KerryAndGabe.com

Something happening around the house: This week, we have an inspector coming to look at the air conditioning installation and someone else to check on the efficiency. We are also getting the house appraised this week for our refinance. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the appraisal as it can affect our rate quite a bit.

Something I’m reading: I finished A Clash of Kings and started both SuperFreakonomics and A Storm of Swords. I need to finish SuperFreakonomics for this month’s book club before getting much further into A Storm of Swords. At this rate, George R. R. Martin may finish the 6th book by the time I get through the first 5.

Something Gabe is reading: A Dance with Dragons.

Something I’m watching: I think I just watched one episode of Alphas, and that was about it.

Something Maddie is doing (41 months old): She was stung by a bee this week at school, poor girl. She did not seem to have a major reaction, so that is good news. She claims it was a yellow jacket. Yesterday, we were practicing drawing letters. She’s been writing her name constantly on her papers at work in addition to practicing at home. She wants to know how to spell other people’s names, and she’s been pretty good at writing letters not in her name. Yesterday, I had her write the entire alphabet. I was impressed! She made it through R without issues, but then I think she was a little tired of the exercise by the time we got to S. Maddie calls Cullen “baby,” “my baby,” “baby brother,” and “Cullen” (of course). We told her months ago that Cullen is no longer a baby, but he will always be her baby brother. I haven’t mentioned this in a while, but Maddie still uses her belly button as a security blanket. She lifts her shirt and puts her finger in her belly button when she’s nervous or needs extra comfort. I try to remind her to “put her shirt down” when we are in public. She had another t-ball lesson this week and seems to enjoy it. I don’t think that she’s going to be ready for the major leagues anytime soon. She’s having fun, so that’s what is important. I’m thinking we should get a t-ball set for her to play with in our yard.

Something Cullen is doing (18 months old): Cullen had his VCUG test, and as I reported we are thrilled about the results. The tests showed no visible kidney damage and only Grade 1 reflux on one side and NO reflux on the other. This was fabulous news. Cullen is repeating more and more of what we are saying, in addition to adding new words to his vocabulary daily. Two more teeth cut through the gums. The ones I was worried about in the front have FINALLY cut through. I’m relieved! They have been trying to come through the gums for months, I swear. Cullen’s grand total of teeth is now up to 12. Since he’s such an awful teether, I’m not sad that big bunches of teeth seem to come in at the same time. Cullen sometimes says, “please” when asking for something and “thank you” when appropriate. Sometimes when you ask him a question, he’ll start his answer with “ummmmm…” He does this a lot when we’re looking at books and I ask him to find something specific. “Cullen, where’s the bunny?” “ummmmm….” Cullen went through a short phase where he asked, “why?” when we said things to him. I know he picked that up from his big sister! He has been amazingly sleeping through the night. As soon as I type this, I’m sure the streak will be over. He’s had more nights that he sleeps through the night than not. I think in this past week, he had only one restless night (and it was before one of the days we discovered new teeth). I’ve been putting him to bed most nights. He is excited to have his teeth brushed (while I sing the ABC song). Then we go up to his room for several “stories.” He has a great attention span for most of his board books now (at least right before bed). After reading several books, we turn out the light and I put him in the crib. He finds his paci. He then curls up with his bum up in the air and his feet folded, and I put the blanket over his body. We rarely hear much from him now until 6:30am or 7am. I probably shouldn’t jinx things by writing about it here! Apparently, we had a short period around 18 months where we declared Maddie was “sleeping through the night” (and then she regressed until she was at least 2 and a half). Note: I wrote this section just before going to bed last night, and sure enough last night was one of Cullen’s worst nights in a while. He was very restless and woke up often, screaming. He does seem to have some congestion this morning, so I’m thinking he’s probably not feeling well.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I am not caught up on photos, but I did make a little progress and I have scheduled a bunch of blog posts about our trip over Memorial Day week. Stay tuned for those!

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to dinner and games with friends, hopefully some poker, and the last t-ball class.

Something random: It’s much easier to go through sets of photos with Gabe helping me! I try to keep to the rule of keeping only 25% or less of any particular event (exceptions are made for smaller sets). Of course, I still keep too many photos, but this rule makes it much more manageable.

Something captured: Maddie, fielding 3rd base. The t-ball lessons are in a gym (thankfully, it’s too hot outside!). She was more interested in fiddling with her belly button and twirling around in her skirt than she was keeping her eye on the ball.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something I’m thinking: I probably should have done a little more shopping to take advantage of the tax free weekend. We did quite a bit of the kids’ fall shopping, though I think we’ll still need a few more things. I think we probably got a few too many summer items that we “couldn’t resist.”

Something I’m hoping: Well, I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but I am hoping that Cullen’s testing on Wednesday shows that he no longer has the kidney reflux.

Something happening around the house: Related to the house, we started the refinancing process (again). We are getting a lower rate and a longer term to ease up our required payments. It will be nice to have a little extra wiggle room, especially after replacing the expensive air conditioning units.

Something I’m reading: I may finally finish A Clash of Kings within the next few days. I know I have less than 100 pages left. SuperFreakonomics is next on my list for book club.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s still reading A Dance with Dragons. I think he’s about 50% through it now.

