Free Museum Admission

I just read a blog that mentioned if you are Bank of America customer you can receive one free admission to a number of museums on the first full weekend of the month. We are in fact a Bank of America customer and there are several local museums listed. It would also be a good thing to check our for vacation. The admission is for the card holder only but in our family both Sam and I have a Bank of America card and our kids are still free at most museums. On the Bank of America website you can search for participating museums as well as sign up for a reminder email or text so you don't forget to use the benefit.

Reunion

One of my childhood best friends has lived out of state since our Senior year in college. Her parents still live in town so she comes back once or twice a year. It is not often enough.

Alison and her kids were in town this week. We were going to take all of the kids and both sets of parents to the Arboretum but we woke up that morning and the temperature was only about 40 so we decided to form a back up plan. We met at Barnes and Noble to let the kids read and the adults drink coffee or hot chocolate. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.Katherine loves to play with "big kids" so Kayley, age 4, was her new best friend.

Macey, age 9, loved holding Caroline. Somehow Dallas did not make it into any of the photos. Alison and me, friends for almost 30 years!

Halloween Playgroup

Today we had a Halloween playgroup at our house with 6 toddlers and 2 infants. I had run across all kinds of cute ideas on various blogs to I was inspired.
We ate a "banana-pede" made of banana, peanut butter, pretzel sticks and raisins.
We had eye balls made from hard boiled eggs and olives. Katherine was not a fan of these but they were all eaten so somebody liked them.
These were mummy hot dogs. They are kind of like pigs in a blanket but made with bread sticks. They were cute.
We had a craft time with two crafts. They used Halloween shaped cookie cutters dipped in paints to "stamp" on paper.

The other craft was making "splat monsters" where you use an eye dropper to drip paint and then fold the paper in half. We then glued googly eyes on.
We were supposed to paint pumpkins as well but it was a bit chaotic and we ran out of time and attention span. So, after nap Katherine and I painted her pumpkin. I had a palate of 5 colors all neatly poured onto a plate. Katherine had more fun mixing the colors than I could have imagined so we ended up with a pumpkin with a swirl of colors that blended to be a nasty greenish brown. My pumpkin had one side with a face and the other side was painted by Katherine in this same icky color. Katherine has decided that all painting projects need to be finger paint so we explored that a little as well.

ABC's of Prayer

Tonight when we were saying our prayers tonight at bed, I asked Katherine what she wanted to pray for. She said "ABC's" That is her obsession right now. I told her to go ahead and here is her prayer.

"Dear Jesus, Thanks you for ABC's. Thank you for a 'K'. Thank you for 'B'. Thank you for 'P' and 'W' and 'U'. Amen"

The K is for Katherine, B for our last name, P for Pops, W for Will. I am not sure about the U.

Diaper contest

We use cloth diapers about 75% of the time. Caroline is not too far from outgrowing her newborn stash. I am not crazy about some of the diapers we have in the next phase. I love the Bum Genius diaper that I have. I was excited to see a great contest for 12 Bum Genius diapers at the Cloth Diaper Whisperer. If you are a cloth diaper mama, go TONIGHT to enter for the giveaway.

32 months

Yesterday I commented to Daddy that in only 4 months we would have a 3 year old. Yikes, that seems so old. Today you are 32 months. Right now I am holding on to the quote that "the days are long and the years are short". That perfectly describes where I am right now. So many days really do seem long as we are in the midst of having an infant and a 2 year old. But, when I think about the fact that you are 32 months old, close to 3, I feel like time is flying by at light speed. Where is my tiny baby? She is now a little girl.

Well, as usual, there are so many milestones and things to remember from this month.

You now pretty much have a correct use of pronouns. This has been a gradual change but all of a sudden I realized that you were doing it right. No more "mommy hold you" when you want me to pick you up. You are correct 100% of the time in using 1st, 2nd or 3rd person but sometimes you use the wrong case (subjective, objective, possessive, etc). How is that for a former teacher's explanation. You will say things like "my do it" instead of "I do it."
You are continuing to advance physically. You now jump with both feet and do somersaults. You love to turn circles which makes you "dizzy dizzy" and you will finally go down the slide at Chick-Fil-A.
You are still inconsistent with potty training. You went 3 days with only 1 accident and that included a full day at the State Fair. You stayed dry in the car on both our trip to College Station and San Antonio as well as a full day at Sea World. But, when we returned back home you decided to go in your panties and not on the potty. It makes me very frustrated and you know it but we are having a bit of a power struggle over the issue right now.
Your language is so clear and your vocabulary is huge. Every day you say words that I did not know you knew. I love being able to have conversations with you. After school one day we went to get a smoothie and rather than coming home we sat and ate it there so you could tell me about your day. It was such a fun time. You enjoy it too. When we were at A&M you asked me to sit on the bench so we could talk a minute. When I ask what you want to talk about you say, "ABC's" so I quiz you on what words start with each letter of the alphabet.
Now that you are even more verbal, you get frustrated when you are not included in the conversation. Gone are the days that daddy and I get to have conversation about our day at dinner. When we talk without including you, you will say, "Mommy, stop talking." We are trying to explain to you that it is very rude to say that but it is also a reminder to us that we sometimes are leaving you out.
You say a lot of funny things.

