Snow Fun

Finally a weekend with some snow!!! We got about 5" on Thursday night and it has been soooo cold lately! Craig said it wouldn't be good packing snow for snowmen and he was right. Too cold and not moist enough. But we found some other things to do with the white stuff.

On Saturday morning while Sophie was taking her first nap, Will and I went out to play. As we were getting dressed, I told him we should look for some animal tracks in the snow. (I had an idea of leaving out a cookie sheet the night before dusted with cornmeal and a little peanut butter so we could really attract some animal tracks... but Craig veto'ed that plan.) So we talked about what sort of animal tracks we might see. Will's first thoughts were an elephant and a lion. I said that wasn't likely, but that perhaps we would see some raccoon tracks... or dog or rabbit or deer or maybe even a coyote. So off we went and I first showed him what our footprints looked like. Here he's comparing his own to mine and Brutus's.

So he hopped in the sled and I pulled him all around our one acre yard to the edges of the field and back by the burn pile where I thought for sure we'd see some tracks.

It wasn't till we came up the side yard to one of the trees in front that we discovered our first set of foreign tracks: a deer! (I think?... Do deer walk in single file? Anyway, if I'm wrong, he's too young to care. And more importantly, he was just excited at the prospect of any animal walking in our yard. I could have told him it was a cheetah and he would have been no more excited.) So we talked about what that deer might have been doing. Was he looking for food? Was he walking or running? Could Will walk in single file like that?



Also the night before, we'd seen a TON of snowmobilers going by and he thought that was cool. So I showed him the snowmobile tracks and we walked along side the field in the tracks for awhile. That's our house in the background.

After that, every animal track we saw belonged to Brutus, but Will still said "Look it's a coyote track!" Or "Look it's a raccoon track!" LOL

Following our tracking adventure, we attempted a few snow balls.

But then hunted around for the perfect sticks to draw in the snow.



After a failed attempt at packing the snow into any sort of ball, we resorted to drawing snow shapes...


...and snow feelings...



...and of course, snowmen...


Then we played snow hopscotch and jumped from one circle to the next.

I showed him how to do it first. But this is what he came up with to mimic me: he'd walk up to each circle, jump up with both feet, then lift one leg out to the side after he landed. LOL So even though this may LOOK correct... it was much funnier to watch in person.

Here is a mid-air pic:


Then Will took his stick and cleaned off the pine tree branches 'cause they were "dirty".



And, confusing seasons, we brought out a beach ball.

Here he is hiking through a drift by our deck that came up past his knees. Good thing he found the big hiking stick!



And he never let go of that pine cone either. :)




Then, pink-cheeked and tired, we came in for lunch and nap.


On Sunday morning (again while Sophie was napping), Craig took Will over to Big Papa & Grandma's house to go sledding! They have the perfect Will-sized hill behind their pond and there would be no bigger kids hogging the hill and pushing him around. Before leaving, Will was pretty adament that he did not want to sled. But we told him he could just watch Craig sled and he could visit with his grandparents... Turns out he LOVED it!

First, Craig and Will went down together.




And this is how the trip back up the hill looked :)

Next, they got out the little saucer and Will went down alone. Aunt Kelly and Big Papa are at the top to help him get going.



And he's off!


Even with his "scarf" on, you can SEE the smile in his eyes.



He LOVED it!


So cute.


And, once again, Craig carried him back up the hill each time. Will would say "Again daddy! Again!"







Craig was sweating and tired towards the end of it... and resorted to pulling him back up the hill. LOL





Good times. Good times. And what a difference from last year when our sensory-sensitive, little boy was revolted by the cold, white snow.

Will-isms Part 3

Ready for another dose of "Will-isms"? He pretty much ALWAYS speaks in complete sentences now. And sometimes the thoughts he puts together are just so funny!

