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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

This year Caleb was big enough to really enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt so I mentioned it to my Aunt Lorri who sweetly organized a really awesome one for Caleb and his cousins. I only got pics of Caleb b/c Mom was following him around with the plastic bag for the eggs in one hand (I forgot a basket) and the camera in the other. Oops. lol But they're still super cute. 


He was so excited! He kept chanting "Egg! Egg! Egg!" the whole time.


"See Mom!! Egg!!"


 In the bag it goes...


And we're off to find another one. Kid was focused and mission oriented lemme tell you!







 Two at a time!



Running back to the bag w/ the egg!


And counting out the loot w/ the cousins to make sure we found them all! It was a great time and Caleb really, really enjoyed it!!

Progress on the Yard 2

So its been a while and things are looking better in the back yard. I'll up date you on the front yard after I get finished w/ the post-spring clean up. But hey compared to the thigh high weeds and dirt when we first bought the place this thing has come a LONG ways!!


Don't mind the strip of dead grass in the middle. I learned that my electric lawn mower is not macho enough to handle stripping things short enough to over seed winter rye so we're gonna officially file that task under: best left to a professional. The stripe should go away soon enough. The bermuda is coming out of dormancy and I just fertilized everything yesterday.


Here's the little gardenia I planted along the shady back fence. She's kept blooming like mad (smells amazing) so I'm hopful she'll do well there. 


Yeah I still haven't moved the cactus in the play ground area. I need to get to that too... Also the tree on the right there needs some serious clean up. Lots of dead branches.


I used some of that "Ground Clear for 1 Year" stuff on the path on the left side there to test it b/c I was afraid the run off would kill my grass but its only killed a couple little 6" or so patches of grass there so I vote thats a go in my book. Its done a great job of keeping the weeds out of the bricks.


Ahhh my little side alley. 2 of the 3 vines I planted turned out to not be able to handle the heat here in Phoenix. I was very sad. I really wish plant info tags has a maximum temp rating and not just a minimum. It would be really helpful here. AND the 3rd vine has been a learning experience. Did you know that jasmine comes in 2 varieties? Mounding and Vining. I wanted a vine to climb up the wall so guess which type I bought? Thats right mounding. Ahhhh sweet learning experiences. Also jasmine really likes her sun so while she lived, she did not thrive. So I dug up all 3 plants, disposed of the dead ones and transplanted the mounding jasmine over by my rose bushes for some ground cover. I've replaced all 3 vines with bouganvilla that I scored for a song at Costco a few weeks back.


 Yup theres the cactus that still needs moving. But it has crazy beautiful flowers in spring so I really want to try to keep it alive if at all possible. Wish me luck.



Isn't it crazy how much that rose bush in the back right has grown?! That thing was 3 sticks and 2 leaves and mostly dead in the shade by my front door when we bought this house. I transplanted it, pruned it and said if it survives the shock it should do fine. I think its doin pretty okay personally. Also the mini rose there in the front is crazy! That thing like exploded back from its pruning and is COVERED in buds. I love it. The green thing in the front left is the mounding jasmine which will hopefully be much happier soon, and you can't see it hardly at all because of the shade but in the rear left there is my newest tiny little rose bush that I got for 3 bucks and has the most amazing ruffled, fragrant lavender blossoms. I'll get you pictures as she grows up and gets gorgeous.


Also can just say that I really miss mulch?! Everything looks so much better w/ a nice thick, dark layer of mulch but no you can't use that here b/c it turns to sawdust in a single season (or so I'm told) so what you do is rock. And well lets just say that while rock might last forever the start up cost is prohibitive. *sigh* So I'll just keep battling the weeds for my dirt patches I guess. *sigh*

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Potty Training

We're now in to Potty Training Day 2 and holy crap am I tired. lol BUT the great news is that this morning I'd vote that well over half of all the pee made it into the potty. He gets at least some in the potty every time its just a matter of getting there fast enough and aiming correctly once he's there. We're starting out sitting and I'll teach him to stand later.

I'm really grateful that we decided to roll up the big rug so I only have to wipe up tile floors (which are probably the cleanest now they've ever been since they're getting scrubbed 20+ times a day).

Here's the method we've been using - as recommended by our pediatrician - we've got him naked from the waist down and the potty chair here in the room with us. He's getting to snack on chips and pretzels and drink all the juice he wants (salt to make him drink and sugar to make him want it). He never gets this stuff so clearly Easter came early this year. And if he get ANYTHING in the potty at all we do the happy dance and clap and cheer and carry on and he gets an M&M. Should he miss the potty entirely there is no yelling or punishment just a sad, "Awwww pee pee goes in the potty".

But he's doing really great this morning. He even went poopie in the potty!!!! Which Mom was SUPER DUPER excited about! That one can be REALLY difficult to get a kid to do so I was *thrilled* when he managed it and got it entirely in the potty and I didn't have to clean anything up off the floor!! Also some kids will hold it b/c they're weirded out by the potty and then they get constipated and then it hurts to go in the potty and yeah its bad so I'm really, really grateful that things went according to plan. Wiping his butt with toilet paper while he was standing there didn't work so well. I wound up just grabbing a baby wipe to take care of business.

I've apologized to Facebook for my numerous potty related posts over the last 48 hours but this is apparently my life now so I'm celebrating poopie in the potty. We even called Daddy at work to tell him the good news. lol

Mercifully at nap time today he didn't fight me when I tried to put a Pull Up on him. Yesterday at nap time the world ended so we let him go to bed wearing shorts and thats it and he woke up freezing, soaked and miserable. So last night we pinned him down and put a Pull Up on him before bed. You would have thought we were trying to chop off both legs and his weenie one little bit at a time the way he was screaming. But he was fine this morning when I got him out of bed and let me put another Pull Up on for nap time with out so much as a frown so I'm hopeful this will work out.

I'm thinking tomorrow we're gonna try adding underwear to the equation so he can learn to pull something down assuming we start getting closer to a 75% success rate with getting to the potty on time with out them...

I'm just praying we get this mostly figured out before Passover at Grandmas house on Saturday or Easter at Great Grandmas house on Sunday... That or we'll stick to a pull up when we leave the house...