January 2015

Hi everyone!

It's me, Bryce!  Here I am looking good in stripes for my 5 month pics (have you guys picked up a theme in my wardrobe)?!?

Life is good! Most importantly for me, my mom got a clue and figured out (with the assistance of two pediatricians, three nurses, two allergists and 27 friends and family members) that I am allergic to milk, so now my eczema is much better and I'm a lot less itchy.  Thanks goodness!

My sister is continuing to thrive as a sweet, loving, early rising, egomaniac.  She often grabs my wrist and says "HI GILLIAN"!!! As if that's exactly what I'm thinking when she is towering over me, disregarding my personal space.

Here is me using my look of total discomfort to alert my mother that we are getting close to a problem.

Here is me realizing that anytime Gillian says "Want to hold him!!!!" that there is cause for concern

Here is me demonstrating resilience and just my overall award winning personality.

But the great news is that overall, I'm doing well.  I'm sleeping alot, enjoying my babas, and I've recently been introduced to sweet potatoes which are delicious.  And even though Gillian gets up every day before 6am (we've tried the tell-time clock which might as well be a glowing copy of War and Peace, putting her down later, putting her down earlier, shortening naps, putting her back in her crib in the morning over and over, letting her cry, if you have other ideas please email mom), so despite this egregious sleeping flaw, Gillian is doing great too.  She's talking in full sentences.  Yesterday, she walked into the playroom the other day and said, "what's up guys?" to mom and dad.  She loves talking about the weather ("It's cold out.  It's not warm.  It's snowing.  It's not snowing") and may possibly have a career as a meteorologist.

Just getting her dolls set up

"Gillian I'm going to run upstairs and check on Brycie.  Be right back!"
"Painting my chin mama!"

Finally, mom went back to work for the first time in six months, which was basically a non-issue.  Here are mom and dad commuting together.  After this photograph was taken, daddy stopped talking to mom and did work the entire trip. :)

Here is a link to our latest family pics.

love,

bryce

Christmas 2014

Hi everyone, it's me Gillian.

By now, many of you have heard some tales of the Tully's Christmas Vacation.  Let's play FACT OR FICTION to determine what was true!

Fact or Fiction:
I threw up as soon as we boarded the plane, but only after declaring: "Done, done, plane!  Go home now!"

FACT.  Don't forget that I also woke up covered from head to toe in vomit 15 minutes before we were supposed to leave for our flight.  All of my crib friends spent the week soaking in a bucket in the basement.

Fact or Fiction:
I wore Bryce's pants home from the airport.

FACT.

Fact or Fiction:
Mommy got my special "bug" and claims not to remember being in Florida.

FACT

You get where this is going!  We had a few mishaps this holiday season, and for those interested in the conclusion of our trip to Florida, I 'll share some highlights from the flight home:

• I drank a liter of agua and was soaked from my ankles to my neck by the time we landed in NY. 

• I got in an altercation with mommy over who got to squeeze the Coconut Curry Rice Squeeze Pack (GILLY DO!!! GILLY DO!!!!) and I ended up squeezing it all over me, mommy and the 31st row of the airplane that we banished ourselves to.  Here is me right before landing with my 25th cup of agua:

As you can see, no matter how tumultuous our travels, the bow stays in place!

• Brycie Boy screamed the last 15 minutes of the flight and 3/4 of the drive back home from the airport. The car service driver informed mommy that he has two kids and his wife never let them cry when they were babies.  Thank you!

• Mommy came down with the Plague and has been totally useless since we got back from Florida.  Yay, Daddy daycare!

 But there were also a lot of great times, and I have pictures to prove it.  Here are a few:

We met Santa!  He was awesome.

Bryce and I got down to business.

Buddy Boy turned 4 months!  (And is allergic to every formula in America, but that's a separate issue)

Daddy and Bryce wore matching hats- cute!

Family pic!  The hot, happy mess that we are.

Grandma came to visit and we had the best time with her!

Then we went to visit Mimi and Papa and Uncle Tim in Florida. 

Daddy and Papa took me to the Turtle Park!

Mimi took me and Bryce to the pool to splash around.  I loved the water!


Here is a link to our pics from December and November!

Happy New Year!!!!

