Mom, meet Hailey.

Me (while driving home from daycare the other day): So Jake, what did you do at school today?
Jake: We went outside, and I ran around with Mason and Hailey.
(He's involved in a bromance with Mason, but I had never heard of a Hailey being mentioned before)
Me: That sounds like fun.  Is Hailey in your class?
Jake: No.  She's in high school.
Me (quite confused): In high school?  But she was at your school today?
Jake: *sigh* No, mommy.  Hailey is my new friend.  She lives at our house and has blonde hair.  We play Hot Wheels cars together. But she was at school today, too.
Me: oooooh, I see.  Hailey sounds like she's a lot of fun.
Jake: She is!

At this point, my inner monologue was going something like this, "OMG...he is 4 years old and has his very first imaginary friend.  Who happens to be a female who is BLONDE AND IN HIGH SCHOOL!"
But I restrained myself and said, "Oh...how nice!"

Later that night while I was cooking dinner, I overheard him telling Hailey she could take a turn racing a car down the ramp...it was really very sweet to listen to as long as I looked past the fact that he was racing cars with a high school girl.

People!  What am I going to do when he has an actual girlfriend???  I had to remind myself that this girl does not actually exist...what will I do when one does exist? 

It's acceptable to insist he doesn't date until he's 18 22 30, right?

But seriously, look at this handsome little man...no wonder Hailey wants to be his friend.

And the award goes to....

...JAKE!  :)

In case you can't see them very well, one is a green light award for way to go behavior (for good listening) and the other is for having great hand washing skills.  So proud of our little preschooler :)

On the Tubes

Tales of the Bus Wednesday!

It's a typical day on the bus from downtown to Oakland in the morning, we're slowly making our way up 5th Avenue when all of a sudden, we get to a stoplight that is totally backed up.  3 buses in front of us, with some cars in between...the light ahead is turning green, but no one is going.  So the driver gets out to see what's going on, comes back a minute later and reports that it's going to be a bit of a wait, as someone had a seizure in the middle of the street and they were waiting on the paramedics to arrive.

People on the bus seemed to have 1 of 3 reactions:

Reaction #1 (aka-what I consider to be the normal reaction): Oh, I hope that man is ok.  Guess I'll just be a few minutes late to work, not much else I can do.

Reaction #2 (aka-what I consider to be the selfish person reaction, who clearly thinks the world revolves around them and only them): Oh my God, are you kidding me?  This is ridiculous.  I'm going to be late!  What a waste of my time.  Unbelievable.  Do you think we should just get off the bus and see if we can catch another one? (side note-some people actually did this...where they thought they were going to go, short of WALKING into Oakland, I'm not sure.  Needless to say, they were back on the bus within a minute, once they realized traffic was backed up for blocks and there was nowhere to go)

Reaction #3 (aka-the most absurd reaction by far, and of course, it happens to come from the guy sitting directly across from me, who was practically yelling these words during his 5 minute rant until the driver returned to the bus): You gotta be kidding me.  Yinz know the only reason he's doin' that is so he can go up to Mercy Hospital and be hooked up to the tubes to get the drugs, right?  I guarantee you that's what this is about.  He just wants the drugs, that's what it's always about.   I bet it was one of them guys from that Occupy Movement.  Yeah, he's trying to get himself on the tubes, that's all.

Remember dear readers, it's always about getting yourself "on the tubes".  

Real men wear bowling shoes.

I'm from a small town, and there wasn't a whole lot to do there (though there's more now), but we were never really bored.  Why is that?  Because we had BOWLING, people!  And Eat N Park.  Because you always work up an appetite while bowling.

We decided to introduce Jake to the wonders of bowling last weekend and he loved it.  Or, he at least loved the shoes.  But he seemed to have fun with the game as well, it at least held his attention for the first 7 frames or so, then he was just about done.

Liam took in the whole situation from his stroller. 

I shouldn't even post this (especially after just admitted that I used to spend a lot of time bowling) but Jake beat me.  And we were all using bumpers.  I need to brush up on those bowling skills!

9 month update

I know it's such a cliche, but time is going by unbelievably quickly....it's insane that Liam is over 9 months old!  Here are the stats from his check up last week:

Weight: 19 lbs, 12 oz (36th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (76th percentile!)
Head circumference:46 cm (can't remember the percentile, 60th, I think?)

Looking back at Jake's stats from this same check up, Liam has pretty much caught up with his big brother...Jake was 20 lbs even, and the exact same height.

Can you tell who is who? (rocking the same outfit!)

Liam's appointment went well; the best news is, his reflux seems to be improving (finally!) and the doctor said that we would most likely be able to discuss weaning off the meds at his 12 month appointment, if not before then.  We're so excited that he might finally get some relief.  His ear infection from the week before was halfway cleared up, one was fine, the other ear was still infected.  We just finished up the antibiotic on Tuesday and his sleep is getting better, so we're hoping it's totally gone now.

He had a few patches of eczema at his last appointment, and at that time, they told us to just try some aquaphor after his bath, which seemed to help most of the time until a week ago or so, when all of a sudden, it spread all over the place (his belly, back, neck elbows, knees, ankles) and looked so much worse than before.  We've now moved onto hydrocorisone cream twice/day and that does seem to be helping for now.

He's still an enthusiastic eater; we've gone through pretty much all of the purees at this point and there are none that he's rejected thus far (and he loves yogurt).  We started puffs and mum-mums a few weeks ago, he's a big fan of both.  Just this week we started giving him some diced up peas and carrots with dinner; he was a bit hesitant at first, I think they frustrated him since they were harder to pick up, but he's getting the hang of it.  I need to be better about giving him some table foods along with purees now that he's mastering the pincher grasp. 

He babbles like crazy, and we've heard both mama and dada, which always makes me smile whether it's actually directed at me or not. He's been more interested in books (instead of just being interested in chewing on them) and he especially loves the touch and feel ones that we have.  He really likes the activity table, or anything that lets him stand, really.

He's still not crawling yet; the doctor was a bit concerned about this, mainly because he seems to have no interest in moving in any way (he has only rolled a few times, doesn't scoot or anything like that, he's quite content to just sit and take everything in).  We don't need to worry about it just yet, he wants to give it a month and see if he makes any progress by then before making any decisions. He's also "graduating" from the Infant 1 room at daycare and moving up to the next room, so I'm thinking maybe he'll be inspired once he moves over there, watching all of the other kids move around. 

Happy 9 months, sweet Liam...it's so much fun watching your little personality develop!

Recipe: Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Another pinterest find!  Here is the original recipe.


Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 chicken boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans Ro-Tel (I like the lime & cilantro, but the regular is fine)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn
1 onion, chopped (I just used dried minced onion)
2 cans low-sodium chicken broth
1-2 cups of water
1 Tbsp garlic powder*
1 Tbsp chile powder*
1 Tbsp ground cumin*
1 Tbsp dried cilantro*
*I didn't have all of the spices, so I just used a taco seasoning packet

tortilla chips
sour cream
shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

Put chopped onion, cans of beans, rotel, corn, chicken broth, water, and spices in CrockPot and stir to mix. Put chicken breasts on top of mixture and make sure they're at least partly submerged in liquid. Cook on high 6-7 hours or low 8-9 hours. Before serving remove the chicken breasts from soup and shred, if needed, (sometimes they'll just fall apart on their own, but sometimes they need some help). Return chicken to CrockPot, stir to combine.

Top with chips and shredded cheese (I found that it was good to add in a few crumbled chips as I went along, that way they didn't get soggy)--enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Remember when I commented in the last post that Brian was out of town all last week?  Yeah, he missed Valentine's Day. Do you want to know how he's making it up to me? We're watching Twilight: Breaking Dawn this weekend.  Nothing says romance like a vampire baby birth. 

But what's even better than blood sucking creatures on Valentine's Day?  Gifts from my littlest valentines :)

 Jake's school had a party, and he was so excited to open up all of the Valentines from his friends.  And of course, the grandparents spoiled the kiddos with some gifts, too!

And it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without some chocolate!  Jake and GG made some brownies that had cookies mixed in (genius, right?)

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Oh, why hello there.

We're still alive!  Barely.  This blog has been majorly neglected recently, but I'm out of the kids-are-sick haze that I've been in for the past week or so.  Liam had a double ear infection and pink eye (ick!), then (of course) Jake got pink eye, too.  Liam was so miserable, he was up all night for days.  Oh, and did I mention that Brian was out of town for all of this?  Good timing for him, terrible for me! 

Fortunately, my mom was able to help out (THANK YOU, GG!) otherwise I can guarantee that I would have lost my mind.  Liam had his 9 month check up (I know, 9 months!  I'll do a full post on that later) and they rechecked his ears; one had totally cleared, the other was still infected.  Boo.  He has 2 more doses left of the Augmenten (I have no idea if I spelled that right--it's also absolutely nasty tasting and he hates taking it, can't say I blame him) so hopefully that other ear will clear up soon. 

Jake's pink eye is now cleared up as well....have you ever tried to put eye drops into a 4 year old?  It's kind of like wrestling a rabid monkey.   An alarmingly strong monkey.  2 grown adults pinning him down, and somehow he still rallies enough strength to avoid getting the drops IN his eye. 

I promise to catch up on posts soon....it's easier for me to blog now that my hands aren't raw from sanitizing them 9,856 times per day. 

Do you have a dollar to spare?

If so, I know of some kids who could really use it.  They are the kids who are suffering from lymphloblastic leukemia.  It is the 13 year old, waiting on a liver transplant. They are the siblings of these children, who spend days, weeks, months at a time at the hospital, hoping for their brother or sister to get better.

If you have anything you can give....$1, $10, $20....it will help make the time those children have to spend in the hospital a little bit brighter.  The money at this particular time will go toward iPads, Xboxes, and  KINECT systems at both Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the pediatric unit at Allegheny General Hospital, as part of the Make Room for Kids Project, which you can read more about (and make your donation!) here:
http://thatschurch.com/2012/02/06/make-room-for-kids-3-0/

And you can read more about the beginnings of the project here: http://thatschurch.com/make-room-for-kids/

In total, they have raised over $86,000 from donations and corporate matching and have provided countless gaming systems, games, laptops, TV's and more.  While our stay at Children's Hospital back in July for Liam's viral meningitis was nowhere near anything like what these children and parents are going through, the hospital now has a special place in my heart. Not just because of the wonderful care that we received from everyone, but because of what I saw while I was there.

Liam had to have a spinal tap (twice), and I am not ashamed to admit that I'm still traumatized by the whole procedure (and I wasn't even in the room, but unfortunately could hear it anyway).  I think back to that with a lot of sadness, then realize that some kids are getting that done on a regular basis.  While I was in the hallway, trying so hard to not hear my baby cry while getting that procedure done, I saw a little boy getting prepped for radiation treatment.  He was wearing a steelers cap over his bald head, and his mother was standing beside his bed, holding his hand while a nurse talked them through what was going to happen, starting off with, "So I know you have the hang of this by now, buddy...." 

There are children there enduring the same thing every day.  Children who can't even leave their rooms at the hospital, let alone play with their friends or go to a playground.  So go!  Donate!

Oh, rats.

Time for Tales of the Bus Wednesday!

Overheard on the CB radio:

Um, yeah, hey...so I got a rat in the back of my bus here.  What do you want me to do about it?

I bet even the rat had the decency to only take up one seat on that bus, and keep all of his little rat belongings on his lap.

Or, maybe he was just a refugee from Occupy Pittsburgh.

You can't go back.

Are there times in your life that you look back on and think to yourself, "no...I can't go back to that place, I just can't bring myself to do it"?  You know, like the days before cell phones and DVR?

I feel the same way about my Kindle.  Which is surprising, because I resisted this newfangled gadget for a long time, wanting to hold on to my good old-fashioned books.  A big reason for this was because it was a rare occasion for me to actually buy books, I relied on the library for nearly all of my reading.  (I worked at our local library in high school, did you know that?  It was my very first job, I loved it, and have always felt a sense of loyalty to the library system) On top of the sense of loyalty, I'm also cheap frugal; the thought of forking over $10+ for a new book makes my stomach turn.

Fast forward to Liam being born, and my awesome coworkers decided to give something to ME for my hard work of giving birth...they went with the Kindle because of the new library-sharing capabilities it would soon have (and knowing about my frugal ways, gave me an amazon gift card so that I could buy books in the meantime)

So now, I'm at another one of those places in my life...a place where I look back on the past and wonder how I ever survived.  How did I lug a hardback book with me everywhere I went?  How did I manage to make the 1.5 block walk to the library every other week or so to drop off one book and pick up another?  How did I endure multiple paper cuts over the years from turning the pages too fast in my excitement to continue the story? 

I hope that the library sharing system continues to evolve and include more books, but it's been great so far (if you look at my list of books I've read from June 2011-present, nearly all of those have been from the library.  I think I have purchased 3 books from amazon, and one of those was part of their monthly special for 99 cents).  There's no going back now!

Matchy-Matchy

Totally acceptable to put your kids in matching clothing, right?  Yes?  Good. 

 

YES!  My mom put us in matching shirts today!

The photo session quickly turned into mayhem...

BABY DOWN!  I repeat, BABY DOWN!

Heart.Melting.

I said I should write a book about it...

...but I think I'll just blog about it instead.  My book idea would have been based on my adventures riding the bus.  I have been using public transportation to and from work, nearly every day, for the past 8.5 years.  I prefer it this way: the main reason being the cost-effectiveness of using the bus (especially since I don't have to pay to ride, thanks to my Pitt ID), I don't have to deal with the headache of sitting in traffic, and it gives me some down time to read or just unwind from the day.

Even though it's my preferred method of transportation, it is certainly not without faults.  Late buses, crowded buses, having to stand at a bus stop in all kinds of not nice weather...but most of all, the faults tend to be due fellow passengers.

With that being said, I will be dedicating Wednesdays to tales of public transportation.  Some of these stories might be older, I've built up quite the collection of horror stories in the past 8.5 years, but they will make you scratch your head and wonder what is wrong with the world today, so they are still relevant.  Today's story is one that (sadly) occurs on a regular basis, including this morning.

Dear Fellow Passenger,

Your insistence on putting your work bag on the seat beside you is maddening and just flat out rude.  You are no more entitled to a seat on this bus than I am.  And your bag?  Not entitled to a seat at ALL.  As if it's not bad enough that you plop your bag down there every.freaking.day (when this bus is jam packed, standing room only every.freaking.day), the fact that you roll your eyes and sigh like I've asked you for a kidney when I politely ask you if I can sit there makes me want to slap you across the face and ask if you were raised in a barn.  Instead, I take the passive-aggressive route and give an exaggerated, "WOW, thank you soooooo much!" as I sit down.  With my bag IN my lap...because that's how it's done.

SURPRISE!

Two weekends ago, I headed to Virginia to celebrate the upcoming arrival of my BFF's baby....the shower was a surprise to her, as was my arrival to her home, so it was a double surprise day for her, and it was wonderful to see the look on her face!

One of her friends from that area planned the whole event and did a fabulous job!

Congratulations to Melissa, Dennis and Ben...we can't wait to meet baby Parker, Liam is ready for his BFF :)

Recipe: Taco Pizza

Another Pinterest find!  What is below is the original recipe, I cut it in half (which was enough for me and Brian for dinner, then leftovers for lunch) and left out the olives and onions, and added a chopped green pepper in place of those. 

Taco Pizza

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 envelope taco seasoning mix
• 2 (8 oz.) cans Pillsbury crescent rolls
• 1 (16 oz.) can refried beans (I used the jalapeño kind)
• 2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican blend
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives
• 4 green onions, chopped

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Brown ground beef and drain. Add taco seasoning to the ground beef according to the package directions.
3. Unroll crescent rolls into rectangles. Place in ungreased 11 1/2 inch x 16 1/2 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Press dough over the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust.  Bake at 375 oven for 11 to 13 minutes or just until golden brown.
4. Microwave beans in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute.  Carefully spread beans over warm crust creating a thin layer.
5. Top with cooked beef mixture, sprinkle with cheese followed by tomatoes, black olives and green onion.  Return to oven for 3-6 more minutes until cheese is melted.  Serve immediately.  Makes 12 main dish servings or 48 appetizers.

