Potty Training

It's that time again. Potty training. One of those times that no one ever told you about before you had kids. We are persevering though. I tried it with Tolan a few months ago & it went about as I expected it to. He did ok, but after a couple days it was screaming, kicking, tantrum, "I don't want to go to the potty!" So we let it go. I knew that Tolan & his personality would not use the potty until he wanted to do it. I knew he COULD do it. He just didn't WANT to. So I let it go & waited. I thought I would be changing his diapers for forever.

I tried making a deal with him and Logan. (Logan still wears a diaper at night) If we get rid of ALL the diapers, we will move the toys up to their room and put up their bunk beds. Tolan didn't care. "I don't want bunk beds!" Alright, I guess I'll wait a little longer. But I got sick of the tornado of toys and moved all the toys up to their room anyway. Right around the same time that I moved the toys upstairs they played at a friend's house. All of a sudden Tolan wanted to use the potty and wear underwear. He really wanted to & was doing it all by himself! He was asking if we could put up the bunk beds yet. I didn't get why all of a sudden he wanted to do it b/c a few days earlier he couldn't have cared less about the bunk beds. Then he said it in passing one day, something about Ryder's bunkbeds..... and that was it! He had been at his friend's house and seen HIS bunk beds & now he wanted them too. Following the crowd is great at 3, but maybe not so much when he's a teenager! I'll take it for now though!

So he has been doing really great. He's been going all on his own. One day we went up to my parents' house, which is an hour drive, and stayed there all day & went to a restaurant for dinner. He had absolutely insisted on wearing underpants that day & I thought we were going to have wet pants b/c there is no little potty at my parents or at a restaurant or on a long drive in the car. He stayed dry all day! He used the bathroom at my parents' and the restaurant. So those were both HUGE steps! I thought we had it made. But no. The next day he wet his pants like twice and pooped in them once. Oh well. We are back on track though. He even wore his underpants to church yesterday and kept them dry. We did take him to the bathroom seven times during church.....he went about 5 drops each time, but he told us he needed to go, he told his teacher he needed to go & he stayed dry so I don't care how many times we had to take him. We are still "training," but we've made REAL progress!

No bunk beds yet though. He has to keep them dry 7 days in a row and Logan needs to get on board with his nighttime diaper.

Preschool

Logan started preschool this fall. He's going to "Rainbowland." It's just a preschool at a church here in Canonsburg. He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 1/2 hours. So far he is really liking it!

Ready to go on his first day!

He was very excited. Justin came home from work for lunch and took him for the first day. Tolan wanted to be in a picture too. (I love how they are both dressed for completely different seasons!)
One of the first things they did was a fall field trip to Simmons Farm. (Actually, the first thing they did was a fundraiser. Yeah. I know.) Thanks to Grandma Shook for babysitting Tolan & Ella - I got to go with him. We went on a hayride, then we went out in the pumpkin patch & each picked a pumpkin, then we went into the cornfield to pick Indian Corn. After that they got to play in a hay maze, 100 ft. slide, and an old firetruck. Then we took the hayride back & got to choose an apple & sample some cider.

He spent most of the time playing on the firetruck.

The weather was really nice that day & I think everyone had a good time. This is where we took the hayride to:

The next big activity they had was a bowling party. The parents are asked to sign up to help at 2 parties & I signed up for this one. Here's an action shot:

Really, with preschoolers bowling there is not a lot of action. They can barely get the ball down the lane! The most action is the employees going up & down the lanes to fetch the bowling balls that don't make it! But they had a good time

Logan told me later that it was "fun except for when it wasn't my turn." There was a lot of waiting around involved for the little kids. But bowling alleys always have lots of loud music so they spent most of that down time dancing to the music from the 50's that was playing. You can see Logan in the background there gettin' down with his friend Ella.

And of course, it's not preschool without snacktime!

It was fun to see Logan interacting with the other kids in his class and having a good time. He's getting to be so grown up!
Here is a picture of his class:

(and I'm still trying to figure out why I have to bring 10 snacks when there are only 7 kids in his class...)

Halloween

Even though we did not trick-or-treat on Sunday, we had no shortage of candy or costume-wearing activities! The first was the Halloween Walk at the Canonsburg Hospital. They have a fitness trail around the hospital that goes through the woods & all along the trail are different businesses, etc dressed in costume and handing out candy. We went with a few people from church and the boys had a great time. Grandma & Grandpa Shook came along too. Here are all the kids ready to go:

Logan was Ironman, Tolan was Buzz Lightyear and Ella was a dinosaur (I took Logan's old costume from when he was a baby, stuck a pink bow on it & called it good).

Waiting in line for it to get started
The fire dept was at the very end of the trail with candy & the firetruck all open for the kids to see

I think the boys really liked it. As we were walking back to the car they both, separately, said,
"Thanks mom! That was fun!" I guess we will have to go back next year!

They also got to wear their costumes to their class at the library & got candy there too. Logan got some at preschool and then we also had the ward trunk-or-treat on Wednesday.

Our trunk this year:

Ella was ready for bed I think

The boys would rather be eating candy than looking at the camera

After the boys were in bed, Justin and I were checking out their candy (aka, stealing) and Justin found this gummy severed finger in Tolan's bag.....I'm glad we found it first. I don't think he would have liked that.

But it was a good Halloween - they got lots of candy & they really loved their costumes which they have already been wearing for weeks and I don't think they are getting tired of them yet!

This Post Brought to You By....

Our new computer! I know, it's been a while & this is why!

Our old laptop was a dinosaur of a laptop. It was 6 or 7 years old and huge and SLOW and weighed a ton. The battery no longer worked, so it had to be plugged in all the time. The frame was cracked and broken off around the screen. The screen didn't even stand up anymore - you had to prop it up. Did I mention how SLOOOW it was?? And the last straw was that if you put it on standby and then went to turn it back on, the screen wouldn't come on so you would have to shut it down. But restarting it didn't bring the screen back on either. It took about 6 or 7 tries before the screen would come on. And if you did get it turned on, it was really slow. Really slow. I think I already mentioned that...

So it was time. Here is the difference a few years can make in a laptop. New one on left, dinosaur on right:

Now that I have a computer that works properly, I will be getting all caught up and up-to-date on here!

Portuguese

When my brothers and I were kids and my Uncle Clay would come to visit, he and my mom always spoke to eachother in Spanish. It drove us all crazy b/c we didn't know what they were saying! Now that I have little kids, Justin and I are always spelling words that we don't want the kids to know we are talking about. It won't be too terribly long before they can spell some of the simple ones like "treat" or "ice cream" or whatever. Justin served his mission in Brazil so he can speak Portuguese and I'm always joking that I should learn it so that we can speak it to eachother like my mom and uncle did in Spanish.

I said it again the other night and afterward I seriously thought about doing it, but didn't know how I would do it. Plus I was a little afraid that if I actually learned it I might be "blessed" by really needing to use it someday and I'm not really looking to move to Brazil anytime soon. So I seriously considered it but didn't think it was really feasible.

The next morning I took the kids to the library, just like I do every week. All summer they have had the same exact display right in the lobby of the library. I knew it was bright lime green and orange, but I couldn't have told you what it was for. I have walked right past it every week since June and never even looked at it. This time it caught my eye and I actually read the signs on the display. They were advertising the new (FREE) online language courses that they now offer through their website.


Well, it was hard not to pass up the "sign" so I guess I'm learning Portuguese.

I've only done one lesson so far and I'm getting a lot of the pronunciation mixed up with Spanish pronunciation, so that's a little tricky. But Justin seems to be excited that I'm actually doing it and it is actually kind of fun.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and my brother also speaks Portuguese so when Uncle Neal visits we can talk to eachother in Portuguese and drive MY kids crazy!

Gary and Erin's Wedding

At the rehearsal, Ella with her soon-to-be Aunt Erin the night before the weddinggorgeous sunset the night before

It doesn't look like it, but it rained really hard right before the ceremony was supposed to start. It didn't last long and that was it for the rest of the day. After a quick wipe of the chairs, the ceremony was ready to go.

Erin and her dad

A view of the ceremony from upstairs
first dance

cutting the cake. I had the pleasure of cutting the rest of it later
Justin had strict instructions against this at our wedding, but Erin & Gary didn't hold back
Ella and me at the reception

me with the boys

all the little boys - Jaden, Tolan & Logan
Justin & me
playing on the swings
I love these next 2 pictures - Tolan thought it was hilarious when Jaden pushed him on the swing
It was only a matter of time before someone ended up in the pool. I missed it, but Gary jumped in. I don't blame him - it was really hot out to be wearing a black tux
Stan & Arlene, Lynn & Gary dancing

Tolan also did some serious dancing. Justin was with him up at the swings & asked Tolan if he wanted to dance. He said, "yeah" and got off the swing and started dancing. Then Justin asked if he wanted to go down to the dance floor. He said, "yes." He went straight down and started dancing. He danced the entire night. We couldn't get him off the dance floor. It was so funny. Justin has a video on his phone maybe I can post later. He was so cute.

Justin ended up being kind of the runner and the go-to guy at the wedding emptying the garbage cans, clearing tables, cleaning up and whatever else needed to be done. I barely saw him all night. Somewhere in there he rolled his ankle, but kept working. By the end of the night it was all swollen and turned some nice shades of purple over the next few days.

Tolan the "Ring Barrier"

Justin's older brother, Gary, got married a couple of weeks ago and they asked Tolan to be the ring bearer. Of course he called himself the "ring barrier," but he did a great job. I'll do another post on the wedding later, but for now here are some pictures of Tolan as the ring bearer.

At the rehearsal

so far, so good

me, Emily & Sarah cheering him on down the aisle

time for a snack break after that!"my work is done! time for a ride in the golf cart!"
getting into place on the big day

a refresher and a pep talk from daddy

Hailey took off w/o her flowers

and Tolan took off after her
he did an excellent job!

He got too hot during the ceremony though and escaped to the back

it was HOT, but he was so cute!

He loved having the boutonierre, he was very concerned about his flowers

His last duty as ring bearer - to be introduced with the wedding party at the reception
Great job Tolly!