Strange Eaters

Blake and Sadie are trying new foods all the time now, and there are some interesting quirks that have developed.

I would say Sadie is a pretty smart baby. She catches on to a lot of things with no problem. She does have one hang up that she just can't figure out. If you ever try to feed her anything while she still has a pacifier in her mouth, she doesn't know what to do. She brings her hand up to her mouth and hits the pacifier a few times. It really confuses her, but Owen and I think it's funny.

Blake has to smell everything before he puts it in his mouth. It's cute, but weird. Each bite gets a good sniff inspection. They make every messy meal pretty entertaining.

Look Mom, No hands!

Blake started a funny new habit today. He has decided to fore go the pincer grasp, the full hand grab, and the spoon. No hands is his new way of eating. At breakfast, he licked his peaches off of his tray. This afternoon when he dropped a Cheerio, instead of picking it up, he got down on his belly and did a face plant as he gobbled it up. Same thing at lunch and dinner. Take your mouth to the food instead of lifting the food to your mouth. Weird.


Other new things for Blake? Well, this week I could take it no longer and decided to cut his hair for the first time. He squirmed quite a bit, but eventually we made it through and I think it looks pretty cute. It is at least an improvement from the big swoosh that was going on before. Bless his heart, Blake has some swirly hair growing patterns. The hair in the back is sideways!

Before: Sitting on a stool, crazy hair combed out and ready for a new style.

During: Squirmy, not on the stool, hair all over the bathroom. Photography by big brother.

After: Looking older. He was smiling, just not in any pictures.

See down by his neck? That hair is sideways, and hard to cut!

Finally, tonight we moved his crib down a level after I found him with two feet on the bar for the drop gate, staring over at the floor after nap. He also climbed the baby gate downstairs. He had his little toes wedged in the holes about four inches off the ground. It looked painful, but he was so proud of himself. And, he can almost climb onto the couch when he stands on top of another toy. He's becoming a little daredevil, and I've got the feeling he'll be yelling, "Look Mom, no hands!" quite a bit.

Here he is with the crib in the lowered setting. Don't learn how to climb out of that anytime soon, Buddy!

Owen's 4th Birthday Party

For Owen's 4th birthday, we went a little overboard as I tend to do anytime there is any special occasion to celebrate with my kids. But you know, Owen really deserved a big party this year. He's had a lot of adjustments (two in particular) this year and handled it all so well. I could not be any more proud! Plus this year we had FRIENDS to invite!

The theme was easy - SPACE! He is nearly obsessed with spaceships, astronauts, and planets. It took us a while to decide on a place since our house is just too small for that kind of a gathering. CMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville) ended up being a great choice. The kids all seemed to have a good time. Owen was on cloud nine. I loved that I got the chance to make him feel so special.

For this party, I searched online for good space ideas. I tried to make a moon cake like the one I found on FamilyFun.com, but it didn't turn out like the picture they showed. When Owen saw it, it was like he was trying to protect my feelings by not saying that it was ugly. He goes, "Is that how it's supposed to look?" I had to laugh. We used it as our "practice" cake and ate it ourselves.

Another idea I got online was to create a space station using odds and ends and some foil covered insulation board. I never would have been able to take on this project if it weren't for my parents coming to stay for the weekend. Mom watched the kids while I duct taped and duct taped and duct taped. It took quite a while to put together, but we had a lot of fun with it for the $11 that it cost us.

Tim had not been hands on for much of the party planning, but when he saw the space station, he got inspired and created this circuit board with a working switch that blinked Owen's birth date. It was pretty cool. (By the way, he didn't plan much of the party because he was busy getting our driveway redone with new concrete! When Owen's friend Sam came over a couple of days later he was so shocked that Owen's dad got him a new "parking lot" for his birthday.)

Here's a picture of Owen with "Tiny", the last Planet Hero that we had to collect. We now have a complete set, which is pretty cool.

In the favor bags was a box of crayons, a mini "Owen's Birthday Bash" coloring book, and a Milky Way. We decorated the Donut Bank cupcakes with toy aliens (not a bad back up plan - thank goodness you only have to order from Donut Bank a day in advance). We had our special order astronaut plates, Alien Goop hand sanitizer, and "Tang".

