January 18, 2008

Two years ago today we picked up our sons from the baby home in Russia. Wow, it is hard to believe it has been two years already. We have all changed so much over the past two years. It is really amazing. All of our lives have certainly been blessed and enriched. My husband and I thank the Lord regularly for bringing our sons into our lives.

The other amazing thing is that I finally finished the boys' lifebooks this evening!! Yay!! I can't believe that I finally finished them. What a relief. I hope to take them to Kinko's tomorrow to have copies made.

In other news, Nick's face is much better, although we are still having to put ointment on it and make sure our humidity level is appropriate. The swelling is almost gone now, although it was interesting that his face was a bit more red when we were leaving church than when we arrive. I think their environment must have been very dry also. It's just that time of year I guess. Hopefully it will be all better soon.

Time for bed:).

January 16, 2009

The boys woke up at 6:00am this morning. When Nick came downstairs, I immediately noticed his face was beat red. The right side is worse than the left but both sides are really bad. The right side even looks swollen, his right eye was a bit swollen all day and the inflammation has spread throughout the day. It has now moved to behind his ear and is moving around his eye, on the inside of the eye.

He had a bad episode with this last winter but we had not seen any signs of it yet this winter. We had humidifiers installed with our furnaces, downstairs and upstairs, and we were hoping this would fix the dryness issue in our house this year. We have had a lot of trouble getting the new humidifiers to work properly though. The guy came back out today and we think the downstairs humidifier is now working properly. However it seems the upstairs may have to be taken out and our money refunded, as it is not working at all. There is a pan under it to catch any extra water and it turns out the pan was full. I had noticed a dark stain on the ceiling in our living room yesterday, which should have sent off huge alarms in my head. We had so many other things going on though that I ended up forgetting about it. When the guy mentioned the water in the pan upstairs today, I immediately remembered the stain on the ceiling and knew right away from where it came.

The dad bought a large humidifier on his way home from work today and it is already running in the boys' room so the humidity level should be good in there when they go to bed. I boiled to large pots of water on the stove for a couple of hours this afternoon and that really helped the humidity level downstairs right away and it seems the furnace humidifier is now working (I think). So I think we now have the humidity level of the house in good shape again, which is good. Now we just have to get the inflammation in Nick's face under control.

He is such a good sport about it and it really does not seem to bother him much. It is very hot to the touch though and I can't imagine it is very comfortable. There were several times today when I could tell he was not quite his normal self today but, overall, he did really well considering. Hopefully we will see some improvement in the next 24 hours or so.

In other news, we sure did a lot of reading today. The boys really enjoy being read to and ask for it often. This morning, I read 9 books to them before they were done and ready to get down and play. I think that is the most I have read to them in one sitting and these are books that are typically listed for four-year-olds according to the books that I use to find good books, so they are a bit longer and more complex than the ones we used to read to them. We still have the simple ones too but they really like the books with more of a story now.

I really enjoy reading to them, although sometimes I struggle to stay awake:). I don't know why but it seems that every time we sit down to read, I start getting sleepy. There are so many books that I never read as a child, I am definitely enjoying picking out the books and reading.

Time to help get little boys ready for bed. Goodnight.

January 15, 2009

Things have been pretty busy around here and yet there is nothing too exciting to report. The boys and I made our trip to OKC for the apostilles for our post placement reports and sent them off this week. That makes three down and one to go. Our last report will be due around this same time next year and then we will be done.

I took the boys to Target and let them each pick out some new big boy underpants, in hopes that would provide some much needed incentive. Since then, Ben has been wearing them each day and has not had an accident now in two and a half days. Nick, on the other hand, has an accident almost every time he turns around, or so it seems. I'm not sure what is up with that. On the afternoon when we returned from OKC, it was probably around 3:00 in the afternoon when we got home. Both boys put on their new underpants and N wet his pants six times that afternoon/evening. After that, he put on a pull up, since it was almost time for bed and I was out of sweat pants for him. I did laundry that night and let him start again the next day and he did the same thing. He sure seems to wet often and in smaller amounts. He tried again today and same thing. He likes to wear the new underwear but I have yet to see any progress in his ability to recognize he needs to go before he actually starts going. My plan is to wait until it gets warmer and then do the program that I did last time with him. He did very well with it at the time and he is older now so hopefully it will stick this time. Until then, I will continue letting him wear his big boy pants and "try" as much as he wants and I will encourage him and provide incentives and we'll see what happens. But, since it is so cold right now, he has to wear sweat pants or jeans and so it is not so easy for me to catch him as he is just starting to go and rush him to the bathroom.

I am very thankful that Ben is doing so well with using the potty. I would be going nuts if they were both wetting their pants this often. God has really blessed me in this way. It seems that it is usually one at a time that has an issue with something. It has saved my sanity.

I need to try to remember some of the funny/cute things the boys are saying lately. There have been several I have thought I would post about and then I forget them. One of them was Nick, the other day, telling me that I am his best friend. He told me this again tonight. It really melts my heart. The other funny thing is listening to them playing "stone soup", which is a book they like to read. They will pretend they are making soup and they will say, "mmmmm, this is good....but it needs something else" and the other one will ask what it needs and then they will think of all kinds of things to put in their "stone soup". Very cute.

Today, they wanted to sit at the table and color. I was just finishing up something before getting all of their stuff out and, while they were waiting for me, they started picking on one of the cats who was sleeping nearby. I told them to stop or they would not get to color. They continued with pestering the cat so I told them they could not color right now and sent them off to find something else to play. They both cried loudly, apologized and begged to color but I stuck to my guns. Nick tends to get over things like this easier/faster but Ben seems to take it to heart a bit more. They were in the library/playroom and I overheard Nick saying "let's play puzzles Ben!". I am seeing more and more that Nick does not like to see Ben upset, unless it is from something that Nick did, like taking his toy or hitting him or something. Soon after, I heard Nick say, "Ben, are you happy?; Are you happy Ben?". I think Ben said that he was happy. It was so cute and I heard him ask it again a bit later too. Very funny.

As for sleeping, Nick is staying in his bed much better these days. I am on night duty right now and they have both done very well. I had to go back in once because Nick decided he needed to go to the bathroom (and he did:). After that, they both went back to bed and I have not had to go back in since and they are both quiet now. So that's all good.

Well, boys seem to be sleeping. I'm off to bed myself now.  Good night.

January 7, 2009 Part 2

Now that the boys are both three years old, we are letting them watch 30 minutes of television a day. We have a bunch of old videos that my sister gave us and we have some DVD's that were given to us as gifts so the boys have plenty from which to choose. I have started having my quiet time and reading my Bible during this 30 minute period so it is actually working out very nicely for all of us.

But here is the thing. Once their 30 minutes are up and we turn off the set and they start playing again, they frequently start pretending many of the stories or scenes they saw in the video/DVD. It is amazing how much they remember and I am surprised at how often they will say something or pretend something that is new to me and I'm thinking "where did they learn that". I will ask them how they know that or where they saw/learned it and they tell me what video/DVD it was on. It is incredible what the remember. They do the same thing with books we read too.

Now, thankfully, the videos/DVD's that we have are all very wholesome and have good messages. Some of them are Bible stories, many are Barney and then we also have a hodge podge of Winnie-ther-Pooh, Veggie Tales, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, Madeline, Lyle Lyle Crocodile, etc. However, after watching my two three year olds running around pretending and reenacting scenes from what they have seen, I cannot understand how on earth people could say that television, movies and video games do not impact children.

We are very careful about what the boys watch. I don't want them watching anything that is scary or aggressive. They are aggressive with each other enough already. I certainly don't need to add to it. If something is the least bit scary they don't want to watch it and I am glad. They are great sleepers and I want it to stay that way. I really dislike most scary stuff myself so there is no way I would let my kids watch it, especially at this young age.

There are been several times when they finished watching their 30 minute video/DVD and they ran and asked me to read a book about something they were watching. Today we read Stone Soup after they had heard the story told on a Barney video. Oh, and they love to sing the I love you, you love me, we're a happy family song. It is so cute because they want to hug me and each other when they sing it. What a cute cute age three is turning out to be. Now if we can just get that potty training thing down, we'll be doing great.

January 7, 2009

Just when I think I have the boys figured out, something changes and I have to start all over again. I mentioned the other day that our potty training efforts and our bedtime efforts are not going very well these days. Fast forward a couple of days and, surprise, the boys are both doing better with potty stuff. Amazingly better. And I didn't do much of anything. Who would have thought.

Basically our situation was that nothing had changed with Nick since I last reported on this. He did great during our three day potty training exercise and even for a couple of days afterwards but, when all the excitement wore off, he was much too busy playing to bother with going to the potty and he could not care in the least if he ran around in dirty pull ups. He also put up a big fuss if I asked him to sit on the potty and try to go. I was really at a loss of where to begin again with him.

Ben was still doing a great job of pooping in the potty but he was using his pull up for peeing more and more often. I have had several people tell me that it would be easier to train two at the same time because, when one wanted to do it, then the other would to. Not. Don't believe this. It actually worked just the opposite in our house. Ben was trained to the point where he hardly ever had any kind of accident. Then he saw how Nick was not going to the potty at all and that seemed to work for him and he had more play time (or so it seemed), so he decided to start using his pull up for peeing also.

I really felt like I would be starting over again, for the most part. Only this time, they would kind of already know the drill and the excitement of the newness of it all would not be there. So, I was really dreading this when, all of a sudden, Nick decided to start using the potty for pooping. Boom! Just out of nowhere. He just decided. Isn't that nice? And, after I had a talk with Ben, he has decided to start using the potty all the time now, instead of peeing in his pull up. He wants to wear big boy pants again and I told him he could after he showed me he could go all day without wetting his pull up. He did that today with no problem.

So, it looks as if they may be getting to a point where they want to be potty trained. It will be so nice not to have to worry about pull ups, wipes and diaper bags. I can't even imagine it. Hopefully it will happen soon.

I think tomorrow I will take them shopping to buy some new big boy pants and see if that adds a little more incentive to the mix. Maybe if I let them pick them out, they will really want to wear them. I am hopeful that is all we need to get Nick back on the potty bandwagon.

As for our bedtime issues, we have had a very hard time keeping Nick in his bed at night. At nap time, they both usually do very well. They are so tired that they normally fall asleep within 10 minutes or so. We have had such a hard time with them at bedtime that we have now moved out bedtime a half hour. It used to be that we started getting ready at 7:30 and we tried to have them down by 8:00 but then they would play and get out of bed for about 30 minutes before they finally started to settle down around 8:30 and then they would both normally fall asleep between 8:30 and 9:00.

So, we have move out their bedtime a half hour so that they are going to bed at 8:30. We just recently did this so it is still a bit too soon to tell if it is going to help. They did settle down pretty quickly tonight though, I think. Sometimes it is hard to tell because Nick has figured out that if he walks softly we can't hear him. So I think he probably gets out of bed at times when we don't know it.

The dad was on the night watch last night and he ended up putting Nick in the next room for a short time, so he could see/understand what it would be like to be in that room by himself. We have been telling him that, if he doesn't start staying in his bed, we were considering moving him to his own room and he would be in there all by himself. He is a very social kid so I know he would definitely not like this. So hopefully it made an impression on him and he will start staying in his bed now.

If not, we'll try something else. You just keep trying until you finally find something that works or they finally grow out of whatever it is they are doing. Before I became a parent, I never knew how difficult it could be....but also how rewarding and joyful it is:).

I'm back to working on the lifebooks and I am so close to being done that I can taste it. I can't wait to finish these. It will be such a relief to have it done and to have books that the boys can look at and we can read to them. The lifebooks cover birth through coming home.  I can't believe it has taken me this long to do this. They are really coming out nice though. I am pleased with the results. I just hope that Kinko's can copy them and put them in a bound book so the boys will each have a copy they can look at anytime without worrying about ruining the original.

In other news, our post placement report should be finished tomorrow. I still have to make copies of the pictures, although I have them ready to go. I will review the post placement report and, if everything looks good, I will probably plan a trip to OKC next week for the apostilles and then I will mail it off. After that I will do a happy dance because we will only have to do this one more time next January and then we will be done. Yay!

I have also contacted a lawyer to help us out with our readoption here in Oklahoma. This is not required, although it will make it much easier for the kids if they need to order more copies of their birth certificates in the future, since they will be issued an Oklahoma birth certificate. I have to gather up all of the paperwork and then I meet with the lawyer next Friday. I'm glad to finally get started on this because we have always planned to do it but it somehow fell to the bottom of our priority list.

