So Far, So Good

It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the weather, the decorations, the music, the goodies and the anticipation! My co-workers all kept telling me that working retail during the holidays would cure me of my love for Christmas - I set out to prove them wrong. There is no way I'm letting the fact that we need a little extra income steal my love for the Christmas season. So far, so good. I'm not tired of the Christmas music, I'm not tired of seeing all of the Christmas decorations and toys come through my checkout lane, I'm not tired of how busy it can get (it makes the time go faster), and, quite frankly, I haven't even had that many mean customers (I think all the mean ones go up to the customer service desk). I'm still in love with the Christmas season.

We've been busy around here since the last post. I'll give some highlights of the last 4 weeks:

Kalin's First Dentist Appointment! It went about as well as I had expected - he screamed the whole time the dentist had her fingers in his mouth. Thankfully, the dentist didn't have high expectations for this first visit either. It was mainly a "Hi! Let's get to know you and if your child will cooperate we'll have a look inside his mouth and maybe do some x-rays and cleaning." Our child didn't cooperate so all we got done was the "looking inside his mouth" part. My main reason for taking him in was because he has an extra tooth that I was worried about. We at least got reassurance that it's nothing to worry about for now. It did puzzle the dentist a bit while she was trying to figure out what kind of a tooth it was (I'm sure Kalin screaming and moving around didn't help either). She said his teeth look healthy and fine and then tried to convince us that we need to floss his teeth for him. Really?!?! Are you kidding me? Some days we can barely get the toothbrush in his mouth. Kalin's favorite part of the visit was the train set in the waiting room (which he got upset about leaving when our name was called, to which the receptionist and dentist both said, "He can bring a car with him!!". They must encounter that problem alot.) and the orange balloon they gave him after his visit.

Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time at my parent's house this year with my dad's side of the family joining us for a wonderful turkey lunch! Unfortunately I had to work in the evening but we still had plenty of time to eat and visit.

Butterflies! My dad came up on one of his days off (while my mom was out of town) and we headed out to Natural Bridges to see the Monarch butterflies. It was a beautiful day to head down to Santa Cruz and Kalin had a blast walking around in the butterfly habitat.


Christmas Tree! We got our Christmas tree the first weekend of December. We went to the same farm as last year and Kalin had so much fun running around. He had a lot of fun last year too but since he had only been walking for just a little over a month he was still kind of wobbly and we had to watch him closely. This year we pretty much just let him run. It was soooo cold so we found our tree kind of fast and Kalin "helped" Kasey cut it down. On the ride home Kalin kept saying "tree? tree?" trying to figure out where we had put it. I kept reassuring him that it was just in the trunk and he would get to see it again when we got home. Once we put the lights on the tree it became the "happy tree". Whenever Kalin sees pretty lights or candles (or eats some of Sarah's pumpkin bread) he deems the item "happy". We hung some garland and lights around the door frames in our house and the first thing we have to do when Kalin wakes up is turn on the "happy lights" - and then we have to check the tree's water. This tree is lucky that Kalin is around - it certainly will not be going thirsty with Kalin reminding us to check the water level! He lays down flat on the ground and sticks his finger into the tree stand like he's seen us do then says "Wa-Wa". Christmas has always been a special and fun time for me but having Kalin around makes it even more special. I get to experience it all through his eyes and joy and enthusiasm.

Cookies! I decided that it would be fun to make Christmas cookies with Kalin. We decided to keep it simple and just make some sugar cookies that we would roll out and cut into Christmas cookie shapes. It became very clear at the beginning of this project that these cookies would be meant for only our family - you don't want to know how many times Kalin licked his fingers then stuck them in the dough. But we had so much fun. And, it only took two days, but we finally got around to decorating the cookies! There's nothing quite like trying to get an almost two-year old to help put frosting on cookies! We had fun, made a mess, and enjoyed spending time together.

And in between all of this fun stuff Kasey has still been going to work, I've been going to work, I've been doing the Christmas shopping after work (10 o'clock at night really is the best time to go shopping. I might have to do that every year.), I've been trying to stay on top of dinner plans for my boys (some days I just look at Kasey and say, "I don't know, just have cereal and eggs."), I've still been going to my Tuesday night Bible study (it's so tempting to skip and stay home with my boys), and I've been trying my best to keep up with the regular housework. Quite frankly, it's busier than I would like to be. I've never been one to make myself so busy that I'm constantly on the move so this has been a challenge. Anybody who is acquainted with my sisters know how much they're involved in and I used to say that I was the lazy one in the family - then one of them told me that I was probably the smart one! I resolved at the beginning of this new adventure that I wasn't going to sacrifice the seasonal things that we love and want to do - even if it meant leaving the house more often than usual :-) So far, so good.

