Binky

This is Binky:
Binky is Caitlin's favorite doll, hands down. Chances are that if you see Caitlin, she will be holding Binky. No other doll can compare to Binky.

It all started over 2 years ago, when Caitlin was about 16 months old. We were over for a visit at Grandma VK's house and Caitlin was playing in the toy room. Caitlin found Binky in the closet and forged an immediate bond. When we were leaving Grandma's house we told Caitlin to put the doll back...and a colossal temper tantrum arose. Grandma told us that Caitlin could take the doll home, and so we gave in and let her have it (and no, we don't normally give in to temper tantrums!). Since then Caitlin has never let that doll go. She goes everywhere with Caitlin (although, thankfully, not to the bathroom...Caitlin usually asks me to babysit Binky when she has to go to the bathroom). Binky gets the privilege of riding in the car with Caitlin wherever we go, sleeping next to Caitlin at night, eating beside Caitlin at the table, and Binky always gets a front-row seat to watch Caitlin play games, build towers, or read books. And lately she's even been sharing Binky with Owen! She won't share her doll with just anyone, so I know she just adores her little brother.

Our family, by Caitlin

This morning Caitlin was working on drawing a picture of our family. Here it is (clockwise, from top-right: Daddy, Mommy, Caitlin (holding her doll), and Owen). Then she drew some more. When I asked her what that big rectangular shaped thing is on the right side of the page, she told me "It is toast in a toaster for us all to enjoy" Okay, Caitlin.

Caitlin loves to draw-but I hate clutter-so I typically hang up her art work on the fridge for the day, and then throw it away. I always feel bad doing that because I know that in the future I'll wish that I still had some to look back at. So I thought I should just take a picture of her work and post it on my blog. That way it doesn't take up any space in my house and I'll be able to document it for the future. So now, from time to time, I will post some of her art work. This is more for me, but I hope that you can enjoy her art work too!

Trucks and Tractors and Cars, Oh my!

Owen loves tractors. And cars. Oh, and trucks too. He pushes his little toy trucks/tractors/cars along the ground while making the cutest truck/tractor/car noises. The other day I showed him how to put one of his little cars into an old 'end of the roll wrapping paper tube thingy'. He copied me right away, and laughed every time the car flew out the other end.

Here he is trying to stuff the car into the tube. (Notice his drool-soaked shirt...he has molars coming in right now...fun times!)

And here's a random picture for you. He emptied out the contents of a game box, and he just made himself at home in it.

The weekend

It was a full, fun weekend. Friday the kids dressed up (Caitlin as a monkey and Owen as a cow) to do a little 'trick or treating.' We first stopped at Jon's office:


Owen wasn't very interested in the candy, but he did find some tractors there to play with:

We also stopped in at the mall to do a little more trick or treating. Owen wasn't really into it, so we didn't last all that long. Once we were home both Caitlin and Owen had a lot of fun playing with the candy, and Jon and I were the ones eating it!

Saturday was Jon's birthday. A few days prior to that Caitlin had helped me wrap up his presents. There were three presents, and so I told Caitlin that each of us (Caitlin, Owen and myself) could give daddy one present. So on Saturday when we were sitting around the breakfast table, I told Caitlin to go into the other room and get dad's presents. When she came back to the table with the wrapped gifts, she handed one to each of us-right in front of Jon-and said "Mommy, you give daddy the DVD, Owen can give daddy the shirt, and I'll give daddy the tie." So much for the element of surprise for Jon when he opened his gifts. Oh well, Jon and I had a good laugh!! Later on that morning, my mom and sister came down to visit for the day. This allowed Jon and I to go out for the evening kid-free!! So we first did a little shopping, and then met up with Jon's twin brother and his wife for a nice, relaxing dinner.

On Sunday, after church, we had some family over for a little birthday lunch. The kids were up playing in Caitlin's room and pulled out every single toy in Caitlin's closet. The mountain of toys made me realize she has far too many toys. This prompted me to go through them today and I was able to get rid of a big box of them...I love the feeling of getting rid of stuff!

So that was our weekend. Fun. Tiring. Relaxing. Chaotic.

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.

Pumpkin patch

Since it was such a beautiful day today, I decided to take the kids to the pumpkin patch down the road. Caitlin had a great ole' time posing for pictures for me. Owen, on the other hand, did not look my way once for picture. Not a single time. He was to busy playing with all the hay in the pumpkin field. We also visited the chickens, pigs and donkeys there. I'm sure this won't be our only trip to the pumpkin patch this season, as we have a couple more farms close by that we need to check out!

Kittens!

This past weekend Jon asked me if I thought we should get some kittens, as there were a bunch of them over at his parents house that needed a home. So I (not a cat person) reluctantly agreed since I knew Caitlin would have fun with them. More importantly, they are suppose to serve a purpose as mice-eaters. I told Jon I would be fine with two...he brought home four (thanks again, Jon). Caitlin is in L-O-V-E with the kittens, she cannot leave them alone. I told her she needs to give them names, but she just prefers to call them all "Sweetie". Three of them look identical, so it's probably better if they all have the same name anyway. Owen doesn't seem all that impressed with the kittens. If they get close to him, he usually just pushes them away. We will see how long they last here. We've had kittens before and they all just seem to "disappear." On a side note, we also have a lot of coyotes around here.

Learning to write

Each day I spend some time with Caitlin doing 'school work.' She is very diligent in her work and is continually impressing me with what she knows. Lately she has taken a great interest in writing out words. She will tell me a word she wants to write out, and then I will spell it for her out loud, and she will write it down.

Here she is learning her numbers with a work book

And here is what she wrote out yesterday. On the left is a birthday card that she made for her friend, Grace (You can click on the picture to make it bigger). On the right is a 'grocery list' that she made (oranges, book, goldfish, banana, block).

I'm sure this is what most 3-year olds are capable of, but I'm her mom, so I think she is a child genius!

My big eater

Owen likes to eat. Anything. Today I caught him reaching into the garbage can for some old bread crusts. You'd think I never feed him. I'm always amazed at the foods he will eat, I can not think of a single food he has ever refused. I am also much more relaxed about what types of food I feed him then I was with Caitlin at 14 months. I never gave her sweets. Owen eats plenty of healthy food, and I occasionally allow him a small treat...like ice cream or a cookie, and Jon has been known to feed him red vines (that's licorice, for my Canadian friends). It's a funny thing how he just doesn't stop growing!