My sweet boy

The other day while Henry was eating breakfast and I was running around trying to do 8 billion things, this simple & sweet conversation stopped me in my multi-tasking tracks:

H: Mommy, you’re cute and I love you.

Me: Awww buddy! You’re cute and I love you.

H: I love you super hooper super hooper!

Me: I’m buying you a pony.

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Mini Chats

This morning while I was in my bathroom getting ready, I overheard Charlotte & Henry chatting over the baby monitor…

Charlotte: What did you dream about last night?

Henry: Mommy, Daddy, You, Char… I dreamed about you, too, Charlotte!

Charlotte: Did you dream about yourself, too?

Henry: Yes!

Charlotte: What a good little buddy. Such a good buddy…

Henry: I love you, Charlotte!

Charlotte: I love you, too, buddy. You little buddy…

Henry: But look what I can do with my car!!

***

Meanwhile, I’m trying to scrape myself up off the floor from the puddle I became…

I just love those little lovies.

Valentine’s Day

2019 shaped up to be quite the little Valentine’s Day with my loves. From homemade valentine’s for the kids to hand out in class to our own little celebration at home, it was definitely one for the books.

While I recognize the exploited nature of days like Valentine’s Day, I still absolutely love the day. Why wouldn’t one embrace a day that literally exists as a reminder to spread love and kindness to the special people in our lives? Really, who doesn’t need a reminder?

So of course, I have to go over the top.

On Valentine’s Day, I woke up VERY early to make heart-shaped french toast with berries before my 6am workout. I hung up Charlotte’s homemade Valentines on the window and put their Valentine’s Day gifts up on the counter. Everything was set.

When I got home from my workout, the kiddos were in a blissful state. So happy with their breakfast and SO pumped to open their gifts.

Charlotte had been oogling this absurdly soft teddy bear named Puffles for weeks. She’d asked for it many a time and the answer had been no. SO… of course, I had to get her the damn bear for Vday… because she just loved the stupid thing. AND, a pair of stuffy slippers.

Hem got a light-up book, a wind-up dinosaur and a pull-back monster truck.

However, my favorite gift of the morning (besides my new leggings from hubby), were the socks I got for Marky! SO funny!

The kids spread love all day with their Valentines.

I also made chocolate covered popcorn with V-day sprinkles with little tags that said, “You Make My Heart POP”… but of course, in the fun of it all, I forgot to take a pic (although you can see it in the picture of Mark’s socks!)!

Then, at dinner, they got their favorite meal, which is noodles with fake butter. Seriously… favorite meal. AND, Marky and I got our favorite meal: RAMEN!!!

It was just such a good day. It might not seem like much, but there was just so much happiness oozing all over the place.

 

Potty Training… Again

First of all, hi! Yes, we are all still alive and doing well! Somehow, the madness of school and travels and holidays has kept me from this happy, blogging place of mine. But, we have big things happening, which should be documented… Otherwise, they might as well have never happened. Note: this is not some millennial statement about the importance of the Internet, but just a confession of my inability to retain any information in my little fish brain. Just call me Dory. 

Back to groundbreaking events… my big boy is potty training!! I’ve been touting his impressive little run these past 5.5 days (but who’s counting?!), which has been echoed by Mark’s reminders of how much easier it was with C. Because, again, my memory is shit, I looked it up today and it does appear as if it was easier with our little lady. Not to mention the sheer fact that potty training a penis in general is just weird… and messy.

I digress…

Mark and I decided that “Winter Break” would be the perfect timing to work with Henry on his potty training (we did the same with C 2 years ago). So clearly, I spent a stupid amount of time making an overly elaborate potty chart, bought Thomas the Train stickers, bought over-priced Thomas the Train Trackmaster trains and voila… we were ready to go!

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With Charlotte, she was naked for a solid 5-7 days. Tush out, adorable as ever. With Hem, not so easy. We attempted naked lunch on Day 1 and Henry seemed to spend more time hand sanitizing than eating due to his countless attempts to make balloon animals out of his man bits.

New plan: undies.

