Sippy Cup

11/18/09

**Warning: possibly TMI for some***

I have struggled with Parker nursing since he was five months old (although he never was fabulous to begin with). He never would nurse very long and we were often worried about his weight. I started losing my milk at one point but found some herbs that got us back on track. When I started teaching again I refused to give him a bottle since we had worked so hard to keep him nursing. He was so close to a year old I didn't want him to start having a bottle. I decided we would really encourage the sippy cup while I was at school and I would nurse him in the mornings and evenings. This worked really well.

The Friday of my first week I came home and Parker had four new teeth. he bit me so hard the next day I was bleeding. Every time he would nurse I would bleed. A few days later he bit the other side. That was the end of nursing! I think it is funny after working so hard to keep him nursing we had such an abrupt ending. (Although it wasn't really funny it hurt like heck!)

He finished up the breast milk from the freezer and is now on whole milk from a sippy cup and he does great.

Bath Time

11/15/09

Hayden asked me to take his picture. So I did. I feel very lucky that from birth my boys have liked bath time. I would hate to have to fight with kids everyday to get them to take baths. The only time it usually is a fight is if I tell Hayden he has to get out and he wants to keep playing.

Leaves are Falling

11/10/09

Lance was raking leaves and I decided to take pictures of the kids playing. Parker was okay at first but quickly got tired of Hayden and Brea covering him with leaves and then cried the rest of the time.

Halloween

10/31/09

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Usually we hang out at my parents for their party but this year we decided to go to Joe's brother's house for a party. We had lots of fun doing a spider craft, reading stories, eating donuts off a string, having a spooky dinner, and of course trick-or treating. I wish I took pictures of our fun dinner.

This is a cute bag I made for Hayden. I got the idea from the same place I get all of my ideas, my good friend Sharla. Check out her fun blog.

Joe decide that we needed to all be dressed up so we quickly changed the boys costumes and were characters from the Wizard of Oz. I was Dorothy. Parker was my puppy dog Toto. Hayden was a lion and Joe was the scarecrow.

These are all the Young cousins except Elsie was sleeping.

The guys posing for a picture. Ryan was an aphid to go along with his Erin as a flower and Sydney as a ladybug, too funny.

The boys had fun eating the donut off the string. When the men had a turn the all started fight that so and so was cheating.

Hayden and Sydney were so cute trick-or-treating together.

Playroom Dreams

I wish I had a house. It isn't horrible living at my parents' house. They have a nice big house but it just isn't mine. I want to have my things, my space etc. I can't wait until we get into another house. The thing i want more than anything in a new house is a playroom. I have always hated having toys in kids bedrooms. I think bedrooms should be for sleeping not playing. I have grand ideas in my mind for a playroom. Even if they aren't very realistic I can still have fun imagining it.

My brother-in-law and his family have the best playroom. It is so big and has lots of cute little doors that go into a crawl space. There is so much room for all the toys. Hayden loves to go play there. The last time we were there the Playmobil castle was set out. Hayden had so much fun playing with the knights and the soldiers.

10/8/09

I took the boys to Gardener Village to feed the ducks, get cookies and fudge and to see the witches. I had fun watching Hayden feed the ducks even though the ducks were not the least bit interested in eating the bread.

I don't have very many pictures of Parker because he is always in the stroller so I tried to get some cute ones of the boys but the lighting was really bad and I never could get them both looking at me at the same time.

Big Brother

9/11/09

Hayden is a great big brother (when he wants to be). Parker was sitting in his high chair with a few peas on his tray. Hayden decided he would help and stood next to Parker and as soon has he started getting low on peas he would add more to his tray.

Trick-or-Treating at UESP

10/30/09

Joe's work invites the employees' children to come trick-or-treat through the building. I like that we have more than one occasion to put the kids in the costumes because when you spend so much time making them or spending money I don't like to feel like it was all for only ten minutes.

Hayden loved getting treats from everyone one. Especially because they kept giving him more than one treat (this caused a little confusion the next night).


Parker on the other hand hated his costume. ?But he looked so cute and I worked so hard on his cute little box (my mom made the cloth part).

Every time we put his costume on this is what he did. So he was in it for less than 10 minutes in all the days combined.

Halloween at Little Gym

10/29/09

When I taught school I loved seeing all the kids in their cute Halloween costumes but I HATED dressing up. As a mom it is so fun to dress my children in cute costumes. I was glad Hayden got to wear his costume to a Little Gym. The went trick-or-treating to all the doors and sang all their cute songs for the parents.

Hayden did a great job singing his songs. Some kids never opened their mouth the whole time so I was happy to see my son sing them for the parents. He sang them for days before and after. He still sings them all the time.

Pumpkin Carving

10/26/09

Last year Hayden was still really young so we didn't attempt to have him carve a pumpkin. He painted his. This year I was excited to have him help scoop out his pumpkin. I cut the top off and opened it up. Hayden got one whiff and gagged. I told him to put his hand in and pull out the seeds and slime. He touched it with one finger and gagged again and said, "I don't like it." So he colored his pumpkin. I suppose we will try again next year.

Joe on the other hand had a great time carving his pumpkin. He made me a little nervous with the knife though.

Of course all Parker wanted to do was suck on his pumpkin.