Baby R and Cousin C's birthday weekend~!

I'll try to update this over the weekend, as it'll be a bit nuts. At least the hubby will be home all weekend! I had completely forgotten about that bit.

I totally didn't update it over the weekend, and now I'm just far to crazed to do anything, but all the birthdays were great!

So tired

Sleep has not been kind to us this last week. Almond likes waking up all night, starting as early as 3 hours after going to bed. Which is when we are usually just falling asleep. That might sound late, but it's not, because she's been going to bed early because she hasn't been taking satisfactory naps. So she goes to bed at 730, Peanut at 9, we wind down for an hour then go to bed and then she's up. Sigh. She's just sitting there in her crib now as we speak. Kicking. Trying to stay awake.

15 minutes later, she's asleep. Pacifier in her mouth. It's become a bit of a thing. Anything that will give her comfort these last few weeks we've heavily encouraged, and she's finally taken a liking to them.

If only she'd stay asleep. Just stay asleep. Hard to believe it wasn't long ago we were having issues with her naps being too good. Issues being I couldn't leave the house. Way better than this.

We were downtown at a island park area earlier in the week. Peanut had fun pretending every turn on the path was a lighthouse. And he learned about quicksand! Then we stopped at the playground where some older boys were playing. Peanut thought he was playing with them, but they politely just ignored him. He thought he was playing along, kind of a happy sad thing. I'm happy that he was having a good time of course, but just felt sad to me. I wish I had more friends his age I could call on.

Almond did well, I wore her the whole time and she was pretty cool just looking around. She really loves the swings though so she was happy when we stopped. I'm uploading the video I took there, you can see Peanut running around in the background some.

I really hope we get back to normal soon. We're halfway through her antibiotics. It should be pretty close to feeling good for her, they always say people think they're all the way better before they finish so they want to stop early. So yeah? She should be feeling good? Then why all the crying :( I know I have a lot of videos, but I think most of them are on the Hubby's phone. So here's the park, and I'll have to get his phone tonight to transfer the files. A little under an hour till I pick up Peanut from preschool, just 5 days left for him after today! Then the summer is free until 4k starts this fall. And the SCHOOLBUS! No more picking him up or dropping him off!! Not that it's this terrible thing to do, but it's inconvenient when Almond just wants to nap. Ya know. I actually am looking forward to walking him to school for Kindergarten. If we're still here. And I'm still a stay at home mom. You know, all those good things.

Allergies and Eardrums

Going to try to seriously catch up here.

Poor kiddos, they both have ear infections. Peanut is able to shrug his off with a nightly dose of Tylenol but Almond's eardrum burst :( We've had quite a few miserable days and nights. Maybe hopefully last night was the last? 5 wakeups from her, and Peanut woke up early. So tired, so many bad nights in a row.

The good news is other than one really awful day, she's mostly happy during the day. She's pulling to standing like a pro, still pretty shaky about cruising. But give her your hands and she'll waddle around for 20 minutes until collapsing if you let her.

Last night Peanut had a school party, he danced like a mad man. He was really shy at first, he doesn't have a whole lot of friends at school - he's my dreamer, always lost in his own little world. But once he warmed up and the kids started whipping around their glowsticks like lightsabers, he was willing to engage kids. Which was sweet to see. Almond enjoyed the first half of the the dance party, but she was tired and the floor was cold to crawl on. But we handed her back and forth to keep her entertained and Peanut also won a big thing of sidewalk chalk. Of course when we showed him that he was upset that he didn't win one of the cooler toys.... oh well, he'll enjoy it. He got a little interested when we reminded him he could draw all the planets with that many colors.

They play good sometimes, but now he's getting upset when she wants to play with him and he's got something special. Also he's getting jealous that she has toys that he's not supposed to play with. He likes to use her toys to make calderas for volcanoes.

