You Can Try

Have you heard of the parents who won't show their child's identity? At first, I thought are you crazy!?! Why not embrace who your child is? Then when you think about it a while, it kind of makes sense-the way society treats your child differently due to the gender (or sex)...watch people do...

We had a discussion about this the other night at a work function (all teachers)-some agreed and some disagreed. I was enlightened by the discussion about the difference between "gender" and "sex". Gender-being female or male and sex-being what they are made of.

I'm not sure about any of this, nor do I have any amazing response, but I do know no matter how you raise your child (at least mine) their personallity plays a role. I offered Avery only trucks (because of her daddy's interest) those were what she played with for the first year of her life. Then one day (during the blizzard) I pulled out my old dolls. I have never seen such excitement in her! She was acting like "Finally! Finally you gave me what I wanted!"

Now that she has discovered her dolls and is treating them like her own babies. She burps them. She feeds them. She changes them. She puts them in their high chairs! She is turning into a little girl and chooses what she WANTS to play with.

Mack was given trucks as well. Now that Avery plays with dolls, he is exposed to them as well. He takes the dolls and beats their heads in and then wants to eat them. Totally different (as stated in many of my other blogs)! He is much more physical toward things. He is turning into a little boy who chooses what he WANTS to play with.

As a parent we give our children many different experiences-toys are important, but sex/gender does come into affect. Who knows what they will become and who cares! We will be happy to have healthy children for the rest of our lives. You can try to change this, but it's not an option-they have a mind of their own!Feeds them...Buckles them in...

This one was buckled in too..

In case you forgot...they need a bib!

This is Macklin sitting on daddy's blue prints and of course eating the markers!

Again...it is what it is and you can try!

Cool Kids...And Random Times

Last Saturday we decided that after our run we would have a picnic with our friends Celine and Mike. They had fun eating on a blanket and playing on the playground. Below are some fun pictures:

The other pictures are from random timesThat's right I'm a cool kidWhat's up???Do you remember when I blogged about my mini me? Well, here is another example if my mini me! I was getting ready to go running and put one of these hand bands on my head, when I looked down Avery was doing the same (times 2). Now she walks around the house with my makeup brushes and rubs them on her face. Funny times.

Why Not?

We are down to the final days before we leave for our trip to Italy, so when Memorial Day weekend arrived we planned to stay home and relax. After a few calls and many wants for us to be at the lake, I decided Sunday morning to head there with the kids. It didn't go all that great due to naps, but it was fun to be with my family and nice to have them want to be with us and include us in their fun. We rode on the boat and met up with friends. It was worth getting out on a beautiful day and not worrying about the little things at the house. It also is another time for me to remember to spend as much time with Grandma and Grandpa/my mom and dad as possible! I wish I had this much time with my grandparents when I was growing up, so I want to make sure my kids are with them and gather as many memories as possible.

Now the stress of getting ready to leave for a long trip can start!!!!!!!

Uncle Matt was there to help!

Again...always eating

Cute!

They love Papa and Gama's new boat! Lots of room to rest (and eat)

Magic House in St. Louis for Lucie's Birthday

It was Lucie's 4th birthday! If you haven't been to the Magic house in St. Louis, you must go. There is something to do for every kid. We all meet there a few weekends ago to celebrate my nieces birthday-Avery and Mack had a lot if fun. There were a lot of pictures so here are a few...

It really wore Gretchen out!

This slide was a lot of fun for everyone!

Huge sand table

Poor Mack he has to be tough

Fishing with daddy

When we were done we enjoyed pizza at PI-and as you can see Avery and Dad had fun with the cake

All in all it was a fun family day!

Who wants to sleep anyways

When we had Mack, we went with a video monitor to give it a try. I was opposed to these before because I was afraid of who could see my children, but after having Avery wake up in her own vomit I was convinced they both needed them.

We spend a lot if time watching them and learning what they do before they fall asleep. I have learned that a lot happens when you leave the room!

We do place our children down at night awake and then let them fall asleep. This is great for them because they learn to put themselves to sleep! I am a big believer and because of this my kids are amazing sleepers. They go to bed at night and sleep in until the next morning. Mack still takes a short nap in the morning and then they both go down after lunch at 1:00. On a good day Avery will sleep until 4:00 or 4:30 and Mack will sleep until 3:30 (hopefully that will change when we drop the morning nap-that way he will sleep in and take a longer afternoon nap).

Getting my kids to sleep has been a HUGE learning experience, but through help from my friends (and mostly my sister-in-law Sarah) it just works for our family. If you haven't read it yet-Baby Wise is an amazing book. Don't read it until your child is at least 2 months old and also don't read it if you don't plan to use your natural motherly instincts. Every thing you read has to be taken into consideration for your family.

What works best for us is: Eat, Play, Sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mack was challenging, but now that kiddo begs for his bed! He was one that wanted to eat every 2 hours and I did it and when he was ready I challenged himself to sleep on his own.

That was a very long intro to my video and explanation to having video cams, but it is our Avery/Mack TV (that is taken from a great friend of mine and her child).

This is Avery on Avery TV...there are no words to describe how cute this is...

He's on the Move!

Macklin is on the move! I went out with some friends and Mark was home with the kids-when I called to check in Mark told me Mack was moving his front arms and getting places. I was a little sad I wasn't there and couldn't wait until the next morning. There are still some improvements to be made, but he will not stay in the same place. He is totally differnt than his sister-she didn't start moving until 10 months. We are excited because Mack will be a happier baby now-he has been wanting to move for a long time!

A daughter is a Day Brightener and a Heart Warmer

Daughters are little girls who will become grown-up woman, they'll always remain as your little girl and will hold a special place in your heart. It's probably from your daughter that you learned about the sweetness and spice of little girls-I know I have from Avery! It's also from her that I am learning about patience and forgiveness, she stretches my tolerance with her attitude and independence. Still, it's from her that I am learning whatever she has chosen to do, I'll still feel proud of her simply because she has the key to my heart forever.

Below are pictures of Avery mimicking me with hair products. Only she decided to put a whole lot of lotion in her hair. She woke up early one morning, so I decided to get her up and spend some alone time with her (normally she sleeps in and I am alone with Mack, but on this day he slept in). I was getting ready and she wanted some lotion on too. I thought okay-take a note that we put a lot of trust in Avery because she is very trust worthy with her actions-so I let her put her hand in a tube of thick butter lotion. I looked over a saw both hands in the tube. She gets very upset if I tell her no (not sure where that comes from), so I thought if I shut the lid then she would rub her hands together and move on. I was wrong...she decided to run it through her hair (like I do when I'm getting ready-with hair product). Here are the pics!



Yeah, a little greasy all day! My lesson learned from this is that she really does watch everything I do! One other example was when we went shopping this past weekend with my mom (Gama). I went in to try on clothes and Avery was searching through the clothes and pulling them down to look inside every outfit for the size! HA HA HA! I guess I have taken her shopping quite a bit...I am so glad to have a little girl! I can't wait to share more stories...and more stories about having a little man too! It is fun to see the difference between both sexes.

Mother's Day Festivities

I don't usually say things are perfect, but yesterday was perfect! My husband did an amazing job. We started the morning off by sleeping in until 8:00. Then each baby came in with a bundle of fresh flowers and cards. We then got moving-after snuggling in bed-and made breakfast. It was such an amazing day that we decided to eat outside. After breakfast everyone got dressed and we headed to a local gardening store where I got to get all my supplies to do our garden. When we got home we had lunch outside as well! After naps we headed to Mark's family's house and had so much fun eating dinner and letting the kids play together. The pictures start at the beginning of our day...

Below is Avery playing with Nanny and cousin Cohan. Jane has been really sick lately, so it was nice to get the kids with her. Hopefully we didn't wear her out. We want to keep her healthy!

Gardening with the Watsons

After many years of attempting to have a garden, we were finally successful last year. It was nice to start this year with experience under our belts. Mark built a raised bed right off our patio-we prepped and tilled up a new place to start our berry garden. I envision our children outside, getting dirty and eating fresh fruit from our apple trees and berry plants! What a fun life and great experience for my children. It was such an amazing weekend!

Avery has her own gardening bag. She really got into raking the dirt.

Yep-he ate dirt!

"Mack can you believe what daddy is doing?"

Getting kids in the dirt and exploring outside is the best thing we can do for our kids at this age. Maybe it will carry over when they get older and they won't want to be inside playing video games:) For now we can lead by example!