Random Moments This Week

It was hot this week. I am not saying in the low or mid 90s. It reached highs of 106 or so here in the Valley. That is just too hot to do much of anything so my camera was put away while we lazed in our house with little energy and tried to keep cool. It seems like I did have my camera out for a few chosen moments during our heat wave and have a few moments I would like to share.

This first series of pictures was the very first day of our 100 degree temperatures. I actually didn't realize it was so hot that day and I am pretty sure the kids got a sun rash from playing outside. Like a dork I watched them while just inside. Like me needing to be inside is not indication enough. Well this day Elliot was being super cute with the hose and just cute in general so I got a few of the boys. Erik was wearing no clothes that day so he is not going to be pictured in a public place.

  

So when it is that hot outside you can only keep your kids entertained for so long and I hate going to too many public places because my kids get sick easily and school just started so it is prime sick season. So the tv was on a little too much one afternoon because we needed to do something. Well Elliot climbed into his brother's train box and I thought it was adorable so I took pictures. The one of Erik was just documentation of how zoned out he gets while he watches tv and why he doesn't get to watch that much.

  

When it is this hot outside there is nothing better than a little pool time and some ice cream. I didn't have ice cream so I decided to make the boys smoothies. Elliot of course thought they were the greatest thing ever and it was adorable watching him drink it from his sippy cup. Erik on the other hand wouldn't drink it at all and even rejected it when I gave it to him like ice cream. He is totally insane for not liking it in my opinion because they were delicious!

The last moment was a little private time I had with Erik while Elliot was napping. It had finally cooled down about 7 degrees so we were able to go outside and play a bit more. Ever since we were on vacation and Erik discovered peanuts, him and his daddy are obsessed with them. That day Erik was looking for a snack and decided he wanted some peanuts. He really wanted to try and open them himself so I grabbed my camera and let him have a go at it.

That was our week in a nutshell. We went to the doctors, preschool and then had some swim playdates and saw a couple friends towards the end of the week, but I had no camera. So this week its just our private quiet moments at home that I share.

Erik Starts Preschool

One of the things about being a SAHM is that it takes a while before your kids starts school. I have been religious about going to mommy and me programs with both my kids, but its not the same as dropping them off and leaving them at school without you. Although I have been anticipating this moment for a really long time, I am excited yet sad at the same time. He doesn't technically start school for another week, but we have open houses and meeting at his preschool until then so he is going every day with mommy until he starts on Sept. 7th.

Well this week was his first time back at preschool since we visited it last February. He has changed so much since then it was hard to know how he would be with the other children and how he would interact in the environment. Thursday was our "meet the teacher" day. Basically we went with him to his classroom got to tell the teachers all about our child, learn about the process and basically introduce Erik to school.

It went better than I could have imagined it. Erik LOVED meeting his teachers, they were so nice and he responded very nicely to them. We met in groups of two and there was one other boy in the room with us. It is funny because the mom's name was Heather and she had two boys the exact same age as my two boys. I see a future friendship for sure!! Anyway Erik played really well with the other little boy in the room and then when we went outside and played really nicely with all the other kids. He also got introduced to the potty and they have urinals and he went no problem. All my potty fears of Erik and preschool are gone when I saw the facilities.

Anyway I left that school with such a good feeling and knew that he was going to be at the right school for him. There are 7 boys and 3 girls in his class so I know he is going to get the male interaction he really needs in school. He walked away from there excited to start and excited about all the toys. So now instead of feeling nervous about preschool I am really excited for him to start and have that time away from us and alone.

(no pictures as I keep forgetting my camera everywhere lately!)

Doctors Appointment for the boys; 16 months and 3 years

Today I took Elliot to his 16 month doctors appointment and Erik to his 3 year appointment. Kind of confusing to do it all at once, but more convenient for Carl and I since we both can manage the kids. So I'll start with Elliot and end with Erik. As a side note, we were running late and of course I forgot my camera. I took all these pictures with my new iPhone. Totally good example of what it can do in low light situations. There is a lot of blur, but not too bad for a phone.

Elliot's Statistics:
Weight: 25 lbs, 2 oz (52%)
Height: 32 in (64%)
Head: 19 in (75%)

 

Physically he is right on track of where he has always been. His weight and height are staying steady in the average range. When Dr. Whang did her checkup everything looked great and he was meeting all his milestones and beyond. When I told her Elliot has mimicked about 60 words so far she was really impressed and said that was well beyond his age group and he was doing really well in the language department. Carl and I weren't too impressed lately because we realized it was mimicking and he only says a few words consistently with specific meaning. She said mimicking was actually really really good and that was beyond his age group. Basically everything about Elliot is great. He doesn't throw too many tantrums. He eats very healthy including his vegetables. He is walking and moving like a pro. He might only be walking for a month, but his waddle is already gone and he has amazing balance and control. He is obsessed with books and reading like his brother was at this age. He will keep thrusting a book in your face until you accept that you have to read it or else. He does have moments of temper, especially related to food, but he is easy to distract and make happy again. Elliot is a great tempered kids and totally laid back. I am waiting for the moment when it gets harder for him and relishing the fact that it has been so easy.

Sleep has been a bit of challenge with him, but in a weird way. He sleeps great through the night and was taking about 4 hours of naps a day. The problem is that as soon as the light was out he would he would wake up which was around 6 am and would go to bed around 7:30 or so. Basically I wanted to increase the amount of sleep he got at night and decrease the amount of sleep he got during the day. Basically forcing Elliot to take one nap even though he is fine with two naps still. So this week I have been putting him down around 11:30-12 and then Erik down right after. Before this he took at nap around 10 and then a second around 2:30. The first two days Elliot took a 3 hour nap and slept until 7 or so. Today he took a 2 hour nap and when he wakes up we'll find out tomorrow. I am hoping a week or so of this new routine will put sleep right where we want it.

As for teeth, get popped in 4 teeth while we were on vacation last month and his molars are due in any day. I am sure there is some calm before the storm expected with that at any moment. Now on to Erik.

Erik's Statistics
Weight: 38 lbs (94%)
Height: 39 in (84%)
Head: 19.75 in (61%)

 

The weight I am not surprised at all. He has been in the 90s for a while and I expect he will stay there. Erik really doesn't have much baby fat on him anymore, but he is really dense. I seriously expect him to one day explode up and get really skinny and loose the denseness he has. The other day I had him just in his underwear during a water playdate and all the girls were commenting on how he wasn't chubby at all anymore, but super thick in a muscular way. One day he'll grow into those feet and hands of his. I actually was surprised to see him climb to the 80s in height. Compared to his girlfriends who are mostly 2.5 months older, he is a shrimp. They have been towering over him lately so I expected him to decrease in percentage not increase in height. He was only in the 75% for his second birthday.

Some notables about Erik. He is potty trained when he wants to be. He is also still very orally fixated and at this age I am pretty sure he is not going to grow out of it. To prove his point to the doctor he chewed off the sleeves of the gown he got to wear for the appointment. He is still a very picky eater, but a very funny thing happened the other day. I always give Erik a piece of our veggies on his plate. He usually won't touch it unless we trick him or bribe him. One this day I had fresh broccoli from our CSA box and Elliot was gobbling it up and asking for 3rds and 4ths. He loved the stuff and Carl and I were making a super big deal about it. I turn around and the next thing I notice is that Erik's broccoli was gone and he eat it. So maybe his brother will be a good influence on him.

A good and interesting fact about Erik is his interest in reading. He is very curious about words right now and associating language with the pictures in the book. He is always asking where the words go and with what picture. One of his new favorite activities is spelling. He likes to take Elliot's picture books and start spelling out the words. It is good for him because he has a picture right there for instant recognition of the word. I am definitely not an educator or reading expert, but I am pretty sure these are the early signs of reading. If he continues with the same amount of interest, I wouldn't be surprised if he was reading by his 4th birthday.

Photobooks and Annoying Software

I have been wanting to create photobooks for months and just couldn't figure out how or which way I wanted to do it. My previous life was as a graphic designer so my program of choice to create these books was InDesign, but I wanted the fun backgrounds, shapes and text that comes with photobook software. So I broke down and purchase a program without trying it, knowing that I would probably hate it, but at least I would get all the shapes that came with it.

Today the program arrived and as I predicted, I was fumbling with the program and thinking of how to create these books when I just knew in my heart I need to use InDesign. It is just second nature for me to create in that program instead of fumbling around and trying to figure out something new. But hey I didn't waste my money, I am going to use all the clip art I got and it is all high resolution since the program was designed for print. So all is not wasted.

So after getting this software and hating it I had no more excuses to not design. Besides it is Erik's birthday on Sunday and what better excuse than to create a book about Erik's second year while it is ending. Last Friday when I had Kate here I sorted through all the pictures and figured out the potential for all the pages I would create for Erik's book. So tonight it was ready for me and all I had to do was create the design and plug in some images. Sound easy right?

