Catching up with The Srubar's

Okay so I know I am WAY behind in my posts and I have no excuses since I have the time to read all my friends blogs....

So I am going to try and do a little catch up time tonight.

Let's start with Luke's birthday, my big boy turned 2 yrs old on Nov. 25th and we celebrated his big day on the 22end with a party at the YMCA with friends and family. A good time was had by all and it was so fun to see L so excited to see his friends and to play with all of them.

L is also still adjusting to his "cowboy bed" as he calls it and we had a very rough week (about a week ago) with him going to bed just fine and then waking up around midnight and wanting to sleep in our bed AND if that wasn't enough to interrupt our sleep C was sick during the same time so there was very little sleep going on in our house hold. L loves stickers so last week I started rewarding him with a "superstar sticker" every morning that he made it all night in his big boy bed and let me tell you it is working!!! He made it all last week in his bed.... I hope it continues now that we are back from our Christmas trip and being off schedule and him having a cold - we shall see.

Oh and for my friend Melissa here is a picture of the new tiles in Luke's cowboy room (I haven't downloaded C's yet).

On Saturday December 6th we had Caroline baptized in our new church and it was such a special and beautiful event. We had a private baptism which was much nicer and faster than the group one we had for Luke. We had about 25 people there to celebrate this special sacrament and then had a reception for her back at our house which turned out wonderfully.

Caroline was 4 months old at her baptism and weighed in at 15 lbs!!! She will be getting her 6 month well check next week so I will post more stats then. For christmas she got her two front teeth!!! so she now has 4 teeth. I will have to catch up more later once I download my Christmas pictures, but with the exception of everyone in my family being sick we had a wonderful time and Luke so loved all his santa gifts - and Caroline's everytime I would show Caroline something of hers he would look at it and say "no Luke's toy." What fun the 2's are!!!

Big Boy Bed

Okay, so in a spur of the moment decision we have decided to move Luke to his full size big boy bed - emphasis on big or should I say tall!!! James went to buy the mattresses yesterday and we got his room all set up and got Luke super excited about his new bed, well once it was set up the mattress and box spring are so tall that his bed is the highest in the house. It feels like you are crawling up into a bunk bed.... however it didn't bother Luke in the least, he LOVES it.

So we haven't hit 24 hours yet with the new bed, but bedtime was a non-event last night but we did not sleep that well because we (more me than James) was afraid that Luke would wake up and get out of his room and then be scared. I put night lights everywhere to help him, but he slept until 7:30 this morning.

So onto naptime - this is what I was more worried about since I live for naptime!!! Lucky for me I was able to get Caroline down in her swing for a nap and then Luke and I crawled up in his bed, read a story and then I layed down with him. Luke thought it was so funny I was laying with him and he kept checking to see if my eyes were open, then he circled my face and eyes with his finger whispering "circle" and if I opened my eyes he would whisper "mama go night night close eyes." So after several minutes of this I decided to roll over and face the wall and pretend to sleep. Well after a few minutes he layed down next to me and put his arm around my back and patted my shoulder until he fell asleep - soooooooo sweet!!!! I then very carefully removed myself from his bed and he slept for 2 hours!!!!

So I have to say we have had initial success and although I have no doubt that it won't last, I am pretty proud of Luke so far to make this big adjustment so quickly. So now all day we have heard "come on mommy (or daddy) Luke's room" he wants to play in his room and either dance on the floor or get up and down off his bed.

Caroline enjoys laying on the bed with Luke next to her laughing - it is so cute!!! She is doing so much better this week with her tummy time and holding her head up while on the floor for longer periods of time and then rolling to her back. She is also taking naps a little bit better this week, still not for super long periods of time but anything is better than nothing. She is back to sleeping through the night at least 2-3 nights a week and I'm now trying to just give her a pacifier if she wakes up to break the habit of the one bottle and it seems to work so far.... so there is light at the end of my sleepless tunnel.

Add on to Top 4 (to make it 5)

I thought of my other top 5 item of the week and it is a good one!!!

5. Caroline slept through the night twice last week and only woke up once during the night the other days. So things are looking up for us in the Srubar household - and I can't wait until she is sleeping all night every night. Now if I can just get her to take her naps somewhere other than on me for longer than 20 minutes we will really be doing good.

I am really going to try and update more regularly now at least once a week... because I really enjoy reading everyone else's blogs and keeping up with their kiddos.

Top 4

Okay, so my friend has given me a hard time for being so behind in my blog so she gave me an idea to post my top 5 things going on in my families life right now to try and catch everyone up.... so here we go, however I made it my top 4.

1. My sweet baby girl turned 4 months old on 10/25 and is growing by leaps and bounds. She is babbling and cooing like crazy and already has her two bottom teeth!!! I can't believe she has teeth already, she got them right before she hit 4 months. At her well check she was 15 lbs (75%), 25 3/4" (95%) - we grow big tall babies in my family!!!! Caroline can roll to her side but doesn't love being on her tummy so I don't think the full rolling over thing is going to happen real soon. She is eating or should I say wearing her cereal now and will be starting on veggies at the end of the week.... I am going to try making her baby food this time around and try to make this child not so picky like her big brother Luke and I SWEAR that she will NOT ever even taste a gerber graduate meal and get stuck on them like Luke.... that is still pretty much all he eats for lunch and dinner with the exception of chicken nuggets/green beans and tots - that's it!!!

2. James has been working from home for the last week and that has been a pretty big adjustment for all of us. He gets distracted and wants to see what the kids are doing and therefore is not in the office much and therefore my routine is totally out of whack!!! It is nice having him home but it is nice having a routine as well (and to be able to keep the house picked up). Luke loves having him around and wants him to play cars with him whenever possible.

