Tough evening.......

Our day started off fine, we went to a friends house for a playdate and when I was getting Luke dressed he insisted on wearing his new superman t-shirt (which was one of his prizes for going potty like a big boy) and he insisted on wearing underwear!! Now I'm sure you all are wondering why this was alarming to me, well I have never let him leave the house in underwear - just pullups and although I bring extra everything with us I was nervous. However Luke did awesome all day - no accidents and he went potty actually 3 times at his friends house.

Both kids took about a 3 hour nap and I took about 1.5 hours and it was much needed - I have been feeling extremely drained lately and I'm not sure why (and before anyone asks I am positive that I am not pregnant). I decided to fix a family dinner (Luke usually just eats one of his handful of meals he likes) and that is where it all started to go downhill. I made chicken potpie which Luke used to eat like crazy and he would not even taste it. I told him if he would take just one bite that I would make him something else. Well, I finally got a bite in his mouth when he was crying and told him if he spit it out he was going to time out and no books at bedtime... I am so tired of making dinner and he not wanting to eat it. Well, out came the food and time out here we went... while he was in his chair he cried that he just wanted to go to bed his wish was granted. Now I feel like a terrible mom because this is two nights out of the last 5 that he has gone to bed without really eating... but I am at my wits end and do not know what else to do.

If anyone has any suggestions I would so love to hear them... we have tried it all.

I am so tired after the dinner saga that I am about to head to bed early.

WE HAVE POO POO IN THE POTTY!!!!

Just as I decided to not worry so much about WHEN Luke would finally decide to poop in the potty, today rolls around and while he was eating lunch he said "oh no mom I need to poo poo in my pull up." (which he was already wearing) So I grabbed him and said let's go sit on the potty and you can get your big prize!!!! Well after I sat in there with him, then he asked for daddy to sit in there and read him a book - and let me tell you they were in there awhile!!! James finally said why don't I give you some privacy so you can concentrate on going potty. Not 3 minutes after he was alone he was so excited yelling for us to come and there and look at what he had done!!!! Now I realize it might not happen again for awhile but I will take it - baby steps I tell ya.

Now the prize he got was a kids horseshoe game for outside which he didn't seem all that excited about until he realized that he could "pretend" the stakes are drumsticks and he found something to drum on and then kept saying "mommy you want to watch my rock-it band?" Where does he come up with this stuff? He danced and sang and put on a show and got a popsicle as a second prize which seemed to be the best idea to him!!!

Potty training update - day 5

So, although this has been the DREADED week it has gone by pretty fast (even though cabin fever is setting in). Overall Luke has done better than expected - he goes "tt" in the potty just about everytime we take him but still is not at all interested in going poop in the potty - this is the main area that needs some major work but we have tried every "trick and bribe" that we can think of. He has had 3 accidents in his underwear so today I made him go to time out and told him we would continue to do that with each poop accident.

Although I am a bit discouraged he has come a long way and he wants to wear his underwear and is slowly starting to tell us when he needs to go.... so we will forge on and hope we get there all the way before preschool starts at the end of August.

1 year stats - Caroline

We finally had Caroline's 1 year well check appointment and the doctor is very pleased with her. My little peanut is growing up and we can no longer call her that!!!

She weighed 24.4 lbs which is 90%
She is 31.5 inches long which is 97% - would you have guessed anything different in our family??
Her head is 18 1/4" which is 75%

She had to endure 3 shots and got her blood drawn from her arm - and although she cried as expected she recovered really fast - especially since we let her keep a tongue depresser in her mouth the whole time - she loves to "hold" things in her mouth (we threw it out on the way out of the office).

We don't have to go back until the end of September - thank goodness!!

Pics from C's actual birthday

I realized when I was looking at pictures today that I did not post any from June 25th which is Caroline's actual birthday. That day we let her open her presents from us at home and then we went to Memorial City Mall to let the kids play at the Castle and ride the Carrousel and that night she got to dig in and eat a cupcake.

Day 2 of week long potty training

Luke had another fabulous day - basically the same as yesterday, but today he was much more proud of himself and talked about his underwear a lot. He only had a minor slip up but it wasn't his fault - my dad watched the kids for a couple of hours while we slipped away to a movie and I told my dad to keep him in a pull up while we were gone and not to "ask" Luke if he needed to go potty but instead "take" him to the potty. Well, that is not what happened and Luke was apparently really upset when he peed in his underwear. The other "misunderstanding" from my dad is that when we got home Luke asked if he could have a rainbow popcicle and I said I bet you already had one while we were gone - and my dad said that yes he did, in fact he had 3 of them as well as a pudding - WHAT!?! I said why in the world would you give him so many popcicles and pudding and he said well you did say he could have whatever snack he wanted.....!!! I meant Luke could pick out whichever ONE snack he wanted. Oh well, I guess I am going to just have to start leaving notes again even if people tease me about them. However, both kids had a GREAT time with their Pop Pop and was so happy he was here with them.

Day 1 "official" potty training

I thought I would spare Luke the later embarassment of posting pictures of him on the potty, but I have to say I am a pretty proud mama for the first day ofpotty training. Luke got 10 stickers on his potty chart for going pee in the potty - he only had 1 accident which I totally expected - he pooped in his underwear and I could hear him tell his daddy "daddy I went poo poo in my underwear and I need new underwear right now!" Too funny!!!

I went and bought some inexpensive "prizes" for him for when he gets x amount of stickers and then I bought better prizes for when he starts really getting it.

Yeah Luke!!! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you, even though you resisted a bit you did it!!! You are growing up so fast in front of my eyes and I love you so very much!

Well it's been awhile....

I have so much to blog about I don't really know where to begin so this will be a bit of a random post.

The kids have been doing really great, Luke finished up his first year at Mother's Day out in May and he really misses his friends from "school" but has been having a blast with his other friends this summer. He loves playing in any pool he can and is really starting to enjoy Caroline so much more now that she can somewhat play with him. Luke has grown taller and slimmed out alot but is still my super picky eater - oh well what comes around goes around I was the pickiest kid in the world!!! We are going to start full on potty training tomorrow but I am going into it knowing we will have to really work at it because he has regressed and tells me that he is supposed to poo poo in his diaper NOT the potty - GREAT!! So I will keep you updated on that one. Also, Luke is still weighing in about 34 lbs, I don't have his height but he is tall.

Since my last post Ms. Priss (Caroline) has turned the big 1 year old and has come so far. She had a great party with friends and family and is eating everything she can and is so close to walking but not quit there yet, but she crawls so fast so I'm sure she feels there is no need to walk. Caroline also loves to splash in the water and for the most part still thinks her brother is great except when he is taking her toys away from her - he better watch out when she can walk because she will be after him. She still has 8 teeth but I can feel where 2 more are about to break through anytime now. We go for her well check on Thursday so I will have more stats to post then but I believe she still is weighing in around 23-24 lbs. Her favorite new thing to do is give kisses, it is so sweet but it especially melts her daddy's heart.

James is still at home with us and is enjoying getting to be with the kids everyday and seeing what they are up to.... but I pray he starts looking for a job soon so when the school year gets here we can all get on a better schedule.

I am now a student for on online college called Allied Medical College and will start classes next week to be certified as a medical biller and then will take a class on coding so hopefully I can start in that industry about the time Luke is in full time preschool. I am very excited about this new chapter in my life.

We had a great July 4th, we had a birthday party we went to and a bbq in the evening and the kids loved every minute of it!!! I will have to post pics of this later.