Big boy pants!

It's been almost a week at potty training and so far so good. I must explain that I do it in a rather unconventional way. At one year I introduce the potty. We start giving m n m's for anything that makes it in the potty. Usually by 2 he and the others are going regularly about 5-6 times a day. I then take the kids shopping for underpants and that day they start wearing them. From then on we just bring changes of clothes wherever we go. Taylor was the easiest. She only had one accident the first day and then one about a month later on vacation. Austin took a month, Dylan took 9 months.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Liam. He was willing to go regularly 5-6 times a day like the rest of them, poop included. THe first day we had about 8 accidents...not real good. He kind of started to freak out about using the potty. After that though each day has been getting better. Today he only had 3 accidents and even ran up to Bill and said, "Daddy, I have to go poop!" Yeah! He even made it too! Liam's been enjoying the extra attention that he's been getting from me. Poor Gavin gets fed and played with by the other kids more so he really doesn't know what to do. All in all I'm glad with the way things are going. He has such a big smile on his face, especially when he's wearing Spider-man ones. What a great milestone.

I love potty training!

Evolution of a marriage

When Bill and I were first married what we quarreled about most was food. He grew up on Ding dongs and Velveeta was it's own food group apparently. He has very sensitive taste buds. Veggies are really awful to him and fruit is okay. He lives on Diet Soda too! Anyway, I love to cook and make fancy food...not a good match with Bill. The only fish he eats is square and he only goes to restaurants with ketchup on the table. There were times that he would take one bite of something and throw the rest of it away in the trash....not very sensitive to his new bride. I would get angry and continue to make yucky food to "change" him.

We finally compromised and said that he would eat veggies, brown rice and other things as a good example to the kids but he needed to make the plate himself. If there was something he really didn't care for he would say, "Thank you for making dinner." so that at least he was acknowledging my efforts in making the food but it was code for, "Don't make that again."

Yesterday I was making a BBQ chicken pot pie which is normally quite good. Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to what I was doing and added 1/4 cup vanilla instead of apple cider vinegar to it. I thought I could cover up the vanilla by adding the vinegar and other things to it. When the kids came upstairs they asked me if I'd made brownies. Not a good sign.

When Bill was about to take a bite he started inspecting what was on his fork and smelling it. Another bad sign. He gave me "the look". This means, "What on earth have you done to my dinner?" I started laughing and explained the gaffe. He jumped up and got some spicy salsa and then sat back down. He took another bite but just shook his head. I can chuckle now at my husband's sense of taste and don't take offense at it like I used to. After all, love is not easily offended. Besides he does many other wonderful things for me and the kids that I can only shake my head in amusement about his food issues.

I'm glad that God has taken us this far and we can still have a tranquil marriage. When I apologized later for ruining his dinner he said, "That's okay, we have another memory. Now I don't just have banana meatloaf, I now have vanilla chicken!"

What a guy!

First 100 days

Here's another video detailing Barack Obama's first 100 days in office. Let me know what you think.

Adoption

I just love this ad. It shows what potential could be wasted should moms choose to abort rather than give their babies a chance through adoption. I hope you enjoyed this ad as much as I did.

A funny thing happened at the picnic.

Bill's work had a family picnic complete with rides, inflatables, and carnival games. It was amazing. Liam spent most of his time in this bouncy inflatable or drinking juice boxes. Taylor, Austin, and Dylan climbed the rock climbing wall, rode a mechanical bull, slid down a 20ft slide and played a lot of games.

Taylor begged me to go on this inflatable obstacle course with her. She said that there would only be two people at a time so we could race each other. Okay, I can do that. Ready, set, go... and off I went. Most of it was too low so I was crawling through it. I got to a hump that was about 3 ft high. When I shimmed up the inflatable bar was too low and I got stuck. I was still struggling to squeeze through when I felt these little hands on my butt. I turned around and there were two little tykes there smiling at me. I still couldn't get through so they decided to crawl over me. I was laughing hard at this time so I really couldn't get through. They came around again and this time they pushed on my butt hard enough to send me flying down to the bottom. I was laying on the floor with my head but my legs were stuck up in the air. At this point my kids and Bill were all wondering where I was. I emerged sweaty, hair all wild, and laughing hysterically.

"Want to do it again?" Taylor asked.

"Ah, no!" I laughed.

The day ended well and we went home tired but refreshed. The little guys were really well behaved all things considering. We left with a family picture a bag of goodies and sleepy kids. A day well spent I think.

Future Baseball player?

Spring is here and that means only one thing for our house....baseball. Austin's promised me to take me to a Cardinals game WHEN he makes the team. He's out there most days practicing his pitching. Bill takes him to the fields when the weather is nice to practice batting.

On thursday his Grandpa took him and Dylan to the Cardinals game AND the batting cages. They were so excited. They paid for it later with tummy aches because of all the junk food but hey, that's the price that you pay for being at the ball park...even without the Cracker Jack.

Dylan plays too but he's not aspiring to play ball professionally. I think he just likes having something in common with his brother, which is a great reason to me.

Are you the homeschoolers?

When I asked the kids at the beginning of the school year what they'd like me to do more of they quickly answered, "More field trips!" I promised I would but then life happened and consequently our first real field trip was on May 1st. We went to a Civil War Reenactment down in Cape Girardeau. When I emailed the leader he told me friday would be a school day with activities for the kids to do. He told me to try to be there by 9. Seeing as how that was 2.5 hours from us and I was traveling with 6 kids (we adopted a friend's daughter for the day!) that didn't seem very likely that we'd be leaving by 6:30 am. Keep in mind that what I was expecting was a huge festival where people are milling around all day (like the Mideavil festival in Wentzville) when you read the rest of the story.

When we got there at 10:20 people were already well underway. There were only about 30 people in attendance total. As we crested the top of the hill everyone stopped and looked at us. The leader who was speaking to a group of kids stopped his talk and yelled, "Are you the homeschoolers?" I'm pretty sure a few in the audience gasped at the question.

"Yes," I replied sheepishly. I don't get embarrased easily but I'm sure I was blushing at this point. I had hoped to slip in unnoticed but since we were the only kids not in school uniforms and I had a baby and toddler in attendance we pretty much caused the who affair to screech to a halt.

"Well, just join a class or walk around and observe."

"Okay." We started at the first tent that had a lady with a very pretty hoop skirt in it. "Are you the homeschoolers?" she asked.

"Yes," I gulped this time, really not liking the fact that I was being asked this...again.

"We are too."

I breathed a sigh of relief. It turns out that they started this to get their kids more into history. The sold things like old toys, and clothing articles. I loved the silk hairnet but it was $14 dollars. Oh well, maybe someday.

We skipped the tent with the sullen teen sitting in it not facing anyone. WE then went to the ammunition tent where the guy was explaining how to make bullets and pack gunpowder. He made a point to stop his talk to goo at Gavin. All the teenager students looked at me like what was I doing there. Oh well, at least Gavin was not crying.

The next tent had three women in it cooking over a campfire and explaining what it took to cook for the men. When they described hardtack Dylan wrinkled up his nose in disgust.

Next were the horses. Liam refused to pet them but they were very sweet and well behaved. We decided to step away when they shot off the cannon and the gun for us. I didn't want Nelly to get skittish and kick us!

Then the program was over. WE'd only been there an hour and had only gone to half the stations. When I asked the leader about it he said it was closed and everyone was taking a break because there was another school group coming soon. "That's why I told you to be here at 9!" He admonished. Hmmm, he really didn't emphasize the fact that he would be ending at a definite time! Uggh! 2.5 hours in the car for 1 hour of presentation.

I decided to make it up to the kids by going to Taco Bell for lunch. I then decided to make a detour to the Trail of Tears park. The sign said it was only 11 miles away. What it didn't say was that it was 11 miles of windy back roads. The kids were almost sick with hunger and motion sickness by the time we went there. We spread a blanket out on the grass in front of the visitor center to eat. Gavin was so happy to be out of that car seat and suck on my car keys.

After we ate we ran around and played catch with napkins we balled up. We went to the visitor center and found a nice older lady that told us lots of things about the Trail of Tears. It's a very sad chapter in our history. Then we looked at the animal and Indian displays. Gavin decided the Indian maniquin was horrible and started crying everytime we went by it. It was kind of funny.

On the way home the littles slept...not long enough. We passed through some thunderstorms and I had to stop for coffee. I had been up all night with Gavin the night before (had I mentioned that he was sick?).

We made a day of it and we had fun. We were all dissapointed that the Civil War demonstration wasn't longer but oh well, can't change that.

Here are some pictures of the cheesy toy Taco Bell gave us for Liam's lunch. It was called an ancient cave dwelling writing tool. Liam was very unimpressed!

My first reversal baby is 2!

CAn you believe he's two now? It really does seem like just yesterday he was born. I marvel to think that if Bill hadn't had the surgery then we wouldn't have been blessed with him. He really is such a character. He has a full array of moods. Sometimes he's wonderfully compliant and likes to make others laugh. Other times he pouts and throws himself on the ground wailing. He's already learned some of his letters and numbers by sight and goes potty on the seat 5-6 times a day. He's a great big brother to Gavin. He loves to give him toys when he cries and helps me burp him after a bottle. Gavin loves to watch his antics and he laughs at Liam more easily than anyone else. My favorite is when Bill comes home he runs to him and gives him a hug. It's a great greeting.

Most of all I love his snuggles, as infrequent as they might be due to his busy little two year old self!

Above are pics from our little birthday celebration. We had a big party last year but this year we had a low key dinner of grilled cheese, vegetable soup and crock pot chocolate cake. It was good. The kids made him chocolate chip cookies that day for lunch too! Look at those big eyes! You could swim in them!

Here's a picture from the day we went from the hospital. My how he has changed. I'm sure the best is yet to come.