Day 15.....She is such a sweetheart.

Annabelle, Judge, and I were cleaning up this afternoon. I love Annabelle to death, but sometimes she reminds me a little too much of her dad. Don't get me wrong at times that isn't a bad thing, but like any man when it comes to cleaning....... well I am sure you get the picture.

I will give her a job, like picking up a piece of paper and throwing it into the trash can. Instead of picking it up and throwing it away when I ask the first time, it normally takes me asking about 3 times before she even acknowledges that I am in the room. Then she picks it up...oops, she drops it. She picks it back up......she puts it on the counter. Then I remind her it goes in the the trash can. She then examines it to make sure it is the right piece of paper and it isn't anything important. Then she takes another 5 minutes to chunk it. In the meantime Judge and I have cleaned half the house.

So this afternoon I got a little irritated with her and Judge for goofing off instead of picking up and I sent them to watch TV so I could just do it myself. I had had a few arts and crafts planned but since I was going to have to clean up alone we were not going to be able to do any of them. I told the kids we would just try and squeeze them in tomorrow after we finished our work for MLK day.

I put the kids in my room and turned on the TV and went back to cleaning. A few minutes later Annabelle comes into the boys' room with her arms full of cloths. I didn't know what she was doing. I asked her where the cloths came from and she said "Mommy I love you. I cleaned my bathroom and your closet for you."

I couldn't help but squeeze her. That was the sweetest thing. I know she hates cleaning....what five year old likes to clean? But for her to take the initiative to clean up her bathroom and my closet (which was a disaster because we had church this morning and I pulled everything I owned out trying to find something to wear.) I was so so so proud to say the least. I always smile when my kids do kind and sweet things like that. It makes me think even though I am far from perfect I still must be doing at least a few things right.

She and I finished the entire house together, but we didn't have enough time for the art projects I had planed so instead Annabelle got treated to a few pieces of candy we have hidden in the pantry.

She may make me want to pull my hair out. She may make me bang my head against a wall. She may even make me want to lock myself in the bathroom closet.....but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She is amazing and I love her so much, and not just because she helped me clean the house today! Watching her grow and being able to teach her right from wrong and good from bad is one of the most rewarding parts of my job as her momma.

I am so happy that I get to have her with me everyday for the next 13 years at least......Maybe I can talk her into letting me lock her in the basement with Judge?!?!? We will see......

ANNABELLE


Ready for mass!

Yeah her daddy is going to have to lock her up soon!

We are going to have to send her to school with a bat!

So Beautiful.

Don't let that smile fool you.

Pretty church dress!

I have to take her pictures while she stands on the counter in the bathroom. If I don't she gets distracted and it takes me 2 hours to get one. Now if I could just find a place like that that for the boys!

Big smile.

JUDGE


Handsome.

Ready to get those church cloths off.

WARNING!! He is momma man....Girls stay away!

JOHNNY


Johnny broke into bugs' room after down time today.

UH-OH better hope Anna doesn't notice he touched her things!!

Learned a great lesson this morning thanks to John Paul. Right after we walked into mass this morning and took our seats I started to smell something.....Can you guess what it was? If you guessed a dirty diaper give yourself a pat on the back. I had forgotten the diaper bag in the car so I had to send Dennis back out in the cold to retrieve it for me. I thought when he came back I was going to be able to talk him into changing it for me.....WRONG!!! He used the old "There isn't a changing table in the men's bathroom" excuse. So I took Johnny to the ladies room and started changing his diaper. When I went to pull out a wipe it felt stuck. So I pulled harder. Still nothing. I knew there was at least half a pack of wipes left. I opened the box trying to fix whatever was wrong, that is when I noticed my wipes were FROZEN SOLID!!! SERIOUSLY, FROZEN SOLID!?!?! So I learned a new lesson if you are ever in Connecticut do not leave you baby wipes in the car overnight during the winter.
FYI I did get him changed. I had to wipe him with water and toilet paper and the few wipes I manged to chisel out of the box.

I was online listening to the homily from this mornings mass. I could not help but laugh because throughout the entire recording I kept hearing Johnny. Normally he is very good and I rarely have any problems out of him. I didn't think was that loud or that he talked that much. Next Sunday I am going to have to pay a little more attention to exactly how much noise he is making. It is easy for me because I am so used to tuning him out.

LIAM


Johnny wasn't the only guilty party in mass this morning. Every time Johnny hushed Liam started crying. I would then trade kids with dad, and I would take Liam. Then Johnny would get upset after I got Liam calm and he would start up. So dad and I would trade kids again......and that went on for the entire hour. Thank God the other 2 were in Sunday school.

Cutie pie.

On a closing note today.
My favorite saying that our priest used about 5 times today in his homily.

"God can't love you any more than he already does, you can just become more aware of it."

Potty Boot-Camp Day 1

I DID IT!!! YES I DID!!!
I started training Judge today. We have taken away ALL diapers and now only have big boy pants during the day and a pull up at night.

It was challenging but we made it through day 1 of potty boot camp DRY!!!

We started this morning we had a fun filled 2 hours on the potty. We played puzzles read books and he finally went pee pee on the potty. To say I was proud just wouldn't do the situation justice.
He started to pee at one point (this is where mommy learned an important lesson) and it went everywhere so he "stopped it" you could say. Then with a little encouragement he started back up again, but this time his gun was pointed south.

After he peed on the potty I made such a big deal about it. He got a car, suckers, and M&M's. He was really proud of himself but still really unsure about the whole "big boy pants" thing. He kept asking for his diaper back. Thank GOD I had Thomas the Train underpants (*Note to all moms make sure you have really cool/speacial underpants in case this problem arises.) I finally talked him into wearing his new underpants. The bets had been placed, would he or wouldn't he pee in them.

He didn't! He went 2 1/2 hours completely dry and then it was back to the potty. Another 2 1/2 hours on the potty and he did it again!! HE PEED IN THE POTTY!!

After all the trouble he gave me today about wearing big boy undies, tonight when it was time for the pull-up he cried and said he wanted to wear his undies to bed. Dennis and I finally talked him into putting the pull up on and he went to bed dry! Lets all hope he is dry in the morning.

Yes is was a VERY VERY VERY long day in the bathroom, but it was so worth it. When Judge started to get discouraged I just changed it up. We would play a different game or read a new book. Today was all about letting him see where the pee comes out and learning the mechanics of it all.

So I would say day 1 of potty boot camp was a complete success!! Day 2 starts tomorrow at 6 am. We will still be using POSITIVE reinforcement (NO NEGATIVITY, the potty is a happy and fun place.) We will be changing a few things, like how long we sit on the potty and how often we go. But we have our potty treats (M&M'S and suckers) and a bag of new match-box cars (he will earn one each time he pees on the potty.) Everyone keep your fingers crossed for another good day tomorrow and hopefully we will get a poop in the potty tomorrow.

Daddy's turn!

Everyone knows by now about my experiences with dirty diapers. So when Dennis happens to get the occasional weekend dirty diaper I secretly do my happy dance.
1. Because I change about 20 dirty diapers a week between the 2 boys
2. He has the best reactions I have ever seen.
So when Judge blew out of his diaper right before a bath I had to video tape it.
The icing on the cake was when Dennis stepped in it at the end of the video!!