B-BALLERS

As I was herding the munchkins toward the racquetball court this afternoon, they escaped! And somehow managed to pull open the heavy doors to the gym. Where there happened to be one lonely highschooler playing, and 5 extra basketballs laying around... James was convinced he was going to play with the older boy ("I wanna play with that boy! I wanna play with him! I need to play basketball with him!"), but after giving the poor kid a look to let him know I would keep my babies as far from his practice zone as I could, I managed to keep them on the other end of the court for 15 minutes or so until the daycare room opened up. They were completely adorable running around in that huge gym! And James learned to throw the ball underhanded from between his legs, and Cora learned to "catch" a bouncing ball. Such b-ballers. They don't get that from their mama...

(And in workout news, I've been "tapering" this week. After the 5.5 mile run on Saturday, I took Sunday off, ran about 1.5 miles on Monday while I was still SUPER sore, took Tuesday off - more due to my nasty congestion and exhaustion than any other reason though, and came back with 3 miles at a 10:30/mile pace on the treadmill today. And it felt GOOD! I felt strong and fast and happy. Hooray running endorphins! The plan is to take off tomorrow and Friday in prep for Saturday's 6.2 mile race, which I am now really looking forward to!)

"NO, MY DAMAS!"

Little Miss "I do it!" has been all about dressing herself lately. And not just the shoes (she's had that figured out for months and months). She knows the difference between pants and shirts. And pajamas. But apparently not the difference between pajama tops and bottoms. She insists on putting the shirts up around her waist like a skirt, and it cracks me up! If you try to correct her, she will sternly tell you "No, MY damas! (AKA pajamas)" while running away from you. And she's obviously had plenty of time to perfect her fashion sense, what with all the half-nakedness lately due to potty "training". We can't wait to see what kind of outfits she comes up with as she grows up...

CHALK IT UP

Upon returning home from the grocery store this afternoon, Jay headed upstairs to continue our bedroom painting project (we're getting close!), and I needed a way to put the groceries up without having the kids underfoot. So for the first time ever, I sent them outside alone. Well, together. But without an adult. I opened the kitchen windows, handed over their giant bag of chalk, and told them in no uncertain terms that they had to stay in the driveway and carport. And it totally worked!

I went outside after 7 minutes or so and took some photos of their handiwork...

A lovely train track (he was being the tunnel):

A bit on the carport wall:

And some on the basketball hoop:

I really wish we had a fenced yard, but at least now I know I can trust them for a few minutes here and there if need be. Good job kiddos!

TRAINING HERSELF?

Leave it to Cora to potty train herself. Not that we're complaining. Not one bit. She's awesome. And we're totally proud of her. It all started Sunday night...

Sunday:

After bath, I let Cora run around naked, just for fun. When she went running into the bathroom, I quickly ran after her because I was worried that I hadn't shut the lid to the toilet (and she has a bad reputation for playing with the toilet water lately). Instead, I found her sitting on her little pink potty (a gift from her Auntie and Uncle for Christmas). She looked up at me and said "I pee-pee", and sure enough, when she stood up and I checked, there was plenty of pee-pee in that potty. So I dumped it in the toilet, she flushed it down, we washed her hands, and she received an M&M for her efforts. Big smiles. Happy dance. Bragging to Daddy. Game ON!

Monday:

We were all home due to the holiday. Cora spent the day partially in diapers, partially in cloth trainers, and partially naked. She sat on the potty multiple times (her choice - sometimes we offered, sometimes she just followed James when he went, and sometimes she just went in on her own), but didn't do anything. After bath, she had an accident. But instead of playing in it (as she's done in the past), I caught her with a wad of baby wipes in her hand trying to clean it up. So she definitely knows that her mess doesn't belong on the floor.

Tuesday:

We sent Cora to daycare with pull-ups instead of diapers this week, at the request of her new teacher, who has been taking her to the potty a few times a day with the older kids for the past 2 weeks (since she moved up to the new class). Her new classroom doesn't even a have a changing table, so pull-ups are easier for them to use. And since we're unwilling to purchase enough cloth trainers for use all day, every day, Cora is using sposies. She is SO good about pulling her own pants and "undies" down, and back up when she's done. We're seriously shocked by this, considering that James STILL has to be told to pull up his pants after going potty. And he usually whines for us to help him. Not our Little Miss Independent. She tells us "I do it!" And she does. She peed in the potty at school today.

Wednesday:

When I picked her up from school, her teacher told me that not once, but TWICE she peed successfully in the potty. AND she stayed dry over naptime. Fantastic!

Thursday:

Another double win for Cora (at daycare)!

Friday:

And again, two successful pee deposits in the potty, another dry naptime, and only one wet diaper all day long. Tonight we bought her undies on the way home from school, since it sure seems like she's ready for them. She was SO excited! She picked them out (Hello Kitty and Days of the Week undies) and held the packages tightly as we did the rest of our shopping. And as soon as we got home and I handed them over, she put every single pair on. On one leg. Seriously, could she BE wearing any more undies? (Friends, anyone?)

