June 21, 2008

The boys and I are outside and they have been playing in their little pool and trying to throw a frisbee. It is very hot here today, although sitting under the patio with the ceiling fan on is not too bad and the boys are staying pretty wet and mostly shaded so they are doing OK too.

Meanwhile, the dad is lying in bed and not feeling very well today. As it turns out, he got a small cut on his knee when he was laying the tile in our master bath the other day and it is now very infected. His whole knee is very swollen, red and hot, he is running a fever and it is very likely that he has the dreaded MRSA. He started an antibiotic yesterday and it was not helping so he got another opinion from his boss, who lives in our neighborhood, and started an additional antibiotic today. If it does not improve by tonight, I think he has to get a shot of antibiotics and if that does not help, he will need to take antibiotics through an IV. Hopefully he will improve today sometime. It is odd to see him down and out because he hardly ever gets sick enough to end up in bed. Even when he has a bad cold, he just keeps going.

It is almost time for naps and I am so ready for a rest myself today. I am really bummed that naps are so short these days. If I had it to do over again, I would have left the cribs up much much longer. At least I had a little extra time with the cribs because they would play happily for a little while before going to sleep. Also, Nick normally wakes up about one hour or one hour and a half after he goes to sleep and, when he was in his crib, he would just go back to sleep. He still does the waking up part but, now that he can get up by himself and come downstairs, he no longer does the going back to sleep part.

Yesterday was not a good potty training day. Both boys had more accidents than they have had in a long time. I think it was because the dad and I were switching off with watching them and neither of us were doing a good job of reminding them and they were too busy playing. I thought that Ben was at a point where he did not need reminders anymore but I guess I was wrong. So far today we have only seen one accident, the normal, usually once per day poop accident that Nick continues to have. He makes absolutely no effort whatsoever to let us know that he needs to go and we have yet to catch him. He is not very obvious about it. We'll have to watch him extra close to catch him but that is hard because he is always on the go.

I found a minivan that seems perfect for us and it is priced very well by a private owner. The downside is that it is in Louisville, KY:). It is such a good deal that I may fly out to see it sometime in the upcoming week, with the intention of bringing it home if all looks good. My sister has offered to watch the boys. I hope it all works out because I could use the break and I think I would enjoy the drive back. I have never been to KY either, so that would be an added bonus.

I may have mentioned this and, if so, am getting ready to mention it again. This past week of the dad's "vacation" was not a vacation for me at all. If anything, I worked longer hours than normal because I had to do more laundry and cleaning than normal, plus I was still in the middle of potty training, plus the dad was so busy with the tile in the master bath that he did not have as much to help out with the boys. I am feeling a bit burned out right now and could really use a break.

A normal Saturday for us includes the dad hanging out with the boys from around 10:00am-ish, feeding them lunch and putting them down for their nap around 1:30ish. I usually go out and run errands during that time and I come home just after the boys go down for nap. So I normally have a break on Saturday's from around 10:00am to around 3:30 or 4:00pm. It is a very nice break and usually leaves me feeling refreshed and ready to be mom again. So I am missing that today but I am thankful that I at least get a break while the boys are sleeping.

I should really probably be outside mowing the lawn, since the husband probably won't feel like it this weekend. I think I would rather do it early in the morning or late in the evening though, when it is a bit cooler. It is so hot outside right now.

I had to take a break from my writing a few paragraphs ago to come inside and put the boys down for their nap. Our new method of keeping them in their beds is to just sit in their room with them until they fall asleep. My rule is that they have to lay down, put their head down and no talking. We are all getting really good at this now and they like having one of us in there until they fall asleep. They also go to sleep much quicker because they are lying still so it does not take very much of our time, as long as we are not trying to put them down too early. Since they are taking a shorter nap and sometimes waking up a bit earlier, they usually go to sleep pretty quickly around 8:00 or 8:30pm-ish.

One evening it was taking a bit longer than normal for them to fall asleep. I had awakened very early that morning and could not go back to sleep so I was really tired. I kept falling asleep in my chair, then I would wake up again to find them both still awake. I kept thinking to myself, 'what is wrong with this picture??'. I found it quite funny. I seem to fall asleep very quickly and easily when I am sitting in their room, waiting for them to fall asleep. The dad does too though, so I guess it's not just me. It is a very peaceful place to be and we have a comfortable recliner in their room.

OK, enough of this book for today. I know I need to post some pictures soon and I will. I think I have some cute ones on the camera. Maybe next post.

June 19, 2008

Well, we have been at this for a little over a week now (I think) and we're still chugging along. Ben has picked up this potty training business very very well. No issues at all. He tells us when he has to go, he gets there in time and he does all of his business on the potty. He sometimes has false alarms when it comes to #2 and it sometimes takes him one or two visits to the potty before he is ready but he is doing great. He is sometimes a bit too impatient with it when it takes a little longer but I convince him to let me read a book to him and then he is very happy with his success. He even forgets to ask for a prize most of the time, although that could be because the prize box is getting rather empty and the things that are left are not too exciting.

Nick, on the other hand, seems to have regressed a bit...or maybe it is that he has not progressed. He still has one pee pee accident a day and has yet to poop in the potty. Today he almost peed in his pants a second time too and he got upset when I made him go because we were in the middle of reading a book. Generally he has not been telling me when he needs to go but I see his body signs and take him. Sometimes he is OK with this and sometimes he is not OK with it. Sometimes Beb is in the bathroom going and Nick will go too on his own. But if he is playing, going to the potty is just not something he seems to think about.

So I am going to work on some retraining with him. I am going back to the basics of our three day potty training method and I will be keeping him close by my side for a while. The thing about Nick is that he is very smart and he definitely knows how to go to the potty and how to get there in time. I know he knows this because he did pretty well at the beginning of our potty training efforts. I think our problem is that he is such a busy boy and loves playing so much that going to the bathroom to do his business is just not a priority for him.

I need to get out and buy some more interesting prizes, which will probably help a little bit. He was very motivated when the prizes were still exciting. I am hoping that the incentive of having more freedom from mommy might help him too. We'll see.

In other news, the dad is installing the new tile in our master bathroom. He is using a diamond pattern and it looks really nice. He really does a wonderful job. He is trying to finish up all of the cuts today so he can return the wet saw. He plans to wait until next weekend to do the grouting because his knee was red and swollen this morning from over doing it the past few days.

My sister and nephew spent the past two nights with us. The boys love having their aunt Kathy here to play with. She is wonderful with kids and they have tons of fun with her. They were sad to see them leave today.

Naps seem to be getting shorter and shorter (she said, with tears running down her face:). We are currently outside and the boys are pretending to "clean up the pee pee". They are so funny. It's really hot here now. Not sure what the temp is right now but guessing it has to be around 90 degrees or so and it is very humid because we have had tons of rain lately.

June 15, 2008

...I think I finally found a way to keep them in their beds! We are still in test mode so I am not yet positive that this is going to work but, so far, so good. It turned out to be pretty simple. I let them choose a small match-box sized car or truck to take with them to bed. If they get out of bed, I take their car/truck.

The interesting thing about this is that, when they get out of bed the first time, if I take the car/truck and keep it, they continue to get out of bed, regardless of the punishment. This happened during nap time a day or two ago. Tonight, I gave them a second chance. When B got out of bed, I took his truck. I waited outside of the door for a few minutes and, when he stayed in his bed, I went back in, told them both that they were doing a good job of staying in their beds and gave B back his truck. This time, they stayed in their beds! Yay!! Hopefully I have finally found the key. We'll see. I'm not convinced yet because there are just too many things where you try something and it works for the first time or two and then behavior changes again and you have to come up with another solution. So, we'll see.

