Cohen, age 4

We all know how much a child changes in that first year of their life. It is incredible to think about how different they are on day 1 versus day 365. When it comes to Cohen, I think these past 365 days are almost as incredible as that first year. We he turned 3 we were really happy that he would use one or two words to tell us what he wanted or he would copy that many words someone said. At age 4 he talks like most kids his age. Over this past year he has improved little by little and we couldn’t be more proud. For his well-child visit the only area he needed work on was his fine motor skills which is exactly the only area we felt he needed to improve in. This is one area they plan to work more on when he goes back to preschool soon. He’ll be going for 4 days this year in the morning for 2.5 hours with only one of those days in a special class to work on his weaknesses. I feel like they will be really happy with the progress he’s made over the summer.

And I think he’s ready to go back to school. He’s entering a new phase of shutting down and letting out a high pitch screech which we all find super fun. I guess in some ways this is a regression since it’s very similar to his rocking back and forth. But this time he does it because he is upset. I think he does it because it makes us super irritated. Having a school routine back will help as well as the challenge or variety school provides.

Even though we have some very frustrating moments with Cohen, in general he is still our lovable fun loving kid. He makes us laugh daily. He is really into making you laugh. Which made it hard trying to get answers to my questions. He just wanted to be silly. But you’ll get a good idea of Cohen at age 4.

Cohen’s 20 questions – age 4

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy? Teenage Ninja Turtles (I’d say it is actually cars)

3. What is your favorite tv show or movie? Minions and the Transformers at the movie (He never went to those movies at the theater, haha!)

4. What is your favorite breakfast? pancakes, cereal, waffles, donuts (really breakfast is his favorite meal of the day, anything sweet and carb-filled is a favorite for him)

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Grilled Cheese (This is the one thing we can count on him eating)

6. What is your favorite snack? M&Ms

7. What is your favorite outfit? Superman boys (he loves character t-shirts and always picks them out to wear if he can)

8. What is your favorite game? Superman and Spiderman game (I’m not sure there is such a thing besides playing pretend…he really loves playing on phones and can’t get enough of watching youtube videos of people opening gifts and playing with toys)

9. What is your favorite animal? Tigers

10. What is your favorite song? What does the fox say? (If you have been around Cohen at all this summer you have heard this song numerous times…thankfully it is losing its appeal as of late)

11. Who is your best friend? Grayson and Leo and Weston

12. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the snow (He really loves to swing. He usually loves to sit in the baby swings but he just learned to pump and hopefully he’ll take to the normal swings soon)

13. What is your favorite drink? Apple juice and water and milk

14. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween (minions to be exact)

15. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? orange bunny (He was being funny. He takes a blue bunny and blue blanket to bed but he now wants them to be superman bunny and blanket with just blue and a red cape)

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? Superman or Avengers

17. What is your favorite thing about your older sister? She’s a bat. I like she plays with Grace. About your younger sister? I like that she’s a baby.

18. What do you love about yourself? I’m spiderman.

19. What’s your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Ride a horse on daddy (who doesn’t love horse rides given by your dad!)

20. What’s your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Playing with the bubbles and the water (glad he enjoys bathtime!)

Brynna, 2 years old

Brynna is 2 going on 5. When I look at her I can’t even believe she’s 2. But when I watch her and listen to her so many times I can’t believe she’s only 2. She is so small which isn’t new for our kids. She weighed in at 26 lbs 3 oz (44%) and was 32.75 inches (29%). She is 2.25 inches taller than Sevea was at this age but yet is still short compared to other kids her age. And that belly reminds me that she still looks more like a baby than a little girl.

But boy does she not act like a baby. As you can see she wants to be a big kid and undress herself. Even if it is not really appropriate to do so. Thankfully this little stage was short lived for the most part. It was an everyday occurrence for a little bit where she would just randomly take off her clothes. This independence is really great sometimes and as she continues to grow and get better at doing these things it will be very nice. It really helps for things like potty training…which we have started as well. I’ll leave that for another post but spoiler alert…she’s doing really good!

It isn’t surprising to us though because she just seems more ready for big kid things than the other two did at this age. Rather than play side by side with the other kids she really gets playing with them. She gets the whole pretend play thing they do and joins in most times with ease. She still really enjoys reading books and gets really excited to pick one out at bedtime. She sits really well for her age at circle time too. She climbs, jumps, skips, and just gets into things more than the other two did. I do think part of it is because she is the third child and she sees everything they do and copies but I also think she just has that independent gene in her.

I try to remind myself of all the positive things that come out of her acting more “old” for her age. Because we certainly struggle with frustrating times because of her independence or “old soul”. The other two just went with what we said most times and we had few battles. Totally different story with her. Her communication skills are more advanced than we experienced with the other two as well. So while this is a benefit at times since she can ask us more or tell us more, she also gets more upset when we don’t give her what she wants. After dealing with Cohen’s speech delay the amount of talking she does is a breath of fresh air. We soak it all in for sure.

Apart of me thought once we knew for sure she would be our last that I would have a hard time with her growing up. Thankfully it has been the exact opposite. Since she acts older I think the whole big family feel happened sooner. It means she joins in more things. I think she really sealed the deal on us just having three kids because she really completes the family. We are moving past the baby stage and toddler stage and going full force into preschooler and school age. It is nice. Thankfully I can embrace all of this because whether I was ready or not, there is no stop button on time and I can’t do a thing to keep her my baby.

Out of the box thinking

The imagination of kids can really amaze you. So often they think outside the box and do things in ways we wouldn’t even think about. Take for example Cohen trying to find toys underneath the dark couch. He says he needs a flashlight yet there isn’t one around. He finds a good replacement though. Great thinking buddy!! And hey I don’t mind you cleaning out under the couch either!

Party for 3

With summer time being so busy and with three kiddos having birthday’s in the late summer, we decided to celebrate all of them at once. The end result was a morning filled with fun times with family and friends. The kids felt loved and this momma really enjoyed the laid back party. Since it was a party for all three I had a really hard time trying to do a theme or combining themes. I decided to give myself a break and go the simple route and do the basics of food and favors. The kids didn’t care. The adults surely didn’t care…might have been because I used that money savings on some champagne and orange juice! It was a great reminder that the celebration truly is about the people and not the decorations or the themed food or anything else.

Party planning can get overwhelming and I tend to stress about everything turning out the way I have envisioned in my head. Taking a step back was so great because I let that all go and the kids go to help where they could. For the favors I had and helped each kid pick out 2 of their favorite things to give to their guests. Then we filled the bags. As simple as this task is and I could have easily got it done so much quicker, the kids really enjoyed doing it.

The one part of the party I still kept “themed” was the birthday cakes. I enjoy letting the kids pick out a cake design and attempting to make it. Thankfully they are pretty easily convinced on the easier designs. With my encouragement Sevea picked out a butterfly. The picture we found was so cute.

After getting the cake assembled, I was about to tackle decorating it when I thought to myself, why not let Sevea decorate her cake. She loves helping whenever she can and she jumped at the chance to decorate her cake. Did it turn out anything like the picture above, absolutely not. Did I love it more than the picture above? 100% yes. This whole birthday party was a big reminder for me to step back and just enjoy letting them be little. Let them help when possible and don’t fret the small stuff. Because then you get huge smiles and happy kids!

Speaking of happy kids, all three really loved the gifts they received and we are very thankful for such giving friends and family. The best gift is always them coming to celebrate. We enjoyed some brunch with the menu includingn fresh fruit, Jaime cake (monkey bread), biscuits and gravy casserole, and tater tot egg bake. All were delicious and definite ones I would make again (note on the tater tot recipe…I didn’t follow the veggies listed instead used peppers and mushrooms, and a can of green chilis. Make sure to season the tater tots too.)

