Lincoln Jerome-eo

I feel like poor Lincoln isn't getting enough props these days!  So many happenings with Isadora...sorry.

Potty training is going really well!  Lincoln is mostly in undies these days.  We've had accidents here and there (as Elmo says "accidents happen and that's ok!") but for the most part he's done so well telling us when he needs to go whether we're at home or out and about.  He's done so well at school telling his teachers when he has to go or just getting up and going on his own.  I keep spare undies and pants there, just in case.

We're working on getting rid of Lincoln's afternoon nap.  The 5:30 wake up call was too much for me.  I love that he wakes me up to tell me he has to go potty but I don't love that it's 5:30 and he's wide awake.  Who knew getting rid of the afternoon nap would be so hard on all of us?  I had a hard time deciding to omit the nap because it means my alone afternoon time is no more.  Oh well...it had to happen eventually!

We've spent a lot of time recently sick, which has been awesome.  We're all coughing and hacking stuff up.  Poor Isa had a nasty case of croup and earlier this week Lincoln vomited all over himself in the car.  I think once you strip your child down to his undies in a random parking lot on the corner of a busy intersection in metro Detroit, you really feel like you've made it as a mother.  Poor kid

 Lincoln loves doing right now is putting on talent shows for us.  He always tells us we're going to have a talent show "tonight".  Or a magic show.  It seems the talent show pretty much just involves us sitting here while he draws on his Etch-a-Sketch.  Not sure where there's talent or magic in that, but I love it nonetheless!

We've spent a lot of time baking.  I love that Lincoln loves to help me in the kitchen.  He always finds an excuse to use the Kitchen Aid mixer.

And today I feel like I may have stumbled upon something really good for Lincoln.

Last year for Christmas, my in-laws got me a juicer.  I had asked for it, but I didn't realize how big it was.  And confession, I just took it out of the cupboard and used it for the first time yesterday.  Lincoln and I threw in carrots, spinach and an apple: it was so good!  And he was actually ASKING to make juice again today!  His ingredients of choice today were spinach, carrots and an orange.  He loved it!

I did some research on making juice for kids.  It does remove some of the fiber and other vitamins, but there is no reason to stop kids from drinking juice from a juicer as long as they get veggies/fruits from other resources as well.  I'm so excited he's drinking veggies now!  I'm super excited.  I made myself a kale, tangerine, pear, cucumber combo.  Super good!  I did read one article about mixing fruits and veggies something about digesting, but I don't care: he's getting his veggies!

Please ignore Lincoln's hair in these pictures.  The haircut he got at the mall a couple weeks ago?  Terrible.  He's sporting a mullet.  I have placed an emergency call to Jennya.

Beast

Beast: this is what we affectionately call Isadora these days and for good reason!

The girl is something else.  She's like a little tornado.  She comes crawling (yes crawling, ok?  she's totally on the Lincoln walking schedule!) into the living room and destroys it within seconds.  We always find her in the cat toys.  We even moved the cat toys under the table and she's always going under the table to get at the cat toys.

And she loves climbing.  Oh my gosh does she love climbing!  On anything and everything.  She claims onto the ottoman and will try to stand.  If she's not strapped into her high chair, she'll stand up.  We have two kid size chairs in the living room and she's always climbing into both and just sitting there for a few seconds before she's on the move again.

One of the chairs is right by an end table.  B showed us her mad climbing skills a couple days ago when she got into the chair and climbed onto the table.  I'm clearly very close to her so don't freak out!

We are busy right now with two of my favorite things: potty training and teething. For real?  Potty training?  and teething!  Will it ever end?!  We've made a lot of progress with Lincoln and even made our first venture out into public just wearing undies last week.  The hardest part is getting him to tell us he has to go when he's having fun.  My new alarm clock is Lincoln in my face saying, "Mommy, I have ta go poootty".  It's really awesome.  Especially the days it's pre 6:00 am.

And teething.  Oh my gosh, teething.  Talk about never ending.  Isa had the same four teeth for 5 months and now they are all coming in with a vengeance.  Holy cow.  My nights now consist of being up with B at least once and pumping her full of meds and then a wake up call bright and early from Lincoln.  Kirk and I have both been walking around like zombies for the last couple weeks.  It's all temporary, it's all temporary...

Can you see the teeth?  And do you see the curl?!  The lone curl!!  I hope there are more!

Being the genius that I am, I decided to take both kids to the mall on a rainy day to get haircuts by myself.  Holy cow.  That was a chore!  I even took them to Olga's.  That was a disaster especially when I was talking to the server and looked back to see Isa nose deep in the almond butter.  She had an allergic reaction on the way home.  Poor thing was itching her eyes and had a rash all over her face.  I raced home and gave her some Benadryl.  She took a good long nap and was as good as new.  So, I guess she still has a dairy allergy.

Here I am trying to get a picture of B.  The girl can move.

Oh, this box is my creativity at it's finest.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found this pin.  We took a big box, put holes in the top and put Christmas lights through the holes.  It's totally fun!

Let the holiday season begin!

Halloween

Can you believe this was Lincoln's 4th Halloween?!  Fourth!

Lincoln has been obsessed with robots lately.  They made robots out of boxes and aluminum foil at preschool and now they're his thing.  Or should I say this week they are his thing.  Next week his thing will be sharks or something.

Needless to say, Lincoln was a robot for Halloween!

How annoying is the under bite smile?!

Funny story about Isa's costume: I had gotten her a Minnie Mouse costume.  I went to try it on her and it wouldn't fit over her head!  She doesn't have a big head or anything, I think the costume was just small.  I made a trip to Target to pick out a new costume and the only one left in her size was a pink dinosaur.  Sooo, she was a pink dino.

Not the ideal costume, but she rocked it.

We attempted a picture of the two of them:

This is the progression of pictures.  Impossible!

This was the first year we carved a pumpkin with Lincoln, or should I say Kirk carved a pumpkin with Lincoln.  These pictures were mostly for show.  He wasn't strong enough to get the seeds out of the pumpkin.  They slipped right through his little hands.

He and Kirk did a great job with the carving.

 And the final product!

We had every intention of carving 2 more pumpkins, but we didn't cause we're lazy like that.  And it's a lot of work taking the seeds out of a pumpkin and deciding on a face.  And carving it?  Forget about it.  Just one of those things that was a lot easier when we were younger and our parents were doing half the work!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!  The holiday season is upon us!  Bring on the Christmas music!

Lincoln's Three Year Visit

So, I didn't update the entire month of October.  Wow!  Our life is THAT exciting!

Last week we finally took Lincoln in for his 3 year well-child check.  It's so hard to believe he's 3.  How many more times can I say that?

It's no surprise to anyone that Lincoln is small, but we were surprised he wasn't in a lower percentile.

Height: 36 3/4 inches (23rd percentile)
Weight: 29 pounds and 8 ounces (23rd percentile)

He's gained about 5 pounds and grown 3 inches in the last year.

They took his blood pressure (98/52) which I thought was so weird.  Funny to see your toddler getting their blood pressure taken.  He regularly takes our blood pressure with his play blood pressure cuff, but he's never actually had his blood pressure taken.

We talked to the doctor about his eating because he is so picky.  I feel like we did everything we could to feed him well and we cannot get him to eat.  The doctor recommended a book called Your Child's Weight: Helping Without Harming by Ellyn Satter.  Anyone heard of it?  I'll let you know if it's any good.  We can't be the only ones with a picky eater!

Isadora's 12 Month Visit

Today we ventured to the pediatrician's office for Isadora's 12 month visit.  We were spoiled at her last visit when she didn't need any shots.  Ugh.  Poor thing!

Somehow, this crazy babykins didn't even gain a pound the last 3 months, but she has grown so much!

Stats:
Height:  29.25 inches (55th percentile)
Weight:  19 pounds 14 ounces (29th percentile)
Head:  45.3 cm (57th percentile)

We wanted Isa to have her flu shot while we were there, but the flu shot is egg based.  Because the allergist told us to avoid eggs, we have to take her to the allergist's office to get the flu shot.  They will give her the shot in small doses in order to make sure she doesn't react to the shot.  Sooo, that's awesome.  :(

Other than that, Isadora is right on track!  She says "hi" which is adorable.  She pulls herself up on things and  is just starting to cruise.  She also will let go and stand there for a few seconds and fall.  She's a quick crawler and climbs stairs at the speed of light, but goes down stairs (or a stair) really ungracefully, but it doesn't even phase her.

Isadora is a great eater!  We're so bummed she can't eat dairy.  We had venison burgers tonight and she ate a 1/6th burger!  (Kirk and I had 1/3 lb burgers and split the rest into 2 for the kids).  We struggled to get Lincoln to even take a few bites of his.  I love that she'll try anything.

Loving this fall weather!  The kids had their 3 year and 1 year pictures this morning. It was so cold but they were troopers!  I'll post pictures when we get them.

Happy First Isadora!

I cannot  believe it has been a year since Isadora joined our family.

Today, Lincoln and I went to the outlets on a hunt for new tennies for him.  While there, he wanted to take a ride on one of these electric ride things they have there.  (Much like Sandy the horse at Meijer only Bert and Ernie in a fire truck or Bob the Builder or a space ship.  You get the idea.)  It brought me back to the day before Isa was born.  We brought Lincoln there for pizza and a ride(s) in an effort to ease the guilt I was feeling about having a second child.

Since then, our world has changed, no doubt.  However, it has been the most wonderful of changes.  Life with two kids is crazy busy; way busier than I ever expected.  I feel like we have no down time and I'm fairly certain I got more done around this place when I worked!  All this craziness, all the busyness, all the I-just-want-a-minute-to-myself moments are all worth it; every single one of them.

I can't help but think about what was going on every minute of my kid's birthdays the day they were born.  My favorite moment of the day Isadora was born was when I threatened to just go home because we were about 10-15 minutes late to the hospital because of horrible traffic.  As if just leaving is an option!  I laugh every single time I think of that.  As if Kirk could have been like, "Yep. You're right.  Totally not worth it.  Let's just go home."  That's totally me.  My poor husband.  :)

We had a great day yesterday filled with fun and family.  It's always so wonderful to have our family over to celebrate the kid's birthdays.  Even if Isadora had no idea what was going on and why there were so many people all up in her business, she showed no sign of it bothering her in the least.  She was such a trooper all day considering she hasn't been feeling well and she was so tired.

Isadora was blessed with so many wonderful new toys!  It's been fun seeing her checking everything out today and playing with all the new toys.  Pretty sure Lincoln is loving it, too.

I lost sleep over Isadora's cake.  I went to a couple different bakeries and people looked at me like I had 4 heads when I asked if they had a dairy free cake.  After a while, I just decided to order a cake for everyone else and make Isadora's.  I tried a few different cakes and frostings and wasn't happy with them.  I went to the grocery store and started reading labels.  Much to my surprise, the Duncan Hines yellow cake is dairy free!  And the Pillsbury MILK chocolate frosting is also dairy free!  PERFECT yet so wrong!  She wasn't quite as excited about the cake as Lincoln was at his birthday, but she liked it.  Actually, she liked the frosting.  Can't say I blame her.

A huge thank you to everyone who came by or was with us in spirit.  It was a perfect day - the rain even held out and were to hang in the garage most of the day (sounds high class, huh?).

Poor Is was whipped last night. Little thing was asleep within seconds of me putting her in bed.

Thanks again to everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to be with us or send birthday wishes to Isadora.  What a great day!