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Thanks!

Little Mommy

Carrying her "baby" in her pouch.  =)

Meesa.

Our newest bunch of kittens are out now!  After their birth, mama moved them to a huge cardboard box in the garage and they've stayed there for the last several weeks.  We peek it on them periodically, watching them grow.  Then yesterday when Kevin's Aunt Sheila was here for a visit, we were going to go look at the new kittens, and Eli came back to the house reporting that they were out of the box!  I said What? and we went out to see. And sure enough, all the kittens are out and about now and crawling along the ground garage!  

Eli's sort of adopted one of them, the one that was brave enough to be held.  I asked Eli if he should name it, and he came up with Meesa.  By the way, he can really come up with some unique, beautiful names!  So meet Meesa...

Easter 2011

a handsome picture of Eli while I'm taking a test-picture

our babies!

love these three!!

This year Easter was a little different. Being in the midst of Outage we just really couldn't plan anything as a family.  The kids and I decorated Easter eggs, but we tried the Pearlescent package which really is just dropping the dye directly on the egg and smearing it around with the provided plastic glove baggie.  So I pretty much did all the dying and didn't get any pics.  Won't be doing that package again--didn't look like the picture on the box at all and the eggs stayed really sticky.  And when peeling the eggs to EAT, the dye comes off all over your fingers.  So anyway, we DID eggs.  And we also did some Easter projects that week.  But the actual day of Easter we didn't have plans, other than me singing in church that day.  Which was perfect BECAUSE we were invited to celebrate the day with Pastor's family.

And we had such a wonderful wonderful day!  Complete with FABULOUS food, excellent dessert and coffee, an afternoon walk as a group that ended up at the park, games, laughter, and conversation!  Finally at 8:30pm I decided I really HAD to get the kids home for bed!  Hopefully next year Kevin can be a part of the fun!

Carter's new favorite thing

When Carter first started walking he was obsessed with the kitchen cupboards, daily unloading cans of food, cereal boxes, noodle boxes and everything else you store in cupboards.  Then I re-arranged and got him to move on to a little cupboard of his own that just has tupperware-type bowls.  He still unloads those at least once a day, and if he's hungry he'll dump ALLLL the cheerios out onto the floor otherwise leaving the rest of the food stuff alone, but now he's more interested in the drawer.  A drawer.  Where he can pull out all the little baggies from the box. And unroll the wax paper or the aluminum foil. 

LOVELY.

Preschool Track & Field Day

Wednesday Eli's preschool had track and field day, hosted by Head Start, with all the other local preschool classes, totaling something like 200 kids!  Each class got a different colored T-shirt, although there was another orange team like ours.

Once I finally got into Eli's head that it was TRACK and not tractOR rides, he got super excited, and all week he was talking about how he was going to win the race.  We'd talked about having a good attitude and having a fun time regardless, but he was still set on winning. I'd prepped him that there was probably going to be several other events than just running, but he was still disappointed when there was no running races at all, just GAMES. The football field was covered with super-fun things like jumbo croquet, hoola hoop things, sack races, mini hurdles, and tons more!  Our class ended up leaving after the snack break (not really sure why??) so we missed several more events.  But the kids had tried so hard and were getting pretty worn out as it was! Although we did go to the park afterward for more outside fun!

Eli's class, his teachers are in red sweatshirts

Hannah got to hang out with her friend Olivea

the first event: hit the ball along the ground with the foam bat thing.  Or just run with it as Eli started to do.

this was all during Carter's normal naptime, so I pouched him in my Ergo, and toward the end he finally fell asleep.

All the kids got medals.  Eli was so proud.

Carter: 15 months

How fun is this background! Nevermind all the wrinkles I didn't bother to iron--it just takes WAY too much time and effort for just a monthly picture! (ever try ironing with a 1-yr old around?  Holy STRESS!!! Afraid to set the iron down even for one second to adjust fabric/clothes for fear that he'd knock the whole thing over onto himself!)

Updates:

* No more bottle. Drinks from a sippy cup full-time now and will even take other sippy cups when he's at other people's houses.
* Learned how to drink from a straw, specifically from a juice box.  Don't know yet if he'll do the big straws then.
* His new favorite thing to do while I'm unloading the dishwasher is to set in his sippy cup (or a vacuum attachment, ya know, whatever) and close the door.
* Has same sleep patterns: Morning and afternoon nap, bedtime 7:30.
* No new teeth though he's biting on his fingers like he's got some coming.
* Loves him a game of peek-a-boo especially if you're laying on the couch with a blanket over you.  He'll come over to peek under the blanket.
* Loves to play with his gumball machine or toy airplane, both have balls you drop in.
* His favorite toy is a ball, any size, and will flap his arms in excitement.
* Still has major stranger danger but there are a couple select friends he does fine with.
* Is cautious about step-downs even if it's little like a crack in the sidewalk.  But if I'm there, he just walks over the edge with no fear.
* Loves to brush his own teeth.  (with the help of mommy)
* Now he signs "all done"
* Words: mama, dada, ball, bye-bye
* Waves bye-bye to people without prompting.
* Learned how to do a summersault and did it again and again, laughing hysterically in between.  Now he doesn't really do it at all.
* Weighs 22.5 lbs and is 31" long. At his appointment it also showed he has an ear infection, even though he's show no symptoms or fussiness!

Outage. What IS it?

Okay, here and my personal blog, you've probably heard me mention several times now about Outage going on at Kevin's work.  And I've also probably given a brief description, but I thought I'd explain a little bit better...

Kevin works at a power plant.  So when you hear "outage", think "power outage".  Every year and a half the plant hits the OFF switch and they completely shut down for routine maintenance while other plant(s) provide the power for our area in replacement.  Additional temporary workers come in from out of state, and locally, and there's a whole big list of maintenance to-do's and the goal is to complete it all in about a month and half (years ago it used to be like 4 or 5 MONTHS!!), but we all know it's probably going to take a little bit longer.  Not sure yet at this point if they'll be done by Easter or not, but here's hoping...

During that month and a half ALL the workers maintain a pretty grueling schedule:  12-hr days (which for Kevin is his usual shift anyway) but they work 4 days on, then get 1 day off, and repeat for the entire duration of outage.  Some of the head-honchos (supervisors and engineers, etc) end up working almost 15-hr days at times and they're paid salary so  they don't get overtime pay for all those hours.  Kevin got put on the night shift this outage AND last, and since his day off is, well, just that, one day off, he still sleeps the day away and then has a night up by himself.  We do get a little afternoon/evening time and that's still a blessing but errands, projects, and phone calls also have to fit into that time too, and the day is gone before we know it.

Outage means... 

* The kids and I have to stay fairly quiet during the day while daddy's sleeping.  (he gets home around 6:30am, sleeps til about 3:30pm, and leaves at 5pm) He's a pretty heavy sleeper and our bedrooms are upstairs so that is helpful, but still we have to be relatively quiet with our play (nothing rowdy, no piano, no upstairs playing, and we REALLY have to avoid crying fits!)

* I hardly get the laundry put away, because Kevin's sleeping in there.  And the bed rarely gets made because for most hours of the day SOMEONE is sleeping there (me obviously at night, and Kevin during day)

* Except for the fabulous hot-cooked breakfasts Kevin has been making for us (yes, he's amazing), we don't eat meals together.  Definitely not dinner, so the kids and I scrap big-time and our fridge is often completely empty, though I DID just stock up on tons of fresh veggies!

* I go to church alone with the kids every Sunday. I go everywhere alone with the kids, unless it's a short enough errand I can slip out during nap time while everyone's sleeping. But that would mean another trip to town which I try to avoid unless necessary.

* I plan as many fun things for the kids as possible.  Yes to play dates (though I try not to host), yes to park days (though we're STILL waiting for some good weather!), yes to children's museum, zoo trips, the circus, Omaha trips, walks at the pond etc. Anything to pass the time when the days get long.

* We get a little extra snuggling in.  The kids occasionally take turns laying for nap next to daddy, or even less often sleeping in my bed with me at night.

But we're all getting along quite well. Really.  It helps so much that it's the beginning of spring and we can get outside on the nice days.  It helps that there are a hundred other wives and moms going through the exact same thing.  It helps to have been through this before and know what to expect.  It helps to just expect NOT to see Kevin and when we do, it's just bonus. 

And still, we count the days til it's done so we can resume normal life and togetherness once again!

Silly boy!

Carter LOVES to play peek-a-boo.  He often initiates it.  Here he is laying down, being silly with his blankie around his head.  You have such a FUN personality, I love you to pieces!!

When Daddy's away...

We PLAY!!

With Kevin working so much, I've been busy keeping the kids occupied with fun things.  I'm pretty sure I've said that before.  The kids also take turns laying for nap next to sleeping Daddy, or going to bed in Mommy's bed at night.  Not always.  But sometimes.  Last weekend I planned a living room sleepover.  I'd just taken apart Carter's crib (we never used it anyway) and his mattress had been laying out when I got the idea that we'd bring down Eli's and Hannah's mattresses  too (they're soo light and easy to move) and do a sleepover after movie night.  We waited til Carter was put in bed for the night and had a fun night together!  As I recall, last time we had a sleepover on the floor-floor I slept horribly.  This time having the mattress I slept fine! (I added a couch cushion to make my bed longer) We had so much fun!  This Outage, we're making it!