Movie Theatre

One of my bucket list items for the kids was to bring Sevea to a movie at the theatre. She’s very close to turning 5 and had never been to the theatre. She is a kid who loves to watch tv but you never see her sit through an entire movie, unless it is a short movie of like 45 minutes and not the full length Disney type versions. She will get up and play, come back and watch some and repeat this cycle. Even still I thought she might enjoy going to the theatre with mom and dad as a special treat. Her daycare friend Eloise had just seen the Croods and told us it wouldn’t be a bad one to go to. So off we went one Saturday afternoon.

She had a great time! I think the popcorn and cotton candy was a necessity in getting her to survive the length of the movie. She sat for almost the entire time with just a little bit of aisle dancing and a couple times she stood up to stretch her legs. Otherwise she watched the whole thing and did really well. I don’t think she’ll be begging to go see a movie at the theatre all the time but it will be a nice treat maybe once a year.

Cohen Month 21 Update

Cohen, Cohen, Cohen. The time just keeps passing and he’s growing up right before our eyes. During these last three months we’ve witnessed Cohen become even more of a little man. We’re trying hard to let him explore and figure things out. His big sister is definitely a big help with this. She involves him in a lot. One of the highlights of our day is watching the two of them interact together. He thinks she is pretty great and loves to play games with her. She in turn couldn’t be a better big sister to him. She will share without us even asking. She will get him things to make him happy again without us asking. She loves to play games with him and make him smile and laugh.

She’s good at sharing Oreo's and he’s good at eating them…or we think he got some in his mouth!

Cohen loves Cars, as in the Disney movie Cars. He is obsessed. If he sees the movie on tv he gets all excited. One night we were at Target and let him explore as a big boy would by walking instead of sitting in the cart. I watch him pull something off the shelf and sit down with it. What do you know, it was a BIG Cars coloring book. He was all excited and kept trying to flip the pages (it was saran wrapped shut). Another night we were searching for sandals for his fat feet (yes we are lucky enough to have another child with incredibly hard feet to get shoes for…they are just so thick – top to bottom – ugh!)…anyway we were searching and almost immediately upon entering the shoe aisle he spots the boxes that contained Cars sandals. Too bad they didn’t have his size. He does love toy cars in general as well. His favorite toy is probably a Dale Jr. toy race car but he’ll settle for most any car.

Firefighters to the Rescue. Cohen is a big fan of this book (and books in general). Which mom and dad don’t mind because it is an easy read and it is fun to see him show a preference. One of the daycare mom’s works at a school and they did a field trip to the fire house. She brought us back hats and Cohen thinks these are great. I put it on and say Firefighters to the rescue and he smiles from ear to ear.

Brushing his teeth. This is one habit that mom and dad are happy we don’t have to fight with him on. If he sees you brushing your teeth he wants to. If he sees his toothbrush he will likely want you to give it to him so he can brush his teeth. I’m hoping this love doesn’t disappear and we have to fight about brushing our teeth later on.

Cohen is shy. Like the total opposite of Sevea. I feel like she got all the outgoing genes and he got none. I suppose it could be worse. He doesn’t run away when someone talks to him. He doesn’t scream to be put down if you pick him up. He is fine if we leave him with others. But he certainly is shy. If you talk to him, you’ll likely receive this: he’ll look down towards the floor (sort of like he’s embarrassed) and then do his little vibrate bounce while sort of humming to himself. He does this even to people like Carissa or Andrew who he sees pretty much daily. It is pretty funny to watch but I’m hoping he’ll outgrow it or at least not get worse.

His communication hasn’t picked up much. However he does babble more and we do hear him say words more often. He says momma, dadda, bye bye, hi, all done, vroom, car, ball. He still won’t repeat on demand but he says them more often on his own especially bye, hi, and done. There is often times it sounds like he is trying to repeat us but then we can’t get him to do it again. And they are words he has never said so we can’t be sure we actually heard him right. I think there is progress but it is slow. We’ll keep trying and see what the next 3 months do.

There is so much to Cohen that we love and adore. Of course there is stuff that drives us nuts but that list seems to be dwindling as he learns to listen better. He’s not an angel by any means but we definitely thank God for him daily. What a blessing he is to our family. Hard to believe that when I sit down to write his 2 year update it will include him being a big brother. I hope this HUGE momma’s boy is ready for it!

Our weekend

I’m hoping we do NOT have another repeat weekend like this one. Both kids came down with a stomach bug at the same time on Saturday. We’ve never experienced this before which is quite amazing since it seems like we deal with stomach issues often (ever since Cohen at least). We were thankful that both Troy and I were able to care for them since it was very exhausting. We were up almost every hour with Sevea on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Cohen happened to be the better of the two which is also opposite of how things normally go. He only got up a few times.

Troy not minding the cuddles that Cohen so easily gave over the weekend.

