Kaden's Best Buddies

Kaden is going through the strangest phase right now. He plays, loves, and talks to inanimate objects. I'm guessing this is normal, but who knows. For the most part I think its pretty cute he's named most of the objects with wheels in our house. The picture above has Kaden with his friends (left to right) Zarzan, Garbage Can, and Eve. Plus a phone charger named John and another stroller in the car named Wally. I'll be a little sad when this phase is over; it cracks me up when Kaden talks to the grocery carts at the store. He even gives ours a hug and a kiss sometimes. I love it!

Mac'n Cheese

I just bribed my son to eat Macaroni and Cheese. Does anyone else see a problem with that? Yesterday, Jo had her 15 month appointment and she only weighed 18.5 lbs. That's at the 1.5ish percentile. I keep telling myself that my kids are just smaller; that things will balance out, but I still worry. They actually eat pretty good most of the time, especially Jo. A lot of the time she eats more than Kaden does. She just doesn't weigh anything.

So ignoring common sense and putting my anxiety into action I've been working overtime to get them to eat better today. Bigger meals, more veggies all that stuff. Which brings me to the Mac'n Cheese. I didn't have much time for dinner so we just had Macaroni and Cheese from a box, but I blended up broccoli and threw it in to try and make it healthier. Jo didn't mind, but Kaden's familiar with this trick and refused to eat anything. Normally I just say okay, but nothing else the rest of the night. But what did I do tonight? I pull out the Oreo cookies. Kaden freaked out when Jo and I got one for finishing our dinner and he did not. He tried everything, even offered to eat carrots instead. In retrospect the carrots probably had more nutrients then the minimal amount of broccoli on his plate, but lets face it, by this point it was not about eating a good meal. In the end he earned his cookie, but I am a mess.

I was taught not to use food as a punishment or a reward and tonight I'm pretty sure I did both. What am I supposed to do?

I'm sure I'm overreacting. The longer I'm a mom the more I learn that things usually workout fine despite my mistakes. I just hate waiting for things to work out when I don't know how to fix them.

Playing Catch Up

Okay...where do I begin? Life has been crazy and great for the last few weeks, but I've been pretty neglectful on the whole blogging thing. So I guess I'll just lay it all out there for you.
1. Scotty is doing great. His leg has healed really well and the doctors are confident they removed all the cancer. He's been adjusting to a prosthesis for a few weeks now and gets around pretty good. He doesn't need a cane or anything anymore. I'm very proud of him, when he's wearing pants most people wouldn't notice a thing. Scotty wears shorts most of the time though, (it is summer after all) and I'm that much more proud of him for that. He is working hard to adjust to everything, and I'm sure he'll continue to do great.

2. We moved out of my parents house. Hooray! I found a great apartment while Kimball was at bootcamp and decided now was as good a time as any. I meant to keep it a secret from Kimball until he came home, but those plans went arry in the form of Kaden. Someone forgot to explain to Kaden that he should not tell Daddy repeatedly over the phone that he would not go home to grandma and grandpa's house, that we have a brand new house called the apartment, and that he has a brand new bedroom. Try to pass that off as an overactive imagination.

3. Kimball's dad got remarried. I guess its been a couple weeks now, but my father-in-law remarried a dear family friend. He has been very lonesome since Kimball's mom died, not adjusting too well to being alone. While it was a surprise, I know Kimball and I are happy his dad has companionship again and hope they are happy.
We spent a few days visiting Kimball's dad and Phillis down near Bryce Canyon. They seem to be doing really well. It has been fun getting to know Phillis; she is super spunky and energetic. She took us to a few of her favorite places in the canyon and it was amazing. I lost the cord to my camera in the move so no pictures yet. Sorry.

4. Kimball came home! In case you hadn't guessed. He got home a few weeks ago weighing about 20lbs less then when we left and I have to say he looks good. Right now we're just enjoying having him home, he has to leave for OCS in another few weeks. For now, we are just happy.

5. Also, Jocilyn finally started walking, kind of. She's been able to do it for at least a month now, but just wouldn't do it. She's to the point now where she'll take about 5 steps at a time all through the day, but isn't ready to give up crawling as her main mode of transportation.

I guess that's it. Thanks to any diehards that actually read through all that, but I think I'm finally caught up.