Well here are the first couple pages of Erik's book and I am liking how it is turning out. After this I can't wait to go back and create book for the first years of Erik and Elliot's life. I blogged in such detail it will be fun to pull from those years and create a permanent book. Can you tell I am excited for this project?

Here is a sneak preview of the first four pages I created. Keep in mind this book is just about Erik. Books on Elliot to come. I have 5 year to cover between the two of them!!

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Just one of those days

Today was one of those days with such promise. We had plans to keep us busy in both the morning and afternoon, we have been having such good days of listening and potty I just had a good feeling about it. Not to mention that today is cleaning lady day and I love having my house getting cleaned while I play with the kids, and then it was 6:15 am.

That's right after an entire week of everyone sleeping until almost 7, today on my day to get up early, the kids were up at 6:15. Elliot was fussing, but sounded ok in his crib and I was fighting with Erik to get him to sleep with very empty threats because I didn't want to get out of bed. So the morning was already off to an incredibly early start. I blame the early wake up on the heat and humidity this morning. My friends kids were up equally as early today so it seemed to be a theme. So when I finally get up I find Elliot with his leg stuck in his crib slat up to his thigh and he has a HUGE poopy diaper, so I am already feeling like a failure when this morning starts.

Our playdate this morning was bright and early since my friend Lauren has a 18 month old on the same sleep schedule as Elliot so we met at Pacific Park for some water and playground time and to wear out the kids early. I thought it was perfect because it will totally wear Erik out for his nap and it will be an easy bedtime, I was oh so wrong. We had fun with our friends, Tracy showed up with her two girls, and we stayed for 1.5 hours in the hot sun talking and the kids playing. Erik did pretty well listening at the park, but it was obviously he was tired and didn't sleep enough by his attitude and he got two time outs in the park. About 10:40 we left and Elliot feel asleep in the car instantly and we are on our way home. Erik seemed equally as tired.

Well since Erik was up so early and we had a long morning of playing I thought a 11:50 bedtime would be fine and it normally is, but today since Erik was up early and lost sleep he decided to make me work for his nap. He was almost asleep and he would do his usual wake myself up or talk in the middle of falling asleep so he stays awake. His old problem we haven't had to deal with for months. He just refused to nap today and was going to stick to his guns. He would rather sleep and talk to mommy and I felt stressed because I knew we had gymnastics at 2:15 and he needed to get to bed early.

Eventually I decided we would skip tumble tots so I stopped stressing about the time. I am going back to my old rule of no nap, take away toy, but he had to do quiet time in his room. Usually he gives it up and sleeps when this happens, but today Erik is especially stubborn and uninterested in following the rules. So he spent 2 hours in there, before I got him, but Ester needed to clean the bathroom so I had to let him out. Ester even commented to me today about how hard it is to get him to nap. She has a boy about 8 months older than Erik and sees this battle with us all the time.

When I open the door to let him out, I find him naked from the waist down and he told me "I went potty" and he certainly did. He peed all over the chair and carpet. Remember I have a monitor and all he has to do is say mommy potty and I will come and help, but he wanted to make a point. So instead of sleeping he decided to pee all over everything. Just great. So not only is he going to be a challenge today since he didn't nap, but he decided to pee and make an example today. (this is is second day in a row of peeing in his bed on purpose to resist naps, its becoming a bad theme in our life).

I clean up the mess and get us all downstairs. Erik then decided to go on a destruction path to make another point and starts knocking everything off the counters. In the meantime, Elliot was playing with Lovey's food and putting it all over the floor. I told him "no" and shut the laundry room door and then tried to figure out what Erik wanted with all his whining. Elliot kept opening up the laundry room door and getting to the food and we went through this several times. It now became a game and Erik started doing the same thing. I am already in a bad mood after the pee, Erik not napping, and mad at myself because I screamed at Erik and woke Elliot up early from his nap. Just not my afternoon so far.

We head to Target and I told Erik as punishment for peeing all over his room he doesn't get a pretzel today. So then he proceeded to whine and cry through the entire store. UGH!! I only went because I though the kids would be unmanageable at home and I needed to get out for a moment. Oh to top it off, I got a terrible cart that kept going to the right and hard to manage with my crying kids. I realized it too late in the store and couldn't get a new one.