1) (Nov) Will walks into the kitchen where I'm preparing dinner. He's carrying a toy catalog that came in the mail recently and he says to me "mommy, I want to buy you a fire truck." A little bit later (this dinner has taken awhile) he comes back in and says "what smells good, mommy?"
2) (Nov) At Nana's house: Nana thinks she smells something stinky and asks Will "do you have to go poopy?" Will says "no, I just farted". (We usually say tooted in our house but I guess he picked that one up on accident - LOL.) Later, Nana helps Will call Uncle Zach's cell phone to tell him his big potty news. He has to leave a message so he says "Zach, I pooped on the potty! Call me!" Can you imagine getting a message like that? LOL
3) (Nov) At breakfast, Will says to me "You're a good woman, mommy."
4) (Nov) Will is wearing Thomas the Train underwear for quite a bit of the day. After an accident, he tells me he "peed on Thomas" and "Thomas cried" or "Thomas is sad".
5) (Nov) Will has that child-proof cover on the inside door knob of his bedroom to prevent him from constantly getting up at bedtime. He's taken to laying on the floor behind the door and calling to us through the opening below the door. Usually he calls for daddy because he knows daddy's a sucker. But if daddy doesn't come (like tonight) he calls "Somebody!... Somebody!..." He's not in distress and I know he's not scared. So it's just funny how dramatic he sounds.
6) (Nov) I've been trying to teach Will to use a tissue to wipe his nose. Now he goes to get a tissue on his own, wipes once (the tissue is barely moist and totally clean looking) and says "Eew! Look at that big booger!" (There's actually nothing there.) Then he usually tosses that tissue after one tiny wipe.
7) (Nov) Just finished watching Wonder Pets while I was making lunch, Will says "Mommy, I need to fly up to the ceiling." I say "I'm not sure you can do that, Will. You're not a bird." He says "Yes I can, I have wings."
8) (Dec) Having a snack in the morning. Will picks two almonds out of the snack mix I made for him and hands one to me. He says "Here mommy! One for YOU and one for ME!"
9) (Dec) Breakfast food for dinner. When I asked him to try his scrambled eggs, Will said unhappily "I'm not proud of you, mommy." Not sure where this came from. Maybe because I tell him I'm proud of him when he does a good thing and this was his way of telling me I was doing a bad thing by asking him to try the eggs? :)
10) (Dec) Will woke up early and came upstairs while I was getting ready for work and Craig was still sleeping. Will says to me in the loudest whisper I've ever heard "Shh, mommy! Don't wake up daddy!" And a couple minutes later when I was hanging up some empty hangers, he said again "Shh! Daddy's sleeping mommy! That's too noisy!" I'm always telling him to whisper and choose toys that aren't noisy when Sophie's sleeping.
11) (Dec) Combing his hair in the bathroom mirror upstairs. I ask him "Are you combing your hair?" He says "Ya, it's on my head. I made it look nice. Do you like it mommy?" I say "I love it, baby." :)
12) (Dec) Craig and I are out for the evening and Will and Sophie are playing in the living room with the sitter. She sits down on the couch next to the end table and Will looks at her and says "That's daddy's SPOT, you silly."
13) (Dec) Will is upstairs dancing around on our bedroom floor. He's moves in circles and then places both hands just above his belly and shakes his tush. Craig asks him what he's doing and he says "I'm shaking my bottom." Craig says "okay, why?" Will says "It's the Puma Shoe Dance!" LOL No idea what this means but he's been really obsessed with Puma's lately.
14) (Dec) On the way to Christmas Eve mass, Will is looking at two mini-books that we keep in the car for him. He's really into talking about his "favorites" lately, so he asks me "Which one is your favorite, mommy?" I tell him I like the pink piggy book best. He tells me he likes the busy lamb book best. (He always picks the opposite of us.) Then he asked "Is that cool mommy?" That's something Craig and I must say a lot, I think. We use it in the context of "Is that okay?" Instead we say "Is that cool?" We also say "Pretty cool, Will!" whenever we're telling him about something neat. So he'll say "pretty cool, mommy!" on occasion.
15) (Dec) Again with the "cool" talk... We've finished opening gifts at our house on Christmas morning and Will says "I'm ready to go to Nana's house! Is that cool, mommy?"
16) (Dec) Will walks into the kitchen carrying his new harmonica. He says "I'm gonna' teach you a song, mommy! It goes like this..." And he plays away, dancing in a circle.
17) (Dec) Will tells us "My zoo [a new Christmas toy] is super, super cool!"
18) (Dec) Will scans all his opened presents under the tree and says to Craig "I have a present for you daddy." Craig says "Really? What is it?" Will's smile freezes and he took a deep breath, unsure of what to say. Craig asked "Is it a hug?" Will says "Yes!" He hugs Craig and says "I love you, daddy."
19) (Dec) On the drive to Napolean for another Christmas party, we stop for gas and Will says "Here we are! At the gas station! I need money for the gas station." It was snowing outside and when Craig opened the door, Will said "it's windy, windy, windy!" I explained what happens when you go to the gas station to put gas in your car. Then for much of the drive through towns, we talked about stop lights and how green means go and red means stop, etc. He's so curious and such a little information sponge.
20) (Dec) Will asks for a candy cane. I say "not right now, buddy, it's lunch time." Will responds "It's candy cane time!"
21) (Dec) Will to Sophie: "Do you want to go read books in your room, Sophie? It's gonna' be really, really fun!"

