Christmas and Potty Training

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Grant was so excited for Santa this year. We really thought he would be up at the crack of dawn but thankfully we were wrong. Both kids slept until almost 8am...woo hoo! Some of their gifts included: Grant got a new bike, an iPad mini (I know a bit much for a 4 year old but he LOVES it), a remote control helicopter, lots of new board games and puzzles, Star Wars action figures and the complete movie set (yes, all 6 movies), Transformers, a personalized Chair,lots of Octonauts stuff and more I am not remembering right now. Sloan got a ton of Little People stuff (Princess castle, bus, car, airplane, etc.), a dollhouse, bath toys, a walking kitty, a personalized chair, a cash register and more. They both loved everything they got and we are very thankful! Two extremely over-indulged kids but it is fun to watch their excitement!

Sloan's new favorite phrase is "come here, I need to tell you something" and then she tries to whisper but you can't understand her. She is always asking where Jon Walter is and it is funny. They spent some time together at my mom's house and she enjoyed it obviously, lol.

The potty training began on Christmas Day! And Sloan is proving much tougher than Grant on this process. We are now on Day 7 and she has FINALLY started telling us when she has to go. Whew! A ton of wet panties in the last week! I was honestly beginning to think we may have to wait a little while and do this again in a few months. But she is so smart and tells us to change her diaper when she is wet...so she IS ready. Good thing that I am just as stubborn and persistent as she is! She had one accident yesterday and none today so far. I actually got confident enough to take them both to run errands this morning and she did great. I took our car potty with us and she used it twice while we were out. I also had spare panties and pants but didn't need them, yay! The pooping is not as good yet. She will usually start to go and then say "I need to go poo poo". Not horrible since it is only once a day. I think she will be trained in the next week or so. I am off this week so my hope was to have it done before I went back to work....and I think it will happen now. I am still putting her in a diaper for naps and bedtime until I am sure she will be dry the entire time. I value my sleep too much to be getting up changing sheets in the middle of the night, ha ha!

Soccer picture, Aquarium Fun, Christmas Cookies, Cowboy Christmas and a Tricycle

I think that I forgot to post Grant's soccer picture so I have included it in this post. It is a great picture of him so I was excited when I saw it.

I took Grant to the Aquarium last week and we had a great time. He was on a mission to find some sharks and touch some sting rays. And we found some! He touched a lot of stingrays, sea urchins, starfish, and sea anemones. He really wanted to touch the baby hammerhead shark but it wouldn't come close enough while we were there. Since school wasn't out yet and we went on a weekday, there was hardly anyone there....it was awesome! He has several books about different types of sharks and fish that we read before bed. He found a lot of them and let anyone around him know what they were.....in a LOUD voice "That is a hammerhead shark!". The few people around us, including the workers, got a big laugh out of it. He made me promise that we could go back soon so he could touch the hammerhead and see more sharks. The "Behind the Scenes" tours require kids to be 7 years old so he will really love that when he gets older. I planned to take him to the Dolphin Show but he said he didn't want to go to that again, LOL.

We made Christmas cookies and Grant wanted to make blue cookies...not just red and green. So we made blue of course. The pictures look funny since they have gloves on.....but it is to keep from getting dye on everything. We also made peanut butter fudge, brownies, peppermint bark and pretzel candies! Lots of sweets around here this week!

Our Elf has been hiding all over the house each day.....I am trying hard to remember to move him. I am guilty of waking up in a panic and running downstairs to move him before the kids wake up. His name is "Buddy". Funny story....our original "Buddy" is in storage so I bought the girl elf this year so they could each have one next year. Grant hasn't even noticed that it is a girl thank goodness, ha ha. Grant has a huge advent calendar in his room now. He is religious about waking up and moving the stuffed candy cane to a new day/number. I never even have to ask him. It has been a great way for him to know when Christmas will be. He gets very excited when he gets to move the candy cane to a new row. He is already asking what day he can open a gift and I told him on the "24". He was really confused at why there is not a "25" for Christmas Day. I never really thought about it but ours doesn't have a spot for the actual day.

Grant's preschool Christmas Party was a Cowboy theme. I am really not sure where that came from but we just went with it obviously. All of the kids were asked to dress up. He made a cute little cowboy! I just realized that he didn't have his boots on in this picture and he was thrilled to be wearing cowboy boots! The preschool keeps me busy, that's for sure, ha ha. They made cowboy ornaments that are really cute. He also brought home "reindeer oats" that we have spread out in the yard so Santa will know where to come. It is basically Oatmeal in a bag and Grant really likes oatmeal......he has eaten half the bag himself, lol!

