Reading is Fun! So is Watching TV!

Has anyone else caught What about Brian? on ABC? I am hooked on yet another show. At the end of pilot, I saw one of the executive producers is J.J. Abrams, who produced Felicity, so needless to say, my season pass manager has a new addition. That, and Cash Cab, which is a fun little show on Discovery, based on a British game show. Contestants are asked questions by a NY cab driver, as they are driven to their destination. After all my talk about television today, I thought a nice picture of my little family enjoying a book together would be a good way to maintain our educated facade.

Who's paying attention?

I usually get yelled at by a certain group of friends (especially Chad) for cheering for Green Bay. I don't actually like any football team over another, I just like the reaction I get for cheesehead comments made in Vikings land. It will probably make Chad happy to see that B is looking disgruntled in the Packers bib.
I'm looking forward to not going anywhere this weekend. We do have an outing planned on Saturday morning to JC Penneys, where we'll have A's 2 year picture, and B's 2 month picture taken. For some reason, I chose a linen outfit for B, so I'll have to get it ironed before Saturday, and then tell him not to move before the picture's taken!
Have a great weekend everyone! Hope we have nice weather.

Good Morning!

We had a pretty nice weekend. Friday night, as Mike was putting A to bed, he was telling her about how we were going to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house in the morning. We then heard her on the monitor, discussing our plans for the weekend. About half an hour after Mike shut her bedroom door, we hear her door open and A is standing at the baby gate, singing, "Good morning! Good morning! Good morning!" It was absolutely precious.
We went to Mike's homeland just for the day, as it is easier to manage our children, specifically B's nighttime habits, at home. We had a nice time with Mike's family on Saturday, and Sunday was such a beautiful day. I'm glad we got spend some of it outside.
We picked up some mulch from Home Depot, and surveyed which of our perennials had come up so far. I'm anxious to get some pansies planted in pots in the front. I can't wait to see my friend Hope's gardens; she always has such a colorful variety of flowers.

sleeping angel

B is such a peaceful sleeping angel baby, as long as he’s being held. He’s having a super nap in the baby bjorn as I blog. Mike’s godson is having his First Communion this weekend, but after the stress of packing/messing with the routine/cartrip/unpacking and laundry we experienced last weekend, we are seriously considering just going down (to Okabena) for the day. I added this thought because I’m testing blogging by email.

Free Ice Cream

I received an email today that said Ben and Jerry's is serving free ice cream cones today from noon-8 p.m. There were two locations that weren't participating, I think St. Paul and the airport, so you might want to call ahead of time, but I saw that the store next to Whole Foods in Calhoun Crossings is offering the cone, so I'm good to go. Nevermind that I went through the drive through at Dairy Queen this morning and went to visit Mike with a mid-day Blizzard break.

The cause of our sleepless nights

I think we should find a bib that reads, "I love keeping my parents up all night, and sleeping all day." We are having a heck of a time with B at night. He lays in his crib for about 20-30 minutes max, and when the grunting/moaning/writhing leads to a hearty wail, we dash in there to retrieve him before he wakes up his sister. After running through the checklist- fed him, burped him, diapered him, he's not hot/cold, etc., one of us holds him while he grunts and squirms.

I am planning on getting a haircut tomorrow during blocktime. I was planning on it anyway, but when I dropped off the kids at Danielle's yesterday, she commented on my hippy hair. I know she didn't mean any insult, but it was just the extra push I needed to get that haircut scheduled.

Mike kicks off his summer of fastpitch softball tonight in St. Paul. He has organized a new league team, which will play in St. Paul on Wednesday nights. He is still planning on playing with the travel league he joined when we were living in Illinois- Earl's Club of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

She eats...what we eat

We decided yesterday that the time had come to "Ferberize" A's diet/eating habits, just as we had with her sleep habits last winter. We were expecting at least 4 days worth of terrible mealtimes, with no food consumed by The Picky One. However, it has been surprisingly pleasant.

Yesterday night, we started with Spaghetti with Ragu and mini meatballs, and garlic texas toast. She ate some plain noodles, dipped her fingers in the spaghetti sauce (more than once!) and had a few bites of toast, buttered. It was absolutely amazing. This morning at breakfast, we both ate a bowl of cereal, but then the meal ended when she threw her breakfast bar on the floor. Which was okay, because I would have been scared, had the meal gone as smoothly as the night before. Then at snack, we both had a little plate with apple juice Knox blocks (jell0) and ranch bunny crackers. Lunchtime was the most impressive feat yet, since we had grilled cheese (I cut hers into stars), baby carrots, grapes, and applesauce. A ate all three of her star sandwiches, ignored the carrots (which was great that she didn't freak out, or throw them on the floor), ate all of her grapes (which she hasn't even tried for about a year), and then kept asking for more of my grapes. Wow.

