16 Months

Kallahan - 16 Months

My baby cowboy turned 16 months at the end of January.  

By 16 months he is off the paci, not taking a bottle but still not talking much at all.  

His vocabulary consists of about five words {woof woof, da, maaama, hi & boo}  

He grunts A LOT, communicates with brilliant facial expressions and leads us to what he wants.  I'm sure all this contributes to why he is not talking - why would he need to, ha!  Talking will come but it's amazing how different our two cowboys have been.  One slow to talk / fast to walk and the other slow to walk / fast to talk.  

I tried to do a post closer to the 16 month date but all the pictures I got of him he just looked terribly sick since he had the flu so I decided to wait.  Then this weekend we were so busy with keeping the little cowboys busy I failed again.  So I asked Kal if he would do a  guest post so we could remember exactly how he was at 16 months.  

He was very eager to help!

My brother had a playdate Saturday.  I loved playing with them.  We had a fun game going:  they would build fence get them all lined up with cows and horses and then I would come in and knock it all down - so they could build it again.  Then for some reason they locked me out of the playroom.  It was so mean and then Mommy made me take a nap.  I hate naps.  

 On Sunday we went out to the farm.  Brother got to ride in the feed-truck with Daddy.  I had to stay in the car with Mommy.  I was so mad.  But Mommy was nice and drove me over to look at the horses.  I love horses and my Mommy.  

Then we went into the city to shop but first we ate a restaurant.  I don't get to eat out much so this was a nice treat.  I worked really hard at not screaming and stayed in my highchair.  I got to share steak with Daddy.  It was soooo good.  Mommy gave me a high five when we left.  

Then we went to this big store where their shopping carts were race cars.  This was the best!  Everyone should have race car carts!  Mommy was really happy because Daddy and her bought new lights for the house. 

When we got home Daddy put up the new lights and I tried to help but he said he didn't need my help.  My Daddy is so independent sometimes.  

Mommy took brother and me down to the basement to play.  When we came upstairs we saw one of the new lights.  I love it!  I keep pointing at it to tell Daddy he did a good job.  After dinner, under our new light, Mommy took me straight to the bath.  She always does this and tells me how messy I am.  I just love to eat!  I always get my own bib before dinner and help push my chair to the table.    
After my bath, Daddy got me dressed in my pajamas.  Then I went looking for Brother.  I found him taking his bath.  I love to take baths with him so I decided to get in!

After I got in I realized I had my pajamas on!  Whoops.  

Mommy and Daddy didn't look too happy but boy was I clean.  On Sunday night I didn't sleep too well.  I kept waking up and screaming.  I ended up sleeping in that big bed that's in my room.  

Well, last night Mommy and Daddy tried to put me in that bed again.  I woke up and was scared.  Mommy rocked me and put me back in my crib.  Awww, it felt so cozy.  Why do they keep trying to get me to grow up so fast?  I like my crib...I think I'll stay there for awhile.  Hope you have a good day.  By the way, happy birthday Grandma Kak.  I hope to see you very soon.

Sincerely yours,  

And I know you're asking, "how did he do a guest post when he can't even talk?"  

Well I can type people.  Yes, my computer skills are out of this world!

All Shook Up!

This weekend was our local Chamber's Annual Banquet.  Part of my job is to decorate a table for our company.  This is always one of the most fun events as I love party planning and decorating.  This year's theme is "All Shook Up."

Of course I started hunting on Pinterest for ideas and created a board.  

What did we do before Pinterest?

I purchased most the decor at different party stores in Texas.  My mom is always great help and goes around shopping with me!  My boss' wife embroidered our chair covers and we get to reuse them each year.  We added the pink scarfs with iron-on poodles this year to embrace the 1950s.    

Each guest at your table gets a take home gift.  I purchased the pink Cadillacs off Etsy.  Source

We filled the Cadillacs with Elvis' favorites: Pepsi, donuts, etc...  We also included a gift certificate to American Implement in a "Thank you, thank you very much" card.

I took these pictures before all the other tables were decorated but we ended up with some great tables.  A local bank took the coveted table topper award for the best table - I'm not going to lie I was a bit depressed on Saturday evening.  Our's was great but that gives you an idea of the competition! :)

I picked up Keeler early from his Granny's so he could come help us decorate.  He loved it!  He decorated this pole while were where there.  Then we un-decorated it, ha!

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As promised, I said I was going to blog about my "Best Shape by 30" Goal.  

This past week = Epic Failure.  

Not only could I not keep out of the Girl Scout cookies I failed miserably at running.  Late last week I started having pain after running in my upper thigh.  It was affecting most my daily movements and I was getting very stiff.  Worst of all, I was limping around like a 30 90 year old.  I decided to rest on Wednesday thinking I'd be back good to go on Thursday.  When I got on the treadmill  on Thursday my body was yelling at me, "You can't run!"  I listened and stuck to walking.  Then reached out to my running friends for advice and they also suggested resting or biking.  I was told I might have a weak glute?  I got out Saturday and managed to wog a few miles with little pain afterwards.  Sunday was family day.  I really needed a day with my cowboys and didn't want to think about training.  I'll do a Sunday recap post soon - we had one of the best days!  
The main thing I want to stress is I am not giving up on my goal.  My body is feeling better so we'll see where this week takes us.

