And Now, The Carrs

Bruce! Don’t bring me down!

Got a kick out of my kids singing this song after hearing it on the radio! Maybe it was even funnier to me since their grandpa’s name (and daddy’s middle name) is Bruce! And let’s be honest, most songs are cuter when sung by toddlers :)

Here’s a link to the song to jog your memory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mOFay9Rhac

And here are the last few moments of their rendition:

Happiness is…my new yellow curtains

Does yellow really make you feel happier? ‘Cause these sure make me smile every time I walk by them.

A Flat Tire Story

This was poking out of our van’s left rear tire this week.

After dropping the boys off at a friend’s play date/babysitting activity we do about once a week, I thought I’d see what Jason was doing for lunch during my two hours of freedom. We agreed to meet at a nearby outdoor mall to eat our packed lunches outside. (I thought I’d squeeze in some “window shopping” as well, or maybe I’d try on a few things or something ;)

As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed a thumping sound and turned the radio down. It sounded just like a flat tire to me… and sure enough it was.

After eating our lunch we examined the problem. In his khaki pants and in 85+ degree weather, my knight in shining armor changed out the tire and replaced it with a spare. Thankfully everything we needed was in the van already.

The next day when Jason picked up the van with a repaired tire, the lady told us she’d been showing the culprit of our flat tire, a large drill bit, to everyone in disbelief. We got to bring the thing home as a souvenir.

Who knows how I hit this thing just right on the left REAR of my vehicle on a busy road?!

Little Rascals Soccer!

We introduced Alex to soccer when he was 3 yrs old and he just couldn’t understand why people would steal the ball from him! It was his.

At the ripe old age of 4 1/2 yrs old he joined the Little Rascals soccer team coached by volunteer parents and headed up by a couple in a nearby ward. It’s a very economical way to go, perfect for figuring out if he even would like the sport.

Turns out he loves it! Especially when he gets to be the goalie.

Move it Sophie, that ball is mine!

Alex’s biggest fans! Zach’s taking an action shot.

I slightly tweaked the team photo since we weren’t there for it :)

Zachary the Performer

Alex’s 4th Birthday!

June 26th

We pretty much copied our friend Dirk’s birthday party from the location to the Thomas the Tank cupcake cake, but what are visiting teachers for if not to plan the details of your kids’ birthday parties? ;) Thanks Brooke!

The party was a few days before his actual birthday at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.

Through the tunnel! You can always count on a good expression from these guys:

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On his actual birthday, Alex got to open one present first thing in the morning. I decorated the paper bag “wrapping paper” with trains and tracks.

Alex and Zachary played with it right away!

Aren’t you impressed with that wrapping paper art? I know I am.

Next day birthday toy shenanigans.

My friend Rochelle showing her son Conner the proper way to approach and fly down the slip-n-slide. She went down in her regular clothes and banged her hip on the ground - ouch! But she looked like a pro anyway! :)

June 2012

On June 4th we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! Jason’s sister & brother-in-law, Heather & Mike watched the boys so we could go on a date.

We went to the Botanical Garden and had the place mostly to ourselves since the weather had already reached into the 100s during the day. But the evening was warm, not unbearable, and we enjoyed ourselves.

We had dinner at a Cuban place we like called Havana Cafe (we had a Groupon!) where again there were only a few other people. For an appetizer we like to get their frituras de frijoles negros (black beans fritters) and we splurged on a little flan for dessert. Yum.

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Looks like he belongs in a horror film with all that ketchup on his face!

“Don’t stand in your seat!” Zach recently learned that he could stand since we are lazy and rarely buckle him in…

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I got my hair cut!! After 8 years of growing my hair out I decided it was time for a change. My friend Dawna does a fabulous job! It was a 3-day process due to the amount of time we both had and figuring out how to get the red to show through the dark brown.

Then dyed a couple shades darker:

Then added some purplish red streaks that faded quickly:

I love it.

Don’t worry, like I said, it fades fast!

Imagine my surprise when my sister-in-law Heather showed up with her hair dyed brown at a similar length to mine! She’s growing hers out and we just figured we confuse everyone further what with all the Heathers in our combined families.

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My friend Liisa let us borrow her son’s train set to make it easy for us to leave her house one day. I think we figured out what to get Alex for his birthday!

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I got a new lamp! I’ve been obsessively trying to find one just like it and finally my friend Bonnie got sick of hearing about it and sold hers to me. Her decor is ever-changing (paint, picture arrangements, furniture refinishing, etc) and her style is a design inspiration to me! I found the lamp shade at Target (and now I see it all over in makeovers online) and got it on sale. I am so happy with it.

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Swimming at our favorite spot

Swimming Lessons

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I finally made this ball maze with Jason for the kids - found the idea on Pinterest!

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Ah, Father’s Day!

(We eventually put water and bath salts in those!)

Disneyland & Disney California Adventure!

Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Kim and Auntie Alison met us at Disneyland in May. This was the kids’ first time there. Jason’s parents treated us to the 2-day pass and we had a blast!

Disneyland

Space Mountain! Auntie Alison had me cracking up to the point of tears for the entire ride. Her screams were hilarious!

Stoic.

With a little convincing, Jason agreed to go with me on my favorite ride, Splash Mountain! We got wet.

Zach took a power nap on Alison.

I beat Alex on the Buzz Light Year ride.

Day 2

Disney CA Adventure

We split up and Jason and I got to ride my second favorite rid, Tower of Terror!

Watching fireworks at the end of the day in Disneyland.

Two days at Disney will wipe you out! Alex fell asleep before we made it to the bus.

Adventures in Potty Training

Flashback to May 2011, 1 1/2 years ago. Alex was but a small lad of 2 years and 11 months… I really wanted to get him potty trained by his 3rd birthday at the end of June. I had introduced him to his froggy potty when he was about 18 months old and it was fun for him to sit on but it wasn’t really happening. So every few months or so I would reintroduce him to potty training until it began to stick. By the time he was a month away from his 3rd birthday I decided to try the juice & tv method where you sit the froggy potty in the middle of the living room and let your toddler sip juice while watching tv and wearing training underwear, making sure he tried to go potty every 1/2 hour or so. I logged our “progress” each time he would go potty or have an accident in his training pants and as expected, we went through plenty of training pants. I learned a few things about Alex and potty training. Like, don’t ever use this method. Juice goes straight through this boy! TV just distracts him and makes him not want to go on the potty. Thus, not much progress was made over the next few days so I decided he wasn’t going to be potty trained by 3. Oh well. I continued to give him M&Ms when he has success on the potty but didn’t really push it for a while.

Another few months went by and in August I journaled a now funny incident where Alex went #2 in his special Thomas the Tank underwear and hid under the dining room table which has a rug beneath it. He told me he had poopy on his leg and it wasn’t until after we got that cleaned up that I found he had left a surprise on the rug. Oh gross! Little did I know this would be the beginning of a very frustrating series of similar incidents in the approaching weeks…

By about mid-October Alex was 3 1/4 years old and was pretty consistently using the potty and independent in the bathroom, just needing help working the button or snap on his pants. Over the next few months he was super dry at night for a while until we hit a few weeks where I was changing his wet sheets 2-3 times per week and I decided it was time for pull-ups at night. Expensive but so much less frustrating!

Another funny incident happened that month though. Here is what I wrote in my journal. “Alex has been gaining more independence and can generally go to the bathroom by himself. This time I noticed the water had been running for a while and I called out that he should turn the water off. Then I figured I’d better check and see that things were in order… That’s when I saw my completely naked 3-year-old crouched above the bathroom sink, dipping his bum in the water that was quickly filling up the sink. When I asked him what he was doing, he said that he went poopy on the potty and that now he was over here (at the sink). I told him that the sink was not a bidet and that he should never ever do that again. I also made sure his father got to witness that this was actually happening. Oh. My. Goodness.”

Fast forward to May 2012. Alex was then 3 years 11 months old and regressing a bit with his potty commitments.

By this point many attempts were made to encourage Alex to use the potty and lose the diapers. Here’s one of them after a brief hiatus from potty training:

Positive reinforcement aka The Sticker Chart. It worked out pretty well. He was excited to receive a prize at the end of each row of 11 times going potty successfully. And he just happened to finish the entire chart right in time for our trip to Disneyland which doubled as his ultimate reward!

Fast forward further to today. This week, he’s had a couple of days where he has 2 or 3 accidents where he just wets his pants. He’s 4 and a quarter years old. He does pretty well overall, but this isn’t over yet…!

May 2012

May brought warm weather but we were so excited to snag this fire pit for $5 from a neighbor’s garage sale, we had to try it out!

Zach and Alex riding the carousel at the Superstition Mall. It’s free on Thursdays if you join their kids club! Zach got scared a few moments after the carousel began but he made it!