We had a toy table filled with some of Owen's rocket themed toys. It was such a huge hit, we probably could have done just that and the kids would have been happy.

The party host from CMOE was fabulous. We made a special request that the craft that she provided (as a part of their birthday package) be space themed. She came up with creating rockets out of foil and cardboard tubes. Each kids made one and got to take it home. My dad (in the doorway in the picture above) made a game out of Owen's stomp rocket. A few of the boys hung out with him for most of the party blasting off. After ALL of this, we still got to visit the museum and played until it closed. We had such a great time, and it made it all the better since Owen is the kind of kid that really appreciates it. Can't believe you're 4 little guy because it doesn't seem like that long ago when you were just a baby. On the other hand, I can't believe you're only 4 because you are smart, talented, and perceptive beyond your years. Love you Space Man!

Crazy Jane

My little comedienne. Is it possible for a 10 month old to have a wry sence of humor? She seems to catch on to things that are ironic. She laughs at herself. She even looks sideways sometimes when she smiles. I think she gets a kick out of stirring up some harmless trouble. It's an aura that I sense about her silly little ways. Perhaps I am only projecting my sense of humor onto her. Whatever it is, she makes me laugh.

All I can do is shake my head and smile at her when she unfolds my laundry to play peek-a-boo. I can tell that she is going to crawl over to Blake and take his toy just to get me to come over and get her. Anytime we sit face to face, she honks my nose over and over, then throws her head back giggling. She leans back on pillows or couch cushions and grins as she takes in the world. She's got this way about her that feels like she understands way more than babies get credit for. She's funny!

Uh Oh!

Last night the twins both learned to say "Uh Oh!" which was pretty cute. Today running errands, they continued to practice and echoes of "Uh Oh!" "Uh Oh! "Uh Oh!" could be heard throughout Evansville. Then, they learned the purpose of Uh Oh which is to say it repeatedly after you purposefully drop any object you are given (or can reach off of a store shelf from your stroller seat) onto the floor. I did enough squats and bends today to count as an actual workout.

On a side note, Owen asked me if I knew the two most special things. I didn't. He claims that they are root beer and hugs. He tells me this with a raised eyebrow and nod. Many a day I could go for a root beer and a hug, so I think he might be right.

Boating with Ryan and Katie

Captain Ryan, Blake, Owen, and Tim enjoying bobbing up and down on the lake.

Katie, my friend since kindergarten, and her husband Ryan invited the family and me down to Lake Cumberland to go boating with them for a day. Katie is 17 weeks pregnant, and after such a long wait to add children to their family, I could not be happier for them. I'm afraid that their boating days may be numbered next summer, but we found out that it is possible. It's just not relaxing. I wish I had more time to talk to my old friend. With 3 kids and 4 adults, it still seemed like everyone's hands were full at any given moment.

We had a lot of fun even with a few hiccups in our day's plan. I haven't been on many boats like that, so just zooming over the water and enjoying the beautiful scenery was new for me. This is my review of the day:

Thumbs Down: Getting there later than we expected. I don't know why my kids become excessively needy whenever I am trying to get something done. I don't know why Tim becomes totally enthralled with other things whenever I am packing for a trip. I'd like to stop this habit of being late for EVERYTHING, but I don't know how it always seems to happen.
Thumbs Up: Getting to see Katie eventually. I miss spending time with her. Long distance friendships are hard to keep up with, but it's worth the trouble and the phone tag just to have her in my life because she's been there for just about all of it. We have a common history, a shared perspective. I heard a phrase on Noggin today while Owen was watching Toot and Puddle. Friendships are like flowers because they keep growing as long as you take care of them. Katie, ours is a friendship I probably need to take better care of, but I hope it continues to bloom until we're old.

Thumbs up: Getting to watch Owen be so excited about his first trip on a fast boat.
Thumbs down: Blake and Sadie were not comfortable in their life vests (big surprise right?), and so their experience was less than wonderful. They squirmed and fussed. I finally just rode with them in the cabin without their vests (don't tell on me).
Thumbs sideways: the boat ride did put them both to sleep.



