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Friday, December 16, 2011

Our little hockey player(s)

John has been listening to his Nana talk about hockey since the day he was born.  She loves hockey, and if it is the last thing she does, she will be sure her grandsons give hockey a fair shake! :)
Nana has been taking John skating once a week for the last few weeks-- I think she would love to take him everyday if schedules allowed!  And, John would be thrilled too!!

Last Sunday evening, her hockey team had an extra sheet of ice that we took full advantage of.  SJ has been watching from the side lines, and he is itching to get on the ice with his big brother and Nana.  So, we all geared up and headed to Minnie-haha for some hockey playing.

Stephen has not had much luck with his jackets this winter!  The zipper has brokn on both of his jackets! I hope he looks at his someday and laughs! :)

John shoots his first puck!!  - with Papa Steve

Add caption

Little John the Hockey player! XO


Ryan and John. 

Monday, December 12, 2011

John's 3rd Birthday Party

Can you spell M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E?????  John can! :)  We had a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party for him on Saturday 12/10.  We did the party a little early because we will be flying on his real birthday and Jana, Steve, Lauren and Alana will all be in Rome.  This way most of us could be there to celebrate with him!

My bestie's sister-in-law made John's Mickey cake and cake pops, Gama Mitty did the pizza and salad and Party City did the rest! ;) 
The party was at Gama Mitty and Papa Joe's house.  Who attended? Gama, Papa, Kelli, Sara, Mark, Jill, Nana, Papa, Alana, AJ, and Great Grandma Evie.  It was just the right amount of people!
We ate pizza, opened presents and sang happy birthday.  It was sweet!

John's cake and cake pops

THE men!  Ryan and John built this work bench together a couple weeks ago.  I love this daddy-son project!  We will have this forever.  :)

Papa Joe holding John back from diving into his cake!  He wanted to eat it before dinner!

Gama Mitty and Papa Joe holding John.  Notice his (mis-matched) Mickey/Pluto socks??  That was planned out by our (almost) 3 year old!

Family Picture!!

Great Grandma Evie and 2 of her great grandsons.  (SJ was not interested... all he wanted was pizza!)

DINNER

Chow time!  NUM-NUM-NUM!

Evie gave John a book to use on the airplane ride to AZ. 
She was explaining how it came with a special marker only for this book.

SJ got a present too!  :) Thanks Gama Mitty.

Mickey slippers from Uncle Mark and Jill.

A Mickey shirt and hat from Aunt Alana and AJ.

John opening Super Grover from Kelli. 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!



Stephen eating his cake pop- Yummy! :)

Sara trying to trade the cake pop for some water... better luck next time Sara! :)

John and Stephen eating John's birthday cake. 

Not much of a sugar high... SJ was pretty tired actually!

Gama Mitty and John putting together his new puzzle that Sara got him.  It was pretty hard... but they got it done!

Thanks everyone for coming!! John had a wonderful day!!  As did the rest of our family- he is a kid to celebrate!
We love you John!!

(Great) Papa John

Last week Great Grandma Jackie had a pacemaker/defibrillator put in.  (everything went really well!!  We are so happy!)  Papa John slept here so he could be closer to the hospital while GGJackie was there recovering. 
The boys (all of them) LOVED their time together!  Papa John played on the rocking horse with them, had breakfast together and he helped get the dressed.  It was a great morning together.  :)

Stephen and Papa John having breakfast together


John and Stephen being silly!

Papa John and John looking at the computer together.

All the boys!

Stevie Joe peaking!

A bit fuzzy! :(  But the three partners in crime!

<3 <3 <3

Papa John was helping get the boys ready so we could go see Great Grandma Kreuser and Gamma Mitty. :)

OUR Santa "Experience"

We have visited with a few Santa's this year already....

Ryan and I took the kids to the Macy's display in Minneapolis a few weeks back.  The Santa was a bit of a bust.  He didn't say much and it was pretty rushed.  None the less, John was pretty excited! He thought Santa did a great job and walked out of there hoping his request for "daddy tools" was heard loud and clear. (Translation: daddy tools = power tools! ...yikes!)   Stephen was not impressed- he scouled the whole time and was happy to leave.  It made for some great photo opps! haha

I have gotten RAVE reviews of the Santa at the MOA! RAVE REVIEWS!  I can't count the number of moms who say he is the only Santa they will take their kids to.  So, last year I decided that Ryan and I should be sure we get the boys in to this Santa.  It was around the 20th of December when I decided this... needless to say, that is when I also learned that you need an appointment to see him!  He was very booked by this time in the season.  So, I promised myself I would get them in this year.

Let's back up a few weeks.  It was a couple days after Thanksgiving.  I rememberd I needed to make an appointment for Santa.  I went online to book it and he was almost booked already!  All of his evenings were taken up but had some time during the days left.  So, I booked him for Thursday, Dec 8 at 11am.  Thinking that my mom has Thursdays off and it would be fun to go see Santa with Gamma! :)
I had no idea where Santa was located, I had just seen pictures of him -- sitting in a tall back green chair.  So, that is was I was looking for.  We found a Santa by the Sear's court that was in the chair I was looking for.  BINGO! I was super excited.  I had typed in the kids info in their appointemt booking so Santa would know everything about John and Stephen .  Game On!  
Well, it was pretty bad.  The Santa really didn't say but 2 words, he wouldn't smile for a picture and the "elves" were duds too. I was so confused!  When we left, my mom said, they never mentioned anything about appointmet times and he was pretty bad... are you sure he was THE Santa?!! We were SURE he wasn't, but we had missed our scheduled appointment time by them.  So, we walked around the mall, looking at toys, browsing the Disney store and then had lunch. 

The next day: My mom called and wanted to know if I would come to the MOA to meet up with my grandma Kreuser so she could see the boys before we leave for AZ.  We were actually on our way out the door to a trampoline park so the boys were in mis-matched outfits and a bit of a mess.  But, I still wanted to go see grandma. 
As we were walking around the mall, I was still thinking about how I still haven't found THE Santa.  I was watching closely...  all of the sudden, a store front caught my eye: THE SANTA EXPERIENCE   BINGO!  We found him!  I really wanted to meet this man I had head all about! ;)  So we went in and explained how we missed our appointment the day before and really want to see him still-- we got in! :D 
This Santa ROCKS!!!  He was so fun!  Asked the boys if they:
1. have been brushing their teeth?
2. are sleeping in their own bed?
3. helping mom around the house and cleaning up toys?
4. eating their vegitables at dinner?
He did loads of high-fives and then when John said he wants daddy tools for Christmas, He broke out into a song about "cool tools" (!!) It was soo cute! He was doing fist pumps and singing, "cool cool tools!"  John's eyes were huge in excitment!  Stephen was a bit reserved at first, but did end up giving him a high-five tward the end and asked for an apple (???) 

At the end of the day, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR SANTA AT THE MOA!  He IS THE ONLY SANTA TO SEE! :)


Macy's Santa:



Sear's Santa:


THE Santa!



Thursday, December 8, 2011

Stephen at 18 months!

Stephen is such a fun easy going boy!  I don't have all of his stats... we are going for his well-child in January once we get home from AZ, so I will know them then!
Eating:
Stephen is a good eater.  He has a healthy appetite, and does love to indulge a bit! ;) His favorite drink is Naked juice.  We have cut milk down at our house... long story... he likes the Green Machine.  Favorite foods are apples, noodles, broccoli, breakfast sausage, clementines, grapes, yogurt etc.  He is doing a really good job working with his spoon/fork.  And, he will not eat with out one of them.  He stands at the silverware drawer saying, KNI (sounds like knife...just drop the fe) meaning fork or spoon.  Stephen can drink form an open cup.  He is good at using 2 hands but sometimes gets a bit excited and tips the cup too much and gets a little drink up his nose! oops!  But, he has yet to spill (!!!)  Most of the time with meals, he does drink from a sippy still though. 

Talking:
I just wrote about his vocab the other day... but it is totally taking off!!  Just today he has more new words: Bite, Bone, Book.
clearly he likes the B words.  :) He is very willing to try to say any word I ask... he just isn't usually willing to preform his new words.  I am always so excited when he says a word, I try to get him to say it for other people and he just looks at me like I'm nuts!

Sleeping:
Stephen is an easy sleeper.  he is pretty compliant when it comes nap/bed time.  More importantly, when he wakes up... he is always smiling! ALWAYS.  I love it!  Walking in to get him and he is jumping up and down saying, Momma! Dadda! or John!  He is a very happy kid when he wakes up. 
And, I know I said that he has been up in the night a lot this past week... I hope it has passed because he slept through the night again last night! Yahoo! 
He sleeping habits are: 8pm bedtime, between 5:30-7am wake up and nap from about 1-4pm every day.  He needs a 3-4 hour nap... and sometimes he will take 2 shorter naps. 

Driving in the car:
Stephen is very quite when driving (riding).  He is not a fan of getting put in his car seat and fights it quite a bit.  But once buckled he just watches out his window.  However, when him and John get into a little big yelling match ... OY!  They are super loud! We are in the phase of , Beef looked at me! He looked out my window! He is talking! He ....you get the point.  And that is when they both start yelling at each other.  Stephen thinks it is a fun game, so he is laughing and proud of how loud he can get while John is usually upset and does not think it is funny.  This surely turns into a big power struggle on the road... something we are working on!

Biscuit:
Stephen's favorite thing right now is his dog, Bup and his book, Biscuit.  He loves to carry around his dog and loves his book from Gramma Mitty.  He has 4 dogs, and would carry them all, all the time if he could. 

Playing:
Stephen is starting to do imaginative play.  He will take a car and drive it around, read to his dog, eat play food, etc.  He is also interested in "self-help" too.  He will brush his hair alone and say, nice, try to take off his clothes or try to put them on.  He really is good at entertaining himself.... not to say he plays alone all day but, he is happy to do it and can stay busy building blocks, looking at books etc.

A couple other little things:
When we tell him he is cute, he rolls his eyes up and smiles as he tilts his head.... a little dramatic? Yes, but So CUTE!  It gives me a laugh every time. :)
When we eat, he is starting to fold his hands and pray with us as a family.  A very touching thing as a parent to watch. 

Love you Stephen!!!  18 months... you are getting SO OLD!! :'(



Giving Biscuit a kiss good night! <3




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Putting Stephen to sleep

One of my favorite jobs as his mom!  He is super snugly.  I (or Ryan if he is putting him to sleep) sing him a little song of "Night - night Beef, everybody goes to sleep"  and he cuddles right in to sleep, literally in like 2 minutes, tops.  If it takes longer then that I sing On top of spaghetti.... don't ask why... it just came to me one night and stuck. :)

On a side note: He has been getting up in the night a bunch this past week... I am hoping that he is just getting teeth and this too shall pass. 
This morning he got up at 5am- I was not ready to surrender to starting my day that early, so I gave him some books in his bed and told him to read to Bup.  Well, he did just that- I could hear him saying, "Bup! Bup! Book.  Bup! Bup! Book." Loved it- and I got to go back to sleep (as did he... must have been a bit of a boring book) until 7! :) Yahoo!

 

Ice Skating

Today John went ice skating for his second time and Stephen went for a "spin" around the rink! 

They both were smiling ear to ear the whole time!!

West St. Paul Rink:







 

Christmas Eggs

This morning I had enough coffee!  HA We made Christmas eggs--  using the cookie cutters from St. Nick.

John did almost the whole thing himself! (I clearly did the stove parts...)  Stephen stood closely next to me and watched each step.  He will be ready to help next time- for sure with the bread cutting part.  :)
This is a very fun, kid friendly breakfast!




These make for a great snack while the eggs cook, at least if you ask the boys they will tell you that!
 


Here are a couple from after St. Nick came yesterday....





Tuesday, December 6, 2011

From the mouth of John...

John has been saying some very funny things lately-

Last night Stephen didn't have a shirt on.  We were all playing Legos as a family when John noticed Stephen's nipple.  Ryan and I knew this wasn't going to be good.  He pointed to it saying, "boob!"  Ryan and I chuckled to ourselves a bit (with out John seeing) and then told him that wasn't polite, and not to say that word.  Then, our problem only got worse... because John's gears were already turning!  EEEEK, he looked at me, lifted his shirt and said, "You Thirsty??? NUM-NUM-NUM!"
Oy, no John. I am not.

A couple days ago, John was standing at the Kitchen table.  As he was holding on to the table with 2 hands, he lifted up one foot and crossed it over his other knee.  Then he looked up at me and said, "MOM! Me no need 2 feet!!!  Me need one foot!"  I thought it was pretty cute... him saying that as he was white knuckling the table to stay standing as he stood on his 1 "necessary" foot.

haha... The potty training continues.... seamless?  No, but we are working on it as a team.

Stephen's TALKING!

Stephen has been making a great effort to try many many new words!! 
Here are some of the words he can say:

-Egg
-Eye
-Nose
-Ear
-NO!!!
-Mine
-John
-Mom
-Daddy
-Papa
-Nanny
-Pup  (Bup- his 4 stuffed dogs)
-Juice
-Tootles
-Bye
-Hi
-Elmo
-Up
-Down
-Night-night (he even sings his Bup to sleep at night: "ni-ni Bup" 
-Out
-Num-num
- Da-Bae (that's his form of thank you... he came up with it on his own and uses it correctly, so I am just rolling with it!)  :))
- Sorry
- Ball (Baa)
- Bath
- Hat (haa)
- Boot
- Ouch
- More
- Baseball
- WOW!
AND the million dollar word....
--  BUT WHY????

Some of his words seem to "fall off" before he gets the last sound(s) out on some harder words...
He is really willing to try to say any word I ask him to say- even if what comes out sounds nothing like the word I am asking. :)  Loads of positive re-enforcement!


He is also very interested in all that comes with having your big brother potty training!  He wants to be nude, sit on the potty and get treats for "pushing" -- SJ has not had a successful run on the toilet yet, but he likes being included in the process.  Favorite part? Flushing John's business.

12/7 Update:
Since I typed that all...  Stephen is now saying Noodle, Apple and Nice. :)  He is doing such an amazing job at talking!! I love that he is starting to be able to communicate with words.