Candy Cane Hunt

I originally didn't think we would have a free day or free time to do a candy cane hunt, but since we all got sick we had an unexpected weekend of rest at home. Surprisingly enough I remembered to do this fun activity, unlike so many fun ideas I plan. Today after nap, Zane and Daddy went downstairs while I did the honors of hiding the candy canes. We admittedly had way too many for just one child, but I knew he loves a good hunt so I hid them all!

Zane thoroughly enjoyed, his rather well directed, hunt. Turns out Zane can't find things that are directly in front of his face, not unlike his father. There were a couple times where candy canes were literally almost touching him and he couldn't manage to find them. But he didn't seem to mind, it just made for a longer hunt. There were candy canes all over the house, with my favorite hiding places being in his room. T-rex was eating one, the pirates had stolen one, and there was even one perched on his light switch. Too much fun!

First hiding place, well in his favorite blanket of course.

 "I don't see it mamma." 

 Found it!

After he had found them all he was very excited finally get to eat one. Turns out Zane didn't really like how they tasted, even though I bought the Jolly Ranger and Spree flavors, which taste like pure sugar. Maybe he has had the mint version before and was expected that. It made for an anticlimactic ending, with a very sticky boy, who thought he should try every color, just in case one was what he was expecting.

 Not exactly what I was expecting, face.

All and all it was good Christmas fun. Tomorrow we make cookies for Santa, then it's Christmas time!!! Hooray!

Parenting Victories and Failures

Let's start with the victory. After weeks of being on nights and our recent illnesses our house has become a disaster area. This morning we did nothing, then took naps, then went to get groceries. Upon returning home to said disaster I decided I would tackle cleaning the kitchen and sweeping all the floors. I know this doesn't sound like a lofty goal, but in my current state of illness and pregnancy it was a pretty big deal. Zane quickly had a melt down and couldn't "help" clean the kitchen, so was set up on the couch with milk and his blanket to "rest" while I cleaned the kitchen.

By the time I was ready to pick up the living room, and sweep in there, Zane had gotten his second wind and wanted to hunt for buried treasure. At this point I had a momentary stroke of genius. The treasure hunt would be picking up the living room.. genius!!! Zane hunted for buried treasure under the TV stand, book case, couch ect and was excited that all his finds were toys! All requests were made in pirate speak, i.e. "Please take these shoes to your room matey." With Zane's response always being "Aih Aih Captian." Zane's treasure chest in the living room just added to the fun. The toys have never been picked up so quickly, and now all the hidden ones have been rescued as well. Then, we got to sweep the floor, one of Zane's favorite activities, success.

After this hour and a half of cleaning house I quickly realized I had over done it, big time, and should drink some water. As soon as I sat down Zane came and told me "I be right back, I poop on the potty." He says this frequently and has never actually been successful. Ninety Nine percent of the time Zach or I will go with him and sit in the bathroom, cheering on the poops or pees, with it never ending in success or Zane getting candy. At this point I should probably mention that Zach had gone to meet his friend, who was in from out of town, so I was home by myself.

Zane is in there for awhile, but I assume, that per usual nothing will result from this adventure. Then out comes my pantless son, oh so proud of himself, and oh so covered in poop. I will let you envision this horror show. He had successfully pooped, in/on the potty, but his lazy mother wasn't there to help him wipe, so he... well... used his hands. This is one of those moments in parenting that you have the out of body experience and some how have to figure out how to clean up the situation without loosing your mind in front of your child. This is akin to being covered in vomit, home alone, with a crying baby, that you have to figure out how to clean up and console at the same time. In this case I was cleaning up a poop and trying to be soo excited for him at the same time. He was so proud that he had pooped on the potty, oblivious that anything was wrong. He kept asking for candy with his dirty little hands, you can't make this stuff up.

So back to the bathroom we went, where he decided he needed to sit on the potty more, while I cleaned up the scene of the crime. Then he got a full wash down before getting his coveted M&Ms. This pretty much is the story of my life, terrible and awesome all at the same time. Zach rolled in right after all was cleaned up to join in the celebrations of this milestone. And those were my parent success and failure of the day. Oh the joys of parenthood.

Farm Treasure Hunt

Growing up we had a big white chest, full of dress up clothes. The chest was kept in the attic, which made it the perfect size and location for big brother's to put their little sister in, sit on top of it, and cause them to have terrible claustrophobia when they grew up. Once in the chest your mother could only hear faint muffled screams coming from upstairs, quickly covered up by your loving brother. I digress... the chest is now on mom's front porch with all our old dress up clothes still in it. During this past trip to OK Zane and I looked inside, only to find the best dress up clothes ever, a pirate hat and pirate pants!!! This led to hours of pirate fun on the farm, with the highlight being a good old fashion treasure hunt around the farm with Grandma, Brendan, and Uncle Brent!!

