KerryAndGabe.com

Better late than never, right? We spent Thanksgiving in Davidson with my parents. My sister and Chad joined us for the day.

We were excited to Skpye with my grandma for the first time. We have been telling her about it for a while, so it was neat that she had the opportunity to try it.

We had a “feast,” as the kids called it. We had all the traditional, southern options. We put a little bit of everything on their plate.

Of course, they refused to eat more than half of it.

We put napkin rings on our eyes. Or maybe that was just me while everyone else laughed at me. I love Cullen’s expression. I think he’s already embarrassed by his mother, and he’s not even 2.

He was also amused.

He wanted to try it for himself.

We enjoyed some family time. Between us, we had 5 iPhones, an iPad, and a few MacBooks. We played a lot of Words With Friends against each other.

Cullen played an iPhone, too, in his new Apptivity case. That case is great for letting toddlers play the apps. I think my favorite feature is that it blocks the home key.

We had a great day with family. After the kids went to bed, we played Wits & Wagers and laughed a lot, as usual.

Happy Thanksgiving to us!

My work hosted a Halloween festival called “Fright Night.” We liked the opportunity to put on costumes more than once this year.

We got there just before they opened, so we had to wait outside a few minutes. It was chilly, and Maddie does not like being cold!

Cullen loved playing in the bounce house, and I was glad he got a chance to do it before it was overrun by bigger kids. He only had to share it with a couple of little kids at first. This wasn’t his first time in a bounce house, but it was the first time he could really play. The other times we have tried it, it has been too crowded for little kids.

He enjoyed playing the carnival games, throwing balls and beanbags in hoops and such.

Maddie went down the slide several times before the lines got long. It was funny to see her come down as her dress flew up into her face each time.

We went to get our pizza dinner and watched part of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This was the first time the kids had seen the movie, and we DVRed it the next week.

This is the best photo of the kids in their costumes that we got all Halloween, I think. That’s not saying much.

They weren’t terribly cooperative for the photo ops.

We did a quick trunk-or-treat. I think they usually have more trunks, and they are usually decorated, but it was cold and rainy outside. They just had a quick one-stop bag of goodies. We grabbed some fresh popcorn and headed home for bedtime.

I usually like to keep my video clips under a minute, or as close as possible, but I wanted to put together several of their Christmas performances into one video. Maddie’s classroom performed a concert at school, but we were on the cruise when it happened. They had been practicing for weeks. Maddie gave us a private performance the night before the cruise.

Click on this link or visit the blog post to see the embedded video.

It’s mostly Maddie singing songs, but Cullen has a few cute moments and some singing of his own towards the end.

We walked from our hotel to the beach, and decided to walk towards the cruise ships. Saturday’s ships were leaving the port, and we all were excited to see the Oasis of the Seas depart, since that was our sister ship. Several ships had started their journey when we made it to the beach.

We walked a little ways along the beach.

We decided that we had walked far enough, and it didn’t seem like we were going to get much closer to the ships without walking more than we wanted. We stopped at a playground on the beach, and Maddie headed for the play structure. I took Cullen to the play structure, but I decided that it would be easier to let him explore the beach. So, we headed for the water.

He was a bit fearless at first.

We took off our shoes and socks and rolled up our pants. Cullen watched the waves for a while.

Jason and Maddie had been playing on the play structure, and they joined us a few minutes later. My mom joined us at the water as well. The rest of our group took a break and sat on a wall at the edge of the sand.

This is the first of many times on this trip that Jason tried to steal our kiddos. Here we are looking like a lovely family.

The kids watched the waves, and I tried to get photos in the light of the setting sun. Cullen kept falling down and getting his jeans wet and sandy. We didn’t have the best beach attire as we didn’t change our clothes after landing in Fort Lauderdale. It wasn’t too hot as the sun was setting.

The kids didn’t cooperate with my photoshoot too much. I snapped away, anyway.

The Fort Lauderdale beach was a little gross. We saw many cigarette butts and just random trash along the beach. Yuck! Obviously, I let my kiddos walk barefoot on the beach anyway.

I had to keep an eye on Jason. He tried to steal the kids again.

We were all very sandy after our visit to the beach. It was almost impossible to clean up all the sand on their feet, hands, and legs. While we were cleaning up the sand, Oasis finally left!

We were all excited to see how BIG the ship was compared to the others that we had seen leaving the port. Wow! We couldn’t believe that we would finally be getting on the Allure and departing in less than 24 hours! We pointed out features of the ship, the most obvious being the AquaTheatre on the back.

We walked back towards our hotel in search of a place to have our dinner. We found an interesting looking place that looked like a generic cafe type place called Oasis. We were sold on the tables and benches that were actually swings! The concept turned out to be quite a bit neater than the reality. They sat us at a giant table at first, but it was too big and literally between a road and the dumpsters in the back of the restaurant. We requested a different table, and that one was a tad small for our party of 9. We managed. The table was a little far from the benches, so that was tricky with the kids.

I had a chicken quesadilla, and I thought it was decent. Apparently, Jason and Melissa had ordered the same thing and theirs barely had any chicken at all. Everyone else declared that their meal was mediocre to bad. On top of the mediocre food, it was overpriced. Strike three for meals on that day! Thank goodness the majority of the meals for the next 7 days would be on the cruise ship!

After our mediocre meal, we headed to the boat parade. Gabe’s mom headed back to the room to watch Kentucky suffer their first loss in basketball for the season. We had heard conflicting reports on the best place to stand to view the parade, and one of our recommendations was into a private, restricted area. We were denied entry, so we headed with the masses of people to the drawbridge.

It was difficult to take photos during the boat parade as we had several palm trees between us and the boats, and there were a lot of people on the bridge. Maddie could see the boats from her stroller, and we didn’t want the kids running around on the drawbridge. Cullen was a little lower in his stroller, and he couldn’t see a thing. I took him out of the stroller and held him for the majority of the time that we were watching the parade.

This was the 40th Winterfest Boat Parade (I learned that from one of the first floats). I thought that it was pretty neat. Some boats had fireworks! Other boats were blasting music and making announcements.

Cullen loved watching the “kissmiss lights!!!!” and seeing the boats and hearing them blast their boat horns. “The boat says ‘toot toot!’” We danced on the bridge to the music. He loved it…until he got a bit tired and cranky. We put him in the stroller after a little while, he fell fast asleep. Cullen did pretty well considering that he never had a chance to nap during the day, since we had checked into the room so late.

By that time, the parade had lost Maddie’s attention as well, and she was playing Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone. The boat parade was very neat, but I must say that it moves a lot slower than a normal parade. It was difficult to see everything, and it didn’t keep the kids’ attention for too long.

The vantage point on the bridge was not far from the hotel, and we headed back at 8pm. All of us were exhausted! It seemed much, much later than 8pm. Cullen woke up briefly to get into his jammies and for a quick bedtime story. Neither kid put up much of a fight at bedtime!

Our favorites from the day:
Gabe: easy flight with the kids
Kerry: easy flight with the kids, playing on the beach, and seeing the boat parade
Maddie (according to her): seeing the boats in the parade and putting her feet in the water at the beach
Cullen (my guess): putting his feet in the water at the beach and seeing the boats with Mommy

We carved fancy pumpkins from kits again this year. Since the kids were Minnie and Mickey for Halloween, we chose to do a Mickey pumpkin and a Minnie pumpkin. Gabe carved Mickey, and I carved Minnie. We roasted the pumpkin seeds afterward (separating them is a messy business).

I didn’t hurt myself or others with the big knife.

Our pumpkins turned out pretty well. The kids were excited to see them on the porch over the next week.

Here’s how they looked in the dark!

Something that makes me happy: Christmas. Santa! Presents! Family! Friends! Food!

Something I’m thinking: Sometimes my kids are crazy nuts.

Something happening around the house: Chaos as we try to figure out where new toys should go. Some toy shuffling has been happening.

Something I’m reading: Still reading the third book of the Percy Jackson series. I’m not making fast progress. I did learn that my library books have not been deleted from the kindle since I haven’t been connected to the wifi. So, I can finish reading my books without having to worry about waiting lists and such.

