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Making it thru the winter by staying busy…

12 Mar

Although this winter has been long and dreary, I cannot say I have been bored.  My kids give me plenty to do, clean up, and write about:

-CJ knows how to shake her head side-to-side (no) but she does this when she also means to say yes.  We can usually tell when it is a “yes” shake when she does it with a smile.  It started off as a bobblehead combination of the two.

-M has been on an early wake-up kick lately. His alarm goes off at 6:30 on weekdays, but he jokes that he wants to wake up earlier.

-The boys share a room now.  This adjustment has been going good lately, our biggest issues were getting B to take bedtime serious and the loss of M’s privacy in regard’s to his toys and his playtime, etc.  We get less one-on-one time with reading stories, which is probably what I miss the most.

Something around here feels creepy...-We are still helping B learn his morning routine.  Now that he rooms with M, M’s alarm also usually wakes up B.  Overall, this is a good thing, as B will soon have to have the same routine and be ready early for preschool, etc. next year.  But B wakes up like a Bear. Usually stands at the top of the steps and cries “mama, I want you”.  Neil insists there is a 10-minute rule where you cannot talk to B unless he talks to you. Breakfast is a sensitive subject, because he usually does not want it right away.  He tells us he wants it, but then the choice of WHAT he wants is another story. Slow waker.

-For my birthday in January, we took a trip to the cities  (I love doing fun things with the kids for my birthday, makes me feel like a kid).  We stayed at the Venetian Water Park in Maple Grove, played tons of video games at Dave and Busters, and then went to Edinborough Park in Edina the next day to wear off that last bit of energy.  These were all firsts for all of us so it was a blast.

-CJ loves shoes.  It is so cute to see what shoes she picks out when you tell her to go get some, and then she sits down and tries to put them on.  After 2 boys, it is fun to see the little differences between little girls and boys.  She loves to play cars and dinosaurs like the boys, but babies, shoes, and pretties (clothes, hair things, jewelery) are her favorites.

Learning the ice..

-A couple weeks ago, we went to the Redwood Community Center with the boys and did some ice skating.   This is also the first time in maybe 15+ years that I have been ice skating. Funny part for me, is that my parents bought me ice skates when I was a kid, and I think they purposely bought them too big so I would “grow into them” (parent logic).  So as a kid I would wear extra big socks and stuff Kleenex’s in the toes.  Well I got the blade sharpened and now they fit me perfectly.

-Neil and the boys are working building a virtual pinball machine… which involves gutting an old pinball machine and placing 2 TV’s and a computer in it to emulate a real pinball. More on this later…

-We are taking the kids to  swimming lessons.  The 2 younger ones are in “mom/dad n me” and love it.  B was so timid in the water last year and always acted like he was so COLD.  This was CJ’s first year and she is also loving the water. Little water bugs.  This is M’s “Preschool Swim” so he are actually working on swimming stuff.  He is so tired afterwards and really just wants to jump in the water and just wants to have fun.  I remember not being too fond of swimming lessons either when I was a kid.

G'ma Judy with CJ at Vern's party

-Great Grandpa Vern turned 89 and we helped him celebrate with a birthday party! The kids enjoyed playing pool, running in the hallways, and using the exercise room, and g’pa’s new pad.

-One topic that has come up many times the past couple months is the missing Mario Kart Wii Game. The house has been searched from top to bottom.  At one time B had said he “thru it in the garbage” and then that a “bad man took it”.  He has since changed his story and said he just doesn’t know where it is.  So the mystery continues. But it could also be that brother B was jealous of brother A and decided to remove what he knew was near and dear to him.

-CJ loves to color and scribble on paper and in the bath with water crayons.  It is so cute when she gets marker on her hands because she will keep pointing it out and “talking” about it until someone washes it off.

Is it spring yet? Yearning for green grass and warm breezes…

Singing monkeys, Kung Fu Light Sabers and First Steps (Videos)

17 Jan

Here are some videos of my kids that I finally got uploaded.

The little girl- who showed her will to walk right around Christmas – 15 months

The middle child. who thinks he is a kung fu kid.

And my oldest, who is very enthusiastic about jumping monkeys and wearing a suit & tie.

Bye Bye Training Wheels, Hello Super Mario Bros.

19 Oct

M got a new bike for her fourth birthday last summer. It is Hot Wheels blue and neon green with training wheels. Ever since then, we have talked about the day that he would be able to ride “without training wheels” and how cool that would be… He could go so much faster, ride in the grass, maybe even take short rides by himself.

We practiced and practiced all this summer to ride without training wheels: taking off one wheel, bending the wheels up, trying the “push” down a slight incline…. nothing worked. He actually seemed to prefer a “Big Wheels” trike that was really more appropriate for his little brother. He had asked for a scooter this summer, and I told him I would buy him one after he learned how to ride his bike, sans training wheels. There was probably a couple other bribes, but nothing worked.

There was a couple times, that M and B were both riding their bikes with training wheels. B has a “mini” one that we picked up at a garage sale for free. This was pretty cute seeing my 2 boys riding their 4-wheeled bikes together. I remember reminiscing to when I was kid-less and thought to myself “I never pictured this” – 2 little boys, both small enough to ride bikes with training wheels. I remember thinking that this period would not last very long.

Pushing off on the little bike!

Then, on Saturday, October 2nd (ironically our 11 year wedding anniversary) he asked his dad if he would take the training wheels off B’s bike (his little bike). Neil did, and as I was in the house, M hopped on B’s little black bike and took off. He then actually came in and said, “Mom I was outside riding bike without training wheels” but I had heard this many times before, when he had training wheels on, but he just thought the wheels weren’t touching the ground. When Neil saw what was happening, he took a second take and said to M, “Did you tell mom?” and M said, “Yeah I told her, but she is not coming out to see”. Neil came in and told me that it was going on for real, I came to look and could not believe my eyes.

The next day, he asked for the training wheels to come off his big Hot Wheels bike, and he hopped on that too with no problem. I found out later, that Neil had actually made a new promise to M shortly before he hopped on B’s little black bike training wheel-less. M, a Mario Kart addict of sorts, had also been asking for the new Super Marios Bros game. Neil said that if he learned how to ride bike, he would buy it for him.

We have had some really fun bike rides since then. Like we told him, he can go faster and farther, and have a little more freedom. He will probably be biking to the park on his own before I know it.

Done Deal. Part right incentive, part right timing. Now my little boy is a big. And fast.

It must be the Power Oatmeal.

4 May

It seems to me that my kids have all grown up immensely over the past couple weeks. Maybe it is the Power Oatmeal they have been eating for breakfast every morning.

CJ is into her hands and feet, staring them down, analyzing them, grabbing those toes in the “happy baby” yoga pose. Yeah my baby invented that pose…. She loves her veggies. Spoonful, thumb, spoonful, thumb, spoonful, thumb. She likes to get that thumb action between each bite. She is now jumping in her bouncer like a crazy girl. Rocking that thing. And getting places in the walker, slow but sure (which BTW, Brody still likes to hop in the bouncer, walker, and other baby things just for shits and giggles). This little Lottie has discovered she can really talk! And scream! And use it to her advantage! She has a voice and it is great to see so much personality coming out of this bald little babe.

Brody, oh Brody. So cute, so devilish. Just learn to love sleep. Please. And listen a little better. That would make things so much easier. He is doing good on the potty- just on his terms though. “Brody have to go potty?” – “no” But when it is bedtime, and he is suppose to be sleeping, he suddenly knows he has to go, and yells for us…. and success, potty. Yeah he is in charge of the potty routine, what he says goes, because we will take whatever Poo in the Potty we can get. It is so fun to hear him form little sentences and say big words. He is talking up a storm, he know what he wants, and wants to be heard! And the dancing… ever since we got the Go Fish CD’s, these kids go nuts jamming out and dancing (my personal fave- is the 5 little monkeys, and of course the mom song).

Mav – the questions and comments he says lately are so entertaining. He is intrigued with the hair (and lack of hair) that his grandpas’ have (or don’t have). “Dad why is Grandpas mustache white? It looks silly, it should be brown!” And the fact that grandpa H does not have hair on the top of the head, well that is a regular discussion. “Mom, grandpa does have SOME hair, just not on the TOP of his head!” Tonite was a gma/gpa night and Mav actually fell asleep at their house at 7 from all the basketball he was playing all night. Wore himself out with all that shooting. A little power oatmeal will start him off right again in the morning… and I am sure he will request it.

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Sleep Issues. And Stuff.

24 Apr

I have not gotten the amount of sleep I would like, because CJ has also been waking up more. Now that she is rolling over, we made the switch from her bassinet into her big girl crib. I thought this would help he sleep better, because she can move around more freely. In the mean time, she also got a cold, so she is a sloppy snotty mess and has a hard time breathing, especially at night. Then it got even worse. The past 2 nights, she would wake up 3 or more times a night, I would feed her, lay her back down in the crib, and she would instantly cry again… ohhh I so remember those days with the boys and I don’t want to repeat it. The thought occurred to me that her cold could have also given her an ear infection, and sure enough we went to the doc and she did have it in one ear. So today she got prescribed her first antibiotic… and will hopefully get better sleep soon.