Gillian

Bedtime with Gillian

Mommy/Daddy/Whomever is putting Gillian to bed: Okay, Gillian.  It's time for bed!
Gillian: Night night later.
Mommy: Night night now.  And we need to change your diaper.
Gillian: No stinky in there!
(Yes, this conversations happens literally every night).
Mommy: Gilly, I can smell it, let's go.
(Conversation moves to Gillian's room)
Mommy: Okay, Gilly girl pick two books.
Gillian: Ooooh. Mickey. This Mickey. (Two different Mickey books) ELMO!! Christmas. (Christmas with Corduroy). Nina (Eloise).
Mommy: Gilly, you just gave me seven books.
Gillian: Seven Eight Nine.... Ten Eleven Twelve.
(Five books later).
Mommy: Okay Gilly girl, time for bed.
Gillian: Cuddle in chair!!!
(Cuddle in chair, move to crib).
Mommy: Night night, Gilly, love you!
Gillian: Love you!
Gillian: Cover me!
(Cover Gillian with Blanket)
Gillian: Fix friends!
(All of her stuffed animals are rearranged and put back in the same spot- fix friends makes no sense).
Gillian: Hat on!
Mommy: You do it.
Gillian: mommy do it! Hat on!
(Mommy, like a sap, puts the hat on).
Mommy: Okay Gilly, night night see you in the morning. Love you!
Gillian: Fix friends!
Mommy: Fix your own friends, Gilly.

October 2014

Hi everyone! It's me, Bryce!

If you've met my sister, it's easy to imagine that getting a word in edgewise around here is difficult, to say the least.  I'm a guy who likes peace and quiet, which is hard to come by.  Here's a perfect example of a day in the life of Bryce:

Not a lot of personal space.  And a lot of pink.

October was an exciting month around here, or so I'm told.  I only get invited on certain outings because I'm just a little peanut angel (according to mom), but the ones that I've been on have been pretty fun.

FARMS.  We visited three farms in the span of a month.  At the first farm, Gilly wanted to buy a loaf of bread, and ate a donut.  At the second farm, Gilly wanted to feed the bunnies, and at a donut.  At the third farm, Gilly helped Paula picked out a pumpkin while I had a snack in the car, and then Gilly had a donut.

Mom and Gilly continue to have their adventures, and I get to stay home and snuggle with Paula (which is THE BEST.   Paula always gives me a nice warm bath, a warm bottle, snuggles me up and the next thing I know, I'm fast asleep)!  Anyway, one of their trips was to the pet store, where Mommy let Gilly pick a fish to take home.  Thank God Paula knows how to care for fish, because I don't think Gilly or Mommy are very interested in their new friend.

Another recent highlight was Halloween! As you can see, Gilly's costume was highly original.  Mimi pointed out that she was a perfect little Vandy girl mascot!

Well, that's the report from here! 

Lots of love,

Bryce

Mommy and Me

It was a bright, sunny fall day when Mommy and I made our way down to the dank, grossly painted underbelly of a nearby church where our mommy and me classes are held. As mommy would later recount- it was a real hell hole.

(Sidenote: those of you who have ever stepped foot inside a nursery school are probably asking yourselves: "what was your mommy expecting? The ritz?" And the answer is people, yes. Sort of).

We quickly realized that mommy had not read the twenty page packet of rules as both of our water bottles stood out like sore thumbs in this concrete oasis.  No hydration outside of scheduled times. We hid them in Mommy's bag so as not to ostracize ourselves before we had a chance to offend anyone.

I set out to play with the exact same toys that I have at home, except the extremely dirty, 1975 version. The dolls were all nude and several were missing critical body parts, but I was still having a great time rocking them stacked up 5 high in an oversize cradle. 

The teacher announced it was craft time, so mommy helped me paint an apple tree and introduced me to homemade play dough.  While neither of these activities were fun for us or anyone in the room, it filled some time until nice lady came in with her guitar.

This lady must have been part of some sort of union because she seemed to be under a great deal of pressure to do

Her entire three song act in ten minutes flat. Since she didn't sing top forty music, I was completely uninterested in what she had to offer and went back to rocking my naked, deformed babies. Mommy looked and me, looked at the clock and encouraged me to come back to the circle. 

At this point, I announced to everyone in the room BYE BYE CAR CAR GO, and the guitar lady looked at her watch for the tenth time in ten minutes, ripped the frog puppet back from one of my fellow inmates,and hightailed it out of there. Time up!!!

