A Love Hate Relationship

Well maybe not hate. Tolerate might be a better word. Flash tolerates Caroline. Barely. But Caroline looooooooooves Flash!


Notice the look on his face. I think he's saying, "Will you please get her the &@^$*@^ off me?!"


He does start to growl at her if he's getting too agitated. So we pry Caroline off of him. Then she heads straight back to him. We go through this about twenty to thirty times a day. Then I get agitated and put up the gate to separate them.

Jonah's Treasures

Although I'm not extremely knowledgeable on the subject, art has always been something I very much enjoy. The first time I really remember being introduced to any kind of art is when my family visited the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL when I was 13. I was enthralled. Ever since I have always found artists and their work absolutely fascinating. Although not exactly comparable to the great artists (except to mom!), I have found one of the great perks of parenthood for me to be the works of art that Jonah brings home on occasion. I treasure every piece. Luckily for me Jonah's school has a fantastic art program and teacher. I remember when he was in first or second grade explaining to me why Warhol and Van Gogh (or maybe it was Picasso) are his favorite artists. I personally was pretty impressed. Here are a few of my favorites.

Starry Night a la Jonah.
Jonah's attempt at Cubism.
Sunflowers through Jonah's eyes.
I think that even if I owned an actual piece of original art work I would love Jonah's art more.

Out and About

Yesterday we had amazing weather here in KY. It was pretty windy but the temperature may have gotten up to 70 degrees. Mother Nature loves to tease us I think because tonight the weather forecasters are calling for snow flurries. While we had the chance Caroline and I spent some glorious time out in the sunshine at the local playground. My cheeks even got a little pink.

She didn't like the swing so much which is funny considering she spent the first four months of her life in a swing.
She loved the slide however. She started scooting down as soon as I put her at the top like she's been down a slide a million times. The playground had a tunnel which was pretty entertaining, for me. At first Caroline wanted to walk through but she was too tall and would hit her head. I would try and get her to crawl through but she would freak out because she wanted to walk. I had to get some of the other kids there to show her how to crawl through. Once she crawled in she was very much enjoying it until she saw me through some of the little holes in the tunnel. Then she started trying to pull me by my hand through the hole. She was getting pretty upset until I went to the other end of the tunnel and called to her so she could see the way out. Little kids are funny.Today Caroline and I went to Jonah's school where I had volunteered to read to his class during their library period. Jonah's school is having volunteer readers all this week in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday. It just so happened that the mayor of Lexington and superintendent of schools were also going to read to Jonah's class. They asked me to go last. : ( I had been pretty nervous about having Caroline there and trying to read but she was really good. A couple of the little girls played with her while I read. The kids just love her. She's becoming like a little celebrity or class mascot.

Here's Mayor Newberry. Once he finished reading to the kids he had an answer and question session. He wasn't really good with the kids. Not at all. At one point he started checking his cell phone for calls or something. I had to suppress an extremely strong urge to heckle him. I don't care much for politicians. But I didn't want to embarrass Jonah or be banned from volunteering again.Here's the superintendent reading to the kids. See Jonah? The super was really good with the kids. Thank goodness! He reminded me of a nice grandpa.One of the local TV stations was even there to film them reading. (David apologizes for the poor editing.) Can you see me? I wish Jonah had made it on there. He was pretty disappointed. Local news can't get anything right!

I'll Have What She's Having

When people find out I have a nine year old and a baby they tend to always say the same thing. "That's quite an age difference," they say. Yeah. It is. I would have liked for Jonah to have a sibling closer to his own age but that's just how things worked out. Plus that large of an age gap will certainly have it's advantages I have thought. At least I don't have to worry about the kids fighting constantly over toys or each other's belongings which always seems to be the big complaint I hear from parents with two kids very close in age. This was true when Caroline was very small but it is slowly starting to change.

Once Caroline started to crawl and grab things she started reaching for her big brother's things. This really didn't surprise me. Babies always want what they aren't supposed to have. I had started telling Jonah while I was still pregnant that he would have to keep his things put away out of the baby's reach.


What has surprised me is how Jonah wants to play with Caroline's things. We brought each of the kids back a present from a trip we took to Gatlinburg. We got Jonah a toy pistol and Caroline a toy drum. Caroline just wanted to play with the toy pistol. Jonah wanted to play with Caroline's drum but didn't want her to play with the pistol. We had to explain to Jonah that he had to share his things if he wanted to play with her things. And before we knew it they were fighting over each other's stuff!


I've also been surprised at how the dogs have gotten involved in all of this. The dogs want what Caroline has. And she's usually happy to offer.


But also Caroline wants what the dogs have. Dog food, bones, pigs ears, whatever.

What has surprised me the most is David. He wants to play with the kids stuff. And he wants me to keep the kids away until he's done with his "project." Geez! Come on now!

My First Baby

I can't believe my boy is turning 9! Didn't he just start kindergarten yesterday? When you have a child I think the first year flies by, especially since pregnancy seems to last about five years. And then after they start school, time goes into warp speed. You're so busy with homework, projects, and after school activities that three months seem like a week. I find myself having thoughts like, "Oh gee Christmas is next week. Didn't school just start?" or "Twelve days left of school until summer break. Didn't they just have spring break?" Having Caroline brings back a lot of memories of Jonah being little. David asks me all the time if Caroline is the cutest baby I've ever seen. I do think she's adorable but I remember another baby that made my heart melt too.

Jonah's first birthday. This is the first time I realized Jonah has a serious sweet tooth.


This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Jonah. He's about 18 months here.


Here are a couple of pictures of David and Jonah right before Jonah's third birthday when David had come down to visit us in Florida.


Jonah with a couple of his buddies at his fourth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.


To celebrate his ninth birthday Jonah had a sleep over with a few of his best buddies.

The boys were a lot crazier than David and I anticipated. I think they could challenge any frat boys' partying skills. After staying up until 5:30 am it took the whole family to get Jonah up.


Happy Birthday JB! We love you!

A Man Obsessed

A couple of weeks ago Caroline took her first steps. I wouldn't really say she's walking yet but she'll take a step or two. She's even taken as many as five a couple of times but then down she goes. David is absolutely bursting with pride and is constantly trying to capture her walking on video. As most parents realize sometimes it's next to impossible to capture kids on video whenever they do something cute or exciting. Camera on. Kid done. David certainly gets an "A" for effort though. Here are a few of his attempts...





Then he makes me try to get her to walk.


Then he tries again on a different day.

Okay. That's enough.

Mmmm! Lunch!

Kids love spaghetti (or ravioli in this case). Parents hate the clean up.

Practice Makes Perfect

The sun came out today. Yay! So I took Caroline out to practice her skills. She's getting there.



I used to do the same thing with Jonah.













Wasn't he cute?! I can't believe that was 8 years ago.

On Valentine's Day...

we found out that Caroline likes chocolate. Really, really likes it.

Perspective

What is going on with the weather lately? I know Kentucky weather can be pretty strange but this has been ridiculous. Last week we had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings. We all woke up in the middle of the night when the weather alarms went off in our neighborhood. Luckily we didn't have any damage (Thank goodness! We just got a new roof because of the hail last spring.) but our power was out for half a day. Two days ago our gas meter actually froze due to the cold temperatures. We didn't have heat until sometime that afternoon when the gas company fixed it. Then it snowed that evening. Then the temperatures went up so it rained. And rained the entire next day. Then the temperatures dropped again. So the rain turned to ice and then to snow again. Insane!

I can't begin to tell you however how much this awful weather has made me appreciate being home full time now. I don't have to find Jonah alternative care since the schools have been closed. I don't have to bundle Caroline up and drag her out in the nasty weather to take to daycare. In fact we've had a pretty enjoyable couple of days. Jonah's been out all day playing in the snow with the neighborhood kids. Caroline and I whipped up some chocolate chip cookies for them to snack on (She loves watching the mixer!). All in all it's been a classic snow day that all kids dream about.

And none of this would be possible without my husband. Poor guy is out hard at work in all of this misery. For us. Thank you honey. We love you!

Caroline contemplates her first snow.
Jonah shovels the sidewalk. He's turning into such a little man!

Back inside. Attack of the static!

Pinewood Derby II

Saturday was Jonah's Cub Scouts' annual Pinewood Derby. If you're not familiar with Cub Scouts and the Pinewood Derby, I'll explain. Each scout is given a kit which contains a block of wood. The boys are to transform their bocks of wood into racing vehicles not weighing more than 5 ounces. This is the third year Jonah has participated. The first year Jonah, or well David really, had no idea what he was doing and came in dead last. The second year Jonah's, or well once again David's, competitive streak shifted into high gear and won first place on Jonah's actual birthday (you may remember the blog entry). This year Jonah, against David's better judgment and drive to win, decided to go outside the box and designed a skateboard for his block of wood. Thanks to David's friend Rob's tools it turned out really nice. Do you see the red skateboard #27?

Each car, or racing vehicle I guess, competes in three races or heats. Jonah's skateboard, or Skating Flame as he named it, did really well and won each of his three heats. Here's my poor attempt to capture it on video.



Jonah didn't place this year but that was okay. David wasn't too upset. We all had a good time.

Jonah, yes I really mean David again, is already planning on how to recapture the first place title and trophy next year.

Daddy's First Blog

Uh-Oh!

Politically Incorrect

We call this Caroline's Chinese smiling face. I think she started doing it around Thanksgiving maybe. She gets real excited, smiles, squints her eyes, and starts breathing fast through her nose. We find it pretty amusing.

Ride 'Em Snailgirl!

BTW - She didn't fall off.

Press Play

What Happened to 2007?

Holy cow! The months have flown by and I need to update I guess. Let me catch everyone up. Last thing I remember was Thanksgiving I think. We were able to see a lot of our families.

Caroline and Grandpa in WV

The Schanding cousinsI flew down with the kids (by myself!) to my mom's in Florida the weekend after Thanksgiving (the busiest travel days of the year!) I had been super nervous about the trip but everything went extremely well. I have to give props to Delta.

Atlanta airportMimi and more cousins

We decided to put up a real tree even though I was afraid Caroline would knock it down or eat the needles. She hardly bothered it at all as it turned out.The kids had a very nice Christmas. Jonah got the Nintendo DS from Santa that he wanted and Caroline enjoyed all the wrapping paper, and the presents. The big news was that Caroline got her two front teeth for Christmas! The bottom two. I knew they'd come eventually.
We spent New Year's in Nashville where David got to go to see UK in the Music City Bowl. David's sister and family stayed in the same hotel. We had a really good time. Unfortunately I don't have any photos since the batteries in my camera died.

Last but not least, my last day at work was January 4th. Caroline was sick constantly between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We even had to take her to the ER one night. She did have two ear infections at one point but mainly the doctors said it was viruses that she was picking up at daycare. So David and I decided it would be best for me to stay at home. We want to keep Caroline more like this... So everyone should be caught up. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often now.

Trick or Treat

Take one.
Take two.