I won the battle, but I lost the war!

This morning, I won a battle with Bo. Unfortunately, I just learned that was a small and very insignificant battle in the war, and I lost the war miserably.

My son, despite the fact that he has been using the potty and keeping underwear dry for over six months now, has been unable to poop in the potty. That is, until this morning! He was doing a little dance, and I asked if he needed to go to the bathroom. "How about I just go poo-poo in the little potty, mommy?" was his surprising response. He sat, he went, and he declared himself done. Wow! It was a very small, um, poo, but it was in the potty nonetheless. We threw a big party...had treats, called dad, did a dance of joy. It was glorious. Again, after lunch he declared that he needed to go, and tried. Turns out he was more interested in the treat than in actually going. No worries...I was finally winning the war, or so I thought.

After the potty, we put on a pull-up [we still wear them for nap time since that's when he usually poops] and went to bed, or so I thought!

As I was trying to be productive, I heard a little voice declaring that he needed help washing his hands. Uh-oh, he's in the bathroom. Let's just say I was not prepared for the scene that I walked into. Bo was naked from the waste down and covered...hands, feet, legs...in, well, do I really have to say it. The bathroom was also covered, and smelly! Apparently he started to go in his pullup, realized he was supposed to go in the potty and headed into the bathroom to finish. The pullup was in the trash, the poop was in the little toilet, and Bo was attempting to wash his very dirty hands in the sink, but getting things in the correct places caused quite a bit of a mess.

Bo has now been washed and returned to his bed, and every imaginable surface in the bathroom is currently marinating in Lysol. I just needed a little bit of a breather before I head back in to complete the cleanup. I am now officially overwhelmed at the thought of having to potty train THREE!!!

Side note: I did, in fact, take some pictures of this chaos. I did this mainly because I don't think my husband will believe it unless he sees it. I have decided that they are simply too graphic to post...really, you don't want to see this!

Crazy Raisins

Around here, we've discovered Craisins, and we LOVE them! Bo started calling them crazy raisins, and now this is what we get when we let the kids have them...

Scavenger Hunt

Another one of my favorite family traditions from my family growing up was the scavenger hunt we did every year. Since this was our first Christmas without extended family, we decided to continue the tradition with Bo and Ella. Jason made the scavenger hunt, and put three clues in familiar places around the house. Bo has really gotten into "Blue's Clues" lately, so Jason actually put a paw print on each clue to help him understand what he was looking for. Here's what we found at the end of the hunt....

Bo got a tool chest to hold the tools he loves to play with, and he also got some new tools as a part of the set. Included was a drill that can be used to put wheels on a little race car or tighten screws in the top of the workbench area. He's had so much fun with that drill!

Ella got a set of accessories for her baby doll. She looked over each piece to try and figure it out, and she was so excited when we got the doll and put it in the stroller. She immediately wanted to push her doll around the whole house. I'm just amazed that she actually knew what to do with all the stuff! I was afraid she'd be a little young for the toys, but they've been loads of fun already!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

One of the fun things about holidays and being married is all the talk and decision making about family traditions. It's been fun for Jason and me to figure out which family traditions we want to include in our family Christmas celebration. One Dowling tradition that we've adopted is making Christmas stockings for each family member. Jason's Grandmom made stockings for all her kids, and Jason's mom made stockings for all of his family. SO, I decided to make a stocking for me, and I've continued with making stockings for each of the kids. I've been a little slow, but this year, I finally finished Bo's and made Ella's. It was definitely fun to have them all on the fireplace by Christmas Eve. The kids are too young to understand the significance, but it was still fun to make them personalized stockings!

Holiday Love

Hope you're feeling the love on this Christmas Eve Day!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Even an inch of snow makes things feel more festive!

The kids enjoyed snow slushees when we came back inside!

The Doors are DONE!

We love our new fireplace!

Insanity

I am absolutely amazed at all of the holiday insanity. This year has really challenged me to think beyond the craziness of the season and evaluate how we spend our time and money. Last night I spent over 2 hours in the store. At least half of that time was spent waiting in line to check out. Never will I understand why a store spends thousands of dollars to build 32 registers, and never has more than four of them operating simulatneously. It's like a cruel joke!

All that to say that after two hours in the store last night I had to make a second trip out this morning because they were OUT of three things that were perhaps the most critical items on my list. If I could have figured out how to serve a Christmas meal without the main course, I would have avoided the extra trips this morning!

So Jason and I had marathon morning of finishing our errands. [The gift shopping's been done for a while now, but it's amazing how the miscellaneous errands continue to come up!] We hit the Home Depot, the Petsmart, and THREE grocery stores! Apparently I'm not the only one who was planning to serve a pork tenderloin for Christmas dinner.

It just makes me realize how much "extra" we feel like we need at this time of year. I am not sure how to avoid getting caught up in this time and time again, but I'm just praying that we can figure out how to celebrate Christ in the middle of all this hype. That's what I love about the Advent conspiracy...check it out (in all your spare time :)...
http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Oh, and it was SIXTY degrees yesterday, and today, it's snowing...I can hardly get my mind around this! Once again, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and FIFTY!

In Training

I think my son is training for a future career in the circus. Of course, this is all clandestine training during naptime and after the lights go out for bed.

You see, Bo knows and understands that he is not allowed to get out of the bed. This has been made very clear to him. So clear that as I leave the room, he always says, "Mommy, I know, I stay in the bed." So his little manipulative mind has started figuring out how he might get around the technicality of staying in the bed. Apparently he figures that if his feet never touch the floor, then he is not actually out of the bed.

This has prompted several furniture rearranges in his room. For a while, he was scaling the changing table, crawling across to Ella's crib, and catapulting himself into bed with her. I figure this is preliminary trapeze training. The changing table went into the closet since it was only used to store toys anyways.

Then, the dresser [previously located at the end of his bed] became a climbing wall. From his position atop the dresser he was able to see himself clearly in his mirror and make all kinds of fun faces and noises at himself. I figure this is preliminary fun house of mirrors training.

Once the dresser moved, he decided the toy box [relocated to where the changing table had been] made a perfect bridge between his bed and Ella's, and once again he was ending up in bed with her. I figure this is preliminary tight rope training.

The final and most successful rearrange happened this morning. Now, there is NOTHING within reach of his bed. He can't get to the dresser, and he's too short to make it to the toy box. I did happen to walk by and notice him attempting both of these feats. He gave up when he realized it could not be done by one of his stature. Unfortunately, the giving up resulted in a blatant act of disobedience. With nothing to climb on or jump onto, he simply gave up and got out of the bed to play with his legos. Ugh, sometimes I just find myself repeating, "my will is stronger than his, my will is stronger than his..."

Christmas

We've recently been talking quite a bit with Bo about Christmas and why we celebrate Christmas. We haven't mentioned Santa, and other than the arrival of packages from family and friends, we've not even talked much about presents.

Maybe that's why I was so bummed by this interaction with the cashier in the store today...
Cashier: You guys have a Merry Christmas.
Bo: Are you going to give me lots of presents?
Me: No Bo, it's not this nice lady's job to give you presents! Do you remember why we celebrate Christmas?
Bo: Yes, because I get lots of presents.

So, maybe I haven't been as explicit as I would have liked with the true meaning of Christmas. We talked about the baby Jesus for the whole car ride home. And what do we find when we get here...two more packages full of presents. How's that for irony?

Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue?

Bo is figuring out that as I drive there are certain "signals" that I have to follow. His greatest recent discovery is the meaning of traffic lights. Our riding in the car goes something like this...

As we approach a red light:
"Mom, the red light says, 'STOP!' and the green light says 'go.' The yellow light says 'sloooooooow doooooooown.' Oh, and mom, the blue light says 'be careful.'"

Blue light? That one was news to me!

More tree fun!

Playing with the tree is always loads of entertainment.

