KerryAndGabe.com

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping we are making the right choices when refinancing the mortgage (and that everything goes smoothly with the process).

Something happening around the house: We now have smudges on our walls in places where we tried to clean up the marker drawings the kids left for us.

Something I’m reading: I finished SuperFreakonomics for this month’s book club. I am back to reading A Storm of Swords.

Something Gabe is reading: I swear, he really is making progress on A Dance with Dragons (77% now). These GRRM books are really long.

Something I’m watching: Gabe is watching Falling Skies (I’m just not paying much attention to it). The show doesn’t really interest me.

Something I’m playing: We played 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. We also played a new game, Luna, that we would like to play again. We played 7 Wonders again last night. Maddie and Cullen played a Winnie the Pooh game that friends brought over for them, and Maddie played Go Away Monster last night.

Something tasty: The other day, Gabe decided to make cheesecake on a whim. From scratch. I’m impressed! It is very yummy!!!

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): I think that Maddie might have gone an entire week without making bracelets or necklaces. We didn’t see any come home. She must be getting more interested in other lessons around the classroom. She still brings home coloring pages daily with her name written all over them in varying sizes and colors. Her name writing is getting pretty good. She’s now officially 3 and a half. Where is the time going? She had her last t-ball lesson yesterday, and I’m a little relieved. The t-ball was fine, but the instructor bugged me at times. I don’t think we’re going to be signing up for more of her classes (this is the second time we’ve been in a class of hers). I think she might be losing her marbles.

Something Cullen is doing (18 months old): Cullen is picking up on more phrases that he hears often. Lately, he’s been saying “ha ha a boo-boo” (Maddie’s version of the “Nah nah na boo boo” taunt). He also says things like, “Here I am,” “Mommy’s here,” and “right here” when locating people and things. He brings books and says, “read it.” He identifies things as “Mommy’s shoes” or “Maddie’s blanket.” I love his hugs and “kisses.” Just like Maddie, he no longer gives kisses. When you ask for a kiss, he offers his cheek. I try to get him to do the kissing by offering my cheek, but then he just pushes his cheek next to mine. Either way, it’s adorable. Cullen had a couple of cranky days this week and a little bit of a cold. He is still sleeping through the night more often than he is not. I think he only had one or two nights this week where Gabe went upstairs in the middle of the night to pop in the paci. We did manage to wean him from the paci in the car this week. He’s been paci free for several weeks at daycare for naps. I tried one night to put him to bed without the paci, but that was a miserable failure. I’ve decided that I don’t have a problem with him using the paci in the crib a while longer. Perhaps we’ll wait until after our big trip in December. After all, he has just started sleeping more consistently. We don’t want to mess with that pattern!

Something I am struggling with: I’m not looking forward to my dental appointment on Tuesday where I will be getting the permanent crown. I’m not sure what the dentist is going to do, but I think he’s not going to affix the crown permanently since I’m still having issues with that tooth. I may need a root canal.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’ve been thinking about my yearly photobooks. I’m going to see if I can limit myself to just one book a year. I think that’s going to be difficult for me. I’ll still make extra books for big vacations. Last year I had 3 12×12 books almost 100 pages each. The two previous year, I had 2 12×12 books each. I’m going to have to brainstorm ways to organize the books since the chronological approach won’t work if I want to limit the number of pages.

Something I learned: Making cheesecake must be a fairly easy thing to do (no offense to my husband). It’s always been a mystery dessert to me. I’ve never attempted to make it.

Something I’m looking forward to: Book club outing to see The Help, dinner and a movie with a friend, and games night.

Something captured: Summer!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about the crazy storms and tornadoes that came through our area yesterday. Many of our friends were directly affected with major damage to their houses. Others missed complete destruction by just a few houses. One of the tornadoes was pretty close to our house, but it missed our neighborhood, thankfully. We are glad that our friends remained safe. We were a little scared during the storm, and I hung out with the kids in our closet under the stairs for a little while. They thought it was great fun to play in the closet!

Something happening around the house: We had last minute plans to go to the town Easter Egg hunt and met one of Maddie’s buddies there. They came over for a play date and dinner afterwards. Good times!

Something I’m reading: I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and started one of the Sookie Stackhouse books (Definitely Dead). The last time I’ve read any of that series was 2005, so it’s going to take me a little bit to get reacquainted. It’s pretty mindless reading, which is what I need right now. Plus, it’s on my list of books that I need to read from our bookshelves.

