Happy New Year - and 6 year anniversary!

We celebrated New Year's Eve and our 6 year anniversary with friends, while the boys stayed home with a babysitter.  It was a great way to end 2012, and an even greater way to start 2013!

The last Christmas celebration

We celebrated with the Oven side the weekend after Christmas. Once we got settled in (after I dropped a bottle of red wine in the driveway and Kale peed all over a kitchen stool and the floor) we had a blast. We were only going to stay two nights, but we got a little lazy, and after the Viking's big win on Sunday decided to stay until New Year's Eve day, since we didn't have to work. The boys loved opening all the presents, playing with their cousins, and eating lots and lots of treats and snacks.

Merry Christmas!

                                                                                                                                                           

We spent Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day with the Bleck side.  We all went to church at our church at 3:30 on Christmas Eve.  We headed over to Ellen and Greg's after that.  We ate, and then the kids were able to open their gifts.  After the gift opening they made reindeer food to leave outside, so Santa wouldn't forget to stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

Santa visited our house Christmas Eve night, so the boys were excited to wake up and see what he left them under the tree.  After we were done at home we headed back to Ellen and Greg's, and spent the day eating, opening gifts, visiting, and the boys playing with their cousins.  Kale decided he didn't want to nap, which was annoying, but Nolan was the super rockstar napper - which was great! The boys were very spoiled with fun gifts - motorcycles, pickup trucks, race cars, dreamlight, clothes, pj's, and construction equipment, to name a few.

Cookies for Santa

The boys and I decided to do a little prep work for the big man's visit, so we made cookies.  While the boys napped I made the dough and baked the cookies.  As soon as they were up they each got to decorate a cookie to eat.  I thought they might want to help a little more than that, but it really was about them more than Santa!

Bentleyville

                                             

We spent the weekend in Moose Lake at Chris and Sasha's house. We were excited it worked out for us to head up there, so we could make an evening trip to Duluth to see Bentleyville, a Chrismas light extravaganza. We made reservations at Grandma's first, which ended up taking an hour and half. It was a good thing Chris brought quarters so the kids could ride the motorcycle and horses. We got the kids in their pj's and snowsuits and headed out in to the rain after that, to see the lights. It was warm, which was good, but I could have done without the rain! The kids had fun eating cookies and drinking hot cocoa, and seeing the lights. The biggest hit for our kids was the Thomas the Train section!

We all noticed that it's actually getting a little bit more relaxing to hang out together, because the kids keep themselves occupied. It certainly makes us look forward to hanging out this summer!

When we got home we spent time making a Gingerbread house with the boys.  I discovered they are both very sneaky with candy.  I had to keep a close eye on them!

Cmon' on Dad!

Oh Kale…This little bundle of energy can go from being a huge stinker (not listening or having an accident in his pants) to simply a bottle-rocket of giggling fun in a matter of seconds.

Kale’s most recent means of getting you attention comes in the form of saying “Com’on Dad,” in his excited little scrappy voice. He will follow up his request with a “Tackle Daddy” or “Cars” or “movie” request…and a long-drawn out “Pleeeease!”

He has the ability to turn a frustrating parenting situation into a fun little wrestling match. He is a peach when he’s had a nap, but the second he’s up he literally runs out of his room looking for Nolan or the next piece of furniture to climb on. He’s also become quite the cuddler, but those times seem to come and go pretty quickly.

The bed time routine has become a bit of a struggle, so hopefully a star-projecting nightlight pillow he’s getting for Christmas will help calm him down a little bit. Right now he’ll make a couple of visits out to the living room in order to check on us while we wait for him to fall asleep. Bunk beds are looking to be the next logical step, but we’ll have to see.

Of course, as I write this, I’m flying back from a work trip to North Carolina and Kale’s been acting out a lot while I’ve been gone. Skype is good for seeing each other; but it doesn’t do much for giving hugs. It’s going to be fun at Christmas to see how he and Nolan react to new toys and having to share even more!

Santa! I know him!

