Trick-or-Treating

International Day

Halloween Test-Run

It's a little small for him, but I don't think Cole's giving it up.

The Con Artist

Yesterday afternoon when we got home Cole asked (demanded) to watch his dinosaur movie. I turned it on for him and Chase groaned. We are all SO sick of watching this movie, but Cole is stuck on it (It's the Land Before Time, Part 5,436 or something like that). Anyway, I left the room to get something and when I came back in, I could hear Chase "negotiating" with Cole to change the movie. This is what I heard:

Chase: (in a syrupy-sweet voice) Cole, how about we watch some other really cool show?
Cole: No. Me watch dinosaurs, Chase.
Chase: But Cole, you got to choose yesterday and now it's my turn.
Cole: NO. We watch DINOSAURS, Chase.
Chase: Well, how about if we flip a coin to see who gets to choose?
Cole: Ok, Chase!
Chase: Ok Cole, I'll flip this gold pirate coin. See it? Heads I win, Tails you lose.
Cole: OK!

As you may have guessed, Cole somehow managed to lose this coin toss. He took it like a good sport. I still declined to change the movie for my little con artist. Anyway, just a heads up -- if Chase offers to sell you some oceanfront property, run the other way.

More Art

Another of Chase's art class projects.

Outwitted by a 2 year old

I decided to give potty-training another shot. This time, I took the advice that has been offered to me again and again and I started using bribes. I bought a big bag of peanut butter m&m's and put them in a bowl on the counter. I showed them to Cole and then told him that each time he peed on the potty, he could get 1 m&m, and each time he pooped, he could get 2 m&m's.

He was intrigued by the concept. He went straight to the bathroom, produced approximately 3 drops of urine, dumped his little potty into the big potty, flushed, and proudly collected his m&m. He then repeated this SIX times -- in a span of about 30 minutes. He figured out that all he has to do is stop peeing mid-stream to maximize his m&m collection. The child has amazing control.

At this rate, I'll be out of m&m's by tonight, and I'm pretty sure he'll be done with the potty once the m&m well runs dry. I may as well just stick with the diapers. I think they'll be cheaper than all the m&m's I'll need.

Cole runs out of gas, Part II

Cole's misadventures today topped yesterday's. He and Chase were playing in the courtyard and I ran inside to go to the bathroom. When I stepped back outside, Cole had the container of weed killer that I had just put down in the storage room and was spraying our gardenias. Chase had watched the whole thing and was able to tell us exactly which plants had been sprayed and that Cole had not sprayed himself. Sure would have been nice if he had stopped him instead of just standing there watching. Cole just kept pointing to the gardenias and saying "I spray that weed." The weed killer is non-toxic and is now safely out of his reach, but Cole may have to get a part time job to buy mom some new plants.

Tonight I was trying to finish up a report before giving Chase & Cole their baths and putting them to bed. At about 8:30, I realized the house was too quiet. Given Cole's strawberry milk episode yesterday and the weed episode today, I figured I'd better investigate. Chase had fallen asleep watching football with Charles, and Cole was on the couch like this (probably just now coming down from his strawberry milk high).

Sweet Child Of Mine

This afternoon after Antoinette's birthday party, I brought Chase over to Antoinette's house to swim. It was Cole's naptime, and he'd had a ton of sugar at Antoinette's party, so he stayed home with Charles. I should have known that since Charles was going to be watching the game, I'd just as soon leave Cole with a pack of wolves. When we got home, Charles was sitting in front of the tv, and the house was quiet, so I thought Cole was napping. No such luck. Cole had apparently decided to fix himself a glass of strawberry milk. This is how I found him (Charles, of course, was oblivious to all of this):

Chase gets a stripe

Tonight at TaeKwonDo, Chase got a green stripe for his belt. Here he is showing it off:

Ah, Love

I hadn't really heard anything about Antoinette since her mom told me that she said that she broke up with Chase because he stepped on her foot at school one day. They still get together a couple of times a week to play, and they take art and TaeKwonDo together, but we hadn't heard any *love* talk in a while. Well, last night Antoinette came over with her sister who was babysitting for us. This morning, I found some new mail in Chase's room. Here's the envelope and the "note":

This weekend is her birthday party. I asked Chase yesterday what he wanted to get her, and he said a sword. I told him that I didn't think that girls played with swords much, but he insisted that Antoinette used to have a sword, and the last few times he was at her house, he couldn't find it to play with it, so he...uh...she must need a new one.

Cole finally runs out of steam

Sunday I was in bed pretty much all day with a fever, so the kids unleashed their fury on Charles (and, unfortunately, our house). Charles got home from the game about 3am, and the kids woke up around 6, so he wasn't in much better shape than I was. From what I can tell, he fed them waffles and strawberry milk all day long. I can't imagine why he had trouble controlling them....
Anyway, Cole finally crashed late in the afternoon. I guess once he ran out of gas, he couldn't even make it to the couch. Charles got me out of bed to take a picture of him. It's hard to tell in the picture, but his feet are several inches off of the ground.

Flowers in a Vase, by Chase

Chase is still enjoying art classes. Here's the latest:

Picnic

After TKD, we went to McDonalds and then to a picnic at Chase's school. They had jumphouses, face painting, tug of war, egg-spoon races, 3-legged races, water balloon tosses, and a train for the kids to ride. Cole did a little of everything. He and Chase were partners for the 3-legged race, and they did pretty well. Cole came in dead last in the egg-spoon race, but he didn't drop he egg until he crossed the finish line. He did, however, pick up and eat a raw egg that someone else had dropped. We washed off his tongue and he got over it pretty quickly. Didn't learn his lesson, though. He kept trying to eat every one he saw. The water balloon toss quickly deteriorated into a water balloon massacre, but they had fun. Everyone (including mom) had a nice long nap once we got home.

TaeKwonDo

Chase started TaeKwonDo last week. He is really enjoying it. He's in a class with kids a little older than him, but he's doing well. Well, except for the jumping jacks. I've got to teach this kid how to do jumping jacks. He's just jumping and clapping right now.
I brought Cole along today so he could watch Chase, in the hopes that he'll learn to defend himself when Chase practices his techniques on him.
Here's a few pictures of Chase practicing at home (he added the sword from his ninja costume).