Cute things the kids said/did recently

I used to keep a journal for each of the kids, but in all of our moving, I haven't written in them for months. I am going to blog these things here to share with all of you, but also to remind me when I do get their journals back out! My little Maggie as an incredibly wild and elaborate imagination. Bless her heart, some nights she just can NOT go to sleep! I have to say I have the same problem sometime too. Last night about an hour after she was put to bed, she came out of her room saying, "mom, you know what we can make tomorrow? We can make our own mix and match book. We can print the pictures of Dorothy and cut them into to pieces and then do Glinda. . . " I cut her off and sent her to bed thinking, WOW! Tonight as I was getting her ready for bed she showed me her "shoe store" that she had created during quiet time today. She said, "this is my shoe store where I sell all these shoes for kids who don't have them." She had them lined up inside a basket and had piece of paper stuck inside each shoe that were "price tags." After she told me about her shoe store she started into a story about her new friend she met whose name was , "kind of like Cory but it was Lori and her next name was Ilesia and her second name was Malicia" and her friend's mommy had a Wizard of Oz set. She comes up with anything to keep me listening! In case you were wondering- Lori is not someone she met today although we do have a friend named Lori. Maggie has a great way of even creating names. Maybe if we ever decide to have another, we can allow her to create a name! Caleb is not to be forgotten in all this creative imagination. He takes part in her plays and has no problem being "Toto" at her direction. Neither does he have a problem with correcting me when I call her Maggie or him Caleb. He quickly says, "no, that's Dorothy!" I am having flashbacks to Maggie at his age. They are really very similar. He has also morphed into a less cooperative child at bedtime than in the past months. He stays awake longer and longer as well. Tonight I went in to check on him and he asked me to lay by him. While lying there he says, in his cutest voice, "I like your glasses Mommy. They look like Grandmama's. I miss grandmama. I miss granddaddy. I miss Nana." Then he went on to tell me how much he liked my nose, my mouth, my shirt, etc. He has learned the evasive tactics from Maggie I'm sure! He is also potty trained. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but he has been doing great wearing his "Lightening McQueen" undies and "Thomas the tank engine" undies on a daily basis even to church, the mall, library, etc. I am very proud of him for his accomplishments. I am also humored by the fact that he still sings for himself each time he uses the potty! I will update on my first Thanksgiving soon and post pictures of our ice skating adventure but in the meantime I am going to bed! Good night!

Jokes

The kids are learning the art of humor. They love nothing more than to make each other laugh. Their newest way to do this is by telling "knock, knock jokes". Maggie has been doing this since her preschool in FL. Her jokes usually go something like this, "knock knock" "who's there" "diaper" "diaper who" "dirty baby diaper- ha ha ha ha ha (hysterical laughter)." Now Caleb has joined in. He is getting very adept at following Maggie's example. He makes up his own words to songs, and says things to intentionally irritate her. Of course I would prefer he didn't do that but am amazed that he is able to "hold his own" with her verbally. So here is Caleb's knock knock joke from dinner tonight. Caleb says, to Mike, "knock knock." Mike says, "who's there?" Caleb "daddy" - "daddy who" - Caleb "daddy Michael- (ahaha hysterical laughing)." I just think that is great he was so literal but following the form of the joke so it must have been funny, right? Maggie laughed her head off with him and we endured about 15 minutes of the same knock knock jokes over and over during dinner. Good times with the Steeles!

Baylor Homecoming and Halloween

This post is a little late, but better late than never, right? We are settled in our new home now and were able to go to the 100th Homecoming celebration in Waco on October 24th. It was a lot of fun for me to show Mike and the kids around the campus and I was blown away by how much things have changed in just the 8 years since I graduated. At the same time I also felt VERY old! Maggie and Caleb enjoyed seeing the bear and the homecoming parade. They also got to visit the Cameron Park Zoo with my aunt and cousin while Mike and I went to the football game. I wish there was something good to say about the game, but unfortunately there is not. The weekend following our trip to Waco was Halloween. When Mike and I first had Maggie, he was adamant that he didn't want to "celebrate" Halloween and so we have never made an issue of buying costumes or candy or hyping it up for the kids. Sometimes kids have a way of making parents change their minds though and so we did take the kids trick or treating. I didn't buy costumes because Maggie has a whole trunk full of dress up clothes and I was able to borrow a cute little handyman apron and hard hat for Caleb. We said he was "Bob the Builder" his newest favorite character next to Lightning McQueen. The kids enjoyed the time of trick or treating with the neighbors and were super excited about all the candy. It didn't take long for them to forget about the candy though- we still have a rather large bag in the closet they have forgotten all about. I think our candy napper, daddy, is slowly making his way through it all instead. Maggie did ask,"Why does everyone want Halloween to be scary?" and wanted to know "why we celebrate Halloween- is it like Christmas?" Those were two tough questions to answer and probably the reason why we won't be making a big deal about it in the years to come. She had a pretty hard time sleeping that night and I would rather not repeat that.