Day at the Mall

Amelia's third birthday is this weekend! Yesterday Auntie Kim brought us to Sea Life MN in the Mall of America to celebrate! It had been about a year and a half since we had been there and in that time it was remodeled so it was a little bit different than we remembered it!

The jellyfish were a hit with Amelia again!

After Sea Life we went to Nickelodeon Universe theme park. I got enough tickets for Amelia to go on three rides. She went on the carousel, Azul's Adventure (the train from Dora) and Wonder Pets Flyboat (they sit on a bench and it went up and bounced down several times.) I went on everything but the flyboat with her - she asked me to sit next to her but I knew she could do it alone!


She did well until the last time it went up. She started to cry a little bit at that point.

Waiting in line for rides was the most patient I have ever seen this girl! She was so mesmerized by everything.

Before we headed out we had a late lunch/early dinner at one of the mall's food courts. Amelia was excited about her crown!

This little guy was a trooper all day long! He sat in his stroller content and (mostly) happy the entire day :)

We made a few stops on our way home from the mall making it a nice, full, long day. Everyone was pretty tired by the time we made it home! I got Amelia into her bed and went to get her the milk she asked for and by the time I got back with it she was out cold! We all slept pretty good last night!

Weekend Walks

We had some nice weather this weekend! By nice, I mean mid-thirties... We took advantage of the "warm" weather and went on a couple of family walks. Joey stayed all warm and cozy in his stroller on our walk to the school playground Saturday afternoon.

While at the playground we found a few playground balls that were left out and Amelia had fun playing "be-bah" (baseball) with them. Her version of baseball involved a soccer net so I am not sure what she was actually playing but she had fun!

Sunday afternoon we went over to my parent's house and broke in the kids' wagon that Santa brought them. I forgot to pack Joe's snowsuit so he rode in his carseat in the stroller and Amelia had the wagon all to herself. I think she preferred it that way! We walked nearly two miles!

After our walk we had BLT sandwiches! Amelia discovered a love for Cheeto puffs...her dinner was yogurt and probably a dozen Cheeto puffs! We're slowly working on expanding her taste buds. This weekend she re-discovered peas and was asking for them at meals. That's progress! She used to love them and just fell out of it somewhere between one and two. In fact, between one and two she became a pretty picky eater. Some nights all we can hope for is that she'll eat something - anything!

We had a good weekend! Hopefully that will set us up for a good week :)

Silly Sleeper

I have been finding Amelia in some strange sleeping situations this month! One night she insisted I put on her silver, sparkly, princess shoes...over her footie pajamas! I expected they'd come off before she fell asleep but I was wrong!

I'm not sure how she ended up pressed against the bed...

The other night she was tired. I kept her up a bit longer and then put her into her room with her gate up. I sat down with Joe to nurse him to sleep and she kept coming to the gate asking to come out. I did not take the gate down because I was busy and, well, she was busy too! She emptied her bed onto the floor and eventually fell asleep on top of the pile of stuff!

She can be sooooo silly sometimes!

4 Months

On Monday, Joey turned four months old! We went to the doctor for his appointment on Valentine's Day and he looks great! He is 18 pounds 5 ounces (95th percentile) and 28 inches (100th percentile.) Basically, he is huge! I have taken to lovingly calling him "Fat Joe." I can't help it! He is just a little chunky guy and it's so, so cute :)

Last week he officially moved into size 6-9/9 month clothing and it fits perfectly. It's only a matter of time before we have to move into 12 month clothing! He is also less than four pounds away from the weight limit on his infant carrier so he will be making the switch to a rear-facing convertible seat much, much earlier than his sister did. In fact, I'm thinking it will take him half the time it took her. She switched around 10 or 11 months old and I am thinking by 5 months with him we will be switching!

At around three months he rolled over for the first time - from front to back. Since then he has only done it a handful of times. I told the doctor this and she joked, "I wouldn't want to do it often either if I were him. He has a lot to move!" The important thing is that he can do it. Even if he chooses not to often...

We are still going strong breastfeeding and it has created quite the little mama's boy. When I am around he needs to be with me or near me. If I don't go see him upon getting home from work he starts to whine. Jason says he is basically fine all day but when I get home if I don't go to him the whining starts. And it continues throughout the night. It really tests my patience most nights but we make it through!

We love our little Joe! He has been a much more challenging baby for us than Amelia was but that's ok! I think we got by too easy with her ;)

Rough Week

We are having a rough week around here. This is Jason's first full week on overtime at work - which means he is getting home just after 1 a.m. instead of just after 10 p.m. It might seem like no big deal but keep in mind that I get up for work at 3:30 a.m. so if children (Joey in particular) will not go to bed I now have no relief. I have to stay up until everyone is in bed and sleeping. Yesterday night that was 11 p.m. I got into bed by 11:15.

Another factor in this rough week is this:

I woke up like this Monday morning with a fever. Needless to say I called in to work and went back to bed. The fever broke before lunch but I still felt tired - probably because I never sleep - so I went back to bed until Jason had to leave for work. Yesterday morning the eye wasn't any better so I went in to see a doctor. There is no sign of infection and he seems to think it is an allergic reaction to something. I have drops to put in four times a day and am doing cold compresses when I can. Other than that I have to wait it out. There is little pain associated with it but it is very uncomfortable and my eye gets "tired" quickly.

Amelia is a ball of energy, as usual. I continue to be thankful for the "little helper" in her. Last night she had her bath, I took a shower and as I was getting dressed she was all over the place and I kept saying, "next we'll give Joe a bath and then we can play." Eventually she came into my room with an orange rag which I assumed was her Dora washcloth that I made her leave in the tub because it was wet. I started to scold her and then realized it was a baby washcloth. So I went down the hall and into the bathroom and found this:

She had drug the baby bath tub into the bathroom from the kitchen and put it into the tub. She had gotten him a clean towel and laid it out on the floor, just like I do. In her hand she had two washcloths. We always use two for him. One to cover his boy parts and one to wash him with. She is so smart and so helpful! I teared up a little at this gesture. It had been that bad of a night that my (almost) 3-year-old getting a few towels out made me cry.

We gave Joe his bath and went on with the night. It was still not an ideal night. I still was frustrated beyond belief. I still would have given nearly anything for Amelia to go to bed so I could focus on getting Joe to bed so I could get to bed. But in the end I realized that there are far worse things than children who have a hard time with bedtime and there are people with terrible eye problems - not just some swelling. I went to bed - happy with the promise of a fresh start in the morning. And today was better. Not great - but better.

I have a ton of cute pictures to share but for now, Joe is currently sleeping and Amelia is watching Diego...I think I am going to brave crawling into bed pretty quick here!

Light-Up Staff

Amelia got a flashing, light-up staff at the Holidazzle in December. We recently replaced the batteries in it and it is a BIG hit again!

She took it to bed with her a couple of nights ago and when we went in to check on her before we went to bed this is what we found:



The photos didn't turn out awesome so I took a video too:



The following night we found the same thing...


...except this time her star-bug was there too!

Last night it was the same story only I didn't get a picture!

We don't know if it is mere coincidence but the past two, maybe three, nights (I honestly can't remember...the days are long here!) she has woken up at 3 a.m. exactly and she is upset. I am just getting up for work then and do what I can to soothe her and Jason also gets up. The first night or two she went back to sleep with a movie on her "baby TV" (portable DVD player) and that was that. Jason said this morning she would not go back to sleep after I left. She was acting terrified and kept looking around her room like there was something in there scaring her. They eventually ended up sleeping on the couch - with the lights on, of course.

I am wondering if the flashing lights in her sleep have anything to do with this new trend in her sleeping habits? I'm testing it tonight. I have already hidden the flashing staff so it will not be making an appearance at bedtime. We'll see what happens in the morning! If that does not seem to be the problem I am not sure what we are going to do!

Fun Onesie

Joey had on an amusing onesie the other night...



It suits him well!

Spilled Milk

They say, "don't cry over spilled milk" but yesterday that was hard to remember!


That's about 5 ounces of breastmilk - all over the floor. I was bagging up what I had expressed at work that day and wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing and the bag just tipped right over. I just stood there - mad. Amelia was next to me, "helping", and when the mess was made she knew just what to do. She ran to the rag drawer, grabbed one and got busy.


Her efforts made me smile and I really was thankful she knows what to do when a mess is made! Together we picked up the mess and by the end I realized I couldn't be upset. Why? There was nothing I could do about it at that point. It had happened and that was that. Once again, a simple gesture from a small girl helped me relax.

I think the hardest part of it all was just breastmilk being wasted. I have to spend my breaks at work pumping, skip chatting time with co-workers and then attempt to eat my lunch in the five or ten minutes I have left after pumping. It's just not fun! Some days I just sit there and think, "I could quit nursing him and then I could actually rest on my break and not inhale my food" etc. In the end, I remember that I had said I'd nurse him as long as he showed interest and I plan to stick to that - as hard as it may be sometimes.

Nursing and pumping is going very well. We got to the point where our freezer looked like this:


So we went out and got ourselves a small chest freezer.


We now store all milk in there along with a few other items. Since the above photo was taken the freezer has been filled a bit more... We are still trying to work out a good system for rotating milk and what additional items we would like to store in there. For now we are just thankful to have the extra freezer space!

Joe has been doing pretty well switching from breast to bottle!


(first bottle, December 6, 2011)

I still nurse him when I am home. Very rarely will he get a bottle when I am around because in order to keep this up we need to nurse! Sometimes I would love for him to just have a bottle - it is much quicker and it would allow me to get more done most days!

I will stick to what I told the doctor from the start, "I will do it as long as he wants to." It's not really about what I want. Breastfeeding him is better for him, better for me and better for the wallet! Three great reasons to keep going even when I don't want to!

Choo Choo!

Last weekend we took Amelia to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum and she had a blast! She loved watching the "choo choos" go 'round and 'round and 'round!

The Hazards of Having a Big Sister

Amelia is already teaching her little brother to accesorize...




I had turned around for one second and when I looked back she was placing one of her flower headbands on his little head! She was actually gentle as well, which shocked me! She is rough and tough little girl most of the time!