Memorial Day Weekend...blog a little late

Okay, so I just realized I totally forgot to blog about our Memorial Day weekend mini-vacation. Not that I think it was just so awesome that I need to tell everyone about it, but this blog is also my way of writing down firsts and major events that my girls encounter. So here we go:

We had made plans to go to Beaver Lake (near Rogers, AR) and stay in a cabin. We planned to do some fishing and swim in the lake if it was warm enough. We also were going to meet up with my aunt and uncle and cousins. Well, we traveled to Joplin to meet up with my parents. They had bothed worked all day and so they still had several things to do to get ready to go. After a lot of waiting, and help packing we finally were able to head to the lake. It's about a 2 hour drive from Joplin. We arrived at 12:30am. I'm glad Seth was driving because we ended up driving down the darkest, narrowest, twisty road I've every been on. The girls slept maybe an hour of the trip. It took us awhile to get the van unloaded and sleeping arrangements set up. We were staying in a 2 bedroom cabin, so we had to bring air mattresses for the girls to sleep on. We had to rearrange the furniture in Seth and I's bedroom so we could fit the both mattresses in without causing a major fall hazard. Poor little girls didn't get to bed unitl 1:30am! I think that's the latest they have ever gone to bed since they were tiny babies.

The next day we explored the cabin grounds and went down to the boatdock. The girls were scared at first of the boatdock, so we didn't stay long. We did eventually get the boat in the water and took a very slow and short boat ride. Emily was TERRIFIED of being the boat and was crying and almost screaming to get out. She was fine once Grammie held her hand. When we stopped the boat my dad, Seth, and I got out the fishing poles to do a little fishing, hopefully to catch some white bass. My dad had bought little tiny fishing poles for the girls to use. Earlier Seth had tried to teach the girls how to use the fishing poles back at the cabin. Savannah concentrated hard and really tried to practice casting. Emily didn't want to be shown how to cast and grabbed the pole away and then got mad because she couldn't do it. Wisely, Seth had juts put on the practice butterfly instead of a real hook.

While in the boat, Savannah got brave enough to go sit up front with her fishing pole. She would push the button to drop her line and butterfly into the water, and then just sit and wait, slowly realing her line in. She did this for almost an hour! Pretty good attention span for a 2 year old. She would see Seth or my Dad catch a fish and say "maybe a big wave will come and help me catch a fish". So cute!

We were out for about 1.5 hours and then it started to rain on us, so we went back to the dock and then back to the cabin. It rained for the rest of the day. The next two days were similar in weather, so we didn't spend much time on the lake, thankfully we had nice cabin. My great-aunt was visiting from Cincinnati, OH and she came over to see the girls. She has never seen them except for in pictures until that weekend. A few other relatives came over and we all had lunch together. It was a good visit.

By the time it was time for us to check out on Memorial Day, we were all ready to get back home. The girls kept asking if they could go home or go to Grammie's house. I think 2 full days in a cabin when it rained most of the weekend was enough for everyone. On our way out, we did get to see something unusual. Another guest in the cabin resort we stayed at, was traveling to North Carolina. She was transporting baby kangaroos to a rescue facility. She was getting ready to leave and asked us if the girls would like to see the kangaroos. She had them in the backseat of the car in small fabric pouches. They were cute, a little strange looking too. The girls were a little scared, so we didn't linger for long.

We stopped by my grandparents' house on our way back to Olathe. We had a short, but good visit. My grandpa seemed to be in better health than he has been in a long time. He still is bedridden in the living room of their house, but he seemed alert and spoke a little to us when we arrived. I'm glad my grandparents got to see the girls. I know they wish they could visit with us more often.

Pretty Good Day

Today I paid a babysitter to stay with Emily and Savannah while I ran errands. So totally worth the $10. My goal had been to run errands and get part of my basement cleaned out, but my time estimation was as usual, a little off. Oh well, I didn't have to worry about my girls running all over the stores or in the parking lots...and I even got in a little shopping. The Carter's store is having their 3.99 sale and I did find a few basic shorts outfits for next year...or this year if Savannah keeps growing at the pace she has been for the last year.

After a short nap, the girls and I went to the pool. The "Big" pool as they call it. It's the first time I've ever taken them to the public pool by myself. It went really well. I expected the girls to really be excited and get lots of energy out with tons of splashing, but I guess the baby pool was just big enough to be slightly overwhelming at first. Emily, my little adventurous one, did try to attempt to swim and was more willing to try swimming in the deeper end of the pool. Savannah on the other hand was a bit timid and was content sitting in the shallower end of the pool, lightly splashing or moving her hands in the water. She was convinced that she was moving herself around the pool...I think the illusion the moving water created tricked her. I definitely want to get them into swimming lessons next year. For now, we'll just sit in the water, or have me swing/spin them around in the pool.

Baby Gap Sale

Lost of new markdowns at the Baby Gap store. I personally marked down a lot of the baby boy section. Many items for $5.00 or less. Get there soon before all the good deals are gone!

