dinos on the magna doodle

Aidric spent A LOT of time working on these dinos and he was able to tell me exactly what kind of dinosaur each one was. I wish I could remember them all, but I do know we have a t-rex, stegasaurs, brachiosaurus, and "raptor". He was sooo proud when I told him I wanted to take a picture of his drawing so we could always have it.



Juliet drew.....ummm, this. I have no idea what it is, but she wanted her picture taken with it too =)

Phototherapy ...it's a threepeat

Remember this?

click here

And this?

and here

Well, this time, we had this:





And these crack me up. Aidric and Juliet came to visit, but no one told them Cormac was under phototherapy lights. Aidric walked in and just stopped and froze when he saw him, kind of freaked out. He didn't want to go anywhere near him. Juliet walked in and immediately pulled up a chair for a better look. She then sang him a few songs that went something like, "don't cry baby brother, we're here now...there's nothing to cry about...you ok".



When that didn't stop him from crying, she resorted to making funny faces.


He was under the lights for just under 24 hours. His bilirubin levels were actually higher than either Aidric or Juliet's were. 14.3 at 70 hours old. I'm not going to lie, I was incredibly unhappy that the hospital staff hadn't been more proactive. 70 hours old was the first time they checked his bili levels, despite my repeatedly asking them to and reminding them of his increased risk factors. (coombs+ and 2 siblings who had high levels that required treatment). All is well that ends well though and after 24 hours, his levels were down to 11.3 and he was discharged shortly after!

Aidric's First Day of Preschool 2011

Aidric is back at the same school for the 2nd year, but has a new teacher. One of his best friend's mom offered to pick him up for school to help us out. I was a little leery at first..it was his first day!! But, when I gave him the choice, he immediately said yes, he wanted to go with Benjamin. We were off to a late start that morning and with 5 minutes to go before she was picking him up, we still needed to pack a snack, find his backpack and get dressed! We rushed around for 5 minutes and when she pulled up, it was to find us in the driveway, Aidric in the backseat of our car getting his back pack and me still in my jammies but with a camera in hand.

Instead of the usual 50 pictures, Aidric lucked out b/c we only had time for 3. I lucked out b/c I absolutely LOVE this one. Cheesy little smile and all, this kid is CUTE =)

Sibling Moments

I am crossing my fingers as I write this and knocking on wood too, but so far, Aidric and Juliet are both pretty in love with Cormac. We're definitely seeing some attention getting behavior from them both, but no outright jealousy issues directed at him. They both look for him the minute they walk in the room, insist on kisses all day long and hate to hear him cry. (which, luckily, he does not do too much of)

The other day, Aidric was holding him and wanted to read him a book. I went and got him one, and he sat there turning the pages for him




Juliet generally asks to "hold it".



And because I can't resist him....just a few more.


Sidenote...I shamefully admit that that is indeed a pink boppy cover he's resting on. I had the blue one on initially, but he is a spitter and nothing lasts long around here!

On September 8, 2011...

Our family went from this:


to this:


Cormac Steven Zohlen was born at 3:39 PM

7 lbs. 13 oz.

20 inches

less than one hour old


one day old

Juliet's First day of Preschool

I know, I know, we just had a baby! But while he gets some love from daddy and the 398 pictures we took of his first 5 hours are importing, I thought I'd do a quick post about Juliet's first day of Preschool. She looooooooooved it. Love might not even be enough to express her feelings for it. She's been ready to go to preschool since last September when we dropped Aidric off for his first day. She spent the whole year begging to stay every time we dropped him off.

So, this morning she was beyond elated that it was finally her turn. She ran around the house singing about her very first day of preschool. I love how happy she was to be going!





In all honesty, Aidric was more hesitant about her going than she was! I asked if he wanted to say goodbye to her and he gave her this huge hug and told her he loved her. So sweet!


When we got there, she seemed overwhelmed for about 2 seconds before she told her teacher her name and we found her cubby. She sat down and played playdough and then did a quick drawing with markers. She wasn't AT ALL concerned when I told her it was time for me to go. Answered with a quick, "OK Mommy, bye bye!"







When I picked her up, she saw me, exclaimed, "MY MOMMY!!!" and came running. Made me feel a little better that she didn't care when I left. I asked if she liked her first day and she said, "I WUVED it mommy!! It was the best preschool in the world EVER EVER EVER." You know, b/c she has such a strong basis for comparison =) I'm so glad she loved it and I think she's going to thrive there this year!! (Her teacher told me she was a great listener, a big helper.....and they've already seen her sassy side when a little boy tried to take her watering can away and she gave him a piece of her mind and held her ground- yikes.)

oobleck

I highly recommend this super easy activity! We used to do it at the preschool I worked at in grad school, and it's been on my mental list of things to do with Aidric and Juliet for awhile...then, I put it on the "summer list" and that gave me the push to get it done! All you need is cornstarch, water and some coloring agent. (I used food coloring, in the preschool we used a special art coloring that doesn't stain your hands like food coloring can.)

You just mix up the ingredients together until you have the right consistency. The right consistency is hard to describe. It's liquidy when you touch it softly..flows right through your fingers like water. But, when yo squeeze it or hit it, it is hard. You can actually grab a handful of it, it will kind of make a solid ball or shape in your hand, but when you release the pressure on it, it just flows out. How cool is that?? It's so hard to describe, but seriously, when we made it, I couldn't keep my hands out of it and neither could the kids.

bones

These pictures were taken because a very strange thing happened one morning last week. After breakfast, both kids went into the playroom while I cleaned up the kitchen. I cleaned the kitchen, sat down and finished my coffee and realized something was different. There was no yelling. No fighting. No crying. And they were alone, together, in the playroom. For a longish time. (Long for them, anyway...means maybe 10 minutes had passed??)

So, I peaked in and could not believe that they were actually engaged together in an activity and STILL were not fighting. (I would have been more likely to believe that they had each just found something on their own to be engaged in.) I knew the moment would likely be over, but I couldn't help snapping a few shots. Once I had interrupted the game anyway, I asked if I could take a few of them together in their "bone jammies", which are their absolute FAVORITE jammies and which they insist on wearing at the same time. (which you know I love)

The photo session wasn't quite as peaceful as their playing had been. Aidric was NOT feeling it and was not a gracious recipient of Juliet's hugs and kisses until I finally promised him a treat if he cooperated.

Yahtzee Junior

It was the summer of Yahtzee Jr. at our house. (or maybe still is?)

Aidric received this game from his friend Jack for his birthday. He loooooves it. And I have to admit, I'm also a big fan. (such a welcome departure from a game like Trouble or Candyland, when you get sent back home and have to start over a millions times resulting in never ending games)

I took these one day just to document/remember one of his favorite things to do at age 4!







(Oh, and hidden bonus of yahtzee jr. is that he is learning to add! At the end of each game, you have to add up your score. We have him help us and he's really caught on. He's memorized most of the sums between 1+1 and 5+5, but he also knows how to count it out to add other combos.)