Never Forget

On September 11, Daddy was in New York city attending memorials for the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Wesley and I were at home and we went to church and prayed for the families of all the victims. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since that day and while we are thankful that time has started the healing process, we know that our nation and our lives will be forever changed.

We will never forget and will continue to pray for the safety of our nation.

Here's an Idea

According to my wacky Oriental Trading Company calendar, today is Swap Ideas Day. So I thought I'd share this idea that my friend Molly shared with me, which she saw here. Phew, that was a mouth full (but I think it makes sense!) Anyway, Molly sent us the idea to make these Splash Balls a while ago, but I was recently at the dollar store and checking out when I saw a pack of sponges someone had randomly left in the checkout/impulse-buy candy section. Remembering this craft, we grabbed them and made Splash Balls after nap time.

This is a super easy craft and we even used it for some fun color and counting practice. Here's Wes collecting all the Blue sponge strips.

This isn't a great picture, but this is Wes pulling the zip tie tight to make the ball shape. The tutorial says to buy colored zip ties, but you can't see them once the balls are done, so we just opted for some of the plain ones in Daddy's plethora of zip ties.

A little bit tighter!

Yea, finished!! Instead of playing with these outside, we took them upstairs to use in the bathtub. Super fun, easy, and cheap idea, thanks Molly!

Missed it By That Much!

Here's what we're working on....

...glorious potty training!!

For most of the parents of boys who I have talked to, it seems a little early, but Wes is giving me all the classic "I'm ready to be potty trained" signs. He tells me when he's going potty in his diaper, he tells me when there is poop in his diaper, and he totally gets the physical connection it takes to use the potty chair. So I thought it would be a brilliant idea to start potty training while Michael was gone for 12 days. We could hunker down, bust out a sticker chart (or something) and make some progress. Oh, the best laid plans of mice and men!!

While we've had about 7 successful pee-pee in the potty events (Wes tells me he needs to go, we make it to the potty and it all goes in), we've had two puddles on the floor and this joyous event which happened while I was sitting on the bathroom floor cheering him on. And this happened even with the splash guard on!! In my mind, I kept thinking how wonderful it will be to only have one child in diapers but in reality, I wasn't considering how a) exhausted I would be having Michael gone and adding the trials and errors of potty training, b) how hard it is to get up and down off the bathroom floor a dozen times a day being 7 months pregnant and c) dealing with "the boy who cried pee." More often than not, Wes will now tell me, even when he has his diaper on, "need to go pee-pee on the potty!!!" so we'll run to the potty (and for some reason he has developed an aversion to the downstairs potty, so we're usually running up stairs), take off pants and diaper sit down on the potty seat and then he'll proceed to tell me "don't haf to go." Ugghhhh!!! Now I feel like I've opened a can of worms, and if he tells me he needs to go, I don't want to ignore him and let him go in his diaper, but the false starts are exhausting me! Oh well, I know it will come with time and since his pediatrician told me to expect some backsliding when the new baby comes, I'm taking it all in stride. All I can say is right now I'm really thankful for wood and tile floors!

Petal Pusher

Michael has been gone now for a week, and I've been thinking about all the miles they've been riding (averaging about 90 miles a day) and all that pedal pushing. I've decided that this type of petal pushing is more my speed, at least for now!

I planted these two mini rose bushes together several years ago. One I got from a friend's baby shower (and that baby is now 4!) and I have no idea where the other one came from. But they have grown together so nicely, usually the yellow roses have red tips. But this is the first time I have had a pure yellow rose right next to a pure red rose. And I especially love this plant because all I do is water it once in a while and cut off the dead roses. I have never fertilized it or pruned it. It just does it's own thing...my kind of gardening!

While I was thinking about this post and gardening, I thought I'd add this picture of of my wrist after I got stung by a wasp on Sunday. Our neighbors are out of town and Wes and I are taking care of their plants. It was the very first day of watering and I reached in to turn off the hose, felt a sharp sting and when I pulled my hand out, the wasp was stuck right in my wrist. It doesn't really look that bad in this picture, but it was super swollen, itchy, and burning. My OB made me go to urgent care on Tuesday just in case, but the doctor said it was just a more severe local reaction, not an allergic reaction, which was pretty obvious. But better to be on the safe side when you're pregnant. It might be the heat, but it seems like we have a ton of wasps in our backyard right now, so after this incident, I think I leave all remaining pedal pushing to Michael! We miss you Daddy!

