Overwhelmed

This is too precious, I have to share: At lunch today, Will bowed his head, closed his eyes and prayed aloud, "Be with grandma's fish, I pray for Maggie's food, be with daddy when he's at work. amen."!!!! We are so proud and just overwhelmed with pure joy at this sight/sound. He was not told to do this which makes it all the more heartwarming. He saw Daniel bow his head, stopped and prayed for his food- of course, most of this is requests he's heard Daniel and I pray at one time or another- but taking it upon himself to pray aloud is still precious. We're not sure why he's praying for Grandma's fish, but he started doing this at bedtime when we ask if he wants to pray for anyone.
After his prayer, we told him good job, etc. and he informed us that poo can't pray. ?? The mind of a 3 year old!

The new fort

Will's G (Daniel's mom) bought him a tent complete with a tunnel and mini flashlight for Christmas. Will loves it! We don't actually call it a tent, but a fort, Will's new fort to hide from the bad guy. And in typical Daniel fashion, he created a monster fort made out of blankets and boxes surrounding the tent. They build forts all over the house now, but this is one of Will's favorites because his entire room is pretty much turned into one big fort.



the tunnel

 daddy can't quite fit

365 Project

I know a few photographers who did a 365 project last year and I really liked the idea so I decided to try it this year. Sure, I could've started last summer or whenever it was that I picked up on it, but a calendar year just works better in my mind. I take at least one picture every day of whatever we're doing and at the end of the day choose my favorites-- usually at least two-- one of each child. I think the women who inspired picked one per day, but I have a hard time narrowing it down. I don't have a nice SLR camera (yet) but am saving for one with hopes that I'll be able to catch Will even in motion (which is most the time). A few of my faves so far....

diggin for gold

 talkin

 beautiful

My mom is a blogger

If you know my mom, you know why this is a "blog-worthy" post for me. She barely reads my blog because she just doesn't have time to spend on the computer. Well, my dad has techincally had a blog for many many months but didn't blog anything. Over the Christmas break (yes, I meant to write about this awhile ago), my mom saw me updating mine and decided she wanted some posts on hers. So began the beginning of my parents' blog. I thought once I left town she would stop updating me, but surprised me with several posts over a couple days! Mom, now you don't have an excuse not to read my blog. :)

and so it begins

4 months old!

Maggie turned 4 months on Friday! So yes, she is one day shy of 4 months and a week but I didn't want to post until we saw the pediatrician. My appointment was Monday but due to inclement weather, the office was closed for two days. So we went yesterday for Maggie's 4 month and Will's 3 year check-up. We received a perfect report for both kids!!!! Thank you for your committment to prayer and praise God for answering!
We saw the nurse practitioner first and then the doctor and both said she is doing great and exactly where she should be at 4 months old. She's rolling (from belly to back and oh so close from back to belly), lifting her head, lifting  up on her arms when on her belly, grabbing things, gaining weight well, 'talking' very well and bearing weight when standing. I have to say I was very relieved to get this report! I was more concerned about her check-up this time than our other visits, not because I think she's behind, but because 4-6 months was when all the doctors said would be our jumping off point to know whether or not Maggie would require early intervention. But they said she's great!

When the doctor came in, I had Maggie pulled up into a standing position and the doctor said right away, "she's doing great keeping her feet down and holding her weight." She still said there's no way to know anything for sure and maybe Maggie will have a learning disability or speech delay but right now it looks like we're gonna get out of all this with no serious problems! She can't guarantee Maggie will get straight A's in kindergarten but she's right on par with where she should be and there's no reason to send her to a neurologist. She's still in the 25% for weight at 12pounds, 11 ounces and 75% for height at 24 3/4 inches. Will was 25% across the board- much smaller percentage for height than where we began in the 90's- he is 28 pounds and 36 inches. Both children got immunizations and neither were happy about it. 

