First Crush

Stone: I kiss Laaaaaaila! They say stop.

Me: You kissed Laila?

Stone: Yesssss.

Me: Did you kiss her A LOT?

Stone: Yesssss.

Me: And they had to tell you to stop?

I think Stone has a crush on Laila. If you don't remember who that is, click here.

We're good friends with Laila's parents, and we often switch off watching each other's kids for date nights. You may remember me saying that I watched this girl last semester while her parents were finishing up their Master's, and Stone was in heaven when she would come over. Well, turns out he kisses her. A LOT.

That was our conversation last night, so at church today, I asked about it, and sure enough, YES, he sure did kiss her. BUT, they didn't say, "stop". They said, "soft." (I think rough housing with daddy has generally made him play rough altogether). But it makes sense that they said soft, because after I asked if they had to tell him to stop, he pet my arm and said, "sofffft, mommy. soffft."

He's only 2, and apparently he watches mommy and daddy too closely. Woops.

30 Weeks!

This pregnancy has gone by SOOO fast. Perhaps it's because we waited a little longer to tell people, or maybe it's because I already have one at home with me to keep me busy. This pregnancy has definitely FLOWN by.

We went in for our 3rd trimester ultrasound today, and things look great! Believe it or not, she still is a girl! She has the cutest little face, and I am so excited to have her get here! However, I have pleanty to get done before she gets here, so she can take her sweet time. I'm not yet uncomfortable, so until I'm sick of being pregnant, I'm okay that she waits. Here are some 30 week shots Cliff took of me. He's got talent behind the camera, which is why it's so fun to do our little photography hobby together.

I feel wierd posting pictures of JUST me, but here you go:

Some thoughts...

...on potty training.

Just a random picture of him stealing one of my cameras, just before doing his business and bathing. I know...why would I let him play with my cameras? eeek. He's actually got some great shots...

We are day 7 into this training, and things are still going well. I'm not yet completely brave enough to take him in public for long periods of time in his undies. That's my goal this week. Every day I think we all get a little more confident with this whole process. So here are some thoughts and some things we've been doing with this training:

• It's kind of like breastfeeding (and that's not supposed to begin for 2 more months!). When you breastfeed, life kind of revolves around it. You time errands perfectly to correspond with baby's feeding schedule. As soon as you're done, you rush out to get as much done as you can before the next feeding approaches, but you always know you're limited in your time out. Same with potty training.
  
• What color of undies?? When we are out and about, I continuously ask Stone what color his undies are, or what is on them, so he remembers he has them on, and therefore, will not wet them. He LOVES his different undies. He gets mad when I put a diaper on for him at night time and naps (no, I'm not brave enough to let him go to bed in undies yet...nor to our 3 hour church block today).
• The negotiator: I have always been quite the negotiator. Apparently, I have passed that down to Stone. Without getting graphic, we've changed our potty prize mentality a bit. He now only gets his potty prizes for "big time" potty results. He quickly learned that if he broke up his business into 4 or 5 trips to the potty, he could get 4 or 5 prizes. He negotiates which type of prize he gets each time he goes. I now reserve the "big ones" (dollar toys) for a big job well done. ...he tried outsmarting the system.
  
• Sleeping in: I thought I got this for another couple of months before baby #2 gets here, but not so. Sometimes Stone will come in with some toys, and he knows I want a few more minutes to rest my eyes. But now, he knows if he comes in saying, "poopy mommy, let's go!" ...it gets me out of bed in a split second. Even when he cries wolf.

Altogether, we are proud of our little guy. This is proving to be successful. The thought of a long road trip in the near future for the holidays kind of freaks me out, though. Does that mean lots of stops?? What did you do when (if) you had to take your newly potty trained kid on a loooong road trip?? Ooooohh boy.

The Beast is Here

AKA, Potty Training.

I was hesitant to mention it so soon, in case this ends up to be the never ending, on and off again process, but I feel like we are making total progress, and we're only on day #3 of being really serious about this. We kind of started it last week, but this week we have buckled down.

You may remember that we introduced the concept to Stone just before his 2nd birthday (July). He was very excited for his Lighting McQueen underware, his Elmo Potty Poster (courtesy of my artistic husband), his Thomas the Train potty cover, his little step, and of course potty prizes. The novelty wore off quickly, he lost interest, and so we backed off. I didn't want it to be a year long process, and I was told by so many people, that you really have to wait until they are ready.

So we backed off, and have just talked A LOT about it since then, and have watched Elmo Potty Time many times. I think {!hope!} it has kind of paid off.

What made us decide to go into this full force, finally? Probably the fact that he was beginning to say, "poopy diaper, mommy. come on. follow me." I think the final straw was last week at the gym, when one of the Kid's Club girls came out to get me, and said, "he has a poopy diaper, and won't let us change him. He says, "Mommy do it at HOME!"

I think it was that day, that I decided our communication is strong enough to pull this thing off, and to just jump in and DO IT.

So here we are, day #3. MANY successful trips to the potty, a couple pairs of wet undies, a trip to the dollar store, and many fruit snacks. Oh, and did I say how much patience you need for this?

I will keep you posted.

Best Buds

Stone and Gavin got along SO well last week in Arizona. I hope they grow up to be best buddies although we don't live too close to eachother.

Wanna see a little more of this cutie below? Check out my photo blog for a few pics from his photo shoot in Arizona.

I Heart Arizona

Last week, I mentioned we were in the Valley of the Sun. Oh how I love Arizona, especially this time of year! Cliff had a conference there, so it was only fitting to accompany him, and spend some fun time with my mom, and see many relatives. Rachel (Jordan's wife) and Gavin met us there, and we had a blast.

Stone and Gavin LOVE each other. Every time they were in the car, Gavin would just laugh at Stone. I'm so happy Rachel met us there, especially because I got to squish these chubby cheeks:
My mom just got two cute little dogs, Phoebe and Milo. Stone LOVED teasing the dogs, and they did not so much like him....at least at first. He's a little too active and loud for them, I think. By the last day there, Stone was hauling Milo around (as opposed to them [Stone and Milo] growling at each other). Here's my mom, Stone, and the 2 dogs:

We headed to Freestone, one of my favorite parks, to do a little photo shoot with Gavin. More to come of those! But here's Rachel and Gavin as a teaser:

While at the park, Stone thought it'd be funny to jump in a HUGE puddle of mud (boys will be boys), so he roamed the park bare foot after his little muddy moment:

We went back to Freestone a couple days later to have a picnic with Mark, Jacki, and Dallen, and then went to visit my Grandpa (my dad's dad) and Charisse (my dad's sister), as well as my mom's sisters...all in one night. Here are just a few pics from that night.

We put a wig on Gavin (and perhaps my mom). I know Gavin won't mind, by my mom might if I put up her pictures. :)
Below: Stone, Me, Charisse, Gavin

Below: Stone, Gavin, my Grandpa

And lastly, per my previous post, we had a mini photo shoot of the three boys (Stone, Dallen, and Gavin) in their costumes. Here are just a few more pictures because they are TOO CUTE!!!

I really must say, Halloween is SOOOOO fun with kids. We took Stone trick-or-treating, and he was in HEAVEN. I couldn't believe how empty the streets were, though. When I was a kid, our streets were PACKED, and EVERY SINGLE home had their porch lights on, ready to hand out candy. My, how the times have changed. I think the tradition of trick-or-treating is slowly fading, and I think we'll be seeing more trunk-or-treat functions in the future, and less door-to-door. Kind of sad, because we had a BLAST as kids.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!