And now I have a small segment entirely on Will's new obsession with television. I mentioned previously that he's enamored with Dora and Diego. So he's gotten to be quite the little "lawyer" with presenting all kinds of new ways to convince us to turn it on for him.

1) This one in particular was in the beginning of the December when he was just starting to realize that the shows he likes at the babysitter's house can actually be played on OUR TV too! Craig had several episodes on DVR that had been played and deleted. So for awhile, Will could watch a Dora show upon request (if we okayed it). Sunday morning: none are left on DVR and none are currently on TV. He doesn't get it when I tell him Dora's not on right now. Instead he whines/complains that "Daddy does LOTS of Dora and Diego's!"
2) Will: Do you wanna' watch Dora, mommy?
Me: How about we read a book instead?
Will: How 'bout Dora. (That's a statement, not a question.)
Me: How about we do a puzzle instead?
Will: How 'bout Dora.
Me: Will, we don't watch TV all day long. Let's find something else to do.
(I'm playing on the floor with Sophie and he comes over and hands me the remote. In a very upbeat tone, as though he hadn't just heard my last statement, he says:)
Will: Here's the remote mommy! Turn it on! (His tone was almost singsong. Not rude, just matter of fact - LOL.)
3) "Do you like Diego, mommy?... He's a nice boy." (Nice try, Will.)
4) "Daddy, you're mine. [That's something we all say joking to each other sometimes.] You're the man! You're the best!... Let's watch Diego." Apparently he's learned to brown nose now too.
5) "Do you wanna' watch Diego, mommy? Don't say no. Don't say no." I had already said no shortly before. LOL

It's getting hard to keep up with all the funnies! I have random post-it notes all over the place until I can jot them down in my little "Will journal". But I already love looking back on stuff from the summer time, so I know it's going to be one of my favorite record-keepers. Silly boy...

Will & Daddy

Just a few recent, cute pics of my two favorite men...

They're good buddies:








My handsome hubby:

Teeth!

I've been trying for a picture of Sophie's new pearly whites for some time now. They're really starting to be noticeable when she smiles but for some reason, they're hard to capture in a picture. It's just the two on the bottom so far. The gums on top seem swollen though so they're probably not too far off. Here's what I've come up with so far:

Laughing during dinner




These crack me up. They look like she's thinking "I really need a manicure."



This one's just cute.


Here's another glimpse of them on New Year's Eve:

She was cruising along the couch as usual and trying to climb all over my legs.

And probably one of the cutest close-ups I've ever taken. Definitely a new favorite...

Sleep Stuff

In the early months of infancy, "figuring out" sleep can become an obsession for many parents. For awhile, you run on adrenaline. But after a few months, lack of sleep takes its toll. With Will and Sophie, I started at an early age trying to nudge them in the direction of independent, regular sleep. By independent, I mean in their own beds by 3 months (I did co-sleep from time to time before that) and not depending on only mommy (nursing, rocking, etc.) to put them to bed. By regular, I mean following eat-play-sleep cycles throughout the day, regular (early) bedtimes and regular naps. I'm sure I sound like a cold drill sergeant, but I promise I am still a cuddly mom. We just have a bedtime routine that we stick to and the whole family benefits from full nights of sleep. Of course flexibility is a necessity, but always taking a blasé attitude with sleep generally leads to sickness and poor behavior.

