Weekend Update

Saturday morning the boys went skating before going to a birthday party at friend Walter's for the afternoon. Friends Emily and Chris and their kids came over for dinner. Sunday the boys went skiing at a new mountain, Labrador, and by all accounts had a much better experience than at Song. If Daddy hadn't forgotten his phone we'd have some photos and videos of the boys going up the tow rope and skiing down a pretty long run. Pretty cool! I can't wait to see it myself. Auntie Alexis came to visit Sunday afternoon, so we enjoyed lots of great food and downtime.

And friends Leah and Jon came over in the afternoon to take the boys to the park for a while to enjoy the sun and 60+ degree weather, which was amazing, and then stayed for pizza and Oscars. A great weekend!

Last Sunday we went to Salt City Dishes, a fun event to celebrate local social entrepreneurs and pick a community project to crowd fund. Great food and drink, too! Reed enjoyed some quality time with Leah and Jon.

School vacation

Last week while the boys had winter vacation and Jeff took his monthly jaunt to the North Country for work, Grandma Kathy came to stay. Thank goodness she did, because Mama Lovebo had court Tuesday morning, a presentation Wednesday morning, and then work all day Thursday. Grandma Kathy ended up having to take Theo to the doctor Thursday morning (double ear infections!). And she remained calm and patient throughout, even while Grandpa Greg underwent his own health ordeal back home (thanks Uncle Jon for helping out there so Grandma Kathy could stay with us!).

Friday afternoon we painted in the kitchen. Reed loved watching the big boys painting and we had to move the easel a few times as he inched closer and closer to the paint.

Friday morning we went to Skyzone, a trampoline place nearby. Beckett bounced his little butt off but Theo was still feeling a little tired (he was diagnosed with double ear infections the day before) so he mostly hung with baby Reed. These two are pretty good buds.

Friday Theo helped me make a veggie tofu stirfry. Didn't make him want to eat it.

February celebrations

The Friday before school winter break the boys had their Valentines Day celebrations in their classrooms. Theo's class decorated sugar cookies with frosting and had LOTS of sweet treats, which Theo enjoyed with his buddies Louca, Solei and De'ari.

Theo's celebration was at 1pm, and Beckett's didn't start til 2, so Theo got to enjoy two parties! Beckett's teachers were nice enough to set another place for Theo. Beckett's class had a more subdued celebration, with clementines, fruit juice (which Beckett does not like--he only drinks water), pretzels (Beckett's favorite), and cupcakes. Beckett sat with his friends Avoni, Kaeden, Owen, and Walter. Maximino, Kieran and Anthony also posed.

Amaya and Jaya posed with their snacks.

Later that night we went to Blarney Stone for Emily's birthday celebration--burgers, beers, and the best grilled cheese outside of our home!

Reed eating

A regular dinner for Reed--tofu, blueberries, cherries, avocado. I think he had some yogurt and oatmeal cereal to accompany. He wasn't crazy about this marinated Ithaca tofu but for the cherries, there is no natural stopping point. LOVES the cherries. He's still getting the hang of the sippy cup so he's not drinking much water, but when given the chance he loves to fling the cup around, splashing water everywhere.

Baby velociraptor

Reed's been doing this funny dinosaur baby noise lately. It seems sometimes like it's to make us laugh, or get our attention.

Reed

Reed is now 9.5 months old. His skills are: sitting, smiling, laughing, using toys as tools (using one to reach another), and stuffing just about everything into his mouth. He eats more than I ever remember Theo and Beckett eating. Maybe I just didn't realize how much babies like to feed themselves. If I put something on his tray that he can grab himself and shove in his mouth, he will. I have seen him eat a quarter of an avocado in one sitting, a quarter cup of spicy bean and corn chili, tofu with spicy peanut-garlic sauce, black and kidney and pinto beans until the end of time. Favorites seem to be mixed vegetables, like the ones that I get that are frozen. When we've had chicken pot pie the last few weeks, Reed has gone to town on the peas, green beans, corn, soybeans, and carrots from the mix. Especially the peas. He's also tried cookies with frosting (Friday at the boys' Valentines' Day parties), cake, and noodles. He liked beef in the chili I made for New Years Eve. He eats grapes and blueberries until the food runs out. In the mornings he usually lets me feed him things from a spoon, so he eats lots of oatmeal and rice cereal and full-fat plain yogurt. Friday morning he ate six or seven bowls of yogurt (I lost count). No crawling yet, but he's doing lots of sitting, leaning, reaching, lunging, and rolling to get where he wants to go.

