The Potty Watch

What can I say? I'm a fan. Jacob is the type of kid who does not like stopping what he is doing to go to the potty, and I NEVER remember to remind him. In fact, I think he gets it from me cause I HATE stopping what I am doing to make him go potty. I also hate going into the kitchen and setting the timer in there every time he goes to remind me to remind him when it's time for him to go again. So, we have been going through about 10 pairs of undies a day. It drives me crazy. I bought this watch a while ago, but at that point he just wasn't ready for potty training. So, it's been sitting around unused. The kids would occasionally play with it (cause it plays fun music and all) but today I decided it was time to break it out and see how it would go. It has worked wonderfully. *knock on wood* Even when he's outside and I can't hear the watch go off, he gets all excited and runs in and lets me know the watch went off. And as soon as the song stops playing it automatically resets. So, we have successfully made it through half the day with no accidents. It's been awesome! :) I highly recommend this thing.

2 Months

2 months old today actually, and he just gets cuter and chubbier every day!

Look at those awesome rolls. :)
Here he's flexing his biceps for you.

He's such a fun baby. We kinda like him. I think we'll keep him. :)

On A Tight Leash

I have always heard both positive and negative things about the toddler harness or "leash" as most people call it. When I was debating buying one I read as many reviews as I could and one thing I noticed was that almost all the people who reviewed it mentioned the negative comments they got from bystanders about how cruel it is to keep a child on a leash like a dog (most likely people who either had no children or had very mild mannered and VERY obedient children). So, I knew I would potentially encounter someone who would criticize me for being a bad or mean parent. I braced myself for it every time I used it for the longest time. But after a couple years of having it I only got humorous chuckles from passers by (probably people who knew exactly why I my child had one on). No one ever glared at me or had rude comments for me. Eventually I was able to use it without being paranoid about people judging me. Not that I should care if they were/are. I don't really use the thing THAT often. Mainly just in airports or where ever there are large crowds where my child could potentially bolt off and get lost easily.

We now have 2 harnesses. One for each toddler. We took them with us on our trip last weekend. We used them at Busch Gardens, which is where I heard that first negative comment from a passer by who thought the reason my child was throwing a fit was because he was on a "leash". Jacob was screaming and trying to run away because he wanted to go on the little roller coaster AGAIN! Mike had to pull him aside and calm him down and Steph and I kept walking with the flow of traffic as to not slow other people down (okay, we were pretending not to know them). As we were walking a lady, not knowing I was with them, says, "Maybe the poor kid just doesn't want to be on a leash." I wanted to snap back at her and tell her not to knock the leash because it had already saved his life that day. Yes, you heard that right. We were walking through the parking lot and each of us adults had a kid. Steph was holding onto Jacobs leash when he suddenly decided to bolt out from between the two cars we were walking through right into the line of traffic. Thanks to Steph's quick reflexes she pulled tight on his leash and stopped him just short of colliding with a minivan. We later ran into the people in that van in the park and they approached us. The lady says to us, "I bet no one can tell you guys that that leash isn't worth it." She was right. I understand that the harness isn't for every child, but no one can tell me I'm being cruel to my child. I know my child and know he is prone to doing things like that all the time. I got him that harness because I knew it would be a protection to him. So, to that lady at the park, where ever you are...

BITE ME!!!

The End.

Mandatory Fun

This past weekend we got to go on a retreat to Williamsburg, VA with Mike's fellow interns.
For the most part we all did our own thing, but each day of the retreat the inters were required to do at least one thing together. We all drove up Friday and that evening we all got together for dinner. Well, not all of us. Steph flew out to go on this trip with us and was nice enough to babysit for us so Mike and I could go out and have a kid free evening. We went to a fun restaurant that I forget the name of, but we had some pretty cool live entertainment.

I tried to get a picture of the whole group of people playing, but Terry decided he wanted in the picture and all the light from the flash ended up reflecting off his head, thus making it impossible to see behind him. But it made for a funny picture anyways. :)


Had to get a picture of us.

Minus the red eyes, this is the only NORMAL picture of me on this trip. (There is another picture of me featured later on in this post that you are sure to enjoy, so keep reading.)

Day 2 of the trip we went to Busch Gardens. We had a lot of fun. Here are some highlights.



Jacobs favorite parts...


Playing in the water. Of course. This kid LOVES playing in water.



Lizzie preferred to just watch.

Jacob's first roller coaster ride. He and Mike are in the second to last car.


Can't see them?? Here's a close up. You can't really tell from this picture but he LOVED it and asked to go again. He inherited his dads love for roller coasters. According to Mike it went pretty fast for a kids roller coaster too.
Lulu's favorites...

Oscar's Whirly Worms. I was going to go with the kids on this one, until I saw that it went in circles. (I know, the "whirly" part should have been a dead give away. What can I say? I'm slow.) Since anything that goes in circles makes me want to hurl, I ended up volunteering Steph to go on this one. Lizzie loved it and smiled and giggled the whole time. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but I'm not real good with moving objects.

Of COURSE Elmo was her VERY favorite. She was soooooooo excited to see him. She held out her arms and yelled, "Elmo, ELMO!!", over and over again...until we got up close. Then all the sudden all she could do is stare at him. She wouldn't let him give her a hug but she did give him high five. I wish the photographer would have gotten a picture of that. Unfortunately, the stupid lady refused to snap a picture unless she was looking at the camera. Lizzie is stubborn though and this is all we got.

Both kids loved this part (even though, once again, you would never guess from the look on Jacob's face). A few times a day they turn off the water and the whole Sesame Street gang comes out and does a little song and dance show. Jacob and Lizzie were pretty excited to see life sized Sesame Street characters singing and dancing.
Although we spent the majority of the time in the kids portion of the park, we did get to go on a couple real roller coasters. Actually, Steph and I each went on one and Mike went on both. And here my friends, is the moment you've all been waiting for. Behold...Michelle meets Nessie.

As you can see from my face, it was truly terrifying, and I am pretty sure I really was praying not to die and leave my children motherless. Mike liked this picture so much he paid 20 bucks for it and got 2 key chains of it. (Jerk!) I am glad I didn't go on the other one with him. Steph went with him instead. It looked a hundred times scarier and I am sure I would have lost control of my bodily functions had I attempted it. I think I may have peed a little just watching it. Okay, not really. But, (as my friend Brittany would say) sweet merciful crap! SCARY!!

Lizzie was pretty tired and ended up taking a nap while we went on our roller coaster rides.

Here is Jacob posing with the large Elmo we bought for Lizzie. The only Elmo that they had that was smaller than this was almost microscopic. So we forked out 40 bucks for this one. Jacob found a smaller cookie monster and we only paid $10 for it. Why they didn't have the same size for Elmo I have no idea. Totally annoying though. (Yes that is a black eye, and no we don't really beat our children. He had a run in with the sleeper sofa he was on in the middle of the night...long story.)

After all that fun we headed over to Leigh-Anne's Parent's home for a nice bbq. Unfortunately, we ended up having to eat and run because by that point our kids (okay mainly Jacob) were tired and cranky and being impossible, so we had to take them back to the hotel and get them to bed. Later that evening Steph was, once again, our hero and volunteered to stay at the hotel with the kids while we went shopping at the outlet mall. Retail therapy...what a great way to end the day.

I couldn't resist snapping some pictures from the hotel we stayed at. Whoever designed this place had a very interesting style. Some parts were kind of creepy, like the carpet in the elevators that looked like blood splatter and the creepy hands coming out of the wall.

As weird as this was, it made for a very cool picture.

I think Mike will forever get flak for choosing this hotel.

The next day we hit the road after breakfast. We stopped long enough to go to church then we headed home. It was such a fun weekend. I LOVE mandatory fun. :)

A Day in the Life of a 4 Year Old

I know, I know. This is my second post of the day, but I just had to share so all you people who thought you were busy could see how good you have it compared to Jacob.


What a busy life my 4 year old has. Here is a sample of his schedule today:

10am, flood kitchen floor using a cup and fridge water dispenser.

10:15am, find little notebook in bedroom while in time out and shred it to bits and then spread it all over the room...that's what they get for leaving me in there so long.

1pm, take all pots and pans out of cupboards, get banned from kitchen.

3:30pm, sneak back in kitchen get box of bandaids off counter, open them all and stick them to couch.

3:45pm, clean up bandaids.

4:20pm, climb on table and swing from chandelier.

4:23pm, spend more time reflecting on my life in my bedroom...or at least that is what mom thinks. Really I try to figure out a way to open the window and make my escape, give up after a few minutes and go back to shredding paper.

4:45pm, Wonder if Mom will ever let me out.

5:30pm, Shatter mom's nice glass bread pan. Watch mom totally lose it.


Phew...I hope he goes to bed early. He needs to rest up for another busy day tomorrow I'm SURE!

Just Funder

The other night we had a pretty good thunder storm. Jacob thought it was pretty cool and he and Mike hung out by the window watching for lightening. I looked over at Lizzie who was standing near the kitchen entry way and noticed a look of panic and confusion on her face. I asked her if she wanted to come sit on my lap and she shook her head and started backing up into the kitchen. (I assume because the chair I was sitting in was next to a window where she could see the bright flashes of lightening.) She backed herself into the corner of cupboards in the kitchen and refused to leave that spot. She just stood there (eventually sat) with a scared look on her face until Mike and Jacob went and joined her in an attempt to make her feel better. She was pretty happy when they came and sat by her. After a while they started singing fun songs until Lizzie started falling asleep. It wasn't until she started dozing off that she let Mike pick her up and move her onto the couch where she zonked out. This video was right after they sat down by her. It was so cute to watch Jacob try to reassure her that it was okay. "It's just funder", he says. So cute.

All Smiles