And so it Begins...

When I opened up Dylan's backpack this afternoon, I expected to find lots of papers because it is crazy how many papers they accumulate in one day. It is quite impressive and while I keep the best of the best, I do give a lot to the recycle man. This one will not be given to him EVER!

Part of me is a very proud mom. Just because. You want your boy to be liked. It means he isn't the obnoxious kid in Kindergarten that the girls are annoyed with. Plus, you are a mom, you want him to be a stud (even at 5). The other part of me is saying, "This young? I'm not prepared for this! How am I going to handle it in jr. high and high school?"

Oh the joys to come. When I went to lunch yesterday, Dylan was sitting across from Claire and they were talking about playing Scooby Doo at recess. Dylan said he wanted to be Scooby Doo. What is this game, you are asking? A mystery solving game? Nope, everyone chases Scooby Doo.

I guess it is Kindergarten so its okay to have a simple game. Yesterday after school Dylan was mentioning that Claire wouldn't let anyone else play the game. I was beginning to get the idea. We are going to have a possessive woman here. =)

In fact, I was telling some friends about how it reminds me about my boy chasing in Kindergarten. Shane McCollugh. Poor guy got chased EVERYDAY by all the girls. Good times, Good times.

I'm proud my boy is the Shane McCollugh because in Kindergarten, being Shane McCollugh was cool, at least to all us girls. ha! Plus, its just too cute!

When I asked Dylan about what the note was, he said, "What does it say?" Dylan can read, especially the words "I, love, and Dylan." He's quite advanced for his age at reading. Then I asked whether Claire made it for him in class (yes, and she gave it to him) and told him that it meant she liked him so that he must be nice to all the girls. He gave a big smile. What's a mom to do once he starts liking them back?????

The Ballerina Mouse and Other Things

My philosophy for the day is "I'm tired of the whining and crying so we are just going to do it." So far I have found that we have had the same about of whining and crying, yet I get whatever needs to be done, done. Forget trying to rationalize. It is not the day for that. We are all on antibiotics right now, tired, and grumpy.

Things accomplished with the new philosophy.

1. Logan has his shirt on.
2. Kaley's eye drops are in.
3. Kaley is dressed.
4. Kaley's hair is up and out of her face.

Its the little things these days.

Of course, now that I type this they are playing together, being cute, and not fighting. Kaley has her lipstick and is putting it on and Logan is throwing a stuffed ballerina mouse around.

Potty Training for 3 years

Who would have thought that 3 years later I'd still be potty training???? Dylan was 2 years and 4 months when I thought, we need to do the real deal. I informed Greg that I needed a long weekend with 2 parents home to fully potty train Dylan. So on July 3, 2007 I put Dylan in big boy undies and let him tinkle on himself until it was complete. I still remember that God had blessed us with a rainy 4th of July. We were at a neighborhood party outside with light rain all day. Every time Dylan tinkled on himself, he would cry, but at least it wasn't a mess I had to clean up in front of the new neighbors. 3 days later he was potty trained. Yes, there were accidents, but all in all we were finished.

Now, who would of thought almost 3 years to the day I would be potty training again? And that doesn't even count the child I potty trained in between. Kaley has been telling me off and on she needs to potty, etc. Because of my Logan experience, I have decided the earlier you train the better.

I started Logan when he was about 3 because I was tired, had 3 kids, and thought that he would be ready when he was ready. Not so much. I actually ended up with a child who was in the "Terrific Threes" who was testing his independence and STUBBORN. What a great way to show your independence when you actually do have control over your body and could care less what runs down your legs, etc. It took MONTHS! I'll leave it at that.

****Oh my! This child just pooped in the potty while I sat on the couch typing this. *****

So anyway, we are on day 3 of hard core potty training with Kaley. The boys are in camp this week, Logan is in camp again next week, and then back to only Kaley the next so I decided that this was the time to potty train. Our parents potty trained us at like 18 months. Why can't we all do the same? You especially feel this way after child #1 and #2 training experiences. =)

I do have to preface this with the info that Kaley was already interested in the potty AND could go when we sat her on there almost immediately. That sentence was just in case I'm that grandmother that says things were so easy with my kid and I come back to this blog for proof. Maybe that will help Kaley or my DILs. I love you, MOM!