I think I forgot to mention that N no longer sucks his thumb. Isn't that great? The only thing we did was keep a bandaid on his thumb for a couple of weeks and, voila!, he is no longer a thumb sucker. We ended up taking this approach because he had cut his thumb on something while playing outside and it was getting infected due to his thumb sucking. So we started out doing this because he needed it and then we just kept it up because it was keeping him from sucking his thumb. Our dentist had told us that his thumb sucking was starting to cause his front teeth to shift outward so it was best to stop it now. We stopped using the bandaids about a week ago and N has not started sucking his thumb again, so I think we are done with that now. Yay!

An interesting aside on the thumb sucking story. When N was a thumb sucker, he always fell asleep very quickly at nap and night times and B would lie awake, talking to himself and playing. Now that N is no longer a thumb sucker, he is usually the last one asleep and I hear him on the monitor, talking to himself and singing songs. And N is pretty much always the first one awake in the morning.

The other good news for today is that, again, Ben went the whole day without one accident. He always told us when he needed to go to the bathroom. Nick had two accidents, one of each kind:), so I still have a little work to do with him but, overall, I think they are both doing great. We even made a trip out of the house today to go to Home Depot and the boys made it just fine. It was very obvious to me that they were both able to go much longer between bathroom trips today, which was a relief. Today seemed almost normal, with the exception of no more diaper changes and with me still giving occasional reminders to them to tell me if they need to go to the bathroom. The other exception was that we decided not to take them to church today, as I didn't want to put them in pull ups during the day because I think it would confuse them and it is too soon to put them in that kind of environment. Hopefully next week, we will be all set. We are also very low on groceries, since I have basically stayed home since I started potty training. We definitely have to get out to the grocery store tomorrow.

If you are contemplating potty training and you are like me and have no idea on how to go about it, I highly recommend the website / ebook at www.3daypottytraining.com. My case was a bit different than the normal case, since I was training two children at the same time by myself. So I expected it to take a little longer than 3 days and I chose not to do nap and night time, since I was pretty much doing it on my own. I needed my rest during nap times and my sleep at night during this extra focused attention time of potty training. It has been exhausting but I think we are on the down hill side of things now. The money spent on the ebook at the above website was well worth it to me and you get email-mentoring to boot, which I also used and found reassuring. My friend with twin girls also used it and had good results. We both ended up feeling that it was a positive experience overall, for us and our kids. The positive part for us was that we spent so much one-on-one focused time with our kids. It was a very rewarding experience, from that perspective.

I think the kids have pretty much enjoyed the whole experience. We have a rule that they use the bathroom before going to bed and right after waking up. They sometimes don't like this rule, especially in the morning. So I get some objections on this one (especially from Ben) but then, as soon as they sit down, they start going and then they look up at me and smile and laugh through the little tears that were just getting started in their little eyes.

Well, the car/truck thing almost worked. They had gotten really quiet so I thought they were both asleep. I was in bed, typing away, and suddenly I heard "what's that?" and looked up to find Ben standing in my room pointing to the TV (I was half watching/listening to the news as I typed). I scolded him and took him back to his bed. He cried on the way up the stairs and woke up Nick who came running down the hall to see what was wrong. I put them both back in bed and it now sounds like they are both asleep (I hope!).

Nope, Ben was still not asleep. I heard the sound of a door closing over the monitor so I went up to check on the boys and saw a light going on and off under their door. I went in to find Ben standing in the doorway of their closet and turning the closet light on and off. Nick was sound asleep again. I sent Ben back to his bed again and again he cried and woke up Nick, who also started crying. It is now quiet again up there so I am hopeful that they are both asleep this time. Not sure why Ben is having so much trouble tonight because, as I mentioned above, he is normally the first one asleep these days.

The husband just finished putting down the heating system in the floor of our master bathroom. I guess he will be ready to start laying the tile tomorrow. He is really moving right along with this project, which is great because I am anxious to see how the new tile will look and I really want my bathroom back:).

June 14, 2008

I know father's day is tomorrow and everything but I really have to give a plug for mom's today. Having never been one before we adopted our sons, I just did not realize how much mom's do. It really is amazing.

I must say, at least for this mom, that potty training ranks way up there on the list of things that mom's do that are quite challenging and not much fun (understatement of the year). Also, if you are expecting twins or two children very close in age, be prepared for a lot of work when it comes time to potty train.

Today was day 4 of our potty training efforts. I changed my tactics a bit today, since our 'three day potty training' effort was over. We still stayed home but we spent a good amount of time outside this morning and, when we were in the house, the boys went back to having freedom to be out of my sight and to ride their trikes and other riding toys around inside of the house. So, just generally, they had a lot more freedom today. It was kind of a little test, to see how well they were doing on their potty training. I would periodically ask them if their pants were still dry, which is more of a chance to offer positive praise than anything else. I would then remind them to tell me when they needed to use the potty.

Ben amazed me today. He did not have one accident all day long (even during nap time) and he used the potty for #2 for the first time ever and then went on to do it twice more. He also let us know every time that he needed to go to the bathroom. We never had to prompt him or make him go....and, he likes to use the big potty too, which is good. So, we'll see how tomorrow goes but Ben seems to have gotten the hang of this potty thing. He sometimes still likes to tell me he has to go, have me drop everything and run in to the bathroom with him, only to tell me 'not yet'. I'm OK with this though because I would rather have false alarms than clean up messes.

Nick has also done very well, although he has not tackled pooping in the potty yet. Now that the newness of potty training is wearing off, he tends to want to wait as long as possible to run to the bathroom and he ends up with partially wet pants. But he always got the vast majority of it in the potty and none of it on the floor or anywhere else, so he really did very well too.

So, overall, we are doing very well with this potty training thing but I am exhausted. I am hoping that tomorrow will see us all start to settle into a nice routine and I can stop monitoring the boys so closely. I don't have a feel for how it goes from here, since the potty training book I am using really covers potty training in three days. So I am not quite sure how long it will take before I feel we can venture out to public places without expecting an accident. I'm also not quite sure how long the boys could wait to find a public restroom, if they needed to go while we were out and about. So, for now, I am planning to continue to stick pretty close to home.

Oh well, I'm saving gas and not having to buy diapers anymore so I guess we're doing pretty well overall.

Now if I could just catch up on some rest. Yesterday I hung out with and entertained the boys all day long, while doing the potty training thing. The dad was taking up the tile in our master bath and did not finish until late. At 10:00pm, after putting the boys to bed, we had to clean our bedroom of all the disgusting, very fine, thick dust that covered every square inch of our bedroom, which came from the master bath when the tile was being removed. I was not a very happy camper but we worked together and got it done quickly. I ended up not getting to sleep until after midnight though so I was exhausted today. On that note, I am going to bed early tonight. Good night.

June 13, 2008

This is our third day of potty training and it is going very well. We only had one partial accident today and a couple of partially wet pants but everything else went where it was suppose to go. Mommy likes that:). We also didn't have any dirty pants or messes to clean up so I know they will be coming sooner or later. I have a feeling they are at work on changing the schedule for those so they will end up happening in their pull ups, just after they wake up from nap or night. Both boys are still excited about using the potty, wearing pants and being 'big boys', which is cute. They are also still very excited about the 'prizes', although they do forget to get them sometimes.

We had such a good morning today that we all laid in bed and watched a movie and ate popcorn together. They really enjoyed that, most especially the popcorn. We were watching a Thomas the Train DVD and it did not hold their attention for very long...maybe 15 minutes. I'm OK with that though. I also let them watch this other little DVD that I recently got for them, which shows a group of kids in their Sunday School class and they are singing popular kid's Christian songs and dancing and doing hand motions to the music. Now this one they will sit and watch all the way through. It is amazing to watch because it is as if they go into a trance, as they sit and stare at the TV. After that, we went back to playing again.

We have been doing lots of puzzles, playing with play dough a lot, reading, coloring and drawing and they also spend time playing with their trucks and pushing their grocery carts around. They received new little play cell phones and calculators for potty training treats so they have had a fun time with those too. I crack up listening to Nick play with his cell phone. He does a pretty good imitation of me. They both love to push buttons so I knew when I saw the $1 calculators that they would also be a big hit. What is it about boys and pushing buttons??? It is like an addiction or something. If there is a button nearby to be pushed, it is like taming wild horses to keep them away from it.

The dad started working on our master bathroom floor today. We cleaned out everything and he took out the toilet and is now taking out the tile. I don't know what the tool he is using is called but it sounds like a jack hammer. I think it is a smaller type of jack hammer-like tool. It is very loud and the amount of dust it creates is just unbelievable. Even though the master bath doors are closed, there is a thick coat of dust on everything in our room, which also means there is most likely the same thick coat of dust on everything in our closet. Yuck. And it does not smell good either. I am doubtful that we will even be able to sleep in our bedroom tonight. I will really be glad when he finishes taking out the old tile because it is not very pleasant. I'm sure he feels the same way...probably even more strongly:).

June 12, 2008

Well, we continued to learn about using the potty today. Oh what fun we are having! :)

The boys are doing pretty well really. Nick especially is getting the hang of getting there before he wets on anything. I am learning to read Ben's signs that he has to go but he is sometimes reluctant to go, although he is quite happy once he has gone. He is proud of himself and is very excited to get a little reward.

The 'other business' is another whole different story though. I won't provide any gory details but we have not quite mastered that yet. We are getting closer though so hopefully we will make more progress tomorrow.

We are doing pull ups at nap time and night time for now. We put them on at the very last minute and take them off as soon as they wake up. Both boys were dry after nap today. They are definitely gaining more control and we are just now done with our second day of learning.

They are both still very positive about the whole potty business generally. If we ask them if they are happy they are not wearing diapers, they both say yes. We have had many very funny moments and I wish I had been writing them down because I can't remember them now. I told a few of them to my sister and she was laughing hysterically. Maybe she will remember them.

Once again, I spent the entire day focusing on them, playing with them, reading to them and keeping them within eye-shot of me. We had a fun day overall, although I am really tired. I am wondering how long it will take for us to actually be able to go out again without worrying if someone is going to have an accident. It is suppose to rain tomorrow, which is great because it will make it easier for them to be inside for the third day in a row. If it is nice on Saturday, we will spend a good portion of the day outside and see how that goes. Hopefully we will continue to make good progress tomorrow so we will be ready for a day outside on Saturday.

The dad is on vacation starting tomorrow and then all next week, which is nice. He will be quite busy though. He is going to be taking out the tile in our bathroom and putting in the new tile, along with the heating system that will go under the tile. Hopefully our bathroom will be a bit warmer next winter.

Our staying in bed issue has not improved much. The dad is handling this at night, since I am exhausted with the potty training duties. Today I delayed nap time for an hour, hoping they might go to sleep easier. Nonetheless, after putting them down, I quickly decided just to sit in their room until they fell asleep. Nick was asleep within 20 minutes. If they both fell asleep this quickly, I would do this every day. Ben took over an hour to fall asleep. I finally got tired of waiting so I gave him a calculator to play with, which made him very happy, and I left the room. He eventually woke N up so I had to go back up and found that Ben had a dirty pull-up. After changing him, I sat in their room again while they fell asleep. They were both asleep quickly that time. I'm sure this will improve over time but I think I will probably just plan to sit with them until they fall asleep at nap times for a while.

It is absolutely amazing how many natural disasters are happening these days. Between fires in CA and FL, mudslides, floods and tornadoes, you can't turn the news on these days without hearing tons of stories about natural disasters. I can't recall ever hearing about this many at once before. It's very sad.

June 11, 2008

So we started learning how to use the potty today. Overall it is really going well. We had the expected couple of accidents but both boys are learning quickly. Now they take off running through the house, holding themselves, when they have to go to the bathroom. It is very cute.

Ben has successfully used the potty three or four times this morning and Nick about seven times. Nick has some pretty good control, so much so that he can empty about one third or one quarter of his bladder, hold the rest, collect his treat/reward and be ready to come back and do it all over again 2 - 5 minutes later. Clever little boy.

In fact, they both like going so much that they will say they need to go quite often, run into the bathroom while holding themselves and then decide they don't really need to go (after I come running in after them of course). They may decide they really don't need to go while standing in front of their potty chair, just before pulling down their pants, in which case they will say "not yet", with a smile. Or they may pull their pants down, sit down on the potty chair and wait two seconds before saying "done", with a big smile. It is all fun and games.

I am happy that they are seeing this as a positive experience and enjoying themselves. I have basically let the entire house go today. The breakfast, snack and lunch dishes are still in the sink. I have spent my whole time playing with them, reading to them, drinking lots of liquids with them and just having fun, while watching for signs that they need to go.

On the other hand, the NOT so fun part is getting them to STAY IN THEIR BEDS!! This one just might make me lose my mind.

They actually did very well last night and they didn't get up once so that was great. I changed things up a bit and it seemed to help the situation. I only let them each take up one stuff animal (Nick's Ya Ya and Ben's bear). They have collected a bunch and had gotten into the habit of wanting to take them all upstairs so they could play this game of throwing them, which was too much of a temptation to get out of bed, now that they are no longer in cribs. So, just one stuffed animal each. The other thing I did was that I let each of them pick out one small matchbox-type of car or truck to take to bed with them too. They love to pretend and push them all over furniture and they are usually pretty calm while they are playing this so I thought it might be a good way for them to busy themselves and not be so bored while they were trying to fall asleep. It worked like a charm last night.

Nap time, however, has not been so great. It does not seem to matter what kind of discipline I dish out, they keep getting up until they are so exhausted they finally crash. By then, I am so exhausted I am ready to crash too. Today I used the same methods that I used last night. The first thing they did was throw their matchbox vehicle across the room to each other to 'trade'. This is a no no so I confiscated the vehicles. It was downhill from there...way downhill (or maybe that should be uphill). Either way, it was not a good situation. They finally went to sleep around 3:00, after I had been in there a million times since I first left them around 1:30ish....also after Nick had a poop accident that was quite messy and I accidentally flushed his underpants down the toilet, while trying to empty them out:). That was quite a surprise. I have not gathered up the courage to flush the toilet again to see if it is stopped up. I will let the dad handle that situation when he gets home:).

I am thinking that maybe they just need a later nap these days. I have still been putting them down between 1:00 and 2:00 but I am thinking that I need to start waiting until 3:00 and then wake them up no later than 5:00. That is basically what ends up happening these days anyway, since we end up going through this battle for hours before they finally fall asleep. On the other hand, if they don't take a nap, they are not very happy campers, so I don't think we are quite ready for that yet (I certainly am not:).

If I don't take some sort of steps to fix this issue, I really just might lose my mind soon:). Anyone else's kids take a late nap at this age? (Ben will be three at the end of Sept and Nick will be three in early November).

They typically wake up between 7:00 and 7:30 am, they take about a two hour nap, sometimes three, and they normally go to bed around 8:00 pm. For nap, they had been sleeping between 1:30ish and 3:30ish but now they are not usually falling asleep until much later, after huge battles.

Any suggestions on tactics will be seriously considered and appreciated:). Much prayer needed and also appreciated.

June 9, 2008

So we have a new milestone today. The cribs are gone! I am wanting to start potty training ASAP so I decided I would really rather have them in their twin beds before we start potty training. So today I took down the cribs, moved them out and I also removed the bed rails and the box springs from their twin beds and moved them out. They are now sleeping on their twin mattresses on the floor with no rails.

In retrospect, we should have done exactly this from the very start. I think we would have been much further along had we done it this way to begin with. Oh well. You live and learn. It took me a little while to get them to stay in their beds at nap time today but it was not as bad as I thought it might be.

Their room has soooo much more space in it now that the two cribs are gone. It looks so much nicer. I even moved in a small bookcase and I am planning to pick out a number of their favorite books to move upstairs to their room for bedtime reading.

I am not sure exactly when we will start the potty training but it will be soon. I am ready. I discovered this through a friend of mine. I purchased the ebook last night and quickly read through it. It makes so much sense and sounds like a wonderful and very positive approach. I have a friend who started using this approach with her twin girls on Friday and she has been very happy with the results. So, we will be joining the potty training party soon.

I just checked on the boys and they are both still sound asleep in their twin beds. Neither of them have fallen off yet and they have been sleeping now for about two hours. Today's nap is a success. Now we just need to get through tonight. For some reason, the boys really seem to get all hyped up at bedtime, even though we follow a routine and we sit and read. It really makes me want to put them into separate rooms. We'll see how it goes now. Maybe since they are quickly approaching the three year old mark, they will start settling down a little bit. (yeah, right...wishful thinking:). At least it will be easy now to move one of them to another room without the cribs, if we decide we need to do that.

There is a part of me that thinks that bed time might be more relaxing and special if they were in separate rooms and we got to spend some quiet time with each of them before bed. But then there is the other part of me that hears how much fun they have together and I like that they have fun and love being together.

June 4, 2008

Today we had to pick up a few things at Target and then went for a huge grocery haul. Both boys behaved perfectly. Isn't it funny how some days can seem so bad that you end up seriously questioning your parenting abilities and realizing how much you still have to learn and then there are other days when your kids behave so nicely and it makes you wonder who those other kids were (or maybe they are wondering who that other mom was:). I don't know but those bad kind of days really make me appreciate the good kind of days.

Here's something that has been cracking me up lately. Nick's new favorite saying is "how you do-nin'?". He says it at the funniest times. It always makes me think of Joey on Friends:).

After returning from the farm the other day, Nick kept repeating over and over "brother step in poop". He also reminded us of it a couple of times yesterday and once last night before going to bed.

June 3, 2008

Yesterday we had a very fun day. My friend and her two sons went to 'the farm' yesterday. Her older son turned three yesterday and her younger one is around 8 months old. My brother has a farm, which I have mentioned before. I gave my niece a ride back to her house yesterday and invited my friend and her sons to go with us.

All of the boys got to take rides on the big green tractor. It is one of the closed-cab tractors and has a horn! They all liked that and they also got to help drive. They each also had two rides on one of the large four wheelers and got to help steer also. They played with the puppies, which were definitely a favorite of the 8 month old. They played with the baby sheep and the birthday boy got to help feed it with a bottle. They got to pet a baby kitten and they also got to sit on a horse, which they all really enjoyed. There were roosters and chickens all over and Nick had a fun time chasing a chicken all around the yard, while yelling "goose, goose, goose". It was very funny.  After all of the farm fun, we all went to eat at a local burger joint.

One thing I wanted to document is that Nick used his little potty chair TWICE yesterday afternoon/evening, for the first time ever. That was an exciting time for all of us:). It was very cute and very self-driven. When he really decides that he is ready to be potty trained, I think it will happen very quickly. I'm still a bit undecided about when to really start training them. Nick can be so resistant at times if something is not his idea that I am still up in the air about this. The last thing I want is for this to become a point of contention.

Much more prayer needed about all of this. I have a bunch of cute pictures that I need to post soon. Maybe I can do it tonight.

June 1, 2008

We have been spending a lot of time outside. We were pretty much out there all day Friday, except for nap time. We had a very fun play date on Friday morning. My friend has two sons. One of them will be three years old tomorrow and I think the other one is about 8 months old now. Her older son and my two really get along well and enjoy playing together. They had a blast running all around the yard and back and forth through the sprinkler-ring thingy that we have. They also had fun in the sand box and our little splash pool. The baby really enjoyed the splash pool too and he was very fun to watch.

Tomorrow we are all going to my brother's farm. The boys and I were going anyway to give my niece a ride home so we invited our friends to join us so they could see the baby lamb and puppies and take a tractor ride. Hopefully it will be a beautiful day.

Another friend of mine (with the twin girls) found a great neighborhood pool really close to our house. She and I went to take a look at it on Saturday and it is very nice. The membership fee for the summer is very reasonable. There are two slides and a diving board and they have a separate kiddie pool nearby that is fenced in and they have a snack bar with very reasonable prices. So we are looking forward to having a neighborhood pool to go to. Yay! I had been hoping for something like this. The boys are going to really enjoy it.

When we left the pool, we went to the library and I checked out several books on tape for kids. They are a bit too old for my kids right now but I wanted to take a look at some of them. I am finding that there are many many kids classic books that I have not read before and so I am looking forward to reading them with my kids when they are old enough. I have decided not to listen to these books on tape just yet so that I will enjoy them more when the boys and I listen to them in the future. When my friend and I left the library, it was storming very badly and we both got drenched. It moved through pretty quickly though, thankfully.

Today started off with some pretty awesome thunderstorms though. We held our breath on the way to church, hoping and praying that God would protect our car from the hail that was predicted for our area (He did:). When we came out of church, there were branches, leaves and other debris all over the sidewalks and streets from the high winds. We had heard reports of 50 to 60 mile an hour winds and baseball size hail had been reported in an area that could be around our house so we were not quite sure what we would find when we arrived home. Turns out everything was fine. My flowers (mostly daylilies), which look wonderful this year:), are all still in tact, which means we did not have the big hail at our house. We did have lots of leaves and branches down in our front yard but that was pretty much it.

This has sure been a bad year for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. When we got home today, my husband was investigating the various options for storm shelters that can be put in a garage. We may be buying one soon. I'm thinking it is not such a bad idea.

May 27, 2008 Part 2

After becoming a mom, one of the things I have thought about and appreciated quite often is that each day is a new one, where I get to start over and try again to be the mom that I know God would like for me to be. I am still very thankful for that.

When I went to get the boys from their cribs this morning, they were both asking to go to the mall. Nick also said he would not cry. I reminded him "no fits" and he agreed. We had a very good time at the mall play area and even met a man from Russia who was there with his son. His son was born in the U.S. but currently only speaks Russian. The Russian man spoke English pretty well and we had a nice chat. He and his wife have three kids and they moved here from Russia about 5 years ago. I really enjoyed visiting with him and there were lots of kids for the boys to play with (or around:).

We came back to the house after about two or two and a half hours and the boys wanted to draw and color for a little while and then it was time for lunch. After lunch we played with blocks for a while, then put together one of our large floor puzzles and then they played with their barns, animals, trucks and tractors on top of the floor puzzle, which has a picture of a barnyard on it. Then we played with some small letter puzzles (put 'A' together with 'a', 'B' together with 'b', etc.) for a little while and then it was nap time.

