Flashback Friday

Alexa - 9 Months

It's interesting how everyone says Alexa looks just like me and Braden looks just like Matt however they looks so much alike! Maybe it's the BIG blue eyes and chubby little cheeks!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was suppose to be spent at our first MN Twins game of the year. However, after hours of trying to fix a big mix up with getting billed way too much for our purchased tickets we ended up cancelling the plans altogether. So we were stuck with the last day of our long weekend and messed up plans. Our first thought was to head to the zoo but it was really windy out so we decided to go to the Mall of America. We brought the kids to Underwater Adventures which Alexa loves. It's funny how she can be freaked out over a little bug at home but has no fear when face to face with THIS:

And THIS...

She was fascinated. Maybe she will become a Marine Biologist someday, hmmmm.

"Nemo" was also a big hit.

YUCK!

Daddy and the kids sitting on a gigantic turtle.

After that it was off to the rides. Who looks like they're having more fun? :)

And Braden did great the whole time, even without a nap!

I LOVE long weekends. We had four full days with lots of family time that has obviously taken me until now to recover from since I am just posting this! :)

Wordless Wednesday

A Few New Things

A few new things about Braden (9 months) -

He now claps. Not when you clap or when you try to get him to clap, just on his own time when he feels like it. And every time he does clap he has the sweetest little smile. Very cute!

He also is waving. I absolutely love when babies start waving, it's just the cutest thing. Unlike clapping he actually will wave when you wave to him...sometimes. He gets very excited and his chubby little arm just goes flying all over the place.

He no longer likes to go to bed. Not for naps and not for night time. Up until now he loved getting in his bed. I would hold him and rock back and forth while I sang "You Are My Sunshine" and he would just cuddle up on my chest and just relax. Then I would lay him down and he would give me a big smile and then roll over on his tummy and go to sleep. Now when we even walk into his room he will start complaining or crying. And now that he can pull himself up it's even worse because he gets himself up in the corner closest to the door and yells or cries. The other day I went back in there about 8 times and laid him back down and restarted his mobile. I can not stand hearing my kids do the sad cry thing so it's hard for me to just leave him in there. Especially when I do go in there and he's just sitting there or standing looking at me with his head between the bars just waiting. Oh yeah, and he pulls out the pathetic "mom mom mom" sad thing. This weekend though with Matt home he kept me from going in there and it has surprising already gotten much better in just two days. I hope it gets back to happy bed time soon!

A few new things about Alexa (2 1/2 years) -

She is officially completely potty trained. She has been using a potty chair since she was about 18 months but there is so many levels (as all moms know) of potty training. So after a year of ups and downs we are done! She has no problems at all during the day and for the past month we have only had a couple accidents during the night. I was well prepared to have to keep using pull ups at night but she woke up totally dry one morning about a month ago and that was that. It's so great to not have to think about using the toilet at all with her anymore, she now tells us when she needs to go and other than that there's not much discussion. Such a great feeling! (I think it's so funny that for me, and many other moms I'm sure, to see the "baby" things go can be so sad...except using diapers. I think every parent is happy to kiss the diaper stage good-bye!)

A couple weeks ago she woke up talking with a southern accent, totally out of the blue. Seriously the whole day was spend talking like the was from Louisiana or something. Very strange for a 2 year old...and we still have no idea where it came from! Since then she still brings it back a few times a day but not constantly like the first couple days. Sometimes we wonder whose child she really is! :)

Sunday Funday (In Pictures)

A Little Getaway

Yesterday Matt took off of work and we decided to leave town for a little getaway. We knew we wanted to go somewhere with water so the kids could splash around. We narrowed our choices to the Dells, Duluth and Owatonna. After some thought we decided on Owatonna because it was by far the closest place and with two little kids that is always a plus. Besides we thought about changing our stay to just one night instead of two...which we ended up doing. So bags packed and everyone ready to go we were on the road.

First stop: Cabela's. Which apparently is a really cool store if you love to hunt, fish or anything of the sort. Well, Matt loves all of the above so he was pretty excited to go. Alexa actually liked it there too. They have huge fish tanks and about 5792 different stuffed animals (everything from lions to deer to elephants to fish) on exhibit. Kind of cool. Kind of creepy. So after far too long looking at boats that we obviously weren't going to buy we headed out.

