Big Boy Drawers

I bought Nate some big boy underwear last week, an assortment of Disney characters such as Toy Story, Cars, Nemo, and the Incredibles.  He was very excited in the store to get them and even more excited to wear them when we got home (Oh, my goodness, how cute is he in big boy underwear?).  I told him (several times) that these are big boy underwear and you can't pee in them or they'll get wet and you have to take them off...so if you have to go peepee, tell Mommy and we'll go to the potty.  I would get okays each time but still very unsure of how this was going to play out. 

The first night was a great success!  He peed in the potty 3 times, no accidents at all.  I think he was terrified of losing his new underwear.  The next couple of days were not as smooth.  We've had a few accidents, but to be honest, I think it's mostly my fault.  They usually occur when I'm not near him, so now I'm trying to stay pretty close unless he has just used the potty.  I think he's doing great.  He doesn't like to get them wet and so has been pretty good about telling me "potty".  A couple days into it he told me potty but when I asked if he wanted to go to the bathroom he told me no.  Concerned about pee all over the carpet I told him he would have to wear a diaper then and he was okay with that.  After I put his diaper on he pooped.  So I guess he is okay with peeing in the potty, just not pooping.....until tonight!

That's right! He POOPED in the POTTY! Okay, this is big news in our house.  He kept farting and so I asked him if he needed to use the potty and he said yes.  After quite a bit of grunting and straining (which he does when he pees for some reason) the tiniest little turd popped out!  We were so excited! He was so excited he got his real close to the bowl to have a better look. Yeah, that's my kid.  Since he peed and pooped he got some candy and a new little toy.  He was very excited about that.  Thinking about it now, I should have taken a picture.  We don't want to forget this event in his life. :) 

He only wears the big boy underwear at home right now until he goes longer without accidents, so it might take some time to get this potty training thing down.  It may be a long road ahead, but at least we started the trip!

Hackman's Farm

We decided to go to Hackman's Farm after story time at the library this morning (which didn't go terribly, but still glad it was our last time).  I knew it was going to be hard to do this by myself, but Nate's obsession with pumpkins trumped my fear.  So off we went!

It actually went pretty well.  Nate was so excited to see the field of pumpkins as we pulled in, but instantly forgot about them when he saw the animals and then forgot about them when he saw the tractor.  I was happy they could actually climb on the tractors.  We avoided the corn maze, for obvious reasons, and stuck to the animals and tractors and finally the pumpkin patch.  We did make a pit stop in the barn so Nate could crawl through the straw tunnel and throw some balls around. 

They weren't as excited about picking out a pumpkin as I had thought they would be.  Maybe it was the constant tripping over the vines, but I kept encouraging Nate to find one he liked, but he just walked around pulling at the vines.  You never know what to expect.  So instead of actually picking our pumpkins we grabbed some from the pre-picked piles at the front (which actually worked better because I didn't want to carry pumpkins all the way back).  Nate picked the first pumpkin he saw, was much more interested in pushing the cart around.  Maddie could care less about picking a pumpkin but did enjoy picking out a small pumpkin and putting it in the cart.  Only one timeout and no major meltdowns, left with pumpkins the back of the car....I'd call this trip a success!

Diapers & Cookies

I was never going to push potty training with Nate. It seems to be everyone's advice and I don't want the headache of months of pushing before he's ready.  Unless it got to the point where it was like, okay if you want to go to Kindergarten, you're going to have to use the potty. :)  We have been gently nudging him, asking if he wants to use the potty (always a no).  He seems interested when he sees other boys, like Josh or Landon, using the potty, but not enough to want to do it himself.  I know for some kids, wearing pull-ups or big boy underwear is an exciting thing but Nate has never cared about what he's wearing.  Jaime will post pictures of outfits that Landon has picked out himself and he is particular about his socks.  Not Nate.  Fine with me, no struggles when it comes to getting dressed.  He is happy if he has a dragon shirt (or some equivalent of coolness) on but doesn't care if he doesn't either.  Until a couple of days ago.  I ran out of diapers.  Crap.  Not literally yet, but about to be up to our elbows in it if I don't figure something out.  In Maddie's closet I find a box of size 4 diapers that Michael's mom had bought her for when she grows into that size (she's still in 3).  Mind you that Nate is in size 6.  I figure a four is better than a three and we can't go to the store until the next day so, that's what you're wearing buddy.  The diapers were Huggies and have Mickey and Minnie Mouse on them (we buy Target brand that has little blue and green dots all over, exciting, I know).  So Nate was ecstatic to wear Mickey! Yay! Until the next day when I get his regular diapers and suddenly he DOES NOT want to wear them anymore.  So now when it comes to diaper changes, if he's thinking about it, he has to wear the ones with Mickey.  Luckily, he doesn't usually think about it unless he has recently seen them (I need to do a better job hiding them).  Soooo, looping back to the potty training thing, I think that I might buy him some big boy underwear, just to see how it goes.  He might really like wearing them and might really might NOT like wearing them when they're wet.  We shall see.

Now that I'm looking back, this seems like a long, drawn out post just to say I'm getting him underwear. That's what happens when your husband is away. :)

My little Maddie.  She is shaking her head no now.  Hilarious.  It kinda is, sometimes. Okay, a lot of the times.  She's just too stinkin' cute. She knows where her teeth are and she can "wash" her hair.  She is working on the pig sound but she doesn't use her nose to snort, she kinda does this throaty grunt.  It's weird but cute.  And the last couple of days she does not want to be fed. It's okay for me to put the food on the fork but I have to hand the fork off to her so she can feed herself.  I should have known chili mac for dinner was a bad idea.  It wouldn't stay on the spoon when she tried to feed herself and she wouldn't let me feed her so it ended up a finger food.  Messy! 

 I found a cute idea on pinterest to make skeleton cut out cookies using the gingerbread man and icing for the bones.  The original recipe called for chocolate sugar cookies but since Nate can't have chocolate we made gingerbread cookies.  Kind of weird since it's not Christmas time, but eh, a cookie's a cookie.  I've never made gingerbread cookies before.  The kids seem to like them but I'm not a big fan.  We tried icing the cookies and of course look nothing like the wonderful pinterest picture, but Nate had fun squeezing the bag to decorate his cookie. 

Ladybug Cake #2

One of Michael's coworkers daughter turned one today.  His wife had seen the cake for Maddie for her birthday on facebook and wanted the same one so I agreed to make it.  Changed it slightly, but mostly the same. Changed the smash cake completely-was not happy with the one I did for Maddie; just threw it together at the last minute because I had so much else going on. I enjoyed doing another cake and a reason to practice it some more. 

Soup, Stew, Chili, & Brew

This is an annual event held in downtown Madison. This was our first time going to it.  Jeremy and Lucas were camping so it was just Jaime, Landon, me & the kids.  The city closes down a couple blocks and local businesses and groups set up tents in the street.  They have soup, stew, or chili, or a combination of these dishes.  You purchase tickets to either sample the chili or get a bigger bowl.  I guess the one with the most tickets wins, but I don't really know how it works.  This is how it worked for us.  Samples at different tents, Maddie eating most of my samples each time (of course) and the boys devouring the chicken noodle soup at one of the booths.  We really should have just gotten a bowl instead of all the samples! So we walked through the street, sampling the food, and at the end of the way there was a large inflatable slide, so the boys went down that a few times.  Afterwards, we stopped at a little ice cream shop.  We probably should have just kept walking, but who turns down ice cream!?! We got the boys blue ice cream.  That's really where the mistake was.  It got everywhere!  We were taking our ice cream to go (the good part-we were outside) so we could walk down by the river.  It was all over the boys and they were leaving a blue splattered trail along the sidewalk.  Everyone that saw them laughed and commented.  Luckily there was a bathroom down there so we could wash them up.  They loved it and I will always love the memory. :)  After a quick play at the park we walked along the river, stopping to watch the boats and find ducks.  No ducks and only a few boats, but we had such a good time. I think we all agree that we love the little charming city of Madison. 

Story Time at the Library

The one's and two's story time at the library falls on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Since we have MOPS and Bible Study on those days I have yet been able to take Maddie to the library.  With a short period of time to take both of them before Nate turns 3, I found my chance this week due to Fall Break.  Yay!

