Finn loves you.

My poor kiddo has been hacking up his lungs today.  He coughed all night last night, but he actually slept okay, so that was wonderful.  This coughing, though...mercy.  I hate to hear it.  :(

Croup...my old nemesis...we meet again.

By 11:00 this morning it felt like 4:00 p.m.

Welcome to my day.  :)

Finn woke up this morning at 5:45 with croup.  He had been coughing for a few days, but it didn't sound at all like croup until this morning.  He also had a hard time sleeping last night, so that should have been a clue to us too.  He was not as bad as Layla always is--she obviously needs to go to the ER immediately, every time, but he was doing okay.  I waited until our clinic opened at 8:00 for an appointment then ($20 co-pay) rather than pay $100 for the ER or $50 for urgent care, which didn't even open until an hour after the regular clinic!  Explain that logic to me??  

He hated the oral steroid, of course, but he's doing much better.  I hope tonight goes okay, though.  Often night 2 is the worst for croup, although that's never been true for Layla.  It was a 1-night-thing for her, always.

Since we were already up and out the door, we decided to go to see Dora and Diego at the Children's Museum.  We were there from about 9:00-11:00, and while we were there the kids got new Dora toothbrushes from Delta Dental.  They loved them.  :)

Their new favorite spot at the CM is the music video studio.  Layla loves to push the "Bingo" song and then bring in the big stuffed chocolate lab dog to do the video with her.  She simply stands in front of the screen and sways, sings, and twirls.  It's so much fun to watch.  :)  FINN also loves this room, but HIS favorite button has a banjo and a guitar (Finn pronounces guitar as "Duh-tar-ah") on it, so he and Layla are always in competition for which button gets pushed at any given time.  They have foam guitars that he carries around, one in each hand, and he absolutely squeals with glee every time "his" song comes on.  

Of COURSE they want the same room, with different songs, right???  Of course.  ;)

Here are some videos from the day:

When we headed home at 11:00 Finn fell asleep immediately.  His sleep wasn't great last night for sure, and then after getting up so early...well, he was shot.  I decided to drive around our neighborhood for a while to figure out roads more and give him time to sleep.  In doing this I realized that we have pretty much a straight shot from our house to Costco, and I've been going a way that adds at least 10 minutes to the trip.  So dumb.  Glad to know I figured this whole "driving" thing out just a bit.  ;)

* Also, we found out at the Dr. that Finn now weighs an even 25 lbs.  At 22 months.  Mercy, he's just leaping off those growth charts, eh?? ;)  *sigh*

"This is the Day"

This child!

He is OBSESSED with guitars.  

And the song "This is the day," which he sings whenever he has a guitar.

His favorite part of the day is when he and Papa can play guitar together, after dinner.

Here I am trying to get Finn to sing while Renee tapes.  Less than successful.

Classic Finn and Papa guitar time.

Teeth

Finn bit Layla yesterday.

He bit her quite hard.  There were bright red welts / teeth marks in two of her fingers.  She was beside herself, as only a 3-year-old girl can be.

Now, obviously, her fingers should have been nowhere near his mouth...but little dude is in for a world of hurt if he thinks that he can become a biter!!!

A world of hurt.

Children's Museum on a frigid day:

Riding in Tico's car:

Ant hill fun:

Water play:

Moving the blocks around:

Snack time:

"Circle" fun:

Tub laughter:

The kids were playing in the tub the other day and laughing up a storm, so I went to get the camera and stood just outside the door, mostly to catch the sound rather than the action.  They stopped doing it as much as soon as I turned on the camera, of course, but I still got some of it.  

Boring visual video ahead.  Just listen.  :)

The water boy:

Finn has become extremely obsessed with water.  He has always loved baths, but he rarely gets them because I try to be protective of drying out his skin--we're talking once a week at most.  Lately he has learned how to turn everything on and off.  He climbs up to the bathroom sink on Layla's stool and turns the water on and off there.  He can easily reach into the tub and turn the water on there.  He loves to play in the toilet bowl (yes.  YUCK.  This totally grosses me out, especially since we aren't always sure Layla flushes!  ACK!)  However, I think his most favorite is to play in the kitchen sink.  Our faucet head can be removed to act as the sprayer as well, and once he learned that he was in love.  He begs me to push the chair over there and let him play with the dishes, but I find that his feet are rarely even touching the chair.  I think his rib cage supports him as he leans on the counter most of the time.  

This picture doesn't quite show well enough how far his feet are from the chair!

