Boy, what a week it has been!! Wednesday this week we had a major snowstorm. I stayed home from work. It took Joe two hours to get into work. We got about a foot of snow with the drifts. It took me an hour to shovel and snow blow the driveway! Not fun at all!!!
Thursday 2/15 I went to work. I was going to go to my parents house after work but I was so tired and run down I decided to stay home. We got the kids to bed at a normal time of about 8:30 or so and then I was in bed at 9pm.
Friday 2/16
I stayed home because I still wasn’t feeling good and worked from home. This cold has really kicked my butt! It just won’t go away. I thought this week I was over it and it came back!
Friday evening we got ready and drove up north to spend the weekend with Grandma.
Justin, hanging out on Friday in his exersaucer.Some pretty significant things happened this week.
- Justin is starting to sit up by himself without toppling over. He can usually balance for 10-15 seconds without tipping to the side. Pretty cool!!!
- Joey is in the ‘I do it myself’ stage. This week he wanted to make his own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He did it himself and he did an excellent job and proceeded to eat it all. I was told with first borns you should never let them do a job and then correct their work all the time. They look up to their parents and if you always correct their work they’ll feel that no matter how good of a job they do, its never good enough. So a lot of times now I’ll let whatever he does go. Sometimes I’ll show him the correct way to do it first and then let him try. He does a good job on his own and the way he made the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was really good. I was so proud of him. He wanted to make pb&j sandwiches over and over because of his new found skill!
Joey learning to spread peanut butter on bread (though it was a hamburger bun this time because that was all we had in the house!)
Ohhhhh, soooo good! - Justin is really grabbing at toys. You dangle something in front of him and he will easily grab a hold of it now. He chews on everything.
This week we were really going over the differences between children. This is what we came up with – they surely are different already!
- Justin hated the swing (we sold it this week). Joey loved it and was in it all the time!
- Justin liked the bouncer. Joey never used it.
- Justin loves to play with his baby toys and chew on them. Joey never really played with his baby toys. He’d rather swing!
- Joey was much taller and heavier at this age than Justin is. Joey was also over a pound heavier at birth.
- Justin will breastfeed, Joey never would.
- Joey always needed a bottle to fall asleep, Justin will nurse, but more recently just wants to be laid down to fall asleep himself.
- Joey hated to be held and loved to be in his swing all the time. Justin loves to be held all the time and hated the swing.
Those are just some of the differences that I could remember. It’s so funny how two kids can look so alike but be so different.
Saturday 2/17
Last week Saturday 2/17 I was tired all day again! Go figure. Joe took Joey outside to play hockey and go see the tractor that Grandmas has. Joe said at one point Joey took his hockey stick into the snow bank and got snow on it and threw it up in the air and on his head. Joe said it was too funny.
Saturday evening Joe took me out to dinner at J. J. Jamokes for a nice dinner. We got fried dill pickles for an appetizer (YUM), each had a salad, split a bowl of clam chowder soup (my favorite!!) and then I got bbq shrimp and chicken dish on rice pilaf. Joe got Cajun stuffed chicken. It had some sausage and goat cheese stuffed in it and he loved it. It was so nice to get out and have a nice dinner together!
Justin tried chicken and rice #2’s on Saturday and did well with the #2 food. He’s eaten most everything now. Monday Justin tried peaches and liked that a lot too. I was surprised because I’ve been reading that most kids do not like the peaches that much. He ate the whole jar.
He's starting to sleep without being swaddled!
I LOVE this photo of Joe and Justin!
Joey is cleaning Grandma's glass window. He did a good job too.
Joe and Justin hanging out.
I forgot what Joey and I were doing here but we were playing around. Here is him starting to laugh.
Grandma holding Justin. I love how this one came out too!
Justin is already trying to take over Joey's toys! LOL
Me holding Justin!
Me with the boys!!
Joey helping me with dishes!Joey’s getting so big. He doesn’t use a booster chair anymore and he’s been sitting on his butt on the big chair in the kitchen. All these little things are really such big things. Our babies are growing up!!
Sunday 2/18
We pulled the jumparoo out for Justin this weekend. When we started to put Joey in it when he was small, he just sat there for the longest time. When we put Justin in it for the first time he immediately started to jump up and down and LOVED it. He figured that out right away. It’s one of his favorite toys right now. Now if he put him in it he jumps so high we can hear him springing up and down from another room! LOL.
Justin fell asleep in my arms.
Justin in the jumparoo!
Hey mom, I love it in this thing! I can bounce up and down!!!I can’t remember if I said it already but we sold Justin’s swing. He never used it like Joey did so we decided to just get rid of it now and save on the space in the living room. Now we have room for the jumparoo.
FYI - This is the other part of the entry!! This was written on 2/20
February 2/20
In other news today is Tuesday and today is the big V day. No, I’m not talking Valentine’s day – I’m talking Vasectomy day. Joe’s taken the leap and we decided we are done with kids. If I could have 100 more like Justin or Joey I would. Both kids were such AWESOME babies, but I’m not pushing my luck anymore than I should. Two kids is our limit. We have dreams of the big house and we are saving like crazy for it. Two kids have us stretched thin as it is with daycare costs. If I were to have another, I’d have to go part-time or stop working because we’d be paying over $900 every two weeks with three in day care. I couldn’t afford that! Joe agreed, that after all the stuff I went through with the kids births, that he was man enough to have the vasectomy. I didn’t want to be on birth control for over the next decade and I didn’t want to get my tubes tied because I’ve read about a lot of complications from having it done, so this was our option. I know Joe was a little worried about possible complications so we’ll see how it is when all is said and done.
This may seem like kinda a random post.
I honestly think I may have a seasonal depression disorder. I have never wanted spring to come so badly in my life. It’s been so cold outside lately – in the teens and below that and I’ve been miserable! Grandma saw a robin outside and I got excited just at the possibility that I’ll see a Robin soon. That’s the first sign of spring and I can’t WAIT for it to come!! Other crazy things – we were in Walmart and they have their gardening department in full swing. I nearly got HIGH on the smell of pesticide and bagged dirt. OMG I nearly fell over in ecstasy when I smelled it!! In fact I needed to go back to that side of the store to get something and I almost wandered a few isles down just to smell it again! How crazy is that? I’m waiting for the crocus to peep through the dirt. I’m waiting for the tulips to bloom!! AND it was 40 degrees last night and it smelled soooooooo good outside, like things were thawing! I opened the windows in the house!!!!!! Joe even agreed that it was nice to have the windows open! I can not wait for spring to come! I can finally walk outside and take walks with the family. We can take the kids to the park. I heard the birds chirping the other morning and it made my heart sing! I can’t wait for the leaves to start to bud on the trees. I can’t wait for more sun, the smell of rain and worms and the snow to melt, especially to melt that last huge snow pile where the trucks plowed all the snow into a huge mound!! I know it sounds so funny but spring is my favorite month and after the long winter, I just can’t wait for it to come.
Time goes by so fast anymore. I think going from one child to two was harder than going from no children to one! At least with one child when that child naps, you can nap. You can manage one child. With two children it’s almost like each parent has to take one – and I take Justin and Joe gets Joey. When one naps the other is almost always up so you don’t have the luxury of taking a nap unless one parent watches the child that is up and one parent goes down with the one that is taking a nap – that is how we have managed extra sleep lately. Justin has been waking about 3 times a night. He goes down at 8pm, wakes at 12am, 3am and 5am. Then he’s up for good at 6am, like clockwork, every day! It will be nice when he starts to sleep longer in the night time. Justin likes to be held and then you have to manage a toddler who wants everything right now all the time. It’s sometimes frustrating. Then trying to manage a somewhat clean house on top of it all is nerve-racking! My house, which used to be quite clean almost always, is not too much anymore. I can tell it’s bothering Joey because he’s used to things being quite tidy, and sometimes he makes comments on the messy house. For instance, yesterday I was in the process of removing some articles of clothing from his closet because they were too small and I was doing this in snippets of time here and there. When Joey went into his room and saw the pile of clothes he ran downstairs saying to Joe, ‘What is going on? What is going on? Why is there are pile of clothes in my room? Why is it so messy?’ He wanted me to fix his messy room! He’s so used to picking up his room from the toys, that he didn’t like the fact that I messed it up!
Photos from Tuesday 2/20:
Another of Justin in his Jumparoo
Joey doesn't use a booster seat anymore to eat!! Man is he growing up!
Justin hanging out in his bouncer.
Joey and his spongebob robe!My Aunt Jennifer brought over three bags of boys clothes for us since she’s having their last child, and it’s a 4th girl. That was very nice of her. There were a lot of really nice clothes in the bag, and whatever was too small for Justin I’ll be giving to Lori, since she’s the only friend I know that is having a boy. So she’ll be getting quite a LARGE bag of clothes from me. I’ve already sent three boxes of clothes to Caroline that had unisex clothes in it and pregnancy clothes. I firmly believe in giving to friends and family – especially since my good friend Melissa gave me sooooo much great clothes from her son Nick! I would say 80% of Joey’s wardrobe is from what Melissa gave us and we are so thankful, so we’ve paid that nice deed forward and are sharing our clothing and baby items with our friends as well.
Joe was just asked to be a groomsmen in one of his friends Travis’s wedding come July. So now I have a goal – to lose all the rest of my weight by July. So I have 20 lbs left to lose before I’m back to goal. That gives me 5 months, 4 pounds a month. I hope I can do it! THEN Joe has promised to take me a to a really nice restaurant called Coach Insignia in the Detroit Renaissance Center for our 5 year wedding anniversary in September and it’s a very very fancy restaurant so I want to buy a new dress and I would very much prefer it to be in a size 10 if possible so we’ll see!!
Joe and I started a new tradition last night (Mon 2/19) – Pizza night! I received a really healthy, low fat pizza recipe from my online friend Marci and we made a regular cheese pizza last night with mushrooms and pepperoni and we made a bbq chicken pizza last night. They were soooo good. The crust was made out of whole wheat flour, and the sauce was homemade. Joey didn’t like it but he can deal with it. I’m sick and tired of dealing with his picky eating. The pizza was really good and Joe and I think it would be much healthier to make our own each week. I mixed together the dough and Joe hand tossed it and spread it out. I made the sauce and he put it on the pizza and put all the toppings on it. I think it reminded him of the days long ago, when he was in college and used to work at Pizza hut during the summers! Anyhow we loved having our own pizza night and I think we are going to do this every week from now on and it allows Joe to have leftovers to take to lunch the next day. The whole wheat crust was so filling Joe could only eat two or three pieces. Normally he can eat almost the whole entire pizza!! Joe also has been trying to eat better lately – I guess I’m rubbing off on him. I’m not trying to get him to eat better purposely. I’m just eating better myself and I think he also wants to eat well. He’s been buying less pop and chips, eating more fruits and veggies and yogurt and he looks better since he’s been eating better. It’s funny how your kids will start to eat what you always eat or drink. I always drink water because it’s good for you, has no calories and taste’s good. Joey also loves water. What three year old requests water?
FYI: Part three of this post written 2/24:
Here I am blogging again on a weekend trip home. Normally we go home on Sunday night but this time we are going home on Saturday night because a HUGE line of snow storms are expected to hit us late tonight and all the way into Monday. We have an hour and a half drive home and didn’t want to have to worry about driving home in it tomorrow night, so we just packed up and left at 10pm on Saturday night and that’s why I’m blogging now.
The last time I wrote above was Tuesday and I didn’t have a chance to post that entry so here is a continuation written from Saturday evening.
Joe had his vasectomy and it went really well. He actually walked out of the surgical room to greet me and walked out to the car. I guess the non-scalpel vasectomy they make a small puncture and do the surgery that way so the downtime is one-two days only. No stitches, no knives, minimal pain – so that was nice. I took care of him a little on Tuesday but he really didn’t need or want any special care. He said he really felt ok. He took Tylenol once and got on with life (well he did enjoy a few cold beers on his days off).
