Dinosaur cookies

Carter found a box of dinosaur cookie cutters when we were unpacking boxes a few weeks ago.  He's been  begging to make cookies since then.  There was no preschool today because of Presidents' Day, so I decide it was the perfect day to make cookies.  

 I pre-made the dough last night after the boys went to bed using this recipe.  I knew they wouldn't be patient enough to wait for it to chill.  I would highly recommend this recipe because it wasn't a sticky mess like some sugar cookie recipes tend to be.  The boys took turns helping me roll out the dough and cutting out the cookies.  While the cookies baked, the boys took a break to go play.
After lunch we decorated the cookies.  I adapted my frosting from this recipe, using butter instead of corn oil and doubling the milk to make the frosting easier to spread.  The only thing I would do differently next time is to give Jack his own small frosting bowls because the knives kept ending up in his mouth.  The boys loved it!

Recap

We moved out of our townhouse a week and a half ago.  Tim and I were a lot more emotional about it than we expected to be.  It was the first place we lived in together.  The place where we brought our babies home from the hospital.  The place where we remodel together.  Even though we had outgrown the space, it was still hard to say goodbye.
We are currently living in my parents until we can close on a house.  (Which has it's own set of challenges that I'll write about another day.)  The house we put an offer on over a month ago is back to negotiations.  It's any one's guess whether this will ever end up as our home because we still have many hurdles to jump in the negotiations.  If all goes well, we could be moving in December.  The market is really slowing down for the holidays, so if this deal doesn't work out, we may have to come up with a different short term plan.
The boys are handling it about as well as a 2 and 4 year old can.  Carter is very moody these days.  Pretty much anything can cause a meltdown.  (A bad cold is also contributing to this, too.)  Jack has almost completely stopped napping and is up 3-4 times a night screaming.  They're trying to be so good, but living at my parents' house screwed up pretty much all routines in their lives.  I am thankful Carter has school three mornings and week and Jack has ECFE one morning, so we have at least one thing that has stayed constant for them both.  

Work books

In general, I'm not a huge fan of work books.  I think in most cases there are better ways for children to learn and practice their skills. 

Carter is a smart barely four year old that has pretty much given up napping in the afternoon.  So afternoon time has become quiet time and I've tried to find activities that he can do that need very little parental involvement, but challenge him mentally.  I'd love to set up fun, creative activities for him every day, but frankly, I don't have the time for the energy to do that.  The SCHOLASTIC SUCCESS W/ KINDERGARTEN book has been a lifesaver for me.   It has a variety of different activities, including numbers, letters, opposites, and more.  Some of it is a little too advanced for Carter at this point since his reading skills are still limited, but I bet he'll be ready for them soon.  And Carter must be enjoying them because he keeps asking to do more. 

Birthday Party Planning

The boys' birthdays are coming up in the begining of July.  We're planning on doing another combined birthday party since Carter and Jack's birthday's are only 5 days apart.  Life is going to be pretty busy around here in May and June with Mother's Day, Father's Day, quite a few birthdays, SIL's college graduation, a bachlorette party, bridal shower, and a wedding that I am in.  So I'm trying to get a start on things early this year, so I'm not stressed at the last minute trying to throw something together. 
We playing around with a couple different themes.  Carter, of course, would love to do another Cars party.  I'm pushing more towards a Shaun the Sheep/Farm/John Deere party, which Jack and Carter both love.  There are tons of fun farm themed parties on pinterest to inspire me since there are no actual Shaun the Sheep party supplies made. 
So far I'm thinking crayon rolls and farm themed coloring books for party favors.  It'll be a big undertaking to make for the 12 or so kids that will be coming, but such a fun detail. 

