It's official...we're going to see "Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up" at the Target Center on Jan. 18th. The kids are going to think they've died and gone to heaven. I'm guessing by the end of it I'll have had my fill of hyper, screaming toddlers and preschoolers, but oh well. We'll let ya all know how the show is!
I'm sure you all know how difficult it is to get a good picture of your kids with everyone smiling, no one picking their nose or crying, or running towards the camera screaming "CHEEEEESE!!!!"...it's nearly impossible. Somehow this weekend we were able to capture a couple of darling pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree. (FYI: This was as a result of Mom hiding behind the couch, popping up screaming "PEEKABOO!" while wearing the balloon hat from Gonzo the Clown we'd gotten the night before at a local restaurant)
Hope you enjoy the pictures!
I came across this as I was browsing online and I thought it was such a great gift idea for Moms that I just had to share it. What a fun idea...and it's really fairly inexpensive for a personalized gift. Plus, the website it's featured on (www.mom4life.com) is founded by a Christian mom who's committed to helping other moms work from home as they raise their families. Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
*Hint, hint Daddies who haven't even STARTED thinking about a Christmas gift for Mommy from the kids*
Just thought people might like to see what the kids have been doing with Grandma & Papa Libby when they come over to play on Mondays and Fridays while Mommy works:
Hanging out with Grandma & Papa
Just thought I'd share our little performer flexing his muscles. It's one of his favorite things to do lately...especially if you ask him if he's "tough". I'm sure this will make his Uncles proud.
This past weekend my parents came down for a visit and we ended up getting free tickets for the Vikings game...4 of them, which worked out perfect. My mom grew up in MN and is a Vikes fan, so she was thrilled to be able to go to her very first NFL game...on her birthday, nonetheless. It was military appreciation day, which was cool to be a part of, too! I'm not sure if Mom and I spent more time watching the game or the high maintenance chick sitting in front of us downing beer with her metallic stilettos and bedazzled cell phone that she was texting on non-stop, but we had a blast.
Glad we were able to spend your birthday with you, Mom. Love you!
As a parent, you often look at your child and envision the wonderful things they'll accomplish in life...then that brief glimpse of what the future holds vanishes as you hear your little monster break into song, quickly followed by barking out orders to his sister and screams of frustration, and you just have to shake your head and smile.
Translation:
"Twinkle, twinkle little star....Peyty! Mommy, Peyty! Mommy, oh no. Peyty get in! Hat! Hat! Hat! Hat! Hat...hat on, Mommy – thank you. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!"
(This was filmed as we were getting in the car and heading out for school & daycare this morning. Carson has been belting out "Twinkle, twinkle" all morning, so I thought I'd try and get it on tape...guess I got part of it!)
This afternoon as I began reviewing the chapter we're covering for small group this evening I was struck by one of the verses I read:
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9
As I read that, it made me stop and think. Why is it that we often get so caught up in OUR plans for our day, our life, or even our families? God has such incredible plans for each one of us, but so many times we make our plans without realizing that ultimately God's plan is what is important.
Hope everyone is having a good day!
Just in case anyone was wondering what Brett Favre did Sunday after crushing the Vikings, I thought I'd post these pictures:
Carson and Peyton have suddenly become very interested in helping out with "chores". They fight over who gets to help "weep" (sweep) and "neen" (clean/dust). Guess it's never too early to put them to work! :)
That's what I heard this morning coming from upstairs as I was working in the office, only it wasn't from Grandma Julie who was there watching the kids...it was from Carson. Apparently he's picked up on the fact that I answer to another name besides "Mommy". So now when he gets frustrated about something I tell him to do, he'll look at me, smile, and say "Hi Aimee". Definitely too smart for his britches!
Are anyone else's kids having issues adjusting to stinking daylight savings time? We had just settled into a half-way decent routine as far as sleeping, where Carson was sleeping about 4 out of 7 nights without getting up – after 20 months of not sleeping, I was feeling pretty spoiled...then along came good 'ole daylight savings time. Both of our kids are (and always have been) early risers. So for the past 3 days we've been up and at 'em at 4:30am...yes, I said 4:30am. And of course this comes right as I've been swamped with work that's kept me up until midnight or later for the past couple of nights. Grrrr! Let's just hope and pray that the kids adjust to the time change quickly...before I lose it! :)
Potty training hasn't exactly been the top thing on our "list" to do with the kids lately, although we did buy a special step for the toilet in preparation to start working with Peyton. But Carson's been pretty interested in sitting on the potty and has actually gone quite a few times...number 1, that is. Well last night he came running up to me and said, "Mommy, I poop". I asked him if he needed his diaper changed and he responded, "No, poop". So then I asked him if he wanted to go poop on the big potty, to which he responded "YEAH!". So upstairs we headed. I quickly took off his diaper and sat him up on the potty. He emptied his bladder right away and then looked at me and said, "Poop!". We talked about how he was a big boy for going pee-pee in the toilet and then the big moment began...a couple of seconds later we heard it – "bloop". Thankfully there was no traumatic splashing of the toilet water to ruin the moment. Carson let out a BIG, joyful announcement to make sure everyone knew about his big accomplishment – "I POOP!!!".
This morning Carson's been running around saying "Poop! Poop!", so I think he's pretty excited about the fact that he had his first big moment on the potty last night. Hope you all enjoy the "PG" version of the photo of Carson on the potty!
As much as I really don't like Halloween, it is pretty fun to see the kids dressed up in their cute little costumes. This year Peyton was Tigger (thanks to a garage sale costume that Chad found for a SUPER bargain price of $3!!!), and Carson got a hand-me-down from Peyton, so he was a chicken. I figured I had better try their costumes on a little early just to make sure they didn't freak out in them, so last week I pulled them out and we had a "trial run" one evening. Ever since then, Peyton has gotten up each morning and brought me her costume when I've asked her what she wants to wear to school. Hmmm...well, I guess I should be glad she likes it! Carson wasn't quite as thrilled about his costume, but he does love taking it off because it's got a bit strip of velcro down the front that he's fascinated with.
Anyway, I snapped a quick picture of the kids before it got dark as they sat on the front step with their pumpkins that we carved last night. We went up to a little party at St. Michael Elementary where the kids got to play games and win prizes, then we came home and ate dinner quick before heading across the street to Colin's house so the kids could go trick-or-treating with their favorite buddy. Thankfully the wind died down, so it didn't feel as cold as we thought it would as we started walking around to a few of the neighbor's houses. Each house we went to Peyton thought she could just walk right on in, and the highlight of the evening for her definitely was seeing our neighbor's dog, Bailey. She really wasn't all that interested in the candy people were handing her – she'd just turn around and hand it over to me. Carson was in awe of the fire truck that was driving around the neighborhood distributing glow sticks. He kept looking down at the glow stick around his neck and giggling, saying, "light!".
Once we got home the kids were able to hand out candy to a few older kids who were still wandering around the neighborhood. Carson thought he was SO funny – he has this little mask that he made at daycare and everytime someone would come to the door he'd run over, hold up his mask and say "BOOOO!!!!", then giggle and run away. Little fart!
Sorry I'm just now getting to posting this – Better late than never, right?!
Over MEA we headed up to visit Grandma and Papa Peterson. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and Papa decided it was time to get the yard cleaned up. At first Peyton & Carson watched out the window...but that didn't last for long. Carson started crying as he watched Papa raking, saying "I do! I do!". So I figured what the heck...so what if the leaves are a little wet and yucky from the past 3 weeks straight of rain...that's what washing machines are for! (Chad didn't share my opinion on this at first, but the head laundry maid won!) So outside we went.
The kids have never really seen large amounts of leaves because our neighborhood is a fairly new development with a few trees here and there. They were in awe of how many leaves there were in the yard. Papa was raking up a big pile for them to play in and the kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. Between all the leaves and the ladybugs that were everywhere (check out the picture of Carson looking at the bug on Papa's arm!) they were having the time of their lives. Carson decided that acorns were "bugs", so he was busy picking up all the "bugs". Peyton was enjoying playing in the pile that Papa had raked onto a tarp to drag out to the woods. She thought she was pretty hot stuff when she got to ride on the tarp out to the woods. Carson on the other hand got pretty upset that he couldn't use Papa's rake. Luckily Grandma came to the rescue with a little rake just Carson's size. He was such a good "helper"...maybe next year we can convince him the leaves are supposed to stay ON the tarp. :) Oh well. We had a great weekend visiting and hope to make it back up to Frederic very soon. Thanks for a fun weekend Grandma & Papa!!
Yesterday afternoon the kids were a little restless after waking up from their naps, so we decided to call up their favorite playmate from the neighborhood, Colin, who lives across the street. We headed down to the Hanover park and had a great time despite the cool weather. Carson and Colin (who are exactly 4 weeks apart in age) had fun chasing each other around all the play equipment, while Peyton stayed close to her beloved swing. Carson discovered he could stand on top of some plastic stepping stones and then decided that it was a great place to stand while he hollered out his rendition of the theme song for "Elmo's World" (one of the pictures show him with his arms in the air...that's his "big finale"). As our afternoon of fun at the park was coming to a close the kids decided to play ring-around-the-rosie. That was hilarious to watch. It took them more time to stand still long enough to grab each other's hands than it did to sing the song and fall down! : ) What a great way to end the week...enjoying the outdoors and the company of friends!
I was researching some more on Apraxia, the condition Peyton has been diagnosed with, and I found this great video clip/news story on it. Peyton has Global Apraxia, meaning she is apraxic in her oral motor skills, as well as her fine and gross motor skills. This clip does an incredible job explaining what Apraxia is, even though it's a relatively difficult condition to explain to someone who is unfamiliar with it. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNB0ihI2srQ&mode=related&search=
Yesterday was a big day in the Libby household...the Vikings played the Packers. Here are a few pictures:
Pregame warm ups
Go PACKERS!!!
Go VIKINGS!!!
