21 months--3 months shy of 2 years old!

Brodie is so close to being 2, it's crazy!! I really hope the weather is nice so we can have his birthday party outside this year.

He's so independent now. Don't get me wrong, there are still things he needs help with and still needs us. But some things he's doing pretty good on his own.

--Walking down the stairs, he bats my hand away when I try to hold it as we come downstairs. He goes down our mini-stairs without any assistance. He also has no problem going upstairs.

--He sits at the table in a booster seat instead of his high chair now. So Naomi now sits in the high chair when we eat dinner.

--He doesn't want any help brushing his teeth, which he loves to do. I can help him for a couple seconds before he wants to do it on his own.

--He's a daredevil. He has absolutely no fear. The other night, when it was just me and the kids at home, I put Brodie in his room to just relax and calm down. I put Yo Gabba Gabba on for him too. Well, I'm downstairs with Naomi playing around, then all of a sudden Brodie starts screaming and crying. I run upstairs and he's laying on his back, his feet in the bottom drawer of the dresser. As if he was trying to climb the dresser and fell backwards!!! I picked him up and held him and he was fine. There were a couple bruises on his shins from it. It makes me wonder how many times he's tried climbing up his dresser before that time though, where he didn't fail. Perhaps we need to invest in a video camera for the kids' room so we can see everything he does in there when the door is shut! haha

--We haven't really introduced potty training to him. We take him in the bathroom with us sometimes when we go, to show him. He likes to flush the toilet and watch the water go down.

--He's always half jabbering half saying real words. And he'll look at you with such a straight face and say something to you, like you know what he's saying. And what he's saying is very important. haha :)

He's such a silly boy. He knows what he wants and if he doesn't get it be prepared to hear about it, though we are trying to work on that. All in all he is a good boy. He loves his sister and us, and we all love him. He's growing like a weed that's for sure!!

Can't wait till he's 2 and to celebrate that wonderful day he was born. Such an amazing little boy he is. :)

Sick.

Well, it's come around again. We're all sick. Brodie not so much, just the cough that he's had. Ben and I, not as bad either, but lots of mucus and coughing.

Naomi, she has bronchiolitis. Ben took her to the doctor's last Friday (the 21st). They diagnosed her with bronchiolitis. He said they had to test her oxygen levels too :( But, she's doing much better!! She still has a runny nose and a cough, but she's in such good spirits!

She's still smiling and wanting to play! She's exploring faces more now too. And oh how she loves her Einstein! The exosaucer thing where she can jump and play with the hanging toys and play music.

They weighed her at the doctor's, 16 lbs 5oz (or somewhere in there, Ben took her so the stats may not be accurate haha) :)

But we're getting better. Hopefully Mother Nature will stop making it snow on us so it can warm up and the snow melts so we can actually go outside and do things/go places. We'll see. :)

Found Naomi's stats from her 4 month check up!

haha, A little late but that's ok!

Height: 25 5/8" 90th percentile
Weight: 14lbs 13 oz 75th percentile
Head Circumference: 16" 50th percentile

Her next appointment will be next month for her six month check up! :)

We reached a milestone...

Brodie walked down our flight of stairs, BY HIMSELF!!!!! OMG! :) All alone, with no assistance or help. He kept hold of the arm rail and just walked his little self downstairs to where I was. :)

Ben was upstairs watching him and I was downstairs with Naomi. I was ready for bed so I called out to Ben to come downstairs. He didn't hear me, so I yelled "come down here".

Next thing I know I hear Brodie at the top of the stairs yelling down to me. I didn't think anything of it. Then I saw the arm rail start jiggling like someone was coming down. I heard Bro's voice a couple times but didn't think anything of it, figured Ben was walking him down.

I look up and there's Brodie, all by himself! Just smiling and jabbering and holding onto the arm rail walking down!! LOL It was SO funny! Once he got off the stairs and off the landing he came running to me with open arms. It was so cute!

Our little Bro boy is growing up, and way too fast :) He's so independent! A little too independent. ;) lol

5 months old... WOW

Naomi Maxine is 5 months old. 7 more months and she'll be a year!! Kind of off subject but 3 more months and Brodie's 2!! Crazy.

Naomi is sick, again, so yesterday I stayed home with her. Congested, runny nose. But, she's in good spirits and happy. There are times where she is not impressed, but that doesn't happen too often :)

She's growing like a weed! The hair on the top of her head is getting longer. She smiles so much more, and she's so sweet about it too. She'll be staring at you, you look over and smile, she'll smile back but then kinda look away like she's shy. Super cute!

She's trying SO hard to crawl. She'll lay there on her belly and move her legs. She kinda moves around that way, not really crawling, but in a circle. She's almost to the point where you can give her the bottle and she'll feed herself.

She's sitting up pretty well! She can't quite do it without any support yet, but she's getting there. She's also rolling around everywhere! You can't not watch her for two seconds otherwise she'll be rolling away!! haha

Still no teeth. But that's ok. She's jabbering so much! She loves to hear her own voice, its so funny. She loves playing in her Einstein jumper thing. Just bounces and plays the piano thing and looks at herself. She loves seeing herself that's for sure. :)

Besides being sick again, she's doing very good. It's so cute to see Brodie and her and their reactions to one another. She loves staring at him and watching him. The other day she was laying on her tummy and Brodie came up to her and laid by her and he was just talking to her and patting her head. They love each other. :)

For those of you on FB, I try to upload pictures from my phone quite a bit so you can see the kids. I haven't been very good at uploading pictures on this site. I got a new laptop and just got pictures off my phone on there so I'll probably be doing quite a bit of photo dumping when I get a chance.

However, here is one gummy-bear smile of little Nomi yesterday (on her 5 month birthday) :)

Out with the old and in with the NEW year... A time to reflect

I cannot believe it is already 2011. Where has the time gone?! A new year, new memories, same smiles, same family love :)

2010 was such an exciting year for us. So many memories were made.

We started last year out finding out we were going to be adding to our Gwinner clan. Brodie wasn't going to be the baby for much longer and he would be getting a little brother or sister. We were scared, nervous, excited, happy.

Four months later we celebrated Brodie's first birthday! How fun was that!! It was great seeing him make a mess with his cake! I remember telling myself not to cry because he reached that milestone, he's no longer a baby but on the road to being a little boy. Though I was very excited to see what the next years had in store for us :)

Four months later we welcomed our little Naomi Maxine into the world. Wow, did she surprise us with her debut! :) Definitely not expecting her to come two weeks before her due date. I guess she was just ready to meet us! She has been such a little blessing in our little family. Brodie LOVES her. We LOVE her. :)

We also celebrated our third wedding anniversary in 2010. I was pregnant, again ;) haha

Christmas 2010 we started new traditions with our family. It was GREAT!! It was wonderful coming downstairs with the kids and see their little faces when seeing what Santa left them. :) Can't wait till they're older and really know what's going on. It's going to be so much fun!

2010 was a great year for us. 2011 will only be better!! No more babies for us though! :)

In a few months we'll celebrate Brodie's 2nd birthday and then a few months later celebrate Naomi's first! So so exciting. I already have some ideas for Nomi's first birthday, not really any for Brodie. But I'm sure I'll think of something ;)

Looking forward to everything this year will bring us. Hope everyone had a happy new year! :)