That's What I'm Talking About

It's been a while now since we had Micah's potty party to help him potty train. Just to give you a little background on my potty training experience... With my oldest, I had no idea what I was doing and it was... um, let's say... "challenging". And I'm trying to be very positive here. With my 2nd, I read the Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day. Great book, would recommend it. Luke did spectacularly. He really did potty train in just one day. Hardly had any accidents - ever. Very impressive. I thought then that the author of that book really knows what she's talking about! So, with Micah, once I determined that he was really ready, I pulled the book out again and read it a 2nd time. I was ready for another success story. Well... Micah didn't respond as quickly as Lukey did, unfortunately. I am now convinced that you can potty train some kids in one day, but not all kids. :-) And I wonder how much birth order plays into it all, but that's another story. Micah did great at the party and really seemed to want to go potty like his big brothers. He certainly understands how and what he's supposed to do. Just being the 3rd born, motivation is not always so high for him. So, we're still having accidents from time to time. I think overall he's doing great. Just sometimes he'd rather do something else than make it to the potty on time. And being forced to wear the wet pants does not phase him in the least. I've started rewarding him for the days he doesn't have accidents. Maybe that can get us out of the accident slump. He already gets special green frog stickers for putting all (emphasis on all) his poo-poo in the potty. One day he earned a frog sticker on his chart (posted on the bathroom wall). He looked at the chart and said, "Now that's what I'm talking about." If only we can talk about it all the time! :-)

Here are a few pictures of the potty party day. We had a "bear picnic" theme. The bathroom was the bear's clubhouse.

Not a Fan

My husband's family is from Boston. He grew up in New England loving the Red Sox baseball team. I've always been a baseball fan, so it's been easy to catch on to the Red Sox craze. One of the first things you learn when you become a fan is that you have to NOT like the New York Yankees. It just goes without saying. To love the Red Sox = to hate the Yankees. Naturally when both parents are fans of something it's only normal for the children to become fans as well. Our boys call the Yankees the New York "Yuckies", though I don't let them use the word "hate". :-) Now we live in a country where people wear things with English writing on them that have absolutely no meaning to the person. There has been more than one occasion when we passed someone on the street wearing a Yankees jersey or ball cap. The boys always seem to notice and exclaim how terrible it is. Thankfully most people can't understand what they're saying. But the other day one of the boys was in the elevator with Daddy and a man wearing a Yankees cap. Our son (who shall remain nameless) started pointing and making gagging noises in reference to the hat. Daddy was doing his best to calm our child down and make him stop pointing, but to no avail. And how do you explain that in another language to a stranger who you're in the elevator with for 1 minute? Maybe we need to keep working on how to "not like" the Yankees tastefully. Or at least not point at people in elevators whilst making gagging noises. No matter what hat they're wearing.

Show Me That Smile Again...

Shopping here is almost always random. I was at this market type place yesterday and scored a major find. I wasn't even looking for movies, but this lady enticed me to look at her stash. After sorting through all the trashy t.v. shows and movies as I was wondering why I was wasting my time, the last one in the pile was Growing Pains seasons 1-7! I asked the lady if it was real and she said it was and that the price was less than $6.00. So I bought it! We watched the first one last night and it seems like the quality is actually quite good (often a problem when you get them so cheap). It's fun to have an old school show that we would actually watch now and enjoy. We already own all 8 seasons of The Cosby Show. Woo-Hoo for Growing Pains!

On a different note, the countdown is on for my parents to arrive!!! They leave the States on Saturday afternoon and get here on our Sunday night. Can't wait!

The Bow Era Has Ended

You all know how I have enjoyed putting bows on Mercy. And up until now she has either just not noticed that the bow was there or didn't care. Well, after she turned 1, she started caring. :-( She won't leave the bow on her head anymore. Sometimes she'll leave it in for a little while, but eventually it always comes off. I'm so sad! Her hair is getting longer, so she is looking a little more "girly" herself. The boys are always disturbed when people outside think she is a little boy since her hair is short. They want everyone to know she is the little sister! I've been experimenting with little barrettes, which are also very, very cute. They tend to slide out after a while, but when they're in it's very cute and girly. I so love having a little girl!

