Sixteen Thousand

Sixteen thousand seems to be Caitlin’s favorite number lately. Ask her how many birds she can see flying in the sky? Well, it’s “sixteen thousand,” don’t you know!? How many flowers are in the garden? Yup, “sixteen thousand”. How many dolls does she wish she had? Take a wild guess.

And another thing about Caitlin. For the last few weeks when we are in the car driving, she needs to know what road we are on. If I make a turn she will ask me “what road we on now Mom?” She does this every.single.time we turn. Now when we are driving a familiar route and she knows the name of the road, she will loudly pronounce to every one in the car the name of that road.

Oh, and another thing. Every morning after we are done eating breakfast and cleaning up the dishes, I go upstairs to make the beds. A couple days ago I never got around to making up Caitlin’s bed, and so when she went up there to go get something, she noticed. Caitlin does not like things to be out of order. She’s very much a girl where “there’s a place for everything and everything in its place” (I wonder where she got that from…oh, wait…that would be from me). Anyway, she took it upon her self to make her own bed…and she did a pretty good job! I guess I’ve been underestimating what she’s capable of. But now I’ll be expecting her to make her own bed. (I just need to get over the fact that it won’t be made as perfectly as I’d like it!)

Here is how she made up her bed:


This morning I told her to look through some pictures on the computer and to pick which one she would like me to post on my blog. This was the one she chose. Doesn't Owen look thrilled to be there!

Our day

We finally made it out of the house today for the first time since we got hit with the stomach bug. Our destination? Costco! We stocked up on some essentials and browsed through some aisles for fun. I even had a few comments from people on how well-behaved the kids were while we shopped (if only they could always be that way!). It was nice to get out of the house, even if it was only to shop. Once we were back home I did a little cleaning while the kids played. After lunch I had some baking to do. Jon's birthday is on Saturday and at his work when it's your birthday you are responsible to bring the goodies. So I baked pumpkin spice bars and chocolate caramel bars for Jon to bring to the office tomorrow. Then while Owen was napping Caitlin and I carved out a pumpkin. We grew pumpkins in our garden this year (as we do every year) and we had over 100 of them, but they are a smaller variety. We found the biggest one in the garden to carve out. Next time I think I will invest in some actual pumpkin carving tools...I'm pretty sure a steak knife is not the tool to be using to carve a pumpkin!

Isn't this pumpkin....uh...a thing of beauty?

At least the pumpkin bars look good:

Bugs and mice

There are 2 things I don't want in my house: bugs and mice. This past week we had both. The mice we were able to catch with a mouse trap, but the "bug" wasn't one in which you could get rid of with a swat of a shoe...you see, it was the "stomach bug." Owen and Caitlin got hit pretty bad, poor kids. Let's just say that I changed a lot of Owen's diapers, did lots of laundry and scrubbed lots of floors. But now the worst has passed, the kids are eating again, and we're getting back to normal. I don't want any more visits from bugs or mice.

(Oh, and if it sounds like I took things lightly about that fact that we had some mice in our house, let me set the record straight: I did not. I have a ridiculous fear of mice, especially when they are in my house. But we live in a old farmhouse surrounded by fields, and mice are just a fact of life around here. Those cats of ours need to start doing a better job of catching mice!)

Our week: In pictures

Dressing up dolls

The other day I was going through Caitlin's closet and I came across some of her newborn clothes. I took them out to show Caitlin how small she once was. Caitlin's response was something like "Oh, they're so tiny...can my dolls fit them?" Sure. So we spent the next few minutes dressing up her dolls. Caitlin could not contain her excitement, she was just giddy about it all. It was getting close to lunch time, so Caitlin then asked if she could eat lunch at her "little" table with her dolls. So while I was making lunch for Caitlin, she was making lunch for her dolls.

And to think I was going to buy her doll clothes for Christmas. I'm sure her dolls will get much more use out of these clothes then Caitlin ever did.

Story time

Yesterday I took the kids to Story time at our local library. Before Owen was born Caitlin and I went just about every week, but once Owen came around we couldn't go since story time was during his morning nap time. Now Owen is down to one afternoon nap, and we are able to attend again. We arrived at the library early so that we could check out some books first. It was a disaster. All Owen wanted to do was run free through all the aisles while laughing hysterically. That was cute and fun for about the first 15 seconds. If I tried to hold him, he would scream and want down...as soon as I put him down, he'd run away. I really started to wonder what I was doing there. I figured he would want to run around throughout the actual story time also, but he proved me wrong. Once it started he sat calmly in my lap the entire 40 minutes! So what started as a disaster, ended quite nicely.

