Sunday night fire:

Sunday evenings we normally spend at my parent's house (weekly dinner together as an extended family), but as they are often gone/out of the country these days, we have a few more lazy Sunday nights alone at home.  :)  It was a chilly, gray November day...so we didn't need much more of an excuse than that to make a fire.  It was lovely.  

No better vantage point than right on Papa.

Telling silly stories together.  

Layla was pretty sure she was wicked funny.  

First Snow:

Layla has been waiting and WAITING for the snow to fall.

Today, she got her wish.  Sort of.  It was rather a sad little snow, so no sledding or snow men yet, and those snow angels needed a bit of interpretation.  :)

I don't know why the color was so off for these next two videos.  It switches back to normal 1/2 way through the last one...

The progression of Finn's Daylight Savings Day nap. :)

Mr. Finn, being alone...

Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Layla is in preschool for 3 hours...8:45-11:45.  On Tuesday mornings, Finn and I go to Mom's Coffee Hour at church, so we both have mega social activity then.  However, on Thursday mornings, we have NOTHING PLANNED.  I love this.  Usually we drop Layla off and just go home, doing odd things around the house.  My initial thought about Thursday mornings was that I would make this a special "Mommy / Finn Morning," but after experiencing the reality of that lately I've re-worked my plan some.  Mostly, my plan is to let him be ALONE.  :)  The more I watch him, the more I think he needs and loves that time alone.  Maybe special time with Mommy will take place more later on, but for now, it's alone time.  

So, here is Finn this past Thursday morning.  Layla was at preschool, and he plunked himself down in his favorite corner of the toy room (between the book shelf and the end of the toy kitchen) and sat there for over 30 minutes, singing and talking to himself.  The pictures are bad because I had to zoom a ways from my hiding place, and frankly the lighting is really bad in there.  

He looks sad or zoned, but he was not!  

As SOON as he saw me the magic was over:  "Hey, Mama, you take my picture???  I see???"

Leaving his happy place.  

Finn saying "cheese."  Mental note.  Cheese = bad pictures.  

He can zone out with the best of them.  :)

THIS is classic "How-Finn-sits."  

He got a haircut this morning...can you tell?  He has MAMA'S hair, that's for sure!

Love this.  Goofball!

New food for Mr. Finn!

We now have a new food we can feed Finn:  SANDWICHES!  :)  It's so insane to me that my kids don't eat sandwiches for lunch, mostly because I grew up on them, and they are cheap.  

So, now Finn likes sandwiches!  We eased him into having Jelly on this toast, which he loves, and then I busted out the almond butter and jelly sandwich on Monday.  He loved it!  FAN-TASTIC!  

As you can see, we are also still potty training.  ;)  He is 100% successful with pee, 0% successful with poop.  Awesome.   *sigh*

"Finn, show me your sandwich!"

Layla took the next two photos.  

Finn

1.  I would say that, at this point, potty training with Finn is about 80% successful.  That missing 20% is mostly likely my fault.  With Layla, the first two days we were potty training her we had an adult by her side AT ALL TIMES.  At the start you want to make sure they "get it right," so we were there to catch her if anything seemed off for her.  But, she was totally fine.  Finn is really "making" me train him at this point, which I wasn't planning on/didn't really want to do, so...I've been less than vigilant.  In fact, I've been MISERABLE at sticking close to him.  :)  This has resulted in scrubbing the furniture a few times--gross.  Layla never did that!--AND, worst of all, he pooped on the floor of the changing table today, and on the changing pad itself.  This was about 2 hours after Jonas left for KC, so maybe it was a silent protest for his Papa, like dogs sometimes do?  Nah.  It was not.  He just doesn't "get it" yet, and I was not there.  Sigh.  Layla found this and was so grossed out by it.  She came running to get me and complained about the smell, of course, for hours after.  :)

