Meal time at the Jarboes

Ever since the kids have been off baby food, meal time has been a very interesting time at our house. Sometimes they gobble their food right off of their plates/trays, sometimes they throw it on the floor, sometimes they just play with it, and sometimes it ends up all over them!

As time passes we seem to be getting a better idea of what the kids like, when they want to eat, etc. It has been especially helpful that Olivia can say "eat" using sign language so it is pretty easy to understand when she is hungry as she will walk over to her high chair and sign "eat"....and Alex just gets fed at the same time!

I am in charge of breakfast in the morning as Ben has already left for work. Breakfast always seems to be a success, although when I am running late and Alex is eating slow (which happens often), I sometimes find myself taking food away from him! It doesn't help that he loves his milk and once he gets his sippy, he instantly forgets there is food on his tray!

Ben is a saint for taking care of dinner as dinner is probably the worst meal all day. Veggies are always a big hit, especially with Olivia. We also found that we were feeding the kids too early so I think a lot of the problem was they just weren't hungry. But a lot of food ends up in places other than their mouth at dinner.

Alex for the most party stays pretty clean....Olivia is a whole other story! Olivia's latest thing is sucking on her sippy cup, but instead of closing her mouth and swallowing the milk she leaves her mouth open and let it drip down her bib.

But just when we are completely stressed about meal time......the following happens......


and makes you stop stressing about the kids eating and enjoy them.....well until the chaos begins again!

Thank you to all of our friends who have kids who we have solicited advice from regarding meal time! It has all been very helpful!

Alex & Olivia's first wedding

This past weekend Ben and I took the kids to Pennsylvania to a wedding. My friend Laura was getting married and since she invited the kids to the wedding we figured we would make the trip. I think we were a little nervous about going, but I honestly was looking forward to the 4 hours in the car of peace and quiet with kids sleeping and no dishes to wash, high chairs to clean, or food to make for the next day. Perhaps Ben felt differently since he was driving!

The wedding was Saturday afternoon so we decided to drive down on Friday evening at the kids bedtime so that they would sleep in the car. The plan worked perfectly as they fell asleep within 20 minutes of being in the car and slept the whole way. We arrived at the hotel around 11 p.m., got into our room, set up the pack and plays and went to sleep. Actually it wasn't that easy as the kids were a little confused as to where they were so it took them a few minutes to fall asleep. Alex cried himself to sleep, which normally doesn't bother me, but being in the same room with him and knowing there were people in the rooms next to us I was a little concerned. Thankfully it didn't last very long.

Luckily, for us the kids slept in until 8:30 on Saturday morning. It was a little strange to all be in the same room. This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning:

Saturday was pretty crazy between trying to get the kids naps, getting the kids fed, and getting to the wedding on time. Here are some pictures from during the day....not the greatest pictures but it is hard to get them to stand/sit still since they like to move so much. Olivia has been a big fan of hats lately!

Here's Olivia all ready for the wedding and you can barely see Alex in the back dressed up too - - he was banging on the bathroom door since Ben was in there! (Thanks McClains for letting us borrow Lori's dress!)

We arrived to the wedding just in time, and the kids were great during the ceremony as they gobbled up goldfish and cherrios!

We only stayed through dinner as the kids were getting tired and all they wanted to do was walk/crawl around. Olivia walked around a lot and the minute anyone made eye contact or started to talk to her she froze! Alex wanted to crawl around everywhere but unfortunately it wasn't a good place for him to crawl! Here is them eating their dinner:
Boy, there was a lot of food on the floor around our table when the kids were done eating!!

I wish we would have taken more pictures but it was just too hard to think about taking pictures while keeping our eyes on two little ones!

The kids fell asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the reception and slept all the way back to Connecticut. It was a quick trip, but nice to get away!

Our budding muscian

Over the last couple of weeks we have noticed Olivia's head bobbing to music! Whenever something musical comes on she doesn't necessarily dance to it, but her head definintely starts to bob. It is like she turns into a little bobble-head. It is so cute!

We bought a little piano at Christmas time but had kept it in the basement since they weren't ready for it. When we noticed Olivia bobbing to music over her birthday weekend we thought it was time to pull it out.

