tales from a far-land

We had our first home potty time success this morning.  Madilyn has been going potty on the toilet successfully all week at preschool.  All week she has been using the preschool's toilet about 3-4 times a day.  She even has gotten to the point of letting her teacher know on the playground when she needs to go potty.  However, when we try to use the toilet at home, we have not once been successful nor has she been that forthcoming.  It has been a little frustrating.  We will take her to the potty at home about every half an hour and, before this morning, it was inevitable she would pee her pants right *after* one of our trips to the toilet.  But this morning it was different.  When Madi awoke this morning, her diaper was completely dry.  Yes, we are still using diapers at night.  We were not quite ready to combat her night time bodily functions too.  Anyway, since she was completely dry, I knew that she would need to use the toilet this morning.  I continued to ask her if she needed

Madi adores Elmo.  Every morning when she wakes up, the first thing she wants to do is watch Elmo.  When she gets home from preschool every afternoon, she wants to watch Elmo.  It is crazy.  We have had to limit her Elmo intake to only once a day.  So, when thinking of the theme for her birthday party.  It was easy ~ an Elmo themed party.  On the Saturday afternoon following her birthday, we invited a small gathering of friends and family to celebrate Madi's 2nd birthday.  She enjoyed playing on the swing set with her friends ... Keaton, Emma, Brooke, Nathan and Ryan.  While the kids played, the adults struggled through their own game of Elmo Trivia.  Elmo's favorite food, pizza, was served for dinner.  After watching Madi open up her gifts, we sang "Happy Birthday" and watched Madi blow our her candles.  In actuality, she really didn't understand that concept, but she enjoyed watching Mommy blow out her candle instead.  A special thank you to Aunt Alisha who bake

What can I say?  Toddler potty training has arrived in our house.  Actually, it has not only arrived, but it is consuming our home.  Preschool started the potty training track for us about a couple of weeks ago when Madi officially moved into the Toddler 2 Room.  This classroom is unique.  It has an adjacent bathroom that has three tiny toddler toilets.  The kids are just rotated in and out of the restroom all day.  So, we have continued the diaper to Big Girl panties at home.  In fact, I took Madi shopping for her first Big Girl panties this weekend.  I walked her into to Target and she selected her own packages of panties.  She wanted "Kitty" (Hello Kitty) and "Micky" (actually, Minnie Mouse) underwear.  She was so excited that she carried both of the packages all around the store and didn't want to hand them to the cash register.  She kept exclaiming, "Mine!"  Here are some pictures and a video of Madi in the car after our trip to Target. We hav

It was time to capture more of our childrens' milestone moments in their lives.  Madilyn at age two and Aiden at 6 months.  For this photo shoot, we returned back to JC Penney's Portrait Studio.  Sadly, it was not as enjoyable as previous visits.  However, this is not a reflection of the studio at all.  It was entirely due to the behavior of my 2 year old.  She was insane !  Our visit consisted of many, many tears and a good amount of "No, Mommy, no."  As you will see, the photo results are not as "smiley" as we have seen from our daughter in the past.  It was *so* terrible that we had to return a second time later that day to give Madi a break before we tried again.  Unfortunately, our return visit did not go much better.  Aiden performed very well, except he refused to do any belly shots.  Every time we tried to lay him down on his tummy his waterworks began.  It was a lovely experience.  I was so embarassed.  The studio assured me that my toddler is not t

A couple of weekends ago while I was organizing the office, the kids (and Josh) decided to join me and play in some of the empty boxes that were laying around the room.  It always amazes me how much fun kids have while playing with unconventional "toys".  I guess we should invest in more boxes and tupperware.  They played in these boxes for a good while.  Watching them enjoy themselves was a refreshing afternoon break from my weekend chores.  Aiden enjoying playing in a box   Madi and Aiden He is *so* excited!   Of course, "Puppy" had to join in the fun Relaxing ~ Feet Up     Ouch! "No touch-er, Aiden.  No touch-er!"

Last fall, after we had gotten settled into our new house, Josh's grandparents wanted to purchase a swing set for the kids as a housewarming gift.  And they were insistent that it needed to be one of those large wooden ones that would last a longtime and the kids would get tons of wear out of it.  We were so ectastic.  What a wonderful gift!  We knew the kids were going to love it.  Madi loves to swing, so we knew she would love it.  The hunt for the best and most cost effective swing set began.  I searched online.  Every Sunday, I scoured the ads to see if any of the major stores had sales.  And then one fall day, on a family trip to Sams Club, we spotted the perfect swing set.  It is the Highlander Deluxe Cedar Play Set with Slide.  What kids wouldn't love a swing set that was a gigantic fort with four levels, the bottom level includes picnic table and sand box, it has a 10 foot wave slide, two swings, a two person glider and a climbing wall!  A special thank you to GG and GP