2.  I forgot to mention Finn's escape from the crib two nights ago.  He has only climbed out of his crib once before in his life, and I think it was a total fluke.  He couldn't figure out how to do it again (months ago).  So, the other night, when he was so miserable and sick, I was doing everything I could to help him sleep/breathe/not cough at night:  Essential oils on his back, chest, and feet, humidifier going with essential oils and vicks vapor steam in it, Hylands homeopathic cough syrup, Hylands homeopathic cold tablets, diffusing essential oils in the room...AND last but not least, I propped up one end of his crib at a fairly significant angle so his nose might drain better.  Yes.  Yes, I know.  This all sounds like crazy-lady overkill, right?  Wrong.  You guys, he was up 15-20 times the night before!  I was SHOT.  I was going to do anything and everything to help him (and ME) sleep.  So, despite all of this he was still waking up coughing and such, and then around 12:00 a.m. he comes sauntering out of his room..."Oh, hello Mama!" Like "Fancy meeting you here!?!?!"  Yeah.  I guess that blanket under his mattress was all the boots he needed to make it over the top.  Tonight it's GONE.  :)  He tried to climb out when I put him in tonight, but no luck, so eventually he settled down and went to sleep.  Fingers crossed for THIS night, sans Jonas.  (Oh, and last night he really only woke up twice--that was his first night on antibiotics from the Dr.--so maybe that was what he needed all along.  Doesn't matter, though, I'm still doing all my witch-Dr. stuff just in case... ;)  )

*Yawn*

Random updates from a very tired Mama:

1.  Finn is naked right now.  He has basically been naked for several days now.  Two days ago he decided that clothes were VERY optional, and no matter what I do/put him in, I find him naked within about 20 minutes.  I found out outfit he couldn't get out of, but he made my life so miserable for the 1.5 hours he was wearing it that I decided it's just not worth it: naked it is.  So, we've been doing some potty training.  I don't think it's as effective at this age (2.5-ish) as it was when we trained Layla (3 years, 4 months...and she really trained herself at that point), but oh well.  I'm not rushed or "trying to MAKE THIS HAPPEN!" so hopefully it'll just be positive.  That's all I ask at this point.  I suppose I could try duct taping his diapers to his body, but...eh.

2.  Same child had a VERY rough night last night.  He's been sick for 2-3 days, mostly with a VERY runny nose during the day, and then constant coughing/choking on his own mucus at night.  His breathing got worse last night too, so we're off to the Dr. today.  Jonas leaves for a tour of KC BBQ joints with Scooter and Ben on Saturday, and I need healthy and sleeping kids by then! Seriously, though, I think Finn woke up at least 15-20 times last night because he couldn't breathe/was coughing.  Poor kid.  :(  He was misery.  He finally woke up and stayed up at 4:30 a.m.  *yaaaaaaaaawn*

3.  Layla woke up at 6:00 today.  Just because.

4.  I know I had more to say, but my brain is fried.  I'll remember it later and come back to update, if I'm not asleep on my feet...

I remembered one!
5.  Layla has been so funny about smell lately.  She acts like she has the world's most sensitive sense of smell.  She can't stand the smell of a ton of things that I think have almost no smell at all...like apples, for crying out loud!  The funniest one is bananas, though.  If she is even in the same room with a banana (out of the peel) she sort of flips out.  Gets as far away from it as she can, covers her mouth with her hand, and hides her head in her arms.  Wowza.  Seeeeeeeeeeeensitive.  :)  Now imagine her reaction to something that actually HAS a strong scent, in my opinion...yeah...

Today:

Layla did more painting this morning.  WITH my approval.  AT the counter.  :)

"Mama, look!  I made an H!"

Explain to me how THIS child can be in the 80th% for weight???

She looks like a skinny bean to me, other than her cheeks.  :)  

Finn is sick today.  When he is sick, he LOOKS sick.  

I've been using essential oils with him for the past two days to help with coughing and breathing, which has helped I think, but I have NO cure for his constant mucus production.  He's drowning in it, poor baby.  :(

My poor sick little boy...

