About my boy..

Blake; Blakey; Blakers

Favorite phrases

Uh-Oh! : this means his show is over and he needs you to start another one

Aw-Man! : this is what Swiper says on Dora (his new favorite show) and loves to say it over and over.

Choo-Choo : from his other new favorite show..Thomas the Train. He even has Mom and Dad calling trains choo-choo's.

Where'd it go?! : he picked this up from Chris and I and repeats it SEVERAL times a day! It's usually followed by, "There it is!"

Favorite Shows:

Thomas the Train . Dora the Explorer . Curious George

Favorite Past time:

watching TV...playing with his cars and trains...watching TV...going to the park...watching TV...TV...TV need I say more? Unfortunately Blake watches a little too much TV and he certainly does love it.

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Blake is growing up so quick. He is slowly talking more and more every day. Just recently he will tell us what the dog says and what the cat says, which is huge to us since he wasn't saying much a few weeks ago. He still doesn't sleep through the night....but he doesn't snore anymore and his sleep apnea issues are over. Blake loves to tunnel through just about anything. We often find him trying to squeeze through our legs, arms, through our pillows and comforter and any other small opening! (It drives us nuts!)

Blake recognizes 2 stores very well when we are driving. One is Jamba Juice; whenever we drive past he repeats "Juice" over and over. The other store is Petco. I was shocked when I realized he knew this store. Chris had taken Blake there once to let him see all the animals. Ever since then, when we drive past, he insists on going in!

One last thing about Blake; he loves to ride in the shopping carts that are cars. (pictured below)Chris knows he likes this so much, that he will go to the store just to let Blake ride in the cart! Chris doesn't buy anything, he just makes a couple of laps around the store to let Blake ride in his car. What a nice dad!

We love Blake so much and he keeps us smiling! We love you Blakers!

Twins?

These are kind of goofy pictures...they definitely don't represent how cute my boys are...however, these pictures show just how much Blake and Tyler look alike!! The first one is Tyler and the second is Blake. Wow...I can't believe how much they look alike!

1 week old!

I can't believe Tyler is a week old already. That week flew by! Tyler is such a good baby. He rarely cries anymore. We had 3 days of screaming at night, but so far that has been it. One of Tyler's favorite things to do is snuggle up in his warm fuzzy blanket naked. It makes him so content! He is so strong and tries his hardest to hold his head up when he lays on his stomach. He also loves to put both legs up in the air, It's really funny to see. He also loves to be on his side to sleep. I never put him on his side, but he manages to roll himself...he's a strong little one! It's been my favorite thing to just hold and cuddle him. One of my neighbors was telling me a story of when she had her first baby she would just hold him all day long. Her husband would leave in the morning with her on the couch and he would come home and she would still be there. He would ask her what she has been doing ALL day, and she simply replied, "I just looked at him all day!" She told me this story just after I had Blake, I thought she was crazy! But I could do that now!! I just love holding Tyler and watching him. I don't know why I didn't feel that way with Blake. I think it's because I worked and I couldn't hold him all day. It's been a fun week with our little newborn. We just love him!

Tyler in his warm fuzzy blanket...naked

Blake...watchin' his show with his brother

My favorite boys!

Counting our Blessings

Chris and I sure have been counting our blessing these past couple of weeks. Blake's surgery went so well and as far as I can tell he is all healed up. Our beautiful baby was born without complications and healthy, The delivery was so easy and comfortable for me and so far the recovery has been good. (I love being induced!) Chris and I felt that one of our biggest blessing happened last night...we didn't have any crying kids! The past 3 nights both Blake and Tyler have been crying for at least 2 hours straight. Chris's streak of being thrown up on by Blake (4 days in a row) was broken, and Tyler didn't have his colicky scream. Chris and I felt so blessed last night. Yesterday afternoon we didn't know if we were going to be able to handle all the crying that night, and lucky for us we had a really calm evening. It's just what we needed to gear up for our week ahead of us. Blake is still getting used to having Tyler at home. He hasn't been mean at all to the baby, but he has been like super glue to Chris. Blake has actually been really cute with the baby, I think he is having a harder time with me and my focus on the baby. I have been trying really hard to spend the quality time with Blake that he needs, but I really think Blake likes the quantity not the quality! I attached a couple of pictures of Blake and Tyler together. Blake loves to pat Tyler's head and kiss him. Today he even tried to feed him a chicken nugget....what a nice brother! :)

(I'll post more pictures soon. I'm having difficulty uploading my pics from my camera.)

