Finally!

We're out of diapers for good! For the first time in 11 1/2 years I don't have to buy diapers, change diapers, smell diapers.... I'm so excited!

And it happend so easily. Now, before you going saying, "I'm so jealous, I've been trying for a year, how did you do it so fast?!" I'm going admit something. I waited until Hunter was ready. I didn't push, I didn't fight. I just waited. I pushed the older two kids and struggled for a year with both of them. This time I wanted to be more laid back and let Hunter lead. He wasn't ready until now. So, at 3 1/2 years of age, he was finally ready. It just clicked! He's been in underwear for a week now and so far we only had one accident. That was because we went for a hike and Hunter decided it was better to go in his pants than in the bushes!

"Those days"

You know those days when the kids do something that just makes you shake your head and sigh? Ya, that was today. Well, it's actually most days in my house, but today was a real head shaker.
Hunter is in full force potty training. I call it Boot Camp. I took away his diapers completely (except at night), and he's just in underwear. He has to go to the potty or pee his pants. And he's already decided he doesn't like peeing his pants just for the fact that he has to change clothes and get washed down in the tub every time he does it. So, we've come to an agreement that he can go potty on his own, standing at the toilet (will not even consider a training potty), as long as he doesn't play in the bathroom. Who am I to be picky? I just want him out of diapers for good, so I'm willing to bend.
That brings me to our episode today. The head shaking moment that added more work to my day. I heard Hunter going potty, the flush, then run the water. I assumed he was washing his hands so I didn't pay attention to him after that. I noticed after awhile he wasn't coming out and he was being very quiet. I went in to the bathroom to find my sweet, helpful Hunter cleaning the bathroom with a sponge..... and using the toilet water. So I assume. And I'm going to assume that because the lid was open and a very wet towel lay next to the toilet. I just assumed, and scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom. Shaking my head and sighing. What else can I do? He was trying to be helpful! Just using the wrong kind of water.
Oh, and we did have a long talk about why we don't use toilet water to wash the bathroom with. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Springy, springy, spring

Spring has sprung in Louisiana! The trees have buds on them, flowers are flowering, bees are buzzing, and babies are being born.

Hunter and I took a nature walk a few days ago. We saw a studly bird making quite a ruckus. He was pretty funny to us, but hopefully he was charming to some young missy bird. He had a stick in his mouth and was showing it off, obviously saying "Hey pretty girlies, I can make a mighty fine nest! Any takers?!" Hunter noticed how the bird was making all sorts of different noises. I'm guessing if puffing out his chest and making a tweeting noise didn't work, he moved on to the next tactic; showing his throat and making a deeper whistling noise. After we watched him for a little while I told Hunter we needed to move on. He wouldn't have many chicks taking him up on his offer with us standing there!

Hunter and I also visited a nearby pond. We saw tons of baby turtles. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love turtles, frogs and lizards. Most of these turtles were red ear sliders, and box turtles. They were *so* cute and I was in love. It was beautiful to watch them in their natural habitat, playing and interacting with eachother. I didn't have a camera on me, and it was almost time to get Drew and Louisa from school. Hunter and I went home to get the camera, and after we got the kids from school we came back to show them.

Here are just a *few* of the pictures I took:

There were three babies playing with their mama. They followed her around for awhile, and one tried to climb on her back. She didn't seem to like that because she swam faster until it fell off! Don't we all wish we could do that sometimes? Walk just a little faster till the kids get off our heals!

And there was a small group of turtles that seemed to be playing tag with eachother. One would swim up and touch another turtle's shell, then that one would take off and touch another turtle, and it went on for some time.

Today we took the kids to a nature trail so they could get the cobwebs off their bicycles. Tires needed to be filled up with air and seats needed to be readjusted since it's been a few months since we last rode. Louisa just needs a new bike altogether. Even with her seat adjusted, her knees came up to the handlebars.

Hunter had a hard time just riding. He wanted to stop and look at everything. He's an observer. He can stand in one spot for a long time, just taking in all there is to see. Drew and Louisa wanted to get on their bikes and go, go, go. So Daddy gave Drew his watch and set it at 2 minutes. He said when it beeps, turn around and come back towards us. That also helped them get more exercise in!

As we were going back to the truck, Hunter got off his bike to look around. He notices the smallest things. Must be an advantage of being so small. He saw a caterpillar and said, "You are going to turn into a beautiful butterfly!" (Gotta love Eric Carle books and Big Backyard magazines!) Hunter told the caterpillar good-bye and said "Have fun being a butterfly!"

For Nana, From Hunter

Me According to the Chaos Kids

There's this thing called Facebook, and I recently joined because I kept getting all these invitations from people. I figure, if all these other people are there, it can't be too bad. All these social networking sites are basically the same with a few differences. Some things I like about Cafemom that I don't like about Myspace, or some things I like about Facebook that I don't like about Cafemom.
Anyway, here's a little something I posted on Facebook. I just wrote down the very first thing the kids said. I told Hunter he could have some popcorn as soon as he answered a few questions for me!

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Hunter (3-years-old): yes I can have popcorn
Drew (7-years-old): clean the house
Louisa (11-years-old): I don't know... turn the TV down?

