This Week

• Preschool Robin. A good preschool is expensive, Daniel would be lonely, and even if I wanted to send James, he's not potty trained. So, I decided to take it upon myself to try to teach them a few skills at home. Last week James, Daniel, and I had a party. We made finger paint (pictured above), peanut butter play dough, colored, painted and played with play dough, stamps, and balloons. The boys loved it and it was a fun variation from playing with their toys or running errands.

•  As previously mentioned, James will be three this week and is not potty trained and I think it's my fault. We put him in big boy underwear twice this week and he LOVED it. He felt so big and special and he loved the race car print on them. Only problem is that I'm not up for cleaning up messes. He'd probably be long potty trained by now if we were renting, but it sounds awful to try to clean pee and poo out of the wonderfully white carpet Mike and I chose for our house before we had kids. So, my choices are: wait until summer when he can have his mistakes outside, order chem dry once he is potty trained, or wait for who knows how long until he can make the transition without any mistakes... currently I'm leaning toward the pee in the backyard approach until he has it figured out, in which case, Daniel will probably join in the fun and be potty trained at the same time...

• Daniel has started this new thing this week where he doesn't watch where he's going. He'll be looking behind him even when he's running full speed ahead. He has had some major head whacks. Walls, banister on the staircase, chairs, signs in the mall, couches, tables, people, etc. Pretty much anything that he could run into, he does. Poor kid. He's sure talking a ton, though. He tries to say just about everything James does and he even said his first 3 word sentence: "There it is." when he saw one of his toy cars. He  calls everything "this."

•  I LOVE my new Bosch! Not only does it make perfect bread, but I got the food chopper attachment at the same time. It chops my vegetables perfectly. Then, last week I learned about a juicer attachment, so I had to get that too. It's the all encompassing and amazing kitchen tool that I love to use at any chance I get.

• Date Night. I LOVE it. Fridays have become Mike's and My night where we get to do whatever we want without the boys. It is such a fun break and time to play together. I look forward to it and cherish those nights more and more! 

• James has a new favorite book. It is called "Hey Mr Choo Choo" and it looked so painfully cheesy at the library that I almost put it back on the shelf. But he loves it and nearly has the thing memorized. Maybe it was the cheesy, over-the-top approach I took to reading it the first couple of times that made the story so endearing to him!