Puddle Jumping

This week I have been pretty out of it and haven’t been feeling great…pregnancy does that to you towards the end, right? I am having a lot of contractions and have this pain in my lower abdomen, probably where the baby is putting pressure. My hips are aching again and I am exhausted! I guess I thought I’d have more time before all this happened! (I did go to the doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. They just think I am overdoing it. Surprised?)
Danny has been studying nonstop for his upcoming law school finals, and we haven’t really seen him this week. So Lexie and Gavin have been really bored most of the time…they have been enjoying our large DVD collection! Today was a beautiful day though and they spent most of it outside, and the neighborhood kids were all out enjoying the weather as it kept warming up throughout the day. We had errands to run, so I wouldn’t let Lexie and Gavin get in the water fight that was going on outside earlier in the day. But after dinner, I spied the kids dipping their toes in this giant puddle that had formed from the water fight. I decided that since it was time for a bath anyway, they should go “seize the puddle” and enjoy it. They were both pretty hesitant that I thought it was okay! It ended up being a fun way to end a nice day.

Here is Danny, studying like mad! Finals are so long and hard, we wish him good luck!

As you can see, the mud puddle is everywhere! (I am going to name Lexie's pink pants the "Mud Pants" because Lexie always plays hard outside in them and gets them covered with mud.)

The Things Kids Say
Today while we were running errands, I promised the kids they could have a treat. Gavin wanted chocolate chip cookies and Lexie wanted Vanilla Wafers, and I was trying to get them to both agree on one item. Finally I just said, “Okay, we’ll get them both.” After we left Target, Lexie was quite enjoying her Vanilla Wafers and said, “You’re the best mom in the whole wide world!” It made me smile! (I just have to give them a little bribe, right?) She later asked how big the world is. She has been trying to figure this out for days. A couple of days ago she said giants are bigger than the world, but I asked her where giants lived then. She asked how big it is, and I said the earth is thousands of miles around. She is still working on how it all makes sense. She said today that there is a “billion kazillion people in the world.” I told her there are not quite that many. (A “billion kazillion” is the number she uses to quantify just about everything.) She then said, “Dad can count to a hundred. A billion kazillion is right after that.” Her logic is fabulous!
I have to mention something funny Gavin said when I was getting him out of the tub. I always put lotion on them because we all have dry skin, and I can’t bend over to apply it anymore because of my big preggo belly. So I asked Gavin to lift one leg at a time so I could reach them to rub lotion on. He had a hard time standing on one leg and said, “Mom! I’m not a tree!” I guess I thought it was funny because it was so unexpected!

Accomplishment for the Week
Gavin is potty trained! I have been hesitant to move Gavin to big-boy underwear because I didn’t want to clean up gross messes. But Monday we started the underpants, and he only had one accident each day for 3 or 4 days! Today and yesterday he didn’t have any at all. It was so much easier with him than with Lexie, I think because all of Gavin’s friends are potty trained, he is now 3 and old enough to get it, and he is super independent and wants to do everything himself. He has been playing outside a lot this week, and would still come in and go potty every couple of hours. Today’s errands were the real test, to see if he would still keep them dry even though we were out and about. He told me right when he needed to go! “Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Gavin went potty!” I’ll sing our potty-training song! He loves wearing big-boy underwear and being “big.”