Big Boy Bed

We went shopping for Peyton's new bedroom furniture two weekends ago. It arrived last Friday. When we got home from daycare, I took him upstairs to see his new room. He was pretty excited about his new big boy bed. Well, he was quite excited until... it was time to go to sleep that night. He really did not want to sleep in the bed. He wanted his crib so bad. I was trying to get him excited about sleeping in his new bed, but he ran out of the room and into the baby's room where we moved the crib. He jumped up into his crib and didn't want to get out. Kyle came upstairs as reinforcement. We got Peyton back into the big bed. He cried for a few minutes, practically begging us to let him sleep in his crib. We got him calmed down though and he went to sleep with no problems.

The next morning, when I went in to get Peyton when he woke up, I asked him how he liked sleeping in his big boy bed. He enthusiastically said, "I love my big boy bed!!" He's been doing really well sleeping in the bed. Here are some pictures of his updated room. Obviously, we let him pick out the bedding that he wanted and of course he chose Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Doesn't Peyton look so tiny in that huge bed?! He even sleeps with Mickey, as you can see. He loves that mouse.

Cruisin'

The weather has been so beautiful lately. Peyton has taken full advantage of the sunniness to take a few rides on his power lawn mower. Here are two pictures.

St. Patrick's Day

Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day. My mom hooked Peyton up with lots of green gear for him to wear. She got him some shamrock antennae (not pictured), a shamrock tie, a pin that says "I'm Irish! How luck can I be?", and some Goodluck Bear stickers. Aunt Bev supplied the leprechaun hat and he got the green lei at daycare. Here's Peyton in all of his green stuff.

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Peyton and I baked a green cake. He loves to bake with me! Peyton helped by dumping all of the ingredients into the bowl. Well, in the case of the water, most of it made it into the bowl but some of it missed and hit the counter instead.

Peyton even helped me use the mixer to mix the cake batter.

I think Peyton's favorite part though was getting to lick the beater after the cake was mixed. He had cake batter all over his face when he was done.

We baked the cake before dinner so that it could have time to cool so that we could frost it and eat it for an evening snack. Peyton asked about every five minutes or so through dinner and after dinner if it was time to eat the cake yet. Finally it was cool enough and we mixed up some green icing and frosted the cake. Here's our finished product. It tasted really good too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

First Trip to the Playground

The weather was absolutely beautiful here all week. On Tuesday, I took Peyton over to our community playground for the first time this year. He was very excited to get to slide and swing again. He didn't want to leave the playground, even when it was time to eat dinner. I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time there over the spring and summer. Here are a few pictures.

March Madness

Kyle and I watched the selection show last weekend to see where Maryland and Michigan State would end up in the brackets. When we saw that if they both won their first round games, they would play each other in the second round, we were pretty excited. The smack talk started immediately. We had this conversation at dinner:

Me: Peyton, say, "Go Terps!"
Peyton: Go Terps!
Kyle: No Peyton, say, "Go State!"
Peyton: Go Terps!

That's my boy!

Both Maryland and Michigan State won their games last night, so they will play each other on Sunday at 2:30. It should be a good game.

Videos

Here are two of the first videos that I took with my new Flip video camera. This first one is of Peyton spelling his name. He's so smart!



In the second video, Peyton entertains us with a song. Enjoy!

Adventures in Two Kids

Kyle and I babysat Noah over the weekend so that Kate and Dave could go out by themselves to celebrate Kate's birthday. Peyton was looking forward to Noah coming over all week! Kate and Dave dropped Noah off around 6:00 on Saturday. It was Noah's dinner time, so Kyle fed him his baby food. Peyton entertained Noah in between bites by playing peek-a-boo. Peyton can always make Noah laugh.

After Noah was finished with his mixed vegetables and chicken, it was time for him to eat his bottle. I poured the formula in with the water and Peyton helped me shake the formula up. He did anything he could to be a big helper.

When Kyle fed Noah his bottle, Peyton wanted to help with that too, of course. Peyton helped hold the bottle.

After dinner, Peyton and Noah played on the floor with Peyton's toys. I think they pulled out pretty much every toy that Peyton has. Here's a picture of the boys playing with the characters on Sesame Street.

Noah was pretty fascinated with Peyton's Elmo restaurant. He spent a lot of time just opening and closing the Oscar refrigerator door. I guess it was quite entertaining.

Noah goes to bed earlier than Peyton, so of course Peyton wanted to help with that process too. We took Noah upstairs and changed him into his pajamas. The pajamas that Kate packed for Noah were a little wet from a leaky cup of water, so Peyton let Noah borrow a pair of his. Even though Peyton's pajamas were 2T, they just about fit Noah. They were just a little long.