Something Gabe is reading: Hyperion.

Something I’m watching: Santa brought the kids the new Winnie the Pooh movie, and we’ve already watched it a couple of times.

Something I’m playing: I played Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers and part of a game of Forbidden Island tonight.

Something tasty: Tons of chex mix, christmas cookies, and country ham.

Something about both kiddos: The kids play together fairly well these days. They also fight over little things often. Yesterday, I overheard Maddie say to Cullen, “Cullen, Let’s play a game where I run and you try to catch me. I’ll keep running and you try to catch me.” Cullen replied, “Ready. Set. Go.” They spent maybe 20 minutes running around and chasing each other. Maddie also said, “Try to catch me! That’s the name of the game!” Cullen and Maddie both decorated gingerbread houses. I got some adorable photos, but I had forgotten that I took the memory card out of the camera. Oops. Fortunately, they each decorated 2 tiny houses, so I had a second chance. They decorated sugar cookies, too. Pretty much this resulted in a bunch of iced cookies totally covered in sprinkles. Both kids got a ton of great stuff from Santa, family and friends.

Something Maddie is doing (46 months old): Maddie received a bunch of big gifts for Christmas this year. Nana and Papa got her a dollhouse, Santa brought her a LeapPad (an iPad type tablet for kids), and Kristin and Chad gave both kids an awesome kitchen. She says that her favorite gift was the firetruck, but that seems like an odd answer because it’s definitely not the gift that she’s played with the most. It’s hard to say which gift she’s played with the most, but most of her new toys have already seen a lot of play. While we’ve been home on our holiday break (all week), we have had her choose all of her clothes. It’s fun to see what she chooses each day. Usually, she picks some sort of a dress. Sometimes she puts together interesting combinations that generally work. She choose a “Peace, Love, and Rock & Roll” shirt on Saturday, and said, “look! it has a heart and a pretzel!” Ha! On Christmas, we let the kids have whatever candy or treats they wanted (within reason). Maddie figured that out after a little bit. She said to Daddy, “Daddy! Daddy! Mommy let me have a lollipop!” Daddy replied that “Wow, it is a special day!” and she said, “Yeah! You can have candy whenever you want!” Smart girl. We never even let the kids know they could have whatever they want. I guess we’re a tad limiting on a normal day! When the kids came downstairs to see what Santa brought them, Maddie was so cute, “Cullen! Cullen! Santa brought you your dolls! And a stroller!” She barely even noticed her own pile, she was so concerned about telling Cullen about his. She did the same thing last year. Sweet girl (when she wants to be). Also, when she was opening her stocking, she discovered a doll outfit and said, “Cullen should have this because his dolls don’t have many clothes.” On Christmas Eve, Maddie saw a personalized video from Santa and was in awe. She was very eager to get to bed that night as she didn’t want Santa to skip our house!

Something Cullen is doing (23 months old): Cullen finally has his own Annabelle (he calls her “My Annabelle”) and a girl doll version of Henry (the light haired girl bitty twin). He rejected almost every name that I tried to give the new doll. He tried calling her Henry. I had no interest in calling her Henrietta. I suggested at least half a dozen names, and each time he said, “I don’t like that name.” At some point, he tried calling her “Boy” and I said, “no, she’s not a boy!” He then answered, “Is not a boy” when I asked her name. I said, “you want to call the doll ‘isnottaboy?’” “Yes” (the first time he said yes). I said, “Can we call her Izzy for short?” “yeah” “So we can call her Izzy?” “Yeah, Izzy.” So, there you have it. The doll is now known as Izzy. Even better, Cullen now refers to the bitty twins as his ladies which is just about the cutest thing ever. “Where’s my ladies?” “I need to get my ladies!” Thanks to Daddy, who was holding Cullen with a doll in each arm. Daddy commented, “look at Cullen, he’s a ladies man!” LOL! That was Cullen’s big gift from Santa along with a double stroller. He also shares the kitchen with Maddie and got a strider bike from Nana and Papa. Cullen has been singing more and more words to songs. Lately, he’s been singing several Christmas songs, the dreidel song, and a few standards like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He has been doing more counting and is starting to get one-to-one correspondence. He’s been doing great with his big boy bed transition. His bed is full of stuffed animals. We take many of them out of the bed before bedtime, but he’ll often crawl out of bed and retrieve them. He has been staying in the bed for the most part, and he’s been sleeping about the same as he was before the transition. He has fallen out of the bed a few times, but he’s pretty low to the ground. He still has his pacis when sleeping in his bed.

