Wednesday Already?

I'm late on today's blog again. Sorry. I had to get some stuff done during the boys' nap/quiet time that couldn't wait. But I'm here now. Plus if I had blogged during quiet time then I wouldn't have had anything to say. All we did this morning was go to the library briefly and then our weekly Wal-Marting.

Actually I could've told you how Easton got some Spiderman fruit snacks from The Mart and I opened a pack for him to have in the car. I have to explicitly tell him that he is not allowed to share with Dalton in certain instances, otherwise, he's a sweet boy and hands over pieces of cookie or crackers or whatever. But fruit snacks are not something Dalton can chew well yet so they were off limits. Anyway, we stopped to get some gas and through the window I heard Easton tell his brother, "I'm sorry, Dalton, I can't play with you right now. I'm eating my snacks." Those boys love each other and I love when they're getting along in the car. Dalton can be very pesky so Easton sometimes gets tired of it, but they were cute today:




When we came home the boys sat down to have a snack, we had bought some fresh blueberries at the store but apparently the boys do not like fresh blueberries. So as I was wiping Easton's hand clean I noticed that he had another splinter in the finger next to yesterday's splinter finger! D'oh! Upon closer inspection I realized he had three more splinters. But one was getitng severe, the area around it was starting to get a little red and then there was a some lovely whitish pus looking stuff in with it.

See?


The skin had already closed over the hole where the splinter had entered so it was time for some needle action. :( Easton was very very brave and we did the teething gel trick again but--just ask Dalton--it doesn't completely numb the area. So I sat there and poked some holes in the top layers of his skin. He was like, "I want you to use the other thing!" (the tweezers) but I told him those would be next...once I got something I could grab. And grab something I did. Look at what I pulled out of his finger. Both the segments came out of different spots on that poor finger:

(If you can believe it, that white "background" is actually my leg!!! I'm such a white girl, it's not even funny.)
Anyway, with it starting to get infected and painful looking, how did he not even mention it? He's still got a teeny tiny splinter in his index finger. I'm hoping it will work itself out soon. It doesn't look problematic...yet. I'll watch it, of course, but I couldn't see subjecting him to more "surgery" right then. It was time for quiet time anyway.

After the boys were up we went to a late lunch at Noodles and the 3 of us shared a bowl of mac & cheese. We went back to that free indoor play area at a nearby rec center to play after lunch. Since I wasn't there to chat with Ember this time I was able to climb up in the structures with the kids. Dalton was a star:


So was Easton, of course:


Helping brother through:




More support from big bro:


And a few clips, just for fun. In the last video notice Dalton's ingenius but disgusting method to get a tatse of water from the fountain:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

When it was time to leave I gave Easton a 5 minute warning...he climbed up and slid down. Then I gave him a 3 minute warning...climbed up another way and slid down. Then I told him to go do one more slide and then it was time to go. Usually this works great. He is very good about leaving when I say it's time, especially if he's been warned. Well, today when I said, "Do one more slide and then we'll leave" he found a little loophole and decided to play on some other stuff and save his "one more slide" for later. However that wasn't gonna fly with me, sly as he was, and I told him he could go do one more slide or we were leaving. Which is what we ended up having to do.

On our way home Ember and Ellis called. I pass the clothes Dalton has outgrown on to Baby Neo and I suspected I had added an outfit by mistake...one that will work for D this summer. Ember found it and offered to bring it by, and I had another box of clothes for them so they came over for a short while to play. Easton wasn't his usual self so it was a little tough but I think the boys had fun. About 10 minutes after they left Jason was home for dinner.

Dalton isn't being a great eater lately. He has taken to spitting out food or throwing food. Or both. I got a bit of cottage cheese into him today and that's really about it. Yesterday he was more interested in sticking food on his face than eating it:


Thanks to the laughs D got Easton had to do it too:

Yes, I know that our laughing isn't helping matters. But he had it placed so perfectly. Tonight at dinner Jason would give D a piece of food and Dalton would hide it under his tray. Probably going to be up for a lot of milk tonight. That's usually how it goes.

I guess that's all I've got for tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

My 700th Blog Post

Kinda sad, when you think about it. I've been at this whole blogging gig for just over two years now. I've been busy.

