Monday, February 28, 2011

Ding Ding Trip - Day 2

The second day that my family was here we started our off by going to Jack's favorite and most requested place...Blazers. He loves that place!

My Aunts, Lisa and Maria, were "lucky" enough to get to run through all the bounce houses with the boys. I'm out of commission to go through those things. Although....I may take a run at it if this baby is one day late! :-) So, my mom and I hung out and were on picture duty. Anyway, Ty really does think he's a big guy which makes him think that he can do everything Jack does. He is one determined kid and nothing stopped him! He went through those bouncy castles and mazes like a champ, with some help going up ladders and steps. Thank you Aunt Lisi and Aunt Ree Ree, I know the boys loved every minute of their afternoon at Blazers with you all!

Aunt Lisa doing more bouncing than sliding down the slide.

Jack and Aunt Maria

Getting ready for another round through the maze with Ty.

Whhhheeeeeeeeeee!!!

Ty and Aunt Maria

Ty having way too much fun! :-) I was jealous!

The reward at the end of the maze.

And when one pair of sunglasses just isn't enough....go with three!!!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Ding Ding Trip - Day 1

Last Saturday my Mom and my 2 aunts, her sisters, Lisa and Maria, flew down here from PA to hang out with us for the weekend. It's kind of become a tradition for The Ding Dings to visit us wherever we end up. Ding Dings.... you say?? Well, I believe it was my Dad who named them. I think their first trip to see me was around the time the Ya Ya Sisterhood movie came out and this lead to my Dad naming them the "Ding Dings"! Hahhahah! It fits and the name has stuck after all these years.

When I graduated from college I moved to Greenville, NC. This was the first "Ding Ding Trip". After NC and marrying Tom I moved to Germany. The Ding Dings actually flew to Germany and ventured to Poland with me and friends to go pottery shopping (that was quite the adventure! hahahahah!) They never got the chance to make it to Monterey but they're 3 for 4 so far, and that's pretty cool!

Before this trip to New-Tucky was planned Tom had gotten me an awesome present for Christmas. He got us tickets to see Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, and Jerrod Neiman in concert in Louisville. It just worked out that the Ding Dings flew in Saturday morning and we had the concert Saturday night. So, basically they flew to KY to babysit. Hahahha! They were here until Tuesday so we had 2 more full days to wear them out! Hahahah! (After I blog about the Ding Ding weekend, I'll have to blog about our big crazy date night in Louisville.)

So the boys and I picked up the Ding Dings at the airport. The boys love the airport! It's an amazing place. There was a parking garage, escalators, moving sidewalks, elevators and of course airplanes and the Ding Dings! :-) When we got back to the house the boys wasted no time in making the Dings Dings jump on the trampoline.

And push them around on little tricycles.


Then Tom and I got ready for our night out and off we went. The Ding Dings were on their own. This is apparently what went on while Tom and I were in Louisville.......
Hahahahaha!!!!



It's a game called Head Bandz that my mom brought for the boys. You have to ask questions and then guess what's on the card stuck to your head. According to my mom, Jack played pretty well. Even asked his own questions. They had a great first night.....more to come.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Pooptastrophe

This weekend my Mom and 2 Aunts came to visit us in "New-Tucky". Before I can get into the amazing time we had and all the fun details, I have to share a story about Jack.

Jack has been completely potty trained since before Christmas. He hasn't had an accident in months but for some reason we totally regressed this past week. He woke up from 2 naps wet and then had a pooptastrophe on Monday. Let me just say I hate poop!! I know that out of all of my fellow moms out there no one likes poop, but I'm just saying!

