Tag Archives: P training

Autumn Little Big Things…

8 Nov

Little things are big,  and what make life memorable.  Here are some of the little things about my kids that are memorable to me the past few months:

M.J.ready to sparr

  • M has been loving playing football.  It is pretty fun to see him catch a 20 yard pass and then see that look on his face. So proud and a little shocked (I caught it!)
  • M went to his first Tae Kwon Do tournament and got 4th place in forms and 3rd place in sparring. Both him and his Dad loved the experience overall.  I am looking forward to seeing the next one, which will be closer to home. (see short video of practicing form here, or longer video of tournament sparring here)
  • M got Student of the Month in October for being artistic/creative. Then he also got a sudden interest in playing electric guitar again.
  • Today Neil joined M for lunch at his school and it was a surprise. I am not sure who had more fun, M or his Dad.  When the kids talk you into staying for recess, you know it is good.
  • It is really fun to see him really learning how to read words and be so excited about school.
B.T.B on a hayride
  • I have been enjoying some time w/B in the mornings, on the laptop next to me, after M leaves for school and before CJ wakes up.  He likes to wake up early, then “rest in my office” with his blankie for a bit.  I like my  new office-mate.
  • I love first drawings.  B’s faces and family drawings are fun.  Big eyes, big smiles, lots of legs.
  • B has had mid-night wakings lately that result in “Daaaad” being yelled from upstairs.  Dad (or mom) goes upstairs and then he says”I just want you to lay by me.” or “I want you”. Sleepy parents usually abide, but in the meantime a bad habit has begun.  Sleeping by a cuddly kid who wants you to sleep by him, though, is not all that bad.
  • B knows how to talk the talk.  His says some pretty “big” things and his dad says “his negotiating skills have improved.” huh.
  • So he loves to Dance and Sing, he particularly likes Go Fish and a kids Halloween CD (yes all year round).  But if his mom dances or sings *too much* with him, he says “Stop Mom!” Yes he already thinks his mom is embarrassing.
  • Preschool is oozing out of this kid, he is learning so much and growing so smart.
C.J.kitty cat learns how to say trick or treat
  • She learned how to say “trick or treat” by the end of Halloween night.  She also protected her furry pink pumpkin candy holder all night until bedtime.  She then transferred all the candy to her purse, and then proceeded to try to hide her purse under her crib.
  • We are working on all of our words.  She says some words, but many others are a bit backwards or all sound like “daa” or “dis” or “joose”  or “uck” or “um”.  I have to remind her to practice all the time, “can you say [insert any random word here that CJ thinks is pronounced  "diiiis" or "aaaaaak"]?.  Maybe every word needs to have the excitement of “Trick or treat” with it for her to learn it faster.
  • We have been working on potty training, mostly when we see the look that a #2 is coming, we rush to the bathroom.  She knows the drill now because she will look at me smile, hold her hand out (grab it mom) then totally get into the mad rush to the bathroom. She is doing pretty good but we are not pushing it real hard.
  • Although she loves to try dressing herself (likes pulling up her own pants!), she likes to make it a challenge for me to get her dressed, usually escaping mid-way with giggles half naked.  The funny part, if I want to take the easy way out, I just pass the chore on to her Dad, which she will run to (instead of away) to get dressed.
Other fun stuff:
  • We went to Nelson Farm with Grandma Kathy and saw all kinds of farm animals, climbed haystacks, and went on all kinds of wagon rides.  Kids all fell asleep on the way home.
  • Halloween is one of our favorite holidays.  The kids get so excited about it that the decorations go out around Oct. 1.  The kids were Darth Vader, a Ninja, and a kitty.  The kids got a couple rounds of trick or treating in, as well as a full dose of handing out candy at our house and seeing all the other spooky and silly costumes.
  • Neil turned 36.  I had no idea that putting all those candles (an entire box) on a cake would make such a waxy, smoky mess.
  • I am a new Aunt!  Joe and Amanda had baby Nolan Hendrix! And the baby has some very proud cousins, especially when Darth Vader so little Yoda sleeping on Halloween.
halloween crew

Random thoughts on my Misfits

29 Jun

-M had his 5 year check up today. The doc asked if I wanted to give him his shots today or wait a year. I asked Mav what he thought and he said, “get them today so I can get the band-aids.” He was so brave and did not even cry. When he went to bed though, his arm was starting to stiffen up. Neil remembers how bad his arm hurt after a tetanus shot as a kid…. Hopefully he doesn’t wake up totally sore and wondering why he volunteered to get shots?!

-B got in trouble with grandpa Mark tonite when he said the word “stupid”. We have never heard him say that word in our house… but I think that Grandpa probably scared him away saying it again for a while.

-B is so wild but also has such a sweet side. He is still very attached to his blankie, which he even liked to put in the “trunk” of his trike and take for rides with him.

-CJ is sitting up so good now and is enjoying toys and watching the boys at a whole new level. She has 2 teeth on the bottom that try to get in the way of her thumb sucking but she doesn’t let that stop her. Gma Kathy gave her a Lambchop puppet that talks to her that always makes her smile. She gives it big hugs.

-CJ also had her 9 month check up today and she took a big spike up in growth. She is 40% in weight and 50% in height. She loves solid foods and has some chubby cheeks and thighs so this did not surprise me!

-We took the boys to Toy Story 3 last weekend which they LOVED. B’s first movie in the theater and he did pretty good. Didn’t have the glasses on most of the time and didn’t seem to care.

-We continue to work on potty training with B. He does really good when he is not wearing a diaper, or when it is time to bed. Actually he does great when he is supposed to be sleeping, he uses it as a way to get out of bedtime, he yells under the door, “Mom I go pee on toilet.” and knows that I will probably come up there because it makes me happy when he goes potty.

-CJ loves toast. It will keep her happy for long enough for me to curl my hair.

-We had an episode last week where M had nightmare about clams. He saw them under his bed, in his sheets, all over his room. This all sparked from Gpa Mark grabbing a clam out of the lake and making a big chomping noise with it and pretending it was snapping him. I think he is over it now…

-CJ says, “Hi dada” quite often and clearly. The first time she said it was on father’s day. She is also pretty good at waving, but mostly at her dad, whom she adores.

-M turned 5! His real birthday was the day of his party too. It was a basketball theme and it rained all day, but the kids played ball in the garage and still had lots of fun. He just felt so special that day which I love to see.

-A couple weeks ago we took a week off for “vacation”. The first couple days we went to the cities since it was raining, the last half we went to the lake. The weather could have been better, but we made the most of it. Our theme of the week was “Family time is treasured time” (with a tinge of sarcasm) because it felt as though the entire vacation we were breaking up fights or trying to get thru to kids who would not listen. In all seriousness, we do feel that family time IS treasured time, HOWEVER, it is much easier to treasure sans fighting and yelling. And I think mom and dad need another vacation on their own again…..

It must be the Power Oatmeal.

4 May

It seems to me that my kids have all grown up immensely over the past couple weeks. Maybe it is the Power Oatmeal they have been eating for breakfast every morning.

CJ is into her hands and feet, staring them down, analyzing them, grabbing those toes in the “happy baby” yoga pose. Yeah my baby invented that pose…. She loves her veggies. Spoonful, thumb, spoonful, thumb, spoonful, thumb. She likes to get that thumb action between each bite. She is now jumping in her bouncer like a crazy girl. Rocking that thing. And getting places in the walker, slow but sure (which BTW, Brody still likes to hop in the bouncer, walker, and other baby things just for shits and giggles). This little Lottie has discovered she can really talk! And scream! And use it to her advantage! She has a voice and it is great to see so much personality coming out of this bald little babe.

Brody, oh Brody. So cute, so devilish. Just learn to love sleep. Please. And listen a little better. That would make things so much easier. He is doing good on the potty- just on his terms though. “Brody have to go potty?” – “no” But when it is bedtime, and he is suppose to be sleeping, he suddenly knows he has to go, and yells for us…. and success, potty. Yeah he is in charge of the potty routine, what he says goes, because we will take whatever Poo in the Potty we can get. It is so fun to hear him form little sentences and say big words. He is talking up a storm, he know what he wants, and wants to be heard! And the dancing… ever since we got the Go Fish CD’s, these kids go nuts jamming out and dancing (my personal fave- is the 5 little monkeys, and of course the mom song).

Mav – the questions and comments he says lately are so entertaining. He is intrigued with the hair (and lack of hair) that his grandpas’ have (or don’t have). “Dad why is Grandpas mustache white? It looks silly, it should be brown!” And the fact that grandpa H does not have hair on the top of the head, well that is a regular discussion. “Mom, grandpa does have SOME hair, just not on the TOP of his head!” Tonite was a gma/gpa night and Mav actually fell asleep at their house at 7 from all the basketball he was playing all night. Wore himself out with all that shooting. A little power oatmeal will start him off right again in the morning… and I am sure he will request it.

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Zilla Doesn’t Want to Sleep

24 Mar

Brodzilla has returned in a big way. Not in a “make a mess” destructive way…. just a “there is no way in hell you are going to get me to go to bed” way. And in a “I am going to scream hysterically to see how nuts I can make you” type of manner. But he is really sweet in between all that.

For instance, tonight, it went like this:

B has his jammies on. I am giving CJ a bath. He yells that he wants a drink of water, and I told him if he wants one, he has to come upstairs. He comes upstairs and gets the stiff face “I’m pooping” look. I asked him if he has to poop on the potty and when the diaper comes off, I discover he already did it. I dumped the doody in the toilet, and he got pissed at me because I did not put it in his little toilet. I understand his reasoning to a point, but he was already done, and I really did not want to clean his little toilet just because. Plus, CJ was waiting patiently for me in the bath. He freaked out and ran away with his jammies around his ankles and doody on his butt. I had the baby still in the bath, so I had to take her out, wrap her in a towel, and run after the toddler (wipes in hand) with the danger doody. He got even MORE pissed and I could barely get a diaper back on him. By this point, CJ had kicked her towel off, and was getting cold on the bathroom floor. I picked her up, and inadvertently flushed the toilet. This set him over the edge into a 15 minute hysteria. “Mama, MY poop!” was repeated over and over. I tried to apologize, but he could not even hear me.

At this point, there was no calming him down, because every question I ask him got answered with a NO! I went to get the baby dressed. He screamed/cried upstairs and finally made it downstairs. When the baby started to cry (from hearing his screeches) he screamed louder. It is at points like this that I realize that the thought of having a fourth child is crazy head talk.

Finally, he chilled out a bit, and by this time, we were ready to read books. He acts like he will goto bed ok, but then when the lights are out and it is time to lay down, he will just sit up in bed. “mama nigh, nigh” with a tap on his pillow, means come lay by me, but I don’t plan on sleeping, I just want to play. When the door is shut, he will go lay by it and yell for us until we come upstairs, or he decides to play/read books, or he falls asleep by the door. Once in a while, he will crawl back into bed and goto sleep.

It has been this way for the past 2-3 weeks and it is getting old fast. A few nights ago, he woke up in the middle of the night, with the “I don’t want to sleep” hysteria mode. It is hard enough in the waking hours, but in the middle of the night?

He is just a really awnry bucky kid lately- not always. But enough to make me want the Old B back. The one that doesn’t mind sleeping once in a while, and doesn’t turn into Mr. Hyde.

Attack of Brodzilla

17 Nov

Brodzilla, as we so lovingly call him, has taken over the house with his terrible 2 ways. He has instantly taken over the role as the middle child, and comedian. Here are just a few of the animal’s wild and funny ways:

-He makes such a mess around the house, and TRIES to clean up after himself. This has led to an obsessive compulsive relationship with cleaning tools such as a wash cloth, vacuum or broom. He will go around wiping all the crumbs off any surface (onto the floor) walks around the house swinging a broom around, INSISTS on vacuuming for at least 20 minutes, etc.

-He loves monsters and spooky stuff. Everything says RAWR to him, with spooky hands in the air and fingers moving for a dramatic scary effect. Yes, even cute little furry animals like bunnies say RAWR!

-Today he attacked the vaseline. He sees me put it on my lips every morning, and decided to take a couple huge gobs and spread it all over his face. Luckily I caught him before he touched much.

-After the vaseline incident, he then pulled a stool up to the bathroom sink where he turned the water on and wanted to play in the water/sink with my breast pump parts. This would not be so bad, if they were not suppose to be sanitary and there was nothing at risk if he lost or broke a part. I substituted a water cup for a breast pump bottle, and he acted as if I took away a birthday present…[insert tantrum here]

This masked crusader is ready to rid the world of crime and suckers.

-We went out for coffee this morning with Grandma while M was at school. John gave him a sucker, which I should have waited to unwrap…When we were ready to go, he still had a lot of sucker left and a huge mess. We thought had him talked into “saving” the sucker for later in a ziploc bag so we could go. As soon as I zipped up the bag, he threw a huge fit in the middle of the coffee shop, thru himself down on the floor, and cried with a purple “can’t breath” kinda face. This was one of the first times Grandma had seen such a fit from him…. and needless to say, he got his sucker back, this time.

Too independent for bibs, boosters or sippy cups! Hello Mess!


-B is also a pocket gopher. He likes to store food or drink in his mouth, then just spit it out when you least expect it. Today he did it with juice. He especially likes to do it with grapes and granola bars. Oh and today I found half of a sandwich in my plant. Maybe he is trying to store his food for later, kind of like that annoying little red squirrel in our backyard.

-B has been rocking on the potty. Out of nowhere really, he has been telling us when he has to go #2, and going #1 whenever he takes a seat. We are still in diapers, but are super impressed with his potty progress. Big brother has been a HUGE help with this.

-He has been getting his own water from the fountain on the fridge for quite a while. I thought he understood how it worked, until today, when I heard him from the other room in a cry of distress. I have heard this cry before when his leg is caught somewhere, or he is holding on for dear life from falling from a chair or something. Here he was, cup under the faucet, pushing the button to get water. It was over flowing all over the floor, and his pants were all wet in the front, and his sweatshirt all wet in the back. SOAKED. I had to pull his arm from the fridge, as he was in shock from the water, but did not move to stop the water from soaking him… it was really quite hilarious.

