4 months

The princess is now 4 months old!   Ok, the second princess, Gwen gets mighty offended if I call her princess, but fortunately I happened upon a book at the library called The Second Princess and just have to remind her that 2 princesses are ok, she is still the first princess.  Ah, the joys of multiple children!  Back to Rachel...

Our happiest baby, that I recall.  I don't really remember Nate as happy, just cuddly, Gwen as crying, so currently happiest baby.  She smiles a lot and giggles, and is officially rolling over front to back and back to front.  Sometimes she rolls over if you lay her down for her nap (as you see above) and has actually fallen to sleep on her belly, but I did not get a picture of that.  (I didn't want to wake her while I searched for the camera, Nate was home, need I say more?)  This is also making the diaper changing a bit more challenging, since she is mostly laying on her side when I am trying to get the diaper off and on. 

She is currently drooly, a finger sucker and has a runny nose.  Whether she is sick or teething we will never know.  But, she doesn't seem to mind the bulb as much, I mean sometimes she lets me without screaming...not without wiggling. 

She LOVES watching things, is very distracted by everything and likes to look around.  She just watches and watches and this complicates the "schedule" (ha, schedule, I crack myself up!)  Unless she yawns, it is hard to tell when she is tired, she doesn't just nod off to sleep, she just kind of stares into space and you think, gosh, is that it, time for bed? 

She is a chatter, she just starts babbling on and on, but she usually only does it at home and it is often a sign that she is ready for sleep.  Which is hard to reconcile, because it is so cute and I just want to chat with her...see here.(sorry about the fuzziness, the boy may have been taking pictures and I might not have realized that his finger print was on the lens until after I started the video)(this video might be too boring for anyone but my Mother and Mother-in-law! I hope they enjoy it.)

She is almost ready to sit up and is starting to grab stuff with her hands and bring it to her mouth.  She's not real good at it yet, she's at that hilarious point where you can see her trying desperately and then her hands/arms not totally following the directions her brain is telling them to do.  Fortunately she doesn't get frustrated, she's more nonchalant about it, like oh well, I've still got my fingers.  Now me leaving the room, that is another story.  She seems to not like it when I walk out of eyesight these days, fabulous, isn't a little early for separation anxiety?  With the kids and/or husband around this isn't a problem, but I was just getting used to dashing off to the potty, by myself, oh well.  I guess that was a short-lived dream come true! 

Overall we have a pain in the tail screaming infant, that is turning into a pretty fun contented baby!  Yay Rachel! 

Rolling

Big day for Rachel! She decided today was the day for rolling. As our babies start to develop personalities that we can distinguish. Rachel seems to have a very nonchalant attitude. When she went to roll over today, it took her about 10 minutes, each stage she kind of hung out for a while and then turned a little hung out some more, I desperately wanted to help her along, but I spent that time trying to locate the camera and the battery! Fortunately I found all the parts and got some pictures of our cute girl. Here's the slideshow of her in "action"

Rach-rolling - slideshows

Rachel's Baptism

We had Rachel's Baptism this weekend.  We were fortunate to plan the Baptism with our friend's baby's Baptism also.  Both girls did remarkably well, although we wouldn't expect any less of them.  Rachel wore the familial Baptismal dress, the history of which I recounted here.  Rachel is our third child, we've Baptized our children now in 3 different Churches and this was the first full Mass Baptism.  It was a nice service and we were blessed enough to have my Mom, and both Godparents here for the service.  And we had a nice reception at the house, where the kids played and the adults talked and we shared some lunch and cake.  And despite the dreary weather we all had a nice day!  It is possible I should pay more attention to the weather, but I guess that is a post for another day.  Here is a slide show of pictures from the day. 

Rachel's Baptism - slideshow dvd

These pictures were taken by my Mother and a random parishioner that Mrs. Kyle asked to take pictures for us.

The birthday boss

Today our first born turned six!  Ack!  Actually it isn't a huge deal, you know because she knows everything, so she actually seems so much older.  Or maybe because I just had a baby and she just seems like almost an adult, in comparison.  But anyways, this isn't all about the new baby, this is all about Gwen.
So, how's Gwen's these days, well she's starting first grade this year.  We've been working on her reading this summer, not because she's a terrible reader, but because we are trying to build her confidence, we want her to be comfortable when she starts first grade. Everyone who has had Gwen in their class has said lovely things about her, like I wish I had a whole class of kids like Gwen.  We just wish we would see that kid at home more often!
Gwen is rather bossy, she thinks she is Mom #1, Nate gets the brunt of it currently and is starting to fight back.  I spend most of my time reminding her that I'm the Mom here.  Of course, this is real convenient when Nate is doing something he isn't.  But I keep reminding her that no one will want to play with her if she continues to try and demand people play her way.
Gwen is a sweet and caring sister to her siblings.  She loves to dote and hold her new sister.  And she tries to keep her quiet and happy, which is a difficult task, for sure!  When Nate got his shots last week she was so upset about it that she was also crying and I had to shoo her away, so I could comfort Nate.
Gwen also knows everything about everything, or so she says.  We are talking to her about her attitude and not being so rude.  I am slightly concerned about the teenage years!
Today we had a "playdate" for Gwen.  I had 3 little girls come over, and play with her.  I made cupcakes and the girls played and had a good time.  I shuffled Nate off to one of the girls' Mom who has boys, so it was just us girls!  I knew with the new baby and all the attention she's been getting today had to be pretty special for Gwen, and I think it was.  But I think she took this "MY NEW PRESENTS" thing a little too far.  We try to let the kids have 1 day with their new presents to share or not share according to their will.  At 4 and 6 it isn't going over so well, but I hope with each year it will get easier!
Here is a slide show from today.

Gwen's 6th birthday! - free slideshows with music

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Today is our little man's birthday.  Such a crazy little guy!  He is full of life and energy who keeps us on our toes.  He will be starting preK this fall and he is looking forward to it. 

He is really getting into LEGOs this year and Superheroes.  He is also making up hilarious stories.  If you talk about something, says ghosts, he will tell you about an involved story he has made up about his experience with ghosts.  Very funny. 

He is still our cuddly little guy who loves to sit and read. He will sit for a long time and look at books for a long time, but he will happily listen to you read him a story. 

He is struggling to drop a nap, he really needs to still nap, but with his sister home and no afternoon car trip to pick up his sister, it is a real struggle.  His listening skills drop to nil and he loses impulse control.  I am hoping this is a short transition, but you never know. 

He does make have a pretty funny way of saying things and we can tell he is going to be a pretty smart kid.  I am hoping the structure and learning he will get at school will calm him down a little.  He seems to be pretty hyped up and has a lot of energy, I am hoping to one day learn how to channel his energy for good! 

We sometimes forget he is only turning 4 today because he often acts older and his vocabulary is so advanced.  He loves our camera and will take numerous random pictures, as a matter of fact I put together a slideshow of his random pictures, a lot of them are from Christmas, but I put a couple of recent additions in there.  I will also post his birthday slideshow after that, if you'd like to see it.  Sorry, I'm to lazy to annotate either slideshow.

The world according to Nate - slideshows

NateB'day2012 - slideshows

The Jungle

Every year, starting in Kindergarten the kids at the school do a play.  They combine both classes and work for weeks on this play (I have heard there is a 3 year rotation on the plays, which means Nate's will be different!)  Everyone has lines and parts, Gwen was stripes #6.  They had a "dress rehearsal" in front of the whole school in the morning and then that night we had to be there kind of early, so they could get ready!  Gwen was also a greeter and handed out programs. 

We worked for what felt like months on her lines and she finally got them.  There were about 6 or 7 songs, it was really cute.  Some of it very funny.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize the camera was going to die.  Eric mentioned when we got there, oh yeah, the battery was low last time I used it, helpful!  Gwen had quite the problem with her hat! 

The scene shown below was hilarious, there was at least one kid who really got into the whole guitar thing, which was really fun to watch.

Here is Gwen doing her part, she did a great job and we are very proud of her!  Since she mostly mumbles we are very excited when we don't have to strain to hear her talk. 

They had a nice little reception for afterwards and Gwen got to keep some of her props, very exciting stuff! 

Chitlins

I had an idea for this post earlier, but now it has left my head. So, I guess I will just ramble on about the kids. 