Bo really wanted to play with the yellow car ornament. This was the ornament I got when I turned sixteen...hard to believe that was quite a few years ago!

When Bo was preoccupied with the car ornament, Ella claimed the cell phone. It was just too much fun pushing those buttons...

We have gas!

I know that most people probably aren't that excited about gas logs, but we are pumped. After my fire/smoke/soot incident earlier in the week, we decided we needed to strongly consider gas logs for the fireplace. Who knew there were so many options out there? When we figured out what we really needed combined with the things that we really wanted, we were looking at around $350 for just the logs. That did not include any sort of screen or doors for our fireplace [a must with two little ones running around!]. That number was a little daunting!

Last night, Jason decided to check out craigslist, and sure enough he found the exact set we were looking for...for $80. How crazy is that? Turns out the guy was also selling a really nice set of glass doors for an additional $60. This afternoon Jason went to look at the logs and offered the guy $100 for everything, AND it was ours! I am still just in shock as I type this. It was an amazing answer to a prayer that we didn't even pray. God just provided something for us that he knew we wanted...not even that we really needed. I'm truly in awe of His graciousness here!

SO, tonight was installation. Jason cleaned out the fireplace and got everything set up...

Here's our fire as it looks when snuggle up next to it. It's not the same as a real fire, but without the smoke, I cannot complain!!

Here's the entire fireplace!

Our doors get painted tomorrow. They are currently a lovely brass finish and we're opting for a sleeker black look. Jason hopes to install them Monday. I'd say $125 [for the doors, logs, paint, and extra rocks] versus somewhere around $650 is a total score!!

Trimming the Tree

These are relatively old pictures, but in light of the craziness of the last few days, I am just getting around to posting them. We had grand plans two weeks ago to chop down a tree with the kids, but some rainy weather sent us to Lowe's for a pre-cut tree instead. The funny thing is we got there ten minutes after they closed, but the tree guy let us come in and pick out a tree anyways. I was so thankful, but I didn't exactly get the photos of the kids running around looking at trees that I envisioned. Instead, Jason picked up a tree shook it out, and tossed it in the cart. It was literally a 3 minute experience!

I decorated the tree over a week ago, but I saved the kids ornaments for them to put on themselves.

Bo got a Bob the Builder ornament this year. He keeps asking where Wendy is, but he loves finding Bob on the tree. In addition, he found his cell phone ornament on the tree and spent most of the time playing with the cell phone instead of Bob!

Once Bob was safely on the tree, Bo caught up on some phone calls while Ella played with the tree.

Ella's ornament this year was a pink hairdryer and brush. Her hair is just so unusual that I thought it marked a significant aspect of this year for her! Bo has enjoyed finding the ornament and pulling it off to "dry his hair" every now and then as well.

Once she got the hairdryer on the tree, she wanted to hang all kinds of stuff. She kept picking up various pieces of the village and trying to get them to stay on branches. It was really cute to see her little mind working on the whole concept.

We have the tree out of the way in the study, but the kids love to stand and stare at it. When we come into the study and actually play with the ornaments, it's some serious entertainment!

When the smoke cleared...

We moved the wood holder down to the floor to make room for the fireplace screen, and Bo decided it was actually a riding toy.

He was having so much grabbing the "black loops" and saying yee-haw that I couldn't resist a few shots.

Thankfully, our power is back on today, and I'm just praying we don't lose it again. It's actually been snowing a little bit here and they're predicting more snow for Friday, so it's now officially winter!

Spring Cleaning

Why, you might ask, would anyone be doing spring cleaning in the middle of December. Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.

This was the scene that we woke up to yesterday morning...

There was a block of ice covering everything! Thankfully we didn't lose too many branches in our yard, but some of our neighbors did not fare so well. We did however lose power at some point in the night. It was already cold and dark by 6:30 when we started stirring for the day. Because Jason's job isn't exactly "regular," he was up and out the door [after 30 minutes of trying to get IN to his car and another hour of defrosting it], so I was left here with the kids, no power, no heat, and a whole day to fill!

