Turn that frown upside down

Sorry folks. My last post was kind of sad and lame. Mostly lame because all I did was complain. I don't like to complain because then I end up feeling sorry for myself and where does that get me? No where folks. Happy stories are better. Like the fact that Lucy is pretty much potty trained. Yes, we have to run the shower to get her to do a number two, but hey that is better than dirty panties. And that my brother Peder is coming home from his two year mission TONIGHT! He is coming home to snow. May not be a culture shock, but it sure will be a temperature shock. I hear Cape Verde is quite toasty.

Plus I said I would talk about some other fun things. The first snow. Well, this should not be news to any of you on the east coast. We have got snow, and a decent amount of it. Lucy is much more capable of playing in the snow this year, though today was little difficult because a previous snowfall topped with today's snow made it a little deep for her. We went sledding. Every time we got to the bottom Lucy sang "can we do it AGAIN?" Did I mention she loved it?! And in case you are wondering, I did put gloves on her initially.

Also, we gave Sam his first solids. I waited a little longer than we did with Lucy. I wanted to go all the way to six months before introducing solids, but we are going to be a cruise and this kid was having a serious hunkering for a taste what we are eating.  Not that we fed him that. He got oatmeal with breast milk mixed in. He wasn't super impressed, but also not really resistant. I hope he is like Lucy and learns to love food, all food. I am glad we waited to almost six months, I feel like he is a little more willing. Lucy did okay early on, but it was not like it made her sleep any better. All it did was make her diaper more stinky.

And lastly, the grand finale of optimism, Jesus' cupcakes. To make sure that Lucy understood the meaning of Christmas Jimmy and I repeatedly told her that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday. Because we were talking birthdays she would quickly question "can we make him cupcakes?" Because that, my friends, is what we do for birthdays. And I was all for it. 

For a while she wanted to make pink cupcakes, but on the day I finally decided to make them right before she climbed in her bed for her nap she told me she wanted blue cupcakes instead. I had no problem with either color. So during her nap I made the cupcakes and the frosting and left the decorating to Lucy. She did a lovely job.

That evening we had the missionaries over for dinner. Lucy was so excited about the cupcakes that we finished the dinner with said cupcakes, one that had a candle with the number 1 (for 1 year older), and sang "happy birthday!" to Jesus. I felt like this was a good parenting moment for us. Now if you ask what we celebrate on Christmas Lucy so eagerly says "It's Jesus' birthday, and we are going to have cupcakes for him!" Maybe she is a little swayed by the potential of cupcakes, but hey, I give myself a high five anyways!

Well, that was much better. Just writing it made me feel a whole lot better. Here are some cute kid pictures: (the first one shows that Sam does in fact has some hair!)

Teething...bleh

Let's talk teeth shall we. Sam doesn't have any, but he sure wants them. It is enough that he doesn't really sleep at night. Okay, so he sleeps...a little. Like last night, he went to bed at 7 pm, woke up at 9:30 pm, screamed in daddy's arms until 11ish pm, slept until 2 am, didn't fall asleep until 2:30 am, woke up at 4 am, didn't go sleep until 4:50ish, slept until 6:30 am and was up. Yeah, there is some sleeping going on in there, I even felt like it was a better night. Sheesh...it is exhausting.  It makes me pretty grumpy actually. I am not mad at Sam, just at the process is all. Jimmy and I have tried a lot of things. Two naps instead of three, earlier bedtime, swaddling again (he is too strong for the swaddle). I even bought a wool diaper so he wouldn't soak his clothes every night (Jimmy doesn't really believe in that system). I know eventually it will get better, and someday when he is 20 I will sleep full 8 hour chunks, but for right now, I am exhausted.

For those of you that like to cuddle your baby all night long, that is awesome. I am impressed. I wish that I felt rested after doing that, but I don't. And then I am short with Lucy all day long. And it isn't her fault. That girl sleeps like a rock and wakes up full energy. She is quite an imp, but not really a malicious imp, so I feel bad being so grumpy with her.

So this is my plea to who ever controls the rate of teething, please oh please let Sam's teeth come through. And then let him sleep a little more soundly or at least fall back asleep more easily. Maybe Santa knows someone who could help a mom (and dad) out. Perhaps we should change the song to "all I want for Christmas is Sam's two bottom front teeth..."

For another time, the first REAL snow, oatmeal for breakfast and Jesus' blue cupcakes. I like to build up the anticipation....

Feeling Christmas spirit!

