Labor Day weekend we took a little road-trip down to Austin to visit the Kinzlers. We arrived Friday evening and had a yummy Russian dinner that Katya had prepared. The kids were so happy to see each other again. It took a while to get them all settled down enough to go to sleep.

Saturday was Ophelia’s third birthday. We celebrated all morning with her — blowing bubbles, hitting the pinata, coloring, eating, and finally helping her play with all her new toys.

That afternoon we ventured out to a local splash-pad to let the kids burn off some energy before the drive home.

It was fun to catch up with our old friends, even if it has only been a couple months since they moved!

Raine and Carter went back to school today at St. Philip’s Preschool. They were both so excited to meet their new teachers and get down to business! (Actually, Carter was most excited about nap time so he could use his new nap-mat!)

Raine is going to attend Tu-W-Th and her teachers are Ms. Terri (who usually teaches one of th pre-K classes) and Ms. Lenise (who she had last year, and to whom I attribute Raine learning to speak like a Texan — like when she came home and told me she was “fixin’ to” do somethin’). Carter is going to attend Tu-W and his teachers are Ms. Melissa (our neighbor) and Ms. Lori (Raine’s other teacher from last year).

Preschool has been so good for these two. Raine loves everything about it and spends all summer asking when it will start again. It has really helped her social skills and has given her the structure that she thrives on. School has given Carter a real sense of independence. It also gives me one day a week with just him. I am very excited for this year to again spend that day doing things he likes, just the two of us!

School has also helped me be a better mom. I can get done most of my “boring big-people stuff” while the kids are at school and then have time to devote solely to them when they get home. It is the perfect balance for me.

Carter is potty-trained! No, strike that . . . Carter is mommy-trained! Either way, we are now a diaper-free home.

Carter had been showing signs that he could potty train for a little while — waking up dry, going on the potty when I put him on it, and a serious love of underpants. I kept thinking that he was way too young to even consider it, but the signs were there so I decided to give it a try before school started. You know . . . just to see.

We went to the store to buy our supplies. Carter picked out some Thomas the Train underpants, M&M’s, and Bug’s Life stickers. We had to visit two different stores, in the rain no less, to find a Fisher-Price potty that played music when it was “wet.” The one we had with Raine was loaned out and never returned. I knew we needed another one with the same feature and it turned out to be worth the effort.

Our first afternoon had me convinced that I’d made a mistake. I’m not sure why I thought he would just sit down and go the first time he tried, but I did. Fortunately, I decided to “make sure” that it really wasn’t going to work before I gave up and I tried again the next day.

My method with Carter was different than with Raine. His fierce love of underpants led me to try the let-him-pee-all-over-himself approach. I put him in underpants as often as I knew I could keep him in a place where I didn’t care if he peed — in the backyard, in the kitchen, in the bathroom. When he had an accident all I would say was, “oh no Carty, your choo choo underpants are wet. Oh no!” I would put him in the bathtub and hose him down. Then I would put him in a pull-up and tell him he couldn’t wear underpants until he peed on the potty. He really wanted to wear those underpants so he would push a little harder the next time he sat on his throne.

Now he is at the point where he will keep himself dry as long as I put him on the potty every hour or so throughout the day. If he doesn’t go as soon as I put him on the potty then I know he really doesn’t have to go and can let him run off for another half hour.

That’s where the mommy-training comes in. He doesn’t tell me when he needs to go, but he goes when I put him on the potty. He stays dry during naps and night-time. He holds it while we are out and about. He will even use public restrooms if he needs to. I’m ok with being the pee-pee-timer if it means no more diapers to buy, so it all works out.

I would also like to state the obvious here for a moment: BOYS ARE NOT THE SAME AS GIRLS!

We’ve had a few incidents of wet underpants — and Momma’s wet shoe — due to positioning problems. With girls they just sit down and the pee goes into the potty. But with boys, you have to make sure the down-spout is heading the right direction or somebody is going to be wearing it!

Those splash guards on the training potties lull you into a false sense of security. The first time you get them on a full-size public potty it looks like one of those cartoons where the character gets sprayed by the garden hose as soon as he turns it on. Yes indeed, boys require a bit more care!

Yesterday, Rashae and I loaded up the kids and took them to the Sea-Life Aquarium in Grapevine. Here are some photos from our fun trip.

Carter had his two-year well-baby checkup on July 19. He weighed 28 pounds 9 ounces (just above the 50%-ile) and measured 36 inches long (just below the 90%-ile).

At the appointment, I talked to Dr. Moore about our concerns with Carter’s lack of clarity when speaking. She said that at two-years old, a stranger should be able to understand 50% of what he says. I knew that wasn’t the case so she suggested we schedule a hearing evaluation to make sure he is hearing all the tones. Then to schedule a speech evaluation.

On July 25 he had the hearing test and it told us that he hears all the tones just fine. He was getting over a cold and had a little bit of fluid in his ears at the time so they had to turn up the volume slightly to get past the fluid. But otherwise everything was normal — just as we suspected.

On August 27 he had the speech evaluation. Based on my description of the problem, they started with the articulation test. They ended up skipping the language test altogether because it was obvious that he has no problem putting together sentences, using all parts of speech, and even picking up new words and using them in another context.

He scored 75 on the articulation test, the normal range is 85 to 115, so the therapist recommended therapy two days a week for the next three months.

We really want to help him overcome this minor obstacle before it becomes a source of frustration for him. The therapist sounded extremely optimistic that he would respond well to therapy in a short amount of time. He was able to form all the sounds she asked him to and even though he was a little shy, he worked with her very well and did everything she asked him to do. It will be a few weeks before we get therapy scheduled but we are looking forward to starting it.

These were all recorded over the past month.

Raine: “Daddy do you know how to say ‘peas’?”
Daddy, trying to impress her with his wisdom: “Yes, I know how to say ‘peas’ in two different languages. Do you know how to say ‘peas’ in Portuguese?”
Raine, with a very unimpressed look on her face: “Peas in Portuguese.”

Raine, yelling from the bathroom: “Daddy, I went poo-poo.”
Daddy, exasperated at having to wipe Raine’s bum again: “Raine, you need to wipe your own bum.”
Raine: “No I can’t!”
Daddy: “How long am I going to have to wipe your bum for you?”
Raine: “Until I’m 16.”

Raine has always been very in-tune with emotion in pictures and books. Now that she is writing, each of the letters she makes also has an emotion.
Raine, writing her name: “That’s a happy R but the A is sad. … Oh, that’s a tired I.”

Raine: “Mommy, I know how to climb a tree.”
Mommy: “You do?!!”
Raine: “Ya, we get a ladder and that’s how you climb a tree.”
Mommy: “Oh, I see. That’s a good way to climb a tree.”

Carter: “Momma, pay bah wi me” (play ball with me)
Momma: “Ok.”
After a couple tosses I make a bad one and it goes off Carter’s arms.
Carter: “Oh, Momma!”
After a couple more tosses Carter makes a bad toss.
Carter: “Oh, Me!”

Carter, pointing to each person at the dinner table: “Daddy bah (bear), Momma bah, Rah-rah bah (Raine bear) . . . ”
Pointing to himself: “Me bah!”
He puts ‘bear’ after everyone’s name, even his stuffed dog: “Ruf-ruf bah”

Carter after dropping some food: “Uh-oh me!”

Carter has reached the independence phase. All day long I hear, “I do it.” He has even started saying his own prayers. The other night it sounded like this:
Thank you for . . . “Daddy rahr (lion), Mommy rahr, ooo-ooo (monkey), elebah (elephant), ruf-ruf (his dog), night-night (his blanket).”

He just prays for whatever he sees in front of him (all those animals hang on his bedroom wall). Obviously we need to spend a little more time working on the eye-closing thing!
At meals it sounds like this:
Thank you for “kip-ees (rice krispies), guh (milk), bo (bowl) . . . “

Daddy hit the big three-five this year and the kids have informed him that he is OLD! He has now joined the “age 35-44” demographic. We started celebrating his birthday on Saturday evening — since we don’t get to see much of him on Sundays. First we helped him open a few of his presents.

Then we took him out for hamburgers and swimming.

It just so happened that the water park had fireworks the night before his birthday — choreographed to 80’s music no less — how more perfect could you get!

Sunday we enjoyed a YUMMY cake!

Then we opened the last few presents…

…and Daddy tried out his new music stand.

Happy birthday Daddy, we love you!

The kids spent last week in Houston, at the Rumsey’s house . . . without Daddy and me! Shannan agreed to take care of these two monkeys while we were in Belize. The kids had so much fun with six-year-old cousin Alexa that they hardly had time to miss us! I don’t know all the details of their adventures, but Shannan sent me some photos to document the fun.

August 1 – playing at the park.

August 2 – playing at Bouncing Bears. Carter and Alexa at the top of the slide.

Carter at the bottom of the slide.

Raine looking cute.

August 3 – pizza by the pool.

August 4 – dancing with Davis.

August 5 – saying good-bye.

