River house is elevated!

Only half of the work is done to completion of this whole project, but the house is now completely elevated to the height it will be after the brick work is done. Wednesday the house movers elevated the house approximately 12 inches. Dave explained to me that it is a very slow process, involving 2 days of elevating. The steel I-beams are put in place, and a very strong hydraulic system is used to raise it up. They go up an inch, tweak and balance, and go up another inch, tweak and balance, go up another inch, etc. Thursday they finished the height of elevation and now the rest of the work will be completed by another masonry company who will build up the brick foundation. Then the house movers will "set" the house back down on top of the new foundation and take out the support beams. The brick people do all the "repair" work and patch up the brick holes that were busted out for the beams to be inserted. We went there yesterday to see the progress...its just crazy and amazing to stand inside the basement of our old house and see the sky and feel the wind at the same time. We both felt like we were in some kind of dream seeing the house "floating" above its foundation a good 40 inches. The brick people said they can start on Monday. We have a few decisions to make before they start: where to insert the new basement windows, the width and height of the garage door opening, and Dave has to build a few wood window frames. It will be a busy weekend! Some pics:

first thunderstorm of the year

Today was the first thunderstorm of the year. It was refreshing to me because I really like thunderstorms and I enjoy a good rainfall, especially in the spring time. The winter was so long and cold that even a storm was welcome! The sky grew very dark around noon, the kids came inside from the deck because it was too cold, and the storm approached very quickly. The rain was heavy, the lightning flashed, and the thunder rolled. Violet told me she was really scared, and immediately ran upstairs to bring her baby dolls downstairs and "comforted" them telling them it was OK and they didn't have to be scared. I got them distracted with lunch, both ate a lot of banana slices and a peanut butter sandwich. I ate some veggie beef soup and Violet asked for a little bit of it. I gave her her own little bowl of soup and she actually ate it! She said she loves carrots, and ate the potatoes which she has claimed for at least 2 years that she doesn't like potatoes. While I was getting lunch ready, both kids were plastered to the window intrigued by the storm. I opened up a small window a few inches so they could hear and smell the storm but it wasn't open far enough that any rain could get in. Both of them wanted to "see" the thunder so badly. :) So cute, it made me smile. The moment turned from sweet to sour pretty quickly. Calvin apparently was "in Violet's way" too much and she purposely shoved him hard enough to make him hurt, and he ended up in tears, and she ended up in time out for making him hurt on purpose. *sigh* At least the pic is sweet.

Blue daddy

Calvin is so silly. He's talking so much more now and makes us laugh a lot lately. Dave was wearing a blue shirt today, and around 5:30 we headed out to all go see the elevation progress at the river house. The kids were in the car, I got in the front seat, and Calvin said "Wait daddy! wait daddy!" He was slightly panicked that the van was going to leave with out him, even though I wasn't even in the driver's seat. Dave finished doing whatever he was doing and hopped in the van, and Calvin exclaimed "Dere's blue daddy!" referring to Dave wearing a blue shirt. :D

Last night was not a fun night (van stuck on cottage row)

So yesterday evening after Dave got off work, he said he had to go over to the river house and prep the house for the house movers. That involved removing all three wooden stair cases that are attached (two on the outside, one in the basement) and take down the garage door. I agreed to take the kids to Island Park while he worked. I fed them PBJs for a fast supper and we were off. I let the kids play at the park for a long time, it was quite windy outside and was surprised they were not affected by the gusting wind. I think they were just ecstatic to BE outside and playing somewhere "new" for once. They've been to this park before, but it was close to a year ago. The ground was all sandy from the recent flood, making a very soft walking surface. Violet must have had a streak of bravery at this park. She was climbing up and down slides that were very high, slid her body skillfully down a pole that was very tall, and then proceeded to JUMP off of the playground equipment from way too high for her age (it was close to 6 feet tall I think, right by my head). She landed well, but fell quickly and her knee jammed into her lower cheek upon landing, which looked pretty painful. At first she didn't know how to react until the sting of pain settled in. I held her while she cried for a long time. A bruise quickly developed, and I told her she could have some medicine before going to bed. A little ibuprofen might help. About 2 hours later, it started to get dark, I gave Dave a call on his cell and asked him how the progress was going. He had two stair cases down, 1 to go, and the garage door. He asked me to come by and take a look, so I got the kids packed back in the car and headed for the river house. I didn't let them out of the car - it was just too messy and sandy. I walked around looking at the prep work, amazed this was all happening. Dave had the truck with him there so I decided to head back and get the kids to bed since they were tuckered out from the windy park playing and were whining and acting very tired. It was after 8 pm after all. So I turned the familiar circle around the neighbor's driveway like I always used to do, and all of a sudden, the van collapsed in a heap of sand. I was totally stuck. The flood brought up a ton of sand and the neighbor moved all of it into his driveway in an attempt to "build it up" higher. He did have plans to cover it with gravel, he just hadn't done it yet. It was like a booby-trap! I tried backing out, but all the tires did were spin. Frustrating! Violet immediately freaked out, she knew we were stuck and thought we were never going to get out and never get home. Calvin picked up on her fear and started crying too. I called Dave over, who brought a shovel, but it didn't help. He found a rope on the neighbor's pontoon boat and tried towing me out with the truck, but all the rope did was snap and break. We were both so tired...but we knew what had to happen...a trip to the store. Dave stayed at the river house because he had to finish tearing down the garage door. I put the kids in the truck and drove to Farm and Fleet at 8:30 pm to get a new anchor rope for the neighbor and a tow strap. Nobody was in the store to help me. I had to fish out an employee from a different department to show me where the tow straps were, and when he did, he just left me there to figure out what to get...there seemed to be a million strap options, I didn't know what to get. So I had to go dig out another employee to help me. 30 minutes later, I found the two items I needed, and drove back to the river house. By this time it was close to 9:30. Dave hooked up the van and the truck with the tow strap, and pulled me out with ease. Praise the Lord! I was praying the whole time since the moment I got stuck to grant me patience and calmness knowing from that moment the rest of the night could be stressful...and He did. Violet was scared but remained calm and tried her best to keep Calvin happy, Calvin was overtired but didn't scream like he usually does. Once we got free of the sand pit, Dave had finished with the house, and we both headed out. On the way out of Cottage Row Rd, he pulled over and said "Hey, you wanna go to 4 Queens?" I just smiled and said "Might as well..." So the 4 of us went to get ice cream at 10 pm. Violet perked up immediately when she heard ice cream. She said she wanted a cone instead of a cup this time, and really wanted pink ice cream. She got her wish, and a little pink ice cream cone she got. Calvin ate a little cup of chocolate ice cream. All she wanted was the cone though, and immediately took a bite right out of the bottom of the cone. Dave ate her ice cream quick and she ate the cone. Once we got home, it was "mission-get-these-kids-to-bed-as-soon-as-possible"...so we did...and by 11 pm, they were sleeping. Ughh...what a night. Last nights don't make for the best mornings. And of course, she was awake at 7 am (and had woken Dave up at 5 am because of a nightmare involving shots and doctors). Violet had an unusually horrible day, spent most of her morning in time-out and getting spankings for bad behavior. I guess she's just a normal kid who needs a decent night's sleep to function. Right now both kids are sleeping, and I hope they catch up on sleep by taking loooong naps.

Elevating the river house

Today begins the work on 1726 Cottage Row Rd. The house movers are elevating the entire house up 40 inches. Prep work was done by them and us over the last few days. Dave removed all three wooden staircases from the house, he ripped off the garage door, and the house movers smashed huge holes in 8 spots (2 on each side of the house) in the cinder block foundation where the long red steel I-beams will enter the house. Its just crazy that this is happening! I drove over there this morning to look at the work, and with in a couple hours of working, they had all the steel beams in place. He said they'd have it raised up by the end of work day today or for sure by tomorrow morning. They are communicating with the brick people who are going to come in and lay the extra 40 inches of brick foundation so they can lay the house back down. I'll post pics later when the process is more complete.

"Big Mess" house

That's what we've always called the river house when we talk to our kids about it. Violet seems to be processing the information very accurately though. She talks about how the house got flooded, the water made a mess, and it the inside had to get torn apart. She some times still calls it "home" when we pull up there to look at it or do something there. The other day we were at Gateway Park and a little tiny house that had gotten flooded was in the process of being torn down by a big piece of machinery. Violet wanted our house to be torn down in the same fashion as this one they were watching being torn to the ground. Dave went over there today to open up some windows and air it out since cleaning the basement after the last flood a couple weeks ago. He noticed that two of the basement windows had been broken, and it had to have happened yesterday evening, because the windows weren't broken when he was there cleaning it out yesterday afternoon. That rattles us a little. Who would want to either vandalize the house or break in??? A lot of work needs to be done to that property. I want to host a cleaning party or something...the entire driveway needs to be power-washed, sticks and leaves need to be picked up all over the property, and the yard just needs some TLC. Since we plan to put it on the market and sell it after it gets elevated this week or next, we both want it looking its best.

Water park weekend

I mentioned in an earlier post about taking a trip to Dubuque, IA. We went Thurs afternoon through Saturday afternoon. Dave's brother Josh suggested meeting up at a hotel that has a big water park that is well suited to little kids. They were making the weekend trip partly in celebration for their son Austin's 5th birthday and thought it would be fun for us to join them. It wasn't exactly in the middle between our houses, we drove about an hour and a half, they drove about 3 hours. Overall the weekend was really fun. It was definitely nice to catch up with Josh and Carrie and see their kids. Violet, Austin, Renee and Calvin had so much fun playing together. Baby Wesley is 4 1/2 months old, and stayed in the arms of an adult most of the weekend. He got in the water once. I didn't swim at all...I just didn't feel up for it with such a large belly and nothing comfortable to wear in the water. I don't own a maternity suit...so I mostly took care of baby Wesley while everybody else swam and went down slides. It worked out pretty well, actually. We met up Thursday evening and both arrived at the hotel (Grand Harbor Resort) around 6 pm. We fed the kids some Easy Mac in our hotel room so they could get a little something in their bellies before hitting the water park. Violet was SO anxious once we arrived to get her suit on as fast as possible and make a mad dash to the pool...(I can SOO relate, I used to be "that kid" begging my parents to go swimming at any hotel we ever stayed at! Just the smell of chlorine in the hotel was so tempting!). She paused for enough time to snarf down some noodles and then we all headed down to the water. Both kids had life jackets on the whole time, which gave Violet free reign of almost the entire pool. There was a huge structure the kids climbed on most of the time that had 2 very long and twisty water slides. I think Violet spent 90% of her time going up and down slides. The end of the slides didn't end in a large pool either, which was nice...it ended in a few inches of water...like the slide itself tapered off slowly. Dave had his hands full keeping track of V and C at the same time. Calvin was pretty scared of everything at first. The big climbing structure that had the slides on it also had an enormous bucket of water that occasionally dumped its contents of water over the whole thing and made the loudest crash sound...Calvin got scared every time that water dumped out. Thursday night was really late. All of us adults were really hungry after letting the kids play so late in the water, so we went to the hotel restaurant and eventually finished dinner by 10 pm. All the kids were wiped...and fell asleep very quickly once we got back to our hotel rooms. We spent an hour or two in J&C's hotel room that night talking, but once the clock hit 1:30 am we had to call it a night...all of us were exhausted. Too bad all the kids woke up at 7 am the next morning!! Ughhh...why don't kids sleep in when put to bed so late? I'll never understand that. :P The morning was a little rough...and the moment we woke up we vowed to take naps when the kids did. We had brought along some cold cereal so for breakfast, we ordered a big glass of milk and let the kids eat cereal for breakfast. Dave was still full from the big dinner the night before, and I was craving protein, so I got a 2-egg omelet from room service off the kid's menu. Of course we headed down to the water park again that morning. For the next three hours the kids completely wore themselves out, and were starving by the time we got them out of the water. Josh ordered a couple large pizzas for everybody and they were gone in about 10 minutes flat. Violet ate 4 pieces of pizza, Calvin had almost three. Nap time came next...and for some reason, Calvin started screaming 45 minutes after he fell asleep. Dave drug his crib into the bathroom and shut the door so it was dark, and coaxed him to go back to sleep. He did fall asleep for another hour or so, which was a huge blessing. Violet, Dave and I all slept for awhile. We scouted out a public park location by the recommendation of the hotel's concierge service - he recommended a park called Cleveland Park. We all thought it would be a good idea to do something else than the water park again that day, and hit it in the morning before we left on Saturday. The park he suggested was only a couple miles away, and it was really nice. It had nice equipment, a view of the Mississippi being way high up on a bluff, and the weather was just barely warm enough to enjoy an hour of park play. We headed out to dinner after that - we went to a little place Josh and Carrie knew about called the Shot Tower restaurant, or something like that. Very casual and dark, order-at-the-window kind of place and stay as long as you want. Carrie and I were determined to eat healthy, so both of us got grilled chicken salads. Josh, Dave, and Violet were chowing down fried cheese balls!! A rare greasy treat that we never get a home, that is for sure. The kids played a bunch by pretending to play video games in the corner of the restaurant. Calvin and Renee ran endless circles around a pole in the middle of the room. I'm not really sure how it all happened but we thought for sure we'd get the kids to bed at a decent time by going out to eat before 6:30 pm...but they didn't get tucked in until 9:45 pm. We stopped at a grocery store after the restaurant and picked up another box of cereal, 1/2 gal of milk, and some bowls for breakfast. Another late night! But it was much, much nicer. Both slept better, and everybody woke up at 8 am. Ahhh...we sort of breathed a sigh of relief. At one point (some time between 6 and 7 am) Calvin did cry in the middle of the night, so Dave moved his crib into our room (it was a 2-room hotel room with a door separating the rooms) so he wouldn't disturb Violet...and another miracle occured...Calvin fell asleep for that last hour so we could all sleep more. I am feeling redundant here, but we went to the water park again Saturday morning. Calvin was well acclimated (finally) to the pool so he had the most fun this morning kicking and splashing in the water, being brave enough to go down the tiny baby slide. He's such an athletic, agile guy, but very sensitive and cautious at the same time. Violet disappeared in the maze structure of climbing and sliding, I watched the baby, and everybody else had fun. Violet threw a major fit when we told her it was time to leave. It took her about an hour to change her attitude...it almost wrecked our lunch plans. She finally came around and got happy. We got the kids bathed, packed up our stuff, and checked out by noon. We met Josh and Carrie for lunch at A&W...and called it a day, and went our separate ways. The cousins did lots of hugging and kissing goodbye - good thing everybody is healthy! Our drive home was short...but just long enough for them both to fall asleep. We put them in their beds when we got home and Calvin was the only one who fell asleep once put in his crib. Violet did not take to sleeping in her bed and kept getting up to adjust her baby, blankets, teddy bear, and saying she had to pee...so her nap was very little. All in all, the trip was really great. Of course, there were times it was stressful and all of us parents would look at each other over 5 little screaming and whining heads all in one place and say "Are we having fun yet!?" with exasperated looks...but those moments pass. It brings parents so much joy to see their kids having SOO much fun. The looks on their faces doing something new and daring is so great, especially seeing Violet enjoy so much independence. I could tell she was so proud of herself for not needing help with hardly anything. Seeing how far she's come in the last two years, being so afraid of everything to being really brave and bold was a big difference to me. Her confidence rubbed off on Renee who just turned 3 to try some things on her own too. Austin has always played that role for Violet. Their ages this trip: Austin-5, Violet-4, Renee-3, Calvin-2, Wesley-4 months. Soon to be another newborn in the mix!!

Violet is usually very helpful, with the exception of one morning

I think it was yesterday, I can't really remember that well. It could have been the day before. Violet woke me up early before 7 am and told me she got the house all ready. She had gone downstairs and turned every single light on she could reach the switch for. I think she reached 7 or 8 lights. It was SO bright downstairs. The sun was even streaming in the windows. I asked her to turn them all off and go back upstairs. I got in the shower and she got my toothbrush ready...and squirted face cream on my toothbrush. Even though she was so proud of herself for getting my toothbrush all ready, I was annoyed because that face stuff is very concentrated, expensive, and she used a ton of it. I showed her which toothpaste I like to use...and said she could only get it ready if she used what I told her she could use. She did the same thing this morning, got my toothbrush ready for me, and accidentally used the expensive face cream again. Once I straightened her out with which toothpaste I like, she headed downstairs and tried to pour herself a glass of water from the gallon of cold water I keep in the fridge. It was completely full, very heavy, and she had spilled water all over the table. I could tell she felt bad about it so I helped her clean it up hiding my frustration with the way the morning had gone. I have a lot of errands to run with Calvin while Violet is at school this morning. I have an appointment in North Liberty for a baby-check and then we are heading to Dubuque to meet up with Josh and Carrie. We're staying in a waterpark hotel for a couple nights (heading back on Saturday morning) and helping Austin celebrate his 5th birthday, which was the 23rd of March. The cousins love to get together so we hope they have a blast and create some fun memories. It will be a nice time to see Josh and Carrie too, time with them is precious as its tough to travel with little kids...soon there will be six kids between all of us. I am hoping night times when the kids are in bed will be good times to reconnect and play some games or something. I haven't packed up yet, and the family has to leave by noon!

