Swim lessons...

So another day for swim lessons...and he did much better today, after a short period of time to get used to it. Once again, it was super cold...and threatening to storm the entire time. It even started raining during the lesson. *Arg* However, he did better today than yesterday, so if we can keeup up that trend, we'll be in good shape!

I need another weekend to recover!

We had such a full weekend that I need another day to recover...or two...

Thursday night Kellen and I went to MawMaw and PawPaw's and although it wasn't intended, our arrival was a surprise. Friday Matt and I went to my TMJ dr appointment to see if there is anything else that can be done right now for my jaw...I've been seeing the chiropractor twice a week now for a couple of months and I can notice a difference, but she's thinking that I need a night guard and we wanted to get his opinion...He's fairly indifferent on the night guard, but thinks that I need a steriod injection in the joint, which would require me to be "out" although it's a outpatient procedure done in his office. So, we're probably going to have that done in a couple of weeks. Back to MawMaw and PawPaw's afterwards to get set up for the first installment of the marathon family reunion weekend.

Friday night - pool at the park and then pizza and games at MawMaw and PawPaw's
Saturday - down to Chuck's for brisquet, swimming and games
Sunday - down to Channelview for the gameroom/pavilion
Monday - hang out with everyone that hasn't flown out or started back on their drive...

Kellen and I got back home around 8:30 last night. I'm beat! I could barely make it through work today, and have NO idea what I'm still doing up! (Actually, that's not true...I'm cleaning the house because we're going to have company tomorrow night). I'm doing a Girls Night Out and a friend of mine is coming over here with her kiddo and we're splitting a babysitter. Hence the need for some cleaning.

Tonight after work was Kellen's first swim lesson...and we managed to survive. That's about the extent of it today. After the rain this weekend, a cooler front (not a cold front, but just cooler - hey, we are in Texas!) came through and the air was rather chilly for those of us in the pool at 6:35 PM...His little teeth were chattering and his lips were turning blue! He just didn't want to let go of my neck! We were able to play some of the skill games, and he's ok with being on his belly, but NOT his back. We'll just have to work on that. I didn't want to push it tonight, as it's the first of nine lessons and I didn't want to take the fun out of the swimming lessons and swimming/pool in general. Hopefully tomorrow he'll do better - and hopefully it will be a little warmer! I don't blame him for not wanting to let go of me...It was COLD in the water!!

Monster man...

Well, we had a visit from the monster man today, and it felt like he stayed all day long! Kellen woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and we ended the day with having a fit at McDonald's, one so bad that we actually left without him even playing on the play area (he had played while the food was getting ready, but was told to eat first and then he could play). He just never made it...temper tantrum, throwing a fit, disobeying, etc. What a scene that he made! We had a nice long talk on the way home, and then again when we got home. He was still talking about McDonad's as I put him to bed...but we ended the day with him saying that next time he would listen to Mommy and Daddy and obey so that he could play at McDonald's.

My goodness!

He's Making My Day!

I just had to give a big, "Whoo hoo!" today!

We were out of town this weekend, and Kellen did wonderfully on the potty. During the ride home (3 hrs) he told us that he had to go twice (fortunately we were close to places to stop). AND, he fell asleep during the ride coming home, but didn't have an accident and when we got to the house, he asked to go pee pee. Whoop!

We got some clothes this weekend, and I had a feeling that the "right" big boy undies would do wonders for his...umm...motivation. And we might have found them...Shrek! He was desperate to wear them, but I told him that he couldn't because he was having too many accidents but that once he got really good at telling Mommy and Daddy that he had to go pee pee, that he could wear the Shrek undies (this was before our ride home, mind you). Well, perhaps something about that conversation - or the motivation for Shrek undies - might have really done it!

He woke us up this morning at his normal time with a loud yell...when I went into his room and asked what was wrong, he told me he had to go pee pee. And we made it! (Not that he was dry or anything, but getting him to sit on the potty first thing after he wakes up in the morning has been a bit of a struggle with us lately).

He only had 1 accident all day at school today, and none tonight while he were hanging out here at the house...AND during the day today (at school) he went poo poo on the potty, too! Throughout the day today after he would go, he kept telling his teacher that his Mommy was going to be so happy. How adorable is that?