Something I’m watching: We’re getting ready to watch Amazing Race and Game of Thrones. I hope Game of Thrones is good!!! I’m glad that I’ve finished the first book, but it will probably be a while before I can get around to reading the rest of the series. I was making progress but then I needed to work on book club books.

Something tasty: Carnitas!!!

Something Maddie is doing (37 months old): She participated in another Easter egg hunt, as I mentioned. She’s doing pretty well with staying at the dinner table and has been keeping all 3 of her cards most nights. She’s enjoying the warmer weather and loves playing outside. She’s getting a little better at her balance bike. She likes coloring with chalk. She never stops talking!

Something Cullen is doing (14 months old): I took Cullen to get his ears checked this week, just to be sure. Of course, nothing was wrong with his ears. I am guessing he’s working on more teeth. I think he must be the world’s worst teether. Each tooth takes like a month to come in, and he has many cranky moments along the way. He was putting his hands in his mouth a lot this week and had quite a bit of drool. He also had a huge appetite this week. He must be going through a growth spurt! He added a few more words to his list this week. He said “shoe,” “pasta,” “back” (as in, “Daddy/Mommy needs to come back!” after we leave the room.), and “diaper.” He’s also saying, “thank you” spontaneously sometimes. He’s been bringing me books, and then he says, “book!” and climbs into my lap to hear a story. It’s adorable. He seems to prefer the books with real pages instead of board books, but I prefer to read him the board books. It’s much better than worrying about him ripping the pages! He seems particularly interested in Corduroy and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. He still likes the Boats book and That’s Not My Train… (to which he says, “choo choo”). I’ve also been reading one of Maddie’s favorites to him, Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!.

Something I am struggling with: Something is stuck in my foot or something. It hurts to walk.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I took a vacation day on Monday to work on photobooks. While the kids were in school, I completed over 30 pages! I ended up finishing Volume 2 this week and started on Volume 3. I would have made more progress on Volume 3, but we were without internet for about 24 hours. I am working on my thank you notes for our MS donations. I’m way behind on those!

Something I learned: Gabe was looking at our place mats this morning (which are all colorful and somewhat educational). He had the map of the world, and he asked, “since when do we have a Southern Ocean?” Apparently, since 2000. Hmm, that happened even before the whole “Pluto isn’t a planet anymore” thing. (Fwiw, we have a solar system place mat that does not list Pluto as a planet – these place mats are educational and up-to-date with the latest teachings).

Something I’m looking forward to: Dinner and a movie with a friend, another Easter egg hunt for Maddie, a visit from Gabe’s mom, and a visit from THE EASTER BUNNY – WOO!

Something random: Why is it that I have so much trouble with this category? I am constantly saying random things.

Something captured: Cullen and Maddie picking flowers and enjoying the spring weather.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Playing games with friends!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about when our next games night will be…

Something happening around the house: We had about 40 people at our house yesterday for games “night!” I am pretty sure that’s a record attendance for us! Wow! Gabe didn’t expect for Kentucky to be in the Final Four, so he lost some gaming time while he was watching the game by himself in the bedroom (it was too stressful to watch with people!).

Something I’m reading: I decided not to read A Clash of Kings at the moment and started The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I didn’t give myself much time to read this week as I was focusing on my photobooks. I finished my first volume for 2010. I am pretty sure I will need 2 more volumes. I maxed out the first 12×12 volume at 101 pages.

Something I’m watching: Baseball’s opening day was this week, so too much baseball was on our TV. Gabe’s sad that he got the internet baseball package instead of getting the better DirecTV package.

Something I’m playing: I actually got to play some games yesterday. Yay! I played Expedition, Klunker, two games of Mosaix, Taboo, Wordigo, and half a game of Set. I feel like I’m forgetting something else that I played… I haven’t played Set in a few years, so I was a little rusty. I downloaded the iPhone app this morning, so maybe I can get some practice before my next match.

Something tasty: I’m hoping that the beef stew that we have cooking in the crockpot will be tasty. It smells good!

