February Catch Up: Week One

Well, this is pretty fitting - starting my February catch up posts on the last day of the month.  Oh well - better late than never, I guess!  And I think I will do some generic posts for the month, as well as specific ones - like Uncle Will's birthday, Valentines Day, and Icemageddon!  And I really am going to try to do better with this - it is so much easier to do a fun, brief post about an event or weekend as opposed to these that have days or even weeks included!  But alas, here I am, needing to catch up on a whole month.  So here we go.

 

February 1

Katie went to a cheer clinic where they learned a dance and then performed at halftime of the Vanderbilt Women's basketball game.  She had a great time!  Here she is practicing...action shot for sure!

And a picture of us together!  Between the clinic and the game, they had inflatables, food, sno cones, and other fun things!

And here she is with some of her buddies.  And yes - they are all in kindergarten.  Katie is just a giant!  I am fairly certain she is slumped over in this picture!

And we had great seats for the game!  Here we are courtside - literally!

We left there, went home so Katie could change, and then headed to a Super Bowl party!  We had fun, but having our kids there was nuts (mainly Jack).  Next year, I think we will be getting a babysitter so we can actually watch the game and commercials!

February 2

I woke up bright and early to head to Tae Bo!  I'd say it was a good class judging by the amount of sweat on my shirt!

February 3

Katie was sporting her Valentine's gear for school!  And we did our "quick pic" in front of our Valentine's banner!

And here is Jack and his spot to take a picture at school! Ha!  Poor guy - that black eye was awful!

And Daddy surprised Katie at school for lunch!

And Ryan had his first tooth poke through!

The dinner I made was yummy - lasagna cups!

February 4

We headed to Jack's class that morning - we only did a month. I am thinking we may have to start doing these again...he really loved it!  And it helped get some of his energy out!

For dinner, we headed to Newks...and these two actually cooperated for a picture together!

Which of course meant that Jack wanted one with Daddy as well :)  Cute!

February 5

While Jack and Katie were at school, Ryan and I went on a lunch date with Cat and Carter!  I love how they were staring each other down...and they kept "talking" - it was so funny!

February 6

Katie went on a field trip at school, so she had to wear her special school shirt.  And she wanted a picture with Sadie!

And I got a picture of Jack smiling nicely, but I think this one is more fitting.  Wild man!

February 7

Katie went to a Pancakes and PJs birthday party - such cuties!

While she was there, I did laundry...at my neighbors' house.  Our washing machine was out of commission for like a week - not good with three kids!! Once again, thank goodness for sweet friends and neighbors!

After laundry, I went with Brad (Katie's girl scout troop "cookie daddy") to get the troop's girl scout cookies.  THAT is a LOT of cookies!

February 8

These two are already forming a sweet bond.  They laugh at each other and it is so fun to watch!

Katie also addressed her valentines for her class!

And here is a picture of Katie and myself (wet hair and all) before heading to my brother's birthday gathering!

Check back for more updates!  We certainly stay busy around here :)

 

 

More Togetherness

We sure have had a lot of together time.  And when I say a lot.  I mean a lot.  Like whoa.  The ice storm last week meant that the kids didn't go to school all week.  And we could hardly get out of our neighborhood (it took Brad 10 minutes to get up our street on Thursday morning - I figured it wasn't worth it with the kids in tow so we stayed in).  And just when things started melting, it hit.  What is it, you ask?  Why, the stomach bug, of course.

 

This was Katie's Saturday.  She woke me up at 3:30am and informed me that she had thrown up in her bed.  Yuck.

Sunday, she and Brad were both out of commission.  But they both got better as the day progressed.  They both even ate baked potatoes for dinner!

 

And yesterday, Brad went to work.  And Katie was doing better.  We even got out of the house to run a couple errands!  And in the meantime, I got the call/email that the kids would be back in school today.  Just with a one hour delay.  Hooray! The best of both worlds!  Ease into the morning routine but have extra time..and they go to school!  Until Katie threw up again last night.  Twice.  So this is how she slept again last night.  In our bathroom.

