Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
{ plover }
We hit the road (yes, again) for what will hopefully be one of the last weekend trips for awhile. Traveling with two, two year olds is exhausting. But we were way overdue for a trip back to central Wisconsin to visit Chop's family in Plover.
It was a low key three days just hanging out at the Grandma and Grandpa Krueger's house with lots of visits from aunts, uncles, and cousins. The weather was beautiful, in the mid 70s and sunny, so Saturday afternoon everyone headed over for a cookout. Here is a little of what went on.
Having cousin Alexa there was like having a built-in toddler chaser.
Can you tell they are brothers? (what you can't see in the pictures is the identical toothpick hanging from their mouths)
Can you tell that someone in the family runs a Ford dealership? Well, except the fact he was the one driving the Jeep Cherokee and only non-Ford vehicle in the line-up.
Ups and downs for Oliver.
Stella kept everyone guessing what she would do next.
And we ended the beautiful day with a double rainbow.
It was a low key three days just hanging out at the Grandma and Grandpa Krueger's house with lots of visits from aunts, uncles, and cousins. The weather was beautiful, in the mid 70s and sunny, so Saturday afternoon everyone headed over for a cookout. Here is a little of what went on.
Having cousin Alexa there was like having a built-in toddler chaser.
Tractor rides, corn hole, and......cartwheels?!
Uncle Kurt's homemade french fries. Num.
Ups and downs for Oliver.{ olympics }
While the real Olympics were taking place in London, our household was hosting our very own Olympics. It didn't require any athletic talent or ability. It simply required being able to function on less than 2 consecutive hours of sleep each night for a few weeks. And then be able to deal with a 2 year old who was sleeping about 8-9 hours total per day.
It was grueling. It was exhausting. It was emotional. It was just plain awful.
Our Olympics started about a week after Oliver & Stella turned two. Previously we had a fairly normal and manageable bedtime routine that could be handled by just one of us if needed. Then one night Stella decided she wanted absolutely nothing to do with her crib. Instead of calmly allowing us to put her in her crib after bedtime routine, she screamed and acted panicked as though she was scared of it. This lead to her climbing out.......and not gracefully or safely.
That same night around 12:30am we heard Oliver fussing. Shortly after looking at the video monitor, we heard a thump. After looking at the monitor again, we didn't see him in the crib. We thought it was a fluke and we went in, rocked him, and placed him back in the crib. By the time we got back to our bedroom, he had climbed out again.
The next day we were faced with trying to figure out what to do with these two year olds to get them to sleep! A product called a crib tent (which is exactly what it sounds like - a canopy/tent you place over the crib to keep them from being able to climb out) is what many parents turn to to buy some more time before moving toddlers into a bed. However, all crib tents were recalled just a few months ago so buying them wasn't an option. So that day when Chop got home from work we converted O & S's cribs into toddler beds.
That night we sat outside their rooms, Nanny 911 style, and every time they opened the door to come out of their room we walked them back to their beds. Oliver took a handful of walks back to bed and some crying/fussing before going to sleep. Stella, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the bed. We tried for hours. She wouldn't budge and got hysterical every time we tried getting her to just lay in her bed. To make a long story short, we were sometimes able to get her to fall asleep in her room with us in there, but inevitably she would end up waking up numerous times throughout the night. And when I say asleep "in her room", that doesn't mean in her bed. On the floor, in her rocker, anywhere but the bed. For the first few nights we tried for hours to try to get her back to sleep in her room when she would wake in the middle of the night and after no success and exhaustion from us and her, we would decide to just let her sleep in our bed.
It wasn't until Grandma C came a few days later that she actually agreed to lay in the actual bed. I don't know what Grandma did or told her when putting her down that day but it worked and she was at least not hysterical when we tried putting her down. But it was still taking a LONG time for her to fall asleep with us in there and she was still waking in the middle of the night and ending up in our bed every night. We decided to wait until after traveling that weekend to do anything drastic.
Fast forward a week and it was toddler bed boot camp. We decided to put gates up at her doorway so when she tried coming out, she would be faced with that. It had turned into too much of a game for her to have us sitting outside of the room and putting her back in bed every time she got out. Saying she was not happy when she opened the door the first night to be faced with floor to ceiling gates is an understatement. She was MAD. But, she ended up falling asleep......on the wood floor. Another favorite location is the rocking chair.
After two nights she was actually agreeable to laying down in her bed for nighttime and naps and the night wakings are limited. Knock on wood, it seems as though we have made some serious progress. Unfortunately when you have early risers to begin with, it is even tougher to keep that time from creeping really, really early since they can just hop out of bed at 5:00am. Always something, right?!
Beginning to think that bribery to stay in bed until 6:00am is in our near future. Until then, we either need to learn to go to bed by 9:00pm or continue to function on less than the ideal number of hours of sleep each night!
It was grueling. It was exhausting. It was emotional. It was just plain awful.
Our Olympics started about a week after Oliver & Stella turned two. Previously we had a fairly normal and manageable bedtime routine that could be handled by just one of us if needed. Then one night Stella decided she wanted absolutely nothing to do with her crib. Instead of calmly allowing us to put her in her crib after bedtime routine, she screamed and acted panicked as though she was scared of it. This lead to her climbing out.......and not gracefully or safely.
