The MisAdventures of Margot and Bowser

Advent- Day 6

2011-12-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

December 6

Advent 2011

2011-12-06T05:54:00.001-08:00

So we have several advent calendars but one that is a Bible verse each day. I've been recording the kids reading them each night and then planned on having Andy magically turn them into a movie but thought it might be better to share our readings each day. So here are the first 5. Enjoy!

and please excuse the quality of the video. it's shot with my little canon powershot in low light which means lots of grain...

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5

Merry Christmas and remember the real reason for the season :-)

and thanks to g'ma for the verses

A Boy and his Books

2011-11-29T20:19:00.001-08:00

The boy loves books. It's no secret and actually we've had to use books as punishment in recent weeks. When the boy is misbehaving or non-compliant, the more clinical term, we've taken away video games...

"That's okay Mommy. Video games were not on my schedule tonight" (yep, we're always referring to our schedule in this house)

So then we take away TV shows. The recent favorites are Word Girl and Wild Kratz.

"That's okay Mommy. I didn't want to watch them this afternoon"

So Mommy, with steam coming out of her ears but keeping a very calm voice...

"Well, I'm sorry Caleb but if you're not going to get dressed for school, I can't let you read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (for the 18th time)." And the boy's eyes grow wide. "But I need my books. If I don't have my books, I can't learn." At 6 yrs old this boy has such a desire to know everything and books are his key. It's beautiful and heartbreaking. And Mommy just keeps thinking how crazy this whole situation is. And the boy is heartbroken but he gets dressed.

I don't even set a length of time for Harry to be in timeout but the boy goes to school. He has a really difficult day. He tells his teacher that Mommy broke his heart. He tells his TSS that Mommy hurt his heart and needs to apologize. And Mommy's heart breaks a little more each time she hears. Tough love sucks but Mommy has to stick to her guns. Time and time again we see that consistency is the best thing for him.

Harry is on the table in the living room. It never even got put up. It doesn't have to be. The TSS asks the boy if he wants to read. She suggests Harry Potter. The boy says, "No, I'm not supposed to read it."

We talk a little bit later. It's been a rough few weeks. The boy has taken us on quite a roller coaster. That's what it's like sometimes. Despite the rigidness, the rules, Asperger's remains very unpredictable. He's sorry for being difficult. He repeats the phrase and sometimes I know he means it. Sometimes I think it's just another script. This time it doesn't matter. I tell him I'm sorry that I hurt his heart. I tell him that my heart hurt to. I give the boy back his Harry Potter and he's happily back in Diagon Alley watching as Harry gathers his supplies for school.

Apologies...

2011-11-11T19:57:00.001-08:00

I used to hate being late. Granted, I never wanted to be early either. To have to awkwardly wait for someone, all the time wondering in my head if they were still coming, if I had gotten the time or location mixed up, if they wanted to see me at all. All that anxiety over a silly meet up. It can be tough when you don't want to be late but also don't want to be early but I've learned that I seem to be a walking contradiction.

But my problems were solved when I had kids and then when I had 2 kids under 2, at least this problem was. You can't expect a new parent to be on time or even crazier, early, for anything. Wrangling 2 children who can't hardly do anything for themselves... this was just the excuse that I needed. I could let go of the guilt of being late. I wouldn't have to stress about being early. And should planets align and I actually arrive early for something, I could just sit back and take pride in the fact that I managed to get 2 monkeys shod, dressed and into carseats. It would be a good day.

Then the kids grew. They became more independent and they became more independent. It was no longer a victory to get the shoes on their feet. It was a victory to get them to want to put shoes on their feet. Free will can be such a frustrating thing.

I'm now back to wanting to be on time. I'm expected to be on time and yet, it continues to be a next to impossible task. You see, the challenges have changed.

"Caleb, it's time to get shoes on and go to church"

"No" or my new favorite phrase (sarcasm alert) "I don't feel like it"

And the challenge begins. Can I think fast enough to get the boy to want to go out into the world or do we plow through a fit until he finally gives in and accepts that mama is getting her way? This is life on the spectrum. The boy would love to spend every day, every hour of every day, at home with his nose in a book. Sure the boy enjoys going to school, playing at the playground, going to the library but not always enough to take that first step in getting ready and out the door.

I don't often plan outings after coming home from school. If we come home for lunch, most days, we're not going back out, unless it's to OT (that's part of the weekly routine so that's okay). After convincing him to get up and get ready for school, it's just tiring to have to convince him to go out again especially when mama can sympathize with his desire to just be home. Mama also likes to just be home. This is life on the spectrum sometimes.

So getting the boy out the door when he knows it's what he has to do (like going to school) can be challenging. Try getting the boy out the door when it's unexpected, like to the doctors. This can be tricky, unless of course, he's too sick to really put up a fight.

Today our fun was whether or not there was school for Veteran's Day. We all were up and the boy said that he didn't have to go to school (and no, this is not my guy trying to get out of school. we don't really play those games on our part of the spectrum). I said okay but let me check your folder and there I made my first blunder. You see I have trouble reading all the words. I can't explain it but my husband knows full well that I skim and I don't do it very well. If I have anything important to read, I give it to him. It's really sad but that's how I am. And so I skimmed the weekly notice in his folder and sure enough saw the note, No School, Friday November... Kind of skipped over the entire date. So I told Daddy, the boy is right. No school. Of course my 6 yr old knows these things. He knows lots of things, like that giant squids migrate. The girl, we question. The boy, not so much. So Daddy took Sadie to school, Caleb started pouring over the toy catalog for the umpteenth time and I went to check email.

Then my phone rings. It's Daddy.

"Are you sure he doesn't have school? There are kids at the bus stop"

"I swear his folder said no but I'll check again"

Um, yeah, No School, Friday, November 5 for conferences. Crap, crap, crap.

And of course, my boy is now set on staying home. I employ all the usual parenting techniques. I bribe- if you go to school, Daddy and I have a special surprise for you this afternoon. I threaten- you know what happens when you stay home from school and you're not sick (the police come). I mean business- Caleb, this is unacceptable. You are expected to get ready and go to school. I threaten again- if you don't get dressed, I'll send you to school in your pjs.

I thought that we were headed for another meltdown. We had one earlier this week and I really didn't want to deal with it again. I gave him one more chance... Mommy's going to get dressed. You have 2 minutes to get yourself ready to go to school (I don't even have an or else because I'm out of ideas). And while I go down the hall to my room a little voice asks for 3 minutes. This just isn't going to go well. I get dressed and start back towards his room. Okay, buddy, I gave you 4 minutes. A whole extra minute (in my most enthusiastic voice. It's all about not showing fear). He's under his covers. This isn't good. I cheerfully pull off the covers and declare it's time to get ready. I pull out his comfy pants from his drawer and I'm met with a compliant little guy, ready to get dressed and go to school.

I don't know how it happens. It's so stinkin' unpredictable. I can't always tell when one thing will work and when it won't. Life on the spectrum sometimes... you have to think quick and always be willing to bend and yet still keep your expectations consistent. And yet, my part of the spectrum is so easy compared to some.

So, my apologies if you find yourself waiting for me. I do value your time and I do admit that sometimes its my own fault that I'm running behind, sometimes it's the girl dawdling trying to find her missing sunglasses because she can't bear to go out to face her public without them, but sometimes it's life on the spectrum throwing us a curve.

The Sadie-Lady is 5!

2011-11-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

pumpkins!

Big things, really big things, happened last week. Halloween, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, the ballet, the circus coming to town. Lots of excitement but probably (at least according to Sadie) the most exciting thing happened on Wednesday, Nov 2. Yep, that's the day that the little girl turned 5 and I couldn't have anticipated how excited she was about this. She now checks that her clothes all have 5T on them instead of 4. If there's a 4, you wouldn't believe the face I get- a mixture of disappointment and frustration. How could I still let my 5 yr old wear 4T clothes?! And there we can see that we will not be growing out of our flair for the dramatic...

But we are happy to have a healthy, active and bright 5 yr old. Not a day goes by where we're not completely amazed by her- either by her complete rottenness or by how caring, smart, endearing she is.

Year 4 started out a little crazy with the little girl being hospitalized for Kawasaki Disease. It was a bit scary seeing my girl so sick and yet, through it all, she was her happy little self. The doctor at Children's kept remarking about how happy she was, how sweet she was. Because of the trickiness of the disease, there was a never ending stream of interns coming in to check out her rash, her eyes, her fever and of course, she enjoyed the attention. And we were just thankful that they caught it in time, treated her and that she has recovered fully but still has no desire to ever have another pinch (and mommy doesn't blame her).


swimming in the creek at camp

After that adventure, the year progressed much easier.

Sadie has really grown quite a bit in the past 6 months. She's developed an amazing understanding of her brother and a sweet ability to help him. She talks him through changes that might throw him. She encourages him to play and read and make friends. She stands up for him when other children try to exclude him. I'm so proud of my girl!


with Ariel and Prince Erik


at Disney Studios

And she still has this amazing self confidence that I only dream of having. My girl has no second thoughts about going up to her princesses at Disney World and talking to them about her visit, to ask Prince Erik where his dog is, even to tell the little old lady working as a volunteer, how happy she is to be at Disney World. She danced to the music in Tomorrowland, and strutted her stuff at Disney Studios and of course we had to wear our Cinderella dress all day (in 80 degree heat) to meet her princess. I sit back and watch her and think how wonderful it must be to not second guess yourself constantly. I've also promised myself that I will do everything to protect that self worth and confidence.

The girl has continued into another year of ballet and improves with each week. She practices and shows off her steps to g'ma's and papa's. I don't even need to bug her to get ready for class in the morning. She does it all herself. She has a dream. A dream to be a ballerina/cowgirl. Not sure how the cowgirl part will come about but she's got the ballerina part down.

She was able to see her first ballet, The Nutcracker, last December and this past week we saw Peter Pan. It was a Mommy/Sadie date which of course meant we had to be fancy. She loved it! Seeing Tinkerbell and Peter Pan flying. Seeing the crocodile chase down Hook. We both really enjoyed the afternoon and I have to admit, we're looking forward to The Nutcracker again.


the first day of school

Sadie is in pre-K for one more year. This year she's going to Eden Christian Academy. This is a great Christian school if you're looking for something in the North Hills. She's having so much fun in her new school and memorizing Bible verses. It's so sweet to hear her reciting God's word. And with the new school there have been new friends and lots of playdates. She's been really enjoying the special treat of going home with one of her school mates and spending the afternoon playing.

In other big news, the little girl is learning to read. She's picked up a bunch of sight words and has started being able to sound out others. It's been exciting and empowering. She's thrilled to be able to look at letters and find the words, to do what her brother's been able to do for so long. It's also made the house a little more quieter as my two little bookworms curl up with their books for the afternoon. It's happy.

Flower girl for Aunt Betsy

Sadie's has been in 2 weddings this year. The first in August for Aunt Jackie and then in September for Aunt Betsy and of course, she enjoyed having the spotlight on her. She did a very good job for both events and managed to get most of the guests at Aunt Betsy's wedding to do the chicken dance around her. I wish I had pictures or video of that moment. It was something else but Mommy, Daddy and Caleb were also doing the chicken dance too.

We've been so blessed to have another year watching our girl growing and learning. We often don't know where this energetic extrovert came from but we love her so much. Our family wouldn't be nearly as exciting without her.

Caleb is 6!

2011-10-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

This is long overdue but once again life has gotten in the way of writing time. Big things have been happening here. We now have a full-blown, backpack-totin', bus riding, kindergartener! And preparing this boy for kindergarten was comparable to preparing for a climb of Mt. Everest, at least, it seemed so to me.

Intellectually this boy has been ready for kindergarten since he was about 3 and a half. No one denies that he's a smart boy (just like his daddy). His favorite books to borrow from the library are science books- we've learned all about the universe, discovered dinosaurs and most recently, had to read all about the flu epidemic of 1918 (and yes, there is a children's book about the flu epidemic of 1918). But there is always a down with the up. The boy still struggles to write often to the point of a tantrum out of tiredness and frustration. He's also still struggling with social things- looking people in the eye, answering and asking questions. Making friends is difficult for him. When he's curious about kids and willing to engage them in conversation, they're not wanting to talk to him. And then you have the times where another kid approaches him, asks him a question or says hi and Caleb walks away. Timing can be so difficult sometimes. We've made tons of progress but there's still more to work on.

In this past year, the boy has done amazing things. I still get a little teary thinking about the moment in Disney way back in March, how he dressed up in a Jedi robe, got up on stage, interacted with the Jedi master and fought Darth Vader. We made it through 4 days of Disney fun with only a few bobbles. He enjoyed Dinosaur camp at the museum (without his little sister). He's become a seasoned ring bearer participating in both Aunt Jackie and Aunt Betsy's weddings this summer. And for those weddings, he wore a vest and tie (clip-on but still a tie!). He's gotten so much better with his writing and using his words and controlling his temper. We've gone from walking on eggshells not knowing what might set him off to a peaceful, albeit somewhat crazy household. I don't have to stress about getting him to leave the house most days. He's using his words more and more to sort out differences with his sister. He's also getting better at recognizing and expressing his feelings. Progress is a great thing and even with little regressions here and there, you know that progress was made once and can be done again and again.

And have Caleb's interests changed in this year...not really.

The boy still loves all things science- especially at the library. He bounces back and forth between the Star Wars chapter books on one side of the children's section to the non-fiction science books on the other side. Caleb continues to love, love, love to read. He devours books and then rereads them again and again. He laughs while he's reading, he asks questions about the worlds of Star Wars and Harry Potter. Yes, that was the big thing late this summer. The boy read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It took him a little over 4 hours. It was a fluke. I just randomly gave it to him for something to do. We had tried to read it out loud a couple of times but he would lose interest just after a few chapters. Well, apparently the problem is that silly mommy reads too slow. Now the boy is bugging me weekly for the second book. But this mommy is not quite ready for him to be plowing through that series (as much as I love it) so he has to be content with rereading book 1 for the next year or so. And to his future reading teachers... I'm sorry but you've got a whole family that loves reading and so the boy is going to be well read. We've polished of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 101 Dalmations (the original novel, not the Disney version), The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and many more that I can't keep track of. Most recently we've started Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM (he initially had no interest in this one but once I started reading it to Sadie, he's since become hooked).

Star Wars has also been tough. The boy continues to love any and all things Star Wars and he has yet to see any of the movies. I think we might be ready for Episode 1 soon (I hope).

The boy has developed some imaginary friends, which isn't surprising considering the posse that Sadie has surrounding her at all times. However, Caleb seems to have befriended the villains. Bowser, Emperor Palpatine, these are his buddies. Bowser's entire family traveled to Disney with us and Caleb enjoyed telling us how Bowser and his family were having more fun then we were in different areas of the park. Most recently, Caleb seems to have recognized the importance of learning a second language. He introduced us to El Suprimo his Spanish translator for Caleb Enterprises. Speaking of Caleb World, it continues to grow and expand with his imagination. I'm still not sure if I should be proud of his creativity or concerned for his quest for global domination. But it's good to know that he's making his way and working hard even in his imaginary world. It makes me so excited to see what he'll be when he's older.

So Caleb is in kindergarten, in our local public school. I've been very pleased with it so far. We prayed all spring and summer for his teacher and our prayers were answered. His teacher is amazing! She's caring and understanding and willing to work together with me to help this little guy. We trade emails on a weekly basis. She's open to suggestions that will help him in class. She's willing to let some things slide but will also stick to her guns and push him when he needs it. She sees that much of the academics of kindergarten, he knows but that there are many other parts of school that he will struggle with. Most importantly, I feel like I can trust her to care for my boy and that is a huge thing. He's also making friends at school. The couple of weeks were hard. There was an incident on the bus and it turned out that Caleb was being picked on. I don't have the unrealistic notion that my boy will get through 13 years of public school without enduring some teasing but to have it start on only the second week of school. To have my boy ask me why a boy would call him a "thumbsucker"? Why a boy would hit him? Well, all my fears of him being targeted and not even able to understand what was happening... But it was sorted out. My boy was not being targeted. The boy on the bus was picking on all the kindergarteners and it was corrected. And in the middle of it all, I went in to pick up Caleb from school and as he left his class line, all these little voices calling out "'bye Caleb" It melted my heart and continues to at every lunchtime pick up. My boy is making friends, slowly but surely.

