Weekend pics

Here's us hanging out in the backyard this weekend. That's the massive garden behind the gate. We've been getting lots of artichokes already!

Here's Caelen after a journey into the garden with me yesterday to water everything. I turned around and she had been eating dirt and had a rock in her mouth. I swear I can't take my eye off of her for a second. Most the damage was done from her dirty hands though.
And here's my peanut during bath time with Daddy!

Night Night Chicks

Tonight when Caelen was in her jammies and ready for bed I told her it was time to say night night to everyone. First she said, "Body!" which is Gabbie, so we went in and found her, gave her a kiss and then she said, "Cheep cheep!" So we came in to the computer room. She waved at the chicks in their box and said, "Bye, Night Night" and then grabbed my hand and turned to leave the room.
Too cute for my heart to bear....

And on that farm they had a chick!

The sound of "Cheep cheep" is a constant companion now that we've brought these baby chicks home from the feed store. With the price of everything (namely eggs) going up and the economy slowing down, we decided to, in addition to our garden and all the fresh produce that provides, have our own chickens. There's no ordinance against hens in RP, so if there turns out to be a rooster in the bunch we'll send it to Thomas' dad's place to live.
I don't know what kind they are (Thomas picked them while Caelen and I checked out a bunny) but they lay brown eggs (they're not Rhode Islands). And apparently they're racist little guys so they recommend getting a few of the same type so there's no odd man out. I've already seen a yellow picking on a brown!
Caelen already knew what chicks were from her extensive reading. LOL And she says "Chck Chck" for cheep cheep. Basically if we don't hear the chicks saying cheep, we hear Caelen.
She was so excited about these little guys and she's very gentle when we hold one up for her to pet, although she did grab the down on one's head and pulled it slowly back until I stopped her. No chicks have been harmed yet. So they'll live in the computer room in a box with a light until a little coop is built and they're old enough to go outside. In the meantime the chicken smell coming from the computer room takes me directly back to

the day my Dad brought home two baby chicks as an Easter present to my sister who had lost her pipe cleaner chick, while all the other cousins and myself had our own. So to make her feel better Dad brought two real ones home for her! Of course they belonged to the whole family and after a lethal cat attack, and a few turning out to be roosters, we had our Rhodies who laid great eggs! When they were babies, Heather and I used to play with them in our doll house and I think if I were to find that doll house today, the poop stain would still be on the second story floor.



Here's Caelen carrying her Bible and mommy's Bible around the house. So cute!

So what's going on?

I have a bunch of random pics that I want to post.


Here's Caelen and Ty in Woodrow's dog house one afternoon, after which Caelen had a severe rash and what looked like bug bites all inside her pants, so I'll bet if you look really closely you could see a bug climbing up her leg. Yuck...








This is one of Caelen and her Uncle Josh at Grandpa and Grandma Kline's house.

Here's finally a promised picture of the playhouse although it's already dated because the roof is sheeted and the decking is down on the front porch now.

Here's a couple of Caelen and her Daddy talking at dinner time.

Caelen is obsessed with babies, particularly Austin. So when he comes over she hovers over him and almost squishes him, but she's so loving and helpful it's just the darn cutest thing. She's giving him a "hug" in the first one (she lays her head on people or dogs sometimes as a hug).

She just keeps going, "Baby.... baby!.... Baby!" If we see a stroller or a baby in the store she'll about fall out of her cart seat to try and point it out as she yells for the whole store, "Baby!!!!" Then she'll say "Help please" which basically means she wants to get out and go see the baby so I have to explain that we can't and that she can just say Hi from her cart. She's such a little mommy :)

Poor Baby

It's a sinus infection for the missy. At least that's what a very hurried doctor decided it to be. Her ears are red (inside), her nose has been stuffy and runny for 3 weeks and she coughed so hard and non-stop this morning that she threw up her breakfast.
Why I ever doubted my child's ability to find even the nastiest things yummy, I don't know, but of course she thought the "All Better" medicine was delicious and she was asking for more after 1 1/2 dropper fulls. She almost cried when I put it away. Fabulous!!! Works for mommy.
I'm just hoping this helps explain why she's been a little more difficult than usual lately. That would be nice too :)

OK! but on my terms.

That's how my mom described the attitude of a strong willed person and it's so true. I am totally that way (Caelen asks me to give her a cracker and I find myself saying, OK, just a second, instead of just doing it.) It's not on purpose, it's just the MO of a strong will.
And I wonder why Caelen is such a challenge. Nothing is just simple with her. I cannot say, "OK, let's get in your car seat." without it becoming this HUGE battle. A battle of wills that I immediately want to take on and win. But I'm learning Caelen needs to feel that she is in control of some parts of her life, that she has a say and is respected. (I know she's only 16 months, but trust me, this is how her mind works! LOL) So today when I geared up for the battle that is changing a diaper, I let her take a few things to entertain herself while I did it and then just as she was losing interest and about to start abusing me (I'm talking hitting, kicking, hair pulling) I asked her to pick her diaper, "Which one would you like to wear?" I held up a Kirkland diaper and a Luvs and she picked the Luvs and was very contented then to have it put on.
And this is what I mean. It's constant negotiation, asking for her opinion, finding out what would make her want to do this thing that must be done.
This book I'm reading, "You Can't Make Me! (But I Can Be Persuaded) really addresses these issues. The parent must maintain authority and boundries and bad behavior is never to be tolerated. But just because my little girl doesn't want to do eveything MY way doesn't mean that's bad! She may have a new and inventive or even better way of doing something and I must let her discover those things for herself. I'M the one whose having to deny my strong will to figure out how to best parent this little bug. It's a new way of thinking, percieving and reasoning and it's hard on my tired brain cells, but so far today (it's 10:45am, and she's been awake since 6:00) she's has 2 diaper changes, gotten dressed, gotten in the car, and is napping peacefully as I write and she has had ONE timeout for hitting and that was just on my leg (and she only had to be sat back down in the corner twice). I think this is a miracle, or maybe just a miracle day, we'll see about tomorrow......
Either way life will never be boring with Caelen.

I'll take that coat in white please.

My day went something like this:

Wake up late for a pretty busy day.
Get Caelen dressed and everything ready to go, when her diaper explodes all over her outfit.
Change Caelen's outfit and while she's on the changing table my Mom calls to tell me an item got sent to the wrong cleaners.
Leave the house, stop at wrong cleaners to pick up item (it was my fault, this is only fair!)
Go to work.
Change 5 poopy diapers, apparently Caelen's tummy isn't feeling well.
Leave Caelen with mom so I can go to the doctor's and wait in the room for 30 mins.
Caelen naps for a whopping 30 mins.
Stop at correct cleaners to drop off item.
Go back to work.
Caelen gets multiple time outs for hitting me. Lack of sleep has left her out of sorts.
Try a nap again, doesn't work.
Go to store to pick up items for the Trustees dinner that I'm in charge of making. Caelen destroys my wallet during trip.
Go home.
Caelen gets multiple time outs for hitting me.
Attempt to start dinner and trustees dinner prep.
Have to let Caelen go diaperless because her rash is so awful.
She poops all over the bathroom floor, tries to clean it up with three of her toothbrushes before I discover her.
Put Caelen in bathtub while I disinfect everything and change my clothes since they're poopy now too.
Take Caelen out of tub, she hits me.
Put Caelen on timeout, she pees in the corner.
Disenfect floor, put diaper on Caelen, she kicks and screams because of the rash.
Try and put some laundry away, Thomas comes home.
Finally manage to get dinner on the table.
Caelen gets another time out.
Clean up, put Caelen to bed and write in my blog....

.... about a day that should have sent me to the nut house.

E-I-E-I-O!

I got the video I wanted! It's posted on my myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/bakline18

Just scroll part way down and press the Play button on the smaller video screen, don't forget to turn up your sound :)

And on that farm he always has a cow

I WISH I could get a video of Caelen singing, "Ee - I - Ee - I - Oh!" It's flippin adorable. I put her a time out this morning and after she cried for about 20 seconds she busted out with a little Old MacDonald in her room. Pretty funny.
More playhouse fun today. I really should take a picture and put that on here. Hopefully the siding goes on today and it'll look more finished than it has!

My Accent

Stolen from Melissa Andrew, very interesting!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Orville would be proud

I woke up this morning to Caelen screaming from her room. Usually it's a "I'm-waking-up" cry but not this time. She was clearly hurt or very upset. I lept from my bed and ran in. As soon as she heard me open the door she said, "Yut!" (Stuck) and sure enough her little leg was stuck through the slats of her crib all the way past her knee and bent out at what I'm sure was an uncomfortable angle. We freed her though and she was good to go although a little shook up.

You know how often times you get into a "mode" as a family? Usually our mode is evident in the evening. Back around the end of 2007 our mode was to watch Pride & Prejudice in the evenings once Caelen had gone to bed. Now it's reading, popcorn and occasionally a glass of wine. Adria gave me "The Other Boleyn Girl" for my birthday and I could not put it down so I suggested Thomas read it because he loves history (he has one of those brains that just understands and absorbs history, I'm so jealous). I moved on to "I, Elizabeth" and it feels like the virtual sequel. The first book was about Mary and Anne Boleyn and the second is about Anne Boleyn's daughter and a lot of the same characters make appearances in both novels.
So we sit down in the evening and make some fresh popcorn in Thomas' new air popper (since the boy is obsessed with popcorn) and we sit on the couch and read until bedtime. Yes our lives are just that thrilling. But you know what, after a crazy day of moving around town with a toddler, I look forward to a quiet night (that is of course unless it's an American Idol night!)