Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Poopdate

As most of you know, my children have chronic constipation. It is an uphill battle with the girls to keep them regular. They receive a stool softener daily and without it they will get backed up. We are in the process of weening them from it. Tyson, no surprise, also gets constipated. However, we found as long as we keep prunes in his diet he will stay regular. Thank Heavens! No more anal fissure for him. I hope someday, they will all poop.

We literally log all of our children's BMs. It's the topic of our conversions around the dinner table. We talk about poop all day long. When I give Tom a call at work, without a doubt we will converse with one another about our kid's poop. I am sure the guys at his work that listen to recorded conversation giggle out our conversations because it always involves poop. We even describe the type of BM because they need 'mashed potatoes' and not 'play dough' poop. Seriously, we talk about poop ALL THE TIME!

So with all this poop talk, we coined the phrase "poopdate" It's an contraction of "poop update" or a pun for "update". We give each other poopdates through out the week so we know how our kids are doing.

So yes, know that you all learned this new awesome word, you can now use it in your daily conversations. So the next time you need to tell someone about your poop, just think "poopdate"

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Raelyn's First Day of Pre-School

Raelyn starts pre-school today! She was so excited! Last Friday we went and met her teacher and had so much fun. I think she will do well because she wants to play with friends all the time. We went and bought her new school shoes and a folder. She picked out a Disney Princess folder.




I asked Raelyn if she needed a little snack before she left to school. Of all the things, she wanted a carrot! Here is a picture of Maelee and Raelyn chopping down on their carrots, their most favorite vegatable.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Tyson is 6 months old!

     Tyson is 6 months old! I can't believe that my baby is already half-way to 1 year old! He went to his well-baby check up today, he weighed a whopping 19 lbs and 10 oz!!!! He is 27.5 inches. Both height and weight are in the 90th percentile. His head is above 97th percentile. He is all around a big baby! Maelee was this big at her 15 month appointment. Raelyn was this size at her one year appointment. I absolutely can not believe that this is my kid! I absolutely love that he is so big. He is very strong as well. He thinks he is like a one year old .
Tyson has 6 teeth! Can you believe it? He had is first 2 come in at 3 months old. Then his top 4 came in all at once about a 2 weeks ago. Not even 6 months old with 6 teeth! He amazes me. This is soooo different than the girls.
He is now sitting unsupported. He started sitting up at 4.5 months, once again my earliest sitter. He enjoys anyone giving him a smile or attention. He loves food, although we do not allow him to have it. Today he was sitting in my lap and Raelyn was right by me eating a Ding Dong. Tyson leaped out of my arms as far as he can and snatched some right out of her hand! Too bad I am a mean mommy and would not allow him to eat it. I wish I could feed him solids but with the digestive issues that my children have, I just cannot allow him to eat certain foods. Poor kid, but mommy knows best.
He loves his sisters. He enjoys their company. You can often find him laughing at them. He really likes them to play with him. He loves Raelyn's soccer ball (pictures below) he loves to push it and then reach as far as he can for it. He is even starting to get on his hands and knees reaching.
I have really enjoyed the last 6 months with my first baby boy. Boys are girls are truly different. He is my best baby. I hope it continues in toddlerhood.
I Love You Tyson!
                                                              

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Kids Bedroom

We are making progress! This is the picture of the kids' bedroom. It was a lot of work, but we finaly got it painted. I did a wall a weekend for a total of 5 weekends. It absolutey looks awesome! It is not quite finshed yet, we still need to add some curtains and accesories.
I am sure you can tell, there are 5 different colors! I had to paint the white first. Tape it off then alternate between the light and dark colors. It was a ton of work, but so worth it! It looks soooo much better than the pink and white stripes I did before.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Merrill Update

Since I have a few moments while the kids are napping, I thought I would update everyone about the Merrill Family.