Play Day!!

Kasey had Wednesday off for Veteran's Day and we were really looking forward to a day together as a family. It started out sleeping in until almost 9. We've actually come to realize that Kalin wakes up several times in the early morning hours (and by early I mean 6). If we get up to use the restroom we'll hear him talking to himself and making noise but he ends up putting himself back to sleep. So on these rare occasions that he sleeps in this late it always gets us wondering how many times he's woken up and made some noise but since we didn't come get him, he just went back to sleep. Of course, we're always a little bit concerned that he's cried and screamed for us but we've slept through it - that hasn't happened in many, many months though. The one time we know that happened was probably 8 months ago and he woke up with some throw-up in his bed and his nose was all stuffy from crying. We felt sooo bad and spent the next couple of weeks paranoid that it was going to happen again. But it appears that he is just so happy and comfortable in his crib these days that if we don't come get him while he's talking - he'll just go back to sleep. It does make me wonder what will happen when we put him in a toddler bed where he'll be able to get out by himself. I'm sure I'll have to get used to early mornings again.

So, our morning started off leisurely. Kasey had wanted to spend some time in a coffee shop reading so he did that for a couple of hours. We then took a marvelous family walk and played in the park on the way home. While Kalin took a nap, I caught up on my NCIS and Kasey read some more. Before I knew it, it was time for me to get ready for work. It had felt so much like a Saturday that I kept forgetting I had to go to work. It was lovely having Kasey home for an extra day and spending this time together. I'm so looking forward to Thanksgiving week when Kasey will be home for most of the week! I, of course, will still have to work in the evenings (hooray for retail).

Check out Kalin's sweet new ride - given to us by the Prior's.

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So Kalin has been learning new words everyday. He has even started combining words into two word phrases. Examples are: buh-bye Dada, Mama come, buh-bye car, blue ball. Sometimes when we walk Kasey outside as he is on his way to work Kalin will say "Buh-bye Dada. Work-y". I don't know why he says "work-y" and not just "work" but it's cute. He loves blowing kisses now and will blow them to both Kasey and I as we leave for work.

He's becoming more of a dare-devil as well - which has resulted in more tumbles off the stool.

He has definitely entered the stage of "I want to do it on my own". So we're learning to release just a little more control as we help and teach Kalin to do things on his own.

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Now for some thoughts of my own. I'm trying to think through some issues regarding parenting and Kasey and I had a good discussion yesterday but I'm still in the process of formulating my position and thoughts on the matter. Here's my dilemma: Hearing what the professionals have to say about child development (emotional, behavioral, psychological) and making sure that I don't use their findings or opinions to influence me into raising children through methods that would go against God's Word. I've read many things from professionals regarding what "healthy" development looks like and many times it seems as though they want us to use that as an excuse to allow our kids to act certain ways. I sometimes get the impression that certain behaviors should be allowed because it's just our kids showing their individuality or developing their personality. Could those behaviors not also be looked at as that sin nature that's in all of us that rears it's ugly head when we don't get our own way or think we know what's best? I want to make sure that I'm not making excuses for Kalin but that I am teaching and disciplining in a Godly manner while still having the patience and grace necessary for where Kalin is developmentally and spiritually. I would enjoy hearing other people's thoughts/advice.

New Schedule

We've come to find some sort of routine for our family this past month. This change in our schedule and decrease in "family time" has been exhausting. This is what a typical week looks like: Sunday - church, Kalin naps, early dinner, Kasey heads to youth group making it home just in time to say goodnight to Kalin; Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - typical day schedule for Kalin and I while I attempt to clean house, do dishes, do laundry, make sure there's a dinner plan for my boys, run any errands that need running, take a daily walk and make sure Kalin and I have ample playtime together, I head out to work shortly after Kasey gets home; Tuesday - typical daytime schedule plus babysitting Luke Meyer for a couple hours in the afternoon, a rushed family dinner, then I'm off to Bible Study; Saturday - every once in awhile I work in the morning then the rest of the day is spent relaxing with family. Because I don't have evenings anymore to accomplish anything inside or outside the house I've had to start doing more during the day. Thankfully, Kalin has become really good at playing by himself which allows me this time to accomplish things. However, I've noticed that there are some days when I feel like I never actually spent time with Kalin - I fed him, changed him, got him down for naps, took him for a walk and read him a story before nap time - but the rest of the time he was playing by himself while I tried to keep things clean and running smoothly for the household. Those are the days that I have a really hard time leaving the house for work because I feel like I didn't actually have time for my kid.

