Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 4

I'd love to say... She's done it! We're out of diapers... but that's more than a little premature. We are still making progress and little B-butt is still doing great overall. This weekend we bought a new big screen TV. With this TV came a lot of packaging styrfoam which of course just nag at every kid within a mile to just crumble up all over the place. Okay, so every normal kid within a mile. But my little B, she's much more creative than that. This afternoon when I came home for lunch I was sitting in the recliner and suddenly smelled poop. Bethany came running up to my chair, from where I was not sure, and exictedly announced she had pooped. I wiped her butt and complained to James that the poop was really stinky as the bathroom is down the hall and the smell was way too strong. A quick investigation and James identified the problem... a bowl shaped piece of styrfoam from the TV packaging had become Bethany's personal potty. Turned out to be nearly the exact same size as her little potty and amazingly, although still disgusting, it contained everything very well with no mess to clean up! She really is making progress though, I swear! :)

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 3

We're making progress!!! Tonight she was sooooo adorable. I was trying desperately to finish reading a chapter for one of my classes and the kids were "supposed" to be in bed but Bethany was fighting it. She was actually already in her diaper and pj's and went running down the hall to the bathroom. A few minutes later I hear "mama mama mama mama" and I tried so hard to ignore her, hoping James would go check on her and clean up her potty this time and then here she comes running out of the bathroom her little legs spread eagle like she'd just gotten off a horse and sorta jumping up and down as she walked up to me. Then she grabbed my hand and still jumping up and down starts yelling "mama see, come now, mama see" So I couldn't resist, it was quite obvious she was VERY proud of herself, so I let her drag me in the bathroom and there it was, two huge turds floating in the big potty! Bethany just pointed and jumped up and down saying "yeah poop!" At which point everyone came running out of their prespective rooms to admire her business. LOL Amazing what excites us as parents! LOL (especially since it was in the big potty so no mess to clean up!)

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE 2

Bethany is still doing great pee-peeing in the potty. However today she had a slight accident. Hopey was laying on the floor watching TV and Bethany was sitting on her back. Well, she forgot she wasn't in a diaper or maybe is just truly the little monster we sometimes claim her to be, whatever it was, why ever, we may never know. What we do know is that as she sat on her big sister watching TV, at some point, said sister became Bethany's personal "potty". She pooped on Hope!

(No need to mention just how freaked out our little drama queen was and daddy can't explain what happened with going into complete hysterics.)

Roman's Ready for School!

My baby boy had his school physical last week. He really did great despite the minor freak out over the shots. He looks about as close to perfect as possible. He rang up in the 80% for weight and the 70% for height, so doing great there. The only slight concern is that he still has a heart murmur. Has had it since birth and was told he should have outgrown it by his 1st birthday. Normally at 5 this still wouldn't concern the doc much as it sounds to be a minor murmur, but after discussing my dad's heart history, the doctor decided to sent him to a cardiologist just to make sure it's nothing serious. So we have to schedule that for sometime early August. Otherwise he's perfect!

Then this weekend we went shopping for school supplies. He picked out a backpack with more pockets than he'll even know what to do with, but it looks cool - "Just like Col. O'neill's commando pack". He picked out 2 lunch boxes and a thermos to carry milk in - he'll be bringing his lunch instead of buying it. Then of course all the stuff his school requires for his grade. The fact that they specify so specifically on everything just drives James insane. I can certainly see why his rebellious attitude got him in more than a little trouble during his school days and keep telling him to butt out so as not to rub any of that onto Roman. Roman can't have character or colored pencils in school, they only want yellow #2's. This literally drove my husband insane, until I finally gave in and allowed them to get a pack of brightly colored erasers to top the yellow #2's... afterall if Bethany gets ahold of them she'll try to eat the erasers off the tops anyway, so I'm sure we can use the extras. Finally the last item on the list, an art shirt. It says not to buy an actual art shirt, to use an adult size teeshirt, recommending an old one of dad's. Problem is, James is a pretty big guy and his shirts would literally fall off Roman. So I agreed they could go wild. Told Roman to pick any color or logoed shirt in the store for his art shirt. James got so excited he's running around looking at racing teeshirts, baseball shirts, flurouscent green, you name it. What does Roman pick? Solid WHITE! LOL

The Princess Room

The princess room is nearing completion. I still have a little touch up painting to do and the crown molding still needs to be installed. The crib has to be broken down and the room basically organized and stuff hung back on the walls. But the new princess bed is in!!! For those out of towners, you'll also be happy to know the royal bed is a twin over full bunk bed, so we actually have room for guests now. Of course Bethany looks soooooooooo tiny in her very first big girl bed as hers is the bottom bunk - the double. We've had a few skirmishes over the ladder so James has temporarily removed it until the excitement of the new bed calms down some. The last 2 nights have found all three hoodlums sleeping together in Bethany's big bed. Just too sweet. The royal bedding is now in place and looks AWESOME if I do say so myself.

Last night, perhaps in the spirit of the princess room, more likely just to be a goofball, Roman apparently needed to fit in and sometime in the middle of the night changed into a pair of Hopey's princess pj's to sleep. I about died laughing when we went to check on them before heading to bed ourselves only to find out 100% all American boy sleeping peacefully in pink and purple pj's. Funnier still was the horrified look on daddy's face!

