Of course we celebrated that holiday today... after dinner we packed everyone up (including Tucker!) and went to get ice cream at Grater's! It was lots of fun! We sat at a table right by the door and Havana felt it was her responsibility to greet every person who came into the store. She LOVED eating ice cream and after every bite would loudly exclaim, "MMMMMM!!!" and make a super silly face! She had lots of people laughing. While we were cleaning up our mess, she walked around the store with a Grater's Ice Cream cup in her mouth bumping into everyone and laughing uncontrollably. It was one of those moments where my heart was captured. I seem to have a lot of those moments lately...
The past few days have been a blur... Friday was a social day for me... I took the kids to The Ark at church where I met a friend with her kids. Then in the afternoon another one of my friends came over to the house and hung out for a while. I am blessed by such amazing women in my life!
Saturday we started something with Havana: Room Time. Okay, I know, she is 20 months old and this is a Babywise basic that you are supposed to start earlier... but it just wasn't a priority for me then, but boy am I paying for it now. Havana does not know how to play by herself. Sometimes she can entertain herself for a few minutes while we're sitting in the same room with her, but she needs us to be next to her all the time. This has got to stop. So, we went to the store and bought a nice (fairly tall) baby gate as well as some new toys. We put her in her room with her new toys and some fun music and locked the gate and left her alone. Now, I'll be honest, I was expecting a Scream Fest... she hates being alone. However, the new toys bought us some time, so it went better than I expected. She did start to fuss a little towards the end, but we only made her stay in there 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes was up - we walked in clapping our hands and praising her for having "room time."
We decided to get her after only 10 minutes because we want to work her into it and our ultimate goal is 45 minutes to an hour. We'll increase it by 5-10 minutes each week and we will do it every day. Today, Sunday, we did it and the new toys lost their luster (she only was allowed to play with them during room time - once room time was over we put them away) because as soon as we walked out of sight she started throwing all her toys over the gate. No crying, but clearly not playing... but she stayed in there for 10 minutes. Just have to keep pushing her...
We are not making the same room time mistake with Jonah! In fact, on Saturday, Jonah got his first room time as well! He did great! I put fun music on for him and put him in his crib with some toys... toys which he laughed at the entire time. He's such a good baby!
Saturday I was a little bummed because I had originally made plans to do Scrapmania with friends at the local Archivers (aka My Happy Place). I was very much looking forward to a night out by myself, but since we have still not been able to get Jonah to take a bottle... I couldn't go. Jason kept apologizing, but it wasn't his fault, Jonah just won't take a bottle. We keep trying -- every day we have made him try to eat out of a bottle, but it never works. We'll keep trying each day though because I would enjoy the opportunity to leave the house for more than a quick grocery run.
Anyway, Jason did his best to make Saturday a good day for me despite my disappointment. After the kids woke up for their naps we went out to eat at Havana Rumba, a Cuban restaurant, and it was very good! Havana wanted the lemon out of my water and so I gave it to her. She put it in her mouth, made an awful face, shook her head, spit it out, and then yelled, "MMMMMM!" And with that, she reached for the lemon again and the cycle repeated itself at least 4 times! She had me laughing a lot. Jason pulled out his phone to get it on video, but of course, that is when she stopped picking the lemon up!
Sitting on the deck by the water made me feel somewhat like I was on vacation! So Jason took the two kids and let me sit back and relax for a few minutes. I felt very refreshed even though it was only a few minutes. :) Then we headed to Saturday night church!
I believe I wrote about how last week Havana stayed the entire service in the nursery... well, this week was a little different. As soon as we walked into church - she knew where we were and she FREAKED out... Screaming, crying, coughing, etc. It made Jason and I so sad. However, we had to drop her off again... she needs to learn that we're coming back. We dropped her off, much to her protest, and then we did something we've never done before... we dropped Jonah off in the nursery as well! This was his first week there. Again, we're starting things a little earlier with him (room time, nursery...) than we did with Havana! Anyway, it kind of made me sad to give him to the workers, but he could care less. He just smiled. I looked through the window and saw them just put him in a swing. He's so stinking cute!
Both kids dropped off - Jason and I walk hand in hand to the service where we actually sit in the sanctuary. This is something we never do because we are always paged out. With Havana's ID in hand... we worship and wait to get paged... only the page never comes! Jason and I were able to sit in church without either child for the firs time!!! Wow! It was amazing! There was one point in the service when I literally jumped in my seat because I had been so engaged in the sermon I forgot to look at the child ID and I was worried the one posted on the wall was Havana's. It wasn't, but it made me laugh because I can't remember the last time I was able to focus so well on a sermon! Thank You, Jesus!
I also have to send an incredible thank you to all the nursery workers! I can tell they are really working with us and I can't even begin to express my gratitude. When I walked down the hallway to pick up my kids, I could hear Havana crying. Apparently, she cried most of the time, but still... she made it. I was very proud of her. I went to get Jonah and they just carry him out... he's just looking around and once he sees me he just smiles. Talk about capturing my heart. I was so grateful for him and his laid back attitude and just how content he was being passed around. I am so lucky to be the mommy to Havana and Jonah! Truly they are God's little miracles (as all children are...) and I'm humbled to be their mommy.
Saturday ended with us putting the children to bed and then watching 2012. We're so behind in our movie watching! :) Since we went to church yesterday -- today was a fairly restful day. We did room time with the children, we cleaned up, and of course celebrated National Ice Cream Day!! :)
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