So there we are...."we" being Graham and I ....standing in line at Dillons to pay for formula.  Graham is standing right next to a cooler full of pop and he asks...rather loudly I might add..."Mommy is that daddy's beer?!?!!"
No Graham...that is 7-UP!  I KNEW my grocery store moment was coming soon!  More to come I am sure....and the journey continues.

more pooh from the palace...

I feel so blessed that I have a husband who is ok with letting me stay home during the day with the kids but it is no walk in the park like some people envision.  Mr. Graham Wesley is testing my patience from every possible angle there is.  Kamryn is still a sweetheart but she is definitely starting to show some attitude.  When she doesn't get her way, she grunts and growls at me.  She clenches her teeth and her fist and shakes...and growls.  I can't get mad about that because I did the SAME thing once upon a time!

Graham is doing a terrible job of listening lately.  He cannot stand to not constantly be heard while I am trying to have a conversation with someone else.  Instead of patiently waiting for a lull in the conversation,  he butts right in.  Because of his obsession with drums, EVERYTHING is a drum so he is constantly trying to drum on something or play some other instrument be it real or imaginary. 

Potty training is a work in progress.  We are not forcing the issue because I know he will not do it until HE wants to.  We have been forming a habit of going potty in his big boy body before he gets into his bath.  He has been consistant in going potty!!!  Tonight was epic!  He went before getting into the tub but afterwards after drying off, he went to his room then ran back in saying, "MOMMY, I HAVE TO GO POTTY!"  He ran in and sat down....sure enough he pottied!  Then he got a look on his face like he was trying to pass gas, then PLOP!  It sounded like he pooped but I was not sure.  He got up, stuck his head in the toilet, "LOOK it is a 'rock poop!'  I pooped!  That's so silly!!!"     lol, oh my gosh it was priceless :)

Getting him to sleep whether it is a nap or bedtime....just about takes an act of Congress to do so!  Tonight I fed Kamryn and laid her in her crib then read Graham a couple books.  When I left and told him good night, neither one was asleep but Kamryn is great about putting herself to sleep and Graham, well I knew he wasn't going to sleep immediatley.  I start getting ready for bed and turn the monitor on.  Occassionally, I was hearing a banging noise.  I didn't do anything b/c some times he hits his foot against the bed rail or taps on the head board.  After awhile I thought it sounded a little different.  I walked in the room and thought Kamryn was rolling around so I walked over to her crib and BAM!  Graham grabbed my feet!  Hallejluaia holy crap!  If I didn't about piss my pants...the little @#$* was under her crib!  He had hauled a blanket, his pillow, and some stuffed animals under there like he was going to campout!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Since that episode, it has been a little quieter but I am waiting to hear/see what happens in a little bit.  Will he come up with something else or actually sleep?

The journey continues.....

Like Butter....

Well I must admit that Graham is cracking me up today even though I feel like he is mocking me.  For instance:

Scene: in the kitchen, I'm making lunch...in walks graham. He is playing with a small tape measure. While trying to pull tape out, he couldn't very well so I helped him pull out the tape and clamped it so it wouldn't go back in. He started pulling hard on the tape to get more out while it was clamped and I said :wait graham, don't do that". About that quick he manages to get more tape pulled out so I said, "nevermind". Graham replies:(in a high pitched but regular tone voice) hey mommy its alright, calm down mommy. Stop acting like a baby, its ok!". .........ok you tell me, was he mocking me?!

 

His little mind is rolling all the time...I voice recorded him today for 8-minutes just listening to him telling stories and such.  He was jumping all over the place between actual events and fiction.

 

Because it is such a gorgeous day, I asked Graham if he would like to walk to the park and feed the ducks??  Graham's comment:  NO! We can't feed the ducks at the park.  That's no fun!  ...........I thought it sounded like a fun idea!  That little stink.

 

Graham:  I'm gonna go be right back and wash my hands.

Me:  "ok"

Graham: (talking to himself...in a high pitch voice)  "Ok, that would be great!"   (again, in my opinion mocking me!)  Once he gets in there he hollers with the water on full blast:  "I'm washing my hands!  I'm washing my hands together, right mommy?"

 

As for Kamryn, she is lying at me feet , on her stomach, kicking her hands and feet like she is a fish out of water...just babbling away with a 100-102 degree temperature.  Actually that is what her temp was this morning.  We have been able to keep it under control with Tylenol and Ibuprofen.  She ate sweet potato puffs for lunch!  That was exciting...usually she spits anything out that touches her tongue but she is slowly adapting to the idea of putting food in her mouth.  She is not drinking much today.  She did drink alot first thing this morning...now she is slowing down a bit.  Hopefully she gets over this cold soon.  Graham is slowly getting over his as well.  We are not used to being sick around here so it's frustrating!

 

Graham is running low to the ground around the house saying, "Spider Graham!".....now he just stopped and sat down, opened his legs so Kamryn could crawl to him and said:  "Come to me little missy!  You wanna play with blocks"  he told me, "she likes blocks"   Graham just told Kamryn:  "Maybe you can have a surprise.  It is called birthday cake.  It's my birthday.  My birthday is August 8.  My birthday is August 8 mommy.  But somebody took my balloons away...."  I could go on and on but this is an example of how random and rambly he is today.

 

Well I suppose I better go, Kamryn is army crawling on the tile floor in her dress and chasing the lego blocks as she throws them out in front of her!  And the journey continues.....

Brief State Tournament review

What a weekend!  This past weekend the McPherson High School girls made it to the state tournament.  We played our first round game verus Girard.  They had a phenomenal point guard who scored 31 points but we have the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year on our team, Katelyn Loecker.  Kate scored 32 points, had 4 blocked shots, I think 11 rebounds, etc.  Our team played really well giving us the right to advance to the semifinal game as we beat Girard by 18 points.  Friday, we played Bonner Springs.  Both of us were 23-1 going into the game.  It was a tight game all the way through but we won 49-40.  Saturday we played in 4A State Championship game versus the undefeated Holton Wildcats.  They had a 51 game winning streak coming into the game.  Talk about a defensive battle...it was intensely amazing!  Our halftime score was 8-7!  We ended up winning 34-27.  We did not get to shoot any free-throws until 3 minutes to go in the game!  We were 10-11 from the FT line in the final 3 minutes!  We scored almost half our points in the closing minutes to win the game!  It was such an exciting time!  When the buzzer sounded there were tears of joy from almost all of us!  It brought me back to my playing days that's for sure.  Our girls worked so hard and are so deserving of the title.  I told Kamryn..."just wait girl, 15 years from now, this could be you!!!"  And the journey continues....

Here we go again...

Once again I have let too much time slip by without making an entry.  It has been very busy at our house.  Basketball season is flying by....for ME, but I know Gabe is ready for it to be over.  Our final regular season is tonight versus Ark City.  It is our senior night and Think Pink night so it should be fun!

Graham is still fluctuating between sweetheart and pistol pete!  Some of the things he is doing right now will hopefully just be a small two year old phase. 

The other night while we were getting ready to eat supper Graham was wound for sound and did something to upset Gabe.  Gabe asked him if he needed to go to timeout.  I told Gabe to chill and that maybe he needed to take a time out.  Graham chimed in with:  "Yeah Daddy!  Stop acting that way.  Now I'm gonna give you last chance Daddy or you go to time out!"

I was laughing my pants off and had to turn around!  Obviously, he has heard those words a few times before!

We have all battled colds the last few weeks but last week, when Kamryn started coughing really deep...sounded like it was really settled into her chest, I called and got her a Dr appt.  When we got there, we had to weigh Kamryn before going into the Dr.'s room.  She weighed 16lbs 14oz!  That was with all her clothes on though.  She was all dressed up in her hot pink and purple tights, jean skirt, and nice shirt.  Anyways, as I took her off the scale, a secretary next door standing at her counter, saw Kamryn and said (in a high voice)  "Hey sweetie, how are you?!"  Kamryn looked at her and went, "grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!."  She totally growled at the lady!  The secretary's co-workers asked what that noise was and I heard her say, "It was that little girl!"  Needless to say, I was a little bit embarrassed and apologized which the workers didn't care.  As soon as we walked down the hall and entered the room, Kamryn belched like man!!!!!!  I was like, Oh My Gosh!!!!!!!!!  That's my girl!

Kamryn is pretty fascinated with her hands.  She loves to clap and just learned how to wave.  We still can't get her to eat baby food.  She looks at me like I am nuts when I try sticking the spoon in her mouth but we are going to continue to work on that.  Her laugh is so contagious...better yet, I love it when Graham gets her to laughing b/c then they both laugh.  Children's laughter is the best sound ever!

Last night, Kamryn was in her walk around toy and I was in our bedroom...I all of a sudden heard her cry so I hollered out to Graham and asked him what happened.  I came out in the living room and he was laying ON TOP of the back of the couch, which he knows is a no no.....

Me:  "Graham Wesley!  What did you do?"
Graham:  Smiling yet trying to hide his face, "I pinched her!"
Me:  "Ok, lets go to time out."

