Let's be real...

...this summer has been one of the most challenging summers that I've had.  Don't get me wrong, it has been great in many ways too - when I say challenging, I don't mean bad!  After talking with some of my mom friends, I've come to realize, partly why this summer has been so rough.

• The boys don't take their afternoon nap anymore
• A somewhat failed attempt at potty training in June, led to Ellis deciding on his own that he was ready to be potty trained in July.
• Their speech has picked up quite a bit - which has been a mixed blessing (I'll explain later)...

All in all, this is just one of those summers where there is a TON going on with them developmentally and with only one of me and two of them during the day, my head was spinning at times!

I always wondered what I'd do when I didn't get that 2-ish hour break in the middle of the day.  How will I get any of my own personal things done, or if anything else, just take a breather?  And aside from that, what will we do during that time so it doesn't turn in an "I'm fighting my nap and totally cranky right now" moment?  Well, the answer is - I really didn't get my own personal things done - except for things that I can do while they are (hopefully) playing nicely together.  Taking a breather?  Nope, didn't happen either.  And I decided to usually plan something fun during their normal nap time - trip to the park, library, an art activity, etc.  Something they really liked, which would give them less chances of fighting with each other.  This sometimes led to them falling asleep before we got to where we were going, but hey, thats fine too (and I just learned to pack a book with me in case they did fall asleep).  Did I mention that if I ended up coming home once they fell asleep, they would throw a fit when they woke up - wondering why we weren't at the location we were originally planning to go?  That's why I packed the book and just read in the parking lot until they woke up!

In June I was gung-ho at starting to potty train and after 5 days I gave up.  Every few days afterwards, Ellis would tell me he had to go pee pee and ran to the potty.  I think it was more or less because he wanted to use the iPad (that was their reward before for sitting on the potty).  After a few days of no luck, I decided to put the portable potties away - thinking I would just pull them out a few months later to see if either was interested.  The next morning, Ellis saw the potties in my bathroom (they were in my shower drying after I washed them the night before) and he said "pee pee mommy" so I let him go through the process again, making a note to myself to put them completely away later that morning.  Well, guess what?  He peed!  I was floored!  Once he peed, he didn't want a diaper on again and an hour later my naked boy yelled again "pee pee mommy!"  Yet again, another successful pee.  He did very good the rest of the day - a couple accidents, but dang, I was shocked.  I wanted to follow his lead because Mr. Stubborn doesn't like to be told anything, he has to call the shots.  So the next day, I asked if he wanted to wear underwear or a diaper and he said diaper.  I think that day he only peed once on the potty.  No desire the next day either.  Okay, so maybe it was a fluke.  

A couple days later, he started this all over again with saying he had to pee and actually went.  The few days that followed were hit or miss, but more hits, which made me think that maybe this was it.  This continued and he got better and better each day.  The day before our trip up north was his first day with no accidents at all.  Since then, he's had a few accidents - mainly because I've learned that I can not ask him if he has to go.  If he has to go, I have to let him tell me.  He resists me asking, and that has turned into a few "no mommy, no!" moments when I just know from his body language that he has to go, yet his legs go weak when I try to take him to the bathroom before he pees all over himself.  So, we had a few days where our schedule depended on when Ellis peed last, or how close a bathroom was to the place we were going, but we're getting there. Now we are just working on him going to the bathroom in places aside from at home, to prep him for going back to day care and preschool in a few weeks. Logan - well, thats another story.  He says "pee pee" every so often, so I take him to the potty hoping he will be like Ellis and just randomly go, but he hasn't.  Still a work in progress for him.  But hey, 1 out of 2 potty trained is better than I was thinking we'd have at the beginning of July. 

Their speech has definitely picked up a bit.  I wish I remember how much they were talking back in June, but I definitely understand a lot more of what they are saying.  They can tell me what they want to do, want to eat, what happened to make them cry - which is the good side of it.  The bad side of it is the "no mommy" that I hear pretty much daily.  I remember back, maybe 6 months to a year ago, when many of my mommy friends said to be careful what I wish for.  Of course I wanted them to talk more, but once they start forming an opinion on things, things got a little tricky.  Say for example we are taking a bike ride (them riding bikes, me running with Bella) and one wants to go one way and one wants to go a different way.  Hmm - what to do when both opinionated boys won't give in?  Deal with one screaming kid who won't ride his bike at all, and the other one who is flying down the street, excited to go his way - oh yeah, and don't forget the dog I have with me too!  Or, when we get into the car to go to the park and one is excited to go to the park and one wants to go to the library.  I assume that he will be fine once he sees the park, but no - he is screaming in the parking lot and doesn't want me to take him out of the car.  Or when one wants to go downstairs to play and one wants to go outside.  One wants to watch Thomas the Train and one wants to watch Peppa Pig.  Shall I go on?  Having two with the same mentality (versus two kids of different ages) has definitely pushed me to my limits with trying to figure out how to resolve the issue.  Now don't get me wrong, these things haven't been an issue every day, but when I finally sit down at night I definitely feel a bit more tired than I remember feeling last year.  

But as much as this summer has been a bit stressful at times (and there will always be some sort of stress at each different stage, right?!?), we've also had some awesome, awesome fun.  Lots of playdates where the boys actually play with the kids we are with - versus being in their own little world just playing around the other kids.  They are communicating with each other and us - saying the cutest damn things - I wish I could remember everything they have said.  They mimic practically everything they hear, and much of it has been with an English accent thanks dearly to Peppa Pig.  I don't know how many times my phone has rang and I hear one of the boys say "Hello, Daddy Pig here".  One morning I made pancakes for them and Logan busts out with "Mmm, delicious".  I did a double take, but then a few days later, realize that Peppa Pig says that when she is eating too.  Oy!  We took them to their first carnival and they saw fireworks for the first time, although Ellis isn't a fan of the loud noises!  We have gone to the zoo where they love watching the animals even more now that they really know more animals - and we plan to go to the Toledo Zoo next weekend as long as this stupid water issue is taken care of.  At the splash pad, they had a TON of fun too.  I didn't have to chase them around to make sure they didn't run away, or go in the water with them to get them acclimated to it.  Today, we took them to their first movie: Planes 2.  Since the movie has been out for a few weeks, the theater wasn't full at all, but I think everyone that was there could hear a repeated version of the movie from Logan.  He was so excited he literally repeated most of the first 5 minutes and giggled so much.  Troy was trying to get him to stop, but he wasn't going for it.  Troy even attempted "shhh"-ing him and Logan then looked at Troy and said "daddy, shh" over and over.  It was hilarious!  Luckily he stopped shortly after and only had a few more spurts of some random shout-outs.  The boys love painting, coloring, doing puzzles - man do they love doing puzzles.  We got them different 12 piece puzzles but they fly through those and have done a few 24 piece puzzles with a bit of assistance.  

So, what was the point of all my rambling?  I haven't blogged in a while so even though I've been home all summer, it hasn't exactly been easy to get away and update what we've been doing, and this has been why.  Plus, I gotta keep it real - I am not one to fake it and act like our summer has been perfect.  Just as they are learning and developing, so am I.  I always will be, as they move into a different stage of development.  I laughed the other day when Nicole told me that one day she told Morgan and Parker that she was going to have a time-out and since she is 36 years old, she has to sit for 36 minutes.  What an awesome idea (although Morgan didn't like it so much)!  I've had my share of moments where I've walked away from a situation to just breathe, get some water, take deep breaths!  But, as Steve Carrell quoted in one of his upcoming movies: "You gotta have the bad days so you can love the good days even more."  So true, and regardless of these occasional stressful moments, I'm still so lucky to have these boys in my life - how can I turn Ellis away when out of the blue, he says "hug mom" and gives me the biggest hug EVER!  Just love it!

And a blog post wouldn't be complete without some pics to wrap it all up:

A trip to Troy Nature Center

Rock climbing outside the Nature Center 

Splash Pad

No fear at all sticking their face right in the water!

A little bit of hopscotch fun!

Fun with magnets and paper clips

Who says a water table can't double as a pool?

Cousins all cozy, watching a movie at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Cute story: At my dad's birthday party last week Ellis said he wanted birthday cake.  Well, anyone that knows Ellis knows he doesn't eat cake, but my mom gave him a small piece.  After whining about wanting "BIRTHDAY cake" Morgan actually told us that she thinks he wants the candle that was in my dad's cake.  Gotcha!  So, I gave him a candle, and lit it and he sang Happy Birthday to himself and blew out the candle.  "Again, mom, again." -  about 5 more times!

Mr. Independent wants to try to blow bubbles himself.  Needless to say we lost a lot of bubble solution this week!  That's the only way they'll learn though, right?

Playing catch at the park.

