Children’s Programs

I know I have mentioned this before, how weepy eyed I become whenever I watch any children’s program.  This time I am specifically talking about the Children's program that we watched at church the other night.

This time around it was a little different as my emotions were pulled in two different directions.

Half the time I was thinking that Bella should be up there, she should be able to enjoy putting on a Christmas program for her family and friends.  Would she be the child that was shy and just standing up there?  Would she be the child that was constantly waving at her parents the whole time?  Would she be the child that was proud of herself and singing every word and doing every action?

The other half of the time I was thinking that Oliver would be up there signing next year.  And the songs were simple and cute enough, I knew that if he had been up there this year he would already know all the words and actions.  He does pretty well with memorizing kids songs.

But pretty much the whole time I had tears in my eyes, just ready to spill over as I kept telling myself “Get it together Kristen, there is no reason to cry”.  “Eyes, dry yourself out, there is no reason to cry”.

I wonder if it will ever get easier.  I wonder what will happen next year when I am watching my son, starting to do all the things I wanted my daughter to be able to do.

Swimming Pool/Park

We went to a swimming park this past weekend.

Oliver had a great time doing just about everything.

Bella enjoyed the lazy river…go figure.

Outdoor Toys

Another week has gone by, here is what we have been up to.

Oliver’s Birthday is at the end of this month, he got one of his present to enjoy now, with it being so hot out.

Helping Dad set up his new water slide/swimming pool.

Bella got a new lounge chair so she could enjoy the outdoors without having to lay on the ground.

Oliver trying out his new pool in the just added freezing cold water.

It came with a boogie board to ride down the slide, he calls it his boat.

He has been enjoying the pool all week.  Even jumping in with his clothes on one morning.  Bella has been enjoying it too, except she has to have mom or dad get in the pool with her (therefore no pictures).  But she smiles every time she is in it!

And so does Oliver!

Happy Father's Day

Trying to get the kids to say Happy Father's Day today.  Not much luck...I think Bella actually spoke more than Oliver did in her video.

We love you Daddy!

We’re home

Isn’t it amazing that you are only gone for a week and yet it seems like your children have changed so much?

Oliver has become quite the little parrot, repeating everything that we say.  And Jesse has already slipped up.  Now every time something bad happens Oliver says “Darn it”.  Except it doesn’t quite sound like “Darn”, if you get my drift, and I’m not sure exactly which word he is trying to say.  We keep reinforcing “Darn”, hoping that’s the word he will choose, since we really can’t go back on the phrase now.

I’m trying to collect all our vacation photo’s before I overwhelm you with them.  So for today’s post I will show you what the kids and I were up to.

We went for a two hour walk and for about a mile of it, I let Oliver walk himself.  He did a great job staying on the path and would go between walking and running.  He was pretty cute to watch, and everyone we passed got a huge smile on their face when they saw him out walking.

Bella enjoyed herself too, in the luxury of being pushed in the stroller.

It’s an activity that they both enjoy, so when the weather is nice, looks like we will be out for long walks.

Neglected

This blog has been neglected as of late and it’s not going to get much better in the next couple of weeks.  I was trying to find a good picture of Bella for her class, and was noticing all the pictures I had taken the last few months that I was going to tell a story with and never got around to.

So I will try and do a condensed version in this post to catch you all up.

Here was a missing photo from our St. Patty’s Day Parade trip where we left Bella at home.

I purchased a sheet of sock monkey magnets and Oliver played with them for hours…definitely a worthwhile purchase.  Except now they seem to all be missing and every once in awhile he will say “monkey” while at the fridge.  Guess if I ever see them again I will have to pick up more.

When I made my polka dot shirt by painting dots…I had Bella all set up next to me and was going to have her paint along with me.  Except I ran out of paint.  So hopefully we can do this project again, as I think she would look cute in a crazy polka dot pattern that she could do herself.

Bella was sick for a good week before Jesse and I got sick.  At one point Jesse texted me and asked how things were going.  I sent him this picture.

Even sitting with Mom she was crying and crying…definitely not the best of days.

Notice anything different about this next picture?

Oliver has decided that this particular doll of Bella’s is now his baby.

What cracks me up is at times he will fuss and really want the baby.  He has to hold it and give it hugs.  He will even pretend to feed the baby, which as far as I know he hasn’t really seen us feeding a baby.

I went to Bella’s school to drop off some treats for her teachers and decided to pay her a visit.  They have been telling us that every morning she gets to go and swing before class…and she loves it.  I have no doubt that she does love it, except the day I was there and had a camera ready to capture her laughing and smiling…she was fussing and whining!

Let’s just say putting this particular post together happened all day long…not much time to myself to get things done today.  We did finally get news on what Bella’s kindergarten placement will be….so I should be writing up a post on that within the next couple of weeks.  Next week is teacher appreciation week, and since this year I am a room parent…I have a lot of things to get done for that.  In fact there is a banner I need to start working on as we speak.

Goodbye for now.

Another round

We have been hit by the sick bug again.  So far it’s just Bella, but she has some type of stomach bug that included throwing up all morning long.

After keeping everything down for 3 hours I attempted to feed her a little bit of something.

Oliver had decided to take all the stuffed animals out of the basket behind her chair and use them to lay on.

Looks pretty comfortable to me.  And a great place to be right by us and still have a good view of Sesame Street on the television!

Now let’s just hope Bella can keep the food down I fed her, and that the rest of us are spared.

Working Outside All Weekend Long

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend was going to be busy, and it was going to be spent outside.

First up was our garage sale.  At the last minute we managed to go through all our stuff and get some things pulled together to sell.  We also had some bigger miscellaneous items that we didn’t need anymore and had them out too.

Oliver helped get the sign ready for the sale.

The garage sale itself was kind of a bust.  We didn’t actually have very much time to sit outside, too much else to do.  We did post the bigger things on craigslist and sold most of the stuff that way.  As far as the little things, most of them are being donated.

Next up was Jesse’s project.  He ordered soil and picked up some grass seed to try and fix our damaged yard.  The damage was from 5 different projects.  The septic tank/city sewer project, the dead pine trees being removed, the circle drive being placed, 3 big oak/maple trees being removed, and the landscaping project.

Here was a picture taken when about half of the work had been done…so half of the soil pile at the end of our yard had already been dispersed throughout.

Oliver stayed outside with dad pretty much the whole day.  He did some coloring with sidewalk chalk and then got to ride along with dad as they compacted the soil.

The little bit of money we made from the garage sale/craigslist sales went to pay two college aged kids to take down two more dead pine trees in our side yard.  You can see them at work next to the truck in the yard.

Then both kids got to accompany mom to get some yummy food from their favorite restaurant Dairy Queen.  Oliver was in high heaven as he ate a ketchup packet and then got some blizzard treat.

I was also trying to show the complete mess that was Oliver.  He was full of dirt, sidewalk chalk, and food remnants.  It was straight to the bath after this.

On Sunday Oliver again had to be outside the whole day.  He was helping pour some dirt for Dad.

And even though this was mostly an account of the weekend through Oliver’s eyes, Bella was around too.  She got to enjoy lots of outside time in the swing and on a nice long walk with mom on Sunday morning.  She also helped Mom the whole time during the garage sale by keeping her company.

By Sunday she was a tired girl and spent more of the day inside.

Coloring

If you don’t go to my new website…you should.  Oliver and I created a t-shirt together.  Coloring Pages T-shirt

He was so very very very excited to color on these pages.  Lucky I saved the pages so I can print them out again at a later time.  Maybe to show his progress at a later date.

Why is it that none of my children will “model” the things I make for them?  Bella can’t help it and well Oliver is just too darn busy, or wanting nothing to do with the camera.  For most of the time I was trying to get a good shot of his new t-shirt he was either in the pantry cupboards….'

Or hiding behind the curtains…..

Not very photogenic.

And the box car is still alive and well.  Oliver really wanted Bella to take a ride with him…so we tried it out.  Let’s just say they didn’t make it very far for fear of tearing it, but they both laughed.

Where have we been?

I know we have been missing from this blog.

I took Bella into the doctor last week to see if she was sick, and to try and explain why she has been crying and fussing so much lately.  They couldn’t find anything wrong with her, but decided to try an antibiotic in case she was having an ear infection (there was some fluid in her ear).

I was busy with work all day Thursday and Friday of last week.

We did some family activities this past weekend which I will blog about.  I started the blog posts, but can’t seem to find the right words to finish them out. 

I started my allergy shots last week, and then wasn’t feeling the greatest.  I couldn’t tell if the allergy shots were to blame, or if I was getting sick again.

Last night I felt so horrible that it’s been confirmed I am officially sick again.  And since I’m sick of being sick, this time it seems so much worse!

So now I am just trying to cope and really bummed out because this week was spring break and I was hoping to do some fun activities with the kids and also get some things done for myself.  Seems like that won’t be happening now.

Words Everywhere

Oliver’s vocabulary is taking off!  It’s exciting to hear all the words he is saying, and he has even started to put together sentences.  He has been saying “Daddy at work” for awhile, but more and more he is putting strings of two or three words together.

The other day this was proving to be a challenge as Oliver and I headed to Target.  As we were going down the aisles, he would see something he recognized and be adamant that he needed it in the cart.  It was especially frustrating for him as we entered the food aisles.  As I was putting milk, bananas, ice cream, crackers, yogurt, etc. into the cart….he would say the names over and over and want to have them.

So at the end of the trip, in the front seat with him….was milk, Thomas the train toothpaste, deodorant, and a large container of animal crackers.  He was trying to hold onto all the items the best he could…I really should have gotten a picture of him.

At home he will wander off at times and be playing with his toys all by himself.  I figure he is starting to use his imagination.  Although it also usually means he has pooped himself.  I’m not joking…usually a few times a day.  Oh Oliver is off playing by himself so nicely, must be poop in his pants!

We had another round of riding in the box this weekend.  Bella got a turn, and Oliver had just as much fun pulling her around.

Or pushing if daddy wasn’t going fast enough.

And checking in on her to make sure she was okay.

Then once daddy stopped.

Oliver tried to pull her himself.

Then of course he got rewarded by getting some rides himself.