The "patterin"...

Casden started up his new semester at preschool, and this time around he is there through lunchtime. He is going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On his first day of school, I packed his lunch and I put a little special treat in there (2 hershey kisses). That's special, because I don't let my kiddos have treats after lunch. Well, when I picked him up, he informed that he wasn't allowed to eat his treat. I figured, oh, okay, I guess they aren't allowed to have treats. No problem. So, the next school day, I pack his lunch and do not include a treat. His teacher meets me at the door when I go to pick him up. She tells me that Casden was very disappointed that there was no treat in his lunch. I told her that he told me that he wasn't allowed to have treats. Well, she explained, they are allowed to have treats, but they have to eat all their healthy food first. (Casden is the world's slowest eater. He cannot be rushed through a meal. He sits and apparently enjoys each bite. The more you try to rush him, the slower he becomes.) So, she tells me, while he may not ever get to eat his treat because lunchtime will be over, I should put one in.

Over the following weekend, Casden is trying to tell me that he thinks it's going to be a patterin. I cannot for the life of me figure out what he is talking about. "A patterin, Mommy. A patterin!" "Buddy, I have no idea what you are talking about." "You know, Mommy. A patterin...a patterin of treat, no treat, treat, no treat. I think my next school lunch is going to be treat." OH, A PATTERN!! What a smartie pants this kid is.

So, that's what we've been doing now. A two-part pattern of treat (Tuesday) and no treat (Thursday). And he still can't say "pattern", but I'm still impressed he knew what one was!!

Daddy's fallen...

I was on the phone with Daddy today and let Casden check in as well. When Casden was trying to pass the phone back to me, it fell to the ground. Casden exclaims, "Are you okay, Daddy?!" I was laughing and laughing and said, "I liked that, Casden." And Casden said, "I liked it, too."

Watch what you say....

We are aware that our kids pick up our words and phrases. We really try to make a conscious effort not to say things that we wouldn't want repeated, but like anyone, we're only human. Luckily, for us, we are not too vulgar or offensive on a regular basis so our kids haven't picked up anything awful.

Listening to the kids the other night, Casden came out with this one. The context: The kids are going through their buckets (they each have a treat bucket still filled with some Halloween candy and some odds and ends from Christmas parties) after dinner the other night. Padget has made a pile of things which Casden apparently thought she was choosing to eat. He blurts out, "For the love of God, Padget, are you going to eat all that?!" Tim and I just died laughing.

M & M's

So, my father-in-law is a bit (ha, ha) sweet treat obsessed. M & M's flow like water at his house. So, of course, once Aidric turned one, he has been offered M's over there. I've been working with Aidric on sign language, since he still isn't talking, and he's finally picking up signs for some things. Not many, but at least we're making progress. Anyways, a few weeks ago at one of our weekly Thursday night dinners at my in-laws, Pop-Pop was trying to get Aidric to say M's or M & M's or some semblance of it and was having no luck. So, Pop-Pop inverted his fingers on the table to make a rough "M" shape to try to get Aidric to sign for the M's. We haven't used that sign since. Well, last night we were finishing up dinner at their house and I look over and Aidric is inverting his fingers frantically and looking around at us to see if anyone is noticing. Yep, he was flashing the sign that Pop-Pop taught him for M & M's! We could hardly believe it, but there is was, just like Pop-Pop showed him! And of course, Pop-Pop was happy to oblige.

Aidric's Jealous Streak

Wow, Aidric is a jealous little monkey! If anyone other than him tries to crawl up in my lap and snuggle with me, he gets very upset. For example, the other day Aidric was very involved playing across the room and Casden crawled into my lap. He was there for a full minute or two until Aidric noticed. Aidric dropped what he was playing with, threw himself to the ground, and started wailing. He then crawled over to me, still wailing, and proceeded to try with all his might to pull Casden off of me. He pushed at him, pulled at him, pulled some hair, and finally Casden had had enough. He got off. Aidric planted himself on my lap, in triumph, and was quiet as could be. The drama from Padget is not exempt in this one either. As I said, it doesn't have to be Padget or Casden in my lap. Any other child will cause him to throw a fit. I held my new baby niece, Breana, over the weekend, and you would have thought I cut off his arm, the way he carried on. My sister-in-law picked him up and carried him out of the room so maybe he would settle down. Tim took him from her and continued to carry on. He carried on until I gave Breana to someone else and picked him. And then, of course, he was perfectly fine. He is definitely mama's boy!

Padget explaining our wedding anniversary

So, today is our 9th wedding anniversary. Seems surreal to me that 9 years have gone by. As my friend Amy said, a few moves, a few jobs, and a few kiddos later! Anyway, I digress...

I set to work this morning making chocolate chip cookies for Tim. They are his favorite afterall, and we really aren't doing anything else to celebrate our anniversary (maybe dinner out this weekend). As I'm elbow deep in cookie prep, the doorbell rings, and a lady delivers a beautiful bouquet of fall flowers from Tim. Padget gets all excited as she didn't realize that today was our anniversary. I told her, yep, it's our 9 year anniversary. Casden didn't really understand that so I was telling him that 9 years ago today, his daddy and I got married. Padget pipes in, "Ya, it's been 9 years. If she was young, it would only be her first anniversary. But she's not, so it's her 9 year anniversary." Um, thanks?

Casden's new word

The kids love to use hand santizer in lieu of washing their hands. I don't usually let them do this, but let them use it in between washings, especially if one of them is sick. So Casden has been fighting a cold and has been using the sanitizer. In asking for it, he has managed to combine the words and now calls it "handitizer". Very creative, I think!