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Do I need to clarify that these were Charlotte’s hand-me-down undies? He doesn’t care and I sure don’t need more things to spend money on, so Hem has been proudly sporting his Minnie Mouse/Pink/Purple/Little Mermaid/Etc undies, with that cute tush hanging out.

Anyway, on Day 1, Henry had two pee accidents right off the bat. This does not include the fire hose accidents… otherwise known as Henry peeing while on the potty, but losing control of his hose, which inadvertently leaves mommy with wet sleeves and a whole lotta clean up.

Still, Day 1 would be considered a success. Not fun… at all. But successful.

It should be noted that in between all the pee was SO MUCH POTTY SITTING. Like, 75% of my day just sitting on a stool singing every possible potty song I could make up… I even came up with my own Frozen Rendition… Let it Flow, Let it Flow… Don’t hold it back anymore… etc, etc, and on and on and on…

The boy was taking FOREVER to let that potty go.

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Day 2 Henry made it the WHOLE day with no accidents. He even woke up dry from his nap and immediately made poop and pee on the potty upon waking up. Go, H! Unfortunately, he did end up having an accident on the bathroom floor.

Oh! And, at some point on some day, he had to poop. We ran to the potty, I stripped off his clothes and swung him onto the potty only to hear a plop on the floor followed by Charlotte saying, “it looks like a ball…”

1/2 a poop right on the floor.

But at least the other half hit water.

Since that, he’s been great! No accidents for 3 days now, spending less time on the potty, and just telling us when he has to go! AKA: Killin it!!

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Go, Hem!

Aww! This is random, but in the beginning, Henry would be sitting on the potty, trying SO hard and crying, saying, “mommy, help me pee/poop.” Poor bud. Check out this cutie pie little video of buddy working hard and giving mommy some love…

Clearly the winner in all of this is Henry. He went from 2 trains to 5 and is LOVING his new, train-rich life…

Here are some other photos from our little winter staycay..

Summer Carnival

Our summer has been packed full of activity and last night was no exception. Despite being a crazy day, our evening was a perfect summer night. Mark’s sister & her kiddos are in town, so last night we all headed to a local summer carnival.

It was complete with a gymnastics(ish) show, a bounce house (my nemesis), food trucks and even a train ride! Just another great evening with the fam!

Miss C

Caught some great photos of Charlotte watching the baby monitor, waiting for her “bruddy” bestie to wake up this morning…

This afternoon, C came with me to pick up Henry from school. When he saw her, he grabbed her and said “Charwe, i miss you today!” And gave big huggies.

They walked out hand in hand.

Such sweet little loves.

Summer Lovin’

We have been having the best time this summer. The weather has been hot, sunny and perfect for playing. And, only having an afternoon nap to work around (instead of multiple naps) has made it so easy to fill our days with amazingly fun summer activities.

This week/weekend was no expection! We even got some kidless time with friends, and the kiddos had their forst non-family babysitter!

Js championship baseball game

Impromptu pool day

Summerfest

Dinner picnic & a movie on the deck

101

Today, in honor of Pop and what would have been his 101st birthday, we went to dinner at his favorite restaurant… Nan even ordered his favorite meal.

While the kids made fine dining a bit of a joke, they redeemed themselves during our post-dinner ice cream stop!

Most importantly, the whole experience would have really been something to Pop. He would have just melted over the kiddos. He was something special… hopefully, smiling down at our messy attempt to honor him.

Oh How I Love the 4th

We had such a blast yesterday… despite the intense humidity and heat. We paraded in the morning, visited with some friends, then took the crazed kiddos home for nap.

Check out Hem’s dance moves! That boy loves to wiggle his rump! Haha

After all of the sun, we decided to switch up the plans from taking the kids to a party after nap to letting them nap late while I went to the party briefly with my neighbor.

The party was great, right on Lake Michigan! It would have been amazing for the kids and I started feeling guilty about changing the plans… until it started monsooning! My friend and I made it back to the car with only mild dampness, but the ride back home was a bit crazy.

I was happy to get home to the kiddos who were watching the Lion King!

Thankfully, the storm blew over and we were able to execute the final part of the plan: late night sparklers and smores with the kids. We had a great time!

Magic.