Survival Mode: Week 28

Dear Children, 

This week has been a weird one. Nathan first got sick with a cold, followed by short bout of diarrhea. Then, Hannah started cold symptoms, and a few days later, mommy is down for the count as well. Hence, the late post. I chose to take a nap instead. As I'm uploading these pictures, I'm patting myself on the back for at least making sure the kids are warmly dressed in this unseasonably cold spring that we are having. I don't win any awards for fashionable, or even semi-coordinated, but when you are cooped up in the house and you can't find any pants that a toddler can easily pull down himself to go potty in, you get creative. So, if you came by our house this past week, this is how you two were typically dressed and I probably didn't look that much different. 

One good thing did come out of the diarrhea, though, is that Nathan now is more aware of when Nature calls and will tell us when he needs to go potty. If he does have an accident, he is not ok with wearing wet undies and will even make sure that we are not sneaking on a dirty pair back on him. (Not that we've ever even tried.) Nathan is pretty much wearing undies all the time except for when he is at school and when he sleeps. Maybe he'll be completely potty trained before he's two and a half, and if he's not, it's ok too. 

Since we've been stuck at home for many days, we've had to get creative on how we spend our time. Nathan even helped me make shake and bake chicken for dinner one night. 

 (I wasn't joking about the outfits...)

Which turned out to be a great hit with both Hannah and Nathan.

I don't know why I don't make this more often, but it's quick and easy, and most importantly, Nathan will eat it, even when he's sick. 

I've decided that we are going to try the baby-led weaning method as far as introducing foods to Hannah. This basically means no purees and you just give baby chunks of food that she can eat herself. We had this little feeder that Nathan never really liked to use and Hannah really likes eating from it. 

She also went to town on a teething cracker. (Teddy was on standby to catch anything that fell)

Since Nathan has weird issues with food textures, maybe this will help prevent that from happening to Hannah, and who knows, Nathan may even try out new foods as Hannah tries them herself. 

Other than being sick and trying to recover, things are pretty good in the Havlir house. Hannah, how are you supposed to play ping pong if the paddle is in your mouth the whole time?  

 Hannah is starting to get so exploratory. She loves to just look and manipulate things.

 She's getting too big for the swing too. If we set her on it, she will start swinging it herself.

 A recent favorite activity is obstacle course. Here is part of the course that Nathan is about to start on. He jumps, hops, spins, and does yoga poses to complete it. It's actually a lot of fun for everyone.

Nathan used to say, "chlock-it" for chocolate and "cado-cado" for avocado. One day we were repeating his works in fun, and he got a bit offended and corrected us. Now, we say it casually and he chuckles, and corrects us, followed by "silly [person]

At public places, Nathan has learned to open doors for others. Sometimes the doors are super heavy, but he still refuses any help from me and will push the door with all his might and then wait for people to go through. It's cute, but not when you are in a hurry. 

Since Hannah has been sick, sleep has been a nightmare. The worst night was when she woke up 6 times and slept no longer than 1.5 hours.  Things are getting better, but still unpredictable. Sometimes she'll sleep for 45 minutes and wake up, sometimes it's 6 hours. Which reminds me, I've got to get some sleep myself before she wakes up. 

Until next week, Feeny Foon! (A phrase that according to Nathan, only Daddy and Nathan are allowed to say. If I even try, he will go, "No mommy!")

Love, 

Mommy