Something I’m watching: We have been watching a little bit of a new SciFi show, Alphas. We are enjoying it well enough.

Something I’m playing: We played Mario Party 8 with Melissa and Jason when we got together for Melissa’s birthday. I also collected some more stars in Super Mario Galaxy (the first one). I think I’m to the point where I can start to rescue the princess, but she will have to wait while I collect all the stars in the game.

Something Maddie is doing (41 months old): Maddie had her first t-ball lesson yesterday. The classes are through our town and are only 3 sessions long. In the first class, she learned about running the bases, hitting the ball off the tee, and tagging the runner with the ball. She did pretty well listening to the teacher this time, even during the stretching and warm up activities. Have I mentioned that she never stops talking at home? It drives me crazy sometimes. She really is incapable of being quiet for even 20 seconds. I’m not exaggerating. This week, she threw her biggest public tantrum in the grocery store. I had an early morning meeting, so Gabe planned to take the kids to and from school. I decided that I’d surprise Maddie and pick her up early and go to the grocery store together. On the way, she told me that she was going to ride in the car cart. I reminded her that the car cart was for families with 2 kids with them. When we got to the store, she said she wanted to wait for Cullen and Daddy to arrive. I let her know that they were not coming, and she was upset. I thought it was sweet that she wanted her baby brother there, but it turned out that she really wanted him there so that they could ride in the car grocery cart. Long story short, she was mad that she couldn’t ride in the cart and didn’t get over it until probably 15 minutes after we got home. She whined the whole way through the grocery and the whole way home. It was the first time I felt really embarrassed by my child when she knew to act better. Maddie begged for flip flops this weekend. I don’t think she’s going to wear them. Fortunately, they were cheap. She’s not concerned about her little foot, but she says that they hurt her toes. I don’t blame her. I’m not a fan of flip flops either. Speaking of her little foot, she asked Daddy a couple weeks ago when she was going to get new toes. She said that she was missing toes and that one of her friends said so. He let her know that nothing was wrong with her toes. All of them are there, and she just has special toes and that is how she was born. I had a little talk with her later about how everyone is different in different ways. I mentioned that Cullen has blue eyes and that she has brown eyes, for example. In addition to throwing some big tantrums this week (well, at least that one doozy), she spontaneously tells me how much she loves me fairly regularly. I love that.

Something Cullen is doing (18 months old): Um, well, I was tired of seeing his bangs in his eyes and didn’t want to take him in for an expensive haircut. I figured, how hard can it be? So… I trimmed his bangs. The only good things I can say about it is that the bangs are not in his eyes, and I didn’t go back and try to fix it. Gabe says that I’m not allowed to bring scissors near the kids’ hair again. Cullen went to Maddie’s t-ball lesson. We had a feeling it wasn’t going to go well, and it didn’t. He wanted to run and play with the older kids or just run free in general. It was difficult to keep him happy during the lesson. He won’t be going again next week! He’s getting his 4th molar in this set as it broke through the gums this week. I think he’s been having a lot of teething pain lately. He’s been a tad more aggressive at home this week and a little tantrumy when he doesn’t get his way. He can also be extremely sweet. Today, he was giving out hugs freely, especially when requested. I’m also working on getting him to say, “I love you.” He repeated it several times when asked tonight, and it’s just adorable to hear him say it. I look forward to hearing it unprompted.

Something I am struggling with: We had to get clothes for the kids, but now I’m trying to resist the urge to spend money right and left on other things. Put. Down. The. Credit. Card.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to having Cullen’s VCUG and related tests finished and the results determined. I’m looking forward to seeing out-of-town friends who will be here for a quick visit.

Something captured: Cullen during music class this week. He loves the music teacher and is a big fan of music in general. Each child gets a chance to dance in the ring. They love it!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: I had a bunch of Toy Story toys that I collected from fast food places when the first movie came out. They have been hanging out at my office for a while. Since I’m moving offices at work, I decided it was time for them to find a new home. The kids were so excited today to each have their own Woody doll. I’m happy to see my kids find so much joy in the toys. I plan to let the kids have a new one periodically.

Something I’m thinking: We’re going to have a lot of fun this summer in the backyard kiddie pool!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to get a dispute settled with the hotel in Atlanta that we had planned to stay in but didn’t. They claim that we not only didn’t cancel (which I swear we did), but we showed up and stayed for our entire stay! They have charged us accordingly. The worst part is that it is the most convenient hotel for our family when visiting my grandparents. It doesn’t seem like we’re going to ever be staying there again!

Something happening around the house: The cleaners came on Friday, but we’ve managed to make it look like home again.

Something I’m reading: I finished Dark Places for this week’s book club. I wasn’t really a fan.

Something I’m watching: We aren’t watching much right now.

Something I’m playing: This week, I played 7 Wonders a few times, 2-player Dominion with Gabe, and Ave Caesar. I wasn’t a fan of Ave Caesar. I don’t think I’ll be playing that one again! Gabe and I have also been playing LOTS of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. We figured that we better use the new Wii. We both started over on Super Mario Galaxy since neither of us finished the game when we played the first time. It was too hard to jump in mid-game when we couldn’t remember how the moves work.

Something tasty: For July 4th this week, we made red, white, and blue parfait out of jello, cool whip, and blueberries.

Something Maddie is doing (40 months old): We’ve started Maddie on her video game training. We tried to play a little Wii Sports with her, but that didn’t work out very well. We also tried to get her to collect star bits in Super Mario Galaxy. That was a little better, but it was still not going well. We broke down and ordered Crayola Treasures for the DS. She’s loving it and doing very well! She is on her way to being a video gamer after all. I don’t think she fully gets what the whole theater experience is going to be like, but we’ve been playing more of the original Winnie the Pooh to prep her for the movie. She also spotted her Winnie the Pooh costume the other day and wants to wear it around the house all the time. It’s too bad that the Winnie the Pooh movie wasn’t coming out in the winter. I’d have to let her wear the costume to the movies! Tonight, Maddie got out of her room at least 30 minutes after she went to bed. She was whispering between the railings down into our living room. I looked up and said, “Maddie, why are you out of bed? Do you need to potty?” She smiled all sweetly and said, “I just want Daddy.” And after saying she wanted Daddy a few times, she said, “I want Daddy because…because…because I love him.” Awww, how can Daddy say no to that one?

Something Cullen is doing (17 months old): It’s another eventful week for Cullen. Monday night, he slept from 8pm until 7:30am. So in addition to sleeping through the night (which he has never done), he slept later than he usually does. Sadly, he did not repeat this any nights the rest of the week. He is cutting another molar, so that might explain his extra fussiness a couple of days ago. In other big news, Monday was the last day that he has nursed. He didn’t seem to miss it at all for the first 3 or 4 days. He didn’t ask to nurse, and I didn’t offer for him to nurse. Then this weekend, he grabbed my shirt numerous times Friday, Saturday, and today. I tried to keep him distracted and busy and offer a straw cup of milk when he seemed to want to nurse. I wasn’t sad about it until the past couple of days. My goal was to nurse for around 18 months, and he will be 18 months soon. I’m happy with it, but it makes it harder to know that he’s missing it. When Maddie weaned, it was pretty easy. She didn’t seem to care and only wanted to nurse once after we quit. He is talking more and more. I know I say this every week, but it’s true! This week, he was putting together even more two word concepts and phrases. When he saw a new Elmo shirt we got for him, he pointed and said, “Elmo shirt! Elmo shirt!” He brought me a green car and said, “Green car!” He still often says, “I want that” or “I want milk” or other similar phrases. He brought Gabe an empty snack cup earlier this week and said, “Marshmallows, please!” He now gets a couple of marshmallows after a good dinner along with his sister. He says please a lot when he wants something (especially food). If we’re carrying him and he wants to get down, he’ll say, “I want to walk.” While in the car, he requested that we listen to Howlin’ for You by The Black Keys by saying, “Yat-ya song. again.” (Maddie and Cullen call that song the yat-ya song because of the chorus). He brought me a bottle of water and said, “drink it.” He says, “help me” when he needs help. The other day, he was laughing and making friends laugh and kept saying, “I’m funny.” He’ll bring us the TV remote and say, “Mickey!” and point it at the TV and start pushing buttons. He repeats EVERYTHING. And I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that we had a few days where we were getting reports of Cullen tackling other children. At first, they thought he might have been giving them hugs. The time he was sitting on another kid’s head was a bit questionable. Then, we got reports of him yanking kids off the horse or ride on toys when he wanted a turn. We haven’t gotten any aggressive reports lately.

Something I am struggling with: I’m struggling a little bit with weaning Cullen, but I feel like it’s the right time to stop. It has just been tough on me the last couple of days. I’m a little sad.

Something I’m looking forward to: Games night, possible Winnie the Pooh movie with Maddie (soon, anyway), playdate and dinner with friends.

Something captured: Our July 4th parfaits! They were YUMMY! I love how the flash bounced off the cups and made little starbursts that look like fireworks.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Earlier this year, I posted the books from our shelves that we own but haven’t yet read that we actually want to read. We’ve made great progress this year towards our goals of reading these books! I thought I’d do a little blurb of our successes (these aren’t the only books that we read this year, just the ones that we owned prior to the start of the year that were begging to be read).

Books Kerry and Gabe both want to read:

• Nurture Shock by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman (Gabe only) – Gabe read me snippets of this one as he was reading it. It has a lot of interesting stuff, and I look forward to reading it, too.
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Kerry only) – I look forward to reading the rest of the series (which I don’t have yet – I’m debating whether to get it on kindle or in paperback to match the other copies). I’m glad I’m reading this and hope that Gabe will read it, too. This is a good one for the kids to read someday, so I am leaning towards finishing the series out in paperback.
• Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Kerry only) – I enjoyed this one, too. As I said, I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
• Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey (Kerry only) – I’m so glad that I decided to pick back up with this series! I forgot how much I love the characters and the stories. I was going to read the George R. R. Martin series, but somehow I felt this one to be easier to pick back up. I wouldn’t recommend this series for everyone, but I love it.
• Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey (Kerry only) – This is obviously in the same series as the previous one. I was sad to get to the end of this book, and I’m not usually sad at the end of a series. I knew that the next trilogy in the series was centered around different characters.
• Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey (Kerry only) – This is a companion series to the Kushiel books. The characters that you grow to love in the first two trilogies are mentioned in this one at times as legends. I like it, too. The style is similar. I can’t say that I like it as much as the first two trilogies yet, but it’s also good.

