Halloween Dance Party

Tonight I took the boys to a Halloween party at the indoor playpark. I am really sick (URI or simple cold or whatever you want to call it) but Mike bailed out and I felt obligated to take the boys as I bought the tickets about six weeks ago, non-refundable, and they were looking forward to the party. So, we went. I hope they remember this stuff with fondness.

Sully was Iron Man tonight, and Keats was Darth Vader...

The above shot is Sullivan's first taste of Pop Rocks candy...

...oh yeah, he liked it!

Cleaning off a ring that was stuck into his cupcake. Sometimes his eyes look sooooo much like Debbie & Mason's eyes....

Double-fisted snacker.

Sully loves, loves, loves slides!

Here he went SPLAT after a particularly fast turn down the slide.

Keats...er, Darth...was dancing a "freeze" dance. When he had to freeze, I started snapping pics of him 'cause he couldn't move without jeapordizing his chance to win the game ;o)

Here they are, heading towards the limbo line...

Nothing Much

Not much is happening, or at least it feels that way, so I haven't had much to write. Or, perhaps, too much is happening and I haven't had time to write?

These two pictures of Keats were taken yesterday at my work. I had a unit meeting from noon-2 and took him with me. Afterword, I took him on a mini-tour of the new hospital. The room he is in here is just a regular intermediate care room, but the first room I took him into was a bariatric room....boy did he think that was funny!

My unit (IMCU) has two bariatric rooms; these are rooms able to accommodate patients that weigh 500-1000 pounds. Basically the same as the other rooms but there's an extra mechanical lift on the ceiling, and the bathroom is about three times the size. The bathrooms in the bariatric rooms are actually pretty ingenius: the walls don't go all the way up and the door opens in two parts so you can get a really wide opening; the lift is able to carry someone from their bed to the toilet....once on the toilet the whole room turns into a shower. They just shower right there...may sound crazy if you are of normal weight and don't work in the medical field but, let me tell you, this room will save many injuries of healthcare workers!

Anyhoo, Keats thought the extra-large toilet was hysterical. Of course he did! ;o) He was thrilled to be given a pair of medical gloves (who knew this would be such a treat for him??) and I gave him one of the disposable masks we use when we care for patient's with the swine flu. He didn't like the mask much but wanted to keep it just the same. He ended up wearing it for a good portion of the evening.

Keats just informed me that he thinks that if a baby is in the tummy of a mommy and that mommy, and daddy, speak Spanish, then the baby will, too...but if they speak English, so will the baby. I congratulated him on his logic and then asked if he thought babies could speak any language at all like, for instance, can Baby Alex speak either Spanish or English. He had a look of pure pity for me when he said, "No, Mom, babies can't talk at all but when they DO they will speak the same as their parents." Indeed.

This is a picture of Sully from last week. Or perhaps the week before? It all blends, as you know. He was lining up his cereal, taking great pains to get it juuuuust right, but it wasn't until now, as I am posting this, that I noticed the cereal in the bowl is also lined up. Hmmmm. Either he's a mathematical genius or he simply has too much free time on his hands. ;o)

Sullivan Patrick Moore is pretty much potty trained now!! Yay!! I don't know at which point you call them potty-trained...he goes when you ask him to, he poops on the potty, he asks to go when he needs to, he doesn't wear diapers out of the house, he doesn't need diapers during naps and wakes up dry....but he does wear overnight Pull-Ups. About half the times these are dry in the morning. The first four days were absolutely crazy but he totally has the hang of it now. He even had diarrhea for 24 hours last week and didn't need a diapers. He mostly made it to the potty in time, which is a tremendous feat even for kids much older than Sully!

Grandma & Grandpa Visit...and Other Stuff

Paul & Marilyn visited with us a couple of weeks ago. And, yes, I'm just now getting to blog about it. That's how crazy life has been....

....anyway, we had a great visit but of course it seemed very short! They arrived late Friday evening (but were able to stop by to peek at the kids) and then Saturday morning they were able to attend a soccer game--which made Keats one very happy boy!! Keaton scored about five goals, albeit one of those was for the wrong team lol, and was quite proud of himself. The weather was perfect for the game and we were all happy that Paul & Marilyn were able to make a game.

I worked on Sunday but I heard stories of going to the Riverfront Park, walking across the footbridge, lunch at Panda Express, and hanging out on the couch watching Toy Story. Sounds like a fun day!

On Monday morning, Marilyn went with me to pick up Sullivan at Melina's, where he is in preschool. Next, we picked up Keaton from kindergarten. Grandma & Grandpa were there for that, so both were able to see the room and meet the teacher. Keaton went to a pumpkin patch that morning (first field trip on a school bus!!) so he was probably overwhelmed with fun things happening that day.

Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma & Grandpa!

The next photos were taken with my new cell phone camera. Still a little grainy but not bad considering all that the phone does!!

Sully in the tub

Me. Duh.

Sully, sitting in the van when he refused to watch Keaton's soccer game in the rain.

I hung out in the van with him and we messed around with the new camera. :o)

Potty Training Sucks

This is my life right now. Keats will happily take over for me at times...since he knows I'll give him a piece of candy if Sully actually goes potty and earns a piece for himself. Whatever. I'll take it...so much of my life has been spent in bathrooms since a week ago yesterday that I think I may be a little insane. Just a little.

Or perhaps a lot insane. I'll leave that up to the outside world to judge. lol.

