Wednesday's Weekly Update

Jane

-The girl has no sense of urgency.

We could be going to the most awesome place on earth and it would still take her all day to get ready if she wasn't coaxed along every second.

-We started a food chart with her.

Starting the beginning of February, we said she had to try one new food each week.

We give her two choices.

We're starting easy.

So far she's tried the brown breakfast bars (she usually eats the strawberry but the box from Costco came with strawberry and brown sugar this time), garlic butter bread stick, and cookie butter from Trader Joes (I told you we are starting out easy!)

We made a chart and added the food she tries to it. 

If she likes it she puts a happy sticker next to it.

So far, all likes!

-We've been making tic tac toe Valentine's for her classmates.

She's been doing a great job writing her name tiny on them!

It's a pretty big task.

For each one, there is a place to write her name twice.

And there's 18 Valentines.

And remember the lack of urgency?

Thank goodness there will most likely be no school on Friday because of the snow,

we're going to need the weekend to finish!

 

Molly

-Today was her Valentine's Day party at school.

She was so excited to see Owen and I show up halfway through her morning.

I like to see her in her own environment.

Though I didn't like to see how she didn't share!

I wish I would have left Owen home with my mother in law.

He was more needy than I thought he would be, and I wasn't able to help Molly do her craft, or sit next to her at snack.

I will remember that for the future!

-She's been quite a handful lately, saying No and just doing things that she shouldn't.

I'm trying hard to not lose my cool.

I just want to love her and encourage her in a positive manner, but when she is throwing all the clothes out of my dresser as I'm telling her to stop, it is very hard to refrain from raising my voice.

-I'm not the only one finding it difficult.

If Brian is home and I'm telling Molly to stop doing something she shouldn't, she'll say, "Daddy freak out at me?"  hahaha.

Yes child, so please STOP!

-Molly got her first real haircut last Friday.

I took her to Sweet and Sassy.

She was so brave, and wasn't even a bit scared!

-She loves Max and Ruby.

There is an episode about Super Bunny that we watched recently.

Well the next thing I hear is her calling Owen "Super Buddy".

She may test every bit of patience, but she can be awfully cute!

 

 

 

 Owen

-So it is true, dressing boys is not as much fun as girls.

However, I have found I love little baby leggings!

I love dressing Owen in them, they're so soft and comfortable.

But they range in price from $13 and upwards to $30+!

For thin little fabric pants!

Are they crazy??

I soooo wish I could sew!

-He's just a poop machine still!

-We're borrowing my nephew's Jungle Mat.

We used to have one but it somehow got moldy in our crawl space.

I like that he has somewhere new to play!

He can reach up and grab the dangling toys!

-Toys and fingers all in the mouth.

-His sisters love him soooo much.

He gets so many kisses and hugs throughout the day.

It's hard to imagine that in just a short time they will have someone else to argue and bicker with (I hope not!!!)

 



Sick

There's no denying it, sick babies freak me out.
Bad.
You would think that by the third time around I'd be more relaxed.
Rather, I'm quite the opposite.
With the first, I think I was naïve to all that was out there.
I didn't have many mommy friends.
I didn't know all their stories, their friend's stories, their friend's friend stories about sick babies.
And then there's the febrile seizure that Molly had at 5 months lurking in my brain.
So when the slightest symptom of a cold comes on, I become a complete mess.

He came down with a cold and fever Thursday evening.
And it was all downhill from there.

By Saturday he had a pretty nasty cough and was just miserable.
I called our pediatrician.
I hate calling after hours.
It makes me feel bad interrupting their time off.
But I did it.
And she actually thought he'd be able to wait until Monday to see her.

But you know that feeling in your gut that things just aren't right?
Ten o'clock that evening I just couldn't bare it anymore.
Brian stayed home with the girls, I went alone with Owen to the emergency room.
As soon as we got there, he was is normal happy self.
I swear the nurse checking us in must have thought I was nuts bringing this smiley little baby in.
Once we saw the doctor, she said because he had a fever along with the cold she wanted to test for influenza and rsv.
Also she wanted to do a chest x-ray.
The entire 3 hours we were there, Owen was wide awake.
I couldn't believe it.
And he didn't stay cheerful either.
It was a loooong three hours, and I just wanted to take him home to bed and cuddle him!

After they looked at his chest x-ray, they determined he had early pneumonia, where his lungs were starting to turn grey.
We were sent home with an antibiotic, and since then he's been on the mend.
I am so thankful for doctors and medicine.

Wednesday's Weekly Update

Jane

-Because of snow and ice, there's been no school so far this week.

This is turning out to be the longest winter ever!

 

-We ordered some Disney Princess easy read books from one of those Scholastic Book orders.

Well, it took her only a few days to basically memorize the books.

I'd like to say she was reading them, but she says the words faster than I can point to them,

so I know it's all just memory.

 

-Today I took a video of Jane singing and acting out Do You Want to Build a Snowman from Frozen.

I literally watched it like 4 times in a row because it was so amazing.

She is such an actress.

I never saw the movie, but she has such emotion when singing that I can feel how sad Anna is when she can't be with Elsa.

