Library time

We journeyed to the Southlake Public Library this morning for story time.  The library is inside a gorgeous county government building.

Youth Services has a neat stage across the back of the room with a cute mural painted in the background.

This alligator filled with board books is adorable.

The story time was led by a couple of very animated and funny librarians.  You can see Charlie Jo in the front in the blue flowered shirt and jean skirt.

My mom and I were a little nervous when the librarians handed out rhythm sticks to each child.  We figured Peter would clobber all within reach, but he was very well-behaved.  The noise from three dozen children banging the sticks together just about drove us bonkers though.

Charlotte was very serious about her sticks.

Have you ever seen a cuter grandma?

Skyping with Daddy

While we're in Texas, we're keeping in touch with Corey via Skype.  Whenever we are Skyping, Charlotte insists that Corey show her Rocky and Connie.  Tonight, Corey somehow managed to get both of the critters in front of the camera at the same time.  Rocky started chewing on Connie's ear and a three-way wrestling match ensued.  I got some screen shots of the action:

 

I had better get a message to Pacey somehow to keep those three knuckleheads in line.  We're going to be lucky if the house is still standing when we get back.

Haircuts and burgers

 

Waterlogged

The kids would swim all day, every day if we let them.  Grandma JoJo and Grandpa Spike's pool has gotten some heavy use in the past few days, and I think I may have noticed gills growing behind the kids' ears.  If the kids turn into fish, does that mean we can stop the whole potty training rigamarole?

Safari in downtown Dallas

We took Mom to downtown Dallas for the first time ever (well, she did only move to Texas a few weeks ago) and checked out the Dallas World Aquarium.   

It's seriously awesome.  The funny thing is that there seem to be just as many animals there that don't live in the water as there are fish!

My favorite part was probably the sloth who was just hanging from a tree right in the middle of a walkway between exhibits.  A handler was feeding him and he was so slow to reach out and grab it.  We were mesmerized.

Peter contemplated joining the band of howler monkeys.

Corey always says that Peter is part manatee, so we took a photo of Peter with one to allow for a side-by-side comparison.

The penguins were super cute.  These must be cousins of the ones who live at the South Pole, because the temperature was in triple digits and the little guys didn't seem to mind!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Spike!

My little brother, Jordan, made the yummiest banana cake with cream cheese frosting for my dad's birthday on Saturday.  Dad tried to convince Jordan that the birthday boy had frosting-tasting privileges before the cake was finished.

Charlie Jo was baking a pretend birthday cake for Grandpa Spike and enlisted his help in finding about 40 different dishes in which to mix the ingredients.  This was apparently a very complicated cake.

Ooh!  Aah!

We had some extra pecans left over so my artistic little brother wrote out the geeky way to spell my dad's name.

Happy 61st birthday, Dad/Grandpa Spike!

Don't mess with Texas

The kids and I made the long drive to Dallas (actually it's only about 100 miles further than the drive to Corey's parents' house in Detroit) on Thursday and Friday.  We stayed overnight in Little Rock, which was kind of a big hassle but probably better for my sanity in the long run.  My road trip philosophy is to get there as quickly as possible with as few stops as possible.  Corey's road trip philosophy is the exact opposite, so the trip home may go a little differently when he (hopefully) joins us.  Anyhoo . . .

Within moments of arriving home, Petey and his Aunt Jessica were playing cars on the family room floor.

Soon after, we jumped into the 91-degree pool (which actually felt cool since the outside temperature was somewhere north of 180 degrees or something like that).  Charlie Jo helped clean up her dirty Uncle Jordan and Grandpa Spike by dumping water on their heads over and over again.

Petey likes the fountain in the middle of the hot tub (which needed no heating, obviously!).  Actually, the kids seem to prefer just playing in the hot tub.  More room for the adults in the big pool, I guess!  Later, there were hijinks in the water feature pot thingy.

 

The next morning, Petey decided to schnuggle with his Uncle Jordan.

Later, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Jordan let Petey help them make a banana cake for Grandpa Spike's birthday extravaganza.

More photos to come!!

Random notes from the house-bound

We're stuck at home while we're potty training.  Since having children, it's pretty hard to embarrass me in public anymore (I will sing whatever I need to sing at whatever volume I need to sing it to soothe a crying kid, I have nursed babies in all sorts of situations including a wedding reception, and I have danced with my children in front of countless disapproving people).  However, I'm not quite ready to waltz into a store with Charlotte's froggy potty under my arm.  Once we have mastered the froggy potty, we're moving on to the potty seat on the adult toilet.  After that we will tackle public potties.  In the meantime, the farthest we are going to wander is across the street to Alicia and Dan's house (with froggy potty in tow, of course).

ANYHOW, we have been entertaining ourselves in a variety of ways.  Charlotte has taken to building "princess castles".  She has a rather unique style:

And here is the architect herself, modeling her big girl underpants.

If we take a picture of Charlotte, Peter races up and starts loudly insisting "CHEESE" until I take his picture as well.  This is a perfect example of what happens when Daddy dresses Peter for bed.  I take no credit for this mismatched ensemble.  (Yes, I know it's summer, but Petey Pie isn't good at staying covered up at night.)

