It's Sunday night. The kids are in bed (though not necessarily asleep yet). This mama is updating the blog with some earth-shattering tidbits (and pictures, of course) for ya'll. You're welcome.
Saturday we took the kids to our neighborhood pool. It had been over a month since we were last at the pool - first because of their surgery (tubes) and then unseasonably cool temps and then just general summer busyness. The pool closes September 2nd (eek!) so we wanted to get in at least one last visit. They had fun. Duh, right?! I only took this one picture:
I prefer to leave my phone tucked in the safe, dry confines of the backpack when we're at the pool, but I loved the way Brooks was chillin' on Bobs' lap.
Another treat for their Saturday? Bath in our jacuzzi tub!
Today we did our usual Target shopping. This is how we roll:
The kids call that contraption a "bumpy cart" because I guess it's bumpy? I call it a life-saver, as it allows me to shop with three littles!
Did you notice Brooks passed out in the shopping cart? Ha! He did that (slept sitting up in the cart like that) for the first time ever when just he and I went to Target on Wednesday afternoon while the kids were at preschool. See:
So tired. And so cute!
Remember how I said he's been getting in to everything lately? Well today he took that to a whole new level - as in, the dishwasher, to be exact.
Silly monkey.
The BIG news today was that ... drumroll please ... Bentley pooped in the toilet for the first time! Hooray!!! (And, yes, I took a celebratory picture! Mama was excited!)
We had been promising him a big celebration and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's when he did it, so that's where we spent our Sunday night.
They even got dessert (of Bentley's choosing) there. I apologize in advance for so many pictures of them with dessert but I just love their sweet faces.
See what I mean?!?!
One last treat for the night/weekend: Another jacuzzi tub bath!
And look who else wanted in on that action:
He'll be in that big tub with Bub and Sis soon enough, I'm sure!
So I (obviously) missed the weekly/weekend update, as I see it's been ten days since I last blogged. I swear, I don't know where the time goes. As I scan through pictures on my phone and our camera, it's all starting to come back to me...
Last week, I took Bailey and Bentley to the ENT for their post-op check-up.
Good news: Their ears (tubes) looked great! Bad news: Bailey's throat was red and tonsils enlarged. Say whaaat?! We had no idea. She had been completely asymptomatic - no fever, no complaints about anything. Looking back, I realize there were two potential red flags:
- She had begun snoring differently. I was surprised to hear her snoring at all since her large adenoids were removed and no longer blocking any airflow.
- She had been sleeping well for naps. Daily. In the not-too-distant past, she would only actually sleep during nap a few times a week (the other days, she would just play in her bed until I let her get up).
Alas, the doctor swabbed her throat to test for strep. The test was negative, though, so he suspected it was probably just something viral. Surely ya'll are aware that it's back-to-school season, right? That means that it's also my-kid(s)-are-always-freakin-sick season. But I digress.
I took Bentley for a haircut that night, while Bob took Bailey (and Brooks) to gymnastics. It was fun to spend some one-on-one time with him.
Last Wednesday, after Parents Day Out, I took the kids out for shaved ice. It was something I wanted to do with/for them before summer was over. I just knew they would love it. <-Famous last words, right? Ha! They both wanted Bubble Gum flavored ice, while I got Pina Colada flavored ice. As it turned out, they both enjoyed mine much more than theirs. Go figure.
We played outside for a while that evening, too. Brooks has become increasingly more mobile AND more interested in what the kids are doing. Here he is checking on Sissy in the play house (FYI: I stood him up - he's not able to pull-up to standing yet), and then crawling in to check things out (aka: eat chalk he found on the ground) for himself:
Last Thursday afternoon, I took Bentley to see his pediatrician about his lingering cough. The doctor speculated that it might be cough-variant asthma and he prescribed an oral steroid for a few days. While we were sitting at Target waiting for his prescription to be filled, the ENT doctor called to tell me that Bailey's strep culture had come back positive. So she did have strep throat! He ordered an antibiotic for her so we hung out at the pharmacy a little longer while they prepared it. Interestingly, when we got home from the pharmacy, my dad said that she had complained that her throat hurt - it was the first complaint/symptom she had expressed!
Sadly, the next day, she started sniffling and sneezing. A cold on top of strep throat? Awesome. In all seriousness, though, we've been really fortunate in that she hasn't been miserable. She has continued to nap daily (hence my ability to blog right now), but otherwise has been her usual playful self.
Brooks started sneezing and sniffling a couple days ago, too, but he's hanging in there. He's been too busy playing and getting into everything to let it slow him down.
He still army crawls/drags himself around - so much so that we often put him in pants to prevent his legs from getting all torn up. He also started sitting up by himself last week! Here's a video of him "crawling" and sitting up:
He's been getting up on his knees more recently, too, so we're excited to see what's next for him. His favorite things to do lately are:
- Eat! The boy is a great eater! It's fun (well, except when he's yelling because I can't get the food shoveled in his mouth fast enough) and we're taking full advantage of it by trying to let him sample everything we have.
- Play with Sis and Bub. This is a video of Bailey making him laugh a lot:
- Get into things - drawers, cabinets, toy buckets, etc. He really likes to drag toys to the top of the basement stairs and throw them down. Good times.
Bentley finished the steroid the doctor prescribed. He still coughs some but I guess we'll just sit tight and see how/if that continues to improve. So far, he's managed to avoid Bailey's cold, but I swear I saw him rubbing his nose yesterday. He often does that in the day(s) leading up to a runny nose so we'll see if that was a sign of things to come.
He's been his usual lively/feisty/spirited self lately. In addition, we've also noticed that he's been extra chatty. We even got confirmation of that on his progress report from Parents Day Out yesterday!
I started working with him more seriously on potty training just this week. We're at the point where he will often pee in the toilet, but only when I make him go. I've been setting the timer to have him try to potty every 30 minutes because he won't tell me in advance that he needs to go - hence why he peed in his sister's room yesterday. Whoops! He also refuses to poop in the toilet. We have promised him a big celebration, including a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's when he does...but apparently that's not motivation enough. It's a work in progress. One thing I'm having a hard time with, after potty-training a girl first - I can't seem to stop myself from calling his underwear "panties"! I keep correcting myself but I sure hope he doesn't pick up on it!
Everyone is waking up from nap so I better scoot. But first, check out my silly sweeties (taken before nap today):
It's Monday. Again. Already. As is often the case, I'm exhausted from our weekend. I meant to share some pictures Saturday night but it was late and I was tired. Then I planned to share (more) pictures last night but, again, it was late and I was tired. Do you see the trend? So, here I am, sneaking a few minutes at the computer to blog while my babes are all napping.
If I had to recap our weekend in one word, it would be this: Royals. We were up and moving early Saturday morning so that we could eat breakfast, do our weekly shopping, eat lunch, take naps and go to the Royals game that evening. Everything went as planned until we were about to leave for the game. Like, literally, we were putting the kids shoes on to leave the house when Bob realized that we had tickets to Sunday's game, and not Saturday. Whoops! Since we were already all ready for the game, we decided to go anyway. We redeemed some vouchers we had for cheap seats and we let the kids play in the outfield experience...for three hours! Clearly we earned some awesome parent points that day.
It was a beautiful night, that also happened to be a special University
of Nebraska night at the K so there was a very large crowd. Bailey
actually asked to have her picture taken with these cheerleaders:
The kids did everything (age-appropriate) the Outfield Experience offers! Of course they played on the playground and rode the carousel:
They did the Base Run many, many times:
Here's a video:
They also hit from the tee and ran the bases in the Little K:
And they even played miniature golf for the first (and second - because they played twice) time!
I didn't take any video but it was fun(ny) to watch. Bailey preferred to drag the ball to the hole with her club, while Bentley liked to pick the ball up, place it directly next to the hole and then tap it in.
We brought the stroller in for Brooks, since we knew we were going to be playing in the outfield, rather than sitting in our seats. He was content to ride around, watching Sis and Bub run wild.
ALL that fun stuff, and do you want to know what the most exciting part seemed to be for the kids? Riding in a golf cart to our car!
Sunday, we went back for another Royals game - only this time with our actual season tickets and with the intention of watching the game. The weather for Sunday was questionable so we traded our usual seats for ones in the Loge (covered) level. It was fun to have a different view of the game and it did rain some early in the game so I'm glad we were covered. I took Bailey and Bentley on a walk after a few innings and they stopped for this picture with Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler:
Meanwhile, back at our seats, Bob took this selfie of him and Brooks:
A Sunday day game means no formal naps for the kids. Not surprisingly, Brooks slept in the car to and from the game. Bailey and Bentley didn't sleep at all, though, so that always raises concerns about their moods for the rest of the night (read: just how many meltdowns will they have prior to bedtime?). Bob and I had a date night at the New Theatre Restaurant last night so Aunt Becky babysat. Fortunately, all three kiddos were happy for her company and took it easy on her. It's safe to say that ALL of us (Bob, me, Aunt Becky and all the kids) were exhausted last night, though!