That same night around 12:30am we heard Oliver fussing. Shortly after looking at the video monitor, we heard a thump. After looking at the monitor again, we didn't see him in the crib. We thought it was a fluke and we went in, rocked him, and placed him back in the crib. By the time we got back to our bedroom, he had climbed out again.
The next day we were faced with trying to figure out what to do with these two year olds to get them to sleep! A product called a crib tent (which is exactly what it sounds like - a canopy/tent you place over the crib to keep them from being able to climb out) is what many parents turn to to buy some more time before moving toddlers into a bed. However, all crib tents were recalled just a few months ago so buying them wasn't an option. So that day when Chop got home from work we converted O & S's cribs into toddler beds.
That night we sat outside their rooms, Nanny 911 style, and every time they opened the door to come out of their room we walked them back to their beds. Oliver took a handful of walks back to bed and some crying/fussing before going to sleep. Stella, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the bed. We tried for hours. She wouldn't budge and got hysterical every time we tried getting her to just lay in her bed. To make a long story short, we were sometimes able to get her to fall asleep in her room with us in there, but inevitably she would end up waking up numerous times throughout the night. And when I say asleep "in her room", that doesn't mean in her bed. On the floor, in her rocker, anywhere but the bed. For the first few nights we tried for hours to try to get her back to sleep in her room when she would wake in the middle of the night and after no success and exhaustion from us and her, we would decide to just let her sleep in our bed.
It wasn't until Grandma C came a few days later that she actually agreed to lay in the actual bed. I don't know what Grandma did or told her when putting her down that day but it worked and she was at least not hysterical when we tried putting her down. But it was still taking a LONG time for her to fall asleep with us in there and she was still waking in the middle of the night and ending up in our bed every night. We decided to wait until after traveling that weekend to do anything drastic.
Fast forward a week and it was toddler bed boot camp. We decided to put gates up at her doorway so when she tried coming out, she would be faced with that. It had turned into too much of a game for her to have us sitting outside of the room and putting her back in bed every time she got out. Saying she was not happy when she opened the door the first night to be faced with floor to ceiling gates is an understatement. She was MAD. But, she ended up falling asleep......on the wood floor. Another favorite location is the rocking chair.
Beginning to think that bribery to stay in bed until 6:00am is in our near future. Until then, we either need to learn to go to bed by 9:00pm or continue to function on less than the ideal number of hours of sleep each night!
Monday, August 13, 2012
{ 2 year pics }
We ventured out a few weeks ago to a Minneapolis landmark, the Stone Arch Bridge, to have some pictures taken. Chop & I ended up in more of them than we had hoped due to some less than cooperative toddlers, but we got plenty of great pictures!
Thank you Danny Lankford Photography!
Monday, August 6, 2012
{ minocqua }
It was a long drive to Minocqua this past weekend for a short Friday-Sunday visit but well worth it to see two wonderful high school friends and their families. It had been WAY too long. Years since I had lengthy visits with either of them. And things change quickly when everyone starts having babies.
14+ years ago (try not to be jealous of the hair)
The kiddos that took over the Reed cabin included:
Maddie & Carter
14+ years ago (try not to be jealous of the hair)
7 kids later
And since 7 kids (and three husbands that enjoy drinking) are entertaining enough, we never left the cabin. Though the weather didn't completely cooperate, we still managed to have a great time.
Maddie & Carter
Haley / Aubrey / Lincoln
Oliver / Stella
Some of the highlights from the weekend were fishing (and actually catching a fish or two!).
Kayaking
Splashing & swimming with no suit.....or with clothes on!
Frog catching
Boating
Go figure that all of the adults were always behind the camera so we neglected to get a picture of the three of us girls. Next time, I guess. Which will be sooner than later........right, Kelly & Tara?!
And a big thanks to Grandpa & Grandma K for making the short trip to Wausau to meet us for lunch on our way through. It was a nice break in the long drive and a fun distraction for O & S!
And a big thanks to Grandpa & Grandma K for making the short trip to Wausau to meet us for lunch on our way through. It was a nice break in the long drive and a fun distraction for O & S!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
{ birthday party buzz }
A few weeks ago we transformed our backyard into party central to host a joint birthday/house warming party.
With it being a joint kid/adult party, we went with a neutral bee theme, asking guests to "buzz on over" for a birthday and beer bash. Although I spent considerably less time on this party than I have in the past and didn't execute a lot of the ideas that I had, I still had a great time planning it.
Oh, and cupcakes. While they weren't honey flavored, the buttercream frosting was to die for (thank you Kowalski's!).
We had a better than expected turnout and were blessed by the presence of friends from all different areas of life - high school friends, college friends, grad school friends, ECFE friends, "twin" friends. The weather was beautiful so the 30+ kids and who knows how many adults were able to run around and visit outside.
I think O & S were a bit overwhelmed by all the people!
The shyness went away late in the party when grandpa a certain someone started having a little fun with the tubs of ice and water.
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