Oh, this is Santa?

Well, Dylan didn't want to sit on Santa's lap this year. Can't say I'm surprised ... he was fine with it then the three little girls in front of us completely freaked out when it was their turn. That stuff is contagious, I swear.

Not sure what Marina thought about all the furry stuff tickling her!

Is that Santa?!?

Even Marina is getting excited! (Dylan can hardly sleep or eat he's so excited!).

Me and my shadow

Dylan's at the age where he does everything Bryan and I do. Which is really, really cute. And really, really scary! We definitely have to be on our best behavior when he's within 100 yards! Here's a pic of Dylan wanting to be just like Daddy (Dylan is wearing my glasses).

This is what happens when Daddy and Dylan dress Marina. Um, two weeks after Halloween.

Piratemania

Dylan is obsessed with pirates. And he says "Arrggh!" with such authority. He was a pirate for Halloween (those pics coming soon), but he's still wearing parts of the costume.

He wore the eye patch for almost 2 hours. I was beginning to worry that he liked it a little too much.

Even Marina is in on the action!

And then there's this photo of my aunt and uncle, Julie & Dale, and Bryan and me from a few weeks ago. Don't ask.

Moral of the story: Pirate costumes are good fun for the whole family.

20 years ago ....

My father passed away 20 years ago today. It's really hard for me to imagine that so much time has gone by. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday and sometimes I can hardly remember at all. What I do know is that my dad was always happy and wanted to make other people happy. So, please take a moment today to remember him and all of your loved ones. And do something to make someone happy.

Also, please take a few minutes today to think about my dear friend Renee. She lost her beautiful son, Quinlan, one year ago today. I hold a very special place for them in my heart. Love you Nay Nay.

School pictures? Seriously?

Wow. I'm such a rookie mom. You'd think that since I'm a slightly older mom I would figure some things out, but I haven't. Yet.

So even in preschool they have school pictures. And fundraisers. Who knew??

Here are Dylan's school pics. I swear he looks like he's 10.

School Daze

Dylan started preschool this year. I can't believe it. He goes 2 days per week, Tuesday and Thursday from 9-1. As you can imagine for 2 year olds it's mostly about the playground, gym time and snacks, but they do have lessons each day, too. He brings home his projects and then tries to tell me all about them. Like the apple prints. He showed me how they dipped the apple in paint and then pressed it on the paper. He was VERY animated about it, too!

Over the summer he began resisting going to his daycare. He absolutely loves Nana, but didn't want to leave Mommy and probably didn't think it was fair that Marina got to stay home with me and he didn't. Because of that I wasn't sure how he'd do with the new school - strangers, rules, new routine. Dylan doesn't like any of those things (especially rules!). However he's done great with school. He absolutely loves it.

He gets really excited every time we drive by the school. Mostly because of the playground I think. And he also LOVES his lunch box. Thinks it's the coolest thing ever. He doesn't ever eat anything we take, but still loves the idea.

Here's a pic from his first day ... can't you tell how excited he is?

Heavy Metal Lives!!

So everyone knows that I was a heavy metal fan in high school (and secretly still am!). Well, Dylan is living proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Example 1: I was taking him to his first day of preschool and we were trying to find a good song to cheer us up before dropping him off. I scanned the 80s station, the 90s station, the 70s rock station, the Nick Kids station, the adult rock station and he said “NO!” (loudly) to all of them. He usually likes the 90s and the adult rock station. Then I tried XM51 – the Mandatory Metallica station. He started rocking out in the backseat, banging his head and said “Yay mama!”.

Example 2: About a week later we were in the car again looking for a good song. I tried a station that was playing a Fergie song. Dylan loudly said "NO!" so I flipped it to the Mandatory Metallica station. They were playing 'Motorbreath' (one of my faves). He was so excited - started rocking out and holding his fist up. Then the song ended and some lame, new Metallica song came on so I switched it back to the pop station. Fergie was still playing. He said "No mama, no!". So I switched it to the Big Hair Band station on XM and they were playing 'Welcome to the Jungle'. He LOVED it! I started singing and he started yelling with me.

