Big Boy...

We spend a lot of afternoons during the summer at our friends' house swimming in their pool. Most of the kids spend the afternoon floating around in some kind of floating device, but my friend's older daughter, five years old, has started swimming. The three year olds, my son and her middle daughter, have come a long way and this year have started floating around in floating devices on their own. On Monday I was in the deep in with the five year old working on her swimming and treading water. She'd jump in and I was right there to assist as she tried to tread water. My son came over with his floating device and wanted to jump in. My rule is no jumping in with a floating device. If he wanted to jump in without it I was there to catch him. He didn't like my rule and jumped in anyway, so he was banned from the pool for the rest of the day, unless he wanted to give it a try without the floating device. He wanted back in the pool, so he gave up the floating device and jumped in. He grabbed me around my neck, very tightly, so I knew he wasn't comfortable. We moved into the shallow end, which he could stand in, but hadn't realized it yet. It doesn't matter what mommy says, she doesn't know what she is talking about. He continued to hold on tight as I pryed his arms away from my neck. I tried to explain that when he does that I have a hard time holding him up and staying above the water. He wined a little and wanted to go to the side, but I patiently explained to him if he would just stretch his legs he would be able to touch the bottom. He thought I had no idea what I was talking about. I eventually got him to touch his foot to mine and slowly moved mine to the bottom of the pool and then out from under his so he could feel the bottom. After doing this a couple times he was so proud he could touch the bottom. From that moment until swimming was done with for the day he walked around the shallow end, close the the edge, on his own. He seemed to really have a great time and I'm so proud of him. When we got home he called both sets of grandparents to tell him about his adventures for the day.

Stress relief...

We've been dealing with a lot this week, trying to come to some agreement with our builder on some costs he is trying to pass onto us. This started on Tuesday and today we finally met with him and came to an agreement. It has relieved a lot of stress for both my husband and me, even though I still think we are paying for things we shouldn't have to pay for. He asked us what we thought we should pay and didn't argue with our suggestion. We also went over to the new house to walk through and point out the things he marked as fixed, but weren't. He's suppose to get people in by Monday to finish up, final cleaning on Tuesday and hope to close everything out by mid week. I can't wait!! We also had our inspector do our final inspection today and other than a few little things, all looks good. He commented the house has come together really nice, which surprised him based on how things started out 19 months ago. Things really turned around and we have a beautiful house (and a lot of unexpected money invested). Although we have a beautiful house to live in for the rest of our lives, if we had the chance to go back, we probably would not have built. It has not been a fun experience for us and we are moving in over a year past the original completion date of July 1, 2007!

My new stroller...

A little over a week ago when our house was being shown we went shopping and bought a bike trailer/stroller for me to use for walks with the kids. I've been waiting, patiently, for my husband to put the trailer together. Last night he took my son out to ride his bike, he'd been begging all day to ride his bike, and while he was out there decided to put the trailer together. My daughter didn't make it easy and kept getting in the way, so she ended up in the house a very unhappy girl. I went ahead and got her ready for bed and then my husband came inside once the trailer was put together asking for my daughter to come back outside to test the trailer. My husband took the kids on a short bike ride in the neighborhood (son on his own bike and daughter in the trailer hooked up to the my husband's bike). My daughter loved the trailer once my husband started riding, so it was a success. This morning I woke up determined I was finally getting out for a walk. Boy, am I glad I went for my walk. The kids were great and enjoyed the 30 minute walk and the trailer was so easy to push. It was nice to not have to stop or slow down when I had to go over a curb. I got a great workout in and can't wait for my next walk!!

