Christmas

The kids had a great Christmas with Grammy, Grandpa T, and Grandma Maxine visiting. They got spoiled as usual and had lots of fun. They have spent the week having a great time playing with their toys. They are sleeping in their sleeping bags, selling ice cream, drawing pictures, reading books, and crashing race cars. Christmas is grea with kids in the house.

Climbing

Well, Cole finally discovered he could climb out of his crib. He was napping today while the babysitter was here and she was outside with Makaila and her kids. She came inside for some reason to hear Cole crying. She went to look in on him and he was standing beside his bed crying because he fell when he climbed out. We've thought Cole had the ability to climb out for a few months now, but we weren't about to tell him. After our trip to AZ we might be forced to go bed shopping!

Waiting for Christmas

Makaila was so cute the week before Christmas. Two nights before Christmas she tells me that she won't think about THAT and points to the other room where the tree is as she's going to bed. She says that she finally got some sleep last night because she didn't think about it {meaning Christmas I guess}. I told her to think about spaghetti instead.

Snow?

A few weeks ago we got snow. It was great. Last time it snowed was over a year ago so it was like the first time for Cole. We ran out real quick and let him feel it and got some pictures. He doesn't own a hat or mittens. The kid doesn't like to zip up a coat for that matter.That night when we talked about it with Chad, his comment was "hands cold".

Christmas musings

We are in the Christmas spirit around here, I just haven't been in the blogging spirit. The kids saw Santa at a Christmas party and heard him tell stories at the mall. We got out all the decorations and the tree up and lit. We've had a little trouble with the house lighting this year, but this will just have to do until we throw these lights away and get new ones for next year. The kids are really into it all. They're putting up the numbers on the advent calendar and are excited to get to see both sides of the family this year (although not Cassie and Leah, the Seefurths will be in Seattle). I've attended a kid's party, Chad's work party and mine is tomorrow. We sent off our shoebox gift for a little girl in some unknown country. I've even done 85% of my Christmas shopping. I don't understand how the month of December can always seem so short. I was peacefully enjoying my Thanksgiving when next thing I know I'm worried because my Christmas cards still haven't arrived for me to address. We are trying our best to put more influence on it being Jesus' birthday this year. But it's hard. It's hard not to want to show your family you love them by buying them great gifts. It's hard not to feel like you need to give your neighbors some cleaverly decorated cookie package and increase your spending on tins and cute gift bags. It's hard to do the things that you want to be a memory, but not just have memories of non-stop things. Yesterday we spent some time working on what will become gifts from the kids to family members. And I would say it was mostly successful. But sometimes it's hard not to get frustrated that they are so excited they can't be patient to listen to directions or irritated that there are scraps all over your newly mopped floors. I love my kids and I hope when they look back at Christmas they can think of the cookie baking and tree decorating and not remember the mommy getting irritated because at age 5 and 2 their excitement of the season makes them get out of control. Hmmm. This really wasn't where I was going when I started this blog. I'll sign off now.

Minor setback

So here I am just 2 days ago bragging at how great my son is at using the potty and then came our worst day ever. . . 5 accidents (and 2 of them BM). Nice. The only positive is that they took place at home and they were split up between our babysitter, myself, and Chad to clean things up. I guess we just took too many steps foward with out that necessary step back!

Safari

Here's the kids playing safari. They went to a birthday party with a safari theme and got these cool hats and binoculars. Good times.

Pee Pee Poo Poo Party

Yes, you read the title correctly. Pee-pee poo-poo Party. I am blaming our friends the Miars for that one. They started the party in celebration of potty training being accomplished. For some strange reason we continued their tradition. Here we are going to Chuck E. Cheese (not exactly a parent's first choice) to celebrate Cole. He just did awesome with potty training and he deserved some celebration.

talking

Cole's verbal skills are improving, but one still has to have an idea what he is talking about to understand completely. He doesn't pronounce most of his consenents very well. So if I have no clue where he's coming from, it can be frustrating for both of us. The other day I got him up from a nap. He was asking me "where's the circle and the square?". Since his "circle" sounds like "hirhle" which is very close to purple, I was trying to figure out what purple chair he was talking about. And out of no where he was asking me for the book Arthur's Thanksgiving. But again, if you don't know what topic he's on "Arur's Ank-ining" can be a mistery.

He sings the whole alphabet, knows all the colors now and tries really hard to keep up with his sister when she sings the songs about her alpha friends from school. He is quite a singer. He's all over the classics. "Twinkle, twinkle", "Jesus Loves Me", "Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Old MacDonald". And for that matter, every time we drive by McDonald's he says, "There's Old MacDonald". That does seem to be tricky for kids.

He also have started asking why. "Why eating quesadilla?", "Why time for breakfast?", "why wear jacket?", "Why going potty?". I should be glad that his brain is trying to figure things out. I should.

Learning

Makaila is doing so great at school. She understands all the math they've done. She loves going to art. She thinks her music teacher is funny. She was all telling me about voting for Clifford (it was either Clifford or Duck for president) and about how the flag can't touch the ground. And she is reading more and more words all the time. What's really cool is that she is writing more on her own too. She knows a lot of 2 and 3-letter words on her own, but she is now learning to sound out and try to just write the sounds that she hears. She might write NO BUD for Nobody or CHAR for Chair. The cute one was when she wrote QOS for clothes. It's so great to see new stuff she is learning.

Follow up

To follow up on some prior blogs, I did take Cole to the doctor. There wasn't anything to be worried about. The doctor thought he just remembered the pain and was protecting it. Of course the next day he stopped limping. But that's how it always goes.

He was sick yesterday. Bad cough and runny nose with a fever that lasted all day. He had a crazy coughing attack last night that made him cough up some phlem and slightly throw up. I know that is really gross and you didn't want to know that. But right after he goes, "me go see Doctor Ernie and get better". Oh buddy.

Cole is doing great with the potty training. We still have accidents, but not every day. He has been doing great when we go places like church or the gym. He's doing so good with it that I had to push him if he says he doesn't need to go. Sometimes I regret that. We had an accident today, but it was in the bathroom as he was trying to get to the toliet. I've been amazed at how great he has done with it. No complaints here.

Good times

We all went to the movies this past week and it was an enjoyable experience. I didn't expect to be saying that so soon. We were invited to a movie showing of Madagascar2. This was a free event and it involved free pizza. So we figured, why not? Cole was totally into it for 20-3o minutes. He sat on my lap for the rest. Lots of pizza eaten. Only 1 resquest for a bathroom trip. Cole was squirmy the last 15 minutes. But overall I'd say it was a great time. And my family will be singing the "I like to move it, move it" song for quite some time. You should hear Cole sing it.

To doctor or not to doctor?

Last night Makaila and Cole were playing quite well in the next room as I prepared dinner. Cole starts crying and after I pick him up he requests the "ice bear". He didn't like the ice bear last time I tried to put it on an injury, so I know this can't be good. He calms down for dinner, but as soon as dinner is over he tries walking and will not put much weight on his foot. For the rest of last night as soon as he tries to walk, he will stop and look at us because his foot is hurting him. I had to carry him from room to room. I worried about this all evening and had the plan if he was still complaining, we'd head to urgent care and I'd request an x-ray and if he was walking normally, I could stop worrying.

So to confuse me, he woke up in between those two options. He isn't complaining, and will say it doesn't hurt if you ask him, but he still has a limp. As a physical therapist, we don't like limps. Especially in 2-year olds. And that leaves me in a quandary about what to do.

Halloween

We had 80 deg weather for Halloween. Makaila got to dress up for school because Kindergarten has a parade in the a.m. Then she got a party at the end of her school day. Our neighbors left a nice suprise of trick-or-treat bags and jack-o-lantern type Croc's. We went tric-or-treating with 3 other families from our neighborhood. It was a sucessful night. I'm not sure, but we might have brought home more candy than we gave away.

Friends

Today Makaila got a letter in the mail. Cole was asking where his mail was. Makaila ran off into the other room telling me not to "guess what she is doing". She came back in a little while with an evelope with Cole written on it. She gave him some "mail". It said, "To Cole. I love you. You are my best friend. From Makaila". So great. Can they stay friends like this forever?

My son rocks

My son rocks. Only the second day of potty training and he peed in the correct place all day. No accidents. Awesome. (No, you cannot ask to see the potty song. It doesn't leave the bathroom.) Of course no number 2 today. . . we'll see how tomorrow goes, I'm not saying we're out of the laundry room yet.

Continued potty training and I spy

The potty training is going as expected for the first week. About 2 accidents a day, so doing lots of laundry. We get a few times in the potty, so that is good. I am being challenged in my patience as I have trouble waiting long enough for him to have success. Cole still hasn't got the tell me ahead of time thing down yet. And he also hasn't gotten the stop mid-stream when he's having an accident. Hopefully that will come soon. And hopefully my blog won't keep him from getting a good job someday because his interviewer read this.

We were driving in the car today and we were pointing out the fire station and the ambulance driving that passed when it turned into I spy. Now Cole has heard his big sister play I spy, and even she has room for improvement. But this is how it is when a 2-year old plays. Cole says, "I spy a house. I spy dirt. I spy Mommy's car. I spy my carseat. I spy my shirt. I spy my arm. I spy my lizzard (which he is holding. Not real of course.). I spy Sissy's carseat. I spy a police car. I spy the soccer place." Too fun. I especially liked it when he spied the dirt and his arm!

Jesus loves me

Potty training. Throw up. Want to come over?

Today has been quite the day. Cole has been wanting his diaper changed more and more. As soon as he pees in it he walks around clutching his pants and saying, "Change my diaper. Diaper wet." It happened yesterday as we were doing some grocery shopping at Target and I decided this was enough. We bought new underware. Both Cars and Thomas the Train, if you care to know. I sat him on the toliet multiple times yesterday. I wasn't going to have him wear them until he had some success. This morning we go to put him on the toliet first thing and he was totally dry. Quite amazing for 11 1/2 hours of sleeping! He sat on the toliet and achieved the desired goal. Most of it didn't actually go in the toliet, but that is beside the point. So, he got to wear his underware. And I must say, it was so darn cute to see him sporting them. The morning passed as expected. An accident. Another success. Multiple attempts.

Then this afternoon Makaila had been complaining of her tummy hurting all afternoon. Just as Chad walks in the door she throws up. All over herself and all over the couch (I won't tell you which one in case you come over). I immediately take her to the shower. She gets her hair washed twice. I clean up the couch, finish dinner prep and get her set up on a different couch. We eat dinner (minus her) and then when we are about done she throws up again. A small bit of it gets into the trash can and this time more on the couch than her. So she's off to get cleaned up again and I'm cleaning off yet another couch.

Little while later, I'm still cleaning a couch, Cole and Makaila are having apple juice and crackers because now her tummy feels better and she wants a little to eat. Cole follows up her act with an accident on the dining room chair. Good thing I hadn't started the load of laundry yet. The 2 throw ups and pee-pee accident all happened in about 1 hour. Seriously.

Papa

I was talking on the phone to Grandpa Rev about his recent back injury. I told Cole about it when I got off the phone. He was very concerned. He just kept repeating, "Papa hurt back?" and "Papa lying down?". Sometimes he just gets something on his mind (like last week when he learned what a motor home was and he talked about the motor home for the next hour) and keeps talking about it. The cutest part was when he asked if "Daddy glue it?".

Smart

Can I just say that my son's brain has been developing lately. All the sudden things are just clicking. He knows the colors green, pink, orange and white. He knows circle, star, oval, triangle, heart (most of the time), moon and diamond. And about 2 weeks ago the kids started playing Hide and Seek and he surprised us with his counting skills. Usually we play with them so they hide together, but this time it was just them so they were counting and hiding separately. We told Makaila to tell Cole which room she was going to hide in and he was to count. She runs off to hide and we tell Cole to count and then go find her in the bedroom. He correctly counts to 10 and follows it up with "ready or not, here I come". Before that moment, we'd never heard him count past 3. He recongnizes so many things in books. He can spot a taxi cab or a Honda CR-V ("like Mommy's) with in 1/2 mile radius.

Pumpkin patch 08

Here's the Swank's annual trip to the Pumpkin patch. Makaila is quite used to me taking lots of pictures and sometimes she is even in the mood for posing. Cole on the other hand, thinks there are much more interesting things than looking at the camera while I'm trying to take a picture. So I'm trying to get the kids to smile while saying, "Cole! Cole! Look at Mommy". Snap picture and see Cole still wasn't looking or Makaila had her eyes clothes. Repeat entire procedure. I don't know if Cole will like the Arboretum as much as Makaila because he seemed to be getting tired of Mommy's quest for the perfect pumpkin picture.

But he did enjoy the petting zoo way more than Makaila did at his age. She is just now enjoying to go in and pet the animals. In years prior she always had that look of, "why do you think I would like this?". But Cole went right in and found the baby goats.

Yes, there is a football painted on his face. At least it was easier to wash off than sister's choice.

It's raining, it's pouring. . .

A few weeks ago, my kids were out playing int he rain.

burrito?

When my son says "Arboretum" it sounds just like when he says, "burrito".

strangely nice day

Some days God just gives you what you need. Yesterday I had to go for my annual exam. No woman ever enjoys that kind of thing. I didn't have to wait too terribly long (always a plus with a OB/GYN). The nurse started by complimenting my skin. This past month I have been dreading the nearing of my next birthday and thinking how this year I've really begun to just look older, so it was a great compliment. They talked me into being part of a study the doctor is doing so now I will get paid $40 for the visit I was doing anyways. The play date for my kids got cancelled so I had the opportunity to run an errand at the mall (since kids were with my wonderful husband). I got my ring cleaned, enjoyed a Starbucks and hit a few of the really great sales they were having. I got to go to stores that are NOT entertaining to my kids, infact they didn't even SELL kids' clothing there. And I even got to TRY ON clothes. I walked away with a few purchases (on sale). Including travel time I was only gone from my family for 3 1/2 hours, but it was just what I needed to have a great day. To quote my sister-in-law, "that's the best OB/GYN visit ever!".

lawn mower?

