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.

HOT HOT HOT

It is pretty steamy outside right now.  Even my usually heat-resilient kiddos don't want to be outside for very long.  I'm getting stir crazy playing inside so much, so for my own mental health I forked out $15.30 for the kids to play at one of those indoor play places I'm usually too cheap to frequent.  They had a great time with all of the play stations, but the ball pit was the biggest hit.  My camera didn't like the lighting in there, so I missed a lot of the huge smiles and crazy jumping around while the camera balked.

Please please please!

I was totally going to make fun of the way Peter does the American Sign Language sign for "please", but upon further reflection I have deemed it an entirely appropriate way to beg for yummy ice cream.

Poor kitty

Rocky was smelling kind of, well, grungy this weekend.  I remembered how Pacey and Chewie didn't seem to learn to lick themselves very well until they were a little older, so we decided to take matters into our own hands.  It wasn't hard keeping a kitten of less than two pounds under control in the tub, but we had a rough time holding Peter back from vaulting over the edge of the tub to join in the bath.

Rocky, who usually meows with all his might for all sorts of other reasons, was totally silent during his great ordeal.  His escape attempts were at a minimum, probably due to the steely grip I kept on him.  He looked pretty pitiful in the bathtub, but when he got out he REALLY looked like a drowned rat.  Poor little dude.

He smells MUCH better now.  I'm wondering whether he will avoid the bathroom like the plague now.  Then again, he still hasn't figured out that he should avoid Peter (who has a penchant for attempting to pick Rocky in all sorts of inappropriate ways).

Thank goodness it's not paper mache

Charlotte saw a character on a show make a paper mache volcano, so when she was playing with play-dough she decided to fashion one of her own.  The creation in the foreground (with the rolling pin stuck in to help the lava flow "explode") is the result.

I'm already looking forward to her first science fair.  Or not.  I remember spending long weekends torturing my mother as she helped me put mine together.  Maybe those sorts of things should be "Daddy's job".

Sleepy babies

Corn crazies

It was interesting watching the kids last week while playing in the baby pool full of dried corn.  It started out so nicely with digging and dumping.  Then Peter got the bright idea to dive in and out of the pool.  Then Stephanie taught the kids that the magic word to say to get in and out of the pool was "popcorn".  Eventually, it led to this: