A Rare Snow

Lindsay Lohan has seen more sobriety over the past few weeks than we have snow. What a crazy winter. Today, we woke up to a few inches of fluff and took advantage of it before the 61 degree weather moves in on Wednesday.

Just hanging out in my house, enjoying our new finished basement ceiling. That's right, ceiling-CHECK. And who is this talented, yet decidedly handsome, man installing the first of the carpet squares?
Tom got about a third of the squares down before we ran out of adhesive. Back to Lowes the kid's I went today and we are most certainly stocked in the glue department now. Surprised that the cheap squares look better than I had expected. The downside of our renewed push has been that my treadmill is slightly misplaced and there is a glue smell that I have to tolerate when I finally get my butt down there for a late run tonight.

After the squares are done, the fire rated door that will replace the brown door to the far right of the photo is the last big piece of the project. So close...

Big Things

These adorable firetruck underwear belong to none other than my own big little boy.

You see, I had an epiphany today regarding the whole potty training ordeal. It is as simple as this: I have been encouraging, bribing, and sweet talking Patrick into ditching the diapers and using the potty, to no avail. But when he turned a year old and it was time to get rid of the pacifier, I didn't consult him. I didn't encourage him to give it to me, I didn't bribe it away from him. I just took it, because that is when my doctor said to take it. So why was I not doing the same with diapers?

I didn't consult him. Today, I took off his diaper and didn't put a new one on. I put on big boy undies instead. 30 minutes later he had an accident and I didn't scold, or yell. I just put on a new pair and told him you can't pee in underwear. 30 minutes later he told me he had to use the potty, and we did. An hour later, he used the potty again. Even if today is a fluke, it is a step in the right direction. He is on his potty now watching Caillou.

So proud of you, P.

#2 will be another story. I will be shocked if he does that in the toilet so easily.

(9PM update. Be careful what one wishes for. FIVE pees in the potty in a 2 hour period. I guess we buckle our seatbelts tomorrow and get this ride started. I have a clear calendar tomorrow that is now filled with tinkling.)

Growing

Gotta tell you boys, you are way more fun together than I had imagined. I love when you make each other laugh at the drop of a hat.

Patrick, when we had your feet measured at the store the other day, I hugged you when the lady said your feet had grown a whole size. You looked sad. "What's wrong, aren't you happy you grew?"

"If I grow Baba can't pick me up anymore."

Ahhhh.

The next shoes we buy will be a 7.5

And Tommy, you now have 5 teeth (2 upper, 3 bottom). You are a bit more of a biter than your brother was, but I have my eyes on you. You started walking this week with me holding just one of your hands instead of both (although you would rather crawl). Cruising on all the furniture of course.

It's Good to Be Organized

No matter how hard I try, I just cannot grasp "tidy". I detest clutter, but there is a constant stream of papers, mail, receipts, coupons, etc. all over my kitchen counter at any given moment.
I can never find my keys.
It was love at first sight when I came across this organization system at Pottery Barn:
...and this became the vision for our most cluttered space (this picture was on a day I cleaned up)-
But because our budget is not unlimited, this is what we actually ended up with:

And I love it!

Got it on sale (of course), and my always-organized husband hung it for me this morning.

Hello, keys.

No Place But Up

Time to get the baby gates (the ones we never got around to installing for P) up. Tommy can climb the whole way up and he doesn't think he needs a chaperon-twice he was halfway up before I even realized he had left the family room.

Did I mention I lost him last week? I was making lunch and when I didn't hear the sounds of baby play, I peeked around the corner and the pocket door was ajar (ought oh). I immediately looked on the steps, but no Tommy. Bathroom, nope. Scanned the family room again, no sign of him. Panic setting in. I did the whole downstairs loop before winding up back in the family room where I found him triumphantly standing behind the overstuffed armchair with a big grin on his face. He had managed to craw over the blockade I had set up and had been just out of sight the entire time. Gave me a heart attack.
Okay, so I didn't really lose him.

Penguin Parade

Our zoo has been parading the penguins on the walkway outside the aquarium for the past few weeks, so we went to check it out. Apparently in 35 degree temps, you still need to show up 30 minutes prior to the start time just to get a good spot on the parade route, which isn't that long. It was a little disappointing when only 6 penguins marched by instead of the gaggle shown on the zoo's website video. Still, Patrick seemed to like see them waddling around outside.

Here is a little video from the parade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vppKIl_8kE