In a Food Rut

Okay moms...I feel like I'm in a food rut of what to feed my 17-month old for breakfast and lunch (he usually eats what we all eat for dinner). I can eat the same thing for both every single day for over a year before I get bored but I feel like this might not be so good for the little one. :) So I'm curious...what are some fun things you feed your toddler that they actually enjoy (ha. that's the key)?

Easter

Beautiful weather this weekend resulted in lots of playing outside, fun Easter outfits, joyful celebrations of our risen Savior, and of course - candy and some good food. I got the pleasure of getting to help lead worship Sunday morning and though Lincoln may have had his fingers in his ears (those that are FB friends with me know what I am talking about!), my prayer was that I could at least make a joyful noise unto the Lord! :) I know they don't understand the gravity of Easter now, but I am so excited to one day be able to explain to Noah and Lincoln what Jesus did for each of them...what precious moments those will be!
And of course there were pictures:

Noah was pretty pleased with his first Easter - check out that adorable grin!

After church we changed into play clothes and played with new Easter toys...this is one of Lincoln's hiding spots. Hide and Seek is definitely his current favorite game.

This was about the extent of Noah's Easter church experience...how exciting.

Playing the piano with mommy on stage after the service...Lincoln's favorite part of church is roaming the stage with all the fun instruments. I can't blame him :)

Jason's parents sent the Lincoln and Noah a huge Easter basket full of fun toys and candy...Lincoln is still currently indulging in this fun present!

He DESPERATELY wanted me to open the chocolates - how does he know it's something yummy to eat in there?! But I was the mean mommy and made him wait the next day since we opened this before bedtime. I know...I'm terrible.

Unfortunately, plans with my family for Easter did not pan out because my grandmother has recently become very sick and had to be moved to hospice care a few days ago. My mom has been staying with her and the doctors do not think she will live much longer. While it is a sad thing, she has been sick for over a year now and I can't imagine how exciting it must be for her to soon meet our Savior face to face!!!

Noah is 8 Weeks!

I always struggled with these "monthly posts" with Lincoln...Noah was born on Feb. 6th, so it's not April 6th yet, but today was exactly 2 months ago. So do I wait until the sixth of go by the fact that it was now been exactly 8 weeks? Hmmm...I'm obviously going with the latter on this one.

The major milestone met in the past week has been SMILES!!!! And oh my goodness how yummy he is when he lights up! Usually there's about a 20-minute window when he's full of smiles right after he eats. Then he gets fussy trying to move the milk through his belly and then he falls asleep.

Speaking of milk, I've kind of gotten away from feeding schedules (or at least not as neurotic with them as I was with Lincoln) and let me tell you - it is liberating!!!! Go figure...he eats when he wants to. :) This has worked for us because Noah likes to take monster naps throughout the day. Typically, he wakes up when Lincoln does, I feed him while Lincoln runs around the living room, then we all move into the kitchen together, turn on the ipod and dance while I make breakfast. Noah is wake this whole time watching how crazy we can be (though this is when he has smiled the most!), but soon crashes (usually in his swing but sometimes i put him in his bassinet) sometime during Lincoln's bathtime. Then Lincoln goes to bed and they both sleep for about 3 hours - it's pretty phenomenal actually.

At night, I usually feed him around 1, and then Jason will give him a bottle around midnight. T=He wakes up once around 3:30-4:00 to eat and then usually doesn't wake up again until 7-something. So the routine works out pretty nice, but after we get the okay from the doc in a week, we're probably going to start working to get rid of that early morning feeding (which means lots of screaming for a few nights in our house!).

Also pleased to say that Noah has resulted to the fact that we are going to work out in the jogger every day and he has finally started to not cry hardly at all (he might actually like it now!). He is also getting tons better about this in the car.

He has gone from pooping 20 times a day to only once which works for me!

He still has some tummy troubles (these never resided for Lincoln until he was 4 months), but we have become experts on helping him with this so it doesn't seem as bad as it did with Lincoln.

Lincoln is at such a fun playful age right now (we're loving it!) and everyday I watch him play and discover, I get more and more excited for the upcoming days of watching him and his baby brother do it together. How precious will that be...

BTW, I'm SUPER excited about their Easter outfits tomorrow!

All Around Fantastic Day

At one point today, the thermometer in my car read 83 degrees...amazing. The boys and I woke up this morning to clean house (thanks to Realtors coming through the previous day and company last night), beautiful sunshine, and happy spirits all around. Lincoln had some sweet moments of endearment with Noah this morning that were intentional and melted my heart. At breakfast we all held hands and prayed together which was a treasured little moment.
After naptimes, we met aunt Amy at Flying Burrito (did you know kids eat FREE M-W???) and sat out on the patio (double bonus - it's CAGED IN so Lincoln can roam free!).
After lunch, we made our way to a long overdue gymnastics playtime at Amy's gym. Let me add, when it's time to leave,the adorable toddler throws a not-so-adorable tantrum cause it's THAT fun.
Then when we made our way back home, all three of us crashed for a nap. I call this day a most definite success. :)

Of course he has to stop playtime for Noah kisses! And he smiled a lot today! This was not the best smile shot, though because of course the little booger plays hard to get when the camera rolls out...but I'll take it! Brave man here ran and jumped by himself in the pit! His panicked looked when he realized he couldn't get out!

Oops.

Last night I was at church for 3+ hours rehearsing songs for this coming Sunday's service and Easter service, leaving my sweet hubby to tend to the flock. Lincoln was in a little bit of a grumpy mood yesterday afternoon and I felt bad leaving him with somewhat of chaos that can be our lovely kiddos. When I got home, Lincoln was in bed and Noah was asleep in his arms. There were toys EVERYWHERE which is always indicative of good ole fun playing time with daddy and his boys. I thought, he's got it - my husband's a champ.
Then I noticed in the kitchen, Lincoln's tray from his high chair still had the remnants from Lincoln's early lunch that day...
"Hunny...what did Lincoln eat for dinner tonight?"
The "oops" look washed over his face as I realized he forgot to feed him dinner before putting him to bed. He asked if he should get him up and feed him (it was now 10:00pm)...NO. And this answer was so adamant because the previous night, I went in to check on my sweet baby around midnight before I went to bed (as I do every night because I love the sweetness of watching him sleep) - only this time when I went in, it woke him up, he abruptly stood up in his crib and screamed at the top of his lungs as I tried to race out of the room (which made him scream louder if that was possible). This screaming only worsened until we had to get him and console him till two in the morning! I had to grieve for a bit recognizing my days of watching him sleep in the middle of the night were pretty much over, apparently.
So when Jason asked if we should wake him up to feed him, the answer was a most definitely NO.
So nonetheless, you can bet I had my share of jokes for the sweet husband as we were falling asleep last night (all in good fun)...you know, "I hope the darling doesn't starve to death tonight...or he's probably dreaming about juicy steak dinners right now..."
To which he replied with a smile..."Maybe you should go check on him."
I love my husband! :)

*side note = Jason wasn't the only one with an oops last night. I woke up this morning and realized I had forgotten to change Noah's diaper before he went to bed. Terrible. But both our children survived and Lincoln had a HUGE pancake breakfast this morning where he ate 2 pancakes, yogurt, a banana, and turkey sasage - more than he has ever eaten in one setting as far as I can remember.

"Um...A Denali"

Let me introduce you to the pretty little thing that's been gracing our driveway:

Ain't she a beauty? While I wish I could claim her as my own, she is just a loaner (and a perk of Bentonville), but has nonetheless spoiled us a tad bit lately. We must return her tomorrow and are cherishing this last evening. We got to take her to KC this past weekend, riding in style and loving all it's little amenities. Of course we can't afford such a beauty, but it was fun pretending otherwise for the weekend. So that's the story of the Denali.
Now the story of our second hotel night:
Again, we checked in late Saturday night and were welcomed with a disgruntled overnight shift worker who was all but pleased that we needed a room late at night. I had previously called this hotel earlier that night to get a price quote which did not match the one the "friendly" worker gave me when we got there (his was $10 more). We went round and round on the price, and though it might seem small to get hung up on $10, I felt like he was pulling a fast one and ten dollars IS something to us these days! We finally settled on a price we could both agree with (which, let me assure you he was not getting friendlier!) and then he even wanted to add an extra $10 charge for us to use the pack-n-play. Oh dear. But I was able to negotiate my way out of that one too.
And then...as he was filling out our paper work, he had to ask what car we drove.
Dang.
A Denali.
I'm sure a few thoughts went through his head. Did I mention it's a loaner Mr. Overnight shift worker??

And then today...beautiful weather, long walk on a new trail, fun times at the park...fantastic.

It's a Boy!!!

No, this is not our announcement of another child (though you probably wouldn't be surprised, huh?). Let me explain. In recent months I have randomly gotten the "oh what a cute little girl you have!" comment. I'm the one who smiles and says "thanks" verses correcting the sweet lady (whom it usually seems to be that makes this mistake). But here recently those comments have gone from a random one every now and then to about 3/day (current record). Conclusion? Our little fellow is in need of a haircut - a big boy haircut. So today, my friends, we have - no doubt - a boy. :)
Please partake in a "before" photo...

Followed by the process...

Then - The finished product (and a happy big boy!).

And of course, Noah and his wide eyes. :)