I'm not getting my hopes up, I'm not

Many of you who know me IRL will know that it took us almost 2years to potty train #1, and he's STILL in pull ups at night. We worked at it from age 2 1/2 to 4 before it all clicked.

Well #2 has been pulling on his diaper saying "poopie" or something that sounds like poopie, could be puppy, baby, kitty....They all sound alike, for the last few days. Yesterday it dawned on me that he's doing this 10-20 min before he poops everytime. He's also been wanting us to put him on the potty a lot, but he can't hold himself up long without his poor arms getting tired so he never actually went on it. So thinking it would just decorate our bathroom for a few years I went out and got him a little potty yesterday.

This morning he sat down on it as soon as he woke up and stayed there for a while. He wouldn't get off so I let him stay while I went to clean up the mess from #2 (we "ran" out of pull-ups last night, but that's a whole other story)A little while later, probably 5 minutes after he walked out of the bathroom naked, I was looking for the clorox wipes when I stepped on a wet spot. Thinking one of them spilled water I didn't think too much of it till I looked down and realized it was in a perfect line going to the POTTY......AND they're was PEE IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!

I don't expect this to last, but it's at least starting out easier then it was with #1 even though he's a good 6-9 months younger then we started trying with #1.

Links

Ok, so I've received directions on how to add links to my post. I'd also like to learn how to put one of those cool counter things in....But I am completely lost. Guess I'll have to wait and let the hubby help me. Not that I couldn't figure it out if I REALLY tried, but hey a boost to his macho-ism every now and then doesn't hurt.

So for the people waiting......Probably next week sometime.

Oh and I will NEVER ACCEPT the idea that blogging is an online scrapbook.....NEVER!

An hour of crying, no end in sight

What's a mother to do, capture a picture of it and Blog it of course! Yes I know I'm almost as bad as those Scrapbooker people. But hey if it wasn't for my ears hurting at that point the dramatics would be downright funny. So how am I managing to be blogging at this moment. Baby Doolittle....The brainwashing devise for toddlers. Let's hope the calm stays after the movie ends.

Ok, now I'm REALLY mad! 

I'm so sad don't you feel sorry for me? 

Ah peace and quiet, well kind of.....

We added 5 extra people to our household this past weekend with the visit of one of my sister's her hubby and 3 boys. It was a nice visit, but loud. By yesterday hubby was thinking we don't want any more kids, I was thinking I'd like more then the one more we are planning. Personally I loved the chaos. All of us we're getting ready to have our own space again, but for hubby it was because of the children, for me it was because of blending the parenting styles. That is, in my opinion, the hardest part of staying with family weather I'm the host or guest, well as much as anyone in our family is a "guest".

See while I had more to do keeping up with dishes/laundry etc this weekend. I didn't have to entertain my children at all. The most I had to do was break up the occasional fight, or put a movie on for the ones that were tired and hot from playing outside. DH just sees 5boys 6 and under jumping on him instead of 2. Oh well he hasn't made an appointment to get snipped yet this morning so I guess it didn't scare him too badly.

I am so proud of #1, he is growing up so fast. Instead of a tantrum when his cousin's left today, which I was fully expecting, he was able to sit down with me and tell me he was feeling sad. Then we were able to go look at his "feeling pictures" and see what behavior is appropriate for when you're feeling sad. We've really been working with him on distinguishing between feelings and not just striking out at someone when he's upset. Hence the "feeling pictures" We drew faces of different feelings and pictures of appropriate activities next to them. Non of the activities includes pushing your brother or biting your mom...Two of his normal favorites. This is the second time we've been able to apply what we've been learning to a situation where he was having one of the feelings.

#2 on the other hand had a meltdown because he wanted to go in the car with them, and then about an hour later when I think he finally figured out they weren't coming back. Oh well guess it's the age, and in another 3 years maybe he'll make progress, I hope DH is able to work with him on it since I expect to be in the loony bin by then...Why did I want more again?

So why is it that I haven't lived in my mother's house in years and yet her voice is still in my head? DH has a co-worker that we're friends with and swap babysitting with occasionally. They are going out of town and wondered if we wanted to take care of their puppy, and they'll pay us kennel rates. Now we could really use the money right now (you may refer back to the sewer postings if you are in the dark as to why) and I'm feeling guilty about them paying us for it. See growing up we always did things for the neighbor's like check on their pets, get mail etc, and my mom wouldn't let us take money for it. She always said we should help people without having to be paid to do so. I agree with that, but now as an adult it's really much easier to rationalize out the other side of it (i.e. we'll be doing them a favor since they don't like kennel's, We're charging less then the kennel we put our dog in, etc). But on the other hand I mean really we're getting paid to do nothing. It's #1's responsibility to feed our dog, so he'd probably feed their dog, and he also gets up to let the dog out when needed.....So what exactly are we doing to deserve the money?

Ok, I probably am just sleep deprived from the weekend. So I'm going to go and do something that doesn't require thought now....I've already hung 4 loads of laundry out, but still need to put the extra mattresses away and get super started. Welcome to my exciting life!

