Count me in!

You know you're the parent of a toddler when...

...you go pee and your toddler comes running from the next room, cheering, "Yay! WooHoo! Good job, Momma! You went potty!"
...you talk about things like going potty w/reckless abandon.
...'helping' w/the dishes or cooking actually means 'spilling' something.
...you have to stop yourself from laughing the first time they shout "NEVER-R-R-R!" like a pirate after you've asked them to do something for you.
...you know all the words to the Bob the Builder song and find yourself mumbling it as you fall asleep.
...everything is a game. "Your coat is sad, can we make him happy and put him on? Don't steal my meatballs! Don't eat them! How fast can we pick these toys up?"
...you have no need to imagine what it would be like if 3 rolls of paper towel were torn off, sheet, by sheet, and strewn about your kitchen.
...you find yourself asking, "Where did you get this?" a million times a day.
...you hit your elbow on a door knob and make up words like "Fuhmoodertooder!"
...you use the timer so often that your toddler hears the smoke alarm while you're in the shower and keeps yelling, "The timer, Momma, the timer's beeping! It's the timer, Momma! Get the timer!"
...you have a secret stash of confiscated (or special food for mommies and daddies only) items! Sh - it's on top of the fridge!
...you eat snacks all day! (Maybe this is only true if you have a boy...?)
...you live for nap time. This video should serve as a visual/auditory explanation.

We love 'em, but can I get an AMEN??

What are some of the ways you know?

And if you don't have toddlers, go ahead, tell us some of the ways you can spot a parent of a toddler. Be honest - we'll try to laugh about it, I promise!!
***Disclaimer - all testimonies written here are true and can be fully verified by the author and her boss. Do not attempt to recreate these scenes in your own home. Doing so will only serve to confuse and disorient family and friends. TLW - it used to mean True Love Waits, but in this case it means Toddlers Live Wildly!

Date Night

We went out on a date night Saturday and saw one of the movies from our list on the sidebar. We saw August Rush at a cheap theater. Everyone always asks, "Was it good?" whenever you tell them you saw a movie, so I thought I'd just put my 2 cents out there...First of all, we wanted to see it b/c it was about a kid in a boys' home who believes his parents are speaking to him through the 'music' hears. Music as in the sound of the wind in a field, the chimes hanging by his window, the cars whizzing by, etc. Noise. But it was like he was autistic and he heard music. The music and kid needing parents thing intrigued us. Anyway, for honestly the 4th time in our lives, we were the ONLY people in the theater! (Side note, one time, on vacation, we were alone and Dave went out to use the latrine and the movie shut off. Not just that, but the lights went out. So I was ALONE in the DARK. So since then I always tell him he can't leave!!) Back to this story! It was actually more fun b/c then I could yell at the screen - "Hurry! It's her!! She's gonna leave w/o you! RUN!!!" I thought the movie was a little crazy. Some parts I really didn't like b/c the boy was really being taken advantage of and it seemed every time he got something good happening in his life he got stuck in a bad situation. At one point I almost started crying and I told Dave I just wanted to get to the end! I assumed there would be a happy ending, which there was, but it wasn't good enough to redeem all the other stuff. It was cool how they worked the music into it though. The other movie we recently watched was I Am David. Go rent that one instead! Have you seen any good movies lately?

Good Morning Dry Diaper!!

For those of you sick of reading potty training posts, skip this one. If you didn't read some of our troubles earlier, this was the post. But today - Mo woke up completely dry and instead used the toilet!!! He is currently standing on his stool..."I'm gonna sing a song for ya"...he's too cute! Even cuter when he makes progress like this, right?

