Kaitlyn adds to her vocab

Kaitlyn has really added to her vocabulary this last week. She now attempts: cracker, sticker, stairs, go, shoes, pasta, pizza... but her favorites are still NO and OW! :)
I've had a busy week so I've been slacking on the blogs. I'm so tired at the end of the night that I sit down ready to type, and then completely forget what I was going to type about. Hmmmm... maybe I need a vacation. LOL.
James has entered the "WHY?" stage as of tonight. It's already driving me crazy. For a long time now he has been asking, "Why not?" for everything, not really understanding that what he is saying isn't making sense. But now it's why... why... why! Oh NO!
I've tried saying, "Well why do you think James" and he responds with, "I don't know, why?" DOH!

Up at 6:40.

I got up a bit early this morning so I could get dressed and have my breakfast and coffee before the kids wake up. I'm going to attempt the YMCA this morning with them, as I did on Saturday. You'd think that the childcare center wouldn't be full on a Saturday morning, but, to my surprise, James told me when I picked them up, "Mom, there were too many kids!" Awww, poor thing. I don't think it was that there were too many kids at all... I think it was that he really didn't know any of them, and there wasn't any structure or teachers like at school. Plus, there were older kids than him, probably not caring if they were blocking him from getting to his desired toy.
We'll try again. I really hope it works out, I need to get on the program and stick with it!

The memory of an elephant

James remembers a lot, I mean a LOT. He remembers thing that I don't even remember, and he doesn't remember things that I WANT him to remember. :)
Today we were walking out the door to go run some errands, and he saw a dent in the wall by the door that goes out to the garage. He said to me something like, "I did that. I slammed the door into the wall, and made that dent because I wanted to go with Daddy. I cried!"
He was right. About 6 months ago, no kidding, Daddy left to go get a hair cut and James wanted to go. He was so upset that he couldn't go, he opened the door so hard that the door stop couldn't stop it, and it dented the wall where the little lock juts out of the handle. Temper, temper.
I just can't believe he remembers this incident! Just for your info., he cried for 30 minutes until Daddy came home. He's never cried that much at one time.

Pajama pants

Kaitlyn likes to sit down and try to put her pajama pants back on. She'll sit there for 20 minutes and just put them on and take them off. Silly girl.
She earned a trip to the doctor today, since she was up last night from 10 until 2 a.m. Sure enough, ear infection. Poor baby.

The only good thing about having sick kids...

... is that they cuddle with me on the rocking chair. I remember James doing this when he was one, and he still is NOT a cuddler. I just rocked Kaitlyn to sleep in the rocking chair and I was having a moment. One of those, "God, don't let me forget what it feels like right now to be holding my child when she is so young. I don't want to let her go, ever."
Well, I did let her go, put her back into her crib, and now she's awake AGAIN, and babbling. Silly girl. GO TO SLEEP!

M&Ms or bananas?

James has been pee-pee potty trained since he turned 3, but has struggled a lot with going #2 in the potty. Ever since he started training, we've tried bribery, a parent's best friend. However, M&Ms after poopy in the potty and a sticker on the potty chart apparently aren't quite enough to convince him that it's worth it. Once in a while we've had a success story, but it's usually when he's got his undies on and he can't hold it in, if you know what I mean. We get there just in time! :)
So for three months of being pee-pee-trained, he has still been pooping in his diaper that we put on him for naps and bed time. Ugh, I guess it's really true that you can't make kids ready to do it, they have to be ready by themselves... OR you have your RN at the doctor's office tell him that poop goes in the potty now that he's 3. Sandy, a great friend of my Mom's, has been great to us at our pediatric office. James went in for his 3 year check up (late-yes, I forgot), and had a nice talk with Sandy about pooping in the potty. She first asked him if he likes to poop in the potty. He said no, because it gives him a bad feeling. She then told him that if he kept trying, and went every day on the potty, that bad feeling would go away. She also said that when he gets a tummy ache, that it means that his stomach is saying, "YOOOHOOOO! Time to poop in the potty!" Sandy re-iterated that since he's 3, his poop goes in the potty now, and that we should keep her up to date on this issue. What a nice lady.
Alas, that night, James pooped in the potty. He got his M&Ms and sticker the next morning, along with the best part... a call to Sandy to tell her that he pooped in the potty. She was so excited for us, and especially for James. We've had a few incidents in the diaper since then, but he's working on it, I can tell. He also really likes to say, "YOOOHOOO! Time to poop in the potty!" :)
Today, after the last of the M&Ms were eaten, we had to head to Walgreens to buy more. As we were driving there, I told James that we were going to get more M&Ms because we were out. Then I said something like, "Unless you want to start having bananas for your special treat after you poop in the potty, how about that? Do you want M&Ms or bananas?"
Stinker says, "Bananas! I want bananas! That way, if we run out, we can just go to the store and get more bananas!"
My jaw dropped. My kids are strange. Very strange. :) We still went to Walgreens and got M&Ms though, and he was stoked to be able to carry around that large bag of M&Ms around the store and tell everyone that we were buying them. He's just a friendly little guy....
I was emptying the dishwasher tonight before putting the kids to bed, and Kaitlyn toddled over to me and cried a little, looked at me, and said, "poopy". Sure enough, she was in the process. I got her to the potty, and nothing else happened, but she sure thought that sitting on that potty was a ton of fun! Ha ha. She'll probably be trained by 2. Ha.
Kaitlyn got whatever this sickeness is that James has had. She was up with a fever last night of 103.5, and didn't sleep for about 2 hours or so. Poor thing, she must have felt terrible. Tylenol helped, but she was still uncomfortable. Waaaa.

