Say Cheese!

Whenever I'm taking a picture of Eden and I tell her, "Eden, say cheese!", this is the pose I get. Oh man, this girl cracks me up. Her cheesy little face. She was eating broccoli with pork schnitzel for dinner. I had made them spaghetti O's, that both Kael and Eden threw in my shopping cart, however, neither child will eat them. Gross. Glad she inherited Derek's finer taste buds. And I have a video of her saying broccoli and schnitzel and it's the cutest thing ever. And proof that the girl LOVES broccoli. I'll take another child like this please! 

Eden's BFF.

We had our friend's the Billing's over for dinner on Sunday who are a super cool family who are applying to medical school. Their youngest is only 2 months older than Eden. Her name is Jaycee and Eden adores her. Every time we go outside she asks for Jaycee. The girls had a fun time playing together, so I had to snap a few pictures while I actually had my camera. It's hard to take a picture of 2 girls jumping on a trampoline.

Eden and Jaycee being super cute even though the picture is blurry. Darn blurry pictures!

I love the friendship that they have. Eden has a way with people and she loves to be around them. I love seeing her make friends.

Block Party Year 2

 I decided to brave the block party for the student housing again this year. I went with my good friend Raquel who is battling as a second year medical school wife as well. We both have 2 kids and it is a battle. But, we ventured out and I think the kids had a great time, which meant that I had a great time. The best part... Everything was FREE! Gotta love it. 

 Kael played a few games. He totally made it all 3 times tossing the bean bag through the holes. "Don't judge how close he was to it, the kid is 3..." :)

They won lots of prizes and ate lots of candy and popcorn.

 Who doesn't love free balloons?! We sure do even if it means getting past this scary guy to get one...

 Kael got a dog and Eden got a Thing A MaBobber. It was actually awesome. There was a small ball in the clear balloon that would roll around. It unfortunately popped before we got home.

 They got rockets and launched them super high in the air. Kael was in heaven he loved that. I let him do Eden's too. He also got a wooden helicopter to put together from Home Depot. He put it together with Derek on Sunday and he LOVES it. Have I mentioned that I love FREE stuff?!

 Eden was a trooper, but just couldn't keep her eyes open by the end. Kael's face is classic Kael. He could have gone all day. We got wrist bands to do bounce houses with slides, but it was past nap time by the time we did all the normal stuff and we still had to walk home. They also got free pizza and juice for lunch. 

 The walk home. I love seeing him loving that snow cone. They had cotton candy, but in the past he hated it. Glad he liked the snow cone.

 The kids on the walk home after me and Raquel conquered the ginormous mountain right behind the kids. We needed a break after pushing a stroller up that thing! That hill gets me every time and before I move I will conquer it or just curse at it... 

 Watch Kael.

Fried Pickle Sandwich!!!! The kid dropped his snow cone. 

"Oh, but don't worry Mom I can just pick it up by myself and put it back together." Silly kid.

The End.

A Bow.

So, lately Eden has been showing her more girly side every day. On Sep. 24th she woke up and asked for a bow. She is quite obsessed. So, I gave her a bow for her hair and she gave me this cheesy smile. She thinks it makes her look so pretty. I do too. What a silly girl.

Play Date

 Benji, Eden, and Kael

Oh man. We LOVE Play dates! Come over to our house anytime. We love our friends!

18 month Eden

My cheesey little princess. Oh man, I love this girl so so much! She is finally old enough for nursery even though she has been going forever. It is crazy to see her amazing personality just shine every single day. She is turning out to have as much energy as Kael, however I think she is a little better at channeling that energy. She is still taking 2 naps a day, but if I need to keep her awake in the morning she does awesome and does great with just one nap. She still hates milk, but loves everything else food and drink wise. I constantly am finding her digging through the recycle bin and pulling out soda cans and trying to taste the last couple drops. She is so ridiculous. She loves food still. It makes life so much easier having your child eat on command. She loves chicken, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, corn dogs, cheese, fruit of any kind, crackers, nuts, broccoli, carrots, peas, mashed potatos, corn, juice, water, stuffing, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, yogurt. The list goes on and on and on. She will eat just about anything you put in front of her. She will really love you if you give her a sucker.

Eden is talking up a storm! It is so weird because Kael could really only sign at this age. She is starting to put 2 words together sometimes. Like Mommy outside. Mommy shoes outside. Things like that.