I read Noah his bedtime story, but Peyton wanted in on the action. This is how I picture my future when #2 comes.

Sunday morning the boys slept in until almost 9:30, so that was nice. Kyle got up with them, but Peyton needed his breathing treatment, so I got up too to entertain Noah. Stinks that I didn't get my sleep in day, but that's ok! Having the practice of dealing with two kids at the same time was worth it. Kyle got Noah up first, then went in to get Peyton. Peyton was so excited to see Noah and said, "Yay! Noah's here!" So cute.

I took Noah downstairs to give him breakfast while Kyle dealt with Peyton. Noah ate almost a full pancake, until he flung the remaining pancake onto the floor. After his pancake, I fed Noah his bottle while Peyton ate his own breakfast.

When both boys were finished eating, the spent the rest of the morning playing with more toys. I had to include that last picture of Peyton so that you could see the mess they made!

Peyton was such a big helper with Noah all weekend. I just hope that he is that excited about his little brother. We had a good time watching Noah and will gladly do it again any time (hint, hint... hehe).

Mommy and Peyton Date Night

Kyle had a basketball game on Friday evening, so Peyton and I had a date night. It was raining so hard when I picked Peyton up from daycare though, so I decided that we would just go out to dinner. I took Peyton to the very high class Chick-Fil-A. We had a yummy dinner of chicken nuggets and waffle fries. After we ate, Peyton played in the play area for a little while. He had fun climbing up into the tubes and sliding down the slide. Here are a few pictures.

Dad's Birthday

We went out to dinner on February 28 to celebrate Dad's (56th!) birthday. We met up with Dad, Mom, Jeremy, and Jill at Pizza John's. We ordered some pizzas and waited around for a few minutes to find a table that was large enough for the seven of us. Finally, we were able to sit down. Here's a cute picture of Peyton while we were waiting for our food.

Peyton loves pizza, and especially pepperoni, so he tore up his food. The pizza was incredibly greasy and it was hurting my stomach a little, so I think Peyton might have actually eaten more pizza than me. He also mooched extra pepperoni off anyone who would give them to him.

After dinner, it was time to sing Happy Birthday. As you can see from the picture below, Peyton was once again super excited to sing to Pop-Pop. You would think it was Peyton's birthday by the look of pure joy on his face. He did a great job singing as usual.

Jeremy and Jill baked up a special recipe churro cake for my dad. The cake was cinnamon flavored and there were churros in between the two layers of cake and on top of the cake. The cake portion tasted good, but the churros were kind of soggy by the time we ate the cake. It was a good try though guys!

Next, dad opened his cards and presents.

Peyton got him a new belt and some socks.

And Kyle and I got him some khakis. (Doesn't he look so excited in both pictures?!)

Finally, dad opened two movies - The Hangover and Inglorious Bastards - from Jeremy and Jill. Then we all headed home in the pouring rain.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Monster Jam

Kyle took Peyton to see Monster Jam on February 27. We had an extra ticket and I had no desire to go to the show, so Kyle decided to take Dougie with them. They met up with Kyle's BFF Karl and his two sons at the show.

I'm not really sure of all that went on during the show since I wasn't there. I asked Kyle to write this post, but he refused, so here are some pictures and tidbits of what I was told. I heard that not only were there monster trucks, but there were also motorcycles and bicycles. Peyton said that he liked the show but that the trucks were LOUD! His favorite monster truck was the Spiderman one (in the second picture below). That's about all of the details that I have, so I'll just leave you with some pictures from the day.

More Valentine's Day Gifts

Aunt Bev dropped off some Valentine's Day gifts for Peyton at my parents' house a few weeks ago. We just got them from my mom last weekend though. Here are some pictures of him opening his gifts. Inside of his card, there was some money!

And next, Peyton got this giant Hershey Kiss. He didn't know what it was until I told him it was candy. Then he got super excited and said, "Ooooooh candy!"

And finally, there was a giant chocolate chip cookie. He actually ate this today and loved it. (And had a chocolate face to boot!)

Thanks for the gifts Aunt Bev!

So behind...

I have a few things to post about, but have been so busy this week with the funeral services. I'm hoping to catch up this weekend, so be patient with me! Stay tuned!

Donald Byrum, Sr.

