Levi went peepee in the potty!

This morning Levi went to the bathroom door saying, "mommy, potty. Mommy, potty." I put him on the potty and instead of saying " all done" right away he played with a toy and ball. After a few mins, he went peepee! I was so happy and excited! He didn't seem all that excited, but smiled. I gve him a tattoo reward. He is doing this about 4 months earlier than Kaylee did. She was a very good potty trainer, I know in the beginning they are very spotty with results and consistency, so I'm not expecting him to be potty trained soon, but of course I hope so! Very proud of my little guy at this moment! Kaylee has been having a growth spurt, she is eating more and sleeping more, saying she's hungry more. She just ate four bowls of cereal at breakfast (small bowls). Nice to see her eating more!

Levi's pretend play

Levi began pretend play a couple months ago. In order to keep himself from fall asleep at bedtime he would sit and pretend to eat food. He picks up the food from one spot and pretends to eat it, comes back chewing and says yum! Then he says Eat! And goes back for more. Such a silly dickens! Right now he is pretending to play tea party and kaylee and he are actually playing pretty well together, other thn they want the same spoon and the same tea pot...etc! Anyways, it's cute to see his imagination develop and his interests expand. He has a good attention span, and is currently listening intently to his sisters dialogueing to find out how and if he can play along. We are working with each on the way they treat one another and drawing boundaries between what's ok and what's not. Kaylee has somewhat been reflecting on the idea of how she would want to be treated, and treating him that way. Ahh, the good old golden rule...Let's just say there's lots of time outs and warnings, and joint timeouts. But it seems to make a difference because the harder we work the more periods of peace there are...the peace has to be monitored and maintained of course...anyone with more than 1 or from a family with siblings understands what I mean...

Aunt Becky's KayLevi Artwork

New stuff with the kids

Kaylee has been coloring in a very new way recently, she has been trying to stay more within the lines. She uses multiple colors (mostly) in patches to fill out figures! It makes very cute pictures. She painted a jewelry box this weekend, and is proud of it. I finessed it with some flowers and sequins. She has a tough time saying, jewelry, but keeps on trying to say it saying it very slowly, Jew-el-el- ry.

Her best friend at home (other than her bro) is the 6 year old across the street who seems intent on teaching Kaylee manners and at times some bad things to shock her...hey she's not perfect either but her mom is on it. Anyways, this is stuff that reinforces what Eric and I teach, ont eat with your mouth full, wipe the food off your face when you eat and don't say "dumb" or "stupid" (not that Kay was Into that). Anyways once and a while she will correct me on something she learned from her, and I have to say "hey you're right!" she also taught Kaylee how to pinky swear. I don't know what they're pinky swearing about but I'm sure that's part of the fun. The girls across the street and her are mutually crazy about each other and they try to spend all the time together with the parents drawing limits. Anyways it's very cute to see her be such a big girl and so included, but I have to try to stay connected to her too and keep our routine and rules known as she can begin to think she's too big a girl and it can get out of hand. Napping is still an important part of her day. One on one time between her and I is still crucial to stay in line.

I don't really know why she has stopped riding her bike, after her scabbed knee she didn't want to. She did fall once but doesn't talk about that, she did say she doesn't want to wear the helmet. Oh well we're not forcing it, it'll probably just take her wanting to keep up with the girls cross the street and she'll do it again.

Kaylee continues to love to act like a little teacher, calling up all her preschool class to view her cards or whatnot. She repeats the mantras learned from her teacher and who's turn it is, identifying things and then go sit back down. So very cute!

Levi is saying more and more everyday. He says lots of small sentences like, I did it, I got you, I want that please, more please, come on. He's starting to learn colors and identify shapes and say them. He's really smart! Today he and i were doing a vehicles puzzle and he picked up the ambulance saying, "ambulance" i couldnt believe it since i hadnt taught him that. He is learning so quick! And more due to trying to keep up with Kaylee I think. He also does quite a few activities above his age group, like playdough early or fingerpainting while Kaylee uses the brush...When you direct him to do something, he follows through on understanding most simple directions. He wants to climb the stairs now standing and he needs to be reminded to use the handrail...His personality is really budding... He is silly, energetic, happy, sweet and affectionate. He has kissed three girls other than me and Kaylee now, I call him a little loverboy. He is very into throwing and balls, he's very determine and dedicated. He has thrown a frisbee quite well. I love play catch with him as much as I like to play dolls with Kaylee. I surprise myself on how easy it is to bond with a boy, as I grew up with two sisters and no brother... And I don't have a lot of athleticism in me...

Anyways I'm sure I'm missing something but it's the middle of the night and I should get back to bed. Hope you are doing well and had a great weekend!

Visit with the smiths

Our visit with the Smiths was short and sweet, not that it has to be that way but it was, they were only here for four days. Anyways, the kids had a great time seeing the grandparents. There wasnt that much time between preschool runs, and when Eric and I had to work, we did have time for bonding with our new dog abbey, visits to our panera and out shopping. Barb made us a couple great dinners which was yummy and awesome. Eric and I got to go on a date, we decided to go to the mall into all the stores we'd never set foot in with kids, anything with small parts, breakable and expensive. Anyplace with a water feature or a hazard, it was fun and we felt a sense of freedom in it. Then we went back to the house, put the kiddos to bed then went back out to a movie. First movie we've been to in a theater in like a year! It was a good night for us. Thank you smiths, then they watched the kids one day all day for us and we painted the ceilings and walls of our living room and kitchen. It was a hard effort because the two walls that had wallpaper needed dif and scraping, the other ones needed tsp to be cleaned. Lots and lots of prep time! But the first coat looks great! Next weekend the second coat will go on, and we'll be finished. our house is feeling refreshed!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Take care!

That day Kaylee got her shots was a hard day for her, she was excitedly running in the neighbor's driveway when she fell and skinned both knees, one minorly and the other pretty badly. She was traumatized, screaming, crying and wailing. I got to say there's a reason I'm an architect and not a medical professional, my response to these instances with our kids is always, " help!" usually to Eric, I do not keep my cool. It's not like the sight of blood sets me off,it's the stress of the situation, I'm definately the sort of flight over fight type. I'm always scared if he's choking for instance, and I go for it will I make it worse? I've at times just let him or her, back in the day, throw up rather than sweeping for it. And I freeze simply calling " help!" this however is where my knight in shing armor truly shines, he's cool, calm and collected...I soothed her and kept Levi from touching her wound while he went to get the medical tools and the bandages. I kid you not my husband could've been anything he wanted to be, truly, and could easily have chosen medical if he was inclined...Eric thanks for being so cool! I love you!

Anyways the Easter egg hunt was great, I took Levi and Eric took kaylee. Eric found the door prize egg, and got the buckie the badger stuffed animal from Build-a-bear. Levi carries it around calling it his baby. We met up with several of Eric's pals from Madison, since it was an alumni thing, and had breakfast before and lunch after the event. It was a good time, Levi hit the end of his rope though at the end of he lunch and we were glad to have the crabby pants drift off to sleep in his carseat on the way home. Later that we went to a dinner at a friends which was fun, Levi I think kissed a girl for the first time who wasn't his sister, eds little daughter. They had lots of fun playing with empty plastic egg shells. It's amazing, kids sometimes have the best time when there aren't any toys but the are making up their own games...

For Easter we went to Krissy and Matt's for a very nice brunch. The kids loved all the attention. Levi got a soft baseball bat from his grandma he was having quite the time with and Kaylee got some light up princesses and declared that I can return the Barbie I got for her, which I plan to do just that. We have so much stuff can't wait for opportunity for returns or goodwill trips, to help get a sense of reprieve from our "stuff".

Then we went to Cindy and chucks for a second Easter, I got so stuffed! It was good to see all the family.

Ever since Easter there fav thing in their basket was inflatable floaty animals rings for the swimming pool, they go around chasing each other and laughing hilariously at each other. Can't wait to see what they do in the water this summer with them. (note that they will also be wearing their life jackets!)

Kaylee is very excited for her grandparents to come tomorrow. We didn't keep it a secret from her since we were imploring from her that she needs to clean up her toys...she can't wait. It'll be nice to have some time away with them. I'll let ya know how it is, hope you had a very happy and healthy Easter everybody! Take care!

Kaylee 4 year dr appt and Easter eggs!

Kaylee had her four year old appointment today. We saw a different doctor and this one gave her a book and made her laugh, which was great. Kaylee was 32 lb, 39 in tall. She was at her growth curve pretty much at 25 percentile for weight and 49 percent for height, a little lower for bmi she said, but she said she was fine. She passed her hearing and sight exams, but I was surprised with the shapes they used for sight...confusing, a house Kaylee called a diamond and an apple Kaylee called a heart. No one corrected her and she called out her shape assignments but really why would they not just use triangle, square, circle and heart or diamond? Wierd. Of course this was the day kaylee had also chosen to color all over her legs with markers, but the doctor made kaylee laugh when she asked lightly, "you have a very strange rash here." she also loved being asked if her tattoos would be there forever and if her toenails had mysteriously turned blue (they were painted). I was surprised kaylee knew teasing so well, but look at who's her Daddy, the biggest teaser there is. The doctor was very good at distracting her from her impending anxiousness about getting her shots. ...which was not pretty, kaylee fought tooth and nail to not have those, begging and physically fighting to get away. Glad that next year she won't get an next year! The doc said there's been a whole bunch of cases of whooping cough, so she needed to have it now. Kaylee and I talked afterwards about grandpa having polio as a kid, and how these shots would protect her from that and how lucky we are. She said, "that's good mom just make sure I never need another one ever again." oh well, baby steps...I talked with the doctor about eating battles, she suggested a book and she suggested a rule of since she's four she has to have 4 bites of everything she's offered. She said she wasn't too concerned about it, so long as Kay isn't being naughty with food throwing it, or flinging plates, etc. she said fussy eating is normal and as long as she isn't subsisting soley on nuggets and Mac and cheese ( which she isn't) then she'll be fine.

After we dyed Easter eggs with my mom, which was very fun. Kaylee has noticed that there are two words, die and dye. One is scary in context, the other not so scary. Tomorrow were taking the kids for an Easter egg hunt in the park, should be great! Can't wait!

Levi blowing bubbles, laughing