• When reading Clifford, you told her daddy, "I want Emily Elizabeth to come over."
• "Mommy, I want to eat this for dinner. What's this called?" Me - "Candy Corn"
• "I'm hungry. My tummy empty." Lets go to Chick Fil A!
• "Mom, there's Chick a fay. Let's go in. I eat and plan and then go to hotel to see daddy. That's a good plan mommy."
• "It's pretend raining". Said after daddy turned on the wind shield wipers to clean the window."
• "Mommy, one's missing". Said when daddy is not in the car, therefore he is missing.
• "Let me talk about poopoo". This one baffles me. For some reason you want to talk about poopoo. I bet you picked it up from kids at school. I try to ignore it but now I am trying to explain that it is not polite to talk about.
• Mommy, my panties are too tight. I need new ones. Let's go to Target and get big girl panties.
• "Mommy, it's pretty weather outside." You say this almost daily, regardless of the actual weather.
  
• "Good Job Mommy."
• "Mommy, can you reach the sky? I no reach the sky. Daddy can reach the sky. He's big.
• "Mommy, you like pickles? I no like pickles. Daddy like pickles." For some reason this is stated several times a day. I am not sure what the fascination with pickles is.

You sometimes talk and jabber nonstop in the car. You will just go on and on. It is funny to see where your thoughts take you. In the car I was reading you a Franklin book (daddy was driving). He had a bag of marbles. You stopped me and said, "Marbles is like the cat. Emily and Nathan have a cat at their house. I have a dog at my house. I have cats in my garden." I say, "really, what color are the cats in your garden?" You go on. Some are black and some are yellow and some are blue. My daddy's shirt is blue. Some airplanes are blue. Like my Uncle Will flies." So, we somehow went from marbles to Uncle Will.
Your memory is getting a lot better. It used to be that you would forget what I had told you before. Now you remember everything and keep me on my toes, especially if you are remembering something I told you would happen later. Tuesday I told you we might go to Nana's house after school for nap. While you were in school Nana and I realized that it would not work out. I thought I would not mention it and you would forget. No way! You came to the car ready to see Nana and were very upset when I told you our plans had changed. You were so upset and Nana and I felt so bad that they came over for dinner. Today you had your face painted at the kids museum. I washed it off before nap because I thought you wanted me to. Apparently I misunderstood so I told you that we would paint it back after you woke up. When you woke up it was time to go to church and we both forgot. When we got in the car you said, "Mommy, we 'a got' something. We need to paint my cat face." I felt bad that we forgot but there was nothing we could do then.
You talk a lot about "When I get bigger . . ." You have said that when you get bigger you will be a princess, you will be taller, you will have a car, you will eat your peas, you will sit on the big potty, you will chew bubble gum . . .
Your hair is getting a lot longer and I love the curls. You love to announce that your hair has curls and that it is pretty. You still hate to wear it in clips or bows. One day I convinced you to try on Caroline's headband. It only stayed on for about a minute but it looked cute. You are always pushing your hair out of your face but I can't get you to realize that a bow would help.
Today we went to the children's museum for a Halloween program . When we were in the car on the way to lunch you said "thank you." I asked for what and you said, "for taking me to the museum and painting my cat face." You are really good about saying "thank you" when someone gives you something or does something for you. You are learning to say it for compliments but this is the first time you said "thank you" unsolicited for something like this. I was so proud. You are also starting to say you are sorry without me prompting you to do so.
You love to plan "Hide and Seek". It is really funny when we play it in the car when we are both belted in. The person hiding covers their face with their hands. In my case I use one hand and usually only cover my cheek. The other person counts to 10 and then guesses where the other is by pointing out places outside. It is pretty creative and you really enjoy it.