This girl is obsessed with shoes and jewelry and hair clips and baby dolls and dress up and all things pink. She is 100% girl. She goes through her shoe drawer once a day at least and tries on her shoes and tells me to put them on her feet. She even wants socks half the time. Then, the other day when Derek was laying her down for bed she really just wanted/needed a hair bow. She kept kept pointing at them and saying bow so Derek being the awesome Dad he is put a bow in her hair and she went to bed.

She is starting to be a thorn in Kael's side though because she has learned to keep the toys she wants or to take what she wants from him. I knew they would eventually have arguments, but oh boy it is just silly.

She loves playing outside. She loves the swings and chasing the boys. She has a little friend Jaycee who she adores and says Jaycee every time we go outside. Benji and Miller would be considered her two little boy friends. She loves holding Benji's hand and Miller will play with her outside all day probably. I love seeing her interact with other kids. She is obsessed with bikes, but can't reach the peddles. She climbs up on them and just sits there until I either push her around, or she figures out she isn't going anywhere.

She is sleeping better at night since we took away her pacifier and she is just a little stink bug sometimes. I love this girl to death! She makes me smile every day and I love seeing her grow.

Words:
Daddy, Mommy, Kael (Ay el) It sounds silly.
Jaycee, Benji, swing, outside, shoes, socks, up, bath, cookie, juice, water, show, movie, blankie, bow, hat, thirsty, eat, banana (nana), apple, nuggets, bacon, sausage
(For yes she says uh huh and shakes her head up and down) Ridiculously silly
book, car, snack, cow, sheep, phone, Grandma, Grammy, baby, hat, chalk...

Anyway there are a lot more words it is really just random and I should write them down when I hear them. Her vocab is just growing every day. She is amazing. I just can't believe she is a year and a half old. Where did the time go? My baby is a walking, talking toddler... Insert tear now.

I love you Eden little lady bug!
Hugs and Kisses,
Mom

Firestation #10

Today we went to the fire station that is right across the street from our apartment and got an amazing tour. The kids absolutely loved it. Some of the kids were nervous around the big loud trucks and the scary looking fireman in all of his gear. My kids have no fear. They loved every minute. Eden kept trying to run to the big truck and sit on the fireman'a lap or something. It was ridiculous. Kael did a great job obeying and just loved being there.

 Eden and all of her cuteness. 

 Kael just trying to contain all of his excitement.

 The kids couldn't look at the camera because they were too busy looking at the cool firetruck.

 They loved watching the fireman spray the water way up high in the air.

 The 3 of us with the fireman in all of his gear. Kael and Eden wouldn't stop looking at him. Kael wanted to give him a high 5 or something.

 Kael in the ambulance. He loved this. We walked through it like 4 times.

 Kael and Eden with the EMT. I made Kael get a picture and then Eden screamed to get down and walked right up to the guy and held her arms up for him to pick her up. It was too funny.

 Eden had to go through the ambulance by herself too. It was funny to see her want to be independent like Kael and she had to do everything by herself. She wasn't afraid at all.

The cuteness that is Eden.

Ugh. Kael's 37 month letter.

Hey Kael,

So it is days like yesterday and today that I wonder what I am doing as a Mom. Am I failing? Would it be better to let someone else raise my kids and I just go to work while Derek goes to school?
I lose my temper. A lot.
I lose my cool. A lot.
Sometimes it is hard not to.

For instance.

Yesterday Kael pooped his pants in the morning. I could obviously smell it. I asked him if he pooped and he gets a huge grin on his face and says, "No mom. I gassed." However, I know he didn't gas. Ugh #1.
After cleaning up that mess not long after I sit on this wet spot on the couch. This isn't unusual because the kids sippy cups leak every now and then and it is usually milk or water. I then notice a few minutes later that Kael's pants are soaked. Ugh #2. He knows better than this!
In the midst of making dinner and cleaning and doing house wife things Kael comes riding into the kitchen on one of his cars and I notice a pile of gold fish crackers spilling over the edge under the seat. AH! I follow the trail and not only did he poor an entire costco size box of crackers into the car there is a pile in his room!
All of my efforts to A. keep the house clean and B. have dinner ready in time were failing.
Then, the kid refuses to eat his dinner and at bedtime insists on having a "piece of bread, milk, banana and a cracker". Hmmmm he's starving. Is it ok to make a 3 year old go to bed hungry? And if I do, will he sleep through the night or cause me to have a horrible no sleep night because he is starving?!
There is no end to the drama.
Today, I finally think he is getting better and improving. He still refused to eat breakfast, but had 2 bites of pancakes. Decides he needs a shower after I had mine. So he gets out and as I'm getting dressed for the day and Eden is down for a nap he is playing quietly in his room stark naked. I figured I wouldn't put clothes on and ruin how he was actually for once playing nicely in his room and entertaining himself. It was pure heaven for 30 minutes! I did poke my head in occasionally to make sure it was a complete disaster.
So, I decide to take the kids on an adventure to the fire station for a Mom's club activity. I got the kids all ready and we went and had a blast. Pictures at the end of this long story I promise. While there we got to walk through an ambulance. Oh after the last couple of days it made me want to go back to work. I miss the rush of adrenaline from working in medicine a whole lot compared to the rush of adrenaline from crackers and  pee and poop.
We get home and eat (a little, forcefully) and I get him to bed. I closed his door to make sure Eden couldn't come in and interrupt his nap routine. As I was leaving his room I looked on the floor and low and behold there is the biggest pile of poop I have ever seen from someone so small. My stomach dropped on the floor in shock of what I was seeing. Will it never end? It might be time to go and renew my EMT license. We had a talk about not pooping on the floor while I cleaned it up and I for once held my temper, my volume of voice, and I didn't cry. I might now though. Ugh #3. He literally pooped on my floor. When we were done talking he must have known how upset I was because he looked at me and said, "Mom I poop in the toilet ok".
I feel like sometimes I not only am getting no where with the kid, but going backwards. I guess the saying 1 step forward 2 steps back holds true.
I love the kid so much. And I have to say I have been preparing for 3 years to be harder than 2. I'm in for a ride if it is starting like this.


Kael you just need to know that obviously I love you. I mean I clean your poop. I promise to do better. I'm not going to give up and I'm going to be here for you no matter what. Poop and all. I do want to be with you all day every day. I dread the day you start school. I actually love being able to stay at home with you and play with you all day. Let's make this next month a little less loud in volume and a little less dramatic and a little more enjoyable. K. I'm not perfect. I hope that you can be ok with that. I am trying to do my best. Go back and look through the pictures from this last month because you've grown a lot and you've become an awesome kid. You are so tough. You stand for what is right. I love you kid. More than you'll know.

Love,
Mom

You insisted on taking this picture with the timer on the camera. You haven't wanted to pose for a picture in FOREVER. And, you are obsessed with that spiderman shirt. I don't know why because you don't know who spiderman is and you are just silly about it. You'd wear that shirt 24/7 if I let you. Maybe I will.

A Bradley Family Adventure: aka: The Snake Hunt

Meet our new little friend (no name yet). We went with our friends the Billings family to find this little guy. They are experts at finding fun little friends just like Derek. We went to the Shoreline Ridge hiking trail right up  across the street from Hogle Zoo. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a fun time hiking. I forgot to bring my camera with us on the trail, but I got a couple little photos on my cellphone. We caught about 4 preying mantis' that were all different colors. We found 2 brown, 1 yellow, and one green. Kael LOVED playing with them. He would put them on a stick and carry the stick around with him. We let the mantis' go along the way. We also saw a lot of grasshoppers, termites, moths, etc. Kael loves to explore new things and so does Eden. Eden was in a backpack on my back and every time we found a new critter she would try to stand up and lean as far over as she could to see them. The first snake we tried to catch was awesome. It was a blue racer and it was fast! Derek thought it was a lizard at first, but them Derek and our friend Scott were running around like maniacs trying to catch it. Scott got really close to pinning it with a stick and then it basically leaped like 10 feet and climbed a tree, then a while later we found some old rotten logs and turned them over. That is where we found our new little friend plus another little friend for the Billing's. They are both baby Bull Snakes. Our tiny baby can get up to 6 to 8 ft long. The bull snake is one of the biggest north American snakes. After we found our friends we saw an even bigger log and decided to try to turn that one over. So, Derek and Scott got down and had to really shove the thing. We found this huge shedded snake skin. We got all excited and then all of a sudden woosh we all saw something shoot towards the trees. I didn't get a good look, but Derek and Scott were off chasing a snake again. This new snake was another Blue Racer. Scott has always wanted to try to catch one because they are so fast. Derek ran through thorns and bushes and they were close, but they lost it. It was so fast! It was really exciting and the kids loved seeing the adults go crazy. They just kicked back and played with the preying mantis' while us adults were running through bushes. It was really quite the adventure. Anyway, I think our next adventure is to look for horny toads. I love going hiking with a purpose. The kids had so much fun and got worn out and us adults had fun. I think next time Derek will be wearing pants instead of shorts. :) On to the pictures.

