4 months old!

Elsa and her buddy, Georgette.
Her friend Bennet borrowed
us his monkey, because I
accidentally packed ours away!

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Hard to believe it's been 4 months already - our little peanut is getting so big!  She has finally started to fit better in the bumbo chair, and has recently started grabbing and hanging on to toys.  She loves the toy in the picture below. Thankfully Nolan and Kale took good care of it!  She is eating 5 oz. and still spits up, but we know she's gaining weight based on our recent dr. visits!  Kale still loves her like crazy and has recently started calling her honey, and Nolan could pretty much take her or leave her.  At least he says good morning and good night to her!

She has finally developed a little fat roll on her arm,
as well as dimples in her elbows. You can see
the roll on her leg, too!

She loves banging all all the buttons that make noise

Kale and his "honey" and "cutie"

Progress

Well, we did it.  We successfully moved about 75% of our belongings to Adam's parents 3rd stall garage space.  We are so thankful for the extra storage space - our house actually looks big again!  We moved 8 large boxes and storage bins of toys, in addition to the train table, basketball hoop and other miscellaneous large toys.  It will be nice for the boys to actually have a smaller selection of toys to pick from - and to clean up!  I drove them up to St. Cloud on Friday after work, and we just got home from picking them up.  They were pretty surprised to see the house as empty as it is!  It's weird, because there is definitely an echo to every room.  The photographer is coming to take pictures tomorrow, in hopes that it will be on the market early this week.  Wish us luck!

Double ear infection

Elsa had a super fussy weekend, which has led to a lot of sleepless nights for us this week.  It was to the point that she has been crying uncontrollably for 1/2 hour periods of time, and we can't get her to calm down. It finally clicked today when Jane called and noticed that she was pretty fussy and crying a lot when she was laying down.  I made an appointment for her this afternoon and sure enough, her first ear infection didn't clear up and now she has a double ear infection!  I knew it was bad when our NP said her right ear was bulging.  We have a brand new prescription of augmentin in hopes this will take care of it.  The good news is that she has gotten that much closer to breaking the 11 lb mark - 10 lbs, 14 oz!

She did manage to crack a few smiles this weekend!

I want to see you move...

Well, it's official - we're moving south!  I accepted a new job a few weeks ago as the Asst. Director of HR for compensation, benefits and payroll at MN State University, Mankato.  I am very excited for the new challenges this job will offer, but we have a lot of stuff to do on our current homefront.  We told the boys our exciting news last night - and were pleasantly surprised by their reaction.  As soon as Kale heard "Mankato", his first words were - "that's where Yoya (Lola) lives!"  Nolan immediately started talking about all the new friends he'll make and the new school he gets to go to. We didn't tell them until we had a chance to tell Jane.  We thought it would be helpful if she could talk to them about it, too. It was so sweet this morning when I dropped the kids off at Jane's house.  Kale looked at her and said, "I'm going to miss you so much, Jane".  I told her we are all going to miss Jane a lot.  I know we will never replace her - she is one of a kind!

We have a lot of stuff to start working on in the meantime - like starting to pack and clean out our house so it can be put on the market!  I've been a bit overwhelmed just thinking about it, so I haven't done a whole lot yet. Luckily I have a pretty fantastic husband who is also excited about the move and has already been working on some of the not so fun tasks - like cleaning out the laundry room and storage room!  We made the decision earlier this week to send the kids to my parent's house for the weekend, so we can focus on cleaning and packing.  We're going to have to stay focused, especially since we're both running in the Get Lucky 7K race in Minneapolis Saturday morning!

Bowling

The kids had a great time at the daycare bowling party today.  It was Nolan and Kale's first time, and they both really liked it.  Shock of all shocks, though - Nolan had a lot more patience than Kale!

It's Tricky

Movie makers have totally figured out how to get kids to listen to music.  The boys always equate a song to the title of the movie it's in - for example, the Turbo song is It's Tricky by Run-DMC.  Today on the way home from daycare Kale requested the Turbo song.  It was amazing to listen to him sing "It's Tricky", and tell me his favorite part is "I met a little girlie". At least he has good taste in music!

Santa and Jesus

This morning on the way to daycare the boys were discussing how fun it was that Elsa was talking.  I asked Kale what he thought Elsa was talking about and he said "I think she's talking about you, mommy".  I asked Nolan the same thing and he said, "I'm pretty sure she's talking about Santa and Jesus".

Activity mat fun

Elsa is becoming so much fun.  Today for the first time she grabbed at a toy and held on to it.  I love watching her eyes get big when she figures something out!  Jane said she is doing the same thing there, and has really gotten the hang at swatting at the toys on her activity mat!

Scribbles

I've really come to appreciate the scribble cards that are available to kids at church.  Nolan has really started honing in on his artistic and writing abilities - all in the 15 minutes before they go up for the children's message and head off to Sunday school!

George Washington

Last night before bed we let Nolan take out some money from his piggy bank for the first time.  There's a book fair at school and I'm taking him to it tomorrow morning.  Adam was helping the boys sort through the money and was teaching them about the bills and coins.  I heard him ask Nolan if he knew what president's picture was on the dollar bill.  I was shocked to hear him say "George Washington".  He must have picked that up at school when they talked about President's Day!

It was fun to watch Nolan look through all the books to decide what he wanted to buy. He brought $10 with him and studied each section of books very carefully.  He ultimately decided that a Planes book with 3D glasses was his book of choice. He also bought a pen with a football attached to a string.  He thought it was so cool because there is a button to push and the football gets "throw" in the air.  He came home with $1.02 in his pocket.  So far he's read the book once, misplaced the 3D glasses and completely lost the football pen.  We had a little talk about responsibility!

Jane's helper

Nolan has been having a terrible week.  I'm not sure what's going on, but he is being quite defiant and throwing a lot more tantrums than normal.  It probably has something to do with the fact that he hasn't been able to burn off much energy lately because of the cold, and also because of all the attention that Elsa is getting from us.  Today Jane texted me a picture of him helping get lunch ready for the kids. I love that he helps at Jane's, but I think deep down he knows he needs to start behaving better and he wanted me to see that he is.  I hope he keeps it up!

First trip to urgent care

Elsa had been developing a cough/cold over the course of the last week.  She was super irritable and quite tired on Sunday, so we decided to just take her in to urgent care to rule out any respiratory issues.  I was surprised to hear that she has an ear infection.  She’s on a 10 day prescription, so hopefully that will knock it out.  They weighed her with her clothes on and a wet diaper, and she tipped the scales at 10.0 lbs!  It’s good to know she’s heading in the right direction.

Hot and cold

Grandma and Grandpa B taught the boys how to play the game hot or cold.  We were playing the other night and Nolan kept saying, “you’re hot, Mom, you’re hot!”  Talk about making a girl feel good about herselfJ

Baby Elsa

At the end of church today a few of the members came over to talk to us. They asked the boys what their little sister's name was.  Both boys announced proudly, in unison, "Baby Elsa".  I think no matter how she gets, she will always be the baby to the boys!

Snow, snow and more snow

This has been one heck of a winter.  On the way home from Jane's today I told the boys I wanted to take a picture of them in front of the snow banks.  Nolan, the peach that he is when he doesn't want to do something, replied "fine, mom, but I'm not smiling".  I didn't really care if he smiled or not, because his gator was covering his face!

Winter artwork

Both of the boys are becoming little artists.  Nolan really likes patterns and can free hand draw lots of cool things.  

Kale is currently obsessed with monsters.  He loves to draw them but doesn't like it when I put them on display in the house!

The bunny Easter

Last night Kale started talking about Valentine's Day (or Balemtime's Day, as he calls it). We are still using the heart plates, Vday cups and placemats, so Kale asked if it was still Valentine's Day. I explained to him that Vday is over and he kept arguing with me that it's not because the Vday picture frames were still out. I explained that we would celebrate it again next year, and that the next fun holiday is Easter. Yes, I know, I forgot St. Patrick's Day.  Kale responded with an excited "ohhhhh" and said, "then the bunny Easter will come to give us chocolate and then we'll get dirty". Smart kid.

Goodbye Elmer

Yesterday we had to break the news to the boys that Grandma and Grandpa B's cat, 14 year old Elmer, died.  The craziest thing was that on the way to daycare/preschool the boys were talking about animals getting hit by cars and dying.  Both Nolan and Kale commented that animals are buried in the ground and then they go to heaven.

When we broke the news to them at dinner Nolan was pretty sad, he kept his head down for a little bit and didn't say anything.  Kale, on the other hand, started talking about, saying that Elmer will get buried in the ground and then go to heaven.  He then went on to say that if Leinie, the other cat, dies there will be no more cats at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I guess we'll take whatever simple math he wants to do, even it involves cats dying!

I mentioned to Jane this morning that Elmer died, in the event that Kale talked about it.  She said that was so weird, because at lunch yesterday they were talking about pets and Kale said that Elmer and Leinie were his pets. Jane said she talked about a dog she used to have. Kale asked what happened to it and Jane explained that Toby had died and gone to heaven to live with the angels and God.  Kale told Jane that Toby must have gotten wings to fly up to heaven.

3 months old!

Hard to believe but yesterday Elsa turned 3 months old.  We did an unofficial weight and length for her – 10.2 lbs and 23.5 inches long!  This actually puts her back on the percentile chart for her age at 4% for weight – hurray!  Her length is at 37%, which is a huge jump from her 2 month appointment if it’s accurate.  She is starting to fit better in to the 0-3 months clothes. She loves her activity mat, bouncy chair and any opportunity she has to watch her big brothers play.  She is still obsessed with her hands and is by far the drooliest kid we’ve ever had. She just started eating 4 oz. and has been sleeping through the night since the end of January.  She is actually turning in to quite a content baby!  She still has some horrid crying spells if something isn’t just right, but I think we’re figuring her out.  She seems to really enjoy her time at Jane’s house and is smiley at drop off and pick up.  We need to figure out tummy time for her, as she still hates it with a passion.  At this rate she will never be rolling over or crawling!  The up side of that is we won’t have an early walker like Kale.  10 months was too soon!

I'm not smiling

I asked the boys to take a picture with Elsa. No surprise to me when his response was “I don’t want to.” So I take the picture of Elsa and Kale - you can see in the first picture that Nolan’s feet are in the background, right behind Kale’s ear.  A screaming fit ensues as soon as the picture is taken – “I want to take a picture!” I tell him to get in the picture. Nolan continues to scream for a few more minutes.  He decides to finally get in the picture but is upset that his knee is touching Kale’s leg.  His final words before I took the picture were “I’m not smiling”.