Healthy Eaters

This morning we had a guy come give us an estimate on tree trimming. He was such a salesman. It was really annoying. I did not like his tactic at all. He was willing to give me a lower price (by $200) if I agreed to go with him right then. We had a coupon and he wouldn't tell me the quote until I told him what coupon it was that I had. I told him that that shouldn't matter. I was glad to see him go.

The boys and I went to the gym. I did a yoga class.

Before I left the house I cut up the rest of these little yellow tomatoes we had. It was a pretty big bag, but I figured if Evan didn't finish we could save the rest for later. When we got in the car I gave the boys snacks. Noah had a bag of apples and Evan had the tomato bag and a bag of apples. Evan chose the tomatoes first and ate all of them.

We ran into CVS to get free Crest toothpaste - a coupon deal.

Then, we went to Newflower. The boys love going to Newflower because we get fruit things (dried fruit sticks/fruit leather, whatever you call it) and they always get their free cookie at the end. As we were picking out vegetables Noah saw the bean sprouts and wanted me to buy some. I put some in a bag and then he wanted to hold the bag. He wanted the sprouts as a snack so I let him eat a few.

When we got home the boys ate lunch outside.

I got dinner ready for tonight.

Around 5pm Gabriella called to see if we wanted to come over and play for a little bit. The boys enjoyed playing in the backyard. We only stayed for a little while.

We had dinner (pork ribs and baked potato). I left for tutoring and Morry put the boys to bed.

When I came home both boys were in bed and asleep.

Here's a picture of Noah snacking on the bean sprouts.

McDonalds

This morning Evan came in our room at 6:45am. Morry got Evan set up and went back to sleep for a little bit. I was able to sleep in this morning. Morry took care of the boys and let me rest some.

For lunch, we took the boys to McDonalds. Morry said they had been really good this morning. Also, we didn’t feel like making lunch.

Evan and Noah did really well at McDonalds. Evan ate his nuggets, the apples, cookies, and apple juice. Noah just ate a few French fries and some apples. After we ate we went outside on the playground. Every time Evan disappeared in one of the tunnels, Noah would call out for him. There was another boy there a few years older than Evan. Evan followed the boy around everywhere.

When we got home we put they boys down for naps. They both slept well.

For dinner we had Asian pasta. Evan ate some macaroni and cheese. Noah ate a little bit of mac and cheese.

After dinner Morry took Evan and Noah outside in the backyard while I cleaned up. While they were out there Evan hit the baseball over the fence into our neighbor’s yard (Dingo’s family). Morry took the boys over to their house to get the ball back. Morry said when they went in their backyard Evan ran over and started playing on their playscape. And when they walked through the house Evan wanted to touch and see everything.

Evan and Noah are upstairs in their rooms, but neither one is asleep yet.

Bike Ride with the Boys

So, last night, Evan did not have a pull up on and we kept his gate open. Around 1am I heard knocking. I thought Evan was at his door. When I came in the hallway I saw Evan knocking on Noah’s door. Evan seemed kind of disoriented and told me he needed to go to the bathroom. He went and I put him back to bed. He slept until about 8am.

After I got Evan and Noah dressed and fed I took them on a bike ride, for the first time. When we first got the bike trailer I took them around the block, but this time we really went for a ride. I only rode about 4 miles. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but when you are pulling a trailer with 2 boys weighing around 62lbs, and on hills, that’s quite a workout. We stopped at a playground at a school. The boys played on the equipment, we had an apple break, and then we got back on the bike and came home. Evan and Noah did pretty well in the trailer. Noah cried some of the way because he didn’t like wearing a helmet.

When we got home all of us were pretty hot. It was overcast today and slightly cooler than normal, but we were all pretty sweaty. I made smoothies and then we ate lunch.

After lunch, Evan and Noah took really good naps.

When, Evan got up from his nap, his sheets were all wet. This is the first accident he has had since potty training week. Maybe he forgot he had underwear on?

For dinner we had taco pasta.

After dinner, Morry and I took turns playing Wii Sports Active (an exercise game) while the boys played.

We just gave Evan and Noah baths and put them to bed. Evan is wearing Pull ups tonight, and we are leaving his gate open. We’ll see what happens tonight.

Parent Teacher Conference

I dropped Evan off at school. It was our turn to bring snacks to class. I cut up apples and brought a drinkable yogurt for each kid. Evan insisted on carrying the bag into to school. It was pretty heavy.

Noah and I went to Target. I wanted to get some containers to organize all the toys we have at home. I feel like we have toys all over the place and the gameroom was a disaster. I bought 5 of those big plastic containers with lids and 6 stackable cube shelves to put in the gameroom.

Today we had our parent-teacher conference with Evan’s teacher. At 12:20 Morry, Noah, and I sat down with Wendy. She had really nice things to say about Evan. She talked about how much she loves his sense of humor. It sounds like he is right on track and doing all the things he should be doing for his age.

Our meeting ended at 12:40. Pickup is 1:15-1:30, but I decided to go ahead and get Evan early since I was there and it didn’t make sense to go home and come back again. Evan was very excited to see Morry. Natasha told us that at one point Evan looked out the window and saw Morry’s car and said, “That looks like my daddy’s car.” It’s pretty impressive that he recognized Morry’s car. We don’t go in his car that often.

At home I tried to clean up while the boys played. Blanca came over around 1:30 and only stayed until 2:00. The boys really needed naps. I cleaned while she played with the boys outside.

Noah feel asleep right away, but Evan did not nap. I was hoping to nap too. I was starting to not feel well. I think I’m getting a cold or something. Since Evan wasn’t napping and he playing pretty loudly in his room, I knew I couldn’t nap. I let him play in the gameroom while I cleaned. I went through almost every toy and filled up 4 of those plastic containers. I also put together the cube shelves. I put books on the shelves. My plan is to just rotate the plastic containers of toys. I’ll have one out at a time and keep the extra in a closet or the garage. We’ll see how that works. It was getting too hard to clean every night when the boys went to bed. They would just dump and pull the toys off those little shelves we had.

I was absolutely exhausted by the time Morry came home and I still wasn’t feeling well.

For dinner we had brisket and couscous.

After we put the boys to bed, I had planned on going to Alissa’s to help her get ready for a garage sale. I just wasn’t feeling up to it. I’m really exhausted right now and need to get to bed soon.

Playgroup at the Park

This morning we met the playgroup at the “old school” park. We got there at 10:30am and we were the first of the group to get there. Evan went right to the see-saws and wanted me to see-saw with him. I had Noah in the backpack when we first got there. After a little while I took Noah out of the backpack and let him crawl around, but he kept putting rocks in his mouth. It was too hard for me to watch what Noah was putting in his mouth and keep an eye on Evan, so I put Noah back in the backpack. One of the kids from Evan’s class came. He has an older 5 year-old brother and Evan wanted to play with the brother a lot. Evan loves playing with big kids. He followed the brother around and asked him to see-saw. We left the park around 12. I needed to get home since I was tutoring later.

At home I made lunch for the boys and quickly ate a sandwich. Blanca came over at 12:45. I tutored a home school student this afternoon. He’s taking an online Algebra II class and needed some help. I’ll be helping him a few more days to help him finish his course.

For dinner we went to BJs. We picked it thinking it would be fast and easy to find food for Evan to eat. We called ahead, but still had to wait awhile. I’m not sure how much the call-ahead really helps. Evan was in a really cranky mood at first. He wouldn’t eat anything. Also, right after the waiter brought our drinks over somehow Noah grabbed Morry’s drink and knocked the whole thing over. It was a mess. It got all over Noah’s pants, the highchair, and floor. I quickly pulled Noah’s pants off and he spent the rest of dinner with his pants off. Toward the end of dinner Evan finally decided to start eating. He had pizza and apples.

After dinner we went to HEB. It had been a while since we had gone grocery shopping and really needed food for the house. Evan and Noah were very good. We were there a while. Evan ate an apple and a few slices of a loaf of bread we were buying.

We got home late and the boys didn’t go to bed until about 10:00. It seems quiet now. I hope they sleep well. We have a birthday party to go to in the morning.

Getting Better

Today was a better day. Evan had no fever today, but I still kept him home from school. He was acting much better today. He still didn’t eat much at lunch, but at least he ate a little.

Noah needed a haircut so I decided to trim his hair myself. I took the boys in the backyard and while I was cutting Noah’s hair Evan told me he wanted a haircut too. Evan was happy, but moving around a lot. It was difficult. I told him if he stood still and was good he could have a lollypop after his haircut. That kept him still.

We still have some candy from Halloween so I gave him one of the dumb-dumbs from his trick-or-treating. It was blue and he couldn’t wait to look in the mirror and see his blue tongue.

I put Evan and Noah down for a nap around 2:30 and Blanca came at 3:00. She said Noah slept until about 5:00 and Evan was still sleeping when Morry got home. Morry got him up around 6:00.

Since I was out tutoring Morry took the boys to McDonalds for dinner. He was going to take them to Chick-Fil-A, but when they drove by McDonalds on the way Evan was insisting on eating there. He’s only eaten at McDonalds 2 other times. Morry asked if he was sure that was where he wanted to go and he said yes. Morry said Evan ate very well. In fact, he ate his whole meal – all four chicken nuggets, apples, and cookies.

I got home around 8:00. We let the boys play a little before putting them to bed. They are in bed now. Noah is sleeping, but Evan is playing with his school bus.

A cold front blew in today. It was in the 70s when I left for tutoring and now it’s 37 degrees and raining and sleeting. Brrr!

The best little baby ever!

I had a busy morning this morning and Noah was great. After I dropped Evan off at school I had to rush over to my 9:15am doctor’s appointment. I need a refill on my thyroid medicine and they had to check my thyroid level.

Then, I filled up the car with gas and headed over to Kohls. I really need some nice colder weather clothes especially for Jake’s bar mitzvah the end of this month in Chicago. I’m not much of a shopper and I remembered why. I get so frustrated shopping for clothes and shoes for me. Nothing ever fits. I’m in between Juniors, but Ladies sizes are usually too big. The Juniors clothes tend to be too tight and show too much skin. Man, am I sounding old now. I can never find small enough sizes in the misses/ladies section. For casual clothes I can always find things at Gap and Old Navy but for dressy stuff I have the hardest time. I was able to find a few things after being there a really long time. Noah was great at Kohls. I had him in the stroller the whole time and he was mostly awake just looking around at everything.

This morning before I dropped Evan off at school I started doing the laundry. I had his clean sheets on the ottoman and he was playing with them, but then he started jumping on them. I told him not to do that because his shoes were dirty and we didn’t want to get the sheets dirty. He stopped right away and I told him how good he was and that I love him. He then says, “I love…”, and I think he’s going to say either “you” or “Mommy”, but he says “I love my sheets.”

When I picked Evan up at school they said he was being very sweet today and hugging Wendy (the teacher) all day. They gave the kids different types of apples today. Evan’s favorite was the red apple. I asked Evan what he did today and he told me he played hide-and-seek with Natasha (assistant teacher) and that she read them Humpty Dumpty.

Hello October

Last night was rough. Noah wasn’t feeling well from his shots and was up from 1am-3am. I tried everything to get him to sleep. Even the Motrin didn’t help. Morry eventually had to walk him around until he finally fell asleep. Today Noah has been really cranky too. For his nap I had to rock him for a while to get him to sleep.

This morning we met Melissa and walked around the lake. I brought bread again for Evan to feed the birds and again, he ate a lot of it before we even got to the birds. There weren’t many birds around, but there were some fish and turtles that were happy to get the bread.

For lunch Evan had mac and cheese, dried peas/corn, and wheat thins. We also had some apples and honey. I forgot to do that yesterday. Evan wasn’t sure he wanted the apples with honey, but he finally tried it and of course, liked it. I also cut open a pomegranate. Evan loved that. It’s been a while since he has had pomegranate and he kept telling me he liked it.

Noah hardly napped.

I tutored tonight from 5:30-6:30 and then met Morry, Evan, Noah, and Dad/Lenny/Papa at Matt’s El Rancho for dinner. We didn’t have to wait and got a nice table on the patio. The food was really good. When they brought out the chips and salsa Evan asked for guacamole so we ordered one for Evan and Papa to share. Evan ate a ton and was double-dipping so Papa ended up getting his own. Noah slept pretty much the whole dinner.

School for Evan, HEB, ...

Noah has started reaching his hands up when he wants to be picked up. It’s cute. When you go over to pick him up from the exersaucer or swing he puts his arms up.

Today Evan had school. Evan’s teacher Wendy was not there today because she is sick and right away he asked where she was. He seemed disappointed that she wasn’t there to read the train book to him. He mentioned the train book again before we left the house today.

After I dropped him off Noah and I went to HEB to pick up a few things for playgroup tomorrow. It is our turn to host. We have a little playgroup for kids Evan’s age. We used to meet on Thursday mornings, but now that many of the kids in the group are going to pre-schools on different days we alternate days we meet. One week we’ll meet on a Friday, the next a Thursday. Usually whoever hosts puts out a few snacks for the kids and moms. I’m going to make blueberry muffins, cranberry apple crisp, and a fruit salad.

On our way into HEB we saw Bodar, Marissa’s mom. Marissa is in our playgroup as well as Evan’s class at school. Then inside, we saw Susan and Laurel. Laurel is also in the playgroup, but she goes to school MWF.

Oh, at HEB I was able to buy honeycrisp apples (Morry's favorite). We look forward to this time of year when the honeycrisps come back out. If you haven't had one, you should try it. It's tart and crunchy.

After HEB I went for walk(1mi)/run(1mi) with Noah and Lizzy. I had just enough time get home, shower, and feed Noah lunch. Then, it was time to pick up Evan. Right when I walked in, he came up to me and asked for a muffin. I asked the teacher what that was about, why he wanted a muffin. Natasha said Marissa sat by Evan at lunch and she had a muffin that he wanted. Ms. Aranza (the sub and Spanish teacher) told Evan he should ask his mom if he could have a muffin. So, of course, he remembered and asked me first thing. Anyway, I told Evan we would make muffins tomorrow for playgroup. I asked if Evan was good today and they said he’s always good and listens well. That was good to hear. On the way home in the car Evan asked me where I went today.