Birthday party and product reviews

Cake: I ordered the cake from Sams Club; they get some points because they didn't have a "licensing fee" to use the Cars characters (Giant Eagle did) and their cake was cheaper overall.  My mom was able to pick it up for me on the way to the party, so it was good for convenience purposes.  It was a very affordable $21 for a 1/2 sheet cake (which was waaaaaay too much, I feel like I always over order food!)  The cake was cute (and Jake loved it, which is really all that matters) and the cake part of it was good, not dry at all...the icing was ok.  It almost had a gummy like texture (and I'm used to the gritty, sugary, rot-your-teeth kind of icing from Giant Eagle).  But it was good, I'd order again and just know that the icing has a bit of a different taste to it. 

Favors: Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the favor bags I put together.  The party place provided their own favors, so I only wanted to add a few "Cars" touches to go with the theme.  I picked up Lightning McQueen favor bags from Walmart, then hit the jackpot at Target for the actual favors.  Right after Christmas, they had a bunch of stuff from the dollar bins marked down 75% off (see?  it pays off to stalk the dollar bins!)  and I was able to score some Cars pens and magnets.  I added in some Cars fruit snacks and the bags were all set!

Wildwood Highlands:  I was really, really happy with our choice for the party site.  I had never been there, but I had heard good things and they had decently priced packages for birthday parties.  I was happy that (unlike most places) the price per child included food.  They received admission to the play place, tokens for the arcade games, a bag of goldfish, lunch (hot dog or pizza), dippin dots ice cream and drinks.  We had the room for an hour and a half, then the kids were able to stay and play as long as they wanted to (or until their parents could drag them out) the room was a good size and we had 2 party coordinators the whole time, who led the kids in games, took food orders, cut the cake, wrote down all of the gifts and who gave them and loaded them all up for us to take home.   They let me drop all of my stuff off there earlier in the week, so literally all we had to do the morning of the party was show up with the cake and the birthday boy.

Obviously, we were there in the winter, so we were limited to indoor activities, but they have a ton of stuff to do there.  And I'll be keeping it in mind for one of his older birthday parties, I think he'd love a laser tag party.

The big birthday bash!

I have to admit, I was hesitant about throwing a "friend" birthday party for Jake's birthday this year.  By hesitant, I mean that I had no intentions of doing so.  I always thought that 5 was the big year that you started to invite friends.  But, when all of Jake's friends started having parties, and Jake started to talk about his own birthday party, Brian asked if I would be willing to acknowledge the fact that 4 is the new 5 in the birthday party world.  So, we decided to go ahead and do it this year...and I'm glad we did.

We had the party at Wildwood Highlands, and I was really happy with the way it turned out there (I'll do a full review post later on)  Surprisingly, Jake seemed a bit overwhelmed when the party first started, and I got nervous that the whole thing was going to be a disaster.  He was doing things that he normally doesn't do, like hiding behind my legs when people tried to talk to him, and at one point he even asked Brian to hold him (?)  I asked him what was wrong, and he said he felt scared.  My guess is that maybe it was all a bit much...most of the kids got there all at one time, and of course they're excited, so they're kind of all buzzing around him, trying to get his attention, etc...he warmed up once the cake came out and I told him we could open presents soon :)

After the cake and present festivities, it was time to move on to the play zone!  Each child received admission to the play zone (ball pit, climbing tubes, etc...) and some tokens to play arcade games.  All of the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, it was fun to watch them.

Liam hung out with GG and Pappy pretty much the whole party and really enjoyed checking out all of the lights and noise.  He took a brief nap on GG, then had some lunch. 

"Um...I was told there would be cake?"

GG and Pappy joined us back at the house and Jake got to open more presents from them, and we were able to relax the rest of the afternoon (well, everyone but Brian, who spent a considerable amount of time removing toys from packages and assembling everything)  The day was a success!

Dirty little secret.

Everyone has their secrets; if you're a parent, you probably have a secret that deals with the one thing that no one can ever seem to explain or get a firm grasp on for an extended period of time: SLEEP.

You've seen our type before, the sleep-deprived parents of the world...dark circles under eyes, vacant expression, the look of someone who would kill for another cup of coffee.  I spent much of Jake's first year trying to figure out a way to mainline an IV of caffeine directly into my bloodstream.  ahhh...memories.