Speaking of sleep. B doesn’t care for it. I cannot get him to take naps for me anymore. Thank God he is cooperative in daycare and gets a nap there so he is not totally sleep deprived. We are starting to discover that B has his very own “get ready for bed” routine that we just have to “go” with (Neil’s got it figured out). Basically, take the bedtime routine that we started “bath, play, brush teeth, go potty, read books, pray, bed”. Then add on B’s stuff after that: “get drink, “fill the cup” and drink from special spot at edge of bed, lays down in bed, “dada two minutes” (lay by him for 2 minutes, really 10), talk, say goodnight. kiss on the back of the head (repeat until right spot), spread blanket on him “1-2-3″, “mama goodnight” (meaning tell mom to come up here) mom repeat.
B looks like this after a long day of playing and no nap.
I have started giving M and $1 a week allowance for helping me around the house. Singing “come on everybody, let’s clean up the house” usually helps, or making a race or game out of it. Tonite he was very helpful picking up the living room and porch, because he knew it was Friday and on Friday he can play Wii if he is good. He looks forward to playing the Wii all week-long. I have to remind him that Wii is more for winter when we can’t go outside ( and you have a new swing set!) He is really into ages and numbers lately. Today I got the question “mom are you older than grandma?” Ha! Yeah that was a good one. He knows his birthday is coming up, but he wants his birthday to come first before gpa Mark’s and Joes. I think he was also very intrigued by the idea that grandpas age is his age +50. “When you turned 1, gpa was 51. When you turn 5, gpa will be 55.” Last year we had a Monster Jam party for M, this year, probably basketball?! Or a Wii party! That what he would probably choose if we let him: Actually a Basketballl Wii Party!

Basketball, Mud, Swimming, Baby Smiles

14 Mar

It was Friday night, and I was thinking to myself, “wow, I love this.” The kids were all doing what they enjoyed most for a weekend night: Mav playing Wii basketball, B watching Thomas the Train, and CJ in my arms. Cheesburgers, homemade french fries, and homemade chicken nuggets (hot wing version for dad) for dinner. Honey Weiss for mom and dad, root beer for the boys, big bottle for CJ. Perfect night at home.

Calm, cool, laid back. For this moment. Not Long.


-B has been a bear at bedtime lately. He is totally anti-nap or bed. We will go thru the routine, and then as soon as it is time to turn off the lights, he says “no nap…dada’s room”. Even when we let him cry a little bit, when he stops crying, he will turn on the lights and start playing. And if we do let him lay in “dada’s room” (which is also my room!) he still will not sleep. I remember going thru so many sleep issues with Mav…. and with B when he was baby. I hope he gets over this soon! It does however end up creating some special moments, as I lay by him, trying to get him to sleep, he gets very talkative, and gives me kisses and names the spots as he kisses them, “kiss mama cheek, kiss mamas nose…” I end up telling him stories (about grampas boat, t-ball, golfing, riding bike, pretty much all the fun things we are going to do in the summer time). He told me the other night “dada soap tongue” and we, again, talked about why we don’t stick our tongue out, and why Charlotte does.

-We all went outside today. Mud and water everywhere. The boys got good use of their rain boots and splashed through the water and trekked thru the mud. B fell in the mud/water yesterday and was so dirty. He was not very happy about having to go right in the tub. Today he was just soaked from the water. LOTS of loads of laundry this weekend.

-M’s latest obsession is basketball, wherever and however he can get it: Wii, in his room, watching on TV, in the gym(at the Y last week with the big kids!) playing outisde on the little hoop, or even the big hoop with the lighter ball. He even got excited about helping me sort laundry when we pretended the clothes were b-balls. He also puts on basketball jerseys at every opportunity, over t-shirts, under sweatshirts, got them from the top shelf in his room.

-Last week, M had to recite a nursery rhyme for Mother Goose week at school. We chose Yankee Doodle. Sometimes at the end, he will add in his own silly rhyme, like this:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Riding on a horsie (Mav’s version)
He stuck a feather in his hat
and called it macaroni pizza

Kick and splash all you want here!


-They boys have been going to swimming lessons, B with dad, and Mav at preschool swim. They have both improved quite a bit since the beginning. B just from going to a stiff shivering boy, to kicking and dunking up to his nose. M has been practicing back and front floats, dunking, jumping in, etc with swimming teachers. We went to the YMCA last week too and M went down the water slide about a dozen times. First with his lifejacket on, and then he got brave without. He has always been more of a cautious boy, so it was fun to see him get more daring and have a lot of fun with it (and not get hurt!).

