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!