And check out this amazing scene:

Rocky was snoozing on the back of the couch and Pacey jumped up and actually plopped down almost touching him!  There was no hissing, screeching, or smacking.  I couldn't believe I was able to get up to grab the camera without spooking Mr. Pacey Crankypants.  Not long afterward, they were tumbling around in one of those cartoon fighting clouds with punctuation marks shooting out.  You know what I'm talking about, right?  Something like this, only with fur flying:

Back to the potty training -- Charlie Jo is doing great.  All of a sudden*, this morning she started announcing BEFORE she needed to go and then doing the deed in the right place (a HUGE step up from the last few days when we could only get her to go in the potty by sitting her on it long enough that she just happened to go)!  We have been loading her up with juice and popsicles, so she racked up 10 hits and only three misses.  I don't think I peed 13 times a day even when I was nine months pregnant.  This is going to be an interesting drive to Dallas at the end of this week.

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*Did you know that according to some sources, it's correct to write "all of a sudden" rather than "all of the sudden"?  I have always used the latter and never been corrected, but since I read about 9 million books a day to my kids I have been paying a lot more attention to little things like that idiom.  I noticed that in print it appears as "all of a sudden" and at first I thought it was a mistake.  When I looked it up, I found arguments for both.  More official-looking sources seem to support using "a" instead of "the".  I hate it when I'm wrong about stuff like that, as Corey will attest.

The potty chronicles

We are in the throes of potty training Charlotte.  No wait -- the word "training" implies that we have something to teach her.  She knows the mechanics and doesn't need us to explain where she should do her business.  The only thing we can do right now is to try to figure out what will motivate her to take that next step.  It's frustrating to have a three-and-a-half-year-old who can do simple addition and recite the sounds each letter of the alphabet makes, yet has zero desire to use the potty.  I have read a thousand articles and am tired of just "waiting for her to be ready" like the pediatrician and preschool director recommended.  What is it going to take?!?!?

Bribery and over-the-top-crazy-enthusiastic positive reinforcement are the methods of choice this weekend.  Here is our little trainee after opening a magnet we wrapped in tissue paper and gave to her like a prize jewel.

Only time will tell if this works.  When trinket gifts lose their cache we may move on to my Aunt Janet's suggestion of filling up a bucket of water balloons and letting her throw one at a target of her choice each time she successfully goes in the potty.  Sounds kind of fun, actually.

Buddies

It's a familiar story -- yuppies have a pet whom they treat like a child.  Then, the yuppies have a real baby and the pet is seriously demoted and, well, ignored.  Poor Connie is such a pet.  Strangely enough, Charlotte the animal lover has little use for Connie.  Yes, Peter loves on Connie from time to time, but it wasn't until the tiny scrap of terror we call "Rocky" joined our household that Connie started getting any real attention again.

Rocky is in love with sweet Connie.  When he's not terrorizing Pacey (pouncing on, swatting, biting, or otherwise existing in close proximity to poor Pacey), he seeks out Connie.  They frolic about together and Connie noses all pound and a half of Rocky across the floor like a dust bunny.  It's hard to catch them in the act on film though, because whenever Connie catches someone watching she slinks away like she's doing something wrong.  I managed to snap this shot of the buddies resting together before Connie snuck away.

Someday, Connie will stop acting ashamed of her affinity for tiny Rocky.  Until then, their clandestine relationship will remain in the shadows.

Just another Thursday

My good buddy, Melissa, and her girls, Mia and Madison, came over today for a little recreation.  We took a dip in the unheated hot tub (which is still pretty darn warm, thanks to temperatures in the 90s all week long), played some Wii, and laughed our butts off at Charlotte and Madison pretending to be fairy princesses who inexplicably sang like opera singers.

Peter liked snuggling with Mia while she kicked butt at Mario Kart.  Every so often, he would exclaim "car-car!" and point at the screen.  I'm sure it was really helpful.

Poor Madison looks a little goofy in this photo, but trust me when I say these girls worked hard to put these gorgeous ensembles together.  I think Charlotte is standing a little funny or something, because in real life Madison is not quite that much taller.  Then again, Madison was wearing super fancy feathery dress up heels.  I have no idea why Charlotte thought that handkerchief thing was a "bee-you-tee-ful" hat.  Dressed as such, Charlotte ran around granting wishes while Madison perfected her vibrato.

Casting an operatic spell . . .

Rocky darted in and out of the scene, alternately attacking toys and running for dear life when Peter took an interest in him (and then returning right back to the danger zone, aka "within reach of Peter's chubby little hands").  Watch out Rocky -- it's not long before those nutty girls will get the idea to dress you up like the third member of their royal magical operatic troupe.  Then you will really start learning to stay just out of reach.

I took no photos of Melissa in her six-months-pregnant glory.  I know better than to attempt such a feat in the middle of July when the hormones are raging.  We were trying to explain to Mia why a pregnant woman shouldn't be held responsible (or at least taken very seriously) for anything she says or does, but Mia didn't buy any of it.  Just you wait about 20 years or so, sweet Mia.  You'll come to realize the truth of the matters asserted.