Gwen is doing well in school.  We just had her parent-teacher conference and they had nothing bad to say at all.  She is doing well, she struggled for about a week to get her stuff done in a timely matter, and when she came home with the progress report that said she was "not completing assignments in a timely matter" she straightened right up!  She is writing some of her letters and numbers backward and her teacher assured us that is common for children just learning to write, but if she continues to write letters backward mid-year we might have to look into learning issues.  I did ask if the backward thing might relate to her left-handedness and that is a possibility also.  I am exceedingly proud of Gwen, she was tasked with 2 speaking parts in her school Mass and spoke them so clearly and loudly, I was so proud!  (Grandma was also!)  The teachers told us they weren't real sure the Mass was going to come together, Gwen along with her classmates would kind of speak softly and then all of a sudden the day before Mass at practice spoke clearly and loudly that it about knocked their socks off.  Her teacher said the whole class cheered and rallied around her, my little leader.  Let's hope that she only leads to good things and not bad! 
Nate is still something else.  Too smart for his own good and well loved at Gwen's school.  Anyone who knows Gwen knows Nate, he gives them hugs and walks, who am I kidding, runs around the school.  He has his little friends and really can't sit still.  Seriously, cannot.  I am hoping that with time he will learn to focus and possibly sit still.  Maybe his teachers will have some luck with him next year.  He has spent some time in the class with one of the teachers who is taking classes to get liscensed, whenever she is done working with him she always says he is on par with the 4 year olds she has in class.  She also said that her teacher said he was a future writer based on the stories he told her for her class assignment. 
We are proud of our sweet, affectionate children, and hope and pray that they continue to stay that way! 

The Kindergartener!

Today was a big day for us, the oldest started Kindergarten! She has been so excited to start Kindergarten. I think she's been ready since the day after preK ended. The husband wasn't sure we should send her to preK, but on days like today I was totally sure it was the right thing to do. Gwen was already to go this morning, about 15 minutes before we had to leave, she confidently got out the car and held the 8th graders hand and went into the school.
We had a Meet-the-teacher on Sunday afternoon, where Gwen met her other classmates, her teacher and I took some pictures. Next to the birthday board.
Next to her cubby.
With her crazy brother.
On her first day of school, in her uniform!
On the way to the car.
With her brother, but who's the crazy one now?


Walking out with the eighth grader-in the background in red is her preK teacher, chatting with the Kindergarten aides. I saw her turn, spot Gwen, catch herself and turn around. It was until then that I held it together and I am going to blame her teacher on that.
Gwen only had a half day today, so Nate and I ran some errands, came home, started some laundry and went back to pick her up. You can see her in the picture walking to the steps.
She apparently had a good day. They read a book, and she talked about some stuff that happened, I think we are on par with a good day again tomorrow. She was super nervous and excited about school today. As a matter of fact we apparently decided to have a party last night between 2 & 4am. FUN! Oh wait, not fun at all, we are all exhausted. I was not pleased at all, since I had to get up and run this morning! I am going to try and put them to bed in about an hour or so. (Heh, just kidding) I did enjoy the one on one time with Nate. He was terribly clingy today, but I suspect the is the exhaustion, well that with a side of Momma's boy. I could tell he missed Gwen terribly. I don't know what I'm going to do with Nate all day, I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

What you don't want to see more video of swimming lessons?

Well, too bad, we've got more! This is Gwen pushing off to a swim.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

I don't remember what this video is, but it is Gwen swimming.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Ok, this is Gwen swimming down to the other end of the pool, I took the whole way down to the other end. What I think is funny about this video is that Gwen apparently decided to pass someone and she works really hard to pass the kid, then gets to the end and is floating. Nut!

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

So in this video, Gwen was supposed to jump in, and then saw me with the video camera and decided to jump off the starter block. Show off!

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

These are from today, "safety day", look at the smile on that face.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Nate jumping in at the deep end, his first time!

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

You are in luck, tomorrow is the last day of swim lessons! I am trying to convince Gwen to jump in on her own, no hands, she'll do it with me, why not do it with her instructor? We'll see if she will perform for the camera!

Happy 5th birthday!

Today is Gwen's 5th birthday! My oldest starts Kindergarten this year, summer is halfway over! I don't know really what to say about her. Most of the time she is a sweet, fun and great help around here. She does have times when I wonder what has happened to my sweet girl, but her brother is requiring more and more attention and I think the sweet one occasionally gets jealous and when I speak to her about it and give her some attention life gets much better. She adores Nate though and usually plays so well with him.
She is very affectionate, she especially loves babies and animals. She is planning on moving to a farm, she'd like goats and other assorted animals, which I think she has already named. Every time we see a baby she calls it a "cutie pie" and tries to help it in some way. I almost dread when the neighbors with dogs are outside because I know she will run down there to play with them and then I feel kind of awkward, because I don't really know those neighbors and then I have to make random chit-chat.
She is very timid. She needs lots of coaxing to try something new. And often times she can't be coaxed into something new. I am usually unable to coax her into stuff, which can be very frustrating. But, since going to preK she has become more confident and I am excited to see how much confidence learning to read next year will help her overcome her timidity. She is slated to spend the night at a friend's house this week. And although I am pretty sure that she can completely do it and I have the up most confidence in my friend, I will be interested to see if I get the call. I had a neighbor growing up that was often invited to spend the night and fortunately we were neighbors because it was a long time before he could make it through the whole night. I don't think I had a problem, but then again, why would I remember that? Sometimes I think if we make a big deal about something she gets more nervous. So, I've just casually mention it and telling her that she can come home if she wants or she can stay. I did mention to her today that her friend sleeps in the same room as her baby brother and her eyes just lit up with excitement, so I am thinking that might be incentive for her to stay.
I took some pictures and video of her today, opening presents and riding her bike. I have to mention she was real cautious about her bike today, which is kind of funny, since whenever we were in the store and she tried it she was all over the place with confidence. We tried to take her to the Tobacco trail today so she could get more confidence on the trail, smooth surface, no hills. But sadly, the easiest way to get there is by hooking the bikes into the bike trailer and towing the kids and the bikes behind Eric. On the way there, Gwen's bike tire was rubbing on the trailer tire and rubbed a hole into the tire and tube. Fortunately we found a new tube and Eric replaced it and as you can see from the video she was back riding the bike and racing on the street.
Here is the slideshow with pictures of her cake-which Eric made and I frosted...he made a light and fluffy cake, quite yummy, but the kids seemed to prefer my roses, which were so rich not as much cake was eaten (or maybe they were full from dinner!)

Here are 2 videos of Gwen opening presents, which I thought were quite funny-I am sad I missed the very beginning, because she received a "pop-out" card from her Godfather and she was so excited, when people asked her what she got for her birthday they mentioned the pop-out card. She has since popped out all the characters and played with them.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

These next videos are of Gwen "racing" Eric. He's not wearing shoes or a helmet and he is using my bike, I'd say it was a fair race. She used to ride down the driveway on her old bike, but she apparently needs more confidence before she can start doing that with the new bike.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Another ride...

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

I think I have mentioned that between Gwen and Nate, Gwen is more reserved, more pensive, more a watch and see kind of kid and Nate is more I LOVE THAT. We have a new found appreciation for the public library, air conditioned-age specific activities, what's not to love. Last year we participated in the summer reading contest and Eric won a prize! So we've decided to try it again. The libraries have kick-off events where you can pick up your forms and they have stuff for the kids to do and some free food. FUN! The kids decided to get their faces painted. As you can see:Gwen the ever present ham:
Nate-he was so proud! He told her he wanted to be Captain America, she asked him if he had a red mask and white stars. I should have videoed his reaction he was like "YEAH". I know that you can't really tell that is who he is.
Today we got the met the mail man as he was delivering mail, sadly I did not know that Gwen was going to receive a little package from Grandma. I have successfully hiding all the cards, but when the mail man hands it to her, what was I to do? I gave her the choice to open now or on her birthday. She obviously chose to open it immediately. Then proceeded to put everything on. I made her pose with all the stuff on so I could take a picture so Grandma could see it...
If you look closely you will see 4 headbands and a skirt. Sure I probably shouldn't have let her open it today, but we are 3 days to her birthday and you can't say no to the birthday girl, can you?

New bike

Today I am going to post the videos I took of Nate riding his new bike. I seriously can't keep up with him, I had to run next to him! I am noticing his balance, if the bike begins to tip to one side he can usual compensate for it. Today he had his first hit the pavement with his chin spill. He was ticked, but he hopped right back on. To watch him "fall" off his bike is something kind of funny that I can't describe, one day I hope to get them on video. Gwen had the idea to attach her stroller to her bike so her bear could go for a ride, so I took some video of that also, because I thought it was so sweet.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Happy 3rd birthday!