Right now Peanut is building his wooden train tracks on the big table down here in the playroom. Next to his giant block volcano and multiple lighthouses. Up high away from Almond. He doesn't like that now she can get up to his train table. We'll find some fun stuff that can go up there the next few months before we can trust her not to just automatically dismantle everything he sets up.

We had our yearly village wide garage sale trip the beginning of the month. We did fairly well, got lots of clothes for both kids, though a lot of what I found for Peanut were 6-7. So a little big right now. Well, a lot for the 7, heh. We found her the table pictured above, as we gave our old table to E when he was a baby. And now Baby N can enjoy it, and that's cool. This one is quiet but glows, so that's a nice quiet change. Peanut picked out some space books, some cars and a tank. Gma picked up a few toys for Almond to play with at her house and we got her a pink rocking horse. In a month or so she's going to love that, once she gets more steady on her feet. Still missing a few things, but we have all summer to find them. Of course I spent the last two weekends not garage saling as things have just seemed pretty hectic. Like today, I was exhuasted earlier, everything got crazy at lunchtime because we were trying to get Peanut to the library for a lego party, and of course all of us ate different things today.

For Mothers' Day, the three of them went off on a bike ride to give me a little time to myself. Got some project type stuff done and a little rest in, it was nice, and apparently the kids did really well so it can happen again (and again and again...).

I think that's pretty good for an update. She's napping again now as I type this up, and I have to fold laundry and finish cleaning the kitchen. With her ear she may not nap long, hopefully I can prolong it if she wakes up early though. Keep your fingers crossed for me, if nothing else that I get stuff done today.

My little crawler

Almond started crawling 2 days ago. I had taken her inside to change her diaper, decided her drooled on clothes were damp enough to need an outfit change, put on a new top and was looking for pants when I saw her eagerly try to get at the iPad on the floor (her white noise). So I tried scooting it far enough away that she couldn't just belly flop, but there wasn't enough space. So I unplugged it and pulled it to the middle of the room. The cord was still towards her, and as I tugged it away, THAT was what finally did it. The thrill of the chase of the power cord got her to take her first crawling pace. Plus... I had my camera rolling!

Since then she's still pretty cautious about it. She isn't crawling very fast or very far yet, though being in the play room gets her the most giddy to practice (all of Peanut's planets!).

We had to lower her crib mattress down too, shes can get seated in her crib now, and she's interested in pulling up... sooooooo yeah. Down it went. Need to find a new place for the monitor now, we can't really see her face.

She's also PRO at her walker. We put her in it while we're playing the front yard to keep her entertained and away from eating rocks and stuff... but she definitely requires much supervision now.

Cutie pie!

Peanut has been big into worms and volcanoes along with his other normal stuff. He has a tupperware type container filled with compost and worms, and he distributes them around as he likes. Then he has a cardboard box that is their "home" in-between getting new homes. He's really really into it. Plus here he is flying a kite. He drops the string still a lot, but he was getting into it here. He was playing at the neighbor's yesterday and he fell down and scraped his finger. He's very concened about it, about losing blood, about keeping a bandaid on it, about checking on it. Trying to teach him to be calm about it, silly kid. He wants a new bandaid every 5 minutes. Sigh. Well, he's on bandaid 3 so far so we do give in every now and again obviously. He's also been dressed every morning when we go downstairs. So that's a neat little change, we'll see how long he keeps that up. Of course that meant he's not in Star Wars today as he doesn't know about May the 4th. But hey, oh well :)

She's rubbing her eyes

Oh man, she's supposed to still be napping!! Is she awake? Is she asleep? She's definitely awake. Kicking the crib in protest of not sleeping any longer. So much for blogging! Here is a picture anyways. She's eating spaghetti squash. Toodleloo!

2 days in a row! Gung ho!

She slept great last night, Hubby's home today, I'm going to get some memory making done! AKA... actually working on the scrap book type stuff. And getting a little blogging in. That kind of stuff. She's been asleep for 15 minutes, I'm really hoping she'll nap longer than 30 minutes. But if she doesn't... we're going to try keeping her up 2.5-3 hours this time. I'll have to do the math to decide for sure. MATH! BET YOU DIDN'T THINK YOU'D NEED THAT AFTER HIGHSCHOOL! BECAUSE CALCULATING HOW LONG SHE'LL BE AWAKE THE LAST STRETCH IS SUPER DIFFICULT.

Ahem.

Not the nicest day today, ONLY 52. But it's supposed to get sunnier so we'll try doing outside stuff. Cleaning the garage, blowing up his basketball hoop and the like. I need to make a list and make sure I accomplish stuff.

Haven't gotten her to roll back to belly yet today so that's on the list too. We're trying to get her to do that at least once a day, and also get her to push off our hands to scoot forward. We're really gung ho into ruining everything by making her mobile :D

Also potatoes tonight! And now that dairy has been CONFIRMED we're going to get gung ho on my diet today. Way to go girl, making life easier on us all :D :D

Whelp, better go get something done before picking up the boy from school. He's grounded. He's been very strong willed/negative/refusing to listen. So grounded from video games. But he's been testing it, he's only listening a little, but he knows that the wooden trains go next. Actually they might go anyways, temporarily, we've got a carpet cleaner to use. I don't think we're doing that today though, I'd like it to be a spectacular day so the windows can be opened... then again there's no guarantee we'll have a better day than today with both of us home. Which is pretty much needed, one to watch the kids the other to do the damn thing.

Oy. Didn't I say something about going?

Bathtime!

Ugh, well first of all I'm sitting here with her monitor cranked to max because I keep hearing these *glug glug glug* sounds while in the living room. I don't see how it could be from her humidifier and be that loud, I even hung out in the hallway for 10 minutes listening. I don't know what to think but if I can verify it's from her room only then will I risk entering to fix it.

... It's been awhile now and nothing. So I'm guessing it's something else in the house. Well that's just weird. ANYWAYS we got some sticky things for the bottom of the tub! She's outgrown her baby bathtub and we've been having to lean over anyways to keep her from lunging into the tub with Peanut. So tonight I sat her down on the sticky things and she did amazing! She had a blast playing like such a big girl.

She's been adjusting to dairy, which has been pretty awesome. She hasn't been napping great, but I don't think it's the food. We're going to try extending awake times to help... but I don't know how that'll go. She was up longer tonight, so far so good on that. KMFX!!!

Half Birthday!

Happy half birthday my sweet little Almond! She sure had a lot to say about it, from the minute the clock struck the day. OMG last night sucked. Not sure if it was just a random bad night or she HATED my one cookie with soy lecthin in it. We'll give it a few more night and try another cookie. I'm really hoping it wasn't. I really want her to grow out of this shit. I'm not saying I want to douse my food in soy sauce, but it'd be nice to not have to be so super careful. Dang, I'm amazed today is going by so fast. After so little sleep I expected the morning to craaaaaaaawl.

We have tons to do today. If nothing else pictures! Pictures of my half birthday girl! We'll have a little party for her on Saturday. Which will mainly be a little fruit dessert or something when my parents drop off the boy from his sleepover. SO HAPPY to have them back! If nothing else, if tonight goes on repeat, at least Friday night we won't have Peanut sticking his head in as well.

Oy, I really should go clean or something... but sleepy...

Snuggly kids

Peanut has been extra snuggly lately with us, including Almond. They're becoming real good pals with each other. When she gets fussy I go ask him to show her some of his toys, and it usually works :) She's a tad bit bigger now after a growth spurt... though I feel like this isn't it. I have a bad feeling she's going to grow a bit more. She's done that in previous spurts... we'll see.

Almond has been learning to fall asleep in her crib... however it went poorly this morning. But last night she slept 10 hours straight, so that's great! She's eating peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, rice and chicken stock. Yum yum!

Today is the hubby's half birthday, we're going to celebrate with strawberry cheesecake and a trip to the mountain. Peanut insisted on the latter... and the former, actually. He helped me make the cheesecake last night, now I have to make the strawberry topping. I also should go get the boy outside, it's already 43!

Picture dump!

The snowman is a goner today.

Teaching her the iPad

One last sledding in before it all melts

RSV

We've had a few weeks of illness here. We all were slightly sick a few weeks ago, then last week Peanut was very sick, fever all week, then this week Almond came down with RSV. Thank goodness warmer weather is here ( 36 today, 40s this weekend!)

Their grandparents are still off visiting the Texan family. 1.5 weeks into their vacation. We're hoping they'll be back by her half birthday. But today is MY half birthday, hooray!

We're pretty excited, I'm soon going to grab the mailbox for her to play with. We're talking like REAL toys now. Not just jamming things in her mouth, but we think she'll be able to activate the music on the spinner thing. Only one way to find out, right :) It's weird to think about the next few months. Crawling? Finger foods? Standing/Crusing? Holy shit it's going to start moving fast now. Yesterday you could see her brain spinning trying to figure out if she could manage to lunge at the cat. She loooooooooves that cats.

Peanut is mostly still into the same stuff. He wants to make some leaves for his stuffed 'wild turtle' to eat though. So that's a plan for today. I do owe him some quarters, he did listen yesterday and helped me clean a bit yesterday. He's been pretty needy. If we're not in the room he gets scared and will follow me around instead of staying and playing if I need to change her diaper or whatever. That also means when I'm trying to get her to nap as well, which has been... swell...

We're talking about trying sweet potatoes today! We'll all just  eat them today and enjoy :) Which reminds me she hasn't had any solids yet this morning... I could suggest hubby goes feeds her some beans or I could pump... Oy, decisions.

So we tried the mailbox. She didn't quite get it, but that's ok :) I'm thinking in the next month she'll get very into it, just still a little young yet. Peanut enjoyed it terribly.

Ok, little update done! Better than no update :)

Almond at the clinic. She ripped the crinkly paper to shreds while we waited! I know I don't post as many pictures of Peanut but he's been refusing to smile/pose lately. Sigh.

5 months!

The girl is 5 months. Time both goes slowly and flies. The hall bathroom got repaired. Peanut had show and tell, he brought in a Canadian National, a book and a picture of his Enterprise cake. Almond is sitting up independently. We all got sick. The kids are sick again. Peanut very very sick. Fever, cold, stomach pains. Almond kept waking up 8-12 then I was up with Peanut 1230-630 or so. They're both asleep right now... at 9 in the morning.

But when they're healthy both kids play really well together. Peanut enjoys playing snow plow train outside, it's a crap week this week so hopefully we're all better next week. When the weather is much nicer.

But next week we'll be in the 30s. But no Grandparents, they've gone off to visit the rest of the family for the rest of the month. So jealous, I'd rather be in 70s then dreaming of just getting into the 30s.

Almond tried avocado and carrots. She reacted poorly to the both of them :( That's exactly what our little family needs. No tree nuts, meat, wheat and now latex foods? We don't eat much. Once we're a little bit more on our game we're going to see about getting her tested. I'm now eating even less, but actually now that I'm avoiding like the potatoes and grapes too, she actually had a normal BF diaper. I very rarely see those, maybe we're finally onto something. I can hope. And maybe after we get her tested we'll find out I CAN have dairy, and it was just coincidence that she improved upon taking them out.

Hey, I can hope.

It's January!

Peanut was sssssssssssuper excited this year about Christmas this year! The Santa stuff, the presents, the cookies, the everything :) It was so much fun to see.

Really he's just super excited about life, which makes it all doubly as great.

Almond is doing great at sitting and smiling, she's our little ham.

So far so good on the health front, I'm still waiting for the illnesses to start, but he's been back in school a few weeks and nothing. Maybe his immune system has advanced. She's been a terrible fuss pot the last few days. Hopefully it's just from her vaccinations on Thursday. Almond is 4 months 2 weeks today.