When I was putting the boys down for their nap, I was rubbing Nick's back. He was real sweet and got up to hug and kiss me. I found this quite touching.

I forgot to mention what we did for the Memorial Day weekend. Two of my nieces graduated this weekend. On Friday we drove the 1.5 hours up to where my sister lives. We had a hotel room just across the street from my sister's house, so we would not have to tote the boys around until all hours of the night. The dad stayed with the boys while I went to one graduation (my sister's daughter). She gave a short speech, since she was one of the top scholars. She is also the one who spoke at my grandmother's funeral. She does an amazing job of speaking in front of large groups. After the graduation, my sister stayed with the boys in our hotel room while the dad and I went to my other niece's graduation reception at her house. It was already around 10:00 by the time we got there but the party was in full swing and there were lots of people there to congratulate the graduate.

The next morning, we went back to my brother's house again. He lives on a farm and he has a new baby lamb and baby puppies. The baby lamb was given to him, as it's mom had triplets and only had enough milk to provide for two lambs. They feed it with a bottle and it follows them around. When they go in the house, it will stand outside the screen door and "baaaa baaaa". It is about a month old and it is absolutely adorable, the smallest/youngest one I have ever seen. The boys got to feed it with a bottle and I held it for a while. It loves to be held and pet and it just tucked it's little head up under my chin like a little baby. It was too cute. Our camera was out of batteries but our friends took pictures and said they will send them to us. The puppies were just as cute and the boys enjoyed playing with them too. But their favorite thing by far was to sit on the two tractors and to take a ride on one of them. Yesterday morning, when I went into their room to get them up, the first thing Ben said to me was "mommy, two tractors", as he held up two fingers. They went back and forth between the two tractors, sitting on them and pretending to drive them for quite some time.

The boys were exhausted when we left and slept most of the way home, which was not a long enough nap for them. We put them to bed that night an hour early and they still slept to their normal wake-up time and took a longer nap the next day. Overall, we all had a wonderful time and the boys have been asking when we are going back every day since.

We have a play date scheduled for Friday and we will be going back to the farm around the beginning of June, so we will stay busy and they will be back there before they know it. It is a wonderful environment for little kids to run around all over the place.

We have been having a lot of cloudy days and thunderstorms at night lately. We have been very fortunate that we have not had any close calls with tornadoes, although we have had some hail.  My only complaint about this stormy weather is that it really wreaks havoc on my head. I have these really bad head aches when the weather is like this and then we get a really pretty day and my head feels just fine. I think it has something to do with the changing air pressure and my troublesome sinuses. I used to get these headaches in Houston sometimes when we had stormy weather but they seem to have become more regular since moving to Oklahoma.

Well, I better get some things done while the boys are napping. I hope you are having a good day today:).

May 27, 2008

A couple of funny things to document. Today, at the grocery store, we were checking out and an older couple got into the line behind us. Nick started saying 'wait your turn', 'wait your turn'. He had said it twice before I realized that he was talking to them. Fortunately, they either did not hear him or did not understand him.

Today, when we got back from going to the grocery store, the boys were pretending to shop with their shopping lists. At one point, they were both at the table, writing (scribbling on) their grocery list. I asked them what they were writing on their list and Nick said "a, b, c, d". I guess we forgot to buy those when we were at the grocery store this morning:).

May 24, 2008

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday of the boys. I was gathering a ton of clothes to give away to our friends who have a 14 month old son and I decided I should take some pics of the boys in these cute overalls, since they are basically too small now and I need to pass them on.













These overalls have a sentimental place in my heart for three reasons:

1. My grandpa used to wear these kind of overalls every day when he was working on his farm. I spent many, many days running around after him, tagging along and following him around during my many visits to the farm to see my grandparents when I was a kid. He always cleaned up real nice when we were going to church or to 'town' for something or another but my fondest memories of him are with him wearing these kind of overalls.






 
2. My niece gave the boys these overalls and she has a special place in my heart, so that makes them special too.


3. The boys just look to darn cute in them, don't they?

May 20, 2008

This is a quickie but I want to document it before I forget.

The boys and I went to the park today and we had a fun time on a beautiful day (although it is getting pretty hot now). We were getting ready to leave and Nick was a bit ahead of me and Ben, when I heard him say very urgently, "Mommy! A mouse! A mouse!".

I looked to where he was pointing, not too far from us, but there was a big tree in the way. I kept looking, thinking that I would soon see a squirrel run from behind the tree. He was standing where he had a better perspective and could see past the tree better than I could. Again he yelled, "Mommy! A mouse! A mouse!". He was so excited.

A second later I saw a lady come from behind the tree, walking down the sidewalk and a millisecond later I saw her little tiny chihuahua come trailing after her on a leash. She had heard Nick calling her little dog a mouse and she was cracking up and, by then, I was cracking up laughing too. It was quite a funny moment.

May 19, 2008

It is officially hot here now:). Summer has arrived. The boys have been outside playing in the water for the past couple of weeks. One day last week, it was warm outside but was not hot yet. They were wearing shorts and T-shirts and playing in the couple of inches of water in their little swimming pool. They waded in it once in a while but, for the most part, they were leaning over the side, filling up containers with water and then walking around the patio and yard and dumping the water on various things. I was sitting on the patio, reading a book. Out of the blue, they both decided they wanted to take off their shorts and their diapers but they wanted to keep their shirts on. We have a wooden fence around the yard and, heh, you're only young once, right? So they played for a while with their T-shirt on and their little birthday suits from the waist down. I thought it was quite funny.

Today, the dad was outside with Nick, while I was in the house cooking dinner and Ben was sitting nearby at the kitchen table, coloring, cutting and pasting. The dad later told me that Nick was going behind the bushes to hide and then yelling, "honey! honey!" at the dad.

We are now hearing almost-full sentences from both boys and they never shut up! (I love it most of the time:) Today Ben told me "mommy, boo boo all better".

Tonight at the dinner table, Nick said "that tasty", after tasting lemonade for the first time. That was the first time I had heard either one of the boys use the word 'tasty'. They pick up on new words so quickly these days. It is so amazing.

Whenever we are out shopping and someone happens to be in our way, as we are going down an aisle with a shopping cart, before I have a chance to even consider it, one of the boys will be telling them 'scuse me'. They say this to each other in the house if one of them is in the other's way and they also sometimes say it to stationary objects that happen to be in their way...and of course, they also say it to the cats if they are in the way.

Nick is now at the point where, if he happens to hurt me accidentally, by kicking me in the head when we are laying together on the couch for example:), and I say 'ouch, that hurt', he will immediately say 'soddy mommy' and give me a hug and kiss. He is big on doing this with brother too but brother frequently does not want the hugs and kisses, as he is annoyed at being injured. Nick also gives Ping a hug and a kiss and says "I'm soddy", as we read the book The Story About Ping (I think that's the name).

They are both very big into the blame game these days. If I ask 'who did that?', they will both say the other one did it.

I got tired of hearing the boys whine and ask me to help them every time they got stuck while riding their tricycles in the house. So I finally told them, "when you get stuck, you should say 'oh man!' and then get off your bike and move it so it is not stuck anymore'. This has really worked remarkably well and I smile every time I hear 'oh man!', as they are riding around the house. If they forget and start whining, I give them that raised eyebrow look, like only a mom can deliver. That usually gets a cute little smile and then 'oh man!' and then the stuck child climbs off the trike and pulls it free.

Today I bought a $4 vinyl table cloth that I can throw over the kitchen table when the boys want to color, draw or paint. Much nicer than using newspaper every time and much more likely to prevent writing on the table. Ben really enjoys sitting at the table and coloring (scribbling), cutting and pasting often now.