Books that Kerry wants to read (and Gabe already has read):

• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – It’s been a while now since I finished this one, so it’s difficult to give a mini review. I think that I enjoyed the first two a little better, maybe?
• Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling – Short, fun read. It’s the sort of a book that is a good palette cleanser between other books.

Books that Gabe wants to read (and Kerry already has read):

• Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling – I really wanted Gabe to finish the Harry Potter books before the final movie. I’m so glad that he did! Despite him grumbling about not wanting to read the series for YEARS, I think he enjoyed it quite a bit!
• The Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling – Gabe zipped through all 3 books in January (well, I guess he started in mid to late December).
• The Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling – Hooray! He was able to read through the last book before seeing the last half of it play out on the big screen.
• Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich – I’ve been wanting Gabe to read this one for a while because I knew he would love it. This is the book that the movie 21 was based upon. This book makes me want to go to a casino. Gabe felt the same way, of course

Books that Kerry wants to read (but Gabe doesn’t want to read):

• Still Alice by Lisa Genova – This was a book club selection. It’s sad, but it is well done. It reminded me a little of Flowers for Algernon (in style). I was impressed to find that the author has a neuroscientist background. Well done.
• House Rules by Jodi Picoult – Gabe picked this one up for me as a Christmas gift as he knows I like reading Jodi Picoult now and then. I feel like it has been too long for me to give much of a review for this one. I enjoyed reading Picoult again, though this isn’t one that is going to stand out in my mind as well as ones like My Sister’s Keeper and Nineteen Minutes.
• Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris – It’s been a long time since I picked up this series! It’s not too hard to jump back into, though I barely remembered the characters or what had happened in previous novels. It’s not necessary to enjoy it. I’ll read another one or two of these in between other weightier books. They are quick reads.
• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen – I really enjoy this author! I loved this one, and I look forward to reading The Peach Keeper
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen – This was definitely one of my favorite books of the year and of all time. I can highly recommend it! I enjoyed the movie, too.
• Honolulu by Alan Brennert – I remember enjoying his other book, Moloka’i, so I was looking forward to this one. Interesting historical fiction about Korean picture brides in Honolulu in the early 1900s. I loved this one, too.

Books that Gabe wants to read (but Kerry doesn’t want to read):

• The Terror by Dan Simmons – Gabe said this one is “long and mostly boring” (and as I recall, cold). He said it made him curious about the arctic and how people deal with extreme cold, but he’s not really selling it. I think I’ll pass.

Something that makes me happy: We put together all of the Dominion boxes into two plastic boxes with dividers. This is going to make it so much easier to transport (even from upstairs to downstairs in our house – 6 boxes were unwieldy!).

Something I’m thinking: I have thought that I hated seeing movies in 3D, but it turns out that 3D has come a long way!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that I will get into Dark Places, this month’s book club book. I think that I’m just not in the mood for the genre at the moment.

Something happening around the house: The usual disaster zone of toys scattered everywhere and clutter on every horizontal surface in our kitchen.

Something I’m reading: I finished Naamah’s Kiss, and I plan on taking a little break from the Kushiel series. I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had remembered more about her role and the surrounding events in the Twilight series. I started reading Dark Places for book club.

Something I’m watching: Gabe had a comp day for Friday, so we decided to take advantage of this and go to the movies. Despite the reviews, we decided to see Green Lantern and Cars 2. Have you ever tried to coordinate more than one movie in a day? It takes some planning, if you care about what you want to see and have time constraints. When I used to do “all day movie days,” it took a great deal of planning to fit in 4 or 5 movies in one day!

Something I’m playing: We played 7 Wonders and Dominion with the Cornucopia expansion with friends on Friday. Last night, Gabe and I gave the two player version of 7 Wonders a try. We were happy with how well it worked for us! We hope to play some games with other friends today, if the kiddos will cooperate!

Something tasty: I made Rice Krispies treats last night with chocolate and vanilla swirled marshmallows. Yum!

Something Maddie is doing (40 months old): Maddie’s gotten pretty good at writing her name. She has a preschool workbook and asks for “lessons” from it often. She does well tracing letters and numbers, and can write quite a few of them without tracing (though not all). She can write the letters in her name the best, of course. We still get comments from the teachers about how stubborn she can be. This week, one of the teachers asked us which one of us was stubborn (to which we replied that both of us are!). She has been doing more lessons in the sensorial section with shapes and colors and sizes. We’ve gotten the Winnie the Pooh movie out to prep Maddie for the new Winnie the Pooh movie coming out in a couple of weeks. I’m so excited to take Maddie to the theater for the first time! I can’t think of a better first movie!!!