Something I am struggling with: Pictures! I now have close to 5,000 photos from the cruise (collected from ourselves and others). It is going to take me a while to get it down to a manageable number. It would be great to get that number down to about 10%, but I think that 20% is more realistic, at least to start.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We’re creating memories and holiday traditions with our kids.

Something I learned: Santa probably needs to do more set up before he leaves his gifts. The LeapPad was a bit of a pain to set up on Christmas morning with an eager almost 4 year old.

Something I’m looking forward to: A few more days away from work, not that they will be relaxing days with the kiddos.

Something captured: Merry Christmas!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: Giant cruise ships!

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about when we might be able to cruise again. I love being on the ship! I’m not sure if we will want to take another vacation in December, though. We got back with only a week until Christmas, so December rushed by a bit quickly. Now we’re scrambling to get ready for the holiday.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that we can salvage a few good photos in the over 4000 photos that we have collected so far (with our photos and Melissa and Jason’s). So far, it doesn’t look that promising, but I’m sure I’ll feel better once I weed out the really bad ones. It’s going to take several passes to get down to a reasonable bunch of photos! I liked not lugging around the SLR, but I’m not sure I’m happy with the results.

Something happening around the house: My sister came over the other day to put together the huge kitchen that the kids are getting for Christmas from Aunt Kristin and Uncle Chad. The kids are going to love it! So far, the kids haven’t noticed it. It’s in the library (next to the Christmas tree, in the corner) hidden under a big sheet.

Something I’m reading: I’m not doing much reading, but I’m still on the 3rd book of the Percy Jackson series. I got it from the library before our trip, and it is about to expire. I wonder if it will be removed from my kindle if I’m not connected to wifi? I will find out soon! Fortunately, the Percy Jackson series is “always available” on the kindle at the library, so I won’t have to get back on a waiting list to check it out again.

Something Gabe is reading: He started reading Hyperion on the cruise. He finished The Hero of Ages.

Something I’m watching: We’re watching the last episodes of Survivor that aired while we were on the cruise, including the finale.

Something I’m playing: We played a lot of the trivia sessions on the cruise, including the progressive trivia. We were close to winning many sessions, but we did win the progressive trivia (the one with the best prizes!).

Something tasty: We had so many tasty things on the cruise!!! My favorite is probably the gruyere onion tart. We had lots of tasty desserts, too. It was a great week for food, at least when we were on the ship. Our food off the ship (in Fort Lauderdale and St. Maarten) was sub par. Fortunately, we ate almost all of the meals on the ship!

Something about both kiddos: The kids had a blast on the cruise. Their favorite thing was the carousel, but they also enjoyed meeting the DreamWorks characters. Some of the shows held their attention. They loved the beach, for the first time, so I think we may actually have some beach trips in our future. They loved the character meals and the parade. We enjoyed their reactions! Both kids are enjoying the Mr. Men and Little Misses books.

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): Maddie has picked up on a couple of bad habits lately. She talks like her brother, even when she’s not repeating his speech. I have to constantly remind her not to talk like a baby/toddler. Her other habit comes out at random. She doesn’t do it all the time, but it’s a little annoying when she does it. She says “ya” for “you” over and over. I’m not sure where she picked up on this one! Maddie had so much fun on the cruise (her 3rd). Her favorite parts were the swimming pool and the carousel. Depending on her mood, she will tell you one or the other if you ask her about her favorite part. She had a lot of fun on the beach, which is a complete 180 from our other beach experiences. She usually hates it. She built sandcastles and mostly stayed in the sand, but she didn’t mind putting her feet in the water. She did not like the seaweed in the water on St. Maarten, but then again, neither did I. She continues to be a Daddy’s girl and still wants to be carried from time to time. She is asking Santa for mickey mouse, a truck, and an airplane set. She was concerned this morning that Santa wouldn’t know what to bring Cullen because we haven’t made a list for him yet. We made him a list tonight. Maddie did crafts on the plane and made everyone something special for their cabin doors. On the way back, she informed Daddy that this plane had “the tiny movies” (each seat back had a tv screen). Maddie had her very first sip of carbonated beverage, and she did not like it. She danced with Fiona and King Julian. Maddie was all about sitting next to Grandma at meals.

