Who needs a lazy boy and more...

Every day I try to follow doctors orders and give Evan tummy time. He's pretty good about getting his head up for a bit, but in general, he rather just lay there and suck on his fingers. He's pretty cute though :)



So me and Dan have been doing this workout called P90X, it's pretty much awesome and fully kicking my butt, so hopefully I won't be ashamed to be seen in a swimsuit this summer :) Anyway, on Saturday mornings we set Christian up with a movie on the laptop so we don't have him underfoot while we work out. We could resist taking this picture. Doesn't he look cuddly, who needs a lazy boy when you have a box and some blankies!

Pizza

Well to my mother's amazement, me an Dan have really gotten into cooking. It's not that I didn't like to cook before, I just didn't have time with all the dancing going on. We are both big fans of the Food Network, especially the show "Good Eats" with Alton Brown. He did a show on homemade pizza which started us on a long road of figuring out how to make the most delicious pizza ever. Many people invest in pizza stones from Bed Bath and Beyond of Pampered Chef. Alton Brown offered a better cheaper option. The problem with pizza stones is if they break your out $20-$100 depending on what you spent on it. He suggested picking up unglazed quarry tiles, they are like 50 cents a tile and if one breaks, you just go pick up another one no biggie. The biggest challenge was finding the dang tiles. We looked everywhere! We finally found them at Daltile. We picked up twelve 6x6's for $8. We also bought a pizza peel (you know the boards you see restaurants use to put in and take out pizza's) at Williams Sonoma. We just made the perfect pizza and think we may be ready for football season! As always Christian loves to be right in the action with me and Dan when we are in the kitchen, here are some cute pics of him "helping."

Happy Birthday Christian!

Wow, I can't believe that my baby is 2!!! It was so fun this year because he really knew what was going on. Me and Dan kept saying "Happy Birthday" to him all day and talked about his party we were going to have later that day. We had 2 parties one with the Duckwitz's and one with the Anderson's which meant 2 very yummy chocolate cakes- Christian may look like his Daddy but he has my chocolate tongue :) It was a great day, thanks to everyone who was able to celebrate with us, you helped make his birthday special.
We got him a trike which he was way excited about. It kind of looks like a scooter so he calls it a "Cycle" aka Motorcycle. When we finally got home he was riding all around the living room when we told him it was time to go to bed... needless to say it took both of us to coax him off the trike and into some jammies. Dan took him to brush his teeth and I heard him say "Let's go say goodnight to Mommy." They walked into the room and Christian staring at his trike with a sad smile said "Na-night cycle." Both me and Dan just started to laugh.

Car Wash

So about a week ago or so, Dan took Christian with him to go through the car wash... it was a traumatizing experience to say the least. Christian would talk about it all the time days after, "car wash scary!" or "it's scary." So you would find it funny that yesterday I found Christian in this box he has been playing with his truck in it. I asked him what he was doing and he said "Car wash-it-up" and I said "Christian are you in the car wash?" and he said "Yes, it scary!" In a child development book I was reading it talks about how children will play out their fears to learn how to cope with them and to overcome the fear... Christian must have read that chapter too, just kidding! It was funny when Dan came home he asked Christian that same thing with the same reply, but then he asked "do you want to go with me through the car wash?" Christian was quick to say "NO!" Ha, ha, ha. :)

Bellybutton Woes

Here is a picture of Evan's herniated bellybutton--- aka, balloon bellybutton. Apparently this is pretty common even though I had never even heard of it. What has happened is that the umbilical chord has herniated- this should heal on it's own, if it doesn't they won't do surgery until he is a couple years old. This isn't a problem unless the intestines herniate behind it, then we have emergency surgery. But other than the bellybutton thing, he's doing great! At his 2 month weigh in he was 10lbs 2 oz and 22 inches long. Hooray! He is also a very happy baby, and very content but as HUNGRY as they come! Just barely has he slowed down where we are finally getting some longer sleep stretches during the night, thank goodness!

Kids Update

This is just a cute pic of Christian, I can't believe how big he is getting!

This is me attempting to take a pic of Evan smiling, I'll do better next time I post it- he looks actually kind of chubby in this pic- hooray!

This is Christian's imagination going, he was eating his cereal and wanted to wear it as a hat, so I got him a clean bowl. He was bothered that it wouldn't fit his head very well, but was delighted when he tried it on Evan and found that it was a perfect fit!

Evan will be 2 months next week- holy cow time is flying! Next think I know I'll turn around and be 50! Things are good, me and Dan are tired, but good. We moved Evan into his crib in Christian's room and everyone has adjusted well. Christian woke up once 2 nights in a row, but hasn't since, even when Evan is screaming his brains out to have someone come feed him. Evan sleeps better in his crib than he does anywhere else, and since his temp runs a little on the warm side I'm sure he likes that that room is a little on the cool side.
Unfortunately, he has a hernia- his little belly button is bulging out. We had my Dad look at it, he said we should be fine until we see the doctor in a week, just to keep our eye on it. Hopefully it will be able to be fixed without surgery.
Christian is at a fun stage right now (I feel like I always say that, but every age and stage always seems like it's the funnest). He has really started to be very imaginative and pretend while he's playing. The best is when Dan gets up with him in the morning, and Dan is lying on the couch half asleep and whamt- he gets a play frying pan in the face with Christian saying "Bite, Bite" then Dan has to pretend to eat what is on the frying pan. This happens quite a few times since Christian is big into cooking in his little kitchen.
He also sings a good part of the day. He still isn't super great at talking, so I really have to concentrate on what he is saying to figure out what he's singing. Lately he's been sining "bum bum baby bee" which is "I'm taking home my baby bumble bee." They sing that in nursery. He also loves Happy Birthday right now, he asks me to sing it about a dozen times again, he says "Happy, Happy!" It's so cute.
Christian has been so great with Evan- he loves that baby and always asks for him to be put in his crib when we are putting Christian to bed. When the baby is awake he will stop what he is doing and come play with Evan with me. It's really sweet.
So even though we are pretty tired at our house, we are happy, and pretty much healthy (knock on wood!)

A Soap Box Moment

Well I'm not one to read a whole lot of self-help books but I am currently reading one I think everyone who is married should read with their spouse. It's called "10 Great Dates to Energize Your Marriage" by Daivd & Claudia Arp. Dan's company is doing this with their employees which is how we come by the book. I like to think that me and Dan have a pretty healthy marriage, but this book and the way the dates are structured has really helped me identify the areas I have slipped a little and also helped me really focus on JUST me and Dan- once you have kids it's really easy to loose that. Anyway, it has a lot of good things to say, but it talks about having an Intentional Marriage, and I love that phrase.
I remember hearing people tell me before Iwas married, and you hear people say it all the time "Marriage is hard work, you have to work on it everyday." But what does that mean, how do you work on your marriage? Nobody ever tells you how to do that, you know. And this book helps give you a little guidance on things that you can do to actively work on your marriage. I'm not doing a very good job of expressing myself, I would just encourage you all to get the book and try it out I think you will be pleasantly surprised like I have been :)