Caroline goes to KINDERGARTEN!!

I don't know how it is possible, but my little girl is now a full fledged kindergartner!!  She started August 30th, 2016 and she is a Peterson's Peanut!  Ms. Peterson is her teacher and Mrs. Horton is her teacher's assistant.  The first day, I was a hot mess.  I cried multiple times, but tried not to do it when she was watching.  She walked right in that school (in fact could not WAIT to get out of the car to go in), we walked her to her room, she found her seat, and she sat right down.  She looked so little sitting in that big room!  I was a basket case when I walked out that day - some of the other moms even pointed and said how sweet it was that I was upset.  Seriously?!  I could not WAIT for her to get off the bus that afternoon.  [We have the most awesome set up ever - a bus goes from Vienna to Reagan to pick up high school students and there are a group of teacher's kids that all ride the bus together and get off at Reagan.]  I was crouched down waiting for her to jump into my arms and she ran right passed me!  She wanted to stay with the gaggle of kids she rode with and she was told that Mrs. Jones has candy in the office.  I was sad for a split second and then so excited that she had a good day and was with kids she wanted to stay with.  Since then everything has been great.  We have packed her lunch every night, she has loaded up her book bag in the morning, and off she goes.  We drop her off in the line, she walks herself to class, and does the daggone thing all day long.  She has a behavior chart in her room and she has clipped up twice for doing well in class. She has come home with stories of kids getting clipped down and what a big deal that was.  I hope we don't have to deal with that!  The goal is to get on purple or even Perfect Peanut.  She has loved Ms. Peterson and says she gives hugs all day and is the best teacher she could ever have!  Here is the Facebook video of our pictures from that first day!

Video

The transition for all of us has had its rough patches.  She does so well at school that when she comes home she is a hot mess of not listening.  I have been teaching all day and feel like I am barely keeping my head above water, so my patience pot is pretty low when we get home.  Cam isn't taking naps at school, so he comes home a hot mess, too.  I know it will just take some time and in a couple of weeks we will all be back in the school groove.

With the first couple of weeks under our belt, I can say so far so good!  It hasn't been perfect, but she has loved school, felt safe and comfortable with her teacher, and she is already making new friends.  She learns something new every day and is excited about going back each morning.  I would say we are off to a pretty good start!

We love you so much, sweet girl!  We are proud of you!

Cam - 2 Years Old!

I want to capture all that I can of this wild child because he is learning and doing something new every single day.  I want to make sure I write down everything that he says and how he says it because although I feel like I could never forget the cuteness - I know I will!

• He weighs  lbs and is  inches tall.  (I will fill this in when he has his 2 year check up this week.)
• One thing is for sure that our boy is a complete boy.  He likes to dump out anything that has anything in it.  He loves to put something in something else over and over again.  He loves trucks and wheels and noises.  He loves to get dirty.  
• He doesn't do anything how it is supposed to be done.  He does everything in a new and interesting way.  
• He LOVES to help. Just the other day Jason asked him to help him get Max out of his crate and outside and once he was finished he came over and said, 'Bubba help.  Five!' and held his hand up for a high five!
• He is sweet as pure sugar when he wants to be and mean as a hornet when he feels the need.  
• He is in the throws of pure 'twoyearolddom'.  He will be joyfully and blissfully playing one second and literally the next second he will be on the floor screaming.  
• He is in a really bad hitting phase right now, but at least the biting phase is on the way out. 
• He is without his sleep sack (he figured out how to unzip it right around his 2nd birthday, so we just took it off) and sleeping with just his friends and his footy jams at night.  So far (knock on wood) he hasn't even tried to hoist himself out of this crib.  That boy is going be 15 and still in a crib if we can make that happen.  I have a feeling that the big boy transition is going to be something else.  Hopefully, I am wrong!
• He is in size 4 diapers during the day and size 5 sleep diapers at night.  The day diapers have Mickey and Minnie on them and the nighttime diapers have Pooh Bear, so he will wake up and ask for Mimmie diapers and at night he will tell us he needs a bear diaper.  So cute!
• He is wearing 3T or 4T clothes.  I love that boys just need athletic shorts and a sports shirt!
• He is a typical toddler when it comes to eating.  It depends on the second of the minute of the hour of any given day.  Some days he LOVES PB&Js and some days he can't stand them.  He LOVED Chick-a-lay nunnets, but now he wants nothing to do with them and he wants a sandwich.  He LOVED carrots once upon a time and now will only inhale them if they are from Kimono and sugared up.
• He drinks milk (2%) for breakfast and then before nap and bed.  The rest of the time he drinks water or mostly water with a little bit of apple juice. 
• He is OBSESSED with Sadie (our Havanese puppy).  He calls her Sais-ee Bug (or Bug or B) and he literally cannot get close enough to her.  I think I've done as much training on him as I have on her.
• He LOVES his big sissy, but equally annoys the mess out of her (as brothers should do).  They play so great one minute and then they are both screaming at each other the next. 
• He started back at Generations at the beginning of September and so far we have heard that he isn't sleeping on his cot (that he will lay there and just yell out Mommy, Daddy, Val, Nita, or the name of anyone else he can think of or go around and visit everyone) and that he is hitting and tackling other kids.  I really hope this settles out quickly and he gets adjusted and things get figured out.  This is a time of a lot of new stuff in our house and everyone is feeling the newness.  I guess they get that from me.  I was not always the best at transitions!
• When it is time for him to go to sleep he will say 'my seat' and sprint to his room to try to claim the recliner.  It is awesome for Jason or me because we don't have to fight him to get him to go to bed.  Once he is in there he will drink his milk and then be crazy for a minute and then drink some more milk and settle down.  Then we just lay him down and 90% of the time he goes right to sleep. 
• His words have exploded over these past couple of months.  He is putting three and four words together and can give me complete thoughts on things he has going on.  It has been incredible to watch.  These are a few things he is saying that I want to remember:
• Bubba doos it!
• Nay new! (Thank you!)
• Sais-ee Bug
• nunnets (nuggets)
• Sure (in response to anything that the answer could be yes)
• Bubba no like!
• Ok (pretty standard, but just really stinkin' cute!)
• Milk mees (milk please)
• Mmmm...good (when he is a fan of something for that second)
• Da-ee top (Daddy stop - when Jason is tickling him or messing with him)
• Sawee Sissy/Mommy/Daddy (Sorry)
• Fip Fops (flip fops)
• i eem (ice cream)
• Nana (Anna), Unc Will, Weh-wee (Leslie), Boo Boo (Drew), Neh-wee (Penelope) [He can say everyone's name in the family, but it is just funny how he says a few of them!]
• Val or Nita (he will tell on one of them when the other one puts him or timeout or says he can't do anything!)
• He socially laughs.  When something is really funny he will cover his mouth with his hand or put his hand on his forehead and lean forward and laugh like he is a grown man!
• The boy LOVES music.  Caroline got music from her VBS this summer and we still listen to it all the time.  He has learned some of the hand motion and will dance like crazy when those songs come on.  He also loves the band and drum line at Daddy's football games.
• When he does something he knows he shouldn't and he knows I am going to get mad, he looks at me with the same face I use on him.  It is hilarious and usually makes me chuckle (if I am not too mad). 
• He loves his cousins and he and Drew are going to get into a lot of trouble down the road.  Jack is so glad that he now has boys to play with!

Bubba,

You test my patience and my resolve every single day.  But you also make me so happy and my heart melt every single day, too.  You are most certainly my boy and you are so very loved by your whole family.  When you do things and feel things you do it with everything you have.  I hope this never goes away.  When you are sweet, there is nothing sweeter in this world.  When you are determined, nothing will stop you.  When you are mad, nothing gets madder than you (except for maybe Sissy).  I love watching and being a part of the person you are becoming and I am so honored and blessed that God chose me to be your Mama.  You make me proud every day and I can't wait to see all that you do as you grow!

I love you!

Mama

Caroline Turns Five!

