The Park, a Play and the Potty

Last week Charles was out of town from Monday – Saturday and it made for quite a long week.  I had ambitious plans on Friday to go and do something fun with the kids since it was my birthday and I was wanting to get out.  So to the park we went… Me, Audrey, Will and Julia too ;)

Such a pretty park with lots of grass – a rarity in the middle east and thankfully some shade.  We played hard, Julia slept hard!

Poor child, her pictures are always asleep and in the car seat.  3rd kid syndrome.  She had a belly full of milk so she snoozed the whole time we were there.

While at the park, Audrey started to recognize some of the Arabic letters in the rubber floor of the playground:

I brought their scooters so they could cruise on the big sidewalks.. lots of fun.

we have two sets of these amazing “Micro Scooters” one here in AD and one in Lake Charles… they are kinda pricey, but the best scooter – they can enjoy riding them even on the bumpy road because they are a super smooth ride… every single kid we know in our compound has one – so I have made each kid’s name out of vinyl lettering and applied them to their scooters so they don’t get confused.  Will’s is the kind on the left, Audrey’s is on the right with the adjustable bar… last Christmas Santa brought them in gender neutral colors since Will will eventually just take Audrey’s and Julia can take Will’s.  - Ok, back on track here…

 

Here is a video of Audrey singing one of her songs from the play…

Later that day it was Audrey’s final performance of the Sound of Music… She was in the children's’ chorus and got to go on stage twice to sing during the play with a group of other kids.  As we walked in she wanted to stop and look at all the pictures posted of the cast..

Here she is on stage:  There was no video or flash photography allowed.. hence the grainy pictures. 

here is her other costume:

She did a great job… during the other performance earlier in the week, the group came on stage – but there was no Audrey… I started to worry that maybe she had a stage fright issue, or something must have happened??? Well about 1 minute into their song, Audrey busted thru the side curtain and scurried quickly to her spot and joined in the song.  I couldn’t help but to giggle.  After the play, I asked her what happened and she said: Someone accidentally poked her in the eye and when her eye got watery the black eye makeup ran all over her face.  She had to go to the bathroom to wipe it off and while she was in there her group had already left to go on stage.  I was proud of her for going out anyway – no chance I would have just gone by myself like that at her age.

Here were the Vontrap children:

This was my date to the play: (Sleeping in car seat once again). LOL.  She did get fussy at one point so I took her out and gave her a bottle – I didn’t mind missing a little of the play since it was my second time to attend the 3 hour production in the same week.. of course Audrey's parts were only at the very beginning and again at the very end.

She was thrilled to get flowers from Mama after both performances

Me and my girl.. so sad Charles missed it!

Now for the Potty portion of this post.. LOL I’m sure you just couldn’t wait. ha.

Well, oh well – it is finally happening for William. I have been waiting for his signs of readiness for about. hmm. a year now.  He suddenly is ready.  Like a magic light bulb went off and voila he is like, “lets do this.”  He is having tons of successes and very few accidents so far.

**Reader beware – if you have a weak stomach, you may want to stop here**

One day last week – the day after his very first potty victory – he really wanted the prize I had promised him if he did it again… I was tending to baby when I heard, “MAMA!!! I DID IT, I POO-POOed!!”  I responded with, “Will, WHERE did you poop?!” (since it could have been anywhere).. he said, “IN THE POTTY!!”  oh the joy.. music to a mother’s ears!! I came running to him to sing, celebrate, and jump around.  When I got into the bathroom the poop smell was just a little too fresh, if you know what I mean, like it didn’t happen in the potty – but it was in there, the poop was in the potty. hmmmm. I scan the floor, nope not there, then check the trashcan and sure enough a diaper with a little evidence that there had been poop in it before. I ask again, “Will, did you really poop in the potty?”  I got a big brown eyed grin as I showed him the diaper in the trash and he fessed up by shaking his head no. What a little scam artist. ha! He did his business in the diaper and them dumped it into the potty in an effort to earn his prize…We will certainly have to keep an eye on this kid… smart little booger.  He then asked, “I get my prize?!” uh no, Son – sorry.

Yesterday, I came in from brining Will and Julia with me to the mall – I had pushed my time limit and needed to feed her immediately.  Of course simultaneously Will notified me that he needed to go potty, so with one arm, I helped him get undressed as I’m holding/feeding Julia. He ran off to the bathroom and I hear the words, “I did it!” and then a loud spray.  {see the picture above and notice the sprayer next to the toilet}.  I put baby sister down, mid feed – to which she is just pissed about – and ran in… I knew exactly what had happened… He had potty trained for a couple of days now and has watched me dump the poop in the potty and use the sprayer to clean out the small potty on the floor (the one he sometimes uses).  Well, apparently he thought he’d save me the trouble and clean it out himself.  Let me give you a visual.. he dumps the poop in the big potty, some of it is left behind in the little potty. He then takes the high pressured water sprayer and tries to spray it out, only the water blasts out, liquefies the poop and it is splattering all over the bathroom!!!!!!!!! I am trying to get close enough to get the hose away from him, but far enough to not get sprayed down with the crap water. what. a. mess!!!!!!! I cannot even describe how disgusting it was.  He just grins and is so proud of himself for what he had done and asks, “I get candy!?” {sigh}, yes, Will, you get candy.  Note, sister is still mad about her interrupted milk supply while I scrub down like I’m about to preform surgery.  I finish feeding her to find that she has now had a blow out. DUDE!!. can a mother get a break?! Are y’all wondering where Espy was to help me deal with this? Naturally it was all during her scheduled break time and she was taking a nap in her room… must be nice LOL.

The coinciding of Audrey’s play at school and Will’s potty training with Charles gone was wild.

Why is it that the busiest weeks are the ones Charles is travelling for? ha.  We all survived, haven’t gotten E-coli poisoning yet and had some pretty funny stories to tell daddy.

here’s julia trying to fill him in on all that happened:

can you see the blonde tips to her hair? It is just so crazy.  Love that fat girl.

Cabin Fever

Last weekend I forced everyone we decided  to spontaneously venture out to the beach.  A little bit of a back story as to why (as if you really need a reason to go to the beach.. but I’ll share anyway):  For the last several weeks we’ve had some pretty BORING weekends here.  I mean brutally boring.  About 2 weeks before Julia was born until now (she is 5 weeks) we have done absolutely nothing – literally inside all weekend… mostly due to the extreme heat and having a newborn, but nevertheless, I get extreme cases of cabin fever and have suffered from this ‘condition’  since I was little.  I look forward to the time when all our family can be together without school or work and really have a need to do things together as a family.   HOWEVER, the reality was us sitting around in our small villa – all up in each other’s space, Espy is off duty, so mama is the fill in housemaid constantly picking up, cooking and cleaning, doing dishes etc.. (wah, I know)  the kids try to stay entertained while Charles and I refereed the little spats about everything… anyway – it was just no fun.  I had finally hit my breaking point and was like, “That’s it, we are getting out of here!!”  We had breakfast, loaded everyone up in the car and went down to the beach for a morning outing. 

When we got there they bolted down to the sand, I played with the kids while Charles enjoyed some coffee and sat with Julia.  We searched for shells, looked for fish and played in the sand… Here are two attempts at getting a picture of my two goof-balls.

This one is like… ok, we’ll stand here, but we won’t give you a good picture.

Audrey’s only mission is to collect sea shells… love seeing the sky-scrapers in the background.  I wonder what they’ll think when they look back on these pictures.

More playtime on the beach:

Took a break for some Cold Stone ice cream. 

Then walked over to the playground and played there for a while…

Snapped a picture of Will in time out for calling a kid stupid. {SIGH}.

This little gal slept thru it all. 

Her first trip to the beach at 5 weeks old.

This weekend might be another uneventful one since Charles is out of town… too bad it is my birthday weekend. wahhh!  Well, I guess there is always next weekend.

What we are up to:

I simply cannot believe that a month has passed by already… I remember with the two older ones a month felt more like 3 months… this time, sadly it is flying by and I would give anything for a ‘pause’ button.  We have not missed a beat since Julia’s arrival – the best way for me to explain this is like we are all four jumping rope together and she just joined into the rhythm we had going.  We have all been very busy to say the least… here is a peak as to what we each have been doing.. sorry no pics of audrey or charles in this post. I’ll try to get some later

Audrey:

