My Kids!

So, I am not sure who will be potty trained first between Madelyn and Caleb. Caleb will be 3 1/2 the end of November, and Maddie just turned 19 months old. Lately, Madelyn has been informing me of a bit of information. I am really liking that she is getting to know her body functions! She is even showing interest in potty adventures! She likes to go sit on the potty chair in the bathroom, she signs the sign for potty, and she does things like this:
On Thursday, Maddie was walking around and then she said, "I poo...I poo!" So, I asked her if she pooped. She said, "Yes!" I went to go change her...and sure enough~ she did what she said she did! What a smart little girl!
I really don't have a preference who will make the official leap into underwear, but it would be super if just ONE of them could make it to that amazing milestone before our little baby arrives!

Speaking of underwear...
We got a sitter for us on Friday night. Terry asked me to find a sitter so we could go sing karaoke. One of the guys from his work runs a karaoke show in town once a month, so he wanted to check it out. So I did the calling around and booked *S* for the night. We brought Nathaniel to meet his dad, and on our way back home, Caleb was asking about who we had coming to babysit him. He said, "Mom, I want...um...what is her name again?" I said, "Who are you thinking of, Caleb?" (knowing who he was implying) He said, "Mr.P****'s daughter, what's her name?" (Caleb calls my friend, Lisa, Mr. P****, and I think it is so cute) Anyway, I told him, "Kaytlin?" And he said, "Yes, I really like Kaytlin. She is my favorite babysitter." We asked him why she is his favorite, and he said that she just is! And she is nice.

So, anyway...getting back to the underwear...

The other sitter we had, was getting Caleb ready for bed (we were still home) and she was changing his diaper. This is the conversation:
Caleb: I wear diapers, *S*, do you wear underwear?
*S*: (chuckling) Yes, Caleb, I wear underwear.
Caleb: I am going to wear underwear someday, when I am potty trained, too. When I am a big boy.
*S*: That will be a good thing, Caleb, you should start going on the toilet.

Ha Ha Ha! I think that is so funny!!

We miss our friend!

Since my kid's have been so sick lately, we have missed a lot of work with babysitting. Claudia is such a little honey pie, and we miss playing with her. Caleb asks everyday if we are going to Claudia's house now. I will post some pictures of our day over at her house, so you can see what we do!
They usually always play so well together...really!
This is Miss Claudia...she is such a cutie pie!
This is Caleb's shop where I buy Ice Cream and cheeseburgers from him!
The girls are putting on (play) lipstick, combing their hair, and chatting on the phone.
We miss you Claudia, we hope to see you soon!

Happy to say

I am so thankful that my children are feeling better! Finally, after a few weeks, we are doing pretty good. Thank you for those prayers that were lifted up for Caleb and Maddie! We all appreciate it! I hope that they can make it until summer without anymore sicknesses, but that is wishful thinking I think. I started babysitting yesterday and it was fun. Their little girl is just precious. I think it will be a fun (and busy) time. Her little daughter was sick the same time as Caleb and Maddie were, and so we needed to wait to start the "nanny" position. I think it will be a good opportunity for Caleb and Madelyn to make a friend, and I hope to become friends with little girlie's mom. It is fun, because we found out that we are in MOPS together. I think all around this job will be rewarding.

A great day/night

We had a great day! We went to a train show this morning with the kids. It wasn't the best train show, but my husband loves the trains, and so it was fun to go. We got to venture through the snow. I love snow. I love lots of snow. I just don't like the cold and ice with it. I hope we get dumped on this year for snow. I wish we could get as much as we did when I was little. I remember making tunnels through the Pine trees in the front yard. We made 7 feet tall snowmen and still had tons of snow on the ground. My brothers used to make igloos...and I am talking BIG igloos! They even slept in them sometimes. My mom worried all night long for them, but they were really warm. I am not so sure that I would allow my kids to sleep outside in an igloo these days. Can I spider-web here? Well, I am a girl, so I guess that is what we do, right? Well, according to Love & Respect we do. I love that we can do that. Anyway, about what we did when we were little...I am sure we played with Lead paint toys....ate baby cereal before 4 months (in fact my mom gave it to me when I was just a few weeks old)...what else did we do, and it didn't kill us? Isn't it amazing at how many "rules" we have to do with raising our children these days? I love that song, "Back When". It is a Country song, and it is super! Here is the chorus: "Back when a hoe was a hoe Coke was a coke And crack's what you were doing When you were cracking jokes Back when a screw was a screw The wind was all that blew And when you said I'm down with that Well it meant you had the flu I miss back when I miss back when I miss back when" It just reminds me of life when it didn't seem so terrible and demented.

Ok, so are you wondering why I am all over the place? Well, I am tired, it is after midnight, and I just think I am being weird. I know my friend's are giggling and nodding their heads yeppers to this....

Anyway, this evening we had one of our favorite babysitters come watch the kids. She brought her little sister with. She is "training" her to be a babysitter, and basically showing her the ropes. Well, they brought over all the sugary candy supplies to make Gingerbread houses. The kids had so much fun! It was fun to see Nathaniel's creativity soar! He has such an imagination. He even put in a wreath holder. He had a candy cane holding the gummy wreath over the door, and the candy cane was a rafter on the top of the house. It was very cute. I will have to get some photos up to show you. When the kids were having fun, we had fun, too. Our church has a Christmas Dinner every December. We invite a performer to come with entertainment. People within the church pick tables and decorate them to their liking. Then, they can choose to invite people to come, and if you can afford it, pay for the tickets. It can be a bit pricey at $20 a plate, but it is so wonderful! We decided to do a table this year. We had a brick red table cloth, a train set (working), Village homes/people, candles, snow, square snowmen plates, and snowmen mugs. It was so much fun. There were so many fun and pretty decorative tables. My friends Lisa and Jody did 2 tables. Lisa and Jody went for the pretty/fancy/elegant, and their hubby's went for the manly and hunting theme. I really enjoyed their tables, too. It was a great night out with my husband, friends and family members. I wish our table would have been closer to Lisa and Jody's, though. I am just glad that my (fire fighter) husband didn't start anything on fire this year. Last year he set Lisa's cloth napkin on fire with the candles. It was sad that the napkin was a bit scorched, but kind of comical that he is a fire fighter...yet caught the napkin on fire. I guess a Pyromaniac at heart! :)

Well, time for this little lady to get to bed. It is way past my bedtime. So, goodnight...sleep tight!

Holiday Bustle....

It seems when this time of year comes, everyone is running here, running there... We have things to do, people to see, shopping to get done...baking, wrapping, cleaning...you get the idea. It can be a challenge finding someone to come watch the kids. Care.com is a great resource to use when you are looking for someone to entrust your children to when you need a sitter. Care.com does the work of background checks, and references. That is a huge help! I wish I would have had something like this available when I was finding childcare for Nathaniel when he was little. I had the worst experiences with childcare his first 4 daycare's...or maybe 5! I will save those stories for later posts. I like that Care.com can just give you a place to start with finding the person who will care for your children. There’s also so much anxiety built into finding a new sitter, especially if you happen to be in a new city and don’t have anyone to turn to for recommendations.