Friday, November 13, 2009

Storytime and almost black eye

Strange heading right?! Well, it was last night and we were all in Aidan's room reading stories around bedtime. Aidan had found several books he wanted to read and he'll usually give me some to read, but he wants to read at the same time, and this night Emma decided to join in. Where is my camera when I need it!! Next time I will try to capture on film. When Aidan reads a book he will sit and say the same phrase over when looking at each page and will sometimes add in what he thinks are depicted in the pictures. For example; he was reading "the Lion King" book and on one page saying: "whama whaba whee, watta witta woo" and while he's reading it he add the indication in his voice, not sure if that is the right way of saying that. After he non real words he'll say while looking at the pictures..."and the lion was sleeping and so was the pig." Its very cute! Emma was watching him the whole time and decided she wanted to go over and find her a book and she did and sat down away from everyone in the corner and started reading aloud just like her brother, too sweet! Then, it was time to clean up and get ready for bed, so I started singing the "clean up" song during which Emma chimes in and to my surprise they both started picking up books and putting them back on the shelves! I wanted to say, what have you done with my children! ha ha! I got Emma to bed and then came back to tuck Aidan in and recently he has wanted me to stay for a bit and of course I don't mind. But, he was a little hyper last night and kept wiggling around and I was laying down on the bed beside him and the next thing I know his wild self head butted me on right on the cheek! Well, it hurt so bad that I immediately started crying and could not stop for a bit, I seriously thought I am surely going to have a black eye from this. I felt my check and it immediately started swelling up! Ouch! But, I put Aidan's Thomas the train ice pack on it for a while before I went to bed and woke up with it looking fine, no bruise, still a bit sore, but atleast it doesn't look bad. Man, what a night!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Emma and sleeping

well, nothing much new on Emma and her sleeping schedule, but we did have a better night last night. I am attributing it to the new fleece pjs I bought her which are super warm and she only got up once around 4:30am which is awesome for her! She also did not wake up crying this morning which she does every time she wakes up whether its from nightime or a nap, nice right! I had to go in and get her this morning and when I went in her room she was awake and laying on her belly playing with her babies, awww. I wish she would wake up like that every morning! She has gotten so attached to all of her babies, she hooks them under the crook of her arm, loves rocking them and kissing them and patting them on their backs and even saids, shh, nigh nigh or sometimes instead of nigh nigh she says bye bye, so sweet. Funny thing having a boy and girl is that she has gotten introduced to many boy and girl toys and really likes both. She loves playing with Aidan's trains and cars and will sit with them and say vrum, vrum. But, she also loves dolls or stuffed animals and hugging or snuggling with them, which Aidan never did. The only thing he loves to snuggle with is his blankie, which I hope and pray we never misplace!

Holidays are getting closer

Here is a picture Chris sent me from his phone, he managed to get the car seats in his new jeep (had to buy some seatbelts, for some reason it didn't have any when he bought it, seems crazy to me since he bought it from a police officer, hmmm.) This picture doesn't show it, but they love Daddy's new jeep, he had just picked them up from school, Chris said they both fell asleep shortly after he took this picture.

Here is a picture of Chris's new jeep.

I can't believe its almost time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas will be here before you know it. Jenn put a wish list for Carter on his blog, so I thought I would do the same for Aidan and Emma in case any family members wanted some ideas. Check out their wishlist here: http://www.toysandco.com/wishlist.htm just enter my email address to access the list (designsbydonna@gmail.com). Of course, by no means do you have to stick to this list, this is just for ideas as I know you can probably find similar items at other stores.
We had an interesting weekend this past weekend. On Saturday, I took Emma with me to meet my Mom and go shopping while Chris took Aidan out to eat lunch and play at the park. Emma did pretty well shopping and we ate at Panera and let her sit in the booth with us and she really enjoyed being a "big girl" and getting to stand up and sit down and say hello to people around us. It was such a pretty day it was nice to get out and walk around outside, I love weekends like this. My Saturday afternoon was a little hectic though, couldn't really get them to nap, when I almost get one to nap the other one wakes them up on purpose, so needless to say in turned into two grumpy toddlers by the end of the day. My plan for Sunday was to get up and go get their pictures made, not necessarily for Christmas, but we didn't end up buying their school pictures so we wanted some replacements. The pictures turned out good, but our experience at Portrait Innovations was so bad that I don't plan on ever going back there - EVER. I was trying to save a little money by going there, my first mistake was making an appt. on Sunday Morning. They are so unorganized there and booked like 8 other families at the same time, it was so chaotic that I had to go off them! ha ha, me go off on someone, well I didn't do that, but here is what happened. They have 2 different rooms they take your photos in, one is usually set up Christmas this time of the year and the other is a plain backdrop of your choice. They do this to try to get numerous shots of your children so you have a hard time narrowing down your choices and end up buying a huge package from them. Whatever, not this gal! Well, after we had to wait 20 minutes to get started we were taken to the Christmas room and I had to chuckle at my kids b/c they were not very good subjects, Aidan was listening and doing what they said for the most part, but Emma had her own agenda and just kept giving them her "look" and pretty much doing anything but smiling or posing for them, it was pretty comical. I was surprised that they actually got a few of her smiling. Back to what happened...after they finished with the first room they told us we will now go to the second room but have to wait for it to open. No problem, we go over there and see there is a family just about to finish up, they finished and we started going in the room. Well, right behind us a family of 8 adults comes in and a different person tells us we have to wait until this family is done. Okay....we waited for about 10 minutes (by now Chris is really had it and kept having to take the kids outside to entertain them), so I go up front and tell them the situation and they tell me once again "it shouldn't take too much longer". Well, by now I've had enough, my kids were done and starting to get cranky, ugh! So, I went into one of the rooms tapped the photographer on the shoulder and said I need to talk to you. She looked surprised and came out of the room, I told her in a loudish voice so others could hear, we had to wait 20 minutes to get started and now you think my 1 and 3 year old can wait another 20 or 30 minutes, get real! You can't expect toddlers to wait like this, making them wait a little while before you get started is fine, but you can't take some pictures and expect them to wait and take more pictures later! I just want to see the pictures we have taken so far b/c I'm Not waiting any longer. She responded with well, that's not how we normally do things here. Me: Well, thats how your going to do it today. UGH!! So, I picked out my pictures, bought the smallest package I could and was done. Ridiculous! That's what I get for not going to my regular photographer, the Vanderveens. Love them, what was I thinking! anyways, got that done and went on to play at my Mom's house for a while in the afternoon and Aidan had a ball playing in the leaves that Papa Rick had gotten in a huge pile for him. Emma didn't really understand what the fuss was about. We threw her in a few times only to have her hold her hands up like she was touching something gross, such a diva! Here are some pics of Aidan:





Having fun jumping in the leaves!


Having a ball! What a cute smile!


Where's Aidan?? Loving that he could hide in the leaves, but I think he thought he was totally hidden here! hee hee!


Completely under the leaves here! Can you find him?


Ahh, the joy of jumping in leaves!



Thursday, November 5, 2009

Nov. 5th - A better day

Well, sorry for the downer post yesterday, but it was one of those days. This morning was still a bit of a struggle with Aidan as far as getting dressed goes, but today I just let him wear the shorts and t-shirt he wanted to put on and hopefully he'll figure out that eventually it will be too cold to wear them. He has figured out that he can wear his coat over a short sleeve shirt so that is his argument for wanting to wear short sleeves, Mommy, I can wear my coat over it and wont be cold.

The mornings have been cute lately as far as when they both first get up. Emma is usually up first which is always pretty early so I bring her back in our room and lay in the bed with her and shortly after that Aidan comes in the room and the 3 of us snuggle in the bed and watch cartoons for a bit before we get up. I finally got up and went to look for some clothes to change Emma into and hear Aidan saying "Donna!, Donna!" well, I am certainly not answering to that and waited a minute and he finally started saying; "Mommy, Mommy! He must hear Aunt Lori and Cooper saying my name and now he realizes I have another name besides Mommy, great! ha ha!

I'm still working with Emma and her sleep schedule, it has been a real challenge to me or I guess I should say Emma is a challenge when it comes to sleeping through the night. We never had any major issues with Aidan on sleeping or going to bed by himself, although recently he has wanted us to lay in the bed with him for a while b/c of the monsters in his room. I'm not sure where this came from or why all the sudden he thinks their are monsters in there. But, last night Emma did pretty well going to bed with her baby dolls tucked in beside her and taking a paci to help soothe her to sleep instead of me. Now, I just need to get her to not get up 2-3 times during the night.

I promise next post I will put some sort of pictures or video up.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Nov. 4th - How do I feel today? Defeated

Who ever made up the name Terrible Twos hadn't met there Three year old yet. Twos were nothing compared to Three's! I can handle a tantrum, at times they are almost comical, but a three year old can go into a rage that is hard to describe.

Most mornings go pretty well, they are always a little challenging since its just me trying to get ready and get both kids ready for school and out the door at a decent time. This morning was difficult and left me feeling defeated as a mommy. Aidan is having an extremely tough time going from summer to fall clothes, he still wants to wear his t-shirts and shorts, I don't blame him, I'm not a big fan of winter clothes either. But, he pitched a major fit this morning about not wanting to wear "long shorts" which is how he refers to pants and we went back and forth until I put the pants on him after which he just took them off and threw them across the room. Emma wanting my attention the whole time was making it a little more difficult to get Aidan's attention and try to get him to listen to me over her crying and trying to get me to pick her up. On top of the rage fit as I like to refer to it rather than a tantrum, b/c its much worse, he has a stye in his eye that we orginally thought was pink eye, but looks like he has a pimple in the corner of his eye and the whites of his eye are still white, well during his rage he somehow popped it and it started bleeding, which my immediate reaction was oh no I'm going to have to take him directly to the doctors office. But, we got it wiped off and it stopped bleeding pretty quickly, but he freaked out over seeing the blood and me mentioning the doctors office and it everything started all over again. At one point Emma got near him when he was kicking and screaming and got knocked down which of course made me really angry, so I finally decided to leave him upstairs alone and ignore him. It worked pretty well and he ended up coming downstairs shortly like nothing had happened. Needless to say we left the house with him just in a t-shirt and diaper! He finally put the pants on when we got to Grandma's house 30 min later.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Nov. 3rd - slack blogger

Oh, I was so going to do so well at this blogging every day for the Month of November, what happened you say, well... weekends are very hard for me for some reason to actually get computer time, b/c Chris is usually the one using the computer most weekends and by the time he is off and I can get on I don't feel like it or I'm to busy with the little ones. Sunday, Nov. 1st we went on a fun family adventure to Castle McCulloch to their Wizard of Oz family friendly halloween trail and had a great time. It was a little scary for Aidan at times, but was definitely an adventure for us. I will post some pictures, we only took a few with Chris's phone b/c I forgot the camera, one of those days. But, he got a few cute ones to give you the idea of what it was like. It was a walk through the forest and to the Land of Oz with Dorothy as our guide and we met up with all of the characters along the way, the scarecrow, the tin man, the lion, and the witch and flying monkeys of course. Chris was singled out several times which was hilarious, he wasn't really sure about the whole thing at first anyways, not being into plays really and this was kind of like you were in the play and they were singing in your face and interacting with you. The part that was scary and Aidan hid his face most of the time was in the castle the monkeys were coming at us and were extremely loud and the witch was very scary, we tried to get through there as quickly as we could. Afterward, I asked Aidan if he liked it and he nodded his head, but said everyone was way too loud.

I did try to blog last night, but was unable to get on the site for some reason, not sure if I was the only one or not. Emma is really starting to say more words lately, its funny I was just talking to my cousin Julie about this and she said just wait she'll start talking up a storm any week now. She has started, but I'm waiting for her to blurt out more new things as the weeks progress. Last night she was so cute cuddling her baby doll and rocking her in the rocker, she was rubbing her back and saying shhhh baby, nigh nigh. It was too cute watching her do this. She is more interactive with toys than I remember Aidan being at that age. For example; Chris has a box full of Star Wars characters, the small figurines and Aidan has played with them some, but Emma played with them differently last night, she wanted to pretend walk them around and acted like they were talking to each other and had them sit down next to each other. She even layed them all down beside each other and said nigh nigh to each of them. Well, all for today, but I am going to do my best to do something each day. :)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Halloween Party at School

Aidan and Emma had their Fall/Halloween Party at pre-school today and it was so cute! They got dressed up in their costumes and paraded through the sanctuary, well atleast Aidan did. Emma's class sat on the steps at the front of the church. It's so cute to watch them with their classmates.


Emma checking out the fall props at school, my attempt at getting her picture in front of it. Oh, well, I got the back of her costume!
This I took right as she spotted me in the crowd!
Aidan checking out his bag of goodies!
I just love this pic! Look at that sweet face!
It cracks me up seing pictures like this of Aidan, but he makes the same face I used to make when I was his age. How funny is that? and Emma definitely makes faces her Daddy still makes! She gets the "look" from him for sure! ha ha!

Emma ripping down the leaves they had hanging from the ceiling, oops!

Aidan at his classroom party

Showing me the pencil he got in his goodie bag.

Some of his art on the walls, this one is of his Hand, called: Aidan's Handy Candy Corn
His cute pumpkin painting


Cooper and Lori in his class - Cooper was dressed as a State Football player, but he also has a Lion costume he may wear on Halloween night.


Aidan sitting with his classmates



Giving me the okay Mom you can go now look.



Emma with her classmates eating their snacks


Emma and her best buddy Charlie, the teacher told me they sit around all day talking to each other in their own language. I let her pick out where she wanted to sit and she immediately wanted to sit next to Charlie, aww.
another picture of Charlie, he was dressed as a Nasa Astronaut.Here is the "look" she inherited from her Daddy.
Emma and her teacher Mrs. Bridget who is so sweet and Emma loves her!
I actually got Cooper in this picture with his football helmet on! You can see him in the far right.
Emma with her usual look!

A note about Emma: She is really starting to become more verbal lately, hopefully I can post new things each day if I attempt the 1 post a day in November that my sister challenged me to. Her latest word is "Outside" and "Bye-Bye". She attempts to say any word you tell her to but they don't always come out very clear, but she is definitely trying. She also says baba for her baby doll, which she cuddles and sleeps with now.


The first few videos are of the costume parade, I didn't get Aidan until the second video.









































































Monday, October 19, 2009

Fun making Appliques

I have recently had fun making appliques for Aidan and Cooper and for a few gifts. I made this for Aidan to wear to school this month to celebrate Halloween.

This is the first train applique I made to give to a friend's son for his 2nd birthday, I thought it turned out cute including the button's I sewed on for the wheels.
Then I started thinking how much Aidan, Cooper and really any toddler boy loves Thomas the train and decided to make some with Thomas material. The first one I made was Thomas and the second one I made with Percy material.



Here is one I made for Cooper b/c he loves Football!

Here is one I made to give to a friend who is getting ready to have a boy!


I also made one for Aidan and Emma that has an apple on it made out of red and white polka dot material with a green gingham leaf and brown stem. Now I'm going to try to make a few girly ones for Emma and her cousin Matti.