Most people's kids

Most peoples kids go to the grocery store and scream for candy. . .



. . . mine screamed for AP-POOL

Most people's kids wait until they're out of the store to eat their treat . . .



. . . mine fussed at the check out lady the entire time she weighed the slightly eaten ap-pool

Most people's kids come in when Mom goes in the house . . .



. . .mine stood at the door and laughed at me


Most people's kids . . .



. . . aren't my Gracie!! :)

Updates

It seems time is flying by . . . Noah has been in school for 2 months, I just finished fall conferences and Gracie continues to grow like a weed. I have foolishly set myself up to have an in home party on Nov. 21st - in a home that is currently unoccupied! I plan to pack like a wild woman this weekend but I'm afraid that I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Jon is still in the field with a LONG way to go because of the rain & he is certain I am CRAZY to think we'll be in the house by Nov. 21st. Anyone out in blogger land that wants to help me prove him wrong and get my family moved with or without him let me know. I offer free fun for kiddies and free booze for adults :)

On another front - my whole hair bows extravaganza has been put on the back burner - i tried today to make a fleece hat for Gracie - it looks so easy but needless to say I need more practice. I'm still very excited about these side projects but it seems that so much has been goig on lately that I haven't found a moment to devote to it . . . that's what Christmas break is for right?!?

Workin' For A Livin'

The school year is officially in full swing. My kids are (for the most part) AWESOME this year - I only have a couple stinkers. I just finished lesson plans for Tuesday and would do Wednesday as well but I'm not sure what time our early out is and I don't want to (am too lazy) to figure it out. This school year is going so much smoother for a number of reasons:
1. I feel like I have a clue about what should be happening at the beginning of a 2nd grade year.
2. My class this year is TOTALLY different from last years endurance test.
3. My big goal this year is to be more organized and on top of everything at school.
4. My grade level team has a year together now and things are moving along wonderfully.
5. We are NO LONGER Reading First so the Literacy Mafia is no longer watching us as closely. WHEW!
I'm sure there are many more reasons but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. So as of right now I don't mind being a teacher again. I don't see myself in the classroom in 5-7 years but that's another post for another day. :-)

first day jitters

As you may or may not know last year was a rough one in Mrs. Taylor's 2nd grade for a number of reasons. So needless to say I was anxious to begin this year; worrying that it would be a repeat of last year. I am happy to say that not only is this year shaping up to be different but I am actually happy to be a teache again! I had to stop for a moment as I was reading on my second day with my new class because I was completely overcome with gratitude to these little 7 and 8 year olds for the peopel they are. I sounds corny I know but it's the truth!

On another note, Noah started school again on Monday and is LOVING it. He has been having super days and his teacher and SLP are so impressed with his language growth that we are bumping up his IEP review as he is ready for new goals. Now, Jon and I (and anyone else who's been around him much) have seen him growing in leaps and bounds so we weren't as surprised as the school staff. I did get to have a small smug told ya so moment as I was reading what they had to say. WAY TO GO BUDDY! Keep learning and growing - Mommy & Daddy are so proud of you!!

Where has the time gone??

This is my last full week of summer vacation and I'm wondering . . . where did the time go? The kids and I have lazed away most of the summer with a few notable exceptions:
1. We went on our yearly family vacation to Okoboji
2. Noah worked on becoming potty trained and I'm proud to say is ~100% pee pee potty trained and maybe 80% poop potty trained. Way to go big boy!!!
3. The kids and I went to NE to see Grandpa Raskey and crew.
4. I endured 6 hours at the IA State Fair and the kids had a blast! The fair is much better when you see it making the people you love most so happy.
5. Mommy had 4 clsses this summer, including a trip to Atlanta, GA for work.
6. Oh yeah, and we're doing a few home improvements before we move to the farm. :)

When you look at it that way it doesn't look like we lazed much but TRUST ME that was the majority of our summer and I LOVED IT!!

My new love

I am newly in love . . . Jon understands and is ok with my decision . . . my loves name is . . . POTTY CHAIR! Noah is doing so so so well with the potty chair. He is peeing and pooping in it. I jerry rigged it this morning b/c the pee guard still wasn't quite high enough and now it is PERFECT!

