Kalten is full of these gems...

(While praying last night) "Dear Jesus, please help us get a new house, cause this one is all messy." I wonder if he realizes he's the reason this house is all messy.
He and Paul made a Geotrax train track and he removed the support for one of the elevated track pieces and said, "The train is going over the trestle bridge!"
Today he asked me to play with him and told me he was making an express train. I added a train car to his and he pulled it off and told me, "No, express engines DON'T carry FREIGHT cars!"

Birthdays

I think I like having both kids' birthdays over and done with in the first two months of the year.

Coen's party (because all one-year-olds get a big old party in our family) was at our house and I made a Brobee cake.

I swore I'd never torture myself like that again. I was up until 2 a.m. doing this cake. I had trouble frosting the sides where it was cut because it was crumbling. I forgot to reserve some white icing for his eyes so my parents dug in their cupboards and brought some crusty small marshmallows. They worked, I guess. The black icing gel ran a bit because I didn't knead it before I started. But everyone said it was cute and I did a good job, so I'm happy with it. Coen started walking right around his first birthday, and a week or so later was walking full-time.

For Kalten's birthday, I decided to try to get him a ride on one of his favorite vehicles. I posted on facebook, "For his birthday, Kalten would adore a ride in any or all of the following: a yellow car, a fire truck, an ambulance (preferably NOT for an emergency), a helicopter (mommy says no),a school bus, a mail truck, a PUS truck (he means UPS). Got any connections?" and a few people suggested our church's purple school bus. I called the pastor and arranged for him to pick K up at our house, take him to the grocery store (odd, I know) to pick out one new car from their display that Kalten must visit every time we get groceries, and then to meet his friends at McDonald's. All of this was going to be a surprise for him.

He requested a fire engine cake, which is NOT as simple as Family Fun would like you to believe. First of all, HOW did their cake get so squared off and perfect, without leaning? Second, I froze my cake overnight and it still crumbled as I frosted the cut edges. Overall, though, my cake looked acceptably fire-engine-esque, so I was satisfied. Tasted good, too.

Kalten had so much fun riding the bus and when we went in the grocery store, he was a little celebrity. He knew exactly which toy he wanted (a black train engine), and my friend who is a cashier there arranged for him to be given a yellow balloon, yellow being his favorite color. We got to McDonald's and his friends were arriving. It was just so perfect. My dad had gotten a table in the party room and just sort of "spread out" so we'd have enough room, since McD's doesn't reserve the room for lunchtime. He had a lot of fun, and then we got to ride the bus back home! He didn't nap yesterday, but still didn't sleep until almost 11! He was having so much fun with his new toys. I'll have more pictures later.

Funny stuff

Just wanted to share a few recent anecdotes.

Kalten saw me reading a book and wanted me to read to him. I knew it was way over his head, but he seemed to be really listening. About halfway through the page, he suddenly interrupted me, saying, "I have eyebrows!"

He likes when I tell him bedtime stories about Simon, a character we made up. Simon does all sorts of things, many of them closely mirror Kalten's daily adventures. Last night, Simon went to Chuck E Cheese, just like Kalten did and, like Kalten, he picked four Tootsie Rolls as a prize. At that point in the story, Kalten held up three fingers and said, "I have this many Tootsie Rolls!" Thinking that he had just performed simple subtraction (because he had eaten one already and had three left), I encouraged him. "Yes, you had four and you ate one, so you have three!" I tried to get him to do some more. "What if you had four Tootsie rolls and you ate two?" He paused in thought for a few moments and answered, "I'd get sick!"

New Year Goals (a little late)

1. Learn to crochet
2. get the etsy shop back up and running
3. List at least one new item per week
4. Add one blog entry both here and at heydooney every week
5. Give away clothes until my stuff fits in the dresser

Coen is nearly walking. This is nothing new, he's been nearly walking for ages, it seems. He can walk all over holding onto a hand or even a pant leg, but he will not let go and do it on his own. He takes a step here and there, and he took three yesterday, but he hasn't yet put it together that he can do it. Now, however, instead of cruising along the furniture, he climbs on top of it. This is scarier than having him walking because he's got farther to fall!

Kalten is nearly reading - as he has been for ages, he just doesn't put the sounds together into words. He can spell his name, and "go" and a few other simple words. He's really fun to watch on Starfall.com. He's figured out the games and does really well.

We went to Paul's parents' house for Christmas. We traveled for two days each way. Kalten did great. I packed a brand new backpack full of stuff he'd never seen before: books, cars, activities, cheap toys. There was always something interesting to do or look at. Coen was rough. He cried a lot and I spent most of the trip smashed in the backseat between the two carseats so he would travel better. He wasn't interested in the new toys I'd brought for him. He would take something and throw it over the side of the seat into the space between the seat and the door. Then when I opened his door to get him out, an avalanche of toys would fall out into the dirty slush. Cereal strung on yarn and tied in a circle kept him occupied for quite a while, but I don't like to give him sugary stuff often.

We had a great trip, and I've posted pictures over on Facebook. I need to get my videos up on Vimeo and I'll be set. We got to meet Leanor, from Scum of the Earth Church, who we support. It was so nice to see Paul's family again. I wish we lived closer.

