Mar 9 - 15: Time Change Trials

Oh my, do I ever hate Daylight Savings Time.  This week has been positively dreadful trying to adjust to the new time - especially given the fact that we flew home from Wyoming on Sunday night.  So it was a 3 hour time change for us.  We didn't land until after 11PM on Sunday and both kids slept until 10:30AM the next morning (to help make up for their inability to sleep on the plane).  You'd think we would be rather rested after that, but I still felt like I had been run over by a train. :)

Even with all our sleep-deprivation due to trying to get back onto Florida time, we had a very busy week.  I took the kids out on errands & shopping excursions every day except Friday (I decided I needed some quiet, at-home time while Erik was at daycare that morning!)  On Monday, we went to the mall to pick up Elin's latest pictures from JCPenney and to start scoping out family outfits for the pictures we will take to commemorate Elin's 9-month birthday.  On Tuesday, I took the kids to buy a gift for Kent and then we went grocery shopping; this was one of the roughest store experiences I've had with both kids.  Erik has decided that he is fully on board with the sharing concept which means that he tries to give Elin some of whatever snack or drink he has.  He doesn't understand that she can't eat all that food yet and doesn't really know how to chew!!  We ended up dumping half a bag of cheerios on the floor when Erik tried to share and then tried to take it back after I scolded him.  Elin had a death grip on the baggie!  Thankfully, there were 2 store employees right there who immediately volunteered to clean up the mess.  I love Publix!

On Wednesday, Erik went back to school (thankfully, he didn't have any issues being left there) while the girls got a few more errands done.  Wednesday also marked our EIGTH wedding anniversary - hooray for us!  Kent brought home dinner so that I wouldn't have to cook (I really don't enjoy that chore) as well as a lovely bouquet of flowers.  On Thursday, we all needed to get out of the house, so it could get cleaned, so I decided to take the kids to Costco and pick up just 1 or 2 things.  Ha!  I left there with a full cart and had to leave before I was really ready because both kids started to get fussy!  One of the things that I found was some lovely drawer organizers and so I spent the afternoon cleaning out and organizing most of our kitchen drawers as well as my make-up drawer in the bathroom.  I am always so happy to see a clean, well-organized drawer!!  On Friday, Erik had a big day at school with the annual Purim festival, which is a festival to celebrate Queen Esther's defeat of Haman's plan to destroy all the Jews.  Erik made hamantaschen (delightful fruit or chocolate filled pastries), groggers (a noise maker that you shake whenever you hear Haman's name) and a crown.  On Sabbath, Kent gave me a wonderful gift and he took charge of the kids so that I could take a nap.  I meant to only sleep for another 30 minutes, but woke up about 2 1/2 hours later!  It was a beautiful thing!  That night, Kent and I had a date to celebrate our anniversary. It was nice to get out with just the 2 of us and spend some quiet, quality time together.  We always say that we are going to establish a regular date night, but it never seems to work out.  Maybe this week's adults-only excursion will inspire us!

Erik and his friend, Sage, getting ready to watch the Purim skit at school

Since we've been having such wonderful weather this week, we took some walks around the neighborhood.  Erik is fully engaged in being a big brother and insists on pushing Elin's stroller to/from daycare and pulling her in the wagon.  He is doing pretty well in steering the stroller lately.  Here are some pictures from a few of our excursions:

In the life of Erik, he has recently started telling us that he is scared of all sorts of things - such as cars on the road, shadows, or random noises.  He will run up to Kent or I and say, "car coming; hold you; Erik scared" while holding his arms close to his chest.  Not exactly sure where he picked this up from and I'm not sure if it's cute or something that I need to correct!  Also, his language skills continue to improve; he is talking in more complete sentences and has started using the correct pronouns more frequently ("hold me" rather than "hold you").

In the life of Elin, her drooling has slowed down (thank goodness), but she still doesn't have any new teeth.  She has become a serious Mama's girl - she will sometimes scream when I walk out of a room (even if she can still see me),  She still has lots of night-time issues (can someone else come over and do sleep training for me?  I don't wanna!).  She can also crawl super fast and has learned her way around the house.  There have been a few times when I took Erik back to his room for a diaper change and, once she realizes that she has been left behind, Elin will follow us down 2 hallways, her hands smacking down on the floor the whole way!  She also loves to play right at my feet when I'm working in the kitchen, grabbing onto the backs of my legs.

Elin is going to be my dare devil, I'm afraid.  One day this week, I put her on the floor in my room and then sat down myself to take off my tennis shoes.  Just a minute later, I turned around and saw that Elin had climbed up onto a step-stool!  Yikes.  Slow down, little girl.  

Since sleep was such a critical issue in our household this week, I thought I'd share a few pictures with you:

Why are sleeping babies so cute?!

The view on Erik's monitor one night this week - they are both sound asleep!! 

1. Bible - I'm now in the book of Luke for my New Testament readings this week.  Luke is the only Gospel that talks about Elizabeth & Zechariah, John the Baptist's parents.  I'm not sure why, but I really like their story!  I also like how Mary & Elizabeth were a support "group" for each other during their pregnancies.  It is odd, though, that while still in utero, John recognized that Mary was carrying the Messiah and leaped for joy.  Since I've recently been pregnant, it makes me wonder how aware the baby really is of the "outside" world.

2. Health - I finally have gotten off the weight plateau!  I am back on the downward trend.  I did go off plan, though, for a few meals this week due to our 8th wedding anniversary.  I hope it doesn't ruin my progress too much.

3.  Projects - organized kitchen drawers (or most of them!)  I also worked on several craft projects; I love seeing progress being made and my to-do list getting a tiny bit shorter!

4.  Fun - lots of shopping trips and walks outdoors

Mar 2 - 8: Jackson Hole, Wyoming

This week, Kent and I did an amazingly brave thing (some may say, an incredibly crazy thing) and took both kids to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the annual CFO conference that is always held at a ski resort.  This year, we actually have the potential for 6-7 different trips either out west or up north.  The mere act of packing for this first trip convinced us to take a couple of those potential trips off the table!  With our kids the age that they are, I feel like we have to practically bring the entire house with us whenever we travel for an extended period of time.  It's shocking how much luggage a little, tiny person can generate.

We flew out early Sunday morning; Kent and I had to get up at 4AM to get all the last minute items into bags, get the kids up and get all of us out of the door to make our plane.  Thankfully, the check-in and security lines at the airport were super short and we made it to our gate in record time.  Both Erik & Elin handle early wake-up calls very well and they like to people-watch, so they hardly ever cry in airports or on airplanes.  However, their people-watching can be a bad thing when you want them to nap and there is just too much for them to look at!  Since there are no direct flights into Jackson Hole, we first flew to Salt Lake City and then had a short commuter flight up to Jackson Hole.  Elin did manage to take a few 20 minute naps, but Erik didn't sleep at all, as expected.  When we arrived in Jackson Hole, we were greeted by a huge backlog of other travelers and all their luggage; the airport had been shut down the previous day due to a snowstorm.  It was rather chaotic, especially since the airport is also under construction!  Kent took Erik with him to stand in the car rental line and, within just a few minutes of being held, Erik fell asleep and stayed asleep for almost 2 hours while we waited for our bags.

Elin and I at the Orlando airport

Here we are again on the plane 

Elin visiting with Auntie Natalie & Uncle Casey

Erik & Kent on the plane (I think this is on the way home)

In the Orlando tram ride on our way out to Wyoming

Kent & Erik's selfie!

Erik at the Jackson Hole Airport

This year, we rented 2 condos with the Cochran's, Deininger's and Zbaraschuk's.  It was cheaper than staying at the conference hotel.  The condo's were very nice, but they were 3 story town homes with the main living area on the 2nd floor and one of the bedrooms on the top floor had a cut-out in the wall so it was open to the living room below.  Stairs with my 2 little ones is NOT ideal, to say the least.  Erik does pretty well with them, but he wants to go up & down the stairs over and over.  Elin would often head straight to the stairs when we would put her down in the living room, so she couldn't be left unsupervised at all.  No more multi-story condos for us!  The weather was pretty nice in Jackson Hole - it snowed most days, but was a pretty comfortable temperature for the most part.  Both kids seemed to enjoy the snow and cooler climate, though Elin got a terrible rash on her face and neck from the dry air (it cleared up within 1 day of returning home).

We tried to stay fairly active while we were there, so we went sledding with friends and by ourselves, built a snowman, visited a Children's Museum, went on a sleigh ride, had a play-date with friends and did a little bit of exploring in town.   Kent's conference ended on Thursday, but we opted to stay in Jackson Hole for the weekend to visit with Kent's sister, Natalie, and her husband, Casey, who flew in from Montana.  Casey is doing wonderfully after he was burned in a home explosion last July.  I think he looks great.  One of Casey's brothers & his family also came to town for the weekend.  Kent went skiing with all of them on Sabbath afternoon while I put the kids down for their naps.

The sleeping situation in Jackson Hole was not what I would call ideal.  We had 2 rooms between the 4 of us, but since Elin still wakes up at night, we didn't want to bunk the 2 kids together.  So, our family split up along gender lines and the boys took one room and the girls took another.  Elin did terrible, really.  She was awake at least every 2 hours crying and only napped for up to 40 minutes during the day; it was extremely painful for me since I couldn't get extended sleep at night or get a nap during the day.  On Friday night, when we left the condo and moved to a hotel to be near Casey & Natalie, I may have gotten only about 3 hours of sleep.  Since our family was now all in one room, I had to be sure that her crying didn't wake Erik up.  So, whenever she started to cry, I had to bolt across the room and pick her up.  She is really going to get sleep training when we get home!  Does anyone want to come over and do it for me?!

Here are some pictures of our time Jackson Hole:

Kent's view while skiing

Elin with her Auntie Natalie

Kent & Erik in the "boys" room

Kelli & Erik on the sleigh ride

Elk!

Elin playing with Kaylee Ng at the Children's Museum

Cutie Pie

Kent and the kids with our snowman, Sven

Sven & the Girls

Kent, Erik & Natalie - I think that Erik is so cute in this picture!  

1. Bible - I was able to keep current on my reading plan this week.  I want a book that talks about the 4 Gospels and why some stories are not included in all of them (or are included in all).  I want a better understanding for why there are 4 versions of the same book in the Bible.  Hmm, I guess it is similar to my desire to know why all the sacrificial details/rules are still in the Bible when Christ came to satisfy the need for sacrifices.

2. Health - no scale in our condo in Wyoming, so I don't really know how I did this week on weight loss.  I did pretty well with staying on diet while on vacation, but once we moved out of the condo to the hotel it was very difficult.  We had to eat out for most meals over the weekend and I didn't have the ability to make up the Medifast meals like I can with a  kitchen.

3.  Projects - I get a holiday from projects this week since I'm away from home!

4.  Fun - Hello?! We took the kids to Wyoming!!

Feb 23 - Mar 1: 8 months old

I am nearly 2 weeks late in posting the blog entry for the last week of February!  Oops.  I don't actually remember too many details about this week now.  I wish I could get better at posting timely entries!  I do recall that the week was busy and stressful.  It was not the best way to get ready for a week-long trip with an infant and a toddler!  We thought that Elin was teething because she began drooling like there was no tomorrow and she was up at all hours of the night.  But no new teeth have appeared.  Her sleep habits completely went downhill this week and are just pitiful; there is definitely sleep-training in our future.  Kent has a business trip coming up in a few weeks, so I suppose that I will attempt the sleep-training at that point to spare him the pain of it.  That's love, folks!

Here are the promised 8-month photos of Elin Kate (she doesn't like to sit still too well right now!!):

1. Bible - I'm keeping up with the reading plan which has daily selections from the Old Testament, the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs.  I do find that there are some passages that I would just prefer to continue reading rather than just reading a chapter and then moving to other books/passages.  It's like trying to read 4 different books at the same time.  Hmm, now that I've written that down, I realize that I AM reading 4 different books at the same time!!  Ha, ha.  I mean it's hard to keep each passage in perspective and remember exactly what the passages were from the previous day.  This week, I'm reading passages from Leviticus and from Mark.

2. Health - Well, another week at the same weight plateau.  I'm really ready to see some new numbers on the scale.  I am very happy to be wearing new jeans in a size I haven't even dared to try on in years, but still…. let's keep changing the numbers on the scale! On a good note, I've really noticed an uptick in my energy level in the past week or so - the sleepless nights, notwithstanding.  On Sunday, Erik wanted me to hold him while we stood outside & watched Kent mow the lawn.  This quickly turned into a game of chicken; we would creep up on Kent & the tractor and then when Kent would make a turn & come towards us, we would run screaming for a safe spot (I use the term "we" liberally since I was carrying 30+ pounds of Erik)!  Erik loved the game and so we played it for a very long time.  There's no way that I would have been able to run back & forth across our front yard, while carrying Erik, if I hadn't lost so much weight in the past 3 months.

3.  Projects - I got 3 people packed for a trip that is not only a week long, but is in a completely different climate.  Since I've lived in Florida, I find that trying to figure out what to pack for cold-weather climes is nearly impossible!  I'm always afraid that my clothes choices aren't quite right.  This is compounded when having to pack for kids.  I had to do more wardrobe pre-planning than I usually do since I needed to identify whether i needed to purchase items for the kids. 

4.  Fun - Due to our trip, I had to make a few trips with the kids to stores to buy cold-weather clothes.  While not so fun for me, Erik loves to go to "the 'tore" with Elin.  He is normally pretty obedient and sticks close to Elin's stroller, but there are times when he decides it is more fun to run away from me or to touch all the store mannequins, asking "what's dis?"!  I live in fear of destroying a store and being saddled with a huge repair bill!!

Cool dude, Erik!

Feb 16-22: Raggedy Ann

I thought that I do something a little different this week and list out a brief profile for Elin & Erik to give everyone an update on where they are now.  There weren't a lot of major events or outings this week, so it seemed like a good idea!

Elin Kate (also known as Baby Sister, Baby Girl or Munchkin):
     Age - She turned 8 months old (look for her "official" monthly birthday pictures next week)
     Favorite Toys - A dinosaur ball-popping toy that plays music while bouncing balls or dinosaur "eggs" around, Wooden alphabet blocks, Anything that she can stick in her mouth
     Favorite Activities - Making noise, Giggling, Playing with Erik, Bath time (especially splashing water all over Mama),
     Most Likely To -  Request a visit from Dada or Mama at 2 AM or 3 AM or really any time between 9 PM and 7 AM
     Cute Random Fact - Elin will clasp her hands together and then wave them up & down or tuck them under her chin

Erik (also known as Big Brother, Munchkin or E):
     Favorite Toys - Airplanes, Scissors, Little People Train and Truck, Anything that Elin has picked up to look at or play with, Roller coaster ride at daycare
     Favorite Activities - Holding Elin, Crawling after Elin, Riding bikes or cars, Bedtime stories with Dada, Bath time in the big tub with Elin
     Least Favorite Activity - Having his picture taken (he will hold out his hand and say "no pictures" repeatedly - you'd think I was the paparazzi)
     Latest Big Brother Moment - Saw me clap my hands once to quickly get Elin's attention, so now he does it too. Usually followed with "No, No, Elin, that's naughty" or "No, No, Elin, that's mine" or "No, No, Elin, that's not safe"

A favorite toy this week was a Raggedy Ann doll that Gramma Johnson gave to Elin at Elin's birth.  Early this week, Elin noticed it sitting up on the shelf in her room and wanted it, so I brought it down.  Since Erik currently wants whatever Elin has, he has wanted to play with the "dolly" all week.  There have been a few instances of tears if the "dolly" wasn't immediately available to him.

Elin has a rare moment with Raggedy Ann (Erik was napping!)

Erik loves Elin's dolly!

1.  Bible: The Old Testament selections this week were from Leviticus & include all the rules for the Israelite sacrificial system.  Not the most riveting chapters, but it is astounding how many nuances and rules there were to the various types of sacrifices.  I'm not sure that I would have been able to keep it all straight.  I do wonder why all the detail was kept in the Bible; it seems like a summary would have done just as well!

2.  Projects: No big projects completed this week, but I am making progress of several little ones.  However, Kent accomplished a major feat this week and was able to park all three of our vehicles inside our garage!  Yay!  He did in preparation for some severe storms that were headed our way (they never materialized) so it was a quick reorganization of the garage.  But I'm counting it as a great accomplishment!

3.  Health: It was another week of very little movement on the scale; in fact, I gained about a half pound.  However, looking at the positive side, I've really begun to notice in the past week or so that I do have more energy & stamina.  This is a marvelous thing when I have a 2.5 year old in the house!  This weekend, Erik and I had a great time playing "chicken" with Kent and the lawnmower!  While holding Erik (who weighs over 30 pounds), I would "creep up" on Kent and then when he turned the lawnmower our direction, I would run the other way.  Kent would then chase us across the front yard to the porch where we would be safe since the lawnmower can't climb the step to our front door!  Erik thought this was a great game and wanted it to go on forever.  Since I've lost about 18 pounds, it was much easier to keep playing the game than it would have been several months ago!

4.  Fun:  We stayed pretty close to home this week with no big excursions.  Elin did have her maiden voyage in the bike carriage; big brother Erik went along for the ride to show her the ropes and to make sure that she didn't get scared!  She loved it and didn't want to get out.  So, we put her in the wagon and the whole family took a walk around the neighborhood (Erik requested the premiere package and was carried the entire way)!

That's Kelli's bike, but since Kent won't hitch the baby carriage to his fancy road bike….

All set up in the wagon, complete with bumper pads!

Feb 9-15: Happy Valentine's Day

Happy (very late) Valentine's Day!  I had been working on this post, making edits, adding pictures, etc and just when I got to publish it, it just disappears.  I know that I had been saving my changes as I went along, but blogspot decided to mess with me.  I can't remember all my text that I had added to this entry, so this 2nd version is going to be quite a bit shorter than the original.  Better than nothing, I guess.

I think that we may have a future Olympian on our hands.  Early this week, I was watching some of the team figure skating competition.  Erik walked through the room and became transfixed by Gracie Gold's individual performance.  After watching for a few moments, he started to mimic her actions.  He started to jump & spin, with arm movements, as well as trying to do one-legged poses and sit-spins!  I got quite a bit of his routine on video, but unfortunately will not be sharing it with you since Erik was fresh from his bath and was completely sans clothing!! I've shown Gracie's performance to Erik at other times this week to see if I can get another video while he is clothed, but his level of performance really went downhill!!!  Erik and I spent lots of time playing with Erik's scissors along with my paper punches and paper cutter this week; he actually helped me with the Valentine's cards that we made.  On Thursday, I bit the bullet and took both Erik & Elin grocery shopping.  All the race car carts were being used when we got there, so Erik had to walk with me while Elin took the infant seat.  I was prepared to ditch the cart and drag both kids out of the store at any point if the shopping trip went downhill, but Erik did great.  He is happiest if he has a task/job to do, so I had him help me load the cart.  This got a lot of comments from our fellow shoppers about what a great helper he was!  He especially loved the produce section and putting fruit into the plastic bags.  Erik ended his week with his class being Shabbat Stars on Friday morning.  The last time he had to perform on stage, he cried the whole way up there because Kent couldn't go with him.  This time, Erik went much more willingly.  Once he got up on stage, I heard him tell the little boy next to him "That's my Dada; there's my Dada!"  Too cute.

Practicing on the paper cutter with newspaper inserts

Hmm, they put Erik next to his teacher again on stage.  Since he is just standing there, I wonder if that is a deliberate strategy on the part of his teachers!!!

Elin's big news this week is that she started eating real food on Thursday, the 13th!  She wasn't too sure about it at first, but has since decided that this is a good thing and ate with gusto.  We started her on apples; based on advice from our pediatrician we won't start rice cereal or other grains until she is 9 months old (due to maturity of digestive system).  I hope that giving her solids will enable Elin to sleep longer.  We have gotten a few longer nights out of her this week with her going 6 and half hours or more.  And yes, some of the longer episodes did happen prior to starting her on solids; I'm hoping that the food will encourage her to keep sleeping longer!  She has started to stick her fingers in her mouth while nursing this week; this has proven to be super annoying and a bit painful.  Not sure why she thinks this is a necessary thing to do, but she's been doing it all week and I am now on alert to catch her hand if it moves towards her mouth!

Elin's first bites of apple

Elin at the Orlando Science Center - my view

Kent's view - looks like she is in a serious time-out!

Both kids appear to have gone through growth spurts this week.  We got lots of remarks on how tall both of them look this week.  I am going to have spend next week going through their wardrobes and moving them up to the next sizes, I guess.

1. Bible - I finished the book of Matthew this week for the New Testament portion of my Scripture reading. Reading through those chapters reminded me of the Passion of the Christ movie that came out several years ago.

2. Fun - We indulged Erik this week and allowed him to take several of his nightly baths in our big bathtub at the same time that Elin had her bath in the infant/toddler tub.  He just thinks that this is the best thing!  Elin appeared a bit surprised the first time Erik got into the tub, but quickly got into the spirit of things and loved having more company during her bath!

3. Projects - I'm actually in the midst of several projects right now.  The big project that I have in progress is updating our family wall pictures.  It's been awhile since I've added to the wall, so I have some catch-up to do!  I purchased a bunch of frames this week and started to order the pictures, but haven't finished that step yet.

4. Health - Well, I was told that this could happen, but I've had a flat week in regards to weight loss this week.  In fact, the scale was going up at mid-week.  That was scary enough to keep me from the scale for the rest of the week!  On the positive side, I've had to retire more pants recently.  I actually bit the bullet and ordered a new pair of jeans and black pants this week in order to have more options on what to wear! I was down to track pants, 1 pair of khakis and fancy/formal jeans.  I love retiring clothes that are too big!

Elin has graduated from the car-seat and into a REAL stroller seat!

Going for a walk with our double stroller

Practicing her standing skills

My view at the supper table now that Elin has her own highchair

Feb 2-8: "No Drill, Dada, no drill!"

We started this week with Elin having a fever.  She woke up early Sunday with an elevated temperature and had it all day, but it was gone on Monday, thankfully.  She was pretty subdued for the entire day; she really just wanted to be held and snuggled - Kent held her for a nice, long nap which made her very happy, I'm sure!  We aren't sure if the fever is from her teething or from the cold that she had last week.  We've had some pretty sleepless nights as we work through the teething and cold; we had a few more nights this week of her waking up nearly every 90 minutes.  I'm ready for some improvement on the sleeping front!

In other Elin news, she has started to practice waving this week - she twists her wrists and moves her fingers back & forth - just like a parade wave!  She is also starting to hold out her arms to be held and will lean forward to be transferred from one person to another.  She has been quite the Mama's girl lately; she wants me to be with her all the time; she crawls after me after I put her down.  She is very emphatic when she crawls, she smacks her hands down hard as she crawls after you!  You can hear her coming - smack, smack, giggle (or wail, depending on her mood at the time), smack, smack!  She also is our plastic girl; she loves anything that crinkles.  We actually have to put the trash cans with plastic bags up out of her reach since she likes to tip them over and suck on the plastic bag!  She also prefers the tags on the toys to the toys themselves.

Erik is quite the active little guy lately.  This week, he has practiced getting out as many toys as he possibly can and seeing how far he can spread them throughout the house!  Yuck.  Thankfully, he is pretty good about also playing "pick up time".  He has figured out that he can delay his bedtime a bit by agreeing to do pick-up!  He has done a bit of regressing this week by deciding that he wants to suck on pacifiers again.  He has tried to lay claim to a few of Elin's pacifiers.  He has also lost all interest in potty training; he won't hardly look at the little potty that we bought him.  He refuses to sit on it or on any other potty.  He does inform us, in a super cheery or excited voice, that "Erik go poo-poo" when he has a dirty diaper.  I wonder if he is regressing to keep more focused attention on him during diaper changes.  I think we may start bribing him with chocolate to see if we can get back on track!

1. Bible - This week the Old Testament Bible reading is onto the beginning of the Israelite's exodus out of Egypt into the wilderness.  The business person in me noticed that these passages included maybe the earliest reference to the need for leaders to delegate responsibilities when Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, advised Moses to get some help dealing with all the disputes and questions that the Israelites were bringing to him personally.  And a new administrative system is born with mid-level management set up over smaller groups!

2. Fun - Erik has been asking to use my kitchen scissors whenever I bring them out.  I found out that he has been using scissors at daycare, so went ahead and bought him some for home.  He loves them!  We play with his scissors nearly every day now.  He also loves to go through all my scrapbook punches and see what shapes he can make from paper.  This is also great fun for me as I can work on some of my scrapbook projects while Erik is cutting!!

3. Project - I completed a project that week to resolve something that has been bugging me for ever!!  Does anyone have a comforter inside a duvet cover that constantly moves around and ends up on only one side of the cover?  No matter how many times we adjusted or reset it, our comforter is always moving around.  So, this week, I pulled it out of the cover and sewed ribbon tabs on each corner.  I then turned the cover inside out and lo & behold, found ribbons that were in each corner of the duvet cover!  I had no idea they were there and was prepared to sew some into the corners myself.  I the tied the ribbons around the tabs on the comforter and turned everything right side out again.  It worked like a charm - I love having a smooth comforter that I know won't move anywhere (unless my sewing skills are horrible and the ribbon tabs fall out!!)

4. Health - This has been kind of a blah week - there wasn't much movement on my weight loss and I hurt my back again on Tuesday (though not as bad as a few weeks ago), so I feel like I took a couple steps backwards.


5. Guest writer today, it's Kent now!  Kelli asked me to type up a couple experiences with Erik.  Each night after bath and story time is over and we say prayers, Erik will sit in the chair with us in his room and snuggle before he goes to his crib.  All lights are off, noise machine and music on.  He falls asleep in the chair with me very infrequently, so it's less about assisting him in going to sleep and more about just cuddling a little (since he won't permit such behavior during daytime hours!) He apparently thinks it's not a good use of precious play time!  Anyway, there was a week or two there where I was super tired and it was very difficult for ME to stay awake during snuggle time!  I would fall asleep after a very short time and only once or twice had he actually fallen asleep given the elongated timeframe when I finally woke up!  Anyway, I usually tell him to "go nite-nite" and pat his back or bum to help him get sleepy as sometimes he is still a little wound up and doesn't engage in appropriate snuggling behavior.  Apparently a few nights of me falling asleep first didn't go unnoticed,  as I heard Erik one night say to me in his typical night-time whisper voice (which is barely audible I might add), "Dadda go nite-nite".  He also made an effort to pat my back to assist in the process!  I had to laugh…who is putting who to sleep here?!

Erik has had mostly a hate relationship with the green nose sucking bulb we sometimes use when the kids have colds to clean out their sinuses.  He will permit it occasionally under great protest.  Recently I used it and exclaimed that I had gotten a "big one!"  He seemed to find this funny so if I tell him I need to get a big booger out he will sometimes permit the use of this device if I show a certain amount of enthusiasm that a Big Booger may be possible.  However, in times when big ones are not visible and nose cleaning is still required, I will employ the use of a twisted tissue to clean out whatever part of his nostrils I can by turning it inside.  The maiden use of this device was permitted, as someone has taught Erik that the use of a tissue is the proper way to clean your nose!  However, subsequent uses have met with less enthusiasm as he favors the traditional nose blow!  One day I told Erik that Daddy had to clean out his nose to get the booger!  Once he saw me twisting the tissue, he fussed "no drill, no drill!!"  I laughed out loud as his recent fascination with tools, including drills, had him liken my nose cleaning tool to a drill bit.

Some pictures from this week:

Elin at the Orlando Science Center (my view)

Elin from Kent's view!

Elin has found the stash of toys!

more toys

Erik's smoothie mustache

Erik learning how to use my paper cutter - even more fun than scissors!

Erik loves to do things for Elin - like push her in the car.  Notice the snacks he provided her!!!