Fairly Boring

This week hasn't been entirely eventful. If you read last week's post you'll know that we did Thanksgiving early with both sides of the family. So our Thanksgiving week was very relaxing and low stress.

We had some friends over for dinner on Monday, it was nice having some adults to talk to and hang out with. They have two little girls one older and one younger than X. So they ran around during dinner and got into all sorts of mischief. We adults tried to play a Harry Potter trivia board game afterwards but kiddos wanted to play too, so it was put away.

I am really hoping to find some Harry Potter  enthusiasts out in Maryland, mostly book but movie too. I'm not totally into knowing everything about the actor's lives, I'm more into the story and diving into fanfics and Pottermore and rereading the books. I  still like the movies and watch them frequently but the books are my safe place.

We had a small dinner outing on Thanksgiving Day with my Mom and sister (the kids call her Coco). We went to a buffet styled restaurant and I was swiftly reminded why I make my own food. It was fine but it wasn't as great as I remember from eight years ago. I'm pretty sure it's because my palate has developed and become kind of snobbish over time.

On Friday I did do some minor black Friday shopping. I didn't wait in lines or stay up all night. I went later in the day and found some great finds spending only $10/person. So, I say it's a win!

Hubby and I helped my mom set up her school's bookfair yesterday, she's a librarian. She had to reconfigure how she does it every year because Santa is taking over a portion of her library on Thursday for a few hours and she usually has that part of the library blocked off. So we spent at least three hours moving things around and trying to give the book fair some flow and still make it kid accessible and friendly. She was supposed to have more help but they all cancelled or forgot so it was just us, my Dad and her. The boys did pretty well, Baby A fed once and slept the rest of the time and X made himself at home, taking off his socks, looking at books, and running around.

Baby A is smiling when you make eye contact with him and smile at him. X is expanding his vocabulary and starting to be able to express his needs more and more every day. I don't have a good pic of X this week, but here's a cute on of A's smile.

'Til next time!
-TBC

Craziness and Growth

Baby A had a doctors appointment on Monday, he's a very big boy measuring the the 84% for height and weighing in in the 74%. He also received some shots and he took them pretty well. He didn't want any milk after them though so I had to use the binki to soothe him.

Baby A is starting to smile and laugh at will, it's infectious and I love trying to find things that please him. He also really likes to play with toys the best way a baby can play with toys. He wacks them with his fist and giggles while he's wacking. We have a play mat that we put him on that has toys dangling at various angles and he's in heaven while he's on there. He has all the signs of being an early crawler, he loves tummy time and would just like to play all day if he didn't take naps. :)

Mr. X and I went on a Mommy-Son date! We had so much fun! We visited Grammy (my mom) and then we went to the mall to play in the play center. But X had other plans, he grabbed my hand and walked all over the mall with me. We eventually made our way into the Disney store and he started gathering characters from The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and acting out the scenes with the characters. So I bought him Piglet, who is one of the characters he didn't have yet. After that we went to a store that sells inexpensive soft serve ice cream and got that for our treat. We had a lot of fun and laughs and I really needed the one on one time with him. I've missed it just being the two of us.

Here's pictures of the boys showing some love:

With them in the bed, Hubby took A into X's room and plopped him in the bed and X affectionately say "Baby A!" and began to cuddle him. Then I asked X if he wanted to hug A, he said yes and the picture on the chair came to pass.

I'm very blessed to have these sweet boys in my life. I love how affectionate X is and how A always smiles for X.

This week I've been working like a mad woman to make the house presentable for people to come look at our apartment. We had an open house this week and two people showed up during the morning showing and the landlords sold our contract to one of the people who came. Then they spent the next half hour telling people that the apartment was taken. I'm glad it was solved so quickly because if our contract wasn't sold then we'd have to continue paying rent until someone did buy it, even after we've left. So it's a huge weight off my shoulders to have that done.

 Now I can focus on deep cleaning and packing because we are only about 1 month away from moving. Which isn't actually that long if you factor in the holidays and the time they take up. So, no rest for the wicked!!!

Today my family is having Thanksgiving dinner due to many of my family members being unable to come on the actual holiday. So I made the turkey by brining it ahead of time and my brother-in-law cooked it in his Traeger and it came out perfectly!!! I also made cranberry sauce from scratch, which is super easy, and a dressing from freshly crushed walnuts.

We're about to eat, so make sure to enjoy your time this week with your family and Happy Thanksgiving!!

-TBC

Happy Veterans Day! "Thank you, I enjoyed my freedom today!"

Our little family has had a bit of a rough week. Baby A wasn’t feeling his best earlier in the week and had a rough time sleeping at night. I was pretty sleep deprived but still had to continue getting the apartment ready for showings. 

I’ve been using this time to get rid of anything we don’t use much, pack away and reorganize. So I’ve been able to organize the pantry, craft closet, and almost all of the bedroom closet. This has been made possible by may father-in-law, his job involves him getting a lot of boxes and he so kindly saves me them (and the bubble wrap that comes) and gives it to me.

Mr. X has been wanting to act like a baby this week to get what he wants but wants all the things a toddler can have too. Well, we are teaching him the “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” mentality and trying to increase our attentions to him. He can trace the letter M almost perfectly, his fine motor skills are definitely increasing . He's also been improving his days of the week recognition. (He just barely lifted up his shirt and asked me if he could help then tried to lean over Baby A in an effort to feed him, haha, my little helper). He’s also improving on picking up toys when he’s done with them. That will definitely help with getting ready for the apartment yo be shown.

Hubby has had a fever the last couple of days on and off. This is pretty uncharacteristic for him, he’s a really quick healer. So he went to the doctor and found out he has strep! So he is currently taking some antibiotics for it but can’t give kisses or help with the kids at all until he is well. Touch is one mine and Hubby’s love languages though so it’ll be difficult for us while he’s sick. 

Tomorrow we are going to my brother-in-law’s home to celebrate Thanksgiving because my sister-in-law is in town and my mother- and father-in-law will be out of town during Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Hubby will not be able to join us, so I’ll be going alone with the boys. I’m going to bringing my fresh bake pumpkin pie (everything from scratch, even most of the spices are freshly ground, and the pumpkin roasted and pureed) and a sweet potato and apple casserole I make that Hubby is quite fond of.

My mom comes back into town on Monday after being gone for two weeks. She’s been with my dad during a work conference. I like the boys having the opportunity to be around grandparents as much as possible right now before we move. 

Happy Veterans Day, until next time,

TBC

P.S. In light of election results this week. Just a friendly reminder that we need to be kind to each other. And no one is superior or inferior because of their race, gender, or religion. If you see bullying please stand up and stop it, the bystander is just as guilty as the bully. I love you all.

An update, how life flies by

We have some updates to do!

Baby X is now grown to be a toddler and will be called X or Mr. X from this point onward.

I'm also pleased to say we have a new little human in our family, Baby A! He was born in mid-September in 6 hours, more than half the time it took to deliver X. He didn't have to see the NICU at all and was able to be with me for most of the hospital stay. The only time I sent him to the nursery was because he is a very loud grunter and I could sleep with the noise so he got escorted away for a couple of hours so I could rejuvenate a bit.

We had an enjoyable Halloween were X was Peter Pan again this year, though much more excited about it than he was last year (“A Pan!”). Hubby was again Hook and I would have been Wendy, but this year I'm nursing and that costume is not nursing friendly. So I put on a blue striped shirt I already owned, some shorts and quickly crocheted a red beanie and went out as Smee. Baby A was supposed to be Micheal but no one knew who he was so I dressed him up as a beanie baby instead. I put a coverall with bear ears on him and attached a heart with a white “ty” that I made onto one of the ears. It was very cute. We had a cute X trick or treat and Grandmother's homes and show off at other homes as well. By the end of the night X had mastered his own way of saying “trick or treat” which ended up sounding more like, “Tic ah tee”. Hearts were melted :)

We are also sporting some exciting news. We'll be moving to Maryland in a couple of months! It's going to be an interesting change. I won't have family support so close by anymore and we'll be the farthest away from anyone on either side. It's scary but a necessary change in order to progress in our lives. This company had Hubby intern for them during the summer and apparently has wanted him back ever since. They were in a hiring freeze though so they couldn't hire right away. They were convincing higher ups to make an exception for Hubby and it eventually happened. They gave an offer we couldn't refuse. We're very optimistic about what the future may hold for us.

X is talking so much! He is even starting to try and tell jokes, laughs, and proceeds to tell us, “ees fun!” translating to “it's funny”. He likes to help clean, put things away, read books, and watch Disney movies. He loves hugging Baby A and giving kisses. He's a really good and kind big brother.

Baby A is turning out to be quite strong. He already can hold his head up for large amounts of time. He loves tummy time and already has a fascination with toys. He'll one day talk my ear off with words I can understand but right now he's talking it off with grunts.

Hubby is trying to survive this semester, he's trying to still do well in his classes despite his employment because he plans on finishing his masters once we become official residents of Maryland. It's tough on him because his hardest class he was taking for his current job but now that class is going to be useless to him. He can't drop it because his funding will have to be refunded and we can't afford that. So I try and soften the burden by making him treats and trying to keep the house as clean as possible.

Life is good, til next time!

TBC