Inching Along

For Caitlin's birthday, grandma got her an inchworm ride-on toy. She loves it!

Isn't she cute?

Caitlin's Kitchen

Grandma found Caitlin a play kitchen at a garage sale today. She also got Conall and Caitlin a set of stainless steel pots to play with. Caitlin LOVES her kitchen and Conall does too.

Microwaving her fruits and vegetables

Cooking

"I'm stirring, I'm stirring"

Cooking on her stove
Using her kitchen

Grabbing as many of her toy groceries to "cook" as she can

Hat and Gloves

Grandma bought Conall a Cars winter hat and glove set this weekend. Conall liked them so much, he wore the gloves inside the house!

Apparently, Caitlin liked them, too. She keeps running off with them and putting the hat and gloves on. Conall keeps telling her to leave them alone because "you'll stretch them out."

Here Caitlin is with the hat, gloves, and a Wall-E mask around her neck.

Caitlin Building "Puppy"

Grandma and I took Caitlin to Build a Bear on Wednesday. It was her first experience there. For those of you who don't know what Build a Bear is, here is a link http://www.buildabear.com/ .

At first, Caitlin had a hard time picking which animal she wanted, but once she did, she would not let it go -- even for the lady to stuff it! We had to grab a different one for them to stuff and then do a quick switch!

She picked out a dog that she started calling "Puppy," but since has started calling "My Doggie". She picked out a pink skirt "princess skirt", pink shirt with "sparkles" and hearts on it, a pink purse, pink glass slippers, pink and white Sketcher's, and a pair of silver sunglasses. The lady who helped us gave Caitlin some pink bows for the dog's ears.

Every time the lady who worked there tried to help us, Caitlin would freak out because she was convinced the woman was trying to take "Puppy" away. Caitlin was willing to brush the stuffed animal, but she wouldn't use the blow dryer/vacuum cleaner thing on it -- she was scared of the noise.

That day when it was time to pick Conall up from school, I had to wake Caitlin up. She would not let "Puppy" go and drug her all the way through the school. She has slept with her every night and nap time since. Wednesday night she was up on and off all night with the ear infection and "Puppy" was right there with us every time.

Trying to decide which animal she wanted

Deciding that Puppy's sunglasses should be on her face instead of the animal's

Brushing the dog's fur


Picking out clothing/accessories

Entering "Puppy" into the database and creating a birth certificate for it

Ready to go home with puppy and not letting go for anything!

Tinkerbell

Caitlin LOVES Tinkerbell. We're thinking it is probably because Tinkerbell is ornery like Caitlin and not as girly as the Disney princesses, so Caitlin can relate to her. Grandma bought her a little Tinkerbell doll last week and Caitlin carried it everywhere. She slept with it, "flew" it through the house, and had a fit if she couldn't find it.

With the cold, icy weather this week, the dogs have been in the house a lot (more than I'd like). If you know anything about Strider, our Dalmatian/bird dog mix, you know where this is headed. Yep, after being told repeatedly not to give Strider the Tinkerbell doll, Caitlin put it in Strider's crate. We aren't sure when Caitlin did it, but when I went to let Strider out the next morning, I found bits of Tinkerbell all over the dog crate. The biggest chunk was her hunk of blond hair. All the next day, Caitlin kept saying "want Tinkerbell."

Grandma came over for daddy's birthday and brought Caitlin and Conall an early Christmas gift. Caitlin's was a set of small Tinkerbell fairies. She's been carrying them all over the house ever since, but her favorite is still Tinkerbell.

Playing with her fairy dolls


Grandma playing with Caitlin

Grabbing all of them at once so Conall can't get them

This is how she pushed them around in her baby stroller

Thanks for the Cookies

Grandma baked cookies and brought them over for the kids yesterday. Conall had a fit about Caitlin eating "his cookies" and wanted her to eat the oatmeal raisin instead. There weren't any oatmeal raisin, so Grandma made some and brought them over today. Conall being Conall, he's been eating the oatmeal raisin that he wanted for Caitlin!

Another Tiara Headband

Grandma bought Caitlin another tiara/headband. Of course, she loves it!

It is so ironic that one child can be so girly and such a tomboy at the same time. My mom says she gets this from my grandmother (my namesake and the namesake for Caitlin's middle name) who mom says was quite the tomboy growing up, but who also really liked girly stuff, too.

Eating Krispy Kremes

I've been going through a few folders of photos that I've downloaded off the camera and have found some that I forgot to post here. Thus, the short posts or posts of just photos. And, Conall's school has been out the last few days and I haven't had as much free time.

Here are some more I missed from around Halloween. Grandma came to see the kids in their costumes on Halloween night and brought them both some treats for the next day. They both got a small gift box of Halloween-themed Krispy Kremes (yum -- we got to share some of them). Here they are eating them for breakfast the day after Halloween. Everyone slept late, so it was a nice thing to have for breakfast the next day (thanks again Grandma!).

Earrings for Mommy

Most of you know that four hasn't been an easy age for us. But, every once in awhile my sweet little boy reminds me that four isn't as bad as I think it is.

While playing at Grandma's, Conall saw her making earrings. He came up to her and told her that he wanted to make a pair of earrings for mommy. So, Conall made me a pair of earrings. How sweet -- how many 4-year-olds would make their mommy a pair of earrings?

Unfortunately, I let my ears grow back together due to so many allergic reactions to earrings and Conall trying to pull them out when he was a baby. It almost makes me want to get them pierced again. Does anyone know of a safe place to do that? I don't want to catch something horrible in the process.

My earrings aren't perfect, but I think I'll keep them forever. They are already in my special keepsake box.

Pumpkin Blow Up

Last week I saw that a chain store had a pumpkin yard blow-up on sale. The one here in Little Rock is in a bad part of town, so Aunt Amy checked the Bryant store. They didn't get the shipment of them in. Grandma was still in Fort Smith, so we had her check the store there. They had one, so she brought it back with her. We were so excited!

Yesterday, we got the kids together and took it outside to blow it up and took the camera with us to take pictures. Conall got to pick the spot in the yard where we were going to put it (it came with stakes).

We blew the pumpkin up and the kids were pretty excited. We unplugged the self-inflating fan and took the pumpkin to the place Conall had picked out. And then, it immediately started deflating. Not just a little bit, but a whole lot!

It turns out there was a reason it was so cheap -- it has to be plugged in constantly to stay inflated. It has a fan that keeps it inflated but loses all of its air if the fan isn't constantly running. Of course, it doesn't tell you this anywhere on the box or in the instructions. So, we'll probably plug it in on Halloween night, but it won't be up again until then! What a waste of electricity.

Here are the photos we took as it was inflating.

Conall's Tricycle

Grandma bought a tricycle (with a handle) on sale. It also converts to a rocking tricycle (like a rocking horse), which Caitlin can use. It has been a hit around the house the last few days, even with the next door neighbor's kids.

Conall's New Friend

Grandma took Conall to Build a Bear http://www.buildabear.com/ this weekend. This was his first experience with Build a Bear and he loved it. He keeps wanting to go back and make bears for Caitlin and his friends (that's pretty sweet). He also wants underwear, socks and pyjamas for the bear.

Conall named the bear Thomas Charger Bearyhill. Thomas has clothes that fit him with a hole for his tail and shoes that are exactly like Conall's. Conall has given him a bath, put him down for a nap with a blanket, rode his tricycle with him, etc. He seems to have taken the place of the stuffed toy cat, Rusty.

Caitlin is also very enamored with the bear -- mainly because it has shoes that look like real shoes. I think we'll have to take Caitlin soon and let her get her own bear with its own shoes.

Caitlin at the Parade

Caitlin and Grandma came to Conall's parade yesterday, too. We had to wake Caitlin up to go and when she got there she was completely overwhelmed. At first, she wouldn't let me put her down. Eventually, she let Grandma hold her.

Bye Bye Train Table

Stu and I have been fed up with the state of Conall's room lately. We think Conall probably was too. He was grabbing his toys and playing everywhere but his room. Ugh -- again!

While we were looking for a sword to go with Conall's Halloween costume (I know we're really early, but Conall knew what he wanted to be early and I had a great coupon for that costume), we spotted a kid size Cars table and chairs with an umbrella on clearance at the toy store. It is really similar to the one Beth bought earlier this year for her house.

Of course, Conall also saw the table,too and really wanted it! So, the deal was, if he cleaned up his room (with help) and got rid of some toys and his train table (which he's been using as storage and not playing on), then he could have the Cars table and chairs.

This afternoon, Conall and his daddy cleaned his room, cleaned out some toys and moved the train table out. A lucky freecycler picked it up within a few hours of our posting it.

Conall ate dinner at his table and did his "homework" on it. I think this is the best dinner he has eaten in months!

At one point, he went and got a "snack" to share with Caitlin. They shared a package of raisins, which ended when she started throwing them on his floor. He was very upset with her for messing up his room!

Why Rusty the Cat Goes Everywhere

Conall -- Why does Rusty go everywhere I go?
Me -- I don't know. Why?
Conall -- Because he is a guard cat. He guards everyone's house he goes to. He guards our house, Grandma's house, NaNa and PoPo's house, everyone's house. He keeps everyone safe.

Watermelon and Blueberries

Caitlin loves her "yum yum". She saw me bring in a container of fruit that Grandma sent home with Conall and had a fit. It was a container of watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, red grapes and apples. Grandma and Conall had eaten them during their tea party at Conall's patio table.

I couldn't dish the fruit out quickly enough for her. One bite after another was gone. She loved the watermelon, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. So much so that she ate all of the watermelon in one sitting and wanted more. The watermelon and blueberries seemed to be her favorite, so we went the next day and got her some more.

Doing Girly Girl Stuff

Aunt Amy and Grandma really indulge Caitlin's "girly girl" tendencies, like her love of shoes (should we say fetish?), purses, pretty dresses and dolls. They have been the most responsible for her growing collection of purses, bags, shoes, jewelry, tiaras and dolls. Here's a cute photo of Caitlin with Grandma. They are giggling about something -- probably their next shoe or purse purchase!

Spaghetti Girl

One of Caitlin's favorite foods is spaghetti, although she likes her Grandma's recipe better than mine.

Eating spaghetti at Grandma's

Patio Table

Grandma saw this table at JCPenney's in the aisle while we were shopping for Conall and Caitlin's shoes. She had the kids try it out while we were there, since it was on clearance and would be gone soon. Conall and Caitlin both love it, although you have to watch Caitlin really closely when she sits in the chairs. She really seems to enjoy being able to sit at a table just like her brother! Conall talks about it all the time and when we are at a store with any type of patio table, he points at it and says "it's just like mine at Grandma's".

Conall's Car

Conall's friend at Grandma's house (a neighbor), Henry, had a car that Conall loved to play with. He kept asking us, and then Grandma, to buy him a car like Henry's. Grandma tried garage sales, placing ads in the paper, etc. to find one, but to no avail.
She finally found one on the Internet and ordered it for him. He LOVES it! That is all he wants to play with at her house now, and he asks for it all week long.