Aren't They Cute

These 13 little cuties were at the bottom of the stairs as we left the apartment the other day. Mike ran up to get some bread and we fed them a good size meal, while watching them run and tumble over each other to get to the food. They were just wary enough to not come to close, and mom and dad duck were close by keeping an eye.

We have seen several groups of babies in the past couple weeks, and it is unbelievable how big they have gotten. These guys are already 3 times the size we last saw them. I guess all the bread and other goodies makes you grow extra fast.

Accomplishment

This puzzle took us only about 3 to 4 hours to finish. It was the Usborne Wild Animals puzzle with 360 pieces. I would say out of the 360, Katie probably did a good 100 pieces on her own.

Not bad for a few hours work.

My Life Revolves Around Poop

I have a cute adorable son, who let me say right away, I love dearly. But he is now 3 and a half, and it is time to be potty trained and diaper free.

He has been very successful lately. The weekend was spent with not one single accident. Everything made it into the potty 100%.

Then yesterday he had one accident in the afternoon, and when we went to the park for a picnic dinner, he managed to poop and pee through the only 2 pairs of underwear I had, and both pairs of shorts.

Today had been perfect. We had gone to the library, and then driving to pick up dad for lunch, he declared he had to poop. He actually went into work with Mike and went to the bathroom and was still dry. We came home and more poop on the potty. YAY Nicholas I am thinking blindly to myself. Maybe we will be able to get that fish soon after all. Then while I am talking to a delightfully funny friend on the telephone about house stuff, I come out to find that it not only stinks like poop in the apartment, but that my 3 year old is standing in the bathroom with a pair of poop filled underwear on the floor, poop on his foot, poop on the bathroom rug, and poop pasted to his butt. Disgusting!!! I hold my nose and want to vomit.

Why does it have to be so difficult a concept? Go to the bathroom, drop your drawers and poop into the potty. Better for all concerned.

Can I also add that I had to kill my first monster 2 inch roach since moving back to the lovely state of Texas? He managed to fly in the apartment door with us as we were coming home from lunch and errands. ICK!! DOUBLE ICK!!

Poop and big nasty bug killing. This is my life!

Yippee!!

We have a contract! Hopefully all goes well.

TV Time

While living in this apartment we are watching a lot more TV than usual, and this includes mommy.

You who have read this blog before know what a fan of Dancing with the Stars I am. I absolutely loved Kristi's jive on Tuesday, and then laughed at the group number at the end. Katie, Nicholas, and I sat here Wednesday morning and watched the group number twice more on the computer. They loved it just as much, and afterwards, the kids practiced their ballroom dancing all day.

Then tonight I finally got a new episode of Grey's Anatomy to watch. My brother and husband bought me seasons 1 to 3 for Christmas, and I have since watched and rewatched them in order, so many times that I could tell you everything about them. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they give my brain a time to just relax. And during the writer's strike I thought about how the plot could continue to my satisfaction. What I would most like to see happen. What did my brilliant mind come up with? Well tonight they aired it on TV. Meredith going to a psychiatrist. In my mind she went with Derek, but that is to come I have a feeling. How is that for predictions? Anyway, while the episode wasn't one of my favorites, (I still love the episodes in season 1) it did make me smile in the way that only Grey's Anatomy can.

Sweetie

Twas the name of Nicholas' pet that he owned for all of 5 hours today. I meant to take a picture, but before I could, Sweetie was gone. Nicholas was very fond of Sweetie, and named her himself. He talked about her all afternoon, and how he wanted to show her to his teacher (whoever that might be). He told me how he was going to let Sweetie sleep in my bed tonight since she was scared of the dark.

But alas, Sweetie is no more. No. Sweetie didn't come to some tragic demise, she merely escaped the bug catcher that she was living in this afternoon. You see, Sweetie was a lovebug. One of those annoying but harmless bugs you usually see flying around Texas at certain times of the year in pairs (hence the name lovebug). And Nicholas did love her.

It made me think. Would a goldfish be a big enough reward to finish this potty training business up??

