"My Mami's Having a Baby!"

Don't worry, I'm not talking about me!  That's one of the most repeated sentences in the book Big Sister Dora!, which is Claire's favorite book (and video) of late.  Every night after we read the girls their books of choice, they always request to read some more in their rooms.  Claire piles her bed with books, usually all Dora books, and flips through the pages quietly before falling asleep mid book.  Last night while Mike and I were sitting in the family room, we heard noise coming from one of the girls' rooms.  As I walked toward Claire's room, I heard her say, "My Mami's having a baby!"  And as I peaked in her room, this is what I saw. . .

Of course, she knows the book backward and forward from watching the video so many times :)

Sinusitis.

Mike's pain tolerance level is extremely high.  Rarely does he take pain meds and if he does, he never takes the full dose.  I just love it when I ask him to get me some Tylenol and he comes back with one pill.  Really?   

So when Mike called me yesterday morning after rounding to tell me he was in such pain that he was cancelling his clinic and having a CT scan done on his head, I have to admit I got a little nervous.  When the radiologist reviewed the scan with Mike, he told Mike that was the "most impressive scan of sinusitis he's ever seen."  Yes, just a fancy way of saying sinus infection :)  So we're obviously having a quiet weekend at home (okay, maybe not quiet with two screaming girls and a baby who just had shots on Friday).

But Grace is finally willing to work on learning workbooks with me ("homework" as she calls it).

And Tyler tried out the Exersaucer for the first time today.

And Claire.  I'll think I'll have to refrain from posting the picture I took of her this morning.  I'm not too sure I want a reminder of her trying to clean her "boogers" as she would say.

Cake.

My birthday was on Wednesday.  From the moment the girls woke up, they were constantly reminding me that it was my birthday and telling everyone they saw.  They were also singing and dancing at the thought of birthday cake.  Since Mike was on call on my birthday, I tried to prepare the girls that we might not have birthday cake since (1) Mike might not get home before bedtime and (2) I thought odds of him remembering a birthday cake would be slim to none.  Of course, the girls did not listen to me and continued to sing and dance about having birthday cake after dinner.   Fortunately, our dear neighbor Tina must have heard my girls and brought over birthday cupcakes right before dinner.  The girls were in heaven and Tina saved me from the screams and crying I would have endured with no birthday cake in the house. 

And for those who were wondering, my dear husband actually stopped by Publix on his way home from the hospital to buy cake.  Lucky me, the girls were getting ready for bed when he got home, so I got to enjoy the big yummy cake all to myself. . . at least for one night, that is :)

Still trying.

Every morning while the girls are at school, Tyler gets to enjoy some tummy time (and I use the word "enjoy" loosely).  He's slowly making progress with keeping his head up and looking at me (or should I say my camera). 

We've finally made eye contact. . .

Now that I've satisfied Mom, time to find my hand. . .

Found it. . .

Enough of this tummy time. . .

New bike.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought Grace a new bike.  Her 12" bike was becoming a tad small for her, so I found a good deal on a 16" bike at Costco.  Grace noticed the box in the garage immediately and has been begging for the bike to be put together.  With temperatures in the 60s, this weekend was the perfect weekend for that.   Grace, of course, loves her new bike, especially because it's a Disney princess bike. . .

Now if Mom would only adjust her helmet so she can see!

We planned to head inside yesterday after riding bikes, but as more and more neighbors came outside to enjoy the beautiful weather, we found more reasons not to go in.  So the kids enjoyed a picnic lunch. . .  

and Tyler had a nice nap in the stroller. . .

A great way to end the weekend!

What a difference a week makes.

It's hard to believe that last weekend it was cold and the kids were playing in snow.  Today was quite the opposite.  It was sunny and warm with temperatures in the 60s.   We spent a lot of the day outside and I actually think I got a little sunburn from the intensity of the sun!  The girls really enjoyed the nicer weather, especially Claire.  Of my two girls, Claire is definitely my more social one, wanting to stay out and play with whomever is outside. 

I think we're supposed to have one more day in the 60s before it gets rainy and then colder later in the week, so I'm sure we'll be out again tomorrow enjoying the sun!

Mommy's helper.

