Potty Training!

I am so proud of JT. I decided to keep him home this week since David is OOT. It would be easy getting him to daycare but Ryan is always napping when it's time to pick him up at noon or 12:30. So I felt this was the perfect time to bite the bullet. I'm so glad I waited until JT was ready. He goes every now and then for fun but I finally told him that he would have no more diapers! Daycare has him going to the potty with everyone as well and was sending him home in pull ups. SO, I feel if he can do it for them, he can do it for us! And he is. He's finally loving it too. Even wants to stand up like a "big boy!" He still won't do number 2. It really takes him a long time to finish so when that needs to happen he does get his diaper on. But he wears his big boy undies all day and goes to pp all the time! He's so proud of himself. He gets one chocolate about every other time. He loves to just run around in his underware at home but I got a great shot of him out in the backyard riding his tractor! Since it's not appropriate to take a picture of him going potty, I thought this was the next best thing!! So, we're done with diapers for JT.

I am done buying formula for Ryan too! He takes milk with no problem. Unlike JT, where I had to slowly introduce milk to him with his formula. I'm hoping that once Ryan is on milk only he'll finally get hungry enough to eat real food. He still take a couple of bites of whatever we give but doesn't eat enough for a meal. I keep trying but it doesn't work. He starts spitting it all out and makes a mess. SO, he's still a snacker! That's ok, he's certainly not malnurished! It's just going to be nice to save about $100 a month now...no box of diapers ($20) and no formula ($75 plus!)

Ice Skating

Well this is way past due since we went on Aug. 10 but better late than never! We loaded everyone up and went the iceskating rink in Central Park. Kristen's friends met us there and we had a couple of hours to play. David had to hang on to JT the entire time. He did use the bars in the beginning but later found it easier to just hold his dad's hands. Ryan and I just watched the entire time but we had fun. The girls had a good time skating and checking out the cute boy they found. I should have snapped a picture of him but didn't. At the end they all wanted to play video games. I couldn't believe we were finally there to skate and they wanted video games. It was a fun afternoon though. Here are a couple of pictures and two quick videos for fun! I'll have all the pictures up on Snapfish at the end of the month. I'm trying to take more day to day pictures. We'll go weeks sometimes without taking a single shot. Of course Ryan's birthday is the 31st so there will be lots on that day. I keep hoping he'll start walking. He thinks about it and then stops. Either falling straight down on his tummy or decides to crawl instead. No real attempt yet!!

Ryan has his own version...so cute and he had fun.

It's Always Something!

Well Kristen called this morning and said her bag made it but she's missing clothes. Not her skates, or new school clothes or shoes but her stuff she brought up with her! So I went to the dryer thinking David forgot to pull that out when he packed everything up for her. NOPE, not there and not in our bedroom either. So I asked her if she did empty all her drawers in her dresser and she thought she did. NOPE! Two drawers have all kinds of clothes in them. We asked if she had everything out to be packed and the answer was yes. This is the first time we haven't gone behind her to make sure everything is empty. She is 12 now. Well, guess the jokes on us! I'm not laughing. So now I have to pack everything up and mail it to her. She might just wait until the next time we see each other. That'll learn her. Yeah right! I am happy though that her bag was delivered. That was a huge relief.

She goes to get her shot today for school and to Open House to meet her new teachers for the 7th grade. Goodness, 7th grade. I swear I was just 12 myself. Time flies.

Kristen's Home

Well yesterday was a crazy day.

Today Kristen got off without a problem. The planes all boarded on time and landed on time. She arrived in Florida and was off to get her luggage that should have arrived the night before. Note that I said should have! Well Shaun takes her to get the luggage and it's no where to be found. It seems that it might be in Atlanta somewhere. The lady feels that it's there because they noticed she didn't board the flight. Excuse me, but people get delayed and transferred all the time but the luggage still travels on. Well not hers of course. So they are hoping it arrives tomorrow or the next day or the next day! Good grief. Her luggage doesn't have anything major but that's not the point. Her chargers are in there all her new clothes for school, plus her regular stuff, pictures and her inline skates. I really hope she gets it soon.

She goes to open house tomorrow to get her school assignment. Plus she gets her vaccine shot tomorrow! School starts on Monday.

Until next time! Mary

Good Grief

I was already stressed today about having to send Kristen home and of course the day just got worse. Ryan fell down the stairs AGAIN. We didn't even know he was back upstairs. We were watching him and then turn around to see where he is and we hear thunk, thunk, thunk. Not sure how high he was up. He's trying to come down the stairs now and it just freaks me out. He has a huge bump on his head and he's been favoring his right leg all day. He cried for a long time. We called his doctor and she said take him to urgent care. Good grief. I called a nurse friend and she said to give him tylenol or motrin and see if he would nap. He had calmed down by this time. So we gave him motrin and he went right to bed. He is crawling like a champ, like nothing is wrong. But when he tries to stand up it takes him a bit and then he won't put any weight on the right foot. So I don't know if it's his foot or hip or leg. We touch everything and pull a bit and no tears or signs of pain. I'm thinking he's got a bruise somewhere. We might just end up taking him to the ER for X-rays. Just for peace of mind.