The boys had a nice visit with Santa again this year, at our daycare Christmas party at Lord Fletcher's.  We had a nice brunch, follwed by the Santa visit, and then a mini concert by some carolers.  This also happened to be the same day as the big 12 inches of snow, so the time it took us a lot longer than normal to drive over to Ridgedale to our Build a Bear event.  Nolan asked Santa for a skateboard, motorcyle and a race car.  Shock of all shocks, Kale asked for the same thing!  He really looks up to Nolan!  This year at Build a Bear Nolan picked out a rainbow bear, dressed it in a Twins outfit and named it Nolan Gregory Bleck. Kale picked out a bunny, dressed it in Lightning McQueen pj's and named it Peanut Butter. 

Proud

Never had I felt such a sense of pride that I had rising from my chest. My little boy, at 3 and ¾ years old was standing, along with 40 or so older Sunday school kids performing their Christmas program. Nolan hadn’t allowed Tricia or I to practice at all during the previous weeks. We had heard about the small, confident steps he was making during the Sunday school practices from his teacher. He started out sitting on her lap, with a stuffed animal, then as the weeks went by, he began to sit with the kids, do an action here and there, then he was singing and doing the actions at the same time.

As the program began Tricia and I sat in the second row off to the side. Nolan walked into the sanctuary, in line with all the other well-dressed kids. He was wearing his Christmas shirt, tie and vest, along with dress pants, socks and shoes-he looked so mature! As he found his spot on the risers he found us looking at him, and with a beaming smile and a wave we sat down, waiting to see how well this was going to go over. I had taken him to practice the day before and after sitting on my lap for the first half I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

As the songs started, you could see him moving his lips and following the lead of the other kids around him. He began to get more confident, and his singing and movements continued to get more pronounced. I was literally beaming inside; I think the smile on my face was bigger than the one he had on his! I felt absolutely proud. He was so stubborn, and wouldn’t let us help him, and then he surprised Tricia and I with a real treat.

I can only hope that this simple concert and the feelings it created in both of us as parents is only the beginning. I honestly wanted to cry, just in the excitement around seeing our little guy up there, surrounded by kids much older than him, singing away. It was truly the first, in hopefully a long line, of being able to see our little guy do something amazing.

Following the ceremony Nolan was given all sorts of praise from the parents and grandparents who were there. Two weeks after the concert while we were waiting for church to start a woman from the congregation went up to Tricia and told her how cute she thought Nolan was. She said it made her think for a moment that she should have another kid!

Tree top

I took the boys to an ECFE tree top decorating event tonight.  I wasn't sure I was going to go after what happened at the Polar Express event, but I did, and thankfully it turned out a lot better!  We are now the proud owners of a tree top filled with decorations the boys made.  It's cute, but is shedding needles like crazy!  Makes me feel better about our decision to put up a fake tree every year!

Polar Express meltdown

Adam was in New York state all week, so I took the boys to an ECFE event about the Polar Express. Things were looking up on our way there, but they quickly started turning as soon as we walked in the room. Kale didn't want to share, Nolan didn't want to listen - it was great. It all came to a head at circle time, with Nolan running out of the room, standing near the lockers and screaming "I don't want to!". I picked up Kale, who was also not doing so hot, gathered our coats, bags, and purse, went in to the hall, picked up Nolan and marched them away from the classroom so they didn't continue to interrupt the other kids and parents. They were the only two acting up, which made it even worse! I have them scheduled for another event next week, but Adam is out of town again so I'm not sure I'll go.

The tree, the tree!

The boys were so excited to see the tree set up and to help decorate it.  This was the first year they've really helped.  One small section of our tree looked great!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Oven side in St. Cloud.  We went up the night before so Adam and I could run the Wishbone 5K on Thanksgiving morning.  Brian ran with us, too.  I hadn't run a whole lot since my 10 mile race, and Adam didn't have a chance to do any training.  With that said we did pretty good!  We had fun hanging out with everyone, especially the boys and their cousins.

Park time fun

We didn't have daycare this week, so Adam spent 3 days at home with the boys, and I spent two.  We were lucky enough to have some great weather, so we spent some time at their favorite park. I was suprised they were both able to climb the rope ladder!

Go Vikings!

Nolan and I scored tickets to the Vikings game today, courtesy of Anna.  We had such a great time!  Adam was out of town hunting again, so our babysitter came over after church to watch Kale for me.  Nolan and I parked near Target Field and took the lightrail to the dome.  It was his first time downtown Minneapolis, and he thought it was so amazing.  He was in awe over all the big buildings!  He was such a good listener, too.  On our way to in to the dome we passed some people who were smoking. Unfortunately the cigarettes were right at his level.  He kept saying "mom, what's so stinky?"  I picked him up at that point and carried him to our entrance.  We got our food right and got to our seats right at the first kick off.  He ate a little bit of a hot dog and a little bit of Cracker Jacks.  He told me he was all done and then said he was ready to go.  The first quarter wasn't even done yet! He hung in until the end of the first half, with the help of some cotton candy.  The people sitting around us were so impressed with how good he was!  As soon as we got back to our car he fell asleep all the way home. 

So many questions, so little time

Kale has become more and more enthralled with asking why, what’s that, what happened, etc. He repeats things like crazy and then doesn’t forget what he’s learned. He is talking in pretty full sentences that we can understand, but I’m sure leave everyone else guessing. He is getting closer to being potty trained and does a great job with #1. He does great at daycare with the other stuff but struggles more at home. If we catch him before or during the act we can get him to the potty. He still gets excited when he goes on the potty and we make a big deal out of it. He has almost memorized his favorite book, Dora and the Pumpkin Patch – to the point where he tells us what ingredients go in to a pumpkin pie. Nolan has a good memory, too, but I don’t remember him memorizing books at this age! Kale has developed quite a temper and doesn’t shy away from letting us know when he doesn’t like something we’ve done or said – or he doesn’t get his way. We’re talking fists at his side, jumping up and down in the air and flailing on the ground at times. We describe them as epic, because Nolan didn’t have tantrums like that at his age.

PJ club went a lot better this week, and both kids made it through story time no problem. The issue we’re having now is that Nolan just crashes when we get home, but Kale picks up some extra steam and has a hard time calming down to go to bed. He always wants the “door open”. He also goes down really easy if I sit in the hallway until he’s sleeping. Bad habit I started!

Do we get to eat it?

This was the first of two deer hunting weekends for Adam up at the farm. All I heard for 3 days from Kale is “where’s daddy?”. I would tell him hunting and he would say “buck or doe?”. I told him daddy wasn’t picky! I had a wedding to attend on Saturday, so the boys spent the day and overnight with Grandma Ellen. She definitely drew the short straw with daylight savings time. They were up and ready to go at 5 am! I picked them up at 8 so we could get to church. I was hopeful Kale would go in the nursery again, but it was a no go. Adam and I have decided the only way to get him comfortable in the room is to volunteer in it, so we are signed up for two times next month. We usually get a quick report from the teacher regarding what Nolan worked on in Sunday school. She said all the classes are practicing for the Christmas program. I wasn’t surprised when she told me that Nolan was scared and wouldn’t participate. She said she would keep working with him. I told her not to expect too much, as he still won’t go up for the children’s message! My hope is that he at least stands up there for the program.

After nap we went to EP Center to run errands. The boys were antsier than normal, and half way through Kohl’s Nolan asked if they could go to the play area. I agreed and they spent 15 minutes or so running around. Nolan then wanted to move out of the play area and over to the fun little ride area. I don’t mind if they “ride” on them because I never have to put money in them. Things were going great until Kale picked up a Caribou cup that was on the floor while I wasn’t looking. I turned around and he spilled what was left of hot chocolate down his entire back. It was absolutely disgusting, and he smelled like cold hot chocolate. I cleaned him up as much as possible but we needed to leave at that point. That was fun because neither of the boys wanted to leave. Once we got moving in the stroller things were fine, but it was loud until then!

Adam called on Monday morning with the good news that he got an 8 point buck. When I picked up the kids after work I told Nolan about it. He was so excited and the first thing he asked was “can we eat it?” I asked Adam about that later and he said he explained to the kids that we always eat what he’s brought home from hunting. Our kids are usually pretty picky about new foods, but they haven’t had an issue with any of it yet! We made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa’s house after daycare so the kids could see the deer. I wasn’t sure how they would react to it, but they were just fine. They thought it was pretty cool to touch it and look at it. They weren’t even bothered by the doe that was being processed in the garage! Hopefully they’ll enjoy the many meals of venison we’ll enjoy this winter!

Happy Halloween!

The kids did really well and had a great Halloween. We only went to 6 houses on our block, but that was plenty for each of them to get quite a bit of loot. Kale had a choice to be Spiderman, Woody or a motorcycle dude. He picked Woody, which was Nolan’s costume last year. He rocked it and wore the hat proudly. Amazing what some penicillin will do to get kids feeling better! Nolan also had fun, but was more interested in getting home to have “a treat”.

The Great Pumpkin

Saturday was race day for me, Sasha and Kate – the 10 mile Monster Dash in St. Paul. Adam, Chris and Kirk brought the kids to cheer us on. It was such a motivator to know they were there! I give them a ton of credit for bringing the kids and being at three different points during the race. Traffic was crazy and it wasn’t easy to get in and out of the cars with wagons, strollers, bulky winter coats and extra blankets! Our boys actually got in to it and understand that I ran a really long way. Even now when I put on my tennis shoes they ask if I’m going running! After the race we all went to Perkins for a celebratory breakfast. The kids napped when we got home. Things took a bit of a turn after nap time for Kale. We just summed it up to him being 2. He kept pointing to different parts of his body and saying he hurt, but we couldn’t pin point anything. He wouldn’t even put a costume on to go to an early Halloween party in Chan. We figured out right before I left with Nolan for the party that he was running a fever. I swear he’s been either sick or on the verge of being sick since September! He toughed it out and sweated out his fever during his nap on Sunday. He seemed to improve after that, while Nolan went down with a fever and sore throat/tummy ache on Tuesday. I stayed home with him today and after his nap he still had a fever and I saw spots in his throat. I took him to the dr. and of course it was strep. I should have thought ahead to bring Kale with to the appointment, but instead made it difficult for myself. Nolan and I drove back to daycare, picked up Kale, drove back to the clinic, and had Kale tested (of course positive, too). We picked up the medicine and made our way back home. Adam had strep on vacation, too. I’m the only one who hasn’t been sick! Adam got home from his work trip in time for dinner. As a surprise for the kids we carved the pumpkins after that. Kale was way more in to it than Nolan – he loved sticking his hand in the mush. Nolan did turn around and helped pick the seeds out of it. Hopefully the kids will feel better so they can enjoying trick or treating tomorrow night!

The Halloween party that Nolan and I went to was fun. This is the first year that Nolan is really excited about Halloween. He decided to be Lightning McQueen and wore the costume proudly! He loved getting candy and even played all the games to get more toys and candy. His fave candy so far is suckers of any kind. He doesn’t do great with saying trick or treat, but he is polite and says thank you!

Last night at dinner Kale was whining about his food. Nolan looked at him and said “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”. I asked Nolan where he learned that, because we never say it. He told me one of the kids at daycare always tells his little brother that. I love it!

We’re back!

We got home Wednesday evening from a fabulous trip to California. While we were gone the kids spent part of the week with each set of grandparents. Overall the kids did good with us being gone, but Nolan struggled a little bit more than Kale. He was definitely ready for us to come home! We received quite a reception from them, with lots of jumping, running, hugs and welcome home cards that Jane helped them make at daycare. It was great to get away, but fun to come home!

We are working on getting back in to the swing of things. Last night we took the boy to the first of three sessions of PJ Club at ECFE. We didn’t realize this was a parent group discussion session, so that was news to us. The kids had fun until the last section of the class, which is story and song time. Kale loved it, Nolan got tired and a bit cranky, saying repeatedly “I don’t want to”. It took one of the teachers taking him by the hand and leading him over there to get him there, and even then he wouldn’t participate. Nolan is similar to Cinderella, except instead of midnight it’s 7:00! We’re hopeful the next two sessions will go better for him.

The fastest boy ever

Nolan was running the circle in our house tonight.  As he was running he said "Look at me - I'm the fastest boy ever!"  I don't know where he's picking up on this stuff, but it sure is funny!

Kale, on the other hand, is our child that requires us to to move all dangerous objects.  This morning I had just finished getting dressed.  I walked in to the living room and he was walking toward me with one hand on each handle of a Fiskars scissors, opening and closing it hear his neck.  Seriously!  He likes to rummage through drawers, so we need to some rearranging to see what else he'll find.

Pumpkin patch

We took the boys to the pumpkin patch on Sunday.  They were so excited to pick out their pumpkins.  Nolan kept saying "Dad, I found the biggest pumpkin ever!" We aren't going to carve them for a few weeks, but Nolan informed us he wants a happy pumpkin - and Kale agreed with him!

