Potty Training. . . UGH!!

I've decided it's time for hard core potty training. Bexley has been randomly going to the potty for quite some time but everytime we try underwear he always has an accident. So this week is the week. Bex and I made a trip to the Dollar Store and bought $15 worth of toys that he picked out. We are calling these his "Potty Prizes" and if he goes to the potty all day, he gets a prize. I added suckers, too and he can have those whenever. We started with Pull-Ups over the weekend and besides bed time and nap time he is doing good as long as I keep making him go every hour or so. That seems to be the hardest part; reminding myself to remind him to go. We've had one true accident because he fell asleep in his underwear before I knew it and wet the bed. Then at the swimming pool, literally less than five minutes after he went to the potty he wet his pants while waiting in line for the diving board. We've had no poo poo accidents, thank you, Lord! Today is our first official day in underwear. I have to admit he is the cutest thing ever in his little undies. I'm still nervous about going out in public in underwear. Bex hasn't yet made the initiative to go to the potty himself, it's always me. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of him so far. Our goal is to be finished by the time he starts preschool on Sept. 9. We still have a long way to go.

Bex opening his first package of big boy underwear!!

Great Summer Day. . .Or maybe not

We had such a great day last Friday. Julie had received three free Jump'n Land tickets from her school so we had to use them up before summer ended. Jump'n Land is an indoor play area full of bounce houses and those huge inflatable slides.

It was a lot of fun, Bexley ran all over the place. We were just about to leave and I heard Bex screaming and thought for sure he and Case were fighting again (as they always do). So I go over to referee and notice a kid who looks about 5 or 6 laying ON TOP of my little 2 year old trying to get a basketball away from him. This was the first time I have ever gotten on to a kid that I wasn't related to. He was giving me one of those grins like, "you're not the boss of me". Well, when I got the ball and gave it back to Bexley he tried to take it away from him again right in front of me!! Finally Grandma came over and I explained to her that this kid was laying on top of my two year old and that Bex checked the ball out from the front desk and has had the ball for over an hour. She said "I'm sorry". I was so angry I was shaking for about 30 minutes! I cannot believe a kid that old would think it was okay to do that to a toddler. But just look at the smile on his face!!

Later that day we went to a Frisco Rough Riders game. We got the cheap seats in the grass so Bex could run around, we could take Beau in the stroller and not have a care in the world. You can see in the pictures below how the kids like to be right up agains the fence. Well, Bexley and this one little boy were both on the fence and both wanted to go past each other but neither one would move. So, the other little boy reared back and punched Bexley right in the stomach. His mother came flying down to him and he really got in trouble and was made to apologize to Bexley. His mother turned around and she was a lady I had worked with about six years ago at CPS!! She was so embarassed. Bexley wasn't hurt, didn't cry or care for that matter. I guess this is not going to be the last time he gets bullied, is it? In spite of all of that we had a really great day.

Growing UP

Can you believe my baby is already three months old? I can't believe it's been that long already. Beau is doing great. He is eating great and sleeping great, only getting up once during the night, and is just a joy to be around. He is "talking" a lot and has recently started giggling. He also likes to blow spit bubbles!! He follows mommy around the room with his eyes and his new favorite spot is the Bumbo! Just Monday, I cleaned out the newborn clothes and replaced them with the 3-6 month clothes. Thankfully Bexley was a pretty neat kid and I still have a lot of really good clothes for Beau. It's so weird to see Beau in Bexley's old clothes; it sure brings back memories of when Bex was a baby. In just one short month Beau will be eating that yummy rice cereal!! Can't wait to capture those pictures.

Above: Bexley at three months old (Bex has always been Mr. Photogenic)

Below: Beau at three months old (that's the best smile I could get)
They look nothing alike!

Your Weekend Play by Play

Brye and I have not had a weekend alone without our boys EVER! So when we got the wedding invitation we jumped at the chance to get away. My good friend Niki from college got married in Atlanta, GA on August 1, 2009, so Brye and I made a weekend getaway out of the event. Thankfully, Brye's parents jumped at the opportunity to spend the weekend with the boys and I cannot thank them enough for taking such great care of them while we were gone.

FRIDAY, JULY 31. 2009

When we booked our flight there were no seats together so we were scheduled to sit one in front of the other on the plane. We got to the airport and Brye kindly asked the gate check in lady if there was any way she could put us together. She said she was busy and that she would hold on to our boarding passes and see what she could do. We went and got coffee and when we came back she handed us two FIRST CLASS boarding passes! FREE UPGRADES! It was so nice. We had lots of space and free lunch. And I have to admit the lunch was really good. Barbeque Chicken Pizza! We did however sit on the tarmack for an hour due to the weather in Atlanta, but it went by really fast. We got to Atlanta and our lugguge was the first one the conveyor belt, how cool is that?! We got our rental car and headed to the hotel. We got checked in, changed clothes, and headed to the Braves vs. Dodgers game! We rode the Atlanta MARTA, which is their subway/train. It took us to the Atlanta Underground and WOW, what a place. Not in a good way either. It was a whole other culture. It's a small mall under the ground with locals just hanging out doing nothing. You basically have to go through the underground to get to the stadium shuttle buses that take you to the front gate of Turner Field. We had awesome seats. Seventh row behind the home dugout. It did rain on us a little, but thanks to the $3.00 emergency ponchos we remained dry. The Braves lost 5 to 0 but it was a lot of fun!

I can't figure out how to caption my photos! So from top to bottom: Turner Field, Our Aisle Guy Andy, Chipper Jones, Manny Ramirez, Brye and I, Brye eating a wonderful Ball Park hotdog, Atlanta Braves Friday Night Fireworks.

SATURDAY AUGUST 1, 2009

We didn't have any plans for the day except for the wedding that night so we slept in and decided to just do a little shopping around. We went to Lenox Square which is a ritzy little shopping mall. We ate at the California Pizza Company then did a little shopping. The mall had a Bloomingdale's, Nieman Marcus, etc. We bought a few things but when Brye couldn't find a tie under $40 we decided to go to TJ Maxx! Can't beat a bargain, plus it was tax free weekend! After shopping we went back to the hotel and got ready for the wedding!!

The wedding was really nice. My friend Niki grew up Catholic so Brye and I were prepared for a very lengthy ceremony and crazy reception. I haven't spoken to Niki in about a year so when we got to the wedding we found out she and her husband were no longer Catholic. They have joined this very quaint little non denominational church and are very involved. The ceremony lasted about 20 minutes and the reception was very nice. We had wonderful food and danced a lot. It was a great time!

SUNDAY AUGUST 2, 2009

Today we decided to do the touristy thing and went to the Georgia Aquarium. We looked up Spa's and seriously considered a couple's massage, but it was a little pricey. The Aquarium was really nice. It was very big and had huge whale sharks and beluga whales! After the Aquarium we ironically had seafood at Legal's Seafood. It is famous for serving its clam chowder at every Presidential Inauguration since Reagan! From here we went to a movie, something we hadn't done in about two years! We saw Funny People with Adam Sandler and sadly I would not recommend this movie. It did have some funny scenes and had a really good story line but the language was really terrible and offensive. After the movie we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with the bride and groom. We had the most wonderful dinner with Niki and Brent. We got caught up on the past few years and of course reminisced on the old college days. It was a blast.

MONDAY AUGUST 3, 2009

Happy Birthday Brye!! Today Brye turned 31 years old. We had a late morning flight so we headed out pretty early for the airport. We had breakfast at the airport and got checked in. While at the gate there were two separate families with small and loud children. We have a running joke around here that everyone is always out to get Brye. He says he has a "black cloud" hanging over him and that people target him. Jokingly, I told Brye the little boy crying at the gate was going to be sitting behind him. Funny enough that little kid was in front of us and the other family was behind us. We were sandwiched between flying hell. Even the 13 year old kid sitting beside me said, "that's going to be annoying after a while". It was the only thing he said for the entire two hours!! Well it was worse than we expected. The kids behind us were not bad, they were just loud. They were playing video games and laughing and having a good time; too good of a time. The kids in front of us did great until landing time when the four year old who was separated from her mom by the aisle began to scream bloody murder. She was getting scared and wanted her mother and couldn't get up beause we were landing. I wasn't annoyed so much with the little girl as I was the adults on either side of the child and her mother that wouldn't trade places so they could sit together! She finally calmed down and the remainder of the flight was fine.

We finally made it home and having Bexley run to me in the airport was the most amazing feeling in the world! We had a great time, but I am so glad to be home with my boys. Jo, Brye's mom had made Brye a birthday cake so Bexley and I got to light candles and sing Happy Birthday to Brye after dinner and presents. Bex thought it was the funnest thing, but wondered where his birthday cake was. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we got to go. Thanks Brye!

Whoops, here it is.

So I've consummed my life with facebook. Yes I'll admit it, I'm a facebook addict. So much so that I have neglected this blog. It's been over a month since I've posted. Baby Beau is growing up beautifully. He is officially two months old and growing like a weed. He is in the 67% of height at 12 lbs, but poor thing is a shrimp at only 22 inches long making him in the 25%. Oh well, he can still have a growth spurt! He is doing so good, he is "talking" and smiling a lot. He loves to play pat a cake and smiles every time. He's not liking tummy time too much, but will do it for a short time. He officially slept all night last from 9:30 pm to 6:30 am! I wonder if he'll keep it up? His eyes are still very blue! I can't believe I might have two blue eyed little boys! Bexley is doing a lot better with him than he did the first few weeks. He asks every morning when he wakes up, "Where's Beau?". He calls him his baby. I can't wait for them to actually play together.

I've been taking Bexley to the Library every Wednesday just to get him out of the house and in some routine as well as to keep him focused on reading, etc. He really enjoys it and we are meeting new friends. I'm hoping to keep it up for a while although we'll have to change days come September. He is starting Preschool!! I can't not have him doing something after all he learned at daycare. He will be attending the preschool at our church two days a week. I'm so excited and he is too. He already talks about it. The curriculum consists of Spanish, Fitness, Music and Chapel! I'm going to have to refresh my own Spanish to keep up!

I decided to try my hand in sewing recently. I've been wanting Roman Shades for my kitchen and I found some fabric that I loved and bought it on impulse. So I went to JoAnn's with no clue what I was doing. I found this really cool Roman Shade kit which including all the hardware I needed and very simple instructions. I started my journey sewing and let me be the first to admit I cannot sew a straight line to save my life. Yes, I know there is a guide on the sewing machine but I have a heavy foot and go too fast and before you know it, I'm completely off the line. I completed one (the small one) shade and it doesn't look too bad, only three inches too short!! I guess I'll just have to keep it pulled up. I'll try to get a picture of that soon.

We had a really good fourth of July weekend. Brye's parents and brother and sister in law came down to enjoy the holiday with us. We spent the morning at the McKinney parade, the afternoon relaxing and the evening at the fireworks show. We swam some at the Country Club and I can't believe how great Bexley is swimming! He can jump off the diving board and come up out of the water on his own. He can't keep it up, but that's a great start!

We also enjoyed a weekend at the lake recently with the family. Everyone was there except for Jodi. She just had her third little girl, Josie, so she was not able to come. My mom's brother and his wife joined us as well as my moms sister and husband and my cousin and her daughter. It was a lot of fun and Bexley is a maniac in the water. He even rode the intertube, at full speed, with his cousin Connor! I couldn't believe how brave he was. Of course, I didn't have my camera on the boat, so no pictures this time. I'll get him again before the summer's over. I left my camera at the lake :-( so I'll have to post these pictures another time.

I'm posting this from my new laptop that I got for my anniversary, thank you, Brye! I have no pictures on here so until I get them all transferred you can check them out on Facebook!

I think we're all caught up for now. I'll do my best not to fail you all and keep you more up to date. Until next time!

maybe we should move????

If you keep up with my blog you'll remember the night Brye saw two young men sitting in his truck at 1:00 am. Well, yesterday as I was getting ready to go shopping with Jennifer I heard a loud noise followed by a house alarm. Didn't think anything of it, house alarms go off regularly in our neighborhood. About 15 minutes later we were loading up the kids and I saw two police cars driving slowly down my street. Jennifer asked if they were that cautious with house alarms and I said I thought so. I opened the garage door, loaded the stroller, went inside with the garage door and house door open to grab the kids. We got in and backed out of the driveway. When we got to the end of the drive there was a female copy scaling my fence with her gun drawn! She motioned for us to go, so we did. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw another police man about two houses down in the alley with his gun drawn. As I exited the alley the road was blocked to the left by a police car and I was instructed by the officer to go right. As I went right both ends of the block were blocked by a police car and there were two other cars in the middle of the block. I was instructed to leave the neighborhood and had to drive into the neighbors yard (sorry) to go around the police car. Jennifer looked behind us and saw another officer in the bushes with a rifle. We were quite freaked out and decided to call the police department to see if they would tell us anything. We played it off as we were unsure if we could return home. The officer on the phone told me that there was an incident with a gun and to not return home and I could call back in about 30 minutes. Well, we were out for hours and the excitement was over before we returned so I didn't get any more information. Well, as luck would have it, the next day as we were eating lunch, the same officer who blocked me in was in there. We got up the nerve to go over and ask him if he was the officer who made me drive through the grass on Blue Spruce. Sure enough it was. He said, sorry and that he would have moved his car but at that exact moment everything started happening. I asked the officers. jokingly if I was going to be okay or should I pack up and move. They laughed and said I was fine and it was just some kids horsing around. I made a comment that I was glad and was afraid it was a domestic violence case and they assured me it wasn't. A little too much excitement in Pine Ridge Estates in the past two months.

Where have I been?

I honestly feel like I have no life these days. These two little boys that I love dearly are taking up every second of my life, even the ones in the shower. The other day I had Beau on his play mat in the bathroom floor and Bex was just hanging out in the bathroom with us, as he always does. I glanced over and saw Bex dragging Beau across the floor by the arm. My panicked scream was enough to scare Bexley into a panic himself and there has been no more of that going on.
Don't get me wrong, Bexley does love his baby brother, he's just not sure yet how to "touch" him. We are working very hard on soft touches and hard touches and he is really getting the hang of it. He loves to kiss Beau on the mouth, which can be anything but sanitary by a two year old, but how can I say no.
Beau is doing great and getting so big already. He eats great and sleeps great and I have no complaints. I really didn't think God would give me two perfect babies, "Thank You, Jesus!"
I am getting used to juggling the two and I don't know if its a good thing that Bexley is learning to buckle his own carseat or not but it sure does help. Shopping carts sure are giving me fits. If they were all double wides like Sam's we would be good to go. Bexley is a great kid but the freedom of the isle in Target is too much temptation. Luckily Market Street has those mini carts for kids and he does great with those until my Achilles tendon is so bruised I can hardly walk.
We've had lots of company over the past month and it has all been great. Thanks everyone for coming and helping. We've also had dinners brought and lots of gifts. Everyone has been awesome. Hopefully now that things have settled down a bit and Beau is in a good routine, I'll be able to keep up with my posts.