Christmas Highlights

We had a wonderful, relaxing time away in Ingraham, IL for Christmas! The kids did fabulous in the car, the weather was great, we ate way too much, and the kids were adored by many!

Here are a few pics from the trip!

Playing Christmas carols with Grammy!


Opening the stockings. Charlotte was very eager to help Elijah!


The best photo we could get of the two kids together.


Baking Jesus' birthday cake!



The best picture of the 4 of us!


I'll try to post a couple more pics and a video of Charlotte playing the piano and singing!

I Want What She's Having

Elijah loves to watch us eat. He hangs onto every single movement we make when feeding ourselves. So, we started him on baby food. It is a little earlier than we wanted to just because of his colon and passing his stools (which he does fine, but we didn't want to give him any needless problems.) However, since he has been so intrigued we gave it a go on baby food which he loves! Except applesauce, but everything else (and by everything else I mean rice cereal and peas) he loves. But even so, it doesn't seem good enough for him.



These pictures were taken WHILE I was feeding him! But, hey, who can blame him? Grilled cheese rocks!

This is for my sister

So Charlotte got to open her Christmas gift from her auntie, uncle and cousin early since we will be taking the train to and from MN in January and Charlotte's gift was too big to carry on the train. My sister requested a video of her opening the gift, so here it is for everyone's viewing pleasure! I sure I'm glad I figured out how to do video on my camera and upload to my blog!

Charlotte's First Dentist Visit

Greg and I had dentist appointments yesterday, and since Charlotte is 2.5 we wanted her to experience it a little bit before her first "official" visit when she is three! She was totally intrigued watching me and then Greg get our teeth cleaned by Katie, and was all too eager to jump into the chair to have her teeth counted. She did so well with that, that Katie continued by brushing her teeth (with Bubblegum toothpaste), and even flossing!





In other dental news, Greg and I both have a chipped tooth. What makes it more weird is that the same exact tooth is chipped in both of our mouths! Too much tonsil hockey I guess!

From Charlotte's Perspective

Is my butt really that big? That is of course a rheotorical question!

Guess we need to get her a child-friendly real camera!

I don't like Barack Obama

And no, that is not a joke. I don't think he will be the best president for our country. I think he's too inexperienced. I think he's making promises that even he deep down knows he can't keep. He's pro choice. He's for gay marriage. And a whole slew of other things. I'm writing this post just to prove that all Chicagoans didn't vote for him. Wow, getting this off my chest been cathartic.

We are lousy, non-comforting parents

Let me preface this blog by saying that the computer was off at the time of this incident and I just had to turn it on right away to share this story.
And, Greg and I are still laughing about it (which we need a good laugh since we were in the middle of balancing the checkbook when this happened.)

So, a couple of minutes ago we heard Charlotte wake up crying and yelling, so I ran up there, soon followed by Greg, and I picked up Charlotte. It was obvious that something had woken her from her sleep. As I picked her up she just looked at me with teary eyes, just to make sure I was real. So, I have my baby in my arms telling her everything is alright and I start asking her questions. "Did you have a bad dream?" "Are you scared." Charlotte nods. Greg is rubbing her back. "What scared you? What happened in your dream?" To which Charlotte responds, "Quinny." OK, so Quinn must of died in her dreams. So I say, "Quinny? What happened?" Charlotte responds, "Quinny... ate me."

Oh, and what do her loving parents do? Greg keels over on the bed laughing hysterically, which then causes me to laugh, all the while still holding Charlotte and trying to tell her everything will be OK. And then Greg leaves the room. Yes, he leaves the room because he can't control himself, but I'm still laughing at his reaction (under my breath as much as possible) still trying as much s possible to comfort Charlotte. we were then fortunately able to pull ourselves together to put her back in bed.

So, then I come downstairs to write the blog and here is Quinn on the couch. Then Greg comes down and says, "we should put Quinn in bed with Charlotte." Yes, he did to say that!!! Isn't he awful????

This will be one of those stories that I'll remember and start laughing at at the most inopportune times!