We had a nice time in Madison, visiting my sister and brother-in-law. A is excited that Bridget has a baby on the way, and really seems to understand what's going on. It was really nice having my parents there also, because there were so many hands available to help with both kids. We plan on heading back to Madison when Bridget goes into labor, in mid-May.

Mike and I are going to play tennis this afternoon. My friend Danielle has offered to watch both kids, while we do something together as a couple, so we are dropping A and B off after A's nap, and we'll pick them up around 6:30 tonight! What a great break it will be...hopefully everyone will behave at Danielle's. A has so much fun playing with her two boys, or more like watching them, and checking out all of their toys that are different from hers.

I know I still haven't post pictures from A's birthday party- I plan on doing so in the near future.

Sneaky Mommy Tricks

I just wanted to brag about my lunchtime victory! Most of you know about A's famous picky eating; I thought I'd share with you how I try to foresee her idiosyncracies and avoid them with my cunning ways. A is alive today, pretty much because of the serving of yogurt she has at most every meal. It used to be only Yo Baby, however lately she has graduated to the Stoneyfield Farms yogurts for older kids (the pink and purple flavors only). She ate her last "yo" last night at supper, so I had to do some quick thinking for lunch today. I had bought a large tub of vanilla Stoneyfield Farms yogurt to try and get A to eat smoothies- that's a whole other story- anyway, I put some of the vanilla yogurt in a bowl, added red food coloring, stirred and presented to The Picky One. I added that she could use her dipper (this rudimentary tool for children too young for a spoon- which she has regressed to using) or fingers to eat it. This was a big selling point, since she wants to eat everything with her fingers lately. Very annoying for two clean freaks like her parents, but if it gets food in her, I don't care. So the good news is- she fell for it! Not only that, but she added some "mmm, mmm! s" which she's been providing to indicate her approval, which has been very funny and cute.

I am One Month Old!

Here is our little guy posing for his first of my famous sign pictures. I figured I'd better post it, since B will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, the same day A turns TWO! We had her birthday party yesterday, with Mike's family coming up, and my parents coming over for pizza and DQ ice cream cake. I'll have to post some pictures from the party, once I get them downloaded to the computer. She had a great time playing with her cousins, and with her new toys. She loved pushing Laa Laa around in her stroller, riding her new rocker/trike, and playing outside with her sand and water table.

Eerie Feeling

I thought I'd try something novel today- just for funsies, I put B in his CRIB upstairs, with the monitor on, and now here I am, blogging, while both my children are in their bedrooms napping. Woah. I wrote down on a notepad, 2:15, which is when I put B in the crib, so I can keep track of the personal best record for B in a crib/chair/swing/anywhere other than being held. I put him in the baby bjorn yesterday afternoon, and that worked really well too, so at least that will be another option for the boy who loves to be held 24/7.

I brought the kids to Knollwood mall to have lunch at Panera with Danielle and her two boys, and it reminded me of my childhood. There were some coin-operated rides for toddlers in the mall, and the kids were climbing all over them. I remember when my sister and I used to go grocery shopping with my mom, that there was a ride outside the door of the store. For some mysterious reason, it was always "broken." I smiled to myself today, as I had to pull the same trick with my daughter. Hopefully she'll be as trusting of her mother as I was, and always believe that these rides are not in working order. I was nervous today, however, because another mom apparently doesn't know about this whole lying-to-your-kid trick, and she was actually putting money into these rides for her son to ride them. Not even just one- she let him ride THREE of them! What was she trying to pull- I didn't want her to blow my scam. Luckily A wasn't very observant today.

Eyes Wide Open

I had a pretty good night last night, going up to sleep at 3, and sleeping until about 8. We went to a playgroup at an old ECFE friend's house this morning, and we were surrounded by babies! There were 6 two year olds, 4 newborns, and a pregnant lady in the room! It's really neat how all of our firstborn, and now all of our second born are the same ages.

We set up a standing park date, Wednesdays after nap. I'm glad to find I'm not the only one who is ancy (sp?) for summer to arrive! It will be so nice to get A out of the house, so she can run around and burn some pent-up energy.

Fashion Plate?

I think my daughter has inherited my love of shoes. She also loves wearing her snow boots or rain boots around the house. I'm not sure about her choice of sweatpants with dressy velvet shoes, however.
Mike and I have been experimenting with a split shift sleeping arrangement, where one of us gets to sleep in our bed, and the other has B downstairs on the couch. It's been nice to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep at a stretch. I didn't like taking the 3 a.m.- on stint. I think I need to be asleep when 5 a.m. rolls around. I like last night, where Mike went to sleep around 10 p.m., and I woke him up to start the morning shift at 3 a.m. I tried my hardest, but ending up waking up to nurse B at 7 a.m. It was still a nice 4 hours of sleep! Can't complain! I know I didn't update the blog this weekend like I had promised, but once something exciting happens, I'll work on a nice, long entry.