Mark's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I thought you all might get a laugh out of Mark's "Jonah day;" I certainly did!

Our Washer has been broken and Mark took the whole thing apart and has been working on it for days. He finally got the part he needed to fix it. However in the process of trying to figure it all out he placed the original part back in and the washer fired right up. Needless to say he was a little bummed at all the lost time and energy.

Merritt and Morgan did not take naps. In fact, Merritt opened the bedroom door (where Morgan was) and shouted, "MORGAN, HOLD ON A MINUTE! DADDY NEEDS JUST A FEW MORE MINUTES TO FIX THE WASHER!.....Morgan continues to cry....

Merritt poured water on our computer keyboard. I would have attached photos, but out desktop computer is out of commission until further notice now.

Merritt dumped glitter sand over Morgan's head

Mark got a ticket for expired tabs.

Merritt opened up one of those slide pulls that are attached to coffee dispensers at Fred Meyer as they were going by in the cart...What a mess!

Mark babysat a friends kid last night. He cared for and cleaned up their vomit the last 45 minutes they were here. Friend-if you are reading this, we still love you and your kid and hope he feels much better today!

Here's hoping for a great Wednesday for all of us!

Morgan's First 6 Months

Here is a little view of the book I just ordered for Morgan. It is her first six months...FINALLY finished!

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERRITT!

New Photos

Morgan Our Big Girl

Well we decided to just "go for it" this week. we moved Morgan into her toddler bed. She is doing great so far; we are on day 3. We feel so lucky to have 2 kids that stay in their beds! I have heard some real nightmare stories of how some parents try to keep their kids in their rooms. She seems to like it and wakes up really happy in the morning. Merritt thinks it is pretty cool too. When I came home last night from work, both kids were playing in the bed, laughing and rolling around. Merritt was picking Morgan up under her armpits and carrying her into the bed. She'd giggle and fall down only to get up again and ask him for more. In headline news (which I will try to get Mark to write about in more detail) Morgan pooped and peed on the toilet yesterday. She told Mark and then led him to the toilet. I am considering it a fluke...something she thinks is "the in thing to do" since she's been watching big brother. It was exciting anyway!

Morgan

He Loves to Sing

Merritt really loves to sing and can actually remember most of the words to his favorite songs. A lot of the time he slurs words together because it is more a sound to him than 2 separate words. This results in some pretty funny lyrics on his part. One of the many memories that I love about my childhood is that my mom always sang to me at night and one of my favorites was a Scottish Folk Song. I sing it to Merritt often. Here are the words below if you don't know it. What I love, is that when Merritt wants to hear it he asks for and sings "Bunnies by the Ocean." I wonder what the mental picture he gets looks like!

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me

REFRAIN:
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Bring back my Bonnie to me

Last night as I lay on my pillow
Last night as I lay on my bed
Last night as I lay on my pillow
I dreamt that my Bonnie was dead

REFRAIN

Oh blow the winds o'er the ocean
And blow the winds o'er the sea
Oh blow the winds o'er the ocean
And bring back my Bonnie to me

REFRAIN

The winds have blown over the ocean
The winds have blown over the sea
The winds have blown over the ocean
And brought back my Bonnie to me

REFRAIN

Potty Day #3

Today has been a fantastic potty training day-dare I say..."I think we are potty trained." We had a dry night last night. We did wake him at midnight to take him to the bathroom, but the sheets were dry and we have not had any accidents yet today. We will keep our fingers crossed and the 409 ready! Here are the photos I promised yesterday. Sorry that I just got to them, but the kids did not nap yesterday...argh!


These are photos of Merritt's first "poopy party." He has since had a few of them.


Morgan Showing off her sparkle jelly shoes.
I think you can kind of see the curls. Also, note the shoe selection.
Another one of Morgan's shoe selections and by the looks of it a sour apple!

Day #2

We had a great day yesterday. Only 1 urine accident in the morning! I think the whole thing started to "click" for Merritt in the afternoon. He would be playing and all of a sudden say different variations of "quick run to the potty" or "I have to go potty." He even pooped in the potty in the afternoon. We had a "poopy party" for him with doughnuts and kazoos. We took some photos, but I think I left the camera in their bedroom last night. I will post them later this morning.

Morgan thinks this has been great! doughnuts...juice boxes (we don't normally give them juice), new toys... She is starting to show herself to be every bit GIRLY! She has started going to the shoe bin and picking out what she will wear...SEVERAL times a day. Last night after bath time Mark was trying to get her dressed, but she refused to wear her sleeper. She wanted to wear her onesie with he glitter jelly shoes. I will also post some photos of that. Also, get a load of those curls...

A Non-Potty Blog Entry

Since post of you don't come to the blog to hear about Merritt's bathroom experiences, but rather see photos, I thought I would add a couple. Merritt's buddy Laine came over the other day because her mom and dad were at the hospital after delivering their second child. This was pretty cool for Merritt because he got to stay up until almost 9pm watching Curious George with Laine. The second photo is of Merritt hard at work after one of our little snows.

