A love/hate relationship

Yes, this is what it looks like. Logan is trying to strangle Lucas.
But then they play together, laugh together.....

Love on each other

Hug...

And sometimes have those really special moments. I am so glad they have each other.

Messiest eater in the world

I know kids are supposed to get messy when they eat but this is ridiculous. He needs a bath after every meal!

This is after a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. I just started letting Lucas eat it since his protein sources are limited. He doesn't like meat.

This is after a bowl of oatmeal. He looks like he did a face plant in the bowl.

And this is a healthy lunch of pizza, apples, and carrots with ranch dip. YUM! O.K. not so healthy with the pizza and ranch but Lucas actually asked for more carrots. I was thrilled. I gave him a bath after this meal. I do bibs but the cereal still runs all over his lap or he drags an arm through his food. We are still going through several outfits a day if he is dressed. This explains to anyone who has stopped by to see us why Lucas is always in a diaper. It is easier to wipe his skin than wrestle 4 outfits on him a day. I am willing to take any advise on how to keep him and my home a little cleaner. Anyone???

Recent activities

I have lots to blog about recently but not enough time or energy to do it. I could blog about the surprise date night that my husband has had planned since June. It was very sweet of him but a little out of character to plan a 200 dollar date night to a Sarah Brightman concert. I really appreciate the thought but I can think of lots of things to do during 6 hours away from our kids than go to a concert of someone that I have never heard of before. My take on it was an opera singer gone pop. Half of the songs were in some other language. Apparently, she is a huge star around the world, opening for the most recent Olympics. I thought the concert was entertaining but very strange.

I could also blog about the fact that after two weeks after Lucas got his vaccinations he is finally acting more like himself. He does have his incisor teeth coming through so that also can account for his fussy, foul mood.

I am kicking myself for not figuring this out before now. I have found the perfect solution to my nap drama. I don't know why I have not thought of this before now but Logan has been taking his nap in the playroom. It is completely dark and isolated in that room. There are no windows. I put him in his Diego air mattress and he has taken a nap without any fuss every day since we started this. It is great!

Lucas used the potty again last night and today. He says "I poo-poo". I say "Do you need to sit on the potty?" and he does his business. I can't believe it. Logan was a few months over three before he did this well. I am not going to push things but am hopeful that we will be out of diapers before he is two.

As many Moms probably experience, I seem to get sick with my children's illnesses all of the time. This is at least cold number 3 for me this season. Lucas had it first then me. Logan had the stomach virus then me. I swear I wash my hands 50 times a day but I guess all of the nose wiping and food handling just infects me every time. I need to really work on strengthening my immune system.

I can barely move after taking a workout class called No Limit Circuit. Note to self: If something says, No Limit, then do not attend this class. It was seriously like torture. I like to exercise and this was torturous. I was hurting right after the class and two days later hurt even worse. We were doing 3 minutes on each circuit then coming back to your own station to do some more exercises. Lots of squats, lunges, weights, running and jumping. It was a full body workout to say the least.

I thought my cat might have come home yesterday. There were two cats outside and one really resembled our cat that ran away. It was much smaller but I thought maybe she just shrunk from not eating. I figured out from the markings that the cat could not be ours. Then she ran straight up a tree and I knew she was not our cat. Ours can't even jump up on the counter top. I gave them food and water. They seemed really hungry but they were not friendly and seemed really wild. We are getting used to having only one cat around.

We have been decorating for Christmas since we won't be around very much in the month of December. My least favorite thing is fluffing the two artificial Christmas trees. I enjoyed pulling out the ornaments that Logan had made last year especially the one's with the boys hand prints. It was fun to see how much their hands grew in a year. It was really adorable to see them decorating the tree together. Logan would hang one and then Lucas would take his ornament to the tree and ask Logan "Will you help me Logan?" They hung most of the ornaments on one branch but they thought it looked great.

House guests

E's family came to visit us for an early Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun with them. We had a turkey feather hunt with our neighborhood mom's group, fed bread to the fish at the park, went swimming at our gym, ate a great Thanksgiving meal and went to the Dallas museum of Science and Nature. I will post pics later.

Logan let his aunt Michelle sleep in his room and did really well sleeping in his Diego blow up bed on the floor of his playroom. Lucas is still not himself since his vaccinations last Tuesday.

It was nice to have family around and celebrate a family Thanksgiving. I will not be cooking again on the real Thanksgiving day. I think going out to eat sounds good to me.

Logan's artwork

Logan's self portrait.

I have been taking pictures of all of Logan's artwork so I don't have to keep it all.

18 month update

Lucas had his 18 month well check yesterday with his pediatrician. There was a medical student observing the doctor and the first thing he said to her in the room was that Lucas was born in the car delivered by his daddy. I like that our pediatrician seems to know us and is interested in our lives. Here are Lucas' stats:
Weight: 22.3 lbs (5-10th percentile)
Height: 32 inches (50th percentile)
Head: 19.3 inches (90th percentile)

Lucas had a Hep A and flu vaccine. The nurse hit an artery or capillary on one of the injections and he has a bruise on that leg.

The pediatrician was very impressed with his observations while in the room. He said his language skills were of a 3 year old. Just a few days ago Lucas said "Mommy, Can you open this for me?" I am still amazed that he is able to use pronouns correctly at this age. Lucas is counting to twelve, recognizing the color blue and green, jumping, singing lots of songs, recognizing some letters and started to play as a peer with Logan. Lucas even peed and pooped in the potty with E yesterday. Lucas and Logan have been getting along so much better in the last few weeks. Finally, I am starting to see the benefit of having my children so close together.

