Tag: parenting

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Nolan the builder

I asked Nolan to help me put a few boxes of mac-n-cheese in our pantry and apparently he felt the need to take everything else off of the lower shelf in order to do so.  Then he immediately saw the building potential of the said other items and proceeded to build one of his now famous, “high, tall, towers.”  If this kid doesn’t end up being some sort of engineer, I don’t know what he’ll be.

Later in the evening, I was surprised by the boys’ imaginary pet guinea pigs.  Jake took these pictures of us “petting” them.  Too funny!

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Elements 1-10

Jake has been teaching Nolan the elements of the periodic table.  The little man has the first ten memorized.  Why not take advantage of his amazing memory, right?!?

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Smells like orange

My mom likes to give the kids clementines as a treat.  (Lincoln LOVES them!)  When we left my parents’ house today she gave each boy a clementine to hold during the trip home.  As I was driving, I thought I could smell citrus.  It wasn’t until I was unloading groceries from the back of the suburban and Nolan said to me “Lincoln is eating his orange!” that I knew my suspicion was correct.  The kid took the peel off of the top 1/3 of the orange and dug in.  By the time I got to him, he was almost done with the entire thing.  He was so proud of himself.  I was pretty impressed, too.  Once we got inside, he felt the need to repeat his achievement with another clementine.  I really should buy stock in fruit.  My kids love to eat it!

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NYE

Jake loves being a dad.  Things like this make me smile – he really loves his kids.

Just in case you were wondering, there are about 70 balloons there – all inflated by my husband.  And no, he didn’t feel light-headed after blowing them all up.  Thankfully, we have an air compressor that did the job.  We rung in the New Year with a few friends, 3 kiddos, a warm fire in the porch, and a few tasty treats.  The kids lasted until about 10:30, so the party ended a bit before the official start of the new decade, but that was ok.  Our family had to get some sleep so we could get up and make the trip up north to the Iron Range to visit my dad’s side of the family.

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Ready, Aim, Fire!

Nolan and I gave our new slippers a trial run this afternoon.

After bathtime tonight, Lincoln came into his room wearing his towel.  Standing several feet away from me, he stayed very still, like he was in a trance.  Before I knew it, there was a small puddle next to him on the floor.  He looked at me and said, “I wen pee pee.”  (And no, I didn’t forget the “t” on “went.”  He just can’t quite say ths whole word yet.)  All I could do was smile.  The little guy has actually started expressing interest in potty training, but I think he’s just facinated with the toilet at this point.  However, I am encouraged by his excitement…and hopeful!

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Little dippers

My kids like to “dip” things.  Any time there is some sort of sauce (ketchup, honey, bbq, salsa) they want to join in the dipping.  This afternoon, I was eating chips & salsa after the boys finished their lunch.  They hovered near and asked with their sweet little “pleases” if they could dip a chip too.  I’m a sucker for kids with manners, so I let them try a taste or two, as was the case for my double-dipping little Lincoln.

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OTW – food (cake) frenzy

At lunch on Friday I was getting something from the kitchen, turned my attention from the table where the boys were dining for a split second and saw this when I directed my attention back at them:

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Nice huh?

Saturday we had hosted a birthday party at our house.  Our friend, Deacon Joseph, came over for dinner and knew WE were celebrating with him, but had no idea about 20 other people were going to show up to surprise him too.  Nolan had so much fun getting the birthday decorations out for the party.  By far the best decoration in his mind was the Mylar balloon which we accidentally forgot to send home with our friend.  Whoops!  I guess we can re-use it for Jesus’ birthday in 11 days.  🙂

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Sunday we had a visit from my mom and a friend of hers who was visiting from SD.  She saw our house shortly after we bought it 6 1/2 years ago, so a lot has changed since then.  It was fun giving her the tour – she remembered so much about the way the house used to be.  I’m so glad we no longer have straw on the ceiling in the basement or black & neon fish wallpaper in the mudroom.  Seriously…you should see the pictures.

We’re still eating leftover cake from Saturday’s party.  We even sent cupcakes and cake home with other people.  I don’t think the problem was that we made too much, it’s that people didn’t eat enough!  Now I’m stuck with yummy frosted desserts staring me in the face when I walk into the kitchen.  My willpower just isn’t strong enough to withstand the temptation.  We had cupcakes for dessert tonight and Lincoln had a great time with his.  At one point he was using a portion of it like it was some sort of animal.  He hopped it along the tray of his highchair and made animal noises.  I know I should have probably kept him in line, but it was too funny.  I missed getting a picture of that specific scene, but do have a few of him making quite a mess.

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Nolan didn’t take a nap today.  The result was one tired boy at 7pm.  It was amazing how fast he crashed once we got him ready for bed.  I had told him earlier in the day that he was going to go to bed early tonight, but I didn’t think he’d have a problem making it until 7.  Guess I was wrong.  Lincoln on the other hand, was in good spirits for about an hour longer than his big brother.  That meant he got a little solo time with his mom & dad.  Here he is reading with his Daddy.  I love how much our kids enjoy reading books.  They even enjoy reading to each other – so cute.

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Bullet list

We went to mass this morning for a holy day of obligation – it was 1 adult vs. 2 boys.  The end result teetered close to disaster, but I somehow maintained my sanity.  I don’t care to repeat the solo event any time soon.  Man to man defense is definitely the way to go when it comes to church.

The 1st decent snowstorm of the season hit us today.  We will have to check out the end result tomorrow – if it is anywhere near warm enough.  Speaking of warm, here’s hoping I can find Nolan’s boots in time for me to take him to preschool tomorrow…oh the things I think about late at night.

I’m currently working on the 2010 family calendars for both sets of grandparents.  Good times.  As a result, I’m still not getting to bed before midnight.  Guess who will be needing caffeine in the morning?

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Thank goodness for visitors

Today got off to a bit of a rocky start – I had to raise my voice and ask God for patience too many times. I was happy to have visitors this morning that brightened up the day and took my mind off of the fact that I was feeling like a crummy mom. My good friend from college, Heidi, and her son J, came to spend some time with us. It had been a while since we last got together, so we had a bit to catch up on. Little J is now on the move, so it was fun to see him crawling and pulling up on things. He is getting so big! My boys enjoyed the company. They’re always captivated by other people their size, but especially when the kids are younger than they are. Lincoln takes an extra special interest in the wee ones – so much so that I need to keep a close eye on him because he tends to think the babes are sturdy like he is. Not to fear though, I’m sure J will catch up to my boys soon enough. It will be a fun day when all 3 of them tear around the house 🙂

I’m writing this entry at work tonight.  I had to come in to take care of a few things and now I’m heading home to try to finish the workbook chapter for my moms’ group study tomorrow morning.  I feel like I’m in college lately – trying to keep up on my reading, but not having much success unless I have a deadline staring at me.  Some habits are just hard to break.

One more tidbit for the day.  On the way home from the grocery store, Nolan said to me, “I’m not a boy anymore.”  I questioned, “So what are you?”  He replied, “A preschooler!”  In a way, I guess he’s right.  He is no longer a “little” boy who needs his mom all of the time.  He’s definitely becoming an independent, preschool boy.

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To nap or not to nap

We are going through a bit of a rough patch with Lincoln lately.  His naps have been atrocious, almost non-existent.  He’ll fall asleep for 45 minutes or an hour and then wake up screaming.  Any attempt to put him back to sleep is futile.  He wants nothing to do with my consoling and only wants to get out of his crib.  But being since I’ve got a few years on him, I know better.  And based on his previous napping track record, (the kid used to nap for 2-3 hours without waking) I also know he needs a nap longer than an hour.  Today, I pulled the “auntie card.”  I laid him down and asked if he wanted to see Auntie Larissa tonight.  He nodded yes and stopped crying.  (This was an amazing response.  I would have asked him earlier had I known how it would quiet him.)  I then proceeded to tell him that if he wanted to see her for dinner tonight, he needed to calm down and take a nap.  He nodded again in agreement and I stepped away from the crib and left the room.  No tears, no screaming, just silence.  I thought for sure he’d pick back up again once I shut his door, but no, all was quiet.  Amazing!  I’ll have to try this little trick again – a little incentive to nap can’t hurt, right?  Who knows, I may just be on to something.