Night out

Adam and I feel very fortunate that we were able to leave all 3 kids (especially Elsa) with friends of ours to enjoy an anniversary dinner/movie night. Elsa is having a tough go of it right now, lots of crying and uncomfortableness. We decided to switch formula for her, so we’re starting the mixing process of sensitive and gentle formula. At this point we’re pretty desperate to stop the crying so we’ll try anything!
The boys did so well playing that Lori invited them over for a sleepover. She was crazy enough to invite Elsa, too. Adam and I decided to stop at home and pick up a few things and spend the night, too. It was great to get 5 hours of sleep straight - all thanks to Lori who volunteered to keep Elsa in their room for the night.

Christmas celebrations #2 and #3

We started a new tradition this year, celebrating Christmas Eve with just our family. The boys are old enough now to appreciate and remember traditions. Santa emailed both of them a video this year. They boys were so surprised and even cheered when Santa told them they made the nice list! I think Nolan actually cheered louder when he found out Kale made the nice list like he did! We went to church after nap and then enjoyed making homemade pizzas with the kids. We also followed Santa’s journey to track how long it would be until he stopped at our house. Before bed the boys picked out the cookies they wanted to leave for him, along with a few carrots and stalk of celery for Rudolph. They went to bed really well and were so excited to wake up the next morning to see what he left for them – a scooter with light up wheels for Nolan and a new bike for Kale. They were both more excited about the new underwear and electric toothbrushes:) We spent most of Christmas Day with my mom’s extended family. We played the Garceau family tradition of dirty bingo.  It was all fine and good until we started playing the second round, where you steal gifts from other people. Poor Kale was sobbing and kept repeating "but you're not supposed to steal"!  I felt so bad for him, especially since he's only 3 and has always been taught not to steal!  The good news is that only one person "stole" a present from him.  I think he ended up with more presents that anyone else! After the game ended we headed to my parent’s house for a few days of fun. Other than 2 pretty massive tantrums by Kale at bedtime it was fun. Elsa also had her crabby moments. My family couldn't believe how loud is. She is just so uncomfortable with gas. Hopefully as she gains more weight it will get better! Oh, how could I forget to mention that we had fun putting doll slippers on Elsa, having her sleep in a baby doll cradle and putting her in a baby doll stroller? She is still so tiny!

Love letter to Santa

The boys wanted to write a note to Santa. I asked Kale what he wanted to write and he said “Dear Santa, I love you.” How sweet!

Christmas celebration #1

We had fun celebrating Christmas with the Bleck side of the family. The boys were spoiled with lots of fun presents and had fun playing with their cousins. They even got to make reindeer food with Grandma again. After the kids opened gifts we put them in the porch to watch a movie while we opened our gifts. We forgot that all the Christmas baked goods were out there, until Kale came to talk to me and had his hands behind his back. When I asked him what was in his hands he held them out and showed me a bon bon in each of them. We quickly put the treats away! We ended up staying overnight, which was fun for the kids. Elsa didn’t sleep much – she’s been pretty crabby lately. We think it’s mostly due to gassiness, so we’re going to start using gas drops in her bottles. Hopefully that will take the edge off! The boys were thrilled the next morning when Grandpa made them special snowman pancakes with chocolate chips.

Sleeping baby

Elsa totally shocked us last night by falling asleep at 10:30 and not waking up until 3:40!  She has done such a good job over the last week of sleeping in her crib, but she usually gets up every 3-4 hours to eat. For some reason last night she didn't need to - and it was amazing.  A little sleep for mom goes a long way!

We had her one month wellness visit today. She is doing well, even though she still has thrush. She weighs 7 bls 5 oz (3.5%) and is 21 inches long (37%).  She is "teeny tiny" as Kale says, but growing.  

Creativity

7:52 a.m. at daycare - Kale already assembled his first creation of the day - a helicopter.

Time to slow down

I came to a pretty big realization today, after I locked Elsa in the minivan at daycare.  We had been running around all day, visiting my work and doing errands.  At the end of the day was the daycare Christmas party. When we got there I wanted to be sure to park on the street so I could leave easily.  Thank goodness I did, because after I locked her in the car I had to take Jane's car back to our house to get our spare key. Had I parked in the driveway I would have blocked the car!  It's also a good thing that Adam doesn't carry the spare van key with him, as he was working in Baldwin, WI - a mere 1 1/2 hour car ride away!  The good news is that it wasn't as cold outside and she slept for most of the 10 minutes I was gone.  You would think I would have been more worked up, but I wasn't.  She was warm and cozy in her car seat and Devin stayed outside with her.