Sounds like they are asleep and, as far as I know, nobody got out of their bed this time. Yay!

January 2, 2009 Part 2

I thought it would be fun to do a comparison post, so here are some pictures of the boys from last Christmas (our first Christmas together and home for one almost year) and this Christmas.

That was then:
(Ben was not ready for Nick's hug:). If you click on the picture, you can see it better.
This is now:
The dad didn't want them to hold hands but I thought it was cute (I suggested it:).

And a few more....
That was then:
This is now:That was then:
This is now:
That was then:
And this is now:
Now wasn't that fun?? Boy oh boy, have they changed over the past year or what?? Both sets of pics were taken on the Sunday before Christmas, as we were getting ready for church.

January 2, 2009

I am constantly amazed at how fast kids grow up, especially during the preschool and younger years, which is what I am most familiar with at this time. Ben is now 3 years and 3 months old and Nick is now 3 years and 1 month. The speed with which they learn new things is absolutely amazing.

I have always been of the mind that puzzles are really great for little kids. The boys have recently really taken off with their ability to put together puzzles without help. It seems like it happened over night, although I know that is not the case. We have a lot of puzzles and they can now put most of them together without any help. Today the dad and I were sitting at the kitchen island, reading and talking. We did not know the boys had climbed up on a chair in the next room to reach the shelf where the floor puzzles are kept. They had gotten a puzzle down, put it on the play table and had put it all together by themselves. Then they yelled at us to come see. We were amazed. The floor puzzle is a 2 x 3 foot jigsaw puzzle with 24 large pieces but they had worked it many times before.

I recently brought home 2 new 25 piece jigsaw puzzles, because I had noticed the ones we have were becoming less of a challenge. They needed a little help in the beginning to work these puzzles. Then, a couple of days later, I brought home 2 new 12 piece jigsaw puzzles. The boys were both able to put the 12 piece puzzles together without any help the first time they worked them. After they did that, they got the other two puzzles out and were able to also put those together without any help. It seems that something just clicked.

After working the floor puzzle today, they got the alphabet floor puzzle and, for the first time ever, they were able to put 90% of it together without help. It was the first time that they actually said the alphabet each time to figure out what the next letter in the train was suppose to be.

I am also impressed by their vocabulary's and how they can easily carry on a conversation these days. Today, Nick walked into the room where the rest of us were sitting and said, "hi guys, what'cha doin'?". Ok, now I know we need to use a little less slang-sounding talk around here but he said it so casually, as if he had been speaking like this forever, even though it was the first time I had ever heard him say something like this. I know that example is not a good one for displaying ones vocabulary knowledge but I think they both have large vocabularys for their age, probably because we read so much to them and also they frequently ask what a word means when we are talking. Today, for example, I was explaining to them what the words sympathy/sympathic and empathy mean.

I have not been around children enough to know if all of this is average for children of this age or if it is above average. Either way, I am impressed. Kids learn so incredibly fast and they also have such a huge desire to learn to do everything.

Both boys are very into trying to dress themselves, which I think is normal. They can do the bottom half and are close to being able to remove a shirt without help, although they still have issues with putting on a coat. They can put their shoes on without help (Velcro fasteners). Sometimes Nick might need a little help with getting them on the right feet. I ended up putting a black dot on the inside of Nick's sneakers so they could tell which shoes are Nick's and which are Ben's.

They also try to be very independent in the kitchen. They get their own plates, bowls and cups and they like to try to spread the peanut butter on crackers and stuff like that. They have been practicing cutting things too but it has to be something easier to cut, such as a banana.

They are very into playing together these days and they are spending more and more time interacting in their play and pretending together, such as one is the patient and the other is the doctor. It is very funny to observe these interactions and I see it a lot after we have finished reading or they have finished watching their 30 minutes of TV per day. They have great imaginations and will frequently act out what we just read or what they watched on TV. It is quite funny to watch one of them pretending to be Peter Rabbit and the other one chasing him saying "stop, thief!", as he pretends to be Mr. McGregor. This is one of their favorites to act out.

Isn't it awesome the way God made kids?!

January 1, 2009

We have been very busy Christmas-ing. My sister in law (SIL) came in from Arizona and spent about a week and half with us. She just left yesterday. (We're all missing you already!) The boys loved spending time with her, as did we. I enjoyed it so much more than when we took the boys to Arizona to visit her because it was less stressful having the boys here and in their own beds/rooms and stuff. We all had a wonderful visit and I tried to talk her into moving here but I don't think I succeeded:).

My SIL also took tons of pictures while she was here. All the ones I post are ones that she took. Unfortunately, we have very few pics with her in them, since she took most of them. We didn't even realize this until the night before she left and then it was too late. Of all people, I should have thought of this because I often think that about myself. I am normally the one to take most of our day to day pics around here so I am in very few of them.

This was our first year to send out Christmas pictures of the kids. We ended up receiving many also, which made me very happy. I so enjoy looking at the pics of everyone's kids and seeing how they have grown from the prior year. I always keep them around the entire year so I can compare them the following year.

We spent Christmas Eve with my entire family at my sister's house. We had our traditional fare of my sister's famous lasagna, along with all the trimmings, including lots of wonderful desserts. When everyone was finished eating, one of the kids read the Christmas story from the Bible. After that, my niece read a poem in honor of my grandmother (my dad's mom) who passed away this year. And lastly we opened our gifts.

Here are some of the pics taken there, including the who's who of my siblings and parents.
These first three pics are Nick, Ben and my great niece, all playing with the other's toys.
Here is the who's who mentioned above:

This, of course, is the husband, also known as the dad (he doesn't want me to use his name on the blog:). He is sitting next to my dad.
This is my lovely mom (MaMa) and she is holding her beautiful great grandchild.
Here is my dad again with his lovely wife (Papa and Mimi):
This is my only sister (the one who makes the best apple pie and also the best lasagna I've ever tasted - she is also my best friend:) and next to her is her husband.
Here are two of my three brothers. The one sitting in the chair is my sister's twin. They are a year older than I am. The other brother in the picture is a few years older than the twins.
And this is my oldest brother with his grandchild. He and I are the only two children, of the five of us, who have curly hair, although it may be hard to tell in this picture. The similarities end there however, since he looks more like my mom and I look more like my dad.
And now, a couple more pictures of the youngest member of our family get together. She is my great neice. Isn't she a cutie? Her sister is a cutie too (pictured above with the yellow hard hat on her head.) Isn't it wonderful that God makes little ones so cute?
If you click on these two pictures (above and below) you can see her beautiful blue eyes.And a couple more shots, just for fun.
This is the piano that will be moving to our house in the spring, since we didn't get to it before the winter set in. Aunt D showed the boys how to play the keys nicely with their fingers, rather than pounding with their hands:).
And the grand finale:
Yes, my husband can fall asleep anywhere. While he was sleeping in this chair, there was absolute chaos around him. The boys were wrestling with their cousins, all the kids were playing with toys and everyone was talking so it was very noisy.

We spent Christmas at our house with just us and my SIL. We had a very fun and blessed Christmas. The boys received some wonderful gifts. We only had to put together two of them, which was great. I always take everything out of the box it came in and, if it requires assembly, I put it together and then I wrap it. I think they enjoy it so much more when they open it when it is ready to play with.

Santa brought a mini-trampoline, which I think will come in handy for many years to come, since Nick has a lot of energy and I have a feeling he might be the kind of kid who needs some movement while he learns. I read about one homeschooler who would jump on the mini-trampoline while counting or working with flash cards or they would go bounce a certain number of times between subjects or something like that. The boys had both played on one at a friend's house so I knew it would be a big hit.

Santa also brought a parking garage, which is also a big hit, although when asked, the boys seem to always say that their big tape measure is their favorite gift. We have been teaching them how to measure things with their big tape measures. They also receive Tinkertoys, which I really like, and Lego's, which are also fun. I had never played with Tinkertoys before. They are so great for creativity. The boys really like both the Legos and Tinkertoys also and have been playing with them a lot. They received a toolbox full of playdough toys, which has been loads of fun too. So we now have lots of fun things to do to spur creativity.
We got them the leapfrog spelling thing that helps one learn how to spell three letter words. I kind of thought it would not interest them that much until they were a little older but they really like it. I normally try to stay away from toys with too many buttons or sounds but I have bought several of these kind of toys that help with learning the alphabet, letter sounds and beginning spelling. I really think these toys have helped them a lot so far.

My mom got them a riding toy that is a 'digger' (excavator) and it also came with a small hard hat. It is very cute and they both enjoy it and have done very well with taking turns, thankfully. It is often hard to share a new toy nicely but they have done very well this Christmas.

We also received a new zoo pass for 2009, which I know we will use a lot and some other toys, puzzles, books and CD's/DVD's. We all had fun while the boys were opening their presents because they wanted to stop and play with (or read) each present before moving on to another present.

We did stockings last, which I think was opposite than intended but, oh well:).
Ben is playing his harmonica, in case you couldn't tell what that was. It was a stocking gift. While they were opening their stockings, I was still building with the Tinkertoys:).
We should not have any issues with not having enough toys to play with for quite some time. Fortunately I had been busy purging toys before the arrival of the new ones. I am also sorting through all of our children's books. It is hard to keep up with them but I like to go through them every once in a while and sell off the ones that are becoming too simple for the boys.

Somewhere in here us three adults also opened our presents and stockings but that is not as interesting. Suffice it to say that we all had a lovely Christmas.

As for New Year's, we didn't do anything, go anywhere or celebrate anything. We didn't even watch any parades. We just enjoyed a quiet, normal day.

Hope you had a joyful holiday season.

December 19, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, the boys and I stopped by Tuesday Morning to check out their puzzles. As we were walking through the parking lot on our way into the store, we saw an older gentleman in the driver's seat of a van. It looked as if he was waiting for his wife to finish her shopping. We all had a good chuckle because he was asleep and his mouth was open very wide. The boys found that quite funny.

Today I was cleaning the house and I could hear the boys playing in the living room. I walked through to see what they were doing. They had been riding their tricycles and had 'parked' them in front of the side door. They were pretending to be asleep and had their mouths wide open. Even though it had been a couple of weeks since we had seen the old gentleman, I knew right away what they were pretending and I laughed out loud. It was so funny to see them pretending this and also very funny that they remembered it to the point of wanting to pretend it a couple of weeks after we saw it. Very funny.

The boys were very good today while I cleaned, thankfully. I am trying to catch up on some much needed cleaning and decluttering. I got a lot done today but still have much to do.

I am very thankful that today was the last day of work for the dad for the next two weeks. Yay! It will be so nice to have him around and the boys are really going to enjoy it too. Also, his sister is coming to visit on Monday and will be staying for about a week and a half, so we are all looking forward to that. The boys are so excited.

As it turns out, I did not have a cold. I had/have a sinus infection and it seems that I have probably had it for quite some time and it just kept flaring up....or something like that. Anyway, yesterday was my worst day. I started taking some medicine yesterday morning and today I felt much better.

My mom and sister and nephew came for a visit yesterday. The boys had so much fun. The lady who does our post placement reports also came by yesterday. My sister put the boys down for their nap while I talked with the post placement lady (can't remember what they are called:). When the boys woke up, the first thing they asked about was whether MaMa, Aunt Kathy and Trenton were still here. When I told them that they had gone home, they cried. They are normally gone when the boys wake up from their nap but I'm thinking maybe we forgot to tell them this time. I felt so bad. Next time I'll have to remember to set their expectations better. They will get to see them more over the holidays though so that will be nice.

So we got the home visit out of the way for our post placement report and I already have all of the photos ready but still need to make copies. It is due by the end of January so we have plenty of time but I always like to make sure that we are early. I think our report will be ready around the first or second week of January so that should be great. After this one, we only have one more to do in January of next year.

I have also been spending a good amount of time knocking out pages for the boys' lifebooks. I am ashamed to admit this because, as much as I have talked about the importance of lifebooks on this blog, I'm sure people probably would assume I had them finished by now. I had done a lot on Ben's but I now have finally caught them up where Nick's and Ben's are at the same point. I am very close to being finished and will be sooooo happy when they are completed. I am going to try to spend some time on it over the next two weeks and see how much I can accomplish.

We are going out to dinner and then to do a bit of shopping, so off I go:).
Merry Christmas!

December 15, 2008

It seems we may have finally hit the bottom of the gas price drop, according to the news folks anyway. We'll see. I was really hoping it would get into the dollar-thirty-something range so I am a pretty happy camper right now. Now I am just hoping it doesn't go back too quickly.

In other news, we got a bunch of ice last night. The ground is covered with a sheet of ice but, fortunately, it did not cover the trees and bushes and stuff like it did last year. The dad went to work this morning and said that just 5 miles from our house there was no ice. So apparently it was pretty selective. The boys and I stayed in all day. It has been a cold one. I think the high today may have been around 17 or 15 degrees.

The boys and I put some water in tuperware bowls outside so we could see how long it would take to freeze but then we forgot about it.

Did I mention that I am sick again? I am once again so hoarse that I cannot even sit and read a book to the boys. It takes effort to talk, although it was worse last time. The funny thing is that I don't think I have ever had this sort of thing in my life before and now I have had it twice in just a few months. Maybe I need to start eating healthier. I seem to be catching colds more often than normal.....although I just finished a stressful four week stretch, with the dad away on a trip and then working extra hours while also spending a lot of time at church performing in a play. I don't do well when I go that long without getting hardly any personal time or any time alone. So maybe the added stress had something to do with it.

Well, I started writing this during naptime and now it is bedtime for me. It's been a long day.
Hope you are enjoying those low gas prices! :)

December 12, 2008

Just returned from the pediatric cardiologist and everything went great. Ben was a real trouper and did everything asked of him. They had Curious George on a small TV mounted up high so he was able to watch that while they did their thing. After that, we went to another room where he had his blood pressure taken and then they did an EKG. I forgot that they do that so I did not warn him ahead of time so he was a bit disappointed about having to do something again but he did it without complaint and I read a book to him while they did that. I also told him we would go for ice cream on the way home, which made him happier.

The doctor said that he still has a tiny whole in his heart. It is only about 2mm in diameter so it is very tiny. She said it is smaller than it was two years ago. We have to go back in two years and do it all again and we are hoping it will be gone. The tiny hole should not impact him at all while he is young but when he is older it could make it more likely for him to have a stroke. She said if that happened, they would fix the hole at that time but it did not need to be fixed while he is young.

In other news, I have another cold, which is a real bummer. Off to fix dinner now.

December 9, 2008

We just returned from the dentist for a cleaning and checkup. Unfortunately our appointment was at 2:00pm, which really pushed nap time back. They were very efficient though. We were finished and back in the waiting room to pay by 2:20 and we were home with the boys in their beds by 3:00. Not too bad really.

We had good incentive to hurry and to come straight back home because it is really yucky outside today. We started the day with temps in the 50's I think and now we are below freezing and it is windy and misting and very very cold. The wind chill factor must be quite low.

The boys did a great job. This was their third time to the dentist. The very first time, we were really disappointed in the dentist and his way with children. We switched to a different dentist in the same practice and she was really great on the second visit. This visit was the first time the boys actually went into the exam area without us. The hygienist came out and called their names and they both walked in a bit cautious. We were watching through a window. They talked them both into the chairs and showed them the tools, explained things to them and let them pick out the flavor of cleaning stuff and also a small ball to hold in their hand. So far, so good.

The problem came up when they wanted them to lie back in the chair. That was where it became a bit too scary. We could see Ben shaking his head no when she was patting the chair and trying to talk him into it. Nick actually started crying and then they waved us in. We were able to quickly get them back into a good place and they both ended up lying back and doing a great job after that.

They were given lots of stickers and small toys for their bravery. I had promised them a surprise if they did very well at the dentist so I am trying to decide which of their Christmas presents I want to go ahead and give them now.

Now they are both sleeping. They are really doing great with this new sleeping thing and I think I am very close to being able to move further away from their door. My next move will be to the couch in the nearby game room. Once they are doing well with that, it will be easy to move downstairs from there, I think. So, I think it won't be very long before we have two little guys who are once again very good about falling asleep without us in the room.

I forgot to mention what I decided to use for an incentive for getting them to stay in their beds at night. If they stay in their bed, they get a coin the next morning to put in their piggy bank, which is just one of those cheap, plastic food holders with a lid that I put a slot in so they can put their coins in it. They love it. Sometimes they get pennies, sometimes nickels, sometimes dimes and sometimes quarters. They tend to always want quarters though, I guess because they know that is what we use for those animal ride things at the mall or grocery store. When they have enough money, they can choose to use it to buy something at the dollar store or to ride one of the rides at the grocery store or mall.

Nick is one of these kids who has such a strong will that I have to be extremely consistent with him. If I give in on something just one time, he will test, test, push, push, trying to get me to give in again. I have to set very clear rules and boundaries and I have to be very consistent in maintaining them. He is such a great kid though. He has such a happy disposition and I love hearing him walk around singing. He also really enjoys getting a rise out of his brother though, which can be frustrating. He loves picking on Ben, taking his toys, pushing/pulling him, tackling him, etc. He is always doing something to Ben. Much of the time, Ben enjoys it but there are times when he does not, understandably. So I have been working on Nick on this.

Overall, behavior around here is very good right now, which I thank God for. When things were not going so well recently, I prayed and prayed that God would help me understand them and show me the best way to deal with the issues we were experiencing. I am happy to say that God is faithful and He always answers prayers.

With behavior so good these days, we are just having so much fun together and every one's attitudes are so good. I am loving this age too. They are able to carry on a conversation and they have such funny things to say. Their imaginations are simply wonderful and I love to watch them play and talk to themselves. Ben talks to himself a lot while he is playing and it is so cute. He has really gotten much better about picking up his toys and helping to clean up when asked and doing it with a good attitude. They are both such good little boys and such a joy to be around (most of the time:). It is fun that they are now at an age where they get some jokes/teasing and will laugh with me about things. I have a tendency to say 'you crack me up' or 'I cracked up laughing' about something funny sometimes and they have picked this up. It is amazing how quickly they learn. They were helping me fold some clothes this morning and Nick is actually getting pretty good at folding the washcloths.

Well, enough of all of the gushing:). I must go find a surprise for the boys.
Merry Christmas!

December 8, 2008

Lots of stuff going on around here. The other night, I accidentally super glued two of my fingers together. I think that was the craziest thing I have ever done. It took me a while to get them apart and it really hurt. Don't try this at home folks. It was not fun.

The other crazy thing I did the other day was, I was cleaning up the kitchen, wiping down counters and the table. The boys and I had eaten some Christmas cookies at the kitchen island and some of the little sprinkles were there so I picked them up and ate them. Yummy;). Then I went over to the table and started cleaning up there. I saw what looked like a sprinkle and, without thinking about it, picked it up and put it in my mouth. I forgot that the boys had been playing with play dough at the table, not eating cookies. Yuck! It was quite a yucky surprise.

I ordered a series of workbooks from Kumon recently and we started using them today. We have the cutting, folding, stickers and pasting, coloring, mazes and tracing books. I think that's all of them. The boys really enjoyed it. When we finished and we were eating lunch, Ben told me that he wanted to "do school more often". We have been spending more time sitting at the table "doing school" lately, at their request. I basically leave it up to them to lead it and we quit or change what we are doing when they want to, for the most part. We spent 2 straight hours in the morning on "school" a couple of days recently and they just keep asking for more.

I am using these new Kumon books to work on having them listen to and follow directions. I am also using these books ("our special books") to persuade Nick to try and hold his pencil a little better. Today he did very well. I only make him try on two of the books, when we are using pencils to do mazes and tracing. If he doesn't want to try, he can color or cut and paste or whatever using other books that we have but he can't do the Kumon mazes and tracing books unless he tries to hold his pencil correctly. As I said, today was our first day and they were very excited about these books. They are very fun books so he was quite motivated to try. Both boys did a great job at all of the things we did today and we all had fun.

I still would like to put together some type of schedule for us to follow but I have not gotten around to it yet:). I am normally not a New Year's resolution type person but this year I think I will have some new goals for the new year. One of them is to start working out again and lose some weight (as a friend of mine said recently about herself, I am quite the chunky monkey these days and I'm not liking it one little bit). Another one is to have a schedule for us to follow and, most importantly have a time set aside every day for quiet time with God. I have been flying by the seat of my pants for too long now and I think the boys are old enough to slide in to the right schedule easily enough.

Tonight we have the Christmas party for my husband's office. It is a family Christmas party and it is always very nice. We have to get there a bit early because we will be caroling with a group of folks, as everyone enters the party. We did that two years ago (before we had kids!) and it was fun. Last year the party was cancelled because of snow and ice, or something like that. I am really looking forward to this tonight and I love that they include the whole family. They have a kids room with toys and they serve a dinner buffet and some of the wives bring the desserts. I am bringing brownies (yeah, I know, very exciting, but that's all I had time for) but I think they might be over cooked. They were not done before I got into the shower so I set them for 10 more minutes and asked the husband to take them out when the timer went off. When I got out of the shower, he told me that he did the toothpick test and they had to cook for another 25 minutes before they were done, according to his toothpick test (he even started to explain the toothpick test to me; what a funny man:). So, I am pretty sure they are way over done, since he cooked them about 30 minutes longer than the directions indicated. I know our oven tends to cook a bit slower than most directions call for but I think that is stretching it a bit:). Oh well, it is what it is but I think I will tell everyone that he cooked the brownies:). (just kidding).

We also have a dental appointment tomorrow for dental cleanings for both boys. Later this week we have a follow up visit with the heart specialist for B's heart condition. I can't remember the name for this but he has a small hole in his heart. We had it checked when he first came home and they said it may heal itself but, even if it doesn't, he should not require surgery. But they also wanted us to come back for a follow up. And then next week, we have a follow up visit for the scar on B's face.  It will be interesting to see what the surgeon thinks of it. I hope they do not recommend doing it again. I can't imagine putting him through that again and, also, the scar gets a tad bit bigger each time. So, I am hoping the surgeon will say it will continue to look better and better over time.

Well, I must get up and get moving. I have some ironing to do before we go to the Christmas party. Merry Christmas!

December 5, 2008

I am on the night watch and I am sooo tired. I woke up around 2-something this morning and could not go back to sleep. I finally got up and did a few things and I have been going ever since. Unfortunately that does not make for a very happy mommy tonight. My patience level is right about at 0.0, which does not mix well with two little three year old boys.

The good news is that they are adjusting to our new situation, with me not sitting in their room while they are falling asleep. The first two nights Nick was a bit hyper vigilant, calling out to me to make sure I was still sitting in my chair outside their door. Tonight, he seems fine with it and has not called out to me like that yet.

I am hoping that after a few more days of this, I can move out to the game room, which is just down a short hall from where I am sitting. I have the monitor with me so I can hear what they are doing or if they need me. The only thing is that now I can tell them to settle down without getting out of my chair. I won't be able to do that if I am in the game room, although I could watch a little news. I am hopeful that within a couple of weeks, we will no longer be required to hang out upstairs until they fall asleep.

I think I might fall asleep before they do tonight, here in my chair. I am so sleepy.

My sister is spending the night tonight. She went to a Christmas concert that my niece is in at a nearby university. After it is over, she is coming back here to stay the night and will hang out with us for a little while tomorrow. I am so looking forward to having a little help. I have basically not had any help now with anything around here all week. I did get to have a break one day at the beginning of the week. My friend came over and watched the boys so I could take a little break. I had an hour and a half and I used it to run some errands. It was a much needed break. Very sweet of my friend.

Thankfully, it sounds like they are falling asleep a bit early this evening....which probably means they will be up at 6:00am. Oh well. As tired as I am tonight, I'm OK with that trade off. Hopefully I can head off to bed soon.

December 4, 2008

....once again I am sitting outside of the boys' room. I just over heard Nick saying:

"Samuel! Samuel!" and "I did not call you. Go back to bed." as he was pretending the Bible story of Eli and Samuel. They are too funny. They pretend about 20 million things in about 5 minutes, from riding motorcycles (the pillow), to playing drums (pounding on the rail).

Last night when I was trying to tell Nick to quit calling out to me to ask me what I was doing, he was going through a list of things to try to keep me in the room, including "I need to go potty" (he had just gone) and "I bleeding" :). He wasn't bleeding, in case your wondering but I did think it was pretty funny.

Wow, I am so tired. I think I mentioned that the dad is in this play at our church. They had a dress rehearsal on Monday night and their first performance on Tuesday night. Wednesday night they were off so I was really looking forward to having a little bit of a break but it turned out he had to work late because there were two admits at the hospital that he had to go check out before he came home. So he didn't get home until around 8:15pm. They are having another performance at the church tonight, they have another one tomorrow night and then they have a matinee performance and the final evening performance on Saturday.

Since he is also on in-service duty at the hospital, he will have to do rounds on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Sometimes morning rounds can take until noon or later to finish so, depending on the number of patients, he may have to hurry to make it to the play on time. Last Sunday I was really surprised because he made it to church by around 10:15 or 10:30. I didn't expect that at all so it was a pleasant surprise.

Well, tonight has not gone quite as well. Nick has gotten out of bed a couple of times and both boys have been loud and rowdy at times. They are still going strong and it is 9:00pm. They are usually asleep by now. If they sleep in tomorrow, I won't mind so much but today Nick was downstairs by 6:15am. Since he was not around to wake up Ben, Ben slept in until 7:30. It really is not so bad just having one of them awake early. Having one of them is so much easier than having two of them together. With just one of them, everything is calm, we cuddle for a while, sit and eat breakfast and talk and it is very nice. As soon as the second child arrives on the scene (and this is true regardless of which one wakes up first) they sometimes, though not always, start with the bickering.

It seems there has to be a battle over anything blue these days. Ben was the one who first decided that blue is his favorite color. It didn't take long before Nick decided that blue was his favorite color also. Unfortunately, before they decided this, I had already bought a few things (shirts, cups, etc.) where one item might be blue and the other might be brown or purple. So now, we have this constant battle over who gets blue.....and people wonder why I dress them alike so often. It never fails, if I buy two different colors of shirts, they both end up wanting one of the colors and neither of them wants the other color. It is just so much easier to buy things alike, not to mention that it is very hard to find cute boy clothes anyway.

Final status: I finally had to start telling them to quiet down. I started by yelling it through the door, from my chair:), but eventually had to go in and tell them in person. As I came back out of their room, I had a smile on my face because I remember hearing those words quite often myself when I was a kid. This is the way I want it to be for them. I want them to hang out in their beds, as they are winding down from their day, and pretend and play and laugh and joke and get a little loud and rowdy (but not too much) and to have to be told a couple of times to quiet down. Doesn't that bring back good memories? Isn't that what bedtime should be like for little kids? Though I will like it even better when I no longer need to sit outside their room.

It's been quiet for a while now so I think I'm finally off duty. Off to bed I go.

December 3, 2008 Part 3

So today I started talking up the change in the bedtime routine with the boys. I moved the chair in their bedroom to just outside of their bedroom door. We talked about it several times during the evening. I moved their nightlight into their bedroom so their bedroom is a bit lighter than it was. (The nightlight was in the small adjoining sink room of their jack-n-jill bathroom.)

After we went through our night time routine and they were in their beds, I told them we now have new rules. I told them they have to stay in their beds but they can talk to each other and sing and look at books until they fall asleep. They just can't get out of their beds. When I sat in the room with them, I would tell them they needed to be quiet soon after we had shut off the lights and settled down. So being able to talk to each other and sing and laugh and stuff is a treat for them. This might be just the incentive they need.

I told them I would be right outside their door in the chair, which is where I am now. They are still awake. Nick is singing God Is So Good right now. At one point they were both singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star together. It was absolutely precious. They have laughed and talked and generally it has been a very positive thing. Much to my surprise, neither of them have been upset or scared or sad or even had any objections to this change in our routine.

At first, they were yelling at me "mommy!", to see if I would come in when they needed something, as I had told them I would. And then Nick kept yelling "Mommy, what doing?". I had to explain that they were only to call me if it was an emergency, which I said was someone bleeding or throwing up:). I had to remind Nick to talk to his brother instead of yelling at me, which he started doing.

Now Ben is quiet and Nick is singing "...that your joy may be full" over and over". I guess he forgot the rest of that song. That kid loves to sing and I love to hear him sing. It always brings a smile to my face and frequently a laugh to my lips. We will be walking through a store and he will be singing at the top of his lungs "God is so good" and people will look at us and smile. He gets kind of loud sometimes and I have to remind him to sing a little softer. He can also hit some pretty high notes, although not always right on key, and when this is combined with the loudness, it can get a bit funny at times. I don't let him see me laughing though. They are now at that point where if you laugh at something they do, they want to repeat it to get another laugh so I have to be careful what I laugh at sometimes.

Well, the singer has stopped singing and all is quiet so I think our first night is a success. Now I have to set my expectations realistically and remember it probably won't go this smoothly every night. I hope we can get this new routine down quickly, to the point where we won't need to be sitting up here any more soon.

December 3, 2008 Part 2

When the boys were in their cribs and they were not yet able to climb out on their own, we could put them in their cribs, following our bedtime/naptime routine, and they would fall asleep on their own. They would normally have some fun in their cribs first, jumping around, playing and talking to each other but they would eventually settle down and go to sleep on their own. If they woke up during the night, they would go back to sleep on their own. If they woke up too early in the morning, they would normally either fall back to sleep for a little while or just play in their cribs for a little while.

That was then, this is now.

When the boys started climbing out of their cribs, we felt like we tried everything to get them to stay in. We put them back multiple times, we spanked them, we moved them to big boy beds and tried everything all over again and nothing seemed to work. We ended up taking turns sitting in their room (they are sharing a room) until they fell asleep. In retrospect, big mistake. I could just kick myself.

Then, I started singing to them at night because I thought it might help them settle down faster. Well, the dad always takes his laptop with him, when it is his night to sit with them, because he reads or does work while sitting with them. When I told him I thought they settled down faster when I sang to them, he started playing music for them on his laptop. Of course, they really really liked this so I started doing it to. They each got three song requests and then it was time to lie down and be quiet. As you can see, what started out as a mistake just kept growing into an even bigger mistake. Please don't try this at home, unless you want to spend an hour every night and a half hour to an hour at nap time helping your kids fall asleep.

I have been doing a lot of single parenting lately. We have had the perfect storm, with the dad recently in Puerto Rico and now on in-service duty at the hospital, while at the same time participating in a Christmas dinner theater play at our church. I encouraged him to do this when he showed interest but neither of us realized the amount of time it would require and we especially did not know that he would be doing in-service duty at the hospital at the same time.

So, since I have been doing a lot of single parenting lately, I have realized what a chore our night time / nap time routine has become and what a nightmare we have created. I could just kick myself because we had such a great, easy routine for the longest time and slowly but surely we let it slip away...and then turned it into a monster. I am determined to fix this but I don't know quite what to do.

So far, we have stopped the music and that happened pretty quickly and painlessly, so that is a step in the right direction. The next step needs to be getting the boys back to the point where they can fall asleep without us in the room and they will stay in their beds and I really just don't know where to begin with this one. N especially is a bit scared of the dark. We keep a night light on in their room but he still does not like it when the lights are turned out. I think he has become accustomed to having the the brighter light from the laptop screen. Sometimes when I am really tired, I just sit there in the dark with them and pray and rest. He will tell me to turn on my laptop and he is not too happy when I don't.

I am racking my brains for the best way to transition us back out of the room. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Maybe we need some kind of reward system. I have also considered trying to move my chair to just outside the room to their door and seeing how that would work. I have heard of moving the chair closer and closer to the door each night until you are sitting just outside the door but we can do that because there is not enough room. There is kind of a short little hallway when you walk into the boys' room because their closet is just inside their room. The chair is already pretty much as close to the door as it can be and it is probably 5 or 6 feet away, at least. So I don't think the gradual-chair-move approach is going to work for us.

The other thing we have done is we put their boxsprings back under their mattresses and put their rails back on their beds. I was thinking this would help a little, since it is a little harder for them to get in and out of their beds. They have done fine with this so far but then we are still sitting with them until they fall asleep.

So, that's our issue. Any suggestions?

December 3, 2008

I have been missing some funny happenings around here lately and I hate when that happens. Today we spent the morning at the play area at the mall. We had planned to go to the jumping place but it was closed. We met up with my friend who has the twin girls and we all had a fun time together. The kids played and played and my friend and I were able to visit and relax. We all had something to eat, rode a couple of escalators for fun and then went to see Santa.

The boys had been to see Santa one weekend with the dad. I think Nick stood in front of Santa and Ben was much further away. Since then, they have seen him from a distance several times and we have read some books about him so this time they wanted to sit on his lap. It was very cute. They both told Santa what they wanted for Christmas, which was anything they could think of at the moment. Nick said a truck and Ben said a tractor, which they already have. Santa gave them a little talk about picking up their own toys and not expecting mom to do it so I was ready to ask Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I thought that was very nice:). They got to pick either a Santa hat or small coloring book out of Santa's basket and they both picked the hat.

Then one of the twins wanted to see Santa but the other one was scared so I took the one who wanted to see Santa. She didn't want to sit on his lap but she stood in front of him and let him hold her hand. A little later, she wanted to go again and sit on his lap so her mom took her and she sat on his lap.

By the time we left Santa, both girls had the coloring books and both boys had the hats AND coloring books. As we were walking to the elevator, Nick started waving his small coloring book back and forth, fanning his face, and he said, "Whew! I hot! Whew! I have flash!" or something close to that. It was clear he was imitating my response to a hot flash, of which I still have too many. I found it laugh-out-loud funny though. Too cute what they pick up and a bit scary really.

Sometime last week, the dad decided to grill some chicken on the outside grill. It was freezing cold outside, so I wasn't very excited about the idea. I found very simple instructions for grilling chicken and it is really delicious so we do this every now and then and we normally cook a bunch so we can make several meals out of it. It is very simple. You turn on only one side of the grill and then you put the chicken on the other side, so it is not over the flames. Then you close the lid and let it cook for about 45 minutes. Then you open the lid, brush on your favorite bar-b-que sauce, close the lid again and let it cook for another 15 minutes. Then it is ready to eat. This is for bone-in chicken with the skin on. The skin keeps all of the juices in the chicken. I think it is probably the juiciest chicken I have ever tasted, and the most tender. We normally cook dark meat though.

Anyway, so he has been cooking the chicken for 45 minutes and it is still not done. He got a late start putting it on the grill so I had already fed the kids because I knew there was no way they could wait that long. I was hungry but I was waiting with him so we could eat together and I knew the kids would probably want to eat a little more too.

Anyway, so the chicken had been cooking for 45 minutes and it was still not done. He had gone out to check on it and came back and told me this, right around the time that I was giving the kids something extra to eat because it was taking even longer than expected. I thought it was probably taking a lot longer to cook because it was so cold outside. He said he was going to turn on the fire directly under the chicken, so it would cook faster. I told him I thought it would burn if he did that. I was helping the kids and not paying a lot of attention so I was not sure what he did next and I just forgot all about the situation.

A little bit later, he again went outside to check on the chicken. When he came back inside, he said, "Well, the chicken is too burnt to eat". I said, "How do you know?". And he answered, "It's on fire". You might have had to be there for this to be funny but, the way he answered after everything we had already been through, it really had me laughing. He brought a piece in and it was really yuck. It was solid black and the crispy black stuff was pretty deep. We found that underneath that, there was still some juicy meat but it tasted like smoke.

I had a couple of other things to write about while the boys are taking their nap but I am falling sleep in my chair so I had better sign off for now.

November 30, 2008

Well, we are all pretty much over our colds, which is nice. The friends with whom we were going to have Thanksgiving dinner called first thing Thanksgiving morning to say that their son had a throw-up-virus. So we ended up staying home that day and having bacon and eggs for our Thanksgiving dinner. We also thawed out a turkey and cooked it the following day.

My sister, her two kids and my mom all came over on Thanksgiving evening and spent the night. My niece stayed an extra night and half day with us too. The boys had such fun with everyone here.

My family brought lots of Thanksgiving dinner leftovers to us, including a whole apple pie that my sister had made. She makes the very best apple pie that I have ever eaten. There is only one piece left. We had a very nice visit.

The boys are still napping, but not for long, and the dad just got home with our Christmas tree. Let the fun begin! (Note to self: Hide the stick horses this year!)
Happy belated Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2008

I have another cold. The boys seemed to have it a bit but don't seem to be as impacted by it as I am. I felt pretty good yesterday and was able to get a lot done but today I am not feeling well at all. I had thought that this might be a better year for us regarding colds but this is already round two so now I'm not so sure after all.

The husband begins his two weeks of in-service duty at the hospital tomorrow morning so we will not be going to my family's Thanksgiving get together. This means he has to do rounds in the mornings for two weeks straight (including weekends) and then is on call for a big part of each day and for the entire day/night on certain days. It is never a fun time and we are always relieved when it is over.

But, on the bright side, we have been invited to share Thanksgiving dinner with some friends and our kids like to play with their kids so we will all have a good time.

Woops, kids just woke up from nap. Gotta run!