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A lot to catch up on

So once again, it's been awhile! What else is new?! I feel like we have been so busy around here. Not sure doing what, but real busy none-the-less. I'm toying with the idea of switching the blog over to another site. I've got to be honest, uploading pics to this is a royal pain in the you-know-what. In addition, I can't figure out how to make the pictures bigger--you know my motto, go big or go home! Maybe over the next couple of months I'll make a move and make the switch. For now, here's what's been going on around here.

1. Potty training is going well. We are still having issues with #2 though. It took Miss C about 4 or 5 weeks to finally stop doing it in her underwear. I'm on about week 3 with Little J. And I've got to be honest, it sucks. I'm ready for him to figure this out! He doesn't seem as motivated as Miss C did, so I don't know how we are going to get him to start doing it in the potty. He actually has done it a handful of times, but still doesn't do it consistently. I need to go to the store and get a few toys to help motivate him. I didn't really have to motivate him to get #1 down, so I've been a little slack. Any other ideas would be appreciated! I've thrown away enough underwear in the last couple of weeks!

2. It's been a tough transition for Miss C and going to afternoon preschool. She goes from 12:30 to 4, which means she skips out on quiet time 4 days a week. She wasn't really napping anymore, but she did need that 1 1/2 - 2 hours of quiet time each day to kind of relax and get her through the rest of the day. Without it, she's been pretty tired and a little sassy. I talked to the teacher about it because I've definitely seen a change in her attitude at home. She told me Miss C is perfect at school. Listens, behaves, follows direction, participates, etc. She just leaves the sassiness for the hours she's at home. Nice, huh? It's amazing how they do that. I'm hoping the adjustment period won't last too much longer. Mama can't take the attitude.

3. Miss C met her cousin (first one) Little D at the beginning of October. Uncle M and Aunt J had their little boy on September 25th. He's perfect, isn't he?

Miss C even got a chance to hold him. She was fascinated by his little hands and toes. She kept unfolding the blanket to take a peek at them. Reminds me of the time she met Little J for the first time. He was in a long sleeve onsie and his little hands were tucked up inside the sleeve. She kept looking in the sleeve to find them.

Here's a pic of my sister, brother and I. I can't believe my little bro is a dad!4. Here's how little J decided to hang around the house (and the front yard) the other day. I'm sure the neighbors got a kick out of this one. I was just too tired to battle this outfit choice. At least he is wearing his own boots and not his sisters.5. Lately Little J's favorite thing to do is put those boots on and roam the back yard looking for dog poop. Nice. When he finds a pile, he announces it very loudly followed by a, "ewww, that's stinky!"

6. The kids finally settled on their halloween costumes. Miss C is hello kitty and Little J is spiderman. Here they are modeling and doing some sort of lollipop dance.

7. We took a trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend in search for the perfect pumpkins. It was complete with a hayride to a little petting zoo and then a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. The pumpkin patch looked a little picked over, but we still managed to find some good ones.

8. Miss C is already compiling her list for Santa. This year, she wants a trampoline. And a hello kitty clock for her bedroom. And two My Little Pony books (she's particular about which ones). It's kind of funny that she has specific ideas about what she wants. I hope Santa remembers everything she is asking for and pulls through!

9. I took Miss C to the dentist a couple of weeks ago. Di-sas-ter. Couldn't have gone any worse. It started out just fine.

Even got a smile while she was sitting in the chair. I was a little nervous because she has told me repeatedly that she only wants a female dentist (her last one was a male). I'm not sure why she has a preference (because she didn't like the female hygienist at the previous dentist either). So I took her to a new place and talked it up like it was going to be great (hence the smiles). It started to go downhill when the hygienist tilted the seat back to have her lay down. The waterworks and panic set in and we never really recovered after that. But we did manage to get through the cleaning after A LOT of coaxing. All was looking good until the male dentist walked in. She totally lost it. I mean the screaming, having to hold her down lost it. I explained to the dentist that for some reason she preferred a female, yada yada yada. I was trying to explain the behavior I guess. Well, I obviously made a wrong choice in telling him that. He proceeded to give me a 20 minute lecture. About what, I don't exactly remember but long story short, I lost it too. So basically Miss C and I left that office in tears. Suffice to say, I won't be returning to that office!

10. Speaking of dentist, I went for my check up last week and they found a cavity! My first one. ever. I'm so devastated. It's so small, they almost missed it. But it's there. I managed to go over 3 decades without having one. I guess there is a first time for everything!

This little piggy

This little piggy went to the bathroom......

Wanna guess who these little piggies belong to?

That's right! Little J. I decided to take the plunge on Friday afternoon because he fished in his diaper again at nap time. I think he was just really uncomfortable and he's been giving me signs that he was ready to potty train for a while now. Really I was the one holding him back. I just didn't want to have to go through it again--you know, being chained to the house, visiting every bathroom from here to eternity, spending half my day running a kid to the bathroom every 5 minutes--you know, the whole drill.

But I decided to do it anyway. And I must tell you, it hasn't been half bad (I'm praying I don't jinx myself). He had a few accidents on Saturday morning and really hasn't had too many accidents since then (only 2). He's even gone #2 on the potty twice (although we did have one accident with that in between). I'm kind of surprised. It's been so much easier than training Miss C. And she only took 3 days to #1 train (and a good 4 weeks for #2). I thought she was easy considering some of the horror stories I've heard. I guess there really is something to the second child wanting to be like the first. In a sense, he almost potty trained himself. My mom says this about my younger sister and I never understood how that was possible. Well, now I believe her.

The only draw back is that he is getting smart and using it as a tool to get my attention. Whenever he's mad at me he pulls the old, "i've got to go potty!" routine. Right now I'm trying to figure out when he's pulling tricks and when he's serious. There's such a fine line. I remember C did this too and it took me a couple of days to figure it all out with her. All in all, still not too bad.

editor's note: See, I jinxed myself. As soon as I started typing this, he had a #2 accident! We are still well shy of the 4 week mark that it took with Miss C. So I'm still hopeful :)

Some things never change

Again, a day late for 10 on Tuesday. But hopefully this post will be jammed packed and it will make up for it.

1. We decided to ditch the toddler bed for Little J. It's really not working out well. I think he really wants a big bed. Scratch that. I know he wants a big bed because he told us so. We were on vacay last week and he slept great in a big bed with the bed rails. The day we got home, sleeping fell apart when he went back to the toddler bed. Safe to say, yesterday was probably the worst day I had with him. He pretty much cried the entire morning because he skipped his nap the day before and fought us at bed time the previous evening. I got so frustrated that I moved the bed from the spare bedroom into his room. all. by. myself. And no, that last tid bit is not being passive aggressive. at. all.

2. Little J's favorite color is definitely orange. Whenever given a chance, he choses it over any other color. It's kind of funny to see him have such a favorite.

3. I took these snaps just a few days after I got my camera back. J was working late and I decided to take the kids out for a "photo shoot" after their naps. They did ok for a few minutes and then it basically turned into them running around chasing each other and laughing because I wasn't able to take their picture. Even at 2 and 3 they team up to conspire against me :). My mom made these outfits for them and I like the way they turned out.

This little series is how these two typically interact with each other. It's just so them. At first they are all sweet with each other

Then it quickly turns to a shoving match. On this particular occasion they were having fun with it. But ordinarily it turns ugly. real ugly.

4. Miss C started school at the end of August. She's having a blast. Here she is on her first day. No tears what-so-ever. Usually I walk her up the ramp to the front door and give her a hug and a kiss good bye. This week she decided that she was old enough to do that herself. So my big girl gave me my hug and kiss at the car and walked up to the door by herself. She didn't even want me waiting and watching her do this. I guess being too cool for your parents starts at 3, huh? But of course like every parent in the world, I hid behind the bushes and waited and watched until she was safely inside. At least I'm still getting the hug and kiss good bye. I know it won't be long until I'm too embarrassing for that too.

5. So we're in the swing of trying to decide halloween costumes this year. For the past couple of weeks, Miss C has consistently wanted to be a bunny rabbit. Little J then says he either wants to be Elmo (which is what he was last year) or a baby bunny. We're trying to convince him to either be spider man or Yo Gabba Gabba. Last night I was at Wally World looking at costumes and Miss C has now changed her mind on what she wants to be. Now she wants to be Hello Kitty. I guess I'll give it another week and ask her again. Whatever she says is what I'm going to order!

6. You know what I'm tired of? Cleaning poop up after my 2 year old smears it all over his room. For crying out loud. It's bad enough that I have to clean him up after each dirty diaper. But it's insult to injury when he decides to fish it out of his own diaper and then touch just about everything in his room. Today was the 3rd time this happened. Believe me, it doesn't get any funnier the second and third time around. This time it was especially disgusting. I ended up throwing him in the shower because it was everywhere. After I hosed him off, I had him in a towel while I finished disinfecting every inch of his room. A grown woman should not have to clean poop off of the blinds. I think you can guess what happened next. Yep, he peed on the floor. I just steam cleaned all of the carpets two weeks ago too. It's a good thing I'm lazy and hadn't put away the steam cleaner yet. So as I'm steaming the carpet, I say to him, "way to go buddy. thank you very much" to which he replies, "you're welcome." Oy vey.

