Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The tooth fairy visits again

Sam is not typically one to do things when asked. "Smile, Sammy!" Yeah right, Mom.


Elijah lost his second tooth! (He told me he couldn't smile or you wouldn't be able to see his missing tooth.)


He got another DOLLAR from the Tooth Fairy! She is so generous!


I think the high tomorrow is supposed to be 3 degrees. Yikes! We have been hanging out in our warm house as much as possible. In between Daddy Camel rides, Sammy has been saying some pretty cute words:

Tum-tato (potato)
Termit (Kermit)
Fizza (pizza)
Fooky (spooky)
Fider (spider)

By the way, can you tell that ALL THREE of my boys got hair cuts? Dan's beard is even gone! Yay!


Last weekend while Dan was out of town, the little boys and I had a little incident at the mall that traumatized us a bit. We were going to get on the escalator going up, so I picked Elijah up to set him down on it (he's terrified of escalators) when he lost his balance. I tried to steady him when realized I had stepped on the escalator...without Sammy! Oh no! I turned to run down and get him when Elijah came falling down face-first behind me. I will never forget looking down and seeing Sammy standing at the bottom, distance growing between us, his face sadder than I have ever seen before. "MommmmmmyyyYYYYYYY!" But I couldn't leave Elijah because I was trying to assess the damage (only a scrape on the back of his arm, thank goodness). Thankfully at that moment a security guard was walking by and swooped Sammy up and carried him up to me. We all made it to the top safely and it took us about 5 minutes to calm down (mostly me). It could have been so much worse, so I have been trying to focus on that.

The rest of our week has been pretty uneventful compared to that! Not much else is going on right now.

I hope you are all staying warm! Thanks for reading!!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Catching up!

Is anyone still reading? Goodness, I have been slacking on this blog, which makes me sad! I promise to do a better job. We have been keeping busy. Dan and I feel very blessed to have found ways to take turns being at home with the boys so that they hardly ever need to go to daycare (although, they thoroughly enjoy spending time with their friends there). We currently live quite the unconventional life, and it suits us for now.

At the beginning of the year we had to switch to different insurance policies (one for Dan, Sammy and me and another for Elijah), which is, well, SCARY. With our medically-needy boy, change in that arena is scary. We will see how it all shakes out as the year rolls on.

Sammy is practically ready to apply for colleges. Seriously, this boy seems to be an over-achiever in every way. It is hard to believe sometimes that he is only two! He grasps concepts that I don't think most two-year-olds would, and just insists on doing everything himself which makes him really good at everything. We haven't nailed down potty yet, but it is near (I hope).

Speaking of potty, Elijah is still working on that. :) Dan and I have created quite a system of rewards and loss of privileges/toys for him. As I always say, over time progress is being made. I think back to last summer when I wanted to get on an airplane and fly to somewhere far far away and I am thankful for where we are at now. Things are so much better, but we still have progress to make.

Since Christmas break, we have been dealing with some extra behavior issues from E. Some days are tough. There have been days when EVERYTHING is a battle, and it gets tiring. Especially when Sammy mimics those behaviors because he looks up to his big bro so much. Elijah had a few days since the holidays when he was not nice to his teachers and friends at school. :( This made me very sad because he is such an incredibly sweet and friendly and kind person! Dan and I took that very seriously and addressed it immediately. We are constantly thankful for his amazing teachers and their great communication and their desire for the best for E.

As I always do when we stumble upon an issue with our boys, I went back to the basics. Before Christmas he was fine (or at least not telling his friends to "shut up"), so I figured he must be sleep-deprived from the craziness of the holidays. We have been putting him to bed at a ridiculously early time consistently for a few weeks now, and things are better. We still have plenty of battles, but he hasn't had any more issues at school and things are better overall.

I tell my boys about ten times every day things that I feel they need to hear: you are a GOOD person, you are SPECIAL and you are LOVED! I have said it so much lately that they have been saying these things back to me. "Mommy, I love you VERY much! You are a special girl!" :)

I will write more often so I don't create such long posts for you to read (if anyone is still reading)! Have a great weekend! Dan is off to the Northern woods with his pals, so it's just the little boys and Mama this weekend. We have pizza-movie night planned for our evening!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sillies

I'm sorry for not posting here as much as I typically do. You will forgive me when I tell you why. Except, I cannot tell you yet. :)

I have been jotting down some things the boys have been doing, so I figured I would share them quick! I will not talk about frustrations regarding behaviors that are possibly occurring in our home. No dwelling on that at the moment. For now, fun things!

Each of us "has" a color. Elijah's favorite color has always been blue, and Sammy's has always been green. Most board games come with blue, green, red and yellow colored pieces. Somewhere along the line, I got handed a red game piece and Dan got handed a yellow one. So now those are our colors. And now Sammy has taken this color thing to a new level! When he eats the colored Goldfish crackers, he eats the green ones first and then gathers all of the red ones and insists that I eat them from his little fingers. I am tired of Goldfish!

Lately when Sammy doesn't want to go to bed, he will say, "I don't want to take a bed!" Elijah thinks this is hilarious.

The boys like it when I wrap their blankies over their shoulders and secure them in the front with a chip clip. They call themselves kings. Last night I heard Sammy say, "I'm King Sammy! That is Knight Elijah and you are Bishop Mommy!" :)

Thanks to Veruca Salt in the Willy Wonka movies, Elijah now occasionally speaks with a British accent. "Thaaht sounds waaayyyd!" Translation: "That sounds weird!" And of course, now Sammy is doing it, too. He thinks his big brother is the coolest thing in the world!

I must wrap up my coffee shop time for today and head back out into the freezing cold. Time to go home and snuggle with my monkeys! Thanks for checking in. More another time!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Porta winter getaway Year #3

The boys and I took our winter vacation, which took place 10 miles down the road from our home. This is our 3rd annual trip there, and we always have a blast. The first thing we always do when we get into our hotel room is...JUMP ON THE BED (against Daddy's wishes)!!


What? Leaving Mama so soon?!


We did have some disappointment upon checking in. The waterpark was to be closed for most of the time that we would be there. :( Elijah had been talking about his "water factory" for weeks and weeks, so Dan and I felt terrible. 


Thankfully we found this out while the waterpark was still open, so we threw our suits on and ran down to the water to spend a few hours there.

Sammy still does not like it! :( This was what he looked like for most of the time. "Mama, it's ferry (scary)!" Isn't his scared face so stinkin' cute?


Dan and I were proud, though, because he eventually came around. He even went down the little water slide a few times all by himself! Progress!

He was happy to take a picture with Mama on the sidelines!


As usual, Elijah ran around the place like he was born and lived there. He absolutely and totally loves this place. Dan and I took turns running around with him, tubing on the Lazy River, playing on the slides and in his "factory" and splashing in the pools.


Thankfully, we improvised well with the news that this was our only time at the waterpark. The Mall of America is two blocks from the hotel we were staying at and we happened to have a handful of Nickelodeon Universe points. Perfect!


But first, we took our annual post-waterpark bath. Sammy got into the bath willingly this year! Last year he watched from the sidelines.


Handsome boys.


In the bath realm, we have made worlds of progress with Sammy. Hopefully by next year he will be running into the waterpark excitedly! 


We ended bath time with a brother smooch!


Nickelodeon Universe was tons of fun! One of our first rides was the carousel. 


We took a family ride on the ferris wheel! (Look at that happy Elijah face.)


Sammy (as of one hour ago) said this was the highlight of his trip. "Sammy, what was your favorite part of our trip?" "Riding on the ferris wheel with MAMA!" :) He would not sit by anyone but me on the ferris wheel.


Elijah loved bouncing in the giant pineapple. He loved it so much that we went back two or three times so he could jump again. Except, every time we went back it was closed. Sammy was very worried about this (he himself wanted nothing to do with the pineapple). "Elijah's pineapple is closed! Oh no!"


Another thing I will always remember from this trip is Sammy's quoting of movie lines from the Willy Wonka movies. Every morning he woke up saying to the rest of us: "Good morning, Starshine! The world says 'hello!'"


He would also occasionally hold up his cute little palm to us and say, "No no no! This is nothing dangerous!" He is filled with wit and he loves to make his family laugh.


In between waiting for "big" rides, we rode little rides..


Including, ahem, Mama.


We had a memorable and fun lunch at Johnny Rockets.


Shakes, fries and all!


I would say the boys had a pretty amazing adventure.


They were both beyond exhausted when we got home today.


As always, we are extremely grateful for the memories.


Have a great week!


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Recuperating from the holidays

We are trying to get back into a routine this week after the busy-ness of the holidays. Elijah is back in OT/PT and school and has been complaining about both, which is very unlike him. We are taking a small "vacation" (10 miles from home) Sunday and Monday, so after that we will be 100% back in the routine of life!

A month or two ago Dan and I decided to make a few changes for the better for our family. Due to his heavy workload in the spring/summer/fall, we rarely get evening time together as a family. So we decided to implement family dinners during the winter, and whenever else it is possible. It is has been wonderful! We all sit at one table and eat together and pray together and talk to each other without electronics or toys or distractions. It is also a good opportunity to introduce the boys to new foods, as we had grown accustomed to feeding them their own meals while we ate separately out of convenience.

We also decided to take one day out of every week when none of use technology. We call it No Technology Tuesday. No tv, no playing on phones, no computers (unless work for Mom or Dad is necessary). The boys do just fine with it. It has been a positive part of our lives. We did make exceptions for Christmas and New Years since they both fell on Tuesdays. Again, back to routine!

Our boys are keeping us on our toes these days. There is never a dull moment. Today as Sammy ran circles around my chair with a plastic bin over his head yelling, "I AM NOT A COW!" and as Elijah draped himself over my lap telling me repeatedly, "PLEASE TICKLE ME NOW!" I fought off frustration and had the thought, "Someday I will miss this! Enjoy it!" So I did.

I will have to start writing down some more boy funnies. They happen constantly. More later. Thanks for checking in!