december 2011

i am not sure why i ever doubted that reid would catch on to potty training but when he wasn't walking or even sitting up at nine months i guess i just assumed.
last weekend i had a couple days in between regular school and studying for finals and we (meaning sadie and I) decided to see if reid would want to try potty training. I really didn't think it would work but once i introduced the idea that he would get a piece of candy when he went and sadie would get one too it was like wild fire. within a few hours he was going almost every 10 minutes. what a stink!! he really puts his mind to something and off he goes. our little ham bone is just that, always trying to make people laugh. just yesterday when i was disciplining him for doing something he made a funny face and started laughing at me trying not to smile and laugh at him. he uses low and high voices to talk, i didn't think a two year old knew how to use that much inflection in his voice. he is also very good and hilarious (in his own mind)at knock knock jokes. reid:knock knock me: who's there? reid:banana me:banana who reid: something completely inaudible then hysterically laughing. me: ummmm
sadie: our sweet girl is four! i can't even believe it! sadie is super into glitter, glue, markers, and paper. the girl can work for hours and hours on a project. we've started to call her ke$ha. she's in a new room now and struggling a bit with the transition. her new teacher is so sweet and she knows so many of the kids in her room but it's a huge change from the last room. sadie still loves helping me with cookies, baking, and is a great egg cracker. our new fun activity during christmas is elf on a shelf. she named him boysara (yes pronounced boy-sara) and we have so much fun finding him every morning when she wakes up. sadie is always up for anything, loves to dust, clean, and wipe things down (whose child is she?!?)
we are so blessed and lucky to have such wonderful kiddos

what's cookin ma?

"whatcha doing mom"
"Mom can you color with me?"
"Mom a drink please?"
"Mom watch me be so brave!"
"Mom shirt off!"
"Mom when's halloween?"
"mom a willie doing?"
"mom can we watch a show?"
"mom up-a"

life is so busy and blessed at our house. the kids and i have been spending so much time together since josh's work schedule has been so crazy and hectic. these fall days are spend kicking leaves, trying on our Halloween costumes over and over, and putting away all our summer clothes. life is a lot hectic but still busy. we make meals together, have dance parties, fold clothes, color, and take walks. we've been picking up lots of leaves outside and even carved pumpkins at grandma and grandpa flaherty's house.
sadie is a big help in the kitchen. yesterday as we made meatloaf she did most of the work (besides the onions) chopping the celery, pouring in the egg, cornflakes, and ketchup, and getting her hands dirty mushing up the meat and other ingredients. i had heard once that the earlier you can include kids in the kitchen, even using a knife the more comfortable they will be later. it's all about life skills baby. now reid wants in on the action. and although it was a terrible mess, i did let him try to crack and egg for cookies the other day. oops! :)
reiders new thing is to take of all his clothes and run away from me as he pees on the floor. lovely. at least he is realizing when he has to pee, if only he would sit on the potty. he will go over to it and pretend to pee, laugh then run away and pee on the floor. boys! :)hes going through a milk phase right now where every 30 minutes or so he is veraciously parched for milk and if you don't get it for him right away he screams. boys. he also sleeps on a mattress on the floor right now until we can get him a big boy bed. he was climbing out of his crib and waking sadie up. bed time is a little (a lot) more challenging. as we try to do prayers and settling down at night the kids only seem to wind up. we will keep working on it.

we are just having so much fun together and its even better when josh can be there to spend it with us.
i'm so blessed.

the two comedians.

two funny things that have happened in the last day with my kiddos.
as we were driving home last night, this was the conversation sadie and i had
sadie: mommy?
me: yes sadie
sadie: can we put on squirrel costumes and climb stuff
me: (stunned) umm sure?

reid and i were sitting on the couch
me: reid let's get ready for bed
reid: no
me: yes reider we need to go upstairs
reid: whaat? (like he was surprised)
me: okay punkin head
reider (as he is running away): KATIE!

my two kids are so funny and sure to keep me on my toes :)

in a matter of minutes..

