Fun at the Fair

Minnesota State Fair- 2008

Here are my little piggies

Oliver's first ride on the Giant Slide.  He loved it. He said, "more, more, more" for the next 10 minutes. 

He loves sitting on the tractors.  Notice the big tractor he's riding is an Oliver tractor.  And no that is not what he is named after.  That was the first question my grandpa asked me when he was born. 

It was so hard for him to wait his turn to ride this tractor, but he did it!

*this post could have been so much better if the picture layout thingy wasn't so silly.  I can't put the pictures or text where I want them.   AARRRRGGG I am so frustrated.   Is it just me?  I feel like I am competent on the computer but this program is not making any sense.  What my post looks like in the edit or preview mode is not what shows up once I publish it. No I did not mean for it to look like a jumbled mess. Lets play "guess what order the pictures are supposed to be in and what caption goes where". This sucks.  My post quickly turned from a quick blog about a fun day and turn into me swearing and wondering if I will ever do this again. And Tim doesn't blog so he is of no help.  If anyone knows what I am doing wrong please let me know.  

Karma kicked my butt

We had a great morning playing at North Dale.  Our good friends were there, it wasn't too crowded and the weather was fantastic.  We ended up staying until noon.  Perfect,  the free lunch from the St Paul schools starts at noon. 

 We convinced Karen and Aiden to come eat with us.  This lunch program is fantastic.  It's healthy and free for kids.  There are a few very strict rules and the 14 year olds running it will make you abide by them.  1. only the kids can eat it (parents can't even take a sip of milk). 2. the food has to be eaten there (no taking 1/2 eaten sandwiches home).  Those are the 2 rules and I can't seem to follow them.   My friend, Kelly taught me how to sneak the food into the diaper bag while the kids are diverting the attention of the food drill sergeant.  I used this tactic today to sneak this half pint carton of 1% milk into the stroller.

 We have plenty of milk at home, but I just cannot seem to pass up a free school sized carton of milk.  Plus, Oliver has a tough time drinking straight out of the carton.  I have straws at home that would make it easier.  

Okay, stop making excuses.  I knew it was wrong.  I snuck the carton into the car and drove it home, feeling extremely guilty the whole time.  Oliver carried the smashed up, mushy milk into the house asking for a straw 1,000 times.  I set Amelia down and pulled a straw out of the drawer.  I opened the beat up carton and smelled the milk.  It smelled a little off, but I always think perfectly good milk smells bad. I took a small sip... argggggg.    It was spoiled.  I dumped the milk down the drain, chunks and all.   I was swishing and spitting the nearest water I could find and then guzzling my Diet Coke.  Oliver was laughing hysterically at me.  

The free lunch Gods were looking down at me pointing and laughing.  Okay,  I think I learned my lesson.  Next time I will at least look at the expiration date before I stick something into my bag.     * this particular milk expired today.

One Week

Sorry it's been a while. Everyday this week I have thought, "oh I should blog about that".  I have not been able to find 2 spare minutes to write anything.  So now I have to write one big blog to recap my week.  

First we traced Oliver on the sidewalk and instantly had to run it over with our trike.

Then Oliver wanted to play on the Thomas website.  I usually have to get the song/video going and then I go into the kitchen to work on dinner.  I heard the song end so I was heading towards the living room when I heard the next song start.  I peeked into the room to see him using the mouse to click on the next song. 

When I asked him if he did that all by himself.  He looked at me with a very proud look on his face and simply said, "two tums up" (2 thumbs up).  If you can notice in the picture he is a little confused about which digits are his thumbs.  I think it makes the story that much sweeter. 

Then we turned our back yard into a nudist beach.

Abby and Grace invited us to swim in their community pool on Friday.  We decided swim suits were the appropriate attire for this pool.  The kiddie pool was freezing, but Amelia still liked it.  Oliver had his first experience of falling into the kiddie pool and not being able to get his head above the water.  I was right there to get him, but it really scared him.  