Linking up with Ashley.  
Sweet baby #2 is coming very soon!!

Linking up with Jen.

Weekend, Illustrated

Weekends that start with a prank are always the best. Occassionally on Fridays, the partners of the firm go out for lunch leaving the office at the merciless hands of the staff. The past couple times they have left us alone in the office, we took advantage of the opportunity for some fun, all orchestrated by yours truly. One time, I got a group shot of us all taking naps in my boss' office. I got really into it and sprawled out on the floor under his desk. He told us all we were fired.

Last week, when the bosses left, we posed in front of a new piece of art work my boss had acquired for the office. The general consensus was that the artwork, featuring people sitting around a table, was really ugly and we made him hang it in the kitchen. So when he went out for lunch, we took a photo of the entire staff posing like characters in the photo. We were all fired again.

This last Friday, my boss gave the staff some cash and sent us loose on the town for lunch. It was a rare and unexpected treat. We said our thanks by taking a photo of all of us taking shots (of water). I was fired for the third time this month. But it was worth it.

Saturday, we had a family day at the YMCA. The kids played in childwatch center while I introduced my husband to his first spin class. I was sad to discover (1) he was just as good as me even though it was his first time (I nearly died my first time), and (2) he wasn't impressed. He wasn't even impressed by the fact that we had burned over 600 calories and biked 23 miles in one hour. That cast a sad shadow on the morning as I threw a mini tantrum in my mind. I love spin and I want everyone in the world to love it too. Poop. Oh well, more bikes for me.

Ryan got to practice his free throw.

Then, we loaded the kids in the car and ran errands which included our beloved monthly trip to Costco. Hunting for samples:

Mission accomplished:

It's a depressing moment of your adult life when you realize the highlight of your Saturday is free Costco samples.

Sunday was a little more exciting. I had been promising to take Jacob to an indoor playland for two weeks. Plans kept changing thanks to surprise motions that needed to be responded to and my general hatred for leaving the house because that means I have to put on real pants. We invited grandma to come with us and, to my surprise, she said yes! My mom is Jacob's absolute favorite person in the entire world. And I think she feels the same way about him. I shouldn't have been so surprised, I guess.

At the playland, Ryan enjoyed a little bit of baby heaven. I let him play in the germy ball-pit of viral doom. It's pretty much a required part of childhood. Along with eating cake on your first birthday, falling for the "I got your nose" trick, riding a yellow school bus, eating so much junk food that you puke, and being sent to detention. (Side note: in highschool I was a straight-A, goody two-shoes student. Other kids did illegal drugs and took their parents' cars for joy-rides. The worst thing I did was to purposefully skip class ONCE so I would receive a detention. I did this solely for the purpose of being able to say that I had been to detention. So, yeah....).

Making friends:

Ryan is absolutely obsessed with balls. He grabs them, throws them, catches them, crawls after them, passes them from hand to hand, and even crawls with them:

I'm not trying to pressure the kid or anything, but he's going to be my professional ball player. Ryan Palmer....has an MVP, Hall-of-Fame ring to it.

Then we took a break for the greasiest pizza on earth. Maybe grease kills ball-pit germs?

And we ended our trip by playing arcade games and winning tickets to be exchanged for nominal prizes that would be 500% cheaper if we just went to the dollar store and bought them flat-out. But you know, a 50 cent hacky-sack is so much more awesome when you have to spend $10.00 to "win" it. Grandma and Jacob had a blast.

A mother's love means lending your son a leg to help him reach the gas pedal.

 

Poor monkey had to watch from the sidelines.

Jacob discovered that I have a gambling problem. I spent more money playing arcade games in 30 minutes than I spent during my entire three-day trip to Vegas last year. I had such a hard time gambling all of $11 during my Vegas trip but I could EASILY go broke in a children's arcade.

After all that excitement, we returned home in time for me to get dinner started. On the menu tonight was homemade mac-n-cheese with cheddar, jack, and gryure cheese (to my astonishment, Jacob loved gryure cheese so much that he kept sneaking pieces of it before I got the dish assembled) and baked, brown-sugar chicken. I have made several version of mac-n-cheese and this version was one of the best, topped only by my favorite recipe for crab mac-n-cheese.

After dinner, I snuck out of the house just in time to get a workout in before the gym closed. I cranked out 4 miles in under 7:30 minute mile pace. I was shocked at my times because I haven't been running in forever. My speedy times are purely a tribute to my four times a week spin class and the three times a week that my commute includes walking 4 round-trip miles.

Phew! What a busy weekend!

Katy and the Big Snow {FIAR}

For two weeks before last, we rowed Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton.

This is the tale of a snow plow named Katy who is called upon to plow the city of Geopolis after a blizzard strikes.

She works diligently to plow a path through the snow so that essential elements of the city can return to their own duties.

This was quite fitting for this time of year - we see a lot of snow plows around!

Once again, I was surprised by how enamored the girls were with this story about a machine!