First up was dressing the part. These pirate pants were from an old Halloween costume of Able's. I didn't realize until after the treasure hunt that the pants were really for a much old child, but Grandma made them work by tucking them into his pants. They were nice and poofy just like Zane's pirate song says is required of all good pirates. (See the large chest to the right, where I thought I would surely meet my maker a time or two.)

 Grandma and Zane tried digging for buried treasure, but no luck. If only we had known there were pirate clothes available, we could have buried some treasure or made a map, but we just had to wing it instead.

 First treasure that was found, an egg!!!! It wasn't exactly buried, but it was quite the treasure. Zane kept it in the pocket of his coat for most of the treasure hunt, right up to the point that he started to fall down, it was then taken into protective custody.

BURIED TREASURE!!!!!

 Uncle Brent and Brendan joined the fun at this point, with sword sticks to help us fight off all our foes along the way. Mom had mowed this path through her pasture during the summer. It made for a perfect treasure hunting path around the farm.

 Here is Zane in all his get up. The hat was also a little large, and blew off from time to time, but it was all part of the adventure.

 Finally we decided we should bury our own treasure, pine cones from a tree in the tree row. We used Great  Grandpa Dotter's WWII shovel to bury this treasure so it was even more special.

 Here are the boys putting the treasure in the hole. These pine cones were extra spikey, so it was difficult work, but they were very brave pirates.

 The last order of business was determining how many paces south of the telephone pole our buried treasure was, in order to make an accurate map for future treasure hunts. Here is Brendan counting paces.

The costume was fun for the whole weekend. Kyser and Zane had pirate train rides, which were obviously a blast. 

 Then later Everett got in the action, wearing the pirate hat while working on sitting up. Zane put it on him and he of course didn't mind at all, sooo cute!!

Zane at 2.5

As I sit down to write this we are all celebrating the season with a round of illnesses. Zane and I both have terrible coughs, runny noses, and our own antibiotic prescriptions. The Korenak Christmas this weekend has been postponed due to the Prance family being hit with the flu and strep bug, while I exchanged text messages with Abbey this morning while we were both taking our little boys to the doctor. I'm trying hard to hold onto the Christmas spirit, so here goes a happy post about my happy two  and a half year old boy!

I can't believe that Zaney is two and half. Time has been flying by this year, with things changing quickly in our lives. I caught myself telling someone that he had just turned two in June, well I guess that was six months ago huh. Zane has quickly become Mr. Independent and Mr. Vocal over the last few months. He has all sorts of things to say, with all the correct inflections, facial expressions, and hand motions to go along with it. He has an endless imagination and very clear opinion on things as well. Here is the brief over view of Zane at 2.5.

Favorite toys/activities

* I should put the disclaimer that his favorite things to play with don't really involve toys, but here goes.

- Playing pirates with his pirate apparel including his sword, hat, and hook, or whatever he is pretending to be his sword/hook.

-Cooking- This can be pretend cooking in his kitchen or real cooking with me, which we do quite a lot. He has started doing a lot more pretending to serve people or pretending to eat, more than just mixing his food together.

-Probably his newest pretend play scenario is fireman. This usually involves him pretending to call fireman Sam on his "phone" aka his hand. He pushes pretend buttons on his hand then talks to fireman Sam about various situation. Monday's situation was that fireman Sam had rescued Papa. He always has to call fireman Sam when daddy is grilling or making a fire in the fire place, leading to Zach and fireman Sam to have a pretend feud over the phone. Good times.

- He still enjoys playing with all his trucks/pirate ships with many things getting rides in his trucks these days, everything from farm animals to baby Jesus. He did start trying to pick his blocks up with his CAT machines downstairs the other day, which was highly entertaining. I have heard this is how his daddy would draw out picking his legos up as a child.

-Fixing things- Zane is forever fixing everything in sight, walls, floors, toys, really anything he can get his hands on. He loves all his tools and uses them daily. He is his father's son.

-Playing doctor- Thanks to his mother being a nurse and having been admitted to the hospital early in life, Zane has numerous stethoscopes. He listens to his stuffed animals hearts, as well and Zach and I's. He even listens to their backs (listening for lung sounds of course) and tells us to "take a breath." With this most recent illness he learned about thermometers which meant a whole new aspect of doctor fun, "mamma, I'm the doctor, o ta," was his response to my requesting the thermometer back.

- He loves hiding and being found. He is a terrible hider, but loves hiding under blankets, in his bed, in his room, in Rowan's cradle,  anywhere that he can hide and then someone can "come get him." It always ends with popping out of his hiding place early, with squeals of delight.

There are still the old stand byes of the iPad, which he is using a lot to learn his letters and shapes, as well as watching Mickey Mouse, don't get me wrong. He still loves all forms of music, singing, and dancing. You can usually hear Zane in the other room singing a song, sometimes real tunes, sometimes made up ones, precious. And as always he loves his books, but as mentioned before he has taken to wanting to "read" them himself, because he is oh so big! There is a never a dull moment in our house!

Favorite Sayings:

- "What" - said randomly, usually when you are telling him not to do something and he is acting as though he has no idea what you are talking about. Also, when he literally doesn't hear you because he has so many other things going on in his busy little life, he struggles to listen. I know it doesn't sound funny on paper, but believe me his random "what" is really funny.

-"It no Halloween yet, it Christmas time." He says this at least five times a day and it is usually the first thing out of his mouth in the morning. He says it randomly and as if he is reassuring himself that Halloween is coming. We had a "Halloween relapse" as Zach called it, over the weekend, where he saw ghosts outside again. I think we are back on the Christmas track though.

-"Not yet, soon." He has also recently added, "almost" to this stalling tactic.

-"Hold on mamma." This is usually said when I request a kiss/hug and he busy doing something else. This is a new addition complete with his little hand going up, which leads me to attack him with kisses and hugs, obviously.
-"What are you doing?" "Where are we going?" "Why?" These are usually said in rapid fire, I answer all said questions then they are asked again about 2 minutes later. When he started saying this I knew that three was just around the corner.

-"O Ta" - just like in the little rascals.

-"Awesome"

-"Let's see now..... (head scratch), O ta..... Ah ha." Does this all the time when "thinking about things" or "coming up with a plan." It is beyond hysterical.

-"Oh Daddy.... you making a mess." This is his newest catch phrase, first said when Daddy's PB and J was dripping jelly onto a plate. He says it while shaking his head, with the sound of disappointment in his little two year old voice. He said it randomly today in Target as well, hysterical.

Favorite Foods:
This is simple, cheese, in all it's forms. He requests "cheese in a bowl" quite often, which literally means a piece of cheese in a bowl, he loves it. He loves cottage cheese, the baby bell cheese, cheese sticks, cheese ball, you name it. This diet of cheese is kept balance with quite a lot of squeezable apple sauces, apple juice, and apples cut up, all of which he loves as well. His eating still goes in waves, some days are eating days and some not so much. It all evens out. He proclaims things are delicious from time to time at dinner, which is tons of fun.

Mr. Independent:
Other new developments include, Zane can take all his clothes off by himself and dress himself all my himself, well most of the time. Usually his issue is motivation, with the getting dressed. There are just so many other things that would be more fun than getting dressed. He takes his clothes off all the time, I don't fight it, it's fine. He can put his "Peter Pan" shoes on by himself and can get his shoes and socks off in about a minute flat, upon arrival home. Getting his coat off is his new trick. All these things seem like little things now, but I know in a few months they will be huge, when I am busy with the new baby.

There is still no movement ( no pun intendended) on the potty training front. He has absolutely zero interest in it. He totally gets the concept and says quite often "I go poop on the potty and I can get candy," but has never done this. He also told Everett ( who is 6mn old) numerous times he should poop in the potty over the weekend, but he is totally uninterested. I'm not pushing the issue too much at this point since I know any progress we make before baby would be negated once Rowan arrives.

Happy to say that at 2.5 we are officially binki free and thriving. He still needs his blanket, but I will take it. He does still have night terrors from time to time. His most recent one being at Mom's house this past weekend. It is the saddest thing you will ever see. He can't wake up, can't stop crying, and once he does wake up once nothing to do with going back to sleep again, because he is so scared. He can tell us about his night mares sometimes now, usually involving dark tunnels, which can be scary. It breaks my heart, but they do some to be less frequent.

We are really starting to miss outside playtime and our little adventures to the zoo or the park now that it is really winter outside. He stands sadly, looking longingly out to the back yard a lot when we are home. Maybe when I get off nights and we are all well again we will bundle up and try to brave some outdoor fun. The basement is a nice second choice, but just isn't the same. The weather in Oklahoma was nice, so he did get to do some outdoor exploring there, which he thoroughly enjoyed1

Overall he is getting too big, that's the bottom line. He is such a little boy and I feel time going by far too quickly. I love to hear his stories and could listen to him talk for hours. He has such a tender heart, randomly asking everyone "you happy" or giving pats when someone appears sad, saying "they sad, they need a mamma." I know in a blink of an eye he will be three, then in school, then grown. I'm trying to saver every minute of my sweet little boy!

Ten On Tuesday

1. We are home from our Oklahoma Christmas. It was a great visit, but ended too quickly, as usual. It was wonderful seeing everyone and I can't believe the next time that we are back home we will have a new little boy to introduce to the farm.

