It's all fun and games UNTIL....

I've got a couple of stories to share with you. Both dealing with bodily functions, so if that bothers you, you might want to skip this post. Who am I kidding...we're all used to that stuff by now, aren't we?!??

So Micah has been attempting the potty thing again. He is now tall enough to reach the potty all by himself and he can also pull his pants down and up by himself. I think this potty training independence has inspired him to give it another shot. So now he can go "all by himself" without having to tell anyone or get any help. That's the setting for the following scene. Micah comes running out to the living room sans pants....sans any bottoms AT ALL and says, "Mommy, I had to go poop, but I got some on my foot." HUH??? (little boy turns to run back to the potty) At which time I notice that he also got it on the back of his leg. Upon arriving in the bathroom, I see that there is also poop on the floor. In fact, most of it is on the floor...and the carpet and the side of the potty. Oh, and the rug in the hallway. And then I got the full story: "I had to poop, but I pooped some in my pants and I tried to finish on the potty but it got on my foot." Yeah, so the reality of the situation is that he had pooped in his pants which he took off to sit on the potty at which time the poop fell on the floor (smearing his leg and the potty on the way down) and when he sat on the potty, the poop from his leg got on the seat. When he got off the potty (I'm assuming because he realized he no longer had to poop) he stepped in the poop on the floor which he then tracked onto the bathroom and hallway rugs on his way to tell me about the situation. AND as an added bonus, I sat in some of the poop on the bathroom rug that I had failed to previously notice when I plopped on the floor to try to clean all of this up.

It's all fun and games...

Any of you seen the TV show "Lazytown?" The girl on it keeps a diary. Josiah frequently pretends that his travel magna-doodle is his diary. Today in the car, Micah was pretending to be a dog (barking) and Josiah was playing with the magna-doodle. Here's Josiah's commentary, "No, Bryson (the dog next door), I can't right now. I'm doing my diarrhea." continued barking "Yes, as soon as I'm done with my diarrhea I'll play with you."

It's all fun and games!!

Beware the Raisinettes!

Who knew those yummy little chocolate covered raisins could have such an effect on a two year old?? It's like he's experienced his first mental meltdown. I'm most familiar with this situation from pulling caffeine-fueled all nighters in college. I never guessed that my little boy would have moments of pure delirium all because of a little chocolate and raisins. Don't worry...he didn't permanently lose it and is back to his normal self. They should really put a warning on those packages! :)

Who's in Charge??

I had my last doctors appointment last Thursday (baby and I are doing great) and had to take the boys with me. That isn't really a big deal. The midwives are great with them and they both like getting to hear the baby's heartbeat. The point of this post, though, is something that happened during the check-up. On the counter of the room we were in is a diagram thing of an intrauterine birth control device. Last time Josiah was with me and we were in that room (it's been at least 2 months ago) he asked about it and the midwife told him that sometimes after a mommy has a baby she will get one of those to keep her from having another baby right away. (And since some people have asked about this, no, I don't care that they told him that. I try to be open with the kids about everything. Yes, there are some things that are too much info, but Josiah, especially, is such a knowledge hungry kid that I try to inform him of as much as I think he is old enough to understand/emotionally handle. My opinion, knowing birth control exists, fine. Knowing my choices about it, too much information) THIS time, Josiah looks at the midwife (different midwife from the one who initially told him about it) and says, "After Mommy has her baby she's going to get one of those." (points at the birth control thing) Susan (the midwife) looks at me and says, "Oh, have you been thinking about getting one of those?" (as if I had been the one to mention this AND had discussed my birth control plans with my 4 year old) I said, "Ummmm...No." Josiah: "Yeah, because after she has this baby she'll have had 3 babies and that's really enough babies." Susan: "Oh. You think so?" Me: "What if I want to have another baby." Josiah, "But 3 babies is enough. Because 4 babies would just be A LOT of babies!" Susan (trying not to laugh at this point in time--me too, I might add): "Well, thank you for sharing your opinion. It's important to be able to express how you're feeling." Josiah: "Yeah. She's going to get one of those so she wont have another baby." Me: "Maybe this baby will be born and you'll think it's so much fun that you'll want another one?" Josiah: "No. Three is enough."

And OH!! If you could have seen his facial expressions and actions while he was saying all of this!! TOO FUNNY!! I'm not worried, though. This from the kid who for the month and a half before Christmas was telling everyone he wanted Santa to bring him a toy spaceship. EVERYTIME someone asked that is all he would say: I want a toy spaceship. And then ON CHRISTMAS EVE AT 9 O'CLOCK AT NIGHT changed that to wanting a Superhero. Couldn't be convinced to still write that he wanted a spaceship. So, I think he can be swayed, should he need to be :)

Dollywood, houses and more!

While Brooke and Ryan were in town, we made a trip up to Dollywood to see all of the Christmas lights up there. It's was the first time I had gone, although I've been hearing about it for several years. It was pretty impressive! All of the buildings were lit up and most of the trees, too, not to mention all of the statues and figures they had set up all over. I think the boys went into overload! It was pretty cold the night we were there, so we got to bust out the hats and mittens (I don't know why the boys thing those are so fun!). We made it to one show the night we were there--"Babes in Toyland"--which turned out to be VERY different from what I was expecting (like the movie), but the kids liked it anyway, especially the end when the boat-plane flew right over our heads making bubbles and tossing confetti!! Here's some of the pics from our Dollywood adventure.

Everyone watching the show:

Trying to get a good pic of everyone...as you can see that didn't work out very well!

We also made "gingerbread" houses over break. Everyone got their own recycled milk carton (perk of working at a school!) and we stuck graham crackers and candies on using canned frosting. It was fun and in the end we had our own little village. Of course, half the fun of this is getting to sample the decorations, which Micah is wearing evidence of on his cheek. :)






We did a book exchange with the kids, too. (Goodness how did we fit this all in?!?) Josiah was the last one to get his new book (he was the first to give away, too, I think) and after about 2 exchanges he decided in his head that all was lost and he wasn't going to get a book. So everytime someone opened their new book he would say, "I'm not going to get one. There isn't a book for me." It was his finest Eeyore moment yet! ha-ha. Here's a pic of the excitement:

Josiah ended up getting a new Skippyjon Jones book (which are FABULOUS books, by the way) and Micah got a huge Disney/Pixar storybook complete with stickers that have been being used to decorate their "boring" shirts and pants. ha!
So one more quick story and then I've got to go find dinner (surely it's made itself in the kitchen by now, right?). This happened at John's parents house a couple days ago. I went upstairs to lay with the boys for naptime. I was laying with Josiah and had my eyes closed enjoying the quiet when I heard a loud whisper saying, "Mommy!" I opened my eyes. Josiah was nose to nose with me and said, "Do you see that?" (pointing at the wall) There was a slightly darker spot on the wall and I said, "Yes." Josiah said with a smirk, "It came out of my NOSE!" EEEEEWWWWW!! I let John clean that one up. :)

More later! And if you haven't already read it, there is another new post under this one.

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fun New Year's! We have been sooo busy! We had a lot of family in town over the holidays and had a BLAST getting to hang out and play with cousins and grandparents. The boys had their first sleepover (at our house) with cousin Brooke. They all slept in the same room and had a great time! Here is a pic of them all in the bed.

Josiah and Brooke were thick as thieves for the week--practically inseparable, and Micah just did his best to keep up! Well, that's not entirely true, Micah played with Ryan quite a bit, too. They were both big fans of Ryan's new Tickle Me Elmo, though they had very different ideas of how to play with him! Timothy and McCain were able to spend the first part of the week with us and all the kids made ornaments, cookies, "gingerbread" houses and had a great time! Josiah was sad when it was time for Brooke to go home and is still asking when we get to go to Texas to visit her and play with her toys! (Although when Candida said something about us coming to their house, Brooke said, "Why?") Here's a couple more pics from the week. This first one is Brooke instructing Josiah on how to color his picture. Amazingly, they took such instruction from each other without complaint....now if I had tried to do that, I'm sure Josiah would have let me know he had it under control. One of the perks of being a friend, I guess! :)

The obligatory cousin bath time (this wont last much longer--they wont fit!)

Here are a couple of pics from the frosting of the cookies--frosting the SPRITZ cookies, I might add, the only real way to make Spritz! :) (John and I disagree about this...he prefers his Spritz unfrosted. Who ever heard of that?!??!)


These are from when the kids each made (colored) a new ornament for the Christmas tree. Everyone had their own idea of how much color these needed. Timothy spent the most time on his, but I think they all turned out great!! Check out Josiah ooooh-ing over Brooke's creation in this first pic: :)




Ok, that's all I have time for right now. I've GOT to get back to doing this more often so it doesn't take so long! I've got lots more to share with you and hopefully I'll get back here to finish up soon!