Baby babble

Last night Kaitlyn really made me laugh, the half cry/half laugh thing. She's starting to look forward to reading stories before bed, and now she's proven to me that she really is listening. We were reading one of my favorite books by Sandra Boynton called The Going to Bed Book. James and I used to read this book too, and it has only been a few months that the book has been on Kaitlyn's bookshelves instead of James'.
As I was reading to Kaitlyn, we came across the part that all of the animals in the big bath tub take a bath and "scrub, scrub, scrub". She looked up at me before I started saying the first scrub, and she said it first! The words weren't right, but she had the repetition of three. Then she did it again when we came to the part of the animals all going up "to exercise!" She babbled that too, once again, not the right words, but perfect in syllables. It was so cute it made my day!
She was also sticking her index finger in her mouth, getting it wet, and then feeling the glossy pages. I really don't know why she was doing this, but it made me crack up. It must feel so smooth! ;)
We are big fans of Sandra Boynton's books. We also have Snuggle Puppy, which was given to us by some friends when James was born. Both kids really like that book, and Kaitlyn now even knows when to give me kisses at certain points. So cute!
James is sick today. He woke up last night at around 10 and said he had to go potty. He was burning up! I took his temp and it was 105!!! I freaked out momentarily, then remembered to calm down. I took it again in a few minutes, and it had gone down a bit, and then it kept decreasing. Whoa. I gave him Motrin, he puked it up, and then finally fell back asleep. He still has a temp. this morning, but just sat up on the couch and declared that he feels better. Better living through chemistry! I can see in his eyes though, that's he's not feeling better, he just thinks he is. Ha.

Green TV?

Nathan has been working very hard to get our TV set up with new HDMI (whatever does THAT mean?) cables to hook into our new sound set-up. See? I can't even remember what the stupid thing is called, I'm so tired. Anyway, he worked very hard the other night drilling holes to feed the wires, etc. and about 10 p.m. left his project to go pick up my Mom at the airport. At this point I went to bed. Next thing I knew, he was showering at 2:30 in the morning. He told me, following the shower when getting into bed, that he had to "cool down". He was all fired up because he had worked so hard on this and it wasn't working.
We have been watching TV for the last few days without any RED in the picture. It's very bizarre, the colors that show up are mainly blue, green, and gray. It definitely puts a new spin on the freaky shows like CSI! Ha ha.
We are getting a new cable box from the cable company, so hopefully that'll fix the problem. It's so weird!

Pat, pat, pat! Blast off!

Nathan pointed out to me tonight that Kaitlyn has started to pat, pat, pat, like the Little Einsteins do before Rocket blasts off when playing with the Einstein toys. It's so cute! She really enjoys doing everything James does, and now they are really starting to play together. They run around together, play on the couch together, all of it. It really gets to me emotionally sometimes, to see my kids playing together and laughing, having fun. Silly, I known, but it's just one of those daily reminders that having a family is all that I really wanted, ever.
The four of us were standing in the family room tonight singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" together. James has it down, but I remember so clearly when he could only get to his head and toes through the whole song. I just found this video on my google videos of when the Neiperts were here visiting when Kaitlyn and Bennett were brand new. See how young James and Harrison are?!?



Kaitlyn has also found a new word, NO! No, no, no. When she says it it's so funny because it's really nasal and long and sounds more like "now" than "no". NOOOOOOW, it sounds like. NOOOOOW. :) Plus she's got this great look to go with it where she furrows her brow and looks at you in disgust. It's hysterical!
"Kaitlyn, do you want a snack?"
"NOOOOOOOOOW."

However when she does want something she doesn't say "yes" but "yeah" or "yea!". It's so fun to see her discovering how to communicate. Next year at this time she probably won't STOP talking. :)

Did you know...

... that Kaitlyn can wear pig tails now?!? ;)








... and that bath time brings out the devil in us?

Wheeeeee!

We have a road in our neighborhood that we call the "whee" road. It has large speed bumps every (ridiculous) 1/8 of a mile or something like that, and has about 10 0f them. I hate this road, I never use it, but I've discovered that having kids along for the ride on this road is so much more fun. James always wants me to count as we're approaching the bumps, "One, two, three... WHEE!" I say. The kids laugh, and James always says, "How about again?"
Today was the first time Kaitlyn started saying "WHEE!" along with me. It was so cute and her voice was so high. It really made me laugh, and enjoy one of her "firsts".
James has been on a kick lately about wanting to "tell us something". When we're about to leave the house without him, or when we leave the bedroom at night, he says, "MOM WAIT! I've got to tell you something!"
"Yes honey?" I say.
Then he replies with the famous, "If you see a ____, yell ____! Okay?" This comes from watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Diego and Dora. Example, "If you see a sheep, yell SHEEP!" He did this a few times when we were in Utah, and I replied with something like, "Okay Diego." And what does he say? "I'm not Diego, I'm JAMES!"
Today when we were on the whee road, I said to him, "James! I have to tell you something! If you see a bump, yell, BUMP!" He says, "Okay Diego!" :)
James has a ton of fun at school. He absolutely loves it. He is going to the Methodist School for Early Education here in Winter Park. This year he has Mrs. Wilhite, and goes Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 to 12. When we took him to his orientation meeting to meet Mrs. Wilhite, time was up and he really did not want to leave... that's how much he likes it- and that was just orientation.
This morning when we were getting ready to go to school, he was saying things like, "I don't want to go to school, I want to go to a fiesta!" I kinda joked with him saying things like, Sure, I'll take you to a fiesta instead (when we were still going to school all along). Mean Mommy. :) Ha. Turns out there was a FIESTA today in his classroom. Egan, a boy in his class, just turned 3, so they had cupcakes with the number 3 on each of them. James' wish was granted. I can't believe the coincidence.
Last year, when James was 2, he went to the Methodist School once a week, on Wednesdays with Mrs. Tomlinson. It was rough in the beginning, he didn't take separation very well at first. It took a few, oh, probably 4 times, for him not to cry when Mom or Dad left him there. When it clicked though, that school was fun, it was smooth sailing from then on out.... That is, until one day, Mark pushed him into the bushes on the playground. Mark was in his class, and they found out (after this episode) that he was dealing with some anger management issues and behavioral problems. Poor James, I guess it came out on him one day on the playground. Every time we talked about school from then on out, he'd say something about Mark pushing him into the bushes. Mark no longer attends the Methodist School, I found out from the teachers aid on orientation day. I told James that Mark wasn't going to be in his class anymore, and that he's going to a different school. James says, "... with the other James'?" I guess he thinks that Mark is going to be pushing other boys named James into the bushes at his new school. Kinda funny, kinda sad. Ha.
James and Kaitlyn wore each other out tonight running around after dinner. They were running from the door that goes out to the garage to the ottoman in the family room. Every time they'd stop, they'd make me say, "On your marks, get set, GO!" and off they would run. James first, fast as can be, Kaitlyn second, toddling around half walking/half stumbling quickly. I caught a video of this on my movie camera. Hopefully someday I'll upload it. Don't hold your breath, Mom. James told me though, that they were the fastest runners in the world! I then asked him if he was going to go to the Olympics someday and he said, "Oh, sure!" I almost felt like saying, "Well, don't drop the baton!" Ooooh, bad joke. Ha ha.

Favorite Utah Pictures

Swap Meet

What is a Swap Meet anyway? I just thought of it as a title of this blog because of the following story....
Today at lunch we were all sitting around our cozy little table, having sandwiches (kids LOVE the PB and J thing, so they were having that) and some leftover grilled zucchini from the other night. Kaitlyn is a veggie hound, if there is something green on her plate, she eats it. It's too funny. James, is the opposite... he's NOT a veggie hound, unless it is broccoli (which I think is a bit weird-ha). So when we were sitting around talking and eating, I looked at Kaitlyn's plate... PB and J, no zucchini. I looked at James' plate... no PB and J, lots of zucchini. Both kids were sitting there staring at their plates like it wasn't much fun eating today. Nathan and I looked at each other and knew exactly what the other was thinking.... We switched their plates and they both went to town! :)
I know I've mentioned the thing about the kids running under the sheets as Nathan and I fold them. Tonight we were folding them after Kaitlyn had gone to bed, so James was blissfully having this ritual all to himself. I came out with something like, "Oh my gosh, there's a boy under there!" at one point, and James laughed pretty hard. When we started to fold the next sheet, he went under it, and said while giggling, "There's gonna be a boy under here!" So cute.
In a bit of difficult kid news, James bonked his chin so hard on top of Kaitlyn's head this morning, that he chipped three of his teeth!!! These things happen so fast! I called my brother as soon as we figured out that his teeth were hurting and chipped (he didn't say anything right away, so we found out after his nap when he said his teeth hurt) to ask what to do. It seems like he'll be fine, but if he's still hurting in a few days or so, we're going to take him to a dentist. He probably should go anyway. Ha ha.

We're drowning, but at least we can laugh.

James baffles me every day with some of the things he says. The other day we were riding in the car and he spotted two pieces of wood on a vacant property. He said to me, "MOM! Those two sticks look like a see-saw!" Oh my gosh, they totally did. One was just leaning on the other, and in now way was it to scale, but I can see how he would think that! We had just played on a see-saw at Grandma and Papa's house in Utah.
In this day and age with cell phones, our kids will grow up without hearing ringing, but will hear ringtones. I have the song Paralyzer by Finger Eleven as a ringtone for numbers that I don't know. James, Kaitlyn and I were almost to James' school this morning when that song came on XM radio. James SAYS, "Mom! That's your phone song!"
Kaitlyn is sitting next to me and just pushed the caps lock key, notice SAYS above. :) She is a darling baby girl. Not so much a baby anymore, that's for sure. I photographed a 3 month old boy yesterday at our house, and to see that little guy next to her is just amazing. Just one year, and they are completely different. She is constantly getting hurt at this age, and she knows and says the word OWIE! very well these days. She has even started saying "OW!" when she gets hurt.
Last night our power went off during this horrible tropical storm that we've had for five days now. Fay.... I was enjoying a Bud Light since we had just popped our mini pizzas into the oven after it was just barely pre-heated. We sat down for dinner after the pizzas were WARM, to eat, and James said, "Mom! That's Daddy's beer!" I replied with, "Well, no, it's Mommy's beer." Then, Kaitlyn piped up... "BEER!" I told Nathan that his daughter just said beer, he came over to her, said, "Kaitlyn, say beer." She said, "BEER!" absolutely perfectly! She can't say "mommy" but she can say "beer"! Uh oh. Ha ha ha.
The sun just appeared after 6 days! WOOOHOOOOOO! Bye bye Fay.

Rain delay.

Rain delays are supposed to happen to baseball games or golf tournaments, not to first days of school. James is supposed to start school tomorrow as he is scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this year. Tropical storm Fay has interrupted, causing his first day of school to be delayed.
The whole time in Utah I was telling James that when we got home he could go see his friends at school. He got so excited! Today I had to tell him that he won't be going to school tomorrow because there is a big storm outside and no boys and girls will be at school. He was sad! He says,"but I miss my friends!" Awwww.
We got home from Utah last night. The whole trip went without a hitch until James started crying when the plane was descending after our 4 hours in the air. He was sitting next to Daddy on the left side of the plane for the descent, while the rest of the time he was with me and Kaitlyn on the right side of the plane. I insisted that Nathan let him sit in the empty middle seat next to him for the last 15 minutes of the flight. So anyway, James tells Daddy that his tummy hurts, and really starts crying. I say, "GET THE BAG READY!" I give Nathan a barf bag, he opens it, waits a second, starts to pull it away, then James pukes. ALL OVER NATHAN. He got half of it in the bag though, but Nathan insisted (as would I have done so) in changing his clothes immediately after getting our bags from bag claim. Luckily, most of it came off to make it look like Nathan was just wet... but unfortunately in the WRONG areas... if you know what I mean. Right in the lap. Eeeeeww. Poor Nathan.
This whole thing though reminds me of the time that James and I ventured out to Florida when he was only a few months old. It was his first airplane ride, and I took him by myself to go see Grandma and Papa in Orlando. James had always had a sensitive stomach, and always was a spitter-upper. Ask my mom... if you gave him ANYTHING over a 4 ounce bottle, he'd throw up, everywhere. Apparently I hadn't learned my lesson thus far. So this time when I was taking him to Florida, worried about his poor little ears, I gave him a bottle for take-off. It had been about an hour or two since his last bottle, but apparently that wasn't enough digestion time. :) I wore his throw up the rest of the way home! The kicker? The guy that was supposed to be sitting next to me had moved across the aisle and into the row in front of us. James would have puked all over that guy! Whew!
James didn't get sick again yesterday, so we're pretty sure it was from the turbulence. He even feasted on two hot dogs for dinner (sans buns), which is what he told us he wanted for dinner even before he puked on Daddy. :)

Daddy has arrived!

Daddy arrived in Utah last night! We were so very happy to see him. It's too bad that he got back to the house too late for the kids to see him, but as Nathan reports, when he walked into James' room this morning, all James could say is, "WOW"! :)
Our trip out here has been wonderful. Mom has been such a good help for me, spoiling me a bit so I can kinda "slack off" just a bit. Ha. I've had a nap every day since we got here, a treat that doesn't come very often at home.
The kids have sure been great for what a two hour time change can throw at them. I really can't complain, they are such troopers. I wonder how the reverse trip will go!
We have kept very busy here, doing things around Promontory that are great for kids. We have been to the pool, the Kinikinik (SP?) cabin where they have child care to play on the playground, and we even got to go to the horse stables to pet three huge beautiful horses! It was amazing. Such amazing creatures! I haven't seen a horse that close up in years.
Kaitlyn's vocabulary is growing every day. The ones that I find most amusing are "see!" which has replaced the "itsit?" that she was throwing around a few weeks ago. The other is "there" or in her terms, "dare". I found out that she got this from me, since every time I'm finished changing her diaper or putting a barette in her hair, I say, "There!". So now she does it. It's so cute! She'll also go stand by the front door, hang on to the door handle and say, "side!" She's going to be the adventurous kid of the family, I swear.
Kaitlyn has kept us on our toes out here, since the house has a ton of stairs. She runs for them! We about have heart attacks every time.
James gave me a compliment today, and it was very sweet. I have my "bangs" (not really), pulled back with a clip in my hair that I bought at the fabulous H&M in New York. I went in after he woke up from his nap and he said, "I like your hair barette today!" Awww, shucks.
James is full of funnies. The second night we were here, as I was tucking him into bed he tells me, "Mom, I need a friend like Daddy." Oh, we're glad he's here!

Utah, here we come!

The kids and I are off to Utah today, I'll try to get some posts done while we're there. C-ya!

Day's end and I'm tired...

... but I have to put this down before I forget.
Today Nathan and I were getting the kids in the car to go to my parent's house for dinner. Nathan was staying behind to have a shower and do some house stuff, so James was asking him to make a heart on the window. Blah, long story short, he wanted to give dad kisses, hugs, all of this stuff. So Nathan does all that James requests, then goes inside. James says after a short little sigh, "Ok! Let's BOOGIE!" :) It was so funny, I literally put my head on the steering wheel I was laughing so hard. Cute little guy.

Uh oh, owie.

Kaitlyn has added to her vocabulary. Not only is she saying a few more words like owie and uh-oh, she is doing a much better job of imitating what I say. Yesterday in the car the kids and I were driving to an appointment, and I was telling them that soon we get to go to Utah and see Grandma Kathy and Papa. Kaitlyn says, "Papa!" Perfectly. So cute!
When we got out of the car I asked her where her bow went... she said, "BO!" Just makes me laugh. I love it!

"I GIVE UP!"

As I have mentioned before, James really likes to watch TV. He does NOT like it when I turn it off. I've tried giving him warnings such as, "After the show is over, we're going to turn off the TV." He says okay. Then I'll say, "The show is over, I'm going to turn off the TV now." He says, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ha ha. It's actually not very funny when I'm extremely frustrated with him. He does a bit of a better job when you let him push the red button to turn it off, but never-the-less he usually gets upset right after that too.
A few days ago, we had been through this whole process, and James was pretty upset. He looked at me, shook his little fists, and with his most angry voice said, "I GIVE UP!" and walked into the living room. It was REALLY hard not to laugh. That's just one of those moments that you know your little one really is upset so you don't want to laugh in his face, but after you turn around, you have a pretty good giggle to yourself.
James is starting to inflect anger in his voice when he's playing by himself. I've heard this is completely normal, so that makes me feel better. He'll be playing with his toys and start to tell them things that I have heard Nathan and I say to him for discipline. Such as "... if you do that again, you're going to the naughty spot!" Or "... I mean it!" To me though, hearing those words come out of a three year old is pretty dang funny.
Nathan and I have been doing the "warning" idea for some time now. Whether it be for something to be coming to an end, like TV time or time at the park, to warning for discipline (James if you do that again, you're going to the naughty step). I've been adding to this, "Did you hear me?" He says yes. Lately though, I've been adding to this, "What did I say?" He says, "I dunno." So then I have to go over it again. I never realized that he always said that he heard me, but really, wasn't listening at all.