KerryAndGabe.com

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!

Something I’m thinking: I need to see an allergist again. I’m back to being congested every morning, which is how things were before I was pregnant with Maddie. I had this issue at the beginning of the pregnancy with Maddie, but then I was fine for the majority of the rest of it, through both pregnancies and nursing. Now the issues are back. Boo.

Something happening around the house: Gabe’s mom, grandma, sister, and nephew are visiting for a few days. We have a full house!

Something I’m reading: A Feast for Crows. I like the series, but I don’t think I love it as much as the fanatics out there. I think I’ll have to read some quick and easy things in between A Feast For Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

Something Gabe is reading: The Well of Ascension.

Something I’m watching: New episodes of Beavis and Butthead. Ha!

Something I’m playing: We played King of Tokyo, Telestrations, and Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It with Gabe’s family.

Something tasty: Gabe’s family requested rainbow cake. It turned out pretty and tasty! I also made cookies from a new recipe, Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. They were pretty yummy, too. I finally posted Gabe’s Chicken Pot Pie recipe. He made it for his family last night, too.

Something about both kiddos: Despite a cold, rainy Halloween evening, we ventured out to maybe a dozen houses for trick or treating! I hope the weather is better next year as both kids demanded to be carried in the drizzle.

Something Maddie is doing (44 months old): She had the Halloween parade at school, but she looked like she was having a miserable time! She does NOT like it when it’s cold. When we tried to take photos before school, she was a surly little Minnie Mouse! When I asked her if the parade was fun, she said that it was. She sure didn’t act like it! She had her first ballet class in a set of 3 that is being offered at my work. She refused to participate for the majority of the class. She was slightly more interested when the props were introduced. I broke down and finally went out and bought her a leotard, ballet skirt, tights, and shoes to try and entice her to participate. I think I convinced her that the reason she didn’t want to participate is that she didn’t have a ballet outfit. On Halloween, Maddie chose to select 10 pieces of candy to keep for herself and gave the rest to the Halloween witch (who brought small stuffed animals Nala and Minnie Mouse). It was fun to see how she selected the candy. She kept every lollipop that she had. When she came across a new piece of candy that she wanted, it was fun to see how she decided which previously selected piece of candy that she wanted to put in the bucket for the witch. With 10 pieces, she still has enough candy to last a while. It took her 3 days to eat a tootsie pop! She has shown more interest again with Annabelle and Henry and “baby sister.” This causes a lot of grief for her brother.

Something Cullen is doing (21 months old): Cullen is speaking in sentences more and more often. He’s often saying things like, “Daddy has ABCs on his shirt” or “I want a muffin in my bowl.” He has started shaking his head “no” when he wants to say something is not true. Like when Maddie had a snack and Cullen didn’t, he said, “I have a snack” while shaking his head. He had fun trick or treating, though we didn’t let him have much candy at all. He doesn’t really know the difference this year. We were glad he finally agreed to wear his costume since he was so against it for weeks. He was also excited to be Pooh for school that morning! He made an adorable Pooh! The Halloween witch also brought him a Nala and Minnie Mouse. If you ask Cullen what Santa is going to bring him, he says, “my Annabelle.” I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get away with giving his new “Annabelle” a different name, or we’re going to have “Maddie’s Annabelle” and “Cullen’s Annabelle.” He is still very into Annabelle and throws a ton of tantrums when Maddie won’t let him play with her. Christmas can’t get here fast enough! He has started asking for my iPhone more often to play Peek-a-Boo Barn. He’s learning his way around that thing. He’s not getting an iPhone for Christmas!!

Something I’m looking forward to: A shopping trip to the outlet mall, lunch with a friend, Maddie’s ballet sampler class, dinner and games with friends, and games night!

Something captured: The kids checking out their Halloween loot.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something I’m thinking: I’m glad that I do these to keep up with the timeline of what the kids are doing and their developmental milestones. Sometimes, I don’t feel like filling out all of it, but I always want to make sure I record what’s going on with the kiddos.

