Mason Charles

Okay - everyone knock on wood for me. I hope I'm not jinxing us.

Mason has been happy all weekend! As in, no bad gas pains, sleeping at night and being content throughout the day!

Friday night he cried from about 9-midnight and Rob and I figured we were in for another long night, but he went to sleep at 12 and slept until 4am and then got up for a bottle and back to sleep until 8am! Last night he went down at 11pm and didn't wake up until 4pm to eat and then back to sleep until 7:30am!! It's been so nice! And he is sleeping in his crib and really seems to like it. On Thursday we switched to soy formula and it seems to be helping. It was so hard seeing him cry from the gas pains and we have tried EVERYTHING - mylicon drops, Dr. Brown's bottles, moving his legs for him, heating pad on his belly, etc. Finally I called the pediatrician back and she suggested trying soy. It smells HORRIBLE, but he seems to like it and I think it's helping! He has been able to poop without prune juice which he could not do on the other formula. I am so happy that he's not been in pain - it is so, so, so hard holding him and knowing he's hurting and I can't do anything else to help him. I would just cry along with him at night. It's hard having family so far away too because the crying really can ware on your nerves. I know he can't help it, and it's not that I was mad or angry...it just wares on you after hours and hours. I think the worst part was just feeling like a bad mom since I knew he was hurting and uncomfortable :( Please say a prayer for us that those days are behind us! I'm not going to get too excited yet, but I am definitely hopeful!

Here are a few random pictures of Mason! The first one is my favorite - he smiled at us! He hasn't really done it much since then (yesterday), but he did it a few times and I actually got it on camera!!

Rivermen Banquet

Last Wednesday we had the Rivermen "Meet the Team" banquet for season ticket holders. It was a fun time :) The team has a lot of new players this year! Here are a few pictures from the evening. Some I took and some I got from a friend. The players are generally nicer to little kids, so Susie borrowed Justin for a while to get some pictures with the players - it's a win/win...she gets to talk to the players and I get cute pictures of my kid with them!!


Mason looking all snazzy ready to go :) Yes I know horizontal stripes are not flattering on his figure, but he's still a doll!


















Justin getting autographs













Justin with Yan - one of our favorite players to watch!


















Justin and some Rivermen











Getting more autographs!

Mini-Mites: PYHA (Peoria Youth Hockey Association)

Saturday morning Justin had a busy schedule! He started off with skating class for 45 minutes and then had an hour break and had to be on the ice for his first hockey lesson! It was a clinic that just gave the mini-mites a chance to get some ice time before their season starts.

He did pretty well, but he is not used to skating in all of the equipment. About 25 minutes into it he had a little meltdown and came over to where Rob and I were watching him and he was crying. He said he didn't want to do it anymore. Rob took off his chest protector/shoulder pads and put on his smaller jersey so he could move more freely and he was happy. I think it will just take some time to get used to :) It was nice because I got to watch him. Usually I'm in the warm lobby with Mason trying to see him, but can't. Saturday the nurse who helped deliver Mason was there with her kids so she watched Mason for me so I could go watch Justin.

He called it quits about 10 minutes early. The poor kids legs and ankles had to be killing him! He was pooped! He sat down to get his gear off and I told him how good he did and he said that he didn't do good because he fell down a lot. It broke my heart to hear him think that he didn't do good! I showed him the video I took (see below) that shows him scoring goals and he thought that was pretty cool so now he wants to go back :)

AND.....his dad is his head coach! Rob signed up to be an assistant coach this year, but Zac (guy in charge of the league who Rob plays on men's league with) said that he needed another head coach and asked Rob to do it! So he'll be head coach and have two assistant coaches to help him. It should be interesting - 11 kids from ages 3-6; many who have never played hockey before! Oh, and Thermosystems (my company) is sponsoring his team so Justin will have a Thermosystems jersey on at his games...how cute!

Justin showing off his cup :)





And some on-ice action shots.....

