Rules, spitting and Hot Wheels! (not in that order)

Welcome to my exciting Saturday night!  As usual, I spend my Saturday nights writing a blog post before I pass out by 11 at the latest.  And the only reason it's so late is because I have to get Jayden up to use the bathroom one last time between 11 and 12 or so.

And speaking of that,  I am so over nighttime potty training.  Jayden was doing great, and went a whole week without any kind of accident (earning him his Hot Wheels track!).  And then the last few days happened.  He "forgets" to go to the bathroom and instead stands in the doorway to our room or at the top of the stairs and has an accident.  Or he'll refuse to go to the bathroom and an hour later have an accident in his bed.  Now Carmen and I are debating whether or not to put him back in a pull up or just tough it out.  We can't punish him for accidents; that's pretty much proven not to work generally, and definitely won't work with Jayden.  So we're sort of at a loss.  But with Carmen out of town for the next five nights, something has got to give.  We'll see how long I last, I guess, and how bad it is for the next night or two.

In any case, we've had a pretty good last week. Gramma and Grampa arrived Wednesday (I had the day off and preschool was closed).  We hung out in the morning and then picked them up from the airport a little before lunch.

I had to run to the bathroom, and put Dakota in her bouncy seat next to the table.  Jayden was playing with his roller coaster set.  When I came back, he had pulled her seat over to him and had given her one of his cars.  He explained that he didn't want her to be alone and be sad, so he brought her over closer to him.  And he didn't want her to be bored, so he gave her a car to play with.  He definitely gets the best big brother award.  

We got to the airport early so that we could watch the plane land, and we did it!  We had a good time sitting on the hood of my car, snacking on some fruit and watching planes take off and land.  It was pretty windy, pretty loud and pretty bright.  But we had a great time.  And then, of course, we got to pick up Gramma and Grampa, which was the most exciting part of the day.

We spent the rest of Wednesday hanging out at home and relaxing.  Thursday Jayden went to school because he didn't want to miss show and tell, but we picked him up before lunch.  We relaxed the rest of the day, playing outside and playing card games.

Gramma got a great shot of Jayden riding his bike at preschool.  

Jayden and I running, playing soccer together.  I definitely got some exercise in.  It made me realize that mentally (and probably physically) I would be a whole lot happier if I started running again.  I just can't quite figure out timing, and I'm still a little worried about interfering with my milk supply.  

MOST importantly, Dakota was five months old on Thursday

And what a happy, charming five month old she is!

Friday we planned to go to a science center near us that had a traveling Hot Wheels exhibit.  I'd been talking to Jayden about it, and we decided it would be a fun exhibit to see with Gramma and Grampa.  And it was pretty fun!  Not as big as I expected, but about the perfect size for a four year old.  And we checked out a couple other parts of the science center too, which were pretty fun also.  We're definitely going to have to go back to see more.  

Wearing a pretty orange dress from Gramma, and fighting Mama on tummy time.

Playing with the track at the exhibit.  He found a launcher.  I was hoping that would encourage him on the potty training front, since he had a glimpse of the cool track accessories he could get...but no such luck.   

The Pit Crew: Jayden and Grampa changing the tires on the race car.

Sibling cuddles.
This is a very typical Dakota face.  Big eyes, eyebrows raised, lips together - watching, trying to figure out what exactly is going on.  She's an observer too, but a much more active observer than Jayden.

My loves.  Pictures like this make me all sappy.  They're just so cute together.  

Today was an almost typical Saturday.  We had swim class, and then we went to the mall for a little bit of the Nordstrom (and Varvatos) sale.  I of course spent a little more money than I planned, and got a little more stressed out than I wanted (shopping with kids is just not really enjoyable, especially when the four year old is exhausted, getting sick and hanging on by the tiniest of threads).  Carmen took Dad to the airport, and then we all met at home so the kids could nap.  Jayden napped, Dakota did not.  Story of our lives these days - one kid sleeps, the other does not (Jayden naps well, but has been waking up multiple times at night; Dakota sleeps through the night but won't nap during the day unless she's in our arms).  We had dinner and put the kids to bed, and then Carmen took off for the airport.

Baby girl is getting so strong - she was standing up by herself!  I was inches away, spotting her, but her legs were supporting her all on her own!

A family photo.

Cutest baby wrapped in a towel. 

Tomorrow we have soccer and more relaxing planned, and then Monday I'll take the kids to preschool and my mom to the airport, and then head to the office.  I am ready for the day when both kids sleep during they day and all through the night.  I'm afraid by the time I teach Dakota to nap, Jayden will be close to ready to give up his nap.  But I'm hoping we get at least a couple months of overlap, at a minimum.  We'll see.

I realized I haven't been putting up any "official" updates from my emails.  I don't have a lot to add from them, because the four-year-old ones are pretty generic, and Dakota's are usually spot on, so usually I've already told you about what the update says.  This week the four-year-old update was talking about rules and how much four year olds love them.  And it's true; Jayden loves rules.  He loves telling people rules, and he's good at following them.  One morning he didn't want to eat his breakfast, and I told him preschool has a rule that all students have to eat breakfast before they get to school.  This is mostly true - technically they won't send him home if he hasn't eaten, but they do strongly suggest that the kids eat a well-rounded breakfast before coming to school.  Once I told Jayden the "rule," he has since told Carmen and Gramma about it.  And he does take it seriously, because he loves preschool.  :)

For Dakota, the email updated suggested I let her sit up more unassisted.  Which I do.  As you can see, we're even letting her stand!  She's definitely gaining strength quickly, and so intrigued by the world around her.  She also loves to spit.  I'm guessing that came from her brother, but it also could just be her thing.

That's all my cuteness for the week.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend!  I'll get more up on the blog as I can this week.  In the meantime, send positive thoughts for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights when I'm solo parenting.  Something tells me I'm going to need to reset my patience about 3,465 times to make it through...