I gave Oliver a haircut in our living room on Sunday. He has been getting so hot while running around at the playground. I thought he needed to get rid of some of the insulation.  I bribed him with special snacks and cut quickly. I have been following him around the house with scissors for 3 days now clipping pieces I missed.  Oh well, it was very cheap. 

 He even helped clean it up.   

As you can see, we have had a very busy week and 3 days.  I even left out a lot.  There,  that's one more thing off of my mental check list.   Next, making dinner and getting to work. 

Huff-N-Puff

Yesterday we went to the Lake Elmo Huff-N-Puff softball tournament.  I have gone to this tournament pretty much every year since I can remember (minus a couple years when it was not cool to hang out with my parents).  A couple of my aunts, uncles and parent's friends still play.  We got to the fields around noon for my aunt's game.  

Oliver had so much fun playing with my cousins Jack and Joe.  After that game (they won in the last inning) we went back to the main field.  They had a free bouncy castle and carnival games for the kids.  Oliver played all the games,

 well kind of.  He doesn't understand that he has to stand back and try to throw the ball in the hole.  Why would go through all of the extra effort?  He gets the same prize if he just walks up there and puts the ball in the hole.  I think he's learned a valuable life lesson. We even ran into our friends Julia and Leo at the playground.  What a great surprise. 

Oliver played and played some more. He didn't really care much about the softball games.  I did learn that it is very difficult to watch a game with a toddler running around.  Thankfully, there were a lot of family and friends around to help out. We ended up staying there until 7pm.  All in all we got to see some great softball and got very dirty.  Oh and the kids slept pretty well that night. 

Need sleep!

I woke up this morning wishing I could call in sick from being a stay at home mom.  I haven't gotten much sleep lately because Amelia is far from sleeping through the night.  Obviously, I cannot do that; I must go on.  I got myself moving by telling myself I would do everything in my power to take a nap this afternoon.  We played hard at the park and made it through a crazy lunch.  I got Oliver in his bed, then Amelia in my bed, ate my lunch and changed the laundry.  "Good I should still have an hour to nap".  I took off my glasses and got ready to join Amelia in my bed.  Her beautiful bright eyes were staring at me.   Dun dun dun.  My carefully executed plan out the window.  I wanted to cry.  I flopped down in the bed next to her just to pout.  She just laid there smiling at me with her big toothless grin. How could I hold this against her?  I decided to take that time to be totally into Amelia. We stared at each other 

and I stroked her hair.  And would you believe it,  she fell asleep.  Oliver would never have done that.  Once he was up, he was up.  I am continuing to find out new personality traits in my baby, and the more I learn the cooler she is.  I got more then a nap today. I got 1/2 a nap and awesome bonding time with my Little Miss Sunshine.

Potty training

From the minute Oliver was born I have been nervous about potty training.  I've always heard to start when the kid is ready and boys tend to train later.  Well, Oliver started potty training a little over a month ago.  I wasn't planning on starting then.  He only met 1/3 of the readiness signs in our book.  I got him some Thomas undies to have around the house to get him used to seeing them.  He immediately wanted to wear them.  He wore them all day long and only had one accident.  He used to sit on the toilet to pee, but then he couldn't make bubbles like daddy. Now he stands on the seat facing backwards.  You can't teach that.  

When I was growing up my parents taught me not to brag. And somewhere down the line I think I may have blended the line between bragging and being proud of an accomplishment.   When people ask how it's going I tend to downplay how well he's doing, especially to other moms with kids around the same age as Oliver.  I don't know why I do it.  It is not bragging to say, "I am proud of my son.  He has done really well potty training." Oh we have our days, like today when he had a puddle under him and sagging undies waiting for me when I got out of the shower.  He's learning, and I am really grateful that the accidents are getting less frequent.  I know that this could be so much harder, but it still a lot of work.  Just one more step towards being a big boy. I just need to make sure that my kids always know that I am proud of their accomplishments. Way to go Oliver!  I love you.