7.6.11: Wednesday

We spent Wednesday at the mini-golf course, which if you know us, is pretty typical. But this time was took Rex and Rex loved it. I didn't think Rex would but he putted each hole at least twice. I, on the other hand, didn't really get to putt all the holes.

I don't have much else to say about golfing so, without further ado, some pictures.

Rex and Mike playing guns

Bryant and Cora also enjoying playing

Reason #9293465483240932 why humidity sucks. This is after being outside for about 10 minutes.
Rex is a pro.

7.14.11: Day 3

I have more problems with Rex's bodily functions than I care to deal with. First I can't handle cloth diapers and now I'm done with day 3 of potty training and we've still got several to go.

Today went really well though. Rex sat on his potty fairly happily and even peed in it a few times. He started off the morning a little shakey with a few accidents on the kitchen floor, which I made him clean up and then made him practice running to the potty when he had to pee. He hated that. He loved earning stickers to get his package of M&M's, which he managed to get by lunch, which was the goal. After getting his M&M's, I made a new chart--5 successful potty pees and he earns a zebra. He really wants his zebra. So much so that he got himself out of bed during naptime, peed in the toilet, and then called me to congratulate him. I was so happy. We had done it! Peed in the potty all by himself. And he stayed dry for his nap. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

After nap time, he peed on me, and then on a chair before finally making it to the toilet. And then he insisted that he earned a sticker because pee ended up in potty. I gave in.

And then this.

That's right. A big ol' turd on my counter while I was making dinner. He happened to do right as Greg walked in the door. Greg thought it was hilarious and insisted that I take teh picture. But did Greg clean it up? No. I did. To be fair, I was on the phone and not paying attention to him and I knew the poop had to come eventually because he hadn't pooped for 2 days. I blame this on my mom. She called me first.

To finish the day off, Rex peed himself again. To his credit though, I think Rex was trying to sit on the potty when the accident happened--he had finally put underwear on after being naked all day and I don't think he could get them off. Maybe tomorrow will be our day.

7.3.11-7.5.11: Leg one of our trip to NC

Last week we went to North Carolina for Greg's youngest sister's wedding. Here's the first installment of many detailing our trip.

We left early Sunday morning.

Rex was perfect through two 2-hour flights and a 2-hour layover. It was almost like flying as a single person, but with a really well-behaved 2-year-old. We had to pay for Rex to fly this time, which means that we got to bring Rex's car seat on the plane, which was amazing because Rex understands car seats. He stayed in his seat with only one or two complaints for both flights. Thank you iPad. Greg downloaded some of Rex's favorite shows onto his iPad and Rex watched those nearly the entire time.

Below: Rex in the airport looking adorable. He insisted on wearing his hoodie the whole time. I finally wrestled him down when we got to Charlotte because it was about 90 degrees with 100% humity and I didn't want him to die.

We spent Sunday night at Greg's parents' in Charlotte, and then left early Monday morning for Greg's sister's house in Greensboro. The iPad was also a hit at her house as evidenced below.

Rex had way too much fun playing with his cousins. The first thing he said every morning was "Bryant, Cora". Adorable.
Monday night, after playing in the disgusting humidity all day, Rex and Cora took a bath together and, again, had way too much fun, as evidenced by the lake I had to clean up off of Maurine's bathroom floor when they were done.

I almost forgot to discuss our 4th of July festivities. Erick and Maurine put on quite the spread. We had trout (that Erick caught himself), ribs, and hot dogs in addition to a ridiculous amount to fresh vegetables from their enormous garden (the size of our back yard). While grilling, the boys also spent some time in Erick's shed making some surprises. I put Rex to bed knowing, as evidenced by previous posts, that he would not enjoy Erick's surprises. We'll just put it this way, some of our home-made fireworks looked more like mini-atomic bombs that pretty lights and a few many have shaken the neighbors windows and none of them were legal.

On Tuesday, Greg and Maurine made the 7-hour round trip drive to Columbia to go to Emma's endowment. I stayed in Greensboro with the kids. After playing inside for a while, my co-babysitter Rebecca (Emma's bride's maid) needed a break so the kids and I went for a walk to the pond down the street. Seriously, all we did was walk down to the lake and throw some rocks in before Uncle Erick came and picked us up.

Below: What the kids looked like after our very short walk (MAYBE 2 blocks) to the pond.


Because the kids were so disgusting, I asked Erick if he had a sprinkler they could run in. Typical Erick couldn't just get a sprinkler out. He built them a slip and slide. Again, way too much fun. So much fun in fact that Rex came in about thirty minutes later from fun-induced injuries. The big kids had to be threatened to come back in for dinner.

And there you have it: the first three days of our trip. Flying and playing. Way fun.

Lessons learned: iPads are worth their weight in gold when flying with a 2-year-old and humidity sucks.

7.2.11: Fireworks

I love Provo. Really. I do.

But that doesn't mean I understand every thing that Provo/BYU (let's be honest, BYU runs Provo) does.

For some reason, BYU decided to do Stadium of Fire/fireworks on the 2nd this year. So Greg decided to join the party and bought some of the newly legalized aerial fireworks. We waited until dusk (it doesn't get dark until 10 or so) to set them off. Rex and I got out the camping chairs and got ready to do.

And then Greg started the party, and Rex ran for cover. He stood at the front door begging to go inside and screaming that he doesn't like rocgots (rockets, which in this context means fireworks).
So I put Rex to bed and Greg and I went inside to pack for our trip to NC for Emma's wedding. Greg and I did make it outside to watch the bit of BYU fireworks we could see through the 2 trees on our street. So patriotic, I know.

7.13.11: Potty Training Day 2

Day 2 went much better than day 1.

