Kaitlyn is spunky. She is starting to voice her opinion about things, not with words, but with gestures and reactions. She is entering the beginning of trial tantrum phase, where she's experimenting with cause and effect. What will Mommy and Daddy do if I do this? A few times now, if I'm holding her and tell her something she doesn't want to hear, she swats me in the face. When I give her a firm "NO", she cries. She is also starting to drop things or throw things on the floor if she doesn't get her way. I must admit, it's hysterical. I never let her know that though, of course. She's spunky! If I go this way, she goes that way. If I want her to eat one thing, she want to eat something else. And so it begins... when is it that I can start using the naught spot with her? Ha.
She is soaking up information so quickly and steals my heart every day. She's really into giving me kisses right now and today in the car I taught her how to blow a kiss. It's so cute. She truly amazes me. Her favorite words right now are Hi! and Daddy. Figures.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
A Moon Piece!
As we were driving from the rehearsal dinner to the hotel, it was still light out. James looked out the side of the car into the sky and saw the moon. It was a half moon, but to my sweet little three year old, it was a moon piece. "A MOON PIECE! A MOON PIECE!" he was shouting and cackling, it was too funny!
Congratulations Marc and Emily!
We made this trip especially to be at the wedding of our cousin Marc Wilcke to Emily Markert. They got married on Saturday the 12th, under quite different circumstances. Emily and her sister Mary Jo were proposed to within a few weeks of each other, so they decided to throw a double wedding. I must admit, I only know of one other person that I've ever met that has had a double wedding. The whole thing fascinates me, and I'm so happy for these couples that pulled it off without a hitch. James and Harrison were the ring bearers for Marc and Emily, and wore tuxes and everything! The boys, including Best Man Nathan Wilcke, had to be at the church early for pictures, so we started prepping the boys as soon as we were up on Saturday.
Question: Is there a magic switch somewhere that someone likes to pull that makes sweet little boys act like totally different children when they are to do something special and important? I think it's God's way of playing a practical joke sometimes. "Ha ha ha, you will NOT have a good time today and NOT have a good listening kid today, and NOT have anything go the way you expect! Ha ha ha, you silly Earth beings!"
From the moment I started putting on James' tux, he was a different child. No listening, compliance, nothing. I love my child to bits, but this was extremely frustrating especially since I was already showered, now sweating like a pig, and hadn't even done my make up or put on my dress. I'm sure it's the stress that James can see on my face and the strange clothing and craziness of the hotel room that got him to act the way he did, of course. I kept my fingers crossed that things would improve. No such luck.
We got to the church for pictures, LATE, but that turned out to be fine, whew! The boys looked completely handsome, adorable, and got smiles and giggles from every woman in or around the church. They truly were some of the cutest things I've ever seen.
Beth and I were a bit on the smarter side and thought to bring bribes. I love bribery! Ha ha ha. M&Ms do the trick for James. It soon became time for the young kids to be in the picture with BOTH wedding parties in one shot. I am NOT envious of the photographer in this situation as I know what is involved. It's incredibly hard to photograph a large crowd in a dimly lit church, and get every one to fit/be in focus, AND trying to get the kids to smile and actually look at the camera. Hee hee hee, silly Meredith to the rescue.
I planted myself exactly behind the photographer, and started making silly faces, holding up M&M packs playing Peek-a-boo and doing all that stuff that makes me look like I'm out of my mind. Within a minute, I had both of the ENTIRE wedding parties laughing. Even the hungover dudes that waned to act cool and not smile in the photos were laughing. I have NO idea if the kids will be looking at the camera in these shots, but one thing is for sure, they were smiling, and YES they got their M&Ms! As soon as the photographer said that the kids were done, I was giving out candy like holy communion to three little birds holding their mouths wide open wanting food. I even got comments from people in the wedding parties later at the reception that what I was doing was a hit. Cool.
The chaos continued, and as you probably expect, James and Harrison did walk down the aisle, but not as we had planned. James led with Harrison a few steps behind, not walking side by side and holding hands like we had hoped. They are 3, we have to remember this at times.
James was so wiggly and whiny that he didn't even make it to the point of Mary Jo's entrance (she was the second bride to be escorted down the aisle) before I had him in the pew with me. {Enter Marge Simpson sigh}.
I got to see Emily and Marc say their vows and glimpsed over at them as they exchanged rings, but then I had to take James out of the church... "I have to go potty, Mom." Of course. We get to the potty, and well, no pee pee. Of course... of course.
So my now extremely overtired James and I hung out in the back of the church for the rest of the wedding. Grandma Marilyn came out, holding a crying Kaitlyn (who, I must add, did an amazing job at being quiet during Mass), who had slipped off the pew and was scared and crying. We switched kids, and Marilyn sat down with James and convinced him to rest on her shoulder. Ahhhhhhh... he fell asleep. At that exact moment... "the new Mr. and Mrs. Wilcke!" APPLAUSE! James is awake. Dang!!!!
