Congratulations Are in Order

I would just like to brag on my brother-in-law for a moment. Today he received results from his last test, meaning he has earned his GED!! I am so proud of you, Wade, both for all your hard work and for giving the glory to God. And I am proud of my sister for supporting him through the process and helping him to prepare.

In other news, Miss Maddie is teething up a storm and proving that her lungs are as strong as her legs. That makes this very interesting when Quinn jumps up every 15 minutes and says, "I gotta go potty! I gotta go potty!" However, he did wake up this morning with a dry diaper, so I'd say that's progress. We're moving ahead. And we still have a week and a half before he turns three!

We just got back last week from a week-long vacation to Orlando. We are so cheap. Last year we went to Sesame Place at this same time to take advantage of the free admission for kids under 2. This year we went to Disney and Sea World just before Quinn turned 3, at which point Disney tickets would have been $70! So we put up with 100 degree heat and 100% humidity to save a few bucks. We spent a few hours with my grandmother, who took an immediate liking to Maddie, and the feeling was mutual. We spent a lot of time with my mom, who was willing to drive to Orlando a couple of times to see us. Jalal and I even went out for the evening while Mom watched the kids. We went around to a few different restaurants and had a drink and an appetizer at each bar, starting with sake and sushi. Yum. Our day at Disney was a blast. Disney does a great job of keeping guests cool despite the heat. Quinn got to meet some of his favorite people.




We waited until almost 1:00 a.m. to see Mickey and Minnie. Still not sure that was worth it. Because Quinn got his mouse ears when we went to Disneyland two years ago, we had to get Maddie a pair. Check this girl out.



Could you eat her up? She was such a doll and even had fun on the Tea Cups! Quinn is a mad man, though, and I nearly got sick we were spinning so fast. A couple days later, we got to see "the big giant whale" at SeaWorld, despite the fact that thunderstorms shut down a fair number of the shows. Trish and Wade came down and hung out with us for the weekend, which of course made my heart happy. Even my cousin Sara came and had dinner with us in Orlando. It was a great trip, but we were certainly glad to be home. Love, Us.

I Lost My Underwear!

No, not me. Quinn woke up from a nap today and came to the top of the stairs. "Mama, can I please come downstairs?!" "Yes." "Oh, Ok. Thank you. Oh, wait! I lost my underwear!" Haha! We've obviously been potty-training around here. We had a huge fight before that nap about underwear versus a diaper. I told him I didn't think he was ready to wear underwear for a nap yet, but if could prove he could stay dry through a nap, he could try tomorrow. He was so upset, and he kept crying "my underwear!!" Finally he agreed and went to bed. (FYI, he was not dry when he woke up.) I think we're getting there. Love, Us.

Mopping Up Puddles

Well, I was so ready to say how much I HATE potty training when Quinn maybe, just maybe, seems to have gotten the hang of it. We spent all day today (while we were both awake and at home) keeping Quinn naked from the waist down. When I did try to put underwear on him, he peed on the floor. One other time he peed on his chair at the dining room table, but he also managed to do it right a few times, including "number 2"!! We've hit plenty of other milestones recently, too. Maddie rode in her stroller sitting up (not in her carseat) for the first time yesterday. She seemed pretty happy with it. She's also rolling over now, mostly from the back to front. She "talks" a lot more now, much louder, too. She eats rice cereal, sweet potatoes, peas (not a fan), pears, and squash. She's a very neat eater, too, not nearly as messy as Quinn was. Thanks to the solid food, she seems to be putting on a bit of weight. She is still not fitting into her size 0-3 month pants, for the most part. But she's outgrowing her pajamas and rompers in that size because she's the longest baby in the world.

Quinn buttoned his pajama shirt last night, which was a big step for him since we haven't been practicing that at all. He pretty much knows his right from his left, and he's really good at singing "Jesus Loves Me." He loves to help with the laundry, which is great for practicing his color sorting, and is especially helpful when Miss Maddie is screaming her head off and won't let me put her down. Everybody thinks she is such an angel, but that girl has a set of lungs you wouldn't believe. She has got to be teething, and she better cut her first tooth earlier than Quinn did, or I will go stark raving mad in the next 6 months. Well, I know that is a sad excuse for catching up, but it will have to do for now. My paychecks have been on a ridiculous delay lately so I am trying to work really hard to finish my current book ahead of deadline. Plus we are planning a trip to Florida to visit family and hit Disney before Quinn turns 3 and costs a fortune. Gotta go now. Love, Us.