The boys had a great time at the party.  Both of them received a Dusty Crophopper remote control plane from Jane, and they LOVE it.  Kale also got a camera and Nolan a Crayola art kit from their friend who drew their name.  Kale has really enjoyed taking pictures of Elsa, and both of the boys have become quite the artists.  Nolan drew a dinosaur and it actually looks like a dinosaur!

The cold

This has been the coldest winter I can remember in a looooong time. It feels like we’ve been in house arrest for the last 2 months. It's so bad that I have a hard time getting myself in the mood to even walk out to get the mail.  The boys are handling it as well as they can, but they certainly have some energy that would be better worn off playing in the snow! The responsibility chart we instituted in October helps a little – until Kale decides he doesn’t want his point for a specific thing (like eating dinner).

Cookie time

I was excited to show the boys how to paint Christmas cookies. It was something my mom always did with me and my sister’s growing up, and I remember it being fun. They each got to paint 6 cookies, and they were so excited to do it. The paint is an egg yolk with food coloring mixed in it. You paint the cookie cut out before baking it. I had to help them a little bit because the dough gets soft pretty quickly, which for Kale was tough because he isn’t quite familiar with not pressing hard on things when he paints! The cookies turned out great, and they are excited to leave them out for Santa. And as Kale reminded me, we also need to leave celery and carrots for the reindeer!

The Christmas concert

Adam took Nolan to church this morning and I stayed home with Elsa and Kale.  The kids were going to be practicing for the concert later tonight, so we decided since Kale wasn't participating he wouldn't go.  The 3 of us actually had a nice time at home together.  Nolan came home from church and made it a point to tell me that he sang really loud and did all the actions at practice.  I knew he would turn it around!

My mom got to our house this afternoon for her extended stay.  She stayed at home with Kale and Elsa while Adam and I took Nolan to the concert.  Fifteen minutes before the start of the concert I took him to get dressed.  Disaster struck, as I foolishly thought he would fit in to his "too big for him last year" Christmas outfit.  I literally had nothing else to dress him in - poor planning on my part!  He had to wear the too tight black dress pants, and I did find a black/grey sweater for him to wear.  I felt so bad for him during the concert, because he kept itching his waist line where the pants were too tight!  Lesson learned - try on clothes well in advance of when you need them!

Nolan made us very proud at the concert. It's actually more of a play that involves more of the older kids, but Nolan did great being patient in between the scenes. I was hoping to get all of it on video, but our camcorder is on the fritz.  I hope what we took worked!

Not quite ready

The boys have been preparing for their Sunday School Christmas Concert for the last month at Sunday School.  Both of them have been excited and ready to go - until practice this morning.  It made me realize that sometimes we think Kale is actually older than the ripe old age of 3, and that our expectations of him might be a little high.  He did good for the first 5 minutes, and then it was downhill from there.  The worst part was that Nolan, who is usually such a good listener, fell in to it, too.  Kale is definitely the leader and Nolan more of a follower.  They both were up and walking around and not paying attention to the leader.  The practice was supposed to go for an hour, but I left with them after a 1/2 hour.  When we got home they had to sit in their room and think about what happened and how they would do it differently next time.  We decided that Kale isn't ready for his on stage debut, even though he loves singing and dancing.  Nolan will still go and will most likely do a great job!

The next weigh in

I took Elsa for a weight check today and low and behold, she is 6 lbs 8 oz. - a full 5 oz. bigger than when she was born!  Hopefully the more she grows the better she'll adjust to sleeping in her crib.  Both Adam and I forgot (a little) about what lack of sleep is like - and it's a lot harder the older we get!  Right now he is taking the first part of the night, until 12 or 1 a.m., and then I get up with her after that.  Hopefully this will continue to work, as he went back to work on Monday.  Next week he's going to be in North Carolina for 3 days. I'm very thankful my mom is going to come and stay with me to help out.  I know at some point I'll need to do it on my own when Adam travels, but I'm not ready quite yet!

Long, cold winter

It finally warmed up enough so the kids could play outside at daycare today!

The tree

The boys were so excited to get the tree put up. They are always the first to hang their ornaments. They are both so proud to do it, and they like to talk about each one and where they got it from. My favorite was when Kale pulled out this little mini picture frame ornament that I have yet to put his picture in. There is a picture of 3 kids in it right now, and he came up to me and said, “look, mom, it’s my friends!” I asked him who they were and he kept telling me his friends. After that I made sure to order a picture of him to put in it!

Celebrating Grandma

Adam and the boys had fun celebrating his mom and twin sister, Elaine's, 60th birthday on Saturday with his extended family.  We decided to only take Elsa for a little bit because she's so new and little - and there were 13 other kids under the age of 8 in attendance!  We have the mindset that it's better to be safe than sorry and keep Elsa in the house as much as possible for the first month, or at least until she puts some meat on her bones!

The second cousins