Delicious Cake

K2 baked a cake for work. He chose to make a Neapolitan cake, with layers of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. I had to post a picture of it. It was pretty amazing!

Here is the cake on Tuesday night....


...and all the was left Wednesday afternoon.

A Christmas Miracle

Happier times in October

Good news! After a month of being banned from bed and play, Baby Owen has decided to make good choices. Kevin told me that Owen is ready to listen to his words. While getting dressed for bed tonight, Kevin and Owen had a "discussion" and Kevin revealed this information to me. It was alarming and adorable at the same time.

Also, at dinner, a family with three blond girls sat down next to us right before our dinner was served. Colin stared at them the entire meal. He didn't turn around to talk to us or to eat. Nothing. When leaving he even yelled "BYE!" and waved at them. It should be noted that at no time did one of them talked or looked at him. (I think we may have a future stalker.)

One last story for the night. The boys have rooms right next to each other. Usually there is very little noise that comes from their rooms after bedtime. Occasionally, Kevin will be upset and cry for a minute. When that happens, Colin immediately starts crying, and stops the instant Kevin stops. (It is pretty cute.) However, tonight as the first night that I think I heard talking between the rooms. Already kids????

Corndog!

His favorite shirt (as promised).

Kevin said this to me at breakfast this morning.

"I am going to punch you in the corndog!"

Secret Present

As a gift for Colin, I got him a Little People book (thanks to a friend). When Colin left with K2 this evening, I got it out to wrap. Kevin said that he wanted to give the book to Colin. So we wrapped it together, and labeled the tag "To Colin, From Kevin." I then told Kevin that he needs to hide the present in his room, to surprise Colin with it on Christmas. He ran upstairs, returned, and told me that he hid it under his bed.

Later, when Colin got home, he told him "You are getting a Little People book for Christmas." Something tells me that he doesn't quite get it yet.

Cute things

Two more stories of things Kevin says and does.

1. I was putting him to bed last night and he wanted to play with his sword. (The one from Halloween.) I agreed, but told him that once the light goes off, the sword gets put away. He has been fine with this rule since we started it in early Halloween. Last night he was very angry about putting the sword away. I took it from him and put it on his dresser. (He is the only child I know who will not get out of bed to retrieve it.) As I walked out he told me "You should be ashamed of yourself."



2. Colin got the flu again this weekend. He was not able to go to Gramps and Pappy's birthday party on Sunday evening. Kevin was concerned about Colin, and brought home a plastic aquarium where the fish swim around. As soon as he walked in the door he told me "I brought it home for Colin. I am going to put it in his room and make him feel better." He did walk up to Colin's room where we plugged it in and both boys watched it for a while. Colin still looks at it before he goes to bed, and loves to point and say the word fish.

He is quite happy with is fish.

Playing on the stairs

For those who don't know, Kevin and Colin have blankets. These are the blankets they sleep with and use when they are upset. However, these are not things that my husband and I want them to drag around everywhere. So the rule has been that the blankets stay upstairs, unless they are needed to calm down. Lately the blankets have been left on the stairs when they come home from daycare.

Well, Colin loves to snuggle and loves his blanket. But the rule stands that the blankets are not to be played with downstairs. This is now Colin's new favorite place to sit.

I took this photo to show everyone where he now sits. But I underestimated how much he likes to get his photo taken.


Then he started making faces.


And Kevin wanted to be in the photos.


Colin was still making faces when Kevin decided it would be better to climb higher...

...and put a bib on.

No one can say they don't have fun together!

Lights

They may not be much at all, but it is what we got up one afternoon when a 3 year old wanted to help.

Can you guess which part Kevin did?

How does he come up with these things?

Today we were driving out to a Christmas party with Pop, Grandma Tracy, Tony and Jake (pictures to follow) and Kevin told us two pretty strange things.

The first was when we passed a very colorful building that had a sign with changing colors. Kevin told us, "It changed colors!" Then he added "Like a chameleon."

Next, we were practicing how to talk to Santa. K2 and I were telling him that Santa will ask if you have been good, and what presents you want. Kevin told us "I don't want any presents." We told him that Santa will bring presents and you need to tell him which ones you want. He replied "I don't want any presents because I already have too many at home."

Additionally, he now has a favorite character to be. It is Dr. Jones. As in, the infamous archeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones. He gets to watch the "parts with the horse" when he visits someone. (It is the opening scene of "The Last Crusade.") He now yells that he is "Dr. Jones" and that he will save me. I guess there are worse role models.

Who says these things? Honestly?

Cobwebs

On Sunday Kevin, K2 and I spent a few hours decorating the house for the holidays. (Colin was with Downtown Grandma for a few hours.) K2 hung lights outside. I wrapped the banister with lights and poinsettias. Kevin made cobwebs. He was so proud of them that he wanted his picture taken with them. That says a lot. This kids usually hides from cameras. (He made the cobwebs in the carpet using a hanger, so look there for his art.)
Today (Thursday) he wanted to make more cobwebs. This time, they stretched all the way down the hall. Again, he was so proud that he wanted his picture taken with them. If he is that proud, it has to get posted. Enjoy.

Colin's new bed

Colin is now working on transitioning from his crib to his first bed. He was very hesistant his first night to sleep in it, although he loved to snuggle in it and yell at Kevin to stay away. The second day it was in his room, he napped and slept all night in it. But the bed's novelty has worn off and he wants nothing to do with it anymore. However, we are thinking that by New Year's the crib will be gone.

Dinosaur Day!

A few weekends ago Uncle Tony (Jane's brother) visited. We were very excited to have him over to celebrate his birthday.

Friday night we baked his cake, but did not eat it yet. We planned on icing it the following day, which Kevin did not appreciate.

Saturday morning we headed to the Science Center to see the dinosaurs. Here are some pictures when we arrived. (The boys are looking at the balls on the tracks above the entrance.)


Once we got into the dinosaur exhibit, both Colin and Kevin were a bit frightened at first, but they got used to things enough to enjoy staying for another 30 minutes. K2 and Kevin pressed buttons to make the dinosaurs move, while Colin used brushes to unearth fossils.

Contrary to the picture, I was pretty certain Tony had some kind of fun.

Even though we only lost one person (for only 5 minutes) we all had a great time looking at planets and building bridges! We look forward to the next time Uncle Tony comes to visit!