it's been a while!

i was caught up in my Whole30 blog for the past month.. feel free to browse around that...
i'll try to be better at updating this thing.

nothing exciting for now... ha! we are sick with fevers, well, the boys are, and just hanging out on the Lord's day today.

A Little Behind

No, sorry.. no pictures of a little behind.

Just haven't  posted on this blog. I've been beyond fatigued lately and it's been "sucking my will to live." --Wayne's World.

Earlier this Fall I met a Vietnamese lady in the park with her 2 1/2-year-old daughter. We've become pretty good friends and try to hang out 1-2x/wk. It's fun to watch Jae and Michelle play together! Our families got together and went trick-or-treating together on Halloween night. (Sometimes in Carlisle Halloween isn't on the 31st. This year it was!)

I will post pics sometime....

Computer is back!

Our computer crashed a few weeks ago. Sure is nice to have it back. We have a new hard drive and put our old one in a case and locked in our fireproof box.  Someday when we have money, we will recover the data.

Army Heritage Center

We went to the Army Heritage Center with CMains and her 4 boys. It was hotter than Hades and I was an absolute snail! 

Even poor little Joey was so red! I tried to shade him as much as I could!

Jae had been on a no-nap kick that week and was quite surprised he didn't want to nap when we got home! I was ready to collapse!  After lunch he ran off somewhere and I kind of forgot about him because I had to put Joey down for a nap. I found a sleeping Jae with Joey's snacks in between the back of the couch and the cushion, mid-eating:

Joey's Burn

Sunday morning on August 19, Joey burned his hand. I saw Jae playing with our floor lamp arm that is bendy in our room. I turned to talk to Jimmy and all of a sudden I hear Joey screaming. I looked over and Joey was trying to get his melting skin off of the light bulb! Jimmy had just healed up from his burned hand, so he told me to run his hand under cold water. I did that, but also doused his hand in lavender oil.  (Later we found out that you shouldn't put oil on a burn like that because it traps the heat inside.) But, it did seem to calm him down some!!  We ran his hand under the water for 20-25 minutes.  We were lucky that the Ped's office was opened during this time it happened, so we were able to take him to the doctor about an hour after it happened.  Here are the pictures of his burn and the progress throughout the weeks:

August 19

August 24

August 31

Sept 4

(I started to put lavender oil on it again when the bandage came off for good.)

Here he is, bandaged up! He would bite on his mitten wrap because he hated to have it on! He would bite it and tear it halfway off! He was quite the trooper through all of this, though. Only hated to be restrained when he would have a bandage change.

Day 12-13

Potty training sucks.
That's all.

Potty Training

This post is all about potty training (obviously), so feel free to NOT read this one. :)  This is just for my own sake. 

Ahhh!  Jimmy and I survived a world of chaos as we potty trained Jae in just 3 days!  My sister told me about this 3-day method and I was all over it!  We tried it with Jae back in December, but my birthday was ruined and I wasn't about to have Christmas ruined, so we put Jae back in diapers.  I think it was a mix of "he wasn't ready" and "we are losing patience."

This time was much better!  Except for Day 1.  That will never be the fun part.  Anyway, for memory's sake, here is the run down:

Day 1: Potty training is the newest birth control.  This is the hardest day, but you HAVE to keep in mind the end goal! You HAVE to keep your cool and STAY positive no matter HOW many times the kid piddles all over your carpet.  You HAVE to keep the hope that your kid WILL tell you that he has to pee.  It will happen.  Have someone to text you who's done this method so they can cheer YOU on as you cheer on your potty trainee.  If it weren't for my sister, I think I would've strayed from the method and messed everything up!

• Dry nap
• Did not need to go potty before bedtime or at midnight
• Wet the bed the next morning at 3:30
• Too many to count wet accidents

Day 2: Not having children until Joey is potty trained. A little bit of digressing, but it was a fluke. :)  There were definitely LESS accidents!  For Christmas last year we got him a $13 Black & Decker plastic tool set with 42 pieces in it.  (Just something I grabbed at the last minute for him.)  Well, he had way too many toys for Christmas, so we decided to save it for his birthday.  Well, he had way too many toys for his birthday, so we decided to save it for potty training prizes.  It worked out great!  Less candy and moar toys.  :)  I dread doing this again with Joey, but I'm totally pro now, right? Ha ha... no.

• Dry nap
• Dry the next morning
• He woke at 6 and I was right there to greet him.  I took him to the bathroom, but he didn't need to go.  We did a puzzle for 10-15 minutes.  Jimmy woke, got out of bed, and went into the bathroom. Jae said, "I wet!"  So I yelled for Jimmy to open the door and Jae did, too. Talk about bladder control! :)
• 2 BM accidents
• Going to the bathroom by himself! He wouldn't even let me go! "Not you!" he would say to me and put his hand out.

Day 3:  We need to be rewarded, too!  We didn't say, "Let mommy know when you need to go potty" as much.  That was nice!  Mostly just, "Keep your underwear dry!" Jimmy caught his BM that I've been wanting to catch all day!  He didn't go at nap time, so I knew it had to come before the end of the night!  He did it after his bath and thank heavens Jimmy caught him in the act and rushed him to the toilet. Safe!  That was a celebration for a while! :)  I suppose that, itself, is reward enough: for Jae to be potty trained in 3 days. That is a stinking miracle (no pun intended)!  Jimmy and I were dreading doing this again since we know how it went the first time.

• Dry nap
• Prairie doggin', but Jimmy saved the day!
• Jae continues to go by himself. "Not you!"

The things Jae will say when he needs to go are always followed by running to the bathroom:

1. Ahh! (not loudly)
2. I wet!

Ok, so there are only 2; it seemed like more.

I would recommend 3daypottytraining.com for any of you wanting a quick guide to potty training your kid(s).

Thanks for having kids before us, Camille!  Sure makes it nice to have a go-to person. Ha ha! ;)