Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Baby names

For each pregnancy Mike and I have found out the sex of the baby but kept names to ourself until he/she arrived. Typically we don't agree and Mike fails to come up with anything different than what I like - so we end up with what I had suggested. Well he really doesn't think he likes my boy name this time...we'll see...AND, the kids repeat everything, so we're definitely not sharing anything with them at this point. Brooke, Clayton and I were talking tonight about what we should call their baby brother until he gets here. Brooke decided on "Bob" - Clayton wanted "Shrek" And so they fought for the next 15 minutes over who was right....and mom decided bedtime for all!

Done potty training

So we're done potty training - or I should say that I'm done trying to train! My initial thought was that perhaps this would go as smoothly as it did with Brooke (she pretty much trained herself just before 2.5 yrs) and maybe it would take a day or two, and if it didn't then I'd just wait until after baby arrived. In the beginning he was doing great and even had a few dry days. But, he couldn't get the whole bowel movement thing down (i.e. that it should be in the potty and not his underpants), yet he'd still come to tell me as soon as he went. It's been downhill the past week or so and accident after accident, mainly because he doesn't want to stop playing long enough to go and he stopped caring about rewards of jelly beans, M&M's and EVEN gummie bears! The last straw was yesterday when I came the family room after finishing the lunch dishes. He was walking around in soaking jeans and not seeming to care - as he was busy with his toys. I said "Clayton, you're all wet - we go pee-pee on the potty." His response - "And I poo-poo'ed too" UGH! I've put away the underpants and McQueen pull-ups and we're back to baby diapers until after new baby is settled in. Today he was completely unphased to potty in his diaper and wait until I offered to change him...AND I didn't have any extra laundry or poo pants to launder out today - perhaps this is a good thing for now!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Traumatized by the Easter bunny

Brooke had asked if we could go see the Easter bunny at the mall - so we made the trip. They both approached the bunny just fine and Clayton sat on his lap. I let the picture man know he should probably just take the picture - to which he and his assistant didn't listen and instead tried to make Clayton smile. And then the tears started to come as Clayton realized he wasn't really sure about this oversized bunny. He came down off his lap. We had bunny and Brooke scoot down so that Clayton could sit next to Brooke and not the bunny. It was quite humorous to listen to the bunny's assistant promising Clayton that the bunny wouldn't touch him. Clayton was not happy about the entire situation - I got him to sit for just a moment while they took the picture. Brooke saw the outcome and says, "That picture would be much nicer with just me and the bunny - and NOT Clayton." As we were walking out of the mall Brooke asked me why Santa was a real person and the Easter bunny is just a man dressed in a costume...."I don't know Brooke, what do you think?" She of course had an explanation for it all - I couldn't tell you what it was. And for the next several days as Clayton would walk by the picture on the fridge he'd tell us "Clayton no go see bunny. McQueen (from Cars) go see bunny, Mater go see bunny, Jack (Poelzer) go see bunny. Clayton not like bunny - me crying."

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Creativity


Usually for "quiet time" Brooke will choose to sit at her desk and color, craft or "create." You never can be sure exactly what the end result will be. I loved the project that she came up with for today. She entered the office with "Do you LOVE what I made today?!" Brownie the stuffed dog was presented with her "costume." In other words Brooke found yet another use for her newfound love - pipecleaners.

Monday, April 13, 2009

And it's a BOY!

I went for my first perinatology visit today and for the first visit they always do a full anatomy analysis on the baby. All looks great and it's definitely a boy!

So I came home to tell Brooke who has been talking for months now about how she wants a baby sister and "if the Dr. takes out a girl then we'll know it's ours and if it's a boy we'll know it's not ours." I asked her if she wanted to see the baby's picture and she immediately asked if it was a boy or a girl. I asked what she wanted it to be - "a girl" she replied. And, oh the disappointment in her face to find out that it wasn't....poor thing. Clayton's response to the whole thing was that he was the "little brother."

Later Brooke was asking me why Jesus got to decide that it was a boy and why she didn't get to decide. And...why did he decide to make it a boy? Next came the most precious thing out of her mouth. She wanted to know if this baby boy would love Jesus just like she and Clayton love Jesus. I told her that we hoped so and we'd teach him all about Jesus. She asked what would happen if he didn't love Jesus. So I turned the question around back to her - she said, "then he won't be in heaven with us....Mom - we'll have to make sure this brother loves Jesus too." Oh how I love her heart and the simple faith that she has at such a young age.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Events

On Good Friday, both Grandma Denyse and Grandma Nancy came over to dye Easter eggs with the kids.





The Saturday, daddy took both kids to the zoo for some fun Easter activities that they had planned (mom wasn't up for that much walking on that day.)



Sunday morning the Easter bunny came because he was SO excited that Jesus ROSE AGAIN! We went to church (Brooke was so sad that she didn't get to stay 2nd hour for craft time that we had to go back in and ask the teacher if we could take the craft home with us.) Grandma Denyse hosted a yummy lunch and the kids did an Easter egg hunt in the back yard.
Hallelujah He is Risen!

Who Do You Think You Are?

Brooke, Clayton and I went to Stonefire Pizza last Friday with Grandma Nancy and Uncle Kenny for lunch. It's a great place to go (with two adults!) and a ton of fun for the kids. Clayton and I had gone their Thursday with our MOPs group and Clayton was so excited to have Brooke there with him on Friday because that meant he could go down the slide. You see it's a series of platforms that you have to climb up to reach the top of the slide and Clayton is just short enough that he can't do it on his own. BUT with his sister pushing his bum from below he can make it up just fine and Brooke is more than happy to help. (I wish I had my camera or camcorder because it's quite the site.) So they are climbing up this thing when a little boy says to them "Who do you think you are?" To which Brooke replies, "We're Brooke and Clayton! From Menomonee Falls." I was telling Mike the story later at dinner and Brooke says, "Mom, didn't I do a good job - they asked me my name and I told them." We've been working on responding when asked a question and interacting a bit more with other children that we don't know (using our manners, etc.) She really thought she had applied her skills well!

And the phrases that I love of Clayton's right now:
  • Brooke's my sister!
  • Good night. I love you too, mommy.
  • Not today. Later.
  • I NOT! (Specifically when you tell him to stop doing something that he's currently doing.)
  • He was counting something for me the other day and says, "One, two, the rest of them." as he dumped the rest of them into my hands. Currently, unless we're counting or naming colors of jelly beans there is about zero interest.

And not that I love it, but it seems to be who Clayton is. We've had to re-gate off the kitchen because of his recent obsession with Starburst jelly beans. He pushed a chair over to the counter, hurdled it and was standing on the counter with the cabinets open filling his bowl with jelly beans. He also tried to "hide" in the fridge as he does our closets, so that was the end of that! Return of the gate - he's not pleased.