Playing to my weakness

Lately when Noah does something I don't like he quickly follows with, "Love you mom." Really, already?! He is hilarious.

A morning read

We received a new book in the mail this week called The Boy Who Cried About Everything. I saw it recommended on a blog and we have a person living in our house with the same ailment. I'll try to protect his identity but here's a clue - his name rhymes with Wicah. Here's to hoping the whining goes down a notch.

Snow Day

We have spent the bulk of our winter with no snow. Pretty odd for Minneapolis. Last night it snowed and snowed and we woke up to the perfect snowman making coating.

Books

Celia has been spending a good deal of time with a pile of books lately. Maybe she will be a bookworm like her brother Noah.

Healthy

Last Tuesday Celia had surgery for ear tubes. It was a long contemplated and hard decision to make. We know it is a routine procedure but it is still surgery and the biggest decision regarding our kids that we have ever had to make. She had 6 ear infections in 5 months, started to have antibiotic resistance and mild hearing loss from the persistent fluid in her ears. She also had not slept well in 6 months, lost some weight and overall was sick or on medication all the time. After meeting with the ENT we had decided to wait a month, wait and see. We took her off dairy, to the chiropractor, gave homeopathic ear drops, practiced craniosacral massage with no good results. A week after going off meds she had another infection. It seemed like the writing was on the wall. Shawn and I decided she really did need the surgery.

The procedure was scheduled for a week later. Yikes! I wasn't expecting that quick. I was super scared about the anesthesia, so much so that I contemplated canceling on many occasions. Shawn is Mr. Cool and never really worries about anything. I spent time talking with friends whose kids had gone through anesthesia so I would know exactly what to expect. Thankfully I woke up Monday with a sense of peace about it and we went into Tuesday feeling good.

We were the first case of the morning and check in and getting ready were the most time consuming. I requested to go back during anesthesia even though the anesthesiologist really didn't want me to. She said, "If you must" and I said, "Yes, I must." The procedure is very quick, 10-15 minutes. The team brought her to us after bawling her little head off and she did that for 1 hour and 51 minutes. It was exhausting and a little scary but part of me was just relieved to hear her cry. She was fussy on and off for the rest of the day but by Wednesday we were back in business.

There are already little things about her that have changed for the better like getting into her car seat. She used to cry every time and now she doesn't. Same with taking medicine. I wonder if it just hurt her to lie down. She is also sleeping for longer stretches at night, eating better and taking more and more steps. After the surgery I cried happy tears of relief and now I think we are on the road to her being healthy. Hooray!

Mood booster

We are having a delightfully mild winter. The kind of winter where Shawn and I have said to each other many times, "We could actually stay here if the winter was always like this." Today our house had a case of the grouchies so we bundled up, it is still 37 degrees, and headed for a walk. We walked to the coffee shop nearby and I treated the boys to hot chocolates. An hour and a half later we got home everyone was happier. Yay sunlight!

Singing

Micah got a microphone in his Valentine mailbox. He calls it a "Micahphone." This photo is terrible but I was absolutely cracking up at his get up. Superhero cape, firefighter hat, microphone all the while yelling into the microphone, "she's real fine my 409." Not a chance I was asking him to move out of the blaring sun to get a better picture.

11 months

We got these pictures taken right before bed last night. Celia has fun when her brothers are sleeping and she gets the place to herself.

Don't mind her - she's just jumping on the trampoline.

A bit small

This what happens when I'm cleaning and the boys raid the coat closet. That is Micah's snow suit when he was a baby.

A look at the future

Micah and I had a lunch date a few weeks ago. I took this photo of him with my phone. Does he look 16 or what?!

Stairs

This is where we find Celia...all.day.long! Our stairs are a bit funky for a gate so the bottom two are always open. She learned how to get down but we pulled out some old rugs to pad the stone floor just in case.

Usually she has this face because she is so proud of herself or thinks this is the height of fun or both.

Updates

Jan 30 - Celia decided to show off while skyping with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Dennis and stood up for the first time. She hasn't stopped since.

Feb 1 - I am another year older and still super thankful for my wonderful husband and beautiful children. Noah made me a card and present. The present was 4 different colored paper airplanes. We had a contest to see who could throw them the farthest. Noah won most of the time. Shawn and I went out for a date night. Celia came along and while we were shopping decided to take her first 3 steps. She knows how to celebrate a birthday! :)

Super party

With the football obsession in our house being at fever pitch we couldn't let the Superbowl pass without a little fun. Noah's buddy from school, Nate, is a Patriots fan so Noah has declared he is too. The boys also love the book "Family Huddle" about the Manning brothers so there was a little indecision on who we would root for. We started our Superbowl party by making a sign to cheer on our team.

We decided on mini pizzas for dinner and Shawn had the idea of making a football number on them with pepperoni. Cute. However, both boys said they don't like pepperoni so I had to do my best at making a 2 and a 5 out of sausage. If I squint I can see it! :)

Celia was interested too.

The boys were pretty into the game. Is wasn't too long until they were playing their own game with dad though. Thankfully they don't really know when the game is over because by halftime the sandman was calling their names.

A month for love

In the past I have not been a big fan of Valentine's Day. I got engaged on Valentine's Day because Shawn thought it was the one day I wouldn't be expecting it. He was right and teases me about saying, "You wouldn't do something cheesy like ask me on Valentine's Day would you?" a few hours before he did, in fact, pop the question. Anyhow, now that I'm a mom I see it a little differently. I adore the idea of a time spent focused on loving each other and doing something sweet for the special people in our lives. I found these small mailboxes and decided that this year we are going to have a small surprise in the mailbox each day until Valentine's Day. Just a little something extra to help focus on loving more.

Year of the dragon

Noah has been learning about the Chinese New Year at school and the Midtown Global Market was celebrating with a festival. I took the kids and Shawn met up with us. The boys crafted dragons, had their names written in Chinese and saw the dragon dance. I'm so happy we went, a stellar night.

Fortune cookies.

Baby with balloon equals happiness.

Listening to music while waiting for the big performance.

Making dragons.

Each dragon made a trip around the market. The yellow was closest to us. The kids inside were maybe teenagers. Amazing!

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the ice cream booth. Of course.

Photo courtesy of Micah. Not bad I must say.

When we got home Noah and Micah had to recreate the dragon dance.

back in the day...sort of

One night during a family dance party I played Jump by Kriss Kross. It was a favorite song of mine in seventh grade. I told the boys that the singers wore their clothes backwards and they found the idea rather appealing. This is how they recreated the look later.