Little Sneakers Strike Again

This weekend Ronda, Renee, Joey, Andrew, and Allie came to visit us. With Aunt Ronda always comes junk food. So, after a quick run to WalMart and 5 bags of candy later, she was satisfied there was enough crap in the house to last the weekend. Saturday afternoon Aunt Ronda walks into the the bathroom to find the light on and Hopey hiding out, face covered in chocolate, with her pockets buldging with those yet eaten. The following morning Aunt Renee noticed Bethany standing in time out and went to see if she was okay - she does occassionally put herself in time when she's down something bad - this time she was standing there "hiding" eating some of the candy Hope had snuck down for her! She's getting much sneakier in her old age though. She just turned and looked up with her big green eyes with no evidence of her crime, until she smiled her evil little grin and out trickled some chocolatey drool!

Weekend with Aunt Ronda & Aunt Renee

Ronda, Renee, Joey, Andrew & Allie visited us this weekend. We had an awesome time! Was quite refreshing, and we all miss them already. Was so great to see them and actually spend quality time with everyone. They got in Friday evening in time for dinner which was almost finished up when they arrived. After dinner we sat around catching up, then everyone pitched in and put the girls' new bunkbeds together in time to watch the season premier of Stargate SG1. After all the new sci-fi shows ended we were sitting around and my sister Renee starts talking about Harry Potter, so 5 of us loaded into the car around 11:30 and hit the bookstore in time for the midnight release. Barnes & Nobles had a line wrapped twice around the inside of the store then out the door and half way down the length of the building. INSANE! So we tried Books-A-Million. This one wasn't too bad so we went in. They had people dressed up in all sorts of wizard outfits, crafts centers to make your own wizard hat or wand, the news crew was there, it was crazy, but fun too. Andrew was quite embarrassed from time to time, but I think he enjoyed himself even if he didn't totally admit to it. Saturday the girls' went out for a quick breakfast, then garage saling, followed by shopping when we couldn't find any good garage sales. Aunt Ronda and Aunt Renee both spoiled the kids - no surprise there. Shortly after lunch we dropped Hope and Bethany off for naps and headed to the movies. We saw the new Herbie movie, really enjoyed it, so much that I took my whole crew + Barbara to see it on Sunday afternoon. Roman went hysterical with all his fav race car drivers in it and is still talking about it. Hope was ecstatic that her "Peaky Priday" girl was starring in it, and Bethany - well, let's just say she's not quite ready for all that, but at least I had seen it before so didn't mind hanging out in the back with her and leaving the theater now and then as she'd get too rowdy. Still it was her first movie, my baby girl is growing up. Overall, just an awesome family weekend!

Bad Daddy Moment

After lunch today James wanted to give the kids a treat and pulled out the popcicles. So he walked into the living room carring a box of popcicles and asking what kind everyone wanted. Roman got excited and started yelling "Strawberry!" So James pulled out a strawberry popcicle and proceeded to throw it at him from across the living room. Only Roman didn't see him throw it and started to jump up and run toward him for it. You're probably guessing what came next. Popcicle meets Roman's head at full speed ahead! Clocked him right on the noggin better than he could have planned had he tried. Roman of course went hysterical as it was a hard frozen popcicle, and James felt like absolute crap, but me, the innocent bystander, couldn't stop laughing.

Bethany's Potty Training - UPDATE

The momentum has not stopped. She is now frequently using the potty. She still isn't quite making it there in time, but she will start to pee then hold it, run to the bathroom and finish in her little potty. With the exception of naps/nighttime, she is doing this consistently. We still have her in diapers as she didn't seem to care for the pull-ups just yet. I think he little butt is so tiny that the pull-ups are big and bawlky making them less than comfortable for her. Still, we are very proud of our Big Girl B. Go Bethany!!!

Hope the Beauty Queen

Hope got into my purse and stole my lipstick this morning. That's a first for us as they know better than to mess with mommy's purse. I had invisioned when this day eventually came that I'd have a huge mess and some really funny pictures, but heck no, that girl put it on like a pro... without a mirror or anything! I caught her primping in the mirror afterwards and asked her what she was doing "just checking my lipstick", normally meaning chapstick, but this time it was different so I questioned and she admitted what she did, then wiped it off and did it again.... perfectly! Where did this child come from?? This little super girly-girl can not possibly be MY daughter!

Bethany's Potty Training

Bethany has begun to potty train herself. Unfortunately the will is stronger than the physical abilities! She's driving us all a bit batty, but is making it about 1 in every 3 tries now. The rest lead to a lot of laundry and clean ups on aisle 1! Yesterday she followed me into the bathroom while I was getting ready for work, put the potty seat down and climbed up to brush her teeth while I was brushing mine. Then she realized, hey, I have to go potty and sat down and pooped.... with the lid still down! GROSS!!!!!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We had planned to go to Aunt Deanie & Uncle Charlie's house on the eastern shore, but had to cancel at the last minute. Instead, Kari, Kermit, Abby & Megan came to visit us for the weekend. We had a great time! It was so good to see them and we are all excited about them moving to Virginia. On Monday we went to Jon & Alicia's and had a cookout followed by fireworks over the lake. The guys had a lot of fun shooting off the fireworks and the kids just went nuts over them all. I had bought glowsticks and glow jewelry for the kids to play with and good thing too as it was so dark out there I was worried we may just lose a kid or two!

Note to self: the glowing barretts worked great for the little ones!

It was a lot a fun and a great weekend!

Wake up Mommy

Saturday morning as I'm laying in bed being lazy and sleeping in, James sends Hope in to wake me up. "Mommy, get up right now... when you wake up".