There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Grey

Here are some picture from our crazy weekend, and since a nap is calling my name louder than my child from her bed (where she doesn't want to nap as usual) I'll make it short and sweet. Friday was Caelen's 2nd Birthday party and it was super crazy! But it was fun :)
She got a new "baby" and a highchair, stroller, carseat etc. to go along with her and Caelen's whole world is complete. She got lots of others things too that she's enjoying equally as much and Mommy is enjoying to new clothes for Caelen :)

Everyone is singing Happy Birthday in this pic.

Who needs to wait for a fork, just dig in!

Having Uncle Josh color with her after the party was over.

Then Saturday we went to get our Christmas tree. God bless Thomas for getting this adorable picture of her! They're rare these days as Caelen doesn't like having her picture taken and frowns or covers her face in all the shots.

And the final tree, which I like but hate at the same time because it's apparently not strong enough to hold an ornament. I think every ornament I've put on it has fallen off since and one of the glass ones even shattered. Stupid tree. But the house is Christmas-ready. Now after the baby shower, Thanksgiving, Caelen's birthday, getting ready for Christmas and all the other time consumers and fun events in between, I'm exhausted and in need of a week long hybernation period.

Birthday Girl

Caelen turned 2 today and I can't quite believe it. She's so excited about her birthday party tomorrow and almost cried with excitment when we talk about it and she says, "That'll be fun Mommy!" Today when she asked Thomas what he was doing and he told her he was baking her cake for her birthday party tomorrow she told us her friends would eat her cake too. Then she asked if Addison would have some cake!! After I finished laughing at how cute and thoughtful she was I told her Addison could have some of my cake.

When Caelen's friend hit her on the face yesterday she pointed at her and said, "Don't do that! Take a time out!"

Thanksgiving Pictures

Yay for a successful, but not over-stuffed Thanksgiving. I think we all agreed we didn't gorge ourselves this year but still ate plenty as evidenced by the lack of left-overs in our fridge. Well, that's not entirely true, but there's far less food in there than I thought there would be after an event so scaled down from last years 20 guest with a 32 lb turkey. This year we had 8 adults and Caelen and our turkey was 24 lbs.

We took a few family shots so I could put one in our Christmas card (which I will not post, because who wants to see their Christmas card before they actually get it?). So here's a few.

That blur is Woodrow of course, he jumped up at the last minute. Now he just looks like an alien.

Caelen didn't smile for one shot, but after the picture was taken she'd hold one finger up and say, "one more."

Here she is being shy. I asked her and "Tampa" to smile and she covered her face until it was all over. She started out the whole afternoon shy when she woke up from her nap and her house was full of people! So she took Grandpa into her room and they played with stuffed animals until she was confortable enough to come out and face her fans.

From left to right: my Grandma Evelyn, my mom, my dad, Caelen, my sister Heather, me, Tom & David (friends from college, brothers.)

Dancing to Celtic Christmas music to burn off the turkey.

Thomas made 4 pies (2 pumpkin, cherry, lemon meringue).

Auntie showing Caelen some hair styling tips. LOL
Enjoying the pie.

We went to visit Courtney earlier this week and for Caelen to meet baby Daniel. She was very excited to hold him!

Caelen Quotes

Caelen is just beginning to say I love you in a context that makes sense. Today she was putting her hand and face on my bare belly and talking about how the baby was going to come then she smiled and said, "I love my baby sister mommy."

I worked a couple hour shift at the Fairgrounds today for the Redwood Gospel Mission's Thanksgiving Dinner. It's awesome because it's totally free to everyone, it's good food and they even serve pie. I was a hostess and had to keep an eye on seats as they emptied and then they'd send more people in and I'd show them where to sit. So I left Caelen with her grandparents during that time and told her I was going to help feed some hungry people. We were eating lunch and she said, "Going to feed the people mommy?" I said, "Yep" she said, "Oh..... I'm going to feed my Grandma."

While looking through the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalogue today Caelen came across a page with dolls and strollers and accessories for babies. Caelen says, "I need a stroller Mommy." I said, "You do?" She said, "Yeah, to push with my hands, I need a stroller for my babies." So I tried to explain to her that her birthday is coming up (one week from Thanksgiving) and that maybe she'd get a stroller as a present. (I already know that she IS) :) I couldn't quite believe my 2 year old was catalogue shopping. Like mother like daughter.

