Maybe a Handyman for Halloween??

Keaton is such a copy cat. My parents got a new garage door and my dad had to paint it to match the house, Keaton found the rollers that day and was rolling everything in the house. (luckily he didn't find any paint) It's been few weeks but this roller never quite makes it back to the garage, and even ends up in the toy box frequently. Last night he wanted to take the roller to bed and wouldn't let go or give it up even after lots of persuading and pulling on my part. This is Keaton asleep with his paint roller which I did take away after I took the picture.

Quiet reminders from my Heavenly Father

So yesterday after our long day at the zoo Keaton took a pretty good nap but still woke up a bit grumpy. We had to run some errands at night and he was just throwing fits, taking off his shoes right after we get them on, running and hiding under things, telling me no, hitting and pinching etc etc. I finally go him in the car and had to pin him in his car seat to buckle it which is when he hit me in the head and said go away mama. (Terrible Two's?!?!) We start on our way to Target and he's still grumpy and I'm thinking if this kid tells me no one more time I might just toss him out the car window. A minute or two later he calms down and starts singing I am a Child of God. He sings it for the next 5 minutes and now I'm crying and driving cuz I was so angry at my sweet boy. Thanks to Keaton and Heavenly Father for reminding me that none of God's children are perfect but we all deserve patience and love.

Zoo Walk

My friend invited me to join her for the Autism Zoo Walk on Saturday. We were supposed to get there to register at 8 but when I hadn't heard from her by 7:30 I was worried. Finally she called back and said they wouldn't make it to register by 9 but they still wanted to go to the zoo. I invited my mom and got to the zoo right about 10:00 but since there was a special event we had to park at the Stadium down the street and walk about 3/4 of a mile to the zoo. Well at 10:00 it's already pretty warm and sunny plus I have 2 year old who is walking. (Maybe I should have brought the stroller but he usually doesn't stay in it anyway and I didn't think I wanted to push a stoller and drag along a kid.)


Well my friend doesn't call me until about 11:30 saying she's there and we started down the kids trail and she started down the african trail...so opposite sided. Anyway, we happened to meet up with them near the splash pad and saw the monkeys together but that was it. I love my friend she's great but this is how all of our play times go...they never quite work out.



Luckily my mom came along otherwise I would have been really upset. Keaton wanted me to hold him and fell asleep while we were walking, I woke him up to eat then we headed home, not before riding the carousel of course. It was a long and hot day and cost about $60. But it was Keaton's first trip to the zoo so I hope he had fun.




Keaton was a little afraid of this frog so he kept leaning over and I told him it was pretend and asked him to touch the frog's eye but he is touching his own eye instead, but I love the smile.


He's getting to be such a big boy.


He loved watching the tortoise eat a carrot, but never stood still long enough to get the tortoise in the shot with him.


When Keaton sees tractors he says "Look Bob the Builder" I had to pry him off this one, even though he kept telling me it was hot.


We found a squirrel friend, which kept running up close to get some smashed chips on the sidewalk. Probably the best part of the day, he watched this squirrel for at least 10 minutes. This is Keaton leaning in to see him, but again, neither the squirrel or Keaton would be still long enough to pose together .


Did you know this cup has free refills for life? Next time I'm getting a kids meal for myself too. We both had the same hot dog, same chips, I got a medium drink but no refill, he can get all the refills he wants plus his meal came with a rice krispie treat all for $1.50 less than the adult.


Watching the ducks and turtles... Keaton does this thing when he's being silly where he turns his head and looks at you through the corner of his eyes, this is not the best picture of it, but that is what he's doing.


Again the child who never poses, we took like 8 pictures before the carousel even started to move! Plus my mom wasn't quite sure how to use the camera, I zoomed and cropped but this was the best I could get.

Melissa's Visit

Melissa and Braden came in this week since Mom and I were off on Thursday and Friday. We had lots of fun playing with the baby and I tried all weekend long to take a half way decent picture of Keaton and Braden but Keaton just didn't cooperate, he always wanted the camera to take the picture himself (and I've tried to give him his own camera but it doesn't work he wants mine). These are the only pictures I took...but we did take Braden to get his first hair cut, he's only 4 months old but had wild hair . We could have buzzed it at home but Melissa didn't want to grow him up too fast. Hopefully when everyone is together at Thanksgiving we can take a few family pictures and hopefully everyone will cooperate.