His sleep has been erratic lately. Two weeks ago he went three nights sleeping from 7 or 7:30 til 7am. Since then he's been up one, two, three or more times. One night he woke up every hour from 8 until midnight, then twice more before 7am. It looks to us like he's about to start crawling, plus he has four teeth (two up, two down) that are fully out along with three more working their way out now. Maybe he just has a lot going on. The nights I've given him ibuprofen before bed he hasn't seemed to sleep any better. And it's not like he can't put himself to sleep, because many nights I put him down and he's awake and chatting and rolling over for 20-30 minutes before he puts himself to sleep, and many nights I wake up in the middle of the night to him mumbling or singing to himself, and then over several minutes (never crying) he just goes back to sleep. So I'm not really sure. I wish we were all getting more uninterrupted sleep, though!

Just a quiet weekend at home

Which is kind of a joke. There are no quiet weekends at home these days. Even on a weekend when we have nothing planned outside of the house (which is rare), we are still responsible for three little people who need food and entertainment and attention and boo-boo kisses and mediation and naps etc. I do have a lot of fun with everyone, and it's really fun for me to see the big boys starting to have fun playing with Reed. More often it's Theo giving Reed toys or singing to him but I caught Beckett playing a game with Reed (of Beck's invention) where he would give Reed containers to put plastic balls in, and then trade them out, all while jumping around and laughing, which made Reed laugh.

Sometimes the only way I'm going to get the cooking done is to have Reed with me in a carrier while I cook. When I'm working on the stove or oven, the back-carry seems like the safest bet.

Daddy snuck in some Reed cuddles.

Sunday Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu came over for a late afternoon visit and dinner. Photos were taken, but everyone looked weird and blurry, so we don't have any documentation. :(

Grandpa Greg and Grandma Kathy came for a visit Saturday. They got to watch the boys ice skating and then we had a pretty quiet day at home drawing, reading, and playing games.

It's hard for Beckett to keep still even when playing a memory game on the floor. Always in motion!

More ice skating, sledding and skiing

Saturday Claire stayed home with Reed while I took the boys to ice skating lessons. The week before they spent a lot of time on the ice, falling down and getting up, and it sounded pretty frustrating. Beckett was still game for trying it again but Theo was pretty mad about having to go again. I tried cajoling but eventually settled on bribery, promising him a Winnie the Pooh movie when we got back from skating. There was still a lot of whining in the car on the way (nothing that blasting the Frozen soundtrack can't fix) but when I told him that we would get figure skates this time, and that I would try a smaller size for him (Theo is a size 9 shoe, Beckett is a size 10, but Jeff had gotten them both 10s the week before), he calmed down enough for me to put his skates and gear on. By the time he was laced up in his tan skates, he was pretty happy.

There must be some kind of muscle and brain work that happens when you try something and then take time off before trying it again, because the boys were on their feet way more than on the ice. Another mom who had seen Theo and Beckett last week commented that they were incredibly improved from last week-"they were on the ice most of the time last week!" You can tell from their faces that they were thrilled with their progress. They went up and back again and again, using slow marching motions with just a tiny bit of glide in their steps.

After the 25 minute lesson they didn't want to stop, so I let them go back out on the practice ice, where they kept right on skating. Theo even met another little girl who showed him a few cool techniques. Theo was enraptured.

Saturday night our neighbor Will texted that he and his three boys were heading out for some sledding behind the school around the block, so we trekked out for some nighttime sledding. The difference a year makes is pretty remarkable. Last year the boys needed help getting themselves up the hill, especially carrying their sleds, but this year Beckett just got right up, dropped his sled down, and in one movement, threw himself onto it and propelled himself down the hill. He got some of the longest runs of the night all by himself. Theo liked Mr. Will to push him down really fast.

Sunday Jeff encouraged me to take all three boys to Song Mountain to get Theo and Beckett another ski lesson. Of course, there's no way in hell Jeff would have taken two four year olds and a baby as well as all the snow gear to a mountain for ski lessons, but I did it ONLY because Sara and Preston came along to help. Theo and Beckett's job was to encourage Preston to participate in his lesson, and Sara was a huge help in carrying gear and herding and guiding me around the complex. Reed and I hung out at the lodge while the big boys had their lesson.