Christmas Catch Up - SEA WORLD

For Christmas we went to San Antonio to meet my sister's fiance's family. We had such a great time and really enjoyed staying in a hotel for the holidays.

Our first day in the big city we met my college roomie, Samantha, and her family at Sea World. She has two boys, Tristan who is 3 months older than Clinton, and Parker who is 10 months older than Heidi Sage. (Somehow I only got one picture of Heidi Sage and no pictures of Parker!!)

The two who enjoyed the trip the most were Clinton and Tristan. They hadn't seen each other since they were babies, but they seemed to just pick up where they left off! They had so much fun playing together. Sam and I wished more than ever that we lived closer to each other!

Heidi Sage enjoying herself? She was actually a saint during our 5 hour tour of the park. She loved watching all the people and even took a good nap.

They had one of Clinton's favorite foods--POPCORN! This was a huge hit for our big guy.

The boys playing! They spent a lot of time like this--pushing each other around and wrestling. They really had the best time together.

The daddies with the big boys. (L - Victor with Tristan; R - Rodney with Clinton)

We all loved feeding the dolphins. Clinton was soaked when we got done and smelled like fish for the rest of the day.

We also really enjoyed the Shamu show. I even cried the first time Shamu jumped out of the water. I had never been to Sea World and had always wanted to see this American icon. It was a little more overwhelming than I thought.

We also saw a Sesame Street Live Christmas show that the boys enjoyed, but it still wasn't good enough to keep them in their seats! We spent a lot of time bribing them with Sam's homemade cookies to stay nearby.

Clinton STILL talks about the "skewy shish" (scary fish a.k.a. Shamu) and the "doppins" (dolphins). We hope to go back again soon!

Enjoying life through my kids' excitement,

Snow Weekend

We have been covered in snow and ice and more snow for two days now. While it's beautiful and we've had fun, we're getting a little antsy for some warm southern breezes and a car ride. You know we southerners can't leave home when there's even a forecast mentioning snow.

We keep sending Rodney out to run our errands. Our truck has four wheel drive, so Rodney gets to venture out and face all the crazy people who don't know how to drive on ice but think they can.

The kids and I have enjoyed two days in comfy clothes, watching movies, and eating yummy food ALL day.

Below are some pictures of our snow adventure.

Heidi Sage checking it out from the window. This was as close as she got to the white stuff. It's too cold for my baby girl....she's delicate.

Clinton's club house at the beginning of the storm.

Heidi Sage's friend (and neighbor), Maddie, ventured over for a snow day play date.

HS desperately wanting to play with her brother.

Brother obliging. Sweet boy.

We didn't have sled, so Rodney pulled Clinton around on a boogie board. He didn't know the difference and had a great time...

...although he did get a bit tired/cold and started riding it like this!?!

HAVING FUN!

Clinton loved throwing snow balls!




Fr-fr-fr-eeeeeezing,

Christmas Cuteness Recap

We would like to once again thank Bebe for a WONDERFUL Christmas wardrobe. We love having custom outfits to sport around town and want to make sure our appreciation is heard. As a quick recap, below are the adorable outfits we showed off the whole month of December...

The perfect gingerbread duds. So sweet, I just wanna eat her up!

A Christmas tree outfit with some fluff.

A Christmas tree outfit with some testosterone.

A couple of happy penguins?? Not sure why these two birds were so mad at me!

Reindeer outfits....only Clinton called his a Longhorn. At least he knows Longhorns are in his future. ;-)

Mommy's favorite little Christmas jumper!

Looking forward to the next wardrobe,

Sooooo Ladylike.

I've been known to drop a thing or two on my shirt, but to say she gets this from me would be a bit of a stretch...I hope.

Looking for a full body bib,

My Christmas Present

So, I still have a few catch up posts from Christmas. The first of which is the present Clinton made for me (and probably daddy) at school.

The frame is adorable and lovely, but the picture in the frame is priceless...I laughed so hard when I saw it. All the other children smiled happily in their pictures...but not my child.

Proof Clinton truly is my son...as if the spitting image part weren't enough.

Queen of "the look",

Potty Trained.

It's done. It wasn't easy, it wasn't pretty...but it's done. Finito.

As I have so brilliantly done in the past, I made a big decision on a whim. Last Wednesday I woke up and couldn't bear the thought of changing one more of Clinton's diapers.

Clinton had recently been talking about how he was a big boy and Heidi Sage was a baby...so I started there.

"Clinton are you a baby?" "No, I a big boy." "Did you know diapers are for babies?" "No, baby." "That's right, you're a big boy. So, you get to wear underwear." "No, nunuaweaaaaaaaar."

That's how lovely our adventure started.

If I had been journaling during our ordeal, it might have looked something like this.


WEDNESDAY
10:00 am - Clinton gave me some resistance, but I was able to coerce him into his underwear with some distraction and a small bribe. Thank goodness for M&M's.

12:00 pm - I have mopped a couple of puddles off of the floors. A lot of time has been spent explaining that M&M's will be rewarded for a pee-pee in the potty. Getting ready to hang out in the bathroom until Clinton gets it in the potty so that he can receive his reward.

2:00 pm - Lots of time in the bathroom. Lots of screaming and crying. We have had a successful pee-pee with a big potty dance and an M&M reward. While we have enjoyed the taste of success, I kind of hate myself right now.