Thanks again Shannan for taking such good care of them for us!

Carter’s birthday was very low-key this year. We did so much celebrating with family the last couple weeks that we decided to keep it simple for the real day. We started the day at the pool, of course.

We met up with our friends, the Walkers and the Guerreros, and ate donuts (“nut-nuts” as Carter calls them).

Momma, Carter, Boston, Sister Walker, Raine peeking up from behind, Cade, Elijah, Hudson’s left eye, and Evan.

That afternoon we made cupcakes. At some point while I was making dinner, I turned around to find Carter with his mouth stuffed full of cupcake. Raine had been more discreet, but the second half-eaten cupcake gave her away. Apparently they were too good to wait for.

After dinner Carter opened his presents.

Silly faces — Carter is going to have to work on his a bit more.

He was excited to open the “beeegh” (big) present.

Very excited to mow the carpet . . .

. . . and play baseball

He also loved the pop-up soccer goal we got him, the video shows that best. I love the little run-in-place he does every time he kicks the ball.

This video captures Carter’s personality perfectly. He is very happy and easy-going and has such animated expressions. He likes to be clean . . . except when he is intentionally making a mess. He is such a cute kid, I could just eat him up!

Thursday, July 5

This was picture day! Everyone dressed up and headed to the top of the mountain for family photos.

Utah hadn’t seen rain for a record number of weeks . . . until we scheduled a photo shoot. Fortunately, it wasn’t coming down very hard.

We took all the photos that the kids would stand for and then went for a hike . . . holding hands of course.

This was my hiking buddy. We stopped to size-up every stick and jump off every rock along the trail.

We also stopped to try out the tree chair . . .

. . . and pick the wildflowers.

Eventually, everyone else caught up with us. (Still holding hands.)

On the way back, we caught up with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jed, and Aunt Katie.

During nap time, Uncle Jed and Aunt Katie taught the older kids how to play Uno.

The rain continued all day, completely throwing off my plans for the birthday party activity. I spent weeks planning a Dora/Diego adventure that would work outside in the grass, but had to move it indoors due to the rain. We set it up at the condo since everyone was at the cabin. It was a little cramped, but it worked out fine.

Each kid had their backpack full of the supplies they would need along the way and a map to tell them which way to go to rescue baby jaguar. They all loved the activity.

Then we headed back to the cabin to decorate cupcakes.

We sang happy birthday and each child blew out their own candle. (It was Aunt Candi’s actual birthday, and Max and Carter’s birthdays were within a couple weeks, so we celebrated all of them.)

Friday, July 6

We packed up, swam in the pool one last time, said our good-byes, and then headed back down the canyon. We had so much fun with all the cousins, aunts, and uncles that we hardly ever get to see. Now the kids have memories to go with all the names!

Back at Grandma and Grandpa Dewey’s house, we made Welsh Cakes and reminisced about our trip to Wales last year with Grandma. The kids also got one last ride on the horse.

Saturday & Sunday, July 7-8

Our flight home was quite eventful. It all started Saturday evening when we arrived at the airport for our scheduled flight. It was slightly delayed for some unknown reason, but we eventually boarded and settled in. As we waited for them to close the door, the pilot came on the PA system and told us that they were just finishing up a minor maintenance issue and we would be leaving in fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes later he came back on to let us know they were just finishing up the paperwork so we would be leaving shortly. A short while after that the pilot came on to tell us that we weren’t cleared for take-off because of weather problems at DFW. So they unloaded the flight and told us to wait in the departure area for further information.

After we all disembarked, they told us we would reload in thirty minutes. Forty-five minutes later, they started loading the plane again. After we were all loaded up, the pilot announced that in seven minutes we would find out if we had clearance to take off. Exactly seven minutes later he told us we were cleared and we took off for home.

About an hour into our flight, the pilot came back over the PA to tell us that we were turning around and heading back to Salt Lake because there was no room for us at DFW. Seriously, no room.

Around 10:00 pm, long after we were originally supposed to have landed in Texas, we disembarked one more time in SLC. They told us to come back at 7:00 the next morning for our flight and then sent us down to the baggage carousel to claim our luggage. Grandpa Dewey made his third trip to the airport for us that day (during our second delay, he brought us the sippy-cups we left in the fridge), and we arrived at their house to spend one more night.

Early the next morning we checked the flight status and found out our flight wasn’t leaving until 8:45, so we went back to sleep. We arrived at the airport, again, and made it to the gate, again. We boarded the flight, again, and took off, again. But this time, we really made it home. Our favorite neighbor, Evan Eastman, picked us up and we were finally back where we belong.