Potty Time- A story worthy of it's own post

The time has arrived for a little potty at our house. Lincoln has been doing a good job of using the bathroom or at least trying to (it's very cute, he grunts) when you put him on the big potty. He will pretty much go after naps and when he wakes up in the morning. He will do a #2 in the potty if you catch him in time. Okay, enough about that. I was dreading doing this only because I am afraid we will have to do it all over when we have our next kid (who knows when). But all the signs are pointing to now. Well, we went to Babies R Us and found the perfect potty with a nice cushy seat. He was enthralled with it as you can see. He sat on the potty for a while with no success so he got up and started playing with the cushy seat.

The gross part was (promised he hadn't peed on it) that he wanted to only wear it around his neck and was really mad when you took it off. So, of course, I go and grab my camera because he is on the potty with the "seat" around his neck.

Well, Lincoln must know that I blog and need great stories, because he looks down and starts peeing right off the potty in the middle of the living room. He would do that after he sat on the potty for about 10 minutes. I'm cracking up because I can't believe I have just captured this string of events on my camera. PRICELESS!!

I'm still not sure if he has figured out exactly what the little potty is for so we just adapted it to the big one and are now using the potty as a step stool. All he wanted to do with the little one was step in it anyways.

Here he is on the big potty reading a little Runaway Bunny to help him relax! I'm sure you will be seeing more potty pictures. I'm not quite sure if I'm as hard core as the Kate from Jon & Kate Plus 8, so don't worry about any 1st poop pictures. If anyone has any good suggestions though on making this potty training easier, I'm all ears.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh

There are many things that I have learned from being a first time parent. One of the more recent things that keeps getting reiterated is that he is going to do a lot of things that are hilarious but that we don't want to encourage. As you can see below, this was priceless, and very hard not to laugh at. I tried to inconspicuously get the camera and snap some photos but he figured out my game. Oh well, sometimes you just gotta laugh and enjoy these moments that hopefully happen only once.

Surely he wasn't looking for attention as he was yelling at the top of his lungs.

If you remember from previous posts, this goes right along with his fascination with making anything a hat.

Say Cheese!

Catch the Reading Bug

I love that Tulsa/Broken Arrow has so much to offer when it come to children's activities. I'm sure that most of you moms out there know about the summer reading program at the local libraries. I did not know what great prizes they gave away for completing the program. All you have to do is read or have read to you 20 books plus make 4 trips to your local library. Once this is completed you get a book of coupons. These coupons are great and they could make your summer fun a lot cheaper. The coupon book includes:

• One free admission to the Jenks aquarium
• One free admission to the Tulsa 66ers game (basketball)
• One free hamburger and drink from McDonald's
• One free 5 piece Wendy's chicken nuggets
• One free order of Mazzio's cinnamon sticks (yum!)
• One free admission to the Tulsa zoo
• One free admission to the Tulsa Air & Space Museum
• One Krispy Kreme Doughnut
• Two one-way bus rides on any Tulsa Transit route
• One free kids meal at Mimi's Cafe (they have really good pineapple-carrot bread)
• One free end zone ticket for the TU vs. Tulane game

Any child can do this as long as they haven't finished the 6th grade. For those of you who haven't done this yet, make the 4 trips to the library, it is well worth it!

Doctors..a love/hate relationship

Lincoln woke up very early on Monday morning with a temperature of about 103. I did the usual and gave him Tylenol and tried to cool him down with a cool washcloth. Well, his fever persisted all day Monday and Tuesday. He wasn't doing anything to indicate that he was sick (no crankiness, snotty nose, etc.). So, I was torn on whether or not to take him in to the doctor because he really had no other symptoms to report except for the fever.

I decided to take him into the urgent care center just in case there was something major going on (I would have felt bad if he was really sick and I didn't go). After 2 hrs, a rectal temperature taking, a strep culture, a chest x-ray, and lots of tears, the doctor came to the conclusion that he had a viral upper respiratory infection. So, for those of you familiar with that diagnosis, that means he's sick but there's nothing you can do about it. How frustrating is that. I dread taking him to the doctor because that is usually always the case. They are better at ruling out than ruling in. So, now we will wait and see what our non-productive doctor's visit is going to cost us. Despite the disappointing diagnosis, Lincoln left with lots of stickers, some 3-d glasses (no idea what those are for), and a rubber glove balloon.

The Elmo stickers are on his leg and the balloon is slightly deflated. Note to all you parents, those big stickers are very sticky and very difficult to peel off skin. Good thing Lincoln doesn't have any leg hairs yet.

