Maximus!

A few weeks ago, we had a Friday off of school for a 'snow day' (I use that term very loosely).  Greg and Michelle were going to go to Wilmington and since Jason was out of town, Caroline and I decided to jump in the car with them.

While we were there, Mom said something about Tucker (G+M's puppy) being a great dog and that if she could get a dog just like him she wouldn't be opposed to getting another dog.  Well on the ride home, that sparked some conversation about Mom and Deddy and dogs, so I, of course, whipped out my phone and checked out Petfinder.com.  While I was looking, I saw a face.  This dog looked like a mini-Riley and I was instantly curious.  I checked out his profile and liked what I saw.  He was an almost one year old mutt that liked people, did well with other dogs, and had a sweet disposition.  I told Greg and Michelle who instantly told me to send his picture to Jason to see what he would say.  I thought for sure he would send something back telling me that I was crazy.  He was totally ok with it and told me that he thought he did look just like Riley.  At this point it had been about 6 months since we put Riley down.  Harley has been great, but could use a little friend!  So that is where the Max journey began!

I emailed the people and for some reason was thinking that we would be able to just bring him home that afternoon.  I am crazy.  The dog adoption process is much more involved than I originally anticipated.  I know they want dogs to go to good homes, but I just about had to give them a DNA sample!

Over the next two weeks, with lots of emails, forms, vet visits for Harley, and phone calls, we got to meet Norman!  They brought him to our house on a Saturday afternoon (the same Saturday I got my van!) and let him meet Harley.  There was some initial figuring out, but everything went pretty well.  We signed some papers, handed over a check, and began our 10 day trial.

Over those 10 days, we had some adjustments to make.  He was pretty scared (who wouldn't be) and cowered in a corner every time that Jason came into a room.  Being a rescue, there is no way to know what happened to him before they found him.  It was pretty easy to see that Norman was not a fan of men.  So we tried different things until we figured out what was working.  There was a point in those 10 days that I called his foster mom to warn her that our house might not be a good place for Norman and that he may need to go back.  He just looked so scared and I hated for him to live like that.

Well, we are now a week past the end of our 10 day trial and Max (we tried Norman, but for some reason Max just felt like a better fit) is an official member of our family.  He has gotten completely comfortable and we get lots of belly rubs and cuddling out of that sweet little boy.  Caroline loves him and talks about Max (she has named him Maxidoo!) and Har-Boo all the time.  He is really warming up to Jason and just last night stood at his feet wagging his tail when he got home!  He has had a play date with Tucker and had SO much fun!  He loves going on walks and does great with that, and every once in a while gets a puppy spurt and runs around with Harley.

Here is our sweet Maxidoo!

Swaggin' Wagon

A couple of years ago, Jason started talking about wanting a truck.  He had a Ford F-150 when he was younger that he traded in for a Honda Accord (being the responsible young man that he was).  I told him that I didn't care what he drove, but that we weren't going to spend another penny on a car payment.  So he told me about a used F-150 that he had found.  We went and looked at it and came home that afternoon with a white truck.

Fast forward two years and now that we had Caroline, the dogs, and more little ones in our future (not immediate), we started talking about vans.  The talking was more about which ones we thought were prettier.  The idea never entered my head that I may have a van.  Jason had his truck for traveling and I had my Tribute that could last through at least one more kid.  Well with a few things in the works, it was looking like we were going to need to switch cars.  He was possibly going to have a longer drive to work and it would make sense for him to drive the Tribute.  That left me with the truck, which I was fine with.  

Then on Friday night, he told me about a van he had found that was used and was in our price range.  He asked me if I wanted to go look at it.  I told him sure, but thought it was more for something to do on a Saturday afternoon.  For this to work he was going to have to trade his truck in, which surely wasn't going to happen!

The next morning we got up, I went to the eye doctor, and when I got home we loaded everyone up in the truck and went to the dealership.

The van that we went for had already been sold.  But good ol' John had another van that he just happened to have to we could check out.  We looked it over and before I knew it we were taking a test drive.  We tweaked nobs and opened and closed everything.  We were fans.

Once we got back, Jason asked me what I thought.  I told him that I liked it, but that we weren't going to pay a penny over what we were already paying.  I still thought that there was no way this man was going to trade his truck in to get me a van.  

Well, the ran the numbers and did their dealing and 3 hours later, we had us a car payment less than the one that we already had.  My sweet, incredible, awesome husband had traded his truck in to get me a van - completely on his own accord!  I never once asked him to do it and pressured him into it.  He did it because he loves me and does what is best for our little family!

And, with no further ado...

My Swaggin' Wagon!

This is just a picture I found online.  Looks just like mine.  This thing is like a space ship.  I never thought I'd want a van.  There are some times that I forget that I am an adult and am married and have a child.  This is a reminder that I certainly am not in college any more!  We traveled this past week for Spring Break and this thing was AWESOME!  We had room for all of us, the two boys, and all of our crap.  I'll take a Swaggin' Wagon and being an adult!

It's a Bubble Guppies Birthday!

Since Caroline has been in love with the Bubble Guppies for quite a while now (and Dora is starting to beat them out), we knew we HAD to have a Bubble Guppies birthday party for her 2nd birthday!  We planned for the party to be at a park (knowing that it was March and it probably wouldn't happen), but it ended up being a great afternoon at our house.  We had lots of family and friends over and the kids were able to play, we had hot dogs for lunch, opened some presents, ate some delicious (and beautiful) cake, and headed for nap time!

Everyone hanging out!

C and her cousins eating some delicious hot dogs!

Opening presents!  Thank you, everyone!

She had plenty of help!

Mommy + Daddy got C a tricycle!

The awesome cake that Daddy whipped up!

Happy Birthday, our sweet girl!

Caroline is '2 Old'!

We have a grown up two-year old sassy pants at our house!!  I have been so busy trying to live in every second of my life that I have totally forgotten about stopping and writing it all down!  I try to get really cute stuff on Facebook so I can get it documented somewhere quickly.

We went to the doctor a few days after her 2nd birthday.  She did SUCH a good job.  She did everything that was asked of her and only cried a little bit after she got her shot, but since the nurse had brought her a Dora and a Bubble Guppies sticker, everything was just fine pretty quickly.

She was 34" tall (72nd percentile) and 28 pounds (67th percentile).  She is growing fantastically and the doctor thinks that she will be somewhere around 5'7" when she grows up based on her numbers now.  That sounds about right!

Caroline is the most awesome little kid.  I know she is mine and I am supposed to say that, but she makes me laugh every day with the things that she says and she is so smart - too smart for her own good sometimes.  She is starting to press buttons and become a full steam ahead two year old, but the good very much out weighs the bad and I wouldn't change a second of it.

Her are some things I want to remember about my little two year old:

The girl still gets hiccups every single time she laughs, and has since the day she was born.

Her laugh is amazing and I wish I could bottle it up and hold onto it forever.

She is such a great eater.  She is not very picky, but when there is something she doesn't want she will stick her tongue out and say, 'Don't want that!'

She still is a champion sleeper.  She is in bed around 8 every night and we usually get her up around 7:15 on school days.  She has been known to sleep in until 9 on weekends.  She still asks to go to bed every now and then, which we certainly don't turn down.  At home she takes between a 2 and 4 hour nap in the afternoons.  Daycare naps, not so much.  We get really excited about an hour.  Girl is too busy singing and talking to her friends to waste time on some nap!

She knows how to go to the potty, but is very uninterested.  That is ok with me.  I still ask her every once in a while, but I'm going to wait until she is ready.  No need to stir up disaster by pushing her.

Her vocabulary is out of control.  There is very little that she can't say and say correctly.  She knows exactly what she wants all the time and is not afraid to share it with you.

Her eyes are still as blue as they can be.  They are beautiful and I hope she keeps those bad boys forever.

She is a two year old and throws fits.  She will throw herself on the ground, cry, and she even gets an Elvis leg where she will stand on one leg and just shake the mess out of the other leg.  I wish I knew where she got that from!  She is quite familiar with the time out chair and I feel like she will be spending more time in the future!

She loves to dance, but her dancing (for the most part) is running around in a circle.  We'll have to work on that!

She is starting to sing.  It is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  She will sing Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Sweet Caroline (!), Be Home!, and several other awesome renditions of stuff you may know!

Some gems that I posted on Facebook:

Looking at the neighbors yard decorations that change colors.
Caroline: 'Orange!'
Me: 'That's right, that is orange!'
Caroline: 'Good job, Mommy!'


Caroline: (Pointing to the top of my head.) 'Head. Mommy's head. Big head, mommy.'


Apparently they are teaching Caroline Spanish at school.

Me: (After reading a few pages of her new Dora book and being excited that they were counting in Spanish) 'Four in Spanish is cuatro. Can you say cuatro?'
C: 'Cuatro. Cinco.'

Well played, little one, well played.


Any time we pass a truck.
C: 'That's Daddy's truck. Naawww! Not Daddy's truck. Daddy's truck white. Silly truck.'


Me: 'Caroline, how old will you be tomorrow?'
C: (holding up both pointer fingers) 'Carowine 2 old!' 


C: 'Mommy, I running away!' (Where she got that, I have no idea.)
Me: (fake crying) 'Don't go. I'd miss you too much!'
C: (grabbing my face with her hands) 'Mommy, look at me. Don't worry. I stay with you.'

Bless her heart.


Me: 'Hey, Caroline, I need you to stop playing and eat your breakfast. We need to go.'
C: 'My name is Duwine. Jack Jack calls me Duwine.'
Me: 'Well, alright, Duwine. We need to go!'

She does love her presents (cousins)!


Playing with stickers this morning.

C: 'I want the mommy snunk and the daddy snunk.'

If she makes it into kindergarten calling them that, I may tell her then that they are skunks.


C: (waking up from her nap) 'My Daddy will be home in just a minute.'
Me: 'That's right. And once Daddy gets home Mommy is going to go to work and you and Daddy can hang out.'
C: 'Dat be cool.'

Our Hot Mess

Caroline-isms

Life has been crazy, to say the least.  Between three preps a day at school, tutoring, keeping the house cleaned, and spending time with my family - I don't have a lot of free time on my hands.  I am so busy soaking up every second of my crazy/busy/awesome/bless life that I don't take the time I should to record what we have going on.  But I just wanted to make a quick list of the things that Caroline is saying and doing because I know I won't remember them and they are precious.

*She calls a spoon a shoom.

*She calls a rhinoceros a moss-ous.

*When we hand her something she says, 'Thank you!' in this high pitched voice and if you say thank you back she says, 'Welcome!'

*She plays hide and seek and she'll put her head around the corner and say, 'Are you?'

*She'll sit down in her seat with a book and say, 'Read it.  Self.'

*She says 'shoom geem' for 'excuse me'.

*She will say something and then nod her head and say, 'Yep. Mmm hmm.'

*She has recently started saying 'awesome' and 'sassy' - correctly.

*She will walk up to something and say a long drawn out, 'Wow!'

*Every time she sees our Christmas tree she says, 'Tree. Cute!'

*She is now aware of stop lights and stop signs.  When she sees a stop sign she'll say, 'Red. Sign.' and I'll ask her what it means and she'll say, 'Stop,' and put her hand up.  When I ask her about green she'll say go and when I ask her what yellow means, she'll say 'fall down' instead of slow down!

*She says 'odher moan' for other one.

*All of her c's are t's right now.  So she is Tarowine, she drinks from a tup, she asks for a tookie, etc.

*She has started to change the teddy bear's diaper and she'll say 'lay back' and 'mediss' like we do when we change her diapers.  (Santa spoiler - she's getting a baby doll for Christmas and she is going to LOVE it!)

*She is getting better about using her manners.  We still have to remind her more often than not to say 'thank you' and 'please', but she is now saying, 'Thank you, Daddy!' and 'Thank you, Mommy!'

*She has also started to say 'Bye bye, Daddy!' if he has to leave before us in the morning.  She'll also get behind us and push our legs and say 'Come on, Mommy!' if we are trying to leave and one of us is being slow.

*She'll grab Jason's hands and pull and grunt to help him up.

*When she gets tired and ready for bed, she'll bring us the Aquaphor and say 'whip' because we put a little bit of the Aquaphor on her lip before bed so her 'daci' (pacifier) doesn't irritate her mouth.  Speaking of bed, she loves going to bed and asks for it a lot of nights.  We give her a hug and a kiss, put her in her crib, close the door and we don't hear from her again until morning.  It is pretty awesome.

*When I tell her that we are about to do something she'll say 'Ok!' in this really emphatic voice.

