3

Michael is 3 now and I'm still floored by how fast time has gone by.  This kid brings a lot of laughs and love to our family.  Of course he brings plenty of craziness, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Here are a few things about Michael:

• He is fully potty-trained, even night-trained.  I'm so thankful I really didn't have to night-train him.  
• His favortie movies: Monster Inc., Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon, Brave, Frozen, and the Princess Diaries 2
• His favorite TV shows:  Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Daniel Tigers Neighborhood, Super Why, and Chuggington
• Favorite Foods:  Mac & Cheese (the Dragon kind), Peanut Butter, Spaghetti, Quesadillas, and any kind of fruit
• He is amazing at puzzles.  I've noticed that he likes to find order out of them, it calms him down and holds his attention.  He has mastered all of out 24 piece puzzles.  He is pretty good at the few 60's he's done.  We have a few 100 piece puzzles that he likes working on, especially his Dragon one and his TMNT puzzles
• He is interested in reading, but doesn't sit still long enough for me to teach him what sounds the  letters make.  He does like me to read to him a lot.
• Loves Ethan.  Whenever Ethan is laying on the ground he goes up next to him and cuddles.  He picks out Ethan's clothes and PJ's whenever possible.  He helps me change his diapers.  He sings songs to him and talks to him.  Ethan even "talks back" to him.
• Loves having Elli as a partner in crime.  They are generally really good together.  Unfortunately they get into trouble together too.  Nothing too bad, but I will say lately I've had to wash marker off the cushions on my chairs multiple times.  
• Thanks to homeschooling he knows the first three Articles of Faith.  It's cute when he recites them...loudly....in sacrament meeting....because I told him to think about Jesus.
• He managed to escape the terrible two's with only a handful of tantrums that weren't diffused in less than 2 minutes.  I can only remember two horrible ones, one at his cousins baptism, and the other a few days later at home where he sat in a corner and screamed for a half hour.  

Three will bring us a whole new challenge.  I'm worried about more back-talking, fighting with Elli, and completely getting rid of naps (he still takes about 3 a week).  I'm grateful potty-training, deciphering every word, and explaining the difference between girls and boys is over with!  

Happy Birthday little man!

That time he got stuck in the chair and couldn't get out.  It only took 5 minutes to get him out of it.

First big boy bed

The shoe fettish phase

Oh buddy, how you've grown.

Michael's 3rd birthday party (parties)

Like I said before, life has been a little crazy.  Michael turned 3!  I still can't believe he's 3, time has gone by so fast.  Oh well.

Since we have a lot of family, we have to do multiple birthday parties for our kids.  Michael really wanted to go to Jungle Jims, so we decided to take the kids and a few cousins.

Michael loves my sisters kids.  LOVES.  So much so that I'm surprised he hasn't tried to run away to their house.  Sometimes I think he believes they are his older sisters.  He'll hate when he realizes they aren't.  Anyways, they had fun helping Michael and Elli get on to the rides.

They had fun picking out prizes and candy to munch on.  We went out to lunch to celebrate Michael's birthday with my family.  

Two weeks later, closer to his actual birthday, we had a joint party with Josh's side of the family.

Michael had a lot of fun at his parties.  So much so that he keeps thinking that every birthday we celebrate is his too.  I've had to tell him multiple times that he doesn't get a gift on my birthday, only I do.  You can imagine how well that went over.

Pumpkin Patch

Forgive me while I try and catch up on the last few months of out lives.  You'll see a lot of backdated posts.

Right before Halloween we decided we should get the kids some pumpkins.  Life has been a little crazy with Josh working two jobs, and we didn't think about pumpkins.  Luckily Josh had the Friday before Halloween off and we went to a pumpkin patch.

We loved watching these little monsters going through the small maze.  Except when Michael got lost for a total of 5 seconds and started screaming his head off.

We let them pick out their own pumpkins.  Michael's first pick was a 20lb pumpkin.  Luckily he changed his mind to a small 2 pounder he could carry around.  He also picked out a pumpkin for Ethan.  Elli, in true Elli fashion, ran way into the middle of the field and carried her little pumpkin back to us.  Ethan just hung out and ate my hair.

One of my favorite pictures of all time

Picasso

I rarely let my kids do any art projects.  I should let them do more, but honestly it's just a pain in the butt.  Elli is constantly eating crayons or sucking the juice out of markers.  Michael is yelling at her not to do it.  Ethan isn't content to sit and watch from his high chair.  One or more kids needs a nap.  One or more kids is hungry.  Half the time they need a bath right after.  I have to strip them down so they don't ruin their clothes, but they scream about not wearing anything.  You get the idea.  It's suddenly not fun and more of a chore for everyone involved.

A while ago I posted about how I didn't let Elli color for a long time.  I've let her color more, to the detriment of multiple markers.  We've had fun.  Really, we have.  Especially the next day when I change her diaper and discover she must have ate another crayon when I ran to get more paper.  Thank goodness Crayola is non-toxic.

I'm gearing up to start Michael in Preschool really soon (this is a post for another day though) and decided he needed a little more work with artistic things before I start doing crafts all day long.  So I let him paint.  I bought a ten pack of paints and found a day where Michael woke up from his nap before Elli.   He did great.  He loved painting and even got the concept of dipping the paint brush in water between colors.

His favorite thing to paint was Mike Wazowski.  As you can see he had me paint one in the corner.  He did have a problem with painting so much in the same area that the paper ripped.  Hopefully that will get better.

