Left alone…

I left Justin alone this morning for a little while in our room – and here’s what happened:

 

 

His face and eye are looking better after a bath.  But his hair?  Not so much.  Any tips on how to get this kind of greasy goop out of hair???

Experiments

It’s been a long time once again.  I almost posted a couple of times… but each time I started I just wasn’t sure about how to finish it up, so I left it.

The new year is up and running – and while I like to take time to reflect on life in general, I find that my thoughts around New Year’s time, both this year and last (and probably for the rest of my life), seem to revolve around the fact that it was at this time of year that we became parents.  It still boggles my mind when I think of all that has happened in our little family since then.  I thank God daily for our two little miracles.  I also pray daily for wisdom in raising them.  Parenting is a wonderful, but oh-so-challenging job!!

Anyways, on to our experiments…

Martin’s experiment: The new float switch on the sump pump.  Saturday found Martin spending the day preparing for possible flooding here again.  We got a huge dump of snow over the past week – and now we have warm weather with rain in the forecast.  Melting snow and rain = trouble with water around here – and so Martin had his work cut out for him.  He deemed it all an experiment when he came back upstairs because the switch wasn’t quite working as he’d like it to.  If the experiment works – no flooding… if it doesn’t work… well, let’s just say there will be some water in the basement.  Thankfully it’s just storage space down there, and everything is in rubbermaids.  Having said that, a couple weeks ago when we found out that the float had broken in the first place, there was about 4 inches of water down there – and our vacuum cleaner was not in a rubbermaid .  Needless to say, we have a new vacuum cleaner.  And it’s being stored upstairs right now

My experiment(s):  It’s been all about our kids’ eating for me.  For Justin, we’ve been noticing a few problems with his digestion (I’ll leave the details out ) over the last few months.  I finally decided that in the new year I would start to see if I could figure out a thing or two with it all.  I experimented with eliminating a couple of foods from his diet, but when the simple little things didn’t work, I decided to try the big one and cut gluten.  It seems to be helping…. and that’s a bittersweet thing.  Sweet because I’m glad that things are improving for him… Bitter because it’s not so fun, since gluten is in so much stuff!!  I’m thankful for many MANY good alternatives out there for him.  I suppose the real test is happening this week, since we have to give him gluten again for a while so the lab tests the doctor ordered will be accurate.

Sadie has been a bit of an experiment too… I thought it was a sleep experiment, as she wasn’t napping well anymore.  Turns out it was actually an eating experiment too.  I discovered that she’s been hungry and that’s why she wasn’t going to sleep.  I eventually came to terms with the fact that nursing was over and formula-feeding is the way to go for now.  She’s eating and sleeping (mostly) happily again – and that means Mommy is happy too

My attempt at getting a picture of the kids on Christmas day. The camera did a funny lighting thing and the kids did not sit still for a half a second... so this is the best there is

They're starting to learn to play together. Justin thought he was a pretty fantastic big brother when he put his hat on Sadie. She carried on playing like nothing had happened (and the hat didn't go on overly gently)

Justin’s experiment(s):  ”How many of Mommy’s buttons can I push before I make her go crazy?”  Just kidding.  We’re doing pretty good on the behavior side of things .  I’m pretty sure that everything Justin does right now is an experiment… from trying to make new sounds so words come out clearer, to seeing how high he can climb something without falling, to how many things he can “BANG” with the hammer he made from duplo before it breaks… the list goes on and on.  It’s an age of experimenting and discovery – and it’s so fun to watch!

We brought up the big bin of duplo for him. He loves his new play spot and loves to build hammers, houses and airplanes

Very excited about the tower Daddy helped him build

Lately when he gets a cold, laying flat causes lots of coughing fits - long and painful - so he slept a good part of the night in the chair.

Sadie’s experiment:  Moving.  Full-steam ahead.  Last week she discovered how to move forward on her tummy.  She takes this new skill very seriously – and when she wants something across the room, you can definitely see her determination as she motors her way there.  This week we can see her starting to think about getting those knees underneath her and before we know it she’ll be crawling on all fours.  Amazing.

Yup, she's under there... it's how I found her one day after her nap. Apparently she's not claustrophobic.

If she falls asleep in the stroller, I just wheel it into the laundry room and let her finish her nap in there

In case you started to think all she does is sleep

And that sums up life at our house these days.  Throw in a shift of work for me again here and there, and the regular things to do and places to go, and we have life as we know it.  Full of blessings – one after the other.