"Just...need...one...more...spoon..."

"Fiiiiiiiiiine, Mom.  What?"

"Rest Time"

Every afternoon Layla NEEDS "rest time" upstairs by herself.  It's mostly to give her a break from Finn.  :)  Okay, fine, everyone needs a break.  Mama needs a break with just one kid, Layla needs a break from Finn, and Finn needs a break from Layla.  It's refreshing for all...sort of.  Layla normally plays in her room or watches something in bed.  Today she was going to watch "Pingu" (a favorite show of "ours"), and while we were getting her all set up Finn crawled in there with her.  Normally Layla would defend her territory to an extreme extent, but today she was all sweet and loving to him, so I just went with it.  I left them up there, along, together, in her bed.  I've got the monitor on downstairs here, and so far all I hear is the sounds of Pingu.  Sooooooooo...good?  Maybe.  :)  Time will tell...

A few raisins for a snack...

We finally got curtains hung in Layla's room last weekend.  I got them from a friend through a FB Mom's Group for $35.  $35 for 4 lined, Pottery Barn floor length curtains.  Niiiice!  We got the curtain rods at IKEA because it was either that or spend somewhere around $200 for curtain rods everywhere else.  What the HECK???  Who are people kidding?   Thank you IKEA for your cheap crap stuff.  Sometimes it fits right in.  ;)

A view of her other window, if you were sitting in /standing by her bed. BOY is it dark in her room when we pull the blackout shades and close the curtains.  Success!

Stinker.

Finn likes to get under Layla's skin.

His new favorite thing to do is to walk up to her and have this conversation:

Finn:  "Hi!  I'm Yeay-yuh!" ("Hi, I'm Layla."  He makes the "L's" in her name sound like "Y's," while she uses "W's.")
Layla:  "Noooooo, baby Sin!  You're baby Sin!  I'm Way-uh!"
Finn:  (BIG grin) "Hi!  I'm Yeah-yuh!"
Layla:  Noooooooo!  Sin!!!! You're baby Sin!  I'm Way-uh!"

And on, and on...

What a stinker!

Awwwwww, man!

Two Fridays ago I took Finn in to see the allergist.  They did some blood work to determine if his craaaaaazy sensitive, break-out-prone skin is just that...crazy skin...or if it is caused by something else.

AND, he has allergies.

UGH.

I was really hoping I was crazy and that it wasn't what my intuition told me it was.

He is off-the-charts allergic to sesame of any kind, which explains his reactions to hummus those two times he has had it.

He is extremely allergic to cats and dogs.  Jonas is now very depressed about the dog we will never have, and he wonders how on earth his children will survive a childhood without one, but frankly I'm relieved.  While I enjoyed having a dog growing up, I have never wanted to own one as an adult (for about 15 reasons that I can list but I won't)...other than to run with a big dog, but heck, I'll borrow one if I can't get over that desire.  ;)

He is also somewhat allergic to egg whites, soy, peanuts, and one other one that I forget right now.

I should have paperwork in front of me to explain all of this, but it never showed up, so I had to call the office today to see what was up.  They are sending me the paperwork again, but I'll be taking Finn back in anyway to re-test those 4 "slightly" allergic ones.  This last time they did a blood draw, so they'll likely schedule the back skin test to see if they get the same reaction.  We'll talk game plan then too.

All of these things are totally in the realm of "easy to live with."  Allergic to eggs?  So he doesn't eat eggs.  Allergic to dogs?  So we don't go around dogs.  Easy.  At least, easy at the first glance....but the food stuff has me more and more concerned as a Mom.

Why on earth do my kids have these allergies???  I'll be doing some more investigating with the doctor I guess.  As far as I know, there are no known food allergies on either side of our family tree...so why both my kids get the short end of the stick is beyond me.  Poor kiddos.  Maybe our genes just mix to create crazy mutations?? ;)

More to come...

Layla riding her trike from Grammy:

Aren't my kids CUTE?  I just love hearing them talk.  :)  This was Sunday afternoon, after church, instead of naps.

Want to know about my day today?  Today Layla got up at 6:15.  She normally NEVER gets up that early, but she couldn't find her little puppy in bed, and then she wanted to go potty on the BIG potty chair, and then she wanted socks on...and by the time we accomplished those three wishes she was awake and wanted to go in Mama's big bed.  Finn followed her example and got up at 6:30.

