For the first time ever...

For the first time ever, Alison (begrudgingly and with much protest) let me give me her a little hairdo today. Five hours later, it is still in her hair. It was a proud mommy moment.

Fun at the farm and park.

I spent a long weekend with the kids at Nana and Papa's farm near Luverne. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Alison enjoyed spending time outside in her pajamas (which I've since tried to explain to her we can do at the farm but NOT at home). Alison spent much of the weekend enjoying the wide open space to run, tracking down baby kittens and watching "bireflies" (aka fireflies) at night. Christopher enjoyed sitting in the porch and looking at the big kitties.

When we got back to St. Paul, it was business as usual and we had to make our nightly walk down to the park.

Alison tried pushing Christopher in his stroller:

It's pretty serious business in her blue swing and blue airplane:

Even lil' Christopher enjoys the swings!


It's hard to believe that summer is half over already. I need to slow down and enjoy these beautiful days and wonderful times with my lil' ones.

We're still here!

The kids are growing by leaps and bounds. We're having lots of summer fun. Alison has a sand/water table in the backyard that she loves. She also loves blowing bubbles and bouncing her ball. Christopher loves watching her. He still has no teeth and really has no desire to crawl (as this would require him to actually stay on his tummy for more than three seconds without crying).

We have a new camera now so here are some new pictures.

Alison LOVES having her little brother in her bed with her:


Morning playtime - Alison requests "Baby Chris in bed too with toys" every morning when she wakes up:

8 months old already!

Alison helping her daddy wash the boat:

Me and the kids:

Picture update

I've been lazy and haven't posted any recent photos of the peanuts. Here are some of the latest and greatest.

(Please note that these may be the last pictures for a while. Alison took it upon herself to dunk my camera in her swimming pool last weekend. I was able to salvage the memory card, but let's just say that we need to make a visit to Best Buy soon to go camera shopping.)

Alison loves washing her baby brother. She says: "I wash too! I wash too!"

She also loves washing dishes. I hope this trend continues in the years to come.

Alison is such a big helper. At breakfast, she says, "I feed baby too!" and hops off her chair to help feed baby Chris. At least half of the food actually makes it into the poor lil' guy's mouth.

A little boy gets thirsty after all that baby food. Time for a drink of water:

Can you believe Christopher is seven months old already!?

And yes, he really IS that cute...

This little girl LOVES her baby brother. After Chris' bath, Ali likes to cuddle with him up on mom and dad's bed.

Mommy confessions.

I have a few recent mommy confessions. There are many more, I'm sure, but these are the ones that have stood out in my mind the past week.

#1:
We went through the bank drive-through the other day. The teller must have saw Alison in the backseat because, when she returned the little deposit slip receipt thing, she also sent along a Tootsie Roll.
This is the first time that my kid has gotten a little treat like this.
I love Tootsie Rolls.
Alison has never had a Tootsie Roll.
Alison didn't see me take the Tootsie Roll out of the little canister thingy.
It's really too hard for her to chew anyway, right?
Man, I really want that Tootsie Roll.
Quick, mommy....think. Diversion.
"Oh, Ali...look out the window! There's a big black doggie! Do you see the doggie?"
(Darling child looks out the window).
I quickly unwrap the Tootsie Roll and shove it in my mouth.
Mmm...mommy deception.

#2:
We went to a three-year-old's birthday party on Saturday. We left with a goodie bag for Alison filled with bubbles, sunglasses, and M&Ms.
Let's just say Alison never knew about the M&Ms.
She sure is enjoying the bubbles and sunglasses.
I sure did enjoy the M&Ms.
(Is there a pattern here?)

What a beautiful day.

Today was ECFE day. Alison loves her "class". For the past two weeks, I have left both Alison AND Christopher with the teachers while I depart for a joyous 1.5 hours by myself with the other moms in parenting class. Alison loves it and doesn't even care that I leave anymore. Christopher also seems pretty oblivious that I leave him. He hangs out with his little buddies Wilson (10 days older than Chris) and Elliott (not quite 2 months younger) and all is well. (I'm pretty proud of myself for separating from Chris...I've made great strides since Ali was an infant!)

Today was a picture-perfect day in my book. Sunshine, a little breeze and mid-to-high 70s for temps. I enjoyed the post-nap afternoon outside with the kids. Alison blew bubbles and hosted a tea party. Christopher sat there, smiled and enjoyed watching his sister. Noticed how I said "sat there"? Yes, he's sitting on his own now! He started a few days ago and is now getting pretty good at it. A few tumbles backward or sideways now and then, but each day Chris is getting stronger and stronger. What an awesome lil' man.

Slimey.

Yes, we're still here. Although not much new has been going on, it seems as if I've been busier than ever these days keeping up with the peanuts which has left little time to update this blog.

The kids are both sick with colds. This time, I can't blame the germs at ECFE or the Target shopping cart or the legos at the mall. Instead, I got it first last week. Don't know where I picked it up, since I usually bathe in Purell at least five times a day. :-) Christopher's congestion started about three days later. A few days ago Alison drank out of Chris' sippy cup and sure enough, Alison woke with a "wunny nose" yesterday. Today, Bryant has it. Chris is hanging in there but Alison is a mess. Terribly watery and puffy eyes and a runny, stuffy nose. Everything in our house now has on it what I have termed the "two-year-old-has-a-bad-cold-slime". Chairs, books, toys, dishes, cupboards. She's a walking slimeball. And I won't even discuss what the arms of her shirts and jammies look like. (although she's really good about letting me wipe her nose, it gets so slimey so quickly that her arm has turned into a handkerchief.)

Was all of that TMI?? Probably. But I know most of you reading this are fellow mommies who can totally relate.

The good news is that we all have it at the same time. Go ahead, Alison, hold your brother's hand and give him a kiss. Go ahead, Alison, play with Christopher's little teething toys even though you just sneezed all over your hands. Go ahead, Mommy, and give your little ones a kiss. It doesn't matter because we all have it. And that, I have to say, makes life a little easier.

On a different note, my little baby Christopher turned 6 months on May 4th. He isn't sitting up on his own yet, but I think he'll get the hang of it in the next couple of weeks.

Seriously, can a lil' man be any more charming?

I took the next two pictures to prove, once again, that every single time I comb Ali's hair after bath and before bed, she wakes up with awesome bedhead: