The Boys and Me

Considerations...

2011-10-05T10:55:00.002-05:00

So I am considering ending this blog, for several reasons. First of all, I very rarely have time to post and even more rarely get comments. I just don't feel that many people look at the blog, and now with Facebook and Google+, it's very easy to share pictures of the kids and updates without all the fuss of a blogpost. It's also somewhat more secure.

So if you are a family member or friend who regularly checks in here, let me know and if there are enough of you I will continue the blog. Otherwise I expect to see family and friends over on Facebook or Google+, where I already post regular pics of the boys and share funny stories.

Camera fixed!

2011-07-19T21:15:00.001-05:00

Hey there!
Sorry it's been a while since an update...our camera broke and we've had a busy summer without being able to take nice quality pictures. But soon, very soon, I promise to have some up-to-date pictures and news.

Caleb's First Full Song on Glockenspiel

2011-03-10T16:28:00.000-06:00

Caleb's New Friend.

2011-03-10T15:55:00.004-06:00

For family and friends who don't see us very often, I thought I'd give a quick update on Caleb. Two exciting things happened to him recently. First, he played his first full song on the glockenspiel, so his music lessons are going very well. The song is Lucy Locket, and it is four measures long, with both eighth notes and quarter notes. I will try to get a video of him up here, though embedding video through Youtube has not been working for me.

The other big news is that we have new neighbors, and luckily for Caleb one of the kids is a 5 year old boy! He'll be a year behind Caleb in school, but as they were still born in the same year they are getting along great! Caleb has been playing with him all afternoon today, as he has the day off school.

Until next time...

Snowshoes, Pirates, and Silliness.

2011-02-28T21:59:00.003-06:00

Hi there,
Well our camera is kaput. Luckily, often when we would take pictures there is usually another person also taking pictures. That person is my dad for our side of the family, and my sister-in-law for Mark's side of the family.

So recently my dad loaded a bunch of pictures of the boys onto my computer. So here are some favorites, and a brief update of the boys.

Noah is still hooked on being a pirate, and will squint his eye and say "Argh! Aigh!" whenever he can. I have NO idea why he says Aigh...but it's cute.

Noah also had fun over Christmas playing with Grandma Hammi while she was getting ready at Aunt Margi's house. So this is a two month old picture, but I just had to share.

Last but not least, Caleb had a four day weekend on February 18-21, so he took a trip to Minnesota with my parents. He spent his non-car time sledding, snowshoeing, and seeing a movie. My parents said he took to snowshoeing like a duck to water. It sounds like he had a lot of fun--Noah was very sad that he could not go. But next summer when Noah is 3, he will be old enough to take trips with Grandma and Grandpa Hammi. Here's Caleb in his North Woods gear.

Until next time, Happy March!

Whole Foods.

2011-02-17T08:56:00.003-06:00

Hi Friends! So I know this blog is really for personal updates about the boys and our family.

But this is related to our family, so I'm going with it.

We've been trying to do more whole foods and healthy choices lately. In many ways, we are still struggling with that. We've always been too prone to eating out, and neither Mark nor I love to cook. But we've been making some small changes, in the hopes that over time we will actually establish lifetime habits that are healthier.

Which brings me to this post. I have become interested in healthy fats while on this whole foods journey, and we are dabbling in using coconut oil in several ways (Mark tried it on his eczema, I tried cooking with it more often). Anyway, there's a giveaway at Real Food, Whole Health. They are giving away a whole gallon of coconut ghee. So check out their Coconut Ghee Giveaway and read some of their other information on whole foods. Because if you are like my family, it's time to make a food change and get healthy in 2011!

Happy Groundhog's Day!

2011-02-02T21:59:00.004-06:00

Baby it's cold outside! We've had a few snow days this week, but as it's too cold to go out really, I don't have any pictures. (That and the fact that my camera is broken, at least temporarily). So there won't be a lot of pictures in this post, but I will give some updates on the boys, especially for those of you who only see them a few times a year and rely on this blog for updates!

Caleb is doing well in kindergarten. We got his second report card recently, and he is still doing very well in all academics. He's had some trouble listening (I think) in P.E. and Art, and is still working on respecting others (he likes to boss kids around and he likes them to listen to him!) but he improved on his listening skills in his regular class.

More exciting is that Caleb is reading. He's doing very well, and loves to read Hop on Pop and Morris Goes to School to us. I will try to get a video of him reading soon and post it. He does really well, and it's very cute.

Noah is also thriving--he is so verbal and active, these snow days really wear me out! It's obvious to anyone who interacts with Noah that he's into music; he's frequently singing. Most often he's humming the Star Wars theme because his brother hums that all. the. time. Noah's favorite movie right now is How to Train Your Dragon (we all love that one) and he walks around telling us he's Tookless (Toothless, the dragon).

Both boys are enjoying Kindermusik. They were supposed to start a new semester this week but the snow pushed everything back a week. Noah will be doing his final semester along with mom and dad; next fall he'll be old enough for the 3-5 class where he goes it alone. Caleb is starting his second semester of Young Child, so he's going to continue learning the play the glockenspiel. It's so much fun to see him learning to read music!

Mark and I are well too--actually the whole family has been fighting colds this past week, but I think we're all recovering finally. We're very glad that it's February and are all ready for Spring. The boys like the snow, but it's not as much fun when it's too cold to play in it. Mark and I are ready for April showers and May flowers, for certain.

Stay warm and healthy! (I tried posting some cute pictures of the boys, but something isn't working right. Sorry!)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-17T16:10:00.003-06:00

Welcome to any family and friends visiting our blog for the first time (and to those of you who are regulars). We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Here are the answers to the Christmas Letter Word mix-up we sent out:

1. LEGOS. Caleb really loves playing with legos, and has even gotten interested in the Lego video games. His favorite is Lego Star Wars, but he also enjoys Lego Batman.

2. COPYING CALEB. Noah is under the impression that he is a very big boy and should be able to do everything that Caleb does. Noah also thinks he is the boss. I know this because he told me so--the other night I reminded him, "Noah you are not the boss, don't tell Caleb what to do," and Noah responded with, "Yes, I am the boss." Ahh, to be two again.

3. CARS. At the beginning of the year, we had our Ford Windstar and Buick Regal Custom. The Buick had no air conditioning, while the Ford's locks were annoyingly broken. Then we had the opportunity to buy a Chevy Uplander at a great deal, so we took it, leaving us with 3 cars. We never intended to keep all 3...but the year got away from us. Yet another example of my procrastination paying off--a Ford dealership in town was recently running another Cash for Clunkers, and after some heavy negotiating, took our Ford and Buick in exchange for a Mitsubishi Montero. And it only cost us 70 bucks in registration fees.

4. PLAYING PIANO. Mark accompanies for church services almost every other week, it seems. So much that if it were a rich church I would be whining that they are taking advantage of him (because he's volunteering). However, we go to a small country church who needs the volunteers, and I'm sure the 8:30 crowd enjoys the music. Caleb, Noah, and I never make it to the 8:30 service, so we only get to hear Mark play...well, every NIGHT because he has to practice so often! :-) But we are very, very glad that Grandma Viv's piano gets so much use, and I think hearing Mark play sparks an interest in the boys. Caleb will start taking lessons as soon as he has completed the Kindermusik curriculum...he is currently learning to read music and play a glockenspiel.

5. CHICAGO. Yes, last summer we took a trip to Chicago with my family. It was short but sweet--we saw many museums, but most of them enjoyable for all involved. The highlight of the trip was supposed to be seeing Sue the T-Rex skeleton (we were going so Caleb could see a real T-Rex skeleton) but Caleb ended up enjoying the Lego Store more than any museum (actually we all had a really great time at the Lego Store). We all enjoyed wandering around Navy Pier, and agreed that we must "do Chicago" again sometime.

6. KINDERGARTEN. For those of you that might not know, Caleb started Kindergarten this past August. It took a while but he seems to be adjusting, though he still comes home kinda worn out and he would rather not ride the bus because the other kids are noisy. He loves music class and art, and his favorite regular subject seems to be math (though I suspect it will be science as he gets older). He's getting really good at both math and pre-reading, and can even read many words all by himself. Noah, of course, is already begging to go to Kindergarten. I would mention to him that he must be potty trained to go to school, but Noah is already well on his way to wearing underwear and I don't want to mislead him.

7. FELIX. Our older kitty, Felix, was ten years old and he got very sick the week before I had to leave for a conference in Denver. Instead of dwelling on how he died, let me tell you about how he lived. Felix was 10 years old, and he spent his ten years chasing monstrous wolf spiders, chasing his tail on top of the toilet tank (which then resulted in falling and flushing the toilet, once), turning gray after hanging out in the fireplace, flipping over for a rub whenever ANYONE petted his backside, hiding from his female feline housemates (though he grew quite close to both of them once they accepted him), and in general being a really good house cat. We rescued him from the humane society after they found him trying to stay warm inside a pop machine. They named him Fizzy; we renamed him Felix. We'll miss him and though we may someday get a new kitty, he is irreplaceable.

8. OCTAGON. Noah surprises us with new words everyday, and his teachers at childcare are very, very good at what they do. He's not only got all the regular shapes completely learned, but he's moving on to the harder ones like octagon, pentagon, and hexagon. My favorite word that he can say is onomatopeoia. You know, I never took Omega 3 supplements with Caleb in pregnancy, but I did with Noah...and well, I think they worked. He's just scary smart, and I think someday he will launch a takeover of the household and actually BE the boss.

9. LAPTOPS. Yes, we are geeks, and we have too many pieces of technology in our home. However, we both actually needed new computers this year, insofar as anyone needs a computer. Earlier this year, Mark's laptop just quit. Kaput. So we got him a new one. Then this fall my desktop was becoming increasingly moody. It freezes up all the time, and then there was one time where it just would not start up--which sent me into a panic because all my pictures are on that computer (and yes, they still are...when would I have time to back them up? Don't worry, it IS on my post-Christmas To Do List). So, on Black Friday my adorable husband got up at 3 or 4am (I don't know which, because I wasn't awake!) to go to Staples and buy me a new laptop that was on sale. Except he didn't get the ticket for it, and long story short, the laptop he DID reserve didn't get reserved...so we had to go to Best Buy and buy something similar for a similar price. We still need to write a note to Staples letting them know of our frustration with them and how we ended up shopping somewhere else. The good news is that I have a lovely new laptop that has a bigger screen than Mark's, and a fingerprint scanner! I love technology!

10. CHILD CARE. Noah started a new child care this year...that makes his total up to three. However, I think we've settled on the care he'll have until he's home with me or in school. He first was at a home child care run by a good friend who is just wonderful with kids. Then he got too old for her care (she only goes to 18 months), so he started at the childcare where Caleb was at the time. Then we moved Caleb to a new child care, as we thought it would improve his behavior (it most certainly did), and when there was an opening for Noah this year we moved him to the new care as well. We LOVE his new child care...the director is fabulous and has been working with kids for a long time, and all the teachers are so good at what they do. They definitely earn the title of teacher, and since I'm a former child care worker, I know quality when I experience it. Ivy League is the real deal, and worth it's weight in gold.

Hope you enjoyed our game, have a very Merry Christmas, remember the reason for the season, and have save travels and a Happy New Year!

Love,
Mark, Kathie, Caleb, and Noah

Halloween Fun.

2010-11-06T19:36:00.004-05:00

So we had lots of fun on Halloween, so much that I did not remember to post! So here are my darling boys dressed up for the festivities.

And here is our front yard display--the pumpkin patch!

Caleb insisted that Mark be a vampire this year, so he got facepainted too! I also facepainted a butterfly on myself, but a picture of it will have to come later, as my dad took the only picture with his camera.
At the end of the night, after trick-or-treating, we ate a late dinner with my parents and the kids. Both the boys really enjoyed running to the door to hand out treats, though Caleb thought it was more social-time than is typically appropriate. He kept standing at the door and chatting with any kid who came looking for candy!Happy Halloween a week late! Until next time...

Book Parade.

2010-10-18T10:49:00.004-05:00

So we found out about two weeks (if that) prior to the event that Caleb's school has a book parade every year. Each child dresses up as their favorite book character. Though I consider it quite, well, unreasonable to have additional costuming responsibilities in October, I had to make something because Caleb's Halloween costume is going to be Bumblebee the transformer. There may be Transformer books out there, but we don't own any and they definitely aren't favorites.

So Caleb and I chatted about what he wanted to be for the parade. Caleb wanted to be Stinky Face from the book I Love You Stinky Face. Anyone who has read this book knows there are several forms that Stinky Face goes through. Caleb wanted the Swamp Monster, but I hesitated, knowing I could not do a Swamp Monster costume in a week and a half (also having the house to clean for an appraisal and lots of other things to do).

So I asked Caleb if he could settle for his second favorite book, The Kissing Hand. He agreed that Chester the Raccoon would make a great costume. So I bought some fun fur yarn, dug out some black felt, red foam, my old black gloves, and the leftover brown fleece from when we made cow costumes for the church Christmas program a few years back, and set to work. The only true sacrifice for the costume was a pair of old Thomas the Train sunglasses--I glued black felt to them and popped the lenses out so Caleb would easily be able to wear the raccoon mask without tying it. Noah hasn't noticed that they are missing yet, but as he has other sunglasses I don't anticipate any fuss.

The costume turned out pretty good. At least I think anyone who'd read the book would recognize who he is.

Of course Noah wanted his picture taken too. So we gave him some sunglasses to wear. He's definitely in the "be like big brother" stage.

On to Halloween, right? Oh wait, we still need pumpkins! Until next week...

Of Gardens and Gypsies!

2010-09-29T17:21:00.004-05:00

So this past week we cleared out what was left of the garden this year. I thought all hope was lost for Caleb's carrots, but we found one! Here it is:

Unfortunately, while it was cute it did not appear to be edible--carrots that feel spongy probably don't taste good.

We also went to the Renaissance Faire this weekend. We knew it might be rainy but that did not deter us! So of course it poured on us some of the time. Luckily it was a nice temperature despite the rain, so we weren't miserable.

The trick with going to the Renaissance Faire every year is trying to find new things to do. As more years go by, I am more and more interested in seeing the performances, now that I've seen most of the wares for sale. This year we watched Sonic Sidhe Tribe, who performed fire spinning and drumming. It was very cool. I wish I could get pictures that capture it, but the spinning really requires video, and I don't know how to use the video on the new digital camera yet. So use your imagination, or see them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwOeg3O-No4.

Caleb and Noah both opted to buy wooden swords for their souvenirs (Noah's decision may have been influenced slightly by his brother...but wouldn't you want your own sword if you knew your older brother might threaten you with his sword?). Then, of course, they had to find a way to stash them while they played in the Children's Realm!

Noah actually ended up losing his sword somewhere...it was raining and in trying to figure out where to go and keep the kids reigned in, we think he must have set it down and another child picked it up. So we kindly bought him one more, as they were only 8 bucks and I certainly wasn't going to ride back home for 3 hours with a 2 year old screaming about a lost sword.

The other new sight we saw at the Faire this year was smoke bubbles! Instead of the usual bubble machine they always had at this one store, they had a smoke bubble machine. It produced bubbles full of smoke that puffed when they popped! Mark and I both thought that was very neat, and now I want one for our Halloween front door display.

Here are the smoke bubbles--again, photos don't do them justice!
Until next time...

Bunkbeds, Trains, and Cheese!

2010-09-18T09:29:00.008-05:00

Happy almost autumn!
We are enjoying 60-degree weather here today, which makes me happy because it means the Renaissance Faire, Apple Orchard visits, and Halloween are just around the corner. Caleb is enjoying kindergarten, most of the time. He already likes recess the best, but he also comes home singing new songs from music class and the work he brings home shows that Caleb is doing well academically. We expected that, since he already knew many of the things other children need to learn in Kindergarten. But even with already knowing his numbers and letters, I am impressed that the curriculum seems to have something new for every child to learn. Caleb has been working on writing his numbers and letters (which needed improvement) and he is improving quickly! He no longer writes any of the letters of his name backwards!

