Happy Valentine's Day!

I have never really been a fan of Valentine's Day.  I actually think it is a pretty useless holiday, but this year it has been so much more fun because Samuel is so excited.  He remembered that we had made Valentine's for all his friends and he was so excited to get to school to give them to the kids.  Thanks for all your ideas and help, I posted a picture of the bags I made below.  

Here is a picture of Samuel from last week.  I got him this jacket and he LOVES it.  He wants to wear it all the time and has to have his hood pulled up.  He walked around all day with his hood on.  

This morning I was driving Samuel to school and I was at a stop light.  I turned around to look at the boys and they were holding hands.  It was truly the cutest thing I had ever seen.  Samuel at one point leaned over and kissed Joseph's hand and Joseph died laughing.  I am in love with these two little boys!

So here are my gift bags.  I put a small container of play-doh, some mini M&M's and a sheet of stickers, wrapped them up and put the heart tags on them (thanks Charisa for how to say Happy Valentine's Day in Spanish, I thought that was a great idea).  I feel pretty happy with my first attempt.  Hopefully over the years I will get more and more creative.

Funny quote from Samuel today.  We were walking into his school and he looked up at me and said, "There are going to be lots of kisses today!"  He wasn't kidding.  He walked into his classroom, like he ruled the place, walked up to one of the little girls and laid a big smooch on her.  She just pushed him away and started laughing.  I couldn't believe he did that!  Then he walked up to the teacher and gave her all of the Valentine's and said, "Look at all the presents I brought!"  He cracks me up.  

I am off to try to exercise!  Have a wonderful heart day.

Too Early and HELP with Valentine's Day

I am really getting sick of this early wake up hour.  Joseph will not sleep in at all.  Today he was wide awake at 5 am.  I usually love mornings, when I am all alone enjoying quiet time.  This has been a rough week.  I had meetings at Woman's Place both Tuesday and Wednesday night.  I didn't get home until about 8:30 on Tuesday and 7:15 on Wednesday.  I am doing a ton of volunteer work for them, which I love, but it is really taking up a lot of my free time.

Not only have I had meetings, but Samuel is slowly fazing out his afternoon nap.  He didn't take a nap at all several times this week and the other few times it was only for about 45 minutes.  I am actually waking him up after 45 minutes because he will not go to bed easily at night if he takes a long nap in the afternoon.  His bedtime has moved to 7:30 or a little earlier if he doesn't nap and he is sleeping in later, so although I miss some alone time in the afternoons, I also like alone time with Dave in the evenings.

So Samuel hasn't been napping and Joseph's sleep schedule has been totally screwed up this week too.  Since he has decided that 5 am is his wake up time, he is exhausted and ready for his first nap of the day at 7 am.  I am not going to put him down at 7 because we have to take Samuel to school at 8:15.  Normally Joseph falls asleep on the way taking Samuel to school or on the way home.  He usually is easily transferable from the car to his bed and continues to sleep longer, but this week I have had no such luck.  He wakes up immediately when I get him out of the car and will not go back to bed.  Then the afternoon is the same.  He is so exhausted from not really napping in the morning that he falls asleep on the way to pick Samuel up from school.  Therefore, all this week I have had zero break.

Yesterday, I hit a wall.  I was so done by 2pm.  I could barely stand another second.  Luckily Samuel decided he wanted to play with his trains in the basement and so we headed downstairs and the boys both played for almost an hour down in the basement, while I sat and stared at the TV watching Oprah.  I was just sad that she had Jennifer Hudson on yesterday because I don't like her much at all.

So much for my complaining, now I have some real questions....

Samuel's school is celebrating Valentine's Day and we got an email that we can bring Valentine's for the kids.  He has 12 kids in his class.  We can't bake anything homemade.  Everything has to be store bought.  So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions??????
I was thinking about running to Whole Foods and getting heart shaped or valentine looking cookies and then wrapping them individually and putting a homemade card with them.  I don't want to spend a bunch of money, so help!!! Do people do cookies or candy or what?  I am at a loss since this is my first time.

It is 6:30 and I have already finished one cup of coffee, fed Joseph and fed myself.   This is going to be a long day!

Birthday Boy

Here are pictures of Joseph on his birthday, enjoying his first birthday cake and opening his gift from Uncle Jonathan and Aunt LaLa.

We have a picture of Samuel almost exactly like this on his first birthday.  

Samuel couldn't stand it, he wanted cake so badly

Samuel was helping Joseph out with trying the cake.

He loved it.

After cake he had bath time and then present time.  He was really excited about his new shopping cart and it running around the house with it.  

One Year Old

My baby Joseph turned 1 yesterday.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  For the most part Joseph has been an awesome baby.  He is very laid back, cuddly and absolutely beautiful.  He went through one period of time were he was pretty terrible, but it was when he couldn't figure out how to roll around or get anywhere and he would just scream non-stop because he wanted to move and play and didn't know how.  Once he figured out he could roll places he was back to being a happy baby.  He is so different then Samuel in so many ways, which makes life so exciting.  There is never a dull moment.

Although Samuel is very independent and wants to do things "all by myself!", he doesn't really like to be by himself.  He always has to have other around him.  Joseph loves to play by himself.  He can play for almost an hour with toys or just crawling around.

He is a lover, just like Samuel.  They both love to cuddle and get lots of kisses, which I am enjoying so much because I know in a few years neither one of them will want their mommy's kisses.

Joseph is quite the talker.  On Sunday, we all think he said LaLa, Lola, and Uncle Jonathan.  Whatever we say he always tries to repeat.  He is way more advanced verbally at this age then Samuel, but he isn't quite ready to walk.  He cruises and uses his walkers, but he isn't ready to let go.  He gets really nervous and just sits down.  I am sure he will take off soon and we will be wishing he was only crawling.

We went to the doctor today and Joseph is just a tiny boy (at least compared to his brother).

Here are the stats:

Height:  30 Inches (59%)
Weight: 22 lbs. 11 oz (49%)
Head Circ: 47.2 cm (A whopping 75%)

I guess his head size makes up for how small the rest of him is.

Samuel was 93% in height (31.5 inches), 90% in weight (26.5 lbs) and 55% in head circ. (46.5 cm).  That is a big difference.

I will post pictures later of my cake eater.  He loved his cake and we loved celebrating his birthday.  I just can't believe that he is already one.  Tears..

Pictures

Savta, Papa, Haidyn and Samuel 

The boys playing in a box

More kisses

Happy Baby Joseph

Showing his teeth

My little thumb sucker.  

Samuel's first snow angel

Little bitty snow angel

Samuel convinced Dave to do a snow angel too!

Accomplished

I feel like I actually accomplished something today.  Samuel went back to school, which was a relief to all of us.  Joseph took a great morning nap, for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, so I was able to get lots of stuff done in the house.  I am feeling very overwhelmed with the amount of packing we are going to have to do to move.  It seems like I am filling up boxes, but nothing seems to be disappearing.  I filled up four boxes today and put them out in the garage.  I am trying to organize by area and emptying out drawers full of junk.  It is actually a good feeling to find useless things and just throw them away.  I am hoping I find more of those things.  I am one of those people that keeps everything.  I become emotionally attached to lots of junk (don't worry you don't have to call on the Hoarders show).  Luckily I have Dave that doesn't mind throwing things away or donating them.

So yesterday was an interesting day.  We were busy all day playing games and watching movies.  I have been craving homemade coleslaw for about a week because I was watching the food network and Paula Dean made a delicious looking coleslaw, so I wanted to make some myself.  It was DELICIOUS.

I call my coleslaw: Falling Down the Stairs Coleslaw (I'll explain the name later)
Cut up half of a regular cabbage
Cut up a whole red cabbage (it was pretty small)
It made about 5 or 6 cups of chopped cabbage
Mixed together:
1 cup light mayo
about a teaspoon pepper
a few dashes of Kosher Salt
about a teaspoon celery seeds (add more to your liking)
about 2 tablespoons of Dijon Mustard (I used the stone ground kind)
Champagne Vinegar (I bought this at a local olive oil store.  I was looking for white balsamic and they had this.  A little bit goes a long way).  I mixed in the vinegar until the dressing was smooth and easy to pour.
I poured it over the cabbage and chilled it for about an hour.

We made turkey and corned beef rubens.  They were so good.

Here is the story behind the name.  I was so excited about making my coleslaw.  The boys were up and playing in the kitchen while I was mixing everything up.  As I am pouring the dressing over the cabbage, I think oh my gosh, where is Joseph.  Then I hear a loud thump coming from the living room.  Joseph must have high tailed it upstairs and then fell down them and knocked him poor little head on the wood floor.  I felt like a terrible mom.  I have no idea how high he got up on the stairs and I don't know how he fell, but he had a small bump on the back of his head.  He had no bruises or scratches anywhere else.  I woke him up at nap time to make sure he didn't have a concussion and then he was up every 4 hours in the middle of the night.  He is perfectly fine today, but I think he is getting a cold, so he is cranky anyway.

I know you are wondering why I don't have a gate on the stairs.  Well, all of our gates are in storage and we are going to get one this weekend.  He normally is never out of my site, so I haven't been that worried about the stairs.  But Joseph is a wild man and I need to be more vigilant.

On another note, I have a serious question to all you moms with kids who go to school or interact with lots of other kids.  As you know Samuel is in school and goes now 5 mornings a week.  He has come home now twice with scratches.  One was a huge scratch on his face and then today he came home with scratches around his neck.  The Director came out with Samuel after school and told me about the scratches.  Apparently a little boy in his class (the smallest tiniest boy) will not leave Samuel alone.  She said that he is always grabbing him and squeezing him and obviously hurting him.  She said she has already talked to the little boys mom and they are working with him to stop.  I asked what Samuel does and she said that he doesn't cry he just gets really annoyed and tries to get away from him.

So my question is...What do you do about the situation?  What questions do I need to ask the teachers?  What steps do I need to take?  What advice do I tell Samuel?  (I ask him what happened at school and only once did he tell me about the little boy.  Most of the time he doesn't say anything).

I have a hard time figure out what to do as a parent.  Please give me advice!!!!!!

That is it for now.

Another Snow Day

They are expecting this storm to be one of the biggest seen in St. Louis.  So far it hasn't really hit.  Last night the trees were accumulating ice, which made me a little nervous for what the night would bring.  We woke up this morning to the sound of sleet and raining hitting our bedroom window.  However, the news said that the roads are not too bad right now and Dave made it to work safely.  He said the roads were still very drivable (at this point).  The precipitation is supposed to change to snow sooner then the weatherman had originally expected, which is good because we will get more snow and less ice.  We are still going to be stuck in the house for a few days though.  School is closed today and I can't imagine that it will be open tomorrow with what is in store the rest of the day.

Having school closed is okay though because I have another sick child in the house.  On Sunday Samuel was complaining that his ear was hurting.  He actually asked to get out of the tub because his ear hurt so much.  So on Sunday night, Dave headed to the Urgent Care with Samuel.  We had anticipated that he would have an ear infection and get medication.  However, the doctor heard Samuel coughing and saw that he had a runny nose too and said she wanted to test him to see if he had the flu.  They swabbed his nose and sure enough he has the flu too.  He had a fever for a few days, but never really acted very sick.  He only complained about his ear, so I hadn't even considered the possibility that he would have more then an ear infection.  So we have been hanging out and hoping that he gets better soon.

I am just hoping that Joseph doesn't get anything at this point.  I don't want him to bring in his 1 year birthday with a cold!!!  He turns 1 next Monday.  The time has really flown by.  He is so much fun.  He is developing quite a funny personality.  He tries to make us all laugh and is very ornery.  He is starting to bug Samuel by sticking his face in Samuel's face and making annoying faces.  Samuel is starting to get annoyed and I don't blame him, but I find it hilarious at the same time.  I think we are going to have a lot of wrestling matches as the boys get older.

I am off to drink my morning coffee.  I am going to need it today!