Category: Uncategorized (Page 59 of 201)

Well, Levi & Madison had their well-child visits yesterday morning.  Having never taken two young kids to an appointment at the same time before, I can now tell you from actual experience–it’s not a good idea.  I forgot that Maddie would be shy and that they would both need to get stripped down to their diapers to be measured and weighed… all while passing naptime and getting shots as our parting gift.  🙂  I mean, it went fine.  We survived.  It was just a lot to try and wrangle by myself.  The good news is that I don’t think their check-ups ever overlap again, so this was it. Plus from this point forward they will only be older at the next check-ups.  🙂

But I digress–they had their check-ups and they are both healthy and normal.  We have to up the tummy time for Levi a little because he has a slight tendency to favor only looking over his left shoulder.  So, a little more tummy time will help strengthen his neck.

Levi is proving to be our biggest baby yet.  I’ve gone back to get a full comparison of all the kids at 4 months old:

We’ve been considering a cabinet for our living room for quite a while.

It seems to come to the forefront of our minds at Christmas since we have to move our current shelving system to make space for the Christmas tree and then after Christmas we carry it back.  The shelves we have now work fine.  There are cute baskets that hold all of our stuff and help keep things organized, but recently we’ve been anxious to get the components up and out of Maddie’s reach as well as cleaning up the look of the space.  I like baskets as much as the next person, but sometimes you just want the stuff hidden.  🙂  I love drawers and storage spaces that close.  I love being able to toss things in a space and just close it without having to keep it beautifully organized inside.  I think it’s the easiest way to keep things appearing to be neat and orderly while knowing I have 4 kids that won’t be able to keep things as tidy as I want.  They can simply toss it in and close the drawer/door/ottoman/etc.

After starting to search for a unit more seriously, we discovered that we were actually a bit more picky than we thought.  Both Tim and I had specific ideas about what we wanted for the space.  Oh, and didn’t want to spend and arm and a leg.

Ta da!

We finally settled on a customizable unit from Ikea.  The bottom part is two drawers.  I love it.  🙂

(This was taken before Thanksgiving, but it made me smile when I ran across it today.  This is so Levi’s life–all the kids just adore him!)

My little Levi is officially 4 months old now!  We have his well-child check up on Thursday (coincidentally, I was able to also schedule Maddie’s 18 month well-child check up for the same time.  Ha!  I never imagined I would be taking in a 4 month old at the same time as an 18 month old!) so we’ll be able to compare his stats to the other kids.  He is such a delight these days–so super smiley at anyone.  In that sense, he really reminds me of Josiah.  I remember him being very smiley at everyone.  Madison was pleasant, but she made you work to get a smile out of her.

The big thing with turning 4 months is that he graduates to trying solids!  And when I say solids, I really mean mushy, plain, rice cereal… haha!  But it’s the first step in teaching him how to keep food in his mouth.  We set him in the high chair this week, just for fun, and the kids think it’s awesome.  I’m not sure Maddie is ready to start sharing her high chair… but luckily they don’t eat at the same time right now.  I suppose when we get to that point Maddie will have to graduate to sitting at the table in a booster.  Which I know she will LOVE.  🙂  

This weekend I was able to have a delightful visit from my High School friends, Holly & Stacy.  Even though we try to get together more often, it seems that we are only able to manage a yearly visit these days.  Hopefully after we’re all done having babies (Stacy is due with twins in May!) and running after toddlers life will slow down and we’ll be able to see each other more often.  🙂

It’s always fun to catch up after such a long break.  I love hearing the stories and memories of the past year for each of them.  And, of course, it’s always nice to be able to get advice or bounce ideas about the different stages of life that we are in.   Plus, I find it sooooo ironic that Stacy is having twins when our other High School friend (Jennifer) also had twins recently.  What are the chances?

Also, as a piece of interesting information:  I grew up in a group of 5 girl friends.  We were friends from 5th grade on up.  We all grew up, got married and started having kids–and you know what we all had first?  A girl!  Yup.  We all had a girl as our first born.  I find that interesting.

Just after Thanksgiving we decided to let Levi start crying it out at night since he was waking up just out of habit, rather than being actually hungry.  It was a rough two days where he woke up a few times and cried for quite some time, but then would eventually fall back asleep.  I’m always amazed at how it only take a couple of days and then they’ve got it.

HOWEVER, in this case, he found his thumb.

It’s just so cute, isn’t it?

Since then, he’s been on and off sucking his thumb, so I’m not entirely sure it’s going to stick–which is really ok with me.  I was hoping to avoid having a thumb sucker just because it’s harder to get them to quit!  I can take a Nuk away, but I can’t take a hand away!  But I had to weigh whether getting a full night’s sleep was important enough to me to let him find his thumb.  And lo and behold, it is.  🙂  I love my sleep.

The only other drawback we’re having recently is that he scratches his face more since his fingers are right there.  I feel like I have to trim his nails every other day now!  And as the saying goes: “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”  haha!

They day I had all of my girlfriends over to make Christmas goodies Chloe was QUITE disappointed that she would not be able to help us bake.  I tried to explain to her that this was my girl time and the Mom’s wanted some kid-free time. That was clearly not what she wanted to hear.  She was pretty upset at me.  So, I shared my woes with the first friend, Lisa, that showed up and she mentioned that her daughter (just slightly younger than Chloe) had also mentioned how she wanted to come along to bake.  Lisa said something that really stuck with me–she said she wanted to encourage her daughter to have a love of cooking and baking NOW while she was interested.  I mean, I know I love being in the kitchen so I need to make sure I’m letting Chloe (and all the kids for that matter) help me in the kitchen and start to learn those skills.

So, after a little more conversing, we decided the best course of action would be to get the two girls together and let them have their very own “baking day.”

They made three things:  Peanut butter cookies, Snowball cookies and Chocolate dipped pretzels.

And they  loved it!

They were measuring and cracking eggs and mixing and dipping and “sprinkling” and rolling and snacking(!) happily.  It was a great experience for everyone.

I have clear memories as a child, of writing thank you cards after Christmas.  It normally took me quite awhile–not because it needed to, but because I would drag my feet and complain, I’m sure.  But thank you cards are important.  And it’s also important to know how to write a proper thank you card. I still use that skill to this day: writing notes to my students, friends, family, and even teachers.  So, I definitely think it’s something that should be practiced.

Today was the day that I talked through the procedure with Chloe and gave her guidelines and everything.  At first she was overwhelmed and crabby, but once she saw it as sections that she could “check off” she was right on board.  I’m trying to let her learn and work on her own, with just a little bit of guidance.  Hopefully you’ll be receiving a nice thank you in the mail in the next couple of weeks–and hopefully it will make sense and you’ll be able to decipher her spelling!

First tooth (on the bottom) gone = check!

It was a monumental week here in the Friesen household–Josiah lost his very first tooth.  There was much rejoicing.

I asked if we could take a picture and he was insistent on posing “as a Monster” for the picture (hah!)  He looked at himself in the mirror after it fell out and he thought it really made him look like a monster.  It makes me laugh!

And of course, he got his tooth receipt, a tooth record (which is pretty much a glorified journal sheet)  and a chart to write down all the teeth he loses.

I’ll savor this innocent joy and excitement over the tooth fairy because I know it’s not going to last long.  Chloe discovered “the truth” just last year and I can tell she’s having a hard time keeping the knowledge to herself.  We’ve talked about it and she’s not supposed to spoil it for him… but I’m aware that she is a first born type A girl.  So, we’ll see how long she lasts!  🙂