The rice is back!

Around this time last year I wrote a blog about how my kids never play with their toys and instead they play with pots, pans, boxes, etc. One of these was a tub full of rice. This activity with rice was their absolute favorite thing to do and my least favorite thing to do (because of the mess) but I'm so sick of winter and desperate for new activities that do not involve the TV and computer, so out came the rice again! I got a little smarter this year and bought it at Sam's club...25 lbs for $9.00. 25 pounds is enough to feed a small country...so if you're interested in doing this activity, you could easily split it with someone.

Not much has changed from last year. Max still puts rice in Mya's hair which in turn goes down her shirt and into her diaper. Mya still eats it and throw it outside of the box. One box is still not enough and the mess is still there:) The differences are this year they don't fit into tub, Mya has hair and they no longer look at the camera when I ask. Instead of dealing with it in the kitchen, I moved it to the utility room in the basement so we could use the wet/dry vac to clean it up when we're through!

Here are a couple pictures. One last year and one this year. If you missed the post about it last year, you can read it here.

Grace Elizabeth Huinker

We have a new niece around here! Grace was born this morning weighing in at 7 lbs 10 oz. I don't know any of the other measurements yet. Amanda is doing well and so is Brian. He told me it got a little hairy at the end and he nearly puked at one point when he saw the concern on the nurse's face, but everything turned out perfectly. The name is very fitting for this little girl....being that because of her, Amanda was at the doctor and they found the mole that turned out to be cancer. Apparently Gracie looks exactly like Olivia when she was a baby...black hair on her ears and all:) Here's a picture of the beeming, proud father of two little girls.



We'll be heading up to Decorah sometime in the next week to meet her. They don't allow visitors who aren't grandparents in the hospital, so we'll wait a few days before going. I'll post some new pictures after we see her!

Parenting at its best

I don't know about you guys, but when I didn't have kids, I was a major "judger" of other people's parenting. I'd be talking to someone whose kid wasn't sleeping through the night at 6 months and tell myself that my kids will NOT be getting up in the night when they're that old! I'd see kids with pacifiers at age 2 and shake my head. Now, almost 3 years into my career as a mom, I have hung up the judging. I seriously do not judge anyone on anything they do. You just never know when something is going to happen to you or when your situation is going to change and you'll find yourself doing the very thing you said you'd never do. Like when my friend Kindel told me she was pregnant with #2 when her first daughter was only 4 months old. I remember clearly telling Chris...doesn't she know how that happens?? Well, guess what? Just a few months later, it was me! Our neighbors in Cedar Falls used to take their video monitors outside with them and hang out with friends while their kids were sleeping inside. I would never do such a thing is what I said then. Now, we do the exact same thing! My friend Tracy received the brunt of my judgment. She's about 2 years ahead of me in her parenting career and so every time Tate would get to a new stage, I'd think to myself, I would never do that. Well....I did it. Nearly every single thing.

Max didn't have juice until he was 18 months old. I didn't think he needed it and nutritionally it wasn't really beneficial. Guess how old Mya was when she got her first sip of juice? 8 or 9 months. I didn't even purchase a juice box until Max was at least 2 years old. Mya was carrying her first juice box at 11 months. Max just learned in the last few months what gum was. Guess who else has had her fair share of gum? Yep...you guessed it. Mya.

What sparked this post is what happened this afternoon here at the Hoden household. There's a long list of things that happened, but one of them was....Chloe ATE a poopy diaper. Ate the poop right out of it and then ripped the diaper to shreds. Let's just say it was not a good night for Chris to call at 4:45 and tell me something came up and he had no idea when he'd be home. So here's a picture of how my kids ate dinner tonight. The Hungry Jack just add water pancakes with no fruit and no vegetables. If you would have told me 3 years ago that at some point in the next few years my kids would sit in front of the TV eating a dinner with no nutritional value, I'd have told them they were smoking crack. Here we are.



In the end, tonight's dinner is going to have no lasting effect on their lives. 95% of the meals they eat (while I'm cooking at least) will have some nutritional value and will not be in front of the TV. However, when the going gets tough, I'll do just about anything to keep my sanity and get a few minutes break....including Curious George at dinner and letting my 18 month old daughter chew some gum. Let's just hope the whole "it will stay in your stomach for 7 years" thing is a myth:)

Growing up

This morning I signed Max up for preschool for next fall. It's only the end of January, but this was the first day you could do it and I wanted to be sure he got in. He was #10 of 16 possible spots in the class, so we were okay! His future teachers were really nice and welcoming. They showed us both the 3 year old room where he will be and the 4 year old room for the next year. He loved every second we were there and would have gladly stayed if I would have let him! Now I just have to figure out how to make him forget about it until next September!

