I'm starving

Jane called me around 9 this morning. She asked me if I had hollowed out Kale's legs this morning. I asked her why and she said that since I dropped him off he ate 4 bowls of cereal and was eating grapes as we spoke.  I said I was a little surprised because he had an egg, banana and glass of milk this morning before I brought him over!  He must growing.  Earlier this week he refused, absolutely refused, to eat dinner.  He literally went to bed having ate only 2 bites of meat.

Doubter

I signed up to run a 1/2 marathon today.  I told Nolan that I was going to run 13 miles and he replied, "that's crazy, Mom. Can you even run that far?" He then proceeded to explain to me how fast he can run.  It's amazing how he can completely forget the disaster that happened in October when we tried to get him to run a 1K!

Elsa's first day

I had a bunch of errands/appointments today, so I sent Elsa to Jane's house for the first time.  It's going to take her longer to adjust, mostly to the napping.  I remember Kale taking a few weeks to get used to it, so I know she will, too.  Jane said that the youngest little girl (18 months) was having a hard time, that another 3 year old boy thought all the new baby toys/equipment were for him to play with, and that Kale kept telling everyone that they had to be careful with baby Elsa because he just loves her so much.  That kid seriously cracks me up!  He is so protective of her.

Snails

Kale was so proud that Jane taught him how to make a snail out of Playdoh -"just like Turbo, Mom!"

I like this song

I took the boys to get their haircut yesterday afternoon. The song "Gone, Gone, Gone" by Phillip Phillips came on the radio.  I heard Nolan tell his stylist, "I really like this song".  It's the first time he's struck up a conversation like that!

Swimming

The boys started swimming lessons today.  I stayed home with Elsa and Adam took them.  I was very proud to get the report that they were both the best listeners in their class!  Kale's favorite part is dunking his head, and Nolan just liked "playing".

Kindergarten roundup

It’s hard to believe that we attended our first kindergarten roundup. Nolan was so excited. And what a difference we saw in him compared to the preschool open house. He was confident walking in to the classroom and didn’t shy away from talking to the teacher. It certainly helped that all his friends from preschool and Adventure Club were there, too. I was surprised by how many preschool kids were clinging to their parents and crying as they left them to go to the meeting. These are kids that are already in school so should be used to their parent’s not being there. Both Adam and I were impressed with what our school district offers. It was also fun to see a younger male kindergarten teacher. I am so thankful that Nolan has been able to attend preschool at the elementary school he’s going to attend. It will make next year’s transition so easy!

Growing - slowly but surely

Elsa had her 2 month check up today. I thought she would be close to 9 lbs by now, but she only weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz – a whopping 0% on the growth percentage charts! The dr. wasn’t concerned because she is growing. She will likely be just a little thing! She was 21.5 inches long (10%), and has a head circumference of 15.75 cm – 91% for her age! Hopefully she’ll even out a little bit. Thankfully her head doesn’t look that much bigger than her body right now! She received 3 shots in her legs and 1 oral immunization. She cried, but stopped as soon as we picked her up. She slept almost all day today. I can only hope she does the same tonight! At our dr.’s recommendation we are changing her formula again, this time to one that has added rice that activates to sit in her tummy once it gets in there. The hope is that she isn’t spitting up as much. We are open to trying anything at this point!

Quiet travels

We spent the weekend in Moose Lake. It was cold (what a shock), but Chris and Adam made sure to get the kids outside for a little snow fun. They built 2 snow tunnels, which the kids thought was super fun. I was impressed by how well Elsa did. She didn’t necessarily nap in the pack-n-play, but she did sleep overnight in it. On Saturday night she slept in her car seat from 7 – 10, and then in her pack-n-play until 7 the next morning! She did squak once in the middle of the night, but I gave her the nook and she went back to sleep. The highlight of the trip was the fact that Adam and I enjoyed 4 hours of peace and quiet in the car. All 3 kids slept both there and back. I feel very fortunate that our kids don’t get car sick and sleep really well!