Garage Sale Etiquette-Part 2

Well, the garage sale is done, and I still hate garage sales, especially since I only have $100 to show for it! Here are true stories from the day.
1. Do NOT show up an hour early to the garage sale and say "I thought you'd be open early" not apologize, and start looking around.
2. Furthermore, if you are that early bird do NOT ask for a bargain on things when chances are there are people later in the day that would pay full price for the deep discounts we had on comic books and a stroller. (Especially since you inconvenienced me in the first place.)
3. Do NOT ask for more than 50% off on a nice jacket, telling the cashier you only have $2, but then pay with a 5.
4. Do NOT take the whole box of something marked free. I doubt you can use 15 partially burnt candles! And especially don't do that if you are not going to buy something else!
5. Little gust of wind, do not come to my yard sale and knock over a piece of furniture and break it.
6. Do NOT use something that's for sale to kill a bug in my daughter's toy car that your daughter shouldn't have been playing in in the first place since it was in the marked off section of the yard!

Garage Sale Etiquette-Part 1

Tomorrow we are holding a garage sale - yippee, woo hoo! (I mean this as sarcasm!)
I have determined two things.
1. Putting on a garage sale is hard work. I had one before and I vowed I would never do it again. There was good reason for that, and now as I am preparing for this sale, I am reminded of that.
2. because having a garage sale is hard work, I have determined that people need to be happy with the price you put on items and there should be no bargaining down. People who go to garage sales need to realize that putting on a garage sale is hard work, and surely the amount of money received from it will not equal the amount of work put in, so please don't try to talk down a board game that I priced at a dollar to 25 cents! Therefore, I will never, ever, ever try to talk down the price of items at a garage sale because those poor people put in a ton of work and will have probably $123.87 to show for it!

Stay tuned tomorrow for stories after the sale!

I don't think Charlotte likes her bed

When I went upstairs to get Eli's pajamas, I opened the bedroom door to find Charlotte half asleep scrambling up from the wood floor. I asked her if she fell asleep on the floor and she said yeah. I put her in bed and went downstairs. I went upstairs later to put Eli in bed and there was Charlotte knocked out asleep laying face down on the hardwood floor right by the door!

I have a thumb sucker!

Go figure, we take away Charlotte's pacifier and she starts sucking her thumb! I went to put Eli in his cradle and there Charlotte was in bed (awake) with thumb in mouth. UGH!!! Let's just hope she doesn't take after mommy and suck her thumb until she gets braces!

Frugal Finding

Thanks to my friend Emily, I have now started to make my own laundry detergent. And guess what-it works great! It even removed 3 day old syrup from Charlotte's blanket! And, I'm saving money. It costs about a penny per load. I don't know how much Tide was per load, but I know it was way more than that! To find the recipe just do a google search on homemade laundry detergent. If you can't find the recipe email me and then I'll post it (can't do it now as I am feeding Eli!)

There is something wrong with the medical industry

I know there is no price to put on Elijah's health (or Charlotte's). We are so blessed that Eli is healthy and thankful to the doctors, nurses, and medical means to which he is alive. Let me preface my blog by saying that. However, why in the world does it cost $781 for a 30 minute radiology scan he had! Or, over $1000 for recovery, when he was in the recovery room for maybe an hour. The nurse sat there and completed Eli's paperwork. I know anesthesia is important and I'm so thankful Elijah felt nothing during his surgery, but almost $2000! He's so little. Surely they didn't pump his 10 and a half pound body with $2000 worth of anesthesia! Stay tuned because if insurance doesn't pay for all of Eli's medical care, I'll be writing a blog about something being wrong with the insurance industry! (I could see why insurance wouldn't want to pay all of these exuberant costs, but let's hope they do!)

Pacifier Fairy

The pacifier fairy came to our house last night. I decided over the weekend she needed to come, so I was prepping Charlotte. "The pacifier fairy is going to come soon." At which point Charlotte pouts, falls flat on the floor and cries, "NOOOOOOO!" "The pacifier fairy is going to take your pacifier and give it to babies who need it." At which Charlotte replies, "I need it." So Monday night I decorated an envelope and left it out all day Tuesday to remind Charlotte about the pacifier fairy coming that night. After nap, I told her to say bye to her pacifier and we would put it in the envelope and then in the mailbox. She wanted nothing to do with sending it on its way. Charlotte did go to bed last night with little problems, but did cry out once in the night, "My white one." Today she got to see all of the goodies the pacifier fairy left for her (a bracelet and necklace set, a beanie baby, and M&Ms) and things have been going well. When she brings up her "night, night, white one, pacifier, or even the blue one (which has been gone for at least 2 months) we remind her that the pacifier fairy came and gave it to a baby in need. So, I'm hopeful this is the last of the pacifier in our house!