We have yet to give Kalten his Christmas presents. We didn't bring them along to Colorado because we would have just had to bring them home again, and we're celebrating the family Christmas on Sunday when my brother and sister-in-law will be home from their trip to New York. We don't really have anything for Coen, we got him a bunch of new toys for the trip - a little cell phone, a teether strawberry, a book, and a few other things. So he already got his.

It's time to start thinking of birthdays. First Coen, then Kalten. First birthdays are a big deal in my family, so Coen's birthday is going to be crazy. Kalten's will be simpler.

Coen's burn

Well, I suppose I ought to update on Coen. We are not used to him crawling, as he has just started. So he crawled over to my ironing board while I had stepped away to go to the bathroom. He pulled on the cord and down it came, onto his left hand. He has 1st & 2nd degree burns on three of his fingers. He stopped crying almost immediately when we got his hand under cool water. He started playing with the stream of water. He didn't cry in the emergency room, even when they dressed it. He doesn't cry when I clean it or re-dress it, either. We took him to his regular doctor because we were worried about that, but he said the burns look like they are healing well and that he doesn't have much pain is a blessing, not something to worry about. The burns are not deep enough to have damaged the nerves.

At first, Coen would leave the bandage alone, but I think he got tired of it and has started working it off. I used to wrap it around his fingers and wrist, leaving his thumb free, but he figured out how to get his fingers out of the top part. So I took his thumb away, wrapping a few times around his wrist and he hasn't gotten that off. In a few more days, we won't need to wrap it anymore. The doctor said it probably won't even leave a permanent scar, but it will take a long time to look "normal" again.

He is a lucky little boy, the iron fell just off from his knuckles and he is able to bend all his fingers. There's a picture of him on Facebook with his cute little blue bandage, but Blogger won't let me upload right now.

In other news, he still only has one tooth and is pulling himself up to stand on things, even things that aren't very stable.

Watching a baby learn is amazing.

This morning, Coen and I sat on the floor in the toy room playing. Co had his pacifier in his hand and was picking up other stuff that was laying on the floor. He picked up a piece of wooden train track and examined it. Then he brought his hands together quickly (he has started hitting his fists together but he hasn't yet figured out how to clap). This, of course, made a sound as the pacifier hit the track. Coen stopped and looked a little surprised. He looked at the paci, then he looked at the track. Then he started banging them together over and over. He got so excited that he could make the noise happen from two things that don't make noise! It was so neat to watch his little gears turning.

In other news, I set up an appointment for WIC today. Not sure how I feel about that. My biggest problem is that they can treat you like you're uneducated just because you need a little help. I was "referred" because we get the medical card. I got a letter that said they were "required" to meet with me. It didn't say that I was required to meet with them, though. I put it off for a long time because I felt like it wasn't their business, just because we don't have health insurance doesn't mean we (I) need education or to be taught how to be a good mom. But Paul's unemployment won't last forever, and nobody will hire someone who is in school for the hours he needs and the pay he needs for us to survive, so any way to stretch the budget is good, and we could use the food coupons to cut down on grocery money. So I sucked it up and called. The girl I talked to on the phone, though, seemed really nice and understanding. She was excited that I am breastfeeding because it'll boost their numbers. I guess the breastfeeding rate around here is pretty low.
I'm a little nervous because they said to bring the kids' vaccination records. And there aren't any. I'm afraid they're going to try to bully me into vaxing them when I'm not ready. The thing is, I've probably read more on the subject than any of them. No, I'm not convinced my kids are going to develop Autism, but I'm also not convinced the shots are safer than the possibility of the (treatable) diseases in healthy kids. I'm not trying to convince anyone, I'm just doing what I believe is best for my family, and I don't want to be treated like I'm neglecting my kids for it. I've heard some horror stories about WIC people being bullies and even calling CPS (it's not CPS material, since it's NOT neglect and parents have the right to refuse). I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Indiana trip and ER

Well, we had a busy week last week in Indiana. We went to the zoo, the children's museum, and a waterpark. We had a lot of fun. You can find pictures of our trip on Facebook. If you can't see them, add me as a friend. There are also videos up on Vimeo.
Kalten started acting a little sick while we were there, and Saturday night after we got home, he was wheezing and short of breath. He told me he wanted to go to bed way before he usually does and as I laid him down to put a diaper on for sleeping, he just, boom, went to sleep. He was still breathing heavily and shallow, and I could feel his heart pounding. We decided to take him to the ER around 9:30 and we didn't get out until almost 2:00 a.m. He got four albuterol breathing treatments and a chest X-ray, along with two prescriptions. I was holding Coen, so I had to leave the X-ray room. When I was able to go back in, Kalten told me all about it. He pointed to the X-ray guy who was back behind the partition and said, "he's goin' back in his big house. He's doin' his computer. He's BUSY." He did so well despite waking up in a strange place with strange people. He is doing better now but still wheezes occasionally.
Coen is sitting up pretty well now and rolls constantly. His newest thing is sticking his tongue out when he smiles. It's so cute! He is the happiest baby I've ever met. He smiles a lot and at everyone. Of course he has his "moments," but overall he's really content and easygoing.