We started the day off by using Barney as an incentive--wanna watch Barney, sit on the potty. It worked several times. But not pee. And then Rex stood up and danced a bit and peed on the floor. Luckily I was close enough to catch him and quickly threw Rex on the potty. Semi-success.

Then Reagan came over and threw several fits that she didn't get the same treats that Rex got--but I couldn't very well give her treats if she didn't sit/pee on the potty. So we went someone where you can pretty much pee wherever you want--7 Peaks. I still made Rex sit on the big toilet (amid tantrums) a few times while there. He did wet himself while there, but he at least knew that he had peed his pants. Semi-success.

Today I also decided to cold turkey all diaper usage, so I put the potty next to Rex's bed and let him sleep in underwear. He woke up dry. Success.

After naptime, Rex was once again sitting on the potty watching Barney, drinking soda and then--Pee! Yes. Pee-pee in the potty! Success.

Then we had to go to the grocery store, which I thought we could handle since Rex had just peed in the potty. But as Rex very meticulously picked out his bananas, he peed. All over the cart. But he cleaned it up and knew when he was peeing. Failure/semi-success (at least he knew what he was doing).

When we returned home, Rex sat on the potty again and peed--on purpose. He stood up right after he peed and told him that he had peed. Success!

And then we went the rest of the evening without an accident. Rex even sat on the potty for about 20 minutes waiting for him to poop. But he did not.

So to bed he went with underwear on, but I did convince him to wear plastic pants.

Not that they helped. I just went up to check on him. He's soaking wet, but at least he's asleep--maybe.

I think we'll get it in the next few days.

6.28.11: Backyard Fun

A few weeks ago, I had amazing plans to go to Bridal Veil Falls with one of my friends and her three kiddos. I was excited to try something new and cool and hang out with Holly. So I got the kids all ready and in the car, and got in and nothing. My car would not start. I had been experienciing this for several days, but had previously been able to jump my car and get on with my life, only slightly embarrassed. I had told Greg of my car problems, but as soon as he got in the car, it started up just fine.

Back to my story, I got in car and it wouldn't start and my battery powered charger wouldn't start my car either. Luckily Noah was napping on my couch so I woke him up and we pushed my car down the driveway (hitting and knocking over all four of our trash cans and making Rex scream bloody murder). We hook our cars together and do all we can to jump the car, but to no avail. After about 5 minutes, I give up, we push the car back up the driveway and I call Holly.

With no other plan that day, and already in our suits, I got a few hoses out and these are the results:

Reagan examining the crackers I brought out.

Reagan refuses to go down the slide, but her suit is super cute--even though I think two-pieces are kind-of silly on little girls.

Rex having way too much fun--he did go down our make-shift water slide on his stomach head first a few times, flying off the end and giving himself several bloody noses.

Rex just running around with a hose.

I do want to go to Bridal Veil Falls with Holly eventually, but we also had a good day just playing with hoses in the backyard.

And ps when Greg got home that night, he managed to get the car going--lame, but he finally believed me that something was wrong with the car. A few days later he finally had a chance to replace the battery. Luckily we live in Provo and all the most important things are within walking distance.

7.12.11: Potty Training

I know I'm going out of order as I do have some rather adorable pictures of Rex (I totally forgot to take any of me or Greg) at the wedding last week, but I'm thinking about potty training right now.

Let's just put it this way, today did not turn out like I wanted it to. Part of me was expecting today to be a failure, but I woke up and decided to give it my best go any way.

My sister-in-law has managed to potty train both of her kids on 1 day, and I borrowed her book and figured if she could do I could right? Wrong.

We're counting small successes today. By the end of the day, Rex learned how to pull his underwear up and down and he even sat on the toilet. But he has yet to pee in the toilet.

We started the day off bad. The Book said to have a potty chair, but I think potty chairs are gross so didn't buy one. I let Rex pick out a cool stool instead--Sesame Street. He loves the stool. But that's about it. He stands on the stool and holds his little do-dad and says, "Psss..." but he won't sit on the toilet. So after about an hour of trying to coax Rex onto the toilet, I have this brilliant idea to make my own potty chair. I get out one of our huge stock pots, tape rags around the edges and then tape the tiny toilet insert to the stock pot. I convinced Rex to sit on that for oh...five seconds. Two accidents later, I realize that without a suitable potty that Rex will actually sit on, all my efforts are for not. I put Rex in a diaper and start thinking of people who might have a potty chair I can borrow. My friend Holly came through for me. But before I could get over to her house, Rex had a complete melt-down and went down for a nap. Four-and-a-half hours later, Rex wakes up having soaked through his diaper. I change him, feed him, walk to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner, and then get the potty chair from Holly. Rex and I came home, cleaned it up, and low-and-behold Rex sits on the chair. But no pee. He can't sit still long enough to let the pee come out. So we start making dinner. I look at the clock. It's been 14 minutes since Rex last sat on the potty. One more minute I think. And then I hear an uh-oh. That's right, Rex peed on the table right next to where I was making dinner. So what do I do? I try to sit Rex on the potty to finish his business and then continue making dinner. It cooks out right? Whatever, you don't have to eat dinner at my house. I finished making dinner but had a Relief Society meeting to go to so Rex got to wear a diaper again because I didn't want any accidents at someone else's house. When I got home, Rex watched Sesame Street and refused to sit on the potty. He does not care for my incentives. Finally I remembered that I have popsicles, so he ate one of those while sitting on the potty. He's sleeping in a diaper tonight.

Like I said, small successes. He can pull his underwear up and down and he sat on the potty.

Did I mention that the thing that was going to make today ok didn't work out? Greg had his fourth interview with a new company that I thought would for sure hire him. Nope. They thought wearing a suit to the interview was over the top. Seriously? That's a pretty lame reason if you ask me.