We have a new child in the house!!

And the child's name varies, but mostly goes by "Nobody" or "Not Me"! This child moved in about a week ago, and really causes a lot of mischief - always knocking things over, losing toys, making messes, even getting in fights. But the good news - this child doesn't eat anything and doesn't need to go to the potty 14 times in an hour!

I'm sure this child has many siblings, all with similar names, living in houses all around us. Do you live with a Nobody? Although frustrating at times, it is quite funny too! Yesterday, apparently, this child filled one of our window wells with all the toys they could find! But the kids were really good, and helped Nobody clean out the window well, although it took a little convincing. Oh, I'm sure we'll have some fun days with Nobody - but I'm on to their antics, so I'm prepared!!

Potty Training Boot Camp?????

OK - I'm fed up, frustrated, at my wit's end! Oh, how I really, really dislike potty training! If there was a weekend camp to send children to - with or without the parents - to do the potty training - I would SO be on the top of the list to sign up! Uffdah!

Austin is now 3-1/2, and supposed to be starting preschool next month. HOWEVER, preschool requires children to be potty trained. We have been working on it, and we've been somewhat successful at it some days. But it's SO HARD! I know, I know - I'm whining. But seriously - how do you get through to them? We talk about it, he is ok with wearing pull-ups or underwear, and for the most part tells me when he needs to pee. Or, his newest trick, he tells me he needs to pee every 5 minutes, and then does nothing. And Daniel, bless his heart, at 2-1/2 is doing better at it than Austin. But there is just something in Austin that has not clicked yet. He seems to want to potty train, and talks about it often, but the follow-through has me baffled. If anyone has words of advice, I'm all ears. Do I let him go in to the bathroom every 5 minutes, or do I wait and make him go in every half hour? Do I let him run around naked, or is a pull-up the best, or underwear? Or do I just hide in the closet until he's 5 and hope he figures it out on his own?? The closet and chocolate - that sounds like a deal for me right now!

So, it looks like preschool will have to wait, and a wig is on order for Mom after all the hair she has pulled out.

Nope, no pictures to post for this one. Oh, I do have some, very funny ones, but I don't think my children would appreciate those kind of photos showing up online!!

PS - we do use a reward system for going potty - one M&M for potty, one penny for poo. Sometimes I think they just go in to piddle a bit to get the candy!

My rock stars!

This morning, the kids decided to rock out and be rock stars with their guitars - so fun to watch! I'm sure when they are teenagers it won't be as cute anymore, as we're yelling at them to turn it down! But for now, I get a big kick out of watching them dance and sing and play.

Little Picasso's at Work

I finally got brave enough to let the boys paint. I know, I know - it took me a while! The certainly had fun with the paints! Our MOMS Club is having an art contest for a cookbook we are putting together, so I got out the paints and paper and let the boys create their works of art to submit for the contest. Now, of course, they will want to paint every day! Maybe that's how we'll do our Christmas cards this year - paintings by the boys. We'll see.

Nut Factory

Our MOMS Club had a tour of our local Nut Factory today. We arrived about two minutes late, and I kid you not, the tour was already done! I guess they just took everyone by a couple of windows and said, these are the kitchens where we make candy, etc., and that was the end of it. Oh well! We got free goodie bags for each of the kids, and of course, the suckers were a huge hit! I also found some great nuts and candies to buy, and collected all sorts of school supplies from the moms for our drive. So it was still a successful event!

The Ice Cream Truck!

Gretchen went to bed early tonight - I think she is teething again. She was very fussy, a little warm, and extremely tired. So off to bed she went at a little after 6 pm. I decided to keep the boys up longer tonight. They have been waking up between 5:30 and 6 lately, and I'm thinking their 7 pm bedtime might be a little too early. So we stayed up until 8 pm, playing outside. While we were outside, the boys heard the ice cream truck hit the neighborhood. I decided to treat them to an ice cream bar, and boy, they loved that! Of course, I couldn't get Daniel to take off his fireman coat, so he just dripped his ice cream on it. It was a good night!

Tomatoes at Great Gramma's

I had to drop the kids off at Great Gramma's early today - around 7:30 - so I could go to an 8:00 Relay for Life meeting with our staff partner. I didn't worry about feeding the kids breakfast at our house, I just gathered all their things together, dressed them, and packed them in the car. Gram said she would feed them breakfast, and that saved us a ton of time at home. When I picked them up at 9:30, the sun was finally out and warm enough to take pictures of the tomato plants that Gram has growing. The plants started out as little seeds planted by the kids back in the cold part of the spring. We all know how much Gram loves growing tomatoes, so we started two trays of Balcony Hybrid tomatoes in March. She planted 7 of the plants at her house. I thought that the were supposed to be a type of cherry tomato, but they are much bigger than that. And most of the plants are produced quite a good crop.

Why? Why? Why, Mommy? Why?

It has finally started - the never-ending Why? Why? Why? questions from Austin. I knew it was just a matter of time. He is almost 3-1/2, and he's been asking all sorts of other questions for months. Especially - what's that, Mommy? But today, on the way home from church, it started. This should be a fun ride! Wait until Daniel figures out to ask this question - then I'll have two little birds saying the same thing! If you see bald patches on my head, you'll now know why!

Company Picnic

James' company hosted a family picnic today at one of the local parks. Great event - it started at 10:30 and went until 2 pm. Lots of great food - fruit and veggie and chip tray when we first got there, catered bbq lunch at noon, and free hard ice cream cones before we left. They had a jumping castle/slide for the kids, a dunk tank to raise money for the food bank, and lots of school-age kids games. They also had door prizes - 4 given out every half hour - but we didn't win any of those. They also had tables of fun activities set up for the kids - press on tatoos, crafts, and a fishing game for prizes. We really had a good time, and it certainly wore out the kids!

Park Play Day

We were supposed to go to the park today to play in the splash pad, but the weather was pretty cold. I had dressed the kids for water play before we left home, then hit a few yard sales on the way there. But by the time we arrived, the weather still hadn't warmed up, so I quickly changed them in the parking lot and put on their long pants and sweaters. We still had a good time playing in the park with all of our friends! It was a really good turn-out. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a couple. I missed getting a picture of the boys on their new tricycle - I found it a garage sale for $3 - quite the bargain!