We went to buy undies on Tuesday. I thought we were going to come out with a pack of Dora panties, but Minnie won out. She was soooooo excited that I had to put them on in the Target parking lot after buying them. Next stop, Lowe's to pick up some tile. We went potty there and then picked up Logan at summer camp and Incorporated another potty stop. I thought I was super mom doing potty training on the go. She did great all day (with me telling her every 30 minutes to go). Of course, we still diaper at night.

Wednesday rolled around she decided to put my ego in place. In fact, we had 2 accidents back to back before 10:30am so I called it a day. She didn't even care about sitting in her car seat soaked. "Uh oh, Logan experience." Potty training really is about the parent.

This morning we've been back on track, but just before I started writing she was eating in her learning tower, the best investment EVER, and started crying like she had fallen down or something. I run over and there is a HUGE puddle. My first thought was "AWESOME! She doesn't like it!!!" Forget the fact that she is super upset, I have to clean it all up, and convince her that her Dora pants have to go in the wash because they are dirty now. It still rocks even with another accident 5 minutes later with a repeat of the Dora pant situation except you need to substitute Elmo in there . I told her to go sit on the potty to "finish it up" and what happens???? She sits reading books and poops in the potty!

I'm hoping by the end of 3 weeks will be done. Why am I so determined? This is my last time to do this. If I fail and she prolongs it for another year, so what? It might be a little waste of my time, but I'm not getting paid anyway. However, if I get her trained this month it would be no more diapers for me and I finished with the worst part of parenting to date.

I realized how much my parents actually loved me when I potty trained my child. You have to love that kid to deal with all the mess.

Dylan's First Day of Camp

Today was Dylan's first day of Twin Lakes YMCA camp. He was gone from 8am - 4pm and most of the activities are outdoor. He was at the pool for an hour, hiked, and went canoeing. Oh and there were 2 snacks. One of which was animal crackers. For lunch he had a ham and cheese sandwich, lemonade, a cookie, and mashed potatoes. Wow. He doesn't even like mashed potatoes at home, but he picks them out for lunch and reportedly eats them. I'll have to remember that. There was a t-ball friend there, but not in his group. And he played on the playground twice. Anyway, that's pretty much all I got out of him about what happened.

I didn't know what to expect from him after I picked him up. Meltdowns maybe? He totally surprised me and didn't even seem that tired. Let me take that back. When he came lugging his backpack, he looked exhausted. However, when I asked him about it, I was informed, "Mom, I wasn't tired, the backpack was just heavy."

When he wants to, Dylan has a eye for details and noticed that the rest of us were in our swimsuits. He wanted to go with us. So, we met Greg and went swimming after his EIGHT hour camp. I was so impressed that he deserved a post about it.

Today was strange for me. It was so easy and nice having two kids. Dylan is definitely a challenge right now because he likes to be constantly entertained and he can't ever be found silent around this house. In fact, Logan was the chatty one today because Dylan wasn't around. Less kids = less stress for sure, but I feel like I didn't even get to see Dylan much today or spend time with him. I also had some tears when he went to camp this morning. I can't imagine what its going to be a few in a months when he goes to Kindergarten.

Well, I'm off to bed feeling very proud of my D-rouni.

Toy Story Adventure

Last night the kids (all 3!!!) stayed with my parents. They took the kids to see Toy Story 3. Of course, Greg and I got to have a great date night, however, I lobbied to go see Toy Story 3 (at a different theater) so I would know what the kids were talking about. I love everything Disney so Greg lost the movie choice. Anyway, after seeing the super sad movie - I cried for over 30 minutes in the movie - we had a nice relaxing night and morning with out kids.

At every Disney store today from 11-2 they had a free Toy Story Adventure. The family went after lunch. The kids did a maze, searched for Jessie & Bullseye, played memory match with Toy Story characters, and then hunted for some of the other characters. They gave each kid a Toy Story bandanna, stickers, activity books, and coloring pages. I just LOVE Disney! They create such fun stuff. This was all free, of course.

Well, kind of. We went home with a Buzz and a Woody, the deal of the week. ha! I'm such a sucker! However, we did get a free reusable bag for spending over $30. Score!!!!

The Scrub Down

I'm waiting for the shower to finish "soaking." I just Tilex-ed it and it needs to sit for awhile. I hate cleaning the shower. Who in the world thought to make glass showers all the way around? Obviously, not someone with 3 kids and a life. Or maybe they just had a maid.

My goals lately have been to

1) Workout 3 times a week
2) Do something fun with the kids each day
3) Keep the laundry up to date (with out my Mom's help)
4) Try to keep the kitchen de-cluttered and the sink clean

As you see, the shower does not have a place on my priority list. In fact, it sits dead last. Greg and I had a little "tiff" about it this morning. Occasionally, over the last few weeks he has mentioned that it needs to be cleaned. I think that us being gone and the a/c set to a higher temp during our lake vacation really set it to nasty.

Anyway, Greg told me 5 times today that it needed to be cleaned and that was in the hour he was here getting ready for work. Needless to say that annoyed me, but, hey, the shower is getting a scrub down.

So that is the update here. The Tilex has set in. Now to scrub and then Comet the shower floor.

Sorry if this grossed you out, but I just wondered what was at the bottom of your list? Maybe I should make this #5 on mine.

The Youngest Mom in the Class?

Me by Dylan

HA HA HA! Yes, if you read below, note he knows my hair color AND eye color. Can you guess what his favorite color is???? When I first saw it in the line up, I thought, "THAT is Dylan's picture of me." Then on they back they had answers to questions by your kid and I was pretty sure he knew them so I doubted my first instinct. NEVER doubt your first instinct as a mother. ha!

So where did this come from?

We had a Mother's Tea in Dylan's class yesterday. Dylan served me a plate of food and a drink and we sat together. It was way cute! Ms. Klink really planned for this day. There was a guess the portrait of you by your child game, the sticky bubble gum song, a Mother's Day gift of a decorated plate, and some cute answers to questions by your kids. I'm really not describing it too well, but it was so special.

Best thing about the tea - Spending time with Dylan and him guessing the youngest age for his mom out of the whole class. Must be my super spirit. ha!

Anyway, here are Dylan's answers.

My Mother has brown eyes and dark brown hair. She is 25 years old.

My Mother is prettiest when she goes to scrapbooking.

When Mom has free time she likes to play with us.

Mom is really funny when she she is never funny.

I love when she cooks Ramen noodles(*insert laughing moms with funny stares here*), but I don't like chicken.

She likes me to help her clean up the house.

Spying on the Yard Next Door

Dylan and Logan are at Elijah's next door playing in the backyard. I opened my blinds to look in their yard as they sound like they are having too much fun. It was one of those watching your kids while they don't know it times which I love.

As I look out, Dylan is turning on the water hose which is connected to the sprinkler that Elijah is holding and pointing at Logan.

I open the door and ask, "Are ya'll supposed to have that thing out?"

Elijah, "No"
Logan just looks at me.
Dylan, "It was Elijah's idea."

Me - "It doesn't matter whose idea it was. Ms. Naiomi would be upset to know you were playing with it."


It made me crack up laughing! They are just too cute and when did I become such a mom????

One Good Choice

So for those of you who are around me on a daily basis you know that I have been trying to lose some weight. Not huge amounts, but I want to get down to pre-pre-baby weight. What is that? The weight I was before I thought "I'm going to get prego and gain bunches of weight. Why worry now?"