Check her out in action!


And here is her "double-fisting" with the piano and the maraca! Looks like we need to get her in some music classes!

Movin' on Up.......

I am so excited about what Alex did today that I had to do a blog post about it! A couple months ago, day care emailed me a picture of Alex standing up on an exersaucer and they told me he pulled himself up all by himself! We were so excited on that day but then we never saw it again!

We have been standing up at things, and then realized he probably isn't pulling up since we always cater to his every need! So this past week we made a conscious decision to not stand him up at things and that he would have to try to pull himself up if he wanted. We would notice that he would start to put his foot under but then would just stop and move on.

Tonight about a half an hour before bed, we were playing in the living room and all of a sudden Alex was standing!!! He pulled himself up all by himself!!! Ben and I were both so excited!!! After that he did it 2 or 3 more times before bed!!!

YAY ALEX!!!! We're so proud of you bubby!

Highlight of some Birthday Presents

We absolutely love all the gifts the kids got for their birthday...don't be disappointed if your gift that you gave them is not highlighted here as it isn't possible to get pictures with all of their gifts!

Playing with their new blocks on their new table and chair set! The table and chair set has temporarly been put away as Olivia likes to stand on the chair, and the other day she pushed it over to her high chair, stood up on it and tried to reach the tray!

Enjoying a ride in their new wagon!!! So much more fun then going on walks with the stroller! Now if the weather could just stay nice!

This has been a big favorite....the "dump" that came with the dump truck that they got! Olivia loves to play with the "dump" and they both LOVE chewing on the dump truck driver!

Alex and Olivia modeling their new Purdue t-shirts!!!

Sitting on the new toy box they got for their room! Hopefully this will last us for many years to come!

Olivia reading one of her new books! And I must mention that she did pull a page (by accident) out of one of Alex's new books!
Olivia playing with her new piano.

Olivia modeling her new pink jogging suit! The pants are a little long, but the jacket fits just right!

Happy 1st Birthday Alex and Olivia!!!!

Alex and Olivia turned 1 two weeks ago! It is hard to believe that a year has already passed! I think it just shows how busy our lives have been since they were born! And to think we had a busy life before children!

We had a small party at our house on their birthday, Saturday, March 28th! Both of our parents flew in for the occassion. We thought for a while that we might have to cancel the party because Alex was sick the week leading up to the party and luckily Ben's mom was nice enough to fly out early to watch Alex so that Ben and I didn't have to miss anymore work!

The guests arrived around 1, and of course all the kids decided it was nap time! So the party turned into an adult gathering for the first 30 - 45 minutes, and I am not complaining about that!

I spent weeks trying to figure out how I could decorate the cakes for the kids. All I could come up with was Winnie the Pooh characters and I didn't want to do that again since that is what we did for Halloween. So I decided to just make two round cakes (one yellow and one chocolate) and decorate them as if they were an M&M. I ordered personalized M&M's that said "Alex is ONE", and "Olivia is ONE", and bordered the cakes with the M&M's.

I bought some birthday hats for Alex and Olivia to wear. I figured Alex would hate his, and as for Olivia I wasn't sure. I put one on Olivia in the morning before the party and she LOVED it! She was wearing around the house for a good hour! It was so cute!

Before we started to sing Happy Birthday to the kids, I put their hats on. Olivia didn't mind, but as I figured Alex hated it and started to cry!

We gave them each a piece of cake to eat. Olivia got the chocolate cake as I thought it went better with pink icing. She went to town on her cake and seemed to like it a lot and was pretty neat with it. Alex, who had the yellow cake, was just picking at his and not eating very much of it. I gave him a piece of the chocolate cake thinking maybe he didn't like yellow cake. He took the chocolate cake and immediately threw it on the floor as if he was saying "I don't want that, it's not my cake!".

Although Olivia was very interested in the pile of presents in the morning before the party but when it came to open the gifts, neither Alex nor Olivia were interested. Ben and I opened their gifts for them. They got a lot of really nice gifts of clothes and toys!

The balloons were also a big hit with both kids! It was a nice way to cheer them up as they were coming down from their sugar highs!

Thank you to everyone who helped make Alex and Olivia's 1st birthday a special one!