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

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

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

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

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

Something I’m watching: We are enjoying Alcatraz.

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

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

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

Something I learned: Good things.

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

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

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: 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

Maddie cracks us up all the time, and she comes up with the craziest things. I thought I would share a few of her recent ones.

We had friends over for dinner recently, and Maddie decided to reveal a little about Daddy to them out of the blue.

Maddie: Daddy sleeps without a shirt sometimes.

Ha! Last week, I overheard the following from the other room after Daddy told Maddie “no” about something.

Maddie: You’re not invited to my birthday party. Mommy is invited. Cullen is invited.
Daddy: Good! Then I won’t have to bring you a present.
Maddie: Oh. You’re invited then.

The other night before bedtime, Maddie picked up Piglet and staged the following discussion between Piglet and herself.

Piglet Maddie: Are you the Backson?
Maddie Maddie: No, I’m not the Backson. I don’t scribble in your books, I don’t tangle up your hooks, I don’t eat your snacks!

At dinner a couple days ago, out of the blue she said these things. I don’t recall talking about such things in front of her, though it certainly is possible!

Maddie: Mommy, did you eat too much caffeine? Did you eat too much caffeine? Are you going to sleep tonight?

Maddie and Cullen were in the bath together, and he said something she didn’t like. She tried to hit him on the head with the pitcher. Afterward, I was lecturing her on hitting and explaining her consequences. She didn’t like it, and I told her that she should have thought about that before she hit Cullen. I said that she shouldn’t have taken matters into her own hands when she was unhappy with something Cullen said. Her response was priceless.

Maddie: I didn’t use my hands [to hit Cullen], I used a pitcher.

At least she’s honest.

And I asked Maddie the other day why she and Cullen thought it was a good idea to scribble on the walls with marker. Her answer?

Maddie: Nobody was next to us.

Nice.

Maddie did a new lesson this week called something like “picture story.” I was impressed with her storytelling! I’m not sure how many prompts that she had, but the teachers got a good laugh at how well that she was doing on this one. I think that they were impressed, too.

She was given this picture:

She dictated the following “story”:
The boy is in the water. The boy sees the water. The boy sees the ice. The boy sees the surf board. The boy is very wet. He sees the trunks. He sees the sky. He falls down sometimes! He sees the water drops!

I hope she does more stories soon! I was amused by this one. I couldn’t believe that she dictated all of that, so I had to ask the teachers more about it.

Tonight, Maddie was asking Gabe where she would go after she was finished being a graduate. This is the conversation that followed.

Daddy: You’ll go to kindergarten.
Maddie: And then what school?
Daddy: Elementary school, middle school, and high school. And then college.
Maddie: Why do I go to college?
Daddy: You’ll learn a job and make lots of money.
Maddie: If I go to college, I’ll have lots of money to put in my piggy bank!

Maddie is quite the chatterbox these days. Many people aren’t aware of how much this child talks as she gets nervous around people that she doesn’t know well or when she’s in new situations. When she’s nervous, she doesn’t talk much and plays with her belly button (this is her security blanket). When it’s just the four of us, she does not stop talking. From the time that she rolls out of bed until the time that she falls asleep (which some nights can take forever), she has something to say.

On the way to work, I find myself wishing that I could write down everything that comes out of her mouth. She can be so random. She just talks and talks and talks with little or no input from anyone else. I don’t know where she gets it (ha).

A very small portion of her ramblings on the way to school yesterday went something like this:
On chocolate (she gets 2 chocolate goldfish/teddy grahams/similar each morning in her snack cup filled with dried cereal on the way to school):
I love chocolate fish. I love chocolate fish every day. I love chocolate every day. Chocolate is yummy. I love it. I love chocolate every day except for Sunday. I don’t have chocolate on Sunday.

On fire ants at preschool:
They took down the fire ant fence. The fire ant fence is gone. We can’t touch the fire ant fence because they might BITE us. They might bite us. But we run away from the fire ant fence. Me and Keira and Callie was running from the monster. We can’t touch the fence. The fire ants will BITE us. They took down the fence. We can never touch the fence. Now we can never EVER EVER touch the fence. We can never touch the fence. We can’t touch the fence, they will bite us.

We had our carpets cleaned this week, and in preparation, we moved the sectional couch from the living room to our dining room (not having a dining room table at the moment does have some perks). We knew that we were having the couch cleaned as well. We also became aware recently of a sizable dark stain that has been hiding under the couch. I’m guessing a drink spilled between the couch cushions (between the sections) onto the floor, unbeknownst to us.

We moved the couch and other furniture after the kids went to bed. When Gabe was carrying Maddie down the stairs the next morning, she immediately saw the stain.

Maddie: Ewwwwwwww!
Daddy: That’s what I said when I saw it, too.
Maddie: It’s a good thing the cleaners are coming today.

I can’t remember if we had directly told her about the carpet cleaning or if she overheard Gabe and me talking about it the previous day. Either way, we thought that was hilarious.

Something that makes me happy: Playing games with friends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Something I learned: I learned a couple new games.

Something I’m looking forward to: Walk MS!

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

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Wow!!!! Maddie is THREE! I can’t believe all the things that she is doing these days. With Children’s House in her near future, she will be seeing lots of changes soon. I can’t wait to see what the next few months will bring! Time for the 3-year old edition of letters to Maddie. Um, it appears to be a long one (no wonder it took me so long to finish). (more…)