Thomas the Train

As all of you with little boys know. . . trains and cars are the IT thing for a 2yr old. When good ol' Thomas came to the Heber Creeper we bought tickets!!! It turned out to be a great day and Crew was completely in his element ;) I love seeing my little boy happy. So we decided not to tell him where we were going until we pulled up and he could actually see the train so we could get the full reaction of SEEING Thomas in person!!! I have a video but it's taking FOREVER to upload so just imagine this cutest little boy blowing his whistle and saying "All Aboard"

The cutest engineer

He wasn't cooperating and I had to jump in and hold him.

He was in seventh heaven blowing his little whistle and shouting All Aboard as much as he wanted.

Such a good looking kid! And so curious about life.

Such a cool old engine, wish I could have got a better picture without all these yahoo's getting in the way. . .

We were too lazy to wait in the line to get a proper picture so we cheated the system

Of course he made a haul leaving the Thomas' shopping tent. Daddy is a softy when it comes to his little guy. Playing with his trains on the real train track.

Thomas, Percy, and James along with a Thomas cup, shirt, bag and his favorite the collection of Thomas stories in a 'hooge buk' It is his favorite book and we read from it daily. Often several times daily, much to my pleasure. 

Yup. . . Thomas is my hero and I love trains. Thank you mommy and daddy for making a special day just for me. 

Of course no trip to Heber is complete without a stop and Grandma's Shakes! (Not to sure if that is really the name but if you've been to Heber you know what burger joint I'm talking about.) Then back home just in time for naps. It was a perfect day. 

Happy Birthday Crew Bear!!!

My little man is two today! I can't believe how quickly time flies and how it seems like just a few weeks ago he was crawling and baby talking. . . Now he's constantly talking and running everywhere! Oh how I love him and the joy and happiness he brings our family. Here are a few of his fav's at the moment:

-LUVS- LUVS- LUVS- cars and trucks
-Would watch the movie Cars over and over all day if I'd let him
-Growing out of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and into Jungle Junction
-Is completely potty trained!
-Loves trains and especially the Chuggington set Granny just got him :)
-Knows all of his basic colors (Yellow, Red, Blue, Green, Brown, White, Purple, Black, Orange, Pink, and even Silver) He says green is his favorite.
-Enjoys nursery and has walked in and waved goodbye that past two weeks no tears! (ahh it melts my heart)
-Is so smart and can learn new things so quickly!
-Recognizes the letters M and B and knows their sounds
-Loves to be read to and sometimes 'reads' to me
-Is so gentle and loving to all baby creatures (puppies, humans etc)
-Spends his days playing with trains and cars and playing outside
-Loves to be outside
-Has a thing for pretty girls and likes to touch their faces and hair

Oh I could go on and on. Crew you are such a kind hearted and mostly obedient boy. I love you HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!

Crew's birthday morning surprise

The Lightening McQueen cake I made myself! The cake was a mold, but I frosted it all on my own! Thanks to M.I.L. Bev for being a WONDERFUL teacher. She came and helped mix the colors but being such a good teacher she made me do it all myself! (Ok she did do the 95 but everything else was moi!)

I did stay up till 2:00 am to finish, which left me a little grumpy but Daddy was a great sport and did Crew Duty while I took a nap before the big party.

His new Mac Truck. He knew he was getting it and as soon as he woke up it was the first thing he asked for :) Too smart, we bought it weeks ago and he never asked for it until this morning.

What kid wants oatmeal with raisins for his birthday breakfast??? No waffles with ice cream, bananas and strawberries, you'd rather have oatmeal. . . ok

And of course some of 'Daddy's shake'

Good Ol' Chuck E. Cheeses!! The venue for the big event. We just did a family party with all the cousins. Had pizza, played all the fun arcade games, opened presents, had a pull pinata, then ended with cupcakes. What a fun party!

Cousin Aspynn looking so cute as always! (And 3 day old Addison in the car seat, she is precious!)

The spread. . . of course Cars theme. From his chair and bib to the plates and pinata.

My attempt at making tire cupcakes. The oreo cookies are supposed to be car wheels. :0)

Crew and one of his cousin girlfriends, Brooklyn. 

His other girlfriend Aunt Jenikah. He just prefers older women

 (And Granny with Aspynn in the back)

Cousin J.J and Bailey

Tah Tah sorry you couldn't be there! He loved his new hummer truck and tried to pull it out of the box! Hope you feel better. A huge thanks to Britt, Josh and fam for the AWESOME lightening McQueen car. I think he likes it better than the Mac truck we got him :) And Granny you are in big trouble for spoiling him too much!!! He is going to have so much fun playing with all the characters from Chuggington! Now he doesn't have to pretend his other trains are Coco and Wilson :)

Brooklyn is such a helper and so motherly! She helped Crew with the presents since he was being way too careful and slow :) Thank you everyone for the gifts and especially thanks for celebrating with us!!! You spoiled him rotten! 

All tuckered out from such a fun day but can't resist playing with his real Mac truck :) Happy Birthday baby we love you!