I haven't uploaded any pictures from the past few days, but hopefully soon!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

Summer Vacation Week(end) #1

We've had a whole lotta fun around here since last Wednesday.  Once I (we) decided not to pursue potty training, I text Nicole to set up a zoo trip.  They weren't busy on Thursday, so off we went.

I have never personally been in the butterfly house, so that was awesome to see:

Other fun:

Hard to see, but they were checking out a turtle.

Poor Nicole and I tried so hard to get a picture with our kids but they were having nothing of it, so this was the best we could get!

Logan loved pushing the stroller, which Ellis was okay with - well until Ellis wanted to push and Logan didn't want to give it up.

Friday, we had a playdate scheduled.  I haven't seen Caryn (and her boys) in forever and although I've seen Sheila and her kiddos somewhat recently, it was good to finally get together and hang out - let the kids play and catch up on things going on with each other.

The boys fell asleep on the 10-ish minute drive home, so I hung out reading in the garage in order to let them sleep a bit.  I totally wish they were the type of kids that would either stay asleep or fall back asleep easily when transferred from the car to their bed.  No such luck though, but they did sleep a good 45 minutes, which I hoped would hold them over since we had plans that night.  After dinner, we took the kids to a festival in Oxford.  There was a carnival going on in one of the parks and at dusk, they were having fireworks.  We got there at a decent time that the kids had time to play at the playground, walk around the carnival in awe of the rides (they especially liked the motorcycle ride and of course the carousel), ride the carousel, and hang out to have a snack before fireworks.  During my packing for the night, I forgot bug spray, so for about 10 minutes before the fireworks, we hung out in the car to prevent too many bug bites.  We actually had a good view from the car, so we just watched them in there (plus being in the car dampened the loudness of the fireworks and all the car alarms going off around us).  Ellis shared lots of "wow"'s and Logan liked identifying all the colors he saw.  All in all, they seemed to enjoy it.  We did a great job wearing them out too because less than 5 minutes after we left, they were both passed out!

"Hey mom, can we ride this one?!?"

Me and Logan

Carousel selfie!

Not quite tall enough for this ride, and my luck they would freak out the second they realized we couldn't ride it with them.  For now, they enjoyed watching it go, though.

Eating a snack, watching the carousel, and listening to some live music.  It doesn't get better than this!!!

Pre-fireworks selfie!

Saturday, I went to my moms and scrapbooked with her and Nicole.  Not gonna lie - although I started out strong, we had a couple good conversations that kept me talking more than scrapbooking (surprise, surprise huh?), but I did get a little bit done.  It was a good start in my pursuit to getting caught up this summer.

On Sunday, after the boys napped, we headed up to our local bowling alley to cash in some coupons for our free summer bowling.  The kids loved it although I think it was a bit confusing for them to see Troy and I bowl normally while they used the ramp to get the ball down the lane.  A couple times Logan wanted to throw it himself which ended up as a loud thump on the lane, which clearly went no more than 10 feet before rolling back to the beginning of the lane.  They seemed to like fact of playing glow-in-the-dark bowling though!

Ellis making sure that we were watching him.

Logan making sure to have his ball ready to go

Logan is more excited to push his ball down the ramp than whether or not any pins fall.  

Today we hung out at home.  We've had some air conditioning issues so we had a guy come out and refill our refrigerant.  Yay for a cooler house - boo for another unexpected expense.  Lots of outside and inside play though - bike rides, sandbox, water table, pool, swing set, trains, cars, puzzles - yup, we stayed busy!  Oh, and then there was the interesting words that Ellis said right as we were about to eat.  Hmm...I wonder what it was?!?  I will keep you hanging on that one - perhaps he will say it again and then I can share.  I don't want to get ahead of myself.

And a few of our indoor activities:

A busy bag activity I've had for a while.  Ellis can obviously match colors easily, but watching him try to use the clothespins was a bit nerve wracking.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to really watch your kid struggle without helping.  He was able to open the clothespin with no problem but trying to keep it open long enough to attach it to a paper plate really drove him nuts.  There were even a few thrown clothespins, but he did do it very well, multiple times without my help.  Good work Ellis!

I've been working with them to draw circles and straight lines (precursor to letter formation) and when Logan was doing that here, he said "mama - an elephant".  And in a weird way, I think I do see a little bit of an elephant in there! 

This week we have a play date scheduled tomorrow with a few days of nothing major planned the rest of the week before a fun weekend ahead.  Happy July everyone!

Karma

Yes, it is slightly odd that I would plan to take off of work on the second to last day of school.  Not so odd if you are a teacher at my school, however.  Most of the non-8th grade teachers would agree that today is just a day of babysitting.  Yesterday was the day the students gave their final project presentation and tomorrow is the promotion ceremony (today was reserved for the 8th graders). Many of the students said they weren't coming today (I don't blame them - there is literally nothing productive for them to do today), so I decided I could better use the day getting stuff done at home and running errands that aren't as easy/quick to do with 2 kids in tow.  Or so I thought.  

As I was within a mile of the day care yesterday, the wind picked up and it started pouring.  Perfect timing, right?  Then, the traffic light at the intersection of the day care went out.  I pulled into the day care parking lot and noticed that the lights were off at the day care too.  I was happy I just got there - nothing like the boys hanging out somewhere with no power for an extended period of time.  It wasn't until I was on the way home that it dawned on me that if power wasn't restored by this morning, they wouldn't be going to day care today.  And while I already planned to take the day off, it would definitely throw off my plans.  So, the OCD person I am, logged on to DTE's website and noticed that 1600 people were out of power in that area of town and there was no restoration estimate.  And knowing that 20,000+ people were already out of power from the day before, I had a feeling that DTE wasn't going to rush right over to fix the power in that area when some people were going on over a day without power.  This is what I get for planning to take off of work today, right?  Karma sure is a bitch!

I woke up this morning to work out (before the boys woke up) and looked on DTE's website again and saw that power still hadn't been restored.  Our day care had also posted on Facebook that they would be closed today.  Okay, time to re-plan today's events.  Some plans and errands just had to wait, but some of them I could hopefully do with the boys without much problem.  They are awesome with errands like Target, so we could still do that, and I scheduled a 30,000 mile maintenance at the dealership (unfortunately the appointment was at 12:45, a mere 15 minutes before their normal nap time), and I didn't see a way around that.  I usually make Saturday appointments, but between both Troy and I, either one of us has plans for the next couple Saturday's.  

Off to Target this morning.  They were way excited to pick up some big boy underwear for our adventures in potty training that start next week (in case you are wondering, Ellis picked trains [Thomas] and Logan picked Cars).  Then we stopped at the library for them to play.  I figured if I kept them busy and let them play as much as possible, they would be okay sitting in a waiting room for 1 or more hours at the dealership.  Then it was time to head to the dealership.  I'm not gonna lie.  I was not excited about taking them.  A) How would they deal with not napping? (they've dealt with no nap before but only when they are having so much fun that they are so wired that they don't even realize they might be tired and I doubted that sitting in a waiting room would be "so much fun")  B) Is it possible to keep them entertained in a small space for an hour or more?  After all, if there is any sort of tantrum, we can't just pick our stuff up and leave!

I also learned today how attached Logan is to my car.  After I drove into the dealership, someone came to drive it down the main aisle to get it out of the way of the entrance and Logan started screaming!  "Mommy's car, mommy's car!!"  He must have thought someone was stealing it or something.  And try as I might, he didn't understand that it was okay for that person to take it.  I walked just around the corner of the service area and showed him that mommy's car was still here and everything was alright.  This is the moment I wondered if I should just get out of dodge and reschedule my appointment.  Thankfully, I was able to distract him with some lunch (I purposely brought lunch with us as something else to distract them with and make time go by faster).  PHEW!

This morning as I tried to think of what I could bring to keep them busy, I dug in my huge bag of busy bag activities that I've had for a year or two now.  Most of them were from swaps I did with friends that have older kids, so at the time many of them weren't something the boys could do yet so I put them in the closet until they were ready for them.  And to be honest, I've kind of forgotten about them so I hadn't pulled them out yet.  I wasn't sure how they would respond to these new activities, but it was worth a shot.

And I am so glad I thought about them for today.  For almost 1.5 hours, the boys completed most of the new activities I brought, in addition to a few things I knew they would like doing.  A few people that were in and out of the waiting room commented on how good they were (we were sitting by the coffee machine so many people, especially the elderly people, felt the need to strike up conversation with us).  So, although I always feel like I'm taking too much when I pack for any trip longer than just going to the store, I am especially thankful I packed so much this time.  

Here's a sneak peek of what the boys did:

Time to color

Color/size puff ball matching

Number practice (an oldie but goodie!)

Pattern matching (and alphabet practice underneath)

And some good ole' book reading

I think he was making a horse sound here although it looks like he is taking a dump!

A potty-training book - like my subliminal message to him of what's to come next week?

So, although I didn't get everything done that I hoped (nor any free time to relax - since of course we didn't get home until 2:30 and they had absolutely no desire to nap at this point), I would have to say that today was a success!  Plan ahead and prepare for more than you think you'll need and you'll be all set.  

And in case you are wondering, yes I did pack the iPad (desperate times call for desperate measures and I just didn't know how desperate I would become), but that is the one thing the kids didn't play with - which I am totally cool with!  And I'm very excited to see how the boys do with the activities I planned for the summer.  I want to keep up with doing some "learning-of-some-sort" activities this summer to keep them progressing with everything they've done at preschool these past few months, so this was just affirmation to me that they are a whole heck of a lot more willing to do things like this than they were last year at this time!

Another week down

This week has been full of ups and downs (again).

• Monday - yet another rough day at work
• Tuesday - Ellis came home from day care with a fever
• Wednesday - talked with the CEO of the school I worked at last year to try to get my foot back in the door in that district (yay!), but come home to find out that Ellis' fever has not only gone down, but despite giving Tylenol all day, actually went as high as 104!  At 8pm before bed, I called our pediatrician who was on-call and she suggested that we take him in to After Hours Pediatrician Care (works with the ER) at Beaumont.  Luckily it wasn't anything major but a virus that is going around, but no day care for the rest of the week so he can fully recover.
• Thursday - home with Ellis during the day.  Logan was a super-duper good boy and went to day care all by himself and did really well there.  Me, on the other hand, took advantage of Ellis' 4 hour nap (which is unheard of, but not surprising since he wasn't feeling well) and got a TON of stuff done around the house and for work.  
• Friday - Ellis spent the day with Grandma Bush and Logan had another good day flying solo at day care and I actually had a pretty good day at work myself.
• Saturday - laying low at home.  I was hoping to head out to the cider mill or something, but with Ellis not being 100% yet (still a little cranky and clingy), I really didn't want to push it even though his fever was pretty much gone.  We spent the afternoon coloring, having an impromptu FaceTime session with Nicole, Morgan, and Parker, playing with cars and blocks, and reading.  

Not many pictures were taken this week, but here are a few videos.

#1 - Guitar jam session with daddy:

#2 - I pulled out the alphabet flash cards while Logan was eating his snack and off he went naming off the letters.

Happy Sunday everyone!  

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - the full version

I know, I put up a video earlier in the week of Logan reading this book on his own, but I got a better version of it.  He's not reading it this time (and if you have a hard time listening to someone that can't "sing", you may not want to listen to this video either as I guarantee I'm no singer), but he is doing all the hand motions and is pretty good at pointing to the right letters as I read the story.

Some of you may be thinking "geez, will she lay off the videos?", but guess what?  No I won't!  I know I'm a little repetitive, on them at times, but if you are sick of them, then you don't have to read/listen any further =).  And for those of you brave enough to listen, here you go:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Logan has loved this book for as long as I can remember.  Today when we were getting ready for dinner, we found him over by his books "reading" this one.  Of course he did a better job before I got my phone to record it, but I thought it was too cute.  I love, too, how he mimics how I read the book to him (I point to each letter as I read it in the story, then run my fingers up the tree since the letters are climbing up the tree).  In case you can't tell, his favorite letter right now is P.

What we've been up to

It's been a while since I've updated on anything more than my scrapbooking, so it's about time to let you all know what the boys have been up to.

First a little recap on our summer bucket list activities so far (activities we've done are highlighted):

• Have a picnic at a park - Just me and the boys having a picnic at a new-to-us park in Troy.

• Story time at the library
• Go to a parade
• Splash Pad
• Detroit Zoo (maybe Toledo Zoo, too?)
• Camping at the Pinery
• Go to a local beach
• Hit up the farmers market
• Go to a new park - Boulan Park in Troy - not too far, but one we haven't been to before

Why must I have boys that LOVE to try to climb on everything?!? Sure, that's what they are meant for, but it's not too easy for me to help both of them when they both want to climb different ones at the same time!

• Attend the Big Rig Gig - FRIDAY - Anyone interested?
• Ride the trains at Starr Jaycee Park - SATURDAY - Anyone interested?
• See fireworks (or at least play with sparklers) - Nope, this one didn't happen...
• Take a walk (sans stroller) on a local trail - Paint Creek Trail in downtown Rochester - connects right to the park we usually go to.

"Hey mom, are you coming?"  

So excited to have the freedom to walk on their own without having to hold my hand (like they have to when we walk around our neighborhood).  I seriously think that after this walk down the trail, Ellis would rather go for walks and explore, than play on the playground at the park!

• Feed the ducks at the park (without Ellis freaking out!) - At the same park that we play at, in downtown Rochester

Ellis was a bit more skeptical at first (which is why he is so far back), but luckily he could throw his bread far enough to make it to the ducks.

And here is a little video of them feeding the ducks.  In case you are curious, I keep saying "feed the ducky" because I swear Logan said it just before I started the video.  And sorry for the not-so-good footage.  It's not very easy to take video, give them some bread and make sure neither of them go too close to the water!

• Make homemade ice cream - soon, soon!

So, now that I look at our list of things to do for the summer, I feel like we still have a lot more to accomplish in these last few weeks.  Of course I'm not going to push it and force anything to happen, but it kind of reorganizes my thoughts and reminds me of what fun things I thought we could do.

There is quite a bit that we've done, also, that wasn't on the list.  

I'm so proud of Ellis for being willing to try some painting.  Arts and crafts is one thing he was NOT interested in, during the Parent/Tot class we've taken them to as part of their speech classes.  He has actually been much more interested in it than Logan lately!

A visit from Grandma last week.  It was a nice day for the pool so we spend the afternoon in the backyard playing.

These boys love the water (and showing off for Grandma, of course!)

Last week we went to the Bairds, and had a fun day playing in the water.  Cole was so kind to show the boys how to use a slip 'n slide.  Unfortunately for Cole though, once he showed them, they hogged it and wouldn't always give him a turn =( .  We are still working on sharing!  

Here's a little video of the slip 'n slide action.  I think Logan was more excited to sit in the mini "pool" at the end of it, but watching Ellis go down it cracks me up!

Last week we also visited Cari, an old friend from my CMU days, that I haven't seen in way too long.  She has 3 girls (which includes 1 set of twins) and the boys were just in heaven.  Logan just followed them around - hopefully not annoying them too much - and loved watching them play.  Towards the end of our visit the girls put on a show for us and Logan and Ellis got a kick out of joining them in the dance portion of it!  Hopefully we can meet up like that more often! 

Okay, so this picture might not be very appropriate, but I am trying to highlight the fact that Ellis' last two pacifiers are no longer in the house, hence the picture of our garbage.  He hasn't used them (or held them, as he did primarily for comfort after we cut holes in the tips) in quite a long time, so about a month ago, I took them out of his sight altogether to see if he would even notice that they were gone.  NOPE, he hasn't.  So, when I came across them when I was cleaning earlier in the week, I thought it was time to say goodbye.  Bittersweet moment for this mama!  

Aside from our normal pool fun, a lot of time has been spent outside playing on our playground.  The boys usually play on the slide the most, but this week they have been all about the swings.

And thankfully they seem to be done with the throwing sand phase of their life (hopefully).  They actually like to scoop it instead of see how much they can get in their hair!

And last but not least, this picture is a little older, but it cracks me up.  When reading about ways to help kids develop more speech, I read that sometimes kids need to build up their mouth muscles more.  One way to do that is to have them use a straw sippy cup instead of just the basic one.  I frankly never thought of that and never really got them to use a straw one because, well, let's be honest, who wants to clean out straws all the time?  Some of those cups have so many darn parts to them, it's ridiculous!  Well, anyways, I went to the store and bought some trainer straw sippy cups that help you teach a child how to drink from a straw (you push the bottom of the cup and liquid goes up the straw without them sucking - it teaches that they have to do some work to get the liquid up the straw - hence sucking from a straw).  Thankfully, they caught on really quick so I went out and bought some that aren't quite as easy to suck from, to get them used to using those muscles.  What made me laugh about the day I took this picture is that Ellis was having a hard time keeping the cup down so that he could actually suck up water.  They are so used to tipping the cup back to drink from it, but as we all know, if you do that with a straw cup, you won't get much of anything in there, so in this picture, he was trying so hard to keep the cup down so he could get some water to drink.  Too funny, Ellis.

Well, I think that's it for now.  It is way too late and I should be sleeping, but damn this Mt. Dew slurpee hasn't gotten out of my system yet.  

Tomorrow's agenda - continue working on the deck restoration (for as much as the weather will allow us) and have a BBQ with some friends at night.  Once the deck is done I will show before and after pictures, but with the progress we've made so far, I'm very excited to see the finished product.  Good night everyone!