Past few weeks!

We've had a busy past few weeks.  My Aunt Sally came out a few weeks ago to visit and go to a 3-day music, art, comedy, food, wine and beer festival with us. It's only the second year for this festival, KAABOO, but it did not disappoint. We saw Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffett, Andrew McMahon, Jack Johnson, Sugar Ray, Cheech and Chong, and a bunch of other bands. We had a babysitter for the first two days and on the third Marc stayed home and just me and Sally went. It was such an amazing weekend but I definitely needed a vacation from that vacation.

The next weekend my mom came out to watch Theo because Sara and Dustin went to Germany for Oktoberfest. They stayed at our house so it was a FULL HOUSE. We had a lot of fun and the kids had so much fun seeing each other 24/7.

We did our first of many trips to the pumpkin patch on Monday! Nothing like visiting the pumpkin patch when it's 85 degrees out!

And then Grace got up from her nap on Monday and had the stomach flu. Then Marc got it the next day. Then me. It was brutal. I'll spare you the details but we are finally on the mend. Crossing our fingers Caiden doesn't get it.

Lots of "Big Boy" things happening

Caiden finally graduated to a normal bed last week. It was bittersweet for us. I could've kept him in there for a few more years, but truthfully he was just getting a wee bit big. I'd hear his legs knocking on the sides of the crib when he would try to roll over while he was sleeping and I feared that it would start waking him up. As you can imagine he was really excited at first. Then as we were putting him to bed that night reading him a book in his bed he said he wanted his crib back. Of course!

Every night (except for three nights) he's come into our room around 2am and wakes us up. We then walk him back to his room, lay him down and tell him he has to sleep in his bed. Feels like a newborn again. Then about half the time he's back in our room again at 5am and we walk him back in his room and tell him it's not time to get up. The past few nights he's slept all the way through until 7:30am or so -I hope we're on a roll!

He also took swim lessons for two weeks straight last month and we now have a pretty darn good swimmer! It was so nice just banging it out in two weeks and not going every single week for a year. He jumps in and swims to the steps or side. He swims for about 7 seconds underwater before coming up for air and now he wants us to push him to the bottom of the pool so he can touch with his hands and belly. He'll be picking up those diving sticks in no time!

Caiden's first day of Pre-Kindergarten

It was pretty uneventful -except for the rushing to get him dressed, breakfast and out the door on time by 8:15am. He's going Tuesday/Thursday at Solana Beach Presbyterian Preschool again this year and it starts at 8:30 and goes until noon. His teachers are Miss Michelle and Miss Theresa. They seem like wonderful ladies and I think he'll have a great year!

There were no tears and he ran in and started playing. Waved and said, "goodbye!" with a big smile on his face.

Grace: 2-years

Our Gracie Girl is 2 YEARS OLD! She has a very spunky attitude. I feel like she has way more opinions, decisions to make and attitude than Caiden did or ever does. She loves me one second and then the next she loves Marc...and it's usually all or nothing. She also loves to snuggle. She will just crawl up on your lap and sit there for no reason. She can be the sweetest girl one moment and then the next -WATCH OUT!

She loves to pick out her clothes and put on her shoes. And my shoes, too. She will seriously try to walk around in 3 inch heals and it's hilarious...she's actually becoming quite good at it. And whenever I wear earrings or a necklace she is obsessed with them. She runs to my room and points at the necklace I let her wear and insists on putting it on. She will also take my earrings and rest them in her ears like she is wearing them. I have a feeling once she understands she will want to get her ears pierced.

Her bottom second year molars are about half way in on each side. I noticed her gnawing on a veggie stick a couple days ago, almost like she was massaging the area and I looked in and they were half way in already.

She is so sassy. Seriously she will say, "NO" in such a sassy way that you can't even argue with it. And then she will scream bloody murder if you do it anyway. It's quite different than Caiden (he pretty much does what we say and doesn't give us too much grief). We really need to get this under control asap! Ideas???  I have a feeling we are in for a real treat in her teenage years.

She sings, 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' almost all day and was starting to learn the "Happy Birthday" song for a minute there because we were all singing it so often. Every day I notice an improvement in her vocabulary and her speaking skills and she's becoming less and less whiny every day because she can communicate better!

Her favorite toys are the doll house she got for her birthday, her multiple tea sets and picnic baskets. She loves to have a tea party. She loves carrying the little picnic basket on her arm and sitting down with someone to have a tea party. I've been showing her how to set up all her little stuffed animals and dolls around her to play with them and she just loves it. She also loves her cousin "Feo". She yells his name whenever we facetime and insists on seeing him first. They say "Hi" back and forth to each other like 10 times and just smile. When they see each other in person they run and give each other hugs, it's seriously the cutest thing ever.

Her and Caiden are pretty much on the same schedule with sleeping. We put them down to bed at the same time between 7-8pm and they wake up between 6-8am. She naps for a couple hours in the afternoon at the same time as Caiden.

But they are two drastically different people and I couldn't imagine it any other way. I LOVE having a girl and know that we are going to butt heads in so many ways as we both grow together but it's so, so wonderful having a cute girlie, girl in the house. She loves to wear hair clips, lets me braid her hair and usually insists on picking out her outfits (which are the same two shirts she likes to wear every other day). Marc and I say all the time how lucky we are to have a girl and we just love her to death!

OH, THE DRAMA!

These two are like two peas in a pod. They just follow each other around and play together.

Caiden's 4-year check-up & Grace's 2-year check-up

Caiden weighed 34 lbs. 6 oz. (35th percentile) and 39.7 inches long (35th percentile). He did great as usual -answered all of Dr. Roberts questions and passed his hearing, eye sight and blood pressure test with flying colors! He'll go back in a year and need to get his four booster vaccines before he starts Kindergarten in a couple years.

Grace weighed 25 lbs. 3 oz. (49th percentile), 32.7 inches long (15th percentile) and her head is in the 45th percentile.  She did way better than she's ever done. In the past she has immediately started crying when anyone walks in the room. This time she sat patiently as Dr. Roberts checked her out and didn't cry at all. She had to get one shot (Hep A) and she barely flinched. They also pricked her finger to test her iron levels and they are back to normal. She'll go back in a year as well and need to get her four booster vaccines before she starts Kindergarten.

Birthday Party

We celebrated the kids birthday last weekend at the park by our house. We rented two ponies and had Chipotle for lunch. We had about 20 kids and 20 adults show up. I seriously can't believe the kids are almost outnumbering the adults in our circle of friends. Caiden even wanted to invite a few of his friends from school last year and he was so excited to see them.

Grace LOVED the ponies. She never wanted to get off and just loved every minute. Caiden also really enjoyed riding them although I think Grace was way more enamored with them. They were a huge hit with all the kids and I think Grace wants a pony now...Grandpa?!?!

After the party the kids took a nap and when they woke up it was time to open presents. Caiden woke up first so we let him open his up while Grace was still sleeping. He had such a fun time and would pick the card out and hand it to me before opening the gift. It was very interesting in the toys he wanted to immediately open and play with versus the ones he wanted to wait for.

Now our first floor looks like a Toy Store. I need to get rid of some old toys now because the play room is just out of control. It was such a great day and the kids had so much fun. 

Caiden: 4-years

Just saying it..."four", seems waaaay older than three. He has turned into full-on crazy boy mode almost 24/7. He likes to play "bad guys", build Lego's, ride his bike, yell about battling people, "win" at everything and just be crazy.

He's currently in swim lessons. It was a rough first two days, but by the third day he didn't want to get out of the water with Coach John. It's a really intense program -Swim 2 John -every single day for two weeks for 10 minutes a day. The first day he cried through the entire thing, the second day he cried though about half of it then by the third he jumped right in and was smiling at me every time he'd come up for air. He can seriously swim now! It's amazing and he loves it!

His imagination is becoming more and more vivid every day. He loves playing with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, his Buzz doll is probably his all time favorite and he's becoming more interested in Transformers. He will sit and "read" through a book and make up the story that he sees in the pictures. He's starting to engage Grace in a little more play time and I can't get over it when he asks Grace if she'll play with him. Which usually means her just chasing after him outside until she's bored with it and wonders off. The best is when Grace is being naughty and we ask Caiden if we should send her time-out and he always says, "no". We like to think he really does love her.

He is still taking a nap around 2pm every day. He has been accustomed to just hanging out in his crib (yes, he's still in his crib and it works amazingly for ALL of us ;)) for a few hours and not napping on many days -and boy does that make the afternoon a little more grumpy for him. It's much better for everyone if he naps! I'm not sure how much longer I have with this nap and I'm going to be very, very sad once it's over.

He's still very protective over his toys and sharing with Grace. It drives me bonkers at the amount of times I say, "We need to share". Our entire first floor is dedicated to little circles of his toys. He has all his Toy Story characters standing up/ laying down in their little circle, then in another area are the turtles then the transformers. And of course he puts them right in the most walkable pathway so I have to remind him that this is not a good spot because they get knocked over and he needs to move them to a corner. He gets so crazy over them if they get moved or adjusted in any way that was not the way he left them. It's like they are in a museum for 90% of the time.

His allergies are still kickin' hardcore. It's one of the hardest things I've ever managed in my life. It's on my mind every single minute of the day. We can't go anywhere without thinking about how it will effect his way of life. Even just a simple trip to Target can turn into a catastrophe when the cart (even after wiped down) is covered in invisible cheese pizza from the food court and he breaks out in hives all over his hands, arms and face. This kid is a champ though and powers through every birthday party without a grumble even though he usually can't eat a single thing and we have to bring pre-prepped food in for him or leave early. It's so tough answering the questions he has, "what do goldfish taste like?", "why does everyone like pizza?" (because the only pizza he's had either has no cheese or fake cheese and he doesn't like it), "why does milk not like my belly?". The list could go on forever. I can only pray that he grows out of them or they at least get weaker because even just the statement on food labels, "made in a facility that contains...", gets him sick.

His favorite show is still Curious George however I've managed to sneak in a few different ones that he's liking -Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Winnie the Pooh, PJ Masks and Ready, Jet, Go! Both the kids really love Winnie the Pooh and I think it's amazing because I always thought it was a bit boring. But Caiden seriously laughs out loud and rolls on the ground with laughter at some of the parts.

I can't believe we've had him for an entire four YEARS! He's smart. He's beautiful. He's witty and I love seeing where he takes us!