Category: Family & Friends

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Cole Family & Friends Household

Vacation and Two New Teeth

Joe has a few days of vacation he has to take, before next month, so he is off for a few days this week.  I used to tell him, I wish I got a vacation and he told me when he gets a vacation, I get a vacation. 

He has been great!  He has gotten up with Ryan & Cole, while I slept in, made breakfast, done lots of laundry, fixed things around the house, and taken me out to dinner.  It has been really nice, and even though you never get a vacation as a mom, this has been the next best thing.  Thank you, honey.

In other exciting news, we are getting our carpet cleaned tomorrow.   We only have carpet upstairs in the bedrooms, hallway, and stairs.  We had new carpet put in a few years ago, and have never had it cleaned, so it was definitely time.  It will be nice to see it all clean again, but we have been moving furniture and trying to clean at the same time, so I will be glad when it is over.  We took down the co-sleeper, since Cole has never really used it. I think we are going to move the crib in our room tomorrow, and try to start working with him on sleeping in his crib, next to our bed. 

Finally, on Sunday, I felt Cole’s upper gum, and his two front teeth were breaking through.  They are about 1/4 of a way in today, so it won’t be long and my little baby will have two new teeth in.  🙂

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Activities Cole Family & Friends Ryan

Baby Shower

My sister who is expecting her first baby in April, had her baby shower today.

We started the day off with taking Ryan and Cole to a friend’s 3 year old birthday party at a bouncy castle place.  Ryan had fun bouncing with Dad, and Cole did surprisingly well playing with an exerciser, the facility had.  We had a nice lunch and Thomas cake, and it was a great party!

I was playing it by ear, on whether to take Cole or not to the shower- we already decided Ryan was going to stay home with Joe, because we knew he really needed his nap.  My sister lives about 50 miles away, so it is a bit of a trip.  I didn’t really want to take Cole, because he doesn’t do that well with crowds, and noise, and he also needed to nap.  But he is having major separation anxiety right now, and I wasn’t sure if he would be fussy today or not.  To be totally honest, I thought it would be nice to have a few kid/baby free hours, to just enjoy the shower.  But I was waiting it out to see how he would be.

BINGO!  Both boys fell asleep on the way home from the birthday party, and I carried Cole upstairs, and laid him on the bed, and he stayed asleep, so I took off.

The shower was really nice, with lots of family, friends, and good food.  Almost everyone asked where the boys were, so that was nice they were missed, but they completely understood why they weren’t there.  🙂

My sister and her husband, are having a girl, and they decided to name her Maelyn.  It is a name her mother-in-law suggested, and I think it has Norwegian decent. 

I knew all along for my main gift, I wanted to do something special with letters, once they decided on a name, but a few months ago my sister, just out of the blue, told me she was going to order the letters for Maelyn’s name off of a store on e-bay.

I HAD to tell her I wanted to do that for her gift, and she agreed, so my sister has known about the letters, but she didn’t know what I was planning to do with them. I was going to order the letters off  a web-site, but then saw some at a local arts & crafts store, and my sister had seen the same ones, and liked them, so I got them.  I bought them white, but added the design, and ribbons to them.  I am very happy how they turned out.  But more importantly, my sister said she really liked them.  I asked her to take a picture of them, once they were hung up, because her nursery theme is coral and lime green, and the wall these will be hung on, is lime green and I think they will look better hung up on the wall then just laying on the tissue paper I put them on to take a picture of them….

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I hope Maelyn likes them as she grows older, and they help her learn to spell her name.  We have the letters for Ryan’s name, and he loves pointing out the letters, and spelling his name.  We just got some for Cole’s name as well.  I really had fun designing these, and I can’t wait to meet my sweet niece, Maelyn.  We can’t wait for her to be born!

Categories
Family & Friends Ryan

Some Valentine Advice

I know Valentine’s is over, but Ryan & Cole’s grandma got the cutest card from her daughter, for Valentine’s.  I am not sure if he saw Grandma read it and then laugh, or if she read it to him, but it is the cutest thing- Ryan will “read” the entire card- he has it memorized- and then when he opens the card for the punchline, he says it, and then starts laughing hysterically, and says, “Oh Brother!”  He will carry this card around with him for half an hour at a time, reading it over and over.  Grandma let him take the card home, he is enjoying it so much.   The outside of the card says: (You can double click on the picture to see it bigger)

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(If you don’t want to click on it, it says),

Some Valentine Advice: Don’t kiss your honey, When your nose is runny, you may think it’s funny…

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 (but it’s snot)

It is pretty interesting what a 3-year old finds funny; this is big entertainment around here.

Categories
Cole Family & Friends Mothering Parenting Ryan

Mama Said There Would Be Days Like This

I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off today!

I am trying to finish a shower present for my sister this week, for her baby shower on Saturday.  Ryan has come down with the same cold, Cole had and thankfully, he doesn’t have it as bad, but his nose is running constantly, and I am constantly wiping his nose.

I thought I could make some progress on my project, this morning, when Ryan tells me that baby Cole spilled his cereal on the floor.  After cleaning that up, I go back to my project, and a few minutes later Ryan says that he went pee in his potty (good thing), BUT baby Cole was playing in it, (bad thing).

After cleaning up and changing Cole, a friend called me who had a situation they needed to talk about, so I spent an hour on the phone with her. 

A few minutes after I hang up, Ryan tells me baby Cole spilled his (Ryan’s)  apple juice.  More cleaning.  After that was done, I finally thought I could start working on my project.  It was not to be.  As soon as I sat down to start, Ryan says he went pee on the potty again (good thing), BUT he had a little accident, and his pee sprayed all over the living room, (bad thing), and boy did it ever!

I think I went through every towel and rag we had this morning cleaning up snot, pee, juice, and milk.  Needless to say, my project is still sitting here, and I don’t have enough time to start on it now before dinner, so maybe I’ll get lucky and have some time tonight, when the boys are sleeping.  🙂

Categories
Cole Family & Friends Mothering Ryan

Spending The Night

Ryan did it!  He spent the night at his grandparent’s house, last night. 

Joe and I got to go on our Valentine’s Day (belated) date, with Cole.  He was still pretty fussy and clingy, and we didn’t want to leave him with Joe’s parents, only to have him cry the entire time we were gone.  We had a nice dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, and Cole did great.  He sat in a booster seat next to me and didn’t cry the entire time.  He ate some cereal, baby food, and chewed on the bread. 

Meanwhile, Ryan was having a ball with his 6 year old cousin, K, and his aunt, who had come up for the weekend. We got back to the house around 8 pm, and Ryan came running out to ask us, “Did you bring my jamies?”

His cousin was in her nightgown, and of course Ryan, had to be in his PJ’s too.  So Joe got him ready for bed, and then it hit him that we were leaving.  He looked a little nervous, but I could tell he was trying to be brave.  Ryan was sleeping in a bedroom on an inflatable mattress, with K, sleeping on the bed.

Joe and I decided to stick around for a while to make sure Ryan would be okay.  A few minutes after K, and Ryan went down, K got up to talk to her mom.  They went back into the room a few minutes later, and then K’s mom told me Ryan wanted me- he was crying.

I went to him, and his little pillow was wet from his tears, and he was curled up in a little ball on his mattress.  I felt bad for him, and just hugged him and sat with him for a while.  We think he got scared when K got out of bed, and left him in the room by himself. 

After a while, Cole was crying for me, so I left Ryan, and Joe went back to sit with Ryan for a while.  Well, he was so wound up at that point, we almost decided to take him home with us, but Grandma came to the rescue.  She got ready for bed and went to sleep in the room with Ryan, and K.  She said they talked for a while and he finally fell asleep around 10:30.

It was weird walking past Ryan’s room last night, and seeing the door wide open, and him not in his bed.  I missed him and realized he is slowly but surely gaining more independence away from us, which is a good thing, but it still pulls on my heartstrings. 

We ran some errands this morning and then went back out there at lunch.  As soon as Ryan saw us, he said, “I need to stay here ALL day!”  He wouldn’t let Joe or myself even hug him- that is how much fun he was having.

Far from us to ruin a three-year old’s fun, so after lunch we went home, while Ryan took his nap.  Then K.’s big brother and sister, and their dad came over, and when he woke up, I was told that Ryan was finally asking for me, and was almost in tears, I wasn’t there.  His older cousins soon had him occupied and we came back out for dinner.

I thought we would have a major tantrum on our hands when it was finally time to go home, but Joe talked to Ryan, and I think he was SO tired from trying to keep up with the older kids, that he just went and got his shoes, and brought me my shoes when it was time to go.  No yelling, tears, or stalling.  WOW!  I wished the cousins lived closer. 🙂

As I climbed in the car to go home, Ryan reached out for my hand, and kissed it.  He said, “I missed you, Mom.”  I guess my little boy, isn’t quite so big yet that he didn’t miss me at all, and for right now, I can’t help but be happy about that.