How I've tried to fix my parenting mistake

So, Easton has never been a big fan of milk or water.

Let me re-phrase: Easton hated milk, even chocolate milk when I weaned him so I allowed him to become a watered-down juice drinker, almost exclusively.

Parenting fail.

Since he has been able to "reason" so to speak, I've tried various things to get other liquids into his diet.  The kid struggles with consistency in "going" so I'm always trying to improve his diet while not slowing things down with less liquid than he needs.

So far, everything I've tried has led to a battle of the wills.  Tantrums and refusal to drink from him and yelling and frustration from me.  Then, for the sake of normalcy around here (bathroom-wise) I usually give in.

Then, I had a brilliant idea. 

The drink chart. 

We've been using this method for just over 2 weeks now and haven't had a single tantrum.  Easton just checks the fridge to see what drink he is on and is perfectly fine when that is what he is offered.  Stickers go up and we all move on.

I realize that not every one's kid struggles with this...but since the visual solution has worked so well, I thought I would share in the hopes that you could adopt it for what is driving you batty.

Notes: I created the chart in Word using an image I found online.  I colored every other glass the color of apple juice and on the white glasses, Easton gets to choose whether he wants water or milk.  I'm happy to email it to anyone who could use this exact chart.

16 weeks

I assume from the enthusiastic response I received when I asked if people wanted belly pictures when I was pregnant with Kendree, it is no different this time around.

So here we go.  Me at 16 weeks.  I would say that I'm past that phase of people thinking that I just ate a lot for dinner.  I lost about 5 pounds during the first trimester and have yet to gain that back, so I like to think that the bump is all baby so far.

I'm feeling really good.  I love this stage of pregnancy.  Energy is up, belly is not in the way, etc.  The kids and I have been enjoying bike rides and walks now that summer seems to have arrived in Cheyenne.

I'm still not craving anything consistently, and food in general doesn't hold the same appeal for me as it usually does.  Too bad I can't keep that feeling after the baby is here!  Baby is moving around, but it is not very consistent or really all that frequent yet.  I have 4 weeks to decide if I'm really going to let this baby be a surprise since they do the ultrasounds at 22 weeks at my doctor's office.  Ronnie would really like to find out this time and I'm still on the fence.

My pregnancy with Kendree at 17 weeks here.

The long awaited (by about 3 of you) house tour

Here it is folks.  I figured I couldn't delay much longer. :)

The view from the front door:

And from over by the love seat looking towards the garage door and desk/piano area (a big hello to Easton playing games at disneyjunior.com):

Another view of the piano area:

Next, a few views into the kitchen, that door you see leads into the laundry room:

Which looks like this (there are also pantry shelves behind the door that I didn't think you cared to see):

And then we have a view into the main room from the kitchen (by this point, you should really feel like you are IN this room with me):

And one last view of the doors, which lets you see that we don't have a coat closet (GASP!).  I know, how I overlooked such a thing when we were looking at what seemed like hundreds of houses is beyond me.  Oh well!  Hooks from Target work just great.

A view into the dining area:

The stairs to the unfinished basement (which looks like a bomb of boxes and long term storage went off in it) are just off the garage door.  Ronnie and my dad installed this baby gate which I love!

Now we can finally move on to another area of the house--the hall! (note the fan that keeps the kids cool-ish at night as we are adjusting to no A/C--our first time without it in over 3 years--I know we were insanely spoiled).

Straight ahead in the last picture is the kid's bathroom which almost always looks as you see it here...ready for Easton to use it at any given moment:

If you turn to the right from the bathroom, you come to Kendree's room (with Easton, our tour guide):

And to the right of that is Easton's room:

And to the left of the bathroom is the door to the master bedroom:

The door on the right is the master bathroom and the door on the left is the closet.

Standing in the doorway of the closet you see this:

And this little girl who loves to tear shoes off of mom's rack.  Good thing she is cute!

And that's it!  Congrats if you made it to the end. Now you just need to come visit!

A Funk

You know how sometimes you get in a blogging funk?

Or a funk in general for that matter?

I'm in one and trying desperately to get out.

My house is relatively put together and I still haven't taken pictures to give you a tour.  That's #1 on my list, I promise.

I have orders for what feels like one bazillion cards that I need to get on top of.

Not to mention the sewing, etc. that I would love to do for this little one.

Oh, and you know what?

I have a family too.

Bottom line?  It's okay to let blogging take a back seat for a while.

Just know I still love ya!

A few more details

Since you had to either have your magnifying glass out or really look for it in the picture below, my due date is currently 11/11/11.  I know.  It is pretty rad.  I do anticipate a little change to that before the end of the pregnancy though, since both of my other due dates have changed at the "big" 20 week ultrasound.

While I still have absolutely no room to complain, I did actually experience "queasiness" with this pregnancy (something I felt nothing of during my last two pregnancies).  For the first 14 weeks or so food had to SOUND good to my brain if I even wanted to try to put it in my mouth.  This led to salsa for breakfast, and lots of other fun things.

I'm not craving anything consistently so far with this one (it was chocolate pudding with Easton and Taco Bell with Kendree). However, I've had to say goodbye to my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper for a while.  It sounds the opposite of delicious even still when most of my food aversions are past.  Root beer is basically the only carbonated beverage I can handle currently, but water is what I drink 99% of the time these days.

I haven't totally decided whether I want this baby's gender to be a surprise, but I'm leaning that way.  There is just something to that BIG surprise right after all the pain.  Plus, I get to get busy making lots of quilts and baby goodies again, since I just don't know!  Ronnie even encouraged me to make new crib bedding for this one (I planned on reusing the bumper pads, crib skirts, etc. for each gender) as he thinks it is a cool thing for each child to have forever.  I don't need much push at all to hit up some fabric stores, that is for sure!

The thing I am dreading the most is picking out names.  I love both of my kids names and it is hard for me to imagine finding another one I love as much, but find it I will. (Hopefully!)

Kendree will be 21 months when this baby makes its appearance.  That isn't what worries me so much as the fact that I will have three kids at home for two full years before Easton goes to Kindergarten in the fall of 2013.  It makes me tired just thinking about it. :)

Oh, and I did make the shirts.  I got the idea from a co-worker's sister who mailed cards with that saying out to family to announce her pregnancy and since I don't know her, I figured I was safe to copy.  Since there are four of us in the family, I couldn't resist making it into shirts.  I did some Google Images searches for the pictures, pasted them into Word and added the text and then printed them onto the Iron-on t-shirt stuff that Avery makes that I got at Wal-mart.  I was dreading doing it, but then it came together in under 30 minutes (my kinda project).

Anything I missed?

Kendree - 15 months

Our Kenny girl just keeps on growing! We went to the doctor yesterday and she weighed it at 20 lbs. 12 oz. and was 30 inches long (right around the 25th percentile for both). The doctor did recommend taking her in to be screened since she has been a little slower with some of her developmental milestones (crawling and walking).  They recommend that every child is screened at 18 months and just thought Kendree could get checked out a few months earlier, so I have to get that scheduled.

At 15 months Kendree:

• Will walk anywhere if she is holding onto your hand and will let go and take about 3-4 steps on her own before falling.
• Sleeps through the night
• Loves the "big kid" sippy cups the best (you know, the kind that actually leak a little bit when turned upside down-ugh!)
• Smiles and laughs all of the time.
• Now signs cracker, baby, grapes, shoes, hat, and please consistently and will attempt to copy anything you show her.
• Has turned on the babble big time.  She is constantly telling herself or me a "story" and loves to talk.
• Says eh-lo when she holds the play phones, or remotes, or ipod up to her ear.
• Got her second tooth on April 29th (bottom right one).
• Takes either one or two naps a day depending on how she is acting.  This makes scheduling some things hard, while she just has to live without naps other days if we have things going on.
• Loves her blanket (apparently I create monsters with those) and will let you know she is tired by finding it and just collapsing on the floor.
• Sleeps on her stomach for the most part, usually with her feet tucked underneath her and her bum in the air.

Kendree has a crazy obsession with this little drawing board she got for Easter and will drag it around the house with her.

 Until she sees mama with the camera and then she just wants that.

 She was a bit under the weather a week or so ago and fell asleep on the living room floor at 7:00 p.m. (told you she finds her blanket and just collapses on the floor!)

She is also starting to love accessories.  Bracelets are a favorite as are hair bows.  Note the two in her hair here.

 And now her "official" 15 month pictures.  Sans shirt and everything. (sorry for the blurriness, the girl never stops moving).

And now, a video of her walking with her walker.

And some more catch-up

I just can't seem to keep myself on track on this-here blog.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day and was spoiled by Ronnie and the kids.

After church we headed over to Laramie to have dinner with the fam (I think the main reason for this was so that my dad could do the cooking instead of Ronnie doing it-just kidding Ron!).

We showed up in our wicked-sweet new t-shirts.

Wanna see?

This is where I ask you to ignore Easton pulling up his shirt, Kendree's stained shirt (this was post-dinner) and her cry face. [click on the picture to enlarge]

We couldn't be more excited.

Someone turned 30...

And that someone wasn't me (I have 1 year and 7 months before that happens!).

All day long, Easton was sooooo excited that it was Daddy's birthday.  He went in to tell Daddy Happy Birthday in the morning and said, "Happy Birthday!  You're getting bigger!" (think he hears that when he has birthdays?)

After a regular day at work and a dinner out, we came home to a cake!  Easton had to blow out the candles (I don't know a 3 year old around that could resist).

 I asked family and friends for birthday message/memories of Ronnie and was able to get over 30 (thanks everyone!).  I displayed them in 30 envelopes on the wall (along with a banner and caution tape from Hobby Lobby).

 Finally, a picture of the traditional birthday signs that I grew up having on every birthday.

This one is a picture of the sign that took me all day to make.  Thirty things about Ronnie that start with "t".  It was TOUGH!

Happy Birthday Ronnie! Hope it was as good as turning 30 can be!

Easton's Mater Teeth

Easton went to the store with daddy and came home with a Mater (from Cars) teeth sucker.  He loved that thing for two whole days until daddy threw it in the garbage (I still don't really understand what Ronnie was thinking when he did that).

Easton's favorite thing to do was to put the teeth in and then ask me to take a picture so he could look at it. I have about 20 of these on my camera.  Here are the best two:

Easter Videos-lots of them!

Did you know Easter was a few weeks ago?

Oh, you did?

What? You've read approximately 56 other Easter entries.

Well, sorry.  Here's one more.

We did two community egg hunts on Saturday, April 23rd.  Easton "got it" this year, but still loved watching other kids get eggs more than actually picking up eggs. It was freezing cold that morning (35 degrees or so) so instead of a Easter hunt all of the kids looked like they were on a snow hunt or something.

[p.s. one of the kids set the ISO all wonky on my camera and I didn't notice for a week or so, so I apologize for the quality of these pictures, but they are all I have.]

Saturday evening, we dyed our eggs.  Even Kendree got in on the fun.  She loved her one egg and didn't even drop it (a small miracle).

I would say that this was Easton's favorite activity this year.  It is definitely more fun to see him get excited about the holidays (well, the ones I tell him about anyway).

He got some blue and green on his fingers and was fairly upset when we told him that it wasn't going to come off that night.  That's our little neat freak for you.

On Easter morning all I took was video (I know, bad mama!).  So, in the interest of those who don't really care, I've uploaded those onto the kiddos blog.