Mav took this pic, so I cannot explain it other then, it is a good example of Brodzilla's ways.

-The afternoon wrapped up with a crabby B flipping his chair down on its back, as he likes to do when he is trying to express himself in a destructive way. What he did very wrong though was that the back of the chair hit CJ. So I freaked out, then he proceeded to flip the other 2 chairs on their back, yell at me in the same tone that I yelled at him, then tried to bite me through my jeans. [TIME OUT].

- Neil said tonite that B reminded him of a NOID…. not sure if that means in a hyper, goofy, pizza-loving kind of way? Which BTW, a couple weeks ago, while Neil was hunting, the boys and a got a large pepporoni pizza from Pizza Ranch for dinner. We finished all but 2 pieces (Mav had 4 pieces, I had 3, and Brody had 3). Then, the next morning, each boy had another piece of pizza for breakfast after a bowl of cereal. I told them that their Dad would be proud.

Proud Big Brother


-He SO loves his baby sister. Always wants to hold her, giving her kisses, sharing his blanket. We went to open play at the school yesterday, and when the teacher asked M about his baby sister, B proudly spoke up so and said ” Ma sista too” or something like that. He was proud, and put his hands to his chest, like she was HIS.

Oh my Brodzilla, you do keep my life interesting and full of laughs….

Late night wakings

23 Dec

Last night Maverick woke up a couple times. He is starting to get a little cold and was pretty upset about having a stuffed up nose. He also had an accident in his bed, for the first time ever since wearing undies. He was understandably unhappy, but like I said, this is the first time ever that it happened. So I am pretty proud of him for doing so good on the potty for the last 6+ months. What a big boy! Plus he is starting preschool in just a couple weeks!

Brody slept all night, like a sweet little baby angel!

Update from the Kaufenberg Home

8 Jun

Wow a sandbox just for me! Dad's birthday present to Mav.

Wow a sandbox just for me! Dad's birthday present to Mav.

Mav is really kicking butt on the potty. We are so proud. He now tells us when he has to go, even if he is in the store, at the park or in the tub. Oh what a relief! Mav’s birthday is thursday and he is SOO excited. He recently went to a birthday party at daycare and is now happy that soon it is HIS turn for presents and cake. Dad built Mav a sandbox for his birthday which was pretty special. Maverick is very happy with it and spent hours in it last night after it was first built.
Helping dad build my box!

Helping dad build my box!


Brody is growing up so quick…. he legs and arms are getting so strong. He rolls over now and splashes in the tub, which Maverick things is hilarious. He doesn’t have the cereal thing down yet, which is OK. Brody and Mav are really getting to be buds. They LOVE to make each other giggle. Brody is still getting up ALOT at night but we are working on that, or at least surviving I guess. His hair has lightened quite a bit since he was born, it is almost blonde now but still hard to tell….
Maverick starts summer rec on Tuesday, with kickball/tball being the main activity. I am looking forward to watching…we practiced some kickball in the driveway the other day so he could learn about running around the bases… great fun.
Dad take our picture now that you are done!

Dad take our picture now that you are done!

Making Progress on the Potty!

1 Apr

Mav puts a sticker on his potty chart when he "tries"!Mav is excited to be using the potty, at least part-time for the moment! We have found a couple time slots that seem to bring potty success, and Mav (and Mom and Dad) are very excited! Mav especially likes the treats, stickers, or tattoos he gets afterwards!

Today he went for the first time at daycare, and for the first time at Grandma Kathy’s!

Beyond Words

16 Oct

So proud of the pumpkins we carved...

So proud of the pumpkins we carved...

Maverick is in a stage of ultimate learning. I think this is my favorite part of momhood so far. We have had plenty of power struggles too, but when it comes to the questions and watching him play and help and do so many big boy things, I am so impressed. He can count all my himself to 13 (but usually starts at 3 and skips 11). He loves to bowl on many levels (at the bowling alley, at home with plastic pins, and with dad on the Wii). He also loves to golf and be outside and ride bike! He is typically a very good eater, but is infatuated with “newton bars” (fig newtons) which we give to him sparingly. He is just plain silly, especially on weekends and towards the end of a meal. Last night he insisted that I was a “gook” and was laughing hysterically at me. He loves his uncles and grandparents and great grandparents so much. He talks often about “great grandma” and visiting her at the “nursing home”, then goes on to talk about hugs and being “her boy” as she says to him over and over when dad and Mav visit. We are still working on potty training, Mav sits for 20-30 minutes but nothing. Last night was a big night, we put together a bed in Mav’s room to get him used to it. By the end of the night he was so cozy there, we were reading books and he said that is where he wanted to sleep. He was so proud to sleep in his big boy bed. We are too.

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