Something I’m hoping: I hope the weather isn’t too bad for trick or treating.

Something I’m reading: I decided to start reading A Feast For Crows, the 4th book in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Something Gabe is reading: He finally finished Mistborn and started The Well of Ascension, Book 2 in that series.

Something I’m watching: The new episode of Beavis and Butthead! Huh huh.

Something tasty: I used the pumpkin from our Produce Box this week to make both a pie and pumpkin pancakes.

Something about both kiddos: They wore their costumes at the Halloween Festival at work on Friday. They were so cute in their Mickey and Minnie costumes! I hope that we’ll be able to get a decent photo of them on Halloween night (though it looks like it’s supposed to rain, boo!).

Something Maddie is doing (44 months old): She was sick with a mystery fever and out of school on Monday and Tuesday. We took her to the doctor on Tuesday, but they didn’t find anything. She didn’t have good reports from school on Wednesday. It looks like her stubbornness is striking again. She straightened up after we had a few talks with her. It helps her behavior when she knows that the teachers are going to be talking to us. It seems that both kids act up at school just before and just after illnesses. While Maddie was sick, she played a new (to us) iPhone game called Monkey Lunchbox. She does really well at it. I think Santa may be bringing her a Leapfrog tablet for Christmas. Maddie attended her first play, stage adaptations of Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. It was a very neat show with special puppets and black lights and glowing props. Maddie seemed to enjoy it quite a bit! She got a little restless during the second half (along with the majority of the audience), but she did very well. I am hopeful that the kids can watch a few short shows on the cruise. I forgot to mention that last week, she had a flu shot. She was all excited about her shot and visit to the doctor’s office. When the nurse administered the shot, Maddie went from being excited about getting the shot to giving her a dirty look that said, “what the heck?!?” She didn’t cry at all, though!

Something Cullen is doing (21 months old): I was walking Cullen into his classroom one day this week, and he saw a set of twins in front of him. He saw the kids, and he said, “Two Ninas!” Apparently, he has gotten to know just one of the kids (even though they are both in the classroom next to his). This cracked me up! Plus, I’m impressed that he has picked up the concept of “two.” He has been doing this a lot. It’s hard to say if he really knows the concept of two or if he refers to any number of items greater than one as “two.” Either way, he is getting it right quite a bit. Cullen also likes to play on the iPhone, though we limit the time that the kids are allowed to touch our phones. Cullen likes to play Peek-a-boo Barn.

Something I am struggling with: Eh, not everything went as planned this week. It’s OK.

Something I’m looking forward to: Maddie’s Halloween parade, dinner with friends, a ballet class at school for Maddie, a visit from Gabe’s family, and a Sugar Plum Fairy Tea. Fall is a busy, busy time!

Something captured: Our little tech junkies playing on our iPhones (and can you tell they are siblings?!).

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

I had uploaded this album to Shutterfly a while ago, and I didn’t notice until later that “Brats” could be interpreted in two different ways. Cullen’s classroom at daycare has multiple events throughout the year. It’s nice to spend special time with the kids, and it’s also nice to see other parents. They did a Mother’s Day Tea for Mommies and I was glad that Gabe was able to attend his special Father’s Day event this year (we missed it when Maddie went through the same classroom).

For the Daddies, they had little pigs-in-a-blanket and root beer as part of their snack spread. Brats and Beers! I thought that was very clever for Father’s Day.

The kids are always excited to have the parents in the classroom. I think that Cullen was equally excited about his super-sized snack selection. He approved of his first tastes of cheetos.

I gave Gabe the camera and made sure to remind him several times that I wanted photos. I’m happy that he got one of the two of them together.

Cullen was apparently quite busy with his snack during the party!

I’ve been working on this one for a couple of weeks (he was 18 months on July 22nd). I was a little slow to put the finishing touches on it and collect the photos. Now it is almost time to write Maddie’s 3.5 year letter. Whew. Here’s the latest letter to Cullen. (more…)

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