Wordless Wednesday

Grady's Birthdy Party #2

This is the first year we have attempted a kid party. After attending a few parties for other kids in the past few months we noticed that Grady was very interested in the cake, presents, and every thing birthday related. So... we decided this was the year to try hosting a party for his friends. We chose to invite the kids and parents of the kids that Grady plays with and knows by name. Well... it turned out to be a longer list than we expected. We invited a grand total of 41 people which included 16 kids under the age of 5!

We thought about having it at our house and setting up the bouncy house and such but if it rained we didn't know how we could handle that many people in our house. Based on past experience (our wedding day, Grady's birthday, Cooper's birthday) it rains on our significant dates so we rented out Coffee & Scream. Wouldn't you know, it rained on our party day.

Grady loves this place we call 'the indoor playground'. We went often over the winter and we had it nailed down to the admission cost, the $4 macaroni, and the $2 cookie it took to bribe him to leave. If Grady loves it so much we hoped the other kids would to. What better way to describe the place than with a picture.

The place serves good coffee (even ask James the coffee snob who enjoyed a coffee pre-party) and is filled with large play toys, kitchens, and of course ride on cars! What kid wouldn't love that.

Believe it or not, our young Grady was shy at the start of the party and played quietly by himself for the first few minutes. Shy? Quiet? Grady? He was obviously overwhelmed by all his friends in one place and everyone wishing him a happy birthday.

Don't worry, it wasn't long before he hopped in the fire truck and was back to his usual self.

Cooper was also well taken care of. Nana, Aunty Bo, and Uncle Dave kept him well fed and occupied. We didn't hear a peep out of him even though he had been up since 3:30am. Another story for another post. Also an explanation for James' mocha frap at 5pm.

I think he spent half the time in the fire truck chasing the other kids and of course crashing into them.

Then it was time for cake. Another construction cake of course! This is no Nana's cake but Safeway did a pretty good job. It was a big hit with the kids!

Here is Grady at cake time. His grin was just as big yesterday as it was on Friday. You just can't see it hidden behind his little hands. He absolutely loved cake time. He didn't even get mad when Marley blew out his candles :)

Here is the closest thing we have to a group shot and we are still missing many kids. Especially the younger siblings. I am a rookie and forgot to get the kids to pose for a group shot.

Grady and Jude especially loved the cake and once again the remainders of the cake were demolished and most ended up on the table and floor. Another reason not to host at your own house. Notice that the cupcake in front of Grady once again was not touched. Too busy playing to eat.

I literally had to pry the the dump truck out of his hands to bring him to the bathroom to wash his hands arms in the sink. He was filthy. Filthy but happy.

We loaded all but 1 gift in the van. He chose the gift in the Lightning McQueen bag to open on the way home.

All in all, executing the party took a lot of organizing and errand running but seeing Grady and all his friends have so much fun was worth it. I have the feeling we will become a party hosting family after all!

Thank you everyone for making Grady's birthday so special!

Back Yard Salon

James has taken up a second job as Grady's barber after an unsucessful trip to Beaner's for his first hair cut almost 2 years ago. Since then, he has been getting his haircuts in the bathtub. Don't be fooled, he still does not love it, but he tolerates it. Sometimes. We decided to try a different approach last week and attempted the haircut while sitting in the swing.

Ready.... set....

Cut!

The haircut was long overdue. Take a look at all the hair on his shirt. Thankfully it was right to the bath after to wash off all the cut hair.

Finished product post bath. What a hunk!

Next up was Cooper. Yes, this was his first hair cut. {{tear tear}}

Cooper was very interested in the 'toy' Dad was using to cut his hair.

What a good little helper!

I was sad to cut Cooper's hair for the first time as it means he is growing up and not a little baby anymore.

Right before my eyes, my baby turned into a little boy.

Grady's Birthday Party #1

We started the day bright and early as usual and added party hats. Nothing beats party hats before 7am!

We headed to the zoo right at Cooper's nap time with greats hopes of him sleeping in the car. He didn't. Of course he didn't, that would have made the trip to the zoo a more pleasant experience that it turned out to be. I tried to put him to sleep in the bjorn once we got there but that resulted in a screaming baby and still no sleep. I finally gave up and figured as long as he was happy I was happy. Which he was.

Grady on the other hand was in quite the mood by the time we left for the zoo and had already spent time in his room for nearly hitting his brother in the head several times with the metal Tonka truck he had opened form Grandma earlier that morning. That was just the beginning of it. When we arrived at the zoo he refused to get out of the stroller and didn't want to 'go in' the zoo. Whatever that means. He didn't want to play on the playground or look at the animals. He perked just a bit when we ran into one of his best buds there only to retreat back to the stroller to be pushed around. Towards the end, and after ice cream, his mood started to brighten but by this time we needed to get Cooper home for his nap that was several hours over due.

