Cock-a-doodle-doo

You know your kids are early risers when...

...you can't remember the last time you had a good nights sleep, not to mention the recommended 8 hours.

... it's 7:15am and you are at the kitchen table, not for breakfast (that's been had a while ago), but for playing with playdough.

... the baby is having his first nap before "normal" kids are even awake.

... you wonder if its wrong for mommy and daddy to be in bed only an hour after the children.

... you don't know which to do first- lunch or naps.

I just giggle over these. Both are 9 months old. I just love those little bald heads! I also caught them both as they were first learning how to go from lying down to sitting up. Remember how they keep themselves awake those first few times? My kids just passed out from exhaustion, still sitting up. The only difference is one is in pink and one is in blue... and one is having to use a crib that his older sister used for teething! :)

Can you hear me now?

First of all, has anyone noticed that you can talk to me on the phone now and get the added bonus of actually getting to hear what I am saying for the first minute? We got new phones! Woo hoo! Thank you to Circuit City for a going out of business sale. Now I am able to have everyone hear me babble away. :)

In other hearing related news (hey, I have to connect these somehow!) Matthew is officially getting tubes in his ears this week! After 5 ear infections in just the last 4 months (and a 6th one just this week) I took matters into my own hands and made a consultation appointment with a specialist after being fed up with the run around at my pediatrician's office. He has been on more antibiotics than I care to count, which cannot be good for his tiny body. And the ENT doctor said he has some minor hearing loss already, hopefully to be reversed by draining his ears during the surgery. He also noted (duh!) that hearing loss during this crucial time of language development could hurt this phase, and ongoing ear infections can cause permanent hearing loss (duh!). OK, *deep breath* I'm off my high horse now....

While I hesitate to say "woo hoo" here as well, I am excited by at least the prospect of getting to sleep through the night. Both of us. And I just want to see Matthew feel better. And not be taking him to the doctor bi-weekly. However, I am not thrilled about my baby having to go under anesthesia, but I am comforted by the fact that this is such a common surgery. The most worrisome part? He can't have anything to eat past midnight. And you ladies know how I get him to go back to sleep...

Please pray for us on Thursday, 7:30am!

Our snow day(s)

I had a very busy week scheduled. Something every day, which is big for a homebody like myself. I was a little stressed at how the kids, particularly Matthew, were going to do with all the going and doing. Well, God answered my prayers in an interesting way- a three day "snow event." (I'm not kidding- that's what they call it here in crazy Cincinnati where one falling snow flake means a snow day for all).

Although this time it really did snow. And sleet. And rain. And icy rain. We ended up picking up about a foot of snow and maybe half an inch of ice in between. Just check out the leaf in my hand below. We plucked that off our poor bush. We lost a decent size branch off a tree next to our fence. I'm sure more will come as the days go on.

The added blessing in all this was that even Erik got a snow day out of it! They actually closed the office today (although you know Erik, he still was working from home). He did get to play with Grace outside for a while. Even Dixie got in on the fun in the front yard because it was so cold out, we knew she wouldn't venture too far!

So just in case you are in the snowy region and need a cozy meal (or if you are in a warm region and these pictures make you shiver) I've included below a recipe for a tasty meatloaf. It takes a little more prep work than a normal meatloaf, but it is well worth the effort. Let me put it to you this way- even Grace had seconds for dinner. And several of you have witnessed us struggle to get her to eat THREE bites of anything. She even ate a piece cold the next morning while I was making Erik a meatloaf sandwich for his lunch. To which she replied, "mmmm"!

The ice might be brutal for the trees and bushes, but isn't it just gorgeous?

Grace and Daddy made a snow castle the day before our big storm. When you don't have sand, snow and flower pots will do just fine!

Honey BBQ Glazed Meatloaf

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, minced

1/2 cup diced red and yellow bell pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons Worcestershire

1/4 cup milk

2 pounds meatloaf mix (or just ground beef)

2/3 cup quick oats

1/3 cup fresh minced parsley

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Saute onion, carrot and peppers in a skillet until soft. In a bowl, mix eggs, thyme, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire and milk. Add meat, oats, and parsley, along with cooked vegetables.

Pat into a 9x5 inch loaf. Place on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Put in oven to bake. Glaze with 1/2 cup BBQ sauce mixed with 1/2 cup honey every 15 minutes. Bake for 1 hour total or until thermometer registers 160 degrees.

