orryally

Blake has been trying to trick me all day with little silly things, and then he says "Happy Fools!"

Today Tim was pushing Allison on the swing and she started singing a made-up song: "I'm swinging with my Daddy... I'm swinging outside... with my Daddy...." Tim told me about it and it sounded so cute. She is making up songs a lot lately, as well as dressing up in her princess dress complete with a magic wand that we made a few months ago and a ring from a ring toss game that she wears on her head!

With some help with what comes after 59, 69, etc., Blake counted to 100 for the first time by himself. Then he kept going to 120 and wondered how high his cousins can count. He must be proud of himself!

Yesterday was simply a gorgeous day. I heard that warm March means deadly heat in the summer. This might be the summer to join a pool! But I will take it now- usually March is dreary and chilly and we have temps in the HIGH 70s forecasted for the next 10 days.
We went to the park and had a picnic after preschool, and the kids were happy there for over an hour and a half! Then we spent more time outside while I attempted to clean out and vacuum the van. I didn't get very far, mostly because the kids needed help on their bikes and such. It's like Winter took all the coordination out of them! But we did get to say hi and chat with some of our neighbors. Warm weather brings everyone out of their hermit holes.
Then we played in the backyard again after dinner. Such gorgeous weather, I can hardly believe it. Sorry to whomever we stole it from :P

In case you thought we were all through with diapers, quite the contrary- A is back in diapers. She couldn't predict when she needed to go, especially #2, so after a couple days of that awfulness I put her back in pull-ups. At which point she completely regressed, expectedly- they are glorified diapers. More convenient for taking on and off when pottying, but not for actually being able to tell you're wet. Which she didn't even really care about if she did have an accident!! So I decided she wasn't ready and she decided to pretend she was a baby all the time, so even pull-ups were inconvenient. Since she is my baby I am letting her play the part for a few more months :) In the warmer months it will be much easier to train her, maybe outside. ha!

Last week I told Blake he was now 4 1/2 as of the 22nd. He got all wide-eyed and started asking a bunch of questions. Then, later that day or the next, he announced that he would no longer suck his thumb because he was now 4 1/2. Another time later that day, he ran into the room, threw his blankie at me, and said, "Give this to someone else." And ran out. WHaa!?
He always sucked his thumb while holding onto his blanket. But now, suddenly and just like that, he's done with it. Sniff...

Then, last night as I was folding laundry (including his blankets to put away), he said, "Let me just try it again." He lay his head on the bed where the blanket was, held onto it for a split second while testing his thumb in his mouth again, stood up, and said, "Yuk." I guess that's that!!!

After a week and a half of potty training and feeling like I might have to just give up and not push her, Alli has risen to the occasion and was dry all day today (just one little leak). She even went #2 on the potty and stayed dry for nap and our hour-long outing to Target!!! I'm so pleased and proud of her. She seems proud too :) I was starting to think maybe she wasn't ready. I wasn't pushing it- she wore pull-ups for much of the time, but if I knew we would be home for the morning or afternoon then I would put underwear on her for a couple of hours. It was like short bursts of training. I'm sure we'll have some setbacks still, but I'm hopeful that my diaper-changing days are almost over!!! 6 years of nonstop kids in diapers is coming to an end, whoopee!

Once in awhile I'll ask Allison if she wants to start using the big girl potty, and she usually says no. Once in awhile she'll sit on it, like before bed, and actually goes half the time. Today she said she wanted a blue potty, so I jumped on that and we picked up a blue training potty for under $10 at Walmart. She has already gone a few times today, and now she wants to do it all by herself and has successfully done it from start to finish twice now! The second time, I went to check on her toward the end and she said she was "cleaning something." I look and she had gone #2 and successfully transferred it to the real potty!!! AND she was cleaning up after herself!!!! Amazing. So I helped her finish up to make sure she got everything taken care of, and I can hardly believe she might be well on her way to training. We'll see, but so far, she is excited to use this blue potty. HOORAY!

After school today Nathan told me his whole lunch fell on the floor at lunchtime. His friend across from him at the lunch table didn't like his lunch and pushed it away from him, knocking Nathan's lunch off the table. Of course he conveniently got to eat half of his cookie before it took the fall! I asked what he did for lunch then and he said the cafeteria supervisor offered him hot lunch, but he didn't want "chicken dinner." I said, "You didn't want chicken dinner? Why not?" and he answered, "Mom, are you insane?"
So instead the supervisor found him an apple and some carrot sticks. :)

For Halloween, my kids were an Angry Bird, Darth Vader, and Fairy Princess. Kind of random (I couldn't make them all fit within a theme this year although I thought they might be all want to be Star Wars characters). We had a nice night- Tim took the boys out trick-or-treating for maybe an hour or so, and my sister came over and hung out with me and Allison while I got dinner ready. Then my parents and one of my brothers and his girlfriend came over for dinner- I had thrown a roast in the crockpot in the morning and had leftover butternut squash soup from a small group get-together I hosted the night before. It was nice so have so many people over that weekend (Sunday and MOnday nights) but I was definitely tired after hosting both nights. But it was worth it.
Before dinner we went across the neighborhood to see the kids' cousins and trick-or-treat at their house. It is nice to live so close to them.