Father's Day at the Minnesota Zoo

Here are some pics from the new Grizzly Bear exhibit, Russia's Grizzly Coast, at the Minnesota Zoo. There marketing pitch is "Get closer than nature intended." Judge for yourself from this pictures. For information on the new exhibit go to www.mnzoo.com

Drivin' in my car

5, 4, 3, 2, 1......Exstision!!!

"Extision!" That's Avery's way of says "ignition." And for me its not like, "we have lift off," its more like "we have potty training!" We have successfully completed a week in big boy pants and 4 consecutive poops on the potty. Seriously, this is so huge for us. I know my mom will kill me for writing about this ("Your Nana is turning over in her grave," she'll say), but I have to write about it, just for myself so in two years when I'm trying to get Jake to do this I can check myself and also for anyone else, any other type A personality, that is trying to potty train their kid. This is important.

Before I even start I want to note that I checked out EVERY book on potty training from Hennepin County library and tried EVERYTHING in these books. We literally have been trying for a year to potty train Avery. It's been more of a power struggle than anything else and caused nothing but frustration and angst between the three of us. All of the time I tried to tell myself that he would eventually get it, just like everything else with him. We just stress and stress and stress over when he is going to do things. When would he roll over? When would he start eating solids? When would he gain weight? When would he get a tooth? We waited for a whole year for him to get his first tooth and I remember Kevin saying to me, "Don't worry, did you ever know a kid who didn't get their teeth?"

Honestly, what did it for us is my stupid broken arm. After my bike accident I had so much trouble taking the boys out I resigned myself to staying home with them and just being with them. And all of this time, over the past month or so I just let Avery run around naked or with just his underpants on. One day we were making cookies and he was totally butt naked and I remember thinking, is this okay/sanitary/normal (or none of the above)? As it turns out, half the time he doesn't care about any of the stupid stuff that I make him go and do with me on my days off. I think he just likes being, being at home, being with me or with his dad or his little brother. I think he just needed to be, for a few days to figure it all out. I knew he could do it, he just needed the chance to work it out, on his own time and his own terms.

I've been watching Avery for the past few days, so proud, putting his poopies in the potty and then naming each one before flushing them down the toliet (Big Daddy poopy, Avery poopy, little baby Jake poopy), and I think, he is still just a little guy. This is a big deal for such a little guy. I think about him trying to stand at a potty in a public restroom, barely tall enough to reach his penis over the edge of the potty, all the while I am yelling at him to not touch the potty because its yucky and then potty starts flushing on its own, water spraying everywhere. It's scary for a little guy. I wouldn't want to do it either if I were a little guy like him. And then we would to get mad and frustrated with him when he would have an accident because he was too scared to pee in a public restroom. It's just so crazy!

We have been expecting so much of him. And I feel badly that we put so much pressure on him, on ourselves to make it happen. I'm so happy I don't have to buy diapers for him anymore and I'm so happy I don't have to pollute our land fills anymore. What I am most happy about is that Avery is so very proud of himself. I just hope that Kevin and I can learn and remember from this experience that we need to let our kids do things on their own time and their own terms. And that we should not feel pressured by what every stupid book or person or anything or anyone else that tells us what our kids should be doing and exactly when they should be doing it.

After all, did you ever know a kid that didn't get his teeth?

The newest addition to our family

My brother Pepper got an amazing father's day present - a new daughter! Teresa gave birth to Baby Mariela at 2:19 am on Sunday. She weighed 7lbs 15oz and measured 19.5" long. Look at Mateo, he's such a big boy, a very excited big brother now!! Click over to Mateo's blog for more pictures (soon hopefully)!

Congratulations Teresa, Pepper and Mateo!!

Happy Father's Day!

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Toe Sucker

Why suck your thumb when you can suck your big toe?

St Louis Park Fire Station Open House

Last week we went to the annual St Louis Park Fire Station open house. This year Avery and Daddy got to ride in the hook and ladder truck!! An added bonus, our neighbor Mike, who is a volunteer fire fighter was the driver!

We thought this day would never come!

After weeks and weeks of practice, Avery put a real poopy in his potty this morning for the first time ever!! Kevin and I were so proud!

Later on we went outside to play and Avery took his clothes off to play in the sprinkler. Then he put a real poopy in his big boy pants.

One step forward, two steps back.

Thank you kind soul!

Another crappy day in Minnesota so for Mommy day today we went to the mall to get the boys pictures taken. When Avery was six months old we had his picture taken with the adorable stuffed animal dog that our dear friend Audry Dellalo sent him when he was born. I thought it would be sweet to get a picture of Jake with the doggie so we packed it up and took it along with us to the mall along with Avery's favorite dump truck. After our short photo session we headed to an indoor play area while the studio processed the pictures. Avery ran around with some other kids while Jake sat in his stroller snuggling with the doggie. We went back to the studio to look at our pictures and then headed home. It was nearly one o'clock by this point and I felt sure both the boys would fall asleep in the car on the way home. We got about halfway home and Avery said to me, "Mommy, we left my doggie at the mall." My heart sank and I vaguely remembered doggie hanging precariously out of the stroller as I was trying to wrangle Avery from the play area. So I turned the car around and headed back towards the mall. The whole way there Avery talked about doggie, wondering where he could be, what he could be doing, hypothesizing about how he got lost. By the time we got back to the mall Jake had fallen asleep so we popped him in the stroller and began to retrace our steps. Avery ran frantically through the mal looking in every direction for doggie. By the time we turned the corner for the play area I could see doggie propped up on a ledge just waiting for us to come pick him up. Some kind soul found doggie and set him aside in just the right spot to find him. Avery ran to doggie and hugged him around the neck as hard as he could. He never let him go the whole way home.

Thank you to whomever found doggie and set him aside for us. There were 100 kids in that play area today and any one of them could have taken doggie home with them. I don't know how I could have explained to Avery what happened to doggie. After watching Toy Story Avery is convinced all of his toys have personalities, greeting them each morning,talking to them all day long. Catasrophe adverted for today but I think Jake will have to get his own doggie.

By the way, Avery declined to be photographed for this post, I think he was too traumatized.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

We had a mommy day on Tuesday. It was yet another not so beautiful Minnesota spring day so we headed to the Children's Museum. Avery has been really interested in going to the doctor's office the last few months so we spent a good deal of time playing doctor....

Checking baby's heart

Measuring the baby (32 lbs, he's growing!)

Then we played fireman

Then rockstar!