Sloan can reach the pedals on the tricycle so she has been practicing her pedaling skills. She is definitely not there yet but starting to get the hang of it.

We are almost done with diapers in our house.....throw a party....woo hoo! I am going to potty train Sloan while I am home for the next 2 weeks. I am hoping it goes smoothly. She is definitely ready! She tells us when she has to pee and poop and will say "mom, need to change my diaper" and go get a diaper and lay down, ha ha. She calls toilet paper a "napkin". She will pee on the potty and say "I need a napkin".

Santa!

We went to see Santa! Ahhhhh the things we put our kids through....and ourselves! We go to a great children's store that creates the easiest Santa experience. You make an appointment and get all of your pictures digitally on a USB drive for a great price. There is no wait which is awesome with 2 impatient kids. We fully expected Sloan to scream this time. She certainly made a hysterical impression on the workers at the store. There was one family in front of us and the little boy was screaming. We were trying to tell Sloan that Santa was fun and Grant was going to sit with her. She kept saying "no thank you, no thank you!". It was not looking good. The employees were laughing and saying how polite she was when she said no, lol! We put Grant on Santa's lap first so he could tell him what he wanted without having Sloan screaming. He proceeded to tell Santa about all of the specific Transformers (ex. Laser beak) he wanted. I think Santa was confused because he said "oh you want a laser gun"....not exactly. Meanwhile, we saw that Santa was giving out candy canes and Sloan loves mints....woo hoo! I told her "if you sit on Santa's lap, he will give you a candy cane". She said "okay" in a leery voice. We put her up there with Grant and she was borderline about to scream. Grant was so sweet...he reached over and held her hand the entire time. We quickly told her to say cheese and she could have a candy cane. She said cheese and then promptly said "all done, get candy cane!" and that was that! Success! Now she says "sit in Santa's lap, get candy cane" which is pretty funny after that experience. Grant got upset after he got down because he forgot to tell Santa that he wanted an iPad. I assured him that he could tell his elf and it would get back to Santa.

Thanksgiving and then some!

We went to Easley for Thanksgiving and had a great time visiting with everyone. Grant and Sloan got to play with Jon Walter. Sloan carried around dog biscuits the entire time for the dogs.....she asked for them as soon as she woke up and wouldn't put them down.

Sloan's new skill is jumping. She has been trying to do it for a while now but finally got some air under her feet this week. She also can do flips on the floor. And the biggest one......we were getting their bath and pjs ready for bed and they were playing in our room.....Grant suddenly screamed that Sloan got up on the bed. We went in there and she was jumping on our bed, laughing her head off. We both looked at Grant and said he should not help her up there ever again. He was adamant that he did not help her. So, we put her on the floor and she promptly climbed right back up there all by herself....ugh! Hoping she doesn't decide to climb out of the crib anytime soon!

We have started "Efl on the Shelf" again this year. Our elf from last year is in storage so I bought a girl elf this year. I guess they will each have their own next year, lol. Grant has really gotten into finding the elf everyday when he wakes up. But both kids have seemed to have forgotten the rule about not touching the elf. Grant also has a huge advent calendar in his room and he moves the candy cane to a new number each morning.

They love their carrots! 

Grant and Jon Walter 

Sloan with our elf! 

Sloan with Hemi the cat 

Go Gamecocks! 

Sloan with her biscuits in hand, lol! 

Sloan and Jon Walter 

Sloan and Uncle Michael 

Trying to get all 3 kids to hold the letters J.O.Y for CC's Christmas card picture.....whew it did not turn out to be an easy task at all! 

Soccer Trophy, Early Christmas Tree, the Pink Pig and more...

Some update from the past couple of weeks….

I had Grant’s parent teacher conference and it was great. He is doing well with all of his preschool work. They are working on short words now to begin reading. He points out the words “the” and “a” whenever we read books at night. The one area for improvement was “talking too much”. I must say he gets this honest from his mama! I also learned that he repeats everything at school! We had a few dead cockroaches in the rental lately and he informed his teachers that “his house had bugs”. I was asked during the meeting what our plans were for Kindergarten since they offer one at the church. I explained that we were going to be moving and living in a rental now. She looked at me and said “oh that explains it then” and proceeded to tell me about his bug comment. Who knows what else he is telling them. The kids are leaning their full names in class now. Grant came home and asked me what my full name was. I said “Melanie Houston Johnson” and he looked at me so confused and said “no, that is CC and Papa Bill’s name, not yours”. I explained that it used to be my name and then I married daddy/Luke. Then the questions really started…….Why did you have to change your name? What does marriage mean? Can I marry you? How big do you have to be to get married? Whew…..I did my best but explaining all that to a 4 year old is not as easy as one would think.

His speech has improved so much since we have started going to therapy. It is still not perfect but has made a huge difference.

Grant had his last soccer game and there was a party afterwards at Stevie B’s (pizza place). He got a trophy and promptly lined it up next to last year’s trophy when we got home. Very proud of it! We are looking into T-Ball for the spring maybe.

Our Christmas tree is in storage since we did not anticipate being in a rental this long. So, we went and bought a new one this week…..yes, a tree up BEFORE Thanksgiving, yikes! The kids had fun buying a tree especially riding in the double car buggy at Home Depot! And Grant came home with a blow up Darth Vader that has a Santa hat! Only 2 ornaments have been broken so far……

We went to the church for Hands on Christmas. They have tons of different crafts for kids and a candy cane café for lunch. Grant got to make lots of fun things (a snow globe, ornaments, a hand print turkey, a beaded necklace and many more).

I took Grant with me to Lenox Mall one day and it just happened to be the day the Pink Pig opened. He saw the tent and begged to go ride. So, we went and rode this super cheesy ride. He insists that we go again and take Sloan.

Sloan loves to say “I can do it” now for EVERYTHING! She continues to be very head strong and determined to get what she wants no matter what. She loves to take Grant’s stuff. She knows where he hides his prized stuff (in his bedside table top drawer). She can now open the drawer and will go get stuff out and he flips his lid over this. He has now started to move his stuff to other places that she cannot reach. They do fight a lot over the smallest things but I guess it’s normal sibling stuff……tiring sometimes though.

Grant with his soccer trophy! 

Hands on Christmas at the church 

Grant found a broken piece of his sunglasses in the car and decided he was a pirate as we waited to drop him off at school! 

Pink Pig! 

Home Depot fun! Grant demanded that they both ride in the big car buggy.....I am not a fan of these because I really think they are just full of nasty kid germs.....I lost the debate this time! At least they have wipes near the carts now! 

Sloan loves this cow. It sings "Girls just want to have fun". I used to love this song but I must say that it is getting old at this point, lol! 

Halloween and Preschool Pictures

The kids had a great time this year trick or treating! Grant was a Transformer (Heatwave - the firetruck) and Sloan was Dorothy. We went to our old neighborhood since we are still renting and met up with some friends there. Grant wanted to go to our old house and start there. The family that bought our house was on the porch taking pictures and Grant ran right up there and got in the middle of their picture! (can anyone say "photo bomber"!) It was pretty funny and they understood thank goodness. Grant then was on a mission to get to as many houses as fast as possible. I actually broke a sweat trying to keep up with him while carrying Sloan! Sloan had fun saying "trick or treat" and then wanted to eat what she got immediately, especially the suckers. Grant's favorite candy was Gum. I have never let him have it before and he begged to try it. So, I gave in and explained that he could not swallow it. He chewed it up and then spit it out when he was done. He now says his favorite candy is gum! I still don't have gum in the house just in case Sloan got her hands on it.

Grant had a Halloween party at school and I was one of the parent helpers. There were three other moms and we all dressed up like Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and and Thing 2. It was cute and the kids loved it. We got to play games with them, decorate little pumpkins and give out awards to each of the kids for their costumes. One little girl, Sylvi, was Annie and she got up and sang the entire song "Tomorrow" and at the end, the whole class started to sing. It was so adorable! It turned out that she had done it 2 other times that morning before the parents arrived, lol.

Grant with our pumpkin! 

Dorothy and Heatwave ready to get some candy! 

At our old neighbors house getting ready to trick or treat. Sloan was screaming, for fun, at the top of her lungs! And Grant was telling her to stop. My loud little girl could break glass with her scream. 

We put up our small blow up cat this year. We couldn't do the rest since we don't have a yard.....next year will be more festive. Sloan had to hug and kiss the cat every time we went in and out of the front door. 

Out to eat, Sloan demanded to get a booster seat when Grant asked for one. So, she got one! She did really well with it since the particular booth seat was pretty high up. She is still in a high chair most places since she is so little.  

Heatwave and Thing 1 at preschool! 

Grant's 4 year preschool pictures! We got a couple of really cute ones this year.