As happy as he was at his new school, I had a huge pit in my stomach. I wasn't expecting to feel this way, but being there made me have that homesick feeling in my stomach! I can't believe I'll have a 3 year old soon and that he'll be going to school before we know it! He is growing up though whether or not I like it. He has been saying some very grown up things lately and I had a list going because they were ones I don't want to forget! Here they are!

"Mom, I can't put my shoes on because my feet are too long!"

"My poop just won't go away!"

"I can't play with Mya. She's not big enough for me."

(talking to my mom on the phone) "Well, I better let you go!"

"I can't close my eyes. My eyes are broken."

(when I try to skip pages/words in the bedtime books) "Mom, you forgot to talk!"

I haven't taken many pictures lately, so I decided to put a baby picture with this post. He was 8 weeks old here.

Golden birthday in months!

Mya Pat is 18 months on the 18th! Don't know if this qualifies as a golden month birthday or if I just made that up? Yes, she has a mullet going on, but I can't get myself to cut the curls and she won't keep a pony in very well! No more baby...definitely into the toddler stage with a trace of the terrible twos! Here's what she's up to lately.

VERY into shoes, boots and socks. If we could do away with those three things as a part of our day, things would go much smoother around here. She wants them on, then off, then on, then off ALL DAY LONG. Her vocabulary is pretty good, but she is very frustrated by my inability to understand what she wants when it comes to shoes, boots and socks.




Finally loves books and will sit and listen to books before bed. Thank you Sandra Boynton..without you, my daughter may not have listened to a book until kindergarten.

Takes monkey see monkey do to a whole new level when it comes to Max. He jumps,she jumps. He cries, she cries. He decides he's done eating, she's done eating. Max is pretty annoyed by her most days...especially in the morning and right after naps when she's so bright eyed and bushy tailed and wants to love on him. He requires a lot longer to "wake-up" and does not want Mya touching him in the meantime.

Her vocabulary is expanding. I don't have a list going, but some of our favorites are actually the words that she mispronounces. Chloe comes out E-O. She drops food on the floor and calls, "E-O". You'd think she would say O-E if anything. The funniest part about this is that Chloe actually responds to this name. Max comes out Matt and she substitutes some words for other words. For example....cameras are cheese, pillows are night-night, cows are moos, and her head is hat.

She continues to be a real treat in the car. Our friends Ron and Maryanne rode with her to and from Cedar Falls last weekend. We're pretty sure Mya single handily delayed them having kids for at least another...oh, I don't know 25 years?

Overall...she's a huge bundle of energy. Lots of energy can be translated to lots of work at times, but her hugs and kisses make everything worth it. She holds on tight for hugs for 10-15 seconds and it's pure bliss. Just ask the Grandparents. Can't wait to see what the next 18 months bring!

Way to go Vikes!

Our daddy is the Vikings #1 fan in our opinion, but today he is flying over the ocean and completely missed that great game! He would have been so happy with the way they played....probably would have taken us all out to eat tonight! We cheered hard and are looking forward to him being back on the couch next week for the big game!



Our neighbors (Packers Fans) were so kind to support us in putting this Viking guy up in their front yard! We really appreciate it Errthums! (okay, okay...there's a small chance we had something to do with this:)



On another note..I (Max) went to the River Museum today to see Word Girl and listen to story time with the IPTV guy Dan Wordell! I got my picture taken with "Dantastic" and gave Word Girl a huge hug! My mom caught all of that on camera, but then against her better judgment gave me the camera on the way home and I accidentally erased all of the pictures! My mom was pretty bummed. I had my mom make me a homemade cape right when we got home and insist that everyone in the house (including the dog) wear one too! I am truly a superhero now!

Trip to the dentist!

Yesterday was Max's first dentist appointment. The age range on when to go to the dentist varies from person to person. Some start when their kid's first tooth pops through, others go at 2 (which is what the pediatricians say I'm pretty sure) and others like myself wait until they know there's a chance their kid will actually sit in the chair! I still had to go into my bag of tricks and get my bribes ready in full force. Lucky for me, I didn't need them! Max was a star patient. The worst part was getting him away from the toys in the waiting room! I laid down in the chair and he laid on top of me, which seemed to work really well. Also, they put cartoons on the TV so he was concentrating on that at the same time everything was going on. He let the hygienist clean his teeth with the tickle brush and then he let her rinse them off, but didn't want to do the suction thing to get the saliva out, so he just swallowed it:) The dentist did her check and said he had great teeth with no cavities and plenty of room for the big teeth to come in. The best news I heard was that there wasn't really any need to floss at this point, the brushing is getting between his teeth. Who knew having a gap between your teeth was such a great thing!

