Wisconsin Dells!

Definitely behind in posts these days...this one is, sadly, nearly three weeks past due.  I'm going to blame my tardiness on three things:  a really good book series, teething, and lack of sleep due to the aforementioned.  Well, now the books are done, the teeth are through, and, while my sleep (or lack-there-of) is still questionable, it's time to catch up!

Mid-March we headed to Wisconsin Dells for a weekend with the Hoden family and the Huinker grandparents.  It was an absolute blast!  Olivia and Grace (and soon-to-be Grady, I'm sure) are pretty obsessed with their cousins, so when we learned they would be moving to Canada after school's out this year, spending additional quality time with them became an instant priority!  I'm so glad this trip worked out, and I think that everyone has great memories of it!

Without permission I'm going to steal a few paragraphs from my sister-in-law's blog because I liked how she summed up the experience so much!

By Beth:

Every day pretty much went the same...wake up, cook an awesome breakfast, go to waterpark, come home, kids jump in warm jacuzzi tub, dry swimming clothes, eat lunch, nap, go to waterpark, come home, kids jump in warm jacuzzi tub, dry swimming clothes, eat dinner, kids go to bed and parents/grandparents crash!!

There were a few other highlights along the way. Tony's sister Erin and her fam live close to the Dells so they came over Saturday night and we cooked dinner and enjoyed some adult time while the kids went wild. Max got to do laser tag twice while we were there for his birthday present from Amanda and Brian. Max wasn't a fan of the dark slides, Mya loved them, and Ivy did every slide she possibly could have and loved every minute. They got tons of quality cousin time too! Mya and Olivia were inseparable as usual. Thank goodness for Grace's personality...at only 18 months younger than the other two girls, normally you would expect lots of hurt feelings, fights, etc. but she is pretty comfortable in her own skin and loves to entertain so she doesn't seem to mind too terribly that Mya and Olivia are attached at the hip!

This was another one of those vacations that was mostly all about the kids, but it helped a ton having my parents there. My mom took over Grady duties while at the water park and also got the kiddos snacks, towels, etc. Grandpa Rog was in the water with the kiddos the whole time (except for when he was going down the black hole:) All in all, besides losing Max once and Grace twice, and Tara/Tony not being there, it was a great little getaway. I would highly recommend it!

Winter Activities

As we'll soon be able to say it's spring (even if it doesn't really feel like it), I thought it was about time that I posted some of my favorite pictures from winter. 

As the girls get older, they definitely enjoy spending time outside a lot more.  For whatever reason we didn't do nearly as much sledding this year, but the girls and Brian spent a lot of time building forts, tunnels, and igloos out in the yard.  Maybe this had something to do with the absolutely enormous piles of snow that we had at the ends of our driveway!  Seriously, those piles were (so glad I can now use past tense) taller than I making it ridiculously difficult to shovel. 

When it comes to outside adventure, Olivia is probably the bravest - but not by much.  Maybe she's been hardened by more recesses outside or something, but Olivia isn't nearly as troubled by cold and wet as Grace, and, for those of you who know Olivia and how sensitive she can get, this is actually surprising.  When it comes to sledding though, both get a bit nervous, but typically if we can just get them to try it once, we'll be good to go.  Both of the girls really wanted Grady to play outside with them throughout the winter and were disappointed when I said he couldn't...next year maybe!  Anyways, I'm glad it seems like we're able to get outside more with each winter...I hope that more playing and perhaps snow shoeing and cross country skiing will be in the eventual future!

Enjoy the collection of pictures - they make for a long post!

Set 1:  Sledding at Christmas with the Hoden family...this was before we had much snow - crazy that two feet of snow covered the ground for most of the winter after this!

Set 2:  Building snowmen with Auntie Thyme on a warm day shortly after Christmas.

 

Set 3:  Building an igloo with Daddy!  This was one of those days where Grace wimped out and came inside.  And, don't panic, the red splatter on the snow isn't blood - it's snow paint!  :)

Set 4:  A warm day after many, many, many cold ones filled with lots and lots of snow!  The girls and Brian decided to make use of the swing set, and Liv, especially, enjoyed practicing her jumping skills!  I think the three of them were outside for close to two hours, and the fun didn't end until after a picnic lunch outside!  Obviously, after all the polar vortexes, our concept of "warm" has been dramatically altered.

 

Set 5:  And, lastly, not Grady's first, but one of his first walks outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air!

Mr. Grady - 4 Months

 

A few new facts about our little man:

* He's soooo close to rolling over from his back to his tummy.  Clearly the picture shows you!  All he needs to do is kick his leg and he'd have it!  A new favorite little game is me holding him by his feet and rolling him back and forth...I should mention Grandma Linda started this fun and I've just continued it.

* Besides really enjoying his activity gym and being pretty darn good at entertaining himself for 15-20 minutes, Grady has started liking his Bumbo a bit more.  He's not as fond of his swing anymore, and I rarely put him in it, but he does still like hanging out in his little bouncy seat which I drag around wherever in the house.