Moral of the story: I am not quite ready to tackle the zoo by myself. Thanks for coming Nana!

I have hardly any pictures of the zoo and none that have happy people in them. Me included. So... let's just skip forward to the better part of the day.

Thankfully the day did get better.

Grady's party theme this year was Construction Zone!

As always, the cake was made with love by Nana.

Let me tell you, this cake was something else. I have never seen anything like it. I can not put into words how excited Grady was to see the cake.

Grady opted to skip nap time and instead went to the park with Daddy to fly a kite on a less than windy day. In anticipation of an early bedtime we opened presents before supper.

After presents we moved outside and set up the bouncy house that Grady got for Christmas. It was a hit. We could even get one adult in with him which was a lot of fun. I foresee the bouncy house will make an appearance often this summer.

It was finally time for cake!

This is Grady's expression as Aunty Bo brought the cake out with the candles lit while we all sang Happy Birthday. That moment in itself erased the bad morning at the zoo in an instant. He was just so excited and even told us so many times!

He tried to blow out the candles.

But Aunty Bo had to help him. And even she had problems. No, they were not trick candles.

The cake was very very yummy. Not only was it good to eat, it made for great playing.

We salvaged enough cake to have leftovers for one night and let Grady play in the rest. He loved it. I am not even sure he ate any cake on his plate but went straight to playing in it and burying his cars in the cake and icing. He is a boy through and through.

We tucked the birthday boy in shortly after 8:30 and both James and I fell asleep on the couch around 9:30 while watching How I Met Your Mother on TV. That shows you what a busy day it was for everyone!

The best treat of the day was Cooper slept through the night! Today we are feeling rested and ready to tackle party #2 tomorrow!

Happy 3rd Birthday Grady!

No matter

how old you get

you will always

be my baby boy.

Happy Birthday Grady!

In honor of Grady's 3rd Birthday I wanted to a whole post dedicated to my biggest little boy.

Grady, at 3 years old:

• You have embraced being a big brother, most of the time.
• You like to sing. Some of my favorites are the ABCs, Farmer in the Dell, Cars movie Song, and Happy Birthday.
• You recognize most of the alphabet getting only a few mixed up - mostly E and A
• You count to 14 after that the numbers are out of order but always end at 20
• You know and ask for your friends by name
• You give out hugs and kisses to the people you love often
• You are an early riser. With the help of the night light, you sleep unil 6:50am sharp. Everyday.
• You love hot wheel cars. Love may be an understatement.
• Your favorite TV show right now is Chuck and Friends
• Your favorite color is pink (blue if you ask him)
• You love cereal and macaroni, but hate fruits and veggies
• You still sucks his thumb
• You are pee trained
• You know all your shapes and colors
• You love to read books about construction vehicles that we take out from the library
• You love Cars movie and we can't wait to take you to Cars 2 as your first trip to the theater next month.
• You love McDonalds fries and ketchup
• You enjoy bath time with Daddy and Cooper as long as you get to bring a bucket full of cars
• You are a master procrastinator at bedtime
• You hate brushing your teeth
• You like rides, especially the ferris wheel
• You love the park - especially if it involves playing in the sand
• You are perfect for our family and we love you lots and lots!

I can not believe that my little boy is 3 years old today. 3 years old. The moment you were born you made me the happiest person alive because you made me a Mommy. I miss the days of holding you like a baby and rocking you to sleep but I love the little boy that you have grown into. I love the way you tell me you are happy to see me several times a day. I love the way you run in to greet me with a hug and kiss after we have been apart. I love how you want to cuddle with me in the morning when you first wake up. I could go on and on about why I love having you as my son. You are a perfect in my eyes and always will be.

Love,
Mom

The Ultmate Snack

According to Grady anyhow...

Grady loves goldfish crackers. And if you look around you'll notice he is not the only one. They are pretty good. It is one of those things that you don't eat for years and all of a sudden when you have kids you eat them all the time. Kraft dinner is another. But that is an aside :)

When we were in the grocery store in Hawaii we noticed that they have various kinds of goldfish crackers that we don't have here in Canada. Like pretzel flavored.

Or better yet, colored goldfish!


Can you beleive what we have been missing out on. In the 2 weeks that we were in Hawaii we went through at least 2 whole bags of the colored variety and one of the pretzel. Grady loved them. He asked for them constantly.

