5 days and counting!!

Just 5 days until we leave for vacation. That means 5 days that we are dodging bullets at daycare, avoiding the looks (real and imagined) for Jack having accidents, avoiding the lice bugs that are hunting down the little kids like Predator, avoiding the whole "who the hell is in charge" feeling going on in Jack's room as they transition one teacher out and another into the lead position. And when I come back, I want it all fixed, dammit!

Off to sunny vacation-ville. By the way, our first vacation with just my siblings and their familias/special someones, without the parents. Can we do it? Can we all get along? Can John quash his OCD tendencies for a week and just let things be messy? Tune back in about 2 weeks to find out...

Anyway, looking forward to Jack hanging with his cousins (did I mention we'll be in a house with 4 children under 7? We're shoving them all in a bunk room at night and locking them in.) Looking forward to cooking aimlessly in the kitchen-possibly making the best sweet rolls ever so we can all exist on a high sugar buzz for 2 days. Looking forward to being a one child family again as Alex is staying here, at the house, alone... What? She is 7 months old for christsakes. She'll be fine! ... OK, OK, I'll tell my mother-in-law to check in on her. Jeez.

So anyway, go team. Let's make it to Saturday.

Lice...yuck!

Yuck...lice outbreak at Jack's school. Multiple kids down in the class next door and one kid down in Jack's class. All blankets and pillows not provided by the school have been sent home. Kids are getting checked constantly. But man, you know the Lice are like "Whoo Hoo! This is awesome- fresh meat!"

We are remaining vigilant, biding our time trying to stay clean until we leave town.

Finally, a success! And a strange twist at school...

ell, we finally had a poop success on the potty last night. And the size of what came out caused a moment of silence across the household. How on earth could that boy have had it all in him? We celebrated by doing the poopy cheer and marching straight downstairs to turn on Handy Manny, who has been on sabatical from our house for a good 2 months. And we also got to put a stamp on our poopy chart that says "TERRIFIC!" Thank you, Target Dollar Bin!

We all went upstairs to ready for bed feeling like we had turned a corner...until Jack was reading on his big stuffed dog in Alex's room and both peed and pooped in his pants...not more than 45 minutes after producing the Poop That Engulfed Texas. The now wet big stuffed dog was put in the shower, Jack was put in the shower, and we forced ourselves to chin up, after all, we had the success, didn't we? That all felt fine and good until...Jack pooped in his pajamas and got it all over his PJs and both sheets. OK, screw this chin up crap. What the %$#@** is going on?

I felt fairly confident of Jack going to school today and not having an accident since there is no possible way in hell he could have another bit of poop left in him. And I was right. But on the way out, the director informed me that Jack's teacher had said he was having accidents "all the time" (not true) and that they had decided they wanted to "scare him a bit" by taking him back to his old room (i.e. not the Big Boy Room) to get changed, making him feel as if he were being demoted (punished). Now, John and I have struggled with remaining positive through this whole poopy period. And it is a big struggle, which sometimes we fall off the wagon, but we try to get right back on because experts say not to punish your child for having accidents. And here is his school (I believe that puts them in the "Expert" classification) telling us that they are going to "scare" him? Hmmmm. Does that seem right?

Well, I put the kabash on it anyway since Jack will be out of school for a week coming up and this will create too much random change in his schedule. But this has given me pause. Any advice?

Current list of bribes to get Jack to poop in the potty

1. Gets to watch Handy Manny or Blue's Blues (all TV currently banned until poop happens)
2. Gets to watch any movie he wants
3. Gets one train car (John's old electric trains from when he was little) everytime he poops
4. Gets to eat bananas regularly again
5. Gets to watch DVDs occasionally in the car again
6. Gets A MILLION DOLLARS, if he WILL JUST START POOPING IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!!

tooth grin

GUESS WHO HAS TEETH???? Here she is showing off her pearly whites.

So sweet...

The perfect summer evening wrap-up. Having watermelon on the back porch after a good dinner.

My angels

Today I was blessed to have some help in my garden from my son and niece. They are vegetable-gatherers-extrodinaire. They donned their new gardening gloves, which we bought at Target, gathered our basket and vegetable bag for the bounty, sprayed on lot of bug spray (have you seen those Asian Tiger mosquitoes-yuck!) and headed out. I prayed as we walked to the garden that we might have just one or two cukes and tomatoes so the kids could enjoy it. Well, someone up there heard my prayers, because my first look into the cucumber patch revealed 4 giant cucumbers. They picked the lower tomatoes and I got the ones on the top and gave to them to drop into their baskets. We got 3 Black Krim tomatoes, dozens of Juliet, quite a few Sweet 100, although I must admit they ate at least 10 on the spot, and about 6 cucumbers. Thank you, my vegetable-gathering angels.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Come rain or shine, we were going to be in our neighborhood parade for July 4th...unless our neighborhood canceled it. We've never been here for the 4th so this was our first chance and with all the rain we have had in Austin, no parade was a real possibility. But we chose to laugh at the forecasters who predicted 100% chances for rain. C'mon, when have you ever heard 100% chance of rain. But here we were. Absolutely certain we would be wet. But on the night of the 3rd, we spent our evening with the two kids decorating the stroller and tricycle and taking out our flags and practicing the Pledge of Allegiance (yes, Jack can say it thanks to his school having them say it every morning! Except I think he say "One nation, undergob, invisible, with libirdyand just four.")

And on the 4th, I got up at 6:30am to finish the amazing sweet rolls (thank you Pioneer Woman!) that I would bring to the potluck brunch after the parade. Rolls made, kids dressed, we headed out to the parade...just as it started to rain. The banner you see on Jack's trike started bleeding all over his leg. But dammit, we were going to celebrate our liberty and freedom and all that other crap. So we threw on raincoats and headed out for the walk up the hill to where the parade would start. While waiting around with the few dozen neighbors that had also ventured out, we were approached and asked to be the grand marshals for the parade (I like to think it was our stellar decorating job and the glitter glasses. You can never go wrong with glitter glasses) So we started the parade and were immediately passed up by every kid riding their bikes at top speed to get to the potluck. Which is great because we just rolled along and chatted with neighbors walking along as the rain came and went the whole way to the brunch. And during the brunch. And on the way home from the brunch.

Jack kept his spirits high, shared his flag stickers and dutifully recited the Pledge of Allegiance when called upon. Alex...well, she fell asleep in her Baby Bjorn after about 10 minutes, even with the barking of dogs, shouting of kids and rain coming down all around her.

Happy 4th!

A new addition to the 'hood

Jack and Alex have gotten some brand new neighbors, and boy, these are the kind of neighbors they like! The grandparent kind! You got it, John's parents have made the move from Connecticut to Austin. And not only in the same town as us, but in the same neighborhood. I know, I know, you're taking deep breaths thinking, my god, is that a good thing? Yes, we are so excited to have them close to us. And Jack and Alex are both THRILLED! Jack talks about going to Nana's and Papa's all the time, he asks where they are 10 times a day. And the wonderful thing is that we can drop by on walks and have them over for a swim or dinner. Jack has had his Papa reading him books as much as possible and he tells Nana "C'mon Nana, come with me" whenever he walks into another room. And Alex, well, she is all smiles.