So tonight?  She was sound asleep by 6:45.  Sweeeeet.  And Finn was out by 7:00.  I tell you, not having a single break in the middle of the day is exhausting...but having your night totally free from 7:00 on is delightful.  :)

Poor Layla also got some vaccines today--3, to be exact.  She had a very rough time this time.  The nurses are great and the shots themselves take about 5 seconds for all 3 shots.  But Layla just cried and cried and cried and cried.  She was sad the whole day, not wanting to walk on her legs, talking about how they hurt and how she had owies, etc.  However, when Jonas came home she was only too thrilled to join in the nightly game of "chase around the house."

Then Finn hurt himself about 4 solid times today.  I think I really did spend the majority of the day plunked on the couch trying to comfort one, sometimes two, crying child(ren).

Such is life with two kids 3 and under, right?  Right.

I'm exhausted.   Off to bed...because I CAN.

A family party:

Almost everyone was here last night for a Family Night to celebrate Eric being home!  Greg and Andrea drove up from Mankato/Rochester, so the only other people missing were Mom (at a cabin weekend), Lauren (working), and Dan (DJ work).  We had pizza, snacks, a fire, played Catan...you know, all the usual stuff... ;)

Horsman techno fun.

Claire and Aunt Andrea snuggling by the fire.

Catan.  Tradition.

Layla and Aunt Andrea drawing this morning.

Uncle Greg and Finn snuggling this morning.

D'awwwwwwwwwwwww!

Check out that LOOK.

"Fluffy."

Layla's word for the pats 2 weeks has been "fluffy."

She pronounces it "fwuffy." (replace the "l" sound with a "w" sound.)

She has NO idea how to use it, but use it she does...all the time.

Layla:  "Mama, I don't want 'dat crayon.  It's too fwuffy for me."

Layla:  "Mama, I need my fwuffy shoes."

Layla:  "Mama, I don't want 'dat juice.  It's too fwuffy for me."

Lately, if something is rejected, the second sentence in her explanation will be "It's too fwuffy for me."

I wonder what it MEANS in her head.  :)

Who has the best Mama in the whole wide world???

This kid thinks he does!

I bought him a cheap, $20 guitar.

He's in love. 
Listening to him sing and play is one of the cutest things ever.
He pretends to be Jonas after dinner and tries to "sing" those songs,
but when they don't sound quite like he remembers he wants ME to play  and make it sound right.  :)

Frosting those cookies:

If you maybe remember from the Christmas photos, Layla isn't too "excited" by frosting cookies.  It's a much too messy process for her.  :)  However, she DOES love frosting, especially this dairy-free cream cheese frosting, so she was willing to put up with a bit of mess in order to sample frosting.  And the girl does lover her sprinkles...

Finn wanted NOTHING to do with it.  He hates frosting unless it's on doughnuts at church.  He likes his sugar cookies plain and un-adorned.  

Layla's cookies.

Showing me her creation.  

Shaking off excess sprinkles.

Mama tried her hand at frosting, too...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today the kids and I are going to make and hang melted crayon hearts, frost and add sprinkles to some pink sugar cookies, and then head over to my parent's house for a Valentine's Day dinner with Uncle Eric and the family!

Crayon Hearts by Martha Stewart

As you well know, we love ALL holidays around here, but Valentine's Day is one that seems especially "made up" to me.  :)  I love celebrating it as a family, at home, but for couples?  Eh.  It just seems so awkward to me.  Haha!


Jonas was very sweet to me this year.  He got me a hair cut and color with my girl, since it was NOT in my budget anytime soon, and then took me out to eat at The Strip Club  It's a GREAT local place here on the East side, because, let me tell you...East St. Paul doesn't really have anything cool at all:  no coffee shops, no restaurants, no stores, no grocery stores, etc.  It's a wasteland of boring.  So far, I know that East St. Paul has 3 cool things only:  The Strip Club, Ward 6, and Sweed Hollow Cafe.  Guys, come on.  That's not much!  Anyway, Jonas and I had a fantastic dinner of steak...which we got to chew slowly and talk in between bites, thanks to my Mom babysitting at our house while the kids slept.  It was great.

Okay, kids crying.  Must run.

Uncle Eric is home from Afghanistan!!!!

Dad called me at 4:00 saying he needed to drop something off for Jonas.  A few minutes later a car packed with people rolled up in front of our house, and out popped ERIC JOHN BERUBE from the vehicle!  I was shocked!  We thought he was still in Afghanistan, waiting for the weather to clear before his plane could leave the area.  We're SO happy to have him back in THIS country, and here in MN for a few days!  Then he'll be back to spend 10 days with us in early March before he goes to travel the world for a bit.  Yaaaaaaaaaaay, Uncle Eric is back!  

