Happy Birthday Dada!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and father of my beautiful children!  Cheesy as this may be, I'll say it anyway, they truly are lucky to have you as their dad.

Matt, dressed up all fancy for his birthday. (Actually, he had the big fall meeting for work.)

 The kids and I went birthday shopping over the weekend while Matt was out of town.  Before we left for the store I asked Kaelyn what she thought we should get Dada for his birthday.  She thought for a minute, "Hmmm... (finger tapping her lip) I think Dada would like a rabbit!"  I can only assume she came up with this because of her attachment to her Bun-bun and the recent favorite game of bun-bun hide-and-seek she's been playing with Dada.  Or, it came out of thin air.  Who knows how a three-year old's mind works.  Wherever she got the idea I wasn't going to argue.  I did, however, opt to assume she meant a stuffed rabbit and not a real one.  Unfortunately, after scouring the aisles of Target there were no stuffed rabbits to be found.  And I wasn't about to go traipsing to multiple stores with two kids to find a stuffed rabbit for a grown man.  So, Kaelyn very matter-of-factly said, "Maybe Dada would like something else."  She decided on clothes.  I could live with that.  He's always saying he wants more t-shirts anyway.  Unfortunately again, nothing really looked like something Matt would like.  And Kaelyn's focus was significantly diminished.  Instead of looking at the clothes with me she was repeating, "I want to go look at princess things, because I'm a princess."  (She had spotted the Disney princess aisle while looking for the rabbit.)  So, with a little guidance she finally settled on a small (wallet-size) picture frame.  She wasn't interested in any of the bigger frames, only the "tiny guys."  And we ended our trip with a fifteen minute visit to the princess aisle.

Birthday lunch at Red Robin.

The kids surprised Dada at his meeting with a special golf-themed cake.  I wish I could say I made it myself.

Clapping

B has a favorite new trick.  Clapping.  I guess it's not really that new.  He actually clapped for the first time about three weeks ago, very appropriately during the speeches at my cousin's wedding.  I attempted to capture some clapping action shots today.  Got a few cute and funny ones but not so much on the clapping.

I see you have the camera and I want to get it.

And here you can see how messy my high chair is.

Still trying to get the camera.

What's so funny?

Looking like he's about to sneeze.

Thinking very hard about clapping.

And now I'm distracted by something outside.

And now I'm going to look at Dada instead.

Yay Brennan!

Lovin' the outdoors

So I've been a little lazy the past week.  And a little busy trying to finish reading my book for book club last night, which I barely finished yesterday afternoon during nap (B was actually up and crying in his crib for 15 minutes while I finished the last few pages).  So here's my somewhat lazy effort to get an update on here.

We had some nice weather last week and Kaelyn asked to play outside almost every night.  Here's a beautiful sunset from one of those nights.  Much prettier in person.

On one very blustery day we took a nature walk at the park.  Thank goodness Kaelyn is over her fear of the wind.

We collected leaves and threw them in the river.  Kaelyn likes watching them come out the other side of the bridge.

Our walk was interrupted by three emergency trips to the bathroom (two false alarms).  Luckily this particular park has flushy toilets because Kaelyn refuses to use port-a-potties because she thinks they are all dirty.  Unluckily for me, those toilets are at the entrance to park which is quite a hike from our bridge destination.  This mama got a much needed workout that day.  I even broke into a "run" pushing the stroller at one point (I use that term loosely).  Fortunately there was no one else at the park at that time to witness this.  If there had been I'm sure you would have heard their laughter clear across town.  But it was such a beautiful day we didn't let the wind or bathroom runs ruin our fun.

Oh, did I mention Jake came with us?  Yeah, he and Rapunzel have been hanging out with us a lot lately.  In case you're not familiar Jake is from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," Kaelyn's current favorite show on Disney Junior.  We watch it every morning after we do "routine chart" and before we can leave the house.

The park day was made even better when I discovered a new trick at nap time.  Kaelyn's naps have been somewhat sporadic the last few months.  She often comes out several times and just can't seem to settle down enough to fall asleep.  So, when she was having trouble settling down once again (I was sure she was exhausted from our day at the park and having been up for several hours in the middle of the night) I tried out this tip I'd recently read somewhere.  After her third time out of the room I asked if she wanted me to tuck her in.  Then I asked if she wanted a "special" tuck.  You can tell Kaelyn taking out the trash is "special" and she'll get excited about it.  So, she laid down and I very dramatically straightened her covers and tucked her in tight and then I told her she had to stay very still so she wouldn't ruin the "special tuck."  Magic!  She didn't move!  And she slept for at least two hours!  And so did Brennan!  It's worked several times since.  One morning she even came into our room in and told me, "I was just crying because I didn't have my special tuck anymore."  She crawled into bed with me to snuggle and asked to have another special tuck.  We'll see how long this works but I'll take whatever I can get!

Cheerio Monster

Invasion of the Cheerio Monster.

Caught him!

What a cute little monster.

Breaking all the rules

I admit that there are times when I desperately hope for Little B to fall asleep in the car.  For example, the eight hour drive to and from Wisconsin last week.  I know it's not an ideal nap and everything I've read about creating good sleep habits strongly advises against it, but sometimes it's just impossible to get out of the house and get anything done if we stick to a strict nap schedule at home.  Not to mention, Little B is not always predictable when he wakes and how long he sleeps.

But even though on the previously mentioned drive to Wisconsin he barely slept a wink even at expected nap times, he always manages to fall asleep in the car when I least want him to.  Like the twenty minute drive to and back from dropping Kaelyn off at preschool.  All the experts say to try to keep them awake in the car, and on these occasions I would love to.  But I must ask them, just how exactly do I keep someone who can sleep through all sorts of talking and music (when he wants to) and is sitting behind me facing the other away from falling asleep?  Impossible I tell you.

He did it again today.  And for the life of me I can not remember how I was ever able to transfer Kaelyn from car to crib and keep her asleep.  I know I did many times.  I wasn't successful every time with her but I have not once been able to do it with Brennan.  Oh, infant car seat how I miss you!  I long for the days of being able to pop him in and out of the car without worrying about waking him.

 While we're on the subject of breaking the rules I have another confession to make.  I frequently nurse Brennan to sleep.  In my defense it's not always intentional or what I desire.  I can't help it if he happens to be hungry at the same time he's ready for a nap or bed, or the fact that sometimes it's the last resort after what seems like hours (in reality it's probably only fifteen minutes) of screaming and clawing at my face.  I'm sure it would help if I could get him on a better sleeping and eating schedule but my attempts so far have failed.  How can I force him to eat or sleep at a time he's just not hungry or sleepy?  He has a mind of his own and will strongly resist either if he's not ready for it.  Getting him to sleep can be physically and emotionally draining. Last week my mom compared getting him to sleep to wrestling an alligator.  The boy is strong I tell you.  I challenge anyone who doubts me to rock him to sleep even when he is tired. You won't judge me so much after seeing how hard he fights it.

And so, though I know we must do it soon for our own good and Brennan's, I am not looking forward to sleep training him. Kaelyn was such a good sleeper I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it.  We did have to let her cry it out for a couple days around 9 months when she suddenly refused to go to sleep at nap or bedtime.  It worked quickly and well with her (I might have told a different story when we were in the middle of it), but I think B is going to be a whole different story.  Maybe we'll put it off just a little bit longer, you know, until he's over his ear infection and cold and the next thing that comes up, and the next...

He'll want to sleep by the time he's a teenager, right?

Home sweet home

Here I start with the excuses already.  I really did mean to update the blog while we were in Wisconsin, but I blame my parents computer (sorry guys, it really is time to update).  I even got as far as uploading pictures but it took so long by the time they were done the kids were awake and I lost my window of opportunity.  And then, on our last night there poor B came down with his first ear infection, so we have been dealing with sleepless nights since we got back, and this mama had no brain power left to write an intelligible word.  Ok, enough with the excuses.  Here are some of the highlights from the past week.  I'll try to be succinct.

 Oh, Kaelyn.  My little dancing queen (or should I say princess).  Here she is at my cousin's wedding.  We literally had to drag her off the dance floor kicking and screaming when it was time for the grand march.

 She did pick up some of the moves for the chicken dance, but her definition of dancing mostly involved running in a big circle around everyone else who was dancing.  I really wish I had the video camera.  Still photos just don't do it justice, especially with my limited photography skills.  She refused to dance with me or anyone else in our family.  But she happily joined hands with a little girl we didn't know and then two adults we didn't know.  She finally fell asleep in my lap around 9:30 and then woke up and started crying when we left because she wanted to keep dancing.

 And here's little B checking his handsome self out in the mirror before the reception when he should have been napping.

 And here she is the next morning with some of the treasures she accumulated at the wedding.  Yes, she is still in her party dress.  She wore it to bed and all the next day.  I don't know why I even bothered bringing pajamas for her because she also slept in her tutu and jersey at least one night.

We also got to visit Uncle Joey at the fire station while we were there.

 By the look on his face I don't think firefighting is in B's future.

Kaelyn was a little timid at first but really warmed up to the big trucks by the end.  Here I was actually a little afraid when she started poking around at the buttons.  If she had hit the wrong button we would have been out of there in a flash.


The weather was beautiful while we were there and we got to spend a lot of time outside.  The kids enjoyed seeing their cousin Tate play football.

Brennan even tried crawling out on the field at one point to join Tate.  Keep growing at the rate you're growing buddy and you'll dominate on that field in a couple years.