Tulips in February

I would like to say Thank You to Meijer for selling these awesome tulip bulbs in a vase so that I can have long-lasting tulips in February. They really brighten up the house in the winter!

Pool Sharks

Well, we're on our way to being a family of pool sharks :) We picked up a used pool table off of Craigslist in the fall and every now and again we find the time to play with it. Robert gives the kids lessons and works on his tricks and I try to slop a few balls in every now and again. Here are some pictures I snapped this evening.

Robert showing Teah how to hold her cue.


Then, of course, she wanted to do it herself


Yeah! She actually hit the cue ball ;)


Carter gets some help from Daddy


Robert practicing his "trick" shot. He jumps the cue ball over the 1 and hits the 8 ball. He made it into the pocket in only three tries.


Carter's head shot for when he hits the pro circuit

Crazy Hair

This is Teah after jumping in the bouncer :)

Sweet Dreams

Vegas! The dog, not the city...

The Hilliards have a new family member and I have a new blog subject! Meet Vegas, our rescue dog.

Almost 3 1/2 years ago now, our first ever dog, Scrappy, died of cancer. Carter was only about 5 weeks old, so we weren't in any hurry to replace Scrappy with all of the other demands of our two children. Now that the kids are older and both in school, I decided it was time to start thinking about getting another dog. I started looking before Christmas, but with the holidays and Robert's knee surgery, we put off the decision.We still weren't sure if we were ready, but the kids and I decided to go to a dog adoption this past weekend to just look around and pet some dogs - or so we thought!

Vegas was listed as a Schnauzer mix, although from the looks of his wiry hair, short legs, curly tail, and long snout I'm guessing he is a mutt through and through with a mix of many different breeds. We adopted Vegas from The Animal Rescue Project and they told us what little they knew about his history. He was found in mid-November tied up at a rest area near battle creek. He was found with the tags in the picture, showing that he had a rabies vaccination in Las Vegas, NV in 2007. The Battle Creek animal control facility called the numbers and tried to locate his owners, but they were unsuccessful. After 10 days, The Animal Rescue Project rescued Vegas from the shelter, where if he stayed too long he would have been put down. Vegas was at their shelter for 2 months before we decided to take him home. The shelter estimated him to be about 4 years old.


Robert was working, so I was sure that we wouldn't come home with a dog, but after spending almost an hour in the petting room with Vegas, I fell in love. He passed all of the tests - pulling on ears and tail, taking away rawhide without aggression, not a crazy barker, enjoyed playing with dog toys, got along well with another dog, and he wasn't overly assertive about needing our attention. Also, he was the cutest scraggly mutt I've ever seen, and if you had ever met Scrappy, you know that's just the look I love! So, after getting Robert's OK over the phone, we decided to bring him home!!

After stopping at the pet store for the essentials, we brought him home, set up his food and water, showed him where to do his business, and gave him a bath. Since Vegas was at the shelter and not in a foster home, the rescue wasn't sure if he was house-trained. So, I decided to keep him in our basement until we could figure out exactly where he stood on that front (the carpet down there is much more cleanable than on the main level). When Robert got home the next day Vegas greeted him with doggy enthusiasm and the family was complete :)

In the few days that we've had Vegas I've learned that he is indeed house-trained, he loves to play fetch and will bring the toy back and immediately drop it at your feet for another throw, he enjoys chewing rawhides and nylabones, he's great on car rides (he's ridden along on a few trips to preschool), and he's generally an awesome dog. I can't imagine why his former family would've wanted to give him up, but their loss is definitely our gain! Here's a few pics I've taken of him over the last few days. Have I mentioned that I also have a new photographic subject :) My kids are probably thankful to not be the only ones having to pose anymore!

Makin' Lunch

Carter loves to help me cook and I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of him while we were making mac -n- cheese the other day. How cute is he? :)

Getting Dressed

Carter is 3 1/2 years old now and really becoming very independent. I can't believe how big he is and I just needed to document something that he does all by himself. He's just so cute. So, here he is getting dressed.

Bathtime

Well, I've been so focused lately on improving my professional photography skills that I have neglected taking pictures of our everyday life. So, it's time to get back to the blog with some bathtime pictures. For some reason I love pictures of the little ones in the bath. So, this afternoon Carter was having a ball in our jacuzzi tub and I decided to snap a few pictures of him. He didn't have any of his bath toys, just a few cups and he stayed in there playing for over 30 minutes! He loves the bubbles that the jacuzzi makes after I wash his hair. It's hilarious when he decides to put some on his chin and say, "Ho Ho Ho"!

