a week with nana

Boden had an exciting time while we were away on vacation - Nana came to stay with him for the week - and they had so much fun. They had picnics at the park, went to the zoo, went swimming, and then went to Grant's Farm on Friday when Poppa joined them. My mom is a kindergarten teacher - so I think the fast pace of a toddler was an easy fit for her - she's used to changing activities every 10 minutes! Here's some photos of their week:

Thankfully, he was happy to have us come home and very excited to see us. He especially liked the sombrero we brought him (too bad it was a little small, but he doesn't mind at all)

A Refreshing Retreat

Michael and I got the opportunity to spend the week at a resort in Mexico last week...alone! It was our first time away from Boden for more than one night. I was a little nervous about leaving him for so long, but very excited about Michael and I getting to spend some time together. Lately life has just been busy, busy with the new church, Michael's school, buying a house, etc. And we know it's not going to be slowing down soon with the coming arrival of little miss. So, we took the chance when we got it, and had a great time.

this is where we spent most of our days, just relaxing and reading

Boden had a great week with mama & daddy gone, but he was sure excited to see us when we got off the plane - and we were excited to see him too!

"look what I made!"

With our little girl planned to make an appearance this fall, I've decided to start my serious attempts at potty training. I have absolutely no desire to diaper two children at the same time and have decided I will do as much as I possibly can to avoid it. I've been setting Boden on the potty here and there since he was about 6 months old, just to get him used to it. I know some kids can be afraid of the potty, so this was my attempt to avoid that. And also because our spunky pediatrician told me if I started when he was 6 months old I could have him trained by the time he was 1. (I guess she should have been more specific to mention I needed to be consistent about it. Once every couple days doesn't really do it, if you're wondering.)

So a few days ago I decided to just take off the diaper and suggest he go on the potty, alot. He much prefers the little bjorn potty, I think because he can get on and off it himself and he can move it to another room rather than just sitting in the boring old bathroom.


He was really excited about this at first. He would go and then he would stand up and exclaim "Look what I made!" and we would all cheer and say "Yay Boden!" That was apparently exciting enough to him that he found a way to go pee approximately 11 times in the first 20 minutes. I was thinking, "wow, he's really catching on to this...this isn't going to be so hard after all....well, unless he really has to go that often." And then he tells me "I need to go poo poo" and he sits down on the potty, goes pee, then stands up and poops on the floor. Seriously?

Poop on the floor wasn't so exciting to me. I decided I didn't really want to do that again so we headed out for some "big boy undies". We found some with Cars and some with Thomas the Train. I saw some that were little boxer briefs for toddlers which I thought was just adorable, but they were only solid colors - not nearly as exciting to a 2 year old as Thomas the Train. Isn't that the most adorable little underwear model you've ever seen?

He actually does really good when in underwear and has only had a few messes. In fact, we even had a successfully dry trip to the bookstore the other day with no diaper. He definitely knows the difference though - if he's in a diaper or a pull up he doesn't really even bother to tell me he's going. I'm not expecting him to be trained by next week, but I think we've got a good start (at least I hope so!)

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on another note of how grown up my little guy is becoming, he's taking his first nap in his big boy toddler bed right now. I really want to go take a photo, but the shutter is too loud and I don't want to wake him (this is one of only 2 naps he's taken in the past week so I'm not chancing it). We aren't really planning to move him out of the crib until we move next month, but he was refusing to nap, so I laid down on the toddler bed with him and he fell right to sleep.

random moments in our life

Lately we've been keeping pretty busy. We've been house-hunting in O'Fallon for the past couple weeks. House-hunting is not really one of my favorite things to do, it's time consuming and stressful, and disappointing when you find out a house you like has just been sold, but it sure is exciting when you finally find a house that will be perfect for you - like we did just a few days ago! more on that in a later post... Michael has been very busy working on his sermons for the Ephesians series our church is doing this summer. This is the first time he's done a series, so it's been a good challenge for him and he's really enjoying it. I didn't get to hear him last week since I was doing the preschool lesson, but many people told me it was great. Hopefully we'll start getting them recorded soon and posting them online so those of you who live out of town and want to listen can.

Boden is acting more and more like a little boy all the time - his imagination is starting to show up and he is cracking me up all the time. We were driving to a friends house this week to go swimming and he had his little diving rings and he was pretending one of them was a steering wheel - he was turning it around and around and saying "look mama, I'm driving!" Very proud of himself too.

The other night he insisted on wearing his hat to bed...and when I went in to get him in the morning he was standing there in his crib with his hat still on! I had totally forgotten about it, so I had to chuckle when I picked him up.


He also had his first popsicle of the summer. (I know, I know - who gives their 2 yr old a popsicle while wearing a white shirt, right?) He actually did pretty good at not getting any on himself, but it was hot outside and melting fast so I finished it off for him :)
He's also become quite the climber. I walked into the dining room the other day to find he had fixed himself a little "snack" and pulled up a chair to read my bible. We have a counter height table, so I was surprised to see him get all the way up on the chair by himself.

Then, one day last week he put on daddy's flip flops, shuffled towards the door, and announced that he needed car keys and that he was going to church. LOL. "See you wayter mama!"

