It's official!

We're officially done with diapers/pull-ups! Forever! Hopefully. I waited to try potty training Matthew at night until we ran out of the leftover nighttime pull-ups from Kaiden. Well, he ran out over the weekend. He has a waterproof mattress pad on his bed, so I was ready for the worst. Last night was his first night without a pull-up on, and he woke up dry! I think I can fairly safely say that he's completely potty trained now. I'm aware that he may still have accidents, but the worst is over. Whew! If that's not motivation to be done having children, I don't know what is! Yay!

Fall Fun '10

This has been a fabulous fall! Having lots of time to spend with the kiddos has been wonderful, and I've learned to really appreciate the beauty of fall. This year we had another trip to the pumpkin patch with Granny and the Coffey cousins. PJ just HAD to have the biggest pumpkin (which was a nightmare to carve, by the way), while the boys chose more modest pumpkin options. It was SOOO warm that day, so it was quite a pleasant trip. Later that afternoon the kids all got to decorate their own Halloween cookies.Fast forward a couple weeks to Halloween weekend. Friday was both PJ's school Halloween parade and free scary-face pancake day at IHOP.After PJ headed off to school the boys, Granny and I headed over for some scary-face pancakes, and returned in time to see PJ in her parade. She looked so excited and happy to be there, but unfortunately forgot to take her hat and broom in the parade with her. Oh well, she looked cute anyway. Saturday we decorated with carved pumpkins and Mr. Fun (the monster on the porch). Later that evening we had everyone over for a spooky dinner and trick-or-treating in the rain. All-in-all, it's been a super fun fall so far, and I can't wait to see what the next couple weeks bring as we look forward to Tattoo's birthday and Thanksgiving.

Reading Recovery

My little Princess has been struggling just a bit with reading this year. Luckily, we have an amazing school which caught on right away, and within a week of the start of the school year they had set her up with a reading tutor in a program called Reading Recovery. Every day she spends about half an hour with Mrs. Michelle and brings home a big packet of work to practice on. Usually it includes 3 books for her to read to me, a cut-apart sentence for her to put back together and glue into a notebook, and an alphabet book. Although it takes us much longer to do her homework every day than it did last year, she doesn't complain at all and is doing so well!
Today, there was a meeting of Reading Recovery teachers at an elementary in Saratoga Springs in which they observed one teacher working with one of their students. For this particular meeting, it was Mrs. Michelle's turn, and she invited Keyana to be her student. So, early this morning we packed up and headed out there, not knowing exactly what to expect. Turns out, they have a special room set aside for this. It's actually two rooms, separated by a two-way mirror. PJ is in the room with her teacher looking at herself in the mirror (making silly faces) , while the rest of the teachers (and me) are on the other side looking through the window at her. It was wonderful, because we were able to see how their lessons take place without making her nervous with everyone watching. Although this was really a teaching tool meant for the other teachers, I really learned a lot about what she responds to and what will work for her as we practice at home. She's progressing so fast!
On a side note, she finally lost one of her front teeth last week and the other one should be out within the next couple days!

Summer Rain

Since moving to our current house, summer rainstorms have become a favorite of ours. Not because there's anything different about them, but now that we have a covered porch, we get to enjoy them from outside, rather than in. I've been itching for a good storm all summer, and it seems in the last week we've hit the jackpot! Tattoo seems to love them the most, running out into the rain immediately after leaving the door, while the rest of us prefer to watch from the dryness of the porch. Here are some fun pics of the boys enjoying some summertime rain!

New Superhero Gear

I was getting very tired of washing Tattoo's 2 pairs of jammies and one shirt that had superheroes on them. I turned to the internet for a solution. I found instructions here for making a reversible Batman/Superman cape. Luckily it was "Coupon Commotion" week at Joann's, and I had some gift cards there, so I went shopping for supplies yesterday. It was super easy to make, and now Tattoo can still be a superhero while wearing regular clothes!

Here's Batman:And Superman:

Superhero Complex

My little friend, Tattoo, has a serious superhero complex. Today while I was working on my freezer meal cooking, Tattoo kept saying to me "superman coat." I had no idea what he was talking about, and told him to go get it and show me. He would disappear for a while, and then come back and ask for it again. So I sent him to go get it. Well, after doing this back-and-forth thing for a while, I needed a break anyway, so I told him to show me. He took me to his closet and pointed at this:He can't say Spiderman, so both Superman and Spiderman are Superman in his vocabulary. By the end of the day, he had a Superman hat on to go with his jacket. He's gotten to the point that he won't get dressed in the morning or back into his jammies at night unless what he's changing into has a superhero on it. Funny kid!

Summer Fun at Granny's!

It's become sort of a tradition to go play in the pool at Granny's on my birthday. Yesterday was no different. As Tattoo gets older, he's turning into the "water bully," and always has to be in charge of the hose. We put the hose at the top of the slide to have a water slide. That was fun at first, but then Tattoo discovered he could spray everyone from a high altitude. We all had a great day, but were sure tired that night! How fun!