A stinky post

So there comes a time in a parenting adventure where you begin to question whether or not this was something you had ever signed up for. That time for us is right now. We never imagined that our lives would be consumed with trying to get Noah to stop smearing his poop around our house. Why you might ask? Good question. Now I realize he is three and I should have been potty training him a while ago but I have waited. Mostly because I am petrified to do it. And this is the reason. I am not at all good with poop. If it's in the toiled fine. If its, ALL OVER MY HOUSE. Not okay.

Basically this is how it all plays out. Noah goes off somewhere out of sight. Usually at a fine time like me eating lunch. As I begin to wonder what he is doing he comes over, places his sweet hand, full of poop, on my arm and says 'Mama, poop.' Well I am sure that you can imagine my reaction. I had no idea that my voice could reach such high decibels. Then proceeds a long process of washing Noah up, cleaning Luke up if he happens to be in the way, cleaning the carpet/bedspread/couch/floor etc. where the poop happens to be. Then I sit in a corner crying. If I could bring myself to drink at 11 in the morning I am sure I would.

So what smart thing are we doing to prevent it? Well like any smart parent would we are forcing our child to wear 24 month onesies (there is no 3T onesie out there, we looked) with shorts and a belt on. If he can't get to it then there is no poop problem right? So if you see my child out and around town walking funny it's because we are making him wear his brother's onesies until he discovers that poop is gross. That is going to be a long, long time.

Oh and by the way when your child starts saying, Luke and eat, in the same sentence when there is poop about the house its best to ignore what he is saying. Because if I let myself go there I might need to be committed.

Blogging

Hmph. Is that even a word? I am no longer a good blogger, heck I was never even a great blogger. I just don't do it. And quite honestly I don't read blogs anymore. I should clarify I don't read blogs of people I don't know anymore. I used to have a long list on my google reader of craft blogs, cool people blogs, people who I will never meet but think their life is amazing type blogs. And I deleted. them. all. Starting afresh maybe? Not really, just really, really tired of reading blogs about people I don't know and feeling like how great their lives were compared to mine.

You know I have the stay at home mom with two busy boys who like things like toilets, cars and dirt kind of life. Not that I am throwing myself a pity party over it. Oh my no. I am extremely blessed. I just didn't need to be reading random people's blogs that ended with me going, oh if only... Honestly I don't need if only's or thoughts that I can be more amazing if I just blogged about how amazing I am.

So I have been thinking about blogging and whether I will continue with it or not. And after a long hiatus, a slight change to the blog layout, I am back. But with a different idea on why I blog.

It is to preserve a memory.

To write about our current events before they become a distant thought. And eventually I hope my kids will want to read what was happening in our lives circa early 2000's. To hear that they were in the 90th percentile their whole infant lives. That we owned a crazy dog for three months before returning him. To know how we struggled with things like sleeping and eating and pooping (you not us).

So hi ho, hi ho, it's back to blogging I go.

Heidi

Luke at 15 Months

I was hoping to write down a few of Luke's latest development's. Time is flying by with this little boy and I am shocked that he is now a walking, climbing, playing active boy.

Lately Luke is pretty much climbing anything he can get his cute little chubby leg up onto. The other day while passing the hall bathroom I casually looked in to see Luke at the sink, playing with the water Noah had left on. What? Yes, the boy climbed the two step stool and was happily playing away. I am so thankful he did not try to get down or step off the stool. Gulp. The bathroom door is now closed again.

Luke also has a great love of water. His favorite thing to do is stand in the bathtub (boy I am sure portraying myself as a safe mother), with the faucet running, playing and sticking his face in the water. He loves the water table, the play pool, and sadly, the toilet. Why might I ask do my children think the toilet is just another water toy? Makes me want to sit down and cry. Or spray them with Lysol.

Luke is totally getting the whole grunting for items thing down. He will point, say Mama, and then uh, uh, uh, uh, at the object. This is something new. And this is something his older brother still does. Starting to notice that what older brother does, younger brother must do also. Like shouting when he sees a balloon. Or yelling BA (bath) when he is getting changed. Monkey see and cute little chubby monkey do!

And something super sweet. He gives me a kiss before I put him down for a nap. This boy loves nap only for the reason that he get's a cup (okay forget that, a bottle, I know bad mom), of milk. But now he has added a sweet little kiss before going down. I will have to enforce that one as mandatory from now on.

Latest pictures of Luke:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61661928@N02/sets/72157626386846849/

Ostrich Festival

That's Noah, in the third seat.

We had a blast taking the boys to the festival! Really it is just a large fair that costs a bundle but is oh so fun. Being our first time to the fair with an age appropriate child we decided the sink or swim technique to the rides. We stuck Noah on any height appropriate ride and watched to see if he would laugh or scream or cry or all three. In Noah's case there was a lot of laughter. That boy is a roller coaster kid. Yes!

Luke's turn next year. As for this year all he did was sit in our wagon and cry. Unless he had a cold drink in hand. It was HOT that day so we made sure they were well hydrated, well sun screened and well shaded.

Here are more pictures from the event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61661928@N02/sets/72157626358247417/

(I got tired of trying to post pictures to blogger so I finally set up a flickr account. Let me know if it doesn't work okay?!)

Kelly's 40!

Enough said.

The good with the bad.

Noah is in swimming classes. He loves it. If I mention that we are going to his class that will be all I hear 'pool, pool, pool'?? But honestly the last few weeks have been rough. Not for Noah but for me, his keenest observer.

I did notice a problem before during his lessons but his class always just consisted of him. Usually there would be another child in his class but no one else had signed up and we were thankful for that one on one. Because Noah is crazy about throwing everything, and anything, into the pool. Pool toys especially. His cute little teacher would dodge his throws through out the lesson as he happily DISOBEYED her. I had to sit on my hands, trying to stop myself from running into the pool area. I don't think that is encouraged. It became obvious to me that this was a problem and it was becoming a frustration to all of those around him.

Things sort of came too this last week. We actually pulled him out for the last ten minutes of his class, he now has another little girl in his class, and it became so apparent to me that this was a problem. The teacher was frustrated, the leader was frustrated, and the other family were starting to whisper. I was so devastated. So we pulled him. And Kelly took the boys out while I stayed to talk with the lady at the front desk.

I am not sure I ever understood how humbling it would be being a parent. Here I was in the midst of seeing and hearing feedback on my son and sometimes it is just hard to hear. I wanted to sing of how great he truly is but in the end, there is a problem, and there needed to be a solution not dependent on how great I think he is!

Well, poor front desk lady, I poured my heart out to her. She was kind in her remarks but I still walked away unsure of it all. It is hard to share with someone your concern over your child's actions, of his struggle's with communicating and that he doesn't seem as mature as he could be for his age.

Well that was about two weeks ago that I wrote that. Now we are on the other side of things. We have resolved some of the problems with removing those tempting objects. Noah and I work on sitting on his turtle and not throwing it at home. We still see him being crazy during lessons but I am so thankful that they have been kind enough to work on it with him (ie. saying a firm no). I sit and pray for my heart because quite honestly I am still a bit on the hurt side of it all. But that is parenting for me. Humbling, the way it should be right!?

Who's that girl?

You got it. Sweet little Makayla!

She came to visit a few weeks back and being the smart person I am, I gave her a cereal bar without a bib. She was wearing this super sweet pink and white outfit which then turned into a blue splotched outfit. So what does a smart person do? Lends her an outfit of Luke's.

And do you notice that she is playing with a dirt pile and a car? We will have to keep her introduced to the boy type toy's. Then when they visit her she can make them tea and dress them up!