Wait, didn't I JUST do this?

Oh that's right, I did. Just under a year ago now I finally potty trained Nicholas after 6 long months of ridiculousness. Nick screaming "I don't like it mommy! I don't like it!" as he sat on the potty (Heaven only knows what the neighbors thought was happening!) Hiding in corners to mess his pants. I would make him drink 2 large sippy cups of water and then stick him on the potty, and 2 and a half hours later he would start to cry "I'm cold! I need my diaper back on!" so that he could pee in it. I tried everything people told me, none of it worked. 'Cold showers' only made him constipated because he would hold it in for days so he wouldn't get one. He was almost 3 and a half before he finally gave in. It was a nightmare I didn't want to repeat. You can only imagine the panic I felt when a few weeks ago Christian, who won't even be 2 until November 22, came up to me and said "Poo poo, mamma!", and had nothing in his pants-he was ASKING to go! Could I really do this again? I put him on the potty and he went. I was supposed to have at least a year before I had to do this again! I should have known it was coming. The kid has been obsessed with toilets all his life. EVERY-TIME we left the bathroom door open and the toilet seat up we would catch him in there splashing away. One of the worst days of my life was when he figured out how to lift up the lip by himself. After 2 weeks of Christian repeatedly telling me that he needed to use the potty, I decided I'd better do it when he while he's still really into it. So we went out and let Christian choose his pull-ups. He insisted on 'Go Diego' ones. He loves them. Several times I've caught him with the package hugging it. We've been going at it for almost a week now, and he's doing great! Yesterday he only had one accident! Today he had 2 but that's because the toilets at Target make him nervous. He even wakes up dry from his naps! I'm still not sure if I'm up for all this, but it's happening weather I like it or not!

The Good, The Bad, and The Even Worse.

I pride myself on my shopping skills. I consider myself a die hard shopper. I love to find good deals. I love shopping Baby Gap clearance, and using coupons on top of the clearance price, and paying less than people pay for walmart clothes. I bought Nicholas' entire school clothes wardrobe including 6 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs of pants and a backpack, all brand new, and all name brand for $35! I am one of those women who get up at an unearthly hour the day after Thanksgiving to stand in freezing cold lines hours before they open to get incredible deals on Christmas presents. But even a seasoned pro such as myself, has a bad day occasionally.

The Good: Bath and Body Works Warm Milk and Honey Pillow Mist.

There is something almost not right about how well this stuff works. I have to admit I was skeptical. I've never believed much of aromatherapy claims, but since I had a coupon to get it for free, I gave it a try. I have trouble falling asleep at least 3-4 nights a week, but ever since I have started spraying this pillow mist on our sheets at night, it's only a matter of minutes before I'm out. I use it on my boys beds too, and they fall asleep faster. My only problem now is that I'm addicted to it, and I don't have another free coupon, so I'll have to pay for the next one. But honestly this one is worth every penny. *Note: this one is not the popular Lavender and Chamomile spray, it is a new one with cinnamon and cloves.

The Bad: Nick's new birthday bike.


I figured that If we bought him a bike at Toys R Us, it would be better quality than one at Walmart. After looking at all the bikes we got him this very cool looking one made by Dynacraft. Not even 2 months later the crankshaft broke. Nick hardly even rode the bike! JUNK! After reading the online customer reviews (something we should have done before we bought it) I found out that this seems to be a brand wide problem because all the bikes made by Dynacraft had reviews saying the crankshaft broke within weeks of purchase. When I returned it to Toys R Us they would only let me trade it for a new one, which I refused because I didn't want the same problem, so they said that I could trade it for a different one, but the problem with that was that to get a bike that wasn't made by dynacraft, I would have had to pay $40 more! That's like buying a whole new bike. Finally after a lot of haggling they gave me in-store credit for the price of the bike. Luckily for us the same day all this happened someone from church emailed and said that they were giving away some boys bikes. We lucked out and got Nick a free "new" bike! I guess we can use our Toys R Us store credit for Christmas presents or something?

The Even Worse: Chefmate Electric Can Opener.




