Ta Dah

Well we finally got the swingset built!!!!  It only took 3 weeks to get it done.  Saturday we went to the children’s Museum for their Dinomania, for members only, and the girls got to play until about 11:30.  They love going there, shopping in the grocery store and playing in the ball room are their favorites.  They got a goody bag with a dinosaur, pencil, fruit snacks and raisins and then they each got a dino tattoo.  Then we had lunch and went home.  I started working on the swingset about noon.  Finished with the monkey bars about 5:30 – and we still weren’t totally finished with it!  They were so anxious to play on it that we let them climb the stairs and just hang out in the fort part on top.  Sunday after church me and the girls took a nap while Tim worked some more on the swingset.  2 hours later when we got up, Tim was just finishing.  So they got to go out and swing for a little while.  They just love it!  Then we went to Faith Family and the girls got to play with Jordy, the other 3 year old in our Faith family.  They love to play with her and it’s really cute to watch them play together.

Today right after Caitlin got up she told me she had to go check on her swingset.  So she went to the back sliding doors and parted the curtains to check on it.  Yep, still there.  I let her know it wasn’t going any where.  I don’t know if she believes me or not.  Then when Jaden got up we got dressed and I bribed Caitlin that if she let me brush her hair we could go swing.  That worked wonderfully, I may try that every day!  We went out and they played for an hour on it!  The gnats around here are HORRIBLE and I was ready to go inside after 10 minutes!  I’ll post pictures later of everything, the best place to view all our photos is http://picasaweb.google.com/McCabe1019/KidsPics?authkey=uzVZEM-zVLo

 

OUCH

Today as I was combing Caitlin’s hair she kept saying it hurt.  I try to be careful, but I honestly hate combing her hair more than anything in the world.  I keep asking her if she would like to go get it cut.  But she keeps saying no.  So every day I struggle to get a comb through her hair.  I think of her cousin Gracies hair and how straight and pretty it is and how easy it must be to get a comb through it.  I love Caitlin’s curly hair – but hate the hassle of doing it. 

After doing her hair today she asked if she could do mine.  I love having my hair done, so of course I let her.  I’m not sure why I let her.  I think she purposely combs it in the wrong direction to get it really tangled and getting the combs and brushes stuck in it.  She then tries to pull them out – I think she is paying me back for combing her hair.  Then Jaden wanted in on the action.  She combs nicely, but she grabs chunks of my hair, then holds on to it while she does other things, like bending over and grabbing hair clips she can’t quite reach, in the process pulling out my hair.   In the end my hair was tangled and my head was sore, but of course, the next time they ask, I’ll be more than happy to let them do it again.

Shameless

When I was little I remember my dad exploiting my sister and me to scratch his feet for a quarter.  Today he would probably be arrested for violating child labor laws.  However, I can’t help think of his feet whenever Caitlin and Jaden ask to put lotion on me.  I lay on the floor and Tim dishes out the lotion to them to rub on my feet, back, legs and arms.  I think mostly they just love to play with the lotion – because they don’t actually rub it in, they just go up to Tim and say “more” and the put it on my back for 1 second then go and ask for more.  By the time they are done I’m covered in lotion and can’t move because I’ll get it every where if I do.  But I always chuckle to myself because I SWORE I would not do that with my kids.  At least now they do it for free, I’m sure some day I’ll have to offer them a quarter!

Best hugs ever

One of my favorite things about Jaden is how loving and sweet she is.  No matter what is going on, if I ask her for a hug, she runs to me and wraps her tiny little arms around my neck and gives be the biggest and best hugs I’ve ever had.  If I ask for a kiss, she puckers up and gives me a kiss.  Today while she was hugging me, I said “you give the best hugs in the world”, she said “yep”.

A Meatball?

Today I was brushing Caitlin’s hair and she started laughing .  She said “my hair is in my armpit?”  I said “it is, that’s silly, you’re a goofball.”  She said “no, I’m a MEATBALL!!”.

