Halloween 2008

James had school this morning, and as it was actually Halloween, they had a parade of kids in costumes and then a class party. Kaitlyn and I joined in the fun, and Kaitlyn got to dress up in her costume too, a white kitty. I must say, my kids were the cutest ones there! :)
James wore his monkey costume, the original costume that we had planned on for this year. I started second guessing myself after we picked out this costume since it's really made for the northern weather during this time of year, but alas, it has been on the cooler side in the mornings here in this dungeon of hotness we call Florida.
James received the "oh how cute" comments... and also, "I love the banana in his pocket" comments, but Kaitlyn, by far, won the "OOOOOH! How CUTE!" contest among all the Mommies at the parade. I was a proud mommy, very, very proud... especially since toward the end, parents were saying, "Oh! There is that white kitty again!" and smiling.
James was very proud of his costume, and wore it like a champ, or chimp, or whatever. I'm sure tonight will be fun too!
I just asked James what we should have for dinner... he said, "Roast beef and chicken." Hmmm... guess I have to go to Publix. After all, the only banana we have left is the fake on in James' monkey costume pocket. :)
So now it's 9:30 and I've uploaded my photos. The kids did very well with the trick or treating, I got to take them both around for about 10 houses, then Nathan took James around while I gave Kaitlyn a bath and put her to bed. They walked all the way over to Via Tuscany and got to see a HUGE blow-up black cat apparently.
Halloween is over for another year, and next year I hope to remember how much I actually like this day. I was over it for a while, but now that kids are in our lives, it's much more fun. It's also much more fun to pick through the candy that you're 1 year old can't eat. Mmmm.

Yes! or some form of that :)

Kaitlyn has transitioned from the "yeah" that she used to say to everything. Now it is "yes", but with her ssss sounding more like a "th" sound it sounds more like sess, or theth, or seth, any of those forms.
"Kaitlyn, do you want to go sit on the potty?"
"Sessth", she says.
"Do you want a snack?"
"Sessth!"
It really just makes me fall more in love with my daughter!

Side note: She is also telling me now when she has poopy in her diaper, or she's getting ready to go.

SLICK!

Kaitlyn loves her doggie! She tries to give him hugs, but he gave her a nice slick in these photos. Ugh, YUCK! :)

Ring around the rosie

Luh-you!

Pumpkin on the Vine

James learned this song at school, called The Pumpkin on the Vine.

Here are the lyrics... since you'll definitely not get them all through this version. :)

The Pumpkin on the Vine
Tune: A Hunting We Will Go

The pumpkin on the vine
The pumpkin on the vine
I picked the one that weighed a ton
And that's the one that's mine.

I carved two shining eyes
A mouth that's oversize
The other gook my mother took
To make a pumpkin pie.

The pumpkin on the vine
The pumpkin on the vine
He's now a Jack-o-Lantern
And you ought to see him shine!

October Festivities

These are photos from my cell phone... the only time I use this is if I was an idiot and forgot my camera! These are cute though. The first two are the kids ready to ride the train at the Methodist School's Fall Festival. The last one is at the pumpkin patch where we got our pumpkin this year.

Butler's Pantry

Right now this is Kaitlyn's favorite place to play!

On your marks, get set, GO!

The kids like to go to the garage door and get set up to run around. James always tells me to "say the magic words MOM!" So I yell, "on your marks, get set, go!"... and they take off running. Notice Kaitlyn's "get set" is backwards and upside down. :)
Love it!

Gigglebee

I was telling Mandy about this video the other day, so I'm going to post it. This is James when he was first starting to really laugh hard. If you get through this video without laughing, there is something wrong with you!

Faang, aaaah you?

Kaitlyn has begun to try to pronounce "James"... but, as I'm sure it sounds perfect in her head, to us, it sounds like "Faang" or "Faing" or even "Faame" sometimes. It's just too cute and funny at the same time.
Tonight we were at a Halloween party that was hosted by a friend of mine on the next street over. Our kids were dressed in their Halloween costumes and playing in the backyard. James was playing on the slide that was just a hair longer than him, and Kaitlyn was about ten feet away playing by Daddy. She turned around and said, "Faaang? Aaaah you?" Like, where the heck did you go brother? :)
She is so cute when she talks to him or about him. This morning we were up before him and when we came out of her room she walked over to his door and looked at me and said, "Faaang, door". She wanted to open his door and go in to see him. I had to tell her no, that he was still sleeping, but we'd see him in a little while. She loves her brother! She even told him "love you!" tonight at bed time. Awwwww.
She also repeats everything he does or says, which is probably the case with most younger siblings. I just think it's hilarious.
Also making an appearance lately with her is the tantrum on the floor phase. If she's mad and wants something (says, "want!" by the way and points) and doesn't get it, she goes into the wet noodle stage and lays limp on the floor. Then she'll start crying and turn onto her tummy and put her face down on the floor. I have totally been ignoring the tantrum, and it seems to be a bit annoying to her that I'm not paying attention to her when she does this. I'm hoping by doing this it'll put a stop to this phase pretty quickly- at least that's what I'm HOPING. :)

Nobama thanks.

