Mommy is tired . . .

Mommy is too tired to post any pictures tonight, due to the Eleva Broiler Fest activities this weekend. Last night I spent time in Eleva with some friends while daddy stayed home with the kids. Today we switched places - daddy played with his band at BF and mommy stayed home with the kiddos.

We spent the morning with Ben, Oliver, Aunt Jenny, Grandma and Grandpa, and then came home. Mommy was running on 3 hours of sleep and daddy had to leave at 10:00 this morning to set up so it has been a long day. Macie was unusually fussy today, and it was apparent that her teeth were bothering her again. After the kids had their naps, we took a long walk and went to 3 different parks. That is definitely a perk of living where we do, there are many parks to walk to! It was a very fun day with the kids, and beautiful weather as well.

Ethan has been very fun lately (since the last posting!). He is so happy and excited about things. He loves reading his books and surprises me with how much he knows from them. Like today we were reading "Barney Goes to the Doctor," and he would fill in words as I read - (I'd say, "Barney goes to the . . ." and he would supply "Doctor!") When reading the page about opposites in another book, mommy said "full" and he supplied, "Empty!" I had no idea he knew that.

His speech has been coming along so well also. It's been fun because he will finally repeat - or attempt to repeat - pretty much anything you ask him to. (he would never do that before). Ethan's favorite thing to learn about is numbers. He's pretty close to being able to count to 20. (Not that anyone other than mom and dad can understand him!) He will also look at a set of objects in a picture or real life and say how many there are (up to 4).

There - I felt like I needed to give Ethan some positive accolades after the negative press he's been getting in the blog :) Pictures from this weekend will come soon.

Macie is *thank God!* back to her happy, normal self after a terrible bought with teething. She has 3 teeth starting to poke through to show for her 3 days of fussiness and misery.

Ethan is having a rough time adjusting to life without his crib. Although he has a beautiful new blue room *courtesy of Grandma Mary!* and a fun igloo tent to sleep in, he seems to be struggling to get a good night sleep. Tonight I went to bed at 8:30, and was awoken two hours later to find him wedged between his mattress and the back of the tent. Not sure how he managed that, but he was NOT happy about it. Hopefully the rest of the night will go more smoothly.

In other news, we had to leave the Luther Park event at Trinity this afternoon just as soon as we arrived. The minute we walked in, Ethan started tantruming. Not sure what his deal was. We immediately turned around to go home. Of course it was embarrassing, and the adults there staring at me didn't seem all too supportive (Except for Carrie, of course!) I am pretty sure they had all forgotten what it's like to have a 2 year old, or they were thinking, "if I ever have kids they will NEVER act like that!" *which, by the way, is what I used to think when I saw a naughty kid.* Once we got home, he was fine. I think he was telling me with his behavior that he needed a quiet evening at home.

Busy Weekend

Ethan started off the weekend with some serious piano practice!

Saturday night we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a fun spaghetti picnic! Aunt Jenny, Oliver, and Ben are visiting from CO, and Michelle and Cousin Victor were there too. The boys had so much fun at the "kids' table."
Yesterday, Macie got to spend the day shopping with mom and dad. We went to IKEA and got some super fun stuff, including a tent for Ethan (picture below) and new bedding for mom and dad. Macie was a pretty good girl, although her teeth were really bothering her, so she was fussier than usual.

While we were shopping, Ethan had a fun day with his cousins, Andrew and Camryn.

Today we just stayed around home trying to get some things done around the house. We did have some special visitors, including mom's friend Penny and her family, and Kyra and Evan. Here are Macie and Evan hanging out in the baby gym.
The following two pictures were taken after the kiddos were in bed tonight (it's such a wonderful moment when they both fall asleep!!!!) I had to document the fact that Macie will pretty much only sleep in her car seat. She's had a couple good nights in her crib, but she definitely prefers to sleep in her seat, so we haul it upstairs into her room each night and put her down in it. She usually sleeps though the night that way - why fight it?
We are currently in the process of redecorating Ethan's room to make it a "big boy room." The first step was to get rid of the crib - we just put the mattress on the floor to transition into a regular bed. Unfortunatley last night we heard "thump" and then "AHHHhhhh" about 6 times and had to go retrieve Ethan from the floor and place him back in his bed. Poor kid. Hopefully this solution with the tent will work for tonight . . .

Target Pictures

The pictures turned out fairly cute, although both Ethan and Macie were cranky at the session. Ethan was on the floor in full-out tantrum mode a couple times. I'm pretty sure our photographer is a miracle worker, because she got some pretty cute ones!

Check them out on at the link to the right!

Well, blog readers, the votes have been tallied and the final decision has been made - we will be wearing choice #1 for pictures tomorrow! Thanks for your input! Now, mom and dad have to make sure their outfits coordinate as well, since we are going to try (key word being TRY) to get some family shots as well. Wish us luck :)

3 months old today!

