Sadie's New Word!

The Christmas season has helped broaden Sadie's vocabulary! Yes, this evening she said a new word----- drum roll ----- cookie. We, of course, we're passing around some Christmas cookies after having Christmas #3. Caleb picked out his cookie and Sadie was tagging along not far behind and started saying "cookie." It was very cute, especially when she continued to repeat it.

Well, I guess this will be my last post of 2007. Hope you all have happy and blessed 2008!

Christmas pictures

Here are pictures from Christmas at our house. I just realized that Sadie wasn't in any of these- oops. But you can see the kitchen and Cranky Crane (that was the bigger hit with Caleb). I'll have more updates later but now I need to get some sleep.

Christmas Morning - take 1

Yes, we had our first Christmas morning today, since we'll be off to NJ tomorrow. It went well. Andy spent all of last night putting together the first major gift for the monkeys- a kitchen set. We opted for a wooden one that we thought might stand up well and was smaller than the big plastic ones we saw. It was a big hit. We had it set up in front of the TV as they came down the stairs and Caleb and Sadie immediately started exploring the cabinets. We also had some play food in it that they found and "ate". Then we did the wrapped gifts- some story books, Cranky the Crane (for Caleb), and they each got an outfit. I've discovered that Caleb's response to unwrapping clothes is better when they have Thomas or in this case Bob the Builder on them. He actually took them out and held them up and happily said "Bob shirt and pants!"

After opening the presents, Andy went to work making pancakes while Caleb played with Cranky and Sadie explored the kitchen. It was a nice morning so I think we'll be ready for the next official Christmas.

Makin' Cookies

Well, we've had a very busy start to the holiday season. Wednesday we were out at my mom's for the day to make cookies (my favorite iced cut-out cookies). We had been planning this for awhile. Sadly, plans changed a little when my grandfather passed away late Monday night. As you can see from the slide show, Caleb and Sadie got to make cookies but I had to attend the viewing and other services. Despite the gray cloud, the kids had a blast. Caleb was so excited and eager to help. He helped my mom roll out the dough and then of course, helped with cutting out the Christmas trees and bells and Santas. Sadie preferred to eat her cookie dough instead of playing with it so we gave her cookie cutters to play with instead. I hope you like the pictures.

I was excited because my mom made a batch of Gluten-free cookies for me and they taste wonderful- just like mimi's. Now I have to use all of my self-control to keep from eating them all at once.

Gingerbread House Completed

The Gingerbread Masterpiece!

Sadie's Chair

Lots of updating but this will be the last one for a bit- oh, maybe not, might have a cute video to put up later :-)

I recently brought in my old rocking chair from when I was little and this has become Sadie's favorite place to sit. We keep it in Caleb's room because there's just no room in her room for it. This is where she escapes to when I'm not quick enough catching her going up the stairs. She just loves rocking on it. She also likes to stand on it but she's getting better about listening when we tell her no.

I thought it was appropriate to try and take her first year pictures having her sit in the rocker.

hope you like

Gingerbread Pictures

The Ginger Bread House

hi there, it's been a while since my last post but i've been a little sick. looks like i picked up strep throat and a cold on top of that so this is the first day that i've felt human. so far the kids are pretty healthy but it looks like Sadie might be coming down with a cold. we're saying lots of prayers that we'll all be healthy for the holidays.

so being sick has put off all holiday decorating. we're going to try to set up the tree tonight. seems a little silly since we'll be leaving a week later but oh well. we can't do christmas without a tree.

we did manage to make a gingerbread house. well, actually, Caleb and Andy did it while i tried to keep my distance, not wanting to infect anyone. it was so cute and Caleb was so excited. one of the neighbors gave the kids a kit for christmas and as soon as we brought it home, all Caleb talked about was making the gingerbread house. it was all i could do to put it off until Daddy got home. i kept telling him "mommy doesn't know how to make gingerbread houses. we need Daddy for that" that seemed to work and then when Andy got home, it was all we could do to make him wait until after supper.

well, he loved it and it looks like we will be doing this next year as well. he's still talking about his gingerbread house.

well, that's all for now- i'll post a little more later, including pictures of the house

2 Museums in 2 Days

I had to have a separate post about our whirl wind museum tour :-)

Last Thursday we went to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the Carnegie with Aunt Lindsay. This was great and I highly recommend checking it out (T-Rex will be opening in the spring). We had planned on walking over but it was too windy. Caleb was so good walking through it. I opted to bring the single big stroller instead of the double because I wanted to be able to steer easily and I didn't know how crowded it would be. So Sadie rode (which was good because she was sleepy) and Caleb got to walk around and explore. We walked into the exhibit and I pointed out the dinosaurs and he saw the guys on the high lift working on the rest of the exhibit. But he did go on to see the dinosaurs and we heard lots of "big dinosaur" It was very cool. Sadie liked walking around and touching the fake plants that she could reach. Caleb liked playing with the touch screens and getting Aunt Lindsay to read about the dinosaurs for him. We moved through the dinosaurs and then tried to find the polar bears. After the polar bears we went looking for the other African and North American exhibits (you'd think the polar bears would be with them but nope, not the case- the polar bears are in the Eskimo section). We passed the bird display cases on our way and Caleb happily pointed to a toucan and declared it a mango (got them mixed up from a book). We finally made it to the animals but everyone was tired so we scooted through there pretty quickly.

Sadie was too cute walking around and insisting that I hold her hand. She's very observant of how we do things and learned that Caleb has to hold our hands so she must have to as well.

On Friday we met friends visiting from Canada at the Children's Museum and I learned that I cannot do this museum on my own just yet with these two. Sadie just can't quite keep up with Caleb and I can't help him out with things while also trying to watch her.

We had lots of fun. Caleb still really enjoys the "neighborhood guy" aka Mr. Rogers and he spent lots of time happily sitting on the trolley in the middle of the space. He also liked watching the "how things are made" videos. Sadie spent most of the time just toddling around and watching everyone.

Moving on from there we went to the next area that had a huge doll house set up. Caleb seemed to like playing with the doll house and tried to moved the people around and put them with the right furniture. It was neat watching him play like that. After that was the tool garage and the ramp with the matchbox cars and tracks. Those were a big hit. The final room downstairs was a circus room with different acts that you could try, like a tight-rope walker, stilts, juggling and playing the drums. We also found a percussion set that had you stomp on buttons on the floor to play drums that were above your head. Caleb liked those but they were a little tough to get to work. There was also a podium set up with pretend microphones and a TV so that you could pretend to be giving a speech on TV. Caleb tried that out and seemed to know what to do.

Then we went upstairs to the happiest spot. The second floor has train tables and rice tables and sand tables and all kinds of other stuff. Both Caleb and Sadie had a lot of fun here. Sadie liked the rocking horse (of course) and then found a little baby area with toys to play in. After the trains, Caleb surprised me by going to the rice table and playing there for a good 15 min. He didn't like sticking his hands in the rice too much but liked scooping it and pouring it with the shovels.

Yeah Jesus!

Caleb's new cheer after trying to sing "Away in the Manger".

Yes, we are full on into Christmas spirit. We've gotten out our Advent Caledar (thanks g'ma) and it's a big hit. Of course, we forgot that it was December first so we really didn't start until December second and then I realized that I was doing it wrong. It's a big fabric calendar with pockets and little figures from the nativity in the pockets. I thought you were supposed to take the figures out of the pockets each day and put them up in the manger but upon reading the packaging I discovered that, no you're supposed to put someone in the pocket each day. I don't really think it matters but I'm not sure what we'll stick with. There's not really enough flannel fabric to stick them to in the manger (all the figure have velcro on their backs). I also haven't decided where to hang it so right now it's up on the entertainment center and all the figures are in a bowl. This morning Caleb kept grabbing my hand pulling me over to the TV and saying "help with the baby Jesus." Took me a minute to figure out what he wanted but then he and Sadie had lots of fun playing with them.

We've been singing lots of Christmas carols-

Jingle Bells
Over the River and Through the Woods (i know that's not really a carol but there's snow)
Frosty the Snowman (Andy and I keep mixing up the words but so far Caleb hasn't noticed)
Suzie Snowflake
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Away in a Manger

and Caleb's new favorite CD is the Chipmunks Christmas CD. All I heard in the car today when I tried to put on other music was "no, Chipmunks" so what was I to do?