4:00 pm - We've experienced our first #2 accident and it was gross, but we all survived. I still hate myself.

6:00 pm - We've had several successful trips to the bathroom. Clinton has asked to go potty. Still hating myself, but not as much.

10:00 pm - Clinton's in bed...with underwear. I've prepped his bed for the possibility of a bed wetting, but hoping for the best.

THURSDAY
3:30 am - Clinton just woke up wanting to watch cartoons. WHAT?? So, I told him if he would pee-pee in the potty he could get in my bed and watch cartoons. He screamed and cried, but did it anyway. Wow...I'm not a fan of myself right now.

9:00 am - Clinton awoke with dry undies. Made a tearful, groggy trip to the bathroom to pee-pee and quickly perked up when given M&Ms. Starting to think I'm not so stupid.

12:00 pm - Clinton has gotten the hang of the pee-pee part...although he's upped the ante from M&M's to Oreos. I've exhaustingly obliged. Feeling really good about my on-a-whim decision.

3:00 pm - I just cleaned up poop that was smeared over a good part of the play room. I thought I might be sick, but I managed to push through. Clinton was freaked out and hiding under a table, but I think he understood what went wrong and what to do next time. Hoping I made the right decision.

10:00 pm - Clinton's in bed. Only one accident today, but it was a big one. Thinking I made the right decision.

FRIDAY
9:00 am - Clinton woke up dry and HAPPILY went pee-pee in the potty! Hooray! I will not clean up poo-poo today...Clinton will be spending lots of time on the potty until he poops in the potty. Period.

12:00 pm - Clinton had his first poo-poo in the potty!!!!!!! He was running around naked after a failed sitting. He made a bee line for the bathroom. When I got in there I could hear him peeing. He got up to reveal that he had also gone #2. "Wutz dat?" "That's your poo-poo! You poo-pood in the potty!!!" "Oh.....it's BIG!!! Mommy, my poo-poo big!" Clinton said bye to his poo-poo as he flushed it and after a good hand washing, we celebrated with a Little Debbie cupcake. I might be the smartest person ever...

10:00 pm - No more accidents. Patting myself on the back.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Over the weekend, the few accidents we had were just not getting to the potty in time...but he was always on the way. He had gotten the hang of it and thoroughly enjoyed all the positive attention of a job well done. He LOVES to poo-poo in the potty....and LOVES to enjoy his Little Debbie afterward. We weren't even home over the weekend. We were out and about all day Saturday and went to church on Sunday. Clinton was quite impressive.

MONDAY
Perfect day. I love myself. Bye-bye diapers for two...

Wondering how early I can potty train Heidi Sage,

9 Months and Counting...

Our little girl is still little...but doing big girl things. Two weeks ago I took Heidi Sage in for her 9 month appointment. She weighed in at 17 lbs. 1 oz., down in the 20th percentile....what a difference from her off the charts brother! Her height was in the 50th percentile, and her head was in the 75th.

Heidi Sage is doing so much now. She is crawling EVERYWHERE. She likes to be anywhere that Clinton is....and can get there quickly. She also really likes to be chased. If you start towards her she throws her arms up in the air, squeals and then turns to crawl away. It's so cute. She also turns and darts if she's trying to eat something off of the floor and she sees me look at her. She knows I'm going to dig it out of her mouth. And you've never seen a child who can clench their teeth and purse their lips as tightly as she can. There's no telling what she's been able to eat because I can't get her mouth open to dig it out. See "pursed lips" below...

Not only does Miss Priss love to play with her brother, she also loves to play with Gracie. She'll throw the ball and Gracie brings it back. Every time Gracie returns the ball Heidi Sage giggles and squeals with sheer delight. It's so fun to watch.

Heidi Sage is a big eater...aside from eating all kinds of things off of the floor, she loves all kinds of finger foods. She refuses to eat baby food anymore. The only thing I'm allowed to feed her is yogurt. Everything else she insists on feeding herself. She LOVES yogurt melts, biter biscuits, pasta, rice, steamed fruits and veggies, and any kind of bread. Tonight we also discovered that she likes Campbell's Double Noodle soup. Oh, and there's a possibility she got a hold of one of Clinton's chocolate chip cookies and also found it to be quite delectable.

As I stated before, Priss Pot loves her brother. We have a rule in our house...when there is silence and Clinton can't be seen, find him immediately. Now the rule is...when there is silence, and neither child can be seen, find them faster than immediately. Why the rush? Because Clinton can do lots of damage alone, but he can do more damage with an accomplice....or victim.

Take for example, a few weeks ago I was checking my email. A silence gradually fell over the house. Upon noticing the lack of noise, I turned to do a head count and located ZERO children.

"Clinton?" Whispering giggles, followed by the squeal of a baby. "Clinton, what are you doing?" "Nup-PING!" As I rounded the corner, I was greeted by this...

...an innocent little girl who had received a few loving scribbles from her brother. Sigh.

That was only the beginning. Who do you think came around the corner next? The loving brother...

A few other 9 month tidbits...HS is up to 5 teeth and more coming in, she's pulling up on everything, and she's getting weaned onto the bottle.

I'll keep you posted as our little girl continues to grow up...that first birthday will be here before we know it!!

Trying to keep up,