Indoor Sledding, Bathtime, Tulips, Wedding, Auto Show, Playing at Home :)

What a title. But it kind of sums up the week in a nutshell. Kind of random, kind of all over the place. And a lot going on, even if at some moments in the day, it feels like we are just stuck. inside. all. the. time. Warning – long post ahead.

First, we have Eli, who was inside sledding around the house with my dad pulling him. He thought it was the best thing ever.

Then there is Charlie. Who I officially, completely stopped nursing last Saturday, and he has been ANGRY ever since.

I know you’re thinking, how could this sweet, happy little guy be ANGRY? He’s too young to be… ANGRY!

I’m not joking though. I had gotten the nursing down to just one time, first thing in the morning. My goal was to be done by the time Charlie was 13 months old, since stopping right at a year is too emotional for me and I needed some time to let the fact that he’s not a baby anymore sink in.

But HOLY COW. This child has been a terror every single morning since last Saturday. Every time I go in to pick him up in the morning and he realizes I’m not nursing him, he THROWS his head and body back, flails around, screams, cries, and explodes into a raging fit. Of course this is usually happening sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m., so I try to hang on to my squirming, angry child and race down the stairs to avoid waking Eli up.

I’ve tried feeding him his breakfast as soon as we get downstairs, but he’s usually too mad to dig into a bowl of Cheerios. I’ve tried reading a book with him in the rocking chair in his room, but he wants nothing to do with it. This fit can last up to 45 minutes long, which is an especially long time when you’re just waking up for the day.

I’m sorry Charlie!!

I know he’ll eventually stop throwing these early-morning fits (hopefully). I get a little sad each time he does this, but I know it’s a good thing for us to be done.

This is the first time I haven’t been pregnant and/or nursing in over three years! That feels good. Now I just need to exercise more and get my body back. Winter has not been kind to me… being cooped up inside makes me eat eat eat food that I shouldn’t be eating.

I wish I had enough strength to become a raw food girl (I KNOW I would be skinny then), but I like some things too much. Like peanut m&ms. Or kettle corn. How could I give that up?? I’ll just settle for scaling back my junk food eating and exercising more regularly.

Here’s Eli’s cute little bod. I love these boys.

Sunday was Valentine’s Day, and as I mentioned in a previous post, Ben brought home these vibrant pink tulips for me! I loved having them around. Sadly, the petals had all fallen off by this morning, so they’re gone now.

We went to a wedding on Valentine’s Day. I have been friends with Heidi (who now goes by her middle name, Nicole, but I have a really hard time calling her that) since we were babies. Our moms were best friends and Heidi and I were inseparable as children. When Davey had leukemia and my parents were up at the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital with him full time, I would stay with Heidi’s family during the week and go to school with her. As we got older, we grew apart and I probably hadn’t seen Heidi in more than 10 years, but it was great to receive a wedding invitation and be able to attend the event.

My family was there too – I like this picture of my mom and Davey. Doesn’t my mom look pretty?

My dad helped entertain Charlie and Eli, which I greatly appreciated. They were busy busy busy. Heidi had even left little gifts on their plates (toy cars), which I thought was very sweet.

Back at home later that day, Eli had fun pushing those cars through his tunnel/fort of chairs covered with a blanket.

Monday was President’s Day, which is a stock holiday, so Ben had the day off. We thought it would be fun to take the boys to the Chicago Auto Show.

We were wrong.

I don’t think we’ll ever go back. It was so, so CROWDED and you could barely even see the cars. I took this picture right when we got there and we actually made it up to a car, but as each half hour passed, the crowds seemed to be thicker and thicker… it just wasn’t a good place for two toddlers.

The only highlight for Eli was the big slide at one end of the show. Ben went down with him once, and then I went down with him (he wasn’t tall enough to go by himself). I’m embarrassed to say this, but I really didn’t enjoy the slide – you can’t really tell, but it is STEEP! I’m such a chicken. But I forced myself to go down, after all, there was a huge line of little kids all happy to go down this thing, and Eli was expecting me to do it. Here’s a video of Eli and Ben going down -

Chicago Auto Show 2010 - Eli going down the slide from Sarah on Vimeo.

This smile on Ben’s face in the picture below is deceiving. We were really, really tired by the time we left (we maybe lasted two hours? Not really worth it, even with our discount tickets… we paid $11 total to get in, plus a whopping $19 for parking – yuck).

Oh well! It was an adventure. We even ran to one of our favorite families from church, the Browns. I’m always amazed when I see someone I know at something like that, with the zillions of people walking around. Chicago feels a lot smaller in moments like that.

One bit of news about Eli this week is that last month at Eli’s parent/teacher conference, his preschool teacher expressed concern that his gross and fine motor skills being delayed. He is extremely verbal, has great cognitive skills, and as his mother, I of course think he’s very bright :) But I definitely knew what they were referring to in terms of how he goes up and down stairs (often using his hands/crawling, rather than stepping up and down) and overall not the best coordination. He’s never been able to pedal his tricycle on his own, and has never been much of a climber.

I contacted the state’s early intervention program (which is for toddlers until they turn 3), and this week we had three different therapists here to evaluate him together (a developmental, physical, and occupational therapist), each watching Eli play, asking him questions, having him do various things to demonstrate his skills. The verdict is that he is about a year delayed with his gross motor skills and he qualified for physical therapy through this program.

I think it will be great for Eli and hope he can catch up quickly so he can feel confident in his movement, especially as he runs around at the playground this summer with other kids his age. I’ve definitely noticed a difference between Eli and Charlie in terms of how much Charlie climbs and moves at this age. Eli is way more cautious than Charlie.

Eli’s fine motor skills aren’t perfect, but the occupational therapist said he isn’t delayed enough to need therapy. She suggested we have him use a spray bottle in the bathtub (to strengthen the hand muscles) and to have him draw, color, paint, etc. on a vertical or slanted surface, because it forces him to hold the marker or crayon the right way.

Below is a picture of Eli, proud of his concoction of toys at his little table. He loves to say, “Did you see that, Mama?” when he makes something with his trucks, animals, pez dispensers, etc. I love it.

Anyway, Eli asked me to take this picture of one of his cute dog stuffed animals. I think this is actually one of Charlie’s, but Eli loves it too.

Potty training has continued to be okay, but it’s still a work in progress. Eli has pooped more times in his underwear than in his potty. It’s so gross. I’m a little tired of having a laundry basket full of pee-drenched pants and underwear (don’t worry, I’m washing it all often). But I do think Eli is getting it more… he just has a hard time if he’s in the middle of something and he hasn’t gone recently. I have to be really good about reminding him to go at least once an hour.

On a different note, Eli has started to say his nighttime prayer all by himself. It’s hilarious hearing what he’s thankful for (usually objects around the room). For some reason, he always says his solo prayer with a different voice, more like a voice he would use if he was playing with a stuffed animal and pretending it’s talking.

Tonight, Eli said he was going to say the prayer for his froggy. He began (in this muffled, slightly nasal voice),

“Dear Heavenly Father. We’re thankful for Mama. And Dada. And Eli. And Froggy… DID YOU HEAR THAT MAMA?? FROGGY SAID HIS NAME!”

Eli was so excited about this. Then he continued on with his prayer and afterward seemed quite pleased with himself. Funny boy.

Other than all of that, I’ve had a few freelance projects keeping me pretty busy. And Charlie’s naps have been so crazy lately, sometimes he naps for 3-4 hours in the morning, then doesn’t nap in the afternoon (which means he is MISERABLE from 3 p.m. until he goes to bed at 6:30 because I can’t stand the whining/crying anymore). Other times he does take two naps, yet he’s still cranky from about 5 p.m. on. Eli of course doesn’t nap at all, and he can be so irritable after 5 p.m. too.

So… if you ever call me between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., expect to potentially hear my crabby, fussing children in the background. That’s just the phase we’re in, I guess.

A few of the days last week, I’ve coped with the high-strung, tired kiddos by sending them over to the front door to watch for Ben to walk home. Even if he won’t walk in that door for 15 minutes… they stand there, often fighting/pushing/complaining to each other (well, Eli complains, Charlie just yells).

Other days, I’ve had to just fight the urge to run screaming into my bedroom and lock the door… :) Despite the evening chaos, these little guys are so fun and I feel lucky to have such cute boys running around, climbing on my lap, kissing my face. They are lovable, just not as much in those evening hours...