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): Cullen had his very first plane ride (roundtrip, of course) and cruise. The plane ride on the way to Florida was not bad at all. Cullen remained fairly happy through the majority of it. He was entertained by reading the safety documentation, watching the tv screens, and reading the Mr. Men books. He got upset towards the end. I think his ears were hurting. The plane ride back wasn’t nearly as smooth. He was not happy to be on the plane, and he screamed a lot. His first real beach experience was good! He was fascinated with the water and loved playing in the sand. He was a good eater on the ship. His favorites were the fruit soups, broccoli, and savory bites (one of the bread options). He also took a liking to lettuce on the trip. Cullen is a Mommy’s boy. He insisted on sitting next to me for most meals. He was a sweet boy, but the 2 hour meals were a tad long for him at times. I don’t blame him. They are a tad long for all of us. He wasn’t sure about a few of the characters, especially King Julian and Shrek. He said, “I don’t like Shrek” and refused to meet him. He was entranced by Fiona. When Fiona visited him at our table, he looked after her longingly and said, “Come back, Fiona!” He is starting to be trained for photos and would repeatedly walk up to random spots on the ship, turn around, and look at me sweetly so that I would take his photo. He loved the carousel. He had fun exploring the ship, and he didn’t always want to hold someone’s hand. He started insisting that he hold his own hand. “Cullen, I need you to hold my hand.” “No, I hold my own hand.” Very clever. He was fascinated by the dragons, and when he says “dragon” it sounds like “fwagon.” One of my favorite moments on the trip was when we saw the How to Train Your Dragon ice show (yes, there was an ice skating rink on the cruise ship) and the dragons appeared for the first time. He gasped and said, “Dragon!” So cute. Last night was his first night in the “big boy bed,” his crib converted to a toddler bed. Fortunately, he’s not very far from the ground, and we put pillows next to his bed. He fell out of bed twice in the first couple hours last night, but he slept fine the rest of the time. He seems to be snoring up a storm at the moment in the big boy bed, so the transition is going well so far.

Something I am struggling with: I couldn’t get much done this week. I was exhausted from the cruise. We packed so much into last week, and we didn’t get as much sleep as we might like. I also had the sensation that I was still on the boat for almost 3 days. I didn’t like that at all. As a result, I didn’t get much that I wanted to get done for the holidays with my remaining shopping. I didn’t do any baking. I promised the teachers that I would do some baking after the new year.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We have now officially cruised on a megaship!

Something I’m looking forward to: Christmas!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: The annual Christmas date with Audrey makes me very happy! This year, we went to brunch at the Umstead hotel and then to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I had seen them perform years ago. What an amazing show! I hope to do a write up about it soon.

Something I’m thinking: The blog has been neglected lately. We’ve been extremely busy with getting ready for the holidays and our cruise.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that my family stays well between now and the end of the cruise. I’m paranoid about someone getting sick and missing the cruise.

Something happening around the house: Our annual poker tournament was on Saturday. Good times! The bonus room is still set up like a poker room with the chips as we left them late on Saturday.

Something I’m reading: I barely read this week, but I’m reading the 3rd book of the Percy Jackson series (on the kindle from the library!).

Something Gabe is reading: He’s almost finished with The Hero of Ages.

Something I’m watching: I went to see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 with girlfriends. Yes, the movies aren’t great, but they are fun. We did see the trailer for The Hunger Games. I cannot wait for that one!!! It better be good!

Something I’m playing: We introduced Die Burgen von Burgund to Melissa and Jason.

Something tasty: The brunch at Heron’s was YUMMY!