On Sunday we built a fort in Jack's room and we let him sleep in it for his nap. When he woke up from his nap he trotted downstairs as always and I noticed that he was wearing different pants. I asked him why he changed and he was reluctant to tell me. Of course I knew....wet again. Bummer! We go back up stairs to his room when the stank hit me like a slap in the face. Of course this odor was blamed on Ty but it originated from Jack. (nice try Jack!) I asked Jack to tell me what happened and he said he had an accident and that he changed himself! This little monkey pooped and tried to hide it all by changing and cleaning himself up. This is where the story gets nasty.......Of course he didn't want to get in trouble, or was embarrassed, so he just took his dirty, soaking, stinky clothes and just put it them in his hamper like nothing of it......poop ball included! EEEWWWWWW! Half of me was impressed that he tried to clean up everything himself, the other half was gagging! So my mom took Jack to get his bath while I cleaned the hamper, carpet, blankets from the fort, and everything else that could possibly have come in contact with the unwanted surprise in the hamper!!

After having a long talk and going over why we go in the potty and how if he does have an accident, it's OK because..."accidents happen" but you still have to tell Mommy so she can clean it up, we moved on with our day.

(I believe this regression stems from me being hard on him for coming out of his room a million times and fighting the thought of having to nap. He's very creative with his stalling tactics....band-aids, drinks of water, chapstick, the crazy quetions, "Is it going to be a long nap or short nap?", "How long? 2 Hours?"....on and on and on. So after really scolding him for a good week about NOT coming out of his room and staying in his bed and going to sleep I think I had him thinking he wasn't even allowed to come out to use the bathroom. Oy Vey!!! So lesson learned by me.....)

So after an afternoon of playing and heading out to dinner with my family we come home and get the kids ready for bed. When we go upstairs there's still a pretty raunchy stink coming from the boy's room. (They're now sharing the bonus room in prep for the baby coming) so......we scour the room again. We didn't find anything but the smell is still there. I'm left to assume that the smell is just embedded into the carpet by the hamper so since it was late we put the boys down and I promised that I'd shampoo their carpet the next day. The next day was Tuesday, we woke up, got ready, could still smell the stank and took my family to the airport. When the boys and I got back it was late and time for nap, so being the horrible mother that I am I put them back to sleep in that stinky room until our schedule opened up for a good carpet shampooing. When the boys woke from their naps I went on inspector duty. I got down on my hands and knees, which isn't so easy being 30 weeks preggers, and pretty much sniffed every square inch of their carpet trying to find the spot that was radiating the stink. I looked for little turd nuggets under their dressers, in their toy boxes....EVERYWHERE. I had no luck finding anything but I could still smell the smell. YUCK! So I sit Jack down and have him give me the play by play of what went down with the pooptastrophe. I needed locations of where the deed was done, where he was when he changed and I really needed to know where IT hit the ground when he was getting changed and everything he touched in between. He was very proud to tell me that it never fell out of his skivvies but he tried to clean it up with baby wipes. Hhhhhhmmmmm.....interesting.......I never found any wipes. Oh My God!! Where are these said wipes??? So he told me "Up there", pointing to the top of his 5 drawer chest that's 5 feet tall. I stand up, look and there are 2 little wipes laying neatly on the top of the dresser. With fear in my eyes I move the wipe and there it is.......a big ol' nasty turd ball staring me in the face, laughing at me that I NEVER looked UP in my search for the cause of the lingering stench. Seriously.....how did my 3 year old put THAT way up there?? Well, He climbed up on the foot board of his bed, leaned over and placed it there proudly thinking he was being a big guy and cleaning up his own mess. I was relieved to find the cause of the smell without having to burn down that part of our house. And I was mortified that I was such a bad mother to NOT have found the lone turd that was pretty much "right under my nose", that I had left both of my children sleep in their room in the company of the lone turd over night and again for a nap the next day, and that the whole situation was just soooooooo gross! I can laugh about it now because it's just so ridiculous and of course, my Mom and Aunts were here to witness our pooptastrophe. This will definitely be one of the things that Jack will not be allowed to forget when he gets older!!! Hahahah! Oh My Goodness!