*A few weeks ago I asked her to give me a hug and it dawned on me that unless I showed her how to really give a hug, she wouldn't know.  So I took her arms and I showed her how to wrap them and really squeeze. Now she gives the BEST squeezing hugs ever.

*When she wants to be picked up and carried she'll say, 'Hold it!'

*When she gets 'hurt' (she is so super dramatic, so hurt would be in air quotes if I could) she'll come over and say, 'Foot. Hurt. Kiss it.' and when we do she'll say, 'All better!'

*She calls nuggets 'nunnets' and says 'nummy' for yummy.

*She calls ice cream 'i keem'.

*The whole time she is in time out now she says 'Listen. Carowine. Listen.'  At least she's got the right idea!

This is just a little bit of what she is doing that is awesome and funny and perfect.  She is a fantastically weird little person and I am so lucky that I get to be a part of her growing up.  She is so smart and she is learning so much every single day.  The words she says and the things that she can do never cease to amaze me.  My sweet little girl is growing up so quickly and I want to remember all that I can!  I love you, whack a doo!

To Ask A Question Or Not, That Is The Question!

It really is true that once you think you've got the hang of things, you get a whole new batch of new things to become the 'master' of.  We are in a new batch of things right now.

It's been a while now that Caroline has been able to say the word no.  It was one of her first few words and it was super cute those first few times she said it.  Fast forward to her sassy 21 month self, and no has taken on every bit of of its intended meaning.  When she says no, she now knows exactly what it means and she is beginning to find out the repercussions of saying those two little letters at the wrong time.  She has gotten her butt popped a few times and she has had her butt put into time out a good few times for saying no to us when we ask her to do something (which begs the question why her butt gets punished for what her mouth is doing!).  Now we, as her parents,  are having to watch what we say - and I don't mean in terms of cuss words.  We have to watch how we phrase everything we say to her and make sure that any question we ask her, she really can say no.  We can't say, 'Hey, Caroline, do you want to go take a bath?' when we know darn well her behind is getting in the bathtub whether she wants to or not.  I had no idea how often I would be inclined to ask her a question instead of telling her what to do.  I guess in a perfect world I would ask her if she wanted to do everything and she would do exactly what I want for her to do every time.  But this world is far from perfect and that isn't the way that we all roll.  So now if I need for her to put the book back that she got out, I make sure to say, 'Caroline, put that book back.'  When we are having dinner, I ask, 'Hey, do you want some strawberries for dinner,' and if she says no, I offer something else.  Granted, I don't give her the option of cookies and ice cream for dinner, but usually when I give her the choice between strawberries and apple sauce, she will pick what she wants and it will be gone in a few seconds!

Do we get this right every time?  Of course not.  I catch myself asking her something and then starting to get mad when she says no, but when I think about it I just asked her if she wanted to do something and no was a  perfectly good answer.  So I try to be aware of it so that she knows exactly when I mean business about something and when she has a chance to pick for herself.  The world is a much better place when she knows I mean business!

October 23, 2012

It was on this day that my first born took her first pee and dump in the potty.  Is she potty trained? No.  Is she potty trainING? No.  She just got down from the table one day and said, 'Bathroom.  Potty.'  So I walked into her closet and got Anna's old potty that I had grabbed a few weeks earlier, put it on the floor, took her clothes off and she sat down.  She looked up and said, 'Uh oh.'  When I checked, she had peed in the potty.  So I high fived her and told her what a good job she had done.  Then she said, 'Uh oh' again and sat back down.  This time she stood up and there was a giant man sized turd in the bottom of the potty.  She looked at me with a worried look on her face and said, 'Uh oh' again.  I again told her that she had done a great job and high fived her.  Once she saw how the potty was going to emptied and she was going to be wiped, it then became kind of fun for her.  So after a little while she sat back down and I'll be dag-oned if she didn't pee again.

I have heard horror stories about potty training and I know that unless the kid is ready, there is no sense in trying to make potty training happen.  So I decided that unless she talked about it, I wouldn't make it a big deal.  So for a few nights after this she would sit down and pee, but that was it.  Every once in a while she will say pee pee and run to the bathroom and when I get in there to take her diaper off it is warm.  So that means she is starting to put two and two together, but I think we still have a while.