Poor, poor James. He fell asleep again in the car on the way to the hotel after the wedding, and then again was awoken to go into the hotel. The poor child finally got a nap, in a dark, cool room, for an hour and a half. Just the thought of that makes my eyes well up. Poor kid. James' face in the photo of him and Daddy sums up the day in one look....
The reception was great, the kids came for dinner and then Chris and I took the kids back to the hotel with our babysitter that had come along for the weekend. We put the babies down for bed and went back to dance and have a good time... and a good time we DID have.
Question: Is there a magic switch somewhere that someone likes to pull that makes sweet little boys act like totally different children when they are to do something special and important? I think it's God's way of playing a practical joke sometimes. "Ha ha ha, you will NOT have a good time today and NOT have a good listening kid today, and NOT have anything go the way you expect! Ha ha ha, you silly Earth beings!"
From the moment I started putting on James' tux, he was a different child. No listening, compliance, nothing. I love my child to bits, but this was extremely frustrating especially since I was already showered, now sweating like a pig, and hadn't even done my make up or put on my dress. I'm sure it's the stress that James can see on my face and the strange clothing and craziness of the hotel room that got him to act the way he did, of course. I kept my fingers crossed that things would improve. No such luck.
We got to the church for pictures, LATE, but that turned out to be fine, whew! The boys looked completely handsome, adorable, and got smiles and giggles from every woman in or around the church. They truly were some of the cutest things I've ever seen.
Beth and I were a bit on the smarter side and thought to bring bribes. I love bribery! Ha ha ha. M&Ms do the trick for James. It soon became time for the young kids to be in the picture with BOTH wedding parties in one shot. I am NOT envious of the photographer in this situation as I know what is involved. It's incredibly hard to photograph a large crowd in a dimly lit church, and get every one to fit/be in focus, AND trying to get the kids to smile and actually look at the camera. Hee hee hee, silly Meredith to the rescue.
I planted myself exactly behind the photographer, and started making silly faces, holding up M&M packs playing Peek-a-boo and doing all that stuff that makes me look like I'm out of my mind. Within a minute, I had both of the ENTIRE wedding parties laughing. Even the hungover dudes that waned to act cool and not smile in the photos were laughing. I have NO idea if the kids will be looking at the camera in these shots, but one thing is for sure, they were smiling, and YES they got their M&Ms! As soon as the photographer said that the kids were done, I was giving out candy like holy communion to three little birds holding their mouths wide open wanting food. I even got comments from people in the wedding parties later at the reception that what I was doing was a hit. Cool.
The chaos continued, and as you probably expect, James and Harrison did walk down the aisle, but not as we had planned. James led with Harrison a few steps behind, not walking side by side and holding hands like we had hoped. They are 3, we have to remember this at times.
James was so wiggly and whiny that he didn't even make it to the point of Mary Jo's entrance (she was the second bride to be escorted down the aisle) before I had him in the pew with me. {Enter Marge Simpson sigh}.
I got to see Emily and Marc say their vows and glimpsed over at them as they exchanged rings, but then I had to take James out of the church... "I have to go potty, Mom." Of course. We get to the potty, and well, no pee pee. Of course... of course.
So my now extremely overtired James and I hung out in the back of the church for the rest of the wedding. Grandma Marilyn came out, holding a crying Kaitlyn (who, I must add, did an amazing job at being quiet during Mass), who had slipped off the pew and was scared and crying. We switched kids, and Marilyn sat down with James and convinced him to rest on her shoulder. Ahhhhhhh... he fell asleep. At that exact moment... "the new Mr. and Mrs. Wilcke!" APPLAUSE! James is awake. Dang!!!!
Poor, poor James. He fell asleep again in the car on the way to the hotel after the wedding, and then again was awoken to go into the hotel. The poor child finally got a nap, in a dark, cool room, for an hour and a half. Just the thought of that makes my eyes well up. Poor kid. James' face in the photo of him and Daddy sums up the day in one look....
The reception was great, the kids came for dinner and then Chris and I took the kids back to the hotel with our babysitter that had come along for the weekend. We put the babies down for bed and went back to dance and have a good time... and a good time we DID have.
The Flight to Iowa
On Thursday we headed to Iowa. I started my day off early, so I could pack for the kids and for myself. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:15 p.m., so we allowed the silly two hours prior to the departure time and hit the road with the kids. We were very excited, and timing was perfect. We'd eat a fast lunch and then the kids could take their naps on the flight. This was the plan in my head anyway. As Nathan went to park the car, the kids and I hauled all of our suitcases and car seats to the check-in counter where I was promptly told that they weren't checking in our flight since it was still 3 hours before the flight.
"Excuse me?" I said. "Our flight's at 12:15 and it's 10:30."
"No," the KIND lady replied, "The Des Moines flight leaves at 1:55. Come back and check in at 11:55, two hours prior to departure."
Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Seriously, you've got to be kidding me. Apparently we had booked our flight so far in advance that the scheduling changed and for some ODD reason, our updated itinerary was sent to Nathan's Mom's email address instead of his. AWESOME. So we had to hang around with our fully loaded cart of crap and our kids that were already about to burst just from the 30 minute car ride. We spent the time wisely, running around the airport, going up and down the escalators and having lunch once we were finally allowed to get past security. I remember actually making the comment to Nathan that it was nice to not be in a rush for once.
We did a little shopping at the gift store, and since the kids were at a breaking point, Nathan and I decided to let them splurge on a few new pals for the ride. The store had a bunch of character stuffed animals from a few of the shows that James frequently watches. There was Dora and her pals Boots and Swiper, Diego and his animal friends, Blue and her buddies (did you know Blue is a girl?), the Wonder Pets and a few of the Backyardigans, etc. I thought I'd throw a quiz at James and asked him if he knew who each character was. He amazed us with his knowledge. He knows so much, it shocked us. Nathan picked up a puppy that looked like Blue but was pink and had glasses. I said something like, "Oh, James, this must be a pink Blue, right?" and he replies, "That's Magenta!" Oh silly Mommy. Sure enough, the tag said Magenta. Nathan was pointing out Diego and his pals and made a remark something like, "Here is Diego and Panther..." and James says, "No, that's baby Leopard!" Smarty pants. We let the kids pick, well, James picked, Blue for himself, and Magenta for Kaitlyn. I must say, this was a very good buy.
So remember my plan from before, that the kids would sleep on the plane? Whoa, Nelly. By the time we had boarded the plane, it was 1:40... an hour plus after Kaitlyn's normal nap time. She was overtired, to put it lightly. We didn't even get to the part of taxiing before she had lost it. I tried my miraculous baby bounce that I've used on my own kids and on other kids, but she was so wound up even that didn't work. She was screaming, shaking and bright red. Nathan and I just marveled at how crazy she was being, our sweet little girl was MAD! Nathan finally restrained her enough to where she stopped fighting back, and I fanned her to cool her down. Alas, she slept, like a baby, for 50 minutes, on her Mommy. Ahhhh. Thank you God for watching over us.
James slept too, just like usual, and both kids were bright and cheery upon waking. We spent the rest of the flight watching DVD shows and playing with our new pals from the Sanford Airport, Blue and Magenta.
"Excuse me?" I said. "Our flight's at 12:15 and it's 10:30."
"No," the KIND lady replied, "The Des Moines flight leaves at 1:55. Come back and check in at 11:55, two hours prior to departure."
Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Seriously, you've got to be kidding me. Apparently we had booked our flight so far in advance that the scheduling changed and for some ODD reason, our updated itinerary was sent to Nathan's Mom's email address instead of his. AWESOME. So we had to hang around with our fully loaded cart of crap and our kids that were already about to burst just from the 30 minute car ride. We spent the time wisely, running around the airport, going up and down the escalators and having lunch once we were finally allowed to get past security. I remember actually making the comment to Nathan that it was nice to not be in a rush for once.
We did a little shopping at the gift store, and since the kids were at a breaking point, Nathan and I decided to let them splurge on a few new pals for the ride. The store had a bunch of character stuffed animals from a few of the shows that James frequently watches. There was Dora and her pals Boots and Swiper, Diego and his animal friends, Blue and her buddies (did you know Blue is a girl?), the Wonder Pets and a few of the Backyardigans, etc. I thought I'd throw a quiz at James and asked him if he knew who each character was. He amazed us with his knowledge. He knows so much, it shocked us. Nathan picked up a puppy that looked like Blue but was pink and had glasses. I said something like, "Oh, James, this must be a pink Blue, right?" and he replies, "That's Magenta!" Oh silly Mommy. Sure enough, the tag said Magenta. Nathan was pointing out Diego and his pals and made a remark something like, "Here is Diego and Panther..." and James says, "No, that's baby Leopard!" Smarty pants. We let the kids pick, well, James picked, Blue for himself, and Magenta for Kaitlyn. I must say, this was a very good buy.
So remember my plan from before, that the kids would sleep on the plane? Whoa, Nelly. By the time we had boarded the plane, it was 1:40... an hour plus after Kaitlyn's normal nap time. She was overtired, to put it lightly. We didn't even get to the part of taxiing before she had lost it. I tried my miraculous baby bounce that I've used on my own kids and on other kids, but she was so wound up even that didn't work. She was screaming, shaking and bright red. Nathan and I just marveled at how crazy she was being, our sweet little girl was MAD! Nathan finally restrained her enough to where she stopped fighting back, and I fanned her to cool her down. Alas, she slept, like a baby, for 50 minutes, on her Mommy. Ahhhh. Thank you God for watching over us.
James slept too, just like usual, and both kids were bright and cheery upon waking. We spent the rest of the flight watching DVD shows and playing with our new pals from the Sanford Airport, Blue and Magenta.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)