Carter's Second Day

Well, today was an emotionally exhausting morning all around. When I mentioned going to preschool this morning Carter immediately told me that he didn't want to go and that he didn't like preschool. That was not what I was hoping for! I tried everything I could think of to convince the kid to go, but he would not budge. When we pulled into the parking lot he didn't want to go in and I got him through the door without crying, but as soon as we sat down to put his slippers on he just started screaming. Mary came over and "took over" and I said a quick goodbye and walked out - a heart-wrenching thing to do! Of course I was crying as well having to leave him like that. I overreacted to the situation and started thinking that I would have to take him out of school because it was never going to work - I guess those were my emotions in overdrive. I was worried that he would be upset on and off for the entire two hours and was fully expecting Mary to tell me as much. Thankfully, it was not as bad as I thought it would be and was probably harder on me than him! It did take them 30 minutes to get him to calm down, but after that he had fun with his "work" and played on the playground. His teachers agreed that he's not so good with groups, so they are staying aware of that and trying to help him through those situations. THANKFULLY, one of his assistant teachers is wonderful and sits with him when he is upset and they have bonded well. Also, it sounds like he has become friends with a little boy named JJ who was also a little sad at drop-off time today. Oh, and Carter and JJ have the same red crocs, so they must be friends :) Mary suggested that I bring Carter in 15 minutes early tomorrow so he can get settled in without the other children around. When I mentioned to Carter that we were going to go early tomorrow so that he could sit at his favorite place and get out his favorite work he gave his standard reply that he DID NOT want to go. When I asked him if he wanted to go with Teah and have her show him some work he actually said yes, so I think that I'll bring her along as well. So, I have higher hopes for tomorrow and today didn't turn out near as bad as my imagination made it out to be!

Carter's First Day

This week is Carter's orientation week for his first year of preschool at the Montessori School. Orientation week kicked off yesterday with a 45 minutes individual meeting with his teacher, Mary. Today, tomorrow, and Friday the new students are in the classroom from 9am until 11am (normal hours are 9am to noon). For those not familiar with Montessori, the classrooms have multiple ages and the primary classrooms consist of ages 3, 4, and 5 (two years of preschool and kindergarten). Teah was in Mary's classroom last year as a 4 year old and will continue to be in her classroom, with Carter, as a 5 year old this year. Since this week is for new students only, Carter has been on his own without his sister.

I was a little nervous going into this week with Carter because he has always been pretty attached to me as well as not really being a fan of being in large groups of children. Anything over 5 or 6 kids has been a challenge for him in the past when we attended gymnastics class, library story time, etc. Thankfully, Carter is familiar with Mary and the classroom since Teah was there all last year, so that's at least a good start. His meeting with Mary yesterday went well. I stayed for a few minutes while Mary started giving Carter lessons on the "work" of his choice and then I left the classroom to go to the office for 15 minutes or so. Carter did a great job and seemed excited for today. He told me that his favorite lesson was the "tong work" where he uses a child-sized set of tongs to move small wooden animals from one bowl to another.

This morning I made his favorite breakfast before preschool - french toast. I even used cinnamon bread instead of regular bread to make it extra special :) Robert is on vacation this week, so I have been able to fully concentrate on Carter and his transition. Drop-off went well this morning. I stayed in the coat room while Carter put his slippers on and went off into the classroom to start doing some of the great work he learned about yesterday. While he was in the classroom I was thankful to have the distraction of the parent's coffee with Pam (the director of the school). I picked him up on the playground at 11am. I found him happily playing on the jungle gym and the minute he saw me he started crying and hid under the structure. I think this is just his way of dealing with the change, because he said he didn't want to stay and play, but that he didn't want to leave either. Mary told me that Carter had a few difficult periods in the classroom during transition times. When it was time for meeting he cried and was taken into the quiet room where one of the teachers helped him to feel better so that he could rejoin the class. He also had a crying episode on the playground when he was trying to play in the little house that was full of other children.

So, his first day wasn't as bad as it could've been, but wasn't great either. I really think that his insecure feelings when it comes to transition times will get significantly better when Teah is in the classroom with him. I told her today (with Carter out of earshot) that Carter had a tough time at meeting today and asked her if she could help him out next week. I suggested that maybe he could sit next to her during meeting and she told me matter-of-factly that Nathan and Maddie sat next to each other last year and they are brother and sister. So, we have two more Teah-free days to get through and then I'm hoping things will start looking up.

As for my transition, I was less emotional than I thought I would be, but I think it will really hit me next week when I drop both of my babies off! I snapped a few pictures yesterday and today and wanted to share - here is the link to the album: Carter's First Week

Kid Questions

The kids ask the funniest questions sometimes, so I've decided to start posting some of them. Today, Teah asked me:

Mom, why is it called your pinky if it isn't pink?

hmmmm....

Also, today was Carter's 3rd birthday and we finally decided that it was time to take his bottles away (I know - it's about time). When I was giving him his cup this evening he asked me:

Mom, when will I turn 2 again?

He did go to sleep without any problems at all with his new big boy cup.

Ribbit

I couldn't resist Carter in his froggy towel after his bath:

A New Uno

Unfortunately, a few weeks ago we lost one of our little mousy pets to what I hope was old age and not some type of poor caring for on our part. I told the kids that Uno the mouse had gotten old and died and they seemed to accept it pretty well. It seemed like a problem, though, that now we had mice named Dos and Tres. Without the introductory mouse the names seemed off. Teah suggested that we change Dos' name to Uno and Tres' name to Dos. Carter was the one who suggested replacing Uno the mouse with a new mousy friend. We waited until after vacation and finally made it to the pet store today to get a replacement Uno, also being called Uno numero dos, Uno 1.1, and The New Uno. For those of you who are freaked out by rodents, I apologize for the close-up, but I of course think that she's the cutest little mouse. She's much smaller than any of the three we originally bought, so hopefully we actually ended up with a baby mouse to start off with this time.