Something Cullen is doing (17 months old): I hope that he’s getting some more teeth, because he’s been a bit cranky lately! He woke up many, many times last night. It’s been looking like he’s going to get the other teeth in the front for months, but I’ve started to give up on those. The gums where the other 3 molars will appear soon are bumpy, but nothing has broken through yet. He’s still a bad sleeper, even though he’s not nursing in the middle of the night. He goes back to sleep fairly easily most nights, but he wakes up at least 2 or 3 times. I laugh about friend with 3 and 5 month olds who routinely sleep 8 or 9 hours. Um, I don’t know if Cullen has ever done that! A couple of days this week, I thought we were doing good with the weaning from the nursing, but we had a few days where he had to nurse more than usual (just not at night). Most of the time, he nurses either in the morning or night, still, and sometimes both. He’s repeating just about anything we say (good thing we’re already careful about what we say with Maddie around!). He has so many words! It’s really amazing to me how much he’s capable of saying. Today, we tried giving Cullen a shower to see how he would react (to prepare for the cruise when we won’t have a bathtub). After having water play outside yesterday, I think that he thought it was great fun! I think that the showers on the cruise for him will be just fine.

Something I am struggling with: Gabe and I are struggling with the lack of sodas in the house. We decided to cut out diet soda in the house. We still allow ourselves to get it at restaurants (and, shhhhh, don’t tell Gabe that I have been sneaking some from the soda fountains at work). (oh, crap, he reads the blog)

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Gabe and I went through our shelves of games and updated the list on the website. We’ve been meaning to do that for a while! I’m working on a blog post that will be a follow up to the books we need to read list that I posted earlier this year. We’ve been doing great on that reading challenge! The only problem with that is that I haven’t been reading enough on my kindle! I keep reading books from my shelves and borrowed books from friends.

Something I learned: I learned that I can now instantly redeem my amazon credit card points when ordering items on amazon! Woohoo! I haven’t ordered any gift certificates, and now I’m glad I didn’t deal with the hassle. Now, I just have to decide what I want to order for FREE.

Something I’m looking forward to: My photography class has a field trip this week, so that should be interesting. I hope that it will be informative. I’d love to see fireworks tomorrow, but I don’t think it’s going to happen this year.

Something random: I’ll be enjoying my last week in the office building that I’ve been in for 13 years. The thing that I will miss the most is the daily hot oatmeal bar downstairs. I guess I’ll either have to hike to other buildings (or wait for the cruise later this year, ha!). I love fresh, hot oatmeal.

Something captured: Our new solution for the Dominion cards! Yay!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: While I’m not happy about the reasons for canceling our July 4th weekend trip (my grandpa has been in the hospital), I am happy to be spending a long weekend at home. I feel like I could use some “relaxing” time (as if staying at home with two little kids is “relaxing).

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that it’s Tuesday, not Sunday.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that I can get rid of this annoying summer cold.

Something happening around the house: Toys, toys, everywhere!

Something I’m reading: I’m almost finished with Naamah’s Kiss. I finished and started rereading The Giver for this week’s book club, and I’m looking forward to the discussion!

Something I’m watching: I went to see Bridesmaids, and it has one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Something I’m playing: We got together with friends on Friday to play 7 Wonders, Airlines, and Piece of Cake. I really like 7 Wonders. We are going to need to add that one to our collection soon. The other two games were fun, too. I’d play them again!

Something tasty: For tonight (Tuesday), Gabe found us a new recipe to try. It involved chicken, green and red peppers, pineapple, and an orange sauce over rice. Yummy! We also lightly battered the chicken, so it felt like we were eating a restaurant dish.

Something Maddie is doing (40 months old): At home, Maddie only stops talking when she’s sleeping. She’s seriously a chatterbox! And Cullen talks way more than Maddie did at this age, so I think we’re in trouble. Poor Gabe will never get a word in. This week, Maddie told me that one of her best friends was no longer her best friend. I was saddened! What could have happened? A day or two later, her buddy was on the list again, so who knows. Maybe they had a little spat that day. Who knew that 3-year old friend dynamics were so complicated! Maddie currently consistently lists 4 of her buddies as her “best friends” (except that one day). It’s interesting that all four of them are friends that she sees regularly either on the playground or outside of school and that all of them were in her 2-year old classroom. Only one of her best friends are in her class now. Maddie is doing better in swim class every week. She is still hesitant to go with the instructor into the pool, but this week she went willingly (reached for the instructor) every time. I’m so glad that we’re doing the lessons. I am definitely seeing improvements! She’s not going to be swimming laps anytime soon, but she is getting more comfortable in the water, at least. She did great in her last two dance classes, too. She followed instructions almost the whole time in both! I was so proud of her. I think the difference was that all the kids were running around playing tag before class. I think it helped Maddie be more engaged with the class with a warm up period beforehand.

