KerryAndGabe.com

Something I’m thinking: We would have had a record turnout at games night yesterday, but we had to cancel due to Maddie throwing up in the middle of the night. It turns out that two of her friends also were throwing up this weekend, so I think we were smart to cancel. It does sound like a mild bug. By the morning, Maddie was normal and has been for the rest of the weekend.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we’ll have a good turn out in two weeks with the rescheduled games night.

Something happening around the house: I think we would be in better shape if we had had games night. We would have had to at least tidy up the toys before people arrived. Of course, the toys would be all over the place afterward, so maybe it’s about the same.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Last Olympian. I started and finished Ready Player One, and I LOVED it. It was a fun read with all sorts of geeky 80s references. Good stuff. I started on Peter and Wendy, one of the selections for February’s book club. I thought I would enjoy it more. At least it is short. It shouldn’t take me long to finish. I’m on the waiting list for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for kindle at the library. I hope that I will get it soon since it is the other February selection.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s reading The Fall of Hyperion and plans to read Ready Player One next since I’ve been telling him over and over that he needs to read it!

Something I’m watching: We are enjoying Alcatraz.

Something I’m creating: I’ve been working on Cullen’s 2-year letter. It’s taking me a while to put together all the words from my notes that I made on his birthday. I need to finish it so I can get back to writing about the cruise. At this rate, I’ll have trouble finishing the trip reports before our next cruise.

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): She had another ballet class (I think that we have 6 sessions with this set). She didn’t listen to the teacher very well this time. Instead, she goofed off with her friend. I went to tell her that she needed to listen to her instructor, and she said, “But Sofie isn’t listening!” Oh boy. That stuff starts so early, doesn’t it? She had a stomach bug that caused her to throw up in the middle of the night Friday night, but she was fine the rest of the weekend. I hope that is all we will see of the bug and the rest of us stay healthy.

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a little party for Cullen at school. He requested cupcakes and rocket ship goldfish. While we were at the party, Cullen pointed at Gabe and said, “Daddy! You’re not going anywhere!” I still love how Cullen talks with pauses between every syllable. Also now sometimes he sings random lyrics about what he’s doing. I love his little songs!!

Something I learned: Good things.

Something I’m looking forward to: A couple years ago, I painted a piggy bank for Maddie. I’m planning to paint one for Cullen this week! We also have a small joint party with mostly family next Saturday to celebrate both birthdays.

Something captured: At Cullen’s classroom party. We didn’t get too many good photos – he was too busy talking about the rocket ships.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: My sweet TWO year old boy!

Something I’m thinking: Happy birthday to Cullen!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that this week passes quickly.

Something I’m reading: I didn’t read too much this week, but I’m still reading The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson series.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished The Sea of Monsters (the 2nd book of the Percy Jackson series). He’s now reading The Fall of Hyperion.

Something I’m watching: We recorded Alcatraz, but we haven’t watched it yet. If we don’t watch it soon, we’re going to run the risk of it being too overwhelming once the recordings start piling up.

Something I’m playing: We played a little of the Hinterlands Dominion expansion. I think I might have played a little Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Something I’m creating: Hopefully, I’ll create a few more blog posts this week.

Something tasty: Mmmm, we ate at Brigs for Cullen’s special birthday breakfast this morning, and I had gingerbread pancakes. Yum!

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): It turns out that Maddie was unable to avoid the stomach bug, though it appears that it didn’t hit her too hard. Thank goodness. The last thing you want is a preschooler with a stomach bug. It sounds like she mostly had a fun day at home with Daddy. She and Daddy baked Cullen’s birthday cake together today. She also mostly iced it herself and did all the sprinkles. She loves helping in the kitchen. She’s been cooking a lot in her play kitchen, too. She’s gotten into building forts out of their Anywhere chairs and blankets. For whatever reason, she calls it the “jail.”