DRY

It's been seven hours and Moses is still dry!! He's gone on the toilet three times!! In our house, that means I have thrown my head back and shouted WOO-HOO three times and two red and one 'lellow' M&M's have been eaten. I did a potty dance last time! We've been laughing a lot and we are all hoping this is a sign of things to come. I know he still hasn't asked to go, but I feel like this is step one. We needed this today =)

The good, the okay and the ugly

Just a few updates...talked to the adoption social worker today and we have an appt. for Feb 8. I feel like that's forever away! But I guess it's under 3 weeks...I still haven't heard back from the foster care social worker.
Small victories - Mo's back to sitting on the potty again, and going a bunch. We ran out of Halloween candy M&Ms, so I bought the big bag! He always asks for red though, so I should have gotten a Valentine's Day pack.
And now the ugly. I don't think I said anything about it, but we just got a really nice new car. I didn't say much, I guess, b/c I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or whatever. Well, we've had it since Jan 1 and I drove it once so far. Dave uses it to get to school and I just drive the brown bus. Anyway - Dave was in an accident today. He's fine, but the car is not. He took out a street light pole. I can't believe they go down that easy! This was a really industrial looking one. Well, the tow truck guy thinks they'll total it, the car that is. I was like, "Um..." and then I didn't really breathe for a while. We really didn't need this right now. We have always talked about just having one car and how we of all people could actually do that. But w/everything going on, this was just one more thing, you know? So...if you think of it, could you please pray for us? It's so ridiculous in our culture how we rely on these conveniences and feel like we can't live w/o them...I just remind myself that w/God there are no accidents. His plan is superior to anything we could organize and these 'setbacks' serve only to bring us closer to Him. I'm sorry to use this space to complain about something so trivial...on a more meaningful note, please pray for Crunchy Chicken's family. She's the author of a blog I frequently read...if you're interested in a specific thing to pray for, click here to read her latest entry on family news. Thank you for taking the time to keep them lifted up in prayer! I know from firsthand experience how much it means to people in that situation. Ok, enough of that...hasta la proxima vez (until the next time)!

Swamp Juice

Our friend Jason keeps saying we should throw more raw veggies into our blender to make smoothies...this is our second attempt. Hoo-EE! It's green! There's romaine lettuce and carrots, but the rest is fruit, so we cheated. There's apples, a pear and oranges. It was yummy! I tried to convince Dave to throw in some broccoli...not sure how that would have turned out, but he got scared anyway. Then Mo wanted to take pictures of us - keep in mind it's the morning and I'm not very awake! (AND it's a toddler operating the camera!!) Cheers!

Hang on!

Here's an analogy: Adoption and foster care is like a roller coaster. Stop me if you've heard this one! Thus far, we have been waiting in line. There is a rope maze, which deceives us into thinking we are getting somewhere. We see all these people who are coming off the ride, we hear their screams, we feel the rush of air as it pulls into the 'boarding station'. We get excited and try counting the number of people in each car in relation to the number of people ahead of us. "We're getting on the next one!" we say, only to see we must have miscounted or something. Today - we are standing right behind the rope and the high schooler working the controls just told us we are going to get an extra minute on the ride!!
BONUS.
Yesterday I called the foster care social worker to say we are ready for our first interview, paperwork and house stuff is essentially complete! Today I missed a cell phone call from an unavailable number. So I checked the messages, which I never do. The first one was from November! Anyway - there was one from early last week. It was the state adoption social worker. ACK!! How much longer would that message have sat there?? So I called her back and left a message. Last time we filed adoption paperwork, by the time they called us we were pregnant. God's got a sense of humor! So today I started feeling funny that these two things are happening together. Which they should. We are hoping to work with both social workers if we find the right kid(s) in the foster system to adopt. But today my heart just fluttered at the thought of things actually happening!
BONUS.

See this movie!

For those of us who question everything, and for those of us who silently go along with the majority. Please, click the photo to go to the movie site and then click trailer. Whether you agree or not, I think you will find it interesting!

Pat my own back

I have always wanted a photo in the title of our blog but I couldn't figure it out. What do you think?? I tried to find a photo w/either none of us in it or all of us in it. This was the best I could do...

So much to write about...

Today, I don't even know where to start! I've got some good pics, so maybe I'll start w/them. Last week Mo had his first swimming class! Lots of fun...in the second one you can't even see him - he's underwater. He's doing pretty good with it!

