Weekly Ramblings...

I missed my Wordless Wednesday :( I guess it happens to the best of us ;) I've just had a really busy week. And tons of "nebo smoot snacks" shoved in some really weird places. Apparently Lightning McQueen loves driving over fruit snacks as now he has gummy wheels. Note to self: If I find some piece of goo with hair stuck all over it, it probably used to be a fruit snack.

This week the child gates have become completely useless. D will scale three of them to get into the kitchen. We have one at the bedroom door so he can't run out at naptime. We had a play-yard gate thing that we sometimes open up and string across the two living rooms to keep the children in one area (and away from the tv and stereo since they figured out how to turn the volume up and the tv off). And then we have a safety gate between the living room and the kitchen. Once he figured out he could get over one of them... he can do all three in about two seconds flat. I have a feeling that baby sister won't be too far behind him. She can get about halfway up with her little monkey toes.

We are getting pretty close to having to remove every piece of furniture from the living room, as baby B is really getting into the climbing thing. She does great at getting up, its just the getting down thing that is a little problematic. Her latest fascination is with the couch. Come back tomorrow for Photo Story Friday and I'll tell you all about it.

And I think I'm going to have to give up on naptime for D for a little while. At least until we can get some paneling up in the bedroom... my wall is suffering. Just when I think he's given up on peeling the wall, I go in to find another big chunk of painted wallpaper missing.

On the lighter side, D is speaking more and more clearly and intently with each passing day. It's so funny how they just start stringing intelligent sentences together. Of course it always seems so all of a sudden, but really they've been working on it in their brains (or out loud) for quite some time. It just fascinates me how much he is really understanding. I mean he totally gets the concept of what goes in must come out. Don't worry and hide your eyes, I won't go there today ;)

Things Heard Around the House

I suppose with potty training on the mind, my son has come up with some pretty strange ideas...

Last night at the dinner table: "Don't fart in your ice cream D, don't you fart in your ice cream."
I have no idea how he even comes up with this stuff. I can only imagine that he is thinking about where and when it's appropriate to fart/poop. But he said that the whole time he was eating ice cream last night.

And I think he's got the two a little confused. Or maybe not... The other day while I was changing his poopie butt - "Oh no mom, it's just a fart" Believe me, it was not just a fart.

And now, every time I lay him down to change his diaper "Don't you poop on the floor D, don't poop on the floor." "Don't you poop on the couch D, don't you poop on the couch."

And we are still laughing at his telling himself not to poop on dad's back at Copper Falls.

His other big thing now is "tomorrow."
"Do you want to poop in the potty chair D?"
"Oh no mom. Tomorrow. Go potty in the potty chair tomorrow mom."

The boy is too much like me. Already procrastinating.
Speaking of... I have to teach "motivation" tonight... guess I'll have to find some myself ;)

Weekend Drive

So this past weekend, instead of our usual sitting around in pjs and watching movies all weekend, we actually went out and did something! And I'm just finally getting around to uploading the pictures!

First we went driving around the Chequamegon National Forest and checked out some of the campgrounds for future reference. Really we went out driving because I was anxious to get some pretty pictures of the trees changing.

While I'll be complaining this winter about the coldness and overabundant snow, it sure is damn beautiful around here in the fall.


After we drove through the national forest, we decided to go check out Copper Falls State Park and hike around the falls. It was beautiful! And it was the first time I and the kids had been there.

I carried baby B in the carrier and my husband carried D on his shoulders. D was too funny. When my husband first got him up on his shoulders he grabbed on tight and said "Don't you fall D, don't you fall." My husband said he had a death grip on his neck. Less than 10 minutes later he said "Don't you poop on my back D, don't you poop on my back!"















It was such a beautiful day! Even so, we only made it about a quarter of the way around the trail before we turned back. Two reasons: the adults were a little tired from carrying the extra weight up stairs and hills... and we heard a low growling coming from the woods... we didn't really want to stick around and possibly find out what it was.

After the hike, since we were pretty close, we decided to go up a little further to Lake Superior and do a picnic dinner. Amazingly, I didn't take any pictures while we were there. I should have because there were hundreds of seagulls in the parking lot and on the shore. We didn't really want to brave the flock, so we ate in the car. I'm glad we didn't get out - my husband rolled down his window and threw out a piece of his bread and about 40 seagulls swarmed the car! We thought they were going to bust in. It was a little like "The Birds" for a minute there.