She woke up feeling a lot better today (thank GOODNESS).  But the germ claimed another victim.  The Wild Man himself.  So this is what our morning looked like.  I moved the kitchen table and made a nest on the floor for Jack to watch shows.  And Katie sat at a distance but watched also.  And poor Ryan - he is WAY too big for the swing, but I needed somewhere to put him!

And thank GOODNESS for neighbors.  Like for real.  My friend/neighbor/angel came and brought these for me.  And not only did she bring these, but she happened to come when I was upstairs feeding Ryan a bottle to get him down for a nap...and Jack threw up again.  Good thing we love each other's kids.  Sheesh.

And she brought Jack a few feel better goodies...

And she brought Katie a word search and coloring poster that are both Frozen.  She was thrilled with something to do (since she is feeling better)!

And then Jack decided he wanted to get snuggly.

And then he fell asleep - in the middle of the kitchen with The Incredibles on.  Poor dude.  He did however keep one Saltine and a few sips of Pedialyte down!  I will call that a success!

And Katie is sitting at the island eating an easy snack lunch and watching the movie and doing her word search.  She even has a twinkle back in her eye!

I sure do look forward to some sense of normalcy and routine.  Mainly I want our crazy kiddos to feel better.  And to get back into their routines.  I think Katie will be good to go for school tomorrow (thank goodness).  And hopefully Jack will be feeling better.  He is so pitiful when he is sick!  He is actually STILL and CALM!  And I sure hope Ryan avoids the throw ups.  And I hope I avoid it too - mommas don't get sick days!  Here's to hoping we are back to normal soon! 
 

 

 

Another Week, Another Menu

I have to say - I am so proud of myself!  Though over the past week, I think I have cooked more than the last two months combined!  You see, we had Icepocalypse 2015 in these parts - and that meant no leaving the house.  So thank GOODNESS we were stocked - and that our neighbors have an AWD SUV :) I had even stocked up on wine!  Whew!

 

So I prepared three meals a day last week.  And Friday we got together with all the neighbors - and I made three things for that.  And I had most of the items on hand (pretty miraculous in and of itself).  The other items?  My neighbor picked up at Publix!  So delicious - in fact I think I may have leftovers for lunch here shortly!

 

Here is our plan for this week's meals!  I need to go to the store (likely tonight) so that we have items for these meals.  Most of it is from the freezer, once again.  That makes it so much easier!

Hope all is well!  Things will be even better if these crazy kids go back to school tomorrow (yes - they have been off since February 13)!

 

This Week's Menu

I meant to post this earlier, but I wanted to share what is on our menu this week!  I actually put this together Saturday and went to the store that evening (Happy Valentine's Day to me - ha) since we were forecasted to get snow Sunday night...I didn't want to step foot in the store on Sunday!

 

Anyways, here is what we are having this week!  Several of these items are already made and just in the freezer, so it will make for an easy meal!

The tacos last night were a hit!  I think we are actually going to swap the Tuesday and Wednesday meals - we did get quite a bit of ice (and very little snow), so jambalaya and cornbread just seems like a good meal for tonight :)  And then the chicken spaghetti tomorrow night with sautéed squash and zucchini!

 

Hope you're having a good week and staying warm!  Glad we are stocked with food here - I don't think we are going anywhere soon! 



Ryan: 8 Months

 

Sleep

This little guy is a great sleeper -- at night.  He goes down for the night at around 7:45 or 8:00 and will sleep about 12 hours.  Sometimes he wakes up at 6:30 -- but he has slept as late as 9:00!  During the week, I also have to work around the schedules of the other crazies and the bus stop and dropping of at mother's day out and all that.  And then when it is just Ryan and myself, I have to run errands and get things done!  Which often means being out and about.  Which means no crib naps.  And that is wearing me out!  But I am happy to report that on the day he turned 8 months old, sweet little Ryan took a THREE HOUR nap in there.  I put him in the sleepsack (that he sleeps in at night) and was sure to do an orajel swab on his gums where teeth are moving around.  And it worked that it was when he needed a bottle.  Whatever it was, it was successful!  So that is my goal this month - get at least one good crib nap each day (and preferably at the time that Jack naps when he is home for naptime)!  What it boils down to is that I am content with him sleeping at night.  It would be spectacular for him to start napping during the day - more than just in his carseat!

