Happy Birthday, James!

To be as cliche as cliche can be: I really really really really cannot believe how fast this year has gone. It's incredible how one year in the life of an infant can effect such gargantuan changes. It makes the passage of such a relatively short period of time beautifully dramatic, as well as rather heart rending.  I present to you: A Year in the Life of James

  January (15th to be exact)

February

March

April

May

Also May

June

July

Also July (his first experience with avocado)

August

September

October (this was the best I had)

November

December

January (15th...of 2015)

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby James.  He's made our family more complete, and it is such a joy being his mother. 

Adventures in Hair-cutting (and some bread and jam)!

Today was filled with adventures in parenting, the highlight being that Owen decided to cut his own hair.  Here's how it happened:  I'm washing James off from breakfast, in the bathroom.  Casey is doing something...not in the kitchen.  Owen is in the kitchen.  Casey walks into the kitchen and I hear (gradually increasing in volume), "No, NO, NOOO!!!!" I run into the kitchen, thinking something awful is happening, and see Owen holding his scissors, and chunks of hair littering the ground.  Luckily, Casey caught him fairly early in the haircut and he didn't do too much damage.  Casey did still have to cut his hair, and now Owen looks very old, and Casey is mourning the loss of Owen's long locks (Casey really liked Owen's longer hair).  Here's a before (post-Owen haircut) and after (post Casey's cut to fix it):

When I asked him how he was feeling (prior to the haircut he had a somewhat tumultuous time-out), and if he wanted to talk about it, here's what he said (imagine this with many tears and some sobs throughout): "My hair was itching, so I thought I'd cut it...but then I felt mad because Daddy got so mad at me!"

I love hearing what's going on inside my three-year-old's head.  His actions are usually so logical to him, and it's fun to hear his thought processes.

Also, I'm not sure I've mentioned before, but James loves to eat.  Like, everything, and I have never reached a point where he stops eating at a meal.  I always run out of food first.  Anyway, during Owen's haircut I was keeping James corralled, but got a little distracted watching the haircut.  James found Owen's leftover breakfast plate and happily started helping himself, so of course I had to get pictures of that, too:

Happy Saturday from the Pickett family!  It's a crazy house around here!

Happenings

What's been going on in our neck of the woods, you ask?  Well...

National "Talk Like a Pirate" Day happened.  Turns out Krispy Kreme gives you a dozen free donuts if you go in dressed like a pirate.  Since Owen dresses like a pirate almost every day I figured I'd take advantage.  I guess that technically means this was Owen's box of donuts.  Owen was thrilled when he saw that he's not the only one who likes to dress up like a pirate.  He especially thought the pirate teenagers were cool.  My faith in humanity was restored when those teenagers talked to Owen like pirates and gave him high fives.  Thank you to the teenagers who didn't think you were too cool for kids.  You made my son's day.

Apple picking with friends.  A seasonal favorite.  We tried our hand at making and canning applesauce from the apples we picked that day.  It was delicious.

Ward Halloween Party.  I'm going to be so sad if (when) my children ever decide they're too cool for group costumes, it's really the only reason I like Halloween nowadays.

Owen has taken to "baking".  Most often it's "takes".  Here was one of his recent concoctions, I had to document.  I believe if you were to analyze the separate components you would find: cocoa powder, unsweetened baking chocolate, breadcrumbs, corn meal, corn syrup, peanut oil (copious amounts), and baking powder?  He always somehow finds a way to make them bubble and fizz.  These "recipes" are generally created when I'm putting James down for naps, or am otherwise occupied.  I discover them when I come down and Owen says, "I'm baking a take!!".  I usually know the creative process is happening when it gets too quiet for more than a minute.

Although these forays into the culinary world are rather messy, and sometimes waste a lot of ingredients, I really love that Owen does enjoy baking and cooking lately, with and without me.  It's been really fun to have him help pour and stir and anything else he is able to do, and then remind him that he helped with whatever it is we end up eating, be it pizza dough, spaghetti squash, or (real) cake.  We're already making some great memories cooking together in the kitchen, and I look forward to many more.

James is just plowing forward with life.  He's so happy and sweet.  He loves to be held.  He crawls everywhere and pulls up on everything. He loves his dad and his brother.  He has 4 teeth (front, top and bottom).  He does not love sleeping...we're working on that. :)

Owen is intensely curious, always asking, "why?", and loves life.  One of my favorite things to hear him say lately is, "I'm so essited for..." or "_________ was weawy fun!"  

Casey is starting his interviews for residency.  Feel free to pray for us, if you're the praying sort. 

 Funny story from his life lately:  A fellow medical student recently asked, "So, is your wife pregnant again yet??"

Casey's response: ".........."

These boys sure keep me on my toes.

Sorry for the photo dump (only I'm not really). 

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this post.

Brothers

That's all.

Owenisms

(Navy Pier, Chicago) (Casey was taking his Step 2 in Chicago that day)

Owen's face when I tell him to smile really big.

After finding him on the kitchen counter with chocolate smeared on his face at 7 in the morning
Owen: (Quickly climbing off the counter and pointing at the pan of cookies) Is that leftover tookies?  Oh.  I'm sorry for eating them.  It was a ah-ident (accident).  It wasn't on pohpose (purpose).
Katalyn:
Owen:  At night we have a bedtime treat, and our morning treat is tookies!

At the side of my bed around 6:30
Owen: Mmmm-I slept in really late, so...
Katalyn: No you actually woke up pretty early.
Owen:  Weeeell, you just need to be fine with that.

With his juice glass almost empty
Owen: Can I have some more juice?
Katalyn: No, if you're still thirsty after your juice you can have water.
Owen: Oh, I know! We can trade glasses! (My glass had significantly more juice)
Katalyn: You finish your juice and then let's talk.
Owen quickly finishes juice
Owen: Let's talk!!
Katalyn: (trades glasses) (I'm such a pushover)
Owen: (hands me his glass) You can get more juice!

Referring to a scrape on his leg
Owen: It's healing!  Jesus didn't heal it, but it is healing.

So fast...

Lately I've been feeling like I'm on a freight train hurtling at ridiculous speeds toward...I'm not sure what.  I feel like every time I blink, my children are completely different.  Wasn't James just born last week?  What is going on?!?  Or, in the words of Owen lately, "are you tidding me??"  Rather than trying to play catch up on this here blog, which is no fun and just kind of stressful (which is not what I'm going for here), I just thought I'd share a few pictures I took of James the other day when he was looking ridiculously old to me.  What do you think?  Geriatric, right?

He was so done by the end.

Can someone please tell my children that they can stop growing up now?  (Except maybe don't tell Owen until he's past three).  :)  Thanks.

Giveaway winner and the many personalities of Owen

And the winner of the giveaway (as chosen by a random number generator) is #5, Annie Ditto!  Annie, I'll be in touch. ;)  Thanks to all who entered.

Owen's imagination is quite active (I feel like that's putting it lightly).  He is rarely just Owen, I am rarely just Mommy, Casey is rarely just Daddy, James is rarely just James, and we are rarely just home.  I think the most common phrase I hear from him lately is, "Pwetend...." followed by the characters we are pretending to be or the situation in which he would like us to be.  For example, "Pwetend I'm Hoakawees (Hercules) and you're Hoakawees' mommy, and Daddy is Zeus.", or "Pwetend I'm Captain Hook and you're Petoh Pan, and we're going to sword fight!", or "Pwetend this is our tweehouse, and it's very safe".  You get the idea.

It's fun to listen to, but can be somewhat exhausting for me to play that way (I haven't used my brain like that since I was a little kid.  Who knew it could be so hard?).  Anyway, we don't have an abundance of dress-up clothes, but I've tried to keep past Halloween costumes out, and this week he's been in normal playclothes probably...40% of the time?  He even slept in the monkey costume the other night, and told me that, "I want to wear this monkey tostume fohever!!"...we'll see.