Frozen: First Movie

Last week Matt took Friday off work since he was going to California this week for work.  So we decided to spend the morning going to the movie Frozen and out to lunch.  This was the first time that either kid has been to a movie at the theater and the first time I've been since I was pregnant with Grace. So it was a treat for all.  We also were able to go to a newly remodeled theater that was really nice.

Anyway, since we went on Friday at 10 am there were only 8 people total in the theater which was great!  A couple of the previews were a little scary but the movie was perfect for the kids.  Caleb made it until about the last 15 minutes and started to get antsy.  Enter in Dum-Dums:)  That held him over to the end.  Now ever since seeing the movie we've been listening to the soundtrack on Spotify and watching whatever clips we can find on You Tube.

Parade of Lights

One nice thing about hosting Thanksgiving is we were actually home for the whole weekend!  That has never happened.  So, we were able to attend our town's Parade of Lights on Saturday night after Thanksgiving.  It wasn't bitterly cold so we actually enjoyed our time outside minus the moment I stepped in dog poop.  YUCK!  The kids loved the parade and at the end we got to watch the big tree light up.

Thanksgiving

We had a super great Thanksgiving this year and were able to host Matt's family for the main event.  Over the course of the weekend we had people here from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday morning.  I love having visitors so I was enjoying it a ton.  But because I had a big meal to prepare and lots of other meals I had to be really organized (ahh in my element).

Grace and Caleb loved having their cousins visit for over 24 hours and then on Friday both set of grandparents were here for the day.  They almost didn't know what to do with that!  We just spent a lot of time hanging out, watching the Packers loose, and of course eating.  

Menu and to-do list 

Grace and Jenna ready to play outside

Girl cousins ready for the Packer game 

Boys ready for Packer game

Place setting and place cards made by Grace

Appetizer lunch spread during football game 

Adult table

Kid table

Carving the bird 

Time to eat!

Illini Game

I've been totally neglecting the blog lately.  My biggest motivation for blogging is so I remember these years.  I am already forgetting what we've been up to the last month but you can expect a couple of posts this weekend.

Back to the point of this post.  A few weeks ago we got to take the kids to an Illini football game.  Some friends of ours have season tickets that they gave to us.  The weather was great (upper 50's) and although the team is not great it was fun to watch.  We sat right in the front row of the visitors section (Ohio State) and they are very good.  So the kids enjoyed watching the cheerleaders and rooting for the away team.  Honestly most of the time I think they yelled, "Go Packers!"  We had to leave just before halftime because Caleb was going a little crazy sitting and he didn't understand why he couldn't go play football.  I brought along Dum-Dums and wished I would have brought along more but that helped us last almost until halftime.

Cheese:)

Cheerleaders

I love this picture of the kids playing in the leaves after we left!

Gymnastics

At the beginning of the fall we made the decision to sign Grace up for gymnastics at the YMCA.  I was hesitant because I really want to protect our children from being too busy, too early.  But with the cold weather coming and less time time to be active and because she was asking to do dance (gymnastics was cheaper and more convenient so we just sold her on that) I felt like maybe it was time to sign up for something besides swimming lessons.

It has been great!  Another 4.5 year old boy is the only other person who signed up for her class and they are the only class at that time.  So she gets lots of attention and lots of time on the equipment.  Today the little boy didn't even show up for class so she had a private lesson.  Afterwards, she said she loved it because she always got to go first.

 

Potty Training Caleb

A week and 2 days ago we started the adventure of potty training Caleb.  Prior to last Tuesday Caleb had shown very little interest in the potty.  He would sit on it for fun once every week or two.  He'd had about 2 or 3 actual pees in the potty and he just didn't seem to care.  I had read in a book that if you just leave a kid potty out one day your child will decide to potty train.  I 100% didn't believe in this method but the funny thing is I think it's working for us.

Last Tuesday Caleb told me he wanted to start wearing underwear so I said sure and thought why not.  He had a handful of accidents the first couple of days but right away showed me an amazing ability to hold his pee.  His accidents greatly reduced and he would tell me when he had to go potty.  The problem was he would tense up on the potty and not have success and cry with fear.  After some internet searches I came up with the idea of putting the little potty in the bath for Caleb while running bath water.  This allowed him to relax and actually pee on the potty.

After a day or two of bath potty time he started having success out of the bath.  Now he does great when he sits on the little potty.  Monday morning we had three accidents (maybe because we had company) but he hasn't had one since!  He hasn't even peed in his pull-up while we are out.  He does ask to go potty while we are out and then clams up on big potties and then just holds it until we get home.  He's also been wearing underwear at naps with no issues (although he's been generally dry during nap time for a while).   Another big success is he tells me when he needs to go and I don't really feel like I have to be on his case.  After lunch today I went upstairs and found him going potty because he had to go.

We do have a long way to go because poop is another story.  He has not done poops on the potty and he waits to get a diaper or pull up on and then poops right away.  So I'm happy he is holding it but I'm ready to work on doing it in the potty.  We will start tackling that soon I hope.  Overall, I'm so proud of Caleb's progress!

O yeah, and the whole aiming situation (even while sitting because I'm not crazy and teaching Caleb to stand) is very different with a boy.  In that sense girl's are sooooo much easier.

First Snow

I was awoken this morning by children jumping on me and begging to play in the snow.  Apparently there was a dusting of snow last night right before I went to bed.  So since I love getting the kids outside I obliged and got them all bundled up.

We weren't quite ready with winter gear but we survived.  Caleb's snow pants were too short, his hat and mittens were size 6-12 months and he wore Grace's boots from last year. I guess he will be wearing short snow pants (or too big ones rolled up that I know we have as hand me downs) and pink accented boots all winter.  We did eventually find some not so warm mittens and a hat that fit.  Grace had to wear her tennis shoes but everything else still fit fine (although she chose to wear the too small hat)!

After a half an hour or so they declared they were cold and came inside to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.  What a great start to the day!