the letter standoff

as I mentioned before, charlie is really into his abc’s. I broke down and bought him a leapfrog abc fridge toy thing that repeats the letter and sound that the child puts inside it’s house and also sings the abc song. I will admit that I said (probably more than once) that I would NEVER purchase that annoying toy. well – I did, he loves it and I have already gotten used to the annoying noises. amazing how that happens.

besides just listening to the song and sounds charlie loves to fling all the letters off the fridge onto the floor. fun fun. except I don’t always want to be stepping or tripping on letters. so we decided that charlie can put the letters on the floor, but he has to pick them up before he moves on to another toy. on sunday he decided he was going to test this rule with bill and was I glad bill was there to hold strong.

charlie was getting tired and decided to throw the letters on the ground. then he wanted to leave the kitchen and bill reminded him that he had to put the letters back on the fridge before leaving and that was the start of the standoff. charlie would pick up a few letters and then try to leave the kitchen and bill would remind him about the rest of the letters and he would just stare at them. bill set up boundaries by telling him he couldn’t touch the carpet and could not pass the dishwasher and charlie was really good about staying inside those (with a bit of reminding). then the vicious cycle began…charlie would put up a letter or two, decide he didn’t want to continue, roll on the ground or pretend swim on the ground, pull out some tupperware, take down a few letters, whine and it would start over. bill decided to up the ante a bit by pulling out a hammer and hammering things (charlie loves this!). another 30 minutes later and bill brought out the phone to call pappy when he finished. another 20 minutes later and we brought up his ba poo and bu buk (pacifier and blanket) because it was nap time and he was so wishing for nap. when we asked him what he needed to do he would say “letters…fridge”. but, he still continued with his standoff…

note the hammer in bill’s hand.

finally…after about an hour and fifteen minutes charlie decided to follow our basic instructions (try picking up the “a” and putting it on the fridge, etc) and once he decided to do it he quickly put them all up and we had an obedience party.

charlie was so ready to get his prizes and instantly broke the coaster that bill had been hammering with. oh well – that is what we get giving him a stone coaster to hammer on. as a parent it is so wonderful to see the joy on your child’s face when they obey you. I was so grateful bill was home to manage the standoff. he does such a good job being calm and relaxed. pushing through the standoff was totally worth it. all week charlie has been a PRO at putting the letters back on the fridge when I remind him. holding your ground as a parent, even when it is not convenient, is worth it.

32 weeks

ahhhhhh!! the weeks are flying by and I am both excited and ready to meet our girls and freaking out at the thought of what 2 newborns/babies/toddlers is going to be like. I can’t even think about the sleepless nights or it sends me into a downward spiral. I love my sleep and I am much more “with it” when I get it. so I am just enjoying the full nights of rest I am getting now, the ease of running errands with 1 child, the ability to go to the RAC and workout almost daily, and the extra time I have with charlie because I know my life is going to get flipped upside down in 4 short weeks. I also know these girls are easier inside than out.

anyway – we had another great ultrasound today. the girls are doing wonderfully and don’t look like they want out yet (praise God!). baby a weighs about 3 lbs 10 oz and baby b weighs about 3 lbs 12 oz. the only new news was that baby b “flipped” and is now breech. a few nights ago, I woke up thinking that the girls were moving a TON and that something funky was going on in there. that must have been when baby b flipped around or they were just having play time – who knows. I have no idea how there is enough space in there to flip, but the ultrasound tech would say things like “oh they swim around a lot in there” or “she looks comfy”…what? are you looking at the same babies I am? I mean baby a has her foot by her mouth and the tech was describing her as looking “very relaxed and comfy”! in other news, we scheduled my c-section today for march 23rd. if I go into labor naturally, I will most likely try to deliver the girls naturally. however, I am not getting induced again. so if they decide to stay put until march 23rd I will go in for a planned c-section. originally my doctor wanted to deliver them on monday of that week, but with bill only getting 48 hours off and the girls doing so well our doctor agreed that it would be ok if we pushed it back a couple days. that way bill will get his 48 hrs of leave and be able to take off friday and have about 5 days with us. ah the joys of residency.

here is baby a with her foot by her mouth. she is folded in half!

here is baby b. their profiles are getting hard to see because their bones are becoming thicker (or at least that is what bill told me).

here I am at 32 weeks (this past sunday…thanks for letting me use your shirt kate! I love it!).

and just because he is sooo cute. here is charlie with bill’s hat on (from when he was younger). I love that laura saved some of bill’s stuff. I really need to try to do that.

no words

this is how bill found charlie this morning….

talk about a booger face. he actually isn’t that sick – just boogery. poor guy!

