To Infinity and T's Bedroom

Before I had children, I would look at kids that were decked out in all things Disney characters and thought I would hate if my kid's wardrobe looked like that and their room was that tacky. Tonight my son went to bed in his Buzz Lightyear pjs (wings and all) and in his Cars sheets with the ugliest Cars comforter I'm sure they make. He is so happy in all of it, and that makes me happy. That doesn't mean I won't take every opportunity to talk him out of that comforter though and I still have not caved on the character shoes. Maybe I can stay strong on that one!

Let's Try This Again

After the twins missed out on their big birthday party last weekend, my friend Kendra threw them a party yesterday! She made them an amazing birthday cake, hung balloons, had presents, and generally loved on them. She is just about the best friend anyone could ask for and I'm so glad that she is my friend!! Lucky lucky lucky me AND my kids! Tristan and Blake had so much fun playing in the splash pool and over watering Kendra's tomato plants, while Pipper hung out in her seat, Ian played around, and Finn parked himself in front of the cake and double fisted the forks. I vote that all picnics from now on have a cake!

(I put their frosting covered outfits in a bag to wash when I got home. Forgetting that I took care of this mess right when I got home and put them in the wash, I waited to unpack the rest of the bag until today. I guess there was a diaper I had changed at Kendra's as well that I put in a sealed up bag. I thought they were the outfits and set it on the counter for later. Neil saw the bag and threw it out. Later that night I asked him where it was and he told me the dumpster. I told him the birthday outfits were in there, but admitted it was my fault for leaving them out. While I was in the shower, Neil was being a good guy and went dumpster diving to find them. All he found was the bag with messy diapers. All I found were the clean outfits in the drier. Oops !)

Finn and Ian's First Birthday

I know everyone says, "I can't believe my kids are already (fill in the blank), but I seriously can not believe this first year with Finn and Ian is over! I am so thankful that these boys are a part of our family, but man that first year was tough. If you had asked me ten months ago if I was going to get to one year with my sanity intact I would have said the chances were slim. Guess what? I totally made it with what little sanity I had to begin with! These boys are seriously amazing! They are two of the funniest, happiest, and friendliest little boys I have ever met!


Their personalities are so different and together they pretty much cover all the best qualities of every baby you have ever met! That is why I was so sad that their birthday was not nearly as fun as they are. I envisioned us celebrating and crying and laughing, but instead we all got a stomach bug and had to cancel the party at Gymboree. There was a lot of bonding and family togetherness though. Hoping that tomorrow everyone will be well enough to take a short outing to the zoo for some fresh air and a small bit of birthday fun.





Because the boys are still getting over the stomach bug, there was no cake on the menu for them. No party, no cake, and feeling generally icky, but I was not going to let all the birthday fun get away from them. Turns out Cheerios hold up a birthday candle pretty well!

Another Blog?

Here is a link to another blog about my Africa trip next June. Feel free to check in there, too.

http://andrea-goservelove.blogspot.com

Flash Mob

Tonight Kendra, Cassie, Carolyn, and I danced in a Flash Mob in front of Coors Field right before the baseball game started. I had practiced all week and was incredibly nervous leading up to the dance. I can't say that I would have decided on my own to do this, although it was something on my "bucket list." When Kendra and Cassie decided that they were going, I knew I would always regret not joining in. Even if they did another flash mob later on, I would remember how I was too chicken to dance the first time. I have always regretted not being in the high school musicals because I was too nervous that I would mess up, oh and the fact that I can't really dance. So this time I sucked it up, learned the moves, and headed down to Denver tonight.

Once we started to dance, I was not nervous at all! It was REALLY fun! I was sad at how fast it went and wished that it was not over yet. I think I might even do this again. Good clean fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4TDx-oXW0g

Click on the link above to see use dancing. You can only see me at the 1 minute 42 second part. I am in the back and wearing a purple Rockies t-shirt, black pants, and sunglasses. I'm glad you could see me for a minute because now I can prove to myself that I really did it!

Gooooooooaaaal!

The other night I was laying with Tristan in his bed when he told me he had to go to the bathroom. I told him he could sit on the big potty in the morning if he wanted, but not tonight. He sat up, looked straight into my eyes and said, "Mom, it is time I start to use the big potty!" And there it was, he was on the path to potty training.

A few weeks ago, we got a cool looking non intrusive potty seat for our bathroom in anticipation of the potty training that was coming. After much reading, I found that he should probably start with something very easy for him to use himself, especially since we usually have our hands full. I was also on board with the theory of letting him pick his own seat to increase the "buy in" factor. The next morning came, and off Tristan and I went to the consignment store to find a cheap potty seat. I'm glad I brought him, because they only had one. It's the exact one I would have picked at the store. It was small, nice looking, had a nice place to keep wipes, and a soft seat to sit on. He sat down for two seconds, stood up and declared that he would never go potty on that. Okay, so over to Babies-r-us we drove. In the aisle of potties, there were many to choose from. I was ready to accept a lot of seats, Cars or Princesses, but I was not prepared for the ONLY one he wanted. It's shaped like a soccer ball and if he ever does enough in there at one time, it's supposed to yell, "Goooooooal!" Yikes!!

He has been so excited about this seat. He sits on it a bunch and pees right in front of it. He even takes wipes and cleans it everyday while proudly telling all of us how shiny it is. There was a new car staring at him from the towel rack for the last four days or so just waiting as a reward for Tristan using the potty. He wanted that car SO BAD! Tonight he did it!! Before bath he sat on his potty while we read a book to get his mind off concentrating so hard. He started to pee and got so excited that he couldn't finish. He jumped up, dumped his little potty bucket in the big potty, flushed, and jumped around yelling and cheering that he was going to get his new car! Once he got it and the next car went up in the rack, he returned to his seat right away with his eyes fixated on the new car. He said with the most determined face, "Mom, I sit here, pee, and I have to get that next car!"

By NO means is he potty trained, but it's a start. I thought about doing the three day and they are mostly potty trained deal... then I remembered that I have met myself and that really wouldn't fly with me. Then I remembered that Tristan is my kid and I KNOW it wouldn't fly with him. I can't imagine adding one more piece of laundry to my pile or more things to scrub during my day... not happening! We will use the pull-ups and take our time just like everything else we do. Tristan is a lot like me in that way. We like to ease into things. "Pulling the band-aid off quickly" might get the job done, but usually leave us more miserable than we really needed to be.



***Wrote this post a while ago and forgot to post it. Things are going great. He uses the potty about 5/6 times a day. It indeed says "Goooooal" and it thrills him every time. He used the potty at his Gymboree drop off class twice with a teacher, and tonight he finally got the guts to poop on the potty! Way to go Tristan!***