Crazy Days and Sleepless Nights!

Some things never change

2010-02-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

I was just about to change the name of this blog since you'd think we'd now be out of the "sleepless nights" phase of child raising. But we're not. Just last night Marina was up 3 times and Dylan was up once. So for now it stays. Someone please tell me that they'll eventually sleep through the night. Consistently. Please?

Dylan's b-day pics

2010-02-19T10:50:00.001-08:00

I keep waiting to get caught up in my life and then i can spend about 15 hours getting caught up on the blog ... but that's not going to happen. So, here are a bunch of random recent photos - starting with Dylan's birthday. Enjoy!

Dylan's 4th birthday!!

The bike!

The cake!

Mimi's Gift!

Utah, I mean North Carolina, Ski Vacation

2010-02-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

We've been SO excited about our upcoming trip to Park City, Utah. We were fortunate enough to be asked to join a group from Rich's, Bryan's company, on a sales incentive trip to an amazing resort in Park City. We had Dylan signed up for 2 full days of ski school and Marina in a nice daycare - Bry & I were looking forward to a little skiing and a little down time. However, Mother Nature had different plans in store for us. Note: remember we never tell Dylan about trips, visitors, parties. He gets so excited that he can't sleep. However, we broke our own cardinal rule for this trip because we wanted to get him warmed up to the idea of skiing - show him videos, etc. Let that be a lesson to us...

We were supposed to leave Friday morning at 6:30 from Savannah. Get a call on Thursday at lunch that our flights were cancelled and rebooked for Satruday. After 2 hours of calls with the travel agent and Delta (so thankful to Wendy for helping us coordinate all of that) we were set to leave at 5:30 AM on Saturday. Lots of the other people going on the trip scrambled Thursday evening and found other flights for Friday - some even drove to Orlando to get out! We spent the night at a hotel in Savannah since our flight was ridiculously early. Got everyone in bed at 8:30 given our 3am wakeup call. About 10 minutes after we turned out the lights we get the call that our flights were cancelled AGAIN. Now they have us scheduled on a Sunday afternoon flight, arriving in Utah late Sunday evening, and we were scheduled to return first thing Tuesday morning. So, we decided to skip the trip. We were all packed up for a winter vacation - and Dylan had his heart set on seeing snow - so we planned to drive north. Unsure of where we'd end up, but somewhere with snow. Shouldn't be too hard considering we were having SNOW FLURRIES in Savannah. Crazy, right?

Oh - and for the record, we tried to call Delta for 2 hours Friday night and their phones went straight to a message telling us they weren't taking calls and to call back at a later time or go to delta.com. This same message played on their phones all day Sunday and all day Monday - I finally gave up. Still don't know if they'll do the right thing and refund our tickets or not...

Saturday morning we woke up to snow in Savannah. If you squint you can see the snow on the bushes. I know it may not look like much, but for Savannah this was pure excitement! Dylan was in heaven and we hadn't even begun yet!

Then we headed north. Some good friends, the Keens, told us about Sapphire Valley, NC and said it was about 4 or 5 hours north of Savannah. Seemed good enough to us so we started driving. No hotel reservations, no idea of the weather, no plans. Just driving north.

Somewhere along I-26. D making snow angels. Probably at a janky gas station and my precious son is laying in the gnarly bushes. This is when I just turn my head and pretend to not pay attention to all the germs jumping on him. Instead I just look at that smile. He's beyond excited!

So we began on this journey thinking it would take us about 5 or 6 hours to get to Sapphire Valley. Um, it took us 10 hours. There was a detour which took us way out of the way then we got lost in all the mountainous, curvy roads. The last 3 hours of the drive were BRUTAL! The kids were sick of being in the car, Bryan & I were edgy. We finally arrive in Sapphire Valley and find a "lodge" to stay at. Dylan was scared of it because it didn't look like a normal hotel to him - it was all wood and more like a cabin or an Inn. Definitely not a Hilton with an elevator & indoor swimming pool!