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday was gorgeous!! And by gorgeous I mean crisp and cool in the morning with no humidity and by afternoon, sunny and mildly cool. The kind of day that you want to spend outside. And so we did eventually.

In the morning we went to Home Depot for the kids workshop. I have long wanted to take the kids or at least Katie to these workshops they hold the first Saturday of each month, but it always seems that we have other things going on, or that by the time I remember it is already done. So yesterday morning we went around 9:30, in shorts and sweatshirts, and Katie made a castle, while Nicholas and I made him a toolbox. Thankfully, our project only required a dollop of glue and 8 nails being hammered. So I put it together and started all the nails, and Nicholas thoroughly enjoyed hammering them the rest of the way. They both also got their Home Depot Aprons, and a pin for their completed projects to go on their apron. Since then they have sported their aprons off and on and Nicholas has enjoyed loading his toolbox with Daddy's real tools, and toting them around.

We then ran a few errands and had lunch, and then Katie and I got ready to go see Swan Lake. Her ballet school has a company that puts on several productions a year, and a wonderful friend of ours had season tickets that she was unable to use. So for free we sat third row center and watched the beautiful ballet.

Tip for any other mother ever planning to take her child to the ballet: Make sure you read the story to your child before going, since the ballet doesn't resemble the Barbie version in the slightest even though you have the same basic storyline. And since Katie hasn't seen that video or heard the story in a long time, I had to keep explaining parts.

But in all it was gorgeous, and the woman who played Odette/Odile was positively birdlike. And I assume that is a compliment when you are trying to dance like a swan.

Then after coming home and watching the kids bounce off the walls, we decided to head to one of our favorite parks, Clear Lake Park. The kids ran like crazy, climbing, jumping, sliding, swinging. We tried to feed the ducks, but not wanting a horde of seagulls to come bother all the other people at the park, we walked down the pier to look for some friends to feed. We found no ducks out there, but we did find this intriguing sign, that I don't remember ever being there before.

We did eventually find a trio of ducks, but with the wind of the day, and the waves that were crashing in, we weren't able to really get the bread out to them very well, and they weren't willing to get too close.

What We Do To Keep Busy

Create these little cuties.

The story behind this project is that every year I manage to misplace one of the Christmas presents that I buy Katie. Last year it was a Christmas Barbie that turned up 3 months later. This year it was a How to Make Flower Fairies book that turned up on moving day behind a desk. So once we moved into our apartment and purchased some glue, we created this little friend. We have another one in progress that still needs hair. But they are absolutely adorable, and Katie loves picking out their petal "clothes".

Strawberry Picking

A friend of mine told me about a farm they had recently visited to go strawberry picking, and how the fields were full beyond belief of perfectly delicious strawberries. Having gotten used to paying up to $3 for a container of these berries that my children can devour in a single sitting, Mike and I opted to go one Friday afternoon to check it out.

And what fun we had!

The kids eagerly took their buckets and filled them with beautiful perfect strawberries.

Even Nicholas amazingly was able to distinguish between ripe ones and not so ripe ones or even overripe ones.

Katie was the careful picker. Choosing only those strawberries that met her perfect specifications.

We came away with 4 buckets full at only $1.25 a pound. Such a deal!! And we have every intention of going back again soon. Half of our strawberries were gone within the first few days, and tonight I thawed some from our freezer to use in this delicious relatively good for you dessert.

And for those of you curious to know what it is... I have named it "Living in an Apartment Strawberry Shortcake". The little cake circles at the bottom are angel food cake baked in a muffin tin, since my usual baking things are currently in storage in Cleveland. In case you are wondering, they come out perfect, just at about half the time or less.

Brilliance

At lunch a few afternoons ago, we were playing a game that Katie invented. The game was for each of us to pretend to be an animal and then the others would guess which animal was being acted out.

At one point, one of us pretended to be a person, to which Katie replied that isn't an animal.

Mike then explained to her that humans are animals and that just like the animals at the zoo we too are animals.

The response: "You mean all the world is a ZOO!"

Kind of.