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!

Letting go

Letting go of anything is not easy for anyone with a Type A personality, such as myself.  Being a slight perfectionist, competitive, analytic thinker, has its pros and cons.  Pros - I get shit done.  Give me a project (at work or not at work) and I will get it done in a reasonably short amount of time.  I create lists like its my job and love crossing things off, once those tasks are done.  I don't procrastinate with getting things done and even think ahead as much as possible to reduce the amount of things I have to do in the coming days/weeks.  The cons - I'm always moving at 100 mph, mentally.  My mind moves too much and it's hard for me to truly relax.  I'm pretty hard on myself and analyze things too much.  I also don't like to give up on things.  My expectations can be too high.

So where am I going with this?  It's hard for me to deal with things when I put my mind to something and it doesn't work out.  Case in point - potty training.  I had a plan that once school was out, we were going to go full throttle with potty training.  They've had exposure to sitting on the potty at preschool and at home a little bit and a few times Ellis has told me he pooped.  They've been receptive to wearing underwear few times before.  Plus, they are a few months over 3 years old, so since I would be out of school for the summer, I figured it was a good time to get the ball rolling.  I read some books and articles on potty training and they seemed to show most signs that they were ready.  Of course none of those books or articles talked about potty training two at the same time, but well, as I always thought - I don't know what it's like with "just one", so just like everything else that is new, it will be hectic at first, but it will work out in the end.  So right away on Saturday, I thought we might as well start.  I knew the sooner I started, the sooner it would get done.  I anticipated a lot of accidents as they would start learning how to sense the urge to go, and not surprisingly there was.  For a first day (with Troy gone at a golf outing), sure I was stressed a bit, but it wasn't horrible.

Sunday through this morning have been a bit of a roller coaster though.  Some very good times and some times when we had accident after accident.  The analyzer that I am tried to assess everything to see what I was doing wrong and try to fix it.  Unfortunately if the things you are assessing are strong-willed little 3 year olds, there are no definite answers.  Yesterday I was so proud in the morning when Logan went twice on the potty with no accidents.  Ellis peed and pooped on the potty too.  But after nap yesterday, it went all to hell.  Accident after accident.  No attempt to even move towards the potty when the stream started.  I tried helping them get to the potty and there was resistance.  I was at my wits end.  I figured I would reassess after today.  Well, this morning I had to head to school to drop off my laptop and since I had the boys with me, we stopped at a park on the way home.  What also sucks about all this (although obviously expected) is that during this whole process you really should stay close to home since there is no telling when either one has to go to the bathroom.  And with summer here now, all the boys want to do is play outside.  Try keeping them at home, mainly in the house (I tried taking a potty outside with us Saturday but that was a no-go), in the summertime and you have two cranky boys!  So, since they had a diaper on for the trip down to school, I took advantage and let them get some energy out.  Once we got home, there was meltdown after meltdown.  I always give them the option of diaper or underwear and every day so far they've said underwear.  When we got home today, Ellis didn't want anything to do with it.  Logan said he wanted to wear underwear but within 40 minutes he had 2 accidents, again with no attempt to get to the potty on time.  He didn't even want me to take his wet underwear off.  That was the last straw.  I clearly am not going to force Ellis to put underwear on, and something just isn't clicking with Logan.  Not yet anyways.

It was noon when I made the decision today, day 5 of potty training, to let it go for now.  I read that while kids don't necessarily master potty training in 5 days, if they are truly ready, they will show quite a bit of progress in those 5 days.  While I did see some progress, the frustration/anxiety I saw in Logan wasn't a good thing after all this time.  And it was obviously some sort of sign when Ellis didn't even want me to take his diaper off today.

Here comes the over-analyzer in me:  Am I giving up too soon?  Should I only try to potty train one at a time?  Is it bad that they are over 3 years old and still in diapers?  Am I putting too much pressure on them?  Are my expectations too high for only 5 days of training?  I know kids can sense anxiety from others, but I really thought I was doing a good job staying calm during their accidents.  I searched google quite a few times to look for different potty training tips/suggestions to try, but the only main thing that was consistent in everything I read is that every child is different.  There is no right way to potty train and there is no time limit as to when kids need to be potty trained.  We know that all kids will be potty trained when they are ready.

As much as I felt some major weight off my shoulders as I put a diaper on Logan, all I could think to myself was, damn I'm giving up - I felt defeated.  I don't like to give up.  But I also need to know that I can't control everything and I need to be okay with that.  I think moms in general put too much pressure on themselves to do everything perfectly (or is it just me?).  I often joke about being Type A, but this is one time that it is a slight curse.  I have to be okay with the fact that I can't control everything.  I can't blame myself for things that don't work out the way I expect them to work out.  I can't worry about it when I hear about other people whose kids were potty trained by 2-2.5 years old.  I will worry myself to death if I play the comparison game with everyone else's kids.

It took me a minute to come to grips with the choice, but I knew it was a good decision within an hour and the boys were just running around playing (not napping, like they should've been) and having fun.  No more meltdowns (which later made me realize that they probably could sense some sort of anxiety in me earlier).  I could play with them and run around with them without worrying that they weren't within eye sight of a potty.  Once they fully rebelled against their nap, we went to the library and played around there.  We came home, rode bikes, and played in the sandbox.  This is what summer is about.  Sure, maybe we will try in another month, but right now, we aren't ready.  And I'm okay with that.  Like I said in the last post, that "bucket list" isn't a must-do list.  It's not meant to be a challenge to get everything checked off that list and I'm now finally okay with the fact that potty training won't be checked off right away.  It will be -- some day.

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!!

Happy Birthday Logan and Ellis

Wow, it's been about 2.5 months since my last entry.  I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but didn't realize it had been that long.  It's not that I didn't want to update photos and whats been going on, but it just takes so much freakin time to post and upload photos.  But, the boys' birthday is definitely worth the time.

3 years...I can't believe it.  I continue to be in awe of how much they are learning, especially with their speech lately.  Ellis has always been a bit behind Logan, but during the last couple weeks he has just been spitting out tons of words and even making some phrases.  Such a proud mama!

But anyways, on to their birthday party.  This year, instead of a big bash with family and all our friends, we kept the party small.  Heck, they are only 3, and I really wanted to just chill and enjoy family time.  And it was perfect.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the party and so did the boys.  Thank you, THANK YOU (again) to everyone who made this a great party.

Here is a photo bomb of the party (out of the 100 photos taken - by the way, thank you to Nicole and Mark for photographing!)

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he understood the concept of his new balance bike!

Ellis was more excited about being pushed by grandma!  He's got her wrapped around his finger!  =)

Time to open gifts and the boys were all about it!

Ever since they saw Parker's transformers and Switch-and-Go Dinos at Christmas, I knew they would like some of their own - and they absolutely LOVED the ones they got!

A new train set??? Yes, please!

And you can't go wrong with supersized vehicles!

WHAT??  This huge monster truck moves on it's own??!  Awesome!

They love horses lately, so it was a no brainer to get a horse cake!

Logan was so cute when we sang Happy Birthday.  He started singing it too.  Ellis was more excited to play with the horses that were on the cake.  

Ellis is busy playing with the horse while Logan tried so hard to blow out the candles.  Unfortunately lack of breath and distance from the cake kind of hindered his abilities.

Cakes aren't made to be eaten.  They're made to be played with, right Ellis?

He was doing his horse impression, "NEIGH!" and of course putting the horse on his back feet.  Um, yeah, there were a few extra holes on his side of the cake!

Logan slowly but surely dug into his cake and ice cream.  First the ice cream, then he ate Ellis' ice cream that he didn't touch.  A little later he came back to eat his cake and after everyone left and we were cleaning up, we noticed him polishing off Ellis' cake.  Needless to say he was on quite the sugar buzz.  So cute (probably because this is one of the first times he has shown much of an interest in cake and ice cream)!!!

A sugar-high Logan takes a break to pose with Aunt Nicole.  We couldn't get both boys together for a birthday picture, but these cute family pictures do just fine!

The whole afternoon/night was so, so much fun!  Today, as you probably saw on facebook, I high-taileded it out of work (mainly so I wouldn't get caught up in Tigers traffic) and got the boys from daycare and headed to the park for a bit before dinner.  Troy left just a little early from the game to also beat a majority of traffic and met us up at the park with dinner.  He got McDonalds, which kind of scared me because last summer when we tried giving them some food from there, they showed no interest.  Of course I wasn't too bummed that they didn't like it because I don't want it to be something they always want, but today they ate it up.  And hey, a "fun" birthday dinner from McDonald's isn't so bad, is it?  They played for more than an hour and they were pooped when we decided to head home.  Let's just say that when we put them to bed, they fell asleep very quickly.  What an awesome weekend and a wonderful day today!  

So there is our weekend wrap up.  I hope everyone enjoyed the weather outside today as much as we did.  Fingers crossed that this weather sticks around!  Spring, we are ready for you!

A day in the life...

What a day week!  This week I was back to school - a new school.  While this school is definitely more organized than the last one I work at, there is always a little adjustment just because of the new setting, new procedures, new paperwork, etc.  I'm getting an awesome vibe from the staff so far though.  Hoping that good vibe continues.

As most of you know, the boys were supposed to start day care this week (just two days to start with), but Sunday night/Monday morning around 3am, Ellis got sick and was pretty much up until 5am throwing up.  So, no day care for Monday or Tuesday like planned, so technically today was their first day.  And what a great day!  My nerves didn't last too long this morning since I was able to talk to Troy about the drop-off before heading into work.  He said they were good and didn't have any issues when he left (although it probably helped that she turned on a show while other kids showed up before breakfast).  One main reason we switched to a home day care at kind of the last minute was because of how motherly she was with the kids.  When I stopped by a few weeks ago to get some information, we were chatting about some educational and developmental beliefs.  She has a Masters Degree in Psychology and is getting her PhD in Early Child Education, so she bases a lot of her child care on researched practices and has a Montessori-type style, which I like.  She made comments that she likes to take pictures every so often and send them to parents, so of course I was secretly hoping that she would do that today, and she did.

It was awesome - made me feel so happy to get pictures every hour or so on what they were doing.  So,  here is a picture version of "a day in the life" at day care (with the text messages we got along with the pictures):

Happy and doing great!  (8:06am)

Enjoying watching the birds and squirrels (8:12am)

Time for breakfast (8:24am)

Time to play outside (9:30am)

Hi mom, hi dad.  I'm having fun.

Indoor play (10:57am)

Making friends and sharing very well

Lunch time (12:06pm)

Nap time - fell asleep right away (12:40pm)

Ellis slept all the way until 3pm and Logan just before 3pm, which is shocking because I'm lucky Ellis will nap for 1.5 hours at home.  Goes to show when he's busy with other kids in a different setting, it just wore him out!

I picked them up just before 5pm and they were standing at the door (another boy was just leaving) so they saw me before I even got out of the car.  Ellis received a good report and she said he was very mellow, yet social throughout the day (yes, she's talking about Ellis!!).  Logan was also good - a little clingier to her, following her around a bit.  He didn't whine much but did a bit when she was out of his sight for a minute.  Otherwise, they were very good.  Such a proud mama here!  Now, I'm just hoping they repeat this tomorrow, that this isn't just a honeymoon phase.  When we first started speech classes, they were good the first day and then the next time we went (although its only once a week so the frequency isn't as high), they were a mess and didn't want to participate in anything.  Hopefully this is not like that and they have a great day tomorrow!  Having such a good report the first day confirms our decision to change them to the in-home day care versus the bigger day care setting!

Now, I know I was on a bit of a hiatus with blogging.  I was trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer with the boys and honestly didn't want to spend time blogging about it.  So, just trust me when I say we had lots of fun.

So, I'll end this post with a few shout-outs!  First, a huge thank you to Grandma Bush for coming out and watching the boys Tuesday and Wednesday.  She was originally going to watch them Wednesday-Friday (since we were planning only 2 days of day care this week to work them into it), but because Ellis got sick, she saved us by coming a day earlier.  The boys definitely enjoyed spending time with her and we enjoyed the visit too!

Also, thanks to all of you sending positive thoughts for me and the boys today.  It was greatly appreciated and helped me get through the day easier!

Big boy beds and a birthday bash!

I feel like I need to pinch myself after everything that happened last week!  Most of it is work related (and all good!) which I don't really want to go into detail about until I know the final results of everything, so let's just focus on the rest of the week.

As I mentioned last week, Ellis has been sleeping in a big boy bed at grandma's house during the day.  I'm not sure what prompted his recent lack of interest in his crib, but it is definitely one I wasn't thinking would happen for a while.  Maybe now that he isn't using his pacifier (he holds it when he sleeps, but doesn't suck on it now that the holes are in it), he figures he is a big boy.  So, Monday night, we took the front of their crib off and transitioned it into a toddler/day bed.  We hung out up in their room after dinner so they could get used to it and play around to try to get that initial excitement out of their systems before bed.  And, I'd have to say, after nearly a week, all is pretty much good with it.  Don't get me wrong, either Troy or I have to go in there at least once (okay, lets be real - it's usually about 3 times) within the hour after they go to bed and tell them to get back in their bed, but it could be worse.

No, this isn't the reaction they give daddy when he walks in and catches them out of bed!

We also turned their door knob so it only locks from the outside, since Logan knows how to lock their door.  One good perk is that we get to sleep in a little bit longer on the weekends.  No more crying to get them out of their crib.  Yesterday I woke up around 7:45 (from Bella in my face) and I went to check on them.  Logan was laying in his bed still but Ellis was near his bed just playing.  Today Troy went in their room around 7:30 and found them both laying on the floor next to their bed.  We're guessing that they woke up early and played a bit before falling back asleep.  And no, he didn't get a picture of them.  =(

Yesterday, we had some family fun and went to the Reaves house for Morgan and Parker's birthday party, and it was a ton of fun.  Thankfully the threatening rain didn't ruin any of the fun and most of it just blew over.  The kids LOVED playing outside, and I think the boys already have a girlfriend.  Most of Morgan's friends were playing princess (I heard Rapunzel at one point) and Logan was following them along.  Well, Logan was getting too close to the road so my mom got him and brought him back closer to the house.  One of the girls ran up to my mom and asked if he was leaving and appeared sad that he wasn't playing with them.  Not that he knew what they were doing, but he just liked following them around.

Watching his little girlfriends every move at the work bench.

Ellis hamming it up in the princess castle playhouse

Logan following every little move of these little girls!

Then later on, I'm not sure what the attraction was, but they found some grasses/shrubs and they sat in them.  They liked laying back in them and staring up the sky.  I have NO idea why.  Well, the same little girl went up and trying picking them up back into the sitting position and of course after she picked Ellis up, he would lay right back down for her to lift him up again.  He just loved the attention and she sure didn't mind giving it. 

And bad me, I didn't even get a picture of the birthday kids together, but they seemed to have a great time.  Happy 5th birthday Morgan and Happy 3rd birthday to Parker!

Well, I'm going to keep it short and sweet for tonight.  I'm starting a summer bucket list for us and knowing that school is out on Friday, I better get a move on finalizing it.  I even have a fun way to keep track of all that we do this summer, so I'll share that next!

For now, I hope all you fathers had a fantastic day!  A special 1st Father's Day to Bryan and Mike - new parents within the past 3 weeks, and to Chris, an expectant father within the next 3 weeks!