Derek holding the snake showing it to Eden.

Showing Kael.

Eden feeling the snake.

  She loved it.

Here are my camera phone pictures.

 Scott Billings and Derek

Kael on the trail.

One of the big log the boys turned over.

Scott is holding the snake skin we found. That was only one piece of the skin. Brittain has the 2 smaller snakes in the bucket.

We had some of Scott's kids with us, Carsen, Brittain, and Kaylie. All the kids were troopers and seemed to have a blast. I was pretty impressed with Kael and Eden. Kael mostly needed a hug now and then and fell a couple times, but he's a tough kid and just loved finding the bugs and snakes.

Something Kael Loves

Kael has no fear whatsoever of bugs. In fact, he loves them a little too much for my taste. Our neighbors found this awesome preying mantis in our stairwell, so Derek and Kael being the boys they are had to go catch it and release it to the wild.

I really am not a fan of creepy crawling things, but I don’t want Kael to ever be afraid so I put on a happy face, take a picture and stay as far away as I can.

This guy was crawling all over Derek and Kael’s shirts and flying away from Derek. It was quite a show. Kael LOVED it.

We are going to go look for snakes in a couple of days. It should be fun. Those I am ok with holding just not for a long time.

A New Love

On Tuesday we went with our friend Ling Ja and her little boy to story time at the library on Foothill. We only made it for the last 5 minutes, but Kael and Eden loved it! I decided that this is a definite weekly must do. I get my exercise in by walking and the kids get out of the house.

We went again today, and made it for the whole 30 minutes. I even got a library card while I was there. Oh I love the library! For story time they sang songs, read books, and at the end had bubbles. Kael was so good. He sang the songs, he participated, and everyone thought he was pretty funny. I am excited to go again next week.

And, a picture of the girl because she is super cute. I love her scourt! Do you remember wearing those when you were a kid? I do. I love it! Her hair is getting so long, and I love the new bows I got her. Oh I love this girl.

Because Obviously Dinosaurs Eat Apples

Kael found some apples in the cupboard and arranged his dinosaurs like so. He then came and told me "look mom, dinosaurs are eating".

Thoughts on Kael and Eden

Derek's mom asked us to type up some facts about our kids such as their personalities, likes, talents, etc. So, I did and when I was finished I thought, "man i really want to remember this". So what do I do? I post it on the good ol' blog. Here are my thoughts on my chill'ins. Love these two kids so much!

Kael:

Personality: Kael is our happy, smiling, energetic 3 year old boy. Since the first time Kael smiled he hasn’t stopped. He is the friendliest person I know and will hug anyone and brighten their day. Kael is 100% all boy and loves all boy things, especially dirt and bugs, which Mom doesn’t love so much, but puts up with because he loves them so much.

Likes:

Kael is my animal lover. I have never met anyone who loves animals more than Kael. (However, I didn’t know Derek as a child, so it may be a close tie.) Kael gets so excited that he starts jumping up and down. He loves all animals. He gets excited over a fish even. His favorite place to visit is of course the zoo where he can see so many different animals. His favorite zoo animal is the giraffe. He is a dog lover for sure, and that is probably his favorite non-zoo animal.

All of Kael’s favorite books are animal books and he has all of the animals memorized. He loves to read books every night before bed and is starting to repeat the words trying to read on his own even though he still has a long way to go before he is reading on his own.

Besides animals Kael loves creepy crawly things such as bugs, snakes, lizards, etc. When we were camping he went lizard catching with his dad and loved to have them crawl on his shirt. They also caught beetles and other bugs. Since there are no cool bugs here at our apartment I frequently find Kael trying to have an ant crawl on his arm or shirt. He often finds worms, snails, and other bugs. They are super cool to him. He would really love a pet snake someday I am sure because he loves his toy snakes and liked touching the snake at the zoo.

Kael is a huge thrill seeker. He also loves the carousel at the zoo and gets devastated when he only gets to ride it once. He loves train rides too. He has gone on the train at the zoo and “Heritage Park”. We have been showing him Disneyland videos and he is super excited just watching the rides, I can’t wait to see him on the rides.

Kael loves being outside. Kael loves to ride his bike and is really good at it now. He also loves climbing trees and playing in the sand box. Sometimes outside we play with side walk chalk and Kael is really talented drawing pictures. He practices his shapes, number, and letters and often makes superb pictures. His favorite shape is a star. His most recent pictures have been a snail and the sun.