Crafts with Mama:

This feels like the first time in about 2 weeks where I've actually spent any fun time with Layla, doing something other than snuggling with her.  She loved stringing together this necklace, and then later we made one with a color pattern.  :)  

Random updates:

1.  Layla had a HORRIBLE nightmare two nights ago.  I just felt awful for her.  I think it was maybe 3:00 a.m. when I heard her screeeeeeeaming on the monitor.  When I ran in there she was curled up in the fetal position, both hands pressed tight to her eyes.  I tried to comfort her and calm her down, but she just remained tense and tight.  I took her to the bathroom, because 90% of the time, if she wakes up at night, it's just because she needs to go to the bathroom.  She went, but still with both hands pressed tightly to her face.  Her talk was something about "the big one" and "make it go away," etc.  Finally I just had to play along a bit and tell her that Mommy got "it," "it" was gone now, etc.  I sloooowly pried her hands away from her face, and she looked around the room frantically in total fear.

My heart just broke.  Oh, age 4.  I remember you.  The age the nightmares started.  :(  I think I had some bad, bad dreams from about age 4 to age 8, as far as I can remember.

  Last night was the first night we have had to leave Layla's closet door all the way open, with the light on, when she went to bed.  She was still afraid.  Poor Baby.  I talked to her a bit about it, and I am thinking it was a dragon she was afraid of...at least that's what she told me last night.  Who knows if it was what she was afraid of the night before.  She asked to come in with us the night of the nightmare, which of course I said yes to--you could feel the fear melting off of her as she left the room with me.  :(  Once again, SO glad I held out for that king size bed when we got married.  Jonas couldn't understand my absolute insistence on it...but I knew.  ;)


2.  I know people who can function just fine, regularly, on 4-6 hours of sleep a night.  This seems insane to me, as I as someone who needs 8-9 hours to feel "great."  Because I know myself, I normally make a very high priority of going to bed at a very reasonable time.  Rarely will I ever got to bed after 10:00, especially with having kids--you never know when you'll need to get up, right?  Well, last night I made a mistake.  I stayed up until 11:45 p.m. watching TV.  SO lame.  Such a bad choice.  But it was fun at the time.  :)

Of course, on nights when you make a bad personal decision, what happens?  You know the answer to this.  That's right:  kids happen.  ;)  Finn actually did just fine "sleeping through the night," but after 10 hours of sleep he decided that was enough...at 5:00 a.m.  UGH.  He is the worst too, because he wakes up and wants to DO STUFF AND GET BREAKFAST RIGHT AWAY COME ON MAMA!  It's so jarring (at least when Layla wakes up she will snuggle with me in bed for ages!).  As I had only been asleep for 5 hours (which I know is fine for some people, yes, I get it...just not for me...), this was not okay.  I was walking through cement to get to him.  I try to bribe Finn with a movie/show of some sort when he wakes up, but this rarely goes as planned.  He is just so neeeeedy when he wakes up, and he especially likes to poke at my closed eyes if I somehow find a way to rest again.  Twerp.  ;)  Then, Layla woke up  around 5:45--SO unusual for her, but of course, this was the morning for it, right?  I finally got them both settled in my bed, next to me, watching a "Team Umi Zoomie" episode on my Kindle while I tried to at least rest some more.

 Evidently the episode they watched was about cereal, because about 22 minutes later Layla was convinced that we all needed to go downstairs and eat "cereal and milk."  Keep in mind, my kids have NEVER had cereal and milk (like normal kids!) because of their allergies.  But, I had some almond milk on hand, and miracle-of-miracles some cereal too.  I poured them each a bowl, and Layla had to check and make sure that it looked like the picture on the front.  After that, all she did was stir it around and around.  Finn actually took two bites!  I was impressed, but neither of them wanted anything to do with the rest of it.  Ah, well.  At least they have now had cereal.  :)

Saturday: Family Fun Day

This past Saturday was perfect weather, and we had absolutely nothing to do.  It was glorious.  

So we went out to Como Zoo (the smaller zoo that is close to us, and free), and Como Town, the amusement place connected to the zoo.  GREAT times were had by all.

Proof below.

Layla was VERY into riding the bronze turtle.  :)

It was a group effort, going down the big slide together in one of the amusement park attractions, but after that they both were very brave and tried it all on their own, many times.  Finn actually was much better at climbing the rope ladder than Layla was!

Heading up.

All by herself.  

"DUDE.  Did you SEE me???"

A good 15 minutes of time spent here.  

These rides were the perfect size for them both.