Elsa's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Elsa's 3rd birthday this past weekend!  She had a BLAST!  Although, next year, I won't plan it for memorial weekend as some of her friends were out of town.

 She has been talking about her "pricess par-ry" (princess party) for over a month now.  Every day we would show her on the calender when her party is.   When she woke up on the morning of her party, she wished each of us (including my sister and her kids) Happy Birthday.

Here is her birthday cake.  I tackled cake pops.  They are much easier than they look to make.  I had wanted to have a lot more on the cake, but had several cake pop casualties when frosting them.  Of course, I had to eat those :)  But, I will definitely not go into cake decroating.  With how long it took me to make the cake, I think I would only make about $3/hour.  On a side note, I made more cake pops the following week for her preschool class and it went MUCH better.

She had five friends here:  Kate, Sydney, Ava, Jackson, and Lauren.

The kids painted flower pots and we planted flower seeds.

Jackson was such a good sport with being the only boy.  He did insist on a non-princess plate for lunch.

Elsa got lots of presents and had so much fun opening them.

I love how she kept her helmet on for gift opening :)

The expression on her face when everyone sang her happy birthday was priceless.  She just got this huge bashful grin

Showing us her new bike

Poor chet was wiped out!  He fell asleep within 5 minutes in the swing. I may need to remember this for times when he fights his nap.

I am still so amazed at the girl she is becoming!  She can be quite the challenge as she tries to exert her independence.  We are definitely learning to pick our battles, but the "tantrums" have decreased.  Instead, it seems like she does the opposite of what we want her to do.  She will yell "NOOOO Thank you"  (I think the first time she said that Aaron and I chuckled and said "well, at least she was polite").

She loves watching Super-why's on PBS

She says the darndest things!  I came home from a run the other day and she was just waking up.  She asked "mom, you go running?"  I said "yes, mommy went running"  Then, she said "you run slow, not fast".  I had to laugh.  Then, when I took my running jacket off I said "momma's hot".  She then came over to me and said "I blow you off".

Her mind is a sponge.  I am constantly amazed at how intuitive she is at such a young age.  Although sometime it can be embarrassing.  She pulled a tampon out of my purse when we were eating out and said she wanted lipstick.  Of course, all the people at the nearby tables had to hear.  At least they got some free entertainment!

She is so polite.  Whenever we pass someone on the street or if they are waking by, she will greet them with a "hello" and inquire about what they are doing.

She loves anything involving princesses and she is obsessed with finding bugs (can you find two more opposite interests)

Her favorite songs to sing:  Row Row row your boat, God Bless America (which she belts out in a high pitch), you are my sunshine

Still loves her brother :)  It melts my heart.  She shares her toys with him and loves to explain how things work.

She has the most infectious smile and laugh and she does it often.

Potty training went much better than I thought it would.  She still wears pull ups at night, but for daytime (including naps) she wears underwear.  She has had a few accidents, but it is usually when she is busy playing and forgets that she has to go.  We try to remind her, and that seems to help....most of the time.  Poor Aaron was busy feeding Chet one day and she kept holding her crotch.  Aaron asked her no fewer than three times "Do you have to go to the bathroom?"  She replied no each time.  Then, she disappeared and he heard the water running in the bathroom.  He went to see what was going on and it was not pretty.  She had pooped her pants and had taken them off (which made a HUGE mess) and was trying to wash them out in the sink (at least she was TRYING to help).  Aaron quickly picked her up and put her on the toilet (with one hand since he still had Chet).  So, there was poop all down her leg, on the floor, in the sink, and all over the toilet.  Oh, and not to mention on her hands.  Gross.  He put Chet down, cleaned up the mess, and immediately put her in the bath.  Aaron is such a trooper!

She loves being outside playing in her park (her name for the play set we got for our backyard), riding her scooter, riding her bike, watering flowers, playing with her friends.

She is currently in the summer program at the Montessori and goes swimming three days a week.  She comes home absolutely exhausted from playing so hard.  This fall she starts preschool at the Wisconsin International School and will even start taking Mandarin!  I still think it is funny that she can hardly speak English and that they have 20 minutes of foreign language each day!

I can tell I need to update my blog more because I am always thinking of things to write and now I can't remember any of them.

I love being a mom

Even though it is more challenging than any of my previous endeavors, I find so much joy and contentment in realizing my true calling...motherhood

Chet at 4 months old

Chet continues to grow like a weed!  He weighed in at 17 pounds and 9 oz (91st percentile) and was 27 inches long (97th percentile)!

Laughs and smiles all the time!

So so SO close to rolling over.  He gets so frustrated on the ground, wanting to move about.  He can scoot quite well on his back.

Wears 6-12 month clothing and Size 3 diapers

He loves going for walks and watching his sister and her friends play

He is quite ticklish on the torso and on the feet

We tried rice cereal the other day, but are going to wait because the tongue thrust pushed every drop of food out!

