Family and Snow Days

We have had an eventful week for sure. We went to see family this past weekend, specifically for my grandfather's 81st birthday. We had a great time seeing everyone and the kids got to enjoy another round of Christmas gifts (the ones from my dad's side of the family).

Then, we heard that we were going to get snow in Atlanta. And we definitely did! It started Tuesday morning and started sticking fast. I had to pick Grant up from school early and we got home easily. Luke left work a little later and it took him close to 3 hours to make it home. We were very lucky considering what happened to so many people....stranded on the highway in crazy gridlock traffic for 10+ hours. We ended up with around 2+ inches which is a lot for us. Schools were closed today and will be again tomorrow. We have enjoyed sledding and playing in the snow. We do not have a sled so we decided to try a boogie board.....and it turns out that it works awesome if you flip it over so the top side is down. Grant had a blast sliding down a perfect hill behind our place. Both of them ate snow and Sloan wanted to bring it inside, lol. We also made cupcakes to keep busy inside.

Funny Grant story.....his underwear, which are boxer brief style, were getting too small. So, I took him to the Gymboree at the mall to pick out some new ones. They only had solid gray in his size for that style. So we got a couple pairs of those but he really wanted some more that had different designs on them (animals, spaceships, camo, etc.). So, he picked out a few of the classic brief style which they did have in his size with designs. I explained that they were different and he assured me that he would wear them. That night, after his bath, he put a pair on and said, "Wow, these are like diapers!". It was so funny! He has worn them just fine though.

Making cupcakes during our snow day!

Sloan and Papa at his birthday party!

Cousins!

Potty Training Update, Preschool PJ Party, and More

Sloan is continuing to do great with potty training.  She is 100% pee trained no matter where we go which is fabulous.....but we do note where the bathrooms are as soon as go somewhere, LOL!  She is still not quite there on the pooping though.  She will say "I need to go poo poo" like 5 times but nothing happens when she sits on the potty and then she will say "I need to go poo poo, oh no went poo poo!".  She recognizes it but just hasn't mastered it yet.  Thank goodness that only happens once a day or less, ha.

Sloan is our little "boss"!  She loves to tell everyone what to do all of the time.  She also says "Watch me" a lot and will grab your face if you are close enough and repeat it if you are not paying attention to her.  She has picked up on our first names too.  So she will now yell "Melanie" or "Luke" and laugh because she knows we will correct her and say mommy and daddy.  She loves to feed Mason biscuits and dog food.  She has to have 2 biscuits and if I hand her 1, she will say "no, I want 2 biscuits".  But she is now very sneaky about giving him other food too.  She will take a snack food (chip, wheat thin, cheese, etc.) and take him around the corner and break off tiny pieces and feed him.  We have caught her red handed a few times now.  Of course, Mason follows her everywhere she goes now......and I think she knows that is why. Sloan is also demanding to walk up the stairs instead of crawl.  She can barely reach the railing but somehow manages to grab the rail and walk up the steps.  Of course, we are right behind her and I am NOT encouraging this right now.  She is just so head strong and determined to do everything by herself.  She can count to 11 perfect every time now.  She can sing her ABCs really well and sings lots of different songs (favorite at the moment is "Wheels on the Bus").  She is becoming an expert jumper and loves to spin around until she is to dizzy to stand.

Grant had Pajama Day at school and I was the party mom for this one.  I was tasked with cooking pancakes and sausage links for all of the kids.  I am always amazed how much kids eat when they are not at home with their parents.  There are 16 kids in his class.  I cooked over 40 pancakes and 40 sausage links and they were all gone when I left! Grant ate 3 pancakes and a sausage link (he has refused to eat sausage at home).  He was so full that he didn't eat lunch though, ha!  All of the kids wore their pajamas and brought their favorite stuffed animal.  Grant brought his Build A Bear that he just got, which is a Red Panda with a Darth Vader outfit. 

Grant loves his mini iPad and I think he would stay on it all day if we let him.  He is now reading some short words such as "is, the, and".  He is also starting to do some simple addition.

Grant is now 40lbs and Sloan is coming in at almost 21lbs (what she lacks in weight, she makes up for in personality).

Sloan in her big girl panties!

 Grant with his sword

 She never quits talking....I caught her mid sentence...

 Pajama Day at School

 Grant's Class

 Grant in his angry bird pajamas holding his Darth Vader stuffed Red Panda



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.