Mini-Vacation

Back at the end of July we took a little mini-vacation where we stayed in a hotel on the other side of our city. The hotel had indoor and outdoor pools, a beach sand area, an outdoor playground, a terrific fitness center, several surrounding yummy restaurants, and a foreign goods grocery store. We got sleeping bags for the 3 boys, which was a treat in and of itself, and all camped out in the same room for 3 nights. We went swimming every day, watched Animal Kingdom in English on t.v. and played UNO several times while at the hotel. Daddy got to work out every morning and get a nice foot massage, and I got to get my hair cut finally. We also found a nearby fun place for the boys, and Daddy and I took turns getting lots of rest during the younger one's nap times. It really was a lot of fun for our family, and we'd choose to do it again. Daddy says the best part was that when it was over we rode in a car 45 minutes to our home instead of spending the day flying back from another country. We were unpacked by that night. It was a great 4 days! Here are some pictures for you...

Whew!

Well, we made it through the birthday season. Daddy's birthday was last Saturday (Aug. 6th), wrapping up the 5 family birthday streak within a 3 month span. Things should be a little calmer around here with no cakes or decorations needed for a long time. I'm the odd-man-out with a December birthday, but I don't mind having lots of time in between the busy birthday season and my own celebration. Daddy's birthday was a little bit of a let down to the boys since they expected lots of guests, a trip to the fun place, and lots of presents to unwrap. Daddy, however, greatly enjoyed a nice leisurely day at home with his family and all his favorite foods to eat. We did decorate for the occasion and ended the celebration with an incredible chocolate peanut butter cheesecake for dessert. His gift from us was 2 days of solitude, which he spent in a nearby hotel - all to himself. He was able to spend some much needed alone time, and we survived here at home. We spent some time one day painting. I was trying to squeeze in things that we don't normally take the time to do. We will begin home school August 22nd, so the time is running short!

Mercy Joy turned 1!

My beautiful girl is already 1 year old. I can't believe she's been with us for a whole year now, and yet it's hard to remember life without her in our family. Mercy truly is a joy to us all. Her birthday was July 19th, and she is well on her way to not being a baby anymore. I keep telling her to stop growing up, but she's not listening to me. :-) Mercy is babbling a lot, trying to formulate words in her own way. She can say the important ones like mama, dada, and ge ge (older brother in the language here). Her smile lights up any room and everyone can't wait to see her every morning when she gets up. The feeling is mutual as she is delighted every morning to see her brothers. She gets very excited and happy (kicking her legs, waving her arms, and giggling) every time they come running to her room. She enjoys playing with brothers (especially playing with their toys!), "helping" them with their puzzles, and being pushed around on her new riding pony.

Mercy's not walking yet, but it won't be long now. Her mobility began with the salamander/army crawl and has progressed to normal hands and knees crawling. She will start crawling to get where she wants to go, but when she sees something she really wants she gets down on her tummy and she shoots off super fast! She's pulling up on everything, and if there is something nearby to reach for, she will take a few steps while holding on to something. She's pretty confident in getting up and down and has even climbed up on the couch while pulling up on my leg. She loves to point to people and has recently started blowing kisses when she's being extra sweet. She has learned a few signs to communicate with us, which is really helpful particularly at meal time. She is still sucking her thumb(s), but only when she's really sleepy. She prefers the right thumb, but will take the left thumb if it's more accessible at any given time. Because she's much more squirmy and mobile now, her snuggles are short-lived, but I take whatever she's willing to give me. We have all SO enjoyed having a little girl around, but maybe I've enjoyed her the most. A friend of ours mentioned to us that she totally rocks the bow, and she does it well. With all these boys around here we want her to be a girly-girl for sure. She handles their tough love quite well and will probably be quite the handful herself. We all love her so much, and we're so glad God blessed our family with our little Mercy girl!


We kind of celebrated Mercy's birthday twice since our summer friends left the day before her birthday. Her actual birthday was on Tuesday, but we did the cake on Sunday so the friends could celebrate with us. We had strawberry cake with strawberry icing so that everything would be pink (remember the girly-girl stuff here). I made two cupcakes for Mercy, one for Sunday and one for Tuesday. She wasn't too keen on the cake the first time, but on her birthday she tore it up. Well, she tore it up literally on Sunday, too, but on Tuesday she actually ate it. Check out the fun cake pictures...


Yes, we took the kids back to the fun place for Mercy's birthday, too. Usually Mercy takes a nap in the stroller, but this time she actually got to go in and play! Here are some pictures of her enjoying the fun place...

We found a Nathan's Famous restaurant in the mall and had awesome hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch that day. Mercy actually had some yummy jars of baby food, but we all enjoyed our meal out. This is Mercy in the restaurant with the New York skyline behind her. :-)

We had a great day celebrating our baby girl. Who knew having a little girl around would be so much fun for us all?! Thank you, God, for giving her to us. We love our sweet Mercy!