Potty mouth

Favorite toilet quotes this week...

I need more paper toilet!

I tee teed...it's on the floor... You need to clean it up! It's.on. my. LEG!

I just tee-teed...like a boss!

Meet Dale!!!

I had so much fun last weekend getting to meet my sweet dear friend Heather's baby boy Dale who is a couple of months younger than Collin. This was their first trip down from Boston so we had a shower for Heather and Dale.We got all of the boys together for the first time. It was such a sweet day with my best friends from high school and all of our moms. We love you H, and Dale is precious! The photos of the four boys are priceless! I can't wait to show them when they're in high school. It was a very busy shower to say the least. We spent a lot of it chasing these boys around and keeping things out of their mouths!

From left: Collin 10 mos, Ashton 2 1/2, Dale 8 mos and James 15 mos

James entertaining the crowd.

Ashton and James really liked Dale's new trucks.

Collin's First Swim

This is a picture of Ashton's first swim 2 years ago!

Collin seemed to love his first swim!
Since the pediatrician said we all looked "flammable" at our last visit, you may notice their faces are plastered in sunblock. Wes said we looked like the Cullen family-haha all you Twilight fans. Speaking of lookalikes, Wes just told me that today at my grandparent's house, he mentioned that he thinks Collin looks like my grandmother. My grandfather said, "Oh no! You have just thrilled her to death." When Wes mentioned it again he said, "Don't say it again...she might really die!"

On to potty news, Ashton had his first day today with no accidents!!! Wow! It has been quite a difficult two weeks but we are making major progress thanks to Wes who is basically doing it all himself becuase I am working extra hours this week. If you get a call from us around 7:30, please pick up because every night we call someone new to tell them the potty news. Last night my brother was in a meeting for work and Ashton yelled over our speaker phone, "I pooped in the potty today!!" Patrick had to leave he was laughing so hard. Iwish I could tell you all the funny things Ashton has said lately. Tonight he told me, "mommy, are you sure you're gonna read me a book on that potty?" He loves the extra book reading he gets while trying to go.

Here are a few more pics of little C splashing around.

Allergy mom vent

I was frustrated last night looking up toothpaste ingredients hoping they were safe for our allergy kiddo. Isn't it crazy I have to do that? My friend Kate sent me a link today to a new blog that led me to another new food allergy blog and I found this encouraging. Thanks K! Being a food allergy mom is really hard work and a 24 hour job but this mom has reminded me there can be some good out of it!

Boot Camp

So we know a lot of people who have done the three day boot camp potty training. We weren't going to go completely for it but we decided this holiday weekend would be intense potty training and using underwear and pullups. All set for Saturday morning boot camp, I got up Ashton and headed for the potty. He started pitching a fit and said, "I'm choking. that means I can't go potty" Five minutes later he threw up all over me and felt warm so we took him to the pediatrician and sure enough...strep throat. Wow, he really knows how to get out of potty training. But yesterday he was feeling somewhat better and I bought him Thomas underwear. He was very excited and helped me wash them and said, "Tomorrow I get to go potty and wear Thomas underwear." So today we've tried it and although he HATES to go and try we have been much more successful but all thanks to Disney and Thomas the train... Wes got the idea to make Mater the Tow Truck encourage Ashton in the bathroom and he has been all for that. I really need to perfect my Mater voice though. We hit one bump this morning when he was wearing James underwear and told me, "Next I want to wear Percy. I explained it was a good thing if he didn't have to wear Percy today and was worried he would have an accident in James just to wear Percy. But drop by little drop he has gone now a few times and only had 3 accidents in one day. However, he just told me, "I'm trying to poop" while in the sandbox. I scooped him up and he started kicking and screaming, "No NO NO!" It was a true 2 year old tantrum and sand was flying EVERYWHERE. I'm yelling, "No it's a good thing you told me! Don't poop on Percy" (Thomas' friend on the underwear of the hour). After that incident, I think our neighbors probably hate potty training as much as we do. The picture above reflects how we all feel about the whole ordeal!

Lately...

Come play in the sand with us! Wes' parents are keeping the boys this week so we got to go on a date last night...that ended up at Toys R Us buying a sandbox. It is so fun!!! I have been wanting one for a long time.

Collin likes to oversee the work in the sandbox with his Papa. This little guy (who will be 10 months in 2 days!!) is now crawling and into EVERYTHING! He's a bit more curious than Ashton was and has already tried to climb in the dishwasher. We've been to several parks lately and I'm amazed at him having no problems crawling through grass and bark. He likes it much more than Ashton ever did. It's amazing how two little boys can already show their differences. The main thing I do all day when I'm home though is keep Collin away from beloved Thomas and the train tracks. All day I hear, "He's headed for the tracks!!" and "Mommy, get him!!" Finally yesterday I said, "Ashton, he's not even near them yet. Please stop telling on him" So, and I am not kidding, Ashton closed his mouth in an exaggerated way and pointed emphatically straight at Collin to get my attention. He didn't tell though.

Collin's also eating more and he really likes chomping down on apples through the net thing. I love hearing him crunch down. He's had blueberries, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, lima beans, black eyed peas, kidney beans, squash, green beans, green peas and broccoli. I have decided not to make his meats and broke down and bought (gasp) jars of organic meats which he seems to like. I just couldn't get them to come out well when I made them for Ashton and let's face it, it's gross to puree meat. Kudos to my cousin Laura who is about to try it for Grayson by the way.

Although he's growing so fast, we still can't get Collin to hold his own bottle. He just doesn't seem to care and enjoys his feeding service!

Last Saturday we went to a park in Decatur and then drove to Kirkwood for the Dolce Vegan bakery which was such a treat for little A. Here he is after eating a yummy cinnamon roll. That's one thing I have not attempted to make vegan and he did love it! They also had delicious cupcakes and I was so happy they are careful with allergens. What a fun find!

Saturday night Nick and Sarah came over for dinner and Nick worked with Wes making the ultimate elevated train track hooked to the car wash. These pictures don't do it justice but you will notice Ashton was not in them...he finally gave up and started playing with something else when the guys got so serious! He doesn't do good with change and kept saying, "how bout we just put it on the ground?"

Recent walk a few weeks ago. Ashton wanted to push Collin; what a good babysitter he's going to make. They don't even need us anymore!

Uh oh, headed to the bushes...

I don't have a good caption for this one. It just cracks me up.

Notice the big feet. These boys sure do have large feet!

Making handprint cards for Mother's day. As Ashton says, "This is pretty cool. Ya'll are gonna like it!"

"Bedtime"

You can see who the culprit is! Who's "standing" from the beginning? Everytime we tell Ashton he needs to stop talking to Collin at bedtime, he says, "But Collin is talking to me!" He also likes to tells us, "Collin is so cute!"