They were also very intrigued by the illustrations and the various 'extras' found around the border of each page.

Social Studies:

I taught Piper about the compass and pointed them out on various maps that we own.

She also learned the points of a compass and we took some time to figure out in what direction various windows in our home faced.

She also made this compass to include in her lapbook.

We also discussed maps.

Piper attempted to make a map of her room but this was very difficult for her.

In the end, we made one together where I would draw one item and ask what was behind it, beside it, etc.

Next, I hid their snack in their room, marked it on the map and they had to go find it.

This was pretty easy but they loved it!

We also took some time to discuss diligence.

Piper was the one to first point out that Katy worked really hard.

This led to a conversation about how important it is to work hard, complete a job and do it well.

We reviewed all the people who were impacted by Katy's diligence in the story.

We then took it a bit further and thought of how these people would have been negatively affected had Katy given up or not done her job well.

Language:

We talked about characteristics of Katy.

I wrote our answers on the whiteboard and Piper later grabbed some paper and wrote a few down herself so I included them in her lapbook.

We reviewed personification by discussing the ways the author and illustrator personified Katy.

We also happened upon repetition.

Katy repeats the line "Follow me!" to the different people she plows out and Piper loved saying this part each day as we read the story.

It gave a perfect opportunity to point out a new literary device!

Math:

The snow drifts were 5 feet high!

We measured out 5 feet of yarn so we could see just how high that was exactly!

I introduced counting by fives by making a number line and letting Piper practice.

Katy had 55 horse power so we found all the horses and ponies the girls owned to see how many horse power they had!

They divided them in groups of five and together we counted by fives to forty!

For fun, the girls played "Let It Snow" - a free printable number identification game.

Art:

The girls cut out paper snowflakes.

This was a first for Tait and she was so in awe of the big reveal!

Piper is an old pro now and can maneuver her scissors quite well.

We use them to decorate for Renly's birthday party.

Science:

One day it was snowing so we caught some snowflakes to observe.

We also kept track of the weather for the week.

(Find the printable weather chart here.)

Just for Fun:

Piper and Tait helped me make sparkling snowflake cookies to serve at Renly's party!

Another successful row!

This one spilled into two weeks though because we are still waiting on "Who Owns the Sun?" to come available at the library.

(I believe it is out of print so I'm going to have to wait patiently...)

This ended up working out well for us since the first week was so busy with preparations for Renly's birthday party, doctor appointments, etc.

As a result of reading this book the girls now notice all the snowplows when we are out!

They often excitedly point and yell "There's Katy!!!" 

Twisted

My stomach has been in knots all week over an incident that is happening right now to total strangers half a continent away from me. I don't know if anyone else is following the Alabama hostage situation as obsessively as I am. It's not getting as much coverage as Sandy Hook. Maybe that's because there have been barely any developments since it began on Tuesday. But no one is even blogging about it (violence fatigue, perhaps?).

This story has affected me as much, if not more, than Sandy Hook. This story is consuming me. I can't think about anything else but that poor five year old boy locked up in a bunker with a crazy, armed man. I've been desperately checking Google for updates every hour, hoping beyond hope that the situation is finally over. That the little boy is reunited safely with his mom so I can finally breath again. I've even been waking up in the middle of the night, head full of thoughts and concerns, reaching for my phone desperate for news of a happy ending. But the incident drags on in a precarious stalemate.

As I was driving home from work to pick up my kids this evening, I heard a news report on the story. The reporter stated that the mother is nearby where her son is being held hostage and can hear him crying, distraught, from the bunker. Upon that piece of news, I immediately broke down. Ever since the incident began on Tuesday, I have been trying to imagine the horrors that the boy and the boy's mom are going through. That extra tid-bit of information finally anchored my thoughts on some horrible imagery and I nearly broke down on Highway 305.

As I pulled into my mom's drive way, I felt sick to my stomach. I was no longer excited to see my kids. I felt guilty that I would be reunited with my children while this poor, frantic mother has been violently separated from her child for three consecutive days. I felt it would be the equivalent of eating a five course meal while watching someone starve. Instead of bounding up to my mom's front door like I usually do, I sat in my car in silence. I wished desperately I had the power to do something. To help ease the fear of the little boy. To help comfort his mother as she faced day three without her child and helpless to do anything as he faces danger at the hands of a lunatic. I felt so helpless. So guilty. So haunted.

I eventually got the nerve to go inside. My kids were happy as usual. Completely oblivious to the horros taking place on the other side of the country. Clueless to their own vulnerability as children. Ignorant of the national debates about gun violence and the potential dangers they face every time they go out into public. Oblivious to the emotional storm tumbling around inside me. I plastered a smile on my face and tried to steal some hugs. I tried not to wince as my four year old pushed me away to finish a game of boomerang.

How scary it is to love a child. To have your greatest vulnerability walking independently on two feet outside your body, a target for the world. How disgusting it is to think that people are capable of abusing and trampling the sacred vulnerability of a child for their own gain. I wish I could stop thinking about this. But I simply can't. Until that little boy (whose birthday is next week!) is returned safely to the arms of his mother, I will continue to be twisted up inside.