One Word Tag!

Tagged by a friend, here I go!

1. Where is your cell phone? Non-existent
2. Your significant other? Gorgeous
3. Your hair? Fluffy
4. Your mother? Patient
5. Your father? Generous
6. Your favorite thing? Motherhood
7. Your dream last night? Theft
8. Your favorite drink? Lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? Purity
10. The room you're in? Cinnamon
11. Your hobby? Creating
12. Your fear? Unexpected
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Rockies
14. What you're not? Multi-lingual
15. Muffins? Breakfast
16. Wish list item? Piano
17. Where you grew up? Wisconsin
18. The last thing you did? Cook
19. What are you wearing? Maternity
20. Favorite Gadget? Laptop
21. Your pets? Beta
22. Your computer? Dying
23. Your mood? Sleepy
24. Missing Someone? Husband
25. Your car? Tri-colored
26. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
27. Favorite store right now? Crafts
28. Favorite color? Chocolate
29. Last time you laughed? Bedtime
30. Last time you cried? Cramping

I tag Shanda & Ashley!

Warren Dunes = Fun Camping

I think this trip may top our lists of our best family trip thus far. We were all happy & enjoying ourselves, with no accidents or meltdowns or raindrops, for the ENTIRE 22 hours! Overnight camping is great with a 2 year old.

We went to Warren Dunes State Park, which was recommended to me by a few different people. Joe and I both like as much forest/privacy as possible, with as little plumbing/blacktop as possible, and this seemed like the closest we could get. We got a rustic site that was a generous sized oval, completely encircled with forest. The only downfalls of this campground were: (1) The campground itself is far from its Lake Michigan beach area, and the road to get there was closed to traffic. It was about a mile walk if we cut through sand dune mountains (on the way there), and about a three mile walk by road (we tried on the way back). Tiring for a pregnant lady and a two year old! (2) It turns out you can hear the roar of I-94 nearby, constantly. I also had the roar and whistles of several freight trains wake me up throughout the night. Oh well.

Here we go, exploring the campground; Sawyer found a "cool stick".

Joe is showing us how to "pop" leaves in his hand:

We found a wild grape vine up high in a tree, and Joe and I were able to figure out a system to get them down- Yum!

On our hike through the sand dunes, trying to get to the beach. I love Sawyer's little pose for the camera:

Yay! We can see the water now! I hope it's not a mirage...

It's real! *Splash, splash!*

I think we spent about 3 hours hanging out on the beach. The water was extremely cold, the boys only stayed in for a bit. We just had a great time relaxing together. There were probably only 10 other people on the entire coastline as far as the eye could see, which was a cool experience.

Beautiful sunshine through the woods on our long walk back:

Beautiful vines wrapping the tree trunks, already turning a fiery red & magenta:

Getting the fire going for dinner. It took us awhile. These rings aren't designed very well, there's no air flow. Notice how it's still light out in this picture:

And now we're finally opening our tin foil dinners- in complete darkness. I think it was almost 8:30 by this time.

Me and Sawyer hanging out by the fire.

Getting ready to snuggle up for bedtime in our tent.

Good night!

Last Zoo Trip of the Season...

So in the car on the way home from church on Sunday, Joe made the joke with Sawyer of: "where are we going? Are we going to the.... zoo?" Sawyer of course can't pick up on the joke (because of course we're heading home), and instead just got excited for the zoo. To help ease the disappointment, I promised Sawyer we'd go to the zoo this week. A whole bunch of the animals are already "gone for the season", which was kinda lame, but oh well. We got to hear the lion roar! And Sawyer got to ride the train he loves so much!

They got an anteater this summer! I don't think I've ever seen one in real life before, because it looked really strange to me & I was totally fascinated.

Tuesday at Silver Beach!

Thanks to Kelly for organizing a group trip to the beach! It turned out to be an 80* day, and perfect for us and the kids. Sawyer looked like such a big boy, out playing in the water with so many friends. All of us moms just hung out on the sand & watched. Very nice day!

Meeting some PBS Buddies

We just love the library downtown. They do such a great job with all of their events! Saturday Sawyer was able to go meet Clifford AND Curious George! In person! I think he was disappointed that Clifford wasn't bigger (he's obviously MUCH bigger on tv)... and he was weirded out by, and commented on the fact, that Curious George was wearing a shirt (he doesn't wear a shirt on the show).

They even had crafts where Sawyer made a Curious George puppet. What a cool event.

It's Turtle Time!

