May Status Report

Before...

   There isn't much about Paige that has changed. She is still our little firecracker. She enjoys going outside to the swings, always has a baby doll in her arms and loves testing my hearing all day every day. She has been speaking well for months but she's beginning to repeat whole sentences instead of a word or two. That really keeps us on our toes! She sings along to the radio and dances to any song with an uptempo beat. She throws her arms in the air, spins in circles and squeals, 'Dancin! Dancin!'. Yes, it is the cutest thing ever.

After!

 
   She also just got through a growth spurt and I was certain the girl was about to start eating the kitchen cabinets. I couldn't keep her full! She ate every 2-3 hours for a solid 2 weeks and slept like a hibernating bear. The worst part was when I woke up to her cries at 3am on a Saturday morning. Once I stumbled out of bed and into her room, I asked what was wrong. She whined, 'Hunneee!!!' I honestly thought it was just a rouse to get out of bed so I replied, 'There's no way you're hungry!' I knew I was dead wrong when she instantly burst into sobs. I just couldn't believe she had woken up hungry at 3am! Needless to say, I let her get up and she wandered around while I scrounged through the fridge, hoping I didn't have to cook anything. Once the girl had some water and a full belly, she went right back to sleep without another word. I still can't believe it. Growth spurts may be the death of me!



   Tall Taylor is doing great. In true baby fashion, everything that touches her hands ends up in her mouth, including our dog's ears when the opportunity presents itself. She jabbers up a storm but is instantly quiet when her big sister enters the room. She's too busy watching Paige's every move to talk. Nobody can get her laughing like Paige can. It's a wonderful thing to watch! Her smile is contagious and she shares it with everybody. The funniest thing about the girl is that we never know what position we're going to find her in when we wake her up. We made her some make-shift bumpers but we recently had to take them out. You'll see why...

   Taylor had the privilege of spending her 4 month birthday at her well-baby check up, which meant another round of shots, along with weight and height measurements. It came as no surprise to hear that she's still a moose. She crushed the scales at nearly 16 pounds and was over 27 inches, keeping her rank in the 100th percentile. Her health is still picture perfect, which came as a huge relief for me since I have been struggling with producing enough milk for such a big baby. I have had to resort to formula more than I would like but it's worth it to make sure she's getting enough. Her doctor told me that I could give her cereal but I declined. I've decided that, when necessary, formula is best because it will not be as harsh on her belly as cereal. She may be the size of a 7 month old but she's not ready to be treated like one!
 
   As far as the girls interaction goes, Paige continues to treat Taylor like a live baby doll. A few days ago, she tried to move Taylor from her chair to her play mat on the floor. Thankfully, since Taylor is over half of Paige's body weight, it didn't work out. When Taylor is sitting in her chair and holding her head up, Paige tries to push it back down. The first time I told Paige not to do that, she looked at me and said, 'Bed!', telling me that she was putting Taylor to sleep. I still haven't been able to teach her not to do that because this Momma hasn't been issued eyes for the back of her head yet. It's definitely a work in progress! Sweet Taylor takes it all in stride and giggles away at her sister. Paige still loves to hold her and is more than willing to help me with Taylor. She is always on my heels with a baby doll in her arms, copying everything I do with Taylor. That literally keeps me on my toes!


    On the weekend of May 19, we celebrated Kyle's 22nd birthday with a getaway to Myrtle Beach. We sent the girls to spend the weekend with their favorite Pap Pap and Gigi while we packed everything into 2 days that we could think of!
   To set the scene, we started our date weekend by driving an hour to Smithfield and dropping off the girls. Once my parents had taken them, we stopped for a rare treat of Cold Stone ice cream (mind you, it's 9:30pm by now) before driving the hour back to Fayetteville. We arrived in town just in time to catch the last showing of The Avengers. (It's awesome, by the way!!) I think we went to bed around 3am and we can't remember the last time that happened! We certainly didn't waste any time sleeping in the next morning though. We got up, had breakfast, packed and hit the road.
   Kyle has been dying for a pair of cowboy boots for weeks now so we decided to take the scenic route and check out a western store off of I-95. Unfortunately, it was a bust. They had a pair that he loved but they didn't have the right size. The salesman tried so hard to sell him a pair but adding inserts to make them smaller but Kyle made the wise decision to walk away. We were disappointed but low and behold, we happened upon another western store just minutes from our hotel. They had the exact same pair of boots in his size. SOLD!! May I just say that he is quite the stud in them?!

  Originally, I wanted to surprise Kyle with our getaway but I ended up having to tell him where we were going so he could get permission to leave Bragg. However, I did not have to tell him what we were doing! I surprised him with dinner and a show at Medieval Times, which was great. After that, we decided to head to Broadway at the Beach but most of the shops and things were closed when we got there. You're going to laugh when I tell you this but we ended up watching The Avengers again. I will shamefully admit, that we both fell asleep but we woke up for the good part!

Check out those boots! 

  Sunday morning was spent checking out of the hotel and plowing through breakfast. Obviously, it wasn't anything to write home about but Sunday afternoon totally made up for it. Kyle had the wonderful idea to go horse back riding! Can you think of a better way to break in a brand new pair of cowboy boots?! Neither could we. We drove for half an hour and had to wait another 50 minutes before we could get in the saddle because the other couple coming along was late and lost. I told Kyle later that the prospect of being on a horse is the only thing that could keep us waiting that long without an angry word. There's just something about horses!

His first ride and he's addicted already. 

We passed this sign on the way home. It made us laugh!

   We were excited and sad to head home on Sunday evening. It's wonderful to get away but there's nothing like your own bed, especially when you're used to a king size but you've been sleeping on a double. We spent that night doing nothing because we had sore bums and tired eyes!
   We drove back to Smithfield on Monday to pry the girls away from their Gigi. Nothing will warm your heart like those 'I missed you' smiles! We love it so much when Paige runs to hug us. Who wouldn't?!

 

   As always, our life is moving forward. We're focusing on a happy marriage and spending lots of family time together. We've noticed that Paige has begun to desire all of her Daddy's attention when he gets home and we're doing everything we can to make sure she gets a lot of Daddy-Paige time. When his key hits the lock, she hears it immediately, squeals 'Da-yee!!' and runs to greet him. It's the greatest thing in the world to watch.
We will be very busy in the coming weeks and I will write again when I get the chance. I have several blogs entries that I've been working on but haven't been able to finish. It's another work in progress!