Anyway, I've been doing this since last May off and on. After Thanksgiving last year, I decided to start working out on a regular basis. I don't think I ever worked out before in my previous life, nor did I ever enjoy it. And all that bull about actually having more energy? I thought it was a lie. My next door neighbor introduced me to Zumba, which I love and since the Round Rock YMCA offers it almost everyday its a good bet that I can get there 3 times a week unless someone is sick or there are special plans or we are out of town. You can imagine this is fairly often. Anyway, I actually feel like I want and need to work out. I'm a much happier person these days. (Kristen a year ago is laughing.)

Last week, Greg challenged me to go 5 days without any sweets. Again, for those that know me, that is a big deal. As my children know, I bake homemade cookies at least once a week. However, I did actually have will power and I succeeded! I also ended up losing over 2 lbs. last week. Maybe I eat a few too many sweets.

So why am I writing all this? For background. So we are in Katy this weekend to visit Greg's family. What do we do when we come here? Eat and Eat and Eat! It's like any family's get together. It's all yummy! So here was today's meal plan -

Breakfast: Go take the kids to Mr. Donut.
Lunch: DoubleDave's buffet
Pre-Dinner: Queso, chips, onion dip
Dinner: Hamburgers, Hot dogs, and birthday cake at Heather's house.

Don't get me wrong. I love me some good, fatty food and any special event as an excuse.

My one good choice? I skipped donuts with the family and went to a BodyStep class at the Y at 7:30am.

It may not seem that good of a choice, but here is what I was thinking as the chicka was killing my quads.
Donut: 300 calories
Kolache: 250 calories
_________________
550 calories

My breakfast: granola bar: 90 calories
banana : 105 calories
pb cracker snack: 50 calories
______________________
245 calories

Calories saved by not donuting =345
Calories burned working out = 450 (it says 660 online, but I take the low intensity route so I round down)
___________
795 calories I could eat today to equal my other morning option

That is a HUGE difference! What if I made a good choice every day? Now I'm not planning to eat donuts every morning so it wouldn't be as much a difference as today, but whoa! I'm motivated for the rest of the week.

Now will I make bad choices this week? Maybe. Probably. But today I made a great choice. Let's see if I can resist the birthday cake tonight.

I challenge whoever is reading this to make their own great choice this week regarding working out and eating. Once you do it, you don't miss what you didn't eat and you feel better, too.

More Random Kid Sayings

I've been meaning to get these down for awhile and since I have a cute comment from today's snow play, I thought I would go back and catch everyone up on the cute things my kids say everyday. Some are from a few days ago, some are from months ago. Greg will just be excited to get our answering machine messages down to zero. Every time I hear something I want to remember I call and leave myself a message so I won't forget. Turns out now that I have listened to the 14 messages on the machine 11 of them were actual people calling that just needed to be deleted. So here are the 3 off the machine plus Logan's snow day quote. Enjoy!

Dylan: "When I get older, I'm going to have a green minivan. I'll need some paint and gas to get it started." **He's going to build it himself.

Response when Dylan is asked what he likes best about IHOP: "Why don't they have green syrup? I always like green syrup."

Since 2 Dylan has always been fascinated with the walk/don't walk signals on the stop lights. He calls them handicaps and came up with that name on his own. I've tried correcting him by calling them "walk men," but that has never gotten through. Instead, he just calls the picture of the man a walk man and the picture of the orange hand a handicap. One day in the car he asks, "Can we go handicapping tonight?" which though mommy translation means 'Let's go push the buttons and cross the street.'

Someone has been watching too much Frosty!

Mommy: "Now we need to get this snowman's other arm on."

Logan: "And then he'll COME ALIVE!"

This guy would scare me if he came alive for sure.

Logan's Love

So Logan is going though a rough spot in the 3 year old world. He is into randomly screaming when not getting his way, sticking his tounge out, and just being difficult. Greg and I have decided to respond to his sticking out his tounge with "I love you, too, Logan." which tends to annoy him enough to stop.

Here is today's response:

L: (sticks out tounge)
Me: Love you too, Logan.
L: I DON'T love you.
Me: That makes Mommy sad. (pouty face included)
L: I love you, just not that much.

