Big boy underwear

Well...here we are on day 3 of potty training Thomas. He is doing pretty well. It hasn't clicked yet in his head to go on his own, but if I keep up on it he always goes when I take him into the bathroom. I have purposefully waited too long to see what happens. He has had a few down the leg accidents, but most of the time he just lets a little out and then quickly stops. Now we need to get him to figure out once he has a little accident to then go and sit on the potty without me suggesting it. Yesterday before I took a shower for the day I sat him down to go but he didn't need to. I hurried through my shower, worried about what was happening downstairs, and when I was finally dressed I walked down the stairs expecting the worst. As I turned the corner the first thing I saw was Thomas sitting on the couch, naked from the waist down. I asked him where his underwear was and he just pointed toward the bathroom. I asked him if he had got anything wet like the couch or the carpet but I didn't trust a 2 year old to tell me that. I didn't discover anything and when I investigated his discarded underwear on the bathroom floor I found that it was only damp. He had succeeded in cutting off the stream, but he didn't bother to finish up on the potty. Oh well. All in good time. Hopefully sooner than later. So here we go. Another day of going nowhere since I don't want to rely on diapers during the day. I feel like it's all or nothing. I don't want him to wait for the diaper. (We do use one for nap and bedtime, but yesterday's nap and last night's diapers were both dry. Yea!!!)

Here he is on the first day. He picked Thomas the Train underware for his first choice. And as part of the training process he gets to put a sticker on his potty chart and pick a treat. And then every 5 times he goes he gets to pick a prize. Here he is picking his first prize which turned out to be a tape measure.About 10 minutes ago he yelled from the other room, "Look! A BIG POOP!" I ran into to see what he was yelling about and there he was, standing with no underwear on, pointing at his potty, and sure enough, there was a very big poop in it. We all clapped, hugs were given and he was proud! We called Mike to share the news and Thomas was too cute on the phone as he described his accomplishments. Yea for our team! He did it on his own without any help.

Water fun!

Our next-door-neighbors have this water slide that they set up from time to time. The kids all have such a good time that I may have to consider investing in one next year. Or just sending them over there whenever we see it appear over the fence. ;)
I have already heard Megan say our yard is no fun. Now that we finally have the playset in, things have improved.

My handsome boy warming up in the sun. I sure do love this boy.

4th of July!

Our July 4th was different than most in the past. We usually go to the Provo Parade in the morning and hang out with family in the afternoon and evening. But since we are no longer in Utah we made different plans. Mike spent most of the day constructing the kids new playset. We went to our next-door neighbors for a bbq and set off fireworks in the street. We have been really lucky to live between two really great young families. All of our kids play together and we seem to get along...for now. ;)Fireworks in Washington are crazy. I am used to living in a dry state where there are major bans on most fireworks. It seems like you could do just about anything. The neighborhood right across the trail from our house put on quite the show. It went on for a least 50 minutes straight with fireworks like these. I think a lot of these came from the Indian reservation. It was impressive.
Megan kept standing in the smoke and I would catch her plugging her nose. It took her a while to figure out how to move up-wind.
Roman candles were scary for me and I actually let my 6-year-olds hold them by themselves. What was I thinking? You could take a face out with one of those things. Here is a pretty good shot of Sarah with her Roman Candle. I actually got the shot in the frame. She was also trying to cover her ears while it was going off. Cracked me up when I saw it.
And yes, we didn't escape the rain entirely. Welcome to a Washington July 4th. Halfway into our fireworks it started to sprinkle a bit. Enough to get the ground wet and then it stopped. Thomas continued to use his umbrella for at least another 1/2 hour and I think he felt more secure with it when all the fireworks were going off. Kind of like a shield. We all had to wear sweatshirts, which is probably the first year for me ever being cold on July 4th, but at least it only rained a little bit. It literally dumped for hours the very next day. So much rain fell on July 5th, it was crazy!Thomas was absolutely terrified when we took him out to the street and the fireworks were going off. He would not let me put him down for at least 45 minutes. He also didn't want to stay in the house by himself. Somehow we peeled him off of me and after another 30 minutes had gone by, Mike was able to convince him to hold a sparkler.

And before you knew it something had changed. Either he started to like the sparklers or staying up until 11:00 pm weakened his senses. Suddenly he was holding 2 sparklers with no problem. Then we had to start watching him with all his wild waving around. Someone's eye will get poked out. This is Thomas, Megan, Kayla(neighbor), and Sarah showing me their designs.
We had a really nice day. It was nice to not have any pressure to be anywhere for most of the day, and we had fun getting to know some of our new neighbors. I did miss hanging out with family. Our Ward family were no-shows this year, but maybe next year we can do something together. Happy 4th of July America! We had fun!

Vale and Thomas

Thomas has a friend named Vale, although Thomas says "Bale", who came over for a playdate today. They were coming down the stairs together and I just had to get a photo of them in the natural light. Such cute little guys!