Kathleen Karen Shaw Bluth

Toddler Kathleen

High School Kathleen

Obviously I've been scanning old photos today. It's so much fun to look back at old pictures. My mom had a birthday while we were in Utah. It was the day before my brother's wedding so we didn't do too much to celebrate. My mom is a great example of the kind of mom I want to be. She will do ANYTHING for her kids and not because she feels like she has to, but I think she really likes to. We give her a hard time sometimes reminiscing about her less-than-perfect moments (we think those moments are funny, she does not) but all my siblings agree that we wouldn't want anyone else for a mom.

Look at these cute boys...

Makes me excited for a few years from now when Taft and Luke are good buds.

Lukester is Four (and a half) Months Old

Another month of Luke's first year has flown by. Luke is getting close to rolling from his back to tummy but can already roll from his tummy to back. He recently discovered that sucking on his fingers makes a good substitute for a binky, it's usually his index and middle finger. He drools like crazy, I swear there should be teeth popping up, but his gums are still just as gummy as ever. He seems to be more interested in Taft and might even think Taft is funny sometimes. It's kind of hard to tell, but I think Luke might be a momma's boy which I think I deserve because Taft is definitely a daddy's boy. Luke hasn't decided he wants to sleep through the night yet, which surprisingly I'm okay with. Although, this week he's had some rough nights that involved several wake ups. I'm okay with one feeding in the middle of the night, but that's it. He usually goes down around 7:30 or 8:00 and isn't up for the day until around 8:00 the next morning. I think this kid might appreciate sleep more than his older brother. Luke is such a smiley boy and I still have to try really hard not to squeeze his cute little guts out. I think he looks like Seth so sometimes I call him Little Seth. I love having a baby in our home and I kind of wish there was a safe, healthy way to stunt his growth so he could be a baby forever.

Iron Girl Las Vegas

(I just wrote this post and it got deleted so I have to rewrite it. So annoying)

For starters, Seth is doing a rotation in Utah this month, so we're staying at my parents for 4 weeks. This past Friday we loaded up the car at my parents house and headed to Las Vegas where I did my first ever triathlon, the Iron Girl Las Vegas sprint triathlon.

The boys did pretty good on the way down but once we got into Vegas Luke started to lose it. We pulled up close to hotel, but passed it and had to turn around. Since Luke was acting like he was going to die, I decided to get out with him and get us checked in to the hotel. The doors were locked so I asked Seth to hit the unlock button on the key remote. He did and and our car completely shut down. We were able to get it out of the way of traffic and a nice guy stopped and tried to jump start it but it didn't do anything. I was starting to stress because A) car problems are always stressful, especially on vacation, especially the night before a race and B) I had to get to registration by 6:00 p.m. and it was 4:30 p.m. My friend Abbie was doing the race too so I called her to see if she had left to get to registration and luckily she hadn't left yet. I took the boys up to our hotel room while Seth lugged all of our stuff from about a block away. Luke was screaming, Taft had shut his fingers in the hotel room door so he was screaming, and I was stressed and had a very large headache and I started crying too. It was not a pretty sight. Abbie and her husband came to pick me and Luke up so we loaded up their car with our gear and bikes and took off for registration, while Seth and Taft were left to figure out the car problems. Abbie and I had 30 minutes to get to registration before it closed and it was about 30 minutes away. Luckily we got there just in time, got checked in, set up our bikes, and were good to go for the next morning. Meanwhile, Seth was on the phone with the tow truck place (who went to the wrong location), different mechanics trying to see who was open, the mechanic who installed the keyless system, and all the while trying to keep Taft entertained. The tow truck guy finally arrived but told Seth he was only allowed to take one person in his truck. After getting the guy to feel sorry for Seth, he agreed to let Seth and Taft ride in the car while it was being towed. The car was taken to an auto parts store and Seth was able to fix everything by changing out a blown fuse. Four dollars and a few hours later the disaster had been averted. By 8 o'clock we were all back as a family, none of us had eaten dinner, and miraculously Taft was still in a good mood. The day after all the drama Taft said, "Car broken, truck awesome".

