Category Archives: Kids
Potato people for Gramma Jean
I had to ship something to Gramma Jean in Florida so I asked Katie if she wanted to draw a picture to send. I got an immediate and emphatic YES!! She raced to the drawing table and did this.
As she drew the first body, she says “A potato!” 🙂 Then she continued drawing and talking: “Two eyes. Two ears. Two arms.” It was so cute.
“Another potato!”
And if you look closely you’ll also see belly buttons. 🙂
Same hat and same kid: 2010 & 2016
The old pic popped up on Tom’s “On this day” Facebook timeline and I knew I had to do a side-by-side with a recent pic!
My weekend project: How many parenting points do I win?
#myeyesarecrossed
#mybackissore
Beaded Parrot
Owen had only done tiny Perler bead projects, but of course he wanted to try the HUGE parrot design that came with the new superboard…which means mom ended up doing about 90% of it.
Valentine’s Gifts
Katie got a Keurig for her kitchen so she can make coffee for daddy…
And Owen got a Valentine’s Lego set and home-printed cards for his favorite iPad game (which we cut out and laminated). If you can believe it, the cards were his favorite thing and he forgot all about the Legos for an entire day!
Sonetimes Charlie allows it.
Enjoying playtime before lessons.
Valentine’s bag…with fangs!
It’s hard to see, but he made a vampire heart…with fangs!
Bouncing birthday!
Katie’s friend Cayenne had her birthday at the trampoline place.
Treat time!
Katie did pretty good while we were shopping at the mall so we stopped for a treat.
And then this happened on the way home.
I really REALLY wanted to. But…I just can’t. This is hell.
It’s MUCH easier to create things if you’re not searching for colors. But they come like this (cheaply):
So I tried. I really did. Because I really like organization and making things easier…but it just takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R. The completely full bins were colors bought separately. The other beads are the ones I sorted. What you see is about 15 minutes of work.
Katie is 3 years 7 months today!
And some outtakes:
I finally let her ride in the cool cart.
I hate these carts so rarely let her ride in one. They’re just heavy and super awkward to maneuver. But this small one magically appeared at Marshall’s today (it’s never once been there so I think it somehow migrated from another spot in the mall) and she begged me with sugar on top so I relented. You gotta love that smile. 🙂
She was just too cute for errands.
I’m so glad she loves wearing hats. Mittens are sometimes a harder sell but she apparently likes her new fuzzy mittens.
And a closeup in case I forgot to take the official monthly shot later.
She found her mouse.
Cuddling with mouse (from one of her favorite books: If you take a mouse to school) after finding him in the basement earlier today. She was also cranky because daddy was at class and wasn’t going to be home before bedtime.
Katie’s taking gymnastics!
I got a deal on a 12-week (12 session) class and knew she’d love it. Thankfully it’s pretty close to home.
Warming up and stretching.
A few stills from the videos.
As predicted, she LOVED it and can’t wait to go back. She keeps asking about her “shimnashtics” class and would probably go daily. Yay!
Pre-bedtime daddy cuddles
Kidisms 23
Katie had her Doc McStuffins stethoscope on my chest:
Mom! You have some sounds! I hearded them!
I told Katie to go open the front door because Tom was coming home:
I can’t! I don’t have muscles!
While half watching The Flash (daddy was watching) while “reading” to me, Katie saw bullets on the floor in the scene:
Those are her shoots.
Katie, looking at my wedding ring:
Mama! Look! There’s a pretty jewel right there!
Tom: Tell mama about your flower nightlight.
Katie: Daddy used screws!
Owen: Katie, your voice is cute. I want to listen to it forever. That means I don’t want you to die.
Owen, watching a friend play XBox Lego Movie and trying to help:
Do it [that way]. Just trust me.
The kids were talking about our mosaic wedding photo during dinner.
Katie: And that’s my mom and that’s my dad. You were a princess. And daddy was your prince. ❤️
We were watching Hotel Transylvania 2 and Katie said she wanted to ride a bike like Mavis (BMX-style).
Me: Katie, you don’t ride the bike you have.
Katie, frowning: I keep giving up.
Naps x 2
The kids had swim lessons today and after they came home and ate lunch, we told them it was nap time. Owen had only gotten maybe seven hours of sleep which was definitely NOT enough…and of course he fought it. We told him he didn’t have to sleep but he had to rest. When I took Katie up five minutes later, I found this:
Out. B over his head and snoring away. 🙂 Katie didn’t fight it and slept for three hours (at which point we actually woke her up because we had to leave for a Super Bowl party).
Owen got up after about an hour, but then came into room still quite groggy and this happened:
Another successful birthday sleepover!
Owen wanted another summer birthday pool party, so like last year, we had a sleepover with two friends for his birthday. I’m not sure who was more excited—Owen or Katie. She did pretty good overall but didn’t understand why the boys didn’t want to go play with her instead of playing with Owen. (That said, she did get to play with them most of the time.)
