Potty Party

Well, I did it. One of those things that I have always thought was kind of ridiculous: I threw my son a Potty Party. But now I know why other Mom's do it...When you are desperate, you'll try anything. We have been working on potty training forever. Braylon has never disliked the potty or been afraid or refused to go. In fact for about the last six months, he has been out of Builders (or Pull-Ups as the normal people call them) and in underwear....He would use the potty anytime we took him. The problem was, up until about three weeks ago, in a stubborn move I blame on his Daddy, he refused to tell us when he had to go. So we were playing a game of luck. If we were lucky enough to take him to the potty at the right time, we were ok. If not, big mess for Mama to clean up. So we came up with the Potty Party idea. Braylon requested two things: cupcakes and jello. In order to have his party, he had to have three days in a row without going in his pants. To keep track of this and to encourage him, we made a Potty Party Calendar. Every time he told us he needed to go or took himself to the potty he got a check mark on his calendar (yellow for pee, brown for poop). If he didn't tell us and lets say, pulled down his pants and peed in his TV chair or went and hid under the table to poop, he got a frowny-face on his calendar (sorry for all the details, but those of you who haven't had to potty train yet, I'm just warning you, and those of you who have, have seen way too much for this to gross you out) . So after three weeks and several postponed potty parties, we finally met our goal. Yesterday was Potty Party Day. We kicked it off by decorating a pair of underwear for him to wear. They said Hip, Hip, Hooray, Its Potty Party Day on the front and Good Job Braylon on the butt. And Braylon covered them with multi-colored poka dots. Then we had the big shin-dig. Lots of food that was not good for us, but was fun: pizza, jello-jigglers, cheese curls, funfetti cupcakes with sprinkles and candy party hats on top, and blue Kool-Aid. Thanks so much to April, Mark, Paula, and Lydia who came to celebrate with us and put up with our craziness! But when it was all said and done, it was fun. And Braylon had a blast. That's worth me looking ridiculous. And it will hopefully pay off big time in terms of potty training. I think he is almost there!

Another Braylon Story

I find myself wanting to post every funny thing Braylon says or does. But as Paula said, this will be nice to look back on as time passes. Anyway....Braylon and I were on the front porch having a picnic lunch today. I left him to finish up his carrot sticks and celery and came inside to make Drew some brownies. When I finished I brought the brownie batter out for us to lick the bowl and found that Bray still hadn't finished. I said you have to eat your veggies before you can have the brownie batter. He then asked if he could dip his carrot in the batter; I let him. He said, "yum, this is delicious." So I said, "well then give me your celery and I'll put some on it too." He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mom, you don't put brownie batter on celery. That would taste yucky." Silly me, huh.

Camp Out

Last night I read Bray his bedtime story and tucked him in. I thought from the way he was acting and because he had a late nap, that he might try to get out of bed. I was really tired. So rather than going back downstairs I went on to bed. I read and listened for Braylon to get up for about 30 minutes. I never heard a peep so I went on to sleep. When I woke up this morning, this is what I found. There was nothing left on his bed except his bed sheet. He had taken every stuffed animal he sleeps with, both his pillows, and his blanket and "camped out" in the nook above the staircase.

Check out that pile of books he also took with him. What scares me the most is that he was quiet and sneaky enough to do all this without me hearing in the room next door. Or that he stayed awake for 30 minutes, until he noticed I had turned out my lamp and stopped moving around and then quietly did all of this without waking me up. Either way we are in trouble. What a squirt!

Mud Puddle Maddness!

Who knew rocks and a mud puddle could make a kid so happy.
One of Braylon's new favorite things to do is to walk down to the end of our street. There is a big mud puddle down there and he would stand there and throw rocks into it all day if we would let him.
Dad caught him a butterfly when they were up here last week. Now our walks have also turned into "butterfly hunts," as Braylon calls them. We purchased him a butterfly net the other day and he is very excited about it. But I still think his favorite part is throwing the rocks in the mud puddle at the end.

Playing Outside

Braylon loves playing outside.

Eventhough, we don't really have a yard, we are making due.
What a face!
He loves picking flowers. He also loves collecting rocks and sticks.
Some of his recent projects!

Blue and Gold

Braylon, Andrew, and I had a blast when Lydia stayed the night with us last Friday. Here is a picture of her and Braylon all dressed and ready to go to the Blue and Gold game. They are too cute!

Remember Those Highlights

Braylon and I were looking at his blog yesterday. He saw the first picture I posted of me holding him in the hospital. He said,"look at you holding me when I was a tiny baby." I said, "yeah, that was right after you came out of my belly." Then he came up with this...possibly the cutest thing I have ever heard. He said: "I love you Mommy. When you get to be a tiny baby, you can come out of my belly and I will hold you." I think it is a combination of me going back to work and the fact that we were supposed to have Donovan with us by now. But I have been reminiscing a lot lately and I came across this picture of Braylon's highlights. When I look back on those first pictures, I still cannot believe all that hair!

Don't Be Angry

We'll, we had some confirmation today that what we are teaching Braylon is sinking in, even though he doesn't always do as we say. Andrew was giving me a hard time about leaving time on the microwave and not resetting it so he can use it as a clock. We were joking around, I was teasing him that oh, its such a big deal...and he teasingly yelled "I need to see what time it is." Anyway, Braylon was playing in the other room and heard Drew yell. He came running in and said, "Dad, don't be angry. Just say I don't like that please."

I'm A Lucky Mama

One day, probably almost a year ago, I asked Braylon: "How did I get the best boy in the world". He smiled and answered me, "you're a lucky Mama." And I truly am. As rotten as he can be sometimes, he can also be so sweet. Here he is picking flowers for his Mama today.

Tiger Woods Watch Out!

As I am sure will become evident as I continue to post, Braylon likes to run around in his underwear. He did have clothes on to start the day, but had stripped them off by 11:30. Yes, those are football helmet underwear. Yes, that is a WVU headband under a straw cowboy hat. Yes, that is a baseball whistle in his mouth. He got in the closet and got out one of Drew's clubs. He said he wanted to "play golf clubs". Then he put on this ensemble and said to me "how you fink that looks?" And yes, I was similarly attired, with a matching straw hat and a football whistle.

Playdates

MaMaw and PaPaw came up for a visit this weekend and brought JoLee. The weather was nice and the kids got to spend a lot of time outside. We went to the park, went for walks (and caught butterflies), played in the sand box, blew bubbles... Braylon and JoLee had missed each other and hugged and kissed on each other a ton. Braylon, who is really into the movie Lilo and Stitch right now, gave JoLee a big hug not long after she got here and whispered in her ear: "You're my ohana. Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind." It was too cute! Not quite so cute...while we were at the park the kids decided to pretend that they were scooping up cat poop in the sand. They had to have yelled out "look we're cleaning up cat poop!!!" at least 20 times. I am sure all the other parents there thought it was great.

Today we got to meet up with Lydia and Paula in Morgantown. The kids played for a while at the mall play-yard and got to see Clifford the Big Red Dog, who made a surprise visit to the mall. Then we went to Barnes and Noble and got another surprise when Winnie the Pooh was there for storytime. All three kids loved it. They kept waving at him and saying: "Hi Pooh!"

Can you imagine?

For those of you that don't know, we got a call from our Social Worker last week asking if we were ready for a placement. She said that she was looking for a home for twin 2.5 year old boys. Just in case you thought I might be that crazy...I said NO!

Finally Getting on Board

Well after a year of enjoying Lydia's blog, I am finally getting on board. Between Braylon's 3rd Birthday quickly approaching, me interviewing for jobs, and Braylon being on the waiting list for preschool, I am starting to panic. How am I going to keep up with him once I return to work?! We have had so much time together these first 3 years...and now that is all about to change. So I thought starting a blog for him might be a fun way to keep up with him as our lives change drastically.

Then and now pictures: He's not a whole lot bigger now than he was then.