You know, even though Lucy was hitting me today and Sam is still not really sleeping very consistently during the night, I feel very blessed. Christmas is a good time of year!

Siblings? I think yes...

Here is the picture proof!

Lucy certainly has bluer eyes, but Sam still has the best cheeks!

Filling in the blanks

Let's fill in the blanks shall we. I have been wanting to sit down and write down some stories, but I have been tired and unmotivated. Sorry, sleep deprivation does that to you.

So, let's start with why I am so tired. Sam. We love him oh so much, but seriously this little kid is a mover, even when he is sleeping he is constantly moving. In fact he has decided that rolling from his back to his tummy is his favorite past time, but only the rolling part. Once he gets on his tummy he is unhappy. He wakes up and yells. This means that I am awake. Last week he was waking up every hour and I was living in the land of sleepiness. This week we decided that he was going to have to fall asleep on his own at least a few times during the night. I really don't feel good about weaning all his feedings, so we decided that we would only feed him twice. The rest of the time we would wait a few minutes to see if he will go back to sleep, which is usually what happens. Let me tell you that the first few nights we did this Jimmy had to hold me in bed. I hate hearing him yell. And it wasn't like he yelled for 30 minutes, it was just a few minutes. Still, heart-wrenching. Things are getting better, but not great. Between teething and sniffly nose he still wakes up 3-4 times, but at least there is a little more consistency. Tonight I went in to check on him and noticed him sleeping on his side. I think that might be his favorite way to sleep. It allows him to curl up a bit but he is not on his tummy. It is cute. He is cute....good thing, huh?!

Even though he certainly drains my energy he is doing a lot of really cute things during the day. He loves Lucy! If Lucy is willing, I ask her to talk to him, and he will smile and laugh as she babbles about whatever she thinking. It is adorable. Last night he was screaming and yelling right before bed as we were reading stories and Lucy got down on the floor and started talking to him. He quieted right down. Wouldn't it be awesome if when he started crawling that he followed Lucy around the house? It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

As we all know Lucy is energy upon energy. As the weather is getting colder I have realized that we need to find activities that cater to more indoor time. Before the weather was too cold we did a nature scavenger hunt. It was fun. Lucy found sticks and bark and leaves. Lately we have been doing crafts. Stamps out of sponges, moose heads traced with our hands and feet, making some baked good. Her attention span really only allows us to do said activity for 5 or so minutes, but it is worth it. Usually while we are doing something like this, or even just randomly Lucy will ask me to take a video of her. Even if we are doing nothing at all, "will you take a video of me..." He favorite thing to record is her singing the ABCs, though I did get a pretty special video of her walking. That girl has got some seriously awesome moves.

In other news, Jimmy got an internship. I guess I haven't written much about life besides the kids because it really has been in limbo (and still is) since Jimmy graduated. He took the bar, but decided (and this may have been a long time coming) that he didn't really want to be an attorney. But he loves working with people and loves solving problems so he thought that Human Resources would be a possible career. The unfortunate part is that all the entry level jobs still require experience. So he has been networking and talking to a lot of people, including people at the grocery store where he has been working part-time. Long story short they are transferring him to there HR department to do a internship for a month or so. It will provide him with some experience and allow him to see the inner working of HR. We are excited! So we are still here in Boxborough, but things are looking up. Now here's hoping he can find a job after that is more permanent. We have a lot of  good things on the horizon.

For now

For now I am just going to put up a few pictures. In the future I would like to write about a few things, such as: the scavenger hunt, and taking videos, and Sam rolling over during the night time. I think they are pretty awesome stories and I want you to remind me to write about them. But for now, here a few cute pictures.

A little this and that

My children are funny. I am glad that they are so cute because sometimes they just baffle me with their ridiculousness.

Lucy for instance, believes that pooping in her pants is okay because as she puts it "mommy will clean me up!" She has no problem peeing in the potty, and will now tell us when she needs to go the bathroom, but number 2 has only actually made it into the potty and not pants a few times. Today was one of those days. Jimmy promised her a Popsicle and bacon. Oh, she was living it up. Some days I am tempted to offer her our savings just so I don't have to clean up her dirty panties. But we making progress and that is what is important.

She is also very excited about Disney world and going "on a boat." She will ramble on for minutes about going on a plane and then getting on a boat and swimming and, and, and... They only one who seems to have the attention span to listen to her is Sam. He just smiles and stares at her. Warms my heart to see them bonding.

