Moronic Monday Madness

The Gremlin Wrangler has challenged us to show off our Mondays. Here is a peek at mine.

My laundry pile. This is not including a pile of kid's stuff that I need to get put away.

My saintly husband did a bunch of dishes yesterday, so the pile is not as bad as it usually would be on a Monday. I hate dishes and I wish there was an environmentally good way to use disposable dishes.

Here is a shot of the spare room. We finished painting and decorating the other bedroom and moved the boys in this weekend. That left this one a mess. The pile of clothing in the pack is the previously mentioned kid's clothing that I need to get put away. I will post pictures of the newly decorated room later. I think it turned out quite cute.

More random junk from the room move.

Sunday Cuteness: Silly boys

This is Evan playing nap. He actually asked me if he could lay down on the couch and be tucked in.

Harry loves to have me take his picture and then show it to him. Here is one of the many random pictures that I have on my camera.

Almost there

All that is left is the ribbing for the legs and a drawstring. It is amazing how much progress you can make on a project when you actually knit on it.

Strange

I had an odd dream dream this morning. I had not slept well last night so when the kids were watching Sesame Street I was laying on the couch trying to wake up, only I ended up falling asleep again. In this dream the kids were downstairs watching tv. I suddenly remembered that we had a parrot in our garage that we had found and taken home. I realized that I had not fed it for several days. Upset I tried to get up and feed the parrot only I couldn't because I was really asleep. I managed to wake up but it still took me awhile to realize that we did not actually have a parrot nor did we rescue one.

If I was going to analyze this dream I would decide that it was representational of my feelings about the many and ever expanding responsibilities that I have in my life. I have so much stuff to do every day to keep the house running smoothly and yet there is also time I want to spend with the kids and my husband plus there is me time that I want to spend knitting or reading a good book. I fell like I am dropping the ball at times and things have been slipping mostly in the house cleaning department (my kitchen floor is crying out for me to mop it). But I am not going to analyze it, not today.

What have you been dreaming about?

How Evan and Harry like to start the morning

I am not sure how well Harry can even see the TV considering that he was right behind Evan, but since he was not complaining I didn't say anything.

Woo!

I am making some progress on the soaker. I managed to make up for lost ground pretty quickly. It seems funny but every time I have to frog a project it seems like I go faster the second time around. Maybe it is because of practice. I have about an inch more before I have to start the leg shaping and other fun stuff. The constant stockinette is making my hands tired but I am plugging along.

I am coming down with a cold that my children decided to share with me. I am hoping that if I pretend that I am not sick the cold will decide to not take a firm hold in my body. Go away bad cold! No one wants you hanging around!

Boo!

I hate Mondays. I have a massive pile of laundry and a pile of dishes in the sink. All I want to do is go back to bed and sleep some more. I managed to get some laundry done by bribing the kids with play dough if they left me alone long enough to finish folding a few loads. They like to help out with the stuffing of the washer and dryer. The fools think it is a fun game and who am I to deny them the fun of helping out with the laundry?

My husband and I were called (email me if you get confused by my LDS terminology, I don't mind explaining) to teach the Valiant 12 boys. Yeah we get to teach preteen boys. I am teaching the lessons and my husband is covering the scouting aspect of it. He gets that duty since he is a whole lot more familiar with scouting being that he is an Eagle Scout. The boys are pretty nice and not as rowdy as I had feared they would be. They managed to answer most of the questions I asked even though they tried to get all tangential on me. I am used to that since when I was teaching Young Women that was a favorite ploy of theirs.

Evan is grossly overusing the potty card to get out of things he does not want to do. I am getting very tempted to just put him on a potty schedule and not deviate from that. I have been frequently asking him if he needs to go potty and now need is a part of his vocabulary. He "needs" to go outside right now. He "needs" to have a cookie. He "needs" go into the blue room (which is in the final stages of being painted and is currently off limits to small children).

Here is some eye candy for my relatives that read my blog.

The boys in the rain forest exhibit at the zoo. They were so authentic that there was a cockroach running around. The boys of course loved it. I was freaking out.

Harry peeking in on the lions.

Peek-a-boo!

A goose hoping for some food. The geese at the petting part of the zoo are very cheeky and grabby. We never feed them for fear of getting nipped.

Evan trying to do a headstand on a bridge. Harry is trying to peek through the slats into the water below.

Competition

Announcer 1: We now go live to WIPs Wrestling. Competing right now is Awesome Mom. She is a relative newcomer to the sport of knitting having only been knitting seriously for about a year. She has come a long way and is a very promising rookie.

Announcer 2: Awesome Mom has a lot to overcome in this competition. She has two small children that really cut into her knitting time and can also distract her which is the biggest cause of pattern mistakes.

Announcer 1: The pattern she has chosen for this round of competition is a pattern with a low level of difficulty. In order to please the judges she has added a few twists to it by adding in some ribbed cuffing and adapting the rise of the soaker to meet Parker's special cloth diapering needs.

Announcer 2: I really like the color she has picked out for this project... Wait! What is going on here? It looks like she is frogging back her project! Yes, she is!

Announcer 1: It seems like Awesome Mom was putting the short rows in the wrong spot on the garment and her last short row was showing a big hole. I think she is going to have to choose another short row technique since this one does not seem to be working well for her.

Announcer 2: This is a big blow to Team Knitting Bloggers. They have already been handicapped by injury. The team captain cut her thumb only a few days before competition started.

Announcer 1: Will Awesome Mom be able to make up her lost ground? We will just have to wait and see. We now turn to the Sockput.

It is Olympics time

I am so excited! Last night we had an Enrichment activity and the woman that was sitting next to me pulled out some knitting and started working on it. I was thrilled to be able to talk knitting with her. We even chatted about Ravelry and the Ravolympics (squee! I am so excited to have a knitting buddy in my ward).

I joined team Knitting Bloggers (Go knitting bloggers!!!) for the Ravolympics and am entered in the WIPs (works in progress) Wrestling. I have some things that I have stopped working on and that I wanted to get finished, so I thought this would be the best event. Don't worry, I am not planning on knitting in a singlet. Here are the projects I want to finish (I really need to stop starting so many projects!).


Here is another soaker for Parker. It has been languishing in my knitting bag ever since our house hunting trip to Kansas last April. I have pulled out a few times to knit on, but did not make significant progress. It really should be done and on Parker's designer bum right now.

Here is another leftover from the house hunting trip. I finished the first one here in Kansas but second sock syndrome has been beating me silly. I just have a few more inches on the foot and then I need to add in the heel and I will be done.



This is an unofficial entry and will only be brought out when I am done with the other two. It is a lace stole so I have a ton more to do still. I didn't want to make it the main WIP because I knew I would be hard pressed to finish it in 17 days.

Also in my knitting bag is my pay it forward projects. I have two started with major progress made on both and I have another one that I have yet to even cast on for. But for now I will be concentrating on finishing my older projects.

Thumbs up!

I was insanely nervous about meeting our new primary care doctor today. I tend to work myself up about meeting new people, doctors in particular even though I have read a great many blogs by doctors and I know that they are people just like me. Added to my freak out about the appointment was that the office was in the middle of nowhere (which to be fair most of the towns in Kansas are in the middle of nowhere) and complicated to get to. I really freak out about getting lost and being late and when you combine the possibility of both happening at once I can become a basket case.

Any way I managed to pull it all together and we arrived safely and early (but not too early) the internet directions clutched in my sweaty hands. The doctor turned out to be a very nice guy that was a lot younger looking than I had expected. The facilities were very nice and spacious. Our former pediatrician shared his facilities with his physical therapist wife and they were on the cramped side.

Harry had a freak out about the scale. He did not like it one bit that it wiggled under his feet. There was even a handle bar to hold on to but he was not having any of it. The nurse put him in the infant one which had a seat. Don't ask me how tall my kids are or now much they weigh. That kind of information slips out of my mind the second I hear it. Unless I write it down I can't seem to remember it.

Something that was a huge hit with the boys was that they had crayons so they could color on the paper that covered the exam table. Sadly the exam table was no wide enough for both boys and a shoving match ensued until I put an end to it. Evan also had to add the doctor's office to his List of Public Bathrooms That Evan Has Visited. At least he actually went this time. Harry got a bit of one on one time with the doctor while this was happening and he did not freak out which is what he normally does whenever I have to leave the room suddenly. I guess the doctor is just that good when it comes to a bedside manner.