The funny thing about the Sleep Secret is that it's almost shameful to talk about...if your kid isn't sleeping, you keep it a secret because you don't want people to think you're doing something wrong.  Not to mention the fact that other people always seem to know what the problem is and feel the need to offer their opinion, even if you didn't ask for it ("Oh, you're holding him too much during the day, that's why he won't sleep at night!"  "He's waking because he's hungry, put some cereal in his bottle, he'll sleep all night")  Or, the super annoying ones who say things like, "Wow, that's terrible...all of my kids slept through the night from the day they were born on.  Yep, all night.  They never wake up."  Which of course, we all know is a bunch of BS, but in our sleep deprived state, we don't have the energy to argue with them.

And if your kid IS sleeping, you keep it a secret because you don't want people to think you're bragging or (even worse) to jinx the good sleep.

I have been on both sides of the Sleep Secret.  Jake was a terrible sleeper, literally from the day we brought him home from the hospital. He had his days and nights confused for WEEKS and it was torture. Not only was he wide awake at night, but just getting him to sleep took hours.  He wouldn't nurse to sleep, or even just be rocked to sleep...oh no, you had to carry him around the house and do a bounce/sway/sing little routine that was exhausting, especially when it went on all night.  There were some nights I honestly thought I would lose.my.freaking.mind.  He was waking every 2 hours to nurse, so I'd nurse, change his diaper, begin the painstaking process of getting him to sleep and if, IF, I was lucky enough to get him to sleep and in his crib, he was inevitably awake again within 30 minutes to eat.  It was a vicious cycle.  Oh and one time, being the rookie parents we were, we got the bright idea to force him to adjust his day/night confusion...we kept him awake all day, assuming that he'd HAVE to sleep at night after not sleeping all day, right??  WRONG.  Total and complete backfire.  Instead, he was just awake allllllllll night that night. I want to cry at the memory.

  He eventually worked out his day/night confusion, and got to a point where he wasn't waking every 2 hours to eat...so we had a bit of a break.  BUT........

Then, it happened.  The dreaded 4 month sleep regression.  It's every parents' worst nightmare; you're going along, everyone is happy and well rested, then BAM!  Parties at 1am! 2am! 3am!  Hey, let's never sleep again!!  Such a slap in the face.  You can read my blog post about his regression here.

So here's my secret about Jake's sleep: we Ferberized him.  Think what you might of this method (which, by the way-is NOT the cry it out method, they are 2 different things, so google it before judging), but it was what worked for us.  He was miserable from waking up all night, every night, on the hour...we were miserable from his nighttime shenanigans.  We wanted our happy baby and our own sanity back.  After weeks and weeks of it not getting any better (and actually getting worse) we decided that it was time for Dr. Ferber to pay a visit.  Jake was around 5.5 months old.  It took 3 nights.  I honestly don't remember the details at this point, but I remember it was not quite as bad as I had anticipated. And what we got in return was a happier, more well-rested baby.  I think that's an overall win for everyone involved.

Moving onto Liam, I really hoped while I was pregnant that I would get a sleeper.  I figured I was due for one....and he came through for me!  When he was first born, he woke every 2-3 hours to eat for the first few weeks, but by some type of miracle, did NOT require the elaborate routine to go back to sleep that Jake did.  I would nurse him, he would fall asleep after he was done eating, I'd put him in his crib...he'd stay until he was ready to eat again.  I felt ecstatic. I felt human.  But-I kept my mouth shut unless people asked about it.  You know, the whole bragging and/or jinxing thing.

As time went on, he started to stretch those night feedings out more, until he was going 4-5 hours every night, then shorting after that waking once overnight to eat around 3 or 4 months.  He also started to go down in his crib for the night awake.  Bliss!!  Around 5.5 months he pretty much stopped waking up for that middle of the night feed....after he consistently did this for a few days, he did wake up randomly for a few nights, but I sent Brian in (if I went in, I know he'd assume the all you can eat all night buffet was open for business) and he was always able to rock him back to sleep.

