Splish Splash!

The kids took a bath the other night and I decided to document it, as I hadn't done that in a while and things have changed so much since they both are freely moving about the tub.

Before her bath, or anytime she has to change her clothes I guess, Mollie likes to help take off her diaper.  Being an adorable nearly-two year-old, she does it the prim and proper way, undoing the velcro strips just like they should be.

Of course, she has to lift up her belly to find them first.  It is beyond adorable every time she does it!

Baylor always claims to prefer baths without Mollie, but looking at these pictures I struggle to understand why.  They look like they are having so much fun!

Before Mollie came along, our bath time was relatively dry, as far as the parents were concerned.  Then Miss Mollie, with her energy and silliness, entered our lives and well, bath time has never been the same.  

And I rather like it that way.

Catching Up On the News

"Nicole, grab your camera!"  Bryson whispered the other day from the living room.

So I did.  Such cuteness!

Such fun on a Sunday morning!

Damn, It Feels Good to Be ... Mollie

Not everyone can pull off the over sized hat look, but my Mollie girl can.  She wears the swagger with style.

Even when she's coloring.

Big smiles!

Baylor couldn't care less about his sister's antics when he's focused on his Legos.

"Oh, big brother!  I'm wearing your hat!  And I'm being silly!"

"So much silliness, Baylor!"

"Did he look?"

Nope.

"Mom, enough with the pictures!"

Okay, okay ... camera down.

Nap Restart

The other day, I was on the phone with our credit card provider trying to get some fraudulent charges refunded (important note: do not pay for stuff on iTunes with PayPal).  Anyhow, I was on the phone, couldn't get off it, and all of a sudden Mollie started to stir.  Baylor was actually sleeping that day, so there was no way I wanted him to wake up.  I figured she was awake so I, still on the phone, bounded up the stairs, went into her room, and scooped her up and realized she wasn't exactly up yet.

So, after finishing up getting our money back (yay!) I snuggled with Mollie a bit and realized she needed to sleep more, so I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs to nap again.  She said no.  In a moment of slight desperation, I asked her if she wanted to nap on the couch and she said yes.  Oookay.  So I set her up on the red couch, snuggled her in with her dollie and sleep sheep, and pulled up our green leather ottoman next to her ... just in case, you know?

Thank goodness I did!

As you can tell, she first went for the legs-over-the-edge move.  Soon enough, though, she was all butt-in-the-air.

At least she got a little more sleep, though, right?

Esquela!: Flying Solo

This past Friday, February 10th, my son, my beautiful boy, went to his Friday class without me.

Deep breath, Nicole.

I dropped him off at the door in the capable hands of his autism specialist, and after snapping a quick picture through the wet car windows (because no matter how upset I might be, the dork in me just won't go away) I left the parking lot sobbing.  He looked so nervous and scared as he walked away from me, that I couldn't help it; I was so worried for him, so hoping this would go well.  Even now as I type this I'm getting all choked up.

After dropping off a card at the post office, talking to one of my best friends - who had already done the dropping-the-oldest-kid-off-at-school thing before - to calm me down, I drove back to the school and sat in the parking lot, car running, like a total dork.  I read a funny book my sister had gotten me for Christmas as I sat there and laughed a lot less than usual.  (Seriously, though, if you are in need of a hilarious read, I highly recommend Notes from the Underwire, by Quinn Cummings.  This book has made me laugh harder than any book has in a LONG time.)

Once his hour was up, Baylor emerged from the school, happy to see me and excited to go to Toys R US, which is where we were headed next (after picking up my mom and Mollie, of course).  His specialist told me that he did a great job, though he remained an observer on the periphery most of the time.  All in all, a great start to his solo school visits.

Later on, I asked him when we were alone, "Baylor, what did you think of school today?  I mean really, honestly ..."

He sat there in silence just playing with his Legos, not responding at all.

"Was it a little scary?"  I probed, hoping for something ... anything.

Then he spoke.  "Yeah, it was a little scary at first, but then it was okay."  So matter-of-fact.  So calm.

And such a relief to his mom.  There is hope yet for him to like school.  And I couldn't be happier.

Is That How You Dress for the Super Bowl?

None of us were really rooting for anyone in particular in the Super Bowl this year, so we instead chose to focus our attire-related cheering efforts to our beloved Spartans, who were playing our in-state rivals, the Wolverines, earlier in the day.

Hey look!  There I am looking halfway decent!  (Thanks for snapping a picture of me, Mom.  I like everyone to know I'm still alive every now and then.)  Baylor and I were just messing around with some Qwirkle tiles.

Mollie, meanwhile, waited for ...

... and enjoyed a clementine.

Then the kids spent some time reading with Aunt Christine.

And Mollie worked on memorizing family member faces.

In no time, though, Mollie was hungry again, so she set off to mooch from my mom.

We had a lovely Mexican meal: tacos, homemade guacamole (for those that enjoy it), homemade applesauce, rice, salsa, chips, and fresh berries.

We all ate and enjoyed dinner, but in seemingly no time at all, Mollie was hungry again.  Growth spurt, anyone?

My sister, gifted baker she is, treated us to some homemade cream puffs, filled with homemade pastry creme!

Aaand covered in chocolate!  They were delicious!  As Olivia's mom would say, Christine is a "magician in the kitchen."

We had a fun-filled evening at my parents' house.

Go Green!  (And congratulations to the Giants!)

Low Sodium Life: The Bread Maker

When I started this whole low sodium diet a couple weeks ago, I had no idea how much sodium was in the food I ate.  Bread, in particular, shocked me; as I mentioned previously, just to eat two slices of the regular bread I buy would equal ten percent of my daily allotted sodium intake.  The thing is, I love bread; there was no realistic way I could cut it out.

So, with lots of plans and hopes of follow-through, we started researching bread machines.  My husband was, surprisingly, on board with the whole plan; turns out he was just really excited at the thought of homemade bread.  (Who can blame him, though?)

After much looking online, we settled on the Oster 2 LB. Expressbake Breadmaker.  (In case you are interested, the model number is CKSTBRTW20.)  It is relatively quiet except for the beeps during the kneading time (when you can add things like raisins) and at the end.  It has been pretty easy to clean up, and so far the bread we've made has been delicious.

Though the bread maker came with a bunch of recipes, we have been making recipes from one of the low sodium cookbooks I checked out from the library, and it has been awesome.

It's odd trying to get used to making bread when I need it, but it has been nice not to have to go to the grocery store when I run out of bread.  The kids aren't in love with this new bread yet, but I think they will warm up to it with time.

If any of you are interested, I can always post a couple of the recipes here on the blog.

Have a happy, healthy day!                    

Weirdest Cold Ever

Last Saturday, the kids came down with the weirdest cold ever.  We were first made aware of such illness when Mollie woke up at 2:00 a.m. throwing up.  As far as minor illnesses go, the stomach flu is my worst nightmare (the smells, the sights, the clean-up ... ughhhhhh), so needless to say I didn't sleep well that night or have a very good day the next day.  And Mollie, poor, sweet girl needed lots of cuddles and rest.

She tried to sit up to snuggle next to me but ended up slumping over onto my leg.  It was the saddest sight.

(P.S.  I just love that this is one of the only recent pictures I have of myself.  On the one day I didn't shower in the past YEAR!  *deep breath*  Okay, I'm over it.  Very small price to pay to comfort my girl.)

The really weird part was that she seemed to have a cold, too.  And the last stuff she threw up looked weird, more mucus-y than former food-ish.  (Sorry if that was an over-share.)

Baylor got a cold that day, too, so we just sort of hunkered down.  Most of the week was spent either at home or at my parents' house resting and having fun, because most of the time they were just all sniffles, snot, and coughing.  Lovely picture, huh?

Which is probably why I was so surprised when Baylor started throwing up yesterday morning.  Seriously.  Six-or-so times in a few hours, all of it mucus-y ... like that was all he had in his stomach.  So it appears that this bizarro cold has so much gunk to go with it, that if you're not getting it out of your nose, you'll be throwing it up later on.

Baylor was not himself yesterday, which is really putting it mildly.  He asked very few questions, moved around very little, and fell asleep both on the floor and on the couch.

He did let me know, however, that he was NOT sick.  He just, as he put it, had "coughing, throwing up, and crying."  Luckily, later in the day, things were reduced to just "coughing".

I'm ready for this cold to pass the kiddos ... I want them back to their usual selves, as exhausting as that might be.  It's tough not to have them at their spunky best!

Esquela!: The First Day!

He wouldn't let me take a picture of him all suited up and ready to go with his backpack on his back ... hell, he wouldn't even put his backpack on.  But I snapped a picture of him on the way to school, perusing a map and staring out the window every now and then.  And that's enough for me.

Mollie came with us but the autism specialist that has been working with us was there too, and since Mollie is really comfortable with her I was able to focus most of my attention on Baylor. Which was good because he needed it; just to get him to walk in the door I had to distract him by telling him one of his favorite stories ... what we did on his birthday last year.  After everyone got their coats hung up, they sat in a circle around the rug in the classroom, but Baylor wasn't comfortable yet, so I held onto him and we participated as much as we could.  Mollie got to participate too, which was undoubtedly exciting for her.  They sang songs, learned about "light" and "heavy", and then they got to make a craft using kid scissors and crayons.  By the end, Baylor was able to be away from me at least a little bit and seemed to mildly enjoy himself.

I asked him what he'd like to do as a reward for being a big boy and going to school, and he said he wanted to go to Oma's house.  So, to Oma's house we went!

There, he got to enjoy a nice big piece of cake with whipped cream.

Mollie, not much of a fan of sweets herself, was content to have a chip.

Oh, and an orange ... because she's perpetually hungry.

While watching Olivia, he showed off his art project ...

... and got to practice a little more with kid scissors.

I was hoping to build on all this socialization success and get him out over the weekend, but the kids have been sick, each with their own day of throwing up, and that just hasn't worked out.  In fact, today was supposed to be our second class visit, but because Baylor threw up so much yesterday I wasn't comfortable letting him around other kids just yet.

There's always next week ...