Potty!

It seems we may finally be making headway on the potty training. Saturday morning Scott got Andrew to go pee on the potty after about 45 minutes of sitting on the potty chair. It's been a long, frustrating journey (for me at least). Andrew has no problem sitting on the potty, it's just a matter of getting him to go. It doesn't seem to be the best time to teach him since I've got very little patience now that I'm pregnant and I've heard everywhere that most kids revert a little when they have a little sibling born. But he seems to be somewhat interested, so I'm going to encourage it all I can. We've got a bribe system going... he gets an M&M for trying, one fun size candy if he pees, and two fun size candies if he poops. So far he's still only peed once, and refuses to try and poop on the chair, but I'm still proud of him for trying!

P.S. I should mention that all the credit for this milestone has to go to Scott. He worked out the reward system and is the one really encouraging Andrew to use the potty. If only he could take a week off work and do all the potty training for me!

Snow Day

We had some snow yesterday. I was busy getting ready for the birthday party but Andrew was able to go and play outside with his Grammy and Papa.

Papa pulling Andrew on the sled

Andrew enjoying the sled on the hill

Making a snowman

Andrew and Papa with their snowman

Andrew and Grammy

Andrew's 3rd Birthday... part deux

We had a full day yesterday. After getting up and giving Andrew his presents, we played with his new castle for a while and watched his new movie Robin Hood. Once that was over we took advantage of the gorgeous day outside and went to the park for a while. We went and had lunch at McDonald's (his choice), then came home for a short nap. After he woke up his Papa took him down to the river on the 4 wheeler and they played down there, throwing rocks in the water. We went to Tebo's for dinner with Grammy and Papa. We came back to Grammy and Papa's house after dinner and played Dominos and he got his present from them, a sweet bicycle. Here's a few pictures from the day. The main birthday event will take place Sunday when we have his actual birthday party.

Andrew's 3rd Birthday

Today is Andrew's 3rd birthday. We've been counting down for the last week or so. Andrew's most excited about cake and presents. We'll be having a party for him on Sunday for family and friends. I wanted to make today special too, and had planned on taking him this morning to the zoo and/or the children's museum. But after we gave him his presents this morning he decided he'd rather stay home and play with his new toy and watch his movie. We thought long and hard about what to get him, and finally settled on the Imaginext Castle and the Disney Robin Hood movie. We decided to stick with a medieval theme. I'll post some pictures of Andrew with his present and dinner later - but for now here's a stock photo of his castle. It's pretty awesome.

A little bit ago I went in to get Andrew when he woke up from his nap. He was so sweet... he asked me to lay down with him and snuggled up to me and said "Mama, I like being with you." It was one of those moments that melts a mother's heart. Then he put his finger in my face and asked me "do you want to smell my finger?" I politely declined. I'm not sure what he had done to it, but I was pretty confident I didn't want to smell whatever was on his finger.

Inaugural Post

I've decided to start blogging, not because the life of a stay at home mother is so exciting I feel the need to document it all, but because my baby boy is about to turn three and I want to make sure to have all the adorable things he does on record. I thought I'd be able to remember every single cute moment with him, but I've found that things that happen just weeks ago have started to fade in my memory. It will also be good to have something to look at on the days when he is trying my patience so I can remember why it's all worth it.

This morning I woke up to the sound of Andrew yelling "tada!" You never know what you're going to get in the mornings with him. He is very much a morning person (which he did not get from me or his father) and wakes up roaring and ready to go. I dragged myself out of bed to find out what was going on, relieved to find he was just announcing the fact he was up and out of bed. The other morning, I awoke to the sound of him pretending to snore as loud as he could.

After we ate breakfast, I decided to hop in the shower. Andrew got a little bored and decided to go get my lip gloss off of my nightstand. It was suspiciously quiet so I poked my head out of the shower and called for him. He walked into the bathroom, lip gloss in hand, with pink lips and a huge smile on his face. He was so proud of himself. It was hard to be mad when he was so cute with his pink pouty lips. Besides, it could have been so much worse... he kept it on his face rather than writing on the walls or using it for some other creative endeavor only a three year old can think of.

I don't want to finish the post without mentioning my other son, Ben, whom I realized last night would be joining us in just a little over three months (how the time has flown). This little guy is training to be a ninja warrior; constantly climbing up the walls, punching and kicking (he seems to have a particular fondness for my bladder, you can probably guess how I feel about that, and my hip, which is incredibly ticklish).

I'll leave you with a picture of my little guitar hero playing Rock Band with a few friends the other night: