Two Words: Potty. Training.

Greetings from the trenches. Yes, we are in the midst of serious potty training. And all I have to say is Oh. My. Word. We started exactly one week ago and I have never felt so exhausted by the end of the day as I have this past week. I feel like I'm either helping Ben get on the potty, asking him if he needs to go to the potty or cleaning up "potty" at all times. To be fair, he has done really well. He was already familiar with the potty because we've been having him go every morning and evening on it for a few months now. I wanted to wait to start serious training once he turned 2 1/2 though.

He actually had a completely accident-free day just a couple of days ago. But, today.....oh today.....he pooped on the floor. Thank the Lord it was on the wood floor in our kitchen. I'm not even going to try to explain the sequence of events that lead up to this. It would take too long. Let's just hope it never happens again. Because if it does, I may be throwing in the towel on potty training for awhile. The funny thing is, if we're out and about, he is able to hold it and not have an accident (within a reasonable amount of time of course). But if we're at home, I swear he has to go every 10 minutes. Actually, all but one of his accidents have been while we're at home. So, my goal now is to get him fed shortly after he wakes up and then quickly get out of the house!!! Too bad we've had waaaay too many of these lately.....

That is a picture of one SERIOUS thunderstorm we had a few days ago. That is what the sky right above our house looked like at approximately 6:00pm. Not friendly. It has been thunderstorm central around here lately. That definitely puts a damper on getting out of the house. We've had a couple of sunny days in row now though so hopefully we'll get a few more.

Also, I totally meant to do a Father's Day post several days ago, but I didn't get it started fast enough and then there was ALL THE POTTYING to contend with and here we are still with no Father's Day post. So, I thought I'd include some pics of the day. Greg decided he wanted us to take Ben to the zoo on Father's Day (such a selfless daddy!) We got there right when it opened and there was hardly anyone there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Ben trying to determine just how close he would like to get to the peacocks....

Peacocks kind of freak me out. I don't want to make Ben scared of them, but I feel like they would be totally down with pecking Ben in the face if he got too close. I think this stems from my fear of turkeys. I can remember when my parents would take my brother and I to the zoo and they actually had a sign on the turkey cage that read "We Bite Fingers" (I'm not sure which is more pitiful, that sign or the fact that the zoo actually included turkeys as an attraction). Also, it seems like every time I catch an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos", there is a clip of some kid getting pecked in the face by some blood-thirsty turkey. Peck me once, shame on you, peck me twice shame on me....or something like that. Anywhoo, here are some more pics of our turkey-free day.....

Posing with the stuffed bear in the "Bug Hut". Ben loves the "Bug Hut" because it is teeming with all manner of bees, spiders, hissing cockroaches and other specimen that typically send me running in the opposite direction....

Daddy and Ben posing on the caterpillar outside the butterfly building...

A series of photos showing our big boy climbing from the bottom of the spider web all the way to the top...

Feeding the goats....

And finally, the little man in his new big boy undies....

Right now we have him in training underwear which is severely lacking in style. I can't wait until he gets to wear true big boy undies that have all the fun characters on them. Grandma Reynolds sent him some adorable Thomas the Train undies awhile back and I can't wait for him to be able to wear them!!

Well, that has pretty much been our life over the past couple of weeks. Truly thrilling, I know. Hopefully my next post will not have to include a sentence that has anything to do with poop on the floor.

Have a great day!

Brooke

What Happens in Vegas....

Happy Father's Day weekend to all you dads out there! Hope you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones!

We returned last Sunday from a week-long trip to Vegas. This was the first time Greg and I had both been away from Ben overnight at the same time. I was really nervous to leave him, even though I knew he would have a great time with my mom and dad. Well, everything went wonderfully, as expected, and Greg and I had a nice, relaxing vacation. We stayed at The Palazzo this time. We've been to Vegas many, many times and have stayed at several hotels on the strip and The Palazzo is hands down the best one we've been to yet. I've stayed at the Bellagio a couple of times and really, really liked it, but it was the room situation at The Palazzo that won me over. Take a look....

The rooms are enormous!! You should see the bathroom! And even though it isn't centrally located on the strip, it is at least on the "nicer" end....although the new City Center at the other end is pretty impressive and has added some much needed shopping options to that end. Greg's brother, Mike, went also and brought a couple of friends, Greg and Kelly. I think we were all in agreement that it's going to be hard to stay elsewhere next time we're in town. Guess we better start saving now....

A pic of Greg and I on our first night there.....

On the balcony of the Fontana Bar in the Bellagio......

I really like the balcony seating at the Fontana. We had to wait a bit to be seated, but it gives you an awesome front row seat to the fountain show. The only downside this time was that the wind was blowing towards us, so we got pretty wet a couple of times. Still worth it though.

Below is a pic of Greg and I outside a restaurant inside the Paris hotel. We all met Greg and Mike's aunt Cindy and uncle Dick and cousin Katie and her adorable daughter, Gianna for dinner after Greg's conferment ceremony (the reason we were in Vegas to begin with). I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a sports bar-type place. Mike's friend Greg ordered a burger and fries and at the bottom of the basket it was served in was a plastic name tag. I'm gonna have to bust out a good old 80's style "grody to the max" on that one. At least he got a free meal....

Greg's aunt Carol and uncle Tom live in Vegas, and they had us all over for a delicious meal one night. We always have such a great time over there. Tom is a great prankster and story-teller and Carol is hilarious. Good times were had by all. I was not very good at taking pictures while we were there though. Here are a few....

Greg and I....
Greg's cousin, Katie, her hubs Brian and daughter, Gianna....

Greg and Mike....
Even though we go to Vegas at least once a year, I rarely gamble. Call me crazy, but it just isn't fun for me to lose $20 in 5 minutes. I spent my time laying out at the pool, people watching, shopping (bought several things at Zara...the only time I get to shop there is when we're in Vegas), eating and sleeping (although we were up almost every morning by 7:00 or 7:30am...what can I say, Ben has us trained well). Greg likes to play poker and black jack, but he really didn't gamble much this time. He even went shopping with me and we picked out a cute pair of Crocs for Ben (he loves shoes). And we got a few Jibbitz to go on them (Boots and Backpack from the show "Dora the Explorer", Nemo the fish, one of the cars from the movie "Cars" and the T-Rex from the movie "Toy Story"). Talk about the hit of the century. Ben LOVES them. He always wants to put them on. When we got back from the trip and gave him the shoes, he ran up and gave hugs and kisses. So sweet. Here are a few pics we took right after we got home....

Ben with Gigi and Grampy. Thanks so much to them for coming here to watch Ben. He had a great time.
Our family of three....

Me, mom (Gigi) and Ben....

Oh, and this is totally unrelated, but Ben has taught himself to do somersaults. And he does them PERFECTLY. We were watching "So You Think You Can Dance" the other night and one of the dancers did a somersault-type move and a few seconds later, Ben was doing them over and over and over. And this morning, he did one off the couch (which about gave me a heart-attack, by the way). The child is fearless....and also quite nimble :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Brooke

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So, I ran a race this morning. The Havelock Charity 10k. It didn't go so well. I had been trying to prepare myself for the probability that I was going to be a bit slower than usual due to the fact that I just haven't been running a whole lot lately. I'm not one of those "natural" runners. I have to work hard at it....and when I don't, it's rough. Today was ROUGH!!! I couldn't blame it on the weather because it was only 70 degrees for most of the race and it wasn't particularly windy. A little humid, but not horrible. Today was the first race I've run where I felt pretty craptastic about how I performed (Hmmmm, I wonder why spell-check is flagging "craptastic".......you mean that's not a word??? :-)) I'll get over it, though. I'm just grateful God has given me health and the ability to run!! Here is a pic taken right before I left for the race. The smile of optimism.....

Here are my stats: Finished 10k (6.2 miles) in 52:19. An 8:26 pace. Placed 336 of 866 overall and 93 of 441 for females. They didn't break it down by age group in this race. I know this doesn't sound particularly bad....and it really isn't. I think my discouragement stems from the way I felt through the entire race....like a big piece of poop. I usually have a lot more energy. I wanted to just give up about 57 times. I walked twice...through the water stations...because I haven't yet mastered the art of drinking from a Dixie cup while running. It always goes straight up my nose. The good part though....I felt GREAT about 10 minutes after the race. Ahhh, the runner's high. It happens whether you do great or not!! Here is a pic taken right after I got home. Greg and Ben were standing at the door to greet me when I walked in. Love my guys!!

Ok, no more obnoxious whining about my race. Summer is in full swing here and we've been outside pretty much ALL day, EVERY day unless it's raining. Ben and I usually hit the park first, then we get out his water table and pool until nap-time. And then it's right back outside to the pool. He LOVES to be in the water. We also go on the occasional bike ride (he rides in the bike trailer). And we've been to the children's zoo 3 times already (we bought a membership, so you can bet we're going to get our money's worth!!) Love, love, love summer!!!!

Oh, and here is some AWESOME news. Ben has officially "graduated" from having to see the endocrinologist. For those who don't know or have forgotten, Ben was born with transient congential hypothyroidism. His birth mom had a thyroid condition that she took meds for. The meds temporarily altered the functioning of Ben's thyroid, so he was on daily medication to balance it out. Well, he has been off the meds for 4 months now. He has been having periodic blood tests in those 4 months to check his thyroid and it has been perfectly normal every time!! So, no more meds and no more endocrinologist!! God is good!!

Finally, I thought I'd include a pic of Ben's fresh haircut courtesy of moi. I was going to show you a before and after, but the "before" is so embarrassing that I can't bring myself to put it on here. At the time, I don't think I realized how long it had gotten but now that it's short again, I can't believe how bad it was. Yikes!! Anyway, it looks better now. When Greg got home, he thought I had taken him to a "professional", so I gave myself a little pat on the back. Yay for free haircuts!!

Happy Saturday!

Brooke