Mommy Monday - Really Crawling!

That didn't take long...my son is officially crawling! He's getting into EVERYTHING!! I turn around for a moment and he's gotten into the electrical outlet, the remote control, spilled the trash can, and changed the channel on the TV.

This video is from 10 days ago, so he's much faster now, but you get the idea.



~S

Mommy Monday - Pictures

Just a couple of my favorite pictures from the last week or so. Got a new camera and I'm still trying (and will be for awhile) to figure out how best to use it.

Nate and his buddy Mirabelle in their swimsuits for a hot tubbin' adventure. Nate *loved* it!

Kahlen and Ben birdwatching

"Mommy, take my picture. Take my picture, mommy!"

Dancing in her sandbox after making sand castles with daddy

Playing with a ladybug

Nate's first latte ;)

We've played outside a lot in the last two weeks, whether it's been nice or not. Some days have been summerish and others have been fallish. Hubby and Nate got sick last week too, so that threw everything off for awhile. Everyone's all better now, and hopefully we'll remain that way!

~S

Mommy Monday - Easter

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter celebrating the Resurrection!

We started off the day with this great message from Mitch Majeski
After some lunch and getting ready, we headed down to Tim's parent's house in Loveland (about 20 minutes from us).
After Kahlen woke up from her nap, she dyed eggs with her cousin, who is 13.

Daddy got in on it too :)

Her masterpieces

Enjoying the one she cracked before it even made it in the dye

She really wanted to throw her hat around and generally play out side, so I got a couple cute ones

Later, the boys played cornhole while Kahlen mostly stayed out of the way

The one picture of me from the day :)

I only got a few pictures of the little man, but here's my favorite with his sister

My husband didn't want to wear anything fancier than his T-Shirt, so I threatened informed him that I will be making him a tie shirt like I did for the little man :)

~S

Mommy Monday - sleeping in the same room?!?

It might actually be a reality...my kids are sleeping in the same room! After trying several times in the last few months, I came up with a couple new ideas so we thought we'd give it a go.
Before this, Nate would go to sleep in our room, then we'd transfer him to the living room when we were ready for bed. It was working okay, but kind of a pain AND he was waking up around midnight whether we moved him or not :(
So here's what's working so far:
*I have to be much more strict about what time they wake up from their afternoon naps. If I don't, it messes up what time they go to bed.
*I put Nate down in their room in his crib first.
*Kahlen and I then read stories in the living room
*She's been having "reading time" after we read to her for several months now. This is basically just time where she is in her bed with the reading light on. She's supposed to stay in bed, but it's not as strict as later on. We've moved this to the living room to give the boy more time to settle down.
*After her reading time, I tuck her in with strict admonishment that her brother is sleeping and she must be quiet!
*If Nate wakes up, I have no hesitation about moving him to the living room, we set it all up for him before we go to bed.

We've been doing this for four days I think and it's working great! Part of it is that I'm not stressing about whether it's working or not. If one of them isn't doing well, I just move Nate out of their room.
Last night (or this morning?) he woke up at 5 and wanted to chat. I just moved him downstairs and went back to bed.

Understanding that this is a process and not something that I can just expect them to do right away has really helped. I know, obvious, right?

Anyway, hope that helps someone out there struggling with the same thing.

AND here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week. I'm borrowing a nice camera from my stepdad (thanks potato head!) and have been taking waaaayyy too many pictures :)

Kahlen playing soccer. She has to wear her hat and backwards :)

"Baby Kahlen"

Nate likes it outside :)

Bath fun together

Cutie boy

~S

Mommy Monday - Nate is 9 months old!

My, how time flies! Nate had his 9 month appointment doctor's appointment today, he's still growing, but not as fast as before. He weighs 19 pounds, 1 ounce and is 28.5" long. He's in the 50th percentile now instead of 90th or 75th like he has been.

Nathanael wants to be where ever his sister is. On Sunday, she was taking a bath and he got really excited, flapping his arms and squealing to let us know he wanted to join her :) Silly boy *still* has not cut any more teeth! I can still see six in there waiting to pop through with no luck :( He's still eating a ton of food; 1/2 jars of fruit and 1/4 cup cereal for breakfast, 1 cup veggies for lunch, and 3/4 cup fruit with protein for dinner. Plus he eats about 1/2 cup cheerios or veggie puffs throughout the day, usually as dessert after his meals so I can finish eating my food.

Here's a couple pictures from the last week:

This is what he thought of sand on his toes for the first time. I was fine with that because that meant he wasn't trying to eat it.

Nate and daddy in the back yard

Siblings playing together

Nate was hungry in this picture, so he was *NOT* happy about his sister kissing him.

Just for y'all not in Colorado: yesterday we were wearing shorts and playing in the 70 degree weather. Today there's a near blizzard. Ah, spring in Colorado!

~S

Mommy Monday - Haircut

I really want to be able to do Kahlen's hair in pigtails, braids, bows and such, but she just does NOT like it :( So yesterday I decided to stop fretting about it and just cut it instead! Now, I'm definitely not a hair-cutter, so I took her to SuperCuts. It looks great! Super-cute and a little sassy too.

Here's her just before we got it cut:

I told her to turn around, and she practically ran into the wall. Heehee, oops!

Here's when we got home:

She was being "shy" about me taking her picture. I think mostly it was because I wanted her to, and she's definitely been showing her little will lately.

I told her for this one that I wanted to take a picture of her kitty. Turned out better :)

Here's the back, stacked just a little bit.

She just learned the Happy Birthday song last week, here she is singing to her kitty and doggy (pokey):

 Singing is her new favorite thing to do. In fact, as I write this, she should be sleeping, but I hear her singing ABCs over and over and over...

~S

Mommy Monday - Scooting

Wednesday already? Where did this week go?!?

Nathanael was sick last week, poor guy. He had a fever of 102.8 for almost three days. Finally, after a week and a half, today he was really awake and interacting like his normal happy little self. They say that after a high fever like that, they generally do something new, either physically or mentally. Well, he's scooting! His two friends that are the same age as he is have been scooting (or crawling like a rock star!) for ages, so now maybe he can join them! Although all he can do thus far is backward :)

My hubby says "Nothing is safe!"
I don't think his sister has any idea what she's in for now.

Here's where he started out:

And here's where he ended up:

Yep, facing the other direction, several feet from where he started :)

I tried to get it on video, but no success, he just wanted to smile and talk to me when I got out the video camera. That, and Kahlen wanted to be in the video too. Ah well, there's always another day!

~S

Mommy Monday - Zoo

Last week, I made it to the zoo for my "biannual get-together" with my friend Eileen. It was a really nice day, much warmer than we expected. Here are a few of the highlights:

I like how none of the kids are looking at the camera in this picture. But hey, we're all 5 in it, right?

 

Kahlen playing the bongos

Yeah, the tiger was REALLY close to the glass

Nate enjoying his graham crackers

"Kahlen, what's wrong?"

"That's the face the fish is making, mommy!"

I'm making a series of pictures by this snake (inside Tropical Discovery). I have one from nearly every time I've taken my kid(s) to the zoo.

"Kahlen, if you get in the car without arguing or complaining, we can stop and get dessert"

 

One tired girl

I love having a zoo membership! My son has already been 3 times and he's only 8 months old! Not something we can do all the time since it does take an hour to get there, but definitely fun. It is nice to go in the winter too, it was a very low attendance day when we went, perfect!

~S

PS if you think of it and feel so inclined, you could pray for my son. He STILL has SIX teeth coming in and now he also has a cold that's giving him a fever and making him miserable, poor little man :(

Mommy Monday - Tea Set

So Kahlen just finished her second sticker chart, hooray! For her reward, I took her to Target and we wandered around the toy department until we found the perfect thing.
We read a lot of books around here, and one we've read countless times is A Bargain for Francis which one of her aunts bought her for her second birthday. It's about a tea set, so when we saw this

I thought it was perfect! Of course, she did too and now she can't stop playing with it :)
We got it on Thursday night and let her stay up past her bedtime to play with it and promised she could play with it ALL DAY on Friday.

