School pictures

Tear. My baby girl is all grown up. We got her first school pictures back last week. Naturally she wanted to wear Rapunzel dress on picture day.  Luckily I managed to get her out the door in "fancy" polka dot dress instead with few tears.

So cute!  Right?! Although I don't think I've ever seen that smile on her before. We have probably over a thousand pictures of her but for some reason I just can't stop looking at this one and thinking about how adorable and grown up she looks.  Her first ever school picture.  Bittersweet.

Kaelynisms

sweet girl

Sometimes this girl can drive me crazy, but she also makes me laugh out loud. Every day.  She can say, and do, the craziest things.  And sometimes it's just the way she says it.  And sometimes I really shouldn't laugh.  I bite my tongue and look away, but the laughter just comes anyway.  And hey, laughter's good for you, even it's laughing at something inappropriate my 3-year-old says.  Because I know I've already forgotten some of the hilarious things she used to say, I really want to record as many "Kaelynisms" as I can.

An oldie but a goodie: "oh dis KK why-go baba" which, when she was about 18 months to 2 years (I think, I really have no idea because my preception of time is totally out of whack) , meant "oh this Kaelyn's water bottle."

My current fave: "last day," which refers to anything that happened in the past.  Also, sometimes, but less frequently (and also less funny), "last year" or "last night" which also refers to any time in the past, not necessarily last year or last night.  She has a pretty good memory, so we hear about "last day" a lot.

"Mama, I like your necklace/juice/movies/whatever she wants to have or do at the time."  This is always said in a very sweet, honey-coated voice and intonation.  In Kaelyn speak "like" = want = you better give it to me right now or I'll stop sounding sweet and throw a tantrum.

"I don't think we've had/done X in a while."  Meaning it's about time we do/have this thing that I really want or, like above, I might throw a tantrum any minute.

Every night when Matt comes home she greets him by saying, "Dada, you still got your work clothes on."  I promise, it's funnier when you hear her say it.

"Dada has to go back to his medium."  Medium = meeting

"Oh, little, tiny, little, little B."  Or some other variation of the baby talk she must have heard us saying to B at some point.  She really nails the overly dramatic baby voice.

"Here comes the B Train, he's coming in the spaceship!"  Spaceship = station

"Mostly."  She just throws that in with a lot of things.  For example, "Dada mostly just calls him B Train."

"Booped your nose!"  Come on.  Does this really need further explanation?

"Don't do drippies or pinchies."  It started out with just "drippies" because she doesn't like water dripped in her face at bath.  And then one day she got pinched by her pajama zipper (or maybe it started when she zipped up Matt's coat and pinched him).  And now she always says them both together because you know, she frequently gets dripped with water and pinched by a zipper at the same time.

silly girl

"Belle over Belle."  This means she's wearing her Belle underwear over a Pull-Up with Belle on it.  Sometimes, also, "Princesses over princess" in the same vain.

"Irish boys" and "First down!"  While watching, or referring to, Notre Dame football of course.

"Big guys or little guys."  To which the answer is, "Big guys cut up into little guys."

"I got my milkers!"

Another oldie but a goodie: "Outside, Backyard!" Refers to playing outside in the backyard, duh.  But she says it with such enthusiasm.

God, I love this girl!

I'm sure there's a bunch I'm not thinking of right now.  Maybe I'll start writing them down and do a sequel post.  What are some of your favorite "Kaelynisms"?


P.S. Do you like my new header?  Perfect Halloween costumes, right?  Still not totally on board with the long, tangly hair, but whatev.  Getting over it.  It's a little large right now, I may need to play with the size.  I totally wish I could take credit for it (well, I'll take credit for the cute kids at least) but I have to thank my good friend Heather for her photography skills and creativity. (Who is also probably pulling her hair out right now at my awful grammar and use of commas in this post.)

Halloween fun

In case you didn't know, Matt and I don't really get into Halloween that much.  But we know it's a fun holiday for kids and we made sure our kids had some Halloween treats this year.

We picked out pumpkins for each of the kids from the makeshift pumpkin patch at the Wishing Well Motel across the street.  Yes people, every year they bring in probably hundreds of pumpkins and mums to sell on the front lawn of the dilapidated motel outside our subdivision.  I don't understand it, but every year we've lived here that is where we've bought our pumpkins.  I guess you could say we like to support our local businesses.