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a big day for the birthday boy! We started at Brigs where he helped himself to handfuls of my pancake. He just reached over and tore off sections of it over and over. I guess we should have gotten him the gingerbread pancake instead of the plain one! He thoroughly enjoyed his breakfast with scrambled eggs, fruit, pancakes (both plain and my gingerbread), turkey sausage, and milk. We then headed to Target where he was allowed to pick out any toy he wanted (well, we would have steered him away from something expensive!). He did very well with the concept of picking out one thing at a time and then “trading” it for something more desirable. He started out with a cowboy rubber duck and ended up with a Duplo Firehouse set. We were happy with his choice! In between, he held an apple shaped pillow, a Minnie Mouse pillow, a set of toddler cars, a LOUD Lightning McQueen toy that talked and raced when you shook it, and a Mater spy truck that did something but we weren’t able to figure out what. The process was entertaining! We stayed out of the decision making process for the most part and just let him ask for the things he wanted. We also picked up some Space shapes goldfish and had a snack in the car on the way to get his haircut. He sat very still and the stylist was surprised at how good he was during the cut. For dinner tonight, he had some of his favorites: pasta, strawberries, broccoli/cauliflower, and garlic bread. Of course, we had cake. This week, he really has made progress with his one-to-one correlation when counting. He has demonstrated accurately counting objects up to 8 (and I think 10 once). Sometimes when the items are all together (rather than distinctly apart) he does the thing where he just points and counts out numbers, but for the most part he really seems to be getting it. He does especially well with 4 or less items. Earlier this week, one of his teachers told us that he declared that “Aiden can’t eat milk and egg.” I’m surprised he’s picked up on his classmate’s allergy! I guess he’s heard the teachers talk about it enough times. He also used air quotes for the first time. His teacher said that Cullen said his diaper was “messy” (and used air quotes when saying this). Cullen then looked at me and said, “I pooped. It was ‘messy’” and used air quotes appropriately. Ha! I’m so proud.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I booked TWO trips to Disney! Woohoo!

Something I’m looking forward to: Lots of stuff going on this week. I’m mostly looking forward to getting through the week, book club, and games night!

Something random: Well, I thought I had found my Favorite Thing of 2012, but I might have to reconsider. On Saturday, I took a bubble bath with my kindle double bagged in ziploc bags (admittedly, one bag is probably sufficient). It was fabulous! Best use of a ziplog baggie EVER.

Something captured: The birthday boy!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: The Sunday Somethings make me happy. I like having a “journal” so i can go back and see what was going on when. It’s especially great when writing the birthday letters, but it comes in handy other times.

Something I’m thinking: Cullen’s 2nd birthday is coming up fast!

Something I’m hoping: Lots of major things are going on with friends, and I hope all is well this week.

Something happening around the house: The house smells like ginger snap cookies. I promised the teachers I would deliver cookies in the new year since I didn’t have a chance before the holiday.

Something I’m reading: I’m almost finished with The Battle of the Labyrinth, the 4th Percy Jackson book. I’ve downloaded The Kitchen House for the kindle, and I hope it’s a fast read. It’s January’s book club book.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished Hyperion, and started reading the first Percy Jackson book. I love that this series is available at the library on the kindle instantly at all times. The lack of waiting lists is wonderful.

Something I’m watching: We had our movie day on Monday, and we saw Young Adult and The Muppets in two different theaters. I wish that Young Adult had been better. I had higher hopes given the association with Juno, Up in the Air, and Thank You for Smoking. It had some very subtle, hilarious parts, but there just weren’t enough of them. It left us wondering whether there had been much of a point. The Muppets was just what we expected it to be. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I was glad that it was the second of our two movies! Young Adult was a bit of a downer. We also managed to watch movies at home for the first time in ages. We even saw TWO. We watched Date Night and Secretariat, and both were enjoyable! I was surprised to enjoy Date Night as much as I did. We liked seeing Keeneland in scenes of Secretariat. Being from Kentucky, I think Gabe is partial to horse movies. We had been meaning to watch that one for a while.

Something I’m playing: We played several rounds of Go Away Monster with the kids again this week. We started playing Zelda: Skyward Sword. We haven’t gotten too far. I’ll be looking forward to getting into the adventure. So far, there are lots of cinematic breaks to explain the storyline.

Something I’m creating: Lots of blog posts about the trip and other photo albums that I’m way behind on. I should also be creating thank you notes this week. I had Maddie write something for every person who gave her a gift, and I need to write my part now.

Something tasty: Ginger snaps with white chocolate chips!

Something about both kiddos: We played outside a lot this weekend with the beautiful weather. Both kids practiced on their balance bikes.

Something Maddie is doing (46 months old): Maddie has been writing her name (over and over) on her papers at school for a while. In the past few months, she started writing “MOM” and “DAD” on most of them. This week, she started adding Cullen’s name to the mix. Sometimes she leaves out the “e” and sometimes she does a backwards “n,” but it’s so cute that she’s writing all of our names. She did a few drawings of our family this week and wrote everyone’s name above it. She’s also been into drawing lots of random shapes on the paper and calling it a map. She has a rolled up piece of paper that she’s very protective about and calls it her map. She was very whiny earlier in the week, and by Thursday night she complained about her right ear hurting. We took her to the doctor on Friday and found out that she had a very nasty ear infection. In addition, we discovered that she had pink eye! That part was unexpected! I think it’s great that Maddie can tell us what is hurting her. Since tubes surgery, ear infections haven’t been on our radar. I hope that this doesn’t mean we’re on the road to another tubes surgery. She’s been showing interest in learning to read, so we’ve been doing some phonics practice. She was very interested in her balance bike this weekend and is really getting the hang of it!

Something Cullen is doing (23 months old): Cullen got to try his balance bike for the first time this weekend. It will take some practice for him to figure it out, but I’m glad we’re starting him early. He’s excited about it. He has been cranky today, and I discovered that one more tooth has broken through the gums. Now he has 3 of the 4 eyeteeth coming through with the other one breaking through any day now. I’m sure that can’t feel great.

Something I am struggling with: Vertigo and tinnitus.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Well, I thought we would book the first few days of our Disney trip in October this week, but I haven’t yet. I’ve been trying to work with a travel agent, but she hasn’t been responsive. Now I’m trying to decide whether to find a new one or just do it by myself. Part of our trip has already been booked at the Beach Club Villas with our friends! I can’t wait. We have several friends who were in Disney this past week. I love seeing their photos and stories.

Something I learned: I learned a little more about the process for selecting schools this week. We have so many choices, and we’ll be registering Maddie for kindergarten in less than a year! I can’t believe it. Decisions, decisions. Of course, our school board can’t agree on anything, so who knows if the process will even be the same for 2013-2014.

Something I’m looking forward to: Visiting my grandma. Maddie’s ballet class at work starts this week.

Something random: My new electric toothbrush is great! I had an appointment this week, and they said I was doing a much better job with my gums and teeth. They even thought I was flossing more (though I laughed and said that I wasn’t!). I should have gotten one of these a long time ago. My teeth feel so much cleaner! I feel like I’m brushing parts of my teeth that have been neglected for a long time.

Something captured: Maddie and two of her BFFs at Nantucket before our visit to the Museum of Life and Science on Saturday.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Fall temperatures!

Something I’m thinking: It’s our 5th anniversary today!

Something I’m hoping: To celebrate many more anniversaries together.

Something happening around the house: I’m loving the organization system that Gabe has installed in our utility room, especially now that the weather is getting cooler.

Something I’m reading: I finished with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children for this month’s book club. It’s one of my favorites from our recent selections. It’s a perfect selection for October! I started to read the 3rd book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, but I can’t decide if I want to finish that series or pick back up on the Song of Fire and Ice series.

Something Gabe is reading: Same thing…Mistborn. I think he’s actually made some progress this week.

Something I’m watching: We have decided to drop a few of the shows (some new that we haven’t started watching, some oldies). I should make a TV post as I used to do in the fall. Gabe and I went to see Moneyball at the theater this afternoon. I must really love my husband to suggest that we see a baseball movie on our anniversary. I enjoyed it, though!

Something I’m playing: We had the opportunity to play The Castles of Burgundy, once with a friend and a couple of times by ourselves. I really like that one!

Something tasty: Maple cotton candy from the fair! YUMMY! I then went on a fun downtown food tour with girl friends on Saturday. We sampled some tasty things. Gabe and I had a very nice dinner tonight for our anniversary as well. It was a good week for food! Thank goodness the stomach bug was restricted to just Cullen (as far as we know…).

