April 29, 2013

We got to have Josiah here again today. :)  Mary and I trade each month to have a morning to ourselves to run errands or just take the time to relax and spend time alone.  Today was her turn. The bruvvers were crazy-excited to see each other again.  Even Luke was happy to hang out with them for a while.

Josiah brought Dum-dum suckers for a treat (aunt Mary always sends a "lummy" snack - Levi's word).  I know I've said before that Josiah is a chomper and Levi's a licker, but it is absolutely hysterical watching these two eat their suckers.  Josiah has the wrapper torn off his and the sucker bitten in half before Levi's even gotten his wrapper off.  He's chewing the other half and running downstairs to play before Levi's tongue even makes contact with his sucker.  Levi sits and licks and licks and licks and licks...runs to the bathroom and asks me to pick him up so he can look at his blue tongue...then runs back to the kitchen and licks some more...makes another trip to the bathroom...licks....hands it to me now that it's about the size of a raindrop, so he can go down and play with Josiah and return to lick it some more...I texted Mary and said that the way the boys eat their suckers is directly metaphorical for how they approach life.  Levi will always be a methodical licker.  Josiah will always be a go-for-the-gusto chomper.  And they will always balance each other out. :)

We enjoyed the glorious sunshine outside.  My parents came this weekend and Matt and my dad built these two beautamous 4x8 raised beds that we will use for vegetable gardens.  The post holes still need to be dug so they look like they're standing on little stilts right now.  Levi had a blast "working with his guys."

Blowing bubbles with Josiah.  I had to ref a few arguments this morning and had to give more than a few reminders that we love our friends more than  we love our stuff.  And remind Levi, like the bird says in Big Dog, Little Dog - "Why make big problems out of little problems?"  Unfortunately, every problem in a toddler's world is a big problem.

I read on my friend's blog about how they went away for the weekend and forgot her little guy's hat, so they tied a bandana on his head.  What a great idea!!! It was so adorable, I had to try it on Luke.  I nearly ate him up right then and there.

 

 Levi made me "delicious soup" this afternoon.  He kept spooning me bites of it and telling me it had mangoes, frozen booberries, and "delicious ingredients."  It was most definitely delicious.

 

April 26, 2013

You've heard me talk about Josiah before....have I mentioned he's Luke and Levi's other bruvver??  We had an impromptu visit from him this morning while Aunt Mary ran an errand that would have been a tad difficult with a little boy along.  These boys blessed my socks off.  Levi was absolutely tickled to see him.

First, though, Levi helped me with some morning chores while Luke napped.  He wiped the windows (and sprayed vinegar all over the rest of the house) and handed me dishes from the dishwasher to put away. 

As soon as Josiah came we put our jackets on and went for a walk - the big boys in the stroller, and Luke in the Ergo.  I figure that between the boys and the weight of the stroller I was pushing roughly 75lbs, while wearing a 17 or 18lb baby.  I don't mean to brag...but....I didn't die when I pushed them up a hill. Heh.

Levi put his arm around Josiah and said, "We're buds."

 

Then they played their buns off in the back yard.  Did a lot of projects together with dirt, sand, cinder blocks, and wagons. :)

Came in and played in the basement and then ate lunch.  The boys fought over who got to pick up Luke's cup every time he threw it.  Luke LOVED sitting between the two of them - he screeched and "talked" the whole time. :)

Luke was my breakfast buddy this morning.  He had another good solid night of sleep.  That makes us very happy!!!

April 25, 2013

I took Levi to the swim house yesterday again, this time to play in the Splash Zone.  Mary brought Josiah so the boys could play together.  Last year when I brought Levi to the pool he clung to me like a barnacle. This time he didn't cling to me - he wasn't exactly belly-flopping off the top of the water slide, but he did his usual perusal of the premises, taking in all the details, and then deciding what he felt safe doing and picking a couple of out-on-a-limb things to do as well (like spray me with one of the hoses).  Mary and I were laughing about how opposite Levi and Josiah are (Josiah's the one belly-flopping off the water slide)...and how that'll play out when they're older.  Josiah will want to do something really adventurous, and Levi will be the practical one who will tell him, "Um, dude, you might wanna rethink that..."

The funny thing is, they both get so excited to see each other, then they play in opposite ends of the pool (like always), and then talk for the next week about how fun it was to play together, and when are they doing it again?

Luke is feeling better.  I'm down to going through half a box of kleenex a day instead of a whole one.  I embraced motherhood a little more deeply today when (sorry, this is so gross) I laid Luke down for a nap, realized he badly needed his nose wiped, and when I had absolutely nothing to wipe him with, I just swiped it all off with my fingers and wiped it on my (hole-in-the-knee) mom jeans.  And later met friends for coffee in the same jeans (and do-rag and almost no makeup).

What have I become?!

Thankfully, I laid Luke down last night around 7:30, and he barely moved a muscle until close to 6am.  I fed him and put him back down and he slept until after 9.  I paid for it when he took only 30-40min naps today, but I'd rather have that than 2am feeds.

Levi sits down at the dinner table lately and says, "So. I had a fun day at work."  I'll ask, "Oh really!  What did you do?"  He says, "I got to work and there was a BIG stack of newspapers by the door.  So I picked them up and delivered them."

Today he told me about how "Skunky" (the skunk that sprayed Molly several months ago, he's become quite the legacy and is woven into every story Levi makes up on a daily basis) showed him how to change the oil on the lawn mower.  Now if this skunk would clean up the spray-spots he made on the back of the garage, I might truly be impressed.

Blurry but cute pic of Luke.  So good to see his smile back. :)

Levi made "soup" (a bowl of water) for Luke yesterday.  Luke was hungry and actually quite amenable to being fed spoonfuls of water.

The price of a great night's sleep is not so much of it during the day.  Sorry baby - no nap means you help mama make dinner!  If we were more graceful he'd be on my back, but I haven't figured out how to do that solo yet. (Oh my word look at all those egg cartons on the counter!! Think we need to run to the store sometime soon to return them???)

A little hard to make dinner when I have a baby staring at me the whole time. :)

April 23, 2013

My Day

by Jenny Gouveia

We went to the 'swim house' today for swimming lessons.  So FUN, right?

((Scoreboard buzzer))

Nope. It was life jacket day.  

Never, ever spring a life jacket on a two year old without ample, ample warning, several demonstrations with stuffed animals, videos on YouTube showing kids swimming and having a fabulous time in a life jacket, a few Little Critter books with illustrations of life jackets, and a couple songs with hand motions about putting on a life jacket.

Levi saw that jacket coming and about crawled up my nose.  He cried the entire, entire time.  The other kids clearly have been through this particular class several times, and were used to donning the life jacket.  They swam and played the games and participated in the lesson, and poor Levi bawled the whoooooole time.

He was fine as soon as it ended. While we were in the locker room we had an intriguing conversation with a woman who was here on business from another state. She made no attempt to hide her disdain for Holland.  I dried Levi off and started putting on his diaper.  She made her disdain about THAT clear as well, and asked how old he was, obviously the reason for her disdain.

Have you ever felt like an epic mom fail????  Nope, he's not potty trained, has no desire to be potty trained, doesn't want to talk about potty training, and his potty chart is blaringly void of stickers.  On top of the fact that I clearly don't expose him to enough life experiences to be able to handle a surprise attack by a life jacket.

We left.  Matt had come to watch swimming lessons, so we all walked out together, the life jacket incident forgotten and all was well. Until we got to the exit.  Meltdown, meltdown, meltdown over not being able to open his own door (Levi, not Matt).  

Several minutes later, I'm pulling the vanny out of the parking lot and firmly lecturing Levi on how throwing such a display over not having his own way is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

  **Silence from the back seat**  

Then...

"I like swimming."

Okay.  ????