Eating

Ryan is doing great with formula!  He has 4 bottles a day - when he wakes up, around 11:30 or 12, around 4 or 4:30, and then at bedtime (around 7:45ish).  The first three bottles are 7 ounces each and then the last one is 8 ounces!  And then in the morning, he has 2 scoops of cereal, and at night, he has a container of baby food with a scoop of cereal.  He loves baby food!  And boy, oh boy, I had forgotten the quick effect of prunes! YUCK!  But I am so glad that he has done well with everything so far.  He is also doing really well with the sippy cup, which is great!  We have started with puffs just a little bit - I think he needs a couple more weeks until he is proficient with those! 

Weight

Nothing official here!  According to our scale at home, he is 20 pounds!

Length

No official measurement here, and I didn't have the patience to try to measure :) Will have a new measurement next month...he has definitely grown though!

Size Clothes

Ryan is wearing 9 month things right now...and I've noticed some of the jammies and outfits are starting to get a little short or snug! So we may be leaning more towards the 6-12 month size before too long!

Size Diapers

Size 3 is working perfectly right now!  I have discovered that neither the Honest Co nor the Target brand diapers work for him at night.  He pees through in a major way!  I guess we better stick to the Pampers!

Hair color

He has enough hair to where he can actually get "bed head" now! And it seems like it may be a bit darker than the other two kiddos' hair!

Eye color

Those baby blues!

Looking Like

It is unreal how much Ryan is looking like Jack!  I think he has Katie's eyes and the rest is so much like his big bro!

Nicknames

We need to do better about actually calling him by his name - both so that the big kids will, and so he will learn his name :)  Most of the time it is just Baby.

Favorite toy

He is still loving the exersaucer these days!  He really likes squeaky toys - he laughs so hard.  And we discovered at the get together for my brother's birthday that he cackles (like extreme belly laugh) when someone blows a ----.  He also loves the toy Katie gave him for Christmas still.  And the car key toy that Tanja and Nick gave him for Christmas.  And I recently got out all the plastic-y book and he absolutely loves those!

Firsts

Whew!  This has been a busy month full of new experiences!  Ryan experienced his first snow!  It was just for a quick minute because we had a birthday party to go to, and it had melted by the time we got home!  I love this one of him looking around at it all!

 

And he sat in the cart at a store like a big boy!  He loved being able to look around and play with toys - and he did such a great job!  I love that it leaves more room in the cart for the things we need!

 

And he sat in a high chair out at a restaurant for the first time!  He loved being able to look around and check everything out!  This was the first experience - just while Brad had taken Jack for a potty attempt!  He would not stop messing with the highchair to look at me!

 

 And then he did sit in a highchair for an entire meal when we went to lunch with Cat and Carter!

He has his first tooth!  On February 3, his first tooth cut through! 

 

Milestones

Ryan is ready to mooooove.  When he gets down on the ground you can just tell he wants to take off!  He rolls around some, but he really gets up and planks and scoots a ton!  He has taken a couple "crawls" forward, but a lot of his scooting is backwards.  He also hasn't quite coordinated his hands to move with his legs to take off and crawl.  This month he did go from the up-on-all-fours position to sitting - and then sitting to up-on-all-fours!  He is pretty proud of that - in fact, the first time he did it, he was with Brad and just looked up at him and smiled great big.  Here he is doing the sit-to-crawl later the same day he did it for the first time :)

When I put a few puffs on his tray today, he picked one up!  It was more palming it than actually using the pincer grasp, but it is a start!

Talking/Words/Sounds

He says "mamama" and "dadada" and "bababa" - I will start paying attention for more sounds!  He still makes sweet baby noises when he first gets up in the morning - I love that!

Anything else?

I love that when I pick Ryan up, he snuggles into me as if he is giving me a giant hug!  I am so glad he is a fairly relaxed baby - except when Katie and Jack are gone.  Then he has to be right there with me.  I think he is used to all the activity and chaos when they are around and just doesn't know what to do when they aren't around!  He is certainly more vocal and is quick to make noise when he wants to remind people to pay attention to him!  We sure do love him to pieces!