Jonestown Trip

 

We went to Jonestown, TX with David's side of the family in May.  We rented a pretty home there and spent all weekend at the community pool.  The kids both did well in the water.  We don't exactly have natural swimmers on our hands, but by the end of the trip, they both could have stayed in the pool all day.  Daniel took longer to warm up to swimming than Katie, but eventually Abuela convinced him that it wasn't so bad.  He pretty much stayed on a noodle all weekend and had a blast.  Katie loved jumping in off the side and did this over and over and over.  There was also a very shallow end of the pool that Katie and Daniel could walk in without any trouble.  Katie loved to sit and fill up buckets with water.  It was a very relaxing weekend!

 

The time that wasn't spent at the pool was spent back at the house we rented - eating (and eating and eating), playing cards, and competing in a water balloon toss game.  Daniel learned how to play Crazy 8's and joined in a few of the grown-up games too, making him feel extra special.  The whole weekend was definitely time well-spent, and it was nice to have such secluded time with our family.    

Potty Training

We potty trained Catherine back in May.  I need to write this post for so many reasons, but mainly to remember that potty training is very hard the first few days, but it gets easier.  Persevere!

Katie and I started potty training on a Saturday.  David and Daniel had gone on a camping trip, and we were home alone that morning.  We had been reading several potty training books and even watched a few potty videos the week before.  Then on Saturday morning, I decorated the bathroom with balloons and a sticker poster.  She got her "big-girl" panties that she had been pining over, and I hid all the diapers.  We started going to sit on the potty every 20 minutes or so, trying to have a few successes.  I don't remember now how many accidents there were that day, but they outweighed the successes.  It's always so frustrating to have the kid sit on the potty and do nothing for ten minutes and then pee the second he/she gets off it.  Argh!  Anyway, we did nothing but potty all weekend long.  David and I even alternated mass times so that she could stay home and potty instead of going to mass.  It was a breath of fresh air to be away from the bathroom on Sunday morning for me!  She continued to have accidents Sunday.  At one point over the weekend, she started crying and crying for a diaper.  She didn't want to use the potty like a big-girl, and she didn't want big-girl panties.  It was very hard to see her so upset.  :(   

Then Monday, I had to go to work.  I told the sitter to have Katie sit on the potty every 30 minutes or so and prayed for the best.  When I got home that afternoon, the sitter said that Katie had refused to sit on the potty.  What?!  And that she had had to abandon the 30 minute schedule because Katie wouldn't do it.  What?!  But that there had been no accidents all day because when she had needed to go to the potty, she just told the sitter.  WHAT?!  Katie figured it out in three days!  In retrospect, I think that Daniel was about the same way (with his pee.........#2 was a whole different story with him). 

This is not to say that we didn't still have accidents.  Scratch that - we still sometimes have accidents.  But overall, she got it figured out in three days.  It took her a few more days to figure out the poop thing, but not bad.  Then it took a few more weeks to transition out of stickers and candies as rewards. 

I still say potty training is one of the hardest things you'll have to do with your young child, but hopefully I'll remember with baby #3 that it's not hard forever.  Just a little while.  Better yet, hopefully that's the case with baby #3 and I don't set myself up for disappointment!   

It's Like Riding a Bike

I fell off the blog band-wagon, but there are a few things I want to document so that I don't forget them.  And I realize that in a short five weeks, I will have even less time than I have now.  So I'm going to write some posts that need to be documented so that some day, a long time from now, I can remember how these things happened!

First off - way back in May, Daniel learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels!  He had asked us multiple times to take the training wheels off (after he saw the neighbor girl riding without hers), but we figured we needed to wait until we had a decent amount of time to work on it with him.  So we decided to do it over Memorial Day since we'd have three days instead of two like a usual weekend. 

David took the training wheels off, and within an hour, Daniel had it down!  David and I were kind of shocked (and of course proud!) that he learned so quickly.  He seemed so much older already!

Daniel in Kindergarten

Daniel started kindergarten on Monday. 

 

His teacher's name is Elise Rocco.  He has 21 kids in his class.  There are 14 kindergarten classes at his campus!  He goes from 8:00 to 3:00.  Right now, I'm taking and picking him up.  We had planned to have him ride the bus, but when we saw he would be picked up at 6:54 am and dropped off at 4:47 pm, we changed our minds.  That's a long time on the bus as well as a long day for a 5-6 year old.  We may still have him start riding in the mornings......we'll see what happens.  He has a daily music class, PE class, and recess.  He also has a short rest-time and daily snack.

 

He's been nothing but excited about school, so we expected it to go well.  It did!  When Katie and I picked him up after the first day, we went to Wendy's to celebrate with a frosty.  I was surprised to learn that he loved his music class that day.  (He doesn't usually like singing at home.)  He even sang all the parts of the "Willy the Worm" song that he could remember.  He told me that he learned that "you only need a dabble of glue, not a glob."   He also told me, "Mommy, there are no bullies at my school!  They're all nice!"  (We've read several books about what to do when there is bullying at school.)  As we were leaving Wendy's, he told me, "I think I felt my legs getting taller while I was at school.  Do I look taller?"  :)  He does seem older as I see him walking toward his class with his little backpack on - just like a big kid.   

 

Aunt Cristi and Uncle Brian had sent Daniel "The Kissing Hand" to read before his first day of school.  It's a sweet book about a little raccoon who is afraid to go to school, but his mother puts a kiss in the palm of his hand to bring to his cheek any time he needs reassurance.  Before Daniel left for his first day, I gave him a kissing hand.  That afternoon I asked him if he had to use it.  He said, "Yeah, one time........well, maybe a few times."  I asked when he used it.  He said, "Well, like two minutes after you left for sure."  He hasn't needed to use his kissing hand again though.  He absolutely loves school!

 

We're excited about all the new challenges he'll overcome, new friends he'll make, and new experiences he'll face.

Allowance Money

Back in February, we started giving Daniel an allowance.  It all started because we decided to have him start doing more chores around here, and we thought we'd sweeten the pot a little.  So the night we told him about all his new chores (Mondays - vacuum the playroom and living room; Tuesdays - clean his bathroom; Wednesdays - clean all the door knobs/light switches; Thursdays - dust and vacuum his room; Fridays - clean the back porch), we also told him we'd be giving him a weekly allowance if he managed to get his chores done by noon each day. 

You should have seen how excited he was about this!  He hugged us both and kissed us repeatedly and said that this was the best thing ever!

For the record - we're paying him $1 per week.  Since he's never seen money before though, this seems like a large amount to him.

His first purchase was a kid-sized shovel that he picked up at Lowe's.  Good solid purchase for him.

His second purchase was a pack of two American flags, one of which he gave to his neighbor friend because, in his words, "Why would I need two?"  This also prompted him to give his older, smaller American flag to Katie.  Proud day for Mama.

His savings have been collecting for awhile now, and he thinks he's ready for his third purchase.  He saw in the orientaltrading.com catalog a set of 144 plastic gold coins.  They're $5.  I think he thought they were real gold at first, but even after telling him that they're just cheap pieces of plastic, he still wants them.  He says he needs them to help him complete his "king" outfit.  I'm not sure if he actually has any piece of this outfit yet because he says he also needs a crown and purple/gold robe.

Anyway, if he reminds me again, I'll let him buy the gold.  I think this might be his first case of buyer's remorse, but we'll see!  

Spilling the Beans

So we're not quite ready to tell people that we're pregnant. Especially people like our five year old son who would tell approximately 400 people in the first two days.

Unfortunately, we had a mishap.

Katie had to have a chest x-ray before her cardiology appointment. The x-ray tech wanted to take her back alone, which I knew probably wouldn't fly with Katie, but I said, "You can try!" Shortly after the door closed, I could hear Katie screaming her heart out. I waited and waited. The screaming was not quieting, so I knocked on the door to offer up her blankets. The x-ray tech said, "You can just come in too, as long as you're not pregnant." I said, "I actually am, but my husband's not. He'll go in."

The door shut behind David and Catherine, and Daniel and I stood alone in the hall. We had this conversation:

Daniel: Mommy, why did you say you were pregnant?
Me: Oh, I don't know.
Daniel: Mommy, are you pregnant?
Me: Well, you never know.
Daniel: So why did you say you were pregnant?
Me: You just never know when God is going to give you a baby.
Daniel: So did He give you another baby?
Me: I don't know.
Daniel: Then why couldn't you go in there?
Me: Because they do x-rays in there that have radiation.
Daniel: What's radiation?

Phew.....radiation.......a subject I can finally discuss!

Three!

We found out on February 24 that we're expecting our third baby!

Wow.

Three?  Three! 

We're super excited and can't wait to meet him/her. 

Due date is November 1st!