Will slept through the night at 5 1/2 months; Sophie at 3. Having the luxury of my kids being flexible with who puts them to bed allows Craig and I to have evenings out while a babysitter does the bedtime routine. That's super important to me. And while I would LOVE to sleep past 7:00 on weekends, I also know that come school time, the kids are already prepared for a good schedule.

Sleep is a basic need. As important as food, in my opinion. And asking a child to skip a nap or stay up way past bedtime is like asking them to skip a meal. Sometimes there's just no getting around it, but we make every effort to work around the kids' sleep times when planning activities. Without doing so, we are setting them (and ourselves!) up for failure. Whatever it is we are trying to accomplish will likely be doomed by poor behavior. Some kids drop naps at an early age, some continue napping till almost 5. At this point, I cannot imagine Will making it an entire day with no rest period. And to be honest, I appreciate the quiet time in my day to get things done!

Okay, onto pictures and a closer look at current sleep patterns.

Subject #1: William Riedeman
Age: 2 1/2
Current bedtime: 7:30-8:30 (usually 8:00)
Bedtime routine: bath (about 4-5 days/wk), clean diaper, jammies, teeth brushed, drink of water, chapstick (LOL), 2-3 books, prayers, kisses, lights out. That takes approx. 15-45 mins.

Typical morning wake time: 6:30-7:15
Naps: 1 from approximately 1-3 pm, sometimes longer
Current sleep hang-ups: 1) Will takes much longer to fall asleep since shortly before age 2. He may lie in bed and talk/sing/recite books, etc. for up to 2 hours. So he generally doesn't actually fall asleep until 8:30-9:30. (But the important thing is, he's not depending on any specific crutches and his body is learning to wind itself down.) 2) You'll remember we recently had a problem with him stripping after we left the room. But we have since fixed that by putting a t-shirt over his jammies and for some reason, he just stopped doing it. 3) He used to get up and open his door no less than 10 times per evening while he was supposed to be going to sleep. He didn't play with toys and he wasn't acting scared. He just thought it was a game and he'd grin every time we went to put him back in bed. Finally we decided to put a child-proof cover over his door knob and that seemed to work. Now he just lays on the floor behind the door and peers underneath, sometimes talking and calling for us. Sounds bad, but this is a significant improvement and he's falling asleep much sooner this way. So when we check on him before going to bed, we frequently find him asleep on the floor and we have to transfer him back to the bed.




Still... it's not bad. Once asleep, he sleeps through the night and has ever since he was a baby. He's a sound sleeper and will sleep through any noise.

The only other hang ups are if are out in the late morning and he gets drowsy on the drive home, he may completely refuse to fall asleep at nap time. So again, we TRY to work around that dilemma when we're out.

Subject #2: Sophia Riedeman
Age: 8 months
Current bedtime: 7:30-8:00
Bedtime routine: bath (most nights) following dinner, nursing (about 5-10 mins), wipe gums and new teeth with a washcloth, 1 book, lights out, stand and "slow dance"/sway/sing for a minute or two in front of her bed so she knows what's coming, tuck into sleep sack and turn on mobile, walk out.
Typical morning wake time: 6:15-7:15
Naps: 2-3 usually from about 9-11, 1-3, and 5:30-6. Her naps vary in length from 1-2.5 hours and the evening one is only a catnap IF she needs it.
Current sleep hang-ups: 1) Sophie has learned to pull to a stand in bed, even with the sleep sack on! She doesn't usually do this when trying to fall asleep and it doesn't usually affect night time at all. But if she wakes a little early from a nap, she may pull herself up instead of falling back asleep for a little longer. This what that looks like:


2) This is not really a hang-up... yet, but as of Christmas week, Sophie has taken to sucking her thumb at bedtime and nap time. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Obviously, there's not much I can do now and she looks super cute doing it, but I wonder if it will be an issue in the future. We've been done with pacifiers for quite awhile now, so I guess this is a new comfort measure for her? You know how some kids play with their ear using their free hand while thumb-sucking? Sophie sucks her right thumb and holds the neckline of her jammies with the left hand. She even lays her head on my shoulder when I'm singing to her at bedtime now.


Plus, on more than one occasion, she has woken up from a nap, found her thumb and gone back to sleep.




