Under the Weather

Brighton and his Mini Me waiting for the snow:

Friday we were supposed to get a lot of freezing rain and ice, possibly snow. Brighton kept looking out the window. We did get a little ice, enough to freeze up our driveway and the roads around us, but no snow. We may as well have been snowed in, because all 4 of us were sick with colds. No major or minor projects got accomplished over the weekend. On a good note though, we are getting better!

Twins! Brighton with Abuelo and their new airplane.

Pee Gallery

I was not going to blog about this, but then decided that it might be funny to look back on someday. Or it could be something that Brighton is not happy that I chose to blog about! We will see. Oh the joys of potty training!! After I was just bragging on him last week, Brighton has had a couple of incidents that were pretty major. I came home on Wednesday to see Brighton wearing his shirt and a pair of Batman underwear. He got them for Christmas, a collection of Superhero briefs and he has been carrying them around and we keep trying to use them as a motivator, that if he starts going to the potty every time he has to go, then he can start wearing them. Well, Jason made the decision on his own that Brighton had earned the privilege to wear them that day since he had been using the potty all day long. Then Jason left me and went to work. I was very unsure of this decision and thought it was very premature but I am not going to lie, seeing Brighton in those batman briefs was pretty darn cute. He wanted to "exersise" with me and it was adorable. What happened next is not. I was attending to Baylor not paying full attention to Brighton and walked into my dining room to find Brighton sitting on my PRIZED rug from Z Gallery (my favorite store in the world, this rug means a lot to me!!)with you know what in his underwear and on the rug. My 1st thoughts were of wanting to kill Jason! I cleaned everything up and it was hectic but lesson learned. Jason was very apologetic about it even though he said he could not stop laughing about it all night. THANKS!! Well the next day Jason got his. He walked in Brighton's room to get him up from a nap (which was never taken) to find a naked Brighton who informed Jason that he had pee peed through the rails of his bed! I was not there for this one. Jason handled it. Hopefully these will be the worst potty training stories that I have to report!It is a learning process for all of us. We are all still working very hard on getting Brighton trained before his 3rd birthday. The little joys....

Changing the subject, Baylor can now sit up in the Bumbo chair!! Big Boy!!

Busy, Fun Weekend!

We had a fun filled weekend! On Saturday we met the Antley's and the Johnson's at Discovery Place in downtown Charlotte. It has been about 20 years since I have been there. Probably the last time was actually with Shayna, on a 7th grade school field trip!It was always a very neat place to go, and still is! The kids all had a great time as did the adults!

We got to meet baby Vera who is only 6 weeks old! Shayna and I were both pregnant together over the summer, so Vera and Baylor are very close in age. Please notice Vera's gorgeous stroller than Shayna upholstered. I am so jealous!

Somehow, all 13 of us were able to sit down at a restaurant together and have lunch! The kids surprised us and were really good and entertained each other. Now all Brighton talks about is wanting Rhett and Remley to come back to his house. It was a fabulous day and so good to be able to get together like that. I should also mention that the sun was out all weekend after a solid week of rain and gray, so that made the weekend even better!

After Discovery Place and lunch, the 4 of us went to Jason's dad's for a visit with he and Connie. They so kindly watched both boys for us Saturday night so that Jason and I could have some time away! We went out with Lacey and Mickey to celebrate Mickey's birthday. Met up with Todd and Billie and had a great night.

This was a night of much needed time away and it was a really great time. I cannot mention enough how grateful we are to ALL of the grandparents who help us with our boys!

Time Flies...

Little Baylor cannot decide if he wants to be a pilot or a swaddle escape artist these days! This is him in his little pilot outfit that Ashley and Justin gave us when he was born. I remember thinking how big it looked and long it would be before my little tiny baby could fit into it.

My good mood

Not sure why but I have had so much energy and have been in a great mood lately. It certainly has nothing to do with the weather here, as it has been raining everyday for the last 5 days. Maybe it is because I am back into the swing of going to work and learning to balance things. Of course balancing everything 100% will never be an obtainable goal, but I am okay with that! I have been busy planning Brighton's 3rd birthday party. It will be a small event but loads of fun for him. We are still working hard on his potty training. He is more than capable of doing it, but he regressed from it when Baylor was born and has just in the past few weeks started doing really well with it again. We are trying to use his upcoming birthday as our motivator.

Baylor continues to do better on his new meds but is still having some issues in the evenings being in pain. He randomly wakes up at 5:00 AM some mornings and others, sleeps until 7:30. He is a real Houdini, getting out of his swaddles during the night. Other than that, he is doing well. Last weekend I took him out and about with me all weekend and everyone commented on how happy he was! He just started going to the same church preschool Mother's Morning Out program as Brighton and his teachers say he is a joy to have to that makes me feel so good. We have a fun filled weekend coming up. Meeting up with the Johnsons on Saturday and then going out for Mickey's birthday!! I am really looking forward to it.

4 Month Back to Back Pics

Baylor at 4 months

Brighton at 4 months

Home Improvements

Although we built our house over a year ago, it is always a work in progress. Luckily, we picked a floor plan that has room for us to "grow" into, as needed. More on that in a bit. Jason started this flagstone pathway down to our dock in September. It was quite a job and he put A LOT of work into it. I think it turned out GREAT!!

Over the summer we visited a very mod hotel in Myrtle Beach that had these amazing ottomans that were made out of the same material that my kitchen bar stools are covered in. I fell in love with them and wanted one for my house so badly! Donna had our favorite upholsterer make me one for Christmas!! It turned out great and has totally inspired me to do some other improvements inside of the home. Some of which Jason will only be learning about after he reads this blog!

House Goals for 2013: * Finish the bonus room (Okay he Obviously knows about this one!) * Dressing my naked windows in the kitchen and living room (this could take a while as I am VERY particular about window treatments and picking out the right fabric, but I have already found my DREAM hardware!) * Getting a mantle on our fireplace before next Christmas * Getting shelving or something up on the bare wall in our living room that our TV is on *Also, various small things that are not worth mentioning

Baylor Improvements

After having about 5 out of 7 bad evenings with Baylor (screaming between the hours of 4 and 7 PM) I decided that he was to old to be having colic, and called his doctor. She called in a prescription for acid reflux meds. It has only been 3 days, but he is like a new baby!! He is happy almost all of the time, and eating much better, which equals eating more! Also having much less spit ups. He is still in some pain in the evenings but no where near the level that he was before we started the medicine. I am convinced the medicine is our miracle. Jason was out of town all week at the Las Vegas CES show and I thought this week was really going to be rough on me. Thank goodness I called the doc when I did. Both of my kids have given me a break and have been great, and I have handled things at home by myself much better than I had expected. Of course we have all missed Jason and will be happy to have him home again. Baylor slept for 7 hours last night and I am convinced it is because he is now able to eat more. I hope this lasts. I love having a happy little baby!!

Streaker

This is how I found Brighton when he got up from his "nap" on Saturday. This was about the 6th time that day where he had taken his clothes off and started running around the house. It is sort of funny, but we certainly cannot encourage it! We are starting to see the beginnings of the "Terrible Three's". The episodes and fits are mainly caused by Brighton trying to cut out naptime. He gets so cranky and whiny when he skips them.

Luckily for us, Brighton kept his clothes on that evening when we went over to Aunt Kelly and Uncle Craig's house. They just bought a new house not far from us at all. Jason's longtime friend Damon was there too and got to meet Baylor!

My Batmen

Here are Brighton and Jason dressed up in their finest Batman attire! I thought it was fun.

I am happy to say that the Flowe house is back in order. All Christmas decor and goodies have been put away. I can finally see my floor and the house feels minimal again. Sort of reminds me that I need to finish decorating! Have not done much since we moved in, but the clean slate is a little inspirational. Most importantly though, Brighton is okay. He survived. We took it all down in front of him and let him kiss his Santas goodbye until next year. He is still playing "Christmas" which means that we have to pretend to sleep and he is Santa, delivering gifts, but that is slowly dying down. He is dressing up as Batman again, which he abandoned at Christmastime. Still singing the Christmas songs though!

Baylor was just teasing us with his sleeping during the Christmas break. He was sleeping between 6 and 8 hours at night at a time. Now he has gone back to a maximum of 5. Frustrating! We will get there though. Hopefully soon. Other than that he is doing well. He is still very obsessed with staring at his hands and will not keep them away from mine or his bottle when I am feeding him. I think he will be holding his bottle himself before sleeping through the night again!

Happy New Year!!

We rang in the new year this year the same way as we did last year. Lacey and Mickey had an oyster roast at their house. Just a few good friends, good food and drink, hyper children = GOOD TIMES!

The kids played and roasted marsh mellows until it was bedtime. The adults stayed up for the countdown.

New Years Day I had a traditional New Year's dinner at my house. My parents had been on a trip to California since right after Christmas so it was nice to get together. Here is Michael patiently waiting to eat at the kids table that I had set up for them!

Looking forward to finding out what is in store for us in 2013!!