So yesterday afternoon we decided to check out another park. Easton saw a see saw on TV and was anxious to try one out. I don't know of many parks with true teeter totters anymore so we headed to the only one I knew of with a pseudo-see saw. It's right behind my old townhouse with my ex (the one that went into foreclosure). I could see my old bedroom window from that park. Despite the yucky memories I had fun with my boys. Easton tried a tire swing for what might have been the first time:


Dalton tried to escape from me:




I like how swinging gave him tummy butterflies so that his feet are all pulled up:


A little more used to it:


Trying not to go too fast:






And finally, on the "see saw":


After the park we hit the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. Running errands is much more pleasant with a view like this:


So last night was rather exciting for me in that Dalton basically slept through the night. Well, he went 12 hours without nursing but he did wake up crying from teething pain at about 9:30 while we were watching The Bachelor. We gave him some Motrin but I didn't nurse him. And he slept through the rest of the night. All the way till 7:40 this morning. What's more...I actually made it through the night too. On the rare occasions he's slept through before, I still wake up because I'm expecting him. Or something. Or maybe Easton. Or nature calls. But not last night. I slept all the way till 6:43. Whoa.

With all that sleep behind me I was ready to conquer the day. The boys and I headed down to a friend's monthly playgroup. But first Easton put on a new summer outfit, complete with his first pair of flip flops. He hates them. He hates that they separate his toes. I think they'll take some getting used to but he looks so cute:


I suggested some games of chase to take his mind off of them and get him used to wearing them. He still complained a bit. But I stuck Dalton in a pair too:

He adapted much quicker.

So this playgroup wasn't exactly nearby, and I got directions online but they were crap. We got there, but it wasn't easy. During one of the several U-turns I made, Easton said, "Are we there now?" and I said, "No honey, Mommy's confused. I'm not doing so well" and my sweet boy told me, "Sheep, I know you can do it." (Sheep is the character he's assigned to me from Word World.) But wasn't that sweet?

We eventually made it there. And Easton was delighted by the big sandbox. I'd love to get the boys a small plastic sandbox for the back-ard. Boys like sand. So much that he couldn't be bothered to look at me for this picture:


Dalton roamed around playing with various things and curled up with me on my lap for a bit while I chatted with other mommies:


Baby Summer got a little fussy at one point and we noticed Easton brought her a Ninja Turtle to cheer her up. Later he picked out a tennis ball for her:


Dalton liked the T.M.N.T. too:


But he really liked it when Summer sat next to him. A friend for Dalton!









Aren't they cute? Summer was born in August. She's E's friend Rachel's little sister.

My pale pale boy, it's best if you don't look directly at his legs:


Around lunchtime the mommies picked up the toys in the backyard and Wee Laddie, Rachel and Easton disappeared inside. I seriously didn't know where E was when Wee Laddie and Rachel emerged from the basement. But E was down there. He discovered a train table and stopped listening to me. The mommy who hosted the play group carried him upstairs for me as E's legs were suddenly unable to move themselves. :) I honestly think part of it was the shoes he detests, as well as the fun toy he'd just found. He wasn't throwing a fit or anything. He just wasn't listening either. Good thing we were already leaving.

On the way home I planned a stop I was very excited about:


My "new favorite restaurant" from our Arkansas/Louisiana trip is now open here by the airport (which was on our long way home). Delish. I ordered myself some lunch to go and we got back in the car. It was on this leg of the journey that Easton informed me he had an owie in his finger: a splinter. I think he's had a minor one before but this one was in there good.

I sent him to watch TV in my bed while I put D down for his nap and then I went to work on the splinter. It wasn't sticking out enough to get it with tweezers and my attempts to pop it out a little more (like a blackhead) were unsuccessful. And after wrenching away on Easton's finger he said, "I have an idea!!! How about soft?" meaning I was squeezing too hard. I tried the "credit card" method too (like with a bee sting). Finally, Easton gave it a go with the tweezers too, of course it didn't work:

Ack! I knew I'd have to dig. :( So I read an amazing online tip about putting some teething gel on his finger to numb it. I didn't want to do ice because I didn't want the splinter retracting further into his skin. So we did the gel, we've got plenty. Then when I was hunting for a needle I found a better pair of tweezers and was able to get it out that way:

Note to all of you: tuck that teething gel tip away for the future. It's a good'un.

When Jason got home I told Easton to "Tell Daddy what was in your finger" and he said, "A plaunt". But then E realized that wasn't the right word when Daddy said, "A plant?" So I had to whisper again that it was called a splinter. What the heck is a plaunt? Goober.

We spent the afternoon till Daddy got home drawing with sidewalk chalk out front and eating a popsicle (E) and crackers (D) in the back-ard. Dalton's got some sun on his arms from all the time spent outside...not burned, just some color.

Okay, sorry this one was so late...almost time for Robin Williams on SVU. Bye!

No Time To Post

We've been busy today and Easton's not really having to do much quiet time today. I've got way too many pictures to try to do a post right now.

Maybe later.

Sorry.

Monday, Monday

That means doughnut day...so we did that. Easton was back on track about his eating this morning and downed 2.5 Krispy Kremes. Not too shabby. Clearly he's not as impressed as I am.


He did want me to take a picture of his messy lips, though:


Dalton munched a Baby Mum Mum while Easton and I ate:




Then he had his first ever bowl of cereal. I had the Cheerios getting nice and soggy in the milk while we had the doughnuts, then I spooned 'em in for D. He ate the whole bowl.

After breakfast the boys got dressed and we headed to the mall, mostly for something to do although I'm trying to get Easton a Spiderman Jibbitz for his croc shoes and they were out last time. Unfortunately, they were out again today. So instead we did a tiny bit of shopping...


On the way to the mall Easton informed me he wanted to get a snack while there. I was up for it! Dalton got a mini quiche and Easton picked out a caramel apple coated in mini M&M's. We saved them till after we were done playing:







No clue why Dalton is standing like that.

The boys had fun playing. One mom was letting her kids chase her around and that led to almost all the kids playing there chasing her around as well. Easton loves a game of chase so you can bet he joined in. It was cute. The mom tearing around the play area and a line of about 7 kids running after her. One time she let them catch her and all the kids jumped or fell onto her. Not Easton. Instead he asked her, "Are you okay?" and she said, "Yes, thank you for checking." Sweet boy.

Later another kid came to play and I heard him ask Easton, "Are you a baby?" Much like kids often ask me if Dalton is a baby. But he asked Easton and E's answer was, "Yes! And you be the daddy" and Easton crawled around with the kid. One time I heard him say, "Now let's go take my nap" and another time he was pretend crying for, "Daddy". They were cute to watch. I heard Easton call him "Kaiden"...but it was not Kaiden. The dad told me his name was Luca. That is the second time Easton has done that. He kept calling a kid at the mall last time "Justin" because that kid he met at the library was named Justin. Is that normal? I think I will teach him to ask someone's name first. We'll have to work on that. :)

We finished playing and then sat at the tables near the play area for our snacks. Dalton and I enjoyed the quiche and then I noticed Easton was only eating the M&Ms off his slice of apple and threw the rest away. I wouldn't let him have any more after that. He usually eats caramel apple, I guess next time I won't let him pick the M&M version.

We came home and Dalton was mad at us on the ride home because I kept him from falling asleep. Every once in awhile Easton would shout, "Diddins!" if he was looking drowsy...or maybe just to annoy D. But still, I couldn't have him sleeping in the car. We got home and the boys did some lunch (I was full from eating everyone's mall snacks). Now they're both sleeping. I know, I know...I need to wake E up, I didn't want for him to nap right now but he's been going on minimal sleep the last two nights. It's a vicious cycle.

Before I go wake E up, here's two pics I didn't share from the weekend. Dalton has turned into a climber like his brother and gets on top of this overturned laundry basket.

He even climbs up on the toy box now too. Or uses the laundry basket as a step to get onto the couch.

And just looking like a cute big boy to me eating a snack without the tray on his seat:


I also should have mentioned on Saturday that we heard the song Margaritaville on our way home from having my margs, hence the lyrics popping up in that blog post.

Okay, off to rouse my accidental napper. Ta ta!

I Wasn't Drunk...

Really, I was not intoxicated last night. Just bored.

Easton had a weird night last night too. He only got nine and a half hours of sleep. Definitely NOT enough. He's usually getting eleven at the very very least. Lately it's been around 12 hours. So, yeah...he didn't go to sleep till after 9 last night. He just couldn't fall asleep. One time I went in there and he told me, "Mommy, I don't want to go to Great Wolf Lodge anymore. It's too scary". So I said, "Okay, we'll wait till you're bigger." We're not planning a trip but had been watching some videos from our trip in October. He was just stalling.

Jason went in with him a second time and Easton said, "I want another soft animal that won't bother me" and exchanged the frog he'd been sleeping with for a Mickey Mouse doll.

With such a late bedtime I knew it was going to be an "off" night...and an early morning. And yep, it was an off night: around 3:30 or so he called me because he had wet the bed for the second time since stopping nighttime diapers. Oops. I went in there and said, "Hey buddy, do you need to go pee pee?" and he said, "Just some new pants instead". I still had him go sit on the potty...not sure how or when he'll train himself to wake up if he needs to pee. The nighttime accidents (all two of 'em) don't bug me a bit, though. I have the bed nicely double-made (actually triple-made) so while he was in the bathroom I stripped off a layer of linens and he was good to go by the time he was back and in dry pants. And he went right back to sleep...till just 6:45 this morning. It was a long day for him. And with him. :)

Diddles had another decent night, though. I'm liking that.

Jason tried out another church this morning. I guess it's got potential. I'm supposed to go next time to see what I think. After he got home he started in on a bunch of yardwork. We turned on the sprinklers for the season and Easton actually ran around in them in his clothes till he got too cold. Then we headed inside where Easton didn't eat the oatmeal he asked for for dinner. I wouldn't let him have anything else because we had discussed, "If you pick oatmeal then you have to eat it, you can't switch." He'll be falling back of the charts again in no time. :) He hasn't been eating much the last few days. And Dalton is starting to refuse pureed food lately. Bummer. Gotta find more things to feed that kid. Both kids, really.

Okay, I guess I can call it a night. Jason and I just watched, "I am Legend" which we didn't like. I keep picking stupid movies from Netflix. We've got this year's Oscar winner on the counter for our next movie night, though. Not that we always like the Oscar winners...Crash??? C'mon! :) We didn't think it was a "bad" movie, we were just sad that it was supposedly the best movie of the year. That's all. So with the movie watched, a blog done, and Jason working on school I s'pose I should head up to bed or something.

Think dry thoughts for Easton tonight!

Margaritaville

What is Kristin rambling on about this time? Not much...just a short blurb about our day. I don't have a lot better to do tonight, sadly. So here I am.

Miraculoulsy everyone slept till after 8 today. I woke up at 8. Then I looked at Jason and said, "It's eight o'clock!" and two minutes later Easton called. Wowsa.

Now, crazy Diddles must've been recovering from his blood draw or something because that little rascal slept from 8:00 last night until 9:15 this morning waking only once. Talk about wowsa. Then he took a full three hour nap today too. Too bad he's probably not growing. :)

I cleaned a little this morning then ran a couple of kid-free errands while Jason played with the boys and watched part of the NFL draft. Once Dalton woke up from his long nap we headed down to my mom's 'hood to pick her up for dinner. My sister Lauren has a new job hostessing at a Mexican restaurant and Moosie wanted to surprise her at the restaurant so we could see her in action. My mom treated us to dinner and that's where I enjoyed "that frozen concoction that helps me hang on..." Actually it was happy hour so they gave me two frozen concoctions. And I've been in a strange mood ever since. I was speaking Spanish for starters. And then I've been annoying Jason with a bunch of rambling and not-so-clever comments.

Now I'm annoying y'all instead. Because there is really no point to this blog...not even pictures.

So I'll go now..."wasting away again..."

Goodnight!

ETA: Strange coincidences...I was looking back at my blog from two years ago today...and we bought Easton's potty chair on this very day. Well, today I scrubbed that very potty chair down so well it's looking almost as good as new. I had it in the shower getting all hosed off and took it outside to dry (in the snow). Funny.

Also this time two years ago Easton learned, "Where is your belly button?" Even though E's and D's due date were just 5 days apart, that is not a trick I think D is close to knowing. Easton also knew "hands", "feet" and "nose". It's fun to look back sometimes.

Goodnight again!

Which Do You Want to Hear First: The Good News or the Bad News?

Okay, I'll have to decide for you then. We'll go with good news. So that then the bad might not seem so bad. (Plus that's how I heard the news too.)

The good news: Easton is on the charts for weight! He's only 5th percentile or so, but still, that is ON THE CHARTS!!! He's slightly above 50th percentile for height at 38 inches (he's always around 50th percentile for that) but Oh. My. Gosh. He's doing so well all of a sudden.

Easton has gained 3 entire pounds in just 3 months to put him at 27.5 pounds. That is unbelievable to me. In fact, from his 2 year well-child to his 3 year well-child (exactly 1 year apart) he only gained 2.5 pounds. And he's gained more than that in one quarter of the time. Holy cow!!! I think it was our Louisiana trip...we all gained weight on that trip. He's been a better eater ever since we hit the road back in February. Let's hope he keeps it up!

The only reason we went to the doctor today was for a weight check. Mostly for Diddles. But since we were gonna be there I had them do Easton too as I felt he'd been gaining and it's nice to have it on his official record, you know? But for D, well, he's been waking up more frequently at night, I know most of it is teething but it's getting old all the same. I can handle once a night to feed him but he's up at least 2, sometimes 3 times a night lately and I'm ready to put an end to it. So I wanted to get him weighed to make sure he was maintaining his spot on the charts before I made any big changes.

Time for the not so good news:

Dalton is falling on the charts again. After he was born and for the next 6 months our Diddlebug was off the charts fat. Then at his 9 month appointment we discovered his place on the charts was falling. He was down to 25th percentile. He stayed there for the next few weight checks, we thought he was holding steady but today he was down to 10th percentile. :( The doctor told me to continue to feed him in the night because "he needs it".

I'm still not certain if I'm going to listen or not. Or maybe I'll listen halfway. I don't know yet. The news that he was down to 10th percentile surprised me so I need some time to think about all of it. He's got a well-baby check in a month anyway. We'll just have to see.

After their appointments with the doctor we had to go down to the lab. Dalton was due to have his iron level checked again so he needed a poke. They looked at his arms and said they couldn't find anything vein-wise so they poked his toe and attempted to collect their 6 small vials of his blood. What a joke. Except Dalton wasn't amused. They got through one and a half vials (which took FOREVER) before they decided to re-stick him...I thought they should check his arms again...so they had someone "better" come do it. It was still hard for Diddles but it was over so much faster that way. Easton was so sweet. He was like, "I don't want Dalton to have another poke" and when we were having the blood drawn from D's arm Easton got a pen out of my purse because he "want to color something so Dalton won't be sad". What a sweet brother.

Afterwards we did our usual smoothies with J. And then Easton asked if we could go see J's work friends so we stopped by there as well before heading home for quiet time and nap.

Which brings me to now. I guess all that's left to do is update you on all the pictures from yesterday's Guys Day Out. Oh, but first there's a few from Wednesday afternoon. Easton did an art project where I traced him on freezer paper and then our plan was to finger paint it...but only the blue and brown paints were still useable:




Ta da!


Dalton looked on and enjoyed some cheese and milk:




"Hello? Is Daddy there?"


Blitz watched as well:


After Easton's bath we went out shopping for new fingerpaints. That way we'll have some good ones for next time. I think the ones I just threw out were from the Dollar Store over two years ago. I'd say we got our money's worth.

Easton got some new sippy cups. Not because we needed BPA-free ones, but because the other ones were getting a bit worn out. So he picked Spidey:


And then as you know, yesterday afternoon was the father/son baseball game.


The brothers:

You should've seen how cute Easton was packing up his little backpack with snacks and supplies. Oh man, they were so adorable. Easton kept saying, "That might be a great idea" when they thought of things to add.

While we were waiting for their ride. Dalton loves to climb into this basket of balls. But this time Easton was in it first. Didn't matter to Dalton:


"Didn't they say they'd be here to pick us up by now?"


"Whew...we're on our way":


They made it:




Getting a better look:


Enjoying granola bars:


And a lemon squishy:


And some special time with Daddy:


What a great outing!

The Cubs lost but the little guys did great, I hear. The report was Easton has very impressive sharing skills (always good to hear from other parents) and they made it through the entire 9 innings. Jason said during the 7th inning stretch when they sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" Easton told Jason, "I don't know this song." He'd better learn: I think Father/Son ball games will continue to be a tradition.

Dalton slept till 3 and I thought everyone might be back at 4 so all D and I did was go to Wal-Mart for some stuff for dinner. And he was cranky about it. Bummer. He must've missed Brother.

He was so happy when they got home because he was able to steal E's raisins and hop in his basket again:


We grilled last night before our marathon TV watching. It was a good day.