Something about both kiddos: The kids are very excited about Christmas lights on our way home from work each day. I am looking forward to showing them the crazy decorated house near us, closer to Christmas. I think they are going to love the decorations on the ship as well! Cullen is already saying, “I like Christmas lights on cruise ship.” He started saying that at random once I told him that we would find lights and decorations on the ship.

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): Most people don’t see the side of Maddie where she talks NONSTOP, but wow. That girl talks continuously when she’s at home or in the car or anywhere when it’s just our family. I swear, she doesn’t stop unless she’s in the presence of others. We don’t get a lot of silence in this household. I can’t remember the last time that she took a nap at home. Every once in a while, she will fall asleep in the car on a long trip. She does pretty well with “quiet time,” which is more of a break for us than it is for her! The down time benefits everyone!

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): We taught him our “other” names this week, and he answers that Mommy is “Kerry” and that Daddy is “Gabe.” I tried to teach him his last name, but instead of saying his real last name, he insists that his last name is “Brudder.” Ha! I tell him, no, that’s not right and tell him his real last name, and he says, “No! Brudder! Stop saying that!” We’ve been having lots of conversations lately. It should be interesting to spend a week with him on vacation and then another week for the holiday. I always notice big developmental changes when he spends extended time with us.

Something I am struggling with: I did something to my shoulder, and it hurts like crazy. I hope it is better soon.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Somehow, I managed to get tickets to Les Miserables AND Wicked this week for dates next year. Woohoo! I’ve wanted to see both of those shows for a while. We’re also working on the arrangements for next year’s Disney trip!!! And…we’re getting ready to go on the cruise on the megaship.

Something I’m looking forward to: ALLURE OF THE SEAS!!!

Something captured: Lasers! Fire! Headbanging violinists!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: The GIANT Christmas tree that we have in our library right now. It has lights, and we’ll have to do the ornaments soon.

Something I’m thinking: The holiday season is going to be so rushed this year with our cruise coming up really soon now!

Something I’m hoping: I hope that we can get all the things that we need to get done before vacation and Christmas.

Something happening around the house: We’re getting the house decorated after a few days visiting my parents.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Peach Keeper today, thankfully. I wanted to make sure I finished before it was due back at the library on the kindle. The waiting list is huge! Fortunately, it’s a quick read. I enjoy Sarah Addison Allen’s novels!

Something Gabe is reading: Hero of Ages. I don’t think he read any of it this week.

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

Something I’m playing: We played a lot of Words with Friends on our iPhones this week. We played Wits and Wagers twice with my parents and Kristin and Chad and then Ticket to Ride twice with my parents. We had so much fun with my family!

Something tasty: Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, though my favorite part was probably the turkey and country ham casserole the next day. Yum!

Something about both kiddos: We visited Santa on Saturday, and this year’s Santa was much better than previous ones. He attempted to make Cullen feel more comfortable, since he was not at all interested in sitting on his lap. And the photographer was amazing! I could not believe that we actually got a photo of both kids smiling. I was not even aware that Cullen smiled at all until I reviewed the photos. He was crying and trying to get away for the most part. I couldn’t hear what Maddie told Santa at first. Santa tried to ask Cullen what he wanted. Cullen was not talking to Santa, and he asked, “would you like a truck?” I told Santa, “actually, he wants a doll.” Maddie then said, “Hey, I want a truck!” So my son wants a doll, and my daughter wants a truck. After the Santa photos, we went to have lunch with my parents. I then had a spur of the moment idea to get haircuts for the kids (too bad we didn’t do that *before* Santa photos), and amazingly a kids’ salon was literally 30 feet away. Saturday went extremely well, and we were so happy to have haircuts and Santa photos out of the way. We had dinner at my parents’ house and headed home. We had a smooth ride home with no traffic jams. It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful visit. While we visited my parents, we took them to a children’s museum that opened last year. The kids had a blast, and the adults were completely worn out by the end of the morning. Whew!

Something Maddie is doing (45 months old): She has a new habit this week of saying “ya” instead of “you.” I’m going to have to try and break her of that habit. It’s cute at times, but it’s annoying at other times! I have noticed recently that her vocabulary is getting more and more sophisticated. Lately, she hasn’t allowed me to do anything with her hair, so it’s good that we trimmed up her bob again. It’s an adorable look on her! She looks so cute with pigtails, ponytails, bows, and braids, when she allows it!