Our big girl Sevea handled the bug so well. That is until she seemed to get delirious from fever. She woke up from a cat nap talking all funny. Her fever wasn’t that high and medicine brought it down quickly. The wash cloth sure helped and putting it all over your face serves as a mask to help you sleep as well.

Cohen does have his own unique spots to rest but this weekend it was hilarious to watch him. The energy was just sucked out of him and he would randomly lay down on the floor and try to watch tv from behind the coffee table. Or like this picture shows he knelt down since it was too much work to stand.

It was as if the kids said we’re better now, someone else can have a turn. Because once the kids had bounced back on Sunday afternoon Troy became close pals with the toilet. Luckily he recovered quicker than the kids and already managed to pull himself together enough to go to work today. I’m hoping I’m not next. Looking good so far.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I haven’t talked about food in a while. Don’t worry I’ve definitely been eating :) We’ve been trying new recipes and have enjoyed many good meals. Troy and I really enjoyed this meal. We eat a lot of chicken in our family and sometimes it can be a little same ol same ol. I am not one to go to a restaurant and order a chicken breast dish because I feel like I could make something similar at home for much cheaper. Well this dish is from a restaurant and unfortunately I still won’t be ordering this anytime soon. No need when you can make it at home and feel like you are eating out! It was definitely something we’d make again and again and again. Our only complaint was the prep. But it could have been because the side dish we made along with it had a good amount of prep as well. Easy solution though would to have done some of the prep before hand or make a simple side dish.

Here are the two recipes:

Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken Click here for the recipe

Sometimes I find it hard to figure out what to make for company that isn’t pasta. I feel like everything is too “plain” to serve guests. This chicken dish definitely fits the bill. The only hard part would be sharing the chicken with my guests, I would want to hoard it all to myself.

Twice Baked Cauliflower Click here for the recipe

Troy and I are fans of cauliflower. We like roasting it, steaming it, making rice out of it, etc. However we hadn’t tried making mashed cauliflower as an alternative to mashed potatoes. This recipe was a great way to try that out. We’d definitely make it again.

Happy Eating!

Call Me Paige

This is just too funny not to share or remember.

Daycare friends: Sevea, Sevea, Sevea

Sevea to her friends: Call me Paige.

Friends: Sevea, Sevea, Sevea

Sevea: You call me Paige and my mommy and daddy will call me Sevea. I want to make that change so please call me Paige.

Friends: But we like calling you Sevea.

Sevea: But I would like to make that change so call me Paige.

This isn’t the first time Sevea has said she wanted to be called Paige but it is the first time that she requested it from her friends. It all stems from Brezlyn or also quite popularly known as Bitsy. Brezlyn has been almost exclusively been called Bitsy since she was a baby. But this last year she has requested that people call her Brezlyn. All part of growing up I suppose. Angie mentioned her request mainly for those in her school but we still mentioned to Sevea she should try calling her Brezlyn more often. Sevea didn’t really get it. We tried to explain to her nicknames and middle names and all of that. She got that part but I think for Brezlyn she just considered Bitsy to be her name not a nickname. Fast forward a month or two later and she tells us about her request to now be called Paige. However she never enforced it. She told us in the car about it and that was it. Until today.

However she has already forgotten and her friends have called her Sevea just like normal :)

Who’s going to watch all those kids?

With any expecting mom something they need to consider is their maternity leave from work. For me doing daycare there are very different circumstances I need to consider. I can’t just take 6-12 weeks off and someone will do my job for me while I am gone and I’d return to my usual job. I have families that rely on me to care for their children while they go to work and any time off I take is something they need to figure out as well. With Cohen I was very lucky to have 5 weeks of help from family to cover the daycare and then I took 2 weeks of vacation giving myself essentially a 7 week maternity leave. I still look back on that time and feel lucky how things worked out. Unfortunately that help is not available this time. I also would like more time this go around to concentrate on the new baby especially since the daycare has only grown since Cohen was born.

So you might ask what does this mean for the daycare? Who is going to watch all those kiddos? Well I don’t exactly know the answer to the second question. But I can answer what I would like to see happen in regards to the daycare come this summer.

I’ve settled on the decision to hire an employee that will cover my maternity leave and then continue on as a helper/substitute. At one point Troy and I seriously considered, even settled on, closing the daycare. I would have continued to care for Grayson or any future children they may have but I would have let all other families go. But then came the time I had to actually tell the parents I was pregnant. The reactions I received from the parents were all positive but very surprising in that they for one reason or another expressed their love for me and hopes that they wouldn’t have to find other child care. It was great to hear and the reality of the decision struck deeper than expected. So Troy and I went back to weighing the pros and cons of both ideas. In the end we figured at least trying to hire someone and seeing how it went was the better decision.

