Stuff

Anna: shortening names. "Hey Mom", no more mommy. "Dad you help me?", no more daddy. "Gram, you want one?", no more Grandma. "Aim, you proud of me?", no more Aunt Aimee.

Quinn: Weight in the 64% percentile, Height in the 78% percentile and Head Circumference in the 87% percentile.

Anna: Has gone on the potty all day, two days in a row.....AT SCHOOL!!!! Monday I worried all day at school they they were going to hand me a huge bag of wet pee pee clothes that I had to wash and return but when I got there Miss Katie said she did great and was still in the same undies that I brought her in. Wow!  Has NOT gone potty all afternoon/night, two days in a row.....AT HOME. What gives?

Quinn: I took Quinn's "school supplies" to his room today so he'll be ready for Tuesday, his first day, and I totally lost it. I cried from 4:30 when I dropped the stuff, off and on until the late evening. I remember crying well in advance with Anna too, everyday until it was "the" day. Worst feeling ever, just want Tuesday to come already so I can get the floods over with.

Anna: Comes out of her bed repeatedly every night after we tuck her in, here are some of her reasons: "I need a snack", "I need a donut", "I need my phone in the kitchen", "I need to sit on the couch", "I have poo poo" (doesn't really), "I need to see something", and the list goes on.

Quinn: IS THE CUTEST LITTLE BOY EVER!!!!!!

2 more things

1. Forgot to announce! We have officially entered the "Why?" stage. Welcome! Please be gone soon.

2. Total backfire (family you know what I'm referring to) 13 months later...

Can you tell school has started?

I wish I kept a notepad this past week and a half, there have been so many funny things and stories from Anna that I wanted to blog about but have been crazy with the start of school that I have forgot. Will try my best. This is all out of order, but it's the easiest way to think right now...

Quinn is 2 months old! Mom took him to the doctor today for his checkup and he's a big healthy boy! He tall and strong and his head is real big! 11 1/2 pounds.

And Quinn smiles,  has brought so much joy to see him smile at us. 

He has also found his thumb, it's not consistent but he gets it in there once in a while. 

Before school started we had a painting afternoon....

Swimming in the bath....

Greg and I have been super busy with school starting but luckily we have the best family in the world and we didn't have to shed tears this week because Aunt Aimee and Uncle Chris watched Anna all week and Grandma watched Quinn, super spoiled. This week Anna is starting school and Quinn is staying with Mom for some extra love time. Anna is very excited. I told Brittany, her teacher, that the potty training is not going so well, she said just send in a TON of undies, 5 sets of clothes and we'll go to town. She said it's usually a lot easier when there's a bunch of kids doing it and in the 2 year old room they're always potty training! Oh boy Brittany, I can't wait to hear how each day goes. 

Zoo

It's the end of the summer for us teachers so what better way to end than a quick 2 day family vaca to the zoo! We left Friday around lunch time so Anna could nap in the car, drove for about 3 1/2 hours all the way over to Asheboro. When we arrived it was perfect timing to check into our hotel room. Anna LOVED the hotel. Here we are having snack time on the big bed after a long drive - sorry Quinn no snacks for you.

We got our beds set up and then decided to go for a swim - a MUST when booking a hotel. Anna had a blast and of course didn't want to leave but we enticed her with going out to dinner, that usually works. 

I found a restaurant before we left so we traveled over and had a great meal. On the way home we picked up some Wendy's frosty shakes to have for dessert. At the hotel it was still early so Greg and Anna went for a walk outside while Quinn ate and went to make sure our stroller was properly put together for tomorrow. Here's Anna getting snuggly on her big bed watching a movie! It was an interesting night to say the least....A LOT different trying to go to sleep in the same room with a 2 year old and 2 month old. 

On our way to the zoo! Can you tell how excited Anna is? Ha! The zoo was about 10 minutes down the road from the hotel. 

There were two parts, Africa and North America. We started in Africa and walked our way to North America. 

 Baby Gorilla born on Aug 4, 4 pounds! So Cute!

This one's for you Dad!

Anna loved riding on the tram. 

And her treat from the gift shop.....? A multicolored sugar filled sticky icky butterfly lollipop. So much fun cleaning that up in the car on the way home. 

It was a great trip, so nice to get away as a family. We will definitely go back again soon. 

What everyone's up to

The house is quiet....hmmm, where is Anna? Oh! She decided to go swimming in her clothes...

And practice blowing bubbles...

And belly swimming!

Sydney: Now this is more like it, a quiet child who doesn't chase me around the house and swipe under the bed with random objects trying to get me out, I like this kid! 

Such a good boy! 

Greg's newest project...

Next up: Potatoes! 

We are headed to the zoo today for our first family trip, can't wait!

Potty Training Update:  Not good, not fun, I'm trying to stay positive but this is by far my most disliked job as a parent. We are about 0/54364573 this past week. She knows she has to go, so we run to the potty, sit for a while, maybe repeat those two steps four more times, then 30 seconds later it's pee all over the floor. Why can't it go in the potty? She knows it's coming....what is the science behind all this?!?!?

Actually

Anna is watching synchronized swimming and turns to me and says, "Mommy, 3 girls swimming", Oh neat, they're doing a great job. "Actually mommy, there's 4 girls swimming, look at them"  HA! Now she's using the word 'actually'.

August so far

Hooray! Some packages came in the mail...

And there was a pretty star dress for Anna from NY Katie and; Chris (we also have a NC Katie and Chris). Thanks Aunt Kath and Uncle Kev and Katie and Chris for thinking of us!

And some super cute outfits for bother Quinn

"Look Mommy, I feed my baby boy"

This is what I walk into last night....

And this is the outfit Greg picked out for Quinn today at the outlets...holy moly is this Greg's son or what?!?!

We were reading books before bed tonight and Anna was insistent on Quinn sitting on her lap, well after a few minutes be became fussy so she just leans over and sticks her thumb in his mouth.....all goes quiet and we finish the book. Go Anna! 

See Mom & Dad, he's happy now! 

Potty Training update: We officially started potty training a week ago. We wear undies all day except for nap and bedtime. We had to go to Target and buy 2 more packs of undies and I'm sure we'll be back to get some more once school starts. You can never have enough undies while potty training. I don't even bother putting shorts on her unless we're leaving the house, it's just more wash to do. This past Wednesday (day 6) we finally had a break through, 2 pee pee's on the potty, on Thursday (day 7) we were 2 for 5 and today (Day 8) we were at 0. Lets home for some good stats tomorrow....you can do it Annn!!!! The good thing is that she always tells me where she pees if I'm not in the room (I try my hardest to hawk her all day, but she occasionally gets away from me and that is when the pee usually flows), "Mommy, I peed on the carpet by the front door". 

New Rooms

We've been working on new rooms for the kiddos this vacation, here's what we have so far. Anna's old room is now Quinn's room (he's still sleeping in our room right now)

We took the pink birds off the tree, put the crib siding back up and added some blue sheets and a dust ruffle. 

Right now the changing table is in our room, so when we transfer everything back, the changing table will go under the white shelf as it was before. We bought a cute new hamper for Quinn, though I thought it would be the same size as Anna's and when we opened it up, it's the size of something for a doll house! Annoying. We took the dresser out of the closet and put it in the room, I hated having it in the closet for Anna. Contemplating painting it blue or something else...

Aim made letters for Quinn for his chalkboard

And Anna has moved next door...

We painted her room green and I'm still on the hunt for long pink panel curtains 

Here's my Pinterest project for over her bed, came out cute! 

A look at the other side of the room. On the hunt for a cute but classic carpet for the middle. 

We added a chalk board to her room as well and some tree branches on top with her growth chart near the window.