LIFE WITH LUKE AND KATE

The past week or so has been quite something with my kids. They have kept me on my toes, and cracked me up so many times.

Little miss Kate has been into EVERYTHING... absolutely everything. She has the most inquisitive little mind and the cutest, cheekiest little personality. Those things combined, mean trouble, a big mess and a cute smile to melt your heart when you should be mad. lol

That cheeky little face that gets away with just about anything.

Here are some of the pictures I caught this week of Kates little adventures.

She found the baby powder...all over herself and the carpet in her room. Gotta love that cheeky face.

My skinny little funny girl.. she cracked me up sitting with her towel on her head, playing butt naked on the floor after bath. She LOVES being naked.

This was after she got hold of the baby wash and decided to lather her hair (and the bathroom floor)... she had to get a hair wash over the bathroom basin in the middle of the hair.. squeaky clean hair that day. lol

She found my mascara... sneaky sneaky...

On Sunday, we had family home evening, and I was talking to Luke about loving our family, and learning to do things together that make us happy and learning to share better.

I asked Luke if he loves mommy... he answered a big 'YES'.. then I asked him the same question about daddy and Kate... to which he replied "No, I don't like daddy...or Kate"... lol... we had fixed those feelings by the end of our discussion.
I also asked him if it makes him happy when baby Kate shares her pink monkey with him (her favourite snuggle toy that isn't easily shared), to which he replied, "no, baby Kate is a stinker".. haha... Jake and I couldn't keep straight faces. I guess Kate hasn't been sharing very well lately so Luke thinks she is a stinker. haha.

*********************************************
Tonight I went to Target with the 2 kids. Luke was in a crazy talking frenzy...like a thousand words a minute I'm sure.. my brain just couldn't keep up. Things went something like this:
Me: Luke, buddy, can you be quiet for just a minute cos you're talking so much, my ears are going to fall off soon.
Luke: Ok mommy...

For the next 10 minutes any time either Kate or I made a peep Luke put his finger to his lip and said, "Ssshhhh, you're going to break mommy's ears"

**********************************************
A few days ago, Luke comes to me and says, "mommy, I need your keys.." so I ask him what he needs them for, and he says, "I'm riding my bike to the mail box to get the mail.. I'll be right back!" LOL
And so off he went... around the corner, to the backside of the apartments to get the mail (I had to follow behind him because I know he can't reach the mail box and unlock it) It all made me laugh though.. I started envisioning the future when he gets his drivers license and says a similar "mom I need your keys... I'll be right back" lol

Off to get the mail...

He just cracks me up.. funny boy!

How SERIOUSLY GORGEOUS is this face?

We ran into a little dilemma a couple weeks ago.
We were in Babies R Us, and Luke who is VERY into rainbows (of all things) right now, spotted a fairly hideous rainbow tie-dyed outfit in the girls department. He's just recently started developing an opinion about his clothing (no more just buying him what I like... he refuses to wear it if he doesn't like it and I have to return it) Anyways, he was dead set on getting this rainbow outfit (not that we were even there shopping for clothes)... we tried to explain that it was a girls outfit, and that we weren't buying clothes that day, but he was just distraught... he SOBBED about this rainbow outfit. Jake and I couldn't help but giggle about it (obviously not while he was looking at us)...
We managed to get him out of the store in one piece, after allowing him to pick out a treat from the checkout... and we have since settled on a rainbow themed party for his 4th birthday. LOL.. yup... my 4yr old boy is having a rainbow party. (there are worse things, right? haha)
He is so funny sometimes, and it's great (and often challenging) to see his little personality and strong will start to shine through. Love this kid... lol

The infamous girls department rainbow outfit

************************************************

Luke is finally starting to fight nap.. given that he'll be 4 next week I'm not surprised.. in fact I feel super lucky that nap lasted this long.. and most days he always napped willingly.
With his recent refusal to nap, I've started allowing him to quietly watch a movie while Kate naps... so she goes to bed, and he gets comfy on the sofa for a movie (I still need my quiet time during nap, so this was our compromise)... the funny thing about it all, is that he rarely makes it very far into his nap time movie, and this is the result. LOL... He wants to be big and not nap anymore, but really I think he still needs his little siesta. I've just gone along with it...


On a lot of days, Luke and Kate just drive each other crazy.. she gets in his way, he pesters her.. she bites him, he pushes her etc etc... It's pretty frequently a battle ground in our home with these two struggling to 'play nice'... BUT, there are days when they are just sweet as can be together... today was one of those days. 

My babies being sweet together. Luke helping little Kate down the curb.

More sweetness...some days they play so well (others..not so much. lol)

And that is life in the Geddes home right now.. we have so much fun with these two little monkeys.. they're hilarious (and exhausting) and we love them SOOO much!

EASTER 2013

Our Easter 2013 photos...

BIG GIRL *mommy over share*

This is a mommy overshare post which I'm posting more as a  family journal entry than anything else because I'm too proud to not "record" it..

Kate, at only 18 months old has used the toilet like a big girl for the first time. We recently bought a toilet seat insert so that she can sit on the toilet without falling in. LOL. She'd been showing interest in the toilet and recognizing that she'd been peeing in her diaper so i thought, why not... She's been pretty excited about it and asks to sit on the toilet periodically... Tonight after bath she sat on the toilet and a few minutes later i heard the little trickle...what a big girl she is. I'm sure it'll be a while still until she's potty trained, but I'm pretty excited she's already starting to figure it out.. Smart girl.

18 MONTHS OLD

"I found my bows and put one on all by myself..."
-little miss mischief

Little Miss Kate turned 18 months old 2 days ago.
What a little personality she has. She is a funny, and silly, and inquisitive, and she is also STUBBORN and soooo persistant... she'll stare you right in the eyes while doing something that you just told her not to do, and then when she's done it, she'll look at you and laugh... my naughty little girl.
She's really a little firecracker!

She is also such a girl... she LOVES shoes! She frequently gets a pair of her shoes and brings them to me to put on her feet. The other day I found an adorable little pair of white mary janes for her to wear to church. I tried them on her in the store, and she refused to take them off again. We eventually came to the compromise that she could hold them in her hand (out of the box) and take them to the checkout, where we could pay for them. lol
She loves trying clothes on, but she hates getting into her pajamas after bath each night.. I guess pjs aren't fun/stylish enough. haha

Yesterday was her first Sunday in the nursery at church...nursery kids are 18 months to 3 years old.
She did better than expected. We dropped her off in the nursery room, and left. I peeked in on her about an hour later and she was enjoying a snack on one of the leaders laps.
She fussed a little, on and off for the a little over an hour (nursery is just under 2hrs), and then she got pretty upset after that so came to hang out with me again. I honestly didn't think I'd get to leave her at all on her first Sunday.. let alone for over an hour, so I think she did great.

Today was her 18 month check up.
She's had a little height growth spurt, but she is still a skinny little thing.

Her 18 month stats are:

Height: 31.75 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 19lb 7oz - 8.8kg (3rd percentile)

She fits into the length of most 12 month pants, but her little skinny waist and legs still fit comfortably in 6-9 month clothing. lol. I have a couple pairs of tights, that aren't so 'tight' on her, and fit more just like regular pants. :) She weighs at 18 months what Luke weighed at about 5 months, so it's been a very different experience having such a petite little girl.

She is so fun, and so silly. She's still a big daddy's girl, but I do seem to get a few more cuddles lately than I used to, so perhaps it's starting to even out a bit more.

I think we're going to be in for some interesting 'twos' with Kate and her fiesty little personality, but we just love her. She's such a little sweetheart.

THE BIG MOVE...AND SOME SNOW

My blog has been a bit neglected lately. With the 'cross country' move, things got a little busy.
We did the drive to NC over two days. My great friend, Julie drove with me and the kids in my car, while Jake drove the moving truck, and towed his car on a dolly on the back.
We stayed over night in the Hampton Inn, in Cambridge Ohio, and then in the morning Jake went on the MI, and Julie and I stopped with the kids to have breakfast with her parents in Akron, OH.

