Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Caden Peed in the Toilet!!!

On Sunday, May 29th, Caden peed on the toilet for the first time! I'm pretty sure it was a fluke but it's big news for us either way.
Amy bought a baby toilet a month or two ago and it sits in our bathroom. Both kids like playing and sitting on the toilet. Recently, Caroline has really been telling us she needs to use the toilet because she needs to poo. We always rush her to the toilet to find she must have notified us just a little too late. We tell her how proud we are that she is telling us and then let her and Caden play on the toilet.

On Sunday, after a near poo-miss with Caroline, Caden said he needed to pee. Amy took off his pants, put him on the toilet and told him what to do. The next thing I know, Amy and cheering and telling me to bring the camera! Sure enough, Caden made his first number one on the toilet. We thought for sure Caroline would be the first to do this but our little guy beat her too it!

Our little man taking care of business!Caroline cheering Caden on.Both kids were very interested what was now in the toilet.
The money shot.
Bye-bye! Of course, Caden got to flush the toilet.
We are so proud of you, Caden! Now, lets turn this into a regular thing!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Funny Conversation With the Twins

Amy: Caroline, can I change your diaper?
Caroline: No.
Amy: Can daddy change your diaper?
Caroline: No.
Amy: Caroline, can Caden change your diaper?
Caroline: Yes.
Caden: (Laughs and violently shakes his head no)

This made the entire family crack up. Caden, I can't blame you on that one.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Cups!

Caden and Caroline absolutely love to drink out of cups that they think belong to an adult. At home, we keep the cups up high in a cabinet so they can't reach them. That's not the case at Grammie's house. After thorough investigation of all of my mom's kitchen cabinets, Caden has discovered that there are a few grown-up cups within his reach. Every time we visit my parents house, Caden finds the cabinet with the big water bottles in it. He talks Grammie into filling up two water bottles and then he and Caroline carry them around all evening. Here are a few pictures that I snapped on my iPhone of them guzzling their waters!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Helping Daddy in the Yard

Jason trimmed the front bushes this weekend. Originally, we planned on keeping Caden & Caroline inside the house to keep them out of Daddy's way. However, after much insistance from the kids, we went outside to be "watchers". We sat in our lawn chairs for about 2 minutes before Caroline decided that she needed to "help". So, while Jason picked up the trimmings from the bushes, the kids "helped" him out.

Here are our two helpers throwing their yard trimmings into the bag.Apparently, Caroline thought that the bushes weren't trimmed evenly. She decided to take leaves directly from the bush to put into the bag.

Hard to believe that it was just last July 4th that we posted a blog about Caroline screaming when she touched the grass. Look how grown up they are now!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Royal Wedding

This week, we have a special guest blogger...Aunt Angela! She was very excited about the royal wedding and was in Austin for the occasion.



The Cases, along with the rest of the world, were VERY excited about the Royal Wedding last month! By “The Cases” I mean: myself (Aunt Angela), Grandma and Caroline. And by “excited” I mean: obsessed. Some people thought it was strange to care so much about a stranger’s wedding, to which I respond: not a stranger… a princess!

My Mom and I drove down from Dallas the night before the wedding, which gave me plenty of time to create fancy hats for the babies to wear. You can probably tell by the fine paper craftsmanship, but I spent about 2 hours creating Caden’s top hat.

We decided to DVR the wedding rather than wake up at 4:00am; it was just as exciting at 7:30 when Caden woke up. He was even sleepy enough to wear his hat for about two seconds! Once he was fully awake, the hat didn’t stand a chance. Caden, Grandma and I sat on the sofa together and watched the processional before Caroline woke up.

When Caroline woke up, she was very excited to wear her new fancy hat. Here is her photo shoot with her new toy.

Caroline decided her baby could wear Caden’s hat, as it was clear he wouldn’t care.

Caroline and I enjoyed watching the ceremony together while she drank her milk. She was really excited to watch a few minutes of TV, which the twins don’t usually get to do. Our favorite part was Kate’s processional. We both agreed that Princess Kate must have been inspired by my BFF Kate’s wedding dress!

