Welcome Back!!

Sorry it has been awhile since the last post! It's been a pretty crazy week and a half for us. Jackson has his first ear infection and a pretty bad cold to go with it :( I hate to see him sick and I keep wondering if the antibiotic is really helping. He is finished with the antibiotic on Sunday and goes in for a follow up appointment Tuesday. Brett has also been sick all week and is finally starting to feel better, but Brady and I are starting to get sick! I am hoping that it won't hit Brady and I as hard, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Last week Saturday we got to go over to Brett's parents and welcome them home from their travels!! Now that they're retired, they spend lots of time in warm places and who can blame them :) We hadn't seen Bamma Shelley since Christmas Day!! Bubba and Bamma Lou came over as well and we had a great visit! Here are a few pictures to share.

Yay!! I'm not sure who was happier - Bamma Shelley to be home or the boys to get to see Bamma Shelley :) We missed you while you were away!!

Jackson sure was excited to see Bubba!! He thought the kisses were pretty funny :)

I tried to get a nice picture of the boys or even just Brady with Bubba and Lou, but Brady would hardly sit still for anything! At least he was nice enough to give Bubba a hug!!
And here's one more fun picture of the boys sitting together on Thomas the Train :) I love this picture....normally Jackson is the one staring at Brady, but here is a picture where the tables are turned and Brady is lovingly looking at his brother.

Bathtime Fun

I had to post some bathtime pics and a short video because bathtime has been lots of fun lately. Jackson really enjoys playing in the bath, but sometimes I guess it's just a bit much for him. Brett went a little crazy on the bubbles the other night and then decided to try out a mohawk. I guess Jackson wasn't feeling it!Tonight, the boys had SO much fun in the bathtub together! They were both so happy and interacting with each other it was one of those wonderful moments when I could just sit back and watch my kids and feel so blessed!! Just look at those cuties :)
And to top off the bathtime tonight, Brady taught Jackson how to really splash!! We had a HUGE puddle on the floor after this, but it was definitely worth it!

And, on another note, bedtime went GREAT tonight! Jackson was a little fussy, but he is still teething so I expect him to be uncomfortable and need some extra attention. I tried something with Brady thanks to Parents.com. We put him to bed and told him we would check on him in 5 minutes. I came back in, tucked him back in, and told him I would be back in 10 minutes. I had to take Jackson, so Brett went in to check on him and he was laying down pretty quietly. Brett told him I would be in to check on him in 15 minutes and when I came in he was just getting out of bed because he thought I had forgotten about him. I tucked him back in, gave him a kiss, and told him I would be back in 20 minutes to check on him. I don't know how long it took him to actually fall asleep, but I'm guessing it wasn't long. When I went in to check on him after 20 minutes, he was fast asleep and so was Jackson!! The thing I can't believe is that he got out of bed ONCE and there was no arguing, screaming, or anything! I HIGHLY recommend trying this strategy out if there are difficulties at bedtime with your toddler/preschooler. It worked wonders for Brady! We'll see how tomorrow goes!

Bedtime

So, since school has started back up things have been a little rough around here at bedtime. I think there's a lot going on including adjusting to a new place, adjusting to sharing a room, pushing the limits because I'm 2 1/2, teething, missing Mom when she's back at work, and there are probably a few more to include as well! So, I can't IMAGINE why things have been so crazy.
Brett likes to call our new nighttime routine "Battle Sleep" and I have to say that pretty much sums it up.

With Jackson, I think it's mostly teething as his two bottom teeth are poking through his gums. I keep telling myself that he will sleep normally again once his teeth are in and his brother is sleeping like he should be.

For Brady, it's a little more difficult. He is constantly coming out of his room with different excuses or just screaming in his room that he doesn't want to go to bed.

We have tried the Nanny 911 strategy of just bringing him back to bed when he will come out and otherwise letting him cry. He doesn't seem to stop coming out and when we do bring him back in he just screams so that Jackson will get upset and start screaming as well.

We have tried telling Brady that if he gets up, we will take away his toys. The result of this was NO TOYS for 2 days!! And he had ONE night of going to sleep decently before we went out to dinner, got home too close to bedtime, and he had a bad night again.

I've realized through this whole thing how important routine is to kids. We still have to get them back into a routine, and I would love any advice you may have to offer on getting bedtime back to normal for our kids as they learn to share a room in a new place!! Until then, I don't think we'll be doing too much out of routine for the next few weeks!

Fun in the Snow

Brady absolutely loves playing in the snow! Yesterday, we had a chance to blow up his new tube and check out the fresh snow. Here he is all ready to go - well, he still needs his coat on :)

Okay, now he's ready to go!! Here he is asking why I have to take a picture!! He's ready to go out already!

The snow outside of the door wasn't shoveled at all, it was up to Brady's knees!! He had fun pushing his way through it.

We walked around looking for a hill and found a little play area. We had to clear the slide off, but it was still lots of fun to go down in the snow!

And, finally we found a good hill for tubing! Brady had SO much fun and he didn't want to go inside. I have to admit, I had a pretty good time, too :)

Watch Out!!

Well, it's been coming for awhile now. Jackson has been able to roll to what he wants for quite awhile and he recently was able to move forward and dive for things, but today he finally accomplished the crawling. We are in trouble - he can get to anything and everything and he can do it pretty quickly!! It is so crazy to watch him master crawling. It just doesn't seem like he should be big enough yet!

PS - Brady is talking on his pretend cell phone in the background. You may need to watch the video twice if you are distracted by the older brother!!

Happy Birthday Papa John

We love you lots!! Hope you have a GREAT birthday!

Dinner Party

Last night, we had an impromptu dinner party with the Staal's. Brady and Lily are close in age and we are trying to do a little matchmaking :) I believe that Lis and I are pretty much in favor of an arranged marriage for these two! They seem to be going along with our plan pretty well.

Lily and Matt watched some football in between playing with toys.

Sadie really enjoyed the ball popper! She was screaming pretty good, I wish I would have done a video!

We enjoyed an ice cream treat for dessert. Lily and Brady were pretty excited about it.

The night ended with some hide and seek and somehow Lily and Brady ended up in Brady's bed! Brady then wanted Lily to spend the night, but we had to say no to that idea! We're not quite ready for them to move that fast! I told Brady that he had to get married before he had a girl sleep over so now he would really like to marry Lily. Things are going perfectly according to plan :)

A Fun Week

I love my job, but one of the best things about it is the breaks that I get to spend with my kids!! I had such a fun week being at home and spending some extra time with them. We moved into Brett's grandma's apartment a week ago and this week has been nice for us all in adjusting and getting settled. The boys are sharing a room and that has been an adventure in itself. I never thought it would work, but they are actually doing very well! Brady has slept through a lot of Jackson's waking up, and that has definitely been a blessing. It's nice for Brett and I to finally have our own space again as well. Naptime this week has been a little challenging for Brady. One day he wouldn't sleep for awhile and I decided that if he wasn't asleep by a certain time, I would just let him get up. When I went in to check on him, this is what I found:Brady doesn't sleep in a crib anymore. He decided to climb into Jackson's crib and fall asleep. When I asked him why he did that after he woke up, he said he wanted to be a baby!

The boys have had a lot of fun playing with all of their new toys this week. One of my favorite things about Brady's age is he can do a lot more. He is starting to play games and do puzzles and he really amazes me with how much he understands and can do.

Here he is playing some Candyland!

Brady has also been a big helper with Jackson. He wanted to give Jackson a bottle one morning and I found this hilarious since Jackson is almost as big as Brady!

This week also gave us time to see some of our friends and family. We went over to Great Grandma Kidd's one night after dinner and had lots of fun visiting with her and her dog, Spike as well as eating some delicious pudding cake! Yum!!

It's been a great week and I am sad that it is coming to an end.