Finn, of course, got Eric to chase him.  Finn's fave game ever.

This video cut off because the camera ran out of batteries at THAT exact moment.....aaaaaaaaaargh!

A surprise for Jonas.

Being sweet with Uncle Eric.

Dan telling stories.  

Awwwwwwwwwww.  :)

Doesn't Eric have awesome teeth?  Sigh.  :)

A portrait of the BLUR that is Finn Schaefer:

(And Uncle Eric kindly chasing him...)

Wowza.

A few things about Layla:

1.  She is on her third injury this morning.  At 8:41 a.m.  I feel like we have a long-ish day ahead of us...
When she gets injured I quickly step out of her line of vision.  If she STILL screams and wails like crazy, then I know she is really hurt.  Bad Mom?  Maybe.  :)

2.  She showed up at our beside this morning at 3:30 a.m.  This is the first time she's gotten up since being "free" in her bed.  She actually showed up mewing like a kitten.  Very original.  :)  She was wide awake and very interested in going downstairs.  Jonas got her back to sleep in her own bed by 4:00, thank goodness.

3.  She wakes up dry every single morning.  It's crazy how easy NIGHT TRAINING her has been!  We totally didn't even do it...she did it herself.  I think I've figured out the best way to help her in this process:  I take her to the bathroom just once a night, around 11:30 or 12:00.  That way it's been 3-4 hours since she went to sleep, so all the liquids from dinner are through her system and ready for exit.  After that, since she doesn't take any more liquids throughout the night, she's good to go! (I actually was taking her to the bathroom again at around 4:00 a.m., but that was a no-go.  She was just grumpy and tired, and didn't have to pee ever, so it was a waste of time for everyone, and a very sad wake-up-to-an-alarm-for-no-reason for me!) Getting up only once a night to make this happen is okay by me, I guess.  :)

4.  She and Finn are sitting at kitchen counter right now.  Layla just turned to Finn and said "What's goin' on, baby Sin??"

5.  She is currently wearing her bright pink PJs with white bones on them from Aunt Renee.  She calls them "My wittle bones."  As in, "Mama, I need-a take off my wittle bones now and get my princess dress!"  To finish off the outfit she is wearing her pink plastic high-heels.  "Clack clack clack clack clack" - pause to slip and fall in the hallway, while I dodge out of sight - "clack clack clack clack clack" down to the living room.

6.  We just returned from getting her dressed upstairs.  Mercy, but she has some strong opinions on what to wear these days.  :)  Today, she looks like a well-dressed homeless person.  She has on a purple paisley outfit, on top of that is a pink and orange and red striped sweater, and on top of that is a brown velour zip-up hoodie with pink stripes down the arms.  AND let's not forget her silver glittery Hello Kitty shoes!

7.  Layla has always been into having her "stuff" with her whenever we go places.  Usually it's something like a backpack, or a doll, or a dog, etc.  It's gotten a little out of hand lately.  Her stash these days is:  a stuff dog from Aunt Laura, a mechanical dog from Aunt Renee, a Hello Kitty purse, a Hello Kitty figurine named "Mousy," a baby doll, and stuffed kitty.  All of these things need to go up and down the stairs with her EVERY. SINGLE. TIME we go up or down the stairs.  However, she is a very safety-aware child, so she hold the hand rail when we go up or down.  This means that Mama gets to hold all that stuff.  She hands me each one in a ritual before we go up or down:  "Mama you hold-a kitty.  Mama, you hold-a purse.  Mama, you hold-a puppy"....and on, and on.

Such is life right now, folks!

Squeeze

Layla calls ketchup "squeeze."

She likes a LOT of squeeze on her plate.  :)

"Mama????  I need-a get more squeeze!?!?!" as she points to her plate.  If, at any point while eating, she can see her plate...well, that means she needs more squeeze.

We go through a LOT of squeeze in this house.  Thank you, Costco.  (And Holly.  ;) )

Getting ready for Valentine's Day!

Grandma and Grandpa are coming for dinner, so we're starting our preparations early!

I dyed the dough pink so we could just put plain white frosting on top (or NO frosting at all)...the kind of frosting Layla can actually have...and then decorate with sprinkles, etc.  We'll see how THAT turns out.  :)

Checking the progress...

Wishing them to cook faster.

Willing them to cook faster.

Feeding a sample cookie to her "cat."

Making sure her puppy has enough water.