While we were settling in with Fletcher....

Will was hanging out in Fayetteville. My mom came up to cook and wash and wake up with my baby at night so we could sleep, and my sisters and dad watched Will. I have to give them a big shout out because I think it took a lot of maneuvering on their part to get him taken care of all week. Between their jobs and cows getting out, it was an adventure to be sure. He got to spend time with Jessica and Evelyn Gray at the pool (thanks Jessica!), which he loved, and he even took a nap at her house in a big bed and didn't try to escape! He also got to hang out with Emily (thanks Emily!) and lots of his cousins because she took him at the last minute when the bulls tore the fence down. And he entertained Susan's friends that came to the house to play cards, even though I'm pretty sure it was way past his bedtime. Apparently he just rolled with it and had a great time. Below is a picture I stole from Facebook. Someone did a stellar diaper job :) Probably because you can't get him to be still long enough to get the diaper on! Looks like a happy boy to me!

Busy Byrds

It's amazing how much can happen when you don't blog for two months. Most of my readers already know the things I'm about to write, but I'll add fun pictures too!

We decided we were finally ready to list our house by the end of April, at which point we had been talking about it for 5 months. We prepared ourselves for a long wait to sell, because we just didn't think it would go quickly. Boy were we wrong! The house sold in less than 2 weeks and we were given a close date of June 15th, with Baby Byrd due on June 16th. We wanted to sell so we agreed to be out by the 15th and then immediately started a search for a new house!

It was pretty frustrating because we had been looking online for months and had a list of houses we wanted to see, but when we would send addresses to our realtor, everything we wanted would be under contract already. We kept searching and finding new ones and we kept getting shot down. Out of probably more than 20 houses we sent, we were able to see 8. But number 7 was a winner and we were able to get it! Our close date for the new house was also set for the 15th.

So by mid-May we had sold a house, bought a house, and now had to deal with all of the ins and outs of each. Add to that keeping our house clean for showings (I did require an hour notice before each one) while 33-36 weeks pregnant and keeping up with a 30 pound, 17-month-old wild child, and Baby Byrd decided not to wait any longer!

Fletcher Knight Byrd arrived on May 21st, almost 4 weeks early but weighing a healthy 6 lb 12 oz. I never thought I would be one to have such a small baby, but they said he would have been pretty big by 40 weeks! Needless to say, it scared me to death to be going in to labor at 36 weeks, because you hear so much about 37 weeks being the magic number, and in my mind the baby was just going to stay until at least May 26. Because I convinced myself that I wasn't in labor at such an early date, I waited too long to go to the hospital and didn't get to have an epidural. I don't suggest it and if there is another baby I will be going to the hospital at the very moment I think I'm in labor so I can get those drugs! On the plus side, I arrived at the hospital around 7:30 a.m. and Fletcher was born at 9:30 on the dot, so while it was horrible, it was only 2 hours of horrible.

We got home from the hospital on May 23rd and have been finishing up with things for the buy/sale of the homes ever since. We were finally able to start packing earlier this week and it's nice to know we are getting started.

Hopefully everything else will go off without a hitch and we'll be in our new home by June 19th. Will can finally play outside any time he wants to and there is even a fence so I don't have to worry about him running off on me!

Will and I waiting for his ear tubes on May 15th. He seems better already!

Fletcher Knight Byrd is here!

My grandfather, his middle name is Knight too! It was his mother's maiden name and it's also my cousin's middle name. She has a picture with him on her blog, but I don't have one on my camera.

Rob's grandfather, Jack Fletcher. 

Which also makes it Rob's mother's maiden name. Obviously this boy is named after lots of people!

Waiting to go home from the hospital in the same gown that Will wore home. 

Will pointing out Fletcher's nose, we like to do that a lot. 

All of my boys together. Will has really been great about everything so far.

Fletcher napping on the couch. 

Will doing the same right after he came home from the hospital, just a comparison.

Napping again, he does a lot of that!

Will eating by himself. It's very messy but he can get it in his mouth so it's a start. 

