Easter is upon us!

James and Kaitlyn have been on spring break this week, but someone (Barbie-:)) posting on FB that their daughter had a dream that she died reminded me of something completely blog worthy.
Easter is coming, and The Methodist School that my kids attend are very good at telling the kids about Easter and what it means.  Jesus died upon the cross for us....
If you read back to one of my blogs a month or two ago, you'll read about how once I told James about my brother's cat having to be put down.  "Speedy died today," I told James.  He replied, "Upon the cross?"
Well, last week, probably because of all the "Jesus died upon the cross" talk at school, James asked me as we were getting ready to go upstairs to bed, "Mom?  When are you going to die?"  *Thunk* my heart hit the floor.  I told him, with my most honest sincerity, "James, honey, I don't know.  Nobody knows when they will die, but honey, you don't need to worry about that."  I'm pretty sure my mouth hung agape after he turned around and walked up the stairs.
Kid, you're only 4!  Why are you starting to worry about that already?  I remember when I was a kid and that feeling of anxiety of not KNOWING when my parents could die.  I would worry, worry and worry, that something bad would happen to them and they would die in a car accident or something.  Poor kid.  Him asking me that brought back all of those feelings of uncertainty that I used to have as a kid. 

James has packed our bags for us, and he's sending us out to live somewhere else.

James... poor James.  He was so tired today.  He must not have gotten nearly enough sleep last night.  He and I went over to my parent's house for dinner (crab! yum) and we didn't get home until 9.   He went to bed then, but got up a bit early for a usual morning around here, which was around 7.  Yes, I know several of you moms out there want to kill me right now because sleeping IN until 7 a.m. is a luxury to some of you, but just keep in mind the hell we'll go through when he starts Kindergarten next year. ;)
Anyway, he was tired.
He and Kaitlyn were fighting a lot this morning while our nanny, Mimi, was here.  She had told me about it when I got home from my amazing, kick butt workout at the Y *hooray*, and they were still bickering as she was telling me.  After lunch time it got pretty bad, so Mimi made the ultimate decision that both of them needed to go take naps.  This went over like a lead balloon for James. 
"I am NOT going upstairs!  I am NOT taking a nap!" was what I heard from his mouth when I was upstairs trying to print my grocery list.  Then I heard Mimi call my name.  "Meredith... he kicked me."
UH OH.  NO, you didn't James... :(
I hauled downstairs and put him on the naughty step immediately which sent his verbal rant up about 50 decibels. 
"I am NOT going upstairs to bed. Mommy is NOT a good girl.  Neither is Mimi.  Mommy is usually a good girl but NOT today.  I'm going to do something to them.  I'm going to send them to bed with NO dinner."
Oh the foreshadowing irony.
He didn't nap, but he did rest.  Kaitlyn didn't nap either.  Sigh.  But, at least they rested, and then later Mimi took them to the park to get the ants out of their pants for about an hour.  She said they didn't stop once... which showed on their red faces when they got home.
Enter dinnertime.  While they were gone at the park, I had made Broccoli Cheese soup and a Chicken and Rice Casserole (Paula Dean on FoodNetwork) that has lots of fun stuff in that is very good... to some people. :)
James has been complaining about dinner pretty much every night.  He makes gagging sounds when he sits at the table (although it's totally fake), and says, "YUCK!"
I had mentioned this problem to a few of my girlfriends the other day and got a few good pointers.  One was that I should explain to him that when he says that he hurts my feelings... like it would hurt his feelings if I said that I didn't like one of the paintings that he made for me.  The other was a much more stern recommendation....  She told me that if he complains, take his dinner away and ask him to leave the table.  I tried explaining to him about the "feelings" a few times before today, but it just didn't seem to sink in.
After about 10 minutes of all of us sitting at the table and James not eating and complaining, I did it.  I took his meal away and put it by the sink.  "Okay then, if you're just going to complain, you won't eat."  Of course he started howling and crying, and then I told him that he was excused and he had to leave the table.  Then he pipes up mid-blubber "... But I think I'm ready to eat my dinner now."
I looked at Nathan, and we agreed... too late kid.  You had your chance.  This sent him wailing and screaming off to the couch.  Then he started in with the verbal stuff again, telling us, Nathan and me, that we had to go live somewhere else and that he was NOT going to eat EVER again.  Ha! 
Nathan took him up to take a bath and put him to bed.  He cried through his whole bath.  He spent a while hanging out in his bed and talking, then started asking for me to come upstairs.  "Mommy, I'm hungry."
"Sorry James.  You didn't eat dinner, you just complained so I took your dinner away.  That will teach you a lesson.  Go to sleep." He talked me into, well, more or less I talked myself into, giving him a drink of water and tucking him in.
Humph.  I'm happy this day is over.

Only a month!

Okay, it's been ONLY a month since my last post. UGH.  I'm a loser.
However, I do have an excuse.. ha.
I have been facilitating a MOMS group and a retreat at St. Margaret Mary for the last 8 weeks, and now that it's over, I should have more time to blog and keep you all updated on what is going on in our lives.  Facilitating the group and retreats at SMM are a bit time consuming, then when you throw in a part time job, two kids and a husband to cook for and take care of, life gets busy.  No, I'm not complaining, I'm just "sayin'".
Kaitlyn is three now, and I do plan on posting about her birthday, plus pictures, so stay tuned.  She's still struggling with potty training, she's finally interested in actually sitting on the little potty, but we've only made a small amount of progress.  We were planning on trying to keep her in undies this weekend, but due to a last minute shopping trip yesterday/evening, and then her throwing up this morning (???) it's just not getting done.  She may have a tummy bug, so we're on a holding pattern for a while.

Kaitlyn's speech is getting better and better.  She is fine tuning her sounds, and when she talks she sounds like a kid instead of a toddler.  My baby... she's growing up too fast!  She is still Miss Independent, she has to do everything herself... and if you don't let her... watch OUT.  Tantrums'R'Us.

James is doing very well in school, he still loves it so much.  In fact, it's Spring Break this week, and I'm not sure what we're going to do with him! :)

Class Easter parties

Pics from the kids' Easter parties at school!
Kaitlyn had a class egg hunt in the courtyard. You should have seen the place, there were WAY too many eggs... and not enough hiding spots! Ha.



Kaitlyn and her class (she's in the middle on the ground):
James makes a paper maché egg, ONLY with green tissue, of course!
Mrs. Roach reads an Easter story to the kids... where is James? He must be in the corner behind Mrs. Roach... Hmmm.
James eating the frosting off of a cupcake. I made the treats for the class this year! Cupcakes and sugar cookies. I was up 'til midnight. Ha.

Blog? What blog?

Wow... sorry followers.  I'm slacking!

Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday Party!

Our sweet girl turned 3 on March 15! Here is a video of us singing to her, and quite possibly, the world's longest "blow out the candles" session, EVER. ;)

We love you Kaitlyn Beth Wilcke... aka Kaitlyn Bef Wiwke. :)

Disney!!!

Here is a series of photos of our kids' FIRST trip to Disney!!! :) We sure had a great time! We went with the Devitt family. Ted is my cousin on Mom's side. He and Jen have two boys, Riley and Carson. They are SO adorable!


Waiting in line to drive the cars... although we had to actually leave the line since they shut it down due to pretty bad crash that required a stretcher. Yikes.

On to DUMBO!!!







I LOVE this shot of the boys!




An HOUR and a half later:

Kaitlyn's face when seeing Mickey and Minnie at the "Meet Mickey" house...

We meet Mickey and Minnie! Never mind James' need to go to the bathroom. :)


The Parade!

Look! There is Woody!

James is excited for the parade! Strange look on his face! :)

Kaitlyn holds her new Snow White doll.


Time to chill on the monorail.

... and ZONK. Success.

Bobble Head James!

I still have YET to post the pictures from our trip out to Disney with the Devitts for Kaitlyn's birthday. BUT, I do have this to show you!
This is James trying OH so hard not to fall asleep on the way home. Notice Kaitlyn's rumbling snore coming from the other side of the car. ;)
FACEBOOK PEOPLE: Click on "view original post" to see the video on my blog.

