Rain, rain, go away...

As usual, it's been a busy few weeks for us here in Kocubinski Land.  We finally found a good babysitter!  It is really hard for me to hire someone I don't know to watch my kids, so I went through care.com where I was able to find several sitters within a couple miles of us who have had background checks done.  I know that sounds a bit extreme for someone who will just be working for us a few hours here and there, but I'm a little crazy when it comes to the safety of my kids.  Anyway, we hired Brittany and she has been wonderful.  She has oodles of experience and had stellar references.  It takes a lot of patience to watch our mama's girl Evelyn while I take Max to Gymboree, and Brittany has it in spades.  We were even able to go on a date night while she watch both kids!  We went to an adorable Salvadoran restaurant that was delicious.  Mmmmm...thanks for the gift card Tyler and Ma!

Speaking of our little darling Evelyn, she is growing so much, so fast!  She has REALLY been having fun discovering all the sounds she can make so our house is regularly filled with the "singing" of princess.  She's one heck of a strong girl, rolling more and more each day.  She has no problem rolling from her back to her tummy, but has trouble rolling from her tummy to her back.  And boy, she lets us know when she wants help getting on to her back again.  She can't get enough of her big brother.  Max is an endless source of entertainment for her.  As far as she's concerned, he is the most interesting person on the planet.  We're having so much fun with her every day.  We are hoping she'll get over her mommy attachment sometime soon though.  Right now she doesn't want anyone else to hold her and she refuses to take a bottle.  She will only take her milk straight from the source, thank you very much.  We're taking a trip to Vegas next month, so hopefully some time with all of her grandparents will help put an end to her diva-ish ways.

I'm not a diva.  I'm a princess!

Not much new is going on with Max.  He's still as busy and happy as ever!  We start swim lessons and speech therapy on the same day in a couple of weeks.  It should be interesting.  I'm feeling better about the whole speech therapy thing.  We have a family friend, Janice, who has been like a second mom to me since I was Evelyn's age.  She's a speech therapist in our home town and gave me a good idea of what to expect.  It was really nice to be able to talk to someone I trust who knows very well what my little boy is going to be going though.

Max LOVES his stuffed animals

Matt's folks came out for a visit and we really enjoyed having them here.  Sue and I had fun hanging out with the kids while Matt and Don got to go skiing together.  I feel like my 'reset' button has been pushed every time we get a grandparent visit.  I get a much needed break from non-stop mommy duty and feel recharged and ready to go again when they leave.  Grandparents are the best!

Evelyn and Grandpop. 

Max loves watching videos with his grandma (especially when they're videos of him).

Jackson is still one sick pup.  I started giving him insulin shots every 12 hours (ugh!), and his glucose levels are going down, but are still kind of high.  I found out today that I have to test his glucose levels every 1-2 hours for the next two weeks (double ugh!).  So not only do we have to give him seizure meds with each meal and insulin shots twice a day, I now have to poke him constantly all day long to test his blood.  We're REALLY hoping for some positive results soon.  Not only is the routine exhausting for me and uncomfortable for the poor guy, but is also very expensive.  I have to keep reminding myself that it's not his fault and he's been a part of our family for over 8 years.  We owe it to him to try anything we can to keep him healthy.

On a more positive note, St. Patrick's Day was fun this year.  Matt worked, but I had fun all day with the kids.  We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner and our good friend Skip joined us.  He is so helpful with the kids and Max adores him.  And he's learned how to give Jack his insulin since he's our go-to guy for house/dog sitting when we're away.  I don't know what we'd do without his help.   There's nothing like spending St. Paddy's with good friends and good food.

My two favorite people!

I think I've just about covered it all.  Now we're just waiting for some warm, dry weather to come so we can play outside.  We've been getting a lot more rain that what is normal this time of year, and I'm SO over it.  I normally don't mind it, but I want to play outside with my kids.  Come on sunshine!

Haircut!

After one too many Justin Bieber comments, Max got his first official salon haircut yesterday!  We've cut his hair at home before, but decided to have a professional do it this time to avoid any mishaps.  I took him to a child-specific hair salon called "Sit Still".  Max got to sit in a taxi chair and watch Shrek while the stylist clipped his hair.  In honor of this occasion, I decided to post the best (and worst) hair styles Max has sported over the last couple of years.

Before

Driving his taxi at the salon

After!  Still shaggy, but more controlled.  The stylist called it "Surfer Dude".

This is when his hair started getting a life of it's own.

The mullet.  Yep.  That happened all on it's own.

Crazy for the Christmas card

Kind of a Donald Trump meets Zack Morris thing going on here

Crazy!  I didn't even try to control it at this point.

"Mommy tried trimming my bangs and ended up making me look like Lloyd from 'Dumb and Dumber'."

Getting a buzz cut from Daddy

Stylin'!

My Sleeping Boys

The other night Max woke up around 4:30 since he had a bit of a cold and wasn't feeling well.  I brought him into our room to sleep the rest of the night.  We don't usually do that kind of thing, but make exceptions when the little ones are feeling under the weather.  Anyway, I woke up in the morning and couldn't resist taking this picture of my guys snoozing away...

Max looks like he's thinking hard in his sleep

It reminded me of some other pictures of them napping together over the last couple of years and I decided they were too cute not to share, so here you go...

Their first nap together.  Max was only a day old.