The Terrible Threes

I am really struggling with dealing with the Terrible Threes.  The twos weren't so bad.  Jack was born a week after Carter turned two years old.  Yes, we had some tantrums, but they were generally logical in why they were occurring: told not to do something, tired, or hungry. 
The threes have been much more intense.  The good times are amazing.  Carter is so smart in pretty much anything relating to science and engineering.  He can understand and explain concepts so beyond his 3.5 years of life.   His memory is also pretty amazing.  He can remember things that we did when he was only a year old including small details like where we sat in church or what someone was wearing.  Carter loves school, learning, and his teacher, Miss Annie.   He can be very sweet and loving to Jack and others. 
On the other side, the bad times are really bad.  We are really struggling with some behavior issues at home (no issues at school).  In the last couple days, he has drawn on the couch, wall, and curtains with crayons, covered the couch and carpet with moisturizer, and peed on his brother's bed (on purpose).  I can understand curiosity, but none of these misbehaviors were first time offenses. 
The tantrums have been our other major issues.  They are frequent and can be set off by pretty much anything.  Something as simple as not having the right color milk glass can cause a melt down.  He has improved greatly in the last few months in his ability to express his feelings using words, but coming up with solutions to problems is still a struggle. 

I've been meaning to read Raising Your Spirited Child Rev Ed: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic for quite awhile.  It has been recommended to me by friends and ECFE teachers as a great parenting resource quite a few times.  But as a parent of small children, I don't get a whole lot of time to read.  So after the last couple weeks being extremely challenging, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer to read this book. 
I've only read the first few chapters, but already I'm feeling like I really should have picked up this book earlier.  I am excited to learn how to be a better parent to Carter. 

Carterism

The preschool we're sending Carter to is through the school district's ECFE program, so has a day once every other week that the parents come with the kids. The first day of school was a parenting day. Every night as I'm getting Carter ready for bed, we discuss what's going to happen on the next day.

Me: Carter, tomorrow you'll go to school all by yourself.

Carter: Mommy, I can't drive yet.

Me: (Trying not to laugh) I know you can't. Daddy will drop you off and I'll pick you up.

Carter: Oh, I was worried that I'd have to drive all by myself.

And he's pretty much always this funny.

The kind of night you always remember

Yesterday I told the boys that if they took good naps we would go check out the fireworks at Slice of Shoreview. Neither of them had seen fireworks before, so I'm not sure they even knew what I was bribing them with. Tim was working, so I knew I could potentially be in for a rough time.
At 8:30pm I started getting the boys in their jammies and loading the car up. We pulled into a parking lot a couple blocks away. (Parking any closer tends to be a pain to get out of after fireworks and I since I didn't know how the boys would do I don't want to be stuck in a parking lot with crying kids for an hour.) Just as I had gotten the boys snuggled into the double stroller, I felt a rain drop. As I walked closer to the park, it began to rain harder. By the time we were able to hear the band playing, I knew we needed to turn around. It started pouring a block away from the car.
Right after I got the boys snuggled back into their carseats and the stroller in the trunk the fireworks started. They must have decided to set them off early because of the rain. From our parking spot, we had the perfect view. Carter came up to the front seat to snuggle with me and get a better view. He loved the fireworks, and thought each one was better than the last. It was one of those sweet moments that you just don't want to end.

Motherhood

Let me be completely honest here. Being pregnant and the mother of a toddler is hard. I've been lucky enough so far to have a relatively easy pregnancy so far. Yes, I had morning sickness for the first half, but I rarely actually threw up. Once I hit the 18-20 week mark I've felt pretty good. The most negative aspect of pregnancy until recently had been that I failed my one hour glucose test two weeks ago. (I did manage to pass my 3 hour test, but man was I crabby to have to take that!)
Now that I've hit the third trimester the real fun has begun. (If you don't to hear me whine, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.) Since I've finally started to put on the baby weight, I've started to have back pain. It has become increasingly worse this week since I've been sitting in the most uncomfortable folder chairs ever in training all day, everyday this week. Tomorrow is the last day of training, so I'm hoping the lack of extreme sitting will help my poor body. To make life even more fun, I've also been waking up with leg cramps. Two nights ago, it was so bad that they woke me up at 4am. I've increased the amount of calcium and potassium, so hopefully these should lessen. I get heartburn from everything (or even nothing). And since I'm sleeping less, I have very little patience for naughty toddler behavior.
But, after one of the moms in our preschool class lost her baby at around 34weeks, I try to remind myself whenever I get crabby about being pregnant about how lucky I truly am to be pregnant. In less than 12 weeks, I'll (hopefully) have a beautiful baby boy to snuggle.