Everything is now cleaned and sterilized in the boys room and the stink is NO MORE!! YEAH! We've been having many conversations about how it's OK for him to come out of his room if he needs to use the potty, etc. We may have back tracked a little but we're working on it! So here's to hoping that there are no more pooptastrophes for us......ever, ever, EVER!!!!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cheetos

Cheetos are a favorite snack for the boys. Who doesn't love Cheetos, right? Well, Ty loves them A LOT! They are definitely his favorite! Ty's one lucky kid when it comes to having his own stash of Cheetos too. Our neighbor works for Frito Lay and he's very good at sharing their stash of pulled off the shelf items. :-) (When the dates expire the snacks get pulled from the stores and find new homes. Hahah!) The only problem I have with Cheetos (other than the obvious that they're not fat free and not considered a health food) is the cheesy stain that is left on my child. That dust gets everywhere! Since the weather has been so nice Ty gets to enjoy his Cheetos outside! YEAH for no orange finger prints on my walls! :-)



Monday, February 14, 2011

My Valentines

This picture was taken during Saturday morning cartoons. I love this picture. Tom was sitting there and everyone just piled on the love seat with him, garbage truck and all. Tom just loves when I take his picture! Hahahahah!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sunshine

We had really nice weather here on Sunday. That of course changed through the week with snow that then turned into bad ice and then that ice was topped with some more snow. So we were HAPPY to get outside on Sunday! The boys actually got to jump on the trampoline, we threw around the football, played with the dogs, gave the boys a big lesson on sharing and Ty walked down the steps like a big guy, on his own without crawling and no tumbles. So proud!!

We really love living in KY!! While living in CA I complained about not really having seasons and missing the snow and winter. I still LOVE the snow but it was nice to have 65 degree weather all year round when you have 2 boys who love being outside! (Beth, I seriously don't know how you're doing it all in Alaska!!) It was 16 degrees today and somehow it's supposed to get to 50 degrees on Saturday. Here's to hoping for another sunny Sunday!!!!



This is what led to a BIG lesson on sharing. I'm not sure we got through to Ty!

You can't really see Jack's face but he was screaming/crying as well. How could I not take a picture? Too bad it wasn't at a better angle!

Ty loves playing fetch with the dogs! He's got a pretty good arm for being 20 months.

Playing with his new baby garbage truck.

Ty had a little run in with the play place at Chic-Fil-A. He actually cut himself right on the corner of his eye.

Everyone chasing Tom.

My little Air Jordan.

My Bigger Air Jordan...

Taking a break, just chillin'

Working on his form.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

First Day

Jack had his first day of preschool on Tuesday! We were so proud of him! He did so great! I of course was expecting tears and a fight for me not to leave when I dropped him off. He was a little hesitant at first then he saw Mr. Washington playing with kaleidoscopes with a group of kids and with that I got a kiss good bye and he was off. Funny how I was so proud and so heart broken in the exact same moment. hahahahah!

We decided to send Jack to preschool so he'd have something to do. I've been striking out with getting him into activities here. (We miss the gymnastics class in CA.) It's a bummer because there aren't any kids his age in our neighborhood. The only gymnastics class he could join is at 5:30-6:30pm on Wednesdays. Who would go to that??? Do they not know what time 3-4 years old eat dinner and go to bed??? He's too young for the karate classes in the area, and so on and so on. Anyway, we figured it was time to get him involved in something. We have been talking about sending him since we moved here. When we got back from our Christmas vacation I went in to CYS to sign him up and ended up putting him on a waiting list to start in February, even though there were openings right away. I know....total mom moment! Don't judge me!!! But I'm ready now, and he definitely is as well. :-)


The "first day of school" picture


Ty marched right over and stood next to Jack after I took the first picture. How cute!!?


This picture cracks me up because Ty's hair is out of control and already in need of another trim!


The Bro Hug! (Can you tell there's something interesting on the TV?)