Stall Tactics

I'm guessing if you have a toddler you are aware of the 500 stall tactics they can use so they don't have to go to bed. Henry is getting a little more creative these days and we appreciate this because it adds a little more humor to it.

Last night he brought out some good ones.....

First up - "He comes down and tells me that his coloring book does not belong in his room but in his play room." Yes, he is correct, we don't have toys or those kinds of things in his room.  He promptly took the coloring book and placed it in his playroom and then went back upstairs.

Second up - "I have to tinkle." He switched it up because his normal go to is "I have to poop" and 9 times out of 10, he does. So, we told him to go sit on the potty. He comes out and says "The tinkle won't come out." I reply, "Probably because you really don't have to go." He of course starts laughing.

Third Up - He just walks downstairs and goes into his playroom. We have no idea what he was doing until the Fourth trip.

Fourth Trip - "Mommy. I don't need these cars in my room anymore, please take them from me and put them back in my playroom." I guess he took them upstairs with him on trip number 3.

It is now about 9:45pm and I have to use the no sticker card to get him to stay in the bed. Yes, it worked because he loves to add stickers to his sticker chart and he knows that he is three stickers away from a Target trip.

No, my child is not normally up this late but he napped at school from 1:40 to 2:30 and this is what happens when he naps......HE WON'T SLEEP! On no nap days he is in bed and asleep just after 8pm. We actually have to tell school not to have him nap and yes they look at us crazy but what can you do.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else he will come up with in the upcoming weeks.

Making a Mom Proud

We just got Henry's assessment from school for the Spring Semester. It just warms a mother's heart when the teacher says this in the comment section.

Henry has learned so much in the class and I feel he has mastered all of his developmental milestones at this level. He really enjoys learning and is very outgoing. I believe Henry is beyond ready to move to preschool and I think he is going to continue to excel in all areas. I am very happy with all the progress he has made. I am going to miss him so much once he moves to preschool.

They also noted that he loves to sing. I surely hope he can carry a tune better then his mother.

Henry will start Preschool on June 14th and he is actually very excited about it. Everyday he asks if he can go to his new room. I hope he loves it as much as he loves his old room. 

Word (less) Wednesday

Somebody is confused on who the baby is in the house...........

Wordless Wednesday

I love Mary's daycare bc days when I miss her it seems like they know and they send me pictures!

Almost Ready

Yep that is a picture of a dog cage and some treats we got for Maggie. We are picking her up tomorrow around 11:30am. Henry is beyond excited and I have to say I am too but I do have some mixed emotions.

I know Maggie will never replace Ellie because Ellie was mine and Charlie's dog. Yes, of course she was around with Henry but it really wasn't his dog. Maggie is going to be his dog, she's going to be our family dog.  She is going to be the dog that Henry sleeps with at night, she's going to be the one that is there for his first day of school, the one that follows him around, the one that makes his day brighter.

She will be Mary's dog too but she obviously is too young to understand. Although, I am pretty excited about Maggie giving Mary some slicks on those big ole cheeks.

So tomorrow afternoon we again our dog family, looking forward to this new adventure and having the love a dog in our house again.

I'm Watching You

Mary is pretty aware of her surroundings and it's pretty cool to see how alert she is.  She certainly knows our voices and will look for Charlie and I......BUT when she hears Henry her head almost spins around to find him.

It's amazing how much she looks for him and watches him when he is in the room. Charlie can come into a room and she won't so much bat an eyelash but a second later, brother walks in and bam, she wants to know what he is doing.

Look at these two pictures....

Yes, he is holding her ball, but I kid you not she stared at him and at that ball for the few minutes he laid next to her. She was giggling and cooing at him too. As soon as he got off the couch she followed him with her eyes to the other part of the room.

She only does this for him. He doesn't know that she is watching him but I love it. I feel like they already have a sibling connection.

Poor brother though, in a few months she will be following him not only with her eyes but crawling and taking his toys. I'm not sure Henry is ready for that, so it should be interesting.

Word "less" Wednesday for Grandma

Reason 7685....

I'm pretty sure we are at reason 7685 of why I love my husband. Let me tell you why, this time, so you all can be jealous.

Our lovely daughter who has been sleeping through the night decided 2:30am was a reasonable time to want to wake and eat, Charlie being the great husband/dad that he is took the feeding. Then our wonderful son who likes to wake at the crack, thought 5:45am was a great time to start the day, Charlie again took him. Mary got up again at 6:30am and I went to get a bottle and Charlie offered to take her so I could go back to sleep, and I did, until 8am.

At 8am, I came down and was welcomed to Henry yelling, Happy Mother's Day! Of course that was followed by big hugs and kisses. He wanted to give me my cards and gifts, so who am I to turn him down. I should have taken a picture of the card he gave me. It was the head of chocolate lab and the card was hysterical. Charlie said Henry picked it out all by himself. I also got a card from Charlie that was very sweet. Henry helped me rip open the gift and inside were three tiny boxes. Henry wanted to know where is new CARS car was but I told him it was Mommy's day not Henry's.

Inside  two of those boxes were these amazing rings! The blue turquoise is for December (H's bday) and the  garnet is for January (M's bday). That is my wedding band in the middle.

Inside the other box, was a Pandora charm for my other baby, Ellie. The charm looks just like her. I had asked Charlie to get me one so I would have it to remember her and he remembered. Reason 7686, why I love him.

After all the fun gift opening, we headed out to brunch at Blue Ridge Grill. It was SOOO YUMMY. Then we took some pictures by the fountains and Henry of course got to throw in some pennies.

The afternoon was spent watching Henry run through the sprinkler, ride his bike, a nap by Mary and a Target run with my Mom.

Dinner was something my mom had asked for and of course Charlie obliged. We had lobster ravioli in a homemade cream sauce. The cream sauce is to die for and probably will kill us someday but for now it was delicious! Dessert was a summer favorite of strawberry shortcake, it was so refreshing!

I ended the day getting snuggles with Henry on the couch. I don't think I could have asked for a more perfect day. Thank you to my amazing husband for making the day perfect and thank you to my babies for being the best little ones someone could ask for!

Mother's Day

Henry and his class singing a song for all the Mom's.

Henry's school held a Mother's Day Tea for all the moms.  They made us all cards and painted a flower pot picture frame. It was all very sweet.

Four Month Stats

Yesterday, Mary turned four months, woo hooo! Today, we took her to the doctor for her well check up. We've got a long and lean one, well besides the cheeks. She is 24.5" long (61%) and she weighed in at 12 pounds 6 ounces (23%). Mary of course was cooing and giggling at Dr Bill while he checked her out.

Here is her little stat sheet that I create each month. At six months I will post them all so you can see the difference. It's pretty cool to see how big she has gotten!

Word "less" Wednesday

I love the way our house blooms in the Spring. Who wants to have a cocktail on the front porch?

So close.

Here is a video of Mary rolling - well close to rolling. Henry is cheering her on and if you watch closely you see her get this big smile every time he talks to her.

Yes, Henry is mocking my baby voice in the video.

We have Mary's four month appointment on Friday and I am hoping I can tell the doctor that she rolls over. If I remember correctly with Henry, he rolled over the morning of his four month appointment, so maybe she will repeat.

Bedtime Routine

I'm linking up with other bloggers today on the Toddle Along Tuesday

Bedtime Routine - Let the Games Begin!

Around 6:00pm, Mary starts to get cranky so Charlie will take her upstairs and bathe and get her jams on. She then comes back downstairs for maybe 15 minutes. I get her bottle ready and we head back upstairs. I sit in the rocking chair while she eats and drifts in and out of sleep. She will usually drink 3 ounces and then fall asleep in her crib. I go back down to now eat my cold dinner because we have yet to time dinner correctly with Mary's bed time.

Henry will be finishing up and then he gets to play while we clean up. At this point 15 minutes has passed and Mary is back awake to finish her bottle. Either Charlie and I go back up, feed it to her and then sush for a few minutes and put her back in the crib. If I have to bring out the big guns, Charlie comes in and sings to her.

At this point it is now time for Henry to get a bath and get his jams on. While Charlie is bathing him, I'm running around getting his bed ready and getting his jams out. I'm also folding clothes and cleaning upstairs.

Henry usually comes back down after bath and gets to watch 30 mins of whatever he wants. At around 7:45-8pm we get a glass of milk and head back upstairs. Usually he is resiting the whole time. We crawl in bed and he gets 2 to 3 books depending on what he wants to read.

We read those, turn off the lights and we lay with him. I rub his back and we talk about his day. I then tell him to close his eyes and there is no more talking. Most nights he falls asleep in 10-15 minutes. This is only because he will not nap at school anymore. If he naps at school it would be an hour before he falls asleep.

Charlie and I do every other night with Henry. You always know you get the good night when you see the stat sheet from school and it says No Nap!

By this time it is 8:30pm and we are staring at each other wondering where the night went.