Trick or Treat

At a Rec Center close by they were having a trick or treat for tots today. So I decided to take the kids. Dutch still plays the shy card really bad and won't say trick or treat or anything. But once he got his first piece of candy dropped into his bag, he was more willingly to at least hold his bag out. Maylee has no problem going up and talking to or staring at strangers. And she always said, "thank you mom" to whoever gave her candy. She's so cute.

Maylee's grandma is in Hawaii right now and sent Maylee a cute little Hula outfit, so I decided to just use that as her Halloween costume and it is adorable. And she was such a hit today, everyone commented on how cute she looked. Dutch is dressing up as a soccer player again this year. I know that he was a soccer player last year and it's totally lame but I took him to the store and showed him a whole bunch of costumes but he didn't want to wear any. And well, money is tight enough as it is, that I wasn't going to spend money on a costume that he would just throw a fit about wearing and not end up wearing anyways. And he actually threw a fit about putting on his soccer jersey. The kid has some serious mood issues, but I still love him to pieces. And they both looked really cute today.

On Sunday evening I was sitting on the couch and Dutch came up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you mom". That is the first time he has ever done that on his own. It's moments like that, that make being a mom and everything that comes with it so worth it. I love my little boy.

Pumpkins!

I'm going home this weekend for David's block week of exams so we decided to go ahead and carve pumpkins tonight for Family Home Evening, even though they'll be rotten by the time we get back. Dutch was so excited to pick a pumpkin out at the store and so excited to get started carving. But once we opened up the top and exposed the gunk inside he pretty much wanted nothing to do with cleaning it out. He hates to get his hands dirty. He felt the same last year but I was hoping that he would do better this year. I guess I am still hoping that there will be a year where he won't mind putting his hand in the pumpkin. After the pumpkins were all cleaned out and when David started cutting the face then Dutch got excited again and wanted to use the knife himself. He loved watching the face come to life. And he especially loved looking at the pumpkin once we got the candle put inside. He sat outside for awhile just watching the pumpkin.

Watching so intently. If you look closely at Maylee's hair you can see a huge piece of tootsie roll that she got stuck in it. Luckily it came out pretty easy in the tub. I was terrified that I was going to have to cut it out.

I started potty training Dutch on Monday and I gave myself two weeks before I was allowed to give up and go back to diapers. And I must be the luckiest mom ever because it literally only took me two days. Since Tuesday night Dutch has only had one accident, which really was kind of my fault. He took a nap and I was forgettful and forgot to remind him to go potty. But I didn't really think about it because I haven't really had to encourage him or remind him very much. When he needs to go, he just goes by himself. He even has the whole #2 thing figured out. I am so thrilled. It is so wonderful to know that I will never have to put a diaper on him again. And the cutest part about potty training is watching him run around in his cute underwear. And he loves to stick his bum out for you to see the really cool trains on his panties (as he calls them). He has even used the public potty, which took a lot of bribery but hey I'll bribe if I have too.

We had quite a busy week this week. On Wednesday I met up with some friends at the park for a playgroup/picnic. We ended up spending four and a half hours there. The weather was so gorgeous, it couldn't have been above 78 degrees, I was loving it. Dutch and Maylee are at a fun age for going to the park and I enjoy being able to get out of the house. I found a great park close by that we have been spending a lot of time at lately now that the heat is finally gone. Maylee enjoying her day at the park! When we got home from the park both of the kids passed out. I was so hoping that they wouldn't take a late nap but there was just nothing I could do to keep them awake. Friday night David and I took Dutch and Maylee to a little Halloween carnival that is here. When we first walked into the carnival Dutch saw a roller coaster ride and said he wanted to go on the 'train'. It was just a little one and he was tall enough so David took him on it. It was definitely a scary little carnival ride. It was super jerky and fast and Dutch was terrified. He didn't cry, he actually didn't make an expression at all, but David said he was so tense and just clinging to him. After he got off that ride he had lost faith in all the rides and didn't want to go on another one.

Getting ready for the ride to start! So then they had a big slide which Dutch thought looked fun. So I decided to take him on that myself. By the time we had hiked to the top, Dutch had chickened out, so I just sat him on my lap and pushed us off. I've never even big on a big slide before, that sure got my stomach and I'm really not sure if Dutch even enjoyed it but I thought it was fun. The next ride was a very slow rocket ride but Dutch wanted nothing to do with it. So David was just going to take Maylee but last minute we decided to make Dutch go on it, he needed to realized that they aren't all scary. And he loved the rocket ride. David wanted to go on the big slide too, so he took Maylee up with him. She loved it. She clung to him but she had a big smile on her face. She's such a dare devil.

After the carnival we took the kids over to Cold Stone Creamery. It was a very fun family date night.

I still have my bean bucket but I forgot about it until just the other day so I let the kids play in it. It's the first time I have ever let Maylee play in the beans. I had to go upstairs for just a minute and came back to find this.

Before After

Now for some random pictures. I'll be posting a lot more pictures for family now that we live far away, so sorry for picture overload. Maylee at ChuckE Cheese

Dutch and I making some Halloween crafts. Kids helping Daddy study. Maylee wearing my high heels.

After an unsuccessful day on Monday I thought for sure when I put Dutch to bed that I would be waking up a few times to change his sheets and clean up some pee. But he never woke up once. He was able to hold it all night long. I was pretty excited about that so as soon as I heard him stir I ran into his room to rush him to his potty. I figured after holding it since 7 o'clock last night he would for sure have to go right away. Well we sat in the bathroom for 45 minutes with me trying to encourage him to go peepee. But he would have none of it. So I finally took him downstairs and told him he had to stay in the kitchen. I brought his potty in there too but I figured if he had an accident at least I would only be cleaning it up off the tile. Well after he had been awake for 2 and 1/2 hours he still had not gone pee. I knew his bladder must be killing him. And I was getting frustrated. So my mom suggested taking him for a walk and letting him pee on a bush. Well I knew he wouldn't want to try and pee on a bush but I decided to take him for a walk anyways. Better for him to pee outside then on my carpet. So we went for a walk and yep he of course finally went pee. And I made him walk home with pee running down his legs. He did not like that very much but I figured it was probably good for him to experience. So we got home got cleaned up and then I had to head out to go visiting teaching. At the first lady's house she just opened up her back door so the kids could play outside. I figured that was perfect that way he wouldn't pee on her carpet. Within 20 minutes he came in soaking wet. She let me use her bathroom and I got him cleaned up. That was at 11:15. We got home and I striped him down. I realized that even with just underwear on he thinks its ok to pee in them. So then he held it for another 7 hours. The kid must have a huge bladder. Anyways he finally couldn't hold it any longer and went pee all over the floor. So I took a suggestion from a friend and showed him the pee spot and said we don't pee on the floor and then walked him to his potty and had him sit down and told him we go pee pee on the potty. Then I repeated the whole thing. The second time I sat him on the potty I went to pick up a couple of toys that he had got pee on and he said look I did it. And sure enough he was able to squeeze out about 1/2 a teaspoon. But I didn't care I jumped up and down and made a huge deal of it and he got a mini candybar. Then about 30 minutes later we had a poo accident. But I manage to get him to the potty to get some of it in there and made another big deal. So after that he thought he was pretty cool. Then Maylee and I were sitting in the living room and he started kind of dancing around and I asked him if he needed to go pee. So he ran and sat on his potty chair and finally made it all in the potty. I was so excited and made the biggest deal, he got another candy bar and finally realized he could do it. That was at 6:30 last night and we haven't had another pee accident. He slept dry all night long and has made it to the potty every time today, even when we were at the park for 4 hours. I am so excited. All those accidents were so worth it to finally have him peeing on the potty. That's 40 bucks I am going to be saving every 6 weeks. I couldn't be happier. I'm thinking it's going to be awhile for the #2 to click for him, which is disgusting but we are getting there.

I have started potty training Dutch today. And I am seriously questioning myself in this decision. He has held no interest in potty training but I doubt he ever will so I decided to just go ahead and do it. I really truly believe that I waited to long. I really think because he is older he is to stubborn and set in his ways and feels like he should be allowed to just stay in diapers. But I have decided to 100% go cold turkey with no diapers for two weeks. Not even diapers at nap or bedtime. So I'll be cleaning up a ton of messes but I am hoping that is long enough to get us through the worst. After two weeks if he isn't getting it then'll we'll do diapers for a while longer. But today being our first day he had absolutely NO success'. Very disappointing for me. I knew though that today would be full of accidents because he has no idea how to control going pee and what the urge to pee feels like. His last accident I think it was starting to click. He was in the bathroom playing in the sink and started peeing and yelled for me and he was trying to pull his underwear down while he was peeing so he could go on the potty but he didn't make any in the potty. So hopefully we can have at least one success tomorrow.

Maylee however did have one success today. I knew that potty training Dutch would make Maylee want to. She thinks she has to do everything that he does. So she went pee in the potty once but she had no idea how she did it or even that she did except for my extreme excitement. She was just sitting on the potty watching a movie and peed. So then after a couple of accidents from her I decided that potty training one at a time is enough for me. So we are only going to concentrate on Dutch for now. So wish me luck, I need all of it that I can get.

Dutch turns 3

Dutch celebrated his third birthday on Friday. Its the first birthday we have had since living away from family, so we didn't get to have a big birthday celebration but we did still manage to make it a very special day for Dutch. This is the first year that he has anticipated his birthday. He has had his eye on Gordon the train for quite some time now, so we kept telling him that he could get it for his birthday. So every morning he has been asking if it is today and then reminding us that he wants Gordon for his birthday.

Helping make his birthday cake.

He woke up on his birthday to a living room filled with balloons and a stack of presents. We let him open his presents first thing so that we could enjoy them all day. And of course he got Gordon.

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For lunch we took him to ChuckE Cheese. It was so much fun. We let him choose all the games to play and he loved it. Maylee just enjoyed putting the tokens in the correct slots.

I really can't believe that he is already three years old. These past 3 years have flown by. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, sweet little boy. I love you baby boy.

(I was a terrible Mom and got very few pictures. I sometimes wish I could have a photographer follow our family around and snap pictures that way I wouldn't have to worry about it.)

I am SOOOOO excited!!!!

I have finally figured out how to convert my video files so I can put them on my blog, I have been trying for almost two years to do this. I am so excited. We got a JVC video camera and they have uncompatible files on all their videos, I don't ever recommend getting a JVC camera. But I finally figured it out. I am so excited. So here is a video of Dutch singing his ABC's. He just recently really started singing songs, where he isn't missing many words. It's super cute.

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