Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

This totally makes up for lost time.

A Day in the Life...

We've been busy this summer. Take a look.

Nate at the dentist.

The local firefighters made a visit to "school". (N and H are now going Tues/Thurs and are in the same class)

 We went to the Forsyth Family Fun Fest and the Maroa Freedom Festival. 

Hannie and I had a girls weekend in STL!

 We've been to lots of Daddy's softball games. 

 Some days we just hang out. 

 PawPaw Bob, Daddy and Adam built a new deck!!!!

We played a lot of dress up!

And this is a pretty true depiction of what happens nightly after baths. It's their "wind down" time.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay but FINALLY I have Hannah's birthday videos to share :o) Enjoy.

Pre-party.


MUCH different reaction than last year!!!!


And make a note for Christmas......don't buy clothes for the princess.

So....you know that scene from Top Gun where Tom Cruise is avoiding Kelly McGinnis and he gets on his motorcycle, revs the engine, "what? I can't hear you?" and drives off? I totally pulled that today. With my kids. Using the vacuum. It was naptime and both were being difficult. I turned on the vacuum. "What? I can't hear you. Mommy is vacuuming right now. Go back to your room." Me and my noisy little friend went on about our business.

My most wonderful & spectacular husband let me take a nap Sunday afternoon. When I emerged from the bedroom Nathan and Hannah ran down the hall to greet me with squeals of excitement and hugs. So sweet....

Then Nathan screams "Mommy are you wet? Did you peepee in bed?" I just laughed. "No honey I didn't." He starts clapping. "Yeah!!!! Mommy had a dry nap!!!!!!!". LOL! The mind of a 3-year-old hard at work. Gotta love it.

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?


Nathan has officially forgotten any other word of the english language.

On Friday, Hannah started opening doors. Yesterday, she climbed out of her crib. We have been terrified of the day when we had to transition her to a toddler bed.....So she is no longer confined by a bed or by doors. Lord help us.

Why is it that toddlers are obsessed with laundry baskets? I, for one, do not have the answer. I do however know that it is impossible to fold clean laundry with a toddler trying to "help". The solution? Give her the basket and send her on a mission to fill it up all by herself. Ahhh....10 minutes of pure, golden silence. Except the sound of legos crashing around, but what mom can't drown that out?

Hannah recently discovered her reflection in mirrors and random electronics & appliances. It's pretty humorous. And, FYI, she has started dressing herself (headbands and all). I am officially the most laid-back and gracious mom in the universe.

I think it's safe to say that Nathan enjoyed SuperBowl. He kept standing over the table saying, "whoa! look at all that food!". Ha ha ha.

This was our pre-game entertainment :o) Not sure why Nathan is wearing pajamas? Or a bow? I guess he's our "free spirit".

http://youtu.be/hEEmjc0aWz0

I love that he quasi-tackles her and then jumps up saying "Let's go Hannah!" like she's just sittin around wasting time.

Then as I'm putting him to bed we have the following dialogue --

Nathan: What's going to happen to all that food?

me: Gma & Gpa will take some. Aunt Katie will take some. We will keep some.

****long pause****

me: Is there something special you want to keep?

Nathan: Ummm....just the crunchies. And probably some of that dipping sauce.

me: Oh you want some puppy chow?

Nathan: Yeah!

me: And the cheese sticks and marinara sauce?

Nathan: Yeah!

me: Sure. No problem :o)

Can anyone guess what Hannah's new favorite food is?

I seriously thought she was going to turn into a blueberry at lunch today. And why did I have her in a white shirt? NO CLUE! Why do they even make white shirts for toddlers?????!??!!!!

Nathan's Happy Birthday!

We had a wonderful weekend (last weekend) celebrating Nathan's 3rd birthday. Check out all the fun: The "party" at the Illinois Children's Museum. Not only did Gma & Gpa Bob and Uncle Matt came all the way from STL but Macy and family joined us too!

The balloons. A favorite in our house. The presents. This one is pretty lengthy but I wanted to share with those who weren't able to join us. It really is "wonderful" :o)

We are sick...again :o( We are very fortunate to have so many loving family members in the area who are willing to help. I really do believe that it takes a village to raise a child and we are so blessed to have our own Heckman Village right here in town. Love you Uncle Adam and Aunt Katie!!!!!! Thanks for all your help this week.

Sometimes they actually play nice together! Which means (drumroll........) few minutes of peace for Mommy :o) But do I do something practical like laundry or make the beds? Nope....I grab my camera and capture the moment :o) That other stuff can wait.

Well, Hannah has really taken to the potty. She goes on "her" potty, the "elmo" potty and any big potty regardless if we are at home or on the road. Woo hoo! I have no fears about taking her to run errands with me or go out to eat. The only issue is that she is still scared of her poop. For the longest time she refused to go on the potty and would do her #2 after we put her down for nap or bedtime. We are slowly making progress in that department. Some days we try to talk her through it and I'm not sure if I am potty training my daughter or coaching her through labor. "You can do it! Push! Keep going! Push!" Nathan actually had a completely dry night last night. Awesome! At this rate we only have 968 more loads of peepee laundry to go until everyone can sleep on their sheets more than one time!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We had a WONDERFUL holiday season! Even though the babies were sick almost the entire month of December and I was down and out for over 2 weeks we made it work :o) We spent tons of time with family and made many great memories. Nick was off work two weeks around Thanksgiving and two weeks over Christmas so this was actually our first week back to "normal". The weather cooperated so we were able to make two trips to STL and the babies had a blast with Gma Bob, Gpa Bob and Uncle Matt. And, of course, Aunt Margie made her annual trek to cental IL and we got some quality time with her :o)

Just for the record --- the butterfly princess attire is actually a present for Hannah but Nathan was the first one to model it for us! Just another picture to tuck away until he's 16 or 17 years old...

Day #3

Things are going well!!!! She went potty half as many times today as Monday which tells me she is getting control of her bladder. AND she told me twice that she needed to potty! Of course, she refused to go on the potty and then had an accident 5 minutes later but hey, we're making steps in the right direction. OH ---- and she slept great again last night. She was up at 10:30 (dry!), went potty, and went right back to bed for the rest of the night! Woo Hoo!

Day #2

Hello again!!!! We had fewer "successes" but also fewer accidents so I for one am going to count that as improvement :o) She even went #2 on the potty before bed. AND ---- she slept through the rest of the night last night until 7:15am. SWEET! AND --- we went to Maroa and she didn't have an accident in the car. Hallelujah. I admit I lost my cool a couple times today. I turned to my potty training book by John Rosemond and got a refresher: do NOT micromanage. let the child own the process - just make it easy for her to do so. do NOT micromanage. stay the course. do not give up when things get messy. do NOT micromanage. If you've never met me (welcome to my blog!) and FYI I have been known in some circles to be a micromanager. Some clasify it as OCD, some call it anal. Either way most of my life I was determined that MY way was always the best way and everyone should do all things MY way. And do it exactly as I would do ever step along the way. Nick has been a good influence on me for the last 9 1/2 years but it was definitely Nathan who taught me to let others do things their own way. Seriously, I would try to convince, persuade, influence, convert everyone I ever met to "my way". And then I had a child who turned two. Have you ever tried to convince your child NOT to wear his favorite shirt because it didn't match the pants you want him to wear? Or try to persuade him to watch The Lion King instead of having to watch Finding Nemo for the 963rd time? Or influence him to let you do the carseat buckle because you can do it like 8 times faster? Ha! Yea - you've tried but you have not been successful. When you have kids you learn very quickly that you cannot control all things in life. And...it doesn't REALLY matter that Nathan wears socks with sandals and stripes shirts with plaid pants. He gets himself dressed everyday and I have those 5 minutes to make coffee :o) Just because I can do it faster or "better" doesn't mean that Nathan - and now Hannah - can't do it themselves. So I will continue to pump Hannah full of milk and water and let her master the potty herself. I will not follow her around the house with a towel and mop trying to prevent messes. I will let her have accidents because in life that is the best way to learn - right? Learn from your mistakes. And looking on the bright side: if it takes really long I may just get a new couch out of the deal! :o)

Day #1

Well I am tired. Hannah did a great job today and Nick was a huge help, but potty training is tough business. Nick and I went for the "pre terrible twos training" timeline again since it seemed to work with Nathan. Hannah has been saying potty and also signing it (we used sign language with her too - just like Nathan) so that was really the only cue I needed. We've had her own potty and little undies ready to go for weeks so it was just a matter of what time would work best for Nick and I. Needless to say we had several accidents. I did my best to stay calm and cool and just re-direct her to sit on the potty. That went well until late afternoon. She had a shorter nap than usual which meant she was tired and cranky and this new "challenge" was starting to get on her nerves. Of course, that meant it was harder for me to keep her on the potty and that led to increased frustration on my part. And, then we had company stop by so I felt like there was an audience for our "ugliest" part of the day :o( I know Gammy Gam and Katie weren't judging me but I got really defensive all of a sudden! Sorry girls. You know I love you though! There were several funny (if you think pee and poop can be funny) moments. You know those mini scarecrow guys that are used to decorate around the house? Yeah...she definitely went dog-at-fire-hydrant-style. I look over and she is squating with one leg in the air peeing all over it! OMG!!!! And there were two different times that she actually sat down on the potty herself and went #1 but it sprayed all over the floor. Hmm....I thought only boys needed the pee guard? What up with that???? And I was going to run to Wal-Mart during her nap but Nick reminded me that it didn't work out so well for him last time. I totally forgot about this but day #1 with Nathan I went somewhere? during his nap and Nick got stuck cleaning poop off of Nathan, his sheets, bed, walls - you name it! LOL!!!!! So as I was writing this Hannah woke up. It had been 3 hours since she went to bed and she was still dry. Holy smokes! I got her up and she went in the potty - twice!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!! Who knows what the rest of the week has in store for us but I'd say we are off to a pretty good start.

Potty training has begun....stay tuned.........it may get interesting around here.....