Before even unpacking we found a local restaurant so we could eat, decompress and mommy could have a drink. The kids were out of control at this point and sitting in a restaurant was the LAST think they wanted to do. Oh ... this is when the worst part happens. Waitress comes to our table to take our drink order. IT'S A DRY COUNTY!! This is a mean joke - our posh vacation plans were smashed, we spent 10 days, I mean hours, in the car to arrive in what looked like the middle of no where and you're going to tell me there's not a single glass of wine in the county. ARGH!

Dinner was short, to say the least. We went back to our lodge and unloaded. This was actually the best part so far ... our suite was really nice. Two floors, tons of room for the kids, kitchen, etc. Would've been even better with a stocked liquor cabinet but I'm learning that sometimes I ask for too much! :)

Fun at the cabin!

More cabin & snow fun ... for Dyl, not so much for Marina!

The next morning we get up & head to the ski resort. They have a "snow tubing" thing that is apparently great for families. It's a 500 foot hill with a 60 foot drop. Not too scary for kids and adults ... but not for BABIES! They assured me they have children Marina's age and size do this all the time. And they told me she had to go down the hill in an intertube by herself. We could hold on to her tube, but she had to be solo. Seriously? Um, ok. I'll give it a whirl ... this is an adventure, right? We get our intertubes, get pulled up the hill on this weird pully-system thingy, get to the top, Bryan puts Marina in her tube and before I could even react he jumped on top of his tube and down the hill they went. He said she looked bewildered the entire time. So Dylan & I quickly jump on our tubes and go down - he loved it. I thought it was OK (have to admit I did get a little scared - they guy sent me down backwards so I couldn't see anything - just the other people being pulled up the hill whizzing by.) I get to the bottom where Bryan, D & Reenie are slowly getting out of the tubes and I plow right into them. Naturally all the people around start cheering as I take out my whole family.

At this point Marina is done. Wants nothing to do with this. So she & I hang out & watch Bryan & Dylan come down one more time. She's refusing to wear a hat or gloves and she's freezing. After that, she & I go to the "lodge" and have coffee & milk. For the next hour & a half. So: $25 per person for 2 hours + Marina & Mommy only going down once = Good sales job by the ticket dude!

After the boys are done tubing we leave the ski resort & head to a place for lunch that serves booze. Yes, I know it's only noon on Sunday, but it's been a long 36 hours. It's about a 2 minute drive from the ski lift & by the time we pull into a parking space Marina is asleep - thwarted again! We go back to our lodge, Marina naps, Dylan & I have a fun lunch at the coffee shop, Bryan relaxes. 2 hours later Marina wakes up and we're off to our next adventure - afternoon in Highlands. It's about 15 minutes away. By the time we get to Highlands Dylan is asleep. So we drive around for 2 hours - me jumping out at the cute shops and everyone else hanging out in the car. We did find a beer & wine store in Highlands. Halleluiah!

We go back to Cashiers (don't think I ever mentioned - that's the town where we're staying) at 5ish. Bryan & I each down a drink & we head over to an Italian restaurant for Valentine's Day dinner. It's one of the only restaurants open in the entire town - there's a snow storm coming on Sunday night/Monday & all the locals seem pretty freaked out. After dinner we're too stuffed to drink anymore. Yes, all that whining I did about no wine and now I can only drink one glass. Serves me right!

Wake up on Monday morning to 3-4 inches of fresh snow. We decide to pack up, head to the ski resort for a lesson for Dylan and then attempt to get down the mountain. Dylan played out in the snow for an hour while we were packing. He was in heaven! Drive to the resort & Marina is asleep when we get there. So Bry & D head to the ski lesson and I hang in the car with Marina. He LOVED his ski lesson. After an hour I finally woke her up because it was killing me to not see him. I made it just in time for his last run down the hill. His smile and pure joy made the previous 48 hours not even matter!! This is exactly what it's all about!

Marina during ski lessons

Dylan & his instructor

Dylan rocks it!

D crashes!

Post ski glow!

