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!)

A Kline Easter

This Easter we went to church and then spent the afternoon at Thomas' dad and Faith's house. There were quite a few people, mostly relatives on the Kline side, and a ton of children there. There was a jumpy house that Caelen wasn't too excited about until the big kids started to leave and then we couldn't tear her away from it.




Don't ask me what happened here. I told her to look at Thomas for one more picture and she went straight to tears!!
In this one she's talking to me in her Eewok language ;)

I took this pic from the top of this huge slide. Eventually she didn't need our help and she just scaled the thing all by herself!

Wee!!

One time she tried running down and ended up flipping end over end. Everyone waited with baited breath to see what she would do. She turned around and climbed right back up.

Daddy (and Mommy's!) Little Helper

Our little missy is going to have a great playhouse hand-made by her daddy. But she isn't going to just sit idly by and watch. Nope! She wants to get in there and help ;)

So she was learning how to use a real hammer. Not the one that goes, "Boing" and lights up when you hit it.

Here she is inbetween the floor joists.

Then today we were doing a lot of chores around the house. The weather was beautiful and we were really productive but had a lot of fun too. Thomas framed the roof on Caelen's playhouse and then we re-mulched the planter areas and re-worked them around the playhouse as well. In my free moments I was doing laundry and those types of things.

The story behind this pic was that her sunglasses fell into the dryer while I was getting ready to load it and when I wasn't looking..... well, she went in after them!!!

When she figured out that she could go for a ride in the wheelborrow Dad couldn't get rid of her. She literally rode back and forth like this for a couple hours. And when they'd leave to go get another load she'd always say to me, "Buh-bye, See ya".

We had a really fun day :)

It is after all...

Funny story about the small world. We were at Oliver's last night waiting for our most amazing burritos to be ready with Caelen in the wagon when this sweet little girl starts talking to Caelen and me, telling us all about her birthday party she's planning (in August.) Her mom was waiting too so we started chatting and she asked how old Caelen was and I said, "15 months." She pointed to a little boy in her cart and said, "Him too! Dec. 3" I told her Caelen's birthday was the next day. Turns out we were both at Kaiser probably next door to each other at the same time!!
Today Caelen and I visited her Grandparents Kline and then went down to the Petaluma Outlets where she LOVES to play on their playground because she can climb up the stairs and slide down all by herself! We bought her a new baby so she was taking her baby on the slide too. It was pretty darn cute.
I'll add the picture as soon as my phone sends it to my e-mail

Woo hoo Irish

It's the weekend

One of Caelen's new things is to say, "Buh-bye, See ya!" She's copying me because she used to say bye and I'd say, "see ya!" so now she waves and says both. She also points out when something is "a mess". She'll often run to get the towel off the fridge and she'll even wipe up said mess if she can! My big helper.
The playhouse is underway. The subfloor and foundation are in but unfortunately Thomas had to work today (he just realized it yesterday) so all the plans for framing the walls went out the window. Both of us were pretty bummed (he the most I think!) Caelen, of course, has no clue, so it's harder for us anxious parents to wait for this fantastic thing we're making for our little girl, than it is for her :) All the lumber is stacked on the patio and her friend Tyler and her were climbing all over it today and I said, "Hey, forget the playhouse! This lumber is the best toy ever."
I taught her the word "No." I didn't want to but she was saying, "All Done." So it would go like this,
Me -"Caelen, are you all done?"
Caelen- "All Done"
And then when I'd go to take her out of her highchair she'd freak out! What she really meant was, "No, I'm not all done." So now it makes sense. But of course she's saying it for everything she doesn't want to do now and I'm having to say, "Yeah, well too bad" LOL

Easter Portraits

I took Caelen down to Sears today in her Easter dress and got her pictures taken. I got a CD with all the pics on them so here are some highlights :)

I may be biased but I can't get over how flippin' adorable this little girl is!!! LOL :)

Tired bug

Here's a tired peanut sitting on her daddy's lap just before bedtime. I think she's gazing at the TV.

Today she saw a picture of a xylophone in one of her books and put her hand to her ear and said, "Hi!". I had to think for a second until I realized it's a xyloPHONE.

Gooooo Wonder Pets!

My hubby got me a new dishwasher and had it in before noon this morning and he did it all with Caelen because I was out of the house. I'm so proud of him and very impressed! I'm also so thankful to give my poor chapped hands a rest from the dishwashing duties of the past 3 months. It's super quiet too compared to my old 747 I had parked in the kitchen. Thanks Thomas!

Thomas is also working on drawing up a set of non-official plans for Caelen's little playhouse that he's going to build in our backyard. The front will look like a miniature cottage and I can't wait to see it. His Dad and he are going to build it probably in just a couple of weekends from now.

It feels like Caelen just talks to me all day long. It's almost rare now that I don't know what she's talking about (parents understand their toddlers' Eewok language.) This evening, while we were trying to run out the last couple hours of her day before bed at 7:00 we were looking at books. She was looking through the "Who Loves Baby?" book with pictures of all her family. There's a picture of her dad and his brother in there and she of course knew who Daddy was and I reminded her of Uncle Josh's name which she repeated as "Aye Yash." About half an hour later we're snuggling on the recliner and she has her head on my chest and says quietly, to herself, "Aye Yash..... DaDa." I couldn't believe it! She was sitting there thinking about that picture. She never fails to blow my mind :)
(Note to reader: These things that blow my mind are always firsts for Caelen. She has never made it obvious to me until recently that she is thinking about something besides what she's doing at that moment. Although yesterday at the store she randomly blurted out "Ba Bo Pets" which is Wonder Pets, our favorite cartoon. It's so fun to find out what her little mind thinks about during the day!)

I then told her it was time for bed and she immediately began asking for her "Boppies" (blankies) so I took her into her room and she went straight for her space heater and pulled it out from behind her toy basket and tried to turn it on (since that's what I do usually after I've put her into her bed for the night). She's just too smart for me.

Happy Birthday to my cousin Cody!! And Caelen will be 15 months on Tuesday.

Austin James

Just a quick post to say congratulations to Doug and Adria on their new little boy Austin James! He was born yesterday after 6 hours of labor! I told Adria that since her first was 20 hours and her second was 6, that gives me hope that maybe next time I can do it too!! We'll see ;)

The one with the high heels

This is just a picture I stole off of my parent's computer. Caelen must be around 5 months old in this shot. I cannot believe how fast my little girl has grown up!!!
Here's Caelen at her Grandma's house after Great Grandpa's funeral. The funeral was at 11:00 at St. Vincent's in Petaluma on Wednesday. It's a big old school Catholic church so every little sound Caelen made echoed 10 times louder than it really was. Needless to say we were in there for 2 minutes before Caelen started yelling about Dada and more food, so I took her outside. It lasted 1 hour 45 minutes. Try keeping a toddler out of the street and from cracking her head on concrete steps for that amount of time in a pencil skirt and high heels.

She ended up falling asleep in the car on the way to the cemetary so I stayed in the car with her while Thomas went to the graveside ceremony. Then we went back to Thomas' mom's place where there was a catered reception. And that is were this photo was taken. Caelen was busy either running up and down her staircase (with Mom always one step behind), or walking around in my shoes. She LOVES grown up shoes! I think feel like Caelen's switch is set to "fast forward" until all of a sudden someone hits "stop" and she crashes for the night. But this child is busy busy busy. She's got missions and things to organize constantly.

She's also getting new words everyday. Yesterday she opened up the cabinent and grabbed one of her little plastic bowls, holds it up to me and says, "A Bowl", clear as day. I don't remember ever specifically teaching her that word, she just picked it up. It always shocks me when she comes out of left field with a new word, and then I'm reminded of just how much she is always paying attention. Little Bug :)

Daddy's Girl

Caelen straight up said "Applesauce" today while she was trying to climb into her high chair with her container of Mott's Applesauce. I stopped dead what I was doing and asked her to say it again but it never quite came out the same way!
She's big into saying "Ahhh Dee Dow" and I wish I knew what it meant. She gets enjoyment out of saying it and is usually grinning to herself. She says it a lot in the car, but also other times during the day. The Dow part is very drawn out and seems to be the amusing part of the phrase.
She's so into Daddy these days! Every morning when I go in to get her out of her crib, I can tell she'd so much rather it was Daddy than me. She always stands up, runs toward the door side of her crib, and points to the door saying, "Dada!!! Dada!!" I have to tell her he's at work and she'll get to see him later but that doesn't stop her from checking the backyard and the garage during the day as well. The moment he's home she goes running to him. It's pretty darn cute and I prefer it to her being clingy to me.