Kasey and I have realized how good this time has been for Kalin and Kasey's relationship. They've grown closer together with me out of the picture for a few hours every night. Ideally we shouldn't have had to figure this out through such drastic measures - 5 nights a week is a little much in my opinion, I think maybe 1 or 2 would have been better, but it has helped us see that I can indeed have a life outside of the house. What a concept, huh? I still don't want to be working and I definitely don't want to be spending this much time away from my family but if I just need to get out of the house a couple evenings a week - whether it be for bible study, meeting with a friend, or just going out on my own - we now know that it is doable and beneficial. So after we feel comfortable enough in our financial situation where I can quit working, we will be taking steps towards me having an outside life.

Something else we've learned through this experience - Kasey and I need to communicate more regarding house rules and do's and don'ts. We've found ourselves in several situations where one parent is telling Kalin he can do something and the other one pipes in with "Oh, I don't let him do that" and vice-versa. In the past, I've pretty much been the one to make the rules and since I was always around to enforce them, Kasey learned what I normally allowed and didn't allow. Now rules and games are being made and played while I'm gone so I'm having to play catch-up the next day. For the most part it's small issues that we have to deal with - we're on the same page when it comes to major, common sense, safety rules.

So this whole new experience has been exhausting, educational, and yes even a little bit beneficial - but I can't wait for it to be over.

Precious Times

My time with Kalin has become more precious. A couple weeks ago Kasey and I decided that it would be wise for me to look into getting an evening job. We have, quite honestly, been blessed that it has taken this long for us to feel that a part-time job is necessary. I knew that whatever work I would find would probably be a retail position. All the jobs that would fall under my qualifications and college degree are day jobs and we are not willing to put Kalin in daycare for the sake of money (not to mention daycare would probably eat up most of the money I would make anyway). At this point in our lives, I have absolutely no desire to have a career that takes me away from my kid. I've always felt that my place is at home with our children. So with that in mind I applied at our local K-Mart, stating that my available hours are in the evenings and Saturday mornings. I figured I could handle 3 or 4 hours at night - I mean Kalin would be going to bed a couple hours after I left anyway so really I'd only be missing the last 2 hours of his day. In theory, it sounded like it wouldn't be that much of a sacrifice. However, I have found that in practice, it is very difficult. There is now the potential of missing out on family dinners, bath times, family story times, family play-time, and Kalin's bedtime for five nights every week. It's hard. It's hard walking out of the house just a few minutes after Kasey has walked in from work and tell them goodbye knowing how much I'm going to miss. It takes a lot of effort at work not to keep looking at the clock, wondering what my boys are up to at home. I keep asking myself, is this extra money worth the time away from home? No, it's not worth it - but for now, it's necessary. And it is definitely just a "for now" thing. We're hoping it won't have to go much past the holidays. So I have found that my days with Kalin hold a lot more meaning and our play time and story time are much more precious. I might even force him into a one-nap-a-day schedule just for the sake of spending more time with him. I know that there are many mothers who genuinely want to work and while it may be a little difficult to be away from their children for the day, they really love the work that they are doing. Then there are the mothers who have to work a full-time day job to make ends meet and to those mothers my heart goes out to. I don't know how you do it. Maybe it gets a little easier over time. Maybe I'm just having such a hard time with this because I've spent almost every single hour of every single day of this child's life with him (exceptions being: some date nights, grocery store trips, a few hours to myself, an anniversary trip and, most recently, our trip to Disneyland). There is no regularly scheduled time apart from him (well, maybe nap times). Let's face it - I'm addicted to this little boy. So, we're in a transition phase right now (and I hate transitions).

Moving on.

I love the age Kalin is at right now. He is so much fun and his verbal skills are increasing daily. We have a lot of fun with him. He somehow learned to say "ahhh, beep beep" which I think is from a song from the early 90's or something. I'm not entirely sure where I picked it up (must have been on a commercial) but it would get stuck in my head and just recently Kalin started singing it too. He also says "Whaaa?" which is something that Jon Stewart (the comedian) says. Don't worry, Kalin has never watched Jon Stewart. Kasey taught it to him. It's very cute and very funny to hear though.

Kalin loves the movie Cars. He would watch it 5 times a day if I would allow it. He also enjoys watching Winnie the Pooh. His new favorite thing is to sit, covered with a blanket, in the bean bag chair to watch his favorite shows. He lasts a good 30 minutes doing that. Cars was a huge help on our roadtrip to Hemet.

