Saturday, June 27, 2009

Good Job

Luis was out of the house early this morning to go golfing with Marty, Jimmy and Mike. They were supposed to go on Father's Day, but the weather was so crappy that it was rescheduled to today (with a later tee time as well). Jackson was not happy that Daddy was leaving just as he was getting out of bed, so I had to pry him off Luis with many tears shed. Luckily, the crying only lasted about 5 minutes and we were able to get on with our day. After breakfast, Jackson informed me he wanted to sit on the potty and proceeded to poop. Hooray! That is a great start to the day as far as I am concerned.

After putting Lexi down for her morning nap, I got the boys dressed and we headed outside to make special chalk drawings for Daddy to see when he got home. They requested a BIG sun, so I drew a big blue sun (which is about the extent of my artistic capabilities - a circle). Since Nicolas was throwing a rock around on the driveway, I made him a hopscotch game to at least aim the rock at. Then Jackson decided that he needed me to draw him a big dinosaur. A T-Rex, of course. As I previously mentioned, I am a horrible artist, but I got to work anyway. As I was making my best attempt to draw said T-Rex, Nicolas came over and said "I can tell this is going to be a good dinosaur. You are doing a very good job Mommy". I almost fell over laughing because it was something that I would say to one of the boys and it sounded so funny to hear them say it to me. Especially since the drawing was pretty pitiful. But, apparently they don't mind the fact that I can draw for squat (or carry a tune to save my life either) since they were thrilled with the final product (and I think they enjoy my singing as well - at least for now).

Once Lexi woke up from her nap we all walked over to the farm stand and bought some strawberries, raspberries, squash, green beans, shucking peas and cherries. (Have I mentioned how awesome it is to live across the street from a farm???)

After some fun in the sandbox and playscape we headed inside for some lunch and an early nap. Nicolas even offered to lay down for a nap because he wanted to be well rested for the cookout we had planned for later in the day. Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well (as I suspected it wouldn't). Jackson is not used to having Nicolas take naps with him, so he kept talking, singing and in general fooling around. So, after getting Lexi down in her crib, I brought Nicolas into "Nana's bed" in the guest room so he could lay down and told Jackson to quiet down and take a nap. Which, luckily he did. Nicolas wandered down into the kitchen about 5 minutes later and informed me that he was done with his nap. We played War (what else??) while I ate my lunch and then I started getting stuff packed up for the party.

Once Luis got home, I jumped in the shower and finished packing and nursed Lexi while he showered and we were ready to head out. The boys almost immediately wanted to go into the pool, so I changed them into their swimsuits and Luis took them into the [COLD] pool. They had a blast - and I was so nicely surprised that they had so much fun since in the past Nicolas usually starts shivering and whining to get out. Although he was shivering (it really was cold in the pool), he did not want to get out and had a lot of fun using the borrowed swim vest to play. Jackson didn't last quite as long, and when he came out, Luis took Lexi in. I think she had the most fun out of all of them. She was all smiles as she splashed Daddy and kicked her feet. And when Luis was so cold he wanted to get out, she was unhappy and wanted to stay in!!

We dried everyone off and the boys went off to play in the bounce house and on the swingset and sandbox. Lexi and I sat on the blanket and visited with Carol and Madison until it was time to eat. After dinner, the boys started playing "chase" with some of the other kids. Ella (Carol and Marty's 2 1/2 year old) came running over crying saying that a boy made her cry. I think said boy was Jackson because he was chasing her and growling (just like we do at our house every day). Poor Ella didn't know what to think of that. I guess that might be the difference between boys and girls??

The boys started asking to get back in the pool, but it was finally time to head home. I nursed Lexi upstairs and we packed up the car and headed out. Lexi fell asleep almost immediately, but the boys waited to fall asleep until we were 1 minute from home. The key, as my mom is always telling me, is to tire them out during the day so they will sleep well at night!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Dreary Dad's Day

The weather this weekend was pretty dreary, but we tried to make the best of it. Saturday morning I got some "me" time and headed to the Lombardi's house to discuss our upcoming vacation plans. I spent a few hours planning everything out with the other moms who are going (5 families in total) then headed home to help get the kids fed and ready for naps.

After watching the weather forecast for Sunday, it was decided to delay the Father's Day golf morning to next weekend since it sounded like it was going to be terrible weather on Sunday morning.

Lexi must have eaten something that did not agree with her because she was very fussy. She woke up about an hour after falling asleep, and I assumed she had a burp. When I picked her up, she did burp, but then did vomit all over me, herself and the floor. Lou came to help me clean it all up, but Lexi was not happy about going back in her crib and I ended up spending most of the night in the rocker/recliner with her. She actually pooped twice in the middle of the night (which she never does) and continued to be very squirmy all night. Clearly something was bothering her. Luckily, she seemed to be back to herself by late Sunday morning.

After wishing Luis a Happy Father's Day, the boys had fun playing outside Sunday morning (in their pajamas) since the weather threatened rain, but never actually delivered. All in all, it was a fairly low-key weekend (luckily since I haven't had much sleep in the past few days).

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Pooper Party

Who but a mother or father would clap and dance around the kitchen in sheer joy and happiness because their child pooped or peed on the potty?

Jackson had been doing great for a while on the training potty, but for some reason hasn't used or wanted to even try to use it for weeks, possibly even months. I didn't want to push it and have it backfire, so I've been patiently waiting for the right time to try again. After he got up from his nap, we went downstairs and when I asked him if he wanted to try to go on the potty he said "yes". Not expecting much, I sat him down while I got some clean clothes for Lexi who had successfully pooped out of her diaper all over her outfit. When I came back, he had made one small poop, so I asked him to sit for a few minutes more to see if there was anything else. Sure enough he peed and made a LOT more poop. Who would have thought I'd be so excited about pee and poop????

Nicolas is STILL obsessed with cards, and more specifically war. At the time, I thought it was a great game to teach him. It would help him learn/understand the concept of higher/lower, etc. The child is OBSESSED. All day long all he wants to do is play war. And he'll play by himself, pretending to be someone else. He'll play and pretend that one pile of cards is mine (or Lou's or anyone else within eyesight) and will play.

Yesterday at school it was one of his classmate's birthday and she gave all the kids in the class a big sand pail with a shovel, pack of cards for "Go Spidey", bubbles, chalk and a paddle game. Go Spidey is a take on Go Fish and we've been playing that a bit. We had to go out to the Internet today to figure out the names of the Spiderman allies and villains since neither Luis or I had any clue for most of them. I knew Doc Oc, The Green Goblin and Spiderman. The others I looked up.

Lexi has gotten pretty good at crawling/pushing herself backwards but gets frustrated since she moves farther away from the things she wants instead of toward them. But I am sure that within the next couple of weeks, she'll be crawling around like a pro...sometimes they grow up too fast.