House Tour:

1st Floor:

2nd Floor:

Basement:

Fuzzy fun with uncle Greg:

We had a party last night to celebrate Greg and Claire's birthdays.  Uncle Greg is a very "hands on" type of uncle... ;)

Growing up:

Layla has gone from this:

To this:

All on her own.  No pressure from us.  Just "availability."  :)

Good times.  

Laughing so hard I'm crying.

Two Dutch men going through labor pains.  YES.  A requirement.  :)

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/watch-this-hilarious-video-of-men-experiencing-childbirth/#xruFx6clBMuxUeDt.01

Family dinner:

It is official.  We have begun the institution of "Family Dinner" that will carry on for the next...oh, I don't know...18+ years??  :)

The pictures below are not of family dinner...the kids were so hungry this day that they had a hot dog snack before dinner.  But this is part of what it looks like.  Layla sits on the end of the table in a bar chair.  Finn sits to her left in his high chair.  Jonas sits next to Finn, and I sit to Layla's right.  

We eat, and then the entertainment starts:  Jonas gets out the guitar and we sing songs with the kids.  They LOVE it.  Finn starts requesting the guitar well before we are done eating.  They also love to join in on the musical aspect of the evening with the maracas from Sue Schaefer, or the tambourines, or some little flutes/recorders I picked up for free.  WOW is it a very...noisy experience.  :)

Good times.  Traditions!

Update:  Here are a few pictures from an ACTUAL family dinner later that night (I think...).

Into the music!

Meal prep time:

Meal prep time is...difficult, to say the least.

 Here are some things I have become good at:

1.  Getting free or cheap toys off of Moms buy/swap/trade/sell groups on FB or Craigslist.

2.  SAVING those toys until I need them to be new and exciting:  4:00 p.m.

3.  Hiding toys again after excitement wears off (15-30 minutes later).

4.  Most importantly:  NEVER waiting until close to dinner time to actually start dinner.  Never, ever, ever.  Dinner is started mid-morning, usually.  It's just smart, people!  Things always come up.  This way I can get everything done AND not be stressed.  Bam.

Check out my awesome tower-builders with their new blocks (free, thank you FB and Renee's friend who was purging!  I also got two more sets of different blocks, but those are still being held for emergencies).  

No, she is NOT normally allowed on the counter.  

Haircut for Finn:

It was time.  Finn was CRAZY shaggy.  I could practically put his hair in a pony tail.  So, we went in for a haircut.  This time we had a lady who was pretty good at keeping him entertained while working very fast, and she got a lot more cut off than previous people have.  The result is good, for sure, but sad to me too.  I loved his shaggy mop of hair and how it hung close to his eyes...but I'm sure he appreciates this more.  :)

I had some of my cooking spoons while I was trying to take a "proof" picture, and all he wanted to do was hit my camera with it.  

As you can tell.  :)

I made him look at Layla so you could get  side view...

...but then he caught on and was right back at it!

-11 outside without a windchill factor? Let's go somewhere!!

Thanks to some generous family members, we renewed our Children's Museum membership as a Christmas gift for the kids.  It is MUCH harder for me to take them on my own, now that Finn is running all over and not exactly "Mr. Listen when I speak" yet, but we still had a great time.  I'm pretty sure we are only going to go on Tuesdays, when they don't allow groups or field trip, and only at opening...unless I have help.  :)  They had a great time, but I'm sad to say Layla did have her first "out and about accident."  I think she was having so much fun that she was completely ignoring her body.  You can see the change of pants in the videos.  ;)

*In all fairness to Layla, though, I feel like I should mention that she has gotten up dry two days in a row now!  The first night she had a horrible night of sleep and woke up 2 or 3 times...so when she woke up she asked to go potty twice, and because of that she was dry all night.  Last night she went the whole night on her own and then woke up dry.  She just might night-potty-train herself!  (Which is good, because man we did not want to set alarms to wake up a cranky, sleepy toddler and try to get her to pee at 3:00 a.m.  Haha! Phew!  Bullet dodged...for now...)

Seeing Dora and Diego in the special exhibit:

This video ends with Finn giving Boots a kiss.  :)

You can hear Layla's high-pitched excited noise in this video:  "Ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka!!!"

Finn ALSO kissed Diego.  :)

Water play area:

Layla hates getting her sleeves wet.  I had to roll and unroll them for her about 15 times.

Grocery store fun:

Humming to herself as she works...

Today:

On our way to the Mall of America this afternoon:

Layla did NOT want her picture taken.

She kept putting up her foot to try to block my camera.  :)
"Nooooooo!  Don't take-a my picture, Mama!!!"

Finn had snacks, so he was fine... ;)

Jonas had a church meeting from 8:00-12:00 today, then he came home and we rushed out to meet Stef and Noah Stock at the MOA for lunch.  It was great to see them again...the last time we saw them was their wedding!  We had a nice lunch then walked around the mall for a while.  I've decided that Finn is no longer taking naps (read: NIGHTMARE crier...), so all of a sudden I have my whole entire day to work with!  It's a miracle!  Seriously.  I love this phase of life...all 2 days of it, so far.  ;)

Anyway, Finn was a bit cranky so Jonas took him off to explore the adventure land, see the Apple and Microsoft stores, and then eventually they just rode the escalators up and down for 30 minutes.  Layla and I went with Stef and Noah to get me some makeup and get my glasses adjusted...something you can NOT do with 2 young kids in a place where the store does not have a door and everything is made of glass.  I feel like a new woman with that simple adjustment...lame that I couldn't get it done before, and great that simple things really make me happy now.  ;)

We made a quick stop at Cub on the way home...again, how awesome is it to run errands WITH your husband?  HE stays in the car with the kids, and I run in and am back out in 10 minutes.  Amazing.  This is how life should always be.

Layla was very tired today after going to bed at 10:00 last night (long story...not worth the writing effort), so she was out like a light at 7:00.  When I came down from putting her down Finn was STILL at the dinner table, eating.  He has been quite hungry for the past 2 days, ever since he finally got his appetite back after being so sick.

It was major milestones day for the kids!

1.  Finn = at almost an ENTIRE raw, cold apple!  My kids have such aversions to fruit, and anything cold, and anything raw...so this was awesome.  He was hungry, he saw me eating one, and he went for it...peel and all!  Eventually he started choking on that, so I peeled the rest for him, but I am just thrilled that he ate that!  They DO grow up!  They DO change and mature!  It's wonderful.  :)

2.  Layla = 2 weeks of being potty trained!  She has had NO accidents since day 2.  It's wonderful.  Her potty training experience is just about the easiest thing I have ever done with her...and the easiest story I have heard anyone tell about potty training!  I give myself NO credit, other than one thing:  I didn't push her to do it too early.  I waited until she was ready.  That's it.  Simple.  She has been afraid to poop initially, but she wasn't having accidents...just holding it in, poor thing.  :(  However, today she went on a big toilet at the MOA (very scary for her with all the noises in there, so I was so proud of her...and for holding it there for 4 hours!), and she pooped when we got home too.  She was quite constipated after 3 days of no bowel movements, so I need to be more on top of that I guess.  Miralax in her drinks for a few days to make her regular, maybe...  Anyway, she is doing GREAT too.  I'm not worried about taking her on errands at all anymore, even though I will always be prepared for an accident should we go out.  ;)  In fact, she now cries and cries when I put her night diaper on.  We might have to move up night potty training sooner than I thought...


The kids are all in bed now, so Jonas and I are going to catch up on last week's Downton to be ready for tomorrow, then off to bed for the lame older couple!  ;)

Catch ya on the flip side, peeps.

~L

A bad day, not so long ago...

On this day I WAS going to go and lock myself in the toy room.  Just for one moment of blessed, hands-off-of-me, silence.  

But then I went and got the camera instead, and just stood there.  

Here is a beautiful, true sample of my life, people.  :)  

YES.  THIS.  I am going to frame this picture.

I forget why she was naked, but it was HER idea, I assure you...

Finn's version of the ABCs:

2:30 p.m. on a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day:

Workout buddies:

I was doing some yoga this morning and heard both kids giggling.  I turned around to see them both imitating my pose, hands over their heads, laughing.  Layla also thought a different pose I was doing was incredibly funny.  Here she is, trying to imitate me, below:

My little song-and-dance:

With both kids sick for the past week+ it's been near impossible to do ANYTHING around the house.  Laundry, dishes, floors, food...nada.  Now that they are coming out of things I "feel" like I should be able to get more done, but they are still so needy and "emotionally fragile"  Oh, boy, are they fragile.  ;)  SO, I have to work a lot harder than normal to do something as simple as wash the dishes.  Today I was lucky enough to have a bag of random, odd play-dough like stuff for them to play with.  They had never seen it before.  That was key.  It got me 15+ minutes.  

AMAZING.

Thank you free stuff from Moms FB group!  Totally worth that drive... 

Finn has been here:

If I ever walk into the kitchen and find my pantry cupboards like THIS:

Then I know THIS is what I will find in the living room:

But usually there are tons more.  

