Second week of January 2016

I had these two pictures pop up at me while I was at work.  These kids certainly have similarities.  Man, I have some really cute kids!

My thoughtful CSM, Donna, brought a some sparking juice to our staff meeting to kick off the new year.

Max got to wear Peter's headset while he was playing on the x-box and felt so super cool.

We made popcorn and had movie night on Friday night.

Emmalyn loved it

Maxwell loved it

Oh, and the movie was fine too (but the popcorn was the real super star)

We went on a double date with Brittany and Joe to go see the new Star Wars movie.  It was fun and something I don't know if we've ever done together without kids.

Playing at the park when it's cold but not cold enough to stay inside and miss a sunny day!

All bundled up

Her hair is long enough that if you don't do it, she just looks so disheveled and unkempt.  

Playing peekaboo but then realized that it was hard to watch her ipad like this. :)

Maxwell loves his turtle.  It's his favorite stuffed animal and sleeps with him every night.

Max's vocabulary and use of words continues to amaze me.  It's so fun to see your children learn and grow before your eyes.  :)  And each new things feel so special and awesome (well, the good things...the bad things they tend to learn aren't so awesome)  Anyway, the way he talks is sometimes so mature and formal.  For example, he will say that he finds things "odd" or he will say "I can not" instead of "I can't".  He was talking about a broken toy of his and he asked if when we got home, could we help him "repair" it.  I have to think that most 4 years would just ask if we could fix it, not repair it.

Cute girl!

Head first down the slide.  No fear with this one.

Chillin' while she's sleeping

Uh oh...starting to explore places she's never done, like the silverware drawer.  

There's that cute little curl just like the one she had as a newborn, just a little bigger.

Emmalyn at 21 months...

Loves to sing, especially in the car and will not let up when she wants you to sing with her

Loves shoes, especially her boots

She's got such a big personality whether it's cuteness, sweet, giggly or mean and agreesive

Wants to be just like max and say what he says or do what he does

She says "math" not "Max"

Loves dogs

Persistant about getting your attention

Loves watching frosty the snowman

She doesn't play with her toys much lately

Loves playing on her iPad (asks for it in the morning and when we are in the car on the way home from Brittany's)

Still using her binky  - just when sleeping but has to have it and when I try and pull it out in the middle of the night she wakes up and cries for it

She climbs on everything - she is so fearless

When she gives you a hug, sometimes you have to remind her to use her arms (she will just lay them on your shoulders otherwise)... but then you get a really good hug

Likes to give 'noses" kisses to momma

Will tell you she loves you

She is inclusive - if you are talking about "Do you love Brittany?"  she will go, "and Landen...and Hayden..and Jo Jo." so no one is left out

She sometimes will call her dad "daddy" and sometimes "Peter"

She knows some of her letters

She can count to 10

She will say a couple colors but I don't think she knows them at all

Knows a lot of her animals -

Her favorite foods are applesauce and "cereal and milk"

She wants to sleep with her blanket and her purple puppy dog from dad and marriann

She wants to brush her teeth on her own but it's nearly all just sucking the toothpaste, and often it's a battle at night when we try to brush them for her

She is a super screamer and super strong

Ice! at the Gaylord Texan

We went as a family to ICE at the Gaylord Texan.  It's this big ice exhibit with thousands of pounds of ice that's kept extremely cold (like 20 degrees F) and they give you parkas to wear inside.

The hotel was decorated so beautifully.

I had planned on us going at 6:30 and figured it would be like 45 minutes at the exhibit and then we'd stop to get snack for the kids and get the kids to bed a little late around 8:30.  Well, what a joke that was!  First, there was traffic getting there and then the line was CRAZY long.  Just when you thought you were at the end, there was more line.  The poor kids were hungry because all they had was eaten was a couple slices of quesadilla in the car but I hadn't brought a bunch of snacks.  Nor did I have a ton of stuff to keep them entertained.  It was torture for all of us.

Emmalyn made some friends with the other kids in line.  They all thought she was soooo cute.

Eventually we got to this part - where we thought we were close!  WRONG.  It was basically a holding area where you waited some more...

We brought hats and gloves and coats (I had forgotten Emmalyn's coat in the car but figured she'd get a parka and be okay).