Post ski lesson we all played in the snow, built a snowman and had a snowball fight. Nothing better than that! Then we headed home. Only took us about 8 hours to get home. MUCH better than what we'd expected!

All in all it was a fun weekend. We certainly made the best of it and Dylan had a FANTASTIC time just playing in the snow! However, I still feel the need for a do-over trip to Park City...

We're baaaack...

2009-09-22T15:55:00.001-07:00

OK, I'm not caught up on life, but have realized that I'm never going to be. So, I'm just biting the bullet and beginning to blog again. I think I've been waiting for that "ahhh, I'm all caught up and nothing else to do" moment "I guess I can blog now". However, there's always children to chase, work to do, laundry to get clean, toys to pick up, phone calls to return and a husband to talk to. So getting caught up just doesn't seem likely in my near, 10-15 year future. If you hear me saying that I'm trying to get caught up refer me to this post!

Anyway, here's my latest funny moment. Dylan is in the terrible 3-and-a-halfs and always tormenting his sister. I'd warned him many times today to be nice to her and stop harrassing her. He was chasing her through the house, they were following me naturally, I heard someone hit the floor and Marina began crying. I turned around to see blood everywhere and she was holding her breath. I instantly knew that Dylan had pushed her. I swooped her up and sent him to timeout in the corner (more on that in another post - timeout is hysterical at our house!). After I got her calmed down and realized all the blood was just from a tiny cut in her mouth I asked why he'd pushed her (he's still in time out, though). He was adamant that he didn't push her and in his struggled speech he basically told me that she'd tripped. Which is ENTIRELY possible! Then he said "Mommy, baby fee go bee-out, no weee". Translation: "Marina's feet need to go to timeout, not me."

I smiled, knowing I was wrong to immediately suspect him. And reluctantly released him from his timeout prison. And poured a glass of wine.

Up next - a million pics from the last few months just to get caught up!

bazillion photos ... part deux

2009-03-03T11:05:00.001-08:00

Okay, here are more pics. No real order just me being obnoxious and posting way too many photos of my kiddos. Once this mokey is off my back I'll post some true updates on the family :)

Dylan's birthday

(party #2 - he had a party in Indiana, too. Talk about spoiled!!)

Sassy little Marina

Dylan and his playmate

Marina with a cute flower in her hair (along with her newly found food allergies!!)

Dylan reverting back to ...

my favorite photo! I love that smile!

Paris in the Spring

2009-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Auntie Vicki, Marina is all ready for a runway show in Paris with this tres chic new outfit. Oh wait, she can't walk yet! There's always next year!

a bazillion photos!

2009-02-24T11:36:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't posted in such a long time I figured I'd dump a bunch of photos and let them do the talking. Here's the first batch. Enjoy!

Halloween 2008

Marina was a kitty and a pumpkin. You know how a girl can never have just one choice! :)

Dylan was, of course, a scary pirate!

Christmas Road Trip

Dylan breakdancing at the bowling alley. uh-huh....

Papaw Tim with the kiddos

Mimi and Marina (dressed like a candy cane it looks like)

Christmas Eve

Is it really 2009?

2009-02-13T06:27:00.001-08:00

OK, I have no clue what's happened to the last 6 weeks. Wait, yes I do.
- Dylan turned 3!
- Dylan started his new school (separate post on that coming soon)
- Marina got RSV
- Bryan got some weird eye infection
- FunnySpoon has been keeping us busy, busy, busy
- Regular jobs have been keeping us busy!
- I had a small surgery and a double-whammy sinus infection/bronchitis so I was down & out a week or more

I'm sure a few other things happened in there, too, but you get the gist. The Jaynes house is busy. No busier than anyone else, but just not as good as handling it!

So, this is my explanation and apology for not posting any holiday photos or Dylan's 3rd birthday photos. Coming next week, I PROMISE! In the meantime, my dear friend Shannon Samson shared these photos from our visit to her TV station in Indianapolis right before Christmas. Thanks Shano!

it's actually a better photo of Marina's carseat than Bryan, but wanted to prove he was with us!!

We totally missed out on the photo of the kids with Auntie Shano. I think the 3 degree weather had frozen my brain so I can't be held responsible for not thinking...

Daddy's fired!

2009-01-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

Being the great father he is, Bryan wanted to help out and took Dylan to get his hair cut on Saturday. I think he's taking 'recession budget' a little too seriously ... Dylan won't need another haircut until 2010 now!

(This was taken after Dylan ate his birthday cake. He's not trying out for a Cure cover band!)

Never a dull moment!

2009-01-07T05:40:00.000-08:00

Today is Dylan's first day at his new preschool (more on this new school in an upcoming post). School starts at 8am. In Brunswick. No big deal for most people, but you all know that I'm not a morning person. And neither are my kids. They'd like to sleep until 9am every day if possible. This is great for me most of the time, but now with the new school time I have to figure out how to get myself and the kids out of the house by 7:30. Today was day 1 and I already had to call in for backup. And bail money.

Marina is sick with RSV so I asked Bryan to stay home with her while I dropped Dylan off. As I was leaving (running 10 minutes behind schedule) I joked to Bryan that not only were we late, but I wasn't exactly sure how the drop off process goes - where to park, what door to go in, etc. I said "I'm like Mr. Mom when he drops off the kids and everyone kept saying 'You're doing it wrong!'". Bryan laughed as I ran out the door (probably not fully getting the Mr. Mom reference).

So we get to school, 5 minutes late. Find out Dylan's speech therapy is supposed to begin first thing so we're late for that. Sigh. I leave school, get in my car and have a brief moment about leaving my son for his first day at 'the big school' and then pull out of my parking space. As I'm pulling out of the parking lot I notice a police car behind me with blue lights on. Now, I haven't even pulled onto the street yet so I'm thinking it must be some weird security measure to drive with their lights on around schools. Or maybe the police officer doesn't know her lights are on? Stupid, I know, but there was no way I was being pulled over. Wait, yes I was. I was getting pulled over in a parking lot. At my son's new school. What that *&%#?

Apparently I was doing it wrong. The parking lot is a one way circle, just like on Mr. Mom, and I went the wrong way. The police officer was nice and probably felt sorry for my deer-in-headlights-already-been-crying-self and just gave me a little warning about being safe around children and the school.

Lesson learned - always have a backup plan and bail money ... even ifyou're just going to preschool.

Oh, this is Santa?

2008-12-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

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?!?

2008-12-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

Me and my shadow

2008-12-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

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).

2008-11-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

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

Piratemania

2008-11-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

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 ....

2008-11-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-10-01T07:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-10T19:32:00.000-07:00

Loving this look!

Haven't slept in 3 months ...

2008-09-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-01-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

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 ...

2008-01-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

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!

Photo du jour

2007-12-14T15:59:00.001-08:00

I love this picture ... so freaking cute!!

Thanksgiving Craziness

2007-12-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

(ok, I know this post is late ... I've been knee deep in tree trimming, holiday shopping and gossip magazines! Honestly, it just took me a while to make it through all the pics from Thanksgiving before I could finish this post. FWIW, enjoy!)

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, it was the ultimate family get together - our extended family is enormous and so much fun. Crazy, but the good kind of crazy. And the food ... the food was always fantastic!

In my twenties Thanksgiving was always about spending time with my friends (and lots of drinking).

Now that I'm married, we have a tradition of always spending Thanksgiving with Bryan's family. It's really become the one time during the year that Bryan, his brother and his sister have committed to celebrating together. As often as possible, we're with the rest of his family - Grandmother, PeePaw, Aunt Julie, Sydney, etc. This year we hosted the Thanksgiving feast so Barry and Becky and kids were able to come down, but none of the other family mentioned above. While we had a really amazing celebration this year I think we all missed have the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins around. After all, that is what Thanksgiving is all about, right? That and gorging on too many calories.

Here are some of my favorite pics from this year's Thanksgiving feast.

