Those unexpected moments...

So today we have a field trip to the Firestation with Bubba’s class. BW was so excited. Field trips could include siblings and BW loved the firetrucks and helicopters. My boys are not the crack of dawn risers, they prefer 7:30/8am time frame. It’s now dark in the mornings, throw in an early start time and we have a hard time moving on school mornings. I slowly creep into BW’s room this morning and get his clothes out..he rolls over, looks up at me and then immediately jumps up. “Today is firestation day, right mom?” “That’s right,” I say. Up he flies…so excited to get going, dresses in seconds he's downstairs in a flash.

Fast forward to the firestation. So here we are at the firestation. We are the first ones here…20 mins early with my sister, nephew and my 2 boys sitting in the car drooling over the rather large red firetruck parked in front. Out of nowhere I hear from the back row, “Mom, I have to go the bathroom.” The dreaded sentence when you are out, especially when you are no where near an easy restroom. “Didn’t you just go at home?” I ask. “Yes, but I have to go the other. “ Oh, that’s great. What to do? “Mom”…a little more urgently. “Alright…let’s see if we can find a fireman to help.” Never thought I would flag a fireman down for that request. A friendly fireman, seeing my young man’s contorted face quickly ushes us into the bunk house. As we step inside, he says, “Everyone dressed?” Oh great, I think…this is more tour than I’m prepared for. He ushes us into the back and points to the bathroom. I thank him we step inside. BW and I peer into the toliet…hmmm..it’s been used. “Let’s see, flush first?” Quickly the toliet bowl fills. “Oh great…that’s not good.” “Let’s get outta here,” panics my son. We step back in the bunk room. “Excuse me, excuse me”…I quickly call out. That nice fireman is gone and to our surprise so is everyone else. That’s just great…now they are going to think we did that.

Okay, back to present problem, son still has to go potty and we are up in the mountains not too close to anything other than this firestation. I remember I have a travel potty in the car that we have never used. Back to the car we go. BW won’t go outside on the potty because he doesn’t want anyone to see him. A few people have pulled up by now since we strayed from the car. My sister suggests putting it in the back row and letting him go there. “Okay. While he is doing that,” I ask her "should I sign us in?” “Great idea,” she says. I leave BW in the back and the other 2 are still strapped into the middle seat carseats and my sister is upfront. I go sign in and of course start talking. A few mins later my sister comes running back…”We need you. Help.” I come running..”What happened?” I know what’s going through your minds….pooping in the car is probably not the best idea. “It’s the smell…we are dying in here." My poor family… I left them strapped in their seats tortured by what BW was creating in the back. Everyone quickly abandons ship. My sister grabs the toddlers and makes a beeline for the car behind us. I’m quickly thinking I would like to run too. Instead I bravely climb in the back to very quickly help BW dress and dispose of the bag. Never a more grosser moment in my mommyhood. I’m sure it won’t be my last gross moment. So lucky are we …a trash can right across the way. Hopefully the rest of the day will go much better. Hopefully, that nice fireman won’t use the bathroom until after we leave. Gotta love those unexpected moments.

Dining with Dogs

I love being outside and one of the things I love about our new house is we finally have a patio table set. I'm not sure why I waited so many years to buy a patio table set. It's great to be able to sit outside. The kids have discovered eating outdoors and they ask at every meal..."Can we eat outside?" The weather has been so great so of course I say "YES!"

We recently enjoyed eating dinner outside and the photo below just cracks me up. When we sit down at the table to eat there is the four of us but if you look under the table you will find our 3 dogs. Every meal, there they are..waiting. Our dogs...they are like sharks circling their prey...or more like laying sharks. They patiently camp out their spot around the kids and wait for them to accidently miss a bite that falls to the floor and whatever dog is laying closest reaches his/her nose out and gets the bite. It really is too funny because they are the ultimate couch potato dogs...just patiently waiting, quietly nearby. I never have to clean up..inside or out they lick the floor clean. I miss them when we eat out at a restaurant because I have to clean up the mess, and I'm always shocked at how messy my boys can be.

So thank you my dogs, my first 3 kids for helping me clean up after the boys...all three of them! And if I could squeeze you all into my overflowing diaper bag I would bring you with me everytime we ate out too.

Potty training

Raising kids continually amazes me...you just have to roll with the punches and follow their lead. A lesson I'm contantly learning. So Bubba has been using the potty since he was 16 months old. His older brother is only 2 years older so when Bubba was just a year old he pretty much spent much of his time in the bathroom as his older brother was 3 and we were in there a lot for big brother. So it wasn't too surprising when he at 16 months wanted to sit on the potty too and was doing both #1 and #2 pretty quickly after. But I didn't hold my breath and expect that he would be potty trained by 2 years. I figured by 3 years like brother for sure, as that seemed to be the magic age I saw with all the kids in my playgroups and preschool.

So sure enough he turned 2 and suddenly wasn't that interested in it anymore. We backed off and if he didn't want to go that was fine. He was in pulls ups now and we packed away the changing table and diaper genie into future sister's room and became used to the new routine of pullups and dumping the load into the potty and flushing it so Bubba got used to the idea of the potty. Too much info...I know, if you wanted to skip this post I'm sure you wished you had now!!

So imagine my surprise when we were on vacation and suddenly Bubba was dry everytime I would check. Okay..roll with the punches..not expecting new changes while on vacation but we can do this no problem. So we increased our times visiting the potty. When you are on vacation and you have to visit every public bathroom you become pretty efficient about what you have to accomplish so your child is not touching everything in that 2' space. Yuck!! Total sidenote: I really hate public bathrooms and I especially hate to visit a restaurant that I just enjoyed eating at and then see how nasty and unkept their bathroom is. Makes me wonder what the kitchen looks like and their santitation habits...you know what I mean? So I was very surprised that this was the time Bubba decided he wanted to be potty trained. We went with it and took him as often as he needed.

We hadn't been sleeping as well as our normal routine at home. Sometimes the kids were going to bed at 10pm or 11pm at night and once their heads hit the pillow they were out. This one night it must have been 2:30am and I hear at the foot of my bed a thump and then the bathroom light goes on and a "mommy help." Bless his heart, in the middle of his sleep, Bubba had thrown himself over the edge of his play and pack and navigated an unfamilar room, made it to the bathroom and was all tied up in his pjs bottoms trying to get them off. We were in time and he made it, but that told me..he wants this. He's continued being dry at home and so we made the trip to the store to buy his his big boy underwear. Never a prouder child have I seen. He has shown anyone he can that he wearing his new big boy underwear and makes such a big todo about which new pair to wear each time...elmo, spiderman or lighting mcqueen..such important choices!! He has had a few accidents and at night time we still put him in his pullups with his underwear over or under them depending on what he chooses. But this is a choice he has solely made and he is trying so hard and we are so proud of him. You go Bubba!! I guess with Bubba almost out of pullups I'm that much more ready for bringing home my baby girl!!




Update Sept 13: So I started the above post awhile ago and in the meantime, Bubba is still using the potty but we have had a few more relapses since school has started. He was pretty dry throughout the entire day since coming home from vacation and having accidents just in the evening and over the past 2 weeks we have had a few more accidents during the day. I know it is party my fault too. I got a little sidetracked with school starting and adjusting to the new schedule and haven't been as diligent about having him go as often. Shame on me!! I hope to do better this week. The good news: Bubba can now get his own pants and pullup off and climb on the potty himself and we are working on getting his legs in the right leg holes and once they are on he can pull up his pullups himself.

A week in San Diego

We had a great time in San Diego. We flew down for the week with my parents and my sister and her family. It was the boys first flight that they could remember. They did really great. BW was so excited he couldn't wait. He wanted to know everything he could..he was so funny he even absorbed what he could of the emergency landing card...I couldn't get him to put it down to take a photo..it looks like he is really into it even though he can't read a thing on the card.

We stayed at Paradise Point Resort and Spa. Check it out at http://www.paradisepoint.com/We had a cute little bungalo that had it's own beach right outside our door. The kids had a blast playing on the beach and in the bay. We also had a bonfire at night and the kids definately loved roasting the marshmellows and eating the smores. Since we were so close to Sea World at 10pm everynite we could walk out on the beach and see the fireworks show. That was pretty cool.

During our stay we visited Sea World, Legoland, Hotel Del Coronado, Pacific Beach, Balboa Park and the Gaslamp Quarter. I think Sea World was a little old for little guys. It was hard for them to wait for the shows but they did really enjoy the dolphin and Shamu Rocks show and talked about it off and on the rest of the trip. We also saw a shark exhibit with a glass tunnel you walk through and the sharks swim all around you. It was such a hit with Bubba that he didn't want to leave the exhibit. We also spent a day at Legoland. What a great park that turned out to be. It is definately geared towards the younger kids. There were quite a few rides they could go on. There was also a fun playtown that was really large, and a couple of water park areas for the kids to just get wet in. I would think age 6 would be absolutely perfect at this park...they could probably do everything. It was an interesting park...it was really clean and the restaurants served healthy choices to eat...you could even choose a kid's meal that did not include something fried and their meals came with milk as opposed to soda and juice which are both so high in sugar. Many of the rides also had a physical aspect to them too. BW's favorite ride was a car that two people had to bicycle to get it to go around the track. We also as a family really enjoyed the firetruck race we participated in. We broke into groups of 3 and raced each other in a firetruck that we had to pump up and down with our arms to get it to go down the track, when we made it to the pretend burning building we had to jump out and pump the water onto the fire target and then run back to the truck and pump up and down until the truck drove back to the start of the race. The first truck back won...it was a hoot! The water park also had lots of wheels they had to turn and buttons to jump up and down on to shoot water or make music...it was really great to see such a healthy spin on a day at the amusement park. Definately check it out if you are in the area.

One of my most favorite places to visit when in San Diego is the Hotel Del Coronado. http://www.hoteldel.com/ I live for the beach and this place is just spectacular. The beach is cleaned everyday and I swear the sand has gold in it. They also have one of my favorite restaurants for breakfast..the Sheerwater. I love buffet breakfasts and I love sitting outside looking at the ocean and this is the best...great food...beautiful view. It was a beautiful day to hit the beach and kids had fun building sandcastles and running in the waves.

We also visited Balboa Park and saw the model railroad museum. The boys were in heaven...it was pretty amazing...the attention to detail and scale of these trains and they whizzing all around the museum..it was a fun day we also stopped by the Japanese Tea gardens for a tour and lunch at the tea house...yummy terriyaki chicken bowl. There were 2 other local breakfast places we discovered that were awesome. World Famous is located right on Pacific Beach. They have a great view and delicious breafast foods and yummy smoothies. http://www.worldfamous.signonsandiego.com/ We also ate at The broken yoke also in Pacific Beach. Very friendly, family atmosphere, no view of the ocean but a huge assortment of breakfast foods and the food was delicious. http://www.thebrokenyolkcafe.com/ One night we made it down to the GasLamp Quarter for dinner and ate at Croce's named after singer Jim Croce. The food was awesome...it was a little late for the kids but they hung in there the best they could and we enjoyed a good meal our last night in San Diego. It was a fun trip. We had a blast.

Update on Napping

Bubba has been actually sleeping these past 2 weeks during his rest time in his room. Yeah!! I hope this continues as he really seems to need it. Hopefully its more than just a growing period. We have actually had to wake him up most of the days. I've probably just jinxed myself by writing about it...we'll see.

The end of summer is approaching!!

I can't believe we are in August already. Where did the entire summer go? It feels like fall is in the air. It is getting colder in the nights and it has been so overcast this past week in the mornings. As much as I love fall with the leaves turning, and the fireplaces on and snuggling on the couch with the kiddos and going for night time walks with the flashlights and returning to our beloved nursery school I'm not ready yet. Hubby will be returning to work and our laid back routines will quickly become more rigid...more scheduled. I always need to take a really big deep breath before I jump into the craziness of the school year with more to do and less daylight and spousal help to do it in.

Luckily we still have one last laid back fun week planned before the end of summer. We are taking the boys to San Diego. It will be the first airplane ride that either boy will remember...BW is very excited...I hope he is still excited when he is actually on the airplane.

We are hitting Sea World and Legoland and touring San Diego and hitting Ocean Beach. Hopefully the weather will be a lot warmer there than it has been here this week. I'm excited and definately looking forward to our week away! San Diego here we come!!

A day at the boardwalk

Last week we took a trip to the boardwalk. We haven't been able to spend as much time at our favorite beach this summer so we packed up the kiddos and headed off to the boardwalk for day of fun in the sun. Gotta love the beach!!

We spent the first part of the day walking the boardwalk, having lunch and riding a few rides before hitting the beach.

The boys had a blast on the beach...running in the waves, making castles in the sand...it was hard to get them off the beach.

Before leaving we took a break and had ice cream. The boys were being so silly I couldn't resist taking a few shots. These photos were taken after Bubba had already finished his dippin dots ice cream.

Well...I didn't make my goal of 10 posts for the month of July...so close. I did have a great July though so it's all worth it. This summer is really flying by. I can't believe we are already in August!!