When he told me that he had gone poo poo on the potty, it was immediately followed by a request for a sticker (we've implemented a sticker reward for that and a grab bag item as a reward for days when he doesn't have any accidents - we haven't made that one yet).

And it gets better...Kellen is just making my day today! As we were getting ready for bed, he reminded me that we needed to floss his teeth. Whoop! And he picked out the purple flosser with which to do it...I still do all of the flossing and we take turns brushing, but YEAH! He reminded me! And let me do all of his teeth!I'm so excited! (I'm having a good "Mommy" day today and just wanted to share my good news!).

Otherwise, the day has been a Monday...we had a water leak in the building over the weekend and my office suite was part of what got water damage. Arg. So I walked in this morning to the student worker computer in the lobby area of my office all disconnected and that desk in dissarray. But, it could have been much worse! It didn't get into the small conference room or the records room (two other rooms within my suite area), or my office. Whoop!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

It's Grandpa Gerren's birthday today, and I thought that Kellen was going to sing to him this morning, but nope...as soon as I got him on the phone munchkin man decided that he wasn't going to grace us with his singing. Little toot!

Things are going all right over here...just rolling along. Kellen's school pictures came in today and they are just too cute! He looks adorable! I just love his sweet smile!

His teacher told me that he's doing really well on the potty...we're averaging an accident a day (using the training pants only - no pull-ups even during naptime - whoo hoo), so I think that's pretty good. I think that perhaps next week I'll move to a reward grab bag system and start letting him pick something out of a grab bag on the days that he doesn't have any accidents or poo poo's in the potty...I think that might be an incentive for him to work on this a little more...Who knows?

That's about it for us...just getting ready to go away for the weekend...Ft. Worth Friday night and then to a welcome-back party and a wedding on Saturday in the Stephenville/Tolar area...we'll be back sometime on Sunday.

Happy Birthday to Me

So, today was my big day. I'm the age that everyone "holds" at now. That seems very wierd. My day didn't start out well, but it had virtually nowhere to go but up! My car had no gas when I tried to leave this morning to get Kellen to daycare and me to work, but Matt put some in it for me so I could make it to the gas station, then I burned my hand on the coffee while getting a filler at the gas station. But, I somehow knew that this was going to happen (all except the burn part) - so it didn't bother me at all! It's just one of those things. No biggie! My big plans for the day included: Work...birthday cake & ice cream...lunch with some of my co-workers...home to a wonderful spaghetti meal cooked by Matt...then watched Alias and Lost, and now the season finalie of Invasion.

Kellen was so cute today...he was talking about my birthday and asking where my, "Happy Birthday cake was?" and saying, "Happy birthday cake to mommy."

Too adorable!

Poor baby!

This morning was very odd. I woke up, got almost completely ready, and still not a peep from my Kellen. I went into his room a little before 7 and he was still sound asleep - tried to wake him up (didn't try too hard, but did hold his hand and rub on his back a little bit), but nothing. Still zonked out. So I finished getting ready and then went back into his room a little after 7. His door has been open since my initial peek, and still my little boy slept. What's up with that? I finally rouse him and after he stretches and rubs his eyes, he looks at me and says, "I threw up."

Huh?

Then he proceeds to tell me that he got sick last night, and shows me the spot on the floor by the door where he threw up (we're not talking huge quantities here, folks). I asked him if he called for me ('cause I most definitely did not hear him) and his reply, "I cried." Then he proceeds to show me his cry face. "See, like this." I never could get a good answer out of him about whether or not he called for me while he was getting sick. He said that he felt fine now, and that his tummy didn't hurt, but it certainly was an odd way to start the morning!

Minutes later Matt came home and was pretty much in shock to see that Kellen had just woken up. If you can't tell, his sleeping late is highly unlike our little guy.

Poor thing! I just can't believe that he didn't call out for me or that I didn't hear him last night while this was happening. He just wanted to snuggle and snuggle this morning, but he certainly wanted his Daddy to take him to school. There were no if, ands or buts about that one!

