Brotherly Love

Kallen has been such a sweet brother to Lincoln lately. (or at least he starts out being sweet) He is constantly bringing Lincoln his cars and toys, trying to get him to hold them, and play with him. The other morning Kallen was sitting on the top of our couch looking out the front window and he came over to me, grabbed my hand, brought me to Lincoln, and pointed to the window. He wanted his brother to come sit with him! So I propped Lincoln up on the couch beside his big brother and Kallen proceeded to hold Lincoln's hand and point out the window, telling him everything he saw. "Puppy! Ouse! (house) No! (snow) Tee! (tree)" It was such a sweet moment!

I feel so blessed to be able to be home with my boys and catch all of those little moments.

Yesterday morning Kallen was loving on his brother, so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots. This is the typical order of events with these two:

-Sitting sweetly beside each other

- Then Kallen has to hold Lincoln

- Lots of kisses

(I like how Lincoln is looking at me out of the corner of his eye like "Mom, are you watching Kallen? I'm getting a little nervous!")

-Then Kallen decides that Lincoln should hold Him.


- And things usually result in this.

(notice the smile of satisfaction on Kallen face like "Yes! I got him to cry!" )

Rolling Stairs and Flying Chopsticks

Everywhere I go- chaos seems to follow. (could have something to do with the fact that, these days, everywhere I go 2 little boys go also) Yesterday was a pretty busy day for us, and although we had an awesome day we did have a few moments as well.
Event #1: Swim season is coming to an end (Hallelujah!!) (oops did I say that out loud?) and yesterday was districts in Johnston. The Johnston pool is literally 1 minute from our house, and my family was in town for the meet so we packed up the boys and headed over! The pool area was pretty hot and Kallen was rather irritable but all things considered he did pretty well. I was focusing on Lincoln and Kallen was playing with my sister when all of a sudden I hear the crowd around us gasp and I look up to see Kallen falling down the cement stairs. (Yikes!) The good news is he mostly rolled down in slow motion and came out without even a scratch- but oh boy did he give his mom a heart attack! I'm pretty sure I practically threw Lincoln into my Mom's arms to rush to Kallen's side. (that mother's instinct I guess) We recovered from "the fall" and decided to box Kallen in the bleachers next to the wall to play with my brother Jacob. Kallen insisted on sitting on the metal bleachers like a big boy, and I again was focusing on Lincoln when I caught a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head just in time to see Kallen hit the cement floor- don't worry his head broke his fall. He came up screaming and, again, poor Lincoln got thrown into my Mom's arms. This time he had a nice goose egg on his forehead- and I spent the rest of the swim meet smiling and explaining it to kind people who would walk up and say "oh my gosh, poor baby! What happened!?" We made it to the end of the swim meet and Shawn's boys did great! (Ok, so maybe I didn't learn they did great until I talked to Shawn later last night. I wonder when I will ever actually Watch a swim meet again?)

Event #2: After the meet my family decided to go out for supper at Bang Bang (the new restaurant on Mills Civic that is just like Hu Hot. Very good! But a little pricey) Kallen was sitting across the table from me in between my sister and Jacob. (in retrospect, perhaps setting him by Jacob was not the best idea but they entertain each other so well!) The meal was going great and Kallen and Jacob were eating with chopsticks. Jacob set his chopsticks down, hanging halfway off the table, and Kallen saw them- raised his little hand, and brought it down hitting the end of the chopsticks. This sent them flying across the restaurant landing on the poor innocent father and daughters' table behind us. Luckily, no one was injured by the flying chopsticks and we all shared a few giggles and apologies. Jacob, who had not seen what happened to his chopsticks, saw us talking to the man, and noticing "his chopsticks" lying on the bench beside him decides to get up, pick up the chopsticks, then place them on the man's table for him. He then returns to our table and realizes his chopsticks are missing- so my mom explains that those were his chopsticks. Jacob proceeds to go back over to the mans table and grab his chopsticks practically out of the man's hand, and bring them back to our table. And here I'm sure that guy thought he was going to have a nice calm dinner with his daughter. :)

Event #3: After Bang Bang we headed over to the mall to do some quick shopping and let the boys play in the play place. I do realize that at this point my son is exhausted and it is getting close to bedtime, but I figured he could run out the rest of his energy and be completely ready for bed by the time we left the mall. I was enjoying hanging out with my Mom and sister when I look over to see Kallen shove this kid, who is twice his size, off of the ship. Luckily the kid just hit the floor, bounced back up, and went on his way but it is moments like that- that make me wish the kid would have turned around and given Kallen a taste of his own medicine. Kallen spent most of the time in the play place shoving and hitting other kids. None of them ever hit back- they just took the abuse. I, of course, ran in to talk to him but at this phase in our life it doesn't seem to do any good. I really think that if one of these days another child would fight back, and show Kallen how it feels, then perhaps he would realize what he is doing. Until then- I have the big bully that runs around the play place looking for trouble. I am determined that we will get through this phase, and no matter how badly I want to just keep my child at home where I know he will not bother anyone, he is never going to learn if we don't just keep at it.

