Marcel Gray: 2 Months

Darling boy,
You are the sweetest baby boy!  Everyone that meets you is completely charmed by your gentle spirit.  People are always referring to you as kind, and my prayer is that as you grow that will continue to be true.  You are quiet, content, smiley, and just our favorite little guy around! :)

Every day we look at you and see changes that happened over night.  You are growing and changing so fast we can hardly keep up!  One thing that doesn't change is our extreme love for you and the blessing we feel to have you in our lives.  You have made us so very happy, and we thank the Lord for you daily.

Each day we are noticing you being awake more and more, interacting with us, and smiling with such purpose and joy for life.  Sleep is something you are extremely good at, and eating is something you greatly enjoy.  Your strength amazes us, and makes us forget that you are just our little two month old baby. 

We love you Petit Marcel and are loving watching you grow and become more aware of us and the life around you.  You are greatly loved and bring all those around you so much joy.

A few facts about you at two months:

• Food:  You nurse every three hours during the day and eat for about 7-10 minutes on each side.  We have to be extra diligent with burping you, as you get some major gas bubbles that don't seem to settle well with  you.  
• Sleep:  During the day you take great, long naps.  You eat, stay up for about an hour to hour and a half tops and are back to sleep for a good chunk of time.  In the morning and late evening you prefer to be in our arms, but we are trying to break you of that habit as much as I may love the snuggling, it is getting hard with your big sister and housework to be dealt with.  I have started putting you down when you are close to sleep, and about every other time you are able to settle  yourself into a sleep on your own.  Its a work in progress, but we will get there in your own timing.  At night you have started to stretch longer up to 8 hours, but not in a consistent fashion just yet.  Again, in your timing little buddy.  You "wake" most nights at 4 am, but sometimes only eat on one side before you are back in a deep sleep.  I say "wake" because you never truly WAKE up, but rather squirm and grunt waking me.  Eventually I will let you work yourself up to a cry to see if you in fact are waking, or just repositioning, but for now I will keep feeding you :)  
  
• Travel:  You are growing more used to the carseat, but we have to time it perfectly.  It seems if you are fed and near sleep you do great, but if it is anywhere near feeding time it is a very sad, very loud cry fest and it breaks my heart!  Your sister gently reaches her hand out to you and say "bateau" which is her way of soothing you.  She loves you deeply.  
• Smiles are becoming more and more frequent and so full of life.  We can't get enough! 
• You are weighing 12.7 pounds (5.8kg) and are 23 1/4 in long (57.5 cm), the size of your sister at SEVEN months! :)  
• You LOVE bath time, and have started kicking like crazy while in the water. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  We are crazy about you!  Happy two months!
  
  
  
  
  

Zaylee Lately

My dearest girl,

Life with you is so great!  You are growing and learning so much lately and it is the biggest blessing to get to witness it all firsthand as your adoring Mother.  The first month with your baby brother was a big transition for you, and I feel you have finally found your place again and are more comfortable with the idea of being a big sister.  You are so full of empathy for him, and it makes my heart nearly explode watching the way you love him.  A lot of times you are oblivious to him when there are others around distracting you, but when it is just the three of us you always want to include him.  If you hear him cry, you immediately run to him and look at me saying, "Bateau?!" which is your most requested song these days.  We sing to him, and you gently place your hand on his belly.  I melt.  There are definitely moments of frustration that often involve a little push or shove thrown his way, but for the most part you just want to be close to him.  So close in fact, you are often found trying to sit on him, or ride him like a horse while saying, "yah! yah!"  If we are admiring him, you quickly run across the room, sit down close to us, and say over and over, "gap? (lap) gap?" while patting your legs.  You hold him for a total of 5 seconds and then are quickly bored and declare that you are "all done!"  You are definitely growing into our little girl, but I still think of you as my baby girl!

A few facts and fun things you are doing lately:

• Words:  You are talking SO much lately!   Everyday there are new words in your vocabulary, some of which we had no idea you even knew.  This past week you completely amazed us with how much you really know and understand.  I often say both the French and English word for things when we are reading books, playing with toys, or just talking about things we see.  The other day you were asking me to do something again saying, "anen, anen" and before I repeated whatever it was I was doing I asked you, "How do you say that in French?"  You looked at me and exclaimed, "Encore!"  I couldn't believe it.  Later on you were saying "hot" referring to your dinner, and I tried it again asking you how you say hot in French.  You responded with a quick, "Chaud".  It is incredible to me how much you know and understand.  Incredible!  You say words starting with B using the sound of M and the opposite as well.  Banana is manna.  Marky is Barty.  Milk is bilky.  Other fun words are:  Lukey is Wookie.  Nuk is either Guk or dis (this) as you point to your mouth.  Your bunny is called monny.  Water is pronounced wayer.  You say otay for OK and I love it!  My favorite of all is when you refer to me as Maman with your sweet little French pronunciation.  I love it!  

  

  You love sharing your food, and most of the time your toys but we are still working on that :)

  

  NUTS :)

• Teeth:  You are currently working on your 16th tooth!!  You have the sweetest little teeth. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
• Food:  You eat just about anything.  Vegetables and fruits are some of your favorite things.  Lately you have had a great love for BRUSSEL SPROUTS!  Crazy, I know, but you eat them up with great joy!  You love nuts of all kinds.  Meat is still something you greatly enjoy.  Pizza is up there as a favorite.  Most of all though you LOVE "colat" which is your way of saying the French word, "chocolat".  If you see it, we can forget about getting you to eat any real food without you throwing an incredibly impressive fit.  You wake up every morning asking for your "umneal" (oatmeal).  You are a great eater when you are hungry, but if you aren't in the mood to eat you lose interest quickly.  Dad said the other night while watching you eat dinner,  "I love watching my baby eat.  It is such a blessing!"  I agree! 
  