After nap we took the kids to run a few errands, and then ended up at Don Pablos for dinner.  We feel very fortunate that the kids like mexican food - and by that I mean chips and salsa!  They thought the decorations were great, especially the oversized beer bottles.  Kale kept saying "mamma's beer, daddy's beer?", to the point we had to tell him to stop!  Nolan told us to "look at that robot over there!", meaning the chip making machine.  Nolan also discovered that he likes the taste of limes, so he spent about 10 minutes sucking the juice out of it.  He has some very unique tastes in food!

I need to stay home with daddy

Nolan has been battling a cough for the last few nights.  Adam got home from being gone for a week last night, so today when Nolan woke up coughing a little bit he said "Mom, I think I need to stay home with daddy".  I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of the cough, but because he wanted to spend some quality time with dad!  It's amazing how quick kids pick up on this stuff.

Toilet paper

The Westonka homecoming week was this week.  There was of course some TPing that went on.  Every day home from daycare Nolan says "Look Mom, there's toilet paper in the tree!"  Then I try to teach a life lesson about where toilet paper is supposed to go.  Hopefully they'll remember that when they're teenagers!

When daddy's away

Adam was hunting this weekend, so the boys and I kept busy.  We had gymnastics in the morning, a babysitter in the afternoon so I could take my run, birthday party in the evening, and then Sunday school bright and early.  Kale is just coming back from a tough week of being sick.  We had him on a steroid for a few days, but I stopped it after I discovered the side effects - bouncing off the walls!  He started not sleeping well on Sunday night - he was up 5 times!  The good news is that it's getting better each night.  However, that doesn't make it any easier!  It's amazing how quickly you take for granted a full nights sleep. 

Adam got home on Sunday afternoon, just as the boys were getting up from their naps.  It was a beautiful day so we decided to take the kids on a treasure hunt - aka geocaching.  It was more fun than we thought it would be, which means we'll pick it up next year again in the spring.  We were only a few blocks from our house and the colors were really pretty, too.  After the adventure Adam raked up some leaves for the boys to jump in.  The boys also enjoyed sitting in Adam's duck boat and using the duck calls.  The new rule is that the duck calls stay in daddy's truck!

Sneaky

Kale woke up from his nap today while I was downstairs.  Eventually he called my name so I went to get him.  He looked a little sleepy so we went over to the couch to cuddle.  As we were sitting there he started chewing on something.  I asked him to open his mouth - and in it was a piece of gum!  What a little sneak!  My purse was sitting on the bench in the entry way, and he managed to rummage through the huge mess in it, find the pack of Orbit, take it out of the packet and unwrap it.  I now have to hang my purse on a hook!

Happy birthday Grandma!

We spent the weekend in St. Cloud celebrating my mom's birthday and retirement. It was just so exciting for the boys to see all their cousins that they literally hardly slept - like maybe 6 hours Friday night.  That meant we had lots of fun taking a full family photo (all 18 of us) early Saturday morning.  Mom's birthday gift from us was to have a professional photographer come to the house and take a family picture.  The boys just could not pull it together and fussed, whined and cried through most of the pictures.  Miraculously the photographer was able to snap just enough pics where the boys don't look terrible.  You just hate to be that family with the crying kids in the pictures! 

Thankfully the boys napped so they were ready to go for the party.  All of my aunts and uncles plus some family friends were able to make it to my mom's party.  She loved it!  The relatives loved seeing all of the kids, because they don't get to see them very often.  Kale was a little clingy because he was short on sleep, but Nolan did really well.  He's a lot more self sufficient because of his age!  The kids didn't get to bed until after 10 and I didn't get to bed until after midnight.  I knew it would be an early morning!

Adam stayed home with the boys Sunday morning so I could take my run.  We stayed at my parent's house until after nap and then headed toward home.  It was a gorgeous day so we made our annual trip to the Minnetonka Apple Orchard.  This is our 4th annual trip and it's so fun to see how much they've grown!  The boys loved the train, the corn crib with the huge slide, the hay ride and of course eating the apples.  The really wanted to try and tackle the huge mound of hay, but they are just a few years too young.  Nolan was super disappointed by that and threw a bit of a fit, but got over it once he saw the train.  All the fresh air helped the kids go to bed quickly, too.