Kids Kamp Fun

While I volunteered at our church’s Kids Kamp this week, Huston go to attend the Kids Kamp for preschoolers.  He was not too excited the first few days, but by the end of the week he was having a blast and didn’t cry at all when I dropped him off on Friday.  I have always been so sad that he never wants to talk about what he does in his Sunday school or Wee Care class.  He gets so mad when I try to ask him questions and once told me angrily, “We don’t talk it ‘bout nursery.” 

Well, this week Huston has finally decided to share some of his experiences, and I am just eating it up!  I can’t get enough of him sharing little tidbits about his days at Kids Kamp, but I’m trying not to seem to eager or pushy for fear that he’ll get mad at me!

Mostly it has been silly little things, like “Do you have wipes at Kids Kamp, too, Mommy.  Did your teacher take that little girl to the potty and she used wipes.”  He also told me, “You didn’t like that puppet.  Did they let you go in the other room for you didn’t like that puppet.”  He told me, “Did you get a cookie at Kids Kamp, Mommy,” and “Did you eat cheese and bread at Kids Kamp, Mommy.”  (Snacks are always important!)

My favorite thing by far that he’s told me, though, happened just this morning.  He got my Bible down and in his “talking to himself” voice, started saying “This is the Bible.  It how true words.  It how true words.”  They teach the kids that the Bible is God’s true word, so he must have just heard “it how true words,” instead of “it has true words.”

He then proceeded to line up his four empty deodorants beside the Bible and he told me “Are you gonna tell God about the deodorants.”  Then he patted his Bible and said, “This is the Bible.  It has true words.  It has true words about the deodorants.”

Aren’t they cute?

Happy Father’s Day!

You’re the best daddy in the whole world and we love you so much!

love,

Huston and Arden

Yesterday at the park

Another creative title.  There should be some kind of an award for awesome creativity like this.  I know I inspire you. 

Okay, since I’m a dork, I’ll just let my pictures do the talking.

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Just for a comparison, here’s Huston in October 2008 playing with the gate at the park, along with a picture from yesterday.  Where does the time go?

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Arden at 7 months

(I know, I know, I come up with the most creative titles for my blog posts). 

Sweet little Arden has hit two major milestones in the past week.  First, she started crawling on June 8th, just a week shy of the 7 month mark.  She was on the verge for quite some time, and finally figured out how to work those hands and legs together.  Now she is all over the place.  Huston never put things in his mouth, but Arden loves to.  Her favorite forbidden treasure is paper of any kind.  Somehow she manages to find pieces of paper all over the house and I’m constantly fishing little bits out of her mouth that she’s managed to chew off.  She also likes to play with the doorstoppers and I’ve had to remove the little white caps from almost all of them because she kept getting those in her mouth.  I must say that her newfound ability to get around the house is completely exhausting me.  She can be surrounded by a sea of toys, but she will always crawl right over and around them to go for the paper, wires, remotes, and all the other “non-toys.” 

I have no good pictures of her crawling yet because I’ve been too busy trying to keep her from hurting herself.  (So here’s a picture of her wrestling Huston’s giant plastic shovel).  It seems like every 3 minutes she gets herself into some kind of predicament (banging her head on furniture, crawling under something that she can’t get out of, slipping when whatever she’s holding onto moves) that makes her face scrunch up as she lets out her seriously “sad” cry.  Either that, or she’s doing her “mad” cry because I’ve had to take away a forbidden toy.  Like the rocks from the fireplace.  Out of her mouth.  She is a tricky little thing.

The second major milestone she’s reached recently (just yesterday, in fact) is pulling herself up.  I didn’t expect her to be able to do this quite so soon, but yesterday she pulled herself up onto her knees by the toy bin and after her nap she had pulled herself all the way up to a standing position.  Time to lower that crib!

(Look at those long, wispy bangs!)

Here she is after her nap this morning.  Love that “help me, mommy, don’t take a picture” look.

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And a few more just because she’s so cute.

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Potty Time

I finally took the plunge and started potty training Huston.  I had given it a shot one day back in February and it was a complete and utter failure, so I was not too anxious to try again.  Last Thursday, June 3rd, I decide I could procrastinate no longer.  I rolled up the living room rug, busted out the Thomas underwear, got out the juice boxes, and set up the potty.  It was a tiring endeavor the first few days, constantly asking if he had to go potty, sitting on the potty, trying to make the potty a fun place to be…. you get the idea. 

(Showing off his moves in his cool Thomas underwear)

We spent part of the first morning outside.  Here’s Arden enjoying some outside time, while Huston does a little multi-tasking.

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He had several successes and several accidents the first day, but actually pooped on the potty the very first day and Daddy gave him a “James” train (from Thomas the Tank Engine) as his big reward.  I was so hyped that he did that the first day, but in the week since then he has not yet repeated that amazing feat.  He has held his poop in for an entire day, pooped in his underwear, and pooped in his pull up.  Just about everywhere except the potty.

For the most part, though, I think he’s doing really well.  He hasn’t had a really big accident since about day 3.  However, he still will not tell me when he needs to go and will always say “no” if I ask if he needs to go to the bathroom.  He just can’t bear the thought of leaving what he’s playing with to go potty.  So every hour or so I just have to take him to the bathroom and he’ll go.  Thankfully, he seems to be able to hold it pretty well.  Now his main thing if I haven’t made him go in awhile, is that he’ll just barely wet his underwear and then I’ll notice it and take him to the bathroom.  We’re still working on that.

It has been a relief to get out of the house again the past few days.  He stayed dry through Sunday school on Sunday, a visit to Chuck E Cheese for his cousins’ birthday party, all of the errands we’ve run, a trip to the mall, and he even went potty at church while I was at a women’s salad luncheon on Wednesday.  I think our next big hurdle (besides the pooping thing) is getting over the fear of the normal sized potties in the world, which to him seem enormous and scary.  He screams like I’m trying to drop him into a giant water hole if I suggest he sit on one (even with a special toddler seat on top of it).

      

So - there is more than you have probably ever, ever wanted to hear about potties.  Hopefully Huston won’t see this one day and be beyond embarrassed.  No one save this for his high school yearbook, okay?  He might not appreciate that.

Parent Dedication

Here are just a few (very belated) pictures from our parent dedication for Arden on May 1st.  We publicly committed ourselves to raising Arden in a Christian home and to giving her every opportunity to come to know Jesus as her Savior.  The verse we chose for her was Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

 

Arden wore a dress that was my mom’s when she was a baby.  It was made by my mom’s godmother.

Huston did surprisingly well in the “big church” during the dedication.  I left the sanctuary towards the end to go feed Arden, only to find out later that after I left he did a hilarious, slow crawl/inchworm move across the aisle so he could sit by his Mimi.  I heard it had everyone around him cracking up.

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