Mother's Day

My day began very nicely, my boys and I watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Maw Maw & Paw Paw's house (we stopped by just to see the new deck, and ended up being too tired to drive home, so we spent the night there on Saturday night), Matt stopped to get me a cappacino for our drive home, we made it home and our intent was to go to the late service at church (to no avail...a migraine kicked in for me), so Kellen and I took a very long nap when we got to the house (about 3 hours long - which is virtually unheard of for him!). I woke up migraine free to a wonderful husband who had been working non-stop on the yard and house since we went down for our naps. He served us lunch, then brought me my Mother's Day cards and presents - an 8 X 10 family picture (the Easter Sunday bluebonnet picture) and another picture of Kellen in an Aggie shirt with an Aggie hat on his head looking too cute for my desk at work. After that, the rest of the day was spent lounging, playing, and listening to the storm (unfortunately, the storm sidetracked our plan to go to the pool, then the other possibility was taking Kellen to go and watch Ice Age 2, but we figured that plenty of other folks would be doing that on a rainy Sunday afternoon, plus we didn't really want to get out, especially get Kellen out, in that nast storm!) Other than the migraine, it was a good Mother's Day...

Getting there...potty training

So today was the first FULL day of no pull-ups, just training pants for munchkin man. We had one accident at the house before we even left for school (somehow I have to get it across to him that the toast will still be there when he gets back from the potty - where did he get that love of bread? I'm sure it couldn't be from his Mommy???!!??), but then made it to school ok and made sure to tell the teachers that he was in training pants and not the pull-up. Well, I'm not sure if he just had a bad day or if he was just getting back at us or what, but he had several accidents today - lots of clothes wrapped up in the bags for Mommy to pick up when I arrived at school - Oh well! We expected that for the first few days!

His issue tonight was telling me he had to go poo poo, me sitting him on the potty, them him hopping right back off and saying that he didn't. I really think that he was holding it in so that he wouldn't poo poo on the potty, because he actually went pretty well in his training pants a little later on. I'm so worried about pushing this phase of it, because with his BM troubles, I don't want to push things with him and the potty and just make him hold it all in and make everything worse. I feel like he's just now growing out of the issues that we have been having and I don't want to go backwards. Arg!

However, we are putting him in a pull-up at night to sleep in. No way in getting around that one right now and I'm not even going to tackle it until we have the daytime worked out.

We're getting there, though! Whoo hoo!!

Bad Mommy

I'm feeling like a bad mommy right now. Kellen was outside with me on Monday night while I weeded the flower beds, and dumb-bo me forgot to put the insect repellant on him (and I just bought some, too!) and, like his mommy, he ended up getting eaten alive in the 20ish minutes that we were outside. After bath on Monday night we put the calamine lotion on the bites, and have been repeating the lotion in the morning and after bath. But we must have some mosquitos in the house, because he has more on his legs today then he had yesterday. During bathtime tonight I counted between 25-30 bites (some are hard to say because I can't tell if it's one big bite that he's been scratching or a couple of little bites just close together). Oh I just feel awful! I know that he wants to just scratch and scratch them, because that's what I'm wanting to do! I have him watch Mommy put the lotion on her boo boo's, so he's sees me doing it, too - and we discuss NOT scratching them, but it's just SO hard!! (As I sit here dying to scratch the ever-living out of mine!)

Anyway...moving on...

This morning he was so cute! He was intermittently running aroung sans clothing, eating his breakfast, and singing "Hakuna Matata" - I wonder if he'll ever really know how much he makes my heart melt? Kids - their joy, innocence, sweetness, goodness - it's amazing that we're entrusted to care and raise them. He just melted my heart this morning!

And today was parent-teacher conference day at school...no major problems but we're moving to training pants only at school - no more pull-ups because he's just being lazy sometimes when he has them on. He knows that if he has an accident it is no big deal and that he doesn't have to stop what he's doing to actually go potty because he has a pullup on. Well, he knows when he needs to go - so we're moving all the way there with the training pants. I hadn't realized that he had been wearing the training pants over his naptime, too - and lots of times not having an accident! Way to go buddy! Now we just have to work on it more at home - but being naked really seems to work for him. For some reason he tells me he has to go if he's naked much better than if he has clothes or even a training pant undie on. I've read and heard some stuff about this so it seems to be pretty normal.

