Super Birthday Party

Last weekend was Ronin's super fun superhero 4th birthday party! I think everyone had a good time, minus the headaches some of the adults may have gotten ;) I know Ronin had a blast! I tried to get all the games, present opening, and cake done with within 2 hours... I think we did well.  We played "pin the emblem on the superhero", "disarm the bombs", and "superhero obstacle course".   The favorite with the kids was the obstacle course - they laughed when Rory did a practice run through to show them how it's done.  Ronin got some really great things from his generous friends and family.  His actual birthday isn't until Tuesday so he'll have to wait to open presents from us...  but he's been having fun playing with his bug-vaccum, many racing cars and the "goo" that came with his Scooby Doo toy.   We are watching the Phineas and Ferb movie tonight before bathtime.  He got a lot of great things!

Quinn slept through most of the party, what a good boy!  He seems pretty pooped tonight from all the excitment of being passed around at the end of the party.  The other day I was flying him over my head doing "super baby" and he barfed on my head, like an inch from my open mouth...  I was so lucky it wasn't in my mouth. haha  No more "super baby" right after meals.   We also noticed he's been watching us eating very intently and mimicking our chewing movements, so we gave him a few spoonfuls of rice cereal.  He seemed to really like it.  Ronin didn't eat anything besides formula until he was 6 months, but had no desire to either.  Quinn really wants to eat with us.  I figured that since we had to give Ronin rice cereal in his bottles as a baby to keep his acid reflux down, that it didn't hurt for Quinn to try some, although in my opinion it's kinda early!

Birthday boy

Daddy

and some Quinn pictures!

Trying cereal...

Cutest baby in the whole world!

Quinn must be going through yet another growth spurt, he's suddenly needing tons more food - I can't keep up with the demand anymore and am trying to decide now much longer I can breastfeed before we switch completely to formula...  who knew breastfeeding was one of the hardest things to do!  It's so much easier to just pop a bottle in their mouth... but I love how cuddly and happy he is when I do and I feel like I'd be taking that away from him...   Argh!  Parenting = guilt.  non stop! haha   Well I love my boys and they are already growing up too fast so I will just go with the flow for now.  :)  

Quinn has been talking a ton (babble) and it's so cute how he talks with his eyes, you can tell if it's a silly story because his eyebrows will be up high and his voice is very sing songy- but when it's a serious story, his eyebrows narrow and his babble becomes very serious.  So cute!

Ronin got a trampoline for his birthday as well - we'll be setting that up sometime this week - get the boy out of the house now that Spring is here!   Although the weight limit is 110 pounds... sooo needless to say I won't be getting on it!  booh!

Another great week -- Lots of love!

C

I mustache you a question...

One of the final weeks of Ronin being a 3 year old... I swear sometimes I think he's turning 13... He's so smart and comes up with the best stories.  The other day we saw people riding horses on TV and I said "mommy used to do that all the time"  and he responded with "Oh, did they not have cars when you were little so you had to ride horses everywhere?"  which is normally a smartass comment we make to our parents at somepoint jabbing at their age -- but he actually realized that cars weren't around at some point and horses were used.  Smart boy!

Quinn is such a smiley boy!  Ronin smiled a lot too, but Quinn seems to really love being a baby.  Ronin never really bounced in his bouncer and hated his Johnny Jump Up - like he was in a hurry to NOT be a baby anymore.  But Quinn really enjoys all his baby toys and is always happy doing baby things.  One thing I'm really going to miss when I stop nursing is how Quinn will be almost finished nursing and he'll pause and turn to stare at me- and when I look down at him he gets the biggest smile and then acts all shy and burries his head down to finish nursing again.

Quinn excited to bounce!

Ronin jumping on the bed

Quinn a little freaked out about the brightness of daddy's camera.

Mustache from his birthday party supplies...

Funny boys :)

lots of love,

C

Quinn meets the common cold

Poor Dr. Coconut got his first cold this last week from big brother, along with a nasty cough.  He saw his doctor and it's just a normal cold.  Poor guy!  We stayed home with him today (Monday) because he's so miserable and needs his mommy :)

It's been a very uneventful, if not just plain lazy, week and weekend, except for me going back to work... And now everyone is getting Ronin's cold.  I did manage to get Ronin's birthday invitations out with handmade superhero masks for each kid.  I also cut out thier initals from sparkly foam for their capes.  I still have a lot left to do...

