Ohio Trip and various tidbits

Well I survived my first solo trip on a plane with Rebecca. Yeah! Our trip was great and it was wonderful seeing most of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Here are a few highlights--

We first went directly to Cleveland where my dad's sister lives. Rebecca was great and even slept for about 30 mins. When we got off the plane people said "I didn't even know there was a baby on the flight!" The lady next to me on the plane was an angel. She was super nice and even offered to hold Becca so I could take a break.
Funny thing---her name was Catherine Cooper!!

My cousin Laurie who works at a day care center got Rebecca a very loud but cool toy and she loves it. Kylie is not a fan! :P We stayed in Cleveland from Thursday to Saturday then headed across the state to my Uncle Greg's house. It is actually where my grandmother lived but his family moved in when she passed away. I love it there. It is a large farm and very quiet. It was cool enough at night to sit outside and talk-imagine that! There were a ton of fireflies and I was tempted to catch a few!

My cousin Stephanie is expecting in November so we had her family shower while we were there. There were 22 people there and Rebecca was the highlight. She smiled at everyone and sang and babbled. She was then nicknamed "the happiest baby". She even napped with all the excitement. Rebecca got to meet her Great-great Aunt and Uncle (my grandma's brother). We took a ton of pictures! Alanna was able to change her work schedule so she drove up to see us. I miss her! My cousin Nathan also came home to "harrass" Uncle Bob. I used to babysit Nathan and play with him. Now he is a college grad and training to be a Police Officer. Between you and me--Nathan is one of my favorite people ever!

The flight back home was great since I had my parents to assist. Rebecca slept most of the longest flight--man she gets heavy! She was wide awake when Sean picked us up and she got the biggest hug from Daddy. He really missed her! Kylie of course went ape crazy when she saw us and her new toy from Gramma and Grandpa! We are settling in today and I sent my parents to the grocery store while Rebecca naps, plus I need 15 minutes by myself!

Tidbit--(long story short, I hope). Sean's co-worker's mother (got that?) owns a restaurant and needs a new GM. She wants to show Sean the property and talk about him running it. It is located in Stuart, Fl about 2 hours from Orlando and 2 hours from Miami. The pay is average but he was offered 50% of the profits. That has a ton of potential salary-wise. The restaurant has been in business for 13 years. Needless to say, this is such a weird time for us. We are going to head up to the restaurant this weekend, I think and check it out. We have a ton of preliminary questions before we even talk about this career change. The what-ifs are overwhelming! I feel good about the opportunity even if we pass on it. I just know that something will come for us and we will work it out. As long as we are together we will be fine.

Happy Birthday Kater Tot! ;o)

Just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday! Hope you and Brian enjoy a fabulous b-day weekend in Amelia. Thank you for your wonderful friendship. Sending you much love and very happy birthday wishes.

Happy Birthday sweet friend! I LOVE YOU! xoxo

Oh BOY!

Another Lengthy Update

(because I'm COMPLETELY incapable of making these short)!

As I'm sure you won't be surprised we've got ALOT going on. It's Wild, it's Wacky, it's downright EXHAUSTING (or maybe that's just me being pregnant...lol).

My dear sweet friend Meghan just got married and Loki and I were both in the wedding. It was SUCH a treat to be in a wedding with him and he was SUCH a trooper. It was SCORCHINGLY HOT and he was NOT in any sort of attire appropriate for such heat. But he hung in there the whole time and did GREAT for photos. Here are just a few teasers for you for now.

In the picture above, we we were all supposed to be disgusted by the newlyweds kissing so I told Loki to stick his tongue out - which he did - only then I was trying to get him to look at the camera...LOL.

And here is our sweet man, soaked in sweat, ridiculously smiley and completely unwilling to change out of his "Handsome Attire"

I should also mention that while we were at Meghan's wedding, we had a tour go out...the VERY first tour, we've ever MISSED. It apparently went well. It's WEIRD having your business go on without you, but it did and I'm excited about what this means for our weekends!

I'm really in a VERY happy place right now. I've been a little more busy with work than I'd like to be this week but I am supposed to be full time and I'm probably not working more than a full time load, I'm just not accustomed to such a steady stream of projects! That being said, I couldn't be happier about our current situation. We DEFINITELY made the right decision staying put. I get to see the kids and WB thoughout my "work day." And I STILL have quite a bit of flexibility in my schedule. It's GREAT.

AND I just got the brand new HTC Droid Incredible today! And it's just that...INCREDIBLE. Well, OK, so really I don't know for sure if it's incredible, yet, since I've only had it a few hours and for the majority of those WB's been setting it all up for me and trying to figure out how to use it so he can show me...but I have high hopes.

We'll probably be headed down to Jonesborough Days this weekend to celebrate the 4th. And we have a cook out planned with my sister. So we should stay pretty busy. I'm a little bummed that we probably won't get to see any fireworks this year. Loki could probably handle them and would likely enjoy them, but Elora's still a little small and again with the whole not wanting to traumatize our children...

It's too bad we're not all together again watching the fireworks displays over the theme parks from the comfort of the resort's stair well. Sigh. Good times! I guess that's probably the ONLY thing that I'm NOT happy about: my distance from you ladies! Well, there's still time. Who knows what the future holds. I love you all and hope that you all have a Safe & Happy Fourth of July!

Potty Power

Meet Cornbread...son of Whitebread! LOL!

Yes, that is my child sitting on the toilet with a large piece of cornbread, looking like he's been picking up chicks on the beaches of Maui. The more I see our families grow the MORE I realize that the apples REALLY don't fall far from the trees (cough, cough...Reagan James & Katherine Schofield Yallaly...cough, cough)!

So, we're potty training...sigh....No really, it's going GREAT! I am THRILLED that we are down to one in diapers (since we'll be back up to two again in December...but why worry about that now...besides, they say that you can potty train girls quicker and easier...so Elora should be ready next week, right?!)

Before I dive into our full PT (potty training) philosophy and methodology, I want to make sure to point out that this is NOT our first potty training endeavor. Oh no...In fact, I decided that as SOON as Loki could walk, he could be potty trained. (I'm fairly certain I read that somewhere...probably on the Internet...and if it's on the Internet, it MUST be true, right?!). So, we purchased Potty Power, a silly DVD that does a surprisingly good job of explaining the whole potty process (and the tunes are pretty catchy, to boot). We also ordered The Potty Train, since the kid likes trains. Well, THAT was a COMPLETE waste of money. Do NOT order this book. Loki enjoys reading it, but the innuendos are SO vague that I can't imagine ANY child would understand that "When you feel like you've gotta go, take a ride on the potty train." has ANYTHING to do with putting excrement into a toilet. All that being said, we did have some MILD success when we first started. By "mild" I mean, he did pee on the potty ONCE and he would sit on the potty frequently (as long as he got an M&M each time he sat down).

We did the whole treat thing with each sit on the potty, until it became VERY apparent that we were being scammed. Loki would sit on the potty, demand a treat, promptly get off the potty, only to return to the potty minutes later and demand a second treat. TROUBLE.

Since that wasn't terribly successful, we sorta curbed our enthusiasm for PT'ing. However, that enthusiasm returned with reckless abandonment with each disposable diaper purchase (bear in mind that we don't actually purchase all that many disposables, either since we mostly do cloth).

So, we tried again, shortly before his second birthday because he started coming to us to tell us that he needed a diaper change. Now he didn't tell as ALL the time, just on occasion. But it was enough inspiration for me to purchase a NEW DVD and a NEW book. This time it was Elmo's Potty Time, which I actually enjoy. It's a GREAT supplement to Potty Power and a nice switch up for when the overly smiley Potty Power gal gets to be a little much...but I purchased it in conjunction with Too Big For Diapers, a Seasame Street board book ~ ANOTHER complete waste of cash! I'm just not impressed with the books. They don't seem to be able to convey the whole concept quite as well as the DVD's. And I will say that I am FAIRLY certain that it was all because of the DVD ground work we did that set us up for Loki being ready last month for all of this. But he WASN'T ready, then. He understood all of the concepts, knew that he should sit on the potty, got that "Big Kids" used the potty and "Babies" wore diapers, but with each extreme PT beginning he would literally BEG to have his diapers back. So, we gave them to him. I don't want to traumatize my kid (well, I'd like to keep it to a minimum, anyway).

But last month, Loki started telling us that he was "pooping" in his diapers and that's what did it for us. We were ready to do it AGAIN. Fortunately, I had JUST gotten my Parenting magazine in the mail and I found the "Extreme Potty Training" article and figure it was RIGHT up our alley. We didn't follow it to a T, we took ALOT of her recommendations and tried to modify her plan to accommodate for what she thought were short-comings and we couldn't be happier! On a VERY important note I should say that when we started for this FINAL round, we shifted to giving treats ONLY when something made it into the potty...and after the first couple of days, we stopped offering the treats all together. If Loki remembered and asked for one we would DEFINITELY give him one, but that didn't last long. And he doesn't even think about it any more. He just gets TONS of verbal praise and the occasional "Potty Cheer & Dance" from Momma!

We're 4 weeks in and we still have bad days but for the most part, Loki's making it to the toilet or a potty EVERY time! WOO HOO!

One down...two to go!

And on a side note...ladies, if you are using the potty seats that fit onto your adult sized toilet and you happen to share a bathroom with your toddler...be SURE to remove said seat before going to bed, or you'll be in for quite the surprise in the middle of the night!