Two-wheel rider!

Last night I asked Abby is she wanted to try and ride her bike without her training wheels. She got super excited and said YES!! So, we headed over to the tennis courts, on the other side of our block, and away she went. Shawn held on to her for maybe 30 seconds and she was off. It was so so so fun to watch her and see how quickly she could do it and how well she did it too! She kept asking us if we were proud of her and I just wanted to cry. I am so proud of her and this just feels like such a big moment in her life. This morning when she woke up she was so exicted to go biking again. Our house sits on a big hill and I have a knee injury right now so I can't carry her bike down the hill. We got her bike out of the garage and she looked at me and asked if she could ride it through the alley to the front of our house on her own, I could tell she thought I was going to say no, but I said sure just make sure you watch for cars. Oh my gosh she was just delighted. Once she got to the front of the house I asked if she wanted to bike around the whole block and she sorta looked at me in shock and said by myself? and I said yep, just stop at the alley and check for cars. Away she went. It felt a little strange to send her off on her own, even though it was only around the block, my heart beat was a little faster until I could see her turning the corner coming back towards our house. She did it three times in a row and then was ready for a break. It truely does feel like she has entered into a new phase of life!

Bike Riding

Yesterday we had another full day. We went to Abby's OT in the morning and then spent the rest of the day at the park. After dinner Shawn wanted to bring the kids on a bike ride. Fortunately for us our friend borrowed us this super cool seat for Joe so now Shawn can take both kids at the same time. Joe absolutely loves it and of course Abby loves her tag-a-long. I think they are one of the best things ever! Usually when we go on bike rides Shawn has Abby on the tag-a-long and I have Joe on a seat behind mine but since I injured my leg/back last week I am trying to take it super easy so that I can heal fast.


In this picture Joe is pointing forward because he wanted to GO GO GO DAD!!!

A Day in the Life

Now and again I wonder if I provide enough experiences/activites for my children. I was thinking about this last night while I was laying in bed trying to get Joe to sleep for over an hour. I reflected on our day, which isn't typical of everyday, but I realized that we do way more than I think we do. This was our day yesterday. I got up and ran errands while Shawn hung out with the kids, they played and watched a movie. I got home and then we went outside. Once outside we played on the swingset, watered the plants and Abby got out a bucket of water and washed her balance bike, Joe's trike and everything else in the backyard. While Abby and I did more work in the yard Shawn and Joe went to the bike shop then back home where we vacuumed out the car. Afterwards we had lunch and then Shawn was going to take Abby over to the lake to go fishing during Joe's nap. It started to rain and Shawn ended up falling asleep on the couch so Abby and I decided to go to the Mall to go on rides. She has an unlimited pass which she got from my mom. I love having this pass because we can just go for a short while and not feel like we have to go on every single ride. In fact, Abby only went on two rides yesterday. She went on some puppy ride and then went on the carousel about 10 times in a row and then she said she was ready to go home. Once we got home we decided to go fishing so we all headed down to the lake. Shawn and Joe fished while Abby and I made fairy houses in the sand. I think the fishing experience was a little disappointing for Abby because she did not have her own rod, apparently it is broke. We then went home and decided to barbecue for dinner. Our neighbor ended up coming over so Abby and her played together for a long time. They found a frog in our window well and they wanted me to take some pictures. While Abby was holding it for the picture the frog was singing the prettiest song, it was really neat. The girls made a home for it in a bucket with rocks, water, sand and some critters for the frog to eat. Abby knew that she would need to let it go before the end of the night. She was sad about this but also knew that she didn't want to keep the frog too long because it would die. So, during dinner she kept running out and checking on it, the last time she came in she told us she let the frog go. She said she was happy for the frog but sad for herself. I am so happy that she let the frog go when she was ready because I was a bit nervous it was going to turn into a crying fest if I had to ask her to do it. Gotta love my girl.

I love you so very much

Last night after dinner we had to pick up Shawn's truck from the mechanic. This meant we didn't have time for dessert, which Abby hadn't even said anything about, but I wanted something. I decided to make some whip cream and serve it with strawberries. Joe grubbed down on the whip cream and Abby and I devoured the strawberries and cream. We then headed out the door to get the truck. Once we got home I was standing at the sink and Abby came up to me, hugged my legs and said, "Mom I love you sooo very much!" Of course I was delighted with this and then she asked if I knew why she loved me so very much. Of course I said well no, why? This is what she said: I love you so very much because you made such a yummy dessert tonight and you have been letting me eat a lot of dessert lately!
Hmmmm, I am not sure what to think of this?!?!?

Sugar

I decided to title this entry Sugar because this is a word I hear frequently from Abby. She asks for sugar all the time. I have all these issues around food and I don't want to pass them on to her but I can see that I am already doing this. I am torn about giving my kids sugar, although they do get it all the time. I used to be a big Weston Price person, still am in the sense of buying grass-fed meat, raw milk, pastured eggs, eating kefir, kombucha etc. and because I have done so much reading from WAP/NT, and issues from my own childhood I have big issues about sugar. It became evil to me and I didn't want my kids to have it. I have come to realize this is ridiculous and am trying to also embrace the idea that food only has the power one gives it. So, I started letting Abby have more and more sugar. Around Easter I was thinking about putting out a candy dish that she could have access to whenever she wanted it. I bought candy from the co-op and there it sat in the pantry. I just couldn't get myself to do it but also realized she was getting plenty of sweets anyways. I have started to make ice cream at night which the kids are really loving and I don't feel bad about them eating it because it seems pretty healthy since I use raw milk, egg yolks, and maple syrup. I also add mint extract and chocolate chips, because that is Abby's favorite. Basically, every night we eat this and I was hoping it would fill Abby's cravings for sweets but she still asks for sweets all day long. I usually just tell her to see what she can find. Since I don't keep that many sweets in the house she usually doesn't find much or maybe she will find fruit twists or granola. The other day she came running out to the backyard ecstatic with her find, jelly beans that I had bought for the candy jar. She ate them and ate them. I kept resisting the urge to tell her she had had enough. Finally, I did say maybe she should save some for tomorrow. She didn't resist at all, that was very surprising, and she put them away. The next morning after breakfast she said she wanted dessert. Everything in me wanted to say no but I said, oh yeah, what do you want? Jellybeans! Ok. Man was that hard for me to watch and she was giving Joe some too, which was basically his breakfast since he doesn't usually eat for a long time after waking up. The following day the same thing occured, she wanted dessert after breakfast and she chose jelly beans. I was really getting sick of those damn jelly beans and couldn't wait for them to be all gone. Besides the jelly beans she found a bottle of rootbeer (from my rootbeer float the night before!) that had about 1/4 left in it and she decided to have that for dessert too. Oh my god, everything in me wanted to SCREAM!!! She kept talking about it and going on and on about how yummy it was and how nice I was to let her have it, yadyadyadyadyada. I just smiled at her and didn't say a word because what I really wanted to say is that she shouldn't be eating it, that it is bad for her, that she should start her day off better, that her teeth are going to fall out, her gut is gonna get screwed up and a million other negative comments. I am glad I kept my mouth shut and I look forward to the day when I can embrace her joy when she is having jelly beans and rootbeer for dessert after breakfast.

Nightweaning

I decided a few weeks ago that I was ready to nightwean Joe. He finally has all his teeth (well not his eye teeth yet) and I was ready to get more sleep. So, last weekend we did it. It went way better than I expected and now my little man is sleeping about 6 or so hours straight. I am getting more sleep and I feel really good. The best part about it is that I wake up in the morning ready to start the day. He and I usually wake about 5:30 or 6 and I nurse him back to sleep and then I get out of bed. Both kids usually sleep until about 8 or sometimes even closer to nine. This is so awesome for me because I am a morning person and it is really nice to have time in the mornign to do stuff for myself. What I would really like to do is find some sort of exercise that I like to do at home and start doing it. I have never liked to work-out at home but here is my chance, maybe I will take up rebounding or jump roping!?

Sleep

There are so many reasons why I think sleeping with my kids is awesome. Here are a few. This morning I was up early checking emails and I heard Joe wake up. I ran upstairs and nursed him back to sleep. While I was laying there making sure he was out before I left the room I watched him sleep. He looked so calm, peaceful and content. While I was watching he was stretching in his sleep and moving his lips as if he was still nursing and then a smile crept across his face. It was so sweet. Then I heard Abby stirring and she popped her head up and looked to see that Joe and I were still there, I could see her contentment on her face as she layed back down in her bed and went back to sleep. I am so happy that neither of my kids will ever know the feeling of sleeping alone unwillingly and will hopefully always associate sleep with what it should be: restful and peaceful.

Texas

Our family went to Houston, TX last week to visit friends. It was our first trip back since we moved home and we had a great time. It was also Joe's first time on an airplane. He did just fine and I have to chuckle to myself because I barely even thought about it and I remember when we flew with Abby when she was his age, I was so nervous and brought a ton of stuff on the plane and worried about her ears etc. , oh how nice it is to have experience on our side. In Texas we stayed with our friends Janet and Tony and their four girls. Abby and Joe were in heaven and couldn't get enough of the girls. They were both entertained non-stop, which was nice for Shawn and I to relax and catch-up with Janet and Tony. Since the girls are homeschooled they were around all the time and the youngest, Emily, got to skip out on school and hang with us on a few adventures. I have more photos just need to figure out how to get them on here!

We went to the Children's Museum and spent about 4 or 5 hours there. The kids absolutely loved it there, it is a really cool museum. Joe ended up crashing out on a bench with me while Abby and Emily were in their glory playing in the grocery store for over 45 minutes.

Abby and Joe in the art room at the museum.
Joe checking out all the different markers.

Abby and Emily constructing different houses/offices out of these interconnecting boards. They had a ton of fun in this area.

One day we headed to the Houston Zoo, which is gorgeous. It was really nice to spend the day outside and to watch the kids delight in all the animals. They loved the giraffes and elephants and I think their favorite part was eating snow cones before we headed out.
Posing at the baby elephant statue at the Houston zoo.
Snack time.

Joe and mom checking out the monkeys.

Another day the kids and I headed to my friend Deb's house while Shawn spent the day with his friend Logan. It was so nice to spend the whole day with Deb and her boys. Abby and Alex played outside the entire day and we all ate lunch and dinner together. Both our younger boys napped and Deb and I just hung out. I forgot how good it was to spend days like this with a friend and I realized I really miss that and want to create something like that here in Mpls.

Deb lives in the country and has a child's dream backyard. Teepee, sand pit, slides, basketball hoops, trampoline, zip cord line etc etc. and the neighbors have horses too!

Christopher on a super cool tractor!

Joe loving the play car

Christopher climbing a tree

Alex and Abby enjoying a snack

Abby walking Birch.

one of their cool playscapes

Deb, Abby and Birch.

Abby on another playscape

All of us had a super geat time and I didn't realize how much I missed my Texas friends until I saw them again. The morning we headed out to the airport both Abby and I cried as we said good-bye. Poor Abby cried the whole way to the airport, through returning our rental car and checking in for our flight. She kept saying it is so hard to leave friends especially best friends!!! I couldn't agree more.

Dinner with friends

Last Wednesday Shawn had to go to work 2 hours earlier than usual for the night shift, which meant that we would not see him at all that day. I quickly realized that this could mean a long yucky day for us. I decided to call my friend, whose husband was traveling for work, to see if she wanted to come over for dinner. She thought it was a good idea and offered to bring over a pan of meatloaf (which was heavenly!) So, that evening her and her three kids came over. All the kids played, we had a yummy meal, made homemade ice cream and then they headed home. I am so glad we did this and hope we do it more often. As I have blogged about before, spending time with other adults is so important for my sanity and sharing a meal with others is yummy!!!!!!!!