There are lots of new things in the Kahl Bros' world lately.
First...a new baby cousin! Baby Nolan was born on March 4, and we are overjoyed to have a new family member! We visited the new baby and big brother Gavin last weekend.We had tons of fun with Grammy at the park and eating strawberry ice cream.
We also officially own a new house! We closed on Monday, but the excitement hasn't quite set in yet because we don't get possession for a few more days. Thankfully spring break is coming up, and we'll be able to clean, pack, move, celebrate Marshall's birthday, and celebrate Easter all before the month is over! Can't wait to get into our new digs:
As if my heart couldn't take anymore, today I registered Miles for kindergarten. Has this day really come? He'll have his assessment in May, and we'll be learning more about his school and big boy stuff like riding the bus.
Marshall is getting ready for Big Two birthday, and he's starting to show signs of the Terrible Twos. He's mostly a happy boy, but he sure is stubborn! We went round and round all night long the other day, telling him that he couldn't have ice cream until he ate a bite of chicken. He eventually went to bed without ice cream! Tonight he held a piece of broccoli in his mouth until it basically disintegrated - he refused to chew it as told before a 300th round of "chase". In more fun areas, he's starting to sing recognizable songs (ABCDs, Twinkle Twinkle). His newest phrase is "Aw, Man!"
We have all kinds of new videos on our You Tube channel that no one has watched. If you get a minute, check them out. The usual wacky dances, ABCs, and Hide and Go Seek!
We're almost there! We sorta kinda bought a house and sold ours, or at least signed our lives away with the intentions to do it. We're through the inspection phase on our purchase - just waiting for closing in mid-March. We took the leap on making an offer before we got on offer on our existing house, and it was a little scary there for a little bit. We originally looked at the house back in October. The house itself was perfect for what we need (minus the resident cat), but the yard wasn't our dream yard, so we put it on the back burner. After they lowered the price for the third time (and got a call from the seller's agent begging us to make an offer), we realized that it really was the best deal for our money, so we decided to take the jump. Feeling more excited about it every day! We thought it was a sign, because, of the dozen or so houses we had seen, it was the only house in which Miles chose to - ahem - use the facilities. Even during the second showing, I guess Miles decided to mark his territory. Jason and I often joke that we're glad we have Miles to make decisions for us, because we're so indecisive. Where to eat dinner is usually the choice he makes, but where to live for the next 20 years can work too. Miles is so excited about the basement, and we've been playing up the swing set that we negotiated to stay for them too. Even Marshall is in the spirit, often talking about the "new house". I read a book to him the other day with a haunted house in it, and it pointed to it and said "New House!" Thankfully, we got an offer last week to buy this one - only a few weeks of living with the idea of two mortgages. That was an adventure too - it took us 5 days to get an offer signed on both sides, but we're pretty happy with where we landed. Now just keeping our fingers crossed that the loan (kind of a strange one) will go through. We might be insane, but we're still entertaining showings on our house. However, we'll be a lot more picky about which ones we accept and less picky about how clean the house is for them. Now on to the packing! In other news, Marshall took a tumble down the stairs yesterday. One of the scariest moments of my life as a parent, and I watched it all happen. We were heading up after breakfast to get dressed, and we both reached the top of the stairs. I stepped aside to close the gate, and Marshall grabbed it from me and slammed it shut. The gate then swung open the opposite direction over the open air. Marshall lunged for the gate to grab it and tumbled head over heels all the way down the stairs. I was right behind him the whole way down but never got to actually catch him. By the time we both got the bottom, I think I was crying harder than he was. Within 10 minutes, he was his happy normal self and so we decided he would go to school as usual. After his nap, I got a call from his teacher saying that he just wasn't acting like his normal self and was just sitting in the chair in the corner watching the other kids play and looking pitiful. That's just where I found him when I went to go pick him up, and his poor little eye was swollen and watering. We rushed to the doctor, and thankfully everything checked out perfectly. It was definitely not something I want to repeat! No major bruises or issues today. In happier updates, Miles is getting so good at reading and writing! He still gets a little frustrated when he can't figure out something right away, but I am amazed at how many words he can recognize. He even wrote the names of just about every person he knows on his Valentines this year. Speaking of Valentines, here are my favorite loves:
Happy New Year! My new year's resolution is not to start every blog post with an excuse or an apology about how long it's been since the last one. Oops.
Speaking of "Oops", today's blog will be a non-proofread stream of consciousness. Let's see see if I can dump everything in my head from the last month in under 10 minutes...aaaaand go!
Back to "Oops". Marshall's favorite book right now is "Baby Counts", which he knows by heart. (One, Two. One, Two, Three, Four. OOPS! Back to one.) He also loves "Bubbles, Bubbles", just like his Bubba. He's getting slightly more patient with reading books but he can't yet sit still long enough to read one with Big Bro at bedtime. Santa got him a new Mickey book, which I thought would keep him interested, but Miles reads it more than he does.
Speaking of Santa:
On Christmas morning, Marshall wasn't exactly thrilled. He threw a little tantrum at one point and didn't open half of his presents until later that afternoon. His favorite present seems to be his Elmo cash register.
