Merry Christmas

On Wednesday afternoon we went over to Rich & Laura's house to exchange gifts and drop the boys off for a sleepover. The boys got lots of fun things from Nanny & Poppy along with a Toy Story wearable blanket from Dani. They had fun playing with Haleigh and got to go out and see lots of decorated houses that night. Ben and I went to dinner at Jerry's Seafood where his other sister Ginnie works. Then we went home and wrapped gifts.

Remote control cars from Nanny & Poppy

Toy Story Legos

On Thursday evening we let the boys open gifts from Saba and Peg which came in the mail from NH. They had fun unwrapping and seeing what they got.

Stuffed animal from Ben's grandmother

On Friday we packed up the car and headed out around noon. We arrived at my grandparents' house around 1pm to exchange gifts with them. The boys were really into unwrapping gifts this year!
We left their house around 3pm and then headed to Tracy & Dave's house to exchange gifts with them. Kyle had to fight with Bandit to get to open his gifts which wasn't too bad this year, but next year when Kyle wants to unwrap it could be a problem.

Around 5pm Tracy, Kyle & I went to church for mass. At the same time Ben took the boys to drop off gifts to Chelley and then made a stop at Colleen's as well. The boys were excited that Jamison & Joey were home and they could open more gifts. After they left Colleen's they went to eat dinner at McDonalds and play for a bit before picking me up from Tracy's house.

We got home sometime around 8:30pm and the boys went straight to bed. Ben and I then brought all of the presents out to put under the tree and stuff the stockings.

On Christmas morning the boys slept until about 7:15am which is later than normal so that was nice. The boys were very excited to come downstairs and see what Santa brought for them! We did have them eat a few doughnuts and drink milk before unwrapping.

Ryder got Stinky from Santa

Zak got roller skates from Santa

Ryder with his Tag

Ryder with his Alphie from Grammy & Pops

(my mom & Chuck)

Zak got a cash register from my mom and & Chuck. However, it became a huge issue when we opened it because there were so many pieces missing along with it being obvious it had been played with (glue and glitter all over it). So we had to put it away which caused Zak to get very upset!

Candy jar that Zak made for Ben

Zak playing a game on his V Motion

This morning we were up and in the car by 7:45am to return Zak's cash register and try to find him a new one. We returned it to TRU and then found a new one at Target. Then we made a stop at BJs for some dog food along with other groceries for us.

Zak's new cash register

Now we are sitting at home waiting for the snow to arrive....

The other day Ryder was misbehaving and got hurt because of it. He had climbed on top of the train table which they are told not to do many times a day! He slipped off and hit his chin on the edge which caused his bottom teeth to bite into his top lip. He had a small puncture wound on one side and a lager gash on the other which both bled for a good amount of time. Once the bleeding stopped and he was cleaned up it didn't seem to bother him at all...

Yesterday Zak & I met Tracy & Kyle at Arundel Mills mall. Ryder stayed at home with Ben since he has pneumonia even though you would never know he was sick. We stood in line to see Santa since Kyle had not done this yet and he did great for his picture. Then we had lunch and walked around for a while before heading home. While there Zak picked out our family ornament for 2010.

I also wanted to post pictures of the ornaments the boys got from my om this year...

Today the boys and I did a art project to make penguin door hangers which they enjoyed!

We also made a trip to Target for a few things as well as the grocery store. While at Target I finally bought this calendar for the boys that I have been looking at for months because it was on sale. They loved helping me put all of the magnets on and there are a ton of extra ones for just about every holiday or special occasion.

I feel so behind on things I need to do before Christmas Eve. I have wrapped a few gifts, but have a ton left to do. It is just so cold in the basement at night that I have zero motivation to go down there and wrap anything once the boys go to bed which is the only time I am able to do it! I also need to find time to make 2 no-sew fleece blankets for the boys. It is 2 pieces of fleece that you cut fringe around the edges and then knot them together to make the blanket. It says it generally takes about 1 hour per blanket. I am hoping Ben will help out on those in the evenings!

Potty Training...Again

This past weekend I once again decided to try potty training with Zak. I know everyone says it just clicks once they are ready, but Zak is a pretty strong willed kid so I don't completely believe he will just one day come to me and say he is ready.

In my last post I talked about how he did over the weekend. Yesterday while Ryder was at school Zak and I went on some errands (post office and Kohls). I decided to let him go out with underwear on and he had no accidents while we were out! I had been asking him if he needed to go, but in the afternoon I decided to stop and see how he did. During "nap time" I heard him go to the bathroom so I went up to see what he was doing. Apparently, he had pooped in his underwear and was in the process of trying to get it from his underwear into the toilet...this is what I do when he goes in his underwear so he was trying to do it himself. He did pee a few times, but in the evening he ended up peeing in his underwear. We asked him why h didn't go to the potty and all he could tell us was "I was playing and had to pee so I did". Today he has been in underwear (including during our trip to WalMart, Toys R Us, and Target with no accidents. When he got home he let the dogs out of their crates and outside. He told me they needed to pee and then he sat down and peed on his potty.

The poop thing is really annoying. I wish I could just get him to poop on the potty once because I think once he does it once he will realize it is no big deal and he can do it. He always tells me "its too big" or "Its too hard" when we ask why he doesn't poop on the potty. The boys still have loose poop a lot of the time so cleaning up poop accidents is not much fun! I am also trying to figure out how to get him to tell me when he needs to pee (or poop) instead of me having to always ask. Anyways, he is very excited about wearing underwear and now wakes up saying "I big boy and need big boy underwear"...

Cookies

This morning Ben decided we should make sugar cookies with the boys and we actually had all of the ingredients! The boys had a blast helping us make the dough, roll it out, use cookie cutters and then decorate them. I think their favorite part was eating them though!

Some other big news from today...Zak went without diapers all day! This morning after he got up we put him on the potty and then made him walk around with nothing on...no diaper, underwear or pants. He was not happy at all for a while, but then got used to it. He peed on the potty multiple times, some with us asking if he needed to go and other times on his own. When we laid him down for nap (didn't actually sleep of course) we left his bedroom door open and the bathroom door open. He did go on his own to pee. Then I smelled something at one point so went upstairs to check it out. He was standing on the hallway and had pooped on the floor. He said he was trying to get to the bathroom so we would really like to believe that even though he has never pooped on the potty yet! He was upset so I got him cleaned up and laid him back down. He did pee on his floor once also, but overall it was a decent day. I am not sure that he would have done this well without us reminding him to use the potty, but we are going to try and keep this up and see how it goes. We did this before, but he would still pee and poop in his underwear so the bare bottom thing seems to be working somewhat better. I am not sure how it will go once we have to leave the house because today he stayed home all day.

Been A While

I have not posted for about a week or so. I guess things have been a little busy or crazy around here. A little update about what we have been up to...

Ben got home from TN last Thursday and was off Friday along with the weekend so that was nice. He is going to be on-call the next few weeks in a row because there are only two of them in the shop and since he has been gone a lot recently (all work related) the other guy has been on-call for a few weeks in a row. He has one more vacation day left so he is using that as an extra day off before Christmas which means he will be off starting December 22 and go back the Monday after Christmas. Then he also has off December 30 & 31 as paid Holidays.

Last week I did take Zak to the pediatrician because we have some concerns with his appetite recently. He has started to eat SO much more food and it started out of the blue. One morning he woke up and for breakfast had 2 Pop-Tars, banana, apple, 4 granola bars, Nutri-Grain bar and cereal! And he was still complaining that his tummy hurt and he needed to eat. Along with the increase in his appetite came a huge increase in thirst as well. He drank over 100 oz of fluids in one day...the average for a 3 year old should be 50 oz in a day! This increased thirst brought increased urination which meant he was peeing through diapers, clothing and sheets multiple times a day. My first thought was Diabetes of course. The pediatrician did a urinalysis in the office which came back normal other than it being dilute from all of his increased fluid intake. The next morning we had blood work done to check metabolism, organs and CBC which all came back completely normal as well. At the moment, we are going with the idea that it is a growth spurt, but if it continues for another week or so we will head back to the pediatrician for more ideas. The last few days his hunger has remained the same, but we have been able to limit his fluids much more so they are closer to the normal which has slightly helped the excessive urination.

The last few nights Ryder has been coughing really bad, but during the day he seems fine. Yesterday I did get a call from his school saying he had really bad diarrhea and his cough was pretty bad. Today he once again seems perfectly fine.

I have been battling with headaches and a cold for the past few days, but nothing too bad. I am trying to get back into a good routine of working out at the gym about 5 days a week. I was doing good, but while Ben was away for 2 weeks it got a little chaotic and I was not able to maintain that routine.

Now for some pictures from the past week...

On Saturday Ryder & I went to a cat show in Parkville which was only abut 15-20 minutes from the house. I always try to get to local shows at least for a bit to see everyone and the cats. I took Ryder so we could have some one-on-one time while Ben & Zak had their time together at home. We were there for about 3 hours and Ryder did amazing!

Ryder playing with Cash

Ryder talking to Reba

Rose & Ryder watching the kittens being judged

Our 1st "snow" of the season

It blew away pretty quickly with the strong winds we had

Every year in December we pull out our Advent calendars to help count down the days until Christmas. This year we received a new one from Saba & Peg which is really neat because it is the nativity scene. I figure this will be a great way to slowly teach the boys all about the true meaning of Christmas, as they get older they will have a much better understanding but this is a start. We have decided to use two of the calendars as incentives as well to eat good lunch and dinners. The boys also get excited to get to count the numbers each day so hopefully this will help increase the numbers they can count (at the moment they make it to 14 on their own).

After breakfast they get to put a piece on the scene

After lunch (if they eat well) they get to count,

move the mouse and get Pez each day

(this is the calendar I used as a kid)

After dinner (if they eat well) they get to count

and open the window to find a piece of chocolate

We have been having big issues with VZ and the ornaments on our tree. So far she has broken 5 ornaments which have all been Ben's! We have slowly moved the ornaments all up higher on the tree so she seems to leave them alone now. She does like to chew on the tree so we are constantly pushing her away...since she is deaf we can't just call out her name. She does have a new favorite place to nap though....

The other day I was able to find itty-bitty gloves which actually fit on the boys' hands! They look like doll gloves, but they work well. We have Toy Story gloves from my mom that match their hats, but their hands get lost in them which usually leads to them being taken off.

While at WalMart this morning the boys picked up these hats and put them on. They walked around the whole store wearing them so I ended up buying them. They have yet to take them off!