potty training is in full force.

neiko is still surprising me with how well he is doing, but he doesn't usually tell me when he has to go.

basically if i follow him all day and put him on the toilet every hour or so he can make it all day with no accidents.

but WHO has time to follow 1 child around all day???

NOT ME. so he has accidents. but i remind myself that every time he pees on the floor he is learning! :)

now what happened at nap time today was different. maybe a bit more intentional.

i put a diaper on him and then put him to bed.

and when i went to get him out of his crib he had at some point taken off his diaper and then peed and pooped in his crib.

i'm telling myself though, that he really wanted to take that diaper off so he could go use the toilet.

i'm SURE he was trying to tell me and i just couldn't hear him......

he turns 2 on thursday. bittersweet. funny how you can long for something and yet dread it both very intensely.

i'm very ready to be done with diapers, pacifiers, high chairs, car seats, and cribs. but i'm a little torn about being done with my babies.

especially after keeping my nieces for the weekend.

little emma (who is almost 1) is so very sweet and cuddly. she fell asleep in my arms and i could hardly bear to lay her down.

i forgot how much i missed holding a sleeping baby.

it was definitely busy around here with two more little ones, but it was fun. and i miss them.

it was great to see my kids all helping out with them too.

shaeya was in charge of livie (who is 2) at night. it was actually pretty funny.

shaeya would come stumbling down the stairs in the morning and say, "i'm exhausted....livie kept me up all night long." or "livie fell out of bed last night" or "livie was crying in the middle of the night so i climbed in bed with her and she just kept talking and talking."

and i would laugh. i was just so glad it was her and not me :)

you know, she can take naps in middle of the day to make up for it......

and once again, we felt the need for that conversion van.......sigh......

while i was writing the above paragraph neiko threw a ball under my chair. he went under there to get it and decided to shut the computer down as well.

i've always wondered why they have to make the power button so appealing.....so round and pushable and with such a pretty blinking green light.....

dave and i had our 12th anniversary yesterday. and thanks to dave's sister maria we had a WONDERFUL night out. it was sooooooo nice.

and we bought our first piece of furniture for the house.

so now we have officially started decorating and now i feel pressure to dig through the rest of our boxes. the ones with all the decorations from our first house that i haven't seen since i boxed them up over two years ago.

something tells me i won't end up even using most of them but maybe there will be a few surprises in those boxes.....

but that's a good WINTER project, right?

and anyway i've got potty training, school orientation, kindergarten physical, school supply lists, birthday parties, and family reunions to keep my mind occupied.

oh the end of summer. always very tragic.

just 3 weeks left of life with no schedule and no alarm clock......