Bribery at its Finest

It's January - so that means more than we want unexpected time out of day care. It's usually a perfect storm of our gang being sick and Ms. A's gang being sick. This January was no exception. Which put me home with the gang yesterday.

We had a good time and I had the pleasure of watching Declan achieve a major milestone. D learned what glass was ... as he crawled full steam ahead into the slider in order to touch his puppy (who was outside on the deck). He led with his forehead and looked more than a little perplexed when he couldn't crawl through. Instead of crying, he settled down on his belly and used both hands to check out this magical clear obstacle (maybe there was also an invisible path through ...).

The sisters thought it looked like fun and popped down on their bellies to hang with him. After a while, he did a tummy spin to see where I was. I quickly grabbed the camera and shouted out that anyone who would be on a belly next to Declan and smile would get an M&M. Victory!

Q-isms

I love two-year-olds. As they discover their world and pair that with their language discovery, funny things happen. Here are a few of the Q moments that I want to make sure we don't forget:

• It's really dry in our house right now. Winter air, you know. So we tend to shock each other. Except when Q gets shocked, she says, "You snicked me!" I guess it does make a "snick" kind of sound.
• She watches me get ready in the morning, including putting in my contacts. So now, she pretends to put stuff in her eyes and says "I putting my tacks in."
• She watches the older kids at day care come home from school and do their homework. Yesterday, she was pretending that she was holding a nook and listening to music. Then she put her "ear muffs" in her ears.
• As a new potty trainee (more on that in another post), she spends a lot of time in the bathroom. When she gets lonely in there, she asks for someone to come keep her "comfy."
• She mixes up warm and cold all the time. She asks for a sweatshirt "so I won't get warm" and takes it off because "I cold now."

Doing the "elevator" with Dad

They'll fight for their right to party

Ice Castle

As soon as Mike and I heard that they were building an ice castle in EP, we knew we had to take the kids. In case you've missed it, Frozen is kinda a big thing around this place. Visiting a real, live "Elsa castle" seemed like a sure way into 4- and 2-year-old hearts. But it's outside and made of ice ... so we wanted a milder winter day to attend. And the V family doesn't like crowds ...

Mike decided we were going tonight. He picked up the kids early and met me up in EP (the castle is like 5 minutes from work). What a beautiful evening to be there! No wind, mild temps, and manageable crowds. Which meant only a short line for the ice slide. Yep, there was an ice slide. The girls (the biggest, mostly) were in heaven. The castle also had tunnels, caverns, an ice maze, ice benches, an Olaf snowman, AND a princess. A PRINCESS.

Fiona marched right up to the princess and asked "who built this castle?" The princess immediately answered "Elsa." To which Fiona, in all her fourteen-year-old-with-an-attitude glory, responded with "For. Real?" Q loved the princess. That was her preferred gig. The ground was covered with about 3-4 inches of powdery snow that we had to walk through and it was tough for her 2-year-old legs. Fiona blazed on through the snow and did great. She did tell me after we left that the walking made her really tired. But it didn't slow her down while we played! Q has already asked if we can go back tomorrow!

Yogi Turns 8!

The furry dude turned 8 on Thursday! It was a beautiful winter day - so we threw bath night to the wind and put on our winter gear after dinner. We took Yogs for a walk around the neighborhood and then ran around the yard until it was time to put the pjs on. Everyone enjoyed the change in evening activities! The girls also got him a special dinner of canned food at Target and delighted in giving it to him ... until they smelled it. The birthday boy enjoyed it though.

Mike and Quinn took him to the vet this morning for his annual exam. He's back down to a sleek 73 pounds and doing well. He's developed a slight heart murmur, but the vet said that's pretty common at this age. It doesn't seem to be impacting him at all - so we'll just watch for any signs that it is getting worse. At the moment, nothing to worry about (so the vet says. I'll worry a bit - because that's what I do). 

The best thing we can do is what we are already doing. Trying to get him enough exercise and keeping his weight at a good level so to not tax his hips. We want to be sure that this guy can have many more healthy years with us!

Happy (belated) birthday to our very best buddy!

Eight years old

Birthday hugs

Declan - 7 Months

Seven months old

Declan is officially seven months old. Because of the holiday, the clinic couldn't get him in for his 6 month well check until last week. So his six month stats are basically seven month stats. He is quite the string bean! He weighs just under 16 lbs (15 lbs, 15.8oz), which is the 12 percentile. And he is 27.25” tall, so right around 55 percentile. He continues to be a delightful addition to our family and is fully loved by the sister contingent.

At seven months, Declan is:

That grin. Seriously

• Our gross motor baby. Holy smokes. The only reason why he is not zooming all over the place is because he lacks focus. And by that, I mean that he is trying to learn how to crawl, bear walk, get to sitting on his own, pull to his knees, and pull to standing. All at the same time. So, either it will take him a little longer to master these … or we’ll wake up one morning and he’ll know how to do all of them. We have an operating theory on that …
• Practicing gross motor skills instead of sleeping or eating. He does belly 360s in his crib. If they weren’t so cute and he weren’t so proud, I’d be more annoyed (I’m still pretty annoyed at 2am). Ms. A has threatened to invent a lead sleep sack to weigh him down for naps so he can’t spin. He also has no time for bottles or nursing. He wants to jump and crawl and spin and roll.
• Working (less hard) on his fine motor skills. He likes his solid food. But he likes it better when we spoon it in for him. This mom-dumps-it-on-my-tray-and-I-have-to-feed-myself gig is still in its probationary period. He is getting pretty good at Cheerios and we’re working on shredded cheese dexterity.
• Waving. He intentionally waves when someone walks into a room. And grins. And then the sisters cheer. And he grins some more.
• So happy. He just giggles at the antics of the gang. The girls have figured out that if they splash him in the tub, he’ll squeal with laughter. And he loves music. If we sing, especially to him, he grins and bops along.
• Standing. He is working on pulling to standing, but if you put him up, he can hold himself standing for quite a while. He thinks being upright is just the very best thing in the whole world. He also LOVES his jumperoo and can get quite the bouncing going – even after Dad raised it a level.

So there you go. That’s our Mr. Man, in a nutshell.

Obligatory photo in the same snowsuit as his sisters.
Because by next week, he will have outgrown it!

Smiling Kids

We've been hanging out in the new year with colds (so kinda like the old year ...). I vaguely remember telling January that we already put in our illness time in November. Apparently January wasn't listening. 

We have two bottles of pink medicine in the fridge for #2 and #3. Thankfully, they take meds like champs. And the pink stuff has really helped Q's cough. Not sure it's doing much for Declan, but here's hoping it clears the germs out of the boy.

Colds or not, we had a fun weekend together ... albeit inside. The forecast looks super for getting outside next weekend and taking the new ice skates for a spin.

Sweet smile

New towel from Auntie

Princess dress

To Grandmother's House We Go

Family picture

As we usually do, we packed up the troops and headed north for the holiday. While always nice to go up and connect with family, the kids are thrown out of their routine and the wheels tend to fall off within a few days of getting up there.

Not this trip!

The gang was so good on the drive up and we set a record for travel time – including breakfast and a stop to let Yogi stretch and feed the baby. And the ride back went pretty well too. Hooray!

Three kids in Christmas pjs

We had a lovely time celebrating the holiday with my extended family and Mike’s family. AND we were able to have some down time for the kids to just hang with Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie and test out their new toys (which is good because the giant bin that came back with all their Christmas presents may or may not still be sitting in the basement, packed full of stuff).

Christmas was a little less white than I had hoped for – so the trusty new sleds that Gma and Gpa bought were not put to use, to our great disappointment. But we are heading back up in February to shower baby Francisco and baptize Declan. So hopefully we’ll have more snow, less polar vortex, and time to break in the sleds! We were all sad to leave town and head home and Gma and Gpa were sad to see us go. They thought their house was awfully quiet without us. I can’t believe that – because I’m sure they hardly noticed we were there … (or we are like a big, loud, messy invading army)

Oh – and Santa came through and brought the girls new ice skates for Christmas and a 3-foot-tall race track for Declan. Well done, jolly man!

Decorating cookies

Decorating cookies

Cute baby modelling his new hat

Cheers, 2015!

Clink!

New Year’s Eve evening saw us home with the gang. Mike and I decided to try to make it a special for the team. So we made a picnic dinner and ate on a blanket in the living room (we never eat in the living room) while watching a movie (we almost never watch movies). The girls watched Tangled (Rapunzel) for the first time. Fiona was in love and is now so upset that I cut her hair before Christmas because how can she have Rapunzel hair when we cut it and woe is me, mom, life is so hard! Quinn actually sat still and watched most of it … probably because there was food. Dec got bored and took a short nap.

Then we did a New Year’s countdown to 7:00 pm with them. They got juice in fancy glasses (shot glasses … don’t judge!) and Mike and I had champagne. It was perfect. We don’t think they really understood the concept of the “new” year, but they totally got that something big was happening. And that was pretty cool.

As part of our countdown, we went around the family and each said one thing that we wanted to do in the new year. Not resolutions (I have to back away from these because I tend to come up with dozens … and then fail because there are too many), but memories to make. So here are the Vanneste family goals for 2015:

• Declan: Learn to walk.
• Quinn: Go ice skating.
• Fiona: Go to the bakery that mommy used to work at.
• Mom: Go on a family boat ride in daddy’s boat.
• Dad: Go on a family camping trip.

We seem to have set realistic goals. How very Mike and very un-Sara of us. Keep reading throughout the year and see how we do. We’ll photograph and document all achievements in blog-land.

And yes, yes, I know I owe Christmas pictures. They’re coming.

One final note – the comment button does work, folks. Blogging to air here!