tennessee train museum...

When we got to my mom's house, one of her friends had brought over a train table with lots of fun tracks and trains. CJ loved it. When we saw how much fun he had with it, I though a second trip to the train museum would be lot of fun. CJ has even asked to go to the train museum since we have been back in Georgia. 

He loved it. He just looked around. One of my favorite parts of this museum is that most of the things in  it can be touched. Perfect for a two year old!

This was new, and he though it was fun to pull it around the room. He has no idea who Thomas is, but it was still great.

Will also just took it all in. He had a great time chewing on this little giraffe from the wooden train. Such a change from the last time we were there and he just hung out (literally) in the moby wrap.

I tried to get a cute picture of these two cuties in their train shirts in this little train car, but alas, this is the best I got...

Our friend from last time, Engineer Carl, was there again. He had a special car this time... the circus car. 

CJ remembered just what to do with the buttons, and was much more engaged in watching the trains go around.

But, it was a lovely fall day, and the boys had a GREAT time outside. CJ really wanted to explore the caboose, dining car and engine. He thought it was funny that the train driver sat up so high. He just giggled when I showed him the engineer's seat.

These two had lots of fun while I tried to keep up with CJ...

And then we came to CJ's favorite spot at the train museum. Do you remember what's at the top of this pole???

This guy did, and he remembered to pull the cord to make the whistle work. He ran right up to it and pulled (and pulled, and pulled and pulled).

This time, there was another new fun thing. These buttons controlled a stoplight.

I had to walk down and show CJ where to look, but when he figured out he was controlling the lights (can you see the light lit up red?), he thought that was very cool.

And on the way out, I tried to get another picture of the boys. This one's a little better. It was a FUN morning!

two tips...

We've been in Tennessee for a week, and headed to the zoo yesterday. Rest in the promise of more pictures soon, but for now, here's two quick tips.

One.

The paint section at Lowes is a great place to work on colors with your kids, and even get a take home activity. aka... paint samples. We are thinking about repainting our house, and when I was there looking at all the million different colors, I saw these and thought, surely there has to be a game I can make for CJ. Right now we are working on shuffling them up and matching the like colors and saying the color names. The math teacher in me sees great patterning activities in his future!

Two.
Don't feed Will peaches. He doesn't like it.

uh oh...

After dinner, Scott takes CJ to get a bath. A few minutes after they trotted down the hall, I heard CJ saying, "uh oh. uh oh. uh oh." 

I thought, "Surely Scott has this under control whatever is going on." But the uh ohs kept coming. I refrained from butting in and kept cleaning the kitchen. Then I heard Scott laughing, and, between gasps for air, he told me I had to come see what was going on.

Turns out, Scott had been using the potty. He told CJ, "You can put your poop in the potty, too." CJ scurried off, and Scott didn't think anything about it. When he was done, he discovered CJ had in fact tried to put his poop in the potty.

The downside - he tried to put his entire diaper in the potty and flush it. This resulted in water overflowing from the toilet all over the floor and lots of uh ohs from CJ.

The upside - he didn't really have any poop in his diaper.

The picture is Scott trying to explain to a very confused little boy with pants around his ankles and no diaper on, that while putting your poop in the potty is a great aspiration, you don't put your entire diaper in there too.

These are the moments that make parenting hilarious!

insanity, literally...

About two months ago I hit the, "I'm tired of my clothes not fitting and I'm finally getting enough sleep to get serious about changing it" stage. 

Having babies is wonderful in so many ways. One of those ways is not what happens to your body.

Motivated, I dusted off the Insanity workout series. The name does it justice. A month in I started to notice all these little blue things on our floors and all over the garage. I though Scott was working on some crazy project, but one day I realized this was happening...

This is what happened after one day's workout. Crazy! The mat had been used maybe 10 times when I started.

Like the mat, I too have seen better days. After 4 weeks, I was doing great/feeling great. Week 5 my foot started to hurt, and the dreaded limp set in. Week 6 I could no longer deny it; I had another stress fracture. It's the second one since I've had Will. Uncool. Looks like it's low impact from here on out for me. Sigh and sniff, sniff...

The upside is that I lost 10 pounds and maybe half my closet fits now. It's been a few weeks, and I'm giving myself one more week of rest before I hit the gym and the arc trainer again. My goal is to have the rest of the baby weight gone by the time Will is one... that only gives me a little more than two months. Yikes, I gotta get me rear in gear!

where ya been?

I know, it's been awhile. Last week Scott was in the field, CJ was sick, we still had all our normal activities, my dad was here, it was our 8 year anniversary, Scott's mom was here over the weekend to watch the kids while we went to a fancy wedding in Atlanta, and I went on a cleaning frenzy. That's about it. So what have you been up to?

I love our kids. Love them to pieces. Want to hug and squeeze them all day long. 

What I don't love though is that all their "stuff" has slowly overtaken our house. 

When Will was born, he slept in our room for a few months. That was fine, because it was for a season. What I realized last week, is that he now sleeps in the second bedroom, the glider was still in our room, and there were toys permanently stationed in our living room, dining room, and office. It was making me twitchey. 

Don't worry, Scott asked too... I'm not nesting. I am keeping up my New Year's resolution to neither give birth or be pregnant this year.

So here is what happened. Will still is in the guest room for a few more months probably. But, our room, the dining room and living room have all been de-cluttered, and the office has become and office/playroom.

Forgive the pictures. I took these EARLY this morning... like before 6:00. The lighting was terrible, but I knew if I didn't do it then, I would just be taking pictures of a mess.

So here it is...

This is the glider that started the whole frenzy. It didn't look bad in our room; it just gave me the "I'm a mom, think about the kids" vibe, and not the "mom and dad time" vibe. I think it looks good in its new home.

And here is my favorite purchase. Before, all of Will's toys were in a small basket, and CJ's toys were in a storage ottoman. I noticed CJ playing with Will's toys, and I decided it wasn't because he liked them more; it was because he could see them. So here is a great solution. If you know me really well, you know I like things put away. The fact that our TV isn't behind doors is a testimony to my love for my husband, and this is a testimony of my love for my children. :)

But you know what the best part of the whole room is? When I am sitting looking at this...

I can't help but keep looking up at this...

It's bigger than life-sized. I love both their expressions and I love how you can tell they love each other.

So, day one was a huge success. CJ played BY HIMSELF in here for almost 30 minutes this morning. I don't think he has done that since he has been born. The goal wasn't to get him to play by himself, it was to get him to play and to reclaim a little of my house for just mom and dad. It worked... happy mama!

may i...

I  just love these two little boys. They really couldn't be any sweeter. The other day I was feeding Will, and here is a quick summary of what happened...

"Ooooo, Will Baby has 'nack," said CJ.

"May I have a bite, peas Will Baby?" said by CJ with a WIDE open mouth. (And yes, he does say may, not can. He says peas instead of please, but at least he is working toward good grammar.)

Will has learned that is it fun to put things in other people's mouths. He really tried to reach CJ's mouth. Look at that stretch! 

There weren't any words to go with this face, but if there were, I think they would be something like, "This is a little soggy...not quite what I had in mind."

CJ gave it back, but thought it was funny that Will wanted to give it to him. Will didn't mind the soggy, mushy cracker though.