There was a rough time after Thanksgiving where he started waking up again; he'd had the stomach flu, then we traveled for Thanksgiving, then he had a cold...so  once he was healthy again, we took the same measures, pretty much just sent Brian in to comfort him and rock him back to sleep.  We were back on track pretty easily.  Same thing more recently---it took awhile longer, but after his recent ear infection and spending a few nights in our bed, he was waking over night.  Rinse, lather, repeat.

So here is where we are with Liam---he goes to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps through the night.  Which is great, and please dont' think I don't realize how lucky I am...but for Liam, his definition of "end of the night" is somewhere around 5am.  5:30am if I'm really lucky, and 4:30am if I'm having an unlucky day.  There's my secret---I have a baby who sleeps through the night consistently and who we can put in his crib awake to go to sleep for the night, but this same baby seems to think we work on a farm and need to be up before the sun rises.  So what do you do?

At this point, we found there's nothing we really can do...we've tried nearly everything, it seems.  we've put him to bed later.  We've put him to bed earlier. We've gone in and soothed him, tried to rock him back to sleep, turned on his soother and left him in there (while crawling back under the covers and praying that he puts himself back to sleep)....nothing.  I even tried feeding him as soon as he woke up one time, thinking that would lull him back to sleep.  FAIL.  He is just wide awake in there.

Yes, I know I should be appreciative of the fact that he sleeps through the night (and trust me, I am!) but of course, if he could just stretch his definition of the night by just a teensy bit of time, that would be great.  For now, we're just going with it, taking turns getting up with him on the weekends (because really, do you need 2 parents to be awake before 5am on a Saturday?) and hoping that it passes.

So there...my secret is out.  I have 2 kids: neither of them are perfect sleepers.  But I think I'll keep them both anyway.  Just keep the coffee coming.  You know, for the next...oh, 18 years or so.

Jake's 4 year check up

I'll be sure to do a post about Jake's party (it was a success!)  but I did want to post details about his 4 year check up today.  First up, the stats:

Weight: 33 lbs
Height :38.75 inches

Last year for his 3 year check up, he was 30 lbs and 37.5 inches.  So 3 lbs heavier and 1.25 inches taller...which is strange, because I really would have thought he had grown more than that (height-wise anyway)  It seems like he's hit at least 2 growth spurts in the past year that have caused me to have to suddenly change pants/short sizes for him because they were suddenly all like floods on him (or, in the case of shorts, suddenly looked like he had been teleported back to 1977).  but he's growing right on track, which is all that matters. 

The doctor said everything looked great physically and that he's right on track for his age developmentally.  He was very impressed with how social he was (he didn't stop talking the whole time once the doctor came in...he filled him in on school, his party, what kind of cake it was ,the presents he got, and the fact that he loves chicken nuggets).  He got 3 shots (which he was not thrilled with), but the good news is that we're DONE with vaccines (aside from the flu shot) for him until he's 11.  Finally, the end!  The shots must have taken a toll on him, he took a 3 hour nap this afternoon...I had both of the boys home with me today since it's MLK day, so score for mommy, I had a huge chunk of time to myself this afternoon since Liam took a nearly 2 hour nap in that same time period.

Speaking of Liam, we also had an appointment for him this morning to have his ears checked after the infection he had...fortunately, that had cleared up and all was well.  He received the 2nd half of his flu shot, so he's all up to date until his 9 month check up next month.

Here's Jake getting ready to ski in our backyard yesterday...yes, in our backyard.

Happy 4th Birthday, Jake!!

If kisses were colors, you'd see every one of the bands of a rainbow that shines in the sun.

 
If kisses were pebbles, your beach would be lined with stones by the millions, of all shapes and kinds.

 
If kisses were comets, the sky would be bright with flashes of fire that streak through the night.

 
If kisses were flowers, you'd have huge bouquets of roses and daisies picked fresh every day.

 
If kisses were raindrops, a sea would appear, created by showers that fall far and near.

 
If kisses were acorns, a forest would grow of beautiful oak trees, in row after row.

 
If kisses were snowflakes, your world would be light, sparkling with crystals of silver and white.

 
If kisses were blankets, you'd always be warm, wrapped up from the cold during winter's worst storm.