I mean so good it made me want to cry!

 



Molly

-Some of the things she says are just so funny.
Like the other day when she asked Owen if he wanted to eat the booby.
And how she asks to have ice creamy for dessert.
And when she forgets what a Polly Pocket is called, she calls them lollipops.
Girly, you sure make me laugh!

-Last night she did not sleep well at all.
I am still worried about that incident over Christmas, (though she has not had anything else happen to her since) but because she had a cold I prayed she just had an ear infection.
I took her to the doctor today, and sure enough she did.
Who would have thought I'd ever be happy my kids had an ear infection?

-The girl is seriously going crazy being housebound for so long!
She's been insane!
I can hardly blame her, I am too.
 By afternoon she is bouncing off the walls!

-So to remedy, I try sending them out in the snow to play for a bit.
Which always ends in her cry cry crying!
I know the problem is mostly that she's hungry.
She never wants to eat, at least not the healthy stuff.
And as a result, it makes her miserable.
And I bring her back inside, wipe her tears and feed her.
The not eating is probably the most frustrating thing about her right now.

 

Owen

 

-So the cutest thing by far is when he is nursing and stops, looks up at me, and gives me the biggest smile.

I just die every time.

 

-Last week at church I was in the Parent's Room, where I now spend every Sunday with Owen, when I saw a mom give her little boy who looked around the same age, a toy.

He held on to it and put it in his mouth.

I don't know why I hadn't tried giving him any toys yet.

As soon as we got home, I gave him one.

And sure enough he took it.

 

-I'll tell you what, I'm just not with it this time around.

Slacking with the toys, slacking with the singing, slacking with the reading.

I know part of it is that I'm not sitting and rocking him in his room the way I did with the girls.

But the boy doesn't even use his crib so I never go in there other than to get clothes out.

Anyway, I make sure to sing to him while we do bath time. 

And in the car when he's screaming his head off (doesn't really work though). 

 

-The girls never enjoyed me reading to them at this age.

They never looked at the books, never seemed to have an interest.

So I really hadn't tried reading to Owen- poor kid. 

Seriously, I sound like the worst mom ever!

Every once in a while I put Jane to bed instead of Brian.

And usually when I do, I have Owen with me.

Jane lays on Molly's bed, and I put Owen next to her.

I hold the book so that they can see.

And he smiles and really likes it!

I'm now trying to make more of an effort to read to him.

 

-He's learned how to get my attention.

A little fussing and mommy picks him right up.

I may be slacking on some departments, but not on the love.

And boy is he loved.

 

Wednesday's Weekly Update

Jane

 

-We had Jane's conference at school last Thursday.

Her teacher didn't tell me anything I already didn't know.

The biggest thing was just giving her another year to mature and grow before going to kindergarten.

When we go to birthday parties for her friends, I see such a difference between Jane and the girls who turned 5 in the fall.

It's really crazy.

And it's not just size, it's definitely maturity, too.

 

-So with that, she's officially enrolled at Penn View Christian for their developmental kindergarten.

This is a class specifically for those children who either just missed the school district's kindergarten age cutoff, or who are 5 but won't be going to kindergarten.

We're currently trying to work on some financial aid and hoping that will make this a little easier.

Yikes, school is soooo expensive!

Her class next year is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- all day!

I'm not so sure how I like that!

But their program is excellent and they really offer so much.

 

-The girl's school had the children's artwork displayed at the library this past month,

so last night they held an "exhibit" there with snacks so parents could come and check it all out.

Boy, both girls had such a ball seeing their teachers outside the classroom.

 

 

Molly

 

 

-When Molly hurts herself, like trips and stubs her toe or something, she says she hurt her feelings.

I think they must be talking about hurting feelings at school.

I also think she's a little confused!

 

-She loves nicknames.

For a long time she used to call Jane "Poo" because Brian and I sometimes call her Janie Poo Poo.

She's stopped saying that, I think because she can now say Jane easily.

But my sister and brother in law often call their son Jacko.

Well Molly picked right up on that and always calls him that.

Brian isn't a fan of this nickname and constantly is correcting Molly, telling her, no, it's Jack.

Two minutes later she's saying Jacko.

I'm trying to stay consistent with Brian,

but sometimes I have to turn around and just laugh.

He might be fighting a useless battle.

Anyhow, she calls Owen, Buddy Boy all time.

I guess I say it sometimes, really without even realizing it.

But of course Molly picked it right up!

 

-Sticker obsessed.

We go through sticker phases around here.

And we are currently in one again.

I don't even know where she finds them sometimes!

But everywhere I look- stickers!

Stickers on herself, stickers on Owen, stickers on toys, stickers on furniture, stickers on windows, stickers stuck to the bottom of my socks, stickers stuck to my butt (super nice when I'm out in public).

 

 

Owen

 

-Well, we brought out the exersaucer this weekend. 

We put him in and stuff blankets around him.

I can't even believe he's big enough for this thing already!

 

-The crying in the car is KILLING me!

After I drop the girls off at school, I want to do errands.

But he's crying so bad that all I can, and want, to do is go home.

 

-He's finally hit the point where he is not sleeping all the time, and is woken up much more easily by noises.