Last of the Cruise and Potty Training (For now :)

Crew is officially POTTY trained! He has now gone 2 weeks without wetting the bed! We still have occasional mishaps, if I don't hear him or we can't make it to the bathroom quick enough. . . or if we're at the movies and he poos all over my hand! (That just happened Friday. We were in the restroom and I was holding him over the toilet thinking he just had to pee. . . evidently he needed to do both. Needless to say we missed the last 15 mins of the movie.) All in all he's doing awesome and loves to change his undies at least twice a day because now that he stays dry he isn't going through them every hour ;) I love my little boy! So onto the last of our cruise pics, so I can get all up- to-date before his birthday on Wed!!!


Swimming with the dolphins!!! This was one of the coolest experiences for me, mostly because I LOVE LOVE the ocean and sea creatures but especially dolphins! I've wanted to do this for a long time, what made if even more special was Crew got to come along too, even though the minimum age was 3. Oops! We were surprised that they didn't mind and even more surprised how comfortable Crew was! He loved the dolphins too :)

Crew's 'Build A Animal' Ele-van (like jungle junction) 

My attempt at being a "photographer" 

Shaun T - telling me he doesn't have time to take a quick pic with me!! Come on! I just wanted to feel the abs ;)

That boat is MASSIVE!

So precious. . . 

All tuckered out

HUH?

How handsome are my two boys?

Uh-Oh! Where is my ice cream dripping???

Crew and his adoring crowd of GIRLS! We are so in trouble.

"Mommy get me out!"

Who'd of thought bacon on a cupcake? Dunno but it was awesome.

Ah I wish I were on another cruise right now. . .

Potty Training Continued. . .

I am such a proud mommy! Crew seems to be catching on to the toilet training and has actually done better being out of the house. I was so worried with our flight on Sunday and being in LA would mess everything up, but he surprised us without so much as an accident our whole day of travelling! And I'm glad to report that we are on day 4 of zero accidents! (during the day, we still working on the night time, he's about 50/50 right now)mommy just has to figure out how to keep the 'trigger' pointing down so he doesn't pee all over himself! That's been our only trouble these past few days. He tells me he needs to go we run to the toilet, I think it's pointing down and it ends up spraying the back of his shorts everytime! (just when we are out and about his toilet seat at home prevents all this mess) I'm so proud of my little guy who is now a BIG BOY as he likes to say "bi bow" any advice on the night time? I usually wake up and take him around 4 or 5am. He usually goes but last night he through a fit saying 'no mommy no poopoo no peepee! So I put him back in bed and 15mins later he peed. Is it bad to wake them in the wee hours to go? I'm afraid if I don't he'll have an accident and sleep in wet pjs all night. I guess I just don't know what's a reasonable number of hours a 2yr old is capable of holding it. Any advice would be great! Thanks!!!

3 Day Potty Training

Yeah I wish. . . I haven't finished posting my cruise pics but I'm in the midst of a HUGE milestone so I NEEDED to document it :) I just started potty training Crew on Monday it's now Thursday night and I'm not sure that we're any closer than we were on day 1! Here's a breakdown of our week:

Monday- DAY 1: Got rid of remaining diapers, put on the new BIG BOY undies. Of course they are Disney Cars and Thomas the Train. (His two OBSESSIONS) All morning he did great no accidents. Had one accident in the afternoon. Went on the toilet before bed. WHOO HOO this is going to be easy!

Tuesday - DAY 2: Went in at 5:00am and he was DRY! Took him to the potty and he went! He instantly demanded his treat and held up two fingers. Wow this kid is persistent to want his treat at 5:00am! The power of positive reinforcement I reminded myself. When he woke up at 7ish he was still dry! I must have some kind of genius for a child!  He got an Easter egg instead of a jellybean as a reward!  Then later that morning he had accident (but it was my fault as I had him in the highchair while I tried to finish my P90x workout. And thankfully just #1 he seems to have the poo thing down) We went through a few pairs of underwear that day. Not terrible.

Wednesday - DAY 3: Went in at 5:20am he was wet. :( Changed the sheets and him, took him potty he went on the toilet! (I wonder how long he laid in wet pj's poor thing, he never did cry.) He went back to sleep till 7:45am wet bed again! Changed the sheets and thought SERIOUSLY??? But remained calm and loving ;) That day we went through at least 6 pairs of underwear. And two rounds of laundry. Yikes today he's supposed to be trained. Went to bed reminded him to tell me if he needs to go pee pee. He quickly responds, "Momma poo poo" Yes I say please tell me if you have to go poo poo or pee pee. he repeats the phrase. (So cute if only it could translate into action :)

Thursday (Today)  - DAY 4: Went in at 4:50 (I just happened to wake up) quickly checked on him he was dry so took him potty. He went on the toilet and again demanded his 'treat' holding up his two fingers. (Even though I always only give him one, he still tries to weasel more out of me.) He had his first #2 accident today. We were sitting on the front porch enjoying the sunshine when I saw the face. . . we didn't make it in time. Overall he had less accidents today but man oh man. Any advice from you seasoned moms out there???