Our Little Miss Macie is 3 months old today! She is such a big girl! Here are a couple highlights:
*She is now sleeping in her "big girl crib." Up until now, she's slept in her car seat at night, but now she finally will put herself to sleep (after a little fussing) in her crib, and sleep most of the night.
*She is doing great at daycare. Although all the kids bombard her when she arrives, she seems to take it in stride.
*Her bottom tooth is already poked through!
* She continues to be super mellow and happy - she coos and smiles lots, and she loves getting kisses from big brother!

SPEECH THERAPY
Ethan is doing awesome in speech therapy. His speech teacher, who I LOVE, comes every week for 45 minutes. She brings the bin of toys pictured above and all the activities center around what's inside the bin! We've been excited with the progress he's making, and his teacher always assures us that he is a very smart kid and has a great attention span compared to other 2 year olds which really makes us relieved!

KISSES AT DAYCARE
Ethan LOVES going to daycare. Lately when I drop him off, if I linger around too long chatting with Candace he practically shoves me out the door, waving "bye-bye" very emphatically!

When we tell him that we're going to Candace's house, he makes a smacking noise with his lips, indicating he can't wait to get kisses from Gracie! He also loves playing with Jordan (although she and Gracie are in school most of the day), Anaka, Callen, and Bo.

SPECIAL VISITORS
My Aunt Cathi and Cousin Mimi are up for a visit from Milwaukee and Oshkosh. They came to meet Macie, and had fun playing with Ethan as well!

We have also been able to spend some time with Victor and Aunt Michelle last night and tonight. Ethan LOVES playing with Victor and always says his name in triplicate - "ictor, ictor, ictor!"

Just for fun, here's a little comparison of the two kiddos at 3 months . . .

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, Macie had to get out her sundress and hat. We had a blast playing outside all day. Both of the kids were so good and it made me really excited for summer vacation!!!

Here are the choices . . .

Choice #1

Choice #2

Choice #3

Due to a recent request for a new poll on the blog (Theresa), I have decided to enlist my faithful blog readers to help me decide which outfits Macie and Ethan should wear for their big portrait sitting next weekend. Vote for your favorite combo!

Happy Saturday!

Here we are, hanging out in our jammies on Saturday morning!
Later, we went to visit mom's friend, Jamie, and her two boys, Sam and Sawayer. Ethan loved playing with the older kids and they were so nice to him! Macie loved being held by all of them, as well.
Of course Ethan LOVED all of their big-boy-toys! Here he is, examining a very cool motorcycle.
Later, mom, Macie, and Grandma Mary spent the afternoon shopping. She was such a good girl :)

Here are a few recent pictures of the kiddos.

Macie has been spending a little time in the exersaucer - she loves looking at the sun!
Here is Ethan on the swing at the park. We go there pretty much daily, and it is a very special treat when Grandma and Victor also come with!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a great Mother's day! Yesterday I got to pick out my gift - two beautiful hanging baskets! Today, daddy gave me a couple great gifts also - I got to sleep in, then he made yummy pancakes for me, and then he took Ethan out and about so I could get some cleaning done. Very nice!

We made the rounds visiting the grandmas. Here is Great Grandma Lue.
And we also went to see Grandma Sandy. While we were there, we also celebrated Camryn's birthday. She was super excited about this tennis racket that she received!
We didn't get to see Grandma Mary, since she was in Madison spending the day with Uncle Luke. I am so lucky to be a mom to such great kiddos!

Daycare

Here is Macie all ready for her first day at daycare!

Macie's first day at daycare was Tuesday. Candace has said that she is doing so well there! She is very smiley and content. Whew. I'm so glad that she is adjusting well to the change - it makes being a working mom much easier. Also, last night she slept 9 hours straight, so I think all the activity during the day is good for her! I really like putting both kids to bed at the same time at night so I can have some quiet time or husband time. I also try to get to bed early - the alarm ringing at 5:15 AM always comes way too soon!

I survived

Well, I survived my first day back at work. The kids were home with Grandma today and she reported that the day went very smoothly. My day also went well at school. My sub did a great job preparing the room for my arrival - everything was very organized, which was great! Somehow, when I saw the kids at the end of the day, they both seemed to have grown!

Cool!

I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to share two things.
1.) I am heading back to work tomorrow for exactly 25 days until summer vacation - wish me luck :)

2.) Ethan's been saying lots of new words the past couple days. One funny one is, "cool!" For example, tonight I said, "Lay down in bed and I'll read you your monkey book." to which Ethan responded, "Cool!"

A day with friends

Isaac, Lily, and mom's good friend Theresa came for a visit today! We had lots of fun. One of the highlights of the day was watching Ethan and Lily play "Ring Around the Rosie." In the above picture it looks like we are training them to be on "Dancing with the Stars!" Ethan is getting some air time, and it looks like he's about to swing Lily through his legs!



We also took a walk to the park. While Ethan was busy putting rocks in his hair, the rest of us had fun on the swings!


The kids all had lunch together, took a nap, and the mommies had our own lunch and time to chat. We also exchanged clothes for the kids - Lily lent a bunch of her adorable baby clothes to Macie, and Ethan lent his summer clothes to Isaac!

It was so wonderful that my last two weekdays off of work were spent with good friends!