The Naked Method

Treats, toys, stickers, charts, threats, scowls. Yes, these tools probably will help toilet train your child, but thank goodness I listened to Lorena & Cristi's advice and let my child run around naked-our path to potty training has been........well, pleasant. I say this trepidatiously (is that a word?) because I know we're FAR from having this down pat and I expect to have many accidents along the way; but for now, I'm just feeling so stinkin' proud of my little monkey.

A is for Frog

I'm just starting to teach Andrew the letters of the alphabet. We do a letter a week and we started with the letter A:

Mom: A is for apple. A is for Andrew.

Andrew: No mom, A is for Frog.

Mom: No really, A is for apple. A is for Andrew.

Andrew: A is for Frog.

Then a few days later, Randy came up to me and said, "We've got a problem," and showed me one of Andrew's Baby Einstein Alphabooks. On the front cover of the "A" book there was a.........yep, you guessed it........frog. Upon further investigation, apparently J is for mouse, N is for turtle, Q is for baby, U is for dolphin, and W is for Owl. I thought that maybe Baby Einstein named these animals and that was the reasoning, but when I looked on their website, the frog that's on the letter A is named Shakespeare. Holy heck, let's just confuse the crap out of my child. If Andrew didn't LOVE these books, they'd be in the recycling bin right now.

Butterflies

Sometimes I miss our dating days when Randy could take my breath away with just a look. I still remember vividly the first time it happened: Randy walked me home to my apartment. I think he gave me a hug goodbye (keep in mind, it took him 25 dates before he felt adventurous enough to kiss me). For some reason, I had to walk back out to the parking lot to get something out of my car and Randy was just getting into his car. I said something to him to get his attention and he got out of his car to turn and look at me-and POW! I felt my knees buckling, the butterflies were in a flurry, and I literally had to catch my breath. Randy gave me butterflies like no other-that's how I knew he was a keeper.

Well, 6 1/2 years of marriage later, I wouldn't say that our marriage is perfect; on some days, it's far from it. But then again, we have moments when Randy still has the ability to take my breath away. Yesterday, we took the kids on a hike-the wild flowers were in full bloom and it was an incredibly beautiful day. Randy spotted a deer off in the distance and we stood still for a few moments to look at it. Randy leaned over to give me a quick kiss-and POW! I felt the butterflies awaken.

With the rush of life, these moments are few and far between, but I sure do love it when they come along.

And the Award for the Worst Mom Goes To....

Yep, that would be me. I really scare me. We were on our way to soccer. Deborah was with me and was helping me load the kids in the car. The Ford is in the shop, so I had the Kia-no automatic locks. It's a habit for me to unlock the doors and then throw my car keys onto the front passenger seat while I load the kids in. I unlocked the Kia (you have to unlock each lock manually), threw the keys onto the front seat, loaded Josh in, and then locked his door and the passenger front door, walked around to the other side to load Andrew in. The doors were locked, with Josh locked inside. Thank goodness Deborah was there-she waited with Andrew and poor Josh while I drove to the hospital, ran up to the 4th floor, grabbed Randy's car keys ("Don't ask me questions, just give me the d@!# keys!") and got back-it took me about 10 minutes. A tiny miracle: Josh didn't scream and was fine. What would I have done if Deborah wasn't there?!!

p.s. I didn't really swear at my husband.

Soccer, Week 3:

No whining. No crying. Only a couple of moments when he wanted me to hold his hand. He did such a good job. The coaches tried to get them to play an actual game-it was hilarious. Grandma came with us today; I think she's good luck.

5 Months

Joshers is 5 months today. He is sweet, sweet, sweet. Oh! He's so sweet! His smiles come easily and he LOVES to talk and coo to us. He's eating cereal like a pro now, and I love having a good eater. We love you Josh!

First Potty Adventure

So, I introduced the potty to Andrew yesterday. He wanted nothing to do with it. It's amazing how he KNOWS how to annoy me in just the right way. So we practiced putting Lamby on the toilet; he thought that was fun. I made a big fuss when Lamby sat on the potty, pretended to feed him a skittle, and then asked Andrew if he wanted a turn. Uh uh, no way.

Then Grey's Anatomy came on, so I decided to put the potty in the living room while I watched TV. I enticed Andrew with a popsicle and said he could have one if he sat on the potty-it worked! He sat on the potty while he ate his popsicle, and amazingly he peed! Randy and I made a big fuss over the 3 drops of urine that made it into the potty, had Andrew carry the bowl to the toilet, flush it, and wash his hands. He thought it was so fun, that we repeated the process about 6 times. So I'm thinking he's ready. Am I ready? Maybe in a couple of weeks...

A New Frontier

I'm feeling brave today so I got out the potty chair that's been sitting in our closet for almost a year. I'm not going to start training until Andrew is over 3, but I guess I feel like we need to start talking about it at least. This is something I've been dreading ever since our pediatrician told me at Andrew's 18-month checkup that it was never too early to start. I looked at him like he was a crazy person and threw his advice to the wayside. I guess I just haven't felt the push-I'd much rather change a diaper than have to find a nasty public restroom wherever we go. And not one person has told me that potty-training was a pleasant, easy experience; and I'm all about easy.

Does anyone want to come over and potty-train my child for me? Anyone?...........Anyone?..............Hello?

Here is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Pete & Andrew (March 2006), it cracks me up every time I look at it:

I know, Andrew, I'm a little scared, too.

I think Joshua is starting to warm up to Andrew, even when his big brother does things like this to him...


I even caught him laughing at Andrew yesterday.

Bribery. It's a Beautiful Thing.

Soccer, week 2:

Mom: Are you ready to play soccer today?

Andrew: No. No, play soccer. Not today!

Mom: Do you want to run around and kick the ball and play with your friends?

Andrew: No.

Mom: If you go play soccer, then we can go to the store and get a treat after.

Andrew: Mm. Hmm.

And that is how we got through our second week of soccer-I had to keep reminding him that we'd go get a treat after. He did pretty good. He whined most of the time, but he did what his coach asked him to do. Sometimes I had to hold his hand (literally) for him to do anything. We didn't make it the whole hour, but I think we're making progress.

We got Slurpees from 7-11 afterwards. It was Andrew's first Slurpee experience, and he hasn't stopped asking for one since.

The Best Time Is Summertime

I read a license plate frame recently; it read: THE BEST TIME IS SUMMERTIME

I love all the seasons, but this year I especially welcome the summer, it really is the best time of year:

1. The heat puts my kids into a sluggish trance and they sleep better.
2. Popsicles.
3. My garden and the hope of fresh veggies grown with my own two hands.
4. Flip-flops.
5. Ice cold water after playing out in the sun.
6. Eating dinner outside.
7. Being able to go for a walk with my kids in the early morning hours.
8. The sun doesn't go down until 9 pm.
9. Sprinklers and kiddie pools.
10. Getting dirty and sweaty, and then taking a nice warm shower before bed.

Q3

This is a shout-out to my husband who works very hard for our family. LOVE YOU!!

Randy is doing a 3-week rotation in the ICU and Q3 means that he has call every three days. What this really means is every 3rd day he works a 30+ hour shift; sleep is fleeting and the work is very busy. I LOVE that we're just a five minute walk away from the hospital-we get to bring him dinner on his call nights, which hopefully, makes his burden a little lighter. Some intern programs do this for a full year. We will not be applying to such programs.

Maybe Someday...

I'll be able to get some decent pictures of my two boys AT the same time. The first attempt was when Josh was 6 weeks old; with my mom's help, we took the boys to Kiddie Kandids-we had to wait 1 1/2 hours before they were ready for us. Josh was an angel. Andrew was toast.

The second attempt was last March, my good friend Danielle took some pictures outside; it was windy. Andrew was a sweetie. Josh went ballistic:

I must say, I have the cutest, handsomest, sweetest little boys on earth in the universe.

Little League Adventures

Being the nut that I am, I signed up Andrew in little league sports (soccer, T-ball, kickball) for the WHOLE summer. Today was his first day of soccer and he had Grandma, Dad, Baby Brother, and me as his cheering squad. As soon as he entered the giant indoor field house, he ran around like a banshee-kicking the cones and soccer balls. Then they did roll call and broke into groups, that's when the real fun began.....

He didn't want to kick the ball with his group.

He didn't want to play "follow the coach" around the cones.

He didn't want to kick the ball into the goal.

Instead, he......

Threw a real nice tantrum, and I was so proud.

Kicked the ball by himself all over the field, and refused to share the ball with anyone else.

