"Doe Way"

I have been taking Caleb to the Child Watch at the gym while I exercise. He ends up going 4-5 times per week. Each visit is between 1 and 2 hours long. That really isn't that much time. Apparently though, it is too much time.

It's amazing how quickly children can learn from each other. Caleb really loves to go to "school" to play with Asher and the vroomas. (Asher is not the only other child in there, he's just the one that Caleb likes the best.) He has learned some good things while there. He is learning his socializing skills. He also learns a lot of language and game playing from the older kids in the class. They have a woman come in and teach them sign language. They work on counting and ABC's and other preschool type things.

But, with the good comes the bad. He has learned a couple of phrases that I would like to erase from his vocabulary. His favorite new phrase is "Doe Way" which means Go Away. He even gets the nasty tone with it and will name the person he wants to go away. "Doe Way, Mommy". The other phrase is "Stop It". This one he tries to hit while saying it. Very bad behavior. I know it's confusing for him because he hears other kids using these phrases. He gets upset when he has to sit in time out for saying them. He will learn that these phrases are not acceptable in this house. He's lucky he's so darn cute.

A Cold Winter's Night

Technically it's not winter yet. It's still fall for a couple more weeks. The weather, though, said otherwise. Friday evening at around 5:30 it was already in the 20's. That's a perfect night to go stand in the middle of mainstreet to watch the lights be lit and Santa go down the street. Right? Yeah, not so much.


We did go to the Downtown Littleton lighting. We almost didn't because Aaron felt it was too cold. The kids were wild though. I mentioned that I would take them to the bookstore instead. Aaron decided that if we were going out anyway we might as well go to the lighting. Probably not a great idea, but we were living in the moment.


The "ceremony" was scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30. I thought that this meant the parade with Santa would start at 5:30 and the whole event would be over at 6:30. I guess that's why I'm not an Event Planner. We were downtown at 5:30 ready to go. We grabbed our free hot cocoa and picked a perfect place to watch the parade. By 5:45, nothing had happend yet. Aaron ran into the coffee shop and got us some hot drinks. That took about 20 minutes because the line was terribly long.


After getting the coffee we decided to try walking around to keep warm. It was very cold and we were starting to feel it despite our many layers of clothing. Aaron should have put on his long johns when the rest of us did. His legs were very cold. We walked to the end of mainstreet where we saw the tree. Also, they had children getting up on the stage to sing. Normally, I would have thought this was very cute. But, it was cold outside and the kids did not know the words to the songs they were singing. Very annoying!


Finally, we decided to give up on the lighting and started to walk back to our car. Just as we were about to turn down the street where our car was parked the lights started to come on. This was at 6:35. They lit one block at a time. Santa rode in the back of a truck. That was the parade. I don't know how long it took to light the entire street, but it took about 10 minutes to light the 2 blocks that we saw.


Hopefully, the Parade of Lights we are attending in downtown Denver next weekend goes better.

A First Thanksgiving

This was our first Thanksgiving in Colorado. The weather definitely welcomed us with snow and cold. In what has become our tradition, we invited some guys from Aaron's work to have dinner with us. Three of the guys came and one of them brought his wife so we had 4 extra people for dinner. This was the first Thanksgiving for all of them. They are all from India. They have all been in the States for more than a year, but this was their first time having a Thanksgiving dinner.

We fixed mostly traditional dishes. We did add a couple of egg-free and vegetarian dishes. All of the food turned out great. We were even able to time everything almost perfectly. Aaron told everyone to be here at 2:00. Everything was done cooking at 2:30 and we then sat down and ate. In true Thanksgiving fashion everyone ate until they were over full.

After dinner we all just sat in the living room and talked. We learned how arranged marriages in India actually work. One of our guests is going to India in January to meet and interview potential wives. Apparently, using his horoscope his family will have chosen about 5 girls for him to interview. He will choose between those five girls who he will marry. We found this entire process to be very interesting. They probably thought that we would never stop asking questions.

Our guests all left at about 6:00. Then the four of us sat down and played a board game. Campbell loves Clue so we played that. Caleb even got a "turn". Really all he did was move his man around the board. He did a great job counting, though. His man always moved six spots. That's how many he can count without assistance.

It was a really nice day. Although, we missed all of our friends and family in Carolina. We wish that they could have all been with us on this day of Thanks.

Elmo Potty

We have been working with Caleb in a very relaxed manner on using the potty. We let him choose in the morning if he is going to wear a diaper, pullup, or underwear. We have been hit or miss on him actually using the potty. When he does, it's usually because I have put him on the potty in time. Last night was very different.

He was wearing his big boy Elmo underwear. He started to go potty, stopped himself and told me he needed the potty. I quickly pulled off his underwear and stuck him on the potty and he finished his job. While I know that we have a long way to go in this training effort, this one little step tells me that we are getting closer.

Can you gues what we are using as potty prizes?

ER or Not ER?

We started our weekend by trying to get family pictures done. The last formal ones we had done were when Cambell was 4. It was about time. It did not go well. The first group of pictures she showed us, we did not find one pose worth purchasing. Sure there were some cute pictures, but there was a flaw with each of them. I am cheap and if I'm going to pay for pictures, they better be good. I don't want to see any glare on the glasses. I don't want one kid looking like he trying his best to get up and run around like a crazy man (gee I wonder who that was). And I know it's difficult, but I would like for all four of us to at least look like we wanted to be there and were a happy family. She took a few more poses and we finally got two that we could choose. Aaron and Campbell ended up taking off their glasses so that we didn't have to contend with glare.

It was 7:00 by the time we finished taking and ordering our pictures. I still had to pay but didn't figure that would take too long. We hadn't had dinner yet and we were all starving. The plan was to head over to the Vietnamese restaurant right after we left the photo place. After 30 minutes of the lady messing up the orders, I sent Aaron and the kids to pick up dinner and told them I would meet them at home. Finally she got it all together and the order went through. Now let's just hope that she actually ordered the correct pictures.

Aaron and the kids brought the dinner home. We can at least say that we tried the Pho Noodles. We will never get them again, but we at least tried them. None of us really cared for the food. Aaron and I ate it just because we paid for it and we didn't want to cook. Campbell had a peanut butter sandwhich. Little "I don't like peanut butter, ew" Caleb ate some raviolis.

The rest of the weekend went rather smoothly. Aaron worked on a wood working project. The kids and I cleaned and ran some errunds. Sunday at around noon is when all that changed. Aaron came in from the garage holding his hand up. That's when I saw the blood. See, if I cut myself we're in pretty good shape. When Aaron cuts himself we're screwed. I can handle my own blood but someone else's blood makes me squeemish. Aaron can handle other people's blodd but not his own. Upon seeing his finger I immediately felt a little sick. I could tell that he also felt very sick and knew it when he yelled for a stool. I collected myself and gathered the necessary equipment. He didn't want to have to go to the ER. I got tweezers, scissors, gauze and tape. We boiled some water for the tweezers and scissors.

He had sanded a good portion of his finger. Once we got it washed and I pulled some of the debris out, we could see that it was too deep. He needed to see a doctor. We wrapped his finger and sent him to the Urgent Care down the street. They cleaned it up and wrapped it properly. He cut it all the way to muscle but not the bone.

While he was at the doctor Caleb slept and Campbell and I made cranberries and cheese spread for Thursdays dinner. The rest of the afternoon went well. I was able to go to the store by myself and later in the evening Aaron took Campbell ice skating. We are now prepared for our holiday week.

WARNING: Ugly sanded finger picture below.

Even the Best

You all know that Campbell is a very good kid. She rarely gets in trouble. When she does it's usually for being mouthy or not cleaning her room. These I feel are normal 9 year old misbehaviors. Before this week, she had never been in trouble in school. School is her sanctuary and she always tries to be the model student. Her worst offense at school up to this point was reading a book during math class. Oh the horrors! :)

Here's what happened. Each child has a homework journal. They bring it home each day. The parents are to look at the book and make sure that the child does the homework listed in the journal. Once the homework is done the parent must sign the book to let the teacher know that they have looked at it and that the child has done their homework. The student then takes the book back to school the next day. If there is not a parent signature the child loses 5 minutes off their recess. Personally, I think it stinks that the child loses 5 minutes just because the parent was being slack and didn't sign the book, but I digress.

One day last week I forgot to sign her book. It happened to be a day when there was a substitute so she may not have lost the 5 minutes anway, but who knows. Instead of just letting it go, our smart little girl decided that she would sign my name for me. Yes, that's right. My 9 year old committed forgery. Unfortunately for her, the sub didn't catch it. Mommy did. She recieved a huge lecture from Aaron and I. We then sent a note to the teacher letting her know what had happened and asked that she make Campbell stay in for the the 5 minutes she would have lost. The teacher took it one step further. She made her do this paper called a Think Tank. The paper asks questions about what the child did. Why it was wrong. And what are you going to do the next time you are faced with this situation. Campbell was mortified that she was subjected to this type of punishment.

We know that all kids try this. I mean, her parents both tried it. Aaron even remembers that as a 1st grader he tried it. Only, he signed the paper with "My mommy". Campbell's forgery was a bit more sophisticated. It does suck as a parent though to see your child so upset because she had to be punished. It's really difficult to draw that line between comforting your child and teaching her the difference between right and wrong.

Space Explorers

Aaron had Navy Leadership training all weekend so the kids and I were on our own. Saturday morning after lounging half the morning in our pj's we decided to head out to find a new park. We started by dropping some clothes off at the consignment store. As an added bonus, I had some money on the records there so I got paid $19. That's always a nice surprise. After leaving the consignment store we dropped our movies off and dropped some stuff off at Goodwill.

I knew the general area where this park was, but I didn't know exactly where it was. We headed down the correct street and lucky for us the park was on the right and very easy to see. We parked the car and headed out to explore. We found both the train depot and the petting farm. Unfortunately, despite the 70 degree day, those activities are closed for the season. They won't be open again until Memorial Day. We were just going to have to be happy playing on the playground equipment.

There were two playground areas seperated by a picnic area. One area looks like your average play area with slides, swing, tubes and the like. The other one is where the kids chose to play. The equipment looked like space ships. Caleb loves space ships these days. To him anything is a spaceship (i.e. the package of discs, the toy iron, etc.). Campbell is currently studying the solar system in school. She taught me a ton of space stuff that day. We spent two hours going to Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Uranus (which is now pronounced Urnus). I was informed that we could not go to Pluto because it is no longer a planet. Boy! It has been awhile since I was in school.

We grabbed some McD's on the way home. Caleb fell asleep as soon as we got in the car so he ate his cold when he woke up later. The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the house. Aaron met up with us in the evening. We ate at a restaurant we hadn't tried before. It was good food but I will need to spend the next two weeks in the gym everyday to work it off.

Sunday morning, Campbell and I headed out to a baby shower while Caleb played with his friend Jake. Jake is almost 3 and lives down the street from us. I was very glad that he could play with Jake while Campbell and I went out. He had a great time doing everying boy. They threw balls down the stairs, played cars, and did lots of screaming. Campbell and I had a nice couple of hours together celebrating our friends new baby who is to arrive the middle of December.

When Good Kids Turn Bad

Caleb is normally a pretty good kid. He definitely knows how to throw his toys around a room and make a mess. But, usually he's pretty good. And then Friday evening happened...

I had been upstairs cleaning up the weekly mess in the office. Caleb was there with me. I decided to run downstairs and start dinner quickly. I was making a quick dinner since I more warm pre-made stuff than actually cook, so it only took about 5 minutes for me to get it started. In that five minutes, Caleb showed me just how quick and sneaky he could be.

Upon returning to the office I noticed Caleb's face looked funny. Upon further investigation I discovered that he had retrieved a tube of lipstick from my make-up drawer, drawn all over his face and shirt, and painted some walls. Ahhhh.....Boys!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Aaron had drill all weekend so the kids and I hung out. We went to a craft show which was just over crowded so we didn't hang out there too long. Although, we did find some fruity smelling all organic playdough. Caleb got to play with it Saturday afternoon. It was his first experience with playdough. At first he didn't really know what to do with it, but he soon figured it out. We also went shopping. On Sunday, I told Campbell that if she helped me clean the house then we could go watch a movie. Bribery is a great thing. She has never cleaned the living room so quickly! We ended the weekend with a nice family dinner out. To make it even better, we were the only people in the restaurant. It was really nice to have our own personal restaurant for a bit.

Dress Up

The kids had a great Halloween. Tuesday evening the kids and Aaron carved their pumpkins. Caleb was not at all pleased with the scary pumpkin that Aaron did for Campbell. So, Caleb got a happy pumpkin. Both of the kids had a great time pulling all the insides out of the pumpkin. Caleb thougt this was the best game ever.

On Wednesday, Campbell got to dress up for school. She decided this year that she would be a witch. Aaron and I were so happy to have her out of the princesses. She has done the princesses to death. Caleb and I joined her at school for her party. We only spent about 45 min there but Campbell was happy to have us and Caleb enjoyed all the stimulation. After Campbell's party Caleb and I went to Daddy's office. Caleb got dressed in his costume and made the rounds around the office. He had a lot of fun.

That evening we started by going out to dinner. We then met up with a few people and did the trick-or-treat thing in an outdoor mall. It was a lot of fun. The event was put on by the police department and the police were there in force so it was very safe. The stores all did a great job handing out candy to the kids. Caleb really understood that he was getting candy this year. Although, he really only cared about the doddy bop (lolly pops). He made sure that he had one in his hand at all times.

We spent about an hour before Campbell said that she was done. We can always count on her to tell us when she is done. She has always been that way. When she's done, she's done. She really doesn't do if for the candy as much as the experience. She is an odd child; mature beyond her years. Caleb was worn out after the first 15 minutes, but he hung in there well with his sister.