Happy Mother's Day!

Our boys love to have fun and play together!

It was an average week for us. We are always busy but nothing major or exciting happened. One question we get asked a lot is, "What is life like with two kids now?" My typical answer is “we are busy but it’s a lot of fun!” I’ve heard the saying that going from one child to two is hard but two to three isn’t so bad. Obviously because we don’t have three I don’t know if that’s true but going from one to two hasn’t been too bad. Just so Spencer and Easton know when they get older what life was like on an average day for them I thought I would write it out.

On the days that I work……..

4:15 am my alarm goes off (I don’t usually get out of bed until 4:30 though) I quickly start to get ready because it won't be long and Easton will be getting up.

5:00-5:30 am Easton wakes up and is HUNGRY! I quickly get him changed and dressed so he’s ready for daycare before feeding him. After he eats he typically goes back to sleep so I either put him back to bed or if he’s awake I put him on our bed to play while Ryan and I finish getting ready.

6:00 am we wake Spencer up. He’s been a lot better in the morning these days now that both Ryan and I are around to get him up. We are all out the door by 6:20am.

By the time we get home in the evenings we roughly have two hours to get both boys fed, bathed, and ready for bed. Typically Ryan will cuddle with Spencer while I give Easton his night time bottle and both boys are off to bed. I then try to run around get everything out for the next day, shower and head off to bed myself. To make things easier Ryan and I have split up rooms in the house that we are each in charge of picking up at night just so our house doesn’t get completely out of control.

Spencer was quiet down in the basement after his bath one night and came up wearing this!

This week it was a basketball.

Now onto the rest of the week. Spencer, Easton and I have all been fighting colds this week. When I worked I just waited for the phone call from day care saying one of them was sick and I would need to pick them up but thankfully that didn’t happen. Friday morning however I woke up covered in hives. I’m still not sure from what. This used to happen to me a lot when I was in high school they called it chronic hives. The only way I know how to get rid of them quickly is to take Benadryl. Well that’s not an option when you have to take care of two kids so Grandma offered to watch the boys for me that day. I also forgot how sleepy Benadryl can make me! So while I napped the boys played at Grandma’s. She gave them each a bath and Spencer even got to take his bath in the sink!

I met them in EC for dinner that night. My dad had some of his cousins in from out of town so we all went out to dinner with them. While the ladies sat at one table with Easton, Heather and I along with the two busy boys joined my dad and Jim at the other. We tried to entertain the boys with markers, play doh, and golf balls while we waited for our food. It wasn’t long though and Easton was crying because he was hungry and was sent over to our table. Going out to dinner can be fun yet stressful! I want Spencer to learn and get used to going out to dinner but sometimes it’s way easier to say in!

On Saturday Uncle JB came over to play. Uncle JB will be leaving soon to head back home for the summer. We are going to miss having him around to come over and play!

That evening we headed back to EC to have dinner with my parents and then we all went to the mall for ice cream and Ryan got new clothes for work!

Happy Mother’s day to all of the moms out there! We spent our day by going to church and then out to brunch. Each of the boys made me a special gift at day care. Easton gave me a glass candy dish with his footprints on the bottom and Spencer gave me a plaque that has our picture on it. I’m very lucky to be blessed with two very special boys! I love them more than they will ever know.

Sometimes Spencer wants to pretend that he is a baby again by sitting in Easton's car seat. The unbelievable part is this car seat is supposed to hold up to30 pounds and that is how much Spencer weighs right now!

Grandma Nancy Visits!

Spencer, Easton and I started our week by going to Eau Claire to get some errands done. We started by meeting Grandma at the jewelry store. Spencer did a great job picking out my new birthday present! Easton got to stretch out on the floor while we shopped. I don't know to many jewelers that have toys for kids to play with and give away sippy cups to their customers!!

Monday was also the day I was ready to put Spencer out on the corner with the sign that says "free to a good home!" Yup we are in the terrible two's! It seems like everything is a challenge with him. If he doesn't get his way or you tell him no he will throw a mini tantrum or fake cry. He will also go to hit or kick you if you try picking him up or taking something he doesn't want you to touch. I see many "time outs" in his future! On Wednesday I put him in a time out because he had patted/tried to hit me for telling him no he couldn't have his 4th Nutragrain bar and I put him in his crib and the next thing I knew he was sound asleep! I would say that was a case of being over tired! His new favorite things to say are "Spencer's turn" or "Spencer do it!" I like that he wants to be independent and try to do things on his own but half the time he can't do the stuff he wants to do or we are in a hurry and I don't have time to wait while he puts his socks on!

Spencer is getting smarter these days and a little bit mischievous. The last few mornings and at nap time he now gets out of his crib and tries to open the door. On Friday morning while Ryan was getting ready for work and I was feeding Easton we could hear Spencer coming down the stairs to join us. Ryan and I were both surprised to see him. I'm thinking it won't be long and he will be moving into his big boy bed.

These pictures don't have anything to do with what's written above but I thought they were good examples of his mischievous side!

This boy has trouble written all over his face!

Another thing that Spencer does is take forever when he's going to the bathroom. I've never seen a little boy start and stop going to the bathroom as much as he can. He will go a little bit and then stop take a piece of toilet paper and wipe. I will then ask him if he is all done going and he his response is "noooooo still going" and he will start again. This can go on for at least 5 times before I finally offer a marshmallow to just get him off the potty.

Easton is smiling a ton these days and cooing a lot. He seems to still be adjusting well in his new room at school. I even made it all week without calling to check in on him! He also continues to sleep through the night going down around 7:30-8:30 and sleeping until 5:00-5:30. I still miss him a ton during the day and have a hard time putting him down at night because I just want to hold him forever knowing that he won't be little like this for long.

Since I use this blog as our baby book for the boys I want to tell a story that is a bit old and that most of you already know. I thought though that I should have it documented because everyone says some day I will look back and laugh at the situation....even though I still feel horrible about it to this day! It was a few weeks back and Spencer, Easton and I were all home together. I had decided the windows were dirty and I wanted to wash our big picture window. I snuck out while Spencer wasn't looking and Easton was in his swing but while I was washing the window Spencer saw me. He ran to the door to try and get out but doesn't know how to turn door knobs yet so came back to the window to watch me. When I was done I went back to the door turned the knob and pushed but the door didn't move that's when I realized Spencer had locked the dead bolt when he was trying to get out! I started to get nervous and then thought, ok I will call my mom (I realize now there is really nothing my mom could do to help since she lives an hour away.... but in all situations mom's seem to know the right answers)  but then I quickly realized my phone was in the house. I thought maybe I left a door unlocked or something so I went around the house checking everything.... no luck! Now I'm really panicking. I tried very hard to get Spencer to undo the lock. He just kept laughing at me and trying to turn the door handle. I was trying to stay calm because I didn't want him to get scared and start crying. I was able to see Easton in his swing from the window and by this time he has now started to fuss (poor baby!) All of the solutions I came up with I needed a phone so I ran two doors down to my neighbor who I know does day care some days but no one was home. I ran back home and tried one more time to get Spencer to unlock the door no luck. So my next thought was either I run to a few more houses down and get a construction guy who is building a house down the street and have him come break our window or I run to my other neighbor who does day care and use her phone. I decided to go to my neighbors and use her phone. One small problem.... since I only really use my cell phone and all of my numbers are in my phone I don't have any ones number memorized. I first had to use her computer to get Ryan's work number off an email and then I emailed my neighbor Kristin who has one of our house keys to call me at Emily's house! Finally I talked to Kristin and got the code for their garage. I ran back to their house got my key and finally was able to get into our house. Spencer didn't have a clue that anything was going on. He was still playing basketball and laughing at me as I came running into the house. Easton was still crying in the swing...... I picked up both boys and hugged them for a good 5 minutes before I could even move! I was pretty upset and called my mom bawling to tell her what happened. So that will forever be known as the day I was the worst mother in the world. I will also never go outside like that again leaving Spencer inside and no way of me getting back in. We will also be putting a key pad on our garage. I knew there was a reason why I didn't like washing windows!

As for the rest of the week we had a lot of fun. On Saturday morning Spencer and I tried to make chocolate chip cookies. I am an awful cookie maker but we still had fun trying. It was Spencer's job to pour things into the bowl. When it came time to add the chocolate chips Spencer didn't want to just pour them in he wanted to drop them in one by one! Do you know how long that could take? He would drop one in and then eat two. So finally I gave him a little pile to eat and poured the rest in. Spencer loves helping me in the kitchen.

The best part of making cookies.... you get to lick the beaters.

Saturday afternoon Grandma Nancy came up for a visit. She got her while both boys were sleeping so Spencer was very excited when he woke up from his nap to see her. She even brought him a present! That always seems to win him over.

Grandma Nancy was staying over in a hotel so we took advantage and took Spencer swimming. We had the whole pool to ourselves and they had steps that walked in so Spencer could play on those! Easton got to stretch out and play on towels. The water was pretty cold so finally after Spencer's lips were blue and he was shaking all over we went upstairs to warm up and Grandma Nancy even let Spencer jump on her bed.

We all went out to dinner that night. Spencer was a good boy and ate well. Easton was pretty tired and slept through most of dinner. It was nice to spend some time with Grandma Nancy since we don't get to see her very often!

Sunday morning Grandma stopped by one last time to visit before heading home. We will miss her but luckily we will be heading down to visit her at the end of the month.