The first couple days in Michigan were CRAZY... we had boxes EVERYWHERE and I couldn't find anything. It's been 2 weeks now, and we're mostly settled in. There are still a few boxes stacked up in our bedroom that need to be sorted through and organized, but otherwise I think we have the apartment in pretty organized, liveable shape.
It's definitely been an adjustment downsizing back to an apartment, but I think so far we're making it work pretty well. The rooms are nice and big, so we've comfortably fit the kids and their toys into their room, and the living room is a good size too, so we still have room to move around and let the kids play. The kitchen is kinda outdated and small, but we're making it work.
Hopefully our house in NC sells in a reasonable time, so that we don't have to pay 'double' for rent/mortgage indefinitely... once it sells, we'll start getting ourselves ready to buy again.
I think despite the temporary not so great changes... like living back in an apartment, and the frustration with having to sell our house in this terrible market, we still feel really good about this move, and have actually settled in here in MI really well.

We haven't done too much since getting here.. mostly just been settling in.
Today however, the kids had a fun time playing in the snow. (I think spring is going to be very late. lol)
There was snow when we arrived in MI, but it melted after a few days, and then it was pretty much all gone over the last week. Then last night we got fresh snowfall, which the kids loved.
A couple weeks ago I ordered snow bibs and mittens etc, for the kids to wear next winter (love those end of season clearance sales)... so they were all bundled up this morning (in slightly big snow bibs), and went and played in the fresh white snow with Daddy for a while.
Luke calls snow, "Winter".. look mommy, the 'winter' is blowing, or look mommy, there is 'winter' on my boots. So cute! Love my cutie and his funny words. We've really been enjoying how much his speech has taken off over the last little while.

BIG CHANGES

To say that things have been crazy lately would be the understatement of the year.
There are a lot of changes going on in the Geddes household right now...

Shortly before our trip to South Africa in December, Jake flew to Michigan for a day, for a job interview. Weeks went by and we didn't hear much, so we presumed that nothing had come of it.
Then at the end of January, we found out that Jake got the job and that we had 4 weeks to pack up and move back to Michigan.
This job came out of nowhere. It was just a random job listing I saw one day last October, where they were looking for a Japanese-English bilingual engineer. Jake decided to apply and well the rest just kinda happened.
We however were totally unprepared for this big move (We honestly didn't think anything would ever come of the job application), and with our trip to South Africa, we didn't have a whole lot of time to get anything in order.
So it's been 12 days since we officially accepted the job and decided to make the move.
And we leave in 2.5 weeks, on March 1st.

Our house here in North Carolina isn't on the market yet, and we have LOTS that needs to be done to get it ready to be listed. Our list of projects that need to happen in the next 2 weeks is so long.. we will likely have to try find some help, because we are in over our heads right now.

The move is bittersweet.
North Carolina has been our home for the longest period of time since we got married, and both of our children have so far only known this place as home (Luke was only 6 months old when we moved here from Michigan)
We have friends, the kids have friends, I have a fun gym buddy set up with my friend Rachel (first time in my life that I've actually almost enjoyed running and working out), we have great Drs here, and a great church family. All of these things are hard to say goodbye to. Relocating is never easy.
Another not so great part, is that initially we are going to have to downsize quite a lot.
Until our house sells, we will be renting a much smaller 2 bedroom apartment in Michigan. It will be a big change from our almost 4 bedroom home with our large property that we currently enjoy.
Hopefully our house will sell quickly, and by the time our 12 month lease is up at the new apartment, we will be able to move to somewhere bigger again. We are currently doing a lot of cleaning out. We will be losing all of our extra storage space, so we are having to pick only the necessities and things that we cannot part with to take with us. The rest is being sold, thrown out, or donated.

We are excited for Jakes new job, and the new opportunities we will have once we settle in, in Michigan, but leaving our comfort zone here is definitely difficult.
We feel though, that it'll be an easier move now, when the kids are still young, our family is still small, and nobody is in school yet. I hope that a year from now I will be able to blog about all the great changes that are happening for our family in Michigan.
It'll take time for us to get completely back on our feet after our home sells etc, but I'm excited for the prospects that the future holds.

Wish us luck... in 2.5 weeks we will be on our way to Michigan, with our entire life packed up in a 24ft truck... exciting but scary times.