Thank God for Santa Claus! Christmas is early!

I never thought it would happen. Potty training is going pretty well. He had 1 accident on the playground at school - poop & pee. No accidents at home. Today he was a gold star. When I picked him up he said "mommy & daddy are so happy" . I can thank santa claus for this! The only thing Vaughn can talk about lately is Santa. Santa will be so happy I did this and that - is what he will say. I am now using this to my advantage. "Santa is so proud of you when you use the potty" Every night he tells me that Santa is coming the next day. I then try to explain to him that it is Thanksgiving 1st then we need to get ready for Santa. (ie. Christmas tree, cookies, and going to see santa with lukie) All I want for Christmas is a potty trained 3 year old!

Vaughn's words

Peanuts = penis

Claws = cards

Puppets = stuffed animals

:)

The day we never thought would come!

Last week we had a parent teacher conference at Vaughn's school. One of his action items according to his teacher was he was ready to wear underwear. Huh - Tony and I were surprised. At home he refused to go. It has been 1 step back. After a weekend in ND with no signs of improvement this morning I decided it was time to jump in head 1st. "vaughn - your teacher told us you should wear underwear to school" I thought he was going to say "no diaper mommy" but he said o.k. I brought all the extra clothes - fully thinking he was going to be in the 3rd outfit by the end of the day. Somehow, when I went to pick him up he was still dry and in the same clothes! No accidents - (he did smell a little like pee - he hasn't mastered the "flick" to get the pee off his "peanuts".) I did try to get him to go before we went in the car - a teacher had to bribe him with a soccer ball sticker to go. The only close call we had was when Tony found him in the back of the living room - ready to poop. He still hasn't gone poop yet - hopefully not in the underwear! Stay tuned to day 2.

Elvis Radio

I got a new company car a week or so ago. It has many new features - storage underneath the backseat floor, a cold storage above the glovebox, oh yes and satellite radio. One would have thought had a satellite radio long ago since I am in the car alot. I love it. It does however bring up questions of life and death. Conversation with Vaughn last week -

Vaughn - "I want Vaughn radio - not mommy radio"

Mommy - "O.K. Let's find Vaughn radio" (I am hoping to avoid the kiddie channel)

After a few channels - no love music or top 40 we find the all elvis channel.

Vaughn - "Stop mommy - I like Vaughn music"

Mommy - "Elvis?"

We proceed to discuss Elvis and somehow I tell Vaughn Elvis is dead. (Although it is still up for some debate - depending on who you talk to)

Vaughn - "How did Elvis die?"

Mommy - "Too many pills - he overdose"

Vaughn - "Where is Elvis now?"

Mommy - "Heaven"

Vaughn - "Like Ben the Cow" ( Vaughn's only association with death is the cow who died in the Barnyard Movie)

Mommy - "Yes Ben and Elvis are in Heaven"

Vaughn - "I want to go to heaven"

Mommy - "You can go to heaven someday - but a long time from now"

Then I proceed to explain how if you go to heaven you can't come back home.

Now just rewind what I just wrote and go over the conversation 10 more times for 2 days straight! :)

more pictures!

Mommy & Brock!

When Babies attack!

north dakota vacation

We have had alot of fun in North Dakota this past weekend. Mommy came up for work. The trip here was uneventful - McDonalds in Buffalo and movies. Unfortunately, we got two zebra toys and there were a few tears by Vaughn, because he wanted the penguin toy. Brock as always was a great baby. The only downside to the trip was mommy's breastpump decided to break that afternoon, so we had to go buy a new one. Needless to say, I was excited to get to ND.

Highlights of our trip include -

Brock's longest night between feedings - 8pm -5am!

Vaughn and mommy's trip to the mall to eat pretzels - (someone has too much energy, so we needed to get out of the house)

Tummy time with the brothers - see picture.

Brock still seems to be gaining weight even though he only eats 4oz every 3 or so hours. Usually, he cluster feeds in the evening and then will give us at least 5 or so hours of time.

Vaughn grew about 1 3/4 inches since June!

We still are struggling with diapers. Vaughn does not seem motivated by anything. Actually he has regressed! We are hopeful Lukie can help us convince Vaughn underwear are cool!

Now all we need is to have a good trip home!

Dan & Luke play hide the baby!

Vaughn & Luke played Sunday afternoon while we went to Aunt Mary's 80th birthday party. Brock had a meltdown the whole time. When we returned to Dan & Karla's we took some pictures.
The baby is in most the pictures - Can you find one where Dan and Luke played "hide the baby"?

The last boat ride of the season

We went out on the boat for a quick afternoon ride with John Graham, Rebecca & Leo. Here are a few pictures from the trip.
Brock has II's dimple!

visit from Amy & Julie

Brock & Vaughn had some girls stop by on Sunday ! They are starting young! Amy & Julie stopped by for a quick visit. They were in awe of Brock's thighs!

halloween - SCARY!

Last halloween Vaughn had a tramatic experience at our neighbor Sue's house. He was a little scared of a moving skeleton that was the same height as our 2 year old. He promised Sue that this year he wouldn't be scared. Well - he wasn't scared at Sue's house this year! No, this year it was Roy & Carla's house :) He reached in to get the king sized snickers out of the bowl and a motion scensored skeleton hand came out to grab him. He proceeded to say their house was scary and ran to the end of the driveway! Then we went to Eric & Lisa's house. Lisa had gotten special treats for him - 3 king sized candy bars! She even got him a toy bat to match his costume,but after the skeleton hand he was a little scared still. We didn't get to too many houses. Brock was Batman's evil penguin. He hated his costume. He was fussy for the 1st two houses. We then went home and he had a snack and then we put him in the stroller. That seemed to do the trick. The night ended with Mommy & Daddy enjoying some wine with Eric & Lisa. We did get 1 trick or treater at 11pm. Mommy didn't think that was too strange at the time - he was wearing a cape.

Back to work

Mommy's 1st day back to work was last Wednesday. So far, Brock has charmed all of the lady teachers in his room (it must be his long eye lashes). Vaughn thinks it is pretty cool to go to the baby room to drop off Brock in the morning. Brock has yet to master the bottle on the weekend- he prefers the real thing.