Rowan, Chris and Alicia being silly ...

Alicia in all her cuteness ....

Chris, Becky, Alicia, Rowan and moi ...

Rowan ... too cute!

Uncle Barry and Dylan ... what studs!

Brendan and Dylan chillin'

Pumpkin Patch ... with granny!

2007-12-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

I know these photos are old and a bit out of season, but couldn't resist sharing. We went to the pumpkin patch after Halloween. Yes, I know you're supposed to go before Halloween, but I couldn't get my act together in time. Don't ask ... :)

We drove for what seemed like an eternity (about an hour and a half) to a little farm by Jessup, GA. It was a beautiful day and a fun little adventure - they had a petting zoo, hayride and pumpkin patch. All Dylan really cared about was eating snacks as you'll see in the pictures below.

Oh, and grandma went with us. She seemed to enjoy herself.

Fun with family!

2007-12-05T09:22:00.000-08:00

Matthew and Shelby (our cousin and his girlfriend) came to vist right before Thanksgiving ... we had a great time with them! Here's my favorite pick of the boys chilling over a cold one :)

In Loving Memory ...

2007-11-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

It was 19 years ago today that my grandpa passed away, Mike Myers. And my mom says no, he wasn't the scary dude from Halloween and wasn't Austin Powers!

It's strange to think that I'll never get to meet him. If he was half as crazy as my mom is I know he would've been so much fun! So grandpa, I'm thinking of you today. And I know my mom and family are, too.

Therapy, therapy, therapy

2007-11-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

OK, so it's not like poor little Dylee didn't go through enough with his plagiocephaly and torticollis and all the therapy, but now he's having trouble with his speech (or lack thereof). He had a frenectomy at the beginning of October. The hope was that once he'd have more mobility with his tongue that he'd begin saying some real words. He recovered very well and very quickly from the surgery ... however, no words. Zilch. Nada.

Oh, we also thought that he'd 'find' his tongue and start to stick it out after the surgery. Bryan's been waiting for Dylan to be able to lick his eyebrows or something. Again, nada. Zilch. Zero. Here we were waiting for this magical surgery and felt totally let down by it.

So, we began speech therapy on October 23. Miss Amanda, our speech therapist, comes to our home twice a week and works with Dylan. She does very structured play and tries to reinforce her words, signs and his behavior. I'm still not sure how you do speech therapy with a 22 month old or what sort of changes I should be seeing.

I think he's just working on his own schedule and doesn't want to start off with words like juice, outside or shoes. He's going to jump to full-on, grammatically correct sentences. Right? Right.

Halloween!

2007-11-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

I struggled to come up with a clever idea for Dylan's Halloween costume this year. Since he's not talking yet it's hard to figure out exactly what he likes and doesn't like. However, one thing is clear: he's obsessed with the movie Happy Feet. From the first time he saw the movie he started dancing just like the main character, Mumble. Whenever he hears music or any sort of rhythm he begins dancing. So a penguin was a natural choice for his Halloween costume!

Going to the first house was very exciting - once I convinced him to put on the complete suit ... with the feet! He quickly learned to take a piece of candy, put it in his cool bag (probably his favorite part) do his Happy Feet Dance, wave bye-bye and move on to the next house. He was disappointed when he walked up to our front door and no one gave him any candy!

And the end of the night is never very pretty, is it? After the trick or treating was done and the sugar buzz was starting to wear off he was EXHAUSTED!

Pic of the day

2007-10-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

pure cuteness ...

My first boo-boo

2007-10-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

There I am, sitting on the couch with Mimi and Papaw, playing with two stuffed animals that are as big as me, when I suddently lost balance. Yikes. I fell straight from the couch onto the coffee table ... breaking the fall with my mouth. Not exactly a happy moment for me (or mommy!)

bad hair days ...

2007-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Mommy says "Isn't this fun?!"
Dyaln is thinking "Why does she keep doing this to me???"

"And the wig? you've got to be kidding me. I totally need a little sister!"