Our girl is 5 years old!  What?! How did that happen??  Her birthday fell on a Wednesday (she has dance Wednesday nights), so Tuesday night we let her pick what she wanted for dinner.  She (of course!) picked Dairio and got to pick whatever ice cream she wanted.  Once we got home she spent her last night as a four year old giving me a check up and making sure that I was ok. Sweet girl!  The next morning she woke up ready to head to school.  Ms. Val and Ms. Nita had a sign on the door for her and we took cupcakes and drinks to her friends at school.  Once she got home she got to open her presents from us and she even got to FaceTime with Penelope!

We had her party the following weekend and she decided that she wanted a Shopkins themed birthday party and she wanted all of her school friends to come over, along with her neighbor and her cousants.  We had some pizza, played and played, opened some presents, took some shots at a pinata, played Pie Face, and ate some Shopkins topped cupcakes!  It was a great party!  That night her cousant Alex was able to stay at our house (thanks Grammie and Grandpa) and Anna stayed, too!  They had a great time having a sleepover and then the next day we took them all bowling.  It was the perfect way to turn five!!

Cam - 1.5+

Just wanted to take a quick second and try to remember Cam as he is right now! He is 20 months old (sorry to all the haters that don't think ages in months is necessary), which means that we are not too far from having ourselves a 2 year old! There is NOTHING about him that is a baby these days and he is a HOT MESS, but my lord do we love that sweet boy!

It's a good thing he is as cute as he is!  T-R-O-U-B-L-E

*I took him to his 18 month appointment (around 19 months) and he did great.  He is 34.5" tall (91st) and 27.13 lbs (78th).  He is long and lean!  

*Dr. Kooy checks out his back, but it is not actively being watched by anyone right now!  We don't have to go back to the doctor unless we see symptoms of retethering down the line.  Way to go, Bubba!

*He did great on his developmental questionnaire and he is right on track.  

*He is a good sleeper and most nights he sleeps from around 7:30/8:00 to 6:30/7:00 the next morning.  We have had a few regressions/teeth/who in the world knows episodes in the past few months, but they are definitely not the norm.

*He still takes an afternoon nap on the weekends.  Usually Saturday he gives us a solid 3 hour nap and then on Sunday it is a good 2 hours.  Since he doesn't really nap at school during the week, by the weekend he is exhausted!

*He is still in his sleep sack and the crib is all the way as low as it can go.  Next step is to put the mattress on the floor.  I have a feeling this kid is going to be in a crib until he is 15!

*It took a year and a half, but he has finally kind of attached himself to something.  When he had his surgery over a year ago, Brenner's gave us a green dog with a purple back pack.  It has been in his toy tub in his room.  A couple of weeks ago he was throwing things out of the tub and found that dog.  Since then, when we put him to bed he holds it when he is rocking with us and he holds on tight when we lay him in the bed.  He calls him his 'boof' and he will ask for him if he can't find him! 

*He LOVES going to school and in the mornings says, 'Go go!' and says 'Val!' as we pull up.

*He eats pretty well overall, but your guess is as good as mine as to what he will eat on any given day.  What he inhales for one meal he will try to throw the next!  He's just keeping us on our toes.  For the most part he likes pretzel sticks, frozen blueberries, pears, peaches, watermelon, apples, strawberries, pb&js, Cheerios (in milk like a big boy), green beans, peas, chicken nunnets, fish sticks, and pizza.

*He definitely has really big feelings.  When he is happy, his smile could light up the world.  When he is angry or frustrated, though, you better watch out.  He can be mean as a hornet.  We are trying to work with him on his hitting and headbutting (what?!?).  Caroline went through a little bit of this, but this is new territory for us.  He isn't biting as much, so there is that.  It's the little stuff, people.

*He knows what time out is and will go and sit in his chair when we tell him to.  After he sits for about a minute we tell him that he needs to come say he is sorry and he will lay his head on you and give you a hug.

*He loves taking a bath and even at his grumpiest, he usually perks up during a bath.

*He can say a bunch of words pretty clearly: hat, ball, all animal sounds, go go, bag, milk, boof (dog), butt (thanks, Caroline), Dada, Mama, Sissss, Bubba, no (his favorite), bye bye, Val, dip (ketchup/ranch), what's that, this, boo (booboo), Paw Poll (Paw Patrol), and I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting.

