A Sheer Miss

Well, we nearly had to shave Kynlee's head this afternoon, when dear old brother decided to help her out and comb her hair!

If you remember these pictures...you'll know that Kynlee's hair isn't the easiest thing to comb through...especially with an actual comb, and no detangler!

I hog tied her, and held her down, for nearly 10 minutes, and lots of tears later...we got it out!

Blessings,

A Helping Hand

In our kitchen, we have 2 sinks! We have your everyday Kitchen sink...

...and a smaller bar/prep sink...


...a.k.a Kynlee's Bathtub!

Bathtime is her favorite part of the day, and aside from his own bath, helping sissy take hers has quickly become one of Kallen's favorite times well!

He makes her laugh...

...rinses the soap out...

...and helps scrub the craddle cap off her head!

Thanks for the help Kal!

Blessings,

Crying over spilled Spaghettios

Friday night, Kallen and I had a little "run in" at the dinner table. We were a little late getting home after running some errands in town, so I pulled out the quick fix dinner...Kids Cuisine and Hungry Man (TV dinners). Kallen's little meal, had a nice variety of corn, mac 'n cheese, chicken nuggets, and even some fruit snacks for dessert. Great, everything was hunky dorey!

Then the troubles began. It started with the mac 'n cheese, and that's where it ended. After finishing the little section of cheesy yummy noodles, nothing else would satisfy his dinner needs. He proceeded to hold out the tray for me while repeating "more, more, more". Now before I go on, I have to say that Kallen is not a big eater. In fact, some wouldn't consider him an eater at all. When we can get him to eat, it's a happy day in the Albin household, and he was eating!!!

I decided to look in the fridge, and see what I could find in the way of "more". Huh...Spaghettios...kind of the same family, right. Wrong according to Kallen. I warmed up the left over Spaghettios and put them on his plate. Not two seconds later, those same Spaghettios were upside down on the nice new carpet.

Oh, I don't think so little man. We immediately got down from the table, and those same little hands that purposefully threw their food on the floor, were going to help pick it up. We dabbed, and dabbed until most of the sauce had been cleaned up...then out came the trusty "Little Green" carpet shampooer.

Kallen was forced to sit and watch mommy suck up the mess, then had to help himself.

Notice the blanket in the background...Kallen realized he was in trouble, and brought over his security blanket as a "peace offering" to his mommy. Nice try kiddo. Hopefully using the shampooer wasn't so much fun he thinks he ought to throw all his meals on the floor!

Play Doh!!!

My friend Lani recently asked me if Kallen was into Play doh, being that it's her son Andrew's favorite activity!!! Well, quite frankly we'd never tried Play Doh. Not sure why, just something I hadn't thought about...her asking however, made me think we ought to!

So here we are, it's Saturday afternoon, Kevin is helping some friends re-pipe their house, and Kallen's getting antsy from being in the house all day! What to do, What to do? Let's make play doh!!! I went to the trusty Internet and got a recipe for Koolaid Play Doh (my friend Laura made it with her girls one day while I was there, and thought it would be a fun alternative to plain ol' boring homemade Play Doh). Anyways, I got the recipe, got out the ingredients, and Kallen and I started mixing:

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup salt
1 pkg. Koolaid

(mix that all together, then add...)

3 tbsp oil
1 cup boiling water

(mix together, and knead until it forms a ball)

Voila...Play Doh!!!

Kallen helped me measure and stir until it came to the boiling water part...I didn't think that would be such a good idea! I kneaded the ball into some flour until it was what I thought was a good consistency, but Kallen wasn't diggin' the wait. He was getting all kinds of anxious waiting to see what this concoction he had helped create was going to be!

We were finally done, and I sat Kallen at the table to play with his creation, and he loved it!!! Since it was made from Koolaid, it smelled nice and fruity, and at first all Kallen wanted to do was eat it! No harm no fowl with this kind of dough, but I'm sure it didn't taste very good! After spending some time showing him how to play with it, and mash it all around, he quickly caught on, and had a great time. Such a good time in fact, that he wouldn't look up to get his picture taken. I tried all the different things I could to get him to smile at me, but to no avail...the Play Doh was too much fun!

Thanks Lani and Andrew for the great idea!!!

Washing machines spin...fancy that!

