Potty, shoes, and naps.

I wonder how many times you can start a blog entry with something like "sorry it's been so long but I'm still alive" before it starts to get old. You may just want to insert that on your own each time before you start reading.

We had a super cool and fun vacation to San Antonio last week, but I can't be bothered to upload pictures from the camera and the story wouldn't be nearly as good without pictures, so I'm saving that for later.

We all had a whole week off from work and daycare and it was so nice to spend time together. We never got to sleep in but that's okay because we would have just had to readjust our schedules back to normal anyway. One of these days I"m going to start acting my age and go to bed at a decent hour. I'll probably learn how to do that about the time Collin and Owen hit middle school and start sleeping till noon so we will still be off!

One of the coolest things to come out of our vacation week was that Owen is now officially, all the way, 100%, no turning back, POTTY TRAINED! I swear God must've known I needed a break and gave Owen the wisdom to do it himself. He started going pee around the first of May and was almost instantly ready to go all night without a pull-up or diaper. He has been scared to go poo in the potty up until last week. I think he just needed a little motivation. The boys and I were swimming at the hotel pool (Timothy doesn't do water stuff) and Owen had to go potty so we all trooped into the little bathroom next to the pool. Owen was fussing and asking for a diaper and I told him I didn't have any and if he didn't go poo in the potty I would have to take him back to Daddy in the hotel room and Collin and I would keep swimming. A few minutes later he had done his business and we were all 3 back in the pool! Right now it's been almost 2 weeks with no pull-ups or diapers at all and zero accidents! He is so awesome.

That awesome little baby is about to turn 3. I can't believe it. I flipped my calendar at work before I left today, because when I get back on Monday it will be August. There is was staring me in the face: Owen's birthday on the 12th and Collin starts school on the 22nd! Goodness. I ordered Collin's backpack and lunch bag this week from the online Disney store because they were having a sale and he wanted Phineas and Ferb stuff. We should get them in a few days. I took him shoe shopping too. I have to tell you about the shoes!

My friend Sally has a son, Cooper, who is only 7 months older than Collin, but he's much taller and just generally bigger. Poor Collin didn't get any tall genes from me. Anyway, they have been nice enough over the years to pass along some things that Cooper has grown out of. About 2 years ago Cooper grew out of a new pair of shoes so quickly that they were hardly used. Collin loved them so much because they were Sketchers and we don't ever buy fancy shoes that you see in commercials. They were huge on him! I'm talking clown shoes. They would fall off his feet if he walked too fast, forget running. But he insisted on wearing them ALL THE TIME. There were a few times we wouldn't let him, like when he played T-ball last year, but mostly we figured if he wanted to put up with his shoes flopping around all the time that was his business. Now 2 years later they still fit him but they have been through a lot and don't look so nice anymore so I told him we would buy him a new pair of Sketchers for school. Would you believe that when we were trying on shoes we ended up with a pair the same size as he's been wearing? It's nice to finally know what size his foot is, because I haven't know for a long time now. I don't normally recommend name brand stuff, but if you need some sneakers that will last and you're willing to part with $40ish it's not a bad deal. I'm so grateful for that old pair of shoes. They saved us a lot of money.

Now I'm wondering if that story makes me sound like I have raggy looking children with ill-fitting clothing. Collin always owned at least one other pair of shoes that would not fall off his feet, he just refused to wear them. Owen will sometimes insist, like today, that he wants to wear Collin's clothes. Collin is all too happy to share and dress his little brother. At first I told them that Owen could borrow shirts, but not pants because they would fall off. Collin proved me wrong on that one. Owen's little 2 year old belly can hold up those size 5 shorts without a problem. They are a bit long, but he's happy. Crazy boys!

One more and I'm done.....

I've been having an ongoing discussion with the daycare about keeping Collin awake at nap time. I really don't understand why they insist that the kids about to start school should still take naps. I think surely it would help them to have a transition period. Collin hasn't been taking naps at home for a long time now, and when he does sleep at school he will not go to sleep at night. There have been nights when I've gone to bed at 11:00 and he is still awake in his bed. Not cool. I try to remind Collin to stay up, but his teachers like him to lay down until the other kids go to sleep then they will get him up, but by that time he's already slept for 30 minutes and it's all over. He slept on both Monday and Tuesday this week, so on Wednesday morning in the car I reminded him not to go to sleep. It went like this:

Me: Remember not to go to sleep at nap time today.
Collin: It's not my fault because Ms Savana makes me go to sleep.
Me: How can she make you sleep? All these years I've never been able to figure out how to make you go to sleep if you didn't want to.
Collin: Mom, look at me.
Me: I can't look at you, I'm driving.
Collin: In the mirror, Mom. Look at me in the mirror!
Me: Okay, I'm looking.
Collin: Do you see me? I'm just a kid! I don't know what I'm supposed to do!!!
Me: (trying not to laugh) You may be a kid, but you are NOT just a kid. And you know perfectly well what you are supposed to do.

Oh he kills me sometimes! But no naps since then so we are doing well. I hope you are too. See you again soon!