7. Just because I'm all about my little buddy right now, you wanna know what his latest favorite phrase is? Oh, it's a good one. He's often letting us know, "It's not fair!". Isn't that a gem? He even crosses his arms and slams them down on his chest. You know, just to complete the effect. Most of the time I have to turn my head when I'm laughing. It's just so wrong, but it's just so funny.

8. My nephew is due in 6 days and I can't wait!! Let's all send some good (and easy) labor vibes to Aunt J!

9. We had our annual trip to the beach last week. The weather wasn't so great, but we still had a good time. We took the kids to the aquarium and we even had a family bowling afternoon. That was a hoot to say the least. I'm still editing the pictures, but here are a few on the beach that I managed to get.

10. I've been kind of slacking on my 52 weeks project. While we were at the beach, we had the opportunity to be photographed by 11 (yes 11!) amazing photographers while we were there. We looked like total movie stars on the beach :). Anyway, here are a few that were posted on their blogs. Feel free to check them out! PS--I made the dress I was wearing....don't look too closely! I decided to do this the week before we left :)

Little Moon

Amy Ro

Jami Bush

Shey Marin

Kristina Young

Some of you have already seen the first four, so be sure to check out the last one. It's a little slide show. Enjoy!!

I scream you scream

We all scream for ice cream!

I'm back! I know it's been a long time. I finally got my camera back 5 weeks after I sent it in and I'm ready to start blogging again :)

We're at the beach this week (with horrible weather no less) and the kids are livin' it up. Tonight we took them all out for dinner and then an annual tradition of ice cream from this local ice cream shop. We've been going to this place for the past couple of years. I don't have any great beach shots yet since we have literally had one day of sun. Well let me rephrase that. One day of sun but with low 70 degree weather and 20 mph winds. We only have 2 days left here and we're hoping we may actually see some decent sunshine tomorrow. For now, the ice cream snaps will have to do

I'll write more soon! I have a lot to catch up on :)

Oh, and the big thing on J's chin--not ice cream unfortunately. He fell by the pool yesterday and scraped his chin. We're supposed to have family pics done on the beach on Saturday. Perfect time to fall and have a huge boo boo on his face!

Nekked

I feel so nekked. The last week or so I've been walking around aimlessly with my hands empty. I sent my camera baby in for a little tune up last week and later found out it might be 3 weeks before I get it back. It's been there for 5 whole business days (plus two weekend days) and it's still not in the system yet. I've been stalking the Nikon repair site for a week now waiting for an update. I should have one today hopefully (at least that's what they say). There isn't anything really wrong with it per se. Some of the images coming out of it aren't as sharp as I think they should be. I'm not sure if it's the camera body or the lens I'm using, so I sent them both in for a little tune up while they are still under warranty. If they tell me nothing is wrong, well then, I have to look at the possibility that it's user error....and of course we all know it's not user error :)

So, I won't have any pics with this update unless I decide to dig through the archives. Sad that I still couldn't get something done by Tuesday, but that's how it goes these days. It might actually be a few weeks before I'm able to post any pics actually. Maybe that's a good thing since I'll have time to go through some old ones and possibly post those. Sad that we don't even own a point and shoot so that I could get a temporary fix. I might have to run out today and get me one of those......

1. Little J is doing well in his bed. I can't complain too loudly. I did have to put those child things on the door knobs though to prevent him from opening the doors. He started to get out of his bed and wander around upstairs. Usually he would wander straight into his sister's room and play with her (or wake her up early in the a.m.). She still to this day will not get out of her room in the morning when she wakes up. She waits for us to come get her. But there have been a couple of occasions where Little J will go in there, wake her up, and coax her out of her room. Next thing you know they are both in our room looking to get up and go downstairs.

Naps are a little challenging. He's really behind on his sleep but I'm having trouble getting him to stay in his bed and take a nap. I guess that will all work itself out soon enough. I hope.

2. Miss C is in summer camp this week. She did one about 2 weeks ago and seems to be having a good time and I'm glad to get a break from having two of them all summer long. The one this week is all about bugs. She's been into ants, etc. lately. And not because we seem to find them all over the house these days. No, that certainly isn't why she sparked an interest. Yesterday someone brought in a snake (along with a few other critters) and Miss C actually held it. I about died when I found that out. I'm glad she wasn't scared, but I would never go near that thing with a 10 foot pole. Little J seems to share my feelings on that one. He didn't have any interest in going near it either.

3. Little J seems to be talking up a storm. He's using the pronouns more and more lately. He's pretty consistent with 3-5 word sentences and it's cute to try to watch him get his point across. I really need to get video of it. We really haven't brought out the video camera much these days because I'm really into photographs and spend so much time with a camera in my hand. It would be nice to capture some of this though. Maybe I'll dust off the old camcorder one of these days.

4. I feel like I have been neglecting so much lately. I want to get a few house projects done and clean up a few rooms. I've really let the housekeeping go by the wayside (stop nodding J). It's almost to a point where it's a little overwhelming. So I've decided to make a list and get one project done a day. I think maybe I'll start this Saturday and try it for 30 days. I know I have at least 30 things to keep me busy. Actually, I'll probably reserve the weekends for projects that will most likely take 2 days. So 22 things in 30 days. Hopefully I'll feel a little more accomplished in a month!

5. Speaking of going by the wayside, what happened to my 52 weeks project!?

6. The kids are getting so brave in the pool. Miss C pretty much will swim by herself with her floaties on. She's ok with getting her face wet, but won't go fully underwater. One small step at a time. Little J is almost swimming by himself with his floaties on. He still wants to hold onto one finger just for "support". He's actually doing it by himself, he just doesn't realize it. He's pretty brave with jumping off the side too. Much braver than Miss C was at this age. But then again, he's trying to keep up with her.

7. Little J keeps showing signs that he's ready to start potty training, but I'm holding off because I'm just not ready. He tugs at his diaper after he goes and tells me he needs a new one. He talks about going "pee pee on the potty" and gets a kick out of flushing it. It would be even cuter if they both didn't fight over flushing the potty after I go. It's become such an issue over here. I'm so tired of trying to keep track of who's turn it is that I try to sneak into the bathroom when they aren't looking and flush it myself! It just cracks me up. Who the F cares if you flush the potty or not. It's not like it's that great. But I guess to a 2 and a 3 year old it's the be all end all. So much so it's all out devastation if one gets to flush it when it's the others turn. Interestingly enough, it always seems to be Miss C's turn. I'm just dreading the fights over who gets shotgun.

8. We need to give Little J a haircut soon. I'm dreading that too. Not only because he will probably let us know in his special way that he hates getting it cut, but because I love his hair just the way it is. J did make me cut the "wisps" at the base of his neck behind his ears because he just couldn't stand it anymore. But that's about as far as I'm willing to go for now.

9. Here's a flashback from the beach in 2007. Miss C was about 21 months or so. I did a little bit of different processing on it. I kinda like it.

10. For kicks, here's a 52 week pic. It's from just about 2-3 weeks back, but it's all I've got

Special big boy bed

Whaaaaaa! My babies are all growing up. Last night we moved Little J to his big boy bed. It was kind of bitter sweet. I'm so proud to have such a big boy, but so sad to have to pack up that crib and admit my babies are not babies anymore.

I remember the day J and I bought that crib, just about 4 years ago. I even remember the day that we put it together and put it in C's room while we patiently waited for her arrival. I remember how small my babies looked in that crib when we put them in it for the first time. I remember the day I caught Miss C gnawing on the side and almost having a heart attack because she was making marks on the furniture. I remember buying plastic guards to prevent her from chewing the crib only to have her rip them off after 2 minutes. I remember the day we moved the crib to Little J's room and thinking I hope we can hear him all the way down the hall when he cries. Little did I know that we would never need the monitor with him because that boy has a set of lungs. And I remember the day that Little J first stood in his crib and knowing it was only a matter of time before that monkey would climb his way out.

Little stinker. I'm not ready to give up this crib, I don't want my babies to grow up. Before we took it down, I decided to snap a few pics

I often found him like this

My buddy and his beloved binkers

And finally the new bed. Little J was really excited about it, but once we got it set up, he didn't want to have anything to do with it at first. He didn't even really want to get in it. So Miss C jumped on the chance. I love this pic of her.

Little J eventually warmed up to it and now refers to it as "my big boy bed. it's special". So far, he's doing great it in. I think I'm having a harder time than he is. That night I went in there before I went to bed and snapped a few pics of him sleeping in it.

So farewell crib. We are packing it up and sending it to Uncle M and Aunt J to use for their baby when he arrives in September. I hope you have as many great memories with it as we did!