Caimon needs batteries and Brylee's smiley

Both of our children are growing up so fast these days. Caimon is the best big brother. He is always wanting to give Brylee kisses and wanting to hold "it" (meaning Brylee). He even held the bottle for me yesterday!

Brylee has been very gassy and so I have been giving her some medicine. I think that she is getting the same intolerance to milk that Caimon had. Anyway, Caimon keeps telling me he needs medicine too. Then yesterday he informed us that he was sick and he needs new batteries! When anything isn't working he says that it needs new batteries.

Brylee is growing sooo fast. When I took her in last week she weighed 10 lbs 10 oz. She is so chubby and cute. She also started smiling and she has the cutest smile. I just love having a girl. It is already so much fun!

Sara started this blog, then went to make some pancakes for breakfast. So, I'm going to finish off this entry with a few pictures of Brylee. She's just beginning to smile (real smiles, not gas smiles), as you can see in the pictures below.

Two Weeks Old

Our little Brylee turned 2 weeks old today! We had her 2 week check up and she is doing great. She gained 14 oz in 7 days. She is eating like crazy and she actually sleeps pretty well too. We are all still a little tired, but she is a great baby.

Isn't she pretty?

Caimon and Brylee
Brylee had some jaundice when she was born so we had to have her on a bili blanket for a couple of days. We called her our little alien baby! Can you see why?

Corey came back home yesterday after being gone for the last week for work. It is so good to have him home and I think he is having fun with his kids!

Brylee

Sara had a baby girl yesterday morning (Cinco de Mayo baby!) at 8:55am. We named her Brylee Elizabeth. She weighed 8lbs even and measured 19.75 inches in length. She has some dark brown hair (with hints of red) and really chubby cheeks. She looks a lot like Caimon did when he was born, but she sleeps more and makes less noise (so far). Anyway, here are a couple of pictures...

Birthday Blowout

This is the video of Caimon singing happy birthday to himself and then blowing out his candles. Listen to his answer when Corey asks how old he is. He has been telling us he is 4 for several weeks now. It is pretty cute. I think he does finally know that he is 2!

Birthday Boy

Caimon is officially 2 years old as of last Wednesday! To start off the week, we took him for his 2 year old check up. He is only 24 1/2 lbs, which puts him in the 12th percentile for weight. He has always been small though, so the pediatrician is not worried. He was in the 25th percentile for his height, and the 75th percentile for his head!

On Wednesday for Caimon's birthday we took him to the park! He played there for 1 1/2 hours and was then traumatized when daddy took him off of the swing! It was pretty pathetic.

Then on Thursday, Grandma and Grandpa Riding came to play with him. He had a blast and was pretty spoiled for the rest of the weekend. He always had someone to follow him around and play with him. Mommy and Daddy are not so nice.

On Saturday we had a birthday party with all of the grandparents. It was a lot of fun and I think Caimon had a blast, especially with all of the new stuff and the attention. He even blew out his own birthday candles! He had been practicing blowing out pretend candles since mommy's birthday. Here are some pictures from his birthday on Saturday!

Daddy and Caimon opening presents.

Caimon with his mess after opening the presents!

Caimon's Elmo birthday cake.

Caimon loves his ice cream cones!

No More Monkeys

While Caimon was hanging out with grandma on Saturday, we moved his crib and put up a twin-sized bed. He was really excited when he saw it (especially with the 'Cars' sheets). His first night he slept really well, even better than he normally did in the crib. His second night was pretty good, but at 6am he came knocking on our door saying, "Come in!" So he spent an hour or so sleeping in our bed this morning.

Anyways, while I was trying to get Caimon to take a nap yesterday, he discovered that he could bump his head into the headboard. I'm not sure why, buy he thinks it's great fun! Last night he was in playing on the bed (it's still a new toy, after all), and he, apparently, jumped face first into the headboard. He bit partially into his bottom lip, leaving some nice marks on the inside. He lost a lot of blood for someone so small, but he calmed down after about 10 minutes. While reading before bed, Sara decided to read the story about the monkeys jumping on the bed. Caimon got into the story, as you can see in the video.

P.S. That's his "new" bed in the video.

-- Corey

Easy as ABC

It's fun to watch Caimon grow and learn, although it can be difficult at times. He's starting to figure out numbers and letters -- he can recognize several letters, now. And he's showing some appreciation for music and singing. He likes to 'play' the piano and sing along to familiar songs. We tried to capture a video of him singing the alphabet (because grandma requested it), but he was a little camera shy. He joins in singing some of it with mommy, but then gets distracted toward the end. But, still, not bad considering he's not yet two years old.

-- Corey

Christmas #1

Our first Christmas this year was in Provo with Corey's family. My mom and I flew into Salt Lake from California and we had an early Christmas. This worked out well, especially with all of the snow that we received this year.

Corey and Caimon got to spend about 1 1/2 weeks with grandma and grandpa too. I know that he loved it and they were very sad to see him go!

Caimon with his new truck on Christmas morning!

Caimon didn't really like the bows this year. Isn't he cute though?

Caimon again with his new trucks before they were open.

Caimon wasn't too fond of Santa this year either. Grandma and grandpa took him to see Santa. He has a little stranger anxiety these days!

San Francisco

I know that it has taken me a long time to post a blog-I really don't have a good excuse! Being tired, pregnant, and chasing a very busy toddler are my only excuses.

So, last month my mom and I went to San Francisco. My mom has a tumor on her eye and that is where the specialist is located. Anyway, so they ran a lot of tests while we were there and decided that it was a type of melanoma, which required her to have surgery while we were there. They placed some metal rings around the tumor (which are not visible from the outside) and she is actually on her way back from California again right now after finishing with her radiation treatments. Everything has gone very well, and hopefully she won't have to go back too much more! I am just very thankful that they caught it early and her vision should not really be affected.

We did have some time to play while we were there though! Neither of us had been there before, so it was definately a new experience. I don't think I would ever want to move there. I had to do most of the driving and the traffic was horrible. I like Idaho and Utah driving. It is nothing compared to that! I guess I have been sheltered!

We found the Golden Gate Bridge and drove over it, just to say we had been on it. It was a lot bigger than I expected and the view was awesome! It is hard to tell much in the picture due to the rain and fog.

We also went to pier 39 and fisherman's wharf. That was a lot of fun and we sure did a lot of walking that day. It was December so they were also having some sort of Santa Claus convention. I don't thing I have ever seen so many Santas in one place before.

I just had to add this picture so you could see what my mom looks like with a patch on her eye. This was the day after her surgery, right before she got the patch taken off. Oh, and she is standing by our cool rental car!

Busy-ness

Last week was really busy for us. Sara worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then she flew to San Francisco on Thursday with her mother. It was the last week of the semester for me, so I was teaching and grading quizzes, notebooks, and exams. And Caimon had his hands full with the demands that come with being a toddler.

With Sara out of town and me working late, Caimon got to stay at Grandpa's (Sara's dad) house Thursday night. My father flew in Friday evening to help me drive down to Utah on Saturday. So we're spending the week at my parents' place.

Sara and Joyce (her mom) will fly into SLC Wednesday to join us. They went to San Francisco so Joyce could get a medical consultation. Neither of them had been there before, so they also spent a few days doing some sightseeing. They've been taking a lot of pictures, so we should have some to post soon.