Noah is starting to recognize that he needs to go b/c I see him stopping, looking around, and going over to sit on the chair. Sometimes he'll do this 2 or 3 times before he actually pees or poops which tells me that he's feeling the "potty feeling" and knows what it means. He is so proud of himself after he goes, he slams the lid down and shouts 'ALL DONE!' Then he has to be the one to pour the "ackies" into the potty all the while saying 'bye bye ackies'. He is also very into washing his hands, he gets his stool, and his soap and goes to town.

I am incredibily proud of him! We will probably be naked most of the summer when we aren't out and about then start reintroducing undies a week or two before we go back to grandma's house & I go back to work.

I know we still have a way to go and he'll have accidents but every kid has accidents and that doesn't really stress me out.

HOORAY for Noah!!!!

PT Update

For those of you that could give a rip about the ongoing potty training saga at my house you may want to stop reading now . . . if you're still here then here's the scoop. I was SUPER frustrated with PTing and gave it a break but started back today. I had dinner with some girlfriends last night and they suggested I take the potty chair back out -- a WONDERFUl idea!

This morning I put all my eggs in one basket and went for undies - Noah did great until lunchtime. No accidents and even sat on the potty chair and peed! (Of course it went all over the carpet b/c the "splash guard" leaves much to be desired so it's now sitting on a shower curtain) At lunch he peed in his undies but sat on the potty and peed a tiny bit more. He stayed dry for a couple hours and played HARD with his friend Brody. As I was rocking Grace to sleep I saw him run past and not come back - I immediately knew what he was doing and sure enough a GIANT clump of poop in his underwear. We put it in the toilet and he sat but here's the thing that is REALLY REALLY REALLY frustrating me . . . he doesn't like having poop on his bottom but before I can help him clean off he starts digging with his hands and getting poop all over himself, his shirt, everything in general. I have to admit that while logically I know he is trying to do a good thing and get himself clean it makes me see red when he does it. EVERY time I tell him NO, NO, NO touch ackies. Ackies go in the potty,okay. Tell is a misnomer, yell is more accurate. He always cries and says sorry momma, alright momma. I always feel like an a**hole but every time it hits my Mommy goes totally APESHIT button.

My goal is to not flip out the next time it happens (I have no illusions - I know it will happen). I am staking a lot on nakedness + potty chair = Noah gettig the potty basics down.

Ayone who has some words of wisdom about the poop situation please pass them along. It truley is a time when I really need to walk away b/c I get so mad so fast . . . but I can't b/c he's covering in crap (literally).

GGGRRRR - Potty Training STINKS!!!

So I know we are only on day 2 of potty training but this is ZERO fun and really hard. He is fighting against me big time - he has been going pee on the potty first thing in the morning for almost 6 months and now he WILL NOT pee when he gets up. We are naked and I've set the oven timer for 30 minutes and we are going down to sit . . . this is the hardest parenting job I've done so far! It doesn't help that I'm losing my patience with him - he is such a stubborn little control freak. He won't pee on the potty b/c he knows I want him to.

I also think we had him in pull ups too long to his detriment . . . yesterday twice I saw the surprise on his face as he was peeing. It was a I need to pee - I'm peeing. The second time he even looked at me with panic and said "Momma acky, Momma acky". I told him to go down to the potty and he spun around in a circle and was so flustered. By the time he got down there he had peed on the kitchen floor and was done.

I have Grace's 12 month well baby Dr. appt. today so I think I'm going to ask for some literature/advice from the Dr.

Wish me luck - hopefully he doesn't go to Kindergarten in pull ups!! :)

Pleasant Suprises

I was SO SO afraid that our renovation would be an awful ordeal but it is going really well. Jon is going to town with the help of Tink and Bob. We are almost ready to paint the upstairs!!

I'm on summer vacation - no surprise there - but happily i don't feel the need to sleep in and i have energy all day! We went to the zoo yesterday and i didn't feel pooped out!

A not so pleasant surprise is Noah's potty training adventure. Today we did away with pull ups but as soon as I put regular undies on him he pees a river. I don't know if the cloth texture "stimulates" him to pee or what but I was SUPER frustrated this morning. So he is now running naked and hasn't peed again. He did however bring me some "acky" a little rabbit turd in each hand. Gross but funny too. We washed very well with soap and water and sat on the potty.

I'll post some pictures of the house as soon as I figure out how. :)

renovation drama . . . already

So I worked and worked to find a contractor that seemed on the level and thought I did a really good job. We met on Wednesday and confirmed a final meeting in the next 2 weeks to draw up a contract so he could be begin on June 1.

Then Jon drops the bomb that he doesn't want to use a contractor he wants to do it himself. This is coming from the man that took OVER A YEAR to build a small deck. Needless to say he doesn't follow through and I don't trust him. He has assured me that he and his friend Tim can do it and Tim will keep it on track.

We shall see. Hopefully this doesn't end in a divorce . . .

Sunday-itis

As my spring break winds to a close I am suffering from a big case of the Sunday blues. The kiddos and I were sick this week so I didn't get anything I had planned accomplished. I guess on the plus side I did get to snuggle with my monkeys a lot this week. I did get out yesterday and today to get some stuff done so I suppose the week isn't a total wash.

My in-laws are officially living in their new house!! That makes me very excited but unfortunatley I'm not sure what their time line is for clearing out the old house so we can get started on our renovations. I'm hoping that they will stick to their April 1 deadline but with the way this project has gone I'm not holding my breath.

Hopefully soon I'll be posting pics of our very own renovation project.

On the move

Grace is officially on the move. A couple days ago I posted that she was almost crawling . . . we are now past the almost stage. Yesterday while we were helping Aunt Kayla move she had a couple scoots around and this morning BOOM she's crawling all over the living room. She is of course her mother's daughter so when she gets tired she cries and whines until someone comes to rescue her - mama's lazy girl hehe. The only thing I'm not ready for is her weight loss ~ I remember that once Noah was mobile he lost all of his baby chubbies. I love those little fat thighs and cheeks (both sets) so much ~ I'm sure I'll shed a tear for her chubbies just like I did for Noah's.

A new look

One of my friends has the cutest background . . . I looked at a couple of blogs she follows and they all have cute backgrounds too so I'm feeling very left out and uncute. I went to thecutestblogontheblock.com (like all their blogs said) and TA-DA my very own cute blog. I even played around with my fonts and colors - I feel very techy right now!! I hope you like the new look!

Look out world . . .

Grace Marie, princess of the world, is almost mobile! She is not quite full on crawling but she's scooting and crab crawling all over the place. Tonight she was trying to go from laying down to standing up and it was hilarious to watch. She was on all fours and up on her tippy toes and was looking around like crap, now what?!? She is also starting to use her first baby sign - all done. Once again, I'm not pushing it much but we do use more of them b/c of Noah and she's picking them up it seems. It's time for Momma and Graciepie to go night night so . . . night night for now!

Slacker

So it was recently brought to my attention that I'm totally slacking on my blog. I always think about doing it but then something comes up and I don't get around to it. Not much new is happening in TaylorWorld ~ I've been sick for most of February with mono and now strep. Fun for me! Noah is loving preschool and making steady progress in his speech. Miss Grace is the princess of the world ~ she is very happy and healthy. She's sporting 6 hard won teeth and is over the 97th percentile in all the growth charts. Jon is working all the time as always ~ he's on mandatory overtime plus half days on Saturdays.

My in laws are planning to finish moving intot their new house over spring break which means that we can start renovating SOON!!! I would love to be in the new house before school starts next year but I'm not holding my breath.

I need some of my tech savvy friends to help me out with a more efficent way to add photos so I can get them on more often. HINT HINT :)

Christmas Break

We have had a wonderful time over Christmas break. I wish it were in the cards for me to stay home but alas it's not. Christmas was really fun this year because Noah REALLY got into opening gifts. He tore into all of them and often had a big OOOHHHH or ALRIGHT to go along with them. Grace had fun to but she was more interested in seeing if she could eat the wrapping paper.

Christmas break is always jam packed with mulitple family Christmases and Noah's birthday. This year we didn't do anything big on the actual day and are having a small family party next weekend at the good ol' Pizza Ranch. Noah did get the greatest gift ever though on his b.day (way to go Mom). I got him a chainsaw with goggles and a toy tape measure and he has played with them almost non-stop since then. In fact, we had to put the tape measure away for a while b/c it was driving Mommy and Daddy nuts. Yesterday as I was taking down the tree he was "helping" me by cutting it down with his chainsaw. It was way cute. Gracie really loves a book I got her with kids in it - she has to hold it with me when we read it. She also loves her elmo pillow that Grandma Dillinger got her. It's basically a big elmo doll w/ a soft pillow tummy. She has taken many naps on him. Sometimes she wants to cuddle him when she's tired and it's really funny when she gets mad at him and they wrestle (somehow elmo always ends up victorious . . .hmmm).

I will post some photos as soon as I figure out how i can make another slideshow that will stay with this post. :P