Monday, December 17, 2007

Oma's Gone... Boo Whoo

Today Oma went home... Reese cried and I got teary eyed watching him struggle with telling her goodbye... We love our visits from Oma and wish they were more frequent. Carsten was even excited to see her show up at our front door. I think we could get used to having her always here. Another set of hands is very useful indeed. Especially when your children love those hands!

Since we haven't updated enough this month, you all are expecting great things! We haven't had any more sickness, no great hurdles, nothing really too note worthy. I've come to terms with *me time* and am figuring out ways to keep my sanity. Jim is so helpful and supportive (even though he still believes in his heart that I sit/eat bon bons (whatever those are)/and read books and magazines).

Other than that we are looking forward to the holidays and being with lots of family and friends...


Carsten with Whiffer, his special animal (it goes everywhere and sleeps with him)

Lamby LuLu, Reese's special animal...

Lane, watching our two boys...

A funny grin from Carsten this morning...

Reese got a stethoscope and thermometer from a friend that had to be in the hospital. They have throw-away stethoscopes and thermometers now, so Reese scored them. He brings them everywhere we go. If you need your heart/lungs checked out or your temperature taken he still has some openings.


Reese got to make a gingerbread house last year at a grocery store where Oma lives. This year we couldn't find any here, so we made one at home. Thankfully they make kits for this type of thing... I don't think I have the patience to make it from scratch.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Good Karma

I am going to try for some good karma now...
Yes, I can put Reese in our room for quiet time and I'll try not to worry too much about the worrisome things kids do. What I meant by the naughty things kids do--the time Reese confiscated a pen and drew on his sheets, pillow, books, body parts not mentionable... I've then heard of some worse things involving body fluids/solids... I do need to let go though I realize as I cannot watch 24/7 and if I did that would be weird in itself... Thank you prrrof for pointing out that we can be *watching* them and disastrous things occur (brings to mind a battery and a broken collar bone...).
So, I am going to try to wiggle naps around, get Reese some quiet time and me a little kid free relief. Reminds me of a sign I saw, "I child-proofed, but they keep getting in".

I should mention that Jim got the sickness... Now I just hope the kids don't get it... or at least wait until my mom is here until they get sick!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Thank you wise moms...

Okay,
First, thank you for all your wise council! Great ideas of which I'm going to implement some of them (Reese is laying on the couch listening to a story right now!)...
Now for the complications...
*Lane takes a different nap than my boys. When??? do I get a break???
*I have a hard time disciplining Reese for, say taking more than 5 books when he is in the same room as Carsten. Even if I take him out to talk to him and he ends up crying, etc. it wakes his brother. And, each time I go in to tell him to lay down, no more books, stay put, and so on I get more and more frustrated which I'm sure gives him frustrated vibes...
*I have heard of kids doing naughty/weird/quiet stuff while they are in quiet time and want to keep that from happening... I like the couch idea--then I can keep an eye, but have boundaries (no getting up except for the bathroom and no talking to me, etc.)
*When Reese does nap, or did nap, he was having a harder time going to bed at night... he'd lay there for an hour or more trying to fall asleep. But, on the other hand without any nap he does get a little cranky in the evening--a shorter fuse.

Thanks for letting me vent here and for helping me! My mom is coming next week and I can't wait!!! She is an indispensable help. It is always like a mini-vacation for me when she comes. Not so many diapers to change, baths to give, dishwasher loads to empty... love it!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Help...

Dear Blog Readers,
I am hoping you can help. Reese is 3 1/2 and he is no longer taking a nap. We still go through the routine--read three books, go empty the bladder, lay down with LuLu and a couple of books... and then he proceeds to get up and get more books, many more books (did I mention a gazillion more books???) and eventually ends up waking up his brother by turning pages loudly, dropping finished books on the floor, going to the bathroom, etc. I get irritated (hardly ever do that, but at these times I do) and then I don't know what to do--end Reese's nap time? I desperately look forward to my boys' nap time and I NEED their nap time. I kind of thought they'd nap until they were 18... maybe not. On that thread... when does a mom get a little down time when she has a non-napper? I've thought about quiet time downstairs with me, but then I still have to be ON (and have to keep telling someone to be quiet and lay down, or stay put or whatever).
Hopefully you all are more knowledgeable on this than I am and can fill me in...
Sincerely,
A Mom Needing Selfish Me Time

Monday, December 03, 2007

First day with Lane...


