Shower Time

Yesterday my oh so fabulous friend Amanda threw me and little Jaycie a baby shower. There was wonderful food {thanks Amanda and Terin}, great company, and a to-die-for cake from Candy Haven {thanks Kris!!!}. I just wanted to thank everyone who was involved and took the time out of their busy Saturday to come and shower me with love and congratulations {and presents too!} It was a blast.

I got lots of gorgeous girly clothes and blankets...and I gotta say, so much more fun than a boy shower!

This was my my most anticipated gift {sorry everyone else}. My grandma makes blankets for every great grandchild. Devin has one that he cannot live without. They are so soft and cozy and special to me that I couldn't wait to get Jaycie's. It also came with an adorable matching hooded sweater and one of those little blanket bunny things. SO CUTE!

These HOMEMADE burp clothes were the most popular gift. My cousin Jenna made three of these for me and they are stunning. THANKS JENNA!

The beautiful cake from Kristi and hand-crafted flower arrangement by Mom.

The five pregnant women there...here we are in order by due date. Me {due in 2 weeks}, Becca {due mid-january}, Amanda {due Valentine's Day}, Tina {due end of May}, and Terin {10 weeks along}.

Happy {Belated} Birthday Devin!

Devin had his 2nd Birthday on the 9th of November. I can't believe he's two already. Here are a few pictures from his birthday party:

The birthday boy got to eat TWO cupcakes.
(Or I should say got to lick the frosting off of two cupcakes)

There were plenty of children there who were willing to open Devin's presents for him.
Devin was moving WAY too slowly for them.

Almost everything was either Cars or Trains. If it has wheels, Devin's all for it.

Devin's most favorite thing on the planet...GeoTrax Trains. He was in train heaven.

A few fun facts about Devin at TWO years old:

• He loves to lay in his big boy bed and stare at the stars on his ceiling. He sings {and yes he actually sings} twinkle twinkle little star with us every night.
• He's not always a morning person and has been known to shriek at the first person to look at him.
• He simply cannot live without the two loves of his life, Cole and Bryce. Cole is his best friend who he gets to run around with and fight over toys with. Bryce is his sweet baby cousin bryce who he can't stop kissing and who Devin will cry over if it's been too long since he's seen him.
• Devin has established a "potty room"...a place he will sneak off to once a day to go "poopoo". He will come back and tell me when the deed is done by smacking his diaper only to say NO when I ask him if he went poopoo. {He has also been known to stick his hand down his diaper afterwards... disgusting, I know.}
• He loves to sing and dance around and is actually getting good at singing on tune.
• He learns new words every day. Some of my favorites are "cool", "awesome", and "let go" which is always an angry command when I'm trying to get him to cooperate.
• When he's feeling extra full of love he will grab your face with both hands, pull you in whatever direction necessary, and plant one on you. It almost makes me cry every time.
• He loves his daddy more than anything on this planet. He copies him whenever possible by laying down next to him or sitting just like him. He dislocates dad's finger every night by dragging him around to show him different things. He spontaneously climbs into his lap when convenient and laughs the hardest when dad tickles him.

Devin really has turned out to be a sweet funny boy. He certainly knows how to throw a fit and can be downright mean when he wants to be. But the next minute he can be so sweet or completely hilarious. I think some people call that Bi-Polar...but I'm not gonna stress about it. :)

Happy Birthday Devin! We LOVE you!

Winter Clothes

There are two things at the top of my gratitude list: "Texas" Winter Weather and baby clothes. I love when the weather first starts to change and you bust out all your children's winter clothes only for the high to climb to 75 and your son to be drenched in sweat. Well, I think the colder weather is finally here to stay and I'm loving it. So I made a trip out to Old Navy this evening with my 30% of coupon and couldn't help myself when I saw these adorable clothes.

Would you be able to resist?

Big Boy Bed Update

So I thought I would post the latest news on our first big obstacle of childhood. After a rather frustrating and incredibly time consuming six days, he is now sleeping in his bed with no problems. I thought it would never happen, but it has miraculously righted itself in just a few days. Thank you for the advice. I used several of your suggestions.

After he snuck downstairs at 6:00 am one morning to do who knows what, I put a gate up in his doorway so he can open the door but can't walk through. That worked for like two seconds before he realized he could push really hard and knock it down. So then I added a heavy chair to support it and he stopped trying.

But what really did the trick was the threats. My son doesn't listen to me whatsoever. I would get angry and try and put on my wicked witch of the west face and matching voice, but nothing seemed to scare him back to bed. So I read somewhere that taking away priveleges can work. As someone recently put it, I went straight for the jugular. I told him if he got down I would take his blanket away. The one object he loves above everything else, even food. He can't simply function without it and he definitely can't even think about sleeping without it. He got down from his bed during naptime, and I spoke those evil words without any hesitation. The next time he got down, I took his blanket and left the room. He cried sooooo hard. I let him go at it for a few minutes then went back in and told him if he got back in bed and stayed there I would give it back. (I'm not so evil as to make him go to sleep without it). He climbed right up and didn't move another muscle. I had to repeat the process that night and by the next day he was broken. He's stopped climbing down (or if he does he climbs back up) and he definitely doesn't even think about opening the door. Life is back to normal and mom is a much happier camper.

Big Boy Bed

With the arrival of Jaycie just weeks away, we decided we better get a head start on the oh so terrifying transition to a big boy bed. So Halloween night we went for it. I bought him rails, a new Cars blanket and pillow and talked all day about how he was so lucky because he gets to sleep in a big bed like mommy and daddy. We took down his crib and gave it to the baby (we moved it to her room) and said goodbye. He was actually really excited.

The first night wasn't so bad. He cried pretty hard and came out of the room once. But then I laid down with him till he was sleepy and he slept the night with no problems. Next day, the same thing happened during nap time. He cried, got down once, then fell asleep when I laid down with him. Last night he didn't cry, didn't get down, and I didn't have to lay with him. But naptime is a different story. He's not so sleepy, it's not pitch dark, and he will get down a million times unless I pin him down and lay there until he falls asleep. It was a huge battle today and takes me and him about an hour before he will finally sleep. So...I need advice. Plenty of you have been through this before so load me up with good tips and tricks. I refuse to give up and just let him skip naptime...but I don't want to lay with him until he falls asleep either. HELP!!!!

Trick or...RUN AWAY!

I have been really excited since last halloween that Devin would be 2 and able to go trick or treating this year. I just new it would be such a fun experience for him. So I hunted and hunted for the PERFECT halloween costume and I found...nothing. So he ended up being the only thing they had left at Party City that didn't have anything on the head or hands. I wasn't too disappointed though, he looked pretty cute.

So we set off to go trick or treating with the cousins and this is what happened:

In case you didn't catch it, that his him shrieking, "wanna go" as he runs away. He did eventually warm up right before we called it quits, but it wasn't quite the experience I had anticipated. Oh well, I guess there's always next year.