Kasey took some time off work this past week so we could spend some time visiting friends and family down south. Of course, the main reason we went down there was for my birthday!!! I've never celebrated my birthday with his family so we thought that it would be ideal to do that this year and take advantage of Disneyland's offer of free admission on your birthday! We had alot of fun.

I also saw my new niece, Hannah! She's a sweetheart and I had a great time holding a little tiny newborn again. I don't remember Kalin ever being that small.

I will now leave you with a humorous list of Toddler Property Laws (I'm sure some of you have seen these before). The truth of these statements become even more evident when you get a couple of toddlers together to play. Enjoy!

Property Law As Viewed By A Toddler

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like it's mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If I can see it, it's mine.
10. If I think it's mine, it's mine.
11. If I want it, it's mine.
12. If I "need" it, it's mine (yes, I know the difference between "want" and "need"!).
13. If I say it's mine, it's mine.
14. If you don't stop me from playing with it, it's mine.
15. If you tell me I can play with it, it's mine.
16. If it will upset me too much when you take it away from me, it's mine.
17. If I (think I) can play with it better than you can, it's mine.
18. If I play with it long enough, it's mine.
19. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it's mine.
20. If it's broken, it's yours (no wait, all the pieces are mine).

Grand Slam!

We took Kalin to his first baseball game this past Wednesday. It was a $2 ticket day for the Oakland A's and Kasey is allowed a day off for his birthday AND he had just finished his last Master's class so we decided that this would be the perfect way to celebrate!! I had kept my expectations kind of low because I knew that the only hope for a nap for Kalin would be in the car on the way to the game - and those don't always work out the way I need them to. Plus, I knew that he would have to sit some at the game and I didn't know how crowded it would be and how much room we would have to run around in. The day went far better than I could have imagined. He took a 30-40 minute nap in the car, ate some lunch in the parking lot, and after a screaming match over wanting to walk through the parking lot instead of ride in the stroller or be carried, we made it to the stadium and to our seats - which were in the hot, hot sun. Kalin spent the first inning or two sitting on my lap just looking around, saying "ba-ball", and clapping when others clapped. We finally decided that we weren't going to make it the whole game sitting in the sun so we found some empty seats up in the shade. Most people were doing the same thing. Kalin had a blast sitting in the empty seat next to me, walking around a little, playing with the spring-loaded seats, and taking a 20 minute break with me to go run around in the concession area. He was a wonderful boy and had a really good time!! We all had a really good time!! We even got to see a grand slam!! Our first baseball game outing was a huge success!

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Kalin's verbal skills have really taken off this past month. I'm so proud of him and it is so much fun to hear all the new words he's learned and to have him mimicking and copying our speech. I have a bunch of video of him saying different words but it's going to take some editing to make it watchable and interesting so I'll be posting that sometime later. But for now I'll just leave you with fun things he's been doing and saying recently:

- About 2 1/2 weeks ago we passed by a house that had a cat sitting in it's front yard. Kalin saw it and started saying "Meow" over and over. Now, every time we pass that house he point and says "meow". We have yet to actually see that cat there again but he still remembers seeing it that one time and remembers which house it was at.

- He loves pointing out mailboxes and saying "ma-ma" (long a sound) and also garbage cans "ga-ga". So you can imagine how much fun it is for me walking through residential areas. It's a constant chorus of "ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma" with the occasional "ga-ga" thrown in on trash pick-up days. He also loves to point out the airplanes and birds that fly over us.

- He loves tractors (thanks to a book he got from his Aunt Bekah) and loves pointing those out as well. He has a word for them but I'm not real sure how to describe it.

- He has a thing for ice (sounds like "eye") right now and asks for it in every beverage.

- He likes to say "wow" after I've said it.

- He calls his Grampie "bee-bee" (which sometimes ends up sounding like either "baby" or "pee-pee") and calls his Grammie "mammie" (which is also what he calls his Aunt Kami). Just today as he was looking through one of his photo albums he came across a picture of his Grampie and pointed and said "bee-bee". Then the next picture was of his Grammie and he pointed and said "mammie!" I was so proud of him for recognizing them and remembering their names. Kalin has a special love for his Grampie (my dad). He gets very attached to him and sometimes prefers him even to me! Last time my parents were visiting our house we noticed that every time my dad left the room he would start saying "bee-bee". That's how we figured out that this was Kalin's name for Grampie.

