Sad Milestones

It is official. Adam now knows how to climb out of his crib. I had hoped he would just be satisfied to wait for me to come collect him when he called for me for the rest of his life. I think he figured out it was possible because of our trip. We brought his pack 'n play for him to sleep in and he found he could easily climb over the side and did so quite a few times when it was bedtime. This morning, as I was getting kids ready for school, he just showed up in the kitchen all of a sudden. It is such an odd feeling when your baby starts to get out of bed himself. He did it again for nap time today. Luckily, it only happened 4 times before he settled down. But it freaked me out again when he came walking into my room after I had laid him down. I'm not ready for him to move to a big bed!!

Another unavoidable milestone I am not ready for, is Hunter losing his first tooth. That day is rapidly approaching as it is getting looser every day. He keeps telling me it hurts him and wants me to pull it out.  I just can't do it! Please stop wiggling it! Keep your baby teeth for as long as possible! They are the cute teeth I have come to know and love! Now they are disappearing and being replaced with their gigantic adult counterparts with little jagged bumps on top that are too big for your precious little mouth! While Hunter has been SO excited for this rite of passage and a visit from The Tooth Fairy, I SO dread it! It just means he is growing up and I don't like it. I just want him to be 5 forever. I may or may not have said the same thing when he was 1, 2, 3 & 4 years old. Just quit growing..please!!

Valentines & President's Day Weekend

We celebrated this last weekend (and Valentine's Day) by tagging along with Trevor on a business trip to Flagstaff. It was originally going to be just the 2 of us, but we decided it would be fun to bring the kids. There were a quite a few times during our trip that we questioned what the heck we were thinking when we decided to bring them along, but for the most part, it was a fun weekend getaway with lots of snow & sledding. The kids had a BLAST!

They were SO excited to see snow all over the ground. We couldn't make it past this snowy area in front of our hotel without all three boys (and sometimes Trevor) tromping through the snow and having an impromptu snow ball fight. It was FREEZING when we arrived but we were happy to find that it got warmer each day throughout our trip. It went from being in the 30's & 40's to being in the mid-50's, which we can definitely handle.

The night we got there (Valentine's Day), it was about 11:00 p.m. before we got the kids settled in their beds. At 4:00 a.m, we woke to the kids talking and the light on in the other room. We both jumped out of bed to find Jacob and Hunter wide awake and playing like it was Christmas morning. Adam was still conked out, thankfully. We quickly got them back to bed and warned them that the sun better be shining next time they even think about getting out of their bed!

The next day, the boys & I went shopping at Target while Trevor went to work for a few hours. Target was conveniently located just across the street from where he needed to work, so we stayed there until he was done. Our best Target find was an inflatable sled on clearance. When Trevor was done, we took our new sled and headed to Wing Mountain, near Snow Bowl, for some sledding. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The boys were in LOVE with sledding, including Adam. Every time the ride ended, he was saying, "Gain Daddy!" Trevor carried him up the hill multiple times.

Hunter had his heart set on making a snowman. He made it all by himself!

I wasn't as brave as Adam when it came to sledding. I started on the small hill for my first run. After gaining some confidence, I moved to the big hill. My 2nd run down the big hill, the sled turned sideways, then backwards. I was screaming like a little girl, afraid the whole sled was going to tip over. I let Trevor take over as sled chaperon for the rest of the trip, while I happily snapped the photos.

Adam waved and said bye to me every time Trevor carried him up the hill, which was almost every run.

Toward the end of our sledding experience, Trevor decided to teach the boys to go down the hill on their belly. I don't know if this happens to all mom's, but when we do activities where my kids could potentially be hurt, I have a small knot of worry in my stomach the entire time. When it's time to go, the knot melts into relief because nobody got hurt. I told him we had been lucky to not have any accidents or injuries so far, I didn't want to jinx that. He ignored me and sent Jacob flying down the hill, face first. Luckily, it turned out fine.