I have a strong dislike for most things "dental". My dental history is a story in itself. Let's just hope the kids got Chris's teeth. So far so good! I don't think we'll have the same luck with Mya though...she got her teeth looked at yesterday too and there's lots of crowding already on her bottom teeth and they're just the baby ones! Who knows what it will look like when the permanent ones come in. Poor thing.

Playtime

Any time I can get my kids to play together in a civil manner without me is a big deal around here. They play pretty well individually, but together they fight like cats and dogs. People are always saying how wonderful it must be to have them at an age when they can play together. I usually smile and say, yep! I lie. They can't play together for squat. Occasionally if it involves running and jumping, they do okay. Here's a few pictures of them playing together yesterday. Mya's new thing is running and jumping into your arms. After doing this with her 155 times in a row, I decided to solicit Max to take my place! He loved it and so did she. I could have had some free time, but instead chose to take pictures!

You look sharp!

Who knew a simple phrase "You look sharp" could have such a lasting effect on a young boy. On Christmas Eve, my dad got Max dressed in his preppy sweater vest outfit that I bought him for Christmas. When he was fully dressed, my dad told him he looked "sharp." Apparently you shouldn't say that to him. He cried for 5 minutes and kept saying..."I don't want to be sharp, I don't want to be sharp". By this point we were all telling him that he was by no means sharp..that he looked really hideous in this outfit, etc. He finally got over it and we were on our way.

Last Friday night we went to a wedding and I decided to dress my kids in their Christmas outfits since they grow out of them so fast and only got to wear them once. I got his pants and shirt on and when he saw the dreaded sweater vest...the sobbing began. "I don't want to be sharp...etc" I told him he was NOT sharp at all, but he had to wear the vest anyway! Here was his next line. "So, I'm only sharp at Grandma's house?" I replied...yep, you're only sharp at Grandma's house, not at your house. That was all he needed I guess. He put the sweater on and never mentioned another word. Funny how we as parents have to tiptoe around certain things...can not mention certain words or they'll think it means something else or it reminds them of something bad, etc.

The wedding was fun, but Chris and I decided it would be the last one we attend as a family for awhile. Babysitters are worth the money:) Mya spent most of the night pointing at women's pretty shoes and stealing their purses. Yes, I mean stealing. She would walk around and grab their purses and then bring them back to our table. I'd have to go and find the person whose purse it was! This girl is girly...not sure what I'm in for! Max spent the majority of the night chasing kids who were a few years older than him and testing his limits of not going down the steps out of our sight. Oh well...we live and learn, right? Here's a pic of Max in the sweater vest. I don't know about you, but I think he looks pretty sharp!

Tech savvy 2 year old

It feels like computers have been around forever. I honestly don't know what I'd do without mine. I told Chris the other day that I could live without cable before I could live without Internet. I'm pretty sure that I'm an active, knowledgable member of society because of Facebook, e-mailing, blogging, reading magazines, and reading the news online.

I remember getting our first computer at home when I was 12. It was the one with the green screen and the printer printed one line at a time and all the paper was connected. We thought it was the coolest. We had a few games...Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego was a favorite of mine and I'm pretty sure that's why I passed all of my social studies classes! Then came the Internet. I think I was a sophomore or junior in high school when this came around and we'd go down to the IMC (aka library) for classes and would spend 39 of the 42 minutes waiting for Netscape navigator to work! At the time, I loved this. I could sit and chat with my friends while the teacher ran around frantically trying to get the Internet to work! Now that I look back...I feel really sorry for those teachers because things like that have happened to me and it's no fun trying to figure that out with 29 kids staring at you and laughing under their breath.

The reason for all of this reminiscing is that Chris recently taught Max how to operate the mouse on the computer, so now he can play his little curious George games by himself! It's pretty funny to walk downstairs and see him on the computer looking like an adult. He can move from screen to screen, game to game and loves to show us what he has done. He hates to be interrupted from his computer time to do anything..especially eat or sleep.

If Max is doing this at 2 years old, what will he be doing when he gets in school? I'm sure they'll have individual laptops that they will carry around with them from class to class. Assignments will be e-mailed to the students and then e-mailed back to the teachers. Heck, we're almost there already now! I can't even fathom where technology will lead us in the coming years. Max will graduate high school in 2025. Who knows what they'll come up with by then, but I'm sure it will be something we just can't live without and wonder how we did it before!