The other pic is from last Friday morning. A bunch of us parents and kids usually get together for some fun at various places. Mo and Samuelito were both in a good mood! Buddies!!Finally, here's a picture of Moses helping me cook. Now that's he's getting older, he wants to do everything we do. Dave and I are like, "Yeah, here kid, here's your job list!!" Actually he really can be helpful unloading the dishwasher and stuff. Anyway - Dave and I both agreed Mo needs a little more structure during the day, so we've created a little schedule. He still has plenty of free play, but now we work on numbers and letters a little, we get music and gym time and he helps me with cooking and cleaning. I'll probably post a copy of that schedule next time, so you can all keep me honest! Obviously, he's two and I'm not really a restrictive parent, so I'm not following it to the minute or anything. But we've been having fun cooking together and Sweatin' to the Oldies for gym time! He loves that tape - I brought it out as a joke, of course, but they have a live band and he really digs Richard's enthusiasm!
FOSTER CARE NEWS - paper work is 90% complete. We need to type our personal info, make a fire escape plan and install smoke detectors. There's some discrepancy about whether or not the basement stairs need a hand rail. At any rate, we hope to be setting up an interview this week. YAY!!!

Diaper challenge Days 1-3

We've learned a lot in 3 days.
1) Mo's not interested in sitting on the potty anymore. No, he won't even accept bribes.
2) The pull-ups are too big.
3) "I have to go potty" actually translates to "I just went potty".
4) Maybe we're not ready for this?
So for now, we're still in diapers. We think we've solved the night time wetting with the overnight diapers, which at first appeared too big, but seem to actually be okay. We'll still ask and make a big deal if he goes, but...I don't know. I don't want to push him. That's partly a lie, I do - b/c I'm sick of paying for paper diapers and washing cloth ones! The washing wouldn't be so bad if the sun came out once in a while. I just washed a load of them yesterday. I was sitting in the LR and I thought, "What is this bright light coming in my window??" The sun! Quick - wash something and hang it outside!! It was the best. I'm not sure why I love hanging wash so much. I guess it makes me think of my mom and how I loved to see her do that. I was going to say I loved to do it with her, but I don't think I helped much. I remember talking to her while she hung stuff up, but...it's still a good memory, I guess =) Do you have any weird things like that? Stuff you like to do and you don't know why...? Or is it just me? Ha! Don't answer that!

Monday = No diapers

We are out of the 'good' diapers and down to a few of the cheap ones. So Monday is the official kick off to potty training! Do I sound excited? Should I take that exclamation mark away? I would be excited if there was, say, a guarantee that it would happen in 48 hours. But there's not. So I'm going to try the underwear and plastic pants thing. And I'll try to put him on the toilet often. But lately he's been refusing. So that's not good. He has been asking us to change him if he just has potty though, so if it's bothering him, that's good, right? I'll keep you posted!

FINALLY FRIDAY

It's been a tough week for me...I haven't been getting much sleep and just stressing about stuff. I still haven't gotten back into the groove after Christmas. With that said, I thought today was going to be awful...but it wasn't! Moses and I met up with the parents group at the art museum and did some projects in the kids' area. It was so much fun and the kids were really good! Mo's buddy (recently adopted from Russia) was there, and we had a couple of good laughs working on the bubble machine. Then a bunch of the kids were in the play house and I sang them a lullaby - they started fake snoring - too cute! I felt so blessed and uplifted by my friends and they probably didn't even know it. The fact that we have people here who are family to my son is beyond what I could have asked for. Then we went out to lunch w/another family and both kids were well behaved. It wasn't too messy, they weren't too loud and they ATE what was served! Ok, it was pizza, but hey we're counting that. I got home, got Mo to bed really easy! I guess he was wiped. I was able to clean a little and the begin preparing dinner. I made chicken dinner for us, our adopted daughter Beatrice and another family. It seemed people liked the chicken =) and the boys played relatively well together. We enjoyed the conversation and laughed at the boys as they played toy guitars and sang. All throughout the day, I kept having moments where I felt I was happy. Not even tired, just happy! I am so grateful for my friends...so to all of you, even those that I am not in regular contact w/, please know how much I appreciate you being in my life! Love, Mel

Polar Bear Plunge

It's a BEAR!!!!

Not just any bear, a polar bear! Just wanted to brag that Dave's famous! This is the 2nd time he's been photographed by the Sheboygan Press during the Plunge! His brother Carl took the dip too...you can see them both in the Press video (Dave appears around 50 seconds and Carl, blue swim trunks, is there around 2 minutes.). Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you had a good time over the holidays!