Donald Byrum, Sr.
January 6, 1938 - February 27, 2010

We love you and we'll miss you Pop-Pop

PF Changs

We went to dinner at PF Changs last night. We had gift cards from Christmas to use (thanks Nadean and Vester!). We tried to go a few weeks ago, but it was packed, so we ended up leaving and going somewhere else to eat. This time we were smart and made a reservation. We got there early, but we were still able to sit right down and we even got a table with a high chair (as opposed to a booth with a booster seat), so that was exciting (funny how your definition of 'exciting' changes when you have kids, haha).

Anyway, Peyton was so funny during dinner, that I just wanted to post so that I would remember the evening. Each table gets a set of sauces that you can mix up however you'd like to make the resulting sauce as hot or mild as you enjoy. I never use the sauce, so Kyle mixed it up nice and hot while we were waiting for our food. Peyton kept asking for some to try. We told him that it was really hot and that he wouldn't like it, but he insisted. So finally Kyle gave him a little taste of the sauce. It was hilarious to see Peyton's eyes get super big as he tasted the heat. He immediately grabbed for his drink. I guess that didn't work well enough to get rid of the heat because then he took his napkin and started to wipe his tongue off with it. It was so funny. We had to say we told him so!

Also while we were waiting for our food, a group with a baby in a carrier sat down at the table next to us. Peyton noticed the baby right away and said, "Hi baby!" Obviously, the baby didn't answer so he told me that he needed to say it louder and proceeded to YELL, "Hi baby!" Hopefully he'll love his little brother as much as he loves all other babies. Each time the baby wold cry during dinner, Peyton would alert us to that by saying, "The baby is sad. She's crying." I guess we won't need a baby monitor because we'll have Peyton!

Kyle and I ordered meals that included those little mini desserts. As Kyle doesn't eat dessert much (Weirdo!), he let Peyton choose the flavor that he wanted to eat. Being a smart boy, like his mommy, Peyton chose the chocolate cake. It took a good five minutes for the dessert to arrive at our table. This amount of time was unacceptable to Peyton. He asked, "Where is he?" (meaning the waiter) over and over. He even saw the waiter walk by one or two times to help another table. Peyton excitedly pointed and said, "There he is!" However, he didn't have the cake, so Peyton would get sad again. When the dessert finally arrived, he was so happy. He insisted on eating the cake with no help and ended up with chocolate everywhere - even on his nose!

After Peyton ate some of my soup, most of his own chicken entree, a lot of my rice, and the whole chocolate cake dessert, he ate his whole fortune cookie. I don't understand how is so thin, because the boy can eat! It was definitely an entertaining (an delicious!) dinner.

It's a...

BOY!

We went for another ultrasound on Friday for the anatomical survey of the baby. They examine and measure all of the baby's body parts to make sure that everything looks good. We're happy to report that the baby seems perfectly healthy! While the technician was looking around at the baby, we saw it's "fun parts" clear as day! Looks like Peyton will have a little brother. We are excited!

Here are two pictures from yesterday's appointment.

Valentine's Day

Sunday was Valentine's Day and I am lucky enough to have two very cute Valentines! Sundays are my sleep-in days, so I didn't get up until around 10:30. When I came downstairs, we exchanged gifts. Kyle and I said that we weren't going to get each other anything, but of course we got each other something anyway. I bought Kyle the very romantic gift of a 6-month subscription to a Beef Jerky of the Month Club. He'll get 1/2 pound of beef jerky delivered straight to the mailbox each month until July. What a lucky guy! Haha.

Kyle bought me a Flip! For those that don't know, it's a camcorder that is smaller than our digital camera. It shoots in HD and plugs right into the computer for easy uploading. I'm sure there will be lots of videos to come of Peyton and #2 (never could think of a cute nickname for him/her), so stay tuned!

And we got Peyton some candy and books. (Well the books have not arrived yet. I think there was a backup with the delivery since daycare was closed several days last week.) So, Peyton got some candy. He was happy with that though.

Kyle went to Taco Bell to get me lunch. I'm sure that doesn't sound very romantic, but it is my favorite fast food and I was sort of craving it, so for him to go out and get it for me was very nice. We didn't do much for the rest of the day. I enjoyed the last of my 9 days off from work. We did have dinner by candlelight - which Peyton tried to blow out every 5 seconds during dinner. But he was unsuccessful, so the candle did make it all the way through dinner.

Happy Valentine's Day. Kyle and Peyton - I love you!