It was nice to get out of the house and do something, and it was probably one of the last nice weekends left to do so. It could be snowing here next week. ;)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

PottyTraining Follies...

We have been working on some potty training around here for the past couple of weeks or so... It's not going all that great really. I think he's gone in the potty chair twice now out of the hundreds of times he's sat on it.

It's not that he doesn't want to sit on the pot. Its quite the opposite problem. He's always game to sit on the pot when I ask if he wants to.

After 20mins of sitting there waiting for him to do some kind of business, I get a little frustrated... He just wants to sit there and play. I hate to make him get off the potty... I don't want him to have any negative associations with the potty chair. What am I supposed to do? Here is what happened today when I left him alone in the bathroom for like 2 seconds to get him a fresh pull-up...

At least he managed to wipe himself, although he did not do any kind of business.

Now, I'm headed over to Rocks in My Dryer to read her post about Potty Training...

OK, I'm back. Great post! Enlightening and lots of good information. If you're trying that potty training thing, go read it!

In the meantime, I'm still taking advice on how to get him to *do his business* or get off the pot!

Thursday Two-fer! :) An award and a meme!

OK, so I've been a bad blogger/blog buddy as of late. I've been consumed with getting things organized and prepared for teaching a class this semester. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be a stay at home mommy... but in reality, I still am mostly a stay at home mommy. I was supposed to be teaching 2 classes, but as I blogged/bragged about it ;) one of the classes got canceled... not quite enough students enrolled. So now I'm only teaching one class. So I'm only away from home two nights a week for maybe two hours.

Have you ever noticed that if something really exciting happens or is about to happen or is going on and you blog about it - it falls apart or stops happening? It seems to happen to me quite often... I blogged about my son sleeping all night in his big boy bed. And that was the last night it happened... there have been many other such happenings, but I won't bore you with all the details... but I will not blog about D peeing in the potty twice!! Instead I will complain about him just wanting to sit and play on it for hours on end with no results... he will tell me he has to pee and poop, but usually won't do a thing but sit there. At least he is comfortable sitting there.

Anyway, on to what I really started this post for! :) I'm totally one for beating around the bush and never quite getting to the point ;)

Last week, during my last minute flurry of getting my stuff together for teaching, one of my good blog buddies, Jen, tagged me for this award: The BFF gold card Award!


Needless to say I was completely thrilled! Who doesn't love to get an award?? Unfortunately I didn't have the time to think about who to pass it on to! :) this one is a little different, you are supposed to pass it on to 4 people who have been following you for a long time and then a new follower from another country. Sadly, I don't think I have any followers from another country, so I will just have to pass it on to a new follower...
So, I will be passing this award on to:
Suzie from Up The Hill Backwards she just continues to be one of my favorite blogs and one of my favorite followers :)
Nut Nut from Nutty Tales who is one of the most prolific and hilarious bloggers I visit often and who reciprocates the visits :)
Missy from Bees and Boo-boos cause she's so sweet :)
MamaGeek from What Works for Us cause she's got some mad photo skills!
And the new follower that I will tag for this award is Honeywine because she tagged me for this meme! :)

So... onto the meme:

Here are the rules:

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My 6 unspectacular quirks? I have too many quirks... but aren't they all pretty spectacular? ;)

1. I hate, hate, hate touching raw meat. And despite that complete and utter hatred I actually, for the first time in my life, cut up a chicken and put it in the crock pot! Man was that gruesome!! And very difficult. I guess I need some real kitchen knives or swords or whatever it is that best cuts up a chicken!

2. I have to chew food equally on both sides of my mouth... which leads to #3

3. I have to get an even number of food items, so that I can properly chew evenly ;) (ie.. 4 oreos, not 3 or 5, it must be either 2 or 4).

4. If I don't have to go anywhere, I won't.

5. If I don't have to go anywhere, I will stay in my pjs all day.

6. I absolutely hate making phone calls. Which is probably why I do not retain friends ;) I will never call them.

So there are my 6 unspectacular quirks in all their glory...
on to the tagging... the first 4 are easy - I tag the first 4 people I tagged for the BFF gold card award! :) Suzie, Nut Nut, Missy, and MamaGeek (linked above - I'm too lazy to link again) and I will also tag Jen and Kelli from Gohn Crazy. Have fun!!