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!