Brought to You by the Letter P

Yikes! I realized that I better post once this month before June is over! Sorry kids. If anyone has any complaints about me being out of touch, you may contact me about what time you'd like to come over and play with Quinn, feed Maddie, wash dishes, iron shirts, vacuum up peas from under the table, and edit a book in British English while I blog and post photos. Takers? Hah! I thought not. Seriously, though. Sorry about that.

So, where are all of you moms who swore that all I had to do was put Quinn in underwear for a few hours to potty train him? Supposedly, one little accident is all it takes to get them rushing for the potty, right? Three puddles later, and I'm doing an extra load of laundry and the potty (sitting right in the living room so as not to interrupt the activities too much)is empty. Hmmm. That doesn't seem to be working. I'm not sure I have ever envied you people with wood floors more than I did today. At my Bible study this morning, someone came to get me and said Quinn needed to use the potty but the girls watching the kids weren't sure what to do with him. I laughed and said, "OK, but I'm just going to go in there and ask if he wants to sit on the potty, and he's going to say no." I'm not psychic, but I was spot on with that one. He's pretty adept at peeing in the bathtub, though! Guess we'll give it another shot tomorrow. Good night. Love, Us.

When They Are 3, They Lie!

The finger-pointing has begun. For the first time, but probably not the last, Quinn blamed Maddie for something he did. We were all lying down on her play mat encouraging Maddie to reach out and grasp her hanging toys. I noticed a stinky smell and said, "Does someone need a new diaper?" Quinn said, "No." I said, "Quinn, did you go to the bathroom?" "No, that's Maddie." Well, without being too vulgar, I can tell the difference. This was not Maddie. But I had to give him some credit for shifting blame, I guess. It reminds me of a trip to the mall we took a couple months ago. I was waiting with Maddie and the stroller while Quinn and Jalal rode the "moving stairs" a few times. This sweet older lady stopped to admire the sleeping baby. She said something like "God bless you." I said, well, I also have a two-year-old on the escalator. She said, "Oh, I used to teach Sunday school to 2- and 3-year-olds. The 2-year-olds are sweet, but when they are 3, they lie!" I have to admit, I busted out laughing a little. I was sure she was right, and now I am seeing it first-hand. Below, he is not lying, but he is reading to her. He knows "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by heart, and he loves to read to Maddie.


The next picture is of Quinn giving Maddie a bottle for the first time last night. How sweet is that? He practiced on his baby doll the other day, so I thought he was ready. Doesn't he look devious in that one?




Do you ever get so caught up in the little details that you miss the big picture? I don't mean on a daily basis with big stuff like life or anything, though I do that sometimes. I mean, for instance, today I had both kids sleeping at once, the living room was vacuumed, and the dishwasher was running. I was waiting on a job to come through, so I had no work, and I was caught up on blogs and facebook and junk like that. I decided to attend to the single most overdue cleaning project in my house: my bathroom sink and countertops. The tub and toilet get cleaned fairly regularly, but there is so much junk piled up on the countertops that it is a daunting task. But I dug in. Now I should have just unloaded the stuff, wiped it down, and moved on to other things, like putting away laundry or taking out the trash. But I got involved in the minutiae (love that word). I ended up scrubbing the gap between the back of the sink and the wall with an old toothbrush, which I then used on the ring around the drain. After the whole area was clean, I wiped off the stuff like soap pump and deodorant and replaced them, putting all the non-essentials in their proper place. (How very Donna Reid of me.) Another example: Sometimes when I really need to be getting ready to leave the house, I became (just a tad) obsessed with cleaning the hair out of my hairbrush. I can't stop until it's really really clean. Don't ask me why.

Well, I'm going to sign off now because I should have started dinner a half hour ago. And it's bath night, which HAS to be done by 8 p.m. because I am NOT missing the live finale of Biggest Loser. I have my priorities. I will close with a couple of Maddie pics because I owe you from her 3-month birthday. Love, Us.