shoes, shoes and more shoes

last weekend, bill’s aunt lynn threw a shower for me and the girls. it was over-the-top! lynn collected little shoes for our girls and they were precious. thank you lynn! we are so blessed!

here is the table set with the shoes on top.

charlie was not sure what to make of all those shoes. he has been wearing his one pair of sauconys all winter!

he was much more into the beautiful dessert buffet as you can see. I think he got his mitts on to a lot of those little cupcakes. they were delicious!

me and the girls at 31 weeks.

erin and me catching up before the shower.

my friend kate came with her 11 week old twin girls, eva and elise. they behaved wonderfully for the shower and kate makes having 2 look easy (which I know it is not!).  charlie loved having eva and elise there. he hung out over their car seats (probably squishing their legs) and was all over where their “ba poos” (charlie’s word for pacifier) were. I don’t think he can fathom having the freedom to have your ba poo whenever you want (he only gets his in his crib) and not always using it. this is definitely something we need to work on. most babies (and mothers) don’t want a toddler forcing a pacifier in or taking it in and out constantly. 

pete came to babysit/hang with charlie (he had him running on a treadmill for most of the shower – he did great!). great grandma schmitt was happy to see charlie too.

check these out!

margit’s mom linda knit these strawberry booties. they are so beautiful and intricate.

only one of the bedding sets came in, but here is the quilt. I cannot wait until the other set arrives!

the shoe lineup!

charlie enjoying some bitter blackberries with nana.

charlie loved hanging with his second (?) cousin grace (grace – correct me if I am wrong).

my mom came to visit for the weekend to come to the shower and hang with me and charlie (ok – mostly charlie!) because bill was at a conference all weekend. it was so nice outside charlie and nana built a snowman and played with side walk chalk! I definitely do not have the motivation to do those activities right now so I am glad charlie has a nana and bubba who are willing to do fun, messy stuff with him.

I guess they built one in the backyard first, but lily ate the snowman’s head so they went to the front yard and started over. thanks a lot “yi yi”.

if you are wondering what I am up to….

don’t think twice! I am making rosettes out of streamers and getting carpal tunnel while I am at it (when charlie is asleep that is!). my awesome, crafty friend sara showed me how to make these pretty rosettes so I could craft something for the girls room. here is a glimpse of the project. I only have 1 - 5x7 frame done and have 2 more to go. the plan is for these frames to hang from ribbon in the girls room…someday.

in progress.

1 finished frame. I can’t wait to get them on the wall!

milestone

charlie can officially count from 1-10 and say his ABC’s all the way through. I wish I could take credit for this new development, but sadly all the credit goes to stinkin’ leapfrog. what is it with that frog???

bye bye, now

charlie is a chatterbox. the stuff he is coming up with is hysterical and it keeps me on my toes.  here are some things he has been saying lately. some might have a bit too much info, but I have to record them some where!

*I have now figured out that charlie talks to me (and others unfortunately) like I instruct lily. he will say to me “mama come, sit down, now!”.  lovely! I guess I need to work on explaining to him that we talk to our animals differently than we talk to each other.

*charlie’s most repeated line is “mama come, sit down, play cars, now!”. just replace mama with whoever is over and you have a glimpse of what charlie most loves to do…play cars, trucks or choo choos.

*when playing cars we will say “beep, beep, beep” when cars back up. so now charlie thinks that whenever you want someone to back up you say “beep, beep, beep”. he will tell lily “yiyi no!…beep, beep, beep” when she is messing up his stuff and he wants her to back up.

*”bye bye, now” is another common phrase for charlie. he uses it for multiple different reasons. he says it when he has to go #2…he disappears to either behind the table or to a place in a room where he thinks he is hidden (the funny thing is he is in plain sight) and then if you look at him he says “bye bye, now”. all you have to do is turn away, but if you look at him he will remind you that you should be looking away by saying “bye bye, now”. he will also say it when he is doing something he should not be doing like going into a cupboard or drawer he knows he should not be going into and if he sees me watching him he will say “bye bye, now mama”. not so fast charlie!

*this past weekend my mom was here and we were both leaning over charlie’s crib putting him down for nap. he looked at me and said “bye bye, now mama….beep, beep, beep” indicating he wanted me out of there and only wanted nana to put him down. he just cracks me up.

*as I mentioned above charlie loves his cars, trucks and trains. he is starting to pretend play by himself a bit more, which I love. when playing he will say “oh! no!” when a car is turned over or upside down and then he will say “siren!” (and make the siren noise) and have the fire truck or ambulance come over to help the car turn back over and say “help”.

lining them all up.