Potty training

As you may know from reading other posts, my son is three and still wearing diapers. I can't wait for him to be potty trained and keep trying different things to get him more interested in potty training. My friend's daughter, who is basically the same age as my son (only about 1 1/2 months older) was fully potty trained by the time she was two. She didn't have to do anything to train her, she just decided on her own she didn't want to wear diapers any more. I've been trying to get my son interest for quite some time and he just fights is, so I've tried not to push too much. I offer for him to sit on the potty at different times throughout the day. Well, today was an extremely successful day. He went pee pee on the potty three times. I'm so excited!! This is a big step for him. We've been giving him a little dinosaur for each time he goes on the potty. It works some times, but not others. Today he seemed really excited about going and sat without much of a fight three times and went pee pee each time. He went before going over to our friends to go swimming, before his bath and one more time before bed. He fought a little before each one, but when I reminded him he would get to go swimming if he went and the other times he would get a dinosaur if he went he hopped right on the toilet. Have I said how excited I am. Now I just need to get him to go when he feels like he has to go and not be prompted! Tomorrow we are aiming for four times on the potty. Wish us luck!!

Sixth Anniversary...

It is hard to believe my husband and I have been married for six years as of Sunday. It has been a good six years and I wouldn't trade it for anything. We didn't do much on our anniversary, but celebrated on Saturday. After watching our friends' daughter for a little while Saturday afternoon we headed out, with kids in tow, and ran some errands to get some things for the new house and then had a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden. The food was great, service was good and the kids were awesome. We started off with salad, breadsticks and some kind of cheese fondue appetizer. I love the salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden and the kids and hubby did too. We then moved onto stuffed chicken Marsala and mashed potatoes for me and crusted tilapea, yellow squash and zucchini and pasta for my husband. We shared a little and the tilapea was excellent. The stuffed Marsala and mashed potatoes were awesome and so were the veggies (my husband doesn't eat much in the way of veggies, but I love veggies). By the time we left the restaurant we were all stuffed. We then headed to the new house to see what was going on over there and not much got done there this past week. The kids had fun running around the upstairs and I got some new pictures. We then headed home and my husband ran back out to grab a couple movies and I put the kids to bed. Kids went to bed quickly since it was 10:00 and I headed back downstairs after my husband came home and not only did he pick two girly movies, he also got me a dozen roses! I don't get flowers often, but he likes to surprise me once in a while.

Potty time....

I have a three year old (turned 3 the end of April) and a 15 month old. If you asked me a year and half ago I would have told you my son would be potty trained by the time he was two. It didn't matter what others told me (everybody said, "boys take longer") I just didn't want to believe it. At the time I was pregnant with my daughter and others told me I was crazy to even think about it, not just because he was a boy, but because I was pregnant and wouldn't have the energy to potty train him. Everybody was right.... as I got bigger and had less energy and my son got closer to 2 I just didn't have it in me to potty train him. At one point he seemed a little interested in potty training, wanted to sit on the little potty often, but that phase passed and he is no longer interested. I'm tired on changing diapers! Many have asked if he has regular times he goes potty and up until today I said no, but around 10:00 this morning, both kids had yucky diapers. So, tomorrow after breakfast, around 10:00 BOTH kids are sitting on the potty! I'm determined by the time my youngest is 2 they will both no longer be in diapers!! And on top the many diapers changes I do each day I'm tired of the amount of sheets and pajamas he goes through. Most mornings his pajamas are wet, which in most cases means his sheets are wet too. Now, off to wash those sheets!

Another one bites the dust!

Every time we turn around it seems like there is another expense we have to incurr, either with the current house or the new house. This morning was no different!!! The morning started off ok. Got up around 8:30, changed the kids diapers, got them dressed for the day and headed downstairs for breakfast. We all ate and then I cleaned up. Sounds pretty normal, but as I finished cleaning up I notice water was dripping on the floor under the sink. At first I thought I spilled water over the top front when I cleaned up the dishes, but didn't notice anything dripping down the front of the cubbard. I opened up th cubbard and the bottom was covered in water. Got myself comfortable on the floor and started clearing everything out and drying everything off. Every few seconds I would see water drip from what appeared to be the disposal, but it seemed weird that water would be dripping from the bottom of the disposal. Once I got everything out my husband got down to take a look. He turned on the water and water just poured out of the bottom of the disposal. All we can guess is something rusted out inside. Now to find a decent disposal for not too much money!! It's going to be fun cleaning up dishes today since I can't run water on the disposal side!!