You have a ton of friends. It is fun to hear you talk about your friends at school. Some days you will tell me who you want to hang out with and what you want to do. When I pick you up from church or school you are able to tell me who was there. We go somewhere just about every day and sometimes in the morning you will ask me, "mommy, where are we going today."

I think you know all of your letters now and know a few words for a lot of them. It is fun to see you being interested in what will become reading. You are also recognizing complete words. When you see the logo for Chick-Fil-A or Target you announce where we are. I guess it is obvious where we spend a lot of time. You also love to do crafts. I like to try to plan things but sometimes we create as we go. This is a picture of you making sand art.
You love Caroline so much. You hate it when she is crying and always let me know as soon as she starts (as though I could not hear it). You then will give me suggestions on how to stop the crying. One day she was crying and you climbed on the bed and gave her a paci until she stopped. She loves to see you and you can really make her smile. You love it and say, "mommy, Caroline is smiling at me."
Katherine, we love you so much and really enjoy spending time with you.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Look at this fabulous dress that is being given away. It would be a great Halloween costume or fun for dress up. Katherine would love it! Go to the link below to try to win it.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

3 months

Caroline, it is hard to believe that you are already 3 months old. You are such a joy and a very easy baby.
You are getting so big. I am not sure how much you weigh but you are able to wear 3-6 month clothes with no problem.
I am happy to report that you are officially sleeping through the night. I was skeptical to write this a few weeks ago when it started for fear that I would jinx it. Usually you go to bed for the final time between 9 and 10 and I have to wake you up in the morning when it is time for us to go somewhere, usually between 9 and 10 so you sleep for about 12 hours at night. We usually put you down in the office in the pack and play so that if you fuss it will not wake up Katherine. Then when I am ready to go to bed I move you.
Your naps are less predictable. You take naps well but the time and duration varies. That is totally my fault as we are on the go. I know I should try to have a better schedule or routine but it is just not my style.
You are starting to wiggle around a lot more in your sleep as well. You are not rolling over but you are doing the "helicopter" where your whole body seems to rotate around. You are seldom in the same position that I put you down in. You can see in the picture below that all of this wiggling has caused your pants to start falling down. You wake up happy. Often times I don't even know you are awake because you don't fuss or cry at all. There have been some mornings that you wake up and just lay in bed for 20 minutes before I get you. You are a very content and happy baby. There have been other mornings where I get you up and put you straight in the car to take Katherine to school. You do not even complain that I have not fed you.

You are a really good eater. You nurse on demand so I am not sure how many times a day, probably 6-7. You also take a bottle pretty well though we probably only give you a bottle 1-2 a week. I have zero milk frozen after our fridge broke and it all thawed. You can see here that Katherine also enjoys giving you a bottle though her attention only lasts a little while and mommy has to finish it off. We have started putting you in the high chair during dinner so you can be a part of the family. You enjoy being on our level. Before long you will be joining us by eating dinner too.
You are getting more expressive. You smile easily and look around taking in the world around you. People always comment on how alert you are. You make very cute noises too.

You hate tummy time. I know this is my fault as I have not been as diligent about making you have tummy time as I should. This is due in part to the fact that we are rarely home and when we are home you are asleep or Katherine is asleep and I do not want you to wake her up.

San Antonio, Day 2

Sunday we got went for a short hike at a great park near Kathy and Chad's house. I wish we had such a great system of trails so close to our house.
If you look really closely in the above photo you can see a deer to the left of Katherine. We followed a family of 4 deer along the trail for quite some time.

Katherine and Sammy had a fun time walking along the path. Every time we would reach an intersection, Katherine would ask, "which path, right or left." We saw several insects as well as cactus. Sarah and Caroline enjoyed the hike from in their carriers.

After naps we went downtown. Of course we had to visit the Alamo. We got there about 10 minutes before it closed for the day so we mainly saw the outside which was fine.




We ate dinner and walked along the river walk. It was a fun day.

We had a great time with Kathy, Chad, Sammy and Sarah. We sure miss having them around.

Bow holder giveaway

Today when I looked at my blog reader I saw that Ashley and Amy had both posted about a giveaway of a friend who is making bows, clips and bow holders. Then I had an email from Chrys about the same contest. Three friends from three different places telling me about the same contest. So, I thought I would tell you about it as well. Head to Addie's Simple Baby Bows to check it out and enter to win. I would love to win. Of course Katherine refuses to wear bows but Caroline's hair actually may be long enough to keep one in before long. They are very reasonably priced so I may just have to buy a few even if I don't win.