Poops the word

Ok - so as everyone knows, we have not been successful in potty training Ryan. Thankfully, we've seen that Emma cries a lot when she's poopy, so maybe she'll be easier. So here is a wonderful story about today. Emma is on medicine for her ear infection which is making everything a little watery and leaky. So when we got home from the gym today, I had to change all her clothes. But since I was taking her upstairs after I nursed her to put her down for a nap, I just left her in a diaper while I nursed her. I made the mistake of making funny comments about her being naked. When will I learn?? Ryan is at a point where if I say anything about Emma, he feels the need to do it for attention.

Anyway. After I put Emma down, I took a shower while Ryan was watching Curious George. I told him to come up and find me when the show ended - in hopes of avoiding the shouting he does from the bottom of the stairs. When he came up he had only a shirt on. No pants, socks or pullup! And he thought it was hilarious. I must admit, I thought it was funny too. And I told him, that I didn't care as long as he went in the potty. He ran around like that for about 10 minutes while I finished getting ready. Then I got him dressed again so he could help me clean all his bath toys as part of my spring cleaning. This cleaning also included his potty chair.

After we put them both down for naps, I left for the grocery store. When I called later, this is the story that Kris relayed to me. Ryan evidently thought to take his pants and pullup off again. But this time, he pooped right on the floor in his room! Then he proceeded to play with it and spread it all over his room. I asked Ryan why he didn't use the potty or call for Daddy and he said he did (Kris wouldn't have heard him though because he was outside). So when Kris found him, needless to say he was livid! He is now hoarse from yelling so much. Ryan was put into the bathtub (toy free since they were still in the garage) and then put on his bed in a pseudo timeout while Kris cleaned up. Of course, Emma woke up from her nap part way through this and Kris couldn't let her out of her crib because he was cleaning, so she screamed for a half hour. She was pretty happy to see me when I got home. But wow - was I glad I wasn't home for this!

Other things that have happened. We went to the zoo yesterday. We were supposed to go with a friend, but her son came down with a fever. So I bundled the kids up and we went anyway. Ryan had a great time and he walked the whole thing. We were sitting in one of the resturants for our snack when a male peacock outside put his feathers into bloom! Ryan watched for a while and then I had him go out near the peacock for a picture. He also played in the childrens area. Emma wouldn't take a nap in the stroller and ended up falling asleep 5 minutes before we got home.

Ryan's teachers visited yesterday for our second home visit. Ryan seemed embarrassed to be here with them and didn't really want to interact, but I know they were anxious to here him talk at home because he is very quiet at school. Eventually, he opened up and played kitchen with Miss Chris. After that, I put them both down for naps, which Ryan didn't want. So he trashed his room instead. I had told him that I would leave the light on if he would play quietly for an house. Well he was pretty quiet - but pretty messy. And he eventually fell asleep by the door for a half hour. Here is what the room looked like.

Sorry for being away so long!

I'm sorry we've been away from the blog for so long. I have been plenty busy with my new chocolate business and spring cleaning. I've already written this blog once and then hit backspace too quickly and deleted half of it, so I'm writing again.

My chocolate parties are going. I've had 4 parties, some successful and some not so much. But all of them a lot of fun and with some great food. Must be why I've gained a few pounds. I just can't help myself, the products are so good! I'm really hoping for this to take off. I have a lot of work to do. I have been trying to get to the gym as much as possible. I've recently found that if I follow a plan set out ahead of time, I stick to it much better. So I just finished my first 5 week plan and set up another 5 week one. I am gaining some muscle, which is good. I've also started my spring cleaning. I estimate it will take me 12 weeks at the way I'm going to get through it all (and that doesn't include the basement).

Ryan is doing well. He is going to be evaluated at school for help with fine motor and gross motor physical and occupational therapy. I know that he will need it, because he did with Children's - we just weren't willing to pay for it. He will easily qualify for the preschool again next year. His speech has come a long way, thankfully. And luckily, 'I play with Mama' isnt so promenant part of his daily speech! We have been working on playing by himself and he is getting much better at accepting that I have other things that need to be done.

Emma as always is so happy. We found out today that she has a double ear infection - but you would never know. She recently learned to clap and enjoys doing it when every she does anything. She started walking behind things, which creates some fights between her and Ryan over who gets to push the shopping cart. Those legs of hers are getting stronger, but she's not ready to really walk yet. This week we had some great weather so I let the kids play in the sandbox. They both had a great time.

Last weekend, Emma and I headed to MI for Jenny Stone's baby shower. She is such a cute pregnant lady and we're so excited for this baby - especially Aunt Sally! Previously, we've tried to leave early in the morning in hopes that the kids would sleep in the car. But it hasn't worked out as well as we had hoped. So this time I left around 7pm in hopes she would fall asleep. She did, but then alternated crying and sleeping for the last hour. We had a great time. It was wonderful to get to spend some time just with Emma and to have my parents get that chance also. Ryan got to spend the weekend with Kris and from what they have both told me, really enjoyed their time. After much deliberation, Kris took Friday off from work. They got steel for the garage and went to the park with Ryan's big John Deere truck. Ryan attempted to tell me all about the weekend on Monday, but was just missing too many words. At least he wasn't too upset, he was certain that they were going to Grandpa's house and had attempted to 'pack' a few times on Thursday.

Anyway, that's it. Email me if you want to host a chocolate party! Look what's it done to my sister!!

Happy Valentine's Day

We have gotten back to normal here now. Last week, Ryan had school ALL week. Can you believe it? Of course, it was in the 40's all week.

We went to the gym on Monday - where I managed to over work myself on weights and pay for it the next day. That combined with coming down with strep throat was just terrific! I felt awful and had a hard time keeping Ryan from tearing me to shreds. He wanted to climb all over me, but kept elbowing and kicking me in the process. By Wednesday afternoon I couldn't take it anymore and went to see the doctor who said within a minute that I had strep. And after a positive strep test, I was given a shot of penicillin and sent on my way. I felt almost 100% better by 10 am the next day. Which was good because I had to clean my house for friends coming over to test some of my chocolate creations. They are great. So if you want to have a party, let me know!

Kris took some tax prep training available through our church and has donated his Saturday mornings now through April 15th to help do other people's taxes. While I applaud him in helping others, it's not a real help to me. But as always we'll get through it. Friday we had went to the gym in the afternoon to go swimming. Emma was a little scared, but eventually liked it. Ryan just played in the water spraying from the ground outside the pool. Saturday we went back to the gym for another workout - without lifting weights! I'll go back to that tomorrow.

For some reason, Ryan has decided to start climbing everything. Cabinets, dressers, bookshelves - nothing is safe anymore. After the third or fourth time on Saturday, I said that was enough - he needed some climbing time. So we went out to lunch to BK where they have a climber. He had a great time and even met some new friends. Emma loved watching what everyone else was doing.

Today, Ryan was digging through our closet trying to wear our clothes. So we found him a shirt Kris was giving away and a tie and dressed him up. He thought it was fun for a while - and although the tie didn't stay on long, he didn't even want to take the shirt off for his nap.

After all that, Kris made me a wonderful dinner for two last night. We had steak, potatos, broccoli, salad, homemade bread and a cake (homemade also). He did a terrific job. All the food gave us some great belly aches last night. But we enjoyed sitting down to a meal with just the two of us.

The Winds of Winter/Spring???

This place can't decide what season it is. Two weeks ago they cancelled school for the entire week and last week for two days. This week - 60 degree days. Not that it's lovely, it's raining now. But at least not frigid. Yesterday, we took advantage of our wagon and made some nice trips around the neighborhood.

I know it's been a while since I've updated - and please read the next blog because its new also.

So here's what's been going on. Emma is working on cutting her 8th tooth. Hopefully it will be in any day now. She's drooling all over. She recently started climbing the stairs, so we now have to be more diligent about closing the gates. On Sunday, she managed to get all the way to the top. Ryan finally called us when she turned around and tried to head back down. Luckily, she only fell one stair before she was caught. Kris has been letting her practice on the two stairs in the basement. He said she would fall down but get right back up and try again. She's still getting over a never ending cold which is driving me nuts. Besides that she is the normal happy baby.

Ryan has been having a lot of tantrums and night fights. I'm not sure what the reason for either of them is. It seems as though he finally figured out he could put up a fight. The night fights are what happens between the two of us when he decides to destroy his room. He's been climbing on the bookshelf, so we had to take his cd player out. He's been unplugging the clock and lamps and basically destroying his room. This morning he was proud of himself for not doing any of it and had to show me everything he didn't do. It was cute. I'm so glad for him to be back at school. I can definately see the stagnation in his speech when we don't go to school or speech. Plus he has so much fun. Lately, all he wants to play here is Spin - Momma spin to be exact. I spin him and then throw him down on the bed. He could do it for hours if I could! I also set up an obstacle course in the basement which kept him busy for a few days.

So here are the explanations of the pictures. The first picture at the top is the finger paintings the kids made on Kris's birthday. The next pictures are of the kids in the tub. I finally got them to start bathing together, which has made my life easier and they have so much fun together. The next pictures are of Emma climbing the stairs and raiding the Cheerios box. Next are two pictures from the museum two weeks ago.