Naturally, Kaelyn had to wear her Rapunzel costume to pick out pumpkins.  I mean, why wouldn't she?

This is the closest I could get to them both looking and smiling at the camera at the same time.

We brought them home and helped Kaelyn carve hers into a jack-o-lantern.  She was very excited about the whole process and loved touching the slimy yucky insides and seeds.

The girl has an amazing memory.  She remembered kissing the pumpkin when we carved them last year.  So of course she had to kiss the jack-o-lantern again this year.  I think it's become her Halloween tradition.

Pretty sure it was the only night we ever actually lit our jack-o-lantern but I had to get the obligatory picture of them with it all lit up on the front step (even though it was still light out and you can't actually tell there's a candle inside).

Kaelyn and I also had a blast at her classroom Halloween party.  I was a little reluctant volunteering to help but was very excited to see her and her new school friends in action.

I tried to get my creativity on, but in reality I ended up stealing this cute idea for a snack from another blog.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Kaelyn was Rapunzel for Halloween, oh wait, I mean she was Rapunzel like every day in October?  Oh yeah, and they really nailed the name for that movie.  It would be a real shame if her "long hair" accidentally got left somewhere and was never ever to be seen again.

"The Princess and the B"

Kaelyn was a bit of a dawdler while trick-or-treating last night and had to constantly be reminded to keep up, but I think it was just because she was having so much fun looking at everything and stomping in the leaves. And to be fair, the long hair may have been weighing her down a little and possibly obstructing her vision.  Hey, when you're not used to having any hair, suddenly having three feet of it can cause a girl problems.  We went with her best bud Hudson, who happens to live in the same neighborhood as her favorite babysitter who gave her some extra special treats of course. 

She was a little shy when she went up to the doors, but luckily Hudson was there to take the lead.  Part of me is glad she's still a little wary of strangers, but part of me wishes she were more outgoing.  But she had such a great time and she's freaking adorable no matter what.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Go Irish Boys!

Last weekend Brennan made his first trip to Notre Dame to see the Irish take on Navy.  It was a little chilly but overall a gorgeous weekend in South Bend (minus the random thirty minute hail storm in the middle of tailgating).  We stayed in a house just a couple blocks from campus, which was so convenient since we could walk just about everywhere we needed to go.  Kaelyn was very excited to see the "Golden Done" so we took a stroll over to campus Friday after nap and she loved it.  I think she would have gone in and out all night, first looking at the Golden Dome outside and then inside to see the angels on the ceiling and the giant crown.  But alas, Nana had dinner waiting for us so we had to leave.

B's first tailgate experience was touch and go at first, but after a couple naps were had he was the life of the party.

Bantering with Dada and making everyone smile.

Kaelyn seemed to enjoy the tailgate too.  She had a lot of fun playing football with Dada, Pop and Uncle Jay.  Seeing her running around in her ensemble reminded me a of a scene with Jim Carey in Ace Ventura.  There were a few giggles and comments from strangers when they saw her but I think she looked great.  I only wish I could pull off an outfit like that.  Once she tired of football she got to watch a little bit of Jasmine and play games on Pop's "keekapooter" (computer).

Too bad she's missing her crown in this picture, it really completed the outfit

And I would vote to take her more often since she was so well behaved the whole weekend and so polite.  When we went out to breakfast Sunday morning she ordered her own drink food like a little lady - pleases and thank you's without even being reminded!  And of course what Notre Dame weekend would be complete without a second trip to the Bookstore and second and third trip to the "Golden Done."  We left South Bend on Sunday with an Irish win, a $16 bracelet for Kaelyn from the bookstore (Dada thought it would only be a couple dollars but he must have mistook the bookstore for Walmart) and some happy and tired kids (who thankfully slept most of the ride home).

Happy Birthday Dada!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and father of my beautiful children!  Cheesy as this may be, I'll say it anyway, they truly are lucky to have you as their dad.

Matt, dressed up all fancy for his birthday. (Actually, he had the big fall meeting for work.)

 The kids and I went birthday shopping over the weekend while Matt was out of town.  Before we left for the store I asked Kaelyn what she thought we should get Dada for his birthday.  She thought for a minute, "Hmmm... (finger tapping her lip) I think Dada would like a rabbit!"  I can only assume she came up with this because of her attachment to her Bun-bun and the recent favorite game of bun-bun hide-and-seek she's been playing with Dada.  Or, it came out of thin air.  Who knows how a three-year old's mind works.  Wherever she got the idea I wasn't going to argue.  I did, however, opt to assume she meant a stuffed rabbit and not a real one.  Unfortunately, after scouring the aisles of Target there were no stuffed rabbits to be found.  And I wasn't about to go traipsing to multiple stores with two kids to find a stuffed rabbit for a grown man.  So, Kaelyn very matter-of-factly said, "Maybe Dada would like something else."  She decided on clothes.  I could live with that.  He's always saying he wants more t-shirts anyway.  Unfortunately again, nothing really looked like something Matt would like.  And Kaelyn's focus was significantly diminished.  Instead of looking at the clothes with me she was repeating, "I want to go look at princess things, because I'm a princess."  (She had spotted the Disney princess aisle while looking for the rabbit.)  So, with a little guidance she finally settled on a small (wallet-size) picture frame.  She wasn't interested in any of the bigger frames, only the "tiny guys."  And we ended our trip with a fifteen minute visit to the princess aisle.

Birthday lunch at Red Robin.

The kids surprised Dada at his meeting with a special golf-themed cake.  I wish I could say I made it myself.

Clapping

B has a favorite new trick.  Clapping.  I guess it's not really that new.  He actually clapped for the first time about three weeks ago, very appropriately during the speeches at my cousin's wedding.  I attempted to capture some clapping action shots today.  Got a few cute and funny ones but not so much on the clapping.

I see you have the camera and I want to get it.

And here you can see how messy my high chair is.

Still trying to get the camera.

What's so funny?

Looking like he's about to sneeze.

Thinking very hard about clapping.

And now I'm distracted by something outside.

And now I'm going to look at Dada instead.

Yay Brennan!

Lovin' the outdoors

So I've been a little lazy the past week.  And a little busy trying to finish reading my book for book club last night, which I barely finished yesterday afternoon during nap (B was actually up and crying in his crib for 15 minutes while I finished the last few pages).  So here's my somewhat lazy effort to get an update on here.

We had some nice weather last week and Kaelyn asked to play outside almost every night.  Here's a beautiful sunset from one of those nights.  Much prettier in person.

On one very blustery day we took a nature walk at the park.  Thank goodness Kaelyn is over her fear of the wind.

We collected leaves and threw them in the river.  Kaelyn likes watching them come out the other side of the bridge.

Our walk was interrupted by three emergency trips to the bathroom (two false alarms).  Luckily this particular park has flushy toilets because Kaelyn refuses to use port-a-potties because she thinks they are all dirty.  Unluckily for me, those toilets are at the entrance to park which is quite a hike from our bridge destination.  This mama got a much needed workout that day.  I even broke into a "run" pushing the stroller at one point (I use that term loosely).  Fortunately there was no one else at the park at that time to witness this.  If there had been I'm sure you would have heard their laughter clear across town.  But it was such a beautiful day we didn't let the wind or bathroom runs ruin our fun.

Oh, did I mention Jake came with us?  Yeah, he and Rapunzel have been hanging out with us a lot lately.  In case you're not familiar Jake is from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," Kaelyn's current favorite show on Disney Junior.  We watch it every morning after we do "routine chart" and before we can leave the house.

The park day was made even better when I discovered a new trick at nap time.  Kaelyn's naps have been somewhat sporadic the last few months.  She often comes out several times and just can't seem to settle down enough to fall asleep.  So, when she was having trouble settling down once again (I was sure she was exhausted from our day at the park and having been up for several hours in the middle of the night) I tried out this tip I'd recently read somewhere.  After her third time out of the room I asked if she wanted me to tuck her in.  Then I asked if she wanted a "special" tuck.  You can tell Kaelyn taking out the trash is "special" and she'll get excited about it.  So, she laid down and I very dramatically straightened her covers and tucked her in tight and then I told her she had to stay very still so she wouldn't ruin the "special tuck."  Magic!  She didn't move!  And she slept for at least two hours!  And so did Brennan!  It's worked several times since.  One morning she even came into our room in and told me, "I was just crying because I didn't have my special tuck anymore."  She crawled into bed with me to snuggle and asked to have another special tuck.  We'll see how long this works but I'll take whatever I can get!