Wordless Wednesday; time well spent

While I was hanging out with

this little bundle of joy, aka Owen's Baby Katie,

my boys were having

"the best day of their lives"

with their cousins, Hannah and Wade.



My Monkey

When you begin the day by stepping barefoot into your toddler's poo you know it just has to get better.

You might remember me saying how well Owen was doing in this post; Wild Weekend.   I said something very silly about hoping to be out of diapers by the next week.  My first mistake was to assume that he is just like his big brother.

I should have known better.

 Ben actually was potty trained in three short days at the age of 25 months.   He has only had a couple of accidents since. 

 I know that their personalities are not that similar.  Owen is on his own time table and not as eager to please as my first born.  We have been working with him for a couple of months now and he is still having an accident or two a day.  He doesn't respond to rewards so I am at a complete loss. 

I feel that if I put the diapers back on, it will be a total setback.  I am open to any and all suggestions short of returning him to the zoo.



Isn't She Lovely?

I finally got to meet her.  It took all I had to wait six entire days to hold her in my arms and inhale that newborn smell.  Katie is perfect. 

Greg and Stephanie are doing an awesome job as first time parents.  It would be easy to tell them to relax, but coming from the woman who created a spreadsheet to keep track of Ben's dirty/wet diapers and feeding schedule, it might be a tad hypocritical. 

Ben and Owen love their new cousin, Katie.  Owen thinks that she belongs to him.  When I told him that I was going to see her on Friday, he was upset, "No!  That's my baby Katie!"  Ben isn't too impressed because she could not yet listen to him talk about the characters from Superhero Squad.

Holding her almost, (I said ALMOST people!) made me want to have another.  I am SO going to enjoy being this little girls aunt.

My mom graciously watched Ben and Owen while I spent the day with the happy family on Friday.  I was able to get a lot of cuddle time in until our next visit.  Which needs to be relatively soon.  Newborns are like crack...I am completely addicted to her teeny tiny toes.



Farming

The boys have been busy helping their Papa farm...

It is hard work, but it must be done.  According to Ben, they will be ready to drive the tractor themselves soon.



Today is her BIRTH day!

My niece, Kathryn Grace Uebinger, joined the world today at 4:44 pm. She is 6 lbs, 11 oz and 20 in long.   What a sweet little miracle!
Congratulations to my brother, Greg, and his gorgeous wife, Stephanie.

You know I cannot wait to get my hands on this precious bundle of joy!



Blue Skies Smilin' At Me

Spring is my absolute favorite time of the year. The grass is turning green, trees are in full bloom and the skies are clear.  We made it through another winter!

The boys have been soaking up rays every chance they get.  I remembered to bring the camera out with us today.  I may have posted too many pictures, but hey, it makes up for the lack of time spent on the blog lately.

I took the boys for a ride to the lake.  Luckily it is in the neighborhood because these two are getting heavy!  

A snapshot of Owen playing in the driveway.

Jimmy and Ben playing school.

Going up.... going down...

 

 



House of Coughs

I'm thinking of renaming the blog, "What's ailing the Guthrie's today".

I chronicled last weeks worth of illness with great hopes that it was over.  Turns out this bug was not quite done with us yet. 

We spent Easter weekend in Manteno with family and two coughing boys.  The cough caught up to Jeremy Saturday evening and caused a flare up of his asthma.  After the egg hunt Sunday morning, we headed up to another Walgreen's Take Care Clinic with Owen to get a prescription for steroids for Jeremy.  Owen was unusually clingy the evening before and had a fever on and off so we thought we would have him checked out too.  Turns out that he also has an ear infection.

It didn't take long before I joined the coughing choir.  We came back home Monday and and I have been fighting this thing ever since.  It is amazing to me that while the boys were feeling their worst, they were still smiling and playing like it wasn't a big deal.  Guess what- it's a BIG DEAL!  I can't wait to be able to breathe again.  Not as in a big sigh of relief, but just to get oxygen to my lungs.

The pictures below are from the weekend, not in any particular order.  If we've come in contact with you in the past week, you might want to bathe in Lysol...just in case.

Coloring Eggs with Jeremy's help.

Excited about loot from Easter Bunny before leaving on Friday.

Celebrating Aunt Sherie's 50th birthday.

Snuggling up to cousin Christie.

Owen really liked the blue dye.

Jeremy's sisters, Shelly and Sherie.

Our beautiful niece, Ashley



What's going on over there?

An update with no pictures.  Are you kidding me?!?  Nope.  It's been a little crazy here this week.

Sunday: I took the boys to mass by myself.  I had made a deal with them (aka bribe) that if they were sweet in church, I would take them to the McDonald's with the play land.  GAH!  I really wanted them to behave.  They held up their end of the bargain so I held up mine and they had a lot of fun.  Fast forward to that evening and you will find me in bed down with a stomach bug.

Monday:  Jeremy stayed home from work to take care of the boys while I tried to recover from the bug.  Yes,  I know.  He is wonderful like that.   I stayed in bed all day long, hardly able to make it down stairs so I am really not sure what the boys were up to.

Tuesday:  I felt better and knew I had to work that evening.  Ben has had a cough and runny nose for a few days already (before the McDonald's excursion) and Owen seems to be coughing now too.  He woke up all out of sorts crying and carrying a fever.  After I left for work Jeremy took him to the pediatric urgent care to be seen.  They told him what I had thought they would say, that it is most likely a virus that will need to run its course.

Wednesday:  I was a brand new woman.  Owen seemed to be back to himself and the weather was beautiful.  It was picture day at preschool so I let Ben pick out his outfit.  He chose the sweater from last Easter, which still fits, with a superhero shirt underneath.  He looked pretty darn cute when I dropped him off.  When I picked him up he was still wearing the sweater but had on the extra set of sweats that were at school in case of emergency.  When I inquired what happened he said, "After pictures Ms. Claire said that we could change our clothes so I changed my pants and underwear."  I suppose that was more fun than simply taking off the sweater.

I had a little "me" time that afternoon which was spent at the dentist getting a cavity filled.  Jeremy had asked that I pick up his prescription on the way home so I stopped by Walgreens drive thru.  I was the idiot at the wrong pharmacy.  He had called it in to CVS. 

When I got home the kids were playing outside with the neighbors.  We ended up in the backyard on the swing set when Ben suddenly told me that his ear hurts.  One thing for certain about Ben is that he is TOUGH.  He falls down, scrapes his arms and legs gets back up with an "I'm OK!" and is off running again.  When he was still crying about his ear hurting several minutes later, I knew it was bad.  I took him to the walk in clinic at another Walgreens to be seen.  Poor kid has his first ear infection since being a baby.

Thursday:   It's still much too early to tell what today might bring. 

Here's to good health!