Milwaukee, Day 3

Today was a good "chill" day in Milwaukee!  The weather was great here today - about 78 and sunny!  Ryan's Aunt Lisa and her partner Pam and Ryan's Aunt Corky and Uncle Barry came over this morning and Lisa made us some yummy champagne cocktails - with these special "bitters" that she learned about from a cocktail tasting class!  Ryan and I went for a run outside since the weather was so great... but I'm still sick and although I know that's no excuse, I just don't feel at my best at all.  I'm really struggling with this half marathon coming up and knowing that I am SO FAR behind the eight-ball on my training... We only got 3.5 mi in and I was dead!  Bummer.  Anyway, afterward, Ryan's cousin Jason and his wife Danielle came over for Ned's Pizza (a must-have in Milwaukee - think: Tiny Tim's in Fayetteville - YUM!) and after the boys finally went to bed, we got to just chill and catch up w/ them - which is SO NICE!  I hope they come visit us soon in NWA!  It was another great day in Milwaukee!  I think we'll take the boys to the zoo tomorrow!

Jackson got a kick out of this pic with Pam giving him bunny ears... So then he wanted to do bunny ears on me!

One of 4 outfits we had to change Ethan into due to HUGE spit ups.

 

Milwaukee, Day 2

Another fun day in Millywaukey!  :-)  Today we got to catch up with most of the family!  Ryan's Aunt Sharon and Uncle Alex (fresh in from Brazil!) drove in from Chicago with 2 of her grandchildren - Karina and Lucas.  Lucas is one month to the day older than Jackson - so they had a LOT of fun!  While they were here visiting, Aunt Karen and her fiancee Dave came over with Ryan's cousin Justin and his girlfriend.... Then after Ethan's nap, we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa Stearle's house to see them!  It was their first time meeting their latest great grandchild - Ethan!  We SOOOOO enjoyed today - this is what it's all about!

Aunt Karen and Ryan's cousin Jenna with Ethan

Jenna did NOT want her picture taken, but Ry convinced her!

Lucas and Jackson with one of the monster trucks they got from Aunt Karen!

Aunt Sharon and Ethan

Grandpa Stearle, Ryan and Ethan

They are super sweet hugging cousins!

Karina w/ Ethan

Grandma Stearle, Ryan and Ethan

Jackson and Lucas had fun with Grandma's walker - pushing each other around in it.. pretty cute!



GGma and GGpa w/ Stearle boys!




The gang!

 When we got home,  we put both boys to bed by 700p.  Jackson hasn't had a nap during the day since Wednesday.  This makes for a cranky child.... So he went to bed early in hopes of a good night's sleep. And of course the night could not be complete w/o some yummy white wine and a game of Phase 10 after an AMAZING tilapia dinner (thanks Ma!).... of course, I won.  :-)

Milwaukee, Day 1

Today was our first full day in Milwaukee!  Both boys slept GREAT - seriously EXCELLENT last night.  We got in around 630p yesterday and both kids didn't get to sleep until a little past their bedtime, but they were great sports!  Today, we woke up, had breakfast and got ready to go to Discovery World! This place was incredible and both kids did awesome!  Thanks Ma for taking us there!  Tonight, we had a great dinner and Ryan's cousin Jason came over and hung out w/ us!  What an awesome first day!!

One of the first items on the agenda, building a new track!

Grandma got J a fishing pole w/ a "gooy fish" whom he calls BooBot.

At Discovery World

Grandma, Ryan and the grandboys.

Me and my boys!

I love these guys so much!

Milwaukee!

Ethan actually fell asleep in my arms and we successfully transferred him to the stroller! This is a first for me since J would have never ever allowed me to do something like this!  Go Ethan!

Jackson and Jason, tonight.

Ethan's Favorite Spot

Ethan is a crawling machine now!  He moves so fast that I simply cannot walk away anymore unless it's ok if he is on my heals going wherever I am going!  He is really really fast!  His new favorite place to crawl to is under the coffee table - ANY coffee table... he wants to be under it.  He always bumps his head and it always makes him mad but he keeps doing it over and over again and I can't stop him because he's SO FAST!

Here he is under our downstairs coffee table...

 Here is comes out.... already having had bumped his head twice.

A different day - under the upstairs activity table.

 He managed to get everything out from under the activity table - and onto the floor - leaving the whole space to himself...

to do what? to bump his head.  :)

Packing for 4.

Today was a busy busy day! I had my boot camp class this morning - and then I headed home to start the packing process for the long haul to Milwaukee!  We have had this on our calendar for awhile now and are really looking forward to seeing Ryan's family!  This will be Jackson's 4th trip to Wisconsin and Ethan's 1st trip!  You'd think I'd have it down on how to make this all work comfortably but it's still a LOT of packing and planning - especially for a toddler and an infant!  I opted to pack using bins this time - after watching the show "19 and Counting" and that's how they travel - I realized what a great idea that is!  Using the bins vs 100 bags gives us a lot more room in the car! The trip will take at least 12-13 hours, so hopefully we can get there safely and with no incidents or screaming fits!  :-) Thanks to my parents who will be house sitting for us!  The kitties are especially thankful!  I'll be updating from Milwaukee on Friday! 

Jobi "Chair"

Jackson is getting more and more creative every day which is so fun to watch!  He wanted to play with his Lincoln Logs the other day (which he calls Jobi Logs -from Thomas) - so we pulled them out and he started building this... I asked him what he built and he looked at me like I must be so clueless and said "mommy, it's a chair!"  well, duh!

 

Then he proceeded to ram Thomas into it - which was his favorite part I think.

I love having boys!

A, B, C....

Jackson's new thing is to spell everything in sight!  We play this game where he wants me to spell people's names and words and I tell him what letter and he grabs the letter and spells it out.  Yesterday, he wanted to spell Jackson and Mimi... so I showed him how to spell "Jackson's Mimi" and he thought that was pretty funny.  Love watching this amazing little guy learn and grow!  It's the small things....

 

Thanks to Aunt Carla for these awesome "cookie letters" that Jackson wants to play with every single day!

And on and on....

Another rough night last night.  I just do not understand it.  I don't understand why he keeps doing this or even how to really put into words how bad it is.  He woke up 5 times last night screaming... so basically all night long. It started when I put him to bed and he wanted "lots" of lemonade... even though I was willing to give him a sip.  There was absolutely no method to the madness except that ignoring the screaming results in a very very violent child.  It's like he's in a trance, but he's not because he will go and go and go and then he knows to pull out his secret weapon - "I need to go pee pee!" - and that always gets us upstairs  even though it rarely ends in any peeing (he doesn't NEED to go - he just says that to get us upstairs).  We try to figure out what the root of the wake up and screaming when we go upstairs but you just cannot talk to him.  He's out of control.  He has absolutely no reason he's giving us - not hurting, not cold or hot or scared - not having a bad dream or anything.  It's always like "I don't want to go to sleep.  It's wake up time! I need lemonade.  Help me with my covers!"  Lately, it's been "I want DADDY!  I want to sleep with Daddy! I don't want mommy to sleep with daddy - Jackson sleep with daddy only!" And if Ryan goes up and tries to talk to him - he just gets mad at him and says he only wants mommy.  It's just crazy and ridiculous and I'm just stumped.  I think we have to be really committed to not going upstairs, despite the screams about peeing.  This has been going on since the beginning of March.  It's time to end.  This morning, when Jackson got up (the last time, that is), we told him that he lost some privileges today.  No lemonade, no TV and no "purple phone" (my IPOD - which is in a purple case - and he plays games on sometimes).  Ryan and I sat down with him and explained to him that he is a very very big boy but at night-night time, he doesn't act like a big boy by crying and screaming for no reason. So if he sleeps like a big boy tonight, he will get his privileges back.  Otherwise, not.  I hope it works.  Last night was exhausting!

Lily Love....

My good friend Jenny brought her beautiful baby girl over for a little playdate last week, and these two were quite fascinated with each other!  Ethan wanted to be all over her - he just kept touching her face and she just patiently tolerated him!  Lily Kate was born in early September - so she and Ethan are only about 5 weeks apart.  Her big brother Cole is only a few months older than Jackson, so they are big buddies too.  We really enjoy having them over and hope they come more often!!! 

 Lily is like - "really? don't you see me playing with this!?"

 Ethan was so happy to see her!  :-)

Not a baby anymore....

My baby boy is trying really hard to be so much like my BIG boy!  I'm crazy sad about all this, but beaming with pride at how wonderful it is that I've been blessed with the privilege of watching them grow up!  Ethan has a few new "firsts."
Starting today, my nearly 20 pounder has moved to 3 bottles a day... about 8 oz each - all w/ cereal still.  He is eating MUCH better - still spitting up a lot but he seems to eat baby food much better now - all of a sudden! So far, he is eating sweet potatoes or carrots for dinner and bananas and "banana mango" for his mid morning meal.  I've learned a lot from Jackson - and at the first sign of Ethan saying "stop, no more," we stop.  No more meal time games!  Feeding Jackson used to be such a nightmare - and frankly, it still is.  I'm not going to "force" any food on Ethan but I'm not going to give him 100 options like I do w/ Jackson either. It really takes the anxiety off of both of us!  Lesson learned!
  :-) I also noticed yesterday that my tiny man had another tooth pop through - making his grand total of 4 teeth now!  I think that was a welcome relief considering his gums have been so red and swollen for so long now.  He's getting so big too - he is now wearing mostly 12 mos clothing - still a few 9 mos but mostly 12 mos!  He's like Jackson in that his legs are short but his torso is long.  He also has big feet, compared to J - which is a bummer since I missed out on several cute shoes that he can't wear now only because I thought there was no way they would be big enough for him - and turns out they are too small.  Another biggie - he's officially 'crawling' normally now.  He did "the worm" for a long long time!  His favorite place to crawl to, unfortunately, is under the coffee tables - which he just bumps his head and that makes him mad... and boy, does he have a temper!  YOWSER!  Over the weekend, he learned to go from a crawling position to a sitting position.  Lastly, today after he woke up from his nap - I was in the middle of playing with Jackson and I couldn't get downstairs for about 15 min... I checked on him on the monitor and he was fine... just laying there playing... well about 15min goes by and when I go in to get him, he's STANDING there in his crib w/ this huge big cheesy smile looking at me!  NO!!!!!!!!!  NOT READY!!!!!!!! I took these pictures one day when he was playing in his crib...  It just seems like I've snapped my fingers and he's now standing up in his crib!  I'm screaming for a giant PAUSE on time so I can enjoy my "baby" a little longer!