Potty trained ?

Spencer is 99% potty trained. He goes potty at school and while we are out. We don't have to ask him or remind him.
He wears pull ups to bed and some mornings he wakes up dry, some mornings not so much.

Cameron is 83% potty trained. He won't go poop in the potty. (he has once though) He hasn't gone potty at school or while we are out and about, however he stays dry and hasn't had an accident. He wears the silver dollar a little bit more because he doesn't quite make it sometimes...I think he gets so busy playing he waits too long.
He too wears pull ups to bed and will wake up dry sometimes and wet sometimes.

They both stay dry through naps.

This is progress. Amazing progress. We are so happy and proud...and almost 1/2 way there to a diaper free house.

Watch out American Id0l !

Syd got a karaoke machine for Christmas.
'EYE' got a karaoke Karen Carpenter greatest hits CD for Christmas. oh mah gootness !
We've all had a really good time singing. Here are a couple video's highlighting some of these performances.

Nathan is showing off more than his singing abilities here.
Right before the camera went on, Ryan was pushed away for getting to close to Nathan's microphone. We had him apologize and then decided to get a few more words out of him. He did go along with it for a while.
There was 8 minutes of him singing...and several minutes of him bobbing his head from side to side. SUPER STINKING CUTE ! We caught some right at the end of this video, but you just don't really get the full effect.
It was either - show you all 8 minutes (which we would have had to charge you for) show you the cute head bob and screaming in to the microphone for 2 minutes. or a combination, documenting only some of the words he knows at 18 months old.
Without further ado. NATHAN !!!!!

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Cam, who normally doesn't like to participate in these kind of things, but absolutely tickles me pink when he does it on his own, actually performed today. for the camera. and when we asked him to. (thump. jaw hit the floor)
He was singing a little bit of Carpenters "Sing" (without the music) and a little "song by Cameron". Such a sweet little voice :)
CAMERON !

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C-section

Funny things I want to remember :

Syd performed a C-section on Spencer with his jigsaw.
She had him lay on his back with his legs up and out looking ready to push.
She reached through, told him, "this is gonna hurt real bad buddy....are you ready ?" and quickly pulled the saw across his stomach and said, "look....it's your newborn baby Spencer." presenting him with Ryan who proceeded to slap Spencer on the belly, giggle and run away.

Syd is OBSESSED with child birth. She doesn't know what happens...and is still under the impression that the doctors either cut the baby out or stretch your belly open...but she is 100 % sure she wants to do it. NEEDLE FREE.
She is so afraid of shots that she almost gave up the dream of becoming a mother.
Spencer. now he's not afraid of needles or having his stomach cut open with a plastic playsk00l jigsaw and bearing a nearly 23 lb baby. That's my boy. I think the genetically inherited wide hips helped too :)

I suppose the only reason this story makes sense is because I took a before and after picture.
No, that just makes the story better and helps me confirm the facts.

It all started after dinner. Spaghetti and chocolate pudding.
Thoughts did circulate through my head when I handed them the silverware. Little voices normally whispering began screaming warnings of mess and disorder. but like most of the voices in my head and the ones not in my head I ignored them.

I am almost certain that he didn't get any in his mouth.

What happened next is why I feel these photos can and will help me when entered in as evidence.
J took the older 3 to the gym and left me to clean up the mess. After all it was I who ignored the voices (one of which may have been hers)

I bathed both boys and put them in jammies and headed to the laundry room downstairs to quickly wash the clothing that was also destroyed during our dinnertime fiasco.

While in the laundry room, I heard Nathan scream. It was a hurt scream. The scream that tells me that his brother probably bonked him on the head with something or possibly grabbed half of his face while trying to take his binky away from him. I was seconds from being done and after finishing headed upstairs. Nathan was sitting at the top of the stairs. He points to where he's been hurt now. He pointed to his head and cried "ow" I headed up the stairs saying something comforting I'm sure...when around the corner appeared his brother Ryan brandishing a huge 12' serrated edge knife. I believe it was at this time that my heart dropped through my body and landed on the floor. I don't really remember how many stairs I missed getting to the top. I grabbed it out of his hands and threw it in the sink and then ran back to Nathan to find out where exactly his brother had hit him. Sure enough. Right on top of his old noggin was the slightly bloody line. I tried to pull it apart...it was just a superficial wound. It didn't even bleed very much. but wooo was that scary.

So on that day Dec 29th at approx 7:30 pm, Ryan tried to scalp Nathan.

Note : the knife was left out from cutting the bread for dinner and was set a little too close to the edge of the counter. Lucky for us this was a lesson with a good ending.

Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR !

ah poop ah comin

These are the only Christmas pictures to share. This is the BIGGEST not a Christmas present picture that I have.

TA-DA !! FINALLY, Spencer earned his boat. You know, the boat that sat on our book shelf for MONTHS and then ended up gathering dust and taking up WAY TOO much space in our closet. Yes THAT boat.

Spencer is OH-fishally a potty trained boy. meaning....he goes pee AND POOP on the toilet. 3 times he has gone poop. The second time he came screaming out of his room, "ah poop ah comin' mom. I feel ah poop comin'" music. MUSIC people...to my ears. He ran in to the bathroom, did his thing, washed his hands and was back to his boat without skipping a beat.

After Spencer went poop, as I entered the boys bedroom I smelled what could only be poop and Cameron quickly directed me to his lovely offering that he had discarded and thrown in to the garbage.
He's having a hard time going poop on the potty and going pee outside of our house. It will come. There is still the pirate ship to earn after all.
They both have done such a great job. So far, no accidents for Spencer.
Cameron will even wake up from naps dry and sometimes in the morning he'll be dry. Both boys are wearing diapers to bed.

It's gonna be a great year.
We might even have EVERYONE out of diapers this year. Can you even imagine it.

Heartwarming story !

I know I've been writing a lot about Syd lately. She's just at this great age where her mind and mouth meet and explode with crazy and mostly sweet questions and stories.
Tonight it all started with her brain.
"How does your brain live ?" was the question I believe she asked.
It then went to :
- how does blood get into your brain ?
- what are eyeballs made of ? (I answered tissue...seriously..what are eyeballs made of ? The tissue answer made her giggle :)
- how does oxygen get in your blood ?
- is blood everywhere in your body ?
- how do the white and red blood cells work ?
- how do the white blood cells build walls to keep the bugs out ?
- can other things get into your cuts ? like maggots ? like the maggots in the fish at the lake ? eeeewww.
- what happens to our bodies when we die ?
- like the glass one that sleeping beauty is in ?
- we go in the ground ?
(these conversations are difficult because I have to keep them age appropriate)

Which lead us to spirits and heaven and Heavenly Father.
Syd : "Can we see heavenly father ?"
Me : "No, but we can talk to him whenever we want. Anytime you want to talk to him you just say a prayer. That's where prayers go...to Heavenly Father."
Syd : "But can I see him."
Me : "no, but you can feel him. when your heart feels warm and you feel happy and full of love...that's heavenly father."
Syd : "My heart feels that way right now. It's this big (arms extended out) bigger than the grinch's."

I am going to keep documenting these stories...one day she'll be able to read them and hopefully they'll make her smile as big as they make me.

The greatest thing since Polar Express. Well that might be pushing it. But it's GREAT nonetheless.
Visit THIS website.
It is absolutely magical the way they've set it up. Santa says their name (unless it's a unique name) and shows their picture in his naughty or nice book.
It really is great. Take the time. Send your kids a message.