This arcade toy is a really neat, really loud, toy that both the kids love. The batteries died long ago, so I had planned to put batteries in their stockings for Christmas morning. Christmas morning came a little bit early, and we decided to put in the new batteries. It was a hit. The kids were literally mesmerized for almost an hour. They didn't really seem to notice or care that it was pretty dark and pretty cold.

At one point, Bo was running in circles around the table just screaming with delight. It was a surprisingly fun filled morning despite all the modern necessities that were missing.

By 2:30 the power was not back on, and they were basically warning people that it could still be a while. It was a nippy 58 degrees in the house, so I decided to make a fire. Now, last year, we had a terrible fire experience. There was smoke everywhere and the house smelled like a campfire for weeks. I was desperate enough to take a risk. The flu was open, the window was cracked, and everything was set up correctly.

I started with one of those clean burning logs, and all was great! The smoke was totally under control. Then, I added a log from our woodpile [that was dry and clean in the garage] and things went downhill from there. When your 2 1/2 year old can quote the smoke detector, "beep, beep, beep, fire, fire, beep, beep, beep" you know there was a serious problem. It was not a happy situation, but I must say we were warm!

This experience has taught me several things:
1. I really like having power
2. I could not have survived on the frontier
3. Sometimes it takes ice, dark, smoke, cold, and a fire alarm to make me truly thankful for all of the things I take for granted in my life!

And thus, we're back to the spring cleaning. I spent the morning trying to erase all remnants of the smoke...it was definitely a spring cleaning. I was feeling good about my progress until the power went out once again just after lunch. I had to build yet another fire [this time I ONLY used the clean burning logs though]. I think we've decided the gas logs are going in this weekend, so maybe my smoking days are over!

All Quiet

Today, at 1:40 PM it is actually quiet in my house. This has not happened in several days, and I am seriously basking in the silence!

Bo and Ella spent our trip sharing a room for naps and bedtime, so we thought it might be a good idea to go ahead and transition them to the same room. This has been the plan for a while now, and it seemed like the golden opportunity. Initially, it was great. They would giggle and chat for a bit and then settle down and ignore each other. All of that changed Tuesday when Bo decided to get out of his bed, scale the changing table, catapult himself into the crib, and "snuggle" with Ella. Naptime has lasted all of about 20 minutes for most of this week. Let's just say that makes for some grouchy kids, and a little bit of a grouchy mom!

Last night, they finally settled down about 9:30! I didn't check on them before bed like I usually do, so imagine my surprise at 12:30 AM when Bo started fussing. He was IN the bed WITH Ella!! They had apparently fallen asleep that way. Poor Ella was laying there wide awake with Bo's feet in her face, and Bo was thrashing around crying and whining. On the one hand, I was entirely frustrated with Bo for disobeying, but on the other hand, it was a blessing to see them enjoying being together. Surely the novelty of being in the same room will wear off eventually, surely!

Which brings me back to the silence. They are in separate rooms today because Jason and I have a date tonight and I was trying to avoid grouchy kids and a grouchy me. Ahhhhh...the silence!

It's a...

I had my mid-term ultrasound this morning, and it was so fun to see the baby kicking and squirming around! Bo was completely fascinated by the whole thing...that and the raisins I brought to keep the kids occupied!

I joked with ultrasound tech that this was the money shot. She caught the profile beautifully!

This one looks a little E.T.ish, but we watched the baby take the thumb and put it in the mouth! In a couple of shots you could actually see the tongue moving and the amniotic fluid going in the mouth and down the throat.

This last one isn't the easiest to see, but it's a perfect little shot of the the feet. I'm amazed at how all those tiny bones are already formed together!

We were able to keep the sex a surprise. Jason was trying pretty hard to see something, but tech did a really good job of staying away from the nether-regions! I'm excited that we get to be in suspense for another 20 weeks or so!
Current gender predictions:
Emily: a girl...not sure why, but this has been my feeling from the beginning
Jason: he really has no clue, but after today he's saying maybe a girl because he didn't see anything
Bo: a boy, and his name should be "boy"
Ella: every time we ask about the baby she lifts up her shirt and points to her belly button, so she's still undecided!

