When can I be fitted with my strait jacket?

The other day, after a particularly stressful trip to the grocery store (i.e. MAJOR temper tantrum from Drew), I decided to take the long way home to try to get my oldest little darling to fall asleep because he was clearly tired. My nerves were completely frazzled after trying to check out while Drew acted like a head spinning, pea soup chucking spawn of you know who. Not recognizing the route we were taking on the way home, Drew said "Mom, where are we going?" To which I replied "Crazy." So he said "May I go Crazy too?" My pleasure buddy, just get in line. I love my children beyond words but some days I feel like a mommy on the edge. Today has been one of those days.
Actually it all comes down to a couple of hours. The events mentioned below all happened within 2 hours. It has been quite an afternoon. Between cleaning up poop, vomit and pee, I am one nervous breakdown away from the looney bin. Remember how I said Drew was sometimes hit or miss with his potty training? Well, today was a miss. Let's just say diarrhea and big boy underwear don't mix. Ugh. Drew spent some time hosing off in the shower while I got out the rubber gloves and tried not to puke everywhere. One pair of clothes in the wash. After the clean up, I decided to engage the kids in a nice calm activity like coloring. Drew, of course, uses the markers and does not put the lids back on. I turn my back for 2 seconds (isn't it always just 2 seconds?) and Avery finds the lid-less markers and starts to eat/chew/suck on them. I find her with red ink dripping down her face and body and snatch the marker from her mouth. Now she is thoroughly upset that I have taken away her snack. In no time at all, her clothes have been covered in red ink and it has soaked through to her skin. Lovely. Another pair of clothes into the wash. While I'm taking off her clothes, I notice that Drew needs to use the potty but is trying to hold it so he can continue to color. There is a wet spot on the front of his pants (more clothes in the wash) so I shoo him to the potty before I have to clean another mess off the floor. At this point, both kids are down to their underwear/diaper and I'm not putting clothes back on them until bedtime. It's about that time of day when I try to tidy up the house before Brent gets home so I put the kids in Drew's room to play while I start to pick things up. Surely they're out of bodily fluids by now?
Ha! How could I be so foolish? The next thing I know, I hear Drew laughing that the baby has thrown up and now I'm cleaning red marker puke out of the carpet. I moved Avery out of the room so I could clean the carpet and when I walk out of the room, I see her at Drew's little potty, splashing in the "water" that Drew just relieved himself of minutes before. Oh.My.Gosh. Where did these children come from? They are 2 steps ahead of me with their mischief and one of these days it will catch up to me and I will have to be committed to the looney bin. Maybe I should call and get put on the waiting list right now.

Underwear, a bikini and a birthday

I am probably going to jinx myself by making this claim but I am very pleased to announce that Drew is potty trained. He has been in big boy underwear for a few weeks now with only a few accidents (sorry Danielle...and Grammy...and Mother's Day Out...and Brent's side of the bed). He is hit or miss with night time accidents so he still wears a pull up to bed but most mornings it is dry. It feels so good to not buy diapers for him when I go grocery shopping. Such a money saver! Next up is Avery. Maybe I can have her potty trained before she goes into the nursery at church. I know that's wishful thinking but I thought Drew would NEVER get potty trained and now that it has happened, I feel like I can do anything. Aside from Drew's eating frustrations, potty training him has been one of the hardest things to get through. Especially when 2 year olds are parading around so smug in their potty abilities and my 3 year old would shriek at the mention of using the potty. So hopefully now that I have made the claim, the potty Gods will be kind and continue to bless me with a child with dry pants. This weekend the weather was absolutely beautiful. We went to the park with cousin Nyah and Uncle Zane to feed the ducks on Saturday.

It was so hot it was clear that some sort of water activity was in need to cool the kids down. We decided to put our new lawn to good use and buy a little pool for the kids to play in. Nyah came over to join in the fun and they loved splashing around.

Since she's too little for the big pool, Avery got her own personal pool and Drew and Nyah loved jumping in with her and splashing all the water out.

Avery looked so cute in her little polka dot bikini (thanks Kat!).

If only my rolls looked that cute in a swimsuit. She also rocked the sunscreen hair.

After our fun day outside, everyone got cleaned up and Brent and I got ready to go out for my birthday dinner. My friend Danielle graciously offered to watch the kids so Brent and I could have a real date--no kids, no worries. I made a reservation at a nice restaurant that I would never in a million years bring my kids to. I don't even know if kids are allowed. It's one of those painfully trendy restaraunts where reservations are the only way you are getting in and you feel like you don't belong in your outdated mommy clothes and dislike for sushi. I was a little worried about the prices of the food, especially when I saw that one of their specials for the night was a Kobe beef entree for $70. It appeared as if Brent and I would be sharing a water and an appetizer. But I was directed to the regular menu and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the much more budget friendly entrees. Anyways, after dinner, we were even able to go to the movies--a rarety for anyone with kids and an event I really enjoyed. Brent even held my hand--another rarety these days as Brent prefers to walk hands free. We had a great evening out and we really appreciate being able to go out by ourselves. So now I'm one year older and not much wiser. I'm waiting for one of those birthdays when I can say "I don't feel this old." I know 29 is not "old" but it seems I am feeling every one of these 29 years and looking like it too. I guess children will do that to you--at least that's what I'll blame it on for now. Oh, well, there's always next year....

We have a yard!!

When we moved into our house a couple of years ago, it had a horrible lawn. The house was only 2 years old but it had been foreclosed on and no one lived in it for a good year or so. The lawn suffered tremendously and we were stuck re-doing the whole thing. We focused on the front yard first (much to our neighborhood's delight) and after babying it for a few months, Brent finally got it to where he was happy. To save money, we planted seed in the back yard. We had to do this several times because it would inevitably rain the next day and wash the seed into our neighbor's garden. (She would end up grassing instead of weeding). This is about as much grass as we could get to grow.

Pretty pathetic, huh? So here we are 2 years later with another failed attempt at seeding and Brent finally bit the bullet and decided to just lay sod. We had it done a week ago and it is beautiful! We went from no lawn to a yard full of grass in a matter of hours. It was very exciting. And to follow tradition, it rained the next day but this time it was a good thing. The new sod got soaked and we were very happy.

We can't play on it yet since it still has to take root but we can't wait until daddy gives us the all clear to play in the backyard. It feels good to have it done and now I have somewhere to send the kids when their cuteness wears off.

Meet J.K.

Drew has an on again off again relationship with his stuffed animals but he has recently renewed his friendship with his teddy bear. Her name is J.K. as in j-k-l-m-n-o-p. Yesterday they spent the day together and J.K. did everything with Drew. She is learning to use the potty like Drew and she even has her own reward chart for using the potty like a big bear. While Drew was busy, he had to give J.K. something to do so into the jumper she went.

They ate their snacks together, watched cartoons and Drew even changed her diaper (you should have seen him trying to maneuver the diaper while saying "Put your leg down J.K."). When it was time to go to bed, J.K. fell asleep first so Drew came into our bedroom with his pillow to hang out. Eventually he fell asleep too and this is how I found them this morning. Notice he gave J.K. her own pillow and blankie but I think she kicked it off during the night.

It's cute to see him use his imagination and to be so caring. He was concerned about her all day and worked very hard to keep track of her and make sure she was doing ok. All in all, I think Drew had a good day with his friend, J.K.