Being the mom of a 2 yr old can be a struggle sometimes, but there is so much joy in it too. I feel very blessed.

Exciting News!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today! It was very exciting - so much fun to see the baby moving around. The ultrasound tech took a long time looking at things and measuring every bone and organ so we got to see the baby for nearly an hour! It's amazing what you can see on those things.

We've debated back and forth whether or not to find out if the baby is a girl or boy. We didn't find out with Boden and it was a lot of fun, but this time Michael wanted to know, and I kind of did too. Sooo.....drumroll.......it's a GIRL! We actually had to wait about 30 min into the ultrasound before finding out because she was positioned funny and moving around a ton.

It was fun to see her stretch out her legs and at one point she looked like she was scratching her head and another time sucking her thumb. It's funny now to be able to say "she" when talking about the baby. I never was able to do that with Boden, so it's totally different.

Here's a few of the good photos from the ultrasound:

We are so excited and so thankful that everything looks just perfect. She's measuring right on target for our Nov. 3 due date and looking healthy in every way - Praise God!

Vacation!

We just got back yesterday from a weeklong vacation in Virginia Beach with my side of the family. (well, most of us were on vacation...Michael had class during the day, but was able to join in the fun for the afternoon & evening). We rented a great house in Sandbridge with a pool and lots of other fun things to do and it was just a few houses from the beach. We had fantastic weather too! I have tons of photos to go through but here are a few for now:

playing some golf on the putting green

Swimming with Poppa. He loved going "fwimming" - he has no fear of the water apparently

Running into the ocean. Boden had absolutely no fear of the water at all. It was hard work taking him to the beach because you had to stay within 2 ft of him at all times because he would just dart out into the ocean. He got overtaken by waves a few times and scared us, but it didn't stop him one bit!

And of course - no family vacation to the beach is complete without the "khaki and white family photo". It was interesting to try to get a group photo that included a 2 yr old while using a self timer. He's not real big on standing still for 10 seconds to wait for the photo.

Running on the beach with Daddy. The family photo shoot resulted in Boden getting completely soaked in the ocean.
I will have more photos to post later - but now it's time for a nap :)

Let's Go Cardinals!

Grandpa gave us tickets to a Cardinals game a few weeks ago - we almost didn't take Boden because the game didn't start until 7pm and we knew it would run into bedtime, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Boden was such a little Cardinals fan! He cheered "Let's Go Cardinal's" the whole way downtown and all through the game. He sat for 6 innings straight on my lap without fussing or trying to get down and run around. When we did decide to get up and walk around, he just whined "Watch the game!" He's such a little sports fan - just like Daddy & Grandpa.

Busch Stadium

Boden wasn't really sure about this guy - he held on to daddy pretty tight

watching the game

Mother's Day in Nebraska

I haven't had the chance to update my blog in awhile - we've had internet issues. But thanks to my hubby who spent an hour on the phone this morning with AT&T (or rather a guy in India who was very helpful, but difficult to understand) we are now back in business!

A few weeks ago we traveled to Nebraska to spend a few days with family and celebrate Mother's Day. It was a short trip, but we had fun and got to see family. Boden usually sleeps a lot in the car, but not this time! He was much more interested in the cows in the fields, and the trucks driving by, and making me read stories and sing songs over and over and over. Makes me a little nervous for our upcoming drive across the country to Virginia Beach.

We had a nice brunch on Saturday with the whole family and both grandmas too.

Playing on Poppa's hammock

reading with Poppa

smelling the flowers with Great Grandma Brandt

Family

Boden & Mama

Goofing with Aunt Caela

My mom, Grandmas, Boden & Me
reading with Great Grandma Jeanne

Boden & Nana

We also introduced Boden to scrabble (a favorite of my mom and mine). he thought it was fun, but mostly he just wanted to collect all the letters on his tray and wouldn't give them up. :)

We had a really nice time and I'm so thankful for my mom -she is a blessing to me and to my whole family. Especially since becoming a mom myself, I have come to have such a greater appreciation for what she does & has done for me and my sisters - she's taught me a lot and is always there for me when I need some advice. Thank you mom!

memory verse

over the past week i've been teaching boden his very first bible memory verse. i taught the preschool lesson at church last week, and our memory verse was proverbs 3:5 "trust in the Lord with all your heart". i had never really thought of trying to teach boden memory verses so early, but he caught on quick! he surprises me all the time. it absolutely melts my heart when he's just playing with his toys and saying the verse, without me prompting him at all.

this past week

here's my project 365 page from last week. i've been being lazy about uploading them to the blog, but i am completely caught up! i can barely believe it!

michael was out of town last week in guatemala on a mission trip. it was a tough week not getting to talk to him more than once all week. some friends had boden and i over for dinner on tuesday, boden spent wednesday with michael's mom while i cleaned house and went to some meetings for CASA, and we had mom 2 mom on thurs and a playdate on friday - it went by fast! michael had a great trip (aside from the headcold that was made worse by the flying and high elevation) and can't wait to go back...maybe next time with the whole family! I think getting a first hand experince of a completely different culture changes you - it makes you appreciate even more all that you have - and realize how much we have that we probably don't need.