One of the big factors in our decision was that we wanted to send Sevea to preschool. In Shakopee there isn’t a bus option to get kids to preschool. So in order to get Sevea to preschool we needed to have a way to drive her there. We don’t think Sevea “needs” preschool for academics or social skills but we really thought it would help her transition from being home with me all day to going to Kindergarten. With her birthday in September she will be an older Kindergartener, turning 6 right when school starts. We feel she could use the structure and exposure a traditional preschool gives versus learning at home with me.

Back to our decision…preschool is from 9:00-11:30 or 12:30-3:00 which makes it difficult (or impossible) for Troy to bring her and pick her up. We’ve chosen the morning option and having an employee of the daycare will allow me the freedom to bring her and pick her up from preschool. This freedom was the main motivator in choosing to hire an employee. It also allows me the freedom to do things during the day if needed. Right now my main support/backup for the daycare is Troy. He’s been great and the kids love him but it is difficult on our family to coordinate at times. It will be nice to not have to rely on him especially since it always means he needs to figure out his own work schedule to help out.

I’ve posted the position and have received several interested people. The next step is to figure out which ones are worth interviewing and go from there. Let’s hope I find a good fit for me and the daycare. It will be a big change for me but one I think will pay for itself. Not only will I benefit from some freedom during the day but the kids will also get extra attention. They always say two hands are better than one, so logically I’d have to say four hands should be better than two!

New kind of story time

Kids have loved hearing and reading stories for ages. My kids are no different. It is fun to see their imagination run wild when we are reading a story and especially fun to see them use the story in their play. As much as I love story time there are times during the day when I am just not able to sit and read them a story. One of these times is lunch time. I’m starving, the kids have ate and are wanting my attention. A story would surely keep them occupied but that doesn’t really work well with me trying to eat lunch. Technology to the rescue!

I downloaded some free story book apps on my phone and it is the biggest hit we’ve had lately in our family. Sevea requests to read a story at all times of the day. I love the concept since it is less t.v. time but yet still very entertaining. As you can see Cohen is a big fan of it as well. Now mom can eat lunch in peace and quiet :)

p.s. Notice Sevea gets cuddle time with her brother as well!!

Still cuddly

One of my favorite things about Cohen is he loves to cuddle. He isn’t a kid who can’t leave your side but definitely is a fan of cuddling when the mood strikes him. You’ll often find him leaning on mom or dad while watching t.v. or the cutest little hand just needing to touch your arm or leg. He still loves to lean his cheek to your cheek just like when he was a itty bitty baby. I’m hoping this need to be close to us at times won’t disappear as he grows up.

27 Weeks with #3

I am so excited to report that I passed the glucose screening test. Can I get a woo hoo?!?!?! This is the third time taking the test and I wasn’t holding out much hope that I would pass since I failed the first two times. I knew I could pass since the midwife I saw at my last visit had four kids and passed twice and failed twice. So I had some hope going in but my intentions of eating protein and limiting my carbs before the test didn’t really work out. Then when talking to my doctor at my appointment she asked if I ate carbs at lunch. Immediate thought of failure ran through my head. The main part of my lunch was a chicken breast but I did have some cabbage ramen noodle salad and some fruit cool whip salad that was leftover from the weekend. Oh and did I forget to mention a monster cookie. Oh yeah that too. I certainly know there were a few carbs in those choices. I received an email later than night that I had test results waiting to be seen (I love online test results!!) well it was only the hemoglobin test result, which was fine. In the morning I checked my phone and saw an email had arrived letting me know my other test result was ready. I was pretty shocked to see the number 130. You need to have under 135 to not be required to take the 3 hour test. I had staring trying to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, It was interesting to see my result with Cohen which was 148. I wouldn’t have minded the 3 hours to do some reading but those waiting room chairs really make it hard to get comfy!

After my appointment I got a feeling that the baby was a boy. It might have to do with finding out another person is expecting a boy (the lab technician is due 3 days before me). I might be feeling like this is the time for boys. The baby’s heartbeat was lower again this appointment. The last two appointments the heartbeat has dropped from 150-160’s to 130-140’s. I know it is purely an old wives tale but under 140 for heartbeat is supposed to mean boy. (This held true for the other two, Cohen was always lower in the 130-140’s and Sevea was always higher in the 150-160’s.) When I sit and really think about it though I still have no clue. And honestly as much as I wonder and REALLY REALLY want to know, I’m excited to have approximately 13 weeks left before we find out. With Sevea we really didn’t care since it was our first. With Cohen I had strong feelings it was a boy. But this time having one of each I thought I’d have more feelings as to which it was. I just don’t and really that makes this time even more fun to wait until the baby comes.

No other news to report. I am feeling good and excited to be in the final trimester. I’m trying to remind myself these next 3 months will go very quickly with it being summer. I’m trying to savor all the time I can with the two kids we have and the “easy” life we have before sleepless nights and extra work of an infant are upon us.

Next appointment Friday May 31st.