The Pirate Movie

Here is the latest from the Borders Production Studio! Enjoy!

Potty talk

Last night after Cooper pooped in his diaper, I had a conversation with him about the rewards he would get for going potty in the toilet. This is how the conversation went.


Me: Cooper when you go poop in the potty, you'll get a cookie.
Cooper: I went poop, can I have a cookie?
Me: Yes you did go poop, but you went poop in your diaper, not in the toilet. You'll need to go poop in the potty if you want a cookie.
Cooper: (disappointed look)
Me: And when you go pee in the potty you can have 2 M&M's because you are 2.
Cooper: No I'm 4.

Cooper's even BIGGER news!

So I already know I'm going to get A LOT of flack for posting this, but frankly, I don't really care! I am SO totally excited! Today has been a great day for Cooper in the potty training arena. This morning he peed in the potty for the first time (see earlier post), then after dinner he did this for the first time in the potty!

GO COOPER!

P.S. The morning after, Cooper saw this picture on the blog and said: "That's my big huge poop" and wanted to look at the picture for a while. I think he's pretty proud of himself.

Cooper's big news!

According to the professionals, one of the signs to look for to see if your child is ready to potty train is if they pull at, or pull off their diaper all the time. Cooper does both of these things ALL THE TIME! So for a few weeks we've been letting him sit on his potty, with on results.

I've even bribed him.

He ALWAYS wants to watch his Thomas the Train movie, so when he asks to watch it, I tell him he can IF he sits on his potty while watching it.

This morning he wanted to watch his movie, so out came the potty. I decided to load him up with fluids and have him sit on the potty periodically until he went.

On his second try, he went!

You can't see the pee in this one, so here's another, just to prove he did go.

Now if he would just do it consistently and start pooping it the toilet too, then we'd be on a roll!

Ribbit

So today during nap, I was checking email, blogs, face book... you know the online world. Jeff was in the other room refining a part in the book he wrote. I heard a little noise that I thought was maybe coming from Jeff's dying laptop. But when Jeff said, "hey do you hear that?" I thought well, maybe not, and asked Jeff what it was. He said he didn't know, but that the noise was coming from near our outside wall.

Jeff went over to the wall and started listening. Listening to the walls. Listening to the heat ducts. Opened the front door.

Nothing happened.

I came in the living room to check it out too.

Jeff sat down and the noise began again.

Soon we realized it was a frog croaking.

After more listening in the croaking area. Jeff came up with a theory that the frog was in one of our heat ducts.

Jeff got out the vacuum and put the hose down inside the duct and turned on the vacuum. While I was sitting on the couch wondering why he's doing this. This is the conversation that ensues.

Me: "So you think you'll be able to suck up the frog with the vacuum, assuming the frog is in the duct."

Jeff: "yup that's what I'm thinking"

Me: "and you know it will probably kill the frog"

Jeff: "Yup"

Me: "Frog killer!"

Jeff turned on the vacuum and sucked around in the duct for a while. After no results he gave up and put the vacuum away.

Jeff returned to the couch, and more importantly, writing.

A few minutes later the croaking returns.

After more investigative work, trying to pin point the location of the frog, Jeff is positive the frog is in the duct.

Jeff got the vacuum out again, and the same conversation as before was repeated between us.

Jeff turned on the vacuum again and soon he felt a little something a bit heavier go into the vacuum than just dirt and dust.

Jeff took the "dirt tank" (or whatever the technical term is) to the garbage and emptied it. He came back and reported that there didn't appear to be a frog in the "tank".

But the croaking did not return.

From now on Jeff's nickname will be FROG KILLER!

Rest In Peace my frog friend.

My Birthday

I wasn't going to post anything about my birthday, but last night after getting a few posts done, Jeff asked if I posted anything about my birthday. So here it is for anyone who wants to know.

My birthday was on Sunday so Friday night Jeff took me out to dinner tp Applebee's. If you've never had their Veggie Patch Pizza you are missing out! It used to be on the menu as an appetizer, it is no longer on the menu, but they will still make it if you order it.

Then Saturday night we had some friends over for cake and ice cream. I made my own cake. I used a recipe from my friend Corrine called "Dang Good Chocolate Cake", and yeah, it was dang good!

My actual birthday was quite relaxing. We went to church, and that's about it! I did use the excuse that it was my birthday when it came time to make dinner, deal with a crying child, or put the boys to bed. I'm sure Jeff was real tired of me saying, "It's my birthday, so you get to do it."

My birthday present has not arrived yet. I ordered a grain mill attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer.The Grain Mill will grind wheat, rye, oats, rice, barley, buckwheat, millet, and any other low-moisture, non-oily grains.

Now it just needs to hurry up and get here so I can use it!

Pretty in Pink

This is just too cute not to post, not to mention, some good black mail later on.

Yesterday Mason wanted to wear some of my clothes that I had laying on the bedroom floor. He put on my pants and used my belt as suspenders to hold up the pants. You can't see that very well, but the belt is through one belt loop in the front and each end of the belt went over his shoulders and looped together behind his back.

Then he put my shirt on too.

CTR

With the beginning of a new year, Mason moved up to a new class in Primary. He is now a CTR-4, with that he got a CTR ring from his teacher. For those of you who may not know what a CTR ring is, it is kinda like the WWJD bracelets that other Christian churches have. The CTR stands for Choose The Right. I like to think of it as, instead of just asking the question, What Would Jesus Do? This answers the question, he would Choose The Right.

Anyway, since Mason got the ring on Sunday we have had several discussions with him about what it means to Choose The Right. And that by wearing the CTR ring it can help us remember to Choose The Right.

One day earlier this week at dinner, Mason was saying the prayer. Well he of course had his eyes open while saying the prayer and saw that Cooper had begun eating. As Mason asked Heavenly Father to bless the food, he shouted bless the FOOD!!! as a way to yell at Cooper for eating before the prayer was said. While we ate we had a conversation with Mason about Choosing The Right and if yelling at Cooper was Choosing The Right.

The next day (or maybe the day after that, I can't remember), Cooper was in the bathroom washing his hands, Mason and I were doing something at the table. I asked Mason to go ask Cooper to turn off the water and to also remember to Choose The Right while asking Cooper. So Mason hopped down from the table, saw his CTR ring sitting on our buffet table, put it on his right index finger, and made his way to the bathroom. Once he got to the bathroom, he paused, held up his right hand, and put his left hand under his right as if to support the right hand. He then looked at his ring, with a methodical look on his face, then looked up at Cooper and as sweet as pie asked Cooper to please turn the water off. It was just so cute.

It is these moments that I wish I had a camera hard wired in my brain that would take a picture simply by me thinking about wanting to.

Play-doh fun

Mason and Cooper got some play-doh and play-doh toys for Christmas. The other day while playing with the play-doh I decided to write Cooper's name with the doh. Then Mason decided he was also going to writhe Cooper's name with it. Didn't Mason do such a great job?!

Oh and we were going to write Mason name too, but the boys wanted to go do something else before we go to it. So don't even think I was playing favorites.

Percy

We've all heard of kids having their "security blanket" right? Well Cooper has his "security Percy". He takes Percy EVERYWHERE...to bed, to the grocery store, to grandparents houses, you name it, Percy is with Cooper. When Percy is not with Cooper, it is like the worst thing in the world to him. All we hear is Cooper whining, "Percy, Percy, Percy, I want Percy".

On Sunday, Percy accompanied us to church, but during nursery he has to stay in the "quiet bag" so Percy is not left at church. Once we got home from church Cooper got Percy out of the quiet bag and took Percy to bed with him, but after nap Percy was no where to be found.

I was told that the bed, and under the bed was searched, but that Percy was not found. So the rest of Sunday, all of Monday, and part of Tuesday went by with no sign of Percy, but lots of whining occurred.

Tuesday morning I heard Cooper in his room yelling, Percy....can....you....hear....me....? It was so sad, it was like he was searching for his long lost love.

I finally decided to really put a good effort into searching for Percy. I found Percy under Cooper's bed.....

but hey, I thought that area was already searched....hummmm sounds like SOMEONE, not mentioning any names or anything, *cough* Jeff *cough* didn't search very well.

"You're going to jail!"

Ever since we did the police officer video, Cooper has been taking me to jail. First he pushes me down to the ground, if I am not willing to play along. Then he puts my hands behind my back and tries with all his might to get the handcuffs on me. All the while telling me "you're going to jail!".

Here is Cooper going to jail.

Another note to self...

This morning after getting out of the shower, I thought to myself, gee it's REALLY quiet in the house.

As I made my way down stairs I was met by Cooper, who was coming up the stairs. He said to me, "Mommy, bubbles in bathroom sink". I started freaking out inside thinking the worst, is the bathroom flooded with water?

We get down to the bathroom to find that the sink was indeed filled with bubbles.

That's when I looked down at Cooper's hand and saw that he had colored all over the back side of his hand with what I thought was his washable markers. I pushed up his sleeve, so not to get it wet while washing his hand off. As I pulled the sleeve up I saw he had colored up further, and further, and further. All the way up to almost his sholder. I began washing off the above mentioned, washable marker, when I realized it wasn't washable marker, but sharpie marker, which is not washable. These picuters are from AFTER washing his hand and arm.

At that moment I made a mental note to move the sharpie markers from in the junk drawer to a much higher spot. This is a note I should have made after he colored on the dinning room table with the same sharpie marker. Yup the same sharpie marker that I still can't get off my table.

Books

In 2009 I set a goal for myself to read 12 books. I ended up reading 23 books. I can honestly say that 23 books is more than I thought I could read. It is more books than I had read in my whole life combined.

This year I am going to continue to read books, but I think I am going to spend a bit less time reading and a little more scrapbooking, as I am now a good year and a half behind on both Mason and Cooper's scrapbooks.

The Squeakwal

On Wednesday Mason, Cooper and I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakwal in the theater. This was Cooper's first time going to a movie, and only Mason's second time. When we first walked into the dimly lite theater Cooper was a little scared, but once we got around the corner and he saw the BIG screen he was fine. I wasn't sure how well Cooper would do, sitting in his seat the whole time, but he ended up doing pretty good, only getting bored about 20 minutes before the end. Mason on the other hand, did really well the whole time. Mason asked if we could go back to see Alvin and the Chipmunks again, but I don't think I could bare sitting through that movie again, especially not at the $9.50 price.