Exercising

I recently purchased an exercise ball in the hopes of improving my horrible posture. I've been occasionally using it as a chair while sitting at the computer. While we were down in the family room yesterday, Cailin kept crawling around backwards, then sitting and looking around herself expectantly. I didn't have to wonder for long what on earth she was trying to do! When her bum finally seated itself on this bouncy ball, she was the proudest baby girl! It was so funny to watch over and over--backing up onto the ball, then bouncing on it with shrieks of glee.

She walks!

Cailin has made great strides lately. She's been letting go and taking several steps on her own the last few days. I took this first video a couple weeks ago and never put it up, but it was her first attempt with the walker toy. Before, she was always terrified of it for some reason. Then she just decided to give it a go--she gets so ticked off when she runs into a wall!

Here's a video from a couple days ago--not the best but everytime she's walking and I get the camera, she sits down to bawl! I guess she doesn't want any evidence of her walking around.

Just wanted to share some of the cuter critters that we have living in our yard. The caterpillar invasion is almost over--they're all getting cocoonified (on everything!). To answer some questions--no, there isn't much we can do about them besides get rid of their cocoons or their eggs they lay in the fall. Just one of the hazards of living in the woods!

We have bunnies in our front and back yards every evening. We must have a family now, because we've been seeing several baby bunnies in our backyard recently. They're sooo cute! They're pretty fast, so it's hard to get a good picture, but here are a couple. One in the grass, and a baby one running past the little slide.

We also had a family of robins in a nest on our back porch. They had eggs and then little babies, and before we knew it they had learned to fly away! I saw one sitting in the nest again the other day so maybe they've got some more eggs. They're fun to watch, but man do they poop all over! I thought I took some pictures of the babies eating but I guess not, this is the only one I could find.


While working on our yard this weekend, we we able to find a few frogs. Well, toads actually. Jason gave one or two a flesh wound with the mower, but they looked like they'll survive. At night, the sound outside is so loud with their croaks--feels like home! We have a storm water basin behind our house, and it seems to be teeming with the little guys.

New words

Ben has always been known to make up and use his own words when he feels there isn't a good enough one already in existence. The other day, he gave me this post-it note with his newest word and accompanying illustration--"frv". It means being cold and shivering. Then I found this other post-it with the word "frt". I think the illustration speaks for itself.

Still a baby to me:)

Cailin had her one year doctors' appointment today. She now weighs a whopping 17 lbs, 4 oz. Four ounces more than she weighed at 9 months. Yep, she's fallen off the charts. So now we're supposed to be somehow cramming a lot more calories into her. She already eats pretty much all day, so I guess we'll just have to work harder and getting her to drink more milk. She hasn't been a fan of it so far, but is starting to drink it with nestle quick mixed in (this is how I got all my kids hooked on milk--slowly decreasing the powder until it's straight milk!).

The other day I was shopping online, and they had things organized into these categories: Baby (0-11 months) Toddler (12-36 months) Preschooler (3-4 years) and School-age (5+). I realized that Cailin is now considered a toddler! Ahhhh! Maybe it's her size, or maybe it's because she's the baby of our family, but I'm just not ready to call her a toddler yet! I made this slideshow while looking through our photos of the past year, reminiscing, and wondering how on earth she was able to grow so fast.

Invasion!!!

Here's something that'll keep you up at night. Or at least give you the creepy-crawlies. Our back yard is currently being invaded by "tent caterpillars". It's a pretty gruesome site; something right out of the X-Files. We were so excited to finally move into a house with a fenced-in backyard, but right now I'm afraid to let the kids play out there, lest I find them wrapped up in a web tent, or carried off by millions of caterpillars. It was gross enough seeing their little web tents in the trees, or seeing them all laying on the outsides of those tents sunning themselves, but now they've mobilized and are on the ground, and the kids' toys! They're supposed to be getting into cocoons soon, so hopefully we'll get our back yard back!

