Spring Days

We've felt pretty darn lucky around Massachusetts lately.  Spring weather seems to have arrived earlier than normal and we have been enjoying spending time outside again.  Never in my life has 50 degrees felt so nice but when you live through MA winters, 50 and sunny seems heavenly and is definitely a reason to be outside.  Ryan just loves being able to play in the yard again and it definitely is good for my soul too.  We've been going on walks, playing on the swing set, blowing bubbles, and listening to tunes.  On top of that, Josh has had some rare Saturdays off of work and so he's been able to play outside with us, which is always exciting and fun.

I'm so excited to have lunches outside, dress the girls in rompers and sandals and just enjoy the sunshine!  What are you excited for?!?!

Family Trip to CA

A few weeks ago, the four of us traveled to California for a week long vacation.  This was the first time since we moved to Massachusetts, almost 2 years ago, that Josh was able to visit family for an extended amount of time and also the first time that most of our families got to meet Rory.  I was SO excited to go to the West coast for awhile, but I knew that traveling with both kids would likely prove to be a bit of a challenge.

If I had had it my way, we would have flown during the morning/mid-day hours.  But, as it turned out, we had to fly in the evening.  It wasn't a red-eye flight but it might as well have been because the girls bedtimes are so early that it was basically time for them to sleep soon after we departed.  Dealing with two young and tired children on a six hour flight, even with two adults, is nothing short of a challenge.  We took turns passing Rory back and forth as she had to be held the entire time.  Ryan did eventually fall asleep, but would wake often and be disoriented and upset which would then usually wake Rory too.  We all survived the flight but we were certainly ready to get off the plane!  Basically, it seemed like one child was constantly awake and therefore Josh and I couldn't sleep at all on the flight.  We landed at about 9:30pm in CA which felt like 12:30am to us and at that point Rory was wide awake.   Our long flight was followed by a two hour drive to Bakersfield and then a certain 5 month old was up for the day at 3:30am! Poor Mommy!!!  It was at this point that I wondered why on earth we decided to travel with kids.

But, we had a great week with all of our family and friends.  Ryan had an endless number of people to entertain her to the point where I was a little worried that it might be a challenge transitioning back to being at home with just Roars and Mom.  She got to play with all of her cousins multiple times and  our friends Kevin and Julie (from medical school) and their daughter Ryleigh even made the trip from Fresno to see us on Valentine's Day.  Ry and Ry are only about 5 weeks a part and were both born while we lived in Redlands together.  It's hard to believe how far we've come since we met them during the guys first year of medical school in England.  They got married, we had three kids between us, and Josh and Kevin are now physicians.  My how far we've come!  They'll always be Mooshoo and Rafiki to me (haha Jules!) and maybe someday we'll all live together again in a place like Grenada.  We can dream Julie, we can dream.

Rory and Great Gramma Catie

Our girls and their boy cousins, Jacob, Cole, Caleb, and Austin!

2nd cousin Benham!

Rory and Isla (My friend Drea's newest babe)

Austin and Roars

Ryan and Ryleigh

The biggest surprise of the week was NOT Josh's surprise 30th birthday party that I threw for him, but the fact that Rory spiked a 103 degree fever the day before and really threw me for a loop.  Had I not already ordered food and a cake for 30 people, I would have canceled the party.  In the end, she was okay before we had to fly home (Praise the Lord) but she likely had Roseola and it was not a good time.  Josh's party did happen and he truly was very surprised.  I hardly have any pictures from the evening but it was so nice to see so many of our friends and family at one time.

Dr. Scurlock and Dr. Scurlock

Josh and his older sisters.  (Joshua Scurlock M.D., Brooke Holmes R.N., Kristin Chisum PA-C)...over achievers. :)

I can't thank my parents enough for allowing all of us to stay at their home for the week.  I know it's not easy to play host to the four of us AND my two sisters who also came into town for the entire week as well. We feel so blessed to have all of them and all of Josh's family too.  Everyone really made it a priority to spend time with us and we appreciate it so much.  A week really isn't much time at all but we are thankful for it regardless.  My Mom insisted that we take a large family photo the evening before we left.  At first I was a little frustrated because I felt like I had so much to do in order to get ready to leave.  But of course, I'm happy she had us do it.  It's so rare that we are all together these days and I know I'll always be glad that we captured this moment in time.

The one family photo quickly turned into a reason to take multiple group shots.  But you know me and pictures, I'm definitely not complaining.

Josh's Mom and brother Andrew.

Of course I asked that we take a couple of our own family pictures, since it's actually almost as rare that the four of us are captured together too.

And apparently we should have stopped after one family photo because this photo shows that meltdown mode had officially been reached. Kids...I tell ya.  This is real life y'all.

The flight back to MA went much smoother than the flight out West.  So I suppose it's possible we'll attempt flying again in the future before the girls are like 15 years old. :)

Rory: 6 Months

Our Rory girl is half a year old.  What. The. Heck.  This has seriously been the fastest six months ever.  Her first year is just flying by at an immensely fast rate and while it is bittersweet, I have to say that I really love this stage of babyhood.  She is constantly learning new things and exploring and experiencing the world around her.  She is so interactive these days both with Josh and I and especially with Ryan.  Their bond is so strong already.

At her 6 month check up, Rory's stats were as follows:

Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (60 %ile)
Height: 26 inches (65 %ile)

We've officially entered the stage where it begins to get difficult to take monthly photos.  Most of her 6 month pictures could have been labeled under "just let me play with my feet," with the occasional "ooohhh let me play with this sticker on my belly!"

At the beginning of Roars sixth month, we transitioned her into her crib in her own room downstairs. Initially this made me nervous.   We of course have her on a monitor, but it is strange to go from having her within arms reach of my bed to all the way downstairs by herself.  However, the switch was needed and we are all sleeping significantly better because of it.  The whole month, she regularly only got up once per night to nurse which was great.  I still have her napping upstairs in the pack-n-play for now because it's much quieter during the day than being downstairs with all the noise of toddler sister Ry.  She regularly takes two naps a day totaling about 3-4 hours.

We finally started some solids a few days before she turned 6 months.  I started with baby oatmeal and she has also had some squash and sweet potato.  She's done surprisingly well with it.  I had kind of been dreading it because I remember it being a ton of work with Ryan, we're talking she'd spit it all out and make a huge mess.  But Rory actually really eats the food well which tells me she was more than ready for it.  She's still nursing about 5 or so times a day and continues to have a big bedtime bottle.

This girl has started moving.  She hasn't fully figured out a crawl, but she scoots herself backward with a lot of efficiency and because of that, she sometimes gets herself into trouble!  She's regularly found under the couch or coffee table or stuck under her jumper.  She's also getting up on all 4's and will have the forward thing figured out real soon I'm sure.  Her mobility also means I have to be really careful about what small toys Ryan is allowed to play with because Rory can now get herself to whatever it is she wants!

Her eyes are starting to turn hazel and I'm sure they'll end up brown like Ryan's and Daddy's.  She loves bath time, her pink lovey bunny, biting her bottom lip and being in her bouncer chair.  She had her first big trip to California and got to meet all of her extended family.  While there, she also had her first real illness, Roseola we think.  That part wasn't fun, but we survived.

She is totally Mama's girl and sister's best buddy.  She is such a content and sweet baby and we just love loving on our Rory Lou.