And thank goodness Eli has not taken a fancy to the pacifier yet!

Mommy of Two Brain

I locked myself out of the house today. Before we went on our walk to the post office to mail my sister's birthday gift I even looked in my purse and saw some keys. As I was walking back from the post office I realized those were the condo keys and not the house keys. Fortunately I had the car keys so I was ready to load the kids from the stroller to the car and drive to Greg's work to pick up the house keys. However, before we did I thought of a way to get into the house and it worked! This just means Laura will be getting a copy of our house key!

Out of the mouth of babes

Charlotte: "Eat my boob, Elmo. Eat my boob."

And no, I DON'T say that to Eli!!!!

The Name Calling Begins

So, Charlotte has a nickname for Elijah. At first we thought it was kind of funny and smiled and giggled a bit, and when I share the name you will see why, but now the nickname sticks, although we tell her that's not nice and to call Elijah by his name.

And the name is Mr. Poopy. See, aren't you laughing?

1. The name is very ironic because as you all should know Eli can't poop. Besides, not until yesterday Charlotte has never seen an irrigation so she's never seen him poop before then.
2. Now, where did she get the name from? We have never called her Miss Poopy or Eli Mr Poopy!

Oh, and today, while I was napping and Greg was watching the kids (thanks honey, I love you!!!!!) Charlotte whacked Eli on the head. Actually whacked him, Greg said. The type of whack where you are so stunned, you can't start crying right away and then you burst into tears. Poor boy. Thank goodness the kisses and hugs, no matter how aggressive those are, are more prevelant!

What a smile!

I'm convinced Elijah smiled at me the day he was born. Here is a photo of the first smile captured on memory card!

Do I even need words?

Camp Highlights

Last week, from Saturday to Wednesday, we went to Family Camp at Village Creek Bible Camp (villagecreek.net). (I don't know how to make links.)

Here are the highlights:
awesome meals including dessert after both lunch and dinner everyday (thanks mom!) with no clean-up involved!
family assistant available to watch the kiddies from 7 am to 11 pm. Because of this we were able to have some quality time with Charlotte while Julayne watched Eli and Greg and I even left both kiddos to go on a kayak trip for an afternoon. (By the way, you can totally tell that Eli is a second child cause I would never consider leaving my first 2 1/2 week old with a babysitter-but on the other hand, my mom and sister were both around)
great time hanging out with our wonderful friends the Studee's
Charlotte's first pony ride
Greg played paintball for the first time
I attended a tea party with my sister and Charlotte. Charlotte is such a big girl cause she held the glass tea cup just perfectly.
Some family snuggle time (my favorite part of the day!)

I hate but I love

Finding out that Elijah's surgery is going to be two weeks away is killing me! I wish it was this week so that I wouldn't have to go through the process of irrigating Elijah. Irrigating consists of put a long catheter up Eli's rectum and colon and pulling out Eli's stool using a saline solution that is pumped in. I absolutely hate it, but I love my son, so I will do it. I also HATE pumping breastmilk, but once again I love my son, so I will do it when he is hospitalized and I'm not able to feed him. So, today as I was feeling sorry for myself, I realized that my Heavenly Father certainly hated sending his Son Jesus to the cross, but He did it because of His love for me, His daughter, and ALL of His children. Obviously I can't exactly compare irrigating Eli to sending him to his death, but if God can send his Son to the cross, I can certainly do what it takes for Elijah because I love him so dearly.

2 posts in one day?!?

I know, I know, crazy! But I just had to write about the darndest thing that Charlotte said today. Everyday she's saying super cute, ridiculous things. Ooh, like today, she said "Hi, Greg!" And this was not at a time that he was coming from somewhere and heard me or anyone else say it. He had just walked into the room at my grandparents house and she said it. Anyway, I divert because that's not what the story is about.

So Greg and I finished the puzzle that has been sitting at my grandparents house for awhile. My grampa came into the room and we were talking about the puzzle and how he wanted to take it apart right away to which I said no, that he only wanted to take it down so the evidence of Greg and I being the ones to actually finish it was no longer there. (For anyone who doesn't know my grampa, he's cantakerous and crabby, but fun and you are able to joke with him. He rolls with the punches.) My grampa then said "Oh shut up" in a loud, deep, yet joking voice. Now, at this time I do give him the evil eye because Charlotte is right there and she does have the tendency to repeat things she hears. But not this time. Charlotte responds in a loud, deep voice, "NO!"
It was the funniest thing I think we all have ever heard and she had me, Greg, and my gramma rolling with laughter. We couldn't even reprimand her for talking that way!