I don't know why but lately we have had very bad luck with can openers. This is our 3rd one in 3 months! The first one was a cheapest of cheap hand operated one from target. I think I paid $2 for it. It worked OK for for a few months, but quickly got rusted and became unusable. So I decided to splurge a little and bought a nicer more deluxe looking one at walmart for $4. Not even a month later the cutting gears somehow warped and it is completely unusable. With such bad luck, Sam and I thought that maybe we ought to try out an electric one, hoping they would be better. Unwilling to spend $25 on a top of the line item that did the same thing as a $2 one, I went with a $10 electric can opener at Target. I can't tell you how bad this thing is. I have had the most ridiculous time getting it to work. It takes several minutes to get it to line up properly, and then it sits and makes weird noises like it's trying to work, but can't, and then when you are about to curse at it and throw it out the window, it starts to work. My only hope is that it will somehow break quickly so I will have an excuse to get a new one. So the question is... Does anyone out there have a can opener they recommend?

The house that Nick built

Nick has been very into tools lately. I finally had to go to the store and buy him a little tool set and some "wood"(Floral foam), and "nails" (golf tees), so that I could keep him out of Sam's toolbox. He has been building and fixing all kinds of things. This is the birdhouse he built. I love it!

Soccer

This is Nicholas' 3rd season playing soccer. With all the rain we've had this season isn't working out very well and saturday was the first game he's had since the season started in august. I have been amazed each season how different the games are. Mostly it's because the kids grow and mature between each one. His first season when he had just turned 3, the kids mostly ran around like crazy and almost never got the ball in any net, let alone the right one. His second season they had figured out that the goal was to get the ball in the net, not just to kick and run as far as you can until the coaches stop you. This season his games actually resemble games. They still don't have a goalie, and they still play every kid for himself instead of as a team, but at least they know to kick the ball in the right net most of the time, and they stop when they go out of bounds. We still get the occasional pick-up- the-ball-and-put-it-down-in-front-of-the-net-to-kick-it-in, but over all they are starting to get it. It's really fun to watch. Nicholas made 2 goals on Saturday, I was so proud of him!

Thanks Grandma Brady!

Grandma Brady decided to put my boys obvious artistic talent to a more practical use and sent them some watercolor paints, and a pad of painting paper. Immediately after receiving them in the mail, they got to work on some masterpieces. They had a great time! Christian loved to dip his brush in the water cup more than anything, and discovered quickly that paint water is "yuck yuck!" Nicholas favored mixing the colors in the mixing tray to discover all the new colors he could make. What fun!

Nicholas' first day of preschool!

Yea! It's finally here! I don't know who was more excited, me or Nicholas. We got up early so we could have a special pancake with sprinkles and watermelon breakfast before school. To every person he saw on the way to his class Nicholas said "Hi! It's my first day of school!" Class today was only for a half an hour so that the kids could meet the teachers and explore the classroom. He had a great time playing with all the toys and meeting friends. As we were leaving though he voiced his only complaint. "But mom! We didn't do any work today!" We have been practicing writing letters and coloring shapes to prepare for preschool, so he was very disappointed that we didn't do it at preschool. I promised him that he would get to do work tomorrow. All day long he made Christian play pretend preschool with him. I'm excited for him to go to preschool. I think he'll have a great time!

Hi! What's your name?

When Nicholas meets new kids he often times forgets to ask their name, and just calls them "boy" or "girl". In preparation for making friends at school, we have been practicing what to say when you meet someone new. Today Nicholas came up to me and said "Hi! My name is Nicholas Loren Brady (he's very into saying his full name right now), what is your name?" I said "My name is Natalie Dorsey Brady." He looked at me excited and said "Oh! My Name is Nicholas Grandpa Dorsey Brady too!"

Um, the boys are being awfully quiet.....

Sunday morning Sam and I were upstairs in our room talking while the boys were downstairs playing. Suddenly I realize they are being a little too quiet. My initial fear is always that they have gone out the back door to play, which happens more often than I would like. So I send Sam downstairs to check. He got halfway down and heard them talking. Satisfied that they were not outside, he came back up without checking what they were doing. A few more minutes went by and I still felt uneasy about how quiet they were being. My boys are almost never quiet when they play together. There is always screaming and yelling and laughing. So I send Sam down again. "Natalie! You have to come and see what they are doing!" So I go down. Now a few days ago I bought some candle holders that were white, and I let Nicholas help me paint them brown. Well he decided to climb to the top shelf of our linen closet, get the brown paint and paintbrushes and let Christian help him paint. Not only were the candle holders more brown, so were the candles, the buffet, the carpet, and my boys. Poor Christian must have been painted by Nicholas because he had it all over his back, and a big glob in his hair, which took 3 washes to get out! My main regret is that unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries before I could get very many pictures.