Baby Steps (words of wisdom from my husband)

I forgot to add a very important bullet to my bullet list yesterday. Remember this post? Well Tuff has been pootie free since last Friday! :) :) :) Last Friday night I caught him chewing on his pootie again. Or what was left of it. I told him "I'm going to throw pootie in the garbage if you keep chewing on it. Then you will have no more pootie!" He then decided that HE wanted to throw pootie in the garbage. So I said "You want to throw pootie in the garbage? You know pootie will never come back if you throw it in the garbage!" He insisted and ran in the kitchen and threw pootie in the garbage. 6 nights later and he hasn't asked for pootie ONCE! SO, SO proud of our big boy. Even if it is taking an hour + to go to sleep every night. (who needs sleep anyways, right?)

Our big boy has been showing so many signs of "growing up" lately. Last night while I was getting his bath water ready he was taking all his clothes off saying "I go potty, I go potty!" I wasn't really ignoring him but I wasn't really paying much attention either because he says/does this every time we're getting ready for a bath. When I turned around to put him in the tub, he was standing over the BIG potty, peeing!!! I was SO excited. Jumping up and down, praising him and yelling for daddy to come see, too. He seemed to be pretty proud. Now... as I've mentioned in previous posts... he's been "interested" in the potty a lot over the past few months. He's showed several different signs of being interested but we haven't felt he was completely ready yet. He would pee every now and then but he had a hard time understanding the "urge to go" part. Well after bath, I got him dried off and asked "Do you want to put your big boy Lightning McQueen underware on?" He replied "Yes" of course. So once we got them on I said "Don't pee on McQueen! Tell mommy if you need to go potty!" About an hour after he peed in the potty before bath I asked him if he needed to pee-pee. He replied "no." I asked Jordan if he thought I should try and make him go and he said yes. So I offered a cookie for pee. He decided to accept my offer and followed me to the potty. We stood for about 5 minutes and he said he didn't have to go. About 10 minutes later while he was playing trucks and I was watching t.v. he stopped and said "I need to potty!" He ran to the bathroom and peed again!!! This time I was even more proud. Not only did he show that he understands the "urge" part of it now, he also told me his self and proceeded by going his self too! 30 minutes later, he did it AGAIN. Same thing. "I need to potty" and he went. I was SO excited at bed time. So was he. He wanted to wear his McQueen underware to bed. I felt bad when I told him we probably needed to put a diaper on for nite, nite time. Which I wish I wouldn't have done now because he woke up with a DRY diaper! Anyways, this was my text to hubby last night before bed...

" Bubba just went in and peed AGAIN. Without me even asking if he needed to go!! Where did our baby go? Throwing pootie away and now peeing in the potty... "

Hubby's response:

" Time Flies "

As I said above, I went to bed super proud and had HIGH hopes of a good morning. It didn't take long for him to shoot those HIGH hopes down this morning. When I woke him up he was grouchy. He was not into using the potty at all. When I saw that his diaper was dry I knew he needed to go. I took him straight to the bathroom and stood him at the potty. He said he didn't need to go and asked to put his underware on. I told him "make sure you tell mommy if you have to pee pee." After that he went back to his room and got back in the bed. I was in the closet getting his clothes out when he said "I need to pee pee." I said "Ok, let's go to the potty!" When he got down to go to the bathroom there was pee all over the bed and a track down the side (like he was peeing as he got up). I told him he was a little late this time and that was ok but we still needed to go stand at the potty incase he needed to pee anymore. Well he didn't. Put another pair of underware on him and started to get him dressed. Got his shirt on and when I turned around with his pants he had a funny look on his face. I looked at his underware and he had just a tiny wet spot. So I took him back to the bathroom. This time he peed, but very little. Put his underware back on him and his pants. 10 minutes later he peed in his pants... again! This time it was a lot and it went all over the floor. I wasn't as patient this time and I'm pretty sure he sensed that when he said "diaper!" UGH! So after 3 pairs of underware, wet sheets, wet bed, wet blanket, wet pants, wet floor... I gave in and put the diaper on. He has school today so he wouldve had to put a diaper on anyways, but I was planning on keeping his underware on up until then. I guess he had different plans. I do think our hardest time training will be in the morning. Only because he is so grouchy and uncopperative in the mornings... and that's when it comes to anything. Not just peeing in the potty. So after my excited text to my hubby last night... this is the text(s) he got this morning....

" So Tuff decided he didn't want to pee in the potty this morning. Peed all over his bed. Then again on the floor! What the heck? "

Hubby's response:

" Baby Steps. He's a fart. "

(hints the title of this post)

My response to that:

" Ugh. I need bigger steps when it comes to potty training. I just don't have the patience for it. If we had hardwood floors I might have more patience. The key word being MIGHT! LOL "

Hahahaha.

Poor Tuffy must have sensed my lack of patience this morning because he was AWFUL when I dropped him off at my MIL's house. He cried and whined and got in trouble the whole time before I left. And I was only there about 10-15 minutes before I did leave. Oh me. Hopefully his day got better when he got to school. If not, I feel sorry for his teacher today. I ended up packing both diapers and underware for my MIL to have this afternoon when she picks him up from school. Here's to hoping he wants to pee in the potty this afternoon...............

I was trying to get a few pictures of the boys last night while they were sitting together watching tv. When I went to get the camera Gunner was leaned over laying on Tuff's shoulder watching tv. Of course once I actually tried to take their picture, the sweetness wasn't AS great.

No, Tuff isn't wearing lip stick. That is where he fell on his mouth Tuesday :(

After I took the picture above, I noticed Gunner making this funny face with his mouth. I quickly realized something was in his mouth. Then I remembered Tuff had been eating chips. You can see them beside him in the pic above. Can you see the chip in Gunner's mouth below?

HA! HA!

Once again, I had to explain to Tuff that brother doesn't have teeth and can't eat those kinds of things yet.

Gunner was doing his best to gum it though. He surely wasn't complaining. After all, our baby boy loves to eat. There isn't much he has passed up, yet. I have high hopes that he will be a better eater than Tuff. I told Jordan we were going to have to get a 3rd job to be able to afford to feed Gunner. :)

Speaking of sweet Gunner. He is SO close to sitting up on his own. He's been practicing a lot.

Sweet boy!

Tuff has really been into taking pictures lately. Every time he see's me with the camera he wants to do it too. He was taking a few pictures of brother and daddy last night. Here is the best shot he got where his hand wasn't completely covering the lens.

I think we might have a photographer on our hands.

Again,

the key word being might.

Happy Thursday, Friends!

Long time, no post!

Hello, long lost blog buddies! Life has been crazy hectic with sick babies and tax season gearing up at work. The good news is, both babies are feeling much better. The bad news is, tax season isn't going away. HA! It's only February and it's been crazy already. The best part about it is the days go by so much quicker. :) I've been so TIRED when I get home in the afternoons that I haven't taken a single picture in over a week. Terrible right? Anyways, I will be catching you up on our lives pictureless today. :) Here's a few things that have been going on in our world, bullet style.

• I mentioned in this post that I was planning on trying to make my own baby food since Gunner wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with the store bought. Well, it was a success!!! He LOVES it. So far I've made peaches, apples, mangos, bananas, carrots, sweet potatos, green beans, peas and avocados. He has loved it all except the avocado but if I mix it with another veggie he tolerates it. Which is good since I hear avocado is good "brain food." I did alot of research on making my own baby food and while I was researching I found this blog which was very informational and helpful. I pretty much did everything the same way she did. She does have several different tools (kitchen appliances) to choose from though. I couldn't fathom paying A LOT of money for any special machine so I bought this do-dad at walmart and it has worked just fine for me. I've used it for everything I've made so far and haven't had any problems. I'm feeling pretty productive. Not only am I saving us a TON of money by making my own baby food, it's also SO much better for Gunner and so very easy too.

• Both boys are feeling much better and we only have 2 days left of antibiotic. Thank goodness. I don't do too good remembering things that need to be added to our regular schedule, daily for 10 days. I thought my memory was horrible before having babies... after having 2, sometimes I think it's shot. HA!

• This Friday is Dalton's last home game for the year and I literally just had these made for both boys...

Dang!

Good news is, they should be able to wear them next year.

• Gunner had his FIRST belly ache last night. Well actually this morning from 2:30 - 4:30 am. It was pretty awful. So awful I called both my mom and my MIL at 3:30 am to see if it was normal? I had NEVER heard him scream the way he was screaming. My MIL ended up driving all the way over to our house at 3:30 to make sure it was JUST a belly ache. Shortly after she got there and we gave him some tylonel, he was out like a light. He slept like a rock until I went in to get him ready for the day. Poor bud. I hope we never have to experience another one of those again. I'm pretty positive Tuff never had one when he was an infant so it was a first for all of us.

• Despite what we went through this AM, Gunner Bear slept from 8 PM to 4:30 AM the night before last (Monday). YAY! Baby steps, but at least we're taking some kind of steps. This mama misses her sleep!!! I'm actually thinking about trying to convert him to his own crib soon. Not sure when "soon" will be but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes when that time comes.