A horse with no name

Here's a few pictures from our trip to Arizona last weekend. Caelen slept for about an hour of the hour and forty five minute flight out there.



Here she is with her step-cousins Lilia (6) Abrielle (3) and Alivia (8 mo).


Here's beautiful Sedona


And here's my little ham entertaining herself and everyone else in the car.

Just Those Few Weeks

Just Those Few Weeks
by Susan Erling.

For those few weeks-
I had you to myself.
And that seems too short a time
to be changed so profoundly.

In those few weeks-
I came to know you...
and to love you.
You came to trust me with your life.
Oh, what a life I had planned for you!

Just those few weeks-
When I lost you.
I lost a lifetime of hopes,
plans, dreams, and aspirations...
A slice of my future
simply vanished overnight.

Just those few weeks-
And no "normal" person
would cry all nightover a tiny,
unfinished baby,
or get depressed and withdraw
day after endless day.
No one would, so why am I?

You were those few weeks my little one
you darted in and out of my life too quickly.
But it seems that's all the time you needed
to make my life so much richer
and give me a small glimpse of eternity.

Saying Goodbye again and again

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and congrats but this pregnancy didn't work out. I just wanted you guys to know, so you're not wondering why I took my post down or why I'm not mentioning it anymore.
Thomas's Grandpa died on Tuesday. This was his closest Grandpa whom he spent a lot of time with growing up and even until his death would visit with frequently as he lived just down the street. Poor Thomas is having a really rough time lately but he's handling it really well and managing to keep a sense of humor.
When it rains it pours, but then the sun comes out.

"Bees!" and other stuff

Caelen is just so darn polite. I think I mentioned her saying Up Please. Now she mostly just goes around saying, "Bees!" "Bees!" and "det det" for Thank You.

My dad has been having some on-going medical problems with his stomach, but today they found out that it's nothing a little medicine won't fix and we're all so relieved! (Well especially Dad.)

Anyone want oranges? My tree is so full of them I can't eat them or give them away fast enough.

Oh and I also wanted to mention that yesterday was my late Grandpa Jerry's birthday and that we miss him so much!

Who knew the Travel Channel would save my sanity?

I have been trying to figure out why Caelen won't nap here at home. I do exactly the same thing here that I do at my mom's. I turn a heater on, close the blinds, give her the same two blankets......
Then it dawns on me, the only difference is NOISE. When I'm at my mom's, the TV is on, the sewing machines are going and we're talking. At night when I put her down for bed, Thomas and I are talking, the TV might be on and the dogs are thundering around the house.
I put her down at 2:15 and turned the TV up. She's fast asleep. Go figure.

I recently read Atonement by Ian McEwan. It's the book that got made into a movie with Kiera Knightley and James McAvoy and won some Godlen Globes or something like that. I haven't seen the movie but the book was pretty good. It took the author 300 pages to say what one author might say in 30 but I guess it was necessary to the style of the book. If you've read it, please leave me a comment about how you felt about it.

I also would recommend seeing A Good Year with Russell Crowe. My parents really liked it and had us over last night to see it. Worth seeing!

Go to sleep!

Please be praying for my Grandma Evelyn (shown here at Caelen's birthday party.) She had to go to the hospital this morning because of a bad infection that had her so weak she couldn't get around. They've got her antibiotics and say she looks good enough to go home. My mom and dad are having to do a lot to take care of her as she lives by herself here in town and isn't able to drive, so remember them too!!

I want to know this: Caelen sleeps beautifully at night in her crib. She sleeps beautifully every weekday morning at her Grandparents house for her nap. So WHY won't she take a nap in her crib here at home????? Yesterday I put her down at the normal nap time and she hollered for 30 minutes and then slept for 40! Ugh. Now she's in there crying, and she only slpet for about 10 minutes on the way home from church! Why, why, why???

Finally, a vacation!

We're planning a trip down to Arizona in a couple of weeks. We'll be visiting Thomas' step-brother, his wife and 3 daughters. We're travelling with Thomas' dad and step-mom. I'm really excited because every once in awhile I get this bug to just GO! I don't care where and for how long just as long as I get in a car or an airplane. Call it wanderlust.
Anyway, the three girls are about 5, 3 and 6 months old I think. So Caelen will fit right into that mix. It'll be fun to see where they live and get to know them better (I have met them once, and that was before this last baby.) It'll be fun to spend some time with Thomas' Dad and Faith. The last time we took a trip with them, Caelen was 4 months old. And the last time Caelen was on a plane she was 6 months old and it was for 5 hours to and from Hawaii, so I think we can handle 1 1/2 hours. I hope we can.......

Just being like my mommy...

So my little missy and I were reading books yesterday on her floor in her room. She got the book she wanted and I patted the floor in front of me for her to come and sit. We read the book, and when she was done she got up to get another. She grabbed a book about 3 feet away from me and plopped down on the ground, looks at me and pats the ground next to her!!! She makes me laugh so much sometimes.

Yesterday while I was working at my mom's she somehow managed to get a piece of Orbit gum from my purse. They're small pieces, and my mom saw her just as she stuck it in her mouth, wrapper and all! I ran over and tried to pry her mouth open but she clamped down so hard it was a good 15 seconds before I could really get my finger in there. By the time I did, it was gone. I said, "Did you swallow that!!!???" She looked at me, put a hand to her mouth and said, "All done...... uh-oh".

Don't forget Christmas!

So I thought I'd post a few pictures from Christmas time. I can't believe I haven't yet!
These first pictures are of us getting our Christmas tree. It was Caelen's first time because last year we decorated our tree on Sunday Dec. 3 and two hours later I went into labor! Just in the nick of time :)
Anyway, we don't usually dress up to get our tree but the only time we could really manage it was right after church.

These next pictures are from when we did an early Christmas celebration with Thomas' Dad and Faith. This was the day before Christmas Eve. Faith had just gotten back from a trip to China so we got a lot of awesome and unique gifts! Caelen looked just adorable in her Chinese handmade jammies. She also (among other fun toys) got a wooden tool set that she absolutely loves. So here's her carpenter Grandpa showing her how to use it!

These pictures are from Christmas Eve at my parents house. Last year Caelen was only 3 weeks old! Time flies

Not by my genius for sure!

They are not mine, they are not really mine

not even in the night when they cry out

and I, half-stifled with the need of sleep,

stumble awake and go to quiet them.

Not by my grace or genius have they grown,

nor by my merit did I bring them forth,

nor by that sealed and deep-loved partnership,

the light that crowns them is none of my own.

And in my tempers and my discontents,

when my own devil mutters and is bad,

I must remember still they are not mine,

not even to deny- but wholly Thine.

CHILDREN by Jane Tyson Clement

I think it is so important as a parent to remember the simple truths in this poem. I have many young mom friends and I realize that, sadly, there can be a lot of discouragment in the job. I wish it wasn't that way. I think for some, being a mom comes very naturally, and for others it's a bit more work. I have wonderful friends who fall anywhere on this scale. I think I would place myself somewhere towards the middle but more to the "I Love It, There's Nothing Better In The World" side. I DO love being Caelen's mom. Even when things are not perfect, it doesn't matter, I wouldn't want to be doing anything else with my life. I'm blessed in that way.

But for those of us who are human and get discouraged, how important it is to remember that our children, no matter how old! or how young they are, are not and never were really ours! They belong to the Lord and He has entrusted them to our care for a time. What a job! He loves them more than we ever will, and loves us the same. That is pretty darn amazing if you ask me.