I guess they had cars in Biblical times?

I don't know if I've mentioned my little munchkin's favorite form of control in our house yet but it just kills me. She decided (that horrible day we had where she threw tantrum after tantrum and ended the night by insisting she sleep on the floor) that sleeping on the floor is a really good way to show us that she's in charge of some decisions in her life. It's now a very rare night that Caelen chooses to go to bed in her bed. She instead grabs her yellow bauchie and lays face down on the floor where she always falls peacefully to sleep. We used to leave her there and she'd sleep the whole night through, but now Thomas puts her in her bed as soon as she's alseep. She nevers stirs during the transition, but every once in awhile I go in in the morning to find her alseep on the floor again. A couple nights ago, we went in to put her into her bed, and she was already there! I don't even try, it's not a battle worth fighting at all! LOL

Seriously, two days ago it was 75 degrees and clear. I drove up into my driveway and there's my neighbor, in her white shirt and peddle pushers with her black umbrella over her head, watering her flowers.

I'm so glad we took that picture of me and Courtney on Saturday because last night she delivered Daniel Ryan! He was about 2 weeks early, 7lbs 4oz & 18 inches long. Adria and I got to the hospital at about 9:00pm and got to see him! Courtney already had so many friends and family in her room, the nurses were amazed at the crowd. And just as I predicted, it's SO much harder to wait now that I'm the only pregnant one. ;) I've never been one for the patience, but as I watch my toddler turning into a little girl, I just need a baby.

Speaking of children growing up, Caelen went to Sunday school for the first time one Sunday!! From birth until 2 they just hang out in the nursery through church and sunday school but when they turn two they get to start a more "structured" class. They have free play for about 30 minutes, then they get a little carpet to sit on and sing some songs (with hand motions) and have a story read to them with a felt board. They get to move the little figures around on the board. Then it's craft time! Then they play until the parents pick them up.
Caelen made a little chalk drawing with car stickers on it which is hanging on my fridge. I feel like a real mom.

Caelen's current obsession: Frosty the Snowman anything, song, cartoon, book, pictures etc.

Bambaid

One of Thomas and my favorite words of Caelen's is Bandaid. When she says it we just crack up. One day on the way home from church I accidentally scratched Thomas and Caelen went on and on about how he needed a "bambaid". We were in tears by the time we got home. So I tried to get a video of her saying it.



Here's Caelen doing her baby's hair while I do her hair. She's such a Mommy.

Today Adria and I threw a baby shower for Courtney who is due with her second (a boy this time) in 2 1/2 weeks! Courtney and I are always pregnant at the same time and we got a picture together at my shower for Caelen so we got another one of us today. Last time we were three weeks apart, this time we're about three months apart. I can see that I have far to go LOL!

In less than 15 hours

The fact that I am blogging right now after the day I had just testifies to the type of day it was. It was one of those days where you do SO MUCH that the day must have lasted twice as long as a normal day to get it all done, and you're so productive that you just don't want to stop. You want to take that productivity to every area of your life until you can barely keep your eyes open and you finally resign yourself to bed where you fall out of conscienceness faster than you can get yourself comfortable under the covers.
Poor Thomas has his wisdom teeth (all 4) taken out today. It was his first time under anethesia and he was definitely nervous. I had to hit the road at 7:00 to get my couple hours worth of work done at my mom's house before running home, making sure Caelen was dressed and hairbrushed, eating brunch, throwing my family in the car and getting Thomas (who was devoid of any caffiene, food, or any other substance that might make him a kind person) to his surgery. We dropped him off, said good luck, ran to the Kline Construction shop, got his paycheck and ran to the bank just in time to get back to the oral surgeon's and wait in the waiting room for half an hour. Caelen was undoubtedly the waiting room entertainment. She kept telling her baby what to do, where to sit, and she also kept doing this big dramatic fake sneeze of all things. Sometimes I have no clue where she gets these things.
Anyway Thomas' surgery went really well and we got him home, got him some clean gauze and I (who never even took Caelen out of the car) went straight back out to McDonald's where we were meeting a couple friends for Riley's 2nd Birthday. She was having a huge family party tonight but we wanted to still get to see Riley and give her her presents, so we thought a casual date at the McDonald's playplace would do. Of course I totally underestimated how long Thomas's surgery would take (the surgeons weren't much help either) and we were half an hour late. But the kids got to play and we had nasty fast food (which is so delicious but leaves you feeling awful the rest of the day) and I got the milkshake I'd been craving for weeks.
My child is the playground bully in case I didn't already suspect it. One little kid about her age was trying to climb in and she wasn't letting him. I told her to knock it off. A few minutes later this poor kid is crying and holding his face. Caelen is on the level above him looking at him.
I said, "Caelen what happened?"
She said, "Hit his face."
I said, "Did YOU hit his face."
"Yes".
So after an apology from her to the boy and my apology to the mother I told her she was done and we were going home. She was pretty good about it as she was exhuasted and needed a nap.
So Thomas was asleep when we got home and Caelen joined in his nap and I had 2 hours of vigorous cleaning as Courtney's baby shower is being hosted at my house tomorrow at 10am. So I moved as fast as I could, until Caelen and Thomas woke up and Adria, Ty and Austin arrived. Adria was helping me get the house ready for the shower.
By now Thomas is in pain and needs his prescription filled (which I should have done earlier) he is also demanding chicken chow mein. So I run to Walgreens and China Chef and return an hour later to the tornado in my house that is "my child and her friends".
Somehow I managed to get a ravioli dinner on the table and we did end up getting streamers hung, furniture moved, laundry and dishes done, children bathed, a tablecloth ironed, windows cleaned, bathroom scrubbed, and all that other crap that comes with a party. I got Caelen to bed, Adria got her boys home, I tidied up, finished the laundry, took a shower, and I just sat down to check my E-mail.
Then I started thinking about the day I just had, and how I hadn't stopped yet, so why stop now? and so I wrote this blog.
In case you're wondering by this point, Thomas is doing very well. The bleeding has subsided and is almost completely gone. He's not nauseated and is up and about though taking it very easy. He's been ravenous and eating what he can and has a very good attitude about the whole thing. YAY!
OK, my eyes won't stay open anymore. Goodnight.

A Game of Tag

Tag You're It!
Melissa tagged me on her blog and it looked interesting so I thought I'd answer these few questions just for fun!

My 8 Obsessions right now...
1. Learning to live by the Spirit (in our Bible Study)
2. Thomas & Caelen
3. Feeling Addison moving around
4. Getting ready for Thanksgiving, Caelen's Birthday, Christmas and Addison's Arrival!
5. Having a clean house
6. Naps
7. Reading
8. Hanging out with friends

8 words or phrases that I use often
1. Oh Mercy (Child)!!
2. Peanut
3. Listen or take a time out
4. I love you
5. Oh my goodness
6. Seriously!
7. You are so funny!
8. Yellow Bauchie (Blankie)

8 things I want to do before I die...
1. Watch my kids grow up
2. Go to Ireland
3. Be the best wife and mother that I can
4. Build our own house
5. Have lifelong meaningful friendships
6. Have a Martha Stewart Christmas LOL
7. Read all of Jane Austen's novels
8. See my grandchildren

8 things I want or need right now...
1. Debt to be paid off
2. My house clean!
3. Addison to come out (but not really because she wouldn't be healthy).
4. Money for Christmas presents
5. A few more maternity clothes for the last 3 months
6. A vacation
7. A full night's sleep
8. A new furnace for the house.

8 people I tag..
The only people I know with Blogs LOL
1. Jessica
2. Stephanie
3. Courtney
4. Erica
5. Becky
6.
7.
8.

Rain, Halloween & Emotional Mommies

It is a strange feeling when your first baby goes to a legitimate kids birthday party and plays and enjoys herself. For the past couple years we've done baby birthday parties, the kind where everyone sits around admiring the mute children who can barely toddle while holding onto furniture. My baby grew up right under my eyes and then received an invitation to Maddie's 5th birthday party at Party Central, which is an awesome place full of bounce houses, huge blow-up slides, obstacle courses, and lots of ball pits! Believe me, it's just as much fun for the parents (unless you're pregnant and get stuck in the obstacle course, not that that happened....)
Caelen loved this slide area. It started with climbing up on these little bugs.

