Disney World.....

We are here!!!!  After driving from Calgary to Spokane--a 7 1/2 hour drive--a night in a hotel at the airport, and then a day of flying, we made it into Orlando at 7:00pm local time last night.  The kids were well behaved on the flights.  We even had a seat for little Goob---even though we didn't pay for one!  We always take on car seat on the plane in hopes that there will be an empty seat, and then we can buckle in the baby.  If there were no extra seats, then we would have just made Na-Na sit in it. 

Cob and Tree had their own little backpack with their Nintendo DS and games, along with a little bag of candy, a small coloring book, and a few crayons.  Na-Na also had his own backpack, with his headset in it, along with some candies.  Na-Na used Daddy's Ipod to watch Dora and Diego episodes.   Throw in a few snacks from the flight attendant, and a glass of pop as a special treat, and they were all happy!!!!! 

Goob is at the toughest age---really, what do you take along for him???  He was content to sit in his carseat, eat snacks, look at the magazines in the seat back, and eat icecubes!!!!  Goob even used the potty on the airplane!!!  he told me he had to poop, so off we went.  I let him shred some toilet paper, and he finally relaxed and let himself use the toilet.  Today, we did not have as much success.  We were at Animal Kingdom all day, and he pooped on the way home---oh well, we haven't officially started yet!

Prepping for Potty Training!

Well, it is almost that time for Goob!  We go on holiday for the next couple weeks, but when we return home and have settled back in, I think we are going to give potty training a try.  This will be the youngest (19 1/2-20 months) I have attempted this monumental task......
Cob was 2 1/2 when he was fully trained, although we started when he was 27 months.  He has proved to be the most trying so far......Tree was 25 months, and was good within a week---even at night!  Na-Na, I'm sure, would have trained at 20 months, but we were off on an adventure (Thailand/Vietnam), and it was Christmas (which means travelling) so that didn't quite work out.  He was trained at 24 months, again within the week. 
The signs that I have been waiting for:

• quick to tell me he has pooped in his diaper
• an interest in watching others use the toilet
• his ability to talk (or at least express to me what he needs)

For the past two weeks, everytime I catch him going poop in his diaper, I use phrases such as "Are you going poop?", "Do you have poop in your diaper?", "Does it feel yucky in your diaper?".  I use this to get him to associate the sensation with the action and word.  We have only sat on the potty a handful of times, but they have always been fun!!!  Tearing toilet paper into tiny shreds, ready books, singing songs. 
Yesterday, I could tell that it was getting close to time for him to go---lots of grunting, and just standing still.....my Goob's telltale signs that a poop is on the way!  So, we go into the bathroom, and sit on the potty.  After 10 minutes of  "playing", and telling him to put his poop in the potty, not his diaper, he finally relaxes and poops!  What a celebration we had when it was done!!!  Every family member had to check out the poop in the potty, and lots of praises for our "big boy!".  Then, as a special treat, Goob got to make a phonecall to Grandma and Grandpa and tell them his big news!!! 
It will be like this over the next 3 weeks--random use of the potty if the timing is right, lots of discussing about using the potty instead of the diaper, saying "tell mom if you need to go poop", etc.
I'll keep you posted as to how it turns out!!!!

Updates

Just a quick change to make my page a little less boring looking!!!!  I am still trying to figure all this out, so please bear with me.  The background comes from: thecutestblogontheblock.com

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Since we are off to Florida early next week, the kids miss their Valentine's parties at school. Me, being the mom that enjoys any excuse to make cute things for the classmates, encouraged the boys to pick a treat they would like to hand out. We took the first round of hand made valentines to my 5 year old's preschool. He wrote his own name on the back, and did all the glueing!!!

Lollipop Flowers

My 6 1/2 year old has chosen to make these:

Dynamic Duo

 

And as a special treat for the teachers, I have chosen to attempt to make these:

Berry Sweet Bouquet

 

All of these are from a website that I absolutely love. I get most of my cake ideas for birthday froms here, snack ideas for school, etc. Here is the link for their cute Valentine gifts!!!

