Or You Can Make Brown

We colored Easter eggs again this year.  Nat was, not surprisingly, totally into it, albeit a little bummed with the quality of the stickers in the Paas kit.  Mostly she was bummed because we couldn't get them to stick to the eggs.  No matter, she got over it when it was bath time and she was on to the next activity  (soaking every wall in the bathroom with splashes from the tub).

She helped me get out plastic cups for dye, carefully put the dye tabs down in each cup, and counted to three (or seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twenty, twelve...) as I poured vinegar in to make the colors.  We got our station all set up and it was on.  It was a race to see how quickly we could dye a dozen eggs.  Rather than let the eggs really soak in one color, she preferred to let them soak briefly, then remove them, give them a good shake, and drop the egg into another color.  Repeat.  So, instead of the vibrant colors the package promised, we got several variations of the color brown.  Festive!

let me at 'em!

the concentration of the child...

eyeing her next color

next year, brudda

(the colors do look a little better here than in person)

Happy Easter, all!

My Three Favorite Faces

I've come to the conclusion that days with kids are just plain hectic.  Mondays and Tuesdays with an extra kid on deck really ramps up the chaos, but in the best possible way.  Despite the madness, I get to spend my time with these lovely little faces.  And so no matter what else is happening, these smiles make it all worth it.

Where We've Been

I feel like I'm always saying this lately, but we've been busy.  Busy!

This weekend I promise to have new posts of substance, rather than excuses about how there just isn't enough time in the day.  Here's what you have to look forward to:

• Ben's Baptism
• Three of my favorite faces
• Coloring Easter Eggs
• A truly stupendous play date

Not to mention Easter Sunday and Opening Day!  

Instead of pictures today, I'd like to ask you all to observe a moment of silence for the quiet passing of yet another Hoosier Basketball season.  What started out so promising, ended in truly dismal fashion as the Hoosiers went on a losing skid the last few weeks of the season and just couldn't recover for tournament time.  Always next year, I guess.

Sittin' Pretty

Check out our sittin' boy...

Still prone to tip over or toss himself backwards occasionally without warning...

but really all of a sudden he's pretty much on his own!

my two favorite boys

Don't be fooled by their sizes (Ben turned 5 months last Friday and Jack turns on on 4/3)

I gave them a "you two need to look out for each other, and always look out for Natalie" talk this afternoon.  I think they've bonded.

Ben: 5 Months

Here we go....5 months!

I am happy to report that Ben is much healthier than on our last post.  Tomorrow is his last day of breathing treatments, so hopefully that'll be that and we'll be done with it.

As far as exciting milestones, boy is sitting upright with just a little aid from the boppy pillow.  He can sit alone (without the pillow) if someone is near, because he still likes to launch himself backwards without warning and will occasionally tip to one side or the other.  But he is close.  A couple more weeks and he'll be on his own for sure!

Also, Ben is trying so hard to push up on all fours.  He has done it a couple of times.  Not all the way up, but way up on his hands, lifting his belly off the ground ever so slightly, and bringing his knees up under him.  Let me be the first to say that this is a Christmas miracle, because Ben is a big boy if you get my drift.

On the occasion of his 5 month birthday, Ben got to try bananas!  Yum.  He really seemed to like them.  And I always enjoy the funny faces that new tastes produce.  None on film though, sorry.  I've got my hands full enough trying to keep his hands out of his mouth during meal time.  Between the hands and and the sputtering and the I'm-not-quite-sure-what-to-do-with-all-this-food-in-my-mouth tongue reflex, it's pretty interesting.

one week

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months!!

check out our boy sitting!

Of course Natalie needed to be involved in the photo shoot

I could not stop laughing at this.  The looks on their faces pretty much sums up everyday.

I love the profile.  Can you see the spike he has going on at the crown of his head?  So funny.

Nat had the same spike, just a few months older than Ben.

Notice the drool?

I think he's working on some teeth.  Drool constantly...it's a wonder he's not dehydrated!

And everything is in his mouth.  No pearly whites poking through yet though.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I have tried to stop being surprised by how smart and witty Natalie is, especially for her age.  Sometimes though, she really causes me to stop short.

While dinner was cooking, she accompanied me into our bedroom where we have several bags of clothes to donate to Goodwill.  She asked me if the bags were garbage, and I launched into an explanation about how fortunate we are and how she has everything she could possibly want, but how there are some families and some kids that don't have clothes or food.  She nodded knowingly.  So then she started listing all sorts of other things as questions..."or a bed?  or a house?"  You get the point.  This lead to us talking about how it is important for us to help other kids when we can by giving our time or lending a hand to make them feel better.  Somehow we ended up back at things that some people don't have and we noted that it was cool that we have two cars but some people don't have any cars.  Natalie looked very concerned and said, "But, mama, I don't have a car."  Isn't she funny?  No, no, you don't have a car Natalie.  She made sure to define that "mama has a car and dada has a car, but I do not have a car."  Silly goose.

I feel really strongly about making sure that both our kids understand generosity and the power of giving, and I have some ideas up my sleeve.  More on that in the coming months...

In the meantime, our poor Ben.  He ended up being one sick little guy.  I think I had mentioned that the kids (and Eric) had been passing a cold around.  Ben was the last one stricken, and the virus seemed to be weakening a little as it was passed on.  Ben was actually acting the least sick.  Until yesterday morning...when he woke up wheezing.  I called the pediatrician, and of course they wanted to see him. Long story short, he has to have a nebulizer treatment 6 times a day for the next 5 days.  He tolerates it fairly well, and by this afternoon he had stopped wheezing and his cough had loosened up a lot.  Natalie has been a really big helper trying to hold the mask for him.