Something Maddie is doing (44 months old): Maddie attended the state fair for the second time. We went with another family, and we had a great time! Maddie enjoyed riding the rides, especially the carousel and roller coaster. I’m glad she enjoyed the roller coaster because most of the rides went in circles or spun around in some fashion, and I did not enjoy those! I can’t wait to take her on the real roller coasters, but that was a good start! We did a lot of different things this year. We rode a lot more rides since we bought the ride booklets in advance (and we got some leftover tickets from our friends). Maddie has a mystery fever, and I wonder if she picked up some random illness from the fair (despite our hand-washing and sanitizing wipes). Of course, it could have always come from preschool. She has had a fever but not many other symptoms. I’m pretty sure it’s not the same thing that Cullen has had this week.

Something Cullen is doing (21 months old): Cullen had an awful stomach bug this week involving lots of vomit and other unpleasantness. We had two crib clean ups on different days, one from each end. Yes, that is as gross as it sounds. We had to throw sheets, blankets, clothing, and buddies into the wash. Poor little guy. Now he has the worst diaper rash that we have seen. It looks absolutely painful. I stayed home with him on the first day of his illness (which involved more vomiting, ugh!). He was very cuddly. We watched a lot of movies. He wanted to watch Lion King, Shrek, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I didn’t feel too bad about the excessive amount of television since he felt so bad (and it kept him happy). I enjoyed the extra snuggles, too!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We’re getting close to booking our Disney trip for next year. We’re doing a lot of research and trying to decide where we want to stay and exactly when we might be going. I’m excited! I’m also exhausted thinking about how I’m going to handle a week of amusement parks when one day at the fair about did me in.

Something I learned: I don’t like spinny rides. I think I liked them as a kid, but I’m not a fan now!!!

Something I’m looking forward to: Lots of plans this week: dinners with friends, book club, play dates, a birthday party, pumpkin carving, and a Halloween festival at work. Whew!

Something random: It’s good that I write these each week for many reasons, but the one I’m thankful right now is a reminder of the plans that we have for the week.

Something captured: I tried to get the kids to post for a photo together in their cutie patootie matching skeleton jammies. These jammies also glow in the dark (which the kids think is exciting).

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about when we will have our next games night. I love that we’ve been able to have one almost once a month. We should be able to fit in one more before our New Year’s Eve party.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that I’ll be happy with the image quality of the new point and shoot camera that I ordered. My goal is to leave the SLR at home for our cruise as it would be a pain to lug around. It would likely be left in the cabin the majority of the time that we’re on the ship, too.

Something happening around the house: Gabe has been busy! Last week, he nearly finished the deck, and this week he painted the utility room (with awesome colors from the bonus room) and installed an organization system for the alcove. It’s the best thing ever! We’ve been wanting to do that for a while, but we hadn’t gotten a chance. We have two shelves at the top for items we barely use, a place to hang coats on hangers, and two drawers for hats, gloves, and scarves. We also have a place to hang our keys and two sets of hooks on the opposite wall – one set for our every day jackets and the other for the kids’ every day jackets. The kids were excited to hang their own jackets on their level. I love it!

Something I’m reading: I finished Rebel Angels, and I started on both Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and The Sweet Far Thing (the last book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy). Miss Peregrine is quite interesting and different so far. I look forward to the book club discussion in a couple weeks. I better get moving on it, if I’m going to finish in time.

Something Gabe is reading: Mistborn. Still.

Something I’m watching: We’re getting ready to watch Amazing Race in a few minutes.

Something I’m playing: King of Tokyo (several times), Die Burgen von Burgund, Quarriors, Palazzo Paletti (first time in a long time!), Die Mauer, Trivial Pursuit 6, and Medici.

Something tasty: Homemade banana bread! Gabe has been buying more bananas than he thought we would need the past several times he’s been to the store. He has been secretly hoping that we wouldn’t be able to eat them fast enough, and that I would make banana bread. It worked out for him this time!

Something both kiddos are doing: Both kids are helping me in the kitchen quite a bit these days! They love sitting on the counter, pouring in ingredients, and stirring.

Something Maddie is doing (43 months old): Maddie had a dental appointment and did great! She’s a wonderful little dental patient. She’s so wiggly. The child cannot sit still! She falls out of her chair at dinner at least once a week. We have started to make her stand when she can’t sit properly in her chair. That seems to help a little. She’s excited about going to the fair. Maddie gobbled up pureed butternut squash like it was pudding tonight. She also loved the butternut squash muffins that Cullen, Maddie, and I made together. When she helps me in the kitchen, she says, “we have our own bakery, right?”

