Sorry it's been so long~

Some trees by my parent's house this past weekend. The colors have been great this year!

Cale's art project from the other day. He really didn't want to wear it, but I had to take a picture!

One night he's sleeping and his leg is stuck up in the air, under his blanket. SOUND ASLEEP! It was too funny!

The leg under the blanket.

Life sure gets busy sometimes! Things are picking up at work so I've been going in earlier and staying later. That means, getting home later and trying to cram in as much as possible every night. Sorry to be slacking on the blog posting. I'll try to keep up better!

Cale is fully potty trained now, except for at night, which the doctor said is normal. Cale went for his 3 yr appt afew weeks ago. He's 38 3/4 inches and 32.6 lbs. He's now 68% for height and 51% for weight. He's starting to slow down on the growing and catch up on the weight. All is good! The doctor was amazed at his articulation. She said most kids his age you understand 60% of what they say and we are at about 90%.

And, at day care, they do activity time now where they learn the alphabet, colors, numbers, shapes. Nancy has to tell him NOT to answer because he knows all of it. She wants the other kids to get a chance to learn something. It's funny! On the down side of having such a smart kid, he's a little sassy and bossy at times. I've been really working with him at night when he's getting bossy or not listening. I think it's been helping. I hope so, at least!

Grandma N & Great Aunt Diana took Cale to Little America in Marshall last weekend. Jon was in a car/bike show and I went riding in Albany. Cale got to ride a train and pick out a pumpkin. I know this because that's all he's talked about all week so far. :) At least we know he had a good time!

Halloween is coming up quick! I'm excited. I love Halloween and I love that we can take him trick-o-treating. I want to take him to a pumpkin patch but our weekends are numbered and not sure if it's going to happen this year. Maybe next weekend.....

Oh! And China and I had our pictures taken by an aspiring photographer this last weekend. He's a friend of ours who is trying to put together a side business and wanted to expand his portfolio. It was a ton of fun and we got some good pictures too! I'll share them as soon as I get copies!

This week's adventures

Nothing new really. Cale has been kind of naughty and not listening lately. Not sure if it's a phase (which I hope, but doubt) or if he's just not feeling well. He was sick this past weekend and I personally cannot wait until he's feeling better. All these sleepless nights take me back to the newborn stage. Ugh. Who needs sleep???

But, it's not just him being sick. He's also not listening and talking back a little. We think we got to him a little bit this weekend. He was better last night and today at day care.

Oh but Cale is stubborn! Not sure where that comes from...Kakuske, Owen, Nightengale, or Brown.... :) He doesn't like the taste of cough syrup and I got him to take it once Friday night at dinner, but that was it. When it was bed time, he wouldn't take it again. We tried to be nice, mean, forceful, gentle, bribe and nothing worked. We even told him we were throwing his favorite toys away. Didn't work. So Jon got out a garbage bag and we made him put toys in it. He even had to walk the bag outside to the big trash can with me. The whole time crying and sobbing NO NO, but he wouldn't take the medicine.

We didn't really throw the toys away. I rescued them later. They cost a small fortune, so if we get rid of them, I'll sell them! :)

For any of you who might be interested in what's going on in the China world these days, check out my other blog Cindi and China. You can get to it by clicking on the picture of us.

Potty Training

Train tracks up in Milton

'It's so big, mom"

The most exciting news we have lately is potty training. Cale has the peeing thing down pretty good, but the pooping.....

We've gotten him to poop on the potty for the past 4 days, so that's great!! It's been a struggle! We've tried rewards, parties, special treats, toys and nothing has really gotten him to care enough to keep doing it. Hopefully, we keep going though and we can add to our 4 day sucess!

He hasn't been napping lately, which is bad. Nancy at day care doesn't have any ideas and we don't either. It's been 5 days now with out a nap. We've tried to wear him out and keep him up late and get him up early, and it doesn't matter. Oh, and he's not eating the greatest again.

Maybe he's in a growth spurt or coming out of one. Who knows!

Zoo again

This time we went with Krisanne and Rylee.

We first stopped at the Farmer's Market around the state capitol. That's really cool. You can buy any type of veggie, fruit, cheese, meat, bread, cookies, flowers, etc that you coule possibly ever want. It's really neat.

Then we went to the zoo. The kids fed the goats. I was too busy trying to keep their little fingers from being bit to take any pictures. It was so cute though. Rylee did really well with the goats and they actually lick the food out of your hand. I thought they used teeth, so that was a nice surprise.

Of course, after walking all over the zoo, we had to ride the train. AGAIN. Rylee is a little shy of strangers but she only cried when the train driver (he really wasn't a conductor) tried to say hi to her.

August

It's hard to believe we are at the end of August already! Days are getting shorter now too. :(

Cale has been Mr. Sassy Pants the past few days. I don't like it. He talks back and has an opinion on everything. Ugh. He's acting about 10, I think. "It's not, Mom!" "Stop, Mom!" "Don't Mom!" Needless to say, he has been getting reacquainted with the naughty chair at night when Mom's in charge.

We've been working on potty training too. He's peeing really well all by himself, no accidents lately. The pooping is another story. I'm trying to bribe him and take things away. Nothing really seems to motivate him enough yet.

Henry Vilas Zoo

Daddy helping Cale feed the goats.

BUFFALO!!!

Giraffes!

And of course - TRAIN!!!

We took Cale to the zoo last weekend. It's not as big as the Milwaukee zoo, but it was just perfect for him. He got a little bored of the animals by the end. Cale wanted to see the giraffes and talked about them all the way to the zoo. Once he saw them, it really wasn't a big deal any more!

I think he liked the large fish and turtles the best. Or maybe the goats because he got to feed them. It's hard to say. If you ask him about the zoo, he'll tell you all about the animal train, which we rode for all of 2 minutes before we left to go home.

Swimming!

Krisanne and Cale on the swing set.

Jon diving into the pool.

Cale floating by himself.

Rylee, Jon, Cale & Krisanne.

Krisanne & Rylee.

Cale in a floaty!

Jon and Cale.

Cindi and Cale.

Krisanne and Rylee invited us to go swimming at Rylee's grandma's house last weekend. It was perfect weather for swimming - 90+ degrees! Everyone had a good time!