Cailin Says

Life is definitely interesting with a crazy two year old around. She's starting to say and do some pretty hilarious things .... on purpose. With intention to be funny.

In the car yesterday:

C: Do it mommy! DO IT! (Rev the car up)

M: Sorry, it's too icy, and mommy's car doesn't do that.

C: Daddy did it.

M: Daddy revved the car?

C: Yep.

M: Oh really.

C: Yep. Do it mommy! DO IT! Daddy did it!

(Daddy insists he didn't. I'm not too sure.)

Walking by the diaper pail (gah, I know)

C: Ew! There's poopy in there! It's stinky in there! P.U.! (Waves hand in front of face)

She also insists that all the pillows and covers on our bed need to take up residence on the floor - several times a day. If I put anything back on the bed, my actions are met with an irate toddler staring at me. Who then waits until I leave the room to tear everything off the bed and toss it all on the floor anyway. I vacuumed an entire bag of dog hair off that floor yesterday so we should be good to have everything on the floor now. Gross.

She blames her farts on other people now too. Even if they are not present. She insists that it's Bailey who soils her diapers and not her. When she burps (which is as often as she can manage) she yells, " 'SCUZE ME!" and laughs like a lunatic. I'm kind of a fan of potty humor myself so there's not a lot of discipline there (sorry Auntie Hedder).

I think Santa is going to give her a little leeway since she is only two, but next year I have a feeling he's going to be sending an Elf our way to keep an eye on things.

Why I Need an Elf on MY Shelf

Santa accidentally sent a gift to the post office for me instead of to the North Pole. I was surprised to get the notice in the mailbox, but warmed up the car and brushed snow off it to make the trek to the post office to pick it up. Wouldn't want to inconvenience Santa by making him do extra work.

The lady was surprised to see me pick up a gift clearly marked for Santa, but since the address matched my ID, she let me take it home.
Where my curiosity got the better of me. Who would know if I peeked before Christmas? Santa made a terrible mistake of not sending an Elf to our house to sit on the shelf and watch goings-on. Or, perhaps he didn't since Cailin clearly doesn't need an Elf to watch her. Okay, maybe she does. At any rate, we don't have an Elf, therefore, no one would be able to tell on me if I did peek.
Just a little slice here in the tape.... No one's looking...
Just a little peek in the box. Oops, there's some paper in the way...
We'll just move that out of the road a bit there.... No one's going to be the wiser...
OOOOOHHHH!!! LOOKEEE!
A scoop coffee pot just for me!! Santa sure knows his stuff! Now I better put this all back in the box before anyone knows I looked. Now where did that box go?? It was right here a minute ago...
Oh. Busted.

Oh, Hi. I DO Have a Blog!

This was our attempt at a) Christmas card photo; b) hat modelling for my website; c) spreading the general cuteness around. Cailin is saying, "Look mommy! Two Carters!" in this picture. She knows how many "2" is. Carter says NOM! ARM! TASTY! (he's getting his first two teeth). He is modelling the teddy bear hat I made him. It's made out of pure 100% itchiness. Poor baby. I'm hoping a wash in copious amounts of fabric softener will help.

Things have been wild around here the last month. I've had my hands full with kids, Christmas preparations and starting a home business.
Carter had his 4 month shots. He's 16lbs 13oz, pretty tall and has a big head. Measuring in the 75th percentile for all. He cried for quite a while, but didn't react to his shots other than getting a tad hot/feverish later. He's a very happy camper, belly laughing and generally in a good mood. He has been sleeping all night again since starting rice cereal. He's loving the rice cereal; he makes all sorts of squeaks with his mouth wide open if I don't spoon it in there fast enough. Carter is just the sweetest happiest baby. He's now been playing in the Jumperoo.

We hit another milestone too. Cailin is now in a big girl bed. I sold her first toddler bed on Kijiji and ordered a pink sparkly racecar bed instead.

Last morning in her crib:
We actually got the bed at the right time. Cailin was able to climb into her crib by herself. She wasn't quite able to climb out by herself, but I'm sure it was forthcoming. At any rate, she would fill her crib to the rafters with every stuffed animal she could find then climb up and jump in like a weird ball pit. Then of course get stuck and demand OUT quite loudly while jumping around like a crazy person.

I kept telling her she was getting a new bed and showing her pictures of it online to get her excited. She seemed to understand she was getting a new bed, but wasn't excited until it came in a big box one morning (a week early!). She helped by hiding the various pieces under the crib and using the screwdrivers before hiding them in the couch.

It wasn't too hard to put together and finally:
She transitioned without any issues at all. I put a spinny doorknob childproof thingy on the door and she went to sleep without getting out of her room and playing in the middle of the night. Although one morning she came downstairs and scared the poo out of me - holding the door spinny thing in two pieces. "Hi mommy. It's broken. Throw in garbage?" I taped the crap out of it and she hasn't been able to escape since.

I'm pretty sure she dreams up interesting things to tell me when I open her door in the morning. This morning she greeted me and said, "Daddy's truck has hemi." Why, yes it does. She surprises me with this stuff all the time.

Cailin has been able to play outside here and there this winter. She really enjoys it. Especially when Bailey is out there with her running around.So anyways, I'm making crocheted hats and selling them online. I've had a whole bunch of orders since opening my virtual doors almost a month ago - almost 60 hats have been made/sold/shipped/waiting for pickup since then. I'm very excited about it. Unfortunately I've also been running myself ragged tackling the Christmas orders. I'm down to 2 hats now that have to be made before Christmas. I still need to update my website with the newest hats, but here it is Sock Monkey Hats by Krystal. There's a link to my Facebook page on there too.

I've met some very cool ladies - and ordered a couple neat items from another online store. Carter is getting a froggy cart cover (well, both kids can use it, really) and Cailin is getting a Thomas the Tank Engine blanket. In the past whenever I've told her about something she's getting (ie her bed) she hasn't been all that interested or excited. When I asked her if she wanted a Thomas blankie today, she went ape! She asked for it many times over today and looked in the dryer, shower, closets and toy box for the Thomas blankie. I can't wait to pick it up tomorrow.

I am working on Hello Kitty hats and a rainbow monkey hat tonight. I better get after it! Good thing I have a box of chocolates to keep me company...

Happy 2nd Birthday Odin!

Our sweet little Odin turned two today. Two years ago he was born on Friday the 13th, the first grandson and our only nephew. We love him to bits!

Yesterday we packed the kids up and loaded them in the truck with sippy cups, toys and snacks galore. Then we drove up to B.C. to spend the day with Odin and family for his birthday party. It was snowing a bit here and there, but soon cleared up and it was a good drive.

Cailin was painfully shy to start with, but after a while of Papa snuggles, she joined in and played with the kids. They ran all over the house and had a great time.

There was cookies, cupcakes and happy kids (of course!).

We had a great time visiting, and the birthday boy was so funny. He got some cars and didn't want to share his new Jeep very badly, especially not with Gracie.

Cailin cried when we left, she wanted to keep visiting with her cousins. I wish we lived closer! The kids really enjoy their time together. Cailin sang songs about Odin on the way home and wished him a happy birthday over and over. I wish he had gotten to hear it from her himself!

So happy birthday Odin, from Auntie, Uncle, Cailin, Carter and Bailey. We love you!

Happy Howl-oween!

Halloween was no big deal this year. I have to admit I've been a big preoccupied what with having a three month old and all. Also it may have something to do with the feisty and sometimes assertive (ahem) two year old we're trying to parent. I wasn't even sure we were going to do anything other than retreat (treat! get it?) to Nana's and eat her candy stash while hiding from trick-or-treaters. Luckily my friend Shelley invited us over and bribed us with pizza. We took our two year old girls around the block for a quick trick-or-treat then beat a hasty retreat (treat! oh, never mind...) back to her house for supper. The guys stayed behind and watched Carter. He slept the entire time.

