My Long Dress

On the way home from the store today, Weston asked, "Mom, where's your long dress?"

"What long dress buddy?"
"The one you wore when you got married."
"It's at home in the closet."
"Can I see it."
"Sure...what made you think about mommy's wedding dress?"
"Because, when you were getting married, I was at home waiting for you."

I love the complete, yet confident, irrationality of a three year old.

So we got home and I dug into the closet and showed him a peek of the dress through the bag.

Here it was 6 years ago...


I showed him my veil and, of course, he wanted to know how you wear a veil and I put it on. He asked if I would wear it for lunch... and I said, "Why not?!"


Things like this make me smile and cherish the days where he wonders about such random things and gets a kick out of me cooking up lunch in a veil. I can't imagine when he's sixteen that he'll think this is so cool!

Summer: Undocumented

Well, it's that time of year where it's still 100 degrees out, but all the pool toys are on clearance and Halloween candy is out, so I kind of feel like summer is over and I should have sweaters close at hand.

It also reminds me that we've been busy and there is a lot that has gone unmentioned.

Hold on to your hats folks, here we go!

The Muny!...


Kurt's cousin Amanda's wedding...


Yoga with Noni...


Pool time...


Nature walks...



Butterfly House...


Hanging with Nana and Aunt Julie...


Transportation Museum...


Playing inside...

(this is an elephant)


Playgrounds...


Weston's first trip to the movie theater to see "Pooh"...


Grant's Farm...


A trip to the fire station to see our friend Jim...


Phew! I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted after that many pictures!

Pigtails

Lily is wearing her first pigtails. Getting a picture of her in the pigtails was near as hard as actually getting the pigtails in her hair. So, Lily, when you're looking through this as a book years from now, do not think I'm playing favorites with the amount of photos between you and your brother. You are just REALLY hard to catch.

Case in point, a picture where she is completely out of the frame before the picture is caught...

Pigtails...



Trying to get a picture without the necklace in her mouth. How did you really feel about that Lily?


She is entirely too cute running around with her hair up. More little steps into girlhood...I guess that's okay.

Grateful for...

#58 Friends and family who have faithfully prayed for us and have for a long time

#59 Going to church as a family this summer

#60 Homemade ice cream

#61 Tough forgiveness

Waking Westie

When Weston naps, Lily is typically up first. We have to wake him up after a couple of hours otherwise he'd sleep through dinner and be up past his momma's bedtime.

Lily loves to wake him up. When I tell her it's time, she runs in yelling, "Hieeeeeeee!" And then it proceeds as follows...

Sleeping child...


Going in for the kill...


Closer...


Plop!


He's REALLY hard to wake. Sometimes there's some pulling and squeezing involved...



Taking a break from her antics. "Mom, he won't wake up..."


Awake at last and smiling (we'll skip the part where he's crabby).

Water Buffalo

We already know Weston is a big animal lover. We have lots of these animals. Many purchased by Papa, but a lot by Kurt and I. They are pricey little guys, but I tell you what: When given a new one of these, Weston will play with it for two days straight. Kurt and I joke that there's no need for fancy gifts here, just one of these animals. They are real looking, well made and I'm pretty sure they would make it through a natural disaster, so they're definitely toddler/preschool proof.

The other day I was at Target solo and, thinking of him, strolled down the aisle where they sell them. They must be discontinuing because they were like 80% off! They only had baby raccoons and water buffalo left so I went with the water buffalo. Kind of random, but for $1.74, whatever.

When I gave it to him, he started jumping up and down and then ran to show everyone in the house. Funny thing is, random or not, he knew exactly what it was.

He then desperately wanted to watch video clips of water buffalo. Here he is, squeaky clean after a bath, glued to the computer...


He makes me laugh. And smile. And I love that there's a special place in his animal loving heart for a water buffalo.
...
Grateful for

#54 a weekend of lounging on land and water with delicious food and great friends

#55 husband who can hold the fort

#56 cool weather after brutal heat

#56 snuggling infants

#57 napping preschooler

On Potty Training

I laugh as I type the title of this post, as if I have anything profound to say about potty training. We tried for the third time with Westie this past weekend and it was not the "charm" we were hoping for. I think I made the right decision to quit early the third day as it was taking on the exact same pattern as the last time we tried when I drew it out for seven days and then felt as if we had all lost a week of life at the end.

But here is what I have concluded: This is no longer an issue about Weston learning anything about the toilet or underwear or pee and poop. This is a willful decision he is going to have to make. He knows how to do it. He can hold it FOREVER. He can also go on the potty when he feels like it. But if you put them together for too many days in a row? No dice. He's all excited at first to wear his underwear and then by day 2 something in him says, "I don't want to do this."

There are so many different takes, philosophies and advice to be had on good ol' potty training. And I don't even know where we're going to go from here. I would love to think that someday soon he'll just come up to me and say, "Let's do it for real this time!". I just don't know if that will happen. All I know is I'm done for now. And I'm sad. I don't know why. Probably selfish reasons. I don't want to have two in diapers anymore. I wanted him to be able to go to preschool this year. He has really cute underwear I'm dying for him to wear. Fear that he won't do it and we'll have to send him to some sort of potty therapist when he's 5.

But, like I frequently have to remind myself, this isn't about me. And that's that.

In conclusion here are some funny things that summarize everything:

(Before he pees or poops)..."Mom, do I have a diaper on?" (me: "yes, but do you want to go on the potty?") "No thanks." (and then goes in his diaper)

"Tell Miss Melissa (director at preschool he cannot go to this year) not to be sad. I'll get bigger and then I'll wear underwear and go on the potty and then I'll go to school." (me: Aren't you big now?") "yeah, but I'll get even bigger."

"Mom, wipe my bottom soft, and don't go fast and I have some more poop right here". Seriously?! If we're having this discussion, you need to be cleaning up your own rump!

Meanwhile, Lily has been sitting on Weston's potty all the time and looks at us and says, "poopoo" when she goes. So maybe the Lord's blessing in all of this is that it's going to be a 2 for 1 deal and I'll have both of them trained at the same time! Here's to hoping...