Vacuuming

A few days ago, I had a doctor's appointment and Chris stayed home with the boys. Being the dear, sweet husband that he is, he vacuumed the floor after he put the kids down. I got home before the kids got up, so he left to go to work. Phillip woke up and came out of his room, said hi to me, then looked at the floor and said,

"The floor looks wonderful Mommy!!"

Is that a hint that I should vacuum a little more often?!? :)

See ya later alligator...

Another Potty Training Milestone

When starting the whole potty training process, I read several things that said that staying dry at night was a whole separate thing, so that's something we haven't even been worried about. You really can't teach someone to wake up when they feel like they have to go potty and Phillip is a very deep sleeper, so I haven't even been worried about it, thinking that it would happen later rather than sooner. Phillip has just been sleeping in a pull-up since he became potty trained and it hasn't been a big deal.

To our amazement, about a month ago, Phillip started waking up and going to the bathroom on his own. It was pretty incredible that this just started happening on its own. But, he wasn't doing it on a regular basis, so we praised him when he did it, but left things the way they were.

Then, we noticed that starting a couple of weeks ago, he was waking up both from naps and regular sleep with a dry pull-up. This was quite an accomplishment, but we wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke, so we didn't change anything just yet. After several weeks of dry pull-ups, we decided to take the plunge and go pull-up free. I'm proud to report that Phillip has slept in his underwear and has gone accident free since Sunday night!!! Now, I really hope I'm not ginxing his streak by bragging about him, but I had to tell you all the good news. This is a pretty major milestone that puts us close to being completely done.

The following pictures are not of him actually sleeping in his pull-up. These were taken a couple of weeks ago. When I went to check on the boys before going to bed, this is how I found him. Maybe he was hiding from the boogie man?!?

See ya later alligator...

The Booster Chair

Up until now Andrew has been eating in his high chair. He's still pulled up to the table, but it keeps him completely restrained and the tray helps curb the messiness (at least a little bit!). A couple of weeks ago, he started running and trying to get in Phillip's booster chair and letting us know pretty clearly (like pitching a fit when we'd put him in his high chair) that it was time to move him up. It's always hard when they physically move from something 'baby' to something more grown up. And it would be so nice just to keep them where they are...This booster chair think is such a nightmare, Andrew is one big giant mess at every meal. The compete opposite of his brother! But, I'm learning to deal - slowly, but surely. Here's a few pictures of the big boy.

To be honest, this is actually the booster chair that Phillip has been sitting in since we moved him to one. We bought a nice, new one for Andrew, but the waist strap wouldn't fit around his waist!! And the child absolutely has to be restrained during meals, so he gets to use Phillip's old one and Phillip got the new one since he doesn't need to be strapped in anymore.

See ya later alligator...

Strawberry Picking

Back at the end of April, we all packed up and went strawberry picking. We went with some of our friends from MOPS, which made it all the more fun. There's quite a few pictures here, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't narrow it down even more, they were all so cute.

First, here's Phillip, who I would describe as a very careful strawberry picker, making sure he didn't get any bad ones. He finally did eat a few, but was very careful not to eat any of the husk. He did great at picking and gathering though.











And, here's Andrew. I would describe him as a strawberry eating machine! He picked and collected maybe 3 strawberries, then went down the row picking and eating as fast as he could. He was eating every kind of strawberry, mushy, perfectly ripe, still white, didn't matter to him. He was often seen with one in his mouth and one in each hand.







(Thanks to my friend Madeline for this great picture, it's one of my favorites!)




And, finally, here's a few with both boys and a few with all 3 of us. It's nice to actually be in a picture for once.

(That's our friend Emma off to the left.)




This is Riley, Phillip, Alex, and Andrew. They're great friends because we always hang out together. Riley and Alex's mommy is Madeline, who took this awesome picture where they are all actually looking at the camera and smiling!


And one of the highlights was the tractors and animals.


We'd invite you over for some strawberry shortcake, but those strawberries are long gone! Between Phillip, Andrew, and Chris they only lasted 2 days! We had fun and we hope you enjoyed looking at our pictures.

See ya later alligator...

Hugs

Okay, this is a quickie, but goodie -

Phillip and Andrew were rough housing (surprise, surprise!) and Chris told them to stop. They stopped, but then quickly started up again. Chris told Phillip to get off of Andrew again. Phillip said,

"But...I was just trying to hug him!"

See ya later alligator...

Train Engines

On our way to and from church, we drive parallel to some train tracks for several miles. The highlight of the boys' days is if we get to see an engine. It's a bonus if the engine is actually moving! So, every time we approach the train tracks they start asking if there is an engine.

Last night as we were leaving church, there were 5 engines in a row pulling a very long train. It was very exciting! After they looked and exclaimed for a few minutes, Phillip asked if there were any more engines. I said, "Phillip, we just saw 5 engines! We've never seen that many before. I doubt there will ever be more than that at one time again." He didn't say anything else, so I thought that was the end of it. A few minutes later he says,

"Well, there could be six!"

That little smart alek, at least he knows his numbers and how to count!

See ya later alligator...