Poopy pants

Drewski pretty much has peeing down - he only pees his pants when he feels like it, but 98% of the time he pees in the potty....pooping is another story. He's pooped in the potty a few times, but prefers to poop in his underwear or pull-up. About the only time he poops in the potty is if he's totally nudie.

All weekend we were in Ponca he pooped his pull-up repeatedly. When we got home he had a major cleaning out - in the pull-up. Mom said he pooped his pull-ups again today.

Tonight Corry, Drew, & I were watching some Thomas in the living room while Daddy started mapping out a new track system to incorporate the latest purchase & because Drew demolished the old system this afternoon. Corry started to get really whiny, so I took her to bed. I threw a pull-up to Jimmy & asked him to get Drew ready for bed. When Jimmy came down to find him he was no longer in the living room watching Thomas. Jimmy kept calling for him & finally found him. He was in our bathroom, had taken off his pull-up & POOPED IN THE POTTY! No coercing from us, no encouragement, nothing - just plain flat out did it on his own.

I don't get it - obviously he knows how to do it, so why won't he do it consistently???? I'm definitely not getting my hopes up, but after this weekend I felt certain he would never be potty trained. He just keeps teasing us with glimmers of hope & then yanks the rug out from under us. We'll see how tomorrow goes, I guess!

Trip to Ponca City

We enjoyed our trip to Ponca - here are a few pictures:

Drew listening to a movie through his cheeks while taking a little snooze.

Corry standing with the wooden train conductor statue at the Oklahoma Railway Museum.

Drew playing with the legos

Corry making stamps of Thomas (she still has black under her fingernails)

Thomas the Tank Engine

Drew & Daddy

Drew zonked after visiting Thomas

Corry being silly with Milo

Drew got his hair spray painted blue at the St. Mary's fall fest. Corry wanted NOTHING to do with having her hair painted a different color.

Corry digging in the corn for a hidden treasure (a plastic flower ring)

We're back to the grind today - Corry came down for school this morning wearing only purple socks, undies, & pink Dora tennis shoes. So I had to come up with something to coordinate with that....not easy. Unfortunately its really warm outside today, so jeans or pants weren't an option. I hope the fashion police don't show up at her school today.

Drew just told me he can't eat strawberry poptarts because they make his big toes bleed.

I've got some silly characters living in this house!

Weekend Pictures

This weekend we celebrated Jimmy's 35th birthday - with the Paynes all in OK & us leaving for OK on Thursday there just didn't seem to be a great time to gather everyone to celebrate...so last minute Jack & Connie invited us over for steaks. Mom & Dad, Olech, Jimmy's sister Linsday, brother Craig, nephew Derek & his girlfriend Hannah all came to help celebrate. We had a nice dinner. My favorite part of the evening was when Jimmy smashed a piece of banana cream pie into Drew's face. Mom got a picture of his reaction - he just sat there for the longest time with his mouth wide open - then started cracking up. I'm a little scared that he may try this on future occasions.

Jimmy reconstructed the train tracks Friday night, so he wanted to take a picture of the old layout before he built the new one. Here are a few pictures:

All the engines & cars
Drew & Corry posing with the engines

The old system

Corry came down this morning & told me she had dressed herself up like a beautiful princess - and that she had, but when it came time to take a picture she decided to hide instead.
Drew smiling with his evening snack - a bowl of oatmeal.
Drew wanted a picture of his oatmeal
Drew took a picture of Meghan
I'm sure this week will fly by - we'll leave for OK on Thursday when Corry gets out of school. Corry cannot wait to see Calyn tomorrow. She's told us on numerous occasions that Calyn is not allowed to go out of town without her ever again.

Tiger Payne

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Age Based Curriculum Night

Tonight was the night for the 4 year old classes aged based curriculum meeting. It was mainly a presentation done by all the teachers in the school to talk about the curriculum for the year and how they learn through play for the various subjects like reading, math, science, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and Christianity (since she is at a Methodist preschool). We were both very pleased with the presentation and feel like we made a great decision in sending her to this preschool.

After the curriculum meeting we got to go into her classroom, meet some of the other parents, and learn about a typical day in the Zebrafish classroom. We didn't get to have one on one discussions with the teacher, but we did find out that parent teacher conferences will be October 20, so that will be our opportunity to hear about how she's doing as an individual in the class.

Tomorrow they get to make pizza in class for their snack.

We're getting excited for our trip up to Ponca next weekend. My understanding from Grandma is that St. Mary's is having their fall festival the Saturday we are there, so Grandma, Mom, & I are going to take the kids while the guys go to the OSU football game. Should be a good time. I have lots of fun memories of that event!