Pictures and Pink Eye

I have just some random pictures of Will to put up. Nothing new going on here really. Will has pink eye so we are doing eye drops and hoping we don't get it too, although with someone his age it seems impossible not to. I went to the doc Monday and Baby Byrd is still doing well. We start going every two weeks now and it's hard to believe we are getting close to have two babies in this house!

Eating a little snack before we went to get his ears rechecked. All clear!

Drinking some water while we waited for the doctor. 

I've checked on him a couple of times in bed and found him hugging this little monkey. Such a cutie!

Oatmeal cookie for after nap snack. He would love to have this for a snack every day!

A little phone time after his bath. He likes to pretend like he's on the phone. 

The two holes left by the hail. At least I have a pretty new windshield now!

March

I've been a really bad blogger this month and I haven't posted. So I guess I'll do an update of everything that we've been up to. Rob has been out of town this month and I had a baby shower to give so we've been busy traveling around and haven't really seen each other a lot. But luckily he's home for the rest of the month! Will and I went down to Fayetteville the first week of March so I could pick some things up for the shower I was giving and leave him there to spend some quality time while I hosted the shower and got some blood work done. No gestational diabetes, yay! Then I went back down and got to watch my mom in the 50's show while Anna Catherine stayed with Will. We spent lots of outside time on the farm in the warm weather and he watched the horses and played with rocks, dirt, sticks, and anything else he could find. We came back Thursday when Rob got back to town. I don't have many pictures but here are a few of the shower (it looks like I didn't do anything, but I did, it was just regular food so it didn't make fun pictures!) and one of Will. I forget to take pictures just like I forget everything else these days. I blame pregnancy.

Cake pops that Erica made. They were tied with little blue and brown ribbons and looked so cute!

Cupcakes that Rachel made, Riggs is the baby's name and we can't wait to meet him!

Rachel also made the diaper cake. So cute! She made mine when I had Will and I hated to take it apart to use the diapers!

One of her gifts was a sign for the hospital door. I've heard of people using them but I had never seen one in person, so cute! She got lots of fun (and some practical) things for Riggs.

All of the girls at the shower, yes I know, I look huge! And Ashley looks awesome. I blame it on the fact that this is my second, but that's probably not true!

When I got back after the blood work on Monday Will and I went outside for a little while. His hat was in my mom's car in town so he borrowed Susan's purple toboggan she uses for feeding. It was pretty windy that day but the rest of the week was really hot and he broke out the shorts. He would spend every second outside if he could, he just loves it! Today we walked up and down our sidewalks a million times. 

Hair, Teeth, Naps and Straws

Will is a little under the weather and since the weather was actually bad today, we haven't been anywhere. As I write he is upstairs trying to go to sleep between coughs, poor boy! I don't really feel that sorry for him though because he is also talking and clapping. We were brushing his teeth before bed tonight and I noticed a white spot further back on his gums. I reached in a sure enough, he has two new teeth. This makes me wonder if maybe the last thing I thought was a cold was actually these teeth. It also makes me wonder if this current runny nose and cough is related to the top ones coming in to match the bottom. I don't know though, the cough was pretty terrible last night and seemed to be in his chest, it even woke him up for awhile. His sweet daddy even got up and rocked him for a little bit last night before he put him back to bed. Today he sounds much better and just seems to have a normal cold type cough.

We have finally transitioned to full time, happy napping in the crib. Every day at noon he goes into his crib with a pile of books. He reads for about 15 minutes, then drops them out of the bed and lays down and takes a nap. Two of the days have been great, he wakes up happy and stands up and talks until I come get him. Yesterday though, he woke up after only an hour and because he was still tired he cried for about the next 30 minutes. That's never fun. As long as he gets at least an hour and a half he seems to do fine, sometimes he naps for two hours or more.

It's crazy how grown up he seems. He can take directions so well and is really listening well when I tell him not to do something. Yesterday I finally taught him to drink out of a straw! That will make life much easier in the car because his other cup leaked everywhere when I let him have it back there by himself. 

