No more diapers!?!?!?!

The twins have had their potties for, gosh, it will be almost a year in Sept. After I got them, I thought-okay, I will give it a couple of months of using the potty and pull-up diapers and then I will go full force with potty training/having them try little undies. Well, that didn't ever happen.
With having twins in diapers/pull-ups and as much as they frequently filled those, we thought that we needed to nip this in the butt NOW and tackle the event of potty training once and for all. (gets a TAD pricey) I have been trying to get the kids excited/be more aware of what the potty is all about by getting some informational kid movies about using the potty and some books from the library and it seemed to help.
It's now day two in the event of potty training and Leah had only one accident and that was because I think she was just having too much fun playing and didn't realize she needed to go. Evan has had four or five accidents. We started a sticker chart for the kids and they are very excited to put stickers on it after they go. Luckily, the kids received some undies from their Great Aunt Connie awhile ago; which we were happy to have, but we needed more due to the frequent accidents, so we took the kids to the store today to pick out more. Evan chose Toy Story and Cars and Leah chose Tinkerbell/fairies. Greg was also a sweet Daddy and surprised the kids with Toy Story -the movie for doing such a good job on the potty.
This afternoon, Evan was determined to turn and wear his underwear around the opposite way so he could see his Toy Story character (which should go on the butt). THAT was a funny site!!

Funny little tid-bit about the potty training process-Leah came into the bathroom the other day and said, "Mommy, I need to go Cho-Cho." I asked where she had heard that (fully knowing who she had heard it from) and she replied, "Mia and Maddy" (which are her 3rd cousins-also twins). I asked her if she knew what it meant and she said, "Yeah, POOP!" {Cho-Cho is the Chinese word for poop}

Gate Sleeper

We have had some issues with Leah going to sleep the last month and a half. She doesn't want to go to sleep in her bed and begs to either go back in the living room or our to our bed. One night when I was out of town, Greg had to deal with her for about an hour and a half-screaming, etc. I had to deal with her one night- she layed by the gate crying that she wanted to "go in Mommy and Daddy's bed" over and over. I ignored her sitting by Evan's bed and eventually you could hear just, "Mom....Da....bed" to where she was totally silent and fell asleep by the gate. Again, this was about a 45 min. ordeal. Last week, she was so tired and had no nap and we read our books, talked about our day, and sang our songs, etc. and she immediately started crying and wouldn't get into bed. So, we decided to take away her blankie again, she ran over to the gate to her door and just cried and cried. Sometimes she is down right scary-like she is possessed or something. I'm talking full body convulsions on the floor! After I stepped over the gate into the hallway and sat outside her room, she started to calm down and eventually ended up falling asleep with her chin propped over the bottom bar of the gate and her arms and legs straight out behind her. It looked so uncomfortable, but you better believe I didn't touch her or move her into her bed until I knew she was OUT! Sorry the video is a little hard to see.

Nighttime has been a little better with our sticker sheets where they can trade in a certain amount of stickers for a prize of some sort. They are at least staying in thier beds when going to bed now. (still having some issues of waking up at night. Last night was 2, 4, and 6am!)

.Hoping this all passes soon.

Black Dress Shoes

Sometimes it takes FOREVER to get the kids dressed and out the door.

Friday, I had to pick up our countertop for the vanity for our downstairs basement; which is being finished. Leah decided she wanted to wear her dressy Easter shoes, so I at least picked out a dress that had white in it. I picked out Evan's outfit with his sandals, but he wanted to wear dress shoes like Leah was wearing. He went into his closet and pulled out his black dress shoes and was DEAD SET ON WEARING THEM! I pleaded with him for about a half hour to wear his sandals, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Finally, I gave in and said there are worst things in life to worry about than other people staring at you wondering why in the world your son is wearing black dress shoes with blue jean short and a polo shirt. (all along I kept thinking of the movie "Big Daddy" with Adam Sandler-HA, HA)

Grant's Farm

Just now posting this. We went a couple of weekends ago.

Both kids went to bed without a peep last night and slept through the night until 7:30 am. So, for their "night-night prize," we took them to Grant's Farm today. They rode the carousel, ate a snow cone, watched the Elephant show, fed the goats and sat with us in the Beer-Garden. On our trip to the zoo a couple of months ago, Leah had a bad encounter with a goat and everytime we look at pictures of that trip on the computer, she always says she doesn't like goats. However; she did want to feed them today. So, we got our four bottles of milk for the goats and headed in. The goats were practically on top of one another at the turn-style wanting milk from people, so we carried the kids into the pen. As soon as I put Evan on the ground, two goats came running up to him and got up on their hind legs to get the milk; which of course scared him half to death. So, I carried him and Greg carried Leah the rest of the time in there. The second time around at feeding them, we fed them through the fence; which the kids liked alot better.

Both kids talk about going to Grant's Farm again. However, Leah says, "I wanna go to Gant's Sarm again Mommy!" (poor thing can't quite get her "f" sound in "farm" )
One of the best parts of the day = FREE BEER! YUM!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a busy 4th of July weekend! Saturday morning, we took the kids to the parade in O'fallon and went to the Cards game Sat. night. On the fourth, we cleaned house and decorated for company in the afternoon. The kids made cute flags and a star banner to hang over the fireplace. We had a great time with close friends in the afternoon/evening and enjoyed BBQ and a firework display from the T.R. Hughes ballpark; which you can see from our back patio.
Evan has become a little more tolerable of fireworks in the fact that he stood outside with me to watch a few and didn't even cover his ears. Leah still didn't want anything to do with fireworks (although I did see her peeking every now and then).

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Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

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My sister-in-law bought the kids Cards tickets for their Christmas present this past year and yesterday was the day we all went to the game. The kids had a good time. Too bad the game was pitiful!

Luckily, we had three rows available for the kids to crawl back and forth over so they could move around. However; the stairs (being that we were the last row at the top of the stadium) scared me because it was so steep. So I was too busy being paranoid rather than enjoying the game. About halfway through the game, Greg's sister and I took the kids downstairs to Build-A-Bear Workshop and had Leah and Evan each make a Fredbird. They really enjoyed doing this. Both of them have been carrying Fredbird and Fredbirdette around the house and sleeping with them as well.

We didn't end up staying for the whole game because we knew with the V.P. Fair, traffic was not going to be pretty and with the fireworks, we knew the kids would be scared. We didn't make it but a block from the parking garage before the fireworks started. We were basically front and center under the Arch. Leah, as we expected, cried with her hands over her ears and Evan just covered his ears and you could see his head moving side to side to see around my headrest in the car to see the fireworks.

Next year, I think the kids might enjoy the game a little more (or at least I am hoping that they watch the game more than crawl over the seats and play on the steps).

We thank you Aunt Sarah and Uncle J.B. for the tickets to ballgame and hope we can go with you again sometime!