"You Make My Heart Super Happy"

For those of you who don't get the reference, the title of today's post is from Ni-Hao, Kai-lan," a Nick Jr. show about a little Chinese girl and her animal friends. Quinn has spent the last 30 minutes pointedly NOT finishing his milk or dinner but instead singing "Jesus Loves Me" at the top of his lungs and asking for more "Jesus songs." It made me think about all the things in my life right now that make my heart happy, even when so many things don't. I could complain about my husband having to work six long days a week and not being around much. I could complain about how hard it is to get all of my work done while taking care of two small kids. I could complain about the fact that Quinn has absolutely no interest whatsoever in potty training but insists on showing me his backside every time he goes to the bathroom. But you know what? When Maddie gives me a big silly grin for no reason at all or Quinn pats my hair and tells me he loves me, all of that fades away. The fact is Maddie is a great baby. She sleeps through the night already and is a pretty calm baby whenever we're out in public. Quinn is a great kid, too, despite his temper tantrums. He still takes a nap (about 2 hours) most days of the week. He goes to bed without a fight almost every single night. He usually eats his vegetables before anything else. He says things like "That's the rules!" and loves on his baby sister. Tonight he was "helping" me cut coupons when I came across an ad for Baskin Robbins. He said, "Ooh, cake! I love cake. Mama, you say, 'Me, too'." I laughed so hard! Because, really, I love cake more than probably any other person on earth. Especially ice cream cake. I wish I had some right now. There is some really good ice cream in the freezer, but it's Jalal's and I can't eat it. He would say it was okay, but really I would never hear the end of it. As a matter of fact, it's pretty much a lose-lose situation for me. If ice cream lasts more than a week or so without me eating it, he says, "I can't believe we still have ice cream." Anyway, my point is that my kids make my heart super happy. Anyone who meets them falls in love with them. Well, I'm going to try really hard to get to bed early tonight. I've been up long past midnight every night this week, and catching some show last night on the History Channel about aliens being responsible for inseminating Noah's mother and then wiping out the "inferior" humans with the flood made me realize that it's not worth staying up late! Weird. So, goodnight. Love, Us.

Everybody's A Critic--Or The Strong-Willed Child

We have a stubborn child. Don't know where he gets that from. I swear (with all the self-awareness I can muster) that I am not that stubborn. Jalal's pretty easygoing, too. So somehow we got a stubborn as a mule kid. Today, when he got up from a nap, I had every good intention of taking him outside to play. We've got sidewalk chalk on the brain right now, and Jalal even drew him a hopscotch court this morning, so I though some drawing and jumping might be in order. Well, he starts off by asking to watch Bob and Larry (VeggieTales movie, for those of you not familiar). I said, wouldn't you rather go outside and play? No, he wants to watch the blueberry (Madame Blueberry). Fine. I take it to put it in the DVD player, and he rushes to take it away from me, saying, "NO!" Fine. (Teeth clenched on that "fine.") Then I say, let's change your diaper and go outside for a little while.
"No, my diaper."
"I know, honey, but we aren't going outside in a dirty diaper."
(Going over to the window and hiding against the wall) "My stinky bobby [b.m.]."
"Well, yeah, I'm not going to claim that one. You can help me change your diaper, okay?"
"No, mys." ("Mys" [m-eye-s] is his word for "Mine")
"Fine, but we aren't going out or watching a movie until we change your diaper."
Captain Distractable wimpers into the window blinds for a while and then finds Lincoln Logs. (Notice the liberal use of the word "Fine." Sometimes I mix it up a little with "whatever" or "I really don't care," but you can tell the gist is the same.)

The other day, Quinn got himself a little worked up before his nap and was having a hard time going to sleep. He was all kinds of hysterical, and I offered to sit down next to his bed for a little while until he calmed down. We haven't had to sit with him in months to get him to sleep, but he was really upset. I started stroking his forehead and singing along with his music. He immediately turned to me and said, "No singing, Mama." Jeez! So I stop singing. Then he starts tugging at his diaper and says he needs a new one. I grab a new diaper and start to change him. He freaks out and tries to grab it. He says, "My diaper. Quinn do it." I told him if he wanted to be so stinking independent, he could go in the potty! I fought him for a minute, tried to let him help, but it wasn't good enough. I finally just changed his diaper against his will. By then, he was screaming his head off again, and I was so frustrated that I couldn't sit there and calm him down. So I just told him to go to sleep and shut his door. He eventually wound down and cried himself to sleep. Did I mention that he was stubborn? Good grief. Anyway, I know I usually offer some cute, funny stuff to balance out the crazy-mama ranting, but I just don't have it in my right now! Maybe tomorrow. Love, Us.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

One of my friends from Charleston sent me this awesome link to a YouTube video of really talented beatboxers performing at a Google office. I was showing it to Jalal while Quinn was in the room, and of course he was interested. I DID NOT, however, try to teach Quinn to beatbox into his plastic echoing microphone. That would just encourage copious amounts of spit in his toy, and that's gross.

