Tools can fix anything!

Or, at least, Kate thinks so. The hem of her dress got slightly in the toilet (gross, I know, but it's a hazard of the whole dress-on-the-potty thing, I guess) and we offered to get her a new one. She, however, opted to "fix it with my tools. Hmm....let's see what I can do." I missed most of it, but she sat there for awhile "fixing" the dress with each tool. In the end, she was convinced that it was "all better." How can you argue with that? :)

You leave your toddler alone for a few minutes....

...and this is what you find!

Teething?

Yep, I think it must be. Poor Will. I think he must be about ready to get his first tooth. Kate really never showed any signs of teething--literally, she'd just wake up with a tooth that we didn't know was coming. Will, on the other hand, seems like he's going to be a more typical teether. He didn't sleep well at all last night, he woke up with a little runny nose, he's been clingy and fussy (for him anyway) and, of course, he chews on anything and everything. So far, his favorite teething objects seem to be: the remote, my yoga block, Kate's legos, my shoulder (with a big hickey to prove it!) and--on the odd occasion--a toy actually made for teething. Come on tooth!! Show yourself! End this misery! Until the second tooth, at least.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We just got back from a great lunch and egg hunt at Grandma Connie's. We heard a lot of "just ONE more little piece of candy..." from Kate. Not surprisingly, the marshmallow chick in the video was long gone by the time we got home. Someday we'll understand saving something for later, but today's not that day!

Big little brother

Will's been tugging at his ear for a few days so I took him to the doctor yesterday just to make sure it wasn't a dreaded ear infection. It wasn't (more likely teething or just the new discovery of a cool new place to stick stuff), but he did get weighed and measured while we were there. He was just over 20 pounds and 28 inches. By comparison, Kate was 21.1 pounds and 28.75 inches at 12 months. She was about average as percantiles go. So, at almost 7.5 months, Will is approximately the size of an average one-year-old. This explains why he's fully in 12-month clothes and also why my left bicep is cresting bodybuilder status (just kidding!!) He's also pushing size 4 for shoes (not that he has any need to wear them). Kate is currently a size 7. I'm sure he'll slow down at some point, unless he inherited the random Uncle Jay or Uncle Blake tall-gene but, for now, this little brother is not so little at all!

Eggs are SO last year

Kate seriously loves Metallica. Yes, I think this is weird. No, I don't understand it. Personally, I can only handle them in small doses but it's apparently "like father, like daughter" when it comes to this musical taste. She asks to listen to them every day. Now she's taken it a step further. She had been making cute little Easter eggs until yesterday when she came up with the idea of making "air guitars." I'm fairly certain she may be the only two-year-old to have done this for the purpose of head-banging around to "Enter Sandman." Then, today, she was telling me "mommy, I'm off to Never, Never Land." To which I replied: "Just like in Peter Pan!" To which she replied (with a roll of the eyes, no less): "no way, mommy, like in the big daddy man song!"

Some firsts for Will

Well here we are, days and days, it seems, since my last post. How does time pass so fast?? I must be getting old. That, and these kids just take up a lot of time! I have trouble completing a thought these days, let alone a whole blog post. But, I digress. We're still here, doing just dandy. Will is as jolly as always, and had a couple of first yesterday. He ate pasta, the verdict seeming to be that it was good (he's yet to dislike anything yet!) And he went in the backpack. I use "went" loosely as we "went" to the kitchen to make dinner, but it made cooking much easier for me and he seemed to like "helping." Actually, what he really liked was yanking on my hair so that he could laugh when I said "ouch!" I think I'll be using the backpack more though (hair-pulling and all) because 20-pound Will is becoming harder to carry in the front-pack! Perhaps next time we'll actually get the backpack outside--we hear there's a sunshine out there somewhere and keep hoping it might visit us at some point. As for Kate, she's Kate-to-the-maximum all the time! She keeps us entertained, for sure. Right now, she loves to run around the house doing things with her tools, saying "there is just so much to do in this house." Sometimes she adds "it's ridiculous how much there is to do in this house." Now, I don't THINK I say this (at least the ridiculous part) but perhaps it has slipped out before. Come to think of it, I suppose that's why I can't seem to post too often. Yes, I'll blame this "ridiculous house!" Thanks for the excuse, Kate. :)

The moments that make parenting worth it....

