Practicing.....

I'm practicing exporting pictures from Picasa into the blog.....thanks to those of you who wrote comments and emails about that. I uploaded Picasa today and it already found all of my pictures....and now it's scanning them....I guess for faces? Anyway, these are just a few random pictures from Christmas day. The viking hat was a gift from Santa, along with a viking sword (Santa found these at Disney World). Grant loves his sword, especially.....I'm sure pictures of it will appear on the blog someday. And for a sword, it's not bad, because it's made of foam and he most likely can't severely injure Drew with it.

A few days after Christmas, we found some new bedding for Grant. I've been looking for a quilt/comforter since he moved into his twin bed in the summer, but everything is so darn expensive! We found this set at Bed, Bath and Beyond......it wasn't expensive and I think it looks great in his room (these sheets aren't the ones that came with the comforter). So that night Drew crawled into Grant's bed and laid down as if he belonged there.

Yay new year!

I'm not one of those people who usually gets especially excited about a new year.....if I make a resolution, it's just in my head, and not something that I hold myself accountable to. But this year, I feel like I'm genuinely excited about putting 2009 behind me and making a fresh start in a lot of ways.

2009 was just plain hard.....of course we had many great moments I'll remember for the rest of my life. But oh my......I never thought day-to-day life could get so frustrating! And then when I felt so very frustrated, something else would happen on top of that! At the beginning of the year, Grant had just turned two, and Drew was 3 months old. Life with two kids wasn't too hard yet, because Drew was still such a little baby and slept so much. But around March, I remember starting to feel overwhelmed.....now I had two kids with two different schedules. And Grant (my very strong-willed boy anyway) was a two-year-old, meeting all expectations of the horrible behaviors associated with that age!

When I look back, I think the hardest part for me in transitioning from one to two kids was the change in my free time. And I'm starting to get used to this.....now Drew is a toddler and he and Grant play together a lot. So I can get some things done while they're playing. And at least they nap together....and Drew's naps seem to be getting a little bit longer now (knock on wood!).

And mostly, I'm just trying to remember that this is such a short stage, in the scheme of things. Instead of worrying about falling behind on scrapbooking/documenting their lives, I need to just enjoy them when they're little. And instead of feeling sorry for myself that every trip inside of a store has to be super short (no time for browsing these days!), I try to remind myself that in less than five years, the boys will both be in school and I'll have all the time I want to look around a store. And I'll probably wish I could go back to these years again (well, maybe not....we'll have to see!).

So one of my goals for 2010 is to really maximize the time I spend with my kids....to try to think of fun, out-of-the-box things to do. Because we have so much fun when we do stuff like this....it's just hard to think of those things on a moment's notice.

Here are a few more "resolutions" that have come to mind.....although maybe "goals" would be a better word. I am not completely resolved to doing these, but it would sure be nice! And maybe since I'm writing them, I will hold myself more accountable to them:

1. Read two classic novels. I read Jane Eyre when I was pregnant with Drew, and I LOVED it! In 2009 I hardly read anything. I'm thinking I might read a Charles Dickens book first....

2. Invite people over to our house for dinner once a month.

3. Read my Bible somewhat regularly! It has been so hard to do this with little kids....I barely can drag myself out of bed when they wake up (at 6:30). Then during their naps, I have all these other things I want to get done....you know, important things like blogging! But seriously, when I try to take a break and read my Bible during naps, it's hard for me to focus because I am thinking of my list of other things running through my head.....

4. Figure out a better system for storing/enhancing pictures. I want to use Picasa but I'm still a bit confused by it....it seems like it has so little space, and I take tons of pictures. Erin P, if you're reading this, I might need your help with this....

5. I also want to use the blog to record funny or memorable things that happen day-to-day. Two years ago at new year's I saw an idea in a magazine: it suggested blogging about one great thing that happens every day, even if it's just something funny your three-year old says. I've always wanted to do this. I'm not hoping to do this every day, but I want to at least make some attempt!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

little trooper

Drew had his 15-month checkup today. The poor thing had more encounters with needles than he probably cared to have. His iron has been a little low at his past two visits. So today, along with his normal vaccines, he got his finger pricked to test his iron count again. Our doctor came back a few minutes later saying that it's lower now than it was at 12 months. It's still on the borderline and not horrible, but she told us to go ahead and get bloodwork done at a lab, just to try to see what's going on.

So after naps today, we went to the lab. I've never had good experiences with LabCorp (I went while I was pregnant with Grant and had long waits each time). This was a new place (CPL), and much nicer.....there was nobody else there, so we went straight to the back. The lady drew blood from his arm, just like for an adult (I assumed that they might do it differently for babies....not sure why!). I held him and he just stared at his arm as she poked the needle into it....and didn't cry until a few seconds later, when she moved it around to find the vein. He cried until it was over, but thankfully it only took about 30 seconds to fill up both vials. Then a minute later, he and Grant were running up and down the aisle and he acted like nothing had even happened.

Tonight before I put Drew's pajamas on, Grant pulled one of the band-aids off of his leg (he had one shot in each leg this morning). Drew brought the band-aid to Dean, fussing a little bit. Dean realized that Drew wanted him to put it back on! After Dean stuck it back on, Drew started walking around proudly again.....I guess he thinks a band-aid makes him a big boy. Later Dean traded it with a spider-man one. He was so proud of it!

Drew is still very small, in terms of weight. He only weighs 23 lbs (25th percentile). His height supposedly puts him in the 65th percentile, but I'm not sure I believe that. His 12-month clothes mostly still fit (except a few pants), and Grant had long outgrown 12-mo clothes by this point. Drew still seems little to me! All of his four molars have just poked through, so the doctor asked if he's been especially fussy. He hasn't! With all of the issues we have, at least I am very thankful that they both handle teething remarkably well!

Here are a few band-aid pictures from tonight:
Pointing it out to me....

Pointing it out to Daddy:

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas.....it was very quiet (just the four of us all weekend) and we just had a lot of playtime and relaxing around the house (as much as you can relax with two small kids!). The boys took marathon naps all weekend, except for one day, so it'll be interesting to see what happens today, now that Daddy's back at work! I'm betting that Drew goes back to his normal 45-minute cat-nap.

These are some pictures we took on Christmas Eve. We went to our church for the Christmas Eve service, but found out when we got there that there was no childcare. Grant did fine sitting in the sanctuary with us for the first few minutes, but Drew quickly got restless and tried climbing under chairs. We knew he wouldn't make it through the entire service. So the boys and I went to the back (Dean had a speaking part and I knew Grant would freak out if Dean got up to leave him by himself). Once Dean was done with his reading, we left. We got all dressed up to only be there for 10 minutes! But these are some pictures I took later that night.....


Trying to give Grant a kiss:


So impolite!
I haven't uploaded Christmas pictures yet. The boys got SO many toys....we had to take a break from opening gifts because they got tired of it! Grant has had a blast playing with all of his stuff over the past few days. He gets rather possessive, though....he can sense when Drew is coming close, and he'll quickly cover up his toys with his body, saying, "no, these are mine! I'm playing with these!" Drew got a lot of fun stuff too, but of course he mostly wants to play with big brother's presents!

My big gift from Santa was an iPod! I set it up last night and tried posting a trial post from it. But for some reason, it doesn't recognize this box as a text box.....so I could type the title, then nothing else. I'm not sure what to do about that. But other than that, I'm loving it. It's great being able to quickly check my email from downstairs, without having to come up to the study (we don't have a laptop). The only problem is that Grant is fascinated by it too......he is a little obsessed with looking at my "new phone" (he doesn't understand that it's not really a phone) and threw a fit today when I told him he can't hold it.

It always makes me a little sad when Christmas is over.....now that I'm older, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to go by in a flash. So my Christmas CDs will still be playing in the car for a while longer! More pictures hopefully soon.....

Little guy is 15 months old

With his best friend blanky:

Giving blanky a ride in the school bus:


Drew turned 15 months old on Tuesday. He's still not saying much (although he at least makes halfhearted attempts to repeat words when I prompt him, something Grant still wasn't doing at this age). He can throw a pretty good fit, but I don't think he's quite as extreme as Grant was at this age. And something that's especially fun about a second child is watching how much he admires/emulates Grant. Some things he's learned from big brother:

- The other night Dean was clipping Grant's fingernails, and Drew was looking over Grant's shoulder, sticking his finger out so his could be clipped too!

- Bedtime is a long process in our house. It's the boys' favorite time to play. When Dean finally drags Grant to his own room, Drew follows and tries climbing into Grant's bed for even more playtime. He's even tried getting under the covers just like Grant sleeps!

- If I tell him that I need to change his diaper, he goes straight over to the little couch and plops himself down, then waits for me to come.

- When Grant washes his hands, Drew tries climbing onto the stool to wash his hands too.

- At mealtimes, when I'm about to set something on Drew's plate, he'll pat his tray right where he wants me to set his food.....he learned this from Grant too.

- He has even learned to throw fits just like his brother. Grant will lay on the ground and jerk his arms and legs around when you're telling him something he doesn't like. It's hard not to laugh when Drew does the exact same thing!

- He and Grant love watching Little Einsteins together. It's their favorite show right now. Drew hears the opening song and immediately climbs onto the couch, then starts patting his lap, ready to blast off! Watching them do all the hand motions together is always one of the favorite things about my day......they take it so seriously and they look so cute sitting next to each other.

People have asked me if things are getting any easier. I do think that life is getting at least a little bit more predictable now. The boys play well for a few minutes at a time, but every playtime only lasts about 2-5 minutes before ultimately leading to a big screaming fight. This happens almost without exception! So that gets old very fast....but I also know that this is something I'll be dealing with until they're out of the house!

We just took a super fun trip to my parents' house in Bryan, where we saw Grandma (in town from Michigan), Rob and Evan, aunt Marge, and Jodie (my cousin), her husband Dan, and James (almost 5) and Claire (almost 3). We had a blast with all of them.....Grant loved playing with all of his cousins. I took tons of pictures, so I really will try to post some! I always say that!

We're going to have a very quiet Christmas here, just the four of us. Grant learned today exactly how Santa will come down our chimney, so I think he's excited for tonight. He is expecting Santa to bring his Chick Hicks hauler.....he's been waiting for it for months! And he just loves taking the presents out from under the tree, finding which ones are his, and stacking them up. It'll be fun to see how he reacts tomorrow morning.....

Merry Christmas!!!!