Grammy's Visit
We were excited to have Grammy come visit us for 10 days this summer. Derek had so much fun playing with "GiGi" (as he calls her). Rylie loved being held by Grammy and smiled and laughed with her. Matt and I enjoyed a couple days away and some great quality time together. Thanks for coming to visit us Grammy! 

eating lunch outside after a swim with Derek's Disney friends

We took a trip to Arizona Sea Life Aquarium to check it out. 

While its no Sea World or Monterey Bay Aquarium, Derek LOVED it. His favorite thing was watching the turtle and sharks swim through the tunnel. 

 

touching starfish

Derek holding his new turtle that Grammy bought him and Rylie reaching for Sophie.

One day we went to the library and checked out books.

 shopping at Trader Joes

 hanging out at the pool when the kids were napping

another try at a family picture

Derek (2 years, 1 month)
We are so grateful for Derek. Each month goes by faster and faster and we are trying to soak everything up!! Derek brings us so much joy and we cannot imagine life without him. Its fun to watch him learn new skills as well as learn to cope with his emotions. He watches everything we do and we often see him later copying what he watched us do.

Derek's verbal skills have come alive this last month! It was like the minute he to turned 2 years old he started talking in complete 6-7 word sentences (verbs too)! Its so fun to watch him process his words and get his thoughts and ideas across. 

Derek LOVES Curious George!! Its the main TV show he watches. We talk about the episodes all day long. Its been awesome because he can relate to the show and we often use George or the Man with the yellow hat as examples of what to do or how Derek might be feeling. In many of the episodes Derek will laugh and laugh at George and the other characters.

Derek usually plays in his room during nap time before falling asleep. Sometimes he moves all the toys and books onto his bed and other times he moves it into his closet (shopping cart, books, blankets, trucks...etc.). Recently he has been falling asleep on the floor (after playing for an hour or so) and not on his bed.

Derek LOVES reading the Bible at night. He usually chooses to read it first. His favorite story is Noah. We have 2 Bibles and Derek calls the story "red Noah" and "blue Noah" because Noah is dressed in those colored shirts in each Bible.

Derek has been curious about smelling and tasting everything. Recently, we did baked some banana bread and he wanted to taste the ingredients, so I let him (sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon etc.). It was so funny to watch the faces he made after tasting them.

Derek continues to LOVE riding his bike. He rides around the house all day. Most afternoons he rides his bike with Matt to get the mail. On the weekends we take him to the school at the end of our street to ride. We are looking forward to cooler temperatures when we can bike outside for longer.

Derek enjoys typing on Daddy's computer. He loves to find the letter "D" and loves to turn up the volume on the speakers, while saying "loud and quiet."

 Derek loves to ask Daddy to throw him up in the air!

 

 playing with cars and trucks

 Bath time fun with letters and numbers

following in Mommy's footsteps!

 more biking

playdate with best bud Zack

 

a normal dinner at the Buman's house!! :)

Rylie's Birthmarks
I want to make sure that I write about Rylie's birthmarks on the blog so I will have it for our family book. Rylie has an "angel kiss" on corner of her right eye and a "stork bite" on back of her neck. The pediatrician says that the angel kiss on her eye will slowly fade, but the stork bite on the back of her neck will stay. Her hair covers most of the stork bite. I think they are both so cute. Derek does not have a birthmark.

A Night Away
Matt and I spent a night away when Grammy was in town. Since Rylie does not take a bottle anymore we brought her with us. Matt took Thursday and Friday off of work and our getaway felt like a mini vacation! During the day on Thursday we left Rylie with Grammy, so we could go to lunch and run errands. We accomplished so much in those few hours (kid free) that would have taken us months to run all those errands with kids! It was so fun to run errands with just Matt. (Who would have thought we'd love spending time together just running errands!) We picked up Rylie and headed to our hotel, the JW Marriot at Desert Ridge, to get settled before going to dinner. Rylie slept in the Ergo during our delicious steak dinner!! It was so relaxing to sit, eat slowly, and talk during dinner! Back at the hotel, it was also awesome to fall asleep early without a house to pick up! Around about 5am we had a fire drill that woke us up out of a dead sleep! Thankfully, Rylie did not wake up and we got a few more hours of sleep!! Friday morning, Matt and I enjoyed an awesome breakfast outside (crazy to think we'd be eating outside during the summer in Phoenix)! Later on, Derek and Grammy joined us at the hotel to go swimming. The resort is really family friendly and has some awesome pools and a really fun lazy river. The weather was overcast and rainy at first (perfect for bringing Rylie outside too) and the pools were not crowded. Just as the sun was coming out we headed to the lazy river. Derek had so much fun riding in the tubes. We had an amazing 2 days away from our normal routine. Matt and I were so thankful to get away and spend quality time together! Special thanks to Grammy and Uncle Kevin! We are already looking forward to our next get away!

 

enjoying breakfast outside

sweet Rylie at the pool

 

 lazy river fun!!

Photo Comparison of Derek and Rylie

I can't believe that its been almost 4 months since I've gotten around to comparing Derek and Rylie's baby pictures to see if they look alike. There are a few differences that I've noticed already and want to remember. Derek had thick/chubby feet and chubby fingers and Rylie does not. Derek would nurse at ANY time (never refusing to nurse) and Rylie will refuse to nurse when she is not ready. Rylie has chubby thighs with cute fat rolls and chubby cheeks. Derek was long and lean and did not have much baby fat. Both kids have long torsos. Derek looked like me when he was born, but began to change into a nice mix of both of us. From about 1 year on he has been a spitting image of what Matt was like as a toddler (tall, blonde hair, broad shoulders, eats all the time, super active). I am excited to see how Rylie will change during her first year of life. I hope her hair grows faster than mine because I didn't have much hair until I was 2. 

What do you think? Do they look alike??? I think the older they get the more they are looking like each other.

In the hospital (Rylie and Derek)

Newborn pics (R and D)

 Sleeping Babies (R and D)

 1 month old (R and D)

2 months old (R and D)

 3 months old (R and D)

4 months old (R and D)