Wow, where has the time gone? I can't believe we fell so far behind on these blog updates! Well if you haven't heard, there has been a major change in the Wilkin family recently. We are officially back in Lima until the house sells. I am working remotely for Grange (thank you Grange!) and do not have to physically be in the office unless they request that I be there.
But enough about me, let's talk about Keaten, the real reason you are here. After all, you just can't get past that title right? Timeout is a Punishment? You'd sure think so! But I'll continue that part of the update later on, after all, how else can I keep holding you in suspense?
So let's start with the fact that it is absolutely amazing and enjoying the rare times our kids get along in the mornings, afternoons, or really whenever! We find them constantly singing "I love you, you love me, pickles and giants family, with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me to." Of course, those aren't the real lyrics, after all "pickles and giants family"??? Really... Kids do say the darnest things. But nonetheless, we can't help but wonder if they are trying to remind us that we love them, or if they are being endearing. Too early to make that call, but I bet it is a bit of both.
What surprises me most is that Keaten even knows the song... He hasn't really been into Barney and is more of a "Elmo" kind of guy. Nonetheless, this kid picked up the Barney theme song quickly and that's not the only song he knows. He is also well versed in "Row Row Row your boat", thanks to his Papa Jim. Papa Jim thought it'd be fun to teach him that song to sing on the way back home after an extended Christmas in Tennessee. Last laugh is from us, we love it! Soon as he got in the car one morning as we were going out, he started to sing it as if on cue whilst rowing his arms. It was great!
Of course there is also "The wheels on the bus", to which he loves saying "beep beep beep", needless to say, this kid is a song loving machine and it will be interesting to see where and how that progresses as he gets older (just stay away from Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc and we should be fine).
Although his song singing is cute, his admiration for baking is second to none (and that is probably because of how excited his sister gets when baking too). He'll go get a chair or a stool and hope right on it so he can be up there to stir, pour, or whatever Mommy thinks he is capable of. From rolling out dough, to eating sprinkles (I mean applying sprinkles), to eating the chocolate chips (err, adding the chocolate chips), etc. This little boy enjoys it all (who wouldn't! Free chocolate chips!).
Then there is the "I can fix it" mentality. Screws lose on the kitchen cabinet door? Don't worry, Keaten can fix it, using the end of an egg beater... I'm really not sure where he got that from... the using the egg beater as a tool part... Honestly, I thought I was a much better fix-it-upper than that, but I guess Keaten thinks otherwise, or he thinks I'm MacGyver and can fix anything using out of the ordinary items! That must be it.
Since we've moved back to Lima, our little boy has his own big boy room now. Including two twin beds (bye bye crib). To say he loves his room would be an understatement, one that Auntie Amber could attest to. As soon as she came over when we began to move in, he took her up the stairs to show off his new room. Ever since being in his own room, this kid sleeps through the night. And if that weren't enough, he's mastered steps without really ever being introduced to steps.... not sure how that happened, but it is nice that he can handle them on his own -- safely.
Oh and did we tell you we have started to try and potty train Keaten? We didn't? No worries, that didn't last very long (at the first attempt), but needless to say, we'll be trying it again soon. He is close to ready, just not quite there yet.
Finally, the moment we've all be waiting for. Timeout is a punishment? Well, it is supposed to be, but try telling that to this little ornery boy. We have a chair that we used to put Keaten in during timeout, the problem was, he kept getting out of it, so we then introduced an egg timer and went it went off, he could leave his timeout chair. Yeah... that didn't exactly go as planned, instead he got excited over it. He loved taking his egg timer to his timeout chair and waiting for it to ring. That's right, this kid got excited about going to timeout! Oh boy, we've got a really big problem on our hands with this one.
Don't fret though, we're experimenting with other punishments to see which ones actually work. So far, we haven't really had to use many now that we are at the house and the kids have more room to run about (thus less likely to torment each other -- I said less likely, not impossible ;-) )
Well that's about 3 months of news all crammed into one blog update, I'll be working much harder to ensure we don't have that long of an interim in the future. Meanwhile, as you wait for the next update, feel free to soak in these adorable pictures.
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten