All Grown Up!

My babies are not really babies anymore. They've done a lot of growing up recently!

Lexie has been potty trained for over a year. She wasn't 100% consistent at night, though. Most nights, she would stay dry, but every so often she'd have an accident. I was relying on Pull Ups, because I didn't want to change sheets in the middle of the night. A few weeks ago, I realized that I had been using the same Pull Up on her for a week, and decided to kick MY pull up habit. She has been in underwear at night ever since...and hasn't had a single accident! I have a feeling we could have stopped using these a long time ago!

Recently, we packed away her booster seat for the table. She now sits in a regular chair. She has to sit on her knees, but I think she prefers to sit like a big girl!

We only have one thing to conquer: getting rid of the crib. She loves her crib! When we get back from vacation, we're going to attempt to convert her crib into a toddler bed! Once that's gone, there will be no "baby" left in her!

As for Dylan? We finally transitioned him into a high-back booster seat. It gave me anxiety, but it was time to make the transition.

The extended 5-point harness seat that he was using went up to 65 pounds. He is only 42 pounds, so he had a long while to go before he reached that limit. However, he's a tall kid with a very long torso. The straps were at their highest position, and there was only an inch to go before he was too tall for the seat.

Right after we noticed this, we realized that I would have to sit in the back seat with the kids on our drive to Michigan. The space between their massive seats was tiny, and it would have been an uncomfortable drive! We decided to go ahead and switch him to the high-back booster, which is smaller than his old seat.

It was hard (for me) to make the switch, but Dylan loves his new seat. I'm just happy that we made it almost 6 years in a 5-point harness!

Another sign that he's growing up? Kindergarten is less than a month away!!!

And that, my friends, is the story of how my kids are growing up way too fast!

Way Back Wednesday

Yesterday was all about Lexie. Today, it's Dylan's turn!

Dylan, 20 months old, enjoying a hot summer day!






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I want to wish one of my besties, Annie G, a happy 30th Birthday!!! I love you, girlie!

Tuesday Tidbits

It's time for another installment of Tuesday Tidbits! It's my way of recording all the cute and funny things my babies say and do.

This one is all about Lexie!

Grant picked a thistle outside, pulled off the thorns, and handed it to Lexie. Lexie looked very serious, and said, " That flower is dangerous. Very dangerous."

As I was cleaning, Lexie joined me with her toy broom. She said, "I'm brooming!"

One afternoon, Dylan quietly passed gas. As I entered the room, I was greeted by a terrible smell. Lexie was sitting beside Dylan, and as I watched, her nose wrinkled up in disgust. "What's that smell? What is that horrible smell?!? It smells like cow poop and kitty poop! YUCK!"

Lexie calls a parrot a squawk.

She calls a snow globe a snow clover.

She calls a peacock a beehawk.

She also loves to play Gods Ball. That would be dodgeball!

Oh, how I love my sassy little miss!

8-9-10

8-9-10. Love this date! What a great day to get married or have a baby! I'm not doing either, but it's still a fun day!

Things that make you go hmmmmm....

Who/What do you think Lexie is dressed like?



I'm not so sure.

I'm thinking she's channeling Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Especially since she put the sunglasses on right after I put the camera away!

Away We Go!

It is 8:00 AM, and we are on the road to Michigan! One glorious week of relaxation and no responsibilities (other than the kids, of course!) awaits us.

I am currently crammed in the back seat between Lexie and Dylan. The SUV is completely packed with our stuff. I am surrounded by food, drinks, books, toys, blankets, and pillows.

Pack light is not a rule in this house. My rule? Always. Be. Prepared. And I am!

Grant and Nannie are in the front. I am anticipating at least one potty break an hour. For Nannie! She likes to tour each rest stop! ;) The 4 1/2 hour drive will be stretched into 6 hours.

I have a lot on my mind. One month from today, my baby boy starts Kindergarten.

I am heartbroken.

I know that he will love it. He is very social and outgoing. I, however, am in serious denial over the fact that he's growing up. Rapidly.

I hide my true feelings, and act excited about his upcoming school year. I don't want him to worry or get upset. I want him to be excited and happy about starting Kindergarten!

I already tear up when I think about him climbing on the bus on the first day. I will put on a happy face for him, wave and smile as the bus pulls away...and then break into tears when the bus turns the corner.

I hear that sending your child to Kindergarten is incredibly difficult, but the subsequent years are easy! I sure hope so.

All I know, is that I'm going to need a strong support system on that day!

Okay, enough about that. Let's get back to the fun! Which will begin in about 6 hours, when we finally reach our destination!

Grosse Pointe, Michigan, HERE WE COME!

Jinxed!

You know, I totally jinxed myself yesterday when I said that I hoped today was accident free.

We made it safely through most of the day.

We had a successful trip to the park. The kids got to play with their buddies, and I got to talk to my best friend. We left with no injuries. We spent an hour in the driveway, scrubbing down the car. No injuries. We made it through the entire day with no injuries!

Until snack time. Right before bed. Lexie was sitting on the couch, and leaned over the arm to look at something on the floor. I was a few feet away and told her to sit down before she...

...fell.

She tumbled right over the arm of the couch, landed on the top of her head, then did a full somersault. It all ended in a face plant. On our hardwood floors.

The loud thunk was horrible, and I raced toward her, screaming.

She ended up with a giant goose egg, and a circular cut deep in her forehead. We can't find what she landed on, but we're guessing it was a Lego!

I guess Lexie's on an injury streak. She had her first bad tumble last summer, and has been accident-free ever since. She's been having a rough week!

Do you feel bad for her? (I sure did!)

How about now?



After I held ice on her bump and calmed her down, she headed to bed. I just checked on her and the bump is bigger and more colorful. My poor girl!

I'm hoping that we have an accident free week! Make that year! Or better yet, no accidents at all. Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking!

Accidents Happen

My kids have been accident prone over the past few days. This is normal for Dylan. Not so normal for Lexie. I shouldn't be surprised! I can honestly say that they get it from me!

Yesterday, we had a fun playdate at the pool with some of Dylan's best Pre-K buddies. When Dylan saw Tommy and Evan for the first time since school ended in May, they immediately hugged. They definitely have been missing each other!

The boys had a great time together. They swam, played on the playground, and crowded onto a bench to eat their pizza lunch. They were so cute together. They kept hugging all day!

Lexie did have a great time, because she loves swimming, but she wasn't as lucky.

Accident #1: I was standing at the bottom of the ladder to the water slide. Lexie decided that she didn't want to slide down, so she came back down. As she reached the bottom, she turned around, and her feet slipped. I caught her, but her head hit the ground.

Accident #2: Lexie was playing on the splash pad with Dylan, his friends, and their siblings. Lexie started to walk back to the baby pool, and slipped on a solid metal cap in the ground. She landed on her back, and her head hit the cap with a loud bang. After the tears ended, I put a chair over the cap, and told the lifeguard that it needs to be covered, because it was really slippery!

Fortunately, my water baby had a great time swimming between accident #1 and accident #2.

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We had a really busy day today. I spent the day doing laundry and cleaning out our SUV. We went to my parent's house for dinner, so I didn't have to cook tonight.

Dylan and Lexie love my parent's sun conure, Skittles. Skittles is an adorable little bird. She constantly says, "Kissy Kissy" and then makes the kissing sound. She usually follows this with a nibble on your lip.

They were so excited when Papa let them hold Skittles today! They eagerly put on sweatshirts (to guard against her sharp nails) and were thrilled when Skittles sat on their shoulders!

I didn't have my camera, but my dad let me borrow his old one!



Skittles loved Lexie. I think it was her hair! She kept burrowing under it, and Lexie was the lucky recipient of many kissy kissys.



My sister, Andrea, and 3 of my nephews joined us for dinner. That's when the chaos began. Three 5 year olds, a 6 year old, and a 3 year old can make a lot of noise!

After dinner, Dylan had his accident. The boys were running around in the yard, and accidentally crashed into each other. Dylan's head hit Brady's mouth really hard...which knocked a tooth loose!

Poor Brady's mouth was bleeding, his gum was cut, and his tooth didn't look good. I sure hope he's going to be okay! I felt so bad for him.

Dylan got away with a bump to the forehead. All that remains of the accident is a tooth mark above his eyebrow.

I could say it was payback.

You see, while I had my head turned, my sister licked my bread at dinner. A few minutes later, she felt a twinge of guilt and switched her bread with mine, and told me what she did. After I had taken a bite. I just shrugged, and kept eating. I have 7 older siblings. I'm used to this.

To return the favor, I just may have licked her spoon before I stuck it in her dessert dish. Imagine my disappointment when she decided she was too full for dessert.

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I have a lot of packing and cleaning to do tomorrow. I had good intentions when I decided that I was going to pack early. I just never followed through.

Hopefully, tomorrow is accident free!

Dancing in the Rain

Lexie and I were washing dishes tonight, side by side. I was staring out the window, watching it rain.

Lexie rinsed the last dish, dried her hands on a towel, and asked, "Mama, can I go outside?"

"No, honey, it's raining."

She looked up at me. "The rain won't bother me."

I stared at her eager, expectant face, smiled, and told her to get her shoes on. She skipped out of the room, and returned with her rain boots. When I opened the front door, she looked at me to see if I was serious, and then shot out the door and into the yard.

And she began to dance.




I absolutely adore my baby girl. I love her carefree spirit. Nothing deters her from having fun!

Not even the rain.

I felt so happy and blessed as I watched her dance and run in the rain.

She lives life to the fullest.

Tonight, she reminded me to do the same.

Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy Mommy

That about sums up my day.

The end.






Okay, so that isn't the end. It was a stressful day. I heard the words "Mommy" and the phrase "Mommy, can I...." more times than I could count. More than all the times those words have been uttered combined!

I'm tired and irritable, have a million things to do this week, and we're leaving for vacation on Saturday. We have plans every single day leading up to vacation, and I have to find time to pack and clean the house...because I have to return to a clean house! It's bad enough coming home from vacation...coming home to a messy house makes it so much worse!

They're overly excited about plans this week and going on vacation, and I'm overly stressed. It's not a good combination.

I finally reached the point where I couldn't hear the word "Mommy" anymore. I locked myself in the bathroom, and took a long shower.

Finally, there was silence.

That is, until I heard the words,"Mommy, can I come in to pee?"

Which was echoed by the other child.

The End.

Things That Make You Go...Ewwww!

{1} My fingers got crushed in the garage door in May. The broken tips have healed, but my nails never recovered. They have been badly bruised since the incident. They are slowly growing out. I thought I was safe from losing a nail since it has been 2 1/2 months. Nope.

Over the past week, one of the nails has been lifting up a bit. *cringe* Yesterday, at the family reunion, I was fixing Lexie's pigtail. As I was twisting the band back into her hair, it got stuck UNDER my finger nail...more than halfway down. The nail ripped halfway off, and was stuck to Lexie's head, via the hair band.

I immediately bandaged my finger, before the nail ripped completely off. I'm positive it's going to fall completely off, though. And that thought makes me want to puke.

Nail gore? So disgusting! I'm going to go through a lot of bandaids while the new nail grows in!

{2} Dylan's hermit crab, Dick (ahem...I know), molted last week. Basically, that means he shed his skin. When they shed that skin, that "skin" is an exact duplicate of the crab. When I saw it, I thought Dick was dead. That is, until I saw him peek out from under the shell.

Molting is incredibly stressful, so we had to remove the other crab from the aquarium, and move the aquarium to a quiet, dark location. Which happened to be my closet. Oh yeah! I've had a crab living in my closet for a week!

But it doesn't end there. Not only do they shed their skin, but they lose legs! The new legs grow back in really quickly. He molted on Monday, and already has fully grown legs.

Still doesn't end there. When the crab is finished molting, they EAT the skin that they shed. Yes. They eat it.

Today, there is a little pile of leftover skin (that he didn't eat), and crab legs hanging out in the corner of the aquarium.

Freaky little creatures.

No wonder I prefer dogs.

{3} I think this post has been disgusting enough. On a side note, I can't believe it's August! We leave for vacation in 6 days!!!!