Today we were getting into the car and there was a man next to us getting into the back of his Jeep. For some reason Cole said, "lawn mower". We had just been watching a grass cutter mow the lawn at a park and I don't know if that was the reason. Or in hindsight, maybe there was a lawn mower somewhere near by that I didn't see, but I answer Cole, "that car is called a Jeep". He repeatedly said, "lawn mower". One more time I tried to answer how it may have looked like something else, but it is a car called a Jeep. Cole answered me with a calm but firm voice (as much as possible for a 2-year old), "No, it's not." I was both surprised and amused that he said that.

daddies

Our kids both know that daddies are good for fixing things. Cole was washing his hands the other day when the bar of soap split in half. He goes, "Daddy glue it". I wish everything in life was that simple.

Patience

I am currently being challenged to be more patient. Cole wants to climb up into the car by himself. He wants to buckle the top buckle on his car seat all by himself. These are things I need to let him do so we don't have crying as we leave the house.

I have to be patient to let Makaila pick up her backpack, lunch pack and folders she throws down on the floor when we come home. I feel if I do it, I will always be doing it. I have to be patient for her to tell me about her day when she is ready. She may have had a good day, but she is warn out and needs some time to relax at home first. But if I'm listening, I'll hear little bits and pieces throughout the afternoon and evening to give me a glimpse of her day at Kindergarten. I have to be patient as she is tying her shoes because that is a new skill for her and it needs perfecting.

Thankful

I am thankful. . .

I can stay at home and take care of my kids
For times laughing and tickeling my kids
For vanilla lattes
For quiet times in my house
For kids that play together
That my sister is recovering from surgery and I have 2 new nieces
That it is a beautiful day outside
That my allergies are reminding me I am usually healthy
For a son that is so much fun
For a daughter that is learning so much
For a husband who is a great daddy and provider
For good music
For a car that works
For my bed at night

Mommy time

Cole has been doing pretty well while Makaila is at school. We go to the gym, the park or run an errand. I recently realized he had never painted. So we got out the paints and gave it a try. He quite enjoyed it!

He is also learning new skills. Like jumping. As of recently he can now get off the ground.

He also talks a lot. He says all the normal 2-year old things. No, mine, me do it, my turn, etc. But he also says love you, please, thank you, sissy school, pray me, good job and other fun things. When he washes his hands he says, "scrubby, scrubby". Here is him saying, "scrubby, scrubby bubble".

Special Person

Makaila had a great day last week. She was the girl line leader all week and she got pulled out of the jar to be the "special person of the day". This was quite exciting. Everyone in the class drew a picture of themselves with her. She got to wear the crown all day.

She loves school. But she sure is tired when we come home. She doesn't want to go anywhere. Not even a playground. She just wants to go home and have a snack. She has been really good at playing with her brother when she gets home.

2's class

The kids have recently moved up to the next aged-class at church. Now that Cole has moved up to the big league, he gets to actually have teaching on Sunday. They get the story time and singing and all that. Last week he came home with his first verse. When we do Bible story in the evenings I've been making a big deal about doing "his verse" even thought it's just a shorter version of the same verse Makaila is learning.

Today he had his first picture at church. I took him to change his diaper while Chad picked up Makaila. I told him he needed to show Makaila and how I bet she'd say, "good job". He couldn't wait. He said, "good job? sissy?" He carried that thing around while we talked with friends and made sure to show some of them too. In the car while going home he was saying, "my picture".

Happy Superbowl day

Today we were walking around at the mall and we went by a dead cricket. Makaila goes to Chad, "Good think you don't work here or you'd have to get that bug." Who do you thing gets the bugs at our house?

Also today, she was talking to her Grammy on the phone. My mom mentioned Labor Day being a holiday. Then Makaila told her that the Superbowl is her favorite holiday because you get to eat in the living room and have "healthy snacks" and watch the superbowl and stuff.

Sleeping in

Yesterday was Saturday. I had high hopes of sleeping in. I thought all the conditions were right. My kids were extra tired. They had gotten to bed late 3 nights in a row. They were happy to be back in their beds after a night away from home. We had NOTHING going on that Saturday. I amazingly wasn't working. Conditions were perfect.

Then at 5:45 a.m., I hear music coming from the other room. As I'm realizing what it is, it is getting louder and louder. Chad had set the alarm on his phone when we stayed at our friend's house the night before, and it was still set. I'm worried it will wake up one of our overly tired kids. I quickly get out of bed and head down the hall to where Chad typically puts his phone. Not there. It's around the corner, by the computer, charging. So I hurry over there to stop it. Now I've got the adrelin pumping from the scare. Somehow I am so tired I fall back asleep.

Cole wakes up a little earlier than normal (which blows my mind) and is up BEFORE 7:00 a.m. So I bring him into bed with us, trying to let big sister sleep more. He isn't used to being in bed with us and he has no intention of actually sleeping. But it doesn't matter, because at 7:15 Makaila comes in our room.

I really thought I had a chance at sleeping in. For once.

Air conditioning troubles

Well, Friday we got the air conditioner fixed. After one sleepless night, one night at friends and a long afternoon and morning waiting around for it to be diagnosed and serviced. But now it works. And surprisingly, the part was under warranty and we did get away without getting into the $400 mark I thought was the low end. So God is good and we were provided for.

Friday morning was so difficult. Makaila had been up late Wednesday. Then we went to friends and her and Cole slept in the same room. They had beds, and that was great, but it was the kid's first time in a "big boy bed" and he isn't used to sleeping in the same room as someone. So Cole was being the trouble-maker and keeping Makaila awake. Then we got up early so we could come back home to dress and eat breakfast. Makaila had trouble listening and obeying that morning and received various forms of consequences various times. It would have been difficult, being the first week (full days) of Kindergarten. As we're driving to school she is just crying and saying, "I'm too tired to go to school". I felt so bad I almost caved and let her stay home. But I sucked it up for her sake and told her I didn't want her to miss any of the fun things they were going to do and how it would be her first day in art. And I waited to cry until we were driving away. But she survived. And she told me the day got better. Glad I didn't cave. Glad it's fixed. Glad we get a 3-day weekend to recover on sleep.

Coach Swank - the mean morning machine

We're having a little difficulty in the a.m. Managing that time and getting to school before 8 is difficult! My kids take too stinking long to eat. Or there is just some sort of doddling or playing. I feel like a coach all morning. "Okay team, 5 more minutes of breakfast, then on to the bedrooms. While you get dressed, I'll cover Cole. As soon as that's done, it's down the hall to the bathroom for teeth and hair. Everybody Chew, Chew, Chew, Go, Go, Go! Who's got the backpack? Come on guys, get it moving!" The last 2 days Makaila has bearly gotten in the classroom when that 8:00 bell rings.

97 degrees

I am seriously NOT happy right now. I felt hot in my house earlier today, but I figured that was just because I was sweeping and mopping. We came home around 9p.m. and our house is 4-5 degrees warmer than we usually keep it. This is following about 5 days ago hearing a strange rattle coming from the air conditioning vent both in the day and in the middle of the night. I am very bummed because I can't image walking away from an air conditioning service call at less than $400 and because the forcast for the next 2 days is 97 degrees. As Cole would say, "oh my, hot day". Plus in the too much information category, sleeping next to my husband is like sleeping with an electric blanket anyways. If you see me tomorrow, expect bags under the eyes.

Kindergarten

Okay. Here it is. You've been waiting for the first day of school blog. Surprisingly, there were not any tears shed or long good byes. For any of us. Makaila let me take my pictures. She was glad to be walked to class. But she was also glad her new little friend Abby was arriving at the same time and they were going to be able to sit next to each other at a table that morning. Chad and I grabbed some Starbucks in a weird state of awe now that we are parents of a Kindergartener. We already have an upcoming PTA meeting and forms to fill out.

Makaila's first response of her favorite thing was lunch. But she didn't have enough time to eat all of hers. My kids aren't usually the speediest kids when it comes to breakfast or lunch, so she will have to improve her pace at school. She also had fun in music, at recess and with the books they read.

She has learned to tie her shoes in the last 2 weeks in preporation for wearing tie shoes. Chad actually double knotted hers today, but she was proud to be able to re-tie her friend's shoes when they came untied.

She seems quite excited from her day when I picked her up. Her and Cole enjoyed the ice cream cone treat I got them along with a necterine and pretzels. They played and played this afternoon so that was fun. Tonight around 7 we saw a little of the signs of a long day. One day down, 179 more to go!

Lightning

This morning Cole and I were playing in his room waiting for Makaila to wake up. He wanted to go play with his new Lightnight McQueen shake-n-go car. If you don't have a little boy who owns these type of cars I'll explain in two words. Really. Loud. I told him he could go get it after his sister woke up. Makaila came in the room a little while later. I of course had forgotten about the car. He runs out of the room at top speed. He was saying something I didn't understand. I asked Makaila if she could understand and she told me he said, "car".

When Lightning McQueen says, "I am speed." Cole likes to respond with, "my speed."

Diesel

The kids today were being great playmates one minute, running around the house making noise like a "rocketship". Then 15 minutes later they got into it about who got to play with the gold train named Diesel. The funniest part about it was Makaila relaying the story to me. She came in telling me she had it and then put it down so Cole took it. When she tried to get it back they ended up "rolling around on the floor trying to get it from each other". She repeated this to me 2 or 3 times as we tried to figure out what to do and she kept mentioning the part about "rolling around on the floor trying to get it from each other".

umbeba

Today it was raining pretty hard when we woke up. Cole and I looked out the window to watch the rain and he immediately said, "umbeba". Umbrella, of course. Later he found my umbrella on the floor and he made sure we took it with us when we went out.

We had a little frustration when he wanted to brush his teeth but I didn't understand when he said, "brush teeth." Today he told us his chicken nuggets were "hotsie, totsie". He also immitated big sister today when she called something "awesome".

Oh no

On Sundays I like to play a praise mix on my iPOD while we're eating breakfast and getting ready around the house. On of Makaila and my favorite songs goes "Oh no, you never let go" over and over throughout the song. For the first time this week Cole joined in on the singing. Of course he doesn't get all the words in. His version is, "Oh no. Let go." Which doesn't quite have the same meaning of course, but it is cute. Then later today while I was putting his pajamas on and we were singing it again. That night I think I heard him trying to sing it while he was in his bed, not yet asleep.

Cole's birthday

My son is 2. Time sure flies. I think he can be set for years. He got a train table and trains, new basketball hoop, a book, t-shirt with a truck on it, pop up ball, magnadoodle, play dough. He hasn't even opened his shake and go car or t-ball set. This kid is hooked up. Chad says he's only getting clothes for Christmas!

Left-overs

Chad is not a fan of left-overs. His mother disliked this characteristic of his as he grew up. His father couldn't fathom someone NOT liking left-overs. Now, many years down the road he has loosed his dislike. He has been won over by the sheer convience of left over pasta, chicken, baked beans and a few other things. But over all he still has many things he will eat the first time and avoid as a left-over (Although since we've had kids he will save the tiniest amount of something, assuming the kids will want it when it might as well head right to the trash).

We were just discussing today how Makaila is like him in this trait. Certain foods like maccaroni and cheese or Dora soup she will ask me, "is it fresh?". Chad says how it frustrated his parents and he will be getting his payback through Makaila.

Our Sunday nights are low-key cooking. If there are left-overs, this is the time they ALL come out. We had a left over hot dog from BBQ-ing 2 nights ago. Makaila LOVES hot dogs right now. She frequently requests them and when she gets them she can eat more than one. She was happy to get one tonight for dinner. Until she tasted it. She asked if this had been heated before. Chad tells her yes, it was from our BBQ. We know she is questioning the "freshness". Then she goes, "it just tastes different when it has been hotted two times". She followed that up with complaining about the ravioli left over from last night (which last night she had 3 servings of). Like father, like daughter.

Business

Life has sure seemed busy this summer. We've taken our last vacation and I'm still trying to recover. I seriously don't know how both parents can work full time with kids. I'm working regular part-time hours right now and I fell don't feel totally back in the grove here at home after a week away.

I can't believe that it is already August. What does that mean? In 1 1/2 weeks Cole will turn 2. I think I'm ready for this one. He's talking more and more each day. He said "mustache" the other day. He repeats things I read to him out of a book. He is beginning to negotiate. I told him I was going to work and he say, "stay home". He was crying after Chad put him to bed and when he went in and told him it was bed time Cole says, "Nooo. No bed time."

In about 2 1/2 weeks Makaila will be starting Kindergarten. That will definitely make for big changes in this house. Probably in more ways than we can imagine. Just getting there by 8 a.m. 5 days a week will be difficult. And Cole will sure miss his playmate. I think there will be a lot of excitement around here about all the changes.

Success

Oh yeah. Tonight Cole pooped and peed in his little potty. I know that you are thinking that is totally gross that I even mention it, but this is the first time. He's been sitting on it occassionally before baths. He will often tell us he needs to go and then poop or make me change a wet diaper, but this is the first time anything has happened on the chair. And the best part is that my daughter SAVED it in his little potty for me to see since I wasn't home when it happed. But you're in luck. I didn't take any pictures.

Cole's words2

Cole expands his vocabulary daily. You'll say something and he'll repeat a part of what you said. He understands so much too. Today we were talking about putting your bowl on top of the napkin so the fan doesn't blow it away. And he wanted to put his bowl over his napkin too and pointed right up at the fan.

Sometimes he just cracks me up. We were going swimming and I told him he needed to get his swimsuit on. He looked at me seriously and said, "Chuck E. Cheese?" The kids got to go there in June and he keeps bringing it up out of the blue. He will also randomly ask for candy or tic tacs still too.

He asks me, "Daddy home?" when he wakes up in the morning. If Chad is at work I'll say no and then he'll ask, "Sissy home?"

We will also walk outside to go somewhere and he will say, "hot day". It's so cute. I'm just amazed and the changing during this age.

Train adventure

The kids and I had an fun trip with some friends. We took the local public rapid transit train. It was great. The kids loved riding on a train and our friend brought dum-dums for all the kids to enjoy on the ride. We went to a new park. Had a short visit to a small train museum and there they saw this 97-year old train (that they are sitting by in the picture). We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then rode the train home. I wouldn't have attempted this adventure by myself, but with a friend who knew the way it was a great day!

It happened to me last night. . .

I must say I had a gross and disturbing incident occur last night. I was peacefully working away at this very spot I now sit, at my computer, when my peace was interrupted. I heard this faint noise coming from above me, but I didn't even look up. Next thing I know was a light object fell down to my keyboard. Yes, the very same keyboard I was typing on. "What was it?" you ask yourself. And for a split second I asked myself the same question. But as it began to move I realized. I was an incredibly large cockroach. Oh yes, it was. It was approximately 4"x2". (And I'm not making that up either. My husband used the words "good sized" after he saw it.) So what did I do. Scream. Push in the key board. Fall back to the floor behind me and ram my shoulder into our newly purchased coffee table.

Within a few minutes of me continuing to freak out, Chad found the flashlight and started to look for it. He pulled out the computer tower and saw it, but it was quicker than his shoe. He lost it somewhere between the bookshelf, computer armoire and wall. I made Chad promise to look again before going to bed and I went to be NOT happy it had not been found. And completely grossed out. I read my current book for a few minutes and heard more slapping of his shoe. I really wanted it to be dead.

I did NOT sleep more than a few hours last night. I kept imagining something falling on me. If I did fall asleep I had bad dreams about bugs and cockroaches. Not a good night.

The good news is the bug was killed. I even looked in the trash to prove it to myself. And so far a bruise hasn't formed on my shoulder. But that may still be coming. I am assuming the roach made it's way through the air conditioning vent close to the computer armoire.

The moral of this story is: if you hear a small noise above your head like a light object falling, make sure you look up.

Teddy Bear Picnic

So here are my kids enjoying the Teddy Bear picnic. This is a community event and our second year in attendance. These are my kids with the teddy bears they chose to bring doing the "Teddy Bear March". And of course both the teddy bears won awards for "greenest bear" and for "huskiest bear". Gotta love the preschool activities!

Daddy time

Here are the kids showing off their Saturday project with Chad. This time they went to Lowe's. They ran out of aprons, but got a patch and these cool goggles. They did a Home Depot one a month ago and got their apron and pin. Can I just you how GREAT these projects are? We have a sail boat that goes into the bath and now some new dune buggy cars. Chad was proud that Cole knew to put the tire stickers on the wheels. I just had to take a picture because I was lovin' the goggles.

Ducky towel

So, this is my son NOT wanting to have his picture taken. Some days you just suddenly realize how fast your kids are growing up. This was one of those days. This is Cole after a bath. Chad had pulled out the too small ducky towel. I was remembering how my friend, Jeran, made this towel when Makalia was born. This towel is adorable and way better than the store bought kind. I have tons of pictures of Makaila wearing this towel when she was a baby.

Now here's Cole. He can walk. He can say "burrito" after I call him my baby burrito wrapped in a towel. And he's way too big for the ducky towel. But this night I thought to myself, "I don't have any pictures of Cole in the ducky towel". And he's so cute. And since he's growing out of it I needed to hurry and get my camera.

Of course, this happened to be a night when he did NOT want to have his picture taken. So, that is why you see here 3 pictures of my cute son telling me not to take his picture. You can even see the word "No" on his mouth in one of them.

Television

Is it sad that our television dictates which shows we get into. No, seriously. Make sure that you're sitting down before you read this next part. See, we don't have cable. Nope. Nothing. No digital viewing. No Tivo. No digital recording device. Nothing high DEF in this house. No dish (although there is one on our roof. Not hooked up). No surround sound (although it's wired, just not in use). No cable box. How do we do it? Rabbit ears, baby. Pure old school. No tin foil involved, although one side of the rabbit ears broke of when my dad shut the door on it. . . but that is just one of the hazards of having my dad come to visit (ask anyone). I think we were the last ones on the block to get a DVD player too for that matter.

So how does our TV dictate our viewing? When we lived in CA, we had NBC crystal clear. We had other stuff at various levels of clarity depending on the night. So, we really got into Law and Order. The original. SVU. Not Criminal Intent because we think that main guy is way too know-it-all and his female partner is just worthless to the team. I really don't remember what else we watched, but it was for the most part NBC. Maybe ER for a while. Now we're in a different time zone with different stations coming in. Of course we get all the upper stuff great, PBS, a few spanish channels, Ion, the WB, etc. That's good for late night reruns of Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, spanish soccer games, you know what I mean. But NBC is probably our worst channel. Unusally it comes in black and white with a little bit of snow. Fox comes in color, but not real clear regardless of antennae placement. But CBS and ABC are good to go. That means we're all over all the CSI's. CSI original. CSI miami (we like to analyze why Horatio rarely looks directly at people and always has his head tilted). CSI New York (mediocre). Grays Anatomy (until everyone everyone was sleeping with everyone). Numbers. Criminal Intent. The Unit. We even got into Lost this past year. But we won't give o House or 24 or anything like a chance that because Fox is too difficult to watch for too long. We even will look at the TV guide and instantly rule out anything on Fox or NBC.

It hasn't been too bad since NBC has kind of gone down hill on the shows we want anyways. They haven't had as much sports Chad wants to watch either. Sorry, we're not NASCAR fans. BUT I was very sad to realize that the summer Olympics are going to be on NBC. Don't know what we're going to do about that one. And don't even bring up 2009 and the HDTV business.

