Monday Pictures-Week 45

Crying and clinging.  That about sums up this past week. Though we did sneak in a fun pool day on the only nice day last week. I blew up the big pool and all three boys and I played in it last Tuesday afternoon. Schaeffer pretty much sat exactly where I put him. He didn't move the whole time. Just sat there and played with a cup and got splashed by Jack without complaining. Logan, on the other hand, wouldn't sit down. He walked along the edge of the pool, holding on to the side. He stood and held on to me. He sat in my lap (for brief moments). But he did love to splash. He would bend over to stick his hands in and splash wildly, never sitting down though. Funny kids.

A Tractor, A Tri, and A Party

We had quite an enjoyable weekend. It was busy and yet not. Friday I took the boys over to the Roth farm for a promised ride on a farm tractor. He watches a farm tractor movie and really wanted to try riding on one. The Roth's were kind enough to let us invite ourselves over and take Jack for a spin. He loved it, of course. After the drive up and down the road Jack spent the next 30+ minutes climbing up and down the ladder, running around the tractor checking out all its part, sitting in the tractor checking out all its parts and playing with Mikayla. It was a good morning spent with good friends and Jack is thrilled to have been invited back in the fall to ride a combine. 

Friday evening our friends the Lyons came for a visit from Palatine. We had a fun evening of hanging out with both the Lyons and the Roths. It was wonderful to have an evening with these friends whom we miss so much. Saturday morning there was a triathlon in Morton. Nate, Tanya and Chanda all participated. They did a great job and nearly inspired me to do one. However, I can't swim and I hate running. Plus I'm totally out of shape. Perhaps it's something to work for, or perhaps I'll just cheer others on. 

After our guests headed home Saturday afternoon, I packed up the twins and drove down to St. Louis for a few hours. My friend Schaeffer Bell just graduated from high school and I wanted to join in his celebration at his graduation party. It was a long afternoon of driving through storms, putting up with crying, clinging babies and drowning away a splitting headache with a mocha frappe. However, I'm so glad I was able to make the quick trip to congratulate Schaeffer. I've known him for nearly 10 years and can hardly believe he'll be going off to college in the fall. It's so strange to realize that he is now the same age I was when I met him. How did 10 years go by so quickly?

Jack Playing

A few Jack pictures for you. A while back Jack decided that it would be funny to sit in one of the brother's car seats. So he climbed in and we all had a good laugh. I didn't have my camera with me at the time or I would have taken a picture. Then this past Monday he had the idea again. He climbed into Logan's car seat and we had a good laugh about it. He thought he was hilarious. This time I grabbed my camera and begged Jack to stay in the seat long enough for me to take a good picture. This took forever. He just kept crawling out or making ridiculous faces. But I got a good one and it makes me laugh.

Monday evening after dinner the kids were playing and I captured this on my camera. Jack loves to wrestle Schaeffer. Logan doesn't usually put up with that sort of thing, but Schaeffer usually loves it. I always sit there and cringe, but as long as Schaeffer is laughing I let them play. And he's usually laughing!

Monday Pictures-Week 44

Time has gotten away from me this week and I hardly took any pictures on Monday. They are getting harder and harder to photograph, especially together. They just won't sit still and trying to get Schaeffer to really smile for the camera is quite challenging. I wish he would, he has an adorable scrunchy eyed smile. Schaeffer had his fourth tooth break through on Thursday. He's still working on his top middle ones. I expect them to break through soon. Logan has his top middle ones but is working on two other top teeth. I can see one just below the gums, I know it will be here soon. Logan has become quite the little game player. He enjoys playing peekaboo and often initiates it or does the hiding if we suggest it. He also plays this game where he throws his head back and looks up to the ceiling. Then he looks at you and grins and laughs. I have no idea where he came up with that but he thinks he's so funny, probably because we laugh when he does it. Schaeffer is still combo crawling, but both boys have been sighted standing unassisted for brief moments. I'd say they are going for about a second or two. Not very often and not if you try to make them. Jack ruined me and I'm having a really hard time being patient for them to start walking. I'm ridiculous, I know. We're doing more and more finger foods and I'm trying to slowly transition them out of baby food. Part of me wants to keep with baby food because it's just so easy to shovel it in their mouths. But part of me wants them to just eat what everyone else is eating (sans eggs) because that would be easier in some ways. It's this transitioning that I'm not a fan off.

Schaeffer is often trying to steal Logan's pacifier. Schaeffer will take it out of Logan's hands or mouth or just find it on the floor. Schaeffer doesn't use a pacifier so this cracks me up. He just carries it around and chews on it, often putting it in his mouth backwards. He has no idea what he's supposed to do with it, but he loves to have it.

Logan is getting more adventurous on the stairs. Thankfully, he doesn't insist on spending all his time at the stairs right now. But when he is near them (or anything else he could climb) he is practice. He climbed up a step stool onto a box and he's climbed about 4 or 5 stairs now I think.

Playgroups

Playgroup-a group of small children, especially preschoolers, organized for play or play activities and supervised by adult volunteers. (dictionary.com)

Perhaps I should email those in charge of writing word definitions as I do not agree with how dictionary.com has defined the word playgroup. I suppose if you break down the word into two smaller words it would clearly indicate that a playgroup is a group that plays together. While there is definitely much truth to that, in my experience a playgroup is so so much more than kids playing and adults supervising. I have been lucky, blessed, privileged enough to be a member of multiple playgroups in the past 3 years. And for me a playgroup is really a group of mothers who regularly get their children together (to play, eat, learn, form friendships and create mostly enjoyable chaos) while they fulfill some of their own social and emotional needs including support, encouragement, advice, empathy, sympathy, discussion, brainstorming, laughter, tears, etc.

The playgroup we were a part of in Palatine meant a great deal to me. I cannot write well enough to explain the importance of those other moms in my life. I loved them dearly for many reasons. They impacted the way I mother my children. They were beyond generous. They were oodles of fun (ladies nights!). We did life together. They helped me keep my sanity. They love my children. I love their children. I wish Jack remembered those friends. Here is a picture from the last playgroup we had before moving. Everyone looks so little. I wish we could have brought everyone with us.

7 moms (not pictured, obviously), 15 kiddos and 2 sweet girls who were temporarily a part of the Johnson family.

Leaving that group was hard. I knew I wanted to find something like that again, but it can't just be thrown together on a whim. But here I am now a part of another group of moms, another playgroup. The kids are different, the moms are different, the personalities and relationships are different. But it is good. It is so good to have mommy friends. I'm excited for these growing relationships, both with the moms and the kids. I'm thankful that God has placed these women in my life at this time, for this season. And I'm looking forward to doing life with these friends.

4 moms (not pictured, duh), 9 kiddos (including 3 sets of twins!).

Motorcycles

Have I told you about Jack's glider/run bike before? I can't recall and I'm too lazy to go back through previous posts and find out. Jack got a glider bike for his birthday. It's tiny, the perfect size for him and it has no pedals or training wheels. The purpose is to teach little kids how to balance on two wheels without any aids and then later make the transition to a typical bicycle (sans training wheels). I thought the concept was interesting and kinda neat, plus I love to find unusual kids stuff and this was really one of the only bikes we could find that was small enough for Jack. Jack has loved this bike. He calls it his motorcycle because it resembles our neighbor's motorcycle. He almost always "starts" it by swiping his hand across the top bar between the handles, and it is very loud (or so he says). He started off pretty slow on the bike but pretty quickly gained the required coordination to actually run. Then last night when we decided to go on a post dinner walk he took off down the sidewalk and almost immediately lifted both feet off the ground and coasted for a second or two. My jaw about hit the ground. I'd seen him experiment a little with picking his feet up but I'd never seen him coast like this. He was actually riding the bike in the way it was intended. He was coasting and balancing on two wheels! Tonight we went out again and I saw him coast from our driveway all the way to the next driveway. I am super impressed.

Coasting on his bike motorcycle.

Riding with our neighbor/friend Haley (Jack's best friend). She too apparently wanted to pick up her feet. Perhaps not the same effect on a tricycle, but kudos to her for trying!

Haley's dad, Mike, has a motorcycle (or two). He was riding it tonight and Jack was very interested and asked if he could sit on it. Mike was fine with it and Jack sat there for quite a while, quite thrilled to be sitting on a big motorcycle. This is his very serious (hysterical) impersonation of the look on Iron Man's face. 

Haley decided she too wanted to sit on the bike. This was a photo opp we couldn't pass up. I particularly love Jack's helmet and Hailey's sunglasses. 

Monday Pictures-Week 43

Schaeffer has almost transitioned from army crawling to normal crawling. We discovered maybe a month ago at my parents that he did not like crawling on a cold floor without a shirt on. If he was naked and on tile he would crawl normally. So we knew he could do it, he just didn't find it to be a superior method to army crawling. Then the other week when I let them crawl around on the concrete I noticed the he was crawling normally again. This week he has even been crawling normally in the house on floors he previously army crawled all over. He hasn't abandoned army crawling all together yet, but I think he is toying with the idea. Frequently when Paul or I see him army crawling and tell him to crawl the right way he converts. No idea if he understands or if it's coincidence. 

Neither of the boys is clapping or really waving much either, though I do feel as though they are doing more with their hands and learning that they can control them more. 

Schaeffer's allergies have yet to resurface despite the numerous foods he eats that contain wheat. Since I believe that eggs are the real problem, I have been keeping those away. Today I gave them their first servings of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Thankfully, Schaeffer has had no noticeable reaction to it even though it does contain wheat. As you can see from their pictures, they really enjoyed their cheesy lunch.

Playing together. I've been wondering a lot this week about what life would be like if we only had one 9 month old, instead of two. While in some respects it would be easier, I've thought of one thing that might be harder. A singleton does not have a built in playmate. Schaeffer and Logan "play" together. I've just noticed how even when they are free to roam around the house and play with anything they want to, often they are right near each other playing. I wouldn't say they are playing together, but it's like they are keeping each other company. I can just sit on the couch or in the rocking chair and they'll play quit contentedly for a lengthy period of time without needing me (especially if Jack isn't around). They do frequently take toys out of each others hands (without asking!) and small baby battles ensue. But for now, they seem to settle their differences without much interference.  (Wouldn't it be nice if it stayed that way.) I don't know if a singleton would do this. I don't remember Jack playing very much without needing me right by his side. 

Enjoying the new swing set today.

Date Day

Oh happy day! After much preparation and anticipation Paul and I enjoyed a lovely date today. I've been wanting a pantry cabinet for our kitchen so I could stop storing food in our hall closet with the cleaning supplies. I knew of something called the 3rd Sunday Market which I'd always wanted to go visit. It's a big sale in Bloomington. Very flea marketish with lots of odds and ends and antiques and crafts and such. I had in mind that we could find a cool cabinet to bring a little character and storage to our kitchen. I booked all the grandparents for kid duty, my parents took the twins and Paul's parents took Jack. And we took a lot of measurements so we would be prepared and not buy something a box of Cheerio's wouldn't fit in. Turns out we found a great cabinet within the first 10 minutes or so. It was so fun to go out together and do something a little different.

Our new cabinet. Sporting a unique look for a pantry with glass doors. For now it works, we might leave it or we might do something to frost the glass. We'll see. I really like that the cabinet is new construction and very solid but it is made out of reclaimed, old wood. 

Sweetness of Spring

Years ago when I was in high school and my driver's license was still fresh in my wallet I spent many summer evenings sitting outside enjoying beautiful weather and good friendships. Tonight took me back to that time. With the high temperatures of the day I spent the kids nap time setting up the sprinkler and splash pool and texting neighbors to see if anyone could come play later. To my delight, some friends were free and we had ourselves an impromptu water and dinner party. Haley and Jack LOVED the little pool and sprinkler. They didn't mind the cold temperature of the water and had so much fun running around and splashing. Schaeffer spent much of the late afternoon splashing at the water table. He didn't mind getting splashed occasionally by the bigger kids. Logan was not a fan of the cold water or of being splashed. He split his time between sitting in my lap and playing at the water table. After our dinner break more neighbors (the Rocke's) came to play. While the kids played the adults sat and watched and chatted and took pictures and ate cookies. Perhaps it sounds like we didn't do much this afternoon/evening. Perhaps it sounds a little mundane. But I loved every minute of it. I hope this was a sign of fun times to come this summer, kids playing and old friends reconnecting.

Play Ball!

I haven't played ball in years. My softball days ended with my college graduation. I've played a few miscellaneous games of slow pitch but that was before we had any kids. Today, however, was perhaps and end to my ball playing drought, sorta. Last week I signed Jack up for Peewee T-Ball/Soccer through the park district this summer. I'm not sure at the time he even knew what t-ball was, but he got super excited. This afternoon I took the kids over to Brunk's in Washington to try to find Jack a super small ball glove (and tiny shin guards for soccer). They had a glove that was small enough and I was excited to be buying Jack his first glove! He was super excited too. We played catch with an imaginary ball the whole drive back home. We also stopped by my parents to see if Papa was home cause Jack wanted to show Papa his new glove (honestly, Jack's idea not mine). I took Jack outside to play catch when we got home and oh my does he have a lot to learn. Duh. He started off wanting to throw the ball with his glove. He'd "catch" the ball with his glove and then keep the ball in his glove and throw it back. I patiently instructed him to try throwing with his non-gloved hand, but he repeatedly declined. At first it seemed as though he didn't believe me, then it was more that he didn't want to be told what to do. Later in the evening when we went out for another round of catch, this time I had my glove so I could demonstrate better. He actually started doing things the correct way for a while. Then he had a really wild throw I couldn't stop and he found it very entertaining to watch me run jog after it. So he started purposely throwing the ball in wild directions. Great fun. Obviously a 3 year old does not have the skills necessary for a quality game of catch. But we did have some quality time together and I loved getting out my glove after years of un-use and tossing a ball with my extremely enthusiastic son.

Proudly showing off his new glove.

He actually has a pretty decent arm when he decides he wants to throw correctly.

Monday Pictures-Week 42

10 weeks. That's all that's left before we celebrate the first year of Schaeffer and Logan's lives. 10 sounds like a very small number. But I expect in 10 weeks these guys will be doing even more and seem even older than they do now. If you read the post before you know that we had these guys dedicated yesterday. Our commitment to raise them in accordance with the Bible and teach them about their Savior, Jesus Christ. So that was exciting. Logan has started climbing stairs (just a few at a time, nothing crazy). Hysterically, the first time he climbed up a few stairs he also slid back down in the proper way. I couldn't believe he knew what to do. We do not practice, I have never shown him. But that seems to be typical Logan. "I'm not going to do something unless I can do it the right way." Don't get me wrong, I do not remotely trust him on stairs, but I have only seen him start to fall one time this week in the several times I've sat on the stairs and let him practice his climbing. Schaeffer also started climbing the stairs, though I've only seen him do it successfully one or two times. He just doesn't seem as interested. The time(s) that I saw him he only went up one stair and then just stepped back down. Schaeffer also got his 3rd tooth this week. I wasn't expecting it as I saw no obvious signs that he was close to getting one. Friday though I put my fingers in his mouth and felt the sharp edge of a brand new tooth (and not a top middle one, which I expected to be next). I let the boys crawl around outside this week finally. They pretty much stuck to the concrete and as a result their good jeans now have holes. They licked a lot of rocks. Apparently, texture and flavor aren't really a concern for them regarding what they should lick! Aren't you interested to read what they lick this week?

Mother's Day

3. That's the number of kids that can call me mom this year. I always wanted to be a mom. It was my dream since long before I was married or even considering marriage. While that dream has come to fruition, it isn't really what I expected. I never expected to have only boys. I never expected it to be so hard and so challenging. I didn't expect to feel like I could barely keep up and also feel like I was often losing my mind. I never expected to have two babies at the same time! That of course, was the biggest surprise. Even now, on the hard days, I ask God what he was thinking. I wonder what life would be like if things went according to our plans and we only had Jack + 1 baby instead of Jack +2 babies. After much wondering of this idea I came to a realization. Had we only had 1 baby, I would still think raising kids was hard. I would have still had sleepless nights with a newborn and times when both kids are crying  and need my attention. Getting out of the house to do things would still be more challenging than it was with only Jack. And I would rarely sit around wondering how hard it would have been if we'd had twins. So really, would having only 1 baby make my life any better or any easier? NO! Not at all! Well, maybe a little easier, but I don't think I would know it. This Mother's Day as I watch my three beautiful children, I'm thankful for the surprising ways in which God grew our family.

Not only am I extremely grateful for my children and my generous, understanding, incredibly patient husband, but I also had a fabulous Mother's Day. We started the day by dedicating Schaeffer and Logan during church, followed by lunch with both our families. Lunch was yummy and laid back and the spaghetti turned Jack into an oompa loompa. He was covered in sauce. Hailey, Micah and Jack had a great time playing. They love playing together and I love it when we can get them together. 

All the mommies that were here for lunch. We have a bunch of great mom's in our family! (Megan included, though not pictured)

Once most of the family left Paul started working on the swing set. It was a little windy, but otherwise a beautiful day and Nicole, Trisha, and I sat outside and talked while we watched Paul drill holes and stain wood. Logan wasn't feeling well so I ended up slinging him and he slept on my chest for several hours while we sat outside. It's not often one of my babies sleeps while I'm holding them and I thoroughly enjoyed his sweet snuggles. Mike ended up coming over and started helping Paul with the swing set while Trisha and I made a Papa Johns run. We enjoyed dinner together and Jack and Haley (the neighbor, not the niece) played together for hours. It was such a relaxing, laid back day. And it ended with a nearly finished swing set which I am so excited for. I couldn't have asked or planned a much better day.

Schaeffer being funny when I went out to take pictures of the swing set. He was laughing so hard.

Haley and Jack laughing at the banana going around the racetrack.

Swing set going up!

Just need longer chains and two big kid swings.

Thank you Jesus for allowing me to be a mommy to these three kids. Please help me be the best mommy possible for them.

Monday Pictures-Week 41

Week 41 proved to be an eventful one for Schaeffer. After an uneventful well visit to the doctor last Monday I decided to start increasing the boys table food and trying new things. Talk about a plan backfiring. Schaeffer had a pretty bad allergic reaction to my fancy pancakes. I took him in for a blood test last Thursday to try and figure out his allergy. Today I got the results. The test showed that he had a low level allergy to eggs and wheat. Low level sounds good, at least better than high level or severe. But really I'm not sure what it means. And eggs and wheat...hmm...those aren't in any normal foods, right? Oh boy, we might have our work cut out for us on this one. Guess I'm gonna have to start reading labels and paying closer attention to food. Such a pain in the beginning but you get used to it after a bit. Thankfully, kids typically grow out of these allergies. So we'll just pray that Schaeffer grows out of them before too long. 

Logan had a quiet week. No allergic reactions to anything. He just continues to be his mischievous little self. And as a side note both boys like to climb up to the fireplace hearth and lick the bricks. Isn't that disgusting. Grosses me out every time.