It's Back...

     Well it's not spring yet and winter made yet another appearance today. We went from temperatures in the low to mid 50's Monday and Tuesday to winter weather today. The morning started off ok but the temperature steadily declined and the rain turned to snow and sleet. By time I left work at 1:45 everything was icy. I had to scraped a layer of ice off of my car and yank on the doors pretty hard since they were nearly frozen shut.

What it looked like out the window at 10am

     While I was getting ready to leave work I could feel the start of a migraine coming on - you know the pressure around your eyes and the feeling that you're just not seeing things right. While the kids napped and my migraine crept up on me I unloaded and refilled lunch boxes, started dinner and laid on the couch. When Froggie woke up I tried to be entertaining but it was getting tough so I took some ibuprofen and brewed myself a cup of coffee. By this time Big Brother was up and wanted to watch My Little Pony. My grand idea was to set my laptop up outside the mesh of the pack n play in the living room and let the kids play and watch in there while I let the medicine and caffeine take effect. After an episode we sat down for dinner and the migraine was almost gone! I'm so glad that I get them sporadically and that they typically only last a couple hours from start to finish.

They were so good about this set up

Finicky Eater

    Froggie has become pretty opinionated when it comes to her food. Not as much what it is she's eating, but how she's eating it. She has become VERY independent in her eating and sometimes refuses to be fed things like her breakfast (oatmeal with fruit). One day last week she was determined to not eat anything off the spoon I was holding.
     As silly as it sounds her refusal seemed to be more about who was holding the spoon and not being fed. So Big Brother offered to feed her; and she ate all of it!

Big Brother feeding Froggie her breakfast.

Brotherly Love

     In a moment of love (and a rare act of unforced kindness) Big Brother decided to help Froggie get out of her winter gear this morning. I guess I shouldn't imply that all of his kindness towards Froggie is forced, it's not. However, a lot of the time he goes a little over board and makes her angry. I suppose I should say that today was an unprompted act of kindness.

Helping with gloves

And now the other side

he was very gentle about helping her, I think she was confused.

Help Out Big Brother

     Please help Big Brother! He's entered a coloring contest with The Classy Yinzer on Facebook to win a shirt. He would really appreciate if you would like his picture and help him out here.

Restful evening

     In light of Froggie's sick day we decided to take it easy after dinner tonight. After everyone was bathed and put in their jammies we laid out the kids couches with blankets and pillows. Big Brother picked out the movie "Turbo" and then ran to the play kitchen to "get his phone". He pretended to call my sister (she and her fiance got the movie for him for his birthday). He announced "I'm calling Aunt Jen" and when I asked why he said "to thank her". So thanks again for the movie! 

     Before Froggie realized her cup was full of puffs and not popcorn and started stealing popcorn from Big Brother they were sitting nicely watching the movie.

    

Kiddos ready for their movie

     Froggie is back to her regular self and her medicine has made a HUGE difference from our sick, sleepy girl on Monday!

Big Brother Fun Day!

     Today we decided to give Big Brother an afternoon out with Hubby and I. Froggie stayed home with my mom while the three of us went to see his very first movie in the theater; Frozen! We got there a little early, waited in line for our snacks (Big Brother wanted popcorn AND Skittles to go with his fruit punch) and then found our seats. We tried out the seat by itself but Big Brother was just a little too short to see all of the screen so Hubby took him out to use the potty once more before the movie started and they picked up a fancy booster seat on the way back. 

Waiting for the movie to start

He made it through the WHOLE movie

     After the movie we sat and waited for the credits to finish (if you haven't seen Frozen or if you're going to see it again stay, there's something after they finish rolling the credits!) and he got a little antsy at this point but he sat pretty still and was especially quiet (for a 3 year old) during the whole movie. He ate all of his Skittles (which were rationed out over the course of the movie) and most of his popcorn. After the movie we tracked down the Olaf display so that Big Brother could take his picture with it. He was pretty excited to play the ukelele too.

Big Brother and Olaf

Playing the ukelele

All of us with Olaf!

     After the movie Big Brother was pretty tired and a little grumpy but apologized for crawling on the floor and not being an especially good listener and asked to go to the book store. Who can honestly say no to a 3 year old who requests a trip to the book store? Hubby and I thought about whether we should take him or not since he was getting pretty tired and tends to act up the more exhausted he is. Because of his sincere apology and the fact that he doesn't get a lot of one on one time with both of us we took him. He got to pick out a book and chose Rescue Mater (a Cars book, go figure). We got Froggie a Frozen book and Hubby and I both picked up books for ourselves as well.

     We came home to a sleeping Froggie and tucked Big Brother into his bed for a late nap. Froggie woke up with bright red cheeks and was pretty clingy. She has slept most of the evening, has been pretty drolly and seems to have a low grade fever; a dose of ibuprofen put an end to the fever (for now) and the redness since it was a result of the fever. Hopefully the sleep and snuggling will fix the rest! She even got carried around in a sling for awhile because I wanted my hands back!

snuggly Froggie

Happy to be snuggling in her sling

Sleeping snuggled up to mommy

I Did It!

     (9/18/2013) Well we're onto day 2 of wearing big boy undies! Big Brother woke up on Tuesday and refused to put on his pull ups to go to school. I decided to just go with it and let him wear his regular underwear since sooner or later it was going to need to happen. I figure if he REALLY wanted to wear his cloth undies that he would try REALLY hard not to mess them up!

     I was (read as still am) nervous about the drive to and from work since it takes us approximately 20 minutes to get there unless we get stuck behind school buses (which happens a lot since we drive past a total of 4 schools on our way there) so he's stuck in the car with no access to the potty the entire time we're in the car. So far he's done really well on the way to school and he's been dry all day even with going into pull ups for nap time he would wake up dry and change. 

     Today my coworker came in with "I Did It!" stickers. Big Brother got one for his good job wearing big boy undies all day!

     Once we got home and had dinner we decided to play with a slinky for awhile (they really amuse 2 year olds AND 7 month olds!). This is our Italian Greyhound Jasper sulking because he couldn't get down the stairs... 

Happy Grandparent's Day!

     Today is National Grandparent's Day. So from my munchkins to all you grandparents out there - Happy Grandparent's Day! Here is a little something from them to you:

Outtakes

     So this evening I decided I wanted to take pictures of the kids together since the weather was pretty nice and at any moment it could snow. Not really, but I feel like months of nasty weather is quickly approaching.
     I got some nice shots and I'll share those at another time; however, I thought I'd share some of the "outtakes" tonight since I laughed a little about them. My kids are pretty goofy.

Not the worst but a funny face

silly Big Brother

Hubby trying to keep the kids from eating sand!     

Bag Full of Bargains

     Twice a year there is a huge consignment sale at our local convention center and normally we go opening night to have the best opportunity to get what we may be looking for. They let the event volunteers shop an hour and a half before the doors open to the public are able to shop. This year they let military in half an hour before the sale started so we were able to get in and get a jump start on our searching - which is amazing since toting a 6 month old and a 2 year old through that kind of event once EVERYONE is through the doors gets tough!

The sale before the doors opened to everyone

The other side of the room

     We went in seeking cloth diapers, a toy for each kid, nursing covers, a few outfits and whatever other good deals we came across. There was a TON of stuff, most of which I would have loved to get for the kids but was not truly necessary. Hubby and Big Brother walked on one side of the table while Froggie and I walked on the other looking through the toys and baby supplies. Big Brother got a bag full of mini Cars (19 of them for $6! He has been carrying them around since we found the bag!). We then snagged a Little Tykes baby doll stroller for froggie to cart her baby dolls around in once she starts walking in a few months. I found a nice "new" nursing cover, a Taggies book and a Cars quilt for Big Brother. We struck out finding any cloth diapers but I think overall we got some great deals and a lot of fun stuff!

Racing his cars to our car!

The 19 new mini Cars

Nursing cover

Froggie Princess gloves and Taggies book

Big Brother's new quilt

Froggie's new shoes!

Late Summer Heat Wave

     It's hot... again... I get pretty irritable when it's hot and so do the kids. So todays solution was a mid-afternoon water break. After stopping at a local produce stand we filled up the little pool with water and splashed around for a little while.

Our loot from the produce stand!

     At first Big Brother said he didn't want to get in, but after seeing Froggie splash around he asked me to put his swim trunks on. Since Froggie was already in the water and he was wearing gym shorts I just took his shirt off and sent him in.  Froggie sat up on her own and did a great job even though Big Brother kept dumping cups of water on her head.

     After our pool time we prepped our string beans and made dinner. This was followed by our bath time routine and a movie before bed so that no one was moving around too much. Tomorrow is going to be another hot one so we'll see what's on the agenda.

Splashing Froggie

After he decided to get in

Peaceful bathing for Froggie

One of many cups of water over Froggie's head. 

Hi everybody!

National Dog Day

     Apparently today is National Dog Day. We love our "fur babies" and they have moved around with us several times. When Big Brother was 6 months old we posed him with our dogs and took a picture of our three kids. We decided to try a similar picture with Froggie. So here are some pictures of our kids!

Big Brother with Jasper and Maya (6 months old)

Froggie and the pups

She loves them

Froggie and Jasper

Smiley Froggie!

Froggie's Baby

     First, here is some Froggie cuteness from work today.

Looking in the mirror

Snoozing Froggie

     Froggie got her first baby doll today! We had some time to waste while we waited for Hubby to get out of work to go see his parents this evening. So we went to a local consignment shop after we got out of work and I decided to pick up a toy for each of the kids (Big Brother had gone on the potty at school again and Froggie was just cute). Big Brother picked out some Cars that are legos so he's super excited about his lego cars! Froggie got a Disney Princess Baby doll (Snow White) which is adorable.
     She seems to be intrigued by her doll and it's pretty funny to watch her play with it. I think we will be getting her some more of these as we come across them (I may have to head back to the consignment shop and see if they have any others - can't beat a $2.50 doll!).

Checking out her new doll

She was pretty interested in her

Happy Froggie!

     She snuggled with her dolly the whole way home and was sleeping and holding her hand when we got out of the car.

Snuggling with Snow White

Bumps, Bruises and Boys!

     Hubby and I are convinced we will be headed to the ER before Big Brother turns 5... I swear he spends more time getting up and brushing himself off than anything (except maybe falling down). He ran halfway home on our walk to and from the ice cream stand and managed to trip and fall into the coffee table 5 minutes before bed!

He LOVES to run!

The bump

Our trusty Spiderman ice pack!

     After some ice, checking his pupils and some observation time (as well as some extra snuggling and kisses) Big Brother was able to go to bed. He'll probably have a lump for a few days but this is definitely not his first bump and I'm 100% positive it will not be his last.

     Froggie has become pretty attached to her froggy wubbanub and she likes to hold its hands while she sucks on the binky, if she's not chewing on its feet! Froggie also sported her hand-me-down UNC shirt today and I had to post it for all to know - well some to know, and they know who they are...

Loving her Frog

UNC!