We ended the day with Kallen falling asleep the minute I put him in his car seat. All in all we had a really GREAT day- but boy could I do without the drama!

Big Boy!

I can't believe my baby is 3 months old!?!!

Time really does fly with your second child! Lincoln is still the easiest baby EVER!! He just lies around happily sleeping or gazing at whatever he can see.

I don't have stats on him this month, but I would guess he weighs around 15-16 lbs.

He is just moving up to 6 month clothes (Kallen was only wearing 3 mth clothes when he was 5 months old) and we just bought our last box of size 1-2 diapers.

He still eats every 3 hours during the day and at night goes about 7-8 hours!

He has not gone to a single day of daycare, but he is starting to be awake alot more so his time is coming soon.

He still will not take a pacifier and I am finally deciding maybe this is a good thing. (we still need to take Kallen's away :S )

He is not very good at taking bottles but this is something I am going to start working on. (no baby of mine is going to refuse a bottle- mama needs her freedom!)

There is a nice big bald spot rubbed into the back of his head because my poor neglected child does not get very much tummy time. (also something I'm working on)

He smiles very easily and has the cutest little giggles- they are 100% boy and sound mostly like a lot of grunting.

That is the low-down on Lincoln- not too much to tell at this age.

His dimples are going to have his Mama wrapped around his little finger. :)

Got Milk?

The boys and I ran to Walmart this morning to grab some groceries and Kallen actually did great!! (he has been having major meltdowns while I'm shopping lately) We got back to the house, pulled into the garage, and I opened the door to get Lincoln out when I noticed a white liquid dripping from under the seat. I leaned down a little closer to figure out what it was and it hit me- MILK! I quickly put Lincoln in the house, got Kallen out of his carseat, took a deep breath, and opened the back door......my entire gallon of milk was floating around the trunk of our Santa Fe. Luckily we have a plastic liner (is that what you call those things?) which seems to have caught most of it, so things definately could have been worse.
I let Kallen play around outside while I started doing some damage control on our poor trunk (the culprit- our ice scraper! The milk had fallen over and landed right on the corner of the metal scraper part). I had just pulled out the liner and was getting ready to start soaking up milk out of the carpet when Kallen started screaming. His little hands were bright red and full of snow (mother of the year award) and he was in pain. So I tried to remember what you are suppose to do- and I ran them under cool water then wrapped them in a towel.
Meanwhile, deciding he was hungry, Lincoln started crying so now I had 2 little boys screaming at the top of their lungs. I got Kallen's lunch ready (opted for the fastest thing I could think of= a cheese quesadilla) and got him situated while I sat down to feed Lincoln with the neglected milk still dripping out of our car. I so badly wanted to sit there and feel frusterated and angry but I had this little baby that kept looking up at me and smiling from ear to ear and cooing at me. How can I stay angry when those innocent blue eyes are staring at me saying "lets play mommy!"
All of a sudden the milk seemed like no big deal at all! I got Kallen down for a nap, (he hugged me, kissed me, and said "luh u mommy, nigh nigh!" without me proding him at all!) sat down to finish feeding Lincoln, and found myself sitting there thinking about what a blessing children really are! They flash these beautiful smiles that seriously make everything else seem very small. Their little voices drown out all of the sounds around you and their giggles will put an instant smile on anyone's face!
I am SOO blessed with these two beautiful boys God has given us and I find myself learning so much from them every single day!
Well, I am headed back out to do some more damage control- thank God it is cold outside and not 90 degrees where the milk would instantly start to spoil. If any of you have tips on how to clean milk out of your car- let me know!

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest, if you must- but don't you quit.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you mustn't quit.

-Author Unknown

I found this on a bookmark (who even has bookmarks anymore?) in a pile of papers this morning and it was exactly what I needed to hear. So I thought I would share it with you guys too!
Can post-partum depression come 2 1/2 months after you have the baby? Because if it can, I think I am dealing with it a little bit. But I am doing my best to focus on this verse:

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,whatever things are just....meditate on these things" -Philippians 4:8

Kallen

I haven't done a Kallen update in a while- so I figured it's about time!

Kallen is quickly heading into the "terrible two's" I'm afraid., but despite the recent temper tantrums he is so much fun! He is definitely my little helper, following me around the house and copying everything I do. This includes: folding laundry(he wads clothes up in a ball and puts them in a pile), washing dishes, cooking (I give him his own little pan and spoon and he cooks his toys while I am cooking), burping Lincoln, sweeping the floor (which is why I have switched to vacuuming my kitchen floor because sweeping just does not work with a little boy constantly in your dirt pile), and his favorite is switching the laundry from the washer to the dryer (for this one I actually love his help!).

He has become quite the little climber- nothing is safe anymore no matter where you put it he will find a way to get to it. He is a VERY social child- we can't go anywhere without him say "hi" and "bye bye" to everyone he sees. He also has been known to play peek-a-boo with anyone sitting close by when we got out to eat.....whether they participate or not.

We are working on our "playing with others" skills. Kallen tends to be a bit of a bully- pushing other kids, and ripping toys out of their hands. Most of this happens when I am not around, which leaves me at a loss in knowing how to correct his behavior. :S

He has learned to take FULL advantage of the times when I am nursing Lincoln. He knows that I will be tied down for at least 30min and he heads straight for trouble. Here is the result of me nursing around the corner where I could not see him the other day:

Yes, that is life cereal Everywhere! And look at how proud he is of himself. Little stinker!

Shawn and I are both pretty laid-back people so I am not sure how this happened but we ended up with a strong-willed little boy. He is going to give us a run for our money that's for sure! But as much as I am ready to pull my hair out some days- I love his personality and I would not change it for the world!

He is an AWESOME sleeper! He goes to bed around 7pm (he chose that bedtime we tried to get him to 8) and most mornings sleeps until 7-7:30am. Then he goes down for a good 2-3 hour nap every day around 11. It's wonderful!

His amount of words is endless! Almost everything I say is echoed behind me. :) I have soo many funny stories about him talking, I could post one every day. The other day Shawn was working in the basement and Kallen started to head down to see him, so I hollered "Shawn!" down the stairs to get his attention and let him know Kallen was coming. It only happened once, yet now almost daily Kallen will randomly open the basement door and yell "awn!" then shut the door and go about his day. It is never ending little moments like these that make me LOVE this age!!!

He will eat just about anything- although you just never know what he will like from one day to the next. We only have pizza once a week in our house, yet his favorite thing to say when you ask if he's hungry is "Peepa!!". And if I let him- I do think he would eat pizza every day!

Sorry- this post is getting long. I could talk forever about Kallen. Another hot topic right now is DISCIPLINE but I will leave that for another post.

I will leave you with a picture Shawn snapped Sunday morning during breakfast. And a video of Kallen saying my favorite word right now- Granola Bar. :)

Another Smile!

Ok time for this week's

Things that have made me smile!

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My grandparents winter down in Texas and last weekend they stopped by one last time before they headed out! They brought the boys these adorable little puppies and Kallen has been pretty attached to his ever since. He has insisted on sleeping with it almost every night since he got it!

(I have never seen him attach himself to a stuffed animal like this one. It is so sweet)

(Don't they look amazing for being great grandparents ?!?)

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We have had lots of sweet moments like these:

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This past Sunday I was sick with the flu and Shawn had to help setup at our church. He was going to come home and grab Kallen for me but Kallen woke up sick too so I ended up keeping him home with me. He spent the entire morning cuddling on my lap and then fell asleep like this on the couch watching tv.
(Anyone who knows Kallen- knows that he has to be really sick to actually fall asleep on the couch!)

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I decided the other day that it was time to put away Kallen's highchair and start using his booster seat. I cleaned the highchair all up and sat it by the door to the basement to take down later. At lunchtime I got Kallen set up in his booster seat, placed his lunch on the table, and walked away to go switch the laundry. When I turned around this is what I saw:

Kallen had packed up some of his lunch, walked over to his beloved highchair, and climbed in. I guess old habits die hard. :P
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And this is a picture of by far my favorite moment as a parent so far! Today the boys were both playing under the little activity gym and I leaned over to talk to Lincoln. Lincoln started giggling which made Kallen giggle too. I wish I would have taken a video instead of a picture. It was the sweetest sound I have ever heard!!

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I don't have a picture for this last one but Lincoln seems to have something against anything that is baby blue. He only has a few shirts this color and he has had MAJOR blowouts in all of them!! Blowouts to the point where i am having a really hard time getting the stains out. This made me smile because when Kallen was born- I was determined that he would not wear anything baby blue. (it is just NOT one of my favorite colors) I am not too picky about what Lincoln wears, but maybe Lincoln has a bit of an opinion. :)