Saturday, March 31, 2007

Stickers

I caught Cameryn hiding in the corner of my living room with a page full of her Princess stickers that she was putting all over her shirt.

I have been trying to find a way to avoid arguments with her over the same things every day, for example: getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, etc.- pretty much everything except playing with toys. So I made up two little charts for her on which I drew little pictures of her doing different things. I have one chart for the day time and one for bed time. Everytime she does something on her chart, she gets to put a sticker on it. We even bought her some special Princess stickers to get her to want to do all the things on her chart even more.

Cameryn is quite the procrastinator, especially at bedtime, so I made a chart of all the things she asks me to do for her when Mike or I are trying to get her into bed. She asks for water, to go potty, and sometimes even to brush her teeth. So I figured that if she could mark all these things off on a chart with some fun stickers that she wouldn't ask me over and over again about them all.

It has been working pretty well I must say and I am so happy about it. She loves to fill up another day of stickers and is getting better about sticking with her routine, especially at night.

Though, she still gives me a hard time in the mornings most days. Sometimes I can't get her to eat breakfast until 10:00am. I don't know how she can wait that long when I feel hungry sometimes in the middle of the night. Oh well, it's always a work in progress with kids.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Messy baby food

Today while Mike was feeding Luke at dinner, he made a grab for the whole jar of food. He actually got a hold of it but it was quickly snatched back by Mike. Luke got so upset and was crying and crying because it had been taken away from him. Mike kept feeding him and he seemed okay but in between each bite he would stick out his bottom lip and start crying again until the next bite came. He did that for at least 2 or 3 minutes until he finally forgot why he had been crying. It was so cute I had to run to get the camera and get his sweet, sad little face on film.

He loves eating anything I will give him as far as crackers and pieces of what I am eating, but it has been slow going with the actual baby food. Everything seemed to give him gas when I tried to start earlier so I took like a six week break and am now starting up again. It seems to be going much better this time, so hopefully it will stick.

I actually don't really like feeding babies food (until they get older and feed themselves, then I don't mind them eating food). It is so messy and then their diapers start to stink cause it's not just breast milk anymore. Plus I never get to eat my dinner with everyone else. I can usually get a quick bite here or there but most of the time I have to wait until Mike is done and then we switch places so I can eat and he feeds Luke the rest of the baby food.

On Thursday it was such a nice day so I took the kids to lunch at the Chick-fil-A where my mom works part time and we had lunch. Then when my mom got off work we all went at the park and played. It was Luke's first time in a swing and he just loved it. Of course I forgot my camera but got a picture with my cell phone. He was laughing and kicking his cute little feet. He liked watching Cameryn come down the twisty slide too. He would laugh to see her at the top and laugh even more when she suddenly popped up at the bottom.

Cameryn did not want to leave. She was running around with Kathryn and Devon (my younger sister and brother) and laughing and chasing ducks and playing on all the equipment. She kept getting mad though because there was a little boy that would occasionally follow her around. She's already got the boys lining up and she's only 2 and 1/2!! Just kidding!!

It's supposed to rain for the next week practically but it's that time of year so I'm going to try not to complain. I've been trying to line up some play dates just to be able to get out of the house and get Cameryn to play with other kids. People are so busy now a days that it is so hard to set up something that is a good day for everyone. I'm trying though, so hopefully with all the people I've been calling a few play dates will be had.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Hello there

Luke has this cute habit of looking at me sideways and I was finally ready with my camera to get a picture of it.

He really enjoyed last weeks beautiful weather. He wasn't sure about sitting in the grass at first, especially in his summer clothes. He cried the second he felt the prickly grass under him, but once I got him interested in playing with the grass and other toys, he quickly forgot about it.

Cameryn was a very attentive big sister as well. She would talk to him and play with him and get him more toys. He loved all the attention and being outside in the fresh air.

He was so excited when he got to see his daddy driving up and coming up the walk. You can really see his cute little mohawk in the picture with his dad. I love his cute little smile and he is just so cuddly and happy. He's my cute chubby little man.
I can't wait for this summer when we get to go to the park and to the pool with my mom and brother and sister. Kathryn is so good with Cameryn at the pool and loves to play with her in the water. I am hoping that Luke with like the pool as much as Cameryn does though. He likes baths but pool water is much different so we'll have to wait and see.

Mike got out his little dirt bike and took Cameryn for a ride on it. She actually does enjoy being on there even though she doesn't look too thrilled in the picture. It is supposed to be warmer again towards the end of the week again and I'm looking forward to walks in a stroller and to the park.

Busy week

I have a lot to write about but so little time that I am going to try to make a few separate and small posts today.
I finally got some pictures of Cameryn kissing her Mr. Potato Head. She is so silly. I was just glad that I actually had my camera right next to me when she was doing it. I love seeing her little imagination come to life and watching her doing these adorable things.

We've had a very interesting week as far as weather goes. All last weekend it was beautiful weather; sunny and warm enough that all you needed was a light jacket to go outside. Then Monday and Tuesday it was so warm (in the 70's) that I needed to get out Cameryn's shorts and t-shirts and find some rompers for Luke to wear. Mike went to Toy's R Us and bought Cameryn and new tricycle to learn to ride. She was so funny. She would try to pedal herself but then would stop paying attention to where she was going, so we would have to remind her to steer which would then cause her to take her feet off the pedals. I never knew there was so much to teaching kids how to ride even a tricycle. She has been having a lot of fun with it though.
Well, Wednesday it started to cool down and got really windy and a little bit colder but not too bad. Then Thursday it just kept getting worse and by Friday it was snowing and sleeting. We got about 6 inches. Cameryn just loved it though. She went outside like 3 different times and was out there for at least an hour each time. She was eating the snow and jumping up and down making feet prints. I let her play on our deck out back so I could watch her and work on another blanket that I was making for someone. We also went out again on Saturday and made a small snowman together. I tried to make it bigger but there wasn't much snow on our deck left to make a big one. Mike also moved her playhouse outside (it was in our basement taking up a lot of room) and she played out there for a while, of course still trying to find as much clean snow as possible to eat. I early on instructed her to not eat any other color snow but white as we have a dog and that would just be really gross.

Today, it is much nicer outside again. Still windy and cold but sunny again and the snow is almost gone already. She is actually taking a nap right now which is a rare thing, but as she has been so incredibly grumpy the past few days in between her periods of fun and happiness, she definitely needs one.

Friday, March 09, 2007

I've had an interesting week. I decided on Saturday that I had had enough of Luke not sleeping in his room so I cleaned it out. I fixed the crib bumper (some of the tie things had gotten ripped off from a certain 2 year old playing in the crib), I washed the sheets again (cat hair), moved the monitor from Cameryn's room into his, and moved some stuff around. I was really nervous about how many times I was going to have to get up and if his crying was going to wake up Cameryn and other worries but it turned out very nicely. He only woke up twice!! Wonder of wonder, Miracle of miracles!!

He's not the soundest sleeper but has so far managed to stay asleep as I move him into his bed down the hall after nursing him in mine. Unfortunately that is THE ONLY way to get him to sleep and stay that way for now. Even when he was a newborn, if I nursed him sitting somewhere and then moved him into his bassinet or where ever, he would always wake up. So I have to nurse him laying down in my bed. For nap time I leave him there and at night, I of course move him to his own bed.

Before if he would wake up while I was moving him I would make him cry himself back to sleep. I hate doing that, it's so hard to lay there and listen to them cry and scream, but soooooooo worth it in the end. At least it was with Cameryn, I draw the line at letting them cry for more than an hour, which he does sometimes. With Cameryn, when she would wake up the first time during the night (mostly out of habit) I would make her cry herself back to sleep. It usually only lasted for 30 minutes then became less and less. Then the second time she woke up I would go get her. She pretty quickly started sleeping for a lot longer and it was really WONDERFUL.

With Luke, the whole crying himself to sleep isn't working so well this time. He just screams and screams, then just quietly sobs and you think he will fall asleep, but no he just keeps crying and crying. He is slowly getting back to sleeping for longer periods of time all by himself though so I guess I'll just wait and see how this goes.

Cameryn did the sweetest thing the other night. We were coming home when it had already gotten dark and Luke HATES to be in the car driving while its dark. He screams the whole time and no matter the time and distance traveling, will not fall asleep. So I decided to try something new, I turned on one of the car lights in the back. It didn't seem to be working, then suddenly he was quiet. So I'm sitting there thinking I'm so smart when I look in my rear view mirror and see that Cameryn had reached over and was holding his little hand in hers. It was the most precious little thing. I almost started crying it was so sweet. She looks up to see me watching her and she just said, "Luke was crying, so I'm holding his hand and he's not crying anymore." She held his little hand the whole way home. I felt so lucky to have such a sweet, thoughtful little girl. He even fell asleep until we got home and I was picking him up out of the car seat.

Lately, we have been having trouble with Cameryn going to bed and letting us leave the room. She is in a regular toddler bed so can get out whenever she wants. She usually doesn't but lately will sit up when we try to leave, after singing her every song we can think of and talking to her about what we are going to do tomorrow and what we did today and also holding her for awhile in the rocking chair, and scream for us to hold her again or that she needs water or to go potty or more songs, etc. We know she is just procrastinating but we also don't want her screaming to wake up her brother in the next room. So on Saturday, Mike, me and the kids went and ran some errands together. We went to Toys 'R Us and bought her these Disney Princess sheets for toddler beds. She was so excited!! Unfortunately it hasn't worked as well as we wanted but it helps a little. She's not always so bad but some nights she REALLY REALLY tries your patience. It's a work in progress with her all the time, but I guess it is with all children.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

New Blanket



I decided to finally go to a fabric store and buy some material so that I could make Luke a blanket. He already has plenty of them, but I wanted to give him one from me. Plus, Cameryn has this blanket that my sister, Lindsey, made for her that she absolutely loves and takes with her everywhere. She calls it her "bay" because she didn't know how to say blanket when she was first starting to talk and bay was as close as she could get. Anyways, she loves her blanket and so I modeled Luke's after hers as far as the material and the binding on the edges.

Luke seemed really excited when I gave his new blanket to him. He loves to chew on the soft satiny binding and Cameryn is so excited for him to have a "bay" just like hers. I just love the cute clover pattern too. Someone asked me if he was Irish because of the blanket. I didn't want it to be blue because so many things that you receive from other people when you have a boy are blue and the clovers just popped out at me. It only took a few hours (spread out over 2 days of course) but I think my first baby blanket turned out really well.

Doesn't Luke have the most adorable smile!!