Joey eating his snack, again sitting without a booster. I can't believe it still!
Another of Justin hanging out in his bouncer.Both Tuesday after the surgery and Wednesday morning we went to Big Boy for breakfast. Both kids were at daycare for the day so Joe could recover without having the kids at home. It was nice to go out to breakfast just him and I both days. We both had Wednesday off too. Wednesday I got sick and tired of looking at my messy house and went like a whirlwind through the house and started to clean it. It looked much better once I was done. Believe it or not, the house stayed clean all week long! Whoohoo!!
Wednesday we also made dinner for my friend Jen K. because she had her baby - a girl, Kerrigan Paige and she's such a cutie. Here are some photos from our visit!
Me holding Kerrigan. She's sooo tiny - 6lbs 12oz. She felt so light!
Jen, the proud momma!
Awwwww, soooo cute. She's adorable!Thursday I went to my parent’s house after work. I went to Weight Watchers and lost .5 lbs. Not too bad since I have been off plan for about 2 weeks now. I’m not sure what got into me but I’ve just been really burnt out and eating a lot and eating what I want. Something has got to give or the scale will go up! I need a big kick in the butt!
Friday we went up north to see Grandma. Saturday we took the kids to a toy tractor show in Caro, which is up by Grandma’s house. The kids were really well behaved. Joey loved looking at all the toys. One man was really nice and tried to give Joey a truck but Joey didn’t want it, he wanted something else. We apologized to him and explained he’s three and doesn’t really understand. He understood. We thanked him for being so nice! Joey ended up getting a toy dump truck and digger/tractor and they were only $1.00/piece! We were prepared to buy him the $14.00 combine he wanted, but nope, all he wanted were these $1.00 vehicles. Worked for us!! We got out of that toy show only spending $6.00 - $4.00 for admission for Joe and I and the other $2.00 for Joey’s two toys! LOL. I had Justin in the baby bjorn front carrying holder the entire time and people just loved talking to him. He’s quite a conversationalist at this young age. He loves to smile at people and engage them that way with his smiles. It’s quite cute!
Joey has been doing better at using the potty during the day. I’m not sure if he’ll be potty trained any time soon but we’re making progress. We now sing a potty song every time he uses the potty and it goes like this, “Pee Pee on the POT TAY, Pee on the POT TAY” and we dance and sing it. Joey likes the song so much he even sings it in the car! LOL. Then to get him to wash his hands, I now sing the song “Wash the germies down the drain, down the drain, down the drain. Wash the germies down the drain, ALLLLL Gone!”. He likes that song too!
This week at school Joey made a piggy at school. They did something like build a bear, but it’s called Noah’s Ark and they stuff animals instead. Joey picked the piggy, but he could have gotten a cat, bears, dog, or alligator. They stuff it and then place a star inside it and make a wish then seal it. He loves this piggy and we take it most places and he likes to sleep with it. We named him ‘Piggy the Pig’. Not really original but we like it!
For whatever reason, on Tuesday night Justin was up every two hours and I was relieved that I had Wednesday off because I was exhausted. Then after that, the rest of the week, he’s slept all night long. Joe couldn’t believe it on Thursday morning, then he did it the rest of the days too!!! It’s so nice to finally have a sleeping baby! Yay!
Justin this weekend started to really sit up on his own. About 90% of the time he will sit up and not fall over - minutes at a time. I can't believe it!!!!
Photos from Friday 2/23 :
Justin sitting up in his boppy!
Mom, I'm not doing too bad at this sitting up thing!
Joey, dumping cheerios with his dump truck.
Oops, I fell over...
Hi mommy (love this photo!).
Justin in his exersaucer. Love that bib :) He's almost starting to sit on his own. He can sit up for about 10 seconds without toppling over. He's eating peas, squash, applesauce, and pears now.
Justin and I. Justin didn't exactly look at the camera but oh well. See our new couch in green in the background (well kinda anyhow).... I'll take photos this week.