All three of my boys

I love the puddle of drool under Max's mouth

The Strong, Silent Type

Continuing from my last post...

We had a snow day in Portland!  Granted, it wasn't much and had mostly melted by 11am, but we got snow on the ground.  Max had a blast playing outside and throwing snowballs with his daddy.  I have to admit though, I wasn't sad to see it go.   I've really started to enjoy the temperate environment out here.  It never really gets that cold.  I don't have to shovel, scrape windows, plug in my car at night, put on 5 layers of clothes just to go to out to get the mail, or worry about frozen pipes.  It's nice knowing that the kids will only be trapped inside for a few months before it will be warm enough again to play outside. Fortunately, we live in a city that has a lot to offer as far as indoor play gyms to help burn off some excess toddler energy. Max's personal favorite (and mine) is Gymboree Play and Learn.  He has been going there since he was 10 months old and has some friends that have been going there at the same time for as long as he has.  It's a bit of a drive to get there, but so worth it.  My aunt and cousins have been so incredibly helpful watching Evelyn for me while Max and I go.  It's been so nice having them here.  Max and Evelyn love them and have a great time playing with my cousin's kids.  My aunt and uncle are kind of like bonus grandparents for the kids and we appreciate all they've done for us so much!

Max and Matt playing in the snow

In other news, we think Evelyn is already getting her first tooth!  The fun begins again.  I hope it pops out quickly so she'll get a break from the discomfort.  The poor thing hasn't been a happy camper for the last few days.  I'm hoping she'll get all of her teeth quickly like Max did.   I guess time will tell.

Evelyn just chillin' in her Bumbo

And finally, at the recommendation of our pediatrician,  we had Max evaluated to see if he needs speech therapy.  At almost two years, he only has a couple of words, which is much less than someone his age should have.  We had his evaluation today and were told that he has a motor speech disorder.  Basically, he is having a really hard time forming sounds and will most likely need speech therapy for the next few years.  Obviously this is news that didn't really make my day, but I'm glad we got the ball rolling on this and will hopefully start seeing results soon.  And the therapist told me what I already knew- that Max is a happy, bright kid who has reached all of his other developmental goals with no problems.  So I'm trying not to be sad, but no parent is happy to be told that their child has a disorder of any kind.

That's all for now.  I will of course keep updating on Max's progress and all of his shenanigans in the meantime.

Four months already?!

It's been a very busy few weeks here at the Kocubinski household.  I suppose I should start at Valentine's Day.  I had the two cutest dates a girl could ask for.  Matt had to work, so it was just me and the kids.  However, Matt pulled out all the stops this year and impressed the hell out of me by getting me a new washer and dryer.  I know that as a modern woman I shouldn't have been so excited about getting appliances from my husband, but those who know me know how much I actually enjoy doing laundry and how much I hated our old set.  I am still blown away by the fact that I can actually wash almost twice  as much per load and am saving at least 400 gallons of water every week.  That's right, 400 gallons.  And to top it off, he also got me flowers and gave me a much needed afternoon off later in the week to get a pedicure.  Ahhhhh....

In less happy news, we found out our dog Jackson is diabetic.  After about a week of excessive thirst and trips outside to relieve himself, I made an appointment at the vet to see what was up.  They were able to get us in on short notice, but I didn't  have anyone to watch the kids, so it was me, an infant, a toddler and a terrified 90 pound lab at the vet's office.  The kids behaved wonderfully (hallelujah), and Jackson was a trooper.  Long story short, it looks like we will have to give him insulin shots twice daily for the rest of his life.  The poor guy already has to take medicine for his epilepsy every day.  But he's strong and otherwise healthy, so we're going to make it work.  The things we do for our furry kids. 

Evelyn had her four month appointment a couple of weeks ago and is a happy, healthy little girl!  She was in the 90th percentile for weight, and was off the charts for height.  Clearly she is taking after Matt just like her big brother.  She is a fun girl to hang out with.  She  is smiling and giggling all the time and is really bonding with Max.  I can already see how much she adores him and it makes me happier than anyone could ever know. 

Max is busy, busy, busy.  Our fearless adventurer is always on the move.  He has recently figured out that he can get into the medicine cabinet by standing on the trash can.  Naturally, it got moved.  He has also figured out how to open the "child proof" latches on the cabinets and knows where I hid his favorite crackers.  They got moved too.  One of his new favorite places to hang out is in the bathtub.  Turns out it is almost as fun to sit in the tub without water as it is with water.   Go figure.  He is getting more and more interested in his sister with each day and I do believe is finally starting to like her a bit (though he'll never admit it).

About a week ago, my friend Becca came over with her pug, CJ.  Max loves all dogs, but LOVES little dogs.   The afternoon flew by as Max chased an excited CJ around the house, squealing with pure joy.  I found myself thinking that I don't think I would even get that excited if I won the lottery.  So thanks to Becca for a) bringing CJ over and b) taking me out of the house for some grown-up time and a nice lunch.  I should also thank Becca's mom, Saundra for watching Max and Evelyn while we went out.  She's the greatest!

There's more going on around here, but I'm going to have to save it for later.  I've already rambled on long enough for one entry.  As always, thanks for checking in.  'Till next time!

Handsome Jack

Evelyn taking a moment to adore daddy before her bath

Max and CJ

'Sup