*bill took care of a patient awhile back and that patient took a couple pictures with bill and gave them to him. bill has had them in his pile o’papers next to the bed. charlie found them and instantly was interested in who patients were. he will carry around the picture and talk about bill, the patient, helping them, hospitals, etc. he even wants to eat most of his meals with the picture of dada and the patient in front of him. he will grab the picture and say “hold…patient" or “hold…dada” (hold is charlie’s way of saying hug). it is sweet, but a little weird.

charlie eating with the picture.

*bill usually rounds on saturday mornings and a few saturdays ago he only had 1 patient to see. since charlie has been so interested in patients, bill brought him to round. they had a blast. apparently charlie was pushing the ENT cart around the hospital and by the end was riding on the cart because he was getting tired. I think it is so sweet that bill spends extra time to do these things with charlie.

*charlie is 22 months and can count to 10 and say most of the ABCs. however, he will only do this if you don’t directly ask him. after dinner if he wants dessert (yes – I am the mother that always has dessert!) I will give him 10 marshmallows and he will count them out. the abcs he will sing/say only if he is in the mood. he LOVES his leap frog letter factory DVD. it has helped him learn the sounds to most of the ABCs, which is impressive. when I was trying to teach him sounds he was not interested and would get frustrated, but “frog DDVD” is a different story. he will watch and listen intently (mouth wide open) over and over to that DVD. I am intentionally starting to have him watch certain DVDs (letter factory, math circus, and Bible dvd) because almost every mom told me I need to have something for charlie to do while I am feeding the girls. now I don’t plan on putting a dvd in every time I nurse (although charlie would LOVE it), but it is nice to know I have something he loves to do while I am going to be spending a lot of time with the girls.

*this last story is a bit too much info, but it has to be recorded somewhere. one afternoon charlie discovered lily’s butt. he looked at me and said “touch lily butt”. I told him that we don’t do that and he continued to look at her butt and point at it. thankfully, he then moved on to play with trucks and I hoped our discussions about lily’s butt were over. then in the bathtub that night, he brought up butts again. he looked at me and said “touch lily, dadas butt now”. I reminded him that we don’t touch butts, but he could talk to his dad about it l'ater that night. thankfully the topic has not been brought up frequently.

*before bath charlie gets totally naked (obviously) and when he is he will say “toto nehnuk”.

night skiing

saturday night we took charlie night skiing. here are bill and charlie getting ready.

it was a perfect night – not freezing. however, there were a ton of horrible skiers on the hill, which made me a bit nervous. these people just let their kids bomb these hills and they are totally out of control!

bill had charlie making turns down the main run at welch. the picture quality is horrible, but I had to post one of them skiing.

charlie does love to ski, but he also LOVES to see all of the other machines on the hill (snow cats & snowmobiles). he was obsessed with this snowmobile and really wanted to drive it. too bad we don’t have hook ups at welch so we can’t get him into a snow cat. the kid would love it.

 

making engine noises!

Super Bowl Champs & 30 weeks!!!

what a day! the packers win the super bowl and being 30 weeks pregnant!

me and the girls before leaving for our family friendly super bowl party. bill and I concluded that I might now be at the same size I was when I delivered charlie at almost 42 weeks!

just so you can see the shirt…we’ll never forget you brent.

in other news, I had a great ultrasound today. the girls are measuring the exact same and weigh 3 lbs each. the measurements continue to get harder to get because they are all over each other. baby b is laying her head on baby a’s stomach so it is squished. their feet are criss-crossed on either side of me. it is quite difficult to see more than one baby part at a time on the ultrasound. the pictures that came from today’s ultrasound are barely recognizable.

thankfully, I have had a pretty easy twin pregnancy. I am able to still workout almost every day and I can keep up with charlie pretty well. I only feel like I have to nap every couple of days or so, but what gets me most is the tightness and “ripping” feeling I have down my middle. it is as if I might just split in half (basically my abs are splitting apart, which explains the pain, but doesn’t make it go away). I am not sure what these last 6 weeks will feel like, but I know the longer the girls are in the better so I am all for sticking it out.

I finished the girls blankets. here is baby a’s blanket:

baby b’s blanket:

together. I think they turned out so cute!

more cravings…

so incase you were wondering, my pregnancy cravings are still kicking. they did calm down a bit and maybe even disappeared until a couple weeks ago. I am currently blaming the super bowl for my latest cravings because stores are promoting chips, dips, etc for the upcoming game and party. so I have purchased and consumed taco doritos, taste of lime chips and am hoping to have some queso soon.

here is my latest need…rice krispy bars. but the problem is I don’t make a pan of them I just make a “serving size” after dinner for me. bill couldn’t believe it tonight so he took a picture of me enjoying it. thankfully he didn’t witness last nights bowl which was about triple this size.

mmm…tell me if you want the “recipe”.