School and singing :)

As you know, Justin is no longer in daycare at PALS. We were lucky enough to get the best two teachers from the school though to come to our house! The best part is that they are not just here as "babysitters". They are still teaching the kids the same things that they would learn at PALS. We get lesson plans every week and daily reports and art/learning projects galore! I also love the fact that Justin and Mason get to be together most of the day too - it's some of the benefits as if I were a stay at home mom, but still getting to bring in two incomes! We love you Ms. Ericka & Ms. Stephy :)

Here are some pictures and a video of the "school room" and Justin & Lauren singing one of their morning songs. They are hamming it up a bit (imagine that!) since the camera is there, but you get the idea!

Here is the room that they use for the "school room". Ignore the mess - this was after Justin went to bed and before I cleaned up :)












Here is the calendar/weather board...I'll get a video of them doing morning circle and doing the weather and date soon!
















Here is the walk in closet where E&S keep all of the learning supplies/cots/etc. It's nice to have that space!












Here is the little table that Ms. Stephy's boyfriend Derrik's (some of you met him at J's birthday party) grandpa made for the kids to use. It's perfect for them to do projects/puzzles/reading!

From the mouth of toddlers :)

Funny story....

Rob and I have not been very avid church goers since we moved to Peoria (read - I've gone a few times...like 2). I have had a hard time finding a church I like. Our church in Chicago was too big - it had a gift shop. I went to one in Metamora, but it was a one room church..no lobby or cry room or anything. I finally found St. Thomas in Peoria Heights and I really like it. It's not too big, not to small and I really like that they have a ton of mass times every weekend. Saturday 8am or 5pm and Sunday 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 5pm. Lots of options!

Anyways - Today I decided to venture out with both boys to 9:30am mass. We got there a little early becuase the website said there was a nursery and I wanted to check it out for Justin. Turns out they do not have one - no biggie they have 2 nice big "cry rooms". So we walked into the church and there were probably 30 people there. The picture below is the alter at St. Thomas.....



.....Justin in his really loud voice says "Look Mommy - he's flying!!!" I think that is a dead give away that we don't take our kids to church enough :)

On a good note I don't think we'll sit in the cry room again. Both of the boys were SO GOOD! They were the quietest ones in there. To me a cry room is a place to enjoy mass without worrying if your kids make a few noises so you can teach them to be quiet in church. Apparently the parents I sat by saw it as story hour with their kids...animal noises and all. I was really proud of Justin & Mason!

Tanners Orchard

We headed out to Tanners this afternoon. It was not really a planned trip, but it was such a beautiful day and Justin was too wound up to nap. We had a great time! Here are some pictures from our afternoon :)

Daddy and Justin scoping out a pumpkin
Justin was looking for a baby one for Mason
Me and my boys on the tractor pulled covered wagon out to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard
Mommy and Mason
Justin trying to carry his pumpkin - it was pretty heavy :)
Daddy and Justin taking a break
Justin with our goodies - apples, cider, popcorn, and cider doughnuts...yummy! Not so good for the eating healthy plan though :)
Justin with our pumpkins - two big ones for Mommy and Daddy and a medium one for Justin and a baby one for Mason...
Holding the apple he picked from the orchard - good thing we didn't have to pay for what went on the ground!

Brothers :)

Well, they are not twins...but I think that you can definetly tell they are brothers! They are both outgrowing 6 month clothes at 6 weeks :)

Relaxing Saturday at home

Guess what we did today? Nothing! It was great! Well, not NOTHING...I don't think our family is capable of that, but we didn't have things all day long scheduled! Justin had skating this morning and he did GREAT! He improved so much from the first two weeks! Then we went grocery shopping and went home. Once the boys were both napping I went to the Riverplex to work out...I say "workout" but I don't think that what I'm doing qualifies as that yet. I am only walking on the track and doing 5/10 pound free weights. I don't want to jump in and kill myself and not want to go back. So I figure that something is better than nothing! I was still sore today, so I'm getting something back in shape - other than round I hope!