Joe was able to run the Notre Dame 5k on Saturday, and he did a really good job (even though he didn't wait around to see the official times be posted, but at the checkpoints he seemed to be sticking to 7 minute miles). WOW! Great running Joe! And he got a cool shirt & good breakfast afterwards. He also got something else afterwards:

That's right. They were giving out turtles!
Not really. Joe found him trying to cross the street on his way home. He brought him home to show Sawyer.
We stopped by Sawyer's friend, Caitlyne's, house to share in the adventure of returning him to the "wild". We all walked together to the nearby woods & set him free, upside down.

I love random little adventures that sneak into a beautiful day...

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Sawyer had his first tumbling class on Friday, and he had a great time! They did some rolling, somersaults, jumping on a trampoline, and walking on a balance beam. I'm so glad we live somewhere that these kinds of programs are offered!

Trying so hard just to roll in a straight line to the end of the mat (I love his determination, though! He could've just given up & gone back in line!):

High Scores & Downpours!

Fun in the sun! I mean... rain. It poured and poured for Notre Dame's game vs. Michigan! But everyone was all smiles because Notre Dame kept getting touchdown after touchdown!

The Win!

I thought Michigan was supposed to be a really good team...

An ND tradition: After a win, students run to the fountain! Everyone was still chanting and cheering, and everyone was already so soaked from the pouring rain of the game... it was a lot of fun energy!

Sad Boys... The Salmon Chase was Cancelled

Well, we woke up at 6am Saturday morning to pouring rain. We checked the local news station to see that there were flash flood warnings and tornado watches, but since we had no way to know about the race being cancelled or not, we got all prepared and headed out. Joe was supposed to be running a 5k at 7:15am and Sawyer's "Guppy Run" (100 meters) was going to be at 9:00. I dropped Joe off at the starting building to register, and a few minutes later the officials decided to cancel it. The boys still came home with their bags full of goodies, but they were both disappointed they didn't get to run (especially me- about Sawyer's cute little race). Let's hope Notre Dame's Domer Run doesn't get rained out this Saturday, so Joe can still do a 5k! Luckily Sawyer starts his Toddler time at the library this week, as well as his tumbling class on Fridays. Hopefully that'll make up for the disappointment!

As we drove back home in the pouring rain, we passed a huge flooded field in front of our apartment complex. It was 7:30am and we had nothing else to do, so... the three of us played in the rain!

The flooded field was so deep! It was all the way up to Sawyer's waist in one area! We had a blast!

MBA Picnic

We had an MBA Family Picnic at a local park about a week and a half ago, and a guy from our group was going around taking pics (he said to use them on the website, or for newsletters or something?). Anyway, he just e-mailed this to us and I liked it. I think my boys are handsome!

It's a No-Go

Well, all the signs were there that Sawyer was ready to be potty trained (including his willingness & positive feedback about the idea). Yesterday was our big day of attempting the "one day method", one on one, no distractions, all drinks & all potty everything. By the end of the day he hadn't caught on to his "potty urge feeling" even the slightest. He was positive & upbeat, never complained about doing any of it, loved his underwear, helped me clean up every accident happily, but never on his own had even the slightest clue when he was about to "go", to even have a chance at going to the potty himself.
Last night I went to bed so confused about what to do next. According to the method I'd done, he was supposed to have gone potty on his own by the end of the day (usually less time, even). Do I do another entire day of that? Do I just keep him in the new underwear, having clueless accidents every 1/2 hour? Do I go buy those "cool sensor" pull-ups I saw advertised on tv until he starts to understand his body better?
This morning I continued on with having him sit on the potty at opportune times, putting him in his new underwear. Not only did he not go at all, but he really didn't want to go. He was starting to hate the potty and any talk of doing it. Wow, what a change from yesterday!
Now what?
After all the reading I've done, all the advice from the doctors who wrote the "What to Expect..." series has been spot on with raising Sawyer & hasn't led me wrong. I've decided to use their potty training rules, and not push him (once a kid starts showing hate, it's a problem). I'm in no rush to potty train him, I only tried because I really was convinced that he wanted to. If you push when they don't want to, it can really scar them, plus take much much longer than it should, and you're just making more laundry (and frustration) for yourself. Silly.
Plus, so much of the literature say that, in general, boys are older before they start to "get it", usually around 3 1/2.
There are also so many stories of just waiting until a child is a bit older, and they actually are the ones who come to the potty on their own, ready and willing, and practically doing it themselves. It's not like Sawyer is in some rush to get potty trained to start at a preschool or anything, so why not wait until he's truly ready?
So I prayed last night that I'd be in tune with him and what he needs, so that I wouldn't destroy his chances at successful potty training in the future either. Today, Sawyer and I had a very deep, gentle conversation (you'd be surprised how deep our conversations can get sometimes :), where he told me he'd like to "put the potty away, and have diapers back on" for awhile. I think that was the answer to my prayer- an actual answer of what Sawyer needs right now- FROM Sawyer. I was very pleased with the way he talked with me about it all, and felt surprisingly ok with that decision.
It looks like I'll need to make another trip to the store for diapers.

Sawyer's Masterpiece

We had this big box from buying Sawyer's new bed, so instead of throwing the whole thing out, I thought it looked like a great place for him to paint!

Behold, Sawyer's first enormous masterpice:

Size: 30"x 50"

Medium: Crayola washable paints, mixed with whatever grass was stuck to his feet

First ND Game- San Diego State!

Joe and I are so glad we're able to attend the football games and be a part of the "magic" that's on campus on each of those Saturdays.

It all starts by waking up in our student housing the sound of private planes and jets coming in nearly constantly (undoubtedly well-do-to alums coming in for game day), helicopters patrolling overhead, swooping back and forth, and watching people gradually fill the streets, walking towards central campus.

It was gorgeous weather (high of 75* and mostly sunny), and we headed up to campus a bit before noon to check out the festivities and attend the MBA luncheon. Here's Sawyer with his very favorite ND friend (and next door neighbor), Jonah, hanging out on campus:

Sawyer enjoying a Sprite at the MBA tailgate lunch (yum, he rarely gets soda unless it's something special like this). Thanks Updikes, for taking the cute pic!!

A full stadium, before the game. This was the 400th football game in Notre Dame Stadium, and the 200th consecutive sold out game.

FIRST ND TOUCHDOWN!!! I love catching everyone's arms thrown up in the air at that moment; why is that our natural reaction? Interesting...

Gathering to congratulate the receiver in the endzone:

ND WINS! 21-13!

I took a few video clips and threw them together into one video. Be impressed by the enormous marching band entering the field, the band playing the ND fight song, and the fighter jets flying overhead before the start of the game (enjoy the sound, make sure you don't blow out your computer speakers)! I dedicate these clips to Ashley and Kimberlee, who couldn't be at the game yesterday. We were thinking of you guys!

All Grown Up!

My baby! It broke my heart to take his crib apart and tuck it away. The original plan was to keep him in his crib until graduation & moving away from Notre Dame. He slept so well at night and still took a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon, I didn't want to disturb him.

Unfortunately, the little boy is practically begging to be potty trained.

It turns out, you can't have a potty trained boy who's still zipped into a crib at night. He needs to be able to get out to go potty.

Hence, the crib had to go.

I made sure to get a bed that would remind him of his crib, to (hopefully) not upset his sleeping patterns as much. Last night (his first night) was a complete success! Joe put him to bed, and he didn't get up even once.

We'll make sure he has a week or so to adjust to sleeping well in a new bed, and then get started on the official potty training. I'm going to attempt the "one day" program & see how it goes. Ulgh- I've kinda been dreading this. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised...

Sawyer's Time Out

Hahaha I had a great laugh at something Sawyer said today. Let me give you a little background. After a time out, I ask Sawyer "What did you learn?", after which he replies enthusiastically with whatever the situation was, i.e., "Listen to Mom!", "Don't hit people!", etc.

Situation: The phone rang, and Sawyer ran over to it. I called out "Don't touch the phone" (he's never allowed to play with the phone). For some reason this time he still grabbed the handset, then dropped it back down on the hook, thus hanging up on the person. I sent him to time out.

When I retrieved him from time out and asked him what he learned, he had a touch of dislexia & replied:

"Listen to the phone, and don't talk to Mom!"

I wish he were old enough to explain to him how what he said was funny & enjoy the moment together, but oh well; I still laughed out loud and will share it with you.

My First Time...

...making jam, of course. It was much easier than I'd imagined. Well, maybe because I just did freezer jam as my first attempt. The canning process still scares me. I think I need to settle down and have a bigger house before I start making long term food canning investments anyway.

I attemped some raspberry jam and I'm very excited to see if it turns out! Even if it doesn't, it tasted so good liquidy, that I'll probably just dip bread in it anyway!