A couple minutes later when I went to get Graham out of timeout, I asked him to tell me why he was in time out and he said, "Kamryn."

Me: "What did you do to Kamryn?"
Graham: "Pinching"
Me:  "Are you going to pinch her anymore?"
Graham: "No, not yet!"

And the journey continues.........

Well Kamryn decided to wake up at 345am so I thought I would sneak in and give her a pacifier then jet out...uhm no, she was wide eyed and bushy tailed. I picked her up...started out the door and here comes Graham "Wait for me!" and he sprints out the darn door. I set Kamryn down in the living room and she started "rippin' em" like an 80 year old man, so I was like awesome, she just totally shit her pants...I changed her...she was just gassy and wet. Gabe gets up and helps me by changing Graham....meanwhile I brought Kamryn back to the LR and was making her a bottle...I came out to a lovely stinch...definitely loaded her pants this time. I take her back to the bedroom...Gabe is fighting with Graham to lay still to change his diaper...he gets it changed...leaves the room to take the diapers out to the trash, comes back and Graham had stripped down, took his diaper off and all...that's how it all started. Gabe went back to bed. Graham finally fell asleep at 545 and Kamryn went to sleep at 615.

A few hours later, after our power naps in the early morning, I was changing Kamryn and needed to get something off the dresser shelf so I turn around to get it and Kamryn and flipped over and was doing the worm across the room....looked like a fish out of water moving along at 30mph.  She suddenly stopped and yep....she started peeing on the carpet.  Awesome.  Get that cleaned up...get her going again.  At this point the whole day is running together so this sequence of events may not be perfectly in order.

Graham had a descent day after the chaotic morning.  He wanted to help me make chicken and cheese quesadillas for lunch so I thought that was great.  He pulled a chair over to the counter from the kitchen table and said, "I want to help you!"  I figured it was easy enough so why not.  He grabbed 1 tortilla out of the bag and put it on his plate.  I told him to grab some cheese and sprinkle it on.  He was taking tiny bits of cheese out of the bag and was sprinkling the cheese on so I thought he was doing good....I will go ahead a go to the fridge and get something real quick...come back over and he had dumped the entire bag of shredded cheese on his tortilla.  Looked like a mountain...who wouldn't like 2 cups of cheese in one quesadilla?!?!  No big deal...cleaned it up...reduced his cheese mound and then he put some chicken on and whoala...we had lunch. 

Back to Kamryn and her diaper adventures...she had another stink bomb so I was changing her and she decided to practice her karate kicks and kicked out of my hands while I was holding her legs up and there ya have it folks...pooh on the carpet!  For the love!  All I could do at this point was laugh....it was like a stinkin circus today.  Speaking of "stinkin".....

Yesterday, Graham was in the kitchen trying to move a folding chair that was against the wall and Gabe asked him what he was doing....Graham said, "I am trying to move the chair.  I am trying to move this STINKIN' CHAIR!"  Looks like I overuse the word stinkin' but at least I am not dropping F-bombs!

At lunch yesterday, Graham and I were eating and visiting and I was thirsty so I grabbed my cup of water with my left hand and took a drink.  Graham said, "Hey!  you need to be careful!  Hold your cup with two hands mommy!"  I am telling you what, this kid better pay attention this much in school!  I have a hundred other stories from this week already but I am about to pass out from exhaustion.  Until next time...the journey continues.....

Brief update...

This will be a brief update:

Sunday, February 5th, Kamryn started saying "ma ma ma ma!"  Needless to say, mommy was/is thrilled!  She is a super speedy army crawler right now.  It actually looks like a very skilled version of "the worm" dance move but it works for her.  She cut two bottom teeth at once right as she turned 7 months.  We are having a heck of a time trying to get her to eat rice cereal.  I have mixed it with bananas....tried it with green beans....tried it so that it was the same consistancy as her formula.  She is not buyin' what I am sellin' so to speak.  For now, I am putting the cereal in her bottle.  I know she will come around....little stinker!

Graham is still his onery/sweet self.  Yesterday when he woke up, I went into the kids' bedroom...he was all smiles sitting on his bed.  I walked over and gave him a hug and told him that I loved him and he said, "I love you to pieces!"  That just melts my heart :)  I went out to the kitchen to get some cereal for him....got him in his seat...gave him his bowl of cheerios...and walked across the kitchen to make my breakfast and he said, "come join me!"  If I remember right (I think that it was in the same conversation....my days are running together) I told him that I would join him after I got my cereal ready he said, "that sounds like a plan!"

Well, that is a brief update from the Prescott Palace....the kids are waking up so I better go get them....and the journey continues!