After eating and opening gifts, it was time for the cake. Even though the party was a little smaller being it was just close friends and family, I still made three cakes. Each kid had to have their own you know! I made my favorite chocolate cake I always make, a Twinkie cake that I had done as cupcakes before and then an ice cream cake that is made with ice cream sandwiches. Each kid had their own cake to blow out the candles and for this year their ages equaled the number of letters in Happy Birthday. You gotta love Brynna’s famous mean mug. She sure can melt you with those smiles but boy that mean mug will surely make you laugh.

It’s really hard to believe that another year has passed and each one of these kids is a year older. I really try to take time around their birthdays to really think about how much has changed for them over the past year and for each of them they have grown and experienced so much. So instead of letting the sadness of my babies growing up settle on my heart, I let the joy settle in knowing that the next year is sure to hold many more fun and happy times. I just hope maybe time will listen this year and slow down just a tad!

Choices

It’s been a while since I talked anything food or fitness. Update on teaching classes….things are going well. I’ve become more and more comfortable the more I’ve taught. I’ve gotten good feedback and members aren’t running out the door on my days. I have completed and passed my group fitness certification which was a requirement to receive within the first six months of teaching. I’m currently teaching 4 times a week (5/6am Tuesday, 6am Wednesday, and 5am Friday) and sub for other times if needed. I haven’t felt burnt out yet but the early mornings wear on me. More so because I have a huge fear of not waking up. The alarm goes off every day whether I teach or not so I can’t figure out how to calm my brain down. I had my worst night yet waking up at 11:30 thinking it was 4:30 and got ready to go. Thankfully my brain started working before I actually left the house. However it left me restless the rest of the night. So besides the sleep issues, it’s going well.

Onto the food….I surely love me some not so healthy food. But I’ve tried to find ways to enjoy things I love that help me reach my goals. Eating out for me is one of the hardest times to keep my eating in check. To solve this issue I could just eat at home. However that never works for us. We enjoy going out. Enter making choices that leave me happy but keep me from blowing my day.

I love going out for breakfast. Probably because I feel like I can never make it at home quite as good. Or at least pancakes anyway. I never used to like pancakes but have grown to LOVE them from Perkins. A lot of it was because of the syrup and butter. So if I go to Perkin’s you better believe I am getting pancakes. Well the typical breakfast I get would be an omelet with pancakes on the side. A Granny’s country omelet with hasbrowns and pancakes clocks in at 1510 calories then add in just one serving of syrup (I probably double or triple that amount…pancakes soak it in!!) you add 140 calories. For just breakfast that equals 1650 or more calories, a whole day worth in one meal.

I feel like I’ve found a great alternative to my typical breakfast. I get the Classic Egg Favorites with egg beaters, 3 chicken apple sausage links, fresh fruit, and PANCAKES! Total for the meal is 665 calories adding 10 calories for each serving of sugar free syrup used. (Tip: switch to sugar free!! I started buying sugar free for my kids just because it is thinner and I felt like I had to use less. They don’t know any different. I have learned to love it myself. It saves so many calories!) I love this breakfast because I feel satisfied getting the one thing I go to Perkin’s for…those pancakes. But I also feel satisfied with the amount of food I get and the protein from the eggs and sausage really helps to balance out the meal making me full longer. You get a similar amount of food for under half the calories. Win win in my book. Now let’s be real…I still go and get my old favorites with butter and real syrup as well. But life is all about balance. Making better choices here and there definitely add up in the long run. Okay…who wants to go get some Perkin’s???

Gymnastics

After years of talking about gymnastics, we finally enrolled Sevea into a gymnastics class. I wish I would have done it sooner. She loves it! We finally bit the bullet and enrolled her at an actual Gymnastics center. The price wasn’t ideal since community centers are always cheaper but the equipment and what she can learn was definitely worth it. She looks like an actual gymnast (in-training) out there. The session is 8 weeks long and after every class we talk about how much she loves it and she is excited to continue with another session in the fall.

I’m excited we found something she is excited about. I love that it is something that will help her be active. She’s learning how to get some exercise while having fun. Love it! And she’s just so darn cute in that little outfit.