I guess I'll take that over nothing. =)

Logan's First Soccer Practice

It was finally here. The day Logan got to play soccer. Ever since he was about 1 1/2 he has wanted to play. Why? Because when he was 1 1/2 Dylan played soccer in the 3 year old league at the Y. Of course, for those of you who were around for"The Soccer Balls" you never got the full update. Dylan played the first game and then after someone "stole" the ball from him he never went back on the field. Except for that time when we somehow convinced him to go out and he took it down field and made a goal. Then he came back and sat on the bench never to go out again. The whole time Logan at a whopping year and a half was trying to run on the field and score.

So we always told Logan he could play when he was 3. It has been a long time coming. Every time Dylan had any sort of sports practice Logan was all over soccer when he was 3.

Today was the day. 4:45pm on January 5th 2010. I told him today after quiet time that we would go to practice. He threw his hands up in the air and shouted, "Soccer practice, yeah!" After quiet time, when he saw Kaley was up (that's when quiet time ends), he yelled, "SOCCER PRACTICE!"

Its indoor soccer and practices are in the YMCA gym. The "plain" YMCA as D & L call it. Sometimes we go to the Round Rock YMCA so that is how we distinguish between the two. Greg took Logan in the gym and he's ready to go. He has a new, cool, red soccer ball that we got at Academy. The coach asked us to bring one if we could. Logan was the only one with a ball that was not bright yellow belonging to the Y. Oh well. All the kids on other teams would come and take it. At least we could find it again. Red does sort of stand out. I'll post a picture next time. I forgot my camera today.

Anyway, Logan gets out there after a long intro by the coach who seems like he'll be one of our best coaches yet. Logan is a little slow and sluggish and doesn't seem into it which is strange for him. He loves balls and has been waiting for this forever. He actually reminded me of a 3 year old Dylan out there. Then after running around, well, actually walking, he comes and sits with me on the bleachers. I look at Greg and mouth, "What's wrong?" Greg responds, "He says his stomach hurts."

That means only one thing when Logan says his stomach hurts. He has to poop. Now for those of you not up to speed on Logan's potty training progress you must know that he is essentially potty trained except that he holds #2 in for almost 3 days and refuses to go in the potty (Can I even really consider that potty trained?). I've given up forcing him to do it on the potty so he usually goes in a Pull Up right before bed or if I don't catch it, his undies.

I acted quickly and asked him if he wanted to poop in the potty.

L - "No."

K - "Do you want me to put on a Kaley diaper so you can poop?"

L - "Yes."

Great. So I take him to the family bathroom, lock the door, and put a size 4 diaper on him. Its a tight fit at best. I ask if he wants me to leave him alone. He says yes. So I sit down on the bench in the family bathroom and look the other way. He precedes to stand by the sink and do his business. The sink right next to the potty. We clean up afterwards and go back to practice which is over by now.

So to sum up Logan's first practice:
10 minutes - Coach talked to parents
5-10 minutes - Logan walks around not to excited about kicking the ball
15 minutes - Logan poops in a diaper when he is literally 5 feet away from a toilet.

Let's hope the second practice goes better.

The Past Decade

I was thinking about the last 10 years and thought I would give a brief bullet list of the big things I've accomplished.

• Graduated from college
• Started first real job
• Got married - I would like to say I did meet my husband in '99, but just didn't know...
• Bought a house (and have built 3 Duffey spec homes that we've never moved into!)
• Was pregnant for about 25% of the 2000s
• Had 3 kids
• Had 4 cars -I kept outgrowing them with each kid, I suppose. Should have just bought the mini-van right away.

Wow. I can tell you that besides getting a new car, I'm not going to be doing the rest of the list this next decade. I'm thinking that there aren't that many more big life changes I have left.

So far this decade I have...

• Woken up at 7am and gotten a sick girly in bed with me to cuddle up and sleep in for 40 more minutes.
• Made biscuits for breakfast
• Took a shower
• Put up some laundry

Have a great 2010!