Hockey

One of the joys of changing seasons is that you can RE-introduce seasonal toys and they seem brand new. Last year for his birthday Ryan got a hockey set, now that the weather is getting better we decided to pull it out and he loves it even more now then he did then. He wants to play ALL THE TIME. I have even given in and set it up inside on the days it is too cold to play outside.

Feeding Herself

There are a few milestones with babies that immediately make your life easier. One that I have been looking forward to finally happened today. Audrey FED HERSELF the bottle! She has also recently learned how to go from laying down to sitting. I feel like she is going through a big developmental growth spurt this week... maybe she will even get the crawl down.

Picking Battles

You have to learn to pick your battles with toddlers:

1. "Mom can I have chocolate milk?"

2. "Mom can we go outside in the rain?"

3. "Mom I will get the muffins out of the oven".... NO

4. "Mom I want cookie for dinner"

5. "Mom I no wear shoes to school"

Luckily if I get it wrong the first time I am usually have a chance to battle it out again the next day!

Organizing Old Pictures

One of the reasons I keep this blog is to justify the millions of pictures I take of my kids. It's also a way to organize our memories. My mom is going through a big box of pictures in an effort to organize some of her old family pictures. I hadn't seen many of these before, but thought I would share a few pictures of me and one of my whole family.... stop snickering....

A Taste of Spring

Winters are hard on most people. They are especially hard on kids who are used to running around outside and suddenly they are stuck in houses that seem to shrink everyday you are stuck inside. Well today we saw spring, I am not saying it's going to last but today we hit 77 degrees! So we went out to enjoy it. It is not my fault that I have more pictures of Audrey, Ryan tells me every time I pull out the camera "mom, no more pictures please" so I have to sneak pictures of him.

Matching PJ's

When you have a boy and a girl it can be hard to find good matching outfits. Then today I came across Monkey Pajamas. I swear I am not going to turn into one of those moms that match my family every time we go out but when I saw these PJ's I just couldn't help myself.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is why a two year old likes Valentine's Day...

Our Super Bowl Party

This is our version of a Super Bowl Party... This picture was taken 1 minute after the game ended. Don is awake in the picture, but I bet in about 10 minutes he won't be.

Croup

I will start off by saying, everything is fine now.

So yesterday after lunch Audrey suddenly started sounding like a pack a day smoker. The second I heard it I decided to take her to the doctor. They diagnosed her with Bronchitis and gave her a breathing treatment. Well at about 9:30pm last night things started getting bad. She started the barking like a seal cough and was having trouble getting air in. I made the decision to take her to the ER because as a very good friend of mine was saying earlier in the day (unrelated to Audrey) "airways are not something you mess with."

So at 10pm Audrey and I showed up at the ER. I am very lucky to be surrounded by great medical facilities with very little wait. We were checked in and in a bed by about 10:30pm. They diagnosed her with croup and gave her a humidifier and steroids. It was all very scary but the staff was very good and calming and Audrey even managed to doze a bit. We actually ended up with the same doctor that treated Ryan a few months ago when he had a bad allergic reaction. He even remembered me, a sign I live in a smaller town then I thought I did.

They were worried because she wasn't getting any liquids so they wouldn't let us leave until she drank something which she really didn't want to do. Luckily she seemed to realize that she didn't have a choice in the matter and ended up drinking a whole bottle.

At 2am I left the ER with a calm baby who was breathing much better. She is still flemmy and has lost her voice but the emergency feeling of it has gone away. So today we are resting and I am doing my best to make sure that she is getting plenty to drink.

End of January Pictures

New favorite activity is swinging.

Hanging out on a lazy afternoon

What Expression Do You Wear?

Today I was thinking about the type of mom I am, why I am the way I am with my kids. There are of course thousands of influences that determine everything from what I feed them to the stories I tell and the songs I sing. I can pinpoint some of the events and others I have completely forgotten, remembering only the lesson I learned.

I remember one day I was watching Oprah. Yeah I can feel the judgment through the computer but whatever, I like her and I find some of her shows interesting. Anyway... she was talking to Toni Morrison, I don't even remember the theme of the show but I remember what she said:

What every child wants to know is, do your eyes light up when I enter the room?

I admit I had to search online for the exact quote (I'm not sure this is the exact quote because it has been paraphrased so many times) but the message has always stayed with me . I saw this well before I had kids but even then I felt it's importance.

It's easy as a mom (or a dad, or daycare provider or whatever else) to get frustrated, or wrapped up in unimportant stuff and forget that kids see everything. They see your anger, your love, your frustration and your patience. You have an opportunity to build up their self confidence or break it down. You might not be conscious of which you are doing but you are doing in none the less. Even if the emotion isn't directed at them, they probably think it is. There are also the times when you ignore your child all together- you are too busy looking at your phone or your computer to realize that they might feel overlooked.

I admit I am not perfect (shocking I know), there are times I get distracted by something stupid (Facebook) or I get frustrated because I am tired, or I am just not in the mood to be smiling and engaged. But because of that 6 minute clip on Oprah I actively think about things from my children's point of view every single day- I try to see myself through their eyes. I try to be better every day because I know how much of an influence I have on their lives at this point. They will grow up and go out into the world and it is my job to give them the skills to do that, it is my job to not only tell them how much I love and adore (which I do) but to show them every single day.

This is just one of the things that make me the mom I am.

Gag-worthy

I'm pretty sure I used to have a normal gag reflex... then I got pregnant with Ryan. Suddenly, everything made me gag and I was living in Chicago and taking public transportation... so you can imagine how well that went. Then I had him and there is a lot of gross with a newborn and my gag reflex began to deaden. Then I got pregnant with Audrey and I swear I wanted to throw up at the thought of most things... Now I have two babies and after this last week I swear I have no gag reflex at all.

Ryan got sick (he is better now), but it was bad for one day. He was snotty, at one point in the day I swear he came over, pretended to give me a hug and wiped his nose all the way across the front of my shirt. Then he projectile vomited at me. No joke.. at me. After that he felt much better, all smiley and running around.. I was not. Anyway, after he felt better I took a shower to get all the gross off. I sat down with Audrey after I was all clean and she spit up all over me. Almost immediately after that she had a diaper blow out. I swear it was just one of those days. I however somehow took it all in stride and didn't gag once.

I guess it's like parenting in general, you never know what the day will bring you. Today nothing. Nothing gross has gone on and in fact I got a lot of cleaning done so I feel cleaner then I did at the beginning of the day. Hopefully my gag reflex remains MIA because I am not sure how I would get through some of the gross days.

Fun with New Camera

I got a new camera for my birthday, I am going through cameras pretty quickly with two children, especially with Ryan who wants to take pictures himself. Well here are some pictures taken while trying to figure out all the new settings. Enjoy!

So close to crawling, yesterday she got up on all fours. Now she just has to learn how to move once in position. She can turn in circles, but other then that she is pretty stuck in place.

Ryan trying on my glasses

What are you looking at?

Ryan! Pay attention to me!!!!

6 Month Stats

Audrey had her 6 month appointment yesterday. Her stats are Weight: 16 Lbs, 7 oz (60th), Length: 25 1/2 In (50th) and Head: 44 1/2 cm (95%). She is pretty consistent with where Ryan was at her age (and the percentages are about the same as what he still is).

She isn't a huge fan of the doctor and ended up shredding the paper on the table she was sitting on, but I sort of figure, if you leave a 6 month old in a room for an hour you sort of deserve what you get. We now get to wait 3 months until the next appointment!