*He can be SOO sweet when he wants to be.  He loves his Sissy and wants to do everything he can with her or to copy her.  She is less than receptive some times, but there are some times when he gets hurt and he goes to Caroline instead of Jason or me.  She eats it up.  Most of the time, Caroline is completely in love with Cam.

*He is so funny.  He is figuring out that he can do stuff to make us laugh and once he gets us, he will keep doing it over and over.  It is hilarious!

*He is very smart.  He can be a crazy boy and run around and destroy stuff, but he can also sit and think and figure stuff out.  I have been amazed at some of the stuff he can already do.

*He loves to play outside.  He loves bubbles (dumping them out), throwing balls, jumping on the trampoline, playing with sidewalk chalk (and dumping it out the bucket and putting it all back in), going for walks, and already wants to ride a bicycle. 

*He has a new affinity for hats.  He loves them.  We got him a Paw Patrol hat and he wears it ALL the time.  Also from the picture above you can see that he also loves sunglasses (even if they are Dora)!

*Who says that boy clothes aren't cute?!  He is rocking some of the cutest t-shirt/short combos right now.  Carter's has some athletic sets with matching shorts and shirts and they are so dag on cute!! He is in 3T shirts and 2T shorts.  They aren't little on him, but they definitely aren't big!  He should be able to wear them throughout the summer.  

*If he wants you to go somewhere he is not afraid to grab you hand, shorts, pants, shirts, whatever he can get a hold of and lead you to where he needs you to be.  He will also say 'up!' and grunt like it is a struggle.  

*When life gets crazy and the days are long, my stillness happens when I am putting my boy to bed.  He is running and running all day long, but when it is time for bed, he stills.  He drinks his milk and once he has had enough he turns over and nuzzles into my neck.  I remember when he fit into the crook of my arm and now his long legs run all the way down to the chair.  But for those few precious seconds I just get to hold my littlest love and breath.  When he was little there were so many days that I would just hold him and pray for sleep to come for him.  It took us a while, but we figured each other out and now getting to watch him sleep is such an answered prayer for me.

Cam,

You are everything I dreamed a little boy could be.  You are sweet, crazy, busy, strong, smart, busy, fast, funny, and so incredibly sweet.  You can be frustrating sometimes and you can test every single limit we put in front of you, but you keep on testing, sweet boy.  Your daddy and sissy and I love you to the moon and back and nothing you can do will ever change that.  I wait for 4 o'clock every day so I can see your sweet face and I soak up every second of the weekend with you.  You are one of my favorite little things on this planet and I love watching the boy you are becoming.  

I love you,

Mommy

Double Naps!

When Cam was born, I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing since I had already been through things one time.  The truth was, my world was rocked from the top to the bottom with the new litle ball of madness.  Every single day I would think to myself, ‘If I can just make it the afternoon, both of them will take a nap and I can close my eyes, too.’  I was just so dag-on tired.  Every day I told myself this and every single day I was wrong. It made me a basket case. Even the days that it semi-worked for 10 minutes I sat down and just stared at the TV or the wall becaue the pain of going to sleep and being woken up was worse than the pain of knowing that you weren’t going to get any sleep.  Plus I didn’t want to miss the quiet and the still.  My nights were often ruled by this principle early on. It was awful and one of the strong reasons that I have no desire to go through it again.  I feel like I pushed on and I survived that period of time.

I am here to document, though, that the time has come when I have two children that nap in the afternoons every day.  This has been the case for a few months now, but in the off chance that we decide to add another child to the craziness, I want to be able to come back and read this and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Since Cam is down to one nap now and we help him get through the morning if he is a bit cranky and tired, he gives us a solid 2 – 3 hour nap in the afternoons (the vast majority of the time).  Even though Caroline is 4 1/2, she still takes a nap in the afternoon or at the very least has ‘rest time’ where she has to stay in her room or upstairs in the playroom until 3:00.  There are a lot of times we tell her it is ‘rest time’ and she will still lay down on her own and fall asleep. 