In the afternoon Lucas slept for three hours, which is unlike him and when he woke up he had a temp of 101 F. I gave him a dose of Tylenol and the fever has not returned.

Poor Logan

The week started with a head injury and ended with a stomach virus for him. Logan has only had a stomach bug one other time and I don't think he remembered it. This time was so sad because at first he did not know what was going to happen, then he realized when he started to feel sick he would be throwing up. He would cry and whine just anticipating it. After he got sick he would say "Mommy, I'm not sick anymore!" Then two hours later he would say "Mommy, I think I am really sick." It was so pathetic to watch. I could completely empathize because I think I had it the night before. No, throwing up just feeling like it and wanting to die.

I spent the night running back and forth between my room and the room he was sleeping. I would hear him moaning on the monitor and run into his room to hold the bowl for him. The downstairs guest room is now officially our "sick room". Fortunately, this virus was a quick one. It is only 12 hours of real misery and followed by days of nausea and no appetite. It works great if you are trying to loose weight. And also Lucas and E seem to have escaped this round of sickness.

We ARE going to have a great week. No sickness, no head injury's, no falling down into the window sill teeth first and getting paint chips in your mouth (Lucas)...only happy times. The in laws are coming Thursday so we all need to be well and happy.

getting through another week

The week started out with our fun family trip out to dinner on Monday. We love kids eat free places. We were leaving and Logan (who falls and trips far too many times to be normal) tripped and banged his head really hard on the corner of a brick wall. Huge lumps and indents formed right away. I called a few friends, my mother and then the phone nurse to figure out what I should do. After all of the advise we decided to do ice on his head and keep him awake a little longer. I had to wake him up every couple of hours all night long and make sure he could awaken. I was checking pupils, asking him who his name was and feeling the bump on his head. I made him sleep downstairs in the guest room so he would be closer and then decided I should sleep with him. By 12:30 he awoke enough to realize I was in the bed with him and he was too excited to go back to sleep. I had to leave him to sleep by himself after that. I instructed the teachers on what to look for and it seems as if Logan is not going to require a trip to the hospital for this injury.
I am not sure if it is the two weeks in a row that E has been gone or something else but my patience is growing thin. I wish that my kids would go to sleep at my appointed nap time of 1, wake up at 3 then go to bed at 7:30. Whenever E is gone it never seems to go like that. I can't count on anything. If I plan to go somewhere then someone is not going to nap then fall asleep on the way somewhere and be so cranky later. Yesterday Logan actually took a nap and 18 month old Lucas would not take a nap all day long. Naps are my nemesis. I am seriously considering getting rid of any kind of schedule all together. I am tired of fighting with them to take one, hearing them jumping on the bed instead of sleeping, and whining for me to let them come out. I think I would rather have both of my boys on the run all day long then put them to bed at 6 pm every night.
It is only hump day...but I am really ready for the weekend.

Tagged

I was tagged by my friend Holly. So, now it is my turn to tell you 7 random facts about me.

1. I have always loved marine life and the water. I went snorkeling in the Bahamas for the first time when I was 21. I have been snorkling in the Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Brittish V.I., St Thomas, St. Johns, Bahamas and La Jolla, California. I took an 8 week class through PADI and learned how to scuba dive when I got my first job. I never took my open water dive because there was not anywhere convenient to go to in the winter in Central North Carolina so therefore I did not get certified...plus all of the talk about your lungs exploding if you don't do it right turned me off.

2. I was born without some permanent teeth. There are three molars that never formed so I had my baby teeth until I was about 21 then I had to get bridges put in. Insurance considers teeth cosmetic so my poor parents had to pay thousands of dollars.

3. I am the only granddaughter on both sides of my family. I have a brother and five male cousins who are all younger than me. I always felt left out at family get-togethers...and some of my cousins tried to pull my bikini top off.

4. I know most of you probably already know this but my youngest son was born in our mini van. It was a labor that lasted 1hour and 45 minutes from start to birth. My husband and I were the first to see and hold our baby. We delivered him together without any help. Not too many people have this experience and I am blessed that everything went well and everyone was healthy in the end. Sometimes I think about all of the what ifs...

5. I hated high school but loved college. I'm not sure what was the difference other than maturity and independence. I think college was the highlight of my life. No real responsibilities, parents still paying for most of everything, no wrinkles, cute little body, guys everywhere, party's to go to and wonderful friends that were like family as roommates. Sure, I had stress from taking organic chemistry, parasitology, anatomy, physiology and statistics but somehow it was the best worry free years of my life.

6. I love to learn, read and teach. When I start a book, most of the time I can't stop until I am finished. I get obsessed. Since I can't put a book down to deal with daily life I restrict myself from reading. I would be a perpetual student if I had the money and time. I have never had much experience in teaching except for my last job. We had students come and we would train them in the laboratory. I always was given compliments by them that I explained things well and they liked learning from me.

7. I have never forwarded a chain letter or email chain. They drive me crazy. I am fine reading them but don't want to think about who I am going to send it onto, or that something bad is going to happen to me if I don't send it and always worry it might be some kind of encrypted email and cause someone's computer to crash.

So since I am not good with chain stuff then let me just choose a few people to "Tag"

Juli

Haley

Vicki

Kayla

Lori

Rhonda

(the last three were already tagged but I don't have anymore blogging friends and they did not post anything yet)

So here are the rules:*Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.*Tell seven random facts about yourself on your blog* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs*Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.