Caleb has a team at school. He's getting OT services, speech services and he's started in the gifted program. I've been moved to tears at the people who are working so hard to help him succeed. I feel blessed to be in an area where I don't have to fight them to recognize his challenges and that they aren't just meeting his needs but also helping him to grow so that he doesn't need as many supports. It's been so encouraging and I feel confident that they'll continue to support him and encourage him to excel as he grows.

It's still bittersweet to watch my boy grow. I miss that little baby who loved to curl up and be read to but I love this little boy that is so smart and caring and silly.

Picture Time!

2011-10-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

Caleb's 6 year pictures and Sadie's 5 year pictures. I'm happy with them and I didn't even need to bribe the boy to wear the hat :-)

The Little/Big Sister

2011-08-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

We know that our little Sadie is a gift from God. Of course, we believe that all children are gifts but Sadie's our special gift. God knew Caleb and God knew that he needed Sadie.

Sadie has done more for Caleb than all of his therapies. I often wonder what our boy would look like if he had been an only child in our house of quiet introverts. Would he have retreated more and more into his books? Would he still struggle with games of pretend?

Our Sadie, from the start, refused to play by Caleb's rules and drew him out of his world and into her's with her imaginary Mexican family, talking dogs, ballerina cowgirls and, of course, the princesses.

Now as they're growing, I'm seeing Sadie beginning to take on a new role.

We spent the weekend at camp. Just me, the kids and Pappy (Andy was home working and participating in movie magic, being an extra for Batman). Weekends at camp are challenging- the nearest grocery store is a little one in a town about 30 min away over the mountain, there's no cell service, and then there's the constant reminder of my stepmother- but we do these weekends with my dad and hopefully make some new memories at their camp in the woods.

As the kids are getting older, they get more and more excited about going to camp. I'm thinking it's less about being out in the woods and more about Pappy's tendency to be very generous with cookies and Bugs Bunny cartoons. But the kids were very excited to go up. This trip was for cousin C's birthday and to pick blueberries.

As excited as the kids are to go to camp, these weekends can be a little more challenging for the Boy. It's really hard to keep a schedule and a routine at camp. Caleb needs to be very "go with the flow" and after a few days of that, he's often done. My dad has gotten much better in understanding Caleb but I know the tantrums make him uncomfortable so I'm on supermom duty trying to manage it all.

This weekend, Supermom, had a sidekick and I got to see my little girl understanding and trying so hard to calm her big brother.

Caleb did very good most of the weekend but we did have a couple of bobbles. One in particular was during video game time. This is often in the evenings when the Boy is tired, spent (coping-wise) and it makes for a sometimes volatile combination. In these situations, he has a really difficult time losing gracefully. This evening was no different and I'm not exactly sure how it happened but the boy lost a game, got very upset and when I came into the living room, Sadie was with him, trying very hard to calm him down. I could hear her soothing voice and see her gesturing with her hands, explaining that things were okay and that he needed to just settle down and we would sort it all out.

It was a sweet moment and made this mama very proud of her girl. Her little girl, growing up and recognizing her big brother's challenges. Her little girl caring more about him, than about playing her game with Pappy. And Caleb responded to her, calming down and then coming to me so that we could sort it all out.

It's happened a few more times since then. He hasn't gone into a full-blown tantrum but she's recognized instances where he might have difficulties and calmly tried to talk him through them.

I know she doesn't know Aspergers or even Autism but she loves her big brother and wants to help him. And this mama is happy to have all the help she can get, especially if it helps her boy.

Still in Holland: Part Two

2011-07-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

We had a great week with G'ma. We filled the time with lots of fun activities and still made plenty of time for stories and playing pretend. Part of keeping Caleb together, means still having time for him to escape, to curl up with his 2 best friends- Giant Frog and a book. So we had plenty of time for that.

On G'ma's last day, we had some extra time so we decided to go to the Science Center for the morning. It was a nice way to avoid the heat but it was also very crowded. There were several camps there so we skipped the first two floors and headed up to the top floor to try to avoid the crowds a bit.

It's been awhile since I was last at the science center. It's changed quite a bit and I love the changes. One big change is the addition of a gated area on the top floor for ages 3-6 and their families. This was perfect for us. The camps started with kindergarten age kids and many of them couldn't come in because they didn't have chaperones with them. It was the perfect place for us and many of the other families trying to enjoy the science center.

The area has several climbing spots, a big water table, a place for dress ups and a little book corner and my boy's favorite, at the back is a contraption for moving plastic balls around. A conveyor belt takes them up to a bin at the top of the machine and when the bin gets too full, a whistle sounds and the balls drop down on whoever is underneath. I think just about every kid there loved that part. And my boy was right with them.

It was here that it hit me again- my boy is different. My boy has asperger's.

Caleb was eagerly loading the conveyor belt with balls or turning the wheel to take them up to the bin. He was so happy. A group of 6 yr olds convinced their chaperone to bring them into the area too. They quickly came back to this contraption (how could you resist?!). Caleb wasn't bothered by more kids and they didn't seem bothered by him. The whistle sounded, the balls dropped and it all began again with dozens of squeals and giggles. I kept watching Caleb and I noticed some boys working with him. They had their ages on their name badges- K-1. These were Caleb's peers. Caleb will be 6 in a little over a month. And as I watched him and them, he was bouncing and giggling and flapping. It was a bittersweet moment. I was thrilled to see him so happy, having such a great time. How can you not feel that joy when you see it on your child's face? And yet, seeing side by side the difference between my boy and these other children...

It's a reality. Fortunately, it's not a hopeless reality. He's going to keep growing and keep learning how to fit in this crazy world. He'll become more like these other kids, with a little extra help but at the same time, I truly hope that he doesn't lose that freedom to express his happiness. As a supremely self-conscious individual, I love that both my kids are so confident and willing to express themselves without reservation. I envy that freedom. I want Caleb to learn but not lose himself in all these treatments and therapies. Hopefully there will be a balance.

After awhile, he grew tired of the balls and ready to explore more things. I thought he might appreciate a reading break after being with all those kids for so long. I led him over the the book area and my boy casually glanced at the books but before I could take a seat to read with him, he had turned around and was making his way back to the water table?!?!! Of all things! He went to the water table, put on an apron and proceeded to get busy in the water. Who was this kid? G'ma was just as surprised as I was. This is the boy who still insists on changing his outfit if even the smallest drop of liquid lands on him. How many trips to the Children's Museum where we couldn't even consider going up to the water floor? And to turn down books in favor of getting wet?

My boy is growing. My boy is learning. My boy is getting a handle on his quirks and having an easier time playing.

Caleb spent a good 15 minutes playing in the water. He didn't even bat an eye when he got sprayed in the face by one of the other kids. He didn't complain that there were wet spots on his shirt and shorts. And at the end, we didn't spend any time at all with the books.

It was a good day and a great visit! Thank you G'ma for coming out to play :-)

Still in Holland: Part One

2011-07-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, we're still in Holland. Many of you might say, "What?!?!" and if that's you, please click on the link and read. I really enjoyed that piece, the first time that I came across it.

We've been in Holland for some time now and maybe it's that it's becoming more familiar, or maybe it's becoming more like where we prepared to go but this week, I saw several reminders that we're still in Holland or that my son still has Asperger's.

I do quickly admit that I feel very blessed. With such a wide range of symptoms and abilities, I'm thankful that my boy is where he is. I'm thankful that he has a great team helping him, that we have great family and friends who understand and support us. I'm thankful for the huge progress that he's made in just this short year of treatment. I'm thankful that he's eager to go to school and that (so far) we have a school district willing to accommodate him and work with us to encourage his success. I'm thankful that I don't have some of the worries that other parents have.

I spend a lot of time reading their stories, other experiences with ASD and I am again and again amazed at the strength and dedication these families have. And then there are times when I'm reading and thinking of my boy and part of me says, "This isn't him. This diagnosis isn't real." I convince myself that he's just quirky and sometimes (but don't tell) I feel like I'm waiting for someone to say, "wait, he doesn't have that. He doesn't need all these treatments."

And then, we go out into the world and I see him with others his age and it hits me, sometimes hard and sometimes painful.

This week, I was hit twice. The first time didn't hurt too much because of the joy in my little guy's face. With G'ma here for the week, we decided to spend a day at Idlewild Park in Ligonier. This is a great park for kids and families and worth the trip if you're ever in Western PA.

It was a great day (hot but still fun) and it happened to be Super Hero Week for the park. Spiderman, The Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America were all going to be there, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Even thought my boy lives for his superheroes (and I'm convinced that Caleb Corporations has evolved from Tony Stark) Caleb actually didn't seem too eager so we took our time getting through the park and then we made it over to the stage shortly before the first set of superheroes were done. Of course, there was a decently long line stretching out into the hot sun of people waiting to get their autographs. We were already pretty hot and I had flashbacks from March and standing in line with Sadie to meet Ariel and Prince Eric on our Disney trip. I really didn't want to relive that experience. Caleb seemed content to go watch the characters from the audience with G'ma so I took Sadie on the ferris wheel. We got on the ride and the superheroes wrapped up. Then, from the top of the wheel, I could hear my boy and the tantrum began. I tried to relax- for many reasons, mostly that leaning forward in our little cart caused it to shake and rock and while I'm not completely scared of heights, in situations like this my very active imagination quickly plays out scenarios of me and my daughter falling to our deaths. So I sat back and strongly encouraged Sadie to sit back and not look for her brother. Of course, I knew G'ma could handle him. I couldn't ask for a better prepared G'ma for Caleb. She's a first grade teacher for many years and happens to have a ton of experience with kids like Caleb. She's often my go to person for advice and strategies for handling him. No problem. Plus, I thought to myself, he hasn't had a real tantrum in months and certainly not out in public. Again, I tried to relax and again, I could still hear my boy losing it. And worse, from our vantage point, I could see the people turning and staring. I swear I could hear their thoughts- I used to be there, the person watching the kid who is way too old having a tantrum. Sadly, I admit it, I was also the one thinking why can't the parents control their kid. I've since learned my lesson.

I wanted to yell for the ride operators to let us off. My mama bear instincts kicked in and I desperately wanted to be there to calm him down and sort things out. Again, not that I didn't trust my mom-in-law. I knew G'ma was doing her best with him. I knew she had an extra difficult situation- a hot, tired, cranky and disappointed boy is not always easy to calm down.

He continued to cry and scream in waves while Sadie and I went round and round and waited as they unloaded the wheel. It seemed to take forever. It was the longest he's carried on like this in ages and it felt like the longest I had ever been stuck on a ferris wheel.

He was still very upset when they let us off and I pulled Sadie over to the bench. I left her with G'ma and grabbed Caleb, still crying, and pulled him away to try to find some place more private. We headed for the bathroom and he settled a little while I put cool water on his hands and face. Then we found a quiet bench to sit and talk about how to solve this problem that made him so upset. All and all, he calmed down pretty easily and apologized to G'ma for carrying on like that.

Then mama stood in line with her boy to wait to meet Captain America and Iron Man.

Once again, all was right in Caleb's world and despite the tantrum, mommy couldn't resist picking up a Captain American doll for the boy to get autographed. (and just so you know, I was not rewarding the tantrum. that's not how it works with these kids. he didn't even ask for the doll and would have been perfectly fine going up to see the characters without it) He stood in line for over an hour, not even taking a break to go for a ride on the carousel. He was determined to not miss his heroes and the boy didn't even complain about the heat.

After getting our autographs and pictures, the boy needed some sensory time so we headed back the ball pit at Jumpin' Jungle. This is my boy's happy place. Feeling all the balls in the ball pit is perfect for him and all his sensory seeking. Not to mention, it was raining off and on and G'ma and I were enjoying the idea of sitting for a bit too.

After the ball pit, it was a climb up the cargo net. Then Sadie and G'ma hung out at the zip line, while Caleb and I went into the Jungle Catch. It's a little netted area with a bunch of air jets and plastic balls that you can set up to float on them. Caleb gets quite a kick out of this place and within minutes he was bouncing and giggling hysterically. Then he started putting his face over the jets and letting his hair stick straight up. I snapped pictures, eager to record the joy on his face and that's what it was, pure joy. My heart melted and then I glanced around at the other kids in there and I noticed it. For the first time I really saw it. He was bouncing and giggling and up on his tiptoes and flapping. Not bad things but things that you see in kids with ASD. But he smiled at me and I forgot all about it. He was happy and that's all that mattered.

2 steps forward, 1 step back

2011-07-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

hmm, it really has been awhile. Summer ended and for awhile it was busier than when the kids were in school. They did a week of camps at the museum (Caleb in Dino Camp, Sadie in Art Camp) and then went to vacation Bible school the next week. In the midst of that, Caleb had his evaluation for Kindergarten (testing to see if he would need special ed services or not).

All of this has been interesting and challenging and stressful for this mama. The boy has come through it all really well. I've been so proud and amazed by how he handled the transition from school to summertime. We haven't been completely bump free but we've been much better than previous years.

I'm not sure how much of it is him coping better and how much of it is us learning to read him better, to know when he's had too much and needs his space to quietly read or to spend an entire day in pjs.

I love my boy and I'm thrilled to watch him grow. I'm excited that he's ready to go to Kindergarten, that he's so smart and surprises me each day with some new fact that he's picked up somewhere (yesterday it was about the parts of an ant, head, thorax, abdomen).

At the same time, I'm scared for him. He's leaving my protection, my safe haven where it's just us and we understand him. He's going to be with other adults, with other children and sometimes those adults aren't going to be patient with him and sometimes those kids are going to be mean to him. I tear up thinking about it and yet I know, that's a part of growing up. I know that I can't always be with him and I know that if he's going to understand how to be with others, he's going to need to spend time with others and sometimes that will have to be without me. I know my boy is amazing and funny and such a sweetheart. I also know that he's kind of weird and can be hard to talk to and I'm praying every day that he gets to be with people who fall in love with all of his amazing qualities and can overlook his quirks.

I see him trying so hard and I wish I could make it easy for him. This week he tried a small bite of zucchini. For most people, this would not be something worth posting about. He took the bite without resisting or fighting us. He swallowed it even while gagging and then it all came back up. We don't yet know why his body is like this. We just know that he can't control it. As I was cleaning him up in the kitchen, he kept saying "Mommy, I'm sorry. I tried to keep it in."

Today we had lunch and playtime at McDonald's. It's been a nice place to meet one of Sadie's classmates there. We have a long lunch with plenty of breaks to play and there's a constant flux of kids in to eat and play. It can be stressful though, at least for me. Up in the tubes, I can't see what's going on and I can't always keep track of Caleb and how he's interacting with the other kids. It's a loud place and so of course, my kids are loud too. Unfortunately, Caleb's loud, weird voice sometimes can scare the kids. Caleb will be trying to play but to some kids, his playing can look aggressive. And of course today, after some time playing, a group of girls decided that they didn't really like Caleb being around them. They told their moms that he was trying to hit them. Then they (the girls) told me that he was trying to "beat them up." I did my best to assure them that he wouldn't hit them, that he just liked to be loud. I could see in their eyes, they didn't believe me. I pulled Caleb down to apologize to the girls. The girls gloated at Caleb that they had told his mom. I still have no idea what happened. He says the girls were being mean to him and I can believe that but I've also seen other kids unsure of him when he's yelling and carrying on.

It's these situations that make me nervous. It's these situations that make me pray more fervently for God to send him a special friend to navigate school with all it's complex social situations. We just hope for 1 friend.

Pirate game 2011

2011-05-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Our first Pirate game for the year and it was so much fun. We ended the outing with running the bases. Caleb, Sadie and their friend Simon, stood in line and patiently waited to walk out on the field and run the bases.

here's video of us walking out onto the field

and running the bases...

there will be more pics to come but i'm too tired to retouch right now. Sadly, the Buccos lost but we still had lots of fun

allergies

2011-05-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

So they're saying that this year has been absolutely terrible for allergies and I can certainly believe it. Andy's been living on zyrtec since March and even though I've never really suffered from allergies, I've found myself more congested and uncomfortable then ever.

Sadie, however, has developed a new and unusual allergy. She's decided that she's allergic to turtles. Now we're not sure if this means that she can't be around turtles or if it's more that she can't eat them but she's pretty insistent on it. Even at the doctor's recently, the doc asked me if she had any allergies (wanting to be sure that she would be okay on antibiotics) but before I could respond, Sadie informed the doc of her turtle allergy. The doc looked at me wide-eyed and I really didn't know what to say, except that "yep, that's Sadie." In defense of the doc, she doesn't usually see Sadie. Somehow, I think that Dr. R, her usual pediatrician would have just laughed it off. He's definitely used to Sadie's stories.

So, while most households need to be nut-free, we will be going turtle free but I have to admit, I'm curious as to what her reaction is to turtles.

silly monkeys

2011-05-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

we went to the zoo the other day and mistakenly brought home 2 monkeys instead of the children...

Easter Morning 2011

2011-05-01T19:22:00.001-07:00

It took the kids quite awhile to find them, even with Daddy telling them hot or cold.

and yes, at one point Daddy tells the little girl that she's getting really cold but she assures us that she likes to be cold and then puts on a pretend jacket.

But she finally finds it after much persistance

The Magic Kingdom- in pictures

2011-04-08T16:32:00.001-07:00

The Princess is Home

Wish I could have managed a better shot of the castle but it just wasn't going to happen this time.

Disney's Animal Kingdom, in pictures!

2011-03-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

Caleb vs Darth Vader!

2011-03-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

Caleb took part in Jedi Training Academy at Disney Studios and to pass, he had to go up again Darth Vader and conquer the dark side.

Dancing Sadie

2011-03-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

Sadie Dancing at Disney! enjoy!

What I Learned From our Disney Vacation...

2011-03-25T07:12:00.001-07:00

1. Our children were not properly prepared for the Disney visit in that they hadn't seen many of the Disney movies and didn't recognize many of the characters. This was most evident on our first day in Animal Kingdom- they didn't know Rafiki or Jiminy Cricket and Sadie is now convinced that Pocahontas is actually Poca Hontas and has a beaver friend who takes care of her hair. We'll be spending all of April watching Disney movies to get caught up.

2. Caleb has a scientific mind and with that comes a curiosity about how the human body works. Add to that certain biographical information on Walt Disney and you get... well, an interesting conversation. We took the Magic Bus from the airport to the hotel and there was a short movie about DW on the bus. When Caleb saw Walt Disney, he began asking all these questions about how Disney had died. "Did his cells deteriorate?" "Did his organs shut down?" Not the happiest of conversations for the drive to the happiest place on earth and of course, everyone around us on the bus could hear but he's a curious boy with a desire to know things so we go with it.

3. Sometimes when the Walt Disney World Guide for Kids says that a ride is Dark, Rough, Loud and Scary, it might be a good idea to skip that particular ride.
Our first day at Disney was spent at Disney's Animal Kingdom and while there we decided to check out Dinosaur. Audio-animatronic dinosaurs? Cool! What could be scary?.... Well, at least Daddy liked the ride. Caleb and Sadie, not so much and we'll just leave it at that. And from then on, the kids would not go on anything that was listed as dark, loud, and scary. Oh, and we were also done with dinosaurs after that experience.

4. A little girl will spend the entire day in her Cinderella dress, hoping to meet her favorite princess. And yes sweetheart, you looked stunning.

5. If it's in an air-conditioned building, Mommy will stand in line for an hour or more to get princess or Pixar autographs. If not, Mommy will only do it once. Sorry Tinkerbell, you're just not worth that much time in the hot sun on the last (and hottest) day of the vacation. I learned my lesson with Ariel and Prince Eric.

6. Mommy and Daddy will stand in the hot sun with no sunscreen on eagerly watching their little boy become a Jedi and fight his enemy (Darth Vader). And Mommy will get teary eyed at how her little man is doing things that he wouldn't have even considered doing just a year ago. Things like putting on a Jedi robe and talking to people in costume- not a big deal for many boys his age but a huge success for our little man.

7. An adorable little girl can get a super hero to do just about anything. We have photographic evidence of Mr. Incredible doing plies for Sadie.

8. When you're done, you're done. Even if the fireworks are still going off in the sky.
We stayed to watch the light and fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday night. I couldn't believe the kids were even up for it but halfway through the show, Sadie turns around to me and says "okay, let's go" and her brother said the same thing. So we got up and headed for the buses, with out even a glance back at the fireworks finale.

9. Sometimes you have to push through the fear.
Dinosaur did a number on the monkeys and I hoped that they would get over it before the end of vacation. I really, really, really wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids really, really, really didn't want to go on it. With much convincing and well, picking them up and carrying them onto the ride, we did it. And they saw that it wasn't so bad. Still not their favorite Disney ride but I hope that we taught them that sometimes we do things for the people we love and audio-animatronic isn't always bad.

10. My happiest moments at Disney as a kid are very different from being there as a parent. There really is something magical in seeing such happiness in your child's eyes. It's really special.

Caleb's Everything Shoppe

2011-03-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

Caleb has joined the ranks of small business owner or possibly even corporate CEO. The Everything Shoppe. This is a store that he came up with sometime during the past few months and talks about it every now and then.

This morning during breakfast we got to see how diligently he works at managing his store. He informed us that business was great, that there were people everywhere. The store seems to deal mostly with super hero merchandise and cereal. He mentioned how his Human Torch Flame dolls weren't doing so good. We suggested trying to advertise more. He explained that they came with a turn-offer switch for the flames- a good design element.

During our conversation, Caleb excused himself to take a call from his cell phone (a dedicated CEO working even on Saturday morning). He quickly came back and filled us in on the latest. Apparently his best box maker (the guy in charge of making all the cereal boxes) was ill and needed to go to the doctors. Caleb told us that he had caught diabetes from his cat and was in need of medicine. To make matters worse, he was in Harrisburg and didn't know how to find the hospital. He only knew the one in Pittsburgh and didn't have a GPS.

I'm not sure what this means to the cereal production at Caleb's Everything Shoppe but I suggested that his box maker go to the library and look up directions to the hospital on the computer. Hopefully that will help and Caleb can enjoy the rest of his weekend :-)

Caleb- Through Daddy's Eyes

2011-02-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

This post was written by Andy who has a unique understanding of our little guy and a great way of writing about him.

***********************************************************************************

Caleb Walsh, the hardest working man in the Empire

By now you are probably familiar with the exploits of Margot, Sal, Ziggy, Bella, Queenie, and the plethora of Mexican relatives that form Sadie's imaginary posse. Well, not to be outdone, Caleb has started accumulating his own band of adventurers for his own ongoing saga. But unlike Sadie, Caleb has chosen his companions from the ranks of the various stories and video games he enjoys so much. That's probably not surprising, given how much time the boy spends with his nose in a book. And he is at the age where many boys get engrossed in the world of superheroes, globe trotters, and space adventurers. There's just one little detail that makes me a little concerned: Caleb keeps siding with the villains.

Now, as a parent, you worry about your kids falling in with the wrong crowd. But how do you prepare for you kid becoming friends with supervillains and video game bosses? Of all the characters in the Star Wars universe, Caleb likes to spend time with Emperor Palpatine, evil despot of the Galactic Empire. After playing Super Mario Brothers, Caleb decided to be friends with Bowser, the scourge of the Mushroom Kingdom. He plays with supervillains, Batman's rogue gallery, notorious bounty hunters, and ne'er-do-wells from all sorts of fictional universes. Just where did I go wrong as a father?

Did I do something wrong? By teaching my son that making a few bad choices doesn't make him a bad person, have I blinded him to the fact that there is true evil in the world? Or should I be learning from him? Does he have a capacity for unconditional friendship that I should be seeking to emulate? Perhaps it would help to understand just what it is that makes Caleb choose these friends. Does he have ambitions of global domination, a penchant for mayhem, or perhaps a desire for untold riches? Well, if his ongoing stories are any indication, what Caleb likes best about the forces of evil is not any of these things. No, he's in it for the anonymity of mid-level service positions.

He may be boyhood friends with the emperor of the Galaxy, but there is no job too small for Caleb. He's the tractor beam operator, the TIE fighter repairman, the AT-AT pilot. He tended to the Sarlacc when it was just a baby. The other day he gave Dr. Freeze an eye exam; I can only assume he provides optometry services for all supervillains. He appears to take great pride in doing the jobs that no one else ever seems to have time to do in these fictional worlds. So, why not use all of his prodigious talents for good? As near as I can tell, it's because heroes don't have legions of nameless minions. You see, while he enjoys playing in these worlds, he can't imagine trying to be one of the characters. Those are other people, not him. And since the nature of these stories don't really allow for anonymous heroes, the only place for him is among the ranks of the bad guys.

Caleb loves his books; he wouldn't dare change them just to suit his own pretending. That would violate his Prime Directive. So he goes to some pretty extraordinary lengths to dance between the raindrops of established continuity, to find a way to be a part of the stories as they are. Hence he works behind the scenes, fixing machines, building satellites, and generally keeping the lights on, all the while bearing witness to these epic tales. He always manages to be right there whenever something important is happening. But at just the wrong (right?) moment, fate will intervene to keep Caleb from having any impact. "I was just about to grab Chewbacca, but I tripped." "I tried to leap into action, but I fell into the sand and got stuck." "I almost stopped Han Solo, but Emperor Palpatine had been eating fruit and I slipped on a banana peel." These near misses never bother him; whatever happened couldn't have happened any other way.

Maybe one day Caleb will get to be the hero of his own story. I guess being friends with a villain doesn't always mean you have to become one yourself. Many heroes were close friends with their archnemesis at some point. Caleb's compassion and selfless desire to help others certainly seem like traits of a hero, not a villain. And he's certainly learning a lot of useful skills. His favorite stories may be set in stone, but his story is still largely unwritten. I look forward to seeing it unfold. And in the meantime, whenever I watch "Star Wars" and see that Storm Trooper smack his head on a door as he makes his way through the Death Star, I'll know that isn't just any faceless henchman. That's my Caleb, the hardest working man in the Empire.

Romeo and Juliet at McDonalds

2011-01-29T08:52:00.001-08:00

The other day was conference day. The kids' preschool does parent/teacher conferences twice a year and they're pretty helpful (especially with trying to judge where Caleb is with things). The disappointing thing about conferences is that they are on a school day so no school and normally that's not a bad thing but when you've missed most of January due to snow and ice it's kind of frustrating to have another day off for the kids.

Well, to reward them for making it through their first, mostly full week of school since December, I decided to take them to McDonald's. There's one near our house that has a nice indoor playground and the kids have been bugging me to go there since we moved out here.

We got there, ordered and went to sit and eat in the play area. I have to say, it was nicer than I had expected. It was clean and most importantly, it didn't smell funny. The kids were really good and ate their lunches. Caleb even ate the chicken nuggets (he's been objecting to them on past trips) When they finished eating, I let them play. There were quite a few kids there and I would say, in less than 10 minutes, Sadie had a little boy just a bit older than her, following her around.

The kids all played for awhile. I was excited to see Caleb involved in the games too. They were pretty much just chasing each other through the tubes and while it makes me nervous, I was happy that things were going so well. Caleb is doing better with other kids but when he gets excited, he can seem aggressive. He yells and growls a lot which other kids can interpret as threatening and, well, we've had things escalate to where he's hitting. Previously this wasn't such a big problem but as he's getting bigger and older it's a more difficult situation. Most parents don't expect a 5 yr old to be hitting and without understanding his circumstances, it makes for a very uncomfortable situation.

I sat back and let the kids enjoy playing for a while and it was nice. They came over for some sips of milk and to check on their Happy Meal prizes. Then I noticed that Sadie was spending more time with her little friend and Caleb was off on his own. Again, this happens some time so I wasn't too concerned. Then I noticed Sadie and her friend running away from Caleb and I started paying a bit more attention. Sure enough, Sadie's little friend was getting a little possessive of the Sadie-girl and didn't seem to want to share her attention, even with her big brother.

Caleb came by and I told him they could each do one more thing and then we would get ready to go. Of course the one thing Caleb wanted to do was to sit in a car with Sadie and Sadie didn't want to leave her friend. I tried to persuade Caleb to let her have some space and then I tried to persuade Sadie to indulge her brother and none of it was working. Caleb started getting upset and I was done and so announced that we were going home. This was when Sadie's little friend decided to come over and taunt Caleb for having to go home. Big mistake!!

Mama bear kicked in and I gave the little guy a very serious mommy-glare and said "Do Not Do That. We Don't Act Like That." Not yelling, but talking very sternly to this young man who quickly backed off and got quiet.

I calmed Caleb down and then had an upset Sadie who wasn't ready to go (of course- did I mention, this started out like a great way to spend the afternoon?) I tried to explain to Sadie that if she and her friend couldn't be nice and play with Caleb, then we couldn't stay. Sadie was heart-broken and so I had to help her with her shoes. I was done. While doing this, I noticed her little friend inching back over towards us. I told Sadie she should say good bye to her friend as he came over. He got very close and very sweetly said "Good-bye Sadie, I love you." Sadie rattled off a "Good-bye, I love you" too and that was the end.

I was sooooo done with McDonald's and soooooo not ready for my 4 yr old to have little boys telling her they love her.

We are in soooooo much trouble with this one

questions....

2011-01-17T05:35:00.001-08:00

Here's my question... how do you explain heaven and being part of God's family to a 5 yr old who doesn't like change?

We have a great church. We have a great church with a great children's ministry and Miss Sherry is absolutely wonderful with the kids. Yesterday was Sadie's first time as a 4 yr old in the 4 yr old class for children's church. This class is in the big room and i think the ages are 4-7 yrs old. It was a big change but she seemed to do well, especially since she could sit next to her brother.

We didn't hear much about the morning until dinner time last night. Then Caleb started telling us about Nicodemus. Then Sadie gave her very good explanation for being born again in her most serious voice "Jesus had to come and save us from our sins." And Caleb added that Granny was born again but she didn't become a baby again. I was very excited to see our kids working through this and eager to see where it went.

Knowing that my husband became Christian as a child, I prompted "Hey guys, you know, Daddy is born again?" And he explained to the kids how he prayed with his mommy and daddy when he was little to be able to go to heaven.

So there it was, we had talked about being born again, about being in God's family, about going to heaven. Were the kids ready to pray? I asked "Do you think you want to go to heaven?" Sadie very quickly nodded and said "yes, sure do." I looked at Caleb "I don't think so."

Then we realized, this boy will resist going to Disney World just because it's different and unfamiliar. It doesn't matter how great heaven is, he's not going to want to go. So how do we explain this to him? I found it to be a funny turn of events. I'm confident that God knows his heart and therefore knows his struggles so I'm not too worried that we didn't pray last night. I think it will be interesting to watch how God moves in his heart to help him understand these things.

The Case of the Missing Zuzu Pet

2011-01-06T16:00:00.001-08:00

It was a quiet afternoon in the Walsh house. Mom and the kids had finally finished un-decorating the Christmas tree. Suddenly, Sadie appeared with her Zuzu pet that she had gotten for Christmas. In order to travel, Daddy had wisely removed the batteries (on/off switches should be required for all toys) but Mommy wasn't sure where he had put them.

"Wait 'til Daddy comes home" Mommy told Sadie and she happily bounded away to find new fun and wait for Daddy. The Zuzu pets were forgotten... or so we thought.

After dinner, Sadie found her pet once again and asked to get it working. Daddy took over and soon we had a Zuzu pet rolling and squeaking around the floor. Daddy also mentioned to Caleb that if he brought his Zuzu pet over, Daddy would fix it too.

"But I don't know where it is" Caleb answered.

We sent him upstairs to look for it and sent Sadie with him- since she was the one who had found them first. The kids searched upstairs for a bit and came down empty-handed and disappointed so Daddy and Mommy began searching too. We searched book bags and other possible places downstairs but couldn't find anything. So we went upstairs. After a bit more searching, success! Caleb's Zuzu pet was right in the middle of his bedroom floor!

"Guys, how did you not see Caleb's Zuzu pet on the floor? What were you looking for?" Daddy asked.

"We were looking for footprints and found some and followed them downstairs" Caleb explained.

Not sure what Zuzu pet footprints look like and really not sure what footprints they were following.

New Pictures!

2010-12-12T06:02:00.000-08:00

So last spring I picked up a backdrop stand to use with my photography and it's been the best thing! I didn't manage to get the kids out doors for their photos this year so I set up the back drop and used our extra room as a studio to snap some birthday/Christmas pictures of the kids.

It wasn't as extensive of a photo session as my clients get but then my kids are so used to having the camera in their faces that they object quite a bit when I try to convince them to model for me. Sadie, though, if promised make-up, will be quite the model.

I don't have a ton to share- still finishing up client work for the holidays- but I had to post these so my mom could see them :-)

finding balance when illness happens

2010-11-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

i love my kids. i really, really, deep down in my soul, do-anything-for-them, love my kids. that said, there are moments where i don't know how to do that best or show it equally and that's something that i'm finding so hard.

i think it's more difficult when you have a kid with special needs and i'm still trying to get used to thinking about Caleb in that way. i always find myself trying to minimize and downplay his struggles, not that they are huge struggles but that almost if i accept them it makes his diagnosis more real. i still have difficulty accepting that he's on the spectrum and that he's going to struggle with things and i still forget that struggles aren't always bad for us.

anyways...

Caleb and Sadie each demand a lot of attention and for very different reasons. Caleb struggles with social situations and managing his tantrums and outbursts. Each week he spends 8 hours with his TSS and a couple of hours with his BSC and now we're adding occupational therapy to the mix. all of these things help him a great deal but it's a lot of attention that i think he would prefer not to have. on the other hand, Sadie will not be ignored. she almost seems to crave attention, at least most of the time and when big brother seems to be getting a lot of attention, it can be very difficult for a little girl.

a few weeks ago (Saturday), Sadie came down with a fever. not super high but significant enough to slow her down. we didn't see anything else wrong with her and so we administered ibuprofen and figured it would clear up in a day or two. Monday came and the fever was still there and still making her uncomfortable. we'd give her medicine in the morning, about lunch she would perk up for a bit and then by the afternoon she would be miserable. Tuesday morning was originally supposed to be her 4 yr checkup but instead became a sick visit when they saw the fever. the doctor looked her over and i still thought we were going to be sent home, convinced that she had the flu and kicking myself for not getting her the vaccine weeks ago at her brother's appointment. our doctor instead had a very serious tone and said that he wanted tests done. he mentioned mono, TB and the need for a chest x-ray and then the possibility of this Kawasaki syndrome, a very serious concern that would require a stay in the hospital. he pointed out Sadie's swollen lymph node on her neck- "her hurt neck" that i thought was code for a sore throat. then it was off to Children's for her tests.

for the rest of the week, Sadie became my focus. trying to take care of her fever, keep an eye out for other symptoms and generally be there for her. at the same time, trying to keep things as normal as possible for Caleb. Wednesday afternoon was the most difficult and the most conflicting moment for me. i noticed a red rash on the back of Sadie's shoulder and after reading up on the symptoms of Kawasaki (thank you webMD), knew that i needed to call the doctor. i filled him in on the change in her condition and he promised to call back with directions for us. Caleb was working with his TSS, a usual Wednesday afternoon but at the same time a lighter schedule then usual. at 3:15 the doctor's office called asking us to be there for 3:45. from the new house it takes us a good 20-30 min to get into Shadyside but i said we'd be there. i went upstairs and told Caleb we needed to go to the doctor's office for Sadie. he immediately said no and then the struggle began.

my little guy had no understanding of Sadie's need to get to the doctor's not because he didn't care but simply because he was focused on this unexpected change in his day. when he gets hit with these changes, sometimes he just says no and that's when i don't always know what to do. thankfully, i had his TSS there. she worked with him, talking to him, explaining to him, and coaxing him when i just didn't have the time or the patience to. i went back downstairs and gathered up Sadie. i took her down to the garage. Caleb still was refusing to come. i put her in the car and felt so bad leaving her sick and miserable even for the few moments it would take to go back upstairs to get her brother. again, thankfully, Caleb continued to refuse to go but he didn't tantrum. he's had trouble lately with tantrums and has had a few recently that lasted a good 20 minutes- time i didn't have in this instant. he let me carry him to the car, no shoes and no jacket. he also let me put him in and buckle him up. this would not have happened if he had been mid-tantrum. have you ever tried to buckle a 5 yr old in a seatbelt? it doesn't work well. i was so thankful that it went as smoothly as it did.

however, it still frustrated me that at this moment when i really needed to focus just on Sadie, i couldn't. i don't know, maybe i'm naive to think that parenting can be balanced that easily, maybe it's always going to be a give and take with my two. it did make me worry that Sadie might feel that she never gets the spotlight completely- that maybe she will continue to "demand" our attention to balance out all that we need to give her brother. it's a very frustrating situation to be in.

we made it to the doctor's relatively on time. her doctor was pretty confident that it was Kawasaki and got in contact with Children's. then he sent us home to wait one more day. Thursday morning we got the go ahead to take her to the hospital and get her admitted. fortunately, Caleb's preschool is fairly close to the hospital so he got to go to preschool, and we got to get Sadie set up in the hospital.

she was very brave getting an IV and numerous temp and blood pressure checks. they did an echo-cardiogram and finally started her treatment, an immuno-globulin drip. she bounced back pretty quick and enjoyed getting to watch a bunch of movies and cartoons, not to mention all the get well presents that appeared.

Friday afternoon, Caleb came to visit and he was able to see that Sadie was okay and that the hospital wasn't as scary as he thought it would be. they even spent a couple hours playing in the playroom together.

after a day of observation, Sadie was released to go home and we were all thankful to have her back.

she's expected to make a complete recovery. she has a follow-up echo-cardiogram in January and until then, she's enjoying a baby aspirin a day to prevent clotting and keep her heart in good shape in case there was any damage to it. we're so thankful that everything went so well.

and now things are back to normal... or as normal as they get here :-)

Out with the trash

2010-11-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

This morning was a difficult morning. No, this morning was an almost impossible morning- a feverish 4 yr old, a tantrum-ing 5 yr old, and a mommy quickly learning that her quiet morning to herself was going poof. For extra fun, add poop on the floor, a naked tantrum-ing 5 yr old, and the added drama that illness needs when your 4 yr old is a diva in the making. It was not fun.

The real parenting moment though, was when Caleb, finally bathed, calmed and in fresh pjs, looked at me with watery eyes and a pout-y mouth and asked if I was going to put him out with the trash. It was heartbreaking to hear and immediately my eyes teared up too. I told him that I would never do that and that no matter what, he will always be my favorite boy. Then he asked why and again my heart just melted as I hugged him and, looking him in the eye, assured him that I love him so very much.

It made me think that no matter how much people tell us that they love us sometimes, in some moments, we still need that reassurance that their love will always be there.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-08T16:28:00.000-08:00

Just needed to post that the boy was Superman for the third year in a row and yes, the costume still fit and may still fit next year. I'm just happy that he's willing to dress-up and go trick or treating.

So here's a little time line :-)

And you can't ignore Miss Cinderella!

Ballet Class

2010-11-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

So I had to get these pics up for my family who aren't on facebook. This week Sadie's ballet class invited parents to sit in and watch the class. Of course, I was so excited to be able to be in the room instead of sneaking peeks through the tiny little window in the door and I made sure to bring my camera. I dream of one day being able to photograph Sadie dancing on toe maybe it's all those years of studying Degas and his ballerinas, maybe it's my envy for how graceful ballerinas are... I don't know but I'm holding on to that dream.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoyed snapping a few pics of my little 'rina

Happy 4th Birthday Sadie-girl!

2010-11-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

Little girl growing up... Sadie is now 4 going on at least 14 or 15. It's frightening. Somehow this child has managed to have all the confidence, boldness and outgoing-ness that her daddy, brother and I have never had. What she lacks in knowledge, she makes up for with enthusiasm. That's our Sadie.

Over the past year, we've had some pretty big milestones. Sadie mastered the potty in just under a week (a huge relief after the battle of potty-training her brother). She got to go to her first birthday party (non-relative). She went ice skating for the first time and attended her first ballet class.

She also invented her first imaginary friend- the first of many... but more about that later.

Sadie is my little ball of energy and joy. Yep, I can't think to describe it any other way. First thing in the morning, she wakes up with a big smile on her face and asks "What are we going to do today, Mom?" Something as simple as getting clean clothes from the dryer, she gushes over "Oh, thank you Mommy for my clean pjs" and she takes them and dances into her bedroom to put them away. Every gift for birthdays or Christmas's or for no reason at all is accepted with such enthusiasm that you might be tempted to think that she's acting for someone but the feeling is real, even if it is given with a dramatic flare. She never fails to remind me that anything can be good or exciting if you just look at it from the right perspective.

Now, don't get me wrong, the princess is certainly capable of showing the world her less desirable moods. She can be one whiny-cranky mess when the world aligns against her. Even while trick or treating the other night... it was our first time in the new neighborhood. Everyone was out. It was cold and the princess didn't want her jacket to cover her beautiful Cinderella costume. (Yes, we're a bit of a diva at times) We made it out and over to the next door neighbor's. Then we hit the house after that. After the third house, we had to walk around the corner and down the next street a little ways. Little Cinderella starts dragging her feet, "but I waannna trick or treat" "well, Sadie, that's what we're doing" We could only figure that 1. she was cold and 2. the house here are much farther apart than in Oakland, requiring her little feet to do a lot more walking. She perked up after getting her jacket on but in the end, they only made it down one street before they were done for the night.

She also can hold her own with a tantrum but fortunately those don't happen very often and when they do, it's usually because she is just too exhausted.

Sadie is our social butterfly. She loves being the center of attention. Often we believe that the world is her stage and we're just the audience. This is a lot of fun (most of the time). You never know when she's going to start a song or a dance or talk with a weird accent and poses or take a dive. She continues to be our physical comedienne. In fact, as I'm typing this, she struts down the hall with a blanket on her head and in her most elegant voice asks "how do i look?"

Preschool started a couple months ago and she's in the class Caleb had last year. She goes 3 mornings a week and on Wednesdays, she gets to stay for lunch. And apparently, Sadie already is developing quite the entourage. She has a best friend, Samantha, and judging by pictures in the classroom, they are inseparable, well, until the teachers have to separate them for talking too much during circle time. Recently, there's also been a boy in the picture. Now, Sadie has always managed to get the boys to follow her around but in the past few weeks, we've been hearing about Nathan and how he likes to hold her hand. I was not expecting this and I'm still not sure what I think of this. I think Daddy is even more unsure. But at any rate, she is a friendly, out going girl and I'm thrilled to see her making friends.

In addition to preschool, Sadie started taking ballet lessons. She's been obsessed with it since we were first introduced to Angelina Ballerina and if you ask what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you "a real ballerina one day" (a line from Angelina Ballerina). When Caleb started working with his TSS, we thought it might be good to give Sadie a special activity and so over the summer we tried out a 5 week class through The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School. Needless to say, she loved it and surprising to us, she really learned things. She would "teach" us how to do curtsies and use phrases that we know she learned from class. After that success, we decided to sign her up for the year. So every Thursday morning, we scramble to get Caleb to preschool and get her to ballet and she's loving it. To top it all off, we're attending The Nutcracker Ballet for the first time this year and she absolutely can't wait to go.

Sadie is very smart but doesn't always use it for good, like her brother. She's learned manipulation and tries very hard to "cute" her way out of trouble, i.e. shrugging her shoulders and grinning when she's caught doing something wrong. I swear sometimes I think I'm living on a sitcom with the antics she comes up with.

Sadie has added more people to our family over this past year... Margot, Sal and Ziggy. Just look back at past posts and you can read all about them. In short, they're her friends from Mexico and they make frequent visits. She also has a Mexico Mom, a Mexico Grandma and a Mexico Grandpa. So far they've been harmless and quite entertaining. For example, her Mexico mom likes to eat ketchup on pancakes.

Sadie loves to play pretend and for a while, we never knew what name to call her. Some days she was Cinderella, some days, Clara, and my favorite, Spider-man Sadie. She's been really great with getting her brother to play along with her and that's one of the special things that we thank God for about her.

She also very much loves her books- almost as much as her big brother. She loves to sing and dance and dress-up and play soccer and ride bikes. She's my active child. We've noticed that she's the kind of kid that gets more spastic the more tired she gets. It's funny to watch but not always funny to put up with.

And surprisingly she manages to have this grace about her despite being a complete clutz. I really have trouble understanding it.

Sadie's our special girl and we've had so much fun with her this year and we look forward to watching her grow over the coming year.

Afternoon Funnies!

2010-10-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Overheard this afternoon with Caleb's TSS...

TSS- Can you say blow? (emphasizing the sounds)
Caleb- No. I just say Bwow

TSS- If you go to the movie theater, you buy...
Sadie- Popcorn!!

the cast of characters keeps growing...

2010-10-05T11:05:00.001-07:00

So Mexico is quite a crowded place, at least in Sadie's Mexico... we'll set aside the fact that my daughter's imaginary world happens to be in the news constantly for drug violence. i swear, we rarely have the TV on in this house

Anyways, so recent additions to Mexico-

Sadie's Mexico Grandma. This one has been talked about off and on over the past few months. Apparently her Mexico Grandma and Grandpa teach her things- best i can tell is that they are Mexican dancing instructors because she's usually doing some kind of little dance after which she says "my Mexico Grandma taught me that" and adds a little hand on her hip, flip of the hair for effect.

Well, just a couple weeks ago, we learned Mexico Grandma's name. Sadie informed me that her name was Terri and that her friends call her Aunt Terri. i can't help but wonder if she's basing her Mexico grandma off of my Aunt Terri. it's given all the Mattocks a giggle.

The other addition is Dotty-

i learned about Dotty last night while driving out to Derry to visit family. Sadie informed me of her Mexico cat named Dotty. Dotty is pink and apparently has taught herself to talk. when i asked Sadie if she spoke Spanish or English, Sadie replied that she "talks like me" which meant English. then we got distracted trying to figure out how to say hug and cuddle in Spanish so i didn't get to hear any more about Dotty.

And expect a call Aunt Betsy and be prepared to know how to say cuddle and hug in Spanish. :-)

Saving the planet... or not

2010-09-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

in the new house, we have multiple bathrooms. This was eagerly awaited by everyone in our family. From a mom's point of view, the idea of getting to use a bathroom when one needs to and in private is a glorious idea.

Now, the kids get to use their bathroom (at the top of the stairs) and the half bath (at the bottom of the stairs) and this has worked out pretty well. They're enjoying their new independence, being able to reach the light switch and the water for hand washing. There is one downside- they are quite happy to turn the light on but somehow forget to turn the light off. So after I hear a monkey use the bathroom, I immediately ask the 3 most important questions...

Did you flush?
Did you wash your hands?
Did you turn off the light?

And of course, the monkey always replies "no" to all 3.

Now, if I should miss hearing a trip to the bathroom and forget to ask the 3 questions, I later hear the other monkey (the informant) announce to the house that the bathroom light is on. The announcement is always made and the informant monkey continues on their way- not touching the light switch. I guess there has been too much emphasis on the discussion of lights being on and not enough emphasis on the fact that we don't want the bathroom lights left on!!!

Sorry Al Gore, we're trying.

Caleb turns 5!

2010-09-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Another September and another year older for the boy. I was feeling even more nostalgic about it this year. Since he missed the birthday cut-off for kindergarten, this will be his last year spending most of his time with me. I can't believe he's five! I look at his baby pictures and think, is that really him with those big serious eyes taking everything in and that quick smile and of course, how ticklish and quick to giggle. My baby boy is really not a baby any more. He's a full blown little boy complete with fascinations for matchbox cars, legos, dinosaurs and super heroes.

This year has been full of some huge changes and the boy has come through them with flying colors. Grammie M lost her battle with cancer last fall. It was devastating for our family but we were able to make some great memories in those last weeks. In the midst of losing Grammie, Caleb managed to master the potty. This was huge considering that we were spending lots of time driving to and from Latrobe/Derry without any real schedule. Part of me likes to think that God showed a little mercy on me by having Caleb finally get it. It made a horrible time just a tiny bit easier.

There were questions about Grammie and lots of talk of heaven and God. Caleb was my little sunshine through it all- quick to offer a hug and always surprising me with an unprompted "I wuv you, Mommy."

Preschool was another change for him- 3 mornings a week and with new teachers. This year he was able to read and once the teachers were able to print up a schedule for him, the transitions went more smoothly. It also helped that he had a couple of buddies in his class. Andrew and Brandon were visiting from Canada and spent the fall semester in class with Caleb and on many, many outside play-dates.

Caleb continues to love reading and we're up to beginning chapter books. Mercy Watson is still a favorite but we've expanded to The Magic Treehouse books and beginning Marvel comics. Caleb loves Captain America and Ironman but Superman and Spiderman are also pretty high up on his list.

While he excels at reading, he struggles with writing and because of that struggle (I think) he resists it more. His poor teachers had quite the fight to get him to participate in the morning art activity and we have a very incomplete alphabet book but he's trying little by little. I'm not going to ask more of him 'cause this is only preschool.

At preschool, he continues to love music and movement and story time. This year also brought classroom jobs. He seemed to really like passing out napkins and door holder is always a popular job. The jobs have carried over home a bit too. He loves to be given "jobs" to do. If asked to pick up toys, whining will begin but if I simply say "I have a job for you" there's no whining and the task usually gets completed.

Caleb is still our policeman but we've also seen him improve with playing too. He spent one afternoon pretending to be a conductor for a train and taking us all over the country. Sadie is pretty successful in getting him to go along with her adventures. We've even had some issues with Margot (Sadie's imaginary friend) playing with Caleb instead of Sadie. You never know what's going to come up this house. Most recently, there have been lots of battles with evildoers.

This spring we started getting Caleb services to deal with some of his Asperger's issues. Stephanie and Thao came to our house and began working with him in June. They worked on getting him through transitions and used to doing tasks that he doesn't really like. They were really good with him and helpful for us, figuring out how to navigate with Caleb's struggles. The move interrupted things for a bit but I still think the time was helpful. Now at the new house, we've just started with a new TSS and BSC and they're excited to work with Caleb.

Over the summer, we bought and built a new house. This was probably the best way that we could have handled moving. They broke ground at the end of April. We were able to come of out and check it out through all the stages of building. This seemed to really help Caleb get use to the idea of a new house. Once we discussed that there would be potties and that they're toys would be at the new house, they were very excited. We've been in the house for almost 2 months and Caleb has loved it. No tantrums, no sleepless nights, and we now have drive-way dump-truck luge for entertainment.

The little boy is growing up and surprising us with new things everyday. Happy Birthday Monkey-Man!

First time on a horse at Derry Ag Fair

Soccer Skills

The Big Blizzard- we finally got him to play outside with gloves and a hat

Getting Our Christmas Tree

Halloween '09

Sadie's New Friend

2010-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

No, it's not herself :-)

Our first friend in our new neighborhood is a real live girl, as opposed to another one of Margot's entourage. "A" lives in the house down at the corner and turned 3 in June (they'll be in the same class when they start school in a few years, of course).

Now besides location, what makes this match perfect is that "A" has quite an entourage of imaginary friends as well. While Sadie seems to collect Mexicans, this girl has dinosaurs- apparently she's recently watched The Land Before Time and it's had quite an affect on her.

We met at the playground yesterday and the two quickly began racing around the playground trying to escape from the "hot water." Not sure what the story was there but they seemed to be in a jungle.

Sadie was not shy at all (I think we're all hoping that she'll be our ticket to meeting others in this neighborhood). She also was not bashful about forgetting the little girl's name. "Hey kid" she would yell to her and "A" would ignore her not expecting to be called "kid". I tried to remind her what her friend's name was only to get an "Oh, Mom" accompanied by the eye-roll (I thought that wasn't supposed to start until she's at least 10).

The girls played and I was able to chat a little with her mom and then potty-time signaled the end. I just have to say, I'm so glad our house is close to the playground, especially when someone suddenly has to go potty.

Drive-way, Dump-truck Luge

2010-08-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is our new entertainment at the house. I should probably discourage them from doing this but they're having such a good time and I actually get a kick out of Caleb doing something reasonably dangerous. This might all change when they end up needing a trip to the ER.

All Aboard!

2010-08-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying once again to post a bit more frequently about our days, instead of having to write out long posts that take forever. So here it goes... :-)

Today was huge in our world. Caleb did 2 major things-
1. He pretended that he was a train conductor and took Sadie and I on a tour of the states.
2. He tried a tiny bit of pork chop and kept it down. Plus, he decided that he liked pork chops.

Now for any other child this might not be huge. In fact, Sadie often is a different character every hour of the day and she also tried pork chops tonight. But for Caleb, these things are more challenging. Caleb has been insisting that he is Policeman Caleb since he was 2.5. No matter what the game of pretend we are playing. It took us months to get him to let us pretend to be different things (I thought I was forever going to be Ballerina Mommy). We've tried lots of things to help him with this but nothing worked.

So the boy wants to be a policeman. What's the big deal? Well, it's not really but our little man is spending more and more time interacting with other kids and we've had situations where the kids want to pretend one thing and The Policeman doesn't fit in. This is a part of play and a part of socializing that the little man needs to learn and it's huge to see him take that step today.

And the pork chop... well, everyone knows a picky kid and funny, we've learned that pickiness is contagious. Caleb has also had eating issues. Right after turning 1, he went from eating everything to only eating a handful of things. It's a little more than just being picky. Even when the boy wants to try something, he will gag and vomit either as soon as he puts it in his mouth or even after he's managed to get something down. It makes mealtimes rather stressful. And as I mentioned, it's contagious. The little princess sees that brother gets special meals and doesn't have to eat what Mommy and Daddy eat, so she throws a fit.

This week we decided to try something new- a food chart. I read this somewhere and thought it might work. The kids each have a chart with 3 columns- Foods that I like, Foods that I tried, Foods that I don't like. They can put anything in the I like columns but for the dislike column, they can only put something there if they've already tried it and marked it in the tried column. And of course there is a reward. We tried having the same reward for each kid but our kids are motivated by different things. If Sadie tries 10 different foods, she gets a trip to Bruster's for ice cream. If Caleb tries 10 things, he gets a Captain America action figure. I'm really praying that this continues to work. It would be lovely to only have to cook one meal an evening instead of 3- what andy eats, what i can eat, and what the kids can eat.

Okay, so this hasn't been a really short post but maybe I'll get better. Now, a photo from this evening. This is where we found Sadie sleeping. Too cute :-)

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2010-08-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

So where have I been for the past month...backpacking through Europe? a cruise in the Mediterranean? undercover, saving the world from imminent destruction? Nope. We've been moving and not even to an extravagant location. We moved from Oakland to the North Hills. Please, don't misunderstand, I absolutely LOVE our new house, it just seems like there was a whole lot of work going in to a move only 15 minutes away.

This all started back in February, right after the ridiculous snowfall. Andy and I had come to the realization that our little house in Oakland was not going to cut it forever. It was a nice little 3 bedroom place but that third bedroom was smaller than many walk-in closets around these days. It was not going to work and having a boy and a girl, they weren't going to be able to share a room forever. So we decided to start looking for a bigger place. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of houses on the market right after record breaking snowfalls. I was looking online and found some new construction websites. I had always been curious about them. Andy agreed, so we decided to check out a couple.

I never thought we would actually do this. Of course, the model homes were gorgeous and we thought, there's no way we could afford something like this. Then we started doing some more research. Andy and I are not fix-it-up kind of people. We don't like spending weekends re-modeling. The idea of having a house already done and better yet, we pick out how it looks, this was looking better and better. Then the first week of March we got a call. There was a big sell off of lots in the community we were interested in and so if this was what we were going to do, then we needed to decide quickly.

So on Andy's 30th birthday, we bought land, or rather, our lot for our future house. They set a closing date for August 25.

And over the course of the next 3 months, our house began to come together as we got to decide cabinets and flooring and counter tops. It was very exciting and very overwhelming at times. We also had to put our house up for sale. Amazingly, it sold after only being on the market for a week and a half. And our buyer happened to be a girl who lived across the street from us. Selling the house was not the best experience but thankfully, God brought us through and worked out all the details.

Then it was time to pack. Little by little, boxes began to fill up. And we were also able to take little trips to watch the progress of our new house. I think this was so incredibly helpful for our little man who struggles with change and another reminder that God knows how to take care of us. Caleb and Sadie both were very excited by the new house but were also full of questions...

"Will our toys come to the new house?"

"Will our beds come to the new house?"

"Will our new house have a bathroom?"

The bathroom thing really seemed to have them worried. They we relieved to learn that the new house would have 3 bathrooms. This is big when you come from a house with 1 very awkwardly shaped bathroom.

May came and went. June 1st we closed on our old house (and started renting for the next 2 months). Then it was July. Then mid-July and oh my, we needed to get going. All the while, we kept visiting the house and seeing how quickly it was coming along. The second to the last week in July, we learned that it was possible that the house might be finished early. (Duh, we thought to ourselves and then scrambled to get the paperwork together for closing).

Amazingly, everything came together. We changed around movers (since we no longer needed to put our things into storage) finished packing, painted most of the old house (and hired painters to finish that) and closed on our new house July 30 almost 1 full month ahead of schedule. The moving truck dropped our things off at the new house and we went on vacation. That's right, our family vacation to NJ had been planned in 2009, way before this craziness started, and we really needed a break so we took off for Ocean Beach, NJ. We had a wonderful and relaxing week there and we were able to leave the kids with G'ma Jody and PopPop Pat for a few extra days. With the kids at G'ma's house, Andy and I were able to get beds assembled and the kitchen put together without extra helpers.

So we are well into August and enjoying the added space (and multiple bathrooms) in our new house. We're slowly unpacking and organizing. We're trying to coax our lawn to not completely die on us and slowly starting to meet neighbors. Most of all, we're enjoying the quiet that is part of living in the 'burbs- no speeding hot rods and motorcycles down our street and no helicopters circling overhead.

Usually it takes Andy and I a ridiculously long time to make purchases, even something as little as a toaster oven, we'll research for weeks (in the midst of that right now). Buying and building this house over such a short period of time was completely out of character for us. The only explanation I can find is that God has a plan for it. There was a plan for us 4 years ago when we learned we were unexpectedly expecting Sadie. There was a plan 2 years ago when Andy was looking for a job and only had offers in Pittsburgh. There was a plan for us to be in Oakland, walking distance to Magee Hospital. I know there's a plan for us to be
here.

More From Mexico

2010-06-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I discussed Sadie's new imaginary friend, Margot. She's from Mexico and apparently this is where Sadie has a second home (with lots more toys). Margot still visits frequently and is sometimes joined by her brother, Sal. They often have opinions on what Sadie will or won't do. For example...

me- "Sadie, would you like to go to the library?"
Sadie- "hmm, let me ask Margot and Sal"
she whispers to Margot and Sal, then
Sadie- "yes, we would like to go to the library"

It's cute but can also drive you crazy sometimes.

At dinner the other night, we were informed that in addition to Margot and Sal, she also has a mom and dad in Mexico (of course). We were having pancakes for supper and the little girl was trying very hard to get ketchup for her pancakes. Our children don't seem to understand ketchup as a condiment but is instead a side dish and happily eat it up with using their fingers. We said she could have ketchup if she would eat some sausage but she refused. She then explained "My Mexico mom likes to eat ketchup on her pancakes." We still didn't cave on the ketchup.

A little while later, the girl was angling for a choc. chip cookie for dessert. The rule in our house is that pancakes are so good, they're like dessert (all that maple syruppy, yumminess). So on pancake night, we don't do dessert. After reminding Sadie of this rule, she replied "well, my Mexico dad eats syrup on his choc. chip cookies."

Looks like I might have to offer some parenting advice to Sadie's Mexico mom and dad. Hmm, I wonder if they're willing to contribute to her college fund?

The Wood Book

2010-06-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

On one of our trips to G'ma Suzie and Papa Joe's, Caleb discovered one of Papa's wood project books (aka The Wood Book). Caleb has been fascinated with instructions, which continues to baffle me because I still have difficulty reading the full direction even when cooking- I read the ingredients and then kind of just throw it all together... Anyways, the boy pours over his Lego directions with more intensity even then he actually plays with the Legos and one of his favorite set of directions is to our Wii Sports Resort video game. He even reads the directions to using the Wii remote game directions are not available.

So Caleb loves directions, of course he's going to love a book that is all directions for making things. It took a couple of trips to start remembering what he wanted when he asked for his Wood Book but would ask for it as soon as we got in the door.

Most recently, we were out there for Father's day and Caleb (while reading the Wood Book) decided that he wanted to make something from the book. Now the book contains all kinds of projects, bird houses, book shelves, tables and chairs, even toys. The boy wanted to make........... napkin rings.

Tea Party at Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve

2010-05-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

My good friend, Kelly, invited Sadie and I to a mother/daughter tea party at the Winnie Palmer Nature Reserve. (Don't worry, there were no politics involved. This was the old fashioned, fancy-hat and dress kind of tea party)

The nature reserve is located on a strip of what used to be farmland between St. Vincent College and Rt 981(?) I'm really bad with street names but it's across from the Dairy Queen in Latrobe and I think it's a beautiful spot. There's an old barn and lots of trails and growing things to look at. And on a side note, Winnie Palmer was the wife of golfing great, Arnie Palmer and it was her idea to preserve this land from being commercially developed. She also passed away some years ago from uterine cancer (the same that Mona had) and sadly wasn't able to see the fulfillment of her idea. It's still a beautiful spot and it looks like it will be offering much more to the community.

The tea party started at 10AM so that meant we couldn't have our usual leisurely Saturday morning. We needed to be up and dressed and out the door by 9. Fortunately, the kids were up early and we made it out there in time. Sadie happily wore her Easter dress and tennis shoes (I know better than to try and put dress shoes on this girl). Unfortunately, the little princess had a very busy Friday, no nap, up until 10PM Friday night and up at 7ish the next morning. This made for a grump instead of a princess. We arrived before our friends and I thought we could walk on the trails and take some pictures. My dare-devil child strangely decided to be afraid of the walking trails including the little 6 ft path through the butterfly garden. She completely flipped out and cried any time I tried to take her away from the front of the barn.

Kelly and her daughter arrived and we went in for tea. The tables were really cute with little flower vases and bowls of sugar cubes and miss-matched tea cups and saucers. The girls were happy to sit down and begin pretending to sip their tea.

Tea was served shortly with finger sandwiches, cookies and strawberries. Sadie got to have some lemonade from her tea cup (she's not a fan of tea) and she tried her first PB and J sandwich. Yep, she's had more peanut butter sandwiches than I could count but never ventured to add jelly to that and you would have thought that I was asking her to try brussel sprouts with the resistance I got to the PB and J but somehow she managed to get down 2 sandwiches. I did have to rely on bribing her with a cookie though.

She made it through the tea without having too many tragedies. There was the incident with the ice in her lemonade. I couldn't get over the tears from the little girl for having to eat an ice cube... but all was well once the rest of the ice cubes were removed from her lemonade. Then she split her lip. Truly, it's not a successful tea party until you've got blood on your party dress... It wasn't bad and we've actually gotten used to this happening. Sadie's chipped tooth is very sharp and often does some damage when she bumps her mouth. She was walking back to our table and simply bumped into a chair. I never thought that it would result in blood but sure enough, her upper lip was cut and bleeding. We put some ice on it and she had a drink of water and we were pretty much done.

We took the girls out for a little walk and then it was time to say good bye. It was a really cute event and I hope we can do it again next year.

April Showers

2010-04-25T10:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a bit of a rainy day but the sun came out for a bit and I was able to convince Sadie to go for a walk with me (of course, I just happened to have my camera). It was fun but she was a little disappointed at doing all that walking and not getting to go to the playground. I owe her a special trip this week.

Hope you like these!

I've always wanted to get a shot of one of the kids wishing on a dandelion and finally got it yesterday :-)

This graffiti wall is sooo cool! I used it for my cousin's sr pics last year but I'm thinking of doing another shoot with both monkeys at the wall in the near future.

This face is just priceless! I couldn't get her to smile naturally at all (she was so moody all day yesterday) but I love this anyways.

Soccer 2010!!

2010-04-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

This week the kids started their first season of soccer camp. Every Monday evening until June, they'll be running around a field working on learning soccer skills and at the end, they get to keep a soccer ball.

The camp is non-competitive for ages 4-6. I asked if Sadie could sign up (even though she's only 3) and it turns out that there were several younger siblings who were hoping to play. So Sadie's in, on a team with a few other 3 yr olds and while it was a rough start for her, she eventually liked it and got into it.

Caleb, on the other hand, was so excited from the start. He happily introduced himself to the coach and gave him high-five. Then he was all about listening and then practicing kicking, dribbling and stopping the ball.

I spent so much time watching them and giggling. I hope they have as much fun with it as I did growing up.

A Couple More Easter Shots

2010-04-06T12:08:00.001-07:00

My it's been awhile!

2010-04-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, too much to cover in a short post but I was asked by my DH if I would post Easter pics of the kids some where that he could see them at work (right now all my pics are on Facebook)

So here they are...

We had a fun time out in Derry at G'ma Suzie and Papa Joe's. There was a ton of food, an Easter egg hunt and plenty of sweets. The kids even cooperated some so that I could get a few Easter pics of them.

Snow storms and Bookstores

2010-02-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

Well, what a start to 2010. That's the last time we get the kids bikes for Christmas. Any other year, we'd be having a heat wave and I'd be going crazy trying to come up with things to do for the kids. This year, we've been stuck inside and still going crazy trying to find things to do.

30+ inches of snow! Absolutely crazy! It shut us down for a week. We did manage to get the kids out in it a bit but even then there was too much snow for them to do anything in. Poor Sadie was confined to the shoveled sidewalk. She attempted to make it to the backyard one afternoon but she just kind of fell on her face and when she started loosing her boots, I said that's enough.

In true Sadie fashion though, she was able to come up with her own games. Apparently Sadie has an extensive interest in collecting snowballs and her collection covers most of our yard. While Daddy shoveled, Sadie collected her snowballs and carefully his them back in the piles of snow. It was so cute to watch. I really wish I had taken video of it. We managed to get Caleb out in the snow too and took a couple of walks down the street. Sadie picked up more snowballs for her collection on the way.

Caleb enjoyed the snow only until his gloves got wet. As soon as he could feel the wetness, he was done and ready to come inside.

The kids missed almost 2 weeks of school. That was not really fun. While they played pretty well, towards the end of week #2 they began to really start picking at each other. We made it back this week for 2 days but today school was closed because of more snow. I'll be so happy when spring gets here.

Since we were stuck inside for so much of the time, the kids had to come up with new games. Well, recently, Caleb decided to open a bookstore in his bed. He lays out the his books and Sadie gets one of her bag and shops. He'll also happily tell you that his bookstore also sells toys (and this week keys when Mommy locked Pappy out of the house). He's also been known to show movies in his bookstore and they'll climb into his house (his bed) and sit there pretending to watch movies. Unfortunately, many of the movies that Sadie requests are not being shown (he can be such a stinker).

His bookstore is appropriately named, Caleb's Bookstore. Maybe he'll be opening a chain. But don't worry, he's still a policeman and he'll quickly tell you that but it's nice to see him branching out. He's also been following Handy Manny and dons his trusty tool belt to fix things throughout the house- like the elevator button? Well, he still likes to go along with a script but it's so great to see him pretending more and more these days (and not just going along with whatever wackiness that Sadie comes up with).

Well, I'll be posting snow pictures later but that's all for now.

part 2

2010-01-05T05:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the second part of Caleb's Christmas video. See the story below...

Caleb's Christmas Present

2010-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

One of Caleb's presents was stuck under the seat of Santa's sleigh so it wasn't delivered until today. ;-)

In truth the boy didn't mention wanting this until 2 days before Christmas and we didn't think he would have his heart set on it. After several days of hearing how disappointed he was with not getting (plus that it was on sale), we caved for the cave crusher. The little guy was so cute about it- not a brat and not even whiney and the reaction on this video was completely worth it.

Bellefield's Christmas pagent 2009

2009-12-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

The Sunday before Christmas, our church, Bellefield Presbyterian in Oakland put on a little Christmas pageant with the children's Sunday school classes. Sadie's class were sheep. Caleb's class were shepherds. Unfortunately with the events of the past month or so, we haven't been making it to Sunday school with regularity. The kids had learned their song "Away in a Manger" but didn't really know beyond that what they would be doing. To make matters even more complicated Saturday morning we were supposed to have rehearsal but mother nature decided to send us a heavy snow fall. Rehearsal was rescheduled for right before the service.

Well, Caleb was not even remotely interested in playing this game. He knew very well that there were no policemen in the manger scene and therefor no place for him. He couldn't be a shepherd when he's always been a policeman. He happily sat with Daddy watching the practice and performance.

Sadie was all dressed up in her Christmas dress but a little unsure of all that was going on. Then came time for putting on her little lamb costume (a pillowcase). Well, she wanted nothing to do with covering up her pretty dress. She reluctantly put it on and came downstairs to rehearse with the rest of them. A very sad and pouting Sadie came down to rehearse. I went to ask what was wrong, seeing her so upset, and all she had to say was "I look silly." I've never been good at lying and while she did look adorable, she also looked a little silly with the pillowcase on. I tried my best not to let on and reassure her that she looked like a little lamb but she was not having it. Her class went up on stage to practice and she refused to sing at all and stood there pouting. It was heartbreaking to watch and still so funny because the poor thing was convinced that she looked ridiculous.

Rehearsal finished and the little ones were sent up to their rooms to wait for the program to begin. I talked to Sadie and talked to her teachers and we agreed that she didn't have to wear the pillowcase if she would be happy and sing with the rest of the kids. This made her very happy. After a short time of playing, it was time to take the lambs all down to the sanctuary. This meant getting pillowcases on 8 or so 3 yr olds (most of which were not interested at all in wearing them let alone being up on stage singing). One of Sadie's classmates put on her pillowcase and the next thing I knew, Sadie was happily wearing hers and was ready to sing.

She went with her class up on stage, wore her pillowcase and even sang a little. It was very cute. We even had a black sheep in her class. Actually the little guy was wearing a bat costume from the dress-ups but we decided that he was the little black sheep and it was adorable.

It was a very cute program, complete with a newborn baby as the baby Jesus and I hope they do it again next year. Who knows, we might even be able to convince Caleb to be a shepherd.

Notice the black sheep on the left

Sadie pouting

Christmas Tree 2009

2009-12-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to get a "real" tree for Christmas, something we haven't done since living in Baltimore pre-kiddos. After talking about it a bit, we decided that it might be fun to venture out to a tree farm and try choosing and cutting down our own tree. It just so happened that G'ma and Papa have been doing exactly that for the past couple of years and new of a good farm to go to. So we ventured out to a pretty little farm in New Alexandria, PA to find and cut down our Christmas tree.

It was quite the caravan going out there. We had 2 cars (me and the kids had been on an overnight to my dad's and Andy drove out in the morning). G'ma and Papa had their truck and Aunt Judy and Heather had decided to join us and cut down their own tree too. Jackie also decided to tag along for the adventure at the last minute. So we were quite the crew.

The farm was on top of a hill with the evergreens growing on the surrounding hillsides. It was very pretty and we couldn't ask for better weather. We all piled out of our vehicles and started to walk around and take in all the trees. Caleb and Papa started walking together and at just about every tree Caleb would look up and ask "is this the perfect tree?" There were hundreds of trees but a lot of these early ones that Caleb looked at would have filled our entire living room. So we needed to find a cute, little, perfect tree and kept walking.

Sadie quickly found some weeds to pick and gather into a bouquet. I'm not sure what it was that she was picking but she started calling them cattails so that's what we stuck with. It certainly kept her entertained for awhile.

We walked around for about 20 minutes before finding the tree. There were a lot of maybes up until that point and then we saw our tree. It was perfect. Just the right size for our little living room! Papa Joe passed the saw to Andy and he began to cut while the rest of us eagerly watched. The tree fell and then Andy and the kids worked to drag the tree back up to the car. They were very excited to help.

The rest of us continued to walk around, looking for the next "perfect" tree. It wasn't long and wasn't far before Heather had found the tree for Aunt Judy's house. This one was big and full and beautiful. Papa Joe helped cut the tree down and Heather drug it back to their car.

Now we only needed one more tree but weren't having any luck. So we decided to wander back towards the cars. There were trees growing on the hill below where we parked and these were the ones we started out looking at. This time we decided to head towards the trees that were growing above the cars. It wasn't long before G'ma and Jackie had spotted their "perfect" tree. This tree was also full and not quite as big as Aunt Judy's but not as small as ours. Papa Joe quickly cut the tree down and got it back to the cars. We were loaded up and ready to go in no time.

It was a fun adventure and fortunately there were few mishaps so I'm thinking that we might be doing this again. Hope you like the pictures!

Papa Joe and Caleb

Is this the perfect tree?

Sadie and her cattails

Our tree? maybe...

Andy cutting it down. Timber!

Meet Margot...

2009-12-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Sadie made an imaginary friend and she's been with us almost constantly all week. Her name is Margot and Sadie will happily inform you that she is from Mexico, has blond curly hair, is 10 yrs old and speaks spanish. We also learned that her mom is named Sophia. Sadie takes care of her friend, making sure to hold her hand when crossing the street and buckling her into her seat in the car. Caleb has started riding in the back back of the chocolate car so Margot has been able to sit next to Sadie. Margot has gone to preschool and came out for dinner the other night but sometimes has to leave suddenly to go with her parents. If Margot is around, Sadie will happily introduce you to her.

I've found Margot to be quiet but helpful, especially in getting Sadie to listen. For example, Margot always is quick to put on her coat to go outside and Sadie seems to respond better knowing that Margot is waiting for her. I have managed to not have to make lunch for Margot- Sadie's quick to inform me that Margot has her own food. I'm also hoping that Margot has her own Christmas presents too :-)

Caleb has also been recognizing Margot and asking if she's with us when we go out. This morning there was a little problem though. Caleb was the first to start playing with Margot and Sadie was hurt. Sadly, she told Caleb "but Margot is my friend" Fortunately, she bounced back quick and then very sweetly asked Caleb if she could play with Margot. Caleb (being a good older brother) said "yes, if you promise to be nice" and then Margot, Caleb and Sadie enjoyed pretending to watch movies together.

I'm not sure how long Margot will be with us but she's been very entertaining and we continue to be amazed at Sadie's imagination.

Sadie Sings

2009-11-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, we were treated to a private performance by a budding superstar singer - Sadie! (Like all the greats, she is known simply by her first name.) The concert was a delightful mix of Sadie originals (including her famous "Cowboy Song") and standards like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "ABCs", as well as a few seasonal favorites like "Jingle Bells."

Of course, even when she is covering a well-worn chestnut like "Jingle Bells," Sadie manages to inject it with her own original flair. Here are Sadie's lyrics for this particular number:

"Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells,
All the way!

Oh what fun it is to play
Oh it is so fun...HEY!

Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells,
All the way!

Oh what fun it is to play."

Each number was met with riotous applause. At times, one might have thought that Sadie was waiting expectantly for it. But this little nightengale is no diva; she thanked her audience profusely after each outpouring of affection and she graciously took a number of requests. When she was unfamiliar with a suggested tune, she was quick to provide an alternative. And on a few occasions, she had to postpone a particular request, presumably to help it fit better into the flow of her setlist. But we were always promised that we would hear that song "in 5 minutes."

As if her remarkable singing talents weren't enough, Sadie also demonstrated a finely honed comedic sense as well. For instance, consider how she handled a request for "The Bear Went Over the Mountain":

"OK, I'm going to sing 'The Bear Went OVer the Mountain.'

Hmm... what are the words to that one? Hmm...Let me think about that. Aaahhh, I've got it!

The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the mountain,
The bear went over the moun-TAIN!!!"

Unfortunately, video and audio recording were strictly forbidden at this performance. We certainly understand Sadie's decision to tightly manage her public image at this early stage of her career; the wordly is hardly bereft of young starlets who could have benefited from more discretion. Nevertheless, it seems a shame to deny the rest of the world the opportunity to experience Sadie's prodigous talents. Therefore, we were able to smuggle out this short clip of Sadie performing one of her signature originals, "I Love You." We were told that this was the world premiere of this number; after listening, I think you will agree that this song, like Sadie, is destined for great things.

Sadie's Birthday Pics!

2009-11-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Sadie's birthday a couple weeks ago at my mom's. She and Aunt u surprised us by putting together an awesome cake for Sadie. What a way to receive your very first Barbie doll?!

Quick Bits

2009-11-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

Sadie had her 3 yr check up this morning and provided quite the entertainment the whole time. I was a bit shocked to have her tell me in front of the doctor that "Girls don't read books" after I told her to try to read a book to herself while I finished up with the doctor. I glanced up to see the doctor raise his eyebrows and wonder where she might have heard that. I honestly have know idea where she got that and proceeded to feel awful that somehow my daughter has already picked up this idea about what girls do and don't do.

And now this evening, Sadie decided to start calling me Lady and is insisting that I call her Carrie. Not sure where that name came from but all her dolls have been named Lady. We'll see how long this goes.

Finally, at bedtime, Caleb read to Daddy and Sadie about the 10 pla-goos in the Bible.

Sadie Says- a contribution from Andy (aka Daddy)

2009-11-11T20:42:00.001-08:00

I had the day off today and we had Brandon visiting for the afternoon, so we decided to all go to the Carnegie Museum to look at the dinosaurs. On the way over, the three kids were chatting about dinosaurs. Someone brought up Stegosaurus. Jodi asked if Stegosaurus was a plant-eater or a meat-eater. Caleb immediately replied "Plant-eater!" At which point Sadie, in her most professorial tone, chimed in: "I thought he was a hervidore [herbivore] of the Cretaceous." Apparently someone has been paying attention during "Dinosaur Train".

Later, at the museum, after looking at the dinosaurs for a while, Sadie announced "I want to go fix rocks." After a few seconds of head-scratching, we realized she was talking about the faux paleontological dig they have set up for the kids. Each kid gets a chisel and a brush (and safety goggles, of course) and gets to scrape dirt off of dinosaur bones. Apparently Sadie had remembered this exhibit from a previous outing, but hadn't quite grasped the purpose. Hey, they gave her tools and told her to go work on the rocks - what else was she supposed to think?

Sadie Turns 3!

2009-11-01T20:18:00.001-08:00

It's been a long year and it's been quite awhile since I last posted. More on that later...

Tomorrow Sadie celebrates her 3rd birthday and we're all excited (but that could also be attributed to the sugar high leftover from Halloween). Sadie has had a very busy year and has certainly kept us on our toes.

She continues to be our little ball of energy, constantly on the go, never just walking but more like bouncing from place to place. Thinking about it now, it's endearing. Trying to cross a busy city street, it's frustrating to no end. She continues to love dancing and is still our stunt woman in training. Where some little girls have a natural grace, not Sadie. I often think that instead of calling her our little Peanut, we should have nicknamed her Tigger. Sadie is frequently sprawled out on the floor either tripping or diving for effect. We're definitely thinking this child may have a future as a stunt woman or physical comedian. Often when we're out shopping she'll dive across the floor and you'll hear woman gasp and then bend over her asking if she's okay. She always pops right up and declares for all "I'm okay."

While these stunts can be entertaining, they've also caused our family some concern. Sadie has no fear and will attempt things that you would never begin to think of doing, like free falling backwards at G'ma Suzie's and Papa Joe's and landing flat on her back on the cement floor. She knocked the wind out of herself a little but was otherwise okay. I can't count how many times she's knocked the wind out of herself this year and yet we've managed to not have to visit the ER yet for this one (knock on wood). Because of Sadie's fearlessness and her desire to be a monkey, we put her on the top bunk when we got the kids bunk beds for Christmas. She loved it right away and hasn't fallen out once (knock on wood again). She also got roller skates for Christmas and has gotten fairly good at them but is actually a bit cautious and only recently started trying it without holding my hand.

Sadie leaves us exhausted most days but does manage to have her quiet moments. She (like big brother) loves books and reading and listening to stories. There has been some frustration over the past few months for her, though. Sadie often forgets that she isn't the same age as Caleb and thinks that she should be able to do everything that he can do. When he started reading this past spring, Sadie became so frustrated she would just pout and say "I can't read the words. I just can't do it." We've spent a lot of time reminding her that it's okay and that Caleb couldn't read at this age either and that she'll learn soon. So even though she can't read the words, she has quite the imagination and will look at her books and make up the stories herself.

Speaking of imagination... this child is something else. Starting at about this time last year, she became obsessed with babies. As she grew older, she began turning anything and everything into a mommy and a baby. At dinner time, eating french fries, we would listen to her talking to her food. First the mommy would go into her tummy and then baby would follow. There have been many shows at lunch time and dinner time. And again, it's so cute as I write it out here and yet so frustrating as we try to get her to finish her supper.

Her imagination has been such a blessing to our family. She loves to pretend and she loves to get her brother to pretend with her. Much of these games of pretend he's learned from her. They pretend to go to the doctor's or to the store or even fishing.

While she loves her babies, surprisingly, her favorite toys to play with are not babies. She loves her Little People. They all have names and go on adventures all through the house. There is frequently someone in need of rescuing these days- not quite sure where that came from.

Sadie is also our artist. She loves to draw and paint (as much on herself as on paper) and these days she's very proud of her circles. There were many days this summer where Caleb would drive his car outside and she would paint at the easel.

In other developmental areas, we're still working on the potty with her. She's shown interest in it many times but we haven't been able to completely put it all together but we're working on it. Her reward for going potty is a jelly bean and a bugs bunny cartoon.

That would be Sadie's other obsession- the TV. This has been very difficult for us to find a balance with. Caleb will watch but will also often ignore it if it's on. Not Sadie. If the magic box is on, she is in a trance and one show is never enough. So the challenge is that I don't want to be the "no TV" mom but I don't want her addicted to it so this is one of our struggles these days.

Other big news...Sadie started pre-school this year. She goes Monday and Wednesday mornings and happens to be in a class with 2 of Caleb's teachers from last year. She loves going to school and her teachers and classmates. It's been so funny to watch her strut through the school and inform everyone that she's going to her class. I can't wait 'til she starts going to music and movement classes in the spring.

With pre-school, there have been developing friendships. This has also been fun to watch. Last year a couple of girls in Caleb's class latched on the Sadie and she became part of their group. They would run around the yard after school and have lots of fun. Sadie continues to idolize these girls but has also been developing friends in her class. She's going to be my social butterfly. Also, friends of ours from Canada are spending half the year here in Pittsburgh. They have 4 yr old twins who are in the same class as Caleb. Sadie and Caleb love these boys and often can't go too many days without asking to see them. Sadie in particular always seems to team up with Andrew. It's so sweet to watch. Yesterday when we went trick or treating, Andrew and brother, Brandon came with us. Andrew was a knight and had to protect Sadie, the ballerina. At one point, he was holding up his sword, with his arm around her saying "I save you." Too cute.

Sadie has been talking for awhile now...in fact I have trouble remembering a time when she didn't talk. She is constantly talking. Of course this means we get no end of funny little things that she comes up with. Recently, while fighting a cold, Daddy was getting her ready for bed. She and Caleb had been in the bathtub and now it was time for pjs. Daddy went to put some Vicks on her chest and she asked what is was. He told her "This is some medicine that will help you breathe." Her eyes got very wide and with excitement she asked "Under water?" Apparently she had been trying to be The Little Mermaid in the bathtub and was disappointed at not being able to be underwater. Sadly, Daddy had to explain that no, Vicks would not help her breathe underwater.

Sadie is the source of much laughter and frustration and we love her dearly! We're looking forward to seeing how she grows in the coming year and feel so blessed to have her in our family!

Caleb's First Camera

2009-09-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

For Caleb's 4th birthday we decided to get him the vtech kid's digital camera. It was more me wanting him to have it, rather than him really asking for it :-) It took him all of 5 minutes to figure out how to play games on it and that's been the most enjoyable part for him :-) He gets to take pictures and then turn them into puzzles. Unfortunately, his puzzles are next to impossible since he spends a lot of time taking pictures of the floor. oh well, he's having fun :-)

Here are some non-floor photos by Caleb :-)

Blue Slide with the Bowlings

2009-09-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Little Artists

2009-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

This what I found just after lunch. I thought the children were happily coloring in their coloring books. I had been sure to remind them to ONLY color on the paper. Guess that wasn't specific enough...

oh and Caleb is covered too. He was just camera shy while Sadie couldn't wait to show off.

Sadie Says

2009-09-02T07:39:00.001-07:00

Sadie's been having a rough week, not been feeling well ;-)

The other day, Sadie told Daddy "My tummy has a headache" and then yesterday she told me "I feel a little woozy." Fortunately, these maladies seem to pass quickly so we're not too concerned.

Caleb Turns 4

2009-08-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

What a year! Lots has been going on with my little man and we're so proud of him. This time last year, he started going to preschool for the first time. Of course he loved it! Caleb went to Shadyside Presbyterian Church Nursery School and we have been so happy with the teachers, staff and other students there. He went Tuesday and Thursday mornings- just long enough to give Mommy and Sadie a little girl time. While preschool was lots of fun, it was not without it's challenges. Caleb was expected to be potty trained for school and while we all had those expectations and tried very hard to meet then, it just wasn't happening. We did manage to make it through most mornings without an accident and continued to work on the potty all year. We also had some troubles adjusting to the classroom and getting used to being with so many other kids. Fortunately, Caleb's teachers were so understanding and came up with some ideas that really helped him find his way. Can't say enough good things about them :-)

He went from wanting nothing to do with the craft/art projects and painting to completing his projects right when he got into the room. He continued to love music time and story time and even participated in both the Christmas and Year End programs. We were able to make some friends and even got to go to a few birthday parties. All in all a great school year and he's really excited to go back.

Other developments for Caleb...

He's mostly potty trained or rather, half? He is very good at #1 but not #2. It continues to be a frustration but there has been progress.

He has gotten very good at dressing himself even though the outfits are somewhat comical at times. We're still working on buttons, zippers and snaps.

Caleb continues to enjoy helping around the house. One of his favorite chores is putting away his clean clothes. He knows which drawer they go in and while they don't necessarily stay folded, they're in the dresser and not on the floor so I'm not going to complain. He also loves vacuuming. He doesn't really do it but anytime I get out the vacuum he has to get out his toy vacuum and clean the rug with me. It's really cute and sweet that he wants to help.

The biggest news this year has been his learning to read. Now Caleb has been able to recite books from memory almost since turning 2. About this time last year, he started recognizing the word Stop and would point it out any time he saw it. Around Christmas, he became really interested in the sounds that the letters make so we started talking about that more and more. That was about the extent of what we taught him. In the spring he started putting it all together and would go through the books he had memorized (mainly Curious George) and would read from memory but would break down the sounds that made up each word. Somehow it all clicked and since about 3.5 he's been going through books non-stop. His favorite stories now are a series about a pig named Mercy Watson. He reads them over and over. They're short chapter books but even Sadie loves them. Mercy has become another member of our family. We've also read through Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and recently started reading Despareaux.

He's starting to get into more non-fiction books so we've been on the look out for easy readers that are more fact-based. I have to admit, it's been hard finding books that can give him the information that he wants but not over do it.

With his learning to read, he's also gotten his first library card. Last week, at the library with Daddy, Caleb was so excited to go to the librarian to ask for help finding a book and was even more excited when she found the book for him and let him check it out. (It was a Mercy Watson book of course)

Caleb continues to love puzzles but it's been a little tougher lately. It's been harder for us to find puzzles that challenge him but that he can still do. In short, there aren't too many 100 piece puzzles. Tons of 25 piece and tons of 500 but not much in between so he's turned his interest to Legos, which are kind of like puzzles to him. He's really enjoyed the couple of sets that he has. He usually needs a little help from Daddy to build it the first time but then he reads over the instruction booklet and starts figuring it out on his own. He also loves to play games. Right now the favorite is Candyland but he's also been having fun playing a game called Chicken Cha Cha Cha and Hungry Hungry Hippos. He and Sadie have even managed a game or two on their own but Sadie has a much harder time focusing on the game (big surprise) :-)

Another new development...Caleb loves bowling! We went for the first time on Labor Day and even with all the music and crazy lights, different shoes, and strange people, he went along with it and had a blast. We went to Funfest. There they had everything set up so that bumpers would come up for Caleb and Sadie but would disappear for Daddy and I. They also had little ramps so that the kids didn't have to try to throw their balls but simply put them on top of the ramp and pushed. Caleb would cheer his ball down to the pins and then would have to run back to check his score before taking his second turn. We're definitely planning on doing this again :-)

We're working on coloring a bit more. He still prefers to scribble more than draw but we have discovered that he loves Connect the Dots and he's pretty good at them.

He also really enjoys Playdoh and drawing with chalk on the front sidewalk.

We still struggle with change but have made lots of progress there too. One recent addition that has helped has been the use of a schedule. We outlined a vague order of activities for the day and Caleb and Sadie get stars when they complete the activity. Things like eating breakfast, getting dressed and going shopping. Caleb looks forward to checking out the schedule each morning to not only see what's going on that day but also to look at what the day is. He's learning the days of the week and loves figuring out if it's a work day or a stay home day for Daddy. I have to say, this might be more demanding if he wasn't reading but I've been having fun planning out our days a bit.

Caleb continues to be a joyful little guy who is almost always smiling and giggling. He is also a very affectionate big brother. It's not unusual to find the 2 of them snuggling in his "house" reading stories together or getting into other mischief together.

It's been a great year and we're looking forward to watching our little man grow more and more! Happy Birthday Caleb!

Funny Bits

2009-08-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sadie's asked me to call her Michael for much of today, as in Michael from Peter Pan. Apparently I've been Wendy, Daddy is Peter and Caleb is Captain Hook. Not quite sure what to think about that one... :-)

Caleb Says

2009-08-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

This morning:

"oh no! The butterfly tent is not fascinated!"

i'm pretty sure he meant fastened and not fascinated but with this one you never can tell. ;-)

Yesterday:

me- "Caleb, would you like to go to the zoo today?"
Caleb- "No, I don't think so. I want to stay home. I'm coming down with a cold" and adds a fake sneeze for effect

The other day:

me- "Caleb, please stop don't touch that" He was playing with the vent in his room.
Caleb- "But I was just admiring it"

Sadie Says

2009-08-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Her new phrase is "aww shucks"

This was what she said after every turn playing Candyland the other night. We have no idea where she heard it.

**update**

we've since learned that "aww shucks" is a phrase that comes up in their Mercy Watson books

Some More Jersey Shots!

2009-08-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

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So you all can see that the kids didn't spend all week sleeping :-)
Thank you Aunt Linda for letting us enjoy your pool!

Our Week at Jersey G'ma's

2009-08-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

very tiring :-)

more to post over the next few days!

Packing for Vacation...

2009-07-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Kids at Work

2009-07-18T06:14:00.000-07:00

Apparently the train table has been in need of some repairs. Don't worry, Caleb and Sadie are on the job. Sadie's baseball cap is functioning as her hard hat even though big brother Caleb likes to keep informing her that it's not a real hard hat.

Determination

2009-07-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

what a face! looks like we have a future little league player on our hands.

Happiness is...

2009-06-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

your first taste of freedom in the swimming pool!

Caleb Swimming

2009-06-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Kettle Creek at Sunset

2009-06-30T17:06:00.001-07:00

Sadie's Fish

2009-06-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

You might need a magnifying glass but there is a little fish on the end of that line. Pap Pap hooked 'em and Sadie reeled him in.

Sadie Fishin'

2009-06-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Dad was so excited to have the kids up to camp for the weekend. It was the weekend of the Snake Hunt and also a good weekend for a first fishing trip. Dad got them each a rod- Caleb's is Spiderman and Sadie's was Barbie (but she doesn't know about Barbie yet so she called it her pink one). Since neither kid had much experience with fishing, and we were standing on rocky shores, next to a creek, I hesitated to put hooks on both rods. We let Dad put a hook and bait on Caleb's rod and Sadie had a weight tied to hers so she could practice casting and reeling. Dad worked very hard trying to hook a fish for them to reel in but it just wasn't happening. He did manage to get one Sat. evening and Sadie got to reel it in (Caleb was sitting in time out). Sadie did a great job of figuring out her reel and was able to make a decent cast more often than not. And several times this weekend we heard her say "Papap, I really, really want to go fishin'." Caleb became very excited about catching seaweed and still squeels about it giggling if you ask him what he caught.

more on the weekend at camp coming soon. now I need to recover :-)

Waldameer 2009

2009-06-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

The first of many pics from our day at Waldameer on Sat. Had to zoom in on this one so you could really see the different reactions in the 2 monkeys. #1 looking quite relaxed and enjoying the breeze. #2, terrified.

1st day at the pool - 2009

2009-06-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Caleb Reading - 6/09

2009-06-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

He's reading from Nate the Great.

Sadie Faces

2009-06-16T17:32:00.001-07:00

Another Sadie face. This was from last week and I just couldn't resist those sad eyes. This was all play though. I might have a little actress on my hands as this was taken just minutes after the happy one. A little drama queen.

Caleb's Preschool Program - 5/09

2009-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

There's a Dinosaur, Knockin' at my Door

Caleb getting dressed

2009-05-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

the shorts on his head, the shirt on his legs and yep, the underwear over the t-shirt
he came up with this one all on his own

The Zoo - May 22

2009-05-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, the kids and I met Aunt Jackie and Uncle Chris at the Pittsburgh Zoo for a fun morning. Word of warning, the zoo is VERY popular at the end of May. There must have been at least 15 school groups there to visit as well- kids of all sizes from the little guys to the high school crowd. It was a little overwhelming for all of us. Add to that the 80 degree temps and humidity, and I was looking to get through as quick as possible (as much as I love taking animal pics). Well, to outsmart the crowds, we decided to go through the zoo backwards. The Pittsburgh Zoo is basically a big loop starting with the tigers and ending with the polar bears. We decided to hit the polar bears first and that was the best part of the day.

There are two ways to watch the bears. The first is from the ground level windows that show the swimming pool and rocks in their environment. If you go down and under the polar bears, you get to walk through a tunnel that goes through the swimming pool. It also lets you view the really cool tiger shark exhibit. Needless to say, we were very excited to get into the tunnel and see this guy enjoying a morning swim. We watched him for a good 20 minutes- and I snapped pictures almost constantly. I was so excited when I saw these at home.

Hope you like them too!

The Teddy Bear Picnic

2009-05-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Caleb's preschool is winding down. Next week is their last week. Today the teachers invited teddy bears, parents and siblings to enjoy a picnic lunch in the yard. SneezeBear and SadieBear were in attendance and we had a lovely lunch of PB sandwiches and bananas. Caleb seemed to really enjoy the time to eat and play with friends. The teachers even had a birthday cake to treat the summer birthdays (Caleb included).

The Piano

2009-05-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

So we have some very generous neighbors who decided to pass on their piano to our family. The kids are loving it and here's the first video of them playing.

Caleb's Reading

2009-05-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

So the boy can really read- granted most of it is just memory but he's also working on sounding out words! I decided it officially counted today because he started reading a book we borrowed from the library that he's never read before and he started right into it. At the library he was trying to read Dr. Seuss, Fox in Socks. Poor guy, Dr. Seuss can be really tough with all those made up words. He made it through most of the book though. It's pretty cool but has also led to a bit less sleeping- he tries to read even when there's no light in his room.

We're in trouble once the boy discovers flashlights and chapter books :-)

Sadie Says IV

2009-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Sadie had a problem with biting over the weekend and unfortunately that meant Big Brother Caleb took the brunt of it.

After being put in time out- Daddy called Sadie over to talk about what she had done.

Daddy- "Sadie, why did you have to sit in time out?"
Sadie- "because I tried to eat Caleb"

very difficult to keep a straight face with that one... but the biting seems to have passed :-)

*********************************************************************************

Daddy also made the very daring attempt to grocery shop with the 2 monkeys while I was away on Sat. They did really well even though it was getting closer and closer to nap time. Eventually, Sadie had enough and stopped listening to Daddy which made Daddy have to put her in the cart (a punishment worse than death according to Sadie). Through many tears and sobs, she managed to plead with Daddy...

"but Daddy, I have to dance"

sometimes that's just how it is ;-)

Caught!

2009-05-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

This is where I found the monkeys listening to music this morning.

NJ and Camp

2009-05-07T12:08:00.001-07:00

So once again we're spinning. Just blink an eye and April is gone and we're in May. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. April was very busy with birthdays (Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason), Easter, photo sessions and an end of the month trip to NJ with a stopover at camp on the way home.

The trip was a little hectic made slightly more complicated by Caleb developing another ear infection Sat (we were leaving Tuesday for Jersey). We scrambled to get him into the Dr.s on Monday morning and after a quick exam, got our script and were on our way. Fortunately, Caleb has been such a trooper taking his medicine and aside from the fever, he's a pleasant little patient. We packed up and headed out Tuesday morning- with Caleb sick, it didn't make sense to send him to pre-school and then leave (the school doesn't really like that anyway). I was on my own with the 2 monkeys in the back seat. Oh, yeah, Andy had to stay home and work on saving the world from swine flu. :-) The trip out wasn't too bad but the kids did a lot of bickering and decided to ignore the bag of books between them. This made for lots of Mommy straining to stay calm and quiet them while not wrecking the car. We stopped for a quick lunch and then had to make one more stop for Tylenol when Caleb's fever spiked again. But we made it and the kids were so excited to see G'ma Jody and Papa Pat's.

In NJ we got to make a few trips to the playground and had a trip to The Turtle Back Zoo. It was very nice and the kids had lots of fun. Sadie was a little creeped out by the roaming peacocks but both kids loved the carousel and train rides. No breakthroughs in potty training for the week but Caleb and Sadie both continue to be more interested and willing to sit.

The week came to an end too quickly and Saturday we packed up for the journey home. This time with the addition of a DVD player for the car (the most wonderful thing for a car ride). The kids loved the distraction of Veggies in the car and I was able to manuever my way to I80 for the trek to Cross Fork, PA (aka Camp). It was a quick drive with the kids watching the movie and then passing out for the first couple of hours. Much easier than the drive out.

We got to camp and found everyone there ready for our belated Easter celebration. After supper, Grammie snuck out and hid Easter eggs throughout the yard. Then we released the kiddos to find them. The kids had a blast looking for the eggs and running around the yard.
It was lots of fun.

After the hunt, Uncle Sean, Aunt Emily and Cousin C had to pack up and head home. So we said good bye and then it was time to get Caleb and Sadie to bed.

Sunday morning started out fine. The kids were up around 7 and Grammie quickly stirred up pancakes. After devouring the pancakes, it was time to coax them into getting dressed. I went for Sadie first- she's smaller and usually puts up less of a fight. Took her pj shirt off and found a weird mark on her arm and then noticed the moving legs attached to it. I grabbed her and showed it to my dad. Then it was off to the ER. A tick had been snacking on her arm and with all the deer that are around camp, we didn't want to take the chance of pulling it out and having the head break off. Sadie was quite pleasant through it all- a 40 min drive to the nearest hospital, waiting another 15-20 min to be seen by the nurse and dr, then having to lay down on the table while the dr removed the tick. I couldn't believe how brave she was and entertaining to. She happily introduced herself and Pappap to the nurse and then was asking to see her usual dr. I told her he wasn't there but we would get to see his friend. That seemed to make her happy and then she got to play with some new toys. The nurses and doctor were really nice and took great care of her and reassured us that we were okay to bring her in. We left tick free and with another script for antibiotics all before 10:30.

After that adventure, I was ready to pack up and head home. The drive home was fine. A little less sleeping but not as much bickering either so I was happy.

Sadie continues to talk about her boo boo and is enjoying her medicine- we have weird children that look forward to medicine. And last night she informed me that I had a tick in my arm and we needed to go to the hospital. :-)

The bite seems to be healing well and we have a check-up next week with the drs- Sadie's 2.5 yr check-up and an ear check for Caleb.

And that's the end of April... :-)

Caleb Reading

2009-04-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

I guess we all pretty much saw this coming last year when we started seeing the boy memorizing books. Well, it looks like he is bound and determined to teach himself how to read (even though, I would prefer him to be completely potty trained- I've learned that my kids and I aren't always going to have the same ideas). Through a combination of memory and figuring out letter sounds, Caleb has been able to read ZOO, CALEB, MOMMY, DADDY, and SADIE. That's more than enough for any 3 and a half year old to master but not our little man. Sunday morning, he got up with Daddy and dug out his huge Curious George treasury book. Now he's memorized all the stories, almost entirely (gotta give the little guy a bit of a break since he probably has around 30 books memorized word for word, I think) but he has been working on pointing to each word and saying it as he "reads." While looking at the book with Daddy, he started asking Daddy to tell him what the words were and eventually he started to remember some of the words. Now he recognizes THE, IN, TO, FIREMAN, MONKEY, INTO (he figured that one out from seeing "in" and "to"), THEY, AND, FIRE, and possibly more. He's starting to connect that every time you see "the" it's THE. It's been exciting to watch and he seems to be more and more determined to figure it out.

Now if only I could get him that interested in the potty...

Tid Bits

2009-04-19T18:03:00.001-07:00

At dinner this evening, we witnessed first hand Sadie "playing" with her food. She's been doing a lot of pretending lately with the Little People and other little toys. At dinner, it was the strawberries.

One strawberry says to the other "oh no, I lost my daddy"
The other strawberry says "oh, maybe he's in my tummy"
And then she eats both strawberries.

Last week, we went out to visit my friend Kelly. I've known her since kindergarten and now she has a 2 yr old and a brand new baby. While out there, our friend Karen dropped by with her brand new baby so it was quite the houseful. Sadie and Miss M (Kelly's little girl) got along really well and seemed to have a lot of fun playing. As I loaded the car back up to drive home, the kids sat and watched out the window. At some point, they found a little thing of chapstick. Miss M happily showed Sadie and Caleb how to put it on and then all 3 kids were smearing chapstick all over their face. It was funny to watch. When we got home, Sadie ran to the book shelf int the dining room, where we keep all the art supplies and pointed up, saying "I need the gluestick for my face". Apparently the chapstick and gluestick looked a little too similar and now I'll have to keep both out of reach.

Easter Morning 2009

2009-04-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

So the Easter Bunny thought it would be fun to do a little decorating for Easter morning. There were Easter eggs hung from the ceiling fan in the living room and over the archway to go in the dining room. He also gathered up all the stuffed rabbits and left the kids a little message on the chalkboard. Cute, right? Well, not if your Caleb. He didn't care for all these changes but Sadie seemed to enjoy Easter morning. Here's a bit...

And just to let you know, after church, Caleb was very excited by the Easter Bunny and was quite happy with the decorations. It just took a couple of hours to grow on him :-)

Sadie Dancing

2009-04-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

Just like "Angelina" as in Angelina Ballerina. This is our little ballerina in her Easter dress. If she's not dancing, she's hopping. She only stops to sleep :-)

March 17

2009-03-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

My future's so bright- I gotta wear shades!

Sadie and The Lord's Prayer

2009-03-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

Sadie and Caleb have been learning The Lord's Prayer for Sunday school. Sadie's got it just about down. Hope you like.

Catching Up

2009-03-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to post anything. You know how it is, things are pretty dull for a while and then every other day there's something new. We've been busy celebrating birthdays and Grammie M's recovery, not to mention the photography business has picked up a bit.

So I guess the biggest news for us is that Grammie M finished her chemo and had surgery to remove any final bits of cancer. She came through it all very well and the doctors are fairly confident in saying that the cancer is gone. We're all so thrilled and thankful for all the prayers and support from those around us. With all this, we did manage to get to visit Cousin C a bit over at the hospital. Caleb and Sadie had a blast playing and I think Caleb might be in trouble as these girls start teaming up against him more and more. Pap Pap might also be in trouble. One of the cutest moments was when his girls ran squealing down the hall of the hospital into Pap Pap's arms.

Daddy's (Andy) birthday was over the weekend. I don't know that it was all he hoped for but it was action packed. He ended up taking the kids to the Science Center with some friends from our small group while I had a photo session. Then, that evening it was dinner out with my family, including Jas and Linds and Jackie and Chris. The kids went all day without really much in the way of a nap. Towards the end of dinner, Caleb couldn't keep his eyes open and so I ended up holding him with one arm and finishing my dinner with the other. We had a good time but I have to do better next year- it's the big 3-0 :-)

That's the family news, now for the kids.

Sadie's new prized possession is her sunglasses. They are, of course, pink with Snow White on them. We had to get them last night. It all started with one of her friends at the Science Center who insisted on wearing his sunglasses. Then he wore them to church on Sunday. Then I came across a pair of Caleb's sunglasses and she was done. I made the mistake of mentioning the possibility of going out and finding sunglasses for her...well, that's all Daddy heard for the rest of the evening. So they all ventured out to Target to find some sunglasses for Sadie and she is quite happy with them. I'll have to post a picture of our new movie star.

In other news, she's becoming more interested in the potty and even tried underwear a couple of times but there still haven't been any deposits made yet. I am hopeful though. While wearing underwear last week, she had a bit of an accident and was very upset by it. Daddy took her upstairs to change the wet clothes only to be informed that "dis is diss-custing, Daddy." She's having trouble distinguishing between pooping and tooting but loves to inform us, especially if it means she can post-pone nap time or bedtime. She's also thought up her own little Toot song "I tooted, I tooted, I tooted, I tooted..." you get the idea. Sadie also continues to be very motivated to help her brother master the potty and continues to offer encouragement.

Caleb's getting much better with #1 but still not interested in #2 and as I've read different ideas on potty training, I'm learning that I've done just about everything wrong, so who knows when he'll completely get it.

However, he could very well be reading before he turns four and if you didn't know him, you might be convinced that he can read. I've mentioned before how the kid has an amazing memory and it's helping with learning words. He's learning that the words we say correspond to the words on the page and through that, he's starting to remember the shapes of certain words. In church Sunday, he recognized the word, BIBLE. It's pretty cool to see. So now he's re-reading all his books and pointing to the words as he says them and he goes slow so it really looks like he's reading. I'm thinking I need to video this to show it.

On top of this- he's really interested in math. Andy's started playing little games of adding and subtracting and he totally gets it. Caleb was talking about having 3 books for storytime and Sadie had 1 so Andy told Caleb to go pick out a book. Caleb said "no, Daddy, I need 2 books for 3 stories."

Other little funnies

Caleb discovered he has 5 fingers on both hands. I know that doesn't sound impressive but it was so funny to hear him work this out. "1,2,3,4,5! Hey, I have 5 fingers" a few minutes later "Hey, there's fingers on this hand too"
Sadie's practicing her ringmaster skills. Every so often we hear a little voice call out "Ladies and Genklemen, presenting...." At the dinner table, she stands up in her seat for more of an effect.
Sadie has started to practice undressing. I love that she's trying to be "grown-up" and more independent but she mostly does this with her pajamas and either first thing in the morning or after she's been put to bed. The other morning, I woke up to a naked little girl standing next to my bed, bouncing up and down and holding her pjs. "Mommy, I need some help with my penguins" (they were penguin pjs). The next night it was after bed time and we heard her at the top of the stairs. I went up to check and she had managed to squeaze out the neck and was bare down to her belly where I'm guessing the pjs couldn't make it over the diaper. We're not sure why she's doing it but she does it once and then goes to bed.

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of for now.
God Bless

buddies!

2009-02-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

I just caught this moment this morning and thought it was too cute to not post right away. It's become such a challenge to get these two to stand together, I have to be quick with the camera when I do catch them.

This should please the grandparents :-)

The Hamper Monster

2009-02-12T16:57:00.000-08:00

Beware...

2009-02-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

of the infamous Hamper Monster! yes, this creature invades our house when mommy has the chance to do laundry and leaves that empty hamper around to gobble small children...namely Sadie. i'm hoping to get some nicer shots of the hamper monster but these will have to do. apparently, unlike Sadie, the hamper monster is camera shy. who would have thought :-P

Sadie Says IIII

2009-02-08T18:34:00.000-08:00

The other night with daddy-

Andy was reading their bedtime story from big book of Curious George stories (the new favorite book). Caleb has been favoring Curious George gets a Medal. The story begins with Curious George gets a letter from the museum director. This evening, Andy started reading the letter "Dear George..." and Sadie stopped him. She very innocently asked, "Daddy, are you praying to George?" It gave us quite the little laugh and at the same time is encouraging to know the little one is listening when we pray to God. :-)

Caleb Spells

2009-02-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

We were waiting for Sadie to finish her lunch this afternoon and Caleb came running into the living room, saying "I made GO!" So I followed him back into the kitchen and he happily pointed out G-O on the refrigerator with the magnets. He was very proud of himself.

He's been able to read and spell stop (just saying the letters). This was the first time he grabbed the letters himself to spell a word. Pretty cool watching him learn.