All of this is to say, that between 1:30 and 3:00/3:30, both kids are down and we can do what we want!  I can take a nap.  I can do some laundry (why would I do this?).  I can run to the store and get grocery shopping done.  I can get some work done.  I can catch up on TV.  I can take a shower if I haven’t gotten to that day.  I can catch up on Facebook or texts that I haven’t been able to respond to all morning.  I may even make a phone call. Those two hours are a crucial time for my patience.  It gives everyone a break from each other, most of us get some much needed rest we need, and allows us to charge our batteries so that we can handle what comes during the four hours between nap time and bed time.

Being a parent is the greatest, most rewarding thing that any human being can do.  But I’ll tell ya – amidst all of the craziness, there is nothing sweeter and more beautiful than a sleeping child.  And I am very glad I can say that for a couple of hours in the afternoon, I’ve got two of them!

Cam –16 Months!

We just took Cam for his 15 month appointment (1 month late), so I figured I would do a quick update on both of the kids!

Cam

• Cam weighed a little over 25 pounds and was 32 inches long.  He was right around the 70th percentile for both. 

• He is a wild man, but is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen.

• He is down to one nap.  He usually gives us a 2 – 3 hour nap in the afternoon.  Sometimes we have to help him get through the morning, but that one good nap in the afternoon is worth it.  He started taking good morning naps and then fighting the afternoon nap.  Since we had to choose one, we would much rather him sleep in the afternoon when Caroline naps.

• He goes to bed around 7 – 7:30 and gets up around 7 – 7:30.  He has nights every once in a while where that doesn’t work out, but that is definitely the majority of the time.  I’m not complaining!

• He has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever seen.  He uses his eyebrows all of the time and will give the meanest look and then the next second be smiling and look like the sweetest thing in the world.

• He is frustrated that he can’t tell you all the things that he wants/needs, so his weapon of choice is an ear piercing scream that he has been using since he could make noise.  He will use it when he is angry or frustrated or to get your attention when he needs something.  Caroline gets it a lot when she tries to hug him or help him do something when he doesn’t want help!  I know once he starts talking I’m going to want him to be quiet, but I will be glad when he can use words!

• He can say a few words (that we can understand): mama, dada, sissy, what’s that, what say (what do they say), up, stuck, sish (fish)

• He LOVES animals. He asks what they are and then asks what they say.  He can make the sounds of a dog, lion, elephant, monkey, cow, and laughs every time I tell him a cat says meow instead of buff (woof).

• He is a sneaky little thing.  He loves to go behind Jason’s chair to get to the remotes and his phone and drink.  When we catch him and tell him to come out he falls to the floor and pretends to be asleep or he hides his face so that we can’t see him.  It is really hard not to laugh.

• He loves his sissy and his daddy, but he is a whole-hearted mama’s boy.  He fakes them out every once in a while and pretends like he wants them, but if I walk into a room he is all mine.  And I can’t say that I don’t love it!  He is my boy!

• We have already cut his hair once, but he has a head full of white-blond hair and the back is curly.  I think he is going to be like Caroline and I have straight on the top and curly in the back/on the bottom.  Sorry, guys!

• He is using utensils like a champ.  With Caroline I think we tried things too early and then they were frustrating with both of us, so we have paid a lot less attention to ‘when things are supposed to happen’.  So the other day Jason just handed Cam a fork to see what he could do and he stuck his food and put it right in his mouth like he has been doing it for years!

Now some pictures of my sweet 16 month old boy!

Digging a Frosty!

Crazy pants ‘helping’ with laundry!

When he gets bigger, this is how I will always remember his sweet face!

He is such a ham!  He got a new hat and mittens from Mimi and Papa and wore the mittens like socks for about half an hour!

Our boy is wide open, silly, crazy, smart, funny, and everything in between.  It is so much fun watching you grow and we are so proud to be your mommy and daddy!  We love you, Bubba!

Caroline is four and a half!

Those half years are really important!  I want to take a few minutes to remember exactly how she is right now!

 

Caroline requested just one picture with her girl Rapunzel!