So yesterday while I was doing laundry, Kallen decided to help. Okay, so nothing new...he helps every time I do laundry. Well, I left the door to the washing machine open while I went to get the next load, and this is how I found him when I got back. The picture doesn't actually show the kicking legs that were helping propel him up and inside, but the diving headfirst shot might give you an idea of where this is all heading (no pun intended).

I sat there quietly watching with my camera in hand for the next great move my son would make. Sure enough he got all the way inside the drum of the washer and managed to turn himself around. No sooner had he turned around and faced out when that silly drum moved. Now he was scared, it wasn't all fun and games anymore. He looked at me like "why did you make it move mom?", and did everything he could to try and crawl out. I helped him to safety, and all was well! I don't think he'll be heading into the washer again anytime soon. Just in case however...Now I'll be checking the machine for rugrats every time I do a load of laundry!

All in a days work!

After days and days of way too cold weather, and being cooped up inside...we finally had a break! We woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine this morning! Yes...FINALLY!!! We threw on our hats and mittens, and made our way outside! Kallen couldn't get enough of the outdoors, and I know where we'll be spending most of our warm summer days!

Here is a quick rundown of our day:

We pushed, pulled, and rode our little truck (and yes the house across the street is mint chocolate chip green...isn't that just grand!)

We played with (or rather sat in) our Tonka trucks

We walked to the park and slid down the slides

We walked all around the block

And when our time outside was over...we came in to do a few quick loads of laundry and finish the dishes

And after all that...we crashed for a quick 2 hour nap! Boy it's hard work bein' 1!

Diapers...or whatever!

Okay, so maybe he's not such a little helper!!! We've taught Kallen to put his diapers in the diaper pail after I've wrapped them all up, so he can be a part of it all, and learn to help out a little bit. So great...good for us...our little man helps out. Well, is it still helping out when you begin to find clothes and miscellaneous other things in the diaper pail? You see...the wonderfully fool proof diaper pale that we have, the "Diaper Champ", is apparently really fun for a 14 month old to operate. Here's what it looks like, in case you're not familiar with what I'm talking about:

You see...on the top there is a hole, you put the diaper in, pull the lever over, there's a heavy ball type thing that pushes the diaper down into the pail, and then the hole is on the other side. So basically you can sit and move the lever back and forth and this little ball thing goes back and forth. Rather amusing I guess!

So amusing that I've found balls, dominos, a pair of socks or two, and just this morning he was trying to stuff one of his shirts down the hole. I had tried putting a diaper in there a little while before, and it was kind of hard...huh that got my mind going. If he's trying to put a shirt in there now...I bet he's already done it once or twice. I opened up the pale, and sure enough there was a shirt, a plastic bag and a pair of socks. Huh...what else has gone in that diaper pail unnoticed, and then taken out to the trash? Maybe that's where the remote went???

Our little helper

One thing that I've tried to do with Kallen is treat him like a little boy, not a baby. I know he can understand us, and is more than capable of following directions. I've started asking him to help me when I'm doing things around the house. Not only do I get to spend time with him while getting things done, but he's also gaining valuable skills. When I'm doing laundry, he helps me put the clothes in the washer, and then into the dryer. When I'm folding...he folds too. Okay, so it's more like a wad than a fold, but he's helping none the less. If I'm dusting, or wiping down the cabinets and furniture, he wants his own rag to dust as well. When vacuuming...he's right there with one hand on the vacuum, telling me where to go. When cooking or washing dishes, Kallen is right there standing on a chair seeing what I'm doing, and every once in a while he even gets to stir.



Okay, so I think you get the picture. He's our little helper. Well, On Monday night, Kevin and I were out in the living room picking up after the long weekend. Kallen was in and out of the room, trying to help us on one hand, and making more of a mess on the other hand (what's new)? We noticed he hadn't been in the room for a while, so Kevin went to find him. There he was taking his already folded clothes out of his dresser, and one by one putting them in the washer (we have a front loading washer and dryer if you're wondering how he could manage this feet without standing on stilts or climbing a ladder). Anyways, after he'd get a few in, he'd shut the door, wait a second or so, open the door, and take the clothes one at a time, back to his dresser. Such a good little student of mine! Doing his own laundry, at 14 months...who knew???