New words for Calvin

He now says "pee-pee butter" for peanut butter, "Dora", "ippo" for hippo, and "da-da, da-da, loo-LOO!" for cock-a-doodle-doo. Today we had another successful event on the toilet with Calvin. He said "poopy now" and had gone a little in his diaper. I asked him if he wanted to go sit on his Elmo potty seat and he enthusiastically said "yeah!" and headed for the upstairs bathroom. I put it on the toilet, he sat down, and I tried Violet's tactic of telling him to push it out like a fart. He successfully finished poo-ing on the potty! He was happy to flush on his own, and was really interested in the fact that the poo disappeared as he watched the flush and said "down dere! down dere!" while pointing down the toilet. I don't really know what this means...I am certainly not mentally ready to potty train him so I guess I'll just follow his lead if he keeps acting interested.

Everything is 4 on me!

A few things Violet said lately made me record them on paper before I forgot to blog about them. She's very keen on the fact that she's four, and notices how old everybody else is, and frequently talks about things she used to do when she was three, or two, or one. She was sitting at the table last night coloring or something and said "Everything is 4 on me! My forehead, my tummy, my pajamas, nail polish, even my nose is four!" And this morning when she saw what I dressed Calvin in, she said "Mom! That shirt with the blue, gray, orange and brown is SO cute on Calvin! I didn't know he was wearing that! Its amazing! The airplane matches his pants! Gray and gray." Her enthusiasm about such tiny things is so precious!

Calvin lately...age 2 yrs 3 mo

...is changing so much lately. His vocabulary is increasing, he seems to learn a new word or two every day. Violet and Calvin can keep up a conversation pretty well now, even if his consists of one or two words, she can still make sense of what he's talking about. Their most common conversations are actually fights. An example would be: Calvin picks up a sippy cup which she knows is full of water. He will say "apple joo" and she will correct him saying "No, Calvin, that is not apple juice, it is water." And he'll say "Mo, Lala, apple joo." (No, Violet, apple juice) and insist it is something else just to pick a fight. She hasn't learned this leads to nothing but more yelling. He absolutely loves to look at the sky and point out airplanes. If he's outside he's continually monitoring the sky looking for them. If he sees one, moving slowly wayyyy high up in the sky, he will know its an airplane and point it out. Another thing he likes is the moon. We walked to meeting tonight and on the way home, a sliver of the moon was brightly shining. He says "Moom! White moom!" Dave, of course, jokes with him and says "Are you sure it isn't purple?" And to our surprise, Calvin responded by saying "Mo daddy, mo purple moom, white moom." He runs really fast, his hair is growing longer, blonder, and crazier every day. He hasn't had a hair cut yet...and for now we're not cutting it. Dave seems to love how crazy it is starting to look, I really don't mind it. He loves to climb and jump off things. He is extremely ticklish and most of the time I can turn a grumpy attitude around by tickling him. He has excellent balance and the ability to land on his feet most of the time he jumps off things. He still loves his little white meow and special blanket, and has completely forgotten about his pacifier. At least we think so, he never mentions it or asks for it, and doesn't seem to want other kids' pacifiers if he sees another kid or baby with one in their mouth. One thing he's started to do lately is play macho. Or at least act like it at times. If Dave plays around with him and wants to make him laugh, he some times tries as hard as he can NOT to smile. He gets this little tiny smirk on his face and walks away so nobody can see his effort not to show emotion. Silly little kid. He is gaining confidence in public with people who talk to him. Lots of people say hi to him if he's sitting up in the shopping cart near me, and he (well, most of the time) happily waves and says hi. Of course there is another side to Calvin I haven't mentioned yet. He can be the complete opposite of sweet and silly. He knows how to scream really loud, throw fits when things don't go his way, push Violet's buttons quietly and calmly and sits back and watches his work while she freaks out (his favorite seems to be running his fingers over her dry-erase board art creations to "ruin" them but he does so when she's not watching and waits for her to notice), and be disobedient. He seems so agreeable at times when we ask him not to do something. He'll quickly respond to a request like "Calvin, do not lock the door" or "stop throwing your food on the floor" with a quick "o-tay mommy" or "o-tay daddy" but 2 seconds later, he'll lock the door or throw something on the floor. Whenever I catch him in the act of disobedience he gets a slap or spank, and sitting in his time out chair until he calms down. That usually works...but like a typical 2 yr old...just keeps on doing it. Working with him on obedience will come with time and consistency.

Double date night

We had such a fun night yesterday. I love doing things "on the fly"...which made yesterday so fun because its hard to plan things last minute with little kids. Earlier in the afternoon, our good friends Dennis and Selena asked Dave for some help cutting down a big tree that was in danger of falling on their house, so he went over there for a few hours to help. Dennis was so thankful for his help that he wanted to treat us to a night out (thank you again Hemmers!!). We made last minute plans by asking Alex W. and her friend Grace to babysit, got them to our house, and all 5 of our kids played together. Violet was soooo excited that her friends and favorite babysitter were ALL coming over to her house all at the same time. It was almost more than she could handle. She wasn't excited to see me when I got home, because that meant the night of fun came to and end. Our date night was relaxing - we got the babysitters and kids settled with a couple pizzas for supper, said our goodbyes (though the kids were all too excited and already playing together so intently they hardly noticed we left), packed our friends into the back row of our LaMarche-mobile and drove together to a new restaurant called Roux Orleans downtown Waterloo. Dennis recommended the crawfish binettes (which are deep fried, yum) for an appetizer. I got cajun-seasoned pork tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes. Dave had catfish, Dennis got steak, and Selena got chicken parmesan. The meal was also served with cornbread muffins topped with a seasoned honey butter. The food was great, the conversation was great, and the time was relaxing. We topped off the evening sitting around some lattes at Starbucks. We were only gone for three hours from 6:30-9:30. The sitters did a great job, kids were all happy, and toys were picked up. Violet's friend Ivy said to her "Violet, I am going to miss you when I leave your house!" What a sweet girl. They didn't realize that after a short night of sleep they could spend more time together in Sunday School class the next morning. Calvin gave me a running hug when he saw me. Even though Violet wasn't all that happy to see me at first, both kids freaked out screaming "mommyyyyy!!!" and melting down when they saw me walk back out the door so I could drive the two babysitters back home. I was still home in time to kiss/hug them before bed. They didn't get to bed til close to 10 pm...which made for a less-than-pleasant morning. Calvin seems to weather less sleep better than Violet. He seemed cheerful most of the day. Violet had a pretty testy morning...so let's hope she catches up on sleep tonight and the rest of the week.

Will you forgive me?

I guess I've been apologizing to Violet lately for things (probably "I'm sorry for yelling at you, will you forgive me?" type of thing)...I learn this by listening to her talk because I can't remember very well. She repeats everything I say. This morning, she finished breakfast, and about 5 minutes after she got down from the table, I noticed she still had a piece of egg yolk on her cheek. I said "Violet, you still have egg on your cheek!" which of course made her giggle and she wanted to see it in the mirror. I showed her, and she said, "I'm sorry mom, will you forgive me?"

baby faith

This morning Violet was chattering away about making another big cupcake. She got an enormous cupcake silicone baking pan for her birthday (the kind that takes two cake mixes worth of batter to fill up!), and a couple weeks ago we attempted to make our first one, but unfortunately, it was a flop. The top "muffin top" part of the cupcake had too much batter in it and didn't bake all the way through. So we made the best of the cake with the bottom cupcake part that baked just fine that we could. It was supposed to be a small group treat...so tonight we are going to try again. While she was eating breakfast this morning, she said "I think we should pray about the cupcake that it won't be a mess this time." So she prayed for the cupcake to turn out and be pretty. We'll see how it bakes this time, as soon as I'm done writing we are going to start attempt #2 with less batter in the top part.

Pregnancy update

Tomorrow I'll be 31 weeks...and next week will be the 7 month mark. This is flying by soo fast! Baby is really, really active. The other day I felt so uncomfortable, I think baby was flipping over there was so much movement. Violet enjoys feeling the baby kick a lot, she is excited every time she feels movement. We are not decided on names yet...we gotta get serious about it at some point. A recent pic:

Potty fluke

So, the short story is that Calvin pooped on the toilet the other day. I think it was totally a fluke. I went to change his diaper in the middle of the day and happened to notice that something was about to happen, so I stuck him on the toilet, and read him a few books. I was betting my chances of success were going to be pretty much zilch, but to my surprise, he didn't freak out like I thought he would, so I went with it. Violet came running over to the bathroom and was surprised to see Calvin sitting there. She asked him if he was going poop and he said "yeah!" But nothing happened. She said to him, "Calvin, just push it out like a big fart!" And he did exactly that, and emptied his system. I bet that won't happen again for a very long time!

Unexpected morning walk

This morning turned out a little different than my usual Tuesday morning routine. Dave left the house early to go downtown Waterloo to serve on jury duty. He decided to drive the van because he didn't want to deal with parking the enormous truck on the street by the parking meters. That left me with the truck to take Violet to preschool with. I got them packed in the truck about 8:50 and tried starting it, but it wouldn't start. I noticed that the dome light switch was turned on...which must have killed the battery. I said to the kids "well, I guess we're taking the stroller this morning!" So I quickly got them bundled up and myself, and walked Violet to school. She can't walk as fast as I was walking so she happily rode in the stroller. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to buckle Calvin in the front of the stroller seat (I took the double stroller...the sit n stand). Neither of us noticed, he stayed put and didn't try to move. He was so bundled in layers of his coat that I don't think he could even move. It felt like a really cold morning so they both had on a lot of layers. It was only a 7 block walk, but by the time I got there, I was sweating. Violet was excited to show Mrs. A her new shoes. She told me that Mrs. A has shoes just like hers, with a pink part on the back part of the heel of the shoe. That girl is SO observant. The walk back to the house was much easier, I think its because on the way, the entire walk is uphill, and the way back was downhill, felt much more relaxed and I wasn't in such a rush to get her there on time. She only got there 8 minutes late. I enjoyed the quick burst of energy this morning, I'll get to do it again when I go pick her up from school today at 11:30.

Calvin's talking

He is improving so much with talking (since not having his pacifier for about 4 weeks, and doing wonderfully I might add, he may as well have forgotten about it), so this may be my LAST attempt at doing this...I tried keeping up with Violet's words but after she turned 2 I lost count. Calvin just turned 2, so I'll give it a go. One thing he likes to do is refer to animals by their sounds, not the actual names of the animals, so that is why there are so many animal sounds. I guess it all started when he started loving kitties and called them "meows". I know he understands much more than he can communicate. roar wack wack (quack quack) meow moo woo woo (woof woof) der mo! (there's more) dite dere (right there) oh mo mo (no) deer oatmere (oatmeal) mommy daddy oh-tay (okay) yeah uh-oh, more dere, mom mmm-mmm (while shaking his head for no) and then whatever he is talking about. "mmm-mmm more" or "mmm-mmm bye bye" to say he doesn't want to do something. Lala (Violet) bye bib (big) beep (deep) why (wide) why wha? (what) pee poopoo baby muh (milk) "ah-buh-bye" (could mean anything, he has said this for months for many things, but recently means "a big bite") nanee (candy) bubbo (bubble) bop (pop) mum (gum) ree Eh-mo (read Elmo!) owie hah (hot) ah-pay (airplane) I dah dit (I got it) up mou (mouse) owl tractor ball du (juice) apple oh man whoa sti-ter (sticker) nana (banana)

4 yr old logic

Tonight Violet asked me a question about the baby. We were eating supper, and she said "Mommy, are you covering the baby in food?" At first I really didn't understand her question, I had to think about it for awhile. She asked me again, "Mommy, is there food all over the baby?" or something to that effect. It then dawned on me that she thought the baby was inside my stomach where food goes. It wasn't really easy to explain to her that my baby wasn't exactly INSIDE my tummy, and that the baby has a separate place where it grows. It sure gave us a laugh though.

Doctor pictures

Doctor check ups

I got the kids in for their 4 and 2 yr check ups this morning. They had a great time there, both were happy and nice to the nurses and doctors. Calvin enthusiastically greeted each person who walked in our little room with a big "hi!". I scheduled them both at 9 am together so I wouldn't have to make two trips with each of them separately. Since their birthdays are with in a few weeks of each other, it worked well. Violet is almost 41" tall, they weighed her in at 40 lbs, but every time she steps on the scale in our bathroom it reads 38.5, so either way, not much difference. She had clothes and a full belly of oatmeal, that could have made a difference. :) So 4 was her number today. 4 yrs old, 40 lbs, and 41" tall. Calvin weighed in at an ounce shy of 30 lbs and 36" tall. His head measured 20" around which put him in the 90% percentile for his head, not surprising to me. :) Violet got to put on a little hospital exam robe. She was examined first, and answered every question correctly, the doctor asked her her full name and she could say "Violet LaMarche" clearly, showed her four fingers for her age, talked the doctor's ear off about preschool and the sparkly pet rock she painted named "Sally Pet" the day before, and was very cooperative when the doctor checked her whole body, head to toe. Blood pressure was 96/56, and she passed her vision screening. She was most excited about her knee reflexes, watching her foot bounce up when her knee was bonked with the goofy looking tool. When the doctor left she bounced off the exam table, picked up the knee tool and then proceeded to bonk her own, mine and Calvin's knees to get the same reaction. She wasn't exactly successful, but she got a kick out of it. The doctor then checked out Calvin, and he looks perfectly healthy. She noted that he was very tall for his age and was glad to hear him speaking more words in the time she was in the room with us. He said "here's more woof woof!" when he found a Clifford the Big Red Dog book, although it came out sounding more like 'Hee mo woo woo". Violet knew that they were "done" with the check ups but she asked when she was going to get her shots. She knew she was going to get three booster shots (MMR, chicken pox, and DTaP) and was SO brave, I was so proud of her. She laid down on the table, I hugged her arms, and two nurses did the three injections in quick time. I could see her face grimace but she smiled when it was all over. I gave her a big hug and she knew she had done well. She was pretty excited about her Dora bandaids and I had told her she could have a sucker when she was done. So that is the last of her vaccinations for many, many years. :) I am glad I brought the double stroller with me so Calvin was strapped in. He got a little sucker too, he would have freaked out of Violet had one and he didn't. Plus, they both did well. And yes, I brushed their teeth very well after lunch today. I told the doc I'd see her back in June with a new baby. I made a stop out at Sam's club on my way home to pick up some things, then we had an early lunch. She got to tell daddy she did a good job and was very brave. Everybody was hungry and by the time lunch was over, Violet was VERY tired. She was acting really whiny and helpless saying her legs really hurt and she couldn't even walk up the steps, so brushing her teeth and getting her to go potty before her nap was a big struggle, but once I laid her in bed, she was practically sleeping. No fight, no asking for songs or books, she really wanted to snuggle in and go to sleep. Calvin went down easy too. They have been sleeping since 12:45, I hope they both feel rested when they wake up.

Beep Why Why

Calvin's newest favorite song is "Deep and Wide". I got the kids three CDs of kids Bible songs (over 100 songs!) and every time Violet listens to a CD she soaks up everything she possibly can, learning each song very quickly. "Deep and Wide" is one of the simpler, shorter songs that Calvin attached his brain to. He belts out the tune by singing "Beep Why Why....Beep Why Why....(then a bunch of blubbering)...Beep Why Why!" then the 2nd verse "Why an' Beep...Why an' Beep..." Its so funny and cute to hear him sing with the right "words" coming out of his mouth all silly like a 2 yr old should sound, but he's right on tune!