As we were driving away from the hospital, I got a little bit emotional. I am just so overwhelmed that I have the privilege of being a mom once again. I've known so many moms who've experienced infertility, miscarriage, and stillbirth, and I'm just overwhelmed that God chose to bless us once again. I know that it is a true gift to be a mom, and one that I want to be thankful for with my whole heart. It is so easy to take God's goodness for granted, and I've been praying through the words of one of my favorite songs today....

Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful where your streams of abundance flow...blessed be your name.
And blessed be your name when I'm found in the desert place though I walk through the wilderness...blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise.
And when the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say...blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name, Jesus.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glorious name.

Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering...blessed be your name.

You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name!

Blessed be your name Lord!

Drawing

Last night Bo asked if he could draw, so Jason got out his magnadoodle. He was explaining what he was drawing, and Jason kept saying, "what, I don't think I understand Bo." I jumped in and told Jason that Bo was in fact saying exactly what he thought. Let's just say this is priceless video!

The funniest part is that if you look closely enough, you can see that he is in fact drawing something that looks very close to a nipple! He's definitely been curious about body parts lately, but it's funny to see how that comes out in an unrelated context!

Ladies and Men

This morning I was going into a public restroom with Bo:
"Whoops, we can't go in that one. That's for men. We have to go in the ladies because mommy is a lady."

When dad went in the restroom a few minutes later, Bo said:
"Oh, no, daddy just went in the men's."

I explained that daddy was, in fact, a man, and that mommy was a lady. Bo then had this to say at lunch:
"Mommy, you are a lady. And daddy, he is a [long pause]; he's a guy."
Me: You're right, daddy is a guy, but he's also a man.
Bo: Oh, so daddy is a man, and Bo is a little man.
Me: Right
Bo: And mommy is a big lady and Ella is a little lady...

Well, I'm glad he's at least getting the concept!

The ponytail

She is such a doll!

I love it that I can fix her hair and she's not even two yet!

What a day!

Here it is 12:02 and both of my babies are in bed napping. That should tell you a little bit about the morning we had around here. Let's just say it was a slice of chaos. It included Bo having a meltdown at breakfast because he thought I was making macaroni and cheese. When the eggs were placed in front of him, he was sorely disappointed. We had another meltdown because Bo didn't want to wear the red shirt; he really wanted to stay in his pajamas. Somehow a stray shoe ended up in the garage and I ran over it in the van...all of this before noon!

Now that things are a little bit more quiet, I'm going to try to be productive. I feel like these holiday preparations are really taking over this year! I'll try to post more often than I have been. We're planning to get our tree up tonight, so hopefully we'll get some fun shots of that. Bo is extremely excited about his Bob the Builder ornament, and Ella has enjoyed playing with her pink hairdryer and hairbrush ornament as well!

Christmas Trees

I can hardly believe that it was just a week ago that we were with family! I thought I'd include a few shots of us at the lighting of the Christmas tree at the forum because just thinking about Christmas trees is putting me in a holiday mood! We do not have our Christmas tree, YET, but we have plans to get one! We were intending to go and cut down a tree together as a family this morning, but it was gray and threatening raing, so we decided to wait. If it's yucky again tomorrow, then we're giving up the idea of cutting our own and just going to buy one in a parking lot somewhere. Still fun to have a tree!

As I deal with two little ones and think about having a third, I have NO idea how my mom had five. That just seems like an impossibility to me right now. Potty training five! She deserves to be on vacation forever!

It was a little cold outside, and Ella was not the happiest about the sudden change in weather!

She did perk up when we went in Barnes and Noble to get warm.

Bo had fun looking at books and snuggling with Aunt Maggie! He definitely enjoyed being warm and playing inside for a bit as well.