WARNING - not for those with weak stomachs!
Potty training 2 kids has been easy for me until this past week. Easy because Lois trained Cade over the weekend I was in the hospital having Breyden....and easy with Breyden because she wants to do everything Cade does.
Easy until this week.
Breyden wants to "poop on pink potty" when she is home and by poop, she means peepee. She is pretty good about getting her diaper and pants off and then letting me know when she is done. Sunday afternoon she said she needed to go "poop on pink potty" and I said OK go ahead. Well about 2 minutes later she came into the living room saying "I poop on potty!!" holding what looked to be a mini-Reece's cup. I guess you can imagine my surprise and shock that "poop on pink potty" finally meant going #2...
She was so proud of herself I couldn't get mad. She just wanted to show me her "poop on pink potty".
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Never thought I would look forward to Mondays
It's hard to look forward to weekends these days. Don't get me wrong, there still isn't much that gets me in the mood for a glass of vino more than 5pm on Friday. BUT unless I have plans to leave the state, my weekends typically suck.
I find myself scrolling through photos for hours and probably having one too many glasses of red while doing it. So its been 45 minutes since the weekend officially started and these are some of my favorites that I haven't really done anything with before....
My weekends suck because THEY are gone.
I find myself scrolling through photos for hours and probably having one too many glasses of red while doing it. So its been 45 minutes since the weekend officially started and these are some of my favorites that I haven't really done anything with before....
These days, Mondays can't come soon enough for me.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBA!
Happy birthday to Bubba!!!
WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH -
Ash, The Mean Machine & Your Baby Doll
CONGRATS TO THE GOLDEN GIRLS!
The US women have won the gold medal again!
Meet their starting center midfielder for the 2024 Olympics:
BB Felber
She's already playing up....the under 7 team! ;-)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
You learn something everyday....
I know now (after 33 years) that you really do learn something new everyday. But I didn't recognize just how much kids learn on a daily basis until I had a couple of my own.
The new questions I get from Cade and the new orders I receive from Breyden boggle my VERY vanilla thinking. How in the world do they come up with this crap? Most of the time I am left searching the internet for answers for Cade AND having to walk out of the room laughing because of something Miss Breyden instructs me to do.
Now that its just the three of us on nightly basis, I am in a zone defense (my heart goes out to my close friend Beth Norwood who has triplets - so even with a husband around to help, I can't imagine). This makes the new found "homework" time in between dinner and Dora the Explorer an interesting 30 minutes at our house. Let's be clear, I know that Cade looks and acts like he is six years old....but Breyden THINKS she is six and so, there isn't one thing that Cade does that she doesn't want to try. Since I have entered this "zone defense life" I mentioned above, my creativity on how to be a fun and effective mom has dwindled a bit. I had to put in a call to the best Mom I know to see how I should juggle helping Cade with his letters while Breyden fights to stay in my lap. My genius Mother reminded me that I need to use Breyden's desire to be like Cade so now, Breyden has homework too. And TA-DA....she LOVES it.
The homework last night instructed Cade to come up with 2 words that use the "short e" sound (which BTW I had to look up on the internet if that meant "pen" or "bee" b/c I can't tell you the last time someone said "short e" to me). He then needed to sound out the word, write it on the orange flashcard, and draw a picture of the word on the back. Every night before last, we've been asked to use the regular white kindergarten writing paper - but last night we used the orange cards. Well Breyden looked at what Cade was writing on and knew he was getting to do something that she wasn't. So she looked at me and said "Mama, I want the orange paper". ORANGE PAPER? I didn't know that she knew what the color orange was! Honestly, all she says to me is pink, brown or white and those brief conversations about color happen because we're arguing about her shoes (go figure).
But the real freak out that I had last night was when I heard Breyden count to 7 while she was jumping on the couch preparing to do a dive like the people on the TV. She did this twice so it was no fluke. In the words of Harry Carey - Holy Cow!
....so what I learned yesterday is that private pre-school tuition at Goddard is worth every penny!
The new questions I get from Cade and the new orders I receive from Breyden boggle my VERY vanilla thinking. How in the world do they come up with this crap? Most of the time I am left searching the internet for answers for Cade AND having to walk out of the room laughing because of something Miss Breyden instructs me to do.
Now that its just the three of us on nightly basis, I am in a zone defense (my heart goes out to my close friend Beth Norwood who has triplets - so even with a husband around to help, I can't imagine). This makes the new found "homework" time in between dinner and Dora the Explorer an interesting 30 minutes at our house. Let's be clear, I know that Cade looks and acts like he is six years old....but Breyden THINKS she is six and so, there isn't one thing that Cade does that she doesn't want to try. Since I have entered this "zone defense life" I mentioned above, my creativity on how to be a fun and effective mom has dwindled a bit. I had to put in a call to the best Mom I know to see how I should juggle helping Cade with his letters while Breyden fights to stay in my lap. My genius Mother reminded me that I need to use Breyden's desire to be like Cade so now, Breyden has homework too. And TA-DA....she LOVES it.
The homework last night instructed Cade to come up with 2 words that use the "short e" sound (which BTW I had to look up on the internet if that meant "pen" or "bee" b/c I can't tell you the last time someone said "short e" to me). He then needed to sound out the word, write it on the orange flashcard, and draw a picture of the word on the back. Every night before last, we've been asked to use the regular white kindergarten writing paper - but last night we used the orange cards. Well Breyden looked at what Cade was writing on and knew he was getting to do something that she wasn't. So she looked at me and said "Mama, I want the orange paper". ORANGE PAPER? I didn't know that she knew what the color orange was! Honestly, all she says to me is pink, brown or white and those brief conversations about color happen because we're arguing about her shoes (go figure).
