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12.15.2014

Fort Worth Botanic Garden

Two weekends ago we woke up wanting to do something outside! That Saturday was such a beautiful day! I knew a stroller ride around our neighborhood wasn't going to cut it. Sean didn't have to work and we had a full day to do what we wanted! We've been wanting to take Sid to a park - and what better day than his six month birthday! I decided we should pack a pick-nick lunch and head down to Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Sid woke up from his nap around 1:30 and we loaded up and headed south on 35. We stopped at Jimmy John's on our way down to grab some sandwiches.

We strolled around for a while, then found a nice sunny spot to have our lunch. Sid enjoyed looking up into the sky and playing with some toys while Sean and I ate lunch.


Sid kept trying to eat Sean's sandwich wrapper. It crinkled, which to him meant...TOY! 


It was so sunny! Sean kept trying to block the sun out of Sid's eyes.


We had such a great time being outside on such a gorgeous day. Look at that sky behind us! There is no filter on this photo!


After lunch, we strolled around some more. We found a really pretty area and decided to test out our mini trip-pod and my new camera! I am so glad we did because I feel like we got an awesome family picture! Yea yea, I know - it's nothing special - we aren't in coordinating outfits - but regardless, I love it so much. It makes me happy :) It was a special day the three of us had together and this picture reminds me of how nice it is to get out with your family and just enjoy being together. It doesn't have to be anywhere fancy. I look forward to more days like this one :) I love these boys so much. They make life oh so fun!


A few others that didn't quite make the cut:

Sid was happy, but his eyes weren't cooperating! (& neither was the sun on Sean's face for that matter.)
Such a cute test shot :)
I can't wait to do it again, boys!

12.10.2014

Sidney Loyd - 6 Months

Here we are again. Another month older. Is it possible that I love him more with each passing day, because I sure do!



This month he's been so much fun. He is a very easy going baby.

` He has started rolling over onto his belly to sleep. This is great, only it made us nervous for a minute. It still sort of does sometimes because he will literally face plant himself into the mattress! The first time I noticed him doing it I had just gotten off the phone with Grammy after talking about a news segment she saw about SIDS. I got off the phone, checked the monitor, and found Sidney face planted, sound asleep, in his crib! I ran in there and turned his head so fast. He just moved a minute and resettled, never waking up. Phew!



` Sid has started sitting up unassisted. As long as someone is close by for when he decides to lunge himself forward or sideways to reach for something. Then he needs a spotter :)



His newest thing is sitting next to his bookshelf and trying to get all the books off the shelf. Great!



` He has become way more smiley! It is still hard to get giggles, but the smiles are coming way easier and you don't have to work quite as hard for them. Especially if you make the bee sound, like "bzzzzzzzz"! Works every time!


Sleepy head!

` He loves going to restaurants and getting to stand on the table. He much prefers for his daddy to hold him when we go out because mommy is a bit more like ahhh, don't touch that than daddy. (guilty!)


 ` I don't have a picture of this, but something he does that makes me laugh so hard is not bending his right leg! When I'm changing his diaper, or doing baby yoga exercises with him, he will bend his left leg up into his chest, but when I go to push his right leg up, he locks his knee. Without fail. Every. Single. Time! It makes me laugh soooo hard because it goes like this - Left leg up - Right leg NOPE - Left leg up - Right leg NOPE! Thankfully, I think this game is nearing the end. But gosh it was hilarious while it lasted!

` Sid loves his books! Particularly the cardboard variety that he can pound on while I read to him. We keep a few by our chair in his nursery so they are there to quickly grab. He likes to help turn the pages, even if it is backwards. And sometimes, he decides it's time to close the book before we are done. But that's ok! We just open it back up and continue reading, and then BAM, he closes it again :)


` We discovered Sid has a striking resemblance to my grandfather, Papa. I die laughing at the site of this!



` He LOVES prune juice! We have had to start giving it to him every once in a while to help, ummm, keep things flowing if you know what I mean. He will gobble a bottle down in no time. And - without going into too much detail, let's just say too much isn't really a good thing. When it happens in the middle of the night. "What is that?", said Daddy when he went to turn the white noise back on because the storm made our electricity flicker. Sid wasn't phased in the least! Pretty sure he would've kept right on sleeping until morning (ick!).



It took him a minute the first time, considering he didn't even
know what a bottle was!


` When Sid is done bouncing in his jumparoo, he will hold his arms out to be picked up. So cute!



` He loves going outside! We usually try to get one nice stroll in each day. Thankfully the weather has been cooperating. Not sure what we will do when winter fully hits :(


` He likes to play with his Nana and Grandpa on most Sundays!



` I have no idea how daddy gets any work done around here! Sid adores sitting in his lap while he works.  And if I had to guess, I think the feeling would be mutual :)




` SOLIDS!! He started solids one week before his 6m mark. We started a tad early because Grammy was here! And - he has been super interested in us eating. He wasn't quite sure what hit him with the sweet potatoes. 


He sort of started warming up to the idea once daddy showed him that he would eat it, too!


` Sid loves to lounge with Sean. 


Sidney is such an awesome little dude! We love him to pieces and pieces.

Weight: 17lbs 12oz (54th%)
Height: 27.5" (83rd%)
Medical Issues: Nothing a little prune juice can't fix ;) & a mild case of eczema
Naps: Typically he goes down in the morning about an hour after waking up. Then he gets either one really long nap and a short one, or a few short ones. It changes all the time.
Night Sleep: We still try to do bath at 6 and bed by 6:30, but sometimes he is in the bath by 5:30 depending on how tired he is. He wakes between 6:30 and 7a. There were a few weeks this month that he woke at 5:30 ready to start his day. Yikes!
Clothing Size: 9m and maybe a few 12m.
Diapers: BG 4.0 w/ cotton or bamboo inserts during the day / then we moved him up a size in his nighttimes to brown edge workhorse w/ size 2 cover for night.
Diet: Mama's milk! and some sweet potatoes 
Favorite Baby Gear: Jumparoo, and he still likes his play mats
Personality: He is totally content, most all the time. He is just chill and happy. He might not smile all the time, but he is just taking it all in. The smiles are definitely coming more often these days. 
Milestones/Firsts: He had his first real food! We started one week before his 6m birthday. Sweet potatoes pureed and mixed with breastmilk. He is sitting up on his own, as of about 2 days after his 6m birthday. 
Likes: Going for walks in the stroller, naked floor time before bath, playing with his books, grabbing anything he can get his little hands on, grabbing doorknobs (I will be cursing daddy for this one day!), sleeping on his tummy.
Dislikes: Sweet potatoes (we will work on this!). I am pretty sure that nothing phases this kid! I haven't found much that seems to bother him. Not even the wettest of diapers!
NicknamesPumpkin and Pumpkin Pie. 

OUTTAKES!!!


12.08.2014

Thanksgiving 2014

Sean and I had the joy of hosting our second Thanksgiving. We had a house full of family. My mom, Adam and Christy, Jack and Sheryl, and my Aunt Vida and cousins Jim and Alice. OH, and Louis and Sid, too :)

We started preparing the menu weeks before, finally settling on the most traditional meal we've had in years! And you know what? It was delicious! I felt like I was starting to catch something the Sunday before. I was so lucky that I was able to kick it before anything took real havoc on me. Sean was awesome and did the grocery shopping for me on Monday so I could stay in and rest as much as possible. Thankfully by Tuesday I was feeling like myself again!

I made myself a timeline on Monday of things I needed to get done. My mom was doing the same thing, remotely. She drove down on Wednesday. So on Monday, Sean bought the groceries and I made the sweet potatoes. Tuesday, I made the cranberry sauce. Wednesday, Sean picked up the turkey from Whole Foods and got it in the brine, and I did half of the chopping for the dressing. My mom baked the cornbread at home before she came. I worked on cleaning around the house a little each day. My mom brought a ham. We put the green bean casserole together and made the pecan pie on Wednesday night. The dressing was thrown together on Thursday morning. I think that's it other than the rolls. It was way less stressful breaking each dish up this way. By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, all we had left to do was fry the turkey and heat everything else up!!

I was able to capture a few pictures of the day :)

I decided to use my real china plates that my mom picked out for me from different flea markets back when I got married. I love the way they look on our old beat up antique table.


For the centerpiece on the main dining table I used clippings from our yard, including fresh herbs!


The other table was set with some pretty flowers that Christy brought me! And I had a little pumpkin for each table. I had candles as well, but of course I forgot to light them (I always do this!). My mom burns the bread. I forget to light candles. Pick your battle ;) 


Sid is an awesome baby, but he was particularly awesome on Thanksgiving! I think there was just so much going on that he never got bored. He was entertained by watching us all move around like crazy people (except really, it was pretty calm and not crazy)!


With every large food event comes at least one hiccup, right? My mom brought Sean my dad's electric turkey fryer a few weeks ago when she was visiting. We never opened the box, just stuck it in a corner until we needed it. Well, come Thanksgiving morning, Sean opened the box to get everything set-up, only to find the electrical cord was not in the box! Oooooooh my goodness. The cord is probably laying around somewhere in my dad's barn, in Arkansas, on the mountain. Fantastic! And completely helpful (not!). We jumped online to see where we could run out and buy another one (options being limited seeing as how it was Thanksgiving morning!). It was only 9am, so worse case scenario we could always roast the turkey (Chef Sean did NOT want to abort his frying mission!). We found that Walmart had one. Sean left for the hunt. After almost an hour passed and he wasn't home yet, I called him because I just didn't have a good feeling. He was leaving Kroger. Excuse me, Kroger? Online Walmart was wrong. They had no more electric turkey fryers. While there, he got a call from his mom who was in charge of bringing pumpkin pie. She made one that was really good, but not a traditional one. Sean said he was out anyway & he'd run into the grocery store and pick up a traditional one for us to have as well. He looked there for a fryer. They didn't have an electric one, but they had a propane one. Done. We had no other option. He came home and got busy putting the thing together. 


Sid, Grammy, and I enjoyed the show (and it was a show, a show of frustration, what joy!)!


Louis was a part of the fun, too, but he was more interested in trying to catch a bird than take a photo!


Jack and Sheryl got to the house around 11 and they jumped right in to help!


Time to fry the turkey! Christy made Sean a "bionic arm" so that he wouldn't get any hot grease on him!


Uncle Adam and Aunt Christy were great babysitters while I was busy getting things together inside. We were so lucky that the day was so beautiful. We love enjoying our patio when the weather is nice :)


We sure missed our DC family, but 3 Traylor's together is better than none :)


Sid's Great Aunt Vida has been dying to meet him! It was an instant bond, don't ya think?


Louis could not be any cuter in this picture! I just love that little pup!


Nana helped entertain Sid!


Can you tell they are related? I can't help but see my dad when I stare at these two!


Couldn't have pulled this day off without this mama! She's the bestest :)


We planned to eat at 1, but in true Traylor fashion - we didn't sit down until 2. Totally fine! It just made the food taste that much better because we were hungry!!


Chef Sean carving his turkey. It turned out really good. I think he was actually, maybe, a little bit, happy with it :)


Nothing sweeter than a table filled with family!


It was a lot of fun getting to host everyone at our house. I was a little stressed at the thought of having 11 people for the meal, but it turned out great! Thanks to everyone chipping in - we got the day done, 99% stress free! Yay! Now, let's remember this stress free year in years to come. It can be simple and still perfectly tasty! 

That evening we ate a full plate of leftovers (don't judge!) and watched the LSU game! We won! GEAUX TIGERS! Nice way to end the terrible season we had, I guess.

On Friday Adam and Christy headed back to Shreveport. We went to eat at Uncle Julio's before they hit the road. Sid loved watching all the action in the busy restaurant. Totally entertained :) 

Saturday morning my mom and I ran some errands for my cousin's baby shower we are throwing her next weekend in Shreveport. Sean and Sid stayed home and went for a walk together. While in Hobby Lobby, I got this text...


How cute! I love that his daddy can take care of him and I don't have to worry - at all - about if he can handle it! 

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out. We FaceTimed with our DC family, we got our tree up, and Grammy watched Sid so Sean and I could run some errands. She enjoyed listening to Christmas music while sewing on the stocking she's making Sidney. I am so in love with it. I love a homemade craft. I don't like when stockings are store bought and matchy matchy. I like the eclectic look. Where each stocking tells a story. I am so excited to see it hanging amongst the rest of ours this Christmas :)


Sid was a lot of help! He even took his clothes off  ;)


For dinner that night, Sean cooked chicken fried steak with thyme gravy and mashed potatoes! Isn't that what every family wants 2 days after a huge Thanksgiving meal? Trust me, it was totally doable. And really darn good!

We are so thankful for many things. But perhaps our biggest blessing this year is our little Sidney Loyd. We are so thankful for his beautiful, innocent little life.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!