Sweet Story Time Moment

Literally just a moment of sweet sibling sharing before an eruption of "Mine, mine, mine! Baby's bothering me!". Still I'll take these moments when I can get them. I'm just glad they are learning to share something other than germs!

The Things She Says

I'm trying hard to capture all the cuteness/funniness/orneriness of this age but I know that there are so many that I just think of or remember. I just love her to pieces and all her lil sayings!

• Long, drawn out, and high pitched "Oooohhhh my goodness, that's aaadddoooorable!" in response to things Bailey is doing or wearing or to random stuff like George checking the news on his phone.
• "Drive really carefully mommy. Don't bump into any cars. Make a big crash-crash." She saw a crash once and now says this all the time.
• "Let's go! Vamanos! Let's go!"
• "Come on Baby Booooyyyyyy!"
• "Sure I will."
• "That not really loving and kind." while scrunching up her nose and shaking her head. We always tell her that the Lord calls her to be loving and kind to her brother and friends so she likes to point out when people aren't doing that. She says this when people aren't being nice in her books or on tv or when mommy and daddy are grumpy at each other and then at random stuff like when the squirrels are eating our acorns. :)
  
• "That's so nice for you to put me night-night/give me a bath/make me lunch"
• Anytime Ainsley sees George and I hugging she yells "Family Hug!" and squirms her way between us. :)
• "I can do it. This is not a problem."
• "Come on. Let's figure it out." Usually when she's imagining she's on a tiger hunt and looking for footprints with her magnifying glass or binoculars - this is pretty cute.
• "You used it all/ate it all - good job!! I'm so proud of you!"
• "What are you talking about?" whenever she isn't included in the conversation.
  
• "I love you in the whole world!" I'm now included in this. :)
  

Sick

The Peyton family has been quarantined from society - with the exception of the drs office, where we've been three times in the past week. It all started when our nanny/helper/lifesaver, Lucy, tested positive for mono. Then that night Bailey woke up with a high fever, crying almost inconsolably. His fever spiked up to 103 and wasn't responding to medicine last Wednesday morning and a trip to the dr led to a diagnosis in either Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease (HFMD) or mono. Babies typically don't get mono but he had symptoms for both diseases with big blisters in this throat, swollen lymph nodes, upset tummy, and high fever but no sores on his feet or hands. We decided not to do a blood test to find out for certain if he had mono because its a virus so even if we knew that's what it was, there isn't anything else we could do for it. But the poor lil guy was and has been so so miserable the rest of the week and weekend. It has been especially hard having him so sick because he understandably wants to be held all the time which is just something I can't do with my back still injured. With Lucy out of the picture help wise, I have been so grateful for my sweet husband who has stepped up in a huge way and helped do all the things I can't. We were both up so much Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights with Bailey being in so much pain but I am unable to lay Bailey down in his crib, so it was George who spent most of the night rocking and comforting him back to sleep. It makes me teary eyed thinking about both how frustrating and helpless it makes me feel to not be able to do my job as a mommy but also how lucky I am to have such an amazing, loving man be my partner in life and the best daddy.

But I digress... Then Friday evening, Ainsley started running a high fever and acting miserable. We gave her some meds and sent her off to bed and we honestly a little comforted by the fact that the other shoe had dropped. We knew she would get sick, it was just a matter of when. Friday night I ended up sleeping with her in her bed trying to soothe her back to sleep - something that has only ever happened once or twice. The poor girl was just a wreck spending most of the time just crying and whining with small spurts of pretend play. The days are kind of a blur of exhaustion now, but she has been fighting fever and tummy ache all weekend and not eating because her "teeth" hurt. Since Ainsley is such a Daddy's girl, George has been so helpful here too. For some reason, snuggling with him is just more calming to her than me. Not sure why, but in times like this - I'll take any comfort we can give. We took her to the dr this morning and she has several big blisters in her throat too. Ugh. Sickness is awful. And with the stomach bug that went through our home for 2-3 weeks a few weeks and with George and I still not 100% from our injuries this fall, I just feel like we have gotten a bit more than our share lately. But Bailey has been acting more like himself yesterday and today and the dr said his mouth sores are gone so hopefully we are on the downhill side of all of this. I know we have a few more days of sickness with Ainsley but then our prayer is that we are back to normal. We are just praying for normal. :)

Just Because...

...that smile melts my heart.

Believe it or not...

...the majority of Bailey's dinner actually made it in his belly, despite all that ended up on him.


Notice the puff that got stuck in his hair!


Dinner is hard work!

Happy Valentine's Day

Completely and utterly head over heels in love with my three valentines!! I'm one lucky lady!




Ok, I'll quit taking pictures! Ha! :)

Bubble Magic

We took out the bubble machine on a warm afternoon a few weeks ago and Bailey was in complete awe. I've never seen him sit so still before!


Oops... got one in the eye. ;) Ha!



Wild girl, on the other hand, was of course all over the place! Dancing and directing the bubbles.



Whether peaceful or crazy, there is just something so magical about bubbles.

"Helping"

No, this isn't Bailey's sippy cup, but it just had water in it, so oh well. I just couldn't bring myself to correct her when she so sweetly says, "Look, Momma. I helping her drink her water." And notice in the picture above how she is opening her mouth to show him how to open his. Sweet lil moment.

Crib Play

Ainsley loves for Bailey to get in her crib after nap. It looks debatable in these pictures but Bailey loves it too! :)

Night-night Dark

I'm not exactly sure how this tradition got started but every night for the past 6+ months or so George and Ainsley go outside after bath and jammies to say goodnight to the dark. It is such a sweet routine that captures all the innocence of being two.

The dialogue usually is something like, "Night-night dark. Night-night moon. Night-night clouds. Night-night stars. Night-night neighbors, slide, trees, birdies, squirrels..." and whatever else comes to her two-year-old mind. But sometimes there are other precious deviations like when the moon is behind the clouds, she often says that she needs to blow the clouds away and starts making big blowing noises. I love how this is perfectly logical in her mind.

One night when she couldn't see the moon she goes, "Mooooooooooonnnnn. Where you go moon? I need to see you moon. I have an idea. I fly up to the moon and get it back! It really far. I use my Halloween wings. Come on, lets go get them from my closet!"

When she sees the moon at other times of the day, usually when we're driving, she thinks it's so funny. "Hey, moon! What are you doing silly moon. Come back to my house." She literally thinks the moon lives at our house. I love it! I love it, I love it, I love it!! :)

Just Because...

... I can't get enough of this lil boy and all his sweet faces... even when it is all covered in food. Love you to pieces Bailey-boy!



And can't forget those yummy little toes!!

Shaving

Ainsley has been sick this week with the stomach bug that Bailey had last week (isn't sharing fun!) and it has given her the worst case of diaper rash I have ever seen. So we have been getting creative with activities that she can do diaper free in an attempt to air things out a bit. We have learned that she has absolutely no potty-awareness (no potty training for us anytime soon!) and so with her missing school from the bug, it has been a LONG, messy week. Ugh.


But one fun thing was Ainsley "shaving" like Daddy. She came up with this by herself - I was trying to get her to paint with the shaving cream - and it was super cute!

"I shavin' just like Daddy." She was SO serious about it all.

"I making myself so pretty!"

"This is awesome!" Ha! I didn't even know that she knew this word. :)

Oops... tried to shave inside her mouth. "Oh. That not taste very good. I not like it." Ha!

Sweet girl. She's been feeling better but let me repeat - it has been a lllloooooonnnnngggg week with George getting the bug too. I'm hoping that I stay in the clear. :)