as i was ready to take a shower i brought reid into the bathroom with me because he can cause lots of trouble when he is not being supervised. what trouble could reid possibly get into while i'm taking a shower? after an approximate six minute shower i pull back the curtain and find reid has unrolled the fresh roll of toilet paper almost to the end spreading it across the entire length of the bathroom (which in his defense is n't that long) he was up on the toilet with the tube of toothpaste in his mouth sucking on it, the sink water was turned on and water almost filled to the top of the sink.
he keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.
reiders vocabulary has improved instrumentally in the last few weeks. he is saying short sentences. the best part is since i am home with him more now we are able to work on his vocabulary and do more "school" type activities, reading, letters, numbers, songs, etc. unfortunately the influences around him also are seeping in with words like "spongebob" "pop" "remote" "poop" hmm.. i wonder who he spends time with.. :)
sade continues to grow and change and learn. her sassiness is coming out more, the head roll when she says "i know" or "whaat?" when i tell her she needs to make her bed. we recently discovered that when sadie wakes up in the morning she sometimes will stay in her bed and look at books until reid wakes up. (they are sleeping right next to each other now that reid can climb out of his crib. reid was climbing out and getting into bed with sadie and waking her up in the middle of the night so we put their mattresses on the floor for the meantime)
a few weeks ago we were walking into her class at daycare and we walked by a bulletin board of the things that make her class happy, mad and sad. sadie's answers were" I feel happy "when I give mommy dandelions" I feel mad "when mom pours water on my head when I take a bath" and I feel sad "when mommy goes to work" (which isn't true anymore since i'm not working :) it was so cute anyways. sadie is still in her twirling dress and skirt phase but we have been able to convince her to wear pants in the last few days.
we are so grateful for the opportunities to be able to spend more time together as a family now. it's been such a blessing.

as much as it pains me to say it my reider is growing up.
thinking about where i was a year ago, it makes me rejoice thinking this is our reality. but he's EVERYWHERE. climbing on the counters, climbing on the toilet. climbing on our bed. climbing out of his crib. it seems likle in the last week we noticed more and more words and mannerisms coming through. yeling "surprise" "peek a boo" sitting at the counter for meals now instead of his high chair. he even started calling grandma by grandma. i'm always reminded of how quickly life changes, how each day is a very special gift. i have the joy to be home with my kids during the day. work for josh has dramatically increased. i never quite feel like i am doing the best job i can be as a mother and it's not an easy job.
thank you jesus for the time we all get to spend together. :)

it seems almost overnight reider is using more and more words. perhaps it's the fact that we are spending lots of time together right now or that he really is breaking through but it's been so cool to listen and see him change even over the last few months. in the morning when i get him from the crib he demands two things, waffles which sounds like "wah-wah" and a diego which i really can't even try to pronounce because it sounds nothing like diego other than the d sound at the beginning. sometimes he will ask for something, we won't know what it is, i will say a word i think it might be and he will say no. mind you, he says no for everything even if it's right. you can see how this can be confusing. he's begun shaking his head.
he's such a stink but so cuddly and silly. at any time he could be seen walking with up to two blankets at the same time.
i am finding out just how adventerous our reider is. today he was standing on the coffee table and he looked at me, shuffled his feet and fell straight forward assuming that i would catch him, which i did but holy crap it scared me. he has no fear. he also tried to climb down the 8 ft climbing wall. what a stinker.
did i mention that as we were outside on monday afternoon reid took my phone off a ledge and ran straight for the pool, jumped in waterlogging my phone.

sadie is making her television debut on sunday evening. both sadie and reider had swimming lessons this summer and sadie's teacher was hard core. i wasn't sure what to expect when we signed up but she's been so great, she's totally upfront and strict. we love her. the rules for class are: 1. no running 2. nothing in your mouth 3. no crying 4. no saying no.
everynight lately we've been saying the hail mary. the other night as we were over at my parents house i said sadie what do we say "holy (and the next word is supposed to be mary) and sadie said "buckets!!" ha ha ha it was so funny. our sweet girl has so much personality. it's all about skirts, diego, and has started really liking and carrying around a baby. the baby's name varies from bridget or stella to others.
we've been baking a lot, sadie's really been helping. more pics to come!

wow, two posts in a week. we are going for some sort of record here i think! josh's brother got married this last weekend and the kids had a blast. sadie loves swimming so much and she is constantly asking when we can put the pool up in our backyard. her cousin sammy and her went swimming for about three hours on saturday with no nap and stayed up way too late the night before. we have a tuckered out girl on our hands. here are some pics from the wedding.

