No More Diapers?

Jack has been wearing Pull-Ups this week and hopefully, we are on the road to potty training!  He has mastered the #2, but pee... not so much.  We'll have to see if this is really the right time or if he needs some more time, but I will be sooooooo happy to not have to buy diapers anymore!!

Cousins

Terrible Twos

We are smack dab in the middle of the terrible twos with Jack.  Oh. My. Gosh. As sweet and cute as he is, he can be so downright awful!

 He sneaks out of time out, loves to "clip down" on our chart (or just moves his clip up instead of down... haha!), cries for 1 second when spanked, and is always telling us "no".  

There are so many times that I have a hard time not laughing at him, though, because he is sooooo ornery.  I could tell him not to step on Daddy's guitar, so he'll stick his toe on it. Or please don't throw your food on the floor, so he slyly scoots a grape off the table.

Boy is he fun, though.  I've said it before, but I could seriously sit and watch him all day.  He has these funny little mannerisms.  He is awesome at playing by himself.  He will disappear in his room and when I go to check on him, he is engrossed in his car and trucks or animals.  Even in a big group of kids, he will often go off by himself and get all wrapped up in playing.

We are still working on the language development.  We make him say a lot more than we used to.  For awhile there he was getting away with "eh" and pointing.  Now, we make him say what he wants.  He says thank you (which sounds more like "teenk eeee") unprompted and has started saying "Welcome" when someone thanks him.

Randomly in the car, he started singing "Inky, inky, inky, inky" "Uppa, uppa , uppa, by".  I realized he was trying to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".  So sweet.  He also was singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider", which I only knew from his motions.  It sounded like "Bidey, Bidey, up... Owwwwwwwt!" (washed the spider out, complete with hand motions)

Poor guy, he gets so frustrated when he can't communicate what he wants.  I am sooooo ready (I think) for the language explosion.  We keep saying he's on the verge because he says more and more every day.

Don't let that fool you that he's this quiet little guy that plays nicely by himself.  He is LOUD and crazy!! Nowadays, if something doesn't go his way, he screams.  Not crying and screaming.  High pitched screaming.  It doesn't matter if we are outside, in the car, in an echo-y bathroom at Target... he screams.

He is VERY particular!! He likes things done HIS way.  I grabbed his bag out of the little cubby at the Y the other day.  He saw me with his bag and got mad saying "Meeeee, meeee".  So, he took his bag, walked all the way across the room, set it in the cubby, and then picked it up again.  He had to do it himself.  He likes to cut his own food, unwrap his own snack (seriously, don't even THINK about opening his granola bar the wrong way!), and get out of his car seat by himself. 

He's got some crazy dance moves.  It's hilarious! And, he plays a pretty mean air guitar.

He LOVES to throw things.  Usually things that require a lot of clean up like a whole snack cup of Goldfish.  And when he throws something, he will sometimes say, "Prise!" (surprise).  haha!

Oh, and dumping.  Dumping is another one of his favorite things to do.  He dumps out big jugs of change, bags of crackers, cups of water, and drawers of toys. 

He is ALL boy.  He colors pictures and then rolls them up to make a sword.  He loves cars, trucks, army guys, and all of his animals and Little People.  If there is a puddle of water, he finds it.  He investigates dead worms.  He carries around a tool box like it's a rite of passage.  He hammers the banister, uses pliers on the doorknobs, and saws the walls.  He is often sticky and he would rather lick his snot than have his nose wiped. 

He makes us all laugh ALL the time.  He can make his sister belly laugh.  As much as they can frustrate the heck out of each other, they are such little buddies.  He is always running through here yelling, "Keeet!"

He is such a fun, crazy two year old.  We WILL make it through... and then come the even worse THREES! :)

I'll leave you with his "cheesy" grin. I love this kid so much!

The Infamous Kate Post

This list has been going on for awhile now.  I'm a little behind.  Here are some funny sayings/happenings from the past few months.

One day while she was in the bathtub, she tells me, "I know the long word for boobs." I thought, "oh great, who has she been hanging out with??". Reluctantly, I said, "Oh yeah, what's that?" She said, "Boooooooooooooooobs". haha!

We were driving to a birthday party and the road we needed to take was closed. I hear her from the backseat say, "Guess we need to take a detour."

We passed a small fender bender one day and she said, "It's so sad when people have wrecks because their car was so expensive and now they have to spend money on a new car." Wise girl.

She asks to pray a lot while we are driving. I told her I can't close my eyes because I'm driving and she asked, "Does your wish still come true if you pray with your eyes open?"

We were watching a show on t.v. with lots of dancers. She was watching some of their moves and said, "That seems painful."

She was holding my friend Megan's little girl, Taylor, on her lap one day and said, "Taylor, I've never seen you this relaxed before!"

We passed an ambulance (no lights on) while driving and she said, "I see ambulances often on the road without their lights on." Often is one of her favorite words, and somehow she manages to use it the right way. She made me a bracelet out of pipe cleaners the other day and said, "Do you think you'll wear it often?"

She also says, "at least" a lot. "Can you at least....??"

She LOVES snuggling! She told me, "When I snuggle with you, my whole life is better."

She was telling me about a song on one of her little shows and she said, "I can sing the whole song in Spanish." I was thinking, "Wow, that's awesome" until she sang, "Oooooh lackalala, lackalala, leeekeee loooo loooo." haha! Nice try, girl.

She is always saying these funny little phrases. It's her tone and the way she says things that makes it funny. We got to Mimi and Papa's one day to swim and she yells, "I just want to kick off my shoes and swim!"

One day she said, "I miss Daddy when he goes to work, but somebody's gotta get the job done and get the bills paid." haha!

She was in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready. She saw the warning label on my CHI straightener. It has a picture of an eye and it's crossed off or something (ok, keep the CHI away from your eyes, we get it). Kate: I know what that little sign says on your CHI.

Me: You do?

Kate: Yep. (said very seriously) DO NOT CHI your eyelashes!

Me: lots of laughter!

She is not a fan of being hot. She HATES when her clothes stick to her. Getting in the car this summer is no fun. She's usually complaining within seconds. On one occasion, I guess she really wanted to get her point across because she said, "My armpits are like dripping sweat." Point taken, Sis.

She can be OVER THE TOP dramatic! We were shopping one day and she saw some purses she liked. She asked if she could get one and I hesitated because she only has a million purses. Before I could say anything, she huffs and puffs and stomped her foot saying, "Fine! I just won't buy ANYTHING!" I can only imagine what the teenage years will be like with her.

I swear EVERY time we are in the car, she says, "I need to go potty." One evening, we were driving home from St. Louis (about a 40 minute drive) and we only had like 15 minutes left. All of a sudden, it hits her and she's saying, "Stop at a gas station. I need to go potty!" Mark was trying to convince her to just wait til home. He's like, "We are almost home. We are two exits away." She's insisting on stopping at a gas station. So, I'm mean and I say, "We are almost home. All the gas stations are closed anyway." She says, "Mommy, I know you are faking. That's your lie face. Daddy, is that her lie face?" I didn't know I had a "lie" face.

She came home with a ventriloquist doll from Nanny's house a couple weeks ago. The thing freaks me out, but Kate treats it like a baby (although she doesn't like it in her room at night and I don't blame her!). For a few days, he went everywhere with us. She insisted that he liked to ride on the center console next to me. Awesome.

She is OBSESSED with music! Singing, dancing, making anything she can into a microphone. In the car one day, she didn't like what was on the radio and asked me to change the station. She says, "I should have just brought my Justin Bieber toothbrush. I could've jammed out to that."

She's going to take gymnastics again this year, but we tossed around the idea of her doing this very low key ballet, tap, and poms class at a local church. She wasn't really into it because you have to wear tights (the reason we are in gymnastics now... no tights). So on the way to the open house, I say, "Sometimes you just have to wear things you don't like. That's kinda the way life goes." Without missing a beat, she says, "Well, that's not how my life goes."

Every day, Kate makes me crazy, makes me roll my eyes, make me laugh, makes me want to squeeze her and never let go, and makes my heart burst with joy that she's mine. She's growing up too fast.

(A lot of these pictures are from Six Flags. Kate and I went last week and had a blast!)

Joplin

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I went to Joplin to meet up with some of my college friends.  It was SOOOOO much fun!! Four moms, nine kiddos five and under.  At times it was mass chaos, but still so fun. 

Jamie hosted at her house.  The kids all played really well together (for the most part).

The big girls had a slumber party and watched movies.

Jamie, Kristen, Megan, and I stayed up late talking after all the kids went to sleep. It was probably around 1 a.m. when we finally went to bed. I slept in the bedroom off of the playroom, where the girls were sleeping. While it was still dark outside, I hear Kate, Emery, and Arden giggling and just chatting away with each other. I looked at my phone and it was 4:30 in the morning!!! I went out there and threatened them within an inch of their lives that they better not wake up the other girls or Jack, and to GO BACK TO SLEEP. Well, apparently, that didn't happen because Jamie said her girls were up in her room around 5:30. I asked Kate if they went back to sleep or if they just stayed up until the sun came up. She said, "Oh, we just stayed up til the sun came up." !!!! Crazy girls! I'm sure you can imagine the exhaustion that happened later in the day.

Jamie made some AMAZING homemade cinnamon rolls in the morning. I think that was the only time not one kid was making noise. They chowed down!

We let them run wild for awhile and then decided to take them to Chick-fil-a to eat lunch and play. I'm sure we were quite the spectacle. It was so crowded, so we just got a big table for all nine kids, ordered a big nugget platter with some fruit and fries. We slapped some placemats down in front of them and just doled out food. We all just stood around while they ate and made sure everyone was taken care of! ha!

I kept trying to get a picture to capture the craziness of lunch, but it didn't go so well. I'm sure you can imagine.

After they ate, we sent them all to the play place, moved to a smaller table, and had time to sit and talk.

The kids all got ice cream when they were done playing.

Exhaustion took over when we got back to the house.

We had such a blast with everyone. We HAVE to do this more often!! Kate and I were so sad when we left.

 

None of the pictures of us turned out super great, so I don't have any to post.  But I guess that's what happens when you have a four year old standing on a chair take your picture. haha!