Saturday = Fun Day

This past Saturday was awesome! We started the day by heading up to the Children's Museum. We started in Lego Land. There were incredible displays and different areas to build your own lego creations, including one with super huge legos. I thought for sure Nate would love that one, but instead he just ran around the exhibit like a crazy person, not playing with one single block. He did stop to check out the train, but then it was on to the Potato Head exhibit. This was much more interactive and we spent a lot of time there. He ran around a lot but stopped to play with the different stations and even tried building his own Mr. Potato Head! After a quick walk through the dragon center and stopping for lunch, we finished at Playscape-his favorite room. He spends most of the time at the sand table. He did want to play at the water table but refuses to put on the apron so he doesn't get to play there. This room is perfect right now because Maddie finally was able to get out of the stroller and play too! She had a ball crawling around and playing with the other babies.

We went home and decided that since it was such a beautiful day, we wanted to keep going. So we got the bikes out and hit the bike trails (we really need a map to figure out where they all go!). The kids love this and it's great to be out in the fresh air! We got a pizza for dinner and headed home. After we put the kids to be we even watched a movie (this is rare!).



It seems like recently the weekends have been ruined with drill or kid meltdowns or other things that just make the weekend not feel so good. This is exactly what we needed. We all had such a good time the WHOLE day!

Spring Break

The last couple of weeks have been long weeks. I usually get together for a playdate once a week with my friend Sara and her kids, but the week before her kids were sick, and then last week Nate ran a fever (turned out to be nothing but thought it best to cancel since I wasn't sure what was going on). This also meant Nate only went to CMO once last week.

No CMO this week and no playdate because Sara's son is sick again (which let me say, really throws me off not seeing them every week!) I thought that this would be a horrible week. However, the weather has been beautiful so we have been able to spend some time everyday outside (or as Nate calls it outshide, not sure where the "sh" sound came in). So that has helped a lot. We have ran errands, went to the park, and visited Daddy at work. The best part was finally getting the carrier seats on the bicycles! We took a short ride through the neighborhood yesterday for a test run and it went great! Both kids really seemed to enjoy it. I am super excited about being able to ride the bikes again. We are going to finish up the week at the Children's Museum on Saturday, which should be a lot of fun.

I look forward to seeing the Herter's again and Nate returning to CMO, but all in all, spring break has been a good week!

Progress

Progress, even if once, is good enough for me. In the last couple of weeks Nate has done much better when I drop him off at CMO. He runs to go play without even a good-bye. I'm so happy that he loves it there and knows that I always come back to pick him up.

The BIG moment of progress happened in the bathroom. I told Nate I was going to go pee-pee in the potty. He told me he had to too, and so I took him in there, set him on the potty seat and 3 little dribbles of pee came out! Now, I have been told that this does not count, which is fine, but I am still super duper excited. It was the first time he acknowledged wanting to use the toilet and actually doing so, even if it was just a couple drops. He was very excited about it. And that's where it ends. :) But, hey, it's a start!

There's also progress between Nate and Maddie. As she gets older and can interact more, Nate seems to really be taking to her. He tries to make her smile and laugh and now they play together, which is mostly just rolling around on the ground together, giggling. It's adorable.

It doesn't seem like great strides, but I'll take these little ones. I know as they keep getting older it's going to be exciting (and easier!). A little progress at a time...

New Clothes

I apologize in advance for anything that you are about to read that you really don't want to. In addition to keeping family up to date on us, I use the blog as a family journal, keeping track of our lives, so I can remember it always. Because of that, the blog will contain good, bad, and of course the ugly.

Poop. My kids poop like no other. I literally have at least one outfit soaking in the sink every single day. Maddie cannot poop without it being a blow out. I have gotten very used to this, because Nate was the same way as a baby. And actually, still has some good blow outs.