Something Cullen is doing (20 months old): Cullen is more attached to Annabelle than ever. Twice this week, he cried all the way to school because he couldn’t hold Annabelle. Maddie lets him play with her a lot, but it’s her doll. We don’t force her to share the doll. The last four nights in a row, he has insisted on having Annabelle in the crib with him. He’s very sweet with the doll. I think Santa is going to have to bring him his own Bitty Twin. He tattled on Maddie twice this week. Both times it involved Maddie hitting him, once in the car with a stuffed animal and once at home with a broomstick. Both times were accidental. Cullen exclaimed, “Mommy! Maddie hit me!” His ability to communicate is incredible. He’s using more adjectives, prepositions, and articles. He often says things like, “close the door” instead of “close door.”

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I signed up our Team for 2012′s Walk MS event. I guess that’s step one when it comes to the fundraising.

Something I learned: I installed the OS upgrades for both my MacBook Pro and the iPhone. I’m still getting used to the new gestures on the MacBook. I also learned that when you put “7pm Event Name” on my Google calendar, it picks up the time (I already knew if you put @ place name, it would update that part). I’m not sure how I missed this previously, since it gives an example of it under the prompt. I have been finding it annoying that I would have to edit the whole calendar entry in order to enter a time, so this will save me a lot of hassle.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to getting my new camera, hopefully in time for the fair with Maddie, a food tour in downtown Raleigh with my girlfriends, and our anniversary dinner!

Something random: Is there a fruit or a vegetable that cannot be made into a tasty baked good?

Something captured: The kiddos in their coordinating Halloween jammies (they also glow in the dark!). Cute!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Family fun and traditions. We went to the zoo and the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Something that makes me tired: Family fun and traditions. Whew.

Something I’m thinking: How are we ever going to make it through a week of Disney? I’m exhausted after two days of zoo/pumpkin patch, and I would think that Disney is way more exhausting.

Something happening around the house: The usual chaos.

Something I’m reading: Rebel Angels. I should finish in the next day or so, and then I’ll probably need to start Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children for this month’s book club (before reading the last book of the Gemma Doyle trilogy).

Something Gabe is reading: Mistborn. He doesn’t feel like he’s making much progress here.

Something I’m watching: We are recording on the DVR these shows this season (though I can’t say we’re exactly watching all of them): Glee (haven’t watched any this season), Gossip Girl, 90210, Grey’s Anatomy, Alphas (I think this one finished), Falling Skies (more Gabe than me), Ringer, Survivor: South Pacific, The Secret Circle (only watched 1 so far), The X Factor (watched 1 or 2 so far, though Thursday doesn’t record due to conflicts), The Amazing Race, Supernatural (haven’t watched any), Terra Nova (haven’t watched any), and Hart of Dixie. I think that’s all of them. Most of these, I end up watching while working on photos on the laptop or writing blog posts (except I haven’t been writing too many blog posts lately!).

Something I’m playing: Ooh, Gabe’s birthday was this week, so I gave him Die Burgen Von Burgund. We played the 2-player version, and I like it! It plays well with two, so that’s a big plus for us. Hopefully, we will get another chance to play it this week. We also played King of Tokyo with Melissa and Jason on Gabe’s birthday.

Something tasty: I made a pretty (and fairly tasty) rainbow cake for Gabe’s birthday. I’ll need to post photos of that soon.

Something about both kiddos: The kids enjoyed their first visit to the zoo! This was their second trip to the pumpkin patch. We visited the same one that we went to last year. Kristin joined us this time, and we had fun visiting the attractions, eating funnel cake, and picking out our pumpkins! The kids were a bit cranky this evening. I think we were all a wee bit tired after our weekend adventures! I love the fun family memories.

Something Maddie is doing (43 months old): She had her 2nd bike day at school. We don’t get too much notice for these, so I’m glad that Gabe and I were both able to arrange to see it. She couldn’t decide whether she wanted to do her tricycle, scooter, or balance bike. She decided on her tricycle, which is probably best since that’s the one that she is able to ride the best. Her teacher sent us some photos of her in the classroom. It’s neat to see her with the “work” that they talk about doing. She has finished the first basket of letters for the phonics section, and she’s been doing a lot of number and counting work. Her teachers were impressed with her number roll work which has numbers 1-9 on a large mat. She has to count out the appropriate number of stones for each one. I know she can do this sort of thing, but I’m happy that she is able to demonstrate it in the classroom! She does a lot of coloring when they do the “special” closet work.

