Skateboard Heaven/Toddler Parade

Last night was the BEST night of Dominic's life! He told us so over and over. The toddler Halloween parade was today. Jon came last year and was going to try to come this year. But just in case, I wanted to give Dominic his Halloween costume last night so Jon could see his reaction. It was so worth it. We had told him that he couldn't have a skateboard until he was 5 yrs old. We couldn't find any safety gear or a board that was small enough. I kept looking though, especially after he told us he wanted to be a skateboarder for Halloween.

He kept say "This is great! This is so great!" He, of course, had to immediately put everything on and try it all out. I don't think it really sunk in because this morning he had that same look of excited disbelief.

When he 1st got the board.

All dressed up in full safety gear.

Now he's trying the board out.

Not bad for the first time. He's obviously been watching people skateboard. - Can you tell I'm bursting with pride? He's such a special little boy.

Caitlin had two choices for her costume this year. A friend of mine had given me two little outfits and I was hoping to fit both of them in somehow. The one I chose to use this morning for the parade was a poodle skirt of sorts. It is adorable and I wanted to put bobby socks on her and pull her hair up into a pony tail. I just wasn't sure it would stay. The picture is blurry, but it turned out really well.By the time we made it downtown, Caitlin's pony tail was slipping. I didn't bother to fix it because I knew she'd be in the stroller for a large part of the time. A friend took our picture right before the parade started.

I know - another picture of the cool skate board dude. What can I say? He's cute!

Caitlin enjoying the parade.

Dominic couldn't be parted from his helmet and board. He wouldn't let me put it into the trunk. He hasn't gone anywhere - bathroom, quiet time, etc. - without them.

So tomorrow night we are going to a local church to participate in their fall festival. So I'll be putting Caitlin in the other costume and Dominic will get to wear his skate board things again. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word again. He hasn't taken it off yet and it's almost supper time. =)

Fall Colors

Living so close to the coast is wonderful. But we don't get a very colorful fall. So yesterday when I noticed the 3-4 trees that had a bit of color I rushed the kids outside so I could take some pictures. I got some cute pictures of the kids as well.

Dominic tried to put one of these in his mouth. I'm pretty sure that they are edible, but he didn't know that. So I had to give him a lecture on poisonous things.

Caitlin was twisting and turning in her little swing trying to watch the cat and Dominic.

Not a clue what he was doing. I think he was trying to ride the monster truck, because he was making some serious monster noises.

Tired!!!

Today was one of those trying days. I had to go shopping. I'd put it off for several days and it just couldn't wait anymore. So I loaded the kids up and left the house. Dominic was more energetic and loud than I've ever seen him (without sugar). He was jumping up and down, running through the clothes in the isles and singing the same song over and over again-very loudly. And the whole time Caitlin watched in silent amazement at her crazy brother. It didn't seem to matter that every time he left my sight or disobeyed that he would get into trouble and spend some quality time in the cart. He just couldn't seem to help himself.

I wondered what Caitlin was thinking. Would she learn from her brother's mistakes or was she at that moment learning how to be "energetic"?

She is so easy right now. She's not very mobile. She's quiet and since she can't do anything there aren't obedience issues. So would Dominic be better in 2 yrs when she gets to this stage or will I be even more tired and weary than I am now. Sigh!

Strange eating habits

My children are strange. Caitlin will eat almost anything except for carrots. It doesn’t matter how I present them to her she won’t eat them. She won’t even eat them if she finds them on the floor under the table before I’ve had a chance to clean up after a meal. And she’ll eat ANYTHING on the floor. But I found out today that she will eat them if they are on my fork. And she can tell the difference between my fingers, her fork and my fork. So she ate a bunch of carrots today from my fork.

Dominic will see a bowl of something and say that he doesn’t like it, even if he's never tried it. So today he decided he didn’t like stir-fry. He pulled all of the noodles out and ate them. Then he lined all of the tofu in a straight line on the table and pretended they were marshmallows and ate them. Then he picked through the vegies and ate his favorites first and then his least favorites last. He cleaned his bowl up and asked for more. When I asked him if he liked stir-fry as I was getting him seconds he said no.

10 kids and a loving wife

Every once in a great while I will put a very little bit of chocolate powder in Dominic's soy milk. It barely tastes like chocolate, but he thinks he's getting a treat w/out the hyper afterwards. He had just had a huge glass for supper. I was in the bathroom getting Caitlin ready for her bath when I noticed Dominic was dancing.

"Dominic, go potty, please."

"No. I don't need to."

More frantic dancing.

"Dominic, go potty NOW!!!"

He hurries over to the potty and barely makes it.

"Oh NOOOO! I'm losing my chocolate milk. OH, NOOO! I don't want to pee it out. I want to keep it for bit longer! OH, NOOO!"

It took a little while, but I think I convinced him that it was his juice from lunch and not the chocolate milk. =)

This is the sight that greeted me when I went into the bathroom while Dominic was pooping. The perfect bribe picture for later. =)

Dominic's prayer for breakfast yesterday.

"Dear Jesus, Thank you for my food and bless it. Please save Daddy from the bed bugs. Amen!" We haven't been able to convince him that bed bugs are in the bed. Since he's never been bit by a bug in bed they must be the things that bite him outside. Since Daddy was on his way to work he must need saving from the bed bugs.

On the way home from town the other day:

"Mommy, I'm going to be a daddy when I grow up."

"Okay. Did you know that you have to have kids to be a daddy?"

"Yup! I'm going to have 5, no wait. 10 kids."

"But your wife would have to be pregnant 10 times to have that many kids. What if she doesn't want to do that?"

"Oh she will. Cause I'm going to love her lots and lots so she will."

Do NOT leave your children alone!

These next few pictures are why mothers don't take showers, go to the bathroom or do anything away from their kids!

Dominic hasn't done anything like this since before he turned 2 yrs old. Not sure what possessed him to write with a marker on the furniture. Then he tried to blame it on Caitlin. And while I think my daughter is great, I KNOW she can't write the letter H yet. She's also not tall enough to reach some of these marks. So that one didn't work.

I left for 5 seconds to get the phone. My congressman wanted to do a survey. I declined (by hanging up). When I returned I found my kids playing so nicely together. =)

Caitlin LOVES the dishwasher. Sabbath morning we were putting breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and she crawled over to "help". She looked so proud of herself as she beat on the dishes.

Bonfire

We finally had our bonfire after a lot of weather watching and a delay. It was postponed to Sunday evening because it was supposed to rain on Saturday night. When it didn't really rain we were kicking ourselves for postponing. But then the wind kicked up and we were glad again. It wouldn't do to burn the woods down. =)

So last night we wondered if delaying it would result in anyone even showing up. We ended up having six families come. It was very low key and relaxing. Nothing like last year. =) Dominic certainly enjoyed it better this year. I was busy talking and holding Caitlin and just kept an eye on Dominic. I assumed that Jon would feed him some hot dogs. Jon asked and when Dominic said he wasn't hungry he let it go. Most kids aren't hungry when they are having fun so it wasn't until after everyone left and we were cleaning up that we realized that all Dominic had supper was a small piece of pizza and a ton of marshmallows. He still said he wasn't hungry, but I noticed he had found a box of crackers and was following Jon everywhere eating them. Ended up eating most of the box. So a nutritious supper of crackers and marshmallows! Yum! Guess it doesn't hurt every once in a while. When I put Dominic in the bath at 9pm he was so dirty that he turned the water brown. I had to empty the tub and start over after rinsing him off.

We had worship and Jon prayed. After he finished Dominic had to add his little prayer.

"And thank you for the marshmallows!" Guess they were a big hit.

No dentures for school

Caitlin FINALLY popped out a tooth. I had wondered since she'd had the runny nose, but then didn't see anything. Turns out she got her top right tooth first. So that's why we didn't see anything.

Both of my kids absolutely LOVE to swing. So it didn't surprise me when Caitlin used a sign for the first time asking me to push her some more. When the swing stopped she signed more. I was so proud of her. She, of course, refused to use the sign when she wanted another cracker that night for supper, but at least she grasps the concept.

Stewb

It's amazing to me how busy I can be considering I'm "not working". So I figured I'd better take some time and blog.

Dominic rolling around in my laundry basket.

Caitlin wore her 1st pair of shoes today. She was very fascinated by them. I'd first bought these shoes about 7 years ago. Jon still hadn't decided that he wanted kids and I fell in love with a pair of girly shoes. I bought them in hopes that someday I'd have a girl to put them on. But my friends would have girls and I'd feel silly for keeping the shoes so I'd give them away as presents. Then I'd be sorry and rush back and buy another pair. The last time I found them on clearance and decided I wasn't going to give them away until I KNEW FOR SURE that we weren't having kids or I was only going to have boys. So I was finally able to put them on my own little girl. =)

Jon took one look at this picture and said "Oh boy! I'm in trouble." I guess having a beautiful daughter is not necessarily a good thing for a Dad. =)

A couple of days ago I was making lunch and Dominic was helping.

"Mom, what are we making?"

"Stew."

"Oh, wow! I love stewb. It's my favorite." (I don't think he's ever had it before.)

Dominic was acting silly and I asked him what he was doing. He got a very puzzled look on his face and said "I'm not sure."

I took the kids to a book sale this last weekend and the kids had to sit on chairs while I shopped. As we were leaving I heard Dominic talking to Caitlin. "Caitlin, grownup have lots more fun than kids do." REALLY!

I stopped at the bank to get some cash and when I got back into the car Dominic asked if he could have some money. I told him no, that I needed the money.

"Mommy, you should share. It isn't nice not to share your money with your kid. Mom's should always give their kids their money." So say kids all over the world. Tough luck!

Sick Kids

My babies are sick. Since they are so rarely sick it makes it even harder. Caitlin only has a runny nose and I kept telling myself that she was cutting a tooth. Dominic did this for each of his teeth and at 10 months she should be getting one pretty soon or she'll be going to school with dentures. But Friday afternoon Dominic was acting lethargic and that certainly isn't like him. He felt a little warm and I checked his temp. It was 99.8. So nothing to be alarmed about, but enough to make him feel awful. He wasn't very hungry, so drank a bunch of juice and laid back down on the couch. About 30 minutes later he lost his juice.

Yesterday he woke up with the fever again. He hasn't had a problem eating since or loosing it for that matter. But today (Sunday) he still feels warm. He won't hold the thermometer in his mouth so not sure if he's just warm or still has a temp. He's acting almost normal again so I think we're on the mend. I just feel so sorry for my poor little babies.

A Bad Nude

Dominic is always saying something that will have Jon and I laughing. It's so funny that I'm sure I'll remember long enough to blog about it and then 5 minutes later I've forgotten. So I'm now running to the counter where I keep a notebook and I'll jot it down to blog about later. I now have several things on my notebook, have forgotten a bunch and figured I'd better do some blogging.

Dominic wanted me to watch him do something while I was cooking. I couldn't take my eye off the stove and he thought I wasn't giving him enough of my attention. "No Mommy, look at me with two eyes!"

Dominic had been very hyper all morning and was jumping around by the couch. He threw himself onto the couch where I was sitting and said "Whew! I'm tired of being wild."

Caitlin and I were sitting on the floor in the kitchen and Dominic came in with his hands over his eyes. "I'm closing my eyes so you won't recognize me."

Sabbath morning Dominic got himself dressed and after I helped him with a button I told him he looked very handsome. Dominic wandered off and then came back to Jon and asked him
"Daddy, how do I look?"
"You look wonderful, Dominic."
"No I don't, Daddy. I look distinguished."

Yesterday Dominic asked me what time it was. "It's about noon." He didn't seem to pay attention and kept playing. A few minutes later he bumped his head and was whimpering.
"I'm having a really bad nude." WHAT! I finally figured out that he meant noon and told him that nude meant naked. Oh course he thought this was the funniest thing. Guess I did too. =)

I piled blankets on top of the coffee table and made a "cave". Both kids loved it and Dominic kept Caitlin laughing by poking his head out trying to scare her.Jon and Dominic had been fixing the car (changing the oil) and I looked out the window and noticed Dominic spreading his blanket on the ground. Turns out he was having a picnic. So we made cookies (according to Dominic you can't have a picnic w/out cookies) and I took him on a real picnic that night.