Potty Training Update

What a difference a few days can make. Alexis is doing so well. She now requests her "Princess Pull-ups" instead of her diapers. She also is taking more initiative to use the potty. Before I had to push her into the bathroom, and now she runs and is excited. Perhaps the toy bribery is working. Yeah for progress. A glimmer of hope... for now at least.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Sometimes life can get a bit redundant, but this past week was anything but. So much going on. We finally talked with a Realtor about our house. The news was not the greatest. Basically he said we need to play the waiting game and see if the market in our area improves at all. We technically could sell now but we would lose ALL the equity in our house. That really bites. I guess this is another lesson for me in patience.
We made it through one week of potty training. I haven't been to intense with it yet. I basically try in the morning and then let her be for the afternoon. She is still fighting the idea. Every time I sit her down on the potty she says, "I will try tomorrow mommy". I get her to sit the longest with distractions like books. It is a very time consuming process and I just don't know if I'm ready to fully dedicate a whole lot of time to it if she doesn't seem ready. Oye!
Timothy has had a long week. He got shots last week. We waited in line for over two hours at PCH and I was about to go postal before the event was over. I wonder why it takes so long, and then when I finally get my turn in line I know why it takes so long. It is the same thing as the DMV... lots of employees sitting around doing NOTHING! I wanted to smack some of the employees. They were just sitting at the table talking about their weekend... while the line went throughout the building and outside. We waited 30 min in 100+ degree weather (no shade) before we even got in the building where we would wait another hours and a half. Poor Timothy can't control his body temp yet and Alexis was sweating like crazy. I quickly became a mad woman. When they brought me all my paperwork in Spanish, it about put me over the top. We live in America right? And I can't even get paperwork in English? What is happening here? Another conversation for another day... Nonetheless, Timothy got his shots. He didn't even cry. He was such a good kid.
We also started Timothy on "real" food... if you can call Rice cereal real food. He has been eyeing our food for months now and will reach for it. We tried to wait until he was 6 mos before feeding him, but decided that he was good and ready. He sucks down that cereal. He gets so excited and starts going crazy in his seat. So funny. Never knew food could be such a joy.
David's sister Kathy also came over this past week. It was a nice visit. Alexis loves to give her "kitty kisses" which are basically a wet soggy tongue lick on the face... like a cat. Ick! Alexis loves the attention and I enjoy the conversation. Trying to converse with a two year old just isn't the same as with an adult. A lot less explanations needed at least. I also learned a new "Mower" family recipe that I will now add to the dinner rotation. Thanks Kathy.
We also spent lots of time this weekend working on the yard and doing chores. I picked another ten cucumbers from my plant. That thing has produced over 40 cucumbers! Amazing. I end up giving most of them away, but it is cool to have actual food growing in your own backyard. I can't wait to have a yard big enough for a real garden. Until then I'll settle for my little cucumber plant.
Well Timothy is up from his nap... back to work...

Today's random thoughts

While watching the Olympics I asked David about where in the world some of these sports came from.  We were watching the men's gymnastics and I asked specifically about the pommel horse.  Have you ever wondered these things?  Where did the pommel horse get started?  Did someone just get bored and start twisting around on a log and before you know it, it became an Olympic sport?  Well thanks to Google I'm here to tell you it is something like that...

Pommel Horse originated from Alexander the Great.  His soldiers would train horse mounting for battle on wooden horses.  The two little bars were like the saddle marks.  Over time other soldiers who were training evolved the horse to look more like it does today.  Then it went from training soldiers to training horse riders and they started to get fancy with their mounts and started practicing tricks.  This over time became a sport of its own and evolved into the Olympic sport it is today.  Did you also know that they used to use the pommel horse for vaulting in the Olympics until about 1991.  They would just take off the metal handles from the top, turn it lengthwise and put it at the end of the "runway" for vaults.  After one to many injuries they decided to create a special mechanism specifically for vaults... like the one we see today.    Crazy... Now I know.

The other question I have is... How does one discover they are good at such sports?  There are some random sports in the Olympics... like the trampoline, or table tennis or synchronized swimming.  And then how do you find a coach in said sport?  Just some random thoughts. 

Anyway...
I have to take Timothy to get shots tomorrow.  Not going to be fun.  He has been so snuggly and cuddly lately.  I'm not complaining... don't get much done without use of my hands/arms... but I feel bad for him.  He slobbers like crazy and I think his teeth are hurting him real bad.  Poor kid. 

Oh yeah... and today was day 1 of potty training.... and day 1 of my patience training.  Alexis did good for today... just have to keep it up.  Wish us luck.  I am just so grateful for another day to be surrounded by little loving children.  So blessed.

A sad goodbye

Today my sister Katelynn left to go back to Yuma. When we started to think about it, she has lived with us for over two years now. She has been Alexis's big buddy and as far as Alexis can remember, she's always lived with us. It was sad to see her little car packed to the rims with the last of her things. Her "den of doom" as she so lovingly named her room was empty and looking down the hall to see the door open is weird. Her room was Alexis's favorite room in the house so we always had to keep the door closed or we'd find Alexis going through all her things.

It was a sad goodbye. I didn't think I'd be so sad, but when it came down to it... I couldn't hold back the tears. It is weird how you can grow up in the same house as a person, but feel like you "really" got to know them so much later in life. She is an amazing person and any young man that wins her heart is going to be a LUCKY guy. She is genuine and can make anyone smile. We are going to miss her dearly in our home... especially Alexis. She has already gone to Katelynn's old room and said, "Where is Katelynn?" followed by her classic, "I will miss her SOOOOooooo.... much!" So far we've only been able to say that she went to visit Grandpa and Grandma... we'll see what happens in the next week.

Meanwhile tonight we went and purchased another crib mattress so that we can put both kids in the same room. We'll try it for a week and see how that goes. If the kids wake each other up there may be a massive re-structuring in the house furniture. I can handle one kid at a time during the night... but not both at the same time.

Also today, during dinner David gave Timothy some paper to play with... and when I looked over at him, there was a corner of the page missing. I felt in his mouth and couldn't find anything but then when I looked in, sure enough he had bitten the corner off and it was in his mouth. The fishing began and we eventually fished it out. You'd think this kid never eats, but he has huge rolls and eats pretty decently. I guess it is time to get out the "real" food. He seems to be telling us to get to the food already.

Another funny Alexis moment today... Alexis passed gas and then promptly said, "wasn't that neat?" Oh dear... what have we got on our hands. What a day!

Laughter IS the best medicine

Alexis was hilarious at dinner tonight. She gets into these moods where she just starts saying the most funny things of all time. Even better is how she says them. During bites of food she suddenly pounded her fist on the table and said, "this is ridiculous". I followed with the question of, "what is ridiculous". She then goes into detail about the foolish man. She sings the primary song about the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. Apparently the foolish man was ridiculous.... but then again... what two year old goes around using words like ridiculous... and in the correct way.
Timothy has also joined us at the dinner table now. It used to be that the second we sat down at the table for dinner he would start howling... so we though maybe he wanted to be included. Poor Alexis was ousted from her booster chair and Timothy moved in. She luckily was okay with this. Timothy LOVED being at the table. No more howling. Yeah! Turns out he really did just feel left out. Now our new dilemma is the seating arrangement. Alexis sat next to Timothy tonight and all she wanted to do was make him laugh. She played peek-a-boo with him and made numerous funny faces. When Timothy did laugh she was thrilled. When he did not laugh she promptly instructed him that he needed to laugh. Such a good, instructive, big sister. Dinner was quite entertaining tonight.... glad that we can all sit as a family to bond at the table. Good Times.

Superheroes

My kids truly are my superheroes. They make the world a better place and I don't know what I'd do all day without them. We don't usually get much accomplished during the day as far as cleaning goes. As you can see, my dish towels usually end up as capes or baby doll blankets or other such things. I am learning to let go. At the end of the day, my house is a wreck and I have so much left to do... but at least my kids are okay and that makes it the best day ever.

I also have the best husband ever. Sorry to all those who didn't get him... but he is mine. :) He is so good with the kiddos and loves to get them wound up and laughing. I unfortunately have to be the "mean" one and bring them back down to earth and say the cursed words of "bed time". Oh well. He is such a good man and works really hard... or as he says, "hardly works". I truly am blessed to have so many superheroes in my life.

Pray for Heat

Okay... so I know it is crazy for me to say this in Arizona of all places... but yes I dare say... "Pray for heat". David is working on his graduate project and it requires that Arizona be, well, HOT. With all the recent storms it has been keeping us below 100 degrees, but David needs it to be 100+ degrees. He basically is seeing if insulin that is sent to patients in the mail is compromised due to the heat. Insulin is meant to be kept cool, so he is trying to see if it is left in an Arizona mailbox, that it starts to lose any of its qualities. I need him to graduate... so pray for heat. I'll let you know when he is done with his experimentation and then you can pray for storms/rain again. Thanks! ;)

Paranoid

Am I really paranoid if everyone really is out to get me?  Just a thought... but yesterday something REALLY WEIRD happened.  When David got home he asked if I had left the water running on the tree again, because the entire side of the house was flooded.  I hadn't turned on the water... but we do have one hose attached to a drip line for the plants that is on a timer.  I thought maybe it had built up to much pressure and burst... so I went outside to take a look.  The hose had been disconnected from the drip line.  I thought that maybe somehow the threads had become stripped and thus disconnecting the two hoses... but NO... they had been manually, by a person, disconnected.  David didn't do it, I didn't do it, the kids or my sister didn't do it.... so who did it?

I know for a fact that people have been in our backyard.  Not only because one has been arrested back there... but weird things like this happen all the time.  Like the day David and I found a pair of keys in the yard... with a car clicker on them.  They weren't any of the neighbors and that isn't something that you just toss over a wall for the heck of it.  All I can imagine is that some punk jumped the wall and it fell out of a pocket... never to be found again.  Kinda' serves them right though.  Maybe it is the same punk that stole our stereo. 

I am tempted to line the top of the walls with glass.  That might do the trick... but then again, I'll probably get sued by some punk jumping the wall because they'll get hurt.  The craziness of the world we live in. 

The graffiti is also increasing.  It is not just on the perimeter walls of the neighborhood... but working its way in.  I'm just waiting to wake up one morning to find our cars and garage doors tagged.  The most irritating part is that it isn't just gang names, but profanity too... Also knowing that there is someone outside my doors doing such things bothers me.  The graffiti is also accompanied by gun shots most times too.  Can't wait to leave this place.

We hope to put our house on the market come Sept./Oct.  but we'll see.  I just can't honestly say... "Hey come see this awesome house, in an awesome neighborhood.  Great place to raise a family".    It reminds me of that commercial of a car that had been through a hurricane and the owner was trying to sell it.  And their description went from, slightly damaged car for sale... to... new paint and upholstery.  As David would so kindly put it... "You can gold plate a terd... but it is still a terd".    Don't get me wrong... I love our house and if I could, I'd just pick it up and move it with us... But you can't pay me enough to stay living in this area.

Wow... so that is the end of my venting for today... so am I just being paranoid?  Hmmmm?