Swiper stop Swiping!

I love Noah.  He makes me laugh.  And sometimes the laughter is after the embarrassment has worn off...

Last week we were able to meet up with Stephanie and baby Addie for a play date.  I chose the spot, Chik fil a, because I knew my boys would mostly be busy playing in their playground and then we could, finger's crossed, visit a bit.  Also I was hoping for Addie holding time.

We were sitting and visiting outside the play area, the boys were inside, love that it is virtually sound proof.  And Noah come's up to our table obviously eating something he was enjoying, and since all the food that I had for them was on our table, and he had not been at our table for a while, I got suspicious.  Um, Noah where did you get that food from?  Good thing about Noah is he will be very honest.  As he is enjoying whatever is in his mouth, he goes over to a table with a very stunned looking Dad and his daughter, sitting there.

Oh no.

So I asked, did my son eat something off of your table????  From the look on his face I knew he had, he sort of stammered and said, um, he came up to our table and took a huge scoop of the fruit salad and ate it.

Oh Noah.

Well I offered to buy him another.  He graciously said it was okay.  I so wish I had a camera because the look on that poor man's face was camera worthy.  I tried to explain to Noah that taking food from someone else's table was poor etiquette.  I am hoping he understood (please, please, please).  To make matters even more embarrassing is that later back in the play area Luke basically could not stop hugging this same man's little daughter.  I tried to keep him away but he was in love with her, he especially loved her pigtails, eventually the older brother (who's salad Noah had swiped) came over and told Luke off.  It was hilarious.  Big brother trying to tell a one year old, hey that's my sister!  Stop hugging her!  All I could think was that poor Dad, probably had this nice quiet day planned out with his kids and then the Cassaday boy's arrive.

Heidi

This Week...Sept 26 and onwards.

Well it has been a bit of a tough week in the Cassaday household.  If you caught my outburst that I posted, and then promptly deleted, you probably get the drift that I was upset.  Still sort of upset.  But slowly with much prayer, ice cream, and contemplating, things are better.

So what else is happening besides the drama in my head?

Noah is soon to be a preschooler!  Luke has discovered he likes to climb, and Kelly planned a HUGE surprise that I now know about.  Oops.

Kelly and I just got back from the big, did he get in, preschool meeting!  The big meeting that was supposed to happen last week but due to a surgery was pushed to this week.  There were four members of the team, each told us how Noah scored on his standardized testing.  There were colored charts, decisions to be made and papers to sign.  And when it was all said and done, Noah was accepted!  Yay for him.  He will be going three days a week, from 11:30 to 2:00, at the school right behind our house.  We are excited, I told him he was going to preschool and he basically jumped up and down then headed for the front door.  Hard to explain to a three year old that he would have to wait a couple of weeks!  Thankfully this will give me a few weeks to prepare my heart, and get him to start wearing clothes again.  He loves to be free since we started potty training, free to run and be naked.  Great for him, awfully embarrassing for those who come to our door unexpected.

Luke is slightly in love with climbing tables.  Lately I will leave to room to come back and find him standing on top of the table, looking very sweet and angelic.  It seriously makes my heart stop every time I see him there.  He thinks it is a great trick.  Oh and yesterday I found him sitting in our bathroom sink, with the water spilling over, and he was happily playing away.  Oh Luke.  You may be short and husky for your age but somehow you can hoist those chubby little legs up and proceed to do things I never thought you would do.  By the way I know where you are learning these things from.

And my sweet hubby is taking me away!  Yippee.  It is our 5th wedding anniversary on the 7 of October, and we are going to Las Vegas for a few days.  He had it all planned out, and somehow things slipped (he is awful at keeping secrets), and I found out.  Oh and just to add some more excitement to the mix, my parent's are flying in to watch the boys and then hang out for 10 days.  How much fun!  Is it bad that the one thing I truly look forward to while we are there is sleeping in and eating/sitting in a restaurant for more than 20 minutes?

Viva Las Vegas!

Heidi

This week in the Cassaday household....

Another eventful week of: more potty training, throwing up at the doctor's office and pushing children into the pool.