Growing up little boy here we come, I guess...

7th Heaven

I've enjoyed this show off and on throughout the years, and tonight is its final episode. Hmm....

Kellen is just being Kellen. I did a stupid-mom thing today and took him outside with me to do yard work without putting insect repellent on him (I know, I know...stupid mommy thing to do) and he had almost a dozen bites all over his poor little body. He takes after him mommy on that one and the mosquitoes are just drawn to him! Poor thing! So after the bath he got a kick out of me rubbing calamine lotion on his boo boos...he just giggled his cute little giggle. It was adorable!

Day of Rest?

Isn't a weekend supposed to have a day of rest built in there somewhere?

There must be something in the air today, because while Matt slept (not that he was veggin', his new job just requires him to be nocturnal), my day went something like this:

To church (the early service) a little late (but that was ok b/c Kellen made a poo poo in the potty - that's pretty big for us!), after church went to Kroger, then to the Dollar Store, back to the house and while feeding lunch to Kellen got all of the groceries put away. Got Kellen down for a nap, then started on the laundry (the 7th load of laundry is finishing up in the washing machine now). Cleaned up the kitchen, which entailed two full rounds of the dishwasher, a good scrubbin' of the stove, the normal counters, floor sweeping & mopping, plus a not-so-normal deep cleaning of Kellens chair. I also managed dinner, which was just a simple salad, alfredo pasta, with a side of green beans, and got Matt's food ready for him for work. In the midst of this, Kellen and I managed some fun play time with a variety of toys, including making trains out of playdoh.It has to be something in the air...because this is normally what I manage to get accomplished all weekend long - not in one Sunday afternoon!

I feel a major sense of accomplishment here - but after the craziness of this weekend's schedule, it's rather exhausting as well!

Anyway...Moving on..

Tonight was our first try at flossing and Kellen did GREAT! He let me floss ALL OF HIS TEETH!! On the FIRST NIGHT! I was so amazed! I had wondered how he would do, because he's used to us working with his teeth, etc., since we've done his turn, my turn for SO long now...I thought flossing would be a whole new ballgame. At the grocery store today we went and looked for flossers...and I told him what we were doing and that we were going to start flossing his teeth. I couldn't find any character flossers at Krogers, (I had been told about some Buzz Lightyear flossers that we still might look for), but came across Fun Flossers (48 in a pack for $1.99 - all right!!) and they come in green, purple, yellow and I think maybe blue (he wanted the green, of course - his favorite color), tonight. The handles are super easy to grip (for Mommy at least- he didn't get a turn tonight - it was just me). There were a couple of times that he told me it hurt, and we took 3 or 4 breaks. Once I was going to put the flosser away and he said, "No, we have to finish all my teeth." Then we brushed just like normal. He even wanted to sleep with the flosser, which he does with new things that he likes. Maybe this transition into flossing will be easier than I had initially expected.

I'm doing a happy dance here!!

Ok...backtrack for the weekend in review..

Friday night I had a party to attend and the boys had a boys night in and watched the Astros...

Saturday morning was summer swim lesson sign up and I would say that it was my first experience into the foray as a beginner "soccer mom" - isn't that the term used as a generality for most all extracurricular activities for kiddos? Anyway...I had heard the stories about needed to get to the sign up early...and my goal was 8 AM...I actually got there at 8:30, and was #64 in line. OH MY GOSH! I talked with the #4 lady (mom of one of Kellen's daycare classmates), and she was there at 6 something, got her number, left, and came back again for the final wait. Wow! But...it was a successful adventure (after some of my signature stubborness took effect, I stood my ground and got Kellen into a class that he's officially too young for but I had been told repeatedly that he could take - twice before Sat. morning and then again before the sign up on Sat. morning). Whew! We're all signed up!