Sadie loves all the singing because then she constantly has music to dance to. It's quite cute watching the two of them. Caleb will start singing a song and Sadie will dance. Then they'll both clap when it's done and start again.

We discovered that Caleb is really learning things in Sunday school. It was raining when we got in the car to go to church yesterday and as Andy strapped Caleb in he (Caleb, not Andy :-) ) proceeded to tell us all about the rain and Noah and building a boat and all the animals. It was something to have him remember all that and be able to tell it back so that it still made sense.

Sadie's has started saying pretty and choo choo. We're not sure what the choo choo actually means because she says it quite a bit but picked it up from one of the books we read. She hasn't been napping too well lately and I can't decide if she still needs her morning nap or not. She definitely gets tired but won't seem to sleep for more than a half hour or 45 min. at a time. It's tough when Caleb consistently is taking a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll get this worked out soon.

Thanksgiving Minutes

So I don't have a lot of time because I already hear Sadie waking up, I think. The girl does not sleep any more- very frustrating because then when I bring her downstairs, all she wants to do is either sit with my or climb upstairs and wake up Caleb. oh but I should get back to Thanksgiving.

We stayed here for Thanksgiving this year so it was a fairly easy holiday. The kids got up and we were able to lounge a bit and watch the Macy's parade before going out to Derry for lunch. Andy and I have already been discussing when we'll be taking the kids to the parade (it's so nice having family close to NYC). Caleb loved watching the parade and the balloons. Sadie also loved the music and spent lots of time dancing that morning.

We went out to my dad's for lunch and got to visit with my dad and step-mom (Papa and Grammie) and my brother and sister-in-law and then my uncle and cousin came for dinner too. Caleb and Sadie had lots of fun. There were some new toys at Papa's house, including a new floor puzzle that actually proved a bit challenging for Caleb. He really needed some help with it but seemed to find it easier working on it the second time. Neither one of the kids were interested in the turkey but they both liked the applesauce and Sadie even tried some sweet potatoes. They did like the rolls (of course). After dinner, they weren't interested in any pie but they both tried the little cinnamon flavored crust cookie that Grammie made. Caleb is still talking about Grammie and the cookies.

We visited there a little while longer and then had to make our way to my mom and step-dad's. We planned on just having dessert there so we wouldn't be completely stuffed. I couldn't resist though- my mom made gravy with cornstarch that I could eat so I had to have a little bit of turkey and potatoes with gravy. sidenote- this was my first thanksgiving with celiac which meant my first time having to refuse the stuffing and stuffed shells and rolls and other yummy things that might make me sick. I still haven't figured out if the bread in the turkey got to me or not.

Anyways, Caleb and Sadie enjoyed some frozen pizza and played with Aunt Jackie and Uncle Chris as well as Jas and Lindsay. Both kids pretty much went all day without a nap and were so good. Caleb happily wished people a Happy Thanksgiving and said gobble gobble a couple of times.

The Things They Say

So Caleb and Sadie have been fighting colds for the past few days- or rather week or so. It hasn't been too bad but the noses have not been happy. Caleb's new saying is "tissue on the nose" when he needs a tissue which is almost all the time.

We also picked up a new potty training book "Potty Training for Boys." Don't be fooled by the title, it's really a kid's book and Caleb loves it. Last night he was cheering "yeah, Potty Training for Boys". We got a kick out of how he had to add the "for boys."

other things-

uh-oh spaghettios
Sadie is Sadie-girl
Polli is Polli-cat
bananana with the emphasis on the ba

and we got Caleb to try toast with a little peanut butter on it- of course, we didn't tell him this but he ate it.

Sadie is saying "all done," "uh-oh" and "bye-bye" and seems to call Caleb "Ca" and just generally loves making noise, especially when we're trying to correct her. She likes my old rocking chair from when I was little but has discovered that it's much more fun to stand on it backwards and dance.

Our Weekend in DC

We survived our first trip away with Caleb no longer sleeping in a crib or pack n play. What an adventure. We traveled down towards DC to attend my cousin's wedding and to visit friends in DC. The kids were angels in the car on the way down. We were able to do the trip without stopping (another first for us). We got in to the hotel and we're able to get the kids settled a bit. We borrowed an air mattress from friends and brought the pack n play for Sadie. The air mattress was a big hit. The kids had a blast bouncing on it and flopping on it. But when it was time to sleep, Caleb wasn't as into it. We discovered on problem in our sleeping plan. The boy has gotten used to having stuffed animals all around him in his bed, even on top of him and we only brought Sneeze-Bear and Puppy-Dog. That was not enough and he let us know that. On top of that, Sadie has decided that she does not like the pack n play, no matter where it is. So when we tried to put Sadie down, she started crying. Since we only had one room to work with, I took Caleb out to the lobby to read stories while Andy settled Sadie down. We read through all of his stories and visited with some aunts and uncles and then went back to the room, thinking that Sadie was asleep. She wasn't. After some frustrating moments, Andy took over settling the kids and I went back to the lobby, my family was getting together that evening for a pre-wedding celebration.

Andy was able to get the kids settled and I was able to visit with family and we all got some sleep that night.

The kids were real troopers through the wedding and the reception, going without naps (although Sadie did sleep in the car through the ceremony). At the reception, they had a blast dancing and listening to the music. Sadie loved the dance floor and all the cute little girls that were following her around and taking her picture. Grandma and Papa brought a set of 4 puzzles for Caleb so that kept him busy. He sat in the corner and worked on his puzzles for much of the time.

We left the reception and then drove into DC to stay with Andy's college roommate John and his new wife, Andi. It didn't take too long for the kids to warm up to John and Andi, especially after they discovered that they could read stories. Caleb was very happy to sleep on the futon in their spare room and Sadie only protested a little to be spending another night in the pack n play.

On Sunday, we had breakfast and played a little before heading home around lunch time. Again, the kids were great on the road and we're very happy to be home. Caleb actually clapped when we pulled into our driveway and Sadie bounced up and down as Andy carried her into the house.

It was a pretty good test run for traveling this Christmas and I'm not too worried about how they'll sleep when we're away from home.

Caleb's New Friend

So I just had to post this silly little bit- Caleb has a new friend... his belly button. For the past week or so he's been talking to his belly button when we change his diaper

"hello, belly button"
"see ya later belly button"

Well, yesterday it made an appearance to watch the steeler's game. We were letting Caleb watch a little before going for a nap and while saying "go steelers" and "touchdown" he also said "hey belly button, watch steelers?" Then he lifted up his shirt so belly button could see.

and

We've been teaching him "see ya later alligator" and "after awhile crocodile" and then added "see ya soon, goon." Yesterday, while saying good bye to g'ma and g'pa he said "see ya later" and then "after awhile goon." Close but not quite there yet :-)

You never know what these kids will say.

The Birthday Party

Well, another weekend gone and Sadie's 1st birthday party is gone with it. It was quite a hit. We had the party at Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsay's house (thanks again guys) that they were so nice to offer up and to frantically finish installing floors for it- they've been gutting and remodeling this house for several years and are in the home stretch but had a lot to do to get it up to party shape. Now, you're probably wondering why we would have the party there of all places... well, our house is just not big enough to fit all of our family in it and Jason's place was conveniently located half way between here (Pittsburgh) and Derry (where all the rest of the family would be coming from). The closer location also made it easier for my grandma to come.

Andy's mom and dad came in Thursday evening to stay in Pittsburgh for the weekend. G'ma brought Caps for Sale which was a big hit with Caleb. He's been going through Mike Mulligan withdrawal having to take that back to the library. They also managed to bring out two ride on toys that were a big hit. One is a tricycle that has a handle out the back so that an adult can help push the kid as he's pedaling. Caleb took that to the park on Friday and loved it but his feet don't quite reach the pedals yet. The other toy is a car that also has a handle for pushing out the back.

