Mother's Day

My first mother's day as the mother of 2 was wonderful. I was brought breakfast in bed on Saturday by Jacob and Daddy. What a great start to the weekend.

Sunday we were a bit more rushed trying to get ready and out the door for church and brunch with my family, so no breakfast then.

Mommy and Luke at the restaurant.

When we returned home, the boys wrapped up a few gifts for me - including a new IPOD nano to replace my aging IPOD mini. It was a great day.

Beautiful Day

For those of you in the Houston area, you know what a beautiful day we were blessed with today. After weeks of hot and humid (or stormy) we had a day with a cool morning and a pleasant 80 degree afternoon. I had intended to take the boys to the zoo today, but after a much longer than anticipated doctor's visit for Luke, we had to scrap our plan and hang around the house.

That didn't stop us from playing in the backyard,

going for a walk,

and playing at the playground.

Hopefully we'll make that zoo trip on Wednesday, which should be another beautiful day.

Pictures from Last Week

So, I sent out the pictures a couple of days ago, but never got around to updating the blog. I had the intention of expanding on the blurb I included with the pictures, which is why I didn't post. Well, now it is Friday afternoon, and I still haven't done it, so I figured I would just post what I had....I can always make more posts, right?

We were pretty busy last week. We had a playdate, Mother's Tea at J's school, went to the downtown park, celebrated Mother's Day with the family, and of course, played in the pool. With activities winding down for the summer, we are having to come up with our own fun things to do. Honestly, I'll be glad to have a few months without having too much scheduled.

Jacob is doing great with potty training. I was dreading it, but now that we are just about there, I think it wasn't too bad. Getting rid of the pappy has been a process.. He only uses it at naptime now, so we are making progress.

Luke started clapping this week and says "yay" when doing it. He will stand unassisted a lot, (1 min straight yesterday), but no steps yet. He no longer eats much baby food and loves to eat anything he can feed himself.

A little progress with the bottle too, about 1oz with each meal/snack.

Go here for the rest of the pictures.

Potty Training Update

Though I really can't say Jacob is potty trained just yet, I can say that potty training took a huge step forward this week. Except for sleeping and school, (which I'm still not too happy about) Jacob is wearing underwear all of the time now. (And honestly, I could probably leave him in underwear when he sleeps too because he always wakes up dry from naps and usually is dry in the morning too, but I don't like changing sheets, so we'll keep the pullups for a bit longer.)

At home, he just goes to the bathroom as needed, and when we are away from home he has been doing very good at telling us when he needs to go. He's even had to hold it from time to time when we weren't in a position to go to the bathroom at the time. We are very proud of him.

The biggest issues are that (1) he is hesitant to tell others he needs to go and (2) when he does, he doesn't tell them he needs help or refuses the help. Today, for example, at the YMCA childwatch, he told the worker he needed to go (right as he needed to go, of course) and they ran him to the bathroom. The problem is, he still needs a little assistance. He can get his pants down, but he can't climb onto the toilet by himself and his legs are too short for him to stand at the toilet (unless he has a stool.) So, today, I think he tried to stand and go (it is a short toilet,) but he just wasn't tall enough and he wet his pants. I was paged to get him and he was crying when I picked him up, I felt so bad. I guess I just need to talk to the workers to make sure he gets a little help, if they can do that. I hate to put him back in a pull up when he's there because he would probably just use it instead.

I assume we'll still have accidents from time to time and may even have a setback, but for now, we are very happy with his progress.

Time to Swim

For some reason, our neighborhood decided to delay the opening of our pool by 2 weeks, even though it is definitely hot enough for it to be open (I think it was budget related, which doesn't make me very happy.....)

Anyways, Jacob has been asking to swim, so last Wednesday, we pulled out our backyard blow up pool and filled it up. The boys had a blast. Jacob loves to jump and kick and blow bubbles and generally reak havoc in the water.

Luke liked standing at the side, dropping toys over the edge, and leaning over to retrieve them. He, too, loved splashing and tried blowing bubbles with Jacob, but usually ended up swallowing a bunch of water. That didn't stop him from trying again though. They've enjoyed the water fun several times now and are ready for the pool to open.

Here are a few more pictures from the first "dip" of the summer.

Mother's Day Tea

Jacob's preschool had a Mother's Day tea last Thursday. The children paraded into the church by the statue of Mary and put a flower by her statue to honor the mother of Jesus. The little ceremony was followed by cake and punch for all the mommies and kids (this of course, was the highlight of the afternoon for Jacob.)

Discovery Green

Today we decided to make a trip down to Discovery Green in downtown Houston. We went once before back in early September and had a good time. Even though it was much warmer this time around, we had a great time.

Jacob enjoyed playing in the jumping water and water mister

and Luke enjoyed hanging out in the stroller and crawling around on the blanket and grass.

The annual art car parade was scheduled for today, but even though we didn't stay for the parade, we got to see a few of the cars up close and personal.

And Jacob ended the day with an extra special treat - an ice cream cone from the ice cream truck, a first for him. As you can see...he enjoyed it.

Get the camera

"Get the camera, Daddy" is what Jacob said when he was "shaving" the other night when Daddy gave him a bath in our tub while Mommy was at a meeting. Looks like he'll know just what to do when the time comes.

**Don't worry, there was no blade in the razor...

Rain and heat

Last week started out with a bang with all the rain and flooding in our area. Our yard flash flooded as it rained, but quickly drained once the rain stopped. The neighborhood golf course took on most of the water and was flooded for several days. Jacob loved making daily trips to "see the water."

Bible Study is winding down for the year so last week the kids had their spring program. Jacob refused to sing or do any of the motions, but he happily stayed up on stage and watched everyone else.

It is starting to warm up here, so shorts and tanks are being pulled out for everyone. I know how hot it will be getting soon, so we are playing outside as much as we can while it is only in the 80s. For some reason our neighborhood pool isn't open yet, so we'll be playing in our blow up pool instead to beat the heat.

The boys are healthy (no swine flu here...) and active and are keeping mommy busy and helping her shed some unwanted pounds.

Here are more pictures from the week.

I'm Cold

Jacob has learned how to use every stall tactic and excuse in the book when he's not tired at bedtime or not hungry at mealtime. Tonight, when we were trying to get him to stay in his seat and finish his dinner (the boy won't sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time), he said "I'm cold." Mind you, it was 80+ degrees and muggy at 5:45pm, not cold. So, David took him to "warm up" so he could finish eating. Here was his getup.
It didn't work....he still didn't want to eat...