Sledding

Kaylee's been having fun this week sledding at daycare. Obviously she has bounced back from her incident on Sunday with the stitches! She loves sledding! What a thrill. Wish we could be there!

Have a safe and happy New years. We have 5 family members coming in to stay with us tonight. Yippee! Loads of fun, esp. for the kids!

Kaylee's first hospital trip

yesterday we took the kids for a fun time at the community center swimming. Unfortunately, Kaylee had an accident slipping on the ledge as she tried to climb out of the kiddie area, she smashed her chin on the hard tile edge. She got 5-6 stitches at the Children's Hospital.

You can see she's still in her swimsuit (which she insisted she keep on and backwards, nonetheless). Her brother was truly her best medicine as she sat on the hospital cot and waiting room waiting for the anesthetic (topical) to work for an hour before they could do the stitches.

Our daycare provider put together a great photo book for us for Christmas. She had funny things Kaylee's said this year:

"I have water in my brain I just need to cry out."

"That's not a green ball, it's yellow" Pointing to a red ball.
"When's my brother going to be my sister?"

"I am a smart chocolate chip cookie."

"This is my new brother not my old brother."

Very cute.

Yesterday, I said to her "Let's be quiet now while Levi's nursing." She said, "Okay, let's look at the wall." And I couldn't help but (loudly) laugh at this, she joined me and then repeated this sentence over and over to see if she could get the same response.

Merry Christmas Eve - Gift of sleeping through the night

Levi just slept through the night for the first time ever! Bless his little heart - it feels good to sleep for the entire night and that's why it's 5:30 and I am up and about. I'm not used to so much sleep all at once. He is still dozing away in his crib as I write this - so far he has slept 10.5 hours in a row! Earlier this week I came to the conclusion that sleeping next to me was keeping him awake, or wakeful. He wasn't sick or the waking was more often than 1.5 hours and so I have been more careful about moving him to his crib, and alas - he sleeps long and hard! He also is wearing a fuzzy cozy wearable blanket (have you seen those? I love those!) and that helps keep baby warm in the winter! We also turned the heat up 1 degree because Kaylee's bed has felt cold since she sleeps by the window - she never did wake up last night either! I am in heaven!

Tonight is Christmas Eve and we will go over to my parents for opening presents and for pizza. Tomorrow my Mom/Dad are hosting the larger family, more formal meal at noon. Can't wait! We just got news too that along with Eric's parents coming next week, so are Eric's sister and our neice & nephew and Eric's cousin, Denise with her son. We are so super super excited. It will be a houseful of family...very very fun for us all. Kaylee is going to have a ball playing with her cousins again! Just can't wait!!!

This is the first Christmas that Kaylee truly seems to understand Christmas. I can't wait to see her reactions to everything - the get-togethers, the presents, the songs, the cousins, and on and on....I'll post again after Christmas and again, after New Years (which is when the Smith even occurs!)

Everyone stay safe and Merry Christmas to all (and to all a good night). :) (I'm a dork for Christmas)

Christmas is almost here!

It’s been a while since I posted…the holiday season has got us pretty busy as I’m sure you all are as well. We’ve been sickness free thank-goodness, except for Eric’s ankle which continues to bother him. This last weekend was pretty fun, we attended a birthday party and a neighborhood holiday party. Both were adventures with the kids. Levi was crying all during one of the parties and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So that was a challenge, I just cut my losses and left. The other party he was a dream at, letting everyone hold him. The neighbors were all super excited to meet our newest family member. It was fun to see such genuine excitement over our new baby despite the fact we rarely see our neighbors in MN winters. We got good offers for babysitters that we may just put to good use. Kaylee ran around at both parties, glad to be part of the action. She decorated holiday cookies. She was adored by older children, being called “princess Kaylee” at one point and a 5 year old was attempting to haul her about like she was a little baby (which I had to gently put a stop to). She sort of forgot to eat dinner and then woke up ravenous and ate two bowls of cereal.

Kaylee’s been having a fun time at daycare. They went to chuck e cheese’s and they made holiday cookies. Levi’s integrated into the group no problem. And seems to have no anxiety yet over leaving us. He is very happy to nurse when he sees me, and has added a nursing in the middle of the night which makes me slightly more sleep-deprived lately.