Something Cullen is doing (17 months old): He is talking so much! Like I said, he is talking a lot more than Maddie did at this age. I think he has a large vocabulary, but he also just chatters more frequently. I’m hearing him say, “no!!” more often. He’s quite opinionated. Every day, he surprises me with words that he knows. Today, he pointed to several pictures in a book and identified a snake, elephant, and lion (in addition to many other things). I don’t think I knew that he knew those words. He can repeat anything (and often does both immediately and later in context). He is continuing to put words together in two and three word sentences. His most often used phrase is still “where ___ go?” The other day, Cullen lifted up his shirt and put a “Little People” person to his chest. I thought that maybe he was trying to nurse the little person, but Gabe said earlier in the day that Gabe was stuffing people into Cullen’s shirt for giggles. So, maybe he wasn’t nursing the figures…either way, I thought it was funny. Cullen is still nursing once or twice a day, but he’s weaning slowly. We haven’t gone an entire day without nursing yet, but we have had days where he didn’t nurse in the morning and other days where he didn’t nurse at night before bed. We have had other days where he needed more nursing time for comfort with his teething and being sick (I think he shared his summer cold with me). He says “Mommy” and “Mama” frequently, and I love it! He now points to himself in photos and says, “Cullen!” He loves identifying people that he knows in photos. He’s great at Mommy, Daddy, and Maddie. He can also identify a few others. Cullen has been very attached to the baby dolls lately. He has really bonded with Maddie’s baby doll (who used to be called “Baby” and was renamed “Baby Sister” by Maddie when Annabelle and Henry joined the doll family). Maddie isn’t too fond of Cullen playing with Baby Sister all the time.

Something I am struggling with: This stupid cold.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I decided to go ahead and write some thank you emails for the National MS Society thank yous that I have not handwritten. Better late and in electronic form than never, right? Sigh. I will try to do better next year. We raised over $6000 this year, woohoo!

Something I learned: I learn stuff all the time and then I think, “hey, I should use this for my Sunday Somethings!” and then I forget when I sit down to write it down on Tuesday night. Ahem. Oh!!! I almost forgot…I learned what my hair looks like straight. I loved it, but I’m not sure that I can do it myself. I might have to get the equipment and product to try it out (I don’t even own a hair dryer). It was very weird to see (and feel) my hair straight.

Something I’m looking forward to: Well, if this had been Sunday, I would have said Maddie’s last ballet class. I think we will have to do more classes like this (not necessarily ballet or dance). I think the extracurricular lessons are good for Maddie. Tomorrow night, I have photography class and book club. I don’t want to miss book club, so I’m going to go to about 30 minutes of photography class before running off to book club. I actually completed this week’s assignment, so hopefully Melissa and Jason will pass along feedback for me. I’m looking forward to a day with my hubby on Friday. He managed to get an extra comp day for some overtime put in last weekend, so we’re going to try to see two movies.

Something captured: One more photo of the ballerinas after their dance class.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Visits from my parents. They were here this weekend for a quick visit. I think they enjoyed seeing the kids. The kids change so much from visit to visit, even if it has not been long since the last visit. We already have plans to see them again in a few weeks.

Something I’m thinking: I’m looking forward to spending some time with the kids on vacation coming up soon!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on work projects this week.

Something happening around the house: We got a new kids’ table for Maddie and Cullen from the work bulletin board. It’s adorable with 4 little chairs all painted in different colors with handpainted animals on each one.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Lightning Thief as well as the second book in the series, Sea of Monsters. I had those two books already, and I plan to read the others as well. I decided not to buy them yet and read something from our shelves instead. I decided last night to restart Kushiel’s Justice. I had made it through about half of it a couple of years ago. It’s the 5th book in that series. Now, there are 9 in the series, so I have some catching up to do. I did read a couple of chapters in A Clash of Kings but decided I’d rather catch up on Kushiel first.

Something I’m watching: Gabe and I went out to see Thor on Friday night! We loved it. Sadly, this was the first time that we had been out together without the kids all year. We’re going to have to do it again several times this summer with Cars 2, Super 8 (maybe?), the final Harry Potter, X-Men: First Class (maybe?), Green Lantern (maybe?), Captain America (probably), and whatever else everyone else is talking about.

Something I’m playing: We played Telestrations and Kaleidos last night with my family.

Something tasty: We had breakfast at Brigs this morning. We haven’t been there in a long time! I had granola pancakes, and they were yummy!

Something Maddie is doing (39 months old): Maddie is now 39 months old, and I’ve been working on her letter. I hope to get it done this week. She continues to be more sophisticated with her vocabulary. I had a few moments this week where I was amazed again at the things that she says and conclusions that she draws on her own. Of course, who knows what she’s telling people now. Friday night, Kristin was babysitting and Maddie made sure to let her know that when Mommy and Daddy were sick the other day, “they didn’t read any stories that night.” True. She’s been doing a lot of art projects this week. We’ve been doing dot art and markers quite a bit. She’s still working on practicing her letters. Her people drawing skills continue to evolve. She draws stick figures now, and all of them have a ton of “crazy hair.”

Something Cullen is doing (16 months old): Cullen is 16 months old! I’m doing his letters every 3 months, so I still have 2 more months until his next one. Earlier this week, I asked Cullen, “are you a baby?” and then said, “noooo, you’re not a baby!” I asked him many times this week if he’s a baby, and now he will shake his head and sometimes also say “nooooooo” or a short “no!” It’s so cute. This morning, I heard him at the breakfast table babbling. During his babbling, he said, “baby. no no no no no” while shaking his head. It’s adorable. He loved playing at the park this morning with Nana and Papa. He wanted to climb all over the play structures and go down the slides. He also loved swinging! This is the first time that we’ve put him in the swings at the park. Most of the time, we’re running around the playground and climbing. This afternoon, he came down with a fever. Poor little guy. He had the stomach bug a week ago, though he thankfully had a much milder version of it than I did.

Something I am struggling with: I had a terrible stomach bug that started Monday morning. I didn’t feel better until Tuesday night, so the bug lasted more than 24 hours. No stomach bug should ever last more than 24 hours! I was really, really sick on Monday night. Gabe was worried he was going to have to take me to the hospital.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I finished my 2010 photobooks…finally! They ran a special deal this week for certain customers involving a coupon for 50% off 12×12 photobooks! This gave me the motivation to finish my 3rd volume for 2010 (yes, I had 3 books of more than 80 pages each for 2010). Only one coupon was allowed per account. Gabe and I each ordered one, and a friend ordered the other for us! With the free shipping deal, we were able to save almost $300 for the 3 photobooks. Of course, now that I’m finished with my 2010 photobooks, that just means I have more photobook projects to work on. It’s a never ending process. I think my next book might be Volume 1 of “letters to Maddie” (which will also serve as Maddie’s “baby” book).

Something I learned: I learned that Gabe and I have absolutely no issues plopping the kiddos in front of the TV as much as possible when we’re both feeling sick. Gabe didn’t get the stomach bug as badly as I did, but he didn’t feel well on Monday night either. We watched a lot of Mickey Mouse and Cars that evening. Maddie told Kristin later in the week that “Mommy and Daddy were sick, and we didn’t read any stories that night.”

Something I’m looking forward to: We have a follow up with Cullen’s ENT this week. I’m eager to find out more about his “mucus blob.” Book club is also this week, and we’re going to be discussing Sarah’s Key and American Gods. Our trip is coming soon where we will be going to the mountains with friends, visiting family in Cincinnati and Lexington, and going to our nephew’s high school graduation.

Something planned that I’m not looking forward to: I’m not looking forward to my dental appointment this week. He’s doing some adjustment to a filling (which doesn’t appear to be bothering me, but whatever). He’s also going to take some x-rays of a tooth that has been bothering me for years. I’m going to have to get a crown which I dread both psychologically and financially! Ugh! So, um, I’m not looking forward to that!

Something captured: The kids with my parents at the park this morning.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Sleeping in. Gabe and I each were able to do that once this weekend.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking that I will need to write Maddie’s next letter this week, assuming I’m still going to do letters every 3 months (and I think I will).

Something happening around the house: We had the carpets and couch cleaned this week. It looks nice, though we discovered that there’s only so much that carpet cleaning can do for certain spots. We’re still very happy with the results! Also this week, Gabe painted our bedroom! It’s so nice to have the walls match our bedding again. We’re enjoying the new look. Gabe also hung some framed art and photos around the house.

Something I’m reading: I finished Sarah’s Key and look forward to discussing it at book club. It was interesting to learn about the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in France, something that I knew nothing about before reading this book. As you might expect, the book is sad. The author tried hard not to make it historical fiction. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more had it been written as historical fiction. The book alternates between the viewpoint of the girl whose family is taken away from their home in 1942 and a journalist researching the events in 2002. The journalist’s story seemed more forced as the sequence of events and coincidences were a bit unbelievable at times. I’m glad I read it, and I think we’ll have much to discuss at book club. I started reading Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series which starts with The Lightning Thief. I’m probably going to finish the first book in the next day or so. I’m enjoying it so far!

Something I’m watching: I went to see Something Borrowed with a girlfriend. I’m a sucker for books I’ve read that get turned into movies! I’m especially excited about The Help coming out later this year. I was worried about Something Borrowed as the reviews are pretty awful, but then I remembered movies from this genre aren’t generally well reviewed. I thought it was fun, especially since I had read the book.

Something tasty: I made those Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins again this morning.

Something Maddie is doing (38 months old): When Maddie started preschool, I worried about what she might start learning from the older kids. I had heard that I should be prepared for them to learn insults and other questionable language. I think that Maddie may not mingle as much with the other kids, and she hasn’t brought home too many bad habits. This week, however, she started saying, “Oh, God!” I told her that she should say, “oh, gosh” or “oh, goodness!” or “good gracious” as well as various other “acceptable” alternatives. I suppose if this is the worst thing she’s brought home from preschool, we’ll consider ourselves lucky! She has done a little extra name calling, but it has been of the silly variety instead of the mean kind (like “you’re a blueberry!”). Maddie and I went to the craft store and found some dot-art supplies. She’s been having some art time today.

