The kid's mom has been hard at work making new and exciting things. The latest is the I Spy blankets for the both of them. They can't get enough of them. They are covered in many different fabrics that they have helped pick out over the months. The idea is for the kids to find an object somewhere on the blanket that we ask for. They love them. We think their cousin Hayden will as well.
Wow what an exciting week. Mom really convinced me to give this potty training another try when she mentioned a big big big Play-Doh set. I started the week out great and then Wednesday hit and I was sick. Needless to say, I was back in diapers. Thursday I was better and felt like wearing underwear but I was having some other troubles and things didn't go as normal but I made it through the day without any accidents. We made a bit of change to the plans and now instead of a big big big Play-Doh set, I will be getting the new Wall-E DVD. I've already earned my iced coffee, which I replaced with a frosty instead, and my Coke too. It's been a big week.
Well this last craft show was another dud I'd say but Kaitlyn and I sold out of our Thanksgiving poop bags. Dad took us to listen a band playing at the show too and we were dancing around. Kaitlyn really really likes music. She is a natural dancer. We also had a chance to see some farm animals including 2 turkeys. I spent some of my money from the sales on another face painting. I was a pirate this time and everyone liked it a lot. We were all pooped out after that show so we crashed when we got home.
Well last week we took Kaitlyn to the chiropractor who has been working on her allergies. She tested her body's reaction to soy milk and then adjusted her. Her body went from weak to strong so with that in mind she had her first cup of soy milk and was able to handle it without breaking out in hives. She has had a few other soy based things as well and has had no reactions. Mom even made a mocha fudge tofu pie which she ate a bit of. This week we had her fixed up for her egg allergy and will be testing today. Let's hope we can knock that one out as well.
That's gonna wrap it up. Have a great weekend.
I was recently offered a few illustrated storybooks, each of which comes with a CD that matches the story perfectly. These are from the publishing group, The Secret Mountain, which many of their titles have won prestigious awards.
We sat down with the kids a few days ago and read each of the 3 books provided. They were great. Kaitlyn is a tough critic but Rylan was focused on the story and loved the music to go with it. Kaitlyn can't help it and she dances to just about any music so she had a blast with that part of it. I think Rylan liked the Down at the Sea Hotel the most. I like any book that is able to keep the kids attention. It is not uncommon to be given a book to read and once started, they just walk away. This didn't happen with the books we read so we were certainly pleased. The illustrations were very well drawn and Rylan liked pointing out random things on the pages.
If you are shopping for books this season I would certainly recommend taking a look at the Secret Mountain books. They have a large catalogue definitely worth checking out. I know my wife already has some additional books picked.
On Sunday evening we took the kids out and let them decide what they wanted to spend their money on. Rylan purchased a Play-Doh set and he immediately wanted to go home to play with it. His mom took advantage of his excitement and offered a big big big Play-Doh set if he was a big boy and used the potty in addition to wearing underwear. He got the biggest smile on his face and was super excited about this big big big Play-Doh set. It was late so we took them up to bed.
Yesterday morning he woke up and he immediately knew that it was his day to shine. He was super excited about using the potty and wearing underwear. He has never liked wearing underwear so this was a huge improvement. He picked out which underwear he wanted to wear and he never looked back. He used the potty the entire day. He did have an expected accident when we drove 30mins in the car. It was minor though and we were prepared with new clothing. He used the potty the rest of the evening all the way until he fell asleep and as we explained where his potty would be during the night he seemed to fully grasp the idea.
Fast forward to this morning and he did exactly as he was told. He didn't pee at all during the night and made his potty trip after he woke up. He did amazing.
I have to admit that while Rylan was 75% potty trained before, we slacked and fell back to diapers. Rylan though appears to ready to go now and we think this may be the time it will stick. Rylan does have a few additional demands however. He now is asking for a Play-Doh set, an iced coffee and a Coke. He drives a hard bargain but I think the trade off is worth it.
Here are the kids showing off their new See's Candy hats. They had to wake up early on Saturday to help us with the craft show and as the day went on, it became more and more difficult to keep the kids managed but we made it through it, despite there being many small cactus just feet from our seats. The show wasn't great but atleast the kids did well at selling their Thanksgiving Poops. In fact, they sold out of the 41 bags that we brought. The kids went shopping last night in which Kaitlyn picked up a musical book and Rylan picked out a neat looking Ice Cream Play-Doh set. Rylan had done a really great job helping sell his poops and said good morning and thank you to nearly all of his customers.