Here is Caitlin putting up her "felt piece" on the felt board all by herself (This is a big accomplishment for Caitlin. For the first several months the only way she would go up there is if I went up there with her):
Here she is sitting with her friend, Jacob. The theme of the day was the jungle, and they were pretending to be crocodiles by clapping their arms together:
After story time the librarian opens up the toy/puzzle cupboard for the kids to play:

Some fun facts about Owen

OWEN:
-loves anything with wheels
-is shy, but warms up quickly to new people and situations
-plays well on his own
-loves to be outside
-loves to cuddle
-is very focused
-is a quiet observer
-enjoys bubble baths
-has really chubby feet
-likes to throw things
-attacks his food at meal time...there is no slowing down this boy when it comes to food!
-loves to play with ride-on toys
-his favorite foods include graham crackers, mashed potatoes, bananas, blueberries, yogurt..well, anything really
-is a climber
-runs to the door and squeals with delight every time his dad comes home from work

A trip to the children's museum

This morning I took the kids to the children's museum (it was community free day and I'm dutch...you do the math:) We ran into Shelby and Cousin D. there, so the kids had lots of fun together playing in the market, fishing, painting, crafting, drawing, making music, setting up a picnic, playing with the train, and hanging out in the big boat!

A day for cake

Today is my birthday. At least I'm not 30...yet. Jon had the day off work so our little family hung out together all day. Jon and Caitlin baked me a cake and I was banned from the kitchen while the baking and decorating were taking place. Here is the final product (and a proud girl...and the flowers I was given from Jon):

(Isn't that a cute cake?!!)

Later we all went out for a delicious lunch and then went to Costco to pick out my new camera (!). My old 3 MP digital camera is done. Then we came home and enjoyed the very tasty cake! Now the kids are sleeping and I'm just going to take it easy the rest of the night. It's been a good day.

Climbing the stairs

This is how Owen has spent much of his time while at my parents house:

And he's also enjoyed doing this:

And he really likes this:

I found this picture of Owen on my parents computer from last October (back when he wasn't mobile):

An afternoon with Caitlin

It is not very often that I get to spend time playing with just Caitlin. And so this afternoon I took full advantage of my Mom and had her babysit Owen so Caitlin and I could go out and play. We first went to an indoor playground where Caitlin (and I) got to run around and zoom down slides. After that we went to visit my sister at the school she teaches at, and Caitlin played at the playground there too. It was a fun afternoon!

Climbing through the tunnel to get to the big slide...

Climbing up the 'stairs' to the big slide...

Getting ready to go down the big slide...

Going down the big slide!

Watch out for the snakes!!

At Grandma's

The kids and I are spending the week up at my parents house, since Jon is out of town on business. We haven't even been here 24 hours and already Owen has caused much destruction. If there is one thing to say about my parents house, it is that it is not child proof! My sweet little Owen has turned into a big ole' stinker. I was trying to clean up the kitchen last night, and little did I know Owen had gotten into the big container of dishwasher soap (the powder kind) and was playing in it like it was a sandbox. And all he wants to do is climb the stairs (yeah, no gate at grandma's house). Anyway, I'll try getting some pictures up later, once I figure out how to get them on my mom's computer.

A farm and a firehall

Saturday was a busy day. Auntie Wee-sa (Lisa) was down for a visit, and so in the morning we took the kids to one of the farms involved in the 'festival of family farms'. There Caitlin went on a train ride, barrel ride, and we all went on a hay ride. In the afternoon Auntie Lisa took Caitlin to the library and craft store (Caitlin's favorite places), while I stayed home with Owen so he could take a nap. Jon was gone all day at the fire hall, where he is a volunteer firefighter, to work at the Spaghetti Feed fundraiser. We all headed over there for dinner and dessert. It was nice to have a night off from cooking!

Caitlin with her friend Jacob

Enjoying some apple pie for dessert-it was finger-licking good!

Helping out dad at the fire hall donation table

My little helper

Today Owen's love for the dishwasher turned into something productive. As I was emptying the dishwasher he just started to take out some spoons and put them into the drawer!

And then when I was in the laundry room, he came over and started to take the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the basket for me (never mind the fact that once he got them all into the basket, he started to put them back into the dryer again).

A look back...

Our trip to the pumpkin patch this week reminded me of the last time I took Caitlin there, 2 years ago. (We didn't go last year, I guess the idea of taking Owen at 2 months old didn't appeal to me at the time). Here are some pictures from that trip:

Caitlin absolutely loved the corn-on-the-cob (she still does). I remember she ate every last kernel off of this cob and screamed when I threw it away...it was that good.

She wasn't as thrilled to pose for pictures back then as she is now.