2. This trip I finally got to meet my good friend Emily's newest little boy, Knox. Knox is four months old, and unlike his older brother Kyser, he looks just like his daddy. He was full of little baby cuddles for me and his mother was full of encouragement as I face the idea of two boys. Thanks Emily for all the positive thoughts, for some reason we have gotten a lot of "two kids is terrible" advice as of late. That just can't be true!

Here are Kyser, Emily, and little Knox.

 Kyser and Zane became fast friends over Grandma's little train and then pirate train rides from Zach.

 3. Zane got this new velvet scally cap for our trip to Oklahoma. Originally he was going to wear it in our family photos Friday, but it didn't make it out of the suit case in time. But don't worry he wore it a lot, especially while riding Peanut Butter.

I think his PJ's really class the hat up, don't you. Did you notice Peanut Butter had a head band as well?

4. The other highlight at Grandma's house is of course music time. Zane knows quite a few Christmas songs, such as Santa Clause is Coming to Town, Must Be Santa, Oh Christmas Tree, Jingle Bells, and few others. He loved all of Grandma's instruments as well. Only a Grandma is brave enough to let a two year old have a penny whistle.

5. Of course there is cookie making to be done at Grandma's as well. Brendan and Zane were Grandma's helpers for this particular punch, but kids are constantly helping in the kitchen at Grandma's, such fun!!

 

6. Next up, present time. Zane was not messing around with opening his and really any presents he could get his hands on. Christmas morning is going to last about five minutes this year. Everyone got great gifts, the highlight possibly being the little boys getting matching under shirts.

Here is Zane, in the Christmas tree, getting gifts!

 One of Maggie's highlights, he lady bug umbrella that came with matching lady bug rain boots. 

 Everett, being his normal chill self, surrounded my his new hats and chew toys.

 The boys in their under shirts!

7. Another random fun time at Grandma's was this miniature syrup bottle that Zane found and drank water out of all weekend. At first sight it looks like a miniature liquor bottle, but I promise it's a maple syrup bottle!

 Ahhh, so good!

8. Before we could leave we had to fill up Grandma's many bird feeders. Here are Zane and Maggie hard at work. They are the best of friend, both cried when they had to say good bye Monday morning. Very sad and very touching.

9. We are back now, with our gifts and more spices, and all a little exhausted. My lymph nodes all over my neck are swollen and hurt, so I am praying these next two nights of work don't push me into sickness. Zane has his Christmas party at daycare tomorrow, which means we had to go get his little friend a gift this afternoon. The trip to Target about did me in, hoping these are just Braxton Hicks contractions, but they hurt much more than I remember.

10. This weekend was suppose to be Korenak Christmas in SEMO, but the Prance kids are dropping like flies to the flu, so I am thinking we will have to push that back a bit, sad face. Hopefully they get to feeling better before Christmas day.

Twelve on 12/12/12

I thought I had to participate on the ultimate 12 on the 12th on 12/12/12. I'm sad to see the end of the fun dates, it will be a hundred years until that fun starts again. I guess we still have 11/12/13 and 12/13/14 to look forward to. So my twelve on the twelve isn't going to be too exciting because I worked last night, which means my dad started at 2:40. I got up, ate some cereal, tried not to throw up, then went to pick up Zane. These are the twelve pictures I choose to represent Zane and I's hour or so at home before I had to start getting ready to work. This is how the past few days have gone, get Zane from daycare, come home, bring all the boxes that are waiting on our front porch inside, wrap them, snacks, then time for me to get ready for work.

Zane in his shark hat and mittens, on our way home from school!

 Many boxes awaited us when we got home. Zane proclaimed "Happy Christmas time Mamma!"

 Zane had to take them all in for me, per usual.

 While I was opening boxes, Zane found the left over popcorn from yesterday's Target trip. He thought the stack of presents would be a good place to eat it!

 Snack number two, apples and chocolate milk. He is sitting with his new pair of shoes that arrived today.

 While Zane snacked, I wrapped. Here is Zane with the wrapping paper roll. I made for a great trumpet and horse.

 And there was still a box to play with!

 Then I looked at some pictures and realized Zane had hat hair, so we tried to fix that and found the dinosaur bones in the process.

 Finished pile of presents to be taken downstairs by daddy. As we all know I struggle getting down stairs empty handed. 

Time for pirate play in Zane's room.

 Snack number three, apple sauce, which he can get by himself now. Such a big boy.

 Then time to watch a little fireman Sam while mommy writes this blog.

Side note, Zane also got a cheese cookie while I was writing this, so I think it is time to go feed him an actual meal of food. Happy 12 on the 12th in 2012!!!