Valentine Cookie Outreach

My friend Selena had this great idea. Last year she did it and said it went really well, so she recruited some friends to get in on the action this year. The idea was to reach out to our neighbors somehow and spread God's love. So we and another friend of ours baked a bunch of cookies, got together and decorated them, and exchanged cookies so we'd all have a big variety, packaged them up in cute little treat bags, and put tags on the handles of the bags with a note that says "Happy Valentine's Day from the LaMarche family, David, Maria, Violet and Calvin" with our address on it. The back side of the note card has the verse John 3:16 on it arranged in such a way that the word "VALENTINE" is vertical in the verse. When I type it out in the box where I type the post, the spaces are there so it looks like the word Valentine is vertical, but when I hit post it deletes the spaces...so this is not exactly what it looks like but you get the idea. The letters that are supposed to be vertical are capitalized and really, it just looks much better printed on the card surrounded with hearts. :) “For God so loVed the world, that He gAve His onLy begottEn soN, thaT whosoever believes In Him shall Not perish, but have Everlasting life.” I packaged up 13 treat bags with all the cookies I had Selena got these really cute heart treat bags and ribbon. All our treat bags were assembled Monday night after an effort decorating all the cookies we made. So after Dave got done with work today, we bundled up the kids, packed up all the cookie treat bags in a carrying sack and handed them out to our neighbors. Violet was really, really excited to hand out cookies to everybody. She insisted on carrying each individual bag of cookies to the door and ringing the doorbell. She got really shy though, at the moment when someone would open the door. She was supposed to say "Happy Valentine's Day!" but got stage fright each time. Instead she handed them the bag and let mommy do all the talking. Dave and Calvin were with me at the door but Dave was holding Calvin the whole time (he isn't the best walker in the snow). Everybody seemed to be really shocked that we were actually OUTSIDE in the middle of this snowy winter night, and most people were really grateful and thankful for us doing such a sweet thing. We handed out 13 bags, and only came across one house where nobody answered, so we made 12 personal contacts. Our neighbors to the north, Nate and Deb Beving, invited us in. Initially we planned on not accepting any offers to come inside, but they insisted we stop in for a second. We caught up with them a little, found out their girls both had recent birthdays and turned 13 and 10 yrs old (I'm thinking: babysitters!). Calvin loved petting their little dog. It was a nice conversation. They thanked us for the cookies, and off we went. The 12th house we stopped at was a house across the street and few houses south of ours. They opened the door, and happily greeted us. We said we were their neighbors from across the street and they said "which house?" and wondered because they hadn't seen us before. We pointed out our house, and noted the fact that our name and address were on the card attached to the cookies. They asked when we moved in and they felt ashamed that they hadn't met us yet. We told them no problem, we hadn't really met any of our neighbors yet! They were insistent on inviting us in and insisted over and over that we take off our boots and coats and sit down for a chat. I was anxious to get going since it was already 8 pm and we hadn't had supper yet, but I pushed those feelings aside and agreed to go inside to talk for a little while. We settled into their living room for about 10-15 minutes, and these two people (Jeff and Kathy) were just so excited and thankful that we stopped over and were SO excited to meet us. Upon leaving they gave us great big bear hugs and said they'd love to have us over for dinner some time. Wow! Dave said he had never met such inviting people in his life! They asked us how we both ended up in Cedar Falls since I was from Mason City and he was from Chicago, and we mentioned that it was our connection through church, and they asked us about that, found out where we went around here, and they were excited to tell us that they loved going to Heartland Vineyard right across the street, which I know is a solid Christian church that preaches the truth. Good to know! So, we may have met some Christians on our block. Both kids were pretty much melting down and tired so that is how the visit got cut short. They were so tired that they were laying flat on their backs side by side waiting to leave by their front door. I promised Violet mac and cheese if she could hand out the last bag of cookies to the next house and that got her feet moving pretty quick. Overall I think it was a success, we got to know and meet our neighbors, even some new ones that have moved in since we did. And with the scripture reference, we marked ourselves as Christians to the neighbors, I hope to make more contacts in the future!

The fighting...

...does not seem to end lately. I think my kids have the worst cabin fever and are just bored to death inside this house some days. Every time it snows, Violet gets upset and whines that it won't be spring time for a very very long time. She is longing to go outside and ride her trike. I hear ya sweetie. Playing outside in the snow is really not that fun either. I tried bundling them up a couple times and going outside, but all Calvin wants to do is walk in it and he is bored with in minutes, and Violet wants to climb hills that the snowplow makes along side the road. Which is fine, but I can't be outside supervising her and deal with a frustrated Calvin who can't do the same things his big sister is doing. I'm not going to pull them in a sled when I'm almost 6 months pregnant. Violet has a strong sense of what is HERS (her blankies, stroller, baby, etc) and totally freaks out when Calvin touches her stuff. He knows exactly how to push her buttons too, and does it in the most calm matter with a straight face. They have rare moments when they both actually play together and do it nicely and laugh, but they are far outweighed by screaming, fighting, hair pulling, hitting, and yelling. They each have an agenda for whatever they're doing and it never seems to be the same agenda. Both of them end up getting disciplined for any given situation. Calvin makes her mad, Violet freaks out to a very dramatic degree...and she gets him back in her own way. One of their favorite things to do is "play trucks". They each grab a toy truck and push it the length of the hosue from the living room to the garage door, over and over again, but they each argue about who gets which truck multiple times. I just end up taking the trucks away all together until they can agree to play nicely. Its really, really hard to remain calm in the middle of all this fighting. I am trying my best to not get myself worked up to their level, because I know in my head that it is not productive, instead it is the frustration I feel from the way they are acting. They end up scared of me when I yell at them and its not productive. They might behave instantly because they are getting yelled at but its not teaching them good behavior. I find that when I force myself to chill out before responding to them they end up listening better (if I whisper they actually listen better!) and calm down quicker. The verse in Proverbs 15:1 applies to parenting more than I have ever realized: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." I want to believe that this will get better as they get older. Ages 4 and 2 aren't seeming all that compatible at the moment.

Violet felt the baby kick

Tonight while I was getting Violet down for bed, I told her we could lay down together to see if we could feel the baby move after she was all ready. That was a big motivator for getting her in bed quick, so we tried to lay really still and feel any movement. I suggested the idea of trying to feel the baby move while I was reading her a story and I felt a few kicks myself thinking this might be a good awake time for baby. I knew she'd "get a kick" out of feeling some movement. So we laid down on her bed for a few minutes, she was very quiet and patient with both hands on my belly. I felt a strong kick after awhile and could visibly see my belly move. She felt the movement, and immediately gasped and snapped her head to look at me. I said "did you feel that one?!" she said "Yeahhh!!" and got really giddy. We talked about what the baby looks like. She asked if the baby was cold in there, I told her no, mommy's body was giving the baby a big hug and was keeping baby's body warm. She thought it was funny that baby wasn't wearing socks or had any clothes on. I reassured her that once the baby came out of mommy's tummy we would definitely put some clothes on her. She insisted on waiting longer to feel more kicks, but there were none very strong that she could feel. But I know she felt the first one!

Violet had a dream

And she told me about it earlier today. She said to me "Mommy, I had a dream that the baby just POPPED right out of your tummy! And the baby was crying, and crying, and crying. I gave her a blanket. Mommy, we need to go to the store and get the new baby a blanket because I don't think she has one in there!" I could tell she was deeply concerned about the baby's blanket and went on about it for some time, so I think that will be a good gift idea for Violet to give to the new baby. And we don't know the sex of this baby, but Violet often refers to the new baby as "she" and I have a strong feeling it is a girl. I hesitate to even write that, because it just makes me think I'm going to be wrong. I thought Violet was a boy before she was born, and I thought Calvin was a girl before he was born, so I'm 0 for 2. The score might change!

Music

My kids respond to music so well. Violet is a song bird and can learn a song in a few days, she is constantly humming something and inserting her own words to whatever tune comes to her mind. She has CDs of kid music she listens to with her headphones all the time, and when I turn on a CD of music for both to listen to in the house, they almost immediately calm down and play nicely together (well, not all the time...they're professional fighters too!). Violet learned the entire first verse of the Star Spangled Banner in about a week and loves to belt it out. Calvin can hum almost every song Violet knows on tune. He was humming the star spangled banner while eating his cheerios this morning. I think they got stuck on that song over New Year's when Dave and his friend Shawn were belting it out while cooking breakfast together.

Calvin probably won't be a fan of short pants

Dave and I have discovered one thing that will keep Calvin from napping: short pants. And if his ankles are exposed, he'll FREAK out. Last night when we were putting him to bed, all his pajamas were in the washing machine so we had to resort to using a long sleeved onesie and and pair of pajamas that he wore a few months ago that I suspected were a little too small. The pants were slightly short but they fit everywhere else so we figured they'd be fine. I put on a pair of really long socks and pulled the socks way up on his legs. Dave put him to bed and later told me that he was fussing about his ankles, and Dave "helped" him pull his pants down over his exposed ankles and pulled his socks up. Calvin seemed satisfied with this, and went to sleep, but a few moments later, he woke up fussing again. I went into his room and got him up, he was crying and pointing to his ankles. I asked him if he wanted another pair of pants and he sadly said "yeahh". So I got him a different pair of long fleece pants and he seemed reallllly happy. Silly boy. He snuggled right into bed with no fussing at all. And slept through the night (with no pacifier!!). Same thing went on at nap time this afternoon. Apparently the pair of blue sweatpants he had been wearing all winter are all of a sudden too short. Nap time was a disaster, and I had forgotten about his issue with short pants. I went up to his room and again, found him fussing in his crib pointing to the skin that was exposed on his ankles. Duh! The short pants! I changed his pants into the same fleece pair from the night before and he immediately was happy and went right to sleep. I predict he will be very happy to see his footed pajamas ready to wear in his closet tonight.