Luke seemed a whole lot better today...until late this afternoon.  He cried...and cried...and cried...and fought sleep...and cried....and fought sleep....and cried....refused to let me put him down....cried....fought sleep...pretty much from 3:50 until 7:30 (through pumping, a visit with nursing students, etc) when he finally gave it up and fell asleep after much rocking, much singing, walking, shushing, patting...I think he was just absolutely over tired. He took a huge long nap in the morning (which he usually does in the afternoon), then a half hour nap in the afternoon (which he usually does a shorty in the morning), and couldn't pull it together for a nap before dinner time, and spun out of control.  Matt Ergo'd him through dinner, and tag teamed with me until he settled down for bed (do I have an incredible husband or what?!).  I don't think he has an ear infection or anything else 'wrong.'  But I was like, for reals.  Levi sat and watched Mickey Mouse cartoons on "LouTube" (as he says it) through the late afternoon, which made me feel like a REAL supermom (can't handle a life jacket, isn't potty trained, AND watches cartoons...may as well just hand him his own bottle of Mountain Dew to round it out).

Poor baby Luke.  Some days you just need your mama and your monkey.

Don't be fooled. It lasted about fourteen seconds.

I did manage to make a little fort for Levi.  That was a cool mom thing to do, right?

April 22, 2013

Man, I'm really, REALLY flunking at this 'posting daily' thing.  It might have something to do with the fact that I'm spending most of my time chasing runny noses.  I strongly suspect that what the boys have had is RSV, which would explain why I'm going thru nearly a box of kleenex a day. Luke sounds like a boiling pot of stew, has a harsh, croup-y cough (but does not have croup, thankfully), and I can't keep up with his nose.  On Friday it looked like his face was melting off - he had the teary eyes, booger fangs, AND drool fangs from teething.  His face was pale and blotchy and I really have never seen such a pitiful sight. It really was sad.  I finally got him napping in the Ergo, and just as he fell asleep, Levi woke up from his nap. I stood there in the living room like, well shewt. 

This is from Friday morning right before Luke's face started to melt off. Levi grabbed a washcloth so I could 'wipe his sticky hands' (I really do wipe sticky hands!!), and this is where I found it.



Apparently Soft Doggie was under the weather, too.  Levi dressed him in jammies and put him on the couch for a nap and read books to him.

 

 My stethescope has been lying around because I've been keeping close watch on Luke's lung sounds.  Levi can't say 'stethescope' so he just calls it my "thingie."  "Mama, I put your thingie on the steps!"  I tried to teach him to say stethescope, but he just said, "I can't say that.  I'll call it thingie instead."

We made it out to play with some neighbors this afternoon.  I love that Levi is old enough to get out and play with other kids - it'll sure make me feel a little more connected with our neighborhood this summer.

April 16, 2013

We were supposed to go the "swim house" today for swimming lessons, but Levi's harsh cough and glazed-donut nose held me back, out of respect for the other moms and kids.  But since Nana was already planning on coming, I took Levi to the park instead.  Fresh air and sunshine cure everything, right? And we had the park to ourselves.

It's fun to watch these little people's traits develop.  Levi is a unique mix of hambone and wallflower.  If you've ever visited our house, typically he's ready to put on his dancing shoes and show you what he's all about.  Put him one-on-one with another kid and he tends to go along with whatever the other kid is doing (especially if it's naughty).  But put him a crowd of kids, and at first blush I'd say he's on the awkward side of things. He tends to hang back, watch, and then just boogie in the other direction and kind of hang out by himself.  Last week we were at a friend's house and there were about ten kids there...they were all being kids, and Levi kind of hung out by himself.  If they were in the living room, he was in the bedroom playing with Legos.  When they moved into the bedroom, he beelined to the living room to look at books.

Of course, the anxious mom in me was concerned - is he socially impaired? The worst runs through your mind.  At dinner, though, when Matt asked him if he had fun with the other kids that day, Levi pretty much laid it down - and this is a direct quote: "They were screaminnnn,' an' runninnnnn,' an' slamming doooooorssss...and I was like, 'oh boy, I gotta go.'"

There you have it.  Screamin' and runnin' and slamming doors just isn't his thing. Unless he's at home, of course.  I think he's going to be the kind of person who will be a crack-up in a small setting, but in larger groups will prefer to watch or go off and do his own thing. We're okay with that, marching to his own drummer.

At the park, he walks around the whole playground. Walks and walks and walks. Cautiously climbs the stairs to each level and peeks in each tube and peers down each slide.  Over and over and over.  Doesn't want help getting up anything, doesn't want to push the envelope.  Then all of a sudden he picks the most difficult climbing device and carefully and calculatedly scrambles up.  Totally owns it.  I was intrigued. I don't think he'll be our risk-taker, he'll think thru everything he does.