C-O-O-K-I-E

Many of you believe I have a 22 month old boy. Well it's not true, what I really have is a 22 month old Cookie Monster. Why it did not dawn on be before I don't know, but here's the evidence supporting this fact.

1) His ONLY word he uses clearly, and correctly 100% of the time is......COOKIE
2) He believes that he can honestly eat EVERYTHING in sight, except food of course. Library books are a favorite.
3) The only food he will eat on a regular basis is, yup, you guessed it, cookies (and occasional Ice cream, candy, and donuts thrown in).

Now if I could figure out how he hides the fur. Hubby thinks it's hereditary, Hmm But hubby doesn't like sweets :-) What's that? I have blue fur? Where?

It's DONE! And it's a new record.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, just over 4 months since we have moved into our house and we are DONE unpacking. We emptied the last box today. Now you may be wondering why I'm so excited that it only took four months, but you see, this is a record for us. In our first house we never really did finish unpacking. We just moved stuff with us that came boxed. With the second house we unpacked after 2years, only months before we were to move again, because we figured we didn't want to move all those boxes again without even the faintest clue of what was in them.

unfortunately we can't take all the credit, since this house has no garage or attic to stuff the boxes away, and the very small basement had an issue with the sewer backing up into it that got us to empty the boxes we put down there to begin with, most of them ended up in our bedroom, staring at me every night, say unpack me, unpack me.

Now to go throughout the storage area, and convince myself to get rid of the things I know I have. However the stuff there has also been unpacked, and repacked since we moved in (thanks to the basement flood)

And the winner is............

Target!!!! I will be calling them first thing in the morning to tell them yes I'd love the job.

I was offered a job at store M (and yes I changed the name since what I have to say following here is not exactly flattering) but was completely unimpressed. In fact I was offered a "front end supervised" position. Meaning a glorified cashier who is allowed to actually do all the functions a cashier should be able to do, but can't because they haven't all had crimenal checks. Plus I'd get to deal with the headaches of dealing with people under me without being able to choose who they are. Not to mention it slightly concerned me that they offered me this on my saying I had a similar type of position that I did not put on my Application. And I don't think they even asked for references. The whole set up smacks of a job I had 6 years ago that I only stayed at for 6mo, and the reason I stayed that long was so I didn't mess up the finacing on a house we were buying. Oh and wouldn't you think that at a craft store at least one question would be about crafts? hmmmm.

So Lucky Lum and Mama Duck, you should be pleased. Sorry Jenny.

Job interviews

As you may recall I went through the fun task of applying for jobs a few weeks ago. Well time went by without me hearing anything so I assumed that I was not qualified for the brain-surgaryesq type jobs I was looking for. Ok, so maybe it's just that I won't work every single Sat. And Sun.

Well this week I got two calls and have two interviews. The first was yesterday and I was offered the job at (Mama Duck you'd better sit down) Target. The second one is tomorrow at store M. I told Target I'd let the know on Friday, since I have another interview tomorrow. Question is which one do I want. Decisions, decisions.

I'm in shock

It started out a normal night. Hubby was working late so I took #1 and #2 to BK for dinner so they could play on the playscape. They have a small little area for #2 at this particular BK, so it's friendly for both children. Well I'm peacefully sitting drinking my raspberry Ice Tea when I realize that #2 is missing. I so do not panic since with #2 this is a common occurrence, just got up to look for him. I did panic when I realized my 22 month old was at the TOP OF THE PLAY AREA. I was waiting for him to get stuck, but suprisingly enough he didn't. Turns out he still can't get up the steps, but he figured out he could go up the slide. This kid is going to give me a heart attack one of these days

The Bellevue 

The ultimate Ready to Assemble toy

So we decided we needed a swingset. I mean after all all kids need a swingset right? Now we looked at the places where, after giving them an arm and a leg, they will come and put a nice pretty one in your yard for you, but we decided we needed all our arms and legs. So off to TRU we went and bought the Bellevue (i.e. cheap wood version) Sure we can do this, both Hubby and I are fairly handy.

Well 2 days later, I decided. Yes we are pretty handy, but I NEVER EVER want to do that again! And after the two days of putting it together, the kids looked at it, #1 said "that is beautiful mommy" and then they both went and jumped in their $10 plastic pool.

Beth

I'm a Gardner now!

Ok, that may be streaching it, but if 10 years ago anyone would have told me I'd be taking pride in a patch of dirt that my 4yr old and I literally tossed some old potatoes into I'd have laughed in their face.

But yes this is what my big excitement is now. I wasn't even going to plant the big garden since we had a few other projects come up, like the sewer that had trucks driving over it. However yesterday my neighbor came over and offered me some squash, zucchini, and cherry tomato plants they had left over. So this morning the kids and I dug up the garden, and planted them...Ok, well I did while the kids splashed in their pool, but hey they started helping.

So in case you haven't yet gathered that I have a complete lack of knowledge in this area I included a photo of the weed patch. Yesterday I had to have my neighbor come over and tell me if anything was a flower in there or if I can just have hubby weedwack the whole thing and start the area over. Apparently it's mostly all weeds, although one is a pretty fern like one she wants a cutting of. We also have Poke, which while a weed is edible and akin to spinach (I'll be researching how to cook that later, I felt dumb enough with out asking her). Oh and the plant climbing the fence is the one intended plant, honey-suckle.