We started watching Lane today... Fun stuff--figuring out naps, changing diapers, how to feed three at once... We had a good time and Lane was awesome! We'll be watching him for six months while his mom goes back to work.
We were getting ready for Lane to come, so we were setting up the Pack & Play and just talking to our boys how Lane was going to be coming each day and napping here, eating lunch with us, etc. Reese said, "I don't think I can handle two babies in my room". I assured him that we would put Lane in guest room so he wouldn't have too *deal* with him!

On another note... NOT FAIR. I really don't think it is fair that moms can get sick. I'm talking the throwing up kind of sick. I can handle a cold, the aches, but NOT throwing up. I haven't thrown up in over 4 years and this weekend I got sick and threw up... with Reese watching! I told him to go get daddy please which he promptly did... "Daddy, come help... mommy's throwing up". Nice little helper the whole weekend. I'm recovered, but still miffed that moms CAN get sick--we have too much to do and take care of and I can't stand the way I feel when I'm nauseated.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Sleep update...

I guess since I'm taking advantage of it right now I should update about it... Carsten is doing really well in his own crib at night. He doesn't cry at all now and willingly goes down for the night. He wakes up maybe once a night and cries a little, but stays in his crib. He then doesn't wake up to nurse until around 6ish... then he sleeps with me for another hour or two. Today I've started putting him in his crib for nap. He has been up there for an hour and a half now so my fingers are crossed that this will go well. He was of course super tired today and he nursed to sleep, but he noticed where he was when I laid him in his crib...

Kids...


On our Saturday Thanksgiving we got treated to a John Denver concert... Jim's mom loves John Denver so some relatives organized a little concert for her. Maybe I shouldn't say little--10 people and they played/sang for two hours! It was really nice. Above is Jim's cousin, Thomas, who played with them.

So, we've decided there is no easy way around it... Carsten IS going to cost us money. Friday night was quite cold here so we turned on our gas fireplace as nice as you please. Jim went upstairs to work out on the elliptical and I was on the computer downstairs with both boys. I noticed that it smelled like burning plastic so I got up and moved the plastic fence we had put in front of the fireplace... went back to the computer. A few minutes later I looked over and there seemed to be smoke. Now this is a gas fireplace with fake logs, you can't get into it, it shouldn't smoke. I quickly turned it off and told Reese to go tell daddy that the fireplace was smoking. I opened a couple of windows and waited for Jim. He came rushing down and we racked our brains for what could be wrong. Well, lo and behold if Carsten hadn't put four plastic spoons in the top of the fireplace! Lovely day... we had four plastic puddles of goo oozing and smoking toxic plastic smoke into our house... Nice. Jim started taking the thing apart and scraping off as much plastic as he could. We opened ALL the windows (mind you we had turned on the fireplace because it was so cold out in the first place) and let in the 29 degree, um cold. I bundled the kids in coats and we froze while Jim worked. We are still not sure if we'll ever turn on the fireplace again.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Thanksgiving Fun

A little fun with wigs... Ivy and Justin. The other kids wouldn't leave them on long enough for a picture.


Stella celebrated her 3rd birthday...


We spent Thanksgiving with Jim's family out at his folks. There weren't many of us, which was nice and relaxing. I'm sure it was true for all you, but our food was really good! Now on Saturday we are going to do it all over again with Jim's other side of the family...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Heard of Olivia?

Reese decided to form his own band, similar to Olivia in Olivia Forms a Band... notice the bells on the feet. Since the picture we've added more instruments to his band.

On another note... One of those days. Carsten is somewhat congested so he slept for a half and hour at naptime. This means we all got up and continued on our day, no nap for mommy or Reese. Today I NEEDED the time alone, quiet, peaceful, without kids pulling on me... not to be. Earlier in the day we headed out to do errands and Reese had a meltdown about wearing a jacket in his carseat--I couldn't take it anymore and turned around and headed home. We ventured out after the failed naps instead. I wonder if it is the winter time weather, attitude, stuck inside business setting in, or what??? The kids have been on my last little thread of a nerve lately and I'm really trying to be nice. Hopefully the holiday gaiety will set into my hard heart and I'll turn back into a good mommy... we'll see.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

First cavity...

How does it happen? We brush our kids teeth morning and night--could it be the few times we've skipped??? Do we not know how to brush teeth???
Reese had a discolored spot on his tooth and when we would brush his teeth he said it hurt. We called the dentist and then went to see them today. The dentist thought it was just discolored, but when he looked more he decided it was a cavity! He luckily had time to just fix it right then. Reese was such a trooper!!! He did so great. He had to have a shot, and endure the drilling, etc... Of course Reese didn't say one word the whole time and Carsten cried as he thought he was going to get an x-ray or something--looked too medical for Carsten...



We went to the coast this last weekend with Jim's parents for dinner... It was just in time for the sunset... I had Reese's camera, so here are a few pictures.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Boys and the Great Outdoors...

The boys were getting a little antsy to go outside, so I finally consented. Here they are loving every minute. At the moment they are using an upside down wheelbarrow for a jungle gym. I hesitate to call them in for lunch...


Visit from Oma...

Well, another wonderful visit from Oma is over (and I don't have any pictures to prove it)... she is on her way home and we are left with an empty quiet house. After we dropped her off with Auntie Alicia for the ride home we had to treat ourselves to treats (caramel latte for me, warm soy milk for Reese with chocolate and caramel). As we pulled up to our house Reese said, "Why isn't Oma here?". We are all kind of quiet and sad, but looking forward to our next visit from Oma!

Sleep update: Last night Reese was put back in his room to sleep with his brother... It went well. Carsten cried for about 2 minutes and Reese cried for 3 seconds before I had a talk with him that it would soon be over and I wouldn't let it go on too long. Carsten woke up at 3:00am, and then I took him to our bed so he wouldn't wake Reese, but we are on a roll... Carsten is doing really well at night. He doesn't cry for more than a couple of minutes. Naps are a different story, so for now we've decided to leave him in our bed for naps and just conquer the nights.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Working on Sleeping...

For the record... Carsten cried for about 20 minutes last night and then slept until 4:30am! We are really making progress... Hopefully tonight will be even better!
Now for naps--today when I laid him carefully in his crib he woke right up. He then commenced to crying for an hour. After an hour I decided that it wasn't worth it. We had to leave in 45 minutes and if he fell asleep at that point we'd then have to wake him up... Hopefully he is going to get the idea that the crib is not going away soon.

Mosaic...

My dad found this neat program that makes a picture out of a bunch of pictures. He used all the pictures off of our blog. If you click on it you'll see all the little pictures...

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Sleeping...

This is mainly for me as I need a place to write down Carsten's events until I get them in his baby book (of which I'm sad to say is not complete... I wasn't going to do that to my second child). The blog seems a better spot than a scrap of paper shoved into a nearly empty book...

Monday night we tried Carsten in his crib for the first time. He has been sleeping for naps in his crib for a week, but I have to admit that he nurses to sleep and then I lay him down... So, the night. He cried for 20 minutes and then we had all had it. The crib is in Reese's room and after 10 minutes of Carsten crying they switched and Reese started crying saying, "I just want to go to sleep, I just want to go to sleep". When we checked on Reese he was biting his nails and looking wide eyed.
Last night, Friday night, we decided to give it another go. Jim slept downstairs with Reese to minimize the stress on Reese. Carsten cried on and off for 30 minutes and then fell asleep. I went in after 5 minutes to reassure him I still existed and cared... then in another 10 minutes... Then I just waited. He slept until 3:30am in his crib! Progress.

Sleeping in our bed hasn't really been an issue... I love it. He sleeps 9-10 hours solid and then he is right there when he needs to nurse in the morning. The problem is that he is growing. For some reason kids don't get the *head* of the bed, *foot* of the bed concept. Carsten insists on sleeping with his feet in one of our faces and his head in the other person's face. We have a king sized bed (just because we knew we'd have kids in it at some point) and that is not big enough... Jim and I hang on to the edges while Carsten SPREADS out! The other problem is that we could just see that the longer we waited the harder it would get, although we did discuss that if he made it in our bed until age 5 we'd be able to reason with him at least...
So, thus starts another child rearing journey...

Friday, November 02, 2007

More fun...

Fun with Fall...

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

We came home from the carnival and the boys went trick-or-treating... We had to go to the Fire Saftey dept. today just to get Reese a hat. We looked all over town and even out of town and couldn't find one. I called the fire department and they told me to come on in. They were very kind to Reese. He loves his little plastic hat.

Reese really wanted to be a fire fighter and he very much wanted Bigoly to be a burning building. We considered it, but for a few minutes of trick-or-treating it wasn't worth the effort.