I got lost on the way home thanks to all the confusing turns and freeway and tollway changes I had to do. I am so taking another more direct route next time. I don't care that I will save a little time since I ended up loosing a lot of time when I was wandering around lost. We made it home (obviously) and I was wiped out by all the excitement and goings ons.

Over all I think this doc is a keeper. He is so efficient that I got a call later in the afternoon from his office letting me know that they had set up appointments with a pediatric cardiologist, pediatric neurologist and a physical therapy evaluation. I had thought I would have to do all that calling once all the authorizations came in and what not. It was nice not to have to, since calling people in #1 hard for me to do because the kids freak out (seriously, they could have been playing nicely for hours before I have to make a phone and the second I tough the phone a fight breaks out that will not end until I end the call) every time I even think about talking to someone on the phone and #2 I have a crazy phone phobia about calling people. I can talk on the phone all day if someone calls me, but if I have to call someone it some how becomes hard for me to do it. I am always worried that I am bothering them or interrupting some vastly important task. I have to have a real and pressing need to call someone before I can do it.

Well enough now about my neuroses. How about them (insert local sports team)?

Whew

My family came for a bit of an impromptu visit to see our new home. It was a crazy but fun (and super hot) weekend. My dad and husband stayed inside in the cool working on house projects while my mom, sister and I took the kids out and about in the heat. I think my husband and father picked the better of the two choices.

The boys now have a new lighting fixture in their room to be (we are painting and decorating the spare room for them to move into) and they have a model of the solar system on the ceiling. We now have a light switch in the unfinished portion of our basement. Previous to that we had to walk to the middle of the room to yank the pull chain that worked the light, tripping on things if they had been moved since the last time we were in the room. I find it a vast improvement. We had some of our mail "mysteriously" come up missing on two days in a row that I uncharacteristically was out late running errands and was not home when the mail came. This necessitated that we get a more secure mailbox which was another of the projects that got finished when my family was over.

We have some very good news about potty training. It has been more days than I can count since any accidents (knock on wood). Evan has been transitioning from the "little potty" to the "big potty". I have to help him a lot with getting up and properly positioned on the "big potty". He has been pretty hesitant to poop on the "big potty" but in the last four days has managed to do it twice. I bought some handle bars to put up on the wall near the toilet which I hope will help him become more independent.

I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants

If you want a very amusing way to spend some time online go Yearbook Yourself. Thanks to Darren at Clare's Dad I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants.

This is Evan in the 50's

Evan in the 70's He really rocks those sideburns and that super wide tie.

This is Harry in the 50s

A ghostly Harry rocks the 80s

Older is not always better

Sometimes I can't help but feel envy for Harry's firm convictions about how things should be. Did you know for instance that humans can not eat crab or octopus? Flies can eat poop and garbage. Rabbits eat grass and carrots.

I seem to be frequently amazed at Harry's developments. It has been fun watching him grow and it is fun to finally be able to have conversations with him. I think that part of the reason I am caught off guard with Harry is that certain aspects of Evan's growth have not come easy and have happened rather slowly. With Harry, he has almost effortlessly added new skills.

One thing that has come about with no effort at all is their excellent skills in whining. Right now Harry is having a fit because I let him play with a toy sheep that he was asking about. I also dared try to give him the hug he asked for. Evan is whining because we are staying home to do a bit of cleaning instead of going out shopping (where he will end up whining when I stop the shopping cart to look at anything and then will whine when we only stop at one store).

Where is my cheese? Humans can eat that too you know.

My head hurts

The thing that sent us off on the insurance tizzy was that when I called the family practice doctor that one of my husband's coworkers highly recommended I was told that they were not accepting new patients. My husband had put him down as our PCM with out verifying that he was taking new patients. So, I thought I would find a local pediatrician for the boys so that we could save gas and not have to do the 28 minute drive each way every time the boys needed the care of a doctor.

We have talked to Tricare a number of times and each time we get a very different answer. Yesterday it was a simple form that the doctor's office would have to fill out. The next call there was nothing that they could do. Today it was a form that we could fill out that would exempt the boys from needing a PCM. Then later when my husband called again, he was told that this could not be done. I think the only true piece of information that we have gleaned from this was that the person that told me that the family practice doctor was not accepting new patients was mistaken. I still am unable to wrap my mind around the fact that the local doctors can accept Tricare but not be PCMs. To me that is like saying that we accept a credit card, but you can't actually use it in our store to buy anything.

So now the boys have an appointment to see the family practice doctor next week, it was just not worth the headache to insist on a pediatrician. We had a lot easier time scheduling an appointment to see this doctor which I like, but I am just frustrated with having to do such a long drive when there are plenty of doctors that are closer. I also hope that this doctor can handle Evan and all his needs, after all he is a pretty complicated little guy.

Confusion

The older I get the more things I run into that make me go huh?

I am in the process of getting Evan set up with a pediatrician. I have been a bit lax about it due to the move and settling in and potty training but we really need to get his health care system set up and in place so that he can start physical therapy again among other things.

Where I am running into problems is that there are pediatricians aplenty that take Tricare, however none of them are considered primary care managers by Tricare. There are also loads of family practice doctors that take Tricare. Guess what! None of them are designated PCMs either. In fact there are no PCMs in a 50 mile radius! How insane is that?

We, of course, have been on the phone questioning this apparent oversight but it is hard to get things done when you get a different answer every time you call. What I don't get is why are not family practice doctors and pediatricians not automatically designates as PCMs? When it comes to the doctor food chain they are the lowest on it. It only makes sense.

I guess that is where I go wrong, assuming that an insurance company would do anything that makes sense. Another thing that puzzles me is that my husband's coworkers have doctors. Why is it only now that we are not able to get one? I can feel my head starting to ache.

I know that we will eventually get a doctor set up for the kids and us. We will be very squeaky wheels, I can promise you that much.

Hidden Talents

A few days ago we were hanging out in the living room. The boys were doing their usual peer out the window and exclaim about things going on outside. Suddenly Harry got excited and tried to hand my husband something small and black. Harry has somehow caught a fly. We were quite shocked but thought it was a fluke, after all flies are naturally speedy creatures that always seem to evade the quickest of people.

A few days later I decided to see if it was a fluke. I asked Harry to get a fly. We some how never seem to have a house entirely free of flies thanks to slow children that like to linger in open doors, so I thought maybe a fly hunting Harry could help correct a the problem. I didn't really think he could repeat the performance but much to my surprise he managed to yet again corner one by the window and catch it.

The boys, being the boys that they are love catching bugs. I have to watch them carefully to make sure that they don't pick up anything harmful. I also have to watch them to make sure that harmless beneficial bugs to not end up getting squished. Pill bugs are a particular favorite and are also just as likely to get squished if I am not quick enough to stop it. I am sure that bugs are just the beginning.

Sunday Cuteness

Is there anything cuter than a picture of my kids playing nicely together? I sure can't think of anything.

I thought I would give a potty training update, I know you are waiting at the edge of your seats for an update. There have been a number of accidents, usually when I have forgotten to remind him that he should try sitting on the potty. Today I tried to be very good, but by the end of the day I was tired and forgot to remind him to go before dinner. He ended up peeing on my living room curtains while he was trying to watch the storm that started while we were eating dinner. *sigh*

Evan may not like going potty at home but he loves going to public bathrooms. He has learned that all he has to do is say the magic words and he get to see me run around like a loon trying to get him to the bathroom on time. I am getting very tired of cramming into tiny stalls with him, pulling his shorts all the way off and his undies all the way off only to have him sit there and do nothing. If he ever becomes famous, that alone should earn me a really nice house.

Perspective

I have been rather quiet the past few days. I was a hormonal mess and all weepy and stressed out, not to mention crampy. Thankfully a little time was all that was needed to put my formerly horrible life back into perspective. After all I have it quite good. I have a husband that tolerates my PMS induced anger. I have two kids who may drive me nuts some times but most of the time they are super cute and loving. I also have a nice spacious house that is still pretty sold despite the idiocy of the former owners.

Another thing that has put my life into perspective is that I spent part of the evening baking cookies for a bake sale to help a family in the ward pay for their son's medical bills. I am not entirely sure all the issues that are going on with the cute little boy, the only obvious defect is his cleft pallet but I have learned that there are sometimes other hidden issues that can go along with that. I can't help but feel so blessed that we have good insurance and that we have not had to do the same kinds of things to pay for Evan's medical bills.

Yet while I feel my blessings, I still can't help but feel sad for all the little children in other countries that are not as blessed as we are here in the US. I can't help but feel for all the mothers who have children like Evan but who are not able to have access to the doctors and end up loosing their children. The only thing that makes this all bearable is my faith in Heavenly Father. I know that this unfairness is not permanent and the separation of the parents and children is not permanent.

Try this Tuesday

Medication is something that will be a constant part of Evan's life. His coumadin does not come in a child friendly liquid form so we have to grind his pills. When he had his tube we could just dissolve it in water and give it to him, but when we switched to giving it to him orally he started refusing his medicine. I could hardly blame him, I am sure it did not taste very good.

After getting approval from his cardiologist we started mixing it into yogurt. Which worked like a charm until we wanted to travel. We would have to get a cooler to keep the yogurt cold or find the kind he liked when we got to where we were going. We recently (in time for the move thank goodness) discovered a new alternative, single serve containers of apple sauce. They were portable and did not require refrigeration. Now applesauce is part of our nightly routine.

Go over to 5 Minutes For Special Needs to check out more tips.

Just a little worn out

My husband is temporarily working later hours at work this week. It is nice having him around a bit more in the morning, but I am not used to having such long hours in the afternoon and it is getting to me (even though this is only the first day of this). I kept trying to hide from the kids this afternoon, but they are very good at finding me and apparently they HAVE to be on the same floor of the house as me. Oh, and Evan pooped his pants this afternoon because he was having too much fun playing to go to the potty (despite me bugging him a million times to go).

So instead of something wise and/or funny here, I will send you here to a great article on marriage by an author that I very much enjoy and admire.

Yet more house pictures

Here is shot of our living room and entry way.

A shot from the other side. The door you see is to one of the bedrooms.

A close up of the fish tank.

Here is our pile of boxed up books. My husband is making a book case and we plan on putting it along that wall. I can't wait for it to be done.

The stair well which will have to be altered if we have more children. The spacing between the up and down parts is super wide and Harry can fit through them.

The view from the kitchen down to the entry way. I like that it is not carpeted but I am finding the tile hard on my feet.

Part of my rather narrow kitchen. You can see the fridge that we fought to get and has turned out to not be all that great of a fridge.

The other half of the kitchen. Harry loves to make use of the step stool.

More counter space. I think it is supposed to be a breakfast bar but we don't use it that way. Instead we put plants on it. This is my collection of Hoyas that was recently expanded thanks to my awesome mother.

Here is the kitchen as viewed from the dining room.

The dining room.

The delightfully annoying fireplace. We have two in the house and the kids love playing in it despite our attempts to keep them out.

Here is a picture of Evan (who has been accident free for the entire week) and our sliding glass door.

In case you were wondering....

Yes, I have been doing a bit of work on my blog template. I found this one at a free site and fell in love with it. I hope you like it, I know I do.

My life: potty training and knitting

If it seems like all I have been blogging about is potty training and knitting, well that is pretty much the two most exciting things in my life right now.

On the potty training front we had a banner day. Evan did not have any accidents and we actually went somewhere. We ventured out to a church play date at a park. I am not sure if I had the right park (there are two with similar names) since no one showed up besides us.

(begin tangent) I am getting fed up with the crappy parks here. I know more people have big yards and stuff than in California, but that is no excuse. The majority of them have super ancient equipment that none of my kids can really play on and often have a high potential for danger. The standard equipment is an super high and steep metal slide, a merry go round and teeter totters. I really miss the updated and clean parks that we had in California. When we went today there was a guy peeing in the brush near the kid's play ground. At the park closest to my house we discovered lots of broken glass bottles. If the city would bother to put better equipment in the parks and clean them now and then I bet more people would use them. (end tangent)

They quickly grew tired of the three lame pieces of equipment and I decided to make an impromptu zoo visit. We have fun and Evan was even persuaded to use the public restrooms. We did not stay too long since it is super hot here and they were getting very red in the faces.

Now for knitting content.

Tama's Etsy store is one of my favorite places to get yarn. I like her a lot and she has great stuff there, she really know her fiber.

Here is a picture of the completed scarf that I made from some of her hand spun yarn. It has such amazing texture. I think that I made the scarf a tad bit wide so it ended up on the short side, but it is long enough to wear. It kind of reminds me of a waterfall.


Here is some awesome yarn that I got in the mail. She dyed it up just for me! The colors remind me of pink flamingos. I am going to make some awesome socks out of it.



I have not forgotten about house pictures. I plan on taking some more in the next few days as I clean and tidy up various parts of the house.

Sunday Cuteness

Sorry there are no pictures this week. Evan is generally half n*ked all the time, so any pictures I would have taken would have not been fit for public viewing where there are creepy people with creepy thoughts about cute and innocent little boys.

Harry is such a cute and helpful little guy. He lives to help me and gets so excited when I let him do things like help unload the laundry and do the dishes. When he helps with the dishes I will put the silver ware basket (minus the small knives) up on the counter and he will stand on the step stool and put them all in the proper place. I have been doing a lot less bending down lately since Harry is more than happy to pick up stuff off the floor and put it where I ask him to. I want to bottle him up and have him be this helpful forever.

Another cute thing about Harry is his love of broccoli, or "trees". We have stir fry now and then for dinner. I think that my boys are Asian kids in American kid's bodies because they gobble it up with none of the reluctance that is normally seen when new and different things are served. Harry especially loves to have me pile the "trees" on to his plate. Evan has caught on to his excitement and we let him have a few small trees (he can't have too many since the vitamin K in the broccoli will counteract his blood thinning medication). I am thinking about seeing if they like "trees" raw too. If I make it a regular part of Evan;s diet then his medication dose can be adjusted accordingly. I just never thought he would be consistent with it, so it was easier to just avoid them all together.

Evan did awesome in church today. He stayed dry and went potty in the Ultra Scary Public Bathroom With a Big Potty for the very first time. I bought some waterproof trainers for him awhile back when I started flirting with the idea of thinking about potty training so we did not have to worry about him making a big mess if he did have an accident. I learned my lesson about that long before I had kids. When I was living in San Diego I taught the Sunbeams for awhile and one of the kids had a big accident (he must have been saving it for a long time) and I felt for the parents when they had to clean it up. I did not want to have to go through anything like that.

Don't eat these spiders!

Even though this spider is brown, I recommend that you avoid eating it. I caught this guy after Evan and Harry discovered it while playing down stairs. It is huge! I had a hard time not freaking out as I was catching it but I was also too freaked out to kill it (Yeah I know I am a weirdo). I was obviously not too freaked out to take a picture of it for blogging purposes, I have my priorities.

Any way, we have had a bunch of these guys getting into our basement and I am really wanting to do something about it. Spiders really creep me out unless they are in a container and not running loose in my home waiting to eat my children. Any suggestions?

We had good news on the potty training front. Evan had only one accident all day and I let him go on his own with no reminders. He showed great initiative and even went downstairs to go potty in his favorite of the three potties that we bought (I used the cat box rule: one for every cat plus one and applied it to our family). The lone accident happened while he was napping and he wet the bed. I may put some training undies on him for nap time. Now I just have to get him to use the big potty and use underwear properly and we will be half way there. He still is using diapers at night and needs them.

Poor Thomas

I think that Evan has caught on to the idea that when his bladder feels a certain way it is time to go to the potty. He went pee all on his own today with out any promptings from me. He would get very frustrated when I would strongly encourage him to sit on the potty. I even got brave enough to put him in undies so that he could enjoy some outside time. He has not realized that underwear is not a diaper and Thomas the Train got pooped on. The only good part about the whole incident was that I did not have to clean it up. My husband came home early from work and ended up with poop duty. We may be able to leave the house with him in underwear before too long.

Added in: I am not so glad any more that my husband cleaned up the poopy underwear. I found the underwear sitting in the boy's bathroom and crusty streaks on the toilet. I ended up doing some cleaning myself.

A craptastic day

There is mixed news on the potty training front. Harry was a wash and did not hit get anything in the potty at all today. He also apparently is full of crap and decided to show me that every time I turned my back to do a quick chore. Luckily I had the foresight to cut back on the normally high amount of fiber in their diets so the result was not too horribly awful. Harry actually enjoyed cleaning up his accidents and that is when I decided to throw in the towel. I am going to let him decide if he wants a diaper or not but the first accident will see his bum covered right quick.

Evan was great today and only had one accident. I try and get the boys to sit on the potty every so often and that is when Evan would do his thing. Harry has the bladder capacity of a gnat, so I would have had to keep him constantly on the potty. I was loosing hope that Evan would show any initiative to sit on the potty on his own when right before dinner he went with out prompting from me. Awesome! I hope this trend keeps up. He still asks if he can have a diaper, but he also asked if he could put on underwear and play outside. I am hoping that the coolness of Thomas and Lightening McQueen undies wins out. He sure does like the jelly beans he gets.

S.O.S

I am in potty training hell.

Earlier this spring I decided that it was time for Evan to be out of diapers. He is a bit of a lazy kid and was quite content to have me wipe his bum so long as I did it the second that he wanted me to. I figured that Harry was starting to get old enough to potty train too. A plan was hatched in my mind that after the move I would have a go at it.

Today was the first day and I am not sure that the carpet will be the same. Harry only managed to hit the pot twice and that was because I insisted that he sit on the potty for awhile, not due to any decision on his part. Evan had a much better average but again because I had him sit for a good long while on the potty. One of the times was more of a miss than a hit thanks to his inability to keep his hands of his new favorite toy. Evan also decided to leave a dump right by the potty while he was supposed to be napping. All in all it was a super thrilling day. I am starting wonder if there is a person that I could hire to do this dirty work for me. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sunday Cuteness- 4th of July edition

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe holiday. I have been mum lately, we had my husband's cousin and her family over for a visit during the long weekend. She is the the closest family to us so I think that we are going to get to know each other a whole lot better than we did before.

Here are some shots of the boys at the zoo. I am excited that we are close enough to a zoo that a membership is worth the money. The zoo is small when compared to some that I have been to, but it is nice and well landscaped. We had perfect timing, as we finished seeing all the animals it started sprinkling.

This is the rain forest exhibit. They had a lot of birds and a small deer like animal running loose. They had a healthy fear of the boys.

The drain! This is what fascinated Evan the most about the zoo (I know this is Harry looking at the drain, but Evan kept going back to it and all the sundry drains that were around the entire zoo. Harry was satisfied with this one look) . He was not as excited about the animals as Harry was. He did enjoy being pushed around in the stroller which is something that we hardly bring out any more.

Harry was tickled that he got to see the orangutan so closely.

The family room

Come on down and check out our roomy family room.

Here is what you see coming down the stairs. Not in the shot is the door to the unfinished part of the basement.

Here is the train table. Note the roominess and the space surrounding it. We are thinking of (for now) keeping it as just a play table. The boys seem to enjoy having their toys on elevated surfaces.

That white cabinet in the back was put in by the former owners. It shows their bad planning and poor attention to detail. I would take pictures of the inside, but I don't want to gross you out. The spiders seem to really like it. As you can see we have tons of toy storage. I think that the toys were breeding while they were packed up, I don't remember having this many toys when we were living in California.

More storage for books and toys.

Remember how I said that I would not get a house with these awful stairs? Well I did. We are not going to make the under stairs area a storage space like it was in our previous house which is the only way I talked myself into not hating these stairs.

This is the adult section of the room. The entertainment system is just past the computer desk in the corner. My tech savvy husband hooked the computer to the TV so that we can watch movies from the computer on our TV. The kids love watching my husband play computer games on the big TV.

Look we have couches! They are real leather and they are not super overstuffed either.

Handy dandy

Having a child that is obsessed with cars and trucks comes in handy now and then. Monday is our garbage day. We are still used to having dumpsters and not having to put out the garbage can when it is garbage day. Monday morning Evan was doing his usual peer out the window and look for cars routine. My husband heard him yell "Garbage truck!" That reminded my husband that he had forgotten to put out the garbage can. Luckily Evan's yell was early enough that my husband was able to rush the can out to the curbside. Crisis averted!