Goodbye April (and diapers!)

April has been the month potty training all came together.  In March, the boys were doing great wearing underwear at home in the mornings and evenings after nap, but I still defaulted to pull-ups for outings to be safe.  Owen was still having a few #2 "accidents" at home (more like, he was too busy to stop whatever he was playing to tell me) and so he needed an incentive and a goal.  I promised him a special Lightning McQueen lamp that he really wanted for his room if he went 5 days without an accident.  That did the trick and by the second week of April Owen had his special light and has been accident free since then!  Oliver requested to wear his big boy underwear to preschool during the first week of April, and by the end of that week Owen was wearing underwear to preschool too!  They both have been excited about using the potty there and neither has had an accident during the 3 hour morning away from home.  Owen was happy to receive some Lightning McQueen underwear from the Easter Bunny and Oliver has been bringing some of his favorite toys into the bathroom to partake in his potty time.  Since he spotted an old Elmo basket we had laying around at Easter, he's been using it like a little purse to tote his prized toys around the house and store them in his crib at night.  But hey, whatever works for him, since he's been the quickest and most consistent in this whole process.  Toward the end of the month, he's conquered staying dry during nap time and working on overnight.

So while we haven't eliminated diapers all together yet, going from 3 in diapers to 1 has felt like  a HUGE difference.  And Spencer is way ahead of the curve and already getting the hang of using the potty regularly...might we be diaper-free sometime this year?!?

Oliver, lining up his audience

Spencer with his monster truck on the potty

Rainy Day at Home

Today was a very rainy day, the kind of day that makes you want to curl up in your blankets and sleep a little longer.  But the twins had preschool, so the 3 of us had to get up early.  Ryan worked from home, so I let Spencer sleep later while I got Owen and Oliver ready and dropped them off at school.  Normally, I take advantage of every preschool morning by getting out of the house for a couple hours, either alone or with Spencer.  But this may have been the first time I opted to stay home and play at the house while catching up on laundry.  It's funny how different Spencie is without his brothers around to ignite their usual wild and crazy play time atmosphere.  He practically babysits himself by getting deep into some activity like playing with trains or cars.  Today he decided to work on a wooden sorting puzzle over and over...seriously, I must have watched him do this puzzle about 10 times.  He's so cute when he talks lately; this morning he kept saying, "that one goes right there, see!?" while he worked on his puzzle.  After preschool, everyone wanted to play Legos in the basement.  They must have missed each other because they ran off to do this on their own, and when I came down they were working together really nicely.  We built castles and walls to play pretend humpty dumpty with Marshall dog.  I'm still getting used to how quickly they jump to destroy anything we build, as if that were the goal from the start...boys!!!

 

Clemyjontri Picnic

Sometimes it's amazing to think about how far we've come in the last year, as we said goodbye to our live-in nanny phase in early April of 2013 and I undertook what was already the most challenging job in the world...solo!  It was terrifying and nearly impossible to get the boys (then just turned 2, 2, and 1) packed up and out of the house by myself those first few months, and honestly, rarely worth the effort and exhaustion for whatever the endeavor might have been back then!  Now, I take them on big outings several times a week, often spur of the moment.  All this came to mind as I made a last minute decision this past Friday to make a picnic and take the boys to Clemyjontri playground, a beautiful and enormous place, but also a little nerve wracking because of it's size.  The last time we visited Clemyjontri was last summer, and I hired a babysitter to come along and help me manage and keep an eye on the boys - an absolute must only 9 months ago (see first picture of the playground below to get an idea of its size)!  This time, since it was a weekday morning with school still in session I thought we'd give it a go and hope for a small crowd and manageable parking.  It turned out to be a great morning, and while there were a few times the boys wandered off a little too far from each other and I had to make mad dashes around playground equipment to find and huddle them back together, their overall behavior was excellent.  They've even mastered our "choo choo hand holding system" where someone agrees to be the engine, coal car, flat car, and caboose and we all hold hands and stay in line while walking to and from a destination.  It's quite cute and I get lots of amazed looks and praising comments by everyone we see!


An aerial image of Clemyjontri...huge!

Follow the leader...

Lunch Time!

Princess and Pirates

The boys' good friends and fellow hotel adventurers, Jakob and Joslyn, had their 4th birthday party today.  The theme was Princess and Pirates (how cute is that for boy/girl twins?!) and there were tons of fun activities, including a piñata, trampoline turned mermaid lagoon, and huge moon bounce!  Now that the boys have a few piñatas under their belts, they knew exactly what to do and how to quickly collect and eat as much candy as possible.  They had cupcakes and juice to follow and were on a nice sugar high to continue jumping and playing through the afternoon.  When it was time to leave, they all positioned themselves to be the first to say goodbye and give Joslyn a hug.  I have a feeling this won't be the last time they compete for a pretty girl's attention in their lives!  They each got a special "pirate treasure" jeweled ring to take home; Owen hid the orange one he picked out in our play kitchen microwave and Oliver insisted on sleeping with the blue one he picked in his crib.  Spencer sort of lost interest in his yellow ring after nap time and Oliver quickly claimed that one as his too.

The birthday boy pirate

And birthday girl princess

Spencie enjoying a cupcake with the birthday boy

Saying farewell to Princess Joslyn

Drummer Boy

The boys all love playing Daddy's drums, and know that they're off limits when one of us isn't sitting with them to play.  But yesterday Spencie couldn't help himself and climbed up and started jamming on his own while I was upstairs in the kitchen for a minute.  He sounded pretty good and wasn't just carelessly banging or trying to knock anything over...so instead of asking him to get down, I took a video.  Of course that opened the flood gates and everyone wanted a turn! 

Twilight Egg Hunt

The night before Easter, I wanted to try out an idea I saw online for a twilight Easter egg hunt using LED finger lights inside plastic eggs.  I didn't fill too many since we didn't have much time before the boys needed to get inside for a bath and bed, but they were so excited after dinner when we told them the Easter bunny came by and left some eggs outside in the dark for them to find!  The eggs looked really neat all lit up in the yard and the boys were even more thrilled to find a mini M&M inside each one.  We'll definitely have to repeat this activity next year, with more lights and harder hiding spots!