I DID NOT allow my child to brush the hair on my legs this morning with his Pooh brush because, well, at least he's got the concept right.

I DID NOT get fed up and say, "Fine, poop in your diaper then" after Quinn had asked to go potty for the fifth time in 10 minutes and then said "All done" the second his little hiney touched the seat.

I DID NOT give Quinn animal crackers from home as dessert for his kid's meal while I ate the two Oreos that came with it--because I care about his healthy eating habits!!

All of these things I would NEVER do--NOT ME!

Winnie the Poop

No, that is not a typo. We had our Easter egg hunt (or "Eggstravaganza" as everyone here insists on calling them) at church this morning. It was reall a lot of fun. They had all kinds of crafts for the kids inside before the actual hunt. Quinn decorated a sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles and then ate all the icing and sprinkles before finishing the rest of the cookie. He played with a couple other kids his age, chasing and trying to blow bubbles. He stuck a bunch of foam stickers all over a foam egg. And he tried to collect every single crayon out of the container without actually coloring his picture at all. But by far the funniest thing about the day was when he pointed to one of the nice ladies organizing the event and said "Poop!" Those of you who keep up know that "Poop" isn't our word for potty (that's "Bobby"), but evidently he has picked up on the word "poop" as we'll made (some) potty training progress. No, she was wearing a lovely shirt embroidered with all of the Winnie the Pooh characters. So poor Quinn, in his ever growing vocabulary, has confused Pooh and Poop. It could happen to anyone. Luckily he did choose that moment to use his inside voice, so nobody but me heard it. Saved me from having to tactfully explain that Quinn was not being rude.

Quinn did pretty well collecting Easter eggs, too, along with the other 19-month-olds (there's about 3 other boys his age at church!). Then, after collecting about 5 eggs each, the boys took turns on the slide. At one point, Quinn decided he had so much fun with the Easter egg hunt that he wanted to do it in reverse. So he took the eggs out of his bucket one by one and put them on the ground. Oh, and did I mention his shirt? His shirt says, "The Easter Bunny made me do it." Hah!

After a nap, Quinn helped me decorate our own sugar cookies. No icing, just sprinkles (do I look stupid?). He was very helpful. He would sprinkle some on the cookies (unbaked), then pick them off and eat them. Try as I might, I couldn't get him to focus on decorating alone. I even made sure he had just had a big lunch. Then the plan was to let (help) him put Easter stickers all over the eggs I dyed yesterday. But I couldn't get the stickers to stick, so I just let him move the eggs back and forth from the tupperware to the napkin on the table a few times. He really enjoyed that. I'm not sure he would have enjoyed doing it the right way any more. Well, that's been our Easter festivities so far. I have Quinn's Easter basket all loaded and ready to go for the morning with no candy! I think I'm going to fill a few plastic eggs with some jelly beans tonight, but that will be the extent of it. I'm surprised he isn't bouncing off the walls as it is with the two sugar cookies, sprinkles, and two large jelly beans he has eaten today. Well, I'm going to get going. I skipped Quinn's bath last night so that he would be clean for church tomorrow. In case I can't check in tomorrow, happy Easter everyone! (I really want to watch "The Passion of the Christ" again for this Easter. I probably should have planned ahead and ordered it from Netflix a few days ago. Oh, well, maybe some of you will watch it and remember what Easter is all about. I mean, besides marshmallow eggs and putting bunny ears on innocent little boys.) Love, Us.

It's a Two Skittles Day

For those of you who don't get the title of today's post, two Skittles is the reward Quinn gets for going number 2 in the potty. He did it! Now, if you've been reading, you know that we are sort of gearing up for potty training. I know it's early, but there's no harm in getting him used to the idea. He has started calling his little potty chair "Bobby." He's been saying "Bobby" for a while now and we have no clue what he means by it. He always says it very enthusiastically, like "Bob-EEE!" He sounds like a cartoon character. So when I started to say "potty," I guess he confused the two. Now he calls his potty Bobby. Cute, right? I admit we haven't been super consistent about it and I seem to be the only one who will suggest he try to go, so that's tough. This seems like it takes way more effort out of me than Quinn. One of the blogs I follow just had a post about potty training the other day because that mom has gotten two boys out of diapers by age 2 so far. Unfortunately, one of her techniques is to let them run around bare-bottomed while plying them with lemonade. NB: She has wood floors! I have carpet, and I'm not ready to let him run around peeing on the floor yet. Anyway, while I was on the exercise bike this morning (just four more minutes!!), he started grunting and going on. I said, "You're going to the bathroom right now, aren't you?" to get him to associate the feeling with the words. He runs over the gate at the hall and starts saying "Bobby, Bobby!" So I get down from the bike and take him to the bathroom. Now, he eats way too many bananas, so number 2 is not always effortless. He sat on Bobby for a while and then wanted to get up. I got him to sit on the toilet instead and after a few minutes, we had success! I let him flush and say bye-bye, then we had to wash his hands (better than usual because he actually put his hand in the toilet before flushing). He has his own soap now, too. Then he got two Skittles and lots of praise. When I finished getting everything and everyone cleaned up and put back together, I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:00. REALLY? I feel like it should be noon by now! I'm exhausted already. And my to-do list is staring at me right now. Other than running the dishwasher and doing most of my bike workout, NOTHING has been done. Jeez. Did I mention that Jalal had a day off yesterday? Hah!

Seriously though, some stuff did get done. We bought a new router so our wireless is back up. Don't assume that I'll blog more as a result, but I am trying. I have a couple loads of laundry to catch up on, plus I'm still behind on my work work (that's the paying gig) thanks to that really bad edit the weekend before last. I admit I didn't get much done on Monday because we had friends over. Some of you not on Facebook may not know this, but we got snow! I'm talking anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of the stuff! It started Sunday afternoon. We had a great time playing in it, but we didn't expect as much as we ended up getting. Starting about 8 p.m., Jalal's work phone went nuts and everyone called to say they would not be coming in to work the next morning because they couldn't drive two or three miles in the snow. Now granted, it was supposed to be pretty icy, but those people didn't think about how far Jalal would have to drive to get to work. The phone didn't stop after we went to bed, so neither of us got a good night's sleep. Crazy-suicidal as it was, Jalal did get up and leave for work at 4:00 in the morning. He took his time (hour and a half instead of 35 minutes), threw on his hazard lights whenever it got slippery, and tried to stay out of the way of all the stupid people (18-wheelers included) who didn't think they should slow down at all. He called I-85 the "85 Luge." Nobody could believe he made it to work, but what was he supposed to do? Almost everyone else called in, the restaurants were slammed because everyone was snowed in at the hotel, and even his own boss (who assured Jalal he could handle it) couldn't make it out of his own driveway. Some of his night crew did volunteer to be there, so they got through, but it was a crazy day. Yesterday, when the power went out (some 17,000 people were without in Spartanburg and Greenville Counties), people were yelling at the front desk because they couldn't blowdry their hair, and the whole reason they stayed at the hotel was that their power was out at home! Anyway, my friend Karen's power went out Sunday afternoon and I told her she and the kids were welcome to come over on Monday if it wasn't fixed. She took me up on it and grabbed Happy Meals for the kids and Quinn on her way. She and I ate the yummy chili that Jalal made the night before. Even though her kids are older, 3 and 4, they had a blast playing with Quinn's toys, and by the time they left, every single one of us was completely wiped out. Quinn loves Karen. He always tries to sit in her lap and cuddle with her whenever she's around. I think it's great. Gives me a break! So the snow is about half gone now, but it was so beautiful! I just kept taking pictures because I never thought it would snow like that here, especially not in March! And now it's supposed to be up to 70 degrees by Friday. Crazy! Well, I better jump into my to-do list now. The washing machines is calling to me "Use me!" and the dishwasher is whispering "Empty me." Darn talking appliances. Love, Us.