Birthday videos

Since Chad is in Davenport this weekend and missed his little guy opening John Deere birthday presents from his (Chad's) parents, here's a video of all 3 presents so Chad can see.

And one picture of Evan with all 3 presents. You'd think that big of a smile for that extended of a time would make your face hurt!

McFirst Foods

Today was Evan's 4th birthday. Since it was his birthday, he got to choose all 3 meals today. Breakfast was pancakes. Dinner was hot dog roll-ups and cereal. Supper was McDonald's. Laura has shown a great interest in food in the last few days. She wolfed down her pureed mixed vegetables (might I actually have a child who likes vegetables!?!?) at lunch today. And she was antsy for food at McDonald's tonight. What to give a 9 month old at a fast food place though? She likes her foods pureed. She'd only had Cheerios once; although I did have some in the diaper bag for her. So she ate Cheerios. And hamburger bun. And a few bites of Kendra's chicken nuggets (until I saw how greasy my hands were getting from tearing it up; then I decided she'd probably had enough of that). She loved every bit of it. She didn't mind that it wasn't pureed. She opened her mouth eagerly. She went to bed on the second try (the first was interrupted by Chad's parents arriving for the weekend, and she was a little too curious about the new voices and therefore very very perturbed when I put her in bed). Hopefully her new taste ventures sit well in her little tummy, and she sleeps well tonight.

Picture Post

I feel I’ve been negligent in photos lately (in posting them, not in taking them). So, here’s what will probably be quite a large picture post.

My stairsteps!
How meals go for Kendra:

Very very excited about 2 of Mommy’s garage sale finds! A bulldozer shirt and construction jammy shorts!

A rainbow of basement walls. From left to right: white primer where Chad’s painting, green that’s in the bathroom (look through the door by Chad), pink that was half of the big room he’s painting, and orange that was the other half of the big room he’s painting. The big room is now an off-white/tan color. The bathroom will be blue but not quite yet. Have some plumbing stuff to do first.
After taking pictures of Chad painting downstairs, I couldn’t get back upstairs. Laura had decided to hold the door shut. After a couple minutes of gentle pushing, I finally got it open far enough to stick the camera through and take a picture of her. Look at that innocence! “What, mom? I’m just waiting for you.”

Evan opening his new John Deere shirt at his slightly-early birthday party Saturday night.

The most perfect picture of smiles ever! Unfortunately, it was right after Sunday morning baths, there’s not a great deal of clothing in the picture, and I obviously still have my hair in a towel. But it’s the best smiling picture we’ve ever had of all 3 kids!

Hey! Lemon juice! (Yes, it was empty. It’s from the kids’ play kitchen.) And picture proof that Laura still occasionally earns the nickname of Love-n-Fluff. (Sorry, I can't figure out how to zoom/crop pictures on here yet. Looking for photo advice from fellow bloggers.)

Laura showing off her teeth (yes, she does have 8), and her tongue of course!

Evan and some very serious product placement.

Kendra and how she accessorizes herself to play Potato Heads.

And, since this post isn't quite huge enough, I'll add 3 videos also.

First, a video I got caught taking when I was trying to be sneaky. I wanted to see what Laura does in her crib so happily for so long after waking up from a nap. We don't get a very long look at her playing, but you will get to see the happiness I'm always greeted with when I enter her room!

Second, Evan is opening his new bulldozer. He has been asking for a bulldozer almost every day since Christmas. He finally got one for his birthday.

And third, Laura got to have Cheerios for the first time today. The video was 10 minutes into the Cheerio experience, which was when the first one finally made it to her mouth. I was hoping to get a video of the horrible expression on her face. However, Chad and Evan walked in right then and she got distracted. So, instead, you get a peek at Evan's inability to leave Laura alone. Enjoy!

First night: Failure

I decided that we needed to start instituting a regular bedtime so we have some kind of a routine down before Evan starts preschool a week from today. Since Evan doesn't nap, that bedtime was going to start at 7:30. At 7:30, Evan and Kendra get their jammies on, potty, brush teeth, and head up to bed. We then go up there and read their Bible story, pray, and sing like always. The end result being Evan's asleep by 8:00. He normally goes to sleep very quickly at night since he doesn't nap. Chad was gone to a meeting this evening, so I got to try Night #1 on my own. I had Laura in bed by 7:30 since she was a couple hours short on naps for the day. Evan and Kendra were upstairs by 7:40 for sure. After I'm not sure how many trips to their door to tell them to stay upstairs and trips up there myself for various reasons, I came down the last time at 9:30 and they were both finally calm and in bed. I hope it gets easier after tonight. We'll see what happens in the morning when Evan has to be awake enough for his preschool pictures.

Spelling

A couple of days ago, Evan asked me how to spell truck. Since he knows a lot of his letter sounds, I went letter by letter sounding out the word and asked him how to spell it. He spelled it t-r-v-k. I thought that was pretty good! The v was a bit off, but I figured it's right next to u in the alphabet and they look a lot alike. I'll brag. I was proud!
Then he wanted to spell bulldozer. He didn't do quite as well, but I was still very proud. He spelled it bu_do_r. For some reason he didn't get the l or z even though he knows those sounds. And we didn't address the e before the r. I was still proud!

Word for word from Evan

Hey, can I tell ya something? If I were Daddy, I'd have whiskers.

Birthday present from them

Chad, Evan, and Kendra gave me 3 hours at home with just Laura! It was wonderful! (Yes, I hated hearing moms say that before I had 3 kids.) Laura loved playing all alone. I liked picking up toys without someone getting them out faster than I could clean up. Did I get everything done that I was hoping to? Not a chance. Did I still feel productive? Pretty much. Was I thrilled to see Chad, Evan, and Kendra when they got back home? You betcha!
Now that my birthday is coming to an end in 2 hours and 17 minutes, it's time to get ready for Evan's which starts in 4 days! And, of course, then on to Chad's 2 days after that!
Picture post to come sometime soon.

Birthday present to myself

At lunchtime today, I asked Chad to get Evan and Kendra out of the house for my birthday so I could clean up toys, laundry, etc. and try to get our house back to looking like someone civilized lives here. They just left for town to go see Chad's chiropractor. I have a minimum of 90 minutes to clean up our "junk hole", otherwise known as our house. At maximum, I have 2 1/2 hours. Time to get busy and put as many toys away in a closet as I can so there's not so much left out for the kids to make a mess with. Wish me luck!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, I'm singing to myself. Happy birthday to me!
To celebrate my birthday, I let the kids have Cookie Crisp for breakfast. I was hoping for 3 easy meals that please everyone. One down, two to go!

(More posts later today and throughout the week as we celebrate Birthday Week at our house!)