The New Uno

Uno checking out Teah

Atlanta - Day 1

Today was our first full day in Atlanta after taking two days to drive down and arriving at our rental condo late last night. Robert will be taking his Anesthesia oral board exam tomorrow (wish him luck!) and then we'll spend the rest of the week vacationing as a family. With Robert in his hotel room studying most of the day today, the kids and I hit Lenox Square Mall and Piedmont Park. We stayed at the mall just long enough for me to stop at Sephora (woohoo!) and grab lunch at the food court. Once again we used vrbo.com and found a rental condo instead of going for a hotel room. The condo is 4 blocks from Piedmont park with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, plus kitchen, living room, and small sun room - not as spacious as the house in Tampa, but soooo much nicer than an itty bitty hotel room for the 4 of us. After a short rest at the condo, we took advantage of the location and walked to Piedmont Park. I used to take Scrappy to the dog park at Piedmont when we lived in Atlanta and the park was generally just always a beautiful place to go. The kids were brave enough to venture into the dog park (a fenced in area where the dogs can run off-leash and play) and try to pet some of the dogs. I also discovered that Piedmont Park has a playground for kids - funny that I never saw it when we lived here before, but since we moved away when Teah was only 6 months old, I never had the need to pay attention! I brought my new baby, Canon t1i :), to the park with us and took some pictures of the kids. Unfortunately, the upload speed of the internet at the condo is too slow, but I will for sure be posting pics when we get home. Robert took time off of studying for dinner and we ate at Everybody's Pizza with one of our great friends, Sarah. Overall, a great day.

Quote of the Day

"I'm not cranky because I'm tired. I'm cranky because you say no to ALL of the things that I want."

~Teah, 5 years old

Conversations with Carter

Carter is getting to be so big and has really started to be quite the conversationalist. So, I'm going to start a new type of blog entry called, "Conversations with Carter". This post is a video of a conversation I had with the little guy. I had no idea where it would lead, but it ended up being hilarious!

Smile!

This morning as I got into the van after dropping Teah off at preschool Carter said, "Mommy, smile!". I smiled and asked him why I was smiling and he replied, "Because I love you". He can turn on the charm when he wants to :)

Teah's Gymnastics Class

I took a few pictures of Teah in her gymnastics class back in November and am just now getting around to posting them. She has been taking Gymnastics at Kids Gym in Portage now for 3 months and she has a great time (as you can see in the pictures).

Quote of the Day

"This bowl isn't big enough to fit on my head anymore. When I was 4 I could fit it on my head."

~Teah, who just turned 5 years old

Teah's 5th Birthday!

Teah turned 5 on December 21st and had 4 separate celebrations. Teah celebrated with her preschool on the 17th (the last day of school before their holiday party since her birthday was over break). The Montessori birthday tradition is called "Walk Around the Sun" and is a beautiful way to celebrate a child's years on this earth. All of the children sit in a circle with a candle in the middle. Around the candle they place 12 different cards for each month of the year. The birthday child holds a globe and stands next to the month of their birthday. At Teah's school they have you bring in a newborn picture of the child as well as a picture for each of their years (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The candle is lit and then the teacher walks around and shows the students the newborn picture. Then all of the students recite the months of the year as the birthday students walks around "the sun". When they get back to their birthday month they stop and the teacher shows a picture of when they were 1 year old and then the months and walking again. This continues until their age. Then they sing happy birthday and the birthday students blows out the candle and everyone claps. Teah was really excited for her turn to walk around the sun and I was able to sit in the classroom and watch. Teah even decided she wanted to wear her princess dress for the occasion, which was big, since she rarely wants to wear a dress. Here is a video of the beginning of the celebration. I ran out of space on my card on my camera, so unfortunately I didn't tape the whole thing.

The weekend brought more birthday celebrations. On Saturday we drove to Flint and celebration Teah's birthday with Robert's parents, his grandmother, and his Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Dennis and their children Emily and Sarah. Emily and Sarah are Robert's cousins, but they are 4 and 7 years old, so they are very much like first cousins to Teah. We also celebrated Christmas with them and they had a great time! I forgot to bring my camera, but hopefully I will be able to get ahold of the pictures Teresa took and post them soon. On Sunday we had a small family celebration at our house with my parents, my sister Annette, her daughter and granddaughter, and a few friends of theirs. Teah has a piece of pretend cake that she plays with in her pretend kitchen and she told me that she wanted her birthday cake to look just like it except that it should have little Einsteins on the top. She also told me that she wanted a surprise party. So, I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and filling and my mother did an excellent job piping on the pink frosting to make the cake look just like its plastic counterpart. Before bringing out the cake and lighting the candles we had Teah go down into the basement. We got out the cake, like the candles, and hid around the corner of the kitchen. We told her to come back up and jumped out and said, "Surprise"! It was exactly what she wanted :) Teah has been wanting pet mice for a long time, so I bought her 3 for her birthday (sorry Robert and Leslie!). She has named them Uno, Dos, and Tres. We returned the original cage shown in the video to get a bigger one which is shown in the pictures. Finally, on Monday, which was Teah's actual birthday, we had Teah's best neighbor friends come over and finish off the cake. That night when I was tucking her into bed she told me, "Mom, I don't feel any different". :) Here are some pictures and video from our Sunday celebration:

Two Year Old Manners

Teaching a two year old manners :) I took this video in mid-November, but just found it again on our old camera. Enjoy!

Breakfast with Santa

The morning after getting home from vacation we had breakfast with Santa at the Moors Golf Club put on by Robert's practice. Teah had her list all made to give to Santa and I thought I had convinced Carter to ask Santa for a dump truck. After a yummy breakfast we stood in line for to talk to Santa. As soon as Carter saw Santa he decided that he wanted nothing to do with him (we weren't even to the front of the line yet). I told him that Santa wouldn't be able to bring him a dump truck if he didn't tell him and Carter responded by telling me that he didn't like dump trucks. I told him that Santa brought presents and he told me that he didn't like presents. This kid was having nothing to do with Santa at any cost! He sat on my lap for a picture with Santa and all was well. At some point during the affair I thought that Robert was watching Carter, Robert thought that I was watching Carter and it turns out that he had escaped into the golf store at the front of the clubhouse. I went to get him and found him with a child's golf club and a ball just putting away all by himself in the store. A lot of damage could've been done with that club, but instead he was just gently putting the ball across the floor. What a funny guy! Here are some pictures:

Tampa - Day 5

Thursday was our last day in Tampa before flying home on Friday. We spent a very relaxing morning at the rental house and then headed over the Marj and Eric's apartment to hang out and see their place before dinner. We helped them put up their Christmas tree and toured the apartments, which included 3 pools, one of which is ON Tampa Bay. As they say - location, location, location. We all had dinner together and spent the evening hanging out at the rental house after putting the kids to bed. A great last day!

Friday was our travel day, and although it was long, it went very well. While we were gone we missed a snow storm of over a foot of snow. There was NO snow at all before we left and here is what we came home to.

Outtake

Here is an outtake from our Christmas card photo session in Tampa. Of course I love how the kids are both laughing, but I love how Carter has his hand on Teah's leg. So cute!

Quote of the Day

Our conversation while sitting at a gas station. Teah was obviously perusing the signs in the window...

Teah: "Mom, what does b-u-d spell?"

Me: "Bud"

Teah: "Mom, what is Bud Light?"

Tampa - Day 4

Wednesday we returned for our second day at Busch Gardens. The first day was pretty chilly (for Florida) with a high of 60 degrees, so it was perfect that our second day was sunny and 80 degrees. This time around the kids were able to put their suits on and play in the water play area. We also went on the standard flume ride as a family. Teah wasn't a big fan of the idea, but we convinced her to get on and I decided she would sit in the back with me and hopefully be less afraid than if she were in the front. Robert sat in the front of the log with Carter. Teah was pretty scared the entire ride, but Carter loved it - until he was splashed in the face at the end going down the big drop. He was having a great time and when the water hit his face he just started crying and saying "I got wet". Thankfully he got over it pretty quickly. We checked out our picture that was taken on the way down the big drop and Teah had a look of pure terror on her face. Eric was working during the day, but Marj was able to get the day off and come with us again. She was brave enough to watch both of the kids (while the kids went on the kiddie rides) and let Robert and I go on SheiKra again. This time I kept my eyes open for most of the ride and was even pretty steady on my feet afterwards. We had time to go on the rides we missed the first time around and I of course was able to get some good old souvenir shopping done. It was another great day at the park! Here are the pictures from the day:

Tampa - Day 3

Today we decided to take advantage of the nicer weather and with a high of 80 degrees headed out to find a beach. We took the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is something like 4 miles long crossing Tampa Bay over to the St. Petersburg area. We ended up finding Pass-a-Grille Beach, which is a nice public beach with lots of shells on the white sand beach. The water was too cold to swim in, but the kids had a great time collecting seashells, digging holes in the sand, making sandcastles, and kicking their feet in the water. Mom and Dad had an enjoyable time too being able to relax while the kids were entertained by nature. The beach was pretty empty, so the kids had a lot of room to explore. Teah helped me find seashells to take home with us and Carter mostly enjoyed picking up sand and putting it somewhere else. It was a tropical day! We headed back to our rental home for dinner and grilled out by the pool. The pool was only 70 degrees, but the kid still put their suits on and stuck their feet in. Carter gave us a bit of a scare when he fell into the deep end of the pool (while the cover was still on). Robert ran over and scooped him out without any harm done, but it took Mom just as long to recover as Carter. Carter wore his swim vest after that even though he wasn't in the pool! After the excitement it was nice to have a "home-cooked" meal and relax for the evening. Here are some pictures of the kids at the beach:

Tampa - Day 2

Marj and Eric were working today, so we had a lazy morning at the house. The kids and I investigated the fruit trees in the backyard after breakfast. I thought they were orange trees, but when I cut open a fruit (it was orange in color, so I figured it was ripe) it tasted more like a lemon! The debate is still on as to whether it is a lemon tree or an orange tree - google here I come. It was a bit of a gray and raining day, but the temps were in the mid-70's so I am NOT complaining! But we did decide to do a mostly indoor activity. We made it out by 11 to have some Cici's pizza for lunch before heading to the International Plaza Mall (very near the Tampa airport). This mall seriously has every store imaginable as well as an Earl of Sandwich (very yummy) and a Cheesecake Factory. Robert was nice enough to watch the kids while they played in the play area or Build-a-Bear and I was able to get a pedicure (really, what's a vacation without a pedicure :) and do some shopping. A great time was had by all. On the way back to the rental house we played a game of "I Spy". Carter mostly gets the concept and even wants a turn to "spy" something. Here's a video of the kids playing:

Tampa - Day 1

Saturday we spent the day traveling to Tampa, first with a two hour drive to the Detroit airport, then a two hour flight to Tampa, hauling 2 kids, 2 carseats, and a carry-on through the airports. After almost every possible form of transportion - van, bus, tram, train, plane - we made it to our rental home after just over 8 hours of traveling. It was a hectic night picking up a few groceries, meeting Marj and Eric for dinner, and trying to get the kids to calm down and go to bed in a new place. Teah slept like a log after she fell asleep, but Carter woke up crying 4 or 5 times throughout the night.

So, today was our first full day of vacation and we spent the day at Busch Gardens with Eric and Marj. It was absolutely great! The park is part zoo, part theme park, with animal exhibits, big roller coasters, and two childrens areas. We started off the day by taking the train around the park - as you go you pass by several of the animal exhibits. Carter started asking me "What amimal next mom?". We then found Dragon Land, the childrens area designed for the littlest of kids, so it was perfect for our 2 and almost 5 year old. Carter was just tall enough to go on the little kiddie rides like the mini flume ride, the carousel and the flying dragons. Teah could ride them by herself. The mini flume ride was probably their favorite (definitely Carter's, although Teah liked the flying dragons almost as much). Surrounding these rides were an insane amount of climbing tunnels and general play things. There was a HUGE area that had an inflatable bouncy floor. For folks familiar with Chicagoland, it was like Odyssey Fun World on Crack. The kids were obviously obsessed with this area. The adults decided this was a good opportunity for two people to take off and ride a coaster, while the other two supervised the kids in Dragon Land. I was concerned that Carter wouldn't accept anyone but me, but when I told him he could go play with Eric, he went without hesitation and had a great time! Robert and I rode the SheiKra coaster first. It has probably been 6 years since I've been on a real roller-coaster and this was perhaps not the best one to try out first. You'll know why once you read this description of the coaster straight from the Busch Gardens website:

"Do you know what it means to be brave? Brave enough to stare down a skilled predator, eye to cherry-red eye? Brave enough to be carried 200 feet up toward its lair, only to be dangled precariously over the side for endless seconds, before...

Before what?

It's not a dream - or a nightmare. It's SheiKra: A fierce, floorless, blazing-fast thriller in the heart of Busch Gardens.

After a 200 foot climb, this cunning coaster takes you just over the edge of a true 90-degree drop. And stops. For 4 seconds, you find yourself looking down - straight down - at the ground below as you're held suspended above it.

Then, like the sub-Saharan bird of prey for which it's named, you plunge straight toward the ground, racing at speeds of more than 70 miles per hour. An Immelmann loop and a second vertical dive into an underground tunnel end with a surprise twist for those who look on - because with SheiKra, even they cannot escape."

It was seriously a great day to be at the park, because with a high of 59 degrees in Tampa, most natives thought it was too cold for a day at the park, so the place was all but deserted. We walked right onto this coaster with only a short wait to sit in the front car (yes, we sat in the front car!). All I can say is that it was a good thing we had to wait a few minutes before getting off for the car in front of us to load because it took awhile for my legs to return to full strength!

After a full morning we took some time to have a restful lunch and check out some more animals - all together in the park we saw orangutans, chimps, fish, alligators, crocodiles, tigers (bengal and white), lots of birds (feeding the ducks, walking through the Lory exhibit where the bright colored birds would land on your hand, pink flamingos, peacocks), zebras, giraffes, wildabeasts, elephants, rhinos, ostriches, tortoises, and numerous kinds of safari grazing animals (their names I can't remember). In the afternoon we checked out the other childrens area to find that it was designed for older kids, but we still hit another coaster (one that turns you upside down 7 times!) before heading back over to Dragon Land a final playtime before the 6pm close.

It was a full but awesome day for all and the kids were definitely DONE by the time we left the park, but they passed out fairly quickly this evening and are sleeping peacefully after a great first day of vacation! Here is a slideshow with pics and a few videos.

Quote of the Day

Teah: "Carter, you have to go quick or the witch will send magic at you."

Carter: "Why"

Teah: "Because that's what witches do."

They grow up so fast!

Check out these two pictures of Teah. The first one I took today and she is almost 5 years old. The second picture I found while browsing through some old pictures. It was taken 2 years ago, when Teah was almost 3. I didn't plan at all to take almost exactly the same picture. I guess some things never change, but kids definitely do!

Sleeping Carter

Lately Carter has been falling asleep in random places in his room with his light on. Of course I always have to snap a picture before moving him into bed.