Noah is also well. He adjusted to Caleb's school switch with ease and grace. He does wish he could ride the schoolbus, but most of the time it doesn't occur to him to be upset about it because he is gone by the time Caleb gets on the bus. Noah appears to be giving up naps at home, even though he still takes them at school. We are doing everything we can to encourage napping!

I realized I had not yet posted pictures of the boys' bunkbeds. So here is their bunkbed, and then each of them sleeping in it.

We also had the opportunity, via Grandma and Grandpa Hammi, to ride on a real train a few weeks back. Noah was very excited, to say the least. Caleb also thought it was neat and was excited to get to climb up to the engine (after the ride was over). Both boys were given permission to toot the horn, but neither one wanted to do it. Go figure.

Last but not least, Noah is my little camera guy--he will turn anything into a camera and walk around saying "Say CHEESE!" So he's more than willing to pose when I want to take pictures. Here are a few cute ones. The first is him posing, and the second is his "I'm about to do something naughty" face.

We are looking forward to the coming cool weather, and we hope you enjoy it too! Hayfever season lasts too long for Mark and me. Next post will probably show off our Renaissance Faire fun, as I think we are going next weekend. Until next time...

First Day of Kindergarten.

2010-08-19T08:12:00.006-05:00

Caleb just got on the bus to go to his first day of kindergarten. I kept my composure until the bus drove away, but then I had to cry. I am so excited for him and yet also so concerned for him! Mixed feelings just always make me weepy and stressed.

Caleb was so excited to wear his Lego Batman shirt for the first day that when he was getting dressed, he stared at it and examined it for 5 minutes before I had to remind him to get ready so he wouldn't miss the bus. Of course we were super early to the bus stop (only two houses down from where we live) so I had time to take a few pictures.

Caleb wanted me to take a picture of his backpack! Bumblebee is his favorite transformer.

I'm certain Caleb will like school, and I cannot wait for 4pm to come around, so I can meet him when he gets off the bus and find out how his first day went. I'm so proud of Caleb; he's such a confident little guy and I think he'll probably already have 5 friends by this afternoon!

Here he is getting on the bus:

The bus driver seemed so nice--she reminded Caleb to turn around and let me take one more picture (a smart woman, she must know what it's like to send your child off to school).

God bless Caleb and keep him safe and help him learn. Since I cannot be there with him, I trust in God to watch over him and guide his path.

Hot Days.

2010-07-17T21:43:00.005-05:00

So I was spoiled spending a few days in Denver recently, where despite the heat it felt nice because it was so dry. Coming back to Nebraska reminded me why I am not an outside person in July and August!

But instead of moping about indoors, we got out the water toys! My aunt Carol had sent us a pack of birthday presents (thank you!) for the boys, and she included a huge beach ball sprinkler--Caleb was very excited to play with it even though I caught him with a weird face in this picture--neither of the boys were standing still enough for good pictures because if they did the water dripped in their faces!

Noah was a little nervous about all the spraying water (let's face it, when is Noah not nervous about something new!?), but he seemed to enjoy it when I took him through with me. With a heat advisory in effect and the sun behind our house, it was the perfect afternoon for water play. Caleb also wanted to see what would happen if he used his umbrella in the sprinkler--as expected, it shot up inside it and he still got wet!

And since Caleb has decided that when he grows up he will be a firefighter, he enjoyed practicing his skills today with the hose.

Stay cool!

The Best Kind of Fun.

2010-07-17T21:26:00.005-05:00

So this morning (July 17), we sort of lazed about and didn't get going very quickly, mostly because Mark had an exhausting week with the kids and I got back home very late last night from my trip for work. So the kids found their own fun; well, Caleb found it and then Noah wanted to copy it. It's a well-known form of entertainment in our family. I remember my niece and nephew having much fun like this once upon a time. We call it fun with a box.

First Caleb wanted to be a jack in the box--which he now insists will be his Halloween costume this year. We'll see if that lasts once he starts school!

Then of course Noah wanted in on the fun, so we found Noah a box and the boys both walked around being robots.

Noah had to go and do each and everything Caleb did. To Mark and myself it is reminiscent of Grandma Judy's stories about Mark following Eric around as a child. I think it's adorable!

Summer Fun!

2010-07-17T21:14:00.003-05:00

So we finally bought a new camera--I lost the charger for our old one in my first trip to Colorado this year, and while a new charger would have been cheaper, our first digital camera was a senior citizen and we decided it was time for an upgrade.
So we've got probably three posts of pictures. Let's start with Independence Day. Caleb went up north with Grandma and Grandpa Hammi for the Fourth of July, to go fishing, so we will have pictures from that eventually. So here at home it was just Mark, Noah, and myself.

Noah thought snaps and little daytime fireworks were great. He was pretty nervous at the professional show we watched, so he just snuggled with Mark and didn't actually see the show. Mark and I enjoyed it though. I tried my new camera's fireworks setting, but I didn't notice that it worked any better than using just a nighttime setting.

One of our fireworks this year left a huge scorch in the street--it was called a whip and we thought it would spin or something, but it was really a very bright, noisy giant strip of firecrackers, or so it seemed.

Cowboys and Bike Rides!

2010-05-16T21:27:00.004-05:00

With the weather so nice lately, despite the rain, the boys have been wanting to go play outside almost every night. They are also both very interested in riding bikes. Noah has inherited Caleb's trike as Caleb received a bike with training wheels for Christmas this year.

So here are a few pictures of their bike riding, and a video of Caleb being a bike-riding cowboy. I bought the cowboy hats for the boys in Denver while attending a conference.

In other news, Noah will be joining Caleb at his school in about three weeks. Mark and I are very excited about this because it means only one drop-off in the morning and Caleb's school is much closer to Mark's work than Noah's. It also doesn't hurt that we'll get a sibling discount!

Caleb is growing by leaps and bounds--we found out he can touch the kitchen faucet now without a stool, albeit while on tiptoes, and while on a short stepstool (about a foot tall) he can get the peanut butter and honey out of the upper kitchen cabinets!

Noah is our little busy-man. He runs through stores with reckless abandon. He is constantly getting into stuff! Much to our amusement, Noah's favorite words right now are "No!" and "Okay!"

Both boys are enjoying Kindermusik and our occasional visits to the Children's museum. This month and June will be busy as we have Noah's birthday, our anniversary, Memorial Day, The boys' birthday party, Caleb's birthday, and then our trip to Chicago. Whew! Hopefully we will many pictures to post!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

We've had a fun-filled Easter weekend. On Saturday we visited Grandma Judy and Grandpa Paul, and hunted for Easter eggs! The boys had a great time and were very excited to start Easter a day early. Caleb was also very sad that we couldn't visit Grandma and Grandpa for longer.

Then Saturday night, after Noah went to bed, Caleb and I dyed Easter eggs. We had dye, stamps, and free-hand paints. Caleb did a very good job dying eggs and with the paint, so his eggs came out very artistic. Of course, they were all made into deviled eggs this morning!

The boys had another Easter egg hunt in the backyard this afternoon (that bunny gets around!) and got to play at the park with Grandma and Grandpa Hammi. It was so nice out today that we had to use sunscreen! Thank the Lord for a beautiful day and lovely weather!

Busy little bees.

2010-03-21T14:39:00.003-05:00

I just had to change the blog to something Spring-y, and the opportunity arose this morning when my boys were working so nicely together, like busy little bees!

See how cute they are? I love Color Wonder coloring supplies--we have tons of them (fingerpaints, markers, paper) and I like that I don't have to worry that they will mark up the floor or anything else.

Smile for the camera! Lately Caleb really enjoys playing with Noah, when Noah will let him. It's nice to have them getting along most of the time.

Last but not least, Noah being silly for the camera. Noah loves posing for the camera right now; if he sees the camera he will yell, "SMILE!" and always wants to see the pictures or video after we take 'em.Happy Spring everyone! May your snow go away and your flowers start blooming!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2010-03-17T08:50:00.005-05:00

We really got into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day this year. The whole family is wearing green today, and I am decked out in green shoes and nail polish as well! I wore my green shamrock earrings for a bit, but they are not the most comfy so I left them in the car when I got to work!

And the boys were into it too...this morning Caleb was wearing a hat he made at school yesterday, and I painted both Caleb and Noah's faces with shamrocks. Caleb also wanted a message painted on his other cheek!

Funny kid stuff for the week: Caleb was asked at school where he thought a leprechaun lived, and he said "in the pond". Okay, whatever. But of course now he's constantly speculating about where the leprechaun is! (I'm tempted to run home this afternoon and paint green feet on the walls, to surprise Caleb) And Noah's funny saying of the week is "Imen...Cootie!" (which means I'm a cutie! and yes, it does have a pause between words)

Hope you're sporting your green today, and here's to a happy and safe St. Patty's Day. Don't pinch us, we are wearing green AND we're Irish! It's bad luck to pinch someone who's Irish, isn't it?

Spring? Could it really be almost Spring?

2010-03-04T21:41:00.006-06:00

And I haven't posted in over a month? Oops. Well, everyone who knows me realizes that I'm a busy gal. Never been more so, not ever in my life I don't think. So...sorry. Here is your Noah and Caleb fix for the week...I'll try to get back to a regular update.

First an update on Caleb--we've been working on all sorts of "skills" with Caleb, so he'll be ready to start Kindergarten next fall. He's registered and we've attended the parent orientation. Caleb has a morning routine chart that he follows to get ready, with some persuasion on our part. And the most tough for him...learning to live without a nap. It was rough at first, as you can see! He'd fall asleep on the way home and curl up on the couch until dinner:

And then this is what we'd have to deal with AT dinnertime:

But all in all, Caleb is adjusting to the no-nap schedule. We weren't going to eliminate nap until summertime, but Caleb decided in January to be in the awake room and he is doing better now, although he still occasionally falls asleep in the car on the way home.

Caleb has also been very into pretend play, and loves having his face painted at the children's museum. One time he wanted to be a dragon, and so we copied the best dragon face-paint photo we could find:

Not too bad, eh? I love to do face paint, as it's one of the few areas where I feel somewhat artistic. It's lucky for me and Caleb that Grandma Hammi bought us a professional face paint kit for Valentine's Day! Yay! So now I can practice anytime I want, and Caleb can have all sorts of face paintings...we have to limit him, though, and wash them off before bed since his face gets a bit broken out if we leave the paint on for days.

Oh, one more bit of update on Caleb and then we'll move to Noah. Caleb has been growing and growing, and often goes through bottomless pit hungry phases. This is new to me, but I hear it's only going to get worse! Tonight Caleb only ate half his personal pizza for dinner, as did Noah...so initially I commented to Mark that it was a shame we bought two personal pizzas for the boys--we should have had them share one. However, Caleb finished ALL of the pizza on the way home from the store (where we went right after dinner). Bottomless pit, indeed.

And now for Noah. Mark likes to call him "Destructo-boy" right now. It really does fit, as half the time Noah plays with something he just tries to figure out if it comes apart. I'm starting to remember a story from my mother-in-law about a stove panel being taken apart years ago by Mark...hmm, it would seem Noah is a mini-Mark in more than just appearance!

Noah is also learning words at an amazing rate. He's very good at picking the words I don't want him to learn, and saying them very loudly. At Ash Wednesday service a few weeks ago, Noah tried to eat a wipe and I whispered, "No! Nasty!" Then of course, Noah shouted, "NASTY!" during a quiet part of the service. Yes, yes, it's very funny...when you are not his mother. Noah's favorite sentence right now is "I want it!" which comes out kinda nasally and sounds a bit like a hispanic accent, sort of like Cheech Marin is saying it. I can't help laughing when he says it, which is like 20 times a day.

Of course, none of these updates have any good pictures to go with them. So here are a few. First, Noah trying to be like big brother. Caleb wears the Batman mask, and then Noah must wear it. Even though it doesn't fit, and when Noah walks around with it he cannot see where he is going...

And Noah and Caleb have been very much into the Pile-On game. As in, when any parent is lying down on the couch or the floor, the boys must pile on. Here is a Caleb Sandwich...

Final update on the boys...they've started back up with Kindermusik this semester, and it's going well. It's so interesting to see the differences in my two kiddos. At Noah's age, Caleb was such an outgoing kid (and he still is). He was the rough-&-tumble-running-around-the-room-kid at 21 months old. Noah is so not that kid at Kindermusik. At home, he can be outgoing and wild. But at Kindermusik he's my wallflower who sits in my lap and wants to be held. He's not shy, he just hasn't been interested...that is, until last week. Noah finally warmed up. He's still not the life of the party, but he's starting to get comfy with the idea of participating in the class. And it's great to watch that--I love both my extrovert and my cuddlebug!

Happy March!

And it's 2010.

2010-01-25T11:16:00.003-06:00

Whew! Another year gone, another holiday season over. We finally found the time yesterday to take down our tree and decorations (except for the outside lights...it's still too darn cold to do that).

I've got some pictures of the boys' Christmas. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of all the Christmases--the boys had several different parties and families they visited, but I currently only have pictures from my aunt's house.

First thing before opening presents, Noah wanted to organize them. In one ROW!

Caleb was very excited to get lots of Buzz Lightyear stuff this Christmas. He had never even seen Toy Story, but somehow knew who Buzz was and how cool he is. Sorry Woody!

The boys opened one present Christmas Eve morning, to spread out the chaos and minimize the waiting. Noah got the first of many doggy-themed items: a little dachshund, that wiggles and makes noise.

Caleb got many games for Christmas, which is great. UnoMoo was one of them!

And last but not least, here are the boys on Christmas Eve, all dressed up. Don't they look handsome? (Hey we have to dress them like this now--they'll never let us do it when they are older!)

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T13:54:00.002-06:00

We are going to be busy with celebrating Christmas for the next week or so (we have a lot of family); thus, this will be our only post for this week. I promise lots of holiday pictures will be posted when we have recovered!

We are all ready for the holidays. We've wrapped presents, and Caleb baked cookies with Grandma Hammi.

Noah wanted to help!

Caleb is very excited for Christmas (shocking, I know). Noah has no clue that anything is out of the ordinary, but I'm sure once he realizes there will be lots of food, he'll be excited too! And here is my Christmas present to all those out there who read this blog...a moment of peace between my two boys:

May there be peace in your house as well, and on earth good will between all men and women.

Happy Holidays!

Updates and SNOW!

2009-12-09T08:20:00.003-06:00

Happy December to everyone! I thought I'd post an update to what the boys have been up to, since it's been a week or two since I last posted. You know the drill, it's the end of the semester for me which means papers and finals and lots of work!

Caleb has been having loads of fun in kindermusik. He has a fairly large class for his age, the largest he's been in as a preschooler, and I think he really likes not being the only boy in class anymore. This past week they had to make some sort of bird costume, and here is what we came up with:

Noah has been into EVERYTHING lately--he climbs onto chairs and stools and just generally wants to be doing whatever the rest of us are doing. I know, this is not surprising. So the other day when I was working on the computer with my headphones on, Noah desperately wanted to wear them. See?:

And today marks our first snow day of the year...it started snowing yesterday or the day before, and yesterday the university decided to close down at noon. So I picked up the kids and Mark a bit early and we had a relaxing afternoon together yesterday. The kids wanted to go play in the snow, of course. We let them even though I think it was a bit too cold with the windchill.

Today Mark had to go to work, but the boys and I are at home. Caleb declared it a pajama snow day, so we are all staying in our PJs. We have grand plans to do laundry, bake some cookies, and maybe get some ornaments on the tree. Hope you and yours are staying warm and safe! See you next week.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-11-16T07:00:00.003-06:00

Menu Plan for this week (from now on I'm only going to post dinners since breakfast is always cereal/toast and lunch is always leftovers/frozen meals):

Monday: Pizza Crescent Bake
Tuesday: Hot Dog Spaghetti Rings
Wednesday: Chicken a la King
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Eat out (Date night)
Saturday: Baked Potato Soup
Sunday: Taco Pizza

You'll see a few repeats from last week because we had plenty of ingredients left over from the two previous grocery shops. And because I still haven't gotten around to making the Baked Potato Soup!