3. My big boy is going to be 2 years old this month, I absolutely can not believe it - where has the time gone???? Luke is talking up a storm and now speaks in small sentences and can count to 15 (which I think he learned from Sesame Street) and sings the ABC's, actually he LOVES to sing any and every song and catches on rather quickly. His favorite right now is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he sings it ALL the time and as loud as he can at times.... he wakes up singing it. He is at such a fun age but at the same time I can def. see the terrible two's headed straight at me!!! He also is just not acting out sometimes with Caroline but loves her so much at the same time. If she cries he runs up to her and tells her it's okay and kisses her. He loves to lay next to her on her playmat etc etc.... They are too cute together.

4. We had a great time on Halloween, we started the day at a Halloween playdate at Luke's friend Carter's house. Luke was a pirate and Caroline was dressed in pumpkin stuff and after we took all the kids pics (Luke, Carter, Bella, Awbrey and Emma - we did the babies seperate) we stripped them all down to their diapers and let them paint pumpkins. Luke had such a great time. Later that evening (after I waited two hours in line to vote) we went to James sisters Halloween party and had a blast - Luke loves his family SO much and went trick or treating and played with his cousins.

Back to normal

Well, we are finally back home (we came back on Saturday) after spending almost a full week with James' parents at their farm. Our power went out at 9 pm Friday before the storm and didn't come back on until Thursday night. Although we missed our regular routine at home Luke and Caroline LOVED being with their Granny and Popo all week and was pretty spoiled. Luke got to play outside all day and Caroline was held alot by her Granny. Luked "called" cows (and they actually came up to him) and played with the dogs, a frog and his Popo's cowboy hat. He amazed everyone with how much he can talk now and how many words he is actually putting together. Our house had no damage, we just had a big pine tree fall over and take out some of the fence.

I think Luke is ready to get back to normal this week and he will start back to MDO tomorrow (YEA!!!) Caroline and I have a lot of errands to run so we are ready too!!!

Hope everyone came out of the hurricane okay.

PROUD MAMA

Well, I have to brag on my big boy!!! When I picked him up at MDO today he saw me and said hi mama and the teachers told me "what a sweet boy he is," now if that doesn't make a mom's heart swell.... I couldn't believe it but he ACTUALLY took a nap for them on his napmat that my dear friend Deana made for him (www.deanassewcrafty.net) and they said he slept for about an hour. Now for those of you that know my son know that he doesn't take naps very well anywhere but in his own bed so this was a miracle in itself!! He got a good report card for his first day and he has been trying to tell me about the playground since we got home, he keeps telling me "mama I slide." So I do believe that the first day of school was a BIG SUCCESS!!!

Now if I can just get Caroline on a good daytime nap schedule I will be all set!!!

First day of MDO

Well, today was Luke's first day of Mother's Day Out (MDO) or as we call it at home - school!!! He had his backpack on as we left this morning and I dropped him off without much incident - he really didn't even cry!!! Good for him, and it made me a proud mama because he is growing up so fast. While we were waiting for the door to open for his class he was watching some other kids and he said mama hand, we had let go of our hands and he knows he is supposed to hold my hand if he gets to walk - it so made me smile. Now Caroline on the other hand was the one who had a meltdown at the church and a lady that works at the church came over to assist me and hold her while I got Luke dropped off - thank goodness for all the kind people out there. I can't wait to pick up Luke to see how he did and will def. blog later to give everyone an update and to download his first day of school pics!!! Being a mom is so gratifying and makes your heart swell everytime you see your kids do something for the first time.... :)

I am getting A LOT of stuff done around the house and already ran several errands - that's why MDO is so great!!!

My first blog.....

Well, I am blogging for the first time ever!!! I have been reading several friends blogs about their families and adventures and decided this would be a fun way to keep our friends and families caught up on what is going on in our lives.

I know you all know how much I LOVE to talk and tell stories about my kids so this is a perfect venue for me to get it all out and not take up someone's voicemail as I have been known to do.

Luke is now 21 months old and just amazes me daily on is thirst for knowledge and his comedic acts he performs for me everyday. At times I think his goal in life is to make me laugh - he really works hard at it and I find myself laughing often. Last weekend we went to "the farm" which is James' parents house and he had the best visit EVER!!! He saw his first real snake and kept calling it a "nake" and going sssssss - of course it was dead at the point he saw it because it was a big "nake." I add a pic later. He also tried to feed the cows sticks and grass through the fence and didn't appear to be scared of them at all. His popo got a new puppy named blackie and told Luke it was his dog and he played with it every chance he got.

Caroline is now our big girl at 2 months old and I can't believe how time has flown since she has been born. We are def. still adjusting to life with two but it is getting easier everyday and I'm sure James is happy as my shopping has slowed down a lot as I don't get out of the house near like I used to. I took her to the doctor today for her well visit (although she has a cold) and she weighs in at a whopping 12 lbs 4 oz and is 24" long (97%) so it looks like she might be following in her big brothers foot steps. The doctor was super impressed with her weight gain since she has reflux so bad.

Luke still loves his baby sister as he calls her and every morning when I go to get him from his room he tells me "shhhhhh baby sleeping" even if I have her in my arms. Or he will go find her and say "morning big girl" because he hears me call her big girl, it just cracks me up. Caroline tolerates Luke really well, he kisses her non-stop and has even licked her head on occasion and gave her "knuckles" yesterday and tries to share his milk and snacks with her.

Well, I think this is enough blogging for the first entry... I will be trying to blog weekly or more often and will be adding pictures next week.