Bittersweet Times

So I haven't posted in a while because my life has been insane for the past week - good insane and bad insane. :) But before I talk about all the insanity, I thought I should write about our holiday weekend.

We must be psychic because instead of planning a family BBQ for Memorial Day on Monday, we planned it for Sunday, which was perfect weather compared to the pouring rain the following day! (And yes, I had no clue the weather was going to be like that on Monday because I haven't done a very good job of watching the weather lately. Sorry, Linz. I'm such a horrible sister!) We ate fabulous burgers and hot dogs, corn on the cob, salads... it totally put me in the summer mood! Ty especially liked the corn on the cob as you can tell from the picture. Unfortunately, I didn't take many other good pictures so I guess that's all you're going to see of it. But seriously, it's times like these that I realize what a great family I have and how lucky I am to live close to them - well close as in driving an hour, but it's all good! So thanks Mom, Dad, Kristin, and Dan for coming. As for the Storrs family, we missed you, but figure it wasn't too much of a loss since you were eating with Mickey! :)

Now for the insanity. Let's start with the good... Gavin is really progressing with his potty training, which still has me in shock! Everybody kept telling me that when he was ready, he would let me know, but I didn't believe them. It's hard to hear that when you have a deadline and can't wait forever (like preschool starting in the fall)! But in our case, that's really what happened - we just had to wait for him to be ready. Yeah, we've thrown in a few incentives here and there, but nothing as drastic as I thought we would have to. It's really been all him. He now officially goes to the potty all by himself without any help, and he doesn't even need reminders! Here are a few fun things we've used recently that has made it that much more fun for him.

First, I saw this potty chart idea on my sister's friend's blog a while ago and Gavin has really taken to it. It's a chart with 25 potties on it, and everytime Gavin goes potty, he gets to put a sticker on one of the potties. At the bottom of the chart, you can write down what reward your child will get once the whole chart is complete (ours was originally Bee Movie, but Gavin has officially changed it to a Carnivore - another loud boy toy to annoy me!). Anyway, he loves putting stickers on it and counting how many potties he has left to fill. I thought it was a fun, simple idea, so if any of you are interested, I found it at Walmart.

Second is the "Potty Watch." My friend Emily wrote about this on her blog and how successful it's been with her daughter, so I thought I'd give it a try. While it can be a bit annoying at times, it really is an ingenious idea and I'm so thrilled somebody came up with it! It's a watch (shaped like a potty, of course) that can be set to go off every 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Each time it goes off, it plays a song and reminds your child to go potty. The funny thing is that we actually don't use it that way at our house. Instead of setting the timer (which Gavin hates), he just pushes the song button when he needs to go and says, "It's Potty Time!" Then he runs to the potty. So it has still been really successful for us, even though we don't use it like we should! It really is a cute idea so if you are interested, you can get them at Kid 2 Kid.

Now for the bad insane. Tyler came down with the stomach flu early yesterday morning, and he just can't seem to shake it. He really is a totally different person and it just makes me so sad. Everytime I see him lying around (instead of running and screaming like he normally does), I have to hold back the tears. Today has been the worst. He has slept almost all day, and anytime I have him up, he insists on being held and is just totally limp. It's made me realize just how much his business and craziness are good things, even though they usually annoy me. It's just been really upsetting and I hope he recovers soon.

Well, my apologizes for the long post. Every blog I write just solidifies the fact that I am an English major - I could write forever! -Ash