Cats can drink coffee too...right?

Ok, not really, but Will thinks his little stuffed cat can! Will's favorite stuffed animal is his cat named Sammy. This is the stuffed animal that will come out with him in the morning all tucked up under his arm.

Sometimes in the morning, Sammy will "share" mommy's coffee. This is done by Will holding his little cat up to the edge of my coffee cup while making slurping noises as he pretends his Sammy is drinking my coffee - "Sammy dink mommy cofffy!"

One morning a few weeks ago, Sammy nuzzled his nose a little too far into the cup and soaked up a little more than the "pretend coffee" he's accustomed to having in the morning. His nose was sopping wet with hot coffee.


Will was not thrilled.

I couldn't help but laugh...Sammy's nose was dripping with coffee and Will was adorably worried about his precious Sammy.

After snapping a picture (of course) I comforted Will by saying that we would get Sammy all washed up. And that we did. Sammy was washed and dried by the time Will went to bed. I brought him in and said, "Look Will, Sammy's all clean!" Will grabbed him and thoroughly checked over his nose (thankfully the coffee didn't stain!) and with happy relief proclaimed, "Sammmy Keeeen!" (Sammy clean.)

Interestingly enough, Will no longer puts Sammy up to my morning cup of coffee for a pretend sip anymore...

Potty Trained and Potty Party!

I am now ready to say that Luke is officially potty trained. YEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

I was looking for two specific things to be consistent before I was ready to officially deem him potty trained: (Ready for this – I know you’ll be shocked at my potty training criteria!) =)

1. Consistently* going #1 in the potty

2. Consistently* going #2 in the potty

*(By “consistently” I mean doing this for 7 days straight without regression. Accidents are accidents, and they didn’t really count in this. However, if he knowingly went potty in his pants or diaper, I started my day count over.)

Now, Luke has had minimal accidents. In fact, I can count that number of accidents on one hand (and believe me, I know how lucky I am to be able to say that.) After the first few days of training in January, he pretty much had the #1 part down. He quickly progressed to the big potty and all was good.

Our biggest problem was him going #2 in his diaper in the morning (or sometimes in bed at night) before he was changed into his big boy pants. (We still put Luke in a diaper right before bed at night – his bladder isn’t quite ready to go all night long yet.) So though he’s been doing fantastic going #1 in the potty for quite some time now – and he had been doing moderate going #2, I still wanted to see the habit of going #2 in the potty consistently formed before calling him potty trained. I am pleased to say he has now been going #2 in the potty for almost 2 weeks straight now – without any dirty diapers! YEEHAWW!!!

We had told Luke from the beginning that when he was potty trained, we would give him a potty party and a toy. In the middle of the whole process, we also threw in Chuck E. Cheese for additional motivation.

Yesterday he finally earned the end goal! He was super excited to be going to Chucky Cheese for the first time. Later that day he got a few toys and a book (thank you Uncle Randy and Aunt Jamie for the cute book!) and cupcakes for dessert. We were very very proud of him!

On the way to Chuck E. Cheese!





They were a little overwhelmed at first, but it didn't take long until they were all over the place.



Way to go Luke!

Will peeking out of the play area.

They loved these little games, this was their favorite.

Down the slide!

Taking a ride with Chuck E.

Luke loves air hockey!

Yehawww!

Will attempting a shooting game.

Weeeeee!

Fun times!

This is as close as Will would get to this huge mechanical rat, er mouse...is it a rat or a mouse?

Luke wanted these very specific space toys...he picked them out a LONG time ago...and we bought them a long time ago, it was nice to finally be able to give them to him.

Yummy cupcakes!

Julianne enjoying the fun too!

Learning Time

I’m not as consistent and organized as I’d like to be for our Learning Time, but I am always amazed and proud of the boys’ progress when we do get a chance to sit down and focus on learning. Luke is doing an amazing job learning his letters and numbers. Will is beginning to learn them as well! It’s so much fun to see them blossom.

I hope to implement a more scheduled Learning Time for both of them in the very near future.

I love these little write and wipe books. (If you live in the area, you can get these REAL cheap at Ollie’s) It's so nice to let them practice and draw to their hearts content - then clean up is a breeze...just wipe it all off and you're done!

Luke drew a person the other day! I was so proud of him!

Here is Will's person drawing (I think!)

Learning numbers and letters...

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The boys enjoyed putting together valentines this year (well, Luke more than Will.) I can’t believe this is the only picture of Valentine’s Day we have, but I guess it is!


The boys each got a special little bag of goodies for Valentine’s Day and Chris and I exchanged a small gift and card and then enjoyed a movie and dinner the following night (thanks to Steve and Judy for babysitting the kids for that!)


Here are the boys making out their valentines!

Finding Nemo

Earlier this month, we were able to go to Disney’s Nemo on Ice show and it was fantastic! The boys were mesmerized! I thought they did a great job telling the story and the costumes and set were phenomenal. It was a great show and a great experience for the boys!

The set was fantastic!

The boys were mesmerized...




Chris was amazed! =)

Julianne loved it too!

Bruce the shark!

"Dude!"

"Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine."

If you ever get a chance to see Nemo on ice, it's worth it!