I'm not going to lie, the past several days have been rough. Lack of sleep, teething and potty training have been a pretty difficult combination. I know the first and last are out of my control and the middle is just something we'll have to get through. I would put off the potty training, but this is the only week for a while where we have several days with no real schedule.
Today we were able to just relax. We were up bright and early at 6:30, the kids and I played trains most of the morning until Tanni came over bringing some yummy muffins. We ate an early lunch then had a quick nap. We finally made it to the gym so I could get a run in and then back home for dinner, baths and bed. All in all a decent day with very few meltdowns.
Lu has been loving frozen banana chunks in her mesh feeder. A sweet treat for sore gums.
I mentioned the other day that we had started potty training boot camp. Today is day 3 and so far it is going OK. He has yet to have a pee accident, but going #2 has been quite a challenge. I'm open to suggestions to help us make this happen as I don't want to go back to pull ups again. Anyways, we've been taking him to the potty every 45 minutes and we're starting to get hit with some serious resistance. We're really trying to take a laid back approach, but it is difficult to keep a calm head when we never know if he's going to happily walk into the bathroom or he's going to throw a massive tantrum.
Poor Lu has been quite the trooper while we've been focusing so much attention on Max. She just happily plays on the bathroom floor while we read stories, sing songs and talk entirely too much about pooping.
Today is Lu's 8 month birthday! I can't believe she's getting so close to a year! She's *this* close to crawling and we're expecting her bottom teeth to break through any day now. While she still has quite the temper, she also is very silly and playful. She loves her brother so much, but isn't afraid to stand up for herself if he takes her toy away. She's finally eating solids and her sleep is slowly improving. We're on a mission to get her completely moved into her own room in the next couple of weeks.
8 month olds are too busy to sit still for silly sticker pictures!
Max has been having a blast playing with the grocery store I set up on Valentines Day. He's having so much fun that we've decided we can only handle the store being up for a few days at a time.
He also has been enjoying a really cool toy truck that he got from Tanni for Valentine's Day. It came with a fun little toy drill and you're able to completely take it apart and rebuild it over and over again. We've been trying to get him to take turns, but it is hard to share such a cool toy!
I should also mention that today is Day 1 of potty training boot camp and Max kept his bird undies dry all day!!
Taking the truck apart with Daddy.
Tanni, Pop and Eric came over for dinner. Eric actually held Lucy!
My love for Pinterest has been rekindled once again. I haven't really been on since I got Lu's nursery planned, but decided to start looking up things for the kids birthday parties. There are so many ideas! Anyways that isn't the point of this post. Along with hundreds of Angry Birds inspired items, there are also unlimited ideas for activities with your kids. I've pinned several, but rarely have the motivation to get all the supplies out and actually follow through.
I don't know what inspired me today, but I decided to get out the rice and the construction vehicles for Max to play with. He had a great time driving the trucks around and making tracks in the rice. We also worked on his letters and he was doing a great job identifying them as I wrote them. I swear this boy takes after his uncle and purposely answers questions wrong so he doesn't have to be challenged.
You know all these sweet, adorable, smiley pictures of Lucy that I've been posting? You'd think this little girl was always so happy and wonderful. Well, no. This little cutey has a dark side.
She's got her mama's temper.
This guy actually looks like he's enjoying himself.
Happy Valentine's Day! So far today we've celebrated with donuts with Tannie, a busted thumb for me, countless trips to Max's new grocery store, coffee from my new Keurig, and a fabulous brunch with white chocolate cherry swirl french toast.
Everything is three dollars at Max's Grocery Store.
Today both of the grandmas came to visit! Tannie stopped over to play this morning and Grandma Karen came over at lunch time. Max was very excited to show off his new big boy room. We had a nice lunch at home to kick off our Lent challenge of sticking to a strict food budget then went to the gym as a family after naps. We were all so worn out that the Lucy was asleep by 6:30 and Max by 7!
Someday she'll get this crawling thing figured out.
I know I have mentioned how well Max has been doing in his big boy bed, well today that changed. At nap time I caught him with a bunch of toys in his bed and a few minutes later heard crying from his room. I went in to find him lodged between the bed and the side rails. What does this mommy do? Runs to get the camera. Unfortunately he freed himself as I was taking the picture.
I ran out to do some Valentine's Day shopping while Lu and Daddy had a little photo shoot.
Just an average Monday. Max had Gym and Swim, we went grocery shopping and played some birds. Lucy also decided that she REALLY likes food and inhaled more at each meal today then she's been eating in a week!
Today we got to celebrate our buddy Liam's second birthday! Max had so much fun playing with Liam and the other children and I was pleasantly surprised with how well he did. He needed very few reminders to share or be nice. We also got to see Lucy's BFF, Allie that we haven't seen in a few months. Oh my goodness has she grown! Seeing the babies interacting with each other was absolutely adorable!