Friday morning rolls around, it's 7:00 (about 15 minutes before I'm going to get up anyway) and she comes into our room. Now, she's not really supposed to leave her room before I come to get her. She comes to my side of the bed, here's our conversation:
"Mommy, Nate stole my blanket"
"Kahlen, Nate did not steal your blanket"
"Mommy, Nate took my blanket and you need to get it back"
"Honey, Nate is in the living room in his pack'n'play, he couldn't take your blanket" (Not to mention he's not mobile and couldn't anyway!)
"Mommy, Nate has my blanket, can you come help me get it?"
"Kahlen, were you downstairs?"
"Yep"
"Why?"
"I was playing with my tea set." (Duh, mom, should be completely obvious!)
"Did you give Nate your blanket?"
"Yes, but then he took it and I can't get it back"

Right. After silently sharing a good laugh with hubby, down I went to retrieve the blanket.
I guess her tea set was just too tempting.
Later, she figured out that her sensory bin for the month, which has 2 pounds of beans in it, was the perfect compliment to her tea set since I told her that she couldn't put any real food in her tea set.

 

 I wonder what she'll do when it's time to put something else in her sensory bin...

~S

Mommy Monday - Home Gym

Okay, so this is really more about something my hubby did over the weekend, but I thought it was hilarious and couldn't resist :)

It all started when he was sitting on the couch with his legs crossed. Kahlen came over and sat on his foot, as toddlers are wont to do. She then wanted him to bounce her. He thought, Hey, I could get a pretty decent workout this way. Thus ensued the next twenty minutes or so of Kahlen helping her daddy work out. I didn't get pictures of all the exercises they did, but here are a couple:

Bench Press

Squats

Double Arm Curls

 Nathanael even came in "handy" too for single arm curls. 

He thought it was pretty funny and laughed when daddy put him in the bag.

Kahlen wanted daddy to do more, but after doing two sets already, he was pretty tired. So she decided to do some of her own exercises by falling off the couch.

 

So, daddy got his workout and mommy got a good laugh. All in all, a pretty good day :)

~S

Mommy Monday - It's been a rough week :(

Best mommy parts of my week: Kahlen really enjoying our circus unit in school last week; Nate is *almost* rolling over and over (he did it all night last night in his crib, then didn't care to repeat it during the day today); Watching my kiddos play together, they both think the other one is hilarious.

It's been a rough week for both kids and mommy. Nathanael hasn't been sleeping very well so he's been in the living room most nights. Kahlen has quite a little attitude and sense of self these days, which causes conflict between her and both mommy and daddy.

I still love being a mom and wouldn't trade it for anything, but some weeks are harder than others, ya know? Here's praying for a better week!

~S

Mommy Monday - Sticker Chart

Last Saturday, we put up a sticker chart for Kahlen with some chores for her. Some were new, some were things she was struggling with. I took her to Target the day we put it up and let her pick out a pony for when the chart was full.




All week, she worked diligently on her chart, getting the thing full in exactly 7 days! She did awesome, and I'm excited to have her not only continue the chores she started, but also to add a few more difficult things relating to her heart and some issues we've been having lately. Things like staying in bed and not getting up to go pee 20 times in an hour, obeying Mommy quickly and the first time, and I'm sure a few more. The first one worked so well, here's hoping for continued success!

Also, here's a hilarious picture of Kahlen. I borrowed Wii Fit Plus from my mom to see if I like it enough to buy it. Kahlen really wanted to play too, so here she is, doing yoga :)

And, of course, I can't help throwing in a picture of the boy. He LOVES graham crackers! So much so that he doesn't get any for the next couple days because I want him to eat his veggies too.

 

 

I would love to know what sort of chores and responsibilities your little ones have. I'm still trying to figure out what is reasonable to ask of my 3-year-old and what she's just not capable of yet.

 

~S