And, finally...a potty training update.  I'm calling Nat officially potty trained.  The only time she's been in a diaper in a week is for naps and bedtime.  And she hasn't had an accident since Friday!  She is telling me every time now when she needs to go, and twice today she went into the bathroom all by herself, went potty, and was able to pull her pants back up all on her own!  Saturday we even went shopping and were out of the house probably 6 hours.  We set up her potty in the back of the car, which she used twice, and I bought a small seat that folds up and fits into my purse for use on public toilet seats, and she tried to use that once too!  I guess we'll try to go to gymnastics tomorrow without a diaper...I'm nervous, but it seems like a step backwards to put her in a diaper for those 45 minutes, though I don't think she would really mind.

Signs of Spring

In light of the weather warm-up yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we have taken full advantage and tried to be outside as much as the kids' touch of a cold will allow.  Being outside without full winter gear is a welcome change and a sure sign of spring.  Other signs?  Well, the time changes tonight.  Spring training is in full swing.  In our exploration of the yard yesterday, we discovered several trees with buds and our tulips starting to poke up from the ground.  And, lastly, I finally got about 1/3 of our Christmas lights down (I know, I know...much longer and I could have just left them up until this Christmas).

Ben's first time in the jogging stroller

(hoping not to have to push him often, because...well, he's already really heavy)

shoveling the last of the snow

another Ben first...first time in his new swing on the swingset!

Funny story about that swing.  Ben received a gift card for Christmas, which we used to buy him this swing.  I thought, no problem, I can put this swing up by myself and today took it out with both kids in tow.  It was already assembled (yay!) so all I had to do was bring a ladder and hook it up to the hooks that already existed on the swingset (yay again!).  Once it was hanging and I took a step back I realized that I should have bought some additional chain because the swing is probably 4.5 feet off the ground.  I left it, and Ben sat in it, and we look super classy until we can get the appropriate chain to hang it from.  I guess some jobs are just better left to Dada.

Nat and Ben look so cute swinging side by side.  

These pictures were the best I could do.  Who knew it was so hard to photograph kids on a swing...

Snowed In and Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree

Ok, you got me.  We definitely were not snowed in.  But we were supposed to be.  Rather, we were supposed to get 6 inches of snow, which around these parts probably would have canceled school for two days and made travel a little dicey.  Instead, we got a few inches, school was called of at 9:15pm the night before (when there was less than an inch on the ground), and we made it out the door at five til ten the next morning to go to gymnastics as planned.

It was pretty snow.  I wish we would have gotten more, but I'd also be lying if I said I could take a whole lot more winter this year.  Ordinarily, yes!  Bring it on.  But bundling the kids up is starting to wear me out.

During nap time I snuck out and snapped a few pictures...my hands were way too cold to mess with the settings on my camera, and so the pictures turned out super gray.  Bummer.

We've been trying really hard to fight off a cold around here.  Jack's been sick all week, and Eric seems to have caught the worst of it at our house.  Nat and Ben both have a bit of a cough and Natalie a stuffy nose.  So, instead of playing in the snow, we watched from inside.  And ate popsicles and homemade chicken noodle soup.

This girl is doing awesome at potty training! 

 Averaging only about 1 accident per day for the past week.  

Because Nat's been a little under the weather, the past two days she has napped really early, which has given me some mama and Ben time that we normally wouldn't have.  This morning, he watched me change sheets on all the beds.  A stray cleaning rag ended up with the sheets and when I tossed it aside to put the sheet on the bed, the rag landed right on Ben's head.  He thought it was hilarious.  I folded it up so he could see and I about fell over laughing.  He looked like George Washington in the powdered wig.  Or...did you ever play that game in the pool as a kid where you came up from under water with your hair in front of your face, then flipped it backwards to create the powdered wig look?  Well...that was Ben.  He totally rocked it.

(this got out of order...)

Shh...potty trained?

I'm almost to say this aloud to too many people...

Recall two days ago when I said that we weren't making significant strides in the potty training arena?  I'm actually a little concerned that someone has kidnapped our child and swapped her out for a potty trained toddler.

Seriously.  Wednesday Natalie had 2 stickers on her "I peed/pooped on the potty chart" on the refrigerator.  Tonight we counted 17!  Since yesterday at about 11:00am, she has had a single "accident" that was really my fault and not hers (I was feeding Ben and she told me she needed to go, but I couldn't get Ben down and settled fast enough to help her.  We are still working on pretty short notice to get to the potty.)

Needless to say, we are so proud and excited!  I have never in my life been more enthusiastic about pee or poop.  We have created a couple of dances, which Natalie loves to perform and loves even more when I perform.  And, who knew that stickers would provide just enough motivation (and not the jar of M&M's that has taken up residence in our bathroom)?  I hope that one day, Natalie will be as pumped about Ben's potty training adventures as we are pretending he is about hers!

she's so proud of herself

Did I mention that in all this making it to the bathroom, since yesterday afternoon, it's been Natalie telling me she has to go, as opposed to me asking her if she needs to go.

On a totally unrelated note, tomorrow represents a big change for all of us.  I am starting a new work schedule.  Double shifts!  I'm excited because I really like my job, and this is going to be a challenge.  It also makes total sense to just keep working since it takes a fairly long time to get to work in the first place--instead of coming on back to back days, for example.  I have to admit that I am a little nervous because I'll be on my own in the ED.  And, lastly, I am a little sad about the fact that I'll be away from my babies for a whole day.  I'm sure we'll all adjust, just first day jitters.

And, did I mention Natalie is well on her way to being potty trained?!