Kristen had her friends over again this morning to hang out before we had to leave. Of course they are more important than mom and her brothers. For once we are loaded and on the road on time. I couldn't believe it. I didn't ask David to speed up once. We get to the airport at 2:00 and go to the counter. I wait and wait and wait while the ONE lady checks in the guy before us. We get up to the counter and she takes all our information and prints everything out and takes Kristen's bag and puts it on the conveyor. But then she tells me there isn't enough time to process her and she'll have to take the 5:00 flight to Atlanta. I am so mad at this point but say fine we'll wait. Then she gets the manager. He says the flights to Pensacola are all booked for the night and she has to leave TOMORROW! OMG! I was furious. He tells me I needed to be here at least 30 minutes before the flight but they prefer an hour. I told him I was there at 2 for her 2:45 flight but had to wait 20 minutes for the ONE lady to process the previous person. He was surprised that I was there in the time frame and annoyed that the lady sent her bag through. There is no getting it back. So it gets to make the 2:45 flight but not Kristen. I have been through the processing with her 3 times now, it doesn't take long at all. But they made excuses. So we drove back another hour and a half home just for me to do it again tomorrow morning alone. Oh, and David is taking tomorrow off too so that I don't have to Ryan with me. He doesn't do well in long car rides. JT will be at daycare. So I am thankful to have her with me one more day (actually she was originally supposed to leave on the 13th-but that's another story) but it's $$$ to have to drive another 3 hour round trip. Plus we have to get out of the house at 7:30 a.m. It's a huge task to wake up a 12 year old girl and 10 am much less 7 am!!

Hopefully tomorrow goes better. I hope to have a better update tomorrow. But it just means I have another day to be all emotional over her leaving.

Sneak Peak!

There are a couple of pictures available to see on Christi's website! So check them out. It'll be a few more days before they are all available for purchase.

www.christisullivanphotography.blogspot.com

Picture Day

Today turned out pretty good. Not as stressful as I had planned on. The boys slept in a bit so that made it nice to start the day. The weather is just amazing! Kind of sad though because the leaves are already turning yellow and falling from our trees. I just know that means an early winter. Yuck! Then everyone got ready and went to the pool (except me!) for JT's next to last swim lesson. Even Ryan went and played in the outside kid pool. I went to get my hair colored and styled! I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I got home around 1:15 and both boys were still up! I said, "Oh NO!" and we promptly put them to bed. At 4:15 we woke the boys up and got them dressed. They looked so handsome. I got Kristen's hair dryed and styled a bit and we were off to take pictures.

Christie is just so nice. Her husband was a lot of fun too. She has her studio in her home basement. We got some good shots before JT went into "goofy" mode. He had a chance to show off a bit and I hope the crazy shots come out cute. Ryan wasn't really into it as much. I think having so many people around was too much for him. But I think I will be happy with the way they all turned out.

It will be about a week before they are available for me to view and order online. Then another couple of weeks (maybe?) before they come in. We'll be getting pictures for friends and family. As soon as they are available I'll let everyone know. I hope that they'll be viewable by everyone. That way if there is a particular picture you want that I'm NOT getting, you can order it yourself!

Only three days left with Kristen. It's just gone by so fast. Makes me sad.

Here's a couple of cute pictures from today. The full load will be sent out at the end of the month.

Scrapbooking

I am so excited to finally get into scrapbooking! I have gone through all my pictures of Kristen since she was born (before digital days!) and put them in an order of sorts. I purged a lot and I'm even sending my ex the duplicates. I found a bunch of pictures from all her birthday's and Christmas days that her PeePaw put on disk for me. I'm so thankful for that. I didn't have very many since I was busy running around. So I have to go through and print what I want out for the books. It's funny though. JT is 3 and has twice as many pictures than Kristen and she's 12! But again, we're in the digital age now!

My neighbor is a Creative Memories consultant so she is hooking me up! I'll get the stuff this evening and should be able to get a page or two done soon! I'm going to work on Kristen's book first. Birth to age 7. Her Florida years! I had a friend redo her album for me of her Hawaii days. That's what made me decide to do it myself! I love looking at all the pictures. Then I'll do a Virginia album once we move from here. I think that will make it easier. Plus that will let me concentrate on JT and Ryan's books. Then I need to do one for myself of everyone! When the kids grow up I want them to take their books with them. Once they are "mature" enough to handle them. Just because they turn 18 or get married doesn't make them responsible! LOL

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning all this crafty stuff. Maybe eventually I'll be able to do a wedding album for us! I love the book that all the pictures are in but it would be nice to personalize it a bit! I want to be an expert by the time Kristen gets married. But that's still another 15 or 20 years away! One can be hopeful!

Another Monday!

Kristen is sick now. She has strep throat again. I have no idea where she got it. Unless it's what David has had all this time but his came back negative. She's on medicine for 5 days now. At least we are getting it treated before school starts on the 18th.

David goes out of town on the 18th for the week to Shaw for a TDY. Another week alone with the boys! Yeah. But I am going to take that opportunity to TRY to potty train JT. He's definately ready and will go pp often if I start it in the mornings but he's still refuses to poo poo. Not sure how I am going to tackle that one. But I just want to get started. I'm tired of buying diapers for both boys.

Ryan is taking milk! I'm so happy about that! I give it to him with formula (2 oz with 4 oz formula) and also once a day he gets just milk with water. He likes it. I'm hoping that once he stops formula he'll want to eat more "real" foods! And that will hopefully help his constipation. I can't believe he's almost one! He's standing on his own and will stand still for a moment or two. He refuses to take a step though. I know it's not far behind though!

We go for family pictures this Saturday. I'm looking forward to seeing them. It's been 3 years since our last family photo. We'll be updating these now once each summer!

I go to the doctor again for the colposcopy on the 25th. I'm sure it's all going to be fine. The doctor didn't seem concerned either since this happened after having JT as well. I'll update when I know more there.

That's about all for now. Hope everyone has a great week. We're trying to enjoy the little time we have left with Kristen. Summer just flies by. Until next time.