 

*Caroline is the most talkative, confident, unique, creative, funny, rambunctious, intelligent, energetic child I have ever known.  It is an honor to be her mom!!

*The things that come out of her mouth are ridiculous.  I try to post at least one thing a day on Facebook to help me always remember.

*She lives to help other people.  She lives to have a job, to help, and to mean something to someone.  Right now her chores are to feed the dogs, pick up Cam’s toys at night, and get the mail.  We also have a box in her room that she fills up every night with the clothes, shoes, and socks she is going to wear the next morning.  She then knows her job is to go potty when she wakes up and then get herself dressed.  This works really well (most mornings)!

*We went to Disney World this summer and she got to meet almost all of the princesses.  She still loves Elsa, but her very favorite will always be Rapunzel.  She just LOVES her long, blond hair. 

*Right now she is completely obsessed with She-Ra.  We started watching them on Hulu and she watches at least one a day.

*She is also into Shopkins big time right now and she still has her Itty Bitty collection and her Magic Clip princesses.

*She has had a Nabi for a while now and she gets 30 minutes of YouTube Kids every day.  While on there she watches videos of people opening toys – Shopkins, blind bags, Magic Clips, etc.  She would watch those videos for 24 hours in a row if we let her!

*She LOVES being a big sister.  Sometimes she does too much and we have to reign her in, but she loves to make Cam laugh, she wants to help as much as she can with him, and she is genuinely excited and proud when he does something new.

*Even though she loves Cam, she does get quite annoyed with him often – already.  She makes it very known that she is tired of his crying and fussing (even though it may have been her crying and fussing 5 minutes before).

*She is a bossy little thing.  She likes to ask why and make sure she fully understands something before she completes the task at hand.  We are trying to get her to do better with doing what she is asked because an adult asked her to do it.  She doesn’t have to be ok with it or fully understand.

*She without a doubt meets and exceeds the 350+ average number of questions per day.  She is so smart and really does just want to understand what is going on around her.

*This is her last year of preschool and, bless her heart, she is counting down the days until kindergarten.  I hope it lives up to her expectations!

*She learned how to swim this summer.  She was a little hesitant at the beginning of the summer, but we got a pool for the backyard that was big enough for her to completely go under water.  We worked on blowing air out of her nose while she was under water and she practiced that in our little pool.  Then Jason’s parents got a pool and within the first day she was jumping into the water and swimming to us.  She can swim under water anywhere she wants to go and she can kick with her head above water to get places, also!  We have a little fish!

*She is starting dance this week.  We felt like she hadn’t done anything organized yet so it was time to do something.  Her dance teacher is the mom of one of my students and I am very curious to see how she does and if she likes it!  She already knows how to do first position (thank you, Peppa Pig) and we have been working on the fact that she needs to do what she is told and not say, ‘I know how to do that’ just because she has seen it on Peppa Pig!

*She is so tall and lean.  She is in size 6 clothes because of the length.  I hope we can get her into something that she likes to do so that she can keep being tall and lean.  I would love for her to be as healthy as she possibly can be.

*She would complain about her back and legs hurting after running.  We started to question if she had tethered cord like Cam and just didn’t have a dimple on her back.  After asking the doctor about it she referred us to a physical therapist who did a complete evaluation on her and said that she was perfect for her age.  She has full range of motion and runs and walks just fine.  Glad we can get that idea out of our head!

*We try to say our prayers every night before bed and it is the sweetest thing.  She usually prays for things around her room, but she makes sure to also pray for anyone sick or hurting.

*She can be a little bit selfish (what first child isn’t), but we are working really hard to help her learn and gain empathy so that she thinks about other people.

*She still gets furious when she sees trash on the ground.  We have picked up trash several times to help make her feel better!

 

Our girl is most definitely one of the biggest lights of our life.  We love her for her and we love that she isn’t afraid to be who she is.  I pray with all of my heart that she holds on to that in this big, mean world.  It is such an honor and a privilege to be her parents and we are so glad we get a front row seat to her growing and learning every day.  We love you, Whack Job Sandwich!