Miles, on the other hand was super pumped! I think Marshall made the first peep that morning, but Miles was awake as soon as he heard it. I think we ended up going downstairs around 5:30. We opened presents, ate breakfast, opened stockings, and Nana and I went back to bed before the sun even came up. I was anticipating that Miles would be the one throwing a fit after several lectures beforehand about "It's about giving just as much as getting." However, I wrongly underestimated by sweet boy. Since then, he has told me how thankful he is several times for all the presents Santa and other have gotten for him.
Most of Miles' Santa presents were Spiderman related (which Marshall, for some reason, calls "Bubby"). He got some sa-weet Spiderman 3D wall art and Spiderman bedding for his new room in the new house. No news on that front. Boo. Anyway, Miles was telling me a little this afternoon about how he was a little scared and nervous about moving. I kept giving him reasons about why it'll be cool to move, and he seemed to understand but still wasn't totally bought in. Then, I mentioned that we would be moving a lot closer to Chick-Fil-A. We got SO excited and decided right then and there that moving was a good idea after all.
The boys got to have a sleepover at Granny and Grampa Kahl's house with Gavin while the parents spent an evening in Nashville to watching Butler's road game at Vanderbilt. Miles got in the spirit soon afterward:
My 15 minutes are about up...just a couple more random tidbits.
Overheard by Miles after taking a bite of a not-yet-ripe banana, "This tastes like white Mexican jello!"
Overhead by Marshall (a hundred times), "Aw, nuts!"
Overhead by Miles at the grocery, after I told him, no, we can't buy that salami. "Mommy, I bit it." Yes, I had to buy the black-pepper coated salami that Miles bit. To quote Nana, "Damn sausages!"
Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. I know. Where to even start?
I guess I'll start with my excuse for it all - the house is still on the market. We almost made an offer on a house without selling this one, but it was probably a blessing in disguise that it sold before we got to that point. Who needs two mortgages? Miles goes back and forth about his excitement about the whole thing. He doesn't want to leave his friends, but he gets really excited about having a basement. I guess having lived on a slab his whole life, the idea of living underground is kind of a strange concept. He said he was going to put an air hockey table on his Santa list, but I told him that Santa only brings those to people with basements. Maybe that'll get him pumped...
Miles' latest thing has been "Kidz Bop" CDs - you know where pre-teens sing today's latest hits and clean it up a little bit? At first it drove us crazy, but then we realized that those CDs are our only link to "modern" music. The perils of being an NPR listener. We got the Kidz Bop kids telling jokes CD most recently, and it's pretty torturous. However, it's been pretty hilarious listening to Miles pretending to be a stand up comedian with Chicken and Knock Knock jokes.
Marshall has been developing quite a little personality as well. He knows all kinds of words. He loves his "Mao-Mouse" (Miles) and "Nee-No" (Keno). It should be a pretty fun Christmas this year! He recognizes "Ta-ta" (Santa) and thinks it's hysterical that he says "Ho, Ho, Ho". If Marshall could write a list, he would probably
ask for "Meh-mo" (Elmo), "Buh-bee" (Bumblebee), and "Mouse" (Mickey) stuff. We'll see what the old man brings!
I'd like to share just one story for the record books for when I become a grandparent. Last night, we were all making Christmas brownies. (OK, so Jason and the boys were making brownies and I was licking the bowl.) I asked Miles if he was going to cook for his wife and kids someday. He said he was. So I asked him what his kids names were going to be. His answer? Angela and Kermit. Then I asked him what Marshall's kids' names would be. He said Angela and Kermit too. Then he changed his mind and decided they would be Ann and Ker instead. :-)
Here's some pics to catch you up!
Daddy's Band Contest with the cousins
Halloween
Fun with friends Will and Janelle and the Children's Museum
It's been quite a month since I last wrote! Where to even start?
I guess we'll do the usual doctor's visit...Marshall's 18 month stats:
32.5 inches (58%)
23 lb 9 oz (20%)
Still tiny head at 15%
Everything was great at Marshall's appointment...however, Miles made up for it with some drama of his own. A couple weeks back, he started complaining of an earache on a Friday night. We were able to distract him at first, so we thought maybe it was just a fluke. Then he started crying in the middle of the night. Thank God that Disney Junior is on 24/7, because distracting him with cartoons was the only way I could get him to fall asleep...the 5 or so times he woke up crying. Even through the crying, I just assumed most of it was Miles' usual dramatics, and it was an ear infection that could wait until morning. Well, Jason left at 4:30am for a marching band contest, which woke Marshall up, which woke Miles up again. Since we were all awake, we headed to MedCheck. It wasn't until we were in the waiting room that I noticed Miles had blood in his ear. Again, I assumed we was just scratching at it from the pain, but nooo....it was, in fact, a ruptured ear drum.
Since then, I've found it's more common that we thought, but it was still scary to hear. Thankfully, we got into an ENT the next week (after checking three different hospital systems) and I was able to go with him before (guiltily) leaving for a business trip to San Francisco. The ENT said the rupture was likely from an ear infection (not from falling out of bed the night before). His hearing was borderline normal, but they said that was likely from the build-up. We see our family doctor next week, so we're hoping he tells us everything has cleared up and we'll be ready to start swimming lessons again.
I also forgot to include an update a while back on Miles' speech and hearing appointment (before the eardrum thing). He was totally normal! Now neurotic mom can stop worrying. The only sound he doesn't have yet (the "r") isn't normally developed until age 8, so we have a while to start worrying about that one.
Marshall is getting chattier than ever. We don't know what he is saying a lot of the time, but that doesn't stop him from trying! You can tell that he is really proud when we do recognize what he is telling us. He'll be just as smart as his big bro! He even has learned O-H-I-O...much to Jason's chagrin, especially after shouting it during the "time for silence and reflection" at church last week. Wonder if he knows Pastor Mitch is a Purdue grad?
Here's just a fun Marshall moment during bath time the other night:
And the biggest news of all is that our house is on the market!! It's been an adventure stopping the boys from destroying our newly perfected home, but, as of now, it feels really nice to live in a clean house for once! If you won't believe it until you see it with your own eyes and you know our address, check it out on realtor.com. No, I'm not dumb enough to post my address for any creepers to see.
We've had three showings so far, and the house hasn't even been on the market a week. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Our very first showing was one of those can-we-be-there-in-30-minutes deals, so we were definitely thrown into the deep end. We're finding that eating out is becoming the norm, and it was a little much keeping the boys entertained all evening tonight for three hours alone away from the house without spending much money. Picnic in the park is possible during Indian Summer, but I hope we don't have to figure it out in the winter!
Oh, and one more addendum as a follow up to last month's post about curse words. Yesterday, Miles said "I slipped on the damn floor!" Jason swiftly followed with, "That's Mommy's fault." Yeah, my bad.
Here's a little Bulldog Homecoming family fun, before I turned by eldest into a potty mouth:
I'm kind of proud of the fact that Miles hasn't said a really bad 4-letter word just yet. The worst I can claim is when Jason heard him repeating my use of the term "bird crap". I was a bit concerned when Miles recently told me that his friends told on him at school for saying a bad word -- "hate". When I asked him how he used it, he said he was simply singing "Leavin' On A Jet Plane." I breathed a sigh of relief when Jason informed me of the "I hate to go" part. Guess my biggest problem is that my 4-year old knows more Peter Paul & Mary lyrics than I do.
Well, I can't stay up on my high horse for too long. I know the day will come sooner or later with Miles...and it's already come with Marshall. Sort of. He's in a really fun period of speech development right now and is learning more words than I can count. Some are clear as can be. I heard a clear "baby" last week and turned around to see Marshall pointing at the Pampers box. Others are a little muddier. Unfortunately, the worst sounds like a certain 5-letter worst that starts with "B". I'm pretty sure I don't throw that B word around within earshot of the boys - I hope that he is actually saying "this" - but it does sound a lot like the Big B.
Thankfully, his used of the B-bomb isn't quite as frequent now, but he says "butt" as clear as a bell. Great. Crap and butt won't win me any Mother of the Year Awards, but at least my kids could be on America's Funniest Home Videos without being bleeped...right now, at least.
Speaking of AFHV, here's the latest from the KahlBros Dance Spectacular at Indy Irish Fest:
I didn't really realize how many people were watching this little spectacle until Marshall decided a few minutes later to do a headstand...and I heard a roar of laughter coming from behind me. We also got a chuckle from our audience when Marshall threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let him have a sip of my Guinness. Again, a Parent of the Year tidbit worthy of nomination. We thought we would do Little League in the spring because Miles wants to spend every evening doing batting practice with Daddy (Mommy is a "bad pitcher"). However, after he saw the Irish Step Dancing live and on stage, we may need to enroll him in dance lessons instead. All this, and he still tells us he wants to be a football player when he grows up. Wonder how many folk-singing, Irish step-dancing quarterbacks there are out there? And just because...a little snapshot from our outing in Brown County with Nana (before I forgot my wallet on the train and we hit a skunk):
Even though we're just at the mid-way point of August, summer is definitely over for the Kahls.
Jason started a new "balanced schedule", so he was back to school August 1. Miles and Marshall started a new "school" year last week as well. Both boys moved up into different rooms at day care - Miles is now a "firefly" - and Miles started Pre-K. Can't believe my boy will be in kindergarten this time next year!
Marshall is turning into quite the big boy as well. The last few weeks, we've seen a word explosion! He says ball, hot, bye, and "Mi" pretty clearly. He says "eyes" and can point to them, plus he knows his ears mouth, teeth, and belly. He loves calling out to "Da-eee" and thinks it hilarious when he calls me "Da-eee". Only occasionally will he in indulge me with a "Ma-eee". I'm pretty sure I've heard him say Davy, Lyla, KK, and Papa too, although we're still working on those. Grammy says that she got an "Ammy" last week too.
Marshall is also following in his brother's footsteps as a song and dance man. He's a Beyonce fan and breaks out into "Oh, Oh, Oh" at least a couple times a day. Here is the duo, with both a Single Ladies remix and a bonus TMNT theme.
