Oops! I'm late with Halloween!

Yes, I realize it is a month after Halloween, but I just downloaded the pictures from my camera and found them. Melly was a cowboy, and quite frankly, I have no other stories of Halloween because it was so long ago!

Melly and Ashley both as cowboys. Ashley was actually a princess, but she had to go with Kerri to work that morning and a cowboy was more practical than a princess for that!

Melly on the farm!

Melly all alone on the Cool Bus this year!

Our Mom's group all decked out!

Even before Halloween during a camping trip, all the kids got to Trick or Treat. Here's Claire with Emilie dressed as a basket of laundry and a bottle of Tide.

Mushy Mommy

We were looking at all the pictures that we took on vacation, and when we got to this one, I "oooh'ed and aaaaahhh'ed". Rob said that I was all mushy. Melody put her hand on my stomach and said, "Mommy, you are kind of mushy".

It's really a great picture though!

Disney World! (Part 2)

More pictures of Disney!

Melody picked out her own ears... Minnie! She won't wear them though...

How gorgeous is this?!?!

Getting ready for the fireworks!

Melody hung her light stick on Rob's hat and thought she was very clever to do it.

Disney World!

What can I say.... it's Disney World!!! We had a real rocky start, due to a very nasty old man (I'll tell the story in person if you really care to know), but it ended very well because it is the Happiest Place on Earth! Even though it's November, it was more crowded than it was the last time I was there in the summer. During the day, we didn't really go on any rides, we more walked around and saw all the sights because the lines were too long. Even the Dumbo ride had an hour wait! Once night came, the lines were much better and we took Melly on the rides that she would get the most out of. Melody was a trooper and laughed and smiled the whole day. Her favorite part was Minnie's house, and of course, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Melody hanging out in the Hundred Acre Wood

Even our seasoned amusement park girl needs a rest!

Hey! Rob actually looks like he's having fun and that he likes me!

There are no words that can describe this!

Florida with Gigi & Grandad

The Jackson clan took our first airplane trip with Melody to Florida to visit with Gigi & Grandad (Rob's grandparents). Not sure how Melly would be on a plane, we prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. She was a dream on the plane (thanks to JetBlue and their TV's on each seat), but an absolute nightmare in the airport. I guess all little kids get overwhelmed with all there is to see, the open space to run, and the parents trying to keep them calm and in one place. But, we were able to get there without too much trouble.

We spent 3 days with Gigi and Grandad, and they were thrilled to have us. All their friends in the dining hall where they live couldn't wait to see this little ball of energy bounce in to eat. Melly made herself at home and found lots of things to play with. Oddly enough the most exciting thing she found to do was to sweep Gigi's floor with the broom and dustpan. Not that the floor needed to be cleaned, but that's what Melody likes to do best... clean!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We are thankful to have such wonderful friends and family that care enough to see what we're up to here. We wish all of you safe travels and enjoyment with your family.

Mommy's Job

This morning Rob tried to get Melody out of bed, and she screamed, "NOOOO!! My Mommy gets me out of bed." Then later on in the morning Rob tried to get her a juice, and she said, "NO!! Mommy gets it." So, I had to ask her what Daddy does. She answered, "Daddy plays and hugs." OK..... so I asked the next obvious question of what does Mommy do? Her reply, "Mommy gets me out of bed, goes in the kitchen and gets me food."

Playin' In The Leaves

Saturday was "Jump in the leaves Day".

Mel really liked running down the hill and landing in the pile of leaves and rolling around.

Her favorite part was running around the pile and having Daddy throw leaves at her.

When Mommy Goes Out

This is what Daddy does.

She did it!!!!

I am now a proud Mommy of a little girl that is using the potty. Here's the rundown without giving you all the dirty details. About a week ago, Melody was in the bath and she announced that she had to go to the potty. I tried to whisk her out of the bath onto the potty, and she said to me, "No Mommy, I'll hold it until I'm done with my bath." Hmmmm... so she can tell me that she has to go, and she can tell me she wants to hold it, AND she can hold it? So I decided to give it a try. We really haven't done any potty training since the last attempt over the summer that didn't go so well. She would sit on the potty then, but nothing would ever come out.

So, I picked a day and said that it was going to be "No Diaper Day". I really revved it up and made a big deal about it. So, when that day came, we went into cotton underpants and I brought out the Clorox wipes ready to go. The whole morning was chaos. We were watching Ashley that day, and Melly ended up peeing on the floor a bunch of times (hence the Clorox wipes), but Melody still would not do anything when she would sit on the potty. I set a timer to go off every hour, and if she didn't go on the potty, I'd set it for another 20 minutes, then 10 minutes and so on. That whole morning though, we never made it to the end of the 20 minutes really, because after she would sit on the potty (with books and stuff), she'd leave the bathroom and pee on the floor in the hallway. Kerri came to pick up Ashley (as luck would have it, both girls were on the potty), and I was talking with Kerri as to what to do because Melody wouldn't go when on the potty. As the words were coming out of my mouth, Melody screams from the bathroom, "Mommy!!!!! I did it!!!!" And she did! Clearly talking about it is all I needed to do!

The rest of the day I had her in cotton underpants (and for a good portion of the day naked), and she didn't have any more accidents on the floor. I was still setting the timer though, and she willingly went into the bathroom each time that timer went off. There were a few times she would tell me she had to go before the timer even went off. I put her in a pullup for the night, and awaited what would happen the next day.

On Friday, we had a difficult start. Her pullup was dry (surprisingly), but she still wouldn't go on the potty. Apparently being retentive is my daughter through and through, in all aspects of her! So the first part of the morning she kept sitting on the potty, but we had nothing. After about an hour, she started crying because it was hurting her, but she couldn't let it go. Finally, after a couple hours she happened to not be able to hold it anymore while on the potty, and she put all the pieces together on how her body feels and what she needs to do. Since then, the only accident she has had was #2 one, because I don't think she got how that felt.

We keep putting the pullups on her when we go out of the house, but they always stay dry. Last night, she woke up in the middle of the night to go on the potty, but sadly I didn't know that's what she was trying to say and she went in the pullup before I could get her in the bathroom. Then today at Mom's group, she did super well, and actually went #2 on the potty. So it would seem that she has all the pieces of this mysterious potty training puzzle together, and now we just have to keep practicing it.

It sounds so simple, but I can honestly say, that I have never been so proud!

How did she know?

We went to a local High School football game last night. Melody was on Rob's shoulders as we walked through mobs of teenagers to get to the field. One particularly loud group of boys walked by cursing up a storm. I cringed as we passed them, hoping that Melody wasn't paying attention. I mean, she doesn't really know what curses are, right? Wrong! We got past them, Melly giggles, looks at me and says, "Mommy, that boy said bullshit!" Thank goodness she didn't pick up all the "F" bombs they were throwing around!

Happy Anniversary to us!

We had our 4 year anniversary this past week. It seems like so much longer because we've known each other and have dated on and off for the past 14 years (OMG!). We went back to where we got married and had a real fancy dinner. It's so not us to go and eat fancy, but we figured we should do it every now and then. Sadly there wasn't another wedding there that day (we were hoping) but a Sweet Sixteen party instead (can it be that there was a wedding type party for a kid???) So we couldn't look fondly at a new couple starting their lives together, but we did talk a lot about everything which we don't get a chance to do often anymore.

My very romantic and ever so frugal hubby brought me to Ocean State Job Lot first (as I was all dressed up wandering around the discount store), then to our dinner. We once again forgot to take a picture of us all dressed up, so please, anyone, if you see Rob & I together, dressed up or not, please take a picture of us! I think we have about 5 pictures of us together, and they're all from our wedding! LOL!

Here's a recap of our wedding and honeymoon!

Rob having fun at Canyonlands National Park

I'm climbing out of a dwelling at Mesa Verde

A very rare and gorgeous rainbow in the depths of Death Valley after a rainstorm!

Hanging at the Grand Canyon (it was bitter cold!!!)

Awwww!!!!

My BFF

The other day I wasn't feeling well, so I was laying low and not playing as much as I usually do with Melly. She desperately wanted to play, and my heart broke as I rested trying to play from lying down on the couch. There were 2 things she said that really tugged at my heartstrings. The first, was, "Mommy, please play with me so you can feel better". She definitely understood that I was sick, and it really upset her to see me that way so she kept coming up with ideas that she thought would make me not sick.

The other thing she said was while she was sitting with me on the couch right before nap. She was hugging me, she pulled away a little bit to look in my eyes and said, "Mommy, you my best friend!"

The Sleepover

It's hard to believe that our little Melody is old enough to have a sleepover, but she is! Well, it wasn't really the kids ideas, but it worked out very well regardless. Kerri & Carlo had tickets to a concert and wanted to have a nice date night. Now, once you become a parent, you realize that it's not the trouble of finding a sitter that keeps you from going out, it's the waking up early the next morning, needing to be bright and perky with a toddler after you've been out all night. So, Ashley slept over our house and Kerri got a chance to really have a blast!

Neither of the girls are particularly mischievous on their own. I did find out that the two of them together are very clever and they can do things that they would never dream of doing alone. If only we can focus that into a constructive way....

I'm not sure how it started, but it was definitely a group effort. I pulled a plastic tote in front of Melody's fish tank so they could watch the fishies. The little angels watched and talked to each other about the fish, and all was right with the world. I used that moment to run to the bathroom. The 35 seconds I was gone proved to be quite eventful. I get back into Melly's room to hear, "There you go fishies! Food for you!" So I peek in the room to see that the entire bottle of fish food was now floating around the fish tank, and the two girls are happy as can be. I try to not scare them, or get them in trouble because they really thought they were doing good, but I couldn't leave all that food in there. So I try and scoop out all the fish food and I try and figure out what exactly happened. Here's what I came up with....

Melody showed Ashley where we keep the food. Melody showed Ashley where you put the food in. Melly is (or at least was) unable to unscrew the cap. That's where Ashley's skills proved useful. So she unscrewed the cap, and they both put the food in to the fish tank.
So, after a very funny laugh at the fishies (don't worry, they all survived just fine), we moved to bath time. I got prior approval from Kerri to give the girls a bath together. Some people may think that's weird, but I remember being a kid and a group bath with friends was always fun. So, here's the girls having a ball in the tub!

During bath, they had so much fun playing with the toys. This was a good thing since Melody doesn't usually enjoy baths. Ashley was flopping all over the place laughing and screaming "I'm swimming!" I would find out later that she has only been in the tub insert at home, so this was like going into the ocean for the first time! They played and laughed and somehow I was able to actually get both of them clean too!

After bath we made and ate cookies. Each of the girls got the chance to decorate some of them, and waited somewhat patiently for them to cook. The best part of making the cookies is eating them, and they both already had that skill down.

For bed, I decided to put both of them in Melody's room. My hope was that they would talk to each other to fall asleep, and then to wake up talking to each other in the morning. We put them to bed without problem, then Rob & I snuck outside the bedroom door to listen and see what happened. We were amazed at how well they talked to each other. Not at each other, to each other. They actually had little conversations. This is a new skill so Rob and I giggled outside the door as we heard some cute things. We turned the light out in the hallway so we wouldn't get caught peeking. Here's what happened after that:

M: Someone did that!

A: Did you did that?

Did I did that?

M: My Daddy did that!!

Then after we cot caught peeking, we heard Melody telling Ashley how things work in the house:

M: When you wake up you yell "MOMMY" just like that and then my Mommy comes and picks me up.

A: Oh!

M: Maybe my Daddy come and pick you up!

A: Yeah!

Then of course Rob & I woke up to hear all the girly jibber-jabbering that girls do. It was so funny and sweet to hear. I think everyone needs to have a sleepover so that they can see what it's like. Kerri and Carlo were able to have a great night out, but I think Rob & I had more fun watching the girls!