early start

Ethan and Judah have been waking early lately - they had a brief trial run of sleeping past 7...that lasted about a week. We're back to 6am now. sigh.

Anyways - I've been trying to embrace their early rising and using that time to be productive (in the past I would lay on the couch and moan and groan as they played...) So, yesterday when they got up early we headed to the grocery store - we were at Rainbow by 8:30; home and unpacked by 9:45; at the YMCA by 10:30! whew.
This morning I decided to have Ethan try some of his worksheets for school...HE LOVED THEM. (I found them on www.schoolexpress.com) I had 2 prepared for him and he asked for 'more and more' so he ended up doing 6-7 I think!
He had to connect the matching pictures - I was impressed with how well he did (aka: he got them ALL RIGHT on his first try on his own...)
My studious 3 year old:) He wanted to do more and more! Good thing I am taking this afternoon to get all the rest of my supplies for activities! I think we're going to start our reading sections (I'm using Sonlight 4/5 for that) next week after Labor Day.

While he was busy on those I found a promising recipe using rolled oats (we get those on WIC) in banana muffins and whipped up a batch. So, here I sit at 8am - wide awake, muffins in the oven, Ethan a happy student and Judah playing wonderfully. Here's hoping that all our school days will run so smoothly:) disclaimer: I am full aware that they won't. :)

Pizza, 'brunette' moment and break dancing...

...is a summary of the past few days here:)

Pizza: On Saturday I planned an interactive dinner: making homemade personal pizza's! I think I was just as excited (if not more) than the kids on this one:)
My boys hard at work on their masterpieces...
hmmm...topping options: cheese, pepperoni, red-green-yellow peppers....hmmmm
FINISHED product! Don't they look delish? They were. :)
Enjoying our pizza! p.s. doesn't Judah look so old? I guess he is.

Brunette moment: I'm calling it brunette because I have my hair dark currently so saying 'blond' moment doesn't seem to fit...on with the story....

..I went out to Cub tonight to do some banking and pick up a few groceries. Since Joe stayed home with the boys I took his car - no biggie. I went to Cub, did my banking, got my few items and checked out. Out to the car I go; get into the car and try to start it. NOTHING. oh man. I must've left the lights on....nope. hmmm...

...I call Joe and ask if there's any reason why his car wouldn't start. There shouldn't be. I try again and again - it's not even turning over. Getting rather frazzled on how this will work (nearing kids bedtime, carseats are out of the van, etc) I sit back and listen to the music....wait - the music is working? That's strange if the battery's dead....I tell that to Joe and as I'm talking about it I look down and realize what I did....

....I turned off the car when I was still in DRIVE. duh. I simply shift into park - turn the key - and I'm on my way. I rock. seriously. not.

Break dancing: because this is a rather random post I want to share an AWESOME youtube video a friend showed me (thanks Marie!!)



My kids LOVE it! They request it often and dance like crazy! Ethan has been trying to emulate the break dancing moves; that's some serious cuteness. You need to listen to it! I walked down the aisle in my wedding to Pachelbel's Canon in D -- I wish I had this rendition then! *halfway joking*

Happy Monday!

Chop Sticks

A while ago I took these of the boys trying to be like daddy....(Joe likes to use chop sticks with Chinese food - or anything of that sort)
I love how Judah is studying Joe across the table trying to figure it out; Judah actually got a few bites in his mouth!
Ethan prefers the stab method - I'm with you on that one bud! I can't seem to figure them out personally...

I think we may give the kids chop sticks at more meals; both boys ate wonderfully that night!

10 on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everyone!

1. I am obsessed with getting my home school stuff ready. Obsessed. In a good way:) It's letting my perfectionista-type A personality get out...she's a fun one:)

2. Judah is obsessed with something else...Joe's deodorant. Yep. My littlest man will walk into the bathroom every morning without fail and open the drawer and take out Joe's Old Spice deodorant - and then proceed to take off the top and smear it all over himself. I don't mind it - my little baby smells like my big baby all day then! I personally think Judah misses daddy in the morning (Joe leaves for work before Judah wakes up) so it's his way of smelling him:)

3. Speaking of Joe...he'll be done with school this December! That went by so fast! Yeah Joe!

4. The other night we were driving home and Ethan saw the moon (which was almost full) and said to us "why is the moon a circle and not a crescent?" - he's way too observant. I love it.

5. When we go grocery shopping Judah is now wanting to be in on the helping action. He LOVES to hold the milk next to him in the seat and will pile food on his lap until he can't hold anymore.. and then cry when I give the next item to Ethan. At least he wants to help...

6. My tattoo is completely healed and looks awesome! One of these days I'll do a post on the verse that inspired it and why I chose it. One of these days... but here's a pic!
7. Every morning during the week I make eggs for breakfast; on weekends I'll branch out and make pancakes or waffles but Mon-Fri the boys want eggs and it's easy:)

8. I'm having a hard time believing it's almost State Fair time (starts Thurs!) - that means summer is almost over. boo.

9. I gave Target brand diapers another chance a few weeks ago and I think they changed their tune since I last tried them (like 2 years ago with Ethan) - I now like them and LOVE the $$ we save:)

10. Judah starts ECFE in a few short weeks - I feel like I just pushed him out...when did he grow up? Is there a pause button for these kids? They seem to grow too fast:)

Home School!

I am so excited to start preschool with Ethan! Joe and I have decided (God willing) to home school our kids and the time has finally come to start; I'm going to do a 3 day (give or take) preschool with Ethan and mr. Judah gets to come along for the ride if he so pleases:)

I'm doing a morph of Sonlight curriculum and the Montessori approach - so lots of storytimes and hands on activities! Sounds like a fun preschool to me:)

I tried out an activity I read about with the boys this afternoon and they both loved it - stringing cheerios on uncooked spaghetti. Sounds easy enough but you have to be careful to not break the fragile spaghetti and keep the cheerios on! Ethan got the hang of it quickly and (believe it or not) Judah got a few on himself! The look on Judah's face when he was concentrating on threading the cereal on was PRICELESS- pure determination and focus. I wish I was quick enough to get a snapshot of it!

I think these two will be great preschool buddies!
And don't worry all you 'home-school-kids-are-sheltered-and-have-no-social-interactions' people out there...my boys have PLENTY of social interactions - they are both social butterflies! They LOVE going to the KidStuff at the YMCA, Sunday School/Nursery at Church, ECFE (Judah's in it this year and Ethan in sib.care) and playing with their cousins! They have NO shortage of social time with peers their age.

All this to say: I am excited for the school year! I've been talking to Ethan about his school and how I am his teacher and he is joining me in my excitement:) I'm going to try and document some of the activities I do with the boys (either Ethan or both) on here so I can remember them on a rainy afternoon....and if anyone wants to try them out too!

Here comes the adventure called home schooling!

Coloring Fun

A while ago I remembered we had some poster-sized coloring sheets so I brought them out...

THE BOYS LOVED IT!
I taped it down to our kitchen table (our new nook I've referred too; isn't it awesome?!) and set out an array of coloring tools. We had crayons, markers and watercolors with q-tips.

They worked out the project for a good long time - and even let me help!

Gotta love craft time:)

10 on Tuesday

1. I'm getting old....well 1 year older:) My birthday was yesterday! I had a wonderful day:) I'm now closer to 30 than I was to 20 (code for: I'm 26)

2. My boys must've known it was my birthday because they slept in! Ethan: 7:15am Judah: 7:30am BEAUTIFUL way to start the day!

3. Yesterday I had a great friend from college over (we're still great friends; we just met at college!) she loves playing with my kiddos and they love to play with her! She even brought me a Starbuck's Raspberry Mocha Frappachino for my special day:) Love you Heather!

4. In the evening Joe brought me out for dinner (kids were dropped at my parents) at Noodles and Company...yummm....I had a coupon for free noodles for my b-day which made it even better!

5. Joe then surprised me by bringing me down to IKEA! I had mentioned how I would LOVE to spend time just looking around and getting ideas and NOT having a time frame to leave....so that's what we did! We walked around for almost 2 hours!

6. I ended up finding a perfect shelf for my homeschool stuff and we got it! Along with baskets and folder things and an easel with chalkboard/white board/paper for my homeschooling adventures! Can you tell I am excited to homeschool!! That will be a whole new post about all that...

7. We were able to plan a short notice sleepover for the kids so Joe and I had the night to ourselves! very nice:) Then I slept in till 8am!

8. We went to the Farmer's Market today (I love it when Ethan says "let's go to the market!") They had apples for $5/3 lb bad and I only had $2...I asked if they would give us a smaller bag and he ended up giving us the SAME number of apples just the 'sample' size that were smaller; win for us - the kids LOVE the smaller size!

9. Ethan and Judah are becoming such good buds....so cute to watch! They give each other high 5's; hug each other; make the other laugh; say 'it's ok' if there's an owie and the list goes on! They know each other so well that they also know what BUTTONS to push on the other to make them mad.....argh.

