Brushin' his teeth

Today was the first day Cade brushed his teeth all by himself. I have brushed his teeth and gums with one of those finger toothbrushes before but he has never used a real toothbrush until now.

I know, you can barely contain the excitement you're feeling because my 11 month old has learned to use a toothbrush. He might only have four teeth at the moment, but he cleans those four teeth like a pro. You'd think he'd been brushing his teeth for years!

Oh, and thank goodness for baby toothpaste. He prefers to eat the toothpaste first, then brush his teeth! I didn't say he was perfect at the whole thing, just that he was a pro.

Now, if only I could get him potty trained, teach him how to fix himself a bottle, and get himself dressed in the mornings, we'd be set! Until then, I'm going to enjoy watching my baby boy remain the baby in the family for the next 7 months because after that, he doesn't get to be the baby anymore! :(

Happy Birthday McKinly

We went to Sumo for McKinly's birthday dinner. It's a Japanese Steakhouse and one of our favorite places to go. If you've been reading this blog for a little while, you'll remember the last time we went there.

This was actually Ty's first time to ever go. He is going through a stage where he's really picky about what he eats so he has never wanted to go before now. He did pretty well, didn't eat as much as Cody but I don't think anyone can eat as much as he can at this place!!


Everyone watching him make an "eggroll"



The Birthday Girl trying to catch a piece of egg


Cody's turn to try and catch it. This is his favorite part.


Ty wouldn't try it because he doesn't like eggs, that's why I don't have a picture of him attempting it.

I do, however, have a picture of Daddy showing off by moving away from the table to try and catch a long distance one. The egg didn't make it.

My little man using his chopsticks. Have I mentioned how much he eats here??

Last but not least, the beautiful Birthday Girl!

We hope you enjoyed your dinner baby girl!

Incredible Pizza

On Saturday, Ty had two basketball games back to back so it made for a long morning. Since the boys played really hard for two hours straight (which is very difficult for a 6 year old who doesn't have a very long attention span) we decided to take them all to Incredible Pizza afterwards.

Since Ty was running around with all his basketball buddies, I never could catch up with him long enough to get a picture.

Cody riding the train



Cade with his silly face



Cody "driving" the car



McKinly on the bumper cars


And speaking of McKinly, she is 10 years old today!! We are going to Sumo, a Japanese Steakhouse, for her birthday dinner! She sure knows how to pick the expensive places now doesn't she?? I can't complain, I love that place!

Happy Birthday McKinly, please stop growing up so fast!!

Exhausted

Exhausted doesn't even describe how I'm feeling right now. I walk around like a zombie. I get plenty of sleep at night yet it still doesn't seem to be enough. I sometimes feel like I shouldn't even drive the kids to school for fear I will fall asleep behind the wheel. I wake up every morning and start counting down the minutes until the kids go down for their naps so I can rest. If I make it nine whole months without falling into a deep coma, it will be a miracle.

I went to a movie with my friend Susan Sunday afternoon and I kept dozing off. I mean, come on, two hours in a dark room without kids hanging all over me. It was the perfect opportunity for a long nap.

I did find the energy to take Cody to the Science Museum on Saturday but those pictures are on my friend's camera. I'll post those as soon as I get them from her.

Well, it's 8:30 and I'm going to go get in bed. It's way past my bed time.

Minor Setback

Cody had an accident today. How did this happen one might ask? There is only one word.

Daddy.

I left to pick McKinly up from piano and was gone a total of 15 minutes. In that time period, Daddy forgot to remind his two year old son to use the bathroom. Daddy said he thought Cody was at the point to just come tell him. Normally that would be true but when one is in the backyard playing with his friends, it's easy to forget to remember he's in underwear, NOT a diaper.

And since Daddy had to deal with the accident, he thought it was easier to just put a diaper back on him rather than a fresh pair of underwear. Um, I don't think that teaches Cody much of anything but what do I know, right??

Oh well, this wasn't Cody's first accident and I'm sure it wont be his last. Plus, I can still say he hasn't had an accident with me around in 4 days!!

Guess who hasn't had an accident in 3 days??

That's right, Cody has been doing this potty training thing like a pro! We had two days where he had a few accidents and that was it.

A few months ago we tried potty training him and he was deathly afraid of the toilet. He screamed every time he sat on it. We didn't push the issue because we were going to be traveling so much over the holidays. Now that we're back and we found out another baby is on the way, we figured now was as good a time as any.

He has done awesome. I don't even have to remind him when to go, he just tells me when he's ready. He gets very excited when he uses his potty. I'm getting a little sick of the song it plays, but hey, it makes him happy.

He is still in diapers for naps and when he goes to bed at night but as far as the daytime goes, I think he's got it down!

Risky Business

When we got back from McKinly's piano recital, I put Cody back in underwear. Then I realized he looked like Tom Cruise from Risky Business.

We couldn't find his sunglasses and he took his socks off but it was pretty close to Tom Cruise's popular scene!

This is how he walked around our house the rest of the evening. What can I say, we like that Old Time Rock n Roll.

Happy Belated New Year

We were still resting up after our trip New Year's Eve night so we just hung out with some friends.

Cade had fun playing with Braden's new toys.


Cody stayed up until midnight but crashed fast as soon as we got home!

(he could barely keep his eyes open by this point)

It will be an exciting 2008! Cade will celebrate his first birthday and then we'll welcome a new baby in our family...again! It will definitely be exciting, and VERY tiring!

The Rest of our Trip

Due to the pregnancy shocker, I kind of forgot to write about the last few days of our trip.

We hung out at the water park on and off all day on Saturday. I loved it because I knew they couldn't go far, there were plenty of family and lifeguards to keep track of everyone and most of all, the kids had fun!

Cade and Uncle Doug


Cody going down the slide


Aunt Linda and Cade



Cody hanging out in the water


T.J. and Patrik


Cody trying to shoot water out of his hands like Uncle Doug


After the water park, the kids all got to open MORE presents. Cody got this really neat Magnet building set from T.J.'s Aunt Linda and he LOVES it.

Danika and Cody building


Janine got a face painting kit so all the kids painted each other's faces


The kids all had a great time and were not ready to go home. We left Wisconsin Sunday around 11 am and we ended up driving straight through to Oklahoma. We had planned on stopping in St. Louis but the trip didn't take as long as we thought so we kept going. It was a 13 hour car ride with four kids and believe it or not, it wasn't bad at all. The kids were so exhausted from our vacation that they slept most of the way!

Monday morning is when we decided to take a pregnancy test and that leads us to now! I think we're all caught up. At least the blog is, I still have mounds of laundry to finish but it's slowly getting done!