Corry has school tomorrow, & with the Paynes in Oklahoma that means Drew will get one on one time with Grandma Chebs tomorrow. Mom & I were talking about it today & we're not sure that he's ever had Grandma's attention all to himself. I'm sure he'll eat it up!

Better get to bed - if tomorrow morning is anything like this morning, Drew will be up at 5:30 rearing to go. Ugh.

Fashion Faux Pas

Corry has to wear tennis shoes to school - no compromises there. They want them in shoes that are comfortable, protect their feet, and that they can move & play easily in. So I put little socks on her & fold them neatly down each morning.

We went through the car line this morning. When we go through the carline I do not get out of the car - a teacher comes up to the car, unbuckles her and helps her out. I tell her bye & to have a good day & off she goes. I happened to glance back at her in the sideview mirror as I was pulling away. She had her socks hiked up to her knees. I hope her teachers didn't think I did that. When I picked her up this afternoon they were still like that.

I need the weather to change so that her pants will hide this.

Can't wait for her back to school night tomorrow so we can talk with her teacher about how she's doing. Today when I picked her up she said "Oh, Mommy, let me tell you - it was so much fun today!"

Inappropriate, yet adorable

I just love these naked little bottoms

Busted!

Sorry - couldn't resist.....saw the two little hiney's while I was getting ready for work & couldn't resist the temptation to snap the inappropriate photos....I'm sure they will HATE these one day :)

Our weekend recap

As usual, the weekend went by way too fast. Saturday we watched OSU lose to U of H, but still had a nice visit with all the family

Max decided to watch Thomas instead of the game. He was enjoying a chocolate chip cookie which Meghan was anxiously waiting for him to drop

Drew was practicing his golf swing this evening - he seems to be switching from his left handed tendencies to right, so we'll see....

Miss Corry doing her favorite pass time - playing on the computer.

Drew did pretty well with his big boy underwear this weekend. Friday he pooped in the potty twice. We were so proud of him. Then Friday night he went downstairs to get Stepney some new batteries & when he came back up to the playroom with all of us he said "I'm sorry I accidentally peed in my big boy underwear." I asked him wear he peed & he told me "I already cleaned it up and flushed it down the potty." A 3 year old's idea of cleaning pee pee of the floor & mine are a tad different and it wasn't too hard to tell where the incident had occurred. We put the pull-up on him for bedtime and within 15 minutes he had pooped in it.

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. I think we're making progress - he's just a bit slower to catch on than Corry was.

This week we have Corry's open house at her school where we'll get to learn about the curriculum for the year & have the chance to talk with her teacher one on one. I'm anxious to hear her perspective on Corry's interaction with other kids.

Today when I was washing windows Drew & I were going around to all the upstairs rooms to see which ones needed to be cleaned. He said "We need to check Andrew's room!" So even though Andrew has been gone for a month, the kids still consider the exercise room Andrew's room.

We're excited to see all the Ponca clan soon. Our plan is to leave after Corry's class on Thursday the 24th & drive to OKC. We're going to see Thomas in OKC Friday morning & then head to Ponca. We'll return home on Monday. I believe Grandma Chebs is going to come with us.

That's all I have for our weekend recap!

Drewski, Drewski, Drewski

Drewski's going to wear me out - Jimmy took him to Target to pick out his special prize for pooping in the potty. He chose the spin & fix Thomas at Sodor Steamworks. While I was putting it together he said "I need to go pee pee!" and ran upstairs. A few minutes later Corry came down & told us that Drew was in the purple bathroom wiping his penis through his shorts with toilet paper. Jimmy went to see what he was up to & Drew told him "I accidentally peed on my bedroom floor." Good grief. He hadn't hadn't peed in a pull up or his undies in close to a week. I guess accidents happen.

Corry & I used the carline this morning at preschool & it went really well. When the lady got her out of the car & asked her how she was doing, Corry said "I'm doing GREAT!" She was excited for school again today & told me she wishes it could last longer.

I just hope she has a happy day. I think she did on Tuesday, but she did mention that "I wanted to play with some guys, but they wanted to play with someone else, so Ms. Tempio read me a story instead." I spent the whole afternoon bawling because Corry is the kid in school that nobody wants to play with.

My mom got out of her that she had seen some girls playing with the dollhouse & she wanted to play with them, but that they didn't want her to play. Mom asked Corry if the told her they didn't want her to play & Corry said "no, but they were thinking it." And that Ms. Tempio was going to read her a story & another little girl asked if she could read too & Corry told her "sure!" Corry got to pick out the story, so she was really excited about that.

Jimmy thinks I'm crazy for worrying that she's not going to have any friends.....especially when we're only on the 2nd week of school. It's like I'm having to relive all my insecurities from school days through her - and I think its 10 times worse now. Did I mention that I wish these guys could stay babies forever???? Ugh.

A big day for Drew!

DREW POOPED IN THE POTTY! He went into the bathroom, pooped, flushed it down & then told us he did it - we would probably not have believed him, but there was evidence left behind that needed to be wiped clean :) He is so excited to go to Target tomorrow after work and pick out his "special thing" which I'm sure will be something Thomas. Hopefully he keeps up the good work. He's going on 3 days without any accidents - even at night. Hurray! I'm sure because I've typed this tomorrow will be a horrible day, but we're enjoying the moment.

Corry enjoyed her 2nd day of prek - her first full day of class. We got more info out of how her day went today. She was very excited that she got to make her hand prints with purple & orange paint.

Just wanted to post about our good news!

Corry's first homework project

Corry needed to make her poster for when she's the star of the week at school, so we came over to Grandma Chebs house this afternoon to put the posterboard together. She was very excited to load it up with as many stickers as she could fit on there.



After homework we ordered pizza. Corry did a great job & ate all of her pizza! After she finished she told Grandma Chebs, "I'm almost chubby like you!"

So we're ready for our first full day of prek tomorrow - I get to pack my first lunch which will be a peanut butter & jelly (Aunt Sandi's homemade jam), flip side pretzel/crackers, grapes & blueberries. Hope she's still enthusiastic about class in the morning!

Getting ready for the football game

We got out the ice chest to fill it with drinks for the football games yesterday, but the girls thought it made a much nicer boat than drink holder. Of course I couldn't get them to both look at the camera & smile at the same time, but you get the idea.

And a happy little man

Tonight we are off to celebrate Olech's 29th birthday, & then Deachi & I are supposed to go out for a girls night at Baker's Street. Last night I was in bed by 8:30, so hopefully I can last a little longer tonight.

Corry's take on the first day of school

Sweet little Corry was all smiles when I picked her up this afternoon....first thing out of her mouth was "School was so much fun!" I asked her what she got to do and her reply was "I got to go to the Polar Bear room and wait for you to pick me up!" For the longest time that was all I could get out of her.

I asked her if she played with play dough - "no, I didn't feel like it."

I asked her if she painted "no, I didn't feel like it."

Then she volunteered "I got to write my name at school!"

While we were eating lunch she told us Mrs. Voelkle read a story about a puppy that goes to school. Corry said "That's silly, puppies don't go to school!"

We asked her if she got to go outside & play......no response.

A bit later she told us that Mrs. Voelkle spelled her name with two Ys!!!! She had to take one of the Ys away (this was very amusing to Miss Corry).

I asked her if she had a snack & she said "yes, it was pretzel chips."

That's about all I could pull out of her. She's excited to go back on Tuesday, but she doesn't want to have anything to do with the car drop off line - she wants me to walk her in again. I figure I'll do that next week & then we'll start using the drop off line. Don't want to push too much on her at once.

So, overall I think she had a really good day. Hopefully she will maintain her enthusiasm & willingly go to class again on Tuesday. I'm so proud of my big girl!

First Day of School

Here are some pictures of the big girl on her first day of school.

Eating some breakfast
Walking into school with Daddy & her Hello Kitty backpack

Big smiles waiting for the doors to open

Smiling with Daddy

Hugs for Mommy

Corry did great - she went right into her classroom with no tears. I did okay too until I was out of her sight & then I broke down. I can't believe my baby is in school.

Jimmy & I went to our new family orientation & they had a lady come in that had checked on every classroom. She said the only classroom with any tears was the 2 year old class, so hopefully that will continue & Corry will have a fun first day.

I'll be heading back up there in another hour to pick her up. Jimmy & I are going to take her to lunch.

I'm sure I'll post another report this evening on her take of the first day of school. I'm going to go cry some more now :(

Twas the night before Preschool.....

Corry's all set for in the morning - orange school t-shirt, shorts, new tennis shoes, & the Hello Kitty backpack. She's super excited & I'm full of anxiety. Wish us luck tomorrow!

Preschool Open House

Corry had open house at preschool this morning. She got to see her classroom, her teachers, meet some kids that will be in her class and play with all the fun things in the room.

She was so excited to get there, but as time went on you could tell she was starting to have a little bit of anxiety. Overall I think she did pretty well.

Thursday will be the true test - she will go for 3 hours and be in the room without Mommy & Daddy.

Maddie & Meghan's veterinarian's little girl is in Corry's class. There is also another little girl in the class that lives in our neighborhood & her birthday is only 2 weeks from Corry's.

Corry using the tweezers to pick up cotton balls & stuff them in test tubes (an exercise that is supposed to help build her muscles for writing)

More cotton ball & test tube funn

Corry painting a picture with Ella