The Olympics and Lemonade

James has taken an interest in the Olympic downhill skiing when it's on the television.
I just turned on the television to see if I could catch some of the recaps of the figure skating, I wanted to see some of the gold medalist's performance.  Instead, cross country skiing is on.
James saw this and he was audibly excited, "Yippeee!" he said.
I thought about him learning how to ski and told him, "James, if you want to learn how to ski, you can learn when we go to Utah."
"No," he replied.  "I want to be a lemonade seller."
I laughed, hard.
"I want to be a lemonade seller like at the Farmer's Market... and then when I'm really really really hot, I want to ski."
That was followed by a chant, "Let's go to Utah! Let's go to Utah!"
:)

Off the charts!

Nathan measured James the other night after dinner because he's been eating a lot lately.  We thought that maybe he'd been in a growth spurt.  Sure enough, he's grown.  Remember, he's 4 and won't turn 5 until June, 4 months from now.  He's measuring 45 inches in height (he almost takes up the entire bathtub when lying down).  Nathan wanted to see how he was comparing to other children his age, so he looked up the percentage charts online.  James is OFF the charts for 4 year olds, meaning he doesn't even fall into the percentage range for 4s.  He is already at 50th percentile for 5 year olds and he's not even 5 yet!
Like Grandma Kathy says... those basketball scouts will be knocking on our door by the time he's 10.

Kaitlyn has an obsession with...drum roll please... cottage cheese.  She eats it every day and prefers it to almost everything except chocolate. ;)  Yesterday when we were at Publix I put more in the cart, and Kaitlyn was perfectly content to hold it in her lap.  Here are some photos for you of her latest indulgence.

Rah rah ah-ah-ah! Ro mah ro-mah-mah! Gaga Ooh-la-la!

We are in a ton of trouble.

Kaitlyn and I drove James to school this morning and since Kaitlyn is sick, she is staying home with me today.  On our way home Lady Gaga's Bad Romance came on the radio.  I immediately changed the channel since I'm not the biggest fan of Lady Gaga. 
AS SOON as I turned the channel, Kaitlyn says, "I want the RA RA RA song! I like that song."
"You want me to put that song back on Kaitlyn?" I asked.
"Yes!"
When the song came back on she was happy as a clam... she seemed to think that the melodic part of the refrain was a different song and wanted the ra ra ra part again, so I assured her that it would be back.  When it was on again she'd say, "There it is again, Mommy!"

So... we're in trouble because my two year old's two favorite songs are Tic Tok by Kesha, about clubbing, alcohol and sex, and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga about love and revenge.  AWESOME.  Ha ha ha.

Movie Night!

Nathan and the kids and I watched Peter Pan tonight.  We have never all sat down and watched a movie together.  It was so fun!  I even made chocolate malts for them... and for me, a protein shake (gah- I know... but I did put a little bit of ice cream in it and a small amount of malt powder).
I have not watched Peter Pan in a LONG time, it was like watching it for the first time.  In fact, it may be the first time I'd ever watched it from beginning to end. 
It was sentimental... our family, complete, sitting together, watching one of the most classic movies of all time.  THIS is what I never want to forget.

Foreshadow to Teenage Years!

For lunch, this is what James just ate:
- two mini cinnamon raisin bagels smeared with thick layer of cream cheese
- a cup of apple sauce
- a cup of green Jello
- a string cheese
- three handfuls (my handful) of chocolate Teddy Grahams

What am I going to do when he's a teenager?!?

Terrible Twos?

