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!

This is what it's all about

What an awesome, fun-filled weekend!  If this weekend is any preview of what the summer looks like, I can't wait.  Oh, if only we could speed through the next 5 days.  We have 5 more days of wasted time school left and then I will have 8 weeks of freedom!

So, back to this weekend.  Yesterday, we took a trip to Rockford.  It was Mitchell's first birthday party, so we headed out there for the day. Because of all of our hectic schedule's, this was also our first time meeting Mitchell too, so this visit was long overdue.  In the past, we tried to take longer road trips while the boys would be napping in hopes of them sleeping in the car, but that wasn't going to work this time, so we thought we'd plan for a couple stops along the way to keep us all sane.  First stop - donuts at a local donut shop in Flint that Troy hits up every so often.

Then, after 1.5 more hours driving, we stopped at a park in Carson City.  Cute little park that the kids loved playing at and had their picnic lunch.  I was shocked that the park was completely empty - until we left and saw that 1 mile down the street, there was a much larger, newer looking, busier park (with absolutely no shade, in the middle of a field).  I'm happy we stopped at the one we did!

An awesome wooden train to play on

A HUGE slide built into the side of a big hill.

And then finally to Rockford!  What a great time.  Both catching up with Bryan and Erin (and their families), meeting Mitchell and seeing the kids play.  The boys were very well behaved and despite no nap, they had no meltdowns, and had a blast.

Logan actually kept the party hat long enough to get a picture.

It's always fun watching a 1-year old dig into their first birthday cake!

Guess who was super excited when it was cake time?

Ellis surprisingly took 4 bites of Troy's cake!  This was quite the shock since he isn't (or hasn't been) a cake person.

Angie (Erin's sister) reading Ellis one of Mitchell's new books!

Boy they LOVED the playhouse outside!

They both fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving their house and except for a few where-the-hell-am-I wake-ups where Logan was trying desperately to get comfortable, it was a quiet ride home.

Ellis, not even 5 minutes after leaving.

On to today - just a chill day close to home.  After I woke up, I made Troy breakfast, but since he was up for me, I ordered him upstairs to bed, so he could have breakfast in bed (with 2 crazy kids playing around him)

Troy was originally planning to go fishing today, but because of a lot of paperwork he had to get done for the week (which he couldn't have worked on yesterday since we were gone all day), he spent a bit of his Father's Day unfortunately doing that.  We had a quick lunch/stop-through visit from Grandma and Grandpa as they drove through on their way home from up north and then a laid back afternoon since the boys took a later-than-normal nap.  After dinner though we headed to the park where they got out all of their energy running and climbing around on the playscape.

Now, Troy is just jamming on his guitar on the deck (and yes, our neighbor brought over a tip jar with a dollar in it to ask him to play loud enough to entertain his guests at his house), while I sit here updating the blog.  Oh how I'd love for all days to be like today, weather-wise, too.  Just an awesome night to sit on the deck!  

I'm looking forward to little day trips like yesterday, or anything that resembles fun or relaxing, this summer.  Soon-to-come = our 2014 summer bucket list.  Any can't-wait-for ideas from anyone out there?  I'd love to here other's ideas, especially those that are kid-friendly!

The growing words of L and E

I cannot believe that it was only 3 short months ago when the boys started preschool for speech.  Prior to them turning 3, they were in a 1-day/week class with 1 home visit a week from a speech therapist but now they are in class for nearly 3 hours a day for 4 days.  And I am so thankful they have this opportunity.  They have grown SO much during these past months, especially with their speech.  Some recent highlights:

• No more grunting to indicate they want something.  They use words for most of what they want, in addition to "please" that comes afterwards.  One proud mama that they use their manners already!
• Ellis' vocabulary has exploded!  He was literally saying maybe only a dozen words regularly back in March but now he is frequently using 2 (or more) word phrases and saying more words than I would even be able to count.  Go Ellis!
• They frequent repeat what we say now - time to watch our own language!
• They are close to making full sentences.  One morning Ellis woke up and told me "I want cookies please!"  I about fell over, but quickly got him something to eat.  As tempted as I was to give him cookies almost as a reward for saying that to me, he was content with the Cheerios I gave him instead!
• Now that they say (or can repeat) almost everything we say, they are quickly learning that if they don't verbally ask for it (versus grunting or only pointing), they don't get it.  Damn, that is harder than I thought to not give them what they want if they don't verbally ask for it!  

And along with the explosion of talking recently, I've been documenting some of the cute things they say - or should I say the funny things they say that caught me off guard.

• Logan: "Water, please".  I hand him some water. Logan: "Thank you".  Me: "You're welcome". Logan "I'm welcome" and laughs uncontrollably as if it was the funniest thing he's heard.
• Ellis comes up the stairs, where I am in the bathroom and Logan is downstairs crying.  Ellis: "He's crying.  What happened?" As if I should know!  It's probably something Ellis did to Logan - haha!
• Last Saturday morning the boys were up bright and early.  We are barely out of the bedroom and Logan tugs on me saying "Come on mommy - I'm hungry" and repeats it over and over until we are downstairs in the kitchen.
• Last weekend we lost power for a few hours and I was on my phone checking the update through DTE.  We were outside on the deck and Logan walked up to me and said "Excuse me mommy - let's go play!" 
• Ellis was crying and Logan walked up towards me, then looked at Ellis and said "What's your problem?"

To many parents, some of these things are pretty regular occurrences at a much earlier age, but for us, these are major milestones and I am SO happy with their progress and all the speaking improvements they've hit lately.  

Can you tell what one of Logan's favorite shows is these days?  It's not totally clear, but see if you can figure it out:

And Ellis has a recent fascination with stoplights.  Ever since I taught him red means stop and green means go, he always says it now when we drive up to a light.  Well, a couple weeks ago at the Reaves' birthday party, they got little party favors and his was the Lego Police Motorcycle that comes with a stoplight.  Usually when we get home from daycare they want to play outside, but both days this week so far, Ellis wanted to come inside and immediately opens the bin of Legos and dumps them all out to find the motorcycle (or as he sometimes calls "race bike") and the stoplight.  He then proceeds to say "red - stop, yellow - slow, green - go" and then he races his motorcycle around the kitchen and hallway back into the living room.  Last night, he had to eat with the motorcycle and stoplight close by, so he gave us a little rendition of his stoplight understanding then (in between bites of macaroni and cheese, of course):

That's it for us lately.  We've been up to a lot lately, but since another 2.5 months went by since I've posted last it's almost impossible to fill you in with everything.  Hopefully once school is over I will get back into the swing of it and post more frequently.  Only 8 more days of teaching and I'll be free for a while!!

Recent festivities

Our current happenings:

Last weekend, my mom, Nicole, Morgan and I had our annual cookie-making day.  My mom made Pecan Pralines, Nicole made rolo cookies, Morgan made frosted sugar cookies, and I made white chocolate cherry shortbread cookies.  I also dipped some pretzels in white chocolate and sprinkled them with red or green dots or rolled them in candy cane.  Lots of fun and plenty of cookies to take home!

On Thursday, the boys had their last day of daycare with Seema, the current woman they were going to. If you read any of the last few posts, I might have put something about it in there.  I don't want to make it much of a big deal anymore, but we have a place lined up starting in January.  For next week, they will be spending the days with Grandma Frahm again, just like old times.  They are going to LOVE it (and I hope they don't wear her out too much).  Anyways, Seema gave them a little Christmas gift as they left that they opened when they got home.  Each got a little blanket and a book, which I thought was very kind of her to give them!

That night we made salt dough ornaments.  They LOVED doing this, but I was not very happy with how they turned out after they were baked.  We always do their handprint along with other festive shapes, but their handprint (which is what I liked the most) was all bubbled up, so I think we are going to try a different recipe some time this week.  I'm sure the boys won't mind considering how much fun they had...

On Friday, I stayed home with the boys.  Long story short, but Seema was taking 3 weeks of vacation, which started on Friday, which is why Thursday was their last day and why my mom is watching them next week.  I figured there was no sense in having them start a new day care for one week before Christmas.  Unfortunately I got hit like a ton of bricks with a lovely cold, but we still did a few fun things.  First I made some pancakes.  Logan has been particularly clinging with me and had to be right next to me while I cooked so I set him up on the stool and he "helped" me take the pancakes off the griddle.  He loved using the turner and must have figured, why wait until you cut it up for me and dug right in.  I couldn't believe it!

Then we went to drop all their paperwork off at their new day care.  They played in the room they will be in and actually screamed (picture Logan limp on the ground when I told him we had to leave and I was trying to put his coat on - not helpful at all!).  I guess it is a good sign that they like the place though.  Then we went to a little show that the Rochester Public Library was having.  It was a little winter-themed magic-type show and the boys seemed to like it and did a good job sitting down with me for about the first 15 minutes.

He was showing "invisible" lights and how lights just appeared out of no where.  It's hard to see, but the boys were eating a snack at the time so this picture shows him taking a light out of Logan's snack cup.

Then when he called some kids up to volunteer to do things, Logan and Ellis thought they were allowed to go up there too and then they just started running laps around everyone.

Ellis apparently wanted to volunteer too!

At first it wasn't too big of a deal until Ellis started laughing uncontrollably and distracting a lot of people as he kept running.  Needless to say, I didn't want to continue being that mom that couldn't control her kids so after a few minutes where they weren't sitting back down with me, we took off.

That night, I headed to the Reaves' house to watch Morgan and Parker while Nicole and Mark went out to Mark's holiday party.  I can't remember the last time I've watched them on my own, and actually I'm not sure if I ever have since Parker was born, so it was nice just spending time with both of them without the distractions of my own kids.  We had "Morgan Art School" and I even showed her how to make old school cootie catchers.  Fun stuff!!

Today we finally headed out to see Santa.  Bass Pro Shops has a whole set-up there, including free pictures with Santa so we checked that out.  The boys loved it (well, they loved all the activities and seeing all the big fish in the fish tank).  I will let you determine how much the boys actually loved Santa.

Love this picture.  Looks like Logan is really thinking carefully of what to tell Santa.  In reality I think he was trying to muster up the courage to get closer to him.  Both boys were nice enough to give high fives though!

Ellis didn't have a major meltdown but was not very happy.  Logan just seemed to go along with it, sans tears for the first year!

We rode the Wildlife carousel...

Daddy and Ellis with the moose..

and me with Logan on a bear.  I think he was more mesmerized by the flashing lights!

Saw Frosty....

Saw a huge elk (and was shocked that they were okay with getting so close to it considering how life-like it was)...

Watched a short part of "Elf on the Shelf" which was playing right next to the line to see Santa..

Found a great Christmas gift for anyone who hasn't gotten us something yet (LOL!)...

and of course saw the fish...

I wanted to look around at a few stores for something for the boys to wear for Christmas and the boys thought it was a major free-for-all and started running sprinting down the center of the mall.  There was once a day that we kept up with them but those days are over.  Seriously I think Ellis will be the next champion marathoner.  The kid never gets tired running!  So, we put our own shopping on hold and went to the play area, which of course they loved (and they still had tons of energy to burn).

Then Logan caught a glimpse of some cars, trucks, and a bus to play in just outside the play area so we went over there.

All Logan would say is "bus - beep beep"  Love it!!!

Major drama once it was time to go, of but overall they loved every bit of it.  Troy and I just couldn't believe how exhausted we both were when we got home.

After a short visit from my parents on their way home from up north (to get the car seats for the week), I took a trip to Target.  Between that trip, yet another amazon order, and a pending target.com order (couldn't believe how picked over their shelves were today - VERY low selection of toys...should I be surprised?), our Christmas shopping is officially complete.  PHEW!

I seriously thought that with having an extra day off of work, giving me a longer weekend that I would actually have time to relax, but that didn't happen.  Only 5 more working days though and I'll have 2 weeks of that!

Okay, Troy is telling me my blogging time is up.  Time to watch our DVR'd Parenthood from last Thursday.