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.

Vocab explosion

Kaitlyn's vocabulary is really taking off. I hear new words every day, and I'm told about new words by Nathan too. Yesterday he told me that she said "Kona".
Oh my goodness... Kona just barked really quietly, and Kaitlyn just mimicked me... "Hush up!" On no! ;)
She also just said "sleep" as she laid her head down on the couch. She says "thank you", "please", "duck", "foot", "toes", "paper", "side" for outside, etc. Her favorites still are NO and OWIE. :)
Update: It's now about a week later, and she has added "Jack", "Ashley", "sorry", "broccoli", "Grandma", "bird", "car", "go". Obviously I can't keep this up forever, but I think it's fun to keep jotting some down!

Wiggle and Giggle

This morning I took the kids to see Mr. Richard sing at the Jewish Community Center. It was free concert and I figured since I had never seen Mr. Richard it would be fun. Fun it was! And crowded it was!
When we were waiting for all of the people to show up and holding some seats (which turned out to be pointless since we went and sat on the floor later anyway), I told James who Mr. Richard was. I told him, "See that man over there in the blue shirt? That's Mr. Richard! He's REALLY nice!" A few minutes later, I saw James run over to him and say, "HI MR. RICHARD!" very excitedly and then, "Can we dance and sing with you?" Ha ha. Mr. Richard said of course he can, and then James ran back to me and proudly announced that he had talked to Mr. Richard. So sweet.
I think Kaitlyn and James thoroughly enjoyed themselves, although it was pretty crazy trying to keep Kaitlyn in one spot. The kids got to go dance and sing in front of Mr. Richard while he played, but Kaitlyn was distracted by the play house that was smushed into the corner of the "stage". She liked dancing though too, and was entertained by all of the other kids around.
I had had it by about 30 minutes into the whole concert... but I held out... good Mommy.

Naaathaaan?

Why is it that toddlers sometimes like to refer to their parents by their first names rather than Mommy or Daddy? James has gone through this phase a couple of times. It amazed me too, since he actually pronounced my name near perfectly, when other kids or foreigners (ha) usually butcher it.
I remember about a year ago (maybe?) I had James sitting on the naughty step for some reason or another. He was really upset and MAD that I was ignoring him, and then he melted and started crying. I went around the corner into the kitchen so he couldn't see me anymore, but he was still trying to get my attention and get me to look at him. "Mommy!" I heard. "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" ... and then, "MEREDITH!" I have to admit, even though my son was in tears and very upset, I was cracking up. Am I a bad mother? Ha.
Tonight we had our family photograph taken at our church for the directory, so the kids and I got dressed up and drove over to Saint Margaret Mary to meet up with Nathan. I'm not sure in the rush of things did I tell the kids that Daddy was going to meet us there. We pulled into the parking lot and parked the van... then James says, "Naaathaan?" in a whisper of disbelief. "Is that DADDY?" he said. "Ha HA ha ha ha HA!" He just laughed. Now why did he call him "Nathan" at first and not "Daddy". Silly, silly boy.
Kaitlyn has a new word, "stowie" for stories. Every night before bed Daddy or I will read her a few books. She has a glider chair in her room, and next to it is a TV tray that we have set up to hold her CD player and 5 books or so.
I've noticed that she favors some books over others, and to make sure of this I always try to add one that I know she's not as fond of into the mix. If she's interested, she'll sit there on my lap and be still. If she's NOT interested, and favors a different book, she'll lean over me to the table and say, "bear" or pick up another book instead. Right now I think her favorite book is "Put Me in the Zoo" and it's the one she refers to as 'bear'. She also really likes "The Little Train" by Lois Lenski (thanks Auntie Ana, you gave this to James). Story time is great with her!
James is throwing us for a loop recently with a later bedtime. We get him into bed at a decent time, but by the time he actually falls asleep, it's almost 10 pm. He always yells out, "Help" for some reason, which makes Nathan or I go up there to check on him. His reasons? Anything from having to go potty to, "my teeth are cold" or "I want socks so I can sleep with the covers off because the covers get bumps". Confused? Me too!

James' humor strikes again!

Yesterday the kids and I headed to the YMCA after naps so I could get some exercise. I usually don't work out at that time of day, but since I hadn't showered yet and still was in my workout clothes from the morning, I figured... why not? The childcare center opened at 4, and my kids were the only two there for a while. James really had a good time, fewer kids and more attention from the gals working there. This might be my new favorite time to work out. Plus, Oprah is on. Ha. Although I much prefer Ellen's show.
While in the childcare area, James got to make some jack-o-lantern people out of paper plates and construction paper. He made two, one for him and one for Kaitlyn (yeah right-ha).
He was holding the "people" on the way home in the van, while making them dance on his lap. He was signing, and I wasn't really paying attention to the words or tune he was singing, but all of a sudden I heard from the back seat, "BREAK IT DOWN!" What? I asked him, "James, did you just say 'break it down'? That's so funny!" He didn't really respond and was a little confused because he has NO idea what the heck that means. :) I love this kid.

