Fun At the Park

Whoo hoo for paternal leave!! This week Eric took his second week of PAID paternal leave! The first couple of days he and his dad did some outside work while I did some inside work. Then on Wednesday, we had lunch at Casa Ole and went to the park. The past few days have been absolutely beautiful! So we've been trying really hard to take advantage of the weather and let Mikaela romp outside and let Elijah simply enjoy the outside air.

The past two times we've been to the park now there have been slightly older girls (maybe 3 or 4) who have completely befriended Mikaela. Of course, Mikaela has loved that and ends up following them around the entire time as they tell her what to do and where to go :) She still won't follow them down the slide, but she's getting closer. We kind of have to force her hand at going down. I think she's just scared now b/c there have been a couple of times her feet have gotten stuck on the slide (b/c she refuses to pick them up :) ), and they end up getting all entangled around her body! Here are a few of our park pics!

In the tunnel with new friend

Going down the spiral slide

Hanging on for dear life--maybe I don't want to go down after all!

Ok--I'll go down this one.

Syke! Daddy's going to have to have to resort to pulling me down :)

Climbing the "rock" wall

Daddy helping with monkey bars

On the dragon tail steps

Mommy & Elijah swinging

Elijah in the Moby (front)

Elijah in the Moby (back)

All tuckered out!

I'm pooped too!

Matt's Debut

Normally I wouldn't be encouraging people to watch a soap opera, but tomorrow is my brother Matt's debut in "Days of Our Lives!" His name is Ford, and he's playing the role of a jerk frat guy :) He'll also be airing on Wednesday's edition. I guess anyone trying to make it in Hollywood has to start somewhere :) He'll be in other episodes also, but I don't know those dates yet. Apparently the permanancy (is that a word?) of his role depends on how much fan mail he gets--don't know much about that either, but I'll fill you all in when I find out :)

What's Your Name?

Our little sweetie cakes will attempt to say everyone's name but her own! For the past few months, here's the response we've gotten when we ask her what her name is...

Little Mama

Mikaela copies practically everything I say and do these days!

Be Careful Little Legs...

Just part of my day :)

Wet Groceries & Bad Service!

Overall, we had a pretty uneventful weekend. I did, however, manage to make it to Wal-Mart on Saturday. Getting into the store is a challenge in itself! I usually get Elijah out first so I can get him in the Moby without having Mikaela running in the parking lot. Then I grab the backpack so I can get both straps around my shoulders. Well, on this particular outing (as with many others), Mikaela managed to drop her cup so that it rolled under my seat. I get Mikaela out of her carseat and tell her to "stay right there" while I try to reach her cup. That seems to be easier thought than done. With Elijah strapped on my front, the backpack on my back and watching Mikaela out of my peripheral vision, trying to reach under my seat in the tiny space between Mikaela's carseat and the back of my seat turns out to be quite a task--and oh yeah, don't forget to grab the cover that goes in the seat of the grocery cart for Mikaela to sit in! Needless to say, it was sunny and muggy, and I had worked up a pretty good sweat before I ever walked into the store! So I get all the shopping done and end up with two sleeping babies by the time I'm done, and as I'm walking out, I see a guy wearing a wet raincoat--yes, it had decided to start raining! As I get to the doors, I'm debating back and forth with myself as to whether or not I should make a mad dash to the car. Ok--it wasn't raining that bad, so here we go! I manage to get Mikaela into her carseat--not strapped in yet, and by the time I get to the other side of the car it starts pouring! As I put a couple of things into the car, poor Elijah kept geting drops of rain on his hair and face until I finally wiggled him out of the Moby and into his carseat--strapped in. Then I finally made it to loading my wet groceries into the front seat--yes I bought sugar and chips in a brown bag--mix those with water, and what do you get? By the time I got in the car, I was sopping wet! At home, when I got Mikaela out of the carseat, I find I never did stap her in, and the poor thing had to semi strap herslef in--she managed to get the top part connected together--with the straps under her armpits :) Fortunately Eric was home, and he helped me take in the groceries :)

Later on, we decided to go to B.J.'s for some of our favorite pizza and a pizookie. Normally when we go there we're in and out in no time flat--not this day! I don't know if our waitress just didn't like us or if she was new, but 40 minutes after finally being seated and ordering, we still didn't have our pizza! A manager finally arrives with a pizza, and without us saying anything, apologizes for it taking so long and informs us that we get to have dessert on the house--yes! As we start eating our pizza, we notice that it has all the right ingredients but in the wrong order! Now we're really getting kind of peeved. Ten minutes later, another manager shows up with our "correct" pizza and tells us she'll just have it boxed up for us. Thus, about 2.5 hours after arriving, we finally make it out of B.J.'s with a free pizza and pizookie! I guess we can't really complain about that :)

Potty Training & Learning Priorities

Well, I think it's finally safe to say that Mikaela is potty trained! She has gone about 3 weeks now with zero to minimal accidents each day!! She either goes on her little potty all by herself--usually without me even knowing she went, or she comes to me with potty in tow telling me she needs to go :) And everywhere we go, she goes in "big girl" panties, saying, "Potty pease," when she needs to go. Now I do still put a diaper on her at night--we haven't quite gotten there yet :) but I've even started trying to have her go diaperless during her naps. So this process only took about a year and a half--was it worth it? Yes! It's not for everyone, but having just turned 2 and already trained--I'm satisfied :)

I've even been pottying Elijah for about a month now! We have some days where I catch lots of pees and poops, so that's very exciting for me, especially since that means there's one less cloth diaper I'll have to wash out :) And then there are other days when all I get is spit up on and zero satisfaction of having him go on the potty! We'll see if he's as successful as his big sister :)

So I started thinking that it's kind of interesting how we as parents choose what we want our children to learn when. With me, the pottying is totally worth it, and the thrill I get when I catch them is indescribable! So I've decided that I'm willing to let them go diaperless at times and clean up those messes, but I don't want to have to deal with cleaning up the mess of a baby/toddler trying to feed himself. Thus my poor Mikaela is still not adept with a spoon or fork at the age of 2 :( Anything that doesn't require the use of a utensil though she can do by herself :) Mikaela also knows all of the alphabet (capital letters--we're still working on lowercase) and her colors, and we're learning how to count while putting a one-to-one relationship with objects, but she's still scared to slide down the slide on the jungle gym at the park! Just food for thought ...

Contagious Laughter

Our sweet Elijah is growing so fast! He's started laughing, and it's pretty funny. I don't know that the video does him justice but thought I'd share it anyway :)

Fun with Q-tips!

So yesterday, while I was talking on the phone to a friend, Mikaela decided to go grab ALL of the Q-tips out of the bathroom drawer! She brought them all into the living room and then proceeded to stick each one into her ears so that I couldn't use them. Then she thought it would be even more fun to take the cotton off the ends. I'm just surprised that she didn't put the cotton in her mouth :)