Visit to Daddy's Fire Station

On August 24th, we invited a whole bunch of friends to join us at Mike's fire station for a little tour and some fun time checking out the engines.

All the kids got to spray the fire hose at these wrecked cars.

Sophia, Emma, Abigail, and Abigail's friend.

Next, they brought out the ladder truck and the kids got to climb into the tiller bucket and check out the cab.

Sylvie driving the back of the rig.

I didn't get any pictures, but the kids also got a tour of the station, including the kitchen, the bunk room, and a demo of the fire pole.

Thanks to Daddy and Fireman Mark and to all our friends who were able to make it!

Skyscraper Day

Today, September 3rd (yes, today!) is Skyscraper Day! How do I know this? From a wacky calendar I got from the Oriental Trading Company back in January that lists all kinds of silly holidays and nationally recognized "Days." (Definitely a clever ploy on the part of OTC to get you to buy more of their stuff). Anyways, I remember thinking when I got it, that it would be a fun way to learn about new things with Wes and also celebrate National Polka Day (August 9th). So I set it in a safe spot on my desk where it was promptly forgotten. Thanks to some 7 month pregnant "nesting" issues, I rediscovered it the other day while cleaning. Luckily it was just in time to celebrate Skyscraper Day. I felt a little funny googling "skyscrapers in Orange County" but came across this website which was incredibly helpful. It was also interesting to learn that the tallest building in Orange County (after Knott's Berry Farm's Supreme Scream ride) is the Center Tower which is just down the street from our house. So in between making desserts for our Lagoon potluck (pictures from that to follow later) we headed over there to check it out.

The Center Tower which is adjacent to the Performing Arts Center, is 285 feet tall and has 21 stories. (I know, pretty weak for a skyscraper, but it's Orange County, and Wes is two!)

While we were driving there, I was explaining to Wes that we were going to see a Skyscraper. And he asked "What's a skyscraper?" and I replied "A really tall building." So when we got there, he pointed up to it and said, very dramatically, "That's a skyscraper!"

Running in and out of the hedge maze.

Since it was a Saturday, we didn't have to pay to park in the structure and we had free reign of the lobby, so Wes decided to pose with this sculpture. (Totally reminds me of Beetlejuice)

Going up...

...and coming down. We were only able to go to the 10th floor and there were no windows, so that was kind of a bust, but we definitely had a fun excursion. And Wes learned a little something about skyscrapers!

Here's a few more days we are looking forward to:

Chocolate Milkshake Day - September 12th

National Candy Corn Day - October 30th

Look for Circles Day (???) - November 2nd

National Cocoa Day - December 13th

Here are a few we missed this year, but will be sure to remember next year:

National Kazoo Day - January 28th

Be Humble Day - February 22nd

International Waffle Day - March 25th

No Housework Day - April 7th (I think this should be the 7th of every month!)

Hawaii Lei Day - May 1st

National Chocolate Ice Cream Day - June 7th Followed by

Eat your Vegetables Day - June 17th

I'm probably looking most forward to next July:

National Fried Chicken Day - July 6th

National French Fries Day - July 13th

National Lollipop Day - July 20th

Thread the Needle Day - July 25th (had to throw that one in there)

National Cheesecake Day - July 30th

Champagne Day!!!! - August 4th (ok since Wes can't participate in that one, here's one more)

Wiggle your Toes Day - August 6th

And He's Off!

Michael left yesterday, September 1st, to join the other riders in Pittsburgh for the remaining 9 or 10 days of their ride into New York City for the 10 year anniversary of September 11th. He was bummed to leave us (a two year old and a 7 month pregnant mama) at home for 12 days, but I could tell he was really excited too. This is such a great opportunity for him to support such a wonderful cause, see some of the country that he hasn't seen before (they will be riding an average of 100 miles a day) and attend several memorials to honor all the lives lost a decade ago.

Here he is packing up his road bike with foam, bubble wrap and lots of duct tape. He decided to check his bike as baggage at the airport to the tune of $200, but it was worth the peace of mind knowing it would be at baggage claim when he arrived in Pittsburgh (which it was, and it one piece, thank the Lord!)

It was a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle getting all the parts into the box as securely and as padded as possible. I don't think the baggage handlers use too much caution when throwing those bags and boxes around.

Did I mention lots of duct tape?!

Here we are dropping Daddy off at the airport. Wes kept saying he wanted to go on the "aplane" too, maybe next time!

We love you Daddy, have a great time and be safe!

If you missed these posts, here's the links for the Ride for 9-11 Sendoff, and the Fundraiser at Roscoes.