peanut butter sandwiches and throw up buckets

sadie and her dad went to sadie's first movie theater movie yesterday. gulp. is she really that old already?!? it was just a few months ago we were fretting about whether or not to let sadie watch a cartoon in the morning before we all left for the day.
life at the wilson's house is so good right now. i'm loving the kids at their ages. i remember those days about a year ago when it was so hard to keep an eye on sadie before reider was laying on the floor in the living room. now both kids are active, cllimbers, and best friends. those three traits can be quite the combo. it's not uncommon for me to be cleaning downstairs, hear a thud only to discover sadie has removed the mattress from her bed and reid is stuck in between the rungs. or reid on top of the toilet tank trying to reach his tooth brush. or reid in the changing table cabinet and the door shut. usually i just hear screeching and laughing followed by loud running upstairs.
we are so blessed. our kids are healthy, happy and active. last year at this time we were getting worried that reider wasn't sitting up. praise god, he's certainly surpassed that. he's a stinker alright. he grunts and screams when he doesn't go his way. i had a muffin yesterday when reid came into the kitchen and reached his hand up so i broke off some. he started screaming and backing away because he wanted the entire thing not just a piece of it. what a stinker!!! i keep reminding him that this isn't burger king and he can't have it his way! we already have to choose our battles with him. those blue eyes get me every time. he's such a snuggle bug, he knows my weaknesses that's for sure. the kid is smart and is very head strong. we are trying not to compare him to sade at this age but she would come right away when we called her, she would lay down when her diaper was dirty, she would start to head upstairs when she was tired. reid ignores us, he runs the other way, turns around and laughs. i was calling him to come over to change his diaper and started counting only to hear "two, three, four, five, six, seven" what?!?!?! of course he refuses to do it again.
sadie is as smart as a whip. she loves her brother so much. they wrestle and giggle and laugh. sometimes she has a hard time having the spotlight off her. she often takes toys away from reid or wiggles her way on our laps if reid is getting any sort of attention. and vice versa. i can't imagine how parents with more than two children are able to give intentional attention to their children. what a job!
pictures will come soon. but here's a small antidote that explains my children a little more
yesterday as josh and sadie left for the movie josh put reid in his chair and give him a peanut butter sandwich and a banana. i came downstairs about two minutes later. after 40 minutes of reid sucking on his sandwich and not touching his banana i took him out of the chair (he is still holding onto part of his sandwich despite my attempts to remove it from his hand. he tighens his grip and the sandwich will be come mush). we go into the living, sit on the couch. about 10 minutes later i see that he's got dog food in his other hand. "oh reid," i say, "get that out of your.." i don't even finish my words when the sandwich blob from his mouth is released from his mouth and lands on the floor. in the same second before i can even say "NOOO" the dog food goes in his mouth and he runs into the kitchen. STINKER!!!
i was awoken by our dog about an hour ago (it's close to 4am now) so i decided to write on the blog when i hear little feet come downnstairs. it's sadie "mommy i need to throw up." i scramble to get up and grab a plastic bag. "No mommy, i need to throwed up in a bucket" the child came all the way down the stairs, held her throw up until i got a bucket. after she was done "can i watch a show?" i think maybe the movie theater popcorn was a litlte rich for her small tummy.
life is good. we are so blessed.

punkin head

praise the lord! so much has happened since the last time i wrote. i can imagine the frame of mind i was writing from seemed a little tense. reider wasn't sitting up at the time. as a mom it freaks me out to think anything is wrong with my baby and there's nothing i can do to help him.
since august reider goes to therapy every 3-5 weeks. in the last week or so he's made some huge progress and now is almost completely walking by himself.
we are starting to really see his personality come out, something we really hadn't seen yet. reid's the type of kid that takes everything in and rarely has a reaction, much less a word in response. when he was a "baby" baby it took me practically standing on my head to get him to smile, laugh, or even look at me. we are finding that in fact he's really pretty silly. he's LOVES being tickled, zurberted, being held and he LOVES LOVES LOVES dance parties. when daddy's not home we turn on the glee cast pandora station and rock out. sadie will throw the cushions off the couch and jump and reider comes over to me and wants up to dance. when i stop moving he starts bucking and whining for me to get moving again.
today reider actually brought josh a book for him to read. that's pretty uncharacteristic of him to do. we think he's probably a lot like my brother kevin in the sense that he takes in EVERYTHING. we just aren't sure what he knows or doesn't know. what a stinker! as of now he knows: Hi, Willie, cracker, baby, icky (usually it's him that smells icky) mommy, and daddy. he points to josh in pictures and we THINK he might be saying sadie but it's hard to tell. he also loves to drink out of my nalgene waterbottle.
tonight was kind of funny. reider, sade and i were on the couch. i said "okay let's go brush our teeth" reider turned himself around, practically lept off the couch and was up the stairs before sadie and i's feet even hit the floor. he LOVES brushing his teeth. <3
i know i need to post about sadie, more on that this week. :) i'm hoping to be blogging more.