Farmer and the cow

We visited our old church (where chad was baptized and we were married 8years ago) tonight to let the kids play games, ride a train, pet some animals, and oh yeah...eat a lollipop:-). They had a blast!!! It was great to see our old friends and pastor. God is so amazing to have brought these people into our lives!

F is for Fire Station

Today we visited a fire station in honor of the letter F! Roman was in awe. He soaked in all the trucks and equipment. He even got to sit inside the trucks win his friend! He learned so much and then of course asked do many questions AFTER the tour in the car. I have a feeling this will be a memorable event for my little boy!

First haircut

A couple days ago, Brooklyn got her first haircut! She was sporting quite the mullet. Here are the before and after pictures.

Coming along

10/10/12

Well B is 19 months and is talking like crazy. She also enjoys putting on clothing. She has an inherent need to put things back, just like her mama! And just like her mama she doesn't like poop...let me explain. She has, for about a week now, pooped in the potty and then immediately retreated off of the potty to get away from it. I feel ya, sister....do your business and get off!! But in all honesty, she is doing great at potty training. She peed twice on the potty today, had only a few accidents, and even used a public restroom for poop! Way to go!!!

Roman is learning to be kind and polite to others, including his sister. Today, I was slipping and almost fell, but in my stumbling/shuffling I caught myself. The first thing Roman said was, whoa mama are you ok?! It was in the most sincere voice ever too!! Love his big heart!!

Plus, they both LOVE helping mama with dishes! love it!!

Letter F

We started off our week this week studying about faithfulness and what it means to be faithful to your promises like God is faithful to his promises. David and Jonathan's relationship was a great example as is Esther (which he will learn more about today!).

Monday was a creative day that included making a fort in the living room and floating on his back at swim lessons! Heres a pic of happy roman in his fort. We even watched a short clip about firefighters while in the fort. Now today we are going to go to a fire station that has a fire pole and everything!

Letter F week is turning out to be a great week! Especially after roman sympathized with a friend of his being made fun of and told the offender, "Don't be mean to my friend, he is my best friend and it's not nice to be mean to him.". He is turning into a faithful friend! Thank you Lord for these great teaching opportunities at home!

Day 7 of potty training

Really...it's day 7....and so far 3 poops in the potty but no pee. Instead, many accidents and many tools of paper towels.

Update: about an hour after I wrote this but didn't publish the post, she peed a glorious pee in the potty!!! Yay! Progress...that's all I needed!

Day 1 of potty training for Brooklyn

Yep...she has all the signs at 18mo so we thought we would give it a try. We began the 3 day naked adventure today. She had a bazillion little accidents during the day as expected and then while i was at the gym coaching she pee peed in the potty once with chad!!! It was a glimmer of hope!!! We shall see what God has in store for tomorrow:-)

Safety inspector Roman

Today at Costco, roman went up to another mama (completely out of his own motivation and desire for world peace and safety) and told her that her daughter should sit on her bottom at the table so she doesn't fall. That's my little safety inspector! Lol!!

Another great marriage conference

We just finished another Weekend to Remember Marriage Conference! As always, it was great! Chad and I were able to reconnect and refuel ourselves with the tools to sustain a Godly marriage.

We even were able to go to the DBacks game and enjoy a game together:-). It was a great weekend!

An indecent exposure kind of day

So today Roman gave me the best material for my "Life Raising a Boy" book (if one were to exist).

The first adventure came at the end of a fun filled morning of splash pad, feeding ducks, throwing rocks into the pond, kicking the ball around, playing swords with long pointy weeds, and playing on the playground at our community park with his friend, Connor from music class. You see, both Connor's mom and I had fastened our younger children in the stroller and were trying to quickly change the boys out of their swim trunks and into their street clothes. After getting off Roman's swim trunks, I jokingly said "now don't you go running away from me, I need to quickly put on your shorts.". Yes, it did cross my mind that I had just planted an idea into his head about running, but was relieved when he stayed put...for 5 seconds. Then, as expected, he bolted. I, of course, high tailed it after him and caught him after only a few steps. But then Connor had the same idea. Then in a goofy "let's let them have a little fun since no one is around...all the other sane moms had taken their kids home for lunch by now" kind of moment, we suggested the boys run to a pole about 10 feet away and back. Well, they ran to the pole and stopped. But after we cheered for them to come back, they turned the other way and took off running! Now remember, there were still a few crazy moms who were still at the park pushing through lunch time and letting their kids play. But, let the record show that we were the only two crazy moms who were chasing their streaking toddlers! We had to laugh because this is only the beginning of funny moments raising boys!

The second incident was at the gym, my place of employment since 2004! I was flying solo with the kids and was running a couple minutes late for Roman's swim lesson. So I went into Hurricane Mode and bolted out of the car which I had parked in the front row next to the handicapped spot. I got roman out of the van and told him to wait on the rocks, which he did, as I went around to the other side and unbuckled Brooklyn. In lightning speed, I got Brooklyn and the diaper bag out of the van and checked with my peripherals that roman was still there on the rocks in front of the van..he was, so no worries to all of you who were concerned while reading this. With my third arm I closed the door and started saying to Roman, without yet looking at him directly, "ok Ro let's go!". A millisecond later I look up to see Roman on the rocks with his swim trunks around his ankles peeing like a free spirit onto the rocks below. "but mama I'm peeing I can't" was all he said! I couldn't help but be in shock then laughter then panic! Again, with my third arm I managed to get his trunks up quicker than the speed of light hoping that none of the people passing by saw the incident. Oh my!

Talk about a funny and memorable day! This is were I just have to laugh because it was pretty hilarious if I do say so myself!

Game and fish expo

Roman caught his first fish! With a little help from the volunteers at the expo, but still! It was exciting for him to catch and hold a real fish! He even pet a HUGE snake!! It was amazing!

On the drive up, roman had fun practicing sounding out words with his cousin Brendan. Brendan and Andreja were excellent examples for Roman as they were polite and kind to each othe and others. We even heard Roman apologize to Brendan and ask him to forgive him for accidentally hitting him with a ball. Our hard work is paying off and we are so thankful to God for helping us with his behavior. roman is such a kind hearted boy, with a passion or kindness and all things boy!

Kindness

So today I was stranded at Costco. It's not the worst place to be stranded, however. After loading up the groceries and Roman my key turned silently in the ignition; not even a click. The battery was dead. So I quickly thought: stay calm, this could be worse. God will provide a way out. I called Chad (who was home with Brooklyn, vehicle-less) and told him what happened. Roman handled having to get out of the car shortly after being put in the car very well. After I explained that we were going to find someone to help us, he held my hand and stuck to my side. What a great boy! We ran into a cart boy (after being turned down by a group of ladies with a large truck) who offered to look under the hood. To our surprise, my once dead car suddenly started honking as he touched the battery connections. He said the connections were loose and then proceeded to clean off the corroded connection and tighten the bolts so that the battery had a better connection. While this was happening, a man in a huge pickup drove up and asked if we needed help. God was sending so much help our way. It all worked out and I was able to drive home safely with Roman. While it was happening, I used every opportunity to show Roman that God wants us to be kind and compassionate to one another. I truly pray that he was able to experience and make that connection of God's protection for us just like in the story of the good Samaritan. Now I know we weren't beaten or robbed, but nonetheless we were in a situation where we needed help and God sent help.

It was a wonderful afternoon of running errands and shopping with Roman, reading books while eating at the Costco food court, and being a part of something amazing: kindness.

Praise God! Maybe now Roman will see how good it is to be kind and will make an intentional choice to be more kind to Brooklyn instead of poking jabbing or hitting her. God is good.

On the drive home he read his books like it was just another day. But it wasn't, it was special.

Reading and Walking

Wow!  How time flies...Roman learned to read and Brooklyn learned to walk this week!  I'll post pics later, but for now...Just thought I would share...

Brooklyn took her first steps a couple days ago!  She even did it for the camera!  Hooray!  Then about an hour later she was standing at the ottoman in our living room and saw Roman doing something exciting.  On her own accord and free will (no parental coaxing) she turned and took a few steps towards Roman.  She is definitely more stable that Roman was when he first started to walk since I even saw her pivot too...all in her first day of walking.  Way to go Brooklyn!

Roman's first word he read (where the lightbulb clicked on, registering in his mind that he had just read a word) was "fast".  It was in one of his Thomas books: The Big Race where Thomas races Bertie the bus.  So yes, there were lots of words that he could pronounce on his own such as "bus, up, fun, fast, stop"  He was so excited that he did it!  Daddy let him stay up late (which wasn't hard for our night owl) to show me when I came home from coaching.  Sure enough, he did it!  Then this morning he read 4 more words that I had made on some flash cards.  Wowza!  He sounds out each letter then says the sounds faster and then says the word.  A friend of mine who is a kindergarten teacher said that what he is doing, at a VERY early age of 3, is called decoding.  His intense love for books has catapulted him into the world of reading.  To all you moms out there....read to your kids and read a lot!  They will soak it up!

Cute moments captured

My kiddos are adorable.  Thank you Lord for them :)

our little mover!

So Brooklyn crawled when she was 9.5 months.  She is now pulling herself up to standing and walking with a walker (as of today!).  I just can't believe how quickly she is passing through the crawling stage. Although I do have to admit that it is kind of a relief because she likes to pick everything up off the ground and put it in her mouth.  Roman wasn't a big "put things in his mouth" type of baby.  Instead he would examine it.  Brooklyn on the other hand will either grab the item or reach down with her mouth and try to lick it!  Oh my!  This leads to me sweeping many times a day.  Fun times!

When she walks it cracks me up because she lifts her knees so high and she watches her feet.  She is very deliberate about her walking.  Love her!

Gluten free pretzels

Look who is addicted to his gluten free pretzels!!!

Jail bird!

Found this inmate trying to escape! Saw her on the monitor doing this instead of napping:-/

Flashcards for Brooklyn!

Given the craziness of two kids, it's taken me a bit longer to get Brooklyn started on a routine with flash cards. I've done flashcards with her just not consistently so she recognizes about 5 cards (apple, fish, monkey, elephant, and bee). So now I've brought down the task of flashcards to two groups: morning and afternoon. I pray it will be easier for both of us since there are no more than 10 cards in each bunch .

Hand-me-down Toys are the best!

We brought out some "new" toys for Brooklyn.  Really these are the same ones that Roman used, but they are new to Brooklyn for all she knows.  We bought this stand and play toy at a yard sale for mere pocket change... I forget exactly how much, but it was cheap.  The legs come off so it can be a floor toy too for crawling babies.  Roman zoomed so fast through the crawling phase that we purchased this for his cruising stage.  Basically, the picture of Roman playing with it is when he was around 8 months old!  And, of course petite Brooklyn, is not quite ready to be left unattended while standing next to this toy.  So, at 10 months, she is loving crawling all over it and exploring the fun buttons and things that move.

Roman 8 months

Brooklyn 10 months

My little Worker

For Christmas, Papa M bought Roman a workbench.  He was all serious and in work mode when he and Daddy put the bench together.  He walked around using his drill on just about everything after it was done, saying "i'm a worker man." Then, when I would ask him to do something his response was, "i can't mama, i'm working" Too funny!

New pants

Do you see that adorable flower on the pant leg of Brooklyn's pant?!  Cute, right?!  Well, my creative juices were "a flowin'" one morning when I fixed the hole in these hand-me-down pants.  I added this little flower in no time and made this outfit that much cuter!  She's appreciative, I can tell :)

In other news...her fingers taste yummy these days since more teeth seem to be making their appearance.

Cute Tushie!

Get a load of these bloomers!  Seriously cute, right?!  Since Brooklyn is crawling around a lot now, most of my pictures are from behind.  But how appropriate are these adorable bottoms to capture her behind!  Love it!  A great friend of mine, Eunice, gave this and a matching bib to Brooklyn.  Thanks Eunice!