Long Weekend

I had Friday and Monday off, so I got to enjoy a long weekend.  Had a garage sale Thursday and Friday morning.  It went ok, made about $100, which is always nice.  Then Friday I went to mom’s house – she had taken the girls there Thursday.  Went out to dinner with some friends then went to a little bar and had a drink and talked and laughed.  I love going out with my friends and wish they lived closer so we could do it more often.

Saturday we took Caitlin and Jaden and met Keli and Micah and their three kids for a pancake breakfast at the port of Burlington.  Apparently it’s a huge deal and the line was so long it went down to the river.  After that we went to Perkins park and the kids all played while Keli and I got to catch up and just talk.   Then went back to mom’s and her and I went to do a little shopping.  We’re redoing parts of our house, so we looked for trim.  Stayed at mom’s house that night. 

Sunday after brunch we went back to North Liberty to the Blues and BBQ going on at the park.  They had live music, a petting zoo, bouncy house, tattoos for the kids, face painting and firemen and food.   We had a good time and it was free, always nice to do things for free.  Later we went to a friends house for there 3 year olds birthday party.  Caitlin and Jaden had a great time playing with Jordy.  We had grilled hot dogs and brats and cake and ice cream and then sat around and talked.  Some more people we know from church showed up with their 4 kids and then the girls had even more fun playing with all the kids there.  They are really starting to become less shy around other kids and I love to watch them interact.

Monday we went to downtown Iowa City and the girls played in the fountains and on the playground equipment that’s down there.  They had the best time playing in the water.  Then we ate at the wedge pizza and headed home.  After naps we went to Lowes and picked up some tomato plants and some petunias.  Got home just in time to see the ice cream truck turn down our road.  It’s so funny, Caitlin only got ice cream one time last year from that truck, but now she knows that music and the truck.  So I told her she could get some ice cream, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget her sweet little smile when I told her she could have some.  She was so excited.  We went out across the street and waited for him to come back around.  They waited to patiently and when they heard the music coming around the block they both started jumping up and down – it was so cute!  After some very messy and sticky bomb pops and twin pops, we hosed the girls down and then went and planted the tomatoes.  We planted petunias and trimmed lilac bushes, then had dinner.  Maybe I’m a bad mom, but after dinner we went to Isaac’s ice cream – I know, ice cream twice in one day is bad.  Some people we know from church own it and I have been wanting to go check it out, so we went and the girls got chocolate ice cream.  I got sherbert – it was very good.  That was another sticky and messy adventure – but the girls loved it and topped off a pretty perfect weekend.  I love it when our weekends go so great.

Ants in your where???

Grandma James likes to play a little game with Caitlin, that she used to play with Jason.  She pinches Caitlin’s bottom while shouting “ants in your pants, ants in your pants”.  Caitlin loves it.  While mom was doing this with her Caitlin said “no, I have ants in my BUTT!”.  She is at such a cute age and I love some of the things she says, they’re so funny.

Long week

I’ve had lots going on this week.  Since I ended my last blog about how the wood in the swingset was the wrong size, I will now amend that to, the wood was the right size.  My brain was the wrong size.  Turns out the longer wood went to the rock wall.  Any way, now I have to try to take care of that.

Tim passed out at work on Tuesday and hit his head.  He had to be taken to the ER and he had 15 stitches.  He has low blood pressure and when he is sick, his blood pressure drops even more.  They took a chest x-ray and he has pneumonia too.  So that along with his low blood pressure, he passed out.  He’s doing fine now and when he gets the stitches off he’ll have a very rugged, sexy scar on his forehead.  I felt bad for him because Caitlin kept saying “I don’t want to look at your ouwy daddy” and then she would keep away from him and not look at him.  She’s fine now, I think she was just afraid for a little bit.