Something Cullen is doing (20 months old): His constant repeating of what we say (especially what Maddie says) can be hilarious. He has started enjoying the knob puzzles and has gotten very good at the ones with the same picture on the puzzle piece and underneath it. We have an animal one, and he loves to name the animals and tell us what sounds they make. Of course, most of the animals say, “roar” as that is their default sound (complete with pawing motion). “Cullen, what does a pig say?” “Roar!” When he puts in all of the pieces, he stands up and pumps both of his fists and says, “I DID IT!!!!” He’s very big on doing things himself. He has been buckling his high chair buckles (when not in the high chair) for at least a month or so. He has a jacket with that style of buckles and loves to buckle them over and over. At the pumpkin patch, he was hesitant about getting into the corn box, but he loved it once he was in it with Aunt Kristin. He kept saying, “corn! corn!” In the hay jump, he kept saying, “Hay!” On the hay ride, he said, “hay ride, hay ride.” When it stopped, he tried to push himself through people and said, “I get off. Excuse me. Excuse me.” Earlier today, he tooted and said, “Excuse me, Mommy.” At lunch today, I gave him a french fry, and unprompted, he said, “Thank you, Mommy.” He’s my sweet boy. Cullen’s class had an ice cream social, and it was nice to get a chance to chat with other parents. Cullen enjoyed his first ice cream!

Something I am struggling with: Too much sun! I had a little sunburn on Friday from bike day. I used sunscreen on myself and the kids at the zoo and at the pumpkin patch, yet I still got too much sun each day. What can I say? I’m very sensitive to the sun.

Something I learned: Ice cream comes in little prepackaged scoops.

Something I’m looking forward to: Lunch and dinners with friends and games night.

Something captured: So many photos this weekend! Here’s one from today of Cullen and Maddie at the pumpkin patch.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: The timing of the refinance and the final payment of our cruise was excellent. We both closed on the refinance and put the final cruise payment on our credit card on Wednesday.

Something I’m reading: I got notification that my first library kindle book was available for download. I started and finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. I look forward to discussing it at our November book club meeting. I’m also reading Rebel Angels. We discussed the first book of that series at book club this week, and the club’s opinions were mixed. I like the series just well enough to keep reading it, but I don’t think I’d highly recommend it.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s still reading Mistborn.

Something I’m watching: Too many shows! Not enough time!

Something I’m playing: My development team played a game of 7 Wonders during lunch on Friday.

Something tasty: I finally got my very own stand mixer, and I made Triple Chip Cookies. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: Catherine came to take photos of us! I can’t wait to see them.

Something Maddie is doing (43 months old): She continues to add new lessons at school. Today, she did some sort of “number roll” which involved the numbers 1-9 and counting out stones for each number. I’m not surprised that she did well on this one, but she apparently impressed her teachers!

Something Cullen is doing (20 months old): Every week, it’s the same update, but I continue to be impressed with his vocabulary. It’s impossible to catalog everything new that he is saying each week. He adds words and sentence structure. This week, he saw a school bus pass us and said, “I saw a school bus!” We walked past two double strollers of babies at daycare, and he said, “lots of babies!” and just after that we passed a bunch of rocks and he said, “lots of rocks!” He continues to be my sweet little boy. He has started to get really good at bedtime stalling techniques, mostly in the form of asking for lots of hugs and kisses from anyone around. And I think I’ll fall for it every time because it’s so ridiculously sweet.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We paid for the cruise on Allure of the Seas, so we’re that much closer to fulfilling our mega-ship goal!

Something I learned: I learned how to get a kindle book from the library (and how to return it when finished). Aside from the potentially long waiting list, it was a very easy process!

Something I’m looking forward to: Gabe’s birthday, dinner/games with friends, the zoo, and the pumpkin patch. Big week! Our plans for the mountains this weekend fell through, but I think we’ll be spending time with the same friends at the zoo instead. The weather should be perfect!

Something captured: My newest little kitchen helper. My sweet boy!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Four days of games. Just finished up this year’s That Board Gaming Thing (TBGT) last night, and I was too exhausted to come up with a post.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about all the various ways that I can get in more sleep and more games next year. I only had about 3 hours of sleep each night, and that’s really not enough for me to function reasonably. I enjoy the late night crowd…but the kids still wake me up at 7am. We might have to do something differently next year.

