The actual birthday

Today is the actual day - J turned 4! It's hard to believe it's been 4 years, and yet it feels like a lot longer that he's been a part of our lives. He opened his present from us this morning - a Lightening McQueen watch (the ONLY thing he had asked for) and proudly wore it to church. He took donuts as a special treat to his class since he doesn't get to celebrate with school friends. He's had phone calls and a special visit...and then got to go to his best school bud's birthday party at a water park! It was a special way to spend the day as a family.

He really impressed us with his independence. After going down the slide, he didn't much care where we were. He just kept getting out and going back to the top. The kids enjoyed the lazy river too - with Clay teaching E to hold her nose when going under the sprinklers! Clay took E down the slide once before we learned he couldn't hold her, and she was NOT thrilled about going by herself. She did brave another tunnel slide after watching her big brother. She had a blast in the sprinklers though. It's amazing how much older he seems just overnight.

Tonight, he's exercising his new awareness of needing to go to the potty (PRAISE THE LORD - he's almost turned that corner completely!!!). He's been in bed for 1 hour and come out 4 times...and each time he has gone. Not exactly sure how to handle this one - don't want to squash this awareness, but also don't want him to start a ritual of multiple post-bedtime sightings! We are just so excited that he's finally getting it - it's been a long road with all of his sensory issues and processing delays.

J's birthday party - June 27th

Over a week ago we had a joint birthday party for J and a buddy, Judah. The boys' birthdays are only a week apart (even though they are 2 years apart in age), we both wanted to have a pool party at the Tigners, and we planned to invite a lot of the same people. To save everyone's time and ourselves a bit of money, a joint party was the way to go! I tell ya, pool parties are the best. Very little planning (especially when you avoid a meal time) and it's great when you have a wide age range to entertain. J came home with quite a bounty and lots of fun memories. It was a great way to kick off celebrating his arrival into our lives.

And just like that...

Skittles and "freedom"

Two things that now inspire a certain little man to start telling me he needs to potty during rest time...amazing that it all of the sudden clicked today since neither of these things are new tricks to help us master using the potty.

I think he's been at least 5-6 times in the last hour, but I don't want to ignore him because he has actually gone each time!

Rest time is not so much rest time for me today...but I am proud and hope he's finally turned this corner.

My fishies

I've never spent so much time in the water! The kids are such little fishes - tan little fishes. Even with 50 SPF on every day and often reapplied, they are sporting nice tans. Clay and I caught J in action jumping into the pool the other afternoon. These aren't all from the same jump, but they flow together nicely to give you a little play-by-play. He gets some serious air for a flat-footed jump. And then there's E who had to her picture taken too although she spent most of this day getting in and out making footprints on the deck!

Our "schedule" has been so unique these last few weeks that it's thrown J into a bit of a frenzy with his sleep. He's napping again, but then staying up until 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. some nights. (Fortunately for us, he plays quietly in his room regardless what time we put him to bed!) There are nights he only sleeps 7 hours and others he will sleep almost 12. We are really noticing his need for above normal sensory stimulation - which is a challenge for this pregnant mama.

This is how I found him late this afternoon. Poor baby is just worn out!

Miss E's first mani/pedi

I've been a blog fanatic lately. Guess I'm getting a little sentimental as we approach J's 4th birthday and the arrival of little M. Bear with me!

After countless times of me trying, Clay was finally able to convince Miss E to get her fingernails and toenails painted. She's always adamantly refused, but today she got on board. Auntie Claire would be so proud (thus the number of pictures I'm posting)!!! She was quite enthralled in the whole process, but kept asking for me to clean it off after we were done (she watched me remove my old polish before we began). She's already in need of another spa day as a lot of the "paint" is already MIA.

(Pardon her attire - it was a focused potty training day at our house...and you'll notice that Miss E has her daddy's olive skin... even with slathering sunscreen on her whenever we go play outside, she's still darker than me!)