The Unfortunate Prune Incident

Yes, I have plenty of x-mas stuff to post about. We had a lovely time with family, the kids got great gifts, we ate good food, but first I must tell this tale.



So regular readers of this blog know that there have been a few posts in the past about the pooping abilities of my children. They don't really have difficulties in that area. In fact Leah's turd producing ability is profound. Knowing this, I should have thought twice when Leah munched down a snack of prunes last week. I think she had three, but would have eaten more.



I thought the prunes had worked their magic when Leah requested a trip to the potty while out shopping at the mall. I was wrong. Very wrong. The "magic" happened right in the middle of Leah's nap time. She had a serious assplosion which was major trauma for my potty trained girl. Needless to say Leah got a clean colon for Christmas.



Maybe they should put a warning label on prunes.

snowmen

Sorry I haven't posted much. We've been busy visiting family in Iowa. It's cold and snowy here.

the nativity

So I can understand that Christmas is a bit confusing for kids. I mean really, what is it all about. Jesus, Santa, cookies, reindeer, snow, presents?? Leah has taken in a bit of everything. My favorite statement from her lately when asking her about Christmas is "It's Baby Jesus's birthday!" I think mom will be making a cake! Here she is taking it all in.

more stolen photos

I didn't take these. Auntie Meagan did a few weeks back when she and Ryan visited along with their fancy camera. Auntie Bethany requested new photos, so here they are!

Chat

So this post isn't about my kids. It is about the wonders of technology. I have chatted on-line and used instant messaging but never as much as this week. For some reason, two days this week my mom and all three of of my sisters have chanced to be on g-mail at the same time. It's been a really fabulous, and somewhat amusing way to catch up. This afternoon we got the quite the laugh while Bethany was on her lap top and I was on the desktop chatting with Meg in Illinois and Abby in Minnesota. Made for an easy 4 way chat about a possible x-mas gift for mom and dad. I think mom felt a bit left out hearing all the beeping and typing and not knowing what we were going on about. Who knew we were so technologically advanced?!

I wonder what sort of technology Leah & Jonah will use to chat when they are our age?

Sit & Stand or Stand & Peek

One of Leah's favorite things to do it stand at the counter and watch me cook or help me cook. A lot of times that means sticking her fingers in whatever bowl I have out or sneaking a finger full of butter right out of the tub. Usually Leah stands on the chairs that belong with her kid sized table. I got so sick of running into them in the kitchen that I started putting them away. Well, Leah discovered the joy of re purposing her toys. Example below.




That's her trying to sneak a bit of her gingerbread house.

Jingle Bells

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is Christmas carols. I like that they are the songs you "put away" all year and haul out right after Thanksgiving just like the tree and decorations. Leah is thrilled that I all of a sudden have a new repertoire at bedtime. Her favorites are Jingle Bells and Away in Manger. She is now even identifying Jingle Bells in the background of commercials on TV!

The other thing I have noted about Christmas songs is how tough the words are for small children. Really does my two year old know what "yonder" means or "noel" or "deck the halls with boughs of holly?" Oh well, they are still fun.

This morning Leah serenaded us with her rendition of Jingle Bells. It went something like this.

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, one horse open sleigh, HEY!" (arms raised in glee at this part) "Jingle Bells Jingle Bells,one horse open sleigh, Old MacDonald had a farm with a cow EEI EEI OOO." It was great!

My Mellow Mushroom

So this blog seems to be filled with lots of pictures of Leah, I think it needs some of Jonah!

Thus far he seems to be a calm baby. He has earned the name "Mellow Mushroom" from me. He digs chilling out and watching what's going on. I'm sure he's just waiting till he's mobile and can be part of the action. He's thrilled when we sit down and talk nonsense to him. Then he's all smiles. I'm hoping that even when he's mobile, he's calm. I'm not sure I can handle two babies with Leah's energy level!

And here's the pics of our cutie pie.

Just a Trim

I have been debating for months about cutting Leah's hair. There was something about her white blonde silky tresses that I couldn't mess with. She actually sits for "hair dos" and shampoos. However, the longer her hair got, the more the ends were starting to collect jelly from toast & chesse from macaroni. It's no fun trying to get out sticky gray stuff from hair.

So at two years and 8 months old and I finally bit the bullet last week. My friend Angie agreed to trim up Leah's ends while we were visiting up in WI. Leah, armed with a sucker, was a pro. I don't think she moved a muscle during the whole process and was quite proud of herself when it is over. I hope the next one is just as painless. Oh and I didn't cry over her haircut since it really was just a trim and I think I am the only one who can tell she got a cut!

Stamina

I would like to say that Leah is officially suffering from the terrible twos. Actually I should say that I am suffering from the terrible twos. Suffering the joys of daily temper tantrums. I would like to know how small children determine just how long they can scream. Is is fun? Do they really think they will get what they want by screaming? Leah carried on for 90 minutes straight yesterday morning. She was set off by my not correctly helping her put her sock on. I'm feeling really at a loss of what to do with her and am truly amazed at her stamina for whining and crying. Yesterday I went ahead and put myself in a timeout. A timeout from listening to her scream.

I know that this phase will pass but I'm really not enjoying it while it lasts. It's just disturbing watching my cute & engaging toddler morph into a blubbering mess every time I say "no".

Over the River & Through the Woods

This past weekend we made the trek back up to Wausau to celebrate Thanksgiving & Christmas with Paul's family. It was a FULL weekend.

Some of Paul's family has made a tradition of heading out to one of the local tree farms to cut down Christmas trees. Paul is big scrooge and refuses to have a real tree, much less go to the woods and cut one down. Well, since for once it wasn't frigid over turkey day, I packed up the kids and joined them. It took a lot of borrowed hats, mittens, snowsuits & boots to keep us warm. I was ill prepared since we haven't had to brave cold temps much down here.

Anyway, it was fun. I think the dog had the best time. I loved the venture into the wilderness and Leah burned some serious energy. Oh and some nice trees were chosen. Unfortunately we are still looking at our pathetic fake tree. I thought about cutting one down, but there's no way Paul would have driven all the way from WI to MO with a tree strapped to the roof of the Benz.

to the trees!

the tall trees beyond the x-mas trees

Jonah all bundled up

the scary bridge over the creek

Leah with her cousins Nick & Stephanie

Another 1st for Leah - the NFL!

Yes, Leah got to attend her very first NFL game yesterday. Rams vs Bears. She has now been to see a professional hockey game, baseball game and football game. She behaves amazingly well! I don't think she really gets into the game itself but loves the music, lights, cheerleaders, and food. Oh the food! When Leah walked in the door yesterday afternoon I asked her what she saw. She replied with, "I had ice cream!". Paul quickly added, "we weren't supposed to tell mom that part!" Of course Paul spoiled her with cotton candy and soda too. I hope the food was enough to convince her to want to go again since I enjoyed a quiet day with Jonah. I have to give credit to Paul for taking her out to a big event on his own all day. He was pooped when he got home.

Rocking Out

So Leah attended her first Motley Crue concert last night via the VH1 Classics channel on our TV. I think I must have gone to listen to too many bands while pregnant because she loves rocking out to loud music. That or she inherited her love for loud music from Paul. He says Motley Crue is his favorite band ever. This is just a short clip but Leah jammed out for close to two hours. Jonah was pretty enthralled with it as well. If these kids insist on listening to music at the volume level their father does I'll surely be deaf here before too long.

Photo in Need of a Caption

This photo cracks me up! Really, my kid cracks me up. This photo needs a good caption. Anyone have ideas?

3 months

Seems quite crazy that it's already been three months since Jonah joined the family. I keep thinking that Jonah reminds me so much of Leah as a baby but looking at these pics of them both at 3 months makes me realize how different they look!

Jonah @ 3 months

Leah @ 3 months

Mommy has a headache

So between Jonah wanting to be wide awake for the day at 5:30 am and Leah refusing to take a nap in the afternoon, I am not getting much sleep. Yesterday my lack of sleep resulted in a nice headache. Leah and I had this conversation about it.

Leah: "mom, mom, mom, mom"
Me: "Leah please be quiet. Mommy has a headache."
Leah: "mom, mom, mom"
Me: "Leah can you please be quiet for five minutes"
Leah: "No I can't"
Me: "Why not?"
Leah: "Because I want to talk to you"
Me: "What do you want to talk about?"
Leah: "Daddy doesn't like squash, but he will try it."

Oh the joys of conversing with a two year old.

Autum Antics

I haven't mentioned much here about our house or our neighborhood, but it's a pretty nice place. There are a whole mess of kids that live around the cul de sac that play outside in the evenings. We have had unseasonably warm weather this week and the kids decided that making a huge leaf pile to jump in would be fun. Now, they decided that underneath the small tree in the front yard was the perfect place for the pile. They quickly realized however, that the small tree didn't offer quite enough leaves for a good pile. Smart kids that they are, they came up with a fabulous plan. The boys got their rakes and snow shovel and ran off to their yard to fill up leaf bags. They hauled about 10 bags of leaves from their back yard to the neighbors front yard. I'm sure their parents were thrilled! Anyway the pile was huge and all ten kids, including our little Leah jumped in just as the sun set. They then threw leaves in the air and screamed and danced and did belly slides into the leaves. It was a lovely reminder of the abandon of childhood. All the parents standing around really wanted to jump in too.

I tried to recreate a big leaf pile for Leah last night but it wasn't the same without the other kids. Made for some decent photos though.

Leah Finger Toes

first off - Leah took a nap today!!!!

So for as long as Paul and I have been together I have been disturbed by his "finger toes". I don't know that his toes are especially long but they have disturbing powers. He is able to pick up the remote control off the floor with his toes and has been know to pinch me under the covers with his freakish digits. Strange, I know. Well we discovered a year or so ago that Leah had inherited this odd trait when she started picking up her pacifier with her toes. And this is what she did last night at dinner. No, she didn't manage to get any bites in her mouth, but she did manage to give us a good laugh.

This is finger toes plus her favorite funny face!

Will Power

So I feel like I am involved in a serious battle of wills around our house these days. I know I should probably be thankful that I have a strong willed child who knows what she wants but when I am the one testing her will, it's not pretty.

The biggest battle now is that Leah is refusing to take a nap. She has taken one nap in the last 5 days and that was after a 90 minute battle to get her to rest. Now really, I can get over her not napping if she will stay in her room and entertain herself for at least an hour. It's the playing in the bathroom, smashing the light in the spare room, undressing and putting on her swimsuit in November that I'm not loving. I guess she is entertaining herself though. I am just sad that my two hours of peace and quiet to regain my sanity each day are over. The only plus is that last night she went to bed at 7:15.

Tantrums are on the rise as well. Leah screamed for an hour last week since her mean momma refused to give her anymore juice. Today I dragged her (literally) kicking and screaming out of the mall. She wasn't ready to go. Some lady in the parking lot patted me on the back and said "bless you momma" when she saw me wrangling my two year old over my shoulder while Jonah was in the sling on my chest.

I'm not sure why I am blogging about this. I feel like I am whining. Guess is just documentation of what life is like this week.

Oh and a funny Leah story to end on a better note! We took the kids along while we were voting yesterday. Leah did pretty well but REALLY wanted to run around. All was well until we were filling out our ballots and she tripped. Tripped right into the voting stations and nearly took out three of them. Paul hurried to straighten them up before the domino effect happened. We were quite the sight.

More Halloween

I guess I was in a candy induced coma this morning because I forgot to post about the funniest thing Leah did last night. She as very into her candy and decided that Sweet Tarts were her favorite. She kept telling us "they're not to sour, they're good". Eventually I told her that the one in her hand was the last one for the night. She asked many more times but didn't open it. I didn't realize that she had been stock piling a whole stack of "last ones". When I took her bunny costume off to put her in her PJ's ten little packets of sweet tarts fell out. She was taking them out of the candy basket and storing them in her costume for her friends for later.

Halloween

Well we had quite the night! It was amazingly warm here and quite the change from Halloween festivities in Wisconsin where kids have to wear snowsuits under their costumes to stay warm! We prepped Leah all week for "trick or treating" and she was thrilled to put on her bunny suit. We got Paul and Grandma set up around the fire pit in the driveway to hand out candy and gramps and I hit the neighborhood with Leah. She figured out the deal pretty quickly and was soon saying "say trick or treat to more people!" We made it to quite a few houses but headed home when she refused to walk anymore and wanted to take her costume off. We spent another hour handing out candy to trick or treaters and enjoying the fire. Jonah was a good sport too and slept through trick or treating.

Tall Grass

Almost 5 years ago when my parents moved into their place they started working on restoring some of their land to natural prairie. This time of year the grass is quite an amazing thing to see. It it so tall it feels like you are driving through a tunnel when you pull up the drive way. It makes me wonder what the country side looked like when the pioneers came to Iowa back in the day. My dad says that back then you could drive from Chicago to Des Moines without seeing a single tree. Everytime I go for a walk out back at their place now I wonder when a buffalo is going to come sneaking out! (well not really anymore since my dad informed me of the regulations and types of fences one must have to actually raise bison) Anyway, I love the tall grass and finally got Leah to venture in it this fall! She is learning to love the "tickle grass" too.

New Blog

So over the weekend my sisters, mom, and I decided that we need a family recipe blog. Here it is.

Slap The Turkey/

Fun times at the Grandparents

This past weekend Leah, Jonah and I headed up to my parents for a much anticipated visit while Paul was in New Orleans for a business trip. Leah and I even made a paper chain to count down the days until we go to go! Anyway, Leah had a fabulous time and it was very nice for me to have other people around to entertain the munchkins. Leah is still talking about the projects she did at grandma & grandpa's and her auties & Peter & Ryan!

making spooky spiders!

helping grandma make breakfast

Jonah chilling with grandma

"A Nightmare in My Closet" with grandpa

(this photo deserves a post of it's own)

on a walk to see the pond & where the bees live

What a difference a year makes!

Yesterday was what will hopefully be our playgroup's annual visit to Daniel's Farm and Greenhouse in St.Peters. Honestly, looking at these photos I can not get over how much Leah has changed from a year ago. Of course, I guess lots has changed since then since Jonah was not even a twinkle in our eye then! I know that everyone says your kids will be grown before you know it and it all goes to fast. Well, it really does.