 
My kisses are colors, and raindrops that flow, and pebbles, and acorns, and comets that glow,and flowers, and snowflakes that fall from above; they're my way, sweet baby, to give you my love.

~If Kisses Were Colors, by Janet Lawler

Jake, 

I know you're not at all a baby anymore (and in fact, if I were reading this to you now, you'd probably tell me that yourself), but we used to read that book to you at bedtime nearly every night for a long time, and thinking of it still makes me smile.  And reading the words right now, while writing a happy birthday post to you brings tears to my eyes as I sit here and wonder how four years have already passed.

You never stop amazing us, and your daddy and I are so very proud of you every day.  Whether it's coming home from school with projects that show off your creativity, your new reading and writing skills, or just stories of how you played with your friends...it's one of my favorite parts of the day.  Catching up with you on YOUR day and getting to see the world through your perspective.  Last week, you made a snowman out of marshmallows at school...something so simple as putting a few marshmallows together with a toothpick and giving him M&M's for buttons brought you so much joy...it's times like those that really make me stop and catch my breath, and force myself to slow down and take in those moments.  

There isn't adequate space on this blog to be able to describe you...in summary, you are smart, funny, kind, sensitive, the best big brother in the world, headstrong, stubborn, you have the memory of an elephant, you have endless amounts of energy and enthusiasm, and you're so sweet that it's  all I can do to not squeeze you to pieces at times.  

We've really been seeing you come into your own lately...I've heard stories of you sticking up for your friends at school, volunteering to be first for things in front of a group, and showing a huge interest in your brother recently.  I can't wait until he's a bit older, and the two of you really can play together and have that bond.

You're into Toy Story, superheroes, blocks and Cars right (Cars the movie, and Hot Wheels tracks).  You're becoming a pro at puzzles, and you find one or two books that you like and we read them constantly for weeks at a time, then switch.  (Right now, those books are 101 Dalmatians and The Cat in the Hat)  Lately, you've been great about entertaining yourself...I'll be cooking dinner and hear you setting up an elaborate "city" of blocks, filled with superhero meetings, bad guys and race tracks.  Your go-to TV shows are "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and "Scooby Doo".

You don't like to sit very still, you're constantly on the go...but at night, you always ask me to lay with you for a few minutes before you go to sleep.  You put your hands in my hair and sometimes pat the side of my face, while you chat about your plans for the next day (including what's for breakfast--you still have an amazingly large appetite!)   

Thank you for being you, Jake...we love you!  Happy birthday!!

Another Pinterest project

I was inspired to make a wedding frame gift for my brother Nate and his new wife, Katie after seeing something on...where else?  Pinterest of course! 

Don't mind the watermarked picture (Photography by Amanda); I didn't have any of their pictures to use yet, so I had to quickly print one off of her site to have something to put in there.  I was pleased with how it turned out!  The letters and numbers for the monogram and wedding date were from this Flickr page and I followed the directions for formatting it correctly in Publisher on this site, then I uploaded it to snapfish, changed the pictures to sepia toned and I was done. 

Loyal kid.

"I pledge allegiance, to the flag...of the United Steaks of America..."

~Jake, reciting the pledge last night

mmm....steaks.....

Hit the slopes!

The temperature around here randomly climbed up into the mid-50's over the weekend, so Brian decided to take advantage of it and took Jake skiing on Saturday.  You can imagine how excited Jake was to wake up and discover that was the plan for the day! 

Love the sign!!

My little guy hit the slopes at 9:30am and after some coaxing, finally left for the day around 5pm.  Brian said he had to talk him into taking a few breaks throughout the day, Jake just did not want to stop.  At one point, Brian told Jake he had to go to the lodge to use the restroom and take a break; Jake's response was, "that's ok daddy...you go ahead and go to the potty, I'll stay out here and ski some more"  :)

Yes, they were there at sunset :)

By the end of the day, he was falling asleep on the chair lift in between runs but was still adamant that he wanted to keep going.  I think it's awesome that he loves it so much and that he and Brian now have this as their "thing".  Brian said he passed out in the car pretty much right away:

Done.

Here's a video of him, one of the first runs of the day on the little kiddie slope area: