Potty

I really wanted to post a picture of Grant on the pink princess potty, but my better judgement took over.  Just picture a really cute little boy on a pink plastic potty throne as I tell you the story of where Grant's potty training began!

Grant has been consistently peeing after being in the shower.  Often times I will say, "Does anyone need to go potty?" and he will run over to the toilet.  On occasion I have sat him on the toilet, but just for fun, he has never actually gone.  One morning last week Elizabeth tells me that she thinks Grant is ready for the potty.  He isn't even two yet! I told her I didn't think so, but she was persuasive and even went down to the basement and carried her old princess potty upstairs by herself!  Well I couldn't deny her!  So we strip Grant down and put him on the potty and low and behold he pees!  After the shower I put him back on the potty and goes again!!  Later that night they were getting ready for baths and Elizabeth was helping him get his clothes off and I ran into the other room to put some laundry away and I come back to hear her saying, "Good job buddy!!" Yes, he had gone again!  My mom says, "I wouldn't post it on Facebook just yet!"  Well, no I didn't post it on FB, but I was pretty excited.  I was thinking, we have to get a boy potty!  The next day we left for the Dells, so I didn't really push any potty training business.  We are in our room and I had just gotten him dressed for the day and he is trying to pull his shorts off.  I am getting a little frustrated, until he grabs my hand and pulls me into the bathroom.  Yes, he had to go potty! So everyday for the last week he has gone on the potty at least once.  We got a new froggy potty, with a splash guard - something the princess potty was lacking!!  Elizabeth does an awesome job encouraging him.  I may have to credit her with most of his success.  It is small steps, but I will take it!

The Homecoming!

Brandon's flight got in late Friday night.  His parent's were kind enough to host us for the evening.  We were even able to go for a swim.  We left their house at about 10pm and headed for the airport.  Grant was asleep in ten minutes.  Just before the airport exit Elizabeth asked if she could close her eyes just for a minute.  The kids were zonked when we picked him up, but it was nice to have the quiet time just the two of us to catch up.  He tried to wake her up when we got home, but she didn't remember any of it the next day.  Daddy brought back t-shirts for the kids.  A camel one from Dubai for Elizabeth and a truck one from Belgium for Grant.  I got Belgian chocolates that I am slowing working my way through.  They are sooooo good and I have even shared them :)  It was nice to have the long Memorial day weekend to regroup as a family.  We ran some errands and just did our own thing on Saturday.  Sunday we spent the day at the Pauli pool.  It was awesome weather and a perfect family day.  Monday evening we went to my parent's house for dinner.  I think that means I have to start cooking again this week!  It is good to have daddy back and fall into a routine again.

Wisconsin Dells

In effort to make our time sans daddy pass quicker my parent's asked if we wanted to run up to the Dells for a few nights with them.  YES! We stayed at Christmas Mountain Village.  They had an indoor pool area with the perfect amount of kiddie entertainment.  Elizabeth mastered the "big" slide right away and by the end we weren't even catching her at the bottom.  Grant even figured out how to do it solo as well.  His eyes were as big as saucers but he was always laughing at the bottom.  I wish I had pictures, but water and cameras don't mix well!

The resort had paddle boating and mini golf too.  Again, no pics of the paddle boating, but the kids had fun looking for the fish and by the end Elizabeth had jumped up in between my dad and I was steering. It was a good way for her to practice her left from right.

The mini golf was quite the experience.  Grant still enjoys bamming anything, so putting a club in his hand was right up his alley!  They both had a tendency to golf left handed.  Grant was just whacking away and then we explained that the goal was to the put the ball in the hole.  With his sweet little face he looked up at us, smiled and promptly picked the ball up and put it in the hole.  Then when we told him that you are supposed to use the putter he started putting the ball right next to the hole and then hitting it in!  We managed to get to hole 9 before we wrapped up our mini golf game.

We also celebrated my dad's birthday.  We went to Buffalo Phil's, aka "The Train Restaurant." The kids enjoyed the train delivered food.  A Wisconsin Dells classic!  At the end of the meal our server brought us a certificate for a free train ride.  There is an arcade in the back of the building and this is where the train ride was located.  I would like to use the term "train ride" loosely.  When they told us that Grant was too small to ride this train, a red light should have gone off.  When they told us that Elizabeth had to sit on the inside, a red light should have gone off.  This was a mini roller coaster!  Did I mention we had just finished dinner? My dad was green.  My sunglasses flew off the  top of my head (they were retrieved).  My mom and Grant stood there giggling the entire time.  Elizabeth loved it!  The attendant suggested the Flying Tiger ride for Grant.  He needed an adult to accompany him so my mom rode with him.  I think her expression in the picture says it all.

We hit the outlet mall and visited my dad's Wisconsin relatives on the way home.  It was a fast two days and we had lots of fun.  Thanks Ima and Pops!

Niabi Zoo

Oh the adventures continue while daddy is still off in foreign lands!  My friend and I decided to load up our four kids (all four years old and younger) for a day trip to the Niabi Zoo.  We scoped the website before and although our admission was free with our reciprocal zoo membership there were lots of extras you could do.  This zoo offers a train ride, pony rides, giraffe feedings, a carousel, a pond to feed the fish and a children's zoo where you can feed the animals.  Elizabeth wants to feed and ride any animal that she can so I knew we needed to be on the same page so we didn't run into any conflicts!  We decided there was no way our kids would see the train and not want to ride it, so the train was a must and as it ended it up, was the first thing we did.  It was a nice train ride, but unlike the engineer at Scovil, this man was not so jolly and threatened to stop the train if anyone stood up.  I guess he couldn't "turn the train around" so he just had to threaten to stop it!

Waiting for the train

On the train - choo choo!!

After the train ride we just began meandering around the zoo.  It is pretty much laid out in a loop.  The next stop was the fish pond.  They had ducks, swans and huge koi fish.  Once we knew the little boys weren't going to fall in, Jessica dug out quarters and they fed the fish.  

Love the plaids!

Handing out the fish food

The children's zoo was next and it appeared to have been recently updated.  They had sheep and two little black lambs which of course Elizabeth loved.  The food was light and oat like, not pellets.  Grant pretty much threw it at them, but he has to do everything his big sister does!  Somehow we managed to walk by the right by the ponies, so I guess we will save the pony rides for the State Fair and the rodeo!  

Goats always want to eat!

Our timing was good for the giraffe feedings, as they only do it at 11:00 am.  They have four giraffes, although only one of them was interested in the food.  I told Jessica later that I am putting the giraffe feeding in the column of "once in a lifetime," because $4.00 for two leaves of romaine lettuce is ridiculous!  However, Elizabeth loved it and I am sure the remaining $3.75 goes towards wonderful zoo efforts :)

I wish these pictures weren't so dark, but her smile is priceless!

It is hard to capture these precious moments on multiple media devices, thus my video camera is in the picture!

We took a picnic lunch and there was a great place in the middle of the zoo where we could grab a table.  We were competing with a lot of school field trips. Jessica and I had decided that if the kids were good they could ride the carousel at the end and if they weren't good they had to watch their friends ride it.  Elizabeth had melt down about not wanting to share the zoo map.  Is there really anything more special than your three and half year only yelling "but it's mmmminnnnneeeeeee!" in the middle of the zoo?   Since she worked through the map issue quickly (she was throwing this fit near the train tracks and I told her she was in danger of the train running her over) and she had been good the rest of time, I still let her ride the carousel.  Grant and Brady seemed content in their strollers, so we just left them be and around and around I went with Gavin and Elizabeth.  

I am not certain we saw every animal, but we hit the major ones and the kids were starting to tucker out so we headed for home.  After about ten minutes in the car Grant fell asleep and probably would have sleep longer if it hadn't been for loud whining coming from a certain girl in the backseat.  Actually, Jessica and I wanted privacy glass for the ride home.  The kids had trouble coming to agreement on what movie or which music to entertain them and it got to the point where we turned it all off.  We had all done so well all day that our luck had just run out!  That's ok, we made it home without having to pull over and we have fond memories of a special day with our friends! I would definitely recommend this as a day trip.

I just love this picture of Grant waving at this silly bird - he was getting such a kick out of it!

Monkey Business

There are times when I look at my kids and think to myself, "wow there are really getting older." I realize more and more that we leaving stages behind.  Elizabeth has slept with "Monkey" since I can remember. Brandon and I picked it out for her when I was pregnant.  I still remember shopping for it.  We got it at Nordstrom and probably overpaid for it, but it is one of the only baby things that we actually got for her! In the last few months Monkey has made fewer and fewer appearances at bedtime.  She just stopped asking for him.  Although, I like the idea of her having a security blanket, I am also proud that she doesn't require one and to be honest I do not miss ransacking the house an hour after bedtime trying to find him!

Elizabeth has been telling me that she wants to wear a night gown to bed.  The only one she had was a fleece one with Santa on it and it is about two sizes too small.  At our last trip to Target I told her she could pick out a new night gown.  It is a sad day when you have to start shopping in the bigger girl area...but alas, there we were.  I found the rack and gave her three choices.  One had a peace sign (very grown-up), another was just a solid color and the last a pink one with monkeys.  I told her she could choose and when she choose the monkeys I thought to myself, she is still my little girl!!

I guess if she doesn't need to sleep with Monkey anymore that's ok, because she still has them plastered all over her PJ's!

Our New Nephew

Hayden "Briggs"

Brandon's sister had her second baby over the weekend and we are so excited that he has safely arrived!!  They are calling him Briggs, which is ironically a family name on my mom's side.  Briggs was welcomed home by big sister Stella! We can hardly wait to meet the little guy!  Thank goodness for technology, Uncle Brandon got to meet him via cyber space while he was in India.  It's things like FaceTime that make distance a little easier.  I still wish we lived closer though.

Scovil Zoo

For the record, I was not happy about being the cow, but E wasn't tall enough! 

I wanted to visit my grandparents and my grandma had suggested that we go to Scovil Zoo and the Children's Museum in Decatur.  My mom and I drove down with the kids and picked up grandma and off we went to the zoo!  We had a picnic lunch right before we went in.  We had a great time!  Elizabeth seemed to be infatuated with the alligators and as luck would have there were two men in the exhibit draining their pool, while the gators where still in there!  Looked like risky business to us, but they must know what they are doing.

 Elizabeth loves animals, as I may have mentioned before ;)  Especially baby animals and if you can feed them that is the cherry on top!  They had a great children/petting zoo area and we fed the goats from behind the fence, but then I took Elizabeth in and there were a few baby goats that were adorable!  We could have swept them up in our arms and taken them home.  It is so sweet to hear how she talks to them. This one little goat (kid!) really liked the ruffle on her shirt!

 I had to take a picture of the flamingos because I remember when they first came to the zoo, when I was a little girl.

 They had a train and I thought well there is no way will be able to bypass this!  It was a very short ride, but the engineer was extremely enthusiastic and the kids loved it!

Just to prove that Grant was with us at the zoo! Not a great pic, he must have been moving - imagine that!

We used some great judgement and decided there just wasn't time to squeeze in the children's museum and that we would save that for another trip.  We gave Elizabeth the option of ice cream or the museum and she didn't disappoint us and choose ice cream!  After a quick trip to the DQ we headed back to farm to pick strawberries.  In case you haven't heard me talk about my grandma's strawberries before, let me remind you that they are the best!!  I think Elizabeth did a pretty good job picking, my grandma was kind of working with her.  Grant liked to point out the red ones and have someone else pick them.  Elizabeth then took over quality control when Grant would pick/point at one that was not ripe! I pray that Grant's not so graceful movements did not squash too many plants along the way, because these are precious berries!

Our bountiful berry harvest!

My grandma is the best and let us take them all home.  We actually had strawberries and waffles tonight for dinner!  Some things you can get away with when daddy isn't home!  Thank you for a wonderful day grandma and all of the great memories!

Mother's Day

It was a little different not having Brandon around for Mother's Day, but I had a wonderfully busy day!  My morning started with Elizabeth waking me up saying, "Happy Mothers Day - we got this for you" and she handed me a small box.  Brandon had gotten me a bracelet while he was in Vegas and the night he was home he and Elizabeth hid it.  She hid it in the bottom bunk of her baby doll bed. So sweet!

It's not easy to take a picture of yourself, especially when you are trying to take a picture of one of your arms!

Next we were off to church.  Elizabeth's Sunday School class sang all of the songs that they had learned all year.  She was just getting warmed up about the time it was over.  She did her best.  I'm not sure she loves the lime light!

Next stop was Mimi and Pops.  They surprised me by taking us out to lunch to one of Robin and I's favorite places, Lou's.  It was a beautiful day to sit outside and enjoy a root beer and a tenderloin!  Grant was quite enamored with the birds eating the popcorn!

Pops and Grant sharing a cheeseburger

We came home and Grant went down for a nap and my parent's came over to help me plant flowers.  My remembers one of her favorite Mother's Day planting flowers with me.  She was kind enough to help me shop for them too, because I do not have a lot of confidence in this area!  I planted zinnias for the first time this year and I am so anxious to see them bloom!  We got a couple of other plants that I really like too, but couldn't tell you what they are called!  We will just call them "beautiful!" - well hopefully!

Then it was on to auto detailing.  My dad and I bonded over the hose and sponges.  It feels so good to have a clean vehicle and since we love black cars we try to spend a lot of time making them look their best!  

We had chicken kabobs for dinner and my mom's famous chocolate torte with butter rum sauce.  They followed me home with Brandon's car from the airport and we got the kids to bed and all was well!  I emailed Brandon and told him how lucky I was to be Elizabeth's and Grant's mother, because they are just awesome and make me so proud.  I am incredibly blessed to be able to celebrate this special day with my mother, my mother-in-law and my own children.  It was a perfect day!

Missing Daddy

A few weeks ago Brandon came home and said there was a work thing in Belgium in May that he thought he was going to and then said he also needed to go to India again.  I told him that he was already half way there, he might as well do both while he was close (well kind of close!).  It just so happened that these two trips came on the back side of a conference in Vegas.  He was in Vegas for four days, home for one night, time to pack a bigger suitcase and he was off for the next two weeks.

We had a great weekend with him before he left.  We went up to the square and enjoyed a special treat. Even though you can't really see the joy from their expressions in the picture, we were having a perfect little family day!

We are so fortunate to have capabilities to FaceTime, so we will get to talk some.  Although as soon as he walked out the door for Vegas Elizabeth asked if we could FaceTime with him.  So when daddy left Thursday, he told her that he would call when he could, but it may not be everyday.

I am confident the time will fly by.  We have a lot of things planned and as long as the weather is nice we can waste a day (or two...or three) away playing outside with no problem!! Which leads into the following...I initially referred to this as "Summer Knees"-

Grant on the left, with a Woody band-aid - Elizabeth's on the right with Mickey

however, I will be lucky if Brandon can find a spot to kiss Grant when he gets home!  We were out playing and Elizabeth attempted to kick a soccer ball on the sidewalk, but ended up falling over the top of it (grace in motion) and skinned her knee.  There was hardly any blood, but I had to take her inside because you would have thought she lost a limb!  As I am making a fuss over her I notice Grant tugging at his shorts.  I pull up his shorts to reveal a very bloody knee!  I say something like, "Oh buddy, that is much worse than Elizabeth's knee, come here and I will fix you up too."  Elizabeth pipes up, "Oh no, mine is much much worse than Grant's!"  No honey, it's just your drama!

Ok, so it was just the knees...really just Grant's knee and then he took his ride on trike to the end of the drive way and after I asked him to come out of the street he gets stuck on the gutter/driveway lip and goes over the top of the trike and busts his chin.

Then he fell down and scraped his elbow.

Then his other elbow.

The funniest part is that he rides Elizabeth's scooter that she got for Christmas.  And when I say ride, I mean, I foot on, I foot pushing or holding one foot up to coast.  He rides it better than Elizabeth was two months ago!  My mom witnessed this and said we had to get him a helmet and she was absolutely right!  He is really good about letting me put it on him, but he has yet to get a boo-boo from a scooter incident!  So the one night that Brandon was home we take him out into the driveway after dinner so the kids can show off their new tricks.  We stand there just laughing at Grant on this scooter, it looks so unnatural for a toddler to be on a scooter.  Brandon said it best when he said it reminded him of a commercial where a squirrel rides a jet ski!

But now that he has mastered the scooter, he thinks he is ready for a big boy bike!  I think you better learn to peddle first big guy!!

Other things we have been doing to stay busy...

Fizzy Art

Fizzy art, in case you want to try this at home for HOURS of entertainment, is a dish full of baking soda and cups of vinegar with food dye.  You then use medicine droppers to squirt/drop the vinegar into the dish for great fizziness fun!

Sidewalk Paint

Tuesday morning it was just beautiful and still cool out...a perfect morning for staining the deck!! Elizabeth wanted to help.  I was not grooving on this idea, so I racked my Pinterst boards and found a recipe for sidewalk paint.  Perfect!  Equal parts cornstarch and water, with a little food coloring and you have outdoor paint!  Well this only kept Grant entertained for so long.  He soon found water and dirt and his "all-boy" side emerged in true spirit.

The shadows are bad on his face, but there was mud there too!  It was a perfect time for me to be done!  The kids were so well behaved while I knocked out the staining that I promised them a trip to the zoo and Pops was able to join us.  The trip was completed with ice cream!

Elizabeth had a big milestone this week.  She rode her bike to the park!  I rode beside or behind her with Grant in the bike trailer.  We were going so slow it was hard for me to keep my balance, but we made it the park for a picnic with our friends!  The way back may have even been slower because Grant fell asleep!  If we go the short way to park, part of it doesn't have a sidewalk.  I really wanted her to be on  the sidewalk the whole time, but we would have never made it!  This is what I sounded like the whole time, "Good job Elizabeth!  Keep peddling!  Stay to the side of the road! Keep peddling!  Go girl go! You are doing great!"  repeat a hundred times!

An impromptu party with the neighbors left someone exhausted!!

One week down, two to go. We have a day trip with my Grandma Briggs planned, a trip to a few new zoos and maybe even an overnight trip!  We miss daddy, but we are doing great!

Celebrate! Tumbling Recital

Elizabeth has been taking tumbling since the fall and in the spring they do a recital.  It was held in the performing arts  theater of our local community center.  I am not really sure that she understood that she was going to be on stage until the night of dress rehearsal!  Dress rehearsal was the typical chaos one would expect when trying to keep 16 classes of kids organized.  Luckily, Elizabeth's class was first so this worked well for a short dress rehearsal.  We showed up, they ran through their routine and then had pictures.  Having pictures on dress rehearsal night instead of the evening of the performance was nice.

Pre-Show picture...maybe a little nervous or maybe that was just me!

Her class was 8, three and four year old girls.  The skills they have been working on are things like, front rolls, back rolls, cart-wheels, bridge-ups, rock and roll stand-ups, front roll and get up without using hands and following directions and using good listening skills!!  Elizabeth wins the award for being calm and well behaved.  However, in class she often would be gawking at what the other girls were doing instead of doing the moves!  She gets her people watching skills naturally! I couldn't wait to see how she did at the recital and my stomach had butterflies for her!

The routine was called "Wedding" and was set to the music of "Going to the Chapel" and because that song wasn't long enough, also a Glee song "Think I Wanna Marry You."  Their names were stuck on the stage and they walked out in their sparkling white dresses carrying hot pink bouquets to their spot.  They did a front roll and a few swoops with their flowers and then they made an aisle that each girl walked down one at a time, did a twirl and then a cart-wheel.  Elizabeth was the first one down the aisle and she remembered to twirl and did her cart-wheel.  When it was all done they threw the bouquets and skipped off the stage...except Elizabeth who very calming walked off, looking at the audience the whole time!  I guess she was savoring the moment!

When their routine was done the plan was for the girls to be taken back to the balcony to watch the rest of the performances.  I don't really know what happened for the next hour and half.  When the last act was over I turned and looked to the balcony and it was empty.  I proceeded to the pick-up room where I found Elizabeth holding some other little girl's hand.  I have no clue who this girl was.  When I asked Elizabeth she told me that the little girl's daddy was still at work....um, ok.  I asked if she watched the other tumblers and she said yes, yet she couldn't remember anything about them!  I asked if she needed to go the bathroom before we left and she said, "Harmony took me."  Harmony was one of her classmates!  At this point I decided not to think anymore about what kind of supervision was going on during the rest of the show and was just glad that I had collected my daughter!

We came back to the house for dessert with the grandparents and Aunt Sandy.  I am very thankful for my friend who watched Grant for us, as I don't think he would have enjoyed an hour and half of tumbling!

After the performance...a bit more relaxed!

She got flowers and special cookie pops!

So proud of our daughter!