Cailin reused her strawberry costume from last year:
It ain't gonna fit next year. She can manage to squeeze the hat on, but I'm sure it pinches her head so bad she can't remember her dad while she wears it. I'm glad a hoodie fit under it though. It wasn't all that cold out, but the wind was freezing so we didn't stay out for long. Just long enough to get some cute pictures of the girls and a surprisingly large amount of candy. Cailin wasn't feeling assertive, but rather shy and hung back from the doorways and refused to say 'trick-or-treat'. Or anything at all. She tucked her hands into the costume to stay warm and obediently followed us around. Aside from one house that had gravel Cailin got excited to play in, she didn't take her hands out. It was funny how both girls dropped everything to play with rocks. Fisher Price ain't got nothin' on rocks. Or sticks.

Not to be outdone, Carter dressed up too:
Heh, that's Cailin's shirt from two years ago. Mr. Smiley Pants looked adorable in it, even if it did have a little too much purple glitter on it for his dad's liking. He chilled out with the guys while we ran around in the wind and watched a little hockey. His first Halloween was a success.

For our own trick-or-treaters, I put a bowl of candy out on the front step. I hoped that would prevent anyone from ringing the doorbell and stressing Bailey out. As it was, she was hiding downstairs when we got home. I wonder what happened to make her do that? Also, only half the bowl of candy was gone. Since we don't get many kids over on Halloween I'm guessing it was either one or two greedy kids, or a bunch of very polite kids. I was hoping they would relieve me of the entire lot, but alas now I have the arduous task of eating all those sugar bombs myself.

As for Cailin's trick-or-treating horde, I put that in a bowl up in the cupboard and it's being used for potty training bribery purposes. She refuses to sit on the potty these days. Today I got her to sit on there three times for the price of a sucker and a few rocket candies. She told me a few times she had to pee, so looks like we're getting on track. She can easily do all the steps needed to use the potty all by herself so I hope it goes okay.

Carter is now three months old! I can't believe the time is going by so fast. In another month he might be ready to play in the Jumperoo and have a taste of rice cereal. It's crazy. He's growing like a weed, around 16lbs now, and he sleeps all night.

Cailin is also growing a bit. She hit 25lbs and is out of her 18 month pants. They still fit around the waist, but they are way too short. Kinda looks like she's expecting a flood at any moment. We're struggling with her 24 month pants. They are too long and too big around the waist. Most of them have adjustable waists, but even those don't go small enough. Back to the farmer rolls. Her shirts are size 3 now. I can't believe how fast my children are growing before my very eyes.

The house is still working out well for us. With the great purge of aught '11, we now have lots of room to play downstairs. Cailin spends her evenings going up and down the stairs to play on both levels. One of her favorite things to do right now is lay in our bed with the iPad and watch youtube or play Angry Birds. Unfortunately I'm not too keen on the snacks she insists on eating in there. I try to talk her into eating crackers on her father's side of the bed. As a side note, if I find one more goldfish cracker in that bed, I'm so firing the dog. Also? I'm getting pretty tired of the Nutella* found in random places on my WHITE bedding. Also also? Nutella doesn't look too healthy when you first catch sight of it out of the corner of your eye when it's smeared on the bedspread. With Bailey and a kid in a diaper, you can never be too sure. Anyways, moving on.

So it's November now and it's cold out. The house is cold and I'm a complete wimp. You would never know I spent 8 winters of my life working outside. I'm not looking forward to this winter at all, but a strange thing is happening to me. I'm actually starting to look forward to decorating for Christmas. Must have something to do with paring the Christmas decorations down to two boxes and being completely organized. I'm also looking forward to seeing the wonders of the season through Cailin's eyes, and Carter's too for that matter. I'm doing all my shopping online and avoiding crowds, and I'm making presents in my spare time. I think it's going to be a lovely holiday.

*for those of you not familiar with the deliciousness that is Nutella, it is a chocolate hazelnut spread not unlike peanut butter. Except for the chocolate and hazelnut part of course.

Baby in a Basket

This is Cailin when she was just a wee sprout, about two months old. I put her in this wicker basket with her knitted hospital hat and did a big photoshoot with her. Her hat was a bit small, but it looked so cute on her. I took so many pictures and put a billion of them on Facebook. There are many framed pictures of that shoot up all over the house.