Despite the traumatic events of the day before, I LOVED the race. I definitely want to make this an annual event for me. Best news of the race: I faced my fear of swimming in open water and risk getting eaten by a fish/shark/sea creature AND the icing on the cake was I didn't even come in dead last!! GO ME!! It was only a sprint so: 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.2 mile run, but it was still awesome. Seth was my "trainer" and cheerleader. He wrote up a training schedule for me and made sure I stuck to it. He was a huge help on my longer training days...training for something with a nursing baby can be pretty tricky. Seth made it to the race before the start with both boys in tow and was even able to keep Luke asleep until I finished. Luke will not take a bottle so I was really worried he'd be starving and would be screaming the whole time.

My friend Abbie (we worked at DCFS together) did freaking awesome and placed 2nd in our age group. I won't tell you my place because then you'll feel sorry for me. Abbie didn't even train for this race...but she's training for a marathon right now, is super fit, and just rocks. I wish I was like Abbie in like a million ways.

And because I know you want to see me in a wet suit and swim cap....

This picture doesn't really capture how blazing fast I was, and I'm not wearing white leggings, those are just my legs

Seth, the boys, and I stayed in Vegas for a few more days after the race and just swam and semi-relaxed. I say semi because how relaxed can you really be with a baby and a toddler?

The Condo That Could Have Been

Luke did fabulous on the plane ride. Taft and Luke both took their first flights at around 3 months old. 

Mid-April Little Luke and I took a trip to San Diego to begin the house-hunt. My mom met us there for a couple of days and it was great to have her along for opinions and help with Luke. On the second day of the search I found a fantastic, fantastic place: totally move-in ready, new carpet in bedrooms, hardwood floors in main living areas, washer/dryer, attached garage, only one shared wall, updated kitchen and bathrooms, 2 bed, 2 bath, close to Seth's work, and right across the street from the park. Practically perfect. I called Seth about it and we decided to make an offer. The morning I was leaving I signed the paperwork for the offer and right before leaving for the airport I decided to do a drive-by. 

I should mention that the first day we saw the place we noticed a bunch of homeless people at the park. The social worker side of me thought, "Homeless people are welcome at this park, they're just like you and me, but they live outside. Life has dealt them a bad hand, let's be compassionate and understanding." But the Mom side of me thought, "Homeless people are crazy, drug-abusing, alcoholics". The first day I tried to ignore the Mom side because I liked the place so much, plus the homeless people weren't by the playgroup so we'd be safe, right? 

Well, when I drove by the place the morning of my flight I noticed two police cars at the park. I decided to stop and ask them about the area. I told them we were thinking about buying a place right across the street and their answer was a big, fat, emphatic "DON'T DO IT". They validated my Mom thoughts by confirming that the majority of those homeless folks living at the park were in fact crazy, drug-abusers, alcoholics, and to top it off, prostitutes. Sweet. 

We were very bummed about it and realized we should put the house-buying plan on hold until we're more familiar with the areas we can afford and that are close to Seth's work. We had spent so much time looking at places online and were super discouraged when I got home. Our realtor told us that if we wanted to take our time looking, she'd rent an apartment that she owns to us, month to month, until we find a place. The great part is, it's on Coronado Island (or I guess technically it's a peninsula but either way it's awesome). We're thinking we might not want to move once we're there! 

Did you know that probably the main reason I picked our current apartment in Spokane is because I liked the kitchen cupboards and thought my dishes would look cute? I'm 100% serious. Isn't that the dumbest reason to pick an apartment? I picked cute cupboards over a washer/dryer, dishwasher, 2nd bathroom, and covered garage. The worst part, they don't even look that cute. I told Seth I was going to try really hard to place functionality above potential cute-ness during the house hunt. 

Here are some pictures of our Spokanian apartment. I never decorated because when we moved in I was sick as a dog being pregnant and then by the time I had energy we only had a few months left. So, it's boring, but here it is:

Note to self and others: Don't pick an apartment based solely on the cupboards

Note to self and others: carpet in a dining area is the dumbest idea ever if you have kids

Note to self and others: Light colored couches are also a terrible choice if you have little kids

A Shout Out

I have to give a shout to this cute boy. For the last couple weeks, our bed/naptime routines have been working. Taft has been much a much happier, funnier, easy going boy because of it and that has made it loads easier to be a happier, more energetic, easier going mom. He's been so funny lately and he's just so pleasant to be around (most of the time). I mean, it's not easy being two. You can talk, but still not communicate exactly what you want all the time. Sometimes your mom makes you leave the children's museum before you're ready, won't give you "canny" every time you want it, and won't let you have your binky except for sleeping times even though your baby brother gets it whenever he wants.

He's in his room right now having quiet time which will eventually lead to a nap. Our rule is as long as he stays on his bed I'll leave the door open. He can look at books or sleep. I just checked in on him and he was looking at The Hungry Caterpillar pretending to eat the food off the page. Lately he's been wearing his sailor cap everywhere. He gets a lot of comments on it (which I think he loves) and a lot of adoring smiles. He's started wanting to say the prayer at mealtimes and bed but so far he just has "Hedeny Fawder" and "Amen" down. Sometimes that's all the prayer is, "Hedeny Fawder, Amen." Also, I've learned this boy is easily bribed by chocolate or as he calls it "choc-it". Like mother, like son.

I complain a lot on this blog but there really is nothing I'd rather be doing than staying home with these boys, watching them grow, and trying to not screw up too badly.

What about us?

In case you're interested in the adults of this family here's what's new.

We're currently obsessed with SDLookup.com looking for housing for this coming June. I have two condos I'm reeeeally interested in and I check multiple times a day to see if any offers have been made on the place. It's driving me crazy. Lukie and I are headed to San Diego next week to meet with a realtor and look at places in person. My mom is meeting us there to help out and to get her grandbaby fix. Seth and Taft are going to have a Man's Weekend together.

Since we'll be living in San Diego for at least the next 4 years, we want to make sure we find exactly what we want, or as close to exactly as we can get.

Seth's requirements are: as few shared walls as possible, definitely nobody above us, and cycling distance to at least one of the hospitals he'll be working in. My requirements are: washer and dryer in-unit or potential for washer and dryer. I am SO tired of hauling my laundry elsewhere and timing it around naps or bedtime so I don't have to take the kiddos with me. I'd really love a three bedroom so we can have an extra bedroom for all you wonderful people to come stay in, but it's not looking likely. If you ned a place to crash, an air mattress in the living room will have to do. Or the top bunk in Busski's room. We also do not want a fixer-upper. We are not fixer-upper kind of people. Home projects test our marriage and I just don't want to do that to us. I wish we were handy, but we're not and it stresses us out and makes us have short tempers. Paint, we can do. Installing flooring, electrical work, plumbing work, anything with a drill or lever, we cannot do.

I found out I got into my MSW program which I was embarrassingly proud of myself for (Seth's sister also got in to her MSW program too! Woot woot!) . I'm deferring a year so I'll start Fall 2012. Seth is almost done with this transitional year here in Spokane and we only have like 5 or so weeks left here. We're headed to Utah at the end of this month for an away rotation and my brother will be getting hitched while we're there.

3 Months Old of Cuteness

I looooooooooooove this boy. He is just so sweet and cute and sweet and cute. Sometimes I have to remind myself that he's a little baby still because I just want to squeeze him all the time! He's starting to laugh a little and I keep trying to get it on camera but I've yet to be successful. 

At three months Luke:

-eats every 3-4 hours

-poops once a week! (it's kinda normal for breastfed babies)

-goes to bed for the night around 8, wakes up sometime in the early morning hours (like 4ish? I rarely look at the clock when he wakes up) to eat, and is up for good around 7. Takes 3ish naps during the day.  I used "ish" a lot because I'm not a crazy structured schedule lady like I was with Taft, but he is on a schedule...just not nap at such and such on the dot schedule.

-likes Taft alright, but I think he braces himself when Taft is around because he never knows if Taft is going to give him a gentle kiss or a brotherly bonk on the head. 

-is a very happy baby as long as he is full, well rested, and getting an adequate amount of attention.

-doesn't love Tummy Time but doesn't completely hate it.

-likes Patty Cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider 

-loves bath time and any other time is totally naked.

-likes to talk and be talked to

2 year olds are cute and sweet and kinda naughty

Cute

Sweet. Taft asked me to lay Luke by him when he was watching a movie.

Naughty. Taft asked for some yogurt one afternoon, which was obviously a decoy so he could draw on our chair with permanent marker. Ironically, just the night before I was looking for more kid-friendly wipe-able fabric to redo the chairs in. 

Naughty (kinda but not really). We've started Operation No Mercy at the Herway household. Taft needs to learn to sleep on his own without us laying by him. We've had two successful nights of getting him to fall asleep on his own and go back to sleep on his own when he gets up after his regular 3 night time wake ups. Today I put him in his bed for nap/quiet time. He played, or made a giant mess, for about an hour and fell asleep on his own once all of his possession were sprawled about his floor. Hey, if that's what he needs to do to fall asleep on his own, I'm cool with it.

One more naughty. The other night we were eating at Le Cafe (the hospital cafeteria) and when we were finished we were walking back to the elevators. Taft was being a slow poke behind us and when we looked back to tell him to come along HE WAS GONE!! This was the first time we had lost him anywhere. I immediately started imagining that someone would take him.  Luckily it was the weekend and evening so there weren't very many people there. Seth hurried and called security but by the time he called them, they said a nurse had just called from another level and said when the elevator doors opened, out walked a little 2 year old boy, wearing a Thomas shirt and green frog boots and a great big smile. We get in an elevator everyday at our apartment and we're at the hospital quite a bit so I guess Taft just thought he knew what to do, got on an elevator and went to check out what was happening a couple floors up. Stinker.


Three month olds on the other hand are just too cute and haven't learned to be naughty. Soon enough Luke, soon enough.

He doesn't live in his car seat even though both of the pictures are in his car seat.

Taft is Two

March 16th marked the two year anniversary of Taft being born..a.k.a. his birthday. We had a full day of music class with friends, the park, Mickey D's for lunch (I know, it's really unhealthy but at least I got him apples instead of fries?), the park again, picked up Aunt Tates from the airport, had a pizza party with Dad, Luke, Tates, and Mom, Thomas Cake and ice cream, then finally presents while Skype-ing with Nana, Grandad, Lanx and Facetiming with Pete. (Whew.)

pizza and cupcakes with playgroup friends

party people

Birthday Boy with one of his firetrucks

Me and my two year old cutie pie

I can't believe how much Taft has changed in just one year. This is by far the most fun stage (also most challenging) and he keeps us laughing, makes us want to pull our hair out, and melts our heart all at the same time.

At two years old Taft:
-is talking A LOT.
-is a pretty good eater. He'll eat some vegetables, most any fruit, but looooves toast and jam, pb&j, yogurt,  and any sweets.
-is in no way, shape, or form a good sleeper. We're talking up SEVERAL times in the night and up EXTREMELY early in the morning. (This is when we want to pull our hair out)
-is a super, super sweet big brother to Baby Wukie. (This is when he melts our heart)
-likes to play with other kids but takes a while to warm up to them. He'll usually want to watch them from a distance for a while before he decides to join in. He's probably just deciding if they're cool enough for him.
-Thinks his dad is the bomb dot com. Some of his most common phrases are "Daddy at work" and "Daddy is funny". It is absolutely the highlight of Taft's day when Seth comes home from work.
-Loves all vehicles but especially buses, firetrucks, and ambience trucks (ambulances)
-Loves to wear his frog boots and really likes all the comments he gets on them.
-Is getting more mischievous and likes to test boundaries about what he can get away with.
-Is good at playing by himself and his imagination is growing all the time.
-Likes to watch shows on his Cars couch. Favorites are: Thomas, Barney, and Sesame Street
-Likes to help me clean. Give him a cloth and he'll keep himself busy for a good 20 minutes wiping different surfaces. He's also great at picking up his toys if you sing the "Clean Up" song from Barney.

taking it easy

I just can't resist the bum shots

We love, love, love this boy. We're so glad he came into our lives 2 years ago and feel very grateful that he came to our family. He's already a good big brother and I'm sure his younger siblings will look up to him one day.

L Dub* is 2 Months Old

Luke is over 2 months old now. We had his two month appointment today and he's doing great. He weighs 11 lbs. 11 oz. and is in the 50th percentile. Height is in the 50th and head is in between the 50 and 75th percentiles. Luke is waking up about once a night to eat and sleeps well during the night otherwise. He's not really on much of a napping schedule which is totally something I need to get working on. He's smiling so much and it's absolutely the cutest thing you've ever seen. Oh and the cooing! I love the cooing. Taft is still into his younger brother and calls him Baby Wookie or the newest has been Buddy. I don't really know where he picked it up but he says "Oh hi Buddy!" several times a day. Now that everyone has recovered from the plagues that have struck our family we finally ventured outside our house and got back into our routine, it's been soooooo nice.

Now that I watched the video I realized I say "Hi Buddy" I never realized I said that. So that's where Taft gets it from. The video is long, I would have shortened it if I knew how.

*Short for L.W. which is short for Lukas Wilson. Interesting (or maybe not that interesting) Seth's grandfather's name is Loren Worrell and people sometimes would call him L Dub.

How WT are you?

Seth and I are a little more white trash than we care to admit...but tonight I feel like admitting:

You feel a little white trash-ish when:
1. You're in McDonalds for breakfast, nursing a baby who is wearing a camo shirt, while your 2 year old runs around with no shoes on and has puffy eyes from a virus but looks like he's been punched in the eyes by abusive parents.
2. You're pregnant and all you crave are nachos and Doritos.
3. You eat at the cafeteria in your husband's place of employment A LOT because he gets an allowance there each month, so you use it up. You also have your husband bring home things from the cafeteria to complete dinner...like lettuce, tomatoes, maybe an orange. He also stocks up on gum, granola bars, soda, and candy so you don't have to buy that stuff at the store.

We should totally start a family singing group...

Taft may be one of the only children in the United States who does not have a DVD player in the car. (Although a little birdie told me that he is probably getting one for his bday) This is what we do to keep him entertained. It doesn't look like it's working until the end...you will catch a glimpse of a smile.




Taft actually does really well on long car rides thankfully. He has a few moments of insanity but as long as we have snacks and treats (like mother like son) and possibly some soda, toy cars, blankets, his beloved monkey, and of course a binky we are good to go. Right now Luke just needs a blanket and a binky and will sleep for three hours at a time until he needs to eat again. We can handle that.

p.s. Early in our marriage Seth wanted to know what the difference between snacks and treats were. If you're wondering snacks=salty/crunchy/munchy treats=sweet and yes I need both on car rides.

p.p.s. Seth thinks the song says "someone's in the kitchen with DinO" because it rhymes with banjo. Isn't it DinA? I say Dina.

Over the river and through the woods a snowmobiling we will go...

Before deciding he HATED snowclothes and snowmobiles

Cutie Pie Scarlet

Gorgeous Daphne

Tough Guy Brauer

We were the beneficiaries of a week in Driggs, ID at a cozy cabin owned by my SIL's dad. We were there with the Dan/Lara Herways, a.k.a. Draper Herways(the ones with the hook up) and the Jake/Mel Herway a.k.a Manhattan Herways.

We had such a great time and there was talk of making it a tradition every Presidents Day week (I'm going to remind the Draper Herways of this next year). Seth was able to snowmobile a lot and I even made it out of couple of times and LOVED it. I didn't even get so-cold-I-could-cry like I usually do. We've learned that we have a 2 year old chicken for a child who's newest phrase came after us trying to get him to ride the snowmobile, "I don't wike it". We couldn't even get his snowclothes on without him saying repeatedly and with a lot of enthusiasm (read: freaking out) "I don't WIKE it! I don't WIKE it!" Ugh. Seth blames me for Taft's unadventurous personality. I don't blame him for blaming me, I really avoid anything that could possibly hurt me in any way. I do say though, Taft not even two yet and hopefully once this trip becomes a tradition (ahem, Draper Herways) we'll have to pry him off the snowmobile.

I didn't take many pictures, so few that I didn't get a single shot of the Manhattan Herways. I'll take some next year.

We really loved our week with Seth's brothers and their families. I loved our grown-up time when the kids went to bed, seeing the cousins play together, eating yummy food (Lara's meals kick the pants off my twice weekly spaghetti dinners) all in a cozy cabin.