Boy Fishing Day

While Caitlin and I enjoyed a girlie day of shopping and playing at Na Na's, the boys went fishing at Petit Jean Mountain at Cedar Falls. Conall was so excited that he was up at 5:30 a.m. ready to go! It took a little longer to get daddy out of bed and all of us ready to go!

At the bait shop and ready to fish!

We woke Caitlin up, put her in the car, and headed to the bait shop to get worms. From there, we went to Na Na's, where Po Po was waiting with his truck and the fishing equipment. The boys headed off to Petit Jean and had a great day. Apparently, Conall even caught two catfish at once! They also caught Bluegills and a Pumpkinseed fish.

Such a happy boy!

I believe Conall named these rocks, but you'd have to ask daddy what he named them

The boys came home later in the day, exhausted, but happy. Even Conall was speechless for part of the hike back up the mountain, and then, the ride home.

Po Po and Conall fishing

Conall with a fish on the line

Po Po throwing the fish back

Second Sleepover for the Boys

Conall and Kanton had their first sleepover at our house on Conall's birthday this year. Then, they tried a sleepover at Kanton's, but by 10:30 Kanton was asleep and Conall was ready to come home. Last night, the boys had their second sleepover at our house.

Conall and Kanton have been asking to have a sleepover since both boys got good report cards around Easter. Conall got to "earn" inviting Kanton over if he could keep green on his behavior light at school on Thursday and Friday. He's been having trouble getting green since they did the Kindergarten standardized tests and made it to orange on Wednesday. Conall cleaned his room Wednesday, got green at school Thursday and Friday, and helped me clean the rest of the house yesterday after school. He even started helping his uncooperative sister with cleaning her room! So, Conall got a sleepover last night.

The boys were most excited about having daddy (Mr. Stu to Kanton) tell them ghost stories before bedtime. He scared them with at least one story and Conall was up for awhile afterward saying he was "scared". I brought a sleepy Inkspot into the room and he climbed between both boys and helped settle them down with his purring. The boys both slept all night and were up at 6 a.m. this morning.

Conall and Kanton wanted to have pancakes and watch Ponyo this morning. They ate a few bites of pancakes and moved on to "the caterpillar to butterfly" game. They played and drew pictures until it was time for Kanton to go home and get ready for soccer.

Conall and Kanton "eating" pancakes -- they only ate a few bites and then were back to playing

Snow Days

Conall catching snow on his tongue

Caitlin "cheesing" as she calls it

Caitlin making a snowball

Conall, Kanton and August working on Conall's "snow penguin"

Conall and Kanton working on Conall's "snow penguin"

Conall playing at the back playground at his school -- he's carrying what the boys were calling a "shatterbomb"

Mommy, Caitlin, and Kanton at the back playground

Caitlin telling Daddy to look at her "pawprints" in the snow on the walking track at school

Stuff on Your Face

Caitlin was snuggling with her daddy when she looked at him and said "Daddy, you need to get rid of that stuff on your face." Our smart little girl has figured out that Daddy's stubble is removable!

I Pretty

Caitlin asked me to put her Tinkerbell robe on her and a hat that goes with one of her dresses. As I finished tying the hat, she looked at me and said "I pretty mommy." I laughed and told her that she's always pretty. Then, she said "I go show daddy now."

Sweet Little Girl

Caitlin "What are you doing daddy?"
Stu "Using the computer. What are you doing Caitlin?"
Caitlin "Loving you daddy." (hugs her daddy)

Hanging Out With Daddy

Walking in Daddy's Shoes

"Inkspot Clean My Foot"

When Stu puts Caitlin to bed, Inkspot always comes and sits in Stu's lap with Caitlin. I think Inkspot is supervising since he doesn't do this with me. While they were sitting in the glider tonight at bedtime, Caitlin kept putting her finger at Inkspot's mouth and telling him to "clean my finger." When he licked her finger, she'd giggle and laugh.

Eventually, Caitlin put her foot toward Inkspot and said "clean my foot." Stu says Inkspot took his paw and pushed Caitlin's foot away. Then, the two of them glared at each other for a little while. Stu tried to explain to Caitlin that Inkspot didn't want to clean her stinky feet and was met with a glare as if to say "my feet don't stink." Either way, Inkspot didn't want to clean her foot.

Does That Ring a Bell?

Caitlin got up on our bed (Daddy's bed in Daddy's room according to her) and said "Hi Daddy." Then, she started jumping and said "Does that ring a bell?"
Oh, the funny things they say!

Egg decorating

Uncle Ken came down yesterday and helped us dye Easter eggs. I don't know who had more fun -- the two little kids or the two big kids (Uncle Ken and daddy).

Caitlin "ordering" how she wanted her eggs dyed.

The kids having fun dyeing eggs

Uncle Ken helping Conall dye his eggs

Building a Model Car

We finally finished up all of Conall's Valentine's for school last night. His teacher not only wanted the kids to sign their own names to the Valentines, but to also write the names of their classmates. That is quite a task for pre-K!

The Valentine's were due at school today for tomorrow's party, so we had to work on them straight through last night to get them done. If Conall finished them before bedtime, he and daddy got to put together the model car kit that I got him from freecycle (along with 5-6 Lego's kits). He'd been wanting to put it together since I picked it up yesterday.

He finished them even before dinnertime, so he and daddy started on the car. I had to keep Caitlin corralled since they were working on it in the living room. She, and all of the cats, thought they needed to be in the middle of everything.

A few hours later, the car was done. Conall loved the one-on-one time with daddy and, of course, building something. He is so proud of his car.

100th Day of School

Today is the 100th day of school at Conall's elementary. The class has been counting down for weeks to this day and they have lots of activities planned that involve counting.

Sometime last week, they sent home a note that we needed to help our child decorate something to wear with 100 things. Of course, I was busy with his party, so we didn't do it until last night. That, and I kept wracking my brain to figure out 100 things that would fit on a shirt, stay on a shirt and be big enough and easy enough for him to count to 100.

We got a shirt (it had to be red) and paint and foam stamps at the craft store. The whole exercise was very frustrating for all of us. Stu had to keep Caitlin away so she didn't mess it up or get paint everywhere. She kept screaming for mommy and throwing tantrums about being left out.

Conall got bored with the counting thing pretty early on and wanted to just decorate the shirt without any regard for how many things it would have on it. When told he couldn't do this, he wanted to quit and wanted to do other things while I decorated his shirt. Ugh! I made him stay at the table and at the shirt until it was done. He kept saying "100 is a lot!" When it looked like it might be midnight before we got 100 stamps on it, I started helping stamp.

He was pretty excited when it was done and woke up at 5 this morning because he was so excited about wearing it. He is really proud of it. He picked out the shirt, paint, and stamps. He keeps saying he wants to wear it different places. I'm not sure I'll let him out of the house in it again. Here are the pictures.

Love You Daddy

Stu finally got an "I love you" from Caitlin. He put her to bed tonight and she said "Good night daddy, I love you." Sweet.

Snuggle Bug

Here's a photo of Caitlin earning her nickname.

December Photos

Here are some photos from December that I hadn't posted before because they were hiding in another folder on the computer!

Being goofy with Po Po at Cadron Settlement

With Na Na at Cadron

Opening a gift with Na Na

Po Po reading to the kiddos

Conall grabbing daddy's birthday cupcakes

Caitlin and Na Na

Conall and Santa

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Relapse

Conall appears to have had a relapse today. He puked and had a fever of 100 or so. He fell asleep sitting on the couch with his daddy this evening, yet another sign he wasn't feeling well. And all day long Stu and I kept asking each other "what is wrong with him?" because his behavior was so BAD. So, based on the fever and puking, we're pretty sure it is a relapse. I hope it goes away soon and he starts feeling and staying better.

Working Under the Car, Er, Tree

Finishing the Tree