Kelly Says the Darndest Things

Last night I was out to eat for some yummy Mexican food at Maria's with Kelly, Jenny, Christina and Lisa. We had a great time sharing stories and catching up. I, of course, being less than 2 weeks away from giving birth was talking a little bit about the upcoming birth to my all childless friends. I was mentioning how painful labor is as well as the recovery, including the cramps you experience (or at least I did) when breastfeeding, to which Kelly said, "Wait, you get cramps in your boobs?!? Now of course, other silly things were said throughout the evening, but that was the best! Don't you agree Christina? (My only loyal blog follower of that group of friends.)

I'm Lovin It

Today Charlotte and I were driving home from Kim's with Charlotte saying, no scratch that, whining, "Eat, Eat," So I responded, "What would you like to eat Charlotte?" To which she responded, after some thinking, "McDonald's." Now I should also say we had not passed a McDonald's so she was really going based on a craving. I couldn't believe it (even though she did say it clear as day), so I asked her, "Did you say McDonald's?" To which she responded, "Yes, McDonald's. Eat. Eat McDonald's. Eat. Eat McDonald's" and it continued, even though numerous times I told her we were not going to McDonald's, and were going to eat at home.

And of course, I HAD to call Greg right away, to which he wasn't too pleased that the big, evil, corporate, make kids obese, fast food giant already has an impact on our two year old. Yeah, I just laughed!

Woo hoo!

Charlotte reached another milestone today!!! She went pee-pee on the potty! (Sorry to use the mommy language, but what am I supposed to say? She urinated in the toilet.)

Greg was changing her diaper this a.m. right before he left for work, when she saw her Elmo potty cushion on the shelf, and said "Elmo seat, Elmo seat, please!" (Thanks Gramma by the way!) I said sure, not really expecting anything to happen as we want to take this process really slow and we just want her to get comfortable with the process. Anyway, I grabbed two of her books anyway just so I could read to her to keep her mind focused off of sitting on the toilet. I'm in the middle of reading "Barnyard Dance" and Greg is wishing us goodbye when we heard the wonderful sound of pee going into the toilet (a scary sound for Charlotte by the way, as her face was kind of like, What did I just do, was I supposed to do that?) Greg and I totally hooped and hollered and cheered for her and Charlotte's face beamed up and she started clapping! And of course, she got three M&M's for doing the deed!!!

Yeah Charlotte!!!

I'll post a picture of her flushing the toilet later.

Darn It's Hot Part 2

It's HOT again today and I even have the red skin to prove it (not a burn though, so that's good!) Anyway, being 52 days from my due date, I know I have the right to turn on the AC however, being cheap, I'm not going to. All I have to say is that
1. It better get cooler soon
2. This baby better come early!

Darn...

it's hot!!!

Best Pregnancy Perk

For all those who have been pregnant or are pregnant you know there are lots of perks such as not having to pick up things that fall (or that you drop), getting a few extra minutes of sleep while hubby tends to a very awake toddler (thanks, Greg!), not having to carry heavy loads, getting away with eating whatever you want to satisfy a "craving" but the best for me came today! It combines 2 of my favorite loves; free things and soft-serve ice cream! Baskin Robbins declared it Bump Day to celebrate their new soft serve ice cream, and of course nothing was gong to stop me from going. I only regretted not making it to more than one store. Oh well, kind of crazy to think about with such high gas prices , that traveling for 2 miles round trip for free ice cream probably cost me a good dollar! Thanks Baskin Robbins!

Famous Freecycling!

So I think everyone who knows me knows how much I love freecycling!!!! I even got my gramma into it as they are moving and have tons of stuff to get rid of. So today I get a call from my gramma who said that there was a freecycling article in the Trib's tempo section. That's pretty cool, huh? Well, maybe not really, except for the fact that the things I posted for my gramma made it into the article! My grampa was reading the article and said to my gramma, "Hey isn't this the stuff you got rid of?" Now of course, any Joe Schmoe wouldn't know that some of the things listed in the article are things that I got rid of, but now you know! Here's a contest, if you contact me with the correct guess of what we got rid of listed in the article, you'll get a prize!!!!

What We've Been Up To!

Man, I wrote a whole entry and had 4 pictures all ready and deleted it all, so this is all you are going to get!

We gave in...

...and it was the best decision we ever made!!!!!!! After a week of NOT sleeping through the night (yes, it still can potentially happen with toddlers), we gave in and gave Charlotte her pacifier, which she had probably been without for a couple of months.

Good thing we are in the midst of packing, because I wouldn't have even remembered where I put it, but yesterday I went into my jewelry box and found it, so at 10 pm at night when Charlotte started screaming out I kept the thought in the back of my mind that the pacifier is accessible. We went in, gave her Motrin, which still didn't help (or at least it didn't stop the screaming), and tried to comfort her to no avail. Greg and I went back to bed, still with Charlotte screaming, and I pulled out the pacifier.

We all slept through the night, except I did get up at 5, probably out of habit of getting awoken sometime between 2 and 4. Oh, and Charlotte is STILL sleeping at 7:20 am!!

Lil' Man Landon

Here are pics of Kimberly, Alan, and Landon. (And yes, they totally copied our idea and had 2 week photos taken of the family.) Now I understand lots of other people do this, but I can harp on Kimberly doing it, because she's my twin and we do stuff like that!

http://jmphotographymn.blogspot.com

She's ready....

...to be a big sister! Here Charlotte is doting and loving on cousin Landon (my twin sister's two week old baby!) Landon was sleeping when we arrived at my grandparents and Charlotte was content to just watch him sleep, and then as she got more comfortable, point out all his body parts! This she did with toddler enthusiam much to new dad Alan's dismay! The kicker was when we were all downstairs, with Landon sleeping upstairs on my grandparents bed. Charlotte came into the kitchen to say hi to me, then went to the dining room, and I didn't hear her go onto the living room to play with the many musical toys my gramma has for her. I asked my grampa, who was in the dining room, if he had a view of Charlotte to which he responded, "She went upstairs." I ran up to find Charlotte already on the bed (yes, the same bed Landon was sleeping on) watching him! Hopefully, she didn't jostle him too much on her climb up the bed. Then my aunt let Charlotte hold Landon (from the pic above) and when she took Landon away to readjust him and Charlotte, Charlotte threw a fit and said, "No, my baby!"

Now, I'm pretty sure everyone who reads my blog, all 10 of you, over and over again, know, but just in case you didn't, or didn't understand the first line of this posting, we are expecting baby number 2 in July!

I'm an Aunt! And Greg's an Uncle! And Charlotte's a cousin!!!!

At around 1 am this morning my twin sister finally gave birth to Landon Lucas Wegleitner, after a very, very, very long labor. (Went into hospital on Tuesday after water broke, and just didn't progress quickly). I'm very excited, however, I'd be more excited if my sister could figure out how to send photos, or if I'd be able to go up to MN myself to see him. (I have a jewelry party tomorrow and Monday night that prevent me from going.) I am so crazy that I am considering driving up early on Sunday and leaving Monday morning. Too bad we're not rich and I could fly up there, hmm, but maybe I should see how much last minute airline tickets are.

Clapping for God

It's moments like these that I'm glad I have a blog to journal on.

For some reason Charlotte likes the video box for Prince of Egypt. Yesterday she wanted to watch the movie, which kept her attention for all of like 10 minutes. Today however, she brought me the box again along with Winne the Pooh's Grand Adventure and I asked her to choose which one she wanted. She proceeded to throw Prince of Egypt at me (I take it that that's the one she wanted to watch) put it on, and she laid on the floor/sat with me to watch the rest of it. In the movie, Moses put his staff in the Red Sea, causing it to part, and at that scene Charlotte clapped! I couldn't belive it. There was no music at that point in the soundtrack to lead to her clapping! I said, "That's right Charlotte, yeah God!! God did that to bring his people into the promised land and save them!"

Said by Greg Tonight

Charlotte has been teething and it's been pretty awful for her and us! Greg had been home with her all day, and said she just hadn't been herself-no eating, lethargic, not wanting to be comforted, etc. Well, my sister is in labor (a long, slow labor by the way). Anyway, my mom called tonight to keep us updated on her progress and Charlotte was crying/screaming while I was on the phone with her. At which point Greg said, "Tell her we'd much rather be in Kimberly's shoes. I prefer labor over this." At which point, I start laughing hysterically, get chastised by my mom because I'm laughing while my daughter is screaming/crying, and then have to explain why I'm laughing. Need I remind Greg that HE wasn't in labor last time!