The first night of potty training was excellent....except when you take into account that Sully holds in his pee. For a long time. Like 14 hours long. When we started this adventure, he would only let it trickle out. He'd stay on the potty but it would take about an hour to get a tablespoon...and I'm hardly exaggerating...or underexaggerating, as the case may be. ;o)

We went through an interesting weekend where I spent countless hours, and please don't take this the wrong way, literally staring at Sullivan's penis. Why? Because...he insisted that I sit in the bathroom, positioned directly in front of him, while he tried to potty. He called each little trickle of pee "bubbles" and needed applause for each bubble...therefore I had to stare at his pee-parts so I could be sure to praise each little bubble. *sigh*

Monday and Tuesday he spent the entire day at Melina's. She's potty trained a dozen or so kids and she is my support & back-up advisor in Sully's potty training. She is awesome and I have no idea how to repay her! She fully believes Sullivan is ready-ready and that is good enough for me; I think he's ready, too! He potty's much better at "Lina's" house, for sure. Since he could do it at her place, we knew he could do it here...but the control battle with the mama is a little (lot) bit of a hinderance!!! At Lina's he would easily walk to the potty and got faster & faster at letting out a full stream; here, not-so-much!

Finally finally finally last night he was able to let out a full stream THREE TIMES!!! between the hours of about 6 and 9. And he quickly caught on that he could get attention, and avoid sleep (which is his greatest desire), if he stood at his bedroom door yelling, "I need to go pee-pee, Mama!" He did this until about ten-ish. I got him out twice; the first time he was able to actually go but the second time was just crying wolf. I explained to him that we weren't going to play this game and that I'd be back in thirty minutes to take him if he still needed to go. He fell asleep.

Whew! :o)

His diaper (he wears the overnighters) was wet this morning but not the usual 15 pound (lol) mess that it usually is. He hasn't worn a diaper except during sleep for eight days now. Yay!!

If you are wondering why I am putting us all through this rather than waiting until he is ready...let me assure you: HE IS READY!! He has been refusing to wear diapers, sitting on the potty (unsuccessfully), having long conversations with me regarding all the people we know that don't wear diapers...and then he decides which underwear these people wear (most of you have been mentioned, and most of you wear Iron Man undies. Tee hee.) So, we were at this funny place where he is ready in a big way, but not quite ready to let go (literally) of controlling his potty. After talking with Melina, I am certain he is ready...but needed this push. And he is SOOOOO proud of himself when he goes!! The grin on his face as we would drive home from Melina's, and he would tell me about going potty at her place that day, was priceless and could be described only as a very proud grin.

So, he's doing really well with potty training. He doesn't need candy each time anymore, which is great. I have some gifts wrapped up for when he goes #2 or does something great like 24 hours of being dry, but for the most part, pottying like a big boy is reward enough for him.

Webs & Water

As I walked Keats to school the other day, we noticed a group of girls standing next to a tree, staring at something in the tree, and exclaiming words like "jewels" and "diamonds" so we decided to investigate. We found what did indeed look to be jewels: thick dewdrops had outlined spiderwebs in some evergreens on the path to the school.

Don't get me wrong...I don't like spiders. At all. As a matter of fact, I'm trying not to picture one in my head right now because I will then have to check my entire body to make sure one is not climbing on me. Euw. Double euw.

What I do like, however, is nature!! Plus, I have boys to raise. I can't be grossed out by spiderwebs, even if they DO happen to be occupied at the time. I decided that after school the boys and I would take a nature trek and observe all-things-spidery....and all-things-wet. ;o)

The following pics are what we saw on our walkabout:

This is our very own maple tree...I think it is a Sugar Maple??...and I love watching it change with the seasons. It was also just a couple of feet tall when we moved in and now it looks more like a teenager...so it is neat to watch.

I couldn't get a great shot of this web but here are two attempts. They are both from a web in our own Japanese Maple out front. I made the top B&W in an attempt to make the water drops show up better; below I left "as-is" in case that way is easier on your eyes.

These water drops were on a bush along the path to the school. The bush is not very interesting in & of itself...and I have no idea what it is...but the water drops looked awesome on it. I changed a different shot to B&W below...

Okay, if you are like me, you will want to scroll quickly past these spider pics. I am, however, cruel and decided to put these words in the middle of the pics so you have to stop & look!! If you can get past the ickiness...enlarge the photos! I was able to catch this guy actually spinning his web...you can see him pull the web from his, um, web-making-area?? lol...and uses one of his legs to put it in place. Awesome!!!

Just neato water drops on some webs above.

Above was actually a strange, thick web on the ground. It was totally covered with the water drops, which caught my eye.

Colors like the above pink, along with the perfect water drops, make me wish Santa would bring me a camera with a killer zoom! But I did what I could with what I have. ;o)

Above is just some sort of grass that someone is growing in their flowerbed for kicks. So I took pics of it just for kicks.

What better way to top off a tour of spider webs than to come home and make our own! I put some simple brads into black cardstock and had the guys wrap embroidery thread around them to make their webs. When they were done with the web we added some "dew drops" with tiny silver beads and glue. The final shot shows Sullivan's finished product once he put on a couple of spiders. Keaton is still working on his spiders and his project is Top Secret so I don't have a photo of his yet. To be continued....

Pre-preschool

Here are the pics from Sully's first day at preschool. He was excited to go and felt like such a big boy with his backpack!

Mama, I'm ready!!

I asked him to show me his back, so I could get a picture of his backpack, and he did the above pose for me...

...then cracked up because he knew he was being silly!

A brotherly dog-pile before heading to class.

Walking up the path to Melina's. He's holding an apple for the teacher. ;o)

He kicked off his shoes soooo fast, knocked, and then peeked in the window to see if she was coming to the door.