hands on tip

please note: when sitting at the pool and enjoying the beautiful sunshine -- and holding a snuggly sleeping baby -- make sure that the baby's hand is not on your back for extended periods of time.

alex helped me learn this lesson today. notice the handprint on the left side of my back :)

teeth

(if you click this picture you can see a better shot of alex's 2 front teeth)

as alex's 2 front teeth continue to get bigger, drew is working mighty hard at wiggling another tooth out.

tonight he informed us that the tooth fairy is a good stealer. that she steals gold dollars to give to little kids.

payback

alex has found a way to get back at drew and ben for every time they have disturbed his sleep.



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surfs up

we spent the evening over at a friend's house and drew went tubing for the first time! he did such a good job and had so much fun! he even got brave a few times and let go of the tube and then got up on his knees! AND ... he never fell off!! YIPEEE DREW!!!

it's going to be a fun summer!!

only ben

now ... one would think that if a little boy had just learned to ride his bike without training wheels less than a week ago he would stick to the straight, flat sidewalks.

not ben.

he was doing it ben style. he's already attempting to take the "secret sand trails" throughout the "forest" with drew.
YIKES!

true talent

tonight we went to one of our favorite places. actually 2 of our favorite places.

we started out the night with dinner at ikes. it doesn't get much better than that.
anyplace that serves warm chocolate chip cookies free as a dinner follow up is worth a thumbs up from me :)

THEN ... we headed over to our other favorite place - the shout house. that place ROCKS! i sit there amazed every time we go. to have the ability to play the wide variety of songs they play and to make it look so easy - wow.

if my dream job as a candy taster/buyer goes bad ... a piano player at the shout house (with more talent than i currently have) is next on my list :)

ben's last day

over the past 9 months ben has developed quite a relationship with his preschool teachers! today was his last day and that led to some sad good-byes. first was mrs. smith, the assistant. i tried to get a picture - but they were too busy hugging. then they decided they didn't want to be happy - which is where the grumpy picture came from. finally, they decided they'd give me a smiling picture. but notice the "i just cried" faces. :(
then it came time to say good-bye to mrs.levere. he was ok at the time. but in the car on the way home he was so sad that today had been his last day. throughout the day he kept coming and telling me how he was sad and how he already misses his teachers. he spent SO much of his day just looking at the pictures in his memory book.
we are so blessed to have a school for the boys where the teachers care so much about them. they make them feel so valued and so important. they really foster great relationships!! it's no wonder that they (actually i'll say we) have a hard time saying good-bye !!
we love you mrs. smith and mrs. levere!! you 2 are amazing and we are SO thankful for you!!

the view

to start off - the view is a show that i tivo. i consider it my way of "keeping informed" :) it's much easier to watch than fox news. ha ha. i watch hot topics and then skip through the segments to ones that interest me. NOW .. on to the thoughts spinning in my mind. i think after today i've come full circle with rosie. last year when barbara announced rosie would be taking meredith's spot on the view i was SO disappointed. i thought rosie was a loud, obnoxious, opinionated ... well... out of control loon. but i told myself i would give it a chance and stick with it just to see how it went. i ended up loving it. rosie added a really funny perspective. i actually looked forward to watching every single show! she kept her political views under control. she and elisabeth debated but it was usually informed and controlled. she offered so many funny mom/parenting stories that i loved. and she is good with guests. HOWEVER ... the past few weeks (since announcing she was leaving) have gotten just annoying. EVERY SINGLE DAY rosie brings up the fact that she thinks that we are being spoon fed the word terrorism and that there really isn't such a thing. some people have even taken her comments to mean that she thinks we are the terrorists for invading iraq. today she and elisabeth had an all out world war 3. (if you don't tivo the view you can watch it on youtube if you're interested). they ended the hot topics segment screaming at each other. rosie completely attacked elisabeth and her character. so .. it's on rosie. elisabeth rocks!! she is so well informed and i love what she stands for. it's one thing to debate politics ... it's another thing to pull a donald trump and make personal attacks. i am back to thinking rosie is loud, obnoxious, and out of control. it's a good thing she's leaving soon.

until then i'm thinking of making a shirt that says "team hasselbeck"

doin the marley

alex and my sisters dog, marley, have created a special bond. some of the time, in fact, alex seems to think he is marley. he has this funny grin where he sticks his lone bottom 2 teeth out over his top lip. i am so in love with this little grin. we call it "the marley". and, quite often if you tell him to do it - he actually will. but, today i realized his top 2 teeth are cutting through. it makes me sad thinking about it because that means the special grin that i love so much will be changing.
thankfully, i took a few pictures this weekend while he and marley were together :)

two wheelin

this morning ben decided he wanted his training wheels off. so before he left for work stacey got rid of them. as with most things ben caught on immediately. within minutes he was down the sidewalk doing turns like he belonged in the circus. he's still working on the whole getting started on his own thing - but i doubt it will take long.