2. What makes mom happy?
Hunter: popcorn
Drew: hugs and kisses
Louisa: umm.... i'm going to say.... the computer

3. What makes mom sad?
Hunter: a bowl
Drew: no hugs and kisses
Louisa: uhhh.... don't write that! (giggle giggle) SpongeBob

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Hunter: hahahaha
Drew: tickling
Louisa: when she writes exactly what I'm saying like that! (giggle giggle)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Hunter: a tree
Drew: little
Louisa: both good and bad

6. How old is your mom?
Hunter: bird
Drew: 31
Louisa: 31

7. How tall is your mom?
Hunter: hmm..... HUGE!
Drew: a yard long (that's his "estimate")
Louisa: 5 feet, well, like a little more than 5 feet

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Hunter: clean up
Drew: sleep
Louisa: play on the computer

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Hunter: ride in the car
Drew: go to playgroup
Louisa: go to playgroup

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Hunter: peanut butter
Drew: 9 million dollars
Louisa: writing a book

11. What is your mom really good at?
Hunter: watching TV
Drew: sleeping
Louisa: playing on the computer

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Hunter: your hair
Drew: fishing
Louisa: um... um... going to walmart because she spends money

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Hunter: um... car!
Drew: talk to people online
Louisa: take care of kids... you don't get paid for it, but it's a job

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Hunter: pizza
Drew: sugar
Louisa: you have a lot of favorite foods

15. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Hunter: orange
Drew: Betty Boop (or the "Bippity Bop girl")
Louisa: Garfield

16. What do you and your mom do together?
Hunter: clean up
Drew: play games
Louisa: um... um... um.... (giggle giggle) we read together? I don't know

17. How are you and your mom the same?
Hunter: Hunter and mommy
Drew: we're both mammals
Louisa: we're both girls

18. How are you and your mom different?
Hunter: mommy has glasses
Drew: our gender, you're a girl I'm a boy
Louisa: you have red hair and I have brown hair

19. How do you know your mom loves you?
Hunter: mmmm, say "love you" (in soft voice)
Drew: she's nice to me
Louisa: because she makes me laugh

20. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Hunter: house
Drew: walmart
Louisa: playgroup

Stomach Ickies

All week Hunter has had this nasty stomach virus that's been going around. He hasn't kept anything in, and by Friday he looked so frail. I teased him that he turned in to a peanut. On Saturday he felt much better. And his appetite was back, too. He ate everything he could find including the Girl Scout cookies we were selling at our cookie booth!

This morning when I woke up I felt good, but as the day went on my body started to ache a little. Unfortunately, I didn't get to keep my breakfast, either. Now I'm on the couch (gotta *love* wireless!) with hives all over my skin, a fever, an achy body, and the dreaded stomach ickies.

It's going to be a long week!

The Rainbow Car Game

Louisa and I have a new game. The Rainbow Car Game. We have to find car colors in order of the rainbow. As you can imagine we get stuck on purple a lot, and I've just totally eliminated "indigo" from the line-up.

It all started a few days ago when we were waiting in line at the checkpoint gate to get on to the army base we live on. For those that have never been on a military post, you have to stop at a checkpoint gate to show your ID (driver's license or military ID). We noticed a bright yellow truck in front of us, and a bright orange car next to us. I said "All we need is a red car and we have the 'ROY' of our 'ROY G. BIV'". Not two seconds later, a bright red truck rolled past. We laughed heartily.

After we got on base we saw a blue car, then a green one. Again, we laughed saying we only need purple to make our rainbow. Yep.... a purple car drove past. It was just too funny to be true.

So, ever since then we have been finding rainbow cars. We've made it three times through the rainbow, but we're stuck on purple again. Let me know if you see a purple car!

An excuse to procrastinate, or What I've been up to lately

Hmm... so, I guess my husband comes home and I have nothing to write about! Not really, but I'll just use that excuse anyway.
We've been busy and yet we've not. We've had Chaos and we've had downtime. Mostly we've been readjusting to this life with a dad and a husband that he was absent from for so long.

February run-down (in case anyone actually cares!)

1) I turned the ripe old age of 31 this past month. And believe me, 31 is absolutely no different than 30. My youth didn't suddenly disappear, I don't "feel" old, and the last time I looked in the mirror I still didn't have a single wrinkle.

2) We went on a fabulous family vacation to Houston. We saw space shuttles and dinosaurs and lots of homeless people. We stayed in a luxurious downtown hotel, complete with valet service! I'm beyond blessed when it comes to having a family who loves travel and go on adventures.

3) Louisa had a major competition for Beta Junior club. She didn't advance to the next level, but she had a blast doing it. I'm very proud of her for giving it a shot and learning from her.... um.... failure. That's a bad word, I know.

4) My parents and sister and nephew came to party at Mardi Gras with us! We started the Mardi Gras weekend off in New Orleans. It was an amazing experience! Besides being very cold and not bringing the right clothing, we had fun. We saw two major parades in the French Quarter and got a million beads. And technically we walked across Bourbon street in full party mode, so I told the kids they can tell people they've been on Bourbon street during Mardi Gras. Of course, that made no sense to them!
We also saw a local parade here in our town, a parade up in historical Natchitoches, and ended the weekend with a parade down in Lake Charles. Very similar to our Mardi Gras marathon from last year. It was much harder to say good-bye to them when they left than I thought it would be. Hunter cried at the airport saying, "Why they want to get on that airplane, anyway?" Poor baby! He had so much fun with his grandparents and auntie and cousin. My family always likes to go-go-go. There isn't much sitting around for them. The kids get spoiled with tons of love and attention, so I can see how Hunter was sad when they left. I was too!

5) While my family was visiting I had a huge Girl Scout event called Thinking Day to attend. My troop chose to represent the country of Nigeria. We had to make a display board for all the other troops to see, as well as a dish to pass, "swaps" to .... um.... swap, and a skit to perform. We performed a story called Master Man, based on a book by Aaron Shepard. The girls did a great job! It's hard to get up on a stage in front of your peers when you're in 4th and 5th grade.

Here's to the beginning of March! For much of the country it definitely came in like a big roaring Lion with all the snow! For us it came in like a Lamb. We're all looking forward to a beautiful spring that is only 3 short weeks away.