And last but not least, we welcome Daniel Harper into our family. He was born to Matt & Tammy yesterday (Feb 9). I haven't seen any pictures yet, but will try to post one when I do. I will never forget his birthday since it was my sister, Melanie's birthday. She would have been 30 years old yesterday. Amazing.

Chocolate is my business!

Hi all -

If you haven't heard yet, I have become a Independent Chocolatier with Dove Chocolate DiscoveriesTM. I'm really excited about it. I give chocolate tasting parties like Tupperware or Pampered Chef - except you actually get to try the chocolate. It sounded like it was just up my alley - especially since Kris laughs when I head for the chocolate fondue first at his work's Christmas party (boy did I miss that this year). Anyway, I think it will be a little harder for me since I have friends in so many places around the country, but hopefully it will work. I wanted to do it, so that I had a good reason to get out of the house and maybe make a little money. My first party is on the 20th with another one the next day. My mom is having one on the 6th and I'm still looking for someone in Michigan to hold one on the 7th - so if you're interested let me know.

So far, I've gotten a lot of chocolate sent to my house and Ryan and I tried a little bit of it yesterday. We tempered some chocolate to make candies and dipped our strawberries in it. Ryan loved it! I also made some truffles. I have some friends coming over on Thursday to taste test things with me, so I know what I'd like to do for parties.

It's pretty exciting for me. I keep having to remind myself that this is my new job. Hard to believe when you're at home the whole time (so far).

And to end - here's a picture of Ryan eating the chocolate yesterday.

Happy Birthday Kris!

Happy Birthday to Daddy! Ryan and I made him a cake, which was Ryan's favorite part of the birthday. As you can see, we never feed him.

Sorry to everyone who commented that I haven't updated this in a while. I'm a little busy keeping up with two kids during these snow days and starting on Facebook. Yes, we've had about a foot of snow and Ryan has been out of school all week. It sure makes for a long day - at least he still takes a nap. It would be different if Ryan would play by himself, but even if he does, he wants to tell me about it or whine for me to play with him during most of it! I sure hope its better by next week. At least Ryan has gotten to play outside. And second, yes - I finally broke down and joined Facebook and now I've been looking up people and reading what everyone's been up to. It's addicting.

So what have we been up to? We have had sickies here. Ryan got sick two weeks ago. Of course, Kris was going to California for the week. So I called for reinforcements and my mom and sister drove down to help me. Ryan was out of school all week, not because he didn't feel well - mostly because he was so tired and wouldn't get a nap if he went to school. By Friday, he still wasn't 100% and I broke down and took him to the doctors. He had an ear infections and possible strep. Then this past weekend, Emma not only had two teeth coming in, but also got sick. Monday, I took her to the doctors, which we were scheduled to do on Thursday for her 9 month appointment. She had a double ear infection and possible pink eye. Well the eyes cleared up in two days, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't pink eye. And both the teeth came in. She's feeling much better now.

Besides that we've been going to the gym and playing. We get reimbursed for our gym membership if we go 12 times a month. We joined last January and never made it one month. Our best month was in March! Can you believe it? I was 8 months pregnant - but I really needed that break from Ryan. So this month, I've been trying hard to make it, plus lose the 3 lbs I gained over Christmas.

Yesterday, to abate the winter boredom, I let the kids finger paint (and then take a bath!). I NEVER let Ryan do this when he was as little as Emma just because I didn't want to clean up the mess, but I've become more lenient in my parenting. She enjoyed it for a few minutes and then started to rip the paper and try to suck on the washcloth I was using to wipe her off! Ryan just wanted more and more paint. I wasn't sure his picture would ever dry - but it did finally. I think they enjoyed the bath a lot more though!

Happy New Year!

Ok - so I haven't updated this in a while. I have a total of 6 posts today so that I could break up all the info and pictures that happened over the last two weeks. So please scroll down and start this from the Pre-Christmas post, and you'll be all up to date.

We spent our New Years Eve and 5th wedding anniversary with our friends Jeff and Shannon and their kids, Mason and Jackson. Mason is Ryan's age and Jackson is 6 months older than Emma. We had them over for pizza and New Years at 9pm. We actually meant to have it at 8, but we were too busy. We watched football and enjoyed the boys playing. We had our champagne, while the boys had sparkling cider (which neither liked). They blew their horns and wore hats. Overall, they both thought it was exciting because we talked about it as if it were. But there was no other indication to them to be excited! Oh well. We had a lot of fun. After that, I fell asleep on the couch at 11 and woke up just as the New Year rang in. What a night!