It's been challenging this past week.

When he's awake, it's fine.

It's just when he starts getting tired, he becomes cranky.

And because he won't sleep in his crib,

he's just sleeping in the swing downstairs.

Before this past week, the girls could run around and be crazy and he'd sleep right through it.

But now, I'm shhhing them every time he takes a nap.

Yesterday I was trying to clean up before our playdate and Owen had finally just fallen asleep so I made the girls watch tv so they'd be quiet!

I hate myself for doing that!!

I know I need to do something.

 I'm seriously considering just ditching his crib and getting a bed in his room with the toddler rails so he can't roll out.

I might be jumping the gun, and I'm going to give it a good try this weekend with the crib.

If our bed wasn't so high I'd just let him nap in there.

But when he gets bigger and starts crawling I'm afraid he'll really hurt himself.

So if we just get a bed in his room, I can lay with him until he sleeps and then hopefully sneak out.

 

-He's seriously cute, and I'm so crazy for him!



Muffins

We make a lot of muffins around here.

They are kinda our go-to.

And no matter the flavor, we always call them chocolate chip,

or else we have two little girls who won't touch them.

This patch is for our play date tomorrow.

They are Pumpkin....I mean chocolate chip :)

Jane and I usually make them while Molly is napping.

Though today she was pretty distracted by the cookies her grandparents brought over last night.

Friday

Between MLK day, the snow, and school conferences, the girls didn't have school all week.

We were all getting pretty stir crazy.

We did manage to get out of the house and go to the gym for open play,

something Jane doesn't usually get the chance to attend because she has school on Fridays.

But that afternoon, the girls begged me to put their house together.

Even though it takes up half the room, how could I say no?

They are quite imaginative and turned it into a daycare.

And of course they had to dress the part as the teachers, in princess gowns.

We also dressed Owen in is Woody outfit, a Christmas gift from my mom's cousins.

 

I must say, he's the cutest little Woody I ever did see!

 

 

 



Wednesday's Weekly Update

We're home today, enjoying ANOTHER snow day.

I swear I love them, but if spring doesn't start to show,

Brian may be working until the end of June again this year!

 

These pictures were all taken this morning as the kids were playing and

hanging out in the living room.

Owen was so content just watching the girls play.

Molly was then busy busy busy bugging him.

But when she took out the books and started to read to him,

I just about died.

Jane was too cool for pictures.

And now for some updates from this past week.

Jane
-The girls are both pretty Frozen obsessed. (even Molly who didn't see it)
Jane got the soundtrack for Christmas so every time we are in the car we are listening to it.
She knows all the words! 
And she'll watch it on her tablet and pretend she is Elsa, singing to Let it Go,
moving her arms and using a blanket as her cape.
She's such a natural performer.

-She's such a smart little cookie.
I introduced her to the Jane and Dick stories because for one,
she's been asking all the time about what words say.
And she knows the letter sounds and can start to sound some words out.
She has an awesome memory, so I knew if I told her the words in the book,
it was likely she would remember them.
And she did!
She knows how to use the beginning sound of the word to figure it out if she forgets.
The second reason I showed her these books was because her name was in them!
I thought she'd get a kick out of that!
I remember in first grade reading the Jane and Dick books all the time.
I loved the pictures I think best about them.
She's also starting to add single digits.
She knows some by memory,
and those that she doesn't,
she uses her fingers to figure out.

-She has GOT to be going through a growth spurt.
Generally, she's not all into eating (unless it's candy).
But lately, she's been wanting to eat all her meals,
every morsel, without us reminding her to keep eating.
Sometimes it can take her nearly an hour to eat dinner.
But lately she's had no problem, in fact, eating it rather quickly,
 and then still being hungry!
We've seriously never seen her eat so much food in her life!

-She's constantly, and randomly, saying "I love you." to Brian and I.
It's pretty sweet.


Molly
-I love listening to her sing Let It Go!
-She, too, has been saying "I love you" lots.  And I love it!
-Molly loves her books. 
She'll carry around one for days, usually until she can't find it anymore.
She walks around the house with it open, holding it like a teacher would.
Her current favorite book is Maisy Goes to the Hospital, or as she says, hospital.
It seems to be making bedtime much easier.
As soon as we say it's time for bed, she says, "And read Maisy Goes to the Hopital!".
-She's fiiiiinally starting to go to sleep on her own again.
But only if Brian puts her to bed.
-She's a complete yack back. 
And it's almost always the negative things we say.
Like, Brian will say to Jane, "That's not being nice, you need to share.",
Molly will repeat it right after he says it.
-We're still on the Mary Poppin's kick.  But I make her turn it off at 7:30am.


Owen
-So I think his hair is starting to grow.
It's looking longer to me.  But I could be crazy. 
-Loud noises are starting to scare him and make him cry.
The other day Brian came home from work, and he was turned the other way so he couldn't see.
The door shut and the girls started to yell.
And he cried :(
-He has the saddest sad face!! 
His little lips turn upside down and he looks just pitiful.
I can't help but scoop him right up into my arms every time I see it.
If he's smart, he's going to use that on me for a long long time!