Week 5

Our week was chaotic as usual, but good. Aside from constantly battling our landlord, I would chalk our week up as a success! I had marked off Tuesday as our "beginning to potty train" week. And as much as I would like to say, we did it in 3 short days, the truth is that we have been working on it for the past year and I finally decided that we were both ready to tackle it head on. We finally had a break in our schedule and enough time has passed since Nathan has left for him to emotionally deal with everything. I will have to say that he was probably ready months ago, but we were too busy to dedicate the time to it. So the "Potty Fairy" came to visit and brought us a brand new chart with stickers for pooping and peeing.



















I loaded up with red jelly beans (Linc's color and flavor of choice!).




















And we threw out the diapers.

Pooping was our greatest challenge. But after making him sit and eat and drink on the potty (I know gross, but I was desperate!) and repeat viewings of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse---we had success! Who knew I would be so excited over poop!

Corinne did a good job of keeping him company---although she was not always welcome. He does enjoy his privacy!

It was unusually warm outside this week (record breaking temps), so we enjoyed the sunshine as much as possible.

Corinne and I even ate breakfast on the patio one morning.

Accidents were minor (only 1 or 2 a day) with no bed wetting. Our worst one was a puddle on the kitchen tile. I initially thought, no biggie, better the tile than the carpet. That is until Lincoln decided it was similar to a rain puddle that you stomp in. GRRRRRRRRRR! So a small clean up turned into a huge mess of pee splatter all over the kitchen!
We were all pretty happy to be done with diapers---at least one set of diapers.

We stayed home for the most part, but did short errands and went to Lincoln's music class.

We made a cake for our neighbors "Send Off to Boot Camp Party."

Then we went off to send our best wishes!

Oh and did I mention during all of this we had bees in our house? They were coming in through the dryer vent, the recessed lighting, and the bathroom window---the same bathroom we frequented 20 times a day during potty training. So I snapped some pictures for my landlord and sent him an email detailing the infestation in the house and my constant bee-squishing. Which he replied "Bees are a seasonal thing in SoCal. We tend to ignore them." Oh it is on, Bobacadouche---on like Donkey Kong!

Quotes of the Week:

Quote 1:

(While peeing in the Walmart bathroom)
Lincoln: "Uh, Oh Mommy! Your pants all wet! I peed on you." (luckily just a minor splatter)

Quote 2:

Lincoln: "Mimi, Grandpa Jinks, and Aunt Linda going to come see me soon!"

Me: "Grandpa Jinks and Linny will be here, but not Mimi--she has to work."

Lincoln: "She has to stay at home and vacuum."

Quote 3:

(This kid is obsessed with Cinderella)

Lincoln: "I got a beautiful ball gown and glass slippers."

Quote 4:

(While he is in the tub and I am getting Corinne dressed I see him hunched over all funny.)

Me: "Lincoln, what are you doing."

Lincoln: "Oh, playing with my weenie! I pushing the weenie butt (what he calls a button)" (Now what a weenie button is------I have no idea???)

Quote 5:

(While almost sticking his finger to stir his milk like the cat on Cinderella--until I caught him and gave him the look!)

Lincoln: "I not a kitty cat Mommy."

Me: "No you are not, what are you?" (looking for the words "person" or "human")

Lincoln: "And you not a kitty cat, Sissy not a kitty cat, Dada not a kitty cat, Uncle not a kitty cat and Lincoln not a kitty cat!"

Me: "That's right. What are we called?" (still looking for a reference to people)

Lincoln: "We a family. That's our family!"

Me: "You're right sweetheart. That's our family!"

Week 4

Well we started out the week with Lincoln coming home from school with a fever! The weird thing was that it was just a fever and nothing else. Motrin brought it down for 6 hours and then it would shoot back up again. The worst part was that he wasn't sleeping. He would wake up in the middle of the night, not crying because he wasn't feeling good, but just wandering into my room saying "I need a water cup" and "this toy needs new batteries"! I mean come on child, it is 2 a.m. get in bed! Well after 2 nights of this night wandering and reluctance to nap, we were both on the verge of dying from exhaustion...or at least felt like it. Little Linc's eyes were completely bloodshot---so much to the point that the doctor thought he had pink eye at first! Well turns out that Motrin makes him wired! So I switched to Tylenol and he slept and napped relentlessly for the next two days and was as good as new, minus a slight rash that broke out after the fever. And his eyes cleared up instantly.


So needless to say, we did a whole lot of this.....
















Did I mention that after we got back from the doctor Lincoln locked me out of my room??? Yes, our wonderful landlord rents us the place with a lock on our bedroom door that can be triggered by a simple push of the button. However it is not one of those easy, slip a coin or pin in the slot and BAM the door opens. No, it requires a key that no one has! And he didn't lock himself in there, so I couldn't talk him through how to let me in. My lonely bed was calling my name for an afternoon nap and there was no hope of me getting in. So while I am running on 5 hours of sleep in a 48 hr. time period, my son proceeds to lock me out of my bed. GRRRRRRRRRRRR! I can't even email Nathan and ask him what to do because the computer is also in my bedroom! So I call Dad and he says try a bobbie pin. Hello, all my bobbie pins are in my bathroom! So one locksmith and $85 later, I now have 3 keys to my bedroom. I know it was an accident waiting to happen, but why or why did it have to happen on a day I so desperately needed my bed!


Luckily Corinne was a good sport through all of this and kept us entertained by doing laps around the love seat and offering us plastic food to snack on while I held Lincoln on the couch.





















24 hrs after his fever broke, we were all suffering from cabin fever and decided to get out and enjoy the sunshine!







































Saturday was looking bright with a trip to the Hobby Shop to paint some pottery with Aiden, Colin, and Riley.















The girls didn't do much painting...just a lot of snacking.
















No trip to base is complete without a visit to our favorite park!

Lincoln has a serious "big kid" fascination and latched onto Collin right away.

They made a little music.
















And did some serious swinging!




















Sunday after church we decided to enjoy the sun make some pictures for Daddy outside.















They loved getting messy.
















Where is Corinne's bikini bottoms you might ask??? Well I got the brilliant idea to let her "air out" while we were outside and wear only her swimsuit and no diaper. That face of her in the exersaucer might look innocent, but it is in fact quite devious! She is pooping! Her whole "air out" session lasted a whopping 3 minutes.


Corinne decided she better "sample" the artwork before sending it off to Dad.



















What started out as finger painting....




















...quickly evolved into hand painting.
















Corinne really wanted to dive into finger painting too, but I was certain she would do some more sampling. How much of the nontoxic stuff can you eat before it becomes toxic??? It just wasn't worth the risk. Thus she was forced to observe on the sidelines.



















But I made it up to her by letting her try out Lincoln's ride on toy while he was napping!




















QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

Quote 1: Gotta love this kid for always looking out for his Dad's best interests.
(While walking out to the garage to get in the car)
Lincoln "Uh, oh Mama! I'm not seeing Daddy's two vrrooom, vrrooms!" (what he calls motorcycles)
Me "It's okay Lincoln. We moved them to storage. They're safe."
Lincoln "We need to go buy Daddy two new Vrooom, vrrooms!"

Quote 2: (While riding in the car and slapping his hands on his legs)
Me "Whoa, Lincoln you sound just like a galloping horse. Good job! Is that a galloping horse I hear back there?"
Lincoln (in a very serious voice)"No Mama, I am not a galloping horse! I am Lincoln!"

Week 3

We had a pretty good week. Lincoln is definitely head on into his "terrible twos", but we are practicing recognizing tantrums and trying to calm down before he gets sent to his room. Here is a little of what we did.

We had fun playing with Legos in Lincoln's room.



















I had a special request to build Daddy Lego and Lincoln Lego----we didn't have enough for Mom and Sissy.




















I decided to upgrade Corinne's car seat and pack away the infant carrier after bumping her legs into things while I carried her. Even though the weight limit is 25 lbs., and she is barely weighing in at 17, we were both tired of smashing her into it before trips.


























After more than a few attempts I finally got the new seat safely secured. The whole car seat instillation normally falls under "Daddy Jobs". I discovered the best way to secure a super tight fit is to sit in the car seat yourself while cranking on one of these---- http://www.mightytite.com/








Now she is riding in style!





















But gone are the days of snapping her out of the car and into the shopping cart where she can comfortably lounge while I pile in groceries around her. Now all our errands just became that much more difficult. Try going to the bathroom while holding an almost-one-year-old on your lap and keeping a two year old from touching icky things on the floor. Now try pulling up your pants and zipping them, then washing your hands.......not so easy, is it! The things I sacrifice for her comfort!


We went to the park on base, where it is totally fenced in and the ground is covered in bouncy turf. Corinne couldn't quite figure it out.


























I loved that she could run around and basically bounce back after every fall.

Lincoln of course loves going up and down the slides.






























And checking out the helicopters that flew over us.





















Corinne was pretty sure her brother was crazy for climbing up the slide.


























Then she tried it herself and discovered just how much she was missing out on.














































Corinne found out the hard way what happens to an untended sippy cup.





















It gets thieved by your brother of course!



















Better luck next time kiddo!























We all did a little swinging.













































Running all that energy off was the perfect recipe for a nice snoozie on the ride home.




















We went to the Wild Animal Park with Ava and Jake-Jake.

















Sometimes I think we should have left our kids there---they would fit right in.


















Lincoln practiced his gymnastics skills.






















And gave Corinne a lesson on trucks. "And that a dump truck, and that a fire engine, and that a tractor and plow."





















He also taught her a few other tricks.










































Corinne played a little dress-up while Lincoln was napping.
























But she seemed more concerned with when Daddy was coming home.


































I mean, I thought we had a good week, but clearly Lincoln is feeling a bit outnumbered by the girls. Check out what he did when he got a hold of our family photo calendar.


















He is either feeling some serious estrogen overload, or Corinne and I are definitely on his "list".



QUOTES OF THE WEEK:


Quote 1

Me: (Upon coming upstairs to Lincoln running around with no diaper on while he is supposed to be napping) Lincoln, where are your pants? Why don't you have a diaper on?
Lincoln: (Still running back and forth) Oh, I peed on the floor again!
Me: (now in his room by the wet spot that is 3 feet from the potty and the dry diaper on the floor) How does this happen? Were you standing or sitting?
Lincoln: I was sitting.
Me: So what happened?
Lincoln: (with a head tilt and shoulder shrug) I don't know. Accident happens sometimes Mama.



Note: Luckily for me my adoring husband sent me an email explaining the occupational hazards of owning a "weenie". Specifically the danger of sweaty balls or "swalls". We then had an in depth lesson on the proper potty steps to take while sitting down. Un-glue weenie from leg and/or nutsack. Release. Push weenie down. Close legs completely. Push the pee-pee out. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE WEENIE LIKE A SQUIRT GUN.

Quote 2

At prayer time.

Lincoln: God help Sissy not touch the Xbox butt (his word for button). Help keep Daddy and Uncle safe while he fights the bad guys on the airplanes and watches movies---Dinosaur Ice Age (specifically). Help Mommy have no patience. (he means patience) And help Lincoln throw no temper tantrums. That's not nice and not fair to Mommy and Sissy.