A Positive End To A Very Hard Week

This week has been hard. Just plain hard. Trying to potty train both Emily and Savannah proved too much for me to handle. So, I gave up. I'll try again in a few weeks. They just want to play and I was fighting with them almost everytime I wanted them to try using the potty chair. And, I decided I need to Scotch Guard my couches. Savannah peed on one cushion and never told me until she got her leg stuck in our gate above the stairs. I helped her get out and realized her pants were wet, but didn't find a wet spot beneath her...so when I asked her where she went pee she ran over to the couch and pointed to a soaked couch cushion. How frustrating. It had sat long enough to soak into the foam, so I wasn't able to get all of it soaked up. Yesterday I had the girls back in diapers and Savannah's leaked when she was sitting on that same cushion. Again, she never came and told me and I found it much later. So, that couch cushion now smells like urine and Woolite Carpet and Upholstry cleaner. Yum.

I think I was really stressed out and overwhelmed about the whole potty training task and to top it off the girls were not being cooperative or getting a long with each other at all until today. Today was great. We went for a walk in the park, then visited the playground, then home and a quick visit to my allergist to get my shots. Then I braved Target again. This time the girls stayed with me the whole entire time we were in the store. Amazing!

When we got home we all ate lunch and then took a really long nap. We got up, played outside and then when it was time for dinner, the girls willingly came in without too much fuss (a rare occurence). During dinner Emily looks over at me and says, "Mommy, you're my favorite friend in the whole world". She had the biggest smile on her face. That made my day. As much as I have yelled at the girls this week, I totally feel undeserving of such a compliment, but so thankful that my little girls are still so very forgiving at this age. Savannah tells us daily that she loves us. In fact she'll tell you several times a day and list everyone that she loves. Often she'll follow the statement with a big hug and kiss. These are the memories I hope I never forget.

Potty Training...Take 2

So today I decided to give potty training another try. So far, it's not going so well. Trying to potty train two 2 1/2 year olds is hard. If one pees on the floor, then the other thinks she needs to do that to--maybe for attention? Last time I did this I cleaned up six accidents on carpet in less than a hour and a half. Today I took the girls outside in the driveway (because it's shaded in the mornings). I took a potty chair out with us too and put in just inside the garage so it would be closer than trying to make it into the house and upstairs before and accident happened. The girls were happy to wear the training panties, but are not willingly using the potty chair. Savannah could be coerced, but Emily is very resistant. They use them whenever they want to inside the house, but outside, I guess there are too many things to do and they don't want to stop to use the bathroom. So, I have a nice huge bag full of wet underpants in the garage. I'm waiting until the end of the day to do a wash load. One pair of panties is actually wet due to falling in a bucket of water. Yeah, I had this great idea that if I made the girls wear only their Crocs that I would have an much easier mess to clean up. I just simply take their peed on shoes, dunk them in the bucket of water to rinse them off, then let them dry for a few minutes and then the girls can put them back on. No yucky sneakers to deal with. So, as Emily was riding her tricycle toward Savannah...Savannah stepped backward and plop! Splash! She landed right in the water bucket, bottom first, with her legs and arms haning out. The look on her face was a little funny as I watched her try to figure out and understand what had just happened.

Exactly how long does it take to potty train a child? I've been told a person can do it in a day or two if you just take them outside and leave them undressed from the waist down. After this morning, I'm not so confident this method is very effective with my girls. We'll see what this afternoon is like...stay tuned!

More definance, ignoring, whining...

When will it ever end? I am so tired of the whining that goes on in our house these days. It gets on my nerves. I try to help the girls realize that whining doesn't get them what they want, but they still do it. Also, they are just flat out ignoring me ALL THE TIME. What's with that? Even if I'm trying to get them to get ready to go do something fun...they just ignore me, I get mad, take away the fun time and then they cry, for about 5 minutes. Then they go about playing as usual like they really don't care that they just lost an opportunity to go to the park or somewhere else fun. The problem here is that I stay mad. Usually I am wanting to get out of the house, especially with the weather being so nice this week. It just drives me crazy that my girls will not cooperate. I am really missing the mother's day out program this summer. If I could afford it, I'd send them. I'm just not getting much of a break. By the end of the day, I'm exhausted and just done. Nothing left to give. Seth seems to get the raw end of the deal there. I just let him do dinner and deal with the girls once he's home. Then I just retreat to the basement for awhile. I love my girls, but their daily difficult behavior is about to push me over the edge. Either I'll get really mad and verbally unload on them, or I'll just withdraw and once Seth is home, be totally unavailable to everyone.

This is not how I pictured my life as a parent, or marriage partner. It makes me frustrated and sad. I've read about 5 different books about parenting difficult children, and it just hasn't helped me much. I'm still angry and frustrated much of the day. I just want a little cooperation, is that too much to ask?