When given the option to either listen to his coach or go home, he chose to go home. Yeah, Love and Logic works real well.

My plan for next week:
1. Give it one more chance before asking for my money back.
2. Tote Josh in the Baby Bjorn, pretend I'm the little kid, do everything the coach asks me to do, and hope Andrew follows my lead.
3. Spend Family Night practicing.
4. Spend more time with him during the week, maybe he's not getting enough attention and he's acting out (he recently has also refused going to Nursery).

Oh, the joys of parenting.

Ahhhhhhhhh. Breathe.

Josh is 19 weeks and 3 days old. Today he took 2 long naps in his bassinet. I finally feel my shoulders returning back to their original position-I hadn't realized until now that they were up to my ears.

My Soft, Warm, Cuddly....Trike

Some love to sleep with their blankie; some, a teddy bear. And yet others prefer their tricyle....

Needless to say, not a whole lot of napping was happening in this bed today.

My Very Own McDreamy

I love SCRUBS. No ironing AND I think Randy looks studly in them. Well, actually, I think he'd look good in a paper sack; he takes good care of himself, and I appreciate it.

Josh ate his first helping of rice cereal today. He got the hang of it pretty quick. He rolled it around his tongue, and most of it made it into his tummy. Good job, Joshers!!

I Like Cindy's Style

Two Christmases ago, we were finally able to buy a new sofa from our savings and Christmas money we received. I love denim. I don't know why, I just do. I love the comfortable, lived-in, shabby-chic look, so I searched high and low for a denim sofa. I mean I looked everywhere, and I found nothing but microfiber, microfiber, and more microfiber. I hate microfiber. I think it's a nasty material and I can't wait for it to go out of style. The only way I was going to get a denim sofa was to have it custom made, and that was way over my Wal-Mart budget.

So I found the next best thing, the couch I now have, and actually, I love it more than the denim. It's 100% nylon, it's plush, and lovely, and very comfortable, and did I mention that I love it? It's very cleanable and I never worry about spit-up, chocolate, apple juice, snot, or pen-it all cleans off with water and a little soap. And it was within our budget.

Now, I'm not going to get into the trials and tribulations that I had when ordering my new couch, but I will say that it took
ONE YEAR AND THREE MONTHS
before I finally got the couch that is now sitting in my living room. It was a nightmare, but now it's resolved, and life is good.

So I was watching TV tonight, and Cindy Crawford (whom I idolize, but that's a different blog story) has a new furniture line at RC WILLEY, of all places!! I couldn't believe it when I saw it.....









Oh well, all's well that ends well. And besides, it's 100% cotton and can only be cleaned with a water-free dry cleaning solvent ( I looked it up)-totally not practical with kids. But one day, I will have a denim sofa in my house, regardless if it's in style or not. I will also have furniture in blue toille (another material I'm obsessed with). Oh, and I want buttercream walls with white crown moldings. Not all in the same room. This is my time to dream, remember?

Here is my beautiful couch:

Trials are Trials

"Oh, things will get better," is something you've probably heard a thousand times in your life when you're going through some sort of trial, big or small. I think it's just part of our human nature to attempt to minimize a trial for someone else, in order to make sense of it.

I recently read an article in the Ensign, and it has given me new perspective:

"Although I am far from perfect at putting this principle into action, I have learned that the greatest gift we can give someone who is suffering isn’t advice about how things will get better, how we should be grateful it isn’t worse, or how we need to have faith. Sometimes the things we say in our efforts to help actually come across as judgmental or trivialize the depth of sorrow the person is experiencing. The greatest gift I ever received in a time of pain came in the form of a sweet roommate who shared the pain with me, dividing it up between the two of us so it would be easier for me to carry."

Since I've read this article, I've noticed that I do this all the time, and it really bugs me that I do it. In fact, just yesterday, I was talking to a friend-her husband will be leaving for 11 weeks for Air Force training, and I said to her, "Well, at least he'll be safe, he won't be in Iraq." It's true, he will be safe, but that doesn't take the trial away-her husband will still be gone for 3 months!

I'm learning that trials are trials, and they're hard and something that must be endured, and I can be a good friend by being compassionate and not trying to fix it. I'm also learning through the example of my dear friends that you can still be happy when going through trials; something I'm also trying to learn.