Winnie

When children learn to talk they don't always get the names right at first. Cole loves Tic Tacs. But he either calls them Tic Tac Drawer (he says this as pointing at my dresser drawer where they are stored) or Tic Tac Toe (it sounds like it to us, but I don't think he'd know to say that). While my family was out he found out Grandma Maxine had his favorite orange flavored Tic Tacs in her purse. She had to change where she stored her purse so it was out of his reach. He would be walking by and just see her purse and start asking for Tic Tacs.

He recently learned the character Winnie the Pooh. Now at Cole's age he is fascinated when others go to the bathroom. He will follow you in there and ask, "pee-pee, poo-poo?" to ask you if you are going to the bathroom. He does know there is a difference because sometimes he will tell me "pee-pee, poo-poo" when he wants his diaper changed. If there doesn't seem to be an odor sometimes I'll ask him if he went poo-poo and he'll say, "wet". So he knows. But whenever he sees Winnie the Pooh, he just remembers the Pooh part and says, "pee-pee, poo-poo". Yes, you heard me right. My son calls good old Winnie the Pooh, "pee-pee, poo-poo". I tried to read him a Tigger book tonight and everytime Winnie appeared on a page Cole pointed and said "pee-pee, poo-poo". My appologies to the creator.

Movies

Took the kids to a free summer kids' movie today. It was Charlotte's Web. Well, it was after we got into the correct theater! We followed a bunch of kids into a theater and sat down to wait for the show. They played this cartoon in place of a preview and I was worried about it scaring my kids. It didn't have a bad message, but it had a monster in the main story line. Definitely aimed at older kids and way too LOUD. I won't be surprised if we have a bad dream or trouble going to sleep tonight because of it. Then the movie was able to play and they said, "Flushed Away". I couldn't believe it. I had researched the movie and it was supposed to be Charlotte's Web. I'd even gotten a friend to come and bring her 2 girls. I was very disappointed. Until we found out we were just in the wrong theater. At these free kids' movies they often play both a PG and a G movie. Quickly we gathered up our popcorn that we had smuggled in and off we went to theater 8. Much better. Makaila enjoyed the entire thing. Cole did quite well. For a 22-month old boy. Next time I'll need to bring him a bigger bag of popcorn, but he was liking watching all the animals.

Normal

Life is back to normal now that all the visitors have left. We had the cousins, the grandparents and great grandma and then even Chad's cousin was here in town for a conference. Combine that with swimming lessons, VBS and a trip to San Antonio and you have our summer so far. So, life is back to normal. One day of "normal" and I was irritated my husband was 20 minutes late to get home. Of course I think I was more irritated at almost burning the bread beyond being edible because I took 5 minutes to play with the kids while cooking dinner and my daughter's relentless requests to come play when things were cooking. No wonder so many people invest good amounts of money on any kind of camp and/or activity to keep their kids busy. It's plain hard work.

So this week we're off to the gym, the local pool, the library, the free kids movie, and the backyard new plastic pool we bought today from Toys R Us (anything to try to keep cool). And the week will be capped off with the local 4th of July parade to which my daughter is counting down the days. She's vividly remembers the candy that was thrown last year and has told us she will teach Cole how to get the candy from the street when they throw it. I just remember how it was a waste I had showered before attending the parade and assume our TX will be about the same this year. But am looking foward to going to this small community parade with our kids because it just feels like the kind of thing you should be doing on the 4th of July.

Buddy

My son is just saying new words all the time. He has been signing things like "all done", "please" and "thank you" and it is so cute to hear his immature voice now saying "thank you". He also has increased the frequency of his saying "no". One time he was getting laughs out of us when we asked him if he was silly and he kept saying, "nooooo" while shaking his head. Since then sometimes he likes to answer questions that way just to get a laugh.

After recent visits of my parents and the cousins I was talking to Cole about his buddy. He and Grandpa T get along pretty well (which is good because when Makaila was little she was a little intimidated of his low voice) and he and his cousin Ryan were also able to play more. I asked Cole if Grandpa was his buddy. Then I asked if Ryan was his budy. He answered these questions with "Mommy buddy." That's one of those moments that makes you proud to be a mom.

San Antonio

Chad had a conference in San Antonio. We went with him to check out the river walk and the Alamo. The kids really had fun staying in a hotel. They enjoyed the pool and the waffles at the free breakfast in the shape of Texas. We'll see how many things we can find shaped like the state while we live here.

Swimming lessons

Makaila took swim lessons these past 2 weeks. She really improved this sesson her willingness to get her face wet and to jump off the wall with someone to catch her.

Missing cousins

The cousins went home today and both my kids are sad about it. Makaila and Cole were riding in the car with Chad and she was being very quiet. She told Chad she didn't want things to go back to the way they were. Cole had a nice long nap (being tired from the cousins) and when he woke up he was asking for "Ryan". Of course he says it without an R. So it is "y-an". We looked at the pictures we took and Cole even said "Kate" for the first time ("Kit" or something like that) when he looked at her picture.