The littlest guy and I got back from our visit to Atlanta {more on that coming soon} just in time for Father's Day. And I was so excited for Sunday to arrive due to the little gem I happened upon at Hallmark this year, which was the perfect addition to David's Father's Day gift. He is always wanting a new gun and saying that I never buy him anything really cool {i.e., a new gun}. So when I found this shotgun lighter, I was thrilled despite the fact that it cost $15. It was still MUCH cheaper than a real one and David can't say I've never bought him a new gun now :) He wasn't quite as thrilled though.
The other part of David's gift was a silhouette I had made of Ryan while we were in Atlanta. It was done by silhouette artist and author, Clay Rice. He was great and so fun to watch. He was finished cutting out Ryan's silhouette {by hand} in less than 5 minutes. I was especially fond of this part of the gift!
We held potty training boot camp at our house this week. It wasn't particularly fun. And I truly think this is one of my least favorite things about parenting to date.
We followed Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training Guide, which was recommended to me several times by some of my MOPS friends. Ryan really seemed to get the hang of things on the evening of Day 1, which was AWESOME because apparently a lot of kids don't get it until the end of Day 3. However, he hasn't made much progress since so we are still dealing with an average of one big accident a day {where the floor also has to be cleaned} and lots of underwear changes as he normally always gets them slightly wet before making it to the potty. Not to mention that nighttime is no fun! Ryan has woken up every night to go to the bathroom {last night was actually in the potty!!} and is then wide awake for hours.
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| Ryan has loved his rewards for using the potty! |
But I also have to say that there have been some nice things about our potty training week at home. I have really enjoyed spending so much time with my little guy without having anywhere to go or be. One of his daily requests is to play animals in his bed. I pretend to be a tiger and he is a lion or a bear. We growl and wrestle. And sometimes he decides to be a baby animal and then I'm the mother, or vice versa. The most hilarious part is when he decides to put me in a cage of pillows for being bad :) It is fun and I love seeing him so happy. I know I've said it before, but the boy loves animals and pretending to be them!
We are going to participate in the National Wildlife Federation's Great American Backyard Campout tomorrow night. We'll be pitching a tent in our backyard, grilling out hamburgers and making s'mores, playing with water guns, and chasing fireflies. Maybe we'll even sing a campfire song or two :) I'm pretty excited!
This will be Ryan's first time camping out so we'll see how he does. At least the house is a few feet away if needed.
Speaking of the backyard, we had a fence installed a week or so ago and around all the posts, there is dry, fine dirt. Well, Ryan had an absolute blast out there getting FILTHY last night while I was trying to cook dinner. I'm not really sure what he was doing {besides digging the dirt up with his hands like an animal and maybe dumping buckets of it on his head}, but he was COVERED in dirt. Like all in his hair and scalp covered. Riley was covered as well, thanks to Ryan's doing not her own. To their dislike {especially Riley's), they both had to stay outside until David got home and could bath them. And just in case you wondered, the bathtub had to be washed out 3 times from Ryan alone! :)
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I bought a new cookbook, Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen, while I was in Atlanta based on the recommendations of my friend, Lisa, and had been dying to use it ever since it arrived. But due to said potty training this week, there weren't many opportunities. David brought dinner home Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. Come Thursday {yesterday} though, I was sick of eating out and figured we were far enough down the potty training ladder so I got out my cookbook, picked out a few recipes, went to Kroger with Ryan {our one and only time leaving the house all week, and we made it without any accidents or having to use a public bathroom ... YAY!}, and cooked up a delicious dinner while the dirt fiasco took place outside :)
This was the menu {with links to some of the recipes on the Our Best Bites website}:
Bacon-Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers {with homemade Teriyaki sauce}
Caramelized Green Beans
Sour Cream Pound Cake with sliced strawberries {mixed with sugar and lime juice}
Our master bathroom has/had some pretty ugly wallpaper in it so in all my spare time at the beginning of the week {aka, when Ryan was in bed and I wasn't cleaning up urine}, I started doing something about it.
Umm, stripping wallpaper is a pain in the butt, especially when it is in a bathroom! And to boot, the lighting is terrible now because one of the light fixtures is disconnected so we can get the wallpaper down behind it. Not to worry though, my helpful hubby hooked me up with his handy dandy headlamp :) Pretty stylish, huh?!?
Although I miss everything about Atlanta, I'm so grateful to all be under one roof again! Even though we have spent a few weeks here now, this week has surely felt like our first "normal" week in our new home. It has been so nice to get to see David when he gets home from work {and to eagerly wait for him to arrive}, to have dinner together each evening, to watch TV together at night, to meet for lunch or to be able to stop by his office to say hello just because we can, to chat in person about our days or life or upcoming plans, and to have help parenting Ryan :)
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| Watching for Daddy <3 |
Have a great weekend!
