Bullet Point Update

It's been over a week since I've written a post, but things have been pretty busy around here. Really though, isn't that how it always is??? Here's what's been going on in our neck of the woods:

• Potty training is actually going very well! Yayyyyy! I can happily say that all poop is now going in the toilet from BOTH kiddos. It was the best gift I possibly could have been given for my birthday, which marked day one of Ayden getting all poop in the toilet or potty seat. Rylee's been golden with poop for months now. We still have occasional pee accidents, but even that is much, much better right now. The biggest problem we are having is at nap time. Rylee won't keep a pull-up on at nap time to save her life. She takes it off and then proceeds to pee the bed. The last time I tried putting her down for nap with undies on instead, she intentionally peed in them before she ever even went to sleep. And she has a damn potty seat IN HER ROOM that she could use! I'm at a standstill with knowing what to do with her and am pretty much resigned to just having to change and wash her bedding every day. Ayden has been doing pretty good at nap time, with occasional accidents while sleeping. He also has a potty seat in his room, which he uses almost daily at nap time.

• Last week I had a girls night away from home! It was only the second time I've spent the night away from the kids since they've been born, and the first time was two years ago! This girls night was with a group of ladies that I came to know online through an infertility Facebook group. Everyone from the group is from Oregon, but I still hadn't had a chance to meet any of them in person until last weekend. I've "known" these ladies for several years, but now I can actually say they are real life friends too.  It was glorious to spend a night away, not having to be responsible for everything at home and being able to sleep uninterrupted. I'd love to say I slept in, but my body betrayed me in that department. I woke up at 6AM!!!

• My favorite Aunt D (who you always see comment on my posts) came to visit and spent two nights with us this week. She lives a few hours away from us, so we don't really get to see her very often. I love when we have a chance to visit. We always have LOTS to talk about and I can tell her anything. She helped me unpack and hang all my pictures on the wall. I debated just leaving them packed since we will hopefully be buying a house in about 9 months, but I'm so glad we got them hung. Our house actually feels more like a home now.

• On Tuesday we had our Halloween party at the Community Playgroup we are a part of. The kids got to dress up in costumes, paint pumpkins, eat lots of goodies, and came home with little trick or treat bags filled with fun stuff.

Ayden enjoyed painting his pumpkin for about 4 seconds.
Rylee was a little Picasso and could have painted for hours.

• Watching our twin friends in the afternoons has been going very well. Ayden sometimes struggles with sharing his toys and there have been a few tug-of-wars, but overall, the four of them play well together. They are all loud and full of energy, love to listen to music and dance, chase each other around the kitchen island endlessly, play dress up with the gazillion hats we have, and pretending they are puppy dogs.

Aren't they the cutest!??!?

• Ayden and Rylee both have been sick with colds for a little over a week now. I've been busy wiping lots of snot, and reminding them to cover their mouths when they cough. I took Ayden to the doctor on Wednesday morning because his cough had gotten pretty bad and he wasn't sleeping very well at night. I suspected that it wasn't a necessary trip to the doctor, but I took him just in case I was wrong. Turns out I was right, and it's just a cold that needs to work it's course. His ears had a little fluid build up, but weren't infected.

• Today we attended our first carnival. Ayden and Rylee got a little taste of trick or treating, and played a few games. We could have done a haunted house, but I opted out since I had the kids there by myself (Tony got invited at the last minute to go to the Beaver football game with a friend) and they're a little young yet for that I think. I let them have a sucker while we waited to see our friends there, but I ended up taking them after only a few minutes because Ayden turned into a slobbering, sticky mess. Fortunately, taking them into the bathroom to wash their hands distracted them enough that they weren't too mad about me throwing their sucker away. Why are bathrooms so fun for toddlers? It was a pretty tiny carnival, and we managed to do everything in about a half hour so we didn't stay too long. Ayden got bored quickly and was not happy that I made him wait to eat more candy till we got home. Even though we didn't stay long, it was still a fun adventure and the kids LOVED dressing up in their costumes (Chase and Marshall from Paw Patrol) again.

The few minutes they got to enjoy their suckers.

With our twin friends.

• Our Halloween festivities will continue tomorrow with a local trunk or treat event. On Monday, Rylee has an eye appointment up at OHSU. Her pediatrician noticed at their 2.5 year check up that her left eye might not be tracking as well as it should, so we are getting that checked out. Tony got the day off work, so he'll be making the trip with us. It's about a 2 hour drive from our house. The staff there all dresses up and they encourage the patients to as well since Monday actually is Halloween. Afterward, we will be stopping by a few family and friend's houses on our way home to trick or treat and show off their costumes.