From my phone!!! Driving up!

I finally downloaded the blogger app for my phone, so while I have some down time today, I thought I would try it.

We headed north on Thursday. Getting on the road was eventful because a serious storm started that morning and knocked out our power. We had already been dealing with our refrigerator going out, so I was totally relying on the deep freeze for milk storage. Thankfully, the power came back on just before we left. Nicholas drove us through the storm. We had to pull over under an overpass at one point because it was storming so heavily. It let up about an hour north of Birmingham and the rest of the trip was smooth.

The kids were great. We read a lot of Dora books, ate lunch in the car, ran around the rest areas, and watched two Dora episodes on the iPad. Leo napped twice, and Olivia napped once.

We made it to Mutti's place around 6:30. Olivia was so excited to see her! Olivia remembered where her closet of toys was and immediately started to play. Jane loved seeing how big and bouncy Leo was. Uncle Chuck came over and played, too. Leo and I drove to my parents' place to spend the night, while Nicholas and Olivia spent the night at Jane's. Everyone slept well! Thanks to the grandmas for making us feel so welcome!

Six months!

Leo was six months old on Wednesday! Can you believe it?! Whoa! Slow down, big boy! And I do mean big boy. According to the least precise way to measure (my scale holding him and then not), he weighed 19.5 lbs. Because of strange schedules, I don't take him to his doctor visit until the 23rd, so we won't have a better estimate until then. For the non-Facebook people, here are some pictures that I had my neighbor take of Leo on Wednesday. (Jeana, my neighbor is a budding photographer, so they are pretty good!)

Friday dinner

I've been meaning to post to say that this is my new favorite recipe:

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/09/crispy-southwest-chicken-wraps.html. Check it out! It is yummy and tastes like it is from Qdoba!

And two funny Olivia things. Yesterday while Nicholas was giving her a bath Olivia told him that she had a big sister in her belly. (Yikes! Where does she get this stuff!) And two days ago when she was watching a Super Why episode, she told me she wanted to jump into the TV to help Princess Presto solve her super big problem. Hilarious!

Pictures to come. Too tired tonight. We have a video of Olivia telling me that she couldn't possibly eat dinner because it tasted too bland. I almost took that as an insult until I remembered (1) she's two and (2) she was repeating a line from her book Purplicious. There, the line was about vanilla ice cream. Olivia is really good at putting things into context.

Pajama party and other stuff

Leo continues to grow up despite my protests. He is now taking solids twice a day. He really likes squash and pears, doesn't like peas unless they are in the peas, spinach, and pears mix, and likes his oat cereal mixed with breast milk. He also likes sweet potatoes and prunes. And that is about the extent of his diet thus far. His sleep continues to be bad, but Ferber, at this point is not working, and I refuse to let him cry for hours, which he has proven that he will do even if checked on at the assigned times. So, we will put that off until later and just let me be tired for a while. I really think that his bad sleep may be associated with him about to hit a milestone. There is another video of him pushing himself up looking like he is about to crawl.



Olivia continues to be a great big sister. You can tell that Leo wants to be just like her. Here he is trying to laugh when she does.



We had double Kindermusik today, which is the last one for the summer. It goes so much more smoothly when Nicholas is there to tag team with me. Thanks, Nicholas! Also, before going to Kindermusik, we stopped by the library to drop off Olivia's summer reading list so that she could get prizes. We pledged to read 320 books in this time. That sounds like a lot, but remember her books take about 5 minutes to read, and at a minimum, we read two books in the living room and one book in her crib before nap and bed time every day. That's six books a day for eight weeks. Add in reading while I nurse Leo, reading to Olivia's animals when we play animal rescue center (almost every day), and Daddy reading to Olivia while I make dinner/nurse Leo/am otherwise engaged, and we came up with 469 books!! Way to go Team Kraft!

This morning we had 13 kids in the house for a pajama party. Olivia likes to act out books and TV episodes, so this one was like a Max and Ruby episode where Ruby has a pajama party during the day. We had snacks, music and dancing, and "fashion magazines" (really, just Max and Ruby coloring pages) for the kids to play with. I think everyone had a great time!

Here are some of the silly things from Olivia lately:

Me: (I had just read a Dora book about wishes.) What do you wish for, Olivia?
Olivia: I want a big sister!

At night time in her crib after I have already tucked her in:
Olivia: Turn on the lamp.
Me: No. It's night time.
Olivia: I can't talk to you if you don't turn on the lamp.
Me: (I turn on the lamp.)
Olivia: I'm having a hard time falling asleep.
Me: Do you need another B? (That's what we call her burp clothes, which she uses as loveys.)
Olivia: Yes.
Me: (I get one and give it to her.)
Olivia: (Snuggles down on her pillow with it. I turn out the lamp and turn to go. Olivia pops up and says.) Make sure to check on Leo if he cries. (She also hates Ferber because Leo kept her up for two hours last week Wednesday night.)

Looking at the Vogue picture we have in our living room. (Mutti, you know the one.)
Olivia: Is that you?
Me: No.
Olivia: Is that a picture of you when you are old?
Me: No.
Olivia: Is that what you look like when you are old?
Me: I hope so.

Getting back into the swing of things...

We are getting back into a better routine. Monday I took the kids to double Kindermusik by myself. It went pretty well, except that Olivia was pretty much done about one third of the way through her class because there were two dads there, and she was a little afraid of them. Add the extra time in Leo's class, and we just called it a day and went and picked up Nicholas from his office since he had been up for 48 hours and was in no shape for driving.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, Leo had a VERY hard time staying asleep. He woke about every 15-20 minutes for the first few hours of sleep. I have no idea what was going on. Still he is having a hard time, but last night was a little better with the wakings less frequent. I really think that he is about to crawl and that this developmental milestone is throwing him. See the video for some of his moves. He didn't nap AT ALL at school yesterday, and is starting to refuse his bottle. That's not necessarily so bad because he can eat enough solids to satisfy him and I want to skip pumping at work anyway. Sweet Leo is growing up before Mommy is not ready.



One evening when I was very frustrated and pretty upset that Leo couldn't/wouldn't go to sleep and I didn't want him to cry, Olivia asked me why I was upset. I told her that I couldn't help Leo go to sleep. She said, "I can help. I'll sing Twinkle, Twinkle!" She's such a doll!

I've been getting a little more creative with her lunches lately. I haven't taken a picture of her school lunch yet, but here is one of her lunch on Wednesday:

I am trying to do a better job of having our lunch time and dinner times be less hectic, more planned, and more pleasant. I have enlisted Olivia to set the table, which she loves to do. She gets out the silverware for all of us and sets it at each of our places. I've also started lighting a candle at lunch and dinner time to signal the start of dinner and I let her blow out the candle when we are all finished. This has worked amazingly well. The candle idea is from the book I am reading called, "The Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family Ties." It has lots of good ideas.

Another funny thing that Olivia said this week was "Mommy. I can have some ice cream? That would make me happy." Today while Leo was jabbering, she said, "I think he's speaking Spanish!" She cracks me up!

We did the library on Wednesday. Today we did "kite races" where Olivia ran around the house pretending to fly a kite and then ran through some streamer as the finish line.

And in the book "Ballet Time" that we borrowed this week, Tilly is a ballerina who plays a cat in a play. So, here is our little Tutu Tilly dressed up as a "tip toe on your paws cat" and a "fierce, show all your claws cat."

Today I got my hair cut!! I am so excited about it because it is the first time a professional has cut my hair since before Olivia was born. I took a picture to show her, and she did a fantastic job! Before and after pictures to follow!

We are all tired...

It's been a good week, really, we are just all tired. Nicholas has been working very hard on his career proposal for the NSF, and his schedule was completely inverted by Thursday of last week. He went into work in the afternoon on Friday and stayed until Saturday morning. He woke at 7 PM on Saturday, helped me with baths, and hasn't been home since. I took the kids for a picnic lunch at his office yesterday and brought him breakfast today. He is almost done. Thank goodness, for everyone. He needs to sleep about 24 hours. Hopefully we will be back on schedule by the end of the week.

We did fun things, too, though. Last week we did double Kindermusik on Monday with Daddy tag-teaming it with me. (Today I attempt it on my own. We'll see if we make it to both.) We went to the library for new books (met my limit of 20) on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and made it to story time on Wednesday. On Friday we went to gymnastics. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my work days and Olivia and Leo's Mom's Morning Out days, and those went well, as well. Olivia likes to pretend drive the van now and drop me off at Mom's Morning Out when we play at home together. We are working on getting rid of the mid-morning nursing and replacing it with solids so that I don't have to pump at work. We're closer. On Thursday, he ate a pack of prunes (60 calories) and only took two ounces of milk. We also hit CHOM on Saturday and Sweet Cece's trying to stay out of the house for a while so Daddy could get some rest. Leo's sleep schedule is horrid, and I have asked Nicholas to help me with it once his schedule settles down. I have created a little monster who only wants to sleep in bed with us.

I didn't record much from the week. Here are a few pictures of Leo eating a rice cracker,

bouncing,

playing on our bed,

and in his first pair of shoes yesterday!

Here is Olivia walking in a pair of my heels. She would not stop to let me get a better picture, but she walked from my closet across the house to her bathroom. Hilarious!

This is Olivia playing dress-up at CHOM.

And here is a little video of Olivia writing a card (she really thinks that she knows how to write) to Grandma Dorothy...and others



This is of Olivia playing "music". I realize now that she wanted me to continue "introducing" her.

Just another week

Last week was a little rough. On Tuesday when I picked the kids up from MMO, Leo hadn't eaten anything while he was there. When I brought him home, he nursed and then threw up. Then Olivia woke from her nap fussy and upset. I went to the monthly Mom's night out that night anyway (Thanks, Nicholas!), which I hadn't been to since May, since both seemed to be doing okay by then. I nursed Leo and put him to be at 6:45 so that Nicholas only had Olivia to get into bed on his own. Olivia got whatever Leo had and started throwing up on Wednesday. I stayed home from work Thursday since the kids were sick. They were feeling better by the evening, though. On Friday I had both kids in the car by 7:30 AM to run to Target for prescriptions and some groceries. Olivia was eating the rest of her breakfast in her car seat with a bib on. She asked me to take it off of her because it was bothering her, so I pulled over on our street and did so. Then when I was pulling back out, I hit a mailbox. I did A LOT of damage to my car--my passenger side rearview mirror is totally off. We take it in tomorrow to have it fixed. Ugh! What an idiotic thing to do!!!

We went home after telling my neighbor I had hit his mailbox. We made it to Target later that day, though, and Olivia told me that her friend, Laura Kate, at school was using the potty and Olivia wanted to, too. Olivia wanted me to buy her a Dora potty seat for the big toilet (not just the little potty we have) and more panties. We did that, and on Friday night I made the potty chart, put out the M&M's and stickers for rewards, and washed all the new panties. I thought I was ready. I was; Olivia wasn't. Saturday was slightly disastrous. Olivia has the concept of the potty, but she can't quite relax enough to let it go when she doesn't REALLY have to and she can't hold it when she REALLY does have to. We started the morning with two "I can't go" potties, then we had two accidents, both of which were full of tears. We made it to the toilet just in time for the very last of it, though. Then we had two successful potties--complete with stickers and M&M's, which made Olivia super excited. Then Olivia refused to drink and didn't go for two hours. Then nap time with a slip-on diaper. It was full when she woke. Then she had one accident and one successful trip and lots of "I can't go" potties. She never told me she had to go because I now believe that she really can't tell.

At the end of Saturday, I was tired and debating whether to go on. The answer came during the night when she woke every hour to hour and a half for comfort. Daddy was up working on his career proposal, so I didn't field these. He told me when he came to bed at 6 AM. This morning I put diapers on Olivia and told her that she could still go on the potty if she wanted to, but she was going to wear diapers today. She was happy with that. I asked her first thing if she wanted to go on the potty right away, but she didn't want to. Then she went in her diaper and told me about it. She said she wanted to go on the potty then. She wasn't able to. I talked to my sister Steph about this, and she said that she had a similar episode with Abby when she was 28 months. Steph waited two more months, and then Abby was ready and did great. I am just going to wait. I took down the chart and the stickers tonight.

In other news, I keep meaning to write down things Olivia says. I have forgotten so many; here are two snippets of conversations:

In her crib on a rare night when Daddy isn't there for bed time:
Me: I had a great day with you today.
Olivia: My favorite part was playing with Daddy! (She is well on her way to being Daddy's girl! Of course there is also lots more conversation about her having a hard time falling asleep and trying to bargain for more stories and milk.)

In her crib almost every night now:

Me: Night, night, Olivia.
Olivia: If Leo cries, you go check on him. And don't break anything! (I seriously don't know where that last part came from! Maybe from hitting the mailbox? )

Some pictures of Daddy and Olivia drawing in the living room while Olivia was wearing her crown. When she is wearing this, she is Mariana, the princess of mermaid kingdom.