3) This is also not really a "hang-up" but Sophie is a much lighter sleeper than her brother. She will definitely wake up if you walk in her room (i.e. to grab laundry after she falls asleep!) or make excessive noise. She can still get herself back to sleep so, like I said, it's not really a problem.

In general, Will took longer to get himself sleeping through the night, but has been much more consistent ever since. Sophie slept much longer stretches right from birth, but then back tracked a few times before being the consistently good sleeper that she is today. I think next summer will be my biggest struggle with naps when I have one child who wants to go places and do stuff and one who still needs a morning nap. Hopefully by mid-summer she'll be ready to drop that one and we'll have a little more freedom again.

There are certainly lots of ways to make sleep work for different families. But it IS important and it's a very important skill for a child to be self-sufficient with sleep.

Happy New Year 2010!!

Happy New Year!!!

Seriously, what can't you do with pancakes? :) LOL




And he just looks ridiculous in the high chair now, but it's an easy way to contain the mess when using Crayola paint markers.


We're making a "2010" craft... Can you guess what it is?

"Ta da!"


And where is that snow we were promised this weekend??? Resorting to sled rides in the house...


Go Buckeyes!!! 2010 Rose Bowl champions!!!


Jigsaw puzzles are all the rage now...


And we hung up Will's growth chart. He's really getting tall! All his pants are starting to look like floods!




Looking forward to another fabulous year! Sophia will learn to walk and talk. Will will hopefully nail this potty training thing and go to preschool in the fall. Craig and I will hopefully find more time to start exercising again and really start saving for our next house. Building has seemed like a pipe dream between the down economy and 2 kids back to back. But we're getting back on our feet again and looking to the future. In the meantime, I like our little house and complete family.

What's For Dinner? Jan Week 1

I love my home. And I love these long weekends for the holidays! (I really think part time work would suit me better. But then again, the days off wouldn't be the same without Craig home too.) When it's cold outside and the flakes are falling, I just love being holed up with my family in comfy clothes just hanging out. The only thing that makes that better is the aroma of yummy food filling the house...

Today I made a big pot of beef stew to simmer on the stove top for the afternoon and enjoy during half time of the Rose Bowl. (Go Buckeyes!) The recipe is courtesy of Tyler Florence: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-beef-stew-recipe2/index.html I love Tyler. He's easily my favorite on Food Network. But he also goes the extra mile with every recipe and this one took every spare minute of nap time to make. So plan on a leisurely Sunday to try it.

First, let me show off my new knives!


Made cutting up all the veggies and meat a cinch!

Tyler's all about layering different elements of flavor. So we add fresh thyme, bay leaves, garlic, orange rind and cloves. Plus a whole bottle of good red wine - Shiraz is my fave.

And the results are worth every minute.



And tomorrow night we're having friends over for fondue. We typically do cheese and chocolate with lots of dippers and then some other sort of substantial "main dish". Warning: we tried the meat-in-oil fondue years ago and it stinks up the whole house. Better to stick to cheese and chocolate. We also did a caramel fondue with apple, graham cracker, and pretzel dippers. That's a good one too.

This post should actually be titled Dec Week 5/Jan Week 1. Earlier this week, we just did cheeseburgers on the panini grill. And then on New Years Eve I made roast beef and white cheddar dijon paninis.


I'm still loving making "Bento Box" style lunches for Will using his new plates. It just looks so neat and organized in the little compartments.







On the menu for next week:
1) Fajitas in the crock pot - it's such an easy and flavorful way to make them
2) Bow tie with pesto pasta - chicken, mushrooms, roasted red pepper, peas, and a sundried tomato pesto... scrumptious
3) Zucchini bread - I shredded and froze portions of zucchini at the end of summer to make bread over the winter. My boss actually gave me a 5# zucchini from her garden. Seriously, we weighed it on the baby scale. :) It was the size of a baby!


New for Sophie this week:
1) Blueberries, for sure! Steamed for about 15 minutes and then mashed or pureed. Good in combination with banana, yogurt, pears, oatmeal, etc.
2) Not exactly sure what else. At this point, we have a pretty broad range of food to give her, so it's just whatever we feel like that week. Maybe a mild cheese shredded for picking up or melted on her dinner. Maybe cantaloupe. We've tried some whole peas on her tray to pick up and she mostly just played with them. So it may be a short while before we can expand on the finger foods.