A Great Week
This week was a great one. It’s especially great that it’s Friday and I am off (yet still getting paid) 
It actually didn’t really feel like I was “working” this week. Kamryn is the sweetest, cutest little girl. She is so well mannered, so well behaved and so much FUN to be around. I truly believe that some of the situations (and people) that come into our life are handpicked RIGHT from God especially for us. This is one of those for me. Other than being a little tired (readjusting from the late nights and late morning waking of the summer), and dealing with a GRUUUUMPY little boy (he too is having to readjust to the earlier mornings), this first work week was perfect- even better than I expected! Braeden came home on Monday and has been a BIG help! There are a handful of moments that are etched into my heart- moments that I can close my eyes and replay over and over and feel as if they are happening right then- moments that make me smile a big smile. Braeden walking in the door, seeing me for the first time in 6 weeks and yelling “MOMMY!” as he runs into my arms (and I almost fall over because he’s grown like 3 feet) is one of those moments. Mike and Mikey went to pick him up at the airport since it was my first day of work and Mike said that Mikey was going crazy waiting and got mad every time he saw a plane land that wasn’t Braeden’s. When he saw Braeden, he ran up to him, grabbed his hand and said, “I REALLY love you Braeden, you NOT go away again OK?!”
Lori was so sweet to make this bed up for Mikey to nap in while we are over there. It is SO cute. The sooner we can get Mikey back to falling asleep without Mommy the better- the bed is perfect for HIM, but a little small for me to join.
The little Princess who has so quickly stolen my heart- She has such LONG beautiful hair!
So, I am off today (Lori and her family went to the lake for the weekend) and my parents were supposed to be driving in yesterday. My Mom’s sister passed away and therefore they had to fly to Canada for the funeral. They will be flying into DC tomorrow morning. After a very sad few days for my Mom, I am looking forward to her having some fun with her daughters, son-in-laws and grandsons. My sister and brother-in-law come in on Sunday and we are all staying downtown DC until Tues. I am REALLY looking forward to it. Here’s the boys watching Night at the Museum 2 (it was filmed in DC at the Smithsonian Museum and we are going to go there this weekend so Braeden is really interested in the movie).
New Week, New Month, New Home, New Job
WOW! Last week was BUSY, but with a good teammate (my hubby), lots of cooperation (from hubby AND toddler), lots of patience and acceptance (that everything can NOT get accomplished in a day), we have a HOME (and one without STUFF piled wall to wall- except in the 2nd floor bathroom where we put all our pictures and other wall hangings until we decide where we want them). We had a garage sale on Saturday after which I had to eat my words and almost fell over when I counted our earnings- $570! I just didn’t think we’d have success with garage sales in VA like we did in SC. Boy was I wrong. In SC we never made more than $200! We did have a lot of stuff this time (both boys have gone up a size in clothes and therefore we had to get rid of ALL their fall and winter clothes), but nothing big or expensive- just a lot of odds and ends and things that didn’t work in the new Townhouse. I posted an ad on Craigslist since it’s free and one lady actually e-mailed me and asked to come over on Thursday night for a “pre-sale” she and her friend bought $160 worth of stuff. I was really more interested in de-cluttering and just getting rid of stuff than I was with making $, but the extra cash ALWAYS comes in handy.
Speaking of cash, starting tomorrow I will be assisting with the income in our household again. I begin a new full-time nanny job. The family has one little girl who will be 4 in November. Her name is Kamryn and she is precious. Since Mike’s Mom cared for two little girls (Sayelor 3 and Piper 1) while caring for Mikey, Mikey has always favored playing with little girls. I think the two will be great buddies. I am very excited to have my attention on my children (and little Kamy of course). The past couple months have been so busy that Mikey has kinda had to just go with the flow (and it hasn’t been much fun for him). Braeden has been gone and comes home TOMORROW. I am looking forward to taking all 3 kiddos to the pool, and other fun places around town. Btw, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Virginia and the city we live in (Bristow/Gainesville). We have crazy hot days here, but unlike Charleston, we also have cooler days mixed in and most nights it actually DOES cool down. It’s nice to have a little break in the heat rather than straight HOT weather June-September. I might feel different about the weather come winter when we are dealing with snow and ice and COLD, but for now, I am happy.
It has been a very BIG week for Mikey. I think we can safely say he is potty trained. YAY!!!!! We started on Monday and after he peed in his big boy underwear twice, we thought we were going to have some trouble and went back to pull-ups and forcing him to pee pee (or at least try) every 30 minutes. THEN, out of the blue on Wednesday he said, “Daddy I have to go potty.” That was the very first time he ever initiated going on the potty. We cheered, we hollered, we sang and danced and Mikey LOVED it! So much so that he has not peed at all in his pull up since. He has told us every time he has to pee. We are SO proud of him. We have yet to conquer pooping on the potty (we just KNOW that it will only take him doing it once and he will have it). Mike has promised him a BIG Buzz light Year if he can show us he can poop on the “Big Boy” toilet. As much as he LOVES Buzz right now, I think it’s only a matter of time.
Along with diapers, we’ve also bid farewell to Mikey’s car seats and have moved on to the high back booster. He meets the height, age, and weight requirements so we decided to go ahead and make the switch. This has made my life SO much easier. I LOVE not having to change diapers (and will love the savings), but I think I just may love the fact that Mikey can now get in and out of his seat all by himself even more!
Finally on Friday after we sat at the DMV for 2 hours to get our driver’s license switched to VA (we are officially no longer South Carolinians); after we enjoyed lunch at the coolest outside ice cream place (think back to like the 50′s) and grocery shopped at the BEST grocery store I’ve ever been to (Wegman’s)- it has a wine bar and a sushi bar IN the store and an M &M display where you can choose what colors you want and the same kind of display with jelly belly jelly beans; we took Mikey to the pool. We owed him BIG time for being so patient all week while we moved in and unpacked. While at the pool, Mike took Mikey’s vest off in the shallow end (he could touch) and told Mikey to swim to him- He DID under water without putting his feet down. We are signing him up for swimming lessons and trust he will be swimming by himself after just a few classes.
We really did have a great week. Even though it involved a lot of work, it was so nice to spend 6 full days with Mike. He went back to work last night. 
I am not really sure how I am going to retrain my body to adjust to the early mornings that will begin tomorrow (I’ve been going to bed around 10 or 11pm- Mikey too and sleeping until 10 or 11am- Mikey too). Back to reality I guess. It doesn’t seem so bad thinking about work when A) I get to be WITH my kids the whole time I am working (minus when they are in school) and B) the first week is a 4 day week and the second, a 3 day week (my parents, sister and brother in law are coming in town and I am off this Friday and next Monday and Tuesday). Lori is the BEST person to call “Boss”
Have a great week everyone! Praying for safe travels for my parents and sister and Braeden. Did I mention just how excited I am that my little man comes home TOMORROW!!!!! He’s been gone since June 13, BUT has been spoiled rotten and has had so much fun.
About that wine…..
If you haven’t read the previous post, read it first.
I WILL be having that bottle of wine tonight. It is quite possible I will have the whole bottle too. Check out these pictures. We’ll call them the “before” pictures so we can remember all the work it took to get to pictures we’ll post when things get organized- aka the “after” pictures.
All I want to know is WHEN, WHY, HOW and WHERE all this stuff came from. I mean it when I say the boys are getting one thing for Christmas this year, I will not buy another article of clothing for a LONG time and we truly NEED nothing at all any time soon (except maybe some prayers that Mike and I get through sorting through and putting all this stuff away without one of us filing for divorce).
Braeden’s Room-to-be
Mikey’s Room-to-be
Master Bedroom-to-be
Living Room-to-be
Kitchen-to-be
Rec Room-to-be
Garage-to-be
Mikey has been in HEAVEN because he has toys that he loves, but hasn’t seen in months. I think he played with almost every single one for about a minute each. He was so excited knowing his train table was coming on the moving truck. He was on the lookout every time they men walked in with something. Here he is having his much anticipated reunion with his favorite toy!
K, don’t give up on me, it may be awhile before I post again…..
He goes Pee Pee on the PottAY
OK, so Mike and I are pretty much nuts (not that this is news for most of you). As if this whole moving thing has not provided enough stress and enough to overwhelm us with (especially with the lack of AC), we decided to start potty training in FULL force this week. We want Mikey to start preschool in the fall and have already paid the deposit. In order for him to go to the 3 year old class, he has to be potty trained. We want him to be in with the 3′s so he will be with kids his own age. There is a big difference between 2 and 3 (trust me, we are experiencing and realizing many of these differences now). While he probably IS more at a 2 year old level academically (since he’s never been in school) he has always played better, interacted better and felt more comfortable around kids his own age or older. The 3 year old program also offers more choices in days and times and it’s CHEAPER! So….we are going on day 3 and Mikey has stayed dry 2 full days- peeing on the potty (with Mom and Dad’s reminders) every 30 minutes. We do diapers at night still- some nights he stays completely dry, others he is full to the brim in the morning. We’ve had one poppy since Tuesday and it was in the pull-up BUT, he looked very ashamed and knew he was wrong when he told me he had pooped so we’ll see how he does the next time.
Btw, the title of this blog happens to be the lyrics to the song I sing to him over and over with total enthusiasm (picture me dancing and all) every time we are in the bathroom and he is sitting on the toilet. Mikey LOVES it. He also loves when I hold “Bear” to the toilet and pretend he is peeing too. Hey, whatever works at this point. Braeden was 3 years and a month when he was totally potty trained (I mean wearing underwear all day and never having an accident- wearing pull ups at night and rarely having an accident). It took me about 2 days to potty train him, but he had been working on it a lot at the daycare he was attending. Mikey is 3 years and 2 months and not doing so bad considering A) he is a boy B) he has never attended school and C) has parents that have been slackers and just felt diapers were easier these past 6 months. Hopefully my next post is that he is all trained. Wish us luck.
Mikey loves our new tub and has been the only one to try it out so far. Bless his sweet heart, he wants to swim so bad, but we’ve just been crazy busy moving in. He loves the tub because it’s big enough that he can swim. Mike is off for the next week (only having to work this Sunday because they were short handed) and I don’t care if we still have stuff lined to the ceilings to be put away, we WILL hit the new pool.
I saw this bottle of wine at Target yesterday and had to get it. First of all, it’s wine and I LOVE wine, second it has a pink cork wrapper- I LOVE pink and third- I am a middle sister (well I am a sister and a middle child) Can’t wait to try it out. Heck it may be tonight because as I am typing this, the movers are unloading the truck and there is stuff EVERYWHERE. Maybe the overwhelmed feeling is back?! Nah, I ain’t going back to that.
The kitchen came with this built in wine rack so if anyone feels like sending a house-warming gift, I’ve got 7 more slots to fill (8 if I DO drink that bottle tonight) Haha!
This magnet on our fridge states perfectly how Mike and I feel right now. It has been an incredible journey getting to where we are right now. The past 6 months have had so many ups and downs, but if we can look at each other and feel in our hearts that Life IS Good, then we are very blessed.