Big Boy Bed and Power Outages

On Monday we took the front rail off of Peyton's crib to make it into a big boy bed. We decided to practice with him in the crib like this for a month or two and then we're going to buy him a new bedroom set with a "real" bed. The baby is going to get the crib, dresser, and changing table that is Peyton's now. We wanted to keep the transition from the crib to the bed a separate event from the baby coming, so we thought we should do it now. We were pretty worried about Peyton getting up and running around his room when we put him down for bed/nap, but he surprised us. He's done so well in the bed. He has not gotten out of it one time without calling for us to come get him first. Way to go Peyton!

This is completely random and has nothing to do with anything, but I thought Peyton was so cute trying to eat a taco the other night for dinner. He has great technique for his first time!

With this crazy snow storm that we had all week, our power went out two separate times. On Saturday, it went out at 5:30 am and didn't come back on until 5:00 pm, so we had almost 12 hours without power. It was so cold in the house! Luckily we have a gas fireplace and Kyle was able to get it started to provide us with at least a little heat. Peyton was sad that he couldn't watch tv and I tried to explain to him that the lights and televisions were broken, but he just didn't understand. I was mostly concerned with what we were going to eat all day! But again, we are lucky that our stove is gas, so we were able to use a lighter to light it and we could cook just fine. When Peyton took a nap, Kyle and I played cards on the floor by the fire. I felt like an old person! The lights came back on just as it started getting dark.

Yesterday the power went out again. It went out around 12:30 pm and didn't come back on until 7:00 pm. We taught Peyton how to play Go Fish. We played Peyton and I against Kyle. Peyton was pretty good at it, except that he'd yell out each card he picked up when he had to go fish. That made it pretty easy for Kyle to know which cards we had in our hand. But, Peyton and I won both games that we played against Kyle. Peyton was fascinated with us shuffling the cards. He wanted to do it so bad!

This time it obviously got dark before the power came back on. I was trying to cook dinner, which included cutting up chicken and onions, in the dark. It wasn't too fun. After dinner, we played hide and seek in the dark with Peyton. It is really hard when you can't see anything, haha. Peyton wanted me to read him a book, but the light of the fireplace wasn't helping anything, so Kyle shined a flashlight on the pages so that I could read. Finally the power came back on, and Peyton yelled, "It's fixed! Sesame Street?" He spent the rest of the evening catching up on the tv he missed all day.

We've had a nice week at home together. My work actually has the audacity to be open tomorrow, but I'm not going to go. The roads in our neighborhood are still bad and it's dumb to pay a whole week's tuition at daycare for Peyton to go one day. I like 9 day weekends!

Big Snow

Weathermen were predicting a huge snow for Friday and Saturday. We heard all kinds of reports; one even said 50 inches. We thankfully did not get 50 inches, but we did measure about 25 inches on our driveway. I think the official reports said that Severn got 33 inches.

The snow started around 11:00 Friday morning. Luckily, I was finished with work around 1:00 and was able to get home before the snow got too bad. Kyle also left work early and picked Peyton up from daycare. We got Peyton all bundled up to go outside to play in the snow around dinnertime so that he could enjoy it before it got too deep. There was maybe 4-6 inches out there at that time.

Here's Peyton before he went outside.

Kyle went outside with Peyton and I stayed inside and cooked dinner. They had a snowball fight and tried to build a snowman, but were unsuccessful with that. Kyle said the snow wouldn't pack into a big ball.

Our power went out at 5:30 Saturday morning. It was so cold in our house! Luckily we have a gas fireplace and Kyle was able to get it started. That provided a little warmth, but it was only about 50-55 degrees in the house. Peyton wanted to eat oatmeal for breakfast and it was so hard to explain to him that I couldn't cook it for him! He understood that the tv's and lights were 'broken' and didn't seem phased by the power outage. When Peyton took a nap, Kyle and I were like two old people huddled by the fire playing gin rummy. Eventually, I gave up and went to take a nap. At least it was warm under the blankets.

The power decided to come back on around 5:00 pm, so it was out for almost 12 hours. I definitely did a happy dance when I heard the heater kick on! It took hours before the house warmed up though. But at least we could turn the lights on!

Kyle ventured out to begin shoveling after the power came back on. He took this picture from our garage. It's kind of hard to tell how high the snow is from the picture.

After Kyle got a path shoveled out, we took Peyton out to use as a comparison to the height of the snow. There was over 2 feet of snow on our driveway.

Kyle finished shoveling on Sunday. It took him a good 5-6 hours to get the driveway done. The snowplow finally went down our street around 10:00 Sunday night. Kyle and I were both off from work on Monday. We enjoyed another quiet day home with Peyton. The weathermen are predicting another 12-18 inches of snow on Tuesday into Wednesday. Great.