Thumbs Up: Owen swam like a fish, jumping off the back of the boat a thousand times. Ryan was so great with him, and I know he's going to be an awesome dad here shortly.
Thumbs Up again: Getting to laugh at Ryan who wore his life jacket like some adult diaper. I guess it would be a more comfortable way to float for a long time.
Thumbs Down: I didn't get to swim because it took so long getting the babies fed, held, etc.
Thumbs Down: The rain! We only got to hang out on the lake for a short time because the weather turned bad VERY quickly.
Thumbs Up: Ryan got us back to the dock seconds before the sky let loose. Thank goodness he made it because I would have been terrified trying to ride it out in the middle of the lake with three little kids!

Thumbs Up: Cookout on the dock during a storm. Friendly boating neighbors, grilled hot dogs, and hungry people.
Thumbs Down: When we went back out on the lake, Owen swallowed some water wrong and out came the hot dogs. Owen, Tim, and Ryan went right on swimming, but it was dis-gust-ing!


Thumbs Down: Blake fell down 5 minutes before we left and bumped his eyebrow on a little snap for the carpet on the boat.
Thumbs Up: Even though there was plenty of blood, the actual boo boo was not too big, and it's all healed up now.

Here's Katie!

Thumbs WAY Up: Baby Bailey is on the way!

Thumbs Down: Headache and other symptoms of pregnancy.

Me and Sadie enjoying the ride.

Thumbs Down: My shirt. Just a note to any woman preparing to take off on a boat. You are going to be going through wind and wetness which will make fabric stretch. If you are going to be holding anything like a squirming baby, do yourself a favor and wear a CREWNECK! Sorry for continuously flashing everyone.

Thumbs Up: We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and it was super nice!

Thumbs Sideways: Staying on the boat seemed like it would have been really cool. We just had too many people.

Katie and Ryan, thank you so much for inviting us! We probably cramped your style some, but it's a memory I will keep forever. Thank you.

Mommy Weekend

A few weekends ago, I took the kids on a trip to visit my old college friend, Staci, and her family. Angie was also coming. Angie has been Staci's friend since middle school, and she and I clicked very quickly when I met her a few years ago the first time we got together for a mommy weekend. So, we had my 3, Staci's kids Emily, Michael, and Natalie, and Angie's daughter Julia. The four older kids played together so seamlessly that we hardly saw them most of the time. Natalie is 18 months and was very sweet to my crawling twosome.


Our rules for the weekend? Don't stress about cleaning up. Don't stress about following all the rules. Don't stress about sticking to a tight schedule. Have fun.

Spider-Owen and Iron-Mike playing hardcore 20 minutes into the weekend.

Lunch (we mommies almost forgot to feed them!)

Dance Party time! Sorry about making the curtains fall down Staci. You put those back up in no time. Wish you would share your technique with me. I can't do that kind!

Baby gathering: Blake, Sadie, Natalie, and ?? baby of another friend who came over Saturday night.

The baby gate was quickly rendered useless since they had plenty of safe-zones to crawl around in. They could loop around the upstairs and as long as all the doors were shut, we were in the clear. So? We spiraled it around, covered it with blankets, and the big kids used it as a fort downstairs all weekend.

Natalie and Sadie: This could be the beginning (hopefully) of a beautiful friendship!

This picture was taken around midnight when the big kids FINALLY tuckered out.

We had lots of fun, and I wish it had lasted a little longer. Especially with the kids staying up so late, the three of us ladies did not get enough time to just talk and enjoy each other's company. My friendship with Staci is so important to me because she knew me through that phase of life where we were all just finding ourselves. She knew me when I was a little wild and crazy, and now it's like we're in the same place in our lives. We're both moms of young kids trying to figure it out. There is an easiness in talking with Staci and Angie. It seems like we're on the same page. With the three of us, there is no judgment, and we are sure to get honest, good advice from each other about family, marriage, health, and just about anything else. Our get-togethers are far and few between, but so valuable and fun. I wish we lived closer.

PS - Owen has been asking to call Michael at bedtime every night this week. :)