Strike, Sesame Street and Sleepover!

On a whim, we took the boys bowling for the first time.  We had talked about wanting to take them, but on Monday afternoon when it was chilly and wet, we thought it was the perfect day, so off we went!
I talked a big game to Blaine about how I would beat him and we talked about making a bet, but after about two seconds thinking about it, I remembered that not only had I not bowled in probably 10 years but I really couldn't remember if I was any good or not.  I don't like losing a bet and I was pretty certain I would so we never made a wager!

I remember back in the day you had to call ahead for the bumpers, they would blow them up and stick  them in your lanes, only certain lanes were set aside for that.  They have come a long way since then.  You can set it up for the bumper to come up for the kids and down for us, it was great!

Eli and Owen walked in there not really knowing what to expect but they were excited!  I set up the computer and Blaine took the boys to the lane and showed them how to play.

They were so excited, but Eli especially was jumping up and down and so happy to watch the ball go down and hit the pins.  Owen walked around pretty oblivious, like always, but was very excited to just be there, occasionally obliviously walking into the man's lane next to us who was not at all amused by us, and took his game extremely serious.

Here goes Eli's first try...

...as it slowly made its way to the end.....

 ....."I hit some pins!!!!"

 ...."MOM! Did you see?!?!?!?"

Owen was not quite as enthusiastic about hitting the pins, the most exciting part of the whole game to him was watching as the ball magically popped back up into the ball queue.

By the 8th round Owen had hit his wall, big time!

Eli however, was still having the time of his life! Not to mention doing a pretty darn good job! He bowled a 70!
While on the topic of scores, I beat Blaine by 22 points!  He claims he was just off his game and is demanding a re-match.  I had no idea the boys would have to much fun, and I am already looking forward to going back.  Poor Cash was handed back and forth from me to Blaine the whole time, so I am not so sure he enjoyed his time but his little smile never left his face!

A friend of mine got a suite at the Sesame Street Live show this last weekend.  We are not big Sesame Street watchers, so we were not planning on going, but being able to get up and be loud, walk around and go with friends sold me on the idea. At the last minute, we decided it was better for Blaine to stay home with Cash since it was right when he was napping so it was such a treat to spend the afternoon with my two big boys.
We picked up my friend Becca, and her son Jonah and got him all strapped in my car.  The boys thought it was so fun that he was riding in our car with us (I think having Jonah ride in our car was the most memorable part of the whole day!), and we were on our way.
As a side note, Eli and Jonah are the same age and Jonah towers over him!  At Eli's 4 year well-check, he moved up from the 5th% to the 10th% for his weight (31 lbs) and the 25% in height (39in).

We made it to our suite, settled in, and the show began!

I promised the boys they could split some cotton candy and they held me to it!

They had a really good time, and crashed from their sugar rush on the way home with their super hero capes in tow!

We also braved our first sleepover at our house with the boys' friend Jonah on Friday night.
He came over just in time for dinner.  Eli and Owen had been talking about wanting to have a sleepover for awhile and were so, so excited!  After all, just having Jonah in our car with us was exciting, a whole night together was beyond exciting to them.
After dinner, I put Cash down for the night (well, in theory), and we made some popcorn on the stove and watched a little of Maters Tall Tales, or as Owen calls them, Maters Long Tails.  They loved watching the bubble form as the popcorn popped.

Got ready for bed, brushed teeth and read some stories, while acting like super hero's in between.

The boys were surprisingly extremely well behaved the whole night.  Eli and Owen were so entertained that they were not constantly asking me for this and that and needing my attention.  In some ways it was so much easier having Jonah being there.  Everything was going so smoothly, until it was time to actually go to bed.  On any given normal night, Eli and Owen play together, laugh, sing songs, ask for water, Eli comes out needing a certain toy, and getting them to bed is no easy task.  Add in Jonah, and it was close to impossible.
I started counting the times I had to go in there reminding them to be quiet, get back in bed, lay down, I think I lost count somewhere around 12.  Finally after an hour of back and forth, I put Owen in our bed to sleep with me and went back and sat in the room with Eli and Jonah until they were just about asleep.  Finally, they were asleep and I didn't hear a peep out of any of them until 7am.
Cash on the other hand, was a different kind of animal that night.  He was up at 11 and I didn't get him back down until 4am, back up at 5:30 and again at 6:45 for the morning.  I do not know what is going on with that kid.
My boys were all up before Jonah, so we got breakfast ready for when he woke up.  They were so excited for him to wake up "when is he going to wake up? Is he going to sleep forever???"

Not long after that, they were up and at em' and ready to play.  Hobo had just gotten back from Minneapolis and picked out Wisconsin Jerseys for all the boys.  They were so excited about them, I could not get them to take them off.  Hobo is a big time Wisconsin fan/alum, and president of the alumnae club, so the gift was very fitting.

I had a crazy busy day ahead of me, baby shower, birthday party, and a night on the town with Blaine for our anniversary, so although I was beyond tired, I felt like I had the morning to myself because the boys were to occupied with Jonah and their super hero powers.
First sleepover=success!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

From The Kruger Boys

Six Months

Cash is six months old.

He is all over the place. He could roll from one end of the room to the other in 30 seconds, and is starting to Army Crawl to reach things.  He has not quite figured out how to get his knees up under him and push himself up at the same time but he is working on it and I am giving him another week or two before he figures it out.  He is getting around pretty good and seems to prefer being on the ground where he can be "free" to move around and reach thing than in the exersaucer but we just have to be careful that he doesn't roll right off onto the hard floor or wiggle his way so much that he is in reach of the Lego's thrown around our house or the little toys Eli and Owen are playing with.
He goes crazy when he sees baby food pouches and would much rather just eat directly from the pouch.  Bananas are his favorite food of choice so far.  We are doing a small meal in the morning and another one at night.  He is really reaching for the boys cups and wants so badly to get his mouth on it, so I gave him one with a little water and he went to town.  Speaking of, he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth!  More so than Eli and Owen put together at this age.  We are certainly getting very good use out of all of our teething toys.  He really likes tags, doesn't matter what it is on, he finds it and sucks on it!  He is attached to his lovey already, but seems to like the tag the best.  I had heard of Taggies, and never really got the idea of it until now! But its like his dream toy!  He even finds the actual tag on the Taggies Blanket and prefers that one.

He is very tolerant of Eli and Owen and the things they put him through.  Kind of like the time when they were playing with the water hose and they got carried away and sprayed him right in the face!  Or buried him in all of their stuffed animals.

But he and Eli seem to have a very special connection.

He can sit up very sturdy and seems to really like the new perspective!

He has followed suit and is just as awful of a sleeper as both his brothers- I did not expect anything less!  We are going through a pretty awful period right now with day and night time sleep, but I am hopeful that we are about to come out the other side soon and turn a corner.  The good news is that he is happy as can be even with little sleep.

At his six month check-up he weighed 19 pounds (75%), was 25 inches (10%) and his head was 44cm (75%), so basically one short ball of baby love!

This kid is awesome!!!