I am cheap when it comes to our pets. I don't see the need for premium cat food or litter and I most certainly do not see the need for expensive veterinary care. I get that for some people their animals are their babies and would spend millions to keep them around, but that isn't me. Maybe before kids I might have considered it, but now I can't justify spending $400 for well kitty visits. Thankfully a couple of years ago we discovered another option. A local organization puts on vaccine clinics every couple of months in the area. You only pay for the vaccines and whatever county registration fees are necessary and you're able to skip the appointment fee and a bunch of unnecessary tests.
That clinic was today and 30 minutes away from our house. I had to drop Lu off with my mom beforehand, but for 20 ish minutes I was stuck in a car with two howling kitties and a very concerned Lucy. Not fun. The place where the clinic was being held was super crowded with lots of people and their BIG dogs. I'm not going to complain too much about it though because we got in and out very quickly and it didn't break the bank. I think the cats were traumatized enough by their visit that they were mostly quiet on the ride home.
After quickly dropping off the cats, Lu and I raced to catch the last few minutes of Max's soccer practice. We got there just in time to see the boys playing Superman. A game where Max wears a cape and Bill chases him around trying to pull it off. I was also there to witness some of the chaos that goes on at soccer. I saw several collisions and meltdowns in just the few minutes that I was there!
As I mentioned yesterday, Max is getting a bit frustrated with all the picture taking going on. He's started running from the camera and hiding from me so I'm having to get more creative.
Where's Max?
I'm not sure why Bill put Lu in the storage ottoman.
Despite meltdowns and some crappy rainy/icy weather, we made it to story time this morning. Miss Linda had some interesting things in store for the kids. Usually there is a rice table for the kids to play in and some sort of craft project in addition to the various stations she had set up, but today she decided to fill a water table full of snow and have a very messy stamping paint project. You could see the looks of horror on every adult's face as she announced this. Max was only interested in the paint long enough to get his hands dirty and paint on his shirt, then he ran off to the snow table. I was worried with all the snow throwing we did the day before that he would do the same at the library. He actually surprised me by showing some self control, until another boy started flinging snow.
I really like this program, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get Max to behave appropriately. I know these toddlers are toddlers(and mine is FAR from perfect), but there are a few boys Max's age that can get pretty squirrelly. This would be fine, but Max sees them acting out and he thinks it is okay for him to do as well. I'd hate to stop going, but we might need to figure out a different arrangement with Lu so Max has my full attention.
Max is starting to get annoyed with the constant picture taking.
We've gotten a decent amount of snow the past week or so, but unfortunately the kids have had colds so we haven't been able to go out and play. Today everyone seemed to be feeling up for it and it was actually 35 degrees out so we decided to go for it! Max was a bit unsure about all the extra clothing especially since he was in the middle of a got up too early/didn't take a long enough nap meltdown. He finally calmed down with a caramel apple spice and we ended up having a lot of fun! He went from nto wanting to ride in the sled at all to going down the hill all by himself. Lu stayed inside with Tannie most of the time we played, but got to have a little fun sitting in the sled with Max.
While I've been underwhelmed with this current session of Gym and Swim, we actually picked up something Max liked the other day. Miss Carrie brought in an egg and spoon game for the kids to practice their balance with. We decided to give it a try with puff balls and Max had a blast walking, marching, hopping and then stashing the "silly puff balls" in a shoe box.
As I've mentioned before, Lu isn't crawling yet. Not really a big deal as a mobile kid means more trouble, but we're wondering when she's going to start. Today she managed to move across the living room without rolling or crawling. My only explanation is she would reach for something then sit back up scooting just an inch or two at a time.
So Lu is still sleeping in her pack and play in our room. The original plan was to move her when she turned 6 months(when the SIDS risk goes way down), but then a friend from my June Bugs group lost her little boy on his 6 month birthday. I've always been anxious about SIDS, but Blake's death hit way too close to home. I know the odds are in my favor, we have a movement monitor and I'm super cautious about doing everything I can to prevent such a tragedy from happening, but it has still taken a long time for me to feel comfortable putting her in her own room. Now that she is starting to feel better, I think it is time to start that transition.
I waited too long with Max and he was already crawling and pulling up to a stand which made it all the more difficult to get him to settle down on his own. I told myself I wouldn't do that again and I have a feeling my window is starting to close. Lucy isn't crawling yet, but she's getting there and she's very close to pulling up. I figure we'll start with naps and once that is going well, we'll put her in there at night too. So far, she likes to play in her bed but doesn't like to put herself sleep on her own in there. I've been nursing/rocking her and then putting her down barely awake. Not the best habit to start, but she does wake up for a second or two then falls back asleep. I'm hoping with some consistency she'll start to do better.
Here she is, napping in her sleep suit in her crib!