Kaylee has learned how to put her socks on. She can also zip up her own coat. She can do more but consistently needs help with other dressing.

We put up a big Christmas tree for the first time, and appreciated donated ornaments from both grandparents. The tree looks good, but is decorated for kids with no designer influence from me (who has the time?) Kaylee played with the ornaments but did not help me decorate. Levi loves to look at the lights on the Christmas tree and has had his sister singing/shouting the words to “Frosty the snowman” into his face over and often.

Kaylee’s excited for Christmas but is scared of Santa (and any other mascot dressed person like the infamous “pizza man” whom she rants on about during time-outs and plays that he’s chasing her in the house).

Kaylee loves her ‘winnie-the-pooh’ book and has it memorized. She specifies how it should be read wanting the pages turned a certain way and to skip certain pages. She also loves to watch “cat-in-the-hat” cartoons and “Kermit”. She plays monkey preschool games on the i-pad, and is surprisingly astute at maneuvering through the apps she wants to use.

Levi has been giggling more lately. He has a dimple somewhere under those chubby cheeks. His grasping is getting better. He also can roll over, but doesn’t roll his head over with the rest of him. He adores his sister’s attention, but is sometimes also scared of her when she is more energetic with him. She adores her “Lebi”, he has been a good remedy against terrible two/tantrum behavior.

We hope you are having a great holiday season and that it is relatively stress-free. Be safe and enjoy!

Photos in front of Christmas Tree

Random photos to share from the last 6 weeks

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow

Levi has just been the sweetest little baby ever! He’s smiling so much it fills his whole face (I think he has dimples under that pudge). He chuckles at our attempts to make him laugh. He loves attention and prefers it when we spend time right in front of him, talking and holding him. He likes Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pat-a-cake. His sister fawns all over him all the time. She welcomed him into her bed this morning, saying, “Hi Levi. I love my brother. Come get comfy and cozy under my covers.” She wants to kiss him and gets upset when told it’s not a good time to do so, during feedings or when he’s upset.

The other day we were waving to Levi and he raised his fist up in the air, fingers out and pumped his arm up and down. We figure this was his attempt to imitate and we were very impressed that he can even try to do this at his age. I remember Kaylee doing this more around 6 months (the actual wave, that is.)

Being back at work is going pretty well. I like being back but don’t enjoy my commute very much. Eric has been doing both drop-off and pick-up to help me get back home faster to be with the kids more hours out of the day. I really appreciate that. I love the 30 hours, it feels less crazy than trying to do more. We have tons of laundry and chores, every bit helps me keep my sanity. Things are going well at daycare, he’s taking his bottle well and doesn’t seem to come home too exhausted. He seems like a happy boy and his sister continues to be glad to have him there with her.

Last weekend we took a trip to Madison to see some friends. Both kids did great in the car. Kaylee kept entertained but unfortunately didn’t rest enough. Levi slept the entire way except for a brief stop at mcdonalds on the way home, where he was happy to wake up and look around for a bit. Kaylee got along well with our friend’s 3 kids. Kaylee followed the 5 year old around laughing hysterically at his attempts to show off for her, which he enjoyed. She also found out that the 2.5 year old was pretty cool too and they played alongside each other very well actually. They did the best together when no adults were in the room, sorting disputes out between each other. She did get sick again with the flu (3rd time in the past month!) on Friday night but then was better again for the rest of the weekend. Levi somehow has gotten out of having 3 versions of the flu, and I’m not sure how. I’ve been careful to wash my hands, but I am sure his sister has sneezed on him or whatever. My immunities are protecting him through my breastmilk I assume. Yay for breastfeeding!

We got our Christmas tree and will put lights on it tonight. Kaylee’s excited for the “sparklies.” She can’t wait to put the ornaments on, thankfully my parents are going to share some of their ornaments with us since we haven’t ever done a big Christmas tree yet (after 9 years of marriage!). She likes the tree that’s lit up outside her front window (that her Daddy did) very much. She still goes next door to visit the blowup snoman regularly. It’s very sweet how much she enjoys Christmas lights. I am reminded of the song lyrics “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow” when she’s looking at the lights.