Rowan Mae Gora is 2!

Rowan turned the big 2 on Sept. 14 and we had her birthday party last Saturday.  We went "simple" this year and invited over family and a few friends for cake and few cheap-o appetizers.  I think we had pasta salad, crackers and dip, and ants on a log...pretty classy :)  Oh and Papa Gora brought over yummy tomato bread that he made!

It was a fun little party.  Rowan and her cousins were running around like crazy and just having fun playing. Rowan is still too little to really understand what a birthday party is, but she does know that she's 2 now and will say it if we ask her how old she is.  I tried to get her to tell everyone thank you after opening her gifts, but she only said it to mommy.  Whenever we tell her to say thank you now she says "thank you, you're welcome".  She's almost there...I guess :)

Here are some of the wonderful gifts she got:
Dora slippers and a little table and chairs from Mommy & Daddy
red tricycle from Papa Allen
clothes, a crown and fancy shoes from Mimi & Papa Overman
Cute little doll and dog with snap on clothes from Mimi & Papa Gora
Zu-Zu pet (battery powered toy hamster) and fancy table settings from Aunt Linda and Cousin Sydnee
giant sidewalk chalk and a ring sucker from Aunt Janel, Uncle Matt and Cousins Rece, Case, Lorelei & Cort
a cute pink Chicago Bears Jersey and mini Miche purse from Aunt Angie and Uncle Mark
mini tea set from Michelle, Luke and buddies Carson, Amaleah, Alivia, Ainsley and baby Oakley
fabulous quilt and $2 for the piggy bank from Aunt Becky (mommy's friend)
Zu-Zu pet hair salon & Leapfrog computer from Katie, Kyle and little buddy Haley
crayons and poster paper from Erin

Here are some of the party pics.  And yes, I realize they're a little blurry.  Rowan somehow messed up my camera!

Rowan getting "ready" for the party...she has on heels, a bracelet, her new purse, and a belt tied around her waist...so stylish :)

Cutie cake from Wiseway

Rowan helping Mommy make the dip

Rigby at the party...wearing Rowan's party hat, laughting at his cousins and playing with Mommy

Rowan playing at the party in her party duds from Mimi

Rowan and Cousin Sydnee had a sleepover that night...so exhausted from being up late playing

Rowan's late night dinner with Mini Mouse and Bear...her 1st time playing with her table and the new settings

Rigby's 3 month photo shoot

I took Rigby to JC Penney's for his 3 month photos. They're super cheap so it was a "must" for us poor people. I liked the way they turned out too.

Roll-ee Pole-ee

Rigby started rolling over just after he turned 3 months old and hasn't really stopped since.  Every time I lay him on his back to play he flops over.  I've even been finding him on his belly in the morning when he wakes up.  It scares me a little bit...sometimes I wake up just to check on him to make sure he's still breathing.  The doctors just scare you to death about SIDS and warn you to definitely not sleep them on their tummies or with blankets or toys...not to use baby powder...you name it.  They put the fear of God in you.  Geesh.

Rigby's been teething lately too.  I think the little guy can get a better bite on his fingers when he's on his belly.  He's constantly attacking his fingers and chewing and drooling.  His gums are a swollen too so those teeth should be popping thru any day now.   

Teething has also been affecting Rig's sleeping.  He was sleeping 10-12 hours solid each night.  But since this teething started he's been waking up every couple hours and having diarrhea.  It's so gross.  His little butt has been so sore!  I always thought teething causing diarrhea was an old wives' tale but Rigby has been pooping for about 9 days straight usually more than 8 times a day/night and is not sick.  It's nuts!  I took him to the doctor and he wouldn't admit that it was teething causing it...he said maybe it was viral and wasn't concerned since he's obviously still gaining weight. The little guy is still happy and smiling and eating like a champ so I guess all is well.

Rigby is 4 months old

Time keeps flying by and my little baby is already 4 months old!  He's growing so fast -- and I just hate it.  Derek keeps saying he can't wait until next year when Rig can do more...and I'm wishing things would slow down.  I love that he's still my baby boy, and it honestly makes my heart heavy to think of him and Rowie getting big.  I love this age...everything is exciting and such a joy. 

Rigby had his 4 month appointment on Monday, and he's still the fat kid :)  He weighed 19lbs 12 oz and was 27" long and is off the charts as far as percentile.  He's longer and heavier than Rowan was at 7 months...and I remember thinking how big she was.  How funny :) I was looking back at pics of Rowan to see if her and Rigby looked a lot alike at this age...and of course they do.  I'm posting a pic of Rowan at that age too because she had such a sweet little face.  

Rigby 4 months

Rowan when she was 4 months

Hillbilly Hulk

Remember the Incredible Hulk?  He would turn green and outgrow his clothes...

We've started cutting the feet off of Rigby's jammies "hillbilly style" so he can wear them longer.  The little guy outgrows his jammies so fast that I can't keep up.  Yeah, we live in Wanatah :)

 

 

Little Swimmer

We took Rowan swimming at our friend Peggy's house yesterday, and Rowan is sure turning into a crazy little swimmer! She was jumping in and going down the slide and even swimming with her float-ies all by herself. She was having lots of fun and was zonked by the time we got home. At one point she was even going down the slide standing up like she was surfing.  What a nut.  I think she gets some of her craziness from her Daddy.  Here are a couple videos...

4th of July

Here are some pics from the weekend of the 4th. We had big plans but didn't end up doing much since Derek got food poisoning. He was sick on the 4th, 5th, and 6th...it was not pretty! I don't think I've ever seen someone throw up quite so violently. Ew.

I ended up parking the kids in the stroller in the driveway and lighting off fireworks myself! I've actually never done that before so it was interesting. I guess I consider that "a man's job"? Well anyway, I manned up and made sure Rowan got to clap and scream with joy on the 4th...even if my fireworks display sadly consisted of sparklers, smoke bombs, and a few other weak attempts.

We did manage to make it to the beach the day before however. It was so fun and soooo hot! We wanted to make sure we went though for Rowan's sake. It was her 1st day playing at the beach and boy did she have fun. She was fearless when it came to the water so we really had to keep an eye on her. She had no problem just wandering off from our little beach setup and heading down to the water by herself!


Confused by the fireworks I think?


Mommy and Rig waiting for the big show


Rowan did sparklers!


Mommy and Rig enjoying the sun


Daddy getting ready to.........


...toss our precious child around like rag doll


Rigby just being cute


Rowan digging in


Marching back from the water like a show off

Big sister

Rowan has been so sweet and loving to her new baby brother. It's fun to see her trying to "mommy" him and teach him things. She likes to stick his bottle in his mouth and help put baby powder on him and hand me diapers when I'm changing him. I really have to keep my eye on her though because she's tried feeding him her snacks a few times. Yikes. I don't need the little guy choking on a fruit snack.

One really cute thing Rowan is doing right now is saying "awwww" every time she sees a picture of Rigby on my phone or camera. It's funny because that is obviously the sound I make when looking at the pictures and now she's doing it. It still cracks me up though because she catches me off guard when she does it...like she thinks the picture is cute or something. Hahaha :)

Here's a video of Rowan "helping" Rigby make a phone call, well sort of.

Rigby is 2 months old

Rigby is two months old and weighed in at 15lbs 14oz at his 2 month appt. What a chunk! We also discovered at his two month doctor visit that Rigby is allergic to milk protein. So that explains why he's been screaming all the time. The poor little guy was allergic to his food! And with eating every 2 hours for two months straight, he was practically torturing himself. I thought it was a little strange that he would stop nursing mid-way thru his meal to arch his back and scream, but I thought it was all just the reflux. Obviously not! We started soy formula (no more breastfeeding) and it's been a complete miracle fix for him. He's relaxed now and isn't always stiff and crying from the pain. Now he just smiles and coos and giggles. Praise God!!

My good friend Jenny from high school stopped by last week with her new baby Landon. Jenny and I were actually pregnant and due at the same time. So baby Landon is just 2 days older than Rigby. It was fun being prego together and sharing all of our aches and pains and stories. We were calling and texting eachother like crazy the week before these boys were born. Besides sharing their birth week, these boys also share the same milk allergy and both had to have their circumcisions tweeked at their last dr. appts. I guess both Jenny and I are idiots and didn't know that we needed to be pulling back the skin in that area to keep it from growing back together. Shouldn't doctors tell you this stuff? No one told me and no one told Jenny. Um, OUCH! Poor babies. Their 2 month appts were a little rough...shots and pee-pee ouchies.

Here are a few pics of these boys. Please take note of the SIZE difference. Um yeah, one of the babies looks a little on the heavy side, don't ya think? Look at the difference in the size of their feet alone...oh my goodness.

Rowan the Artist

Rowan likes to make her mark on things these days...with crayons and sidewalk chalk and pens. So I let her put her artist skills to work for Father's Day to make her daddy a card. She also helped make him one last year, but she was more into drooling on paper and eating it than coloring at that point. I always make the cards I give to Derek and it's fun now having Rowan help. Unfortunately for Father's Day this year we got a little bit of a late start and were making the card the morning of. And I had a little bit of hard time keeping her "on task" with all the glue, scissors, crayons and markers lying around. So, our card ended up being a little pathedic this time (see below) but it still served it's purpose well. Her daddy liked it, and she was proud of what she made so I guess that's all that mattered.







Have I mentioned that Rowan tried drawing with sidewalk chalk on our new truck? Um yeah, but thankfully chalk wipes right off the outside of a car -- whew! She also brought her chalk into the house and drew on my kitchen floor. FYI chalk also wipes off the kitchen floor. And while I was on my hands and knees scrubbing our floors yesterday, I found that crayon can also be cleaned off wood and tile. Hmmmm. But unfortunately, I don't think ink pen comes off of computer screens, does it? Well, when I wrote earlier that Rowan likes to "leave her mark", I just wanted to make sure you fully understood what that meant. I'm a little scared of the day she's tall enough to reach her daddy's flat screen tv. I'm sure to her it appears to be a blank canvas just awaiting her handiwork.