Something happening around the house: I don’t really get how the house can be such a disaster when we haven’t even been here for 4 days. Oh. Right. I guess it’s probably because it was a disaster when we left.

Something I’m reading: I finished A Great and Terrible Beauty (this month’s book club selection) and sorta started on Rebel Angels. I just didn’t have time for reading this week between preparing for TBGT and attending it.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished Dooms Day Book and started on Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.

Something I’m watching: Not much, but we’re about to start watching a bunch of stuff. I did catch a few episodes of Jake and the Neverland Pirates with the kids. Yo Ho!

Something I’m playing: Le Havre, Forbidden Island (twice), The Adventurers, King of Tokyo (3 times), Thunderstone, Catch Charades, Quarriors (3 times), Cornucopia, Attika, Jaipur, Witch’s Brew, For Sale, Fortune Cookie Charades, Time’s Up (twice), Galaxy Trucker (twice), Rallyman, Tobago, Jamaica, Songburst, 7 Wonders w/ Leaders Expansion, Fits, and London. Gabe played Le Havre, Quarriors, Cornucopia, Attika, Witch’s Brew, For Sale, King of Tokyo, Kingsburg, Cargo Noir, and Die Burgen von Burgund.

Something tasty: Gabe bought me Whimsical Cookies for my birthday. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: We stayed in the hotel for TBGT for 3 nights, and we tried to put the kids in the same room. One night, they finally went to sleep almost two hours later. My sister came to the hotel one night so that Gabe and I could both play some games. Maddie kept getting out of her bed to get something out of her backpack. Kristin was watching them on the video monitor and returning to tell Maddie to get back in her bed. She did this several times and then removed her backpack. She then heard Maddie say to Cullen, “Cullen, we can’t let her come back in and see us!” She was the instigator this time, keeping Cullen up. “Baby, don’t go to sleep, baby. Baby, wake up!” By Sunday midday, the kids were a bit cranky from several days of missed sleep. I think for the cruise, we’re going to have to separate them. I’m a little worried that we’ve ruined them after sharing a room on two trips. Maddie’s going to be disappointed not to have Cullen in the same room next time!

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): She’s learning how to spell certain words (obviously it’s memorization at this point, but it’s still exciting!). She has been able to spell her first name for a while, and now she can spell “mom” and “dad.” She’s able to spell it out loud as well as write it. I noticed that she started writing “MOM” on some of her papers (in addition to “MADDIE”). She’s also getting much better with her coloring. At dinner the other day, she colored a sheet from the restaurant and mostly stayed in the lines. I was impressed! I think that her Crayola video game has been helping with that. She does quite a bit of coloring on there.

Something Cullen is doing (19 months old): Little boy can throw a tantrum! This isn’t exactly new, but he really is good at the whole “I’m unhappy and now I’m going to throw myself on the floor and scream about it” thing. I’m sure that his increasing ability to communicate should help. He now says things like “Maddie right there” (for identifying where people and things are), “Goldfish in here” (when referring to his goldfish in his snack cup), “I don’t like it” (he says this in a variety of situations), “Get Maddie” (when he gets into the car and we head over to pick up Maddie), and “Get me book” (or whatever else he has dropped that is out of reach).

Something I am struggling with: I thought I was experiencing allergies on Sunday night and Monday morning, but by Monday afternoon, I knew I was sick. Ugh! Bad timing! I didn’t feel well on my birthday on Tuesday, but I took a vacation anyway and got my license renewed and went shopping at the outlet mall. And then we had one of Maddie and Cullen’s teachers babysit on Tuesday evening, and I backed out of the driveway and sideswiped her car. I felt awful about that! I don’t have a good track record when it comes to backing up. Can we just invent a car that rotates around for me?

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I took Gabe bowling for his first time ever!!! Yes, that was on my “life goals” list. I think he’ll actually go again sometime.

Something I learned: Tons of new games!

Something I’m looking forward to: Not too many plans this week, thankfully. I do have a wedding to attend next Saturday, and one of Maddie’s best buddies is having a birthday party.

Something captured: My family at TBGT!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Gathering to play board games with friends.

Something I’m thinking: I did think about what I was doing and how I felt 10 years ago (Facebook and the media do not want you to forget it, not that I would anyway).

Something happening around the house: We had a pre-TBGT games night on Saturday. Fun times! I think the kiddos had a good time, too, as evidenced by almost every toy in the house getting some play time.

Something I’m reading: I decided to stop reading Four Corners of the Sky. It was ok, but it wasn’t riveting. I decided to move onto A Great and Terrible Beauty, which is this month’s book club selection. Unfortunately, it seems that several club members have read it and did not care for it. I don’t mind it so far, but I haven’t gotten too far.

Something Gabe is reading: Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis.

Something I’m watching: Football, football, and football…not exactly by choice.

Something I’m playing: Saturday, I had the chance to play 7 Wonders, Macao, and Notre Dame.

Something Maddie is doing (42 months old): We are working on her not being so upset about things that people say to her. Lately, her brother has been taunting and teasing her about things. She wants to be first every time we do anything, like get seated at the dinner table. She has to get into her seat before Cullen gets into his high chair. We usually let her because Cullen just doesn’t care that much at the moment. But then Cullen will say, “I first” and look at her like he’s waiting to see her reaction. She gets very upset and whines, “CULLEN SAYS HE WAS FIRST BUT I WAS FIRST!!!” We’re having a hard time getting through to her that it doesn’t matter what Cullen says. She had a similar issue with a classmate who told her that she can’t count this week. She decided that since repeatedly telling her friend that she CAN count was ineffective, that biting might be a better approach. This is the 2nd time that we have had a biting incident (same victim). We had a big talk about all the things that we can do other than biting to solve her issues. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. Maddie was working on her penmanship this afternoon. She did a pretty good job of writing all of our names (she had to ask us how “Kerry,” “Gabe,” and “Cullen” were spelled, but she did great!). I’m so proud of her!

Something Cullen is doing (19 months old): As I mentioned in Maddie’s summary, he has started intentionally taunting Maddie. It’s amazing how early that this sort of thing starts. Oh my goodness. His favorite taunt right now is to say that he was first at the table (when he was not), just to watch and see how Maddie reacts. He’ll look at her and say, “I first!” and gets this little grin as he waits for her reaction. Today, Maddie hadn’t had a snack yet and Cullen had a snack cup with goldfish. She said, “I want a snack!” and Cullen imitated her (“I want a snack”) and waved his snack cup near her. I think he’s been doing forms of this for weeks, but I’m just now realizing he’s doing a lot of this stuff on purpose. He’s also picked up on the taunt, “Ha ha a boo-boo” from Maddie, and I have seen him with a toy that she wants saying “ha ha a boo-boo” while he carries it around the living room. This reminds me of when my sister used to tease me and say that she was older than me since her birthday was in February and mine was in September. When we were really little, somehow this really got to me. I wonder when Cullen is going to figure out that one (since his birthday is in January and Maddie’s is in February). I predict that it will drive Maddie crazy when he does. Cullen is a sweet boy, and he’s very into his Mommy right now. He doesn’t like to be separated from me. It’s sweet, but it breaks my heart when I have to leave him at daycare or like tonight when I went to dinner with a girlfriend.

Something I am struggling with: I want to buy a new purse, and I’m trying to decide which one (and how much I want to spend). I know. My life is rough. Happy birthday to me!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I’m making Gabe go bowling for the first time ever. Can you believe he’s never been bowling? That’s what I asked of him for my birthday. He was tricked! He couldn’t say no!

Something I learned: I reacquainted myself with the fact that I do not like Moon Dough nor will I be buying any for the kids ever again. We bought a small pack of it for Maddie at some point. It does work really well in the special molds, but it’s awful, awful stuff. It crumbles like crazy and gets EVERYWHERE. We’ll stick to Play Doh, thanks!

Something I’m looking forward to: My birthday, making Gabe go bowling, and That Board Gaming Thing! I am so excited about 4 days of board gaming! Woohoo!!! Gabe and I are taking off work on Thursday and Friday so that we can both play while the kids are in daycare. It’s going to be great. We’re taking turns the rest of the time (and my sister is even going to babysit for us one night).

Something captured: We took Maddie to lunch at the cafe on Friday, and she was very excited!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

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