Booty Camp

I never thought we were going to get Xander-man potty trained. He's almost 4 1/2 and we've tried just about every method under the sun to get him out of diapers, to no avail. Finally his OT suggested the "in-a-day" method. Then we saw a woman on The Today Show who does the same thing for others, so when Jason's schedule permitted we worked in a 3-day weekend and figured we might as well train both kids at the same time. Here's the link to the story about her if you're interested.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25057503/

The idea with this method is that you spend the whole time in the kitchen. The kids eat salty snacks to make them thirsty, and then you give them sugary drinks because they don't quench your thirst, resulting in them drinking all day long. They were really excited about the Fritos, potato sticks and Kool-Aid because they don't normally get to eat these things, so we were off to a good start.





Jason made sure he wore an appropriate shirt for the event.



Things started off okay until dinnertime when Xander was dancing around the kitchen and fell against the corner of a baseboard. Lots of blood and 3 stitches later he was back home hanging off the kitchen table, apparently having not learned his lesson. Jordis helped me make him some of his favorite corn casserole, so I think that made him feel a little better.




The potty training didn't quite work in one-day, but overall it was really successful. We've had very few accidents and even a few completely dry nights, as well as an afternoon out of the house to run errands where the kids used a public bathroom and came home dry. Hopefully we can keep it up.

Our trip to the fire station

On Thursday our MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers) group took a tour of the fire station. I think R.J., the poor firefighter assigned to spend an hour and a half with us, didn't quite know what he was getting himself into. He did a great job though, even when Xander made him hold his flip-flops and two other kids followed suit. Gotta give Xan some credit though, we were in their living area and Xander was in one of the recliners, and he knows we don't put our shoes on the furniture.


Xander was first in line to sit inside a fire truck.


Jordis had absolutely no interest in the group photo or sitting in a truck.

















The ladder truck was everyone's favorite.

Up, up and away!

We decided Saturday that we'd attempt to take the kids to Grove City's annual Balloons Off Broadway festival. It was 40 minutes from here, but parking and admission were free so we figured it would be worth the drive for the kids to watch 22 hot air balloons take off. Well, long story short, it took longer than 40 minutes to get there (traffic), the hot-air balloons did not take off and nothing went the way it should have. After the week we had I don't even have the sarcasm left to describe the evening, so I will spare you the details. What we learned, though, is that Jordis likes the Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Xander likes throwing dirt. And they had fun, so I guess all was not lost afterall.


If we sit here for this picture will you give us some food?




This is as much cooperation as we could muster.




The British Invasion, Jordis has become a groupie.

Movie Milestone

This week the kids went to the movies for the first time. The little local theatre here, The Strand, has a summer movie series for kids and it's free, so I thought I'd take them. Figured no big loss if we had to leave since it didn't cost me anything.




I usually avoid doing anything in downtown Delaware simply because I can't parallel park, especially not the Jeep. This day I got lucky though and was able to pull in to the last spot. So not only was it easy to park, but I didn't have to worry about hitting any other cars when I left, either. The kids actually followed directions, too, and stayed on the sidewalk and didn't cross the street until I told them to. Xander only tripped and fell once which is good for him since he's always looking at something other than where he's going.

Here's the kids on our way in. The theatre asks for school supply donations so they were each holding their contribution.

This week's feature was "Horton Hears a Who" and for someone who doesn't like animated movies I thought it was pretty cute.

http://www.hortonmovie.com/site/index.html


It was pretty crowded and Xander wanted to sit up front so we ended up in the 2nd row. Poor Jordis almost got folded up in her seat since she doesn't weigh much.














I don't know what Xander liked better, the movie or the snacks I brought.

We had a really good time. Then we went to vote, which didn't go so well where cooperation is concerned. But I guess we'll work on one thing at a time.