My in-laws (update: apparently this travesty was brought on by my husband) really thought they had fooled with me and pulled one over on me with this:



My retort? This:

Here is a link for pictures of Nathan and James' trip to Iowa

Click on this link for SmugMug photos.
Here are a few of my favorites from their trip:

Stuck

I'm sitting here at almost 11 p.m. waiting for Nathan and James to get home. They have landed and hopefully by now are driving home. !!! I'm so excited to see them.
Kaitlyn and I have had fun at home by ourselves. She even got some great quality time alone with Grandma Kathy, and when you're the fifth grandchild, that can be difficult to come by. :) She is totally in love with her Grandma Kathy, and calls her "Mamma", like Nanna. If we are around Grandma, Kaitlyn wants her to hold her. When we leave she cries and screams, WORSE then when I leave. Ha. Grandma Kathy is Kaitlyn's most favorite buddy right now. So cute.
Grandma Kathy watched Kaitlyn for me a few days ago so I could do a few things. When I came back to pick her up, it was time for a nap. Grandma put her in the van, got her all buckled up and told me, "She's not going to make it home without falling asleep!" I could hardly get out of Mom's driveway before Kaitlyn's eyes were starting to shut. We only live .7 miles from my parents, so I thought a little conversation would keep her awake long enough to get home. The look on Kaitlyn's face was hysterical. She was all slit-eyed and looked like she had just completed a marathon she was so tired.
I started asking her questions... "Did you have fun at Grandma's Kaitlyn?"
She answered in one long quiet monotone word, "Yeaaaaaah."
"Did you ride on the toy pony?"
"Yeaaaaaah."
"Do you want to go home and take a nap?"
"Yeaaaaaah."
SO FUNNY! She did make it home, barely, and after I put her in her crib I didn't hear a peep out of her until she woke up.
We went to the mall the other day, Grandma, Kaitlyn and I. Mom took Kaitlyn to the Build a Bear store to waste some time while I dropped some cash at the Children's Place for some warmer clothes for the kids. They left the store with a stroller that Kaitlyn wouldn't leave without, so Grandma "had to" buy it (so she says). Kaitlyn pushed that stroller all the way from the bear store to the exit of the mall and then threw an absolute fit when we took it away from her. Sigh. Here come more tantrums.
It's so cute though, the way she walks around with her stroller, and puts babies in to it. She's a little mommy! :)
Kaitlyn has learned the word "stuck" and uses it a lot, even sometimes when it's not really true. She likes to try to climb onto my bed which is pretty tall. Our bed frame has a ledge on it about halfway up that she likes to put her knees on and then try to grab the quilt to pull herself up. Usually this doesn't work and she gets stuck about half way and then can't quite figure out how to put her feet back down on the ground. So she tells me "stuck!" It's not quite perfect, of course, and sounds more like "duck" but she really pronounces the k sound at the end. It's so funny!
Today when I was in the shower I heard her saying "stuck". I hurried up to finish, got upstairs and found her, yes, STUCK in the rails of the crib. Somehow she had gotten her knee through the rails and then squatted down. She was NOT happy. I'm just happy that she is finally able to start telling me what's wrong! :)
One last thing about Kaitlyn before I call it a night... she is really into frowning when someone talks to her that she doesn't know (or thinks she doesn't know). Her chin drops, her eyebrows cinch together and her lower lip sticks out and she gets a pout on her face that is just precious. My mom says it looks just like Molly's frown when she was little. She frowns a lot at men (good girl), and frowns quickly. I think that's the part that makes me laugh the most, is her reaction time from when someone talks to her to sending back the frown in NO TIME. Ha ha.

Game Day photo and BAGS!

Daddy loves football, especially Iowa State. He loves to dress the kids up on game day, and has already started coaching them in "bags" a tailgating game. They are learning to cheat. :) Ha ha ha.

"Silly faces are the best, make one now then have a rest"

How is that for discipline?

Grandma had James over the other day and she asked him if he wanted some M&Ms for a snack. James says, "I only get M&Ms if I poop in the potty!"
:)

One and two and three and four

I took Kaitlyn to the YMCA this morning so I could get some exercise. I went for Body Pump, but alas, I was a half hour late since I have an old schedule. Awesome. So I did spinning instead. I love it. I tried a new instructor (new to ME), and she was good, but didn't have that great of music. After the class I had to hurry to get Kaitlyn and get her washed up (hands and face... YMCA=nasty germs), and get home to do my ab workout before lunch.
After we got home I geared up the DVD player and started my workout on the floor in the family room. Kaitlyn watched for about two minutes, then decided to bring me her snack trap full of goldfish and start patting me on the face and saying, "Hi!" It was either that or "eye" I couldn't tell. Anyway, next thing I knew she was on the floor on her back with her feet up in the air, just like Mommy. If she could have figured out what the heck I was doing, she would've done it too. So cute and funny I was laughing while doing my ab workout!
Maybe someday Kaitlyn and I will go Spin together and workout together. Ugh, by then I'll be like 45. Ha.
Isn't she sweet?