Nap trouble and I'm still sick

Even after a tiring morning at indoor park, both kids were wiped and went down for naps at 1 pm. They are just not sleeping well. Violet woke up after only 30 minutes and Calvin was screaming after 45 min of sleep. I think I'm going to lose my mind if they stop napping during the day. Calvin is doing fine with out his pacifier, although I think he would sleep longer naps if I he still had it. I'm still sick...maybe I didn't write about it before but I've had the nastiest cold for a whole week. The start of it was the day before Violet's birthday which was last week Tues night. My nose and sinuses have been completely blocked and my throat has been sore. Especially in the morning, from breathing through my mouth all night. Its getting so old...and tiring. I can't taste anything, my breathing is raspy and I just feel exhausted from morning to night. My head feels like its fifty pounds and bloated. Dave caught my cold too so he's suffering along with me. I'm ready to be done with this and start feeling better.

All done with pacifiers?

I've been thinking about taking Calvin's pacifier away from him lately. And today is happened. A few reasons why, actually: 1. His addiction to them lately has seemed to increase and he seems to want it all the time. 2. He still cries if I give it to him and he's still upset, having it in his mouth doesn't make him stop whatever he's upset about, it doesn't serve the same purpose it did when he was 4 months old. 3. I lose them constantly and am sick of depending on having one with me at all times just to "pacify" him. 4. He's two years old...definitely not a baby anymore. 5. I wish I had taken it away from him when he was 12 months old. 6. Having it in his mouth all the time keeps him from talking, which he needs to do more of. 7. Almost every picture I've taken of him in the last month has that thing in his mouth. I can't see his pretty smile and sweet little dimple on his left cheek. 8. He's still at that precious age where he can cry it out, if he gets any older I'd have to incorporate some sort of logic tactic that made sense to him when taking it away or deal with even bigger tantrums...no thanks, I'd rather not. Its bad enough already. Soooo....after his nap today, I got him out of his bed, he handed me all his "stuff" which includes his favorite blue blankie, two stuffed kitties and his paci. Seems in his mind, all of those things must be together to be comforting, but not anymore. Anyway, he gave me all his stuff so he could climb out on his own. He reached his arms out expecting me to hand him everything back, and I only gave him his kitties and his blanket. I think its still important for a child to have comfort objects, and blankies and kitties I totally approve of. He knew he was missing something, but I told him he didn't need his pacifier anymore. Of course he threw a fit, which I ignored. I stuck the beloved piece of plastic in my pocket and walked downstairs, knowing he would end up downstairs eventually. And he did, and he got over it. He played off and on, and at times he would get really upset, he would go search out his blankie, kitties, and then BEG me for his pacifier. He even found my diaper bag on top of the counter top and started digging, found one, and then heroically announced "here's mine!!" with the paci proudly in his mouth. I took it away immediately and told him he was done with them. Of course he threw a fit, so I just walked away figuring he would get over it soon enough. 10 minutes later, his cheeks were stained with tears and he clutched his blankie and kitties. I was starting to feel a little bad. He wanted to cuddle with me for awhile. I suppose after what he thought was a great find in the diaper bag was something I was going to take away, he was probably pretty frustrated and defeated. Dave encouraged me to not give in...we've made it this far and announced to him it was over, no more pacis. In fact, even though I had been thinking of taking it away for some time, I was blissfully ignoring the fact that time was ticking away and my little boy wasn't a toddling 13 month old baby anymore and in fact, a little boy who was growing older and working on completing his third year in life. Besides, some times the paci is downright convenient. It keeps him quiet for hours some times and he's never gone a night with out it. So tonight is his first night with out the paci. I told him no more pacifiers, but he could keep his blankie and kitties. He said "o-tay". That just confirmed to me that he 100% completely understood what was going on. I did the usual bed time routine...diaper change, pajamas on, brush teeth, read books...kisses, hugs, lights out, fan on, zip up tent, say goodnight. He did cry a little bit, but it wasn't even close to a tantrum. And he did great. I heard some noises come his room (babbling and talking) as I worked on getting Violet to bed. She always takes longer to get to bed so I get him down first. Its been an hour and I *think* he's asleep. At least I heard no more crying, and its silent upstairs. I will check on him before I go to bed, but I think this is it!! I just keep telling myself there will be times he probably freaks out again and wants it, but I can't give in, not now, not after I made such a big deal out of it and he's already learned that his relationship with that piece of plastic is over. Dave and I have been discussing the idea of taking it away from him ...but today it just happened, very much unplanned, but in a few days, he'll hopefully forget about it. It will be easier NOW than when he's three, and I knew it would have been easier if he was just one. I guess I live and learn. So I guess my advice to any moms reading this who have babies with pacifiers, take them away earlier than later! I wish I had done it loooong ago! Ahh...funny. I can hardly believe that I'm blogging about pacifiers. :D

Pics of Violet's birthday

Violet's 4th birthday

She is four years old today, wow! The day couldn't come fast enough for her! I made a paper chain of the days left until her birthday and when I created the whole chain, it was 20-something chains long, and each night she ripped off a day. It was a big motivating factor getting her upstairs in bed, getting to rip off a day. Last night we made her birthday cake together, and she had to wait an entire day to eat it. This morning she woke up around 7:30 and climbed into bed with me. I told her Happy Birthday, and she said "I'm four! I think I feel taller!" and she jumped out of bed, stood on the floor, and put her hands on her head trying to "feel" if she was taller. Silly girl. She wanted me to sing her happy birthday right away so I tried my best with my morning sick voice. Daddy got home from the gym shortly after that and she celebrated the fact that it was her birthday over and over. I snuck downstairs while she was still upstairs and put the helium balloons that I had gotten for her on the kitchen table with the completely decorated birthday cake. Last night she only saw the green frosting go on the pink cake (her color requests) but not the decorations. When I asked her what she wanted ON her cake, she told me these things: -a picture of Violet with pigtails -a picture of Calvin -hearts -flowers -"a box of a game" <--her exact words, which means a picture of a game that is in a box, she received a few games in boxes recently for gifts (memory, Twister, etc) so that must have been where her mind was -the number 4 So I tried my best to make a cake with all her requests, and when she saw the balloons and cake she got even more excited. Calvin and her immediately disconnected the balloons from the bag of candy that was holding them down and ran around the house with them. Helium balloons are the best toy, I should pick them up more often for temporary fun! I went to Bible study at 9:30 this morning, and she got to play with all her friends at the chapel for a couple hours and eat lunch together. She passed out fruit snacks to her friends in honor of her birthday, some of the kids sang happy birthday to her. She ate four bites of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, four baby carrots, and took four drinks of her water and a whole bag of chips (a little one). Apparently she wanted to eat more than four bites of chips. :) When we got back from the chapel I got both kids down for a nap. I am feeling pretty sick with a sinus cold and congestion so my head felt (and still feels) pretty congested and horrible. I laid down to take a nap the same time the kids did, and I woke up when I got a text from my dad saying he had arrived. I knew he was coming and would show up at our house around 3-3:30 so I knew to wake up around that time. I got myself "awake" and let him in the garage. Violet woke up shortly after that, Calvin slept a little longer. She was really happy to see Grandpa Jon. She gave him a big hug and he held her for awhile. He read her some books that he brought from home. One in paticular, called "I am four" is one from my childhood that brought back a few memories for me. It was a gift for Rachel when she turned four, but I read the book a lot when I was younger. Dave and I got dinner ready around 6:00. Violet polished off all her food (a few big pieces of ham, a big pile of rice, and broccoli) and even had two extra helpings of broccoli. She found independence with the stick of butter near her and her own knife, I'm sure she smeared butter on all her bites of broccoli before the bites hit her mouth. Either way...she got her veggies for the day. Then...THEN....FINALLY we got to eat the anticipated cake. She picked out four candles herself and stuck one in the cake (way too far) so I did the rest. We sang her happy birthday, she grinned from ear to ear, and blew out her candles in a few blows. Of course she wanted to eat the piece that had a stick figure drawing of her...which was huge. Dave cut her a piece and she only ate half of it. Calvin just sat in his chair during the meal...didn't eat or want anything. He had asked for oatmeal when he woke up from his nap and I let him have some since he's had such a picky appetite since being sick. He only wants oatmeal. I guess it isn't the worst thing to want, in fact its pretty healthy, but he refused anything else. I think Violet is the only healthy person in the family right now. Dave is feeling under the weather, I have a cold, and Calvin is getting over croup. Calvin didn't even want cake. Violet then made sure we were all done eating cake, and was super excited to open up all her presents. It went much like Christmas time a month ago. She was on a mission to open all the presents as quickly as possible, barely looking at each gift. She got most excited about a little outfit for her baby doll and wanted to dress her as soon as she opened it. She did inspect every gift after she opened them all. She got: -bendaroos -a huge cupcake pan to make huge cupcakes -a sparkly pink folder to put papers and drawings in -a card with $50 from Hardinger Great Grandparents -two sets of furniture for her Loving Family dollhouse -three shirts -a pink baseball bat and ball -Elmo tickle hands (Calvin got his own set too) -a pack of gum I may have missed something, but for now that is all I can remember. All in all she had a really great day. I thank God for her, she is a sweet little girl.

Mornings have MUCH improved

Wow, what a difference. I really feel like a new woman! Dave installed some light blocking shades in our bedroom so it is darker in the morning. It allows me to sleep longer than when the sun shines in the room so early in the winter. Before Dave installed the black out shades, we had some other cellular blinds on the windows, but they were so transparent there might as well have been nothing on the window. One of the window shades was broken too so we (yes, quiet tacky in fact) tacked a blanket up in front of the window. So the new blinds are a nice upgrade to our room. Since Calvin has been tented in his crib, mornings have been pleasurable. I wake up when I want to, or Violet wakes me up when she comes in my room and snuggles in bed quietly with me. She is very sweet in the mornings, full of hugs and kisses. I usually get up and shower right away so I can get Calvin at a good time. When I go in his room he is always awake, but just sitting or laying down in his crib just waiting for me to come get him. Its just so much nicer. This morning Dave and I had to make a point to set our alarm so we would wake up (knowing it was going to be so dark!). We got up and both got ready...and by 8:15, the kids still weren't up yet, it was eerie. With in minutes though we heard Calvin wake up...it was just much later than normal. Too bad he is sick. I don't think I should take him to Puggles tonight.

At home with a sick little boy

Calvin woke up this morning with an ugly cough, I suspect it is croup again. Poor kid. Doesn't seem very severe but when he does cough, it sounds like an adult seal is in the room barking. Dave took Violet with him to BBC because he teaches a Sunday School class and she was on a mission to sing happy birthday to her friend who just had a birthday yesterday.

5 months pregnant

That's how far along I am now. I had to figure that out, I haven't been keeping track as well this time and I have to look at the ticker on my blog to find out exactly. I am feeling this baby move a lot more lately, especially at night when I'm trying to go to sleep. That's how they all seem to be. Mommy finally relaxes and stops moving, time for baby to wake up I guess. Thankfully the kicks aren't very strong yet and not keeping me up, but it is really comforting and nice to feel the baby move on a more regular basis.

Bonding time with Aunt Rachel

Since Rachel graduated from her ortho residency in Oklahoma, she's been around Iowa staying with us, other family, and visiting friends. She's been here a number of nights and we've all loved having her around. Myself especially since I don't see her that often, and the kids totally loved having her around too. They got some great time with Aunt Rachel. Makes me happy that they know her and will remember her! She got Violet a couple early birthday presents which she opened, because Rachel wouldn't be around for her actual birthday. She got her some new dolls (she called the dolls Violet and Rachel) for her doll house in her room and the game Twister. I got some silly pictures of the last few weeks with the kids and Aunt Rachel:

Calvin's tent

And it might not be with you think. Over the last two months, my little Calvin (um, not so little anymore though) has made my mornings miserable. He has been consistently climbing out of his crib every morning around 6 am and walks into our room and asks for his little meow, blankie and pacifier. When he found his new freedom he did it every single time he couldn't find them in the dark, so most mornings I would get woken up way too early and he would get out of his crib a number of times after I'd put him back in and tell him to go back to sleep. Nothing was working. A few times I spanked him but he didn't seem to respond to that very well either. Mornings became a time of dread and much frustration. Sooo.....I resorted to caging him in. I was so desperate to find something that worked, I was willing to try anything. I got him a crib tent (I searched the market, there really is only one out there), ordered it, and paid for the quick shipping. I got it in two days! It took Rachel and I about a half hour to install it. It totally works, and I love it. This morning I slept in til until a lovely 7:40 when Violet woke up (she is easy in the mornings, she doesn't wander around and do dangerous things like Calvin does) so I took a shower, got ready (she played with her doll house in her room under strict orders to not go in Calvin's room), and then went into Calvin's room to get him out of bed when I was ready about 15-20 minutes later. It was soooo nice. He was ready to get out of bed, but he wasn't crying or anything. He was just standing there in silence waiting for me. I got him out and said "Calvin, do you like your new tent?" He enthusiastically said "Yeeeeah!" So its a good thing. I never would have thought I'd do this in the past...just seems so "silly" to "cage" in my kid, but its working, and I really like it so far. When he is older things will change of course, but for now, it is the perfect thing. There is no possible way he could get out of it. There is an inside netting that completely wraps underneath the mattress and connects to the dome top and when the zipper is shut the pull tab gets tucked into an outside pocket. The only thing it makes more difficult is changing his crib sheet, but its still possible.

Oh be careful...

You all know the little kid's Sunday School song. "Oh be careful little eyes what you see, (repeat), for the father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see..." and it goes on warning about ears, etc. Violet has extrapolated the lyrics to anything she sees or thinks. She was spending some time in the bathroom after breakfast and while sitting for some time, I started jotting down the verses of the songs she was singing to this tune. Here are some of them, I'm sure I didn't get them all: -- "Oh be careful little mom what you hug, oh be careful little mom what you hug, for the father up above is looking down above, oh be careful little mom what you hug." -- "Oh be careful little shirt what you put on..." -- "Oh be careful little stroller what you push..." -- "Oh be careful little finger what you move..." -- "Oh be careful little hand what you plant..." -- "Oh be careful little pants you pull up..." -- "Oh be careful little door what you shut..."

Harold and the Purple Crayon @ GBPAC

I took the kids to the performing arts center at UNI today for a live production of Harold and the Purple Crayon. This book happens to be one of my favorite childhood books and has become one of Violet's. She has heard us read the book to her so many times that she can recite almost every single word on each page, down to the "hungry moose and the deserving porcupine" and the "trim little boat". She was looking forward to this day for so long, and I gotta say, I'm glad its over. It was just OK. The play was creative and mostly accurate to the whole story, in fact, Harold in the play acted out the whole book with animations in the background that helped make it feel more real. But at the end of the book when Harold gets in his bed and "drew up the covers", that wasn't the end of the play. It kept on going, and going, and going. Harold ended up in the middle of many other adventures. Violet was so confused why the story kept going. She kept saying things like "Why didn't Harold go to bed? Why did he have a bad dream? Why don't we have this part of the story? Why does Harold keep going to bed and waking up? Why does this keep going? Why this, why that..." it didn't end. She was so inquisitive about this Harold story. Calvin sat on my lap the whole time and just stared, he didn't seem to be that affected by the story. There were some very scary parts to the play, when the drawing of the dragon under the apple tree became real, and many other things. Every time she got scared she had to jump in my lap and verify with me that it was just a person under there dressed up in a costume pretending, and that it wasn't real. We went to the production with some friends, and the conclusion was the same...not so good. The beginning was great and fit the book, but the play just went on and on and didn't seem to have a point or an end. All the kids got pretty scared, but while we were eating lunch with everybody at McDonald's after wards, Violet told me that she wanted to go back and see Harold again. When we walked back to the van after lunch, she sighed, buckled into her car seat, and said "Well! That was really fun. I want to go see Harold again! When can we go see Harold again mom?" I was happy to say we probably couldn't go back because they weren't going to play it again. And she would be just as happy reading the book over and over and over again to herself.

