The difference

It's amazing to see how different siblings can be. Even at this very young age I can see little ways that Ephraim's personality, likes and dislikes are so different from Truitt's. Truitt enjoys playing with cars mostly, and superheros. Ephraim seems to have more imaginative play at a younger age than Truitt. Ephraim likes playing with toy animals and he likes to play pirate. I love it when he comes toddling out of the play room with his pirate hat on and sword in hand swinging wildly with a big grin on his face. Tonight I got out the crayons to see how he would do with them. He actually colored with them. Truitt was NOT interested in crayons at this age.

I'm excited to see how Christmas turns out this year. We got Ephraim a Mr. Potato Head with lots of accessories. I really think he will like this. Mr. Potato Head is perfect for pretend play.
We got Truitt a Leapfrog Scribble and Write. The screen lights up to show him how to write a letter then he traces it. I've tried the pen and paper approach and he's not that interested, but there is something about a "computer" that I think he will find more interesting. It's simple enough though that I will still be involved. If you know me you know that I'm not for a computerized device teaching my children how to read and write. I believe that's the parents' job. That's a whole other post.

We had a lot of fun setting up the tree with the boys this year. This is the first year that they were old enough to help. They also helped me make Christmas cookies. That was more work than I anticipated, but they had fun. Here's to making memories!

Halloween

Ok so I know tomorrow is December 1st, but I wanted to post this. I know I'm really behind...I will try harder.
Our kids won a Halloween costume contest. We were so excited because is means a $50 gift certificate! As you can see Truitt was Dr. Frankenstein and Ephraim was his monster.

What's new?

So much has happened since my last post. Ephraim had his first birthday! While my parents were here we all went to Deanna Rose Farmstead. The boys had so much fun! Ephraim loved the ducks. Truitt liked getting close to the goats. Ephraim is now walking! He tries to keep up with his big brother, which can be hard when Truitt knocks him over while he's running past. I am looking into different options for schooling the boys. I just don't think that the public school will keep Truitt challenged. This is a boy that knew all of his capital letters at the age of 20 months, and currently is 2 but has the mind and vocabulary of a 3 year old. That being said I'm looking into some charter schools (we would HAVE to have scholarships). I'm also looking into home schooling. I know there are several different methods, so I want to look into those. I'm also going to be asking some moms that schooled their children to see what challenges they faced etc.

chicago

A couple weekends ago Aaron and I went to Chicago. We had a wonderful time! I was nervous about leaving the boys with someone else for the whole weekend but to my relief they did just fine! It was so relaxing to have a weekend to ourselves. We stayed out as late as we wanted and didn't have to worry about anything. This was our first plane ride. It was so weird being that high above the ground and knowing that only air was holding you up. Everyone said that I would love flying...they were right!

Friday night when we arrived we got to our hotel and then took the L to a movie theater where we had dinner and watched the new Harry Potter movie (which I loved by the way). We got back around 1am. Saturday morning we took the L downtown. There we found Millennium Park. Here we saw one of the coolest sculptures I've ever seen.

It's called the Bean. It is a huge silver sculpture shaped like a kidney
bean. Because it's silver it reflects everything.

Then we walked down and around Michigan Ave. There is so much to see and so much shopping. In the evening we went down to the Navy Pier and walked around there and eventually went on the huge Farris Wheel.

The city was beautiful. Sunday we rented bicycles. It was a very fun way to get around the city. First we went to this amazing coffee shop called Intelligentsia. The espresso was fantastic and they even did Latte Art

.

We went on our own little chocolate tour. There is a place in the city that offers one but we just did it on our own. That led us to More Cupcakes. They are a quaint little shop that makes savory and sweet cupcakes. I was hoping to try their artichoke parmigiana cupcake, but they didn't have any savory ones on the day we were there. So we bought a salted caramel and a chocolate crème.

We rode around some more and for lunch we stopped at "The Big Bowl". It is an Asian cuisine place that had amazing food and even made their own ginger ale fresh every
day. It was yummy! We then rode to the beach and followed the shore line for a while. We decided to stop and enjoy our cupcakes. Then we tried to build a sand castle, but we didn't have any tools. We tried to use the box our cupcakes came in but that didn't work out so well. Eventually it became a sand mountain.

That evening we had some Chicago deep dish pizza with some friends. Later that night, we all when shopping at H&M. There I found a cute jacket and some hats for the boys. We left for the airport early the next morning. Truitt and Ephraim were very excited to see us. We had a great time but it’s good to be home.

Summer Plans

Aaron and I have a lot planned for the summer. Aaron is wanting to get some more improvements done on the house. He is currently working on replacing the sink and dishwasher. I am going to start priming the trim in the kitchen. I will try to post before and after pictures. Later in July Aaron and I are taking a little weekend trip to Chicago. The boys will be staying with some friends of ours. I'm a little nervous, because I've never been on a plane. We plan on seeing the pier and of course riding the Farris Wheel. Hopefully it will be a very relaxing weekend. Then of course in Aug. Aaron will go back to school.

Eventually (when the boys are on the same nap schedule) we will put them in the same room together. The other room will become a playroom. So I am wanting to decorate their bedroom in guitars and drums. Their play room will have a pirate theme. I have lots of ideas for their rooms and I'm very excited to get started decorating. We are going to do it little by little so that it does not cost a bunch of money all at once. I will also post picture of that when I'm done, but those rooms will be a while.

Ephraim's accomplishments

Ephraim is now crawling and pulling himself up to standing. This all just happened suddenly in the same week. Congratulations little guy!

enjoying motherhood

I was driving to the mall yesterday to get my glasses fixed yesterday when I had some thoughts about motherhood. I thought about how most of my days are filled with dishes, laundry, changing dirty diapers, wiping snotty noses, side stepping mine fields of toys, kissing booboos, playing cars, getting snacks, making food, and running errands. Then I had an overwhelming feeling of joy and satisfaction. I'm so blessed and I would not want to do anything else. Sometimes doing some of those things feels like a chore or can be tiresome but there is really no other job I'd rather have. I'm blessed to have a husband that works so hard to make it possible for me to stay home with our boys. My only response was to give a prayer of thanks.

me running?

I, like most people in America want to lose some weight. I'm finally down a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight! However, I would like to lose more. I was a size 4 when I got married...eight years and 2 kids later... well I'm not a size 4 anymore. I would like to be in a size 6 or 8. Enter "The Running Group". There is a lady at my church that runs all the time and she is starting a running group. It's great for beginners like me because we will be starting off really slow. And by slow I mean the first week we are walking 11 minutes running 1. The goal is that at the end of 6 months we will all run a 5-K. I'm excited and a little nervous not only about how I will hold up but how well my boys will do in the jogging stroller for 45 minutes streight. Oh did I menton that I will be pushing both boys? This should be a great workout! Wish me luck!

Trains and Food

My mother -in-law had a great idea. She suggested we go to the hospital were she works, on Friday because on the first Friday of every month they bring a band into the lobby. There was a Ragtime band performing this last Friday and she thought Truitt would like it. He really likes Baby Einstein, Meet The Orchestra. We took him to Fritz's first. It's a local restaurant that has a train track close to the ceiling. The train actually delivers your food to your table. We had no idea how much he would love this place. He didn't touch his grilled cheese for the first 15 minutes. The we went to see the band at the hospital. Tru loved this too. He just sat there in awe. The he would point at each instrament and tell me what it was, then look at me with a big grin on his face.
The next day when Daddy came home from being out of town for a few days I told him to tell Daddy about the exciting time he had on Friday. This kid went on for 30 minutes (I'm not exagurating). He just kept saying "Trians and trains and trains and trains and fooood." If the place was that exciting I think we will be going back very soon.