Sam, well Sam is adorable and he is quite a good napper. He takes a really stellar 2 hour nap in the morning and then 2 other naps during the day. The night however is not so much fun. He wakes up at LEAST 3 times (between 8 pm and 6:30 am). Lately, one of those times he wakes up, wide-eyed and squirmy. It usually takes an hour to get him back sleep. I feel blessed he is doing a little better this week. Last week he had some days he woke up 5-6 times a night. That gave me only 1.5 hour sleep breaks. It was exhausting. I am exhausted. But he is cute, remember? It is so hard for me to angry at him. He really doesn't know any better.

But he is doing a lot of awesome things these days. I already mentioned his rolling over tricks but he is also getting somewhat close to sitting without support. He is also becoming grabby. I can't hold him while I am eating and assume that he won't lunge towards the table. Just a little while longer before he will be eating solids and no plate of food will be safe.

Got to love cute kids, even if they drive you a little nuts.

Lucy, you are saying "cheese!" too loud!

4 months!

Has it really already been 4 months since Sam the Man was born?! Well I guess so. This little guy is quite a friendly type. My only complaint is his inconsistent night sleeping, but I keep telling myself, "this too shall pass!" Other than that he is quite a happy boy. He smiles and laughs and shrieks frequently. He is also rolling from his back to front, which happens most often when he having his diaper changed.

Yesterday we went to the pediatricians and found out what I already really knew, he is long and he has a big head. His cheeks make him look deceivingly chunky. The rest is him is quite normal sized, though all his PJs are too short.

I feel like I should also report on Lucy's reactions to Sam, because they are funny. Lucy is an incredibly observant little girl. If she hears me say something to Sam she will try to help by saying the same thing to him when he is in his chair and I am nearby. For instance, sometimes when Sam is shrieking or getting fussy I will say "What?" in a slightly sarcastic and joking tone. Lucy has picked this up. I was making lunch and Lucy heard Sam fussing in his chair. In a slightly more snarky tone she went up to Sam and said "What Sam?! What!" A day later Jimmy was downstairs with the kids and the same event occurred. Sam was in his chair and started fussing so Lucy says to Jimmy "Don't worry, I go tell Sammy 'What!'" and then ran to the other room and started yelling "what!" to Sam. Most of the time he just stares back at her as if to say "huh?" She is such a helpful little thing, I just can't do more than just giggle.

Happy 4 months Sammy!

Pumpkin Fest

Andrea and I decided it had been years since we had been to the Keene Pumpkin Fest. I remember it being crowded. Today was no different.

Instead of being caught with tired children in a mob of people in the dark we opted to go during the mid-day activities. Jimmy carved a very minimalistic looking pumpkin right before we left so we could participate. When we showed up we dropped off our pumpkin and did a loop around the festivities. We visited Danielle (Poul's finance) who works at a bank on Main St and she did what every good aunt(to be) does and she praised them for there adorable costumes and gave them candy. We like Danielle A LOT! After we finished our loop back to the costume parade starting position.  Lucy was snow white and Sam was a penguin (thank you Heather!). Liam and Landon were equally as cute as Spider man and a ninja.

After the "parade" (walking around the center in costumes...) we watched while Liam and my dad (Big Daddy D) went on the ferris wheel. Then we moved onto the food and craft booths which were BUSY, but there was a great variety. I had some very tasty chili and cornbread. Jimmy bought a pumpkin hat. It was very cute even though it was too big for Lucy's head. After we ate we took our obligatory picture in front of the pumpkin tower and then walked back to our cars. It was just the right dose of pumpkins and people. I can only imagine how crazy it was this evening.

In the end Keene got the Guinness World record for the most pumpkins carved and lit (30,581). Hooray Keene and hooray for pumpkin fest. We will probably be back in another 10 years or so...

I love them

Oh really Lucy...

There have been so many interesting things that Lucy has started doing these last few months that I am almost afraid to attempt this post. But I was reminded that I would regret not writing them down. So today I am going write down a few funny stories about Lucy's most recent adventures.

Lucy is well, what you would call an energetic child. She is constantly moving/talking/dancing/yelling. It is exhausting I tell you, but all in all a very entertaining. Let's start with some of the things that she says.