I am ready for this day to be over, but it is only half done. It is days like this that reminds me why I am not ready to have three kids. I was just telling my friend this during our playdate this morning. She plans on getting pregnant very soon with her third. I told her that I can't imagine being pregnant with three kids with Erik's attitude and challenges. He is too much with just two kids, I can't imagine how I would handle it with the hormones of being pregnant. I just need him to grow out of the potty and bed issues and maybe, just maybe I can think of three kids.

OK needed to write that out today, I feel better now.

My First CSA Box

I have a friend who is really into CSA (community supported agriculture) and cooking and talks about it all the time on Facebook. I was never very interested, I am not that great of a cook and the whole process of getting vegetables I might not eat seemed annoying. Then one day I completely changed my mind. I decided although I might get some unusual vegetables it will just encourage Carl and I to broaden our palette and it will encourage us to eat healthy because we will have tons of servings of vegetables to eat every week.

So my friends were discussing different CSA services they used and I didn't participate in the conversation, but I was the casual observer on Facebook. I took note, thought about it for a month and then went on vacation and decided once I get back I would try it out. There are several different CSA boxes and most of them you have to pick up on a weekly basis at a designed spot. With two kids it seemed a bit out of they way for where I lived and not easy. Then one of my friends suggested this place called "Farm Fresh to You" basically an organic fruits and vegetable delivery service. I could get the box as often as I wanted with as many fruits or vegetables that I wanted and it cost just as much as all the other places, but it was delivered to my door. One of the things that sold me on CSA is that it is cheap considering I would spend that amount at the Farmer's Market in a week and this service came with fruit and many of them do not offer fruit.

So the day after I got home from vacation I signed up and decided to give it a try. I told them no tomatoes and right now they are in season and going out in those boxes like crazy!! We got our first box today and I am pretty excited about the contents and looking forward to figuring out how to make stuff from it. The only items I am unsure about are the radishes and eggplant, but I can work with it for sure.

Here is the contents of today's box. Grapefruit, grapes, watermelon, sweet peppers, onions, radishes, zucchini, and eggplant.

The box couldn't have come at a better time. Elliot was really fussy this morning and demanding fruit with his breakfast and I was completely out knowing I was getting a CSA box soon. Grapefruit was always a breakfast fruit when I was growing up so I decided to give some to him.

Then I decided to eat the other half myself. Yummy! Looking forward to cooking adventures with my CSA box.

Avocados

In the last month I have noticed a change in the way the boys interact. They don't really coexist as much as they use to, they really have started to engage and play a lot more. This started on our vacation, probably because Erik is learning how to engage other kids right now. One of their favorite games is when Elliot holds onto Erik's shirt and he runs away while Elliot holds on. It is so simple, yet hilarious to these two.

Well today I was in the backyard cleaning out their play area. The gardeners don't seem to care that the boys toys are there and keep blowing in the lawn cuttings and leaving it there. Definitely a talk this week. While I was doing this Erik comes out with two avocados telling me Elliot wants them. It is a very well known fact in my house that Elliot adores avocados. I told him to please put them back and that Elliot didn't really want them.

Erik is really into food, he got a used kitchen before we left for vacation and its his new favorite game. We play with food all day long so I shouldn't be surprised that he started obsessing about the real thing especially for his brother that he absolutely adores right now.

So Elliot starts climbing up the swing set and I always have to watch him carefully and give him 100% of my attention. I glance back to make sure Erik is being safe and this is what I saw.

Erik has been a bit of a challenge lately and requiring a lot of discipline. He is about to turn 3 so no surprise there!! Anyway this is one of those moments where you have to decide, as a parent do I get angry and teach him a lesson about getting into something he is not suppose to, or do I grab my camera and capture a cute moment. Guess what I decided to do.

I have to be honest, Erik is terrible about eating his veggies and I was half hoping he would try a little avocado himself instead of giving it to Elliot. This was definitely not the case and although he enjoyed peeling the thing, it was definitely a moment of sharing with his brother.

Now I am fully aware that Elliot was eating avocado off the ground and didn't do much to stop it. My kids eat dirt all the time and never stay clean. If I freaked out at every little thing like this I would have no peace in my life and would change my kids 10 times a day. I have boys and my boys like to get messy. Also Elliot really enjoyed the avocado his brother got for him so how could I possibly throw it away?

 

Living proof that my kids enjoy a good mess. Although geting cleaned up with the hose after being messy is half the fun.