Tricker Treatin'

I know it has been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Sorry to leave you hanging! Since today is Halloween, I have some great photos of my little trick-or-treaters to share. We have really been looking forward to today because this year Dylan is actually aware of what is going on. As decorations began appearing in stores and on neighborhood houses, he would talk about it being Halloween time. He decided on his own costume and helped us choose what Sadie should be (a ladybug since we always call her "Sadiebug"). Whenever we practiced what he would say as he knocked on doors to ask for candy, he would say, "Tricker treatin'!" Here they are, getting ready to head out for the big adventure and showing off their costumes for the camera. Sadie thinks she needs her big brother's hat but he's not so sure!

We baked and decorated pumpkin shaped sugar cookies with our day care friends today. Dylan was enjoying some serious frosting!

HUGE potty progress

We took the kids to the zoo today. We put Dylan in a pull up diaper before we left so we wouldn't have to deal with accidents while out. We asked him a couple of times if his diaper was wet, or if he needed to use the potty. When we stopped for lunch he was REALLY doing the potty dance, so Scott took him into the restroom. His diaper was dry and he pee'd in the urinal!!! YEA!!!

More Sadie Secrets

The other morning I went to get Sadie up from her crib. I put her standing up at the rail holding on and then called her dad. I jokingly told him that was how I'd found her, that she'd climbed up to standing by herself. Well, I guess the joke was on me because moments later here she is standing on the edge of the couch in the family room...she got there all on her own! Doesn't she look so proud of herself?



Here she is enjoying her lunch of peas and pear pieces. She only has 2 teeth as of yet, so we have been reluctant to give her much more than baby food. Lately it has gotten very frustrating to spoon feed her because she wants to grab the spoon (don't think this little girl is not strong enough to wrestle it away from us!) and we all end up covered in yummy puree. So we are trying real food in very small pieces that she can chew with her gums. So far no choking and we all seem happier (or at least cleaner!) at mealtimes. Max is especially enjoying the new found treasure trove of dropped morsels.

All Business

According to my mom, when she was raising her kids, it was frowned upon to have children still in diapers after 18 months. Now days all the books tell you that before 30-36 months is too early for potty training. (especially boys!) Either way, we are so ready to downgrade to a 1-kid-in-diapers household, so a few months ago we started "practicing" using the potty every day, hoping that Dylan (almost 32 months) would begin showing signs of readiness to use it on his own. It went okay for a while, especially because we got lucky enough the first couple of days to time potty practice so that he actually pee'd while he was sitting there! The excitement of that soon wore off, along with any other incentives we could come up with to motivate him. It became such a battle to get him to sit on the potty that we decided he wasn't ready and so tabled all potty discussion for a while. It also hasn't helped that he is still in either diapers or pull ups, which don't help him feel a need to go on the potty.

Well, my day care kids are off this week, and we've had time to work on potty training and deal with accidents. So we have ditched the diapers except for at nap and bed time and if we've had to leave the house to run errands. This of course is perfectly timed with all of us sharing one bathroom, and having our water shut off for hours at a time all week due to our plumbing being redone throughout the house. Oh well.

Here is my summary of this week's progress so far:

Trips to the store to pick out big boy underpants: 3
Loads of laundry to wash soiled big boy underpants: 7
Gummy bears eaten as a reward for sitting on the potty: too many
Dylan saying, "I go sit on potty, I pee in potty": priceless

Sledgehammer Girl

Do you ever watch those home improvement shows and secretly wish you could be that homeowner who takes a sledgehammer to everything in sight and then starts over from scratch? Our house was built in 1959 and although it is charming in a way that new construction homes could never be, it is far from pristine vintage. So we get to be those sledgehammering homeowners this weekend, at least in the (mostly original, yet surprisingly uncharming) master bathroom! (Yea!!) Here are some before pictures to show why:

This one shows a little demo already begun by water damage from a leaky shower. The baseboard an plaster have been crumbling off the wall. If you look really close you can see the grodiness that used to be grout around the base of the shower door. Oh, and lovely vinyl flooring.






We recently had a glass block window removed from the room and replaced with an energy efficient one. You can see the damage to the plaster around the window frame, and also more grodiness on the shower stall.











Here is another view of the dilapidated, dated (as opposed to pristine vintage) tile work and the teeny sink that Scott and I share.











All of this loveliness will be GONE this weekend. And I get to be Sledgehammer Girl! I hope I don't get carried away and forget about the new window!


Here is a shot of the tiny bathroom (which is also on the sledgehammer's hit list, but for a later date) that the 4 of us will be sharing during the remodeling; blow up baby tub, toys, potty training accessories, and all. We will keep you posted with during and after photos (sure to include at least one of me wielding, yes, a sledgehammer).

There she goes!

As promised, here is some video of Sadie crawling. She is not up on her hands and knees yet, but she is getting around much more agilely than even a week ago. Sibling love has become, "NO SADIE! Don't get my stuff!" as she is able to maneuver herself around and get her hands on whatever she wants. And Dylan's toys are SO much more interesting than hers.

Another new trick she is mastering is waving hello and good-bye, as you will also see in the video clip. And by the way, (though there is no video of it yet) she is now publicly sitting up on her own! Next week, walking!

It's Winter!

Not even close, but at least it is beginning to feel like what we could consider fall weather in Phoenix. Now that we can actually tolerate being outside for any length of time, Dylan, Sadie and I head out for a walk most afternoons around the neighborhood. I took this picture after we got home the other day and I had to snap it really fast before Sadie took off her glasses. Dylan had asked for his sunglasses before we left the house and I remembered that I had bought a pair for Sadie a while back. So I put them on her when we got in the sun and she actually left them on for most of the walk. She was absolutely over them, though, by the time we got back home, but I wanted a picture of her wearing them, so here it is. Dylan loves his because they are just like Daddy's.

So as you gaze upon the photo of my sunglass wearing, t-shirt and shorts clad children, you know that the weather was not the inspiration for the title of this post. I was amazed by something that Dylan pointed out as we were on our walk this day. We were going past a neighbor's home whose yard is covered in white gravel. (You know, the 1970's "desert" landscape look with the border of maroon lava rock.) Dylan saw the yard and said, "It's winter time!" Not, "Look, it's snow." No, he saw the white stuff on the ground and said,"It's winter time." Now I don't have low expectations for my children, but don't you think that's quite an inference for a two year old who has seen snow maybe 3 times in his life and who can't possibly remember the last time he was cold? We live in Phoenix! There is never snow on the ground here. It never feels like winter here. Does anyone know where I could get a MENSA application?

The Secret Life of Sadie

I think that Sadie lives a secret life in the privacy of her bedroom when she knows that no one is watching. Today I put her down for a nap (for which she normally goes right to sleep) but I heard way too much happy baby noise coming from the bedroom. This is what I saw when I looked in on her:
Yep, she is sitting up in her crib. Keep in mind that I put her in there laying down and she has yet to get herself into sitting position on her own in public view. So I laid her back down and left her to nap, but not without spying on her through the crack in the door. Do you think she let me see her do it again? Nope! Yet a few minutes later more happy baby noises and sitting baby. This went on for quite some time before both of her naps today, during which time I didn't once actually see her sit on her own, just found her sitting and most times struggling to get her legs unstuck from between the crib bars.

The other thing that I think Sadie does secretly is crawl in her crib. She is still not doing much more (in public) than a belly scoot, but many times I have encountered her in the morning or after a nap up on her hands and knees with a "you caught me" smile on her face.

Maybe she is practicing her moves in private so that she can dazzle us with her strength and agility when we are least expecting it. Here is proof that she actually could get up onto her knees in a crawling position. She must have tired herself out mid-practice session and fallen asleep right in the middle of it.

Anyway, the crib mattress has now been moved to its lowest position in case she decides to work on pulling herself up to standing soon. I wonder what else she isn't letting us know yet that she can do.

Goooooooooo Diamondbacks!!!!!!!!!!

And for Grandma & Poppa in MO... Wow! 48 years!! Happy Anniversary!