It's the Final Countdown!

The kids are SOOOO excited to go to the beach (well, truth be told, mommy and daddy are pretty excited too! ;-)!!!!!!  So BJ created them a chain-link countdown system (he's an architect, people!)

Sam is constantly wanting to cut off another day (fueled by his excitement for the beach and his love of cutting things!), and Jake is more like me - don't bother him with cutting stuff off, just tell him when it's time to go!!!!!

I'm so glad their dad is creative! 

Is it time to go yet????

It's been...

One of those days!

See? My pictures didn't even post - nor did my story!

I'll just try again another day!!!!!

It doesn't take much...

To entertain them...

Sometimes!

Today - all it took was a box of wipes and a box of Pull-Ups to create the perfect garage / Ramp for his four-wheeler and cars!

And a side-note: I realized that this is probably the last case of Pull-Ups and wipes I will be buying!  My boys are all grown up!  Jake only uses them at night!  *SIGH* It's good and sad...

Please Admire...

Jake's Artwork... his head, his feet - and you can even see it on his leg!

But that's not all...

Oh yes!  He made the carpet beautiful too!

The dry-erase pad he was supposed to be drawing on (in the kitchen) was clean as a whistle!  Although the marker said 'Washable' [I noticed that bit of information when they received the gift], it took quite a bit of cleaning to get the lovely black lines out of our carpet! Since I couldn't save his artwork, these pictures will have to do!

This Doesn't Look Like...

30% Chance...

Of scattered showers...

To me!

Well.... the grass needs it!  But my boys (and I) sure don't!!!

Our First Visit to the Dentist...

Oh my goodness!  Sam and Jake did SO GOOD on their first trip to see the dentist and get their teeth cleaned!!! I was so proud of them!!!  Mommy, on the other hand, didn't even think to bring my camera (I was honestly so impressed with myself for getting there 15 minutes early... until Dr. Vancil asked if I had my camera! UGHHHHH.... lost those points!!!!)  BUT - never fear... out came the camera phone, and mommy somewhat made up for it!!!!!

I think their favorite part was Mr. Thirsty... the spit sucker!  Joni would tell them to kiss it so that it could work and suck the saliva, and they both would make the MUHA noise... so cute!  Jake wouldn't put it down and kept sticking it in his mouth and kissing it!  Joni finally took it back so she could clean him!!!

Jake went first... he loved the big toothbrush and 'brushing the big teeth."

So much so, that he didn't put it down the entire time!

He 'needed' glasses because the 'light was bright!'

And they flipped up!!!

Onto the cleaning (the glasses didn't last!)...

He decided to brush the light... I think he was reaching the end of his attention span!!!

Sam's turn... as soon as he sat down, his mouth opened!  I finally told him he didn't have to open it until Ms. Joni asked him to!

He 'needed' the glasses too!

And he also enjoyed brushing the big teeth... he actually did a fantastic job... kudos to mom and dad, thank you very much!!!

Open again!!! (Note: the glasses lasted on Sam!?)

You can see Sam was doing great... even though Jake was running McQueen all around the room!!!!

See?

Literally...

I finally sat him on Sam's chair to watch Nemo...

That didn't work out so well...

Although... Sam didn't even care!  He was a super big brother!!!!  And Jake was a super little brother!!!  And Mommy was saved... yet again... by my iPhone!!!

We did it!

We, well, I  (I mean, BJ and the boys helped, but I was the one holding everyone back here!) followed through and Jake is officially out of the crib - like, it's taken apart and in the basement - and he sleeping in his big boy bed! I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be.... that may be because we bought all of the 'stuff' we needed yesterday afternoon and didn't get home until 7:30 PM.  At which time I still had to wash sheets, BJ had to disassemble the crib, of course I wanted to vacuum and wipe down the baseboards of Jake's room, etc, etc.... so the boys didn't get into bed until 9:30!  Two hours is still a pretty good turnover, if you ask me! So, all that being said, the boys (and us) were wiped out, and getting to sleep wasn't a huge deal - well..... it took Jake an hour or so.  We told him that big boys who sleep in big boy beds didn't use pacis (pies), so he was cool with that and went to bed just fine.  He called for me quite a bit, so I went up to see if I could rock him to sleep.  He never asked for his pie, but the child WOULD NOT stop talking!  I finally got his pie back, gave it to him, rocked him for a minute and put him back in bed.  Worked like a charm! Thank goodness!!!!!  Soooo..... big boy bed - check.  Getting rid of the pie when he sleeps... not-so-much! Oh well.... baby steps!

He only woke up twice during his first night... once for water (not uncommon) and once to potty.  SUCH a big boy now!  It's bittersweet for Mommy! :-(

Here is his new bed, all made up!

Our big boy trying it out...

He's 'pretending' to be asleep!

No more pretending...

Goofy!!!!

Bedtime (for real) this time!!!

Still having to pretend to be asleep!

Night-night big boy!!!

Of course Sam had to get in on the action too... he got a new set of Iron Man sheets (his new favorite now... which is news to me!!!)

Jake is actually supposed to be napping right now... so far I have heard a lot of banging around going on up there.  I've been up there multiple times to get him to lay down.  Ugh.... this is what I was afraid of!  He's WAY too excited to sleep!  This is also what happens in the camper with their bunk beds.
*SIGH*
Again... this too shall pass.... and I'll miss it!!!!

It may be time...

For a big boy bed???

**FYI - my camera woke him up from his nap (I turned the beep off and everything, but the SNAP still makes (a lot of) noise - note to self).... this didn't make for a great afternoon, but I am writing this post a couple of days after said picture was taken, so now I'm glad I have the picture that will last a lifetime - it was worth 'the afternoon!' **

Bless his heart... he'll be three in October!  Sam was half his age when I moved him into his big boy bed!  Am I just holding onto 'my little baby?'  No doubt!
Is it that I don't want to 'redo' his room... or deal with the dilemma of keeping his room the same or not? You bet!
Do I just not want to deal with him escaping and having a run at the house whenever he chooses? Absolutely... although that may be a moot point since he has begun jumping out and looking around the house for me when he wakes up!
Or is it that I have not-so-fond memories of going through the transition with Sam and I am in total denial? Yep, that too!!!!

It's all of above... probably mostly the first one, though!  My little guy is growing up.... I want my baby back!
I keep telling myself that it was so difficult with Sam because I had a newborn, home from the hospital maybe a month... that had just undergone open heart surgery, and I was extremely hormonal and emotional!

This theory worked with potty training... Jake was an absolute joy to potty train!  And I put it off over and over because I had such not-so-fond memories of potty training Sam (picture me in the fetal position feeling like a total failure by the time BJ got home!).  Again.... probably had SOMETHING to do with Jake being only a few months old when I took on THAT task!!!!

Let's hope this is the case....... commence big boy bed THIS WEEKEND!!!!!  (I think! ;-)

Somebody Help Me!

Jake won't stop...

Washing his hands...

Over...

And over...

And over....

Seriously - it's 10-20 times a day!!! He's not neat about it, otherwise I don't think I would complain about it... I mean - it's a great habit, right?  I read an article once about a little girl who used anti-bacterial soap as face lotion and slept with it on her all night.  When she woke up, her face had burns (the scaring kind, people) all over her face!  So that has resonated with me ever since! So all day long (at least Jake tells me - he's so proud of himself... and he can't always get the water on by himself!), I am wiping Jake down --- along with the bathroom sink --- and fishing the wet hand towel out of the sink.  He's not so good with the details yet!
*SIGH*
This too shall pass.... and I'll miss it!

We have the perfect hill...

For a slip-n-slide!!!!  So Sam and Jake BEGGED and BEGGED until we went to Wal-Mart and got the darned thing!  We got home and set it up immediately, got into their swimmies, lubed up with sunscreen and went to play.  They literally played on it for 10 minutes and said, "It's too hot.  I'm ready to go in!" Well, Mommy was MELTING, so I didn't complain... but really... after all that hoop-la!  10 minutes!

It looks like he's zooming down, but in reality, he ran down it and flopped like this at the end!!!

Jake just had fun scooping the water!

Or drinking it as Sam posed!

Or stuck his head in the water!

Or relaxed in the 'pool'

Oh well... we've played on it since - and as long as the baby pool and pool toys are out there with it - they LOVE it!!!!!!! Oh well... whatever!!!