Then onto Toys R Us to get a birthday gift for the birthday party he was going to that afternoon...Home for an early nap, which he surprisingly took with NO problems...I just told him if he wanted to go to the birthday party he had to lay down and take a nap, and he hopped right into bed! Imagine that! ABS Reunion started at 12:30, but because of his early nap we were late and got there around 1:30...stayed until a little after 3:00...ran and got a bag for his present and made it to the birthday party between 3:30 - 3:45, and he was pretty well behaved there. It's so difficult for kids his age to see so many presents and understand that NONE of the presents are for them! However, he did really well with this! Back to the ABS center after the party around 5ish, hung out for a while and then the gang went out to each in downtown Bryan...swung some leftover food by for Matt and we finally made it back to the house by ~ 10:00 last night.

And for the schedule that we had yesterday, he was SO well behaved. There were some moments...but overall, he did pretty well. It was such a great weekend, starting wonderfully on Friday night, but I'm utterly exhausted from it all! These jam-packed schedules and work days just take it out of me!

Maybe the week will be more restful...Hmmm...

Best Friend

I guess it's about that time...tonight Kellen told me who his "best friend" is...We were saying our prayers and we started to bless our friends, and he named one of his friends in particular and then told me that he was his best friend. Is it too early for him to have a best friend? Well, I guess not...Where did he learn that terminology? I have no idea!! It was cute and scary all at the same time...cute and sweet, but then scary because I know he's getting to that point when it's possible that he'll become hurt by his "friends" and start going through those types of relationship issues that are just part of growing up. Man-oh-man...are we already there?

Weekend...

What an unusual weekend...it starts out with us leaving for Conroe on Sat. morning after Matt got off of work...with dog in tow, then getting a call indicating that the storm that blew through Conroe had once again knocked a tree over in George and Judy's backyard. What are the odds? Once again, the falled tree had damaged the fence, only this time it hadn't destroyed any property (whew!). So, Baily's status as a backyard animal was in jeapardy...kennel in the garage or boarding was in order, so we opted for the boarding route, which meant that I took a half day today since we couldn't pick him up until this morning. Wacko start to the weekend, I guess. Oh well!

Went to the housewarming party...which was nice, and ran after Kellen seemingly the whole time (I know that I had assistance on this, but I was WIPED out after this party was over). George and Judy offered to watch Kellen while Matt and I went to do something, but we were both exhausted! How sad...

Church on Sunday...Then finally got Kellen some sandals (bought 5 pair and ended up with 2 that he will tolerate/fit him) - Whoo Hoo! MawMaw is taking the rest back to the various stores from which they were purchased. We were supposed to go and see Tom, Cassie and Taylor, but Taylor had a stomach virus and the doctors had suggested she have no visitors...so that knocked that visit and part of our trip out. Stinker.

So, Matt and I decide to run a couple of Houstonian errands and make a night of it on Sunday night instead...and drove around for ages. We had a great date night that consisted of riding around Houston. Sounds like an odd date night, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Onto the week!

Is it Friday yet?

This week has been crazy! Somehow, despite open registration (work, work & more work), I'm actually getting things cleared off of my desk. Amazing.

Kellen is being Kellen. He's still learning the consequences of his actions, which he doesn't always like, but hey, that's what growing up is all about.

Come on weekend!

Prayers Needed

Matt's friend is in need of prayers again...It's so hard to understand God's will - and I'm sure that I never will on this one, not until I'm looking God and Jesus in the face and ask them "Why?" Will it matter at that point? I'm referring to his friend that he went to high school with, the one that's been battling cancer now for a couple of years. I guess Matt had a conversation with him today and it seems now that despite undergoing treatment for the last couple of weeks, the tumors are growing and he's going to have to make a decision between quantity and quality of life. As you can well imagine, this is hitting Matt really hard, so please pray not only for Tom and his family, but for Matt as he deals with this and the helplessness that he all feel as we try and understand why good people have to go through rotten things here on this earth.

All boy

Illustrations to solidify my "all boy" little man...

This is the climbing wall at the birthday party from last weekend that he successfully climbed on his first attempt. At the time that this picture was taken, I have NO idea how many times he had climbed this thing. When he started, he did have socks and shoes on, but after being in the moon jump, it was easier just to keep them off, and he seemed to do just fine without them on this. Go figure. Oddly enough, I wasn't even really worried about him getting hurt on this...am I simply getting numb to the minor injuries at this point in time? Hmmm...

Easter pics...

Then Easter Sunday afternoon when we went and got our wonderful spring pictures (then again...I could be a little biased)

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect setting for which to take these pictures, and for it being as late as it was - Kellen behaved remarkably well! With everything that happened over that weekend, I really appreciate the fact that we were actually able to get these done at all, but Matt knew that I really wanted to do this and we just wanted to spend some time together. Kellen was so entertaining in the car - pointing out all of the sights and "pretty flowers" along the way to our perfect spot.

Easter weekend

Originally attempted to post this on 4.17.06...Will try again today.

Well, it was Easter weekend this last weekend and it was a weird one for us. Matt was off this weekend, but we didn't end up getting to do all of the things that we had originally planned. His MeeMaw passed away on Saturday. It was something that we knew was coming, and is ultimately a good thing, as she is now with Jesus and Pee Paw in heaven. For those of you that don't know, this is the MeeMaw of the MeeMaw & PeePaw that Matt was so close to...the PeePaw that he lost in February of 2000, so this - as you can imagine - is bringing back those memories of his grandparents for him. Please pray for our family and his as we all go through this loss, but rejoice that she is now no longer in pain and is eternally at peace. The viewing is tomorrow afternoon and the funeral is on Wednesday morning, so we may be out of pocket for a few days...for those of you that want to get in touch with us, you probably have our cell phones and can reach us.

Kellen had another birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon (in case I forgot to blog it, which I probably did - he had a birthday party at McDonald's on Thursday evening - and the indoor playground and party room there is GREAT!! - he loved it and loved playing on the slide!). Anyway, this party was an Elmo party...and man-oh-man was this an elaborate party! For a three year old! They had a moon jump, had hired a clown who was doing face painting and then did a magic show and made balloon things for each of the kids, rented a sno cone machine, and had different game stations set up throughout the entire yard...probably a dozen or so. In addition to this, they also had one of those MONDO play-things in their backyard...with the slide, swings, and a rock-climbing wall - one that Kellen successfully climbed on his FIRST attempt. (Oh my...what are we in for??) The owner of the house (after Kellen's second or third climb) came up behind him and watched him...asked how old he was, and almost had to catch his eyes when I told him that he would be 3 in July. I"m guessing it's not made for someone his age???

Anyway, then I realized again just how much of a flirt my little man actually is...there is this cutie pie of a girl in his class named Paiten...(her birthday party was a few weeks ago) went over to the play area where he was about to climb the rock wall again. He turned to her and so politely said, “Paiten help me, please.”

Umm…he had already done this very successfully close to a dozen times…virtually without ANY help, yet he wanted this cutie pie of a girl to “help him, please” with the rock wall. Her reply?

“Ok Kellen. I help you.” Then she proceeded to go into teacher mode and tell him how to go about the wall.

OH MY GOSH! Are you kidding me?

Anyway…so yesterday we went to church, then everyone took Sunday afternoon naps…Oh wow…That was SO nice. They were late and long! We got up and moving, then went for a late afternoon drive to take spring pictures. However, something had happened to Mommy slightly before and during the nap…something called the starting of a spring cold. Anyway, we drove to Navasota, then a little farther in search of the ‘perfect patch’ of wildflowers, heavy on the bluebonnets. We finally found them a little past 7:30 PM, parked and got ready for the pictures. We took some with all combinations of the family…and they really turned out great! I’m so happy about them!

I woke up this morning feeling even worse…and it’s progressing in a downward spiral – YUCK! Kellen and I were eating dinner and I was rubbing my head and mentioned something about not feeling well – he asked me about it and then said that he wanted to kiss it and make it all better; leaned over and kissed my forehead, leaned back, smiled really big and said with a smile, “Now you’re all better!” What a sweetie!

Vick’s vapor rub was my friend last night and he’s been my friend so far this evening. It’s the only way that I can breathe at this point in time…Surely these head colds can’t last that long…I’m just hoping that I’m not growing into allergies.

