An Interesting Monday

Interesting might not be quite the right word, but you'll see what I mean...

So, today Koen had a dentist appointment. This is the only picture I got of him (he was pretending to cut his hair while we were waiting, I don't know why!).

Daddy stayed home a little longer than usual to hang with Tavin. They had fun to say the least. One of Tavin's new favorites is to sit in the window seat, work with toys, watch the weather and the cars going by and chat away. Here's a glimpse.

In this first video, at the beginning it totally sounds like he says, "I did it!"

In the second video, he shows off his sense of humor.

Doug & Tavin also made Koen a brand new train track arrangement.

After we got back home, it was about time for Tavin to go down for his nap. Yesterday I promised that when Tav napped, Koen and I could make a fort under the dining room table. Koen had not forgotten. He was very into the activity piling books, a snack, a pillow, blanket and toys all around him in the cave. He pretended to be a sleeping bear. Very cute! The Mommy bear visited to read a book too.

The rest of our day seemed to be going quite normally until around lunchtime. Koen had a rough start to the day with a mild croup incident. As the day went on Koen got lethargic, tired and lost his appetite. By 11:30am, he was asking to go to sleep. Poor guy. He ended up going to nap by 1:30pm and he fell right asleep (he only wanted to read one book, you know he's not feeling good when that happens!).

This early naptime gave Tavin and I some extra time to hang out and multi-task. Here's Tavin getting into pretty much everything in the kitchen while I kept busy at the countertop level. We also had lots of snuggles too, don't worry.

Doug and I had wondered if the croup would worsen and possibly show its real strength during nap and sure enough it did around 3:45pm. I had to call Doug to come home with the car and take Koen to the hospital for a breathing treatment. Doug and I were honestly relieved that the croup cropped up during the day for once so that we didn't have to run to the hospital in the middle of the night.

Doug was happy to take his little buddy to the hospital and they snuggled for the 45 minutes in the waiting room (where Doug counted 28 sick kids! Poor things!). In the exam room they found that Koen had a fever of almost 103! I had known he had a low grade fever, but I felt so bad to know it was so high. He's such a trooper. A little while later they decided to just give him steroids and not the breathing treatment (I was a little bummed, while we are there we might as well get it all!).

The boys got home at 7pm, so one of our shorter visits to the ER thankfully. We are so, so thankful that we have such an amazing Children's Hospital right at the end of the street literally! I can't imagine the pain it would be to have a croupy kid and live an hour away!

I got to lay Koen down as he was in need of some Mommy time after the adventure of the ER. He was really tired, so we read two books (and I let him suck his thumb) and he snuggled up against me so hard. Very sweet. We had a nice prayer and sweet kisses and he's down and out. I hope he doesn't have another episode of croup cough tonight!

Puffy Coats Hit The Playground

Today it is in the high 40's which to us at this point in the winter feels very nice! I made sure we could squeeze in a quick trip to the playground. The boys were excited to be out in the fresh air moving around.

At first, Tavin just took in all that brother was up to...

Then I asked Koen if he wanted to show Tavin how to do the tunnels. That was the best idea I've had in awhile.

Tavin loved it! Koen thought it was so fun to play with Tavin in that way. They basically laughed and chased each other for 20 minutes in there.

Koen actually asked to go home because he was tired. He's definitely still transitioning with the whole afternoon nap thing. When he takes a few good ones a few days in a row he seems to have a hard time falling asleep, but if we were to not let him nap he would be too tired. I think I will just continue to ride it out like this until Tav goes to one nap. Then we'll re-align both their schedules, but who knows, we'll see...the best laid plans...

Tavin's First Bubble Bath

Koen got a special treat of bathing in our big tub so that he could have more room to play with his toy boat. Tavin and I went in to visit them and see how the boat was doing. I ran out to get something and left Tavin with Doug. When I came back in Doug was getting Tavin ready to get in the big tub. Koen had kindly invited little brother to join him amongst the bubbles. It went really well and was so cute. Here's two shots of Tavin getting used to the deep water, bubbles and brother moving his boat around. It was a fun end to a great day.

Kindness Celebration

So, the Kindness Quilt has been completed! We had told Koen that when he filled the kindness quilt with patches portraying all the ways he's been identified as being kind that we would go out as a family to a restaurant. So, today was that day! Yay! We had a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory (and that place is impossible to get into at dinnertime) so we figured it was a perfect lunch date location. They were super family-friendly and the food was very good.

I hadn't been out of the house in days (seriously, how does that happen!), so I was really looking forward to the outing. The boys are usually quite fun to go out with and today was no exception.
Koen was actually a little tired, so he was more reserved than usual. He was probably more into driving his cars and trains around on the table and windowsill than anything else. Tavin on the other hand, ate his way through everything! He ate the 1/2 sandwich I brought him, then ate one of the chicken breasts from my meal, a 1/4 cup of peas, 1/2 a banana and 2 clementines. Oh yeah, he saw Doug's salad and would not quit pointing and grunting until we let him have some. He loved it! Here he is figuring out how to pick up, eat and swallow the leaves. It was pretty funny to watch.
Koen's favorite part of the meal was his celebratory scoop of chocolate ice cream. And in theme with the lunch, he was "kind" and shared a few bites with Daddy.

It was a nice outing and now we are all back home and the boys are all napping the afternoon away again. I had a little walk. I am so enjoying this much more relaxed family-time weekend. We so needed it!

Toy Boat

The past two weeks we've had a few library books regarding boats: tugboats, harbor vessels, toy boats, etc. It has peaked Koen's interest in boats in general. One of his favorite books that we have been reading is Toy Boat. It's a great little story about a toy boat that mistakenly gets freed to sail in the open water amongst real boats. The illustrations are beautiful and Koen has really enjoyed this book by Randall de Seve.

Well, this morning Doug and Koen decided that they too would make a Toy Boat after the design of the toy boat in the book. (I'd personally be interested to know if the author made a boat in the same design to see if it would float like the one illustrated in the book).

Koen was so excited about this project. He put on his tool belt and hard hat, collected his other tools and Doug got his supplies out of the basement and the boys set to work.

First, Koen drew up a "plan." He has another Curious George book right now about George making a boat, but first he makes a play with a red crayon. Koen totally came up with drawing up a plan on his own and he was the one to pick the red crayon. So, from the plan versus the picture of the boat in the book you can see that this was going to be quite a thing to come up with.

Doug really enjoyed the creativity and engineering of this project too. He decided to go with more of a pontoon boat style for the hull to ensure that the boat would float.

The big test was setting the boat free in the bathtub for its maiden voyage. The boys were so excited..,it did indeed float (as long as the people (who Koen said were me and Daddy) weren't in it).

After a nice test sail, Koen and Doug "dry-docked" the boat at the edge of the tub so that it is ready for play tonight when Koen takes a bath.

This was definitely a fun start to the day for Doug & Koen!

Yesterday...A Simple, Great Day

Two weekends ago we went away together for a night, last weekend Doug worked all weekend, so this weekend is just a normal, family together weekend. And it's great! Yesterday Doug was able to be with us all day and we made the most of it!

Koen has really developed in his need for Daddy time. When I got him up and asked where Daddy was a few minutes later, he was so excited to hear he was downstairs. The kid ran down the stairs calling his name. So cute! They snuggled in a chair and read and when I brought Tavin down he wanted to join them (although he was quite squirmy). Tavin already has a real desire to be with Doug, which is neat to see as it definitely developed a little later in Koen. I'm sure it has a lot to do with watching how much fun big brother has with Daddy.

The boys had breakfast (yes, I'm here too, but just not that big of a deal on this particular morning).

We got the boys dressed (in matching shirts from Aunt Molly...so cute!) and played in the playroom for awhile. The boys are really enjoying playing in the window seat. Tavin loves watching the cars and Koen likes being a big brother.

Then Doug and Koen set off on an overdue Daddy Day Adventure. They did several errands, went to library storytime (and Delia was there!), went out to lunch and got me flowers in the Strip District.

It was such a nice surprise to bump into Delia at the library. They had fun at storytime and picking out some new books. Then Doug & Koen headed to the East Liberty/Shadyside Borders which is going out of business and they got some amazing deals for gifts for others as well as a few things for Koen's birthday in April. I love a good deal!

Koen was getting hungry, so soon after that errand they headed to Whole Foods for some soup (Koen's favorite from 2 and 1/2 years of Monday Daddy Days when I used to go to the office...salmon corn chowder). They sent me the above picture, so I texted them back a picture of Tavin and I at our lunch at home (whole wheat english muffin pizzas...yum!).

One of the last stops the boys made on their fun day out together was to the Strip District,

where Koen helped Doug pick out some beautiful roses for me from a flower wholesaler there. They liked Koen so much they gave him this obnoxious singing/light-up rose that was surely leftover from Valentine's Day. He was thrilled about it!

Here's a picture of some of the roses after I played florist later in the afternoon. I just love fresh flowers!

Anyways, Doug said he and Koen just had a blast being the two of them out and about. Koen seems to do so well when he's just one-on-one with us, it's probably a nice relief to his little mental/emotional system to not factor in the whole little brother component of life. The big boys were out from 9:45am until 2:30pm. A nice break for me and Tavin too! We played in the playroom (and had a little photo shoot in the window...he's just too cute!

We chatted with Gramma and Aunt Leah, Tav took a nap and Mommy got to get some things done. It was a great start to the day, productive, but also very chill. My favorite combo!

When the big boys got home, Koen was exhausted and went right to nap. Tavin was almost ready for his nap too, so the afternoon flew by as the boys slept it away. Then in the evening we had some nice family playtime and then got the boys through bath and into bed. Doug and I entertained some friends for dinner after the boys were in bed, another favorite weekend activity for us. It was simply, a really great day!

And The Fun Goes On

Kids seriously have it so good. Their job is to play. I was thinking about this tonight when I took Koen on a quick walk down to the playground for some slippery sliding in the snow. I was jealous...I wanted to be wearing poofy snowpants, fleece mittens and running in abandonment through the playground! But I have to say it was enough fun to just watch him enjoy it. You can too...

I got back in time to start the dishes while Doug put Tavin in the bath (Koen helped), then I made it up to the bathroom in time to get the post-bath snuggle from Tav. One of my favorite parts of each day!


Another day with the boys comes to a close...

Morning With Miles

We've been enjoying getting together more regularly with Deborah, Miles and Claire. Today it was our turn to go to their place. A welcome retreat since we've been cooped up the last few days. Koen has gotten very comfortable with both Miles and his great playroom, so it is really easy to go and settle in to play. Miles did a fabulous job sharing today. Very impressive. I hope Koen took notice (if he took notice of my encouraging words, that would be great, but sometimes I think he zones them out!). Tavin seemed more comfortable in the play area this time too. He definitely wanted to be with the boys as much as possible. You can see here how the boys even let him in on playing trains a little (as long as he didn't mess it up).

After awhile I laid Tavin down for his nap. Then Deborah and I headed outside in the backyard with the rest of the little ones for some fun in the snow. The room that Tavin was "napping" in faced towards the backyard. I just happened to look up and what did I see...peekaboo!

I laughed so, so hard! The boys thought it was hilarious.

They kept calling for him and he would do it over and over again. I went inside to listen and make sure he wasn't crying up there, no, he was actually laughing his head off! So funny. Amazingly enough, despite the fun he found in his nap spot he did eventually fall asleep! I woke him up shortly afterwards though for fear that it was late enough that it could mess up his afternoon nap.

After the playtime outside and Tavin's nap we had lunch and headed home. Such a great morning with friends. I honestly think my boys would've been happy to stay all day long. They are so comfortable in Deborah's lovely, welcoming home and with these sweet kids she and Grant do such a great job raising. Thanks for the playtime and the lunch, Deborah. We appreciate you guys so much!

Another Snow Day

We got 10 inches of snow! Doug is like a little boy about snow storms, so he was thrilled. I love how pretty it looks outside, but I was definitely not super psyched that we had to miss yet another day of school we've paid for. Again it is all about the attitude before I get the boys up though, so we formulated an upbeat, fun plan to get Koen started for the day. When I went into his room he asked, "it is a nursery school day?" I answered sadly, "yes, but it's cancelled because we got so much snow." His response, "Oh great. That is what I was talking to Teddy about this morning. We were hoping it would be cancelled because that means we get to stay here with you and Tavin." Well, it seems like Koen also preps himself to start the day off on the right foot!

Doug was able to stay for breakfast, so I made our family favorite, whole wheat pancakes. Koen and Doug had a hearty breakfast of two each and then they bundled up and went outside to shovel the stairs and sidewalk and clean the car off. Koen was so happy to get out into the snow. Tavin also had a hearty breakfast (1 pancake and a banana and a half) even though he didn't get to go outside (which he was not happy about...he spent most of the time the guys were outside pounding on the front door or wanting to be lifted up to watch out the window from the couch). He did spend a little time singing at the piano and doing his dining room chair project as you can catch a glimpse of in this video...

Koen played while Doug shoveled and then he shoveled when Doug cleaned off the car.

It was a super fun start to the day and also was nice time for Doug and Koen since Doug will be out until late this evening. It's so sweet to see how much Doug misses Koen on long days like this. It was totally his idea to start the day like this. I love it!

When Koen came in he was hungry again even though he had a good breakfast. He ate a bowl of applesauce and a bowl of cereal. Tavin was still super cranky and it was only 9am so I wondered if maybe he was hungry too. He had another half of pancake and another whole banana! Wow! Seriously, we are just burning through the groceries with these great appetites!

The rest of our morning (pre-Tavin's morning nap) was pretty normal with playing, etc. Then when Tavin was napping Koen got invited to go play in the snow with Delia. Yay! He was very excited to go over there all by himself. He was there for a little over an hour which was a nice surprise for Mommy! Thanks, Hilary!

Tavin and I picked Koen up and then came home and we all had lunch. Then after that Koen got super creative with his trains, making "sheds" for each of them out of tupperware and the lids were their "turntables" that are in front of each shed. He played with his trains on the countertop for about an hour. He was so proud of them he actually wanted to smile for a picture! The balsamic vinegar in the background is V from Chuggington (she's the loudspeaker that makes all the announcements).

Tavin crawled around from one activity to the next during this time, completely emotionally unstable. He had only napped about 30 mins. in the morning and I think his weird afternoon naps the last few days plus the cold was really making him cranky!

Koen thankfully went down to a nap just fine again today. Must have been all the time in the snow this morning. Tavin also went down well for his afternoon nap, which was a relief after a few weird days. He's just waking up now after a coughing fit, poor guy.

So, another day with my boys. It can be exhausting, but it's such a fun blessing! Hmmm, now what to do tonight to keep busy before bedtime???...