Kaitlyn and I have a big day of decorating ahead of us. We will be having a small Thanksgiving event this year at our house so we are helping by decorating the table. I am sure that our dad will take some pictures to show everyone.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, we made some more bags of poop for the craft show this weekend. This time around they are Thanksgiving themed and we kept it simple by only doing scarecrow and turkey poops. We are hoping that they sell really well because Kaitlyn and I like going to the store and deciding what the perfect toy to buy is. This craft show sounds like it's going to be pretty fun. They are having a firetruck and a whole bunch of other stuff. Kaitlyn and I have never seen a firetruck up close so it should be pretty fun. As my dad would say, it's a great photo op.
Well Kaitlyn has been surprising us with her new words she has been saying. Just today she said "butt" and a bit ago she was heard saying "I'm done". She does great at mimicking so she is learning a lot of things from me such as ways to dance and words to say. I like being a big brother. I really like it when Kaitlyn hugs me and I think she likes it when I hug her too. Oh man, as I am writing this, she just said "pretty". She really is a pretty girl.
To wrap things up, the big thing for me this week has been that I have been playing Mario Baseball on the Wii. I had a chance to try it when we went into GameStop the other day and now yesterday I played a bit more at home with mom. I am really good at pitching and I do pretty well at hitting as well. I am still working through it all and trying to learn. Mom and dad bought another game called My Aquarium. They bought it for me so I could have a virtual fish tank on the TV. I got to choose everything about it and now I get to watch the fish swim around. I even get to tap on the glass and make them dance. It's fun.
That's gonna finish it up for this week in review. Have a great weekend everyone, it should be a good one.
Rylan made this with the help of his mom. He drew a mouse in the bottom left corner. He kept telling her that it was a mouse as he was drawing it. When she mentioned adding a tail, he decided to add 2 of them.
The kid's mother has been sick for more than 3 weeks now. We have made a trip to the doctor and the next day to the emergency room because of a very late night coughing attack that just wouldn't subside even with the prescribed medicines. We woke the kids up at 2am to run to the ER and they did really well for being taken from their sleep and needing to stay there for a few hours.
Rylan is now the concerned little guy. Each day he asks his mom if she feels better and if she needs any medicine. Throughout the day he will comment on how she is sick and needs the doctor. Luckily it looks like her sickness is starting to go away but that may be because of the kids extra hugs and cuddling lately. They have both been really well with their mom being sick. Fortunately for the rest of us, we have all been able to fight off the severe sickness.
Mom has been a bit under the weather this week so I have been helping her. Yesterday I let her lay down on my stomach to rest. Kaitlyn came over a second later and tried to lay down as well. It was cute. She has some medicine to try and I think she will begin feeling well soon.
So Halloween was last Friday and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately that means now all of the stores are getting rid of their scary stuff. I loved going to all of these stores looking through their scary guys. Kaitlyn was just confused by them. She never looked scared.
Speaking of Kaitlyn, she is still doing really well at learning new words. She yelled out hot dog the other day and it made everyone laugh. She knows a bunch of other words too that I just cant' remember now. My memory is effected by all of the dancing and jumping around we do. We love dancing and Kaitlyn I have to say is much better than I am. She does take some of my dance moves though which is pretty funny.
Kaitlyn and I have been helping mom prepare for the next craft show. I worked with her yesterday on some ideas for her clay sculptures. She made Yo Gabba Gabba characters and they look great. We have also been testing her new stuffed monsters that she was making. We like ours a lot so we think others will too.
We have more dancing to get to. Have a good weekend everyone.
One of the kid's favorite show right now is definitely Yo Gabba Gabba. Rylan spent a bit of his money earned from his sales to purchase the show DVD. They both love dancing to the songs and Rylan is really getting good at singing along with them as well.
Halloween 2008 went well. We headed over to the kids grandma's house and did a bit of trick-or-treating. Rylan knew the routine this year and made out with a lot of candy. Kaitlyn did really well with her dress and everyone thought she looked super cute. She too made out with a bunch of candy. After examining all of the candy and removing/replacing the bad for safe candy, the kids dug in. They bounced off the walls for a bit but headed down to sleep nicely. They had a great time I think.