And we all know how things ended...Brett Favre earned the record for the most touchdown passes thrown, passing up Dan Marino, and the Vikings showed that for another year in a row they WON'T be going to the Superbowl. :)
Why is it that kids always sleep in on days you need to get up and go? The other morning Carson decided to sleep past 6am for the first time in his life (after being up twice in the night...not too shabby for him), and of course that morning we were running late and had to be out the door earlier than usual to make a stop before dropping Peyton off at preschool. I ended up having to wake him up. But I was able to capture the first ever experience of having to wake him up on camera so you can see the progression.
Picture 1: Sleeping soundly even with Peyton yelling "GET UP!!!" at the top of her lungs.
Picture 2: "Huh? What's going on...hi Mom."
Picture 3: "Hello camera! Aren't I handsome?"...turn on the charm! (I'm not sure if he was smiling because he saw the camera or because he had just realized that it was a new day in which he could terrorize the world. : )
Anyway, just thought I'd share the pictures because I thought they were funny as I was looking through them.
Today was Peyton's first day of preschool. Mom dropped her off and she rode the bus home...with very few tears! The bus driver said she got a little upset towards the end of the bus ride because she was seeing everyone else get dropped off to their houses. By the time they got to our house there was only Peyton and one other little boy left on the bus. Overall she did good on the bus, though! Peyton will go Monday - Thursday mornings for preschool and we're excited to see the progress she makes in her expressive language skills. It should be a GREAT school year!
We have some VERY exciting news to report on Peyton's progress in speech therapy. Yesterday she said her name for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! You could just see her face light up when she realized she'd just said it all by herself. : ) We have been working SO hard to help her learn how to say her own name, especially before she starts preschool, and she finally did it!!! As we were getting ready for daycare this morning Peyton was walking around the house pointing to all the pictures of her saying "Pey-ton" – then she'd clap for herself...it was pretty cute to watch.
This probably doesn't seem like anything too terribly exciting to report, but for a child with apraxia (see our link to the side to find out more about apraxia), any progress made in their speech is a HUGE step. We've been so happy to see how Peyton has progressed over the summer with the grueling number of therapy sessions she's had to endure the past couple of months. On Sept. 4th Peyton starts preschool through the Early Childhood Special Education program in our school district and we can't wait to see how well she does there. She'll be going Monday - Thursday mornings for two and a half hours. She will work with an occupational therapist, physical therapist and a speech therapist, while doing all the regular things kids do at preschool. These therapy sessions will replace the in-home services we've been getting through the school district for the past two years.
We hope you all are as excited about our "news" as we are!! Stay tuned for more updates on Peyton's progress...and State Fair pictures!!!
Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! Life seems like it gets busier and busier with each day that passes. Anyway, here's a quick update on what's been going on with us for the past few weeks.
July 20-22
We went up to some friend's family "cabin" on Cross Lake with 5 other families from our small group. We had a great weekend on the lake, and had some great fellowship with our friends as well. The kids enjoyed playing in the sandbox, riding on the boogie board with Daddy, chasing around Ranger - the 13 year old yellow lab who just wanted to lay down and relax, playing wiffle ball, and watching the water planes take off across the lake. We also took a big group outing on the pontoon boat across the lake to Dairy Queen, which was quite the adventure with 12 adults and 12 kids under 5. : )
July 24
The kids got a new water table which they LOVE! We've got it all set up on the deck and it's provided HOURS of entertainment. Peyton just taught Carson how to drink out of it like a trough, which has been hilarious to watch. They also just figured out they can pour cups of water over each other's heads - definitely funny until they try it on Mom or Dad. : )
July 26
After speech therapy we decided to take the kids to Chuck E Cheese. It was definitely a HUGE HIT! Peyton's favorite ride was the "Rock Around The Clock" ride. It was great watching how much fun the kids had running around checking everything out. Probably the funniest thing, though, was watching Peyton's reaction when Chuck E came out for some kid's birthday party. She went NUTS! She thought Chuck E was there for her and her only! The term "party crasher" took on a whole new meaning once Peyton saw Chuck E. I think everyone had a great time...and the best part was the kids were beat by the time we got home...just in time for bedtime!
July 27
Carson got his first buzz cut. His long hair was just too sweaty for these hot summer months! He did a great job sitting still on a stool out on the deck. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the clippers at first, but then he thought they were pretty cool. Now he wants to "do his hair" like daddy, so this morning for church he got to wear gel in his hair...definitely a big hit with all the little ladies (and big ladies!!) in the church nursery! : )
August 5
The last time Grandpa & Grandma Peterson came down to visit they brought Peyton and Carson each a special stuffed animal. Carson got a puppy and Peyton got a bear. Peyton named her bear "B", so we've been calling him "Mr. B". He's become a member of the family and goes everywhere with us - especially in the car and to bed. This morning for breakfast Peyton decided that Mr. B needed a spot at the table...and some food of his own. Once she saw he wasn't eating his apple jacks she quickly gobbled them up. Then when it was time to wash up before getting out of her chair she wanted me to wipe Mr. B's face. It's pretty cute to see her taking such a liking to her new friend. 
I think that about sums up the past few weeks for us. Stay tuned for more updates from the Libbys!
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