For Sadie, they brought her very own baby doll stroller with a baby to ride in it. This was a hit with both kids. Sadie immediately started giving her new baby hugs and Caleb helped her to put in the stroller. Then they took turns pushing it around the room. Sadie was a little wobbly and had trouble leaning too much onto the stroller- then she would fall over. Caleb learned that it was funny to let the stroller drop and say "oh-no, baby go boing."

On Friday there was a lot of playing with the grandparents and getting ready for the party.

Saturday was the big day. We got a bit of a late start and then traveling out, ran into traffic on 376. We didn't get to Jason's until 2:15 (the party started at 2) but it was all family and they understood. The kids had lots of fun running around the big open space and quickly discovered the empty cabinets in the dining room. Sadie had lots of fun crawling into the cabinets and Caleb had fun shutting the doors on her. There were no tops to the cabinets so she could peak out over the edge and laugh.

After playing and snacking for awhile, we opened presents. Caleb helped open and Cousin Claire helped carry around and read the birthday cards. Sadie liked taking the tissue paper out of the bags but seemed a little unsure about it all. She got some really cute outfits and the little people airplane and mini van were a big hit with all the kids. She also got a little toy cd player that makes music and some soft stuffed animals. She's had lots of fun playing with her new toys and standing her ground when big brother tries to take them from her.

Next it was time for cake. She sat in her chair in the center of the room and we all sang. Then it didn't take long for Caleb to start sticking his fingers into the cake- to help her get started. Sadie didn't need any help though. After getting over the feel of the icing, she discovered how it tasted and then there was no stopping her. She had a blast eating her cake and enjoying all the attention. Caleb and Claire sampled her cake too and then tried to share it with the g'pas and g'mas who were watching.

My mom helped me get Sadie out of her chair and we took her to the bathroom to rinse her off and get her into some pjs. She had icing all through her hair but the clothes weren't too bad. In the bathroom, she was very excited because she thought she was getting a bath but there was only a shower stall so Sadie had her first shower and didn't like it very much.

It was only 5 or so when all this ended but everyone was exhausted, so we packed up and came back home. The kids got second winds after resting in the car on the way in and then had fun playing with all the new toys before going to bed.

G'ma and G'pa left Sunday morning before we went to church. And we all spent Sunday afternoon relaxing.

New Video Clip

It's been a while since I posted a video clip- mostly because I've been so busy mastering my new still shot camera. Here's one from a few weeks ago of Caleb reading another ABC book to himself. I love that he's sitting in the push cart.



there will be a Sadie walking video shortly!!

Sadie's Doctor Visit

We were back at the doctor's today for Sadie's 1 yr checkup. Pretty uneventful except that she has a slight ear infection that we need to watch. This surprised us because she hasn't really showed any symptoms but at least we caught it.

She's 29.5 inches tall and weighs 21 pounds, very average in comparison with other kids.

She got a couple of shots and seemed to handle them really well. She was her happy little self all evening- so I don't think she's going to have a bad reaction to the shots.

Caleb got his flu shot today and really didn't like that but recovered once he got his promised pretzel. In his defense, I had to wake him up from his nap early so we wouldn't be late for the appointment and he's really been needing longer afternoon naps.

that's all for now

Happy Birthday Sadie-girl!

Sadie is one today!! and I think Caleb is more excited about it than she is but what can you expect. Lots has happened in the past year.

Sadie has grown into a tough little monkey. I have to watch her almost constantly because she loves to climb on things and has no fear of falling. At the grocery store she's like Houdini, able to get out of the shopping cart restraints in just 2 minutes. I'm tempted to stop strapping her in altogether because it just seems like I'm only giving her practice. Now she doesn't try to actually get out of the cart itself- she just likes to stand up and bounce and turn around to check everything out- but I think it won't be long before she realizes that she can climb from the seat into the basket.

Sadie very much wants to be a big girl and shows us that all the time. While she is quite capable of climbing up the stairs, she waits for a hand because she wants to walk up like her big brother. She's also gotten very good at coming down the stairs on her own but that still makes me nervous.

Sadie started walking over the past couple of weeks and is building up how many steps she can take. Last night, Daddy reported, she walked for the bathroom cupboard to the toilet while carrying a rubber duck in each hand (very impressive) :-) Sadie loves bathtime. She'll stand next to the tub, watching the water and then she's try to climb in by lifting her leg over the side. She's also started helping to carry her bath toys from the cupboard to the tub. In the tub, she loves standing up and looking at her reflection in the faucets. We had to do away with the bathring months ago because again, she would climb out of it. We're working on getting her to sit in the tub so bathtime can be a bit of a battle.

Her favorite toy is still her "Bear," a little bear head attached to a soft silky bit of blanket- it sounds weirder than it actually looks. Bear is her pacifier and helps her to calm down when she's sad.

Her favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider" but she really loves any music and loves to dance.

Her favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear and we know that because she will actually drag it over to us and sit in our lap to hear it (the only time she ever sits still). She also likes our cloth Noah's Ark book that has removable characters. She'll take out the girl's (Noah's wife and daughter-in-law) and carry them around the room. She really seems to like people. She loves the Little People and sets the up on the couch or lets them ride in the one car that Caleb lets her play with. Sadie also likes cars though and will roll them back and forth on the floor- just like big brother.

Outside, Sadie's favorite thing is the rocking horse (thank you Tom and Theresa for leaving that behind). She has so much fun rocking back and forth on it. She makes us nervous sometimes because she can get a little wild on it.

Sadie is talking a little but not much. She consistently says mama and dada and ba and we've caught her saying all done. I think she's put talking on the backburner while she works on mastering walking.

Also I would not be painting an accurate picture if I didn't mention that the girl loves to eat :-) She will eat anything but not everything ( I'll get to that in a minute). You can't even think of giving Caleb a cracker or a pretzel without giving her one. At dinnertime we're offering her lots of different things. She seems to favor corn. But during meals she'll randomly decide that one bite is not good so she'll drop it on the floor, then eat another bite.

It has been a fun year with this addition to our family. She's such a blessing. We love our Sadie-girl.

Happy Halloween

okay, so I'm a couple days late but I've been fighting a cold. We did have lots of fun on Halloween. Sadie was a monkey that we felt was only too appropriate because she will climb on anything. Caleb was a farmer or what I also like to call the "I'm a 2 yr old and I won't wear anything remotely resembling a costume" so he wore his overalls and a plaid shirt and carried around Puppy and Sneeze-Bear and was quite happy.

We waited outside for Daddy to come home from work and then walked up and down our street for a little while. The kids got a lot of candy for only having a tiny little bag to carry it. I wasn't really expecting people to give Sadie candy but she got plenty. We made it almost back to the house when Caleb decided that he'd had enough. We got back to the house and I mentioned chicken nuggets and milk and that was it. Even with all the candy- the boy wanted his chicken nuggets. He did get to try a reese's peanut butter cup and really liked that.

Sadie will get candy next year. Fortunately we also got some snack packs of gold fish and pretzels for her to enjoy.

happy halloween

Sadie's Walkin'

Finally, we can say it! The girl is starting to walk- up to 4 or 5 steps at a time and gaining confidence to try more all the time. Although, she still sometimes likes to take couple of steps and then just dive face-forward to me or Andy so you really have to be careful with this one. Sadie's walking has developed very differently from Caleb. He seemed to just decide one day that he was ready to try it and from within the next couple of days he was walking all over (still wobbly and falling down but walking more than crawling). That day happened to be when he turned 11 mos. Now Sadie on the other hand has been standing up and cruising since about 8 or nine mos. We thought for sure that she would be walking by Caleb's birthday but that day came and went and she was not interested in even trying. At the beginning of Oct. she could very easily stand up on her own with out holding onto anything but she would not take a step, no matter how small and how much we tried to urge her on. So now that she's walking, I can't exactly pinpoint the day that she took her first steps. A couple weeks ago, she started doing little half step to get places that she couldn't reach but again, she would not try it if were pushing her to. As she's started taking more steps, we've been really cheering her on so that she wants to do it more and that does seem to be working.

It's hard to imagine that very soon, I will have 2 toddlers running around.

I have to admit, Caleb has been very tolerable of Sadie as she has become more and more of a presence in his space. He's gotten very good and saying "mine" and "no, no, Sadie" and surprisingly that words frequently come out before any kind of pushing or shoving action. He's been so good at sharing his toys. We started out trying to keep his puzzles and his cars just for him but Sadie is just too quick and determined to get into things. And when I discovered that Caleb didn't really have any objections, it didn't really seem worth the energy. It's much more challenging trying to keep her from eating the crayons (and we're not talking just chewing on the crayons- we're talking biting decent sized chunks off).

Caleb is becoming our little mimic but is also very good at saying full sentences. Lately, when he doesn't see something (a toy or person or thing) he says that it's missing. This started a while ago with his books (of course). We would read to him and if pages got stuck together he would say "oh no. Missin' a page." Then we started missing puzzle pieces so he would walk around singing "missin' a piece." Today, we're out at my G'ma and Papa's house (the Bushes) and when I told him that the backhoe was working he said "oh no, missin' backhoe."

One final note- Andy wins the Great Daddy Award. He put Caleb to bed last night and it was a little more challenging then usual. Caleb sat for his stories, brushed his teeth, and happily said goodnight to me but when Andy put him in bed, he started sobbing. He wanted Toot and Puddle (another story). So Andy read him this final story and again, the boy started crying when he went to turn off the light. Caleb wanted Mike Mulligan (another story). Well, it seemed like he was using a stall tactic so Andy said no more stories and it was time for bed. Caleb went to sleep with a little protest but not much and we blamed it on the cold he's still fighting. We went to sleep only to wake up at about 12:45 this morning to Caleb crying again. Andy went to get him and couldn't understand what he was saying or why he was upset. He eventually understood mommy and brought him into me and I tried to figure out what he wanted. We got him a drink and calmed him down a bit but still weren't quite sure what was going on (it's been a while since he's gotten up like this in the night). We went to put him back in bed and he started crying again but this time Andy could make out "Mike Mulligan." So Andy put him in bed and at about 1:30 am and then read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Caleb happily went to sleep after the story without any more fussing.

And I got to stay cozy warm in bed :-)

More Pumpkins

A busy weekend with a visit from CJ. CJ is Caleb's alter ego. CJ throws tantrums, misbehaves and generally spends his time in time out. CJ seems to be around most mornings until after he has an afternoon nap and then Caleb wakes up and plays with us happily until bedtime. CJ definitely tries our patience but our sweet Caleb was around for a good bit of the weekend.

Saturday we decided to try to find Trax Farm. We had no idea how big it was and spent a good 2 hours there. Caleb loved the petting zoo. His favorites were the horses and he almost went on a pony ride. We were going over to get in line for the pony rides when a little kids train came by and that was it for Caleb. He forgot about the ponies and only wanted to ride the train. He waited nicely in line with daddy and really enjoyed his ride.

Sadie liked the petting zoo too. She was not afraid at all of touching the different animals. The only problem we had was that she wanted to crawl and that was not a good idea.

After the train ride we got to climb on pumpkins. I think this was Sadie's favorite part. She seemed to really enjoy watching the kids and trying to climb on the big pile of pumpkins. Caleb was content to stay on the ground and just try to move the pumpkins. It was fun watching as he figured out that the could roll and he would push really hard until it moved. Caleb also liked the large wooded jack-o-lantern. He stood for the longest time just looking at it and saying "oh, beeg, pumpkin." The whole day was a lot of fun and I highly recommend going there for a visit.

Sunday was a day spent with CJ. It was amazing that we actually made it to church. The boy was being put in time out left and right for pushing Sadie or throwing toys or just needing some time to settle down. Apparently at church he was an angel (of course). We hoped Caleb would come home with us but even as we pulled in the driveway, we knew CJ had come home instead. For some reason, he didn't want to go home but we couldn't figure out where he wanted to go. After trying to talk to him and reason with him for a little while, I had to just drag him into the house. Then just about everything made him unhappy. We finally decided to just read him stories and put him to bed and after a long nap, Caleb woke up and was quite pleasant the rest of the day.

Sadie's still refusing to walk but she's starting to say something that resembles all gone or all done. She still loves dancing and playing music and tries to get the toys to make music for her like Caleb did.

Saturday evening, I caught them playing peek-a-boo over the coffee table. It was so adorable to see them popping up and down and giggling at each other. Caleb also sat with me for about a half hour looking through the National Geographic magazine. He liked looking at the pictures but there weren't too many animals in this issue. His favorite picture was of the chimpanzee who went into space. We explained the picture to him a little and he proceeded to sing "spaceship panzee, spaceship panzee." Very cute.

Caleb's Pumpkin

Okay, it's late but I'm so excited I just had to post my picture. This was taken over the weekend in Philly and through the magic of photo editing, I made a really neat, bright orange pumpkin. Okay, so maybe it isn't that neat but I think it's a pretty cool picture and I'm happy because I'm new to this whole photo-editing wackiness.

It does help to be married to a computer genius- I can just say "I want to do this" and he shows me how.

Alright- good night everyone

Back home and the big boy bed

Well, we survived our trip out to Philly but it was a challenge, beginning Thursday night. Sadie's getting about 3 teeth right now and has been very uncomfortable. After going to be quite nicely at 8, Sadie woke up at 10:30 crying. We gave her some tylenol and tried to put her down again but it wasn't working. She would be quiet for a few minutes and then would start crying. Andy and I took turns holding her and she would fall asleep in our arms but once we tried to put her down, she would wake up again. This went on until we got the hint and realized that we were going to have to sit up with her all night. I lasted until 2:30 but I just can't sleep sitting up on the couch, so Andy took over for the rest of the night. And we still had packing to do before heading out.

We managed to get packed and actually got on the road by 11 which wasn't too bad considering how tired we were. Traffic wasn't bad so we managed to get to Breezewood and had a late lunch. The rest of the trip went really well. Caleb and Sadie napped on and off and when they weren't napping, they were content to look at books- and we had plenty. We were making really good time until we got just outside of Philly. We had timed it perfectly to arrive in the middle of rush hour traffic so the last 15-20 min took way too long. By this point, Caleb was tired of being in the car and began fussing. I tried my best to point out police cars and tower cranes just to distract him.

By the end of the trip, I had started to develop a bad headache.

We got to Betsy's and unpacked and had dinner. Caleb loved seeing Betsy and she quickly became his favorite. The grandparent's showed up a little after 8. The kids visited a little and then we started getting them into bed. Once again, Sadie was up most of the night crying. Thankfully, Andy and his parents took turns with her because I was so out of it with my headache.

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast then set out for Franklin Square park. It's this really cute little park that is right before you get to the Ben Franklin Bridge. We took the subway and passed some of the historical sites before getting to the park. At the park, Caleb and Sadie rode the carousel, picked pumpkins and painted them (Caleb painted), listened to stories, played at the playground and rode a train. We also had a picnic lunch and couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. After lunch, the kids were tired and the grownups were tired so we headed back for naps and dinner.

Dinner was from a pizza place where you actually have to reserve your dough- they apparently only make so much fresh dough every day and when it's gone, it's gone. Betsy was nice enough to get some GF pizza shells for me so I had that but I couldn't resist the talk about this pizza. I tried a small bite and I'm very thankful that I didn't get sick from it. I didn't think that it was that great- definitely not Jioio's so I didn't feel too bad missing it. Betsy also found these wonderful GF gobs that I got to enjoy while they all had cupcakes and cookies.

Sadie slept Saturday night and we were all happy for that. We all woke up the next morning to hear Caleb talking about waking up Betsy and that's what he did. After lunch we packed up and headed back on the road but not without Caleb getting very upset at having to leave Betsy and G'ma. But we did make it home- this time with no traffic and everyone slept really well last night.

Today was exciting because Andy changed Caleb's bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Last night, Caleb insisted on going to sleep on the futon and he did. So tonight Andy read him stories and he happily laid down with puppy, sneeze bear and lion (who is actually a dinosaur) and the boy went to bed. No trips downstairs, no bouncing and thumping. The little boy is growing up.

For Sadie, the big change was that she got to sit at the dinner table with us instead of in her high chair. She's been so hard to keep strapped in, I got tired of fighting her and set up the other booster seat on the empty chair. It was so nice. She sat happily through dinner with out really trying at all to get out of her seat.

Naptime update

Well, it looks like the weather finally caught up to the season. I'm definitely ready to put away shorts and sandals and get out the sweaters. But it has been nice to have the kids play outside so much. The sidewalks are, once again, covered in chalk drawings. We're ready for a nice rain to wash it away and start fresh. We haven't been able to get outside too much though. I found a broken bottle in our driveway that left little shards of glass all over. I tried my best to sweep it up but with Sadie crawling and Caleb is almost impossible to keep in shoes, I figured it would be easier to keep them inside.

This weekend we're off to Philadelphia to visit Aunt Betsy and the New Jersey G'ma and G'pa. Caleb is very excited to see Aunt Betsy. Sadie is getting more teeth so this could be an interesting trip. We'll be sure to pack the tylenol.

Andy and I are convinced that Sadie knows how to walk but doesn't like that she can't go very fast so she continues to crawl. She certainly can balance- we've been catching her standing at the fridge, playing music and bouncing up and down without holding onto anything. She's also started just grabbing fingers and taking people for walks. But if you try to let go of her, she either carefully squats down or dives down on the floor and crawls. And she is so quick with her crawling. She's hurt her lip a couple of times because she crawls so fast that she can't keep her arms going fast enough.

Caleb has become our little mimic- repeating everything. He seems to be having fun trying out new words and combinations of words. He's also continuing to try singing. It's hard for him though because he can't remember all the words. Right now, his favorite songs are Ants go Marching, ABCs, Alice the Camel, and Are you Sleeping.

He's also been having fun doing nosey nosey. It's a little game where we touch noses like giving Eskimo kisses. He's given g'mas and g'pas nosey nosey, Sadie, and even gr-g'ma Rogers.

He's also been sitting on the potty a little but we're still no where near potty training.

October Update

Wow, October already. I swear, I blinked and September was gone. It didn't seem super busy but I guess things move fast as you plow through the days.

Caleb is full on into the two's. Tantrums and shrieking are becoming regular parts of our day. Balanced out only by the incredible cuteness of the things he's beginning to say. Andy and I have practically given up on keeping track of what all he says. He repeats everything and with pretty good pronunciation. I've tried testing him just to see if he can say things, not expecting him to and being surprised when he does. My example... chimpanzee, a difficult word for any 2 yr old and not one used very often. Well, we were checking out Nation Geographic's website (awesome website, thanks Shayna for mentioning it in your blog) and I thought I would print off a coloring page for Caleb. He chose the monkeys (one of the first words he figured out how to say). As we waited for it to print out, he kept saying "montees" and so I said, "well, actually they're not monkeys, they're chimpanzees." Caleb says "montees" again and then "no no, timpan-zees." He later shortened it to just "panzees."

Tonight he surprised me by saying "touchdown" after throwing the football. Very funny.

He continues to amaze us with his memory. Andy informed me tonight the he thinks Caleb has memorized Curious George goes to the Parade. You can not miss any words in that book or he gets mad. He's also started singing more and more. Tonight it was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star but he's also been working on ABC's for a while now and almost has it. He's made up a song he sings while working on puzzles- puzzle piece, puzzle piece, puzzle piece... you get the idea.

The other big change this month has been starting Sunday school. He's moved up into the 2 yr old room at church and they actually have a little Bible lesson and activity during the service. This week he learned about Noah and the "big boat." However, when I asked about what went on the boat, he said "vrooom, vroom."

Now for the Sadie girl. We're still waiting and waiting for her to walk but she is getting closer. She loves pushing the Winnie the Pooh train up and down the front sidewalk and is very steady when she's doing it. When I try to get her to take a step on her own though, she seems to have more fun just letting herself fall into my arms. She's such a daredevil.

We cannot let her alone for even a minute in the highchair, stroller, grocery cart. Even strapped in, she's able to wriggle around and either get out or get stuck. This makes even small shopping trips quite challenging. Last week, I went to try to get some clothes for myself and resorted to leaving her in the carrier in the stroller- she can't get out of a 5-point harness but that also makes her really mad.

Sadie's favorite thing to do is dance. She loves dancing and will dance even without music, sitting on the floor. And she's so cute to watch, I can't describe it well enough so I'm hoping to catch her on video soon. Between Caleb's singing and her dancing, the house has been very musical.

She also loves talking on the phone. She's been playing with one of the toy cell phones, picking it up and saying "hi" or "hello." Then she puts it down and this toy phone we have rings on it's own so it becomes a bit of a cycle for her. Every time she tries to get away, the cell phone rings and she just has to answer it :-)

Sadie has also started trying to wash her feet in the bathtub. She watched me use the sponge to get her feet and then started picking it up to do it herself.

Well, this month should be busy. We have a wedding and a trip out to Phillie and getting ready for Sadie's big birthday. Not to mention, Halloween with two little ones.

Quick Caleb update

It's the middle of the Heroes premier so I'll make this quick. here's a video of Caleb reading through Dr. Seuss's ABCs

hope you like

The Backhoe Ride

We had an exciting day as birthday celebrating continued. We got to visit G'ma and G'pa Bush out in Derry. They weren't able to make it into the party because of the wonderful construction and traffic on the parkway. We spent the day visiting and opening presents- a big fire truck and rescue helicopter that make noise, a new puzzle, a special book to read with daddy and some special coloring books. After celebrating though, it was time to go back home and Papa Joe had to take his backhoe to work. We went outside and Caleb started getting upset. He didn't seem to want to go. Then he said "Papa ride?" Well, Papa Joe couldn't wait so he took Caleb and set him up in the cab and then climbed into the backhoe. Then he pulled Caleb up onto his lap and started it up. First he raised and lowered the scoop for him and then thy pulled out and went for a short ride up the road and back. Caleb loved it!

I took him from G'pa's arms to put him into his carseat and he babbled non-stop. I could only make out a bit of what he was saying but I did hear "batto, voom, voom, whoa." I think G'pa really enjoyed the ride too.

10 mos old Sadie

It's only fair that I give Sadie a post since Caleb got two posts this week, so here it is.

Sadie-girl has definitely inherited my nickname- Monkey Woman. She is a daredevil and is not at all afraid to crawl or climb anywhere. This is probably why she started climbing up the stairs just short of turning 10 mos. We have become a "gated" community which has been hard for all of us. It was so nice having freedom from stretching and contorting yourself to make it over the gates. We have also discovered that we absolutely cannot leave Sadie in any kind of seat without being strapped in and even then you have to watch her like a hawk because she'll wriggle out of things. We've given up on the bathring entirely because even strapped in she could stand up and get out of it. Bathtimes are very quick with her. I caught her a couple of times in the grocery store, standing up in the cart and bouncing her knees up and down like she's dancing. At home in her highchair, she loves to spin around to get a complete view of everything that's going on around her.

When she's crawling on the floor, I really have to watch her. She puts everything in her mouth (doesn't help that she's teething too). Several of Caleb's crayons have teeth marks in them and we're thankful that they're non-toxic. Last week, she managed to eat cat food- she was just too quick for me. On the good side, she hasn't tried to go near the bowl since.

Sadie is getting very good at walking with a walker. She will push the Pooh train all around the dining room and living room and she does really well with it. Lately, though, she'll start pushing it and Caleb will decide that he wants to ride and will sit down and ride along with her hanging on for dear life in back of him. She's a tough girl though.

I think she might have picked up "hi" because she's been saying that a lot and will get mad if you don't respond to her. She's also pretty consistent with saying "mama" and "dada".

Sadie's favorite toy is still her bear but she's also showing a love of music like her brother. She's discovered a little magnetic barn we have on the fridge that plays music and loves to have it play for her. She's also mastered the Dinosaur ball toy, where she puts the ball in the hole and it plays music as it comes out.

We're counting down to her first birthday and are very excited to see her growing each day.

2 yr old Caleb

So I posted about the birthday party, now I thought I would update you on what all the big man is doing (don't worry, Sadie will also get a post-equal time and all)

We were at the doctor's today and Caleb is 34 and 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29 and 1/4 lbs. He's still on the tall side of things but is leveling out. Hopefully all the 2T clothes we have will last a bit longer.

Caleb did not like the doctor's visit at all which is surprising because he's never gotten that upset about going before. He didn't like the nurses, hated having his head measured and wouldn't talk to the doctor.

Talking
Caleb's vocab has really taken off over the past couple of weeks. He's regularly combining words together to make short sentences like "read, please." That's one we hear a lot but how can you say no when he asks so sweetly.

As I mentioned earlier, he recognizes all of the alphabet and can say all the letters except W. He's recently started trying to sing the alphabet, which is really cute to hear. He recognizes and says his numbers 1-10 and loves counting steps. However, we counting on his own, he doesn't seem to like the number 7. He'll only say it when he sees it.

He has also picked up his primary and secondary colors, thanks to the book Mouse Paint.

He's finally started saying cat and dog instead of "eow" and "woof." And he's also started saying Sadie but it sounds more like Sa-ie.

G'pa Joe taught him what fire crackers say so if you make a whistle like a bottle rocket, Caleb will supply the "bang". Speaking of bangs, dump trucks go "ee, ee, boom" according to Caleb and we've taught the boy that bears say "aa, aah, choo". That's from Bear Snores On.

I'm sure he says more but it's hard to keep track and you never know what he's going to decide to repeat. I told him last week "you're so funny" and he turned around and said "i so funny" back to me and has since started laughing and saying "ah's so funny". He also loves saying "eeinside" and that's to go inside and outside.

Moving
Caleb has gotten very good at climbing up and down the stairs and does it by himself sometimes (but I still get nervous not watching him). He's started running a little bit but it still looks a lot like a fast walk. At the playground he can climb up ladders and has climbed the cargo net with just a little help from mommy. And he loves going down the slide.

The boy still loves music and dancing and has added coloring and drawing to the mix. Outside it's with chalk- our sidewalk is almost always covered with drawings and marks of some sort. Inside it's crayons and markers. I'm slowly coming around to introducing him to paint. We'll see. He's also started playing with playdoh but isn't too into that. He really doesn't like touching weird things. But he did taste the playdoh and made a lovely face before deciding "yuck".

well, I think that's all I can think of for now. These past two years have gone by so quickly. I'm so excited to see him learning new things every day but sometimes I miss how small he used to be.

Caleb turns 2

Caleb is 2 years old!!!

We wrapped up his 2nd birthday party this evening and I think it went well, except for the singing of Happy Birthday, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Caleb had a big day today. It started this morning with a Storybook Walk through Frick Park with daddy. I think it might have been the happiest place in the world. It combined all of his loves, a playground, books and even a bookmobile. Apparently, they set up little areas throughout the park and had story times (complete with carpet squares to sit on). They had crafts for the kids, snacks, face painting and plenty of books. One of the highlights for Caleb was seeing the buses that were shuttling people to and from the parking areas. He kept telling Andy "yeyo skool bus" (that's the best I can do with typing it phonetically).

They were at the story walk from about 9:30 this morning 'til 1. Then we got him home, gave him quick lunch and sent him off to bed for quick nap. G'mas and G'pas and aunts and uncles were coming in at 3 for a little cake and ice cream...or so we thought.

Well, the parkway coming into Pittsburgh was shut down (for hopefully one final time) and that meant even more traffic than usual. On top of that, I'm sure the Pitt football game also added to the traffic. Shortly before 3 we got a call from my dad saying that they were stuck in traffic. Then a little while later, my mom called saying not only were they stuck in traffic but also having car trouble and they wouldn't be able to make it in. Finally at 4 my brother showed up, thinking he was late only to learn that they were the first ones to arrive and then my dad pulled up right after that. During this time, Caleb had not taken a nap but Sadie managed to sneak one in since everyone was late getting here.

The party went really well after the rocky start. Caleb was really excited to see everyone and after Sadie woke up, she was happy to see G'ma and G'pa. We were able to comfortably stay inside since it was so muggy outside, it was nice to be in air conditioning. After some play time and munching on snacks we started opening presents. The highlight of the presents would have to be a birthday card from G'ma and G'pa that played "Celebration" when you opened it. Caleb and Sadie would both stand at the couch dancing to the music and there were a few times where we had to stop with the presents to play the music. G'ma and G'pa also got him Elmo and Ernie bumper cars. Those were quite the hit. Both kids loved chasing them around the dining room. Caleb got a soccer ball from Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsay that Sadie really liked and grabbed onto several times this evening. Andy and I got him some Thomas tracks and Edward because he's the number 2 engine.

After playing with new presents and coloring new pictures and reading new stories, it was finally time for cake. We set Caleb in his seat. He tasted the icing a bit. Then we lit the candles and began to sing and Caleb began to cry, not just cry sob. We don't know why and can only guess that our horrible singing offended him so greatly that he was driven to tears. Well, I don't know that that was really the case but he was not happy with us singing and attempted to push the cake away, getting icing all over his fingers and then tried to climb into my lap. We cleaned up his fingers and then I held him and he finally let us sing but we could only whisper. He liked the candles but wasn't quite ready to blow them out even though he's spent many meals blowing on his strawberries because they were hot. Caleb got a special cupcake that he mauled but seemed to like and we all enjoyed gluten-free cake and ice cream. The cake wasn't too bad, just very heavy. Gluten apparently makes things lighter.

After cake, we played some more then said good bye to everyone. Both little ones were very tired and happily went to bed.

"8, 8, 8!!"

I know this is dark and probably hard to see but it's fun to hear Caleb saying his number as he puts the puzzle together so make sure you can hear him.

hope you like

Uh-oh Sadie

I just thought I would post a little clip of Sadie. I noticed her making these sounds earlier this week and it comes really close to resembling "uh-oh". It's hardly surprising that she's put those sounds together. That's a constant phrase in this house these days with an occasional "uh-oh boom." Sadie is also starting to stand on her own a little and is trying to walk more and more holding on to fingers.

We're eagerly awaiting for a top tooth to poke through. You can see the bump and she's almost constantly drooling. She has rediscovered her bouncer seat and especially loves it when I bring it on onto the front porch when Caleb is playing outside. She also loves playing "run away from mama or dada" which is really her crawling out towards the stairs in the hallway and waiting for us to come and drag her back into the bedroom. She gets close enough to the stairs that I'm not sure she wouldn't try to go down them but still stays back enough to not fall down. I keep having visions of her tumbling down the stairs but so far she's been good. This his brought up a new challenge for us. Caleb loves his freedom and enjoys being able to decided when he wants to play upstairs and when he wants to play downstairs. But as Sadie gets bigger, it's getting harder to keep her in one place.

I can't believe summer is quickly coming to an end and in a little over a week, I'll have a 2 yr old on my hands.

Puzzle video clip

So I've returned after spending a few days down in Atlanta with my good friends and their new baby girl. She is adorable but I am happy to be back with my own babies. I missed them terribly but I knew that they were in capable hands (my husband and his mom).

I don't have time to update much. Caleb is talking even more and one of his favorite things to do is put together jigsaw puzzles. He's quite good at them. The kid has a really good memory.

Sadie is getting more and more steady on her feet and is so quick when she crawls, especially when there is something in particular that she's after (like one of Caleb's matchbox cars).

the Baby Einstein thing

So, I was reading blog posts and articles on the recent Baby Einstein controversy. I found them really interesting and decided that I wanted to put my 2 cents in on the topic.

Limit exposure to 'Baby Einstein' and 'Brainy Baby'

I found the articles really interesting but I'm worried about the direction this debate is going to take in the "real world" of parenting. I highly doubt that parents are strapping their children into bouncer seats and forcing them to watch Baby Einstein as some bizarre punishment (though many adults might thing it is punishment). Many parents show the videos because they think it might be beneficial if only by giving mom or dad a moment to collect their thoughts. These are not bad parents.

We seem to be so insecure about our parenting abilities that we eagerly look for ways to point out what other parents are doing wrong. I admit, I get sucked into this mentality myself. We forget that when you get these small infants, they don't come with a handbook of instructions on how to raise them up into wonderful, productive adults. In many cases we're all fumbling around in the dark, trying to keep the peace and maintain our own sanity while not damaging our kids too much. Ultimately though, our children our really God's children and He has the most control over how they develop and who they grow to be.

So I admit, Caleb has watched Baby Monet and his Baby Beethoven CD has saved our sanity on many car trips, much to my husband's dismay. My husband, Andy, enjoys classical music and was not thrilled with the electronic music box sound of the baby CDs. On one car trip, we even tried to switch out the baby CD with a real recording of Beethoven. Caleb cried. We tried playing a real recording of Peter and the Wolf. Caleb cried. So we resigned ourselves to listening to the baby CDs because within a few minutes of Caleb hearing it, he would stop crying and within 15 minutes, he would fall asleep.

Now, he watched Baby Monet every so often when I had a more complicated dinner to get together in our old apartment or when I needed some assurance that he wouldn't be getting into trouble in our house where I can't see what he's up to from the kitchen. Most of the time, he didn't really pay attention to them. He preferred to play with his toys and would only look up at the TV every now and then. I didn't do this to make him more intelligent but it did seem to be something he enjoyed and responded to.

I don't think I should feel guilty about letting my child watch a video geared to babies. I don't think my parents were ever concerned about what TV I watched growing up and some of my earliest memories are of Bugs Bunny and The Price is Right. I don't believe that Caleb watching these videos has had an impact on his development. I don't believe that I'm a neglectful parent because I used a 30 min video to occupy my child so that I could get supper on the table. I don't think that Caleb or Sadie lack for social interaction because we have videos every now and then. Maybe I am justifying my actions but I'm very proud of how my toddler has developed and I have no concerns about how intelligent he's going to be with or without videos. I love him for the sweet adorable boy he is.

so for all the grandparents and family hoping for an update on the kids i'll have a post on thm very oon. now i have to run cause sadie is up and wiggling out of my arms

ABC's

So Caleb is surprising us again. We've discovered that the boy can recognize about 3/4 of the alphabet. This came up on Saturday when Daddy was wearing a college t-shirt. We new that Caleb could recognize I and T but then he started pointing to daddy's shirt saying "O, I, C, S, O, N." He got a little mixed up because the D's and the O's looked very similar to him. Later that night, we were reading Kipper's A to Z and he was able to name most of the letters in the book. Then he got his toothbrush, which is Elmo and says that on it, and said "E, L, M, O."

It's crazy thinking that less than a month ago, he didn't talk at all. But the kid is definitely absorbing what's going on around him. I'm amazed at the memory he has not only how quick he'll remember pictures or words in a story but how accurately.

Sadie continues to play peek-a-boo with everything- today she tried a puzzle piece, a block, a burp cloth, and when she doesn't have anything with her, she puts her hands up next to her ears and waits for you to say where's Sadie. She's not walking yet but is becoming very fast at crawling and has even crawled over to the stairs. That might be the next step- crawling up the stairs but I think her legs are a little too short just yet. That might be wishful thinking on my part, though.

Well, I'm off to Georgia for a few days to visit a friend. G'ma from New Jersey will be staying to watch the kids while Andy works. Who knows what Caleb will be saying when I get back.

1,2,3,4 and other updates

Caleb is counting!! Can't quite believe it but he's been pretty consistent with counting the stairs when he walks down them- 1, 2, 3, 4 - we have more stairs than that but he doesn't seem to like the number 5. He won't say 5 but if you say 5, he'll say 6. I even think I heard him say 7 yesterday but I'm not sure about that.

Oh, I should probably add that this whole talking thing began last week when we were out in NJ with Andy's parents. He just started saying different words- so many that I can't keep track of them. A sample of his new vocab-
hot, help, up, down, boat, bus, dig, T, S (is pretty good at recognizing those letters) hi, bye, more, hat, all done... that's all that I can think of right now. He won't say these things when you ask him to. He only uses them when he needs to- definitely not into performing on demand. But it is wonderful that he's actually answering questions for real- like if you ask "do you want a grape?" and he says "yes", he really means yes. I even got him to point to his cheek when he hurt it this morning and I asked what hurts. He's really becoming this little person and it's so great to watch.

We also can't seem to keep him in puzzles although the most recent batch have been taking him longer to master. I picked up some little 12 piece jigsaw puzzles of construction vehicles and he loves putting those together but he needs help with them. He still likes putting together his other puzzles but that lasts only about 10 minutes, then he's looking for something else to do.

Sadie is becoming more and more adventurous. She's crawled into the kitchen a few times and has made a couple of pit stops at the cat food dish. She hasn't eaten any yet but there is more of a curiosity to it than Caleb had. Sadie loves her big brother and is already quite good at annoying him. It doesn't matter what he's doing, she wants to be right there with him, usually trying to pull up by grabbing his legs or shoulders. He tries to move away from her to do something else and she follows right after him. I move her away from him and try to interest her in another toy and she crawls right back to him. I'm working on teaching Caleb to say "no no" to her so he doesn't get too frustrated. He knows he has to be gentle with her but this could definitely be an interesting year with the two of them. They are starting to play together a little. This morning, Sadie had Caleb's drum and would hit it to start music playing. Then Caleb would dance to the music. Then Sadie would clap for Caleb dancing. This went on for a good while and was so cute to watch. Sadie's also babbling a lot more. Ma ma, Da da, Ga ga, Ba ba. We're hearing these sounds a lot more.

Sadie was in for her 9 mos checkup and is doing well. She's 17 lb 1 oz and is 28 in long. Caleb will be in for his 2 yr check up next month. Time is just going by so fast.

Idlewild 2007

Okay, this is probably not the best time to write this but if I don't do it now, it probably won't get done for awhile. The past few days have been a little crazy around here as we're replacing the windows in our house and at the same time packing to go away for a week to visit the fam in NJ.

However, we did just enjoy a family picnic at Idlewild Park in Ligonier, PA over the weekend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the park, it's a smallish amusement parks that is really great for families. They have StoryBook Forest, a great kiddie land and even a nice-sized water park. I've been going there for as long as I can remember and worked there as an artist when I was in college. I realized coming into the park, this was the first time I can remember ever paying myself and driving myself into the main entrance of the park (when I worked there, we went through a special employee entrance). It was very weird.

We went there Sunday morning with my mom and step-dad and lots of other family from her side. We got a pavilion near a little playground area so that Caleb could play and set up tons of food. Then Andy and I took the kids to walk through StoryBook Forest. This was fun but a little overwhelming for Caleb. It seems that while he loves people dressed up in Elmo suits and Wildcat suits, he does not like people dressed up in more realistic costumes- raggedy Ann, Goldilocks, even the Little Old Lady in the Shoe. He was very shy around all of them. Everything else, he seemed to like. His favorite spot was Gipetto's Workshop from Pinnochio. It was just a little one-room cottage, that had a workbench set up with toys, but Caleb kept going back to look inside. It was fun to walk through and neat to scope out the artist stand that I used to work at.

After that we went back to eat lunch before venturing out to ride rides. Caleb enjoyed tiring out Andy and "uncle" Chris (Jackie's boyfriend) at the playground and getting filthy in the process. Sadie was the little doll baby who was passed around from aunt to cousin to aunt and she was so happy but so sleepy. There wasn't really a place for napping but Andy managed to get her to sleep for a little while in her stroller while we enjoyed some really delicious picnic food.

When the eating was done, we saw that we had a very tired toddler on our hands but no place for him to rest so we decided to just plow through and get him on rides to see if he would get a second wind. I should probably mention that he was running on little sleep after being up a good bit of Saturday night (we're not really sure why). Caleb went off with Jackie and Chris and Andy and the rest of the family followed shortly behind. I stayed and fed Sadie before taking her over to the kiddie rides. Caleb loved the rides and was even very patient standing in line waiting for his turn. He rode on motorcycles, cars, dinosaurs and boats. He rode special hand-crank carts with Andy. His favorite ride of all was the Doodlebug- a little bus that goes round in a circle. We didn't get to make it through the Mr. Rogers trolley because the line was too long for our tired little boy so we walked back over to the main park. Sadie enjoyed ice cream with Aunt Jackie- she tried pulling herself out of her seat to get bites. Caleb rode the carousel with G'ma Susie. Later I took Sadie on the carousel and she seemed to like that a lot. Kept trying to eat the reins though. The carousel had very strange music, if you ask me. I'm not used to hearing Johnny Cash songs being played on the carousel organ but that's just me :-)

After all of this, Caleb was fading fast so we decided to head back to the picnic area and pack up but not before one more stop so Caleb could have some ice cream. We got back and had time for some quick family pictures before heading back home.