Ben's photos

Ben's been taking some pretty good pictures lately:


Our walk on the National Mall in DC and a bird and squirrel there. The Lincoln Memorial (which he reported was his favorite thing that

day--the "giant statue of a man sitting in a chair") & the Washington

Monument. The White House, and Uncle Chris taking his picture. Cailin in the tub, and his souvenir lunch box from the zoo which he uses daily for his school snack. Cailin's Birthday party, and Grandpa taking video. Of course, no photo download from Ben's camera would be complete without a weird self-photo!

Devil's Haircut

Sometimes Ben wakes up with this hairdo, and it just makes you wonder...

Cailin's Birthday video

Here's some highlights from Cailin's Birthday. Nothing too exciting, but Grandmas and Grandpas will appreciate it!

Accomplishments and set-backs

Last week was a good developmental week for Sam and Cailin; however, recent events have proved to be detrimental for both!

A few weeks ago, I bought Sam his "last" package of diapers. I told him it was his last, and we went over it every diaper change, talking about how soon they would be all gone and that it would be the potty from then on out. He was actually getting more and more excited the fewer diapers there were. I realized all too late that they would be running out uncomfortably close to our trip to DC. Oh well, too late, he knows this is it; so we continued with the plan. We also did what we did with Ben, gave him a baby-food jar and told him he gets a penny in it for every potty. The first day with no diapers didn't go very well. The next morning something had clicked, he went to the potty every time! He kept his pull-ups dry all day and night for the next couple days. We were so excited, and so was he (he loves getting those pennies)! Then came our trip. Like Ben did, he seemed to have an instant fear of public restrooms. Long story short, by the third day of our trip he was using them okay too. Yay! His new skill survived the trip! Then came the horrible stomach virus. Now it's been 5 days of no potty! He's only now (in the last half hour or so) gotten off his "bedroll" in our room and is starting to act normal, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll get back to the routine soon!

Meanwhile, Cailin took her first unassisted steps at church on Sunday (last week). She did it a couple more times at home, just taking a couple steps before leaning too far and falling. Then we strapped her into a stroller for 3 days straight. She hasn't seemed too interested in walking since! Oh, well. She'll be walking soon enough!

Happy Mother's Day!

What a week

This week we've had Jason's family in town visiting. The boys had a sleep-over in Sam's room the first couple nights. They can never stay in their sleeping bags!
As I mentioned earlier, we went to Washington, D.C. for 3 days. The first day was spent trekking (seriously!) to see all the memorials and monuments and other famous sites.
The second day we tackled (some of) the Smithsonian's. Ben had the Smithsonian guide and was looking for all the exhibits pictured in it. When he saw one, he would point out "that's on page 32". Pretty funny.
The third day we headed over to the National Zoo.
I'm pretty sure I have some blisters with blisters on them! It was cool to see, though, and to add another city to our list of places visited. The kids were troopers--especially Ben who had no stroller, until the zoo, where he got a rented one we couldn't get him out of. At this point, Cailin is quite attached to her crib when it comes to bedtime, so the nights at the hotel weren't as restful as they could've been, but she was so good during the days that it (sort-of) made up for it. Sam had some 3-year-old moments for sure, but still not too bad. The day after we returned home, Sam (in keeping with his tradition of getting freakishly sick at the most inopportune times) got up and started throwing up. He refused to drink anything or eat a popsicle. It was getting pretty bad, so we took him in, where they gave him some zofran. It seemed to help for a bit--he drank a few bottles of pedialite and ate a popsicle, and even peed, after which they let us go home. He has spent the last 3 days literally laying around, in and out of sleep, occasionally throwing up, and even more rarely, taking sips of pedialite.

Poor guy, He was so excited for Cailin's Birthday and all he could do was lay there with his eyes closed. He seems to be doing a teeny tiny bit better now, so we'll see. I was going to take Ben to NYC with the family, but Jason woke up this morning with the same virus, so I stayed home to take care of the sickies. Ben said he would stay home too because as he put it, "I've already seen it."

Cailin's First Birthday!

Today Cailin turns one. We had her Birthday party yesterday, intending to go into New York City today. We are home with the barfies, however (more on that later!). She was so cute, and enjoyed opening her presents (and Ben had fun helping!), playing with her new toys, and eating the decorations off her cake!






Getting a good look

The cakes--One for Cailin, one for the rest of us, and one to use up the extra ingredients!