We had pizza for dinner, then they all played downstairs (including Katie), and then it was time for Pie face!
Ice cream! Poor Colton (in black) doesn’t like chocolate so didn’t want the ice cream or brownie…so had an ice pop.
Attempting to play a new video game. It wasn’t quite working, so…
We watched a movie. Awwwww.
Of course, Katie was right in there, too.
Owen: “My bros!”
iPad time
Spying on them.
We put them to bed at 9:30 and they wanted to read a book so we told them lights out at 10. I happened to be watching on the monitor when they turned the lights out at 9:45. We thought it was too easy…and we were right. They were gabbing LOUDLY for the next hour. The last 20 minutes or so, Tom and I took turns going in to tell them to quiet down and go to bed. The last time Tom went in he warned them that they would not get donuts in the morning if he had to come in again. Then they were finally quiet. 🙂
Tom said they were all up at Owen’s usual time (6:30!) so they were back at Xbox and Tom went to get donuts.
The kids left by 10:30. Owen had a great time and we were glad to have our relatively quiet house back.
Luckily Charlie didn’t bite her.
This doesn’t happen too often.
Sea Cow progress…
We’ve had some ups and downs…Owen continually plays with the pieces and builds other stuff and then ends up LOSING them…so he’s actually almost gotten it taken away a few times. But today we soldiered on and he finished through bag 6.
Owen as a fire-breathing dragon
Owen has had a cough for going on 3-4 weeks now so we finally decided to get it checked out. (He’s never had a temperature or anything that made us think he needed to be seen. Google said to take him in if the cough didn’t go away after three or so weeks. He seemed to be getting better…but then got worse again.)
Sharing the iPad:
Owen relaxing on the “beach.”
Katie sitting in the “boat.”
There’s always a bow and arrow involved.
The doc examined him and said it sounded like something viral and thought a breathing treatment might help…so we did that. The doc said he’d look like a fire-breathing dragon. 🙂
The doc said it helped a little so prescribed an albuterol inhaler so it was off to the pharmacy, otherwise known as the seventh circle of hell. Today we had a screaming toddler sitting across from us…for about 45 minutes. And then…we all had to leave since there was apparently a small fire somewhere close. NOOOOOOO!!!!
First we moved to the hallway. Then we got moved outside. Then we got moved across the street. We had no idea how long it was going to take, but thankfully we were headed back inside within about 10 minutes (it was windy and freezing). And then had another 15 or so minutes to wait for the script.
We arrived at the hospital for a 9:10 appointment at 8:50 and were leaving the pharmacy at 11:20. Yeesh. And our fingers are crossed that the treatments help.
Oreo tongue
She’s going to get locked in.
So it’s been a challenge to keep Katie in her room—both at night and in the morning. I usually hear her open her door before 6 to go to the bathroom, and sometimes she goes back to her room and sometimes she goes downstairs. Sometimes I hear it…and sometimes I sleep through it.
So this morning I hear her downstairs, roll over and look at the clock, and it’s…6:05. SERIOUSLY, KATIE? So I had to get up and yell from the top of the stairs for her to get back upstairs and stay in her room. Of course there was crying and whining and a full chorus of “I’m a bad girl. You don’t love me.” (It means nothing at this point because I’m so desensitized to it—I hear it ALL DAY LONG.) I tell her she’s supposed to stay in her room until her light turns green (which she KNOWS) and if she keeps leaving her room, I will lock her in AND take away her new light. I go back to bed and I hear her open and shut her door at least two times before 6:30. GRRR.
Happy 7th Birthday, Owen!
I wasn’t able to find a cool birthday shirt and forgot about buying a pin or anything, so I just printed out a sticker for him!
I let him open one present before school—a Lego birthday cake.
Of course, building began immediately.
He finished it before he left for school but it was really close and we didn’t have time to get a picture of him with it…so this is from Thursday morning:
When he got home we quick Skyped with Gramma Jean and Grandpa David (in Florida) and Grannie and Papa so everyone could sing Happy Birthday and he could open their presents. Then it was off to the Lego store for the monthly mini build which he completed in under three minutes:
5:16pm
Katie playing while Owen builds:
5:19pm
He bought a Minecraft Lego set that was on clearance with some of his birthday money.
And then it was off to Red Robin for dinner (his choice)…where he got surprised with a song and a sundae!
Then we stopped at Ikea to get Katie’s new nightlight and then home so Owen could Skype with Uncle Rob and open our gifts. He loved everything (a birthday Dr. Seuss book, a book of pirate mazes, a shooting/target set, and some perler beads and boards), but took the Minecraft book to bed with him. 🙂
I think he had a good day. 🙂
Dancing to Sesame Street
Such a cute boy this morning I had to take a picture.
I can’t believe he’s turning seven tomorrow. SEVEN. SEVEN, people. Where did my baby go?!
Showing off one of the home-printed cards to one of his favorite iPad games.
