Category Archives: minnesota

Potty Training: The update you didn’t ask for, and other random stuff

Oh the joys of potty training. Our bathroom seems to constantly smell like pee – just a warning if you come over and I haven’t had time to clean. It’s apparently not just a little boy problem because little girls also can make a mess when they’re rushing and/or too squirmy. Probably more than you wanted to know, but that’s my life right now. Potty training this time around has gone really well, though. Phoebe is still using pull-ups while sleeping, but has had hardly any accidents during the day time. We all cheer her on and even Enzo gets excited for her when she successfully goes on the potty.

I’m not ashamed to say that we did use some bribing as an incentive to go on the potty. It worked with Enzo, and they reward kids with an M&M at day care, so we figured we’d roll with that. I remember being irritated when we found out they were using candy as an incentive when Enzo was potty training… but now? It’s a battle I’m not going to fight, so yes, here’s your M&M for making it to the potty! Just like with Enzo, we’ll start to phase out the rewards once she’s really doing good and especially once she doesn’t need pull-ups.

These pictures are obviously from before potty training as Phoebe is wearing a swim diaper under her bathing suit, which kept falling off. Thankfully she had her big brother to help her keep them up, though.

While he can certainly be bossy at times, Enzo is also very good at looking after his little sister. He means well, he just forgets at times that he isn’t the parent. It’s moments like this when my heart swells, though. He’ll take her hand to guide her somewhere, or help her get something she can’t reach, or help her keep her swimsuit on when mom buys the wrong size.

I think we’re making up for last year when we didn’t get as much water time, and also because last year we didn’t realize there was a… thingymabobber (technical term) on the outside water spout that messed with the water pressure making it impossible to use a sprinkler. Thankfully Josh managed to get it off this year and now we have normal water pressure for sprinklers and pool filling!

We also discovered a divot in the yard that made the perfect mud puddle. Good thing we had extra grass seed because that patch of grass was destroyed when they were done with it. Next on the list? Water balloons! I got some of those little water balloons that you hook up to the faucet and it fills up a ton at once. Seriously, why can’t I think of the words for anything? Friday brain I suppose.

With the temperatures rising tomorrow, it looks like we’ll be heading to the bigger pool in the morning and hunkering down in the afternoon watching out for hail and wind and all of that fun that comes with summer storms in Minnesota. Happy Weekend!

Dinosaurs!

The dinosaurs are back at the Minnesota Zoo and this year we decided to walk through with the kids. It costs extra, and I’m still not sure if it’s quite worth the extra cost. I think if it was just Josh and I we would have felt it had been a waste, but the kids seemed to enjoy it and watching their reactions was worth it.

Enzo was stoked when we saw the first dinosaurs, but then his focus became more about seeing a T-Rex and only a T-Rex. We had a hard time getting him to slow down and not skipping everything in between. Phoebe took some warming up. We had to convince her that the dinosaurs were not in fact real, but because they were animatronic she didn’t quite believe us at first.

If it hadn’t been for the baby dinosaurs, I think Josh might have had to carry her the whole way through, but as soon as I saw one, she scampered over and was all, “Ahhh, cute!”

There was Jurassic Park music in the background and various facts along the trail that we didn’t really have time to read because… kids, but it was fun to walk through and not overly crowded or hot thanks to shade here and there.

Once we finally made it to the T-Rex, Enzo was excited for about 5 seconds while Phoebe jumped into Josh’s arms and had to once again be convinced that she wasn’t going to get eaten or anything.

By far the kids favorite part of the dinosaur exhibit was the end wherein they got to crawl in big dinosaur eggs and we all got Icees because it was so hot out. So, all in all the kids gave the dinosaurs exhibit a thumbs up, but more so for the Icees.

Let’s not do that again…

Oh, weather and it’s unpredictability. We had been watching the weather app (which is usually pretty accurate) leading up to the weekend and decided to still go camping when the forecast said there might be a shower at around 4pm and then at 8pm. After that, Sunday was supposed to be a bit overcast, but there wasn’t supposed to be any rain, and we figured the kids would be fine with a little damp.

True to the prediction it started raining around 4:00 and about half an hour later we arrived at the campground. It wasn’t coming down really hard, so Josh and I set up the tent and everything in the rain and then got the kids inside the tent. It decided to keep on coming down, though, on and off with only a brief respite here and there where Enzo and I would run to the bathroom and Josh grilled up some hot dogs. Still, the rain continued, though, and the kids were kind of whiny. They didn’t want to get wet, but they were bored in the tent, which was also starting to drip here and there. We decided to distract them by singing Happy Birthday to Josh a day early and eating his “cake.” (I am not a professional cake decorator).

