Highlights from a daddy day

Caroline stands up from a crawl without support from anything other than her palms on the ground now. She was doing it all day today but she wouldn't take any steps afterward.

Ellie dressed up like an M&M for preschool. Whenever she has a dress-up day I get nervous. What if we got the date wrong and she's dressed as an M&M and everyone else is dressed like a normal preschooler? It worked out, though. Her only problem was that she couldn't raise her arms for fear of ripping her costume. She just bent at the elbows. Kind of looked like a sea lion. (Cutest sea lion dressed as an m&m ever).

Anderson and I played Wii bowling for a while. Basically, I knelt behind him and swung his arm and tried to keep him from hitting the buttons. We stopped when I got mad at him for ruining a turkey. Lousy kid.

I also got our dishwasher fixed, paid some bills, fixed our wireless adapter, bought, downloaded, and installed Office 2010 (for $10, perfectly legally, too), put up with a very whiny Ellie, and watched Jack and Molly and my 3 for a couple hours. All-in-all, a pretty productive day.

Uncle Kurt: Jack, do you have a stinky diaper?
Jack: OK.

By the power of Grayskull, I HAVE THE POWER!!!

Stuff my kids have never seen:
A Walkman
A VCR
An A drive (seriously, why are A and B still reserved for floppy disks?)
An episode of He-Man, unless they stay up late and watch Qubo. Saw it on the other night. Pretty awesome.
Super Nintendo
L.A. Gears
A Skipit
A typewriter

Stuff their kids will never see:
Cassettes/CDs/DVDs/blu ray disks
A diskman
An episode of Power Rangers (God willing)
A post-season pitcher as dominant as Cliff Lee
What else?

Ellie just built a lego boat that could carry 2 people, a "spyolator" and a "fastolator". They help you spy and go fast.

Walker and I had a 45 minute discussion on Heaven and Hell the other night, including such topics as the holy spirit and prevenient grace. It was right before bed time and the talk was mostly about Satan and Hell so I thought he'd be getting pretty scared but he just kept asking question after question.
"Does Hell have walls? Does it have doors? How do people go there after they die? Does Satan grab you and drag you down through the dirt?" Yeah, it started creeping me out a little so I finally shut him down. The next night, he wanted to talk about it again.

Also, I saw that there's a new show called Raising Hope. Just when I thought the verb/name titles were going away . . . Crossing Jordan, Judging Amy, saving grace, raising hellen, finding nemo, saving private ryan. Also, why is it that all the just-go-by-the-first-name shows star incredibly annoying women?

Fall Fun

Peek-a-boo! I see you! Walker, Ellie, and Anderson had a blast making it "rain" leaves and diving into the huge pile that Kurt made for them!

In other fall-related news, Anderson cried when he reached in the pumpkin to pull out some seeds. I laughed really hard, and he got mad and left.

Quick Update

Anderson asked me if we could listen to a CDD the other day while driving in the van. I love that kid :)

Gracie's blows kisses now and says "hi" with a huge smile when she sees you walk into the room!

Walker is a puzzling mix of a terrible listener and a very happy 6 year old.

Ellie just loves to color and shop, color and shop, color and shop. She is a very good helper when she's not in a "mood." Tonight at dinner, she said, "Mom, I don't think I can eat. My stomach hurts when I breathe out, right on my pancreases."

Sunday Mornin'

I just want to record the events of Sunday morning, so we don't forget how crazy things are at our house . . .
Anderson's sleeping naked on the couch because he peed the bed.

Kurt woke up first and made coffee and waffles (not typical) while I snuggled with Gracie on the couch.

Walker is eating breakfast and talking about sports with Kurt. They are both cracking up, and if you just listened to the conversation without realizing Walker was a six-year-old, you'd think it was 2 buddies giving each other a hard time about who's a better batter, pitcher, etc.

Ellie is sound asleep because she's our sleeper-inner. She will definitely wake up whiny and crabby b/c she stayed up too late.

Kurt just yelled at me for blogging, and said that if we're late for church he's blaming me. He always blames me anyway.

Gracie's also eating waffles, and will probably stay in her high chair until we're about 5 minutes away from leaving b/c she's the good one who never fusses.

As soon as Ellie wakes up, she'll eat breakfast, and get yelled at 500 times for eating too slow.

Anderson's pretty pleasant this morning. When he wakes up, it usually 50/50. This morning we were blessed with a happy demeanor.

It's now time to leave, and I was too busy getting everyone ready to put make-up on, so now I will make Kurt mad by telling him I need 5 more minutes :)

P.S. We left at 8:40, which is great for us!!!

LET'S GO LEOPARDS!
Here's Caroline modeling her new hair bow made by Dana R. from Louisville (she owns her own bow business called Kensington's
kloset - super cute stuff). Ellie has a matching one, too!

Caroline's latest tricks include taking a few steps and saying "hello" while talking on her pretend phone!

Caroline Stats

age: 1 year & 1 day
weight: 20 lbs. 2 oz. (25%)
length: 28" (25%)
cute factor: through the roof!!!

To date, Caroline is . . .
-completely off the bottle and on a sippy cup
-drinking whole milk and eating 3 meals a day plus 1 or 2 snacks
-in need of more teeth (she only has 2)
-cruising around furniture
-saying 4 words: hi, mama, dada, uh-oh
-the best baby in the whole wide world :)

Excited to be up past bed time and preparing to toddle

I took Anderson to his first high school football game on Friday. He had fun cheering but his timing and content were a little off.
Anderson, during the silent time between an extra point and a kick off: Dad, can we scream?
Me: In a little bit, buddy, I'll tell you when.
Me, after the kickoff: OK Anderson, go ahead and cheer now.
Anderson, at the top of his lungs: IT'S . . . NIGHTTIME!!!!!!
Me: OK, not bad. Now how about yelling 'Go, Defense'?
Ander: GO DEFENSE! What's defense?

Gracie turns 1 tomorrow. She can hold up 1 finger. She took 1 step today. She can say 1 sentence (Hi, Dada).

Birthing hips: Advantage, Caroline

A lot of Caroline's shorts/pants are really tight on her 'till you get them up over her hips. I guess she's still got a little chub on her. It's a lot like putting a pillow case on a new pillow. Except you don't have to tuck her under your chin first.

I had Caroline and Anderson in a big cart at the store today, one in which they could ride side-by-side. Anderson kept his arm around Caroline the whole time and was cracking her up by pretending to eat her face. I think they'll be buddies once she can fend for herself a little more. Anderson got 2 Oreos on the way home for being so good at the store. I guess I was roughly 3 times as good.

Anderson: Dad, why can't I see my eyes?

In protest today over what was for lunch, he poured his milk onto his plate of chicken and noodles. I dumped the milk, warmed up the food, and gave it back. He ate a little but then settled on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, on which he really, really wanted salt and pepper. I declined, he screamed, then ate it and said he was ready for bed. Slept for almost 3 hours. Sweet.