- When I talk about Grandma Jody and Grandpa Ken he looks up at their picture that is hanging on our wall. So he recognizes that the names belong to the faces and people. We're working on other family member's names. He says "my" for Uncle Mike and "knee" for Aunt Nise, "ko-ko" for Aunt Koni and "lee" for Analiese. Most of the others are just garbled. Trying to get him to say Evangeline cracks me up because he spits out some garbled word that sounds nothing like it should but he says it with such conviction and confidence that I'm sure he thinks he's saying it correctly - or he just wants to make me stop asking him to say it - "Maybe if I pretend like I know what I'm saying she'll stop". It makes me laugh.

- A little boy ran by us while we were on our walk tonight and Kalin yelled after him, "Go, go go!!"

- Kalin loves using napkins which I just think is fabulous. He wipes his hands, his mouth, his belly and sometimes his tray.

- He loves to take things out to the recycle bin so if we clean out a container or have an empty cardboard box sitting around he'll grab it and head for the front door.

- Kasey and Kalin get up around the same time during the week so they hang out and eat some breakfast while I get to snooze a little longer. Around 7:30 I need to get up so Kasey can get in the shower so he'll send Kalin to the door and tell him to knock. Some mornings it's a gentle little knock, some mornings it's a pounding, and on Friday he attacked the door full force. One day he knocked then stood outside the door saying "Mama" over and over until I opened the door. If that's not just the best way start a day then I don't know what is.

Alright, I think I've exhausted my list of interesting facts about Kalin - or these are just the ones I can remember right now. I'll post some video of Kalin talking and also some from the baseball game soon.

Some New Words

Wuss

Tonight I found out that my son is a little bit of a wuss. This child, who takes balls to the face and runs into walls and then laughs about it or purposely falls backward hitting his head on the ground and then gets up to do it again thinking it's a great game, hates, absolutely HATES, having wet sand on his feet and in between his toes. We went to Phil's Fish Market tonight with my parents for Kasey's birthday and found a little trail next to the restaurant that lead to the ocean. I was excited because we haven't gotten Kalin down to sea level since last summer - which is really sad considering how close we live to the beach. He was about 7 months old when he last had some contact with the beach and ocean and the waves terrified him! But I could easily understand how those big, scary, loud waves could be frightening to a baby. So here I was, fully expecting my active, adventurous, and dare-devil toddler to be thrilled and excited about feeling the sand between his toes and experiencing the waves and water as they came up to wet his feet. He was ok while walking, in his shoes, across the sand. Once those shoes came off though it was a completely different story. He started getting upset the second his bare feet hit that wet, cold sand. Then Kasey gently dipped his feet into the water as a wave came up to meet us and that was Kalin's undoing. He would have none of it from that point on. Like grandmother, like grandson. I told him his Grammie Lyn would be very pleased to know how much he hated having sand between his toes. Oh well. Maybe next summer.

We've been experiencing some separation anxiety during nursery drop-offs on Sunday mornings. It seemed to correlate with a change in the drop-off procedure. Our church is doing some renovations so we have to enter the nursery through a different door. The first Sunday we had to do this was the first Sunday that we had a truly horrible time getting out of there. So last Sunday I had Kasey take Kalin to the nursery alone hoping that it would be easier with only one of us having to leave. But Kalin still wrapped his legs and arms around Kasey and started crying as soon as they stepped into the room. He knew what was coming and didn't seem too happy about that. The nursery workers are a little bit shocked seeing this behavior from Kalin because he's always the one that they can count on to be just the happiest, smiliest kid in there. They tell us that he always calms down after a couple minutes and then has a fabulous time.

New Words: The Baby Einstein dvd "Baby MacDonald" has really helped Kalin these last couple weeks to learn new words. The ones that he has picked up from there are: corn, hay, and wheat. He also tries to imitate: windmill, tractor, and barn. And it has helped him with his animal sounds. Some other words I hear frequently are: pool, more, and please. He was also trying to say peach today while I was feeding him a peach. Of course, most of these words may not sound quite right to most people but if you spend some time with him (or happen to know that he's repeating a word that was just said) then you can easily tell what he's saying. He still tends to say either the first part of the word or the last part. When he says open it's "pen", please is "plea", corn is "cor", wheat is "whea", etc. I got him to say his cousin's name, Hailee. Of course it was more like "Haiyee" but "L's" are very hard at this age. I couldn't say my name properly until I was, like, 3.

I love that he is starting to enjoy his different cars and trucks. He will actually grab a couple of them and start rolling them around making "vroom" sounds. One of his new games is to throw them all into his crib which of course means that I have to get them out and if I don't get them out then he tries to climb into his crib to get them. He's also been working on trying to climb out of his crib. I know that the day is coming when he will figure that one out but I'm hoping that it is still months away. I am so not ready for him to be in toddler bed where he can get in and out as he pleases.