• Rehearsing/Practicing for the K-12 school musical, The Sound of Music.  She is in the children's chorus and gets to go on stage 3x’s during the play to sing different songs with the group.  She is ecstatic to say the least!  Audrey had to audition for this by learning a song, singing it solo as well as learning a dance and performing it with a group of much older kids… I was so proud that she had the confidence to do this.  I would have been terrified!! She is one of only 2 first graders in the play.
• Attending Birthday parties… we’ve had an average of 2 per week recently.  They really put a cramp in our weekends when we are all climbing the walls and wanting to go do something, but at least it is keeping Audrey entertained!
• Homework! oh yes, it has begun and will continue for the next, uh 16 or so years. Audrey’s teacher sends home a math packet that they are to do a little each night – We usually do it all at once. They are focused on counting money and telling time right now.  In addition to her  math homework, she is supposed to read 20 min each night.  She usually reads us 2 books before bedtime. 
• Girl Scouts has started back up and she has been attending meetings as well as another after school activity where she gets to do arts and crafts for an hour after school one day a week.
• Recently had her first sleepover (with Evelyn) here at our house.  The girls played nonstop! The next day was full of attitude and whining… maybe we aren’t quite ready for staying up late?!
• Had a goal setting conference at school and Audrey chose her own goal: To count to 100 in arabic before the end of the school year.  Wow. quite ambitious!
• Got a tooth pulled at the dentist.  She has had a loose snaggletooth for over 3 months and its replacement was coming in behind it and all wonky – it was more traumatic than I expected. poor girl. she was tough though.

William:

• adjusting to a new class in preschool.  he tells me daily, “I don’t wike my cool” but he really does, I know he is just giving me a hard time and trying to tug at my heartstrings.  I asked the teacher how he is during the day and he is doing amazing! ha. not gonna fool me.
• Practicing wearing big boy underwear (Ben 10 undies in the picture below).  He has still not had a successful trip to the potty, but baby steps – it is a huge HUGE victory just to get him to try on the underwear.  He sports them for a couple hours each day but still fights us about sitting  on the potty.
• enjoying his sister.  He no longer refers to her as ‘mama’s baby’ – he calls her ‘our baby’ He is protective over her and is very caring.  I expected a lot more acting out from him with the arrival of Julia, but honestly it has been quite the opposite.  He has been more compliant and just overall easier to deal with.
• is really into coloring lately
• has given up the infamous ‘bebe’ (his lovey) during the day.  Each morning it gets put up out of his reach and he can have it back after bath time/ before bed in the evenings.  This has dramatically decreased his thumb sucking since the two are just better together.  Trust me, I know this because I was the same – but mine was a pillowcase…
• getting excited for Halloween.. he wants to be a monster from the Ben 10 cartoon..

  

Julia:

• working on being a champion nurser. Out of my 3 kids she gets the gold medal. 
• gaining a lot of fat and a little head control
• refusing a pacifier…we won’t give up though, it is easier to take away than a thumb
• starting to smile on purpose
• loving bathtime
• waking up 2x’s a night to feed
• taking a bottle like a champ when I am away. She has had 3 so far and does great – whew! bottles = freedom.
• packing on the weight like it is her job – her cheeks are scrumptious
• still has absolutely untamable hair. the sides flatten out during the day leaving a crazy Mohawk at the top…   it is wild, but I adore it.

 

Daddy:

• working a lot and often late.. also about to have to travel a little bit soon.
• helping out with big kids in the evenings/ weekends while I tend to baby
• bringing coffee up to me while I try to join the land of the living in the mornings
• taking one for the team and spending lots of money on flights so we can bring J to meet her family at Christmas

Mama:

• loving taking care of baby… I forgot how much I love caring for a newborn.
• feeding Julia a bazillion times a day
• looking forward to some maintenance appointments coming up – pedicure today, hair apt  tomorrow– alleluia!
• trying to lose the baby weight. I was doing okay and then just plateaued.. {ugh!} it could have something to do with the fact I am ravenous every afternoon due to nursing.  out of all three pregnancies,  I’m least patient with the flabby post baby bod this go ‘round.  I want to fit in my clothes… STAT.
• enjoying the occasional glass of wine – FINALLY!
• running kids all over, errands, etc..
• being sleep deprived

quick pics

I was trying to get a good pic of Julia with a bow… the last one just cracked me up.. it was her reaction to the flash on the camera.

  

Our idea of “going to the pool”  It is still too hot for Julia to hang out outside.. temps here are hanging around 100 degrees – so we improvised and the kids played for 2 hours together outside.  Charles and I took advantage of the quiet and had afternoon coffee and tea together.

Playing with sister:

Totally milk drunk:

posting this picture because of this article {read it.. wow. so good!}…. it hit me right between the eyes.

the sides of her hair get flat from sleeping… but the top is untamable!!!