Sick boy

Look at those eyes and that nose. My active little boy has been put to a halt this week. He has one nasty cold. He's got it all: watery eyes, runny nose, scratchy voice and a hacking cough.

He feels so very bad. Even when I'm holding him, he's still miserable.

He's had his nose wiped so many times this week, that he knows exactly what that box is for...


Even in the midst of feeling bad, he can still find a little trouble to get into....

Sweet thing. Made a good attempt to put them back when I told him to pick them up....

I have been blessed immensely in the fact that all my babies have been/are good sleepers. But this little guy has been fighting his sleep this week. He cries and cries when I lay him down. At naptime today I went up to try and calm him down and this is what I found....

How funny is that? He had been crying just 2 minutes before I took this picture.
I wanted to take some better pictures but the flash on the camera woke him up. Thankfully though, he was so tired that all I had to do was lay him down and he went right back to sleep.

Get well soon little buddy.

Of course, you know Zane will be sick in a matter of days.

PBK Casting Call

In case you're not a mom of young kids, you probably don't know what PBK is. That stands for Pottery Barn Kids and every young mom I know L.O.V.E.S. their stuff. Its one of those catalogs that we sit and drool over when it comes in the mail. We longingly glance page-by-page at the stuff we want to decorate our kids bedrooms and playrooms with and then we do a quick reality check and know that unless we've just won the lottery - it ain't happenin'. And in some cases, if our hubby gets the mail that day and he sees the catalog before we do, he will lovingly try to dispose of it in the trash before we see it!

Several years ago, we did splurge though and bought a few pieces from this PBK wall unit that I had been coveting for a long time.

(PBK stock photo)

Although ours never looks that neat and put-together, it has served its purpose of housing toys very well for children #1, #2 and #3.

Child #4 is putting the shelves to a new test though....

He likes to climb the shelves. Over and over each day I find him standing on them. Just hanging out. Playing.

And in case you think he never has on clothes...here's proof that I do dress him occasionally....

So Pottery Barn Catalog Team: if you are looking for a new way to market this product. Give me a call. I think I've got just the little man to help you out!

Bye-Bye Tooth #2

Emma Kate has had a second loose tooth for quite a while. She's been wiggling and wiggling as well as having me get the floss out to try to loosen it up.

Yesterday it became so loose that it was sticking out like this....

So this morning when Philip left for work, he told her that it was coming out today. He said I could pull it or she could pull it, but one way or the other today was the day.

I tried numerous times today but the patient was not being very cooperative. So far, she is the toughest child we have. She rarely cries when she gets hurt. But this tooth-pulling event, made her ALMOST cry (which for her means tears start to well up in her eyes and she quickly wipes her face to make it all red and splotchy)



Daddy came home from work and the tooth still wasn't out. He made a suggestion of trying to pop it backwards rather than forward as we'd been doing....and voila, it instantly came out!

Yea for our Daddy! She's a much happier girl now.

Me Me, Mimi, or Memie

Zane and Zander are doing really well talking these days. Their vocabulary is growing rapidly as well as their ability to put 2 words and sometimes 3 together in the correct order.

As is normal with toddlers though, there are some words that they have their own little way of saying. A couple of those words sound exactly the same and I have to put them into context to see which word they are actually trying to say.

For example these three words: me me, Mimi, and memie.

First word is Mimi. This is what the grandkids call Philip's mom. So, I know if we are visiting her or vice versa then they are most likely saying "Mimi" to refer to her.

Second word is memie. Pronounced same as above word, but this is what they call their blankie. If they are in their bedroom, they say "memie, memie." Which either means, "I want my blankie or I'm done with my blankie."

Third word is me me. I have no idea how this one came about. I think Zander started it first, but whenever they want to sit somewhere (like the couch, a chair, etc..) they pat said seat and say "me me, me me." Sort of like "put me up there."

Lately they want to "me me" at the dining room table while Eli and Emma Kate are there. They like to "share" Eli and Emma Kate's breakfast with them....

Zander seems to be staring into Eli's bowl as if to say "I want some of that."


Looks like he must've gotten a bite....

Then, later the same day, Eli and Emma Kate were back at the table doing their homeschool work. Zane and Zander each got a book and came back to the chairs saying "me me, me me."

Do you notice in the pictures above and below that Emma Kate isn't really doing any work? It seems that she is studying her pencil intently. Maybe trying to get the work done through osmosis?

Emma Kate finally gets to work and Zane and Zander continue to "read."

Twister

We had Family Game Night last night after the little boys went to bed. (I know, I know...such bad parents for not including them in the fun. But have you ever tried to play an organized game with one toddler...let alone 2????)

Eli chose the first game. Chess. This is a family blog, so in order to keep it reader-friendly, I won't really tell you what I think of chess. Suffice it to say that my brain is not one of those that does well at thinking games like chess. I'm much better with something like "Go Fish" or "Old Maid." Ohhh, or even give me the hula-hoop on Wii Fit if you want a real competition...just not chess! However, 2 of the main men in my life (philip & eli) do have brains that are wired to play these kind of games...so we played. And of course, I lost.

Emma Kate picked the next game, Twister. That's much more my style. Back in the day, I was so very limber and flexible that this game was a piece of cake. Now, let's just say that I've passed that gene onto my daughter....

After about 10 minutes of playing Twister, the other 3 of us surrendered. I mean, you just can't really compete with someone who can do this...

I enjoy Family Game Night and I know Eli and Emma Kate thoroughly love it! Everytime we have one, I tell myself I'll do a better job of scheduling them more often. It's free, easy, fun and makes for some great memories!

Let it Snow - Day 2

Day 2 of the snow-fest included more playing but this time with a "disc." We do not own a sled (but we will once the stores get stocked up again), but our neighbors have a disc that is meant to be used for sledding. Eli wanted to get on it all day, but I wouldn't let him go by himself because they would be sledding down a driveway and I thought an adult needed to be out there with them. So finally after the boys naptime, I geared everybody up to go "disc-ing."

Philip wasn't home from work yet so I put the bundled boys in the wagon to make it easier on me. Here they are watching the kids slide down the driveway....

The house we currently live in is the first house, since 1999, that doesn't have a driveway on a hill. And of course, it would've been so much fun for the kids if we did have that kind of driveway. But at least our neighbors driveway has a little bit of a slant. Here's Eli going down on the disc....


The boys considered it a good ride if they made it all the way out into the street....

At one point I turned around to check on the boys in the wagon and Zane had started toppling over like a weeble-wobble. He was so bundled that he couldn't sit hisself back up straight. And being the gentle calm child he is, he never made a peep to let me know he was uncomfortable.

Emma Kate did a great job of hanging with the boys when it was her turn to slide...

She's so lightweight that a couple of times she toppled right over when she got to the bottom of the driveway. I happened to catch it on camera....

And being the funny bunny that she is, she'd just go ahead and sprawl out once she toppled over....

We were outside a pretty long time. I finally told the older kids that I really had to take the little boys in 'cause I knew they had to be cold. Sure enough when we got inside, these puffy cheeks were RED....

I have thoroughly enjoyed being cooped up with the kiddos this week. When we're not playing in the snow, we mainly just hang out in our pj's playing or talking on the phone....

I love how both sets of kids are sitting together in the pictures above and below. Such a good feeling that they want to be together and aren't arguing!

Let it Snow - Day 1

Yesterday morning we woke up to this.... Isn't it absolutely beautiful?!? It is by far the best snow we've had since living here. Last year was the infamous Ice Storm which wasn't really a lot of fun to play in.


As I was taking the above picture of our house, I looked over at our driveway and saw this classy yet trashy opportunity for a picture...

Oops...guess we should've taken those containers in the day before!

Eli and Emma Kate played in the snow about 3 times yesterday. The first time they went out by themselves so I didn't get any pictures. But during the little boys naptime, I went out with them....

Emma Kate throwing a pile of snow above her head and letting it fall down....

The pictures above and below are a mischievious 9yr old boy working on a snow ball.

and then throwing it at his momma....

It wouldn't be a good snow outing unless they made Snow Angels....

Eli kept wanting to have a snowball fight with me and Emma Kate. We finally gave in and told him we'd do it if she and I could be on the same team.

She had a hard time making the snow stick together to form a ball. She finally just plopped herself down to try to "rake" the snow together with her hands...

Eli had a cute idea of using their boogie boards (from our beach trip) as "shields."

He had really good aim (as well as good snow balls). Emma Kate didn't do so well. I wish I had gotten the following captured on video but I just never seem to have the right camera in hand.

She got out from behind her shield and walked over to his hide-out. Sort of a loddy-doddy-dah kinda walk...

and right as she got to him, she PELTED him with her snowball!


After Zane and Zander got up from their nap, we went out again, but decided to take them with us this time. Let me be the first to tell you (in case you didn't know), that getting 2 toddlers ready to play in 15-20degree weather is A LOT of work!
2 undershirts

• 2 pair of knit pants
• 2 thermal shirts
• 2 pair of jeans
• 2 pair of socks
• 2 pair of sock-mocks
• 4 mittens
• 2 hats
• 2 parka-like coats

I was sweating by the time we finally got them outside, but just look at the cute results! (they look thrilled, don't they?)

While we had them out we did a sibling photo shoot....

and a family photo shoot....

I have no plans for that to be our Christmas card photo for 2010. I wish I had the kind of face that looks good in a hat...but I don't. Which is a really bum deal because I'd love to be able to just put a hat on and go somedays.