A Tasty Treat!!!

I was just thinking about what I should make for a treat for a small get together we are having, and I remembered this delicious treat!!!  It is so good, but incredibly simple to make, that I thought I would pass it along! 

Apple Dip

1- 8oz package of cream cheese
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 container of caramel (usually found in your produce section)
1 package of Skor Bits (or whole Skor bars crushed)
4-5 Granny Smith apples, sliced

Mix together cream cheese and brown sugar until you have no lumps.  Spread thinly on a platter.  Microwave the caramel for about 15 seconds to make it easy to spread.  Spread on top of cream cheese mixture.  Top with the Skor bits.  Use the apples as dippers!!!

Enjoy!!!!

Back to School

As a parent, you love your child--as a mom, you love back to school!!! Even though I only have my Grade Oner back at school, the house is so much more quiet. A little routine goes along way. We are still adjusting to the early morning wakeups, but within a week I think we should be back on track.

My son had finally started to take a greater variety of food in his lunch. Hopefully we are past the days of just jam sandwiches. I guess the key was to make it fun!!! We have a toasted waffle sandwich, with jam (it is not a great change, but I am okay with baby steps!!), mini turkey bites, vanilla milk with ice cubes (no warm milk!!), and thanks to my aunt who knit some apple/pear sweaters, we take take those fruits with out them getting all bruised!

Only 1/2 year of lunches left to make--for the world's pickiest eater!! I have a made a few of the recipes of out Deceptively Delicious, and my kids have like just about all of them. They are none the wiser to knowing they have vegetables lurking under the surface!!! I sometimes just use jarred baby food if I can't find the fresh fruits and veggies required. 

Another favourite of ours is Silly Snacks.  The bright pages entice the children, along with the simple recipes---most of the items being fairly common. 

Upcoming Trip to Disney World

In just over 1 month, we will embark on our 8th trip to Disney with our kids.  My husband and I went twice before having kids, and have been back 8 times since with them.  Our first trip as a family is when our now 6 1/2 year old was only 5 months.  That was our first trip with a baby!!! 

We usually try to go twice in a calendar year, for 2 weeks at a time.  To keep costs down, we sometimes drive down to Montana (Great Falls) or Washington (Spokane) and then fly out of an airport there.  Airport parking is reasonable, especially if you stay at a hotel on site.  We have even flown into Tampa, and then driven to Orlando.  It is only about 1 1/2 hour drive.

We have rented a 6 bedroom villa to stay at while there.  We are travelling with another family that has 2 small children as well.  The villa comes equipped with a full kitchen, private pool and hottub, and room for everyone.  The total cost for the 2 weeks was only $2600 USD.  I do realize that we are not at the resort, but we rent a vehicle, and it is easy to drive in the Kissimmee area.  

Since we are travelling with another couple, and all have young children, we find it convenient to stay in a villa.  We can feed the kids breakfast in the morning--whatever they want at a fraction of the cost of eating out, we can put the kids to bed in separate rooms, and then still hang out as adults while keeping an eye on our children.  The pool is right out the back patio door, and the hot tub is always available. 

We have rented through Villa Direct (a management company) before, but have gone through VRBO (http://www.vrbo.com/) recently.  We found that VRBO prices are usually more reasonable, and also offer free use of baby equipment--strollers, playpens, fullsize cribs (sometimes), baby monitors (sometimes), etc. 

We like to stay in an area that is close to Disney (under 10 minutes away).  Some of these areas are Indian Creek, Emerald Island Point, Windsor Hills, Oak Island Cove.  You can take a back route to Disney which cuts out the traffice of 192.

I make my grocery list ahead of time, and then after we have arrived, we usually stop at a Super Centre Walmart or Target.  They seem to have the best prices on groceries!  Since we have multiple couples going, we all mark our reciepts, and throw them into the pot.  At the end of the week, we tally up who has paid what, and work it out from there.

Well, that should be good for one night--more to come soon!!!