10. Last Saturday I got some more ink! I already have a tattoo on my ankle and I just added the Greek word for 'content' on my shoulder-blade. Once it's healed I'll post a pic and the story behind the Greek word choice:)

color a cookie

A few days (maybe even a week by now) ago I was grocery shopping with the boys at Super Target and in the produce department Ethan spotted some 'Dora' cookies. I stopped and looked at them and decided to splurge (not that much of a splurge....6 cookies for like 3 bucks)

The cool thing about these cookies are that they are interactive! You COLOR them with markers - weird. They are edible ink markers. So...we colored our cookies and then ate them! Actually, we colored them in the evening and then put them in baggies (each of us had our OWN baggie as directed by Ethan) and then ate them the next day.
Here's big boy Ethan eating his in my spot - he looks like such a BIG BOY in this! Where'd by toddler go?
Judah was showing me his cookie...
Nothing like eating your artwork outside with your buddy:)

10 on Tuesday

1. This past week (Tues-Tues) has felt sooo long! Not sure why...

2. I started giving Ethan 1/2 a fiber bar (chocolate and oats...tastes good!) in the morning I love the results! Yes. I am talking about his bottom:) He has issues with that area of life and that 1/2 a bar seems to be helping him along in that area. word to the wise.

3. My little baby hairs by my hair line go CRAZY in this warm weather! My face is framed with (not so cute) frizzie ringlets. fashion statement?

4. Speaking of the heat...I had a playdate with the boys yesterday at a park at noon. If you live in MN you know that yesterday it was SUPER hot and humid. Needless to say we lasted 50 min in the shade before we were too sweaty:)

5. We were given a blow-up pool last year but weren't able to use it till this year. Joe blew it up a few weeks ago and we keep it in the garage like that; we fill it up with water whenever we want to use it (gotta love those townhome rules...) we use it A LOT.

6. Ethan and Joe went to Home Depot last Saturday to do the kids craft. Ethan loves it! He gets to wear a mini Home Depot orange apron (and bring it home!) and use tools like Handy Manny and Bob the Builder! They made a pencil holder that looks like a schoolbus; Ethan had a blast putting his markers and crayons in there:)

7. Ethan and Judah are really starting to play 'together' now. It is precious. They love each other so much! They also know exactly what buttons to push on each other too.....

8. Ethan slept in till 6:45 the other day! SOOO REFRESHING! (he's been waking up around 5:30-6 recently) **I remember the days when sleeping in was till noon! I don't think I could physically do that anymore!**

9. I have to mail in Judah's ECFE registration form by next week. 1) how did Judah get so old? 2) is it really almost school time?

10. Ethan's ability to think and reason logically is amazing. He surprises me everyday with what goes on in that little head.

HAPPY TUESDAY!

I love you more than...

When I was younger my Grandpa Traver always would say this rhyme to me (well each of us...and he still does!)

Do you know how much I love you?
Higher than the highest mountain and deeper than the deep blue sea!

I've been saying that to Ethan since he was born and he has a cute rendition of the answer when I say 'do you know how much I love you?' - I can't recall how he exactly recites it but it's pretty close to the original....that's not the point of my story.

Here's the point.....

Ethan and I were playing before bed and I grabbed him for a quite cuddle - I was expecting him to squirm out of it and continue playing but instead he cuddled in. awwh.

I said to him "I love you"

He said to me "I love you"

I repeated to him "I love you"

He said to me (very excited!) "I LOVE YOU MORE THAN MY TOYS!!"

I melted. Right there on the floor. What a wonderful thing to hear from your 3 year old!

I then went on to say my little rhyme about how much I love him; he answered with "I love you more than my rocket and more than the music bug and more than all the books!" awwwwhh.
I really do love him higher than the highest mountain and deeper than the deep blue sea!

Tall Ship Trip

Last Saturday we went up to Duluth with Joe's family to see the Tall Ships. Joe and I had gone 2 years before with Ethan (and I was prego with Judah) and you had to pay to get on the ships but you could walk by the ships to see them for free....well they were having some budget problems (or something!) and this year you had to pay to even WALK by the ships! We didn't know that going up there but still made the best of it! We were able to walk around to another waterside spot and get a great view of them!
We started the afternoon off with a wonderful picnic in Superior at a secluded beach - the boys had a ball and ended up getting all wet (thankfully I am a prepared mommy and had complete changes for both of them!) after some good food and sand/water fun it was off to Duluth to see the ships!
We walked around and saw the ships from different angles - we even got to see one under sail in the bay! cool! It was an absolutely perfect day weather wise - warm, sunny with a slight breeze! Couldn't ask for nicer weather in Duluth!
We ended the day with yummy ColdStone Icecream! Little Judah got his own bowl and loved every bit of it! Turning into such a big boy:)
Both boys fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving for home - we wore them out good!