Mom’s been up since Monday night, she’s been doing lots of stuff around my house for me.  She got the ceiling in my laundry room painted and a curtain ironed for me and set up my garage for our garage sale.  Today she spent most of the day selling things for me and taking care of the girls.  She took them back to her house tonight and Tim and I will head there tomorrow after I have another garage sale.  Between me and Karen we sold $100 worth of stuff, not bad considering we didn’t advertise.  Word of mouth got around my neighborhood pretty fast and thats mostly who came and bought stuff.  Hopefully tomorrow goes better.  Oh yeah, I have walking pneumonia too.  The doctor said drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest.  I don’t forsee the rest thing happening.  but we’ll see

Dentist

Caitlin had her first real dentist appt. today.  We’ve gone to two other dentists with her before, but they turned out horrible.  The first time, we sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes, then when we finally got back into the chair, we waited another 15 before I finally picked her up and left.  The second dentist, we waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes, then she got in the chair and the dental hygentist came at her wearing a mask and brandishing the sucky thing that sucks the spit out of your mouth.  She then pushed the button to manuever the chair into a reclining position which freaked Caitlin out.  Then the dentist came in and said, “oh well, we’ll just try again another time”.  I thought, we sure will, just not here.  So finally today we went to a pediatric dentist.  The waiting room was awesome.  It had a fort with stairs going up to a lookout and a slide.  Under neath was a hideout area.  It was all done in Iowa theme.  Towards the back was another room with video games for older kids.  The girls loved it.  So we got in right away so that was great.  When Caitlin sat down the hygenist lowered a t.v. and put Wonderpets on.  She then showed Caitlin the mask and gloves she was putting on.  She walked her through everything she was doing and Caitlin did great.  She still didn’t like the chair reclining, so they let her prop herself up on her elbows while they brushed her teeth.  We found out that it’s better to brush your teeth at night then the morning because your mouth drys out at night and causes all the stuff you ate during the day to do more damage.

The dentist said her mouth looked good except she has a gap in her front teeth that may need to be corrected later on.  The hygenist came back in and “painted” flouride on her teeth.  Anyone who has never had this done – it is the most disgusting thing.  They put this varnish stuff on your teeth, it’s sticky and gross and tastes horrible!  So then she got to pick out a toy and sticker from the treasure chest.  On the way home she kept saying the paint on her teeth is gross.  But it was a great experience and I won’t dread taking her the next time.

Swing Set

Saturday Tim and I spent part of the day putting together a swingset.  We didn’t get a lot accomplished because about 45 minutes after sorting all the pieces of lumber (which were lettered a – ad), the drill died.  Tim’s parents had the girls, so we went to Buffalo wild wings and had a nice relaxing lunch.  I ordered a piece of cheesecake for Tim and to split as a treat for being alone, but because of my cold, I couldn’t taste it, so I got to watch Tim eat it all.  It looked really good.  Then we went to Target and bought diapers, then home to continue with the swing set.  Apparently, 2 hours of charging will only warrant 20 minutes of use, because after 20 minutes, the drill was dead again.  So we went grocery shopping.  Then out to dinner.  Without kids around, I had no desire to cook.  After dinner, we decided to do a little more with the swingset.  Just started again when we realized we didn’t have the L brackets to hook the flooring to the frame.  Oh, well, I thought we’d just go later to get some from Lowes.  Then I went to put two boards on – they were the wrong size.  I know they are the wrong size because the directions say they should be 40 1/2 inches, and they are 50 1/2 inches.  Just at that time the girls show up.  So they go in the house with Grandma Leta while Grandpa Jim, Tim and I head to the garage to saw some wood.  I got it cut right (FYI – Tim and Jim are at about the same level when it comes to building), then we head to the back and get it attached.  After an entire day of building on and off, we have a swingset frame with 8 pieces of lumber attached.  Sunday Tim got the ladder and rock wall put together – but not on the set yet.  Maybe after 3 more weeks we’ll be close to putting the swings on.  I feel so bad because Caitlin keeps looking out the back door at her “swingset” and asking if she can go swing.  And she gets upset because she doesn’t want “the kids” to use it.  THose would be the kids she sees walking to school behind our house.  I have to assure her no one will use it before her.