Progress report

I noticed on the sign by the local public grade school that progress reports were already coming out this week. Seriously? It's only been a month! Anyway, I took this as a sign that I could do my own little report on what James has done in school.
James LOVES school. He loves it so much that every day I pick him up he tells me that he doesn't want to go home. Every time! Last week I walked up to his class instead of picking him up in the carpool line. I was carrying Kaitlyn, so I was a little uncomfortable in the heat, and James would not get up from sitting in line. His teacher, Mrs. Wilhite, was even trying to convince him that he could go and come back next time, but that didn't work either. It finally came down to her picking James up and making him stand up to go with me. Jeepers James.
This month has been exciting at school. His class has been studying colors: blue, red, and yellow. On certain days, the kids get to wear a certain color for a shirt, first was yellow, then the next week it was blue, etc. That is a lot of fun. They also put together a collage of things with that color on it such as stickers or magazine ads, etc.
Nursery rhymes have also been big this month. They have learned about Jack jumping over the candlestick, Humpty Dumpty, and Jack and Jill. So far James has come home with treasures he has made, like a candlestick made out of paper and red saran wrap, and a picture of Humpty Dumpty broken on a brick wall. I'll be excited to see his Jack and Jill activity on Tuesday.
So all in all, I think we're making great progress with school, and I'm thankful that he loves it so much.

Books a billion

I've been waiting to enter this information into my blog because I've had a few surprises under my belt that have finally been revealed. This summer, I took upon 730 slides that were living in a box at my parent's house. These slides were shot in the 1950s and 1960s of my mother's childhood, mostly captured by my grandfather, Delos and my uncle Terry (the oldest of the 4 children). I had never seen these slides before, and judging by the shipping address on the box, neither had anyone else since the early 90's. This made me terribly excited. One by one, I scanned and scanned, even the garbage shots, until I reached 730 (or so), I wanted to be able to put ALL of them on a DVD for backup. The scanning alone took me a few months, as I would just do some when I was working on the computer on other projects. Each one that popped up on the screen was a little surprise for me, and usually my mouth was agape at what I was looking at... scenes of my mom when she was 3, making Christmas cookies with my grandma (which she now does with my kids, her grandchildren), and what really surprised me the most is how much I looked like my mom at that age and how much Kaitlyn already resembles her!
The whole process was emotional, from seeing photos of my grandfather (whom I NEVER MET), to seeing photographs of the famous trip to the 1964 World's Fair in NYC where my parents met for the first time. I got to see my grandmother as a young, vibrant mother of 4, laughing and enjoying life as I am living now with my little ones. I got to see my mom go through her geeky stage, as all of us do at some point, and also go to see her become a beautiful woman. I really felt like I was let in on a secret that had all been a mystery to me before this project. Yes, of course I've heard stories and seen a few photographs, but nothing like this.
Originally I was going to make a DVD slideshow and put the best of the best photos on it, and then the idea morphed into a book. I found blurb.com from another project that I was working on, and just had to make the book. It was the perfect idea.
I almost caved and uncovered the secret to my mom about 4 times during the process, partially because I could hardly contain my excitement about the whole thing, and partly because I wanted her help in editing and understanding who these people were in some of the shots. I suppressed that urge to share with her, and was able to present the book to her on her 60th birthday, a complete surprise. I cried, she cried, it was great. :)
Then mom turned the idea into a surprise herself. She ordered more books, one for each of her siblings, and gave them to them as a surprise a few days ago since they are all together at the house in Utah. I was thanked by everyone, which was nice of course, but really, just knowing that they had that experience to see those photos together at the same time is enough for me. I wish I could've been there, but we don't always get what we want (I tell my son this all of the time-ha). I know they will treasure these books forever, and then their kids will treasure them for years to come. I just wish I had done this a few years ago so I could've shown my grandmother.
The second book that I mentioned above was a book that I made for Courtney, my cousin, of her blog. She's been blogging for three years, and started when her second son Gabe was just a newborn. What a treasure. I admit, I didn't read all of her entries while working on this project, but the ones I did read cracked me up. The book has the entries from 2005 and 2006 in it, and that alone got to be HUGE! I had so stop at that point and publish the thing! I included all of the photos that she had uploaded and even put captions by most of the photos. It was a lot of work, but so fun and totally worth it. I also presented it to her on her birthday, and told her to open it with me on the phone. She was a little curious as to why I was so excited about a book that I was giving her, but when she saw what it was, she clearly understood. Apparently I won for giving her the "best present in a long time" award. I'll happily take that honor. ;)
She has already taken it upon herself to finish the project. I would've done it for her, again, of course, but if she wants to do it, that's fine with me. Ha.
This entry came to mind because I just noticed that I'm approaching my 100th blog entry. Time to publish! :)

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.