A Man's Design

On Thursday after picking up the kids, we headed to Target to pick up some refills for the diaper genie. We have to have them or William's diapers stink up the whole place. As we were headed in, I put William in the buggy and usually give Isabella the option to walk holding onto the buggy or sitting inside. I was even able to ask her before she said "I have to tee-tee". I think this could possibly be the most dreaded thing I hear when I am out with both kids by myself.

"Great" I think to myself and I am silently yelling at myself for not having her go at Sarah's before we left her house. Oh well.

We walked over to the bathrooms and I decided it just might be easier to go into the family restroom which I don't know that I had really noticed before or possibly just forgotten about it. Isabella goes up to the door and knocks on it. I heard rustling around inside and someone say something. I told her she would have to wait. She proceed to knock a couple more times and say "can I come in?" I was laughing and trying to tell her that someone was in there and we would have to wait. It was so cute and funny. Between 5-10 minutes later, a mom, her2 kids and grandma come out of the bathroom. They said they were sorry and we exchanged a few words while I was laughing about Isabella trying to go in.

Now, here is the tricky part. All you mothers know this, espceially if you have more than one child and one of them can't walk yet but it too big to lay on the changing table because he just might fall off and suffer from a head injury. How do you assist your 3 year old get undressed and up onto the potty that is too high even though this is the family bathroom with no place to put your infant? Agh!

I got Isabella up onto the potty and she just wanted to talk. I was begging her to use the potty because by now I had to go too. So I pulled her off and sat down myself with William in my lap. I did seriously ponder if I could have asked a nice Target worker to assist me with him but thought better of the idea. Isabella did finally go on her second attempt while I got my clothes together and prayed that William would not fall of the changing table.

Then you have to try to wash your hands while holding your little one. Not my idea of fun since everyone gets wet no matter how hard to you to just wash your hands. Isabella then sat down on the floor, with her bare bottom, as I am saying over and over, "STAND UP, STAND UP!!!!" whiled trying to get her bottoms back up and on. I sure hope she doesn't contract some nasty disease from it.

So, now on to my point. I love it when store have the family restrooms. They can make things soooo much easier. I think they are a fantastic idea and applaud whoever came up with them. It is even nicer when they have nursing rooms (Macy's at Stonecrest does). But, my one complaint, whoever came up with them didn't think things all the way through. Or only has one child that is old enough to do everything himself. A man must have designed this idea. As a woman, I feel certain if a women had designed it, it would have a seat with straps for your infant to sit in so you could handle every one's business without difficulty. And I know they make them because I have used it at Babies R Us.

Have any of you had these fun experiences? Any advice?

Getting Closer

William is 11 months old!

And ALL over the place.

He loves to go outside and cries if you open the door and close it before he gets there or don't let him out.

He is starting to say "more" when prompted for more food.

He definitely has stranger anxiety. I guess I should call it "if your not mommy anxiety" since he seems to always want me and will scream if someone picks him up that he doesn't see on a regular basis.

He likes to sweep. I am hoping he will continue to enjoy cleaning as he grows up. Someone in our house needs to.

He is begining to enjoy some "real" food too even though he still doesn't have any teeth. Maybe some pearly whites will show up this month.

He is crusing and also begining to walk with his push toy

HHI

Over the Labor Day weekend we were able to go to Hilton Head Island with my family. The kids had a great time playing on the beach. William LOVED crawling in the sand and even enjoyed eating some. Isabella had a good time digging in the sand too but neither one of them wanted to go into the ocean. Maybe next year.

Here are some pictures in no particular order.

Isabella posing for pictures

A family picture before we headed home

Isn't it so hard to get a good one with more than one child?

Isabella and William with Aunt Jennie and Uncle Patrick

William posing

Our good friends Zach and Lisa got engaged while they were visiting us

Look at that smile!

They have matching chairs with umbrellas

Funny

Isabella has a couple of new things she has started saying recently.

She LOVES the movie Mary Poppins (we could seriously watch it 20 times in one weekend) so I also got her Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She has started saying she wants to watch the "black Mary Poppins" WHAT?!? you may be saying, just as I first did when I heard her request. Then I realized what she meant. She is referring to a specific part in Mary Poppins. Even if you haven't seen it in awhile you will probably remember the chimney scene where they are covered in soot. So in her mind, black Mary Poppins is the original not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.


Then tonight during dinner and while we were discussing Mary Poppins, she said "there were 2 blacks". Matt and I were like OMG!!! We sure hope she doesn't say that out in public. She is referring to Mary Poppins and Bert from the same scene. It is so funny how kids start to classify things in their little heads not even knowing that the outside world would look at us like racist if they heard her.

She also can't say s blends. So anything that starts with the letter "s" she leaves off.
She now "pits" in the sink like us
"tirs" the muffin mix
I love it and will be sad when she is able to say them correctly.

Mini Me

Isabella before school

Isabella started back to preschool yesterday. She is going to Ebenezer Methodist again this year along with Micah. Matt took the morning off and stayed home with the kids and took off an hour so I could come home, take pictures, and we could take her to school together. I plan on never missing a first day of school.

Isabella and Daddy

We meet Sarah, Micah and Connor in the parking lot and then headed inside for drop off. Isabella's teacher are Ms Kim and Ms Lorraine this year, not to be confused with Ms Kim from last year that now has Micah.


We showed her where her backpack goes and started to look around the room. Then she proceeds to start saying, "You don't leave me". Which is her new thing now even at church in the nursery. We are hoping to get over that very soon. So we said bye and left to her crying. I got a report form Sarah around 12 after pickup that she only cried for 10 or 15 minutes. Thank goodness. Today Sarah dropped Isabella off by herself since Micah only goes on Tuesday and Thursdays. No crying!!! PTL!

Little Mini Me

Isabella decided to try on my glasses the other night and we thought she looked kind of cute and more like me. What do you think?

Me and Bella

10 months later

William is 10 months old today. He is such a big boy and can do so many new things.

• He started crawling 2 weeks ago which has opened up a whole new world around here. He is able to chase Isabella all around and get into EVERYTHING. (See the toilet paper pictures below).
• He is able to pull himself up where ever he wants.
• He is able to wave hello and bye-bye

We found William climbing in the dishwasher tonight and then later having a agreat time unrolling the toilet tissue roll. He adores his big sister and wants to play with the big kids. He also get so excited when I pick him up from Sarah's house. Too cute.

He went to the doctor on Monday for a checkup and was 20 pounds and 8 ounces, 29 inches long.

William in the toilet paper

How cute is he?

The Rock Ranch

We were able to visit a place called the Rock Ranch near Barnsville for our niece's 5th birthday. We had a great time. You should check out the website if you are interested. It sounds like that have a lot of events in the fall. This was the first summer it was open but they have had fall activities in the past.

www.therockranch.com

The paddle boats were hard work!!! William was NOT excited about having to be in his life jacket and Isabella wasn't so sure about the whole thing either but it was fun to do.

Isabella waiting to get on the paddle boat

William trying to crawl around with his life jacket on.

Taking a ride on the train

The peddle cars were really hard too!

William was worn out. I wish I could sleep like that.

There was a long tunnel slide that went underground. It was sooo much fun. The kids kept going over and over again. Isabella finally decided she would try and loved it! She would not go by herself but look at the smile on her face.

The corn house

Isabella and Andersen

Isabella fed the goat right out of her hand

Milking the cow