Do You Ever?

Do you ever look at your baby and think, "My goodness she looks like me?!" I just had that moment. I hope she turns out better than me.

Fondant Fun

I have wanted to play around with fondant for a very long time now and was never brave enough to try. I decided I wanted to try to maybe make Eden's 1st birthday cake in fondant so I thought I better try it out before the big day. I really wanted the cake to be a lady bug, but I don't have round cake pans and I didn't want to have to buy any. So, I looked on the internet and found tons of great ideas.

I call Eden my little lady bug, and she has pink lady bugs on the walls in her room, so that's how the lady bug came to mind.

I made a marshmellow fondant and used food coloring to dye it, and a buttercream frosting to hold the cake in place (recipe on back of powdered sugar), and a chocolate devil's food cake. The lady bug on top of the cake is all fondant. I rolled out tootsie rolls for the dots on the bug. I think I would have just used fondant next time. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to dye the fondant brown, but I was successful and did the rest of the cake with brown fondant. I like how it turned out.

Easy, yes. Time consuming, yes. Two year old trying to get in the way, impossible. ;) (Kael smooshed part of the cake while it was cooling. Miraculously the fondant held it together.)

I felt like a little kid playing with playdough. I think I will stick to cupcakes for her birthday though even though I had a ton of fun making this cake.

Pretty Sure

I'm pretty sure Kael is allergic to something in Ranch Dressing...

Nursery

It's sad when Kael wants to stay with his nursery leaders more than me. When I go to pick him up with Derek and he sees me he either holds on to the nursery leader or runs away yelling NOOOOOOOOOOO!

At least the kid likes nursery.

One Day We Will Get There

Forewarning:

(A little too descriptive for some probably.)

So a couple of nights ago I was putting the kids in the bath and casually mentioned to Kael that if he wanted to go pee in the potty that would be awesome. Well come to find out he did. He shoved me out of the way in our tiny bathroom and went to work. I was NOT allowed to help him on the big potty and he did NOT want to use his little stool to step up on. He climbed on the toilet and mind you he puts ALL the seats up and refuses to sit on the seat. He got very serious and the next thing I know he is grunting like he is trying to go #2, and before I know it he is peeing in the potty. YAY! I was clapping and so happy and told him he could have a treat for going. We store the toilet paper on the top of our cabinets so Kael doesn't throw it all in the toilet and flush it, and he LOVES to flush toilet paper so I thought it would be a good reward. As soon as I stood up to get the toilet paper HE FELL IN! Completely. WORST NIGHTMARE coming true before my eyes with potty training. He started crying and screaming. I got him out and calmed him down, but pretty for certain he won't be going pee for a while now. He got to get treats for peeing and that made him super excited, and he got to throw toilet paper in the toilet. Not bad for peeing in the potty, but not so cool falling in.

What am I to do with the kid? I got him to try again the next night and he did sit for a while and tried and got two small drops out. It was impressive that he got back up there. He still is way scared and won't do it on his own anymore now though. I have a feeling it is going to be a long road. I'm trying not to push him, but I know he is close to being ready.

I have been letting him wear Buzz Lightyear underwear once a day until he pees in it. Ya gross I know, but he LOVES his underwear. He is starting to understand that is isn't ok to pee in underwear though. He always seems to pee on the tile in the hall which is easy to clean and honestly I don't really care as long as it isn't on the carpet, but he just stands there now and goes "Uh oh"! Where I let him try underwear once about 2 months ago and he peed and it didn't even phase him.

He is learning and that makes me happy. I'm not pushing it, but I hope it isn't too much longer until he is ready.

Go Kael go!

Eden Walking Video

Eden at 10 Months

Can she get any cuter? I submit that she cannot! =) This is a couple days early, but hey I'm blogging now so why not? Eden has been sick for a long time. It is quite ridiculous actually. I still don't know to this day if it was just teething or really a cold of some sort. Let's just say it made for a grumpy girl and sleepless nights. Her usual joyful self during the daytime hours was not around very much. It was replaced by a whinny and clingy child. She is finally getting back to her old self and last night she slept for the longest in a while. She refused to eat solid food for about 3 days and only about 2 days ago slowly has been getting back to eating food. The only thing I could get her to eat for little puffs. She loves to self feed herself. She still refuses a bottle or sippy cup. I even put juice in her sippy cup. I was afraid she would get dehydrated and finally started using a medicine dropper to put juice in her and she still hated that. The other day I let her use a cup with water in it and low and behold that finally did the trick. She is very independent like Kael was.

Just yesterday I noticed for certain she FINALLY got her second tooth on the bottom. It only was a month and a half behind the first tooth. Can I just say I severely dislike teething! I also noticed that it looks like one of her top teeth might be coming soon. When I say coming soon it will probably be another month or so with the way my kids teethe. The second picture shows her cute little tooth if you want a peek. :)

She is my angel and believe it or not I will miss holding her in the middle of the night when she actually learns to sleep. I won't miss her crying though. ;)

She says mama and dada pretty good now. She claps for herself and expects everyone else to clap for her too. She waves hi and bye. She LOVES Kael to pieces and still follows him everywhere. She is trying desperately to stand, but refuses to try to walk, and gets grumpy about it. She crawls SO FAST now.

She eats anything and everything on my floor, which is annoying because my carpet is like cement and EVERYTHING shows up on it, so she is always putting the grossest things in her mouth. I found a dried old pea in her mouth once.

And what the heck? Where did time go? I just realized she is turning 1 in two months?! So not possible. Slow down time! I think we will keep her 1st birthday low key. Cupcakes anyone? So, excited, but not ready for it to happen. Love you Eden. You impress me everyday! Now, please sleep at night for Mom's sake.

A Bit About Kael

So, Kael has been learning so much lately and is turning into quite the silly boy. The other day I was on the computer and he was sitting on my lap. We started having a staring contest. I had a very serious face on I guess because Kael looked at me with a big grin then all of a sudden changed into the most serious face he has ever made. He just stared at me until I couldn't help but to laugh. Then he burst into a hysterical laugh himself. Then we just did this over and over. He waited for me to laugh most of the time, but then it just became ridiculous. He always knows how to make me laugh or smile. He is so sweet.

He has been watching a lot of seseme street lately and is allowed to play games on the internet. He is now able to count to 10 with help and can recognize the numbers. He also can say most of the alphabet with help and can recognize about 10 of the letters. It is pretty awesome. Whenever he wants to play a seseme street game on the computer he comes over and says "Melmo." For Elmo. His vocabulary is picking up so much every day.

He also loves his Buzz Lightyear he got for Christmas. Sometimes he goes around and shows us his Buzz and says it "Buuuuu" Can't quite get the z part yet, but man he is getting good. He still has his own little language when he can't speak fast enough, but slowly he is putting words together. He can now say things like "Help please." "More please". He really is quite the little gentleman using manners saying thank you and please. He also is super great at sharing his toys with friends.

He impresses me more and more every day.

Big Boy Bed

That's right folks, Kael is officially in a big boy bed. We kept him in his crib for as long as possible. He climbed out of his crib a total of 5 times in the last 6 months and never got hurt, so we decided to keep him in it as long as possible. About 3 nights ago Kael had the urge to climb out of it 5 times in one night. About 4 times before he fell asleep and then once at 3 am. I was feeding Eden on the couch in the living room at 3 am and heard a door knocking. I figured it was Kael, and then all of a sudden his little face peered around the corner and scared me to death. This was my determining factor. He had never climbed out of his crib in the middle of the night.

The first night in his big boy bed was an adventure for sure. He kept getting out and playing about 3 times before he stayed in bed. He goes to bed at 7 and surprisingly he was asleep by 8. I thought not bad for his first time. He woke up screaming 3 times in the middle of the night. I think he either wasn't sure where he was, or was afraid he was going to fall out of bed. He calmed down each time and one time I even laid by him for a while.

Nap time was a different story. His room was still bright so he thought he could play. I think I put him back in bed about 5 times. Time out twice. Then finally slept by him on his bed in a death grip until he fell asleep an hour after nap time was suppose to happen. Grrr. We will see how today's nap goes.

Last night wasn't too bad except one of the times I told him to go back to bed through the door and he ran in the dark into his bed. He finally went to sleep after that happened. It was a little sad, but mostly funny.

So, here we go big boy Kael! Crazy.

Kael at 29 Months

Time sure flies when you are having fun. That is the best expression I can think of for raising kids. I can't believe that Kael is 2 years and 5 months old. Where did my baby boy go? I look at pictures of when he was a baby and think of how much he has grown and changed and I can't believe that I have been the person right beside him the entire way.

We have been working hard with Kael's speech. I am very impressed with how quickly he is learning. I cut back on my work hours back in November and only work about an hour a day now instead of 4. I think this has helped Kael the most. If you know Kael, you know that he goes 1000 miles per hour every second until his eyes are closed and he is laying asleep in his crib. I think this mileage is going to continue until his body is whithered an old around 100. ;) He certainly keeps me on my toes, and teaches me to enjoy every second of life.

I'm so grateful to my brothers for the job they have provided me and let me work as I can. I have been so blessed and it has taken a huge burden off of my life to not have to stress about going somewhere to work and having a babysitter. I don't think that I thank them enough, but they deserve more than I can give them. I love being able to be at home with my kids. It is the most rewarding experience in my life to see them grow every day.

Back to Kael.

He now says so many words. We have worked with animal names and the sounds they make. He has mastered farm animals. He can count with me to 10. He can say letter names. He knows his body parts. He loves to draw circles, but his new favorite shape for mom to draw is a STAR. We have cut back on TV a TON. He now watches a 30 minute show once a day and is allowed 30 minutes of sesame street on the computer. This is average so days when someone named Eden decides not to sleep at night, I usually cave and let him watch something longer in the morning. This has helped Kael's attention span so much! He still throws a lot of tantrums, but with his communication getting better, and not so wired to the tv, life is so much better! Now if the blasted snow would melt for a couple of days I could get him outside more. He would play in the snow every day, but I am already getting tired of how long it takes to get dressed and undressed to go outside. I'm not complaining promise, I still like the snow.

Kael loves talking to his grandparents on the telephone. He loves talking to anyone on the phone actually. He loves to play with the cars he got for Christmas. He loves to tickle and be tickled. His new love before bedtime is being shot to the moon, or going to Albequerque (sp?). Basically launched into the air onto the couch... Kael gives the sweetest kisses on the cheek and loves to hug and cuddle.

His new obsession is hugging EVERYONE. He really is the kindest, most loving spirit I know. He teaches me unconditional love every day.

I LOVE YOU KAEL!