He is sleeping from about 9pm until 5ish fairly consistently, but naps are still a challenge.  He will fall asleep at the end of a feeding and then as soon as we lay him in the crip he instantly wakes up.

He has started to grab onto teething rings and rattles much more firmly.  We have this rattle from Elsa that goes around his wrist and he is thoroughly entertained when he shakes his arms around.

Has his hands in his mouth and chews on them ALL.DAY.LONG!  Poor guys has chaffing from chewing on them so hard.

Now that the weather is nice, he enjoys being outside and going for walks.

We just love the little man to pieces!

March Madness

I am so glad March is over! 3 of the 4 of us have been so sick! Fortunately, Chet has remained healthy. How, I do not know. I had what I think was pneumonia. Elsa had a fever of 103-104 for 6 days and a trip to the ER. Aaron also had a fever/chills/hacking cough. Pfew! Fortunately, every one appears to be on the mend. But, despite sickness, life still had to go on. It is really miserable trying to parent and keep kiddos entertained when you feel like crud!

At the peak of me being sick, I took Elsa to Disney on Ice with our neighbor Kristin and her daughter, Kate. The girls had so much fun! Will definitely do it next year!

Elsa really wanted this toy that spun around and had streamers that flung around...visions of her poking her or her brother's eyes out made me recommend this toy. BIG mistake. I think we are all going to suffer from seizures from the flashing lights Elsa likes to point in our eyes.

Then, Elsa went to a birthday party at Sir Bounce A Lot. We have one adventurous toddler on our hands! She didn't want to do the slide/castles intended for her age/height. She loved the fast slides and the castles designed for kids twice her age. She wore me out! But, bless her heart, she had so much fun! When all the other kids were eating pizza and cake, she had to be on the go. I think this photo represents the only two minutes she sat down. And, now that I think about it, she got sick about three days later...all those darn germs all over the place!

I can't remember when Aaron took this picture (I love seeing pictures he takes of the kids when I am at work), but I love how Elsa covered up her doll!

Easter 2012

So, unlike Christmas, I was much better with taking photos this holiday!

Can someone explain to me why Easter involves a cute furry animal that doesn't lay eggs, but yet eggs are apart of Easter? I will need to find a way to explain that one in a few years!

On Saturday, Elsa colored and decorated 18 eggs. She had so much fun!

We kept asking "who's coming tomorrow?" She came up with the following answers: Santa, Gramma, Jackson, Papa.... Finally, she mentioned the Easter Bunny and Jesus.

On Sunday, she woke up and was so excited to see her basket loaded with puzzles, flash cards, a swim suit, an apron, candy, etc. Once she looked through her basket, we did an Easter egg hunt inside our house. She had so much fun, but was sidetracked with each egg. She kept wanting to eat the M&Ms and gold fish in the Eggs. I also put some money in some eggs and she was excited to put it in her piggy bank.

Then, we took the kids to mass and they did so well! I have to say I was quite disappointed in how people dressed for Easter. The most important event in Christianity and people were wearing jeans!

We went out for brunch at a nearby golf course and ate WAY too much.

Then, prior to changing into play clothes, it was self portrait time.

I was excited to get some pics of the kids. Elsa loves her brother.

And, Chet is super close to being able to roll over!

Chet 3 Months Old

Chet turned 3 months old on April 3rd! After I took this picture, I gently rocked him in the chair and he was laughing hysterically! I love to hear him giggle!

Here is a picture of Elsa at three months. I think they look so much alike!

He is a completely different baby than last month! He is so much more content and enjoys play time on the floor. It seemed like he never wanted to be left alone last month, now he enjoys looking at himself in the mirror on the Einstein floor mat and listening to himself coo and laugh.

Nighttime is still rather inconsistent. He has gone from 8:30pm -6am a few times on his own, but will occasionally wake up and need a feeding. Often, he will go back to sleep until 8am. It is funny, because he sleeps great in his crib at night and will often fall to sleep on his own with no issues. Naptime is different story. He will scream in his crib, but put him in the car seat or bouncy seat and he instantly falls asleep. I am not quite ready to start sleep training with him...maybe next month.

Nicknames: Chetman, Bug, Tyke

Diapers: Size 2

Clothes: 6 months

Loves watching his sister! I can't wait until these two can start playing together!

He likes watching TV. Even if we have him facing the other way, he will find a way to wiggle around to watch it.

I love this photo of them. I explained Elsa's obsession with picking sock lint from between her toes. Now she helps Chet with his hygiene.

He is smiling much more regularly now and has started to laugh. The other day, Elsa was waving her metallic pink pom-pom around and Chet was laughing so hard. I wish I would have videotaped it because it was hilarious!