Then sliding down the slide.
And into the pretty deep ball pit below. She did this for 45 of the 60 minutes we were there.

She's not in distress here, I assure you! That's her funny smile for the camera! And this is also where a pregnant woman might get stuck.....
And here's my girl eating birthday cake with all the other kids. Brings a tear to mommy's eye!
Who knew a simple birthday party would get me all emo about my baby growing up? Well I guess I should remember I AM pregnant and that brings with it a whole bunch of emotional issues. I think I need a little baby to hold again!! One that doesn't run away saying, "No kisses Mommy!" LOL

So then Halloween rolls around whether you're ready or not. We fell into the "Not" category. Caelen can say, "Trick or Treat" but I know she would have been too young this year. She would have got to some stranger's door and freaked out. She hates introductions to new people and let's face it, to a 2 year old, Halloween is just a whole bunch of introductions to your neighbors that you don't even care about!

But the morning of came and I thought, "Hmm... I wonder if there's anything we can do to make this day seem like not just another day." I happened to find one more costume in her box of hand-me-downs and it fit! So I asked if she was interested and she was, so she got to be a cheetah all day. She was very excited about her costume, especially the tail! (Ignore the expression in this picture, sometimes she takes the picture-taking-business very seriously.)

So lots of people got to see her dressed for the holiday even though we didn't go out.

Last time it rained, Caelen wasn't old enough to care about playing outside let alone understand what rain was. So I considered this storm her first rain. She has been enjoying it immensely; talking non stop about how it's raining and that made Grandma and Grandpa have to go in the house. She talks about her favorite cartoon Oswald because he's had a few rainy day episodes and so even though she's never seen one in real life, she knows you need an umbrella to keep dry.

In this picture she's staring out into the backyard during her first rain. She had her rain coat and boots on, but never did venture out into it. She doesn't like getting wet, she immediately demands that any wet clothes be taken off.

I can only narrate because I have no words.

So I'm in my bedroom folding laundry while Caelen takes a nap. It's a wonderful fall afternoon and the rain is pouring down. I personally love rain, especially the first rains of the season. They're so fresh and cool and I love the smell and sound. So I have my blinds open and my window cracked and that's the only sound I hear.
I look out the window half way through my pile of laundry and my neighbor across the street (whom I've never met and rarely see) is outside. She's probably in her mid 50's, a small woman who enjoys her yard work and only ventures out of the house for this task. She is in black flip flops, red peddle pushers and.... a pure white T-shirt. She is soaked from head to toe.
This woman has the garden hose and is (I can't make this up people) spraying the sidewalk down. She's acting as if the rain is a nusiance but she's not going to let it stop her. So hunkered down she finally puts the hose away and gets a shovel. She begins re-potting a plant right there on the sidewalk. My jaw is gaping open and I almost don't continue to do my laundry. Once she's repotted the plant she gets a broom and sweeps off the side walk she had just hosed down!! All in all this operation takes about 15 minutes and like I said, it's pouring.

Now the best part of this story (again, I can't make this up, I'm just not that good) is that every sunny afternoon that she does these same kinds of chores, she holds an umbrella over her head.

Where's my instruction manual?

I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to being a parent. I seriously don't. I mean, when times are easy and she's feeling semi-obedient, then I feel OK about my decisions, but when a day like today comes along, I feel like I'm piloting a crashing plane (imagine sitting behind the controls knowing that you have to do something, but knowing that whatever decision you make will probably be the wrong one.)
I have physically wresteled my child at least 13 times today.
2 times to get her in her car seat
1 time to get her coat on.
3 times to get her off the floor at Target
1 time to change her diaper
6 times to get her back in her bed for a nap that is not going to happen no matter how long I leave her in there.

And all of these wrestling matches have involoved her screaming bloody murder and hitting and kicking me. I'm pregnant mind you!
I seriously don't know what I'm doing. I guess I'll go get her out of bed. It's the 3rd day in a row that she's refused to take a nap. She just stays in there crying and talking to herself for 2 hours.
I hope this is what they mean by the terrible twos because if it's gonna get worse, oh boy.....

Get it right Mom

While cleaning up after a lunch of salad with Mommy, Caelen held up her wadded up paper towel and said, "What's this Mommy?"
"It's a paper towel, baby."
Shaking her head and smiling, "Noooo"
"What is it?"
"It's a BASEBALL! Like on TV."

How you know it's World Series Time.

Torpedo Belly

Yesterday I had exactly 4 calendar months left to go until my due date. It was also the same day that I just started to feel huge, so I had to take a picture.

Just for fun, here is me just about a week further along with CAELEN. (I'm standing in the exact same spot in my house too! A lot has changed :)

Is this how Mozart started?

Caelen's new favortie thing to do these days is play the piano and sing. She sings with her head back and eyes are almost always closed (anytime she sings). In this video, she KNOWS I'm recording her, that's why she keeps glancing over and at the end she stops and says, "My see it," which means, I want to see it. She always makes me show her pictures I take of her LOL. Anyway, it's still a really good idea of how she plays and sings so enjoy!



Her other new talent is taco tongue! Thomas and I both can do it (I think most people can actually) but she's been doing it lately and I don't think anyone taught her, I just caught her doing it one day.

This hurts me more than it hurts you.... obviously

Last night was a momenteous occasion and shall go down in the Kline Family History Books. Yes, we finally left Caelen over night. It was the first time since she was born that we didn't wake up with her and it was odd. We had a great time (probably not as much fun as Caelen, Grandma, and Grandpa had, but fun nonetheless). We had dinner at the Italian Affair in downtown Santa Rosa and went to see the Duchess (strange movie by the way, well acted, but the story line was more like an excerpt from history than your typical beginning-middle-and-end plot.) Then we just went home and had a relaxing evening and woke up lesiurely which was very refreshing since every morning the first thing I hear is a little voice asking for juice and milk or telling me "Come on Mommy."
But it was weird not having her here. And Thomas had a harder time with it than I think he thought he would. He was kinda bummed that there was no big girl in her "big girl bed." But we really had a nice evening and have proved to ourselves that we CAN do it!
When I went to pick Caelen up she told me, "No go home! See Grandma and Grandpa today."

My big potty trainer is completely not interested anymore! So we're back to diapers. I'm getting the impression that she finds it just too much of a hassle. Of course, at first it was a novelty. Candy, stickers, and fun Kandoo wipes! Yay! But now she's content once again to run around in a diaper all day and has no desire to sit on the potty! LOL. At least we know she can do it and I know that when she's ready she'll let us know.


But when she WAS potty training we converted her crib into a toddler bed. That, thank the Lord, is still working out nicely. She gets out a couple times if she's not really wanting a nap but once I tell her to stay put, she will even if it means lying there talking to herself for a sleepless hour.


And seriously, I wish she could tell me what this no-nap thing is all about because she always falls asleep in the car and even tells me, "Dee Dee so tired Mommy, need to take a nap." She rests her head on her "Yellow Bauchie" and falls asleep in the car. I have to play games and talk to her just to keep her awake until we get home. "Caelen, what color is that car? What color is the sky?" And if that works and I get her home and into bed, she'll lay there for an hour, crying, talking, calling me and telling me she's all done. Honestly child....
She loves playing with the guords ("tones") she picked out at the pumpkin patch.



So she's extablished that her baby sister is in my tummy so now she likes to give the belly kisses and raspberries. The other night she gave me a particularly wet kiss on the belly and said, "Eat it baby!"
This afternoon we got around to carving our pumpkins. Caelen got to draw all over her little one that she had picked out. I drew the face on the big one and Thomas carved both of them. Caelen loved seeing the faces and helping Papa put them on the porch. I think she'll like them even better when we light them up tonight! I, in the meantime, was dividing out the pumpkin seeds and roasting them in the oven. Yum.

Hide & Seek

Here's a video of Caelen and Papa playing Hide and Seek for the first time! She calls it Peek-A-Boo. She counts super fast with her head down and then goes running after him. She usually knows where he went since she doesn't give him much time, but if she doesn't find him immediatly she comes to me, puts her hands up and says, "Where'd Papa go Mommy?" She wanders around calling "Papa?" She usually ends with a triumphant "Found you!"

If there's a nuclear holocaust, there won't be any cockroaches left, just my mom and a can of Raid.

