Mom, I want a cell phone!

As we were walking home from school the other day, Nathanael pulls something out of his pocket and begins talking. He is having quite the conversation...with himself! Then he says, "Oh, wait I got a text message." He then proceeds to check his message on his cell phone that he made from paper at school. I had to laugh. He has been bugging me about getting him a cell phone. Yes, an elementary school child wants a phone! He sees other children with them at school and wants to know why he can't have one. I always ask him, "Who are you going to call?" He will quickly rattle off a long list of family and friends. I follow that up with, "How are you going to pay for it?" He says he's "rich" because he has a piggy bank full of coins and he swears that there is enough to buy a phone. I then inform him that there are monthly charges that go along with that phone. He thinks that is outrageous! Our conversation always ends with me saying, "When you are old enough to help pay for a cell phone, then we'll think about it."(That's my way of putting it off for a few more years.) He usually follows up with something about me being a mean mommy. HA!!

The same day he pulled out his paper cell phone, he put little crumpled pieces of notebook paper in his ears and said that he was listening to his ipod. (He was on a roll that day!) I think this is his way of trying to get an ipod out of us for Christmas! (That is another item that he sees kids at school with and wonders why he doesn't have one yet.) One of his friends told me that when he wants something in the store, he'll beg his mom for it. If she says, "No" then he'll go to a more expensive item until she gives in and gets him the original item that he wanted. What a sneaky little guy. Nathanael has learned from his friends that persistence pays off. I wonder what else he is learning from friends!

On top of all of this, he is refusing to cut his hair. He wants to have hair like the "older" boys. You know, the shaggy in the eyes hair that seems so popular these days. I guess my little boy is growing up, or at least he thinks he is. I guess a car is next on his list! Oh, yeah... he has already requested a Jeep.

Caught In The Act

It has been a few months since I updated our blog. I have been caught-up in the world of kids, family vacations, trying to figure out how to upload photos from a new camera(thank goodness for Nat), a crashing computer hard drive and my new favorite pass-time...Facebook. Whew! I have lots to update, so here is just the beginning of what has been happening lately.

Caitlin has just turned 18 months and is into everything!!! Even now she is handing me everything out of the "pencil drawer" in the office. She is so polite about it too. She says "tate too" (thank you) each time she hands me something. She won't stop saying it until I take the item and say thank you back to her. I now have more items out of the desk drawer than I do in it.

Besides emptying everything out of the drawers in the office, she likes to "help" in the bathroom too. She goes through the same process with all of my toiletries. When she finds the toilet, she can't resist flushing or splashing in it. Ugh! Once she did it several times in one day because someone would forget to close the door to one of our bathrooms. On one occasion, I could hear her in the bathroom splashing away. So, I grabbed the camera and caught her "in the act." (See attached video)

In addition, if I don't make sure the laundry door is closed she will empty the cat's water dish all over the floor. Sometimes she will wait until she sees me and then run as fast as she can to the dish and dump it out! She has already done it once today. So, you can see that my day has been pretty busy cleaning up water and making sure certain doors are closed. It is only a matter of time until she figures out how to open doors. I'll really be in trouble then. Whew! I am tired already.

Here Comes Trouble!!

Yes, it has finally happened! Caitlin is fully mobile and with that she is getting into everything. When I took this video we had just finished dinner and were about to go to Nathanael's baseball game. The trash can was full, so I took it out from under the sink in preparation to change out the trash bags. Caitlin saw this as the perfect opportunity to explore! As you watch the video, notice how she pretends not to hear me when I catch her. I hope it isn't what's in store when she hits her teenage years!