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.

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!