Favorite kids books

I love these books, we bought Caden two of them for his Birthday!

Baby Einstein First Words
Baby Einstein Let's Go (forms of transportation)

The books are hardcover board books, with both an image and a word (see pic), both Caden and W spend lots of time either viewing alone or with me reading out the objects. The books have tons of objects. They were only $9 at Chapters.

6:10 - Awake, shower, start getting ready

6:30 - Earliest Caden wakes up, sometimes sleeps til 7

7:00 - pack Husband's lunch, MIL made coffee before she left for work, pour, add cream and sugar, stir, SIP!

7:25 - Pray with Quinn, Kiss, he leaves for work

7:30 - W. has arrived, chaos begins :)

7:31-8:00 - Play time, dump all toys from toy bins, play!

8:00 - if the boys haven't entered the kitchen and begin scouring cupboards already, I start making breakfast

8:01 - boys at my heels, whining for breakfast

8:10 - oatmeal is ready and cooled, pull out highchair and booster side by side, load and lock children in chairs and serve alternating spoonfuls

8:20 - All done, wipe hands and faces, exit chairs

8:21 - break up fight over climbing up the high chair

8:23 - move chairs from the dining room to the linoleum area of kitchen floor, lunch will be much messier.

8:34 - a little bit of cereal for breakfast and its time to take a poo, change 2 poo diapers

9:00 - nap time. Set up play pen in the in-laws room, Kiss and tell them sweet things, one in play pen, one in crib, see you in a couple hours.

10:00 - Caden will likely wake up from nap, but want to sleep more, put him back to sleep in our bed

11:30-noon - Boys awake, play time

12:20 - Boys in chairs, food!

12:40 - done lunch, wipe hands and faces, exit chairs

1:00 - change diapers x2

More play time, put some Veggie Tales tunes on, dance, dance, dance, read a book or two, enhance some motor skills with building blocks, or drive cars and trucks

1:30 - Assemble jogging stroller on the patio, dress boys for outdoors, change into jogging clothes, gather sippy cups, phone, keys, Mum-Mum snack for boys after park, strap boys in, jog.

1:45 - arrive at park, bounce on teeter-totter, pour kids down the slide, place kids in swings, make sure W doesn't run out of park onto street, take some pics.

2:20 - All done, have your sippy cups, strap back into jogger, each get a mum-mum stick, jog.

2:30 - stop running, someone is crying in stroller, suspect the other tried to grab sippy cup and/or snack. try to stop the crying. Continue jog. Watch thru back screen to ensure there is no more grabbing, keep hands to themselves :)

2:40 - back at home, eject boys from stroller, move inside. Undress from outside.

3:00 - feed milk to both boys - soon to be changing to snacks, I hope :)

3:20 - Nap time x2, check diapers before nap time

4:10 - W's pickup time, other Mama has arrived

4:20 - In laws are home from work to watch Caden, while I prepare dinner.

5:00 - Quinn is home - XO

5:20 - Eating dinner.

6:00 - clean up dinner with help from MIL

7:00 - Hang out with husband and Caden, fav time of the day.

8:30 - feed Caden some oatmeal before bed.

8:45 - bath time

9:00 - out of bath, dry, lotion up, jammies on

9:20 - Caden to bed

9:21 - more time with Quinn

10:30 - 11 - Bedtime!

Sound familiar anyone? Well, it might be without the in-laws for you ;)...sure is helpful some days!

Spell checker thinks poo isn't a word, its right, feces would be better. weird.

baby

Thankful for a new baby.

Baby Luke Paul was born on Saturday, a strong 8lbs 11oz, 23in long. Mama is good, but recovering from that, as you can imagine.

Driving out on Saturday to see them, I felt such a difference of emotions, happy that he was born safely, happy for them as they start their life as family, but anxious and worried for them. Her experience is similar to mine, I relate, maybe slightly worse. The weeks of recovery for me seemed like an eternity, amidst all the adjustments and change of life. Difficult time. Hard to enjoy your new baby amidst that. Her experience could be entirely different, I know this. They will have lots of help and make it through it, just like we did. I know what to pray for. That she springs back quickly and she can enjoy those fleeting weeks of new baby.

eats

In a chat with a dear friend about lunch for kiddos, i thought I'd post some of the meal ideas that popped into my head this week for toddlers/kids/you.

1. Leftover steak? No problem, tear it into bits, quick fry with some veggies (whatever you have, i did broccoli, red pepper, tomato), add a little fresh ground pepper, after frying, throw in a couple beaten eggs for a delicious omelet.

2. Scrambled eggs with Broccoli and cheese - cut the broccoli into little bits, throw couple tbsps of water in a pan with the broccoli, let it steam til the water is gone, add some oil/butter, throw in the eggs with some shredded cheese and Scramble!

3. Avocado Grilled Cheese - Lightly spread some butter on the outside of both slices of bread, on the insides of the bread, spread some avocado (mash with a fork in a bowl first so its easy to spread). Place shredded cheese on the avocado and fry it up. Cut into bits for yummy finger food! These boys love it!! (one lady i know uses cookie cutter shapes, stamped out of grilled cheese for something fun)

4. Sides - steamed anything, peas, carrots, broccoli. During morning nap, i'll sometimes quickly steam up some veggies, so I don't have to do it at lunch when they're at my heels. At lunch, again, yummy finger food.

5. Oatmeal anything - breakfast is very often oatmeal at our house. Some days I add cinnamon with milk. Other days cut up strawberry, or sometimes dice tiny bits of apple (boil in the water a bit first before adding quick oatmeal). I recently tried steel cut oats (best for you), that takes half hour which we often don't have.

6. When the kids are whining at my heels for their meal, which is anytime I enter the kitchen!, I'll give them a mini carrot, keeps them occupied for 10 minutes, its fabulous. (I only started this with Caden at 11 months - he does well with it at this point)

Other days we just serve leftovers from last night's dinner.

Some parts of my day are really chaotic and I wonder how I'm going to manage or if I'll ever learn enough to raise them up right, I have to really trust God for wisdom. But, this part of my day, I feel confident and great when I'm enabled to feed them well...that is if they choose to eat that day :)