Chewing

Warning

Warning - holding Adam facing forward at church runs the risk of filling the purse of the lady in front of you with drool.

Healthy Blessings

We had checkups for both kids today. Laura's 3 year and Adam's 4 month. Both kids are doing great. Laura is right on 50% for size. They checked her vision and hearing and both are fine. Adam is 95% height and 75% weight. Poor Adam had 3 shots and an oral vaccine. He didn't take it so well, but I think a lot had to do with the fact that he hardly slept last night and the nurse was super dooper slow with everything, including the shots. It wasn't our normal nurse, unfortunately, and we were in there for 2 hours. Ugh. We were all tired by the time we left. Jim was unexpectedly waiting for us when we got out because he was sick enough to leave work. That's pretty sick. The doctor's office is on the way home, so he stopped by to see if we wanted lunch. Now they are all 3 tucked away for naps and I should really be doing the same, but don't really feel too tired. 

Adam rolled over 3 times a few days ago, but nothing since. Nothing else exciting going on here. Laura might have allergies, but I'm not sure. Everyone seems to continue to get sick and then healthy and then sick again. 

ok, now I'm tired, off to try for some sleep.

Party!

We had a little party for Laura's 3rd birthday yesterday. Family friends, Michelle and Odin, came over for pizza, cake & ice cream, and presents. Lots of fun. I think the birthday horns were better than any of the presents! 

sun hats, big boy, family

big boy clothes!

family photo

Family resemblence

What is the deal with the furniture biting? Jenny, Laura and Adam, in that order, all at 4 months...

Giggles

Phone call to Daddy

Laura talking to her Daddy

finally!

Ah, its great to be back home again. My husband, my own bed, my own computer, back to making every meal, cleaning every meal, watching the kids alone all day, cold wet weather, no leaves on the trees, dirty snow leavings in the shady places...wait a minute. I want to go back. Just want to take my husband, bed and computer with me next time.

The kids and I just returned from a visit to my parents' house in Oklahoma. It was a nice, 11 day vacation for us all and we had a ball! Aside from nasty colds that spread from my mom, to my dad, to me, to Adam (skipping Laura at least!), everything was wonderful. The weather was mostly warm. Days in the 50s 60s and 70s. There were also days in the 30s with snow, but on those days, it was -3 in Minnesota, so I didn't complain. My parents have so much room to run outside that Laura was in heaven. I was constantly amazed at how brave she was there. She would run freely down the hill, fall and get back up. Scratch, bump, bruise, pinch, it didn't matter. When those things happen here, she usually falls apart, but she was so excited to be outside and in the "forest" that she didn't care at all. She kept remarking about how amazing it was to go outside without a coat on, and I had to agree, it was wonderful. I am hoping that when it warms up here, she will be as excited about our backyard as she was about their "forest" but I'm guessing it won't have quite the same appeal. We enjoyed the birds, the neighborhood cat, mom's flowers, the bear statues, and the huge swimming pool of leaves in my mom's garden. We even ate a few meals outside. Laura enjoyed the fresh supply of toys, but mostly just wanted to play outside all the time. Adam really enjoyed all the extra attention he could get too, since the extra adults around meant that someone was always free to play with him. Sleep was a little dicey towards the end when were sick, but for the most part, everyone slept in their own beds nicely.

A few trips to the school's playground. Laura played with 2 other girls. It was fun to see her interact and hold her own.
Dad took us to the archery range. We mostly just played around with the soccer ball or hiked on the trails. We had a nice picnic, but it was a little chilly. I tried to pull Dad's bow and wasn't strong enough, even on the lowest setting! Very humiliating, especially since Kim was able to do it the month before. 
Snuggles
Lots of crafts.

standoff
We both look like we've had a bit too much fresh air.
Being brave with the sweet kitty.
Yee haw




Love this picture
big, beautiful flakes that didn't stick.


Happy Birthday to me!


Jim's folks and aunt and uncle were able to visit also. That was so great for us. Laura had a blast and Adam didn't have to travel!

darn

just woke up adam from a 2 hour nap in his crib when I tried to open the door to check on him and the doorknob slipped because I had just put lotion on my hand. crud. the good news is that he took a 2 hour nap in his crib! and I actually accomplished a ton of work and listened to a few podcasts.

New stuff

Both kids are learning new things left and right.

Laura took her first alone shower tonight. She insisted on closing the curtain. We don't use soap and shampoo every night, so she just hung out under the water, but it was very exciting. She also does the entire toothbrushing thing herself: getting the toothpaste, twisting it open, putting it on her brush, brushing, twisting cap back on, putting it away. And she's tried a few naps with no diaper. A little success, but a few accidents too and she has scared herself back into diapers for nap. She has gone into a public bathroom stall and locked it before I knew what was happening and completed the entire bathroom task alone. It would have been interesting if she had needed help unlocking the door, but she didn't, thankfully. She has been trying to figure out how jokes work. She loves the knock knock joke where you end up saying "boo who", but I don't think she really grasps it. She decided her first joke was: "What do eagles dry off with? An eagle towel!" And she is back to her sunny disposition, which is a relief because the last few weeks have been really rough. She wasn't feeling well and we were butting heads pretty badly. I know there will still be plenty of times of sass to come, but it feels good to have had a few good days with my sweet girl again.

Adam is changing quickly too, of course. He is still *almost* rolling over, but not quite yet. I did find him on his back once in bed when I had laid him down on his stomach, but it hasn't happened again. The last few days, he has really started working on reaching for things. If you put something in front of him, he slowly and deliberately brings both hands forward to grab it. Pretty cool to be able to know what he's thinking and watch him learn. There are a few drawbacks: 1.) He slept terribly last night. I've been told that kids sleep bad when they are really starting to figure out something new and this seems to be the case. It was the first time that I brought him back into our bed since moving him into his own room weeks ago. But at 5am, I just wasn't very strong. 2.)He gets really frustrated if everything doesn't go exactly right. i.e. he misses what he's reaching for, he drops it, I take it away, it doesn't make it into his mouth. But its cool to know how to make him happy by just helping him hold it again. It feels like a little bit of communication between us. He's also laughing up a storm. It cracks me up. All of a sudden, he'll just giggle, and then its super easy to keep him going by kissing, tickling or talking to him. Love it. 

PERFECT snow day

It warmed up just enough to make the snow really sticky, just perfect to play! We spent about 1 1/2 hours out today. We started to make a snowman, but Laura decided a snow slide was more fun. Fun stuff!

Dressed up and no place to go

For some reason, I dressed up the kids today. Just an ordinary Wednesday, nowhere special to go. But Adam ended up in a vest and Laura in a dress. I decided to take some pictures and these are my favorite. If you want to sift through them all, here's a link to all of them. 

http://tinyurl.com/detv83