Ready for the Weekend!

After a week of letting Bennett "Cry-It-Out", he is finally eating enough during the day so that last night, he woke up a minimal amount and was able to comfort himself back to sleep for the most part. After all these nights just myself and the BBear, I am so ready for Jae to be home, and I know the kids miss him too.

Don't get me wrong, yesterday was a wonderful day. I took the day off work since I had a meeting that took all morning, and afterward was able to spend some time by myself shopping (one of my favorite things - that I haven't done for as long as I can remember). After, I picked Goob up early, we got some ice cream just the two of us, and then picked up the BBear. We had so much fun playing last night (see below). At one point, Kaeden was running around and being so silly that Bennett was watching him and laughing continuously for at least five minutes. It was the cutest thing. I can tell Bennett is completely enthralled with his big brother. Needless to say, I am thankful for my half-day Fridays this week, as I cannot wait to go home and play with my pumpkins.

It's a good thing Jae gets home today. We have a crazy busy weekend ahead of us. My good friend, Dianne, had her baby girl on Wedensday, so today I will go and see the little princess. Then, tomorrow morning, my sister is moving in with us. We will end the weekend with a birthday party for Julie's grandbabies on Sunday as they will be arriving in town shortly :) This weekend is going to be so full of wonderful things. It's a good thing next week is a short two-day week for me (and Jae has the entire week off - lucky man).

Kaeden and Bennett Playing

Week Without Jae

This week, the B-Bear and I are alone. Jae left for his work trip Sunday evening and doesn't return until Friday. It is the longest he has been away from us since Bennett was born.

I knew it was going to be difficult without him, but it is exceptionally difficult as Bennett is sick with a cold. He is incredibly cranky and waking up multiple times every night. Yowza! We have been trying the cry-it-out method for the past week, and while I have not picked him up at all, I feel this week has been a loss as he has been waking up constantly. Poor little man (and poor, tired, incredibly cranky momma - yes, I am having a small pity-party for myself).

Of course, when he is in his good mood, he is such a wonderful baby. He has really taken to eating solids, and especially likes them this week as he has a stuffy nose, which makes it hard to breathe while at the bottle. He has gotten so good at eating rice cereal and bananas. It is the cutest thing. Lately, we have been getting home, making dinner for both myself and Bennett, feeding Bennett, and then he plays in his high chair while I finish my dinner. Dinner has been the highlight of my day :)

Wish me luck for the rest of the week - I sure hope he starts sleeping better!

Bennett playing at his highchair after finishing his dinner :)

Momma's Birthday Weekend

This past Sunday was my birthday, so as to be expected, we were crazy busy celebrating this weekend. This happened to be one of the weekends where we only had Kaeden until Saturday morning, and therefore, we celebrated my birthday as a family on Friday late evening with pizza and an ice cream cake - I think Kaeden was more excited about the ice cream cake than he was about my birthday:). Jae, Kaeden, and Bennett got me the cutest gifts. Kaeden made me the below precious card, and I also received flowers and some beautiful framed photos of me with Bennett.

Kaeden's Precious Card:


After Kaeden was picked up for his canoeing trip with his grandparents, Bennett, Jae, and I all went shopping. Jae and Bennett were wonderfully patient as I ran from store to store attempting to find some good deals. Later that evening, Jae and I brought Bennett for his second overnight at Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's, and proceeded to go out for dinner and cocktails with some of my friends. While I missed Mr. Bennett an incredible amount (and could not wait to go see him Sunday morning), I had a fantastic night out!

We ended the weekend with a fun BBQ on Sunday with our family, Laura, Mom, and Dad. We all got to eat delicious food and I got to open more presents (one of my favorite things to do)! It was a perfect birthday weekend!

Father's Day Fun

I want to start out by expressing how sleep deprived Jae and I are due to the fact that Bennett has reverted back to waking up three times per night. He has been rolling over for the past few weeks and now is doing this nightly in his crib. However, he can only roll over one way: from his back to his stomach. This means that when he rolls over, he face-plants in his crib and becomes incredibly ornery. I have no idea what happened to my wonderful sleeping child (who had been waking up only once, if not sleeping through the night). I clearly need to stop dressing him in the below pajamas :)



Even with our disadvantaged sleep patterns, we managed to have one wonderful, activity-packed weekend!
Friday, Grandma came over to watch the kiddos. During the day, she took Kaeden and Bennett out for a walk. When I got home, Kaeden informed me that he wanted to try to ride his bike sans training wheels, and that’s exactly what we proceeded to do. While I manned the stroller, Grandma (who has trained two magnificent bike-riders already) helped Kaeden attempt to stay on his bike. I know I have said this more times than I can count, but Kaeden is the most cautious child I have seen. Ever. With that said, Grandma utilized an enormous amount of patience as Kaeden continued to be ever fearful of his abilities. While he didn’t bike by himself this round, I know he will get it eventually… it will just take lots and lots of patience and practice.



On Saturday, Bennett, Kaeden, and I all went to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a barbeque with the Carlson-side women and children. It is hard to believe, but no one on the Carlson-side had met Mr. Bennett. Both Kaeden and Bennett had a wonderful time. Kaeden did not want to stop playing with the other kids, and I had a difficult time trying to get him to leave.

Finally, Father’s Day was Sunday. It was so nice to hang out with the family! Kaeden has such an interest in doing everything with Bennett now that he is so interactive. He loves holding him, feeding him, and playing with him! Sunday morning as a gift to Jae, I took all the feedings and woke up early with the B-Bear, which means that Kaeden, Bennett, and I got a lot of play time together :)






Once it was a decent hour, Kaeden and I began making breakfast for Jae. He is learning how to cook very well! I figure, as he is such a cautious child, I can teach him how to cook without him getting hurt  When we brought up the breakfast, Kaeden also gave Jae his gifts and card. Kaeden make the cutest little card, with a picture he drew of the four of us! It was amazing!

Little Slugger

Yesterday we were invited to watch Kaeden's final t-ball game for the season... I cannot express how adorable it was. After picking up the B-Bear, I made my way back to Minneapolis to meet up with Jae and Laura and watch the little slugger. The moment we arrived, we set up our chairs fairly far back from the field. As others start arriving, we notice how close they were sitting, and we realized that apparently the ball doesn't go very far :)

It was incredibly cute to watch all the little first-graders play. As the coaches are simply trying to teach the basics such as hitting, throwing, and catching, the "game" consisted of some throwing practice, followed by a "scrimage". During the "scrimage", an inning would consist of one team having all their players hit and run the bases while the other team fields the ball and tosses it to first base (regardless of where the ball landed). I remember watching one child field a "grounder" and while he could have simply held out his glove and got the runner who was passing him out, he instead picked up the ball and tossed it to first base without even attempting to reach for the runner...

Kaeden was on the "Red Sox" team. It was so wonderful to watch him work on his throwing and batting. He has one great swing! Kaeden was always the last to bat on his team. One particularly cute Kaeden-moment was when Kaeden hit the ball, and proceeded to run all the bases, passing the kid who was on first base when he hit :)

After the game, Kaeden was so excited to see all of us there, especially Bennett, who Kaeden thinks learned a lot from watching him play :)

I cannot wait for more cute kid-sport moments!

First Blog Post!!

First Post - Here it Goes :)

The other day I was packing away some of Bennett's clothing, and while I was looking at them, it was difficult to imagine that he ever fit into them. When he was born, he was this petite little monkey, in the 5-10th percentile, that fit just right into these tiny newborn-size clothes. Now, he is this little beast, that has already outgrown most of his six-month clothing (he fits into some 12 month items already ... eek!). Going through his old clothing as well as Kaeden's (don't even get me started on how quickly he has grown... he is now my giant bean), made me have the realization of exactly how quickly time goes by, how many photos/videos I take, and how many little things I forget (yet swear I will remember).

It is this realization that lit a fire under my rear and made me begin writing this blog. I have no idea how frequently I am going to actually end up writing here, however, my goal is to have a central place for all small stories, memories, quick photos, etc to be housed as well as to keep everyone updated. Wish me luck :)

P.S. I plan on adding a link to our shutterfly page. As we have tons and tons of photos, both recent and old, this is where all of our main photo albums will be held. Feel free to peruse whenever you'd like :)