We haven't been to story time at the library since Nate was one.  It was always an "adventure" with Nate being the only child that wouldn't sit on the mat or my lap and would run around and tear things off the felt board.  I felt like I was corralling him the whole time. 

This time is going to be different.  Nate is older and willing to sit for songs and stories now.  Maddie the same age as Nate was, but is a different child.  If she could she would probably sit in my lap all day long reading stories and playing with toys.  Sitting in mine or Daddy's lap is her favorite place to be and reading is one of her favorite things to do.  This will be perfect!

Ha! (I should know better, right?) Well, I can say that Nate did sit on his mat and listen to the stories and sing the songs (loves itsy bitsy spider right now for some reason).  Maddie, on the other hand, did not.  Where was my good little girl? She did not want to sit in my lap.  At all.  Although while she was the only child running around while all the other well behaved children sat there like good little children, she wasn't being completely naughty.  She was just having a good time looking at all the new stuff!  She'd walk around and then fall down and laugh and then just lay there looking at everyone.  I kept trying to get her to sit by me but that caused some good ol' screaming and thought it was better to just let her run.  I'm sure the parents thought I should get some control over my child, but eh, she's one.  Nate tried to help a few times, running to her, tackling her to the ground, yelling "baby, sit!". They was awesome.


So all in all, a typical day out with the kids.  Will we go next week?  Probably.  As much as I sweat the whole time and it's more work than play, for the kids, it's so completely worth it.  They love it. And it'd be the last week. :)

One Week In, Too Many To Go

Okay, really there's only 3 1/2 more weeks until Michael comes home from SLC (Senior Leader Course) in Ft. Lee, VA.  He left a week ago today, and to be honest, it feels longer.  Maybe it's the rainy and cold weather, keeping us inside more than we would like.  But I think the biggest reason that it has been more difficult is that Nate has been terribly difficult; just plain ol' naughty.  And not the 2 year old kind of naughty we're used to dealing with on a regular basis.  I think this is God's way of helping me.  Now when we go back to "normal" maybe I won't think it's so bad. 

I know that it's difficult for him.  He was asking about Daddy but now just says "Dada, work.", knowing what the answer will be.  I think he's just craving some attention that he's used to getting.  It's hard for me to juggle both of the kids when they both crave one on one time and can't get it.  Nate really likes to cuddle and sit on my lap after bathtime but it's next to impossible without Maddie climbing up and wanting attention too. 

With Fall break the next two weeks, or schedules will be different, but hopefully I have enough planned with playdates and activities that they will still have plenty to do to keep busy.  Needless to say, I'm exhausted by the time they go to bed and find myself crawling in bed shorty after I put them down. Following some great advice, I'm going to find something sweet in the kitchen and then curl up on the couch during the rest of naptime. Don't judge me. :)

Shrieks and Why

Shrieks are not just for Halloween in this house. Maddie, in the last couple of weeks, has started screaming this high pitch, ear piercing scream (literally feels like my ears are going to bleed).  It is terrible.  She thinks it is funny.  Even Nate is complaining that his ears hurt.  Taking suggestions on how to handle this lovely problem.

She loves reading and her favorite book is a baby colors book.  We read it several times every single day.  She definitely has a love for books, enjoying other books and actually sitting through some of the bigger kid books.  She loves to point at the pictures and I have to say what each one is (I know, Grandma, ending with a preposition!). 

What I hear from Nate all day is 'Mama', 'look', and 'why'.  All day.  And his latest thing is thinking that everything on the ground is poop.  "Mama, look, poop, yucky!"  Whether it's a leaf or rock or shoe, doesn't matter, it's poop. Everything is poop.  Baby pooped. Sammy pooped. Mommy pooped. You would think with that kind of fascination with poop he'd want to do it on the potty. Ha, yeah right!

He's also been lining EVERYTHING up to make it a train (choo choo).  His cars, books, blocks, fruit snacks, anything lined up is now a choo choo.  Loves the things. He has also become a big fan of pants with pockets.  If his pants have pockets, something is going in them.  I have found crayons, rocks, fruit snacks, and a penny so far.  It's always fun to do laundry! :)