And for the potato experiment? While I was every so proudly showing those off to the neighbor (hey they're growing and they're big!) she asked me if I had cut all the eyes out and how far apart they were planted (they seem a little close) I had to confess that I had #1 dig holes and toss them in mostly on his own where he felt they should go.

Stay tuned, I'll post updates as the season progresses, I know your all at the edge of your seats and taking bets on how quickly I'll kill them all!

P.S. I won't be making/eating Poke anytime soon. For one thing ours is too old/big and for another it can be poisionous if not prepared correctly...um yeah.

The weed patch 

#1's and my potato experiment (and the weed I thought was a flower, but hey it's an edible one I've been told!)

My weekly accomplishment 

Purple flowers and red spots

PURPLE FLOWERS
I'm really glad the previous owner knew something about gardening so we can enjoy the fruits of his labor. Hopefully we don't kill everything off too quickly. I still need to ask my neighbor to come over and help me distinguish weeds from flowers in the weed patch by our porch that I think was a flower bed at one time.

RED SPOTS
DS #2 has some really strange red spots on his legs arms and a couple on his face. At first hubby was thinking Chicken Pox, so of course I jumped on the web to look it up. Seems that if it truly was chickenpox it would be getting worse for a few days instead of looking better, and have a fever. I "think" he was vaccinated for them, I know we decided to have it done, but I don't know if they were suppose to do it at his 1yr or 18mo checkup which we missed (I know I know bad mommy, but I realized it like 3 weeks ago and his 2yr is only a couple months off now). I'm thinking bug bites of some sort myself, but with so many I'm scared where and what they could be. DS#1 has his park program starting tomorrow. He was vaccinated so I think I'll let him still go and we're playing #2's playdate during that time by ear. Worse comes to worse I can cancel #2's playdate, and drive around for an hour till it's time to pick #1 up. There really isn't time to come home. If they're not gone by tomorrow I'll call the other mommy and let her make the decision so I don't have to.

 

I'm Glad the previous owner knew how to garden! 

Boys

So # 1 is playing a game with his imaginary friend. This game consists of jumping off the couch as far and hard as he can and landing on the floor. Now I don't "think" he has even put a pillow on the floor, but I don't want to go look because then I will have to be the responsible adult who will have to interrupt this game before he hurts himself.

So the big mommy question of the day. Do I :
a) Let him learn on his own that jumping off a couch onto a floor of carpet over cement can lead to injury's, and let him be happy and occupied in the meantime while I'm typing aimlessly. Plus I get to be the good guy who comforts him if/when he does bump his head

or

b) explain to him that he can't jump off couches because he could hurt himself and break the couch (although that would mean a new couch so isn't that a good thing?) Hence probably leading to him getting mad, possibly trying to hit me, and an all out power struggle when he finds once again he lost his dinosaur movie to it's time out, and having to put him back into bed for the "nap" he never took today.

People say boys get easier at 6, I really hope this is true, if so only 1 1/2 years to go!

A little taste of Austin in KY

Now I know people will disagree, but I have to say Austin is one of the friendlier places that I've been. I mean if your at the park with your kids in Austin chances are you'll strike up a conversation with another mom no? Well that is not the case in KY.

Without getting into who's friendlier etc, etc (because there are friendly people here too). I will say I have had trouble meeting people or even having conversations with other parents. Usually I'll initiate talking to someone and they will answer politiy but with conversation killing answers. So when I actually found someone who continued the conversation I was amazed. Well guess what, she is from Austin. Anyways there is no point to this. I just met this other mom for a playdate today and it really is nice to have some one to talk to while you push your kids on the swings for 3 hours

#2 at almost 2 

#2 at about a year 

#2 at a few months old 

#2 as a newborn 

Where's my brick!

Yes I'm feeling very sentimental tonight, no I don't have PMS, and no I don't know why. Hubby turned our screen saver on to a slideshow that goes through all the photos on our computer, and I've been just staring at it forever and I can't believe my kids are growing up so quickly. I even caught myself saying the other day that I need to put bricks on their heads. I use to hate it when my father would say that....It sounded SO corny, but I now understand the grain of truth hidden in that statement.

Just last night DH and I were discussing whether or not to let #1 ride the bus to preschool next year. DH feels I should ride it with him the first few days....um yeah that will go good with a 2 year old tagging along, I'm thinking I should just walk him over myself (School is only 2blocks away) and make sure he gets into his classroom every day and his teacher knows he's there, but I know how much he would LOVE the bus ride, and wants to be more independent.

Yes #2 is just as bad at not staying little. It dawned on me all of a sudden that he's almost 2, doesn't seem possible, it really doesn't. We also realized that we moved into our current house when he was the exact same age as #1 was when we moved into our TX house.

So if you're feeling at all nostalgic, I'll be posting a few pics to compare.

All grown up at age 4 

Look #1 turned two! 

#1 Shortly after our move to TX 

#1's first trip to TX at 9 mo 

#1 at a month old