***

As you might imagine, a lot has happened since last weekend. At the time of this attempted posting, there was a problem with our internet or the blog or something, so I just copied and pasted the message I had written into a word document so I could blog it later...

Will update later...enjoy your weekend all!

Forgot his kiss

So we're trying to get into a routine with the new job, so forgive my lack of posting...Tonight, however, I just couldn't miss this one. Daddy picked Kellen up at daycare and I finished up with my chiropractic appointment, ran to Walgreens for Kellen's contribution snack for the spring party at school tomorrow, beat them home and started a quick supper (I've determined that grilled cheese is a great quick dinner for a "fend for yourself" night, which is what tonight had been deemed). Kellen was just being too cute all night long...just little comments that solidified that he was/is growing up.

However, the clincher came at bedtime...literally 5 minutes ago. It was a tug at the heartstrings & growing up moment - all in one.

After Daddy left for work, Kellen came into the room I was in with some toys and sweetly asked, "Mommy, you want to play with me?"

Oh my goodness...how could a Mommy refuse that sweet and innocent request?

So of course, we went to his room and played blocks, got his special book out (his LeapFrog book that he had a tendency to be a little rough with, so it stays in the closet unless he's supervised with it), and just played, played, played. What a nice time! Such a change from the grump-a-munch of last night and this morning. Whew!

At about 7:30 or 7:35, we go into the bathroom for bath time...he does some business on the potty (still making progress - YEAH!!) and then takes a 10 minute or so bath. Since the bathroom is 95% completed - but at least functional, bathtime is SO MUCH MORE enjoyable now! At about 7:45, it's time to get out of the bath, but he doesn't really want to...he enjoys playing in the bath so much (at least tonight I didn't have to take him out twice to pee pee like last night...but hey, at least he told me that he had to go and pee peed in the potty, right?). I let him sit in the bathtub while the water is draining, and he's watching the water drain, looks at it and says, "The bathtub is really thirsty!"

Kids and their perception...it's just hilarious!

Potty again, then he wants me to hold him like a baby...it's the only time he wants me to do it and I'll still take advantage of it...fingernail grooming (how DO the fingernails & toenails of a child grow that quickly?), then it's on to PJ's, brush teeth, read a book, say blessings (translation: prayers), music on and night, night. As I walk out of the room, he tells me good night and that he loves me...it just makes my heart melt.

I make it down the hallway and then hear a small voice yelling, "Mommy!"

I walk back into his room. "Yes baby. What's wrong?"

"You forgot my kiss."

"Oh ok sweetie. I"m sorry." He's sitting up in his bed at this point in time, he hasn't gotten up, which he knows he is not supposed to do after he's been tucked in. I walk over and give him a kiss and tuck him back in. "Do you want another one?"

"No, that's enough."

See what I mean? Tug at the heartstrings...he didn't want to go to sleep without his kiss from his Mommy...but growing up...he only wanted the one.

"Well," I replied, "I'm going to give you another one anyway." And I leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. Another exchange of 'I love you's' and he was officially down for the night.

Late night

Late night...and all my fault. Kellen went to bed tonight at...wait for it...9:30. YIKES! My appointment ran late this afternoon, so I didn't get to pick him up until about 5:40, then we had to swing back by my office because I forgot some plants that a co-worker had brought for me today for the flower beds that really needed to be planted tonight...made it home by ~ 6:10 or 6:15 to see Daddy only for a little while before he had to go to work. We're living in the house equivalent to Mother Hubbard's cupboard, so we went to Wal-Mart for some of the finishing things for the bathroom...and that took just a little longer than Mommy thought it would. Then on to Kroger (now it's 8:00), and we were back to the house by 8:40, but a quick bath and getting ready for bed...and by this time he was so tired that he was fighting it, not fussing, but..."read me a book, just one more book...I want to play with..." You get the idea...After he was in bed I went outside and planted in the dark...who knows how that will look in the morning! It's a good thing that it's wandering jews and they're supposed to be scattered throughout the flower beds!

I have absolutely NO idea what I'm still doing up at 11:30...I'm trying to be productive but am just exhausted...so I'm going to call it a night.