It seems like we definitely have two opposite personality types in our house with our two sons. Nick loves being outside and would stay out there all day long if we let him. When we have been outside for a few minutes, Ben is likely to start asking to go into the house. Twice within the past few days we were outside, I was reading and the boys were playing, when the dad got home and came outside to join us. I had to go inside to start dinner and, soon after, Ben wanted to come in with me. As soon as he came inside, he asked to sit at the table and color, cut and paste (he always does all three:). Nick stayed outside with the dad until he absolutely had to come in.

This evening Ben asked me "mommy, read, read?". As he climbed up on the couch next to me, out of the blue he said "no poopy mommy". Big red flag. I asked him if he was poopy and he said again "no poopy mommy", so I checked him and, sure enough, he was. I had not even suspected anything until he spoke up. He was not too happy when I told him that we needed to change his diaper before we read our book.

Today was the last day that our Parents as Teachers lady will come for the summer. We will see her again in August but we will age out when Nick turns 3 in November, so we will probably only see her again three more times, once each in Aug, Sept and Oct and then we will probably be done. I think I enjoy her visits as much as or more than the boys. She and I spend a lot of time talking about everything and anything while she is here.

It's hard to believe that summer is already here. We have two graduations to go to this Friday evening. My two nieces are both graduating from different high schools on the same night. I think within the next week or two, all of the schools here will be out for the summer.

May 16, 2008

I am very excited about homeschooling our kids but I am also very realistic, or I try to be anyway. I know that there will be times in the future, once we really start school, when I will be tired and frustrated and it won't all be a bed of roses at our house. Sometimes it is hard to remember things like this when I am in the throes of research and planning. I really enjoy the research and planning.



Nick loves to ride this little rocking horse.












Nick trying on my readers.












My grandmother's funeral was yesterday and we were very blessed that it did not rain. My husband was able to get off work and my grandmother's church provided a very nice lady to watch the children during the service. She was great and the boys loved her and had a great time. When I asked them if they had fun, they shook their heads yes and said "again?, mommy, again?", indicating they would like to go back and play at that church again sometime. They cried when we left them but they soon stopped and obviously had fun and they were happy to see us when we returned.

The church family also provided a meal for the family before the service. My grandmother has a pretty big family these days, so that was quite an undertaking. They had two large hams and a large turkey, with all of the veggies, potatoes and gravy, bread, drinks and desserts too. It was quite a nice spread and it was very nice for the family to be able to sit down together and spend some time visiting and catching up. Several of my extended family members had heard a lot about our sons but had not met them yet so it was nice that they were finally able to meet. Several of my family members had also not met my husband yet, so it was especially nice that he was able to meet them.

In the service, one of my nieces did a wonderful job of playing the piano and singing a song, accompanied by her good friend on the guitar. Another niece did an amazing job of writing her own speech and then standing in front of the congregation and speaking about grandmother Rilla. She had everyone shaking their heads and leaning to the person next to them to say "yep, Rilla always did that", or laughing about funny things that grandma did. It was so good that everyone clapped when she finished, which is a bit unusual at a funeral. My dad's wife sang with her two friends in a trio and they did a beautiful job. They sang a song that my grandmother had specifically asked her to sing at her funeral, so that was special. My grandmother's pastor spoke and then my uncle, who is a Baptist preacher, spoke for a while. He did an awesome job and I know it could not have been easy for him to do that at his own mother's funeral. He also had us laughing, knowingly nudging each other and crying at times. The church was packed out, which was not surprising. She knew a lot of people and everyone who knew her loved her. There were lots of tears, from those of us who will miss her smiling face so much....she would have been 97 years old tomorrow. She and grandpa lived on their farm together for over 70 years and he had been gone now for about 10.5 years. After 45 years of going to grandma's for visits and always having her meet me at the door with a big smile, it is hard to imagine never doing that again. I will miss her dearly but I am so happy for her because she is no longer suffering. She is in heaven with Jesus Christ and she really is singing with the angels now.

Yesterday was the first day that our sons have not taken a nap. They actually did quite well, considering. I was really surprised because I thought they would both fall asleep as soon as we started home but they did not. They both fell asleep when we were about 15 minutes away from home. We were all exhausted yesterday evening. We put the boys to bed an hour earlier than normal, which seemed perfect since they woke up at their normal time today (they normally sleep late if they go to bed late and wake up early if they go to bed early). They were pretty tired by nap time though so I'm sure they are still catching up and will likely take a longer than normal nap today.

Today the boys and I took their cardboard 'slide', turned it over and spread it out on the floor. Then, using some permanent markers, we drew out roads, houses, stores, parking lots, a church and school and a park (I am no artist so believe me when I say it is very crude). At one end is our house and our neighbor's house and at the other end is grandma's and aunts' and uncles' homes, because it is a long drive (1.5 hours one way) to visit them. In between, there are all of the other stores and park and stuff. It is pretty simple but I think they will enjoy playing with it and we had fun drawing it out. I will let them color it later and am thinking of adding some tunnels and hills.

The boys are spending more time these days coloring, cutting and pasting. We are now doing this at the kitchen table, which has a lot more space....much better than using their little play table. I am getting to where I frequently leave stuff out on the table so they can get up there and doodle as they want. I don't leave the scissors and paste out though:).

I have an alphabet book that I bought at the homeschool convention that has a different Bible verse that starts with each letter of the alphabet. The boys wanted me to read it to them before nap time today and I was asking Ben what sound some of the letters make. I was quite surprised at how many he already knows, although I still think he is a ways from being ready to move much further than that.

According to our local school district, our sons should officially start kindergarten in August of 2011. So we have three more years of playing and having fun before we really have to start school. In the meantime we will continue to have fun, while learning what we can along the way. It is amazing how much they pick up from just playing. If they show an interest in doing more before then, we will.

I have an interesting situation with Nick that I need to pray about more. He often seems very reluctant to let me show him or teach him things. The other day, we were outside and I had pulled out the little plastic T-ball set we have. I wanted to show him how to hold the bat and he threw a little fit and wanted no part of it. Later, the dad came home and I quietly told him what happened and suggested that he try and see how Nick would respond. It was interesting that, when the dad asked Nick if he wanted him to show him how to do it, Nick immediately said yes and wanted his help multiple times. I am thankful I have some time to pray about this and learn how best to approach Nick before we really have to start school. It is very likely that I need to learn a different way to approach him or something and, hopefully with God's help, I can figure this out in time and maybe Nick will mellow out about this as he gets past the two-to-three year old age.

May 27, 2008

I thought I would end the day on a happy note. These are a few things I have been wanting to document so I would not forget them.

-- Nick is going through a stage where he wants to pull stuff out of the books we read or climb into the book to play with something. Today he saw a slide in a book and put his feet up, trying to climb into the book and slide down. Tonight at bedtime, when we were reading the children's Bible, he wanted to bring Hannah out of the Bible. He does this quite often these days. When he is trying to get in the book or take something out of the book, he makes this 'uh? uh?' sound and looks at me as if I should know how to do this.

-- Ben has discovered that he enjoys licking windows and then rubbing his finger all around on the window where it is wet. He especially likes doing this when he is outside, which I find odd because I would think they would not taste very good, as they have not been cleaned in a while. I am trying to discourage this behavior, since it makes quite a mess of the windows. However, it is quite funny and I usually have to hide my laughter before telling him to stop.

