Two Firsts in One Day

We had a big day today. It was a day of first for both boys!!

Caleb and Kyle went to WalMart yesterday to pick out a poop toy. Pooping on the potty is a pretty big deal when potty training and we wanted to give him a big incentive to do it.

Long story short, he pooped TWICE on the potty today. Each time, he got to play with his poop toys for an hour.

And Isaiah started pulling up today! Crawling? Who needs it? I think he might start "cruising" soon.
Check out his stance.
I guess it took the splits (practically!) to keep his balance.

Happy Reformation Day

We celebrated Halloween by going to the YMCA Halloween Celebration. We took some snapshots before we left.

Isaiah went as a tiger.He was ravenous.

And Caleb went as a math nerd.

They had a sweet little backdrop to take pictures by and I couldn't help myself.


On another note: I took Isaiah to the doctor because of a horrible rash all over his body. It turned out to be a reaction from the Amoxicillin he was taking from an ear infection last week. Luckily, it just looked horrible and didn't feel horrible.

45 minutes

Archives

I was going through our photo albums the other day and came across these pictures of Kyle when he was a baby.

Awww, what a sweet little guy he was. Such a chubby little man.

But gosh! What kind of parents did Kyle have? Letting their son suck on the faucet? Tsk, tsk.

Okay, so maybe these aren't of Kyle but of Isaiah. Did I trick ya though? Huh?

(I call this one "Taxi!")

And I happen to be the parent that lets my child suck on grimey faucets.

(I call this one "Bacteria".)

...And doesn't even give him a bath when he's in the sink. I threw him in there so that he would stop complaining every time I put him down to do dishes. But he loved it. He couldn't get enough.

Hungry?

You should start your day with a nice strawberry this morning.

Maybe you could add some toast and jelly in order to hold you til lunch.

On second thought, eggs are much more filling. So, a toast and egg sandwich will do.

And why stop there? Grab yourself a couple of pancakes and slather on some butter and syrup!

OR, stop at your local bakery and grab a donut. Mmmmm!

These food items have been my late night projects! They don't require a sewing machine so I can make them while talking, watching tv, or listening to podcasts. Plus, I listen better while doing things with my hands. It's a win-win!

The best part is watching Caleb play "cooker man" or "chef". He loves making me eggs that are "yellow and white" . He's also recently discovered flipping pancakes like a champion and throws them waaaay up in the air with the flipper.

I'm hoping to make some veggies too. Maybe then he'll like them more...

Brothers

I haven't blogged very much lately. I guess I'm caught up in other things during my "computer time" like reading some funny blogs that my sister wrote about and some craft blogs.

I went through my pictures recently and realized I had taken a couple "brothers" photos. Isaiah is finally getting to the age where Caleb can sort of play with him. Mostly not. Caleb yells, "I-SAY-ah!" if Isaiah is eating his train or his train track or his tractor or something that isn't Isaiah's toy. So, basically, all the time.

Swinging...

In Daddy's arms...

Matchy, matchy...

And on Kyle's fall break this past Monday we went to Platte River State Park and had a blast hiking, picnicking and trekking through the leaves. Here are some pictures.

On the big lookout tower.

Caleb didn't want to go on the big lookout tower at first. We got halfway up before we decided to change his mind for him.

He ended up loving it and didn't want to go down.

It was a beautiful little day-long-getaway, especially with the leaves changing color. The boys were so happy to be outside after a bunch of cold days in a row.

Eventually they tuckered out and we went home.

Top 5 Favorite Websites

1. Craftzine. Newly discovered and I'm head over heels in love.

2. Pandora. Internet radio. It fits whatever mood I'm in.

3. Allrecipes. There's hardly a day that goes by that I don't use this site.

4. Pioneer Woman. I think I've shared about this one before but I still love it. It has lots and lots of beautiful pictures, giveaways, yummy recipes and it's all about life on the ranch.

5. Chicks Dig Deals. Thrifty ladies from my neck of the woods.

Change

The times are changing.

Change is in the air. It's in the leaves. It's on the menu.

It's the apple crisps and pumpkin breads and the soups that are being made!

I love this time of year. I love the sweatshirt weather and the smell of dried of leaves tickling my nose. It puts a little spring in my step and a desire to change. To change with the cooling air and the shedding trees.

Here is a list of things that are changing.

*The bedrooms. Isaiah now has his in Caleb's room and Caleb packed up his train bed and dropped it in our room. Our reasoning: Caleb was coming to our room 2-4 times a night to ask if he could sleep in our bed and Isaiah was waking up sometimes even more than that. I decided if I couldn't hear Isaiah squirming, I wouldn't get him and he'd sleep through the night--finally. I don't think he's gone more than 5 hours without waking up at night (and he's 7 1/2 months!) so it's off to Caleb's room with him. As soon as Isaiah can sleep through the night, Caleb's going back in his room. That's plan A. No plan B so far.

*Food. Soups!! I LOVE soups. You can shove all kinds of veggies in them and they still taste good!! If I could eat soup and bread everyday I probably would. On the menu this week:

• tomato and red pepper soup with butternut squash grilled cheese sandwiches
• homemade mac & cheese with butternut squash, cream cheese, and chedder with steamed broccoli

We just finished off a big pot of broccoli/potato/ham soup. Soups make me so happy.

Also, I'm trying to be a little healthier. Hopefully I can keep this up.

*According to Caleb, Daddy's name is now "Kyle" and Mommy's name is now "Mom", sometimes "Lori".

*Caleb doesn't like to look at the camera anymore. It takes an army of people to get him to look at the camera and you can pretty much forget about him smiling for it. He usually pleasures us with a "cheeeeeeeeese" but he's not smiling OR looking at the camera. *sigh* Oh, the plight of a mother...

This would be a recent, classic Caleb shot. This morning I laid out his clothes and Isaiah's clothes and asked which ones were his. He chose Isaiah's and started putting them on. I thought it was ridiculously adorable and grabbed the camera. Here's the best picture:

"Lori, you are totally lame. Get that camera out of my face."

I happen to get a little bit of cooperation from Caleb towards the camera one day and I took full, reeeal close, advantage.

*Moving forward--or backwards. Time to watch out for loose change, beads, dis-armed (literally) hunter action figures, and random trash on the floor. Isaiah is ready to be on the move any day now.

"Hi mom! I love hanging out by the window and laying arou--"

"--whoa!! What's that?"

"A stuffed puppy! Look out, Fido, you're gonna be doggy slobber as soon as I can crawl forwards. Right now I'm only backwards efficient. But soon, reeeal soon."

* It actually might be a little too cold around these parts right now. We're having a bit of a cold spell, a foreshadowing of winter, I guess. Which makes me remember that we should really have a heater for Isaiah's room, since it's practically freezing. I haven't really looked into anything yet, but I'm curious if you've found a good heater that you want to recommend to me. Do you know anyone who has an awesome heater? I'd prefer cool touch because of the little tiny fingers that could get in the way but other than that, I'm really up in the air about big or small, short or tall.

The first snow: Last Saturday. Yikes.

Seven

1. Isaiah is slobbering on everything. He loves to play with everything and anything and try and eat it. Caleb's toys, his toys, furniture, and maps...

His absolute favorites are paper, cardboard and plastic. I went grocery shopping for a full 1/2 hour the other day and Isaiah stayed perfectly content the whole time because I sat him in the front with a bag of bread and let him suck on the plastic end. I don't usually let him suck on paper, cardboard and plastic, but desperate times call for desperate measures. :)

One day he was so hungry, he ate a horse.

2. Caleb is really good at playing and pretending right now. He's content playing trains and farm all day long--if someone plays with him, of course. Here he is as a worker.3. We rearranged our living room. Our neighbors were moving and they gave us three couches. We decided four couches was too many for our living room and gave two to the maintenance guys.

Here's the new, slightly messy view. It looks really nice when all the toys are taken out of the equation. I promise.

4. Last week was full of grandparents! We went to the Sunken Garden's with Kyle's parents...

My mom came over on the weekend but I didn't take any pictures. I've been really lazy about that lately. I have soo much fun when they come over. I love babysitters.

6. Any ideas on how to play with your 2 year old while nursing your baby? I need to sit and I'm not able to use my hands anymore than I already am. So no reading, no songs with actions, no putting "corn" blocks into the wagons. It only has to last 5-8 minutes but I'm fresh out of ideas.

7. Go Twins!

Family Art Project

Noah's Ark has been the them of Caleb's room for the past almost-three years. I decided he needs big boy decor now, since he'll be three this January.

I saw a really neat article in a "Family Fun" magazine that had a family take a walk, find letters in different objects and snap pictures of them.

It looked like such a good idea and I got to thinking that these pictures would be really great decor for Caleb's new big boy room.

I told Kyle about the idea and he was totally up for it. So this morning, we took a nice long walk, went out for breakfast, and took lots and lots of pictures. Here's a few from our picture-taking journey.

(A-D)

(E-H)

On another note, Isaiah is a squealing, slobbering, squirmy boy. He's on the go too! Although he can barely sit up, he's starting to rock back and forth on his knees like he's going to crawl pretty soon! And if you stick something in front of him that he really wants (like paper!!) he'll move to try and get it, only to find he's gone backwards instead of forwards.

Happy seven months to Isaiah yesterday! He's a happy boy--very easy to mother.

AND he's eating baby food. He is a HUGE mess when he does this. I have to feed him with two spoons since he grabs the one with the food on it. It's pretty much a miracle if it makes it to his mouth. It's pretty hilarious to watch. After he chews on the spoon for a while he flails his arms and sends the spoon flying to the ground. Rinse and repeat.

Caleb is pretty funny these days too. He's gotten into the habit of saying, "This is what Emily doos." (Emily is the next door neighbor that Caleb is completely in love with. She also happens to be moving away next Friday. Boo.) Then he'll do what he's seen her do before. He loves being a copycat. He also needs to be reminded fairly often that it's "does" not "doos".

A couple days ago he was lining up his elephant blocks, or "efalant blocks" in his words. This is the picture he thought was an elephant. Can you see it? Pretty clever.