Bowling, Blood, Bugs, Beaters, and bowls...of cereal

Although the title suggests these things may all go together ( and they probably could) it's just a sampling of what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. Last Saturday we took Carter bowling for the first time at Warrior Lanes, our little hometown bowling alley. Jeremy was a little leery to go bowling as every time he goes, he ends up hurting himself somehow. He is so competitive that he tries too hard and either throws his shoulder out or pulls a muscle. Well, I thought we were safe since his competition was a 3 year old and myself whose bowling average barely breaks 2 digits. This time his ring finger took a beating and I thought for sure he was going to call in sick to work because he couldn't bend his finger. After some ice and a lot of complaining, it seems to be better. Carter had a great time. We bowled 2 games, and during the second game, they turned out the lights so everything glowed which was pretty cool.

Carter also experienced his first bloody nose last week. I have to say he kinda deserved it. He has been told numerous times not to climb up the kitchen drawers to get something off the counter. Well, this time the counter won and he caught his face on the edge of it as he was trying to get down. Of course we made a big deal of it, pictures and all. After all the crying stopped, he said, " I can't wait to tell Miss Ashley at preschool that I got a bloody nose" Dad came to the rescue and pulled out one of his old wrestling tricks and stuffed a bunch of toilet paper up his nose.

I was home all last week with some crazy bug ( sorry no pictures) I was tested for strep throat and mono both and it all came back negative. When the Dr told me he was going to test me for mono I about passed out. All I could think about was "I can't have mono, I have 2 small children at home...are you crazy? Whatever it was, thankfully it is gone and so far (keep your fingers crossed) nobody else has had it yet.

We have started some holiday baking at our house. Most of the year sweets aren't allowed at our house, but we do get to enjoy some at Christmas time as we perfect our cookies for Santa Claus. Carter is such a good help if I bribe him with licking the beaters when we are done. He is learning how to measure things, crack eggs, and cut out cookies. He even helped Grandma Berry make some cinnamon Christmas ornaments and of course loaded our tree up with them.

I broke down last Sunday and bought some baby cereal for Claire. We've only found time to try it once and I think that has been enough for her too. She really wasn't too sure about it, and pushed most of it out of her mouth. Carter was brave enough to try it and reported it tasted like glue...hmmm, wonder how he know that.

The kids and I had plans today to go see Santa and finish up our shopping today, but old Mother Nature blessed us with some frigid temperatures with the wind chills topping out at -25. So we've spent the day bundled up at home with hot cocoa, movies, games and of course a nap, but I couldn't resist this picture of Claire all bundled up when we go out.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, safe travels and joyful times with family and friends. We are lucky enough to have family fairly close so we were able to spend some time with both sides of our family, which also means twice the amount of food! I always feel somewhat sorry for Thanksgiving as it seems to be overlooked by the upcoming Christmas. Is anyone sick of the Christmas music yet? Maybe I am just being somewhat grinchy (is that a word?) We definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year and we try to think about this every day, not just at Thanksgiving. Each night before dinner we sit down and go around the table and say something we are thankful for. When Carter was younger most of what he was thankful for was whatever was in his sight such as forks, milk, napkins, table, etc, you get the idea. Sometimes this could go on and on. The best ones are those he has to ponder for awhile. One night he said he was thankful for Walmart because that's where we get our food from and another time he was thankful for dog slobber so the dogs could give us kisses. Sometimes Jeremy and I find ourselves biting our lips as not to laugh at some of the stuff he comes up with. As he has gotten older and wiser he mentions being thankful for his family and friends (this gets him a lot of praise) or his toys or his soft bed. I am really glad we started this as he never lets us forget to be thankful for something each day, even if it is only a fork!

Claire turned 4 months old on Thanksgiving day. She had a well baby check today weighing in at 13lbs, 7 oz (50th percentile) and was 25 1/2 inches long (75th percentile). She is wearing mostly 6 month clothes now due to her length. She had 3 more shots today with big brother holding her hand. All else is well with her. For those of you wondering, the red spot on her forehead is a vascular birthmark called a hemanigoma. It showed up at about 4 weeks and will continue to grow for another couple of months before it will slowly start to disappear and will likely be gone by the time she turns 2. It is a collection of blood vessels that didn't form properly in that area. Sometimes surgery is needed to repair the skin after they disappear if they get really big as the skin will sag. Hers is not likely to get that big. Something to be thankful for! We were also given the ok to start cereal! For some reason I am not as excited about this as I was with Carter! In my mind I am thinking "when do I have time to fit this in?" I can't see myself being as regimented with doing this as I was with Carter. She continues to be such a content baby. We have found she loves Baby Einstein videos and will squeal as soon as we put one in for her. She is also having a harder time nursing if there is other things going on at the time as she is much more interested in her environment than eating sometimes! She started a new daycare this past week and so far so good. She is at the hospital's child development center, so I take her to work with me each day and drop her off. The best part about this is I can go check on her anytime I want. She seems very happy there so far!

















Did anyone go shopping on Black Friday? I seriously need to get some shopping done, but was not tempted by the early morning sales. Carter and I put the tree up today and have been to see Santa already, although Carter wouldn't talk to him and hasn't really told us what he wants for Christmas either. It was so fun watching him help with the tree today. If anyone actually sees our tree, they will immediately understand a 3 year old decorated it. We was adamant on putting on EVERY ornament we have and since he is only a little over 3 feet tall, the bottom of the tree is LOADED! It was very hard for me to leave it that way but I know if I move things around he will know and be upset. I am slowly learning to pick my battles!










We added a new member to our household this week. His name is Sam and he was a gift from Santa Claus. The story behind this little guy is that Santa sends him to watch over you at Christmas time to see if you are being good. Each night he goes back to the North Pole and gives Santa a report and returns before you wake up in the morning. This is the greatest invention! The key is to remember to move him each night before you go to bed as in the morning you look around your house to see where he came back too. Carter has had so much fun looking for him each morning in his new spot to "sit and watch" plus, we get to use this as trickery for good behavior, "Remember Sam is watching and will talk to Santa tonight". If anyone is interested I ordered him off Amazon for 29.95. It comes with the elf and a book that tells his story. Elf on the Shelf.





Lastly, we woke up Sunday morning to some pretty white stuff outside. I think winter is officially here as it was only about 20 degrees outside this morning! BRRRRR...Carter didn't seem to mind....








Stay warm!

Some me time....

Ah..how important it is to get some "ME" time every now and then. Jeremy and I have both been fortunate to do just that these past two weekends. Two weekends ago, Jeremy and his friends Chris, Tom and Josh headed to Minneapolis for their annual "guy weekend". They got to enjoy two football games that weekend, Michigan vs Minnesota on Saturday and Vikings vs Packers on Sunday. You can tell they are getting old though, as the weekend has slowly turned from drinking 24/7 to hitting the hay at 10:00.

This past weekend, it was my turn! My friend Amy and I met up with some friends from my hometown and spent the weekend at PJ's-n-Pigtails, a bed and breakfast located in Stuart, IA. This B&B caters to crafters and this weekend was a scrapbooking weekend. This place was totally awesome! They served the best homemade food and desserts and pampered us to no end. It was fun to catch up with old friends and get some work done on the kids' books. The only rule there was you had to wear your pajamas! It was like a big slumber party! I will definitely make this an annual event and look forward to going back next year..anyone want to join me?

Carter got to enjoy some special treats both weekends, like staying up late, movie night and sleeping on the floor in mom and dad's room. Both weekends were a nice reminder on how much each of us does do to help out with things around the house and with the kids. We were both exhausted after being the single parent for the weekend and realized what a really good team we make.

The kids have been good. For the first time, Carter engaged in playing with Claire this past week. He got out his doctor kit and wanted to give me a check-up. As I was in the middle of something, he decided Claire was fair game. He played the part of the Dr. perfectly, even saying things like, " Since you were a good girl, you can pick a sticker" and, " It's your lucky day, no shots!"

checking her ears

checking her blood pressure

Carter has really gotten into the hang of preschool and has gone from crying every morning he has to go, to asking me on the weekends and Monday's if he can go to preschool! This past week, the theme was "clothes" so they had to dress up a couple of times. Here is "Dress as silly as you can day".

We also got our first snowfall last week. Although it didn't last long, Carter had fun playing on the deck. We filled squirt bottles with water and green food coloring and colored the snow green.

Claire has mastered rolling from her back to her tummy and although we haven't seen her do it, from her tummy to her back. This morning she was lying on the floor in her room on her back near the changing table. I ran downstairs to grab something and when I came back up, she had rolled herself clear under her crib! I know the only way she got over there was to roll several times, but when we put her on her belly and coax her to roll to her back she just smiles at us.

I didn't make my goal of getting video downloaded this week. I did figure out how to take video on my camera and get it onto the computer, but after 3 hours of the 30 second clip attempting to download I cancelled it, so I must be doing something wrong..stay tuned, I'll attempt again!

Trick or Treat...smell my feet

Okay, so much for the weekly updates. I have come to the realization that I can't keep up, so those of you who faithfully check the blog weekly, sorry, but it isn't happening! I have also realized sometimes our weeks only consist of going to work, coming home, getting dinner, baths and going to bed. Pretty boring but that's reality I guess.

We spent the majority of the week preparing for Halloween! This is one of my favorite holidays and I was so excited that Carter really got into it this year too. Although, he still has a problem with getting his hands dirty when carving pumpkins and prefers to use a spoon to dig out the seeds. This Halloween really made me realize how old he is getting. We went trick or treating on Thursday night (does anyone know why we don't trick or treat on Halloween?) and I helped him at the first stop to make sure he said trick or treat and thank you. At then next stop, I tried to help him again and he said, "Mom, I'm old enough to do it by myself" Okay then... He had fun trick or treating with his friend Lilly and they came home with a ton of loot. On Friday he got to wear his costume to preschool and trick or treat at some Waukee businesses. I was pretty impressed his favorite things in his bucket were some playdoh and a glow in the dark stick.









Claire didn't dress up this year, but wore an outfit Carter had as a baby. We took some pictures of her in the candy bowl. We did the same with Carter as a baby...here's the comparison.




Claire had a big week. She is officially laughing and she rolled from her back to her belly last night! Jeremy and I were just talking how we don't think she is as developmentally as far along as Carter was at this age. Carter rolled over at 15 weeks, Claire is 14 weeks today. She totally surprised us. She has such a laid back personality that it shocked us that she went after a toy placed out of her reach, as she usually just smiles at things. She didn't even make a peep when she had her arm pinned under her and was "stuck" she just kept smiling! She also turned 3 months old on the 27th. Here is her 3 month picture with bear.



Jeremy and I had our first official date since Claire was born. We went to the Metallica concert last Sunday night. I felt really old watching the "kids" in the "mosh pit" and I kept thinking to myself, " I hope nobody ends up with a head injury after all that banging around" We ended up with great seats as the section we were to sit in was closed ( they apparently didn't sell enough tickets). My ears are still ringing. It was so loud our seats vibrated the whole time...maybe it jiggled some fat off.

My goal this week is to figure out how to download some video so I can share Claire laughing with everyone! It will make you smile! :)

PICTURES

I wanted to share some more of the family pictures we had taken this past Sunday. The very talented Julie Glascow took these for us. She took these at Jester Park and even though the wind didn't cooperate she was able to get some good shots. Check out her website at http://www.landryannadesigns.com/ Enjoy!

REFLECTIONS

When I started this blog, my goal was to update it at least weekly, well as you can see from my last 2 entries, I am getting a day behind each week! My other goal was to use this as a reflection of our week. As I was thinking about this my mind wandered to "What was I doing this time last year?" then I go on and on and try to remember past October's. Have I turned into my dad? I can hear him saying...I remember October of 1979....etc, etc. Anyway, it was fun to think back to a year ago, as at this time, Jeremy and I were in Italy celebrating our 5 year anniversary. So I had to pull out some pics to share with everyone.

Overlooking Vernazza, Italy and part of the trail to hike there!

Looking down the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy

Throwing a coin into Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy

Another great memory of this past week in October was running my first (and only so far) marathon. It is so hard to believe that was 8 years ago. I think of this experience often as it was very rewarding for me to set a goal and work long and hard to achieve it. I still tell myself today I can accomplish anything..I've run a marathon! It was also a great time to spend with my very close friends the St. Clair's. We shared many laughs, some tears, a few blisters, and giggles over bodily functions only other runners can understand. I am forever grateful to them for taking me on as a training partner! Love you guys!

Now for this week! I headed back to work on Tuesday and found this very thoughtful note and present on my desk.

It was good to get back into a routine and see my co-workers again. I was able to drop Claire off for her first day at Margaret's on Tuesday. I only called her twice that day to find everything was fine. It was good to hear but it still didn't make it any easier. I think I walked around work all day in a fog with red eyes and baby on the brain. I felt sorry for my patients as my mind just wasn't into it. I kept telling myself, get your work done and get out of here to go see her!

This week she began to bat at her toys in her gym and is making new sounds of "ah and oh" I think she might have laughed this week too, but I'm not sure if I heard her right so I didn't officially put it down in her baby book. She continues to make us all smile with her big grins and dimples.

Lastly, this is the picture of the week. Jeremy took this picture of Carter sitting on the deck in his chair. Carter drug it out of the toybox all by himself, set it up, and just sat there...wondering what he was reflecting on.......

THIS AND THAT.....

Where did the week go? And the bigger question..where did my maternity leave go? I am headed back to work on Tuesday with a very heavy heart. I took Claire over to meet her new babysitter, Margaret on Tuesday and was on the verge of tears the whole time. Nothing against Margaret, she is a wonderful lady who comes highly recommended, it is the thought of leaving my baby girl for 9-10 hours a day in someone elses care. Very hard to stomach when you are used to spending 24/7 with them. My mom keeps reminding me it is much harder on the parents than the children, nice advice mom since you were lucky enough to stay home with us when we were little! :) I thought since I had been through this before it would be a little easier, yeah right!

Anyway, on a happier note, Claire continues to be all smiles and experienced some "firsts" this week. She has finally decided she can use her legs to move herself around. She rolled from her back onto her side twice this week and has also decided she doesn't like whatever position I put her in for nap and bedtime, because when I go into to check on her she has made a 180 degree turn with her head at the opposite end that I put her at! She also made her first trip to the pumpkin patch. I think the bumpy hay rack ride did her in as she threw up all over my sister when it was all over! Way to go Claire bear! Carter got to enjoy Howell's pumpkin patch twice this week, once with his preschool class and once with us. This is such a great little place. His favorite parts were the pedal tractors, playing in the corn pit and chasing grandma and Aunt Darcie around the straw maze.

Lastly, we are still kicking around the red balloons if anyone is wondering. Jeremy's surprise for this week's Husker party was this very delicious chocolate cake. The cake was great, game not so great!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I successfully lost my son for about 10 minutes this week only to find him hiding in the toybox outside! He wasn't lost he told me, just playing hide-n-seek! We had a long talk about making sure the person seeking you knows you are hiding! :)