Robots

Kale is really in to drawing robots lately.  Jane texted me a picture of his latest creation - that actually looks like a robot!

It's a miracle!

Elsa slept from 10:30 – 7:15 last night – alleluia! This was in addition to 2 really great naps she took, too. The next thing we need to work on is getting her in her crib earlier in the evening. It would be great by the time I go back to work if she was in her crib after her 8 pm bottle with a dream feed at 10:30.

She turns 2 months old this week. I thought she would be wearing 0-3 month clothes by now, but no such luck – she’s still rocking the same old newborn clothes. She is getting bigger which is great – it’s probably helping with her sleeping. She’s even getting jowels for cheeks just like Nolan had as a baby. She’s getting more interactive, too. She is smiling quite a bit and is starting to coo when you talk to her. She likes her activity mat, especially kicking the ball with her feet. We’re still working on her spitting up, but she seems more comfortable with her gassiness so we’ll go with that for now.
 

Outside fun

What a great weather weekend! Adam’s goal was to get the kids outside all day for both days and he was successful. The boys enjoyed ice fishing with Adam and Grandpa Greg Saturday morning/early afternoon. The boys took such a long nap that we spent the rest of the day playing inside. Yesterday Adam took them sledding in the backyard after church, and then took them to a park a few blocks from our house to go sledding with Claire, Mara and Conner. They had so much fun. Nolan’s favorite phrase of the day was “that was awesome!” There were only tears once, when he took a digger off a jump at the park. His face is pretty scratched up on the left side, but it will heal up. Both he and Kale were able to go by themselves down the hill. It finally feels like we’re making progress! Adam also tried to build a snowman with the kids but the snow was a little soft. Kale insisted on bringing carrots outside for the nose, but instead of using it he buried them in the snow. He is such a packrat/hoarder! Even in his bed he stacks up his animals and buries smaller toys in the middle of them. He is a pretty interesting kid.

Nice

Nolan told us that there is a new kid in his preschool class. I asked Nolan if he was nice to him and he said, "yes, mom, I'm nice to everybody".

Starting a routine

Elsa is making huge strides in the routine category. She is sleeping between 6-7 hours in her crib each night, and yesterday she followed the routine we used via the Baby Whisperer for the boys – up for 1 ½ hours and nap for 1 ½ - 2 hours. She even took all her naps in her crib! What a difference that makes for both of us! Now if we can only get her gassiness issue figured out.

The polar vortex baptism

Elsa was baptized on the day the polar vortex started - January 5, 2014. The polar vortex basically means very cold temps not seen in many, many years! Governor Dayton even called off school for the entire state tomorrow because with wind chill it’s going to feel like -40-50 below zero. Brrrrrrr! This weather certainly isn’t helping the cabin fever the boys have.

 



Christianne, Brian and the girls came up Saturday night. We were all surprised when the boys and Lalayna and Lola had a successful sleep over in the boys’ room. Lalayna and Nolan slept up in his bunk, Layna on one side and Nolan on the other. Kale and Lola started on the floor, but Kale decided right before he fell asleep he wanted to sleep in his bed. We heard the 3 oldest kids say more than once that Kale was “being annoying”, but eventually he pulled it together and fell asleep. Not only did the 4 of them sleep in Sunday morning, but Elsa did, too. She slept from 11:30 – 6. I was pretty surprised when I woke up at 5:50 am and no one else was awake yet!

We were so thankful that our family could attend Elsa’s baptism. We weren’t sure how she’d do, but she did great. She was wide awake for her ceremony and didn’t cry at all. Our Sunday school coordinator was nice enough to take the kids and some of their cousins to class for most of church, but brought them back for the baptism. Pastor Jeff incorporated all the kids in to it and it helped tremendously. The boys thought it was great being right there to watch their sister get baptized. When Pastor Jeff walked around the church with Elsa, Kale was a few steps behind him. He apparently is quite protective of his baby sister! We had everyone over to the house after baptism. We finally got smart and ordered the food from Cub. So much less stressful to do that!