Reading Machine: The Movie

Josh continues to do so well with his reading. We are working on sight words right now and he has about 14 that he can read. Not bad for not even 4 1/2!

Show That No. 2 Who's Boss

This post is probably going to be entirely TMI, so be forewarned. But it was such a groundbreaking and exciting day in potty training, I just can't help myself! What was probably entirely on accident, Ben pooped on the potty today! I was at the grocery store, so I didn't get to be here for it, but I guess he kept saying he needed to go potty and went in to try but wasn't doing anything. After about the 5th time of this song and dance, Andrew told him to just go in and do what he needed to do since he can pull down his own underpants and get himself situated on his little potty. When he was done he told Andrew he went pee pee, but when Andrew went into check, it wasn't just pee pee in the potty. I guess Ben wasn't has excited about having pooped in the potty as Josh and Daddy were, but he did think it was pretty cool to get to flush it down. Isn't it funny how excited parents get over the things their kids do? We were so proud of his little poop today, that Andrew even joked about taking a picture of not only the evidence, but of Ben's very first skid mark in his underpants. LOL! Don't worry.... we didn't, and even if we did, we'd spare you!

Second Yard Sale

We had our second yard sale this weekend to once and for all purge our baby stuff. Every year my parents' neighborhood has a community wide yard sale which usually sees a lot of traffic and in years past as been very successful. The weather was chilly and looked like it was trying to start raining all morning, and actually did sprinkle on us a couple times. Instead of getting the kids up as early as I wanted to be down to my parents house to set up, we decided for Andrew to stay home with them and bring them down a little later in the morning. The boys were more than happy to go to Grandma and Granddad's, especially since Granddad has his famous tran set up, complete with a full Thomas train, which is a big hit in our house. I didn't have my camera, but I'm sure we'll get some pictures before he takes it dow early next year.

Probably because of the weather, the traffic through the neighborhood was extremely light in the morning. After about 2 hours and only making roughly $10, I was thinking this day was going to be sort of a waste of time. But as the day wore on and the sun began to poke through the clouds, traffic picked up and we actually ended up being pretty successful, making about another $100 and getting rid of everything we had really wanted to go. We packed up everything that didn't sell, which ended up being not too much, and my mom carted it off to Goodwill for me. The only thing we kept were the leftover clothes. What is so exciting is that all we have left of baby clothes is one plastic tub full. That may sound like a lot, but when you think that before we started giving it away and selling it, we had about 3 tubs and 4 trash bags stuffed full. Yay for more closet space! I love getting rid of things no longer used. It makes the house feel so much more organized, and even a little bit bigger. Now we're ready for whatever Santa may bring! =)

Moving Right Along

Benny is totally rocking the house on his potty training. Over last weekend we had him in underpants whenever we were home and he was awake. All in all he wore under pants for probably 75% of the weekend, used the potty 6 times, and only had one accident, right before we were about to sit on the potty. Wow!

The school the kids go to is awesome and totally work right along side us in potty training. We have told his teachers that he is starting to use the potty, so they have begun offering him the potty at various points throughout the day. He just about always wants to try, but hadn't actually gone at school... until today! And he did it standing up to boot! He was so proud of himself, and I of course made sure he knew loud and clear how proud I was of him.

But that wasn't the only potty training development of the day. At dinner time, Benny looked up at me and clearly said "Mommy, I need to go potty." We got right into the bathroom and he did just that. Just about every other time he has used the potty it has been initiated by either me or Andrew, so we were so excited to see that he is learning to notice, in advance, that he needs to go potty.

He's doing such a great job! Now, if we could get him to do the rest of his, um, business on the potty, we'd really be rolling! We know that will come with time. There's just one thing to say... Go Benny!

Baby Shower Cake

I was asked to make the cake for the baby shower for a girl in my office. I took on the task, and oh man, was it a lot of work! It took me all week, but in the end I was happy with the results, and everyone else seemed to be too. I was even asked to start making the cakes for the monthly office birthdays! Not sure if I will do that or not, but it was nice to be asked! Here are some photos of the cake. Unfortunately, the cake got a couple finger pokes in it during assembly, but you get the idea. The booties are made out of gum paste and turned out really well.

Maybe there is something to this cake thing. I hope to take a couple decorating classes next year and I want to start trying out some cake recipes, so we'll see where it goes from there!

Another Round of Gardening

Since our pumpkins turned out to be a great big bust, we have taken a small break from our garden while we decided what we wanted to do next. One of the greatest things about living in Arizona is that you can grow all year round. Vegetables do great here in the winter, so we decided to plant a vegetable garden today. Andrew and Joshua picked up some carrot, radish and cauliflower seeds at Home Depot yesterday, so we got to planting this afternoon. The radishes should be ready to harvest in 30 days, while the carrots and cauliflower take about 2 months. Hopefully we'll get some good produce and can learn a little about how vegetables grow. Wish us luck!