ben ... you amaze me.

the girlfriend files

it just so happened that the boys were wearing similar colors on saturday (it was unplanned i promise!) so, i had a crazy thought. i'll just grab a quick picture. (a quick picture. HA. what was i thinking.) it didn't take me long to decide that this was probably not going to be quick or productive. these boys are SO much fun - but i have a feeling it will be several years before i get a picture of all 3 looking at me at the same time (without making some obscene gesture).

SO ... i've decided that instead of trying for "the perfect picture", i'm going to work at building up my file of pictures to show future girlfriends. thanks for helping me get a good start, ben.

happy ben

once again happiness has been brought to one of my kids in rare form.
this time it comes in the form of allegra, patanol eye drops, singulair, and benedryl (all 4 everyday!!).

ben is allergy symptom free today for the first day in 2 weeks!
WOO HOOO!! he woke up and his eyes weren't crusted shut!! YIPEE!!

i took him to the doctor yesterday and his first comment was "wow ben ... that's impressive." he said that his assumption now is that ben has a tree allergy. we'll see if it's more than that within a few weeks when the tree allergy season "ends".

until then ... liquid happiness for ben.

Do you know the ice cream man?

hide and seek with ben

ben's allergies are getting worse and worse. they've moved on from just bugging his eyes. now they affect his breathing as well. so the other night (around 1 am) stacey and i suggested that he try some afrin (nasal spray). we both LOVE the stuff when we have colds. he wasn't too fond of the idea. he left the room and went into the bathroom. at the time we figured he was just going to the bathroom. but he didn't come out and didn't come out. so we went to check on him. he had locked himself in there, set up camp on the floor, and gone to sleep.

poor guy. i really didn't even care if he took the medicine or not. i just wanted him to be comfortable. i guess medicine is overrated. if the bathroom floor and bathroom towels do the trick, that works for me.

happy mothers day!

 

i wanted to take a second just to say happy mothers day to someone who has played quite an important role in my life.
someone who loves my kids almost as much as i do.
someone who has sacrificed way too much in making sure that me, bekah, alex, and hannah were happy.
someone who has been through many ups and downs but still stands strong.
someone who has put everything she has into being a mom for the past 29 years.
someone who i don't get to spend enough time with.
someone who is VERY special to me AND ..
someone who i love more than words can say!

that someone is my mom!

happy mother's day mom. today i celebrate you.
i wish i could be with you ... but since i can't .... well, enjoy this blog entry! ha ha!

we love you.

a mom's job

in honor of mothers day tomorrow i thought this was funny and deserved to be shared. i hope all of you moms that are reading this have a great day tomorrow!

take a day off from the laundry, k?!

CATCH!

here are some pictures of drew's very first time playing catcher. he was so excited for his chance to be catcher!!!

6 yr old troubles

this morning drew just seemed to be complaining a lot. i asked him if there was something else that was bothering him and if that's why he was complaining so much. he very seriously told me-
"ya ... actually ... i think i have a little bit of heartburn."
i asked him if he knows what heartburn is. he didn't, so i explained it a little. he replied
"it's gotta be those cocoa krispies then!"

ha ha!

alex's memo

a friend sent me this memo. apparently it is the hype with all of the babies. NOW i know what's up with alex. i think he may be the leader of the movement.
___________________________________

A Baby's Point of View on Sleep Training...

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened.

Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night).

At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've
talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 6 months.

Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a
habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:
Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard
to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights.
Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!

If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it
every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change.

If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10
minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall
asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it. Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it.

BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with.
- My sleep sack tickled my foot.
- I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
- My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
- I burped, and it tasted like pears (I hadn't eaten pears since lunch -
what's up with that?)
- The dog said "woof" (I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.)
- Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the
monitor in the other room.
- The cat said "meow" and then did the racing thing down the hallway.
- Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!!

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, NO milk will come out! Trust me.

poor ben

no .. ben didn't get beat up.

unfortunately ben is the first of our kids to experience spring allergies. for the past week he has been miserable. his eyes have been puffy and incredibly itchy. it is so sad :( i just want to hug him and have my hugs make it all go away!

i feel like everywhere we go i need to justify why his eyes look the way they do. it's not pink eye ... he didn't get into a fight on the playground ... spring and blooming flowers are just not his friend. simple as that.

another reason we're ready for summer.

6 year olds and baseball -- fun

tonight was drew's first baseball game ever. he was so proud of himself (and so were we) because he hit the very first pitch that was thrown to him!! AND ... he decided that 3rd base is his favorite position.
because 5 and 6 year old little league is so unpredictable i decided it would've been fun to have a video camera running the entire time. here are just a few of my favorite highlights:
*one of the little boys ran the bases backwards. (starting with 3rd).
*one of the little boys that was supposed to be running the bases actually went chasing after a hit ball.
*and the #1 highlight of my night -- one of the little boys got out at 1st and didn't like it. so he threw his helmet and ran out to the outfield and sat down in the middle of the outfield with his back facing everyone. then when he realized that noone was really paying attention to him he got up looked at everyone and ran further out. ha ha ha!! (i secretly love having kids like this around because it makes me feel so good about my own kids! ha ha!)
overall it was fun to watch. it's fun to see them cheer each other on. it's fun to see them learning to work as a team. and it's fun to see them just beginning to grasp the whole coordination thing.
good job drew. you're my joe mauer :)

priceless memories

cost of parking $15
cost of twins tickets $40
cost of 2 nachos $8
cost of 2 hot dogs $9.50
cost of 2 cokes $8

getting to run the bases on the field of your favorite baseball team

PRICELESS!

10 months and climbing

alex is 10 months today! that's crazy. and in 2 months he'll be one! that's even crazier!

to kick off his "10 month birthday" alex learned to climb stairs. he was crawling around the basement this morning and something made him decide to go check them out. (something he's never really done before). what a discovery! he was very busy for the rest of the morning!!

i wonder how much drew would charge me if i asked him to sit behind alex all day while he climbs and gets it out of his system?

haircut #2

i took alex for a haircut today. i have to say it's not what i wanted. i was quite specific when i told the lady that i didn't really want to lose length. i didn't want it to be just straight across in the front. i wanted it to still have a baby look to it. she obviously did not really care what it was that i wanted though :) and now i feel like alex has a dumb and dumber haircut :) te he he :) in the back it's actually not bad at all. it's just the front. so, tomorrow i'm going to try to make the front edge a little bit rougher on my own. we'll see how that works ;) it's amazing how light his hair looks now though!! it's hard to believe how dark it used to be! it'll be interesting to see what summer does to him. he truly is a really good combo of drew and ben.

"requesting" the perfect match

i have been talking with a few of my kindergarten parent friends over the past few days. tomorrow is the deadline to "request a teacher." of course that isn't what it is REALLY called. but essentially that is what i am doing. i have a form that i have to fill out. it asks me to describe drew's educational needs, emotional needs, classroom needs, and any additional information. i could just say it the way it is - drew is very flexible and will basically learn in any setting. but, i'm not. instead i found out the qualities of the teacher that is "the good teacher" for 1st grade. so when filling out my form ... suddenly what drew "needs" becomes quite specific. :) i'm wondering if the classrooms end up really off balance when all of the parents are "requesting" this one teacher?! or is it that the majority of the parents just don't care, so they don't put in such specific requests and that's how they end up balancing out. it'll be interesting to see how it all works out - if all of my friends (and drew's friends) end up with the same teacher. i'll let you know at the end of august. (that's a-whole-nother topic. i remember being so excited for the last day of school when we found out who our teachers were for the next year! now they don't find out until the week before school starts in the fall!! what a bummer.)

SO ... on a final note -- to any of you teachers out there ... do you hate parents like me that put in requests?! ;)

hunting treasure

back in january i discussed the 50/50 agreement that i have with the boys teachers. i'm guessing that the majority of the time i am the one protected by this agreement. however, not yesterday! ben had quite a story!

he got a bloody nose at school yesterday. later in the day i asked him if he had been picking his nose and if that's why it bled. he looked at me very seriously with a "duh!" look on his face and said "mom, only the teachers pick their noses at school."

ha ha!!

a little bit of ben

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ben is fearless. (well except for things that make him sick like rides). ben will jump off anything. ben will try any new food. ben will do just about anything if you tell him to. so when i suggested to him that he try a flip he was more than willing. this video is just the beginning of one of the things he is most proud of. now he actually gets his entire body around in the air. but i'm glad i took this while he was still figuring it out because it's fun to see just how fearless he is. who needs hands when you can bounce off your head! ha ha!