He's such a sweet boy and I am enjoying every day with him before things get crazy around here and I'm trying to juggle two! And now as I finish up, he's sleeping peacefully!

Playing with his toys. This was the first day it was warm enough to just wear a onesie around the house and I loved seeing his cute little legs again! We are almost out of the onesie stage though, this is the last one that fits.

Before the haircut Saturday morning. He hadn't quite woken up good. It doesn't really look that bad right here, but trust me, it was. 

After the cut he got a sucker, so he was a happy boy on the way home. 

I was trying to take a picture of the straw drinking, and this was the first face he made. I'm not sure what it's about, but it cracked me up. 

Bad hair day...and other pics from this week

So Will's last haircut was a bit of a disaster and after we got home we noticed that they didn't cut the front enough and it was almost in his eyes. It's quickly gotten all the way into his eyes and so tonight I thought I would cut it myself, you know, just a little trim in the front. BAD idea! It does not look good, and we are headed to get a real haircut tomorrow (the rest was getting long too but I thought we could wait a couple more weeks). I guess we will have a to a nice short spring cut a little early, because I might have cut one side of the front pretty short when he tried to turn his head. I would show you pictures but the only ones I have are on the phone and I can't get them on here. Oh well, it's just hair, and his grows fast so I'm not worried about it. That's pretty much how I feel about my own hair, it'll grow back out so whatever.

We have had a good week otherwise. He seems right on the verge of talking, and has a lot to say when Rob gets home at night, if he happens to still be up! He just babbles away all day and reads books out loud to himself all the time. I wish I knew what he was saying. We went to the park today and stayed for over an hour and he loved it! I like watching him explore the playground and then just walk around checking things out. He's so inquisitive. We had to walk up and down little hills and all around the park just to see what was there. I can't imagine being a little person and seeing new things all the time!

Pics from this week:

I pulled his fleece off and his hair had static. I don't know what that face is about!

Crazy hair last weekend. The last haircut just wasn't the best and it's kinda been a mess since then.

Playing after church. Again with the smile. 

He likes to actually build with the blocks now and we spend a lot of time with them every day.

He also likes to tear them back apart. 

Tunnel at the playground. They have a big walkway with slides and ladders coming off it, and below there are little tunnels for smaller kids to play in. 

Will walked back and forth for awhile. 

We probably spent more than half of our park time at the swings. He LOVES to swing and will go back to them after about 10 minutes of something else. I couldn't get a picture of him smiling because the sun was in his eyes and he kept looking down.

Naps and Words

Well we are down to one nap. I tried to think it was just a one day thing, and then the next day I thought maybe we were just having a couple of off days. But that started Monday and we haven't looked back. Most of the week it's been just one two hour nap after lunch, although today it was over two hours. I think I miss the nap more than he does, but I am glad that it gives us freedom to go places in the morning. We just haven't had anywhere we really needed to go this week.

We've been hanging around the house most of the week but today we did run to Spring Hill and take some food to Erin and visit Gracie. She was asleep in the swing the whole time and Will kept walking over and wanting to poke her in the face. I had to stop him probably 5 times. That doesn't bode well for Baby Byrd!

We are working with Will all the time to learn new words. He loves books so we spend a lot of time pointing out animals and sounds. Every once in awhile he will copy one, but he usually won't say anything more than once. The other night we were reading a book about all of the animals getting the stable ready for Mary and Joseph and the last page had Jesus. When I said it he copied, and then we went back through some of the animals and he would call them Jesus. The next day he brought me his big book of words and pointed to the carrots and called them Jesus. Ha! Not to worry though, true to form he dropped the word and hasn't said it since. He doesn't like to stick with any word for very long, so to remember it the next day was big for him!

Some pics from this week:

I think the new smile is here to stay for awhile!

Again with the smile today. 

He likes to play with the colander, sometimes that means putting it on his head!

And sometimes it just means squatting beside it. He can stand like this for long periods of time. It hurts my knees just watching him.

Super Bowl Fun

Will wound up with a cold early last week, but luckily not a bad one and he was feeling better on Friday and by today he was all good so we got to go to a Super Bowl party where he played with friends. I was so excited because I don't get lots of adult time these days so it was fun to talk to other girls and just hang out! I made pigs in a blanket (because I knew the kids would eat them) and Cowboy Caviar. There was lots of yummy food and Will loved following the older kids around. There were two girls, 18 months and 3 years, and he loves to watch older kids. He also loves to randomly roam around new places and check things out so he enjoyed that too! They had a kid sized table and he would go sit at the bench by himself. I think he just liked it being his size. We might have to look into that! We left right before the second half started because he was acting tired and he went right to bed when we got home.  I took my camera but forgot to take a picture! Oops!

I'm determined to do better about posting this year, because I want to be able to look back and see what we were doing with Will. I just have to get better about taking pictures so I'll have something fun to look at with my posts! No one just wants to read writing all the time!

14 Months

Will is 14 months old! I haven't updated on him in awhile so this might be a little long. He's such a big boy and can do a lot of things by himself, when he wants to. He's running around everywhere and definitely keeps me busy! His latest obsession is shoes and he loves to carry Rob's shoes around and try to put them on his feet. He's still eating a lot, though everyone tells me he'll stop eating sometime soon, because that's just what they do at this age. We went to the doctor earlier this week to check his ears (finally clear!) and he weighed 27.5 pounds.

He loves books and will sometimes sit and pretend to read them out loud. This is especially interesting since he doesn't have any words. Right now he says mama, dada, and uh oh. He also sometimes says no, no, no and will say tickle tickle when he's copying us, but I don't think he really knows what it means. Talking doesn't seem to be a priority for him, though he loves to point at things in books and have us tell him what they are.

He also loves to throw/roll things. He throws his toys up in the air, he rolls his balls across the table or along the floor. He just loves to be moving, and have everything else moving with him. He constantly makes faces he thinks are funny and loves to be tickled. He also loves to wrestle with Rob, which mostly involves him running up and jumping on his dad, or crawling over the top of him.

We went for his second hair cut yesterday and he was awful! The first time we had a mom cutting his hair and she talked to him and made it seem fun. This time we had a young girl who was really nice but seemed a little uncomfortable with a baby and kept giving him directions. She would tell him to look down, turn his head, etc. It didn't work out well. He basically cried the whole time, so it's a good thing it doesn't take long to cut his hair! I felt bad for the girl, and everyone else in the vicinity at the time.

Nothing new as far as baby Byrd goes. We are over halfway there! I have been so tired lately, I guess it's part of being pregnant and chasing a 1-year-old. It also probably has to do with Rob being gone, because I just don't sleep well when he's not here. Yesterday I felt completely worn out, especially after the hair debacle, but Rob got home last night and I felt much better today! I'm growing pretty rapidly now and I'm definitely bigger than I was with Will at this point, but I haven't gained much weight at all.

Before the cut, hair over his ears and down in his shirt.

Smiling at another girl waiting. He was happy when we got there. That didn't last.

This was the "look down" part, he did not understand or enjoy it. 

Last picture before it all went south. The camera had to go after this one.

Last night before bed. I wanted a pic of the hair cut. It does look much better. 

I asked him to smile and this is what I got. Apparently Anna Catherine has been giving him lessons. This is how she smiled when we were little.

It's a...

Surprise! 

We only found out the most important thing, that Baby Byrd looks healthy and is growing right on schedule! When I got there I told her first thing that I didn't want to know the sex of the baby. She told me she could put it in an envelope or put it on the dvd they gave us and that way we would have it if we wanted to know, but I know myself and I know that I'd look so it's nowhere to be found. Only the ultrasound tech knows, she even made us look away when she checked, as if we'd be able to tell anything without someone telling us what it is! She said it won't be on our doctor's report either so I'm very excited to be surprised on June 16th. Rob is maybe not as excited but he's fine with it and just happy with the good health report!

I was going to add a picture of the ultrasound, but I had technical difficulties so that never happened. Pics of Will coming soon!