Something Maddie is doing (37 months old): Earlier today, Cullen and Maddie were eating by themselves at the table. Cullen got to the point in the meal where he starts throwing food on the floor. Maddie gently and firmly said to him, “Cullen, that is not OK. Don’t throw food on the floor. Look me in the eye, Cullen. It is not OK to do that. You need to do the right thing.” Ha! I guess she is actually listening sometimes. I think she’s still having a rough time with her transition at preschool. This week we had a bit of a breakthrough with dinner. She is so wiggly, and we have to tell her over and over to sit still and to stay in her seat. Early this week, she was driving me crazy with all the times I had to tell her to get back into her chair. She has started picking up Cullen’s straw cup when he throws it (and he’ll do that over and over). It’s sweet the first few times, but then Maddie doesn’t focus on her dinner. So, I gave her a couple of playing cards and told her that every time she gets up from the chair, she has to give me a card. She can watch Mickey Mouse before bedtime only if she has a card left at the end of the meal. When she asks to be excused from the table, she has to scrape her plate into the trash (she was getting mad when we threw her food away after she said she was done). It worked like a charm!! She now gets 3 cards at the beginning of dinner, and if she has one card left at the end, she gets to watch Mickey Mouse before bed. If she has all 3 cards (and she eats a good dinner), then she gets a special treat like a couple of jelly beans or mini marshmallows. The last two times we have done this, she had all 3 cards left at the end of the meal. This is a huge breakthrough for us! I hope it lasts.

Something Cullen is doing (14 months old): Cullen is practically running now. We are amused by how he just decided last Sunday that walking was the thing to do, and now he barely crawls at all. It’s so cute to see him toddling around! He added some more words this week. Some of his new words this week were water, more, star, hat, box, and bubbles. I’ve also forgotten to mention that he points and says, “that” often. This morning, he pointed to Annabelle and said, “Annaboo” which was about the cutest thing ever. He said it multiple times throughout the day. It was adorable. He’s been crankier than usual off and on this past week. It may be due to the cold he has had or teething (his top two teeth are through the gums) or another ear infection. He had a few rough nights this week, too. He’s loving on stuffed animals and the dolls more. He will also pass them to us and say, “awwww,” urging us to hug the doll or stuffed animal and say, “awwwwwww.” This evening, I was blowing raspberries on his chubby baby cheeks, and he was giggling and loving it. He kept turning his cheek to me so that I could do it again. Then he gave me a series of wet, slobbery kisses all over my face. Extreme cuteness is sometimes messy.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: The Walk MS event is this week. I contacted another local company this week in the hopes that they do fundraising events. I haven’t heard back from them yet. More on that later, if it pans out… We are still quite a ways away from our $8,000 goal. I hope that we will get some last minute donations this week.

Something I learned: I learned a couple new games.

Something I’m looking forward to: Walk MS!

Something captured: Maddie made a necklace at school and put it on Cullen after school.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Cullen’s walking and talking has taken off lately. We have a few more (bad quality) video clips of Cullen-Man walking. Click on the post to see the embedded video.

Something that makes me happy: Playing on the floor and giggling with Cullen this evening.

Something I’m thinking: My grandpa is 95 years old today! He just got home from the hospital a couple days ago and is back at home. I was able to talk to him for a few minutes to wish him a happy birthday.

Something happening around the house: We’re getting DirecTV and AT&T phone tomorrow. The only thing we’re keeping with Time Warner Cable is internet services.

Something I’m reading: I finished (and loved) Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. I look forward to reading her newest book, coming out on Tuesday. I might have to wait, though, because I finally started reading A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin again. I was partly through it when Maddie was born, and I haven’t found the motivation to return to it until now. It took me a little bit to get started, but I’m enjoying it again after a few chapters.

Something I’m watching: I’m watching The Amazing Race as I’m writing this. Yay!

Something tasty: I managed to snag some “hiding eggs” from the grocery store – I have a small addiction to those things. Gabe hates them. When he told Maddie that he didn’t like that candy, Maddie said, “It’s OK if you don’t like that candy, Daddy. You can find a different candy that you like.”

Something Maddie is doing (37 months old): Maddie started Children’s House this week. I think that she is doing great, but she’s a little overwhelmed. It will probably take her a little while to be comfortable. It’s a difficult transition for me, too, as there are lots of kids in the class, the playground is huge with scary (to me) equipment, and the information doesn’t flow as freely as it does at daycare. Part of that was due to me being in class all week. Of course, Maddie is better able to tell me what is going on these days. She’s not always forthcoming with the details. She had lessons on wet and dry pouring, sponge work, some kind of bead column thingies, necklace threading, and a few other things. Friday was her first Children’s House event when she was allowed to wear pajamas to school and bring a special stuffed animal for nap time. She has been a bit fussier and needier this week and even had a couple potty accidents for the first time in months. I’m sure that this is no coincidence with her big transition.