Savior Sunday.

2009-11-15T20:32:00.003-06:00

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

What a good verse for this time of year. It's not about receiving but about the giving. I need this reminder more often than I'd like to admit. And I'm not talking about Christmas. I really am all about the giving at Christmas--I love finding that perfect gift for someone and seeing them light up with surprise when they open it.

I'm talking about daily life. I feel like I give enough. And I give a lot. And it's NEVER enough for the people I'm giving to.

But maybe my perspective is skewed. Maybe I'm distorted in my view. Maybe I'd be happier if I gave more. If I gave more time to my husband for helping around the house. If I gave more patience to my kids when they are trying to tell me something. If I gave more concentration to my school work. I don't know, whaddya think? I know some of you out there feel like I do--like you're stretched too thin...there are so many commitments that to get some of them done means others get neglected. I am going to try to pare down so I don't have to feel that way anymore. I've given up Praise Team for the time being, and I've bought a parking permit so I can spend my time more efficiently (waiting up to a half an hour for a bus and then riding it for 15 minutes morning and night was NOT efficient).

My husband has indirectly asked me to give less time to some of my favorite activities. Prayer Shawl group and blogging. So I am. As of now, I'm going to cut back the daily blogs and only post the themes that help me in daily life, and of course post updates about the boys. So I'll do Menu Plan Mondays, Tot Talk Tuesdays, Family Fridays, and Savior Sundays. I was having trouble coming up with Top Ten Thursdays and Story Saturdays anyway. Wild Wednesdays I will probably do once in a while, when I have something to say. :-)

I hope this will help. I just keep telling myself that I've only got a few more years of this--once I'm done with my doctorate, things will calm down. But if anyone has some bible verses that would be helpful, I'm all ears.

And now, a prayer: Lord, please make me an instrument of your peace. Let me find the balance in life and give more to others than to myself. Amen.

Have a blessed week.

Family Friday/Story Saturday

2009-11-14T21:27:00.002-06:00

I don't really have any news about the boys or our family this week--we've started Christmas shopping and are just trying to lessen the stress that always creeps in this time of year. So here are some pictures of the boys at the park last week--we went there to get a better picture for our Christmas cards!

And speaking of a book recommendation--I don't have anything new on my bookshelf right now; I'm re-reading New Moon in anticipation of the completely teeny-bopper, lovey-dovey, lowers-your-I.Q. movie coming out next week. Sure, sure--I am going to see it. So let me recommend a series of books I fell in love with some time ago. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. I think there are currently 7 books (I haven't gotten the most recent one yet, dang it. Maybe for Christmas?) and it's love meets time travel meets really good story-telling. If you like a well-written, quality story that still has a bit of racy love in it, read these books. The time travel part *almost* sold my husband on reading them, but not quite.

Top Ten Thursday

2009-11-12T21:17:00.002-06:00

So this might be a little lame, but I've been itching to play some games lately, so here are my Top Ten Favorite games right now.

1. The Bean Game (otherwise known as Bohnanza). I don't know why I like this game because I'm not all that good at it. But even when I lose it's fun.

2. Squint. My friend Ryan and I are pretty darn good at this game--when we partner up, we beat the pants off people.

3. UNO. A classic--I could play UNO all day long, I think.

4. Loaded Question. I don't get to play it very often, but whenever we do people seem to have fun.

5. Carcassonne. I seriously did not think I would like this game. I've only played it once but I am itching to try it again.

6. Imaginiff. Along the same lines as #4, people seem to have fun during this game, even though no one jumps at the chance to play it.

7. Apples to Apples. Just really amusing. And so simple to play. I love it.

8. Cranium. I never, ever get to play this game. But I love that it has all different kinds of categories, and I will never forget my Mother-in-law being a lava lamp. Ever.

9. Dutch Blitz. This one brings back memories of a time when Mark, myself, and our good friends were all sans kids and living in apartments. Nuts! It's so much fun to play!

10. Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. This is a game I can regularly beat my husband at, which means it goes on my top ten list. Someday I will remember whether Merry or Pippin said, "Where are we going?" (I always get that question and I always get it wrong!)

Wild Wednesday

2009-11-11T20:58:00.003-06:00

So to continue the thankfulness theme this month, I am thankful for my parents. I am way more sane because of them--they provide so much and never ask for anything except access to their grandkids.

Thanks Mom and Dad. It truly takes a village to raise a child (or more than one child) and I'm glad you are part of my village.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-11-10T20:27:00.002-06:00

Click here to join in

So I know Caleb said lots of cute things this week--but honestly I'm getting very busy so writing them all down has been near impossible.

So here's all I remember. One morning this past week we were walking out to the car and Caleb wanted to ask me a question. He said, "Daddy, I mean, Mommy...whatever your name is!" Which is funny because he gets that from me. Sometimes if I'm having a really busy/crazy day, I'll try to call Caleb and go through Mark, Noah, and our former dog Toby, before getting to Caleb's name! So often I say, "Whatever your name is, come here!"

Menu Plan Monday

2009-11-08T23:02:00.003-06:00

Happy Monday! Here's the menu plan for this week. If you want to join in on Menu Plan Mondays, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

This week will start out with some meals from last week, since we ended up eating out a bit too much last week. We also had more leftovers than I expected, so the good news is the grocery bill should be a smaller one. My goal this week: No eating out whatsoever.

Breakfasts: Cereal and Peanut Butter Toast

Lunches: Leftovers and frozen meals

Dinners:

Monday: Lime Chicken Tacos

Tuesday: Leftovers (Potluck Eggs Benedict and Lime Ch. Tacos)

Wednesday: Baked Potato Soup w/ Kielbasa

Thursday: Pizza Crescent Bake

Friday: Chicken a la King

Saturday: Ham and Cheese Loaf

Sunday: Taco Pizza

Savior Sunday

2009-11-08T20:13:00.002-06:00

'Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."'-Matthew 26:39

"Yet not as I will, but as you will." This statement in the book of Matthew has always touched my heart. I try very hard when I pray, to have this intent: God's will be done, God's purpose be fulfilled.

But it's so easy to ask for MY will and MY purpose to be done. Heal this person, God. Save that unbeliever, please. Make my kids safe and healthy and happy and nice, if you can. We all have such a list of demands to make upon God when we pray. And the really cool thing about God is, I bet he hears all those demands with great patience and love. Every. single. one.

It cannot be easy to be God. To have this master plan, and to love everyone unconditionally, and to hear all those requests, demands, and concerns...and then to watch the caretakers of his creation just walk away from him and sin.

Which is why I try to end every prayer with something like, "So if it's not against your will, God, those are the things I'm worried about. Your will be done, above all." Because really, it is God's master plan that is important. We never say that to someone who's lost a loved one, or who's house has been hit by a tornado...it wouldn't be kind to do so. But ultimately, God has a plan and a will for everyone, and those bad things that happen to us, well, they are part of the journey. God would never wish them on us, but would we really know the awesomeness of love or the true feeling of joy, if we didn't have any bad times? I don't think so. I think we only "get" the full understanding of joy and happiness and love because we know how bad it can be.

So God's will be done this week, in your life. And if it's not against God's will, may you experience joy this week. Amen.

Wish Lists.

2009-11-07T21:48:00.003-06:00

For those that have requested them, our wish lists are all posted on the right of the blog.

Family Friday/Story Saturday

2009-11-07T20:24:00.004-06:00

I knew there was a reason I forgot to post Family Friday yesterday--because if I hadn't, I wouldn't have these great pictures to share! Today we met Caleb and Noah's cousins at the park to have a playdate and attempt to take a group picture. Yes, you heard correctly, I said "attempt". My boys were not cooperative this morning.

But we did have fun playing at the park.

Noah was very sad that I wouldn't let him take any pictures.

Caleb and Noah posed for a picture together, but later on I realized that it looks kinda bad to have a parking lot with cars in the background of a christmas card!

Caleb and Noah had fun together on the big swing while Brian pushed them! Caleb and Brian also went on the tire swing with Jenna, but since I was pushing them I couldn't take a picture.

And now for a Story Saturday--my recommendation today is that you run to your local library or bookstore and get Sink Reflections, by Marla Cilley (the Flylady). I'm only one chapter in (because she has forbidden me to read on until I have my sink shined, and I need to do that) but I think her tips on keeping a clean and organized house will really help me out. If you have trouble finding time to keep your house clutter free and ready for guests, then you need this book.

See you tomorrow for Savior Sunday!

Wild Wednesday/Top Ten Thursday

2009-11-05T19:56:00.004-06:00

In honor of it being November, I am going to make all the Wild Wednesdays this month be a "giving thanks" post, where I share something I am thankful for. Since I missed yesterday's post, I will combine my thankful post with Thursday's Top Ten, which will be the Top Ten Things I like about Being a Graduate Student.

So, first, I am very thankful for a professor who actually fosters a mastery atmosphere--I've gotten two papers back with lots of feedback, no grade. It seems he is not concerned with grades. I am thinking as long as I try hard, work hard, and participate, I should be good to go in that class. I am learning lots and having a good time (and no, he doesn't read this blog as far as I know, so I'm not brown-nosing).

And now my Top Ten. Here are the Top Ten Reasons I Like Being a Graduate Student:

1. I never ever have to take early morning classes.

2. Most of the classes I take are exactly what I'm interested in.

3. Even the math classes I take are tailored to my area of interest.

4. Almost every project is designed to help me with my dissertation.

5. Although I'm full time staff now, when I was part-time there was no better paying half-time job.

6. My boss is also my advisor, so I don't feel my loyalties are divided.

7. I get to go to a big conference (cough:party) every year, most of the time on a plane (I love to fly!!!).

8. Being in school keeps my brain from developing cobwebs.

9. I have access to research databases. So I don't have to trust journalists.

10. Someday my husband will call me Dr. Smith.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-11-03T11:53:00.003-06:00

Click here to join in

Caleb has said a few cute things this week. First, he has a little stuffed dog he has named Maggie. This weekend, he would hold her up to his cheek and say "She's my love."

Second, Sunday morning Caleb was asking how you get married. I said you grow up and find a girl that you really like, and then once you love her, you can get married and live with her. Caleb thought about that for a bit, then said, "I don't want to grow up. I just want to stay with you and Daddy." I assured him that when he was older he would feel differently!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-11-02T09:04:00.003-06:00

Happy November, everyone! I am excited for this month because I am going to try to save more money on groceries than in the past. So for this week I've got a new menu plan that was created based on the sales and coupons I found this past weekend. So wish me luck and let's see if I can deal with the best of them!

A bit of background: I've tried using coupons in the past and had little luck--typically it seemed that the generic brands were still cheaper than the name brands with coupons. But this time I found a blog for my area, Chicks Dig Deals, that highlights the deals going on at several supermarkets, allowing me to take best advantage of sales and coupons.

So here's my Menu Plan Monday. If you want to participate, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Breakfasts: Cereal, Peanut butter/Sunbutter toast, milk.

Lunches: Michelina frozen meals, leftovers, salad.

Dinners:

Monday: Eat Out (Grocery Shop night)

Tuesday: Spaghetti, Waxed Beans

Wednesday: Chili w/Cornbread, Green Beans

Thursday: Potluck Eggs Benedict

Friday: Loaded Baked Potatoes

Saturday: Lime Chicken Tacos

Sunday: Bakes Potato Soup w/Kielbasa

See you tomorrow for Tot Talk Tuesday!

Savior Sunday

2009-11-01T20:34:00.004-06:00

No bible verse today, and the devotional is going to be pretty short since I am sick.

Yesterday I thought I was going to write about how God's love is the only truly unconditional love...I saw a WWII movie and was feeling very sad about all the horrible things Hitler did to Jewish people, gypsies, etc. But that post will have to wait.

Today I got sick. Not horribly hospitalizing-sick. Just achy, pukey, wanna-lay-in-bed-all-day sick. So as I was lying there, in between fits of sleep, I tried to think about God and why being sick could be a blessing. Here is what I came up with:

1. If I feel sick, that means I'm alive--and that is a blessing.

2. Being sick is hard on me because I'm not sick often--another blessing.

3. My son was sicker than I was, showing me it could be worse--blessing.

4. My son and I got sick on a weekend, when my husband is home to help--definitely a blessing.

5. Being sick usually kick-starts some weight loss--a final blessing.

So see, there are blessings in the bad things. This doesn't make it all better, but at least I can find the silver lining. :-)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:30:00.004-05:00

Since I neglected my Family Friday last night, here is a Family Friday post AND a book recommendation for Story Saturday!

First, the book recommendation. In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, I am recommending to all parents out there--check out The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. We own this book and not only does it come with a cd telling the story (which is great in the car if you have a car cd player) but it's a lovely tale about a pumpkin who is shaped all wrong. I won't spoil the story for you, but the book teaches a great lesson about acceptance and how everyone has a purpose and how we shouldn't judge people.

Next, here are our Halloween pictures! We might have a few more once we get Grandma and Grandpa Hammie's photos, but here's what we have from yesterday and today.

Noah loves to stomp, and last night at the Children's museum for their Halloween celebration, I got a great picture of it! Noah was a Knight this year for Halloween (specifically Saint George, but most people missed the connection--Caleb was a dragon...)

And here is a good picture of Caleb the dragon, at the Children's museum last night. Caleb was excited to get to trick-or-treat THREE times this week. I think some of the candy may have to be donated to my students at work!

And last but not least, here are our pumpkins for this year. Last year we did one pumpkin as a Mr. Potato Head pumpkin--it was so easy and so very little mess that we decided to do ALL our pumpkins with Mr. Potato Head parts this year. (From left to right: Caleb's pumpkin, Noah's pumpkin, Kathie's pumpkin, and Mark's pumpkin) Noah's didn't look much like him because he got the leftover parts to work with (it was either mustache guy or a girl pumpkin).

Hope everyone had a great time! Don't forget to snag your extra hour of sleep tonight!

Top Ten Thursday

2009-10-29T07:55:00.005-05:00

For Top Ten Thursday, I thought I'd share the ideas I've collected for decorating pumpkins, since Halloween is only two days away!

Top Ten Ways to Decorate a Pumpkin

Traditional—use carving tools and make triangles for the eyes and nose, and a jaggedy mouth!
Turn the stem into a nose—turn the pumpkin on it’s side so the stem looks like a nose and then paint the rest of the face around the nose.
Paint it—this is a great way to have little kids participate! Just buy some nontoxic tempera paints and let the kids make their own little masterpieces. (Word of Caution: don’t leave painted pumpkins outside unless you want to repaint them again and again!)
Crochet a cozy for it—I haven’t tried this yet, but if you know how to crochet, you could crochet a cozy for your pumpkin that will be reusable year after year! Just make sure you make the cozy a bit smaller than the pumpkin and only crochet in the back loops so the cozy will stretch to fit the pumpkin!
Use Mr. Potato Head Parts—this is my family’s favorite way to decorate pumpkins, and it's super easy! Just buy (or dig out of the toy chest) a bunch of Mr. Potato Head parts, use a drill or awl to put holes in the pumpkin, and then stick the parts in! We did this last year for one pumpkin, and it looked so cute that this year we are doing ALL our pumpkins as Mr. Potato Head Pumpkins!
Poke holes in a pattern (think LightBright)—This one also requires a drill or some other tool to make holes (I would recommend a power tool since with this one you will be making a lot of holes!) Plan out a pattern of holes on paper, and then drill them into the pumpkin, so the light from inside will make a pattern or picture! (I would think you could also stick colored tissue paper on the inside and if the pumpkin was still sticky, the tissue paper would dry there…but this is untested so I don’t know if it would work! Similar to the paint, don’t leave tissue-papered pumpkins outside! The paper will dissolve if it rains.)
Sequins and Ribbons—This is what I like to call a Martha Stewart Pumpkin. Get out all your old ribbon, sequins, fabric, whatever you want, and decorate your pumpkin with it! Using hot glue should work, although this is another one I haven’t tested yet.
See Thru Rind—I didn’t know what to call this one, but some of the best pumpkins I’ve seen have been carved so they still have some rind/skin/body left, but it’s thin enough that the light from inside makes that part glow! It can be a really cool effect, look online for samples of this. I just googled Pumpkin carving and found lots! (Unfortunately none of the sites told me what the technique was called!)
Colored Lights—Use some old Christmas lights, or buy a cheap set, and use them to help decorate your pumpkin! If you are a Christmasy person, wrap ‘em around the outside! If you want a cool effect, get a short set of lights that flicker or switch colors and use them on the inside of your carved jack-o-lantern for a neat effect. You could also use this idea with #6 above, and try to make a true Light Bright.
Use Multiple Pumpkins, Stack em or stick em! Don’t be afraid to use multiple pumpkins to make a creative scene. I’ve seen stacked pumpkins to make snowmen, and I’ve seen pieces of one pumpkin used to create cute accessories on another pumpkin (think using the top/stem of one pumpkin and sticking it to another pumpkin as a nose). The bottom of one pumpkin could also make a cute hat for another pumpkin, or a bowl for a bunch of little pumpkins to sit in.