After our Royal Wedding watching party, we went to the Round Rock Library for baby story time. It is a great Library, and we love it there! After story time, we decided to keep up our British theme going and walked to Friar Tuck’s Pantry for scones and tea. We shared two kinds of delicious scones: blackberry and caramelized onion. Here we are at Friar Tuck’s.

It was a very eventful day, and that was all before 10:30! I know that Caroline and Caden won’t remember the Royal Wedding, but I sure will remember our special Friday together.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

We Love Coloring and Stickers

Over the last couple months, our kids have really started to like coloring and playing with stickers. We now have crayons and stickers all over the house, tables with colorful marks on them, and a driveway covered with a bunch of chalk drawings. We even have one wall where both Caden and Caroline made more colorful. :)

Here is Caden doing his thing with the brown crayon.
Caroline trying to get the sticker just right. Also, can you believe how neatly Caroline wrote her name? How about the fish and the rainbow drawings?
Caroline posing for the camera with a sticker in one hand and a crayon in another.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Sprinkler Fun!

With the heat in the upper 90's already, I'm trying to find a few ways to keep the kids cool! Earlier this week, the kids were playing outside and I noticed how hot they were getting. I decided to pull out the sprinkler for a little fun.....here are a few pictures of the fun!

The kids both loved drinking the water. I think they had more water intake this day than they do in a normal day!





Fun!! Caroline enjoyed the water!

Caden getting right down in the sprinkler head. Water is refreshing!

We've already been to the pool this year and we're looking forward to the splash park! I see lots of water fun in our future!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Playing in Our Baby Pool

We have a small, inflatable baby pool. Amy decided to fill it up so the kids could play in our backyard.

Here is Caroline on her way to the pool.
They had a lot of fun in the pool and when crazy with the splashing.
While playing in the pool, poor Caden's swim trunks fell down. He just doesn't have the buttocks to keep pants up sometimes. :)
Caden was not happy about his swim trunks falling down but didn't know what to do. Caroline tried to help him pull them back up.
After a little help from mommy, Caden was ready to go again.
We had fun playing in the pool. Soon, we need to take them to the real pool.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Train Park with Small Group

About a month ago, our small group decided to go ride the Cedar Park train. We rode the train before with the twins but most of the group had never been there. It was a big hit with everyone.

Caden and Caroline seemed to know what was going on. While waiting for the train to come back, they spent much of their time waiting at the ticket line.
Caden loved the ride.
Caroline was not as sure about the ride but she did enjoy waving at the people (and dogs) we passed.
Now for a few pics taken after the ride was over.
I'm sure we will be riding this train many times over the coming years.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Blanket?

It's almost 10:30 (yes, Michael & Amy, I am still awake), and I just turned on the baby video monitors. Right when I turned them on, Caden started coughing and woke up. He sat up, looked around and loudly said "Blanket?" He quickly found it and laid right back down. He loves his blanket!

Way Back This Morning -- Caroline Getting a Timeout at School

I started my Way Back Whens-day blog and instead, wanted to share a story from today, which is a Wednesday, so, I think it still counts.

I was talking with Caroline's pre-school teachers this morning. I asked if she had been hitting Caden lately. She has become aggressive with him at home and I wanted to see if it was transferring to school or possibly to other kids. They confirmed that she does hit/push Caden and ALWAYS wants whatever toy that he is playing with, but, she never hits or pushes other kids. They mentioned that when she does hit, they put her in a time-out. Something that we are starting to do at home too.

When I picked Caroline up today, her teachers told me that she got put in time-out today for pushing Caden. The funny party is that they put her in the corner of the room, and the teacher says that she has so many friends in the class, that when Caroline went to sit in the corner, several of her friends went to sit with her and hug and comfort her! Her teacher had to break up the "time-out-social-hour" so Caroline would understand that she was being punished.

Here is a picture of our little bully. She looks so sweet, hard to believe that she packs such a punch!
Oh, and don't worry, she still loves her brother so much! When she's not hitting or pushing him, she is having fun playing with him or taking care of him by giving him whatever she thinks he needs. He's always the first person that she asks about in the morning when she wakes up and both kids light up when they see each other!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Dallas Zoo

For the last year or so, Aunt Angela has wanted to take the twins to the Dallas zoo. Over Easter weekend, we finally decided to go. This was our first trip to a zoo.

Amy and I were worried how the twins would handle it. Would they like it or are they too young? How would it affect their nap routine? Well, thankfully, it all worked out and we had a great time.

The four of us, Aunt Angela, and Grandma all piled into the car on Saturday morning to head to the zoo. We arrived at 9:30am and we were ready to go.
When we first walked in the door, we were greeted by numerous colorful birds. Everyone sun-screened up next to the birds.
On the way to our first destination, we passed by some flamingos. The twins thought they were very cool.
Our first destination was the children's section. We went there first because if we only got one thing done, we wanted the twins to see a few animals up close. Here is the Koi pond. The fish came right up to the edge so everyone could get a good look.
Here are a couple of bunnies that were larger than our kids. Caroline go really close to them. Sadly, we were not able to pet them because the zoo keepers were busy with other animals.
Both Caden and Caroline touched this rooster.
They also liked petting the pony's mane.
Caroline loved this little statue of a lamb. She just climbed right on and stayed there for several minutes. As you will see in the pictures going forward, Caroline loved all the statues she found throughout the zoo.
I liked these wood horses. Caden got on first.
Caroline wanted to follow only she wanted to get on the taller horse.
This bridge went over an area containing ducks. The kids loved the bridge, the waterfall, and the ducks.
There was a pin full of about 10-15 goats. Aunt Angela and I took the twins inside. I assumed they would be scared being surrounded by goats but that was not the case. I was shocked at how brave the twins were. They went right up to the goats and pet them.
In the children's area, there was a lot of stuff kids could climb on. Caden was interested in the raccoon on top of this log.
It's Spider-Man!
It's Super Mario!
Caden thought the inside of this tree was cool.
One of our very few family portraits.
Soon after leaving the children's section, we saw some penguins.
One swam close to Caroline.
I think the coolest part of the Dallas zoo was the giraffe section. It was a sunken enclosure so the giraffes and kids could look eye to eye.You could buy lettuce to fee the giraffes. People would hold it out and giraffes would come eat it out of their hands.
It was cool how the giraffes took the lettuce. They would very quickly stick their tongues out, wrap it around the lettuce, and pull it into their mouth. You can really see the tongue in this picture. Also, I think it looks like the giraffe in this picture has a tiny giraffe head growing out of its horn. :)
We got to see the cheetahs up close when the trainers fed them. Here is picture later on when Caroline was pointing at one of the cheetahs. Of course, we saw some elephants.
The kids and Aunt Angie had some fun on the stairs.
I'm shocked we didn't come home with one of these stuffed monkeys.
Some giant tortoises.
Like I said before, Caroline loved the animal statues.
We also saw some some real crocodiles but Caroline was not allowed to get as close to them as the statue...though she did try.
My ladies walking out of the bird sanctuary.
Another animal statue. Caroline loves sticking her finger in people's mouths.
The zoo had a really cool chimpanzee enclosure. This one acted like he was modeling for me.
There was a baby chimpanzee that liked riding on the backs of the adults.
After seeing the chimps, we decided it was time to leave. It was now a little after noon. The kids were still in good moods but it was obvious they were tired. Heck, they hadn't even had lunch yet (just some snacks) so I was shocked they had not completely broken down. We were way off their normal schedule.

On our way out, we passed through a fairly dark tunnel that went under a road. Before we exited on the other side, both kids were sound asleep.
We let the twins sleep in their stroller for a little while before we left. This gave us time to check out a gift shop and pose for a few group pictures.
We had a ton of fun at the zoo. I'm sure we will be back.