Today is Nate's 3rd birthday! It is so hard to believe he is 3, mostly because he's talked like a 3 year old for several months now. He's also now day potty trained, which you don't often see in 3 year old boys. He is much improved this year. We are still suffering through a boy who does not nap but probably should, but who would want to nap when there is so much fun going on during the day with Gwen home.
He is quite a sweet boy. He has his favorite people and he gives them leg hugs and such. He still gives a good hug and kiss to all of us, he loves to cuddle for sure.
As I've mentioned he is a very good talker and seems to be very smart. It will be interesting to see if that translates well to book smart. He is a very active boy and has to be watched all the time! He also seems to be very musical. He always wants to listen to music and often plays the piano or the guitar or whatever.
Today has been a very good day for the birthday boy. We decorated the house up and woke up to the sounds of Gwen yelling about balloons. Nate has been walking around all day declaring "it is my birthday!" He seemed to love all his presents and is so aggreable and happy that we all had a lovely day. His godmother and her daughter were able to come up and join us for the afternoon, which was lovely. And although we could not find Nate's "Speed" car to put on his cake, he loved it nonetheless! He is currently camping outside in the new tent he and Gwen have received for their birthdays! Here is a slideshow from today. Enjoy!

The videos-preK graduation

I have uploaded all the videos, they are all less than 5 minutes, some have several songs some have just a couple. I have only viewed the first one, I might eventually go back through and watch them all, but wanted to get them posted, in case someone out there is like, "I can't wait to see the videos!"

Halloween & Thanksgiving songs from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

Untitled from Melanie Ubil on Vimeo.

I have to give credit to Eric for most of the videos, I think I might have done 1 or 2 of them, and probably the ones that you missed the beginning of because I was like, oh, I'd like to video this one!

preK graduation

Before my sweet Mother's head explodes from the excitement of seeing Gwen's preK graduation I thought I would post the pictures. (Ha! I'm just kidding, she is excited to see them for sure, but she won't be able to see them because she doesn't have an internet connection currently, so this will be a nice surprise for her!) We also have several videos to post, but that will take longer, so for now pictures of my sweet girl. I took pictures of her on her last day of school, just as I did on the first day of school. She looks so different! If you'd like to compare, here is the post about the first day of PreK.

On Thursday was the end of the year ceremony, "graduation" if you will. The kids performed all the songs they had learned throughout the school year. I think it was 10 songs, I am too lazy to go count, sorry. They did seasonal songs and Jesus songs and fun songs. The kids were really funny, some had stage fright and some half participated, but they were cute! After their performance we went back to the classroom where we had refreshments and gathered all the stuff they had for us, including their graduation certificate. They also gave 100 picture album book stuffed with pictures of Gwen and her friends throughout the year. Then we said goodbye to her friends and teachers (sadly one of her teachers couldn't make it, she was in Ohio watching her son become a Capt. in the Air Force).
Gwen seemed fine about school ending but Friday evening she became pretty upset. She was showing Grandma the pictures from her photo album over Skype and I guess she realized how much was going to miss her "kids" and her teachers; she started crying about how much she missed her teachers. I coaxed her into making a card to her teacher that we could deliver to the school. She was still upset but sat in Daddy's lap and started the card before dinner. Both kids were incredibly tired so we put them to bed early and it was very quiet in there and I went to check on Gwen and she still had tears in her eyes and had her photo album opened to her teachers' pages. She was also kissing their pictures. Poor sweet child! Guess we have to work a little on transitions with her.

Ironic

This was an unusual week for us here. I had jury duty service on Tues, which is kind of fitting if you knew my Dad. The story goes he was called for jury duty the day before inventory which was a day he had to be at work for, he tried to change it, but they wouldn't let them. He had some choice words for the judge, or so the story goes. Now that I was in the jury pool for NC I can judge some different areas of service. Each state has it's own process and at this point I am saying I liked AL process the best, it seemed to go much faster and they didn't tell you if you were an alternate until the jurors went to deliberate. Which actually is awesome because you pay attention but if I was an alternate and knew it I would probably not place as close attention. I think that the only problem with jury service is they don't let you change your date. I was very concerned I was going to get called to a trial and not have childcare. I think all states should excuse Moms like me who state at home, had to rely on a friend to selflessly talk my children all day, with not much else but my thanks!
Today was Gwen's preschool graduation. They sang all the songs they learned though out the year. We sat in the music room and listened to their "performance" Eric got some video, which I hope to post some time soon. They didn't have the hand out the certificates and wear the caps and gowns. I am cool with that, they are only 4 after all and while it is cute, it is not necessary, because really all it does is make everyone cry and act silly. With this week, I am sure I would have cried and I did cry when Gwen's teacher blubbered over her class gift. (the kids laid down on the ground in the letters spelling out her name. It appears almost all of Gwen's classmates will be returning in the fall, one girl and her family are moving, but everyone else will be there next year. So our summer has begun. And at this point we really don't have anything on the agenda! YAY!

5 years

I have been trying to come on here and post but have not had the words. I finally realized why, 5 years today. So, I guess I will post about that. I am still a bit distracted, but I guess I will try to type out how I feel.
A couple days ago I thought, I'd like to talk to Dad about that. This is random and not usual for me and I suspect if I figured it out, it would be one of the "significant" days of Dad's last days that subconsciously remembering. It was actually then that I realized I started several posts and hadn't finished them.
As I was thinking of my Dad today I was wondering if my ideas and thoughts about him are getting romanticized, which I guess is what happens when you don't get to talk to people, you remember the good times and forget the bad, you remember things differently. I have been considering what Dad and I would talk about today. And I have had a good giggle, when I think about how I would lament the damn bunny that is getting into my garden STILL and he would talk about the squirrel that is climbing on the pool enclosure. Then we would talk about Uncle Jack and how he would give the squirrels a ride in his town car in his humane traps.
I have determined it doesn't matter if the death of a parent is expected or not, it still is an adjustment and difficult. And just when you think you are fine a little something will sneak up on you, but fortunately those moments are few and far between for me now. Of course the problem is that you never know when things are going to sneak up on you. I suspect I will always have some kind of funk around this time, some years worse than others, but I still have my Momma left to talk to about it and although I imagine the depths of her pain are worse than mine it is nice to be able to say "How you doing?" and to have someone to share how your feeling without having to say "since Dad died".

my luck

I have been thinking, it is time to do a how my kids have matured post. My kids are at the age that is really great. At this point they genuinely like each other and I used to separate them for quiet time, but it is working better to keep them together. Nate would just trash the bedroom and Gwen would be bored and keep bothering me. They would be whining and fighting in the car, so I thought maybe they need time apart...apparently not, they need time away from me. I am cool with that, Gwen is enough of a tattle tale that if Nate gets into something she lets me know. It is a good system!Gwen has blossomed, as her teachers at school tell me. She is quite the sweet little girl. She is becoming more independent and often makes lovely conversation, for her age. She is coming along in the writing department. I think she has a long way to go, but as a right hander I keep out of it, so I don't confuse her poor left handedness. She is in a lovely phase where she will ask me to spell things out for her and she will right them down. She knows some "sight" words, I was rather shocked to see that, but very proud of her. While she was on spring break I brought her to Bible Study and she had all those little boys playing games and being quiet and mostly out of trouble. She has no problem being in charge. But, I think she sometimes just watches a lot especially if someone else is in charge and she doesn't want to do what they are doing. She seems to not always stand up for herself, if no one has taken the lead she will, but won't always defend herself, so we will have to work on that a little. I don't want her beating up on people, but I'd like her to learn not everyone will do what she wants to do all the time so she's not such a sore loser. I am sure that will come in time!
Gwen and Nate are definitely in a lovely phase of getting along, it certainly makes my life easier that they genuinely like each other and want to hang out together. I have noticed that now that Nate has gotten older the playing is getting a little rougher, plus Nate's I don't care attitude about bugs/insects is really having a good influence on Gwen the "AHHHHHHHH A BUG" screaming phase is tapering. She doesn't always love the insects but she often says "oh what a cute caterpillar...." I am afraid we might have bugs coming into the house, because my children bring them into the house! I am not looking forward to that at all.
Nate is something else; a real charmer! He has all the ladies fooled. He is mostly potty trained, unless he is particularly tired, (apparently like today). He only seems to have accidents at home though, so I am pretty happy about that. Well not really happy about it, until I just typed it out just now and have to say, if he's going to have an accident anywhere I'd rather it be at home then when we are out somewhere. He is a talker and he loves music, if he could sing and listen to music all day, he would. He is a little crazed sometimes, but he seems to be pretty smart and sometimes follows directions the first time you tell him...that is of course if he isn't tired, hungry, or has to pee! He is sweet and affectionate. He gives anyone he knows hugs and kisses.
In other news, my kids are obsessed with pets. They pretend to be dogs and lap water out of bowls/cups, whatever. They walk each other on leashes. It is quite cute. I guess one day we'll have to get them a pet. Probably won't be for a few years yet.