Something Cullen is doing (13 months old): His walking has really increased this week! He has taken 15-20 slow, tiny, steady steps at a time. He walked across the entire deck one evening and was walking down the driveway this weekend. Both kids have been playing with the water table a lot. Cullen wants to drink the yucky water from the play table. Ew! And one day, he had a snack cup full of Crispix and dunked it into the water. Yuck! Cullen has been saying more words lately. He says “yeah” and “no” and shakes his head appropriately. He says “doll,” “ball,” “book,” and “dog.” He will point to the TV when he sees balls and say “ball!” (Daddy has been watching lots of basketball). He also points to the TV when he sees just about any animal and says, “dog!” He says “Daddy!” when he sees Daddy either in person or in photos. He likes to blow raspberries. He likes to play the shrieking game that I remember Maddie used to play, too. Tonight, he was hugging his doll and Maddie’s Henry and saying “awww,” mimicking my behavior. He chucks his food across the room when he’s finished eating as well as his straw cup. He’s moving up to the 1-year old classroom, starting tomorrow.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: It’s slow going on the fundraising this year. I’m not sure we’ll make our $8,000 goal, but we’re not doing too badly either.

Something I learned: I learned all kinds of things about iOS programming. I am thinking about writing some iPhone/iPad apps in my “spare time” (hahahahaha…spare time! good one!). I had a week long class at work, and it was great!

Something I’m looking forward to: Dinner with friends, shopping for the kiddos, and some appointments for the kiddos.

Something captured: Maddie was excited to wear her jammies to school on Friday (and maybe even more excited to run around in the yard before we left)!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Pajama days!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about all the things on my personal “to do” list including address some thank you notes from Christmas (yes, I’m slow, but I did manage to write them!), write some thank you notes for Cullen’s birthday, write/send Maddie’s birthday party invites, write Cullen’s 1-year letter, and countless tasks with photos and video.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get some more blog posts written soon. I was really on a roll with writing up posts and scheduling them several days in advance. Unfortunately, I’ve run out of prescheduled posts.

Something happening around the house: We hosted Cullen’s 1st birthday party yesterday. We had a great time celebrating Little Man’s birthday!

Something I’m reading: I’m about 70% through The Girl Who Played with Fire (thanks to the kindle for letting me know the percentage). I’m more into the book now, but I swear both books have taken forever to get interesting. I hear that I’m going to have to read the next one since this one ends in a cliffhanger or something…so I guess I’ll read it, too. I’m loving the kindle!!! I’m probably going to read Mockingjay (in printed book form, sadly) next since our book club plans to discuss the series at our February meeting. We’re also supposed to read Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I wish it was on kindle! I did manage to borrow a copy from a friend, but I haven’t gotten the motivation to start it yet.

Something I’m watching: We’ve been watching more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse this week. Maddie has been more interactive with the show. She always says, “Oh, Toooooooodles….” when it’s time to use a mousekatool. She answers some of their questions, too. It’s pretty cute! And, of course we always do the hot dog dance at the end!

Something I’m playing: We played Euchre with my parents. We also found a renewed interest in Angry Birds on our iPhones. I played a little on my mom’s iPad, too. We got my dad hooked on it!

Something tasty: I think I ate too much cake and buttercream frosting this week.

Something Maddie is doing (35 months old): We had orientation for her preschool this week. We are excited (and a little nervous) about this upcoming change. We assume that she will be moving up to the preschool shortly after her birthday next month. She keeps talking about how she’s going to go to Children’s House when she’s 3. I’m not sure that she quite understands what all that means, but she does know that some of her friends have moved up to Children’s House. It’s a big deal in the 2-year old room. She has also been talking about who she wants to invite to her party. She wants to invite all the girls and 3 boys. She’s very specific about this. And, she wants a cake with purple icing. I guess I’m going to have to make her a special side cake as I’m planning to make the Winnie the Pooh cake for her to match the theme.

Something Cullen is doing (12 months old): He’s now a big ONE YEAR OLD! I can’t believe it. We had a party on Saturday with a few of his classroom buddies and family and friends. I think that Cullen had a good time. Cullen is a big eater, and I thought for sure that he would dig into his smash cake and make a huge mess. He barely got his fingers dirty. He didn’t get any cake on his face. We opened up the cake for him after a little bit, and he ate some of it. He still didn’t make a big mess. Oh, well! Cullen has been eating huge meals this week. He still loves chicken the best. Cullen often eats more chicken than his sister. There isn’t much that he won’t eat, and he gets excited when you bring food to his tray almost regardless of what it is. He especially gets excited for the coconut yogurt and applesauce. He didn’t take any more steps this week, but is cruising like crazy and walking with the walker wagon. His new trick is to climb into the walker wagon where he will sit waiting for someone to push him (and sometimes stand). Today, he climbed in and out of the wagon probably 30 times. He’s doing more climbing at school and apparently is peering down into the other babies’ cribs at naptime and tries to wake them. He has climbed the bookshelves and the lunch table. If the teachers don’t get him out of his chair when he wants out, he takes matters into his own hands and climbs onto the table. These are sure signs that he’s ready to move up to the toddler room! I’m a little nervous about him moving up before he can walk, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. He will probably be motivated to walk once he sees all the other kids doing it.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I attended my first cake class which gave me just enough information to do Cullen’s birthday cake. My second cake class is tomorrow.

Something I learned: This whole cake decorating thing is a bit of an investment. It’s also quite tedious!!! I’m still planning to do a cake for Maddie’s birthday, but I now know I better take a vacation day to prepare that one, too. I’m very glad I decided to take Friday off to work on Cullen’s cake. Preschool orientation took up most of the morning, but the rest of the day was spent baking and icing.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to my second cake decorating class and to book club! I just realized today that book club is this week.

Something random: One of the ladies in the cake class was also in our birthing class over 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Maddie.

Something captured: We had to put his hat on his head a dozen times to get this photo. Each time he kept it on his head for about 2 seconds.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Being caught up on the uploading and sorting part of photo organization. I have a lot of work to do when it comes to doing something with those photos, but sorting/uploading is a huge step.

Something I’m thinking: We have so many fun things to do this time of year, but it is quite busy!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get some good photos of the kiddos in their costumes tonight.

Something happening around the house: We got rid of our big, tall bushes in front of our house. Yay!!!! I have never liked them much, and they tended to harbor spiders who build webs across our entryway. I’m so happy to have them GONE!

Something I’m reading: I finished Enchanted, Inc. and started on our next book club selection, The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I enjoyed Enchanted, Inc. and hope to read more of that series eventually. I’m thinking about getting back to the library habit before too long. Gabe has been reading a lot, too. He’s going to be finished with The Hunger Games series soon!

Something I’m watching: We finished Shutter Island after my last somethings post. Eh. By the time we got to the “big reveal,” we had already figured out the gist of it. I wonder if it would have felt different to watch it all in one night or to watch in the theater. Gabe said he saw some reviews of it that suggested that we weren’t the only ones to feel underwhelmed by the end.

Something I’m playing: We played Euchre with our neighbors on Friday night. It was fun to play some cards!

Something tasty: I had pizza last night. So far so good with Cullen today, so we’ll see!!

Something Maddie is doing (32 months old): We have been introducing more movies to her lately. This week, she watched Cars and Monsters, Inc for the first time. Well, she watched part of the movies, anyway. She usually loses interest within the first 15 minutes of anything. Her eyes were as big as saucers when we turned on cars. After watching for a couple of minutes, she said, “The cars are talking!” and then matter-of-factly, “Some cars talk. Some cars don’t talk.” We tried to get her to play a little Mariokart, but she’s still not quite getting the hang of that!!!

Something Cullen is doing (40 weeks old): He continues to scream the majority of the night. He had his 9 month check up this week, and they didn’t find anything obvious wrong with him. I don’t know if it is teething since he doesn’t seem to be better when he has Tylenol. I do think he’s probably doing some more teething. He still only has half a tooth, and I think he’s getting the second tooth on the bottom. At his check up, he weighed 18 pounds, 12 ounces which is about 20th percentile, according to the CDC. He’s 29 1/4″ long which is about 80th percentile. He’s long and lean! The student shadowing our pediatrician seemed to be concerned about Cullen’s growth chart, but I am not at all concerned. This is the pattern that Maddie followed as well. I refuse to get stressed about weight again unless the doctors really are concerned. I don’t think that they are, but they did recommend focusing on foods higher in fat. He continues to hate his antibiotic. It’s a major struggle to get him to take it every day. We decided to start giving it to him in the morning as we weren’t sure if it was upsetting his tummy at night. We are also giving him probiotics to see if that improves his nights.

Something I am struggling with: As mentioned, giving Cullen his antibiotic is a huge struggle!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I worked a little bit on our 2010 photobooks! Whew, that is a lot of work!

Something I learned: I learned that you can display coupons on your phone and use them at the Carter’s outlet. I love not having to remember to print coupons!

Something I’m looking forward to: Trick or treating tonight!