Dave gone this week

Its time for the quarterly sales meeting at Dave's work and he's going out there to meet his new boss and new co workers. He didn't get a different job, but someone was placed in charge of professional services (he is a project manager for professional services) to give the department more direction and develop it. So, he's looking forward to it. His new boss is a lady in her 50s or so, he has spoken to her and said he thinks they'll get along. That's good news. His flight left around noon today, and Violet was not taking the news well that he had to leave. We didn't tell her til yesterday because we knew she would get weepy and clingy. She did, and didn't handle daddy leaving all that well. He was packing, and she wouldn't stop hugging him. I had to distract her and ask for her help in preparing lunch so he could finish up packing. We made PBJs and she spread jelly and peanut butter from here to timbuktu by the time she finished. She made a huge fuss if I tried to help her so I just allowed her to be distracted, and he left with a few goodbyes, kisses and hugs. She got disciplined during lunch for whining back at me when I asked her a question so after a slap in the leg, she started crying hysterically for daddy. I have a feeling its going to be a rough week. I haven't been feeling the best. I think the worst is over though, and I'm glad it was yesterday, not today. I had some type of indigestion and couldn't function well, I was popping Rolaids every couple hours for stomach comfort and sleeping as much as I could. On Saturday (yesterday), I slept from 10:30-5:30 in the afternoon, with a few breaks in between there to do a few things. Dave took the kids to the store by himself to exchange some shower heads (we're looking for a new one for our shower, its proving to be a difficult task!) so that gave me a little quiet time to rest. Dave was itching to go out to eat last night so we made a trip out to Waterloo and had dinner at Red Lobster. He got a lobster tail, snow crab legs and shrimp, and I nibbled bites of potato soup, which I could not finish. My body was just saying "don't eat right now". I had no appetite. Kids were pretty restless while we waited for a table (the line was super long) but they kept themselves mostly busy staring at all the live lobsters in the cage. Violet was disgusted and intrigued all at the same time that daddy was eating a lobster. She asked a million questions how the lobster got killed, did it hurt the lobster that he was eating it, etc. He offered her a bite but she didn't want to try any of it, saying it was yucky. We left and by the time we got home it was 9 pm. We were in high gear getting them to bed ASAP. Mornings have been rather difficult for me lately. Calvin is always the first to wake up around 6:30 and he walks into our room and immediately says "Meow?" asking for help in finding his precious little white stuffed kitty. Dave took him back to his room and Calvin said to him "poopoo" - much to our surprise, he was actually right this time. Dave did a quick diaper change, put him back in bed, and he just kept getting up and getting up, probably 5 times. Its so hard not to get incredibly annoyed when I am just not ready to wake up. He even walked into Violet's room and woke her up, which annoyed me even more, because she was crabby and not ready to wake up. I've resorted to locking her door when they go to bed so he can't get in there. I am ready to start locking him in his room too. Or put up baby gates on his doorway or something. I just CAN'T deal with the kids climbing all over me in the morning when I'm trying to sleep. It makes for a very frustrating time and a bad start to my day. I've learned that I can not get by with less sleep than I need. Being pregnant, I am generally very tired all the time, and getting to bed too late is detrimental to my survival during the days. I fell asleep at 10 pm last night and I don't feel like it was enough sleep. Getting to bed at a decent hour is a big struggle for me since I never want the nights to end. They're so nice, quiet, and peaceful, I love night times after the kids go to bed. Dave and I some times watch movies, or stay up and watch favorite TV shows, whatever, its just a nice relaxing time for the two of us and its so easy to let 11 pm slip by and go to bed around 11:30-midnight. Not good...need to change that.

Visitors for New Year's 2009-2010

Dave's mom, Martha, was one of the guests we had over for New Year's. We had wanted her to come visit for some time and decided after Christmas was going to be the best time. She came out late Wednesday night (the 30th of Dec) and stayed til Saturday the 2nd. One of the main goals of her visit was to allow Dave and I help her transition over her budget system to an electronic form. When Dave and I visited her a few weeks back on our way home from Ohio, she showed us her paper system of budgeting with the envelope method. Her binder of papers was categorized with all her expenses, how much she budgeted per month, etc...it was a painstaking (well, that was our perception of course) effort of budgeting that method on PAPER, of all things and required so much of her time to organize and keep up. Dave and I have our finances (the envelope budgeting system) on a software program called Money Map which is designed by Crown Financial Ministries. Anyway, we saw the work she did to record just one transaction and knew immediately if she converted her work to the software that we used, it would be MUCH easier for her to manage. In our opinion, of course. :) She was very willing, however. She brought out her computer and we got the software downloaded onto her computer, and over the course of three days, converted her work on paper to the software. It is all the same information and the same way of budgeting, it will just take her awhile to learn the functions of the program. She feels very lost and confused, but she knows we'll help her transition over. There were moments during the set up process that she "saw the light" and got very excited at the prospect of having all this information at her fingertips. With her paper system, she never really knew if the envelope balances added up to the balance in her checking account, and the software program calculates everything to the penny so you're never a cent off. I also helped her log on to her internet banking, sign on to her credit card online, and when the time comes, I will help her pay her first bill online. We're rocketing her into the 21st century world of banking (which is SO much easier! I can't fathom actually writing a check, sticking it in the mailbox, and putting a stamp on it, I haven't done that for 10 years). She's nervous, of course, because she tried convincing me that her generation of folk doesn't trust the internet, but with our guidance, she will figure it out soon. We told her to call us if she has even the simplest of questions about the program, and we're confident we can help her transition over. I know once she learns it, she'll be glad too. Shawn and Kim Thompson also came for New Year's. We have a tradition going with them for the past few (4 or 5 maybe?) years of getting together to bring in the new year. They came back to Iowa during Shawn's break from school and spend Christmas with their parents (who live in Mason City and Greene), so they get together with us for New Year's. They came on Thurs the 31st and stayed overnight. Martha, Shawn and Kim joined us for a few hours at Bethany Bible Chapel's New Year's Eve celebration, which was really fun. There was tons of yummy food to munch on, games to play, and silly home videos to watch (small groups made videos). We only stayed a couple hours so we could put the kids to bed around 9:30 pm and we stayed up and played Balderdash. The first day of the New Year was a delicious one. Martha made a favorite recipe of Dave's, her egg/cheese/bacon frittata, cinnamon coffee cake, and I cut up and served red juicy grapefruit, melon and strawberries. What a great way to start the new year! New Year's Resolutions? That question got asked many times. Dave started working out in December. He's following a year-long fitness program that he used years ago and really likes. He actually started in the last two weeks of December to get his body used to working out in the morning. Three times a week he gets up early and goes to the rec center and follows the weight-lifting routine. He is enjoying the work outs, he says they're not too strenuous and it starts fairly easy. He enjoys the feeling of being sore and knowing he's making progress. Me? Nahhh, no new year's resolutions. I'm gonna have another baby, there we go. But I'm very proud of Dave for sticking to his plan so far, I guess my resolution will be to support him in his effort. I know I play a big part in his success, being OK with him being gone three mornings a week. At least its not in the evening.

Calvin's 2nd birthday...

was barely a celebration. He woke up and climbed into our bed, Dave and I started singing him happy birthday, and he yelled "mo! mo! mo!" (no, no no) motioning for us to stop. I guess he doesn't like singing, lol. At least that early in the morning. We had nothing special planned. The night before we had gone to the grocery store and gotten some cake mix and frosting in a tub. On Monday, his birthday (December 28th), we baked the yellow cake and I frosted it using green food coloring to make the frosting colorful. I stuck two candles in the cake, lit them, and everyone sang happy birthday while he blew out the candles himself. He wasn't satisfied just blowing them out one time only, however, so we re-lit them a couple times and let him blow them out over and over, which he just thought was super fun. I had to re-lite them at least once for a photo op, the camera wasn't ready at the right time. He didn't mind doing it over again. Violet was the most excited about his birthday, she kept trying to smother him with love and get in the way when the camera would try shoot at him, she stuck her head in many pictures which turned out to be a little annoying. She kept whining that she wanted her birthday to be here and was barely handling the fact that Calvin's birthday is "before" hers. Well, in order of the months and the way it "seems", yes, his is in December, and hers is in January. She's keenly aware that she's older than him, and knows he turned 2 and she is turning 4, but she still wanted to celebrate her birthday first. Too bad, girl, that's how the calendar works. We let Calvin have a big piece of cake on his high chair tray similar to how a kid eats his first birthday cake. He didn't want anything to do with the cake itself, he just used his fingers to swipe off all the frosting and suck it off his fingers. And we didn't even have presents ready for him. In the coming years, I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to plan for his birthday, since it is only 3 days after Christmas. Not exactly the best birthday timing, but oh well. He didn't even care or notice about anything birthday-related. He just had fun with what we did, and we have great family time. Rachel was with us, she enjoyed celebrating his birthday with him too.