Luke, on the other hand, I can see that he'll be our kid who swan-dives into a gravel pit or sleds off the garage roof just because.

Anyway.  I gave Levi some leftover coconut cake that Nana made on Sunday.  I was changing Luke's diaper and Levi was playing with his trucks when he said, "Molly ate my cake!"  Now, Molly really doesn't typically steal food.  I HAVE caught her totally gnarfing out of the popcorn bowl when we walk out of the room, but ever since the time when we lived in Colorado and she totally hawked a piece of pizza, and Matt pretty much pulled it out of her throat, she doesn't go near our food.  So I said, "Buddy, Molly doesn't usually take food, I don't think she ate your cake."  Seconds later, I look at Levi and the HUGE tears in his eyes tell me that Molly did, in fact, as she glided by minutes before, hoover the cake.  I laughed and said, "Well, we'll call her Cake Thief then" and gave him another little piece.

Matt comes home, and I said, "Hey Levi, tell Papa what Molly's new name is - "

Levi: "Cake Pirate."

Rolling. (I'm always telling Levi he's a food pirate - he totally swindles my morning smoothie, my snacks, you name it..so it made us crack up that he knew to apply "pirate" to the cake debacle.)

We ended the day with some bloody finger drama.  Levi was working on a "project" with Matt and cut his finger.  There was the typical 2yr old hyperventilation and sobbing for several minutes on my lap.  It actually kind of did bleed quite a bit.  I wrapped it in gauze and put a Lightning McQueen bandaid on it.  He promptly slid off my lap and brightly said, "I like my boo-boo!" and that was that.

Cute pic, didn't quite get the wounded pinkie...

Oh that these years would last forever that a hug and a Lightning McQueen bandaid will fix his biggest problems...

April 15, 2013

Never mind the fact that it snowed yesterday, this afternoon it was warm enough to not only run outside with jackets on - it was warm enough to take them off once we were out there!!  It was an afternoon I've dreamed of for a long time: just hanging out with our hands in the dirt.  Levi and I added compost to our current bed and turned over the soil.  We greeted the earthworms.  Luke hung out on a blanket and watched; I fed him and he played while Levi went about his "projects."

   I plopped Luke in the sand box, and he didn't seem to mind.  Kind of picked at the sand and watched Levi play.

Levi tried some sales pitch to get me to extract Matt's lawn mower from the garage, but was happy enough when I brought his own lawn mower up from the basement (it's really loud, so it's a basement toy) :).  

 Even Molly had a good time. :)

April 12, 2013

Seven. Months.

Seven months?!

Lukie is seven months today.  Part of me thinks yes, it has most certainly been seven months. And the other part of me feels like it was just a couple days ago that my nurse checked one more time and said, "Oh!! He's right there. Ummm....yeah.  Hold on...." and not very many pushes later, Lukie Kabukie was ready to boss the world around. ;)

He finally decided - today! - that rolling over without the help of his brother was finally worth it.  He's cutter his lower teeth and I bought him an amber teething necklace to see if it would keep him more comfortable. People swear by those things, and I thought it was worth a shot.  At best, it really works. At worst, he looks like a girl like he's getting back to his Hawaiian roots (and yes, he does have Hawaiian roots - can't you tell?).  I joke - but I think I really will do it - that at Tulip Time while everyone's gussying their kiddos in Dutchy costumes and snapping pics in front of the tulips, I'm going to get Hawaiian leis and grass skirts at a party store and dressing my boys up in those, and snap pics in front of the Tulips.  Little does everyone know that their great-great-grandparents left the sunny shores of Portugal to settle a little bit of real estate in Hawaii.  And here they are in Michigan, masquerading as blond-haired blue-eyed Dutch boys!  (To be fair, they do have a fair amount of German and a bit of Dutch in them too.)

ANYWAY.  We call Luke The Babymaker.  Because he's just that sweet of a baby - chubby, cute, happy, affectionate, coo-ey...that he does make you want to have another.  But then he puts the kabash on that roughly around 2am. ;)  He loves to stand on your lap and grab - and I mean grab in every sense of the word - fistfuls of your face and plant a huge, sloppy baby kiss square on it.  He loves to talk with you.  He has twinkly little blue eyes and a loud belly laugh.  He LOVES Molly and hanging out with Levi.  He's still pretty immobile - he "swims" in place but is a ways from crawling.  Levi has been very patient at sharing book time with Luke because Luke grabs-grabs-grabs at the pages, tears them out, and stuffs them in his mouth.  Then he flattens himself like a plank, slithers down your lap and twists around so he can watch you, upside-down, while you read.  His hair grows out in every direction from his head, and between that and his big round eyes, he looks just like a little owl.

We are crazy about him.

April 7, 2013

A nice weekend here.  I was on call for all twelve hours yesterday (c-section backup call, not my normal work weekend) and wasn't called in, so that was *sweet.*  We went downtown to buy some new running shoes for Matt - who just recently picked up running again after several years! - and go out for dinner.  It was very fun, except Luke was a little yowly (he gets that way at dinner time, he's tired and still needs a catnap to get over that hump before bedtime) so I stood next to the table with him in the Ergo eating my fries (me eating the fries, not him). Thankfully, we were at a family place surrounded by kids, so hopefully no one was bent out of shape about the sad baby.

Matt and Levi heading out for their run with Matt's shiny new shoes.

 

We invited ourselves to Nana and Papa Rich's house for dinner tonight.  We hadn't seen them in a while, and Levi was asking when we were going to see them again, so Matt called and said if they were thinking of extending a dinner invitation, we would accept.  Who can say no to that?! LOL

 Reading books with Papa Rich...

 ...and with Nana...

We were ca-racking UP looking at pictures of Nana as a baby and a little girl. Basically, put Luke in a dress with braids, and you've got what Sarah looked like.  The resemblance is pretty astounding, and very evident where he got the cheekers.

The truth comes out as to why Levi REALLY likes to go to Nana's: he always gets ice cream for dessert.  He hoovers his dinner before anyone else is even halfway thru and then repeats over and over, "May I please have ice cream? May I please have ice cream?  May I please have ice cream?"

Coming up this week: swimming lessons for Levi!!!  He took them as a baby but hasn't had much pool time since, and I don't want him to freak out when we go to a water park on our vacation.  Hopefully it goes well.  He's excited to go to the "swimming house" so we'll see...

April 6, 2013

I KNOW, I've been awful.  Fully intended to post every day on this blog, and look how well that's been going lately.  But that's the way life is, right?!

I think Luke's bottom teeth are about to make their debut. Which makes him mildly dramatic at times.  I think I've mentioned this before, but if I had a soundtrack to my day, it would be Bono singing "All I Want Is You" over and over and over again.

And then Levi started trying to dump his afternoon nap. I'm not so naive as to think that he's old enough to give up that nap, so the rule is that he stays in bed from 1-3 no matter what.  And he's fine with that.  He has himself to jabber with, and that's all he needs apparently.  He has "Life at the Pond" on my iPod to listen to, but as soon as all five of those episodes are over, I think he bounces up like bread out of a toaster.  Yesterday I heard him say to himself, "I can't lay down. I'm so, so not tired" about ten times in a row.  When I ask him why he didn't sleep, he says, "Because I want to talk."  Alrighty.

But then he'll sometimes fall asleep for a few extra minutes, and then wakes up grumpy.  Cue Bono again.
 

 Hey, lookie here!!  We're outside, and Luke's on the ground, not on me!!  I raked the sticks and leaves and stuff in the yard, and on my heels Levi picked it up and scattered it in piles around the yard.  Three cheers for shoveling in a snow storm...and doing any form of cleanup with a two year old.

 In a few weeks we're going to put in at least two more raised beds in the back yard, and some large containers on the side of our house, and hopefully have some success at growing a whole lot more of our own food.  I CAN'T WAIT to have my laundry flapping in the breeze, my babies tumbling around in the grass, and be weeding our gardens in my bare feet in the sunshine.

And in case you weren't already aware....well, Matt and I give fun a whole new meaning.  Last night, after the boys were in bed, just for kicks, we................put a marshmallow Peep in the microwave just so we could laugh our butts off. We are just that crazy.