Something random: You know what’s random? Halloween weather around here. You never know if it’s going to be 35 degrees or 88. Looks like tonight will be nice, but we were just outside early this afternoon and it was HOT.

Something captured: Tigger and Winnie the Pooh are ready for candy tonight! Too bad Tigger’s hood doesn’t fit terribly well.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Planning and thinking about future vacations makes me happy!

Something I’m thinking: We had a great weekend, but I’m quite tired after two late nights. I should be going to bed…

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get Cullen’s 8-month letter posted soon…

Something happening around the house: We had our first games night since Cullen was born! We had a great time and hope to have another one before too long.

Something I’m reading: If anything, I read a little of Mockingjay.

Something I’m watching: Getting ready to watch tonight’s Amazing Race premiere.

Something I’m playing: Yay, I played more games this week! In addition to playing Carcassonne on the iPhone, I started playing Angry Birds. Since we had games night, I was also able to play some real games, too. I played Small World, Telestrations, Die Mauer, and Alhambra.

Something tasty: Well…last night at games night, we did our usual thing and ordered pizza. It all smelled so tasty!! I was strong, though, and I didn’t give in…until today at lunch when we had an entire pizza and nothing else interesting for lunch. I thought that I had been planning to reintroduce dairy within the next month, why not? First, it wasn’t as tasty as I had dreamed it would be. And then 2-3 feedings later, Cullen spit up a considerable amount. Coincidence? Hard to say.

Something Maddie is doing (31 months old): We attempted Candy Land sometime recently, and it didn’t go well at all! She was too interested in matching the color of the pieces to the colors on the card and didn’t care about the board at all. We “played” again today, and we made some progress. We didn’t make it through an entire game, but I actually managed to get her to move pieces on the board and take turns. It took considerable effort to keep her focused, though!

Something Cullen is doing (36 weeks old): Poor little dude was diagnosed with an ear infection on Tuesday. I felt like I should have known, but he never ran a fever! It’s no wonder we had a few terrible nights. We were just about to start him on the regular antibiotic, but now we’ll do that after he finishes his antibiotic for the ear infection. Little boy is interested in pulling up, climbing, and crawling anywhere we let him. He may be waving (seems to be at times), and today I think he was trying to give me big open mouth kisses. He thinks it’s hilarious when I cover his face in kisses. He’s such a sweet boy.

Something I am struggling with: The usual.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I discovered that one of my goals was to replace the kitchen sink…and we did that back in March. I just need to mark it off. Woohoo!

Something I learned: I think this might have been in the previous week, but I learned that Cullen needs a new sun hat. Turns out that his head is a bit larger than it was back in April. Who knew.

Something I’m looking forward to: Dinner with friends, book club, and a photo session with Catherine!

Something random: Telestrations can produce a lot of random stuff.

Something captured: This was one of my favorite results in Telestrations last night – “seedless grapes” turned into “peeing on an electric fence.”

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Team B-Patrol raised over $10,500 this year for the National MS Society. We recruited a few new members and hope to continue to grow our team. We are very proud of our accomplishments this year. We ended up in 11th place, just a few hundred dollars shy of being in the top 10. At the walk, we were awarded the Above and Beyond award for our efforts with the yard sale and ongoing efforts throughout the fundraising season. Click on the photo to see this year’s walk photos

We have completed another exciting week of potty training. Maddie did so well with her first week and continued to do well for the majority of the second week. She went 5 days without an accident (Friday morning until Wednesday morning). We were so proud of her! We rarely have to ask her to go to the potty. She’s been very good at asking to go when she needs to go. On Thursday evening, we asked Maddie to pick out her nighttime diaper. She declared, “I don’t wear diapers aaaaaaaannnnnymore, OK? I’m a big girl. I wear underwear.” So, we let her wear underwear. We are officially done with diapers (except for the swim diapers out of respect for the sanitation of swimming pools!).

Not surprisingly, she had an accident on the first diaper free night. We were pretty sure it happened when she woke up as she seems to be a bit disoriented upon waking in the morning. The next two days were accident free day and night, and then last night she woke around 2:30am and wet her sheets. We had a little bit of a setback this morning when she refused to potty first thing in the morning. She then had two accidents before I even got out of bed (Gabe was up with her). We knew to expect some setbacks along the way, but it’s still frustrating when they occur! Since she had had only one daytime accident in over a week, we had started to get a false sense of confidence in the potty training. She’s still doing great, and we’re really proud of our big girl.