Well potty training continues and it has been a successful week, hooray!! Noah is definitely a potty going master, as long as it's one and not the other. The other still get's smeared around the house but Kelly, my very optimistic hubby, say's 'at least we didn't replace the old carpet!' And I have to agree because as I scrub the stains out I think to myself, I probably would be crying a lot harder if these carpets were new. But we cheer his successes and still dole out the stickers. Luke has recently gotten into the spirit of potty training himself. Today he peed all over the back of our couch and then asked me for a sticker. Sorry buddy. No sticker for you and I have specific instructions from the pediatrician NOT to potty train an 18 month old. The thought has crossed my mind. Until he peed all over the couch.

This week was Luke's 18 month well check! Only a month late...hey it's summer. There we were waiting for Luke's appointment and my sweet little Noah was pointing at the fish tank yelling, NEMO, then he looks at me with a funny look and proceeds to throw up. Huh? Well needless to say the nurse looks at me and says, who are you here for?? Oh and to make matter's even better we threw up over on the well side, not the sick side. I am pretty sure that I was not the most popular parent that day. Thankfully we got another appointment later in the day, Noah stayed home, and Luke was weighed (75%) and measured (50%). So basically we have a linebacker on our hands because the boy is stocky (professional opinion). It seems that my boys builds are destined for football. I am still rooting for hockey myself...

And lastly.

Noah loves to go to swim class. Noah loves to drive his teacher nuts. Noah apparently likes to push his poor swim mate into the pool. Noah gets in BIG trouble because swim mate was petrified of jumping in. Mother sits mortified and prays the parent's of such swim mate won't start yelling at me. Thankfully those parent's just laughed. Sigh. Oh Noah.

It has been so nice to be home again. Oh and we have grass in our backyard! A big project that my hubby was secretly working on while we were away. We all are looking forward to cooler weather and some outside play time!

Tune in next week.

Potty Training!

Ah potty training.

The preparation:

Me: Buying Thomas the train underwear, buying kid friendly carpet cleaner, buying stickers, printing out potty chart, getting the bathroom prepped, and pulling out all absorbent rags.

Noah: Nothing.

The training begins:

Me: Using said carpet cleaner, rags and stickers! Meaning Noah is a potty going success (only if naked, sigh, not so good for out of the house trips).

Noah: Going potty! Getting stickers! Enjoying the freedom of running naked around the house!

As for the rest of it...well that is taking a lot more patience. He does great at home but once we head out he has many accidents which then means many trips to the public washroom. But one step at a time! As for now we are cheering on his successes.

End Result:

Stickers for Noah. Patience training for Mommy and Daddy. A win win situation!!

Wrestle Mania

And so it begins...

It's a whole bunch of fun until you get sat on. Looks like Noah won this match!

The Switch

Proof!

A few nights ago our boys started sharing a room. And it went off without a hitch. And then night two came along, ugh...but they have surprised us with how well they do go down. Lights may go on and off, we may hear a bit of giggling, and some screaming, but for the most part night time is no different than usual. Yay!

Mornings are a different story. We are working on that one because no one in this household (Kelly and I) want to wake up at five. And who want's grumpy kids all day because they haven't slept? No me!

Bringing chubby back...

Oh how I love those chubby legs. Sorry Luke couldn't resist the photo op.

Super chub!

A stinky post

So there comes a time in a parenting adventure where you begin to question whether or not this was something you had ever signed up for. That time for us is right now. We never imagined that our lives would be consumed with trying to get Noah to stop smearing his poop around our house. Why you might ask? Good question. Now I realize he is three and I should have been potty training him a while ago but I have waited. Mostly because I am petrified to do it. And this is the reason. I am not at all good with poop. If it's in the toiled fine. If its, ALL OVER MY HOUSE. Not okay.

Basically this is how it all plays out. Noah goes off somewhere out of sight. Usually at a fine time like me eating lunch. As I begin to wonder what he is doing he comes over, places his sweet hand, full of poop, on my arm and says 'Mama, poop.' Well I am sure that you can imagine my reaction. I had no idea that my voice could reach such high decibels. Then proceeds a long process of washing Noah up, cleaning Luke up if he happens to be in the way, cleaning the carpet/bedspread/couch/floor etc. where the poop happens to be. Then I sit in a corner crying. If I could bring myself to drink at 11 in the morning I am sure I would.

So what smart thing are we doing to prevent it? Well like any smart parent would we are forcing our child to wear 24 month onesies (there is no 3T onesie out there, we looked) with shorts and a belt on. If he can't get to it then there is no poop problem right? So if you see my child out and around town walking funny it's because we are making him wear his brother's onesies until he discovers that poop is gross. That is going to be a long, long time.

Oh and by the way when your child starts saying, Luke and eat, in the same sentence when there is poop about the house its best to ignore what he is saying. Because if I let myself go there I might need to be committed.

Blogging

Hmph. Is that even a word? I am no longer a good blogger, heck I was never even a great blogger. I just don't do it. And quite honestly I don't read blogs anymore. I should clarify I don't read blogs of people I don't know anymore. I used to have a long list on my google reader of craft blogs, cool people blogs, people who I will never meet but think their life is amazing type blogs. And I deleted. them. all. Starting afresh maybe? Not really, just really, really tired of reading blogs about people I don't know and feeling like how great their lives were compared to mine.

You know I have the stay at home mom with two busy boys who like things like toilets, cars and dirt kind of life. Not that I am throwing myself a pity party over it. Oh my no. I am extremely blessed. I just didn't need to be reading random people's blogs that ended with me going, oh if only... Honestly I don't need if only's or thoughts that I can be more amazing if I just blogged about how amazing I am.

So I have been thinking about blogging and whether I will continue with it or not. And after a long hiatus, a slight change to the blog layout, I am back. But with a different idea on why I blog.

It is to preserve a memory.

To write about our current events before they become a distant thought. And eventually I hope my kids will want to read what was happening in our lives circa early 2000's. To hear that they were in the 90th percentile their whole infant lives. That we owned a crazy dog for three months before returning him. To know how we struggled with things like sleeping and eating and pooping (you not us).

So hi ho, hi ho, it's back to blogging I go.

Heidi

Luke at 15 Months

I was hoping to write down a few of Luke's latest development's. Time is flying by with this little boy and I am shocked that he is now a walking, climbing, playing active boy.

Lately Luke is pretty much climbing anything he can get his cute little chubby leg up onto. The other day while passing the hall bathroom I casually looked in to see Luke at the sink, playing with the water Noah had left on. What? Yes, the boy climbed the two step stool and was happily playing away. I am so thankful he did not try to get down or step off the stool. Gulp. The bathroom door is now closed again.

Luke also has a great love of water. His favorite thing to do is stand in the bathtub (boy I am sure portraying myself as a safe mother), with the faucet running, playing and sticking his face in the water. He loves the water table, the play pool, and sadly, the toilet. Why might I ask do my children think the toilet is just another water toy? Makes me want to sit down and cry. Or spray them with Lysol.

Luke is totally getting the whole grunting for items thing down. He will point, say Mama, and then uh, uh, uh, uh, at the object. This is something new. And this is something his older brother still does. Starting to notice that what older brother does, younger brother must do also. Like shouting when he sees a balloon. Or yelling BA (bath) when he is getting changed. Monkey see and cute little chubby monkey do!

And something super sweet. He gives me a kiss before I put him down for a nap. This boy loves nap only for the reason that he get's a cup (okay forget that, a bottle, I know bad mom), of milk. But now he has added a sweet little kiss before going down. I will have to enforce that one as mandatory from now on.

Latest pictures of Luke:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61661928@N02/sets/72157626386846849/

Ostrich Festival

That's Noah, in the third seat.

We had a blast taking the boys to the festival! Really it is just a large fair that costs a bundle but is oh so fun. Being our first time to the fair with an age appropriate child we decided the sink or swim technique to the rides. We stuck Noah on any height appropriate ride and watched to see if he would laugh or scream or cry or all three. In Noah's case there was a lot of laughter. That boy is a roller coaster kid. Yes!

Luke's turn next year. As for this year all he did was sit in our wagon and cry. Unless he had a cold drink in hand. It was HOT that day so we made sure they were well hydrated, well sun screened and well shaded.

Here are more pictures from the event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61661928@N02/sets/72157626358247417/

(I got tired of trying to post pictures to blogger so I finally set up a flickr account. Let me know if it doesn't work okay?!)

Kelly's 40!

Enough said.

The good with the bad.

Noah is in swimming classes. He loves it. If I mention that we are going to his class that will be all I hear 'pool, pool, pool'?? But honestly the last few weeks have been rough. Not for Noah but for me, his keenest observer.

I did notice a problem before during his lessons but his class always just consisted of him. Usually there would be another child in his class but no one else had signed up and we were thankful for that one on one. Because Noah is crazy about throwing everything, and anything, into the pool. Pool toys especially. His cute little teacher would dodge his throws through out the lesson as he happily DISOBEYED her. I had to sit on my hands, trying to stop myself from running into the pool area. I don't think that is encouraged. It became obvious to me that this was a problem and it was becoming a frustration to all of those around him.

Things sort of came too this last week. We actually pulled him out for the last ten minutes of his class, he now has another little girl in his class, and it became so apparent to me that this was a problem. The teacher was frustrated, the leader was frustrated, and the other family were starting to whisper. I was so devastated. So we pulled him. And Kelly took the boys out while I stayed to talk with the lady at the front desk.

I am not sure I ever understood how humbling it would be being a parent. Here I was in the midst of seeing and hearing feedback on my son and sometimes it is just hard to hear. I wanted to sing of how great he truly is but in the end, there is a problem, and there needed to be a solution not dependent on how great I think he is!

Well, poor front desk lady, I poured my heart out to her. She was kind in her remarks but I still walked away unsure of it all. It is hard to share with someone your concern over your child's actions, of his struggle's with communicating and that he doesn't seem as mature as he could be for his age.

Well that was about two weeks ago that I wrote that. Now we are on the other side of things. We have resolved some of the problems with removing those tempting objects. Noah and I work on sitting on his turtle and not throwing it at home. We still see him being crazy during lessons but I am so thankful that they have been kind enough to work on it with him (ie. saying a firm no). I sit and pray for my heart because quite honestly I am still a bit on the hurt side of it all. But that is parenting for me. Humbling, the way it should be right!?

Who's that girl?

You got it. Sweet little Makayla!

She came to visit a few weeks back and being the smart person I am, I gave her a cereal bar without a bib. She was wearing this super sweet pink and white outfit which then turned into a blue splotched outfit. So what does a smart person do? Lends her an outfit of Luke's.

And do you notice that she is playing with a dirt pile and a car? We will have to keep her introduced to the boy type toy's. Then when they visit her she can make them tea and dress them up!

This is what he does when brother is still sleeping...

January

And tell me this...where did January go? For us it flew on by...a visit from my parent's, Luke's first birthday, a 50th Wedding Anniversary kept us on our toes! Here are some of the picture's from the month...

My parent's came to visit! Here they are with the kid's celebrating a late Christmas together.
Noah was dressed up for the party! In true Noah fashion, he is all dressed up, on the back of a trailer, checking out the construction site next door.
Oh and January also held Luke's first haircut! That is my niece in law cutting his hair, she is super sweet to Luke (and is a hairdresser) and graciously offered to cut it for us. So, how many people does it take to cut a baby's hair??
My parent's at the party. My mom did a fabulous job of organizing and arranging the flowers. And my Dad was gracious enough to take Noah from us!
Here are Kelly's parents cutting into their cake! They reenacted the whole thing, minus the smashing of the cake in each other's face, but they fed each other and kissed. For a long, long time. Yep they still have it after 50 years.

A new word

Noah has a new word! Actually Noah has a lot of new words but this one is something to write about. He said, APPLE! Now I know what you are thinking, apple, why so excited about apple?

The reason is this. Noah has been working with Cindy, his speechie (therapist, thanks Ellisha for that shorter version), and has been practicing a few basics words. Bee, Boo, Bow, Pea, Tea and so on... Putting those simple basic words together makes a mirage of larger words; for example apple is a-bow. And noodles is, new-dough. And honey is h-knee. So today after we were introduced to these new words I took an apple from the fruit basket placed it in front of Noah and asked him, what is this?

"Apple".

What a boy.

The face only a Mom could love.

Oh look at that face. Seriously the only to clean up that cute boy was a bath!

Time for a Change

Well my long standing relationship with iweb is over. I think it finally ended when I realized that in the time I have had that blog I had it crash fully once (and almost lost everything), had an on again and off again comment problem, and then finally another crash. Those crashes mean me spending hours pulling the info off the internet, putting it into a word file and then putting it back into iweb. Yuck. No thank you.

Not to say that iweb is all bad. But you all probably don't want to hear about my blogging woes.

So onto our family! Onto the fun adventures we have been having.

And please leave me a comment. I was missing those responses!