• Our fridgerator hasn't been cooling very well the past few weeks. We are on the market for a new one. Ugh. I hate the thought of having to buy a new appliance. Mainly because I know how expensive it's going to be. Wish us luck! ;)

• We converted Gunner Bear to a "big boy" car seat this past weekend. He was getting TOO big for the carrier and I could barely carry him around in that thing anymore. So we made the switch. Actually, Tuff got the new seat and Gunner got Tuff's old seat. Jordan said he thought Tuff's seat looked safer for Gunner's age. Gunner seems to like it better. Even though he's still rear facing. I'm sure he'll really be thrilled when he can turn face foward. He's a nosey little thang.

• Tuff fell face first on the hardwood floor at my MIL's house yesterday morning. When he fell, he fell on his mouth. And it literally looks like his mouth caught him. It looks awful ya'll. Poor baby.

• I finally decided to get a Pinterest account. I had my mom send me and invite and when she sent it, it said I had to have a Facebook or Twitter account to sign up. My mom didn't think that was right so she suggested I "request an invite" so I did. I got put on the waiting list. Go figure. A week or so later I got my invite and it said the same thing. Really? I sent them an email to see if that was right. Incase you're all wondering, I don't have a Facebook OR Twitter account and I have no desire for either. I'm currently waiting on a response from my email I sent to Pinterest. I'm dying to start "pinning" my own plans. The way it's looking though, I might not be.

• Valentine's Day is Tuesday and Tuff goes to school that day. I'm trying to decide what to send him from us for his first official Valentine's day at school. Any ideas? It's hard trying to think of something for a toddler. Especially a boy toddler. I also got a note from his teacher yesterday that they will be exchanging Valentine's in his class. So now I'm trying to come up with ideas for Valentine's for his classmate, too!

• Gunner will be 6 months old next week. Sheeeeesh, time is flying right on by. I can't believe he'll be 1/2 year old, already! It's crazy to think about.

That's pretty much all the updating I've got!

Hope you're all enjoying your week.

Happy Wednesday!

Sickly Sicklings

Is it just me or are my kids ALWAYS sick? I'm one TIRED mama these days. Poor Gunner has been through the ringer since he was born with every kind of sickness imaginable. (Stomach virus, 4 snotty/stopped up noses, pink eye in BOTH eyes, double ear infection, the croup and now a sinus infection) I'm exhausted from it so I can't imagine how he feels about it. Every time we're finally in the clear, something else sneeks back up on us. This week though, it's a sinus infection. Tuff had been battling a runny nose for 10 days (as of yesterday). I was faithfully giving him benadryl twice a day for all 10 of those days. Gunner steered clear of it... until Saturday night. Saturday, Sunday & Monday night he didn't sleep a wink and neither did mama. I was like a walking zombie when I started to get up and around yesterday morning. But then when Tuff woke up snotty and bloody, I knew he needed to see trusty ole Dr. C. So, why not knock em both out at the same time? $100 later ($40 a piece co-pay & $20 prescriptions), we were diagnosed with 2 sinus infections and given two 10-day antibiotics. So.... here's to being on the up & up. And here's to getting there at the SAME time. So hopefully both can get well at the same time and stay well for a while....

All of the above = my reasoning for being a blog slacker.

We didn't do a whole lot this weekend. So I don't have much to tell about our weekend. We did go watch Sydney and Courtland (niece & nephew) play their last ball games before High School. Can't believe how fast they've grown... All I can think about is that being our boys one day. I will be SO sad. But I'm sure SO proud at the same time. Both Syd & Court played in the championship games and both lost. But both got an All Tournament award. I didn't get any pictures of Syd. I got one of Courtland because I took it for his mom.

(Courtland, back row, far right)

Gunner got to meet his new baby cousin at the tournament. I couldn't believe how big he looked compared to her!!! Where did our itty bitty baby go?

(Gunner & miss Lily)

Happy Wednesday Friends! :)

Adios Pootie

Tuff has always called his paci a "pootie." Not sure where it came from, how, when or why... But that's what it's been called. Pootie has been Tuff's very BEST friend since day 1. Even when he was a tee-tiny newborn....

....he loved his pootie.

Some days, he would even suck 2 pooties.

But our pootie days are thankfully sadly coming to an end!

Tuff went through a stage sometime last year where he started chewing on his pooties. He would chew on them so badly that we would have to throw them away and buy new ones. I constantly told him that pooites are expensive and if he kept on chewing on them that mommy and daddy weren't going to buy him anymore. But instead of keeping my word, we kept buying them. Eventually he stopped chewing on them. Well about 3-4 weeks ago he started this bad habit again! 3-4 weeks ago we probably had 5-6 pooties stocked up. One by one they were thrown away because of being chewed to a point where they couldn't be sucked on. When he started this habit back up I told him "Mommy and Daddy are NOT buying anymore pooties!" (and I mean't it this time!!!) About 2 weeks ago we got down to the LAST pootie and he started chewing on it too. Once I told him "This is your LAST pootie, mommy and daddy aren't buying anymore so you better not chew it up!" I think it set in. And he figured out "Hey! I think she's serious this time! I better hold onto this one!" So, after a little chewing I cut the nawed part off. (I think this is when it REALLY set in and he knew I was serious)

Here is pootie now.

2 weeks later and he is still holding on tight. Literally. Most nights he goes to sleep holding the pootie in his hand instead of putting it in his mouth. Obviously since it's almost impossible to suck now. I think it's just a sense of "security" for him. But hey! It's a start! Right? Right! For a kid  who used to wake up in the middle of the night to find his pootie and if he couldn't find it, he'd wake EVERYONE else up to find it too.... I think it's a start!

YAY!!! to losing the pootie.

Not so much for losing our baby!!!

Mommy & Daddy are SO proud of the big boy he's becoming!!!

Now... here's to being pootie-less! :)

Brothers (Photo Shoot)

I wish I could explain how impossible fun it is to try and get just ONE decent picture of more than one child. Especially when both are under the age of 2. HA! Tuff wanted to "hold" baby Gunner last night. He has been wanting to do more involving baby Gunner lately. Helping, Holding, etc. So I thought I'd try and get a good picture out of it. Here is how that turned out. (In B&W, I edited them)

TAKE 1

 TAKE 2

 TAKE 3

 TAKE 4

 TAKE 5

And if you're wondering if I got any decent ones, I did.....

 After a whole lotta "TAKES"....

Sweetest babies I've ever seen!!!

Even though I could be a little partial ;-)

Happy Wednesday, Friends!

Weekend

Daddy had to work Friday night so we had a pretty low key weekend. We usually do when he has to work Friday nights because he usually sleeps most of the day on Saturday. Friday night the boys and I went to Dalton's ball game. Both boys did great! We tried sitting in a different location so Tuff could move around a little more and it worked out wonderfully (for everyone!). Saturday we went to the grocery store. My little sister tagged along to help. It's hard doing it alone. Too hard in fact. Once we got home we stayed there... the rest of the weekend. Told you it was pretty low key. I don't really have anything TO special to talk about today so I'll just post some random pictures from the past few days/weeks.

Loving my babies one night after work last week.

 Always loving this sweet smile.

Gunner Bear being a cry baby. ;-)

Daddy reading to Bubba before bedtime.

(LOVE my boys!)

8th grade night last week.

Can't believe how big my niece, nephew & sister is getting!

(They'll all be in HS next year, wowzer! Wasn't I just there??)

Courtland's poster

Courtland with mom.

Syd's poster

Sydney w/ mom, dad & coach.

(Sorry the quality stinks. They had the lights off for a slide show)

Got to have lunch with the sweet Smith clan on Friday.

(LOVE them!)

LOVE this pic I got of Sophie.

Sweet little Greer was "under the weather" and pretty tired.

(But still sweet as he could be)

And I'll leave you with my 2 FAVORITE smiles.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Happy Monday! ;-)

"Pray for Branden"

I've been seeing this a lot lately.

 "Pray for Branden!"

Signs, pictures, t-shirts, wrist bands, bumper stickers. All with different quotes or sayings. All for a sweet little boy in my hometown who is battling cancer right now. Let me start by saying this...

 I can NOT even begin to imagine....

This is Branden.

He is in the 5th grade

&

he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in November 2011.

I find myself thinking about him and praying for him daily. I find myself thinking sometimes, what if that were one of my babies? I can't stand to see my babies sick with a cold, a fever, a virus... anything! But all of those things are nothing compared to cancer. Cancer. Such a cruel disease. Something no person should ever have to endure, especially a young child.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with all of this. I just felt it was necessary to post about him since it is something that has been so heavy on my heart lately. Passing his story along also means more prayers gathered. If you're reading this, please keep this sweet boy and his family in your daily prayers. Even though I don't know him personally, my heart still aches for him and his family. And I still continue to pray for him daily.

"fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -ISAIAH 41:10