New Baby

Here's our little Tyler James. He's perfect to us in everyway. We just wanted to post some pictures of Ty for those who aren't here with us to see him. We'll blog more soon!

Our little trooper

Friday our little trooper went in for a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy to solve his sleeping difficulties. Blake was so brave. His Grandma Mower had given him an “Elmo Goes to the Doctor” DVD. I think that this may have helped him understand the stethoscope procedure but that was about it. When we got there we had to fill out a bunch of paperwork. Alli and I were glad that the surgery center had a big TV with “The Incredibles” on. Blake was all over the place even though it was 6:45 in the morning. He loved jumping up and down on the chairs. The first thing they did with Blake was take him in and weigh him. Then they took us to a room to speak with the doctors before his procedure. The nurse had to come in and take Blake’s temperature. He did not like that one bit. Then we got to change Blake in to his gown. The nurse could sense that Blake was going to have a hard time with all of the monitors they had to hook up so she gave him some “magic” medicine that made him act as if he were drunk. It was pretty cute watching him go from totally upset and mad at the nurses to being super smiley and silly with them. Once the nurses were able to get his vital signs checked off the anesthesiologist let me take Blake back to his operating room where I was able to hold the mask over Blake’s nose to help him drift off to sleep. The anesthesiologist and the nurse kept warning me that his eyes where going to start to roll back in to his head. I think that they were worried that I would freak-out. I told them that I had seen that a bunch of times with my job. Sure enough Blake’s little eyes rolled to the back of his head and Dad’s eyes filled with tears. I guess it is much different when in is your child and not just another patient. I was very confident in the medical staff at the center. I knew that the nurses and all of the Doctors would take great care of our little Blake. Blake’s surgery took about 10 minutes, but it felt more like 30 to me. Blake was sure out of it when he came back to. He laid on my stomach and would whimper and cry for a little bit then fall back a sleep. After about 45 minutes of monitoring Blake’s oxygen level he had had enough. He kept pointing at the door and wanting to leave. The nurse finally let us goes home. Blake watched “Bee Movie” the whole way home and Alli and I thought,(and hoped), once we got home he would just crash for the rest of the day. Boy were we wrong! All Blake wanted to do when he got home was everything…Up the stairs, down the stairs. He jumped around pretty much all day. Night time finally came and we put our little guy to sleep. I had decided that I would wake Blake up at 11:00 to give him some more pain medication. BIG MISTAKE. My Dad has tried to teach me that you let sleeping dogs lay. This is one time I really should have listened. But being the softy Dad that I am, I couldn’t fathom letting Blake wake up in horrible pain. So I gently nudged Blake to see if I could just slip the sippy cup in to his mouth. He wouldn’t budge so I got him up and tried to take him to the rocker. He started screaming and I could not get him to stop. So I figured lets get the medicine in him quickly. I took the syringe and Alli and I held him down to put it in his mouth. Once we got the medicine in him he exploded with vomit, (of course all over me). I had the remnants of about 15 pounds of M&M’s and chocolate milk all over me. I froze and just stood there. Alli escorted both of us to the shower and we got cleaned up. After that Blake was up-and-at’em. SO I took him down stairs and we watched “Thomas the Train” for a few hours. Eventually he calmed down and drank his Lora tab-laced apple juice right down. I took him up to his bed and he slept pretty well until 7:00 or so. He whimpered on and off the whole night though. Over all I was very pleased with the outcome for little Blake. Since the surgery Blake has been sleeping more soundly, (as long as I don’t wake him up to take his meds), since his surgery. Alli and I think that this will really help him and us with his sleeping difficulties. He doesn’t seem to be snoring as much if at all anymore. Through this experience I have realized just how special our little trooper is. Thank you everybody for all of the visits and phone calls to check on our little guy. We are so blessed. We love you all.