-- Today the boys and I were outside playing in their sandbox. Nick found a small rake and started raking the sand around. I heard him mention 'poo 'poo' a couple of times and was wondering if he had found some cat poo, since we had left the top off the sandbox for 24 hours the other day. I finally figured out, as Ben joined in the 'game', that they were pretending they were cleaning the cat's litter box:). Isn't that special? Since they are in the "help mommy" stage of life, they are always wanting to help me clean the cat box but, much to their disappointment, I make them keep their distance.

Tonight for dinner, I fixed some stir fry Asian veggies. They came frozen with a small package of sauce to put on them and they were quite good. They had mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, peppers, water chestnuts, those baby corn on the cob things, carrots and I am sure I am leaving out a couple of other things. The boys had not ever tasted water chestnuts or the baby corn on the cob things. They both ate it and enjoyed it. It was funny because Nick especially liked it and I lost track of how many helpings he had. He kept asking for more and more and was still eating about 20 minutes after the rest of us had finished. When he first started eating, he would pick up a piece that he had never seen before and ask me what it was. I would tell him the name and he would repeat it and then pop it into his mouth. I am amazed at how both of our sons will still try any and all new foods and they seem to like everything.

We knew the restaurants would all be packed after church on Sunday so we planned ahead. We brought a menu with us for the place where we wanted to eat and, as soon as we got into our car after church, we called and placed an order to go. By the time we got there, it was ready and we took it home and ate it. It was such a great idea, as the restaurants around here have really long lines during busy times like Mother's Day after church. And we had a delicious, quick and peaceful lunch at home, without having to cook and very little clean up.

One of the side dishes that came with my meal was some spinach orzo which is not something I really care for. I was not eating it and Nick pointed to it and asked for some of it. I gave him a little, thinking he would not care for it and he ended up eating more of it than anything else on his plate. Ben liked it too, although Ben seems to be eating much less of everything these days. It is so odd to see him eat like this.

My attitude about the eating less thing is that I provide plenty of healthy foods for them and let them pick and choose what they want to eat. It is interesting because at some meals they load up on the carbs and just eat a bit of protein and veggies and then at other meals, they load up on the veggies or the protein. When you look at the big picture, they seem to eat what their little bodies need, they are just doing it in a different way now. I have to be careful how much I fix for them for lunch and snacks because we end up wasting more food if I'm not careful.

Tomorrow we are going to the bouncing place again. Our friends have free tickets and they invited us, which is very nice. The boys were excited when we were saying our good nights.

My sister called this evening and it looks as if my grandmother's funeral is going to be on Friday afternoon. I have been trying to figure out the best thing to do with the boys, since the dad will not be able to leave work (he has to see patients on Friday). Our babysitter is out of state on vacation so that's not an option. There will be lots of relatives whom I have not seen in a long time and probably won't get to see again for a long time. So I am thinking of going early and taking the boys with me. Someone can watch them while I say my goodbyes to grandma, I'll get to visit with the family and introduce the boys to many people who have been wanting to meet them but I will not get to go to the actual funeral. That's the only thing I can think of.

May 12, 2008

I have such a mix of emotions today. My sister called a bit ago to let me know that my grandmother died this morning. She was 96 years old but she would have been 97 in five more days. She had been in quite a bit of pain from the many cracked and broken bones she had had over the years, as she had osteoporosis for quite a number of years. She was a bit confused of late because of the pain medication. She had gotten to a point where she could no longer get around without assistance and she had been eating very little for a couple of weeks.

She had been in an assisted living facility she had to move out because she could no longer take care of herself to the point they required. My dad and his wife took her back to her own house a week or two ago and they moved in with her to take care of her, along with help from my uncle, aunt, sister and almost daily check-ins from nursing staff. She really wanted to be home so it is wonderful that they were able to take her home and care for her until she passed away and that she was able to be home when she died. She was with it enough to know she was home, for a few days anyway.

So, I am very joyful for her, that she is no longer in pain, no longer suffering and unable to do the things she enjoyed so much. She was an avid reader and, for many years, that was about all she was able to do for enjoyment but she had lost her eyesight to the point where she could no longer read much over the past number of months. I am very joyful for her, that she is in heaven and with my grandpa, who died quite a number of years ago and whom she never stopped missing. She missed him so much. She told me once, when he had been gone about 5 years or so, that people had told her that it would get easier as the years went by but it had not. They had been married since she was very young, maybe 17 or 18 years old I guess. I think he may have been gone around 10 years now.

She was such a wonderful Christian lady and such a great example. She loved the Lord so much. My sister told me that one of the workers at the assisted living place had told her that she (the worker) came in to check on grandma and grandma didn't know the worker was in there yet and the worker heard grandma just a singing away. The worker asked grandma what she was doing and grandma told her "I'm singing with the angels". She loved to sing the old hymns and my sister would sit and sing them with her when she went for visits.

She was a hard worker too. She and my grandpa had around 400 acres of land that they raised cattle on for many many years. At one time, they had a dairy and chickens and pigs and stuff but for as long as I can remember they only had cattle (not dairy cattle). When I was little, they always had a big garden and us kids would help to snap the green beans and shuck the corn in the summer time. We would always go stay with them for a week in the summer. It was a wonderful place to spend a week every summer in childhood, much like something you would read about in a book. I would always try to tame the baby kittens that would inevitably be running around the farm wild. We would go fishing at the many ponds, pick blackberries and play in the small wooded areas. We would chase after grandpa and follow him around so we would not miss out on any trips out into the fields to 'check the cows'. When we were big enough, we would open and close all of the gates for him, so he probably loved having us around during those years.

My grandmother could fix quite a huge, down home, wonderful meal. She could cook everything up from scratch in no time at all and, boy, was it good. She had some great stories too, about her childhood and what things were like back then.

Overall, she was just one of those really good, wholesome people. She was well loved by many and will be missed.

So I am sad because I will miss her dearly. It just seems odd to think that she will not be here anymore. But I am happy and joyful for her. As my Houston pastor, Dr. Ed Young, used to say, she has graduated and is now with our heavenly Father.

And now I have to go because the boys have awakened early and it sounds like they are tearing the place up upstairs. They are doing great and we had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. More about that at another time, along with some cute pictures.

May 6, 2008

It is a dreary, cloudy day today in Oklahoma (at least where we are anyway). I don't mind that. We have enough beautiful, sunny days that it is kind of nice to have a rainy day here and there. The bad thing is that these big storms and fronts that move through give me bad sinus headaches. I don't like that part.

So, last night I woke up around 2:00 or 2:30 and could not go back to sleep. Just one of those times that I started thinking about all kinds of stuff, nothing bad, just busy:). It never fails that it is times like these when my self discipline really kicks in and I lay there thinking how I am going to eat so much better the next day and start working out. After thinking about this a while and not getting any sleepier, I got up, retrieved a flashlight and proceeded to move the headset attached to our downstairs TV (where I watch news when the boys are sleeping) and took it upstairs. I had recently traded the larger TV in our upstairs game room with the smaller one in our guest room, because my brother was staying with us and he enjoys watching baseball. So, I traded the TV's back to where they were and then hooked up the headset to the TV in the game room so I could listen to the news while working out on the EFX machine. Yes, I did all of this around 2:30 to 3:00 in the morning. I worked out for about 20 minutes, although I could not use the headset after all because I could not get it to work.

Afterwards I went back to bed and still could not go to sleep. We have been thinking about going to Houston for a wedding and also a visit with friends but were not sure we could since my husband has to give 60 days notice of any vacation days (before they schedule patients. He had already scheduled the week after the wedding off, just by coincidence, but the wedding is on a Saturday so he would need the Friday before the wedding off too so we could drive down. So I was thinking about how we could make this work and was thinking I could drive down with the boys and the husband could fly down after work on Friday. I thought of lots of other stuff too, like how I could go about building a child-size coat rack type of thing on which to hang the boys' dress up clothes. I was quite the busy beaver last night:).

