58 Years!

 Greg's grandparents - who probably are not appreciating this :)  - are celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary today! And one year ago today, they were traveling with us and family through the British Isles, hiking all over like they weren't "old" - all in the mind, right?!

 Here's to you Great-Nanny and Great-Pa!  Meghan talks about ya'll... did this blog post make you rush down to visit? :)

We are blessed to come from families with a heritage of happy, "til death do us part" marriages. Thank you for this wonderful example we have had set for us...  And happy early anniversary to my parents who will celebrate 43 years next month.  May our children look back and be able to include us in that heritage!  And that our great-grandchildren may remember us fondly as mine will remember their Great Nanny, Great Pa, and Grandma Nelson.

Mommy's Turn

 This is us.  The way we spend the majority of our time - a little team... one of us doesn't like to be away from Mommy... the other doesn't like the ensuing crying.  Work was stopped six weeks ago - one week before the big day and now five weeks into it.  We sit a lot as waking up happens frequently upon laying down to try to get things accomplish - not that I blame her!  Who would want to nurse fall asleep cozied up against mommy and then be put in a lonely bed?  The swing hasn't been used frequently as she isn't really a big fan unless already in a deep sleep when placed in there - not to be used in an effort to calm her down to fall asleep that's for sure.

 

Outings do happen, and they started at only a week old or so when Memma and Pop were still here usually in the sling - a good way to keep away all the germs and make eating/shopping/walking much easier.  Baby Katelynn has spent a lot more time in the sling than either of the siblings.

Nighttime routine usually consists of eating about every three hours on your schedule - if we are just sitting around all day, it tends to be more of an all day grazing.  Easily fall asleep in the car seat and stay asleep for two and a half hours without a problem.  Last daytime snack about 10-11 when she goes down in the playpen bassinette to be followed by waking up about 2-3 AM, length determined by how awake I manage to get you - this time usually in front of the living room TV watching a show while trying to stay awake.  Back in the playpen swaddled - the only way to sleep at night face up - until about 430 or 500 when Mommy crawls out of bed and baby goes in the bed, praying Daddy won't roll over on her!  We fall asleep as one of us eats and the other one tried to see in the dark.  Daddy, the wonderful helper that he is, has been getting up in the mornings and getting everyone ready while we try to get another hour or so of sleep... sometimes it works.

 Most of the daytime when home is spent in my bedroom in the rocking chair watching TV/reading/playing on the computer.   Lots of HGTV and cooking shows.  Liking having the Kindle this time around for easier one handed reading. 

 Recently, as typical with most third-time-around parents... it is a little more relaxed this time.  Tummy time is the solution.  All these rules (that are probably going to change sometime soon anyway as it's been a while since the last guideline) make it hard for babies to sleep!  You are allowes - already a rebel - to sleep on your belly during the daytime when Mommy is around.  It is nice to be able to shower and do things without carting around a baby afterall!

 These days are precious and moving way too quickly!  Sure would be nice to be able to find a job that would pay for mommies to just hold their babies as much as they want - all while maintaining the other household chores... and losing that baby weight (while sitting!) and not being completely bored and having a decent salary.... but oh if this mommy doesn't sure like all her job titles (PA included!) and pray for a way to keep them all balanced and in perspective.  Hard to not want to sit around and hold a cute little face like this.

I Won't Bite!

Old blog draft found 06/12 from 08/2010 and never published...

We had a resurgence of biting at daycare. Threatened eviction one week was stopped with spankings and lecturing; the next week, however, we got a little more aggressive. We've been biting for absolutely no reason. Teacher gives direction, we don't like it, and we go to the next kid and take a chunk out of the kids shoulder. Not to mention trying to bite the teacher. The result, next day we bite again - kicked out for two days. Spent these days stuck in our room entertaining ourselves. The second morning Daddy took Bubba to school, but Meghan had to stay in the car. "Go to school, Daddy. I won't bite!". A mantra Meghan has repeated multiple times since then.
The dialogue:
Who's the boss at home?
Momma. And Daddy.
Who is the boss at school?
Meghan.
No, try again.
Dunno.
Miss Carmen is the boss at school. And Miss Iris. And Miss Martha.
Who is the boss at school?
Dunno.... (this goes for a while)
Who is the boss at school?
Miss Carmen and teachers.
What do we say when they tell us to do something?
Dunno.
Try again.
Dunno.
We say "Yes Ma'am". What do we say?
Yes, Ma'am.

Lets just say we've had lots of conversations about bosses, biting, how we treat our friends, how much we like to play with our friends... Not to mention talking about how sad Mommy and Daddy are when Meghan is ugly. Mommy got home day one: "Do you know how is sad about Meghan being ugly?" "Daddy and Jesus. I want to give Daddy a hug." --- How can you argue with that? :)
We're working on it!

Entertaining Themselves...

 Cooper and Meghan have really started being even better buddies than before.  We haven't yet identified if this is just the age they are at now or if it's due to some neglect due to the newest addition - but either way, it's awesome to watch the two of them bond and play and depend on each other so much.  It helps that one likes to be bossy and the other just wants to be just like big sister.

 And it's not always a happy playing together.... but usually very well tolerated.  The latest game is hide and seek - or as we say, "ea-ear or not here I come!" (Meg).  Neither of them really seems to care about the way the game is actually supposed to go as they both decide on a good place to hide and instruct each other to hide there only to change roles after walking around pretending not to know where each other is for several seconds.  No actually hiding involved.  Lately, the best location to hide seems to be under our bed... not something I am willing to allow but so cute to hear Coop answer "I'm under here" that it's hard to say "No!".

 These days involve lots of playing outside. The backyard means sliding and kicking balls and swinging and playing with the t-ball set.  Front yard means playing with the neighbors (Jacob and Jerrica) if they are outside - and usurping all the fun toys they get to have like ride on 4-wheelers and motorcycles that we don't have... and playing with our own bikes and scooters and chalk.  They like to draw together on the driveway - sometimes drawing us food to "eat". Meghan told me that her favorite time of day at school is when she gets to play with her brother, and they love to go find each other at pick up time.  In several months, they will be in the same class at school - hopefully this will be a good thing and not to much of a good thing.

 Another favorite game is playing picnic and making supper in the kitchen upstairs inside.  Coop makes sure tell us we can't have our dessert unless we eat our supper.  Then again, I don't really know what all games are involved as the two of them just go play upstairs usually in Meghan's room.  It is so fun to watch the two of them interact and take on their individual personalities.

 As Meg is all about dress up, lately the game involved playing party and getting married.  Meghan married Daddy and Cooper all in the same day last week. Anyone wearing a white dress is probably going to get married because they look so beautiful.  Coop doesn't really have dress up clothes and, thankfully, hasn't come down wearing Meg's dresses in a while - not to saw we don't wear equal opportunity clackies around this house.  Limits have to be placed on how often Meghan changes clothes in one day, but we have yet to figure out how to do this easily - or limit how many times a day we can apply chapstick (for either child :)  ).  Just recently, Meg taught Coop how to play makeup - we watched him for a while last night using the play cakes and plate as makeup; dabbing the cake and putting it on his face, cheeks, legs, eyes... "do I look be-utiful?".  And then off to play with his manly drill, of course.  Amazing how we can be all boy and so into girl toys at the same time.

 Many of their favorite pasttimes don't involve purchased toys at all - so quit buying them some!  A long time can be spent just throwing socks down the stairs.  Or hiding in the laundry basket.  Singing songs. Dancing - like a prince and princess, of course!  Pulling the tunnel through the house.  Crayons.. markers... play dough.  Going into their special room to watch the old VCR tapes of mostly princess movies.  Dora is the favorite on the big TV naturally... for Cooper mostly.  The attention span limited but still with the desire.  Two big helpers when it comes to yard work (Meghan followed her Daddy and the lawn mower around the back yard last time) and cooking (both fighting/sharing a stool while watching me cook) and cleaning (with their little broom) and crawling into bed with us.

 Coops also lately is more into baby dolls due to his baby sister. Tonight he was carrying around Meghan's recently neglected "white baby" and calling it his baby sister "Kate-ynn"... covering her up with his blanket and putting her in his lap. 

These two usually find their way downstairs on their own about 630-700 in the mornings... awake much earlier but required to stay upstairs for awhile.  Don't really know what time they are getting up or how they are best entertaining themselves-  quite a mess to clean up later on though.  We love that we have them so well "trained" to leave us alone to get a little more much needed sleep!  Meg informed us the other night that Cooper went into her room in the middle of the night and slept with her.  Several times when Coop has woken up and tried to come downstairs, Meghan has woken up, and we can hear her trying to coach him back into his room; doesn't usually work.  We pray that this wonderful relationship continues to be as loving in the years to come.

And Then There Were Three...

Memma and Pop Visited

 My parents arrived several days before the big day and stayed until Katelynn was about a week old.

 Tobey checking out the new addition

Hanging with Pop

 Cuddles with Memma and Tih-ter

 Mommy time is hard to find these days with a baby in the house

 This is Meghan's pose where she thinks she looks the most beautiful.

 Enjoying Memma's iPad

 Cooper loves to ride in Pop's "big truck" - one of the highlights of his day was if Pop picked him up from school in the truck.  And Pop taught Coop how to slide the broom down the stairs - thanks again for that... ug!

 Cooper and Meghan learned on this visit that you can take pictures with your phones - now they can take pictures with their camera and their play phones... wanted to take lots of pictures with all the pictures taken of the new baby

Daddy's Little Girl...