The marathon

The epic battle, potty training. It is not that terrible, the problem is that while I have a urgency to get done with the potty training, Nate doesn't care, he is 2 after all and to him so what Mom is always doing laundry and is washing the floor more than usual. He doesn't care. He is not trying to be ugly or contrary. I am convinced he can do it and he knows what he is doing, but as with everything else, as he starts to get tired and hungry all of our training goes out the window. He does awesome in the morning, it is in the afternoon we have all our accidents. Of course as with everything with Nate it is a rather humorous prospect, I am sure lucky that Nate is the second child and Gwen broke me in to the whole epic nature of the "potty training experience". I am not as frustrated and take it all in stride. I think we are getting close, we only had the one accident and he apparently pooped in the potty today (unlike yesterday when he pooped on top of the potty). But we have all learned that when Nate poop on the potty come get Mommy because Mommy needs to help wipe. (she doesn't want to continue to wipe up poop from places that aren't your butt). I have also learned that boys need way more underpants for "practice" than girls. Nate is pretty good about sitting on the potty and pointing, but man the aiming thing doesn't always go as planned. I don't understand why and I am not sure I want to, but needless to say, we change underpants A LOT even though we don't have that many accidents. He only has that problem at home though. So this weekend we got another 7 pack, Nate is pretty excited.
He took them all out and put them on his head, and told us he was Mater! This weekend we helped with the Used book sale at school, this is Eric's type of activity. I signed him up to clean up and we went a little early and he bought a lot of books and talked about it all weekend. While we were there we looked at Gwen's classroom, I don't know if you can read her praying hands...
it says "I pray for Lana's dog Chewy and my family and my Uncle Eric". What is funny is we do special intentions everyday and we pray for our friends and their dog who has been deceased over a year, they've never met the dog, but we pray for him, everyday!
I think I have previously mentioned my free tulips and I think it is kind of funny that I planted all these tulips and I got all the pink on one side and all the yellow on the other. But these last to pop up are so pretty I made the kids pose in front of them. I think you can see we chopped off Gwen's hair! She wanted it to be short like her friend's I am pretty excited about it, she looks cute and so much easier to maintain!

Update

We have been very busy around here the last couple of weeks. Nate showed an interest in potty training and like Gwen I think like Gwen he would do much better if I just let him go with it. It seems to me if I ask him to go and he goes then he forgets to tell me. But then I have issues now like today when he pooped in his underpants (again) and he tried to clean it up. He pooped in his pants yesterday and fortunately I noticed almost immediately. But, sadly today he pooped during quiet time. I made him go potty before we went for a walk this afternoon and today he peed on himself during dinner. So I put him in a diaper! I know that is the wrong thing to do, but I can't handle any more laundry. He is totally able to be potty trained and he has the desire and most of the signs and I want to get it done, but I am tired of the laundry. I don't have any patience for this part of the process especially since he has days when he has no accidents. I just don't know what to do. We will be gone most of the morning again tomorrow so I haven't decided if I want to just let it go with underpants or if I am going put him in diapers and wait until later. This is the part of parenting I am not fond of, maybe I should have read up on a parenting book or something on potty training, because I am obviously no expert.
I seem to be having a random bad week where I break dishes and I get peed on and it generally makes the week frustrating. Sure they have been great moments but generally things just aren't going my way this week. Which happens to everyone on occasion. So, we will see what next week brings, it is going to be a quieter week, I think.