I was still awake when my husband's alarm went off at 4:45am and, after telling him good morning, I told him about my solution for our Houston problem. He said, "oh, I was able to take that Friday off after all because I didn't have any patients scheduled". That's great news but so much for all of my late night problem solving:). Needless to say, I am very tired today.

The boys had a dentist appointment today. My husband called me at 8:30, telling me that their appointment was at 9:30 and we had forgotten about it. The boys and I were getting around very slowly this morning (or I was anyway) and they wanted to eat eggs and toast, which takes a bit longer than oatmeal. So we had just finished eating, I had not cleaned up the mess yet and we were all still in our pajamas. We had to rush around to be ready to leave home in 30 minutes. We made it just in time, thankfully.

This time was completely different from the last dentist appointment the boys had, which was their very first one. We had a different dentist this time and she was really great with kids. We were in a small office, rather than out where all of the dental chairs were, and there were even a couple of toys in there. She had the dad hold each child facing him and then they laid the child back into her lap. She did a great job and the boys both did a really good job too. No tears or anything. It was great. We will make sure we see her the next time we go back. Their teeth were fine. We brush them really good at bedtime and then I let them brush their own teeth in the morning after breakfast. Sometimes I will do a little brushing for them in the mornings, if they did more playing than brushing but I really like to let them try to do it then.

Yesterday evening when the dad got home, he took the boys outside to play. He does a bit of reading while they play and then he also plays with them some. I cooked dinner and took it outside on the patio and we all ate out there. It was such a beautiful evening and the boys had a great time getting to spend so much time outdoors. They were blowing bubbles and using sidewalk chalk, playing in the sandbox and swinging and sliding, pushing around the play lawnmower and their wheelbarrows. They did a little of everything and, just before bedtime, we brought them in and rinsed them off in the tub. They had chalk and soap all over them. I just love seeing little boys get dirty while playing outside. It is just the way it should be:).

Here is another thing I forgot to add to my update yesterday. Both boys are really talking a lot these days and are easier to understand. I think Nick may be just a bit ahead of Ben in picking up new phrases and putting sentences together, but they are so close it is really hard to tell. I love hearing them talk and talking to them though. They still want me to repeat everything they say. Fortunately that comes pretty natural to me. Some day they are going to tell me, "stop repeating everything I say" and then I am going to have a hard time breaking this habit:).

May 5, 2008

Some things I have been meaning to document for a while:

-- Nick is now a little under 30 months old; Ben is now a little over 31 months.

-- we have not had to tape diapers for quite a number of months now.

-- although the boys can now climb out of their cribs pretty well, they don't...don't ask me why. I'm shocked that they wait for me to come and get them but I'm not complaining.

-- they still are not sleeping in their new beds. Ben will stay in it all of 5 seconds (literally) after I leave the room at nap time. Maybe they just feel safer in their cribs. I'm sure they will get it eventually, as I don't know any 18 year olds who are still sleeping in cribs:).

-- Nick finally has a little belly. I think it is because he figured out that he really likes bread/toast A LOT so he spent some time packing on the carbs. He looks really healthy though.

-- Ben is slimming down and getting taller. We no longer have to monitor what he eats, as he quits and leaves food on his plate on a regular basis now. His weight has leveled off and is staying at a pretty good level for him now. I wish I could say the same thing about myself.

-- I think we finally filled them up. Both boys have slowed down on how much they are eating lately. I think part of it is that they are at a point where they are busier and more interested in things they are playing so they would rather play than eat. They had never been that way until now.

-- They still eat anything and everything. I am the pickiest eater in our house.

-- They are getting faster and stronger. I am amazed at some of the things they can do now.

-- Nick continues to be consistently ahead of his peers in his motor skills abilities. He is quite nimble, quick and coordinated for his age.

-- Ben continues to be consistently ahead of his peers in his cognitive abilities. He can pick up little counting bears, one by one, and put them into the matching plate while counting them up to 13 or 14. That's pretty good for a child who is just over 2.5 years of age. He knows all of the basic colors and a lot of others, he recognizes all letters in the alphabet and numbers up to around 12 or 13 or so and knows most of the alphabet song. He also has an incredible memory. The dad frequently lets Ben finish sentences when he is reading books to him and it is amazing how much he remembers. I will be quite surprised if he is not an early reader. He is always very interested in learning about letters and listening to me talk about the sounds they make. He watches my mouth closely and tries to repeat what I say. He has a pretty good attention span, when it comes to this sort of stuff.

-- both boys love for us to read to them and they ask me several times a day ("mommy, read, read?"). I normally read several books during morning and afternoon snack times and sometimes during breakfast and lunch and then we also sit on the couch and read a lot too. If they are not playing outside after we finish dinner, the first thing they say is "daddy, read, read?".

-- they still watch very little TV at home. My best guess is that they probably average about 15 minutes every 2 weeks.

-- Nick loves, loves, loves to be outside and is happy to play outside even when an adult is not outside with him...but he wants his brother (or someone) to be outside with him.

-- Ben loves to play outside too, but not so much if an adult is not outside with him.

-- I am still loving my life as a stay at home wife and mom. I'm far from perfect at this and still have much to learn but I sure do enjoy it and I am constantly amazed at how fast the time goes by. I can't believe that my sons will be 3 years old in just 5 to 6 months. Wow.

May 3, 2008

We had a very busy week. We went to the park again on Wednesday and had a picnic lunch with friends. Our boys had a fun time playing together and it was a beautiful day. My mom and sister came to visit us on Thursday and it had been a while since we had seen them so it was extra nice to see them this time. Yesterday the boys and I did some grocery shopping at Sam's Club and had lunch there.
A funny thing lately is that the boys now recognize places where we have been with them previously. When we were driving in Kansas City last weekend, Ben saw the Sam's Club sign and immediately pointed and said "Sam's Club!". It was so funny, as he had only seen the sign and not the store. Both boys point and say "Home Depot", when we drive by one of those and they both recognize our bank as we are driving by on the main highway, even if we don't turn in.

This morning after breakfast, the dad took the boys to run some errands. I surprised my husband by mowing the lawn while they were gone. The only thing is that I was trying to hurry to get as much of it mowed as possible before they came back, when I ran out of gas. When I came back to the garage, I saw they were already home. Turns out they had been home for about 10 minutes already. My husband said he was surprised though and he was glad I had mowed. It was the first time I had mowed in quite a while, since my back and legs have been hurting me so bad. They did pretty well today...another sign that the chiropractor is helping.

We went to look at cars today so the boys were very late in going down for their nap. They were so tired and went to sleep very fast. They are still sleeping though and it is almost 5:00. I may have to wake them up before long. I am very tired too. Mowing the lawn made me face how out of shape I am.

So, nothing too exciting going on around here. I have still been spending a lot of time researching the various home schooling curriculum and I am still leaning towards My Father's World. I am going to go back to The Well Trained Mind and compare their recommendations to MFW's curriculum to see where we would need to supplement, as I am pretty sure we would. I am thinking of purchasing MFW's preschool year. It looks cute and I would like to see what their manual that comes with it looks like. I am going to research this further before I do though. Research, research, research....that seems like all I do these days. Thankfully, I enjoy researching:).

I need to post some new pictures. I have been bad about posting pictures lately and I so enjoy looking at other people's pictures of their children on their blogs. So I really need to get with the program.