-CJ is just perfect to me. Now almost 6 months old, we are working on cereal (still not very interested) and rolling over. She likes to lay on her side, with her legs extended to the side, and her thumb in her mouth, while watching her brothers. She is so easy to please (thank you Jesus for an easy baby after 2 “challenging” ones) and so loves her dada and brothers. She is so attentive to her dad’s voice.

Irresistable smile. Sweet and Silly.


Poem for Charlotte Jane
CJ – You come complete
with a smile that melts my heart
ear to ear
big puffy cheeks
a red thumb
wet fingers, wet chin
hands that hold whatever they can
Did I mention how I love your addictive smile?
Thanks for making it so easy to create.

A Naughty Spree

28 Feb

My boys have been on a bit of a naughty track the past week or so. Actually, it has been more of Brody as the instigator (from what I can tell) and I think Mav stays quiet about it and watches because he thinks it is funny. Mav is in the mode of “But Mom I didn’t do it, Brody did” and thinks that is OK to watch instead of telling Brody that what he is doing is wrong. And I do think Mav has been part of some of the trouble too. Just more of a “silent partner”.

Here is a brief run down of the latest naughty haps:

-Vaseline Paints: Brody took a big tub of vaseline, and used his hand to “paint” some lovely petroleum jelly art on my bathroom vanity.

Clean Up Time

-Closet attack #1: Mav woke up Sunday morning, but did not come downstairs until about 45 minutes later. When he came downstairs, he was wearing basketball shorts (LOVES basketball right now), Optimus Prime tank top, Power Rangers tank top, and a pajama shirt on top. He got a step stool and pulled down ALL his summer clothes from the top shelf of his closet. When we saw the outfit, both Neil and I chuckled. Then I asked M, “If I go up to your room, is there a big mess in your closet?” The response I got was, “Well mom I wanted to see these cool shirts. I will clean it up later.” He did clean it up later by getting all the clothes back on the top shelf. Not quite folded, but off the floor was good enough for me.

-My mom was watching the kids last Friday afternoon. The toaster was left plugged in and B pushed it down and turned it up to 9 to toast the old crumbs. He succeeded in getting the smoke alarm to go off!

-Closet attack #2: Brody (and silent partner) emptied a bin of “too small” clothes from his closet onto the floor in his room. Next, was every shirt that was hanging in his closet. I did not realize how much clothes he had, until I saw them in a huge pile, covering his floor. This was a half hour of clean up time.

-Emptying my linen closet: It is a big closet full of blankets, pillows and towels. Everything on the bottom level was dragged in to Mav’s room to make a “cuddly fort”.

Towels, blankets, pillows, toilet paper, Oh so cuddly!

That’s all I have for now. It has been a busy week. They keep it interesting for me.

My Night Tonite

10 Feb

Wednesday nights are usually my least favorite night of the week. Neil bowls Wednesday nights, and the chance of something going bad while he is gone is likely. And then there is a night like tonite. The kids eat their dinner with no complaints (Brody had 3 bowls of my broccoli cauliflower soup!) and there were no major conflicts. Even going to bed seemed (dare I say?) easy?

Mav has been trying for the past 2 days to do anything to get me to let him play Wii. Hey if I get exceptionally good behavior you can bet that he is going to be rewarded for it! Lately M has been getting more into puzzles. So puzzles before Wii has been a nice balance. And if Brody takes 4 puzzles out of the cupboard, and dumps all the pieces into one big pile in the middle of the living room floor, we have to put the puzzles together to get them out of the way for safe Wii play, right?

My little self- soother...


I am happy to say that CJ is getting less squeaky and spitting up less. To make sure that she eats all she wants and keeps growing big and strong, she is also having about 1 bottle of formula a day, in addition to the mama tap. When we go back to the ENT specialist in a couple weeks, I am hoping to leave with less worry about her laryngomalacia. If I remember right 6 months is when the doctor said it usually goes away by on its own, and we are getting close. The past week or so, my Lottie has also been starting to suck her thumb. A couple nights ago, she had woken up at about 3 am, talking to herself. I just laid there, listening to her, since she did not seem mad or sad. Then I heard a sucking noise and she was back off to sleep. I have no objections to her built-in pacifier.

Now back to my boys and bedtime. Mav loves basketball right now (again a tie-in to the Wii) so he also plays with the small hoop in his room. Both him and B have fun with this, and they decided that they wanted to shoot hoops instead of read bedtime stories, which I am OK with tonite. For Christmas, I got both boys these really neat “learn to tell time” Timex watches, so Mav has been pretty in tune to what time it is, and when bedtime is. He crawled into bed pretty easy with images of tomorrow’s Valentine’s party at preschool dancing in his head. He knows the classic “Now I Lay me down to sleep” prayer by heart now, and doesn’t want me to say it anymore, he likes to recite it himself. Today I also found this prayer online, that my mom and dad said with me when I was a kid (I think we will start this one next):

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless the bed I lay on.
Four corners around my bed
Four angels around my head.
1 to watch
1 to pray
2 to guide me through my day.

Now to my Broder. As Mav was getting ready to sleep, Brody was piling legos on M’s bed, getting excited about building. I could tell that bedtime in the near future was not an option for him. I talked him into bringing the legos into his room because Mav was going to sleep. For about 10 minutes me and CJ watched him build big towers of legos. Baby CJ was getting tired, but B was having a blast and I did not really want to cut him off. I asked him if he wanted to keep playing legos while I fed CJ and he said yes. Amazingly that actually worked out (i.e. it did not turn into 2 kids screaming mad at me at once) and CJ fell asleep in time for me to go back up to B’s room before he broke loose. Then I laid down next to Brody in his big boy bed. Laying next to him in bed is fun, when its not rushed, because he is so talkative and sweet then… After about ten minutes, I told him nigh-nigh, and he said nigh-nigh back. Perfect.

Now some nigh-nigh for me.

Monster Trucks – Beyond Hot Wheels

6 Dec

Anyone who has been around Mav knows that he LOVES Monster Trucks. An obsession that started with a few matchbox monster trucks and then Monster Jam Wii game, has lead to finally seeing the real Monster Trucks live last night at Monster Jam. Neil, Mav and a crew went to see trucks like Grave Digger, Superman and Monster Mutt. I stayed home with the two little ones, but heard all about it. They said it was a blast and want to go back in January, except with lower deck seats so they can bring home a tailgate?!

Treasures of the day

27 Oct

M had a big day at school today. I had read in the preschool newsletter about how they were using the partner/buddy system to get kids to work together and take turns. The duo that works together the best each day gets to pick a treasure out of the treasure chest. I was asking M about it last night, if he has ever picked a present out of the treasure chest, and what him and his buddy usually play. He talked pretty lividly about it. Today he excitedly came home and said that him and his partner were picked as the best buddies of the day! He was so excited. i thought it was odd though, that he picked a sucker from the treasure chest, that had other little toys in it…Ironically Neil also ran into the other buddy and his mom and the library, where Neil heard all about it from him! Great to see some excitement about school.

We also colored some Halloween pictures for a coloring contest, well more like, color the picture, bring it in for a bag of treats. M struggles with coloring and drawing and still does not get the concept of coloring in the lines. He prefers to trace the lines with his crayon.


B continues to amaze me with his emerging personality and talking. Yesterday we went to open play at M’s school, where B got to play in the big kids preschool classroom for the first time. He was so proud to be there and to act like a big kid. His favorite part was the end when we sang the song from a book that we have re-read a billion times in the past couple weeks, called the 5 little pumpkins. Then the kids went around and sang a song with each kids name in it, and B was happy he was included. Even Lottie got sung to, although she was sleeping the whole time.

My biggest struggle right now is keeping the 2 boys from fighting, driving each other and me nuts. If only we could go outside more, wear them out, and have room to run in a warmer temp we may be OK. So we have been trying to do lots of new activities to keep them busy, like making different food, homemade clay, craft projects like ghosts to hang in the tree, painting, coloring, pounding golf tees into pumpkins, etc etc

Both boys are totally into Halloween, spooks, skeletons, and all the comes with it… they have been waiting for it for months. Well if you count wearing Halloween socks all year long, Mav has been waiting for it for the past year.

My little CJ is such a bundle of love. I will miss the feeling of my little 7-8 lb baby sleeping on my chest, as she has done so effortlessly the past couple months. She is getting bigger, stronger, longer. She is holding her head up alertly, looking around toward the boys’ noise, lights, dada’s voice. She has had hints of a smile the past couple days. She smells so wonderful. That new baby smell could make someone millions if it could be bottled. If I tallied the amount of kisses she gets throughout the day, it would probably be triple digits. She is getting a little voice, as she is “yelling” for me right now from her makeshift room…. off to cuddle.

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