Example 3: Bryan was out of town and it had rained all weekend so I had to get a little creative on things to do inside with Dylan. We decided to have a dance party. After going through all the normal songs we dance to I decided to put on 'Girls, Girls, Girls' ... what a winner. Dylan loved it - loved the sound of the motorcycles. He rocked out to the song, jumping on the couches and playing air guitar. Then I got scared and imagined him in a strip club in about 18 years and had to turn it off.

Seriously … he’s so my kid.

Photo du jour

Loving this look!

Haven't slept in 3 months ...

Marina is 3 months old today! She must've known that Bryan and I were on the edge because on Monday night she slept from 11-6. Seven whole hours of glorious sleep. Of course, I was completely freaked out when I woke up and realized she'd slept for so long, but SO relieved to have had so much sleep! Then on Tuesday night she slept from 11-4:30. Ok, not quite as long, but still ... 5 1/2 hours? Incredible. I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a pattern. .

3 months, just over 10 pounds, sleeping and getting out of her cranky phase. Hooray! Now, if only I could lose 10 pounds, sleep and get over my cranky phase!

"Fay"cation 2008

To say that I've had cabin fever is a tremendous understatement. We were housebound for part of April, all of May, all of June and were just able to get out a little bit in July (like to the doctor's office and the occasional trip to Target). So we decided to take a little family getaway last weekend. We wanted to go someplace close in case we needed access to our doctor so we went to Tybee Island. It's a barrier island right off the coast of Savannah. Only about an hour and a half from St. Simons. It's really quaint (read: kinda boring), but perfect for a long weekend with a toddler and a newborn.

Then Hurricane Fay decided to come our way. If the storm had kept moving like they predicted then we probably would have been fine, but instead it sat right over Orlando/Daytona/St. Augustine for 2-3 days. Right as we were supposed to go on this trip. We went back and forth on what to do, but in the end we decided to go anyway. We figured that we were going north, away from the storm so we'd be fine right? Wrong.

Don't get me wrong we didn't get nearly as much bad weather as the people in Florida, but it certainly wasn't nice.

We rented a beach house, but never set foot on the sand. We lost power on Thursday night and Friday and kept debating whether we should drive home or not. We stuck it out, kept a sense of humor and actually had fun. The kids were on such excellent behavior. Made me realize that we need to go on vacation much more often!

For those of you have been to St. Simons before you know the causeway has marsh on both sides - usually lots of grass with small areas of water visible. This is a photo of the causeway as we were leaving for Tybee Island - no grass, only water! There was water creeping up on both sides of the causeway at a couple of points. At this time Bryan and I gave each other the "are we really dumb enough to go on a beach vacation during a tropical storm" look. And we just kept driving.

Bryan and the little angels

Our first day was really, really stormy so we drove into Savannah (at least there was electricity) and found this cool ArtZeum. We had a great time there. Every city should have an interactive art museum like this.

Video from Day Two

This is a little snippet of the tropical storm action. This was the closest we got to the beach.

It finally stopped raining on Saturday morning so we went to the park - still way too windy to go to the beach. Here are Daddy & Dylan on the see-saw.

Sweet Marina looking so angelic.

Video: Dancing Dylee
This video was taken on our last night on Tybee. The sun finally came out this day; there were still 20-30 mph winds, but we could at least go to the park and walk along the boardwalk. And finally we weren't the only people in a restaurant. This was taken at The Crab Shack, home to 78 live alligators! After we fed the alligators (some really nasty meat we bought from the bartender), we walked by the main entrance which had a little stage of wooden alligators and was playing Jimmy Buffet. It seemed natural to let Dylan join in!

... picking out the equipment ...

... feeding the alligators...

... happy alligators!

Bye, Bye Tybee! Dylan's ready for the drive - in his seat and watching a movie!

What's New at the Jaynes House?

It's been a busy summer for us! What's been going on you ask? Well, let's see.

• We had a new baby.


• We built a new playroom.


• Dylan's learned about 10-15 NEW words (no profanity thank god!)


• Dylan starts preschool on September 2nd.


• I'm launching a new business at the end of August (more on that later).


• Bryan's golf game sucks.


• And oh yeah, we're potty training Dylan! And he's about 75% of the way there! (That's our little bit of news for the family :) Got you to click through to the blog, didn't it?)

Seriously ... crazy days and sleepless nights!

The Dylee-Dawg Days of Summer

All this attention and airtime for Marina has made Dylan a tad bit jealous, but he's working through it! Honestly, he's been great with her. Everytime I pick him up from daycare he wants to see where Marina is, what she's doing and make sure she has a toy in her crib to play with (as long as it's not one of his!). He's a great big brother.

Here are a few pics of him from the summer...

Dylan and Lauren in the sprinkler

Best action shot ever! Click on this image and check out the expression on Dylan's face!

Clearly been outside playing in the 100 degree heat and with that mischevious look he must think he's about to pull one over on me or Bryan.

Looks like it didn't work. Now he's just mad. Ha!

She's a month old!

Most of these photos were taken when Marina was about 4 weeks old. At 4 weeks she weighed almost 6 pounds and 20 inches long. She's still wearing preemie clothes, but can begin to wear some newborn and 0-3 month clothes. And she outgrew preemie diapers. Yay!!

At this point she finally started feeling like

a real baby and not a babydoll!

We call this one "4 Marinas"

Getting ready for her first party - 4th of July. All that effort to get ready tuckered her out!

Deep in thought ... er, something like that...

She's awake!

sleeping beauty ...

She finally decided to open her eyes!

and yes, she does look a little tipsy here :)

Her first dress! (Thanks Auntie J!)

Marina - first week photos

Here are first week photos of Little Marina. She slept about 20 hours a day during this time so while things were scary and we were concerned, she was pretty easy to take care of!This is one of the very first photos of Marina.

This is moments after I was wheeled out of surgery and got to hold Marina for the first time. You can tell by the look in my eyes that I'm heavily medicated!

This is her very first photo at home. Sleeping like an angel!

***********

These photos were taken after we'd been home for a few days and Mimi had arrived to help out.

You can see how small she is in comparison to her very first baby doll (thanks to Mimi!). Who knows why she's making that crazy face.

You can't tell if she's going to cry or fall asleep here.

Mimi giving Marina her first bottle.

Another photo showing her size ... a bottle of nailpolish seems so small but was pretty big compared to her! She's grown so much that I can barely remember her being this small!

She's here!

Many of you probably think that I have abandoned this blog. And it definitely seems that way, but I promise I haven't. I just went on a small hiatus. I've thought about posting many times in the last 6 months but haven't found the time or energy.

We had a long and challenging pregnancy which ended with a month of bedrest and a beautiful, preemie baby girl.

Marina Riley Jaynes

Born: June 10, 3:46pm
4 pounds, 15 ounces and 19 inches long

She's really incredible! The family is all doing great and big bro Dylan thinks she's awesome (which was a huge relief)!

She spent about 6 days in the hospital, but has been thriving and doing incredibly well ever since we got home. This experience has given us a small understanding and such respect for parents with with premature babies. We knew she was coming early and were able to do a lot to prepare (her and ourselves) for the early delivery; however, it was still hard and scary. And so, so, so worth it. She's truly amazing.

Now that I've made my apologies for no recent posts I promise to get back in the habit of posting. And in the meantime, I'm going to post a bunch of random photos from the last 6 months.

Birthday Wishes

I have been really lazy and am way behind on uploading holiday pics and Dylan's birthday pics. However, I promise I'll do that within the next few days.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some cute videos of Dylan's birthday party in Indiana last week. (Thanks Lindsay!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVNmUvuFTFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmfXYCK-8do

Too cute!

My sad, aching heart ...

It's with very heavy heart that I write this post. I just learned yesterday that Brian McElhatton, a very dear and wonderful friend, passed away. He battled cancer for the last year and a half and it finally claimed his young life.

I had the great privilege of meeting Brian while living in San Francisco. He was the most charming, witty Irish man I've ever met. He charmed me with his accent from the moment I met him. He leaves an enormous hole in many hearts as he will be sadly missed.

So, Brian, here's to you, my dear old friend. I love you DB.

Update:
Here is a link to Brian's obituary (oy, what a terrible word) with the details about the memorial service.

Um, where did the last two years go?

Dylan turned two yesterday. Unbelievable, right? It's really hard for Bryan and I to imagine, but it's true. He's two. He's independent, full of energy and charismatic. I didn't know that a two year old could be charismatic, but he is.

Here are some pictures from his birthday weekend. Enjoy!