...are always the small ones. Like when Kate kisses Will, and Will smiles like his life couldn't get any better. And, at that moment, my life is just about perfect as well. I love you two with all of my heart!

Soccer Tots

Soccer is still a HUGE hit with Kate. When we went yesterday, we were in the bathroom when Kate heard them start running from one goal to the other. She literally looked panic-stricken as she screamed, "LET ME OUT THERE RIGHT NOW!" When I opened the door, she went flying, looking around wildly for the entrance to the field. I think she couldn't handle the thought of missing "Red Light, Green Light," which is her new favorite game. We play it all the time at home, although it has morphed into "Red Light, Yellow Light (go slow)," "Red Light, Blue Light (whisper)," and whatever other color strikes her fancy at game-time. I'm not sure she's learned a thing about actual soccer (she still picks the ball up to position it in front of the goal), but she loves it so, naturally, I love it too!

Morning conversation

I haven't posted one of Kate's morning musings in awhile, so here goes:

Kate: How do people get to be princesses like Cinderella?

Me: I think you have to meet a prince and then get married.

Kate: Can I marry a prince or daddy? How do you find princes?

Me: I'm not sure but I think a lot of ladies probably ask that....

Kate: But I'm not a lot of ladies, I'm Kate!

The "Big Daddy Man" Song

Kate has been asking for the "big daddy man song" whenever we're listening to music lately. We've pretty much just been saying "yeah, okay, sure..." since we had no idea what she was talking about. This weekend, however, Ryan solved the mystery: the "big daddy man song" is Metallica's "Enter Sandman." She claims this is "one of her favorite songs ever" which, I'm sure, pleases Ryan to no end. Quite a fast progression from "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes," I'd say! I think the main reason she likes it so much is that Ryan dances with her to it--they've choreographed the whole thing, complete with headbanging, air guitaring and more! It's her first dance number--how "sweet".....:)

Way to go, Kate!

I must start this post by saying that unless you are Kate's grandparent or, possibly, a parent of a toddler, you probably (a) won't care about the following and (b) shouldn't care about the following....but I sure do! So, I was upstairs doing laundry while Kate was downstairs. It had been all of about 5 minutes when she called up, "mommy, I had a little accident." I started rushing down thinking very frustrated thoughts since she had JUST gone, but when I got downstairs Kate was giggling. She then said, "ha, I tricked you, mommy. I did it myself." I thought she was just being silly until she showed me that she did indeed go all by herself. And, unless you've potty trained a toddler, you're likely thinking "why is she telling me this?" (rightly so). But if you HAVE potty trained a wee (pun intended!) one, I bet you understand why I am very happy at her independence!!

Fun in the sun...finally!

Yesterday was the perfect spring day (70 degrees!!) and we spent almost all of it outside. We played at the park and then headed up to the mountain for some spring sledding!! We met some friends from the valley who have an 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Kate was completely enamored with them, especially Ella. She kept saying "I want to do what Ella's doing!" One thing Ella was doing was hiking up the steep (actually, very steep) hill and sledding down on her belly. Ryan intended to take Kate part way up and sled down with her, but I soon heard screaming coming from halfway up the hill. I thought she was scared to go down because she was shrieking "NO!" Of course, Ryan had no choice but to pile her in and sled down. When they got to the bottom, I found out that Kate was not scared. She was MAD as could be because daddy didn't let her do to the top and slide down on her belly, face first ALL BY HERSELF. We eventually had to compromise and let her go on her belly, face first, by herself, but from only about halfway up. Luckily, Ella decided to build a snowman after awhile, so Kate got distracted. Otherwise we'd probably still be there! :)