(just a few pictures of Blake before his surgery, they are the greatest, but its all we got)

Movie Day

I was sitting at home today doing the usual and I started feeling guilty....The past couple of weeks I haven't had the motivation or energy to take Blake anywhere. I kept thinking that Blake must be so bored with what we do every day. Chris was getting off early, so I told him we needed to do something fun with Blake before his surgery, and before we have the baby (I'm being induced on the 15!) Chris suggested we take Blake to see "Horton Hears a Who" and let him experience the BIG screen.

Blake fell asleep on the way over to the movie (typical), but woke up once we got inside the theater. He sat on the booster seat and loved the previews. When the movie first started we was a little unsure about Horton (the elephant). Blake's face went from happy to really sad. The next thing I knew he was whimpering and tears were streaming down his face. It was the saddest thing! I pulled him into my lap and he calmed down, but he was apprehensive to watch the rest of the movie. He still watched it and would tear up here and there. He made sure one of his hands was close to his eyes so that he could hide if he wanted to. This was all funny to Chris and me because the movie was really cute and not scary at all. It was so unlike Blake to cry like that too. Blake finally snapped out of it with about 3o minutes left of the movie and loved the rest of it and didn't want to leave the theater when it was over. We had a good time as a family and it broke up our boring routine. I would definitely recommend this movie to others!

Poor Man's Steak

I recently found something out about Chris that I didn't know before....Chris has the craving for steak quite often. Who knew? (Truth be told, I think it was brought on by us being on a strict budget and by him trying to eat better) ... Chris confessed to me that when he is craving steak, we takes a swig of A1 steak sauce to satisfy his craving!
I laughed so hard and didn't believe him and first....but it's true. Every once in a while he'll get home for work and I'll ask him what he wants for dinner. He looks in the fridge and determines its poor man's steak time! I'm sure glad that he is satisfied with his A1, maybe he can teach me how to curb my craving of sweets with something else in our fridge!

Tonsils

I finally received an answer to why Blake won't sleep at night! It's been a solid 7 weeks since he has slept through the night. With the exception of 2 nights....(side story) I called the pediatrician and I was telling the nurse how Blake snores so bad and doesn't sleep through the night. The nurse told me to give him benedryl for two nights and that will usually break up with cycle of him not sleeping. I thought her advice was a little odd, but I tried it and it worked for those 2 nights, but that was it. Anyway, I got to thinking that his snoring had to be the reason he was waking up so much. Blake snores SO bad no matter what position we put him in. Finally, yesterday Chris and I took Blake to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor and found out that he has enlarged tonsils. His enlarged tonsils has been interfering with his normal breathing, sleeping, speaking, and has caused him to have sleep apnea. Chris and I had recorded him snoring and after hearing that the doctor knew right away that he needed his tonsils out. The doctor only had to peek at Blake's mouth to see his big tonsils. So, next Friday he getting them out! We debated when we should have it done, since I'm supposed to have this baby around the 15th. We decided that we should get it done before the baby, so that we can focus our attention on Blake and his recovery. My induction will just have to be delayed until he is recovered. The doctor was confident that his recovery wouldn't be longer than a week. And from what I've read he's right and maybe even sooner. It felt so good to finally understand why Blake has had such a hard time sleeping and with his talking! The doctor said we'll have a whole new little boy after this. His talking will most likely improve, he'll sleep 100% better, he'll eat better and he will have a longer attention span. We got the answer to all our questions yesterday and it felt good! And who knew that all this time it was just his enlarged tonsils causing us so much grief! The next few weeks will be interesting with Blake having surgery and adding another member to our family.

Kangaroo Zoo

Last Saturday we took Blake to the Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove. (I think they just opened one up in Salt Lake too.) Blake absolutely LOVED this place! It has a whole bunch of blow up toys/slides for kids to play on. I think this place is a great place to take your kids, and it has a pretty good set up for parents. It's even better if you're kids are a little bit older than 2 because then they don't need your help climbing up the toys. Chris had to help Blake climb up on a lot of the toys, but Chris loved doing it with Blake. After an hour of playing, Blake (and Chris) were exhausted! Everyone has to wear socks (even parents), so come prepared if you go. I think the only downfall to this place is its a little pricey. So its not a place we will go to all the time, but its a great family activity to do every once in a while! I forgot my camera that day, so here are a few picutres from the website.