If you look at my last post you see Braden at 1 month, lots of hair but cute litle mohawk, then you see him at almost 4 months with the longer crazy hair, it was time for a trim... and these pics aren't great, cuz my camera is like 6 years old and I'm not talented but you can see that his hair is a little more tame.



The only picture I was able to surprise snap of Keaton with Braden and he kept letting him fall!


Braden with his Uncle Cooper (my baby brother!)


Grandpa trying to comfort the sad baby.


In a peaceful sleep, I love that his hands are always over his head, and if I was a good photographer you could tell he looked just like a little doll all stretched out in the corner of the couch.

As a side note, the large chain kids cut places (cool cuts and snip-its) charge 16.95 for a child's hair cut which I did with Keaton twice before I figured out I was decent with the clippers. But there is a place on McClintock and Ray that we found for 12.95 and the girl was very good, Braden wasn't big enough to sit in the little car but Keaton enjoyed the train set.

Braden

This is my nephew Braden. He is my only nephew and only the 2nd grandchild so far. Isn't he just a doll. Melissa will be here next weekend we're hoping for a hair cut for this wild man who is not even 4 months old yet.


Hospital pic of the little guy!


About 1 month old on our family reunion road trip.


I love this one, wild hair, holding the monkey the binki half hanging out....such a cutie!

Big Boy Pants

So Keaton has always been very deliberate in his bowel movements even before he was a year old he'd stop whatever he was doing to take care of business and at about 18 months he took an interest in the toilet. So we got a little potty chair and started to remind him...but it wasn't really successful. Basically he tells me when he's about to go..."momma, i poop?" and I ask if he wants to go on the potty and sometimes he says no and runs away but other times he says YAY! He sits for a while but has never actually gone potty on the toilet.

When he turned 2 in August I bought some pull-ups that are supposed to feel cool when he wets, still no progress. In fact the other day he said he had to go, pulled down his "big boy pants" and sat on the potty (I was in the shower) and when he was done (or what he called done) got down flushed and walked away... I got out of the shower to a wet spot in the hallway.

Yesterday I bought some regular underwear, some people say that because they feel it right away and know they are wet and their legs are wet etc they don't want that to happen. So first he put them over his diaper. Then we sat on the toilet a while and then left the diaper off. I thought I'll just follow him around real close and if he starts to go I'll rush him to the toilet. Well about 10 minutes later he walked away for like one second and he says "uh oh, momma, poop" but what really happened is he peed all over the kitchen floor, big puddle. I took him to the potty but I was sure he had to be on empty.

It was almost bed time so the diaper went back on. A few minutes later he found another pair of underwear and so I told him to tell uncle Houston what he has... Keaton's response, "Look Houston, my hat."

I suppose "Boys will be boys!?!" but I didn't expect it this young. He is such a goof!

Also he's just recently started to pose for pictures, this is one of his picture smiles with the teeth showing and his head tilted.

Hot Teacher, Funny Kids

So I have a student, who is a bit different than most of the kids. She takes a while to explain things...for example she'll start with....well, you know I've been thinking about this in my head and well, you know, here is what I think the answer is...but it's said like one word at a time and very thoughtful like.

When she sneezes she will not let it rest until someone says bless you, and if I sneeze and she says bless you then she keeps saying it non-stop until I say thank you. Or if she picks something up that I dropped she reminds me over and over and tells me I need to say thank you.

So yesterday morning she was at the back of the line as we walked into the classroom and she kept calling me...Mrs. Semendoff...Mrs. Semendoff...Mrs. Semendoff several times but from a ways away, so finally I turned around and said What? Here is her histarical response....

Mrs. Semendoff...you look hot today, and not the sweaty kind.

Well if you really knew her you'd be on the ground laughing cuz she's just a little different and you never know what to expect. I'm just glad she hasn't yanked any permenent teeth out yet like when she was in 1st grade...just so she can get a tooth sticker (....sitting on the ground during calendar time...tied her shoe lace around it and yanked...big roots, blood everywhere)

Anyway, a little girl in my 2nd grade class think's I'm HOT! That should count for something...right?