Life continues

On this Wednesday afternoon I'm sitting inside while Anna and Kate play outside in the snow with a neighbor and while Ethan is sleeping.  These "alone" moments don't come very often nowadays, especially this time of the day!  So dinner (a big batch of chili - yum!) is on the stove, I've done as much picking up as I'll do without the girls to help, I don't care about laundry right now, and it's time to do a quick update here on this blog.

This past week Ethan, and the rest of us, survived his first cold.  He caught whatever Kate had at the same time that Anna caught it.  Poor guy had lots of snot and coughs and just didn't know what to do with himself.  Matt and I had a few rough nights because of Ethan's cold, but we've decided that we can function on much less sleep than we ever thought we could :)  Anna is almost 100%, with only some coughs and congestion right away in the morning; Ethan seems to be about 100% as well, with only some lingering coughs.  Hooray!  Now let's hope that he starts sleeping better again!

Poor guy made it almost two months without his first cold.  Oh well.  Happy two month birthday anyway, Ethan!

Last weekend I was able to have two (that's right, TWO!) extended periods of mommy-time.  Matt is awesome!  Saturday morning I headed to the outlet mall to take advantage of the end of the season sales and pick up some clothes for Anna for next fall ... and I went ALL BY MYSELF.  I think that's the longest I've spent alone since Ethan was born.  It was fun :)  Then on Sunday, I was able to go out to eat for lunch with some friends to celebrate Melissa's graduation from the education program at UW.  Ethan came along for this one, but slept for most of the time.  Again, it was nice to have some normal girl time.

This week has started off pretty crazy in terms of our Wisconsin weather.  Monday and Tuesday we had record high temperatures, rain, and even thunderstorms.  Today school was cancelled because of a winter storm.  Tomorrow and Friday the wind chill is predicted to be -20 or lower.

Our snow day today has been a lot of fun.  The girls played, then painted, then I was able to play outside with them for about an hour while Ethan slept, then we had lunch, played some more, and finished with a playdate inside and then outside with the neighbors.  I think the girls, Kate especially, will be pretty tired tonight :)

Before the snow came last night, and while it was raining, the girls got out some excess energy by jumping into the pillow pile.  They love this kind of activity.

Ethan loves to watch, along with the girls' babies.

 

Well, the girls came in, had a snack, and are now watching Martha Speaks (Kate's favorite show these days) downstairs while I finish this up.  I'm going to go finish watching with them :)

Long weekend

Last week was the end of the semester for Anna's school district so the elementary age kids didn't have school on Friday or then again on Monday.  Miss Anna was ready to have a few unstructured days here at home :)

Thursday night Anna came up with the idea to have a theme day on Friday; her teacher has had "Super Spartan Fridays" off and on throughout the year and I think this gave Anna the idea.  She came up with a zoo theme and then she and I planned out a handful of activities that she, Kate, and I could do together on Friday.  Actually going to the zoo was not included on this list; it's a little cold for an infant to have his first zoo visit.

So Friday we had animal pancakes, made animal masks, made a zoo with animals and blocks, and wrote/illustrated a book about the zoo.  It's always nice to have a focus for these days when we'll be home all day, especially for Anna.

Saturday we took a long overdue trip down to see Miriam, Chris, and their kids (Mark-8, Nate-6, and Claire-1) down in Hinckley, IL.  They moved there last summer and we just hadn't been able to make the drive with all of my pregnancy and traveling issues.  The kids all did wonderfully, even though Kate was on day three of a pretty nasty cold.  Anna and Kate were able to watch Aladdin on the way there; Anna had earned this privilege by successfully choosing to not suck her thumb at night since the first of the year.  She had stopped using her thumb for sleeping last summer, but with school starting, changing sleeping arrangements, and then adjusting to Ethan, she slipped back into that habit.  Now, hopefully, she's done for good.

Here's a few good photos of the trip.

 
Sunday we ended up not staying for Sunday School because Kate was still battling her cold.  Then Monday Anna had off of school again.  By this morning, she was definitely ready to go back.  Here's hoping it was a good day!

Today, Kate, Ethan, and I did a visit to the preschool Anna attended last year for Kate to get refreshed with the preschool experience.  We'll have to see how things work out for Miss Kate.  This year our school district started a four-year-old kindergarten program, but CLM won't have any openings in their 4K program for next year, but they also have a preK class that's separate from 4K.  There's only one other 4K site in our district, so we'll have to see how things go after the informational meeting in a few weeks and I get a chance to ask questions.

Here's a few more pictures of Ethan's smiles.  They are really fun when they come, but he's had a couple of pretty crabby days recently.

 

We think he may have caught a bit of Kate's cold.  Thankfully he hasn't yet had a full-blown sickness, and even this just seems to be mild.  However, any kind of congestion when you're a baby is no fun!

Snapshot stories

Here's a few stories that I want to have a record of for later in life :)

Last week Anna and Kate decided to "play some tricks" on us in the mornings.  One morning Kate climbed into Anna's bed with her and they waited in bed giggling and singing until one of us came in to wake them up.  The next day they did the same thing, but this time started getting their pj's off.  When Matt went in to get them, I heard Kate say "I'm naked!" and Anna shout "I'm topless!"  The next day, Kate again crawled into bed with Anna and then they switched pajamas.  It was nice to wake up to a couple of smiling, happy girls for a few days :)

Kate has really come into her own at different places since Ethan has been born.  Instead of staying close to be, being shy, and refusing to talk to Miss Debbie at music class, or the librarian at story time, she now proudly stands in front of her music class and tells about her assignment, or introduces Ethan to the rest of the kids at story time.  She also really, really enjoys her Sunday School class, repeating the story almost word for word to me after I come to pick her up.

Part of Kate's assignment for music class this past week was to draw an "outdoor scene".  On Friday, she spent about 40 minutes talking her way through this picture.  The amount of detail she described was amazing!  Some of the details she shared with me included black pupils in her eyes and then blue eyes; five fingers on each hand, except that on one hand she's wiggling her fingers so you can only see four of the fingers; the green and yellow "G" on her black and blue dress; and the trunk, branches, and leaves of the tree.  Kate never ceases to amaze us.

This past Sunday at church, Matt thought he felt something in his shirt sleeve.  Thinking it was a dryer sheet, he reached in only to discover a pair of Kate's underwear stuck in there.  Oops!  The best part about the story was that he was lay minister at the early service that day, and didn't notice the underwear until about halfway through the late service!

Last week one afternoon the girls decided that they wanted to give each other ice cream cones.  So we found a handful of coloring pictures online, they got one another's orders, colored the ice cream appropriately, and then stuck them in the freezer so they didn't melt.  Then Anna wanted to do the same thing with other food, thinking that they would play "restaurant".  But first they needed a name for their restaurant.  They came up with "Dzert Ferst" (Dessert First), but only had enough time to make the sign and name tags for each other before we were going to have our real dinner.

Yesterday Kate fell asleep in the van on the way to pick Anna up from school (while Ethan was screaming because he spit out his pacifier).  She very, very rarely sleeps during the day so this was pretty surprising.  Anyway, she kept sleeping even after we got her home and I carried her in, took off her coat, boots, and hat, and put her in bed.  When we were finally able to wake her up about an hour later, she ended up with tons of energy that needed to be used up before bedtime.  So we told her to jump on the trampoline 100 times.  She started jumping and counted correctly until she got to 39, then she asked me what came next.  I directed her to Anna.  Here's their approximate conversation.

Kate: Anna!  What comes after 39?
Anna: Well, Kate, what comes after 3?
Kate: Umm ... (thinking ... she really knows that one)
Anna: What will you be on May 16?
Kate: 4!
Anna: So what comes after 30?
Kate: 40?
Anna: That's right!

Kate continued jumping and counting with Anna helping her in a similar way when she got to the next set of 10s.  Then she started over and jumped to 100 a few more times.

Here's a couple of pictures (finally!) of Ethan smiling!  Those smiles are coming more and more often these days.  He loves to smile and coo at his sisters, and Matt and I get our fair share of smiles, too.

Plus, this seven week old baby figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back yesterday.  He did it several times, but then got a bit tired.  He did it again today several times.  We'll see if this skill sticks since he definitely uses the weight/size of his head to get the rest of his body moving over.  I don't know that I want to have an early mover as our third child ...

"normal" life

We're about a week into life as a family of five with Matt back full time at work.  It's busy, and tiring, and at times frustrating.  But also it's fun, and rewarding, and full of blessings.

We did a few final family activities just prior to Anna starting back at school.  We packed up the whole family on New Year's Eve and headed downtown for our tradition trip to see the Capitol Christmas tree and visit the Children's Museum.  (Anna has been asking to go to the museum since school started and we finally managed a trip!)

School started on the 2nd of January and Matt went back to work on the 3rd.  Last week was a little rough transitioning back to our school/work routine, but this week has gone a bit better.  I'm sure we'll all be exhausted by the end of the week, though.  At least I know I will :)

Part of getting back into the old routines is that I'm now heading out and about with Kate and Ethan during the day.  I realized this week that I must not have done too much of this back in December because my back has been aching all week from lugging around the carseat.  I try not to carry the carseat in if I don't have to and rely a lot on the Moby wrap that the girls got me for my birthday, but still.  Kate, Ethan, and I have managed a couple of playdates this week, grocery shopping, and music class, so far.

I've come to realize that the third child just has to go with the flow.  This poor guy gets woken up at least once a day (often times more) because we need to leave to do something (like pick Anna up from school).  And he has to nurse in all kinds of random places.  So far he seems to be okay with this kind of a life; at least his pacifier is very soothing for him.  I don't really want to think about what life might be like if he were one of those babies who wouldn't take a pacifier.

We're trying hard to get a good picture of Ethan smiling, but it just hasn't worked yet.  Maybe this weekend when Matt and I are both home for a bit :)  We'll keep trying; these first smiles are so precious!

Anna and Kate are still doing great as big sisters.  Anna can handle much more responsibility with Ethan than we were even expecting, and Kate just can't get enough of touching, kissing, and staring at him.

We were able to get out and play in the snow on Sunday afternoon as a family (minus Ethan).  It's a good thing we could enjoy the snow for a bit since this week we're having temperatures in the 40s and much of the snow is melting away, or at least getting to that "dirty" state.

Happy Baptism, Ethan!

 

Baby Ethan was baptized this past Saturday morning.

We had a nice mini-service with our pastor, my family, Ethan's sponsors (our friends Michael and Mary), and Mary's family who was also in town for the holidays

Afterwards we all had a wonderful time relaxing over brunch while Matt and Michael chased the older kids around church for awhile :)

Ethan was able to be baptized in the "Colba" baptismal gown made in 1890 for my great Grandma Colba.  All three of our kiddos have been baptized in a special gown, Anna in Grandma Grossman's family gown, Kate in the Mischnick gown, and now Ethan in the Colba gown.  We are blessed with such a rich heritage!

Colba Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas with my family here in Madison, instead of trying to travel with a newborn.  Adam flew in on Thursday afternoon and my parents drove down the same day.  We all congregated here at our house during the day, but my parents and brother chose not to sleep here and stayed at a hotel instead.  That way no one else had to be woken up at 6 a.m. or shortly thereafter when our children started stirring :)

We had a wonderful time with everyone and I think all involved (except maybe Ethan, whose doesn't remember much of anything right now) made some great memories.  Some of the highlights were snuggling with baby Ethan,

playing with the new marble run that Adam gifted the girls (the box wasn't joking when it said "for hours of engineering fun"!),

playing dress-up with Grandma,

playing outside in the snow, and eating lots of tasty food.

It wasn't our normal Colba Christmas up out in the woods of Wisconsin, but we think it worked out pretty well this way, too.

Family Christmas

We enjoyed our family Christmas this year with some of the traditions we have been building over the past several years.  Not only did we have a nice time at the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services at our church, but we also continued the tradition of giving one special gift on Christmas Eve after church.  We also had our traditional muffins on Christmas morning while singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, and our tasty meal of appetizers and special treats on Christmas Eve.

Anna, especially, loves the idea of giving gifts.  She was so excited to be able to give gifts to each member of our family :)

 

Just after Christmas, our dear Ethan turned one month old.  It's already hard to remember life without him!  He's smiling more and more, but we still haven't managed to catch one of those precious first smiles with the camera :)