It was a bit of a milestone weekend, relatively speaking. We seemed to cover a lot of firsts. Let's see, there was the tale of two ovens, Zack's first olive, first Christmas lists for the two wee ones, and Ethan's first go at official potty training. Oh, and our first time since early 2013 being plugged in (sort of). Here's the rundown:
Tale of two ovens. Gas line and new oven installed on Friday as planned. Everything rocked. Let the baking commence. Oven one, check.
Playing with Ethan on Saturday morning, I found myself giggling along with him under a blanket on the couch. There was lots of whispering and excitement as we hid from the big bad wolf, played by Ella. I loved it. Yes, I thought. This is what weekend mornings should be like. This is what memories are made of. And then...I caught a whiff of something rather unpleasant. Checking in with my whispering, giggling partner in anti-wolf operations, I asked, "Ethan, babe, you need mommy to change you?" Wow, and the smell was getting worse. Head down, he looked up at me with big, brown eyes and giggled. "No, mommy, I just have stinky fawts." Aggghhh, I yanked the blanket down gasping for cool clean air. Vern, who had been standing nearby, asked, "What's wrong?" as he observed my quick and deliberate attempt to evacuate. I could only shake my head while laughing hysterically before getting out, "I've just been dutch-ovened by my two-year old!" Womp, womp. Oven two, check.
Zack's first olive. Munching on an olive and cheese tray last night, Vern decided to offer up a $1 prize to our pre-teen onlookers if they chewed and swallowed an olive. Ryan was good to walk away. He is, after all, the picky eater in the house. No dollar seemed enough prize to tackle olives. Zack, who is the more adventurous eater, thought it would be no big deal to gulp one down. Ha! His face apparently disagreed. It twisted and contorted as if it was in a fight with itself. With one eye closed and brows furrowed, he stood up, sat down, stood up, walked around, sat down, all while repeatedly uttering in a pained whisper, "Too. Salty." He tried to spit it out twice, but Vern reminded him that the deal was he had to chew AND swallow it. He finally managed to get it down, and consequently, score the buck. I think it was a valuable lesson on risk vs. reward.
First Christmas Lists. Although it's not Ella's or Ethan's first Christmas, it's the first one that they've been able to really get the whole Santa thing and think to ASK for something. We keep it pretty tame on the Christmas wish list in our house (they are each allowed to ask for 5 things, with only 1 thing being a BIG item), but it was so cute to hear them get excited and ask for presents. Ella told me she wanted "a kangaroo and a princess wand and a pair of skates and dress up clothes". Ethan went next. "My turn, my turn, my turn, sissy! I want...a...I want...ummm...I want a helicopter. Yeah, and a batman toy. And, and I want a sparkly deer! And a car, mommy!" Guess we have work to do on getting them to follow suit with the wish list rules.
Ethan's first attempt at potty training. We've tried to get him to use the potty a number of times, sometimes with success, but not often. We didn't want to pressure him into it and have it backfire on us, so we've been pretty loosey goosey about the whole thing. If he's not ready, don't push him, no big deal, right? Well, now we want to think about getting serious about it. With Ella, we knocked it out in one long weekend. We just went full board on a Friday, and by Tuesday she was trained. We have yet to have a long weekend to put that practice into play with Ethan. So, we introduced him to underoos. We thought Spiderman could be a great motivator. We gave it a go yesterday, and although there were no accidents, there were no singing little potties either. (Yes, our little training potty sings when you go. Shameful, isn't it?) My goal is to be diaper free by the end of the year. Puh-leaze, no more diapers.
Plugged in. Kinda sorta. So, I've mention a few times that we're unplugged, but what I mean is we've been without cable or satellite TV since early 2013. We've been a streaming only family. It worked out well for us. After logging for a week what was actually watched in our house, and noticing that in total we were only tuning in to a small handful of shows, we decided to pull the cord. All of those shows, by the way, are still being watched, but now we access them through streaming and only pay $8.95 per month to watch them.
So how are we plugged back in? We purchased a digital antenna over the weekend so that we could pull the local channels in...for free. (Well, not free; we did have to buy the antenna.) The shit got real when I realized I wouldn't be able to watch the big parade on Thanksgiving. Ha, I mean, I CANNOT miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. No. Way. So, last night, antenna plugged in and TV tuned, we sat with Zack and Ryan, for a long time completely silent, suddenly exposed to oodles of advertising after being removed from it for so long. People we didn't know, but who were all radiant and beautiful and speaking in excited voices, telling us what to buy and why and we better hurry. We had been ad abstinent, and now we were going all the way. It felt wrong, but glitzy and cool, and wow, I need to go there on Saturday for the sale--did you see those? And although I don't miss all of those commercials, is it bad to say we love being a little bit plugged back in? We love welcoming the local news back into our home, and football, and access to holiday specials and and and. So, not totally plugged back in, but not completely unplugged. Naughty but nice. Just in time for the holidays.
Tale of two ovens. Gas line and new oven installed on Friday as planned. Everything rocked. Let the baking commence. Oven one, check.
Playing with Ethan on Saturday morning, I found myself giggling along with him under a blanket on the couch. There was lots of whispering and excitement as we hid from the big bad wolf, played by Ella. I loved it. Yes, I thought. This is what weekend mornings should be like. This is what memories are made of. And then...I caught a whiff of something rather unpleasant. Checking in with my whispering, giggling partner in anti-wolf operations, I asked, "Ethan, babe, you need mommy to change you?" Wow, and the smell was getting worse. Head down, he looked up at me with big, brown eyes and giggled. "No, mommy, I just have stinky fawts." Aggghhh, I yanked the blanket down gasping for cool clean air. Vern, who had been standing nearby, asked, "What's wrong?" as he observed my quick and deliberate attempt to evacuate. I could only shake my head while laughing hysterically before getting out, "I've just been dutch-ovened by my two-year old!" Womp, womp. Oven two, check.
Zack's first olive. Munching on an olive and cheese tray last night, Vern decided to offer up a $1 prize to our pre-teen onlookers if they chewed and swallowed an olive. Ryan was good to walk away. He is, after all, the picky eater in the house. No dollar seemed enough prize to tackle olives. Zack, who is the more adventurous eater, thought it would be no big deal to gulp one down. Ha! His face apparently disagreed. It twisted and contorted as if it was in a fight with itself. With one eye closed and brows furrowed, he stood up, sat down, stood up, walked around, sat down, all while repeatedly uttering in a pained whisper, "Too. Salty." He tried to spit it out twice, but Vern reminded him that the deal was he had to chew AND swallow it. He finally managed to get it down, and consequently, score the buck. I think it was a valuable lesson on risk vs. reward.
First Christmas Lists. Although it's not Ella's or Ethan's first Christmas, it's the first one that they've been able to really get the whole Santa thing and think to ASK for something. We keep it pretty tame on the Christmas wish list in our house (they are each allowed to ask for 5 things, with only 1 thing being a BIG item), but it was so cute to hear them get excited and ask for presents. Ella told me she wanted "a kangaroo and a princess wand and a pair of skates and dress up clothes". Ethan went next. "My turn, my turn, my turn, sissy! I want...a...I want...ummm...I want a helicopter. Yeah, and a batman toy. And, and I want a sparkly deer! And a car, mommy!" Guess we have work to do on getting them to follow suit with the wish list rules.
Ethan's first attempt at potty training. We've tried to get him to use the potty a number of times, sometimes with success, but not often. We didn't want to pressure him into it and have it backfire on us, so we've been pretty loosey goosey about the whole thing. If he's not ready, don't push him, no big deal, right? Well, now we want to think about getting serious about it. With Ella, we knocked it out in one long weekend. We just went full board on a Friday, and by Tuesday she was trained. We have yet to have a long weekend to put that practice into play with Ethan. So, we introduced him to underoos. We thought Spiderman could be a great motivator. We gave it a go yesterday, and although there were no accidents, there were no singing little potties either. (Yes, our little training potty sings when you go. Shameful, isn't it?) My goal is to be diaper free by the end of the year. Puh-leaze, no more diapers.
Plugged in. Kinda sorta. So, I've mention a few times that we're unplugged, but what I mean is we've been without cable or satellite TV since early 2013. We've been a streaming only family. It worked out well for us. After logging for a week what was actually watched in our house, and noticing that in total we were only tuning in to a small handful of shows, we decided to pull the cord. All of those shows, by the way, are still being watched, but now we access them through streaming and only pay $8.95 per month to watch them.
So how are we plugged back in? We purchased a digital antenna over the weekend so that we could pull the local channels in...for free. (Well, not free; we did have to buy the antenna.) The shit got real when I realized I wouldn't be able to watch the big parade on Thanksgiving. Ha, I mean, I CANNOT miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. No. Way. So, last night, antenna plugged in and TV tuned, we sat with Zack and Ryan, for a long time completely silent, suddenly exposed to oodles of advertising after being removed from it for so long. People we didn't know, but who were all radiant and beautiful and speaking in excited voices, telling us what to buy and why and we better hurry. We had been ad abstinent, and now we were going all the way. It felt wrong, but glitzy and cool, and wow, I need to go there on Saturday for the sale--did you see those? And although I don't miss all of those commercials, is it bad to say we love being a little bit plugged back in? We love welcoming the local news back into our home, and football, and access to holiday specials and and and. So, not totally plugged back in, but not completely unplugged. Naughty but nice. Just in time for the holidays.