Wild Wednesday

2009-10-28T09:06:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!

I thought today I would offer another opinion piece. I realize Wednesdays are turning into opinion-days, but since it's only once a week I hope ya'll won't mind.

You see, recently it seems a lot of my discussions have been centering on breastfeeding. No, I'm not currently lactating, but a friend of mine is so she and I have been discussing it. And then I've seen some conversations on facebook. And also I'm quite opinionated (you didn't notice, did you? :-P) and passionate about baby-related things, so the topic just comes up a lot.

So here's MY opinion. I think breastmilk is best. I think when mother and child can establish a happy nursing relationship, it is an experience that does not compare to any other. I still get warm fuzzies thinking about nursing my oldest when he was a babe. I miss that relationship.

Now think about that for a minute. Nursing is a relationship! Merriam Webster Online defines a relationship as "a state of affairs between those having relations or dealings." I think breastfeeding a baby certainly counts as a relationship. Why am I making such a fuss over the word relationship? Well, because nursing is a relationship, that means there are TWO people involved and TWO people to account for. Nursing is not about just the baby's needs. It's about the mama too.

If you are a self-proclaimed breastfeeding-nazi, I'll warn you ahead of time that what's coming up next is where I might get a few of you angry or upset with me. Since nursing is about the baby AND the mama, both need to be happy and satisfied with the relationship. If the mama isn't happy, then adjustments need to be made. This will vary depending on the needs of the individual family. BUT, if many remedies are tried to make both baby and mama happy (and well-fed) and nothing is working, formula may be the answer. It won't be the answer for every mama (I have a good friend who very assertively stuck through a year of breastfeeding, even though it kinda sucked for her), but it is one answer. Sometimes it is the right answer.

Am I biased? Absolutely. I switched my youngest over to formula at 8 weeks old. I do not regret it. I regret not getting the loving, warm-fuzzy nursing feeling with him. I do not regret feeding him formula. Because at 8 weeks old, we'd tried several "fixes" and just were not having good luck with nursing. Could I have made it work? Maybe. I could have quit my job that I was about to return to, and spent considerable time mashing my boob into his mouth and making him cry, to retrain his bad habit (he had a tongue tie that caused him to not latch properly). Quitting my job would have caused pretty significant financial stress. But I don't have to justify my decision to anyone. It was my decision because it was my relationship with my son. And the fact was, he and I were both crying and unhappy every time we had to nurse.

So, like I said, breastfeeding is a relationship between mother and child. And it's got to work for both of them, or it's a no-win situation. Why am I telling this to everyone? Because the lack of support that I see for formula-feeding mothers saddens me.

I hear the BUTs! coming! "But, mainstream media supports formula feeding moms--their commercials are all over the place!" "But pediatricians support formula-feeding moms--they are always handing out samples!" "But hospitals support formula-feeding moms--in fact they seem to encourage formula feeding by giving out free cans of formula!"

I'll agree with all those statements--and I'd also agree that it's a sad state of affairs when hospitals, doctors, and the media cannot appropriately recommend breastfeeding. But this is a cultural problem, and the fix will have to be a difficult one--to change the way our culture thinks about breastfeeding.

But back to the support. Support from doctors, hospitals, and media is NOT what a formula feeding mother needs--especially a mom who is formula feeding AFTER nursing didn't work out. For a mom who really wanted to nurse and finds herself choosing formula, she needs support from people around her--friends, family, etc. And yet, those closest to her sometimes speak without thinking and do not give the support needed.

I remember--the smile and nod. The looks that said, "Yeah, whatever, you just didn't try hard enough." No one ever said that to me, but their faces did and their statements about breastfeeding at other times said that. Their statements about OTHER women who did not nurse told me more about how they felt and what kind of support they'd give me.

And the truth is, I've got a somewhat unusual point of view. I'm a hardcore breastfeeding advocate because I think every woman should get the benefits of nursing and if more were encouraged to try, more babies would benefit. BUT, I fed formula to both my boys too. So I interact with many hardcore breastfeeding nazi-types and I am privy to hear what they say about formula-feeders. And it's interesting, from my perspective. These women are very passionate and very loving.

But what I see is that among people who advocate for the best start for babies (breastfeeding) there is a lack of compassion for moms who choose formula. And a lack of understanding. And I wish that would change.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-10-27T11:45:00.002-05:00

Click here to join in

Last night while I was getting dinner ready, Mark took the boys out in the backyard and he played Spies with Caleb. So when we sat down to dinner, Caleb told me they were shooting bad guys in the backyard, and "now they're dead so Jesus and God can eat them." Obviously I've been a little lazy about his religious education!

Noah's latest thing is to say EVERYTHING we say. He'll pick out the key word and repeat it, Noah-style. For example, I'll say, "Wanna go outside?" and Noah says, "Ow-sigh?" He also has random sounds that come out of his mouth, like "yeah" and "yo-yo-yo". It's amazing how often his "yeah" comes out at an appropriate moment. For example, Caleb says, "I wanna go out to eat," and Noah immediately says, "Yeah!". And he just sounds like a gangster when he says, "Yo! Yo-Yo!"

Update.

2009-10-25T20:34:00.003-05:00

For those of you who regularly follow my blog, I'm sorry but the posts are going to have to wait a few days. I desperately need to study for a midterm and finish revising my presentation slides for Tuesday. Hopefully by then I will be able to start posting regularly again.

Notification!

2009-10-24T23:55:00.003-05:00

I'm at a scrapbooking retreat this weekend, so I have very little time to post. This means I will post Family Friday, Story Saturday, and Savior Sunday all on Sunday evening. Thanks for your patience, friends!

Top Ten Thursday

2009-10-22T09:50:00.003-05:00

For Top Ten Thursday this week, I have been granted permission to repost an amusing parody from another blog. This parody hits home with me because I once pondered a calling to ordained ministry--obviously through prayer and thought I discerned that pastoral leadership was not my calling; however I still remain a very steadfast advocate of ordaining women in ministry. I have yet to hear a good reason to limit women to Sunday school teachers. So here's the parody! (copied with permission from Simple Pleasures.)

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

The following was presented by Dr. David Scholer at the Fuller Follies (Fuller’s annual spoof/talent show) in 1998.

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are most suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowing achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football games shows this.

5. Some men are handsome; thus they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained as a pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes otherwise than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to the traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

Wild Wednesday

2009-10-21T13:09:00.003-05:00

For Wild Wednesday this week, I'd like to rant. Not an uneducated, emotionally charged, irrational rant. In fact, I'd like to "go off" about one of my favorite subjects, which I am very educated AND emotional about, but not irrational...at least, not according to my friends. :-P

The subject is childbirth options. No, I am not talking about abortion--that is a separate rant for another time. I'm talking about a woman's choice, or lack of choice, about where and how to give birth.

Let me just state my opinion: Barring actual medical emergencies, a woman should be allowed to choose WHERE she will birth, WHO she would like at her birth, and HOW she chooses to cope with the pain. Does this seem like a controversial point?

Well, it is for some people. We have an OB/Gyn here in our great town of Lincoln who thinks the childbirths she attends are all about HER. She controls her patients, controls the environment, and badmouths anyone who doesn't agree with her. Case in point: she has told the midwives in her practice to discourage women from using my friend as a doula (and that should be a big enough clue for anyone who wants to know who the OB is). Why did she do this? Because my friend advocated for her client (not even a patient of this doctor) and handed her HEALTHY baby to her mother, as per the mother's request--because that doctor was ignoring the patient's wishes.

Now, should the care provider have input? Yes. Should they guide and advise? Yes. But ultimately, the woman is responsible for her child from the day it is conceived until the day he or she turns 18 or 19 years old, if not longer.

Also, and here is the point I've been wanting to get to. Why is it, that as an adult in the United States of America, with all my voting privileges and rights, that I can choose to terminate the life of my "fetus" at anytime prior to 21 weeks gestation with no questions asked, BUT in order to choose a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) I must go through the third degree with an OB? Why, to have a homebirth in Nebraska, must I hide and be secretive and hire an out-of-state lay midwife and feel like I must lie to people? Why, in having a Bradley birth attended by a doula at a hospital, must I be made to feel weird or crazy?

And most of all, why do some doctors get a look on their face when I ask for more information? You know the look--the one that says, "Oh no. This one's not going to cooperate." You would think doctors would want me to know all the risks and benefits, to lessen my chance of filing a lawsuit against them.

I know--it's about control. And money. But this is one of the things that is wrong with my little part of the world. And I just needed to get it out there into the electronic abyss, like a little S.O.S. "Come rescue Nebraska from its backwards, outdated, hospital/money-driven childbirth system! Please, we have cookies!"

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-10-20T15:19:00.003-05:00

Click here to join in

So Caleb was sick yesterday afternoon with a low-grade fever, and when he went down for nap, I told him sleeping could make him feel better. After he woke up from nap, Caleb came out into the living room and said, "My nap's over, Mommy, but I'm still just a little sick."

And then Noah, who's almost 17 months old...he doesn't say much--well, actually he says a whole lot of things but it sounds like gibberish to us--anyway, Noah will randomly insert exclamations into any conversation. Like, we'll be in the car and Mark, Caleb, and I will be talking. Noah will suddenly go "Yeah!" or "Nooo..." And sometimes it seems as if he's following along!

See you tomorrow for Wild Wednesday. I think it might be a rant about childbirth practices. So be prepared, tomorrow's post may not be for the faint at heart! (just kidding)

Menu Plan Monday.

2009-10-19T12:22:00.004-05:00

Head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie if you'd like to participate in Menu Plan Monday.

This week we don't really need a menu plan since last week we ate out a bit too much and had some unexpected events derail our plan.

So instead of a menu, I'll share my process for menu planning. I love the Simple and Delicious magazine that Taste of Home puts out, and my subscription gives me access to all my recipes online! So when I start to menu plan, I go online to www.tasteofhome.com and sift through my recipe box there. Typically I try to only do each kind of meat once a week, and since we aren't big meat eaters at our house, I usually have a fair amount of vegetarian recipes.

Once I've picked out the recipes that sound good (or are cheap, depending on whether it's the beginning or the end of the month) I try to choose where in the week I will cook them, based on our plans for the week. For example, we always have Kindermusik on Monday nights, and I have class on Tuesday nights. So Monday night has to be a fast recipe, and Tuesday night has to be either leftovers or something really easy for Mark to cook.

Once I've planned all that, I see what is left in my week--where there are gaps. Those gaps I fill with either leftovers, sometimes a planned eat out night, or I'll start brainstorming easy, family favorites (like grilled cheese and tomato soup).

That's it! One more thing--Mark doesn't like sandwiches for lunch, so I have to always plan extras so he can have leftovers to take to work the next day. Having sandwiches for lunch would sure make things easier, but I thought that was useful information in case anyone looking at my menus doesn't get why I make so MUCH food. I don't think I posted the serving sizes last week, but I intend to starting next week.

See you tomorrow for a Tot Talk!

Story Saturday AND Savior Sunday.

2009-10-18T18:59:00.004-05:00

So I blew it--I completely forgot to post yesterday for Story Saturday. I even had time to post in the evening. So, I've stumbled upon a bible verse that will both serve for Savior Sunday and relate to a book recommendation.

"He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done." 2 Kings 2:7

I know that this verse is taken out of context and is talking about Joram the king of Israel. But I think even without context, it is a verse that speaks to me. As parents, I feel that most of us try to not do as our father and mother have done...we try to analyze how our parents screwed up with us, what they just didn't know, or the things we think we can do even better with our kids.

I absolutely do this, even though my mom and dad are wonderful and loving. Even though I have excellent role models for how to be a parent, I still analyze how I was raised and how my brother was raised, and I devour parenting books and online information like a ravenous beast. I am looking for ideas on how raise kids better than my parents did, and confirmation that I'm raising my two boys right.

But just today, one of those parenting books hit me, right between the eyes, with the reality that I'm NOT raising my boys exactly right. The book was Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys. I've been reading it to Mark and we've both been enjoying it and learning a lot. It isn't one of those feel good books that says, "no one raises them perfect so it's okay..." But the book didn't directly criticize my parenting either. It just offered tips for how to handle certain situations appropriately, and I realized that I had been doing the opposite of those tips. Example: The book says don't verbally and emotionally overwhelm your boy. Well, when Caleb had been having trouble hitting friends at his old school, I was doing exactly that. I felt the need to impress upon him how he was making the other child feel, and I was trying to get the point across that this was serious stuff. I guess I was being too intense, confrontational, and essentially bombarding Caleb with emotional and verbal information that he probably could not handle.

Instead of blaming myself and feeling guilty, I resolved to do better now that I know better, and I found a new appreciation for my parents. Not only did my mom and dad get it right a lot of the time, but they are not going to be the last of our family line to get it wrong once in a while. I am continuing that legacy. I am not always going to get it right. 2 Kings 2:7 says it--I may not sin the same as my parents, but I will still sin. I am going to make my own mistakes as a parent, even though they will be different mistakes than those of my parents.

So I think as a daughter, I need to give my parents a break. Instead of analyzing their mistakes, I should start analyzing where they went right! And try to mimic that behavior. My mom is a very loving woman, and she's really good at redirecting my kids; I should try to be more like that. And my dad is awesome to talk to (not that my mom isn't, but for different things). I don't think my boys have good talks with him yet, but they will. And I should try to establish a relationship with my boys where they can talk to me like that.

But I won't stop reading the parenting books--it doesn't hurt to look for more guidance, so long as it guides me towards improvement and not towards criticism, guilt, or despair. So as Mark and I continue to glean more understanding from our book, think about how you appreciate your parents. Do you strive to see the good in how they raised you? Or do you focus on the bad? Do we do the same with our spouses, and focus on what they are doing wrong rather than what they do right? After all, Romans 3:23 says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We may not sin the same as our parents (or our spouses) but we still sin. So let's focus on two things: (1)Strive for atonement and relationship with God, and (2) focusing on the good in our family members. I think these two things go hand-in-hand. God bless you this week!

(Oh and if you have boys, try reading Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys. It has many insights and speaks about nurturing the positive qualities of boys "being boys", and working with the negative qualities. Mark and I are only about half way through the book, but so far we're hooked.)

Family Friday

2009-10-15T22:02:00.013-05:00

Welcome to Family Friday! For our first Family Friday, I have to tell you how excited our kids are about Halloween. Okay, well, Caleb is excited because he knows what is coming on October 30 (i.e. crazy night gathering candy) and Noah is excited because there are pumpkin lights!

Unfortunately there isn't much news this month so far. But Caleb has enjoyed playing hide and seek lately. Can you find him? (I promise, he is in that bed somewhere)

And I have to share a precious picture, of Mark and Noah taking a lazy Sunday nap together. I will very much miss napping with my babies on the weekend, when I have no more babies.

Last but not least, I have a cute video of Noah, playing his latest game.

Join us this weekend for Story Saturday, where I will share/review one or two books that either the kids love or I love, and for Savior Sunday, where I will post a bible verse and devotional. TGIF!

Top Ten Thursday

2009-10-15T09:32:00.006-05:00

Welcome to the first Top Ten Thursday!

Top Ten Tips for Selling Your House

Paint. Any room where the walls look marked up, beaten on, or dingy, needs to be painted. If the outside of the house hasn’t been painted in 3-5 years, paint it. While we’re talking about paint, think about color. Any rooms with a wild, wacky color—repaint. But, if you think the color looks good, feel free to leave it as is. It would help to let your real estate agent know you’d be willing to paint over the color if buyer so desires.
Kitchens! If you have any funds to remodel/redecorate, kitchens are your best bet. Put most of your money into making your kitchen the best it can be.
And Bathrooms! The second best place to put money is into bathroom remodels—add a bathroom if you don’t have very many, or remodel bathrooms if you have the spare cash. If nothing else, ALWAYS make certain your bathrooms are sparkling clean—that includes the insides of toilets, sinks, and bathtubs. Vinegar works wonders on fixtures.
Clutter. As in, DE-clutter and clean the whole house. Rent a short term storage facility (or find someone willing to store your stuff) and remove all clutter, including excess appliances on the kitchen counter, magnets/papers/whatever on the fridge, piles of anything in the house, etc. If you want to see an example of what your house SHOULD look like before you show it to potential buyers, go to some open model homes in your area. You’ll notice they have NO CLUTTER. Don’t forget the storage areas of your home! If a storage area will be seen during showing, make it neat! This includes pantries, garages, storage sheds, basements, laundry rooms, etc. A neatly organized space will always look as if it has more room than if it is messy or cluttered. Also clean carpets and floors. Do the best you can to make them look nice. Get rid of stains, if you can, cover up bad spots if you cannot get rid of them. In general you should shampoo your carpets before you start showing your house, and vacuum them before every showing. Consider replacing carpet if you have the funds for it—new carpet is a nice selling point.
Related to de-cluttering is staging the home. Staging is where you actively rearrange and decorate your home to present it at its best. Many homes that sell quickly have been staged—how much you stage is up to you and your pocketbook. This does not mean buying ALL new stuff, but it does mean consciously thinking about what to do with a room. Example: When we sold our old home, I knew the curtains in the living room were dated, so I took them down and bought new ones that matched the other décor. The new curtains didn’t stay with the house (I was explicit about this in our selling contract) but they did make that room look spiffy for showing. We sold our old home in 3 weeks! It’s all about first impressions. Another part of staging is removing personal effects. Get rid of pictures of family, artwork from your kids; anything that marks the house as belonging to your family should be put into storage or at least put away where it won’t be seen during showing. The idea is that when someone sees your home it is inviting enough that they think “Wow, I could live here”. When they see personal effects, it detracts from that feeling. It’s a psychological thing.
Curb appeal. Go outside your house, stand on the sidewalk across the street and look critically at the impression your home conveys as people will drive by. Think about what could be better, prettier, more appealing. Are there bare spots in the garden? Do you need mulch? Is your unsightly garbage can visible from the street? There is a lot that goes into curb appeal, but basically you want to honestly assess the look of your home and yard, then think, “Would someone want to stop and see the inside?” If the answer is no, then you need to spend some time (and likely money) fixing up your curb appeal. With our old house, this involved buying some bushes and mulch for the garden, hiring someone to paint the wood siding, keeping the lawn mowed, and getting the sidewalk level.
Smells. Make sure the only smells in your home during showings are pleasant ones. First, that means getting rid of any nasty pet smells—if you have pets, ask a friend who doesn’t have pets to come into your home and let you know honestly if it smells (this is more for dog-owners as I’ve noticed they tend to not notice the smell of their dogs). The best way to get rid of pet smells is to give the pet a vacation at a friend or family member’s house. Send the cats to grandmas or board the dogs if you can afford it. Whether or not you remove the animals, use some odor-removing products to make your house smell nice. I always had a scented jar candle burning on the stove, and I always went through every room just before leaving the house and sprayed Febreze around, to freshen everything up before a showing.
Extras. If you have plenty of cash, replacing old appliances and features can be a nice selling point. You will not necessarily “get your money back”, but replacing these things can get your house sold faster: windows, rooftops, kitchen appliances, furnace and a/c, ceiling fans, light fixtures, squeaky or sticking doors.
Price your home appropriately. If you have a real estate agent they can offer advice on this—but you should price your home using 3 guidelines: (1) the prices of other on-the-market homes similar to yours, (2) the prices of on-the-market homes in your area, and (3) how long those homes have been on the market. Case in point: We live in a small town about 10 miles away from a small-sized city; at least one home in our neighborhood has been priced according to what that size of house would get in the city—which is not wise. Other homes in our area have either sold for much less, or they’ve been on the market for YEARS because they were priced according to the city values. If your house doesn’t sell quickly, look critically at the price, and be willing to lower the price or accept a lower offering price. Know ahead of time what the minimum you are willing to accept will be.
Last tip, and this is a biggie. Provided you can afford it, get everything in your house “up to code”. This is especially if you are selling an older home where things may not be in accordance with regulations. If something is not done properly and potential buyers notice that, it makes them wonder what ELSE hasn’t been done right. Maybe they’ll just make you fix stuff before closing—or maybe they’ll decide it’s too stressful to worry about it and move on to the next home. You really want them to WANT your home, and very few people want to buy a home that might have botched, out-of-code fixit jobs to do.

Join us tomorrow for Family Friday, where I will post pictures and news about Caleb, Noah, Mark, and myself (mostly about Caleb and Noah, since they are who ya'll want to hear about, right?)

Wild Wednesday

2009-10-14T09:29:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Wild Wednesday! I'm still working on banners for each of my daily themes, so hopefully by next week I will have them done and ready to use. For today's Wild Wednesday, I promised to post some recipes that our family loves. Here they are!
Refried Bean Soup
1 can (16 oz.) spicy fat-free refried beans
1 can (15-1/4 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) stewed tomatoes, cut up
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup salsa
Tortilla chips
shredded cheddar cheese
In a large saucepan, combine the first seven ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until heated through. Serve with tortilla chips and cheddar cheese. Yield: 8 servings (2 quarts).

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice
1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened pineapple chunks
3 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 package (26 ounces) frozen popcorn chicken
6-8 servings cooked rice
Drain pineapple, reserving the juice in a 2-cup measuring cup; set pineapple aside. Add enough water to the juice to measure 1-1/3 cups; stir in the vinegar, soy sauce and ketchup. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and cornstarch. Stir in pineapple juice mixture until smooth. Gradually add to a skillet and bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add pineapple. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 minutes or until heated through. Meanwhile, cook chicken in oven according to package directions. Stir into pineapple mixture. Serve immediately over rice. (Feel free to add veggies to this dish, but decrease the amount of chicken if you add veggies...the original recipe called for only 12 oz. of chicken and some green peppers and onions--my kiddos don't like those, so I doubled the chicken). Yield: 6-8 servings.
Hope you enjoy these as much as our family does! Check in tomorrow for Top Ten Thursdays...every Thursday I will give a Top Ten list. This week: Top Ten Tips for Selling Your House.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-10-13T08:32:00.004-05:00

Click here to join in

Man, Caleb has been talkative this past week! I cannot even remember all of the funny things he's said. But here is what I can remember:

Caleb helped me make cinnamon chip scones last Saturday. (I needed to test the recipe for an upcoming scrapbooking weekend where I will be making them for 20 or so women!) But he kept called the scones "cones". E.g. "Mommy, when we're done eating our cones..."

So for those of you who live in Nebraska, I hope you noticed that it snowed last weekend. As I was waking up on Saturday morning, Caleb greeted me with "Mommy, it SNOWED outside...that means it's time for Christmas!"

And in other news, I started drinking a morning coffee again last week (a habit I had given up years ago). Caleb likes to help me make the coffee on the weekends (Grandpa Hammie has taught him all about making coffee). As we were waiting for the espresso to brew, Caleb turns to me and says, "After it's done, you can drink your coffee so you don't get a cough!"

Last but not least, (and certainly the one that Caleb will hate me for when he's older)...last night in the car on the way home from school/work, Caleb kept saying "poopy" for no reason--just to be silly. So I told him what his teachers have told him at school--that poopy is a bathroom word and you have to be in the bathroom if you are going to use bathroom words. End of story right? Not exactly. So we get home, and Caleb needs to use the bathroom--so he goes in there as I am heading downstairs to check my email. And what I hear from the bathroom is "Poopy! Poopy! Potty! POTTY! Potty!" Obviously he remembered the conversation in the car, and was using his bathroom time wisely. Or he is just discovering how to be a smart a**.

See you tomorrow for Wild Wednesdays--when I post whatever I feel like. I'm thinking recipes, tomorrow. Someone requested my Refried Bean Soup recipe, and I made a Sweet & Sour Chicken recipe last night that is now a family favorite. BOTH boys asked for seconds, and Noah asked for thirds! Even Mark and I liked it. That's unprecedented. So I thought I'd share.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-10-12T09:49:00.007-05:00

To join in the Menu Plan Monday, go here.

So in an effort to blog more regularly, I'm going to try and have a theme for every day of the week--I may occasionally miss a day, but hopefully this will lead to regular posts that are enjoyable for everyone to read. And yes, I will try to make sure at least one post a week will be about the boys--but I don't know which day that will be, yet.

So here's my Monday--over at I'm an Organizing Junkie they have Menu Plan Mondays and I'm joining in! Since I shop on Tuesday evenings, typically, this will be a perfect way to make sure my menu plan is done in time (it also means my menu plans will actually start on Wednesdays and finish on Tuesdays, just so you don't get confused). Here's my menu plan for this coming week (recipes upon request):

Breakfasts: cereal for Mark, toast for me, bananas for boys (they eat at school)

Lunches: leftovers, frozen pizza, and salad

Dinners:

Wednesday: Spaghetti, broccoli, and applesauce

Thursday: Chicken 'n' Noodle Skillet, green beans, and apples

Friday: Corn Dog Twists, baked beans, and salad

Saturday: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup, leftover fruit

Sunday: Eggs to Go, Sausage, carrots, and pineapple

Monday: Refried Bean Soup, and bread (make bread on weekend)

Tuesday: Leftovers or Mac 'n' Cheese (Tuesday nights I have class, Mark "cooks")

That's it for this week--check back in every day this week to see my daily themes!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-10-06T11:57:00.003-05:00

If you want to participate in our Tuesday Tot Talks, just go over to Niecey's site:
Click here to join in

So first, a nonverbal tot talk from Noah; can I just say how adorable it is that Noah now shakes his head no when he doesn't want something? It makes life a bit easier than when he just pitched a fit on the floor if I gave him the wrong thing. (BTW, he also knows the word "No". But hasn't used it correctly in context. Instead, in the car he'll just go on a verbal rampage. Something like, "No. No. NO. No. Bye bye. No, No.")

And now for Caleb's tot talks of the week. This morning Caleb and I were in the little car (as opposed to the van) and he wanted music. Our little car only does radio, essentially, and everything this morning was talk radio. So we did the Mommy Jukebox, where Caleb requests a song and I sing it. At one point Caleb requested Pocahontas (which means The Colors of the Wind) and I got a little confused on the lyrics and sang, "sing with all the voices of the rainbow" and out of the back of the car, Caleb yells, "It's MOUNTAIN, mommy. mountain." He was right--it is "sing with all the voices of the mountain..." This, from a kid who's only seen the preview for Pocahontas, never the whole movie. Obviously he's watched the preview a lot.

And, Caleb just started at a new preschool yesterday; we visited the preschool last Friday for an hour or so, to give him a smoother transition. They do circle time and the class leader chooses a word related to the weekly theme--then everyone says that word when their name is called, to take "attendance". Make sense? (It seems a little time consuming and purposeless to me, but whatever. It's just preschool.) So, last Friday when we visited, the theme for the week was dinosaurs and the class leader picked "stegosaurus" as the attendance word. When Caleb was called (they kindly included him) he refused to say stegosaurus and instead said "T-Rex". (his favorite dinosaur) But that's not the cute or funny part; that's the mommy's-embarrassed-because-my-kid-is-already-acting-obstinate part.

The cute or funny part is that last night, when Caleb was reporting how his school day went, he told me, "And the word of the day was scary monster, and I SAID scary monster, mommy. I didn't say T-Rex." So at least he's trying to cooperate, for now. :-)

Grandparents Day!

2009-10-01T21:16:00.004-05:00

So we invited our parents to celebrate Grandparents Day with us at the Lincoln Children's museum. They were having a special celebration--free admission for grandparents, free chair massages, and free cookies were a few of the perks. So my mom and dad and Mark's dad came with us that day. Of course, as always, I forgot my camera, but thanks to my dad (thanks DAD!) I have some pictures, even though it was a few weeks ago.

Here is Pharoah Noah on his throne:
And jailbird Caleb:
Tired Daddy:
Noah played on almost every vehicle at the museum. He preferred the ones that were kiddie-sized, but also tried out the firetruck (as seen here with Grandpa Paul) and the airplane.
They were also doing face-painting--which is normally there, except this time it was upstairs near the space stuff. Caleb asked to have a full face unicorn, upon which the face-painting lady looked at me like, "You gotta be kidding me." I said, "Just do your best..." So she did, I guess. I think he looks more like a ghost with a weird dot on his head than a unicorn, but who am I to criticize? I probably couldn't do any better:

So, just some pictures this week. Oh, one more thing. I remembered what it was Caleb said that was so cute from last week. As I was putting him to bed on Saturday night, he said, "How do doctors get babies out of mommy's tummies?" to which I explained at the level of a four year old (something about mommies having special holes for babies and some doctors making an extra hole and then closing it back up...). After that conversation (which included asking to see the hole that the doctor made in mommy's tummy), Caleb was silent for a few minutes, then popped up and said, "And the doctor puts the baby in the mommy's mouth, and she swallows it, and that's how the baby gets in mommy's tummy!" So then we had another short conversation about how that wasn't quite accurate...

...needless to say, I think Mark can take the next few birds-n-bees talks. I've done my quota for the month.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-09-29T09:23:00.003-05:00

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So I had a really good one for this week, but it's written down somewhere and I cannot find it. (doh!) But never fear, I've been paying attention this week, so I have two other good ones to share.

Caleb was talking about the sun going down the other day, and being the geeky mom I am, I corrected him and told him that the sun doesn't actually move, but rather the earth rotates away from the sun. He didn't understand, so Mark and I grabbed our globe (thanks Judy!) and a flashlight and showed Caleb what we meant. He seemed to grasp the idea after that, I think.

So then Saturday we were at the park after dinner with some friends, and I said it was time to go home because it was getting dark and was Noah's bedtime. And Caleb said, "but the sun doesn't move mommy, right?" So I guess he got the idea, or at least believes me even if his eyes deceive him. I'm a happy mommy--that's one less science misconception he'll have to get rid of.

Second story: This morning, Caleb wanted to have a birthday party after he got ready for the day. He got ready REALLY fast for him (we should plan birthday parties every morning!) and then we had the party. I asked if we were having pretend cake, and Caleb said "No it's real" and he opened the fridge and pointed up at the eggs--I said, "The eggs?" and he said, "no, on TOP of the eggs!" I caught on--and grabbed the invisible cake off the top of the eggs and handed it to Caleb. He told me his cake was named coconut and it had green frosting. When his daddy had a piece, Caleb said "You forgot to get your fork!" To which Mark responded, "then what's this in my hand?" and Caleb said in an exasperated tone, "that's a spoon!"

All in all, a good morning. Even if we did get out a bit later than we should have.

Fun Fun Fall!

2009-09-26T21:31:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone! Fall is here, which always makes me super-happy. Let me show you some other things that make me super-happy!

My kids playing nicely together--they've FINALLY started to be able to play together, sort of. It's more parallel play for Noah, but at least Caleb is no longer regularly beating on Noah, and Noah's no longer avoiding Caleb whenever possible.

Also, our garden did yield actual produce! Not much, and not very big...but I was very afraid that I would have to buy watermelons and pumpkins and stick them in the garden, so that Caleb would see what gardens are supposed to look like. I didn't have to do that, so it's a win. I don't have pictures of the pumpkins yet, since we just cut them off the vine tonight, but I'll post them next time. Here is Caleb with one of the watermelons! Yes, we know they are small.

Last but not least, some of our friends' kids came to visit us this weekend (their Mom and Dad needed a sitter during the big homecoming 300th consecutive sellout Husker game). The kids had lots of fun, as always!

That's it 'til next time. All of us around here are hoping for a nice hard freeze, just at night. We love the daytime temps right now, but the hayfever is really annoying! May your days be bright and your evenings COLD! :-)

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-09-22T11:22:00.002-05:00

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I just have a two little tot talks this week. First, Caleb had a police detective visit his classroom a week ago. When I asked him about it, he said the officer showed him his "handpuffs".

And Noah is jabbering all over the place. This morning I was trying to redirect him, so I said "Go get your shoes" and something came out of his mouth in response. I think it was something like "blega" but the tone was exactly like "okay". Noah also says "Dadzee" for Daddy. Very cute.

Upon request, a Birthday Wish List.

2009-09-10T09:18:00.003-05:00

So I feel kinda awkward doing this, but a person close to me requested that I post a birthday wish list for myself. So I am. If you don't buy me birthday presents or would rather just pick something to surprise me, please disregard this post.

For those of you that appreciate wish lists (I know I do!), here ya go:

-Scrapbooking supplies (Mark actually has a list of stuff I picked out from magazine ads--talk to him about what I'd like)

-Flylady book (I need help with cleaning and organizing!)

-Yarn (I'm doing a prayer shawl ministry at church, so nice adult multi-colors would be lovely)

-gift money or a gift card to msngames.com (love these games but would NEVER buy them for myself)

-New pots and pans (either a new inexpensive set, or just one nice pan, like copperbottomed or something good quality--I know nothing about cookware, but we need new stuff!)

-gift cards to Caribou coffee or Lincoln Espresso, Michaels, or any restaurants

That should be a good start. Thank you in advance to anyone who is kind enough to think of me.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-09-08T21:25:00.004-05:00

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So on Sunday we gave Caleb the choice of napping or resting while reading books. Surprise, surprise--he chose to rest only and read books (oh and he's doing it in my bed, since Noah was going to sleep in the boys' bedroom). So Mark walks into our bedroom and sees Caleb reading and falling asleep while doing sitting up. And as Caleb hears Mark, he sits up straighter and says, "I gotta stay awake cause I'm reading books."

So then we explained that choosing to read books didn't mean he *couldn't* sleep, just that he didn't have to. He was asleep soon afterwards.

Question: How do you find a missing elephant?

2009-09-06T20:24:00.003-05:00

Answer: Ebay!

So, we had a tragedy a few weeks ago. Caleb's lovey, a pastel colored rattling elephant, went missing. Caleb has had Elephant since he was born, and he's loved him and slept with him since he was about one and a half or two years old; you could say Elephant was Caleb's Velveteen Rabbit. So it was quite a problem to find him missing--we have looked everywhere we can think of, but it would seem that Elephant is gone.

Caleb was distraught, to say the least. We offered to let him pick out a new stuffed animal at the store, but he just cried harder when we suggested that. So Grandma Beth offered to buy him a new elephant (she purchased the original) if we could find an identical one. For anyone who knew Elephant, he was a bit...loved--a little raggy and very worn out, with a hole in one arm. So we knew the new Elephant wasn't going to pass for Old Elephant. Instead of surprising Caleb, we asked him if he'd be okay with a brand new Elephant, and he said yes.

So then the search began. I thought Elephant was a relatively well-known brand name for stuffed animals, so I searched the Ty website, and Gund's website, and then Ganz's website. None of them had an Elephant that matched Caleb's Elephant (lots of OTHER elephants though). FINALLY, we tried Ebay, not knowing what exactly to search for except...Stuffed Jingle Elephant (which also brought up all sorts of Christmas elephants).

One on the list sorta looked like Elephant, but not exactly. However, it was a Russ brand stuffed animal, and that rang a bell. So then we searched some more for Russ elephants with rattles and found an Elephant just like Caleb's old one . Pink, Purple, and Yellow pastel-colored plush elephant that rattles, with a tag that says Razz. Hallelujah! (Of course, as a parent, I never paid attention to what the tag said except that it reads "surface washable only". Right, like I follow that recommendation).

Caleb says the new Elephant's name is also Elephant so that she and the old Elephant can be "girlfriends" (I think he means friends that are girls). We're a little concerned that Caleb still thinks old Elephant is coming back, but for now the sorrow seems to be over.

Catch the summer fun while you can!

2009-09-05T20:19:00.008-05:00

As we head into the last few weeks of summer, all of us here have been squeezing in a bit more fun, wherever we can.

One such bit was when we went to Kansas City a week ago on Friday. I wanted to go visit a friend with her new baby, so we decided to make it a day trip and have some fun as a family too. Earlier this year Caleb and Noah's cousins had visited the Kansas City Union Station & Science City, and the pictures and stories they shared made it sound like a fun place.

So we went. There weren't a lot of things for Noah to do, but he thought the bubble fire hydrants in the playground area were neat.

Caleb loved almost all of it. But I think his absolute favorite thing was eating at the train restaurant in Crown Center. Our food was actually brought by model Train.

Mark and I really enjoyed the part of Science City that has lots of optical illusions, and we also enjoyed the Lego art exhibit in Crown Center.

Of course, not all of our past few weeks has been fun. Noah has been ill. He came down with a fever, on-duty doc found a red inner ear, so we did a 3 day round of antibiotics but he was still acting very sick (and waking up many times a night). So we took him to extended care on a Saturday, and Noah's chest sounded rattly to the on-duty doctor. So we started a different antibiotic and nebulizer treatments. Noah is much better now, and he's been such a cooperative boy about his medicine. Initially he screamed through the nebulizer treatments, but now he just sits there until they are over. Of course, we did a lot of things to make them seem more fun--here is an example!

But in more fun news, today marked the start of football season. In an annual cosmic joke played on me, Mark gets to go to the game (it was Alumni Band Day) while I stay home with the kids. I love Husker football and would gladly go to ANY game. Mark could care less about football. So I always find it a little funny that he gets to go to a game every year and I do not. Nevertheless, the boys and I had a fun day getting haircuts, making muffins, and now I'm listening to the game since the boys went to bed early (thank you, God does throw blessings my way!).

Go Big Red!

The Garden!

2009-08-25T20:38:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

Some of you know that I have been trying to successfully plant and harvest a garden this year. Well, I thought I'd post some pictures of our progress so far. I don't have the most recent pictures, as our pumpkins have turned orange now. But you can see that contrary to my previous experience, I do not innately have a black thumb.

We planted pumpkins and watermelon. As I write this, the pumpkins are bigger than Caleb's head, and the watermelons are about half the size of the pumpkins. I'm not certain our watermelon crop is going to yield anything significant. The pumpkins, on the other hand, seem to be doing well (even though there are only 3 of them).

Constructing the garden:

Lotsa leaves and vines:

Pumpkin!!! (They are lots bigger than this now)

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-08-25T20:19:00.002-05:00

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Well, I just know Caleb said some cute things this week, but seeing as it's been busy at home and busy at work, I just cannot think of any of them (I did sit and try to think of them, I promise). So this week's Tot Talk is going to be a preservation of some of Noah's first words (Noah's version--what the word means):

uzat?--What's that? (his first sentence!)

Gakum--Taco (he said uzat to our taco salad, I told him taco, and he repeated gakum)

cocker--cracker (his word for anything crispy or crunchy)

bahbae- either baby, byebye, or bah-beans (from String beans song) depending on the context

Oh, and I might add--he says "uzat?" ALL the time now. Mark and I weren't even the first ones to notice that he was asking "what's that?" when he said it. But now that someone pointed it out, we notice he is always asking what something is. And about 25 percent of the time, Noah will try to repeat whatever we say in response. And I thought Caleb was an early talker--I think Noah might try out for debate or speech in grade school! (just kidding)

Learning!

2009-08-19T21:19:00.003-05:00

We've had a lot of learning experiences around here lately. Caleb learned about screwdrivers, helping Daddy to fix his old bedroom door...

...and here is a picture of Noah's tantrum, which I described in yesterday's Tot Talk Tuesday. So this is what he learned this week.

And Caleb decided to put his fridge alphabet in order according to the ABC song. He did a good job, except that he would not believe me when I told him that it went in the other direction. So I think perhaps he should sign up to learn Japanese someday. They read right to left, correct?

So, lots of learning going on at our house...which is fitting since it's back-to-school season. Hope all you school-agers are enjoying your first week of school. Caleb will be very excited to join you next year!

Tot "Talk" Tuesday

2009-08-18T11:50:00.003-05:00

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Hi All! Sorry I've been AWOL lately. There's just been a lot going on. For my Tot Talk Tuesday today, the best I can do will be Noah's first Tot Talk. Since he's not talking yet, this will be more of a communication from him to me.

Noah is into everything these days (isn't that the definition of being one?) and for the millionth time yesterday I either took something away from him or redirected him. He always gives me a little whining to let me know his opinion of my parenting. But yesterday after said event, Noah tried to throw his first fit. (I'm chuckling even as I write this, it was so cute) He whined, then quickly stopped whining and laid down on his tummy with his legs and arms out (like a beached whale). After a few seconds, he looked up at me to see if it was working. I busted out laughing because it was comical, his laying there without whining, attempting to mimic a fit. I don't know if Noah learned this from his brother (which is definitely possible) or from another kid at school, but he needs to work on his technique. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the whining and tummy laying are supposed to occur at the same time, and I also think there is supposed to be kicking and flailing.

Oh well, I expect that will come soon enough.

2009-08-10T14:17:00.002-05:00

So I do promise to eventually post more pictures of the boys! In my defense, we've been very busy this past week. Caleb went on his annual vacation to Minnesota with Grandma Beth and Grandpa Hammie. And Mark and I have been helping Mark's parents move to Lincoln, so even though Noah has been cute as always, we haven't had much time to snap pictures.

But Caleb is back now and things should settle down, I hope, as much as they ever do. I will try to snap some pictures of Caleb's kindermusik class tonight, and of course some of Noah. We did go to the Omaha zoo two weekends ago. Why are those pictures not on here yet? Because I forgot my digital cam and had to buy a disposable one. It takes me infinitely longer to post old-fashioned pictures. But I will try to shoot up that roll tonight, get it developed tomorrow, and post the pictures Wednesday.

Hope you all are enjoying the last few weeks of real summer. Kathie-the-mom enjoys the rain that is unusual for this time of year. Kathie-the-student wants to go back to a normal pace of classwork (summer classes are crammed into five weeks). So if I don't get those pictures posted, you will know what my excuse will be!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-07-28T19:38:00.004-05:00

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I only have one little one for this week--I blame lack of time, since I'm trying to keep up with a summer class and work and be ready for my friend's baby to come (yay, I get to doula again!). So here it is:

Sometime last week Caleb asked if he could watch Nemo (it was ocean week at school). So I put it on, and as the Disney logo came up, Caleb said "It's the United States of Castle!". Where he got that, I do not know. Probably the music?

Legacy Tour 2

2009-07-28T18:31:00.011-05:00

Here are the pictures and video from the Legacy apartment tour Mark and I took today. (For those that are confused, this is being posted for Mark's parents to look at).

Here is the dining area and entrance to the apartment.

Here is the view while standing in the dining area, of the living room. (Notice the recessed ceiling and fan)

Here is the the view of the kitchen adjacent to the living room (it's a bar type set up, so you can see through to the living room if you are standing at the kitchen sink). Note the wooden door on the wall--that is a can pantry (it's only deep enough for cans or small boxes of dried food).

Here is the opposite side of the kitchen, next to the front door.

Here is the view of the kitchen from the living room. You can see where some bar stools would work nicely here.

This apartment does have a washer/dryer for sale. It's a "thin twin" so a smaller washer dryer.

Here is the panel--it seemed to have the standard washer/dryer controls.

Here is the bathtub--it is in fact a full size tub.

And here are two videos of the apartment. I only took video of the kitchen and dining area, since that is all that differed from the other apartment. It's broken into two videos, since our camera will only take thirty seconds of video.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-07-21T22:15:00.002-05:00

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So here is my tot talk for the week. I have two--first, while Caleb and I were talking about family in the car one day last week, he asked "What's a wife?" I explained that when a boy and girl get married the girl is called a wife and the boy is called a husband. So then Caleb responded, "No Mommy, the boy is a prince!" (He gets this from that movie Enchanted. I told you he likes that movie a lot)

The other tot talk was a few nights ago. Our cat was eating some food scraps Noah had dropped to the floor, and we were praising him (because we like it when the cat cleans up stuff that we would otherwise have to clean). Caleb looked at the cat and said, "She's a very little vacuum!"

Green Day.

2009-07-21T08:50:00.003-05:00

So, in light of the fact that my entire family happens to be wearing green today (no, it wasn't on purpose...but yes, we all do have some Irish in us, so maybe it was our Irish-ness that did it!) I thought I'd do a little pitch for green living today. (I promise to post a Tot-Talk later, I left my sticky note somewhere and cannot find it--but I will post it tonight at the latest.)

We can all do a bit more to be eco-friendly. Everyone has their own ways--I know a lot of my friends recycle their plastics, paper, and cardboard (and some do a whole lot more!). But living green is essentially a matter of choices. Everyone makes different choices--some choose to eat totally organic, others choose to use cloth diapers and wipes, etc. So here's some of the things we do--see if any on this list appeal to you!

1. We cloth diaper, most of the time. I initially tried cloth-diapering with Caleb. I say tried because we ended up only cloth diapering him at night because we knew he wouldn't go "#2" at that time and we were very aversive to dealing with #2 and cloth diapers. We have a front-loading washer and just couldn't figure out a way to make it work without a lot of extra effort and mess. Then along came Noah. I recommitted to cloth diapering and found that some new (I think they were new) products had come out to make it easier. One is biodegradable liners--these thin pieces of whatever that you line the diaper with--it biodegrades in 8 days, so it claims, and so when #2 happens you just toss it and the liner into the toilet, and your cloth diaper isn't a mess. Works most of the time, I'll say. That and the wet bag are the only two ways I could get Mark to agree to cloth diaper outside the house.

So pretty much the only time we use disposables are at night (Noah is a heavy wetter and no matter HOW much I stuff the cloth diapers, I cannot avoid leaks--yes, I've tried hemp, double and triple stuffing). We have to use overnights even, but that is the only time we use disposables except for the occasional event where none of the cloth diapers are clean. Even at child care, we use cloth. Noah's teacher was willing to try cloth, and when she saw that our diapers didn't use pins, she was overjoyed! For anyone out there who fears that cloth diapering means folding and pinning--welcome to the 21st century of cloth diapering--these aren't your mama's cloth diapers!

2. We recycle. I'll admit, we could do better. We have yet to start recycling cans--we just don't have the space right now to store them. But we recycle plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, and plastic bags. So that helps.

3. We just started using Prairieland Dairy Milk. If you aren't from our area, you'll need to find your own version of this. But around here, Prairieland Dairy Milk is produced only 50 miles away, AND it's antibiotic and hormone free. Tastes great and available at local supermarkets (Super Saver and Russ's). It's even cheaper than the true organic milks (we were paying 6 bucks a gallon for Horizon, PD is only 3 bucks a gallon). A tip for those who want to go green--shop local. I'll admit that I could do better with buying local and organic groceries. I plan to start going to the Farmer's market (cause we need to eat more veggies at our house too).

4. I am trying organic gardening, meaning I'm not using any chemicals or pesticides to help with pest control, nor did I use any chemical fertilizers. I just bought some good ol' pulverized black dirt (way too much, as it turns out, so now I have a flower garden out front too!) and planted my seeds. I water them lots and I am trying very hard to watch out for common pests. I plan to rotate my crop to prevent pests too (if you plant different crops each year--from different veggie families--that reduces the chance that certain pests will find a "home" in your garden). If anyone has any tips for organic gardening, I am all ears (no we didn't plan corn this year).

So we've got some additional things that we could do to improve our "greenness". But I just thought sharing what we do might give you all ideas of how you could be greener. :-) Go green!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-07-14T08:59:00.004-05:00

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So now that I'm on the lookout for Tot Talks, I am finding it pretty easy to notice them. I've got two for this week.

First, I have a classic--this is an old one, Caleb did this back when he was 2 or 3 years old, and we were still changing his pullups once in a while when he went number 2. One of us was wiping his bum and we raised his legs way over his head, and he indignantly said, "Hey, don't fold me. I don't like that."

The second one needs two pieces of background information, in order to make sense. (1) Caleb really likes the movie Enchanted, and the first song in that movie is "True Love's Kiss". Furthermore, the lead character in the movie goes on and on about true love's kiss. (2) Mark brings home one hershey's kiss for each of us (Caleb, Noah, and me) every day.

So Mark had brought home the kisses that day, and I told Caleb he could have one and asked him to give one to Noah (you can probably see where this is going). Caleb walks over to Noah and says, "Noah, here's your true love's kiss. Mommy, do you want your true love's kiss?" How freakin' adorable is that?

Swimming, Climbing, and Jumping!

2009-07-10T07:41:00.005-05:00

I thought I'd provide a kid update with pictures. Caleb has been very excited that our pool is up, and really enjoyed swimming in it a few days in a row. Then, of course, we had to add the chemicals, and we haven't been able to swim in it since (Mark can't get the pH, chlorine, or alkalinity to the right levels). But here are a few pictures of Caleb's pool fun before the chemistry took over the pool.

Remember how Noah started taking steps? Well, that's about as far as he's gotten, with walking. Noah is still convinced that crawling is faster and bear-crawling is what is required when he wants to go really fast. Despite his lack of walking, Noah has decided to be a master climber. See what I mean?

It's only a matter of time before I find him sitting on my dresser top, or on top of one of my closet shelves, or at the very least climbing out of his crib.

Last but not least, I thought it was quite adorable that Noah has started to mimic Caleb--that is, until I saw this:

Yes, yes, it's very cute. But we don't generally allow jumping on the bed (and yes, I am videotaping it, so for this one moment in time Mark and I were allowing Caleb to jump on his bed...I'm sure we'll regret it someday). See Mark's disapproving face?

p.s. Today was crazy hair day in Caleb's preschool classroom. I had grand dreams of doing spiky twists with blue tips--but alas, the homemade hair dye would have had to be put in last night (and I place a high value on my kiddo and his sheets staying clean overnight), and Caleb's hair isn't quite long enough (or my hair pomade isn't strong enough) for spiky twists. So here is the best we could do:

Experiments with Sleeping arrangements.

2009-07-09T10:00:00.006-05:00

Let me put your fears to rest--I am NOT going to blog about either Mark nor my own sleeping arrangements. :-P

But I am going to share the few lessons I've learned from changing Caleb and Noah's sleeping arrangements. You see, Caleb has been having trouble going to sleep in his own room. Starting many months ago and up until last week, Caleb's bedtime had become a negotiating circus. "Mommy, I want to sleep in your bed," or "Daddy, I don't WANT to sleep by myself, " or "I want you to sleep with me, Mommy."

We had tried being firm, but were also concerned about pushing too hard. Caleb was scared of his room, for some reason. Sometimes he talked about monsters, other times it was bad guys. And no matter how much we spoke to him of God watching over him or the fact that there are not Monsters (I even caved and told him his nightlight was a bad guy/monster catcher)...nothing would assuage his fears. Nothing except sleeping in our room.

But then one day a month or two ago, we moved our green recliner chair into Noah's room (his rocker finally bit the dust) and this changed everything. First, it meant that when Caleb wanted to sleep in our room, his only option was our bed! This would not do--Caleb is a kicker in his sleep, and I value good sleep as well as my kidneys and spine. So we started letting him sleep in Noah's room on the green chair, if he was scared.

Eureka! This seemed to be okay with him, sleeping in a room with his baby brother. I don't know how Noah gets those darned monsters to stay away, but I'm certainly not going to tell Caleb that it's unlikely his brother is a monster hunter.

S0--fast forward to a few weeks ago. Mark and I had discussed and debated, hem and hawed about the boys sharing a room. Why should they share a room if we don't end up having more kids? But they almost already do share a room, so why not free up more space? Etcetera, ad nauseum.

So we just did it last week, or was it the week before? Whatever. We moved Caleb's bed into Noah's room because his bed is actually easier to move than the crib. We still need to figure out where dressers and changing tables and the green chair will go, since their room is not big enough for all that. Right now Caleb's dresser is still in his old bedroom, and the rest of it is still squished into their newly deemed "shared" bedroom. But our master bedroom is plenty big for some of that stuff--we just need to organize a bit better and get it all moved.

The point is, Caleb and Noah have now been sharing a room for a week, maybe two weeks. Here is what I have learned from this experience:

1. Do not put a 1 year old and a 4 year old, who have never slept in the same room together before, to sleep at exactly the same time. They do not go to sleep--they jump on their beds/cribs together, chat/babble, and finally collapse into tired lumps at 10pm, if you are lucky.

2. Kids are especially adept at sleeping through sibling noise. I am amazed at how much noise Caleb can make in their room when he's going to bed and Noah sleeps through it all provided he was already sleeping. Caleb has yelled for me to get him water, bumped and banged himself against the wall, and spastically rocked the green chair (it squeaks). Noah sleeps through all of it. I'm also surprised at how much Caleb will sleep through in the morning. Sometimes Noah wakes up before Caleb, and nothing he does will wake Caleb up. Of course, the alarm doesn't always wake Caleb up--he seems to be inheriting the trait of getting up, shutting off the alarm, and going back to sleep. He gets that from Mark. *I* never even hit the snooze before I was married to Mark.

3. The magic wears off. Although I'm still happy Caleb and Noah are sharing a room (for reasons I will share below), the monster-repellent magic of sleeping with a sibling is wearing off. Actually, Caleb hasn't talked about bad guys or monsters lately. But he is again asking to sleep in our room. However, so far we have determinedly refused this offer with little crying or unhappiness. Last Monday morning, Caleb did come in at 3am and got to sleep in our bed. He'd had a bad dream. But when that happens, I just trade places with him and go sleep in his bed. That way, my kidneys and spine are preserved, even if my sleep isn't.

So it's done. I learned something, and I think the family is happier for the transition. I promised to share my reasons why I like Caleb and Noah sharing a room. 1-I think it will be good for Caleb and Noah to share a room (kinda like eating veggies--they might not like it, but their psychology-driven mom knows it will make them closer and more apt to get along when they are adults). 2-I'm not convinced we are done having kids. 3-Until another kid comes along, I get a scrapbooking room where my crafty stuff will be safe from pets, kids, and general catastrophe! HAPPY DANCE OF JOY!

Just some general info...

2009-07-08T12:32:00.004-05:00

Hi all! Just wanted to post and let you all know that one of my goals for the summer is to make this blog more, well, blog-like. Less of a posting once or twice a month with pictures, and more like some posts of pictures, some news, some opinions, etc. I am going to try and keep the opinions related to my boys and kid-stuff. So here is the first step--I've seen several blogs where the poster has a siggie, and I wanted one. This looks nothing like my real-life signature, but I like it anyway. :-) So watch out for some of the changes and updates coming to the blog, hopefully. Here is the first:

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-07-07T10:48:00.004-05:00

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Woohoo--I've got plenty this week.

So last week I was driving Caleb to the ENT specialist (the reason will become obvious). Here is the conversation we had on the way:

Me: "So, honey, why did you stick a rock up your nose at school?"

Caleb: "Because my nose wanted a rock up it, but then it hurt."

Me: "Sigh."

Then last night Caleb had a bad dream, and this morning he told me about it:

"I dreamed about a polar bear, he was trying to eat me, so I turned into a bird and flew away, but then I came back home and was a T-Rex again." (The T-Rex seems funnier out of context, but actually he has been pretending to be a T-Rex for the past few weeks, so it does make sense)

And last but not least, Caleb was very much into swimming pools the past few weeks (since we put up our pool) so when his Grandma and Grandpa gave him a globe to put in his room, he was looking at the globe and asked, "Where is the swimming pool?"

Have a good week everyone!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-06-30T09:19:00.003-05:00

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So the only one I can remember this week is kinda lame. We put up our pool this past weekend, and last night Caleb and I went swimming in it while Mark was at bowling. (Noah didn't like the water, so he didn't join us for long) Anyway, in the car on the way home last night (before swimming), Caleb said "Is our house a hotel now?" since it has a pool. So that was cute. Then in the pool, I mentioned that the pool was nice even though it wasn't a hotel water park pool. Then Caleb said, "No, our pool is just a bathtub pool." (I think he is referring to the size...our pool is about 8 feet across total, not very big)

So, kinda lame. But it'll get me through to next week--and hopefully I will have some wonderful sound bites to share then!

First Steps! and more...

2009-06-29T19:51:00.013-05:00

Well, we had a momentous week. Noah is taking his first steps--he's gone from one or two to several steps in just a few days. Here's a video of his accomplishment:

We've also discovered that old Halloween costumes make the best dress-up clothes. Caleb was a pirate and a dragon. Here's a picture of the pirate. We didn't post a picture of the dragon, as it's not technically an "old" Halloween costume. We bought it a year or two ago, but now it just fits him, so we're hoping it will be this year's costume.

And we put up our pool for the summer. Yay! Caleb and I went swimming tonight while Mark was at bowling. We tried to take Noah in with us, but he's still afraid of any body of water bigger than a bathtub (he LOVES bath time!). So I put him on a towel on the grass while Caleb and I played in the water. Here's a picture of the boys prior to swimming, since during swimming I couldn't take pictures and at the same time watch the boys carefully.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-06-23T08:33:00.006-05:00

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Okay, so when I heard my TTT for this week, I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it! (The last two weeks I've heard something cute come out of Caleb's mouth then forgotten what it was by Tuesday). So here it is:

We had Father's Day lunch with my parents at Olive Garden in Omaha. Caleb was eating a lot of breadsticks, so my mom said, "You're going to turn into a breadstick, and then you'll be Breadstick Smith!" (our last name is Smith) So then Caleb said, "Noooo!" in that tone of "grandma you are being silly my name isn't breadstick"...but then popped right back in with "I'd be Breadstick MATTHEW Smith!" (Matthew is his middle name)

Maybe you just had to be there, but this busted me up laughing at the table.

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-06-16T09:17:00.003-05:00

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Well, this is an old one, but when Caleb was just turning 3, I can't remember why but I needed to do something with his forehead (either clean it, or he got a bump, or something). Anyway, when I asked to see his forehead, he said, "No mommy, it's my two head!" Ahh, the perils of learning to count!

One nice day.

2009-06-15T21:34:00.011-05:00

So Caleb, Noah, Mark, and I had a really great day on Sunday. We needed to finish up our Spring Safari list (we had 4 left) so we went on a Safari sprint! We actually only got 3 of them done, but the last one for Spring is on the way to Omaha, sort of, so we figure we can pick that one up pretty easily.

We went to the Pfizer Saline Wetlands, Bowling Lake, and the Whitehead Saline Wetlands. The Whitehead Saline Wetlands were a bit of a letdown--lots of birds, but it was just a pier that you stand on and look out over the wetlands. Mark said there was supposed to be a trail but he couldn't find it. Bowling lake was all right, but Mark and I aren't big fishing people, so we just kinda walked a bit--but we'd already walked at the Pfizer Saline Wetlands, so we were kinda bored with that. The Pfizer Saline Wetlands we did first--that was rather neat. There were lots of different plants to look at, and some ducks and other birds. It was a good time. Here are some pics of the Pfizer Saline wetlands.
We walked onto this dock that was a good 2-3 feet higher than the top of the water in the marsh, and the grass was taller than Caleb! Which means the grass was really taller than all of us, probably!
Caleb and Noah received a wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Hammi for their birthdays. It made doing safaris much easier--the stroller would have been kind of annoying over the rough terrain.

Then we decided to go to the Children's museum; it had been a while and we were eager to see the newly renovated theatre area. Caleb and Noah had a great time! Caleb did a little bit of everything at the museum, but spent the most time enjoying some of the new costumes!

See the sweet Caleb fish!

And the not-so-sweet Caleb dragon!

Noah really liked the laser button on the sound/lights board, and climbing in the infant area. Noah is my master climber--I think we may find him at the top of a bookcase or on top of the table, someday! Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the climbing--Caleb and Mark had gone upstairs and I couldn't take pictures because I had to move fast to keep Noah from falling.

Noah repeatedly hit the laser button, making a shooting laser sound (think sci fi movie). After a while, I asked Noah "Do you like that sound?" and a woman sitting near us said, "Oh, that's him doing it!" Too funny. In other news, Noah has an official first word (cause Dada doesn't count--he doesn't know it means daddy). Noah can say hi. It comes out "ai!" but he says it. And if you ask him to say hi, sometimes he says, "ai" and other times he will wave. So he does know what it means, we think.

Our Trip last Weekend

2009-06-11T11:34:00.005-05:00

We had so many pictures from last weekend, that I thought a movie might be easier and more entertaining than just posting the pictures. So here is my first attempt at making a movie with Picasa. While it is not bad, I am disappointed that there are not more features common to other movie-making software. For instance, I could not choose different transitions for each slide, nor could I adjust the timing per slide.

Anyway, here is the sum-up of our mini-vacation last weekend. Enjoy!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-06-09T12:06:00.003-05:00

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From my now 4 year old, when he saw his new baby brother's toothless gums (a year ago): "He has pink teeth!"

Games, and Baseball, and Birthdays, oh my!

2009-06-01T22:29:00.007-05:00

We've had a lot going on the past week--on Sunday, May 24, we went to a Saltdogs baseball game--we got seats right behind home plate for about $7 a piece (Noah was free). Since we got coupons for free happy meals at McDonalds, free shakes at Amigos, and our entire section won 3 free games of bowling at Sun Valley (yes, that means we won 9 games of bowling)...we kinda figure we pretty much made money by going to that game! It was Noah's first baseball game, and we all had a great time. It sprinkled on us in the first few innings, but then it just stayed cool and overcast--a little chilly but a pretty nice night for a baseball game.

Then on Memorial Day, we went over to our good friends' house and had our semi-annual Game Day. Everyone seemed to have a really good time--the kids played outside all day, much to Caleb's joy (okay, there were a few minutes of inside play, but not much). And Noah enjoyed all the food very much!

Last but not least, Noah had his first birthday party this past weekend. He had a Winnie-the-Pooh themed party, with his very own mini-cake to dig into.

The party was a lot of fun--Noah received many wonderful gifts (thank you!) and the other kids appeared to enjoy themselves. Hanging balloons on streamers from the rotating ceiling fan is apparently quite entertaining, as is purple crayola sand. It was a great day!

With summer in full swing (or at least summer BREAK) we are busy, busy, busy--so the next post will hopefully be about our upcoming trip this weekend. We are traveling to Minnesota for a joint party for my cousin's graduation (Congrats Noelle!) and my grandma's 85th birthday (Happy Birthday Grandma Mary!). However, we are making the trip a mini-vacation too, so we'll show you what we did when we get back!

Happy First Birthday Noah!

2009-05-27T21:17:00.004-05:00

It was one year ago (approximately, as I am posting this the night before) that Noah made his appearance into the world. Isn't it amazing how one year can change a person?

Here's to many more years of smiles, laughs, and messiness with Noah. It's been a joy watching him grow and develop a personality. :-) Love you buddy!

Haircuts!

2009-05-17T08:44:00.002-05:00

It was time for haircuts this weekend. Noah had his very first haircut! As you can see in the before picture, he was getting shaggy:

And in the after picture, Noah looks all handsome! Mark likes that I cut his hair, but I'm not so sure I like it short. It was so cute long!

