Waiting Room Wednesday

Shaun's making sure Uncle Denny doesn't take his bottle away.

Venturing a little closer to Uncle Denny.

Good thing GGpa has a good grip on Shaun.

GGpa to the rescue - helping Katelyn get a drink of water.

How far away can I get from Uncle Denny and still be in the same room?

When Katelyn and I came out of the bathroom and she looked around the room, looked out in the hall, then asked me where grandpa had went. I explained that GGpa was right there, but Uncle Denny had went to check on GGma. She knows he's a relative, just not sure how it all fits yet.

Wordless Wednesday

Frankenstein's monster - Daddy's words

This really doesn't do justice to all of the wires he was hooked up too. I'll try and get the one off of my phone. They all plug into a little "box" that had me saying "You sunk my battleship" (I'm sure you had to see it to understand, haha).



Poor kid apparently has my tape allergy. Hopefully it'll fade fast. Glad we don't have pictures scheduled in the next couple of days.


Unfortunately with his light hair I can't get a good picture of all of the glue in his hair. It's been washed once, but they say it'll take four to get it out. He was a champ getting all hooked up. She couldn't believe how chill he was with it. Want a challange, try changing a baby's diaper when they're hooked up to all of that. I jokingly asked her if she's good at untangling Christmas lights. She didn't find it as funny as I did.

They like them to be on their back or at least side for the majority of the study. He's a tummy sleeper since he learned to roll. So he'd fall asleep, she'd come in and try and put him on his side or back. He'd wake up and have a fit and he'd get put back to sleep on his tummy. Rinse and repeat all night long aside from that 60-90 minutes he didn't go back to sleep. No wonder he's slept most of today, haha.

Cabbage Patch Kid or Gerber Baby??????

Favorite Foto Friday - Blooper

When trying to take pictures of three kids in one pic, bloopers are to be expected.

Where's Shaun Wednesday - A day late

HINT - look to the left and forward of the balloons. He's in a bright green shirt kind of on my shoulder and I'm wearing red.

Favorite Foto Friday - Lil Mama

Sarah's theme this week is mommy in honor of mother's day. I have few pics of myself and I used them a few weeks ago for me, so instead I'm going to show you the best big sister/lil mama ever.


We made Katelyn a part of our pregnancy with Shaun as much as possible with a not quite 2 year old. She kissed my tummy, called it baby, etc. but we really had no idea how much she "got it".

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a122/cjraceway/kph/?action=view¤t=June08057.flv

When we were in the hospital she basically wanted nothing to do with Shaun so I was a bit worried.



However, within minutes of getting home, she was all over him and still continues to be.


She feeds him, whether he's hungry or not and sometimes takes his bottle away when he is hungry.

She is the first to say "Shaun's crying, Shaun's crying" and will continue until he stops. She comes running with his bottle, pacifier (not that he ever takes it), blanket, and now toys. She says shhhh it's okay, it's okay while petting his head.

She changes diapers (have to keep a close eye on her).

I love watching them interact. They have a special bond. They will sit and look at each other and just laugh and laugh. I have no idea what is so funny, but I can't help but laugh, it's the sweetest sound ever.

She plays peek a boo with him.

When he was first born she would stand next to whoever was holding him until they gave him back. She then progressed to letting others hold him, but when it was time to go she would stand next to his car seat until he was put back in, then she'd get her coat and boots on. She's not fond of other kids touching him though.

She loves his toys (her old ones she's outgrown and not touched in forever) and always says "my turn, my turn" and then has to get in or play with them whether it be the bumbo, exersaucer, bath mat, etc. It's a good thing she's so light.

She's been allowed to hold him since he was born (with help/supervision of course). We wanted to make her as much of a part as possible so she didn't feel left out/jealous. It has worked great. When I took them for Easter pictures the photographer asked me if she could hold Shaun. I said yes, she does it all of the time. After she took the pictures she said she was very surprised as you wouldn't except that for a 2 year old and a 5 month old most of the time and I explained our reasoning.


Now that he's bigger and stronger, if she gets within his reach, he grabs onto her whether it's by the hair or shirt, and she doesn't care for that at all, haha. My brother and I have a very close relationship and I hope these two grow up the same way.

Busy/Fun Saturday (May 2) - Part One

I worked until midnight Friday so got to bed about 1:30 AM. We got up shortly after 6 and went to Swisher for the big Carter sale. We managed to hit a couple of garages sales too. Then it was a quick trip home, a stop at the chiropractor, and onto St. Luke's 125th Anniversary Celebration.

Shaun got a shirt and was in a picture of babies born at St. Luke's. Then we hit the "fair". I had no idea how much stuff was going to be there and we ended up spending two hours there. We ended up with two sweatshirts, two t-shirts, a jump rope, water bottle, backpack, pinwheels, visor, bike helmet and more. We also got to enjoy cupcakes, popcorn, snack mix, and cotton candy while there. Katelyn got to play some games and if not for the huge fear, could have had her picture taken with McGruff the Crime Dog, Lovey Bear, and the Roughrider mascot. She also got fingerprinted and both kids had their height and weight taken.



They had two sizes of shirts for Shaun; one that would fit that today but not tomorrow and one that will fit in two years, so I planned ahead, lol.



I have a feeling we will have to be very specific with our rules for her, I like her way of thinking though, lol. This booth was ran by the Cedar Rapids Parks and Rec who I made sure to let know how much we LOVE them. They allowed Dalton to play one level below his age and he has excelled. Unlike flag football he is on the ball all of the time (according to him, he's velcroed to the ball). This league has high school kids for coaches instead of one of the parents, they start out teaching them skills via games and with each kid having their own ball. I don't know if it's the difference in sports, the method of teaching, the coaches or what, but it's the difference between night and day for Dalton and is doing wonders for his self esteem.

Another bean bag toss.

Wearing her new bike helmet.

We stopped at Pool & Spa Warehouse for chemicals to get the hot tub cleaned and refilled. They were having their annual sale so we got free hot dogs/brats, chips, and pop.

We stopped at home briefly and let the kids continue their nap in the van. Then we headed up to HyVee for kids day. They had a police car, firetruck, command center, and lifeguard on hand for the kids to climb on, have pictures taken with, etc. We also got some BBQ ribs from the rib wagon there that day.

Hopefully this is the only time she's in there.

We timed it perfect so that we were there when lifeguard took off.

Then we went to Thomas Park as Dalton's Cub Scout pack was picking up trash. After they picked up trash, we played for an hour.

Katelyn mastered going up and down the slide all by herself.

Shaun enjoying Thomas Park.

After a stop at Wal Mart, we went home to clean out and refill the hot tub, play outside, and eat supper outside before settling down to watch the Nascar race.



She loves her brother.

It was a busy, long, fun, cheap, and exhausting day.

Hearts for Hearts - 2009

A group of us at work decided to put a team together and walk in the American Heart Association walk. Kris came up with our name Heart for Hears 2009 and we had shirts made at the Cotton Gallery (highly recoomend them as they're great to work with, good quality product, cheap, and very supportive of community events).

The day of the walk looked like rain so only about half of us showed up. Shaun slept in his car seat most of the walk well protected by the umbrella on his car seat and on the stroller from the rain. Katelyn wouldn't leave her umbrella up so she was wet like mommy, Kris, and Jan. I had an umbrella, but not enough hands to carry it. Katelyn wanted to walk, but was getting ran over, so Aunt Jan was carrying her. Then we tried her on her "leash", but she wanted to hold the other end. Mommy finally came through by enticing her into the stroller with food.

We enjoyed the walk, but could have done without the rain.

Shaun sleeping and dry in his cocoon.

Our attempt at a team picture after walking in the rain. Katelyn's eating her apple that Kris "opened" for her (she took the first bite).

Katelyn in the bounce house, though she didn't last long as the big boys knocked her down.

The drowned rat look while coloring in the coloring book from the Coralville Police. I had to strip her completely down and put warm dry clothes and blanket on her to stop the shivering.

Giving Shaun fluffy to chew on.

The brief time she was okay with Aunt Jan holding the leash.

Wordless Wednesday - He shoots, he scores

The Iowa Children's Museum

We have had plans for well over a year now to go to the Iowa Children's Museum during Family Night (last Friday Night of every month is Family Night, which means it's free admission), however with race season it limited when we could go and it seemed there was always something going on. In March I said we're doing it, then Shaun was admitted to the hospital, so when I found out I had to take a class and not get off work until 4 on the last Friday of April, it worked out perfectly.


Matt and the kids picked me up and we went and ate at La Reyna (which we highly recommend) then were off to the Museum. I'd never been inside and really had no idea what it was going to be like. I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't PACKED. There was minimal waiting and plenty to do. I felt a little like I was rushing Katelyn as we got there two hours before closing and not knowing how much there was, I wanted to make sure we saw everything. We could have easily spent the entire day in there. Our only "bad" experience was in the barn play area where I finally had to physically hold back kids who were 8+ (when the sign said for kids 5 and under only) so that she could go down the slide as they would just push right past her. I really wanted to be at the bottom to catch her, but she did fine.



I'll let the pictures show you what all we did.




Matt took this picture and the next and I had no idea until I was going through the pictures later on as I was in there with Katelyn. I love how she's so intent on what she's doing.

She loves her bread, though she eats the crust and throws the good part away, silly girl. This was all in the grocery store.

This totally cracked me up and had Matt going what in the world is she doing? She was saying "I sopping, I sopping" while pushing one cart and pulling the other, which is exactly what I do when I have both kids by myself (back when I took Shaun in the stores in the car seat). I would put Shaun in one cart and Katelyn sitting in the other and then have to push one and pull the other (especially at CVS and Walgreens where they have the worlds smallest shopping carts.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the huge toothbrush and teeth.

She was all about the packpack, not so much on the hat.

This was a stage they had set up for the kids to put on costumes and then perform. She had more fun climbing all over the stuff and she's laughing here as she had just hit me in the head with the noodle and we about both fell off of the stage.

Shaun had fun chilling in the stroller.

When we went into the ambulance there was a baby doll in there, so Katelyn did the natural thing, changed it's diaper, haha. She's tried doing this to some of the kids at daycare too I hear and of course does it to Shaun also. A guy standing there said "I know every time I've been in an ambulance there has been a baby having it's diaper changed". I wanted to tell him maybe he should spend less time in ambulances.

There was a big room with multiple activities in it that included the slide. We probably only did about half of the things in there as there were some lines in here and some of it was kind of above Katelyn, plus we were in a hurry.

Daddy said I wasn't doing it right, so I made him go up and help Katelyn drop the golf ball.

Shaun was all about chewing on the alphabet.

Katelyn held this up and said U (while Matt and I about fell over) before giving it to Shaun. So then Matt held up a W and asked her what it was. She said red (which it was), but we repeatedly asked her what letter only to be told red, like duh don't you guys know your colors.

When we go to LaReyna, Katelyn needed an outfit change. However, no Katelyn pants in the van, luckily though there were a pair of 12 month jeans for Shaun for next year we had recently bought. It cracks me up though that she has this much diaper showing with 12 month pants on. I hope we can find shorts that stay up this summer.

Playing house. They have some of the cutest things there and some really creative people.

Feeding the baby doll a flower, good to know not only does she eat them, but she thinks others should too.

Washing her hands.

This doesn't cover near what all there is to do there. I highly recommend it. I think it helped we went on the first nice Friday of the year (so a lot of people were outside doing stuff).