  
  
  
• You love hiding.  Behind curtains, under our couch, in your room under your shelves, in our closet, in the clothes rack, and just about anywhere you can find to sneak off to.  It is your alone time and you love it.  You love it even more when we say, "Where is Zaylee?"  We can always find you as you laugh and giggle with pure joy!
• When Daddy and I kiss, hug, or hold hands you get extremely jealous and yell at us to stop.  It is quite entertaining! :) 
• You are a great helper around the house.  If something spills you immediately run for a towel and "clean" it up.  I often ask you for diapers, wipes, or to throw things away for me and you are readily running to accomplish the task.  It is so sweet and I love the extra help :)  The other day after Marcel had a bath, I was telling you we needed to get him dressed and you quickly went to the bedroom and grabbed a clean onsie and pair of socks for him.  It was the sweetest thing!
•  Bedtime is one of my favorite moments of the day with you, as it always has been.  We have a routine and it is so special to both you and I.  Each night Dad and I get  you ready for bed, laugh and horse around for a few minutes, we huddle together squeezing you tight between the two of us as Dad prays with us before leaving the two of us to our snuggle time.  When it is just the two of us, I talk about our day and the things we did while you lay next to me slowly getting into a very sleepy state.  I pick you up and sing to you while placing you in your bed, where I slowly trace your face and ears with my fingers before leaving you to fall fast asleep.  You still love your sleep, and we are so thankful!  We are all happier with a good nights sleep.  I hope you always like our bedtime moments, because they mean so much to me!
  
• Playing make believe is something you are starting to love.  Any type of bag with a handle on it immediately goes on your shoulder as you announce to anyone that is listening, "Bye, bye!" I respond, "Bye honey!  Are you going to work?"  "Yeah!" "Ok, have a great day.  Love you!" You respond with the sweetest, "Yove you!"  It's adorable and I love it!  Anything can be a phone, and you almost ALWAYS call Aunt Anna.  It's my favorite to listen to your "conversations" and watch your sweet facial expressions.  Your latest rendition to this is talking on the phone while watching yourself in the mirror.  It is the best!  Cooking is your newest playtime favorite.  You are always careful of the "hot" pans and make sure everyone blows on their food before eating it.  Last night we had a Sheryne and Hugo over and while you were cooking for Hugo you told him, "Hot, hot. Chaud, Chaud."  You covered both languages just in case he didn't get it the first time!  Awesome!!   I love your growing imagination and will never grow tired of watching you learn and explore. 

• You LOVE playing in the sink these days.  We bought you a stool for the bathroom sink for Christmas, and it keeps you occupied for so long while I am doing things around the house.  Washing your hands and brushing your teeth are two of your favorite activities!  You are not hard to please. 
  
  
• Dance parties are something you truly enjoy.  You are always asking for music, and want everyone to get up and dance with you.  I love that you love music, and Dad hopes you take after Grandpa D, Uncle Timmy, and Aunt Jenny with their instrumental skills!  It is so entertaining to watch you jump around the floor dancing and singing.  

• You still love the outdoors.  We both are happier when we get outside for a walk, even if it is a short one.  Dad always shows  you knew things, and each time we go out you are showing me all the things dad teaches you.  It is so fun to watch you get so excited when throwing rocks into the water.  It never gets old to you!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

As always, I could go on and on, but mostly I just wanted to write a few things down about you in this ever changing stage of your sweet life.  Life is good and you bring us so much joy day in and day out.  We love you so very much Zaylee Jean and hope you always know that full well!!

Christmas with the Tabs-in Pictures

Christmas was extra special this year here in France.  All fourteen Tabailloux's were together under one roof!  It was cozy, loud, chaotic, wonderful, full of life and memories.  With the family split between countries and babies multiplying, our time together as a whole unit will soon be hard to come by and for that reason we enjoyed every minute.  We were worried about how you would react to sharing everyone's attention with your sweet cousin Liesel, but you proved to be very accommodating to her need for the love and affection of your adoring aunts, uncles and Mamie and Papi.  You were extra sweet with her, and for that we were so thankful.  It was a full week of celebrating Christmas, Aunt Jenny, Papi, Liesel, and New Years.  We didn't leave the house much, but with all that was going on the time passed by far too quickly.  We all stayed up too late, slept in, and ate well spending lots of time around the table.  Meal time is sacred here in France, and in our family, which made for many good conversations and quality time that was savored to the full.  It was a much anticipated Holiday season with all of us being together, and it was truly a blessed time.

(Most of these pictures are from your extremely talented Uncle Timmy and Aunt Bethany!)

First hugs for your cousin Liesel

You made sure to introduce Liesel to your favorite place in the house-the spice cabinet.

Your Elmo book from Grandma and Grandpa that you love so very much!

Your favorite place to be at all times!

Liesel took her first steps while they were here, and you wanted to help her walk every where!

A Day of sledding up in the Mountains and a hot picnic thanks to the excellent Mamie!

It is the biggest blessing being a part to two big, beautiful, loving families.  As Mamie says, "We are abundantly rich!"