Obviously she is very talkative. And (un)fortunately she will repeat mostly in the proper context everything we say. Especially those things that we say to her repeatedly. Some of the highlights "calm down," "oh really!" "Lazy bum!" (which for the record we don't call her...since she really isn't ever lazy). The other day while we were enjoying dinner with the grandparents Lucy was yelling as she has become prone to doing these days. If we are talking I think she tries to catch our attention by yelling gibberish. It is extremely difficult to carry on a conversation. In one of these moments she changed tactics and said instead, while lowering her arms "Everybody calm down!" None of us could believe that she was telling us to calm down. Apparently we were being really too rowdy.

"Oh really!" is a new one. Lately when I tell her about something that she can do. If you go potty then we can go for a walk, Lucy will respond "oh really mommy!" Yes, really Lucy. If she doesn't like that thing/event that we are going to do she says (in a teenager sort of voice) "but Mom!"

And lastly "Lazy bum" came up when I went up to check on her during her nap. Normally I wouldn't check but I could smell something that concerned me. She is wearing big girl panties during nap time so I was concerned she had smeared bodily fluids around her room. I walked into her room, she had no clothes on and thankfully she hadn't relieved herself in the room. In that moment I realized that I wasn't going to get my planned nap because this little girl was not sleepy. So I asked if I could lay down on her bed for a minute. As I put my head on her pillow I was taunted with the words "get up you lazy bum!"

Speaking of nap times, did you know that leaving your child in her room in big girl panties is prone to dis-robing and playing dress-up? Unless extremely tired I almost always find Lucy in different clothes(or none at all) when I go to get her at the end of her nap. The funnies part is usually the clothes are not even all the way on her body. A few times I have caught her asleep in bed with a dress hanging around her neck. Or with no shirt and red tights. Earlier this week she wasn't wearing more than a shirt and she fell asleep on her brush, which left little indents in her tummy. I swear she must just collapse on her bed at some given point during her nap.  Because we don't want her wandering around the upstairs we have placed a small potty in her room during nap time. It has happened more than once that I found the potty in bed with her. Slightly disturbing, but I try not to think about it too much.

Potty training has brought a whole new slew of adventures. Our most recent adventure happened while I was away. Last Saturday I was at a women's conference and Jimmy had Lucy at home with him. Grandma Nancy, Lucy and Jimmy decided to go out for dinner. While out for dinner Lucy had an accident (not the kind that is easy to clean up) so he took her to the bathroom. He was able to clean it up enough to get through the night. However while he was in the bathroom Lucy sat on the potty. With the automatic flush every movement caused it is flush noisily. So it flushed once and Lucy started to talk about it nervously, it flushed again and Lucy started to panic, crying and carrying on. And it flushed a third time and Lucy went into hysterics, screaming like someone had stabbed her. Apparently the guy in the stalled next to them chuckled a little bit.

That was Saturday night. Sunday we went to church with our normal plans to take Lucy to the potty every hour or so. I took her the first time and the moment she saw the potty she demanded to leave. I tried to coax her to the potty but she would have none of it. About an hour later Jimmy took her to the potty and had the same issue. These were not automatic flush toilets but they still were pretty ominous and to be fair, the flush is pretty loud. To help her overcome her fears Jimmy decided sit on the potty with her. I wish I had a picture of this memorable moment.  Unfortunately since these moments Lucy has been a little more reluctant to use the potty. She will use the big potty at home, but ANYTHING that resembles the restaurant potty and she becomes overly concerned and demands to leave. It happened at the library on Friday.

Lastly, and this mostly because I don't have the endurance to write much more, there are Lucy's prayers and songs. We have taught her the basics. How to start and end, and some ideas of things to say in the middle. Lately she has been thankful for her bed and her pjs and the prophet. I am actually quite impressed that she is started to say most of the pray without any prompting from us, but needless to say they are normally quite repetitive and she will often open her eyes, say something silly and then smirk because she thinks she is hilarious. Tonight this happened while we were singing a song. She had no idea what the words were so she would make them up. When she saw that we thought it was funny she started to laugh and continued to make up the words. Gosh, she is a funny girl.

I can't imagine what this little girl is going to be like when she is three, but age two has turned out to be quite a fun age. I am never quite sure what words are going to come out of her mouth and she is so energetic I am not sure where she will be from one minute to the next. All I know is that she is pretty darn awesome and that we love her.

Happiness

After a long, hard week we got some much needed rest this weekend and started afresh on Monday. Now Sam is sleeping better during the night and day, and everyone seems to be in a better mood. We all needed a little change of attitude after last week.

So here are some pictures of our adventures of apple picking and some smiley kids.

Is not this fall weather just delightful?!