my first.

Reuben is my firstborn. The first to make me a mother. Well, this weekend I had another first. The first time I've experienced potty-training. It was great. Reuben is great. I have learned so much from having him, and he is amazing. It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about how we almost lost him. Most 27 weekers don't make it, or do, but with a lot of challenges. He is so smart, good looking, and creative (all 3 of which I'm sure he got from his Daddy!) We had a 3 day weekend, thanks to some unknown-to-me Mexican holiday, so I decided to POTTY TRAIN REUBEN! I know, I know...if you're doing the math, I'll help you out. He's almost 3 1/2. But I didn't want this to be frustrating for either of us, especially since my time with him now is limited. Here's how it went:

Putting on his first sticker! He was so proud of his big boy underwear, but a little embarrassed to have me take a picture! He kept telling me that he wears underwear and Jace uses diapers.
We started bright and early Saturday morning (5:30 to be exact). He tried for a while, while watching cartoons.

...even had to have a snack...

We read his "Potty Train" book...a few times...

And at the end of the 3 days, HE'S POTTY TRAINED! He's so proud, and so are we! Yes, the first day had it's share of accidents. Jorge told him that after he's potty-trained, he'd take him to the ranch to ride horses all day. After that, the stickers kept piling on! (Jorge, when we potty train Jace, please make that promise on the first day!)

For every successful "go" (how do you say that?!) he would get a sticker and an M&M. Jace stood watch, and when he saw the results, he'd run and ask for an "em!" also. Look at all those stickers! Man, he can pee! On a funny note, he would get so distracted and say, "mommy, it's LONG!" Yes Reuben, please go. Silly boy. Successful weekend! YEAH!

the rest of the sick day

This was the afternoon of our "sick day".... usually I don't cook lunch so we weren't stocked for today (atleast with anything that sounded yummy), so we ordered PIZZA! Reuben was pretty amazed that our pizza came on a "moto". Jorge was cleaning out his closet and found this. We do not put bumper stickers on our vehicles. I think it's somewhat rednecky, if that's a word. But Reuben was happy with his. I'm going to ignore what implications that may have....

I put Reuben down for a nap and FOUND THIS. My fault. I left a pile of folded laundry in the basket in their room. So after he tried getting up a zillion times, I took him back to the disaster area and calmly explained that if he didn't take a nap he'd need a time out. He just looked up at me and said, "I'm poopy mommy." Augh.....so THAT'S why....*beware: diaper changing lingo....I changed his diaper and said, "Reuben, you did have a little turd." To which he replied, "It's a TURTLE!" hahahaha...... Have a happy Tuesday!

Jace's Sick Day

Jace threw up every 20 minutes for 4 hours. It was aweful, but more-so because he is my son who can EAT. The poor kid was starving. I thought he could try a piece of toast....no. Big mistake (on him, me and the floor). So after I arranged to not go to work, etc...he ran and stole Reuben's pb&j sandwich and scarfed it down faster than you can imagine. And surprisingly, he held it down. So after that and teaspoon by teaspoon of Pedialyte, he's fine. The boys had baths and fell asleep watching a rodeo. They were happy.

This is Jace's new smile in response to "say cheese"...isn't it the cutest thing EVER?! Does he even look sick?! NO!!!!!

Reuben wasn't very happy when he started roping him, so he resorted to roping himself...yes, my sick boy....I think he was totally faking it...just wanting another day with mommy. The weekend was too short! Although I asked Reuben what he wanted to do today..."go to Grandma's!"

Jace is growing up so fast. He's still my baby, but he's so independent. So although I was imagining worse case scenarios yesterday (I seriously thought he ate plastic off of a Halloween candy and it blocked his plumbing...etc.) He's absolutely wonderful and feeling fine. He even ate one of Grandma's cinnamon rolls with chocolate chips. My sick baby. I love him!

Happy Halloween!

My friend Cambria is amazing. Anyone who knows her, knows it. She totally went all out for Halloween, and thankfully asked us to join in the fun! We ate dinner in a pumpkin, carved pumpkins, ate DELICIOUS pumpkin pie, and even went to our ward Halloween party. Reuben was a lion, but refused to let me draw a lion nose and whiskers. He said make-up is for girls.....I even told him I bought a special pencil that's for boys...nope. He didn't buy it. Reuben won a plate of cupcakes on the cake walk, and loved that his had a plastic spider on it. For some reason, that was the funniest thing ever! Hope you all had a fun, safe weekend!