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.

Speedy

We are sad to have lost Speedy this week. Speedy was one of my brother's cats that he adopted when living in Boston 12 years ago. Speedy and his brother Juno were adopted and taken in by the most loving human caretaker ever, Rich. He loves these cats with all of his heart, and it was really hard to watch him lose Speedy to liver cancer.
Pets are really hard to lose, I lost a cat several years ago when he wasn't yet one year old. It's hard to see them deteriorate and be in pain, they're just not having any fun anymore. They really become part of the family, and they always remain a part of the family even though they pass on.
As most things, the pain of losing a pet lessens with time, and you start to focus on the fun you had with them instead of the last few weeks/days of their lives. Laughter is the best medicine for things like this, it helps ease the pain of the loss. With that, I give you this story:

I was telling the kids the other day about Rich's cat Speedy passing away. I told them that Speedy got very sick and died. James replied, so innocently, "Upon the cross?"

We'll miss you Speedy!

Wait a minute... when did THAT happen?

Apparently James knows how to spell! We were pulling up to the hair cut store today and we parked in front of a different place, just a couple spaces over in the parking lot. James looked up at the sign above us and read off the letters in a quick pace, "G-o-l-d-e-n-t-a-n... what does that spell?"
I was so flabbergasted that I made him do it again. Sure enough, he repeated all of the letters, only with a slight stumble on the "t". Oh my gosh! I knew he was learning letters in school, but he really is LEARNING his letters! LOL.
Such a smart boy!

Another thing that has blown us away is Kaitlyn's resistance to nap in the afternoon. She's only two and a half and she's already starting to want to skip her nap. I remember that she transitioned from two naps to one really early, at eleven months, so maybe she's going to transition to no nap early too. Oh goodness. May the LORD help me cope. ;)

Christmas Gifts from James

James came home from school today with a few gifts for Mom and Dad. It was really hard for him to have to wait until Daddy got home from work for us to open them. After Nathan arrived at home, we asked him if we should wait until Christmas and he shook his head quickly, "No, you should open them now!"
One gift was a white oven mitt painted with his hand print as Santa wearing a red hat and having a white iridescent beard. James wrote his own name on the oven mitt too. ;)
The other was a wreath ornament that had been made by putting a series of rings on a piece of string and tied into a circle. So cute!
Kaitlyn probably won't be giving us a gift from school this year since she has missed the last week and half (only three actual days of school though) because of her fractured clavicle. She seems to be healing, but she still gets hit with pain if I lift her the wrong way or if she falls down. She doesn't seem to mind the brace, in fact, I think it makes her feel better to wear it. Poor thing.
Nathan just wrote the Christmas letter for this year: watch out. ;)

Slacker McSlackski

Oh my gosh I have been slacking on the blog! I do have excuses though! Here is a rundown of what has been going on in our house since before Thanksgiving:
-I got sick, horrible sinus infection and a cough for which I had to be on antibiotics for two rounds. I even had to cancel shoots and reschedule.
-Kona had to go to the vet for pancreatitis (sp?) and spent Thanksgiving there with them = lots of money.
-Rosco (one of our cats) started having blood in his urine so I decided that I should take both cats in for their waaaay belated check-ups (shots, bloodwork, etc.= lots of money again). Rosco ended up having to have surgery (today) to remove stones from his bladder. LAST WEEK, he had to have some teeth removed... he was born with an extra set of teeth on the bottom- only one molar was duplicated on each side. They were decayed and infected, so they had to come out. So he has had two surgeries in the last few weeks = lots of money. There go the Christmas presents. Ha.
-Kaitlyn fractured her clavicle (collar bone) after falling from the car. NO, we weren't moving... she was climbing up into her car seat as she does 3 times a day and slipped and fell. It was one of those slow motion things where I couldn't possibly have gotten to her fast enough, although I tried to get there fast enough. So she had to have x-rays and is now wearing padded straps that go around her shoulders like a backpack and then attach in the back in a big X between her shoulders. She should be fully recovered in a few weeks.

So besides all of that happening in our house, I've been swamped with work (a good thing) and have been trying to start an Etsy store along with a store on SmugMug. I am extremely excited to be moving into 2010, as I look forward to a new product line and the introduction of packages for Baby's First Year and for family portraits.

Whew!

We are really getting excited to go to Iowa pretty soon. Too bad it's so freakin' cold! HA! I look forward to great conversations with Beth, lots of fun in the snow with the kids (Nathan and Chris too), and drinking coffee with Marilyn and talking smack to Gary. We miss you, family in Iowa!

Turkey cookies!

Last night, our family went over to my parent's house for tacos. We had a good evening, even though I'm still trying to recover from this sinus infection that has had me dragging my feet all week.
Mom and I discussed the making of the pies for Thanksgiving day. She thought it would be fun to have the kids over to "help" make them. As we were getting the kids buckled into the car so we could return home, James asked Grandma if they could make Turkey cookies.
Mom and I looked at each other kinda befuddled and then she asked James, "Well, we can try. I don't know if I have everything... what do you need to make them?"
James says (sounding exactly like a TV commercial), "You need sugar cookie dough, white frosting, food coloring, chocolate chips and candy corn!"
That made Mom and I look at each other again and bust out laughing.
I asked James, "Did you see that on TV honey?"
"Yes," he said.
"On Noggin?"
"No, on Nick Jr.!"
Oh this kid cracks me up!

Mythbusters are a bad influence!

Nathan loves the show Mythbusters. I admit, I'm a huge fan too. We sometimes watch episodes with the kids, and James just loves it. He even has come to know names of the people on the show.
Apparently James really does pay attention because the other night we were sitting at the dinner table and James blurts this out, "When Carrie and Tory drank too much beeeeer, they got really sick."
Nathan and I just looked at each other. "Actually James, it was Grant and Tory, but yes, they did get sick from drinking too much beer."
"Remember that, James, remember that lesson." I said. :) LOL.

Happy Halloween!

Scary!

The kids and I stopped into one of those temporary Halloween stores a few days ago to try to find a Batman costume for James. After discovering that, like Target, they were out of all of James' size, we perused the rest of the store.
James wandered to the back of the store where there were three archways with spooky life-sized motorized "things". To get them to move, you pushed the big red button in front of them. I followed James and Kaitlyn followed me. James pushed the button in front of one of the zombies. His head turned, his eyes followed, and there was blood all over him like he had just hacked someone with an axe. James was fine, but Kaitlyn got one glimpse of this thing and LOST IT. She screamed so loud and turned bright red and started running away! My poor baby! I couldn't help but giggle a little bit though. ;)

Butterfly!

Today was the Methodist School's Fall Festival. I was working at James' class booth, the snow cone stand, and Nathan surprised me with Kaitlyn as a butterfly! I wish I would have seen how they painted this on! WOW!

Mr. The King returns!

When James and I flew to Minneapolis last month for Matt and Kari's wedding, I bought him The King in the Orlando Airport. The King is a car character from Cars the movie. It was new and cool to James because he has holographic eyes. The King went everywhere with us, and proved to be a great toy for James until we lost him at Sam and Mary Ann's house. Mary Ann told us that she would send it if she found it, but I didn't really thin there was a chance of her actually finding the car.
ALAS! She found The King and she also sent a new toy truck for James and a toy for Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn loves Jasmine, her Disney Princess from Alladin the movie.
Thank you Mary Ann!

Announcing the new website!

I'm so excited to announce that my new website is officially ON!
Please check it out!

www.meredithwilckephotography.com

I think my heart just melted... or tore in half.

Kaitlyn has been telling me, when I'm ready to leave her room at night, "Don't go bye bye Mommy, I neeeeed you!"
I asked Nathan yesterday if he had had her say that to him or not yet, and it just so happened that she tried to pull that trick on him that night. Nathan was getting ready to go out to watch football at a local watering hole when he came into her room to give her a kiss.
"Don't go bye bye Daddy," she says while grabbing him like she were about to fall into a pit of hot lava, "I need you!"
Nathan looked at me and we nearly fell onto the floor. Laugh? Cry? What do we do? It's so cute, it just melts my heart. I know that she is NOT really going to get hurt feelings when we leave, since other times she says bye without a problem and is a very independent little girl. I really don't know where this came from, but it's sooo sweet.

These kids keep me guessing!

James has been sick this week. He's had a bad cough, sore throat (that seemed to not last long) and a really high fever! My poor baby. It's so awful to look into your son's eyes and see pure exhaustion. He even fell asleep on the couch last night after dinner, something he never does. He seems to have turned the corner today though, with a better attitude and more energy to spend playing with Kaitlyn. The sparkle is coming back into those beautiful eyes of his! Luckily he didn't miss much school this week as they had a school break yesterday and today.
Kaitlyn pooped and peed on the potty last night, so James and I were sitting in the bathroom with her tonight to try to get a repeat performance. He started saying, "Go Kaitlyn! Go!" He then looked at me, raised his eyebrows and said with a nod of his head, "I'm cheering for her, you know!" I laughed out loud!

Kaitlyn is still being difficult at bed time. Last night when putting her to bed I told her that if she got out of bed, I was going to take Lovie away. Sure enough, she did get out of bed, and I caught her going into the bathroom. I put her in bed and took Lovie from her, and told her, "I'm going to turn off your nightlight now too. You need to stay in bed." She cried for a few minutes, but then she was quiet. Finally!
I went upstairs to check on her around 10:30 and found her asleep, but not in bed. She was on the floor just inside her room sound asleep!
The night just got more strange too... at 3:15 in the morning, I heard noise coming from James' monitor. I had to go upstairs to investigate, thinking that since James had fallen asleep on the couch pretty early, he thought that 3:15 was a good time to wake up for the day.
I was slightly baffled to find that the hallway light was on, and James door was open. His room light, however, was still off (he usually turns it on when he's up and playing in his room). I rounded the corner and walked into James' room ready to tell him to get back to bed. Instead, however, I found Kaitlyn in James' room! She was helping herself to James' puzzles at 3:15 in the morning! James was still asleep in his bed, running a fever and quiet as can be.
REALLY Kaitlyn?!? I told her to go get back in bed. After she crawled in, I told her, "Kaitlyn, it's still sleepy time, it's the middle of the night!"
"Ok Mom, I go night night!"
Thankfully that was all of the commotion for the rest of the night. :)

Bye Bye Naps?

James hasn't been napping very well lately, if at all. Once in a while he lays in bed quite easily and falls asleep, but most days now, he fights having to nap. It's bittersweet for me... watching my baby grow is wonderful, but I will miss my quiet time and MY naps. :)
Kaitlyn too, has been skipping some naps in the afternoon. It's extremely frustrating to me to think of her growing out of her nap already at the age of 2 and a half. No way. It can't be. I keep praying to God to help this phase stop and for her to keep up with napping. On the other hand, and there usually always IS another side, if she does nap, she takes forever to fall asleep at night. She never wants me to leave after I tuck her into bed (since I'm so awesome and all), and then she sits up there and plays with books in bed or toys on her floor. She's sneaky too... she's very quiet. If she hears me coming to talk to her, she runs back to bed! Stinker.
SO... maybe if the nap goes away it won't be the worst thing in the world, but I still want her to nap! She's just too young!

Kaitlyn has been enjoying school so much, and this morning when I dropped them off, she exclaimed, "I get to go to school toooo!" It is so sweet, and I love thinking about how far she came in just over one month, from crying at drop off to being excited to go see her friends.
When it is time for dismissal at school, my kids go to separate places to be picked up, so I have to go through the car pool line twice in different places. It's kind of a hassle, but no big deal really. I usually go get Kaitlyn first since she's younger and newer at the whole school thing, and James understands he needs to stay put until I drive up.
Kaitlyn makes me giggle when we pull up to get James and he gets in the car. She asks him so nicely, "How are you doing, James?" It's so cute!
She is also very consistent about telling someone when they've done a good job. "Good job singing, Mommy!" or "Good job, James!" It's so sweet, and I can only assume she gets that from her most wonderful role model... me. ;)

I'm Sorry Mommy!

Kaitlyn has been noticing when she hurts people, and usually says, "I'm sorry!" right away.
Sometimes, however, she means to hurt James. He does the same to her, of course, but she really knows how to taunt him. She takes things right out of his hands and then after he cries and I tell him to ask for it back nicely, he asks and she replies with, "NO!" It really is funny... but I feel so bad for James because he does a great job asking her for it back and then she totally denies him. She also likes to push him, hit him and throw things at him. Nice, huh?
James, too, has his moments where he shows aggression. For instance, if Kaitlyn takes something from him and he wants it back, he'll aggressively poke her or push her. It frustrates me to no end, and is one thing that Nathan and I need to work on with him... controlling his temper.
They both are very sweet about apologizing when they hurt me or Nathan or anyone else, but when it comes to each other they are total siblings about it. They say sorry, but don't really mean it. Ha.

Nice words instead.

Kaitlyn and James have been having a fun time playing together since they were apart for the weekend. Of course they are playing nice but also nagging at each other and "fighting". After Nathan had gotten home from work, James was playing like he wanted to sleep on the couch and he and Kaitlyn got into a bit of a grumble. Kaitlyn told James, "Go away!"
Daddy and I didn't like this, so Nathan went over to talk to the kids about using nice words instead. I clued Nathan in that James had told Kaitlyn to "go away" earlier today.
"James," Daddy asked him, "what are some nice words to ask Kaitlyn instead?"
"Kaitlyn, could I be alone?" he responded.
"That's a great one, James!" Daddy praised James.
"Kaitlyn, what are some nice words you could use with James?"
"Go away." She said.

LOL.

Saturday: A beautiful day in Minnesota

The day after Matt and Kari's nuptials, James and I walked over to Mom and Dad's hotel to have breakfast. We had breakfast there the day before, fancy and all, but expensive of course since it was a hotel. The four of us ate, I think we all started with cereal. James had TWO bowls of Fruit Loops, and when the bowl was left with floating tid bits and remaining milk, the waitress took it away without hesitation. James was shocked.
When she returned from the kitchen, James looked at her, put his arm up and did the "come here" motion with his entire hand instead of just his index finger. He said to her, "You took my bowl! I wanted my milk!" Oooh, too funny, we all cracked up. To appease him, she brought him another cereal bowl with more milk in the bottom for James to drink. Too funny.
Later, we took Mom and Dad to the airport for them to fly out to South Dakota and then we spent the remaining part of the day at Sam and Mary Ann's house for the "after" festivities. It was really nice to be able to talk to family after being so busy and distracted at the wedding and reception. We had a great time, with great conversations and great food. James and Will played all day together, and had a great time pretending to be firemen. The only negative part of Saturday was that we lost The King. OOOOOH NO. We looked and looked, but no The King. Poor kid.
We said our goodbyes to Kari and Matt to go home and pack for their honeymoon, and then it was time for us to go back to the hotel (now the Sheraton). James was really bummed to have to leave, so I bribed him. I told him... "We need to say goodbye to everyone and thank you, and then you can play with my phone on the way to the hotel." He took this literally and went up to every one, tapping them on the shoulder or arm and waving at them and telling them goodbye. Yes, everyone was giggling. It was so cute!

Congratulations Matt and Kari!

James and I got to attend the wedding of my cousin, Matt McClenahan to his love, Kari Thon. It was at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. The church was AMAZING. To sum up, James walked into the church and after about 10 minutes, looked up, and then said coolly, "Beautiful church." It was like he was a teenager! ;)
The ceremony was beautiful and James did a wonderful job sitting in the pew and staying (mostly) quiet. I had bought a new "Car" for him in the Orlando airport, The King, to play with for the weekend, and it seemed to do a great job of keeping him distracted.
Once the ceremony was over, we headed over to the reception at Nicolette Island. WOW! The site was stunning! The flowers were gorgeous and the candle lit table centers were fabulous. They had place cards for everyone, and James instantly fell in LOVE with "his" piece of blue paper with his name written in silver and a cute little green flower glued to it. It was his BFF for the rest of the night.
We sat with my parents and Dick, Bev, Courtney, Molly, Ryan and Sutton. We dined on delicious food, and even got to share James' gourmet Mac N Cheese for an appetizer. He was disgusted with it, but it was some of the best Mac N Cheese I've ever had. ;)
James took Grandma's camera and went around snapping photos of everyone around our table and then proceeded to the next table. However, by this time, my mom had taken her camera back and given James an iPhone to use for a camera. Oh geez. The people at the next table were laughing with James, as he was intent on getting every one's picture. So funny!
At one point I had to tell James to be quiet because Tom was giving a toast. He replied with, "But I'm scared of Tom making bread, Mom!" That made me giggle!
Grandma Kathy took James to the dance floor and broke it down with the live band for a while. I got out there long enough for James to dance about one song until he "powered down". He literally went from dancing one second (doing the tie flip) to a sunken moping child the next. He had had enough.
We retired to our hotel via a ride from Mom and Dad, an eventful and very fun day!