The Art of BBQ

Saturday, we went to the Art of BBQ, which we look forward to every year. For those of you who have never been, it is pretty much a fun place to stuff your face with all sorts of BBQ from a bunch of different smoking experts. They have really expanded the event and this year it included a fun kids area. It was very hot out but we tried our best to keep all the kids cool while we were out trying to enjoy the activities. You will notice that they all look wet, it's all not entirely sweat because we kept dousing them water. Sorry about the pictures, they were from a camera phone so they are tiny. Here is Lincoln on the mechanical bull, he did not want to get off of it even though it wasn't even moving.

The kids were all enjoying one snowcone. That was quite a sight, 5 kids eating out of one cup. They were all so hot that they couldn't get the snowcone in their mouths quick enough.

Okay, here's the best part and probably my main reason for even blogging this. This is a video of Ryan on the mechanical bull. He actually rode for 35 seconds, but I had to pair it down for size sake. It's so funny because they look like they are going fairly slow, but I think to the person that is on, it is much more intense.

We all had a really good time, despite the extreme temperatures. If anyone likes BBQ, you should definitely try to make it out next year. It's usually in the middle of July. I'll try to give everyone a heads up when I know when it's coming up.

4th of July Weekend and more

4th of July has come and gone and I am finally just getting around to blogging about it. It was a very jam packed weekend so I will try to make it brief. Our house has been designated as the 4th of July house host home by both sides of our family. We expanded this year to include our neighbors, which was really fun.

Everyone was in town this 4th so that made for a full house. We started out the 4th with all the boys playing out back in a tiny pool that we stuck under Lincoln's slide. Wet slides are very slippery, the boys were just shooting off the end. It was a little dangerous but they were having a great time.

Everyone headed over that night to start the grilling and the fireworks. This is a picture of all the nieces and nephews from Ryan's side of the family plus a few extras. Of course, the one on the far left is not a niece but his sister.

We had more fireworks than we knew what to do with, but it made for a good show. This was Lincoln's reaction to his first "big" firework. He was not the least bit scared which was kind of a bad thing because he kept trying to get close to the ones that all the other kids were lighting.

He really liked doing the sparklers, but again, he didn't quite understand that actually touching the fireworks were not a good idea. Fortunately, we made it through the night with no injuries.

Here is our customary family pic, if you look in Lincoln's hand he is holding a water balloon. We had about 100 of those filled up, he pretty much just carried his around all night.

The next day, we all went to the lake and had a good but very hot time out on the boat. I didn't have my camera with me but once I get the ones from my father-in-law I will put them up. Lincoln actually went out on the tube and rode in it for the first time. Not bad for a 1 1/2 year old. He really enjoyed all the bouncing up and down but not so much all the water in his face. I'm not really sure how kids nap just about anywhere, but he slept on the boat while we were skiing all the adults around, amazing. We all came home exhausted that night.

The end of the weekend came and we all just sat around and recuperated on Sunday. Holiday weekends are fun but are so tiring. Well that's all about our 4th, hope that everyone had as good a weekend as we did!

The Tiem Cousins

We don't get to see all our nieces and nephews together at the same time, especially since most of them have moved to Texas. They were all here for the weekend so I thought that I would get them together for some group pics. They are so cute because they get so excited to be together (especially the little ones).

Aysha is the oldest of my brother's kids and she is getting ready to turn 13 in a few weeks. She is really starting to mature and all of the little kids love her.

Jadon is 8 1/2 and loves coming to visit because he gets to eat all of my mom's home cooking. He is very bright and pretty good with a Nintendo DS.

Skylar is the youngest of my brother's kids and turned 3 in January. She is a girly-girl to the max and very, very sweet. I love her curly hair!

Chase is my sister's little boy who turned 3 in January (the day after Skylar). They are living in Houston and visit as much as they can. As you can see, he is very silly. I think his hidden talent is singing, he knows the words to more songs than I do.

And this, of course, is Lincoln. I couldn't leave his picture out.

I leave you with a picture of all the silly fun that we had.

Shari's 30th Birthday Party

My good friend, Shari, had her 30th birthday party this past weekend. We had a really good time, it's always fun getting to catch up with old friends. I have to brag on her because she looks so great for having a 5 month old. She's one of the lucky ones who shrank after having a baby. Her little (figuratively speaking) one is named Andrew and he is absolutely adorable. I love his big blue eyes.

Andrew is only 5 months old. It won't be long until he's caught up with Lincoln. They look like they are old buddies, too cute!

Gotta throw in those super cute pictures of Lincoln, he looks so big, what happened to our little baby?

Okay, I promise I will slow down on the blogging as soon as I get caught up. Until then, hope it's interesting.