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!

SO. FREAKING. FRUSTRATING.

Well, I jinxed it. Aaron has not peed or pooped ONCE in the potty today. Everything, everything, everything has gone into his underwear/Pull-ups. Even after I took him to the potty FOUR TIMES during Speech today. Nope, he waited until we were back in the Speech room after the fourth trip and went in his Pull-up. Auugghhhh!

Big Boy Bike!

For Aaron's 3rd birthday, Daddy and I bought him a big boy bike! He looks so cute on it with his little helmet and whatnot (thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Q!). Check out the sweetness in these photos:

He's really great on the downhill portion of our neighborhood; however, the uphill portion? Not so much. This is how Aaron "rides" on the way back to the house:

Yeah, Daddy was earning that t-shirt on this particular evening!

Potty Training Update

Well, I'm not sure if I should write here what a good day we had today for fear of jinxing it, but my son has officially been clean and dry since sometime this morning. I say sometime this morning because he had his one and only accident at school this morning when I wasn't with him. Since then, he has peed in the potty five times and even pooped there once too!!

I'm not sure if maybe something has just clicked in his head or what. Today was the first day that he went to the three-year-old room at school, so I'm wondering if that had something to do with it. I say "three-year-old room" but, actually, these rooms house 3-5 year olds. Peer pressure is a wonderful thing (sometimes) so maybe it just took seeing big kids that he may look up to doing this potty thing on a regular basis? I'm not sure. Tomorrow could turn out to be a horrible day but at least I know he can do it!!

Future Golfer?

Thank you, Aunt Pam and Uncle Brian!

The Tiny Breakthroughs That Make Up for the Gigantic Frustrations

Do you see this boy right here?

This boy is having birthday cake for breakfast. Why, you may ask? Because I'm the best mommy in the world? Not quite. This boy is eating birthday cake for breakfast because he kept his Pull-up dry ALL NIGHT LONG, then went pee-pee in the potty when he got out of bed this morning. O.K., it wasn't as easy as I make it sound. He only went pee-pee after sitting on the potty for literally a half hour while subjecting me to the most pitiful wailing and crying you have every heard. At Minute 28, he had just finished telling me through tears and snot that he was "all done with potty" when the gusher came down below (all over the front of the toilet but that's O.K.).

Of course, since then, he has pooped in his Pull-ups twice but I blame that on myself. We had friends over this morning and Mommy did the exact wrong thing and put him in a Pull-up because it's just easier. Plus, getting him to sit on the potty was like pulling teeth while his friend Caleb was here to play with him, so I just let it go. So, after naptime, we start again.

Today My Boy is 3

I can't believe it. He's three. I have so much more to write but, fittingly enough, it has been a long day of chasing a three-year-old around and I'm tired. Until tomorrow...

Happy Birthday, my sweet one.

Parenting Milestone #1456

While his mother sits idly by, the kid blows his own bubbles.

Potty Training - Day 3

Today's stats, not as ugly:

Pee-pees in potty: 2!!!!!!!!!!!
Poops in potty: 0
Pee-pees in big boy underwear: 3
Poops in big boy underwear: 1

O.K., I have a theory. I don't think the boy likes an audience when he's trying to do his business. Both times when he peed on the potty, I had just left the bathroom and could tell that he had peed while I was gone because, when I got back, there were droplets on his junk and the water was a slight yellowish color. So maybe I should just give him some privacy from now on?

I caved and put him in a Pull-up for the evening because he had been trying to poop literally all afternoon but he won't do it on the potty or now in his big boy underwear. I'm trying to be strong about all this, but not if it's going to lead to constipation. And it was back into big boy underwear after he did it.

Potty Training - Day 2

Today's stats, still ugly:

Pee-pees in potty: 0
Poops in potty: 0
Pee-pees in big boy underwear: 3
Poops in big boy underwear: 0

Not as much trouble today for him to sit on the potty, except when he had just woken up from his nap and he was really cranky. That's when he gave us the most trouble.

Sooooo, very slow going. This will eventually be worth it, right?

Potty Training - Day 1

The ugly stats:

Pee-pees in potty: 0
Poops in potty: 0
Pee-pees in big boy underwear: 2
Poops in big boy underwear: 1
Number of times he screamed when we made him go anywhere near the potty, like it made his cheeks sizzle or something: every thirty minutes since 9:00 this morning.

I DO NOT know what is up with that last one. He's been sitting on the potty on and off since I bought him the little potty seat a couple of months ago. I bought him one of those seats that you can use on the floor with the little cup or take off the top and put it on a regular potty. I think he just doesn't want to be there because he feels he has better things to do, but we're forcing the issue and that's SO not cool, Mommy and Daddy. Interestingly enough, we put him in a Pull-up for his nap this afternoon and it was dry when he woke up!! The cars didn't disappear or anything! So I know he's ready; it's just convincing him to make the effort. Pray for us that Day 2 goes better!!

Obama '08

Why I want Barack to be the next President of the United States:

HE GAVE HIS WIFE POUNDS, DAWG!! I give my husband pounds all the time!! O.K., and how funny is it that the media called it a "fist bump"? Really?!? Cracks me up.

There are many, many other reasons why I'm all for Obama in '08, but this just added to his cool factor, I think. And that's how you win elections, dangit!!

T Minus Four Days...

...until Potty Training Extravaganza 2008! That's right, Step Three of Operation Turning Three is getting this boy to use the potty. We start this Saturday, and I haven't been this nervous since the whole breastfeeding debacle of 2005. I guess I'm so nervous because everything always seems to go either really well with Aaron or really badly. I never know what's going to happen. I think he's ready, though, because here lately he has been walking up to me and asking me to change his diaper. That's a pretty good cue, right?

So, for those of you in the know, here is my potty training arsenal:

Do I have everything? Is there something that really worked for you that I'm missing?

Did I Mention He was a Big Helper?

My Constant Companion

Do any of you have one of these? You know, that thing that's always underneath your feet, following you throughout the house, even to the bathroom. Nope, I'm not talking about my kid. I'm talking about my sweet girl, Reagan. Actually, I don't really mind it. Even when she wants to sit in my lap on the couch, underneath the pillow which happens to be underneath my dinner.

Reagan's had a pretty rough week this week. Last Friday I took her to the vet for what I assume is the equivalent of a yeast infection in humans. Nice, right? The problem is, the vet blamed this on her being so fat! Apparently, fat rolls were preventing air from getting to certain places so things weren't drying out properly, which led to a painful, itchy infection. So, $280, daily antibiotics and one week later, I think it has cleared up. In addition, Bill and I have decided we have made it to third base with Reagan and have almost pretty much rounded to home because, oh yeah, we had to CLEAN IT three times a day and put ointment on it as well.

The moral of the story is, we now have Reagan on reduced calorie food, obtained from the vet no less, to try to get her weight down. I honestly didn't think her weight was that bad. Pugs generally should weigh between 14 and 18 pounds, and Reagan weighed in at 22 pounds last week at the appointment. I guess four pounds does matter, though, when you're talking about a small animal. I hate it that she's probably hungry all the time, but I'll do whatever it takes to keep her around for as long as possible. Even if I do find myself tripping over dog about forty times a day.

He's a Big Helper

Necessities of Desert Living

I finally broke down and bought Aaron a pair of sunglasses. I've always been against buying things for him just for the sake of cuteness (Stop laughing! I'm being serious!), but, holy crap, the sun here was giving me migraines after running because I had to be so squinty! So I finally broke down and bought myself some running sunglasses. After that, I figured I better get Aaron some sunglasses too!

How awesome does he look in them?!? The problem is, how do you keep him from taking them off after five seconds? Auugggghhhh!

Big Boy Bed!

It's here!
It's pretty tall...
Now if he could just figure out how to sleep on it the proper way...