Keeping it Up!

I know I just posted yesterday an update on Ben's potty training adventures, but I just had to give one more little update because today was a pretty exciting day in potty training. For starters, Ben pee peed on the potty 3 times today! What was so exciting was that one of the times he started to go in his underpants, but pinched it off and got to the potty to finish. So, while I suppose that officially counts as an accident since we had to change his underpants, it also shows tremendous progress, in that he is noticing when he needs to go or starts to go and is exercising control in getting himself to the potty to finish. He had one other accident today, but then a little bit later went in the bathroom, said "I'm gonna go pee pee." and then did just that. We're hoping he will keep up the good work. We're so proud of him!

We Might Just Be Getting Somewhere

This last week Ben has really started to show interest in the potty, and has actually started using it somewhat regularly. This development seems to have come out of nowhere, and we are so excited to see it! Ben has used the potty 4 times this last week, and has kept his underpants dry every time he's had them on, two to three hours at a time. He even used the potty twice today! We are so proud of him and hope he keeps up this latest trend!

Trick ARRRR Treat!

Happy Halloween! We took the boys trick or treating tonight, and they had SO much fun! Josh was a pirate and Ben as a fireman. How cute are they???

We went through the neighborhood and the boys were so good, saying trick or treat at every door, and saying thank you after getting each treat.

Which way should we go first?

Our neighborhood is so much fun on Halloween. Lots of people hang out in their driveways with firepits, and a few have "treats" (of the liquid variety) for the parents. One of the houses really gets into the fun and sets up a whole animatronic display in their garage, and hands out cookies, popcorn and balloons.

Because we are always out trick or treating at the same time as everyone else, we always leave our candy bowl on the porch for the trick or treaters. We've never really had a problem in the past, other than probably a few kids taking more pieces than their share. This year when we returned home, we found that, not only was our candy gone, so was our candy bowl! Seriously. Who takes the candy bowl? Good thing it was a $2 plastic bowl and not anything I was more emotionally attached to, but still! What is wrong with people? The most we could figure is that we ran out of treats, so we got tricked. Oh well. Looks like we'll be hitting the Halloween clearance over the next couple days to replace it. We're definitely not sad that all of our candy was taken with the haul we brought home!

Trick or Treat!

Crazy Weekend

What a weekend we have had! We were up not so bright but VERY early on Saturday morning to have a yard sale to get rid of a lot of our baby stuff. We officially opened for business at 7:00, and went until about 11:30. It was amazing how much stuff we had to get rid of, and it felt great to know it wouldn't be in my house anymore!

At the end of the day we made about $200, and still had a bunch of stuff left over, so we loaded it all into the van and hauled it over to my parents for Yard Sale, the Sequel in a few weeks.

When we left my parents house, we brought home with us Benny's big boy bed. He was so excited to get out of his crib and into his big boy bed. So this afternoon we got it set up and he slept in his bed for the very first time at nap time today. Somehow we again got off way too easy with the transition into a bed. He just climbed right in and went to sleep. When we went in to wake him up a couple hours later, he was still sacked out, and looked so stinkin' cute!

Tonight is his first night in his bed, and so far so good. He went down without so much as a peep, so we're crossing our fingers for an uneventful night.

After nap time today we went to Vertuccio Farms for some Fall Fun! We went through the corn maze, and had so much fun walking around trying to find each of the checkpoints.

The boys were such troopers, walking through just about the whole thing, with a few shoulder rides.

After an hour we had found all of the checkpoints and safely made our way back out of the maze.

The boys also got to ride the train and visit some farm animals (Ben's favorite by far was the cow. Apparently cows are REALLY funny.)

They even got to try their hand at milking a "cow".

Of course a day at the farm wouldn't be complete without some photos with the pumpkins!

We rounded out our day with a great family dinner at Chilis. The boys must have been starving, because they were ALL about the food. Josh devoured his cheese crisp and Ben was pretty much a human garbage disposal. It was one of our more peaceful dinners out we have had. It was some great family time. Now, back to work tomorrow so we can relax!

San Diego

DISCLAIMER: I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I think I got a little carried away, but there was too much fun not to share it all! =)

We had such a great weekend in San Diego last weekend! We went for Uncle Paul and Auntie Melissa's wedding on Coronado Island on Sunday. Since we don't get the opportunity for a beach weekend too often (we actually hadn't even been back to the beach since we left Santa Barbara over 7 years ago) we decided to make the most of it! We had originally planned to take the boys to Sea World on Saturday. Unfortunately, Joshua came down with a moderate fever on Friday morning, so we knew those plans were tentative at best, despite the fact that we had already bought our tickets. Aside from the fever, Joshua seemed to be feeling fine and exhibiting no other symptoms, so we didn't feel that we needed to cancel the whole weekend.

At about 1:00 we were on our way to San Diego! We decided to make the drive with nothing more than our iPods (one filled with the kids' music), snacks, books, toys and crafts. In other words, no DVD player! We had such a great time. We had to give Joshua another dose of Motrin right before we left, and once that kicked in, he was feeling good, and we all really enjoyed our 6 hour drive.

We were able to talk about the things we saw out the window along the way, like the sand dunes and windmills, we sang songs, and Joshua made Andrew a bracelet out of beads. We made the whole 6 hour drive without a tear or much of a complaint. It was some great family time!

At about 6:30 we arrived at our hotel (after following the ill fated directions from Google, ending up nowhere close to our hotel and then having to call the hotel for directions). The boys were happy to be out of the car, and Andrew and I were happy to be that much closer to bedtime!

At about 4:00 in the morning, Joshua woke up crying. We took his temperature and found him to be 102.7. His fever had spiked partially, if not mostly, because we had dressed him in flannel PJ's. After changing him into a Tshirt and giving him a drink, we went back to sleep and woke up 4 hours later good as new. However, because of his spike, we decided to forgo our trip to Sea World that day. We were a little bummed, but really wanted them both to be feeling their best so they could fully enjoy themselves.So instead of going to Sea World, we decided to give the boys their first ever beach experience. We went to Mission Beach, which was about a 5 minute drive from our hotel. They both LOVED the beach, although Ben was a little apprehensive of the ocean.

First time in the soft beach sand.

Letting the waves come get us.

Ben loved playing in all of the sand, but decided he didn't think much of the cold ocean water, so he found himself a bucket, a shovel and had a blast making "cake"!

Cute little sandy feet.

Josh on the other hand LOVED having the waves come and get him.

After spending a couple hours on the beach, we headed over to Belmont Park to ride some rides. The boys loved the carousel and I got to take Josh for his first spin on the bumper cars. It was so much fun!

After our busy morning, we headed back to the hotel for some lunch and a much needed nap. Later that day we went back to Mission Beach to take in the coastal sunset.

The beach was a bit nippy after the sun went down. Can you tell Josh was a little chilly?

While Josh and I cuddled in my jacket, Andrew and Ben ventured down the beach a ways. As they were checking things out, some random guy came up and gave Ben a kite! So the rest of our time at the beach was spent sunset kite flying!

After the sun set our tummies were all rumbling, so we grabbed some dinner at a little corner taco shop, and then picked some ice cream to enjoy in the hotel before going to bed.

On Sunday morning Andrew and I woke to the sound of Joshua reading Ben a book in the other room. It was so sweet to hear their interaction and conversation with each other without any adults around. After breakfast we asked the hotel clerk for directions to Balboa Park so that we could meet up with Grandma, Grandpa and cousin Stevin to ride the train and get in some good playtime. Just so you know, this is NOT how you get to Balboa Park from our hotel:

The directions were correct, despite the fact that THERE IS NO 6TH AVE. EXIT! Eventually we found Balboa Park and Grandma and Grandpa and had a nice time at the park.

After Grandma and Grandpa took Stevin home for a nap, we decided to ride the carousel. The carousel at Balboa was great because they had a game for those sitting on the outer ring. There was an arm that extended out that dispensed little rings. One of the rings was brass, and if you got the brass ring you win a free carousel ride. Andrew decided to give it a try, and he won!

I've got the golden ticket!

After checking out the rest of Balboa Park and having some lunch and our free carousel ride, we headed back to the hotel so that the kids could get in a good nap before heading to Coronado for the wedding.

I had never been to Coronado Island. What a pretty little town! The wedding was on a nice little beach, and was so beautiful!

Because the ceremony was on the beach, we brought buckets and shovels to keep the boys busy, which proved to be a very wise idea.

Here are a few more cute pictures we took on the beach.

A Sand Dollar we found on the beach in Coronado.

The reception was at Buster's Beach House at Seaport Village. What a nice time! The boys had a blast dancing (it wasn't a dancing reception, but they weren't going to let that stop them) and playing with their cousins.

Mmmmm. Wedding cake!

By the time we got back to the hotel, Ben was officially partied out. Andrew was able to bring him up to the room, take off his clothes, change his diaper and put on his jammies, all without him so much as stirring in his sleep.

Before we headed home on Monday morning, we stopped at Pacific Beach where we had read was a good place to go to look for seashells. We walked along Crystal Pier, and then along the beach while Josh stuffed his pockets full of seashells.

For some reason Ben thought the best place to keep his seashells was on his head.

We then headed home. I can't say the car ride home was just as good as the ride there... there were a couple instances of pulling over to the side of the road for an attitude adjustment, but all in all, it was still pretty good.

We've decided that since we weren't able to go to Sea World, and we have our tickets which are good until the end of the year, we'll head back to San Diego next month to celebrate by 30th birthday, so all's well that ends well (that is, if everyone can STAY well!)