And now for the knock-down-drag out-fight I had at the pediatrician's office: First I pulled into the parking lot to only 3 other vehicles. Great! I'm gonna get in and out quickly. Wrong. 30 minutes after my appt. was scheduled to start, they call us back. Of course getting weight and height take longer because there's two children to document. But seeing a nurse, nurse practitioner and pediatrican is bound to make this a longer ordeal than necessary. While I'm talking to the NP about Maggie, Will crawled under the table to hide from the bad guy. *Sigh, here we go. He didn't want to come out and when he finally did, he hit me! This has not happened in a LONG time, I almost didn't know how to react. Corner time is even worse in public than at home-- I was grateful for the NP's compliment-- she said he went into time-out well but it sure didn't feel like a compliment-worthy moment to me. She told me to hang in there, it gets better. 

After we finish with Maggie's exam, she checks him and I pick up baby girl. Then he uncharacteristically decided to be jealous of Maggie and very clingy; he wanted me to put sister down and pick him up. Gotta love the timing. When the doc left it felt like FOREVER before the nurse came back with the shots-- probably didn't help that both the kids were crying-- both tired and hungry. We had been there about two hours by this point, prime sleeping time for Maggie and Will was awoken early from his nap. Maggie was also quickly approaching her next feeding time but I was trying to hold off so she wouldn't be eating when the nurse came back with shots. I finally had all I could take of both kids crying and needing to be held, so I set Will down and got Maggie a bottle. Whew, at least one was calm. But then 'ol Murphy's Law kicks in and the nurse arrives minutes later. It gets worse: the nurse asks me to set Maggie in her car seat because I needed to hold Will for his shot. So what's harder, holding off a baby's meal or stop feeding in the middle of a meal? Will's shot must have been a tough one because he actually cried. A lot. The nurse took care of Maggie by herself and I couldn't console her since I was still holding Will but the nurse had work to do so I had to set sobbing Will down to pick up sobbing Maggie. I finish feeding her and listened to Will cry until we got a sucker which apparently provides much medicinal relief. This has probably been my most difficult mother-of-two-in action moment. It was a doozy!

More 4 month pics (all taken on the 7th):

 there she goes

 rollin'

 and rollin'

 and rolled but then I picked her up

because she looked terribly uncomfortable

Snow Day

First came the sleet then the snow and some more sleet. We had a 'snow day' yesterday but could name it ice day with a little snow mixed in. Will still had a lot of fun until he stuck his foot in the pool of melting ice (yes, we forgot to bring it in this year) so we came inside to change shoes and socks. But we got distracted by hot chocolate, feeding Maggie and nap time; he went outside later with daddy and built a small snowman.

It's blurry but you get the idea

Sweet little man

Last night when getting Maggie ready for bed, Will came into her room to say goodnight. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and said "I love you very much sister." Then he started to leave, came back to give her another kiss on her head and said "I love you sister, I love you very much." He then walked to the door and as he closed it slowly, said "goodnight baby. See you tomorrow, we'll play trains when you're bigger. Goodnight I love you very much." MELT my heart!!! Oh how I thank God that we're so blessed that our children have such a love for each other. Will is so sweet with Maggie and can be such a care taker with her and Maggie just adores him --when he talks to her she just smiles and laughs. Daniel and I joke that Maggie's happy unless left alone with him. She rarely cries with me but whenever left with Daniel she has these crying fits -- one time she was having a fit but calmed down when Will talked to her. I felt bad for Daniel when he told me this, but found it sweet she was consoled a little by her brother.

Last night I was removing our Target purchases from the bag and asked Daniel when he picked up a shirt, to which he replied, "I didn't. Will must have slipped it in there." So I asked Will this morning if he put the shirt in our cart and he said "Yes. It's for sister." (mmmhmmm) I explained to him that I don't buy brown-striped thermal shirts with orange dinosaurs for Maggie. He said "Yes." Funny thing is, it's a 2T but must be made large because it fit him and since it was on clearance for $3.50, I decided to keep it instead of spending that much in gas to return it. Score for Will.