Kael has a great love of dinosaurs. He has about 5 bigger dinosaurs and insists on sleeping with them even though they are sharp and pointy and can’t be comfortable. He even has them eat with him. He loves to feed them macaroni and cheese and sometimes even carrots.

Kael is very observant and has been since he was a baby. He recently noticed that some of his dinosaurs have red eyes and some have blue; this lead to him discovering that he has blue eyes and now goes around telling people what color of eyes they have.

Kael can count to 15, and knows most of the letters of the alphabet. He loves to learn new things everyday.

A favorite past time is watching shows. Kael will sit and watch an entire movie and then ask to watch it over again. Some of his favorite movies are Cars, Kung Fu Panda, Finding Nemo, and Tangled (he loves the horse) although there are several more. His favorite TV shows right now are Go Diego Go (full of animals), Dinosaur Train, and Backyardigans.

Kael really loves swimming and playing in the water. He loves it so much that he goes down the big waterslide at the swimming pool all by himself. It says you have to be 50 inches to ride and Kael is only 38. Yup, it is a big slide and he loves it! He can’t quite swim by himself yet, but he sure tries every once in a while and gives Mom a scare. He sees a big kid start to swim and so he takes off and just kind of sinks. He loves the water though and would go swimming every day if I let him.

Eden:

Personality: Eden is our precious and opinionated 17 months old baby girl. She is stubborn, but isn’t shy to give you a kiss to get her way. She is the princess of our house and makes sure everyone knows it. She is 100% all girl and totally loveable in every aspect of who she is.

Likes:

Eden absolutely loves babies. She will find a baby doll and pick it up and hold it, love it, hug it, and care for it. This was ingrained from birth because I have never shown her this. She likes to push them in strollers and feed the babies. She even loves real babies. She goes around in nursery telling all of the girls they are babies and hugs them. She is the youngest, smallest person there because she is only 17 months old and isn’t suppose to be there, but all those little girls are her babies.

Eden loves to play with Kael’s toys. Her favorite toy to borrow is his dinosaurs. She walks around the house hissing from the back of the throat thinking it is a roar, because that is obviously the sound a dinosaur makes.

She loves talking on the telephone and takes it quite seriously. It is business when she has Mom’s cell phone.

She thinks she is big enough to ride Kael’s big boy bike. She thinks it is hers in fact. She doesn’t want any of these tricycles or small bikes. No she is a big girl and already tries to peddle even though her feet don’t reach. She somehow manages to get on and off all by herself.

Eden loves loves loves (did I say loves?) to play in the water. Mostly she likes a big swimming pool, but will play in the small ones, the sprinkler, or anything wet. She loves water so much that when swimming in a pool she sticks her face in and blows bubbles on her own and tries to take off swimming by herself.

Eden likes to just sit and chill in the swing when we play on the playground. She could stay there a long time. She also just mastered the big slide and thinks she is a big kid now.

Eden loves to read books. She is quick to find a book and a lap to sit on.

Eden loves animals. I first thought it was no big deal, but we saw a dog at the park the other day and she went ballistic! Is that a word? She literally was hugging the dog and patting it. It immediately became her dog. She can’t see an animal without pointing and wanting to go see it. She is a definite animal lover.

Speaking of animal lover a favorite place we visit is the zoo. At the zoo they have a carousel. Eden is our little daredevil girl. She would ride the carousel all day long if we let her. Not only the carousel but probably any ride we would take her on. She is a thrill seeker like her brother.

One of Eden’s main talents is to eat. She really loves to eat almost any kind of food. Once I gave her a piece of broccoli and she put it in her mouth and just sucked on it. She wouldn’t spit it out to get a bite of ice cream until she was finished with it. Don’t worry she still wanted the ice cream.

Kael's Date with Mom

On August 19th our student housing had a movie night on the lawn where we watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It was projected up on the apartment walls. It was so fun having Kael take ME on a date. It was way past bedtime, and he loved every minute. He got free popcorn, juice, and a snow cone. The show didn't start until 9 oclock which is 2 hours past his bedtime. By 10:15 we were ready to come home and go to bed. He almost made it to the end of the movie. He started rolling down the hill and going a bit crazy, so I asked him if he wanted to go home and go to bed and he actually said yes. That's my boy. I can't wait to take him to Disneyland. 

 Kael took a lot of pictures to keep him entertained until it got dark enough to watch the movie. This was the big wall they showed the movie on.

 Don't mind our crazy faces, but it was the only photo we got of the two of us on our date.

 Kael loving his snow cone and popcorn.