After he got the concept I decided to let Elli try the next day.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but there is a streak of brown paint coming out the side of her mouth.  Ten minutes later her paper wasn't painted any more than pictured, her face was yellow, and her paper plate had some pretty rainbow swirls.  How do I get this child to stop eating markers/crayons/paint/dirt??

Now the kids ask to paint every day.  Maybe I should have thought this through a little more first, but I like my wall covered in Picasso's of Mike Wazowski.

Goggle Butt

Yes, I'm revisiting goggle butt.  Mostly because Michael does it all the time!  Elli usually puts the goggles on her face, like any normal person would do.  Then Michael gets upset and grabs the other pair and tries to show her how to do goggle butt.  It's been a great source of contention in this house.  But he loves being goggle butt....

Potty Training

Disclaimer:  There is a lot of potty talk in this post

We are in the midst of potty training.  Well, we've been working on it for over a month now.  It's still a little bumpy, but we're mostly there.  Potty training has been....interesting.  Is it weird to say that I've had to grow as a mom?  Before I could easily go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted.  I grabbed the diaper bag and took off.  Unless a kid pooped I'd rarely change them when we were out and about.  Now I have to plan around more than just naps, I have to plan around bathroom trips.  It's not more difficult, just more thought required for everyday things.  Then there is the issue of separating the successes and disappointments on the potty from everything else.  When Michael would pee his pants after I'd asked him every 5 minutes for the last hour if he needed to go, I'd take it personally.  Instead of just changing him and reminding him not to pee in his pants I'd be upset all day that he wasn't getting it.  Of course the postpartum hormones and being locked in a bathroom all day didn't help.  I got over it after the first week, but I haven't had to deal with that too much as a parent until now.

Josh and I decided we had hit that point at the end of Summer where we were done camping (I refused to potty train in the Spring and Summer because of camping) and realized it was time.  Michael showed the signs, and he was getting there in age.  Plus he'll be the young kid in Sunbeams and I don't want him to be the only one not potty trained.  So we dove right in.

The first day I made Michael sit on the potty for 3 hours until he peed.  He watched Frozen, did puzzles, ate a sleeve of crackers, and had 3 sippy cups full of water.  Eventually he peed.  About a week later and making him sit on the potty for an hour after breakfast, he pooped.  We bribed him with a mashmellow every time he pooped for the first 3 weeks.  Now he gets a fruit snack every 10ish times he pees.  He has a sticker chart now and has to get 20 stickers, but we'll give him stickers for cleaning up toys and letting us brush his teeth without biting the toothbrush.  If he poops he gets a hotwheels car.  If he goes a full day without an accident he gets a small tractor (thank you Walmart!).  Lately we won't give him a tractor unless he pooped in the potty and didn't have any accidents.

Fast forward to today.  He rarely tells us when he needs to pee, but if we tell him to go every 2-3 hours he doesn't have an accident.  Most mornings and after naps he wakes up dry.  I've been leaving him in underwear for naps (when he takes them, I think he's been playing with toys and not napping).  He's never had an accident involving pee on the carpet.  Pooping is another story.  He's pooped in the potty a total of 5 times.  He holds it in and goes every other day now.  He thinks there are snakes in the potty when he poops.  Kinda funny, but very frustrating.  So every other day I have to clean poop out of underwear.  Luckily we have one of those flexible shower heads that reaches over to a toilet, so I just power wash it out and don't have to hand scrub.

Getting out has changed a little bit.  It took about two weeks but now Michael feels comfortable peeing in big toilets.  We took him out in pull-ups a lot at first (oh how I hate pull-ups), but luckily we don't have to anymore.  We've gone to the zoo and he doesn't have accidents the whole time we're there.

On a good note, Elli has peed in her little potty a handful of times.  I don't think she's quite ready for potty training, but hopefully soon.  I'd rather get it done in the winter when we really can't do much anyways.

On another good note, without the diaper Michael will continue to fit into his 2T clothes all winter.

He's spent many lazy days lounging in his underwear

A month later....

I keep meaning to blog, and then I forget, or Josh takes the computer on a business trip, and it doesn't happen.

So I'll try to blog a little more, until then, here are a few pictures

Michael does puzzles all the time

Do they look alike?

Naptime snuggles

We call this goggle butt.  Michael is constantly doing it and running around.

Fun piggies

More baby smiles :)

Ethan's blessing

I'm a little behind but we blessed Ethan at the beginning of the month.  It was a great blessing and Ethan was quiet through it, even when he lost his binky at the end.  Afterwards we had a bunch of desserts at our house.  Because I'm feeling just a little sleep deprived I'll just leave you with some cute pictures.

This was our best family picture, yes, that's Michael upside down

We'll call this good

 

At least he made up for ruining the family picture

Her too

Lagoon

Last week Josh's office had a Lagoon day and we ventured out with the kids.  As to be expected they LOVED it!  Unfortunately, our camera died after taking 2 pictures.  Oh well, at least they were cute pictures.

Outings

Having a baby in the Summer has been so much different than the Winter.  When I had Michael I didn't go anywhere for weeks.  I remember seeing people at Thanksgiving and Christmas, that's it.  With Elli I remember going out a little bit more, but I still felt shut-in.  With Ethan I can go places!  It shouldn't make me that happy, but it does.  I need the vitamin D.

We've gone shopping quite a bit and out to eat a couple of times.  We went to the zoo and the temple

We've been swimming in our pool, gone to the splash pad, and gone to 7 peaks.

We had a day of running errands which included getting Elli and Ethan's birth certificate.  Michael handed me this little beauty after coloring on it.

This week I ventured out on a play date at the splash pad, I've taken the kids to the park, gone to Costco and Walmart, and went out to lunch with my mom.

It really has been so great to get out!