good times

We had another weekend with some summer fun!  Saturday was a reunion for my mom's side of the family at my aunt's cottage.  Logan did alot of swimming,  Caleb rode on the paddle boat quite a bit, and Levi did alot of eating.  :)  The weather was perfect!  Hot enough for swimming, but not too hot and miserable.

 Caleb and Logan ate a ton of these cheese balls and we paid for it the next day (I say "we", but Mike is on diaper duty on the weekends...)

 My mom, her siblings, and her mom

Levi met his Great Grandma Tiemeyer for the first time.  Caleb and Logan love her dog, Ginger.

drama

Oh, the toddler drama around here!  Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better off with a couple teenage girls.  Those of you with teenage girls may beg to differ, but maybe we could trade for a day just to switch things up.  :)

So, the thing lately is when I have to change them in the morning I'll ask who wants to be first.  They both say the others name and run away (they don't want to get changed).  If I grab Logan first, Caleb starts flipping out and sobbing saying that he wants it to be his turn.  But then, of course, when it is his turn he puts up a fuss about getting changed.  Sigh.

I know I've mentioned this a few times before, but the way they remember things just astounds me.  Back in December we were at a family gathering and Mike and Harold took the boys to go pick up pizza.  Nothing terribly significant about it, and it has never been discussed since.  Yesterday we drove past the pizza place they went to (we rarely get down that road) and Caleb said, "Pizza.  Uncle Harold ride in our car."  Crazy!

Last night Caleb and Logan were running around in totally mis-matched outfits.  I was lamenting to Mike about how I used to be able to have them looking nice, and he right away said, "You're just trying to keep the ship afloat, you shouldn't have to worry about polishing the deck!"  So thankful that he's understanding!  :)

summer fun

Wow, it's been a whole week since I posted!  Let's see if I can catch up.

Last Thursday Mike's brother and sister-in-law came into town and we got to meet our newest nephew for the first time!  He is two months older than Levi and they're pretty close to the same size.  :)  His name is Luke, and as an interesting side note, while Tera and I were both still pregnant Mike and Tom had a discussion to determine we weren't going to choose the same name. We both knew we were having boys, and somehow it came up that we both had names with four letters.  Yikes!  But then they said their name started with "E" so we knew we were safe.  A couple months later Tom calls up Mike saying that they changed their mind on the name and now they had a name that was biblical, four letters, and started with "L".  Uh-oh.  Mike started to freak out for a second, but then asked if it was Old Testament or New Testament and when Tom said "New" there was a big sigh of relief.  :)  So, the names were a secret for everyone else, but we did know each others!  (And, yes, we know that Levi is also in the New Testament, but it's primarily though of as an Old Testament name.)

Friday afternoon I had a photo session with one of our new nieces.  Sylvia (love the name!) was born two and a half weeks after Levi, and is half his size.  :)  (We also had another niece born a couple weeks ago - Claire, love that name, too!  And, there is a baby yet to come in July.)  Of course during the photo session sleepy Sylvia was wide awake.  :)  And, she had never spit up but then I was holding her and she turned into a fountain!  Good thing my kids were/are spitters, didn't bother me.  Also, Mike got home early on Friday during the photo session, and he was the dirtiest I have EVER seen him.  He has worked in the muck for years and years, and I have seen him super dirty, but I've never seen him like this.  When he first walked in I seriously thought something had blown up in his face and he was sent home from work early!

Levi and Sylvia.

Dirty!

Saturday was our first trip up to the cottage for the summer.  We had Caleb and Logan all geared up for it and they were excited.  Logan didn't need any warm up time at all, he just went right in and started swimming!  Everyone was pretty impressed at how he can swim - Mike is one proud dad.  :)  Caleb is still more content to float on a raft in the water - I'm just glad he's not totally scared of it!  Both Caleb and Logan went for jet ski rides with Mike and I, and both really enjoyed that.  And, I got my 5 minutes of solitude by going out alone for a ride and I really enjoyed that, too.  :)  Caleb and Logan must have played hard enough because they fell asleep on the way home, woke up for the last few minutes, but then went to bed fine once we got home.

 Logan's ready for his ride.

 Caleb waiting his turn.

 Caleb on the jet ski with Mike, Logan swam out to the raft with Uncle Harold.

 Caleb and I going for a ride.

 All the babies sleeping - Levi on the couch, Sylvia on the right, Luke on the left.

Hmmm...not sure why this got turned, but anyways, from left to right (or top to bottom apparently!): Levi, Sylvia, Luke.

Sunday was Father's Day, and church went MUCH better than it had the last couple weeks.  Logan and especially Caleb had a little trouble going into nursery (was very upset and didn't want Mike to leave), but we were told they calmed down within a couple minutes, and I made sure they didn't see me at all when I had to go feed Levi.  We had a nice dinner with part of my family and a relaxing afternoon at home.  Finally found a little time after naps and before church to give Mike his present (Sunday's can be so crazy!).  I got him a remote control helicopter months ago and have been just waiting to give it to him!  He's had alot of fun with it already.

Monday evening we had Mike's brothers and their families over to hang out and have some ice cream.  Got a little crazy in the house with the kids, but then they guys took the kids outside and the girls stayed in with the babies and enjoyed being able to actually have a conversation for a few minutes.  :)

Last night we went for a swim to beat the heat!  Well, mostly just Mike and Logan swam.  Caleb threw rocks in the water, and Levi and I hung out in the shade.

Some updates on the kids:  We're still taking the casual approach with "potty training" the boys.  Still seems too much of a hassle to do anything official yet.  They often ask to go in the toilet, but they still go in their diapers, too.  And, we do run into some problems, mostly with Caleb.  He'll want to go sometimes, but I don't think he necessarily has to, he just wants to (this happens for both #1 and #2).  I'll let him try for awhile, but when I decide it's time to get him dressed again he gets very upset and keeps saying, "I feel it coming!".  But, I don't think he actually does.  

Logan's been struggling with his attitude.  First thing in the morning already he's whiny and when I ask him to do anything I get alot of resistance.  He also wants to be carried alot.  Monday we went to the grocery store for just a few things and I wanted him to walk since that was our "activity" for the day and I want him to expend some energy, and yesterday we took a walk on the farm before having lunch with Mike.  Logan wants to be carried and has a very bad attitude when I tell him he has to walk.  Caleb did great both times (phew!).  Logan also always has an explanation when you tell him not to do something ("No, I just...").  I hear alot of "No, I just looking at him." when I tell Logan to give Levi some space and not touch him.  But "just looking at him" means nose-to-nose for Logan.

Caleb's definitely doing other things to misbehave, though!  :)  Throwing is one of the things we struggle with.  I want him to be able to throw things, but he's having a hard time catching on to what he can throw and where he can throw it.  Like when we went swimming last night, there's tons of rocks and tons of space to throw them, but he keeps throwing them right at Mike and Logan even after repeated correction.

I guess I gotta remember with these guys that there have been other things in the past that I thought they'd never learn, but they eventually did.  :)

It seems like Levi got to 6 weeks and decided to wake up.  All of the sudden he's awake more and it's much more regulated during the day.  Even though he's been sleeping good at night for a few weeks already, his daytimes weren't all that great.  I was having somewhat of a hard time because he was soooo sleepy and trying to work things out with our other activities in the day was difficult. A few days ago we went to six feedings per day and he's doing well with that, and that works much nicer with our schedule for visiting Mike at lunch and doing other things.

Well, another long post so I've been at the computer awhile and it's HOT up here.  Gotta go cool off before I have to hold a hot baby again!

time

Can you believe I don't have much of a chance to sit at the computer??  I've been wanting to update the blog for quite a while, and it just hasn't worked out.  Even now Levi is starting to cry, and Caleb and Logan are waking up, so I won't be finishing this post until later.  :)

It's a good thing I'm feeling better than I have in a year and a half!  I could still use just another hour of sleep, but otherwise it's pretty amazing to feel much closer to normal than I have in a LONG time.  I almost have enough energy to keep up with my kids without a problem.  Of course, I do fall into bed exhausted every night and there are some days I wonder how I'm going to make it, but for the most part I feel great.  Now I just need to figure out how to fit some exercise into the schedule...

Only a couple hours later and onto attempt #2 at writing this post...

The last couple weeks Caleb and Logan have NOT done good at church.  And apparently I'm part of the problem - as long as I'm not in the nursery they do fine.  The week before last I sat in the nursery while feeding Levi so I could visit with my friends (If I'm going to be at church and not be able to be in the service I at least want some social time!).  Caleb and Logan were not behaving well at all (throwing toys, hitting each other - I don't think they were mean to anyone else...).  This past week I figured I'd better sit in the other room to feed Levi, but after he finished I couldn't resist going in the nursery for just a few minutes to visit with friends.  Thought maybe they could handle me being in there for a few minutes - wrong!  First, Logan took a hard plastic Noah's ark about the size of a football and THREW it - not dropped it or tossed it, threw it.  I put him in time out.  Then right away Caleb took it and THREW it back towards Levi and I, almost hitting us.  So, time out for him, too.  I went and got Mike out of the service to talk to them, hoping the seriousness of that would have some kind of impact on them.  Logan improved after Mike talked to him, but Caleb went into a downward spiral.  He didn't want Mike to leave and started throwing a tantrum.  By this time it's time for Sunday School, and Mike left him there fairly upset hoping he would calm down (I saw a few other kids headed in with tears and was feeling glad I'm not the teacher!).  Mike went back to check on Caleb after a few minutes, and apparently, in the midst of his tantrum, he hit his teacher, Miss Brandi!  He ended up sitting on Mike's lap in our class, and actually sat pretty decent.  He did apologize to Miss Brandi when we went to pick up Logan at the end.  This is all so frustrating, though!  I guess next week I won't go in the nursery at all - seems like that set them off and things went downhill from there.  (I guess there also was a girl in the nursery that wasn't being very nice and hit Caleb at one point before I came in there.  He didn't do anything back, but that could've been part of setting him off.)

I'm looking forward to being able to put Levi in the nursery.  Feeling right now like I go to church and then don't participate in anything, but I know it's only temporary and I'm enjoying having a "little" baby!  I would be okay with putting him in the nursery soon, especially since it's not winter, but we don't have separate infant and toddler nurseries, and since I know how crazy it can get in there sometimes I'd rather just hang onto him.

Speaking of church type of stuff...(and now onto attempt #3 at finishing this post...) the other day Caleb and Logan learned about praying quietly.  They saw Papa do it when he unexpectedly joined us for supper, and they've talked about it several times since then.  They weren't sure what he was doing, so we talked about it and it seems like they think it's pretty cool.  Logan even tried to do it himself last night.  :)  Of course I'm not sure if he really did or not.  Also like I'm not sure if they understand what dreaming is yet, and it's so hard to explain!  We'll often ask them if they dreamed about anything while they were sleeping, and Caleb usually mentions Sadie or Macy and quite often comes up with a decent story.

It's pretty cute what they come up with to pray for.  They generally list our family (including themselves, of course!), and sometimes throw in some cousins. And, they just look around naming different things to say thank you for - our bikes outside, birds on the feeder, etc.

Caleb and Logan love playing with the garden hose outside, and lately have been just filling up their wagon and playing with the water in there.  When one of them has the hose I get to hear alot of, "Don't spray me!"

Yesterday was Mike's birthday and we had tons of fun celebrating.  Caleb and Logan really got into it.  We've been practicing singing Happy Birthday for awhile and they did great!  They 'helped' me make a cake and asked to eat it ALL day - I have no idea how many times I had to say, "The cake is for after supper!".  (Look closely in the photo below.  The cake is on the counter and you'll see a dark spot.  That's where Logan just couldn't resist anymore and bit into it...  Caleb had stuck his finger in the frosting earlier, too.)  We colored pictures for Mike, brought him birthday treats to work, gave him a book and a couple t-shirts, had a yummy supper, and went for a walk.

Notice in this photo that the cake is already served up, but there are candles in the cake to blow out.  Caleb and Logan had talked tons about having candles in the cake, but then it was FINALLY cake time and they were so impatient that I was just getting it served up and forgot the candles.  Remembered at the last second and quick stuck a couple in!

Wow, I'm finishing this up on the same day I started it!  And, the house is quiet and peaceful still - what will I do now??

data

At almost 3 weeks old Caleb was 6 lbs 13 ozs, and Logan was 7 lbs.  So, 13 lbs 13 ozs all together.  At just over 3 weeks Levi was 13 lbs 3 ozs all by himself.  Ha!  And I don't think he's slowing down, he seems to just be getting bigger and bigger...

cranky pants

Levi had JUST been smiling a bunch (see pic in previous post...), but then decided he was done.

pics

 Finally caught a smile on camera!

 1 month old today.  Of course he spit up right when I went to take photos...

 Supper out in the field during replanting.

Caleb and Logan, and their cousins Boden and Heidi, and their cousin Shane.

one month

Wow, how could Levi be one month old already??  It's a bit of a blur.  :)  He seems to be growing like a weed.  As I mentioned last week he was 13 lbs when I took him to the doctor, and at the rate he's been going who knows where he's at now! We are still dealing with the Thrush in his mouth, so that's a bit of a bummer.  Levi still sleeps quite a bit and if he doesn't want to wake up there's not a whole lot you can do.  He is often pretty much sleeping through the night, but it's not totally consistent yet.  He's been smiling for us when he's actually awake, and following things with his eyes.  He can get going pretty good in his bouncy seat.  He's not a huge fan of tummy time.  He still spits up a fair bit - I didn't get lucky on that one.  :(  He's barely still in Size 1 diapers (and, yes, I am doing some cloth with him as well), and he wears 3 month clothes.  This is just so different than Logan and Caleb!!

On Friday, Caleb and Logan went to Grandpa and Grandma's, so Levi and I got to hang out for the day.  We went to the mall to do a little shopping, and it felt strange to actually be 'normal'!  Just me walking around with one baby, so nobody stared at us - kinda nice.  We DID get plenty of stares that night when the whole family went out for supper though.  Decided we'd really live it up and go to Rainbow Grill instead of just grabbing fast food.  Caleb and Logan were having some small obedience issues, then about halfway through the meal things started to fall apart.  Caleb hit his head on the table, cried VERY loudly, and it seemed like the whole restaurant was looking at us.  Mike took him out for a few minutes, but things did not improve after they came back.  Also, Levi was on the verge of breaking down, and it's not like Logan was sitting there perfectly either.  Thankfully we were able to make a quick exit.  :)