James' mad face

I hope you never have to come in contact with this monster and his mad face! Scary!

Pink- the artist, not the color

I love Pink. I've never bought one of her albums, but I love her music. She is completely opposite of me (and I sometimes wish I could be like her instead of the way I am), but it makes me like her music even more. So, naturally, when her music comes on the XM radio in my car, I tend do sing along, quietly though, or just mouth the words.
She has just come out with a song about breaking up with her husband, talking about how she's still a rock star with her rock moves, and she doesn't need him anymore. It has a lot of the "nah-nah" stuff in it and it's a catchy melody.
Nathan was humming this song the other day and started in with the "nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah nah nah." James says, "Daddy, that's not how it goes, it goes like this: Nah nah nah nah nah nah, we're gonna start a fight!" Nathan asked him where he heard that, and James says, "In Mommy's van!"
Sigh.
I guess I have to start paying attention to the vocabulary used in songs I like. Goodbye Ani Difranco in the car! Ha.

Minkle Minkle Mickle Mar

James is kinda predictable right now. He is in the stage where he finds it hysterical if you speak gibberish instead of the real words to a song, etc. Every night when I put him down to bed I ask him what song he wants to sing, and he replies with "How about... Minkle Minkle Mickle Mar..." or something to that extent. It's starting to get annoying! Ha ha. It seems like you spend so much time trying go get your kids to say the correct sounds, and then once they know those correct sounds, they love to make them incorrect again. Ha.
Right now Ben and Jack are here at our house so Mom could go to church and direct the choir. Kevin and Mandy are in Ireland, having a blast, I'm sure. I love these kids so much. They are so fun, so sweet, and absolutely love playing with my kids. Cameron has really shown me that she loves to watch Kaitlyn and play with her whenever she's around. Jack loves to teach James things, such as how to tie your shoe. Ben laughs and laughs at the silly things that James says. It's so fun. It seems like just a few days ago that I was laughing at the silly things that Cam and Ben were saying when they were so little... and I remember clear as day getting the phone call that Jack had been born. Now he's 6! Wow.

Reverse Psychology

James isn't a cuddle bug. He never has been, ever since the infant stage passed. The only time he'll cuddle is when he's sick or when he wants hugs and kisses before we leave. We read stories before bed, and he'll lay right next to us with his head on our arm, but that's really the only thing we get. Every time I'm tucking him in for bed, I say, "Can I have a hug and a kiss?" He says NO! and laughs and leaves me out in the cold. So one night I wondered what would happen if I tried some reverse psychology on him. I said, "Well, goodnight James, I don't want any hugs or kisses." IMMEDIATELY, his face glimmered with is beautiful smile and he said, "I do! I want hugs and kisses!" Of course that made my day!
So I decided to try it for lunch time the next day with his large glass of milk that he still had sitting there waiting for him to drink when he was about ready to get down to play. I looked at him and asked him if he could drink it down to a certain line, and I flat out told him that I didn't think he could do it. "I bet I CAN!" He replies with a huge smile and laugh. After he chugs down to that line, I tell him yet again that I don't think he can drink it ALL GONE, and he says, "I bet I CAN!" and drinks it all gone. I love it!
Tonight he was having his nighttime snack, a bowl of cereal. We had been upstairs a few moments before when he told me that he wanted a snack... and wanted cinnamon. Cinnamon? Oh, ok. So out I brought the Cinnamon Life cereal. He had TWO (small) bowls of it and then wanted extra milk in his bowl for drinking through the bowl's straw. Once again I broke out the reverse psychology, which has now become a pretty good joke, and told him I didn't think he could drink it all. He said, "I think I CAN!" again, and when I told him to show me, he said "Ok... FIRST... I drink!" and held up his pointer finger like he was beginning a lesson at school. It was so funny.
Part of the reason I think this works well with him and the milk is because I make such a huge deal about it with my expressions and comments. I say things like, "NO WAAAY! You can't POSSIBLY do THAT! SHOW ME!" I put a gigantic surprise expression on my face and he just GIGGLES! Every time. It's great.
There are some times when I'll say, "James, I really don't think you can finish that milk", and he'll say, "Oh, yeah, Mommy, you're right, I can't!" Ha ha ha. DANG!

James makes up stories... and names.