Saturday:

Well, either daycare is exaggerating, or Cora is taking a potty break this weekend. Baby Doll wore undies all day (except naptime) and had many accidents (we didn't bother keeping count). She sat on the potty plenty of times, she just didn't produce anything for us there. Even with the promise of M&Ms. Hmm... wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Sunday:

Cora was pleased as punch to put her undies on again this morning (she slept in her usual double-stuffed cloth diaper). There were accidents. There was a messy breakfast and an early bath. There were a couple of poopy undies. There was more unproductive toilet sitting. There was lots of potty book reading. And after naptime, there was a change to pull-ups for the rest of the day. We figure, we'll see how this next week goes, let her wear her undies at home in the evenings (or just run around half-naked), and try again next weekend. We're just taking it by her cues at this point. She's still so little, and we weren't even planning to start training her for a couple more months anyway.

But seriously though, how adorable is she in her little Hello Kitty undies? The weather was gorgeous today, so we had the windows open. That long patch of hair she has up top (the same hairstyle James had at around a year old, except without the Mississippi Mudflap) shows up nicely in the wind...

TWO GOING ON TWELVE...

James will turn 3-years-old in a week, but he already speaks and converses like an older child. This has major advantages for us, since it allows us to communicate with each other so well, but we think it also has consequences for him, in that people who don't know him (or don't know him very well) expect more out of him (i.e. the behavior and/or other skills/abilities of an older child) because they assume he is an older child. The fact that he's in the upper percentiles for height, is fully potty trained, and is generally a well-mannered, caring, and compassionate kid, also adds to the confusion. He DOES seem like an older child. But he's still 2.

He makes long sentences (often 10+ words), has extended back-and-forth conversations with us (sometimes about the most random things!), is able to recall many details about his day when we recap at the end of the night, has a blossoming imagination, can sing a few verses in multiple songs and recite phrases from his favorite books, always uses some type of conjunctive or descriptive word while telling us about something, and is starting to use the correct grammar more often than incorrect. For examples, just check out his James-isms page to see what he's been saying lately that's caught our attention. We love that he uses words like great, big, small, tiny, itty bitty, little, really, too, also, both, later, and, these, those, I, we, he, she, you, me, they, next, now, then, so, etc. But even with all this fun developing he's doing, he still sounds like a 2-year-old sometimes, especially with these few choice words that are ALWAYS mispronounced and SO cute when he says them:

"alligator" = elevator

"slippidy" = slippery

"tibidy" = nativity

"vidadin" = vitamin

"chaloklit" or "chokit" = chocolate

There are more, of course. My brain just can't remember them. Mommy brain is rough sometimes. Hence the reason I keep this blog, since I want to remember as much as I can as I grow along with my kids. And oh man, those James-isms are enough to put a smile on my face any time I'm having a bad day, and I'm grateful that I can easily look back and see EXACTLY how his speech has improved and developed since I started keeping track of his little sentences back when he was only 23-months-old. He's come a LONG way in the past year!

SCHOOL DAYS

Painting...

...and an ice cream party!

DOUBLE MOHAWKS

KING AND QUEEN OF THE COURT

Daddy had the fun idea of buying the kids some racquetballs and tennis balls, since it seems NOBODY ever uses the racquetball court at the Y. Until now...

NOT THE SMALLEST BABY ON THE PLAYGROUND ANYMORE

Little Leo hit the big 6-months and is now joining in the fun of swinging and sliding!

TODDLERS ON PARADE

The kids took a field trip to Heritage House today to bring some Mardi Gras cheer to the nursing home patients.

James and Manu held hands for a long time, and were both really good about passing out their beads and smiling and wishing the folks Happy Mardi Gras!

Cora was pretty shy, of course, and I held her most of the time. She did smile and wave and blow kisses, but she wasn't about to give up her "neck-ases". Good thing those ladies didn't care about the beads!

After the little "parade" (where the kids walked up and down the halls and into the patients rooms), the staff invited us to join them for King Cake and dancing. The kids were great entertainment (especially after the sugar-rush of the cake)!

(Dontcha just love how Cora wears her beads like a sash?)

MARDI GRAS PARADE 2012

We skipped the Mardi Gras parade last year due to rain and cold weather. Cora doesn't do well with cold, and she was still so little! The year before we skipped it due to snow. And James was still so little! But this year. THIS year! We loaded up, headed out, and enjoyed the sunshine.

And we enjoyed our friends...

(See Mike? I TOLD you if we didn't take your group shot then that we'd forget! Now you have to be featured solo on the good ol' blog!)

Manu and James seemed to really enjoy the parade, hanging on the fence and letting their daddies catch the beads for them. Jacob and Bridger had it all figured out though...

Cora made out pretty well, considering she hid on my back the whole time. She sure loves her "neck-ases"!

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

Beautiful Emma turned 1-year-old this past week!

We had such a great time celebrating with her at her Mardi Gras themed birthday party today that we completely lost track of time and stayed 2 hours past the end of the party!

Cora really liked getting to help Emma (and her mama) open the gifts!

Emma is a little Queen too. See her scepter?

There were lots of beads at the party. Cora helped herself...

...and she helped Emma too!

Look! Mason was there too! All smiles, the entire time. And I even got to hold him!

Look into her eyes. I dare you not to faint at those lashes. Gorgeous girl, just gorgeous!

While Cora played with the birthday girl and entertained us adults, James stuck close to Coltin. They played so well together. James loved his playroom and his toy closet.

He also loved the cake pops. As did Cora.

And the birthday cake. As did I. It was delicious and I had no qualms about exceeding my calorie limit in order to enjoy a piece.

What goes better with cake than a milk break?

Seriously, these two boys played for hours. For almost four hours. James had so much fun. Coltin even taught him how to play hide and seek, with counting against the wall and everything. They were SO cute together!

And not to be outdone by her big bro, Cora learned how to catch a ball (hands in front, CLOSE together!) Personally, I think Dawn is trying to guilt me into starting James in T-ball this summer...

Thank you again, Dawn and Stirlin, for inviting us over to party with your little sweethearts! We can't wait to do it again soon (you know, like in 2 weeks for James birthday...)

PICTURE PAGES, PICTURE PAGES

Tonight was a good night. The kids were calm and sweet and well behaved. Maybe all that Valentine's sugar is finally out of their systems...

Anyway, Jay and James laid in bed for over half an hour tonight drawing on the mini magnetic doodle board. Jay did the drawing, James did the requests. He asked for a picture of himself and Gabriel at the playground on the slide. Then he wanted a picture of a train slide (where the kids sit together, train car style) with himself, Gabriel, Will Will, and Manu. And Cora. Then Daddy had to ride the slide. With a monster chasing him. Then it was Mama's turn. The monster almost got me, but luckily James made the eraser save the day! The requests then turned to dinosaurs and monsters and monkeys sliding together down volcanoes. This kid has a really fun imagination!

AT THE GYM...

Now that we're hitting the gym 4 days/week, we're not spending as much time at playgrounds as we used to. So, what are we doing to keep the kids happy?

Well, the gym daycare doesn't open until 3:30pm, so that gives us 30 minutes minimum to play before we go work out. Sometimes we still go to a playground. Sometimes we run errands. And sometimes we just go play on the track behind the Y, which is a perfect, safe place for the kids to ride their bikes (and since we're there so early, there are rarely many others out on the track to trip over us).

James and Manu often swap bikes halfway through playtime, and it cracks me up:

There is always a snack break, of course: Once in the daycare room (sometimes we go in right at 3:30pm, and sometimes it's 4:00pm before we end playtime and head inside), the kids play with new friends and new toys:

And once our workout is complete, we go collect our kids and head home to start the busy evening chores. Sometimes we even make a spectacle of ourselves as we leave the building:

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

We did it up for Valentine's Day this year. Oh yes we did!

(Candy grams at school. We ordered one for each of our babies, and they each got a couple extra from their classmates, so we had lots of balloons in the house tonight!)

We started off with pink pancakes for breakfast. On special heart plates. Too bad our munchkins don't really do breakfast that early in the morning (hence the reason they usually just get breakfast bars on school days).

I made James and Cora chocolate-dipped marshmallows to hand out as valentines (and cake pops for their teachers). When James saw the finished products, and after I told him he couldn't have one because they were for Valentine's Day at school, he asked me if he could give one to Maddy Kay. Then Coley. Then Abby (whose name is actually Ivy, but either he can't say it correctly, or he's convinced himself that her name is actually Abby). I didn't hear any mention of boys, so I hope he was a sport and shared with the fellas too. And yes, I made sure to send enough that James and Cora could each have a chocolate-dipped marshmallow, since I didn't want them to fight with their buddies over candy.

The kids had a Valentine's Day party at school, complete with treats and cake (and valentines, of course). They wore shirts that I made for them (using the Silouette, and patterns I purchased from their online store). James loved his "Robot with a heart" and has been asking to wear it since Saturday. I made Cora's print a tad too big though, so I had to iron it from shoulder-to-shoulder to make it fit. It still looked cute on her anyway.

HUGS! RAWR!

My little poser really enjoyed his photo shoot this morning...

Jay and I snuck away from work for a lunch date. And we had special shirts too (purchased on ETSY and WOOT, respectively, not Made By Mama). Jay's shirt has a cupid on the far left that you can't see in this photo (his shirt was titled "Love Conquers All").

The kids came home with Valentine Boxes full of treats.

Then we made heart-shaped salami and pepperoni pizza for dinner.

Happy Valentine's Day folks!