Sunday, September 24, 2006

Potty Success!!

So, I've learned that the secret to getting DD to use the potty is to just put her in underpants. She knows better than to peepee in those. No qualms at all about peeing in a Pull-Up, though. So, forget those. The past two days have been very successful on the potty. She's gone on her own and gone when prompted. We've only had one accident. I'm so proud of her!!!

Birthdays

How time flies. It seems like just last week that I was getting up in the middle of the night to pee three or four times because I was so pregnant. And then I was getting up to take care of that little baby. Right now, all of my memories of life in PA are split into "more than a year ago" and "less than a year ago". More than a year ago - I was still pregnant with only one kid. Less than a year ago, I had two kids. Kid number two turned ONE last week. We took him to Friendly's for his birthday dinner (see previous post for details). Kid number one turns THREE tomorrow. I can't believe it.

We had a big party for both kids this weekend. There were about 40 people here, just under half of them were under the age of 5. It was crazy, but a lot of fun. The kids had a good time, and there were enough moms that some of us actually got a few minutes to talk to each other. Family came from out of town; friends drove up for the afternoon - our street was lined with cars as far as I could see from the front window. Crazy.

Tomorrow DD will be three and will celebrate the day at school with snacks she chose (frosted animal crackers and grapes) and then for dinner we'll go to her favorite "Salad Bar" (either Hoss's or Fire Mountain). She's already opened all her presents, so tomorrow will be pretty low key. I still can't believe she's going to be 3!!!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

What's to say

Yesterday began our first full week of activities. After dropping DD at school, DS and I went to "Mommy's gym" where he played (and fell) and I worked out and showered. Then we ran to the grocery store for a couple of items, including a balloon and birthday card for my friend, who despite the events that occured 5 years ago, still deserves to celebrate her birthday. We picked up DD from school, came home, ate lunch and all took naps. Since the kids napped early, they woke up early, so around 3pm we headed down to the York County Fair - just for something to do. It cost a couple of bucks (what with admission, parking, rides and the truely necessary funnel cake - pumpkin!), but it was worth it. DD has a blast! And it certainly wore her out.

Today it was school again for DD; DS and I went to church where I am participating in another fabulous Beth Moore Bible Study. If I can keep up with the homework, I think I will really enjoy it. Again, after picking up DD, we went home, ate lunch and today just the kids napped. I tried to get some work done on the computer. Then it was off to DD's first dance lesson. She seemed to really enjoy it! DH had a dinner meeting and then worked late, so I took the kids home, we played a while, ate dinner and then they took baths and went to bed. I then ate dinner, watched tv, had dessert, had more dessert and am now heading to bed.

Tommorrow is "Grandma Day", so my mother will be here. Usually that means I get 5 minutes to myself to shower, pay bills, clean the kitty litter, whatever needs to be done. Tomorrow, though, DH and I are going to Hershey for the World's Largest RV Show. Should be fun. Gotta be home by 5:00 for dinner at church, handbells and clubs. Ooshk. I'm tired already.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

How time flies

So, yesterday was my son's first birthday. Nothing like a child's birthday to help you reflect. I realized how much has happened in the past year. DD has become quite her own littel person. She's terribly independent and bossy to boot. But she's cute as the dickens and gets away with (almost) everything. DS has gone from, well, being in my belly, to walking all over it! It's just amazing to watch them change and grow.

Since both kid's birthdays are this month and they're still quite young, we are having a combined party in two weeks. So, bearing that, yesterday's birthday celebration was pretty low key. We sang to him first thing in the morning. And then it was just like any other day. We did go out to dinner at Friendly's - and boy was that an experience! When we were seated, apparently we were seated in "no man's zone" - we had no waitress. After about 15 minutes of no service at all (and multiple people arriving after us getting their meals already), we caught someone and asked if they could find us a waitress. That's when we found out we had none. No worries, they took care of us - we had a great waiter and the manager gave us any appetizer we wanted for free. Good deal. Our drinks come and DD spills my ice (cold) water all over the table and my lap. Good time! DS smears his macaroni and cheese EVERYWHERE. (Did I mention he discovered his belly button yesterday?) DS enjoyed his ice cream and whipped cream (meaning, he got it everywhere, too) So, basically, we left a war zone behind when we left. But we also left a nice tip. In all, it was a nice birthday - what do you expect for a one-year-old? :-)

I'm sure the big party in two weeks will be quite different (meaning there will be multiple kids leaving a war zone behind!)

Did I mention we are having new floors put down on the first floor of the house? Yeah, so we're packing (again - didn't we just do this 18 months ago?) And we've decided to move the play room from the dining room to the bonus room above the garage. Never a dull day here!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Overwhelmed? No, just overextended

Okay, so I realize now that I have committed myself to too many projects. Again. I am directing the church's handbell choir, which doesn't require a whole LOT of time, but does require that I am ON time, and somewhat prepared. I am helping out with the church's CLUBS program, with the 5th and 6th grade girls and I'm going to be planning craft projects and I'm feeling kinda clueless right now. Hopefully after a couple of meetings, I will have a better idea of what to plan. I am also a Discussion Group Leader for my local MOPS group, which I thought would be really cool, and truely I am looking forward to it, but it's going to require a lot of my time. Granted that time is predominantely when DD is in preschool, but that requires dropping her off and racing to MOPS, getting DS out of childcare there in enough time to race back to school to get DD again. I want to participate in the women's bible study Tuesday mornings at our church - but that again is a drop, run, race event. And Tuesday afternoons are DD's ballet lessons.

As much as I was looking forward to things starting up again and having planned activities, I'm already kind of missing the lazy days of summer!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Feeling overwhelmed

I'm feeling overwhelmed. Today was daughter's first day of preschool. Tomorrow is my first Handbell choir meeting as director and a meeting for Clubs. Thursday is a MOPS meeting. Next week, DD has school M,T, and Th; ballet on Tues. I have Bible Study Tues AM; Handbells and Clubs on Wed. The following week we are having new floors put in on the first floor. Which means that sometime between now and then we need to pack up and move everything that is in or on a shelf/cabinet in the living room, dining room, foyer and powder room.

We've also decided that after the new floors go down, we are going to move the play room from the dining room to the bonus room over the garage. Which means moving the office and craft supplies from that room down to the dining room, installing doors to the dining room, and painting both rooms. I'm really excited about the end result - the actual work to accomplish it, though - not so much.

Every night before bed I start to feel like I haven't accomplished enough in the day. I am hoping that now that DD is in school 3 mornings a week, and DS is still naping during that time, I can get some things checked off the old "to-do" list. Tomorrow the plan is simple: get up, eat breakfast, dress the kids, go to the gym, be back before 10:30 when Grandma arrives, hang with Grandma, go to church to prepare for Handbells, figure out dinner plans - when the heck to eat when one needs to be at church from 5:30 - 8:00pm - come home, put kids to bed, follow soon thereafter. Maybe having a game plan for tomorrow will help me relax enough to sleep tonight. One must always think positive!