Isn't he cute?

Today we took the boys to the park and to dinner. As we were enjoying our dinner, Anderson calmly announces that he has pee'd in his pants. Not only did the stinker pee in his pants, but he left a puddle on the chair and on the restaurant floor.

Thankfully I had a change of clothes for the boys with me. I took him into the bathroom to clean him up and change him and the little guy is acting as if nothing has happened. He is not bothered in the least, nor does he have any apprehension about it. So I say to him that I am embarrassed that he pee'd at the dinner table (never once making any attempt to ask us to use the bathroom) and left a puddle on the floor. His response......"I'm not embarrassed at all, I'm happy!"

Now what?

Playdate at the zoo

Anderson and Simon

Anderson, Simon, and Jake

Checking out the polar bear exhibit

AJ

JT

This weekend, the boys and their friend Simon, met up at the zoo. It was a beautiful day and the boys had a good time. Anderson wanted to see the meerkats and Jake liked the monkeys. They did a lot of walking, add in a missed nap and you have a recipe for disaster. The witching hours, which unfortunately fall around dinner time, had some serious tantrum nonsense. I've learned that their is nothing that can be done for them when that happens. You just have to ride it out and wait for it to pass. The degree to which they can become unreasonable is just ridiculous and if I didn't just laugh it off I'd go crazy.

This week we set up their pool. They are loving it! They swim for a couple of hours a day and I'm not lying when I say they never sit in the water. They just stand around in their pool splashing each other and pouring water from container to container. I'm not sure if they are scared or just too cold to sit, but it's pretty funny.

I've been teaching them to spell their names. I've had to reiterate Anderson's spelling more often because his name is so much longer than Jake's name. It has resulted in Jake spelling his own name J-A-K-E-R-S-O-N. We just can't get the sweet little guy to stop at the E. Anderson has not only learned to spell his name, but he also knows his address at the new house.

The boys are doing well with potty training. About two weeks ago I ditched the pull ups and only use them for nap/bedtime and that has helped tremendously. They were too comfortable doing their thing in the pull up and are far less likely to have an accident when they are wearing underwear. Both of them are finally doing number two consistently but occasionally taking advantage of the pull up at naptime.

My lower braces came off today. That officially makes me brace free. Now I begin my retainer journey. I have to wear an upper and lower retainer for the next 6-12 months. It sucks, but at least I can take it out when need be and it's a lot less metal.

Moving along

Our roof was completed yesterday.

A front door would be nice.

Last night Kevin went into the boy's room because at nearly 10 p.m., he could hear that Jake was still awake. He asked Jake why he was still up and Jake replied with, "Well, I just keep my eyes open Dad." They really make me smile till my face hurts.

We recently had to find a way to separate the boys at nap and bedtime. One would tease the other (over nothing but nonsense) and the other would get so worked up he was biting. This went on and on for way too long until finally Kevin and I reached our breaking point and re- assembled one of the cribs and put it in our room. Now at naptime, one sleeps in our room in the crib and at bedtime they are separated until they fall asleep. Then we move the one in the crib from our room into his bed. It's not ideal, but for right now we've regained our sanity.

The past week has been stressful on the house front. The bank we used for our construction loan was closed down by the FDIC. Then the hostile takeover bank (for the Cars fans out there) told us we would have thousands of dollars of unforeseen fees at the completion of the house. Several phone calls later that was resolved...we're still waiting for it to come in writing. To top things off, the house was painted the wrong (very wrong) color, they built our garage incorrectly, and installed sliding doors where french doors were to be. The paint I'll have to live with but fortunately the garage and doors will be corrected.

Exciting day...

The house got windows and a completed roof

My braces were removed on the top, two more weeks and the bottom will be off too.

Catching up

Jake

Anderson

View out our master bedroom in the new house

View from our Great Room

View from our kitchen

This weekend we took the boys to the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, OH. We all had a good time and the boys did great sleeping together in the same bed. They enjoyed the kiddie water slides, the lazy river and playing basketball in the pool. I think their favorite part was the animatronic show in the lobby. They sat amongst the "big kids" waiting for the show to begin and made chit chat with the school age kids. At one point I heard a six year old girl ask Jake, "where's your mom?" in a stern voice. I think the friendly guy was putting a damper on a girls only shin dig. I had to go and smooth things over for him, he was doing a lot of unwelcomed hugging and invading of other's personal spaces. After I explained to the girls that he was harmless and just hadn't learned some social rules yet, they were more willing to accept him into their group. Poor guy, all he wanted to do was spread some love. Thankfully he was oblivious to himself and walked away from the situation not a bit embarrassed.

The boys are finally using the potty for both purposes. Jake a bit more than Anderson, but both have had successes. These days the boys spend lots of time outdoors riding their bikes, playing on the hill in the backyard and taking walks through their secret forest. Their secret forest is about four large Christmas trees in back of our condo that they like to explore and play follow the leader through. We've all got spring fever, only about 7 more weeks of school left and then it's time for some summer fun.

Day dreaming

Welcome to 2288 Nickelby :)

View of the walkout basement

View of the kitchen

Upstairs bridge that overlooks the foyer and great room.

Stairway to the second level

These are some pictures of the house from the past week. The roughing stage is almost complete, the roof just needs to be finished. Kevin and I are thrilled to say the least. Everything is coming together and exceeding our expectations. I never gave much thought to the views our house might have, probably because I was used to staring straight into the sides and backs of other houses. I was pleasantly surprised this week when I looked out our windows to see what a difference being on a walk out lot makes. The house sits up high enough to see above and beyond the homes around us and some of the views are quite nice. We're not talking mountain or ocean views, but some really cute picturesque views of the surrounding homes and landscape.

I often find my mind wandering throughout the day, thinking about the memories we will make in the new house. This will be the house that the boys will say they grew up in. Christmas mornings, first day of Kindergarten pictures on the porch, birthday parties, sparklers in the dark on the fourth of July and before we know it, a graduation party under a big tent in the backyard.