Potties, Big Boy Beds, and Smiles - Oh My!

With 2 kids now, there's so much to write about, but so much less time to do it! Where do I begin? Well, I had never updated William's progress with the toddler bed. He had been sleeping in it during nap time for a while, but was sleeping in his crib at night. Well just a few days after my mom left, and just before Annette and Vance arrived (I believe it was around July 16 - 21 mo,) William slept in his big bed at night... for the whole night! No way did I think it would stick, but it did and he's never looked back. We left the crib in there just in case but there was no need. We actually moved it into Caleb's (/guestroom/sewing room/office) room this past weekend. So Yay William!

In other "Yay William" news, he has begun to use the big boy potty!!!!!!!!!!!!! On August 6th, before bedtime AJ asked him if he wanted to go (as he usually did) and William finally said yes. He sat right down and went! The next day he did it again (about 12x in a row - drop at a time - for an hour and a half straight) but he did it nonetheless. AND, he's gone at least once every day since!!! It started with us asking if he had to go and he would, but now he tells us when he has to go and is almost always successful. He's still in diapers at this point, but since he's going in the potty 2 or more times a day. I may switch him over to training pants during the daytime. I'm not trying to rush him into this at all, but if he's trained by 2 I will be so excited! I think it's good for him too since it's keeping his mind active (as weird as that sounds) and we've had less tantrums during the day now. Or maybe it's because he gets exclusive time with us while he's in the potty... hmmmm...?

And our Little Caleb... what a peanut he is! At 7 weeks old he is smiling away now and cooing and being playful. He started truly smiling around 5 weeks of age - although I believe he was smiling at me sooner. ;-) No potties or big beds for him at this time, but he's doing great on tummy time and helping me out with pilates. The other day he just watched me exercise with smiles as if to say "Ha ha Mommy, now that I'm out you have to get to work on that tummy... but ain't I so cute?" And oh, yes he was! He continues to be an excellent sleeper and he's on a predictable nighttime schedule. He goes down between 8-9pm and will wake up at 5-6a for a feeding and then back to sleep until 7 or 8. This has been his schedule for a few weeks now and he's always been such a great sleeper at night. I remember sitting up with William as a newborn, for what seemed like forever, while he was wide awake at 3 am and wouldn't fall asleep... that was rough. However, Caleb doesn't have such a predictable day time schedule and he doesn't sleep that much at one period of time. I'm still working on that, but at least we get sleep at night. OH, and because of Caleb's great nighttime routine, I had my first night out with a friend in over 10 months! Oh yes, that's not a typo... 10 months. I have been pregnant, boring, and bound to my house it seems, but I was able to escape for a night with a great friend, a great bottle of wine, and the fresh air of a warm summer night on the patio of a great restaurant... Ahhh, I didn't want it to end.

So what else? Our house is still on the market which is not what I want to be saying. I would love it to sell already since I feel so unsettled here now. Half of Caleb's clothes and baby gear are not even out because I'm worried about showings... grrr! It will be a great day when we have a contract... Correction: It will be a great day when we close on the house and move into our new, bigger, better house! AJ is doing great - he continues to chug along on his school work, which seems to be going well. He's kicking butt at work and he may have some great new opportunities coming his way there. On top of that, he continues to be an excellent father to these boys. He comes home from a long day of work and jumps right into Daddy mode. He'll play with William, even while he's making dinner on some nights. Then after feedings, it's Caleb's turn with Daddy and lately, the 3 of them have been playing hallway soccer together. It's adorable! And, it's August, so he's got haunted houses on the brain. He usually does a haunted house in our garage for Halloween, but since we're trying to sell and really have no extra time, we're probably just going host a party with all his decorations instead.

Tomorrow is my Mom's 60th Birthday, so I'd like to make mention of that here and wish you a Super Happy Birthday Mom (Baba)!!!! I love you so much and wish so badly that I could be there to celebrate it with you. I know you'll have a great day and I'll be thinking about you.

Ok, below are the recent slideshows. I have 2 videos of cutie Caleb smiling and playing, but they are not loading so I'll try to post them later... Enjoy!

Last Day of School and 2 Cutie Boys

Well, Family has officially left along with all the help they provided us. Thank you so much to Baba, Ma Mere, and Grampy for staying with us and helping out with the kiddos. We loved having you all here. William especially misses you all in his own way. When he sees a glass of Orange juice or he hears a noise upstairs (when usually it's just the cat) he says "Baba." And he still says "oh Darn" when he's playing with the soccer ball - a little something she taught him by accident. The morning after Vance and Annette left, I was sitting with William during breakfast. He pointed at the chair where Vance had sat for meals and said "BeDay" (his version of "Grampy." Not to be confused with "Auh BeDay" which is Auntie Debbie.) When I asked him to say Ma Mere, he looked at the stairs and said "Sleep!" It was adorable!!! Also, it was Williams last day of school last week. The summer program for mother's day out has come to an end and does not resume until September. I was almost as sad on the last day as I was on the first day! He absolutely loved his teacher and his friends and had a real good time there. He made some crafts that I've photographed and put in a slideshow below.

Caleb is doing wonderful as well. He is growing like a little weed right before my very eyes. I don't like that it happens so fast - I just want him to stay little for a bit longer. He's still sleeping pretty good at night, but not so much during the day. He wants to eat just about every hour from 6am until about 3pm, which is pretty demanding and difficult to do with a toddler, but we're making it work pretty well. He's starting to become more social and is starting to smile more these days. William still loves his little brother. He always wants to give him kisses and now he's even wanting to hold him and hug him more. He shows concern when Caleb loses his paci or kicks off his blanket and William is always there to help him out. He is showing some signs of jealousy, especially with AJ, but it's not really too bad at this point. He just wants to make sure that he's in on the action and gets the same attention that Caleb gets. It's so funny - when I'm playing with Caleb and 'boop' his nose, William wants me to do that to him too. Then he'll say 'boop' and point to Caleb because he wants me to take turns 'booping.' It's so cute!

So between 2 little ones, AJ's work, grad school, selling our house, finding a new one, keeping the house clean so we can sell it, and working on a semi-sewing business, we are pretty busy to say the least. And I value my sleep, so unfortnately my blog entries have become a little less frequent. Speaking of which, it's late and I must get to sleep before the littlest man wants to eat again. Until next time...