Today's adventures...

Today we had a house showing at 12:15, so we had to be out of the house for a couple hours. It was fun getting ready for the showing, especially since I wasn't suppose to do much to help get the house ready. Well, I did more than planned, but was very careful not to stress my back. I was afraid I might have done too much, but my back doesn't feel too bad. Now I need to continue to take it easy this next week and hope by the end of the week all pain is gone!

While we were trying to make good use of our time we ran a few errands. Our first trip was to Best Buy to use a $10 coupon we earned with previous purchases. After looking around the store and determining if there was anything we really needed (mainly thinking about the new house) we ended up buying a movie, Ghost Rider, which we just finished watching and it was pretty good. I'm not sure we would have bought the movie if it wasn't for the free movie ticket to Hancock my husband wanted. We spent $5 on the movie and got a good movie to add to our large collection of movies and my husband get's to go to see a movie he has been talking about all week for free. Not a bad deal!

Our next trip took us to the mall. We stopped in Dick's Sporting Goods to look at the bike trailers in hopes we would find one I liked and buy it. As we got to the escalator my 3 year old son grabs onto the moving handrail and starts to get carried up the escalator without us. It was quite a funny site, but scary for for all. Luckily my husband has long arms and was able to grab him and set him back on the ground. I really wish we had a video camera to catch the event because it would have been a good one for Funniest Home Videos!! He has been on an escalator many times before, so we aren't sure what he was thinking when he grabbed onto the rail the way he did. I guess it looked like it would be fun!! We made it upstair with both kids in tears and found the trailers. After looking at the two different models they had in stock we decided on the InStep Quick N Easy bike trailer for $109.99. This is probably one of the cheapest you can find with the stroller attachment and has good reviews, so I'm hoping to get lots of use out it, starting this week. Now I just need to get my husband to put it together before the weekend is over!

House showings...

This morning we received a phone call from the realtor letting us know somebody wants to show our house on Saturday. This is great since we haven't had a showing for a few weeks. The down side is my husband is going to have to do just about all the work around the house to get it in order for the showing. If you read my previous post you know I threw my back out over the weekend and can't do much right now. My good friend keeps telling me YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING!! She's a nurse and has worked with people with back injuries and has also had a back injury herself, so she knows what it takes to get a back healed. It really is tough sitting back and not doing anything these days. Besides doing what I can to take care of the kids, I get to sit on the couch with a heating pad on my back and laptop in my lap. It is driving me CRAZY not doing much of anything else because I HATE when my house is a mess and that is what it is right now. My husband has a lot of work to do tomorrow to get this house back in showing order. He doesn't usually have to do much because I've been doing a good cleaning every week, so in the past when we got a phone call all that had to be done was some minor cleaning. Have I said how much I hate just sitting here, but I know that is what I need to do! I'm just thankful nobody wanted to come by today!!

Back pain...

This week has not been a fun week in this household! This past Saturday morning as I was separating laundry and threw my back out and for about 4 days was in the worst pain even!! It was a sharp pain that didn't go away no matter what I did. Sitting, standing, walking, any slight movement caused a horrible pain in my lower back. Monday I went to the doctor the get it checked out. My doctor asked me to do some different movements with my legs to see what was causing the pain and then prescribes some medications to help alleviate the pain. I also received a shot in my hip, which was a temporary solution to the pain. It didn't get rid of it all, but it gave me a couple hours of a little less pain. Finally yesterday I woke up with less pain, still sore, but I can at least sit without a sharp pain in my back. My husband stayed home for a couple days to take care of the kids and me. He was suppose to be working from home, but I know, based on his comments, he wasn't get a lot done. By Wednesday I told him he could go back to work. The day was tough, but it was manageable and we spent some time over at a friend's house for lunch and a swim in the pool, which was nice for my back.