Thankfully with the clouds, it was getting a bit darker and we were all a little chilly so we decided to crawl into bed and watch a movie. .. until we started getting dripped on… A LOT. Josh and I ran outside and grabbed a tarp and managed to slide it between the roof of the tent and the useless little tent “tarp” that came with it so we could stop getting dripped on. We crossed our fingers that it would stop raining soon and then tomorrow we could dry out a bit. Except, it didn’t stop raining; it rained pretty much all night and the next morning continued to rain on and off. Phoebe was especially whiny and the other half of the tent was wet, which made both kids whiny. We got some breakfast ready for them, but every time I left the tent or stood up or did anything Phoebe would start crying because she wanted to sit in my lap. I tried to bundle her up, but she was over it. I had to listen to her wail when I went outside to go to the bathroom, and get coffee, and when it started to rain harder Josh and I shook our heads and decided to pack it up. We had no way of knowing if the rain was ever going to stop and we doubted our camp neighbors wanted to hear the weeping and wailing and whining coming from our campsite for another day and night. So, as quickly as possible we packed everything up and back into the car we went.

Lessons learned:

Never trust a weather app.

Unless we get a camper it might be easier to hold off on anymore camping for a couple of years with our kids. Enzo might have been okay, but Phoebe was a hot mess. “I wanna go home!!!!”

Sports and things to add to my list of parental “fails”

Did you know that in order to register for things like T-Ball you have to do so really early in the year? Like February early? I did not know that, so apparently we’ll need to find something else to sign Enzo up for and depending on his mood he’s either interested in everything or nothing at all. We keep thinking that swimming would be good for both of them, but I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on lessons and have neither kid actually go in the water. The community center lessons are a lot cheaper, but they fill up quickly or there is never enough interest. So… back to the drawing board!

In the meantime, the kids can still practice a bit at home. Enzo really does have a good arm and seems like a natural. At the very least, maybe this year would be a good year to take the kids to their first ball game. They may not last the entire game, but we can always walk around and the food is good, so there’s also that.

What is it about baseball? I’m not a huge fan, but it’s one of the few sports I’m okay with watching and when I was younger I didn’t mind playing it either. I was awful at it, but it was still kind of fun nonetheless. Football just bores me and basketball is the same… plus the squeaky shoes. I can’t handle the squeaky shoes.

Enzo has always enjoyed sports. One of the very first television programs he watched was the Olympics… diving, I believe. Then has he got older he’d stare at football games and be totally mesmerized. Neither Josh or I played organized sports in school – well, he did for a short period of time, and while I liked running and was told I’d be good at Track & Field, I never joined.

We certainly won’t pressure our kids to join any sports or other extracurricular activities, but I think they might enjoy it. Now if we could just get our acts together and remember that you need to do things like register… well in advance. Hmm, maybe we can still find swimming lessons for them or gymnastics classes. They both like tumbling… mostly off of couches, but still!

Actually, Phoebe could probably use some balance assistance. The poor girl is not super graceful and is constantly tripping over her feet it seems. I have a feeling we’ll try and enroll her in a dance class considering how she loves to dance at home. I’m really just rambling aren’t I?

Okay, here’s hoping we can get these two involved in something or at the very least I guess I’d better start checking when I need to register for Winter programs since it seems like you need about 6 months notice. Add that to the list of things I never thought about before having kids.

April Showers

So much green everywhere is making me so happy! Which is especially nice on a day that is somewhat somber after the passing of Prince. I wasn’t a massive fan, but he was a talented artist and driving by his home seeing the flowers and many people there is just sad.

I’m holding off for another weekend or two until we go pick out flowers and stuff, but we’re all excited to get outside and work on the landscaping some more. There are so many things I’d like to get done inside and out of the house including little things like upgrades to flooring in the kitchen and even the faucets. In the meantime, though, we wait for the Spring rains to let up.

Thankfully we have lots of games to play inside and we’ve been pulling out the board games more often. Do ignore the fact that this picture was clearly taken in December. We really did play it the other day!

Phoebe doesn’t usually have the patience to sit through games yet, but Enzo is catching on quick to so many games and is still greatly loving Poopy Head. We like to team up and try and get Josh to end up with all of the poops while he’s distracted by Phoebe.

Another great find I came across are these awesome window markers that Crayola makes that crystallize on the window as they warm up. They are so fun to watch as they change, plus they clean up easy and we don’t end up wasting any paper. Considering Enzo reminded me it’s Earth Day today, I felt this was worth noting. 😉

Happy Earth Day everyone and have a wonderful weekend! Do something that brings and spreads joy.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures