And Now, For Your Listening Pleasure...

...a lullaby.

Good night and, as Aaron would say, have good sleeps!

My Sweet Water Baby

This is how we spend most of our days because, good Lord, it's hot here.

Mommy says, "Keep the hat on or we're going inside!" Hey, that threat actually works! Who knew!

Practicing his kicking.

Hot dog.

Aaron's Birthday Party

This year, Aaron had a Blue's Clues party for his birthday. Over the past few months, he has rediscovered Blue's Clues (I used to show it to him when he was very little, but he was having nothing to do with it unless it involved Little Einsteins) and since then he can't get enough of "Clues Clues." So, of course, Mommy had an excellent time running around finding favors (pencils, hi-bounce balls, tattoos, bubbles and even little, real life Handy Dandy Notebooks!), tablecloths, balloons that match Blue perfectly, etc., etc. etc. Yeah, I know. Aaron doesn't give a crap but it was fun for me!!

We had the party at the Jungle Zone here on base. The Jungle Zone is an indoor play area which gets used frequently because it's usually too flippin' hot to do anything outside after 9:00 a.m. We had pizza lunch with veggies and dip, my friend Lisa's Strawberry Salad (I make that all the time, dude! But I always give you credit!) and pretzels. For dessert, I had a gorgeous cake made from someone in town, even though it kind of embarrasses me to say that. My plan had been to make a cake myself that was a paw print (like the clues on the show) but my prototype did not turn out well at all. Oh well. The cake was very yummy (white cake with chocolate mousse layers) so that made up for it, I think. Here are some pictures from our day (only a few because I didn't really have time to take very many!):

'Cause He's Just That Freaking Cool...

This is a video I took of a C-17 doing a fly-by over the Fourth of July celebration here on base today. Who was flying it, you may ask? That's right, dawg! My husband along with his friend Chris were the pilots. Yeah, they're so cool like that.

Sorry about the Aaron fit at the end. But really? Are you surprised?

Potty Training Update: Let the Reprogramming Begin

I am very proud to say that, over the course of the past four days, Aaron has had only about 3 or 4 potty accidents. I am really feeling the Mommy Guilt right now because I realized that, during my potty training frustrations of the past couple weeks, I was losing my patience with him because I thought he was willfully not going in the toilet. Just because that's how he rolls with everything else. But then I realized, his little brain just needed to be reprogrammed! I mean, if I had been doing something as important as this the same exact way for the past three years, how can anyone expect me to suddenly do it differently in just a couple days time frame? So, over the past week or so, I have really been trying to keep my cool and be patient with him and it seems to be working because his accidents are getting fewer and far between. That and the fact that something seems to have clicked in his head as well because now it is a whole lot easier to even get him to do his business on the potty. This was the first big obstacle we had - just getting him to do anything on the toilet. However, now, he sees how happy it makes us, so he tries to at least do a little something most of the times we take him.

So, really, the only reason he has accidents anymore is if we don't take him often enough. He's not at the point yet where he will stop what he's doing and tell us he needs to go. We are still at the phase where we just have to take him every half hour or hour and then he makes sure he empties himself whenever we go. I'm not brave enough yet to take him out in public for long periods of time in big boy underpants, but he is managing to keep the Pull-up clean and dry when we're out and that's all that matters, right?

This is our new treat for going on the potty:

Birthday cake! With sprinkles! (The sprinkles are very important, you know.)

Soon, we are going to have to switch over to the whole surprise-at-the-end-of-the-day-if-you-keep-yourself-clean-and-dry strategy or else this kid is going to be eating birthday cake and M&M's all day long!