A few days ago it was Carter's turn. He went in the same basket, but there was no way his knitted hospital hat would ever fit on his head now, so I just fluffed up his hair. Of course this photoshoot was different because I had two assistants helping me. Cailin and Bailey were fantastic baby-distraction-ers. They also spent a lot of time hanging out in my natural light source from the window. That is, when they weren't laying around on the mat under the kitchen sink:
Those two troublemakers really are best friends and they are never far apart. Bailey still sleeps outside Cailin's door waiting for her to get up in the mornings and they spend their days tearing around the house chasing each other. And generally making a lot of noise.

Carter is getting very smiley and talks a lot these days. He chats away happily and falls asleep with a little smile on his face. He is truly the sweetest baby I have ever seen.
Cailin insists on calling him "Buddy". It's hilarious. Everything is Buddy's - Buddy bath, Buddy blankie, Buddy jammies. When he cries, she makes sure to tell him, "It's okay, Buddy."

We had another busy day today. I think Bailey rolled in cat poop (I'm not that interested to really check too hard) and then rolled around in our bed at my absolute horror. Needless to say I washed/changed/fumigated our room so fast it blew everybody's hair back. Cailin helped me do laundry by stuffing clean and previously folded clothes into the dryer. So helpful!

We cleaned here and there. Did a little shopping at Walmart and got some groceries. Nana bought Cailin a beautiful winter coat, but it wasn't received well. I'm hoping she likes her coat better when she doesn't have toothpaste on her shirt and is upset about it.

Cinnamon buns anyone? Looks like we need more brown sugar!

Thanksgiving, Two Month Shots and Such

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was nice to see everyone and eat my weight in baked goods. This year I'm so thankful for my healthy children, my family and our lifestyle. There are so many people who aren't as blessed as we are with what we have. I try not to take that for granted.

Cailin, Grace and Odin played together all weekend. They are going to be a little gang of troublemakers when they get older, I can already tell. The girls kept locking Odin in the closet and he would cry, Grace would blame Cailin and they'd all march back into the closet to do it over again. They absolutely love playing in Nana's office, especially now with the addition of a very interesting and fun futon. Let the games begin!

Grace loves Carter. She asks me if she can take care of him and wants to hold him. She's quite the mother hen and always lets me know exactly what Cailin, Odin and Bailey are up to at any given moment.

Cailin had so much fun playing with her cousins that she cried when they left to go home. For days after she asked if they went home in (Uncle) Dustin's orange truck to 'go sleepy nap bed'. She's been practising their names since then, saying them over and over and ending with "go home". Apparently my brother's new name is 'Uncle Dustin Orange Truck'. Heh.

It snuck up on me pretty fast, but the day dawned for Carter's two month shots and checkup. Since it was impossible to book him in for his shots in town, I had to book them in a tiny town about 20 minutes from home, halfway between here and Beaver City. His four month shots have been booked (three months in advance) in Beaver City and I'm very glad I won't be taking Cailin with me for those.

Cailin is a very sensitive and sympathetic soul. She started crying the moment we got into the teeny tiny health clinic (which is actually an old converted house slash seniors' hall). She cried the whole time we were in there, reaching maximum pitch when Carter got his three needles and joined in for the chorus (so to speak). I was under the impression that going through needles with the second baby would be a lot easier than the first. Ha. When both my babies were screaming and the tears were flowing, I almost felt like joining in. However, it didn't last that long and we were able to get out of there in a timely manner. Cailin stopped crying once we were outside.

Of course once she was buckled in, Cailin demanded to go see Nana. I obliged since it had been such a stressful morning. On the bright side, Carter did not have any side effects from the shots. No swelling, no fever, no crankiness, no being sick. Unlike some other eldest children. Ahem, Cailin.

Carter's stats:

Weight: 14 lbs, 12 oz

Height: um, the nurse said it was 21", but he was curled up and was 23" tall at his 6 week checkup so I'm going with that.

Head: Pretty big

95th percentile for head and weight, and according to her botched measurement, 10th percentile for height. So the prognosis was that he's short and fat with a big head. But the height is off, so I'm gonna say he's 95 percentile across the board. Big healthy boy!

At any rate, Carter is sleeping through the night, eating very well and hardly ever fusses. He is such a good baby. I have no idea how I lucked out twice.

Other updates:

Cailin finally got her last eyetooth (again), and hopefully it stays out this time.

Bailey has a sore eye today and I have no idea how that came to be.

Carter is in size 3 diapers! Holy cow!

It took about 10 days, but the basement is completely purged, organized and clean. I did stay up til 5am to get the bulk of it done a few days ago. I can't explain how big a weight has been lifted off my shoulders having that done. Five truck loads of stuff left our house - donations and junk. I did the upstairs a few weeks ago, and it only took two days. Everything in our house now has a place, and it makes the tidying up so easy and quick. Carter's room is the playroom for now, and it's organized. He's got a queen sized bed in there at the moment for guests and such. After much thinking and angst, it suddenly dawned on me that he doesn't need a twin bed in there eventually - he's already got a bed. It's a big bed, but a nice bed. So I ordered a jungle comforter for it for Christmas. No need to try and make a guest room out of the (now organized) storage room. Guests can simply use Carter's room for now. Hope they like jungle animals.

Cailin is talking up a storm. Take this conversation we had this morning for example:

Cailin: What horsie say?

Me: Neigh.

Cailin: No, mommy! Horsie say WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Mommy, what horsie eat?

Me: Hay, or grass.

Cailin: Mommy, no! Horsie eat cars! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Piggy say oink!

Me: That's right! What does horsie say?

Cailin: WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Where daddy go?

Me: He went to work

Cailin: *twinkle in her eye* No, he went to the store!

Me: No, he's at work

Cailin: He went to bed! Sleepy nappy!

Me: Work.

Cailin: Store! *laughs hysterically*

Seeing a pattern here?

Cailin also knows how to work the iPad flawlessly and uses it to play Angry Birds and watch puppy videos on youtube.

While working on the basement, we've been leaving the baby gate down and Cailin has had free reign in the house. She loves it. While we're not letting her be downstairs without one of us there, she's been having a lot of fun. For a lot of the time I was slaving around in the storage room (upgraded to Storage Room of Mild Disarray), she would lay in our bed playing iPad games with her ever-present bowl of popcorn. Which leads me to my next point.

This kid doesn't eat anything anymore. At best we can get 2 glasses of milk into her, a couple crackers and maybe some cheese and toast per day. Maybe some meat, but always popcorn. I know they go through stages of not eating, but it's never easy to watch.

Cailin slammed the door shut on me yesterday when I took garbage out to the bin. I watched the door slam and then she was able to reach the deadbolt just enough to lock me out. Thankfully the neighbor was outside and graciously let me use his phone to call Ryan. Who didn't have his phone on him. I left him a couple messages while trying to convince Cailin to open the door for me. She cried and begged me to open the door. I told her I couldn't, she would have to be a big girl and do it for me. She got frazzled and upset. She tried her hardest to flip the deadbolt, but once it had turned a bit more (in the right direction even!) she could no longer reach it. I asked her to get her stool from the bathroom and she ran off to comply. She brought back a butterfly hairclip. Gee.

It was a gruelling 30 minutes as I waited outside for Ryan to get my messages and come home. Cailin and Bailey pulled a chair up to the counter, watched the breadmaker churn away at pizza dough and helped themselves to a bowl of popcorn. Watching Cailin and the dog eat/lick/bat popcorn pieces off the counter was almost funny if it wasn't for the circumstances.

After a while she gave up on the breadmaker, popcorn, trying to unlock the door and me in general and sat on the couch watching youtube on the iPad. Carter had cried off and on, but mostly slept through the ordeal. Ryan showed up with a key and everything was good.

I will say this though, our house is like Fort Knox. Every window had a doweling in it and was latched and locked, and all the doors were locked. With the alarm system on top of that, I feel quite safe.

It was Nana's birthday last weekend and we went out for a fire and pizza. Cailin played outside like crazy and had a great time. I brought cinnamon buns (a little overcooked, oops) and it was such a good day. Cailin ate loads of brown sugar and cinnamon helping me bake. She brings me the sugar bag and asks for some sugar. Funny!

We've had quite the month so far. It's been very busy, but good. I'm looking forward to settling down now and just living day to day with the kids.