Skinny Kids

My kids are tall and skinny. I wonder where they got that from??

The Blobster went to the doctor last week and we got his growth chart. He is now almost 25 lbs and 36 1/2" tall. That puts him in the 92% for height and 24% for weight. 

He was even skinny as a baby. 

The Sweet Pea is in the 86% for height and 33% for weight. I think that is pretty impressive since she was a premie. She is obviously healthy now. 

She only weighed 5lbs 12oz when she was born.

Funny Things Kids Say

The Blobster is expanding his vocabulary every day and will repeat ANYTHING we say (so we have to be careful). One of the funny things he has started doing is when he gets frustrated or is doing something he isn’t supposed to be doing (ex. throwing his toys), he yells “Matthew”. That is his middle name. So he hears me say his full name and now he thinks it’s a curse word. It makes me giggle.

Recently we were in the car and the Sweet Pea started coughing. I asked, hypothetically, if she was going to choke and die. He was very serious and repeated “choke and die” over and over for a while. Oops, I probably shouldn’t say those things. But it did make me giggle.

One of the cute things he is saying is, “Right There” very emphatically when he is pointing to anything. I.e. where do you want a kiss? Pointing to his cheek, loudly saying “Right There”! Where is the bug? “Right There”! Where should I put your snack? “Right There”! At night he wants me to lay down next to him “Right There”!, pointing to the pillow next to him. It makes me giggle.

He is now saying his name pretty well, but just a few weeks ago he was struggling with it. Apparently G’s are hard letters to pronounce. For some reason when he tried to say Gage it very clearly sounded like Dave. The first time he did it, I looked at Goatee Man and introduced him to his son, Dave. It made me giggle. 

Hair Cut

 Before haircut, yesterday.

 Wow, look how messy it was!

 After haircut, today.

Look at my handsome boy!
I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

Music Class

Yesterday was the last day of a 10-week music class for the Blobster. He loves to listen to the music we got for the class…he often asks for “Wiggle Music” as he calls it. He likes to dance and at class his favorite part is playing the instruments.  At nighttime he now tries to sing some of the songs with me, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It’s pretty cute to see him trying to figure it out.

As a parent it’s hard to know sometimes how to direct my children.  At this point the Blobster is interested in everything… music, art, sports, reading, you name it. The question is: do I put him in activities which I value, or ones that I see he has the most fun at? Do I put him in classes for him to learn something, or just playgroups where he can have fun?

So far I haven’t found a rock-throwing group, which is probably what he would like to do the most. Do you think there are any future career options for him with rock throwing? Humm…

My cute, blue-eyed boy

Random Observations

1. Pink ballet inspired socks don’t stay on feet any better than the plain white ones


2. English Breakfast tea doesn’t last very long at our house


3. Store bought cookies are never as good as homemade



4. Making a fort is fun no matter how old you are



5. Sod can be laid in a small backyard very quickly when several people help

Diapering in the Dark

Isn’t that a song? Oh wait…it’s Dancing in the Dark. That’s different.

I have recently moved the Sweet Pea into the Blobster’s room. She now has the big crib because her feet were hitting the end of the bassinet. And that means we had to get a new bed for the Blobster. He loves having a ‘big boy’ bed.

Here we are reading before bedtime on the Blobster's new bed. It is a bunk bed which will come in handy when the Sweet Pea outgrows the crib. 

But now that they are together in the same room it means that I’m going in there to feed and change Sweet Pea in the middle of the night. In an effort to not wake up the Blobster, I don’t turn on the light. Let’s face it, I don’t want to wake up any more than I have to either. The nursing part is mostly up to Sweet Pea…all I have to do is sit there and burp her when she is done. So that is easily done in the dark, but the diapering part is all up to me. As much as I wish she could climb up onto the changing table and do it herself, somehow I just don’t think that is going to happen. Sigh...

So I have a method to diapering and follow the same pattern every time so that I can pretty much do it with my eyes closed. I mean, come on, I’ve been doing it for 2 years; I should be pretty good at it by now.

Undo the millions of snaps on her sleeper. Undo the velcro on the cover, undo the Snappi – put it in the same spot as usual so I can find it again, put the dirty diaper in the pail, new diaper on – twisted just so and folded down, Snappi on, new cover on. 

Redo all the millions of snaps on the sleeper. 

So now I’m sneaking around diapering in the dark. Oh, and the Blobster still wakes up.

Here is a picture of what he should be doing... sleeping.

Some crazy math… let’s say I’ve changed an average of 7 diapers per day for 25 months. That’s 5,250 diapers. And that doesn’t take into account the 12+ diapers a day for a newborn or the overlap of diapering when I had 2 kids in diapers before the Blobster potty trained. That sure makes me glad we are using cloth diapers. If we had used disposables we would have spent over $1,800 so far. It’s hard to say how much all our cloth diapers cost because most of them were generously given to us by family and friends, but my estimate is about $600-$700. And now that Sweet Pea is reusing the same diapers we got for the Blobster, we are saving even more. 

And they are really cute. I’m just sayin’

These are her colorful diaper covers. 

Recent Happenings

I apparently have a few events to catch up on. Mother's Day, Easter, and my friend Jen's visit. I just uploaded the photos from my camera and realized I haven't posted anything recently. So I will get you caught up with the most current events in my life.

Mother's Day:

This is a photo of the girls...my sister, my mom, the Sweet Pea, and me. We had lunch at our house to celebrate both my mom and Goatee Man's mom.

There he is with his mom; the lovely lady. 

 Here's my sister again with the Sweet Pea.

 And the Sweet Pea again. Isn't she cute?

The Goatee Man helped celebrate my motherhood on Saturday night with a lovely dinner and flowers. Then he made breakfast (with help from the Blobster) for me in bed. The Blobster even picked some dandelions for me. He was so proud of himself. It was so cute.

Easter:

We had Easter baskets for the kids at breakfast. Then we went to church, and were able to sit through the whole service without being called out to attend to our children in the nursery. That is a rare occurrence. What a nice treat!

Then we went to my mom's house for Easter lunch. Goatee Man's parent's also came, as well as Isabelle, a wonderful family friend. We had a nice, relaxed time and wonderful food.

Here is my mom with Sweet Pea. 

Here is Goatee Man's dad with Sweet Pea. 

I didn't get any other pictures that day. I really wanted a family photo (we were after all, dressed up so nicely), but it didn't happen. It is getting really difficult to capture the Blobster in photos. 

He moves too much. 

Jen's Visit:

One of my best friends moved to St. Louis a few years ago, and she came into town for a visit recently. It was so nice to see her. We didn't do anything exciting. It is too difficult to get out and about with 2 kids these days. But we were able to sit and talk for a long time. It didn't feel like any time had passed since she left. We were able to talk just like old times. 

Except we were often interrupted by the Blobster. 

And we weren't sitting at Champs with beer/wine and appetizers. That was what we used to do after work regularly. Ah...those were the times. 

Anyway...

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many photos of her visit here, and most of them didn't turn out very well. So, sorry Jen, this is the best I have. 

 Jen was bouncing the Sweet Pea to keep her from crying. 

It didn't work.