Random thoughts

Today Kaden had his 18 month well baby check. ( A month late...oops!) Praise God he is up to the 45th percentile for his weight. At twelve months he was down below the 10th so we have made some very good progress. We have a couple minor medical procedures coming up over the summer as well.

Cute things Kaden is saying lately include...

Binkie: He calls it "BinkB" but it sounds a lot like baked beans. Aubrie and I laugh about it all the time.

He loves to say "OH NO! A Book!" I have no idea what this means or why he says it 100x a day. It's pretty funny though.

He loves anything that has wheels..."vroom, vrooms" as he calls them.

The other night I took the kids outside to look at the moon and stars...(good mom moment...teaching about God's creation etc) it ended badly though. Kaden REALLY wanted me to reach up and get him a star. He cried and cried and cried...saying "sTar, sTar" over and over. Poor kid. Aubrie (being the awesome sister that she is) decided we should come inside and make Kaden his very own star out of cardboard. So we cut it out and she colored it for him. He toddled around with it in his hand the rest of the night. "sTar!!!"

Aubrie is doing so well. She's happy to be out of school and is enjoying the free time to play. Her toy room is consistently home to many various pet shops, zoos and "aminal" hospitals. She has an amazingly tender heart for animals and for her brother. She is more patient with him than I am. She is truly a wonderful big sister.

Aubrie has also been invited to join the competitive gymnastics team. We are going to try it and see how it goes. She does have some natural ability and talent in that area but does not have a competitive nature. If it stops being fun for her we will pull her out and put her back in regular gymnastics. Oh, I'm sorry..."Gynastics!" She still forgets to put the "M" in that word. She also still says "Aminals" "Yeshterday" and "Worser" I promise I will correct them...soon...but to me they are the last little bit of her little girl words and I can't part with them yet. Sweet girl. What I am ready to part with is her dangling front tooth. She is terrified of having anyone touch it so there it dangles. Uh! Gross! She will lose it soon and spend most of the summer toothless. So cute.

We are still debating our plans for the fall which now include homeschooling...something I swore I would NEVER do. But it is looking like one of our better options. Kind of waiting to see at this point. It would be fun and crazy and hard but really good for me in a lot of ways...I would be forced to keep to a more strict schedule...hmmm...

I'm going to try to get back into my "blogging groove" so I can stay in touch with family/friends far away and also keep track of our life as it flies by so quickly. I was just going through a bin of Aubrie's baby clothes and it brought tears to my eyes (shocker, I know) to see all those sweet little outfits that now fit on her baby doll. How does it go by so fast? I'll never know.

Love to all,
EMT

Too Cute!

I took two short vidoes with my camera last night and I have to share them. He is so funny and so cute!

Kaden was in his highchair and was using his cut up hot dog pieces as choo-choo trains...I had to run and find my camera to catch this one.

After the choo-choo he started counting backwards (his cute little version anyway) and saying, "Blast Off!" He finished the blast off with the awesome sound effects we have taught him. Hilarious! Often he will count 9, 8, 2, 6, Blast Off...this time he was too excited and only got about two numbers in there...funny kid.

Enjoy!

EMT

FINALLY!!!

Just a little clip to show you that yes, in fact my handsome, sweet son is FINALLY walking. He was also very busy showing me that he can do "up and down." Yeah!!!!!! Sorry the video is sideways...I don't have the time to mess with it and figure out how to turn it.

:-)

Things I want to remember forever....

I love so many little things about my family. The simple little everyday things that I think I could never ever forget and yet as the years start to go by I find I don't remember as much as I thought I would. Little things like...

The way Kaden crosses his right foot over his left foot when he is thinking or playing or getting sleepy in his car seat.

His delight when he rolled the ball to me over and over and over saying "ball" each time.

The way Aubrie laughed when Steven let her cut a piece of his hair and the sheer shock and delight on her face.

How she snuggles up and "Koala's Mommy!"

The way Steven smiles when he hears Aubrie say, "Daddy, Let's Wrestle!!!"

The smile on his face when he comes home and how he faithfully tells Aubrie..."Hold on a minute...let me go kiss Mommy."

The way Max looks ever so longingly at our bed hoping for an invitation to jump up and snuggle up with us.

Bailey sleeping on Steven's pillow...much to his disgust!

Kaden's sweet giggle when he's playing with his sister.

Aubrie's amazing imagination and sweet nuturing spirit. She is only six and yet when I had the stomach flu last week she asked me if she could go get me a bucket and told me not to worry...she would take care of me and Kaden.

There are a million small and wonderful things I am privileged to hear, see and experience every day with my amazing family. I wish I could store them all up and remember each one but I know I will start to forget the little things over time. It's life. The great thing is that we are building a bond that will last a lifetime. Each silly joke shared. Each tear cried. The love we share as a family keeps getting stronger even as some of the memories fade. When I'm really old (and Steven's even older!) we won't remember the way Kaden tried to say "Moo" or "Quack, Quack, Quack"...we won't remember that Aubrie used to call McDonald's chicken nuggets, "Chickenfries." We won't remember all the silly things...but we will never forget and never let go of the amazing gift we've been given...the opportunity to love our children with God's help and to the best of our ability and to love each other.
So thankful for my wonderful husband, daughter, son and yes, even my two crazy dogs!
EMT

How can it be this hard.

It seems so simple. Kids are tired. Sleep is the answer. Nap. End of story.

YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend Tracy is working this week so I agreed to watch her son Thomas for the day. Due to some "interesting" circumstances I also have her daughter Maria. Thomas and Kaden have been playing all morning and for the most part they are having a good time. A couple of sharing issues and some stealing of the sippy cups but otherwise a nice morning. Lunch was served. Kids ate. Diapers were changed. All set to nap.

Why then did it take me an hour and a half to get both boys down for naps??? Kaden usually goes down without a fuss. Thomas has napped at my house before so it's not entirely new to him. What is the deal. By the end of it they were both asleep (finally!) and I am left feeling frazzled and somewhat in need of a nap myself. Oh well. Aubrie will be home from school in 15 minutes and I'm sure the girls will have lots of fun playing.

Maybe I'll go drink some more coffee and clean up the disaster that we affectionately call our toy room.
EMT

231!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay...let me start out by saying that they are not ALL ours. The big pink care bear belongs to my niece Teagan. So the actual number is somewhere around 230 (although I wouldn't be surprised if we actually have more.)

Ilove stuffed animals. I had quite a collection when I was growing up. In fact one of the bears in the picture belongs to me. His name is "Brownie" and I got him when I was five. The rest of the "aminals" belong to Aubrie and a handful belong to Kaden. I've said before that Aubrie is my little "aminal" lover and she can't get enough of anything soft, furry and sweet. She loves them all and has names for them all and will remember them even after I have hidden them away in the "Go To Salvation Army" bag. It's amazing the memory this child has.

January is a great month for cleaning out the storage room and getting rid of clutter. We have been amazingly blessed with many "aminals" and toys for our children but at some point you have to call a spade a spade. THIS IS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steven, God bless him, hates stuffed animals and doesn't see the point of having any. He loves his daughter and his wife enough to put up with them, though.

Enjoy the laugh at my expense!

Erin

Christmas pics updates for Mom