Teah the Event Planner

Maybe Teah will be an event planner when she grows up... At least once a week she decides to throw Pacibear (her teddy bear) a party. She makes invitations and delivers them to each member of our family, asking us to sign OK on the invitation if we want to go. When she gives Carter his invitation she tells him he can write whatever he wants, "since he doesn't know how to write letters", she says. Then she decorates each of our invitations with glitter glue and gives them back to us. Today she added a new twist to the party by telling me that I had to bring my invitation with me, "so that Pacibear will know who you are and that you're invited". Many days she never actually gets to the party part, just making all of the invitations, so maybe she'll be an artist of some kind and not an actual party planner :) Well, off to the party I go!

Hilliard's Quote of the Day - 2009

Back in 2009 I decided to create a whole new blogged called The Hilliard Quote of the Day.  I have no idea why I thought I would keep up with two blogs!  So, for posterity's sake, here are the entries from that blog, written between 8/09 and 11/09.

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"Mama, look Teah's iPod"

~Carter, while watching Teah listen to music. You know his vocabulary is really increasing when he uses the word "iPod" :)

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"Oh no, Carter doesn't have his underwear on AND he's running with ice cream!"

~Teah 4 yrs old

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Carter points to his juice in the fridge and I say, "Yep, that's Carter's juice."

Carter points at an Oberon (beer) in the fridge and says, "Da Da".

Yep, that's Daddy's juice :)

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"Mommy, Why are you so old?" ~ Teah

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"Mama on couch too" ~Carter's first four-word sentence

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I love listening to little kids try to find the words to describe something - they're so creative!

"I played on the monkey bars that look like half of a soccer ball."
~Teah, talking about what she did at preschool today

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"Mommy, Carter is drawing on the carpet." ~Teah

These are words I never want to hear again!

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"Mommy, I can see the whole world from here!"

~Teah, said while on the carousel

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"Carter, why are you naked?"

~Patti, said to Carter after going up to check on why he wasn't asleep yet

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Teah: Mommy, I don't want to work.

Me: It's OK, Teah, you don't have to work for a long time. Not until you're a grown-up.

Teah: I don't want to work when I'm a grown-up. Daddy can work and pay for my things.

Me: Why don't you want to work?

Teah: Because it's hard and I don't like to do hard things.

Wise words.  Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Daddy won't be OK with that plan!

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"It feels like there are little balls on my skin Mom"

-Teah, describing her goosebumps

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"Guess what rhymes with kitchen? Bitchin!"
~Teah, oblivious to the fact that the word "bitchen" means something

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After finishing trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, I asked Teah if she wanted to trick-or-treat some more in another neighborhood. She said, "No. I have plenty of candy is my basket. Let's go home."

Tonight we had this conversation:

Teah: "Mom, next year I don't want to go trick-or-treating. I want to stay at home and hand out candy with Nana."

Me: "But Teah, if you don't go trick-or-treating, you won't get any candy for yourself"

Teah: "That's OK. I'll have plenty of candy leftover from this year."

Teah thinks the half of a plastic pumpkin worth of candy that she got is more than it actually is :)

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Comment from 2013:  Teah did actually enjoying handing out candy for many years with Nana instead of continuing to get more candy.  RIP Nana.

Carter Update

Carter is 2 years and almost 5 months old now and finally speaking! He says just about everything now in up to 5 word sentences, although he still requires a lot of translation by me for other people to be able to understand him (especially those not used to speaking 2 year old). During the day he will turn to me and say, "Mama, where dada go?". Or when I give him yogurt he'll say, "What ki ih it?", the translation being what kind is it. I know, for those of you who have 2 1/2 year olds this is not much speech, but it's been a long time coming for our little Carter, so I'm so glad that he can finally communicate with words! Other favorites include:

- "What's that"? He says this every 5 seconds as he points at EVERYTHING

- "Where's Teah?" He says this every morning when he wakes up or generally whenever she's not with us

- "Mama, Come Back!" He says this as soon as I walk out of his room for bedtime

- "Mama, let's play"

Here's a video of some of his new words

Carter is really in a very cute phase right now and I am reminded of how much fun a 2 year old is. I don't know why the term "terrible twos" was every coined because it's such a fun age. He mostly wants to do everything by himself and being more savvy than I was the first time around, I let him. It's amazing what he can accomplish without any help at all. He used a butter knife to cut up an entire banana into pieces to make a smoothie with us yesterday. He vacuums our floors almost everyday with an old dirt devil that I found which is the perfect size for him. He uses glass dishes at the table and sets them nicely on the counter when he's finished eating. He's started using Teah's safety scissors to cut small lines around the outside of a piece of paper. He has mastered the skills of jumping and running and climbing. Obviously, I can go on and on! Some of his favorites are:

Animal: dinosaur

Food: sausage links or bratwursts

Color: Blue

He loves dinosaurs and will roar like a dinosaur and pretend to eat me. Then he'll tell me that he's a big t-rex. If I tell him that I'm a t-rex, too, then he'll tell me that I'm a little t-rex :) He's not all perfect, he does run away anytime I attempt to change his diaper or put new clothes on him and he thinks that game is hilarious. When he's overtired he likes to play a game of running at you and slamming into you and he also enjoys sitting on (and squashing) his sister at times.

Preschool

Teah's first day of preschool orientation at The Montessori School was today. Yesterday she met with her teacher, Mary, for 45 minutes of individual time. Mary showed Teah around the classroom and then gave her some "lessons" for her "work" - as they say in Montessori. Everything that is available for the kids to work on is a specific Montessori learning material and the children have to have a lesson on the material before they are allowed to use that material during class. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Montessori method, one of the ideas is that the child drives their own learning. So, everyday the children are able to choose from the learning materials they have had lessons on or get new lessons from the teachers. Mary let Teah choose whatever she wanted from the "manipulatives" section and gave her lessons on how to use the ones that she chose during the 45 minutes, so that she would have somewhere to start for her first day. The items that I saw her working with (before I went to turn in some paperwork) included a basket full of different types of pouches from around the world - each pouch having something from that country inside of it, two bowls of small beads - the children move all beads from one bowl to the other using one hand, and a tray with small plastic rings of different colors that you can sort into different compartments based on color. Today, Wednesday, and Thursday are orientation days only for the new students in the classroom (each classroom has 3, 4, and 5 year olds). There will be 30 students in Teah's classroom (w/ Mary and 2 assistants) - 16 of them being new this year. So, this week there are the 16 students taking some time to learn how things work before everyone shows up next week.

So, I helped Teah hang her stuff up, take her shoes off, and get her slippers on and she was off! I watched her play for a few minutes and then went to the scheduled coffee w/ the director of the preschool and the other parents of new students. There were about 20 parents there and we used the 2 hours to introduce ourselves, talk about why we chose Montessori, and have some social time. It was really great and I remembered why I love the director of the school, Pam Boudreau, who founded the school and has been there 37 years! I was also reminded of why I love the Montessori method and it was great to meet some of the new parents.

Everyone picked their kids up on the playground and Teah was having lots of fun playing a game of "tumbling monkeys" on the jungle gym. She told me all about her new lessons that day - consisting of some type of rubber band box that you could hook up the different colored rubber bands to make patterns and some type of shapes that you put together to make certain pictures. I asked Mary how Teah had done and she told me that Teah was a "Tester" (i.e. likes to test the rules). Mary has been teaching at this school for 29 years, so she is very wise in the ways of preschoolers. She said that of course all preschoolers are testers, but that Teah was a bit more-so than others. Of course, I already know that! Mary didn't say it as if it was a problem, but just as if it were part of her little personality. She also said that they had plenty of experience with the "Testers" and that Teah was going to do great this year.

Some things I found out about the school:

Every month one of the preschool classrooms works together to make the food that is eaten by the parents at the monthly parents coffee.

Teah and I will be responsible for bringing (homemade or otherwise) a healthy snack for the class once a month.

The 2nd Saturday of the month is a planned family fun day for all of the families at the school, including their 4 preschool rooms and elementary classroom.

One of the Fathers of a student works for Bell's Brewery and will be hosting an adult-only Octoberfest! :)

The price tag for the school is a bit hefty, but I was reminded that almost all of the tuition goes to pay the teachers professional salaries with benefits and retirement - something that most preschool teachers don't get! I am really looking forward to this year and next when both of the kids will attend together.

A Successful Day!

Potty training for Carter officially began today! This morning Carter wore a diaper all morning. He sat down on the potty and peed quite a few times, but a few times in his diaper as well. We ran a few errands and he even peed on a public potty with me just holding him on. He took a good nap today for once and after nap I decided it was time to try underwear. He peed in them pretty good within about 15 minutes of putting them on. I explained to him that when he had to pee he had to tell mommy and we'd run to the potty, otherwise his underwear would get wet. I made a point to put him on the potty every 30 to 45 minutes after that and he peed almost every time I put him on, with dry underwear all evening. I was most impressed when he came running up to me after dinner and said, "mama po" (interpret as "mama potty"). I took him to the potty and found a little wet spot on his underwear. He had started to pee, then stopped and went to the potty! Hopefully we'll have just as much success tomorrow with a full day of underwear and maybe I'll even be able to snap a picture or two of him on the potty.

Ah the Monkey

The kids and I went to Build-a-Bear today to get Teah's bear (Pacibear) a fancy dress for one of her pretend birthday parties that she throws :) We had a gift certificate, so a fancy dress for Pacibear it was. Teah picked out a very cute bear-sized white and pink dress with sequins, but poor Carter was left-out. Since there was a special going on, I decided to finally let Carter pick out his own bear with some clothes. Trying to get a 2 year old to decide on one thing was interesting. Every time I asked him if he wanted one and showed it to him, he would say yes and grab it, but the next one I showed him he would throw that one out and grab it. I was starting to think that he didn't have a favorite when he picked the one he wanted and wouldn't budge. It was a monkey! He knew exactly what to do with the shell of the monkey and wasted no time picking out a heart and handing him over to get stuffed. Then the process of picking out clothes happened, much the same as the original process. I was thinking of getting some jammies, but Carter wasn't interested. When I suggested a soccer outfit I was met with emphatic noddings of the head and uh huhs, so a soccer monkey it was! I asked Carter what he wanted to name his monkey and everytime he says, "Ah Ah Ah Ah" - 4 everytime. So, the latest addition to our household is Ahah Ahah Hilliard - the soccer playing monkey. He comes complete with soccer jersey, soccer shorts, shin guards, soccer cleats, and a soccer ball. Maybe when we buy Carter some new big boy underwear tomorrow Ah (his nickname, since 4 Ahs is a little much :) will go to the bear store and get some of his own. He has already had to sit on the potty before Carter does. Here are some pics of Carter and his new friend:

Carter and The Potty

For the past few weeks I have been trying to gauge Carter's interest in the potty. First, I checked out every potty book from the library and he is mostly obsessed with them all. Numerous potty books talk about the little boys getting a new potty as a present, so the next step was for me to go out and get him his own potty. He sat on his potty yesterday and nothing happened, but this morning I decided to give it my best try by having him drink a whole cup of juice and then putting him on the potty in front of a TV show 20 minutes later :) I was able to get him to sit through 2 kids shows on the potty (= 40 minutes) and there was a tiny bit of pee in there afterwards. I made a big deal of it of course, but he let the rest out when on put his diaper on. Later that afternoon he took off his diaper and wanted to sit on the big potty upstairs - to my surprise, he sat down and started peeing! 5 minutes later he wanted to take off his diaper and sit on his little potty and he peed some more. We made a huge deal out of it and dumped it into the big potty. He immediately wanted to sit on it again and pee again, but didn't have any left in there. I told him that he needed to drink to make more pee, so he took one drink of his juice and sat down again, thinking something would come out after one drink!

I have suggested that he wear underwear before and he has always been adamant against them - wanting his diaper. I tried a casual suggestion for underwear again after his pee and he said yes. So, he wore underwear for an hour before bed and did great, mostly because I sat him on the potty after dinner and he peed again. He definitely knows how to let it out on command now and I'm so impressed with him. He only owns one pair of underwear right now, so tomorrow we're going to go shopping for big boy underwear and give them a try. Now I'll find out if he knows how to hold it! He's only 2 1/4 yrs old, so I'm surprised to be really trying to potty train, but I figure if he's interested then I might as well see where it takes us!

A Big Boy Bed!

Carter has officially been sleeping in his big boy bed for over a week now and is doing great! I decided to make the move because he had gotten very good at climbing out of his crib. When he first climbed out of his crib 6 months ago, I freaked out and bought a big boy bed, only to find that he wasn't ready for the move and that he stopped climbing out of his crib after only 4 attempts. So, he's been sleeping nicely in his crib since then, staying in and having no interest in his big boy bed, until he started climbing out again about a month ago. This time, he mastered the skill and was climbing out all the time. I was nervous about making the move after the last attempt, but it worked really well this time! We took the crib out of his room over a week ago and haven't looked back. As you can see in the pictures, I tried to make his toddler bed as "crib-like" as possible for a smooth transition. There's only a small space between the rail and the bed near the foot board and I still have tied the bumper around it so that it seemed familiar to him. Sometimes he gets out of bed and plays in his room, but he has only fallen asleep on the floor once and generally climbs back into bed when he's tired. What a big boy!

Bounceland

The kids and I ventured to Bounceland yesterday since it was pouring rain and was also right next to an errand I had to run. Bounceland is basically a big building with a really large space that has a bunch of those inflatable bouncy things in it for the kids. One section has three bouncers made just for the younger kids. We spent all afternoon there, stopping to have lunch at their little cafe and then bouncing some more. The kids had a blast! They loved the little bouncer that looked like a train and had an "obstacle course" inside of it. I really loved the fact that they played together the whole time. Every time one of them would decide to move to a different bouncer, the other would follow. There were a few bouncy items for the older kids and we did try those out. Mostly some really big inflatable slides that the kids could climb up, but then I would have to climb up with them and help them go down the really big slide. Good thing I'm a big kid myself :) Here are some pics of the excursion:

The difference between boys and girls

Somehow Teah and I were on the topic of babies the other day and she said to me,

"Mom, you can't tell if a baby is a boy or a girl until it comes out of your tummy. Then, when it comes out of your tummy, you have to look at the eyelashes. If the eyelashes are long, then it's a girl. If they're short, then it's a boy"

Yep, that's exactly it ;)

What Carter is doing instead of napping

Thanks to the video monitor, I am watching Carter right now in his crib. Instead of napping, he is doing the following:

Sits up with his legs out and puts his teddy bear on his legs.

Lets himself fall backwards so that he is lying flat with his teddy bear still on his legs.

Lifts up his legs so that his teddy bear falls onto his head.

He has been doing this over and over and over again! Well, if he's not going to nap, at least he can entertain himself.

Our new place!

We drove to Kalamazoo yesterday and took a closer look at our rental house for next year. We brought the kids this time and spent time measuring and planning and getting better acquainted. The kids had a great time and picked out their bedrooms :) Below is a slideshow with some pictures and a link to some videos. Use caution watching the videos - they might make you a bit motion sick

Click this link to view the videos:

New House Videos

SLIDESHOW OF PICTURES
View this link for videos:

Spotty Carter

Poor Carter was allergic to the antibiotics he had been taking for the last 7 days for an infected hair follicle on his back. The little guy is now covered in an itchy rash! He's mostly in a great mood except for the occasional rubbing of his face. I gave him some benedryl and he's napping now. The rash on his face is the worst, but it basically covers his entire body. Unfortunately, he has inherited his allergies to medications from me :( Hopefully his appearance will improve soon! In the first picture I asked him to show me his spots - at least he's still happy enough to say "cheese" for the camera.