The highlight of the class was the all-you-can eat pretzel buffet. The teacher dished them out 3 at a time, but I managed to have about 20. Then the teacher asked if we should read a story or just end the class and mommy suggested that the story might be better next week.

That was our first and last mommy and me class- we resigned and neither of us have looked back.

Instead, we are creating our own mommy and me!! Today we took the choo choo from hohokus (the stop by our house) to ridgewood (3 minute ride) and walked around town for a bit.  It was my first time on a choo choo and it was so fun!!

Lots of love, 

Your diva thanks to genetics,

Gillian 

Mommy's helper

Hi gang!

Happy to report that things have been smooth sailing here at Casa tully over the last few weeks (please knock on wood, thank you).

I went #1 and #2 in the potty!! I am by no means potty trained, but I hang out on there during key times of day and sometimes stuff happens!!!

I've been helping Bryce with tummy time. Here is me threatening to sit on him if he doesn't look left.

As part of my continued efforts to help mommy (who seems to need all the help she can get), I have been lending a hand in the kitchen. Here is me baking cupcakes with mommy and Paula:

Brother Bryce is doing just great. He is a real porker, tipping the scales at a whopping 11.3 lbs at only 5 weeks!  

He is clearly thrilled to have me for a big sis!!

That's all for now!!

Xoxo

Gillian 

MESS

Hi everyone!

As many of you are probably aware, I don't like a mess.  When I'm done eating, I like to "clean clean" the area.  The other day I got pen on me when I was coloring and declared that my arm was a "mess".  A few weeks ago, when I was on the first night of a two-night screaming bender (from 12am-4am), I actually threw up as part of a grand finale of disaster and misery.  The next day, when Daddy asked what the f*ck happened to me the night before, I simply told him:

"MESS"

Needless to say, I am very familiar what a mess looks like, and can report that my family has been one big MESS for the past two weeks.

It all started with the arrival of Bryce, and just a few short days later, the arrival of the plague.  Okay, so technically, I didn't have the plague. I had a two week cold/virus of mysterious origin, that I later passed to both Mommy and Brycie, because apparently, I like to share.

Mommy was on oxygen because she has enough anxiety letting anyone who claims to be well near a newborn baby, forget having me with a fever of 103 trying to touch brother's EARS! NOSE! EYES!  HAIR!  She also got sick herself (sorry mommy) and knew that Bryce didn't stand a chance; it didn't come as a huge shock to her when she heard her little guy sniffling.

I like to focus on the bright side of things, which I'll do here:

• I got to hang out with daddy---  alot!  We spent all day together, and then we got a lot of quality time between midnight and 6am, when I would wake up screaming and refuse to go back to sleep!  Love those times, daddy! Can't wait to keep waking up demanding all sorts of things even though I feel fine.

• We got to know our new pediatricians very well!  In fact, in the span of two weeks, we made five visits.  Yay!  I love that place; they have a beautiful aquarium and some plastic cups that I enjoy pretending to drink out of, but instead pour them all over myself and the office--- and then declare that a MESS has been made.

• We learned that the Valley Hospital ER is a wonderful place!  Amidst the fever and general chaos that was the past few weeks, Bryce's belly button started oozing green sludge, which turned out to be a staph infection.  GROSS!  But better staph that some other infection that apparently would have required immediate admission to the hospital and IV antibiotics for two days.  

• Mom got to know her neighborhood pharmacist, Zolton (not fictionalized) VERY well, and now considers him part of her Round Table.  She spent ten minutes on the phone with him the other day discussing the merits of hot vs cool humidifiers.

Anyway, we are probably going to make it! 

Here are some winners from the past two weeks- enjoy!

Mommy and Brycie in the ER.  The doc has just told mom that Bryce doesn't require a two night stay at the hospital, and can instead go visit Zolton to pick up some topical antibiotic.

Bryce getting 'steamed' to get rid of the boogs.  Daddy later asked mommy how long she had the shower on for, and then reminded her that 'water isn't free'.  She is going to leave him $5 to pay for Brycie's spa appointment.

If you look closely, you can see that I am covered in a rash.  Yay!

Here's Bryce with his masculine boppy.  Love pink!

Okay guys, that's the scoop of what's been going here!  More to come!!

xo,

gillian