So, when I picked up Nate from CMO last Thursday and found him in a new outfit, all I could think is, oh no. He pooped. Surprisingly, I was wrong. He had taken the cover of his sippie cup off and before the teacher could get to him, he dumped his milk all down his clothes. I think I said things like "oh no" and "thank you so much for changing him" and "sorry he dumped his milk" but all I was thinking was "Thank God! It was not poop!". And I'm sure if anyone at CMO has to change one of his dirty diapers, they will welcome a little spilled milk. :)

7 Months

Our little Madelyn is 7 months old! She still seems little, as compared to Nate, but now she is sitting up on her own and she can scoot all over the place, it makes her feel less like a baby and more like she's becoming a big girl. Although it's all very exciting!

In the past week she has slept so well at night, only getting up twice to eat (usually around midnight and 4am). She still has some rough nights, like last night, which she gets up every 2 hours. I hope that she continues sleeping well and maybe we can get down to one feeding per night soon. I haven't found out that when she is ready to sleep longer, she will. I have tried in the past to let her cry it out so that she will get out of the habit of getting up every 2 hours, but it doesn't work. Her sleeping patterns now are a result of her own will. So I will continue to just "go with it". I think if she's a year old and still getting up I will work on it then, but hopefully it won't come to that.

She still sucks the food off the spoon instead of opening her mouth to eat. She purses her lips just a bit (not enough to shove the spoon in) and then sucks the food off the spoon. It's really quite funny to see. She absolutely loves vegetables and hates fruit. I have never seen anything like it. She will eat peas and green beans before she will eat apples or mangoes. I have tried and tried and she will take a couple bites and then just start spitting if I try to give her anymore. It has become a waste and I think I'm going to lay off the fruits for awhile. We'll try them again in a month or so. She started eating graham crackers and loves them! It's a mess because she just gnaws on them until they're soggy and gets all over.

She had her first bath in the big tub with Nate. It was done out of necessity, because Michael had a conference call (normally he bathes Nate and I bathe Mad in a baby tub in our bathroom) one evening last week and so I needed to get both of them done and didn't want to do two separate baths. She did so well! She did fall back a couple of times but I was right there so it wasn't a big deal. Nate thought it was the best thing ever and just kept giggling and looking at her. Now he requests her to take a bath with him. It's so cute.

And she's still a wonderful baby, so happy and content. I can't believe we are past the half-year mark with her! It is going by so fast!

Babysitting the Boys

Saturday after the retreat, Jaime and the boys came up. Her and Jeremy were going to a military ball that night and I was going to watch the boys for them. It all went so well! I think the most stressful part was doing Jaime's hair and worrying that I wouldn't be able to make it look good. But after I helped with her hair and make-up, they were on their way.

We played and read books and watched movies. It all went surprisingly smooth. I even managed to get them all bathed and in pajamas by the time Michael got home from drill. I think it just gets easier the older they get. I am really looking forward to the months and years ahead, watching them grow up together. And honestly, watching four kids on a Saturday night is not my first pick, but since we don't live as close as I'd like, I am so happy for these moments that our kids get to spend time together and I get to spend time with them.

Finally Free

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to a women's retreat, called Finally Free. This was a blessing for so many reasons. First, this was a drill weekend, which are usually long weekends, so I was able to do this and it helped the weekend pass wonderfully. Second, there was childcare. This was the real bonus, because without it and Michael working, I wouldn't have been able to attend. The childcare was awesome. I had no worries with Nate. He took to some of the older kids that were there to help right away, chasing and being chased around. Maddie was my real concern. Except for a handful of date nights that lasted about an hour or two, she is always with Mommy. And she is a terrible Momma's girl. Sometimes I can't even leave the room and she goes nuts. She will be playing fine and see me pass through and start crying. It's ridiculous. But she did so well and the woman there was stupendous, really making me feel at ease to leave her (it was probably as hard for me). I was glad I was in the same building, as this helped ease the pain of leaving her for so long (6 hours). I was only paged out 3 times, and one of them was to feed her. The other two times she was hysterical, but once I got her calmed down and playing again, she was fine.

The retreat was amazing. This was the third and biggest blessing. I'm not going to go into details about my personal experience with it, but if you want to know more about Finally Free then go here: http://taborministries.org/. I will say this about it; I feel like I have a new sense of clarity and a fresh outlook. It has made me view a few different areas in my life differently and I am so happy that I was able to experience this. God is good!