At this point we'd been in line or like 1 1/2 hours, it was the kids bedtime...they were hungry, we were hungry... but you can't give up now because you've waited this long, you know?  CRAZY!

We all got our blue parkas and thought maybe we'd finally get to go in...but no.... more waiting, except this time we were wearing hot parkas but not yet in the freezing cold.

Emmalyn's parka was quite large on her.

FINALLY we made it into the exhibit (2 hours later!!! I kid you not.  It was now past both kids' bedtime.)

The theme this year was Christmas around the world.

It was very cold inside, we were glad for our gloves, hats, and parkas!

They had these slides where you slid on the ice on your bum.  Maxwell and I waited in line to do it.  He was nervous and wanted to do the kid's slide.  So I stood at the top and watched him go down.  (He's going down in this picture but you can't tell because he's on the far left behind one of the railings.)  Anyway, so he gets to the bottom of the slide and pops up and walks off.  Well, Peter was on the other side of the slides getting the picture and not where Max is getting off the slide.  So Max walks off into the crowd, looking for his dad.  I'm watching all this happen from the stairs where there's a bunch of people above me and a bunch below me so I'm stuck and can't move.  And it's LOUD inside, it's not like I could have screamed and had Peter hear me. 

 I'm frantically trying to motion to Peter he needs to go to the other side to get Maxwell and trying to keep my eyes on Max.  Well, EVERYONE is in blue parkas and looks the same.  I lost sight of Max (as he's trying to find his dad in the sea of blue parkas) and started to really panic.  I think this is the first time that I have felt the fear that I have lost my child and that something could happen to him.  And I'm watching Peter try and find him and not being able to help because I was stuck.  It was awful.  It probably only took a minute for Peter to find Maxwell but it felt like forever.  

And then they had to wait while I stood in line to go down the big slide..... more waiting.   

I'm glad I did the slide, because it made me nervous and it's good to get out of your comfort zone.  But man, I looked like a serious dork as I hit the bottom of the slide, which is just carpet so it's pretty jarring after you've been on the ice... and then you've got to get yourself up from sitting on this little slide which isn't an easy thing to do when you are a short, chubby girl.  

Anyway, after that I was done because I was still recovering from the panic and Peter was done because he'd just been waiting for me to do the slide and the kids were done because it was late...

But we couldn't just hurry and leave.  No, you had to go through the rest of the exhibit...which was CROWDED and so you basically have to slowly, slowly, slowly make your way through the exhibit. 

We passed a bunch of stuff that could have been fun picture points for the kids or something else for them to do because we were ready to GO. 

The kids walked through a little tunnel

Peter's happy face (HA!)

At one point I couldn't take pictures anymore because my phone just shut off and wouldn't work it was so cold.  Even with the gloves, your fingers started getting cold.  I felt bad for Emmalyn because when you would hold her, her pants would rise up on her calves and her ankles and legs would be exposed.  I didn't think about putting her in tights AND socks...

Anyway, we finally made it out!!  Whew.  Not going to do that again.  For like, a long time if ever.  No way.  Not worth it.  CHECK - - done it once. (And this thing wasn't cheap either - grrrrr)

Our cheeks sure were rosy when we got outside the exhibit though. :)

2015! It's here!

The first week of 2015...

So 2015 started out with a hang-my-head-in-shame, so-glad-things-weren't-worse, parenting fail.  

We bring Emmalyn into our bed early in the morning when she wakes up to nurse.  We then have her sleep between us.  Well, as you can imagine we were up late for New Years Eve so I was super tired when I brought her into bed.  We both slept for awhile and Peter had gotten up and was letting us sleep.  Then, later in the morning, she was up and moving around and I was trying to stay conscious since she was up.   But I dozed off and next thing I know, I hear her screaming and I jolt awake.  She had fallen off my bed.  My blood was pumping and I moved so fast to grab her and was so worried that I was going to find her seriously hurt - my bed is so far off the ground for a little baby!  Luckily, she was absolutely fine, just scared (like her Momma).  I felt soooooooo awful about it and still do.  I was shaken up for quite awhile.

Making some cool colored goo with Uncle Peter

Mashing all the colors together before making it foam

Perfectly precious.  I can't help but love these sweet times with her snuggled up against me.

Ahhhh - - "family time" - everyone on their phones.  :)  We try to avoid it but at some point it still happens.

The kids were hanging out in Maxwell's room and when they came out, Kaity had dressed them up.  :)

These cousins had so much fun being together.  One of the benefits of Britt living here was that it was nice having everyone in the same house.

Playing games 

Old-man-bitter-beer-face

Movie night

Synchronized eating

Maxwell and Aunt Kimi

Maxwell and his Shelly Belly - we hated seeing her and Kimberly go.  We LOVE having them here.

Playdo animals - I think an elephant?

Maxwell really loves playing with playdo

Out for a walk to the park - all bundled up in her pretty pink coat

Maxwell all bundled up too

Pic courtesy of Maxwell

video - Brittany playing boo with Emmalyn

Playing together

Dipping pretzels with dad

My house all lit up and festive

Video - Emmalyn can clap!

We were sad to have Kimberly leave but we soon had more visitors come to town!  My Aunt Sue and Aunt Leanne came to town.  I really appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, them taking the time to drive all the way here and spend time with me and my family.  I feel their efforts to stay close even after my mom's passing.  I appreciate the way they keep me and my siblings in their hearts.

Emmalyn's first time in a high chair (I think!)

We went out for yummy Mexican when my aunts were here

Aunt Leanne, Maxwell, and Aunt Sue

Video  - Maxwell playing hide n seek with daddy (daddy's way of hiding is pretty funny)

Here's a big update on Emmalyn lately -

• As you could see from the video, she's clapping now
• She loves her Uncle Joe and will imitate him when he purses his lips and when he moves his hands
• I swear that she says "Hi" and has for awhile
• She's starting to do more sounds like "muh" and "buh" and instead of talking through her coos it's more babbling
• She screams which is not an awesome development
• If I set her down and she doesn't want me to she will cry - - WITH TEARS! :(
• She's definitely a Momma's girl
• She goes everywhere and finds everything on the floor
• She gets mad when she's done eating her food
• She struggles to stay focused when she's nursing which is not very fun for me and then she wants to nurse to sleep (Not gonna happen - that's one bad habit I don't want forming)
• She has been struggling to sleep from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm if we aren't in the room with her or she's not in our bed.  We have to keep putting her binky in to get her back to sleep.  After she gets past that, she will sleep until 4 or 5 when she wakes up to nurse quickly and then will go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 am.
• She loves getting in the shower with Momma and Max and would stay in there forever if we'd let her
• Maxwell hugs and kisses her more and talks about trying to calm her down when she's upset and will do things like giving her the binky.  I love seeing him be increasingly more brotherly with her
• She really wiggly!!
• She is teething and incredibly drooly.

Update on Maxwell - 

• Maxwell amazing me with the things he notices in the world
• I'm also amazed with how well Maxwell is reading - he's expanding his ability so fast
• He's such a polite boy - - he shares well on his own and will also share when we prompt him to
• I am trying to involve him in as many tasks as possible to expand what he gets to do (cooking tasks, cleaning tasks, etc)
• We've had a major change in the bedtime routine - - -!  MOMMA is now his choice when we ask him who he wants to tuck him in at night.  It's forever been daddy (or Peter) so I'm pretty excited.  :)  When I tuck him in and then go to leave, he tells me "don't let the bed bugs bite" as I walk out
• When I went to get him up once this week in the morning, (he still call for us to come get him in the morning and doesn't get out of bed until we do) he wanted me to get into his bed and cuddle with him.  He tucked me into his bed and put blankets on me.  He then gave me his stuffed animals, patted my back (they pat his back at Montessori if he's struggling to go to sleep during nap time), and turned his sound machine on to the lullaby setting.  It was incredible sweet and of course it worked, and I fell asleep.  He is so kind and loving.  I adore him.
• He's been talking a lot lately about his tummy hurting and also his bottom hurting.  I'm not quite sure what it going on but we are trying to figure it out.  He's had a fever so I know that he's sick somehow but he doesn't have any other symptoms so I'm not sure if anything more serious is going on.  It's so hard as a parent to know something is wrong with your child but not know what, or not know if it's something that a visit to the doctor could help with.