This makes enough for a dinner for four, plus several leftovers/sandwiches.

What I did on my Christmas vacation

If I were writing this for school, I would have received an "F" if for the sheer fact that it was so tardy. But I'm sure that if it had been on time, I would have been given an A+ for how cute my kids are! :)

This is for those family members who have been asking for pictures (and rightly so). I apologize profusely if it seems a little obnoxious. There were so many great pictures (thanks, hubby!) from our Christmas at the Lake House in Minnesota that I had an awful time choosing which ones to use. Shocking, I know. I am certainly not an indecisive person! ;) It wouldn't be Grandma's house if there wasn't a baby in the bathtub! No comments on the flab, please. :)

The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming! (There was a request made for a family picture in traditional Russian boots and hats- for those of you who don't know, my in-laws live in Moscow.)

Making peanut butter pine cones for the birds

Snowy fun! A little cautious at first, Grace learned to love sledding down the sled run that Daddy and her uncles made. We found the driveway just as fun- fast, but wide. We also got to do some snow shoeing through the woods that I am sure Robert Frost had in mind when he wrote his famous poem.

I see glimpses of this sweet child as a grown up girl. She looks so precious in her new hat from her uncle!

And in that same vein, does that mean Matthew is going to be the class clown? Check out this hilarious face he was making.

I'm th-th-th...

Still trying to say it. Let me try again.

I'm th-th-thirty! Eeekk!

Yup, I officially left my 20's behind today and am now entering what I see as the "old" decade. Ever notice in the drugstore that they have make-up for mature skin and it is labeled "30's and up"? Well, I did. I also noticed that I am getting wrinkles (or laugh lines as they say). And that I don't understand most of the texting lingo. And I have no idea what all those buttons on my TV remote are for. And I talk about the weather a lot. And I confuse my sister's name with my daughter's name whenever we are all together. I'm thinking these are all symptoms of getting old.

I'd love to show you a photo of my smiling, wrinkly face on my 30th birthday, but alas, only my dear mother took any pictures and those all went home with her today on her camera. But I know you are used to waiting for me to post pictures, so whats new, right?

I just couldn't let these get away....

I know, it is mid-November but I just had to post these photos from October. Somehow they got lost in the shuffle. Grace's first tea party. A reenactment of the ones us grand kids used to have with Gram...now Grace is part of tradition! The only thing that competed with the sweetness of the little tea set with little finger foods was that Gram had rocks and pine cones in her yard. Ah yes, Grace is in touch with her girly and outdoors-y sides.


Here is the post from Grace's third birthday that I wrote belatedly. We had her birthday in Albuquerque as well as my Great-Grandmother's 100th birthday.

Before we left for Albuquerque, we said good-bye to the Malibu. I know I had a love/hate relationship with that car over the years, but it was strangely sad to not see it in our garage anymore. I told Erik that I had been with that car more than 10 years- longer than he and I had been together! That also meant that I am now officially old- staring 30 in the face AND a minivan mommy. Eeek. It is true, though: I love the van a lot more that I thought I would, just like I was told by other, wiser minivan moms. :)

CHAOS

I know this is not the kind of post you are probably looking for during my dry season of blogging. But I need your help! :) I am, in the words of the Flylady, suffering from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). Except that I do have people over. Embarrassed. And just ask them to over look my messy and unclean house, of which has now become the new norm.

It is becoming more and more clear to me that the organized person I was before children has gone into hiding. I can't seem to find her anywhere! She would peek her head in now and then when it was just Grace, but now that Matthew is in tow I have not heard nary as much as a "how are you" from her.

So what I need from you is this: I feel as though many of you have it much more together than I do. I'm looking for those little tips that seem to be eluding me. Such as:

• How is your house getting clean? I really prefer the all-in-one-day method, but I'm thinking that is out the window for this stage of life. How do you do it?
• How do you organize and store what seems to be a growing amount of kids clothes, especially when we have both girl and boy clothes? Do you have a way to store whats going in and whats going out temporarily when seasons are changing, or sizes are growing but they don't all need to be put away yet?
• How about those dreaded piles? This has always been a struggle for me, but now I don't seem to have the time to do a whirlwind "pick up". How do you prevent them in the first place? I'm talking mail that needs dealing with, catalogs/newspapers/articles that you want to keep, things that need to be done but you can't get done at that moment and need to be stashed... you know, the CHAOS! :)

If you have any advice for part, all, or some of the questions, please let fill me in! If it's easier, you can email me cathrynjohansson@fuse.net or post it as a response. Maybe I'll even put all the answers together in a blog post so we can all benefit from each other's wisdom! :)

Yippee for no more political ads!