Caleb and Mark also got a haircut--Mark got his usual summer haircut, a very short buzz. Caleb wanted to be exactly like Daddy, so I used the 1/4 inch guard on his hair too. It is shorter than it's ever been--seriously, I think he was born with longer hair than this! He loves it--I love that he wants to be like his daddy. Although from this picture, it looks like Caleb is going to be a marine, which his daddy is obviously not! :-)

First Zoo Trip and Mother's Day

2009-05-12T21:30:00.006-05:00

Hi All! Here are pictures from our first zoo trip of the season--the Woods family joined us and we had lots of fun!

We had our first Mother's Day celebration a few weeks ago, with Eric and Wendy, because Wendy and I got a joint present--a Cricut machine for scrapbooking--and Eric and Mark graciously gave it to us ahead of time so we could play with it at scrapbooking night. :-) Thanks guys!

And then on Mother's Day we spent the day with my (Kathie's) mom. Mom wanted to go to Granite City for their brunch, which we all love (it was Noah's first time eating the food and he loved it)... ...and then walk across the Bob Kerrey bridge.

Despite the predictions of rain, it turned out to be a very nice day to be outside. Caleb was in a mood though and didn't want his picture taken, but wanted to use Grandpa's camera to take pictures of other people.On the Iowa side of the bridge there was a park with a playground, with restrooms (much to our relief--there weren't any on the Nebraska side)...while we don't recommend those bathrooms to anyone (nasty!) there were useful for an emergency. Caleb and Noah had a good time at the playground, even though it doesn't look like it in this picture. I cannot ever get a picture of the two of them where they are both smiling!

Perhaps this coming week we'll have some pictures of the garden we are planting. Right now we've only made the frames for the raised garden beds and planted some flower seeds in pots, but the flowers have started to poke through the dirt (okay, two of them so far) and hopefully this weekend we'll get the dirt for our pumpkin and watermelon gardens!

Spring is here!

2009-05-01T12:41:00.005-05:00

As always, we are busy, busy, busy! Noah is 11 months old and getting into everything! Mark and I need to step up the babyproofing now that we're remembering what it is like to have a child who is TALL enough to touch things but not OLD enough to touch things! In other news about Noah, we call him our little rhoomba, since he will pick up anything off the floor and eat it. He's crawling and cruising all over the place, but still really loves to be held. And his favorite game right now is I throw It, You Pick it Up.
I went to San Diego in the middle of April for an educational conference, and I got Noah this onesie while I was there--we think it "fits" him quite well!

We've been making great use of our Children's museum season pass, and Caleb has loved it! Here he is pretending to be a bank teller--Grandma Hammi was with us that day, and I think she was proud (she started out as a teller).

Caleb pretty much does a little bit of everything during our visits to what he calls "The Kids Museum". Here he is, painted like a tiger but dressed up as a bee.

Noah played some in the toddler area but preferred to tag along wherever his brother went; as a consequence, Noah was worn out at the end of our visit...he fell asleep in Grandma's arms!

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo (Noah's first zoo trip outside the womb) so hopefully we'll get some great pictures!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Hammi!

2009-03-18T19:50:00.005-05:00

Happy belated birthday, Grandpa Hammi!

3 years ago.

2009-03-11T23:11:00.004-05:00

Wow--3 years doesn't seem like a long time, but I was digitally digging through old photos to find pictures for Caleb's kindermusik project, and look what I found:

Aren't they just adorable? In 3 years, my friends and I have doubled the amount of kids we have! We went from 4 to 8 in just 3 years (thanks Lis! You helped out the most!).

Amazing. God creates beautiful children, for us to care for. How lucky are we?

One-Size Fuzzi Bunz review

2009-03-09T11:57:00.005-05:00

Hi all! This is a post related to Caleb and Noah, but not directly about them. Since I don't know who reads these posts, and since I have a few friends who prefer to cloth diaper like we do, I thought I'd post my initial reactions to the new, one-size fuzzi bunz.

First off, when I first heard about these diapers coming out, I had mixed feelings. I was excited because I'd wanted very badly to cloth diaper in and out of the house, and I love the sized fuzzi bunz (but hadn't bought enough because of cost). However, I'd also just tried the BumGenius 2.0s and found that they didn't work as well as I wanted--Noah just didn't have fat enough legs, so he leaked every time! (I've now found out that it was not only his legs, but that the diapers needed to be stripped...I stripped them last night, and he did leak out again in the night, but I don't think an overnight trial is very fair--considering Noah's urine output at night fills even a disposable!)

Anyway, so I wondered what the new fuzzi bunz would be like--we bought two at a store in town on Saturday, washed them, and tried them this weekend. I love them! I haven't yet tried them at night (I only have two right now) but they are so much trimmer on Noah than the BumGenius, and there are no gaps in the legs because I can adjust the leg holes! Very, very cool.

So, the jury is still out as to whether the new Fuzzi Bunz diapers can not leak through an entire night, but for daytime use I feel like these are much less likely to leak, so I'll be more likely to use them outside the house! I felt so confident in these that I've already bought 15 more of them (from an awesome webstore that buys back my sized fuzzi bunz, albeit at a pretty reduced rate from what I paid for them!).

Go fuzzi bunz!

2009-03-06T20:29:00.007-06:00

Happy March everyone! The good news here in Nebraska is that it has felt like Spring the past few days (I think the high yesterday was in the 70s!!!). However, it was snowy before that, as you can see here:

Yep, Mark had to get out the snowblower last weekend, and despite it being bitterly cold that morning, Caleb wanted to go outside too. As you can see, Caleb improvised a snowblower of his own (it's his toy lawnmower)! If only the toy lawnmower really moved snow!

I finally caught Noah's goofy face on camera--he tends to grab his top lip with his two bottom teeth. Here is the evidence:

We don't know exactly why he is doing this--but it sure makes one heck of a funny look! He's got his own version of monster face!

In other news, Noah is now fully pulling up onto his feet. This has made for a few falls; luckily none of them have been painful for Noah yet. Every morning I go into his room after my shower, and this is what I see:

Noah is now always standing in his crib in the morning, waiting for me to get him. Usually he's babbling some combination of "ga," "ra," and "vra"...I'm just glad he's patiently orating to the room, instead of screaming and crying for me!

I've also gotten some cute recent pictures of the boys together. Here they are:

I thought this one above was just cute, even though Caleb isn't looking at the camera. What you don't know is Caleb is physically holding Noah there--as Noah wanted to zombie crawl over to me to grab the camera!

And here is another cute shot--again Caleb is holding Noah's feet, so he can't crawl too close to me. I tell you, when kids get mobile it gets really hard to get nice pictures of them up close!

Last but not least, I thought it'd be nice to compare Caleb's singing skills now to his singing skills about a year ago. I think I had a video of him on here, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" last year--well, he's much improved. I like to think it's not only his development but his Kindermusik classes; he really enjoys Kindermusik and I've noticed he now has good rhythm (for a 3.5 year old) and follows the general ups and downs of a song--even if he cannot quite stay in tune. Here's the direct comparison (whatever the reason for his improvement).

The old video, of Caleb last year in April:

The new video, of Caleb this month:

Not only is Caleb's singing improved, but my videography is better too! I know now not to take videos of the kids in the basement--it's too dark, even with the lights on!

Noah and Caleb's milestones!

2009-02-27T20:14:00.007-06:00

Hi all! It's busyness as usual around here--this past week we had only one night where we didn't need to be somewhere! Needless to say, we are looking forward to this weekend where we don't really have to go anywhere on Saturday (oh, except the auto mechanic, AGAIN!).

Here are Caleb and Noah, just chillin' in the kitchen. Caleb told me the other day, "Mommy, I don't want Noah anymore," however within an hour Caleb came up, gave me a hug, and said, "I like Noah, and I want a baby sister." Mark and I are glad that Caleb likes Noah most of the time, but that sister request will just need to be put on hold for a while.

Anyway, Noah and Caleb have been busy too. Noah has started to truly crawl once in a while, and his favorite activity lately has been to clap! So here's a video of that:

Noah is also pulling up onto his knees, so he's probably within days or weeks of pulling up all the way. Time to babyproof everything up a little higher than the floor!

And Caleb went to his first Ash Wednesday service, and was very excited to receive ashes on his forehead. He was very concerned that someone would accidentally wipe off his forehead. Of course, he washed it off with Daddy before bedtime, but not before I got a picture!

And, as always, Caleb is into music. One of his favorite prayers to sing is one he learned at Sunday School. It's a simple version of Father, I Adore You. See for yourself:

Noah is on the move!

2009-02-09T21:48:00.008-06:00

Noah decided to start creeping/moving on his 8 month birthday. Not to be outdone by his brother (who was known for his bear walk as a baby), Noah decided to develop his own style of movement, which we have dubbed the zombie crawl. He stretches out one arm, then uses the elbow on the opposite arm, and drags himself across the room, without using his legs. It's easier to see than to describe:

Here are some pictures of what Noah has been getting into, now that he is on the move.

"Hi mom!"

"Look what I found!"

"Whoh!"

"Got it!"

Caleb is not thrilled with his brother's new mobility--we repeatedly hear shouts of "No, Noah--get off my train tracks!"

Lincoln Safari!

2009-02-09T21:26:00.008-06:00

Last year Kathie frequently saw pictures of Caleb's cousins as they participated in the Lincoln Safari Program--it's a free program intended to get families spending time outside together. Because Kathie thought it looked like Brian and Jenna (Caleb's cousins) had a lot of fun, we decided to try it out this year. On January 24, we braved the cold (because we were worried it would be our last chance to see snow--there hasn't been a whole lot this year) and went to our first Safari location, Arnold Heights Park. It was reputed to be one of the best sledding locations in Lincoln, so we brought our sled. The hill was definitely a great sledding hill, plus you could see Lincoln's skyline from the top of the hill. However, it was so cold that Kathie stayed with Noah, who was sleeping in the car, and Caleb and Mark only went down the whole hill once (and down part of the hill 3 times). Prior to the sledding, Kathie went out with Caleb to find the Safari post and make the rubbing in our Safari book.

We are very excited to do some more Safari trips, hopefully when it's a bit warmer! That same day, earlier in the morning, we went to Marcus theatres' first Frosty Flick of the year. Frosty Flicks are 10am Saturday morning movies intended for families; $2.50 gets you admission and a free popcorn. We had received a voucher for 2 free admissions/popcorn and we had a $5 gift card, so we all went--except when we got there they had sold out! However, because there was so much interest (when it sold out there were 3-4 full lines of people waiting, including us) they opened a noon showing, and we went to that. We saw Madagascar 2, and both Caleb and Noah had a great time! It was really nice because there were so many kids and babies, so taking Noah was no big deal.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-23T21:31:00.002-06:00

Here are our pictures from Christmastime, almost one month later! I always think things will slow down in January, but they never do! Noah has been growing by leaps and bounds--he's a pro at sitting up now, and can even get onto his tummy without bonking his head.

Caleb had a great time at Christmas--he loved visiting his Minnesota relatives, and of course getting lots of presents. His only regret is that he didn't get to personally visit with Santa on Christmas night; there was a bit of crying Christmas morning when I had to tell him that Santa didn't come to visit, just to leave presents. Seeing as he was upset, I told him the truth about Santa. I know Caleb heard me, but he still talks about Santa as if he were real. I am okay with that, seeing as Santa was one of my favorite parts of Christmas when I was young.
Anyway, Caleb and Noah both got a lot of great presents this year--I think Caleb loved all of his--but on Christmas Eve night, the big hits were a colorful remote control car (no picture, it wouldn't sit still long enough) and Lightning McQueen roller skates.

Noah preferred the boxes to the actual toys--he was quite content to play with whatever box Caleb had just tossed aside! And as is tradition, Noah wore a bow on his head for some of the evening, just like his brother did when he was the baby.

We celebrated Christmas with my dad's family on Dec. 26, but didn't have enough of the day left to travel home. So we planned to stay at a hotel near the highway, then travel home on Saturday. We picked out a hotel with a little water park in it (Safari themed) and Caleb had an awesome time! We all did, actually--we swam on the night we got there and in the morning before we left. I didn't get any pictures of the park, but here is Caleb all ready to go, in our hotel room.

Caleb had fun splashing around in the pool; they had a zero entry area, where you could just walk into the water, and lots of 2 foot deep pool space where Caleb could play. They also had two water slides (Mark enjoyed them, but Caleb was too young, and I had Noah), an elephant that sprayed water, and a neat "river" area where jets produced a current, so you could float around and around--Noah and I enjoyed that. We had a great float that had a harness for Noah's bum and a part that wraps around me. During our morning swim, Noah was so comfy in the float and water that he fell asleep! When we left after swimming, Caleb was not thrilled to go--to get him in the car, we had to promise that we'd try to stay at that hotel again next time we visited Minnesota! (We had planned to make it a tradition anyway)

Brown Cows and Big boy baths!

2008-12-14T22:26:00.002-06:00

We've been busy preparing for the upcoming holidays. Kathie has one week left before she and the boys are on vacation for two whole weeks! And Mark will take the entire week of Christmas off, so we'll have loads of time to enjoy Christmas. Since Caleb is 3 now, he attends Sunday school and so he can participate in the church Christmas program. Caleb and all his preschool friends played the parts of the stable animals that guard baby Jesus. Specifically, Caleb was a brown cow (in one of the costumes Kathie made). We were very proud that Caleb made it through the program without having a meltdown (he hasn't had good naps all weekend and rehearsals did not go well). Although Caleb didn't sing at all, he did chew the cud (i.e. gum from Grandma).

Noah had his first big boy bath with Caleb on Saturday. Caleb didn't seem to care if Noah was in the tub or not, but Noah loved being in the water with Caleb--at one point he lunged at Caleb to try and touch him! Luckily Mark was right there to catch Noah, and we moved him a bit closer to Caleb, so he could play with his big brother without drowning! Noah also had his first big boy hair wash. He didn't seem to mind, but we were pretty good at keeping the soap out of his eyes. As Noah gets older, we know from experience that this will become more difficult!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-04T22:48:00.008-06:00

We've gotten into the spirit of Christmas already at our house. Caleb is really excited for Christmas this year, and is also very into Santa. His newest fun is to put on a Santa hat, insist that we call him Santa, and he goes around asking, "And what do you want for Christmas?"

We had our first real snow the day before Thanksgiving--Caleb and Noah were home that day, so Caleb wanted very badly to go outside. He bundled up and went out; ten minutes later he came to the door, and I asked him if he wanted his shovel. Caleb said, "No Mom, I'm freezing!" We've been very impressed with his expanding vocabulary--he's using bigger words in very appropriate contexts!

In other Christmas news, we have a real tree this year. Grandma and Grandpa Hammie wanted to buy Caleb a real tree that was his size, so instead of putting up our fake tree, we have a four and a half foot scotch pine. It's decorated and already has one present under it.

Caleb has also been taking a greater interest in Noah--after all, Noah is starting to do interesting things! Sometimes Caleb wants to help feed Noah.

And Noah has his first tooth! If you look carefully, you can see the bit of white popping out from his gums. His other bottom tooth is budding, so we figure by Christmas he'll have his two front teeth!

And last but not least, Noah is pretty much sitting up. He can stay put for quite a long time, depending on what toys he has to keep him occupied. Sometimes he falls over, but then again he's only been sitting for about a week!

We expect that the next few weeks will be very busy--this weekend Mark and I are going to see the Canadian Brass concert, and the following weekend is our church Christmas program, in which Caleb will have a part, as one of the animals (all the preschoolers and kindergartners are going to be cows, donkeys, or sheep). The following week we have both the Holiday party at my work and Caleb's school holiday party. AND we are going to visit family for Christmas.

My point is that there probably won't be any more pictures before then, but after the holidays I should have some fun pictures of Noah's first Christmas and Caleb's latest shenanigans!

Wish Lists.

2008-12-01T15:00:00.001-06:00

For those that have asked, the boys wish lists are on the right side of the blog. Hopefully tonight I will have time to post some new pictures of Caleb and Noah.