The kids passed out and slept almost the whole ways into Pittsburgh and even after we got home, they were very happy to go to bed. Not a bad day for our first family trip to Idlewild.

Updates for July

I just thought I would take some time to update you all on how Caleb and Sadie are doing...

Sadie

Sadie is 8 and 1/2 months and is very mobile. She belly crawls where she wants to go (usually wherever Caleb is). She loves pulling up to standing and is getting the hang of that quickly. She's starting to cruise a little but seems more cautious about that. It's funny...it's almost like she watched us all standing and thought "hey, I want to do that." So she did it and now she doesn't quite know what to do next.

She has also started clapping her hands and will do that if you clap and say "yeah" to her. She never tried patting her knees like Caleb used to do. Guess we'll never know where he picked that up.

Sadie loves blowing raspberries and that's often the response we get when we try talking to her. She also has been enjoying squealing a lot. It can get pretty noisy in the house with Caleb shrieking and Sadie squealing.

We'll be visiting the doctors in a couple of weeks for her 9 mos checkup. I'm curious to see how much weight she's gained. We think she's around 15 lbs and all the chub has gone to her legs.

Caleb

Caleb has almost mastered going up the stairs standing up all by himself and does that quite a bit. He loves the freedom we've given him of letting him go up and play in his room on his own. This morning, for the first time, he even went down the stairs, standing up, carrying a book, by himself. I didn't want to stop him because he's so cautious I figured that he wouldn't attempt it if he thought he couldn't do it.

Caleb's very good at puzzles and enjoys figuring them out and even making new challenges for himself. The other day, he was putting together his shape puzzle and decided that he would make it more interesting by trying out the pieces in the other spots, saying "no" when they don't fit and saying "yeah" and clapping when they do fit. He knew where the pieces went, just wanted to make it more interesting.

He loves his cars and trains and trucks and loves driving them all over, upstairs and downstairs. We also started a new coloring game. Caleb hasn't been to interested in drawing and seems to like just making dots when we do get out the crayons. This morning, I got out his big drawing tablet and he started handing me crayons. So I started drawing different things (animals, buses, cars). He loved it, so I started asking him to hand me specific colors. He was pretty good at that- He seems to know red, blue, green and was able to find black.

Talking-

We're still not saying a lot but there are new words and phrases and sounds that appear. Here's the latest list of things he can say.

eow- meow, cat (says for the sound and when he sees cats)
wwf- woof, dog (same for dogs)
da- quack, duck
mmm- moo, cow - also when eating, yum
nay- horse
baa- sheep
maa- goat
who- owl
sss- spider, sleeping or snake
nnn- pig (that's the closest he can get to oink)

down
uh-oh- any kind of accidents
uh-oh boom- when someone/thing falls
who is that?- who is that, what is that
ahs a wff- that's a dog (he says this a lot when the neighbors puppy is outside)

that's all I can think of right now. He still does a lot of babbling and he understands so much. He seems to get more frustrated when you try to get him to imitate sounds almost like you're reminding him that he can't do it so we haven't been pushing him too much. He hears us and understands us and most of the time, listens to us when we ask him to do things so I'm sure the talking will come in his own time.



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Now- as for Andy and I, Andy has fully recovered from his back surgery and is doing fine researching important things at CMU. I have recently been diagnosed as having celiac (like my brother) so we're adjusting to a new diet absent of gluten for me. Fortunately we're used to making the adjustments for my brother so it hasn't been that difficult of a transition. However, I am missing pierogies, Jioio's pizza and gnocchi but at least it's not a chocolate allergy.

Claire's 1st Birthday

Another Trip to Camp

This weekend we were up at camp to celebrate Claire's 1st birthday party. The party was at a park in Lock Haven, PA on Saturday. Andy and I packed up the kids and drove up to camp Friday night. This trip up was better than the last trip over Memorial Day. There were no incidents of motion sickness and no road kill and no rain. We had the rainstorm just before leaving on Friday. We had just got the car packed up and were going to round up the kids when it started pouring buckets and then there was the hail. Andy thought it was something to see ice falling from the sky in mid-July.

It was late when we got to camp (just after 9) and Sadie was ready for bed. Her second front tooth on the bottom seems to be coming in and causing her some pain. Caleb on the other hand was ready to go after being cooped up in the car for so long. He was awake the entire trip! He would get quiet and we would think that he was asleep, then you would hear "whoa, da-da, oooh, whoa" (that's the best translation that I can come up with) We have no idea what he was saying but he was happy.

Since it was so late, we just decided to get the kids into bed and then wait for Jason and Lindsay to get there. Both of the munchkins went down fairly easy and slept good through the night.

We got up around 7:30 Saturday morning and worked on getting ready to go to the party. Most of the time was spent trying to convince Caleb to wear pants. I don't know where this all came from but he was not happy with the idea of wearing any pants Saturday or Sunday. We did get him dressed and got Sadie dressed and they were able to play a bit before we had to get into the car to drive to the party.

The party was at a nice little park in Lock Haven. There was plenty of room to run around and a playground nearby. There was also a lake or river (not sure which it was) with lots of boats and jet skis to watch. That became the distraction when Caleb would get upset with anything at the party. There were two other little kids there that were friends of Sean and Emily...2 1/2 yr old Olivia and 4 yr old Gavin (I think). They spent a lot of time kicking the soccer ball around with Jason. Olivia seemed to really like Caleb and kept trying to give him hugs. He, of course, would try and run away from her. Sadie had fun being passed around to all the different people who wanted to hold her. She didn't even get strange since there were many people that she didn't know.

Claire was very cute in her little party dressed and was fun to watch eating her birthday cake. She definitely ate more cake than Caleb did at his first party. Then we watched the presents. Caleb and Olivia were both interested in testing out the new toys for her. Caleb got frustrated though, when her new puppy (same as one he has) wouldn't play the songs just right because it was set on demo mode. We had to hide the puppy and later he got very upset when he saw it being packed away in the car to go home to Claire's house.

Andy and I left the party while everyone else helped to clean up. Both Sadie and Caleb were exhausted and we thought we might be able to get them to nap a little before my parents got home. They each slept on the way home but were both awake when we got back to camp and weren't interested in napping. They had lots of fun playing with g'ma and g'pa Mattock when they got back to camp and Andy and I were able to throw the frisbee around for a bit ourselves.

Saturday night was a bit more difficult. Caleb came down with a really bad stomach ache and there didn't seem to be anything that we could do to comfort him. He refused to drink anything and seemed to want to sleep but just couldn't go down. We thought he was asleep around 10 but then he woke up crying again. G'ma took him out on the porch for a bit and rocked him to sleep. Andy and I got ready for bed thinking that one of us was going to have to stay up all night with him. He woke up when we carried him back into the house so I thought we might try having him sleep in bed with us- mostly to keep him from keeping everyone else awake all night. We settled down to sleep at about 11. Caleb laid down between Andy and I and seemed happy to relax and suck his thumb. That lasted all off about 10 minutes. Then he was unhappy with the blankets, so we had to take the comforter off and just have the sheet. Then he didn't like Andy's pillow, so Andy had to move that away from him. Things settled down again. Then he started talking, just babbling away like nothing was ever wrong. Finally, he sat up to talk to us- and I said, that's it and took him up to his bed. He went down without any fuss and slept 'til morning. When I got back into bed, Andy and I just laughed at the whole thing.

Sunday morning, we got up and played some more. G'pa, Andy and I took Caleb to a nearby playground to play a bit. Caleb liked getting to ride in G'pa's new big truck. The playground was tough though. The jungle gym was hard for him to walk on and he was a little afraid of the slide but he still had fun walking and watching the campers and people fishing in the creek. After that, we came back and waited for Sadie to wake up from her nap so that we could pack up and get on the road.

It was a little after 1 when we left and Caleb quickly fell asleep and slept almost the entire way home. The boy was thoroughly worn out from the weekend but we all had lots of fun.