You guys know how I love theme nights for dinner. Takes the everyday mundane and makes it a little more exciting. So of course we had to have an American theme night for Election Day. We had hamburgers and Freedom Fries (no, I'm not normally really this nuts, but you can't have French Fries on a very American sort of day) and good ol' American apple pie. I hadn't baked a pie in ages and it felt good to be back to baking. It's no secret that I still feel very out of sorts even though I don't have a newborn any more. I guess I just need to adjust to the level of chaos that is now the new normal! :)

And just in case you, too, were disappointed in the results of the election, I am comforted by Daniel 2:21, "And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding." God is sovereign! So now lets pray for godly wisdom for our leaders.

Picture in Picture

Since mommy has had her hands full, daddio is stepping in to the rescue. Here are some of the latest and greatest. Sorry if the commentary is lacking...use your imagination.

This is Matthew's . . . err . . . 6 month picture, with Grace.

We went to the Farmer's Market two weekends ago and Grace helped pay for the apples by doing a little plowing.

(ooh that's cold daddio, hurry up and take the picture!)

And just to prove that I do exist outside this blog, here I am with Matthew the day before the boy decided he wanted to party all night long with an ear infection (yeah memories!).

And finally, for the pièce de résistance, I call this series of photographs, "The Motherload".

Hello, anyone there?

OK, I admit it. This is a desperate attempt to regain readership! Not to mention the fact that I've noticed I'm at the bottom of the "recently updated" lists that people have on their own blogs. I think I've sunk to a new blogging low. Those who know me well know that when I get overwhelmed by something, I tend to put it off in favor of something easier to check off my to-do list. Of course, I know that only makes it worse so that when I finally to get around to doing it, the task has only gotten that much bigger. Case in point.

Its not that October was a boring month for us- quite the contrary. We spent about 10 days in Albuquerque for a multitude of events. It was the International Balloon Fiesta, my Great-Grandmother's 100th birthday, and Grace's 3rd birthday. Matthew also is officially half-way to the one year mark (hence my recent problem- read below). And we also put both kids in one room. More on that adventure later.

I think I've decided to leave you with this week's pondering and someday soon I will get pictures up from this month. I have several dear friends who are pregnant right now (recently so!) and one who just had a baby. I got home from visiting the later in the hospital and Erik saw the look. He said, "You want another one, don't you?" Well, something like that. I really had the baby gagas (I know, I know! I still have a baby, what is wrong with me?!?) until Matthew pulled two nights this week that were way worse than anything he ever did as a newborn. I'm talking crying for two hours kind of stuff. Up at 3am for over an hour kind of stuff. That caps off a month of not sleeping well.

Baby gaga problem solved. Thanks, Matthew. :)

Grace turns 3!

Grace's balloon themed (it was the Hot Air Balloon Festival and Grace loves balloons) birthday party was at Nana and Papa's house full of family and new friends. Oh yeah, there was cake there too. :) I just love this picture!

Can you hear her belly laugh?

The great butterfly catching game Susan brought, perfect for 3 year olds and apparently adults too!



My beautiful child, all the way around.


The birthday girl can get an early lick of her own cake!

"Do I really want to be three? Do I get a say in this?"


Grace is no longer my little baby, though she still gets that nick name because I just can't seem to stop calling her that. She has outgrown her "baby speak" with the lone hold out being "clof clof" for wash cloth. And don't expect me to be correcting that one! She loves: reading, learning ("Mommy, tell me about _____"), cooking-both in her kitchen and mine, dress up, Clifford, the library, the zoo, the park- going anywhere really, doing ballet, making her baby brother laugh, the colors orange and pink. She dislikes: being alone, anything out of place- a cabinet door open, things not properly organized, strangers, anything daring (this includes jumping).

And we wouldn't have her any other way.

One hundred, years that is

We were in Albuquerque for many reasons, one of the main ones being my Great-Grandmother's 100th birthday! Lets all pray we are this sharp and healthy if we make it to 100!

Nell, my Great-Grandmother
Elise, my Grandmother (aka Gram)



Grace, the first great-great grandchild!

The princess requests a breath mint

Picture this (only because I don't have one, and it would have been sight):

Grace is in her pajamas, with a reindeer barrette in her hair (don't ask), my baseball hat on her head, her dress-up princess kitten heels on her feet. We are in my bathroom, while I am having the daily pleasure of no privacy while I get ready. I am kneeling down at her level trying to have a serious talk when she runs into the closet.

Grace: "Ewww! It stinks!"
Me: "What stinks?"
Grace: "Your breathing!"
Me: "You mean my coffee breath?"
Grace: (holding her nose) "Yes!"

I humbly give you this glimpse into our un-romantic lives as retribution for when I was about her age. There is a well told story in my family of me holding my nose the whole time while my Gram read me books, also affronted by the smell of coffee breath in the morning.

Apparently no one has invented the odorless cup of coffee for adults yet. Proctor and Gamble, I give you this challenge. Meanwhile, excuse me while I go get a breath mint. :)

Five months old

Well, behind as usual. With a week of a house full of sickies and having family in town, I am behind on a few things and that of course includes blogging. Here is Matthew's 5 month picture. You'll never guess who he is smiling at.... his silly big sister. There haven't been any new tricks except blowing raspberries. Great, more reasons to drool. Good thing I am well stocked on burp cloths. No more rolling over either. I guess he decided that wasn't all it was cracked up to be.Demonstrating the wet raspberry


I have no idea what Grace was doing to make him laugh- probably just standing in his line of sight!

Who's a big boy now?

Guess who rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time? And guess who actually got to witness it? Mommy!

Grace was much sneakier. She did it several times before anyone ever saw it happen.

So, how much time do you think I have left on the bassinet?

Struggles in motherhood

I tried MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) for the first time yesterday. I enjoyed it as much as a friend of mine told me I would. I am debating on whether or not to sign up still, based upon nursing Matthew there (he's not the best feeder in public) and Grace's shyness (apparently she cried, something that doesn't normally happen- at least not with being dropped off somewhere).

But I was struck during the sharing time of all the different struggles we have as mothers. I don't think that there is a mom out there who "has it easy". God has given us all different kinds of kids with all different kids of issues that cause us to grow in ways that God has ordained. I know in my own life that my children have taught me patience and gentleness and letting go of taking pride in order and cleanliness. And that sometimes when there is poop in the underwear again, you just have to laugh. Hey, it happens.

In that light, here is an example of Grace losing it a year ago. She woke up with the most hilarious bed head and when I tried to take a picture, she was not appreciative of me trying to document the moment. But I'm sure she'll find it funny when we show it to everyone at her wedding. ;)

So, even though it's not Mother's Day, here's to all you dear mommy friends of mine- I love you all and am so thankful for the one-anothering that takes place in our lives!

Dancing Queen

Now that you can't get that ABBA song out of your head...

We decided to sign Grace up for ballet this fall. We aren't doing preschool, so this was my concession for that. Plus, is there anything cuter than a miniature ballerina? It looks like it is just going to be her and her little friend, Novi, in the class. Nothing like a private lesson!

It was all the more thrilling because Erik left work a little early to catch the class (he said he adn Matthew needed a dose of football afterwards though). I was thwarted by mini blinds on the windows of the classroom that kept me from being a freaky parent with my camera and video camera so this is the only evidence I have from the night.

Grace declared on the way home, "I love dancing ballet!" And this morning she informed me that her teacher loved her, and she loved her teacher. Looks like we are still on a ballet high.

Cost cutting techniques

Looking to save a few bucks? Here's an idea. Just make sure your trustworthy toddler has access to a pair of scissors and decides to "cut coupons" for you.
In her defense, she has never done anything like this before. Hence the un-supervised access to her scissors. At least it wasn't a twenty!

Family Fun Night

I realize this is a bit late (I'm catching up on blogging, can you tell?) but I thought this was pretty funny. On the opening night of the Olympics a few weeks ago, we decided to have a family theme night. We do these on occasion, as much for Grace as a break from the ho hum for us. In keeping with the theme of the Beijing Olympics, we got take out Chinese, a real treat since we don't get to pay true Chinese prices for our American import. We also put on some of our authentic Chinese music we picked up while visiting Beijing (I'd tell you what instrument it is they play on the CD, but I don't remember the name). And it just wouldn't be a Chinese theme night without chopsticks. Not to be outdone, Grace asked for hers (which are Peter Rabbit ones Grandma and Grandpa picked up while living in Hong Kong). She actually did quite well with them, better than I did. I cheated and reverted to my fork.