One night when I was getting ready to put James down to bed, we walked past Nathan in the hallway or something, and Nathan says to me, "You know, James really likes to make up and tell stories, too, as well as read books." Ok, so I tried it.
We read a story or two and then I asked James to tell me a story. He said "Sure!" and launches into a (very brief and unspecific) story about Willie and his dog Hornay. Yes, Hornay. You read that right. I honestly can't remember if I laughed at this or just kept pretending it wasn't funny when he said it, but I know inside I was DYING!
After I had tucked him in, I found Nathan and said to him, "What is with Hornay?" and Nathan replied, "Yeah, that was ALL him."
We still have NO idea where that came from, but he doesn't forget it! Willie and Hornay. I have NO idea. Ha.

Mountain Beer and Van Fun

Forgive me for not keeping up with the blogging the last few days, I've been so tired!
One blog that Nathan wanted me to make sure to get in was about Mountain beer... so here is the story....
About a week ago, Nathan was on the couch or sitting at the table or something and told James to go get him a Mountain Dew. We keep our sodas, extra milk, etc. out in the fridge in the garage, so naturally, James went out there to get Daddy a drink (excitedly, I might add). He was out there for a minute, and while neither of us had to say it to each other, Nathan and I were both thinking... "This should be interesting!" James came back with a warm Fresca, obviously one that wasn't in the fridge, and says, "Daddy! Here is your Mountain Beer!"
We all had a pretty good chuckle. The Fresca can has mountains on it!
Kaitlyn now knows that when we go to get in the van, she has to walk out into the garage and walk around to the driver's side of the van to climb up and get in. I can't believe that! She also threw me for a loop the other day when she climbed up into her car seat all by herself! I came out to the garage (of course after the third time back into the house to get something that I undoubtedly had forgotten, AGAIN) and looked in the car to see her sitting so proudly in her set. Silly girl, you scare Mommy!
Kaitlyn is a genius by the way, above her age group mentally by FAR. She is really good at pointing out stars right now, and when she sees one, she lets us know. "Star!" she says and points. My little genius pointed at the sun in a book the other day and said, "Star!". I'm telling you, she's going places! :) Ha ha.

Going to town!

James had school today, and Kaitlyn got to go visit Grandma Kathy and Papa for a while this morning. It's so nice to have them back! I walked Kona and Kaitlyn over to their house (the original plan was to just go for a stroller ride/walk) but I decided to stop by their house. Mom offered to watch Kaitlyn, and of course I agreed!
Kona and I got to power walk back home and then I got to work out more, free weights, at home. I'm so addicted to working out right now, and I'm scared to lose my streak if I get sick. Seems to me like I'm coming down with whatever has plagued Nathan, Kaitlyn and James this last week. GREAT.
I picked up Kaitlyn at Mom and Dad's before going to pick up James at school. As I was driving on Via Tuscany from their house, another driver approached the upcoming corner on my left, took a WIDE right turn onto the road I was on and swiped the side of my van with the front left of her car. AWESOME. Turns out that it was just a scratch on the van, her "new car" as she called it, got the shorter end of the stick and was banged up. She told me sorry, of course. She said that she didn't look right, she just looked left, and then made the turn. She was making the wide turn because her husband had warned her about the high curbs around our neighborhood and to avoid them with her lower car. I guess she was used to a higher SUV or something. Anyway, she was very nice, and I'm sorry it had to happen. We were done exchanging information and out of there in three minutes.
Kaitlyn fell asleep on the way to James' school (not really a big surprise... that Grandma wears her out!) and even stayed asleep after James made a ruckus getting into the car in carpool line. It surprised me that she stayed asleep through James' singing all the way home.
The Pumpkin on the Vine song that he learned at school kept us entertained the WHOLE drive home. :)
I attempted to put Kaitlyn in her crib when we got home so she could go back to sleep, but she decided to babble until I caved and went and got her to come eat lunch with James and me. Lunch for them? Daddy's leftover pizza from last night. They both love pizza, it was one of Kaitlyn's first 10 words, and they LOVE to dip dip in Ranch... just like Daddy. Kaitlyn usually ends up eating all of the ranch before she even eats two bites of pizza. Ha. Reminds me of my late cousin Megan licking all of the ketchup off of her french fry at Dairy Queen.
While eating lunch, James decided to tell me that he was "going to town" eating. He really wasn't eating too fast or anything, so I got a chuckle out of this. It's another saying that he has captured from me, probably since I know I've used it more than once in front of him.
He said "I'm going to town" a few times to me and then decided to ask Kaitlyn if he could go to town... what did she say? NO! Then James got upset. No, she didn't want him to go to town. :) I tried to explain to James that "going to town" was an expression of someone eating a lot really quickly, but he really didn't get it. I think he thought there would be a car ride in the near future? Ha.