And since we have returned to Calgary, we continue to buy the more 'nutritious' whole grain.

Why don't they sell these more fun kinds in Canada?

Note - I was going through my draft post todays and I found this one that was started last August. I thought it was still relevant so decided to post it anyway. Almost a year later, Goldfish are still Grady's favorite snack. And almost a year later, you still can not get the color and pretzel versions in Canada.

Happy Father's Day

I hope my boys

turn out to be

great fathers

just like their Daddy.

Happy Father's Day James!

PS - James was profiled on my BFF Deena's blog yesterday!

Different Boy, Same Sweater

Over 2 years ago I did a post about Grady wearing this exact sweater that my Grandma made for me when I was young. I was organizing clothes to make sure Cooper didn't outgrow any more clothes before he even wore it and I came across the sweater. Grady wore it at 9 months and Cooper at 7 months.

A few things to note about he picture:

1. I still do not think the boys look alike but it is obvious they have the same nose. And hair. I distinctly remember taking the picture of Grady pre-first hair cut.

2. I think it is time for Cooper's first hair cut. Barber Dad has the clippers charged and it is on the list of things to do in the near future. I wanted to keep his soft, long baby hair for his 6 month pictures that have finally been taken.

As different as I think they look, wild hair and all... they are still the cutest young men I ever did see!

Disclaimer: I may be slightly biased.

Diary of a Potty Training Mom - Part 5

Poop.

I have talked about poop more in the past 3 months than I have in my entire life. My friends may disagree with that statement. But in all seriousness, I have talked about poop with friends, family, strangers, the doctor, the pharmacist, just to name a few. We talk about poop in the morning, after lunch, at the supper table, we talk about it a lot.

When we embarked on the whole potty training adventure what feels like eons ago I was not prepared for the issues that we were going to run into. I expected the weekend to be tough. We had to stay at home for 3 days after all. I expected the first few outings to be stressful. They were. What I didn't expect was for Grady to develop a fear of pooping. He was terrified. Terrified.

It started out with him just being scared of pooping in the potty. He would hide and poop in his underwear or wait for me to get busy and then poop in his underwear. From there it just got worse. He was holding it in each and every time he had to poop. My 4 times a day pooper went to once every other day or longer.

I knew when he needed to poop. He had the 'deer in the headlights' look and would whimper 'mommy' over and over. I would run him to the potty. He would say he didn't want to. Not that he didn't have to. He did this for a few weeks and then it got worse.

I still remember the first time it happened. We had a couple (without kids) over for supper and it was obvious Grady had to poop. I figured that I would just ignore him and he would poop in his underwear eventually. Instead he cried. Really cried. He hid in the closet where he usually goes to poop and cried. I immediately thought he was constipated. He had been holding it in on and off for a while so maybe it was actually hurting. Over the course of the next few days we realized he wasn't crying and screaming because it hurt. He was screaming because he was scared.

Over the following weeks these screaming episodes went from once every so often to every. single. time. he had to poop. Now he was scared to poop everywhere. In the potty, in his underwear, and even in a diaper.

I was getting frustrated. I was out of ideas. I tried to google it on line and got little to no direction on what to do next. In the potty training book it suggested a magic stick that the child holds when the poop to help the poop come out. When James and I first read this on day 1 we thought it was hokey and ridiculous. Now with no other viable option we decided to give it a try. We modified it slightly and used these magic balls James had that Grady likes to look at but we hadn't let him play with them much before. We moved these balls to the bathroom and took them out while he sat on the potty. Wouldn't you know it, the first time we used them he pooped on the potty. There were still tears and screaming but the poop was in the potty.

I thought for sure this was what we needed to get Grady going on the potty. He did it once, we cheered, we danced, you would think that he would want to repeat the whole process. Unfortunately for us, he did not.

Even with the occasional poop in the potty, which I am now chalking up to pure luck, he still did not want to poop in the potty. As his fear grew, so did the number of days between 'movements'. The poor boy was getting constipated.

At his worst he went 5 days with only little guys coming out. We, meaning I, started to panic. We put a diaper back on him hoping to give him some familiarity to do his business. We put him on full doses of stool softeners and still nothing substantial was being passed. I continued to panic. I made an appointment for him to see the doctor. I was frustrated, confused, lost, and totally lacking direction of what to do next.

The doctor prescribed a more potent stool softener which would help him pass what was in there.

The doctor expressed concern that he may be doing this for attention. That with a new baby in the family demanding attention that he was taking control and getting attention his own way. He suggested giving him privacy when he went and to try not to give in to his attention seeking. I am not going to lie, it is hard to go about like you don't know that he is grunting and moaning in the other room trying take a poo. At this point I am willing to try anything. We have suspended all talk of pooping on the potty or pooping at all for that matter. Thankfully, Grady is still peeing in the toilet. Even since putting the diaper on he has been a superstar for peeing on the toilet. I can not actually remember the last time he had a pee accident.

At this point, the stool softener has done the trick and he is now pooping in his diaper every day. He still makes somewhat of a scene but we are trying to continue on with what we are doing until he says he is done.

To be truthful, I am not sure what we should do next. We are going to leave him in the diaper until he is pooping without issue and then we'll have to tackle 'poop training' from square 1. Secretly I am hoping that he will just ask to poop on the potty one day. Maybe one day sooner than later?

So to end this never ending post on a positive note I want to say how proud I am of Grady for keeping up with the peeing on the toilet. Although I hoped that this little issue would straighten itself out, I am just thankful that he didn't regress in the pee department as well.

Please, Please, PLEASE let the next potty training post be good news.

New York City!

We just got back from our first childless vacation, actually first vacation, since Cooper was born. We hopped on a plane and headed east to New York City! James actually won the trip at his Christmas party in December. A Christmas party in kananaskis a mere 5 weeks after Cooper was born that we nearly didn't attend. Good thing we did. This was an unplanned vacation. We had planned to go to San Diego in the fall, which we are still doing, but we had not planned to go on a childless trip this year. I am learning to be more spontaneous. Or trying to.

Cooper just seemed so young to leave behind. He is barely 7 months and not sleeping through the night. It seemed like punishment to inflict 2 kids on to someone. My Mom gladly accepted the challenge along with some help from Grandpa and Nana. She says the boys were really good and she had a good time. Would she really tell me otherwise?

The biggest struggle a trip to busy NYC was to balance the go go go with a little relaxation. After 3 years of getting up before 7am every day and 7 months of not sleeping through the night. I needed the sleep and rest. I wanted to explore the city the best we were able and have fun. We needed to find a balance between the two. James and I didn't always see eye to eye on finding that balance but we worked it out and saw as much as we could while going to bed at a reasonable hour all but one night that resulted in us taking the subway home from Brooklyn at 2am....

We stayed at the W in Times Square so we spent a lot time in the hustle and bustle of tourists and shopping.

As much as I love the craziness that is Times Square, my favorite outing this trip was to Coney island. NYC was having a heat wave and it was in the mid 30s before the humidity factor every day except the day we left. There is an amusement park right in the middle of all the little shops and the beach. We went on the Ferris Wheel pictured below. The outside carts are static and the inside ones are not. It was a little more scary than I expected. So glad we paid the $6pp to go around the circle twice. I really am.

Here is Coney Island from the pier we walked down. If you look close you can see the big Ferris Wheel. You don't have to look hard to see how busy the beach was. We spent the afternoon walking the boardwalk and having hot dogs on a bench while watching the crowds. We also talked about how nice it would be to bring the boys here.

James chose to go to the Yankees game. It was 38 degrees before humidity and by far the hottest day while we were there. I was wearing jean shorts and when I got up from my chair my shorts were actually wet. It was too hot to even have a beer as I needed the lemonade to quench my thirst. I have never experience heat like that. This is our only picture of us together on the trip. I bought a Jeter Tshirt while there and we also purchased Yankees shirts for the boys. I only knew who Jeter was because James has him in his pool. The crowd sure loved him too! The Yanks lost terribly and we left before the game had finished.

One of James friends has been living in Brooklyn for 4 years and we were lucky enough to have supper and drinks with him. This is the view from Brooklyn across the river to Manhattan. This is also the night that resulted in a subway ride home at 2am.

We made 2 stops to explore Central Park. I love how the city peaks out of the park. It is just something so out of the ordinary and so New York. We attempted to see the park from Rockefeller Center but waited until the last day when there was no visibility. This will be at the top of the list next time.

We also stumbled upon the John Lennon memorial in central park on our last day. A very unexpected treat.

On our last night we saw wicked. That was my choice. I loved it. It is going on tour this summer and I highly recommend it.

All in all it as a great trip. It was nice to get away without kids, great to know that the kids survived without us, and just plain nice to be on vacation. Already counting the months until our next vacation with the kids because as much fun as it is to go without the kids we spent a good portion of the trip talking about them and pointing out things they would have loved (digger trucks, Cars 2 billboards, police men etc.).

Once a parent, always a parent.