Kaitlyn lost it this morning. She loves her "lipstick" which is hello kitty clear lip gloss that I bought for her on clearance at Target. She really really loves it. She is obsessed with unscrewing the cap by herself and putting it on by herself, and it takes her a while to do this... as it should a two-year-old. Sometimes my patience for this runs thin....
We were running late this morning and needed to get out the door for school. She was still in my bathroom holding the tube of lip gloss and insisting that she put some on by herself. I told her that since we were running late, either A. Mommy would help her do it quickly, or B. She wasn't going to get any lip gloss. Ooooh that made her mad. It was the kind of tantrum that requires a bit of restraint to get her to stay in her seat in the car to get her buckled, and restraint from the belt to even think about putting her socks and shoes on. It was a tough one. I held my own though, and eventually she did calm down once we were driving to school.
I posted a blog about a week or so ago about how Kaitlyn likes Tic Tok by Kesha. Well... I turned the XM station away from my favorite station to see what else was on and whamo, there was Kesha. IMMEDIATELY, Kaitlyn says, "I like this song!"
I giggled and left it on the station (I'm a bit ashamed to admit I like the song too, even though the subject matter is SLIGHTLY inappropriate for a toddler's ears-ha). Every time the refrain would come on Kaitlyn would say, "Hey, it's that again!" She sure likes to jam in her car seat to Kesha. Ha.
She threw another tantrum while getting out of the car to go into school today too. Usually it's a piece of cake to get her out of the car and handed off to a school staff member to walk her to her classroom. Today, though, she acted like it was the first day of school again. I guess she just wasn't having it today.

When I picked up the kids at noon, I picked Kaitlyn up first and then swung around to the other side to get James. Mrs. Magough (is that right? Sounds like McGoo) put James into his car seat.
He looked at her and said sweetly, "I love you Mrs. Magough." It was precious. My sweet little boy!

Star Wars and sheet

For some reason, Kaitlyn doesn't like sleeping with the sheet on top of her. Her quilt is fine, but always insists that the sheet be down closer to the foot of the bed. "I don't want that one," as she points at the sheet, "I want that one," she points at the quilt.
Nathan went up to check on her after they were sleeping last night and he tried to cover her up with the sheet and the quilt. She woke up enough to realize what he was doing and still told him NO to the sheet. Silly girl!

I went to Nashville a few weeks ago for the Professional Photographers of America convention so Nathan thought it would be fun to watch the Star Wars trilogy with James. While I was gone, they watched A New Hope. Last weekend they watched Empire Strikes Back. I found great humor in watching the two of them cuddled up on the couch with James firing off the questions one after another... "Who is that? What is he doing? Why is he doing that? Who is that? What is he doing? Why is he doing that?" Over and over and over again. So funny.
They wrapped up the trilogy this morning while I was out for a bit at mass then the Y. It's just so funny that we, Nathan and I, know that for sure, James doesn't understand ANYTHING about the three movies. He's just watching them for the sake of watching the TV. I even asked him after the movie was over, "James, did you like the movie?"
"No, I didn't." Ha ha ha.

A bit later, the kids were doing what they do best... arguing over who had more popsicle sticks to play with. I ended up taking them away from both of them, and that sent them both off of their rockers. Kicking, screaming, throwing and knocking over laundry baskets, etc... the whole bit. James ended up on the naughty step for throwing the popsicle sticks, and while he was on the step he was bawling his eyes out and shouting. I felt pretty bad for the kid until he came out with, "I'm going to cut my mommies head off!"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" I snapped back around the corner at him.
He got a huge scolding... and guess what... NO MORE STAR WARS! Geez. Of course he doesn't mean it, but it is a bit scary to think that only watching one thing like Star Wars (rated PG by the way- man their standards were a lot more liberal back then) could make him come up with ideas like that.

Tic Tok Car Talk

Well it seems like James is stealing the thunder on the blog lately, so I thought I'd throw in some really cute things about Miss Kaitlyn.
She is so funny, so cute and she knows it. :) Today in the van she was busting a move (while strapped into her car seat) to Tic Tok by Kesha. Check out this hilarity:



Here is another video of her doing the COMPLETE opposite a few days ago... turn up your volume! :)



She also is into doing EVERYTHING herself, even if it's a complicated task like zipping up her sweater. Patience, patience is a much needed thing around here lately. :)
She is NOT at all interested in potty training, and is actually scared to even go sit on the potty. She gets so worked up that it's not even worth putting her through that insanity. We figure that she'll let us know when she's ready... even her teacher agrees that she's just not interested.

I'm not sure if I've posted this before, but whatever, it's my blog. :) Kaitlyn is named after three people... her grandma Kathy (Kate), her grandma Marilyn (Lyn) and her aunt Beth. We spell it Kaitlyn so it's more of a common spelling rather than Katelyn. Anyway, I digress....
When we were up in Iowa for Christmas and we were around Aunt Beth, Kaitlyn kept telling everyone that her name was Kaitlyn Aunt Bef Wilcke. We all thought it was pretty hilarious, and still do.
Tonight, we were going out for dinner and to shop a bit for a new blender and a new TV (fun stuff). We thought Best Buy would be the place to go to get the TV, so we told the kids that after we ate dinner we would go there. Kaitlyn was asking us in the car, "Are we going to Aunt Befs Buy?" Oh she is so funny!

On a side note... if you car breaks down at 7:30 pm because the battery goes kaput, it's not too shabby to be stuck at Best Buy when they have Wall-E playing on the 55 inch flat screen inside the store. At least that passes the time while you wait for AAA. :)

... when I am 5...

James must think that tuning 5 is when he becomes a big boy instead of a little kid. He has commented on a few things that start with, "Mom, when I am 5, I'm going to...."
The one that sticks out in my mind the most is, "Mom, when I am 5, I'm going to watch Ratatouille!" He usually watches Cars, but has decided that Ratatouille should be the movie of choice when one is five years old.

He came up to me yesterday and asked me, "Mom, when I am 5, can I live in Iowa?"
I giggled, thinking of that constant battle between Nathan and me, and asked, "Why do you want to live in Iowa?"
"I like it there," he replied.
"But what would you do about all the friends you have at school?"
"Well I can come back and visit all the time!" he said without doubt.
Then I asked, "Well what would you do about Grandma Kathy?"
And without hesitation, James said, "I want to stay here."

:) Off to work.

King James

Our nanny, Mimi, took the kids to the "Green Park" today. That's what we call the new park near our house on Howell Branch. We named it that that because of the giant green slides that are super fast and bumpy.
Apparently they weren't the only ones with the idea of going to the park, she said that there was only one parking spot left. She also tole me that once they walked into the fenced area, James went up to the top of the gigantic green slides. He then put his hands up in the air like a King would do when greeting his people and loudly stated, "My name is James Wilcke, and I am here to meet new friends!"
:)

Play on player!

For James, it is no longer “nap time” or “quiet time.” He decided today that we should call it “book time.” He can sit in his room and look at some books for a while instead of laying in bed.

So Nathan goes up to check on him after about 45 minutes, as it has been quiet up there. James is sitting in bed and setting his books up like houses so the big bad wolf can blow them over.

“So you didn’t feel like reading the books or taking a nap?” asked Nathan.

“Well, I’m not a reader, and I’m not a sleeper,” quipped James. “I, uh, I’m just a player.”

Learning to talk is fun.

Kaitlyn makes me giggle. She has not yet figured out the pronoun bit of our language, in fact, she has it backwards. She refers to a woman as "him" or a pink lovey as "him"... and boys as "her". I don't get it, but it's funny.
She also has been having a bit of fun with us with her whining becoming even more pronounced and nasal. At some points in the day I can't even understand anything she's saying. Somehow me telling her, "I don't understand you when you whine" has made it worse. HA!
We were just in Iowa over Christmas break, and we got to spend a lot of time with her namesake, Aunt Beth. Kaitlyn is learning what her full name is, and she was doing very well for a while.
"What is your full name?" I'd ask.
"Kaitlyn Bef Wiwke." She'd say.
But now that we've been around Aunt Beth, she says, "I'm Kaitlyn Aunt Bef Wiwke!" LOL.
Along with learning her own full name, she now knows James' full name. When she's sad, sometimes she'll tell me, "I want James Nicholas Wiwke!"
I love you, Kaitlyn Bef.