Something Cullen is doing (15 months old): Cullen and I had a special day this week which included going to a park, getting his passport in preparation for our cruise later this year, and having a special lunch with both Mommy and Daddy. We had fun together, though it mostly involved me chasing him around trying to make sure he didn’t hurt himself on the playground. Cullen is such a sweet boy these days. He continues to give me big, open mouthed kisses, mostly prompted (“Cullen, can I have a kiss?”) though sometimes unprompted. He gets excited to be reunited with me after we’ve been apart whether it’s been for 15 minutes or 6 hours. This week, I learned that he can identify his belly, belly button, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, head, feet, and hands. In addition to pointing to the appropriate body part, he has started saying some of these words as well. His language continues to develop with new words all the time. Oh, and just before lunch, he ate the tip of a crayon. I guess he was hungry!

Something I am struggling with: I haven’t been able to visit the kids during the day very often due to their transitions at first and now my work obligations.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I am hoping to finish my 2010 photobooks (all 3 volumes) this week. I wrote a few more thank you notes for the Walk MS donations, and we have our Wine & Design fundraiser this evening!

Something I’m looking forward to: Lunches with friends (especially since I’ve been working through lunch a lot lately), dinner with friends, and a visit from my parents. I’m also looking forward to the Survivor finale tonight!

Something random: I went to bed before 9pm last night, despite my hopes of working on my 2010 photobooks (I need to finish those things!). I woke up around 1am and couldn’t sleep for a couple of hours. I took advantage of the relative peace and quiet and worked on some photobook pages.

Something captured: Cullen having a snack at the park during his Mommy day.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Taking the kids to the park.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about getting the cleaners to come more often. When the cleaners were once a month, we were thinking that about 3 weeks would be perfect. Now that they are coming every 3 weeks, I think that every other week would be perfect. I think there’s something to the fact that we’ve added two kiddos to the household since we started having cleaners.

Something happening around the house: We removed a tree this week. I’m sad about it, but it was dangerous structurally to our house, our neighbor’s house, our fence, and our satellite dish.

Something I’m reading: I finished House Rules and started on Honolulu by Alan Brennert. I enjoyed Moloka’i, so I have been looking forward to reading another one of his books. It has not disappointed so far! I will probably finish it in the next few days. I suppose I will need to read Sarah’s Key next for book club. I’ve been doing such a great job reading from the books we own and need to read. I think I’ll probably buy Sarah’s Key on the kindle so I can actually use it. I feel like once I get through the physical books we already have, I’ll probably buy new books on the kindle. I’m disappointed, though, that Sarah’s Key is not a lendable title. Boo.

Something I’m watching: I saw Water for Elephants with girlfriends who had also read the book. The novel is one of my favorites, and the movie was a very good screen adaptation!

Something I’m playing: We had games night yesterday, and since it is Mother’s Day weekend, Gabe let me play while he tended to the kids. I played Call My Bluff (twice), Stone Age, Appletters, Scattegories, and Trivial Pursuit 25th Anniversary Edition.

Something tasty: Chocolate chip banana muffins. I’ll post the recipe in a few days. They were YUMMY!

Something Maddie is doing (38 months old): We had Muffins for Mom in her classroom this week. The kids served their mothers first and then themselves. After we finished our muffins and strawberries, we had some time to explore the classroom. Maddie showed me her favorite work: making necklaces. She was stringing beads and said, “I’m making this for you, Mommy.” Awww. So sweet! She had already made a necklace for me with a laminated pendant with her photo as well as a ribbon and beads. It was great, and I wore both necklaces proudly all day at work and this weekend. This week, Maddie wrote her name for the first time! It surprised Gabe and me!! I was so proud of her.

Something Cullen is doing (15 months old): We’ve completely lost track of Cullen’s new words. I know he is saying new ones every day. Just today, he said “egg” and “stick” possibly for the first time. Cullen had a Mother’s Day event in his classroom and made me a box that matches one that Maddie made for me in the same classroom. Cullen painted it himself (perhaps with a little help), and it has an adorable photo of him on the top. This week, Cullen has been super sweet. One day, I asked him if he can give me some kisses and he leaned in with his wide open mouth to “kiss” my face. He did this numerous times this week. It’s so sweet, and he says something like “awwwww” at the same time. he’s also getting good at things like pointing at his belly when asked, “where’s your belly?” He had some very rough nights this week, including a few that may be his worst ever. He is continuing to recover from his surgery, but I’ll be glad when he’s completely healed. Cullen continues to be a big climber. Yesterday, Gabe turned away from Cullen for less than a minute. When he turned around, Cullen was sitting on top of a card table.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but we have both kids signed up for swimming lessons this summer.

Something I learned: Shutterfly made an announcement this week that I’m very excited about! They have released their truly custom books. I can’t wait to try them out. It sounds like you can put images and text wherever you want them. They also have something called embellishments that are like stickers in traditional scrapbooking. I’m going to finish my 2010 books the old way (there’s no way to convert existing projects anyway).

Something I’m looking forward to: Carpet cleaning, a special day for Cullen (as I did with Maddie when she turned one), a big party at work (I hear there will be fireworks!), and our Wine & Design fundraising event.

Something random: I learned this week that Cullen was ranked number 413 for boys’ names in 2010. At least with Cullen’s name, we were not mislead by the popularity ranking.

Something captured: We went to the park this afternoon, and I tried to get a photo with the kids like I did last Mother’s Day. It’s like herding cats.

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