Katie and the Fat Lip

Yes. Katie fell off of our pink bench yesterday and got a fat lip. There was a. lot. of. blood. She had a little bit of a freak out when she noticed the blood, which she saw every time she looked down at herself since it was kind of a little mess. And when I say it was a little bit of a freak out, well, I'm understating just as much as I was when I called it a *little* mess.

This was not the fun part of our day. I do not like blood. I do not like screaming. I do not like freak outs. I got all three yesterday.

And that was before Jake fell off of our side table. He was fine which always surprises me. His head is so big that I wonder how he manages to avoid falling on it (most of the time anyway!).

Oh, but he does do one thing that I think will eventually end badly... Remember how I blamed Katie for the finger prints on the mirror above the couch?

Well I've seen new evidence that places the blame on anothers shoulders...

Jake seems to think that climbing onto the couch and pulling himself onto the back of the couch then balancing on the top of the back of the couch is fun. He must think its the funnest thing EVER because he does it every chance he gets. And once he's up there he slaps his hands on the mirror or moves the mirror from side to side. And once he's done THAT... he looks over his shoulder right into my eyes and grins as if he knew I would be watching. I'll try to catch him in the act tomorrow and post a picture.

In the mean time I'm posting a picture of my sweet baby girl!

Oh, and before I posted this to my blog, Katie tripped over something as she was bringing her rocking chair into the living room so she could watch Conan with me. She landed on it face first and I held my breath hoping she didn't re split her split lip from Saturday! She was fine, just shaken up.

I guess we should invest in helmets and mouth guards for the kids... since they both seem a little accident prone these days!
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How often does this happen you might ask...

Well, if you did ask then I would tell you... Not often enough!

I love these kids.
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I leave the room for 5 minutes...

I had to go to the bathroom so I let Katie stay at the table. She colored on herself. I wanted her to admit it and she wouldn't.

I told her nothing would fall from the sky and land on her if she admitted it. A few minutes later she told me "Mommy, something landed on me. Something fell out of the sky and landed on me. Something heavy."

Now she told me I should say sorry to HER for taking her pen! Then she told me it was a tattoo! WHAT? I thought we would have at least 10 more years free of body art demands!

Oh, she also apologized for writing on the jar opener. She just gave it to me and said I could give it back to her when she was good about not writing on things.

*sigh*

She goes from sour to sweet right before my eyes. Love her to bits.

One more pic of my Katie!

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A pic of Katie's drawing garden

Note the circles and shaded areas representing the hole and covered up seed. She's got a great imagination!

If Katie learns how to use chopsticks...

I told Katie that the coupons I just put on the table were for restaurants. She said that we should have a Katie Mommy date and go to a restaurant and to the store. Just us.

I asked where we should go and she said "Maybe we should go to China and we can eat with chopsticks.". Really... Where does she get this stuff.

I don't know how to use chopsticks!

Then, using a pen and a stick from one of her games, she showed me. Rub it in why doncha.

Oh, and NOW she's going to show me how to make a garden.

Gardening according to Katie:

First you make a hole. Then you drop a seed in. Then you cover it up with all your dirt you digged out. Then you drop another seed in. Then you make a flower!

Last night geography (drawing a squiggly for Tecsus, Florida, and Minnesota)... now gardening and chopsticks. Tomorrow? Maybe a little world domination!

Does that come in "baby speak?"

Last night me and Katie were downstairs and I was going to grab the laundry out of the dryer and dump the wet stuff in and rush back up to catch Kell on Earth, when Katie asked me to bring the basket with un-matched socks upstairs so we could match them.  Like that could be super fun. 

Well, not really wanting to match socks that I didn't think had matches, I kindly declined and explained to her that there weren't any matches in the basket and that I needed to finish laundry before we could find them all... because *someone* doesn't put the dirty socks together in the hamper... nooo, I find them all over after I've started the wash, and then they go in two different loads, and then I can't match the clean ones and I have to put them in a basket for later and I can't finish my laundry because there's a basket of UNMATCHED SOCKS... and let's just say, it's annoying (and it's totally not Katie and Jacob who do this).  Whew... deep breaths.

Okay, so I didn't say all of that, but boy I was thinking it.

And she persisted with her plea.  So I told her she could match them up right there.  She agreed and I started to fold laundry.  Another yay.

She found 6 matches in that basket.  And each time she was so proud of herself.  And each time I was so surprised that there was another pair in the basket that I had to give her a high five... and resist the urge to check her pockets to see if she had the matches hiding on her just so she could pull them out and prove me wrong!  She went through the whole basket very carefully and I was so proud of her for sticking with it and being such a good helper.

Oh, and Dora was talking about patterns (from what I could gather).  I know this because Katie was talking about how my laundry baskets were arranged in a pattern of clean and dirty and cold wash and hot wash and warm wash.  Who knew she knew this word?

Oh, and this weekend was AWESOME.  John got up with Jacob on Saturday and Sunday (when usually I get morning duty on Saturday and a rest on Sunday) and I didn't even *have* to go grocery shopping.

*Have* to go means I need to go get something we've run out of that is necessary for cleaning a tushy or filling a tummy, and we're getting so low (by my standard) that I would be nervous about not having a backup of the item.  Things like: TP, diapers, wipes, and milk.  (I've taken chocolate chips off of my list.  I know, yay for me!  Even though they are at Costco and ON SALE this week.  But I'm not going to get them, no way... anyway, the kids got a hold of my coupon book so the majority of the chocolate chip coupon is in the trash with the rest of the shreds).  Ahem... you know, the things you can't live without.

So it was pretty quiet.  I had time to discover some things too... like:

1) Maybe Katie isn't the only child with a destructive streak toward paper products.  After watching Jacob shred the newspaper ads I left on the chair, I've realized that Katie might not always be the culprit.

2) The mess of toys on the floor might be courtesy of one little boy who seems to like pulling ALL of the toys out of his bins and throwing them on the floor.  I think he likes the noise they make as they hit.

3) Jacob cries just because he's mad and nothing mommy can do will help him feel better (now that we're out of ice cream).

4) Jacob is going to be a runner (especially now that he knows how to push the sliding door open just enough to get his head out... his head is the biggest part of his body so once that's through, he's taking off.)  We'll probably be thankfull for this if it continues after he's 18.

5) Jake knows how to pull wipes out of the wipe container verrrry quickly.

6) Jake knows how to climb on and stand up on things that aren't meant for standing on.  Which means that they fall over and he falls off.  So far no blood.  (Except that one time when he got a tiny bloody nose after falling and landing with his face... but I wasn't home so it's kind of like it never happened and I just don't need to think about my precious little boy getting hurt and that it could have been much, much worse.  Good thing I don't have to think about that.)

7) Jake will climb on anything that gets him up higher than he can get by standing on his own two feet.  Which means that the couch, numerous chairs, and pretty much any other surface he can get to are going to result in some kind of fall.  See #6.

8) Daddy's laptop is not sacred.  Not when daddy's chair is empty, the laptop is open, and the mouse is on the side table just waiting to be drooled on.  Nope, not at all.

So things are moving along pretty well here.  Though sometimes I think it would be good to keep safety in mind by posting a "_____ days since our last accident" poster.  Do those come in "baby speak?"

Fun, Food... Full!

We were at Cole's birthday party last night. Cole made burgers and we had coleslaw, chips, potato salad, and fixins and it was delicious!

If that weren't enough, we had to have the cupcake and ice cream dessert - it came with homemade hot fudge. I just couldn't say no to that!

Katie had a fun time sitting on the stairs... It was her "house" for the night. Aunt C and Uncle M, and her grandma and Kayla all took turns sitting with her so she had a BLAST!

Jake just ran around and had fun climbing the stairs. Up and down, over and over. And over.

We didn't leave till late and Katie went to the lake with her grandma and grandpa.

I got to sleep in since John took on baby duty this morning. I miss Katie but it's fun to have Jake to myself too!

Here are some pictures... Happy Birthday Cole!

Grandpa gives Katie some exciting news!

Katie found out that grandpa isn't having friends to the lake this weekend.

She said, "Good! Because I will pack my dishes and toys and everything in my Dora backpack and wheel it all the way to the LAKE!"

Now, as I type this, she getting a whole bunch of toys ready to go downstairs.

Great fun at Texas Roadhouse kids night tonight.

I took the kiddos to Texas Roadhouse tonight (Katie and Grandpa went to Cubbies but it was cancelled tonight) so we went to plan B.

Katie got her cheek painted (she chose Elmo... I think that's one of the easiest options) and she and Jake went "fishing" and won cowboy hats.

I hope to have the kids asleep by 9:30... I totally need to workout after eating the warm bread and stuff.

One word: YUM.

Katie and Grandpa sporting Texas Roadhouse hats

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At least Desitin's chalky white color makes it easy to see.

I arrived home today to find happy kids and...

a table smeared on one end with Desitin. Lots of it.

At least I could see it. Usually we buy A&D, which as many of you will know is mostly clear... So we don't know where Katie has smeared it till we put a hand on the door and it slips off, or see a suspicious shine on the wall, or find a smooshed tube of it in another room far away from the diapers and can't figure out where she ended up putting it. But this time we got Desitin. Cub was out of a&d.

So anyway, I got home and saw the tube on the kitchen table covered in Desitin... and Desitin smeared on the kitchen table... along with a half eaten pudding cup. What a mess. John helped Katie clean it up.

Found pudding on Katie's bedroom floor. So she got to clean that up too.

Us at home.

Our bi-weekly Costco run resulted in a ginormous pack of TP that I have yet to put away. The kids played on this for about 2 hours off and on, mostly on... and mostly on the pack of TP. Jake stood on it, Katie stood on it, they stood on it together. Then Jake sat on it and Katie pushed him around the house. Till it landed here, in our living room.

I was getting dinner ready on Saturday night (I think it was Saturday) and when I checked on the kids (a case of the "too quiets") I found this: Two kids playing happily on our rolled up living room rug. Oh, and see the puppy Katie is holding? It's actually Jacobs. And he likes it. But so does she. She wanted 10 of them for her birthday until I menitoned that if she got 10 of them, there would be no other gifts for her to open. She decided she might only need 5.

Katie and Jake in a quiet moment. I don't remember what I was watching... I hope it's not Real Housewives or something like that... (but it probably was. Either that or Food Network.)

This is not good and should probably have been an indicator that we have a "situation" on our hands. I posted about this. (Hint: check out the post about hospital visits to see the story. And no, we haven't actually needed to go to the hospital. Yet.)

How can they be so cute!? There have been more of these quiet moments lately.

Katie likes my shoes. She found these in my closet (probably while searching for one of her toys I hid in the closet. Needless to say she's not supposed to be in there.) and did not want to take them off of her feet. I was going to press it and take them away so they wouldn't be scuffed up but once I tried them on, I realized why I had only worn them once. They hurt. So I gave them to her for keeps. She was very excited.

Now for some other fun pics:

Katie and I went to Big Lots and she found many toys she felt were necessary to her birthday happiness. Please do not buy them for her. She needs clothes, shoes, and hair ribbons more.

Just kidding. Kind of. I mean, she does have lots of toys and only plays with Jake's. So maybe not kidding... hmmm.

Well, here they are since they are all ready to upload:

Will we be on a first-name basis with staff at our local hospital?

This week has been... Challenging.

With two kids who seemed determined to tag team their sleeping and coordinated the effort so well that not one blessed night gave me a full night of that very valuable shut eye, Jacob's extra efforts to fall, tumble, and flip off of the many surfaces he can climb onto at home (and we're finding that there are MANY that fit the bill now), and Katie's ability to go from happy girl to angry *grrr* monster (but still pretty cute) with her naughty talk backs and excessive use of the word "NO", well, like I said... Challenging.

Tonight was full of excitement of the falling/running kind. Jake was playing in the dining room where we have a small bench for the toy castle and toy house to set on. He must have tried to climb onto the bench. It fell, he cried, I was taking a nap so I pretended to sleep on. John handled the situation and since he didn't come charging into the room with a bleeding baby in his arms, I figured I was safe to continue in my ignorant bliss. Plus, I didn't have to wonder what happened for too long; Katie came in to give me the scoop. And also to ask for a refill of super duper juice. I was shocked when, after I told her I was taking a nap right now but I would get her some after I woke up, she said okay and headed out of the bedroom. She shut the door on her way out and I slept for another 20 minutes! Shocked.

Oh, and later in the evening Katie and Jacob were running through the house. Katie was holding Jake's hand and pulling him along in her wake. Well, she was holding his right hand in her left and not being too careful about her brothers need for personal space. As she rounded the corner into the dining room, I cringed, waiting for him to smack into the wall or table and breathed a sigh of relief when he cleared them. I stuck my head around the corner to see what happened on the next turn and saw Jake run (or be pulled) right into the play kitchen. Katie didn't even look back at the noise... she just kept pulling. Jake reoriented himself, and off they went. I laughed. Because it was kind of funny.

And for a little more excitement, tonight Jake was laying on the couch and *somebody* was standing on the arm of the sofa. I told Katie (oops, did I just give away the identity of the culprit?) to please get down carefully. She didn't seem to have her "listening ears" on. I told her again and something got through. She looked at me, wobbled, tried to balance but with no luck. She didn't step ON Jakes head exactly, but her foot did come into forceful contact with the side of his head on the way to the couch. He cried. Katie was sorry. We moved on.

And about 5 minutes later, it was deja vu. Katie balancing, Jake's head resting close to Katie.
And she slid off of the arm of the couch. And kind of laid down on Jakes side. She was getting up... and she slid down onto him again.

Arg.

More crying, another apology.

But we got it worked out.

Other than that, there wasn't any other kid to kid angst... Just Jake falling off of stuff he tried to climb. And he's only 1. Great. Lots of time to get on a first-name basis with staff at our local hospital.

Fun times.

Can I just get a little peace and quiet over here?

John and I had a great weekend. Quiet, busy, and fun. And quiet.

The kids went to the lake with grandma and grandpa so we (John) could clean the carpets in the living room.

We got that done on Friday night and on Saturday morning John moved everything back.

The rest of the weekend we went to Target, Menards, Dollar Tree (YAY!), Applebees, Cub, and I went to a Tastefully Simple party, got stuff done around the house, and I got my hair cut,

Busy. And quiet.

Missed the kids.

They got back last night and went right to their beds.

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I could hear Jake in the dining room (where I think we'll keep their toys) playing. And saying "Uh oh." over and over.

Ahhh, that's more like it.

Katie wants to live under the...

Katie was about to come upstairs last night after a fun time at Grandma and Grandpas.

Her toys were all set on the bottom two steps (yes, she has that many toys that MUST come downstairs with her or her whole life will be ruined) when she told us that she was going to live there.

Not "there" as in *at* Grandma and Grandpas (she wanted to do that a couple of weeks ago), no, she decided that she was going to live on the basement stairs. She was ready to sleep there and as she waved her arms to the blank space behind her she said that her kids were here and she needed to stay with her kids to keep an eye on them.

I thought that sounded like a good idea (figuring she would come upstairs when she got bored or tired or thirsty or hit puberty) so I let her stay there.

Till I heard a door shut and realized she was visiting Grandpa when he was trying to wind down for the night. So I went and got her to come up and I took her toys up. She had a bit of a fit. She was not happy and EVERYONE was going to hear it. She really knows the "n" word (that's "no" in case you were wondering) and she's not afraid to use it.

She kept yelling that she wanted to "live on the STAIRS, not here. I am MAD. No! No! NO!" Rinse, repeat, for about 5 minutes. Oh, and I made the mistake of letting her see me laugh. I tried to hold it in but just could. not. hold. it. any. longer! So I tried to hide my face behind my magazine. Didn't help... she's pretty perceptive. Then I heard "Stop laughing AT ME!" at least 5 times. Which made me laugh again. Arg.

I'm surprised that Jake didn't wake up to this but he was in dream land.

Finally she looked at me and with all of her anger she said "you a... (and I held my breath hoping not to hear something that would require a time out... or a bar of soap*)... you a NAUGHTY GIRL" and she added a "hmpfh" which is her way of putting an end to discussion on the topic. (Kind of like "I no do that. Hmpfh" after which she crosses her arms and turns her head away in a semi hair toss.)

I let out my breath and thanked God, Dora, Diego, and Caillou that it wan't something much worse. And then we snuggled on the chair and played I spy. And she was happy again.

* Just kidding. I would never, ever, ever wash her mouth out with soap. I might talk to her about using kind words to the point she would prefer the soap, but we go through soap pretty quickly already and I don't have a re-stocking trip to Costco planned for a couple of weeks. Plus, that stuff's expensive! Just kidding.**

** No, really. I'm just kidding. We do have plenty of soap in the bathroom closet.

Jake's a healthy baby boy.

I took Jake to the doctor for his shots and 1-year checkup. Got there at 5 and checked in, Jake played with the waiting room toys and was having a ball. The nurse called us and we headed into our cell... um, I mean our room. I had to get all of Jake's clothes off for the check up and then she weighed and measured.

Jacob weighs in at 24 lbs 6 oz and measurs 33 inches long. He's in the 66th percentile for weight and 96th for height.

Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Jacob played with the chair, the table, the step thing that comes out of the table... and tried to get into everything. And at first I tried to keep him out of stuff. But that got old after about 45 minutes. At that point I brought out the puffs so I could distract him from the really dangerous stuff but really I let him push buttons and spin the little doctors chair as much as he wanted. I did wrangle him away from the outlet under the desk... you know, the one that powers and runs the handy dandy computer.

After awhile the puffs weren't doing it for Jake so I opened the door and we went for a walk. Jacob found a storage room and loved looking at himself in the mirror someone had propped against the shelving. (I don't know why that door wasn't shut or the mirror put in a less "child friendly" place but I don't claim to be a genious.)

We finally got shots taken care of and then had to go downstairs for a finger prick. Poor Jake! He finally calms down and then has to sit through another round. The lab tech was trying to talk to Jake and get him to smile but Jacob just looked at him. If looks could talk, his look would have said "what do you think you're going to do?" He suffered through this too and we headed home.
We finally got home at about 6:30 (in case you're wondering... that's an HOUR AND A HALF at the clinic!) and John took him so I could eat dinner and Jake fell asleep. Slept through the night and didn't wake up once. Whew!

Katie had gone shopping with Grandma and I think she invited herself to visit downstairs because that's where she was when I got home.

John sat down to eat after I took Jake. Katie came upstairs (I think she wanted to get her flip flops - don't ask me why she insists on wearing them in the house) and saw John eating his BLT. She asked for "just one bite". Took that bite and needed "just one more bite". This went on until his whole sandwich was gone!

Then she went back downstairs. And I sent this to Grandma and Grandpa:

Jake and Katie keeping us on our toes

Jake has his 1 year well check today (I know... I'm a little slow on the draw).

Katie has a strange facination with making "castles" out of orange peels. She loves it. Last night I peeled one of those tiny oranges for her and gave her the slices and the peel and she sat at the kitchen table for at least 35 minutes making castles and playing with the oranges, the slices "talked" to each other before saying "goodbye" and going into her mouth.

The other night she did the same thing but the playtime took a macabre turn when she told me "Mommy, I love to peel people." Hmmm, the imagery there was kind of gross.

Jacob is climbing on everything. If we leave a kitchen chair rolled out from the table, he climbs on it. If we leave the bench in the living room facing out, he climbs on it. If we leave his little school bus too close to the bed, he climbs on it. Then he stands up. On everything. And smiles. All while I'm rushing toward him to help him get down.

Jake is eating okay these days. He would rather inhale a bunch of puffs than eat the roast I made for dinner but he does great with fruits, hot dogs, noodles, peeled grapes, insides of oranges, yogurt, and ice cream. He's not much of an eater though... he would rather run around and play.

Oh, he adores bananas. I usually take off his clothes and give him a section big enough to hold in his hand. He loves it. He can eat half a banana in about 10 minutes AND it keeps him sitting in his high chair which is a big challenge since his goal is to get into a standing position and then smile at us so we can see how brilliant he is to have managed that feat. Not fun. And I can't move the tray any closer to his tummy. I don't know how he manages to wiggle out of his seat a thousand times during each meal.

Katie is silly. She's got to have her toys and she's got to have her red Snow White headband (with the cute bow on the top). Then she comes to me and tells me to guess who she is. Sometimes I guess that she's "Katie", sometimes I guess "a princess?", sometimes I actually guess correctly (the times when I remember that when she's wearing her headband there's really only ONE person she's pretending to be and that's SNOW WHITE). She loves that game.

She still has "work friends" and she still claims that Honey is a boy. She still plays alone really well although sometimes her and Jake will run around the house over and over and over, giggline the whole time.

She tries to do my exercise video with me until she deems it "too hard, mommy!" and does her own thing. We make pretend excercises up when my video is over. She counts to 10 while we hold whatever pose we've got.

We had a pizza picnic on Saturday. Katie brought the napkins to the living room and put them on the towel, one at each end, perfectly placed. Then while I cleaned up the dishes, she put the towel in the bathroom hamper.

She also locked the bathroom door while washing her hands. I knocked and she said "Just a minute, mom!" so I got our key and got it unlocked to find her rinsing her hands in a green sink. Green is the color of her special foaming soap. It was coating the sink and part of the counter. No wonder she wanted me to wait a minute... she wanted to clean up!

We went to Mike and Jenny's birthday on Friday night and that was a BLAST! Katie loved the photobooth and Jake loved the toys. We had really yummy food and the hypnotist comedian was great! Go to Paiges Upon Pages (link to the left) to see their blog. No post yet about the big event but there are pics of Jakes 1st birthday (cause they are waaaaay better about posting pics than I am!).

Heaven

Katie and I were winding down from a long day. Jake was in his crib sleeping so we had some quiet time together.

Katie reached over and put her hand on my arm and very seriously said "Mommy, I don't want your good stuff to go to heaven. And I don't want Daddy's good stuff to go to heaven either. Because if you go to heaven, I won't have any family."

I reassured her that we don't plan to go to heaven anytime soon but she was still upset.

She talked about it alot and how she didn't want our good stuff to go to heaven and our bodies to go to the cemetary. I tried to reassure her and to tell her that heaven is a great place but she did not care. She was sad.

I finally realized that she hadn't mentioned Jake. So I asked her "What about Jakey?"

And she said "Jakey can go to heaven."

*sigh*