Peeps T-shirt

I think I finally have my act together and will have time to start posting again. :) I plan on trying to catch up by doing several mini posts all this week.
First one of my nap time crafts this week. I was inspired by this adorable peeps t-shirt on http://gilliangreding.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/take_a_peek_at_.html . I adapted it a little bit and only did one bunny.


My little man was not the most willing model.

He did however enjoy the beautiful weather today.

Where have I been?

As usual, life with a toddler (and being pregnant) is never dull. Like most of retail, my hours for work have pretty much dried up for the month of February. After all of the craziness in Novemeber and December, it's nice to have the chance to rest and get caught up on things.

The list of projects we need to get done before baby comes just keeps getting longer. Tim is working on the finishing touches of tiling our basement bathroom and hallway. It is already a huge improvement from the ugly tiles and icky carpet that was there before. We are now working on picking out a new vanity top to complete the remodel.

Since Carter and the baby will be sharing a room, we have a lot of decluttering to do in the next couple months. Storage is very limited here, so we are having to be very creative with finding a place for everything. We're hoping to get a large shelving unit for the garage, so that much of what we have stored elsewhere can move out to the garage.

I had my 17wk doctor's appointment on Friday. My weight stayed steady at what it had been when I had been in 2 weeks earlier. Because of my much more extreme symptoms and the heartbeat is way faster than Carter's was, the doctor is guessing it's a girl. I guess we shall see in another two week when we have our ultrasound. Tim is worried that I'm too convinced that it's a girl and will be disappointed if it's a boy. The only thing I would be disappointed with was the lack of an excuse to buy little girl clothes. I'd be thrilled to have another little boy.

Relief!

Last Thursday I tripped while taking some laundry down ours stairs. Now I know better than to go down the stairs in my socks. Wood stairs are just too slippery for that. I luckily only fell own 3 stairs, hitting my butt and back. It definitely scared me. Since I wasn't having any cramping or bleeding there really wasn't any reason for me to go into the doctor.
I had just began to feel the baby fluttering in the last couple weeks. When I hadn't felt the baby flutter all weekend, I started to worry. So we decided, while I was probably worried over nothing, it was worth calling the doctor anyways this morning. They said I really didn't have anything to worry about, but if it would make me feel better I could come in and have them find the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler. Knowing that I would worry until my next appointment, I decided it was worth taking Carter out in the snow, to hear baby. The doctor found baby's heartbeat after just seconds of looking. I had worried over nothing.
I'm taking it easy today because I was up until 7am with Carter. I think he's getting his 2 years molars in which has made him clingy and miserable. He would only sleep in my arms. Every time I put him down , he would scream like crazy. As tired as I am today, I'm trying to remember to enjoy those moments snuggling with Carter because he's growing up so fast!

Oh Baby!

Carter's new brother or sister is due July 20th, 2010. For those of you who remember, Carter's due date was July 20th, 2008. It's so crazy that we ended up with the same due date again.
I had my first actually appointment with the doctor this morning. So far everything is looking good. It took forever for the doctor to find the little stinker's heartbeat because it kept hiding. We did in the end hear it.
The due date is probably one of the only things that my pregnancy with Carter and with this baby have had in common. With Carter, I was nauseous pretty much in the morning. I threw up every once in a while. With this baby, I am nauseous almost every afternoon and evening but mornings are fine most of the time. I've only thrown up once. With Carter I couldn't stand the smell of chocolate or pretty much any sweets (Christmas was rough that year). With this baby, I love sweets. With Carter I craved protein and loved hamburgers (as long as I didn't have to see raw meat.) With this baby all meat grosses me out even when cooked. I can stomach chicken sometimes. Gatorade was my magic trick to make it through the day with Carter. This baby seems to think it's far too sweet.
Tim and I joked with the doctor about her 4th of July weekend plans (since she was out of town that weekend when Carter came). She said as long as it could avoid the U2 concert on June 27th, she'd be there this time.
We are still up in the air on whether we will attempt a VBAC. That's one of the best things about my clinic, the choice is mine as long as a c/s isn't needed for safety reasons. The plan right now is to wait until much closer to my due date to know exactly what we're dealing with. I just don't want to get it in my head that the birth will go one way, when in fact things could change at the last minute. My tentative thoughts at this point are to set a c/s date at 39 wks. If I go into labor before that and things look good, I would attempt a VBAC. From what I've read so far, the success rates of VBAC lessen after 39 wks and c/s are the safest at that point. It also looks like inductions will never be an option for me. I'm also at a higher risk of having another breech baby since Carter was breech. (I can't find any good statistics on this to know how much more likely this is, but I did read it in a legitimate medical article, so this means it would have to be statistically significant.)

State Fair Pics

I'm really bad a remembering to take pictures while we are out and about. I did, however, make sure to take some pictures of my boys at John Deere. Tim, being a former farm kid, is a huge fan of anything John Deere.

Last Year


This Year

Sick baby or not?

Yesterday was a strange day for us. Carter was fine when he first got up for the day. I put him down for a nap, and he slept 2.5 hours (which for some babies might be normal, but for Carter that's 2 hours longer than normal). When I went to get him from his crib, he was crying and rubbing his face on his blanket. He felt really, really, warm. He had a temperature of 100 in the armpit (which if I remember correctly is normally a degree lower than mouth temperature). Carter's never run a temp before so I decided to take him in. He had fluid in the ears, but not an earache yet, and they checked him for strep and foot and mouth disease (both which came back negative). So the basic consensus was that it was allergies plus teething.
Today he seems 100% better. No temp and he's eating. He's back to his wild self.
We went to Target this morning. For those with kids, there are some great deals on summer clothes already. I got Carter a pair a camouflage shorts for $2. They're adorable! If he didn't already have a ton of summer clothes, I would have bought a bunch more stuff.
Carter, my parents, and I will probably spend tomorrow hitting a couple of the local used kid stuff sales. We're on the look out for plastic slides, wooden blocks, legos/duplos, and clothes for next fall. Hopefully we'll find some great deals!

Baby Gate

We are despretely in need of a baby gate. Carter is now a quick crawler and there's no way I can even blink without him getting into something. We went to BRU last night to see what's even available in the world of baby gates.
BRU's display was definatly not designed by parents. It was super messy and impossible to tell which gate was which, and what price. After looking there, we decided pretty much none of the stair ones will work with our staircase with the way things are lined up. So now we need to either find a new type of stair gate or buy two gates to keep him away from anywhere neear the stairs. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, let me know. (and putting the babe on a leash in not a brilliant idea)

My First Blog

I've decided I want to try this whole blog thing.
The last three months (since having Carter) have flown by so fast. Most of the time he is a smiling, giggling baby. I am so lucky to have gotten to spend the last 3 months home with him. (well, minus the lack of paycheck). Our latest excitement is he just started to sleep through the night a couple weeks ago. He likes to go to bed between 7:30-8:30pm and will sleep until around 5am when Tim gets up to get ready for work. I am definitely enjoying being able to sleep again!
We finally broke down and bought Carter the FP Rain Forest Jumperoo last weekend. He wasn't really sure what to think about it the first time we put him in it. His legs are still about an inch and a half too short to be able to get it to bounce. He's starting to love music, lights, and fun toys on it. We think it'll be a good investment.
Carter's baptism is in a week and a half. We're going to have it at the 9am service and then have everyone over for brunch afterwards at my parents' house. Last week I made the invites and sent them out. This week I've been working on making on making breads to serve. Monday I made pumpkin bread and today I made chocolate chip banana bread. The next project is to find recipes for egg bakes.
Not a whole lot new on the job front. I check the job posting sites of all the school districts around here everyday and apply for pretty much everything I'm qualified for. I'm also check all of the local colleges for job. I figure even if I take a job that is not exactly in my long term career goals, at least I'll be able to take classes for free.
I am really liking my fall semester classes at Century. Two of the classes are completely online and the other meets every other Tuesday on campus. It feels so good to be taking classes again!