I guess we are cheapies when it comes to costumes. Carsten wore the coat and hat that Reese wore two years ago and Reese just wore his rain coat and a free hat... Oh well.

We went to a carnival tonight with Papa (he was popping the popcorn)... Reese got to ride a horse. He loved it! We all got to ride on an old fashioned fire truck... Fun had by all.

Auntie Christina with Carsten at the carnival (Carsten had just eaten a whole cookie!)...

For the love of dogs...

Carsten thinks dogs are pretty neat... everything is a "voof"... Today we found these headphones and couldn't resist.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Pumpkins...

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday, but I didn't take many photos... just had Reese's camera. So, this morning I got the boys to pose with their pumpkins. Reese had a blast at the patch as you HAD to ride in a wagon behind a John Deere tractor out to get your pumpkin... actually quite a ride. He thought it was great--we thought is was a little dusty...

Carsten was being his usual happy poser for photographs... not. This is the best we could do.

This is Reese's favorite activity at the pumpkin patch. We actually had to scout out a pumpkin patch that had the water pumps... You buy a rubber duck and then race it down a small slide using an old fashioned water pump. Reese could have been there all day!

Playing in the corn.

These are two old pictures off of Reese's camera... I finally cleaned his camera up and found these two. He took the one of Carsten and I and then while in his carseat he took the other one. I think he meant to get a picture of his tractor, but got his shoes.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

People our boys LOVE...

Bigoly

We went to visit Ben and Mindy and saw Auntie Marilyn too... Our two boys love these guys! (I suppose we do too)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Heard of Underwear Ziplock Racing???

This is becoming a common occurrence at our house... Don't worry, just Reese is partaking.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

Reese is quite happy to be home again... He LOVES it at Opa and Oma's house--he mentioned this several times while we were there, but now that we are home he will remark that he is happy to be home. Today while driving he saw several familiar sights and that is when he'd say he is happy. Funny kid.

Our old hometown... Was nice to visit. The boys ate up Grandma Keri... as well as Papa Dave, Auntie Diana and Uncle Ju ju.

Some other cute ones of the boys at Oma's...


While at Oma and Opa's we got to see the neighbor take down a tree with his bobcat... Opa and Oma had a tree come down, but not all the way, so the neighbor just grabbed a hold of it and pulled it down. He then tried to push another one down. Both boys were mesmerized by the action... They sat in a wheelbarrow to watch.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Where Oh Where???

Oma, Oma's cousin-David, and the two boys...

I think I'm going to take the approach others have and just list what's been happening with us... (don't get too excited, it's not much)

*Our two boys are the best car travelers... we are down at my parents again. The 9 hour drive is actually pleasant and no, we don't medicate them... Reese listens to books on tape from the library and Carsten is entertained by everything going on around him.
*Carsten likes being a tease--we tell him not to fall asleep and he closes his eyes and then opens them quickly to make sure we are watching and laughing.
*Carsten can finally give a real kiss! No more open mouthers here...
*Reese has quite the imagination--he spends more and more time playing on his own and with his brother--not needing mommy so much...
*Reese is doing really well in his new bed--can't say the same for Carsten. I haven't gotten up the courage to move him out...
*I'm getting my website going--I'll post when that is mostly done... In the mean time the tailor's children have no clothes (in case you don't get that, the photographer's children have no pictures...).

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Fun times at the coast...

This weekend my Aunt and Uncle came for a visit and so did my brother... It was Andrew's birthday, so we celebrated all weekend. On Saturday we took a quick trip to the coast and enjoyed the brisk, cold weather. We toured a lighthouse, took a quick walk on the beach, saw a whale, and ate clam chowder (all except for two people, no names). Fun stuff.




Aunt Diane with the boys on the beach...


It was cold.

We toured a lighthouse and here we are looking down. The two boys couldn't go up because they weren't tall enough, so we took turns.

Reese learning the art of puddle jumping before we headed for the coast...

On another note, Carsten has another tooth on the bottom and another on its way. Toothy little guy. He is the cutest little smiler--always ready with a smile. He is now signing *please * regularly and he signs *more* when he wants to nurse. He has started to lead me to the chair, point to the chair, then signs for more. How can I resist?
Reese is growing, although not fast enough as Carsten beats up on him almost every day now. We've moved Reese into a big bed, a double, and moved the car bed out. Reese got to pick out sheets and a comforter... he chose Bob the Builder! Carsten's crib is now in Reese's room, but we have yet to move the little bugger out of our bed...