Notes to Self

I seriously need to keep a journal of all of the "note to self" moments that happen here at the Reilly household.  There are just too many.  For instance, here are some from just these last few days:

Note to self:  Do not leave baby on the floor without a diaper.  The moment you set her down, there will be a small puddle of piddle....if she somehow scoots to another location, she will again, mark her path with a puddle of piddle.

Note to self:  Do not let the happily entertained two and 1/2 year old be alone while coloring with a pen on some paper at the table.  Even though he looks focused on this task, as soon as your eyes divert, he WILL find a non paper product to scribble on.

Note to self:  Do not put cleaning, cooking, relaxing, sleeping, reading, working or any other task above the pee schedule of your potty training toddler.  If you do not bring him to a toilet, he will still stay on schedule, no matter where he is.

Note to self:  Do not leave the large body wash container with the pump action top within reach of said toddler; the bathroom and child will smell wonderful, however, clean up will not be fun.

Note to self:  Do not delude yourself to believing that getting out of bed to attend to a child will result in your ability to return to your own bed at any point in the night; just accept that you will be spending the rest of the night either in bed with your toddler or in the spare room with the baby and move on.

Okay Okay, really these notes to self are starting to sound like complaining...but really, if I could just REMEMBER what I (should) have learned from my mistakes, life would be much smoother.  :)

Until next time...

Keller Update

Two and a half and rocking it!  That is the best way I can describe Keller right now.  He is just awesome and a lot of fun and a lot to handle at time too!  

What he LOVES!

-His cowboy boots as proven in the photo above.

-Bubble baths (he requests them every night but since the last time he took one he dumped out the entire bottle I think they will be on hold for a while)

- HOCKEY or PUCK.  He requests playing it literally every hour of the day..upon waking..before going to bed...as we leave in the car...as we return in the car.  It's a little intense.  However, he is a natural beyond my imagination - can already take slap shots and skate (5-6 strides).  It's very impressive.

-Still choosing yogurt, bananas, apples, avocados (a new fav!), Happy Tots and as of lately the Cliff Bars Fruit Twists as his go-to snacks.  

-Again, something that hasn't changed is his desire to play with any type of ball.  No matter if it means kicking, throwing or tossing..he's all about it.  

-His dad! He has really taken to Broghan lately (not surprising).  But coming from mom's perspective it is fun to see him need her less (sad too!) and want him more.  He's becoming quite the daddy's boy and always want to play with dad.

-Still into books as well.  He's always loved when I read to him and his new favorite book is actually one about the Little Mermaid...although you wouldn't be able to convince him that the story is actually about the mermaid and not the ship!  He calls it his SHIP book..so we can kind of see what he is focusing on.

-Lastly, he still LOVES his little sister and our dog Marvin.  He is always wanting to be around them, love on them, hug them (maybe too agressively?), kiss them. Especially now that Lucy is mobile and can kind of express what she wants, he is always trying to "help" her (even thought that doesn't always turn out the way you'd hoped).

On the development front of it all, his speech has done what everyone thought it would - exploded.  He can repeat phrases and words that you ask him to and randomly starts to say the alphabet and count. Actually just before I began blogging today he counted to three and then five by himself.  That was fun to watch.  He is also starting to do more pretend playing.  Talk about mind-blowing.  It is so incredible the way they learn and grow and develop without me or Broghan actually showing him how to do it.  He also is getting better at playing with other kids, not that he ever struggled in the shy-ness piece of the puzzle...but he is learning how to not be so overly aggressive with his hugging and physical play.  He's learning to share, although he does like to say "My toy" or "My turn" or "Me help".  

We've also gotten past what I would consider a half-way point in potty training.  We've fully switched to big boy undies and pull ups only when we're busy out of the house or if I think he might need them at night (although last night he went all night without one and no accidents!).  At two and a half I don't see this process being finished for quite some time...but its fun knowing that he is doing so well.  He also still struggles at TELLING me he has to go...right now its more of he holds it and I or dad take him to the bathroom every few hours.  But! that awareness will come with time. 

All in all he's growing, developing and changing so fast but so perfectly.  I miss my little baby boy but am excited to have this fun, loving, energetic, outgoing, happy toddler.  

Until next time...

Grocery Store fun

Lets be honest, the grocery store is like a big pantry for my children.  Keller is so comfortable there he tends to go and find his snacks, attempt to open them himself and go to town.  He also has no fear of running away from me up and down the aisle...maybe we go there too much?! Anyways, these two photos are from two separate shopping trips but they are both at the grocery store so they both go into this post.  Lucy is now big enough to ride (drive) along with Keller in the car part of the cart and then the second one is an example of how much of a Hockey nut Keller is.  He refused to leave the puck (foam) and stick in the car, then refused to keep his shoes one and stay in the cart...he proceeded to hit the puck (slap shot style) up and down and around the aisles and Mom here got to apologize more times than I can count for my little guy getting in people's way.  Thankfully we live in Eau Claire, WI where the stores aren't THAT busy and people think hockey is as natural as snow. :).

The last power hour - soccer

As I've previously posted about, we were going to a group called Power Hour that met every other Thursday for four times over the winter months.  It is a Christian group of mom's that put together these awesome play times where kids get to run around and play with a whole array of toys/balls/playdough/dress up things, hear a Biblical story, sing songs and dance, do a craft and have snack.  It is just amazing.  This last time was Soccer themed and again the kids learned about letting their LIGHTS SHINE!  I didn't get any good action shots (except the one of Keller jumping in the blow-up jumper - which is blurry) but here are some pictures I snapped while we were there..

Purple Love

Lucy got some new headbands from Grandma Reilly and some new outfits too.  Here are some shots of her in them!

Big Brother Keller couldn't resist getting into the photo shoot...

Okay Okay...he may have just taken over the photo shoot! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love sending out Valentine's Day photo cards from my kids.  I am usually way behind on the Christmas card stuff (I think ours went out mid-January this year) but I'm usually pretty good about getting the V-day cards out at least the week of.  This year I made a photo-collage type card of the kids and some signs - this was round one with the pictures - however, we ended up going with other ones...I had to take them on a real camera since I couldn't crop these ones down to fit...anyways, you get the idea of what we were up to!

Feeling great!

Hey everyone - so WOW! - didn't realize I neglected my blog for the entire month of February!  Every time I considered blogging I thought to myself, oh well...I just blogged a little while ago, so I should be fine.  But NOPE! Totally missed out this month.  Anyways, I'm happy to report that (today anyways) life seems to be hitting a high.  Each month I set goals for myself and things I want to accomplish or mentalities that I want to stick with and even though February went through its ups and downs, I'm ending it and starting March on a very good note.

Physically I've been struggling with my asthma since the fall and in January Broghan and I decided to be a little more diligent in both my chiropractic treatments and my nutrition.  Well, the chiropractic treatments have been great.  I've been getting seen at the clinic 3Xs a week for just over a month and I've been doing as best as I can (okay, I probably can do better) at doing the home exercises and stretches and head weights.  Each time I get adjusted I can tell things are improving though because he can push down on my spine and each time less and less it hurts! Bones shouldn't hurt BTW. ;).    I feel like thanks to this, as well as with a change in my asthma medications and staying diligent in my supplements (D, Omegas, Calcium, AKEA, Sinuplex) I'm feeling very non-inflamed for the first time in months!  I actually feel strong enough to maybe, possibly, take a jog.  How fun.  I miss running!!

Mentally I'm doing well.  I was able to have a doula client this past month which brought about its own set of stress, especially the day of the delivery.  It was a 24 hr straight through day which left my brain aching and my emotions all over the place.  Luckily, I have an awesome husband who (even though I was throwing out negative stuff) took the high road and took care of me and handled the kids while I proceeded to sleep 17 hours.  My brain definitely needed a break! He also took care of Lucy's sleeping through the night issues!  It's been almost a week and she has slept soundly for 12 hours + every night.  SOO amazing!  We finally have our few hours in the evenings back and a full nights sleep too!  I woke up this morning feeling like a million bucks and ready to get busy.

Spiritually I'm making progress.  I've blogged before about how my spiritual journey and my relationship with God and Christ really came to be when I lost Madison.  I have been attending a mom's bible study on Wednesdays *during the school year* and then usually have one mom's bible study session in the summer months too - plus we've found an amazing church called Jacob's Well here in the Valley.  Being committed to those groups and attending church on Sunday mornings has really allowed me to feel comfortable in my faith, but I know I just don't KNOW enough.  So I've been taking the Bible out every evening and reading from the Gospels to Keller for bedtime.  It's been great going through it since 1) it puts Keller to sleep in no time! haha 2) I finally get to work through the stories in chronological order in the books..I've never done that.  I've always heard the stories during church services or during a bible study and in both situations they are very broken up and digested down for understanding.  I want to whole picture, so I'm reading the Bible...finally!

Anyways, my little update about me is over - I have plenty more to be looking forward to over these next few months - including FIVE doula clients between now and the end of the summer! Awesome! I'll get on with the fun updates - pictures of the kids!

Until next time...