Will's birthday party

Will's birthday was Monday, December 27th but we scheduled his party Thursday evening. Compared to years past, this was a very low key party for me -- no elaborate decorations, party favors or mounds of food -- just a cake, chips & dip, individual ice cream cups & ice cream sandwiches, a few balloons and some confetti. Well, my mom being the hostess she is, added in some candy & caramel popcorn because she, like me, doesn't really know how to do things too small scale. Will was introduced to all 3 Toy Story movies this year and loved them all, so that was our theme.

this was my first time working with fondant, so

it was an experience but turned out ok

 

  

 Notice the wardrobe change between presents.

My parents bought a Spiderman shirt that he insisted

on wearing immediately. Sorry for the blurry

pic below but it was too cute not to add

the aftermath

I LOVE party decorations, favors, food, activities and of course a cake all centered around one special theme. I just can't help myself! I think the 1st birthday is huge because well, firsts are a big deal to me, and because we learn more in our first year of life than any other year so it deserves a huge celebration-- if that's your thing anyway-- and it is mine. :)

His first birthday was a Curious George theme complete with a homemade banana-shaped cake for Will to dive into-- Daniel did a great job carving the cake into it's shape and icing it-- and a store bought Curious George look-alike (b/c they can't do him exactly due to copyright issues) pull-apart cupcake cake, lots of streamers, balloons tied down with bananas, CG stuffed animals and books as decorations, a time capsule, coloring station, pinata, banana bread favor bags (w/stickers and other little things) and named food. Yes, while planning his party I decided to have meatballs and thought it would be cute to call them monkey poo. So I appointed name tags to all the food! Sounds silly, but it has since become very popular at parties in my family (naming food, that is).

We also had a big 2nd birthday for Will because I wanted to celebrate his day at our home where his friends had a chance to attend (1st bday was in TN). Since Will was soooo into cars and trucks, we did a fire truck theme complete with a homemade fire truck cake (by me this time), firetruck toys and balloons as decorations, a 'town rug' for the kids to drive cars on, Firehouse Subs, chili with all the fixings, pasta salad, fruit and individual ice cream cups. I didn't name the food this time, mostly because I thought it was obvious-- Firehouse Subs is a chain around here. Favor bags included homemade sugar cookies in the shape of firetrucks, iced with each kid's name on it, a little water gun (to put out the fire, of course) some bubbles, tatoos, a fire safety coloring page and each child took home a plastic fireman hat as well. Then a real fire truck stopped by! The fireman let all the kids sit behind the wheel and climb into the truck, it was a lot of fun.

This year I held back because these parties can get very expensive and both weekends surrounding his birthday were holidays so the scheduling wasn't in my favor either. At any rate, we still had a theme, it was still a nice little party and we all had a great time!

Labor of Love

We gave Will & Maggie a swing set for Christmas and I thought the gift deserved its own post considering all the hard work that went into it. I've wanted to get Will a swing set for a long time because he loves playing at the park -- climbing, running, jumping. Daniel thought it was a good idea before but with a second baby on the way (and now here) he agreed it would be beneficial to watch Will from the kitchen while I fix lunch, etc. Maggie won't use it for a couple years, but it's still here for her.

I found an unbeatable deal on Walmart.com including free shipping with site to store. Daniel and our (good) friend, Brett picked up the boxes Christmas week and inventoried the pieces, put together the slide and ladder in one night. The following evening they finished everything else. Since they didn't start 'til after dinner, it was already dark and very cold! I brought coffee and hot chocolate to warm them up but it probably didn't help much. They worked and worked until about 1:30am. Lucikly none of the neighbors complained, but they weren't very loud until the very end when adding the stablizing piece. In fact, I peeked out the door to tell them to finish the following day b/c it was getting loud only to learn it was the last piece and they just wrapped up. Thanks so much to our friend Brett for helping!! Will loves it and I know one day Maggie will too.

 the slide-- Will's favorite part for sure

finished!

I knew it! He went straight for the slide

 he also very much enjoys the picnic table and has

said let's "drink, eat, play, play"

This is sure to keep our movin', groovin', Wild Will occupied and exercised for many hours! And one day, Maggie too. :)