Tom is still working at University of Phoenix. He is working on his on is Bachelors degree in Finance. He just bought a pop-up camping trailer and hopes to go on many camp outs with his family. He enjoys the outdoors with his little girls.

Kati just applied to nursing school! She is waiting to be admitted into a program. She hope to go to Gateway Community College for part-time nursing school. She also is training for a 10K in November. In the beginning, she could barley run for a minute without stopping. Within six weeks she was able to move herself up to a 2 mile run. She is enjoying her Uppercase Living business and it keeps her busy. She is now watching her sister's little baby girl, Ava. She is almost 2 months old and is sweet as apple pie.

Raelyn is 3 years old now! She really enjoys being outside. She loves being a big sister and helping with Tyson. She is quite the expert when it comes to making baby bottles for Tyson. She know exactly how much water and the number of scoops. She tries to do everything herself. She loves to help her mommy in kitchen. Her favorite thing is to bake cookies! She also enjoys making smoothies. She loves to press the button on the blender. If you can't find her in the kitchen, she can be found in her playroom playing with her play kitchen. She loves to make pretend cookies and smoothies and serve them up to her sister and parents. She also enjoys the soccer ball she has got for Easter. She loves to run and kick it. She is actually quite good! When she is 4 years old she will play soccer. In August she will start pre-school. She will love to learn and be with friends.

Maelee is 2. She celebrated her 2nd birthday in April. Before her 2nd birthday she refused to wear a diaper and demanded to wear panties. So she started going potty before her 2nd birthday! She is doing fantastic. She too loves her baby brother Tyson. She loves him a bit too much. She is still learning how to be gentle. She likes to do a lot of what her older sister does. She loves to watch movies and carefully picks one out. She is talking well and learning sooo much. She know her colors and animals. She knows most of her shapes. She has learned the concept of matching! She like it when she finds two object with the same color or shape.

Tyson is 3.5 months old. He is a big boy! He weighs 16.5 pounds. He is much bigger than his sisters. He is such a good baby. He doesn't mind who is holding him. He gives away smiles for nothing. He was sick a couple of weeks ago, he had RSV. When I took him in to be seen, no one could tell by looking at him that he was sick since he gave great big smiles too all the nurses and doctors. He now has 2 teeth! That's right, 2 teeth at 3 months old! He thinks he is 6 months old. He wants to eat and sit up like a 6 month old. He has teeth. He is the size of a 6 month old!!! He is the best baby ever. I really think big babies develop much faster than average size babies. I mean he was a one month old when I brought him home from the hospital.

Tom and I will celebrate our 6 year anniversary tomorrow. The last 6 years has gone by so fast, we have come a long way in 6 years. It is also crazy to think how fast the last year has gone. The day after our anniversary we come home from our Vegas trip to find out we were expected our third child! And now here is in our home. We are so blessed to have our 3 children. We are so grateful for everything we have. I hope to be able to update more often and post pics.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tyson Jared Merrill

Tyson Jared Merrill
Born February 11, 2010 at 7:55 pm.
He weighed 9 pounds and 7 ounces
and he was 21.5 inches long.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Kids' Bedroom

After months of going back and forth, we have decided to put all 3 kids in the same bedroom. Which means, we need to make it gender neutral!!! I wanted to re-decorate the room whether or not is was a boy or a girl. Having a boy just made it a
better excuse!

So the theme I  had for Raelyn and Maelee was a Surf, Sun, Sand. It was super cute! I painted the walls pink and white stripes. Then decorated it when hibiscus, flip flops, and surf boards. Here are a few pictures to show how the room was before.



The first thing we did was take down all the decor. Which was hard to let go of such cute things! We picked out a paint color yesterday and hope to paint soon. We just finished spackling all the holes in the wall.

We bought new sheets and pillows for the Girls' bed. I hope to get their comforter sets by the end of the month as well as the crib set  I have picked out.

This project will take us a couple of months, but I thought I would share the progress with you each step of the way!

Only 6 more weeks until we welcome our first son!!!