Next stop, the water park. We barely made it to our room and Alexa was undressing to get her suit on so we basically threw our stuff in the room and headed to the pool. We were there pretty early, like hours before we could even check in (even though they let us) so we got the whole place to ourselves for almost 2 hours. It was great! And guess what I did AGAIN? Pulled out the camera and got about 8 pictures taken before it died! UGH! Thank goodness I had my cool new phone that has just as good of a camera right? Yeah except I still don't know how to use it! So we didn't get very many pictures, but life goes on...I guess.

Also I would just like to point out how much stuff we had for our overnight trip. Amazing? I think so! I am such an overpacker but managed to pack each person only one small bag. (Although if we happened to have been stranded there for about 5 days we would have all been fine!) :)

Even though the water park was nothing in comparison to the Dells it was actually just about perfect for this trip. It was small enough where Alexa could be running around and doing her thing and us not having to worry about losing her or a zillion other people running around too. Although they claimed to have a "lazy river" however it was not all that great, which was okay because we had no time for being lazy, unfortunately. :) Our favorite part? The tube water slide...Alexa loved it! Matt and I each probably went about 500 times with her. (Okay maybe it wasn't 500 but it had to have been close.) I think I can speak for all of us when I say we had a blast. Matt and I were laughing the whole time because Alexa was just so happy and excited and just screaming with joy!

Here's Alexa and Daddy after going down the slide...

Braden waiting for everyone else to get ready. You know, forget about all the toys I strategically jammed into his one suitcase, all the kid wanted was one of Alexa's flip flops. :)

At the restaurant, once again no toys...just a spoon.

We didn't really decide about how long we were going to stay until last night but after just the one day we decided come home today. Besides the fact that I don't think anyone got a whole lot of sleep. After we finally got around to dragging ourselves up from the water park, got showers and settled in our beds it was way past our usual bedtime. And I don't know about other people but no matter how comfortable hotel beds are I can never sleep very good. Anyway, we got packed back up and came home which turned out to be great. It was beautiful out today so we spent most of the day outside playing and relaxing...because what does a person need more after a vacation? A little R & R! :)

Oh yeah, Alexa's second favorite ride....

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Review

I know, it's already Tuesday but we've been busy around here so I am finally getting around to finishing this.

Anyway, Friday night Gramma took BOTH kids home to spend the night. This was only Braden's second time away and I must say that I think we both did pretty well. Matt and I got to go out to dinner all by ourselves which was....weird, we are so not used to being able to relax while out to eat! We went to a little bit of a nicer place and it was like 7pm so who would have thought we would end up right next to a table with 4 little boys. Seriously, the older two were close to Alexa's age and the younger TWINS were almost the same age as Braden. So guess what I thought about the whole time? My poor husband...tries to get me out and away from the kids for a relaxing night and he then gets to hear me talk about them the whole time. There could be worse things though, right!? Then after dinner we tried to be really enthusiastic about going and doing something different and not going home since it was 8:00 on a Friday night with no kids. We were going to go bowling but they were having a league thing so we would have had to wait for almost 2 hours so we ended up at a local bar and played darts for awhile, and it was actually really fun! I can't remember the last time I hung out at a bar...3 1/2 years of being pregnant or nursing definitely takes a toll on the adult outings. It was fun to get out though especially when we knew the kids were also having lots of fun with Grampa and Gramma! Thank you Gramma!

Saturday bright and early Uncle Phill came over and they started working on the new swing set again. It was sunny out but it was very windy and super cold! They got lots done though and it was finally starting to look like a play house. Here they are working away...

Wait a minute, what is this? Taking a break? To smoke a cigar of all things! Just kidding, they deserved it, besides they probably couldn't feel their fingers and needed to warm them up a little.

Finally, here it is! It's not totally done, we still need to finish the sand box, build the rock climbing wall that goes in front, add the monkey bar ring things and stain it BUT at least we can still use it. Not even kidding, before Matt even had the slide screwed in we had Alexa and 2 little neighbor kids running around waiting for him to be done! Alexa was so excited she kept saying "Sank you Daddy, sank you for the swings!"

Thanks Uncle Phill for all your help!!

The weekend was so busy and in Matt's spare time he was working outside so we didn't even get a chance to all hang out as a family. So Sunday night we packed up some sandwiches and went down to the river and had a picnic, went walking and just laid around a played.

Man I love these three people!!

New stats on our little BIG boy

Friday Alexa and I brought Braden to the doctor for his 9 month check-up. Everyone did great and we thankfully didn't have to wait too long for our awesome doc to show up. While we waited be went back and forth between our room and the scale out in the hall, because obviously that is the funnest toy at the doctor office...but of course. Alexa helped Dr. Cress look for bunnies in Braden's ears and then she gave a sticker for being so good. Is she a great helper or what? :)

And here are the latest numbers:

Head circumference - 18.5" (90 percentile)

Height - 29 inches (75 percentile)

and drum roll please.....

Weight - 27 pounds (99 percentile)

Apparently he is almost the biggest 9 month old to walk crawl the earth. Although he has slowed down a tiny bit since he is moving around and starting to nurse less and eat more real food. I asked the doctor if we should be concerned or if we needed to change anything and he said "NOPE" and that there's no concern to see a nursing baby on the "chunkier side" and somewhere in there he also said something about me making liquid gold.

Chubby or not we love you either way!

(Although I personally LOVE the rolls!) :)

Bitter Sweet

Braden is now 9 months old.

He has not woken up in the middle of the night and eaten in the past month.

This is a good thing, right? He's obviously old enough to be sleeping through the night.

So here's my question?

Why and I still waiting for it? And why am I sad thinking that it's not going to happen anymore?

Of course not having to get up in the middle of the night is great and I can tell I am more refreshed during the day. However, I really do miss it. I miss the cuddling. I miss nursing in the dark, just him and me. I miss being all cozy under his big blanket with him. I miss holding his little hand as he squeezes my finger. I miss those 10-20 minutes of just looking at him. I miss spending time together, just the two of us. I think knowing that it's just another step towards growing up is also part of the reason I didn't want it to stop. I know this may sound crazy, but I don't mind getting up at night to nurse a baby. I don't care that I don't get to sleep for more than 3 hours at any given time. I miss it.

Apparently it's time for me to face the facts. My late night dates with Braden have come to an end. Am I crazy for feeling like this? For being completely sad about my baby finally sleeping through the night? I know there has to be other mommies out there that know how I feel. Especially with a second (or third, or fourth...) baby when sometimes the only one on one time you ever get happens to be at 3:00 in the morning.

So as not ready as I may be for him to be sleeping through the night, I might as well enjoy the sleep because I think it's here to stay. Maybe tonight when I get up in the middle of the night I can stay in bed and not go up and peek on him thinking "well maybe he's up and just forgot to call for me."

Or maybe not. We'll see. :)

At least I can look forward to this...

...and this in the mornings!

Speaking of Braden and sleeping, apparently this is how he likes to fall asleep almost every night now. :)

Is there anything better than watching a sleeping baby? Seriously, I love it!

Flashback Friday

This was Alexa helping me pack for Hawaii last March. She had so much fun making a little bed for herself, she kept going in her room to get more blankets and her puppy. What a funny girl!

There's no stopping this kid

Yesterday was yet another big day for Braden. For starters he finally made it up these stairs...

He has been working on them for a few weeks now and can never make it past the first step. I love our upstairs living room because of these. It's sunken so there's only two steps which is actually a great thing to have with kids...who would have known! Alexa learned to go up and down stairs really well with them and hopefully Braden will be able to also. We just kept a huge four foot stuffed lamb at the bottom so there is no injuries, in fact Alexa thought it was great "falling" down and landing on it. Stairs were always one of my big fears even before having kids, the thought of having a kid fall down the stairs literally makes me sick to my stomach. So hopefully with our "practice" steps we'll be two for two. Anyway, mission complete for little B. Good work buddy!

Yesterday he also walked half way around our ottoman. He has been starting to walk a little bit here and there around furniture and even transferring from one thing to the other but never more than a couple steps at a time. So when he started inching his way around the ottoman yesterday it was pretty cool. I am so amazed at how much babies can learn in such a short time, isn't it crazy!? Before we know it he will be running around with Alexa, it's so hard to imagine him doing all these things already. Some days I can't wait to see him do new things and some days I just want to bottle him up just like he is today so I can keep my little baby boy.