Reflections on Potty Training Day 1

Well...Merritt, Morgan, Dorothy and myself made it through day #1! As I have been saying over and over to Merritt "I am so proud of you!" I could not even imagine the amount of energy it take to encourage, remind and praise on a regular basis. Mark was working, so Dorothy graciously agreed to come help with Morgan so that I could focus a little better on Merritt. Merritt did great, he had a couple urine accidents and a couple #2 accidents, but in the end he pee'd in the toilet more often than he didn't and we got one #2 in the toilet! He wet the bed once last night, but when I woke him up at 5am to go potty, he was clean and dry...and so was the bed. Hopefully when he wakes up at 7, it will still be dry. If you read this today, please keep us in your prayers. Mark will be home the next two days to help and we would like to try and make this as fun an experience as possible (for everyone).

The First Official Day of Potty Training

Well, Merritt and I started a book called "Three Day Potty Training" today. The short version is that it is really intense potty training for three days, no diapers day or night ever again from this morning on. So far we are getting along as expected. He has pooped twice in his underwear and pee'd in his highchair once while eating lunch. The goal is to have accidents so that you can catch them in the act and take them to the bathroom to finish. So far we have been able to do that. At nap time he told me twice that he had to go and we had no accidents! I think this may have had more to do with finding a way to get out of a nap that any urgent need to urinate, but we will take what we get! Now I rest....more updates to come....

Twinkle Twinkle

Every night Merritt and I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at bed time. Morgan usually goofs off and thrown herself around her crib wrestling her bunnies and doesn't usually participate. Well....tonight she stood at the crib rail and did EVERY hand motion and then clapped for herself at the end of the song! I backed out of the room and said goodnight and she blew me a kiss...how cute! I guess these are the little moments we work so hard for all day long.

A Couple More Photos I Could Not Resist!

Click on the title of this post, to be sent to our blog.

All About Morgan

A friend of mine recently reminded me that if you are receiving these updates in your e-mail, click on the title and it will transport you to the blog. Morgan really started to walk on her own (not just take a few steps) in the beginning of Feb. A few of these photos are of her walking. Now that she has legs, she won't crawl anywhere! She is also learning to identify animals and can point them out in books. She knows a few of the sounds, but her favorite is to imitate the lion "rooooaring." She is still very small for her age, but makes up for it in aggressiveness. She eats at least twice as much as Merritt at every meal and screams if she doesn't get her food refilled fast enough. He stomach looks like a protruding balloon and is usually hard as a drum, but that does not stop her from eating more! Her favorite foods right now are avacados, stawberries and bananas. As she gets older we are starting to see what a ham she is. She loves to show off her belly button...and everyone elses....she also loves to steal Merritt's giraffe and tries to run off before he notices. She still has her bunny lovie that she carries around. She has three that we interchange as they start needing laundry time. To Morgan, the more bunnies the better...she will dig through clean laundry baskets until she finds them! Here are a few photos of Morgan being herself!

Lots of Photos!

These are photos from Morgan's Birthday, Christmas and a few random December / January Pictures.

The latest and greatest

We have had quite a winter here! We just had a few days of snow, but it has all melted off. Mark and Merritt spent a lot of time "shoveling" and building a snowman.

Our family is moving into a very busy few months! Mark is taking a class that will prepare him for becoming a Fire Captain; it is every Friday in addition to his normal shifts. He is really excited about it though, as we all know Mark excels at learning. He is also hoping to squeeze in a few ski days when he gets the opportunity.

Merritt is a great helper around the house. He clears his dishes, puts his toys away (when he feels like it) and loves to step in to help Morgan whenever he sees a need. I have enjoyed listening to him pick up and use phrases that Mark and I say. Last night I told him to get some books to read and he stood at the bookshelf saying, "hmmm, lets see..." then he would pull a book out and say, "I don't think so, " and shove it back in. This happened over and over until I realized it wasn't funny, but rather a stalling tactic! Merritt is also singing songs. He will sing with us or by himself as he falls asleep and wakes up. He like to sing "Jesus Loves Me," "Old MacDonald," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." ....Or at least those are the songs we recognize...

Morgan had her 1 year visit at the Dr. and is still registering petite. She is in the 25th percentile and losing weight. The Dr. isn't too concerned though due to increased exercise and change in diet. She isn't walking yet on her own, but scoots around at a good clip with someones hand or one f her push carts. She has a few words, "mommy, daddy, hi, bye" and something that sounds like "dip dip" and "kitty." She waves and claps and loves to dance. Nina and Edwin gave her a children's guitar for her birthday and it is her favorite toy. Morgan easily eats Merritt under the table and sometimes me. A normal breakfast for her is 1.5 adult servings of oatmeal, banana, 1 cup of mixed veggies, applesauce and whatever Merritt doesn't eat.

I am enjoying some extra time off with the kids since Mark is working so much. I am trying to really be present with them instead of busying myself with the things that need to be done in the house. Mark and I are both still involved in our unions at work. Mark just got elected to a position on the executive board and I am still Vice-Pres of my union. Life is very full right now, but we still try to make family and friend time a priority.

That's all for now!

December