Hunter was the next to go on his belly. Jacob thought it would be fun to run down the hill as Hunter was going. The sequence of the next few photos make me bust out laughing every time I go through them.

Luckily, he was not injured and got up with a smile on his face. PHEW!

The next day (after everyone slept great that night), we went to a snow area for some snow play.

I found that my kids really enjoy throwing snowballs at others. Unfortunately, they found that it's not so fun when the snowballs are thrown back. 

Jacob got his feelings hurt almost immediately.

Hunter was a good sport until he bent over when Trevor chucked one at him. It smacked him in the back of the head and he started bawling. I declared an end to ALL of the snowball fighting. Adam wasn't ready to stop throwing them. But he sure did NOT want them to be thrown back.

He continued to throw snowballs at people the entire time we were there. If anyone threw one back at him, or even sprinkled a little snow over his head, we got an earful.

We headed home once the kids started fighting. That's when we know it's time to move along.

We all slept like logs in our own beds that night. We had a fun time making some new memories!



Potty Training (Beginning Stages)

I had it in my head that I wasn't going to start potty training Adam until he was closer to 3. I don't really mind changing diapers and sometimes it's just easier to not drop everything to run to a toilet every time a newly-trained child has to go or worry about cleaning up accidents. Up until recently, Adam hasn't been too interested in learning to use the potty and I couldn't have been more supportive. He is barely 2 and has plenty of time before it would become concerning to me. Lately though, he has been telling me when he has to go number 2. I was worried that not doing anything about it would be holding him back, so I've been encouraging him to go on his potty chair when he tells me he has to go. We have had a few runs, with zero results. He will wait until I re-diaper him & go a few minutes later. I felt like a little nudge was in order. My golden opportunity came earlier this week when he told me he had to go. I could tell from his face that he really had to. I asked him if he wanted to go on his potty & then get a piece of candy (my bribe attempt). He told me no. I knew that meant he really had to go and decided to rush him there and make him go on his potty. I got him situated and he wasn't very excited about it. I got books and a space heater (I was very chilly on that bathroom floor and assumed my half-naked kid was cold as well) and we camped out for what felt like hours. He kept getting uncomfortable, squirming, saying "ouch" frantically, then relaxing for a minute until it happened again. It dawned on me that if he could hold it for this long, he probably should be potty trained. It took FOREVER for him to finally let it happen. He was so surprised when it did that he jumped off the potty right away. When he did, some of it dropped on the rug. I started cleaning him up but apparently he was not finished. He went again and it landed on the floor underneath him. (He also peed on my shoe at this point). Then he stepped back right into it with his socked feet and started tracking if around the bathroom. As I was trying to get him to stop walking around & spreading it, he went some more. I knew I had to get him back on his potty ASAP but it was filled with the first round & the all the wipes I had used. I grabbed him & placed him on there anyways. He was very uncomfortable but was able to finish up without any more floor piles for me. When I was sure he was done, I decided a bath was in order. I got him situated in there and got busy sanitizing. I don't think I have ever seen him go so much in his entire life, and lucky for me, most of it was on my bathroom floor. I am really proud of myself for not freaking out at all. Jacob would not have been so lucky! Poor first child never had it this easy! Adam was probably so confused that I was so excited & cheering for him as his poop landed all over the floor. How is this better than going in a diaper? For a few days after "the incident" he would still tell me when he had to go. I asked each time if he wanted to go on his toilet & get candy. He has said no every time. When he does, I say ok! I think we were both a little traumatized by his first potty chair experience. This morning, he was brave enough to try again. I had just poured my cereal & sat down to breakfast when I heard Trevor ask Adam if he was going to go on the potty & get some candy today. Adam answered "yes!" Then Trevor told him to tell me when he needed to go. He ran right over to tell me he needed to go. At 2 bites into my cereal, I wasn't too thrilled to have to be interrupted to camp out on the bathroom floor again. Trevor was in the middle of working on something in the house, so I had no choice, but to comply. I brought my bowl of cereal along and ate it on the bathroom floor while we waited. After reading a few books in the bathroom we relocated to the kitchen so I could get my stuff ready for my church lesson. Trevor needed my help in the family room for a minute & while I was doing that, Adam came to tell me he went. I went to investigate & found nothing in the potty, but a puddle on the floor of the kitchen. I was grateful for the bazillionth time to no longer have carpet in our kitchen. After these few potty training experiences, I have no problem whatsoever keeping him in diapers for a little while longer. I'm kind of tired of cleaning his potty training off the floor.

A 5 year old's Christmas List

Hunter has told us he wants anything for Christmas. I asked him if there was something he really wanted. He told me a ddsi (Nintendo dsi), his own phone or a $100 bill taped to one of his presents. Hopefully he'll be happy with the things Santa actually does bring him cause I'm pretty sure it's not going to be any of those!

Exhaustion

Our kids have been sick and it's led to lots of nighttime wakings to administer medicine. Trevor & I are exhausted! Hunter was most recently sick with a fever & cold. He was starting to feel better so I hoped a restful night was ahead of me. I turned in at 11:30 p.m. At 12:15 a.m. I woke to find Hunter rubbing my arm. "I can't breathe through my nose." I got up, gave him some saline drops and hopped back in to bed. At 2 a.m. Trevor & I jolted up in bed when my alarm clock went off. What the heck??? I was so out of it and confused as to what was going on. I reached over & pushed any button I could to make it stop. At 2:10 a.m. the alarm clock blared again. Apparently I had pushed the snooze button. I fiddled with it in the dark for a minute to try & turn it all the way off so it didn't go off again in 10 minutes. i finally got up to retrieve my cell phone so I could have enough light to insure it was ALL the way off. After that, i was able to drift off back to sleep, but Trevor was wide awake and wasn't able to go back to sleep until a few hours later. At 3:38 a.m. I woke up needing to go to the bathroom. At 6:45 a.m. when my regular alarm went off, it was VERY difficult to drag myself out of bed. Even now, 3 hours later, the sleepiness has still not worn off like it normally does by now. I have longed for a dark, sound-proof room that locks from the inside to sleep in at night more than once during the course of my motherhood. What would it be like to close myself off in such a room and sleep uninterrupted for hours?? This morning, I confronted Hunter about my alarm clock incident since he was the most likely culprit. He denied it at first, then added, "well I did move the buttons on top." I informed him about it waking us up at 2 a.m. and how dad wasn't able to fall back asleep afterward. He said in a sad & bitter voice, "I'm the WORST son ever!!" Oh geez!! The alarm time has now been changed to 10:00 a.m. just in case he is tempted to play with it again. I'm not even sure why it was ever set to 2 a.m. but have a sneaking suspicion the kids are to blame, one kid in particular!

That Guy

Trevor & I were looking at his yearbook from junior year when Hunter walked in, pointed to a picture and said, "I like that guy." We thought he was pointing to Trevor's friend who was just a row above him and asked if he was pointing at the friend (who looks pretty much the same). He told us no and pointed again to Trevor's picture. We asked if he knew who it was. He said no. He was surprised when we told him it was his dad. Trevor looks so different now, we couldn't believe he picked him out of all the other students on the page. There was just something about "that guy" that Hunter liked!

Nature's Toilet

Since the weather has been so wonderful lately, we have found ourselves out doors more often. The nice thing about boys is when they need to go to the bathroom at places such as the park, all they need is a tree & they're covered. Adam has noticed his brothers doing this and has decided this is what trees are for. Each time we walk by a tree, he says, "Mommy, poo poos." I have indulged him a few times just to see what he does. The first time I opened his diaper at the park and he just stood there. The next time was in our front yard. I got him all ready and after he stood there for a minute I told him to go. He immediately starts making this sound with his mouth, "ssssssss." He might be ready for potty training.