Snowshoeing at Dowling

Jacob and Sammy went snowshoeing at a local school this morning, thanks to classes available through the Minneapolis Community Education.

Jacob can blog later with more detailed info on their outing. From what I heard it sounds like it was a fun time!

Sammy and his clone.

Sammy and his clone., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Sammy took a few pictures yesterday. This is one of my favorites. Nice that he included his baby brother in his play. As you can see, Jack adores Sammy.

Baby loves muffins

Baby loves muffins, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Super Marker Bros.

Super Marker Bros., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

You might be a mom of boys

if you have ever shaved your legs with Buzz Lightyear Bath Foam.

Tami Tripp Photography Booth!

Tami Tripp Photography Booth!, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Tami had a booth at Barton Open School's "Handmade Arts from the Heart" crafty fair. It was a great fair and fun to see Tami out promoting her business. And fun to see pictures of newbie Jack on display, too!

Jacob was laughing at me for taking pictures of the photographer but I wanted to show off my talented friend. Besides, those dimples need to be in front of the camera once in a while :)

dumplin'

A few post-bath pictures since the last two were a little ho-hum in the expression department.



He has eight teeth already and still chews like a puppy.


and, maybe a little ready for bed...

Ten months old!

Somewhere in the midst of ear infections, sick kids, music programs, ear infections, surgery, ear infections, Valentine's Day, and carting kids around for various preschool and kindergarten events and playdates, Baby Jack Jack turned ten-months-old.



He is such a sweetie! I can't stress this enough. He is a total love. But he feels miserable a lot because of his ears. He's scheduled to have his own set of tubes put in on March 10th. As the ENT doc said, "He's a poster-child for tubes. This is a battle you can't win." So our little honey will have surgery and hopefully be the happy and curious sweetie that he is full-time.



This is Jack yesterday, healthy but post-nap rocking bed head along with a lovely handknit cardigan made for him by Andrea, a dear knitting buddy from church. He looks lovely in blue, doesn't he? :)

pre-surgery breakfast

pre-surgery breakfast, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Sammy had his surgery to put in ear tubes on February 10th and so far so good!

He could have clear liquids until 9:30 am. Hence, a breaky of Jell-o and apple juice. Not too shabby. Surgery was at 1pm.

We won't know for sure how well it went until we go back to the ENT doc in a few weeks for post-surgery hearing tests, but I will say that as of now he is not speaking as loudly, he seems to be asking "What?" and leaning in and reading lips less and less, and the TV is no longer at a deafening level.

Bear Class Music Program

Bear Class Music Program, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Freddie's first music program was February 8th. He was so excited for the program he could not hold still for a moment. And the performance was shockingly good - the kids sang, everyone faced forward, no one cried, everyone participated, and for the most part we could understand the words. (but that may have been because we knew the songs) Either way, I have to say that this Bear class put on a better show than Sammy's. But for what it lacked in polish Sammy's program made up for in hilarity (I don't think we've ever laughed so hard).

Notice that Freddie is the TALLEST kid on the rafters. The back row is all standing on the same level. He's that much of a giant compared to your average three-year-old!!!


My favorite song was "Peanut Butter" because it is absolutely precious to hear Freddie sing it. It goes, "A peanut sat on a railroad track his heart was all a-flutter. Around the bend came the #10 - choo choo! Squish. Squash. Peanut butter!" The cutest part is when Freddie says "all a-fudder" :D

Freddie's little buddy for church, Rueben, is also a Bear.


Freddie brought the Chipmucks for courage, er, I mean to watch. (Simon was sadly trapped between the bunk beds and the wall and unable to attend.)

Superbowl Sunday

This is what our kids were doing just before kick-off:


Not the best picture, but you get the point. They were sharing the couch, sharing a blanket, and out to the world by 5:30pm. All *highly* unusual. We left them like that until halftime and then put them to bed, where they slept until after 7am.



The kids have had a pretty sick 2011. This week I believe was when we had the high fevers and exhaustion.

Can't stop the Cutes.

PJ Day

Today started off in the negative digits and we had no where to go. Makes for an excellent pj day.

Dead of Winter

This is how one waits for a child at the bus stop in Minnesota in the winter.


This is the child, fresh off the bus, next to what use to be the curb.

Ack! No mittens. Good thing the bus is heated and the walk home is quick.

Nearly in the backyard, near his Dad's shovel pile.

Cocoa parking

Cocoa parking, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Cocoa too hot? Park it in the snow bank and let t cool to drinking temperature!

Snowbank Snow Angel

Snowbank Snow Angel, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Last weekend the PTA sponsored a sledding day. Pretty cheap school outing but very fun. The kids were outside for about two hours sledding, drinking hot cocoa and hanging out with Sammy's school buddies.

Jack at 9 months.

He has his fifth ear infection in nine months (I though it was six but apparently when an ear infection is bad enough to merit a return trip to the doc for stronger antibiotics it still only counts as one infection. huh). He is a tubes candidate and we'll be making an appointment with the ENT doc next week. His ear health aside (we can't help anatomy!) he is a very sweet, cuddly, happy and giggly baby at nine months... when his ear isn't hurting.



He is 22 pounds, which puts him the 75 percentile for weight, and he's 29.5 inches long so the 90th percentile for height. He's got a head full of cotton candy-esque hair, four teeth nearly completely in and two more breaking through. He loves to sleep and consistently takes two two-ish hour naps a day and sleeps from about 5 pm to 6:30-7 am (though he wakes up to nurse twice during that time - or many many more times if his ear is infected).

He can hold his hands in front of him and make a crude attempt at clapping but that move isn't perfected just yet :) He is still getting up on his hands and his knees, and can motor around on his belly in a circle and scoot himself around. Crawling is so close! It's going to be a household effort to baby-proof this place and we need to get to work, um, now. What am I doing blogging?!

....more later and pictures, too, I promise!

We

Modeling my Slacker Hat, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

LOVE

, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

this

Baby buns., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.