But the real freak out that I had last night was when I heard Breyden count to 7 while she was jumping on the couch preparing to do a dive like the people on the TV. She did this twice so it was no fluke. In the words of Harry Carey - Holy Cow!
....so what I learned yesterday is that private pre-school tuition at Goddard is worth every penny!
what we do before homework time starts....
Monday, August 18, 2008
SPOILED!
I have said for a long time that my kids are the most spoiled kids I know (not spoiled rotten - there is a difference). I don't know 2 other kids that have grandparents that live on the water on 2 different coasts. My parents on the Intercoastal Waterway of the Atlantic and Lois and Dick on the Puget Sound of the Pacific.
This all makes for some pretty spectacular adventures for them at the ages of 2 and 4....so imagine the amazing things they will get to do when they are 10 & 12. Here are some of the pictures that Nanna took of the kids on her beach a couple of weeks ago....
Breyden and Parker testing the water
Caleb and Cade
The star fish pile begins....
Breyden is not a fan of being dirty or wet.
Breyden, Aimee, & Ella
Cade and a good find
Sofia and some prized sand-dollars
Looks like Parker found his dinner
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Shots from Anchorage...
My friend Kathleen and I got restless in Seattle over the summer and decided to go see our friend, Jimmy-James, in Alaska. We had a fantastic and fun filled 5 nights there and all I can say to the two of them is:
Drop and Roll
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Breyden is two and Cade is in Kindergarten!
We just returned from a fantastic Summer with our family. I think the three of us put record mileage on planes, trains, and automobiles...but it was well worth it! 5 states over 6 weeks between the three of us - WHEW! It is time for a rest - at least until Labor Day!
Cade and Brey had 4 wonderful weeks with their cousins. Caleb, Sophia, Jackson, John Michael, Ella, Parker and Ellee all met us at Camp Nanna for many wonderful days outside. There was a slip-n-slid, a jumping castle, a fire pit for Smores at night, and everyone even had their own big wheel. Bubba, Snookie, GiGi and Uncle Mike even made it to Camp Nanna for a few days to see how their grand-babies get to spend their time on the West Coast.
On July 27th we had Brey's 2nd birthday a couple of days early at Camp Nanna with all of the cousins. We had lots of cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and chocolate cake. It was really wonderful to have family (not all of it sadly) around for her big day. And since "Happy Birthday" is her favorite song to sing, she loved that we were singing it to her. The next day we added (ok, we didn't add her, Leslie did) Molly Grace Merchant to the gang of cousins. So Camp Nanna grew by one camper this summer! WHOO HOO!
We made it home over the course of this past weekend just in time for the first day of school. The kids took the red-eye on Sunday night and so we were all pretty sleepy as we walked into Goddard at around 11 am on Monday morning. I guess that was why I was in such shock when I took Cade to his regular class and they told me he had been moved next door.....to the KINDERGARTEN class. I was in complete shock and I think they got that when I started crying in the hallway which then made Breyden cry. I think a mom prepares herself for what the first day of kindergarten will look like for her first born:
Cade and Brey had 4 wonderful weeks with their cousins. Caleb, Sophia, Jackson, John Michael, Ella, Parker and Ellee all met us at Camp Nanna for many wonderful days outside. There was a slip-n-slid, a jumping castle, a fire pit for Smores at night, and everyone even had their own big wheel. Bubba, Snookie, GiGi and Uncle Mike even made it to Camp Nanna for a few days to see how their grand-babies get to spend their time on the West Coast.
On July 27th we had Brey's 2nd birthday a couple of days early at Camp Nanna with all of the cousins. We had lots of cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches, and chocolate cake. It was really wonderful to have family (not all of it sadly) around for her big day. And since "Happy Birthday" is her favorite song to sing, she loved that we were singing it to her. The next day we added (ok, we didn't add her, Leslie did) Molly Grace Merchant to the gang of cousins. So Camp Nanna grew by one camper this summer! WHOO HOO!
We made it home over the course of this past weekend just in time for the first day of school. The kids took the red-eye on Sunday night and so we were all pretty sleepy as we walked into Goddard at around 11 am on Monday morning. I guess that was why I was in such shock when I took Cade to his regular class and they told me he had been moved next door.....to the KINDERGARTEN class. I was in complete shock and I think they got that when I started crying in the hallway which then made Breyden cry. I think a mom prepares herself for what the first day of kindergarten will look like for her first born:
- A great breakfast like eggs, pancakes with lots of fruit and pretty much whatever else the first born wants on the first day of kindergarten
- A bath...the kid can't be dirty on his first day
- A little gel in the hair (for the 200 pictures that will be taken)
- Lots of pictures... 200+ pictures
- More pictures of him getting on the big yellow school bus
- A ride following the big yellow school bus
- More pictures of him getting off the big yellow school bus
So you see why I was a little taken aback when I walk in late with 2 kids that have had 8 hours of combined sleep, that smell like soured milk, and are dressed like they have a mother that doesn't care what they or even she looks like....etc.
So we are now done with day 2 of kindergarten and we have had 2 nights of homework. I don't remember homework in kindergarten. I don't remember homework in high school....
So this is my first ABC blog and I promise to update it much more often than I did the last....
Love to you all!
Ash, Cade & Brey
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