes behind for Izzy! Tanner is super healthy and super happy and we couldn't ask for a better little boy!

Alyssa's Birthday Party

Today Izabel went to Alyssa's second birthday party. Alyssa is one of Izabel's friends from the play group and Izabel was very excited to go to her birthday party. The party was at JW Tumbles which is like a children's gym. The kids were able to run all over the place with slides, obstacle courses, balls, bubbles, mazes and more! They had cupcakes and sang happy birthday and then played some more. Izabel behaved so well and she had so much fun! She was exhausted when we got home and went to bed with no problems! Happy 2nd birthday Alyssa!

Izabel and Caroline

Izabel and Andy...I think they're becoming good friends!
(If you look behind Andy you'll see his baby brother that's on the way)Playing with Andy

ODU Homecoming

Yesterday was homecoming at ODU and the last home football game of the season. We missed the parade because it would have been a really long day for the kids but we headed over right after lunch for the football game. It was a great game against North Carolina Central University, but a little too close for comfort at a few points. Izabel had a blast yelling O.D.U. and roaring over and over! Everyone commented on how cute she looked.

After the game we sent the kids home with Auntie to stay with my mom for the evening while we went to the basketball game with my dad and brother Matthew. It was an exhibition game against Elizabeth City State and ODU had no problem beating them by almost 40 points! We had a nice time relaxing watching the game.

It was a great ODU weekend and a great football season! We're all geared up for basketball season now and already looking forward to the next fall :)

First Night in a Big Girl Bed!

We've been saying for a while now that Izabel is probably ready for a big girl bed but we really weren't in a rush to make the change. She slept well in her crib and never tried to get out so we weren't worried. Then one day I went into her room while she was playing she had climbed into her crib all by herself. I figured it was only a matter of time so we started talking about taking the side railing off and making it into a daybed.

We finally did it last night and it went okay. She was excited to get into it but of course she didn't want to stay. After laying with her for a little bit and putting her back into bed a few times we finally had to shut the door and leave her in there. She screamed for a little while and Noah went in. After a few minutes he had calmed her down and put her back in the bed. He shut the door but she stayed quiet and slept until about 4:00am. She was crying because she woke up and couldn't find one of her babies. After giving it back to her she went back to sleep until morning! Hopefully she'll catch on the whole going to bed and staying there thing pretty quickly!!!

Halloween Festivities

We've been celebrating Halloween all month and I've been holding all of the pictures for one big Halloween post! We started with costume shopping and pictures towards the beginning of the month. Izabel had her two year pics and we also got a couple of her in her costume. I never posted Tanner's 6 month pics because they were all in his costume! He lit up as soon as we put his little dinosaur outfit on and it was so cute! Izabel wasn't feeling her Tinkerbell costume quite as much and she was not in the mood to take pictures but she's two so we take what we can get :)

We came home from Atlantic City a little earlier than usual last Sunday so that we could take the kids to Hallelujah Harvest at church. They do this event every year and it's always a lot of fun. They have trunk-r-treating, games, inflatables, great food, a costume contest and lots of other activities. We dressed both kids up and took them but Tanner slept pretty much the whole time. He was the cutest sleeping dinosaur ever! Izabel had a great time filling up her pumpkin but got pretty upset when we tried to dump it out for her. It got heavy very quickly! After doing tons of trunk-r-treating we headed inside for some jumping, chili and hot dogs! After a couple of toddler games we headed home to go through all the candy! We even let Izabel have a little before going to bed :)

Family pic before we left

Explaining how to trick-or-treat to Tanner

On a mission for candy!So happy...just minutes before he fell asleep!

Finding candy in the haystackWhat a face!

This week we had lots of Halloween plans. Friday we were going to take our trip to the Hunt Club for the petting zoo, pony ride, hay ride and pumpkin patch. Then yesterday morning we were going to the harvest fair at Farmer's Market and today we were supposed to go to Zoo Boo at the Norfolk Zoo. Unfortunately I did not recover as quickly from my surgery as we had hoped so we did not get to do any of those things. Friday and Saturday I had to stay home to save my energy for Saturday night and Sunday morning I had to stay home to recover from the game!! I guess it's a good thing the kids are still too young to really care! We did dress them up in the their ODU costumes for the big game! ODU played Georgetown and we won! That makes ODU 7-2 which is so exciting :) Izabel had a great time cheering and roaring and saying touchdown (which we got to say a bunch of times). Even though we didn't get to enjoy all of the fall festivities we had planned, we still had a great Halloween and we're excited to continue to celebrate the fall season!

Tanner's first Halloween

Izzy and Tanner (excuse the wet hair please!)

An ODU Family

"YAY!!!"

Touchdown

Well Checks

Tanner and Izzy both had their well checks yesterday with Dr. Scott. Tanner is 18.8 lbs (75th percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). Izzy is 25 lbs (25th percentile) and 34 inches (50th percentile). They both did amazingly well and they are both developing perfectly and very healthy! We talked about getting an assessment with a speech therapist for Izzy but Dr. Scott doesn't think there are any problems and she has added a few more words lately. We'll see how she is doing around the first of the year. We also talked about moving Izabel into a big girl bed and all agreed that the time is quickly approaching! That is giving me a little bit of anxiety but I'm sure she'll adjust fine. Before we left they both got shots. Izabel just had one vaccine and her flu shot and Tanner had a total of 6 vaccines and a flu shot. They will go back next week for the H1N1 shot as well. Izzy got hers first and she cried a lot. Just when she started calming down Tanner got his shots and she started crying "Tay Tay, Tay Tay" over and over. It was so sad watching her cry for him but really cute at the same time!

In other big news...Tanner started crawling Monday night! That's right, he gets up on his knees and everything. Our little man is growing up and soon he'll be chasing Izzy around the house! He'll be moving on to stage two foods in a couple days when the stage ones are all gone and he has been working with the sippy cup. He's sleeping almost as long as Izzy at night which is amazing and falling asleep on his own with little to no crying. He's the happiest little boy anyone could ask for! We are truly blessed with two beautiful and healthy children and we thank God for that everyday!!!

A Weekend Getaway!

So I haven't been feeling well due to present circumstances and I haven't been sleeping well due to not feeling well so a weekend away was all that kept me going last week! I always hate to leave the kids but I know that having some time away is so good for me and for them.

I took Friday off and we headed up to Atlantic City. We took Andy since he is now 21 and Humaira and Rebecca met us up there. I drove the whole way which is not fun but for me it's better than riding. We stopped twice and hit just a little traffic so we made it up there in about 5 1/2 hours. When we got there we checked in at Harrah's and then headed over to Bally's for Noah to swipe his rewards card. They were giving extra comps so we both wanted to make sure to sign in! Then we sat down and taught Andy how to play three card poker. I hit a three of a kind which pays 30 to 1. I was so excited and walked away up $400! Then we headed back to Harrah's to eat dinner and meet up with Humaira and Rebecca. We took them up to the room and then I headed down with them to play and go to the bar while the boys headed to the poker room. We stayed up nice and late drinking and enjoying each other's company. It's always great when we can get together :)

My view looking back from the driver's seat

Humaira and Rebecca playing checkers at the bar
(Yes I said at the bar!)

Humaira and Rebecca

Saturday we slept in and then headed to the outlets for some shopping! I got tons of clothes for the kids (mainly Tanner) so they can stop wearing shorts in the cold weather :) I also got myself two new pairs of jeans (in a size smaller than normal) and a few tops and Noah got a few things as well. Our shopping got cut short by rain but that was probably a good thing. We hung out in the room for a while and then headed down for Ben & Jerry's and a little more gambling. At this point Noah and I had spent my winnings but I was still up a little bit. Humaira did very well Friday night and was now addicted to the game so she kept pulling us to the table. I sat with Noah at blackjack for a while hoping he could recoup some of his losses. He did for a little while but then lost them again. Just be prepared for me to say that we did not come home with any money! We got dressed up and went to dinner at Morton's at Caesar's. It took a very long time and we ended up getting all of our drinks and desserts for free but we had an amazing dinner. I had steak and lobster and it was fantastic. Then we played until we were all exhausted and out of money before heading to bed.

All of us at dinner

Sunday we got up and headed out around 11:30. We stopped all together and had lunch and then hit the road to get home in time for Hallelujah Harvest at church with Izzy and Tanner! We made it home by 5 which was again great time. I think we all had a great weekend and we enjoyed each other's company. We can't wait to do it again!!!

Now I am trying to get everything ready for me to be out of work for most of the week. I have to leave early Tuesday and then I am having a minor surgery Wednesday morning so I will be at home recovering the rest of the week. Hopefully it will help and I will be feeling back to normal by Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week :)