It's a miracle!

Since Einstein is seriously ahead of the learning curve for his age, I have always been under the impression that he has been ready for potty training for a while now. I've been dragging my feet for a number of reasons, (because I like to think I have a life outside of motherhood) and I wanted to devote my full attention to this dirty task once the time came.
Apparently, Einstein thought I was taking too long to train him correctly, so following his usual M.O., he did it himself.
I'm not kidding! After bath time one night, he got out of the tub, sat on his little potty for a while, and was SO excited that he left a non-liquid deposit for all to see. But I think I was more excited than he was! Wow, the pressure is off of me to be supermom! I have a super kid!
So this last week on top of all the normal routine, we had a SUPER busy week full of appointments galore with loooooong stretches of no bathroom, and even through all that, Lincoln had VERY few accidents. WAY TO GO!!! The deal is that if he keeps his Elmo's (big boy underwear) dry with no accidents for a week, he gets a bike. Let's all cross our fingers that he succeeds!
Great job so far, smarty pants! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

It's a sad day in blogland.

I lost ALL my bloglists!
If you don't see your blog to your right ----->
then please let me know.

I will add you. ...No matter what occurs... (sorry, that was my nerdy movie-quoting self coming out in full force, haha)

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to lose your bloglists... DO NOT attempt to change your blog to three columns through 'Cutest Blog on the Block'! It's a great resource for blog backgrounds, but anything technical and it gets a little dicey. Follow these instructions (link supplied by the awesome Katie, thank you!). They are much more user friendly.

Love

We celebrated Valentine's day a day early. Friday the 13th is a perfect day to celebrate a holiday for lovers... :)
Bryan decided that it was high time for a real car (with four doors and all working windows), so he got me one for Valentines Day.

I love it! At first (when we were researching these cars), I thought the styling was really ugly, but it apparently grew on me (Ford Focus Wagon). The best part is that our tax return allowed us to pay for our new (to us) car in full. Yes, I am one of those crazy people who have taxes DONE by January 10. I don't want the IRS to hold onto our hard earned money any longer than necessary. But I digress...

I love that I can stretch out and not be cramped into a tiny little car anymore! I love that I can put our kids into their seats without killing my back because I'm driving a coupe and have to contort my body in weird positions just to clip them in! I love that the sound system rocks. I love that the tranny is SMOOOOOTH. I love that it's an automatic. I love that we got such a great deal on it. I love that we bought it from someone who seemed very honest and fair. I love that the gas mileage is better than our little Honda, believe it or not!

The above photo is a stock photo, since I can't take a decent picture these days. Ours is white. We are so blessed to have this car! Everything honestly fell into place so easily that we knew this particular one was the car for us!
After a LONG day of over-exhausted kids and test driving several different models (we bought the first one we looked at. You know it always happens that way), we got our car, then headed back home, where we diapered/fed/bathed the kids, then hit the road again (sans kiddos) to have some much-needed adult time. My brother and sister in law came from St. George just to babysit for us for a few hours. Actually, that's not why, but I would like to think that! :) We love you guys! Thank you for taking our crazy kids and wearing them out for bed!
We ended up going to Red Robin for dinner (our favorite restaraunt), then to check out some new cameras. If you know Bryan then you know he does his research on electronics very well. I think the real reason we went to a store to check them out was so we could spend some more time together and not go back so soon to kids (only an hour for dinner!).
The next day, the boys got rice crispy 'kisses' from Grandma & Grandpa McBride, which they gobbled up so fast they both ended up with a delirious sugar high and tummy aches! But what's one day in the whole year? They also got (from mommy & daddy) Spiderman heart boxes with spiderman chocolate/peanut butter candies in them. Who says V-Day isn't for little boys? They loved it, and they had a great time playing all day. The boys also love our new car and wanted to go for a ride several times!
Bryan, I love you! Thank you for making this day fun and special. We don't have much right now, but we do have each other. So I guess that means we are rich beyond measure!
Te amo, meu amor. Beijos e beijos e beijos...

1st word

***I tried for several days -unsuccessfully- to post this video.***

This happened almost a month ago! I FINALLY got this video to upload correctly. Blogger and I have a healthy love/HATE relationship. Just when I think I'm in charge, he acts up to remind me who really is the boss. Anyway... read on for the original content!

Earlier this week, Curly started forming the same sound over and over. So I actually decided to stop blog stalking and pay attention, and came to realize that he was saying his first word! The video is long-ish and anti-climactic, but it's still cute. Enjoy!

***UPDATE***Since this video was taken, Curly has gone on to bigger and better things. He has enlarged his vocab to include "dada", "mama", "cracker", "chocolate", "stinky", "NO", "yeah", "thank you", and a lot more incoherent babbling. It's apparent that he can't wait to come up with a dissertation!

So.

{AHEM}

A total of two nap-boycotting days after I posted the last post, my little closet sleeper went and broke my camera. And since I got a cheap new phone with a crappy camera and no video, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post new pictures.
Couldn't have come at a better time, no? Curly is starting to talk up a storm (Katie is my witness; he said 'cracker' at her house the other day), and I have no way to document that. I suppose it wouldn't really matter anyway, since he is the ONLY ONE who is slightly camera shy after a long illustrious genealogy line of camera hams. (Don't believe me? Case in point: Nate, Josh, Jared, Dad, all of which are NOT afraid of a little camera action. Nate is the most overt, and no, that is not a real cigarette.)

Anyway... no new pictures for a while. Sorry to put all of you out, lol!

I'll post about that later...

Okay, I have a million things to post about, from Monster jam to Curly's 1st word (movie malfunction with that one. Oh blogger, how I loathe thy lack of attaching media with ease!), to my B-day, but that stuff will have to wait...

Einstein has been boycotting the naps BIGTIME lately. As in, he will be in his room for literally H O U R S before he passes out with exhaustion, and that's if I'm lucky. I'm not sure what else to do at this point, other than lock him in and hope for the best???
Well, today Curly has been cranky, too. But his situation is different; he just wants to sleep! So when I went to put Orion down at around 2pm for his third nap that day, I was greeted by this:

An empty bed.

My first reaction was "Oh man! He's escaped yet again!", and for a full two seconds I started freaking out. But then I remembered that we secured both windows and have a lock on his door, so it is more secure than Fort Knox. Seriously, there is NO way out; I learned that the hard way (another story. It was very similar to this, except it was in his room and Curly was on the other side of the door. SO not fun!).

The second place I checked was in Curly's crib... empty!

So, really... where could he be? There was only one place left to look:

The closet!



And yes, the door was closed. Einstein even nested his pillow in there with him! I was laughing so hard, I was afraid that I would wake him up! The best part is that he slept in the closet for FOUR HOURS!!! Maybe he'll try it again tomorrow? I don't want to push my luck...


It's moments like these that help me realize how much I love motherhood. And even though Einstein is a true handful, he is also so very sweet and quite resourceful!
Motherhood is hard and relentless. Every mom knows that! :) But isn't it so great to experience those tender mercies that make it all worth it? I do!