Grace adores Tyler and loves to be Mommy's helper with him.  When Tyler starts crying, Grace is quick to run over to him and will either try to entertain him or give him his pacifier.  If that does not work, Grace's standard line is, "Mommy, I think Tyler's hungry."  Usually, I've just fed him, but of course, he's still hungry to Grace :)

Last night, Mike did not make it home from the hospital before bedtime, so Tyler camped out in Grace's bed while I got the girls in their pajamas and their teeth brushed.  At times, it's like pulling teeth to get the girls ready for bed, but last night, Grace hurried so she could take care of Tyler.

Unlucky me.

Okay, maybe not that unlucky.  But after a wonderful four day weekend with everyone at home, I was looking forward to getting back to normal today.  Those errands I have put off since last Thursday were on my schedule to tackle today, but alas that won't be happening.  Although the snowfall here has been light, the ice has been more of a problem since the city does not have much salt, so schools were cancelled today.  I'm not sure if Mike's office is closed today, but it really does not matter since he's on call and will be stuck at the hospital anyway.  So the three kids and I will be hanging out at home today!

We had a nice day at home yesterday.  Our neighbor, Sierra had her 4 year old birthday party yesterday, so for an hour, we all got out of the house.  It was a good thing the party was just after lunch because my girls definitely had enough sugar to last for a while.  And of course, my SLOW eater Claire was the last one at the table finishing all her ice cream, cupcake, and cake. . .

Grace enjoyed the treats as well and found a new way to wear birthday hats. . .

Tyler slept for most of the party, but woke up in time for me to try to get a picture of him and Sierra's brother, Jacob.  Jacob is just over 6 weeks older than Tyler.  I did not have much luck getting a good picture of both of them.   Usually one of them would be happy while the other fussed. . .

Too bad Tyler's good buddy Christopher was not able to be at the party.  Christopher is just over 4 weeks older than Tyler.   Yep, that's right.  Three neighbors had three boys just 6 weeks apart. Trouble ahead!

It's time to figure out what we're going to do today!  Considering temperatures are supposed to be in the 40s and 50s the rest of the week, I'm fairly confident we'll be back to school tomorrow.  Hurray!

Lucky me.

Yes, I lucked out this weekend, and it happened on Valentine's Day weekend at that.  The girls did not have preschool on Friday because of teacher in-service.  Fortunately, Friday was also Mike's off day, so he was home at 10am to help me with the kids.  On Friday, I was complaining that we missed out on snow, but Sunday morning we woke up to thick, heavy snow falling outside. . .

Of course, temperatures got to 40 degrees by 11am, so the snow melted quickly.  But I did get the girls outside in the nick of time to make some snowballs. . .

Our neighbors even made a good sized "snowgirl."

While I took the kids outside, Mike was working on my Valentine's project. . . installing dimmer switches.  In our previous home, there were dimmer switches in every room (a little overkill in my opinion, but the owner before us loved mood lighting, I guess).  I'm not planning to replace all of our switches, but Mike got 5 rooms done yesterday and just has a couple more rooms to go.  The girls especially love the new light switches in their rooms and now go to sleep at night with dimmed lights rather than bright overhead lights on.

Today is President's Day and once again, the kids are off from preschool.  Last night, it sounded like we were going to potentially get 2-4 inches of snow overnight.  So I went to bed last night secretly hoping Mike's office would be closed today because of snow :)  But when Tyler woke up around 3am this morning, I noticed there was no snow on the ground, so I went back to sleep thinking it would be a long day alone with the kids.  Between 3am-6am, it snowed a little and the 6am news was cautioning drivers about ice on the roads and road closures.  But Mike left a little before 7am for the hospital.  Then at 9am, I got the call I was hoping for. . . Mike's office was closed for the day because of the ice.  

I could not have asked for a better Valentine's Day long weekend.   I even got a break from all the kids this morning while our neighbor Kevin and his daughter Emma came over for a visit.  The Daddy's watched all four kids upstairs while I tackled the laundry. 

Hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day weekend as well!

Where's our snow?

A couple of weeks ago, we missed out on the snowfall just north of us and today we're missing out on snow just south of us. . . go figure!   The news people here were wishing the snow would miss us.   I, however, am a bit sad.  I know we chose to move south to avoid the harsh winters of Chicago, but I would love just one good snowfall with some accumulating snow.  Now I don't want the couple of feet of snow that the DC area has, but a good 4-6 inches wouldn't be bad for a day or two :) Well, not this time!  I should have known that when I put Tyler in his snow sleeper last night, I just jinxed our chances of getting any snow!

Wii.

Every night while we are eating dinner, the girls beg for Daddy to "play bowling" before bed.  It's become a great form of bribery for us as they are usually promised bowling if they eat all their dinner and get ready for bed without too much whining!  It amazes Mike and me how the girls will just sit and watch Daddy Wii bowl each night.  Of course, Grace has to see her Mii character in the crowd before Mike is allowed to bowl.

A couple of nights ago, Mike and I were talking that we should probably let Grace try the Wii sometime soon.  Well, considering that Grace did so well getting stitches yesterday, Mike decided to let Grace have a turn last night.  We may have opened pandora's box because she loved it. 

It's tough being the little sister at times, but Claire did great watching Grace.  I have a feeling though that Claire will be "playing bowling" really soon.

So tonight, we fully expect to hear the girls say at dinner, "Can I play bowling?"

ER.

I fully expected to be posting pictures of Claire's Valentine's party at school today since I was the party mom for this holiday.  Unfortunately, I never made it to the party as I received a call from the school at 12:30pm that Grace had fallen in the gym and gashed open her chin.  On a typical day, I would have had Mike meet me at the school to look at Grace since I don't deal very well with blood and cuts.  But of course, there are six days a year that Mike sees patients an hour and a half away and this was one of those days.  However, after I took one glance at the wound, I knew we had to visit the ER.  The thought of taking 3 kids to the ER was a little daunting, so fortunately my mom was able to pick up Claire from school at the last minute and Grace, Tyler, and I headed to the pediatric ER.  The ER was much quicker than I expected and we were only there for a little over an hour.  Grace did great and now has 5 stitches in her chin.  Here's some pictures I took from my blackberry.  Obviously, they are not the greatest quality, but they show our adventures in the ER:  (1) In the waiting area; (2) Numbing her chin; (3) Getting wrapped like a burrito; and (4) Grace's favorite part, the popsicle reward.  Hope we don't have to visit the ER again anytime soon!

Like vs Dislike.

I'm working on trying to get Tyler to like different things.  Still not much luck getting him to like tummy time, but we have moved from the bouncy seat to the Einstein gym for part of the day, so we're making progress.  Now I'm working on the bumbo seat.  I added the tray to the bumbo seat today and put some toys on it.  It appeared I had found a winner. . .

Okay, maybe not so much. . .

Got my thumb.

The kids got a break from the camera this weekend, so I took a break from blogging as well.  Today we were back to the normal routine of preschool for the girls.  It was snowing on the way to school, so of course, we heard rumors of school closings.  Thank goodness, nothing came of that.  So after running some errands with Tyler this morning, I found him working on his thumb while I was eating lunch. 

Once he had enough of his thumb, he moved on to playing with his hands. . .

Then, I got some sweet looks and smiles. . .

Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child

I have to blog about Marc Weissbluth's book Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child because I LOVE this book.  My Aunt Sue gave this book to me when I had Grace.  Grace was a phenomenal sleeper and started sleeping through the night very early.  But getting her to initally fall asleep at night and during nap was hard once she became aware of her surroundings.  This book was so helpful to me as a first time parent in understanding different ways of getting her to actually fall asleep.  I again used this book with Claire who was colicky and am using this again with Tyler.

I always forget from child to child when they should start napping and for how long, so I turned to this book last night to remind myself.  I read Weissbuth's section on sleeping babies who are 3-4 months old and woke up this morning ready to implement his techniques.  Tyler did great with his morning nap in his crib around 9am.  I put him there before he was too tired and he fell asleep without even crying.  I'm sure it won't be this easy everyday, but thanks to Weissbluth's book, I at least feel prepared.  I know there are many sleep books out there, but this one works for us. . . maybe it will work for you!

On another note, we tried out the bumbo this morning before nap.  Tyler enjoyed it for about 5 minutes. . .

Bath night.

Tonight was bath night in our house.   Now that Tyler is able to sit up better, Mike and I have split bath duties.  I give Tyler a bath and Mike takes the girls.  For the first 2 months of his life, Tyler hated the bath and would scream the whole time.  It's only been in this last month that bathtime is enjoyable for us.  Now he loves to kick and splash water all over the place.  So usually when bath is over, I'm soaked and so is the bathroom vanity and floor.  As you can see in the first picture below, he's become a master at splashing and even managed to hide his private parts from the camera. . . 

When I finished with Tyler's bath, the girls were still in the tub, so I was able to snap a few pictures of Claire in the bath and Grace (the lion) drying off. . .