Carrie is missing Dairy

At around 4 months Ephraim developed what we thought was Eczema on his little face, chest and belly. We kept trying different creams and lotions to heal it with no avail. Finally last week Ephraim, Truitt and I made a trip out to Colorado to visit my family. There we took him to see a Dr. who specializes in natural medicine and food allergies. We found out that Ephraim is allergic to oats, bakers yeast, pecans, almonds and is lactose intolerant. Therefore, because I'm nursing I can not eat any of these items. I have been off of them for a few days now and his face looks as though it is starting to clear up. It is a little overwhelming at first to cut all those things out of one's diet. Especially if you are addicted to dairy like I am. Milk, butter, sour cream, cheese I love them all! If it makes his stomach feel better and his face to stop itching then it's all worth it. So at least for the next 6 months, it's lactose-free milk, goat cheese, and making my own bread. I hope this all works to make him feel better.

Toddler Tourettes

I don't know if any other mom's suffer from this, but I believe I have a severe case of it. You see "Toddler Tourettes" (at least in our house) is when a parent randomly sings, speaks a phrase, or makes a noise that he/she has heard over and over again due to a Toddler's toys, books and movies.
For example, last night I'm cooking dinner and suddenly I start singing, "Drumming Drumming Drumming....Cave company is coming." Aaron just walked past me and muttered, "Toddler Tourettes!" I bowed my head in mock shame and said, "It's true...so true." For those of you who don't recognize this little ditty, I will let you know that it is a song from "The Backyardigans". I think I've seen this movie with Truitt at least 5 times. We have watched it a lot lately because all of us in the Lowrey household have been sick, and I believe that movie watching is great theropy for feeling icky.
For me it's not just with movies, it's with toys and books etc. Sometimes I will have phrases from "One Fish Two Fish" in my head as I lay my head on my pillow at night.
I have a strong feeling that I am not the only mother that suffers from this syndrom, but I don't know of any support groups.
But....
"Now it's time for us to have a snack, see you next time wheeeeen weeee're baaaaack with our friends the Backyardigans."

Happy New Year

I just thought I would re-cap the old year. I think that it's nice to look back before you look forward, that way you can see how far you've come and you have a nice starting point for what's ahead.
January through May of 2008 seems like ages ago. It almost feels like a different lifetime. Truitt was just pulling up on things and learned to walk by April. Aaron was still working hard, and considering school. I was teaching a boy to walk, working at Starbucks and little baby number 2 was developing well.
In May Truitt celebrated his 1st birthday! I think his favorite gift was his ball. He got so excited when he opened that gift.
In June Aaron celebrated his 26th birthday.
June and July were spent making sure we had everything ready for Ephraim's arrival. In July I also did some extra training at Starbucks so that I could earn my Black Apron. Aaron was also busy getting grants and scholarships and enrollment information for college.
August finally came, and we waited and waited for Ephraim. We ended up doing a C-section on Aug 11th and suddenly 3 became 4.
My mom was a huge help to us while I recovered. Keeping up with Truitt at that point was a full time task. Aaron started his first semester of college for the mechanical engineering program.
August through December were a bit of a blur. With Aaron at school 2-3 nights a week and all the homework, and me keeping up with 2 little boys we were just trying to make it through each week as best we could.
It's amazing how much a child learns in one year. In April Truitt was just learning to walk. Now he runs everywhere, can climb up onto the dinning room chair on his own, knows most of his alphabet, and repeats anything you say. He is currently working on his numbers, and colors, he still loves books and cars.
Ephraim is now 17 lbs, has a crazy mo-hawk and is SOOOO close to rolling over on his own. He is now very good at grabbing things with his hands and pulling them to his mouth. He smiles a lot and is very ticklish.
Aaron is about to head into his second semester. He is doing well but sometimes get overwhelmed. A full time job, a family, classes and homework are hard to balance.
I am trying to keep up with 2 boys, still working 3 days a week at Starbucks, and supporting my husband in any way I can in his scholastic venture.
Oh what will the new year bring?
How do you look at a new year? Is it just another year to you, or do you see endless possibilities?
Personally I'm excited to see what comes of 2009.