pretending

the kids have started pretend playing. up until this point, i haven't really seen too much of this but over the past week and a half more and more games of pretend have developed. i think sadie might have started it- she's so determined to do anything the grown-ups do, from potty-training baby to taking her purse and going shopping in the cozy coupe. caleb has always been more of a realist and resistant to any suggestion that things aren't way the seem to be but he's started moving away from that.

friday grandma susie and pa-pa joe brought in a tugboat sandbox for in the back yard. this was a HUGE hit, especially with caleb. this addition to the backyard has meant tons of time playing outside (making potty training easier, since i'm not ready to venture out with him in underwear just yet). caleb has taken on the role of sea captain frequently sticking his head over the side and yelling "aye aye captain" and then jumping out into the yard and having me call out "man overboard" then he runs around the yard trying to stay away from the sharks that might eat him. he even started pretending that he was a shark trying to eat me. i would say "don't eat me shark, go eat some peanut butter" and he would fall on the ground laughing.

today, sadie has been little mama taking good care of her baby. she's finally discovering that baby should have a diaper and clothes on and made several attempts at putting one of her diapers on baby using caleb's changing table. i even had to let her use the baby powder (un-opened) because she knows that's what baby's need. it was really cute to watch and even caleb tried to join in. we almost had issues though. caleb doesn't have a baby and wanted sadie's but he accepted another smaller doll without too much protest.

potty training is continuing to go well. so far no accidents today :-) but we are becoming more concerned that he might be celiac and are looking into getting him tested.

sadie's other favorite toy (besides baby) is her cycle-bike. she can't quite use the pedals yet but cruises right along just using her feet to push. i've been having trouble chasing after her because she'll take off going up the sidewalk and giggling as i yell at her to turn back.

caleb can read STOP. i started telling him about red lights when we were in the car and then explained that i had to also stop at stop signs. i explained that stop said stop and he's progressed for pointing out the stop signs when we drive to also recognizing it in other places. while playing at the play kitchen he looked at the microwave and declared "s-t-o-p, spells stop" i thought it was pretty cool. he's also started putting together letters (from puzzles or refrigerator magnets) and asking me what they spell. hasn't made any real words yet but i'm impressed with this start.

we have a 3 yr check up for caleb next week. then it's get ready for the big birthday party.

Potty training successes!!!!

Yippee!! we have a little boy who is finally starting to get this whole going to the potty thing. we managed 3 trips to the potty today and one completely without me prompting and in time to make our deposit with no accidents!!! in case you can't tell, i'm thrilled after weeks of feeling like the boy was going to be stubborn and not interested. to be making progress with a couple weeks left before pre-school starts is a big deal and it's good because i think he's figuring out that me giving him juice all morning is what's making him have to go. he's started refusing to drink now. silly smartie pants who i can just barely keep one step in front of ;-)

well, just wanted to share that news! back to work.

Shore Pics!

so sorry

i know i've been away for quite some time. we had our beach trip to Ocean Beach, NJ and since getting back, i've been in potty training mode. yes, Caleb will be starting pre-school on his birthday, Sept 9, and they ask that the kids be potty trained.

**************a warning-- the following contains potty info that you may not want to here*************

this is proving to be quite the challenge. we have tried just about everything- m&m's as rewards, a sticker chart, just having him sit on the potty, spending entire days home in underwear, getting Sadie a potty so she can try it too... nothing has worked. yesterday, the kid spent almost the whole day in underwear and had only one accident. sounds great, right? wrong, he only went to the bathroom twice the entire day, once was the accident, twice was in the pull-up at naptime. i was shocked, he went from 3 until 9 without going at all. needless to say, the overnight diaper could not hold all that was in there.

i don't know what to do with him. right now, i'm thinking he can go to pre-school in underwear with instructions that they don't give him anything to eat or drink. it's only a couple of hours in the morning ;-)

ok, enough with the potty.

besides that, we've been all about the Olympics. the kids have really enjoyed seeing the various competitions. we've caught some gymnastics (recorded the trampoline event for sadie), lots of volleyball and swimming, some fencing and some running. the kids perk up anytime they hear the Olympic song intro... we might have to put that on a CD for in the car.

now we're working on planning the little man's 3rd b-day party. hard to believe it's already been 3yrs.

Zoo pics

another trip to the zoo this week to see the new baby elephant (Angelina) ! i didn't get too many pictures of her though- she was well protected by mama and a couple of zoo keepers. i also didn't get many pics of my kids (they no longer look at me at all when i have my camera going) but i did get some nice pics of the animals (if i do say so myself :-)

g'ma jody was visiting this week from NJ. we had lots of fun at the zoo. tried potty training some more and visited the toy library. lots of fun to hopefully tide g'ma over until we visit her at the beach.

Caleb's boo-boo 2008

Summer is in full swing and so begins the injuries. Fortunately this year hasn't required a trip to the ER, yet. Caleb kissed the pavement Saturday morning on a walk to the mailbox (the main mailbox at the end of the block). Caleb's explanation "I was running, so fast and I falled down." As you can see, his forehead was pretty scraped up and he got a scrape down the side of his nose too. Poor thing just didn't get his hands down first and I was a few yards away with Sadie so I couldn't grab him. But we got it cleaned up and after several boo-boo kisses the tears were gone and we were ready to play again.





Sadie also had to get in on the action though and for awhile was coming up to us asking for boo-boo kisses even though she hadn't gotten hurt.

That's all for now!

Finger Lakes, NY

Our first family vacation of Summer '08. We went up to the Finger Lakes area just outside of Rochester, NY for a long weekend. We stayed in a house on the lake with Granpapap and Grammie, and Sean, Emily and Claire. It was a nice big house with lots of space for the kids to run around in, which was a good thing- it ended up raining a good bit of the time there.

We drove up Thursday evening. The kids made the 5 hour trip well. We packed plenty of library books and that seemed to keep them busy. Sadie wasn't quite able to get at them herself and liked to flip through them quickly and then toss them on the floor so by the end of the drive we were almost constantly hearing her little voice yell "Book! Book!"

Friday morning, we got up and took a trip into Rochester to visit the Strong Museum
This is the National Museum of Play and it was great. The kids had a blast running around there and I don't think we even saw half of it. There was a huge Sesame Street area complete with games and puppets and all kinds of activities. There were areas with train tables and rice play and craft tables. There was a Clifford room that seemed to be the most entertaining for the kids. Then there was a whole other area for reading adventures. It was something else.

The kids were ready to crash after that so we came home for nap time.

Later in the evening we were able to convince Caleb to put on his life vest and go for a ride with Grammie and Grandpapap in the paddle boat. He's still very resistant to trying new things but is starting to understand the whole "if you do this, then you can do that" way of approaching things. He tolerated that vest and loved the boat ride.

Saturday was spent hanging out more at the house, skipping stones in the lake and going for boat rides. We couldn't get Caleb to wear water shoes so that left swimming out but he was happy to throw stones in the lake. Later in the afternoon, the grandparents managed to take all 3 grandkids out on the paddle boat. Caleb loved it. Sadie, not so much. She tolerated it but still looked pretty scared sitting in the back seat.

Grandpapap and Uncle Sean did some fly fishing and Grandpapap caught one and let Caleb help him reel it in. The kids were all excited to see the fish.

Then the kids got to feed the ducks. There happened to be two mama ducks with babies sticking around our part of the lake, so we got out some bread and the kids got to throw bread to the ducks after dinner. Caleb and Claire kept squealing and laughing watching the ducks devour the bread. Sadie couldn't understand why you would want to throw perfectly good bread away to the ducks- she preferred to eat it herself.

Sunday morning we had to pack up and leave pretty quickly. We did have time to play in the boats a little more and to get a quick family picture on the dock.

It was a fun weekend!