He carries the cans, one at a time, and lines them all up on the living room table.  Because, obviously, they belong there.  Someone keeps misplacing them in the cupboard!!

* This activity is tied for favorite, for Finn, with throwing all of the laundry out of the laundry basket.  He especially loves to do this if it's all folded and ready to go up to the 2nd floor, but he'll make do with a non-folded basket too.  I have a basket sitting on my dining room table right now that has been folded twice.  I know what you're thinking:  "Sheesh, woman!  Just put it away right away and then you wouldn't have this little problem!"  Hahahahah.  Oh, yes.  So, so simple, isn't it?  So so simple.  I'll spare you my answer.  But you are wrong.  ;)

Finn

Finn's two favorite phrases lately:

1.  "Big Hug!!!!"  As in "Big Hug, Mama, rather than going to bed!" or "Big Hug, Mama, to get out of getting into trouble for something."  The little stinker gets me every.time with this one.  :)

2.  "No thanks!"  Except, for Finn, it sounds more like "No tanks!"  I have no memory of teaching this to him, but I do know I've been working on "No thank you" with Layla.  Evidently he picked it up and shortened it to "No thanks" all on his own.  :)  He uses it appropriately every time!

Funny kid!

p.s.  Finn, this is what Mama did instead of a Baby book.  Sorry, buddy.

Layla's turn

This is what she has looked like since 5:45 a.m. Friday morning.  :(  My poor baby...

Finn has had it.  Layla has it now.  Who is NEXT???  :(  Papa can take a sick day, but Mama doesn't get that luxury... :(  Fingers crossed!

Fever

When I came downstairs after putting Layla to bed, this is what I found.  Normally Finn would go to bed at the same time (7:00 p.m.), but since he had a nap at 5:00 p.m. I expected him to be up a little later.  Nope.  This is what fever, no food for 48 hours, and some sort of nasty virus does to a 21-month-old.

Poor buddy.  :(

Two for one:

Just kidding!  Finn is NOT potty training right now, but he wants to be right there in the action when Layla is doing her stuff... ;)

Happy Epiphany!!!!

Happy Epiphany!

Christmas is over.  

You may now take down your tree and all your decorations. 

The holiday season is at an end...until Lent comes up!  That's always loads of fun... ;)

But seriously...I do love Lent.  Okay, or any holiday season...

Below are two videos of the kids opening their stocking stuffers from Uncle Eric.  The first one is FIVE MINUTES LONG, so be warned.  It could get long and boring.  The second one is just of them saying thank you to Eric, who left me money to buy them Christmas and birthday presents before he went to Afghanistan.  What a thoughtful uncle!!

p.s.  Sorry for how loud I am talking in this video.  Mercy!

Potty Training 2013:

WARNING:  Annoying Mom post about potty training below.  If you have never potty trained a child you might find this tiresome beyond belief.  Don't worry...I won't be offended if you don't read!

Picture: mymommyology.com

In all honesty, that title should be "Potty Training 2012"....but Mommy was just too busy, even though the little girl has been ready for likely about 6 months.  Whoops.

Ah, well.  If there is ONE thing I have learned when it comes to parenting, it would be this:  better to wait until they are developmentally more than ready to do anything, than to rush it for lame reasons / "because everyone else does it this way," etc.  :)  I'm grateful to have learned that lesson early.  Following my gut instinct as a parent has saved my kids a loooot of unnecessary stress...and me with it, sometimes!

Anyway, back to Layla:  Potty Training 2013 has been a smashing success so far.  This is day 1.  We're doing an intensive 2-day-booty-camp (read:  only wearing dresses, no diapers or underwear yet) while Papa is at home this weekend. 1 person needs to be with her / around her at all times during these days, other than sleeping, obviously.  Potty training is rather boring, really...you need to STICK CLOSE to them for DAYS unless you love to clean crap off of your floors, etc.  I choose sticking close...and that means not doing much else at all!

Layla has been GREAT.  She had only 1 accident this morning, when I was at the grocery store and Jonas left her alone for a minute.  Stinker.  ;)  But THEN she's been on fire the rest of the day!  She has peed about 10 times!  TEN!  Good gracious!  Then I remember we've almost been pouring liquid down her throat in order to encourage a need to pee often.  She pees a lot each time, too!  She even pooped once as well!

I didn't break out the candy until I got back from the grocery store, and that really perked her up.  We've only got about 2 more hours to go before bedtime and the close of Day 1...looking forward to doing other things after she is asleep.  ;)

L