* Grady's made some decent improvements in his napping schedule although we're still not exactly where I'd like to be.  I've resigned myself to this fact...mostly, I think he just needs to get a little older so we can have longer awake times - then, I think we'll be able to combine his two morning naps into one and stick with our afternoon nap as well.  Grady's pretty easy to get to sleep for naps, and I've started not rocking him quite as much and putting him down when he's drifting off...hoping he'll just learn that sleep is a good thing and to just peacefully give in. I remember that when the girls were a bit older they literally started reaching for their cribs at naptime - hopefully Grady will be like that too.  At night, Grady's doing really well...he goes to bed at 7:00, and he's getting up once - usually around 3:00am and then again anywhere between 5:30-6:30am...sometimes he'll go back to sleep, sometimes not - today he slept in till 8:00.  I imagine the mornings will get more consistent as he gets a bit older.

* He's growing - but, he's not really the "chunky monkey" that I thought!  Grady is two pounds heavier than Grace was at 4 months, but as the boy's and girl's percentiles are so different, he doesn't top the charts like I thought he would.  Grady is 14.2 pounds (32%), 25 inches long (52%), and has a head circumference of 41 cm (18%)...yes, he got the small head from me.

* The pictures from earlier show off Grady's hand/eye coordination pretty well.  He brings his hands up to grasp objects and bring them to his mouth.  And, he manages to hold on to objects for a decent amount of time too.  He still doesn't seem to be aware of his feet, but he laughs if I bring them up to his face when we're playing...ah, to be that flexible!  He also love to exercise his legs standing up in your lap and kicking all over the place in the bathtub especially.

* Grady had his first official cold last week...we ended up bringing him in because he had a nasty cough, was running a low fever, and was really sleepy.  Diagnosis was a respiratory virus and an ear infection.  This resulted in nebulizer treatments and an antibiotic.  It took a couple of days before we got our normal Grady back...poor guy - he was really a trooper through it all though.

* And, as these smiley pictures show - Grady is a really happy little guy.  He's quick to smile, is trying out some giggles, is endlessly entertained by his sisters even though I think they can be rather in-his-face at time, is easily entertained, and is just generally content.  We sure love him!

Catching Up...

1.  Welcome Home Brian:  The girls and I were very happy to have Brian home from the Dominican Republic where he was for 5 days for a wedding.  I think it's safe to say that we held our own pretty well while he was gone, but being a single-parent for a week made me appreciate how much Brian does!  Brian had a great and hot trip while we got five inches of snow and had a late start one day because the morning temperature was -20...you can imagine that I didn't feel too sorry for him when he emailed saying his feet were sore because he had sunburned them!  The girls loved watching on a flight-tracker website Brian's plane get closer to home, and I woke up the next morning to the three of them playing Touble downstairs in the basement...it was 6:00am - I took that as a definite sign that they were glad to have Brian home!  :)

2.  Valentine's Day:  The girls were excited for Valentine's Day this year!  Liv got to have her party on the 13th and was pumped to bring the cookies we had made to share with her friends at school.  Grace, unfortunately, still hasn't had her party...thank you very much cold and snow.  Ugh - when is it going to end?!?  Grady had on a very cute little outfit from Auntie Beth that lasted until about noon before it was covered in too much spit-up to tolerate - still need to get a good picture of it!  There was no school on Valentine's Day (4-day weekend), so we all headed over to a friend's house for some play/craft time and treats; it was a good day!

3.  Staying Home:  I continue to enjoy staying home with the kiddos.  Sometimes I get a little stressed out with how perpetually messy everything seems to be, but then I remind myself that that's a good thing; I really wouldn't have it any other way...well, maybe I'd like it if I could keep things a touch cleaner!  :)  Anyways, it's been wonderful to be home with Grady, and I feel like I've been able to soak up his baby-hood.  I've also enjoyed spending the days with Grace playing games, dolls, blocks, and dress up with her.  Grace is a pretty independent girl, so we parallel "play" a lot - her playing is legitimate whereas mine often means folding laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, or something of that ilk!  I'm definitely looking forward to warmer weather and getting these two kiddos out to the park and on walks while Liv is at school.  Speaking of, I love being home when Liv gets off the bus - it's fun going through her school bag together and sometimes having some alone time if Grady and Grace are still sleeping.  Lastly, at night, I am so enjoying being stress-free.  It's really nice to not have to do anything once the kids are in bed and to be able to sit and watch TV with Brian or read a book; I think dealing with grading in the evenings is going to be one of the toughest parts of going back to school next fall.  But, as next fall is a while away, I'm not going to think about it and am just going to enjoy what I've got!

 

4.  Watching Miss Ivy Anne:  Last Monday and Wednesday the girls and I got to spend some quality time with Ivy (the girls' cousin).  Beth and family were in Canada checking out the town they'll be moving to in late May (Edmonton).  We had lots of fun together playing, dressing up, jumping on the trampoline, painting, and reading books.  It was so sweet to see Ivy playing with the girls (Liv was home Monday too enjoying the last day of the 4-day weekend), and I loved hearing Ivy request for them to come with her upstairs, and downstairs, and upstairs, and downstairs!  Even better...the girls were willing to do all of it with her!  Ivy was coming down with a cold, and later Monday I got to enjoy a few cuddles because of it.  My favorite...Manda, can I hold you?  Translation:  Amanda, can you hold me?  :)  Ivy also liked holding Grady - but she couldn't quite remember to say "Can I hold him?" and liked to say her instead!  Tuesday, Grandpa Roger stayed home with Ivy even making a trip to the doctor for some medicine, but by Wednesday morning, Pat reported that she was asking for Liv and Grace again!  I'm very glad we got to spend some quality time with Ivy - we're certainly going to miss her and the rest of the Hoden family when they move!

Grady (and Grace's) Photo Shoot

Last week, Grace helped me out with a little photo shoot of Grady.  It was pretty cute watching/hearing her try to get Grady to smile...especially since half the time she either was acting a little oddly, being truly goofy in a way he can't yet appreciate, and/or was being a bit scary!  :)  We got some decent photos though Grady is not really into smiling at the camera and I'm way too prone to taking picture that are too close up.  Oh well, we'll get professional pictures done at 6 months!  For now, these will preserve our little bud at 3 months (and our Grace and her spunkiness at age 4) just fine.

And, scroll down to the post below to read what Grady's up to at 3 months too.

Grady Lawrence - 3 Months

A few days late on this post, but that's what happens when your husband's on a trip to the Dominican Republic!  For those who don't know...one of Brian's best friends is getting married there - today actually!  :)  I'll write more about our time without Dad later.

Dear Grady,

I still like to call you my little man, but little is something you are not!  We don't own a scale, but I'm guessing you're awfully close to 14 pounds and have grown another inch or so...I think you look a little older than your three months and so do many others!  You're pretty much done with your 0-3 outfits and fit your 3-6 month ones pretty nicely.  Who do you look like - that's the question of the day.  We get all sorts of comments - you look like your sisters - you look like Olivia - you look like Grace - you look like your dad when he was little (says your Grandpa Roger) - you look like you mom (okay...only one person has said this, but that still counts, right?).  Does it matter?  No, mostly, you're just super adorable...especially as you love to flash a full blown smile pretty darn often and at whomever is talking to you!  :)

This month's accomplishments include more frequent and very purposeful smiling, more cooing/noise making, rolling over from tummy to back, strong attempts at rolling from back to belly but with no luck, and increased hand coordination - especially your left hand (seriously, this is not just wishful thinking - you know your dad's dream is a left-handed, tennis-playing kid!).  You like to bat at your toys in your activity gym, and you have a new-found and very intense love of your left fist and....wait for it....thumb!  Will this love last - that's to be determined, but seriously, what are the chances of us having three kids who suck their thumb/fingers?  I will embrace whatever, I suppose.  You do like your paci too, and that's more comforting to you as you're not super coordinated at the thumb sucking yet.

 

 

What else do you like...you much prefer to be carried facing out now, and if I'm holding you the other way will crane your neck around and throw yourself sideways until I turn you.  You like being on the counter in your seat while I make dinner or work in the kitchen.  You love when people (me, you dad, your sisters, or perfect strangers) talk to you and make faces at you.  You like sitting up quite a bit on my lap or in the Bumbo for short periods.  You LOVE one particular book filled with pictures of babies...it's very sweet to hear you coo at them.  You like getting your diaper changed and have started to giggle a bit when I do so and tickle your belly or legs.  You like tummy time alright and will tolerate it from anywhere between 1 and 10 minutes.  And, you still really enjoy getting baths - in fact, we're probably about ready to graduate to the real bathtub instead of your baby tub.

Napping and a schedule have made their appearance these last couple of weeks too.  I confess I called your Auntie Beth when I was having a near breakdown, but after, later that day, you took a 2.5 hour nap, I felt much better.  Since then, you've done really well taking (approximately), 1-2 hour long naps in the morning, 1 awesome nap anywhere from 2-3.5 hours in the afternoon, and usually a short snooze in the evening.  For the most part, going to sleep is a pretty simple affair.  Unlike what I wrote at 2 months, you prefer to be wrapped in a blanket, cradled in my left arm, given your paci, and rocked for a few minutes before being laid down.  I let you sleep on your tummy during the day, but we always do your back at night.  However, with the way you crank your neck, I think it won't be long till I find you sleeping on your tummy at night too.  Another random thing - when you sleep on your tummy, your face is always pointed right...when you sleep on your back, left.  Weird.  But, at least it's opposite ways.  Anyways, I hope that soon you'll compact those 2 morning naps into one better one in addition to your afternoon nap and evening snooze.  At night, you get up usually twice - I'm fine with this as you go to bed about 7-7:30.  Overall, you're doing really great, and it's nice to have time to play with Grace and/or do some things around the house while you sleep.

Well, that's about it little buds.  Oh, I guess the other thing to mention now that you're three months is that I would have gone back to work as of January 29th.  How glad I am to be home!  I love it and am treasuring this time home with you (and your sisters, of course).

Lots of hugs and kisses,
Mommy