Ronin has two of my horse trophy's on his shelf now.  I was going through storage and found a box of old trophy's- he stole them and put them in his room.  I told him someday he can earn his own trophy's, he said "no, I want these ones".  Way to aim high Ronin! haha

And now pictures of the week:

Tongue boy!

Googly eye boy

Lots of love til next week!

C

Dust-wolves and Edward Scissorhands

Today is the second day back to work. It's going to suck not waking up with the boys every morning. There was so much more I had planned to do while on leave, I feel like I barely accomplished anything besides watching cartoons with Ronin (way too many!) and feeding Quinn (non-stop).  So much for my grand plans of getting on the treadmill daily and taking Ronin to fun places every week...  But I'm actually doing well at work, it's nice to look forward to seeing the boys and having normal "adult" things to do during the day.  It makes me want to spend quality time with them at the end of the day :)

Aunt Melanie came up for the weekend to see Quinn for the first time.  The boys loved having her attention and it was sad to see her go home!

I've been going home at lunch and Ronin actually misses me and wants hugs from me.  Quinn just smiles at me and wants to snuggle like always.  :)  It's been tough getting him to bed before 11 these last two nights, I'm hoping he'll go to bed earlier for me soon!  Last night he slept for 6 1/2 hours though!

Ronin has a cold this week and asked daddy "why is my body doing this to me?!"  haha  Poor guy!  And Quinn is not really liking drinking from a bottle- he swallows too much air.  But Angie has been doing an awesome job of taking care of the kids while we are at work!  It's so nice not to have to wake everyone up, get them dressed, throw them in the car (sometimes while they are screaming/crying) and drive to someone elses house to unload all their crap and get them in the house...   I love just getting myself ready, saying good-bye and driving to work!

Quinn has learned how to stick out his bottom lip this last week, it's sooo soooo cute, but also sooo sad at the same time!  I tried to get a picture but he won't let me.  hehe

We finally got our 2-month baby pictures back from the photo company, they turned out okay, my favorite is Ronin and Quinn of course.   Now Quinn has thinned out and just seems really long instead of compact and pudgy, so he already looks different than the photos...

I sent off Ronins birthday invitiations today!  He's so excited, and truthfully I kind of am too, I love planning these things!  He even posed for his superhero picture for me.  He is so excited to have his friends all play superhero with him...  we'll have games and fun prizes, should be one to remember!

Here's some of his poses:

And here is Ronin with his best furry-buddy:

Ronin has been very dramatic lately, telling us "This is the worst day of my life" when he is sad and "This is the best day of my life" when he is super happy.  It's very cute!  He also picked up the words "moisture" and "bacteria" -he likes to use in random sentences, it's so funny to see his vocabulary expanding!  It's probably due to too many cartoons!   At least now that I'm back to work he doesn't watch cartoons as much.   He's worried about werewolves lately.  He's not worried about dust bunnies anymore, so I had to replace them with dust-wolves that will eat him up if he hides under tables at restaurants.  He recently watched Edward Scissorhands with us and was very curious about how Edward made it snow when he did ice sculptures with his hands.  He told us that God gives Edward ice so he can make it snow at our house. 

Ronin also found some of my molars I kept, and when I put them in his hand he said "can you take them, they are kind of freaking me out" haha!  But then he tried to put them under his pillow for the tooth fairy.  I told him you can't fool the tooth fairy! In the morning he was sad that the tooth fairy didn't come.  ;)
And a recent picture of Quinn from this week:

He loves this frog!  See- long and skinny boy now!

Lots of love,
C

Speech bubbles

It's my last week of maternity leave and I'm trying to tidy up things, finish projects and work on things for Ronin's birthday party- including a superhero photo prop where the kids stck their heads in the hole to pretend to be a super hero...  I put a "speech bubble" above the head that says "Happy 4th Birthday Ronin!"  Ronin asked me about it so I explained what the bubble was...  when I was putting him down for nap- I said something to him and he looked above my head- I asked what he was looking at and he said "I'm looking for a speech bubble..."  Smart alec!!  haha

Quinn started laughing outloud this week, it's so cute, he just melts my heart when he smiles or laughs. 

Ronin and Quinn will now be watched by Rory's cousin, Angela.  It will be so nice to have the boys at home and not have to wake them, dress, and feed them before I go to work every morning.  Ang brought Ronin some 3-D chalk the other day - we had fun coloring his wall with it---

He drew a hot air balloon (behind his head).

That's about it this week.  I will miss my boys next week, but feel a little relieved knowing they are at home and I know Angela will have fun with them. 

Lots of Love,

C

Sleepover Success!

This last weekend we watched Sean for the night while Mike & Shelley got to go to Mike's work party.  Ronin was so excited to have a sleepover and Sean was really well-behaved.  They stayed awake chattering forever!  I think they finally crashed around 10pm, and around midnight I heard Sean trying to wake Ronin "Ronin.... Ronin Jones!"  Rory went in to check on him.  He just missed his mommy and Ronin was passed out and not waking up for him.  I went in there after Rory, gave him a hug and let him watch Star Wars on the portable DVD player until he fell asleep... which he did eventually until they both woke at 8am.  They wanted chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, but all I had were butterscotch chips, they loved them with a side of marshmellows :)

Brushing their teeth...

Watching movies before bed

We've been busy repainting, re-finishing, and remodeling this last week...  the living room has a new paint job, the walls under the cabinets in the kitchen got a new paint job, the cabinets are still under-going re-finishing to a darker "cherry" stain...  and we walled off the laundry room from the garage and it now has a door to the back room...  lots of work!

Quinn has been sleeping shorter periods of time at night for a while, but the last 2 nights he's been sleeping his normal 5 hour stretch again.  I'm sure it was a growth spurt!  I also kind of think he could be teething... he's always got to have something in his mouth and gets really fussy for no reason for a few minutes each day...  I can't wait until he starts sitting up and being  more active :)

Quinn in his johnny jump up

Ronin's swim buddies- Caden and Peyton

Where did my 8 hours of sleep at night go?  and my freedom to get up and pee whenever I want?  I will be happy when they return!!

lots of love,

C

Snow!

Last weekend we got to visit Nana and Papa in Goldendale.  Ronin loves the new puppy, Bella, and loves chasing the other dogs too.  He told nana to garage sale the rest of the dogs so Sammy the "angry" dog won't be so angry anymore.  haha!

Ronin and Bella

Ronin making hand and feet prints in the dusting of snow

Tuesday we meet up with Sean and Madeline at JJ Jump to jump on all the bounce houses and slides.  That night we got a bunch of snow so had to hurry and get dressed before the rain melted it.  Ronin was soooo excited :)  We got the last sled at Walmart - lucky! 

The snowman

Rory took him sledding nearby

Hooray for snow!

My smiling boy :)

Ronin and Sean- BFF's :)

aw!

So this weekend is Ronin's first sleepover!  Sean will be over Saturday night and has already requested chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  haha!  Ronin is really excited- I just hope it goes smoother than the last time we tried it!  I'll try not to make Sean cry this time.  ;)   We are also trying to build on a spare room with the back part of the garage so we'll have a guitar/craft/guest room again...  fun fun!

lots of love,
C

Doctor Coconut

Ronin has decided to rename his brother "Dr. Coconut" after watching an episode of his cartoon Phineas & Ferb.  Quinn seems to like his new monicker because he smiles big when we call him Dr. Coconut.

It's been a trying week because Ronin has really been testing us and acting out a lot.  I feel bad that he doesn't get as much attention as he used to, but I'm sure it's something all first borns go through with new siblings.  The other night after many bedtime stories from both Rory and I, Ronin yelled from his room that he wanted more stories.  We just ignored him as he screamed it over and over... until he finally stopped telling us he wanted more stories and instead yelled "All right Daddy- If you don't read me more stories the NO MORE FAMILY! I mean it Daddy- No More Family!"  After hearing how serious his threat was we both started busting up laughing!  After a few seconds of that Ronin yelled "Mommy- you need to stop laughing!!!"   He finally fell asleep but I'm sure he was thinking of a way to follow through on his threat first.

Quinn seems to be getting more of a personality now.  He always smiles so big when I change his diaper, even when I wipe him with a cold baby wipe.  Such a happy boy!  He just went in for his 2 month check up- he weighs 13 lbs 11 oz now, 90th percentile for weight.  70th percentile for height.  He got 3 shots too, poor guy, he was really fussy for the rest of that day and the next.

Diaper change time!

Ronin helping me paint the living room.



Only a couple more weeks left until work...  ugh :(

Lots of love,

C