Happy Easter! (18)

I got Good Friday off, and so we headed up to Rapids after Felix's Easter day care party and lunch. Felix handled the trip well, though he did not nap on the ride like we hoped. We had a couple of nice, relaxing days with my family. Felix got to do an Easter egg hunt in my parents' backyard. He got very excited when he found the eggs, usually exclaiming, "Oh! Look at that!" Sunday, we headed over to my Grandma's (nearly crashing into a monster turkey on the way) to see family and have a nice lunch before heading home. Felix got another egg hunt there, too. He very much enjoyed the weekend. So much so that he wailed for the last half-hour plus of the drive because he didn't want to go home.

We've got a couple of fun weekends planned: Felix is spending the weekend with his other set of grandparents coming up (all by himself!) and the following weekend, we're visiting a fire station!

And back to reality. We have our hands full getting Felix to listen to us when we ask him to do things. If he is playing and it's time to clean up, it takes asking multiple times and threatening to take whatever he's playing with away before it clicks that he needs to listen. And we really don't like threatening or bribing. Sometimes challenging him works (usually to a race up the stairs when heading to bed), and sometimes he'll just do it (and then we heap him with praise). There's little consistency in his behavior. Oh, the joys of 2 and a half.

But it's not all bad. I started singing "I love you so much when I kiss you" (then giving him a kiss). He likes this so much that he sings it back to me (so gloriously off key) and pulls my head down so he can kiss my forehead.

Things are going well with Kid 2 so far. Every test has come back normal, and I had another OB check this morning where I could listen to the little heartbeat. This baby has been punching/kicking for the last few weeks, which I enjoy. We have our ultrasound scheduled in two weeks, so we'll get another look at the little one. For a while, Felix proclaimed the baby a girl, but then suddenly switched it to a boy this weekend. His guess is as good as ours. :o)

Felix: 2.5 yrs

Winter gave Spring a miss and went straight on into Summer (15)

We have been graced by some gorgeous weather the past week and a half, and I wanted to note it before it disappears again. The record high temperatures have in short order melted all the snow piles and greened everything up. It might be well before mid-May when the trees are fully decked out in their leaves! That would be lovely! However, typically pessimist that I can be, I'm anxiously scanning the forecasts to see if we're going to have another cold snap. I like this warmth too much! It will be a different pregnancy, though, if it ends up a being a hot summer. The year Felix was born was pretty mild and I only had to suffer through about a month and a half of heat. This year, I've got the whole summer to be big. With that in mind, I've been stocking up on maternity tees, tanks and shorts to help me cope. :o)

Felix has taken to the warm weather as well, getting back into his old habits of wanting to play with everything outside and being very difficult to bring in. Even popsicles aren't enough of a bribe!

Batter up!

Felix rides his first bike!

Felix and Eve having fun

Felix: 2.5 yrs

Special Announcement! (12/0)

  

Felix is going to be a big brother! Yes, that's right, we're expecting our family to gain a new member in early September! Just like with Felix, we are going to let the baby (and our chosen names) be a surprise. Yay!

Felix: 2.5 yrs

A Little Bit of Summer in Winter

We needed a bit of warming up this winter (though it really hasn't been too terrible), so we made plans to enjoy one of the indoor water parks up in the Dells this past weekend with family. We left Madison at 11am and met my folks and Cassie for lunch at Monk's downtown for lunch (mmm, fried dill pickles). From there, we went to Mt Olympus. We were lucky and could check into our room right away, so we did and got ready for the water park. We stayed there for only about 2 hours, but Felix enjoyed every second of it. He really liked the slides and bubblers in the kids' area and could have stayed there all day. We went for dinner at Moosejaw, and had to wait an hour for a table because everyone else had the exact same idea. Felix got so hungry he started to try to slice up his new stuffed bear. ;o) The next morning, we went out for breakfast, then back to the hotel to try out the indoor theme park. It wasn't quite what we expected (there were only 3 rides on which Felix could go), so we didn't stay long. And then, our vacation was done. Back home by 1pm on Sunday. Short and sweet. We'll have to do this again soon!

Felix: 2.5 yrs

Quiet

I just realized that it's been over a month since I last posted. I'd say life got in the way, but really, a combination of illness and not a lot going on are the culprits. I'm starting to recover from what felt like an interminable cold that started mid-January and really did a number on me. Thankfully with some rest and antibiotics, I'm finally on the mend.

As for the rest of the month, we finally got some snow and played. We watched the Badgers and Packers seasons end sadly. We celebrated Nick's birthday with a surprise visit from our friends Nate and Laura. We had visits from family.

Felix is the smartest little guy I know. (He launched into Take Me Out to the Ball Game yesterday, knowing all the words, when I haven't sung that song to him in over 4 months. Wow! Well, he did call it "fall game" :o) But with that cleverness comes challenges. He doesn't feel like he needs to listen to us, preferring to be independent in what he does. He also has impulse control problems that result in hitting/kicking when he gets upset. That's our main issue right now - how to get him to stop. Yesterday he hit/kicked two teachers right before I picked him up. He was sorry about it, but that meant no mints in the car on the way home and no treats after dinner. He did it again, so no stories before bed. He's been warned those will be the consequences if it happens again. I'm also going to start up the good day chart, where he'll get a small toy at the store on Friday if he is good every day that week. Hopefully something will sink in soon.

Felix: 2.5 yrs

Super Long Holiday Post!

We had a great Christmas, visiting a total of four houses in two days. Uff da! It was the first year we traveled for Christmas since I was pregnant with Felix. Felix couldn't stop talking about going to see his grandparents, and was very excited when we were actually there. The downside of of the travel was that he was completely thrown off his schedule and that's made for a cranky little man returning to "normal". Felix got a lot of lovely presents that he's been busy breaking in (thankfully, nothing has actually broken yet).

I keep meaning to blog about a few other topics, so here goes. Felix has been playing pretend a lot lately, and it's adorable. When he plays with his cars, the laminate is the street and the carpet is the grass. And you must be careful and stay out of the way! He received a little stuffed animal in the day care gift exchange, and that has become his baby, which he named Dancer. Dancer is burritoed up in a blanket, and Felix is a good Papa, making sure she's fed and sleeps. It's too cute! And yesterday, I caught him playing in the toy kitchen at day care. He popped some food for a friend in the microwave and made beeping sounds when he pretended to push the buttons. It's amazing how much these kids pick up on and how they think the world works.

I had a little epiphany last night. I've been getting frustrated that Felix says "I want..." instead of our preferred "May I please have..." or "I would like...". Then I realized how damn lucky we are to have a child that is so gifted verbally at this age, because very few of his classmates are as advanced as he is. We can talk, he can tell us his likes/dislikes, and spout all sorts of hilarity.

Speaking of, he has a few memorable idosyncrasies. When Nick's driving and I'm buckling Felix in the car, he gets very worried and tells Nick, "Don't leave without Mama!" Last week, he suddenly started saying "I don't know!" and "Okay, Mama! I do it!" (I really like that one). Shameless plug: I tweet all (well, most) of his adorable statements via @MyKidd0s.

Felix: 2 yrs

'Tis the Season!

I look out of my office window and see... dark sky through a smattering of rain. Not exactly what you'd picture this time of year. But remembering last year's 10"+ snowfall we had by now, I'm not complaining. I don't much care for driving in the snow. The Christmas lights I put around the windows are hopefully brightening the day of the drivers who can see them. It sure looks dreary out.

We're in Christmas mode at home. We've had our house decorated since before Thanksgiving. This year, our tree has two pickles and a new find-the-_____ ornament: a pineapple in honor of our favorite show, Psych. :o) It took Nick a while to find it after I brought it home.

Felix is VERY excited about our plans to visit grandparents this year (instead of having family Christmases at our house), a fact he mentions several times a day. The upside is I'm teaching him about days and calendars.

I took Felix to visit Santa (Felix kept correcting me that it was, in fact, "Santa Claus") last weekend. He was very nervous to see a large man dressed in red, but as the picture proves, I managed to get a smile out of him. It is kind of funny that the whole picture-with-Santa thing is primarily for the parents benefit, not the kids. The younger ones I saw were too afraid of Santa to get a good picture, either crying or running away. The older ones seemed a little creeped out, too. I don't know if we'll be getting another picture with Santa in the future.

In case I don't get another post in before Christmas, Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Felix: 2 yrs