So much fun!

Early morning ramblings...

It's not THAT early anymore but I wasn't about to sit on my computer when we got up at the wonderful (not) time of 5:30 am.....for some reason Ethan has taken to waking up at 5:30/6am lately. I can handle it if there's a '6' in the time; but a 5? come on.

Well, this morning Judah decided to join in the party and actually woke up before Ethan. So my 'rest on the couch and sometimes fall asleep' time in the morning was shot. I can do that with Ethan because he's 3 - not so much with a 19 month old (meaning I can leave Ethan alone while I rest - Judah tends to get into more mischief)

So..here I sit with my cup of coffee, greasy hair and Dora playing in the background.

Can you see why I titled this ramblings?

I have so many pictures on our camera that I keep forgetting (aka: too lazy) to put on the computer.

Pictures from our trip up to Duluth for the Tall Ships should (hopefully) be up soon!

I've also been trying to document more of our 'normal' life here at home - pictures of stuff I do with the kids during the day. I remember before I was a mommy wondering "what do they do all day?" (boy do I know now!) I thought I could try and answer that for what we do all day here! It's not a play-by-play (because I don't want to walk around with my camera all day) but it captures some of the fun that we have!

Update on Judah's nose: it stopped bleeding! Yesterday he had no nose bleeds at all. sweet. The day before (Tuesday) poor kid had 5 major nose bleeds; one deserving a trip to Urgent Care. My little Judah is a trooper!

Speaking of medical stuff: Ethan is getting his second molars and is very uncomfortable. poor kid. He'll walk around with a finger in his mouth saying his 'finger hurts' and crying....well his finger hurts because he's biting on it because his mouth hurts! Thankfully because he's older (3yr - he's a late teether) I can explain to him what's happening and he can handle it better then. I've explained to him that he's getting bigger like daddy - and getting as many teeth as daddy. That (plus Tylenol) seems to help comfort him.

I think I've rambled enough now...here's to hoping that my next post will have PICTURES in it!

10 on Tuesday

Today has been quite the day. Starting early in the morning and just now winding down.....

1. Early this morning (like 2am-ish) poor Judah started crying in his crib - I went in to check on him and he was sleeping with a bloody nose. I was able to clean him up and he finished the night in our bed (that's the short version of the night)

2. Ethan woke up at the perky time of 5:30 am. EWWW. I was able to convince him to stay in bed till 6 but then he was up and running.

3. Judah woke up at 6:30 from our bed; this is my kid that sleeps in till 9!! He wasn't too happy and his poor nose started bleeding again.

4. Morning was relatively uneventful - my mom came over for lunch and then rest time started and she left....

5. .....30 minutes into rest time I hear Judah crying so I go check on him. He's sleeping but crying; I look at his crib and FREAK out because he is laying face down in a puddle of blood! I wake him up.....

6. ...he looks at me with this scared look of 'what's happening mom?' as his half face is literally covered in blood gushing from his nose (it pooled around his face from laying in it in his crib - he was sleeping while it happened!)

7. I carry him out to the living room and call my mom - she was able to come back and help! We try and clean him up and get his poor nose to stop....unsuccessful....blood everywhere so I call the nurse line.

8. Nurse line said if it's been over 20 minutes of bleeding to go to Urgent Care - it had been over 20 minutes so we pack up and hit the road (poor Judah looked like he was in a war movie with all that blood! I wasn't far behind from holding him)

9. Get to the doc - his nose dries up IN THE PARKING LOT. seriously. We still go in. Wait 1 hr 45 min. sick. Finally get in and the doc explains how to handle it if it happens again; what to do if it continues to happen over a week; what they would do if it wouldn't have stopped on it's own; etc.... we go home.

10. We played all afternoon/evening and during storytime before bed Judah sneezes; and it starts ALL OVER AGAIN. This time we knew more of what to do and look for (my mom stuck around for support since Joe was at class all night - thanks mom!) We get it under control within 20 minutes. whew. Now Judah is sleeping on the couch -- because his sheets were sooooo dirty and I can't find the spare for the life of me. (they're clean now but I figure I'll watch him for a while)

**like I said: quite the Tuesday; I'm glad it's almost over and hoping that tomorrow will be a zero nosebleed day. I am tired of doing laundry and smelling dried blood. Mr. Judah isn't too found of it either.

*****I had a wonderful list of random things for my 10 on Tuesday post but my actual Tuesday won out...I may have to do a random list later just to get them out of my head***