The biggest flipping cockroach (I'm NOT kidding!) climbed out of the pants I was altering at my mom's house and ran across my ironing board today. It was 2 inches at least. Seriously I was scared stiff for a second but started hyperventilating and shrieking pretty quickly thereafter. My tough as nails mom (who had more than just a little fear in her voice) managed to get the courage up to spray that sucker with Raid. Then we had the lovely task of trying to FIND it since it flipped out after being sprayed with death. We eventually found it on the floor, curled up in the typical legs up "dead bug" position. When I told my mom we should ask the cleaners not to send anymore bugs along as we don't alter bugs, we alter clothes, she said, "I did some pretty good altering to it outside!" I'm picturing a flat-as-a-pancake cockroach on my mom's patio.....

Imagine a little chipmunk voice saying, "Baby moving in mommy's tummy, coming to play with me!" as she points her little hand to her chest. Pretty much the sweetest thing ever. I had told her the baby was moving and so she waved to my tummy and said, "Hi Addison!" Then she started talking about how she would come out and play with her. We tell her these things so she didn't make it up but it was so darn cute to hear her say it.

Caelen has been in a big girl bed (her crib converts to a toddler bed) since Tuesday night and it's been going well so far! She's very excited about it and likes to play in it with her animals. She also likes to tell us she's a big girl. We decided after a few nights of her crying after we put her to bed only to find out (after finally giving in and going in to check on her) she had wanted to go use the potty but it was too late (she's been sleeping with diapers though) that it might be a good idea to get her in a bed that she could get out of if she needed to use the bathroom. So far she hasn't gotten out by herself, she still calls for me, but that's a relief! I wasn't looking forward to any nighttime battles over staying in bed. I'm not saying it won't happen, but so far things are looking up.

Potty training is going well although she's a little inconvenienced by it all if she's busy doing something fun. And she hardly stays put long enough to finish the job! She'll hop off real quick, say "Yay!" and then run off. We usually have to get her back and help her finish all that using the potty entails. But today she went 3 times in the church nursery! The ladies said that they were very impressed since it wasn't home. She was so proud that when I called Thomas she was in the back seat yelling, "Dee Dee potty papa! Dee Dee Potty!"

New names and a pumpkin patch

Well, Thomas and I have told enough people by now, and considering we had two opinions on the sex of our new baby girl, we're gonna go out on a limb and pick out girlie bedding, paint the room pink and let people know our baby girl's name. This time it wasn't so easy as it was with Caelen. We actually got the name book out and made lists of our favorites (we'd been doing all this before we knew she was a girl). After we found out she was a girl we got serious about it, but there were only a couple names that we agreed upon and really only one that we both just loved. So Addison Paige will hopefully be gracing us with her presence before I turn 27 ;)

Anyway, I'd been concerned about Addison's movement, or lack thereof. So after dinner tonight I lay down on the couch to see if I could feel her move. In less that 2 minutes (I know because the timer had just started for Caelen's time out) Addison kicked me 10 times! So now I'm thinking that I just don't feel her because I'm up moving around or lugging my toddler around, or just plan busy and she's just still too small. But it's very comforting to feel her moving!


This year's trip to the pumpkin patch was a lot better than last year's. We went to the same patch, but Caelen "got it" this year, her Grandma and Grandpa came along, and we actually bought a few pumpkins instead of just going for pictures. So all in all a very fun Sunday morning!

I don't know why Thomas isn't smiling. Maybe he was just concentrating really hard on the map they gave us to get us out of the maze. Caelen had amazing intuition for which way to go and at first made all the correct turns! LOL

Pardon the runny nose. The reason we were at the pumpkin patch and not church on Sunday was because Caelen and I are suffering from the nasty cold that has apparently struck the entire Sonoma County.
Checking out the farm animals. That was her most favorite part of the day.


From the top of the hay bales she caught site of the pumpkins over the tops of the big Sunflower wall. Man, she about did a header trying to get down and scramble over to the pumpkins!
At first she started counting the pumkins, but after 1,2,3,4,8, 10 she decided to pick one out instead.



There's my handsome man picking out the pumpkin that we'll carve. We grew a couple of pumpkins ourselves this year but because they're sugar pumpkins, Thomas wants to use them for pies, not jack 'o lanterns.
And some final guords and such to finish our fall motif!