Things around our house are starting to calm down a little bit. Mason is getting into more of a routine. He is still a bit more challenging than Justin was. We are realizing how spoiled we were with Justin! Mason is just not as content to be left alone on the floor or in his swing as his big brother was; he loves to be held! That's okay though...we love holding him :) It just means that cleaning, cooking and other things around the house seem to take 100 times longer to do or don't get done at all. I need to learn to be okay with everything not clean or in it's place, but I'm not good at that!

Here are some pictures from around the house today - enjoy!

Daddy and Justin playing Wii
Mason watching and learning :)
Here are some of Mason just chilling while Daddy & Justin play Wii...I got a little camera happy :) It was funny becuase I took the one of both boys and then I went to take more of Mason and Justin said "Hey - you forgot to put me in the picture" :) Love him!





When Justin was born, Gramma & Papa got him a cloud blanket and then when Justin got older he called it his "Airplane Smoke" blanket because we'd alway look in the sky for gramma's airplane. I put it in Mason's room since it doesn't even cover Justin's legs anymore, but he took it back out and said he wanted that to be his blanket and we could buy a new one for Baby Mason. I know my mom looked all over and couldn't find another one, so when I saw this one I had to get it! Now Justin has his "airplane smoke" one and Mason has one with actual airplanes :)
Justin washing Mason's feet at bathtime. He wanted to "help" and I figured this was the safest job :) He's such a good big brother!

Here is a video of Justin explaining the "Helper Chart" that they use for school. Have I mentioned how much we love Ms. Ericka & Ms. Stephy? They have so many good ideas and take such good care of our kids :) I'll have to do a tour of the "school room" one of these days :)

Rivermen!

We had such a fun family night on Friday! We started out at the Toyota dealership looking to possibly buy a new Tundra. We loved the truck, but they would not get to a number that we agreed with...we'll see what happens. The truck was SO NICE! When we test drove it on Thursday, I sat in the back seat between the two car seats and was not crowded at all and I had my legs crossed in front of me - so much leg room! Oh well; if it's meant to be it will happen :) The boys were both so good while we were at the dealership; it was quite a surprise actually!

After that we had time to kill so we went to BW's for dinner before the Rivermen game. Mason slept the whole time and Justin was much more well behaved than normal for being at a restaurant. It again was a pleasant surprise! Oh, and I had the honey BBQ salad and it was FABULOUS! I liked it so much I recreated it for dinner tonight - for much cheaper!

Then it was time for the first Rivermen game! It was pre-season, but it was nice to see all of our hockey friends again. At the end of last season I was pregnant, so it was fun to show off Mason :) The only bad part came in the first period. I was holding Mason in his Baby Bjorn on my lap and a puck came flying over the glass right at us. I felt the wind as it went by my head (between me/Mason and Justin). It hit the row behind us where no one was sitting thankfully. I started crying. I couldn't help but think of what a tragedy that could have been if it was a few inches either way. I know that you have to be prepared for things like that at hockey games and the chances of it happening are slim, but that just scared the crap out of me. Justin had no clue - he just wanted to find the puck and could not figure out why I was crying :) The worst part was I saw it coming and it was so fast I couldn't react. It was almost like it was in slow motion... Oh well - hopefully that won't happen again this season!

The Rivermen lost, but it was a pretty fun game to see all of the new players. Justin is so funny because he LOVES to dance to the music that they play during the breaks. He dances until he realizes we are watching him and then he gets embarrased :) So cute!

Here are a few pics from dinner and the game!

The Hills

Such an angel.....
....however this is more like what has been normal :)
Back to angel in his little monkey onesie
Just chilling so Mommy can cook dinner
Justin with this two favorite things lately...his fleece one piece PJ's and an apple! I think he likes the PJ's because they are like what Mason wears; and this kid has gone through SO MANY apples lately! Ever since he went to an orchard with E&S he wants them all of the time! Not a bad snack to keep around I guess :)