Thursday, August 2, 2012

Today I Feel Like a Cool Mom

I don't feel like a fun mom every day. Some days I definitely do NOT have everything under control, today though I did! This morning we got up and got ready right away. I nursed the boys while Audrey finished her breakfast and read a few books. We all got out the door (first small miracle!) and headed to the Thanksgiving Point children's garden. Every week they do story time there and then there is a craft after. The story was about the sea and then we colored a drawing of a sand castle with shells and starfish. We also decorated the drawing with elmer's glue and sprinkled sand on top. It turned out very cute! After the craft we explored the children's garden, there are tons of fun things to see and do! There was a fun climbing structure, water and sand to play in, musical instruments, a cave, a pond and a bronze bear to name a few. The highlight was on our way out there is a Noah's Ark water feature with fountains and a shallow pool. Audrey wasn't wearing a swim suit but I let her go in in her clothes! She thought this was so funny! At first she didn't want to get her "pretty dress" wet but after the first splash it was all over. She had a ball! I even got in for a while too! By the time we had to go I had to pry her away with the promise that we would come back another day. We definitely will! Audrey was completely soaked through so she stripped down before we got in the car and we headed home. Once home the toddler fun did not end! I let Audrey eat her lunch in the garage, which for some reason is one of her favorite places to play. After lunch she was thoroughly beat and took a great nap! 

She climbed all over this web!


Our friend the bear

This is how the boys looked the whole 2 hours we were at the gardens!! Hooray!


So much fun in the sun!


Wet!

She loves the garage!

**I wrote the above post yesterday afternoon. And lest my ego get carried away here is how our evening went...

Mitchell left at 6:55pm for cub scouts and returned at 8:05pm. In the 70 minutes that he was gone everything came crashing down. The babies cried non-stop for 50 minutes, keep this in mind that they were crying (not hungry or messy diapers) throughout the following events. As Audrey was finishing her dinner she told me she needed to go "poopy." We are not potty training at this point because I am not prepared, however if she asks to use the toilet I try to encourage her. She said she wanted to try so I left the babies crying in the living room and we went to go try. She had a great time climbing up and down from the toilet collecting high fives and cheers for her efforts. She had a toy monkey in there who also climbed up and down and went through the motions then collected his high fives and cheers too. After a while I thought I would up the ante and after Monkey did his business I told Monkey he could have a chocolate treat. We all ran to the pantry where I pretended to feed Monkey 2 chocolate chips. Audrey exclaimed "my turn!"  I explained that to get a chocolate treat you have to go poopy in the toilet so back we ran, passing 2 unconsoled babies, to the bathroom to resume the effort. In the end she was unsuccessful but like I said, we're not potty training so there is absolutely no pressure. By this time the babies deserved my attention so I tried holding them, rocking them and finally I nursed (they had eaten 1 hour before) and this worked for comfort. While I was stuck in the chair nursing and unable to get up I heard Audrey go in to the pantry. I asked her to come out but she didn't so I knew I would just have to deal with whatever mess she made after I finished with the boys. Pretty soon I heard her frantically crying so I hurried in to find that her diaper was off and she had smeared poop across the pantry with her hands! SERIOUSLY?!?!? I'm glad I didn't get mad though because she was totally humiliated that she was covered in her own poop and that it was spread around in the pantry. I just scooped her up and started getting her clean. Right about that time Mitchell came home just in time to pull things back together. And so goes parenthood, right? There's good and there's bad. Fortunately, most often things are good!


On Saturday we had family portraits taken. Audrey cooperated so well! As a treat she got to ride the carousel! 
To see proofs of our family pictures go to:   http://www.searsphotos.com/ 
Session #: 116070
Password: GKXVG

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh man! You are a great mom to do all those things AND not get upset by poo smeared all over the pantry. We are potty-training. And I could tell you some awesome stories. Everyone I talk to says their kid was potty trained fully in one week...not so much here.

Laura said...

ekkk! You are amazing