Something Cullen is doing (22 months old): When you ask Cullen a question that doesn’t require a yes/no answer, Cullen starts his answer by saying, “um….um…..um…..um….” He also has a habit of saying “Awwww, man!” whenever he doesn’t like something or drops something or anything negative. Both habits are hilarious, and he says them at extremely appropriate times. He should be entertaining on the cruise. When we were having lunch with Nana and Papa, he had a taste of something he didn’t like. The next thing we knew, he had leaned over and spit it out on Maddie’s plate. Hilarious!!! He didn’t want to have anything to do with that piece of food! No way he was going to spit it onto his own plate. Too funny. We don’t get a high chair for him most of the time in restaurants, though he still uses his high chair at home. He’s so proud of himself, and I don’t think it will be long before we ditch all high chairs. We are probably going to transition him to a big boy bed after the cruise. He’s still resisting naps on the weekends, but most of the time he still takes one each day.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Getting ready to go on the cruise on Allure….so soon now! Even Gabe is starting to get excited.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m going to see Breaking Dawn with girl friends (rescheduled from last week), book club, early Christmas with friends, a birthday party, our annual poker tournament, and my annual Christmas date with a friend. Whew. Busy, fun week.

Something captured: This year’s Santa photo!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Whew, the last couple of weeks have been extremely busy. We had a great time with Halloween festivities. Maddie’s classroom had a parade in the morning, and Cullen’s classroom was set to go and see the parade. The teachers indicated that some of the kids would be wearing their costumes to view the parade.

We decided to send Cullen in Winnie the Pooh since he discovered the costume recently and had fun wearing it around the house. Maddie was also excited to be Minnie Mouse. I tried to take some photos before we left the house. Maddie did not want to cooperate. It was chilly that morning, and she does NOT like to be cold.

We’re not really morning people around here.

We finally got the kids to sit together and smile by telling them that Mommy or Daddy had a booger on their face. We have a new trick (that works for now!).

Cullen was a very happy Winnie the Pooh all morning! He watched the parade with us.

Maddie didn’t look like she was enjoying the parade. She was definitely a bit cold. She refused to wear her ears. It was fun to see all of her classmates (and kids from other classes) parade around in their costumes.

She was a bit happier when we got back inside of the classroom. The parents lined up outside first, and the kids went trick or treating. As if we needed more candy. Some of the parents handed out baggies of candy, so we had way more candy than any 3.5 year old needs, and we hadn’t even gotten to the real trick or treating.

After work, we lit our pumpkins, had a quick dinner, and headed out for trick or treating. Melissa and Jason came over for the festivities. Jason stayed at the house to hand out candy while Melissa went trick or treating with the four of us.

It was a drizzly start, but it cleared up a bit while we were trick or treating. We had initially planned to only visit a few houses on our street, but we ended up going to about a dozen. The kids demanded to be carried between houses while it was raining (and for the rest of the time). Cullen wanted Melissa to carry him most of the time. Next year, the kids are walking…let’s hope for better weather.

This was Cullen’s first time really trick or treating (though he tagged along last year). He loved it. He even said “trick or treat” and “thank you” (though not at every single house).

The kids had fun examining their loot when we got back home. I think that they were just as excited about looking at and sorting the candy as they would be to eat it. Cullen had a bag of pretzels but no candy. Maddie started on a sucker that took her 3 days to finish.

We gave Maddie a choice between being able to keep all of her candy or to give all but ten pieces of candy to the Halloween witch in exchange for presents. She chose to keep only 10 pieces of candy and exchange the rest for presents. It was entertaining to see how she selected the candy. She opted to keep all four of the lollipops she had, and swapped out other pieces of candy several times. Every time she came across a new piece of candy that she wanted, she had to decide which previously selected piece to give up. I love their thought processes at this age. She also gave several pieces of candy to Daddy (ones she knew were his favorites). The Halloween witch brought the kids new buddies!

Despite the yucky weather, we had a wonderful time with the kids!